10 Best Templar Builds in Path of Exile 3.25

Do you have a fantasy of playing as a battlemage in Path of Exile? If so, the Templar class is built specifically to fulfill that and more.

The Templar is actually pretty popular in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, especially one of the ascendancy classes that you can take after completing the first labyrinth.

If you are interested in creating a new character soon, then we highly recommend that you read further because we are going to divulge the best Templar Builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Why Choose the Templar

The Templar is one of the three hybrid classes in Path of Exile, giving you a balance of both Strength (STR) and Intelligence (INT) right off the bat. Its starting point on the passive tree is toward the left side, giving you easy access to nodes that are associated with STR and armor, as well as INT and energy shield nodes depending on where you decide to go. This is the reason why you typically see people opt for armor/energy shield-based equipment when gearing their Templars.

Having said that, just like almost any other class in the game, the Templar can ascend to three different advanced classes, namely the Guardian, Inquisitor, and the Hierophant. Let us explore how they differ from each other, shall we?

Guardian

If you are tired of dying and you want a pretty tanky character that can take hits from the enemy like a champ, then the Guardian is the perfect ascendancy class for you. Even though the Guardian has fallen off in terms of popularity (well, relative to the other Templar ascendancy classes, that is) in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League, it is still viable, particularly if you are able to get your hands on some nice gear.

Radiant Crusade allows you to summon a minion that can taunt enemies and burn them with fire damage over time. This got nerfed in Patch 3.25 in that the Sentinel of Radiance now only absorbs 10% of the damage you take from hits instead of 20%. This nerf is noticeable, especially at the beginning. However, this is something that you can rectify with the proper gear.

The ascendancy node next to that, the Unwavering Crusade, gives you the power to summon an Elemental Relic that grants you the effects of a level 27 Anger (fire), Hatred (cold), and Wrath (lightning) aura to boost your elemental damage to the nth degree.

The Guardian boasts incredible survival due to Bastion of Hope. This notable ascendancy passive skill increases your attack block chance or spell block chance depending on whether you have initiated an attack or cast a spell recently.

If you are in a time of need, who do you rely on to save you? Well, not another player, but rather, an ascendancy node that is appropriately named "Time of Need." Every four seconds, you will be rid of any curse and you are given a huge boost to life regeneration, ensuring that you have enough life to carry on with your map-clearing duties.

As if those nodes are not enough, you have the option of taking Radiant Faith as well. This bolsters your defenses by giving you 25% armor and 10% energy shield based on the amount of mana you have reserved for your active auras. What's cool about Radiant Faith is that it also affects your allies, including minions!

Inquisitor

Do you want to see high damage numbers? Then the Inquisitor will not disappoint! This ascendancy class specializes in improving elemental damage in various ways.

Augury of Penitence not only boosts your elemental damage against nearby monsters, but it also causes your enemies to deal reduced elemental damage to you. The effects of this notable ascendancy passive skill can be felt as soon as you put points to it and into the endgame, where you have access to so much better gear.

If you want to capitalize on landing devastating hits on the enemy, then Righteous Providence has got you covered. This ascendancy node gives you a 1% increase in critical strike chance for every point of STR or INT, whichever is lower between the two. What's more, you gain 50 additional points to STR and INT simply by taking this particular node.

Righteous Providence is good and all, but where your critical strike chance shines is by taking Inevitable Judgement as soon as you can. This notable ascendancy passive skill allows you to ignore the enemy's elemental resistance when you land a critical strike. If you attack a monster or hit them with a spell and it doesn't result in a critical hit, then they'll get a slight reduction in elemental resistance via Inevitable Judgement's intrinsic elemental penetration effect.

The Inquisitor is also good for builds that specialize in dealing damage over time, like those that use Righteous Fire, for example. If you want to create such a build soon, then you should be acquainted with Pious Path and Sanctuary.

Sanctuary is an incredible node that lets you create Consecrated Ground just by standing still for a second or two. Normally, Consecrated Ground would just provide you with increased life regeneration and reduced effect of curses while you are in its area of effect. But with Sanctuary, any monster that steps into the Consecrated Ground you have created will take 15% increased damage from your attacks.

Then, you have Pious Path. What this ascendancy node does is it essentially amplifies the effects of the Consecrated Ground that you have created with Sanctuary by allowing you to regenerate energy shield as well.

