[NEWBIE Build Help] 2.0 Tanky HP, 1H Mace, No Crit Templar

Hi! currently level 45 atm. This is my first character here in PoE.I'm at act3 in cruel and it seems that even though I have relatively high def (1.5k armor) for my level and good resistances I often die a lot. Damage output is good so far.

I'm also unsure what skill to use. I've been using LS before, switched to groundslam then switched to molten strike.

Any tips would greatly be appreciated. HI also hate the fact that my templar moves so slow. Armor move speed reductions give me -10 move speed I think.

Here are my 3 main equips.




SKILLS
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwUBBLMLYQxfDjwUIBRxGekcpyE0KCoyfjSOOlI7O0E_SphQR1HmU6VfP2CRYMRnm2jya9lyqXdTfNmGO4Zgi0-LjJRcl3mexaIArj6vbLQvwGbE9sauzGbkUeSt6hjvDvAf9zL46_nd

Welcome to PoE! I highly recommend taking a look at build guides to get a feel of how others have built their characters to accomplish something similar. That said, let's get started.

*Get more Life on passive tree. You're very close to some notable clusters (Barbarism, Juggernaut, Bloodless, Devotion). I would target 150% life or more by endgame. Import your skill tree into www.poebuilder.com to have it total everything for you and get your passive tree planned out.
*Get more life on equipment. This is huge.
*Armor is good. Maxed elemental resists are better. End of Cruel and throughout Merciless, maxed resists are vital. Balance that with life rolls. Chaos res is good but often neglected. Most chaos damage can be avoided by careful positioning.
*Specialize in 1h, 2h, or dual wield. I don't recommend dual wield with a Templar start. It's kind of hard to pull off efficiently. The benefit of 1h is shields offer additional armor, life, and resists. If you're not specializing in shields, go for 2h for some serious damage output.
*Lightning Strike is meh. Static Strike gives better AoE than Molten Strike, but Molten Strike is better for single target. There might be a better option. Ground Slam + Multistrike + Melee Physical + Inc AoE or Faster Attacks or Physical to Lightning is a setup I've done before. Sweep is also very good if you go with a 2h build. Just about any skill will benefit from the Amplify cluster near Templar Start.
*Armor reduces your speed by 5% or evasion/hybrid reduces by 3%. Shields reduce by 3%. Movement speed on boots is highly recommended, or attach Faster Attacks to Leap Slam to move around if you can support the mana cost (I recommend Blood Magic here)
*Don't be afraid of the Blood Magic gem. If you have good life regen % and a high life pool (3k+) you should be able to support any skill on Blood Magic. If you have everything on Blood Magic you can drop Clarity and support more auras.
*If you don't have high enough Int or Dex you could always allocate a 30 point node and refund it later.

^Hi KappaSchiv. Thanks for the reply man. Really appreciate it. :) I think I'll be focusing more on HP from now. Would you also prefer HP regen or Life leech? Or a good mix of both? Currently using 1h mace+shield.

BTW, for the bandits i got
-Elem Resist
-Phys Damage
-Not yet in merciless

Physical to lightning seems nice. I think I'll mix it with groundslam. Since I already have set some of my items to be compatible with LS build.

If this char doesn't work out I think I'll use my Wander Shadow instead, its faster in terms of clearing speed.

Did I forget to mention Ice Crash? I think Ice Crash is king of the current melee meta, or at least a really popular flavor right now. Give it a try.

Life regen is always a solid choice (but it's generally a wasted stat on gear). I tend to not worry about Life Leech or Life Gain on Hit until end of cruel or Merciless. LGoH if fast, low damage attacks, or LL for slower, harder hits. Many builds can do without either through efficient regen and flask management.

A note on flasks: Rolling instant or 50% instant life flasks is a fantastic way to stay alive. Hallowed Flasks are a great choice for this, and Divine after that, since they're the the highest HP options for their respective tiers at level 42 then 60, and you don't need to worry about heal time with instant flasks. When you're ready to craft a flask, use Glassblower's Baubles on white flasks to most efficiently bring to 20% quality, then transmute and alt/aug until you get your desired flask. You should have at least one flask to remove bleeding, and one to remove freeze. Movement flasks can have +charges and +speed, and Granite flasks can have +armor. Eventually, you want to get to a point where you don't need a mana flask anymore.

