[2.4][SC/HC]The Ultimate Meat shield Max Block Support Team!

http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUCAAOaBFEI9AthDF8NfA3NEVAUIBRxFm8YPBhWGjgaPhslHKcczhzcHOci9CSqJy8o-ipTKyYrUDW5Nuk6FjwtPfxBh0NjQ8hFnUmxS65PBFNSU6VVqVfJWfNewF8_ZlRmnmhaaGVo8moBah5qQ2wLbRlxTXFicg9yqXUqdqx5OXxLfNl99X7iggeCx4Nfg8yFMoaCiFqMdozPjxqQVZHOkyeUb5Z0l7Saz5rgoS-iAKcrrKqvbK-nsnC0DLcxtz64k7vtvOq9J76KwFTE9sauytPPftIh18_Yvdlb2XzjaukC6hjquuvu7w7viPAf8i_yQfPd9kj3Mvjr-Tf56PrS_gr-VA==

Bandits: Alira, Kill, Alira (mathematically speaking, mana definitely is the better choice here; as for the power charge, you need that to proc 4 end charges on discharge, explained more later)

Note: This wasn't the one shown in the video; I had a different n much weaker setup in the video becuase I did not have a kingsguard at the time and it was a draft version I came up with on the spot and wasn't well fleshed out.

You will need x5 reckless defense. This will allow you to have 75/75 block when tempest shield kicks in and will be enough to keep your avenger flasks active. For your helm/glove/belt, ideally you want chaos res + 2 other res and either armor/es or life/mana rolls. The chest piece I was using in video was a cloak of defiance, but Kingsguard imo, is just far better defensive wise and you literally use every stat given on that chest. For your ring you can wear praxis over Dreamfrag and use antifreeze flask in place of the poison immunity. I was just wearing DF becuase I didn't have praxis. Ideally, you want to corrupt aegis,romira,volls, and your praxis for 6% damage taken to mana, in all with victario's boots, you will have a max of 42% damage taken to mana which will keep your mana full even on no regen maps, at that point you can get rid of your mana flask for something else like chaos res flask or bismuth to deal with ele weakness maps. For this build, victario's is pretty much bis especially if you don't have good corrupted damage to mana gear (if you do you can replace with another pair of boots to max out chaos resistance (just make sure to craft on a dex mod to use the dex gems).

For the enchantment, if you get lightning warp helm enchantment, you will be able to run instant lightning warp which is alot faster than whirling blades; for the boot enchantment the best one imo is the life/mana regen when hit, the glove one doesn't matter that much.

Lastly, in the min-maxed tree you have 6 jewel slots instead of 5. That one is for a rare dex + dex/int jewel to fit dex stat requirements, ideally if it comes with mana or life that would be perfect. If you wear another pair of boots with dex roll, then you can just something else for the jewel suffix like all resistance/etc

Explaination/Mechanics:
Resolute Technique is a must as it makes it so that you never crit. This will prevent your cwdt combos from screwing up and also allow you to always land your flicker fortify.

A level 16 immortal call is the minimum level needed with a maxed out increased duration to last long enough (3.02 seconds) past the cooldown of 3 seconds so that it can be immediately recasted right after the previous immortal call expires.

When you are attacked while wearing romiras, your tempest shield will give you back power charges on block, blade vortex will give you continue power charges overtime as long as it hits enemy, while blade fall can get you charges from a distance.

the other spells used together with voll's amulet + cwdt discharge will result in 4 power charges / 4 end charges everytime. Even when immortal call activates before discharge, you will still have 4 power charges left over so when you discharge, you will gain another 4 end charges and regenerate the power charges back from the other spells and from the discharge itself.

For this to work, the discharge has to be the last gem in place for the cwdt link so it procs with 4 charges everytime and you need a max limit of 4 power charges and 4 end charges which is why you need to take 1 end charge on the tree and 1 power charge from alira.

With all this in place, while you wear a kingsguard, every discharge/immortal call will give you back 400 life from expending 4 end charges; with each cwdt cast having a cooldown of .25 seconds, this means that you will be able to get back from kingsgaurd at max 1600 life per second (which is which a quite a lot when added to your other defenses).

