Templar Magicka DPS

Mariiana

Has anyone actually came up with a magicka build that is truly sustained for long fights. I really dont like using spell sym, but will if its absolutely needed.

so far i did 5 seducer + 2 cryo light + 3 arch-mage

purifying light, entropy, vampires bane, dark flare , and Radiant Oppression
( tried crushing shock>dark flare, but came up with the same dps but it costed waaaay more )

so far ive only been able to pull off around 6500~~7000 dps.

i feel like i could pull off more if i took seducer out and replaced with 2 torug + 3 adroitness to get more spell dmg, but then i feel like id need spell sym to replace seducer...

any thoughts/tips??

Panda244

Disclaimer: I have never played a Templar, ever.
_______________________________________________________________________________
As far as PvE DPS goes, I highly recommend using Spell Symmetry simply because every time you use it you get a boost to the next damaging skill thanks to the Mage's Guild passive. You also shouldn't worry about keeping yourself alive in any end game content such as Trials, unless you're tanking. The healer's job is to heal you, and a lot of endgame healers are good at what they do, using Spell Symmetry helps you kill things faster which in turn ends the fight with the healer having more magicka, and the faster stuff stops doing damage the better the heals. Sorta.
_______________________________________________________________________________
5 Set Archmage with necklace. (4 Armor 1 Neck)
2 Set Cyrodiil's Light rings. (2 Rings)
3 Set Martial Knowledge. (3 Armor)
2 Set Torug's Pact (Sword/Shield, if you want to get fancy.)

This is definitely a hard build to come by as you need 5 Set Archmage which is not an easy set to achieve, but, if you do this then you keep your 8% reduction that you'd originally get from the Seducer set which is nice. Downside is getting the pieces costs a boat ton of Alliance Points and if you want to buy the set pieces for gold, it's going to be expensive. I'd say this is the easier of the two set combinations to collect, that I've come up with, the next one is technically harder to collect just because it depends on dungeon drops, which have a tendency to be troll when it comes to the RNG factor. Also, if you don't have an interest in going Sword/Board you can opt out and get a staff, but because of all your other sets you won't have any rings or neck to combine it with. So it's kind of pointless. Sword/Board also has the nice addition of making you a lot harder to kill in PvP, if you ever decided to delve into that aspect of the game.
_______________________________________________________________________________
3 Set Martial Knowledge. ( 3 Armor)
2 Set Cyrodiil's Light rings. (2 Rings)
2 Set Nerien'eth (Undaunted Set, 2 Armor)
2 Set Worm Cultist. (2 Armor)
2 Set Torug's Pact (Sword/Board) -or- 2 Set Adroitness (Staff and Necklace)

Once again I recommend the Sword/Board combination for the fact that you can get an additional set out of it. As posted above, if you don't like it, then swap it out for a the Adroitness Necklace and Staff, pretty sure the Adroitness set has a staff, and with the Necklace and Staff you can get the same two set bonus as Torug's Pact. This set however, would work a ton of DPS if you had Biting Jabs slotted, because Biting Jabs tends to proc the Nerien'eth set a ton, and that set does a whopping five thousand damage per proc. I'd try to tell you what DPS skills to use as a Templar but I honestly have no idea, I do however strongly suggest using the new execute ability as it is down right overpowered as all hell, it's also a channeled ability with 'ticks' meaning it can potentially proc your Nerien'eth set three times meaning your execute does it's damage and you get an added fifteen thousand from the Nerien'eth set.

READ ME
I just did the numbers in my head with this build, just from the sets alone you get a whopping forty spell damage. Getting you 137 spell damage. You wouldn't even really need spell damage enchants on your rings or necklace with this set up, for PvE I'd use three spell cost reduction enchants, as every ability you cast is magic based and for PvP I'd use one spell cost reduction enchant and two block cost reduction enchants.
_______________________________________________________________________________

The reason that I haven't suggested any sets with Critical Chance is because ZOS has made sets with Crit Chance downright useless in 1.6, so maxing out your damage output and relying on Inner Light and your Champion passives are just going to be better. Also a side note, neither of these builds have much AoE, if any, on the main bar, so you'd have to resort to a destro staff on your second bar, but luckily it scales off spell damage and critical now which is lovely because all these sets maximize your spell damage.
_______________________________________________________________________________

As far as your ability bars go, for the first set idea, lets say you use the Sword/Board combination. I've never played a Templar so I could be totally wrong on this end, but I'll give it a shot.

Dark Flare - Vampire's Bane - Purifying Light - Biting Jabs - Structured Entropy
Ultimate: Empowering Sweep/Shooting Star

If you're PvPing, replace Purifying Light with Blazing Shield. The reason I suggest Shooting Star over Ice Comet, is because with the low cost of Empowering Sweep, if you hit six people with Shooting Star at it's max rank, you get sixty ultimate back. Which basically charges Empowering Sweep for you. Now, you could use the other morph of Empowering Sweep, Crescent Sweep, for a higher damage burst, maybe a semi-execute, but you said you wanted a build for sustained fights, so Empowering gives you a damage reduction. Hence my choice for it.

For your second bar, lets say you use the Sword/Board combo again. Then I'd suggest the same as above, simply cause it works.

Now lets say your secondary bar for both setups is a Restoration Staff.

