When going 2H swords.....

I am making a templar and I want to do like the classic 2H sword templar. Up until now I've been doing casters, shadow builds w/ CI so I don't know much about heavy weapons.

What's the best way to get DPS with 2H swords? Elemental or Physical?

I'm going hybrid AR/ES because I want to test the buff out as well and because it looks badass.

Hmm. Assuming you can't use some of the usual Templar elemental damage skills such as Glacial Hammer. Going physical damage may be your best bet. That should get most use out of the physical damage skills on offer. On a side note, I assume you won't be going for Resolute Technique because of the two handed sword? More of a question, than anything else.

Elemental Damage could work well if you were running an aura or two and Added X Damage support gems though... two very different builds. And I'm not entirely sure the damage potential of either.

My gut instinct says Physical Damage should be better, but I'm not trusting it. Ele-Bow is higher than Phys-Bow, but that's an entirely different kettle of fish... mine of gems... gaggle of skills... Eh.

Hopefully somebody else can give some more detailed analysis.

I recommend capitalizing on physical damage conversion, using things like Lightning strike, hatred and added fire damage gems.

I like a mix of both phys and ele, gives more node and gear options and is handy against mobs with resists to one particular type of damage. Also, this lowers damage you take on reflect mobs, unless of course the mob reflects both phy and ele.

I find the best damage comes from speed, and of course the mana to support it.

I tried to skip Resolute Technique and work the crit angle a bit, but it didn't work out for me at all. The last tree reset I went back to RT. My stats came out much the same in all respects, but functionally it was a huge difference. Huge.

(edit: the one downside is I needed to pick a couple of otherwise not very useful dex nodes in order to equip the killer 2h sword I have now, but that will depend on the one you get)

Having a good 5 link weapon isn't quite a must, but it sure helps a lot, or a 5 link chest would work as well I suppose.

I am working on my third more or less traditional 2h str build, and have had several skill tree resets to check out various path options. I generally end up around 2.5k health, 3k armor, and 6k plus damage, with max resists - at around level 56-60, depending on how good my luck is with gear.

I don't think you will have good luck with es gear, the best gear I've found for this kind of build seldom has es on it. I think you will end up giving up more than you get.

With gear I generally have one or maybe 2 pretty good pieces, one or two not so good pieces, and the rest good average. I don't trade to speak of, but I do craft some. If you are into the trading thing you could probably do way better.

Well, I have tried the same gear set both with and without RT and it does much better with RT. Much better.

I also built a RT marauder with the same gear set, and it works well there - just had to work a little harder for the mana regen.

On the non RT build I was able to keep accuracy over 92% at all times, but it just never felt anywhere near as smooth.

I'm not saying you can't build an accuracy character to rival one with RT, but it would take more work and better gear.

I guess I have a character with a lot of "wasted" accuracy. I had to have accuracy on almost every piece to keep it over 90%, but I can stomp things that gave me problems before I switched to rt with the same gear.