Crit Bladefall Totem Life Inquisitor (110 points) PoE 2.6

Pre-word and Idea

This is a simple & cheap AF templar build, reasonably safe, easy and reliable. Could be played solo self-found. There's a shitloads of meta builds focused on speed-run but I personally don't like the whole meta thing, so here's my own creation... or abomination. He's still pretty fast tho. Oh well, as Piety said, enough of this.
The basic idea is getting a high-life (190%) critting (>50% chance) totem BF Ol' Pantless. For that we're picking all the spell/global crit chance we could get for the reasonable path costs and nearly any life nodes we came by. On the tree, major life nodes goes first in the priority, crit is great but should be taken in mid game.
Why crit? Cuz I like to see packs shattered to pieces. With resistance ignore, the cold part of BF (from Hatred) wreaks havoc on the field. I might check out what'd happen with Controlled Destruction + Added Fire or smth like "typical" for non-crit build, but that won't change my choice.
Current gear can be found --->here<--- (and I know it mostly sucks :).
Why totems Inquisitor, not quad-t Hierophant? Firstly, bcuz crits, where Hiero-pants sucks at. Secondly but still important - damage. Very roughly, four Hiero's active totem would deal 60%x4 plain damage (240%, ikr), while two Inq's would do full 200% with awesome crits. And if that's a map run, the third and fourth totems isn't dealing the real damage, more like cleaning up the survivors from the first two. Bosses? Probably. Overall it's playable but not so fun choice. And less crits. Other possibilities from Hiero's ascension is nice but that's more of utility/safety stuff, they're not crits. Yes, I love crits, doncha get it already? *sips his sedatives*
At lvl 86, buffed damage with 19 lvl 5L BF is  19257 tooltip dps with Flame Golem, HoA and Hatred, top peak with both procs of IoV (see Ascendancy part) is better. Per ONE effing totem. Works like charm. 4800 hp, 1300 ES... can't be reckless but I wouldn't call it squishy. These numbers could be much bigger with better equip, mind ya, esp with crit stuff.
ES CI version is viable but don't ask me, I just built a build (see the last part of Trees section) but honestly, hell if I know how to level and when to switch to CI.
Don't be hasty, it's an easy-going build to enjoy, not a ladder-breaker, speed-runner or high-end elitist's shit. Made for casual by casual.
And no vids guys n gals, leave it to pro bros.
Good news: just read patch notes for Atlas (2.4), and there wasn't any signs that this build would be affected in any way. It still rocks, me happy. Checked 2.4 skill tree - nothing has been changed, yay. Same for 2.5, tho totems got a buff. Same as always for 2.6, tho daggers got a nerf.

Tree(s) and leveling

31 points - getting Ancestral Bond is in priority.
Until Firestorm (lvl 12, quest reward for entering Merveil's caves) our two possible spells are Lightning Tendrils and  Freezing Pulse. LT is less safe and meant for the lazies, FP is safer and reliable but you should pay more attention for aiming. Clarity is a good aura to have but don't level it further than lvl 3-5, eats mana like hell.
After Firestorm is ours, we take 2 wands or 2 scepters with 3 links, do +1 Fire spell recipe for both, then put Firestorm in one, Firestorm+SpellTotem in second (add up Added Lightning Damage if you have any). When we get Concentrated Effect and Faster Casting, our 3Ls should look like 
FS+FC+Conc (or Elemental Focus) for self-casting,
FS+SpellTotem+Conc (or Elemental Focus) for our wingtotem.
That's even an overkill for the most A1-A3 normal content. Elemental Focus is kinda better but Concentrated is the support we'll use till the end, so I'd stick with it.
After hitting lvl 28 we must get Bladefall and Hatred. I'd recommend to poe.trade it or just whine a little in Sarn if someone would be kind to buy them for you (there is usually). Links should look like SpellTotem+BF+FC+Conc (yes, we're a big boys now for 4L). Get used to this 4L, you won't switch for anything heavier until A3 Merc.
61 points
We're gonna need a tons of Dex (BF, Hatred) and a bit of Str (Spell Totem, stuff to wear), so those +30 nodes should be taken/respecced if needed. Believe me, they will be. This is how it should look before mapping (~65-70 lvl), all the crits and most of life is done, the rest must pump up our hp pool further (highest priority, no exceptions), cause by the moment of running low-tier maps that'd be about 3500-4000 hp, which is pretty, well, low-ish (playable, but...).
101 points
Nearly there, polishing things, getting our 5L (Increased Critical Strike Chance) and probably 6L (Increased Critical Damage Multi). At 70 we should have ~4500 hp + 500 ES and ~25% block chance (if shield), which is good enough for caster. Damage mitigation wouldn't go higher than ~20% with AR/ES stuff and ES shield, but that's how things work in Wraeclast, exile.
Skill Tree at 110 points (like 86ish level), kinda completed. Anything over it would be nice but really not that important.
Any contradictions with actual tree and the guide you might find is the outcome of various gearing options, sometimes you could step away from the basic tree if you feel confident.
Yes, you could go meta and switch to CI ES, could look like this. Takes a shitload of regret orbs tho.

