Hero Siege Damage Return Shield Lancer Build - Season 9

This build focuses on The Event Horizon shield, which has an aura called Vector Shroud that emits a large amount of damage return seemingly per second.

*NOTE - May have experienced a bug, but my shroud did 1 damage per tick to Amun Ra heart phase if you want to get 5th relic before swapping to reflect from an arcane/physical shield lancer.

The play style of this build is mostly to simply walk or dash around jollily as enemies warp into nothingness. Vector Shroud is always active as long as you have the [item]The Event Horizon[/item] equipped. Shield wall and honed defenses are used in support of Vector Shroud by causing elemental break on enemies, especially for bosses.

Build idea: Shield wall proc's honed defenses, and sky bulwark causes elemental break of 60% (at 3 point investment). Battle charge's ground slammer (3 points) also causes 75% elemental break. Interestingly, I found that elemental break was causing the shroud aura to do more damage. After testing each damage type, it seems that Vector Shroud deals lightning damage, so lightning break, elemental break, and -% to enemy lightning and/or all enemy elemental resistances affect damage dealt by Vector Shroud.

Gearing/Scaling: The way we are scaling this build is vitality, closely followed by armor, and -% to enemy lightning or all resist.

The most important gear pieces are, of course, The Event Horizon, but also:

Body Armor: [item]Isarius Ironthorn Breastplate[/item] - Thorn of Vitality scales damage return based on vitality. It also has many great stats, including: vitality and armor

• to all skills

large% damage return all damage taken reduced +% to all resistances chance of combat orders (long duration buff that increases max life and mana).

• Most important roll is thorn of vitality but try to get higher all skills if cheap enough.

Helmet: [item]Eternal Death[/item] - This helmet has something called Eternal Armor, which increases your total damage return by a portion of your armor. It also very similar stats to the chest and much higher defense: vitality and armor

• to all skills

large% damage return good replenish life % and life % increase

Gloves: [item]Tectonic Grips[/item] - Used mainly for the -% to enemy lightning resistance. Likely better options if 100% ignore lightning resistance is achieved elsewhere.

Boots: [item]Adamant Roamers[/item] - Boots are mainly used for the vitality, armor, and %armor, though it has solid stats otherwise.

Rings: [item]Stormloop[/item] - great endgame ring for -% enemy lightning res, mainly just outpaced by [item]St. Aaron's Eternal Rage[/item]. Haven't looked into a [item]Quickening Zephyr[/item] with +3 to all skills (shield lancer) but I assume the -%res is still stronger. [item]Azazel's Despair[/item] with a Karp Gem beats out Stormloop too but it's expensive.

• Currently using Stormloop and [item]Soulforged Ring[/item] just for faster leveling.

Belt: [item]Traveler's Double Belt[/item] - Great all-rounder providing attributes, all damaged taken reduced, and all resistances. Easy to star level since it is an S

Weapon/Set: [item]Jousting Lance[/item] - this A tier lance is a greater starter because of all the good stats it has for this build, and especially + to damage reflect, a shield lancer skill that increases % damage return and % total damage return. [item]St. Draxis' Pigstick[/item] - a great next step. It's main advantages are much higher vitality, armor, and + to all skills. Steve Set (1H sword, necklace, and charm) - so far I've found this to be a powerful set as it gives a lot of attributes, damage reduction, and + to all skills.

Potions: Blood of Spartan is the most in-theme, with increased defense and damage return. Empty bottle of Vodka and Protein Shake are also helpful, but potion choice is fairly free.

Charms: Like most builds, all of the smaller + to all skills charms like torch of shadows is good and any with lots of attributes, like [item]Hello its me, Steve![/item]. [item]Hardened Steel Defender[/item] is great, as well as a well-rolled [item]Champion's Signet[/item]. Storm in a vial is a great way to get more -% to lightning resistance as well.

Relics: The focus is orb of lightning for -% to enemy lightning resistance, barbed shield for more damage return %, and any stats for the last 3 like magic mushroom, triforce, etc.

• Io runes are great early for everything, then eventually elemental gems. Maybe angelic gems could be stronger based on the damage reflect skill on shield lancer, but probably not.

The Event Horizon requires level 100 and is necessary for the build so priority isn't really considered for leveling 1-100. Best to level with an arcane shield lancer build first.

Early game - Best to level with a classic arcane build into even midgame, at least until you can get an Event Horizon. The chest and helmet are usually not too expensive after a few days, but you could probably transition to H5 and do pretty well with just the shield, helmet, chest, and some incarnation levels. Highest priority is level 3 vector shroud.