DK 1H and shield with lava whip spam with charge seems to work very well. You can also cast abilities while blocking. Do this while blocking..... it will actually be almost impossible to kill you.

go either Light or medium armor. LA will give you more magic regain and penetration, medium armor will increase stamina regain and heavily reduce the cost of your shield charge.

DO NOT use heavy armor. Heavy armor is almost useless in its current state, either light or medium, DK, shield, charge, lava whip spam. also use banner. you will do pretty well, with little counters players can utilize toward you.

So Templar isn`t a viable choice for a player used to playing paladins ? Isn`t there a templar build with good survivability + good magic dmg ? Also viable in PVP ?

I have a Nightblade I play with sword and shield that wears a full set of heavy armor. I don't do any stealth skills really but will typically initiate attacks from a crouched position to gain a little extra damage from attacking from stealth. When people say heavy armor is useless they are referring to PVP, its fine to wear heavy armor for PVE. My Nightblade rarely dies in PVE and typically looses no more than 40% or so health even in the hardest fights because of all my self healing. I consider my role essentially a DPS tank because I lack the crowd control of a Dargonknight tank. I have good survivability against tough single targets and multiple mobs and do lots of magicka damage.

My skills:

Sword and Shield:
1. Assassin's Blade (Assasination Skills) - morphed to Killer's Blade
•Deals [x] Magic Damage
•Low Health targets take 300% additional damage
•Heals player for 15% Max Health when killing an opponent with this ability (18% at rank IV)

2. Puncture (1Hand & Shield Skills) - morphed to Pierce Armor
•Deals [x] Physical Damage, reduces target's Armor and Spell Resistance by 40% (43% at rank IV) for 12 seconds, and taunts target for 15 seconds

3. Path of Darkness (Shadow Skills) - morphed to Refreshing Path
•Enemy targets in front of player take Magic Damage every second for 10 seconds
•Increases movement speed 50% for duration
•Allies and the caster are healed for [x] every 1 second

4. Strife (Siphoning Skills) - morphed to Swallow Soul
•Deals [x] Magic Damage and heals player for 25% of the damage inflicted, every 2 seconds for 10 seconds
•Player also receives 7% more healing from all sources while ability is slotted (10% at rank IV)

5. Teleport Strike (Assasination Skills) - morphed to Ambush used as a gap closer
•Player moves through the shadows, appearing next to the target
•Deals [x] Magic Damage to target and stuns monsters for 1.5 seconds
•Next attack on target deals 30% additional damage (36% at rank IV)

Ultimate - Consuming Darkness (Shadow Skills) - morphed to Veil of Blades
•Creates an area of darkness for 15 seconds
•Enemies in this area are snared 70% and take [x] Magic Damage every 0.5 seconds
•Nearby allies take 30% less damage and caster gains an additional 100% of this value
•Grants allies in the area Slip Away, granting them invisibility


My second weapon is a restoration staff I use to heal others when needed.
Skills:
1. Grand Healing - morphed to Illustrious Healing
2. Regeneration - morphed to Rapid Regeneration
3. Blessing of Protection - morphed to Blessing of Restoration
4. Path of Darkness - (Shadow Skills) - morphed to Refreshing Path
5. Strife (Siphoning Skills) - morphed to Swallow Soul
Ultimate - Consuming Darkness (Shadow Skills) - morphed to Veil of Blades


My armor:
Sword and Shield :
5 pieces of Vampire's Kiss set (craftable)
2 pieces adds X Health Recovery
3 pieces adds X Max Health
4 pieces adds 4% Healing Taken
5 pieces adds Blood Frenzy, killing an opponent heals you for X every 8 seconds.

4 pieces of Seducer (craftable)
2 pieces adds X Magicka Recovery
3 pieces adds X Magica
4 pieces adds X Magicka Recovery

When flipping to restoration staff the sets become 4 pieces each because I lose one weapon, sword of Vampire's Kiss and Shield of the Seducer are replaced with Staff of the Seducer.

Paladin class with shield- the most similar is Templar. DK or NB is more close to Battle mage class.
With resto staff any can play pal-style.