*Note: Your lightning warp/flicker strikes also give you power charges in the case that you aren't getting hit

On this character, all your skills cost no mana, so it is possible to run spell totem and auras and spam them if you don't think devouring/rejuv/decoys are useful. But from what I experience, those 3 totems are pretty handy to have around; bosses definitely do target decoys and as for the devoruing&rejuv totem they are still quite useful for supporting life builds. When someone in the party gets hurt and I cast desecrate for devouring totem to consume + setup a rejuv totem, I can see their life get back up extremely fast even without them using a flask.

Pros:
*Romira+Voll combination is optional for this build (if you don't use Romira/Volls you can use the 4link cwdt-bv-arc-discharge for something else).
*Does not need 5L/6L
*Extremely Good Aegis Recovery, if you desync on bearers or something you won't rip. Fair Amount of Regen as well.
*Has room for decoy totem + golem on minion and totem resistance; that is alot of peels added for your team there.
*You will be loved by your teammates. Like 9k flat armor pre-determination boost to your teammates is no joke, even if they don't have % increased armor, that 9K is going to help soak up alot of damage from things like porcupine spines on death if they are not shattered when killed.

Cons:
*Gear can be costly, at the end of the day, you are still looking at acquiring a shavs; a 6S solaris plate will do, but you would be missing out on like 400+ flat es which will hurt your total ES pool. Also chaos resistance is the hardest resistance to roll, so that could be problematic as well.
*Need to be careful around degen effects. Fire degen/Chaos degen/Lightning beams/shaper beam/etc. No leech or ability to health pot your ES means no way to counter degen except with your regen, and usually in high Tier maps that won't be enough (unless you are getting hit by other stuff and your aegis is recovering).
*Needs to avoid no regen maps. No regen means get fucked harder by degen and that is definitely not good for you, half regen is okay.
*Needs to use life flask to cast spells; you have life gain on hit from claw, but I don't think that is good enough to replace a health pot.
*Does not have curse effectiveness, therefore this build does not run curse(s); but if you party and someone else cursing, then this doesn't really matter.
*Lowest total health pool out of the 3 supports on the max block team,but quite fair still compared to other low life support builds.

http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUDAAceC2EMXw18DjwRUBGWFCAUcRZvFy8YVho4Gj4abBslHKcc5yL0JKoksCW8KPopLjW5Nuk8LT38QYdDY0PISVFJsUuuTlJPBFOlValV1lfJWGNZ81v0XIpfP2ZUZp5oWGhlaHRo8moBah5sC20ZcU1yD3Kpdqx8uHzZffV-WX5sf8aApIDgggeCx4Nfg8yJ2Ix2jM-QVZHOkiuTJ5RvlS6XtJrPmzChL6IApRinK6yqr2y0DLcxtz677b6KxPbGrsrTz37SIddq15bXz9i92VvZfNpi20_fv-DD42rpAuoY6rrvDu-I8B_w1fIv8kHz3fZI9zL3wfjr-Tf56PrS_QD-Cg==

Notes:
Zealot's Oath is a must have as regeneration is the only way (asides from vaal discipline) to counter the degen effects you will face in the game in the case that you are not getting hit by any other sources for the aegis recovery to kick in.

Unwavering faith is definitely worth it to provide another 5% flat physical damage reduction for your party members and a good whole 1% es regen for yourself.

*The Sovereignty Cluster (Above Ancestral Bond) is also an extremely fine choice here (explained more in gem section) and is one you should take.

For the Bandits, it is Help oak for life (or kill), Kill, and lastly help Alira for power charge

You will need your standard aegis + advancing fortress + 5x reckless defense (2 of these can be 3% block). For chest you will need a shavronne's wrappings to protect your life from chaos damage. For your amulet and ring, although it is not a must have, I would still recommend having Voll's amulet + romira, simply because immortal call is just that good; it can prevent yourself from getting bursted in the case that you do not block consecutive high damage physical hits. Another +side to having both romira + voll's is that you will be able to conduit both power and end charges to the rest of your team mates which can be extremely helpful.

For the helm/glove/boot you will want full ES/life/chaos resistance mods and for the belt, Crystal belt is the best base for this build due to the high ES implicit.

With moderate ES/life gears, you will end up with around a good 6k Life & ES solo which will be good enough to tank most of the non-telegraphed hits in combination with your armour + Aegis.

For the remaining ring slot:
Lori's lantern is a pretty nice option as it provides nice resists and gives essentially at the very least a 6-10% less damage taken on average. Another unique alternative is Shavronne's Revelation, but you'll need a full 30% chaos resistance roll per item average from your 4 rare gears in order to cap it.

