Class confusion

I am fairly new to the game. Played it on PC but didn't take it too far. Now playing on xbox and need to get serious with it. I just need a little guidance. I have combed through the threads and since there are so many ways for one character to go with builds, it gets a little overwhelming. I want to play a tank like character; typical sword and board type...mace will work as well. I am looking for something like the WoW Protection Paladin - can tank, do a little dps, and maybe heal. So my question is this, which class is better suited to that style of play? Is it the Templar Guardian, Duelist Champion, or something else entirely? I see a lot of Wand builds for guardian, even ranged/spell builds, but haven't come across the perfect fit for me yet. I am sure there are some out there, just need a little push in the right direction. I play mostly solo right now, but hope to get deeper into what the game offers eventually. Any advice given will be greatly appreciated.

Update: So right after I posted this, I found a melee Templar build called Sovyn's Lazy Pally. It has the shield and 1H weapon I like, with melee type skills. Hopefully it has survivability and can do a little damage! Anyone have thoughts on this particular build?

You'd have to link that build for other folks to bother tracking it down. GH&D is a minimum effort zone :P

That said? You're forgetting Juggernaut Marauders, which are the ultimate supreme defensive class. They got Powerbuffed in the recent Ascendancy updates and are pretty ridiculously brutal when built well.

You're also going to want to change directions in your expectations. Path of Exile isn't an MMO, and doesn't really operate anything like one. 'Tanking' in MMO terms, i.e. drawing enemy attention off squish buddies, isn't really a thing in Path. You can do it, there's a taunt mechanic in place to do so, and if that's explicitly what you're trying to do then Champion is likely your bag instead of Juggernaut, but overall? Every single character in Path of Exile is expected to be completely self-sufficient; characters that don't work well without party support are a rare exception, not the rule.

Same for healing. I don't actually think it's even possible for one character to heal another one, but there's a thousand and three methods of restoring your own health and a character is expected to invest in some of them. The closest I can think of to being a 'party healer' is to try and invest in a particularly beefy Warlord's Mark curse so you give everyone who attacks your cursed targets some extra leech, and that's pushing it. Once again - a character that can't sustain its own health in Path isn't "a cool party guy", it's a bad character.

Every man is his own fortress in Wraeclast, exile.

I personally feel very tanky with Duelist->Gladiator with the Spell Block and block-chance-gained-on-block passives.

"

adghar wrote:

I personally feel very tanky with Duelist->Gladiator with the Spell Block and block-chance-gained-on-block passives.

yeah but you know very well what you are doing.. for inexperienced player, marauder (Juggernaut) is the safest bet in my opinion. But OP will certainly have to change his expectations:)

Thanks for the input. I should've been more specific in original post. As far as healing, I misspoke completely. I meant more of a self heal as in the life leech mechanic. I guess I will have to change my overall expectations as far as PoE not being a typical MMO, I'm ok with that. I originally wanted a character in PoE like the tanks in other MMO's as far as gear wise, ie sword and board type play style, not necessarily using taunt to pull the monsters from squishy party members. I've been playing that the last few days, and I realize I am nowhere near endgame, but it seems I was killing stuff waaaaay too slow for my tastes. I'm sure I can't use that as an assumption that it will be the same at higher levels but it is a little discouraging. I'm all over the place with my characters right now, and I honestly can't say what my endgame characters will look like. So far, I've kept the templar with a 1h (mace I think) and shield; but my Duelist is now using 2 1h weapons which is a little more fun. I also have a Shadow that seems to be a beast at killing; a ranger that is pretty decent; and a witch bringing up the rear.

I have always had alt-its in other MMO's so why should PoE be any different? I usually bounce between a tank, crazy dps of an assassin type, and a ranger. So now my mission in life now is to find the right balance of attributes in a few characters. The search continues...

This is the original Templar build I was going for, but I made some minor changes in some of the passives (don't have that link available) as well as going with Guardian instead of Inquisitor.

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUBAQDuApYEhwSxBLMFLQY5CTMLYQxSDPcNzRQgFSAYXRm0Gj4brRzOI_Yk_SgqKk0rUCzpLYMvzDB8MgkyTjWSOJY8LTzvPQ894j8nQKBGt0d-SO5KyE2STwRQR1FHUWBfP2LsZU1nm2jybEZuqnJscql07Xk5eu97FH7igOGDX4PMhNmE74aziuSLT419j5mSbpJ9l3mYb5vsnHuiAKOKqLmplayvrj6vbK-nsbO18raKtxe3PrxWvTa-p8BmwL_BgsT2xq7RNtJ802_Tfti92sHcI-Is4l7kUeXP51TtYe4O7w7vevAf8i_zBvaj9zL7qvzF_gr-VP_e

This game is quite different in that there is no dedicated mechanic for you to heal others. You can drop consecrated ground to regen your team but the radius is very small its not viable when your team are always moving. Instead, you can share auras, buffs or spam curses to protect your team from incoming damage.

The closest thing to a healer would be guardian as you've already found out, and followed by necromancer. Necro has advantage in that she can do better as solo (by summoning her own minions) whereas guardians can't do many content by himself.

Champion is able to taunt and has a tiny damage and movespeed aura. Deadeye has this massive move, attack and cast speed buff called "Tailwind".

If you want to be a really good guardian to triple your mates' damage and survivability, you need to stack many auras using Prism Guardian which forces you to make Lowlife Energy Shield builds, it gets very expensive.

For budget, I guess ppl will be happy to get a few auras and curses from you, and lots of Vaal Haste uptime.