I started a new Path of Exile character this week. I didn't like Synthesis a lot, so I started him in a Standard League. I also wanted to try to a Minion-heavy build, but I'm bored, bored, bored with zombies in any medium, so a Witch was out of the question. I started a "Holy Army" build instead: Templar with Guardian Ascendancy. Animate Guardian, Stone Golem, and Raise Spectre give me a party of four before anything jumps off. Dominating Blow primary attack and the Herald of Purity aura scale up with the size of the fight; when things get really crazy, I've got a whole rugby squad around me and I'm just trying to keep up with them. I've just started Act 4, level 30-something.
Passives: I started out with Sanctity -> Discipline -> Holy Dominion -> Faith and Steel until I could get a Dominating Blow gem at level 28-29. Then I put the pedal to the metal on the Minion buffs; Righteous Army, Redemption, and Spiritual Aid; Retribution -> Spiritual Command -> Sacrifice; and Radiant Crusade from the Guardian tree. At this point, my Minions are greatly outpacing me for damage and survivability, and I'm getting worried about facing the tough Bosses. So now I'm concentrating on my own Life pool and defenses, with Devotion and Tireless.
Skill Gems: Smite with Summon Phantasm was my primary attack until level 28-29. Then I switched to Dominating Blow with Melee Splash. Summon Holy Relic and Herald of Purity. Right now I'm using Anger as a buff Aura, which adds a fixed amount of fire damage, but I'm going to try switching to Hatred, which adds cold damage as a percentage of your physical damage. Leap Slam is my movement skill, although I keep thinking Shield Charge would be cool too. Convocation is requisite, for Minion management. I've also added Raise Spectre, although that's kind of an afterthought at the moment. I haven't figured out which enemies are best to keep as a Spectre, so I just haphazardly raise anyone who's quick enough to keep up with the squad.
Equipment: Nothing clever; mace and shield; mixed Armor and Energy Shield. I'm not married to either approach yet, they were just kind of the default for the Templar and they're working fine so far. When 5- and 6-slot staves start to appear, I might switch to that.
Attacking: If there's a Gold enemy, I Leap Slam at him straight away. If you kill a Gold enemy with Dominating Blow, not only is the resulting Sentinel superbad, he gets any Aura that the Gold enemy carried - but you have to kill him yourself, with Dominating Blow; if your Minions kill him, he doesn't become a Sentinel. If there's no Gold enemy, I just smash the first thing that gets in front of me. Once the rugby squad gets on the field, they kind of take charge and stomp everything before I can even do anything more.
Defense: A mix of everything but Evasion. Some Armor, some Energy Shield, some Blocking, some Elemental Resistance, some Life Regen. I'm worried that I'll get squashed by the uber-Bosses that have huge, single-target attacks. My toughest fights so far have been Brutus in the prison and Kole in the Temple of Lunaris.
Bandits: I took the 2 extra skill points, but I think any of the options would work with this character. This is the one thing you can't experiment with, you're stuck with whatever you pick, but I don't think there's a wrong choice with this build.
Weaknesses: So far, single-target 'Hulk smash'-type Bosses, and Mana management. I'm using Mana flasks constantly.