PoE 3.25 Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker Build

Ben Author

Created - 20.11.2024 Updated - 21.11.2024

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Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur is one of the more interesting expansions in the game’s history. This league brought sweeping changes to melee skills, as well as reworks to overlooked ascendancy classes like the Berserker and the Gladiator.

Today, we are going to discuss an impressive cold damage dealer that shatters enemies with swift and deadly hits. If you are looking for a fast attacker that has some decent defenses, then you’re in luck!

Come! We invite you to read further for this is our PoE Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker build guide!

Why Choose the Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker?

In this PoE melee build guide, we are going to talk about the Transfigured Gem, Glacial Hammer of Shattering, and how effective it is when using the Berserker ascendancy class.

The base version of this skill gem has a unique mechanic that freezes enemies on the third strike. The Glacial Hammer of Shattering, on the other hand, is better damage-wise. This is because instead of freezing monsters in place, they get destroyed with a guaranteed critical strike!

While this Transfigured Gem no longer has added cold damage against chilled enemies in Patch 3.25, GGG has replaced it with something better. More specifically, the PoE Glacial Hammer of Shattering skill now has its effectiveness of base and added damage greatly improved from 269% to a whopping 622%! That’s one of the most impressive damage increases we have seen in Path of Exile in recent memory!

Now, the said skill gem is not the only one that got buffed in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion. The PoE Berserker ascendancy class got buffed in a number of ways as well.

As you may have known by now, GGG implemented a massive Rage rework, where the said resource now grants more damage. This comes at a heavy price, however, because it no longer increases your attack speed and movement speed, at least, when you are playing PoE builds other than this one.

Do not be afraid of the inherent attack speed loss because you can get it back with the help of the Berserker’s Crave the Slaughter. This is further enhanced by Rite of Ruin, which now increases the effect of Rage by 50%.

Flawless Savagery and Aspect of Carnage provide a ton of damage to this melee build. Do not worry about the latter’s downside because it can easily be addressed by the shield you’re going to use.

As to why we like the Berserker over the Glacial Hammer Juggernaut, it is because the former has several nodes that amplify damage so much that it is just too hard to ignore.

For this particular PoE Berserker build, take the notable ascendancy passive skills in the following order:

1. Crave the Slaughter
2. Rite of Ruin
3. Flawless Savagery
4. Aspect of Carnage

Having only four ascendancy nodes can be quite limiting, especially since the Berserker has plenty of incredible passives to choose from. That’s why you should obtain the Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame jewels with “Blitz” as the matching modifier. Head to our PoE Store if you need some currency to purchase them.

Blitz significantly increases your attack speed via the special Blitz Charges. Don’t think about the node’s crit chance reduction. As mentioned earlier, the third hit from Glacial Hammer of Shattering is a guaranteed critical strike, so it’s crucial that you boost your attack speed to feel this effect more consistently.

Having said that, here is a list of damage mods to look for when gearing this PoE Glacial Hammer build:

• Increased Cold Damage
• Added Physical Damage
• Increased Physical Damage
• + to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
• + to Critical Strike Multiplier
• + to Critical Strike Multiplier with One-Handed Melee Weapons
• + to Critical Strike Multiplier with Cold Skills
• + to Critical Strike Multiplier with Elemental Skills
• Increased Attack Speed
• Increased Attack Speed with One-Handed Melee Weapons
• Increased Attack Speed with Maces and Scepters

Playstyle

Thanks to the introduction of certain items and support gems, you barely have to press any buttons on this PoE Berserker build. You simply Leap Slam around the map in search of large groups of monsters. After that, whack them with the Glacial Hammer of Shattering until they shatter into pieces!

Additionally, you will have a steady supply of Rage because the recent rework has made it possible to never run out of it. Thus, keep an eye out on Berserk and utilize it whenever it’s available.

Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker Gear Recommendations

The equipment used on this PoE build is a mix of unique items and crafted gear. Since you will need things that have specific corrupted implicit mods on them, you must be willing to spend some Divine Orbs.

You could say that this melee build requires a budget of anywhere between 20 to 50 Divines. If you are participating in the Necro Settlers event, the prices may go up higher than that, so be prepared.

