My lightning strike/tempest shield/molten shell templar tank is very fun to play and I finally found a character which I enjoyed enough to keep playing him. Im currently lvl 57 and just finished act2 at merciless. Right now i need to lvl up a lot before starting act3. Currently, this is my build:
build
Going for the celestial walker passive now to boost my damage and resists some. merciless gives -60% to all resistances. All my armor items give armor except my boots gives energyhield/armor. Because of the eldritch battery passive i have about 900 mana and I can run 6 auras, I only run 5 due to a lack of sockets: discipline, clarity, wrath, anger, tempest sheild. At lvl 58 I can equip new boots and will add haste or determination or purity aura, depending at situation. Inner force passive boosts all my auras and also my molten shell and tempest shield, basically it boosts everything i have.
Allmost all my items are focused at defense and as you can see at my skilltree, it is mostly focused at defene too. Still it i allmost impossible to solo at merciless.
I have 6k armor (59% reduction), 44% blockrate, my resistance are around 60% and 1.7k hitpoints but at the beginning of act1 the boss of that little island killed me in 3 shots. At that time i only had flasks that instant healed when under 30% health, but he critted me from 40 to 0% health.
Endgame is very interesting. I now reached the point to think about endgame equipment crafting. I tried to farm fel ruins in act2, since yellow mobs drop lvl 60 equipment there and both my engame shield and weapon are ilvl 60, but it was to hard and i went back to farming the ledge in act1, which is pretty easy as long as i got 75% lightning resist for the boss.
my skills are now:
lightning strike-faster attacks-life stolen on hit in shield
tempest shield-wrath-dicipline-reduce mana in boots (when im lvl 58)
molten shell-increase rarity in gloves
anger in armor
shield charge-some support gem i dont remember in armor
nothing in weapon.
Lightning strike deals allmost double damage if I add elemental damage to it, but I rly need the life on hit passive to stay alive, the life on hit procs both at the melee attack, as at the projectiles, healing me for 4x32=128 life each hit. with allmost 2 atacks per second that is 250hp/second healed, more then a 20% quality hallowed healing flask.
molten shell is very funny skill and i recommend it to everyone who plans to go melee. it gives huuuuge amount of armor and explodes for 1k damage now, killing archer type monsters in 1 hit.
Shield charge i also recommend for anyone who plans to make a tank, it is both a skill to engage and to escape or to move faster around the map, also perfect to kill targets with priority like chaos damage nukers and necromancers. The charge goes through all other monsters when targeted, but not through walls. Leap slam is bit similar skill, but doesnt require a shield and deals less damage.
What I really need now is a 4linked helm/armor/gloves to give my lightning strike elemental damage, that is my priority.
D). No matter if you choose armor or evasion it is not a repalcement for HP. Get those +life passives, all of them (= Energy shield still seems underpowered to me so I haven't experimented with it.
