Level 90 Domination Templar^3.25

Notes

UPDATES - Forest Warriors (from Ritual corpses) have turned out to be extremely affordable, so these are moving into recommended.  They have to be repurchased if lost, but full playtesting and the economy tell us this is completely viable and
even unnecessary to avoid.  For SSF, obviously you can get these from Ritual, even the non-perfect version has the Onslaught aura to so go nuts.  I still recommend all players get the currently recommended Arena Master in their Spectre Bank.

The Block Nodes are EXTREMELY important.  I personally tested trying to escape these, but the survivability boost (while mapping especially) is too noticeable and necessary for the modern PoE landscape.  If possible, moving around some
supports to get Maim into our Spectre setup is also being recommended at least for early on, as it's a free boost to damage and our Spectres actually do a decent job applying it to major targets.

Divine Shield has turned out to be VERY good at keeping Everlasting Sacrifice up.  Maybe so good that it's worth recommending long-term even, as it helps with map survivability in no small way as well.  Likewise, the Hearty notable and preceding
regeneration nodes have proven to be very high-value for our sustain.

I'm adding a note here that Quality on Enduring Cry is another extremely important stat to consider rushing early, you can do this through Merciless Lab.  Maintaining Endurance Charge uptime can be rather uncomfortable without it.

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When leveling, it can be beneficial to start as Smite, opening incentives to pick up Melee Splash and Ancestral Call early.  You then transition into Absolution, using Smite solely as a buff while you work your way toward Dominating Blow.
This strategy may be overridden based on player preference, as saving a bit of currency in a league start via support choice is only 'so-so' since the attack speed of early sceptres was gutted leagues back.  Otherwise, the name of the game
is getting to level 12, as Absolution both synergizes early with our tree, removes Accuracy requirements, and sets up well for an early Dominating Blow switch.  Additionally, Summon Holy Relic is available extremely early and will reward you
for making use of an attack.  In Act 2, when offered damaging supports, ensure you make choices for Absolution that will also work with Summon Holy Relic, as you'll be moving those supports over when you switch to Dominating Blow.

You do not have to take Enduring Cry from Brutus early on.  Vitality or even Clarity for comfort is much more recommended, as we'll not have Warcry support until later regardless.  Additionally, allocating Spiritual Aid early can be worth it even though
we don't use it early if you find a strong weapon to make use of it.  Keep the Warcry Ancestral Cry in mind at all times as well, and try to pick one up in Act 2 if you can.  This is a dramatic boost to clear in the late game and can even completely remove
the need for any sources of +1 Strike Target thanks to our Warcry investment.  It even gives us +2% Elemental Max Resistances against bosses!

Some things to keep in mind when approaching Level 28: Ensure you have Resolute Technique.  Path to this aggressively so that you can switch ASAP, and attach Melee Splash and Ancestral Call to the skill.  You can switch supports for bosses
if you want extra efficiency, but generally speaking Dominating Blow is mechanically strong enough to not really care this early on.  The most valuable stat for a weapon early in the game is +1 Socketed Melee Gems, assuming you can get it on a 4-link
base.  This will pay extreme dividends until level 50 and 63, when +1 Socketed Gems and +2 Socketed Melee Gems becomes available.  Outside of this, (Local) Attack Speed is likely most valuable, but if you find a strong enough weapon Spiritual Aid
may be preferable as you might be in a position to contribute meaningful damage.  Essence of Fear gives us the ability to add Minion Damage to any weapon, creating our avenue to a +1/2/3 Gem-Level boosting weapon that also contributes up to
140%+ Minion Damage.  The last piece of the puzzle comes from the Minion Attack/Cast Speed CRAFT unlocked via BETRAYAL.  The Minion Attack/Cast Speed mod is not 'exclusive' with (Local) Attack Speed, creating a pretty clear ideal pair of
suffixes to make use of alongside 3 clear ideal prefixes.  The remaining suffix is flexible, assuming you're in a position to choose, which is likely going to be very expensive.

Ensure you prioritize skill point choices that make sense.  This means don't invest in Endurance Charges if you lack the Warcry nodes required to sustain them.  Jewel Sockets aren't worth anything without the Jewel to fill them.  Additionally, make sure
you get a Vaal Domination before acquiring your second ascendancy!  The initial gem doesn't need to be able to reach level 21, we'll level 20s on the side and use temple them down the line to get that going, so don't be afraid to burn your Vaal Orbs
on this until you get it (or just buy one if you're in trade, people will find them in vaal zones and sell them for cheap.)  As a special note, Hearty is not taken, but may be a superior choice to other nodes as with Enduring Cry the bonus to Life Regen is
actually immense, and it also gives us access to some rather useful Masteries.

Behead is not a support to change lightly, as it's more or less the only way to improve the Weapon Range of our Sentinels.  This can help them all stack up on a single target more effectively, and the DPS from the support itself is actually quite good, albeit not
properly reported in PoB.

In the case of Melee Splash, the gem we swap out is Brutality.  Brutality is an incredible damage support, but BAD when we're converting Rare and Magic monsters into Sentinels that may inherit strong Elemental or Chaos damage buffs.

