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Temple Guardian Tank Build


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The only damage reduction I've seen from T-energy Shroud is the -x points that the tooltip says, this is fairly easy to check, especially against low level opponents, as the damage you take with the shield up is x lower than without the shield.

 

I think the +50% shield energy absorption mod increases the damage the shield stops by 50% (which is why the mod is on some seraphim runes). If it meant that the shield was absorbing 50% of all damage, that would be over-powered. It would also explain the mod which reduces opponent's shield absorption.

 

For example of how powerful it can be, see Gar'Colossus's shield, if you don't hit the rocks he throws at you...and his HP doesn't even get lower until the shield is gone.

 

I think the GarCollossus' shield is a special case, since he's a main plot boss & they wanted you to have to do something a bit different to kill him (which is why destroying the rocks makes his shield go down very quickly).

 

 

Their shield might have different stats, but it's probably the same game mechanics, or the shield for Seraphim and Temple Guardian would be useless. I don't see the point of including a skill that is only good for the first 2 hours of play.

 

No, neither do I, which is why I've never used it.

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If it meant that the shield was absorbing 50% of all damage, that would be over-powered.

 

Not really over-powered because your shield goes down faster than your HP does. Against any boss my shield will be gone within 10 seconds if they hit me. Then I put up Divine Protection, which goes down equally fast.

 

It's really nice against normal enemies though.

 

And it's not a mod, Revered Technology (of any other aspect) has no points, yet I do see "Absorption Warding Energy +50%" in sigma. Which is not the "Ward Efficiency" (this would be "Max Shield Energy").

 

The last one is "Block Warding Energy" which is an absolute minus to damage. Block/Mitigation isn't the same as Absorption. The skill Warding Energy Lore gives points a bonus to Absorption Warding Energy...and while the skill says its an absolute amount, sigma shows it as a %.

 

The last bonus related to it would be Regeneration of the shield acquired at Mastery of Warding Energy Lore (or found on items as bonuses). The total regeneration of shield shows in the non-sigma summary (where you see Survival Bonus).

 

Said regeneration is slower than HP without Constitution, and cannot regenerate during battle.

 

The damage I take at level 30, by level 34 opponents, is significantly reduced, and they don't hit me for 5 and 6. They hit me for 100-150 (and still get ~80 in their face).

 

It might still work like you say, the problem is we can't verify. Even when I was testing, this would have been hard to test.

Edited by Little Sara
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So Llama8, I see your TG is hanging out outstandingly well. Just one question. If you had a chance to modify your skills & mods, what would you modify?

And lastly, I read that you pump all attribute points to Vitality. Are you consistently doing so until now?

 

Thank you.

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There are a number of skills that I'd like to take (Speed Lore for more attack/defence, Constitution for more health & Blacksmithing/Bargaining/EP/Riding), but there aren't any that I'd like to get rid of...

 

I'd also like to get various skills higher (Toughness, Armour, Combat Reflexes, Sword Lore, probably Spell Resistance as well), but that will come with time I guess.

 

And yes, I'm now putting both stat points into Vitality.

 

I just want a load more skill points really...

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There are a number of skills that I'd like to take (Speed Lore for more attack/defence, Constitution for more health & Blacksmithing/Bargaining/EP/Riding), but there aren't any that I'd like to get rid of...

 

I'd also like to get various skills higher (Toughness, Armour, Combat Reflexes, Sword Lore, probably Spell Resistance as well), but that will come with time I guess.

 

And yes, I'm now putting both stat points into Vitality.

 

I just want a load more skill points really...

 

Speed Lore used to give +% Attack Speed, this made it worth it...now, if you have a mount, the +% Moving Speed doesn't even matter, and at high level, I think the Toughness Armor bonus is better than the Speed Lore Attack/Defense bonus.

 

For an example.

 

A Seraphim lv 50 with decent equipment but not too great, can have:

 

2500 Attack (80-90% hit on all except boss), 1500 Defense (monsters have 20-30% chance to hit you) and 2400 Armor total.

 

This is without Speed Lore, and without Toughness, and with Armor Lore only at 20.