Radiant Oppression - Aurora Javelin - Breath of Life - Harness Magicka - Spell Symmetry, Ultimate: Solar Disturbance/Shooting Star

The ability bar set ups that I have pulled out of my skull mainly come from a PvP perspective, if you wanted to do PvE you'd obviously have to change some things around and throw Inner Light somewhere in there. Remove Breath of Life as you're not healing in PvE as a DPS. I also know you can't exactly block indefinitely with 1.6, so using Immovable on your off bar in place of Spell Symmetry would probably be a better choice. I also assumed that you would use Sword/Board for both setups, and I could be wrong, so don't quote me on anything. Also, you're going to want a gap-closer in PvP, I'd say use Toppling Charge, with the Nerien'eth build it does about 400 damage according to my math and stuns them, so it does more damage than Invasion, and conserves your stamina. Which is vital in PvP. If you wanted to, you could slot Repentance or Restoring Aura on your off bar, which would help in PvP, but they nerfed it heavily in 1.6 so I'm not sure how entirely useful it would be.

This entire post is coming from a guy who has never played a Templar before, not even a level three Templar. You'd probably have better luck setting up your own ability bars than I would, and once again I'll tell everyone that this post is also coming from someone who PvPs a ton more than they do any PvE, I have however completed AA, Hel Ra, DSA, etc etc.

If you do try these ideas, then toss me a shout out and tell me if they work, because I am going to roll a Templar soon-ish and I need a PvP spec that works well enough to slaughter people, but also be able to heal people as well.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Edited to look much neater. OCD Panda is OCD.

Alcast

I have made some tests so far, only solo test though. Sadly could not yet get a decent group together for a Vet Dung.

You also have to see, Magicka DPS templar provides a *** of spears to the group for stamina. Most people atm have stamina issues and they eat these spears up quickly lol. So if the DPS is around 8k it is still good. And also the longer a fight goes the more dps you will have bc of Radiant Destruction.

People have to learn not go with full DPS and instead have people that can support the group.

http://youtu.be/Go47W6hz5hE

Mariiana

Panda244 wrote: »

Disclaimer: I have never played a Templar, ever.
_______________________________________________________________________________
As far as PvE DPS goes, I highly recommend using Spell Symmetry simply because every time you use it you get a boost to the next damaging skill thanks to the Mage's Guild passive. You also shouldn't worry about keeping yourself alive in any end game content such as Trials, unless you're tanking. The healer's job is to heal you, and a lot of endgame healers are good at what they do, using Spell Symmetry helps you kill things faster which in turn ends the fight with the healer having more magicka, and the faster stuff stops doing damage the better the heals. Sorta.
_______________________________________________________________________________
5 Set Archmage with necklace. (4 Armor 1 Neck)
2 Set Cyrodiil's Light rings. (2 Rings)
3 Set Martial Knowledge. (3 Armor)
2 Set Torug's Pact (Sword/Shield, if you want to get fancy.)

This is definitely a hard build to come by as you need 5 Set Archmage which is not an easy set to achieve, but, if you do this then you keep your 8% reduction that you'd originally get from the Seducer set which is nice. Downside is getting the pieces costs a boat ton of Alliance Points and if you want to buy the set pieces for gold, it's going to be expensive. I'd say this is the easier of the two set combinations to collect, that I've come up with, the next one is technically harder to collect just because it depends on dungeon drops, which have a tendency to be troll when it comes to the RNG factor. Also, if you don't have an interest in going Sword/Board you can opt out and get a staff, but because of all your other sets you won't have any rings or neck to combine it with. So it's kind of pointless. Sword/Board also has the nice addition of making you a lot harder to kill in PvP, if you ever decided to delve into that aspect of the game.
_______________________________________________________________________________
3 Set Martial Knowledge. ( 3 Armor)
2 Set Cyrodiil's Light rings. (2 Rings)
2 Set Nerien'eth (Undaunted Set, 2 Armor)
2 Set Worm Cultist. (2 Armor)
2 Set Torug's Pact (Sword/Board) -or- 2 Set Adroitness (Staff and Necklace)

Once again I recommend the Sword/Board combination for the fact that you can get an additional set out of it. As posted above, if you don't like it, then swap it out for a the Adroitness Necklace and Staff, pretty sure the Adroitness set has a staff, and with the Necklace and Staff you can get the same two set bonus as Torug's Pact. This set however, would work a ton of DPS if you had Biting Jabs slotted, because Biting Jabs tends to proc the Nerien'eth set a ton, and that set does a whopping five thousand damage per proc. I'd try to tell you what DPS skills to use as a Templar but I honestly have no idea, I do however strongly suggest using the new execute ability as it is down right overpowered as all hell, it's also a channeled ability with 'ticks' meaning it can potentially proc your Nerien'eth set three times meaning your execute does it's damage and you get an added fifteen thousand from the Nerien'eth set.

READ ME
I just did the numbers in my head with this build, just from the sets alone you get a whopping forty spell damage. Getting you 137 spell damage. You wouldn't even really need spell damage enchants on your rings or necklace with this set up, for PvE I'd use three spell cost reduction enchants, as every ability you cast is magic based and for PvP I'd use one spell cost reduction enchant and two block cost reduction enchants.
_______________________________________________________________________________

The reason that I haven't suggested any sets with Critical Chance is because ZOS has made sets with Crit Chance downright useless in 1.6, so maxing out your damage output and relying on Inner Light and your Champion passives are just going to be better. Also a side note, neither of these builds have much AoE, if any, on the main bar, so you'd have to resort to a destro staff on your second bar, but luckily it scales off spell damage and critical now which is lovely because all these sets maximize your spell damage.
_______________________________________________________________________________

As far as your ability bars go, for the first set idea, lets say you use the Sword/Board combination. I've never played a Templar so I could be totally wrong on this end, but I'll give it a shot.

Dark Flare - Vampire's Bane - Purifying Light - Biting Jabs - Structured Entropy
Ultimate: Empowering Sweep/Shooting Star

If you're PvPing, replace Purifying Light with Blazing Shield. The reason I suggest Shooting Star over Ice Comet, is because with the low cost of Empowering Sweep, if you hit six people with Shooting Star at it's max rank, you get sixty ultimate back. Which basically charges Empowering Sweep for you. Now, you could use the other morph of Empowering Sweep, Crescent Sweep, for a higher damage burst, maybe a semi-execute, but you said you wanted a build for sustained fights, so Empowering gives you a damage reduction. Hence my choice for it.

