[3.10] Sovyn's Lazy Pally - Tanky Templar with Max Block

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Rubedo5 wrote:

Been trying this build for 69 leveles and I love it.

I have modified some things. I chose Aegis Aurora as my shield, and I'm almost impossible to kill with melee damage, since with so much block (75%) I'm always replenishing my energy shield, and I also pick rainbowstride and stone of Lazhwar to block spells in caster heavy areas. Only things able to kill me are damage auras (since I can't block them) and very unlucky one shots from hard hitting mobs (kole).

As for my attacks, I keep leveling glacial hammer, infernal blow and lightning strike, and adapt to the prominent resistance in the current area. I also use heavy strike and ground slam, both on 4 links. I don't have mana problems with Wurm's Molt, but I find my dps is low, with heavy strike displaying around 5000 damage in game.

I can't find a better weapon, and have been using this

for more than 10 levels.

Since I did get stunned often, I had to take unwavering stance, and abandon all evasion nodes (wasting a lot of dex nodes in the process), but I do agree that the revamped ranger area improved a lot of nodes for this build.

Anyway, I'm taking too long to say this build is not only VERY good for new players, but very adaptable for all kinds of players. The only thing that I think could be improved from this guide is some kind of "hand-holding" suggestions for attack gems, their support gems, and how to pick a good weapon to support it.

GREAT JOB!!!

Thanks so much for your post. :) I'm glad you are having fun!

I have considered the Aegis Aurora myself, just two days ago in fact. It would be a superb variation to the core build. One would of course use gear with some decent ES on it, which is avoided in the core build. However, the Aegis Aurora is very rare. I think the Aegis Aurora combined with a The Bringer of Rain would be seriously overpowered to the point of being broken with this build. Fortunately or unfortunately both pieces are very rare.

5000 DPS is very good for heavy strike. I find with only 4000 DPS heavy strike I am clearing Lunaris at a furious pace, at least by my standards.

In the videos I have less than 3000 DPS. 4000 is a world of difference. I did it by adding leveled up Hatred and by adding faster attacks instead of stun. It's a recent tweak to my gear shown in guide that I am experimenting with. I rolled a 2% mana leech ring and it seems to help. More later.

Personally, I would choose one or at most two of your attack skills and load them up with as many supports as your mana leech/regen can handle.

I am finding conflicting reports about getting stunned. I and several others have never really been stunned. I'd be curious if this is mostly from people with low blocking or low life. Perhaps your life is low-ish since you may be using more ES gear rather than life gear, which is understandable with your shield. That would make you much more susceptible to getting stunned since as you know a stun is determined by the percentage of life that would be taken away in theory if you either block or take the hit. I always focused on life when leveling up, and my gear always by pure chance had block/stun recovery on it. I'd be surprised if someone managed to put together a random set of gear without some block/stun recovery, it seems really common. In any event, the issue does not affect this build more or less than any other melee build without unwavering stance.

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dfscott wrote:

Still plugging along -- now I'm 42 in Act 2 Cruel and starting to run into some trouble. I'm not sure if it's gear, or gem setup. I've recently created what seems to be a pretty good weapon:

But even with 4% mana leech, I'm having mana problems. I think it's due to trying to run HS+MPD+Splash. Splash is a hog and is killing my leech, but if I drop it, I worry about not having an area attack. I used IB earlier, but ran into mana problems there due to so much elemental. (I suppose I could try a mana leech gem).

But enough whining -- I actually have two real questions:

1) What priority do you put on auras? I'm currently running Grace w/ BM (but can't level it past 2 due to dex) and then Determination and Tempest Shield on mana (which leaves little for attacks). I'm debating on dropping Det, but I notice when I don't have it up, so I'm a bit worried to drop it.

2) When do you start crafting your own gear? Most advice says to wait until end-game to actually craft anything, but I'm finding some decently linked armor that seems that it might be worth crafting, even early on. For example:

I can see that fitting my HS+MPD+FA+something-else-red quite nicely!

Should I roll the dice on something like this or will I outlevel it too soon and should wait for a better rare to just drop? Oh, and I'm playing self-found, so obviously I can't be too picky.

Thanks for your follow up!

I do have some answers for you, sorry in advance if they may not be what you want to hear. :)

1) Weapon - the physical damage is too low. Here's what I was using around your level:



With quality you can imagine how that would compare.

With more physical damage your mana leech will work well.

I suggest hitting every tomahawk you find with an alchemy until you get some good physical damage. Don't forget that NPC vendors may sell them too.

Melee Splash is a hog. I suggest multistrike instead. It will alternate your hits between all available nearby foes giving you a pseudo AOE and we do get a +2 melee range passive which helps a bit. With the fact that multistrike hits three times as often it is a better choice than melee splash both for mana reasons and it works great vs. bosses too. I know it is a monster drop only though which makes it harder for self found, but frankly I have the worst luck and even I found one. I think they patched it in when I was in act 2 merciless or thereabouts and I found one pronto pretty much. Never did find another though.