As for the flasks, you will still want avenger flasks as they'll recharge themselves when you get hit. The only difference here is that, You are going to want a hallowed (cuz more hp/charge) life flask. And instead of mana/basalt flask you can run quicksilver/sulfur/etc.

4L Faster Casting - Flame Dash - Vaal Discipline - 2nd Vaal discipline or molten shelll
4L lv 14 cwdt - Inc duration- lv 16 Immortal Call - lv 17 Tempest shield
6S (chest) lv 1 clarity - discipline - determination - purity of elements - haste (lv 6) - vitality
3L (claw) FA (lv 14) - flicker - Shield Charge
3L stone golem - decoy totem - minion and totem resistance
4L lv 1 cwdt - BV - BF/Arc - discharge


Notes:
*If you've taken Sovereignty cluster as posted in original tree, you can avoid having to link your shavronnes which is a HUGE cost saver, and you won't need enlighten either. Your Life reserved will be at 92%, but it should be enough to get by.

The defensive mechanisms for this guy works the same as hiero, except his Aegis recovery is ALOT stronger solo, he however does not have additional damage reduction from mind over matter and out of the 3 supports, his total pool is the lowest.

Pros:
*Don't need 5L/6L chest piece.
*High ES & Regen; extremely tanky, will enable you to sit thru bearers if you desync (as far as I can tell, i've accidentally desynced on a pack n my ES didn't budge, since then I've tested about 4 times, couldn't tell if Aegis recovered from it, but they are blockable by spell block so I'd assume the Aegis was working.)
*Has enfeeble + curse effectiveness; the one curse you need to keep your party safe (even better if you can get enfeeble helm enchant).
*Has Double charge conduit, this allows others in party to also use cwdt immortal call and remain immune to subsequent physical damage; useful in getting thru lab traps as well.
*The gears used in this build are useful for various other builds as well, so you don't necessarily lose out on purchasing the needed gears for this build.
*Doesn't need enlighten lv 4; enlighten lv 3 is most optimal for this build, so if you do get a lv 4 you can save it for another build!
*Elemental fonts (fire nova, ice nova, shock nova) will heal you&recharge flasks when you block with aegis; make use of this, it helps alot in getting thru uber trials/lab.
*Reliably provides stun immunity to your whole team.


Cons:
*Degen beams are a no go. Always be watching out for degen; shaper beams, lightning beams, etc. You won't die instantly, but still need to be cautious when facing degen attacks, because you do not have leech to counter its effects.
*Have to avoid no regen. No regen means you have no mana to cast skills. Lose out on not only your time of need recovery but that from tree/flask/& skill gems as well. Half regen is still managable.
*Not the best physical damage tank of the 3 supports in this build when alone. Solo wise, I've got about 27k armor atm which isn't that great if I did not have Cwdt immortal call protecting me from subsequent damage; but with just the average low life guardian (the regular ones with a crap load of auras) my armor goes up to like 65k+ which makes it extremely safe for me.
*Aegis does not block/proc off of secondary damage (this is like bear trap, Core map traps (I think), etc)

http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUDAAQHCPQLYQxfDR8NfA5cEVAV1xg8GFYabBslHKcc3B1PHZki9Cj6KU8qUyy_LR81uTpYPCg8LUGHQ2NDyEV-SbFLrkyzTm1PBFIpU6VVqVXGVeBWY1fJWFpb9FxrXsBfKmZUaFho8moBakNq-mu3bAttGXFNcql8S3zZffV-WX5sf8aA4IKbgseDX4PMg9uESIV7hX2GrohaidiMdo8akiuTJ5Z0l7Saz5swnDKcvp48oS-lGKXEpyusmK9ssnC0DLaGtzG3PriTvSe-isBUwcXDbcQVxLTE9sauytPQH9dq15bXz9lb5CLpAuq66-TsGOw47SDviO_r9zL3wffX-Tf56A==



Bandits: Alira (mana), Kill (skill point), Oak (End charge)
Total 8 Jewel nodes. 5 for reckless defense, of which 2 can be 3% block. 2 for Healthy Minds (1 above witch start, and one to right of witch start; alternatively you can also use energy within for that node to the right of witch start). Last Jewel node is for conqueror's Potency, this is the best jewel for the build to fit in the remaining node because it improves everything you use!

**If you do not have a str/int implicit from your voll's devotion, you will have to take +30 str node if you want to run max leveled end cry/decoy totem/etc (else your base str will be at 142).