 

Armor Lore at 125+100 -> Something close to +395% armor

Toughness at 75+100 -> +177 Armor -17.7% damage on character

 

177 Armor *4.95 = 876 armor of all types given by Toughness (a total of 4380)

 

vs Speed Lore at 75+100: +266 Attack/Defense and +17.7% run speed (not counted while mounted)

 

Attack/Defense would only be multiplied by buffs or skills that increase it % wise, while Armor Lore would multiply Armor from Toughness, without the need for runes or equipment.

 

Not to mention that Attack/Defense increase naturally as you level up (as Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence grow higher), while Armor only increases with equipment and relevant skills.

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Currently level 61 with the following skills:

 

Devout Guardian Focus 79

Tactics Lore 70

Sword Lore 26 (+11.3% AS)

Armour Lore 42

Toughness 40

Combat Reflexes 6 (all from items)

Spell Resist 12 (all from items)

Concentration 6

Source Warden Focus 20

 

303 health regen/sec, ~170-190% chance to hit most things less than a boss.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A brief update, my TG's hit level 77 (I get distracted easily) & is busily mapping in Gold atm (& avoiding certain mini-bosses like the Banshee).

 

I would post a link to him (Buffed Llama2) on Sacred2.net, but I can't access it at work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

After much replaying, rerolling and analyzing, that should be the final build I'd like to propose. Concentration is back in the game, although it will stay at only 1 point. Personally, I don't like picking up skills that I won't increase and/or use, but it seems you can't get away with that one.

 

Based on that, I can offer the following TG build:

 

1st pick: Tactics Lore

2nd pick: Sword Lore

3rd pick: Devout Guardian (the skills in this tree are very powerful and you can still shoot and mod T-Energy Shroud)

4th pick: Armor Lore

5th pick: Concentration

6th pick: Toughness

7th pick: Combat reflexes

8th pick: Combat Discipline (this, combined with Devout Focus will force the TG to use skills almost non-stop, and dedicated blow is indeed an awesome skill)

NOTE: You can swap the 8th and 9th pick if you feel the enemies are taking chunks off you more often that they should

9th pick: Warding energy lore (to improve your shield even more)

10th pick: Spell Resistance or Enhanced Perception

 

NOTE: You can substitute enhanced perception with something else if you already have viable equipment for a TG. However, after I discovered the usefulness of this skill, I just can't get enough of it...

 

This build gives you power to crush the simple mobs on the map easily, and as for bosses, my favorite tactic is to make ins and outs and slap an overpowered dedicated blow every 5 seconds or so. So far it hasn't let me down, so I guess it's pretty much viable.

 

Since the build I'm proposing is also tank-like, I think it should fall into Llama8's topic, since the tank was his idea :D

Edited by Dobri
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If I were doing this build again, I'd probably switch Source Warden Focus for something else, possibly Warding Energy Lore (I've finally got my head round the Absorption Warding Energy mod & it's uber), maybe Enhanced Perception (finding stuff is good, even if it's "just" from chests & the like).

 

Personally I only take Combat Discipline if I'm going to be making a non-weapon-based CA build, since they get the most benefit from CD. Of the Devout Guardian CAs, Deathly Spears would get the most benefit from it (CD would affect all of Deathly Spears' damage), followed by Dedicated Blow (since it gives a large bonus to the weapon damage & it's this "bonus" that CD affects).

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Actually I don't like the EP skill just because of the magic finding and the chance to spot hidden places. Unlocking chance to find valuables & experience per kill is just too much to just brush aside. Besides, the TG is blessed to have it in the 1st part of the tree, which means you don't need to waste a skill pick for it. Actually the idea came from the BFG Seraphim I posted a pic not before long - she's at +82.4% xp per kill now just because of this. The TG can't get that close to this value because he can't use shields, but the battery may still get this attribute. And as we well know, the extra magic find is always useful and will get those rares and set items to drop much more often. I must confess that I always overlooked it, until I started playing my current BFG seraphim. This is why I get to pick that skill anytime I have the opportunity. Sadly, some class builds just don't get to it, but whatever.

 

As for Deathly spears, that's my favorite skill. Get damage/fire/jab, add combat discipline, and the TG rocks, just as your analysis suggests. Surround yourself with enemies and Spears will pulverize them in no time.

