The Templar is Path of Exile's strength/intelligence hybrid class, a perfect balance of brawn and wits. In combat, this pious warrior is expert at augmenting his substantial offense with a wide range of magical abilities. Build your most powerful Inquisitor, Hierophant, Guardian league starters by browsing the Poe 3.5 Build we collected for you!

Templar Guardian Builds

POE Betrayal Guardian Dominating Blow Starter Build - All Version Viable, Cheap, Endgame

Pros

• + A Powerful league starter build.
• + Viable in both hardcore & softcore.
• + Extremely cheap with TONS of upgradable options for end-game.

Gems Setup

Dominating Blow - Dominating Blow, Minion Damage, Ancestral Call, Multistrike, Melee Physical Damage, Added Fire Damage

Note

Ancestral Call is mainly used to make things easier whilst lvling so you don't have to move up to a rare before he's dead.

For a more optimal setup in the later stage you should switch both Ancestral Call & Added fire for these gems:

Melee Splash & Melee DMG on Full Life

Herald of Purity - Herald of Purity, Maim, Minion Damage, [OPEN]

Note

I generally want to use a Portal gem in the open socket but anything will do. (keep track of the % reserved by Herald of Purity if you use a 3rd support gem though!

Mobility - Leap Slam, Fortify, Faster Attacks

Cast When Damage Taken - CWDT, Immortal Call, Increased Duration, Convocation

Holy Relic & Golem - Holy Relic, Increased Area of Effect, Stone Golem, Blind

Smite Buffer - Smite, Generosity, Hatred, Faster Attacks

Note

Generosity is there for both Smite & Hatred allowing the aura part of the ability to be augmented for your minion army

POB link: https://pastebin.com/3XezCHvi

POE Betrayal Guardian Aura Support Starter Build- Cheap, Tankly, Endgame

Pros

• + a great Leaguestarter if you play with your friends
• + can start with minimal Investment and support all Endgame
• + purges the Atlas from Xenos for the Glory of the Emperor
• + doesn't give a damn about physical Damage
• + tanky

Leveling

As this Build is specifically made to start a League and level with Friends.

Here are a few Items you might consider

• Lvl 04 - The Vigil socket Vigilant Strike and grant your Allies up to 26s Fortify.
• Lvl 12 - Victario's Flight Use while leveling, later your Animate Guardian can wear 'em.
• Lvl 16 - Shaper's Seed Very nice during Leveling and in Labyrinth.
• Lvl 17 - Aurumvorax fixes your Resist's till Endgame.
• Lvl 17 - Solaris Lorica get one around Lvl 31. Once you ascended reserve an Aura with Bloodmagic Supportgem and Beef up your Allies with tons of Armour. Be prepared to skill Zeloth's Oath here and run Disciplin. Your ES is now your efficient healthpool and you need to keep your Resistances maxed!
• Lvl 52 - Victario's Influence as soon as you can, aquire a decent rolled one and dress up.

Fix your Chaos Resistance BEFOR! Rearange your reservations in such a ways, that you do not reserve more then ~50% HP. If need be sacrifice the least popular Dmg Aura.

• Lvl 68 - Prism Guardian higher Level and higher priority then Alpha's Howl. Switch Haste, Grace and Determination in.
• Lvl 64 - Alpha's Howl Enables one additional Aura, have Disciplin and Vitality here.
• In the long run you want one that has the Mana-reduction Enchant for one of your Shield's Auras.

POB link: https://pastebin.com/QcSq8h9Q

Templar Hierophant Builds

POE Betrayal Hierophant Freezing Pulse Totem Starter Build - High DPS, Cheap, Sharper, Endgame

Pros

• + NO gear requirements (except 2 threshold jewels), so cheap and SSF viable
• + Transitions nicely from levelling to mapping without any problems and big investments
• + Easy to cap resists
• + Easy to reach 7k+8k EHP with 40% MoM
• + Able to clear maps up to T15 comfortly
• + Very safe because we freeze all minions except bosses instantly
• + Can go Magic Find
• + Can run all map mods 
• + Can reach 1.5 million Shaper DPS (300k DPS per totem) + this is specific damage gear, 80+100k DPS is enough for mapping
• + Possible to kill guardians and shaper with some investments

Gems Setup

Mandatory Links

Get those as soon as you start mapping. Don't complain about your damage if you don't use a Curse, Frost Bomb and Arcane Surge.

Main skill: Spell Totem - Freezing Pulse - Faster Casting - Controlled Destruction - Hypothermia - Cold Penetration
- If you want your projectiles to travel farther, you can use Faster Projectiles, it also means the damage doesn't fall off that fast.