Weapon

You can use any one-handed mace or sceptre early on till you earn enough PoE Currency to purchase the Frostbreath. This unique mace has all of the necessary modifiers that make this build shine, including added physical damage, cold damage, and increased attack speed.

Those are all well and good, but the main reason why you’re investing in this weapon is that it gives you the power to deal double damage! In fact, if your budget permits it, you can even wield a couple of these for maximum benefit!

Although the Berserker has some impressive damage nodes, his main weakness is that he does not have so many defensive mechanics to rely on. This highlights the need for improvements in defense wherever possible. For this reason, getting a corrupted Frostbreath with “Melee Hits Have a % Chance to Fortify” is the most ideal.

Glacial Hammer damage scaling involves a bevy of modifiers, most notably added physical damage and attack speed. In the endgame, you will need to replace Frostbreath with a crafted Karui Sceptre specifically for this reason.

The Karui Sceptre, for those who are new to Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, has the highest base attack speed among other sceptres. That said, an item level 85+ Karui Sceptre is needed for this crafting project.

Start by utilizing the Deafening Essence of Contempt till you get two other physical damage modifiers. Then, put “Prefixes Cannot Be Changed” and use an Orb of Scouring to clean the suffixes. Relock the prefixes and utilize Harvest Augment Speed.

After that, lock the prefixes once more and then spend a Veiled Orb. Bench-craft critical strike chance + STR/INT to prevent it from appearing during the unveiling process. Talk to Jun and choose to unveil. Hopefully, the attack speed bonus while a unique/rare enemy is nearby pops up because that is the one you’re looking for. Go to the Crafting Bench and put “+28% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier” and you have an overpowered weapon in your possession!

Shield

Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur brought plenty of new and exciting items to the game, and Svalinn is definitely one of them! This shield is one of the primary reasons why we did not create a two-handed Berserker build in this guide. Svalinn is so amazing that you can achieve a block chance of over 85% with the right nodes on the passive tree!

The Svalinn also enables you to utilize elemental spells without the need for manual activation. For our version of the PoE Glacial Hammer build, you will use Hydrosphere and Frostbite to significantly diminish the enemy’s resistance to cold damage.

Body Armor

Visit our ultimate crafting guide to get instructions on how to craft the elemental ailment immunity body armor. There are a few differences that you need to keep in mind, though.

First, you will need to utilize the Royal Plate as the crafting base because of its high base armor. Second, you must spam the Deafening Essence of Loathing for that mana reservation efficiency suffix. Third, the resulting armor should contain additional physical damage reduction, as well as an 8% chance to block spell damage.

Helmet

This Glacial Hammer PoE build gains a considerable damage increase by wearing the Heatshiver in the helmet slot. Take note that you do not just equip any Heatshiver for that matter; you actually need a corrupted one with “Socketed Skill Gems Get a 90% Cost & Reservation Multiplier” as the implicit modifier.

Why is that important, you ask? It is because you will be socketing your important buffs on this unique helmet. Without the reservation efficiency mod, you can only activate two or three buffs in total.

Gloves

The Glacial Hammer of Shattering is classified as a “Strike Skill.” This means that it can benefit from the mod that lets you hit additional nearby enemies. Thankfully, this particular modifier can be obtained from a pair of crafted gloves.

Begin by grabbing a pair of Leviathan Gauntlets with an item level of 85 or above. If you have the budget, you can acquire some gloves with the Alva Temple mod that says: “(30-50)% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies.”

Spend the necessary amount of the Deafening Essence of Zeal till you get life regeneration rate. Put Suffixes Cannot Be Changed and go for Harvest Reforge Life. Do this for a T1 maximum life mod.

Once you are happy with the explicit modifiers, use Grand Eldritch Embers for that desired “Non-Vaal Strike Skills Target an Additional Nearby Enemy” mod. You can elevate it by spending a few Orbs of Conflict. However, it’s worth noting that this is a costly endeavor.

Okay, what if you do not have the means of crafting an expensive pair of gloves just yet? Fortunately, there is a decent alternative—a corrupted Tanu Ahi with “10% Increased Attack Speed” on the implicit modifier.

You can corrupt the Tanu Ahi yourself, but it would be much easier to just get it from PoE Trade. What makes these gloves a good second choice is that they grant the Adrenaline buff, which boosts your attack speed, damage, and physical damage reduction.