For your second bar, lets say you use the Sword/Board combo again. Then I'd suggest the same as above, simply cause it works.

Now lets say your secondary bar for both setups is a Restoration Staff.

Radiant Oppression - Aurora Javelin - Breath of Life - Harness Magicka - Spell Symmetry, Ultimate: Solar Disturbance/Shooting Star

The ability bar set ups that I have pulled out of my skull mainly come from a PvP perspective, if you wanted to do PvE you'd obviously have to change some things around and throw Inner Light somewhere in there. Remove Breath of Life as you're not healing in PvE as a DPS. I also know you can't exactly block indefinitely with 1.6, so using Immovable on your off bar in place of Spell Symmetry would probably be a better choice. I also assumed that you would use Sword/Board for both setups, and I could be wrong, so don't quote me on anything. Also, you're going to want a gap-closer in PvP, I'd say use Toppling Charge, with the Nerien'eth build it does about 400 damage according to my math and stuns them, so it does more damage than Invasion, and conserves your stamina. Which is vital in PvP. If you wanted to, you could slot Repentance or Restoring Aura on your off bar, which would help in PvP, but they nerfed it heavily in 1.6 so I'm not sure how entirely useful it would be.

This entire post is coming from a guy who has never played a Templar before, not even a level three Templar. You'd probably have better luck setting up your own ability bars than I would, and once again I'll tell everyone that this post is also coming from someone who PvPs a ton more than they do any PvE, I have however completed AA, Hel Ra, DSA, etc etc.

If you do try these ideas, then toss me a shout out and tell me if they work, because I am going to roll a Templar soon-ish and I need a PvP spec that works well enough to slaughter people, but also be able to heal people as well.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Edited to look much neater. OCD Panda is OCD.

Thanks i never thought of doing 5 piece arch mage ill have to try some of these armor combos youre suggesting. and it wont be hard since i have all that stuff already lol

Mariiana

Alcast wrote: »

I have made some tests so far, only solo test though. Sadly could not yet get a decent group together for a Vet Dung.

You also have to see, Magicka DPS templar provides a *** of spears to the group for stamina. Most people atm have stamina issues and they eat these spears up quickly lol. So if the DPS is around 8k it is still good. And also the longer a fight goes the more dps you will have bc of Radiant Destruction.

People have to learn not go with full DPS and instead have people that can support the group.

http://youtu.be/Go47W6hz5hE

Thanks for the reply, and nice vid . but yea i dont have any problems at spellscar or dolmens. AoE is easy for templars, i should have been more specific, i was looking for a single target dps build

Panda244

Mariiana wrote: »

thought of doing 5 piece arch mage ill have to try some of these armor combos youre suggesting. and it wont be hard since i have all that stuff already lol

You.... You already... have it all....
I don't even have the gold to afford half of what I listed. Hell. I don't have the gold to afford 1/8 of what I listed.

Mariiana

lol sorry to hear that. but yea i have like 4 pieces of worm cult, the lich crystal set, 2 cryodiils light rings, 3 or 4 matial knowledge and well like 3 pieces of arch mage... but i have like 2 mil AP so that shouldnt be too hard to get 2 more pieces

Panda244

Mariiana wrote: »

lol sorry to hear that. but yea i have like 4 pieces of worm cult, the lich crystal set, 2 cryodiils light rings, 3 or 4 matial knowledge and well like 3 pieces of arch mage... but i have like 2 mil AP so that shouldnt be too hard to get 2 more pieces

Ahhaha damn... Well good luck, hope I helped, and tell me if it works... I need a temp build

Celless

Are your test subjects 60-70k HP targets like mammoths and giants or are your numbers from dungeon fights?

ssewallb14_ESO

I haven't tested sustain for longer than 200k, so I can't really help there, but for dps try piercing javelin. It hits considerably harder than crushing shock atm.

Alphashado

I understand exactly what you are looking for. I use a Crushing Shock build on live that nets me around 1k dps on sustained fights. That was nerfed mainly due to crushing shock no longer using weapon dmg as a modifier. So I tinkered around a bit and found this:



That's only on giants and mammoths etc, but it should be sustainable because it's very similar to my old Crushing Shock build. The major difference of course is Radiant Destruction - which hits like a truck. Also, since Purifying Light is insta cast now, it won't slow down your DPS very much anymore by having to stop everything anymore to apply it.

I'm looking forward to trying this build on a few Vet Dungeon bosses, but I think it can sustain at least 10k, and maybe 11k or 12k

Also I replaced the weapon damage glyphs I had on my jewelry with spell damage.
EDIT: I also just noticed that I must have been using the wrong Staff (I have two Dest staves, one for aoe and one for single target) The one I was using during this test has absorb magicka on it rather than fire, poison, etc. So that would be an additional dps boost. Not a lot, but it all adds up.

Alcast

Mariiana wrote: »

Alcast wrote: »

I have made some tests so far, only solo test though. Sadly could not yet get a decent group together for a Vet Dung.

You also have to see, Magicka DPS templar provides a *** of spears to the group for stamina. Most people atm have stamina issues and they eat these spears up quickly lol. So if the DPS is around 8k it is still good. And also the longer a fight goes the more dps you will have bc of Radiant Destruction.

People have to learn not go with full DPS and instead have people that can support the group.

http://youtu.be/Go47W6hz5hE

Thanks for the reply, and nice vid . but yea i dont have any problems at spellscar or dolmens. AoE is easy for templars, i should have been more specific, i was looking for a single target dps build

That was just to show you what is possible And the Ice Attro World boss (starts at 1:03min) is Single target, though it is only like 17 seconds long sadly.

