[theorycrafting] tanky tempest shield / molten shell / auras? templar

Hi!

So I haven't played since closed beta and wanted to give it a go with Templar that would be a decent tank, use strength-related offensive skills with buffs and defensive intelligence-based skills. I know there's quite a few builds out there and I think the closes one to what I have in mind would be this one, although that's not exactly what I'm after!

The idea is to use a one-handed mace and shield. Go for tempest shield and molten shell for defence. Go for lightning strike or ground slam for AoE and some elemental (infernal blow / glacial hammer?) single-target attack. Use a few auras like wrath and/or anger with clarity and/or determination, depending how much mana can be spared. It's not supposed to be a cookie cutter build nor heavily gear-dependant.

The initial 30 or so levels would be rather straightforward - get some life, shield block, resi (assuming holding a shield), a bit of elemental and mace damage boost for whatever skills I will use at the time.

But then stuff gets more interesting. Is it better to try to invest in critical strikes, elemental status effects and accuracy or go for the safe option of resolute technique and beef up a little?

At this time I'll be lacking in accuracy, mana, armour, also intelligence will be outdated for blue skills like tempest shield and auras.

I could go up to the witch area to get intelligence, shield, health and better one-hander/mace passives and take a turn towards ele damage and inner force (for more juice out of auras and molten shell). Or go to the mara area for resolute technique, mace damage and take a turn towards mara starting point and boost defensive stats.

Here some initial ideas for more expanded skill-tree, but what's your opinion? How would you develop this skill-tree?