[3.10] Sovyn's Lazy Pally - Tanky Templar with Max Block

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onefinemess wrote:

I'm really curious to see how you'll do in Merciless. I've found that just about anything can plow Cruel with enough patience. My weaker builds started to falter in Cruel act 1, but were shored(?) up by gear farming for a bit, then act 2 is generally cake and act 3 picks it up a little again.

Thank you for interest! I'm sure I'll do fine but obviously will have to spend some currency on linked sockets and upgrading some better base items. :)

I'll be sure to keep you posted!

20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 point progression builds added to the original post!

Level 53 - killed Kole without dying. I did have to run and snipe several times. I think that Molten Shell's explosion damage was useful as it exploded immediately when Kole got a hit in. Then I could retreat, recast Molten Shell and let him hit me again. I got a few hits in as well each time.

Leveling to 54 before I kill Piety and advance to Merciless. Might as well not lose experience if I die. A little bit slow going but a few clears of the Catacombs and/or Lunaris level 3 should do it.

Leveled to 54 today and killed Piety in Cruel (with zero deaths) and advanced to Merciless!

At this point I have a 43% chance to block, 5% chance to block spells, and 28% chance to evade with Grace.

Updated the gear section with new 4L gloves I found. I was then able to add in the accuracy gem I've been leveling, which bumped Infernal Blow's tooltip DPS to over 1200.

My current thinking is to go with faster weapons to apply status ailments more frequently. It would also synergize better with a life gain on hit gem if present in one's setup.

So, I like the Boarding Axe / Tomahawk / Siege Axe series. These axes would be one of the highest damage options.

The Sabre / Cutlass / Corsair Sword series and Elegant Sword / Graceful Sword / Eternal Sword series could work too.

The build will have plenty of dex mid to late game, so even some of the fastest rapiers would be an option as well.

Made level 55 while clearing the Ledge in Merciless today. I then went back and did the monster level 58 areas, the Fetid Pool and Tidal Island. I was doing well against the rhoa carcasses until I fumbled a potion hit while tanking a named rhoa carcass. Oh well, it's not hardcore.

I have 53% chance to block now, I think it makes a noticeable difference from the 43% I had yesterday.

I also found a Blood Magic support gem which I may add in with my attack skill gem if I ever find a 4L with all red sockets or 5L item with at least 4 red sockets. I just don't want to take the damage reduction that removing either weapon elemental damage support or melee physical damage support would entail.

However, if that works out I may in fact remove the blood magic keystone from the build and pile on more auras (just running Grace for now since it has a modest 100 life reserve with the lower mana cost support).

I dont know why but your build seems pretty weak to me. Here are some issues :

1) You favor only block and block alone wont save your ass when ranged mobs start attacking you in merciless beyond act 1. Since when armor became useless?
2) I dont understand how this build is supposed to kill and furthermore i cant see how it is supposed to hit. Templars have terrible chance to hit and you probably have 55-70% chance to hit.
3) On top of the previous issue, you have taken the Blood Drinker node and still use weapon elemental damage nodes instead of pure physical ones. You killed kole with going back and forth as you said right and molten shell did a good gob at bringing him down? So clearly your build have failed its purpose : BLOCK and furthermore your damage source cant be molten shell
4) You clearly cant decide what you want to do with this char. There are tons of ultra-usefull nodes that you just neglected and some of them are by far superior to ones you have chosen.

See here my build for my HC templar that focuses on tankiness (hp/armour/block/es/res)and dishes out enough damage to clear everything up to act 3 merciless and now maps.

