Shred Lunar Assault Shaman Endgame Build

Build Introduction

This build goes all in on the power fantasy of being a werewolf and has full uptime on shapeshifting. We are using skills like Lunar Assault to freeze and Shred to tear frozen enemies into pieces. We are also using Eternal Rage along with Berserk to provide us with an incredible amount of damage and permanent Rage which is consumed with Lunar Blessing to boost damage even further.

Overall this werewolf build is very fast-paced and active, with jumping around the battlefield using Pounce, really satisfying clear because of Herald of Ice explosions and exceptional damage against frozen enemies.

If you have questions, you can catch me live on Twitch! If you need a leveling guide to start with, check out the link below.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Video Guide

This is a video build guide with gameplay that I made for this build.

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Build Mechanics

Lunar Assault, having an enormous freeze buildup combined with Herald of Ice and AOE scaling, is taking care of all the clearing in this build. Pounce helps greatly with traversing maps and works as a gap closer, but also as a great way to apply a Freezing Mark.

Shred reaps benefits when used against frozen enemies, so it’s best combined with Lunar Assault to first freeze the boss and then attack with Shred to create Ice Fragments on hit against frozen enemies. We can then explode those Ice Fragments with Cross Slash to deal a massive burst of damage.

For defenses, this build utilizes Armour and Energy Shield since the Druid area of the skill tree is filled with Armour and Energy Shield nodes. The ability to freeze is not to be underestimated here! That which is frozen can not hurt.

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Skill Rotation

Map Clearing

Use Lunar Assault to freeze and kill enemies and watch them explode with herald of ice. Use pounce for traversing and ideally on enemies so you proc the Freezing Mark and get its buff.

Bossing

1. Use Pounce to apply Freezing Mark.
2. Use Lunar Assault to freeze.
3. Use Lunar Blessing and Savage Fury once the enemy is frozen.
4. Use Shred against frozen enemy.
5. Finish off with Cross Slash.

If the enemy survived and is still frozen, then use Pounce after Cross Slash and start to use Shred again and follow up with Cross Slash. If the enemy is still alive, then just repeat the whole combo again.

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General and Gameplay Tips

• The duration of Ice Fragments created by Shred against a frozen enemy is 2.5 seconds. After 2.5 seconds they detonate and deal damage; however, the AOE is not very big and might miss the boss. Keep in mind that roughly 2 seconds after you start to use Shred, you should use Cross Slash to detonate them on the enemy. This might take a bit of time to get used to, but eventually you will master it!
• If you are really tight on Spirit, I would consider dropping Herbalism I and Cool Headed. However, keep in mind that ignites are going to be a lot more annoying now.
• Attributes: First aim for meeting the requirements of your gear and gems. Any extra attributes should go to Strength to increase your Life pool.
• Weapon sets: It is very important to have correct weapon set binds in this build! You can bind skills to a certain weapon set by opening up the skill menu, clicking on the additional information arrow of a skill, and then down in this info panel you will see “Used with weapon set”.
  1. Shred – You are going to get 2 copies of this skill since this build uses the same weapon in both weapon sets. The Shred you are actually using must be weapon set 1. You can see what weapon set it uses by hovering over the skill on your skill bar.
  2. Lunar Assault – Weapon set 2.
  3. Cross Slash – Weapon set 1.
  4. Lunar Blessing – Weapon set 1.
  5. Savage Fury – Weapon set 1.
  6. Herald of Ice – Weapon set 2.
  7. All other skills can stay in both weapon sets.
• Bind your weapon to both weapon sets by right-clicking the weapon set icon right above the weapon in your inventory. By doing this you won’t have to get a second weapon.
• You still need +# maximum charm slots for Sacred Flow to work. For example, if you have just 2 maximum charm slots that are empty, Sacred Flow will provide only +80 spirit and not +120 spirit.
• If you are having mana issues using Pounce with Freezing Mark, you can keep both at a lower level.
• Controlled Metamorphosis – Ideally get one with as low an amount of -# to all elemental resistances as possible. This can get costly, but in certain cases might be a worthwhile investment.
• Check out the Skill Tree section for transferring into the From Nothing version instead of Controlled Metamorphosis. This version will most likely be more expensive, but prices may vary. Nonetheless, the From Nothing version is quite a power boost for the build.

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Gem Setup

You will find all the gem setups listed below. The support gems are sorted in order of importance.

Skill five socket (6-link) priority:

• 1. Herald of Ice
• 2. Lunar Assault
• 3. Pounce
• 4. Cross Slash
• 5. Lunar Blessing

Shred gets its fifth socket automatically once you reach level 90.

Check out the Skill Tree section of the guide for information about the Lunar Assault lineage gem endgame setup.

Dialla’s Desire lineage support gem socketed in Eternal Rage might help to get rid of the Conjurer Mantle body armour base.

