There's another approach to improve this build that will deal more damage while being tankier (it'll have lower overall Thorns but that doesn't matter). Key thing is abusing the fact that this build benefits greatly from minor stat bonus & the fact that Expulsion procs can crit if you go deep into holy tree (34 point node).

1)Set helmet (Lifeguard for def / Crown of Innate for Expulsion proc chance)
2)Gravity (Burning Lightning)
3)Set chest armour (Elementium)
4)Battle Boots (Critical Thorns is fine here, not great not terrible)
5)Battlemaster's Cape (Heartstone) -> with Battlemaster's you can easily get to 200% elixir effectiveness using 1 elixir gem by grouping a large number of enemies *then* using elixirs. This & Thorns % from Expedition tree will cover most of your Thorns % needs. Battlemaster's Cape on its own greatly increases clear speed for normal anomaly floor (and we want to abuse high density scaling anyway because of how Expulsion obliterates big enemy groups). You can prebuff Elixirs on 3rd floor to get a head start against the boss.
6)Tome of Wrath (Nemesis) -> Nemesis is so much more efficient at converting Health into Thorns than Retaliator Set (1 easy to fit rune vs awkward set items) that I feel like Retaliator Set is too expensive on Templar
7)Set Sword (Chained Focus & Rune of Blocking) -> Blocking is huge survivability bonus. Might need to check if the set works if you put Tome of Wrath rune *into* the Nemesis shield as that would be a lot of free block chance/block damage. I know about Avenger Tome requirement but the Set isn't specifically speaking using your Avenger, it simply copies the damage.
8)Jeopardy Ring (Kingsrock) -> Ok, this is worth running over Retaliator Set & One for All because on a build that abuses Expulsion scaling you want to get ALL THE CRIT DAMAGE that you can manage. So Elixir / every single weapon & offhand gem / augments, etc. It's not impossible to reach 900% crit damage (remember Expulsion crits twice so 1 Expulsion Nova deals 90 times the base hit damage, in an AOE to boot)

As far as the build goes... You need Avenger / Purged Through Holy Flames / Soul Purge. Non negotiable. Fill the skill bar with usefull auras & taunt, use Molten Armour ultimate to boost defense and w/e lightning placeholder skill to proc the set buff (could even use things like Lightning Wyrms scrolls, it doesn't matter). I think you can figure out augments for yourself, just prioritise ~90% Overpower -> Crit Damage -> all res -> attack speed.

Edit: Use Holy Fire Aura to enable Purged Through Holy Flames

I was actually looking at Soul Purge yesterday (and Battlemaster's Cape), I just didn't see how to GET it. I think I see what you mean though. Avenger still deals trillions of damage even when not procc'ing Burning Conviction and Expulsion. If I cut out the point invested to grab Wrathful Conviction, then I can pretty much gut the Wrath tree. I did not know that Expulsion crits twice, so that's more alluring.

I've used Nemesis Shield with Wrath rune before. I just switched to take advantage of some of the tome skill bonuses (like Grace). Just doing a quick test, DPS looks the same (or at least comparable). Bonus of the shield is that you can get Resist All.


Thanks for all the tips. I've got to go (getting ready for church), so I can't do a full kit out yet, but that does sound much stronger than what I've been running. As much as I love the current build (and the motif of never hitting a button except to build stacks), it has certainly hit a wall, and my game knowledge just wasn't quite deep enough to see how to push it further.

Thing is, you don't need Burning Conviction procced by lightning damage to get full effect of Purged Through Holy Flames. Any fire damage can proc Burning Conviction (Holy Fire aura is the easiest way). Going deeper into the Lightning tree after grabbing Avenger is wasting points.

Expulsion crits twice in the sense that first the hit crits (in this case Chain Lightning generated by satellite & the set effect) then the indirect Expulsion proc crits *again* (but only with the Soul Purge passive).

Originally posted by Blondyn:

Thing is, you don't need Burning Conviction procced by lightning damage to get full effect of Purged Through Holy Flames. Any fire damage can proc Burning Conviction (Holy Fire aura is the easiest way).

Yeah, I understand that now, I just didn't think about it before. I was so focused on Avenger procs dealing damage that I didn't even think of using other skills to cut down on Skill point investment.

One last thing, enemy health scaling rapidly gets out of hand after T400 and Avenger is on the weaker side as far as builds go so you'll reach wall again relatively soon. After T400 health multiplies by 32 every 100 tiers.