IB + added fire damage + weapon elemental damage + mana leech support gem (it works with fire damage unlike leech on gear pieces) would be a viable choice as well. However late game a lot of monsters are fire resistant vs. few are physical resistant.

Auras: Determination, grace (on life), purity, tempest. Once you have your defensive auras down you can think about offensive ones. As you progress you will get the 10% reduced mana reserved from the tree per the guide, and you will want to find or get from quest rewards as many reduced mana gems as you can and level those up. I'm currently running 6 auras and still using my remaining 41 mana to chain my skill. :)

Crafting: Alchemy you will find fairly often... I might use a few before end game. Save the scours and chaos though, those are a bit rarer. I'd only try hitting an item with alchemy when you are in a pinch like on your weapon. Otherwise I'd wait and use them on level 62+ base items (shields being somewhat of an exception since they are so important).

Thanks so much -- I'm glad there's an easy fix for the weapon. I haven't leveled a character this high before (alt-itis!) so I wasn't really sure what I was aiming for, weaponwise. I'd rather hear "your weapon sux" than hear "your weapon's fine - LTP!"

I actually found a multistrike on one of my other characters (which by my rules, counts as "self-found"), so I will give it a shot. I did not realize that it alternated between targets, so hopefully that should solve my AOE issues.

Thanks again for a great build -- looking forward to getting back on track!

For lowbies trying this build (I am lvl 29 - Act 2 normal, Anarchy league), I found a skill chain which is pretty fun and not very mana intensive if done right:

1) Gems Needed: Molten Shell, Tempest Shield
2) Optional (+1 to lazy): Enduring Cry, Enfeeble

Basically helps for those with mana problems and hate to keep potting and spamming 1 skill non-stop. This works as well even if you have a rare monsters or boss with lots of minions, you have to be a bit more hardworking though, unless you can split the rare/boss and the minions.

(Tempest Shield Always On)
1) Run around pulling melee mobs (if you have ranged mobs mixed in it is ok but you have to run back into their group - !!AVOID EXPLODING MONSTERS/EXPLODE THEM BEFORE STOPPING!!)
2) Molten Shell
3) Mana Pot + HP pot
4) Enfeeble (helps reduce hp pot usage, you can also use on bosses)
5) Enduring Cry (further reduces dmg on you - you can charge up to max if you want and keep it flowing if you have enough monsters on your tail, but I am lazy)
6) Repeat steps 2 to 5 as needed (Molten Shell must be refreshed everytime it goes down, skip it if less than 2 monsters hitting you or only ranged left)
7) ...
8) Profit

I usually end up with full hp and mana at the end. I would think once I maxed my block chance (tempest shield shocks affect ranged too) and had a purity gem (for those pesky casters) this may get even better. Stick in a couple of reflects and you should be good to go.

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Thanks so much for your post. :) I'm glad you are having fun!

I have considered the Aegis Aurora myself, just two days ago in fact. It would be a superb variation to the core build. One would of course use gear with some decent ES on it, which is avoided in the core build. However, the Aegis Aurora is very rare. I think the Aegis Aurora combined with a The Bringer of Rain would be seriously overpowered to the point of being broken with this build. Fortunately or unfortunately both pieces are very rare.

5000 DPS is very good for heavy strike. I find with only 4000 DPS heavy strike I am clearing Lunaris at a furious pace, at least by my standards.

In the videos I have less than 3000 DPS. 4000 is a world of difference. I did it by adding leveled up Hatred and by adding faster attacks instead of stun. It's a recent tweak to my gear shown in guide that I am experimenting with. I rolled a 2% mana leech ring and it seems to help. More later.

Personally, I would choose one or at most two of your attack skills and load them up with as many supports as your mana leech/regen can handle.

I am finding conflicting reports about getting stunned. I and several others have never really been stunned. I'd be curious if this is mostly from people with low blocking or low life. Perhaps your life is low-ish since you may be using more ES gear rather than life gear, which is understandable with your shield. That would make you much more susceptible to getting stunned since as you know a stun is determined by the percentage of life that would be taken away in theory if you either block or take the hit. I always focused on life when leveling up, and my gear always by pure chance had block/stun recovery on it. I'd be surprised if someone managed to put together a random set of gear without some block/stun recovery, it seems really common. In any event, the issue does not affect this build more or less than any other melee build without unwavering stance.

