AION 2 Templar: Skills, Tanking and PvE Builds

Templar combines a sword and shield with threat, charged damage and party protection. Choose it if you want to keep enemies positioned for the party while reacting to incoming attacks. Its damage depends on using short follow-up windows rather than simply waiting behind a shield.

Choose Templar for frontline control

Your party job adds three decisions to the damage loop: where the enemy faces, when to use protection and when to recover threat. Keep the enemy's front directed away from allies who need its back. A gap closer that moves the boss out of their attacks can cost the group more than it adds to your damage.

Gladiator also supplies frontline damage and block-related party benefits. Choose Templar for the shield-trigger loop and its larger selection of protection and damage-sharing tools. Compare the full class roster before committing to a role.

Active skills and their trigger conditions

Shield Smite and Warding Strike each open Judgment briefly. Shield Rush and the Stigma Doom Shield also open it. Use the follow-up while the window is active; activating several triggers together does not make their windows accumulate.

Follow the arrow to see what opens or improves the next skill. Select a skill for its full explanation.

Shield SmiteWarding Strike

Trigger

Either shield attack → Judgment within 2 seconds

Judgment

Pummel

Selected specialization

Skill rank 12 • select cooldown reduction • land a hit

Punishment

Successful block

Trigger

Block opens the defense-reducing follow-up

Debilitating Smash

Enlarge diagramSave diagram

Spend early points on a working loop

Choose the MP-restoring option on Vicious Strike while mana limits your attacks. At skill rank 12, its Warding Strike cooldown reduction connects regular attacks to recovery and another Judgment trigger. Shield Smite's rank-8 resource option removes its MP cost and restores MP on a hit.

Pummel's rank-12 option reduces Punishment's cooldown on hit. Punishment's faster-cast option helps complete its charge before movement is required; its rank-12 mobile option lets you change position while using it. Select the effects after unlocking them.

For passives, Fury gives the party a damage buff after you block; Insulting Roar adds threat and an attack buff after a front attack. Ironclad Defense improves defense and endurance. Fury's party damage boost overlaps with Gladiator's Experienced Counterstrike, so their presence does not multiply that same benefit.

Stigmas: damage, threat and protection

These are choices for the available slots, not six simultaneously equipped skills. Start with the threat and protection the encounter needs, then fill the remaining slots with useful damage. An offensive beginner setup does not guarantee that a harder encounter needs no defense.

A manual attack loop with room to tank

1. Approach and establish the enemy's position. Use Taunt when you need its threat and debuff.
2. Shield Smite → Judgment. Use Warding Strike → Judgment in the next available window.
3. Use Battlefield Banner when equipped, then charge Punishment during a safe interval. Resume Vicious Strike and Pummel to feed the selected cooldown reductions.
4. Use Annihilate when its condition appears; use Flash Rampage during Stagger. Interrupt the damage loop for a block, movement or party protection.

Keep Taunt, protection and Defiance independent of any repeating damage chain. Judge a block by the enemy attack timing; a long chain cannot decide which attack deserves your defensive button.

Gear and Daevanion decisions

Prioritize enough accuracy to land the attacks that feed cooldowns. Choose routes to Vicious Strike, Pummel, Shield Smite and Punishment when they unlock the next useful specialization. Compare the shortest route to the same skill across boards before spending points.

After the loop works, combat speed and cooldown improvements increase useful attack opportunities. Add defense, HP or block investment when your tanking deaths prevent the group from completing the encounter. Critical-damage investment needs actual critical hits; measure that before giving it priority over a working trigger or protection skill. The builds guide covers skill ranks, point sources and saving a configuration.

Solo, party and PvP adjustments

Judgment does not appear: use one shield trigger manually, stay within attack range and use the short window. Confirm the skill itself is ready before spending another trigger.

Punishment is repeatedly canceled: choose a shorter or mobile cast, or wait for a longer safe window. A completed smaller attack contributes more than a charge you never finish.

The boss switches targets: use your threat tools, resume landed attacks and check positioning. Do not chase damage at the cost of the tanking job.

Solo pulls take too long: use Poach's kill reset for suitable small enemies and retain the offensive loop. Party damage is too high: replace a damage Stigma with the appropriate block, shield or tolerance tool. For PvP, revisit pulls, control resistance, Defiance and protection rather than copying a stationary boss opener.

Complete Templar skill list