Ultimate Tank build

Hey guys!

I'm looking for some input on a good tank build for HC group play. I am usually running with a witch that focusses on fire dmg. I made a tentative skill tree and hope you can give me some feedback on it.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQUBAAAFWwAAi4wAAOFzAADtIAAARtcAAITEAABEcgAAQDYAACNNAAC0-QAA8B8AAKIAAAAUTQAABLMAAIFvAACePAAATdgAAIx2AAA62AAALdIAAOw4AAAaOAAAp4QAAJBVAAB8uwAAJIsAAD0PAADE9gAAJ-0AAPPdAAAZLgAA1I8AALndAADyLwAA7w4AAGebAAApLgAA2WEAAFcNAACRzgAA0iEAAJ7NAACnMAAAFCAAAFBHAAAB5wAANugAADpSAACGYAAAVgQAAGFSAACfywAAYIgAAFWpAACXtAAArLoAAFivAAB4DQAAvooAAAHcAAAb-gAApBkAACXfAAB8uAAAPfwAAFhjAADG2AAAROcAABznAABqOwAAIPAAAGoeAACoGAAAKLUAAO9OAACi6gAAEuEAAECgAAAhYAAAdPEAAJ65AAAY2wAAW68AAN0NAAD8xQAAZ6AAAId2AABKfQ==

The main features are Unwavering Stance, high life nodes and %armour. I also grab all resistance nodes in the marauder area as they give more res than the other groups.

Let me know if you see any major problems with it and what you think could be further improved for survivability.

Your current passive skill tree is extremely un-optimized. You spend points that benefit you in no way, and realistically 88 points is going to be extremely difficult to reach. It's a rule of thumb that when planning a build you should only spend about 55-65 points so you can have your core build in place by the time you hit merciless Act 2.

1. Elemental damage nodes serve little purpose for you, they are a "all in" or "nothing" sort of thing, so unless you're planning your build around elemental damage they won't do anything for you. This also will influence your skill gem setup and i'll go ahead and provide a list of a few skills I think you should be using.

Skill Gems:
a) Cleave - This is your main AOE attack for packs.
b) Heavy Strike - This will be your main attack for single target dps.
c) Leap Slam - This is your "oh shit" skill and can be used to travel across the map quicker and position yourself during a fight.
d) Determination Aura - Will increase your armor and decrease the need to take +armour % passives.

2. Armour has diminishing returns in higher difficulty. In higher end content it works great against single large attacks (bears, brutus, etc), but it's effectiveness is decreased against many small attacks (squids, skeletons, most mobs) making it good to use at the beginning of the game, but fairly easy to dismiss late-game.

3. There is no need to pick up all the resists that you see on the passive skill tree. It is still quite easy to cap out resists using your gear. Switching out resistance rings before and during fights will also help a ton and require less passives points spent.

4. Movement speed and attack speed are your best friend. The quicker you can move around the map the less clunky melee combat feels and the faster you can hit means the quicker attack animations allow you to leap slam into comfortable positions to AOE large groups and take minimal damage. Positioning yourself is something that shouldn't be underestimated in POE.

5. You seem to skip taking "life regen" nodes, which is easily the best way to tank damage in POE at the moment. Trust me, life regeneration is HUGE.

6. This is the new build I recommend you follow.

If you have any questions, post them and i'll try my best to answer them.

"

Eztheal wrote:

6. This is the new build I recommend you follow.

If you have any questions, post them and i'll try my best to answer them.

In your build you only seem to have strength nodes taken. Wouldn't this make it so you can't use higher lvl armor since you don't have sufficient int/dex?

"

Aerocell wrote:

"

Eztheal wrote:

6. This is the new build I recommend you follow.

If you have any questions, post them and i'll try my best to answer them.

In your build you only seem to have strength nodes taken. Wouldn't this make it so you can't use higher lvl armor since you don't have sufficient int/dex?

If he's building a tank then he isn't looking to wear hybrid gear. He'll get better use out of using strength / armour based gear since it will increase his damage reduction.

As weak as DR is at higher difficulties, it will beat out ES any day. And evasion isn't going to help him any unless he really builds into it.

Thanks a lot for your quick and extensive reply, Eztheal!

