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

Hello!
Is Ondar's guile worth if i am not going for Slashing Comeback's sword node?

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zegri wrote:

Hello!
Is Ondar's guile worth if i am not going for Slashing Comeback's sword node?

Hello, thanks for your question.

Yes, the build has always taken Ondar's even before the sword block nodes were over there. I find it helps with a lot of things. 3 points well spent (we would take Herbalism anyway).

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I don't suggest going all evasion, or going all armour. We need both.

I struggle with this statement. Since the Templar is located between the Warrior and the Witch, I have been gearing my Templar (it's not this build) with Armor and Energy Shield. This tends to reduce Evasion.

Where does Energy Shield fit in, if it all?

There are no enhancements to elemental damage in your passive tree, yet many of the skill gems you recommend enhance elemental damage or assume you're doing elemental damage.

For example, you recommend the 'Elemental Weakness' support gem in one of your CwDT chains. I see a Weapon Elemental Damage gem, and that your 'DPS estimation' section is full of elemental enhancers. Then why is there no focus on elemental damage in the skill tree?

I'm not trying to burn on you. I have worked my Templar up to 66 using my standard formula (which is now faltering) and I'm trying to understand.

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TigerSpook wrote:

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I don't suggest going all evasion, or going all armour. We need both.

I struggle with this statement. Since the Templar is located between the Warrior and the Witch, I have been gearing my Templar (it's not this build) with Armor and Energy Shield. This tends to reduce Evasion.

Where does Energy Shield fit in, if it all?

ES can't be regenerated as easily as life during combat, except with Aegis. I do suggest stacking ES if you use Aegis. Also, chaos damage is an issue. So, I find it best to preserve life by stacking defenses rather than split up life and ES.

Many comments by experienced players elsewhere say that both armour and evasion is strongest vs. stacking just one of them. Of course I was probably the originator of this message. Armour only works on small physical hits, evasion prevents large hits from reaching you in succession, two very different functions. Plus Ondar's makes one immune to projectiles with some evasion.

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TigerSpook wrote:

There are no enhancements to elemental damage in your passive tree, yet many of the skill gems you recommend enhance elemental damage or assume you're doing elemental damage.

For example, you recommend the 'Elemental Weakness' support gem in one of your CwDT chains. I see a Weapon Elemental Damage gem, and that your 'DPS estimation' section is full of elemental enhancers. Then why is there no focus on elemental damage in the skill tree?

I'm not trying to burn on you. I have worked my Templar up to 66 using my standard formula (which is now faltering) and I'm trying to understand.

That's ok, TigerSpook, I don't mind challenging questions, because there are good reasons behind what I do.

Static Strike scales best with physical damage, and the elemental damage buffs (hatred, HoA) all scale on physical damage as well.

I did test the elemental damage nodes and they are simply not as good for the points. Here is the summary of some recent data I gathered:

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For the remaining points I first tested the 5 best elemental damage nodes (60 elemental damage total) in the Templar area as that's what most people tend to go for. I tested these way back and was not too impressed which still holds true. Results: 2,377 tooltip / 4,040 calculated DPS with Static Strike or a sad 1,612 DPS with Reave. As I want to ensure that all attack skills are treated fairly I felt I could do better.

In 1.2 we took Strong Arm in the Marauder area and as I recall it was quite good. So I took that and also took the melee damage and attack speed with shield nodes down by Retaliation sooner (we take them in the final tree of course but most won't make it to 100). Cost 4 points, 5 if we keep the 40% shield defenses node. Results: 3,546 tooltip / 6,028 calculated DPS with Static Strike or 4,239 DPS with Reave. This is more like it and reinforces my inclination in the past to always go for the physical nodes.

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I demand lazier!

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Dnarris wrote:

I demand lazier!

No problem! Just fully support all three counter-attack gems and do not use an active attack skill. :) It's a bit slower going but fun to play around with.

Sovyn,

This build has had my attention for quite some time. I decided to run my first serious hardcore toon using your guide in an attempt to get the one month challenges done. I completed the challenges today after 8 days of playing. I didn't play constantly, just a little here, a little there over 8 days. I am very impressed with the build. I usually die like 200+ times before I retire a char, usually in the mid eighties.

Of course I also changed my play style to complete the challenges. What amazed me was the time this build gave me to react to bad situations. I could calm down, leave the room full of scary mobs that I underestimated, then pick them off slowly. It wasn't always pretty and I needed some luck, but I think I went under 25% about 5 times after I got settled in (mid thirties level).

I finished (reached level 80) with about 10k dps, 69% block and 35% spell block, 8k evasion, 3k armor, and 4.5 k life. I couldn't make my primary attack work without blood magic, so I was effectively doing all of my damage with only a 4 link + blood magic gem.

Thank you so much for this practical build and well written guide. I may try to get to level 90 with the toon when the 1 month ends, but hardcore is so terribly stressful for me, so who knows. Never thought that was a possibility for me.

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Flojobot wrote:

Thank you so much for this practical build and well written guide. I may try to get to level 90 with the toon when the 1 month ends, but hardcore is so terribly stressful for me, so who knows. Never thought that was a possibility for me.

You're so welcome, Flojobot, and thank you for sharing your story. :)

We have had a few folks make it to mid 80s HC or even a bit more with the lazy pally that I know of so it's definitely hardcore viable!

As with any character one has to be aware of the I believe unfair peak damage of some types of situations found in PoE but the build does help one out to survive more than most I think.

Have a great day!