With how limiting builds are now because they rely so heavily on a lot of uniques there is really no room for defensive aspects and most uniques don’t have good defensive stats anyway. All the guides are like “just use Shako and Tyrael’s for the DR, bruh” well no 
bruv but not everyone plays the game 24/7 and has multiple mythics…
Is the revamped Temerity any good? It didn’t use to synergize very well with Warmth and from what I can tell it still doesn’t. That lucky hit affix that heals you has a very low proc rate so you’re pretty much limited by your potions to get the barrier up and it only lasts 8 seconds (which is actually an upgrade from before, lol).
The new Firebird Aspect is okay but it’s not a true cheat death because it’s based on cumulative HP lost and can often trigger when you don’t really need it, plus it has a 30 second cooldown.
What else is there? Or are we still doomed to be squishy af?
I’ve found the sorc is indeed still squishy. Temerity “works” but IMO it’s as a source to get a barrier and use it to proc something like the Conceited Aspect, not to pump a lot of barrier. The obvious issue is if you aren’t already using conceited there’s very probably nowhere you’re going to be able to put it since sorc is so short on offensive slots.
I do want to try Temerity with the Undying Aspect (heal 2% total life when you cast a skill).
With Warmth its not generating a lot of of barrier that you’d be using for survival - though my warmth is only 3/3 not like crazy high.
All the guides are like “just use Shako and Tyrael’s for the DR, bruh”
This bugs me a lot as well. Like, how am I supposed to get them if I’m nowhere near killing a tormented boss? I guess I could just farm mats for the rest of my life to do 1000 normal Duriel runs but I have other things I’d rather do.
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Oh I hadn’t thought of that, gonna give it a shot also.
Uber Chest + Uber Helm (either one) will go a long way after masterwork.
Budget versions would be Everliving + Snowvieled aspects.
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I really went all in with dr against burning / vulnerable, and I am using vyr’s and mage lord aspect. have about 32k life, just hit 100.
Did a rank 6 infernal horde and between cycling my cooldowns for shields and using teleport ONLY to evade ( or break being cc’d ) I was able to facetank a lvl 160 butcher and tele out when he started hurting me, between that and our impressive cc ability, our best defense is simply being out of range, I dont even USE ice armor. Our barb died several times.
Context: I am running Firewall with Flameweaver and not the OP Lightning Spear Fractured Orb meta.
Firebird aspect is good in my opinion because you get the enchantment for free. Yes, it does trigger often but it also refreshes faster and you can still manually trigger it.
For survival, I rely on a lot of HP. I started with 10K and now I am at 25K and I don’t have max rubies yet. That Wamrth passive has saved me a lot of split seconds when I was really low in hp.
Then I added DR from Everliving and that glyph that gives 25% DR when you have no mana, since I quickly lose mana with Firewall, it’s always up.
On top of that I use the standard Ice Armor and Teleport for more damage reduction and barrier.
But really my key survivability is lots of crowd control. I daze, stun, immobilize, slow enemies, while I roast them alive. My Godslayer will group and stun mobs and in most cases will be dazed and vulnerable. That’s easy kill already.
I also have that aspect that pulls distant enemies and this destroys their position. I had seen a lot of mobs that are casting and gets disoriented with this aspect. I realize most of the dangers I have are those off corner mobs because you didn’t know they are waiting out there.
I also rely on my Inferno ultimate to dislodge enemy groups and pull them at one spot. Another easy kill.
Against bosses it’s having enough dps plus knowing their attack patterns since my damage isn’t that OP. I can kill Tormented Bosses now so far btw.
I can tank Tormented Grig and Zir. The only tine I would avoid them is when they are casting their debuff which is really what usually kills me against Pit bosses.
I am changing to warmth and barrier generation it isn’t enough at least for me cause I won’t switch to frozen orb or fireball or firebolt. I like a challenge so I try to never use meta. I am on tier 6 hoardes with ice shards blizzard. Hoping a great esu’s will take me to tier 7 but yes survivability is terrible. Easiest fix Elemental Attunement change cooldown from 10 to 7 secs. That way we can get a shield back up in case ice armor breaks instantly which it does.
Most people dont know this, but this is actually the secret sauce here. If you are an FO / conjury or lightning speer build, and you have the defensive aspect that gives you 25% dr for an active conjury, you pretty much have 75% dr there (+ tyreal and shako).
You can literally face-tank pit 117. Same idea with hoard t7
I knew that but I don’t like copying the meta builds, but point is taken. As I said I like a challenge without ice blades, hydra, conjurations etc. Trying to figure out something that people run away from cause they believe it is broken.
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Tormented bosses are can be farmed without mythic uniques or even good gear.
I got my starless skies using a subpar Fire-Ball build.
About Defense:
Does Soulbrand works with Temerity ? (Eyeing the 20% DR of barrier it offers).