[2.0] Lvl 93 Tempest [HC] Templar - Shock Nova/Call of the Brotherhood

How's it going Exiles!

My name's Horatio and I currently play in the Tempest [HC] league. I am a level 93 Templar and I wanted to share my Shock Nova/Call of the Brotherhood build with you guys. This is a multiple curse build which utilizes the new 2.0 Unique Ring Call of the Brotherhood along with Shock Nova to chill, freeze, and shatter nearly the entire screen.




Videos:

I have posted a 10 minute audio guide here: http://plays.tv/video/55c210ee90b21ad903

Here is an 8 minute video by Alio displaying the fundamentals of the build in a solo player experience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gef3WmYbySQ

Here is a 4 minute video from my buddy's perspective displaying the build in a two player party. We fight a Voidspawn of Abaxoth and do some major freezing do some oversized rhoas: http://plays.tv/video/55c2b3fa60475be209




How does the build work?

- The build revolves around Shock Nova, Call of the Brotherhood, and Herald of Thunder (with Curse on Hit applying 2 curses) to instantly slow all incoming enemies. Herald of Ice then shatters everything and waves are cleared fast and efficiently.


Who should play this build?

- This build is somewhat advanced and I would probably not recommend it to relatively fresh players. It utilizes an array of skills and depends heavily on positioning. Unless you have a Doryani's Catalyst this build provides zero life leech effects. This build also uses zero Cast When Damage Taken effects.
- People who enjoy multiple curse builds and utility in groups. This build does not have absolutely insane damage, but it is extremely well rounded and has very few major weaknesses (which I will highlight).


Why should I play this build?

- This build has very few weaknesses except at the most extreme difficulties of the game.
- This build is extremely safe and you will be tanky while still putting out substantial damage.
- Extremely flexible and able to be customized to your own play style.
- Budget friendly.


Do I need any special unique items or a 5-Link or a 6-Link to make this build work?

- NO! This build is honestly very budget friendly. The only unique required is Call of the Brotherhood. You do NOT need more than a 4 link to make this build function.

Can this build permanently chain freeze bosses?

- This build canNOT chain freeze bosses. BUT, with the amount of +curse effect on the temp chains, enfeeble, plus chill effects, most bosses will present very little difficulty. Besides, chain freezing takes the fun out of the game! If you want a chain freeze build check out a Cold Snap guide.


What are the KEY skills for this build?

1. Shock Nova (your main ability)
2. Herald of Thunder (this is how you will be cursing)
3. Herald of Frost (combines perfectly with CotB to shatter packs)
4. Enfeeble (Extremely Important to this build. I will talk about it below and in the audio)

Other skills I use include: (these can be customized to your own play style!)

- Vaal Storm Call
- Storm Call on a Spell Totem (Get out of here Flame Totem! I'll talk about this choice later)
- Flame Dash (I prefer Flame Dash to Lightning Warp b/c Flame Dash doesn't require any support gems)
- Chaos Golem (Could also use a different golem here. This is personal preference)
- Rallying Cry (Again, could use a different cry to customize play style)


My Character Sheet:



6250 Hp
850 ES
3700 Armour (31% total physical reduction with Chaos Golem)
16% Evasion
24% Block
231 Life Regen Per Second
20% Reduced Enemy Critical Damage


Here are my links:

Weapon



Links = Shock Nova, Spell Echo, Cold Penetration (Cold penetration is needed here in order to have the most consistent amount of freezing)


Helm



Links = Vaal Storm Call, Spell Echo, Increased Duration, Cold Penetration


Boots



Links = Herald of Ice, Arctic Armour, Flame Dash, Summon Chaos Golem


Gloves



Links = Spell Totem, Storm Call, Faster Casting, Increased Lightning Damage (can also use Cold Penetration instead of Increased Lightning Damage)


Chest (You do NOT need Carcass Jack or a 5 link for this build to function. Carcass Jack is simply an enhancement to the build. For a 4 link simply just use the below setup minus Innervate)



Links = Herald of Thunder, Curse on Hit, Temporal Chains, Elemental Weakness, Innervate


Shield



Links = Rallying Cry, Enfeeble, Increased Duration


Leveling Guide:

You can't use Shock Nova until level 28 so pick any spell of your choice that you are comfortable with until then. You technically don't even need shock nova until you get Call of the Brotherhood so you can wait longer if you choose so. Shock Nova is excellent for leveling though and I highly recommend it. Use Flame Totem + Shock Nova for leveling and it will be a breeze (bosses included).

Level 20 or so Passive Tree:



Level 40 or so Passive Tree:



Level 60 or so Passive Tree:
(When you decide to get Whispers of Doom [2nd curse] is up to you):



End Game (Level 80+) Passive Tree:




Jewels: What stats should I be looking for?