Use Bhatair’s Vengeance in place of Ice Bite II in Lunar Assault as soon as you can! It’s an amazing DPS boost.

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Ascendancy

Shaman provides great offensive, defensive, and quality of life bonuses to the build.

1. Reactive Growth – Greate defence node giving 10% less elemental damage taken at all times, as well as giving us Adaptations. These Adaptations stack up to 3 times, and you get 1 stack every time you take elemental damage from a hit. Each Adaptation gives another 10% less elemental damage taken to the matching element.
2. Avatar of Evolution – Doubles the effect of Adaptations. Now instead of 10% less elemental damage taken to the matching, it gives 20%. It also provides 15% physical damage taken as elemental damage, 5% to each element. This greatly boosts defense against physical damage, since 15% of physical damage is now going to get mitigated by our 75% elemental resistance. However, this comes with the downside of Adaptations now having a 5 seconds duration. This is a good tradeoff since most deaths are due to getting shotgunned by a specific type of damage.
3. Turning of the Seasons – Great damage and quality of life boost. Gives exposure to everything in our presence, lowering their elemental resistances. Also gives 10% of damage as extra damage of a random element. This helps greatly with our gearing because now we don’t need any fire damage on our gear to reliably ignite tough bosses.
4. Sacred Flow – Provides up to 120 Spirit, 40 for each empty charm slot. This build uses many persistent buffs, so it needs lots of spirit. The downside is that we are not able to use any charms in this build; however, the build is still not getting frozen or stunned almost at all, even during very difficult content because of various ailment and stun threshold nodes on gear and the skill tree. Keep in mind that for this node to work, you will still need three maximum charm slots; otherwise, you are not going to get the Spirit!

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Skill Tree

Right after you get the jewel socket near Investing Energies notable socket in Controlled Metamorphosis with a large ring! Then allocate Bestial Rage, Chillproof, and Silent Guardian for both weapon sets!

Weapon set 2 serves as a clear and freeze setup for Lunar Assault. Weapon set 1 works as a single-target setup for Shred and Lunar Blessing. Check General & Gameplay Tips section of this build guide for more information about weapon sets!

If you are using Atalui’s Bloodletting Lunar Assault setup, then you can get rid of three skill tree nodes leading to the Lavianga’s Brew notable. All of your mana cost from Lunar Assault is now going to be life cost instead, so you won’t need those nodes anymore. This is optional, and if you don’t like the loss of Rapid Attacks II in the lineage gem setup, then just keep those three nodes there and don’t change the gem setup.

If you are planning on investing a little more into the build and leveling up to 95+, I would highly recommend changing the Controlled Metamorphosis to the From Nothing with Chaos Inoculation setup instead.

1. Unallocate Bestial Rage, Chillproof, and Silent Guardian. Remove Controlled Metamorphosis.
2. Socket in From Nothing with Chaos Inoculation and allocate Heavy Frost, Shimmering Mirage, Abasement, Thin Ice, Chakra of Elements, Pure Chaos, and Tempered Mind. Nodes are sorted by order of importance!
3. Don’t forget to change your amulet annointment to, for example, Stimulants instead of Heavy Frost.

If you need Path of Building, click the link below.

When you are in the tree section, go down left and change the “Default” to the “From Nothing Skill Tree” to see the From Nothing setup.

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Gearing and Affixes

In this video guide you can see me craft my endgame weapon.

Listed items and item bases are sorted into three categories:

1. Required – Item/base must be in the build.
2. Important – Item/base is important to have but not required for the build to work.
3. Optional – Item/base is optional.
4. Any additional information about the item/base is in the notes section of the item.

Keep in mind that your elemental resistances need to be capped! Chaos resist is also important, and get it as close to the cap as possible.

