PLEASE help me : Templar Melee Summoner

That's also a good way to do it I think - looks good!


I do have a couple of comments and recommendations, but first I'll just make sure I've understood the build correctly, so I'll start with the assumptions:

Considering you picked Ancestral Bond I assume you are going to totemize (I can't believe I was able to use a zork reference in a normal sentence) your spells and not actively throw them yourself. I'll also assume that you will want to go all the line to include the Lord of the Dead cluster as fast as possible, since that is the strongest single cluster for summons.

Considering how strong a bonus Necromantic Aegis is for your minions I will also assume that the time spent swinging a staff will get heavily reduced as you gain in levels, since they will also get all the magic boni as well and not just the block, armor and shield. Say, for sake of argument, you get a spike shield (reflects damage) with bonus damage on attack and extra health (for bigger boom when they go down). With N.Aegis you propagate that to 8 zombies constantly. That's always going to be a whole lot more effective than swinging a stick you have no passive skills for. I dare say that unless your staff is really godly, even a regular white spike shield is going to yield better results.


So considering that the playstyle of this build looks to be going in the direction of sceptre+shield and hanging back planting totems, I took some liberties with your build:

- I changed the transition into Witch area and removed some redundant pathing a few places in the build to free up the points.
- Added Lord of the Dead via the ES/Life cluster on the way.
- Used the points freed up in the Shield Master cluster
- And added Elemental Equilibrium, so you can put down one totem of each element and melt face.

Alternatively you can free up some of the points now spent on shield block/defense and get Hex Master and Whispers of Doom, since Ancestral Bond isn't stopping you from putting curses on stuff. I'd probably do that personally, just to have more to do during a fight. ;)
Then it's a matter of curse-curse-totem-totem-popcorn. Although most of the time it'll just be totem-totem-loot.
Or, you can put them in the Blast Radius cluster (just above Lord of Death) instead and get even bigger aoe!

Here's the final build: I call it The Totemizer

"

Thanks =)

My approach was a bit different. I tried something pretty new (and maybe stupid).

I took necromantic aegis and minion instability.

And then I switch regularly between Shield + mace And Staff.
When I want my minions to do most of the jobs, I switch to Shield+Mace, which allows necromantic aegis to significantly boost them.

I use glacial hammer, frost nova and electric nova for the damage.

When I want to do more damage personally, I switch to staff. There I use sweep, glacial hammer, frost nova, electric nova. The staff will deal more damage.
Also, my minions will tend to explode more often, which in some circumstance is useful, for example skeleton spam a boss or massive crowd to death..


I'm neither specialized in mace or staff, I only took elemental damage passive. That way I boosted the two simultaneously.

I also took body and soul and all the defensive stuff.


The Shield+Mace and staff switching allowed me for a very divers play style, which is what I was looking for, since I tend to get bored quickly otherwise.


My armies of minion is also extremely diverse :
-Specter
-skeleton
-zombie
-dominating blows
-Totem (either damage totem or decoy).


Here is my utmost final objective build : http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUABVs3R2usRUeLjJ_fPAXvfOFz7SBG14TEm-yK5K9sxPYn7ayqcql82VnzWissp6PyMtG4k6cI2QsqmPqAj0bQ0JuhSOcdFOvuKPqCx9P7qH1akWqslSBGcREPsHe0DJMnv5fJPfIexYp8uySLPQ_p1Qz3JCWePIFvTdiMdjrY7DgaOKeEkFUpT4Kb5CIabKasiECQM_fXzLwQl0QETbmqxIVgV-J35TKJBLMCcRRN8B_AGmaecU2az0NjtzFY9Z3E


What do you think?

some things you did wrong:
1; you dont get any benefit form shield passives on your minions or you if you take necromantic aegis. so you can take them off and use the points elsewhere

2; if you take dual totem passive then you longer do damg. so your melee would be mute.

3; some of your pathing gets overlapped and you could change some to get more points to spend elsewhere

Myself i opted for dominating blow+increased duration; skeletton summoning totem; lightning strike+%elemental dmg (gonna add extra projectiles gem to it when will have enough mana to sustain such a drain). This way i'm packing quite a punch myself + taking care of aoe easily while minions are pretty much fire and forget meatshield.

Imo Necro Aegis all out summon build is better suited for Witch - better position in tree, can easilly pick double totem+double curse along with all minion passives without taking useless extras. Although i shelved my witch becouse summons are in fail state atm generally - tbh i can clear everything with lightning strike spam without bothering with skellies and dominating blow. Atm summoning is a flavour, not a force to rely on...

