Starting a melee templar, need some info from more experienced players

Hi all, I wanted to test a melee focused templar after getting my witch to lvl 34 and after people in general chat whining all the time about melee being useless and templars all needing to be tougher witches.

So first I needed to decide what weapon I wanted to use. I didn't want to go to far from the hybrid part of the skill tree and decided to go for Staffs. Plan is to get those two blocking skills for Staffs and then go either for Endurance (more likely) or Power Charges.

Now, mostly what I am wondering is are Staffs high crit items?
My short comparison of available low level weapons seems to put them in same group as swords and daggers?!
Does this stay the same at high levels?

I know they are kind of slow so maybe not that useful for doing criticals. Did anyone try to make a crit based build around Staffs that is useful (as in you get a solid number of criticals)?

Anyways from Strength tree I was planning to take bonus armor passives on my way to Endurance skills. With no shield I kind of feel I will need to keep up with high armor rating to survive.

What active skills do you suggest to take for non crit or crit builds? What supports?
For now I am using Sweep and Warlord's Curse. Plan to take Leap as well so I can get to archers and mages faster. Sweep feels more like a support skill and I don't know which main skill I should use for Staffs?!

And lastly, how does Stun work? Are bludgeon weapons more effective with stunning enemies or does this only work with Mauls?
Is there a point going for a stun build with Staffs instead of damage or crit one?

I'm only on ruthless with my templar but since templars can't go all in on the str tree for tanking, I found playing without a shield... problematic.

As usual, mileage may vary.

Just a bit of my progress so far:
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/4299/screenshot0000b.jpg

- but not doing well in defense department :D