- Prioritize these two stats: 1)Increased Maximum Health, 2)Increased Lightning Damage
- If you can't find a lightning damage roll, look for these: Increased damage, Increased area damage, Increased Damage While Holding a Shield, Cast Speed
- Utility rolls to look for: Freeze Duration/Freeze Chance (this makes a great third/fourth roll. Try to use at least 2 jewels with this mod. It will make your freezing much more consistent.)

Here are some gems that I'm currently using:




Optional Uniques that could be used to enhance the build:



- Southbound is a new pair of gloves that was introduced in 2.0. These gloves are deceiving at first glance. The "drawback" of "only being able to kill frozen monsters" is in actuality near irrelevant; irrelevant because anyone else in your party can kill the mobs. As solo, it can happen occasionally that the mob doesn't die, but with enough freeze it's rarely an issue. A 16% hp multiplier is very powerful if you have enough hp on your gear to make it worth it. You can usually find these gloves for a mere 1-2 chaos. If you have enough hp to support the multiplier, then I highly recommend going Southbound.




- Catalyst is very strong with this build because it offers very high elemental damage (which scales both of your heralds. Remember that "spell damage" does NOT scale herald damage.)




- Doon Cuebiyari is also a great sceptre on a budget and offers options to be built around. It works very well with the unique jewel Efficient Training which converts intelligence to strength.




- Carcass Jack is a choice for this build if you are interested in dealing more damage/aoe.


Flasks

For flasks I like this setup:

Health, Health, Granite, Quicksilver, X

For X you could use a lot of different things. Obviously there's a handful of great unique flasks to choose from.

I recommend having at minimum 1 remove bleed and 1 remove freeze effect somewhere on your flasks.

You could also choose some other basic utility flask such as:

a 2nd Quicksilver
a Resist flask (Topaz/Sapphire help vs reflect and some map bosses)
a Quartz flask (useful for safely opening boxes/narrow maps)

Flasks are not set in stone. Obviously it's up to you because everyone plays the game different. I also highly recommend saving any good flasks you find and switch them out depending on the situation; knowing when to switch out flasks depending on the map mods is crucial.

Here is an example set of flasks I would use:







Bandits!:

1. Normal - Oak (+40 Hp)
2. Cruel - Eramir (+1 Passive Point)
3. Merciless - You have some choices here depending on your play style. +1 Passive point is always safe. If you are a crit version of this spec and using assassin's mark +1 Power Charge is an excellent choice. If you are using an Ice Bite setup (explained below) +1 Frenzy Charge is also an excellent choice. So many choices!


Map Mods to be weary of:

1. Immune to Curse - This mod is extremely detrimental to the build. It is possible to complete, but it is a very grueling and tedious process to do safely.
2. Immunity to status ailments - This mod is new. This makes it so mobs cannot be shocked/frozen/ignited. Essentially this means you will NEVER TRIGGER YOUR HERALDS OR CURSES. Avoid this mod like the plague.
3. Elemental Reflect - Since your damage is split between lightning and cold, you would need both a purity of frost AND a purity of lightning to mitigate this mod. Be extremely careful when dealing with ele reflect.
4. No Regeneration - Self Explanatory.

If you run into mana regen issues, here are some ideas to help alleviate the issue:

1) Try to get a Neck Piece and another Ring that each have 50%+ mana regen on them. This will double your mana regen. Weapons can also have mana regen.
2) You can run a low level Clarity to help a bit with mana regen. If you run a Clarity you will have to sacrifice a skill gem somewhere but it might be worth it for the quality of life it offers. Remember that Clarity scales with Increased Mana Regen from your gear - so even a low level Clarity can become very powerful with enough Mana Regen gear/passives.
3) Invest some skill points into mana regen passives on the tree such as Deep Thoughts near the Witch starting area. There is also a 20% mana regen at the very beginning of the Templar tree (+14 Life and 20% Mana Regen). I don't recommend this as a permanent solution because you need those points other places, but it could be a short term remedy until you get some strong mana regen pieces.
4) When doing minus regen maps mods, Assassin's Mark is excellent for keeping you topped off. Use Assassin's Mark/temp chains in this setup.



Additional Notes

- At what level should I start using Call of the Brotherhood? Honestly that is up to you. I didn't start using on it on my toon until around level 50 or so. If you feel like it's giving you strong utility and you are comfortable leveling with it, then you can use it as early as you please.

- Always manually cast enfeeble when approaching a pack BEFORE they have a chance to fire at you. Do not wait for your curse on hit to apply temporal chains. You must be proactive.

- Some boss fights have no mobs around them or maybe you killed them all. In this case, your curse on hit will stop applying. Make sure to keep up enfeeble in this situation.

