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Rate My Temple Guardian Build!


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This subforum is probably dead as a door nail, but I figured that this post worked better here than in the general discussion subforum. Anyway, let's get started.

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Meet Wolfe II (Wolfe I was my original TG from Fallen Angel, Wolfe II is my new one I just started with the community patch). He is a Temple Guardian with a specialty in high damage, and being a well-rounded build everywhere else (in my opinion, anyway). Most of my damage output comes from the Devout Guardian aspect (naturally), as you will soon see, but I often like to mix it up with other things too.

Now, being already at level 30 for this build, I am already too far into it to even considering turning back (not that I would anyway, I'm personally happy with this build, as it's essentially the same one from my old TG), so I will not be changing any skills that I will list below. They are set in stone and will be done no matter what feedback I get (mainly because I have no choice in the matter). However, for future reference, I thought it'd be fun to see what others thought of my skill choices, and to see if there was anything you guys think I should've done differently or if I made good choices or not. That, and any feedback on my play style would be great too. I may know a lot of the tricks of the trade but I'm always eager to see what others have to say about it.

Anyway, here are the skills I have for my build:

1. Devout Guardian Focus
2. Armor Lore
3. Enhanced Perception
4. Lost Fusion Focus
5. Bargaining
6. Concentration
7. Tactics Lore
8. Constitution
9. Warding Energy Lore
10. Lost Fusion Lore

Couple things to note right off the bat: the reason why Warding Energy Lore is so low on the list is because I've found that my high damage output often kills enemies before they even reach me. That, coupled with Combat Alert and Archimedes Beam's "shelter" mod help shield me from damage should it actually come my way, as well as using both Power mods for T-Energy Shroud. As for Lost Fusion Lore, I kept it at the bottom since all the other skills were far more pressing at the time and would help me more than faster casting time and slightly more damage for the Lost Fusion CAs.

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Moving on to combat art aspects, Devout Guardian is, obviously, my leading source of damage output.

1. Dedicated Blow is my primary attack anywhere and everywhere, and I've found that combined with Deathly Spears in a combo it makes for a surprisingly effective crowd or single-target killer. My preferred mods are Transformation, Confident, and Enforce.

2. Battle Extension I honestly don't use much. Even with the casting speed increase from the community patch, it just doesn't...feel right. Perhaps I just need to work on it some more and pump a few more runes into it before I start getting the good effects. No preferred mods (yet).

3. Deathly Spears, as I said above, makes for an excellent combo with Dedicated Blow. It's great for getting enemies that I can't reach while attacking with Dedicated Blow, and having the Jab mod is fantastic. My preferred mods are Gore, Singe, and Jab.

4. Combat Alert is a HUGE life-saver for me, as I've said above. It increases my damage, my defense, and my ability to survive in combat. Who wouldn't want it? My preferred mods are Barricade, Repair, and Permanent (only when I'm confident in my survivability and in the amount of attributes it gives being halved)

5. And of course, what self-respecting TG wouldn't have T-Energy Shroud? It's practically necessary if you're going to do a Temple Guardian. It's easily my primary defense against, well, anything. My preferred mods are Power, Recharge, and Power.


Moving on to Lost Fusion aspect, it starts getting a bit more technical here.

1. Archimedes Beam is a fantastic long-range attack that I use often, especially with bosses if I can line up a good shot from a safe distance. Coupled with the shelter mod, it has made my life a lot easier. I also find that it's great with Jolting Touch, as you'll see below. My preferred mods are Bundle, Intent, and Shelter.

2. Furious Emblazer is my primary source of damage from the Lost Fusion CAs. It's fantastic in dealing with crowds, and it probably also great at parties. Just sit tight and let them come to you, then light them up with this thing before finishing them off with the Dedicated Blow + Deathly Spears combo. My preferred mods are Accelerant, Incapacitate, and Intensify.

3. Jolting Touch I also find pretty good...as a utility/support CA, not a damage CA. Combine it with Archimedes Beam in a combo, and you've got a long-range, long-lasting damage CA drawing the enemy's attention, and then finishing with a zap from Jolting Touch to recharge everything and life-leech in case you take damage (as well as to slow the enemy down). I never use it on its own though, it's just too weak to hold up on its own. My preferred mods are Life Leech, Voltage, and Shelter.

4. Amplifying Discharge, like Battle Extension, I almost never use. It just never packed the damage that Furious Emblazer and Archimedes Beam had, and never had the satisfying direct attack from Dedicated Blow. Plus, it would often miss when I did use it. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong here? No preferred mods.

5. Propelled Levitation. Great as a utility and mobility CA for getting past obstacles or moving quickly down mountains/bridges or across rivers, but absolutely useless for damage. I use it solely for the flying, nothing else. My preferred mods are Fuel, Boost, and Emergency Lift-Off.


Finally, Source Warden. Poor, poor Source Warden. Gonna be honest, I never use any of these combat arts, so I'm not even going to list them. Yes, not even Charged Grid or Untouchable Force. They're just too gimmicky and random for my tastes, and Untouchable Force's low damage coupled with its massive increase in regen time for CAs made it a big NOPE for me. They're just not worth it. In multiplayer, sure, they might be worth it, since a lot of Source Warden's stuff helps fellow players, but in singleplayer I find it all useless.