Though I guess you get the Idea what build I am aiming for.

Mariiana

Celless wrote: »

Are your test subjects 60-70k HP targets like mammoths and giants or are your numbers from dungeon fights?

my 6.5- 7 k numbers are from dungeon bosses, mammoths give no good indication to actual dps

Mariiana

Alphashado wrote: »

I understand exactly what you are looking for. I use a Crushing Shock build on live that nets me around 1k dps on sustained fights. That was nerfed mainly due to crushing shock no longer using weapon dmg as a modifier. So I tinkered around a bit and found this:



That's only on giants and mammoths etc, but it should be sustainable because it's very similar to my old Crushing Shock build. The major difference of course is Radiant Destruction - which hits like a truck. Also, since Purifying Light is insta cast now, it won't slow down your DPS very much anymore by having to stop everything anymore to apply it.

I'm looking forward to trying this build on a few Vet Dungeon bosses, but I think it can sustain at least 10k, and maybe 11k or 12k

Also I replaced the weapon damage glyphs I had on my jewelry with spell damage.
EDIT: I also just noticed that I must have been using the wrong Staff (I have two Dest staves, one for aoe and one for single target) The one I was using during this test has absorb magicka on it rather than fire, poison, etc. So that would be an additional dps boost. Not a lot, but it all adds up.

id advise dark flare > crushing, i was getting the same dps but significantly less magicka usage....and yea i can get big numbers on trolls too, but it doesnt translate directly when in longer fights

Alphashado

Mariiana wrote: »

Alphashado wrote: »

I understand exactly what you are looking for. I use a Crushing Shock build on live that nets me around 1k dps on sustained fights. That was nerfed mainly due to crushing shock no longer using weapon dmg as a modifier. So I tinkered around a bit and found this:



That's only on giants and mammoths etc, but it should be sustainable because it's very similar to my old Crushing Shock build. The major difference of course is Radiant Destruction - which hits like a truck. Also, since Purifying Light is insta cast now, it won't slow down your DPS very much anymore by having to stop everything anymore to apply it.

I'm looking forward to trying this build on a few Vet Dungeon bosses, but I think it can sustain at least 10k, and maybe 11k or 12k

Also I replaced the weapon damage glyphs I had on my jewelry with spell damage.
EDIT: I also just noticed that I must have been using the wrong Staff (I have two Dest staves, one for aoe and one for single target) The one I was using during this test has absorb magicka on it rather than fire, poison, etc. So that would be an additional dps boost. Not a lot, but it all adds up.

id advise dark flare > crushing, i was getting the same dps but significantly less magicka usage....and yea i can get big numbers on trolls too, but it doesnt translate directly when in longer fights

Are you weaving in light/heavy attacks? If anything I see this as easily sustainable and higher dps on longer fights because you are going to get in a very significant contribution from Radiant Destruction for a much longer duration.

On a side note, I wish they would just give us target dummies FFS. Is this a AAA MMO or not.

jopeymonster

God damn @Panda244‌ - get your new comp and stop trolling the forums!

But for someone that "has never played a Templar", it's not a bad breakdown.

For PvE -

Spec spell crit followed by ele damage, magicka damage, then magicka cost reduction. Extra points go to magicka regen.

NO:
Aurora Javelin - That skill is too expensive since the damage bonus is distance situational, the cost per use is ugly.

Toppling Charge - Regardless of the GCD length, just having one kills this ability. Cost per use and damage on this are still underwhelming, so when combined with GCD, this skill basically is just a waste of points in any morph. The ONLY time I've ever used this is going a weird DW/Bow spec and having Charge for the DW bar so I can close gap and Whirldwind/Flurry. But even then, Hidden Blade is a better cost per damage ability on that skill line, and the other weapons already have decent charge skills. I know some high level Templars still use this skill, like Rendolphe, but everytime I use it, not only do I feel the break, but I ALWAYS end up behind the person i charged and have to backup/turn around, dance like a monkey to get back into position.

ADD(?):
Destructive Touch - Now that this is a DoT, its a better roto enhancer. Tri-Focus passive increases Heavy Attack damage by up to 15% when using Fire staff, plus other ele bonuses for Frost/Shock.

Dark Flare - Good for managing magicka, but that damn cast time.... If Dark Flare would grant Empower buff as well as Defile, the limited damage and cast time of this spell would be justified. Still testing this honestly to see if it is better then the new D-Touch. Solar Barrage though - now that thing can be useful, see below on the PvP part.

I've been working this single target DPS bar on PTS:

1. D-Touch or Dark Flare
2. Degeneration or D-Touch here, if not using Meteor/morphs
3. Vampires Bane - Don't need to worry about Inner Light since keeping this up gives you the same Crit buff.
4. Crushing Shock
5. Radiant Oppression
6. Ult - Meteor/Soul Strike/Nova, depending on target

What I like is that the first 3 are all DoTs that have different up times, so you can maintain those without have to draw from your Crushing Shock rotation. Spell Sym, Focus and other support abilities are on bar 2.

Support bar

1. Spell Symmetry
2. Purifying Light
3. Rune Focus/morphs or Spear Shards here (Luminous preferably), could go Jabs/Sweep, but see below for my reason not to
4. BoL/Purifying Aura
5. Harness Magicka/Blazing Shield
6. Ult - Meteor/Soul Strike/Nova, depending on target

For pure damage, the changes to Ice Comet make it a better Ult morph purely for the fact that you can use the new lower costing version of Soul Strike during the fights, and throw down Ice Comet for execute phase, followed by Radiant Oppression. The tactic of using Shooting Star to auto-fill Ult for Empowering Sweep is a great idea, and useful for tanking and some fights, I don't feel the use is justified and limits your DPS output when compared to using Soul Strike-Ice Comet, but for the cost, E. Sweep is a decent ult. If dependent on the extra Ult from Shooting Star, I may only get to use that once or twice, whereas I could use Soul Strike twice, with Ice Comet being available at the end, give or take Ult gains and fight time.

