Aion 2 Templar PvE Build: Skills, Stigmas & Tanking

The Templar tanks with a one-handed sword and a guard, and the party finder lists it as a Tank and nothing else. In PvE it holds the boss, takes the hits meant for the group, and turns each of its Blocks into a damage buff for the whole party. It still deals real damage, mostly through one strike that grows with its Specialties. This guide covers a complete level-45 setup for EU/NA: where every skill point goes, which stigmas to run and when to swap them, how to hold threat and play a boss, the Daevanion route, and what to aim for on Arcana and gear.

At a glance

• Role: main tank. Nine of its attacks raise Enmity, and the passive Insulting Roar doubles the Enmity you generate from its first rank.
• Main damage: Judgment. It only works for a moment after a shield skill, and its level-16 Specialty removes its cooldown. Punishment is the big charged hit that also buffs your damage for 20 seconds.
• Party value: Fury gives you and your group a PvE Damage Boost for 20 seconds every time you Block. Shield of Protection guarantees that Block every 20 seconds.
• Max these first: Judgment, Pummel, Vicious Strike, and Punishment, plus Fury as your first passive.
• Stigmas: Taunt, Empyrean Lord's Punishment, Shield of Protection, and Nezekan's Shield. Solo, Battlefield Banner and Doom Shield replace Taunt and Nezekan's Shield.
• Daevanion: the +1 nodes of your four main actives and five core passives first, then the damage corners and Zikel's two Damage Tolerance corners.

What a Templar brings to a group

The kit works on three levels.

1. Threat. Vicious Strike, Pummel, Judgment, Flash Rampage, the follow-ups of the first two and the stigma Taunt all raise Enmity. Insulting Roar adds Enmity Boost +100% at every rank, so you keep the boss even while the damage dealers go all out. In the client data, Taunt's threat multiplier is about fourteen times Judgment's at stigma level 1, and it rises with every stigma level.
2. Blocks that feed the party. Fury's party buff (PvE Damage Boost +10% at skill level 10, +15% at 20 and +20% at 30, for 20 seconds) starts on any Block, with a 1-second internal cooldown. Shield of Protection forces a Block on a 20-second cooldown, the same length as the buff. Blocking also unlocks Debilitating Smash, which lowers the target's Defense by 25%.
3. Debuffs and mitigation. Taunt's Shrink weakens the boss's Attack, and once Taunt reaches stigma level 5 it lowers the boss's PvE Damage Tolerance too, so the whole party hits harder. Warding Strike heals you and cuts the damage you take, and its level-16 Specialty extends part of that to the party.

Two group notes. The client puts Fury's party buff in one effect group with the buff from a Gladiator's Experienced Counterstrike, so only one of the two applies at a time. Likewise, Taunt's Shrink can't sit on a boss together with the debuff of a Gladiator's Rage Burst.

Skill points: what you get and what things cost

Skill points (SP) come from one-time sources per character, and they add up to 383 by level 45:

Source	Skill points
Character levels (the Skill menu opens at level 4)	203 by level 45
Regional quests (the green quests; 58 of them give a Wisdom Stone (Bound))	58
The 60 Sealed Dungeons of your home region (2 Wisdom Stones each)	120
Ruins of the Ancient City of Roah, the level-45 Sealed Dungeon	2
Total	383

The leveling priorities guide shows where to pick all of these up on the way to 45.

What skills cost:

• Every active and passive starts at rank 1 for free once it unlocks. Ranks 2 to 10 cost 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4 and 4 SP: 21 SP for rank 10, 13 SP for rank 8.
• The Templar has 22 skills bought with SP (12 actives and 10 passives). Maxing all of them costs 462 SP, 79 more than the free total, so some skills stay low.
• Each rank also needs a character level. For most skills rank 2 opens with the skill, and every further rank needs 3 more levels. Fury, Survival Willpower and Block Pain are the exceptions: all their ranks open at the same time.
• SP stop at rank 10, but a skill can reach level 40. The levels above 10 come from Daevanion nodes (+1 per board, so +4 from the four PvE boards), +1 skill lines from gear, and skill lines on Arcana cards (up to +4 each).