Aftermath
There's a few points left, and I'd recommend to spend those for jewel slots (if you got some really good ones), Mana or Cast speed blocks (there's two of them, Nimbleness and Mental Rapidity). Or even all of it, we could afford it at 90. For the very-very endgame those mana points might be pretty useful, or dual-curse, or aura nodes, or ES, or even Power Charges (if you've picked Storm orb combo) - suit y'self. Personally I'd take some more mana, especially if 6L is used.
UPD: There's a good comment, totem crit multi near the witch area is a great late game investment too.

Some weird paths, huh.
Path to Shaman's Dominion block should be taken from Templar area 'cause that's required for Mental Rapidity anyway.
From Fang of the Viper to Blooddrinker: we could take the upper way, but EVA/ES node is half-useful, +10 Dex gives us some more freedom in gearing. On the other hand, Nullification (next to EVA/ES) does look juicy and might be considered as a possible choice.
Why no jebbelz? It's actually not that hard to find a good one, but we're short on points early on, and if we gonna use jewel - it better be darn excellent 4-stats life-dmg-res one, which is rare/expensive. Anyway there's four "one point to get" slots on the tree, if anything - it should be sufficient. A moderately good jewel might add up 1k of buffed damage, so don't just think "to hell with them".
The whole hp/ES Melding nodes wheel (3 x 3%hp/5% ES  + 1 x 6%hp/10%ES) is arguably weak, you could skip it if you're confident.

Bandits

It seems like a common sense - Oak, Oak, Alira, but I'm fed up with diplomacy and killed every so-called "bandit lords" on my way. I'm missing a bit of HP and damage, but damn I felt righteous... and 3 extra skill points warms my heart too.
Besides, 40 hp with 175% increase = 40+70 = 110 hp. With 5000 hp that's a joke. Same goes with phys dmg, it's good to have but doesn't gives so much. Power charge is good but we don't use any early, there's no reliable way to generate'em on solo bosses later - and anyway, 7 bubbles or bust.

Gearing

While there's no real difference of which items to wear in general - the stats themselves is more important - but I'd still recommend to stick with hybrid armor/ES stuff. Yes, it's a HP-based build but guess what, we can get up to 1000 ES by picking AR/ES hybrids, that's imo better than pure AR things (which is pain to color right). And frankly we don't have anything pushing our armor high. Pure ES gear could be fun, but losing like 20% phys damage negation is a pain (tho actually that's quite optimistic about 20%).
Oh, and honestly, screw the uniques, too much hassle to balance the rest of equip. There IS a few good ones that won't break the scheme, but try to stick with rare items if you can't cap your resses. Just an advice. 

Basic stats priority - hp, res, ES, crit chance/multi, mana/mana reg, cast speed. We're short on Dex early on, so you definitely should get some from the equip.

Helmet and Gloves. There's nothing special on our helmet or gloves so look for those basics. Having Str or Dex helps too. Attack Speed, any added damage is useless.

Boots had to be with movement speed bonus, the more the better. Any boots without is is nearly crap, even if you could craft movspeed with Tora - it's only 8-12% (and sucks). They should be very good life/def/res rolled to be used without movspeed.

Belt is Rustic-based with >20% implicit phys damage OR some godly top rolled Leather one. Forget any other. HPs and resistances is a must, all those flasky fluff is nice to have but won't help you with, say, Daresso or any other solo boss, and you're gonna be decent with packs anyway.

Jewelry is the key to balance off the whole instability, any base is welcome as long as the stat set is decent. Top choices is Two-Stone and Prismatic rings, they're easiest to cap the resses. Diamond rings with pretty stats (hp, res, castspd, crit, mana, remember?) is cool but good rolled is rare/costs like limo, so I'd pick those "resses for the masses". Oh, and for amulet - that's the main source of Dex missing for the whole leveling time, so Jade or Onyx is fine.