I'm trying something similar.

I want to do as much dmg as possible with Lightningstrike while the Summons are basically my defense.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUBBLMFWxCXEQ8TzBVQGekaOBpsI00o-ilPKpgyiTOWQDZBP0GMRAREckZxRtdI50_zUeZR-VfiWD1Z81qRZ71qrHKpcz982YErgpuCx4TEhWCIQIuMj0aQM5BVlIeVIJuhna6exaIApqynCKeEqH2qUqrErKqwd7QvtPm4k8AazLfMvNDQ0_vVddkL3sHfsuFz5CLkrevu7Djsy-0g8B_yzvcy99f6gA==

What do you guys think? I'm really torn on Necromantic Aegis.

I must have missed this thread when I was seeking advice yesterday on my Melee/Necro build.

I'm currently level 21 (1H + Shield). Here is my skill tree: LINK

This is currently what I want my final build to be (similar to many builds linked in this thread): LINK

I tried to move around and spread the points over critical chance/damage, defenses (armour, block, energy shield), and elemental resistance/damage.

However, from what I gather accuracy and crit stacking are avoided? Most people choose to Resolute Technique, but I was hoping to get big crit damage. Is that pointless for a Templar?

As you can see the only Keystone I have is Minion Instability, as I could not find any other Keystone that was helpful for my build. Feedback?

"

As for the totem spell casting, I hadn't thought about that. It does sounds like an excellent idea. I'm still fairly new to the support gems stuff, so how does that really work?

Hey, it was your idea. You included the double totem keystone in your original build. ;)
It basically does what it says on the tin, really. You get to place a second totem, where the normal max is one.
So just to take an example, let's say you want a totem that spams Ice Nova where it is placed.
You would then need an item with at least two linked sockets - one red and one blue. Blue because the Ice Nova is an int gem, and red because the Spell Totem support gem is strength. Very important that the sockets are linked.
Then just plop those gems in there and voilá - you now summon a totem at mouse cursor that casts Ice Nova for 15-30 seconds.

"

-And won't the totem oriented build make my hammer melee obsolete? I still want to have a build that rewards me for being near the front-line, flanking the enemy (fighting minions) with the hammer.

I don't think so. I have to admit I've never tested Ancestral Bond myself, but if you look at the wording it says "You can't deal Damage with your Skills yourself."
So by that one would assume whacking things over the head is still allowed.

"

-Are the totems support gems difficult to come by?

Not at all. As a Templar you get it as a reward from quests in Cruel difficulty and above, just keep an eye out for it. I think the first time you see it is from the Siren's Last Cadence quest on Cruel.

"

-I'm currently lvl 26 in Act 2, so would that be an appropriate build right now?

Totem spell-casting really does sound cool.

That wouldn't work, unfortunately. The Spell Totem support gem starts at level 31, but even then you'd probably want to focus on your other summons first.
And in order to really cash out from the totems you do want Elemental Equilibrium before grabbing Ancestral Bond to help offset the drawbacks of the totems.

Because totems do have their price. They get -40% damage and -30% cast time is the main reason I'm not too keen on them in the first place. That said, being able to have two up at the same time compensates for that, and if they are of different elements, they will effectively boost each other by 50% thanks to Elemental Equilibrium.
If anyone can do it, the Totemizer can!

I'd say as a bare minimum (we have to remember to have fun and be viable while building up as well) you would be spending 58 points before you should consider it, so something like this.
Beware that you will not have the second cluster of Body and Soul, and not have all your summons, and not maximized them yet.
But it'll work, of that I am pretty certain.

And if it doesn't, just refund the 3 skills spent in order to get the Ancestral Bond and put them in Resolute Technique instead.


All that being said, Banezilla here is absolutely spot on when it comes to the shield passives not applying to the summons. And continuing that thought, neither does Resolute Technique. So those points are probably better spent elsewhere.
In short, none of your summons get any of the passive skill boni unless specifically stated. Which means no extra elemental damage from attacks, no extra life or defenses, and no extra aoe range etc. Only what the minion/totem passives yield explicitly.
Which also means that those points can be spent elsewhere to boost your personal defenses (note you don't get any effect of a shield yourself with Necromantic Aegis) or further boost minions.

Hope this helps :)