 

Well, I have to say that we're getting pretty close to the best TG build based on devout guardian here. What do you think about concentration? Is it worth taking it, since it'll stay at level 1 just because of the second buff?

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Well, I have to say that we're getting pretty close to the best TG build based on devout guardian here. What do you think about concentration? Is it worth taking it, since it'll stay at level 1 just because of the second buff?

 

I'm not sure if there is a single best build, but it's certainly solid. I would certainly take Concentration, though as regen times aren't an issue for me (I don't use CAs much) I haven't invested any points in it (I am, however, addicted to +all skills), though my Devout Guardian Focus is over 100...

 

I've got (yet) another TG that's using maxxed T-energy Shroud & maxxed Warding Energy Lore (though with Battle Aura modded for damage reflection rather than healing, not sure if that was a mistake or not).

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I agree with the decision to take Battle aura with damage reflection. I was doing some tests, and I didn't see the Repair mod working in combat. If it's just a HP regen boost, then damage reflection is by far the better pick, since you can always wait till you're full HP again. For all I understand, the TG is all about sturdiness and every mod or skill that is consistent with this idea will just make him better.

 

As for concentration, I'll go with your recommendation. On paper the TG does look good with 2 buffs up, especially one that boosts his offensive capabilities.

 

EDIT: He is indeed better with the 2 buffs - T-Shroud and Battle aura. After powerleveling a TG to try it out (and deleting him afterwards), the results surpassed my expectations. BAsed on that I changed the build I formerly proposed.

Edited by Dobri
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I agree with the decision to take Battle aura with damage reflection. I was doing some tests, and I didn't see the Repair mod working in combat. If it's just a HP regen boost, then damage reflection is by far the better pick, since you can always wait till you're full HP again.

 

The health regen does work in combat, though there's a slight delay between a monster hitting you & the health regen starting. I'm not sure exactly how long the delay is, but it's definitely less than a second but is noticeable (which means it's more than 0.1s).

 

I can imagine that with a high level BA giving monsters, say, 20% chance to hit you (v normal mobs, not bosses, this is something like what my TG has, don't think he has that much evade, though he does also have Combat Reflexes), damage reflection from BA (50%? Probably more) & then whatever Absorption Warding Energy you've got (base of 60%, plus whatever's on your items, my TG's currently got ~85%), should equal a very low amount of damage being taken from your HP.

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The reflect is lovely. At level 16 or so it gives +53-54% reflect when used as a spell, which allows for concentration to provide TShroud + Untouchable Force.

 

Of course I'm building an Area of Effect/Melee hybrid. Just hit 35 and in a game with 7 players... and going up against orcs one cast of Fiery Ember+Charged Grid was killing or dropping everything down to ~10-15% health... except for champions and orc archers (stupid fire resist). I've been focusing almost entirely on boosting Source Warden to get both my elemental AoEs fully modded along with Untouchable.

 

Right now with level 23 or so TShroud (through buff items)... ~650 shield energy, 40-50shield/s regen when unmounted. Level 9 or so WEL and not many +shield mods on gear just yet.

Derogate is giving me a listed ~100 damage per pulse, I haven't looked at it exactly in a while. Regen in combat really makes a difference, I've turned it off by accident a couple times and suddenly I was getting HURT. And Spell Reflect definitely helps as well, it's at 30ish percent as well (funny seeing a whole meteor shower hurt the orc shaman rather than me)

 

Untouchable is giving me ~150/pulse (level 15 or so), 18% or so stun, not sure how much slow it causes but I'm sure it helps, and it's blocking 40%+ of all arrows, which really helps against ranged mobs.

 

I've also got ~45-50% Evasion(modified) thanks to some gold level seraphim runes socketed in gold sockets (+25% Evasion is nice).

 

My usual process when going up against mobs is herd a bunch, cast Battle Alert to get the reflect and defense, then cast my Area of Effect combo, then switch to Battle Extension and attack the champions/resistant mobs to drop them all the faster.

 

I typically only need to heal by the 2nd or 3rd such mob, and that's only because I've slowly been bumped down to flashing and don't spend enough time out of combat to get around to healing... on my mount my shield tends to be back up fast enough I never get hit for full damage.

 

My main issue as far as building a tank (which this is heading towards being)... is what my last 2 skills will be.

