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

Oh wow... Boris's gear is really nice. Really good gem set up too, none wasted.

Btw, picked up a q9 infernal blow. I can see very clearly why peeps are so damn addicted to it. I have swapped out my Heavy Strike AOE to infernal blow AOE. I just run around gathering melee and hit 2 to 3 times and watch the fireworks. 1 explosion is more than enough to kill the whole pack, I usually have 2 to 3 explosions to round it off. Need a 5 link or 6 link to gem up IIQ and added fire (or ignite?) to my Infernal Blow. Mana draw is a bit heftier but I don't go OOM quick either (or just 1 flask charge once in a while).

Am just in Cruel Act 2, so will see if Cruel Act 3 starts face melting me. Have not found a comparable 1H slow mace to compare with my axe though. =/

PS: QQRNG. I can NEVER get BBR on my boots. :(

Edit: How do you guys actually calculate the dps of infernal blow? The character sheet shows a lower dps than my Heavy Strike, but I guess it did not factor in the explosions.

Noodlefire nailed it on the head for resists. So far my only deaths are due to:

1) Multiple projectile mobs with fireballs
2) Chain shocked (REALLY HURTS)
3) Exploding monsters in my face (stupid de-sync) - What mitigates this dmg?

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Xiaoyen wrote:

So far my only deaths are due to:

1) Multiple projectile mobs with fireballs
2) Chain shocked (REALLY HURTS)
3) Exploding monsters in my face (stupid de-sync) - What mitigates this dmg?

1) Ondar's + good evasion
2) Not sure - never happens to me
3) Max fire resist (Purity + the resist nodes in build + one or two fire resist item(s)) .... this applies to all three resists of course + MAYBE spell block (amulet) - not sure if that applies specifically to self-detonated monsters or not.

Thanks Sovyn! My need to level up a little faster to catch those nodes. Gear is a little bit of problem though, need more orbs to do trading to get them faster.

On the exploding monsters, yes, self-detonate. For those bosses who do detonate dead, it is easy to avoid as long as I drag them away from fresh corpses (or stick a detonate dead and blow everything up first).

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Xiaoyen wrote:

For those bosses who do detonate dead, it is easy to avoid as long as I drag them away from fresh corpses (or stick a detonate dead and blow everything up first).

If you like Infernal Blow and can keep up with its mana draw, one nice thing about it is it will explode monsters thus they leave no corpses to resurrect or detonate. :) A nice perk.

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Sovyn wrote:

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Xiaoyen wrote:

For those bosses who do detonate dead, it is easy to avoid as long as I drag them away from fresh corpses (or stick a detonate dead and blow everything up first).

If you like Infernal Blow and can keep up with its mana draw, one nice thing about it is it will explode monsters thus they leave no corpses to resurrect or detonate. :) A nice perk.

Yup! I had problems with that bandit boss (Kaitlyn?) before, but I picked up IB before it and I just stood there and facetanked her. :) HS is recommended for newbies, but once you can pick up an IB it is a very good substitute. But like you said, mana draw IS heavy, I use Mana leech and life gain on hit and make sure I have a manageable amount of mobs before pulling it out to just skip using any flasks. I was thinking Mana gain on hit actually as I do not know if Mana Leech actually leeches from the dmg due to explosion.

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Xiaoyen wrote:

HS is recommended for newbies, but once you can pick up an IB it is a very good substitute.

Sure it works, but Heavy Strike has a few advantages too:

1) Highest damage effectiveness (150)% punches through armoured foes.
2) Physical damage is resisted less on average than elemental damage later on in the game.
3) Leeches more as leech is based on physical damage and damage effectiveness.

I'd say either skill can work for end game. Pros and cons.

So I've gone nuts over this build, fantastic fun, and thanks to some excellent trades and finds I've been able to turn the humble tank into an absolute beast.
I've self found an anvil, and been able to trade for a (wait for it...)Bringer of rain. Picked up a great shield for 3gcp, an enbelievable weapon for 2gcp (I still cant believe that) And yes, i can confirm, bringer of rain absolute makes this build dominate.

Gear:


Build:


With my current gear and buffs I'm running at about 78% block (way overcapped actually too) 60% dam reduction, 40% evade, 75% all res, 2.8k life (low yes, but I regen and leech back a lot, and I hardly ever get hit). Most importantly, my damage output (for a 1 handed melee tank) is, what I would class as, fairly good. I run Heavy Strike on the help, so the full chain is Heavy Strike+Melee Damage+Blind+FasterAttacks+Melee Splash+MultiStrike+Mana Reduction... this gives me about 15k dps, and thats AoE! The only Aura I tend to run are Determination, Grace and Hatred... I use heavy strike as it has increased damage AND leeches back more mana) I'f I'm speed clearing lower level areas I'd use Infernal Blow.

This setup has NO trouble running maps up to 70 solo (and I'm sure higher if I found any) and even maps up to 69 I'll spend an alch on as I've yet to find one that stop this build (okay - melee reflect DOES hurt)

If possible (I know this wont be the case for a self found) I can absolutely highly recommend Bringer of Rain as a defining item for this build...
I'll be working on getting some regrets so I can dump some block nodes and bump armor/evasion up even more but might be a trade off as I'll have to loose some very nice added defense from shield nodes as well...

SO thanks again Sovyn - a fantastic build that can easily wade through mobs effectively and with some admittedly nice gear be pretty much unstoppable.

Bloody hell, that's very very nice gear Tiggyr, plus I think even Sovyn will salivate at it. Good bargains you got!!

One thing I learnt when I was playing last night was this build is semi-immune to desyncs. If you find that desyncs are happening once too often, don't go full confidence. Just drag a slightly smaller group than usual and /oos once a while. Of course with Tiggyr's gear, you can just go full crazy and not worry at all...

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tiggyr wrote:

SO thanks again Sovyn - a fantastic build that can easily wade through mobs effectively and with some admittedly nice gear be pretty much unstoppable.

Thanks so much for your detailed post. Great use of the three good uniques. A little light on life as you have about as much as I do *chuckle*

You are trading off some spell block too. But with max resists, not a huge deal in most areas. The amulet choice enables your high damage reduction (shield) choice.

Even with my much lesser gear I'd agree that it's hard to find a map we can't do solo.

I can well imagine what it would be like with 3 times my DPS as you have there.

Great job!!

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Xiaoyen wrote:

One thing I learnt when I was playing last night was this build is semi-immune to desyncs.

Well, knock on wood, I've never died to desync. When I desync and find myself surrounded, max block and some evasion saves the day because I don't get hit much, which provides time to deal with the situation. I think fast run boots or even better, shield charge, can't hurt as insurance, to re-adjust one's position to a safer spot when desync does occur.

Supposedly patch 11.4 will have some performance improvements. Perhaps then other melee builds won't complain so much about desync. Hopefully, for them.