This PoE 3.12 Templar Guardian Dominating Blow build is a good choice for league starter. It is a extremely cheap build with TONS of upgradable options for end-game and viable in both hardcore & softcore.

 

Skill Tree

Ascendancy: Radiant Crusade -> Unwavering Crusade -> Bastion of Hope -> Radiant Faith (Please note that the 3.13 update)

Pantheon

Major God - Soul of Lunaris

Upgrade it to avoid chaining projectiles as this can be very dangerous with a lot of minions.

Minor God - Soul of Shakari

Helps mitigate any chaos damage taken even further then Divine Flesh

Bandit: Kill All

Passive Tree & PoB

Path of Building Link: https://pastebin.com/FUGHMiij

HIGH BUDGET VERSION: https://pastebin.com/5PhgAZiy

 

Gems Setup

Dominating Blow

Dominating Blow, Impale, Feeding Frenzy, Brutality, Melee Physical Damage, Multistrike

Note:

Multistrike is meant to be replaced by Melee Splash for the sake of smoother clearing.

Herald of Purity

- Herald of Purity, Impale, Multistrike, Brutality

Note:

Multistrike is meant to be replaced by Melee Splash for the sake of smoother clearing.

Mobility

- Dash, Second Wind

Utility Minions

- Carrion Golem, Raise Spectre, Animate Guardian

Note:

Raise Spectre should be linked with Blood Magic to have the Carnage Chieftain monkeys from Act 7 Ashen Fields spam their frenzy charges to your army.
When it comes to the Animate Guardian gear & mechanics I would suggest watching the video linked at the top of this thread!

Auras

- Dread Banner, Skitterbots

Utility

- Convocation, Desecrate, Flesh Offering, Punishment, Enduring Cry, Clarity (lvl 1), 

 

Gear Setup

The base items of this build really doesn't matter as we don't care about the base defensive stats such as armour(str), evasion(dex) or energy shield(int). So instead the base items will follow the stat priority listed in this guide. 

Defensive Stats

1. Life
2. Mana
3. Resistances
4. Strength

Offensive Stats

1. Minion Damage
2. Minion Attack Speed

Jewels

Same as the offensive stats unless you need defensive stats, then mix or follow that.

Flasks

1x Seething Divine Life Flask of Staunching
1x w/e Divine Life Flask of w/e
1x Writhing Jar
1x w/e Sulphur Flask of w/e
1x Ample Quicksilver Flask of Heat

Note:

You can use any extra utility flask instead of multiple life flasks if you feel comfortable, options that are good are; Resistance flasks, Stibnite, Granite, or Basalt.

Blighted Oils

Only really one node worth oiling with this build which is Ravenous Horde which requires the following Oils: Verdant Oil & 2x Opalescent Oils

Recommended Unique Items

Brightbeak, Belly of the Beast, Writhing Jar Flask

Recommended LvLing Uniques

Wanderlust, Goldrim, Tabula Rasa, Brightbeak

 

Leveling Tips

This build can with Dominating Blow from lvl 28 reach Blood Aqueducts in about 6h fairly easily. However, I felt it to be faster to simply focus on Herald of Purity & Smite. This can easily be combined with a Holy Relic as well as with a pack of pack of Zombies which comes down to a matter of personal preference.

The idea is to link your Smite this way:

- Smite, Ancestral Call, Melee Physical Damage, Added Fire Damage

And your Herald of Purity like this:

- Herald of Purity, Melee Splash, Melee Physical, Minion Damage

This in combination with a Blind linked to our Holy Relic makes leveling extremely smooth & efficient.

Since the end-game gear for this character is solely focused on high life with capped resistances, so does the leveling! However, it is recommended to use a 1H weapon with proper damage during the lvling sequence till you hit about lvl 70 in which case you can easily switch to Dominating Blow and a Brightbeak. Obviously this can be done earlier if you so wish but without extensive knowledge and/or experience with this type of build I wouldn't recommend switching before that.