Item and Base	Affixes	Notes
Weapon – Maji Talisman (Important)	1. % Physical damage 2. +# Physical damage 3. % Damage as extra physical 4. % Attack speed 5. % Chance for onslaught on kill	I would highly encourage you to get the Maji Talisman base. While it’s not strictly required for the build to work, it’s going to provide the +# maximum rage implicit, and that’s a serious amount of extra damage. The onslaught is not required but helps while clearing.
Helmet – Crown of Eyes (Required)	Crown of Eyes	Get the best possible rolls you can afford. Getting the Crown of Eyes with 2 or 3 sockets might be a really good option to help you out with resistances.
Body Armour – Conjurer Mantle (Important)	1. % Armour and energy shield 2. +# Armour and energy shield 3. +# Maximum life 4. % Armour applies to elemental damage 5. Resistances/attributes	You can change this base to a different one if you get enough spirit from your amulet.
Boots – Sakhema Sandals (Optional)	1. % Movement speed 2. % Energy shield recharge rate 3. % Energy shield 4. +# Energy shield 5. Resistances/attributes	Sakhema Sandals is the best base; however, it does not matter if you get a lower base with the same amount of energy shield.
Gloves – Massive Mitts (Optional)	1. +# Level of all melee skills 2. % Attack speed 3. % Armour applies to elemental damage 4. +# Maximum life 5. % Armour 6. +# Armour	Get a base that ideally has as much armour as possible. You can also completely change the base there to an armour/es base if you find a really good deal.
Amulet – Solar Amulet (Optional)	1. +# Level of all melee skills 2. +# Spirit 3. +# Maximum life 4. % Energy shield/% maximum life/+# energy shield/% armour 5. Resistances/attributes	The Solar amulet base is optional but would be an ideal base because with a 45+ spirit roll on the affix, you would be able to change the Conjurer Mantle body armour base to a better one. Get as many +# melee skill levels as you can afford. The annointment of choice is Heavy Frost, and if you are using the From Nothing setup, then it’s Stimulants.
Rings – Amethist Ring (Optional)	1. +# Maximum life 2. +# Lightning damage to attackss 3. +# Physical damage to attackss 4. Life/mana leech 5. Resistances/attributes	Base is purely optional. Ideally, get a base that would help you with your current resistances. If you manage to free up some suffix slots in the build, then get life and/or mana leech.
Belt – Plate Belt (Important)	1. +# Maximum life 2. +# Armour 3. +# Stun Threshold 4. % Life Flask Recovery Rate 5. Resistances/Attributes	It does not matter where you get your +# to stun threshold. Can be a belt, boots, or body armour. One tier 2+ modifier is enough.

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Socketables

These exact socketables are not strict requirements, but every single one of these is going to make the build quite a bit better.

Slot	Socketable
Weapon	Greater Iron Rune and/or Soul Core of Azcapa if needed
Helmet	Tzamoto’s Soulf Core of Ferocity and/or Resist/Attritube/Iron Rune if needed
Body armour	Amanamu’s Gaze and/or Iron Rune Craiceann’s Rune of Recovery/Tecrod’s Gaze/Quipolatl’s Thesis
Boots	Jiquani’s Thesis and/or Farrul’s Rune of the Chase/Iron/Resistance/Attribute Rune if needed
Gloves	Idol of Sirrius and/or The Greatwolf’s Rune of Claws/Thane Grannell’s Rune of Mastery/Iron/Resiscance/Attribute rune if needed

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Jewels

Unique jewel Megalomaniac. Get one with any nodes that give you increased damage, attack damage, attack speed, skill speed, etc.

Keep in mind that usually for a Megalomaniac to be worth it, you need to get at least 2 good notables. For example, if you have a node on a Megalomaniac that only gives you 20% increased attack damage, you can easily get the same or better on a rare jewel.

If you get a Megalomaniac with the same notable as your amulet annointment, then change your amulet annointment.

Example nodes:

• Stimulants
• Imbibed Power
• Sand in the Eyes
• Chakra of Thought
• Deep Trance

From Nothing with Chaos Inoculation is a great addition to the build, both for DPS and defense. Check the Skill Tree section of the guide for more information about switching to the From Nothing setup.

Controlled Metamorphosis has to be large radius. Get one with as low amount of -# to all elemental resistances as possible. Switching this jewel to the From Nothing setup is highly recommended.

Rare Jewels

Getting +#% life recovered on kill is highly recommended! The same goes for +#% mana recovered on kill if you are not using the Atalui’s Bloodletting Lunar Assault setup.

Other useful modifiers:

Prefix	Suffix
% Increased Maximum Energy Shield % Increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate % Faster Faster Start of Energy Shield Recharge Rate % Increased Damage While Shapeshifted % Increased Magnitude of Ailments % Increased Attack Damage % Increased Armour % Increased Damage With Hits Against Rare and Unique Enemy	Recover % of maximum life on kill Recover % of maximum mana on kill Gain +# Rage on Melee Hit % Increased Skill Speed While Shapeshifted % Increased Stun Threshold % Increased Ailment Threshold % Increased Amount of Life Leeched % Increased Life Regeneration Rate

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Flasks and Charms

Life and Mana Flasks

• Prefix – Increased Amount Recovered
• Suffix – % increased charges or % reduced charges per use

Lavianga’s Spirits – Must have mana flask for this build!

Olroth’s Resolve – Not required but a great defensive boost for the build.

Campaign Buffs

If you have already chosen different permanent buffs than those listed here, do not worry too much. It’s not going to make or break the build.

• Valley of the Titans (Act 2) – 30% increased charm charges gained (does not matter, build does not use charms)
• Venom Draught (Act 3) 30% increased Stun Threshold (permanent)
• Halls of the Dead (Act 4) – 5% increased resistance for every element (permanent)
• Abandoned Prison (Act 4) – 30% increased life recovery from flasks/Increased mana recovery from flasks if you have mana issues. (changeable)
• Quimah (Interlude 2) – 5% to all Elemental Resistances (changeable)

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Changelog

December 23th, 2025 – Created for Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4