I would have recommended +Life from Oak in Normal, but that isn't to say Ele res won't be useful. It does make gearing a little easier, but because it can be made up in gear in the long run many consider Kraityn's offer to be inferior. Oak's life option is base life, so it gets amplified by passive tree life increases. As a softcore character a little bit of extra life isn't the most important thing in the world though. Phys Damage in Cruel is a good choice. Merciless will offer you charges. Endurance, Frenzy, or Power. If you focus on having endurance charges up for defensive purposes then that's clearly the way to go. Experiment with using Enduring Cry. Otherwise, you can slay all the bandits for a skill point. If you have sufficient life regen (and Dexterity), you can experiment with using Blood Rage. It offers Life Leech and Frenzy Charges, which grant a more multiplier to attack speed and damage.

There's also a very active trading market to explore if you're in need of better gear. You can visit shop threads on the forums or visit poe.trade which is built by the community to make trading easier. You can also enter trade chat to search for items or you can trade currency items for more useful currency. Many players recommend not using any currency items until endgame when they're more useful. Otherwise, trade them to other players and buy new equipment as you need it. The nature of the RNG is you'll find more junk items than useful items. At your level, should you come across an Exalted orb, or a Mirror of Kalandra, DO NOT USE THEM. They are very expensive on the market. Then again, if you prefer the self-found experience, by all means, do as you wish.

Using a good loot filter can allow you to easily pick up vendor-recipe items, such as chromatic recipe or quality flasks. Check them out if you're not using one already, and check the wiki for the vendor recipe system.

@KappaSchiv

Gained a lot of useful tips from you. Will surely trymelee splash + ice crash later. Will give my templar 1 last shot before making a new one.

Planning on making a new tanky hp regen templar with this build for darkshrine. Will probably get totems first and just respec later.

54 skill tree
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgUAfA6nVVugQ8hPBGjyogDwH8auC2GvbHy7xYo62Ow4kFUnL4KbjHaePClP5CIabCSqNunjahZvrj5nm-RR7w5QRxQgXz_BBKlueWgB3HfjhNm-p2VNvTZHfsGCL8yLTygql3l5OX7iGj7V-MS4

I've only gained some chaos orbs so far. No exalts yet. But I guess I'll be checking the market from time to time just to be familiar.

Regarding mana regen, I'm not sure how I'll manage that. My current build doesn't have any mana regenartion skill at all. I don't have mana leech as well. I only rely on flasks and am currently experiencing some minor manageability problems with my mana.

Thanks a lot man. Hope to play with you sometime when I'm already high level. :D

for leveling, I highly recommend you use fire totem and firestorm.
Both are available from act1 for templar.

Fire Totem+Faster Casting+Fire Penetration
FireStorm+Spell Echo+Conc Effect+Fire Penetration

Basically just throw a totem and some firestorm and get exp.

It does not matter what build you go or what passives you take in tree. These two skills are powerful enough to bring you to A4 Merciless.

Starting from A2 Merciless, save the rares you get and vendor recipe them for chaos orbs.
If you don't know what that means, go to http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Vendor_recipe_system and search for "Full Rare Sets".

With some chaos, go to poe.trade and get some good gear for you main build.
Switch to your "real" build around lvl 65-70, farm dry lake until you feel the exp gain slows down.
Then time for mapping :D

Happy hunting.

@snorlaxyzq Great tip man. I was using totems when I was around 20-30. But when I got into cruel I dropped it and just went full melee(thinking I was already strong LOL). I was proven wrong, I'm constantly dropping in act 3 cruel. In my current build I can't just go in the center and pummel everything to death(which I hoped I can). Will probably try your suggestion, it looks really good. Hope i got the mana for it. But I guess just 1 totem + 2 firestorms would kill almost all normal mobs in cruel?


Also currently torn between just making a new char or leveling this one. I'm not confident with the skill choices I've made. I'm hoping for a global skill reset once a new patch comes out. Or can it still be saved? When I reach level 70 i think I'd be able to balance out everything? So should I push this build until 70 first?

"

iamsanji wrote:

@snorlaxyzq Great tip man. I was using totems when I was around 20-30. But when I got into cruel I dropped it and just went full melee(thinking I was already strong LOL). I was proven wrong, I'm constantly dropping in act 3 cruel. In my current build I can't just go in the center and pummel everything to death(which I hoped I can). Will probably try your suggestion, it looks really good. Hope i got the mana for it. But I guess just 1 totem + 2 firestorms would kill almost all normal mobs in cruel?


Also currently torn between just making a new char or leveling this one. I'm not confident with the skill choices I've made. I'm hoping for a global skill reset once a new patch comes out. Or can it still be saved? When I reach level 70 i think I'd be able to balance out everything? So should I push this build until 70 first?