Body Armor - our main linkage item, you could afford meh stats (HP and res is still a must tho) if it's 5L or better. Playing with Tabula isn't really fun, cause you miss a large chunk of stats and spend mana way faster than you should. You'd be able to craft 5L relatively easily (by the time when there'd be real use for it) by fusing-spam any suitable 6-socket base you'll eventually find. Or poe.trade one, which is honestly would be cheaper.

Weapon(s).
From three caster's weapon types scepters is a no-no right after we switch to BF. So Wands or Daggers? Wands can provide us with ol' reliable implicit spelldmg and the chances for non-caster stats is lower. Daggers otoh can get our crit up to 180% (base 80% plus 100% spellcrit affix), and that's huge. Not to mention Whirling Blades. But dagger's stats could be freaky castee-meler mix, that's a turn-off.
Since it's a crit build with totems, it means that we say big FU to reflect and go crit-crazy, yaaay. So any time you feel the urge to have a new weapon and just hit a new crit level bracket, get a new 80% implicit-base dagger of appropriate level and alt-spam it until satisfied. Regal it, add up spelldmg from Catarina and you're good to go. If no, well, poor you, you're still ok. It's costly, mind you, actual chances to get top rolls il quite low, and it might be cheaper to buy such dagger at the poe.trade, but with current meta any decent crit stuff costs a kidney.
If you're still up to Wands, do same thing but for the spelldmg.

Brackets:

Spell Critical Strike Chance +%
iLvl 11: 10 to 19 (of Menace)
iLvl 20: 30 to 49 (Catarina lvl 4)
iLvl 21: 20 to 39 (of Havoc)
iLvl 28: 40 to 59 (of Disaster)
iLvl 30: 50 to 69 (Catarina lvl7)
iLvl 41: 60 to 79 (of Calamity)
iLvl 59: 80 to 99 (of Ruin)
iLvl 76: 100 to 109 (of Unmaking)

Spell Damage +%
iLvl 2: 10 to 19 (Apprentice's)
iLvl 11: 20 to 29 (Adept's)
iLvl 20: 25 to 34 (Catarina lvl 4)
iLvl 23: 30 to 39 (Scholar's)
iLvl 30: 35 to 44 (Catarina lvl 6)
iLvl 35: 40 to 49 (Professor's)
iLvl 46: 50 to 59 (Occultist's)
iLvl 58: 60 to 69 (Incanter's)
iLvl 64: 70 to 74 (Glyphic's)
iLvl 84: 75 to 79 (Runic)

Spell Damage +% and Base Maximum Mana
iLvl 2: 5 to 9 / 8 to 10 (Caster's)
iLvl 11: 10 to 14 / 11 to 13 (Magician's)
iLvl 23: 15 to 19 / 14 to 16 (Wizard's)
iLvl 35: 20 to 24 / 17 to 19 (Warlock's)
iLvl 46: 25 to 29 / 20 to 22 (Mage's)
iLvl 58: 30 to 34 / 23 to 25 (Archmage's)
iLvl 80: 35 to 39 / 26 to 28 (Lich's)

Dual-wield or Shield?
While dual-wield might get you to extreme crit chances and/or spelldmg, a good shield could save your butt many times. In PoE, the defenses is in high priority, higher than dps, and caster shield (ES-based) might provide us with both dps and survivability. HP, res, spell/critchance - everything you may need. Add up 23-25% block chance - and it just could shrug off a killing blow, who knows. So pick a good one and you're all set. Wouldn't recommend AR/ES based tho unless you feel too squishy.
As a variety, it's still a good idea to have second "offensive" weapon is swap slot just in case you're gonna do any part of the content without being engaged in melee (caster-type map bosses) - block chance is useless against them, so full dps mode is better. And if you're always out of melee - dual is pretty viable.

A few uniques

In short, screw them. 

There's nothing good enough to be compared with balanced rare item.

Tested the most popular crit item, Maligaro's Viruosity, it might boost damage by 2k (19k->21k), but you'll miss at least 200 hp and some res, while overall dmg increase is like 10% and actual crit chance would be like +5% (52%->57% in my case). Basically you'll hardly notice the difference in offensive power, and losing 200 hp with resses - or whatever - is ouchy.

Rathpith Globe on the other hand looks great but the chances you could find it is close to zero. He's not that expensive but I wouldn't count on item I should buy - self-found, remember. Geofri's Crest is all-time favorite helm for early mapping until you get your "real" 5L. Only thing it misses is hp, and that's a major flaw. Still great item tho. Don't play with Three Dragons, while applying shock is kinda great, you won't freeze the enemies, that's a big deal in survivability. Divinarius is a great dagger but rares could be better. 

