Mace/Shield LS Templar with Video and writeup(Written for New Players)

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Ganrao wrote:

Ok, working hard on cleaning up my build to maintain the DPS increases without losing many survival stats. I have run into some conundrums though, while attempting this.

First off, I don't actually understand how accuracy rating on nodes works.

Example:

A node called "Accuracy" says "+10% increased accuracy rating"

Now, what does that mean? Does it take your base Accuracy from Dex (+2 per Dex point) then multiply that by 110%?

Example:

Base Templar Dex is 14, so 28 accuracy rating.

Accuracy node says 28 x 1.10 = 28 + 2.8 = 30.8 total accuracy rating now?

Seems pretty crap if that is how this works, because until you have 200 base dexterity you'll be gaining less accuracy for taking "Accuracy" than you would for just taking another crappy +10 Dex node. This observation makes me question if that is how the Accuracy node actually works, because it would be completely useless. An alternative interpretation of Accuracy could be that it adds a flat 10 to your accuracy value? In that case it is still 50% worse than a regular +10 Dex node. Still no good. I doubt that is what it means either.

New Consideration - Lightning Resistant Mobs

Since you don't NEED Static Blows to apply Shock any more now that you're missing Resolute Technique, you could greatly improve your dps vs. Lightning resistant mobs by improving your critical chance as much as is feasible and carrying Glacial Hammer / Infernal Strike just to deal with them specifically. I backed down on the +6% Lightning damage nodes because they were crap anyway, and the build has so many +all elemental damage nodes it just makes sense to me to branch out into at least one other elemental attack to handle these types of mobs.

New Skeleton
No Resolute Technique v3 (unfinished)

I'm not entirely sure how they calculate the accuracy bonuses either. I've taken what you have and added a bit of mana reduction and mana reservation reduction as that seems to be the constant problem for builds, added life and blocking as well as improved critical chance.

Double strike would be very effective, as well as the improved block% for Tempest Shield. The mana regen and reservation reduction would hopefully ease the burden of 2/3 auras on at a time.

I'm a noob with lots of time at work, so obviously a more veteran eye would be appreciated. Love to be able to nail down this build though, want to build it tonight.


No Resolute Technique v3 (a noob's addition)

Very nice build I am going to try it out!!!

So im not that great at this game yet and have a long way to go before i know what im talking about.

However i came up with this build and have not seen anything like it really just wanted to get everyone's opinion here. Its just like the base LS build that Thehealthygamer started with the changes i thought would be fun to play with

First i removed all nodes that had anything to do with the amount of mana i was trying to keep up. Shortening as many of the paths to the main abilities as i could see.

Second i went all the way down to Blood magic. Eliminate mana and was able to re-spend points on about 75% increase in more health nodes off of Thehealthygamer initial build.Took about 50 more STR as well. Also was able to take Blood Drinker and Smashing blows which further helped the amount of health coming back into you.

So the idea is that on top of having not to deal with mana any more.. WHICH i love. I can now only worry about health pots. With 75% more health added should be enough to help me sustain any ability i decide to use. Also have a slight 2% leech life. Same LS set up and play with mace and shield but now focusing more on how much health you have instead of worrying about how much mana i have to keep up with.

Its no early game starter that's for sure uses all points to achieve it but im wondering how well it would fair at end game ?

Any thoughts ?

Here is the build

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUBBLMFWw48E8wUIBRNFHEVUBiRGS4ZhRnpGjIaOB0UI00kqiftKMUpLilPMQEyiTWANuk6Uj38QDZBP0GqQ2NEckbXTDVN2E99T_NQR1BQUWBR5lH5VElVxlfiWGNY9VnzXz9mnme9cH1xTXKpd-V8uHzZgFaBb4KbhMSIuouMjHaMz49GkFWaz5uhna6dxJ48ogCnCKcwp4SplapSrKq0L7T5tzG53cAaxtjJmM9l0NDUj96w3sHfv-Fz42rjguSt5wvnUuw47MvtIO5v7w7wH_Iv8772SPcy97746_rS

Here's a tip. You can use blood magic with auras.

See how my shield has wrath and blood magic. It reserves a portion of my health instead of my mana, so now I can run Tempest Shield and Wrath and still have plenty of mana.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUBAnEEswVbDH0QfxRNGjgdFCNNJ-0oxTJ-Mok26TrhPC1ANkNjRHJG10w1TdhPfVFgVcZX4lj1WfNdxl-qYG1mnme9bPZuqnB9cU1yqXPhd-V6uHzZgFaBb4LkgziExIjxjHaPRpARkFWaz5uhnYCdxJ48ogCmV6cIp4SplayqrpO0-bcxtz64k8AaxPbGnsauz2XQ0N3z3sHjauSt52PsOO5v8B_yRfO-8933iPfB-tL-Cg==

Here's a fix and more.. Point effective passive build.
In your 104 point build you lacked too much life, ventured to the Marauder area for Life Regeneration (? not sure why) - wasted WAY too many passives on damage, and grabbed a bunch of DEX notable nodes which serve you no purpose.

