Armor / ES vs. Pure Armor

As I've been playing my Templar I began to see that the stats of pure Str armor seemed to over shadow my Int/Str armor. I did a little research and some calculations and this is the result:

The Templar has 10 nodes buffing Armor and ES
The Marauder can easily get 13 to buff armor
So I will assume the Templar also grabs the armor buffs by Armor Mastery

Looking at the values of the highest base armor with no shield

Templar
Armor:570
Armor%:147
Bonus Armor: 837.9

ES:158
ES%:104
Bonus ES: 164.3

Total Armor:1407.9
Total ES:322.3
and +20% elemental res


Marauder
Armor: 1275
Armor%:165
Bonus Armor: 2103.7

Total Armor: 3378.7



Templar With pure armor:

Armor: 1275
Armor%:147
Bonus Armor: 1874.2

Total Armor: 3149.2
and +20% elemental res


That assumes the Templar dose not change his node selection.

That seems like a huge discrepancy. As a melee build I seem to rely more on HP that ES any way, relying on Regen to keep my HP up and not worrying about my ES.

The biggest problem seems to be that there is no easy way for a melee Templar to reduce ES recharge delay.

Am I missing anything here? Because it looks like I'm going to focus on Pure armor at this rate.

Your only hope is to get Aegis Aurora.

I disagree. You're missing several variables. As i have a melee templar and a Marauder at similar levels, I can say that this is not true.

You're missing the fact that ES replenishes a LOT faster than any health regen does. Your 322 points in ES, when depleted, will start recharing in 6 seconds and be done recharing in another 2-3 seconds. I have found that low on health, I'll run around a corner, wait a moment, and have my ES back in a very short time, my Marauder has no such capability. Energy shield also has an implicit 50% chance to avoid stun while active, another advantage lost on the Marauder. Also, Armor slows you down; my Maruader is SLOW, and to counter i moved to take the passive to ignore armor movement penalties simply because he was a slug.

In addition, the Templar is specifically a caster/fighter. If you're building him focused on Armor and Str, you're ignoring his inherent strengths the Marauder doesn't have. The Templar has much more access to the blue gems than the Marauder does; at early levels Frost Nova was a life saver for my Templar that my Marauder wished he had, and those spells provide a lot of versatility to a caster fighter.

There are also numerous node that the Templar can reach easily by high levels that enhance only ES, further increasing the ES beyond your initial assessment.

Finally, who's to say that a Marauder goes for all 13 nodes? He could, but that would be at the expense of more offensive nodes. I happen to be going to all 13 nodes for my Marauder because I'm playing him as a 1hander/shield tank with Blood Magic with lots of life regen and life leech, but he doesn't hit too hard.

So while your analysis is correct, you ahve to take into account all the other factors and options that come into play, because they all fit together. I started ahving problems with surviving with my Templar early in Act 3, but had very few defensive nodes, now i have several and he does just fine, and is more fun than my Marauder in my opinion.

Yes, the Witch's Energy Shield path might as well be in another universe to yours.

Energy shield has a few things going in its favor

* It applies to everything except Chaos, including elemental damage.

* It doesn't have a reduction equation that falls off a cliff the moment you meet monsters higher level than your equippable gear is.

Though armour does have:

* Reduces incoming damage, therefore working with life regeneration from potions, leech, and... life regeneration.

One other thing I just realized is that Int also boosts ES. Though this seems to be quite small from what I can see and with the build I have in mind.

I think that ES just is not for what I have in mind.

Thank you for the responses.