Spectral Shield Throw Raider Build [PoE 3.25]

The Spectral Shield Throw (aka SST) has made a resurgence in the past couple of leagues in PoE mainly because of the changes GGG has made to the base version of the skill gem.

It is a fun mapping build that you can use to farm PoE currency early on. On top of that, if you like the playstyle, you have the option of purchasing some suitable upgrades later down the line.

So, if you are looking for your next league starter that you can definitely enjoy well into the endgame, then read onward. This is our comprehensive build guide for the Spectral Shield Throw Raider in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Basics

Spectral Shield Throw is an attack skill gem in Path of Exile where you throw your shield as a damaging projectile. Once it collides with an enemy or terrain, it splits into smaller projectiles that can pierce or chain to nearby monsters.

That said, GGG has made a pretty nice change to SST in that increasing its gem quality allows you to fire two additional projectiles at 20% and another couple of projectiles at 40%. For this reason, you are going to maximize that by using the Ashes of the Stars.

The shield that you are going to use is important because the damage of Spectral Shield Throw takes that into consideration. More specifically, you get additional physical damage per 15 armor or evasion rating on your equipped shield. 

Although you can craft a shield using Essences or Fossils, you can get a ton of value by simply going for the Emperor’s Vigilance. This will be discussed in greater detail in the “Gear” section of the build guide.

Now, Spectral Shield Throw is a physical skill gem in PoE. To ensure that you deal the most amount of damage, you are going to convert all of your physical damage to cold damage. Why? Doing so allows you to scale your damage even further due to the plethora of cold and elemental damage mods in the game.

You can achieve full cold damage conversion by wearing the 60% physical-to-cold damage gloves and allocating the appropriate Cold Mastery for the other 40%.

Although no changes were made to the skill gem itself in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, Grinding Gear Games did nerf an essential part of the build – Sniper’s Mark. So, how bad is it? Well, this Mark skill used to allow your projectiles to split towards four additional targets. But now, that number has gone down to just two.

As if that is not bad enough, cursed enemies now only take 29% increased damage from your SST compared to 35% previously. Fortunately, this can be easily addressed by adding in the Enhance Support into the gem setup.

Anyway, here are the mods that you should look for on your gear to increase the damage of the build:

• Added Physical Damage

• Increased Physical Damage

• Increased Cold Damage

• Increased Elemental Damage

• Increased Critical Strike Chance

• Increased Attack Speed

• + to Critical Strike Multiplier

You are probably wondering if you could use the new Transfigured Gem, Spectral Shield Throw of Shattering for this build. Well, there are some upsides to using this in that it splits into more projectiles upon colliding with the target and has higher overall damage.

However, the base version of the skill gem still deals a ton of damage with a much lower investment. Unless you are willing to spend boatloads of PoE currency, the normal Spectral Shield Throw is more than enough.

Playstyle

The beauty of the Spectral Shield Throw Raider is that the build is very easy to play; making it a compelling choice for new and old players alike.

Once you enter a new map or area, you simply use your preferred travel skill to look for groups of monsters. Then, you just unleash your Spectral Shield and see the enemies die in no time!

As for the travel skills, Leap Slam or Shield Charge are very good choices. Of course, you can use other similar skills as well, such as Frostblink or Flame Dash, if these are what you prefer.

When fighting against bosses, drop your Ancestral Protector totem and cast Vortex before spamming SST. Doing so significantly increases your attack speed and damage toward them, making them so much easier to defeat.

Ascendancy

Since this build is meant for league start scenarios, the Raider is definitely the best ascendancy class for this one. That is because its notable passive skills provide a balance of offense and defense that work perfectly with Spectral Shield Throw.

It is important to note that your notable ascendancy passives vary a little bit during the campaign and after you have secured some good pieces of gear.

To start, choose Rapid Assault after completing the first labyrinth. This essentially gives you permanent Onslaught, which means that you get 20% increased attack speed and movement speed just by taking this single node.

