[1.1.0] TankyTotems - Dual Searing Bond Templar

First off I have to say that as a new player (played back in jan 2013 and quit, just got back) that for a new player this build is still solid as hell. I got sb right after they just threw on the hotfix (lvl 1 sb gem has 28% less dmg and the % lowers til even at 20) and things still melt instantly. Rares go down in seconds and uniques a few seconds later. Key point to address is to use flammability on anything that can be a pain.

Problem I have is with clarity, I had to de-level the gem twice just so I can throw out 2 totems back to back w/o waiting inbetween. It reserves I think 240 mana now (was 280) and i only have about 500 total. Sadly no gear I have has anything remotely invested in mana as I'm trying to keep my resists capped and armor as close to 40% as I can.

Just killed Piety in merc, dropped a tabula rasa for me and its such a quick farm I'm just going to farm her for a bit to see what else I can get off her.

Tabula seems real nice being 6 sockets of any color, but if I used it i'd be so gimped in defenses =(. I'm still using a +1 fire gem scepter linked with sb/burning dmg/totem+minion resists. Wish it had other stats on it.

What's the consensus on the Growth and Decay nodes by MoM?

At what point does eldritch battery start becoming important. At ~40 I'm just starting cruel difficulty and everything still melts with hilariously little effort. I have traps for EE and curses for more damage but they are wholly unnecessary except on act bosses and other really tough mobs.

I'm curious now whether I should head south toward IR and grab up all the health and survivability along the way or head east into eldritch battery. I have nothing resembling any mana problems with clarity and purity of elements running and I don't know whether the extra ~300 mana I'd get from my energy shield would make the difference and let me run another aura or not.

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Agent355 wrote:

At what point does eldritch battery start becoming important. At ~40 I'm just starting cruel difficulty and everything still melts with hilariously little effort. I have traps for EE and curses for more damage but they are wholly unnecessary except on act bosses and other really tough mobs.

I'm curious now whether I should head south toward IR and grab up all the health and survivability along the way or head east into eldritch battery. I have nothing resembling any mana problems with clarity and purity of elements running and I don't know whether the extra ~300 mana I'd get from my energy shield would make the difference and let me run another aura or not.

I'm guessing it matters once you start linking you SB with mana multiplier supports and when you start running multiple auras and Arctic Armor. My guess is that you're probably ok until mid to late 60s.

So is the Searing Touch endgame viable for this build or should I be looking for two good sceptres?

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ChillQuill wrote:

So is the Searing Touch endgame viable for this build or should I be looking for two good sceptres?

I haven't gotten to high level maps with SB yet. It seems that in the HC game modes that since you have dedicate so many nodes to HPs, defense, etc that you certainly sacrifice on DPS in the late game. To what extent, I'll have to let someone higher level provide that answer. However, if you're playing softcore, you can probably get away with many more DPS nodes making the build much more viable from a DPS stand point.

The one general comment I've heard is that this ends up being a great solo'er build, but is quite lackluster in parties, specifically larger ones.

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Innuit wrote:

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ChillQuill wrote:

So is the Searing Touch endgame viable for this build or should I be looking for two good sceptres?

I haven't gotten to high level maps with SB yet. It seems that in the HC game modes that since you have dedicate so many nodes to HPs, defense, etc that you certainly sacrifice on DPS in the late game. To what extent, I'll have to let someone higher level provide that answer. However, if you're playing softcore, you can probably get away with many more DPS nodes making the build much more viable from a DPS stand point.

The one general comment I've heard is that this ends up being a great solo'er build, but is quite lackluster in parties, specifically larger ones.

Don´t know what are high level maps for you, but I do 69/70 maps solo with Searing Touch. If I party its really just for xp, cause it is a little frustrating (not super bad though) to see you damage in a full party but solo is quite nice, even though doing high level maps is not a priority for me with this character.

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Innuit wrote:

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ChillQuill wrote:

So is the Searing Touch endgame viable for this build or should I be looking for two good sceptres?

I haven't gotten to high level maps with SB yet. It seems that in the HC game modes that since you have dedicate so many nodes to HPs, defense, etc that you certainly sacrifice on DPS in the late game. To what extent, I'll have to let someone higher level provide that answer. However, if you're playing softcore, you can probably get away with many more DPS nodes making the build much more viable from a DPS stand point.

The one general comment I've heard is that this ends up being a great solo'er build, but is quite lackluster in parties, specifically larger ones.

Did you mean to quote me? That didn't have much to do with my question.

How can you farm merc dominus exactly? I have 2300 hp, 3k armor +3k from granite + arctic armor around lvl 15, all resistances capped and dark phase dominus ( or his miscreations in dozens) just one-shot me. extra 300 hp would make no difference....
Piety and all the way to dark form is easy though.
I dont have shock nova with quality, so i use ice nova mainly + elemental weakness, so no problem with dps.
Ps. Video will be great ;p

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tntultra wrote:

How can you farm merc dominus exactly? I have 2300 hp, 3k armor +3k from granite + arctic armor around lvl 15, all resistances capped and dark phase dominus ( or his miscreations in dozens) just one-shot me. extra 300 hp would make no difference....
Piety and all the way to dark form is easy though.
I dont have shock nova with quality, so i use ice nova mainly + elemental weakness, so no problem with dps.
Ps. Video will be great ;p

Heyo :)

I do him without too much problems. I got MoM and it really helps imo. I have like 2600 life and like 500 unreserved mana..

GL :)

edit: Here my lousy gear just for reference (waiting to get my race rewards..). My amulet and ring really have to be upgraded: