Overview
Most Warrior setups ask you to accept long wind-ups between big slams. This one refuses to. Sunder is treated as a repeatable clear button rather than a ceremonial one: swing once, the fissure line rips through the pack, the explosions chain forward, and you keep walking. Stacked skill speed, attack speed, rage, and armour break make a mace-and-shield character feel far quicker than the archetype usually does.
The Titan is what holds it together in 0.5. Hulking Form multiplies the value of every efficient node already on the tree, Colossal Capacity loosens gearing constraints, Earthbreaker adds slam power that both main skills use, and Ancestral Empowerment turns the burst window into a screen delete. The result is the classic warrior fantasy without the downtime that usually comes with it.
It also degrades gracefully, which is rare. A weaker weapon still clears with Sunder. A dangerous map is survivable behind the shield and block layer. A tankier boss just means running the full Armour Break into Infernal Cry into Earthshatter rotation instead of holding one button. Nothing about the build depends on a single perfect item to function.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- One main button carries mapping — the gameplay loop is move forward, build rage, spam Sunder
- Genuinely tanky: shield, block passives, armour, plus Rage Shield, Time of Need, and Magma Barrier as panic buttons
- Scales smoothly with weapon upgrades, so gear progression feels immediately noticeable
- Not gimmick-dependent — it still functions on a mediocre weapon or in a scary map
- Low complexity relative to its output; the extra skills are optional accelerants, not requirements
Cons
- Melee range means eating mechanics that ranged builds simply walk away from
- Boss damage needs the full setup rotation to land properly rather than raw button spam
- Mana sustain is easy to neglect while chasing damage, and poor sustain makes the clear feel bad
- Rage upkeep has to stay rolling or the whole speed fantasy collapses
Key Skills
- Sunder — the primary clear and the button pressed most; supported for attack speed and rage synergy
- Earthshatter — the heavy slam for tanky rares, map bosses, and burst windows
- Armour Break — strips defences, generates rage, and applies shock to open the damage window
- Infernal Cry — extra burst and cooldown utility layered into the boss rotation
- Berserk / Rage Shield / Magma Barrier — the offensive and defensive panic buttons
Gear & Anointments
The weapon dominates this build’s power curve — everything else is defence and stat coverage.
- Weapon — a strong mace with increased skill speed, attack speed, flat physical damage, plus levels to melee skills, and reduced attribute requirements where possible
- Shield — Chernobog’s Pillar, which keeps the character tanky while still pushing forward aggressively
- Body armour — max life, armour, strength, and mana; energy shield and evasion are welcome extras
- Gloves — attack speed, armour, dexterity, plus melee skills
- Boots / belt — movement speed, armour, life, resistances; the belt ideally carries extra charm slots to cover freeze and stun
- Rings — added cold, lightning, and physical damage, since the melee hits scale hard from flat damage
- Amulet — Finesse of Destiny as the defensive option, with Mystical Rage allocated for smoother crit scaling
- Jewels — Heart of the Well as the premium diamond jewel plus multiple Grand Spectrum ruby jewels
Keep a strong life flask and a mana flask with comfortable sustain rolls; the creator is explicit that ignoring recovery in favour of damage makes the build feel worse, not better.
Endgame Notes
Ascendancy order runs Colossal Capacity, then Hulking Form, then Earthbreaker, then Ancestral Empowerment — power early, scaling in the middle, and a burst finisher for juiced content. Shield and block passives are worth heavy investment at higher map tiers, since they buy the uptime that lets you keep attacking instead of retreating.
Credits & Source
Build credited to KaidGames. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage + voice commentary: THE CRAZIEST SUNDER TITAN BUILD IN POE2 SO FAR! POE 2 Warrior Build 0.5.