Boots

Yes, you will craft the boots yourself, but trust us when we say that it is quite a rewarding experience! The Deafening Essence of Loathing is needed for that 35% elemental ailment avoidance. The same mod can also roll on the implicit, granted that you use the Grand Eldritch Ichor.

On top of that, you need to elevate that implicit modifier with Orb of Conflict to get more than 25%. Coupled with your crafted body armor, you should be immune to elemental ailments, making you survive better in harder content like T17 maps!

Amulet

Earlier in this Glacial Hammer PoE build guide, we mentioned that some of the items must have specific corrupted mods. Besides the Heatshiver, you need to get your hands on Marylene's Fallacy with “You Can Apply an Additional Curse.” Fortunately, this is relatively affordable given that this amulet is only being utilized by off-meta builds such as this one.

Did you know that you can make Marylene’s Fallacy a bit more overpowered? That’s right! Use the Tainted Catalyst till you land on +20% quality on critical modifiers. If you have the non-corrupted version of this amulet, spam it with Unstable Catalysts instead.

Rings

Assuming that all your resistances are capped at 75%, you can pick up two Opal Rings to craft on. This is due to the rings’ increased elemental damage implicit modifier, which greatly enhances the killing potential of this PoE Berserker build. Otherwise, select the Amethyst Ring for some chaos resistance.

The Essence of Scorn is great for crafting the ring because it gives a critical strike multiplier along with a bunch of mods. Alternatively, you can harness the power of the Horticrafting Station to force bonuses that you still need for your character. For instance, if you need a boost in accuracy rating, you can select Harvest Reforge Attack.

Belt

The Redeemer-influenced Stygian Vise is a great way to improve your damage output without spending a ton of PoE Currency. We suggest that you use this as your belt for crafting because it can roll a couple of cold damage modifiers.

Now, it is very likely that you will lack DEX on this build due to the fact that most of your gear cannot obtain it naturally. That’s why you need to force it somehow, which is possible by using the Deafening Essence of Sorrow.

Ideally, you want to acquire the increased elemental damage with attack skills mod as well. However, if your budget is limited, you can settle for any of the prefixes shown in the image below:

The Mageblood unlocks the full potential of your flasks, making it an invaluable tool for the Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker. Understandably, this should only be taken as a future upgrade, unless you head to our PoE store to get it immediately.

Flasks

• Granite Flask
• Bismuth Flask
• Silver Flask
• Sulphur Flask
• Progenesis OR Prismatic Tincture

Flask Mods

• 20% Additional Elemental Resistances (of the Rainbow)
• 60% Increased Armor (of the Armadillo)
• 55% Chance to Avoid Being Stunned (of Tenaciousness)
• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses (of the Owl)
• 25% Increased Effect (Abecedarian/Alchemist/Dabbler, prefix)
• 20% Increased Effect/41% Increased Melee Weapon Attack Speed (Horticultural Prismatic Tincture of Mastery)

Jewels

Do you want to know the one jewel that can provide a significant damage boost for this PoE Glacial Hammer build? It is none other than an 8-passive Large Cluster Jewel (Mace/Staff Damage) with Overlord, Fuel the Fight, and Martial Prowess. Overlord deserves a special mention because it allows you to gain Fortification stacks with melee hits.

To reliably obtain the said notable passive skills, you must use both Lucent and Serrated Fossils at the same time. You will need a good stock of Potent Chaotic Resonators for this operation.

Other jewels you can invest in include:

• Watcher’s Eye
  • +1.8% to Critical Strike Chance While Affected by Hatred
  • 60% Increased Cold Damage While Affected by Hatred
  • +30% to Critical Strike Multiplier While Affected by Precision
• Impossible Escape
  • Must have “Passives in Radius of Ancestral Bond…”
• Unnatural Instinct
  • Insert in the jewel socket next to Savagery to gain STR, DEX, armor, and elemental resistance
• Base jewels
  • +% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
  • +% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Elemental Skills
  • % Increased Attack Speed with Maces or Sceptres
  • % Increased Attack Speed with One-Handed Melee Weapons

