Path of Exile CI Totem Templar Build by BazzV5
I've had a few people ask recently about my current Templar build so I've decided to share the basics.
Why a Templar with CI you ask?
Well there's a number of reasons but first and foremost was a recent forum discussion on the usability and effectiveness of Arm/ES as an armour type,(the default for Templar's). The
argument was that Arm/ES was the weakest armour type and begged the question, has anyone "really" tested Arm/ES to a reasonably high level in combination with CI?
Well I thought I'd put it to the test and as a point of difference, I also added a self-imposed restriction of not borrowing any existing items from shared Stash in order to test the build as a candidate for a primary char in Open Beta.
Well after 6 days of play and 19 days since character creation, I feel it's now close enough to completion to make a fair assessment of both CI with Arm/ES and Dual Totem's as a primary
attack skill.
The Numbers:
Name:BazzVfourteen
Level: 78
Intelligence: 395
Strength:157
Dexterity:115
Def:
Energy Shield: 7K
Armour: 2561
Life:1
Mana:702
Evasion:440
Resists: F/C/R 80%/74%/80%
Blocking: 34%
Primary Attack - Spork Totems
DPS:705
Crit Chance:27%
Crit Multi: 584%
Shock Duration Increase: 60%
Additional Chance to Shock: 25%
Secondary Attack - Ice Spear Totems
DPS:652
Crit Chance:32%
Crit Multi: 584%
Chill Duration Increase: 76%
In terms of defence I think the numbers stack up pretty well. The #1 Witch on Default recently that said that you don't need more than 7K ES to be effective. Well I'm not gonna argue that number as it's likely correct for a witch but I will say that when you play as a Totemancer and then add 2500+ Armour, 34% Blocking and close to 80% resist-all, that number is a lot lower than 7K. This char is a tank and with the added bonus of 100% immunity to Chaos damage from the CI node it's just the cream on top of the cake.
I set out in the beginning aiming for 6.5K ES and 2.5K armour, (as that's about the highest amount of HP+ES I've managed on my life build marauders), and managed to surpass it without any great investment in equipment but I'll get to that a bit soon.
Offensively this build uses dual totems as the only source of damage. Spork Totems are the primary attack as they have a reasonably good killing speed but having said that they are also somewhat behind say a well geared melee char when it comes to clearing maps. This I see as a fair trade off when using a play style that is much, much safer than getting face to face with the enemy. Spork Totems are efficient against the majority of mob types as well as slow moving bosses, (ie. most of them), but they do tend to struggle greatly against ranged elemental mobs.
Secondary attack is the old trusty Ice Spear totem. Used in combination with Temporal Chains, Ice Spear totems will turn all mobs on the screen to ice blocks. Killing speed is a
little slower than using the primary attack but is a perfect foil for the ranged elemental mobs than Spork struggles against.
The thing I like a lot about this build is that it's much less item dependant than chars I've played in the past. With no 5L or 6L requirement it's much easier to keep this character progressing. The items I'm currently wearing would only consider as being good or maybe even very good but definately not top end except possibly the chest. Even so, you can see the item level on the chest is level 70 so up until reaching that clvl I was using one with much lower rolls to both Armour and ES. Chest, helm and boots were chosen for their high ES rolls and the gloves, (Maligaros), well only because I really like them. They are definately not a required item but they do add a nice little bump to DPS.
Jewellery and belts are primarily selected to maintain the high level of elemental resists as well as adding a small amount of IIQ/IIR. Ideally the jewllery pieces would all have some mana regen as well but I wasn't lucky enough in play through to find anything that fit the bill.
Auras and mana reservation
Only two skills that reserve mana are being used with the first being Disciple. This aura provides a very nice boost to ES so is a no-brainer especially so if your ES is still a little low once having taken CI. The second skill with a mana reservation is Tempest Shield. I'm not sure how I feel about this skill so it's definately optional. It does add 4% blocking and once levelled does enough damage to kill white mobs but could easily get by without it.
Both skills are supported by the Reduced Mana gem and my mana pool is left with around 400 mana once both skills have been activated.
Skill Tree
If you have a close look at the skill tree you'll note that I took the skill points reward from bandits at each difficulties and I think this could be done better. One of the goals for all my chars is to reach max resists, or at least get as close as possible, in order to free choices with jewellery and belt. Yes you can get max resists from items worn but it makes it all the more difficult to find suitable jewellery when looking to maintain max resists while stacking up on IIQ/IIR. For Open Beta I plan to take the resists as the Bandits quest reward as it will result in 17% more resists to all than using the 4 x skill points I used to get Diamond Skin.