I haven't had a char above lvl30, so I don't know what attributes lose their value in endgame. Thanks for pointing that out! I was thinking about adding life reg but not sure how strong it would be. Do you think a Vitality aura is worth adding?

As for skills: My original idea was to use attacks/spells that don't require accuracy to hit. I have Shield Charge and Elemental AoE spells right now (Ice Nova). I will get a problem with Int requirements there though. Another idea was to have a lightning based main/AoE attack (Lightning Strike) to increase the damage that my friend with his fire witch can do. Do you think that would work well?
I like your idea of taking Resolute Technique as my crit should be minimal anyway.
Determination is a good idea! If they can be active simultaneously, what about Molten Shell?
On top of that, I am using Tempest Shield to increase my block and have some reflect dmg.

Thanks for the revised passive tree...two questions though:

1)Wouldn't it be worth two more nodes for Armour Mastery as it has a high +% on armour AND movement speed?

2)What do you think about Endurance Charges? I have Enduring Cry equipped right now and the bonus you get sounds promising to me! Shouldn't I try to pick up nodes on that as well?

Vitality has a mana reservation cost of 40% doesn't even hit 1.0% health regeneration till around skill gem level 10. Definitely not worth it unless you can support the mana cost of all your skills with the mana reservations which is unlikely. It is still worth keeping in your sockets to level up though, at around skill gem level 17 it hits 1.4% life regeneration which is pretty insane when you need to tank more and deal less damage.

You need to choose either spells or melee attacks and then focus on that one strength. Even though the Templar is a hybrid class, the game isn't very forgiving to characters who try to be a "Jack of All Trades". Shield Charge is amazing and provides an instant stun + a very quick way to get to an enemy quickly so you should definitely use it, while Ice Nova can be helpful early game it's not really going to do much late game and you should let your fire witch (who should have temporal chains curse at some point) do most of the CC.

Lightning Strike is great and would require you to change your build around just a little bit as it can be used as both AOE and Single target damage. Basically a build like this will do great elemental damage and still allow you to tank.

Molten Shell doesn't really "Absorb" too much damage, at skill gem level 15 it will absorb 1k damage which isn't a ton, but still gives a bit of breathing room. However, the benefit of molten shell is that it doubles as a huge DPS burst when it explodes after it has taken enough damage. At skill gem level 15 each burst does 766-1149 fire damage (which is increased further by a couple of your elemental damage node passives). The only downside to this skill is that it only lasts about 10 seconds and takes a bit to cast, so it's kind of a risk to do during heavy combat.

Tempest Shield is a great idea, so keep using that.

1) When you pick up a Granite Flask you SHOULD have it on your flask bar at all times. That provides an instant 10,000 armour buff whenever you seriously need it. 2% Movement speed is nothing compared to the other passive i'v asked you to pick up - "Armour Master" which completely removes all movement penalties from armour. So that's +8% movement speed from chest and +4% movement speed from your shield for a total of 12% extra movement speed, which kicks the crap out of 2% :D.

2) Endurance charges are AMAZING, keep them up as frequently as you can be bothered! But honestly without a good macro remembering to do this gets extremely tiresome, frustrating and sometimes it's hard to find enough mobs grouped up together to get all three charges going in one pull. The extra nodes were well worth it before they added a cool-down to the skill, but now the three charges will suffice.

Hope that helps a bit.

"

Eztheal wrote:

Hope that helps a bit.

This actually helps A LOT..thanks again. I'll try to respec some of my points and leave the rest for the reset when we hit January.

There is a problem with the link you posted though...i get an error mesaage saying "The build you are trying to load is using an old version of the passive tree and will not work."
It's strange because I was able to see the first build yesterday and can't access it anymore either. Is GGG remodeling something?

I believe there is an issue with older passive tree links since they changed the way they save(d) game data in one of their recent patches.

Apparently, some of the links work while most of the others do not. If you would like i'd be happy to go ahead and put together the build and link it to you again.

On the contrary, Pure ES or Evasion will beat armour by a LONG shot.

that would be amazing, thanks!
although I hope that they can restore the old skill trees...otherwise all builds that people posted so far will be obsolete. :(