hellwarden vs shako

how are we feeling about it now?
Ive got a guardians light and Im undecided which helm to put it in. If you are going to do the souls trick and farm heralds I feel like you dont need the extra MF from shako, but I am still just partial to shako for almost all other scenarios.
Id like to hear some opinions on them both.

Hellwarden more dmg

Shako more mf

im going shako + turbo magic facet because im playing hc
more life, longer bo, dr... i have a hard time justifying giving up the shako for the added dmg.
pushing almost 300mf/125fcr and a tank with maxblock and 4.2k life. really nice to no longer avoid magic imunes.
-25% enemy magic res.

i also wouldnt bother with hellwardens unless im also making use of that fcr somehow. but this is what im running atm;

shako - -10% guardians light
hoto - will swap out for void eventually
nigma
mara
spirit
magefists
-5% sling
arach
bk
waterwalks/horazons legacy

cta/spirit swap

torch
anni
-10% black cleft
gheeds
pcomb lifers

a2 prayer merc
eth insight
eth coh
eth cure

This post was edited by C4NTWO on Mar 16 2026 09:53am

Why do you run -magic res on the renewed and not pure +magic dmg ?
Thats the point I'm still doubting on for my own choice.

The FCR part for Hellwardens is exactly what makes me think keeping Shako looks good, apart from the DR and life/mana. MF also but I doubt thats something you care about too much on HC.

imo the hdin doesnt "need" more dmg, he needs pierce.
and magic find is nice, but not a priority. here I make very little compromises to get a fair amount of mf. alot is added from black cleft and guardian jewel + shako/enigma/gheeds

lets say sundered mob is at 95%, and you do 10k hammers = 500 dmg
or a sundered mob at 70%, and you do 10k hammer = 3000dmg

x6 dmg increase.

maxroll says i should be at 21k dmg with full inv of pcombs and void

non-magic imune monsters melt ez.

This post was edited by C4NTWO on Mar 16 2026 10:05am

yeah, im not sure on the math of +skills, -def or +dmg. So is a renewed black cleft with -res better than the +damage?

until someone argues it with me, i believe it is for the hdin. not sure about other classes.

but for hellwardens, it will do more dmg than shako, that -8% on the base is worth alot more than an additional +1 to all skills
theres also the new gheeds troll belt that ought to be considered for this build too. the fcr you get from hellwardens can help make up the fcr to get to 125fcr if your gheed belt rolls low on the fcr.

at lunch im gonna build a variant on maxroll using hellwardens and gheeds belt, will report back with dmg/pierce/life values vs. my shako arach setup.

This post was edited by C4NTWO on Mar 16 2026 10:06am

Hellwardens will is -8 magic enemy res, not +magic dmg%.

But yeah I understand your calc.
With that mindset I would argue Hellwardens might be better than Shako aswell as Gheeds instead of Arachs.

yes, my mistake. thought it was +%dmg, not -%res
for pure dmg, for sure. but not for life or bo duration. i dont use a bo barb. im thinking shako + gheeds belt is nice common ground, but gheeds will need to roll 20fcr as a must.

its just all the extras that shako has to offer that make it hard to put aside. i really value a high life count, and shako is huge for life.

This post was edited by C4NTWO on Mar 16 2026 10:13am

The new BiS is with hellwarden and HoZ. Imagine teleporting without mana