[1.3] HC Templar Arc - Tanky and powerful hardcore build from scratch

Update 2:

Which bandits did you pick?

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Akymo86 wrote:

Which bandits did you pick?

Oak
Kill all
Kill all


The build has 2 power nodes available right next to trees if you want to increase those later for crit, no need for other charges. If you want 3% cast speed then get it with a node not the bandit, if you don't want 3% cast speed get something else with the node. You get life because its HC.

Nevermind, died at level 21 on a level 20 map, got 1 shotted by a rare pack. Oh well....

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Akymo86 wrote:

Nevermind, died at level 21 on a level 20 map, got 1 shotted by a rare pack. Oh well....

Re-roll dude! PM in game, I'll help.

Build update

Build update (potential end game build)



When the patch hits this build in its current state will not be viable but I thought I would give a quick update to how my character is going.

Current build at 86:


Next point of interest skill wise would be going down to grab Vaal Pact since I'm actually doing enough damage to really hurt myself on singular reflect in big packs.

I spent a week re-gearing to use a Lightning Coil and its immensely worth it. My physical defense is so much better than it used to be and I feel like I can take twice as many hits. I did Merciless Dom on HC the other day and he was an absolute pushover, I never dropped below 90% HP and the whole thing was over in less than 2 minutes, I was surprised at its ease. I'm now sitting at just under 5.2kp hitting around 12.5k DPS which increases to 15k when popping Vaal Haste.

I also switched out the haste aura to accomodate for the mana I lose when equipping Lightning Coil and now run Clarity, Purity of Lightning, Herald of Thunder, Herald of Ice and alternating between Vaal Haste and Vaal Grace depending on my situation.

I will be getting beta access very soon and intend straight away to test the viability of Arc and Arctic Armor with the EB changes to see if I can salvage this build when the nerf-gun hits.

Current gear:

Not sure about ideal CWDT levels?

Level 6 Cast When Damage Taken
Level 7 Immortal Call
Level 8 Enduring Cry
Level 20 Increased Duration

??Good??

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TallTimbers wrote:

Not sure about ideal CWDT levels?

Level 6 Cast When Damage Taken
Level 7 Immortal Call
Level 8 Enduring Cry
Level 20 Increased Duration

??Good??

I'm not sure it wouldn't take many scourings to try it out if it goes wrong. I was going to up CWDT levels but I realised I A) didn't need to and B) its getting changed so much I was looking at other options such as molten shell and maybe frost wall, need to mitigate phys damage with CWDT that's its only purpose. You can see the CWDT set up in my gloves from last post.

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Kickaha wrote:

I very much like this build you have and am also playing around with Arc in the 2.0 beta. I do have 2 suggestions to further optimize your final tree, though. First, I would trade 4x 5% max life nodes from the Scion Wheel of Life and take the Written in Blood wheel instead. You get the same 20% max life plus 25% max energy shield and +10 strength. Second, I would trade the 2x 3% increased cast speed nodes next to Elemental Dominion in the Witch area for Coordination and a 4% increased cast speed node next to Trickery in the Shadow area. You get 10% cast speed and +20 dexterity instead of 6% cast speed. I do, of course, realize the tree will be changing when 2.0 is released so this may be moot.

Thanks a lot for the support mate I'm in the process of going through it in the beta but I've been so busy with work I haven't invested too much into it with the wipe happening anytime now. This build felt strong as hell and I want to try everything to save it with the EB changes, I even got into the top 50 open US PVP in a day without even really trying and this build is HC surviviability and aoe clear speed with bad single target DPS no crit.... so that says a lot about the power you can squeeze out of it.

I am going to revise the skill tree to maybe opt into a little more crit since arc has had a very minor nerf but we're going to lose a lot of damage from potentially dropping an aura thanks to the mana usage. I think I want to try out EB since I can already feel mana problems without even running arctic armor at level 50ish so there's a lot of work to do, the problem is you can't help your ES with EB via Zealots Oath because you need Vaal Pact to survive end game. I'm gonna be posting updates and revisions to live build and will go through a few beta builds before its optimised.

All I can say is being a caster in 2.0 is twice as hard and you need to spend a lot of points to invest into mana. I'll be trying more aura nodes out too.