- You will need 111 Dexterity for this build to function properly because of the dexterity requirements of gems such as Cold Penetration and Herald of Ice. So plan accordingly. You can obtain this either through the two +30 Dex nodes near Templar or you can invest in some pieces of gear with high Dexterity on them (I recommend the second method in order to save precious passive points).

- You have some flexibility with how to link and where to link the shock nova. When first starting out, using a +2 Lightning Gem weapon is by far the best thing you can get on a budget. If you are able to get a 5 or 6 link, and wish to transfer your shock nova to this, you will no longer need a +2 lightning gem weapon and just get the highest spell dmg/cast speed weapon you can find. For a multiple link Shock Nova I recommend the following (Assuming you are using Call of the Brotherhood):

4 Link = Shock Nova + Spell Echo + Cold Pen + Ice Bite (remember, frenzy charges offer global damage, meaning they will make your totem, vaal spell, and heralds stronger)
5 Link = Above links + Hypothermia
6 Link = Above links + Innervate




If you have any suggestions or questions please leave them below. Be careful out there my friends and good luck. Mother Wraeclast is a harsh mistress!

- Horatio

Awesome Guide! Next Stop Triple Curse.

bookmarked

looks really fun just ripped my rf incinerate character so i will try this out thanks

Really well written guide. Will check it out.

Edit: I have another question - how exactly do you freeze the entire screen. From what i can see your chacne to freeze is 10% + your crit chance, which cant be really high.

Wouldnt it be better to use Ice Nova for example, and either go freeze chance or crit? What is the benefit of shock nova?

"

Really well written guide. Will check it out.

Edit: I have another question - how exactly do you freeze the entire screen. From what i can see your chacne to freeze is 10% + your crit chance, which cant be really high.

Wouldnt it be better to use Ice Nova for example, and either go freeze chance or crit? What is the benefit of shock nova

The build still freezes because of how powerful Temp Chains is. You are right that the freezing effects don't last that long, but because of Temp Chains, they last a longer than normal time, giving you very liberal windows to shatter. I will try to get a better video up demonstrating this.


To answer your first question, I initially built this build as crit. Instead of using Elemental Weakness, I was using Assassin's mark - Combined with Alira +1 Power Charge and 2 Power Charge Passives for a total of +6 Power Charges. Additionally I had picked up the crit nodes in Templar and Witch. In this form, crit chance was close to 50% for me with +6 power charges up, not including Assassin's Mark. You could definitely freeze entire screens this way with such high cast speed and 50%+ crit. Unfortunately I nearly rip'd multiple times to reflect/Thorn Skin (which has been removed since) so I decided to remove the crit aspect and just go flat damage. It was a survivability issue. A crit version is 100% viable for this build, but it makes reflect extremely dangerous.

To answer your second question, it comes down to play style and preference. Since Call of the Brotherhood gives your spells 100% chance to shock frozen enemies, you could use Ice Nova to still shock. My goal with 2.0 was to test out the new version of Shock Nova honestly, so that's just what I decided to use for the build. If I can get my hands on a level 20 Ice Nova I could test out the build with Ice Nova instead. If you try this build with Ice Nova please post here - I would be very interested in your findings.

Hey, thanks for the answers! I thought so about reflect, but I guess it should be manageable without thorns now. I will think about it, because I really like the idea of a consistent freeze effect.

Ofc if you go 6L with ice bite and Hypothermia (which give another 20% chance to freeze essentially), you'll end up with 30% chance to freeze overall, which can be enough with high cast speed I guess. :)

Ad Ice Nova: I read a little about it: I think the problem is shock duration, because it’s still depended on lightning damage or at least some people said. That would mean if you are 100% cold based Caster with Call of the Brotherhood, and you freeze things, you would shock enemies but with 0 shock duration.

If that is true one could go Added Lightning Gem, added lightning to spells gear and Herald of Thunder. However, because mobs have so much life nowadays I don’t know if that’s enough.

So I guess if one wants to consistently shock things with a good amount of freeze -> shock nova
If one wants to consistently freeze things, with a good decent amount of shock -> ice nova

If I find something knew about it, I’ll let you know. Thanks again for the guide!

Cheers!

What kinda stats are you looking for in your Jewel sockets?

Still tryin to figure out where to go with rolls on those.

Hi,

Thanks for your build! I who wanted the original, I served :)

I try with my templar lvl 90 in standard league & look very nice!

My gear:



Any idea what could be improved? My gems are not yet any level, it promises :)

"

What kinda stats are you looking for in your Jewel sockets?

Still tryin to figure out where to go with rolls on those.

I added a Jewel section under the gear area. Thanks for pointing this out.