Tattoos

• Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior
  • 5% Increased Global Physical Damage
• Tattoo of the Arohongui Warrior
  • 5% Increased Cold Damage
• Tattoo of the Kitava Blood Drinker
  • 0.5% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life
• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout
  • 4% Increased Effect of Your Marks

Skill Gems Setup

Body Armor

• Glacial Hammer of Shattering
• Increased Critical Damage
• Hypothermia Support
• Awakened Multistrike
• Awakened Cold Penetration Support
• Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks

Helmet

• Determination
• Tempest Shield
• Hatred
• Enlighten (lvl 4)

Boots

• Assassin’s Mark
• Mark on Hit Support
• Leap Slam
• Faster Attacks Support

Gloves

• Blood Rage
• Steelskin
• Automation Support
• More Duration Support

Weapon

• Herald of Purity
• Enlighten Support
• Precision

Shield

• Hydrosphere
• Frostbite
• Berserk

Pantheons

• Major God: Soul of Lunaris
• Minor God: Soul of Abberrath

Passive Skill Tree

Despite the heavy penalty of wearing Marylene’s Fallacy, you do not need to allocate nodes that boost critical strike chance at all. That is because the transfigured version of PoE Glacial Hammer skill ensures that you land a deadly hit on every third successive strike. You still need to allocate passive skills that grant critical strike multipliers, though, which is why Disemboweling and Blacksmith’s Clout are awesome.

Tribal Fury is also crucial for improving your map-clearing efficiency. This enables you to inflict damage on enemies surrounding your main target.

Because you are wearing a shield, Deflection and Retaliation will contribute to your success. The former even grants an Endurance Charge on block, which is something that you will often do thanks to the Svalinn.

As for the ideal Masteries on the Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker, you can take the following:

• Attack Mastery
  • Monsters Cannot Block Your Attacks
  • +0.3 to Melee Strike Range
• Cold Mastery
  • Enemies Near Targets You Shatter Have a 20% Chance to Be Covered in Frost for 5 Seconds
• Mana Mastery
  • 12% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills
• Block Mastery
  • +1% Chance to Block Spell Damage per 5% Chance to Block Attack Damage

Tips and Strategies

• Try Rumi’s Concoction: If you intend to go straight to yellow maps after completing Act 10, you might not have enough block chance yet to survive. In that case, put Rumi’s Concoction on the fifth flask slot to get a boost in spell and attack block when used.
• Two-Handed Build is Possible: A two-handed version of the PoE Glacial Hammer build is doable. Replace your sceptre and shield with a crafted Eventuality Rod, and then wear Ralakesh’s Impatience and Arn’s Anguish. Take note that this version might not survive on T17 maps due to the lack of survivability, so be warned.
• Defense More Than Damage: If you are really eager to try the two-handed version of the build, you must swap Aspect of Carnage for Defy Pain. Doing so will at least give you some defense against more devastating blows.
• Built for Speed: While bonuses to critical strike chance are welcome, they are not mandatory because of the nature of your primary skill. To realize this PoE build’s full potential, go for increased attack speed mods instead.
• Unique Accessories: There are a couple of decent accessories you can use if you do not have the PoE Currency to buy the more expensive ones. The Pandemonious provides 20% cold penetration, as well as increased cold damage. In addition, The Taming grants up to a 40% increase in elemental damage; not to mention that you also have additional elemental resistances simply by wearing it.

POB

Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker

Final Thoughts

The Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker is an off-meta build that we feel is criminally underrated. This melee build slaps so hard that even T17 map monsters cower in fear due to its ability to deal immense cold damage.

Even though some of the items that you use have specific modifiers on them, you can still make things work, provided that you’re willing to make some compromises.

If you like the Glacial Hammer of Shattering Berserker, then do check out the other PoE builds on our website. Leave us a comment if you have any questions about the build. We would be happy to help!

PROS

• The transfigured version of Glacial Hammer is so much better at killing bosses due to the guaranteed critical strike.
• Over 80% block chance thanks to Svalinn.
• The one-handed melee weapon allows you to take advantage of your primary skill’s “third successive strike” mechanic more often.

CONS

• Must have items with specific modifiers, particularly on the Heatshiver.
• Achieving over a 50% critical strike chance is nearly impossible without making huge sacrifices.