The Inquisitor is an incredible choice if you are playing builds that use an elemental skill gem like Spark or Righteous Fire.

Hierophant

While you can make a case for the Inquisitor as being the top dog in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, the best ascendancy class, at least as far as the PoE community is concerned, is actually the Hierophant. This is because mana-stacking builds are all the rage nowadays due, in large part, to the beefed-up Archmage Support. But, let's discuss that when the said support gem becomes relevant. For now, we will talk about what makes this ascendancy class famous in PoE 3.25.

Even though this ascendancy class has access to eight notable passive skills, we are only going to talk about several of them. That is because people rarely take any nodes other than the four, namely Divine Guidance, Sanctuary of Thought, Arcane Blessing, and Conviction of Power. All of these nodes are centered around stacking your mana as high as possible while providing some utility here and there.

Arcane Blessing is usually taken first due to the value it provides at the beginning stages of the campaign. When you allocate points to this node, you gain Arcane Surge when you hit an enemy with an attack or a spell. Arcane Surge grants a 10% increased cast speed and 30% mana regeneration rate, which are pretty useful effects early on.

Divine Guidance is where things start to get interesting. This is what makes the Hierophant the best ascendancy class to choose for mana-stacking builds in Path of Exile. Why? Because taking this node instantly gives you a huge 30% boost to your maximum mana. If you are still not convinced, this notable ascendancy passive skill also grants Transfiguration of Mind, which states that increases and reductions to maximum mana apply to damage at 30% of their value.

In addition, Divine Guidance has a defensive effect. Whenever you are hit by the enemy, 10% of the damage you receive is taken from mana before life (this is a watered-down version of Mind Over Matter).

The notable ascendancy passive skill next to Divine Guidance called the Sanctuary of Thought, is arguably one of the best nodes in the entire game! This node itself gives you several different effects.

For starters, Sanctuary of Thought increases your mana reservation efficiency of skills by 25%. Besides that, this notable ascendancy passive skill reduces the cost of your skill by a whopping 50%. These two effects combined really help get you through the main PoE campaign without worrying about mana at all.

Sanctuary of Thought also increases the area of effect of your skills by 1% for every 50 points of unreserved maximum mana, up to a total of 100%. This is beneficial for builds that use AoE skill gems like Ice Nova of Frostbolts or Lightning Conduit of the Heavens.

Lastly, Conviction of Power grants the effects of four Power Charges and Endurance Charge, which translate to increased critical strike chance and additional physical/elemental damage reduction. Take note that these effects come from "minimum charges," meaning, they are always in effect regardless of anything that may take those charges away (like Malachai's Loop).

Best Templar Builds

Are you ready to know our top picks for the best Templar builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League? If so, let's start with a bang, shall we?

10. BAMA Guardian

+Powerful in the early game

+Effective currency farmer

+Minions can delete enemies with modest gear

+Alternate between Blink Arrow and Mirror Arrow

-Guardian version of BAMA is lower in damage compared to the Necromancer in the endgame

Minion builds are still quite popular in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League, particularly those that use the Mirror Arrow of Bombarding Clones. If you see other PoE players mention "BAMA," they refer to Blink Arrow and Mirror Arrow. As far as the Transfigured Gems are concerned, both of them are the same, except for their fundamental differences. Blink Arrow acts as a movement skill as well, while Mirror Arrow is suited for those who love a more methodical playstyle.

Having said that, there are two ascendancy classes people choose when using the BAMA skill gems, the Guardian and the Necromancer. So, how do they differ from each other?

Well, there are a couple of key differences. The first is that the Guardian aims to improve elemental damage. On the other hand, the Necromancer is all about inflicting powerful poisons on enemies.

The second major difference between the two ascendancy classes is that the Guardian is a lot tankier than the Necromancer. Of course, this is overshadowed by the life leech from the Necromancer's Bone Barrier ascendancy node, but the notable passive skills available to the Guardian make him better in terms of survivability in the early- to mid-game.

The tandem of Radiant Crusade and Unwavering Crusade provide the Guardian's minions an insane elemental damage boost. All you have to do is take these specific nodes and be at level 85 to truly feel their power. Why level 85? Because at the level, the Elemental Relic from Unwavering Crusade will give you added fire, cold, or lightning damage equal to a level 27 Anger, Hatred, or Wrath aura, respectively.

