Several questions regarding creating a Buff/Debuff HB Templock

rubytrue

I always enjoy playing with SWs with PoP, and I'm considering creating a Templock that focuses on Buff/Debuff so I have a few questions before I start planning out my build. It will mostly be used as a support build in group content, but I am also wanting solo viability as well as I grind out boons.
1) I don't see a lot of SW builds that use the Plaguefire WE; is there a reason why people aren't using it?
2) Is there any data out there (I can't seem to find it) that explains how often each power ticks damage? In particular, I am interested in getting a deeper understanding of PoP, Blades of Vanquished Armies, Hellish Rebuke, and pretty much any other power that would synergize well with a PoP/BoVA set up (perhaps Dreadtheft?).
3) How high can folks get their deflect up to? Is anyone running close to a 100% deflect build (and still have sizable lifesteal)?

Thanks for any info; I am sure I will have more questions.....

Fat E

jaime4312

@rubytrue

I can comment on a few things:

Plaguefire:

The reason you see it seldom if at all is because, being one of the cheapes (if not the cheapest) buff enchants, it is very popular for DC's and GF's so you get 2 possibilities:

1. Your teammate(s) have a plaguefire of the same rank= only 1 will work.
2. Your teammate's plaguefire is of a different rank than yours= they cancel each other, that bug got reported since the enchantments rework but devs didn't bother addressing it.

My GF has a perfect plaguefire and I almost never can use it because either my friends or randoms run with one so I have to equip my trans feytouched and then again if say the dps is running with it I have to run with no weapon enchantment lol.

Templock's buffing capacity for dps is inferior to that of DC, GF, OP and CW so you're better off taking dark rewelry + power of the nine hells (both team and personal dps buffs) and try to get your personal dps as high as you possibly can, run with vorpal if you want a nice well rounded enchantment. Dread makes you lose dps with atwills and daylies and feytouched is bugged with pillar of power (the damage buff doesn't get reaplied unless you cast a pillar once your current one expires, that result's in PoP's uptime being around 75% or so).

Your companion needs to be any of the 10% uncapped debuff ones (sellsword, rebel mercenary and con artist).

Going my suggested way you'll heal teammates like a madman, give them a lifesteal boost and your personal dps will be decent so you'll have absolutely no problem grinding your boons.

Deflect:

Not sure why you'd try to stack deflect unless you want to pvp. Soulbinder can get more deflect than hellbringer (artifact weapon bonus) but you'd lose pillar of power, not worth it.

rubytrue

I appreciate the reply; I still have a lot to learn about SWs

My main is a DevOP, and I am pretty sure that Plaguefire (up until recently?) stacked as I and a couple other OPs that I run with used Plaguefires with great success. But you are correct about the recent bug where they cancel each other out so I dropped it and picked up a Trans Bilethorn. I gather that WEs that proc weapon damage probably only proc on the initial hit for SWs rather than for each tic so that Bilethorn isn't optimal...Does Dread and/or Vorpal (potentially) proc on each tic of damage? (Sorry, can't do Feytouched, just can't wrap my head around "Nine Hells" and "Hot Pink" weapons.)

Like you suggested, I planned on taking Dark Revelry and PoP (as well as Power of the Nine Hells). I will be using the Con Artist as my companion (Rings are easy).

Bummer about the *heal* from the capstone not counting as a heal for BG/HW.

My thought on the deflect was that it could be used to Proc the deflect/damage boons as an additional source of damage, but if I am deflecting that much damage, I am also taking a lot of damage so the stats would be better used in LifeSteal.

jaime4312

@rubytrue

You're welcome good sir! If I remember well what I read from people who tested reworked plaguefire, the new "bug" is that they cancel each other, man that sucks, some times I repent I bought that plaguefire as I seldom can use it.

I think bilethorn and lightning multiproc with hadar's grasp (I think it's 14 times) and hand of blight (not sure how many with this one) and if my memory serves me well it was @schietindebux the one who said that so he can confirm or deny my statement.

As far as I know, yes, vorpal and dread do give you their dps buff on every single tic of damage and that's why vorpal (hb) and dread (sb) ojvectively are the best enchantments for each paragon.

Oh yes, good guess there, you need both dark rewelry and power of the nine hells so you can achieve the moust out of your templock's buffing potential and really, any hb build that doesn't have the latter is taking a significant hit in both personal (12%) and group buff dps (6%) from pillar aka is a bad build. The amount is sw's that run without it is rather high and I just can't get why on Earth someone would gimp himself and the group, too o.O It's baffling to see any hb build without that feat.

It is true feytouched doesn't aesthetically fit a sw lol. Anyway, the enchantment is bugged with pillar of power so if I was you I wouldn't bother with it until it gets fixed in mod 77.

Con artist is a good option, that 105 uncapped debuff is too good to pass and 3 rings are not hard to get.

You don't get the dps from BG and HW but thanks to that you don't cause massive lag, I think that's the reason devs took that away.

Yeah that's the problem with deflect and liked I said, a good templock heals a lot and hits decently hard as well, I don't think giving up a lot of personal dps is a viable choice as there aren't enough ways to make up for that. Oh and if you deflect a lot you can deflect incoming heals o.O as for the deflect damage bonus, they do have an internal cooldown as far as I know so they wouldn't make up for a significant portion of your dps.

Suggested companions given your gear (you said you have rings)

Summoned:

Con artist.

Active:

Earth archon, air archon, siege master and owlbear. The first 3 companions do buff Aura of Courage (crit severity pets don't as AoC cannot crit so they're a big nono) damage and as you are a paladin I think you know what this mean, a nice dps boost there! Get your hp as high as you possibly can without sacrificing your dps and keep your lifesteal at a decent chance as well. Oh wait there's more! because of Aura of Courage, toughness > energizing curse. Unless it got ninja buffed, it doesn't do much to buff your ap gain so is not worth it, lazalia was the one who stated that a long time ago on his sw fury build. Think about it, it's not that hard to have good ap gain so losing sweet AoC damage to buff it by a little bit is just not worth it.