ZebraHelm's Low Life Melee Templar

Pros:
-Great Survivability, even though it seems you are losing health
-Efficient and easy to play from the early game.
-Good balance between damage and survivability, even though it's a bit harder to calculate.
-Very easy to get elemental resists
-Once regen is enough, chaos damage won't do much, so you’re immune to it pretty much.
-good amount crowd control
-good for solo or group play
-"MY HP WON'T DROP!"

Cons:
-Susceptible to huge spike damages from final bosses.
-Melee
-Can't see much due to low life effects (hopefully will be fixed soon)
-Slower playstyle until you get blood magic
-Very item dependent and skill dependent
-Need to pay more attention to HP
-Low chaos resist
-Not the fastest clear

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUBAnEEswUtDjwOrRQgFE0UcRiRGNsZLhmFGjIaOBznHRQhYCNNJKon1SftKLUoxSmlMgk1hjbpOlI6szrYQDZAoEGqQ2NDnERyROdKfUw1TdhPfVBHUFBRYFRJValWBFhjWPVZ81uvXQBeE18_YEtgiGFSZp5noGo7cH1xTXKpdO108XrvfNmAVoFvhMSE74Zgh3aMdozPkFWXtJrPnaqdxJ48nrmfy6IApzCnhKgYqZWsqqyvrLq0-bcxuc253cAaw4bEWMbY1I_dDd6w37_jauOC5wvnUueR7DjvDu9O8B_yL_O-8932SPcy-Ov60vzF

Looking at the passive tree, it's important to note that the pathing of this build will be mostly focused on strength. Therefore, when using certain skills and items, you might need an amulet or right for some int or dex.

First step is the grab blood magic and work your way towards iron reflexes, grabbing all efficient resist and utility nodes along the way. Then spec into the marauder tree to grab resists nodes and hp nodes. Afterwards, I decided to grab armor/es passives as well as shield block chance.

The core items are fairly specific, although the good side to this is that these items can be obtained fairly cheaply and are efficient from early on.


Other items that work well in this build are: redneck (if you are using cleave) and araku tiki amulet.

Basically all the integer auras should be used. (Anger, Wrath, Discipline, Grace)Yes even grace because with Iron Reflexes it will turn into armor:D

As for percentage auras/skills, I took up vitality and will later use determination as well, and if i'm feeling safe I'll use tempest shield. I only do this if it's an area where I'm sure I can survive because you can still die with a giant spike hit.

The most important thing is the link the percentage auras with a reduced mana gem. As it scales more you will be able to run more auras and maintain at just 34% max hp

Going with a 1hander always gives you a lot of options in terms of abilities. If you like to use cleave then you can go for the sword and ground slam for blunt type weapons. You can also use lightning strike and combine it with LMP, pierce, etc.

Active abilities that I use:
-Ground Slam with life on hit as bread and butter skill.
-Heavy Strike with stun for single targets while minimizing their damage. This works very well against bosses because it reduces the amount of times they can hit you, which is the only real danger with this build
-Molten Shell is great defensive and offensive ability, it also increases armor. I might get area of effect, or increased duration for this.
-Enduring Cry before going into a huge mob
-Leap Strike as a getaway or direct engage
-Shield Bash: this skill was more useful than I had thought. It scales with with distance from yourself and the target. So the farther you are from the enemy that you target, the more damage AND stun chance that you have; It also pushes enemies out of the way. Very good for against ranged mobs as well as bosses.

Other Possibilities:
Immortal call for close situations might be useful
A curse such as vulnerability or enfeeble
Lighting Strike as main dps.
Looking for elemental damage gear and using the elemental damage gem might yield more damage. It’s yet to be tested on this build. I’m sticking to physical damage due to life leech node which only procs on physical damage.

normal: help oak for 40 hp
cruel: Help Kraityn to get more attack speed in order to maximize damage if you are going for life gained on hit or help oak to get 12%physical damage if you are going for life leech gem.
Merciless: Kill all to get 1 extra passive node.

Enable molten shell and enduring cry before each fight. Pound away with ground slam. If damage is too high, pop a potion and back up a bit before continuing. Sometimes I like to minimize the damage intake by shield charging at the ranged enemies first.

During boss fights, attempt to wipe out all the weaker monsters before continuously heavy striking the boss.