For defense, you have the Radiant Faith to give you a huge increase in armor and energy shield. With four auras activated, you should be able to reserve quite a bit of your mana, thus taking full advantage of this notable ascendancy passive skill.

Then, you have Bastion of Hope. Despite the fact that you do not wear a shield on this build, you still gain a considerable chance to block the enemy's attacks. A 30% attack block chance is better than nothing, don't you think?

Time of Need is also not bad when it comes to improving your survivability. Every four seconds, you regenerate 100% of your life over one second, thus alleviating the need for a Life Flask. All of the curses and elemental ailments on you (if any) are removed as well.

With that out of the way, it is time to give proper attention to the main skill of this build. The Mirror Arrow of Bombarding Clones. When used, you fire an arrow to the sky, and when it lands, it summons a clone that will bombard enemies with Rain of Arrows. You can summon three clones at a time, so you can imagine how the screen will be riddled with arrows when you have all of them attacking at the same time!

In the Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur version of this build, you will also use Blink Arrow of Prismatic Clones. Unlike the Transfigured Gem mentioned above, this one summons clones that use Elemental Hit instead of the default attack. This works really well with the Guardian's Unwavering Crusade ascendancy node.

To play this build, all you have to do is move around the map while casting BAMA, one after the other. Although they both have cooldowns, the minions that are summoned by these skills should help eliminate most monsters on the screen. Just make sure that you use BAMA as soon as they are available.

Because the clones that you have summoned are considered "minions," you will include multiple support gems that improve minions in various ways. For instance, Fresh Meat Support increases their crit chance and critical strike multiplier. On top of that, the aptly named Minion Damage Support amplifies the damage output of your clones.

Speaking of minions, your clones are not the only ones that are part of your minion army. You can also summon other minions using Animate Guardian and Raise Spectre.

For Animate Guardian, you can cast the spell on a Gruthkul's Pelt for life regeneration, Leer Cast for a damage boost to you and your minions, and Kingmaker for a higher critical strike multiplier and the ability to kill monsters that are below 10% of their maximum life automatically via Culling Strike.

As for spectres, there are plenty of viable options. We recommend that you hop into any Tier 17 map and then cast Desecrate. After doing so, search for the Wretched Defiler (map clear), Spectral Leader (action speed), or Necrotic Bones (DPS), and then use Raise Spectre on them to add them to your minion army.

Grinding Gear Games reintroduced itemized corpses in Patch 3.25, allowing you to use Raise Spectre on them to have a minion fight by your side. That said, there are actually quite a lot of viable options, including:

• Perfect Dark Marionette
• For adding one more aura without reserving mana
• Explodes on death, dealing damage to nearby monsters
• Enemies hit with the explosion suffer from Scorch, effectively reducing their elemental resistance
• Auto-revives itself shortly after death
• Hulking Miscreation
• Grants 100% increased damage and 30% attack/cast speed
• Perfect Forest Warrior
• Culling Strike
• Perfect Warlord
• Grants Endurance Charges to allies
• Perfect Druidic Alchemist
• Gain 1 Life Flask charge every 3 seconds

The Mirror Arrow of Bombarding Clones Guardian is a good and well-rounded build. It has enough damage to help you effectively farm PoE Currency, and it can take a beating while your clones and other minions do all of the work.

9. Siege Ballista Hierophant

+League starter

+Obliterates enemies with piercing shots

+One of the best Sanctum runners in PoE 3.25

-Needs specific items to unlock the build’s true potential

-Upgrades are expensive

Do you need a build in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League that can destroy enemies with a barrage of piercing arrows? If so, the Siege Ballista Hierophant is for you!

This is a league starter that allows you to earn PoE Currency easily by running Forbidden Sanctums as soon as you finish PoE's main campaign. However, the true potential of this build is unlocked when you have some specific pieces of gear.

Iron Commander is a unique bow that allows you to summon 1 additional Siege Ballista totem per 200 points of dexterity. As you can already tell, this build is a DEX stacker in the late game to fully maximize its damage output.

The next upgrade you can take is The Poised Prism. This unique quiver grants cold damage to attacks per 10 points of dexterity on your character. If you are able to reach at least 2,500 DEX, this translates to 1,250 added cold damage!

To improve your cold damage, you will wear the unique mask called Fractal Thoughts. This thing increases your elemental damage per 10 DEX. Furthermore, you gain a considerable boost to your critical strike multiplier when you have this unique helmet equipped.