Then, you want to amplify Onslaught’s effects by taking Avatar of the Chase. This notable passive skill gives you even more attack speed and movement speed plus a 10% more chance to evade attacks from the enemy.

After finishing the third labyrinth, you will spend points to get Quartz Infusion. This grants permanent Phasing, so you can freely move around without monsters blocking your way. On top of that, it gives you 40% spell suppression, which makes it so much easier for you to cap this defensive layer by just adding two or three pieces of gear.

If you take Quartz Infusion, then Avatar of the Veil is a no-brainer. This provides you with a 50% chance to avoid elemental ailments, so you only need to address the other half by getting the right mods on your gear to achieve full ailment immunity. Furthermore, enemies within your vicinity are affected by fire, cold, and lightning exposure, thus reducing their elemental resistances by 20%. This translates to more SST damage!

Once you have finished the campaign and have equipped better items, you can remove Rapid Assault and Avatar of the Chase in favor of Way of the Poacher and Avatar of the Slaughter.

Way of the Poacher gives you a reliable and more sustainable way to gain Frenzy Charges. Besides that, you gain one more Maximum Frenzy Charge just by taking this single node!

Avatar of the Slaughter enhances the effects of Frenzy Charge. Basically, you get a 10% increased evasion rating, 4% increased movement speed, 4% increased attack speed, and 10% increased attack damage per Frenzy Charge!

While it is not mandatory, you can wear the self-crafted Onslaught Boots and purchase the Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame jewels with “Avatar of the Chase” as the matching modifier to improve your offense and defense. You can refer to our ultimate crafting guide to learn the full instructions on how to craft this thing yourself.

Notable Passive Skills for Spectral Shield Throw Raider

Gear

Most of the items for the Spectral Shield Throw Raider can be crafted using Essences, which is why this build is a great league starter. The only items that are not crafted are the shield and the amulet.

Weapon

The main weapon for the Spectral Shield Throw Raider is an ilvl 85+ Shaper-influenced Harpy Rapier with the mod “Gain 20% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage.” There are a couple of ways to get this particular modifier.

The cheapest route would be to use the Harvest Reforge Cold option from the Horticrafting Station. Doing this will also put other modifiers on the rapier, so this is not the most ideal. But, it gets the job done, especially if all you want is the extra cold damage Shaper mod.

Self-crafted Harpy Rapier (Using Harvest Reforge Cold)

In the endgame, however, you can go for a more methodical approach. The crafting base you are going to use is still an ilvl 85+ Shaper-influenced Harpy Rapier, but this time, you are going to spam it with Deafening Essence of Sorrow to guarantee the prefix “Damage Penetrates 8% Cold Resistance.”

Follow these next steps to craft the endgame version of the weapon:

1. Spam the Deafening Essence of Sorrow until you get the extra cold damage modifier mentioned earlier. Make sure that only the essence mod and the Shaper mod are present on the weapon. You may have to use the Orb of Annulment a few times to achieve this

2. Lock your prefixes and then use a Veiled Orb. The goal here is to get a veiled suffix mod, so if you get a veiled prefix by any chance, you should do this all over again

3. After successfully obtaining a veiled suffix, bench-craft “4% Increased Damage per Endurance Charge” before heading to Jun to unveil. Look for the mod, “40% Critical Strike Multiplier While a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby”

4. Go to the Crafting Bench and remove all crafted modifiers

5. Put “Can Have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers,” and then add these:

1. 60% Increased Cold Damage, 20% Chance to Freeze (prefix)

2. 28% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier

Self-crafted Harpy Rapier (Endgame)

Shield

In the early stages of the league, you can use either the Essence of Greed (Life) or the Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) to craft your shield. Spam any of these essences on an evasion-based shield until you get spell suppression, life, and elemental resistance.

Self-crafted Shield (Budget)

Once you have enough PoE currency, you can transition to the shield that you can use well into the endgame: the Emperor’s Vigilance. This shield has incredible amounts of armor – a defensive layer that factors into the damage calculation of Spectral Shield Throw! It also provides you with some energy shield, which comes in handy because you will be using a particular unique jewel that boosts the damage of this build even further!