IMPORANT ANCESTRAL CRY NOTE - I'm a dingus who forgets things, and Multistrike doesn't like Exerted Attacks.  That means no Ancestral Cry after we get Multistrike, so use your discretion on when it is phased out.  +1 Strike Targets from an
Eldritch Implicit on Gloves is the way to go, and will allow us to drop Ancestral Call entirely.

---------------- ***IMPORTANT GEAR NOTES*** ------------------- Equipment simulated in this guide lacks suffixes whenever they are flexible.  These should be used to fill out your resistances and add attributes where necessary.

Everlasting Sacrifice requires us to top off our Energy Shield regularly.  Ideally, this means sacrificing a Prefix on a Ring to give us a particularly terrible +Energy Shield roll.  Crafted Energy Shield can be as low as +21, which is probably feasible for
good uptime in most situations.  Outside of this, Divine Shield can be taken to ensure a powerful non-percentage based ES regen keeps us topping off, but ultimately using open prefix slots on our Abyss Jewels offers us a relatively easy avenue to flat
Energy Shield Regeneration to save us a skill point down the line.

Several Elegant Hubris Jewels are simulated to show you various seeds that work for the central Witch jewel socket.  You can also use a Timeless Calculator (found here in PoB or usable as a tool online) to simulate/search for more.  The current one
chosen is not the most point efficient, but offers likely the most value (3 80% Minion Damage nodes, 1 80% Armour node, with only 1 point of waste).  Getting %Armour from this jewel can be just as valuable if not more so than the %Minion Damage, as 
it's a tremendous amount and raw %Increased is actually what we're lacking in.  The build is very close to being able to survive an entirely unbuffed Shaper Slam in its current iteration (easily survived with Molten Shell up), so boosts to physical mitigation
are close to sizable payoffs.

Brass Dome is a feasible alternative to a strong Rare Body Armour, both lowering strength/suffix fixing, as well as giving us greater Elemental Mitigation.  The downside is a loss of Flat Life, much greater Phys Reduction via the loss of relevant Suffixes
and Eldritch Implicits, and the absence of other Suffixes for relevant Attribute or Resistance rolls.

Bone Rings offer options for more damage stats, but don't need to be overly emphasizes for this reason.  Having at least 1 for the implicit Minion Resistances can be extremely beneficial, however.  Outside of this, while %Minion Damage as a Prefix is
an obvious major benefit, the Minion Attack Speed will also apply to us via Spiritual Command if Resistances have been fixed elsewhere.

Our Amulet desperately wishes for +1 Skill Gems.  Dominating Blow lacks exploitable tags (beyond 'Melee'), so this is all that applies.  Ashes of the Stars is a viable option, although not nearly as impactful for this build as it is for other variants, chiefly
the 'Dominating Blow of Inspiring' variant that's better played on other Ascendancies.  Likewise, +2 Minion Gems on our Helmet is also highly valued, and these mods have very low weighting.  For these reasons, leveing your Recombinator is very
important, as is ensuring the Suffixes you get from your Gloves, Boots, and Rings are adequate and/or flexible for your Attribute and Resistance needs.

When making your Weapon, it is easiest to do so by pre-purchasing (or preparing yourself) a +1 Socketed Gems or +2 Socketed Melee Gems base with the mod Fractured on.  This drastically reduces the amount of Essences you need to hit all 3
mods, but until you can do that, it's not unreasonable to find a +3 weapon and simply craft on %Minion Damage.  This isn't ideal for a number of reasons, but it is serviceable, especially early on.  

Annoints: Lots of serviceable options here, many of which are Defensive.  Constitution or another Life Node is perfectly acceptable because our Flat Life is rather low.  Prismatic Skin is obviously great, as it opens boosts our already stellar
Maximum Elemental Resistance values, and Soul of Steel is even better because it also gives us increased Armour.  Death Attunement can be used to give you an extra Spectre if you have a support in mind, and Decay Ward can drastically boost the 
survivability of our Sentinels if you feel they're too squishy.  Don't be afraid to annoint stats early if you're lacking them, though!  These annoints are very cheap!  Enigmatic Defense is another cheap alternative to consider.
(Fun Fact - Sentinels of Dominance have a hidden innate 40% Block Chance, but take 20% of Damage from a Blocked Hit!  This makes Decay Ward even better than you'd expect at first glance.)
Our best Offensive Annoint is almost undoubtedly Hollow Effigy.  The ability to cast Offerings without needing corpses is a multi-pronged benefit, and we can free up socket space to add Offerings if need be.  Consider a Banner in our extra socket
space as well, as these affect our minions and fit well with the ramping nature of Dominating Blow.