Frostbomb + Arcane Surge + Phase Run + Increased Duration

(pay attention that your Arcane Surge is low level so that it procs with one cast, for this combination it's level 4)

Cast When Damage Taken + Immortal Call + Enfeeble + (Increased Duration)

(Cast When Damage Taken should be lvl1, Immortal Call lvl3, Enfeeble lvl5)

Shield Charge + Faster Attacks + Fortify

(if you use wands: Flame Dash/Faster Casting/Arcane Surge or Lightning Warp/Faster Casting/Less Duration/Swift Affliction)

Projectile Weakness + Flame Dash + (Faster Casting)

(We need 155 Dex for level 20 on Projectile Weakness which is hard to get for us. But it's totally fine to leave the gem at a lower level, since we only lose a little bit of DPS against bosses)

Summon Lightning Golem

Optional

Decoy Totem for Bosses

Vaal Haste / Vaal Grace + (Increased Duration)

POB Link: https://pastebin.com/Mk5kpPUZ

POE Betrayal Hierophant Frostbolt Totems Starter Build - Fast Clear Speed, Easy, Cheap

Pros

• + Budget friendly - the build is somewhat simple in design and easy to understand.
• + Great clear speed all the way up to tier 16 maps.
• + Easy to level.
• + Budget friendly. The build works great with just rares, until you can afford the suggested unique items later.

Gems Setup

Damage setup

- Frostbolt, Spell Totem, Cold Penetration, Increased Critical Strikes, Controlled Destruction (5-link) & Critical Hit Damage (6-link).

Note: In regards to which weapon you should use, it depends. Taryn's Shiver 6-linked is your end goal, however before you get that I suggest you simply use a regular 5-linked staff with the affix "2+ To Level of Socketed Cold Gems".

Defensive Setup

- Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 9), Immortal Call (lvl 11), Lightning Golem (lvl 11) & Increased Duration (lvl 20).

Mobility, Damage & Regen

- Flame Dash, Faster Casting, Culling Strike & Clarity.

Note: Despite Ancestral Bond, Flame Dash is still able to cull the enemy once it reaches <10% HP. This is because it still counts as a "hit". Culling Strike also increases the cast speed of Flame Dash if you get quality on it.

Utility

- Frost Bomb, Increased Duration & Increased Area of Effect.

Curse & Vaal Skills

- 2x Vaal Haste, Projectile Weakness, Arcane Surge (lvl 10) & Increased Duration.

Note: Before you get a 5-linked chest simply leave out one of the Vaal Haste gems.

Arcane Surge procs when a supported active skill-gem (Projectile Weakness in this case) is cast and ONLY if it passes the mana threshold requirement. A level 20 Projectile Weakness, linked with Arcane Surge and Increased Duration has a mana cost of 77. This means you can level Arcane Surge to level 10 and ensure a reliable proc every time you cast your curse. Make sure to keep an eye on the mana threshold of the skill as you level.

POE Betrayal Hierophant Storm Call Totem Starter Build - High Clear Speed and Damage, Cheap, Endgame

Pros

• + Hierophant buffed! Now much more damage, survivabilty, quality of life and smoother gameplay. These buffs mean that you can make a working build with very basic gear at the moment, making it a great choice of poe leaguestarter.
• + Totems are very safe playstyle, and the range of Storm Call make them even more so.
• + Great range and coverage, even with Concentrated Effect.
• + Good Damage on bosses.
• + Can do any map mod, however no mana regen feels horrible and you need to have some mana flasks to run these if you choose to.
• + Really nice Regen, both mana and HP, as long as your totems are up.
• + Uberlab viable.

Gems Setup

Main DPS Setup

• Storm Call
• Spell Totem
• Added Lightning Damage
• Less Duration
• Concentrated Effect 
• Controlled Destruction

You might also want to level up

• Lightning Penetration
• Increased Critical Damage

CWDT Setup

• Cast When Damage Taken lvl6
• Immortal Call lvl8
• Summon Golem lvl8 any golem you prefer
• Increased Duration

Enfeeble is nice for mapping if you do not want to self cast curse, for bossing you will probably want to self cast conductivity, so golem is better.

Mobility Setup

you have some choice here depending on your weapon setups

• whirling blades + faster attacks + fortify
• shield charge + faster attacks + fortify
• flame dash for gaps / lightning warp + faster casting + less duration for staff or wand users if you want another movement skill.

Curse & Arcane Surge setup

• (choice of curse)Enfeeble or Conductivity
• increased AOE or Spell Cascade
• Increased Duration
• Arcane Surge (level 15/16 recommended)

The support gems can be added to up the mana cost making Arcane Surge more reliable.

If you want Arcane Surge to activate on every curse cast you can use a level 12 Arcane Surge from around the time you enter maps, and you may be able to push it a little further as you fully level your curse gem. For one surge every 2 casts, you should be easily able to maintain a level 15/16 Surge. However casting 3-4 curses over 6 seconds to maintain a level 20/21 Surge is doable as a totem build if you really want want to push it. 

Other Gems

• Vaal Lightning Trap
• Vaal Haste
• Increased Duration
• Searing Bond

Quality of life gems, for more boss damage and clear speed respectively. You can craft these by vaaling the base gems in SSF, but it is quite expensive at the start of the league.

It may be worth farming aqueducts (act 4) or blood aqueduct (act 9) for humility cards, and the vaal side areas contained within for vaal gems to make the vaal orb vendor recipe (7x Vaal skill gems & 1x Sacrifice Vaal Fragment = 1 vaal orb)

Searing Bond gives us some more totem bonuses from ascendancy.