Now, any attack speed bonuses you gain will also trickle down to your totems. This is the reason why you're going to invest in a Grasping Mail, specifically with Esh's modifier that states: "1% Increased Attack Speed per 25 Dexterity."

Ideally, you want the said modifier fractured so that you can use Essence of Greed (Life) or Essence of Loathing (mana reservation) to craft your endgame body armor.

If you are wondering why Hierophant is chosen as the ascendancy class for this build, that is because of two specific notable passive skills. The first is Pursuit of Faith, which is an ascendancy node that not only increases your totem placement speed by a significant amount but also raises the number of totems you can summon by one.

The second is the Ritual of Awakening. This notable ascendancy passive skill grants bonuses for every totem you have summoned on the battlefield, such as 5% more damage, 0.5% mana regeneration, and 1% life generation. Since it is possible to summon more than 15 totems on this build, just imagine how powerful your character is when you have all of them set up!

Do not worry, Pursuit of Faith can reduce the time it takes to summon all of your ballista totems. This is even more so when you take some nodes on the passive tree as well.

Although it requires a huge investment in the endgame, the Siege Ballista Hierophant is a competent league starter and one that is worth considering in PoE 3.25!

8. Elemental SRS Guardian

+Relatively fast map blaster

+Guardian's ascendancy nodes perfectly accentuate the build's main skill

+Incredible survivability

-No longer a viable league starter

-Needs powerful spectres to gain some of the power back

Summon Raging Spirit is all the rage (get it?) in the past couple of leagues. The skill gives you the power to call forth multiple flaming skulls that seek nearby monsters automatically. It was very popular that a lot of those who use the Guardian ascendancy class would often try the Elemental SRS Guardian out.

Unfortunately, GGG always applies nerfs in each Path of Exile expansion. Sadly, the Summon Raging Spirit spell skill gem was one of those affected. What adjustment did it receive, you ask? This gem no longer gets an inherent "more damage" multiplier when you level it up. This nerf is actually a pretty big deal, so in order to get some of the damage back, you will have to invest in more expensive gear.

Hence, the Elemental SRS Guardian in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur League can no longer be used effectively during league start scenarios. However, we are not saying that the build is no longer nice to play. It is still viable, provided that you have enough PoE Currency to spend.

Since Summon Raging Spirit is a spell skill gem, raising its gem levels beyond level 21 can make it even better. That is why you should invest in items that increase the level of all minion gems by a point or two. Some of the items that contain such a modifier include the helmet, spirit shield, and the amulet amulet.

Aside from increasing the gem levels of minion skills, you have to put as many "% Increased Minion Damage" modifiers as possible.

Now, because the more damage multiplier that is inherent in the SRS gem has been removed, you have to rely on additional minions as well. Fortunately, the new Tier 17 spectres, most notably the Wretched Defiler and Necrotic Bones, can help you with map-clearing immensely. The Pale Seraphim (Beyond monster) also helps with that by increasing the damage taken of nearby monsters by 15%.

The playstyle of the Elemental SRS Guardian largely involves casting Summon Raging Spirit until you have more than 20 flaming skulls at a time. Taking the "Enduring Bond" notable skill on the passive tree gives you a comfortable cushion to summon the maximum number of SRS minions before they expire. Linking this skill gem to an Awakened Unleash Support is also nice as it allows you to cast it repeatedly with just one tap.

As your minions do all of the attacking, your role is just to be on the sidelines, providing support via Radiant Crusade and Unwavering Crusade. Time of Need and Bastion of Hope can really aid you in absorbing hits without going down, so do get them if you need more survivability.

With the new armor base types introduced in Patch 3.25, taking Radiant Faith instead of Time of Need is not bad at all. The more mana you reserve with your skills, the more energy shield you get when you allocate points to take this ascendancy node.

Even though the skill gem has been nerfed, the Elemental SRS Guardian is still good in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur League. You just have to spend a bit more to get some of its power back.

7. Ice Spear of Splitting Inquisitor

+Can take on any content in the game

+Deals insane amounts of damage

+Spin to win

-Have to be in melee range due to Cyclone

-Expensive to put up

The next entry on our list of the best Templar Builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur is actually pretty fun to play, particularly if you like using Cyclone in a much better way!

