Melee Staff Templar

Since way back in the closed beta, I've wanted to make a viable character who uses a staff as a melee weapon. I have tried several times. The early/middle game is okay, but the late game had problems I couldn't get past. Maybe you can give some advice?

First attempt I focused too much on damage passives and was getting killed even by normal monsters in late game. Next attempt went heavy on life and armor but took so long to kill things that I couldn't progress through the game.

When staff blocking was added to the game I maxed it out figuring this would be a big boost to my defense. It probably helped a bit but still I was getting wrecked. I haven't tried in a while, and the passive tree has changed a couple times.

My most successful melee character was a Marauder using ground slam, heavy strike, and leap slam with resolute technique. I could just do the same thing with a Templar, but it seems like I should be building elemental damage in some way, because that's one of the Templar's strong points.

So, if you use a staff as your weapon, what is your best choice for single target attack, AOE attack, defensive strategy?
BTW, totems are usually part of my defense. I like decoy totem and rejuv totem the best.

I just started a new char using glacial hammer with a gnarled branch. At this point I'm thinking glacial for single target and ground slam for aoe.
Problem w/ that is staffs are very hard to spawn the Right mods. I saw a CoC Build smoeone made that looked super interesting./ That is likely the way to go. Thats what I'll be making next.
IGN: YeahCrit

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Dual Claw Molten Strike Ranger HC: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1178252
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