Nova still cost too damn much, even with the minor dps increase... =(

Backlash/Purifying Light/PoTL - I'm still on the fence. The cast time and stacking has finally been "fixed", so this does help with the damage output instead of hindering it. I think the cap needs to be increased. It's suppose to scale off your magicka (PTS 21k magicka sits the cap at around 8k), but it seems too low and I find myself hitting it within 4 secs, causing me to re-evaluate the rotation and squeeze it back in before a DoT recast spam. Longer duration wouldn't really help and likely wouldn't solve the problem, and a higher cap would mean a higher bonus to damage, with many calling this out as OP, so IDK about it. Maybe I'm just using it wrong since I never used it much to begin with.

Biting Jabs - I'm not sure I like the change to Stamina scaling on this. Granted, I like it for stamina builds, it just makes Puncturing Sweep seem lackluster for our only magicka based spammable DPS ability. Nothing else in the class lines are spammable like Jabs/Sweep, so limiting it's usefulness as a magicka based skill is no bueno. I still include it on some fights since the self-heal is, and has always been, the crutch that keeps it alive and helps keep you alive, but purely for DPS in a magicka sense, Shards will be better due to magicka regen with Luminous morph, AoE DoT damage (or additional damage on cast w/Blazing).

As for PvP-
Playing on PTS, the best way to go magicka Templar is sword/board or destro with resto 2nd. Sword/board for solo or small group tactics, with Jabs/Sweeps and Structured Entropy (that max health plus a spell buff is NICE) being on sword/board or destro bar.

If S/B, you'd have Absorb Magic and Shards or Invasion/Power Bash/Crippling Slash, depending on your play style. BoL and Blazing Shield round out this bar.

Destro style is still pretty solid, with R.Light/V. Bane being a staple, and going either Crushing Shock or Impulse, once more depending on your style/situation. Getting Dark Flare in there really helps with the healing debuff, just need to keep them in range while casting. Radiant Oppression there for those last chance range executes, but really only if you are Crushing Shock. If going Impulse, the addition of Empower to Solar Barrage actually really helps out, comboing Solar Barrage-Impulse/Ring hurts the zerg

OK, finally, here's the kicker for PvP and most solo PvE - Shield Stacking. This has really been the go-to for Templars since we have a class shield, it's in our nature. Now that 1.6 enhances shields and shield stacking, there are some ultra shield stacks that are possible, with the BEST one being available to Templars.

Bone Shield + Blazing Shield. 30% Damage return on both. Bone Shield cost stamina now, so it's pretty much a must have in the magicka spec since it helps use up those resources very efficiently, with it returning damage now just like Sun Shield, whereas Sun Shield/morphs absorbs all damage, so you are cover very well when the melee specs come knocking on your door. The requirement here is that you must spec the "Increase Absorb Shield Efficiency" in CS. I take this shield stack over HM/Sun Shield mainly because range attacks on you are easier to adjust to then melees when you are a glass cannon.

Those are my recommendations for magicka spec based on changes in 1.6 so far.

Testing done on a variety of dungeon bosses, world bosses, mammoths, DC/AD players, and your moms.

Mariiana

Alphashado wrote: »

Mariiana wrote: »

Alphashado wrote: »

I understand exactly what you are looking for. I use a Crushing Shock build on live that nets me around 1k dps on sustained fights. That was nerfed mainly due to crushing shock no longer using weapon dmg as a modifier. So I tinkered around a bit and found this:



That's only on giants and mammoths etc, but it should be sustainable because it's very similar to my old Crushing Shock build. The major difference of course is Radiant Destruction - which hits like a truck. Also, since Purifying Light is insta cast now, it won't slow down your DPS very much anymore by having to stop everything anymore to apply it.

I'm looking forward to trying this build on a few Vet Dungeon bosses, but I think it can sustain at least 10k, and maybe 11k or 12k

Also I replaced the weapon damage glyphs I had on my jewelry with spell damage.
EDIT: I also just noticed that I must have been using the wrong Staff (I have two Dest staves, one for aoe and one for single target) The one I was using during this test has absorb magicka on it rather than fire, poison, etc. So that would be an additional dps boost. Not a lot, but it all adds up.

id advise dark flare > crushing, i was getting the same dps but significantly less magicka usage....and yea i can get big numbers on trolls too, but it doesnt translate directly when in longer fights

Are you weaving in light/heavy attacks? If anything I see this as easily sustainable and higher dps on longer fights because you are going to get in a very significant contribution from Radiant Destruction for a much longer duration.

On a side note, I wish they would just give us target dummies FFS. Is this a AAA MMO or not.

yea i weave lol , you gotta

Dagoth_Rac

jopeymonster wrote: »

but purely for DPS in a magicka sense, Shards will be better due to magicka regen with Luminous morph, AoE DoT damage (or additional damage on cast w/Blazing).

Blazing Spear does not just give you additional damage on cast. It does DoT for 6 seconds and every tick gives a 25% chance to proc the Burning Light passive that does big damage. I don't know exact numbers on Update 6, but on live Burning Light hits almost as hard as the initial impact of Blazing Spear.

All 4 hits of Biting Jabs/Puncturing Sweep can also proc Burning Light. But you cannot do anything else while channeling that. Blazing Spear is nice because you can toss it, go back to your Crushing Shock + light attack weaving spam for 6 seconds, and those Burning Light procs will be hitting for free in the background.