The Ice Spear of Splitting Inquisitor is a build that utilizes Cyclone to trigger the said Transfigured Gem. This is possible by linking Ice Spear of Splitting with Cyclone and the Awakened Cast on Critical support gem.

Let's talk about the primary skill gem for this build first. Ice Spear of Splitting, unlike its non-transfigured counterpart, only fires a single projectile. However, once the projectile collides with something, it will then split to hit multiple enemies, gaining the ability to pierce as a result.

This is a competent mapper that has amazing survivability due to the items it uses. Chief among them is The Ivory Tower, which is a unique body armor that grants huge amounts of energy shield based on reserved life. You'd have to use Arrogance Support to satisfy this condition along with a few other auras.

Do not be worried if you have very low HP after activating your auras because you have heaps of energy shield to protect you. Since you're now basically on low health, you can take advantage of the Rathpith Globe, as well as the Pain Attunement keystone, to deal insane amounts of damage!

Speaking of which, Energy Blade allows you to infuse your weapon with a ton of lightning damage. This is the main reason why you raise your energy shield as high as you can because the amount of damage granted by Energy Blade is based upon the ES value you currently have.

To ensure that you have enough mana and life to work with, you will stack STR and INT as well. A couple of Split Personality unique jewels should help you with this, especially if you place it in jewel sockets that are far away from the Templar's starting point on the passive tree.

On top of that, you can wear the Astramentis to give you a huge boost to your attributes. Later on, you can grab the Eyes of the Greatwolf, particularly one that has "% Increased Attributes" and "+% to Global Critical Strike Muliplier" as implicit modifiers.

Now, if you truly want to bring the best out of this build, you will have to sort out your cooldown recovery rate and attack speed. The most achievable is a trigger rate of 7.57, which can be done by using a level 6 Awakened Cast on Critical Strike. Make sure that your attack speed matches the trigger rate, otherwise, your Ice Spear of Splitting will not be triggered as optimally as it can be.

Take note that this build uses quite a lot of unique items and some of them are quite expensive. However, if you have enough PoE Currency to obtain them all, we promise you that the Ice Spear of Splitting Inquisitor is one of the best Templar Builds in PoE 3.25!

6. Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Guardian

+Impressive tankiness heavily improved by the Guardian's nodes

+New Transfigured Gem is quite amazing offensively

+More fun and engaging minion build compared to others

-Upgrades can ramp up in cost

There is a new Transfigured Gem in Path of Exile that has been making waves as of late. This skill gem in question is none other than the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction. So, how does this differ from the base version?

Well, the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction allows you to summon one additional Holy Relic minion. But, the main difference here is that the relic minions' damaging nova is now cast on nearby monsters rather than around them. To put it simply, this Transfigured Gem is built purely for offense as it completely forgoes the life regeneration buff in favor of summoning an additional Holy Relic to fight for you.

You do not have only two Holy Relic minions on this build, though. Thanks to Geofri's Crest, you can summon an additional Holy Relic for a total of three! On top of that, it is possible for you to call forth additional minions by using Raise Spectre, Animate Guardian, and Summon Chaos Golem. The said golem is nice for survivability due to its additional physical damage reduction buff.

Although your minions will do the heavy lifting, you can actually contribute to killing monsters by utilizing the Lancing Steel of Spraying as well. How is that possible, you ask? The said skill gem is linked to Culling Strike Support, which instantly kills enemies that are below 10% of their maximum life. The Returning Projectiles Support ensures that there will be no stragglers left behind.

In Patch 3.25, some players even take the Ancestral Bond keystone passive to prevent themselves from dying due to reflected damage. You can still slay enemies by linking Lancing Steel of Spraying with Culling Strike Support, though the Holy Relics will do most of the dirty work.

While it is possible to make this work on a budget, the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Guardian shines when you are able to acquire certain pieces of gear. Dialla's Malefaction provides a ton of value to the build. Most of the gems that you insert here should be placed on green sockets for that +30% quality. The only gems that you place in red sockets are Enhance Support and Empower Support.

The reason why you want to raise the gem quality of Summon Holy Relic of Conviction as high as you possibly can is so that you can greatly improve the frequency of their attacks.