Specialties are why skills are worth raising beyond level 8. Each active has five Specialty options: three unlock at skill level 8, one at 12 and one at 16. Specialty slots open one at a time, at skill level 8, at 12 and at 20, so you always run three of the five. Passives have no Specialties. Skill and Specialty resets are free.

The level-45 skill plan

Each card opens the full build: every skill rank and Specialty pick, the stigmas, the Daevanion route and the gear, with the game client's numbers. The notes below explain the choices. The level-by-level order, from level 1 to 45 with the Daevanion nodes of each level, is the leveling path: it follows the level gates and the points you really have at each level, and it is computed from the game client, so it always matches the builds above.

Active skills

Some details behind those picks:

• Judgment costs no MP, has a 5-second cooldown and hits one target for 1,673 at rank 10 (2,065 at skill level 12, 2,554 at 16 and 3,008 at 20). It is usable only for 2 seconds after Shield Smite, Warding Strike or Shield Rush, and for 3 seconds after the stigma Doom Shield. Once "Remove cooldown" is on, every shield skill is a short Judgment burst.
• Punishment is a charge skill with three charge levels. At rank 10 it deals 4,300 uncharged and 12,902 at full charge, on as many as 4 enemies around a target up to 20 m away. Each cast also gives you Executor for 20 seconds: Accuracy +200 and PvE Damage Boost +20%. Its cooldown is 30 seconds, so Executor is up two thirds of the time.
• Vicious Strike is the MP engine: it and its follow-ups Decisive Strike and Desperate Strike restore 100, 100 and 120 MP, and the level-16 follow-up Threatening Blow restores 150. Every step raises Enmity. Pummel's follow-up Punishing Strike carries a higher threat value per hit.
• Debilitating Smash can be used after Shield Smite lands or after you Block. It costs no MP and puts Debilitate on the target: Defense −25% for 5 seconds, 8 with its first Specialty.
• Annihilate requires Stun or Knockdown on its target. Bosses are immune to both, and against them it only becomes usable 5% of the time, so it stays at rank 8 with the option that doubles its damage on those targets. On normal monsters, Shield Smite's stun always lands, so Annihilate follows it.

Stigmas

Stigmas are separate skills bought with Stigma Shards. They need character level 22 and the third Ascension, which you get from The One Who Hears the Voice (Elyos) or The One Who Hears the Voice (Asmodian), both recommended at level 22. Stigma slots open at level 22, then 27, 32 and 37, four in total.

Each stigma level costs 1 shard (levels 1–5), 2 (6–10), 4 (11–15) or 8 (16–20). Reaching level 5 costs 5 shards, level 10 costs 15, level 15 costs 35 and level 20 costs 75. Every fifth level adds a fixed tier bonus automatically. Levels give 29 shards by level 45, and the third Ascension adds one Stigma Shard (Bound), so the 300 shards for four stigmas at level 20 are a long-term goal. Stigma levels above 20 can't be bought in the current EU/NA build.

The client also holds a thirteenth Templar stigma, Executing Blade, but the EU/NA skill list doesn't show it, so this guide leaves it out.

The recommended stigmas

The group build runs Taunt, Empyrean Lord's Punishment, Shield of Protection, and Nezekan's Shield. The solo build takes Battlefield Banner and Doom Shield instead of Taunt and Nezekan's Shield. Each build page shows the level to aim for on each stigma.

After level 45, more Stigma Shards come from the Abyss Points shops (10,000 to 25,000 Abyss Points each), the Nightmare shop (1,500 Phantasmal Fragments each, 35 in total) and the Shugo Festival shop. Stigma resets are free, so you can move shards when you change your setup.

Threat, rotation and positioning

Before the pull

• In Settings > Info Display > Combat, set Display Boss Orientation Indicator to FRONT. Fury's Front Attack Damage Boost and Insulting Roar's Attack bonus both need hits on the boss's front.
• Advice: turn the boss away from the party. Its front is your spot, and its cleaves then land on you alone.
• If you run Noble Armor, cast it before the pull. It lasts as long as its cooldown.

Opening

Advice. One way to open. Doom Shield and Battlefield Banner are stigmas of the solo build: in the group build, skip their steps.

