Attempt to respect or reroll

So I just started this game last week or so, i'm at level 24. I am going for a 2H tanky templar with some elemental support/dmg/buffs (I know nothing spectacular) I don't hate my build or anything, but after some more looking at the tree and more hours learning the basics of the game, I found a few spots were I would like to make changes. Here is my tree currently

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUAAnEEswVbGekkiyftPQ9Eck3Ycql8u3zZhMSK5Ix2m-yePKIArKqvbMT2xYreweSt8B8=

The spots in question are:

1) right out of the gate, I wish I wouldn't have taken those STR nodes for the templar and instead looped around the circle and took +% PHYS DMG for 2H. I now know I will exclusively use 2H maces or axes, so that is obviously the better choice for me.

2) My path to Resolute Technique is not the most efficient way, esp after I went and grabbed the Bone Smasher and mace damage nodes. Could save an entire point by going straight down to RT from here.

So a few questions, is my assessment on where I have made mistakes and my opinions on changing them worthwhile? At this point, level 24 with 4 respec points, should I continue and respec when I can? Or should I reroll since I'm not that far into the game? Should I just worry about respecting the 1st option, and leave the 2nd for quick access to the Marauder area?

Any other opinions on what else I could have done better or where I should go from here are welcome.

bump

I'm taking a peek at this right now, and before I give you any advice, are you Hardcore or Softcore? What skills are you using?

softcore, just started into POE about a week ago.

Right now the skills I am using are:

Lightning strike for direct and cone damage
Glacial Hammer for single target (some how I missed heavy strike)
Sweep for AOE
Ground Smash for cone
Occasionally I'll throw out a decoy totem if I need to take a rest to heal, but that has been happening less frequently.
Also played around a little with some spells, spark & firestorm, but that's just occasionally.

Well, you're going to want to stop using the wide variety of attack skills, since you're going to be stacking supports on them soon. Since you're level 24, you should be using Added Fire and Life On Hit on your ground slam by now (I suggest it over sweep, but it's your call). When you hit 31, you should think about putting some combination of Increased Aoe, Faster Attacks, and Melee Physical Damage on it. See what you can stack up on your single target as well. As far as the skill tree goes...

It looks fine. It's the same distance from the other side of the maces to resolute strike as the way you went, and the way you went has the benefit of that easy dex node (Hatred is a dex aura, and you should be using it, since it scales off of physical damage, which you'll be doing a lot of.)

If you want to fine tune a little, i'd take the point out of the extra melee phys damage in your starting area, and the little mace node passed the big mace node up top there. Drop those into the 8% health you haven't grabbed yet and the big two hand node on the other side of it. As you level, i'd consider the 30% elemental damage node and lava lash, since with added fire and hatred, you'll be doing plenty of ele damage.

If you take the general path down through marauder, you can pick up a couple more big mace nodes and pick up berserking and the duelist health nodes on the other side. You can also grab Ice Bite or whatever it's called in the duelist area to really round out your ele damage.

Here's what you might want to respec to:


Here are the nodes you should probably aim for:


hope that helps!

Yeah, that really does. Thanks for the detailed reply. I wasn't ignoring you, just haven't had time to respond in a few days.

So far I have only acquired one support gem, added wpn elem damage. So I don't plan on sticking with that wide range of skills forever, just waiting to skill gem up some more.

I took the little mace node on the upper left, because I had originally planned to go on up that highway to the armor and energy shield circle that had a body and soul node. I see your mock up has defense pretty well covered though, so I might leave that for a while and consider the options. I'm liking more and more about going down into the marauder tree. Depends on really how much I want to focus on the spell side of a tanky templar.

And forgive my noobness, what is an Aura (especially Hatred). Node on a tree or a skill gem? You are right though, the +30 dex node would help me out a lot, as I'm currently running <20 and that shortcoming is starting to show itself with being limited on armor and skill gem choices.

Again thanks for the help.