The next upgrade that you should spend PoE Currency on is a self-crafted sword, specifically using the Capricious Spiritblade for the crafting base. If you are wondering why you use this weapon, it is for its implicit modifier that converts all of your physical damage to a random element. The mods that you should put on the Capricious Spiritblade are as follows:

• % Increased Minion Damage (Essence of Fear)
• Added Cold Damage
• % Increased Attack Speed
• Hits Can't Be Evaded (Bench-craft)
• Trigger a Socketed Spell When You Use a Skill, with an 8-Second Cooldown (Bench-craft)

Crafting the weapon might require a heavy investment due to the relatively high market prices of the Essence of Fear.

Anyway, the damaging nova that your Holy Relic minions cast on the enemy naturally deals physical damage. To convert all of that to elemental damage (and so that they will get boosted by the auras granted by your Elemental Relic), you need to wear the Triad Grip. This unique pair of gloves converts all of the physical damage of your minions to cold and fire damage (due to the presence of a single red support gem socketed into the gloves).

With the return of the itemized corpses in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, you could obtain the Hulking Miscreation to grant a 100% damage boost, as well as a 30% increase in attack/cast speed for you and your minions.

Your main role here is just to provide support for your minions, while occasionally firing Lancing Steel of Spraying to cull enemies that are on their last legs. If you want a minion build that has a more fun and engaging playstyle compared to other similar archetypes, then definitely give the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Guardian a try!

5. Spark Hierophant

+Stack huge amounts of mana for insane damage

+Easy skill to master

+Has a couple of good variations

-Requires a huge investment in the endgame

Normally, builds that utilize the Spark spell skill gem in PoE are associated with the Inquisitor because of the increased elemental damage and critical strike chance provided by the said ascendancy class. However, this next one begs to differ, offering you an alternate route to success.

The Spark Hierophant stacks huge amounts of mana to take full advantage of the Ravenous Passion. This is a unique helmet that allows you to gain Rage after spending 200 mana. In a normal scenario, Rage grants more attack damage. But when you have the Ravenous Passion equipped, you will gain more spell damage instead.

Because the Hierophant does not have access to notable ascendancy passive skills that improve crit, you have to address that with your gear. Hence, you will equip a couple of well-crafted wands that have spell crit, spell damage, and increased projectile speed.

In the endgame, you have the option of using the Widowhail — a unique bow that increases the bonuses of your quiver by up to 250%. You could use a synthesized quiver with critical strike and projectile speed mods, but you can also opt for Saemus' Gift, which is a unique quiver that increases your lightning damage per 10 intelligence.

To help give you copious amounts of mana, you will take Divine Guidance from the Hierophant ascendancy tree. Sanctuary of Thought allows you to spam Spark without ever worrying about mana.

The appeal of the Spark Hierophant is that it deals even more damage than the Inquisitor ever could, especially when you have the right pieces of gear. So, if you like the playstyle, then be sure to give this one a try!

4. Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor

+Still incredible in Patch 3.25

+Insane map-clearing potential

+Has no problems killing Uber pinnacle bosses

+The build has two variations

-Build requires heavy investment to feel great to play

-This build's playstyle might not appeal to many

Although melee skills got all of the nice things in Patch 3.25, the good news is that some Brand Skills have not been nerfed, which makes the Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor one of the best Templar Builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur.

Penance Brand of Dissipation allows you to attach a magical brand on the enemy that pulses continuously until the target is dead or when the brand has been detached for some reason. The damage done by the brand is based on 50% of your physical damage converted to lightning damage.

When the magical brand is attached to the enemy, it applies energy that stacks up to 20 times, resulting in a wider area of effect with each pulse. You can reduce the ramp-up time by attaching multiple brands on the target, which is why the Runebinder keystone is allocated on this build.

In PoE 3.25, the Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor is built as a STR and INT stacker. This is so that you can take full advantage of Energy Blade and gain huge amounts of lightning damage.

Unlike the Ice Spear of Splitting Inquisitor mentioned above, you will take Blood Magic as one of your keystone passives. This keystone essentially removes all of your mana, which means that your skills and auras now use life instead.

To give more oomph to this build, you are going to use the Rathpith Globe. This is a unique shield that provides spell crit and spell damage based on your maximum life. The Inquisitor's "Instruments of Virtue" ascendancy node also gives you spell damage equal to the damage of your main hand weapon.