I am no DPS theorycrafter. At all. But it feels like D-Touch + Vampires Bane + Blazing Spear + Structured Entropy + Purifying Light to start off all the DoT (although Purifying Light is more of a delayed reaction damage than DoT). Then flip bars for Crushing Shock + light attack weaving until the above wear off. Maybe Channeled Focus and Spell Symmetry on that second bar to aid magicka management. Flip back and reapply DoT. Then back to Crushing Shock + light attack weaving. Repeat. Once target is low health, switch out Crushing Shock for Radiant Oppression.

Purifying Light makes a pretty distinctive sound when it pops, so you could use that as an audio cue to flip bars and reapply DoT. Structured Entropy lasts a long time. Probably only need to reapply every other flip.

So something like this:

Bar 1:
Purifying Light
Vamp Bane (Spell Crit buff!)
Structured Entropy (Spell Damage buff!)
D-Touch
Blazing Spear

Bar 2:
Crushing Shock
Channeled Focus
Spell Symmetry
Breath of Life
Radiant Oppression

Channeled Focus lasts 18 seconds, buffs armor and spell resist, and returns magicka every 0.5 seconds. It pays for itself in about 3.5 seconds. You do have to stay in a little circle on the ground to get full 18 seconds. If you leave, effect dissipates after 8 second.

5 DoT up at once is a lot. And probably expensive to keep all that up. But the 8% bonus health from Structured Entropy will aid in using Spell Symmetry and Channeled Focus will help magicka management quite a bit, too.

There may be some flaws in this I am overlooking, especially since I am not a hardcore theorycrafter who thinks about this stuff a lot. But this feels like the core of something very cool! :-)

Panda244

jopeymonster wrote: »

God damn @Panda244‌ - get your new comp and stop trolling the forums!

But for someone that "has never played a Templar", it's not a bad breakdown.

For PvE -

Spec spell crit followed by ele damage, magicka damage, then magicka cost reduction. Extra points go to magicka regen.

NO:
Aurora Javelin - That skill is too expensive since the damage bonus is distance situational, the cost per use is ugly.

Toppling Charge - Regardless of the GCD length, just having one kills this ability. Cost per use and damage on this are still underwhelming, so when combined with GCD, this skill basically is just a waste of points in any morph. The ONLY time I've ever used this is going a weird DW/Bow spec and having Charge for the DW bar so I can close gap and Whirldwind/Flurry. But even then, Hidden Blade is a better cost per damage ability on that skill line, and the other weapons already have decent charge skills. I know some high level Templars still use this skill, like Rendolphe, but everytime I use it, not only do I feel the break, but I ALWAYS end up behind the person i charged and have to backup/turn around, dance like a monkey to get back into position.

ADD(?):
Destructive Touch - Now that this is a DoT, its a better roto enhancer. Tri-Focus passive increases Heavy Attack damage by up to 15% when using Fire staff, plus other ele bonuses for Frost/Shock.

Dark Flare - Good for managing magicka, but that damn cast time.... If Dark Flare would grant Empower buff as well as Defile, the limited damage and cast time of this spell would be justified. Still testing this honestly to see if it is better then the new D-Touch. Solar Barrage though - now that thing can be useful, see below on the PvP part.

I've been working this single target DPS bar on PTS:

1. D-Touch or Dark Flare
2. Degeneration or D-Touch here, if not using Meteor/morphs
3. Vampires Bane - Don't need to worry about Inner Light since keeping this up gives you the same Crit buff.
4. Crushing Shock
5. Radiant Oppression
6. Ult - Meteor/Soul Strike/Nova, depending on target

What I like is that the first 3 are all DoTs that have different up times, so you can maintain those without have to draw from your Crushing Shock rotation. Spell Sym, Focus and other support abilities are on bar 2.

Support bar

1. Spell Symmetry
2. Purifying Light
3. Rune Focus/morphs or Spear Shards here (Luminous preferably), could go Jabs/Sweep, but see below for my reason not to
4. BoL/Purifying Aura
5. Harness Magicka/Blazing Shield
6. Ult - Meteor/Soul Strike/Nova, depending on target

For pure damage, the changes to Ice Comet make it a better Ult morph purely for the fact that you can use the new lower costing version of Soul Strike during the fights, and throw down Ice Comet for execute phase, followed by Radiant Oppression. The tactic of using Shooting Star to auto-fill Ult for Empowering Sweep is a great idea, and useful for tanking and some fights, I don't feel the use is justified and limits your DPS output when compared to using Soul Strike-Ice Comet, but for the cost, E. Sweep is a decent ult. If dependent on the extra Ult from Shooting Star, I may only get to use that once or twice, whereas I could use Soul Strike twice, with Ice Comet being available at the end, give or take Ult gains and fight time.

Nova still cost too damn much, even with the minor dps increase... =(

Backlash/Purifying Light/PoTL - I'm still on the fence. The cast time and stacking has finally been "fixed", so this does help with the damage output instead of hindering it. I think the cap needs to be increased. It's suppose to scale off your magicka (PTS 21k magicka sits the cap at around 8k), but it seems too low and I find myself hitting it within 4 secs, causing me to re-evaluate the rotation and squeeze it back in before a DoT recast spam. Longer duration wouldn't really help and likely wouldn't solve the problem, and a higher cap would mean a higher bonus to damage, with many calling this out as OP, so IDK about it. Maybe I'm just using it wrong since I never used it much to begin with.