Friendly, a fellow Templar

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I dont know why but your build seems pretty weak to me. Here are some issues :

1) You favor only block and block alone wont save your ass when ranged mobs start attacking you in merciless beyond act 1. Since when armor became useless?
2) I dont understand how this build is supposed to kill and furthermore i cant see how it is supposed to hit. Templars have terrible chance to hit and you probably have 55-70% chance to hit.
3) On top of the previous issue, you have taken the Blood Drinker node and still use weapon elemental damage nodes instead of pure physical ones. You killed kole with going back and forth as you said right and molten shell did a good gob at bringing him down? So clearly your build have failed its purpose : BLOCK and furthermore your damage source cant be molten shell
4) You clearly cant decide what you want to do with this char. There are tons of ultra-usefull nodes that you just neglected and some of them are by far superior to ones you have chosen.

See here my build for my HC templar that focuses on tankiness (hp/armour/block/es/res)and dishes out enough damage to clear everything up to act 3 merciless and now maps.

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUBAecCcQSzBS0UIBRNFm8ZLhmFGjIaOBpVG_odFCECI00kqiXfJ-0oxSkuKvYwGTOWNug26TrYPfxANkGMQ2NEckd-TDVN2E99UEdQUFFgU99VxlcNWGNY21j1WfNfOV8_YEthIWSjZU1mnmebbmlwPnB9cU1yqXM_dO1673uMfLh82YBWgW-ExITZhO-MdozPj0aQVZB0mSuaz5uDncSePJ7NoLSiAKQZpzCnhKmVq8WsqqyvtPm3MbndvYHAGsOGxLjG2MqQz2XQ0NIh1I_V-Nlh3ePjauRR55Hnruw47w7wH_Iv877z3fZI-tL7qv3P

Friendly, a fellow Templar

Thanks for your comments. I'll take them one at a time.

1) I have a 29 percent chance to evade currently with Grace. I stack life to absorb any hits that make it through the 29 percent chance to evade AND the current 57 percent chance to block. I'll possibly be tweaking the build soon to eliminate the Blood Magic keystone and use Tempest Shield and probably percentage based auras as well. I'll compensate by using a Blood Magic support gem connected with my primary attack skill. It is widely known among those who know such things that stacking armor only helps mitigate/nullify packs of light hitting monsters. Armor is currently not an effective stat for those seeking protection from challenging melee monsters, such as bosses. This build already has no trouble at all with groups of light hitting monsters even with nearly no armor.

2) I do excellent damage with Infernal Blow with two damage support gems, killing most white monsters in 1-4 fast hits depending how much splash damage the group has taken. Not bad for a shield build. I even tried Cyclone and that works well with this build too. Heavy Strike is fine as well. The build leaves the player's options open as far as his or her choice of attack skill. I'll probably improve the DPS of the build further by taking the shock nodes north of the Templar starting area to enhance the Tempest Shield. Maybe Inner Force as well to squeeze out a little bit more blocking to remove a block node or two. Look for it in a future revision. My chance to hit is well over 80 percent because of all the dex I have. I get fairly frequent crits. My chance to hit will be well over 90 percent when the build is finished. Subjectively I almost never miss, even now.

3) The elemental nodes at the start of the Templar area are just nearly the most efficient way to reach the nearby shield cluster. As mentioned, the build can use any attack skill. Heavy Strike would probably work better with the leech node if that's what one is looking for. Consider the point in Blood Drinker optional. I did not have many block nodes when I killed Kole in Cruel - I've since been in a position to take more nodes. I don't use Molten Shell or Enduring Cry routinely, only when I feel at risk. Possibly the biggest reason I had to use strategy with Kole is because I'm self found so my gear is just vendor trash in most people's minds. This is a personal choice, the build could be geared out well if one has the resources or wishes to spend time trading.

4) Everything I'm considering revising (only two or three things really) in mentioned in this post. The goal of the build as mentioned in the OP (maybe I need to revise for clarity) is to make a build that requires minimal work to play. As such, all of the defense needs to be relatively passive. Blocking, evasion and life stacking are all ways of going about this. Auras fit in with that philosophy well because they only need to be activated once.

Merciless Brutus went down today with minimal effort and no deaths. Now level 56. :)