Another great thing about this shield is that it grants the effect of the Glancing Blows keystone passive. This greatly increases your attack and spell block chance at the expense of taking 65% damage from blocked hits (instead of zero damage). Do not worry about the downside because being able to reliably block as many hits from the enemy is substantially better than not blocking their attacks at all!

Emperor's Vigilance

Body Armor

For the body armor, you have a couple of good crafting bases to choose from. If you want a balance of armor and evasion, choose the General’s Brigandine. Conversely, if you want more evasion rating than armor, go for the Triumphant Lamellar.

Early on, you can use Harvest Reforge Life or Harvest Reforge Chaos until you get some good modifiers like HP, chaos resistance, elemental resistance, spell suppression, and armor/evasion rating.

However, you will ultimately craft one that has the veiled modifier: “10% increased maximum life/mana.” You can refer to our ultimate crafting guide so that you will know how to craft this particular body armor.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the armor with Eldritch Ichors until you get “Hatred Has % Increased Aura Effect” and Eldritch Embers for “% Increased Cold Damage” or “+% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Attack Damage.”

Self-crafted Body Armor

If you do not want to be bothered by crafting your own body armor, you can wear the Lioneye’s Vision unique Crusader Plate instead.

Lioneye’s Vision

Helmet

Use Essence of Greed (Life) on an ilvl 85+ Ursine Pelt (pure evasion) or Nightmare Bascinet (armor/evasion) until you get some good modifiers, including elemental resistance, spell suppression, and chaos resistance. Evasion rating is also a nice one to have.

The implicit modifiers on the helmet are very important as well. Use Eldritch Ichors until you obtain the mod: “% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills” and Eldritch Embers for “% Reduced Mana Cost of Attacks.”

Self-crafted Helmet

In the endgame, you will craft an ilvl 85+ Shaper-influenced Royal Burgonet with a couple of unique modifiers. To do craft the endgame helmet, spam Essence of Horror (Elemental Damage) until you get “Nearby Enemies Take % Increased Elemental Damage” and “Socketed Gems Are Supported by Level 18/20 Hypothermia, % Increased Effect of Cold Ailments.”

Once you have the desired mods, put ”Suffixes Cannot Be Changed” from the Crafting Bench, and then use a Veiled Orb. Before you head to Jun to unveil, bench-craft “+ 0.2 metres to Melee Strike Range, +1 to Level of Socketed Melee Gems.” This is to block the mod from appearing on the list.

After that, talk to Jun and unveil the veiled prefix. The mod you are looking for is, “Projectiles Pierce an Additional Target, +2 to Level of Socketed Projectile Gems.”

If you still have an open prefix, put “8% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage” from the Crafting Bench.

Self-crafted Helmet (with Shaper Mod)

Gloves

As mentioned earlier in the build guide, you need to convert all of your physical damage to cold damage to make the most out of the Spectral Shield Throw Raider. This is done by taking the appropriate Cold Mastery, as well as wearing the 60% cold conversion gloves.

Having said that, the process of crafting the gloves is lengthy. Fortunately, you can read our ultimate crafting guide so that you can craft the 60% damage conversion gloves. We provide you with step-by-step instructions, so you don’t have to worry about it.

Self-crafted Cold Damage Conversion Gloves

For the Eldritch implicit modifiers, you have to elevate the physical-to-cold damage conversion mod by using a few Orbs of Conflict. When you have achieved 25% conversion, spam the gloves with Grand Eldritch Embers to get “27% Increased Critical Strike Chance for Attacks.”

Boots

Grab yourself some Dragonscale Boots (Armor/Evasion) or Slink Boots (Evasion) and spam them with Essence of Greed (Life) or Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) until you obtain some useful modifiers. The boots can be a way to address your elemental resistance and spell suppression if you have not capped them yet.