As for the chest armor - getting both good Unique AND 5L is something from sci-fi, so just focus on good rares, exile.

Gems & Links 

Main Attack (Body Armor):

4L: Spell Totem + Bladefall + Concentrated Effect +Faster Casting (RGBB)
5L: Spell Totem + Bladefall + Concentrated Effect +Faster Casting + Increased Critical Strike Chance* (RGBBB)
6L: Spell Totem + Bladefall + Concentrated Effect +Faster Casting + Increased Critical Strike Chance + Increased Critical Damage Multiplier (RGBBBB)
* - ICSC goes better with Vulnerability, if you're using Assassin's Mark - switch to ICDW. Added Fire Damage is good, but kinda boring, and Physical To Lightning Damage should be avoided early on - there's no res to physical damage, but if we convert a half of it into elemental it will be resisted by many mobs. Later on (Cruel Lab) we'll basically ignore elemental resistances (Inevitable Judgment ascendancy), then it might be fun in 6L (taking out ICSC and using AM to compensate), but I didn't tried that yet. Added Fire Damage is fine too. If you believe in tooltip - pick anything that pushes dps higher. After some point your gear is all that matters.
Increased AoE Support might help in map clearing speed but it comes with a drawback, since the waves of blades is more scattered and might miss one mob. Not a big deal if it's not a boss, but if he is...
Last thing to add, I've tried to use ICSC and then ICDW instead, it ends up with like 100 point of damage difference. That's quite explainable, either you get more reliable but weaker crits, or less reliable but hard-hitting ones, and the outcome should be (and it is) nearly equal. Since we will benefit more from plain critchance+Hatred (crit cold damage freezes enemies 100%), I chose chances.

Curse/Utility (Shield):
3L: Vulnerability/Assassin's Mark* + Faster Casting + Increased AoE / Lightning Warp** (BBB)
* - both are good, Vul gives more stable damage output, AM helps if you lack crit chance.
** - LW might be useful in Lab

Movement (Dagger):
3L: Whirling Blades + Faster Attack + Fortify (GGR)
Personally I don't like that combo and prefer wand set up (next), but it is fast and very useful after Merc Lab to trigger faster casting in Instruments of Virtue ascendancy. And blessed be almighty Fortify.

Movement (Wand):
3L: Lightning Warp/Flame Dash + Faster Casting + Lesser Duration (BBR)
Not recommended, just FYI. Flame Dash is casual skill, LW meant for Lab. Since I'm outta this meta speed stuff, I still like LW (but pressed to WB).

CWDT (Gloves):
4L: CWDT (5) + Immortal Call (7) + Increased Duration (∞) + placeholder for your customisation (RRRx)
This combo gives us a sec of invulnerability, even without charges it's a savior. Last socket could be used for anything that would benefit from ID support, if it's requirements is lower that 46 lvl it'd be autocast with CWDT, if higher - manually. Auto Molten Shell or Phase Run is cool (PhR is better tho), and Vaal Haste is always perfect for self-cast. Tempest Shield is crappy but looks great. I like looking great.

Auras (Helmet):
4L: Hatred + Herald of Choice + Clarity (<5) + Enlighten
Hatred is a must, no alternatives. If you didn't spend some points on mana nodes (increased mana/reduced  reservation), Clarity will eat up enough of your mana for saying goodbye to Heralds, but don't worry, running just Hatred+Clarity is fine. Most probably you wouldn't be able to use anything on top of these two, if you won't invest in mana pool nodes (hint: the best one is in Witch area close to hp trio). As for Heralds, I'd stick with Ash (plain dmg increase) or Ice (we'll shatter mobs a lot) and pass on Thunder. Not very important actually, tho HoA adds about 10% to the tooltip dps. Enlighten is added just for bling.

