Lineage 2 : Elven Temple Knight
The Temple Knight is a little bit different from his human counterparts. Paladins and Dark Avengers were quite versatile as their abilities were equal in both PvP and PvE. However, the Elven tank is a completely different story, because temple knight has an incredible PvE capacity. One of the areas where temple knight shines is AoE (Area of Effect - style when you fight against lots of opponents at the same moment) parties. The Elven tank has a 360 degree shield block skill which is called Aegis. Thanks to high DEX stat the blocking rate of Temple Knight is huge (because it has the biggest DEX of all the tanks). And do not forget that this class has the biggest amount of MP, highest accuracy, highest critical attack rate and impressive running and attacking speed which is the best among the tank classes as well. The HP (hit points) stat (which is important for tanks as well) is in between Human tanks and Dark Elven ones (they will be discussed in my next article).
As far as equipment is concerned, swords are the most popular weapon of the Temple Knight. What about special abilities? There are two wise choices. The first one is health special ability because this stat is one of the most important for the tank class. However, another choice is way more popular. Temple Knights 70% of the time uses focus special ability, which increases their critical rate. The Temple Knights possess the highest critical rate so this increase makes them quite powerful in damage dealing as well.
The Temple Knight has some really impressive skills such as cubics. Cubics are summons that flow above your head and provide you with bonuses. The Temple Knight has two of them: the life cubic and the storm cubic. The first one serves as a small healer, and is very useful when playing solo. However, when playing in a big group (taking some epic bosses, large-scale PvP like sieges etc.) it is not a factor at all. It's also quite costly.
The other cubic is called the storm cubic. It's actually a small damage dealer. Like the previously mentioned life cubic, its main use is when you are soloing. In a large-scale PvP, raiding it's quite useless because every damage dealer would deal more damage than this thing above your head. Temple Knight also has a skill, which makes fighting undead easier (Holy aura).
Other useful skills of the Temple Knight are Entangle, a skill that makes mob slower (counterpart to Dark Avenger's hamstring); arrest, which immobilizes the target for a while; elemental heal, this tank can heal himself as well; poison recovery, the effect is self-explanatory; spirit barrier, magical defense increase; sprint, self-buff which allows you to run even faster; and guard stance, which increases physical defense and shield block rate even more.
At first glance, the Temple Knight does not look like the class which has a lot to offer in large-scale PvP. However, that's not completely true. High speed and magical defense is a huge advantage when you want to take down robe users such as nukers. Even under bad circumstances it is a class that can always retreat from battle to regenerate its health and mana. Even slowed, it wins most of running races.
Despite the fact that it can be way more difficult to be efficient in PvP with the Elven tank, in a hands of the smart and skilled player it is a lethal weapon. Small scale PvPs are battles of endurance, and a well played Temple Knight can outlast everyone.
When the Elven tank transfers class for the third time and finally becomes the Eva's Templar, he gets a lot of really useful skills. The first one is shield bash, its main purpose is to stun and disarm the opponents. One more skill (which is very important) is called touch of life. It's a healing skill that allows the user to sacrifice 1621 HP in exchange for a huge increase to your health and health regeneration. In addition, you get a protection from debuffs as well. The other end-game skill is called vengeance. Not only does it increase your physical defense, but it also provokes your nearby enemies to target and attack you. The downside is that it immobilizes the user for the duration of the skill. Like all tanks, Temple Knight gets resistance to paralysis, bleed, stun, poison, hold and sleep. In the end-game Temple Knight receives self-buff magical mirror that reflects all debuffs to the caster, thus making Temple Knight a mage killing tank.
A pet is very important if you like to play solo. Bring up a storm cubic, a pet and you are good to go. Your cubic and your pet will do quite an impressive damage and if you put a focus special ability on your sword, your overall damage will improve as well. However, do not forget to spam aggression or hate aura, because otherwise, you risk your pet's life. In this approach solo zones are your best bet for leveling. Herbs will recover your stats quickly and mobs will not be too tough.
This class isn't rare in the game because it is week. The main reason is that Temple Knight is very difficult to play. A fact worth keeping in mind. However, the rewards to those that take the time to learn are impressive in PvP and will give the users quite a big chance to become a hero.