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As for other miscellaneous things, I find swords to be far more trustworthy as weapons than axes or hammers (possibly because most other games I play have the hammers and axes be far slower to attack than swords), and I tend to favor fire damage more often than not. I'm also a big fan of the Demiurge set, although I do have a few other random set pieces thrown in as well.

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And that's my Temple Guardian build! Any feedback you can give, advice on how to improve, or even just general thoughts on how I've built him up will be greatly appreciated. Even telling me what you would've done instead or how wrong or good some of my choices for skills are would be appreciated. I'm always seeking ways to improve my TG and to make him able to survive the hardships of the later difficulty levels (because I KNOW my ass will be handed to me at some point past silver difficulty).

Thanks for reading this looooong post! :D

Edited by GreasyTroll4
  • Like! 1
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The only really bad thing in this build - absence of weapon skill. On higher levels and with big survival bonus, weapons that drop from enemies will have much higher level than yours. You will have speed penalti from that.
Cast speed of Devout Guardian CAs will be half of what it could be with skil.
But you can compensate speed with +%casting speed
This build also dependant on +skills bonus, you should have a lot of sockets with forged +skills rings and amulets. Good that you have bargaring skill - best source of jewelry.
This character is very strong against bosses. If you using Jolting Touch + Deathly Spears combo, you will kill boss with spears very fast, while being invincible. On high levels spears can do 7 attacks per cast, and boss can be hitted by multiple spears.
Which attributes you increasing? I advice stamina(for regen time), vitality(more health) and willpower(more shield).
Amplifying Discharge can be very good for magic focused character,  but is not good for your build. I like 2 Ice bullets + Ricochet.
Some Source Warden skills are actually very good if modified.
Fiery Ember can buff all you fire damage by 50-70% on high levels. If you dedicated to make it good - it can fast kill everything in a big area, exept champions and bosses. 
Icy Evanescence is the same but with ice. I like to use it with Amplifying Discharge.

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I think I remember from a time long ago that the deadly spikes could hit second row enemies if wearing enough items with +combat art range. Look in spells.txt to make sure. But even the big area flame attack gets a bigger area this way.

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5 hours ago, killshoot said:

The only really bad thing in this build - absence of weapon skill. On higher levels and with big survival bonus, weapons that drop from enemies will have much higher level than yours. You will have speed penalti from that.
Cast speed of Devout Guardian CAs will be half of what it could be with skil.
But you can compensate speed with +%casting speed
This build also dependant on +skills bonus, you should have a lot of sockets with forged +skills rings and amulets. Good that you have bargaring skill - best source of jewelry.
This character is very strong against bosses. If you using Jolting Touch + Deathly Spears combo, you will kill boss with spears very fast, while being invincible. On high levels spears can do 7 attacks per cast, and boss can be hitted by multiple spears.
Which attributes you increasing? I advice stamina(for regen time), vitality(more health) and willpower(more shield).
Amplifying Discharge can be very good for magic focused character,  but is not good for your build. I like 2 Ice bullets + Ricochet.
Some Source Warden skills are actually very good if modified.
Fiery Ember can buff all you fire damage by 50-70% on high levels. If you dedicated to make it good - it can fast kill everything in a big area, exept champions and bosses. 
Icy Evanescence is the same but with ice. I like to use it with Amplifying Discharge.

Regarding the lack of a weapon skill, I had thought of that, but again, it's too late to add a weapon skill because I'm at level 30, meaning I only have three skills left to get (Constitution, Warding Energy Lore, and Lost Fusion Lore, the last of which will help me with getting mod points so it's necessary). I don't really mind the slight attack speed penalty, especially since the closer I get to the level of the weapon, the faster it will get in the long run, and I believe I have a few pieces of higher-level armor that give boosts to attack value and attack speed, so there's that as well.

+all skills is also a huge thing for me, I get it whenever I can on rings and such and use them in sockets. All the armor I mentioned above has sockets in them and at least one socket in each has a +1 or +2 to all skills ring/pendant in them.

My main attributes are stamina, willpower, and vitality, and occasionally strength and dexterity for a little extra attack/defense. Intelligence I almost completely ignore, especially since it increases on its own anyway.

I'll take a look at Fiery Ember again, but I doubt I'll use it much. The CAs I currently have are already good enough with dealing with pretty much anything that's thrown at me.

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3 hours ago, GreasyTroll4 said:

I'll take a look at Fiery Ember again, but I doubt I'll use it much. The CAs I currently have are already good enough with dealing with pretty much anything that's thrown at me.

It require Source Warden Focus to have significant damage bonus. Because you need modification points and high skill level.
Not useful for your character.

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5 hours ago, killshoot said:

It require Source Warden Focus to have significant damage bonus. Because you need modification points and high skill level.
Not useful for your character.

Ah, well then, never mind.

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