Advice for starting SS Soldier HC

Hello all. I’m about to start a toon in HardCore and go threw the game for the first time. I’m goen to try and make a SS (Sword&Shield) Soldier. Any advice on what skills to go for would be appreciated. Not looking for a build just guided in the right direction and what other class would go good with soldier for a SS build.
Thanks for your time. Happy Gaming!!!

Generally, the term is “sword & board” which has the twin benefits of rhyming and not looking like a nazi reference.

As to your question, I leveled a blademaster to 85 without dying. This is what he looks like right now; you could pop one of the 15% acid augments off for a 10% aether if you were worried about it, but I think poison/acid is way more common than aether.

As for general advice, I would say worry more about attacks skills (and mastery, definitely mastery) than grabbing the shield skills right away; since it’s all percentage based, getting it early doesn’t really benefit you. Your early concerns are going to be raising mastery and finding better gear. Start putting points into overgard/shield training only when you have a shield that makes you think “wow, 2% extra with this would actually be noticeable!”

Soldier is the best class for SB build due to shield passive and overguard. Damage types that dominates are physical, bleed, and trauma which go well with certain combination of skill from other masteries and devotions.

Witchblade also has access to Curse of fraility, a good physical debuff and devotion proc. BoD gives instant healing, health regen, and resistance if you take aspect of the guardian.

Blademaster, on the other hand, has access to pneumatic burst which grants instant heal, increase speed, and health regen. Shadow dance gives chance to avoid damage altogether isn’t something to scoff at. Blade barrier is a good emergency button.

Commando is intersting since you can take fire strike instead of cadence as LMB attack. Switching your damage to fire (or fire/chaos) along with other potent debuff abilities.

Shaman has access to bleed vitality and lightning damage which you could use as a main source of damage and simply use soldier passive to boost your defense and mobility. Wendigo totem is good heal if you don’t move around a lot. However, you can’t use primal strike as SB build which is a bit of a bummer. Devouring swarm is great skill for bleed/vitality build.

Arcanist combination ,battlemage, is not particularly strong for SB build. You can use Inner focus to boost your offensive ability, Maiven to absorb some damage, Mirror as emergency button, and some passives. But overall not particularly strong combination for SB build.

Currently playing HC with firestrike SB commando, physical SB witchblade and both are quite enjoyable.

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52683

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48597

Should work for HC since Shield keeps you safe

TY for the tips.