Biting Jabs - I'm not sure I like the change to Stamina scaling on this. Granted, I like it for stamina builds, it just makes Puncturing Sweep seem lackluster for our only magicka based spammable DPS ability. Nothing else in the class lines are spammable like Jabs/Sweep, so limiting it's usefulness as a magicka based skill is no bueno. I still include it on some fights since the self-heal is, and has always been, the crutch that keeps it alive and helps keep you alive, but purely for DPS in a magicka sense, Shards will be better due to magicka regen with Luminous morph, AoE DoT damage (or additional damage on cast w/Blazing).

As for PvP-
Playing on PTS, the best way to go magicka Templar is sword/board or destro with resto 2nd. Sword/board for solo or small group tactics, with Jabs/Sweeps and Structured Entropy (that max health plus a spell buff is NICE) being on sword/board or destro bar.

If S/B, you'd have Absorb Magic and Shards or Invasion/Power Bash/Crippling Slash, depending on your play style. BoL and Blazing Shield round out this bar.

Destro style is still pretty solid, with R.Light/V. Bane being a staple, and going either Crushing Shock or Impulse, once more depending on your style/situation. Getting Dark Flare in there really helps with the healing debuff, just need to keep them in range while casting. Radiant Oppression there for those last chance range executes, but really only if you are Crushing Shock. If going Impulse, the addition of Empower to Solar Barrage actually really helps out, comboing Solar Barrage-Impulse/Ring hurts the zerg

OK, finally, here's the kicker for PvP and most solo PvE - Shield Stacking. This has really been the go-to for Templars since we have a class shield, it's in our nature. Now that 1.6 enhances shields and shield stacking, there are some ultra shield stacks that are possible, with the BEST one being available to Templars.

Bone Shield + Blazing Shield. 30% Damage return on both. Bone Shield cost stamina now, so it's pretty much a must have in the magicka spec since it helps use up those resources very efficiently, with it returning damage now just like Sun Shield, whereas Sun Shield/morphs absorbs all damage, so you are cover very well when the melee specs come knocking on your door. The requirement here is that you must spec the "Increase Absorb Shield Efficiency" in CS. I take this shield stack over HM/Sun Shield mainly because range attacks on you are easier to adjust to then melees when you are a glass cannon.

Those are my recommendations for magicka spec based on changes in 1.6 so far.

Testing done on a variety of dungeon bosses, world bosses, mammoths, DC/AD players, and your moms.

I'm not trolling
I was genuinely trying to help *sniffle*

Mariiana

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

jopeymonster wrote: »

but purely for DPS in a magicka sense, Shards will be better due to magicka regen with Luminous morph, AoE DoT damage (or additional damage on cast w/Blazing).

Blazing Spear does not just give you additional damage on cast. It does DoT for 6 seconds and every tick gives a 25% chance to proc the Burning Light passive that does big damage. I don't know exact numbers on Update 6, but on live Burning Light hits almost as hard as the initial impact of Blazing Spear.

All 4 hits of Biting Jabs/Puncturing Sweep can also proc Burning Light. But you cannot do anything else while channeling that. Blazing Spear is nice because you can toss it, go back to your Crushing Shock + light attack weaving spam for 6 seconds, and those Burning Light procs will be hitting for free in the background.

I am no DPS theorycrafter. At all. But it feels like D-Touch + Vampires Bane + Blazing Spear + Structured Entropy + Purifying Light to start off all the DoT (although Purifying Light is more of a delayed reaction damage than DoT). Then flip bars for Crushing Shock + light attack weaving until the above wear off. Maybe Channeled Focus and Spell Symmetry on that second bar to aid magicka management. Flip back and reapply DoT. Then back to Crushing Shock + light attack weaving. Repeat. Once target is low health, switch out Crushing Shock for Radiant Oppression.

Purifying Light makes a pretty distinctive sound when it pops, so you could use that as an audio cue to flip bars and reapply DoT. Structured Entropy lasts a long time. Probably only need to reapply every other flip.

So something like this:

Bar 1:
Purifying Light
Vamp Bane (Spell Crit buff!)
Structured Entropy (Spell Damage buff!)
D-Touch
Blazing Spear

Bar 2:
Crushing Shock
Channeled Focus
Spell Symmetry
Breath of Life
Radiant Oppression

Channeled Focus lasts 18 seconds, buffs armor and spell resist, and returns magicka every 0.5 seconds. It pays for itself in about 3.5 seconds. You do have to stay in a little circle on the ground to get full 18 seconds. If you leave, effect dissipates after 8 second.

5 DoT up at once is a lot. And probably expensive to keep all that up. But the 8% bonus health from Structured Entropy will aid in using Spell Symmetry and Channeled Focus will help magicka management quite a bit, too.

There may be some flaws in this I am overlooking, especially since I am not a hardcore theorycrafter who thinks about this stuff a lot. But this feels like the core of something very cool! :-)

Only thing that i dont like about this is that blazing spear, vampires bane and purifying light are all really short duration, add that with the time needed to cast d touch and entropy ... i doubt that you would be able to get more than 1 crushing off before having to reapply dots.

ive actually considered dropping vamp bane from my rotation due to the short duration and just replace it with mage light ( for the exact same buff + 5% extra magicka )

Khivas_Carrick

From what I remember a friend telling me, her build will be using the full 5pc of Martial Knowledge, although I can't for the life of me remember what the other bonuses she was going to use were.

That said, she definitely rocks a Destro Staff with Crushing Shock still, but ditched Dark Flare. I think.

*** me I can't remember now, but I know what I would use, and it's rather a simple little set up using a decent number of class skills with one Weapon Skill and One Magee Guild skill.

Purifying Light
Vampire's Bane.
Structured (?) Entropy
Radiant Oppression
Crushing Shock

I would rock the 5pc of Martial Knowledge, SoulShine Jewels, and iirc 2pc of Torug's Pact (the first bonus is spell damage right?), and I would just rock face all day with that set up.