In terms of defenses, you have The Ivory Tower and Shaper's Touch. Both of them give you a ton of energy shield. Shaper's Touch, in particular, grants energy shield per 10 strength. This is the reason why you are also stacking STR on this build as well.

If you have enough PoE Currency, you can invest in the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with "Sign of Purpose" as the matching modifier. This Hierophant-only node makes the magical brands attached to the enemy activate more often.

It is worth noting that although the build is still amazing in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur, the Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor does require an even higher investment. Be that as it may, you can never go wrong with this one!

3. Ball Lightning of Orbiting Hierophant

+Destroy everything in your path with Ball Lightning

+Easy to scale damage with the right gear

+Excellent mapper

-Average survivability

The Ball Lightning Hierophant is a fantastic mapper in PoE 3.25. This is built as a mana stacker because it utilizes Archmage Support to a great extent.

For the uninitiated, Archmage is a support gem that grants added lightning damage based on a portion of your unreserved max mana. Because of this, your primary goal is to increase your max mana in any way you can.

Some items that can aid you in that regard are Healthy Mind, Atziri's Foible, and Sublime Vision. The latter is included in the build because you only need one aura and that is Wrath. The said aura is linked to Eternal Blessing Support so you don't have to reserve precious mana just to activate it.

For your primary skill, you have Ball Lightning of Orbiting. How is this different from the non-transfigured version, you ask? Well, the projectile that spawns from casting the said spell moves in a spiral. It has 100% more projectile speed compared to the original version, though you will slow it down by using the aptly named Slower Projectiles Support. This makes the projectile hit more targets as it moves off the screen.

To complement your killing prowess, you are also going to use Frostblink of Wintry Blast. This not only serves as your main movement skill, but it is linked to Archmage Support as well, giving it enough power to destroy most map monsters as you zip through the area.

Once you encounter a boss, drop your Sigil of Power to gain more lightning damage. Frost Shield is included in the mix so that you can gain some spell critical strike chance.

Although this build has the power to decimate enemies in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur with ease, it does fall short of survivability. You could invest in well-crafted gear, but that would require a boatload of PoE Currency to pull off.

Despite its rather average defenses, the Ball Lightning of Orbiting Hierophant is powerful enough to slay enemies before they get near you.

2. Hexblast of Contradiction Inquisitor

+One of the best bossing builds for Templars

+League starter

+Can be taken well into the endgame

-Mine playstyle might not appeal to you

-Average mapping speed

If you are looking for a build that has the power to blast enemies to oblivion, then read further. The next entry on our list can do that and then some!

The Hexblast of Contradiction Inquisitor is a very powerful build in PoE 3.25, primarily because of the Transfigured Gem and the various mechanics at play here.

Hexblast of Contradiction is different from normal Hexblast in that the damage of the spell takes into account the enemy's highest resistance instead of the lowest. This means that any reduction in elemental resistance, such as penetration and exposure, is not needed here. Instead, you will take advantage of the Inquisitor's Inevitable Judgement ascendancy node.

You see, when you have the notable ascendancy passive skill allocated, your critical strikes essentially ignore monster elemental resistances. This leaves chaos resistance if the monster has any. But, as many Path of Exile players have experienced, this is actually bugged in that Hexblast of Contradiction interacts with Inevitable Judgement as if the enemy does not have any resistances at all!

What does that mean? It means that you deal huge amounts of damage so long as you're able to land critical hits with Hexblast of Contradiction!

Now, if you are new to the game, the Transfigured Gem in question has a long cast time of one second. To circumvent this, you link it with High-Impact Mine Support to turn it into a Mine Skill.

Mine Skills in PoE need to be detonated. Fortunately, you do not have to lift a finger because this process is automated for you thanks to the combo of Detonate Mines and Automation Support.

Because it is so much easier for you to cap critical strike chance with the Inquisitor, you do not have to wear Sandstorm Visage at all. Instead, you can opt for the Curtain Call, which is a unique helmet that allows you to throw two additional mines if you have at least 800 points of INT and DEX.

To achieve those numbers, you will use a couple of Split Personality jewels; one with STR and INT, while the other with STR and DEX. Make sure to slot them as far away from the Templar's starting point as possible to gain the maximum benefit.

This build can be a very good league starter. Your main weapon should be a Prophecy Wand for its high base critical strike chance. In the endgame, you will transition to using the Energy Blade, The Ivory Tower, and Shaper’s Touch combo for more spell damage.