You will notice 'Deal No Damage' in our Configurations.  This is to negate 9 Instances of Player Damage being (falsely) reported as part of our 9 simulated Sentinels.  Resistances are here because suffixes on simulated gear are open; you want to fill
these where you can in open gear suffixes.  The simulation lets us see what our max hit situation is otherwise.  Keep in mind that in maps and other applicable situations that we will also have 3 Magic Sentinels and 1 Rare Sentinel, which greatly boosts
our DPS.  We will ALSO have 3 Vaal Sentinels up at times even while bossing, so our DPS is actually higher than reported.  Finally, Behead's Damage Multiplier doesn't apply unless the enemy is on Low Life.  It's effectively another 26% More Damage
that simply isn't being recorded in PoB (~21% More Damage with a source of Culling Strike).

Alternative Second Endgame tree added as it's likely much more attainable for SSF than getting a specific Elegant Hubris Jewel.  It loses out a lot of raw damage and armour potential, but still gets a fair amount of these and gives a general boost to
clear speed, which is probably more valuable in the SSF environment anyway.


------------------------------------------------ GOING FORWARD ------------------------------------------------


Ultimately, many aspects of this build are a Work In Progress as a Templar-Based Dominating Blow character hasn't really been something I've worked with since the Guardian rework.  Please keep this in mind, especially when you find certain aspects
lacking.  Staff Block especially is a transient investment, something to either be improved upon or discarded for other oppotunities.  If Staff Block is discarded, keep in mind that other weapon bases open up, some of which may have a higher
Base Attack Speed.

The Aura Mastery for reserving life can be used to get another point of Maximum Elemental Resistance if you feel it's worthwhile, but make sure you don't need those two gem sockets first.  A level 1 Vitality, Clarity, or Precision is what you want to use
here, whichever minor benefit has the biggest impact.

Currently, the build makes no use of Banners.  This would be a late addition based on our gem socket pressure, but it's likely something like War Banner is a no-brainer addition long-term.

Impure Blood is currently one of our ascendancy nodes to fix Mana issues, which is a perfectly acceptable use, but it's important to consider things like Glimpse Chaos long-term, especially ways to shore up our Resistances are attached.  How
exactly this will be done is something I plan to sort out long-term on the build, only after I have experienced it first-hand, with the ultimate intention of fixing the build's weakest defensive aspect (Raw Life).  Doing so now feels a stretch too far, as
Path of Building can only ever ensure so much of what we conject to be correct.  Updates to the build in this regard and planned but not promised, as there's no telling how popular the event will be.

Added into the items is an unused Medium Cluster Jewel, potentiallly to open up getting extra Armour and adding Onslaught to the setup.  Onslaught in this way also applies to our minions, and is a great contender if the build ends up feeling sluggish.
After all, one of the key counters to this are our buff spectres, specifically the 'Arena Master' mob from Drox-Influenced maps who gives us a similar, but separate buff that doesn't exactly have 100% uptime.

Awakened Gems aren't even simulated, but where applicable are guaranteed boosts in power.  Awakened Melee Splash only needs to be Level 2, as it will be boosted to Level 5 via the +3 Gem Levels in our weapon.  This gives us an additional +1
Gem Level, not as good after 30, but still a nice benefit to our clear setup.  Awakened Brutality ranks highly as at Level 5 is gives us some innate Crush chance, which is a welcome addition to our single target damage.  
Awakened Melee Physical Damage comes right in after and gives us Intimidate, which is another boost to damage (and as an 'increased' multiplier, plays very nicely with Pride and Flesh and Stone!). Awakened Multistrike is likely the best upgrade 
we can get to our gems overall, but this support is also EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE.  You will likely be able to get more affordable upgrades elsewhere for a very long time.

Eventually, unallocating Indomitable Army and its travel points may be possible, saving us a tremendous amount of points on the skill tree.  How exactly this could be solved is difficult to say until I/We have had a chance to play the game ourselves,
but with constant Enduring Cry spam, healing via Summon Holy Relic, a fair amount of %Minion Life from the tree, Fortify, and Resistances from Bone Rings, it may already be workable with a level 30 gem.  
The Mastery for Minions Recover 5% of Life on Minion Death can also be considered to help with this.

Ultra-Late, options for the build start to get a little wonky.  There are things we can entertain that simply weren't possible before, a major addition being that, if you happen to acquire (or can afford) a Level 4 Empower, you have essentially completed
the first step toward a previously-dubious Squire setup in which we craft an Influenced Weapon offering significantly more links!  This would obviously be incredibly expensive, but the point of it is that we can reach Level 30 on our gem setup without
prefixes helping, thus opening up additional prefix slots at the cost of one link.  In a Squire setup it becomes very easy to sacrifice one link, allowing for potentially much more potent endgame DPS, AND a much faster weapon base!  Even then, if
you can open up a shield slot, a much better defensive profile may also be accessible with a negligible or small DPS loss (you would still require an Influenced Weapon crafted to form a 6-link to achieve this).

Overall, I feel comfortable delivering the guide in this state as it achieves the ultimate league-starter goal of offering enough DPS and Survivability on a budget to get players farming endgame maps and acquiring their Voidstones.  It will, at the very
least, absolutely do that for you if it turns out you don't enjoy the playstyle!  Happy mapping, Exiles!  Good luck on the 20th!