Defense Combo or Diviner

[Shadowreaver]

So looking to try something different....I'm thinking of combining something with defense (something more hybrid inclined like a magic class/dream) I tried Harbinger but found myself in act 4 dying way too much so wanted something either casterish or that could survive a few hits. My first thoughts were either diviner or templar but didn't know if other of the magically inclined classes paired better with defense. I tend to lean more to caster/magic classes or hybrid's straight up warrior's/rogues just don't appeal to me as much as those.

[Somebody]

Diviner is a nice class. You can play him as caster or as a melee character.
If you want to be tanky, go for melee Diviner. I got my 0 death achievement for legendary difficulty with a Diviner. He seemed a lot more tanky than any Defense build I had and on top of that he can deal a lot of damage.

[Shadowreaver]

What's a melee diviner like and that's surprising I'd figure a defense character would be a lot more tanky than dream and a mage type combo.

[Somebody]

With Dream you get these defensive skills (passive/auras):
- Premonition: +Defensive Ability
- Temporal Flux: %Chance to Avoid Projectiles
- Distortion Field: %Damage Absorption
- Trance of Convalescence: Even more %Damage Absorption

With Spirit:
- Death Ward: +Health and %Damage absorption when Health falls below 15%
- Spirit Ward: %Less Damage from Undead
- Death Chill Aura: %Slow Enemies
- Ravages of Time: %Reduced Damage from Enemies

The synergy between Spirit and Dream is very good, here's why:
- Dream focuses on physical and vitality damage, Spirit has skills to increase both physical and vitality damage AND to reduce the enemies' armor and their vitality resistance by A LOT
- Dream's weakness is that vitality damage doesn't affect undead, but Spirit bane pretty much cancels that out by boosting your physical damage against them
- Death Chill Aura only has a small radius, but Phantom Strike makes you invincible until you reach the enemy, so the radius doesn't even matter, because you're always in melee range. Just make sure to target ranged enemies first

Honestly, the Death Chill Aura tree for a melee character is overpowered.

[Shadowreaver]

Alright that does make for a compelling case as for why should it be geared/stat build like a caster? Melee? or something in between?

[Somebody]

My Diviner has a STR 5:3 DEX split, completely focused on physical damage with a melee weapon. Vitality damage is a nice-to-have; it adds up pretty quickly with all the skills that boost it.
Phantom Strike and Distort Reality are the main skills for AoE.

It's also common to play Diviner as a caster, but Death Chill Aura won't be nearly as useful in that case.

The pets can be pretty useful, too, if you have enough skill points left.