Templar Paladin - Sword & Shield with Cold

To start, I literally have not played this game yet. I figured I was going to be productive with the time that the game is spending installing, so I checked the forums and other sites for a good sword and shield Paladin build. I wasn't quite satisfied with what I found, and then I decided (as I was contemplating before) to also throw some cold focus in there as well. After some dissatisfied searches, I just decided to man up and create my own.

So here it is! I saw that people were saying that Resolute is super important as well as an abundance of life. Other than that, I basically just focused on swords, one-handed, block, armour, and a little bit of cold, as well as a good amount of dexterity to augment my defences. The idea is to make a tank with good dps and a bit of support from cold magic. Let me know what you think! (Even if it totally sucks pond water.)

(Also, a lot of the builds I checked only went up to 75. At first, I was trying to limit to that as well, but then decided to go all of the way figuring some one would correct me if I was wrong.)

Oooookay.
So for starters you don't have enough hp nodes. You're going to need A LOT of them if you want to be tanky, like 220% or more.
You have resolute technique (= no crits) and yet you have at least two crit nodes (at the bottom) and you have accuracy nodes too, which you don't need.
Bloodless node at the bottom is quite useless, you should get the Blood Drinker node near it (2% life leech) instead.
You are going to want elemental adaptation (+5% max resists) near resolute technique.
You have a lot of damage nodes to swords and honestly, unless it's +8% damage or more, you shouldn't bother as it's usually not worth it. Though if you need them to get some particular node (a GOOD one), then it's fine. So on the left side of the tree you have four +4% nodes and then one +12% which is... well quite wasteful.
You might run into troubles with your dexterity. Swords usually require a good amount, and you only have like +50 dex, which might be a problem.
If you want to be a sword shashing mighty paladin you really don't want to take Ancestal Bond (+1 totem) because then you can't do anything. The point of that node is to pop two totems and you chill back and watch them obliterate everything.
Usually for shield nodes, if it has only +1% block you shouldn't take it. Thus almost at the top of your tree you basically waste 5 skill points for 2% block and some block reduction. Don't do it.

I can't tell much about cold spells and how you could integrate them into this sort of build because I haven't used any cold spells really.

You should consider going maces and not swords just because it's much easier to get good damage nodes for maces and you don't need any dexterity.
If you want to use swords (or axes), you might want to check out the elemental cleaver guide (link at the bottom) for some pointers, it's not a tank build, but it can be modified into one.

Honestly, there are quite a lot of problems with your build. You should check some tank guides like https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/105920 or https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/384141 .
Read through those, and check out some other guides too.
I would recommend you to start with something that has been proven to work and when you have a feeling of the game THEN make your own build.

Or you could start with those builds, and then modify them a bit. That's what I did.
I took this guide https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/92670 and then made it to 1h + shield tank that originally used cleave, but then I realized how AWESOME cyclone is and so I use it at the moment.

*EDIT*
Oh right and you should make a build with around 80 points or so. Just make something that has the core build done at around 80 points, then the rest are extra.

First off, thank you so much for your reply. I was anticipating having to wait a long while before hearing from some one!

I reworked my tree taking into consideration everything you said, and I think I have something that's at least a little bit better. I have so much more life now, and I got rid of the useless nodes as you suggested. I noticed quickly that I was really close to 80 after just one branch, and then decided that I was just going to spend it all and see if its workable first. So let me know if this is better (if you don't mind).



I also took a look at the two tank trees you suggested and liked what I saw. I'm definitely considering going in one of those routes.

Also, would you mind posting your 1H+Shield version of the elemental cleaver? I'd really love to check it out. It sounds awesome!

Hello again.

That build seems much better, though I still don't like the fact that you spend 120 points in it.