Other than that the tree has a substantial investment in ES, Crit and Crit Multi. The most efficent use of allocating skill points is much of a muchness when choosing to chase ES nodes for CI, or HP nodes for a life build, but the CI build has the potential to get a much higher starting pool of hit points.
Stacking Crit chance and crit multi nodes, alongside Static Blows and Shock, means lots and lots of shock stacks. This is what makes the Spork totems so effective at killing with their relaitvely low DPS and it also completely negates the need for a caster skill. I do have Arc linked to Faster Casting available but it's never used and is never needed.
Gem Chains
Spork Totem: Spell Totem linked to Spark, Fork and Elemental Proliferation
Ice Spear Totem: Spell Totem linked to Ice Spear, Elemental Proliferation and Lesser Multiple Projectiles
Tempest Shield: Tempest Shield linked to Iron Will and Reduced Mana
Curses: Conductivity, Tempest Chains, Discipline linked to Reduced Mana
Flasks
3 x Diamonds and 2 Mana
I've had just a single death since taking the CI node and that was due to a prolonged attack by Cold Snap. My first Diamond now has Dispel Frozen so no longer an issue.
Play style
Pretty straight forward for most mobs. Cast two Spork totems and curse with Conductivity, (or substitute with Elemental Weakness if in a party), and stand near the totems as thats the safest place on the screen. Doesn't get much lazier than this. :)
Pro's/Con's
Pro's: Reasonably good killing Speed, low equipment investment, safe play style, strong end game solo play
Con's: Can struggle against ranged elemental mobs, not the best choice for party players, slow starter with Spell Totem not available until clvl31 and requires a few level ups to gain decent kill speed and survivability, Maybe not viable for HC as it's a hard slog in the early parts.
Final note and disclaimer:
I stated near the beginning that my goal was not to use any equipment from current stash in order to test feasibility for Open Beta. I did that only to level 60 at which time I took the Maligaros from Stash. Lvl60 was reached 3 days after player creation with a total of 8 deaths.
Other Path of Exile Articles:
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I've had a few people ask recently about my current Templar build so I've decided to share the basics.
Why a Templar with CI you ask?
Well there's a number of reasons but first and foremost was a recent forum discussion on the usability and effectiveness of Arm/ES as an armour type,(the default for Templar's). The
argument was that Arm/ES was the weakest armour type and begged the question, has anyone "really" tested Arm/ES to a reasonably high level in combination with CI?
Well I thought I'd put it to the test and as a point of difference, I also added a self-imposed restriction of not borrowing any existing items from shared Stash in order to test the build as a candidate for a primary char in Open Beta.
Well after 6 days of play and 19 days since character creation, I feel it's now close enough to completion to make a fair assessment of both CI with Arm/ES and Dual Totem's as a primary
attack skill.
The Numbers:
Name:BazzVfourteen
Level: 78
Intelligence: 395
Strength:157
Dexterity:115
Def:
Energy Shield: 7K
Armour: 2561
Life:1
Mana:702
Evasion:440
Resists: F/C/R 80%/74%/80%
Blocking: 34%
Primary Attack - Spork Totems
DPS:705
Crit Chance:27%
Crit Multi: 584%
Shock Duration Increase: 60%
Additional Chance to Shock: 25%
Secondary Attack - Ice Spear Totems
DPS:652
Crit Chance:32%
Crit Multi: 584%
Chill Duration Increase: 76%
In terms of defence I think the numbers stack up pretty well. The #1 Witch on Default recently that said that you don't need more than 7K ES to be effective. Well I'm not gonna argue that number as it's likely correct for a witch but I will say that when you play as a Totemancer and then add 2500+ Armour, 34% Blocking and close to 80% resist-all, that number is a lot lower than 7K. This char is a tank and with the added bonus of 100% immunity to Chaos damage from the CI node it's just the cream on top of the cake.
I set out in the beginning aiming for 6.5K ES and 2.5K armour, (as that's about the highest amount of HP+ES I've managed on my life build marauders), and managed to surpass it without any great investment in equipment but I'll get to that a bit soon.
Offensively this build uses dual totems as the only source of damage. Spork Totems are the primary attack as they have a reasonably good killing speed but having said that they are also somewhat behind say a well geared melee char when it comes to clearing maps. This I see as a fair trade off when using a play style that is much, much safer than getting face to face with the enemy. Spork Totems are efficient against the majority of mob types as well as slow moving bosses, (ie. most of them), but they do tend to struggle greatly against ranged elemental mobs.
Secondary attack is the old trusty Ice Spear totem. Used in combination with Temporal Chains, Ice Spear totems will turn all mobs on the screen to ice blocks. Killing speed is a
little slower than using the primary attack but is a perfect foil for the ranged elemental mobs than Spork struggles against.