In this 89 point build we are MUCH more effective. We also take Zealot's Oath. Since ES gives a 50% chance to avoid stun, it's imperative to keep a minimum of at least 1 ES points up at all times. Since this build realistically doesn't need Life Regen, this is perfect.

Always use tempest shield, with inner focus and high block +20% chance to shock it comes handy with delivering shock stacks.

Some players have used Arc totems to procure shock stacks while they tank and DPS, sometimes spork totems, sometimes Nova Totems.

Always carry elemental weakness & conductivity curses combined with the unique "Windscream" greaves and lightning resistant mobs will have their resistances in the negatives. Aswell as being able to cast 2 curses, windscreams grant 10% elemental damage.. Pretty unique for boots.

So essentially you want your setup to be something like this :

Lightning Strike

- Chain or Fork. If you choose to take Iron Grip, use Chain, if not use Fork.
- Weapon Elemental Damage
- Faster Attacks
- Mana Leech / Added Fire Damage. With chain you WILL need Mana Leech, Added fire damage is much more effective with all the Elemental damage passives.
- (6) Melee Physical Damage.

Tempest Shield

- Reduced Mana Cost
- Iron Will
- Elemental Proliferation

Wrath, Clarity

-Blood Magic. Depends on gear really, if you have enough health then go for it.
-Reduced Mana Cost.

Conductivity, Elemental Weakness

-Increased Duration.

Shock Totem - Arc/Spark/Lark/Dark/Park/Nova

One of the 3, Nova, Arc or Spark

Spark goes with fork and faster casting.
Arc goes with faster casting.
Nova goes with Knockback, Faster Casting, Increased AoE

Then you have room for another 3 or 4 Link depending on how you set it all up.

"

Thehealthygamer wrote:

Here's a tip. You can use blood magic with auras.

See how my shield has wrath and blood magic. It reserves a portion of my health instead of my mana, so now I can run Tempest Shield and Wrath and still have plenty of mana.

Actually nix that idea, I tried it tonight, and its terrible terrible. Takes away your ES and makes survivability a bitch.

It actually doesn't take away your ES.

Your passive build doesn't have enough Life, that's your problem with survivability.

"

Sarriss wrote:

Double Strike

Nope. That is a pure physical damage skill that requires Dex to keep the gem equipped as it levels. It is best with big slow 2H weapons as well, since 1H weapons are typically fast enough that you don't see a huge boost from it.

As far as Skull Cracking, it isn't bad compared to Strong Arm (up north), but it takes an extra +10 str node to get to it. I'd rather just take Strong Arm and save that point since you don't really benefit from the -10% stun threshold part of Skull Cracker anyway. Scepters get bonus elemental damage, not bonus stun, so no real synergy there.

For the additional shield nodes, they're not really necessary. The BEST benefit of using a shield comes from the +30% resist all you get from the nodes in the northwest area near Zealot's Oath, which I suspected we should take, and I'm convinced at this point we should.

Elecrit Scepter + Shield v1

Because this isn't actually a pure LS build any more I gave it a new name. I took every accuracy node and the +30 Dex just to show you'd still have a lot of points left to play with even after doing so. You probably won't need them all if your gear happens to have enough. Use the extra points to go get more MaxHP or whatever you need.

The way accuracy nodes work is that early game the +10% accuracy sucks and is worthless, so don't take them until they're actually worth something to you. DO take the +20 Dex +10% accuracy because they are good early with the Dex flat +40 accuracy and the 10% boost will help you as you begin to get accuracy on your gear / from leveling up (+2 per level). If you have 800 base accuracy by level 70, for example, that +10% node is now worth 80 accuracy (40 dex worth). So those nodes are great and will serve you well all game long. Raw +% accuracy on other nodes will only really help you late game, but that just means you can skip them until you notice your accuracy is starting to drop noticeably and you aren't getting any gear that can compensate. As well, if you save your respec points, you could always remove those +accuracy nodes if you find some amazing gear that ends the issue for you forever.

As that other guy mentioned, without any Energy Shield up this build is susceptible to being stun locked to death, so Zealot's Oath is a handy fix for that and we were in the neighborhood anyway. If you think about it, even without the stun resist it makes sense to put your regen where you're losing "health" from first. What if a fight ends and you never took hp damage? Your regen stat would be completely wasted, meanwhile you wait for your ES to finish refilling longer before starting the next fight.

Because nothing in the Templar tree was taken that specifically boosts Lightning Strike over Glacial Hammer or Infernal Strike, I think having all 3 equipped is a viable idea. The game seems to throw a variety of elemental resists at the players pretty much non-stop, so being able to swap elements as you encounter resists seems like a great way to keep your kill speed going strong without having to go to a ton of trouble to overcome resistant mobs with curses. Just use Elemental Weakness on everything then follow up with whatever they already didn't resist. Use your crits to apply the elemental bonuses. Seems simpler than double cursing to me and probably nearly as effective. Since the build is for Scepters you can use all 3 elemental attacks by default (all work with 1H Mace), so why not try it? Might even be more fun than mindlessly spamming the same attack over and over ;)