Self-crafted Boots (Budget)

Of course, the best-in-slot is a self-crafted pair of Onslaught Boots. If you equip these boots, you can safely replace Rapid Assault and Avatar of the Chase with Way of the Poacher and Avatar of the Slaughter in your ascendancy tree.

To get your implicit modifiers sorted out, spam the boots with Eldritch Ichors until you get “Gain % of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage” and Eldritch Embers for “% Increased Action Speed.”

Self-crafted Onslaught Boots

Amulet

You have a couple of viable options when it comes to the amulet you are going to wear. Ashes of the Stars has a unique effect, where you gain up to 30% increased gem quality. Even if you get this amulet without a perfect roll, you will still enjoy two more projectiles just by wearing it!

Ashes of the Stars

Alternatively, Replica Dragonfang’s Flight provides you with increased reservation efficiency, which allows you to have a comfortable amount of mana to work with even after activating your auras. If you are going to use this one, make sure to get a version that has “+3 to Level of All Spectral Shield Throw Gems.”

Replica Dragonfang's Flight (with +3 SST Gems)

Whichever amulet you will use, do not forget to anoint it with Charisma (Opalescent Oil, Golden Oil, Golden Oil) for that 16% increased mana reservation efficiency.

Rings

The rings that you are going to wear on this build are just self-crafted ones. Grab a pair of Amethyst Rings and use Harvest Reforge Attack until you get accuracy rating, elemental damage with attack skills, life, chaos resistance, attributes, or chaos resistance.

With the changes to mana that GGG has implemented in Patch 3.24, you should leave a prefix open so that you can put “Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost” from the Crafting Bench. This is vital to avoid having any mana issues when casting your skills.

Self-crafted Ring

Belt

In most cases, the Stygian Vise is enough for the Spectral Shield Throw Raider. Use the belt slot to address any issues you may still have with the build. If your elemental resistances are not sorted out yet, you could spam the belt with Essence of Anger (Fire), Hatred (Cold), and Wrath (Lightning), whichever you need.

Self-crafted Stygian Vise (Budget)

If you can get it early, grab an item level 86 Stygian Vise so that you will have a chance of obtaining a T1 “% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills” mod. Other modifiers to look for are chaos resistance, life, or mana.

You can even take things up a notch by leaving a prefix open and using a Redeemer’s Exalted Orb for a chance to obtain the mod: “40% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies.”

Self-crafted Stygian Vise (with Redeemer Mod)

Now, if you like the playstyle of this build and you want to take things a step further, you can invest in a Mageblood unique Heavy Belt.

Mageblood

Flask

• Jade Flask

• Diamond Flask

• Amethyst Flask/Granite Flask

• Quicksilver Flask

• Taste of Hate

• Life Flask (if you still don’t have Taste of Hate)

• Bottled Faith (replace Quicksilver Flask)

Flask Mods

• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)

• 60% Increased Evasion Rating (of the Impala)

• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)

• 17% Increased Attack Speed (of the Dove)

• Immunity to Corrupted Blood (Life Flask)

Jewels

There is only one mandatory unique jewel that you should use for the Spectral Shield Throw Raider and that is the Seething Fury. This jewel increases your attack damage just by wielding a shield. But, its main selling point is that it boosts your crit chance and critical strike multiplier per 10 maximum energy shield on your equipped shield. That is why the Emperor’s Vigilance is the perfect one to use for this build!

Watcher’s Eye provides a ton of value to the Spectral Shield Throw Raider. If you are shopping for this jewel on the trade website, look for one with any of the following modifiers:

• Hatred

• Damage Penetrates % Cold Resistance

• % to Critical Strike Chance

• % Increased Cold Damage

• Precision

• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier

• % Increased Attack Damage

• % Increased Attack Speed

• Gain a Flask Charge When You Deal a Critical Strike

• Grace

• % Increased Movement Speed

• +% Chance to Evade Attack Hits

• % Chance to Suppress Spell Damage 

The Lethal Pride is another unique jewel worth getting. This is because you can get the “10% Chance to Intimidate Enemies” and “5% Chance to Deal Double Damage” mods as bonuses when you purchase the right one from the trade website.