So far I've got:

Devout Guardian

Tactics Lore

Warding Energy

Sword Lore

Source Warden Lore

Source Warden Focus

Concentration

Combat Discipline

 

Now I've got three skills I want to choose between... maybe I should have skipped sword lore and perhaps when I rebuild eventually I will (I'll try later with a hafted Weapon to see my hit rate).

 

Armour Lore

Constitution

Toughness.

 

Now Armour Lore is almost a must, for a few reasons.

Then it's constitution or Toughness... more mitigation/high resists vs more HP and better regeneration.

 

I'm almost figuring that I get my mitigation at a good enough level (through gear/absorption/tshroud blocking) I can avoid the constitution and go purely toughness to limit the damage I'll still manage to survive, particularly since I'm splitting 1:1 between Stamina and Vitality for the moment (and will likely keep it between those two throughout to manage regen times and health pool).

 

I'll have high evasion (easy to socket for), high chance to reflect spells and close combat (buff + battle alert chain casting), block most projectiles, and high defense. So the odd hit that gets through will have to deal with my mitigation and shield.

 

Any opinion as to what the last choice should be?

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Toughness is most effective with a high Armour, as the bonus resists are fairly low (+65 to each resist at level 74, +90 at level 75), so them being doubled (or more) from a good level of Armour is important (level 75 Armour Lore almost doubles your resists).

 

As I understand it, the 60% (base) damage absorption by the shield occurs after all other calculations, so this is after your resists have been used to calculate the damage, then modified down by damage mitigation (eg, Toughness) & any +x damage absorption (T-energy Shroud + Warding Energy Lore), then you see the red damage number over your head & it's split between your shield & your HP.

 

The benefits of Constitution is that (apart from more HP & HP regen) you can get the mastery & have regen in combat (ie, as if you'd taken the healing mod on Combat Alert/Battle Aura). Toughness will give you more resists & more damage mitigation.

 

Which is "better" is probably a subjective choice & dependant on several factors, including how much Absorption Warding Energy you've got/want (the damage reduction from Toughness will reduce the amount of damage the shield takes), shield regen, how much you "need" more health & so on.

 

What I'm trying to do is to get 100% Absorption Warding Energy, so the shield takes all of the damage, then have a sufficiently high defense/evade/reflection/etc that the shield has enough time to regen & thus rarely goes down (thus, I'm keeping Battle Aura, T-energy Shroud & Warding Energy Lore maxxed & trying to find the white +% Absorption Warding Energy mods, as these are the ones that are increased by Warding Energy Lore).

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That sounds right regarding the mitigation/absorption aspect.

 

The healing in combat via constitution would be nice, however the extra resists and mitigation if I can get absorption high enough along with evasion/reflection/blocking thanks to the 2 buffs + Combat Alert as a chain cast (and potentially it should stack the same as Divine Protection/Goldenglade Touch)...

 

I suppose I'll just leave my level 65 skill blank for the moment. And if the build is viable at higher levels I can always rebuild it with that last defensive skill rather than sword lore (and just rely on combat alert to give me the attack rating needed to get my hits in)

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  • 7 months later...

Have you guys played with the "reduction" mod on TGs shield? I'm making a build that is supposed to go with toughness, and this redcution as a base for all channel damage mitigation.

 

I jsut don't know if the damping IS all channel damage mitigation...

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  • 2 months later...
  • 6 months later...

Llama or Dobri, whats the first mod you use with Battle Aura? the weapon damage or the defense? then reflect and perpament. not sure about the first mod.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

Hi Llama.

 

My brother likes your TG and goes for it as the following with FA 2.40:

 

Devout Guardian Focus

Tactics Lore

Sword Lore

Armour Lore

Blacksmith

Toughness

Bargaining

Combat Reflexes

Lost Fusion Focus (To use Archimedes Beam)

Lvl65: Special Choice

 

He wants to build a smith+ Bargauner Warrior focused (+a slighltly help from Archimedes -LF aspects) TG.

He would use mainly all CAs from Devout Guardian Aspect and Archimedes Veam. He does not want to take Conc for 2 buffs (Battle Aura+Shroud might be enough).

Do you think is it a good build? What do you suggest about the build?

Edited by joanofarc
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