Are you going to use normal melee attacks with elemental damage and then you get those cold damage nodes to improve that damage OR are you thinking of actually doing some sort of melee / caster hybrid that actually casts cold magic spells?
If you're going the first route, you should not try to get any +physical damage nodes, because all of your damage is going to come from the +elemental damage items and weapons.
This also means that you don't HAVE to stick with only swords. If you find awesome axe and you have +30% sword damage nodes, they go to waste. But if you just have +ele damage, it doesn't matter which type of a weapon you use.
I get that you seem to like swords, but this gives you the possibility to use something else while you're searching a new sword.
You should make up your mind about do you want to use physical or elemental, it's not optimal trying to balance between the two.

Now you have TONS of dexterity, a bit too much even. You should think about the routes you take so that you have dexterity nodes (like the +30 nodes) close by. You don't actually have to get that many nodes, you can grab 2x 30 dex and maybe one +20 or a few +10 instead of the +20. The point is that those nodes are near by, so that when you find a good weapon (or trade) you don't have to spend four skill points JUST to get that +30dex so you can use it. If you have the nodes close by, when you find a good sword / axe / whatever but you need a bit more dex, it won't take forever to get that.

You have +28% block from the nodes, thus with a normal shield (30% block), you have about 58% chance to block. This is kinda low, you might want to consider getting the shield nodes on the left side of the tree, you get nice +30% resistances to all elements from there and some spell block too, which is always good.

It's good that you have more hp nodes now, but you might want to grab those +1% hp regen nodes too, those regen nodes are EXTREMELY good and you should not skip them.

In the middle part of your tree, you extended a bit to the right and got those +8%, +8% and +12% hp nodes, which are good. But if you take them away you can also get rid of that extra +10str to get 4 skill points. Now you can take those points and put them in the upper part of your tree (a bit up from the top +30dex node) in order to get 2x 8% hp and 18% hp. This even gets you closer to static blows which are a good way of increasing your damage if you use elemental damage (shock is awesome).

I made some changes in your build and got this

Even this is pretty hard to achieve (100 points). Now I took the liberty of removing the physical damage aspect and the pure cold damage, but if you didn't want that, just replace some nodes and get those back :).
From this now you could go to the bottom and get Unwavering Stance (very bottom) and Diamond Skin (a bit left from Unwavering) and then even more to the left is Iron Reflexes. All those are very good nodes. You probably wont get them because it takes too many skill points, but just a heads up that there are some very good nodes too.

This is my build at 84 skill points:

It has worked very well so far. The start from elemental cleaver build is VERY good and I highly recommend just using two fast swords with good elemental damage to start with, and when you get to cruel you might want to start looking for a shield. Or whenever you think that you need more defences.
This build is still a work in progress and I might have to take some Endurance Charge nodes here and there, but that's just minor stuff.

if i were you i'd go for this build

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUBAecCcQSzDH0M9xB_E1sUIBRNGS4aMho4GlUbyB0UJ-0oxSlPMok26DbpPC1DMUw1T31QR1BQUWBUSVXGVdZXDVfiWGNYr14TXz9hIWSjZOdmnme9cLtyqXflfNmAVoKbhMSE74rkjM-PRpBVm4OboZvsns2gtKIApwinMKeEqZWsqqyvr2y0-biTud3AGsOGxPbFisaextjPZdDQ0iHUj9lh32_jaudS55Hp1ew47m_vDvAf8i_zBvO-8932SPba97760vuq

now, i have static blows in here which means you can apply a shock debuff on monsters which will make you do 40/80/120% more dmg stacking if you hit somethiong with lightnign dmg, this llightning dmg can be as much as 1 single point of lightning dmg.

now i didnt take any sort of weapon nodes so you can freely choose whatever is best. plenty hp and block nodes. also the more block chance you have the more valuable block recovery becomes. i also added in 4 mana reservation reducktion nodes which will allow you to run an extra aura or 2. enjoy 21 points left to spend if you'd ever get such a high lvl.

normal dificulty help oak anyways ;) don't be mislead completing the quest for skillpoint, 40 hp> skillpoint.

ps there are 3x 30 dexterity nodes next to the skillpath i took that you can take to fix all dex problems you might have. enjoy.