1. Taunt from range. It grabs threat at once and puts Shrink on the boss for 15 seconds.
2. Doom Shield into the boss, then Judgment within 3 seconds.
3. Punishment, charged as far as the boss allows, for Executor (20 seconds).
4. Battlefield Banner, then Shield Smite and Judgment, then Debilitating Smash on the boss before the damage dealers' burst.

The Judgment loop

Every shield skill opens Judgment, so the rotation turns around them. Advice: the priority.

1. Judgment whenever a window is open.
2. Shield Smite on cooldown (10 seconds, 8 with its level-12 option). Landing it also allows Debilitating Smash.
3. Debilitating Smash right after, to keep the boss's Defense down.
4. Punishment on cooldown, so Executor stays up.
5. Warding Strike on cooldown (25 seconds with its first option). It is also a Judgment window, a heal and 10 seconds of PvE Damage Tolerance +20%.
6. Doom Shield and Shield Rush (which needs a Dodge first) as extra Judgment windows.
7. Fill the gaps with Vicious Strike and its follow-ups, and with Pummel and Punishing Strike when you need more threat.

Once Judgment reaches skill level 16 and you equip "Remove cooldown", use it as fast as the animation allows inside each window.

Cooldown rhythm (derived from the cooldowns). Taunt every 30 seconds keeps Shrink up half the time. At stigma level 20 (cooldown 25 s from level 15, Shrink 20 s), it is up 20 of every 25 seconds. Punishment every 30 seconds keeps Executor up 20 of every 30 seconds. Use Battlefield Banner together with Punishment when both are ready.

MP and Stagger

• Judgment, Debilitating Smash, Shield Rush, Flash Rampage and Poach cost no MP. Pummel and Punishing Strike cost 120 each, Shield Smite 100, and Warding Strike, Punishment and Annihilate 200. Shield Smite's first Specialty makes it free and gives 200 MP back on each hit, so with Vicious Strike's chain MP rarely runs out.
• During a boss Stagger, use Flash Rampage: it only hits Staggered targets, costs no MP and raises Enmity. Stagger Gauge Damage per cast: Taunt, Doom Shield and Shield Rush 20, Punishment 20–35 depending on the charge, Shield Smite, Debilitating Smash, Annihilate and Poach 10, Judgment, Warding Strike and Punishing Strike 5, Pummel 3.

Keeping Fury up

• Fury's party buff lasts 20 seconds and Shield of Protection comes back every 20 seconds. Use Shield of Protection just before a big hit, and the buff barely drops.
• Any Block counts, so Block stat makes the buff restart on its own between forced Blocks (see the stats section).
• The forced Block also refunds MP and Stamina and lets you use Debilitating Smash.

Staying alive

• Warding Strike heals at once and gives 10 seconds of PvE Damage Tolerance +20%.
• Block Pain gives PvE Damage Tolerance +20% for 10 seconds when you are struck, every 20 seconds.
• Guarding Seal shields you for 30% of Max HP once you fall to half HP (60-second cooldown). Know when it is down.
• Defiance clears stuns, knockdowns, airborne, grabs, frost and fear and makes you immune for 5 seconds. Cooldown reduction doesn't affect it.
• A Dodge costs 300 Stamina. Shield Rush can only be used after a Dodge (or in flight), and its level-8 option refunds those 300 Stamina.

Power Shards

Power Shards are a stackable consumable that adds damage to your attacks while switched on, and they are used up as you attack. Power Shard gives +5% damage and Superior Power Shard gives +10%. The bound Power Shard costs 10 Kina in the General Shop, and Superior Power Shards come from Substance Morph. Drag a shard into the slot in the Power Shard settings, then toggle them with Activate/Deactivate Power Shard (G by default) while a weapon is equipped. Advice: on for bosses, off for trash.

The built-in macro

The game has its own skill macro, in Skill Settings > Macro. Each step gets a delay between 10 ms and 9,900 ms, and on PC you bind it under Settings > Key Settings > General > Macro. It runs while you hold the key, skips any step that can't be used yet, and gives way to anything you press yourself. Changing skill presets stops it.

