[3.21] Vatinas' Spiders + HoP Guardian - CI, 70K armour, 1400 ES on block, millions of DPS

Made level 91 today and still like the build. I learned a valuable lesson along the way and that's to have a flask that removes burning. Happened several times that I saw my ES decrease rapidly and nothing I could do and died. I now have it on my quicksilver.

Another thing I noticed is that when Baran shows up in a map you have to be careful. Those mobs somehow are dangerous for this build and I cannot just cyclone around and be safe. There are some mobs there that fire projectiles that really hurt us.

I haven't gotten any of the circle of guilt rings yet but I think this is really becoming necessary as I am starting to notice that lack of DPS for the Sentinels of Purity. With 20 spiders out, most mobs die quickly but if you don't have many spiders out and for some reason cannot summon more, the DPS is awful and the few sentinels on their 2 link struggle to do damage.

I've been trying to buy the rings with good rolls but they don't appear often and when they do they are expensive and/or the rolls are not really as good as you want. Perhaps I should just settle for cheaper ones without the sentinel damage rolls for now so I can at least buff my HoP sentinels.

Thanks very much for the guide, having a blast with the build! Working on upgrading my gear currently. Main focus is on buying 2 new circle of guilts with increased sentinal damage rolls, and then using catalysts to reduce the mana % enough to get the 6th link in the HoP. I've got my vuln shaper's touch gloves, just need to link them (didn't have the 4L crafting option yet due to lack of delve). Then I'll drop chance to bleed in cyclone for maim.

My main question: would a Skin of the Lords with Phase-Acrobatics as the keystone be valuable for this build? I didn't notice it suggested in your guide, but am I missing something, or would that also provide a significant defensive boost?

Any suggestions for gear/otherwise would be appreciated! (only lvl 87 atm)

Just thought this guide was worthy of a review five *****. I am a casual player one build pre league is my limit. I started Harvest League with Ball Lighting Arch mage Templar. I decided to switch to something that I could survive a bit better with. No regrets! This Build is amazing! I made it to level 98 with 36 challenges completed. Killed Sirus on my own for the first time without a carry. I had so much fun and success with this build.

For those that do enjoy more than one build pre league I highly recommend this build for a League starters because it's very cheap to gear able to wreck any boss in the game.

No doubt this is one of the best Templar Builds there is. Good Luck! & Enjoy!

Hi,

Awesome build! I haven't played for the last several leagues. I used this as my league starter and I am now about done with the core build (Empower 4, vunl on hit gloves, etc left- I wont link gear since it's all standard uniques!). This build is amazing- I just completed my first ever look at Sirus A4 and downed him in 3 portals. My atlas is about half complete and I am running T14+ maps to finish it out with no problems. You guide is awesome- it walked me through leveling and gearing extremely well. I was able grind out my last few chaos at level 70 for the weapon, then added the shield, boots, gloves, ammy, rings, jewels, chest, etc. I was able to transition very smoothly to where I am now.

I'm looking forward to finishing out my atlas and doing shaper and elder (never done either).

This build is working out great for me, but what do I do in a long boss fight that doesn't spawn small minions for me to kill to regenerate my writhing jars so I can spawn more spiders after they timeout and die?

That is the biggest problem I have right now. I've had boss fights take 20 minutes because I can't spawn spiders and the herald of purity guys are weak weak weak and do almost no damage.

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This build is working out great for me, but what do I do in a long boss fight that doesn't spawn small minions for me to kill to regenerate my writhing jars so I can spawn more spiders after they timeout and die?

That is the biggest problem I have right now. I've had boss fights take 20 minutes because I can't spawn spiders and the herald of purity guys are weak weak weak and do almost no damage.

Take Soul of Ryslatha to regenerate life flask charges. You can get away with just 1 jar in maps and even boss fights (with all other gear acquired).
Use weapon swap to despawn Carrion Golem if it's killstealing your worms.
If you are spawning only 10 spiders at a time you need to Desecrate twice in a row or link Spell Cascade/Spell Echo for 20 corpses.
Hardcast Spirit Offering to have it up more consistently in boss fights.
Finally, anoint Potency of Will or Exceptional Performance (identical, w/e is cheaper) for 25% increased spider duration.

What is ultimately the best curse on hit for the shaper's touch? I saw Vatinas used despair but the guide says vulnerability so I'm wondering which is the one to go for. I guess the despair works best for the spiders and vulnerability is better for the sentinels.

I still need 2 levels before I can equip the blue nightmare so hope it will go down in price while I gain xp.

Today I died like 4 times in a T15 map (where Baran spawned). I had some more nasty mods but was kinda sad as I not only lost a lot of xp but also I was not so unkillable as I thought. Currently at 59k armor, 6.3k ES and maxed resists but some mobs somehow really hit me hard and have to figure out why.

@Morketh05: I see you have a lot of 20/0% gems so if you have some gemcutter prisms you may want to use the recipe to get them to 0/20%. You will take a hit in DPS etc. initially but if you do some easier maps you will have the gems levelled up to acceptable levels quickly again and then their effect will be increased. You want 20/20 (or 21/23 ultimately) anyway so best do it like this while doing the easier maps so they are maxed out when you get to the highest tier maps. Also, awakened melee splash is really cheap. I got one for 10c this morning and it instantly outperforms a 20/20 regular melee splash.

End game, vulnerability

Starting / mid, despair

Despair buffs the spiders more

Once you get L21 HoP / Empower 4 / 6Link the sentinels start doing significant damage and vulnerability wins.

Either will work

Are those gloves worth allocating Whispers of Doom passive instead of Potency of Will?
Enfeeble could be useful to reduce monsters damage to gain even more ES on block.
Edit. I know spiders won't last that long and that could be a problem in longer fights.

Love the build, but the whole Darkness Enthroned thing....lol. Not cheap.