[PoE 2] Battershout Warcry Armour-Break Mega-Exploder Revived(Proof of concept, not a leaguestarter)

Overview

This Warbringer revives an old warcry concept: break enemy armour, then cash in the broken armour with Battershout for a wave of explosions. The twist this patch is that a single warcry can no longer both break armour and trigger Battershout, so the build splits the job across several warcries and two weapon sets. Vulnerability on Blasphemy drags enemy armour down to zero, which means any amount of armour break shatters it instantly — Seismic Cry then breaks it and sets off Armour Explosion, which scales off the main-hand weapon’s damage.

The catch the creator highlights is that Battershout deals damage based on how much armour was actually broken. If Vulnerability has already zeroed the armour, the consumed amount is zero and Battershout does nothing. The solution is to keep Vulnerability on only one weapon set: break armour with it active, then swap to the other set (without Vulnerability) and use Fortifying Cry to fire Battershout. Corpse explosions from the warcry ascendancy effects fill the screen, so mapping feels smooth.

The creator presents it explicitly as a proof of concept rather than a league starter — it leans on several uniques and a decent one-handed mace, and the current setup trades tankiness for damage.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Warcry-driven clear: Seismic Cry often kills packs outright through Armour Explosion before Battershout is even needed
• Warbringer ignores warcry cooldowns, which makes Earthshatter a strong single-target follow-up
• Constant warcries stack Critical Weakness through Howling Beast, feeding a crit setup
• High block (around 57%, more when surrounded) via Chernobog’s Pillar
• Very smooth, explosive gameplay loop

Cons

• Not a league starter — needs several uniques and a good one-handed mace
• Somewhat squishy in the shown version; the creator would move to higher-armour gear in a real league
• Weapon-set juggling (Vulnerability on one set only) adds complexity
• Short proof-of-concept video, not a full step-by-step guide

Key Skills

• Seismic Cry — breaks the zeroed armour and triggers Armour Explosion for clear
• Fortifying Cry — used to trigger Battershout so Infernal Cry stays free for single target
• Battershout — consumes broken armour on warcries for burst damage
• Blasphemy + Vulnerability — reduces enemy armour to zero on one weapon set
• Earthshatter + Infernal Cry — single-target damage, boosted by armour break

Gear & Anointments

The build runs a one-handed mace (Armour Explosion uses main-hand damage) with Chernobog’s Pillar for block. The passive tree skips the far damage cluster in favour of a crit route through Maligaro’s Virtuosity, taking crit bonus to roughly 350%. Curse-effect nodes on the second weapon set make Vulnerability strong enough to fully zero enemy armour. Remaining gear is described as basic; exact items are in the creator’s Path of Building link — specific uniques beyond those named are to be confirmed against the source video.

Credits & Source

Build credited to XanthoPOE, inspired by Reddit user Ramen Archon. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage + voice commentary: [PoE 2] Battershout Warcry Armour-Break Mega-Exploder Revived.