So, how does this compare to other Hexblast Mine builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur? Well, you can decimate enemies without a hitch through your insane critical strike chance and virtually zero resistances from the enemy.

However, it is worth noting that this build has a fairly low mine-throwing speed compared to the other variants. Still, the Hexblast of Contradiction Inquisitor is so awesome that it is not hard to recommend to anyone who is looking for a competent bossing build.

1. Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant

+Still the hottest Templar Build in Patch 3.25

+Able to use Archmage Support to a great extent

+Transfigured Gem makes sure that enemies have no chance to escape

-Can be harsh on the system (may crash those who are using low-end PCs)

-Screen visibility leaves a lot to be desired

The Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant is still the most popular Templar Build in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League! This build is made possible thanks to Archmage Support, which grants a ton of added lightning damage based on your unreserved maximum mana.

You might think that you scale cold damage on this build due to the fact that you are using a cold-based spell skill, but that is actually far from the truth. In fact, you will go another way and improve lightning damage instead.

The reason why is that the majority of your damage comes from the added lightning damage provided by Archmage Support. As you can surmise, the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant is a mana-stacking build.

Since we have already discussed in great length how stacker builds are made in PoE, we will only discuss the notable items that make this build function. But before that, we have to talk about the main spell for this build as that is a good place to start.

So, the Ice Nova of Frostbolts is a Transfigured Gem that allows you to cast Ice Nova directly on top of the projectiles created by Frostbolt. For this reason, you need to cast two spells in order for things to work as they should.

Now, it is cumbersome to have to cast Frostbolt first and then Ice Nova, right? Fortunately, you can automatically cast Frostbolt projectiles by socketing the spell skill gem into Kitava's Thirst. This is a helmet with a unique effect that triggers the socketed spell after spending 100 mana upfront.

Take note that you are required to spend at least 100 mana. The good news is that Archmage Support can help you with that. If anything, you will spend a lot more than what is needed.

Although Kitava's Thirst helps make the build feel a lot smoother to play, it does have a huge downside in that it reduces your cast speed by 15%. To resolve this, you should equip two crafted Profane Wands with "% Increased Cast Speed" as an implicit and explicit modifier.

If you want to take things to the next level, get your hands on Anathema. This unique ring allows you to apply more than one curse on the enemy depending on your Maximum Power Charges. You do not even have to think about getting Power Charges because this will be sorted out just by taking the Conviction of Power notable ascendancy passive skill from the Hierophant.

Speaking of curses, the ones that you are going to use here are Enfeeble, Conductivity, Elemental Weakness, and Assassin's Mark. The first two are automatically cast due to Kitava's Thirst. The other two are applied by attaching the Arcanist Brand on a tough cookie like the Searing Exarch or Uber Elder.

While Archmage Support already gives you a ton of added lightning damage, you can get even more by activating Arcane Cloak as well. Do not worry, this process is also automated thanks to the new Automation Support.

Once everything is set, all you really have to do is use Ice Nova of Frostbolts, and your items, as well as the underlying mechanics just mentioned, will take care of the rest. Do not forget to use the Arcanist Brand on more challenging encounters.

Keep in mind that this build is capable of filling the screen with a plethora of icy projectiles. If your computer cannot handle the graphical load, we suggest that you try any of the builds mentioned in this article.

With the return of itemized corpses in PoE 3.25, you could add the Hulking Miscreation to gain even more damage! If you are going to use Animate Guardian, the Leer Cast also grants a significant damage boost.

With incredible damage output and the various mechanics at play, no wonder the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant is the best Templar build in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Conclusion

The Templar is definitely one of the more popular classes in Patch 3.25. Although GGG spent more time buffing melee skills in this league, there are other builds that have sprung up due to various changes in the mechanics.

For instance, the Siege Ballista Hierophant is an incredible Sanctum runner because you can set up copious amounts of ballista totems to deal with the enemy.

Spark Hierophant is a unique variation of a popular build. It deals even more damage than the Inquisitor, though it does require a higher investment to pull off.

It also seems that Energy Blade is all the rage nowadays, particularly because it is utilized by some of the builds on this list, including the Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor, Hexblast of Contradiction Inquisitor, and the Ice Spear of Splitting Inquisitor.

Seriously, no matter which build you choose from above, you will never go wrong with any of them!

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!