Only that I'm a horrible mage, even if it's a Solar Mage, and prefer to my medium-heavy armor and large sword and bow.

But good luck theorycrafting guys!

Mariiana

Khivas_Carrick wrote: »

From what I remember a friend telling me, her build will be using the full 5pc of Martial Knowledge, although I can't for the life of me remember what the other bonuses she was going to use were.

That said, she definitely rocks a Destro Staff with Crushing Shock still, but ditched Dark Flare. I think.

*** me I can't remember now, but I know what I would use, and it's rather a simple little set up using a decent number of class skills with one Weapon Skill and One Magee Guild skill.

Purifying Light
Vampire's Bane.
Structured (?) Entropy
Radiant Oppression
Crushing Shock

I would rock the 5pc of Martial Knowledge, SoulShine Jewels, and iirc 2pc of Torug's Pact (the first bonus is spell damage right?), and I would just rock face all day with that set up.

Only that I'm a horrible mage, even if it's a Solar Mage, and prefer to my medium-heavy armor and large sword and bow.

But good luck theorycrafting guys!

i guess ill end up giving crushing shock another shot once 1.6 goes live ( which is what i use on 1.5 because dark flare is terrible in comparison ) but i tested the exact same build, just switching crushing with flare at least 4 times each , on dungeon bosses not just mammoths and trolls. And i said it before ^ but ill say it again , it resulted in the same dps but costed far less magicka to use dark flare. which will not only be better for long fights like mantikora and the serpent, but will make the execute that much more effective.

AriBoh

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

jopeymonster wrote: »

but purely for DPS in a magicka sense, Shards will be better due to magicka regen with Luminous morph, AoE DoT damage (or additional damage on cast w/Blazing).

Blazing Spear does not just give you additional damage on cast. It does DoT for 6 seconds and every tick gives a 25% chance to proc the Burning Light passive that does big damage. I don't know exact numbers on Update 6, but on live Burning Light hits almost as hard as the initial impact of Blazing Spear.

All 4 hits of Biting Jabs/Puncturing Sweep can also proc Burning Light. But you cannot do anything else while channeling that. Blazing Spear is nice because you can toss it, go back to your Crushing Shock + light attack weaving spam for 6 seconds, and those Burning Light procs will be hitting for free in the background.

I am no DPS theorycrafter. At all. But it feels like D-Touch + Vampires Bane + Blazing Spear + Structured Entropy + Purifying Light to start off all the DoT (although Purifying Light is more of a delayed reaction damage than DoT). Then flip bars for Crushing Shock + light attack weaving until the above wear off. Maybe Channeled Focus and Spell Symmetry on that second bar to aid magicka management. Flip back and reapply DoT. Then back to Crushing Shock + light attack weaving. Repeat. Once target is low health, switch out Crushing Shock for Radiant Oppression.

Purifying Light makes a pretty distinctive sound when it pops, so you could use that as an audio cue to flip bars and reapply DoT. Structured Entropy lasts a long time. Probably only need to reapply every other flip.

So something like this:

Bar 1:
Purifying Light
Vamp Bane (Spell Crit buff!)
Structured Entropy (Spell Damage buff!)
D-Touch
Blazing Spear

Bar 2:
Crushing Shock
Channeled Focus
Spell Symmetry
Breath of Life
Radiant Oppression

Channeled Focus lasts 18 seconds, buffs armor and spell resist, and returns magicka every 0.5 seconds. It pays for itself in about 3.5 seconds. You do have to stay in a little circle on the ground to get full 18 seconds. If you leave, effect dissipates after 8 second.

5 DoT up at once is a lot. And probably expensive to keep all that up. But the 8% bonus health from Structured Entropy will aid in using Spell Symmetry and Channeled Focus will help magicka management quite a bit, too.

There may be some flaws in this I am overlooking, especially since I am not a hardcore theorycrafter who thinks about this stuff a lot. But this feels like the core of something very cool! :-)

Elemental Drain restores about 300 magicka each hit, is a free cast and Crushing Shock procs it 3 times for around 900 each hit, would probably be better than Channeled Focus for mana regain during animation canceling (assuming there are bosses that aren't immune to it idk I'm only just experimenting with it now). Crushing shock, when speced into spell reduction could effectively cost 400-500 magicka per cast.

Dagoth_Rac

Mariiana wrote: »

Only thing that i dont like about this is that blazing spear, vampires bane and purifying light are all really short duration, add that with the time needed to cast d touch and entropy ... i doubt that you would be able to get more than 1 crushing off before having to reapply dots.

ive actually considered dropping vamp bane from my rotation due to the short duration and just replace it with mage light ( for the exact same buff + 5% extra magicka )

darkknightfkb16_ESO wrote: »

Elemental Drain restores about 300 magicka each hit, is a free cast and Crushing Shock procs it 3 times for around 900 each hit, would probably be better than Channeled Focus for mana regain during animation canceling (assuming there are bosses that aren't immune to it idk I'm only just experimenting with it now). Crushing shock, when speced into spell reduction could effectively cost 400-500 magicka per cast.

@Mariiana‌ @darkknightfkb16_ESO‌

Thanks for the tips! I mostly use my Templar for tanking in Update 5. I was thinking of going DPS in Update 6 because of the improvements to Templar DPS. My limited experience of DPS was a lot of suggestions to, "Get DoT ticking away while you spam a main damage skill." I never really thought about weighing the duration of the DoT or getting back magicka as a side effect of damage. Good stuff to know!

Mariiana

I actually had an idea last night, max magic and spell dmg effect the dmg of a skill.... i wonder if it would provide more benefit to stack max magic > spell dmg.

and with more magic you'd have better sustained..id really like to test this out.