Advice: a Judgment macro. Use three steps, Shield Smite, Judgment and Debilitating Smash, each with the 10 ms minimum delay. Judgment is skipped until Shield Smite has landed, and Debilitating Smash right after it, so holding the key plays one Judgment window. Keep Punishment, Taunt and Shield of Protection on your own keys: their timing depends on the boss.

Only the built-in macro

The game's player-report menu lists "Macro" as a reason. Use the in-game macro and leave third-party macro software alone.

Daevanion route

The Daevanion menu opens after the story quest Visions in Smoke (Elyos) or Urgent Pursuit (Asmodian), both recommended at level 13. A Templar has four PvE boards, plus a fifth one at level 45 (Azphel) that holds only PvP and status-effect stats. Every node you take must connect to one you already have.

Board	Opens at	Damage corners (Unique, 4 crystals, +1.5% each)	Defensive corners
Nezekan	12	2 Combat Speed, 2 Cooldown Reduction	none
Zikel	20	2 Damage Boost	2 Damage Tolerance
Vaizel	30	2 Critical Damage Boost	2 Critical Damage Tolerance
Triniel	40	3 Multi-hit Chance	3 Multi-hit Resist

Other nodes:

• Blue nodes (Epic grade, 3 crystals) give +1 level to one active skill. Every board carries one per active, so each active can gain +4.
• Green nodes (Rare, 2 crystals) give +1 level to a passive. Nezekan holds Warding Shield, Punishing Benediction, Enhance Health, Ironclad Defense and Guarding Seal twice each; Zikel holds Impact Hit, Block Pain, Survival Willpower, Fury and Insulting Roar twice each. Vaizel and Triniel have all ten once, so each passive can also gain +4.
• White nodes (Common, 1 crystal) give small flat stats such as Max HP +100, Defense +30 or Critical Hit +5.

The four boards are paid in Daevanion Crystal, and completing all of them costs 570. The one-time sources give 316 by level 45: 136 from levels (4 per level from 12), 58 from Regional quests, 120 from the home Sealed Dungeons and 2 from Roah.

Advice: the route on each board.

1. The +1 nodes of Judgment, Punishment, Vicious Strike and Pummel.
2. The +1 nodes of Fury, Insulting Roar, Block Pain, Enhance Health and Ironclad Defense. The first three have two nodes each on Zikel, and the last two have two each on Nezekan.
3. The damage corners from the table, plus Zikel's two Damage Tolerance corners.
4. With what's left, the +1 nodes of Warding Strike, Shield Smite and Annihilate.

Along the cheapest connected paths, steps 1 to 3 cost about 70 crystals on Nezekan, 70 on Zikel, 61 on Vaizel and 68 on Triniel, about 269 in all (our estimate on the client's board layouts). That fits inside the 316 free crystals and puts all nine skills at +4. Step 4 brings the total to about 309. The Daevanion Planner finds the cheapest path to any node you click, and resetting a node costs 500 Kina.

The Shugo Festival and Nightmare shops sell up to 100 more crystals per character (50 each), toward the Critical Damage Tolerance and Multi-hit Resist corners later. The Daevanion guide covers the whole system.

Arcana goals

Arcana are five card slots that open at level 45. Each card has one Empyrean Lord stat and one to four random skill lines, depending on its grade (Common 1, Rare 2, Epic 3, Unique 4). Each line starts at +1 and grows to +4 as you enhance the card with EXP, which never fails. Skill levels from Arcana stack with Daevanion levels, and they are how Judgment gets to 16 and then 20.

Cards drop only in Transcendence (from item level 1,600; each Stage needs an S rank on the one before it). Deus Research Base drops Chalice, Compass and Bell cards, and Shattered Arkanis drops Chalice, Parchment and Mirror, so filling all five slots takes both. The Arcana guide covers enhancing, transmuting and drop rates.

Slot	Skills it can roll for a Templar	Aim for (Advice)
Chalice	Any of the 22 skills	Judgment or Fury: the Chalice is one of only two slots for each
Parchment	Vicious Strike, Poach, Annihilate, Judgment, Debilitating Smash, Punishment	Judgment, then Punishment and Vicious Strike
Compass	Pummel, Shield Smite, Shield Rush, Warding Strike, Flash Rampage, Defiance	Pummel first; Warding Strike or Shield Smite next
Bell	Enhance Health, Punishing Benediction, Guarding Seal, Insulting Roar, Fury	Fury, then Insulting Roar
Mirror	Warding Shield, Ironclad Defense, Impact Hit, Survival Willpower, Block Pain	Ironclad Defense and Block Pain

Within a slot, every listed skill has the same chance. Judgment can only roll on the Chalice and the Parchment, and Fury only on the Chalice and the Bell.

