What is a good class for sword and shield and why?

[gazza2929]

Looking at both the Marauder and the Duelist. Im a diablo 3 vet and loved the crusader or what ever he was but he had a big shield and had good dps and tanked out

[Tycen]

There's no 'good class' in PoE. You need to know what skill build you would like to play as, then from there move on accordingly. Swords/Shield are closer to Maruader/Scion/Duelist class passive nodes. Best check on some streamers such as LiftinNerdBro / ZiggyD for some beginner guide since you're from d3 vanilla. Same like me.

[Qiox]

If you are using a shield for Blocking and want to go max block and max spell block then you want to start Duelist and go Gladiator for your Ascendancy class.

[Ragblasfozm]

Pretty much any can be good if you build it right but the optimal ones should be close to the bottom/bottom right side of the passive tree for the shield related passives if you decide to invest on them.

[Wintermute]

Originally posted by T.:

There's no 'good class' in PoE. You need to know what skill build you would like to play as, then from there move on accordingly.

Bull****. Ascendancies would like to speak with you. There IS best class for all of builds. There's also absolute worst - Scion.

[Phobos]

Originally posted by Wintermute:

also absolute worst - Scion.

Only if you play like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥... nothing wrong with the scion.

[Tycen]

Originally posted by Wintermute:

Originally posted by T.:

There's no 'good class' in PoE. You need to know what skill build you would like to play as, then from there move on accordingly.

Bull****. Ascendancies would like to speak with you. There IS best class for all of builds. There's also absolute worst - Scion.

To be frank, you sound like a total noob. Also not to forget to mention speaking from a 200+ hours kid. Scion class is the Jack of all trades. Get your facts right before quoting what I shared. There is no "BEST class" in PoE, there's only viable or non-viable.

[Ragewaar]

Scion has the weakest ascendency options, which is true, but if you want to run a hybrid build of some kind, she is still the best due to the starting point being equidistant to all nodes and not having to cross the full tree. Even if thatsss not what you want, certain builds work better on her just because you get less filler nodes to reach the areas in the center.

[Wintermute]

Originally posted by T.:

Originally posted by Wintermute:

Bull****. Ascendancies would like to speak with you. There IS best class for all of builds. There's also absolute worst - Scion.

To be frank, you sound like a total noob. Also not to forget to mention speaking from a 200+ hours kid. Scion class is the Jack of all trades. Get your facts right before quoting what I shared. There is no "BEST class" in PoE, there's only viable or non-viable.

There's best class for each specialisation you can choose. Want to go traps? Shadow. Totems? Either marauder or templar. Two-handed melee? Mara or duelist. Minion master? Witch. If I'm wrong, please show me some amazing ele build run by duelist.

And yes, Scion is jack of all trades. That's exactly the problem. She can do nothing better than class dedicated to the task. At all.

[Tycen]

Originally posted by Wintermute:

Originally posted by T.:

To be frank, you sound like a total noob. Also not to forget to mention speaking from a 200+ hours kid. Scion class is the Jack of all trades. Get your facts right before quoting what I shared. There is no "BEST class" in PoE, there's only viable or non-viable.

There's best class for each specialisation you can choose. Want to go traps? Shadow. Totems? Either marauder or templar. Two-handed melee? Mara or duelist. Minion master? Witch. If I'm wrong, please show me some amazing ele build run by duelist.

And yes, Scion is jack of all trades. That's exactly the problem. She can do nothing better than class dedicated to the task. At all.

fyi, totems are viable with scion as well (can go sire of shards + hybrid), also elemental build? you can go for Wildstrike/flicker strike with fire elemental build (skill gem) + champion for duelist. Please do some research/google up when you are free.

[Drake]

While that's true for simple and general setups. It's not when you're going for specific set of skills. You're saying for example that totems are either marauder or templar. But this is just not true. The ballista totem for example is better with the ranger, same for most ranged attack totem combinations.

Oh and by the way, ele build duelist ? oro flicker slayer is pure fire damage.

[Tycen]

Originally posted by Sajah:

While that's true for simple and general setups. It's not when you're going for specific set of skills. You're saying for example that totems are either marauder or templar. But this is just not true. The ballista totem for example is better with the ranger, same for most ranged attack totem combinations.

Oh and by the way, ele build duelist ? oro flicker slayer is pure fire damage.

Great mind thinks alike. Guess Mr. Wintermute got to learn to check on forums/youtube for those.

[Wintermute]

Originally posted by Sajah:

While that's true for simple and general setups. It's not when you're going for specific set of skills. You're saying for example that totems are either marauder or templar. But this is just not true. The ballista totem for example is better with the ranger, same for most ranged attack totem combinations.

Oh and by the way, ele build duelist ? oro flicker slayer is pure fire damage.

Pardon me if I doubt that ranger bonuses outshine Hiero's ability to put out 3 totems at the same time. Maybe you're right, but I've never seen ranger totem build. Plenty of templar though, if usually spell-support based.