Your current skill tree is not too bad (comparing to the one you planned :P).
It seems you are going for the one hand mace/shield route. It is actually making gearing cheaper and easier as shield can have very high life and resist roll.

I would not recommend going for "full block" for you first build as that route has little damage output with mediocre gear. Just use shield as a piece to stack life and resist, and get more damage/life from passive tree.

Here is my opinion on your current skill tree(around lvl80):
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgUABLMLYQxfDjwUIBRxHKchNCgqNI46Ujs7QT9KmFBHUeZTpV8_YJFnm2jya9lyqXdTfNmGO4Zgi0-LjJRcl3mexaIAr2y0L8BmxPbGrsxm5FHkreoY7w7wH_cy-Ov53c9-dqytjf5UDc0rUBzOr6euPoIH2XzvfDwFYVIFPEh43DLFU0CgXhPvTgUteu-DzDwtg1_Yvf4Ktz4xnqZXOuHyRRiRvJ9oZfPd029Gt9rBdO1i7ITvWhoshSFgKaV08U1GwYIvzITZR36-p2VNvTZnWJHOu-0S4ZLQ

I'd say respec the Iron Grip. Take some reachable life nodes (Juggernaut, Barbarism, Bloodless), and rush to Art of Gladiator. Then get Amplify, and finish the rest of life nodes (unrelenting, Rampart, Consititution). Take Jewel socket if you get some decent jewel. Take Frenzy charge and Endurance charge last. And finish those 5% life nodes if needed later. Take Mana Flows or Revelry if mana is tight.

Get Frenzy charge in A2 Merciless as Frenzy charge is Very good.

For Skill gems:
Cast When Damage Taken+Immortal Call is mandatory.
The key is to use a low level(4-7) CWDT gem so they trigger more often.
To generate the Endurance charge IC needs, you can:
1. Manually cast Enduring Cry.
2. Warlord's Mark
3. The gem End Charge on Melee Stun with a utility skill

Also you need a movement skill. Whirling Blade is very good, but can not be used with mace.
Your options are Leap Slam or Shield Charge.

Fortify is a very OP gem as it gives you 20% damage reduction. I would always use it with melee build.

You need some aura. For your build I would recommend Hatred to boost the damage. Use Herald of Ash/Ice/Thunder as a secondary boost to damage, or use Arctic Armour for more damage reduction.

Blood Rage gives you attack speed and life leech and generates Frenzy charge. Your high life+life regen+life leech compensates the degen from blood rage quite well. You probably won't notice it.

Use a Fire Golem to boost your damage.

Below would be my recommend links:
- CWDT(lvl7)+IC(lvl9)+Enfeeble(lvl9)+Increase Duration
Makes you immune to physical and lower the damage from mobs. This triggers at 1000 damage taken. As your life pool grows, you can lvl the skills up so it triggers less often.

- Leap Slam+Faster Attacks+Fortify
Movement and Fortify

- Hatred+Arctic Armour+Fire Golem
Auras and golem

- Vengeance/Reckoning+Curse on Hit+Warlord Mark+Increased AOE/Endurance Charge on Melee Stun
Auto applys a curse to near by enemies that gives you life/mana leech and endurance charge.
I feel Reckoning has larger aoe but might trigger less often depending on your block chance. (vengeance has fix 30% trigger chance)

- Enduring Cry/Rallying cry+Blood Rage+Increased Duration+Some utility skills.
Basically some utility skills. Vaal Molten Shell or Vaal Clarity or Vaal Haste or Vaal Lightning Trap.
Vaal lightening trap is very effective for boss fights even with lvl1.
If you managed to find a Enhance gem(lvl2+), link it with Blood Rage.

If you are too lazy to cast golem yourself, you can use a lvl1 CWDT paired with a low lvl Golem. The golem has way less hp, but the damage boost to you is same. Or even easier, use the low lvl golem gem to replace the Increased Duration gem in the CWDT-IC-Enf combo.

For your main skill, I think static strike is a good choice. It has good damage and aoe and low mana cost. Give it a try.
- Static Strike+Multistrike+Melee Physical+Weapon Elemental+Added Fire/Faster Attack

Molten Strike is pretty good, but its mechanic is more complicated(melee+projectile) that I'm not quite sure how to scale it.

- Ice Crush+Melee Physical+Weapon Elemental+Faster Attack+Increased Aoe

Cyclone might be good but I've never played with it and it might lacks damage with a one hand non crit build.

For gear, I'd say read some build guides. Too much to choose from.