[1.3] Need Help - Theorycrafting a Templar Summoning MF Build

Hi! So I've been having fun playing my Witch in the Torment league, but I've gotten to the point where I'm starting to die more frequently, especially to lockboxes. While I'm by no means giving up on her, I do wish for a change of pace for a bit, so I'm considering making a new Templar with a MF build in mind.

The Goal - A Summoner that uses mainly Zombies/Skeletons as tanks with Flame Totem as back-up damage. The idea is that monsters would attack the minions and ignore the totems. Leveling would be simple - spec into some basic mana regen nodes up till BM and use Fireball with Zombies until I get FT, then spec out of mana regen once I can get BM. I'm gonna go for 2 5-links via chest/staff eventually, though I'm still working out the exact gem set-up I'll be using as far as support. I know I'll want to run Purity of Fire/Elements at least, and I'll probably have at least 1 CWDT 4-link set up for 'Oh $#!7' moments.

The Roadblocks - I'm trying to ideally beef up both my minions and totems so that my minions have good life/survivability to tank monsters and deal moderate damage while the good chunk of my DPS comes from my FT while maintaining high life/regen. I feel like I've accomplished this to a certain extent but I also feel that my survivability is fairly weak, especially for a BM build. This is also an expensive build point-wise, as it utilizes every last point to squeeze out max efficiency, so I don't have much wiggle room.

The Needed Help - I need help increasing my total life without sac'ing regen too much minion/totem damage, as I find I'm having a bit of trouble getting enough totem dps with this build (hence my taking the minion instability node). So far I've managed to get it to +100 in the tree but I feel like I've missed something obvious and could use another pair of eyes for critique. I've done the best I can with the little experience that I have (only been playing for about 3 weeks, mostly messing around with a couple of pre-made builds and 1 failed templar build) so any critique at this point would be appreciated.

Here is my completed tree so far: https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgUARUeIQKaskDMy0biTpwjZCyqY-oCdrhpsNukkqhZv42r60o9GSOeboffXEmkXHHF5wGaaO4KbBLOiAKyYOlhVxoPbBAcfAjI0r7eHZRBYLJzsimvbfRgI9MBUakO86qeUXl3R_e081abtIOw4njyMdrcxwBpxhXrmY_1mnljlwxNaK6PyWfOsqnKp9zLqGPjrFHEOPN-_Jbwsp0rE9q4i9GwLDY3wH2jyxPY8LcauHKcMX1Ol6-4o-oLH0_sTbAZJaqzyHr-XyT0c3Hsg_ocQzPiTggfZfEbXTLNDyE8Ep1V8DlugLR-VIGsX

As I said, suggestions on how to handle a build like this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey.. I would think about dropping Grave Intentions.. The extra zombie and skeleton don't have too much impact imo.. And the chaos resist is pointless as you are okay with your minions exploding.

Also, while it's nice planning out a build to 117 points I think it would be more useful for you to plan it out stage by stage, so that you can think about the efficiency of the progress rather than the end goal.

I think this the below quite a lot more efficient than you current idea, and I would also probably think about removing the herd of the flock nodule, as you don't really care if your zombies etc die, so long as the HP is more so that the explosion/burn is greater.


What's your purpose for moving down into blood magic btw? Remember than any auras you cast are going to effectively cost you more life if you have more life (i.e. 60% of 4k life > 60% of 3k life)..

I was moving into BM so that I don't have to worry about mana/mana regen, that way I could just concentrate all of my efforts into Life/Life Regen, thus solving my need for mana management and the need to balance that with my effective health. I was originally thinking of going EB but then I'd have to invest in ES and with this particular build that would tank my survivability by tons.

I also need the minions to have at least some survivability as most of the damage will be coming from Flame Totem and not minions blowing up. MI is just there to supplement the damage of the Totems for when the minions start to die off, which would make for faster clear speed. Also, while I'll be using a regular Raise Zombie gem, I'll be planning to use Vaal Raise Skeleton for the Skeleton army rather than regular Skeletons. Or at least, that's my intent for now. I'll have to experiment with that concept and see how it works out.

I honestly didn't think about that with the auras. That actually saves me a bunch of points then since it wouldn't be viable even with the points into the less mana reserved nodes! I can't believe I overlooked that... T_T

I like your revised tree, though the minions aren't as survivable. There is potential for more life regen though than in my other build so that kinda balances it out since I could put the extra life regen to use by summoning more zombies.

Like I said, all of this is still in the concept stage, so everything is subject to change. Thanks for the help Sly, I really appreciate it. :)

Edit: Also, keep in mind that I want to run as much MF as possible on all gear, that means minimizing the need for extra stats, which BM accomplishes in spades. Also, since this is a non-crit build, I don't have to go out of my way to find crit chance/multi for this set up. Just getting extra spell/fire damage would be enough of a dps boost to this build to function properly in solo-play and maps, or at least, on paper it does. I'd need to level up a Templar far enough to actually test that, but you get the idea behind it... :P