What started in Act 1 as a quirky challenge run has turned into something genuinely impressive. Lexd’s Shield Bash-only Warrior push through Act 2 in Path of Exile 2’s Dawn of the Hunt league wasn’t just a grind, it was a showcase of stubborn skill. It’s not about min-maxing the strongest build, it’s about taking one shield and turning it into a weapon people actually fear. The core loop is dead simple: hold Raise Shield to block, let go to slam out a powerful bash. The damage is tied straight to the shield’s armour, so every upgrade feels huge. Early on, the constant stuns were rough to handle, but if you’ve seen the run, you know he played them off like a pro. You can find insane upgrades like this on PoE 2 Items sites, though in SSF it’s all about grinding them yourself.

The way the build adapted was as important as the skill driving it. At first he ran Pin just to keep trash mobs in check, avoiding frustrating stun chains. Later, he swapped over to Bleed for way better boss damage, which was a game changer. Couple that with Brutality II and suddenly the pure physical numbers started to feel “real” even against tanky enemies. The passive tree didn’t get fancy—straight shot to the bottom-left for block, armour, and stun resistance. No ascendancy safety nets here, just the barebones Warrior frame with every scrap of life and resists taken from a harsh SSF grind. You’ve gotta be patient playing it—holding shield at the right times, stepping in for the bash, making sure packs are handled bit by bit. It’s not fast, but it’s safe enough to breathe while playing Hardcore.

Gear upgrades told their own story. Moving from a 93 armour shield to a monster-tier 192 armour unit basically doubled his damage and halved slow boss kill times. The helmet drop mid-act was a lifeline, giving him just enough life and chaos resist to shrug off late-act zones. Crafted rings and an amulet put thorns damage into the mix, turning every rush from enemies into free chip damage. With block up, his effective health felt enormous—more than 5,000 by some quick estimates—which is well above average for that stage of the league in SSF. That extra EHP doesn’t just pad numbers, it buys time to make perfect block calls without panic.

Act 2’s boss line-up threw everything at him. Rattlecage folded in under three minutes, barely a speed bump. Zalmarath the Colossus, though, was a grind—22 tense minutes of slow bleed ticks and thorns doing their thing while Lexd danced between blocks and bashes. The Trial of Sekhemas was its usual melee nightmare, but the perfect shield timing turned it into a survival clinic. Runs like this flip the script on what’s “viable”—it’s not always about speed or meta DPS, sometimes it’s about control, patience, and a build you can enjoy under pressure. If Act 3 keeps ramping like this, there’s no telling how far that one shield will go, especially with a few lucky drops that feel like u4gm PoE 2 Items.