Me: Welcome to Stonewall Oppressor guide
Mad_Lee: Don’t play this yellow shield , Siegebreaker is just better
Me: Welcome to Siegebreaker Oppressor guide
(half of the profit goes to Mad_Lee - deal is a deal)
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(1) Introduction
Run is inspired by an old guide Warborn RF Siegebreaker Oppressor but due to a lot of changes past few patches I decide to make a leveling guide and also up to date endgame build that can handle endgame content and all Celestials ( apart from Crate , cause this battle is equal to suicide in HC)
(2) Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Easy to play ( 2-3 buttons build most of the time , some buttons are even cut in final setup)
- Very high sustain due to high leech , armor and Resilience
- Very mobile for plate armor tank
- High damage for Sword and board build
- Smooth leveling (tank setups are easy to level and also easy to master)
- Fantasy of Righteous man that use Dark Arts as his advantage in battle
- Easy to gear ( all versions of this requires campaign farming )
- Very cheap (No crazy greens , no Celestial drops , No Alkamos rings , No Magi rings)
Cons:
- Slow start (pre 35 its a bit slow)
- Need patience when leveling tanks
- Not so flashy (just brute force front liner that stomping ground)
- Oathkeeper mastery is the slowest to level (not very good item support early on)
(3) Leveling
1-20 Level CLICK ME
In this bracket we work on our Oathkeeper mastery for the first 10 levels ,after that we switch to Necromancer to rush Spectral wrath ( huge passive damage boost and resistance shred)
Gear to look for: Bernard’s Slightly-Chewed Buckler ,Milton’s Casque ,Isaac’s Spaulders Slith Primal Ring , Putrid Necklace Mutant Bludgeon ,around level 13 buy any ok medal so you can fill all of your empty slots also craft 2xWardstones for your medal and amulet to cover Elemental res , Bleed res and cap your movement speed. Buy Chipped Claw and Battered Shell before level 10 (essential components for the start our source of damage). Farm Warden Krieg for his shield at level 20 (we look for resistances , flat life ,armor etc)
Standard Craft List at Level 20:
- Serrated Shell - Brutal shield slam (crazy damage)
- 2 x Scaled Hide - Torso and Shoulders ( Armor + Armor Absorption)
- 2 x Antivenom Salve - Belt and Boots (Life regen , Poison res and Armor)
- Silk swatch - Pants(Pierce + bleeding res essential for Act 2)
- Corpse dusts(world drop) - Rings (for Vitality res , life regen% and %life)
- Calamity relic
In this bracket we rush Spectral Binding ( nothing in this game cant beat this flat life bonus ,OA and flat damage ), after that we go back to Oathkeeper and simply work to get max out Shattering smash (bread and butter for this leveling run) . After level 20 crafting session and a bit of Krieg + Underground’s transit farming + Vendor checks you should be practically immortal at act 2. Gear to look for:Skinner Family Seal (quest reward very good physical ring for that stage be sure you pick right dialogue options and save his familly ) , Balthazar’s Crest (nothing special just physical bias medal to bump up some damage)Cronley’s Signet (very good attack speed ring and tanks struggle in this department). Try to kill as much bandits as possible so we can get Respected with Devil’s Crossing for their level 35 items and their blueprints. All other slots should be filled with resistances , armor and life ( gear is good to be upgraded on level 30,50,70,84,94 at least for proper progression ) higher level bases means better affixes + implicit and better armor/damage. Be nice to Isaiah Reddan he is very important vendor for the first playthrough or SSF
Here things start to get better for any build , we have faction’s gear unlocked and some very good blueprints , but also we are on the way to approach Blood Groove (do Pine Barrens first leave east part of Homestead at last and after you got some upgrades ). Most important for this bracket is to grind some undeads so we can get Respected with Rovers for the Runestone blueprint (hands down best helm component for leveling in SSF and in general) and their attack speed gloves . Our Calamity relic start to falls off at this point and its time to craft Fervor ( if you are not SSF craft directly Endurance at 35 BiS for leveling oathkeeper), gear wise upgrade your Krieg for higher base , craft some belt with resistances or buy some with chaos res (refresh Isaiah Reddan at Homestead for Chaos res Elixir , if you are not SSF craft it instead ). Anything below 60% chaos res is risky in Blood groove. Kill Bolvar few times for his amulet and visit Stonerend quarry for Aetherscorched Cleaver (this area is very scary because the floor damage feel to skip it if you are in HC ). Farm outside Homestead , Gruesome Harvest and Prospector Trail for Fleshwarped Pauldrons (BiS shoulders for leveling Physical Oppressor). At this point Claw components falls off Craft Silver for Chaos res for your weapon. Don’t rush the game this bracket is very important for proper transition to harder content
