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

Hello and thanks for the nice guide!
I have a question though:

I've played quite a few characters already (less than most of you, i suppose, but still), and i was looking for ideas for a new build to try in this expansion. Now, i tend to really enjoy tanky heroes with a shield, so obviously playing a "sword-and-board" hero is not new to me. That's why i was wondering about the value of Staves in PoE, as a hybrid weapon, something between max tank and max damage. My idea was to make a cold-damage based templar for crowd control, with Glacial Hammer as single target and Ice Crash for AoE. The rest of the skills would be picked on the go, probably Riposte, Herald of Ice, some curses and stuff... basically what the OP suggests. All that, used with staves to have block and also some decent damage, and just for aesthetics and not playing with shield yet once again.

Worth to note is that i don't play solo but with my wife, who almost always plays some sort of summoner, ranger summoner or caster summoner, but in any case we usually have plenty of minions to help tanking stuff around most of the time.

Now, my question is - Is this viable for maps and end-game if i adapt the passive tree to staves instead of shields, or staves are not a reliable source of block?

Quick question, if you use hatred, herald of ash and herald of ice then how will you be able to use the CWDT and counter attack chains? Won't all of your mana be reserved, preventing you from casting non-blood magic chains?

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iKser wrote:

Quick question, if you use hatred, herald of ash and herald of ice then how will you be able to use the CWDT and counter attack chains? Won't all of your mana be reserved, preventing you from casting non-blood magic chains?

CWDT and the dmg when block skills does not cost mana

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Stefacle wrote:

Probably gonna play a Marauder this time around as I would like something different from Templar. Marauder always was my favorite character, and the first one I played way back in closed beta, so I feel attached to the big guy :)

Should be easy enough, just change the 3 starting nodes, and then stick to the Lazy Pally tree. Might be short on INT, but can always pick up a +30 INT node if needed.

Sounds like fun, Stefacle :) Keep us updated on how it goes.

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Lyesainer wrote:

Now, my question is - Is this viable for maps and end-game if i adapt the passive tree to staves instead of shields, or staves are not a reliable source of block?

It's harder to max block and get enough armour with staves but possible with top end gear. If you are not rich I'd recommend staying with shields. One idea is you could load up on jewel sockets, maybe get 8 of them and 8 'Deflecting' jewels that would give you 16 block. Other than that there is only I think 10 staff block on the tree so it's not going to be very tanky unfortunately.

Edit - one more helpful thought, if you go with staves you will need to spec into life in a big way and get all of the endurance charges and Soul of Steel.

Not sure what I'm going to hook the Fortify gem up to. It seems like most of the slots are already filled up. I was considering taking the 'Soul of Steel' nodes instead but I think I would still want the Fortify Cluster as it's a flat 20% damage reduction and the nodes give a decent damage boost.

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Jakzca wrote:

Not sure what I'm going to hook the Fortify gem up to. It seems like most of the slots are already filled up. I was considering taking the 'Soul of Steel' nodes instead but I think I would still want the Fortify Cluster as it's a flat 20% damage reduction and the nodes give a decent damage boost.

The fortify support gem is linked to your main attack skill. You can try it on your movement skill but that is a lower quality of life for sure in my testing.

Very well written guide, I'm going to try this now!

Is blood rage still viable to get? Have you theory crafted gem links for 2.0 yet?

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dezahp wrote:

Is blood rage still viable to get? Have you theory crafted gem links for 2.0 yet?

Yes and yes, the guide is 100% current