Eldritch Battery and Minion Instability position swap

Why is Eldritch Battery so far away from the Templar starting area?

Templars are pretty much the only class that can take it, since they can easily build enough life and resistances to not need an energy shield and at the same time can make good use of some extra mana.

Minion Instability by comparison is pretty useless to a Templar since Totems don't even count as minions.


EDIT(An overview of the arguments for a swap of Eldritch Battery and Minion Instability):

Why Eldritch Battery is better in Minion Instability's location:
- Of the 3 Energy Shield using classes (Witch, Templar, Shadow) the Templar is the most likely to build EB, since taking it necessitates a build with a lot of life.
- If the other 2 classes took Eldritch Battery they would have to heavily invest in the Templar's area anyway (for the +life passives).

Why Minion Instability is better in Eldritch Battery's location:
- Templar's don't usually take minions, since they are inclined to be tanky AND melee, which is precisely a minion's role. They are supposed to provide a meat shield for squishy casters and ranged attackers.
- Additionally, the "minions" Templars do take - Totems - are not considered minions and are thus not affected by MI (note that Totems also fulfill a different role than minions, they are mainly for support and DPS - Decoy Totem being the exception).
- The other class next to Witches that profits most from minions is the Ranger. MI in the location of EB would put it much closer to the Ranger's area and thus vastly improve a Minion-Ranger build.

I have a templar friend that took the logical step and just added minions to his setup. With all the minion clusters you head by to get Eldritch battery, if you're in that side of the tree anyway, you might as well pick up some minions.

Minions are best for ranged classes.
They are the meat shield that protects the frail caster/ranged attacker from his enemies.

For a melee class (and a tank on top) like the templar they just get in the way.

Any class can be ranged. I'm a Firestorm marauder.

"

Lionguild wrote:

Any class can be ranged. I'm a Firestorm marauder.

Yes, and that's what makes PoE so great. But the skill tree is designed in a way that synergizing skills are grouped together. And Eldritch Battery synergizes with tanky passives which are found on the templar/marauder side of the tree.

"

HealthRex wrote:

Why is Eldritch Battery so far away from the Templar starting area?

Templars are pretty much the only class that can take it, since they can easily build enough life and resistances to not need an energy shield and at the same time can make good use of some extra mana.

Minion Instability by comparison is pretty useless to a Templar since Totems don't even count as minions.

A Witch stacking life could use it also, or Rangers/Shadows not going for Acrobatics. If you'd place Eldritch Battery closer to the Templar it would be kind of an auto-include in most Templar builds as Chaos Innoculation was to Witches before the balancing changes, and that is not what Keystones are meant to be. I mean it's worth the travel from left to right already.

"

HealthRex wrote:

Minions are best for ranged classes.
They are the meat shield that protects the frail caster/ranged attacker from his enemies.

For a melee class (and a tank on top) like the templar they just get in the way.

Templar that go melee normally go south to the marauder area. Templar that go north are normally ranged.

Shadows that use bows normally go south to the ranger area. Shadows that go melee normally head north to pick up CI, GR, and dagger/claw nodes.

Ironically, moving MI would move it away from a somewhat ranged area and into a somewhat melee area.

Sometimes the proximity of EB (a key ES passive) and CI (another key ES passive that's virtually unusable with EB) does bother me, and I wish EB was closer to the Templar start. However, MI is pretty darn good where it is.

I gotta partially disagree. The ENTIRE north of the skill tree is range-inclined.
If one had to name a part of the north that is slightly less ranged-inclined (ie more melee), then this would be the north-east (ie the Witch/Templar region) and NOT the north-west (ie the Witch/Shadow region).
The north-west has plenty of staff/axe/mace/one-handed-melee nodes, while the north-east ONLY has the dagger node. So this is actually another reason to switch EB and MI.

It would also make another logical build - the Minion-Ranger - at lot more viable.

"

Lord_of_Error wrote:

A Witch stacking life could use it also, or Rangers/Shadows not going for Acrobatics. If you'd place Eldritch Battery closer to the Templar it would be kind of an auto-include in most Templar builds as Chaos Innoculation was to Witches before the balancing changes, and that is not what Keystones are meant to be. I mean it's worth the travel from left to right already.

I don't think that it would be an auto-include in Templar builds. Remember that getting the hybrid Templar equipment cuts your armour value in half (compared to the Marauder equipment). Thus Templars rely on the Energy shield for defence. Losing the Energy Shield through Eldritch Battery makes a Templar A LOT more vulnerable to physical damage and generally reduces their tankiness.

As for life-stacking Witches/Rangers/Shadows, they would have to go to the Templar side anyway to stack life in the first place, so it wouldn't really change anything for them.

Also, Keystones are very much positioned near the classes they benefit most. Why else would the CI Keystone you mentioned be placed where it is (and not near the Templar area, for example)?

You don't need that much ES/Armour hybrid gear to make Eldritch Battery work for a Templar.
(1) Skill the "Inner Force"-cycle and you will get 30% increased effect of buffs on you.
(2) Get some ES-increase nodes (e.g. those that also increase your armour).
(3) Activate Discipline, which will get buffed by Inner Force and the ES-nodes. You will get more mana than it reserves, plus you have the higher maximum mana, increasing your base mana regeneration rate by a lot.
So depending on how crazy you want to support your skills, you may not even need to use a single piece of hybrid gear, more than two should never be necessary. And then you are basically able to get several auras and won't need any mana flasks, making room for more life/utility flasks. It would be an auto include unless you deliberately want to skip Eldritch Battery.
The benefit you get is well worth the travel from left to right already, trust me. I'm running Purity, Disciplince, Clarity and Tempest Shield on my caster-templar with completly selffound mediocre gear and can use my main skill (triple supported Fireball) uninterrupted by mana problems, only using a hybrid chest (because of 4L) and shield (because of resistances). I don't even need the ES from those two pieces. It would be great for my character if those Keystones were switched, but I'd seriously consider that a bad decision regarding balancing.
And well, guess you would have to deal with some angry Shadow players as well. ;)