If you don’t rush too much you have to be on the way to Fort Ilkon at this point our first stop is Tomb of Korvaak at Asterkan Valley for Mark of Harvoul (amazing medal for leveling Soldier or Oathkeeper damage , tons of chaos res and our Vires Might becomes more impactful ) , next stop is starting Hidden Path quest so we can farm Solael-Sect Legguards, after this is done we make a shift at the campaign progression and jump to FG for Respected with Bysmael so we can craft Endurance relic (very important for any Oathkeeper , if its your alt character skip this) . Since your Chaos res are fine at this point craft Oleron’s Blood (Respected with Black Legion) that’s extra damage ,%OA and damage reduction source for though boss fights
55 Level jump to Act 1 Elite for Krieg farm CLICK ME
Here we are forced to jump to Act 1Elite cause Act 1 Normal cant provide higher level Warden Fortress ( Act 1 Elite is very easy also good power up since slow mobs and bosses ) . Level 55 is mostly grinding milestone to get upgrades on all the MIs ( monster infrequent ), just farm Normal for Fleshwarped gear ( at this point East Part of Necropolis is best) and Warden Krieg Elite for better shield
This bracket is mainly for finishing all Acts in Normal and finally get our hands on Bargoll’s Root and Legion greaves , apart from that is just leveling , questing and preparing for Ultimate ( I don’t include any Dungeons or annoying farms cause I like to keep my leveling guides beginner friendly , that’s why Gargabol ring and Wendigo Glare medal are skipped). When you reach Malmouth buy their Oil for less damage from Aetherial (huge power up for the price needed especially in Act 1 Ultimate ) and stock at least 10 of it
Here is one of the most important grinding sessions its long to explain so I decide to record a footage with commentary Level 70 grind . This is the moment when we step at Ultimate (all resistances capped or nearly capped) , I keep some elixirs and oils for different situations ( pharmacy is huge advantage - use it) , after the farming session build should be really strong and extremely tanky . Try to pick all quests at this point any extra bit of EXP matters
At this bracket we are more or less at Homestead and we push forward to close the main game campaign. My personal route on approaching Homestead is West Homestead > Pine Barrens > Blood Grove (chaos res should be capped at this point if its not grind more or use Ointment). I pick every possible quest and try to grind for Revered for both Homestead and Devils Crossing so I can get some resistance augments (don’t neglect your reputation after 70 its very important). Most dangerous place here is Blood Grove since Bolvar spawn here and he rolls scary guns , watch out for Zaria’s Obsidian Crystals either nuke them on sight or open a distance from it (she use Curse of Frailty which means resistance shred on you keep that in mind). Asterkan Valley ,Fort Ilkon and Necropolis are very easy on this setup ,both Loghorrean and Lucius are facetankable even during the sunder
Around level 82 you have to start another grinding session , hitting basically the same places like the 70 session with one exception this time we are after Wendigo glare its much easier to be farm at Ultimate (better spawns and 3 Wendigo mini bosses are available after Respected status with Barrowholm). This bracket is very important for character development at level 90 we have to be sure our Malmouth status is Revered for their augments , Coven is at Honored for Coven Storm Seal and Bysmiel is Honored as well for Bysmiel Vile Seal , at the moment we step into Malmouth Black legion reputation should be maxed as well here we want Elite Legion Greaves. Malmouth at level 90 offers amazing Torso armor piece Elite Malmouth Defender Cuirass. This bracket is basically reputation grind and optimization to the build for pre-endgame content ( dungeons , totems and specific targets )
Last bracket involves crafting and getting last base variants on all guaranteed MIs ,after couple of totems you should be able to craft Stonewall Defender and Plagueguard Grips . You going to ask “Why I have to craft a yellow shield and gloves ?” answer is this yellow craft can roll both prefix and suffix which means they can end up really powerful , ideal rolls we looking for are Durable prefix on the shield (suffix doesn’t really matter) and any Attack speed suffix on the gloves (prefix doesn’t really matter) . Don’t go crazy when crafting this cause this items are not involved in the min max endgame setup. We are ready with the campaign at this point , my advice is to grind all left reputation so you can have access to all augments for further adjustments. Stock some EXP potions (not too much ) cause leveling devotions are different than the endgame ones (unfortunately we have to level Empyrion )
Easy totem route for beginners:
(4)How to path Leveling Devotions
- Pink Crossroad
- Jackal
- Yellow Crossroad
- Remove Jackal and Pink Crossroad
- Turtle
- Blue Crossroad
- Sailor’s Guide
- Purple Crossroad
- Empty Throne
- Remove all Crossroads
- Dire Bear ( attach this to Brutal Shield Slam and paid attention when remove your shield component this leads to removing the proc as well you have to re-apply it)
- Hammer
- Ulzaad, Herald of Korvaak (attach this to Vire’s Might so it can activate every time you engage)
- Assassins’ Blade (attach this to Righteous Fervor so can proc constantly)
- Fox
- Blue Crossroad
- Panther
- Eel
- Vire , the Stone Matron (any aura or permanent buff )
- Remove Hammer
- Purple Crossroad
- Azrakaa , the Eternal Sands (Guardians of Empyrion are great procers of this )
Note: This is leveling devotions for proper character development , anyways this path is close to the final setup just keep in mind leveling and endgame are two different things
(5) Endgame and cheap setups
Stonefather Oppressor - Extremely Budget setup for people that can’t invest hours and hours grinding. This setup is capable of clearing all Dungeons , SR 24+25 , Campaign and Totem grinds. Set utilize impact and trauma damage of Vire’s might
Siegebreaker Oppressor - final version of the build , vey cheap (no crazy greens) , all the gear can be farmed at the campaign and totems. This setup is capable to do everything (Ravager of Flesh , Lokkar , Mogdrogen , Callagadra and SR 30 -31). SR is a bit risky cause not very good overcaps on Vitality and Aether res
Siegebreaker Oppressor SR spec - @tqFan suggested Sailor’s Guide over Eel + Ele res node in Ulo, overall fair trade for SR and general farming (build lost some chunk DA , but better CC res and 3% Phys res ). Feel free to replace Gargabol ring for Coven Strom Seal to get better overcaps on Aether
(6) Videos of Celestial Fights and SR
Ravager of Flesh - 1:25 very good time for off-meta setup
Lokkar - easy fight you can use high level Mark of Torment
Mogdrogen - can be facetanked if 80 cold/lightning res overcap on SC, anyways in HC I prefer to not fight him inside the Sunder cloud , cause RNG can get you killed
Callagadra - this fight requires focus, good positioning and some cooldown management . Mistakes here can be punished really hard
Shattered Realm 30-31 - Can’t pull 4 bosses in the boss room , too risky in HC , anyways build is capable to handle up to 3 bosses in any combination (still have to dodge sunder and reposition ).My advice is to fight bosses 1 by 1 or double pulls
Note: I use pharmacy in all fights , Elixir of the Ancients + Lifestealer Oil. “Investing in elixirs and oils is better than investing in new character” - Hardcore Wisdom
(7) Conclusion
Build perform really well , it’s one of the cheapest ones that I ever played . Doesn’t requires a insanely good piloting skills ( very easy to play ) . During the leveling process starts a bit slow compare to other AoE classes that can wiped the whole screen. Physical Oppressor can clear whole content ( apart from Crate cause that battle is nearly impossible and annoying on melee setups ) , its decent SR farmer due to high sustain and high damage numbers
Credits and Special thanks to: @mad_lee for suggesting Siegebreaker over Stonewall Defender and for the explanation why one is better than the other , @banana_peel for his Markovian Warlord 's Devotion tree ( I borrow this devotion tree cause exactly the same archetype) , @tqFan for the original endgame guide that inspired this leveling and endgame run and of course special thanks and respect to Grim Dawn community for the support so I can have motivation to do this guides
in advance