Table of Contents
Class
Weapons
Last Guard
Block Breaks push Enemies, 9s cooldown. -30% Block Cost.
Skullcrusher
Target receives 4 Stack(s) of +10% Damage if already Staggered. Lasts 5s.
Pinpointing target
+8% Strength every 0.4 seconds while aiming, stacking 5 times. Discharges all stacks upon firing.
Shattering Impact
Target receives 4 Stacks of 2.5% Brittleness on direct projectile hit. Debuff lasts for 5 seconds and can have a maximum of 16 stacks.
Curios
+13-17% Toughness
+13-17% Toughness
+13-17% Toughness
Talent Tree
Description
A hybrid between Shieldgryn and Point-Blank Barrage Grenade Gauntlet builds, that will let you swap between being a frontliner and specialist/boss killer.
The reason to dump Cleave Damage instead of Defences is because you won't be cleaving much with the shield. You'll mostly be pushing and heavy1ing with the shield while Point-Blank Barrage is on cooldown. It's only a few % difference in cleave damage distribution to secondary targets anyway. 80% Defences on the already push-efficient Slab Shield allows you to push+heavy1 combo without having your stamina ever go below 90% (unless you block). If you do the same with a 60% Defences shield it will gradually drain your stamina. Try it in Meatgrinder and see the difference. This lets you take Pumped Up for more DR% while stamina is high, which would otherwise be anti-synergy for a weapon where you push a lot.
Last Guard will reduce the stamina drain from occasionally blocking while you continuously push. The AoE stagger will counteract whenever a Bulwark or other cheeky enemy goes hocus pocus and changes your stamina from 100% to 0%. Intentionally activating the AoE stagger from Last Guard is a trap, so don't do that.
I don't need to go into much detail why Skullcrusher is on there, do I? It's the best blessing you can put on a high stagger melee weapon, period.
No Pushover is an excellent on-demand AoE stagger you can do whenever your Grenade Gauntlet clip is empty but you desperately need to stagger something close to you. With multi-bind mod or macros you can swap to your shield and push on the same button press. Get Stuck In is a great team buff that'll also make you even more unstoppable during Point-Blank Barrage , and good for closing the distance if a teammate needs a rescue from a net or ledge.
If you want more survivability you can swap Get Stuck In and Coward Culling for Stay Close! and Slam .
Pinpointing target and Shattering Impact are our blessings for the Grenade Gauntlet. Pinpointing target synergises well with all the toughness regen and DR% you have stacked while braced, letting you build Strength to one-shot beefier targets. It stacks quickly and you can usually get 1-2 stacks even if you fire quickly, making it superior to Blaze Away which requires you to shoot several times, only for your hard-earned stacks to disappear instantly as soon as you stop. Shattering Impact applies brittleness in an AoE, so Brutish Strength for the shield becomes less important and leaves room for that talent point elsewhere.
You can go Feel No Pain instead of Burst Limiter Override for more survivability, but you will consume a lot more ammo, and lose out on Maximum Firepower subnode for Burst Limiter Override , which is an important source of CDR for Point-Blank Barrage .
You can swap one curio slot for 21% health if you want. The reason to go 3 toughness is because of the stacked toughness replenishment (Steady Grip) and damage reduction (Mobile Emplacement) while bracing your weapon and dodging (thanks to Ogryn's new baseline DR% after dodge), letting you shrug off a lot of ranged chip damage. You can combine this with gunner resistance on your curios if you still struggle with ranged enemies eating your toughness. If your gauntlet is out of ammo, or there's simply too much ranged spam, you have your shield.
Stagger, taunt and debuff enemies with your shield out. Murder everything with your Grenade Gauntlet out (mostly during PBB).