Zealots Oath - What is it good for?

Interesting, so your build actually makes use of ZO as your survival skill with CI? Do you use life regen nodes or life regen gear, or life regen from vitality?

Do you run many auras, what sort of build do you have (melee, 1h/shield or 2h, caster, bow, etc), what sort of skill combos do you use

I am curious as to what sort of build makes use of this, as in general it appears to just be for the LL crowd, and I would love it to become MORE of a keystone with benefits/costs appropriate. Also would like to have it be more life+es orientated rather than CI, though I wouldn't want to kill a successful skill build such as yours.

Does yours use any of the very powerful uniques like aegis aurora?

Seems rather low base ES wise on gear, and your skill gems are rather odd (spark doesn't work as well self cast as totem, but if you can manage its mana cost, sure it might be okay, does shotgun very well.)

Overall though, a build such as yours would benefit significantly more from running GR than ZO. You don't seem to have any hp regen on gear so its pretty much only from passives (can't see passive at work). Without being able to see your build I wouldn't be able to say if its just inefficiant node use, but really ZO is just not that great since you can often play a kiting game with ES and regen it, playing similar to the CB style.

that being said, good on you for having a build using ZO to survive.

I also wonder how much damage you are actually recieving, and how much the ZO is giving you in terms of health regen. Do you feel that its the significant factor in your not dying?

I mentioned them earlier, but I'll say it again here as well:

The blood dance. With no Frenzy charge passives or bandit rewards, you can still get 3% regen from them, and can maintain the Frenzy charges without needing blood rage or any other skill. If you get the reward from Kraityn, and/or you're in the shadow area, this can go up to 4% or 5% pretty easily.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Blood_Dance

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Another option for Zealot's Oath is 'consecrated ground', which provides 4% life regen.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Zahndethus%27_Cassock
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Gifts_from_Above

Gifts from above is pretty awesome late-game especially.

In all honesty John, I would change it to a totem build rather than trying to revamp it into a wander. From experience, wanders are best build ele dmg not physical, even the physical dmg ones end up really being mostly ele dmg.

Also it takes a fair bit of different gear to do so, and passives.

mostly though I would suggest a totem as spark works best on dual totems, to get the maximum number of sparks out, and it lets you spec high crit without fearing reflect

I saw this thread and thought I'd contribute a theorycrafted build I made using Zealot's Oath. It's in a guide format and you can check it out if you're interested.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/481997/page/1

Since it is theorycraft, I can't tell you how well it works, but I think the potential is certainly there. Since making the guide, I've opted for a slightly different build using the same principles and hope to try it out at some point. Nevertheless, the general gist of the build remains intact.

Disclaimer: I skipped over all of the previous posts, but the mention of The Blood Dance boots did catch my eye. The build I have proposed uses those boots.

EDIT: Also, if you do choose to view the build and find it interesting or wish to provide some feedback, I'd appreciate it if you posted in the guide's thread. A bump to the guide increases the chance of more people finding out about an original build alternative that, although somewhat difficult to pull off, appears quite powerful. I'd love it if people actually tried to test it and make changes to the build I laid out.

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Real_Wolf wrote:

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ancalagon3000 wrote:

most

braindead

topic

ever

How? In what way does this topic, saying "What is the point of this node" make the thread braindead?

It clearly, from discussions being had, is only used for CI/Shavronne builds, and even for the CI builds its not really used because it takes a fair bit to spec into and gives fairly marginal benefits.


So why does it exist?

Not really used by CI builds ... says who? you? do you telepathically know everyones build?

'fairly marginal benefits' .... because regen on life is so OP .... they are both marginal regen in combat, just like potions and non VP leech. Thats all there is to it. Very nice to have.

Also, heard of shavronnes low life builds, and the new blood dance boots with 1% regen / frenzy charge?

Just because its useless to you or you dont want to make the investment doesnt mean its like that for everyone.

Imagine 9k+ ES and vitality aura + Inner force, regen nodes in tree, consecrated ground and 7 frenzy charges + blood dance boots

Thats like what, close to 20% regen per second. Convert it to ES regen with ZO, add shavronnes ring and you are regenning around 25% of your ES per second. 2000+ ES / second

lol

"

ancalagon3000 wrote:

Imagine 9k+ ES and vitality aura + Inner force, regen nodes in tree, consecrated ground and 7 frenzy charges + blood dance boots

Thats like what, close to 20% regen per second. Convert it to ES regen with ZO, add shavronnes ring and you are regenning around 25% of your ES per second. 2000+ ES / second

lol

What you said sounds great, but it's not possible. I've experimented with passive skill trees for this idea for awhile now, and it seems much more reasonable to get around 10-12.5% ES regen than 20-25%, unless you plan to have an ES pool of 5k or less (which totally defeats the point of going CI for a higher eHP than life). 4.5k ES with 20% ES regen has the same regen as 9k ES with 10% ES regen, and you'd much prefer the latter.

Zahndethus' Cassock gives an unreliable chance to create Consecrated Ground (18.75% chance if you have 75% block). It also means you need to wear a shield and grab lots of shield nodes to make Consecrated Ground even proc. Zahndethus' Cassock also replaces your ES chest, which brings your total ES pool down significantly. Gifts from Above also can create Consecrated Ground, but it requires that you critically strike, which is also unreliable unless you invest heavily into crit nodes. If you do that, you won't be getting much survivability at all if you also plan to get the 3 Frenzy charges from the passive tree. It takes a lot of points and there isn't room for crit. Also, if you want to crit, you shouldn't be considering Zealot's Oath in the first place because Vaal Pact is a better option. On another note, Gifts from Above isn't available in HC/Onslaught.

Vitality aura is nice since it can give you 1.77% ES regen if you have Inner Force. However, as a CI build, there are better options for auras. I think Purity, Determination, Grace, and Discipline are all more useful than an additional 1.77% ES regen (and that's if you spend the points to get Inner Force, which not all CI builds do).

There are few regen nodes on the tree that you actually should get. Golem's Blood (plus the two 0.4% regen nodes next to it) and the Life Regeneration node in the Templar tree are the most accessible. However, getting 0.8% ES regen from the two nodes next to Golem's Blood is a waste of points and could be better invested elsewhere (unless you're above lvl 90, which is highly unlikely).

Finally, achieving 9k+ ES is no easy task at all. Since you have to use The Blood Dance boots, you can't use ES boots like Rainbowstride. Since it's also a CI build, you have to invest in other defensive nodes that aren't ES-related, like Crystal Skin and Avoid Shock, etc. You also have to choose a build that utilizes 7 Frenzy charges and is capable of maintaining those charges for the most part (otherwise each Frenzy charge you don't have is 1% ES regen, which is huge considering how hard it is to get regen from nodes, auras, and other items). Bow users often use Frenzy charges, but they sacrifice a shield, making it even harder to reach 9k ES. That's why there's a balance that needs to be struck between how much ES/survivability you get and how much ES regen you get. 7 Frenzy charges + Shavronne's Revelation + Golem's Blood = 12.5% ES regen, which is enough. Any more than that and you start to gimp your ES pool and other defenses.