I was around 2500 life when I had to pick Unwavering stance to avoid stuns. My energy shield is actually very low (around 600) but it's enough since every time it goes down, it goes back up through blocking. And about attack skills, I actually only have 2 of them gemmed at a time, heavy strike, and an elemental one. As an example, In a Fire resist heavy area, I support Glacial Hammer in my gear, but I carry Infernal Blow and Lightning Strike in the alternate weapon slot to keep them leveled. I was also considering Bringer of Rain, but I don't have one, and even if I did, having a chest piece with 5L or 6L could be more beneficial. Anyway, I'm on lvl 70 now and I'll keep reporting my findings!

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dfscott wrote:

Still plugging along -- now I'm 42 in Act 2 Cruel and starting to run into some trouble. I'm not sure if it's gear, or gem setup. I've recently created what seems to be a pretty good weapon:

But enough whining -- I actually have two real questions:

1) What priority do you put on auras?

2) When do you start crafting your own gear?

I use elemental weapons with weapon elemental damage and a mana leech gem. allthough not self found but like using the things i find so to buy something it must be alot better and cheap...I use Lightning strike so can use any 1h weapon, so far i dont Think ive ever found a claw to use that has been near as good dps as dagger/axes/swords
my current weapon at level 49, think ive had this one for a while now...


1. depends on the area or if its a boss. i useally run anger+hatred while clearing areas i know are safe. and when i go sell trash or if its a special boss i switch then its grace+tempest shield. Still leveling my purity, determination, vitality, Wrath but not using them.

2. As soon as i need something, I did craft my chestarmour yesterday, did find a 6s White armor that has the gems i want. did just for fun use 20armor scraps + 4 fusing but no luck Before i used an alch orb and was very happy to switch from my old level 20armour...tip is to use armour/weapon scraps Before you use an orb, because they are 5x more effective on White then on yellow items.


Third attempt on HC with this build .-)
This time more balanced between evasion and armour.

@Dfscott

I speak from my character point of view.
He's level 75, running level 68 maps alone, with decent purchased items.

1) About auras.
Offensive.
If you play heavily physical damage, Hatred is your best aura, because it's based on a porcentage from your physical damage.
Anger and Wrath are good if you play heavily elemental damage. Like Infernal Blow + Weapon Elemental Damage, having some Increased elemental damage on gear, and probably pulling more elemental damage nodes on skill tree.

I'd prefer Anger over Wrath as strength won't be a problem, but intelligence could limit your Wrath level.
Except if you decide going heavily on lighting damage, Static Blow blah blah

If you are physical, maybe Anger or Wrath won't add too much dps so you decide it's not worth using any of them.

Once again I think the core build suits better with physical damage. More physical damage nodes taken on your way to maximize block, easier mana management : less mana required, able to leech mana using gear...

Defensive.
You could use Grace or Determination.
I'd say it depends on your preferences. If you feel comfortable with having armour gear, Determination is your aura. If you decide having a high avoidance, Grace is your choice.
Determination adds a percentage from your armour so it works excellent if you try to maximize your armour on gear, use Molten Shell, granite flask...
I think most people using this build go armour over evasion (of course, we all mix, but you can priorize one over the other).
I decided to priorize evasion. I run Grace but no Determination.
On end game, maybe you will be able to run both, being Grace on your life.

Utility.
Clarity low leveled to help a bit on mana. Using Mana leech gem or Mana leech gear + physical damage is far away more effective than Clarity.
Purity when you're levelling if you aren't cap.
In the end, you should be able to play without any of them.

2) About crafting time.
Throwing a few jewel, fusing, chromatic, augmentation, alteration, won't hurt you too much.
But save most of them for act3 merciless or further.
If you aren't self found its cheaper to buy a non godly item than crafting.

My character has gone shopping,

It has boosted my chance to evade to 51%, buffed with Grace.
My block chance is 74%, I'll cap again when I level up.

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Rubedo5 wrote:

I was also considering Bringer of Rain, but I don't have one, and even if I did, having a chest piece with 5L or 6L could be more beneficial.

I think it's safe to say that The Bringer of Rain is better than any chest + helmet for this build. :)

1) It's a 7 link for this build. I only recommend using one attack skill, so there ya go - super powerful. Blind is amazing when combined with evasion.

2) 15% block, leaves quite a few more nodes to spend elsewhere.

3) Decent armour and high evasion fits perfectly with the build, hard to beat this even with a good chest + helmet;

4) Free passive endurance charges as you block. Perfect for being lazy.

5) Won't lose any life potential if not using Koam's already.

6) 20-30 physical damage is probably like 1000 more DPS.

Not that I'll ever have one, but it can't be beat.

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kahoraho wrote:

You could use Grace or Determination.
I'd say it depends on your preferences.

All good advice as always.

However, I'd say to run both of these auras at all times. Determination on mana and Grace on life with a blood magic support gem. BM gem can be had from the Mercy Mission quest in act 1 Cruel. Grace will be a monster drop for the Templar. It's common though.