Notes:
*Incandescent heart is BiS; The elemental damage mitigation is too good to pass up on.

*Ideally you want 2 granite flasks; 1 is okay, but when you face slow but hard hitting bosses and the aggro gets split, then you definitely want your granites to be up as they are your most important flasks. You do not need 2 granites of iron skin, I actually made a mistake when I was getting the flasks; cost wise it would be alot easier to roll a good iron skin avenger's flask on bismuth or sulfur and then roll double granite with one of the remaining mods (bleed or shock immune). Curse immune is not needed in this build because you have time of need which reduced curse effectiveness on you and will cleanse off the curse for you periodically, but it is a good idea to corrupt one of your jewels with immune to silence so you can always proc cwdt immortal call no matter what.

**My resistances are overcapped by quite a safe margin, but I still use a bismuth flask, because it is the next best alternative (pretty much always full, meaning permanent shock immunity or something else). Stibnite/Quartz/Jade are out of the question for this build; Aquamarine isn't good either because the chill will slow mob attack speed, which means slower flask recharge, which is not good for you. Single resistance flasks may be used, but I just don't think they are needed since incandescent heart gives quite a bit of elemental dmg protection. When you get your double granite, you can also use basalt in place of the bismuth, but just note that, it may not always be charged if the boss is slow at attacking.

*For the voll's devotion, definitely get a str/int implicit one if you can as that will allow you to use maxed out end cry/etc; On this league however, that was the one I pulled from my brittle set :/

*As for the Rare gears. You want to roll high Mana/ES/Int. I have a dex craft on my gloves because I am still leveling faster attacks.


*As a reminder, healthy mind is a must have in this build as it is very cost efficient when used above witch start.
Another healthy mind or Energy within should also be used to the left of shadow start to get yourself more mana or ES increase.
Lastly, don't forget your reckless defense jewels.

The gem links are pretty much same. But with this guy you are running the 3 purities to increase max resistance, if no one in your party is running discipline, then you can swap . PoI is not really a needed aura in this game due to cold damage being the weakest damage type dealt by monsters, so if you are the sole support, it may be a good idea to have 3B 1R (enlit-PoL-Discipline/PoE-PoF) instead. Another difference is here you got the room to run Curse on hit or something else.

4L lv 3 enlight - PoL - PoF - PoE
3L (claw) lv 14 Faster Attacks (unless you have dex from your gear) - lv 1 flicker strike (or frenzy if you want to triple charge conduit, but I think flicker is more handy to have) - Shield charge
4L flame dash - faster casting - Molten shell - Vaal discipline
3L lv 14 cwdt - increased duration - lv 16 immortal call
4L (chest) Cold Snap - Tempt Shield - CurseOnHit - Enfeeble // (2Socket) End Cry - Decoy Totem/StoneGolem/Rejuv Totem
4L cwdt - BV - Bladefall/Arc - discharge

Notes:
*For the Auras, PoL and PoF is a must because lightning and fire damage are the most harmful elemental damage types. The last aura can be anything 35%< but PoE helps alot when you have crappy gear and helps other players overcap their resistances more as well. The reason why I chose PoE over discipline is because this is a ES support, anyone that is playing an ES build will most likely already have discipline + some herald etc, so there is no need for you to use it, plus your ES will still be quite good without discipline.

*If you have dex crafted/rolled on one of your ES gears, then you can run max lvl faster attacks, else just stick to a lv 14 one...also note resistances will be fairly important to roll, since if you have Res on your other gears, you can roll flask related mods for your belt suffix and still come out with capped resistances.

*Although slow casting, Cold snap is definitely worth having, because it helps you gain endurance charges manually and do it from a distance.

*Stone golem is my golem of choice, because regen is a key part of your survivability; also it is a red gem so you can swap it with rejuv/decoy totems, both of which are really good defensive totems to have around.