As for build you mention, it's based entirely on the fire-damaging unique. I was expecting elemental spell-slinger, like ice nova or flameblast from T. to provide. Because he apparently doesn't agree that all ascendancies have specific tasks, and some are better than others in said tasks. Like, you know, Ele or Inq for elemental spells. Hence I challenged him to show me such build working with duelist - class as far away from Intellegence and its elemental nodes as possible. Because hey, all classes are equal, right? Should be easy.

[Awesome!]

Originally posted by gazza2929:

Looking at both the Marauder and the Duelist. Im a diablo 3 vet and loved the crusader or what ever he was but he had a big shield and had good dps and tanked out

there is some sort of max block gladiator build that people have been talking about. might want to look around for that.

[Drake]

The unique is a build enabling unique, that is what they are for. If we start like that we could also say that you rely on ascendancy for builds when they are not mandatory, never forget that they are optional, no one is required to do the lab, it's not liek you get them at a certain level up like any other passive tree node.
Then again, it's like a 6 curser build, you require curse bonus from everything, the tree, items etc.

We are not talking about cheap mainstream build here, we are talking about builds, just builds.
Yeah if you want to make a quick cheap arc build, you'll go witch. But just because it's the obvious route, it doesn't mean others can't too.
Since you're talking about duelist, First let's look around the main tree. A duelist doesn't get elemental damage nor spell damage, okay, but elemental spells are not necessarily revolving around elemental or spell damage (I know witch builds that don't use them, crit witches only pick crit nodes).
The duelist is acutally pretty close to projectile nodes and damage over time nodes if you cut right to the ranger area (regular projectile nodes work on spells, any projectile spell), and golden rule here : a 20% increased projectile damage node is the same as a 20% increased spell damage node or elemental damage node, it's still 20% increased. So it does not matter what node you take, just that it works with the gem.
If you lack spell power you can also use iron will (as a duelist you get a lot of str nodes nearby, so a tank spell caster is perfectly doable). You can also reverse the way you make your build, meaning use support gems on stuff you lack on the tree, and actually pick more defence nodes that will be nearby because your class is more tanky tree-wise from the start.

But now let's talk about the main stuff, ascendancy :

First, the slayer. People shoudl actually read more what is in those nodes because they are awesome. While the little ones only benefit attacks (no big deal), the notables are actually very polyvalent. Endless hunger and brutal fervour work on any leech, even spell leech, and we all know how leech is welcomed against reflect. This is a very good defensive option.
Then there is headsman and bane of legends, those also work on any skill, even the area and 20% more damage bonus (20% more... that is huge, considering you also get a 20% culling from the node before).
The overwhelm node is also completely crazy. While on melee it's good, imagine what it does with a spell like lightning ball that takes the entire room, you just chain stun mobs.

While they are not direct spell nodes, anyone with knowledge of the game can see what you can do with that ascendancy beyond melee.

So now, look at the champion. That one is easy. First the free fortify, I mean what spellcaster gets a free fortify, like you don't actually need a melee switch with a vigilant strike or whirling blades+fortify setup, you are always on fortify. So you can put a little more into offence.
Then Inspirational is just free damage and movement and the 2 taunt nodes work on any hit, even spell hits, so you get the defence and damage bonus.
Those nodes can make a very tanky spell caster, tanky enough for lets say a selfcast nova or tendrils, you know, stuff that locks you in place.

Then the gladiator. That one is less obvious, I would actually make a physical spellcaster here, like blade vortex or EK. Or a totem caster. Why ? First the painforged, versatile combatant and violent retaliation are block based and one of them gives you a physical damage bonus (not attack or melee, just physical, as in works with physical spells), so the idea is to get max block, get hit (or actually block the hits) while casting. Simple.
The outmatch and outlast notable is not worth it, obviously.
Then the bleed branch. Blood in the eyes and gratuitous violence need attacks. But As far as I'm concerned, attack actually means trap or totem attack too (I mean ranged attack totem or warchief and trap linked to ranged attack skills obviously). I can actually see a kondo dual warchief build here With crazy increased damage against bleeding enemies. Or a double split arrow totem or trap (maybe with poison addition).

Seriously, there are a lot of ways to build it. I'm actually getting ideas for next season here.

Granted most of them are not gonna be cheap, but again, we are not talking about cheap builds, just about builds.
Because if we are talking about powerful cheap builds, just forget every class, every skill, every tree. Just make a dual RF totem chieftain, that's the cheapest build in the game (the only thing you need is a crystal scepter with 30% or 40% increased damage and crafted with a cheap vendor recipe, we're talking less than a chaos cheap, everything else is self found) and that has one of the best damage output and survivability.

EDIT : just a word about the ranger ballista totem. t's better than hiero for 2 reasons. First is iron commander (you need it for the ballista totem build), by just stacking dex you can get 3 totems. Second, those totem only cost dex (which you stack anyway because ranger), and don't have the 8% reduced damage for each totem that the hiero has (it doesn't look like much but it dampens greatly your damage output, I know, I have a hiero totem caster with 4 totems and I don't do that much damage compared to others with 2 or 3 totems using the same build actually).