There are two card sets:

• "of Vigor" cards form Primal Vigor: +60 PvE Attack with 2 pieces and +150 with 4, while your HP is at 70% or more.
• "of Magic" cards form Magic Armor: an MP refill with 2 pieces and PvE Defense with 4.

The Empyrean Lord stat depends on the card. Each point gives +0.1% to the stats in brackets:

Slot	"of Vigor" card	"of Magic" card
Chalice	Time (Combat Speed, Double Resist)	Space (Block, Move Speed)
Parchment	Life (HP, Regeneration)	Destiny (MP, Endurance)
Compass	Freedom (Accuracy, Evasion)	Death (Critical Hit, Regeneration Penetration)
Bell	Justice (Defense, Perfect Chance)	Destruction (Attack, Perfect Resist)
Mirror	Illusion (Cooldown, Endurance Penetration)	Wisdom (Double Chance, lower MP cost)

Advice.

• Put whatever drops first into every empty slot: even a white card brings a main stat and a skill line. Start caring about the skill lines from blue (Epic) cards up.
• Four Vigor cards give the set bonus while your healers keep you above 70% HP, which is most of a fight. A Bell of Vigor also brings Justice, whose Defense feeds Battlefield Banner.
• If you drop below 70% often, go Magic instead: the four-piece PvE Defense always applies, and a Chalice of Magic brings Space, whose Block feeds Fury.
• Don't Transmute early. It only makes Unique cards and costs 5 Mysterious Crystal (Bound) plus 2,000,000 Kina.

Stats and gear priorities

Primary stats (client values; the order is Advice). Each point gives +0.1%:

• Might: Attack. Precision: Accuracy and Critical Hit. Both roll on weapons, necklaces, earrings and rings. Take Might first, then Precision.
• Dexterity: Block, Evasion and Critical Hit Resist. Constitution: HP. Both roll on armor and the cape. Take Dexterity first: its Block keeps Fury's party buff going between forced Blocks.

Sub-stats on gear (Advice). In this order:

1. +1 skill lines. Weapons and rings can roll +1 to a random active skill (one of 12, about 8.3% each), and armor, cape, necklace and earrings +1 to a random passive (one of 10, 10% each). Two +1 Judgment lines (or one Arcana line at +2) take it from 14 to 16 and unlock "Remove cooldown". On the passive side, Fury is the line to hope for.
2. Damage Boost and Weapon Damage Boost. You still deal real damage, and Battlefield Banner's level-10 tier adds to the weapon side.
3. Combat Speed. More Judgments fit into each window.
4. Defense and Damage Tolerance when the healers struggle. Defense also raises Battlefield Banner's Attack bonus.

Weapon path. At level 45, crafted Dragon Lord gear rolls five sub-stats, while dropped Unique gear rolls four (and some high-level drop weapons only three). The crafted line tops out at Splendent Wise Dragon Lord Longsword and Splendent Wise Dragon Lord Guard for Elyos, and Splendent Ebony Dragon Lord Longsword and Splendent Ebony Dragon Lord Guard for Asmodians (item level 102). On the way, the Conquest drops Enraged Kromede Sword and Nuakum Guard (item level 86) hold the slot. The soul binding guide, the crafting guide and how to reach item level 1,400 cover rolls, recipes and upgrades.

Where to go next

• The Templar class page has every skill with its tooltips. The recommended builds cover the Templar's other modes, starting with the PvE group build.
• What to do at level 45: the order to take dungeons in and how to raise your item level.
• Leveling priorities: where the Wisdom Stones and Daevanion Crystals come from while you level.
• Alts and rerolls: if the Templar is your second character, or your next one.

The game data on Aion2.gg comes from the EU/NA game client, version 2.0.7.0 (Steam build 25926599), extracted on October 16, 2026.