Blood Magic + Tempest Shield = insufferable?

Hi guys,

I'm currently still on level 32 or something and don't have BM yet. Since I'm rolling a 1-hand build, I'm still using tempest shield, basically for the 4% block chance.
When I switch to BM, I suppose that 25% of my life instead of my mana are reserved for TS. I guess that's quite an insufferable amount and I'd have to stop using TS then.
Any insights on the issue, or maybe I am missing something?

Thx in advance.

You can use BM Skill Gems for other skills and use auras against your mana pool, but yes, you are correct it will reserve against total life. You can also link auras to totems.

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TRICKS wrote:

You can use BM Skill Gems for other skills and use auras against your mana pool, but yes, you are correct it will reserve against total life. You can also link auras to totems.

Didn't know that, meaning the aura would only apply while near a totem, but wouln't reserve any of my mana/blood?

Concerning the original issue: I guess I have to decide on picking the BM-node or try to get my hands on some BM-gems + fitting gear... the latter option seems rather challenging, but would probably allow me to continue to use Tempest Shield.

Correct, however, it will cost you your reserved HP pool when you cast it with a totem (40% of HP or w/e). If you go the BM route, you are going to have high life regen so this recovers rather quickly anyhow. I will also say that depending on what gear you get/have access to, you can move between BM/non-BM. You can always back out of BM and respec back in and so forth (goes with any skill).

I've seen this need when building around uniques that you grow out of.

My Tank Marauder is lvl 43 atm and I'm using TS + BM at the moment. Basically you have to have a lot of health (who would have though :p), also linking it with a reduce mana cost support gem really helps. Mine is down from 25% to something like 18% reserved.

Alright, thanks for the heads-up guys, I'll give your suggestions a try when I get there. Especially the "reduced mana costs" gem sounds interesting, basically due to availability reasons, compared to several BM-gems + fitting gear.