Since you are converting physical damage to cold damage on this build, you can gain great benefits by using at least one Large Cluster Jewel (physical damage). Use Harvest Reforge Physical to acquire these notable passive skills:

• Battle-Hardened

• 30% Increased Evasion Rating and Armor

• 35% Increased Physical Damage

• Iron Breaker

• Overwhelm 10% Physical Damage Reduction

• 35% Increased Physical Damage

• Furious Assault

• 8% Increased Attack/Cast Speed

• 25% Increased Physical Damage

To ensure that you deal the most amount of damage possible, you should achieve 100% crit chance. One way to help you with that is by using a couple of Medium Cluster Jewels (critical strike chance). Utilize the Harvest Reforge Critical option from the Horticrafting Station to get Basics of Pain and Pressure Points. Quick Getaway is an alternative to Basics of Pain, especially if you want more attack speed and movement speed.

Gems

The gem setups for the Spectral Shield Throw Raider are actually quite flexible. Apart from the auras and the SST support gems, you have the freedom to add any gem that you want.

Body Armor (Budget)

• Spectral Shield Throw

• Vicious Projectiles Support

• Cold Penetration

• Increased Critical Strikes

• Elemental Damage with Attacks

• Inspiration Support

Spectral Shield Throw is your main attack skill on this build. When used, it prompts you to throw a spectral shield at the enemy, causing it to split to several projectiles once it collides with the target. When you wear the Ashes of the Stars, the split projectiles will be increased from five to seven!

Vicious Projectiles, Cold Penetration, and Elemental Damage with Attacks are support gems that boost the damage of your SST significantly. Be sure to purchase the “Awakened” versions of these gems once you have the currency for maximum effect!

Inspiration Support and Increased Critical Strikes help raise the chances of your Spectral Shield Throw to critically hit the main target, as well as nearby monsters. The former also has the added benefit of reducing the mana cost of your SST.

Helmet (Budget)

• Hatred

• Grace

• Precision

• Enlighten Support

Hatred significantly boosts the damage of your SST. This is because this aura grants extra cold damage, as well as a “more damage” modifier for your main attack skill. Such modifiers are calculated multiplicatively rather than additively.

Grace is an aura in PoE that provides you with a sizable boost to your evasion. With the “Iron Reflexes” keystone passive allocated, you convert this bonus to armor.

Precision is just a means of capping your chance to hit enemies. Level this gem up only until you have your hit chance sorted out.

Enlighten Support is there to help you activate these auras with some mana left in the tank for your other skills.

Helmet (Endgame)

• Spectral Shield Throw

• Awakened Cold Penetration

• Awakened Vicious Projectiles

• Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks

If you are wearing the endgame version of the helmet, you should place your SST skill gem into it along with the support gems highlighted above.

Body Armor (Endgame)

• Hatred

• Grace

• Herald of Purity

• Precision

• Enlighten Support

In the endgame version of the build, since you’ll be using the self-crafted Helmet with the Shaper mods, you should place the above-mentioned auras into your body armor.

As you can see, you only need a five-linked body armor if you are going for the endgame version. That means that you have one slot to use any gem that you like!

Weapon

• Sniper’s Mark

• Mark on Hit Support

• Lifetap/Enhance Support

Sniper’s Mark is the preferred Mark skill to use for projectile-based builds such as the Spectral Shield Throw Raider. This is because it causes cursed enemies to take considerably more damage from projectile hits.

Even though Sniper’s Mark got heavily nerfed in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, it is still a pretty good Mark skill for the build. 

Mark on Hit Support alleviates the need to manually cast Sniper’s Mark. The said Mark skill will automatically be applied whenever you attack rare or unique enemies thanks to this support gem.

Lifetap just ensures that Sniper’s Mark is applied without using mana. If mana is not an issue for you, then you can swap it with Enhance Support to improve the effect of Sniper’s Mark.

