I was planning on running a bow/2h nightblade assassin, but my buddy will be running a tank class and me running as a healer would be better for us.

The unfortunate thing is, I despise how "robes" look. I don't want to wear a dress, I want badass manly looking armor.

Any suggestions for a build that allows me to wear heavier armor for aesthetics and still gives viable armor perks?

Wear 5 light 2 heavy. Make your 2 heavy the chest and helm.

Yes, Darrett's suggestion is how I run my Templar. It limits my choices a bit, depending on the attributes for the different pieces, but works well otherwise!

Anyone have information on the percentage changes when splitting the armor pieces up like that?

A lot of the vets on PTS run 5 light 2 heavy as a general rule so this is not just an attempt to address the aesthetic issue, it's considered solid gameplay by many.

Chest and helm heavy as Darrett suggested?

It should also be noted that cloth armor is not all skirts and robes. In fact, I found robes to be in the minority in terms of cloth loot, granted I've only played 1-16 in the past 3 beta weekends.

-Travail.

Yeah I was unsure about this, especially after watching people play, they always had dresses on.