*One problem I have with this gem setup is that there isn't enough slots to fit all your skills on the hotkey (I've got my stone golem left out). If you change the Chest gem + shield gem setup to being:
3L (shield) Cold snap - curse on hit/faster casting - enfeeble
4L/2S (chest) cwdt - immortal call - increased duration - temp shield // End cry + 1 golem or totem

In this setup, you will you lose your "enfeeble on block" capability, but I think this is the better setup, as you can use faster casting and self cast curses for general map clearance and swap onto curse on hit for the hard bosses.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUDAAQHBLMI9AmqC2ENfBFQHNwdTyL0KPopTyoTLR81uTpYPAU8LUGHSbFMs1XGV8lY5VorXypmVGaeaPJqQ2wLbRl8S4KbgseDX4PMg9uFMoV7i4yMdo8akyeWdJo7njyf36EvogCj8qcrr2y0DLaGtzG3PriTvorAVMBmwJrGrsrT1abXz9i92fzquuvk6-7sOO0g7TzvfO-I-Tf53fno_go=

Mind over matter helps alot, this node will save your ass where you otherwise might've found yourself dead.

No more additional damage nodes are needed beyond this. Some damage/cast speed jewels can help the leveling process.

For your tabula links you want: spell totem - flame blast - controlled destruction - faster casting - fire pen - elemental focus

Make sure you buy a decoy totem still from Nessa, you will need it to distract fast mobs like hasted rares or Daresso

With this setup; I've soloed my way to Merc Lakes with no problem. For Fast bosses (Piety AoF form, Daresso) use 1 decoy, 1 flameblast, stay clear of their way as far as possible. For Normal/Cruel Izaro (done when I was 71), double flameblast is okay, just run around n avoid getting hit while your totems do the blasting. For Dominus,in first form, just spam totem, hide behind walls so he doesn't target you; for 2nd form, lure him to the staircase (the part where you first enter the stage), this will make sure you aren't interrupted by any adds that spawn; spam flameblast totem with your granite active, tp out when granite duration is up and redo until he is dead, pretty easy. For Malachai, depending on situation, mix up your use of decoys&flameblast totems, but more importantly always keep the field clear of his traps by triggering them with your totem.

General tips:
1. Until you finish gearing the support character, skip all Vegan unless it is the dummy training one; he can do alot of damage when you are unprepared, so avoid him until you are done with gearing. Another master to avoid is Catarina especially in merciless, because there can be chaos related mobs sometimes, and chances are your chaos resistance will be shit and you might just end up dying.

2. Decoy totem is your best friend. Buy one from Nessa, only costs 1 wisdom scroll, afterwards get stone golem from quest reward after normal malachai. This will save you so much pain going thru the content. All mobs are attracted to decoys.

3. Lead first with totem in dangerous zones. This is particularly important starting from merc A3 where your resistances start to suck and you don't have a crap's worth of armor for taking physical damage. Also If you don't know a boss in a vaal side area, lead with totem as well, the last thing you want is to suffer an necessary rip because you ran carelessly head first into a pack or boss you cannot handle with your current gear.

4. Use granite flask. Get one. You need one. It will save ass.

5. Pay attention to status effects, especially things like puncture.

6. Make use of molten shell and movement skill (flame dash). Molten shell is particularly useful early on for the extra armor and damage. Flame dash will help you jump across gap and can get you out of sticky situations.

7. Stay calm. I don't care how hard your ass may be clenched in a boss fight, going thru a zone, etc. You need keep your hand/fingers steady. If your bleeding without staunching from a hard hit, mentally prepare yourself to log out, tp out, or stand still and rely on decoy totem. For bosses like malachai, stay focused on where his traps are, disarm them with totem, and keep him taunted and stay out of his smash range etc. If shit on the screen is flying everywhere, observe their trajectory and calmly avoid them; if you randomly run around in a hurry, you may just increase your chances of running into that said projectile.

8. Keep a watchful eye for certain mods like Bearers, corrupting blood, reflect etc. If you standing on bearer, flame dash out of the way! Do not sit on it till it explodes. Reflect on a single mob is not that much of a problem if your resistances are high, but do watch out for their presence anyways.

9. Beware of what mobs are where. Watch out for things like porcupine goliath in maps/areas where they spawn, if you kill a bunch of them at once in close range and they weren't frozen by someone then you may just rip your character. If your in a zone with experimenters (detonate dead mobs), take care when you are picking up loot from a boss's corpse or avoid doing so until you know the area is clear.

10. Don't do shit like typing when you in the middle of a fight.

11. Try to avoid playing on rainy days or other days where your connection is suffering; the last thing you want is to freeze in the middle of a pack or intense boss fight/etc.

12. Try to get thru Uber trials before you respec to CI, I just think it is more handy to be able to heal back with hp/mana flasks if something goes wrong.

These are all the tips/warnings/etc that I can think of atm which you'll need to follow for surviving in HC.