Shield

• Molten Shell

• Automation Support

• Increased Duration Support

Since you have a sizable amount of armor, you can bolster your defenses by using Molten Shell. This is a popular guard skill in the game that is used primarily to boost the armor value of a character.

Automation is a new support gem that was added in Patch 3.24. The cool thing about this is that it automatically activates Molten Shell for you whenever it is off cooldown. Automation Support was introduced primarily because you can no longer bind instant skills on the left click in the Necropolis League.

The downside of Automation Support is that it reduces the cooldown recovery rate of Molten Shell, which means that it takes a bit longer before it can be used again. For this reason, you include the Increased Duration Support so that if the said guard skill does activate, it lasts for a few more seconds.

Helmet (Budget)

• Herald of Ice

• Precision

• Enlighten Support

Since you will be dealing cold damage with your Spectral Shield Throw, the Herald of Ice is a nice complementary aura. Precision is there just to aid you in capping your accuracy. Only level this up until you achieve a 100% hit chance.

A level 3 Enlighten Support will suffice to enable you to activate these auras with enough mana to spare.

As you have probably noticed, there is a free gem slot on the helmet. You can use this slot to add any gem that you want!

Boots

• Ancestral Protector

• Vortex

• Bonechill Support

• Hypothermia Support

Ancestral Protector and Vortex are mainly utilized when fighting against tough monsters and bosses in PoE. The former significantly boosts your attack speed, while the latter reduces the defenses of your enemies against cold damage thanks to the support gems, Bonechill Support and Hypothermia Support.

Gloves

• Shield Charge

• Faster Attacks Support

• Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support

• Fortify Support

Shield Charge is the preferred movement skill for this build. It is linked to Faster Attacks Support just to make it feel less clunky to use.

While you are shield charging across the map, you have a chance of stunning any targets you may encounter, particularly when you’ve dealt considerable damage to them in the process. To maximize this, you include Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support.

What the above support gem does is it gives you a way to generate Endurance Charges. On top of that, the effects of Endurance Charges are amplified, giving you more damage per charge.

Fortify Support provides additional damage mitigation via Fortification stacks when you hit enemies with Shield Charge.

Tattoos

The Tattoos from a couple of leagues ago have returned in the 3.24 Necropolis League! That said, here are the ones that we can recommend for the Spectral Shield Throw Raider:

• Tattoo of the Arohongui Warrior

• 5% Increased Cold Damage

• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout

• 4% Increased Effect of Your Marks

• Tattoo of the Ramako Sniper

• 5% Increased Projectile Speed

• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman

• +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot

• 2% Increased Movement Speed

Passive Tree

Passive Tree for Spectral Shield Throw Raider

POB

Budget Version

Main Setup

Alternative Setup (with Mageblood)

Final Thoughts

The Spectral Shield Throw Raider is a great league starter primarily because it can work even on a small budget. When a new league begins, you can simply use any Essences you can find to craft your starter equipment.

Then, once you have enough currency, you can slowly purchase the necessary upgrades, starting with Emperor’s Vigilance, followed by the Ashes of the Stars. Of course, you will also need to upgrade your self-crafted gear when you have the currency to do so. Be sure to bookmark our ultimate crafting guide if you need some guidance in PoE crafting.

Despite the mana changes and the nerf to Sniper’s Mark in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, the build still performs exceptionally well.

While the transfigured version of SST deals more damage, it does require heavy investment to make it feel good. Only opt for this version if you like the playstyle. Otherwise, you can stick to the base version of the skill gem without any problem.

So, if you want a fast-mapping build that has enough damage to take on some of the bosses in PoE, the Spectral Shield Throw Raider is a viable contender!

PROS

+Great league starter

+Raider ascendancy provides a good mix of offense and defense

+Can work with minimal investment

+Has some upgrade paths you can take

+Still incredible in Patch 3.24

CONS

-Average bossing capabilities

-Survivability is mediocre

-Endgame upgrades are quite expensive