Golem + Bonus slots (Boots):
Actually, we need one slot for golem (later on this), anything else goes as a bonus. Just to mention a few things - another CWDT setup with Molten Shell, some supports for the golem, Vaal skills (Discipline, Lightning Trap, Haste, Molten Shell) - pick your poison. I'm lazy so would pick some support for the golem, it sucks to recast him... and honestly he deserves some attention.
So far I'm using CWDT+ID+MS+PhR without limitations, and when I see Molten Shell it means I'd better be more careful. Wouldn't say it helps a lot but on the other hand I didn't die since then.
Another very strong option is meant for bringing on some damage:
3L: Storm Orb + Increased Critical Chance Sup + Power Charge on Crit
Tried that on some other build, to my surprise even without crit on the tree the Orb does it very often. Three power charges makes a huge dps boost, one thing is bad - you can't throw the Orb into the packs, it stays right where it was summoned. Maybe it won't help much on packs but it should on bosses. You could place in 4L one of these gems: Item Rarity  (poor outcome but anyway), Innervate/Ice Bite (same, just for lulz), Mana Leech (a strange choice but I saw some ppl using that), Faster Casting (more zaps - more crit chances I guess) and all-time favorite Culling Strike (which could be actually helpful on some hardy rares). Suit y'self.
So, which pokemon ehrm, golem is better? There's no wrong answer, as we would benefit from any of them. Chaos is less useful out there probably, I'm pretty doubtful that 3% of DR would make any difference, you'd better pick Stone Golem as a defender. Dps-wise Flame, Ice and Lightning Golems are fine. I've picked Flame early on for the basic dmg increase and kinda happy with it. Probably would add up Minion Life and Blind support in the name of Nastiness.

Ascension and Labyrinth 

While we could choose something from three subclasses, going crit leaves us no real choice. Inquisitor.

Casual Lab - when you hit 2k hp and ~45 lvl. Pick Righteous Providence for it's oh-my-god crit.
Cruel Lab - 3k hp and ~60 lvl. Pick Inevitable Judgment  for it's thought-it-couldnt-be-better crit mechanics.
Merc Lab - 5k+ hp, 5L+ and ~75+ lvl. Instruments of Virtue is a steady dps increase as we cast or totems all the time, and that hefty cast speed might be triggered by Whirling Blades (tho you could try something like Lightning Strike, Spectral Throw or Frost Blade as a trigger too).
Map Lab - when you think you're ready. Feel free to experiment with those two points. Augury of Penitence looks promising as a defensive passive ability, while Sanctity looks promising if you'd manage to poop with Consecrated Ground and then put a totem(s) there. Pretty sure it won't poop on totem kills and too greedy to respec and check it. It's still looks darn cool for melee btw.

Masters

Well, first one to get is obviously Haku, for his invaluable armor stuff craft, then we'll get along with Catarina for our weapon upgrades, the third one is Elreon for the jewelry. The fourth slot could be used for switching, but if you're feeling lazy - either Vorici or Tora is good. Vorici's missions is kinda tricky if he asks not to kill a single guard or 10 sec of low life, but if you're pretty sure you can't make it - just kill the rogue exile for the loot, a win anyway. Zana is also decent addition, we could fire Elreon and pick Zara instead in the late game.

Freakin' Scary Things To Fear

I'm not playing hardcore, but I don't like dying anyway. Some deaths is fair, like being stupid and diving into the hoard of hasted mobs, but some is pissing the shit out of me. I'm talking about Possessed Rogue Exiles. Avoid them if possible on merc/maps, they're out of balance and some practically can't be beaten by totem-handler.
One of them, Xandro Blooddrinker, is a goddamned badass by himself, cuz his Ground Slam is supported by Multistrike, + he's able to Leap Slap: ofc he leaps to totems and smacks them with all force. What wasn't mentioned in Wiki, he can use Vaal Ground Slam with a ridiculous frequency, and when he's possessed - it means non-stop. Again avoid possessed Xandro at all costs.
Try not to play with reflect maps, you'd recast totems too often, so a typical Gorge run would be 8 mins instead of 5. It's doable by all means but doesn't really worth it.

Backup Plan

For anything bad that could happen with Bladefall (yes, nerf) we could level any phys spell gem in our secondary slots. Not much of choices' there, either Ethereal Knives or Shockwave Totem. Obviously SWT wins in terms of simplicity, cause he uses the same tree and supports, only thing is - it needs much Str, and combined with Dex req it's still annoying a bit. 
The other way, and I'm kinda interested in it, requires more respecs but it might be a devastating creation - Firestorm, yaay! Linking Spell Totem +Firestorm + Elemental Focus + ICSC + Concentrated Effect + Faster Casting and picking Elemental Overload on the tree should be a total armageddon. Oh, so much to test, so little time...

Afterword

That's pretty much covers anything I had to share. Feel free to ask any question.
If you wish to help with experiments and future builds - contact me.
If you're up to make a friend in-game or even join a small guild - Aotearoa Relax Team, ART (there's just me yet, actually) - same deal.
If you're gonna call my build bullcrap or whatever, because [..insert any complains here...] - I don't give a damn. This build is focused on casual players with casual aims. You can do better - git and do.
See ya in Wraeclast, Exile :)