The thing I like a lot about this build is that it's much less item dependant than chars I've played in the past. With no 5L or 6L requirement it's much easier to keep this character progressing. The items I'm currently wearing would only consider as being good or maybe even very good but definately not top end except possibly the chest. Even so, you can see the item level on the chest is level 70 so up until reaching that clvl I was using one with much lower rolls to both Armour and ES. Chest, helm and boots were chosen for their high ES rolls and the gloves, (Maligaros), well only because I really like them. They are definately not a required item but they do add a nice little bump to DPS.
Jewellery and belts are primarily selected to maintain the high level of elemental resists as well as adding a small amount of IIQ/IIR. Ideally the jewllery pieces would all have some mana regen as well but I wasn't lucky enough in play through to find anything that fit the bill.
Auras and mana reservation
Only two skills that reserve mana are being used with the first being Disciple. This aura provides a very nice boost to ES so is a no-brainer especially so if your ES is still a little low once having taken CI. The second skill with a mana reservation is Tempest Shield. I'm not sure how I feel about this skill so it's definately optional. It does add 4% blocking and once levelled does enough damage to kill white mobs but could easily get by without it.
Both skills are supported by the Reduced Mana gem and my mana pool is left with around 400 mana once both skills have been activated.
Skill Tree
If you have a close look at the skill tree you'll note that I took the skill points reward from bandits at each difficulties and I think this could be done better. One of the goals for all my chars is to reach max resists, or at least get as close as possible, in order to free choices with jewellery and belt. Yes you can get max resists from items worn but it makes it all the more difficult to find suitable jewellery when looking to maintain max resists while stacking up on IIQ/IIR. For Open Beta I plan to take the resists as the Bandits quest reward as it will result in 17% more resists to all than using the 4 x skill points I used to get Diamond Skin.
Other than that the tree has a substantial investment in ES, Crit and Crit Multi. The most efficent use of allocating skill points is much of a muchness when choosing to chase ES nodes for CI, or HP nodes for a life build, but the CI build has the potential to get a much higher starting pool of hit points.
Stacking Crit chance and crit multi nodes, alongside Static Blows and Shock, means lots and lots of shock stacks. This is what makes the Spork totems so effective at killing with their relaitvely low DPS and it also completely negates the need for a caster skill. I do have Arc linked to Faster Casting available but it's never used and is never needed.
Gem Chains
Spork Totem: Spell Totem linked to Spark, Fork and Elemental Proliferation
Ice Spear Totem: Spell Totem linked to Ice Spear, Elemental Proliferation and Lesser Multiple Projectiles
Tempest Shield: Tempest Shield linked to Iron Will and Reduced Mana
Curses: Conductivity, Tempest Chains, Discipline linked to Reduced Mana
Flasks
3 x Diamonds and 2 Mana
I've had just a single death since taking the CI node and that was due to a prolonged attack by Cold Snap. My first Diamond now has Dispel Frozen so no longer an issue.
Play style
Pretty straight forward for most mobs. Cast two Spork totems and curse with Conductivity, (or substitute with Elemental Weakness if in a party), and stand near the totems as thats the safest place on the screen. Doesn't get much lazier than this. :)
Pro's/Con's
Pro's: Reasonably good killing Speed, low equipment investment, safe play style, strong end game solo play
Con's: Can struggle against ranged elemental mobs, not the best choice for party players, slow starter with Spell Totem not available until clvl31 and requires a few level ups to gain decent kill speed and survivability, Maybe not viable for HC as it's a hard slog in the early parts.
Final note and disclaimer:
I stated near the beginning that my goal was not to use any equipment from current stash in order to test feasibility for Open Beta. I did that only to level 60 at which time I took the Maligaros from Stash. Lvl60 was reached 3 days after player creation with a total of 8 deaths.
Other Path of Exile Articles:
Path of Exile 2H Sweep Duelist Build
Path of Exile Dual Strike Duelist Build
Path of Exile Hardcore Race Duelist Build
Path of Exile Marauder Ground Slam Build
Path of Exile 1H Mace Hardcore Marauder Build
Path of Exile General Marauder Build Guide
Path of Exile Elemental Bow Ranger Build
Path of Exile Dual Physical Wand Ranger Build
Path of Exile General Ranger Build
Path of Exile Crit Dagger Shadow Build
Path of Exile Coldfire Crit Caster Shadow Build
Path of Exile EB Ethereal Knives Shadow Build
Path of Exile CI Totem Templar Build
Path of Exile Shield Shock Block Templar Build
Path of Exile EB Frost Templar Build
Path of Exile Hardcore Necromancer Witch Build
1 comment:
Wouldn't it be logical to quickly stop by Zealot`s oath after a sizeable pool of ES?
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