Templar Inquisitor Builds

POE Betrayal Inquisitor Molten Strike Starter Build - High Clear Speed, Low Budget, Endgame

Pros

• + 33.1 MILLION BULLSHIT DPS and 12 Million actual-dps (in my actual gear)
• + high map-clearing-speed
• + strong defenses that make the build hardcore-viable
• + cheap and smooth to start into a new League
• + insane scaling with high-end-gear
• + no League-specific or Legacy-Items needed
• + Fast Uber-Lab farmer

Gems Setup

Molten Strike

There are two possible Molten Strike Setups. One with 4Red and 2Blue Sockets and one with 3Red and 3Blue Sockets in a 6L Setup. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

4R2B Setup

This is the most conventient setup for general mapping. However it requires some player Skill to on some Bosses cause you need to master the Ancestral Call Trick. I made this little picture to clarify how you optimally utilize Ancestral Call for Single target DPS. In theory and with perfect exection this setup is as strong as the 3R3B Setup, but requires less swapping of gems and more conventient mapping with better aoe.

5L
[20/20] Molten Strike + [20/20] Multistrike Support + [20/20] Ancestral Call Support + [20/20] Elemental Damage with Attacks Support + [21/20] Added Lightning Damage Support

6L

[20/20] Concentrated Effect Support/Increased Area of Effect Support

For Single Target you swap Increased Area of Effect for Concentrated Effect

3B3R Setup

This setup offers the most care-free single target kill potential, no special placement is needed. However it requires some more swapping of gems. You need to swap two gems instead of one.

5L
[20/20] Molten Strike + [20/20] Multistrike Support + [21/20] Added Lightning Damage Support + [20/20] Elemental Damage with Attacks Support/Ancestral Call Support + [20/20] Elemental Focus Support/Increased Area of Effect Support
6L
[20/20] Concentrated Effect Support

Single target you swap Ancestral Call with Elemental Damage with Attacks and Increased Area of Effect for Elemental Focus.

Heralds or Wrath

[21/20] Herald of Ice + [21/20] Herald of Thunder

Especially Herald of Ice is a great tool for buffing your clearspeed. Herald of Thunder is just here for the additional Flat Lightning Damage.

Tipp: You can add a [21/20]Innervate to your Herald of Ice Setup for addtional clearing power. However you will need a [3/0] Enlighten linked to as many mana-reserving auras as possible to have enough mana to properly attack with Molten Strike.

[21/20] Wrath

Using Wrath instead of double Heralds provides more raw damage but lacks the addititonal clearspeed. This howevery enables you to use the "Watchers Eye" jewels with conversion of physical damage for using phys claw instead of elemental ones.

Curses

[20/20] Enfeeble  + [20/20] Blasphemy Support

We run Enfeeble on Blasphemy. This setup is one of the CORE defensive pillars of this build. Enfeeble greatly lesses the incoming damage as well as debuffing the enemys ability to even hit us. This is quite strong for any Evasion build.

Supports

[20/20] Blood Rage + [20/20] Ancestral Protector

Blood Rage Boosts your damage and stacks frenzy charges while clearing. Ancestral Protector is Amazing for its 20% More Attack speed and deals some reasonable single target damage on his own.

CWDT Setup

[20/0] Cast when damage taken Support + [20/0] Immortal Call + [20/20] Summing Lightning Golem

Lazy mans golem setup with the "good old" cwdt-immortal call. Immortal Call is rather strong even without endurance charges. The Base duration is enough to leech us from 1Hp to Full life. You can downscale the setup to your liking. I prefer level 20 CWDT for the high Golem Life.

Movement

[20/0] Shield Charge + [20/20] Faster Attacks Support + [20/0] Fortify Support Support + [20/0] Blood Magic Support

Shield charge in itself deals alot of damage in this build and is linked to blood magic so it can be spammned in no-regen maps. Fority procs alot with AoE builds since "you always hit something".

Orb of Storms Setup

[1/0] Orb of Storms + [20/20] Power Charge on Critical Support

This is "Core" to the build since it provides us with power charges and procs our "Instruments of Virtue Ascendency" to greatly boost our damage.

POB link: https://pastebin.com/CKf0U6gV

POE Betrayal Inquisitor Blade Vortex Starter Build - High DPS, Fast Cleaning, Budget Friendly

Pros

• + Over 1.5 millon DPS against Shaper
• + Fast map cleaning
• + Not very expensive
• + Can kill shaper in 5 link

Gems Setup

Blade Vortex: Blade Vortex + Physical damage to lightning + Controlled destruction + Concentrated effect + Hypothermia + Critical damage

Orb of Storms: Orb of Storms + Arcane surge + Power Charge on Critical

Movement setup: Shield Charge + Faster attacks + Flame Dash

CWDT: Immortal Call lvl 1 + Cast when damage taken lvl 1 + Blind up 20 lvl + FireStorm 1 lvl

Golem: Summon Ice Golem + Cast when damage taken

Increased Duration: Increased Duration + Vaal Righteus Fire + Blood Rage

Clarity: Clarity lvl 16 + Enlighten

Herald of Ice and Hatred stay separate.