Stand and BANG With FACEBREAKERS! | Path of Exile: Return of the Ancients 0.5
Summary
- Facebreaker gloves are a powerful unique item in Path of Exile 2 that scale damage based on the number of bosses defeated throughout the campaign and endgame.
- Unlike traditional weapons, Facebreakers require stacking “flat” base physical damage from external sources (rings, runes, belts) to maximize the multiplicative benefits of strength stacking.
- Using these gloves requires sacrificing the glove, weapon, and shield slots, necessitating heavy investment in alternative defensive layers like high armor, evasion, or Energy Shield via Chaos Inoculation.
- The item allows the use of all mace-related skills (such as Rolling Slam and Aftershocks) while unarmed, offering significant attack speed advantages over heavy two-handed hammers.
- The Monk’s Martial Artist ascendancy offers unique synergies, particularly through Runic Meridians and the Way of Stonefist, potentially enabling a “Slam Monk” playstyle.
Understanding Facebreaker Stats and Base Damage
The Facebreaker gloves feature 8 to 12 base physical damage with a unique scaling mechanic: +3 to +4 physical damage per boss’s face broken. This makes it an excellent league-start item that scales naturally as you progress through the campaign. To maximize this, target every side boss early in the game to accumulate base damage.
The item includes a 1-to-1 scaling of damage per point of strength. While strength stacking provides significant defensive and offensive boosts, the most critical stat is the ability to attack as though using one-handed maces while both hands are empty. Unarmed attacks that would normally use a one-handed mace’s damage will use the Facebreaker’s damage instead.
Defensive Considerations
Because Facebreakers occupy the glove slot and require both hands to be empty, you lose the benefits of a shield and weapon stats. This requires building robust defensive layers elsewhere:
- High Armor/Evasion Hybrid: Utilizing items like General’s Bindings (which grants 8% of Evasion Rating as extra Armor) allows for a build that avoids hits but can mitigate damage when hit.
- Iron Reflexes: Converting all evasion into armor is a viable path for the Titan class.
- Energy Shield Stacking: A potential “Smith of Kitava” approach involves stacking Energy Shield (targeting ~5.6k) and utilizing Chaos Inoculation for immunity to bleed and poison, using strength to scale both damage and survivability.
Skill Synergies and Attack Speed
Facebreakers allow the use of mace skills like Rolling Slam, Trample Toes, and Aftershocks. A major advantage here is attack speed. While a high-DPS two-handed hammer is powerful, it is often very slow. Facebreakers scale at the attack rate of a single-handed mace, which can result in a much higher effective attack speed. If the base damage is scaled high enough through boss kills and gear, this approach can surpass the DPS of 800-900 DPS two-handed hammers due to the superior frame data.
Scaling Through Flat Physical Damage
To make Facebreakers truly “OP,” focus on adding base physical damage to every possible gear slot. Since the strength scaling is multiplicative, every point of flat damage added is significantly amplified.
- Rings: Look for items like Icefang Orbit or Venopuncture which provide flat physical damage to attacks.
- Belts: Darkness Enthroned is a top-tier choice if it contains a glove socket, allowing the insertion of specialized runes.
- Runes: The Greatwolf’s Rune of Claws adds 5 to 12 physical damage to attacks. Utilizing the Monk’s Runic Meridians could allow for multiple instances of these runes (potentially up to six), multiplying the base damage floor exponentially.
- Other Uniques: Items like Bursting Decay (added physical damage equal to 3% of maximum life) can further boost the base stats.
Monk and the Martial Artist Ascendancy
The Martial Artist ascendancy for the Monk provides several synergies for an unarmed mace build:
- Runic Meridians: Increases the cap and effectiveness of runes that provide base physical damage.
- Hollow Resonance: Provides 150% more stun buildup and increases Shockwave radius, which is excellent for scaling Aftershocks.
- Way of Stonefist: This allows the use of Facebreakers while benefiting from the Monk’s inherent evasion and Energy Shield scaling per level.
- Slam Monk: This unconventional path uses mace-based slam skills on a Monk chassis, combining high mobility and evasion with the raw power of Facebreaker-scaled hits.