Is it time to take a look at Templar design?

david.haypreub18_ESO

If you haven't been following recent developer posts, you might not know that several characteristics of Templar spells and feats have recently been confirmed not as bugs (as they were previously called) but actual features. So, for example, the delay in the main Templar heal, Rushed Ceremony, was recently confirmed as 'just slower... by design' (quote from Gina) because Templars are supposed to be 'anticipating' damage to those they heal. Similarly, the Global Cool Down on the Templar charge, which lead combat designer Eric identified in February as a 'bug' that 'would be removed', has now been confirmed as a feature that ZOS is now 'fine' with.

All of this begs the question: if these are not bugs but features and the Templar is 'working as intended', then why is the Templar ranked dead last in PvP by every poll that has been done on the subject? If the class is working as intended yet severely underperforming in every role other than pocket healer, shouldn't the class design be the next focus of scrutiny? If it is not the bugs that are making the class underperform, is it the design?

The Question: What is the cause of the underperformance of the Templar class?

C0pp3rhead

Bugs-- yes, they really are bugs

Stamina DPS templars are in a fine place. If you need proof, just look at THIS.
Templar tanks are, if not on par with, a close second to DK tanks.
Templars are the best healers.

The problem is that one or two skills are buggy/not working properly.

The delay on Rushed Ceremony is BS - there was no delay until they changed the animation with Patch 1.6, months before they identified and commented on the 'need' to 'tweak' templar healing. The animation causes the delay.
The animation problems with Spear Charge have been in place for quite a long time. Now that they have 'fixed' this skill, it seems to have the same problems as other charges in the game: that is, when there is lag, you are almost guaranteed to get stuck in the charge animation.
The problem is not that they do not want to fix the problems, it's that they cannot. At the moment, the team of dev's/programmers for the PC client is severely understaffed. I have heard that currently only 6-7 devs are working on the PC client at any given time. Almost all of their resources are dedicated to XBone development.

This is a symptom of a larger problem. Most classes are working more or less as intended. Sure, there are still some balance issues. Sure, there are plenty of buggy abilities in every class. The reason is because they do not have the resources to put a team on analyzing and correcting the deficiencies of these small yet obvious problems.

The best we can hope for is that they fix it after console launch.

likewow777

Design-- the class is underperforming due to poor design

I have many thoughts on the subject, and I do believe that bug-fixing would go a long way in helping Templars. That said, the thing I can't get away from, and the reason I voted the way I did, is this:

One by one, they seem to be declaring bugs as "working as intended".

Perhaps ZOS doesn't really know what that phrase means. If you say something is working as intended, but it doesn't work well, you really need to reevaluate your intentions. Your premise is flawed. Your design is wrong. Charging the player with the job of dealing with GCDs and animation delays, using weak justifications such as what Gina wrote, is so angering I can hardly speak. In fact, I remember my jaw dropping when I first read it.

Maybe they are indeed understaffed, I don't know, I have no insight into that. I'd like to think that they say things are working like they should because they just don't have the manpower to fix everything. At the very least, it would be an actual explanation.

*sigh*

EDIT: Wording

david.haypreub18_ESO

Design-- the class is underperforming due to poor design

likewow777 wrote: »

One by one, they seem to be declaring bugs as "working as intended".

Perhaps ZOS doesn't really know what that phrase means. If you say something is working as intended, but it doesn't work well, you really need to reevaluate your intentions. Your premise is flawed. Your design is wrong. Charging the player with the job of dealing with GCDs and animation delays, using weak justifications such as what Gina wrote, is so angering I can hardly speak.

QFT

WhitePawPrints

Design-- the class is underperforming due to poor design

Design flaws of ZOS are always "intentional"

likewow777 wrote: »

I have many thoughts on the subject, and I do believe that bug-fixing would go a long way in helping Templars. That said, the thing I can't get away from, and the reason I voted the way I did, is this:

One by one, they seem to be declaring bugs as "working as intended".

Perhaps ZOS doesn't really know what that phrase means. If you say something is working as intended, but it doesn't work well, you really need to reevaluate your intentions. Your premise is flawed. Your design is wrong. Charging the player with the job of dealing with GCDs and animation delays, using weak justifications such as what Gina wrote, is so angering I can hardly speak. In fact, I remember my jaw dropping when I first read it.

Maybe they are indeed understaffed, I don't know, I have no insight into that. I'd like to think that they say things are working like they should because they just don't have the manpower to fix everything. At the very least, it would be an actual explanation.

*sigh*

EDIT: Wording

I was about to type that as a response. Zenimax's history of claiming bugs are "intentional" or obvious design flaws are "intentional" is a poor excuse to justify the lack of improvements to the game.

Usually their fixes are not much better: Veteran Zones last year were imbalanced. A three man mob with the right composition would be impassable, while others were no problem. Zoning as Templar when they were by far the weakest in the game, I thought that only the NPC's healing, leashing and agro needed to be looked at. Instead, flat percentage nerf across the board.

Or Impulse and Bat Swarm that was a huge issue at release. Instead of looking at these abilities, all of AOE abilities were changed to only hit six enemies at a time.

Or off-hours Cyrodil keeps were taken too easily so they bumped all NPC's to VR levels, which really defeated the entire purpose of VR levels and ruined PVE for my Templar for months in there.

The combat bug that locks all of your abilities and attacks, leaving you only to run (not sprint, cannot do that) has been in the game since launch and still not fixed. I guess that will be called intentional at some point too. Zenimax will likely say that not being able to CC break out of falling from a horse is intentional too. Why should we be able to use an abilities when a Nightblade is macroing six or seven abilities on us all at once while we're stunned?

I completely changed how I play my templar to adjust for 1.6 but it really still seems they are underperforming. What could really help is giving Templars back regeneration passives.

Animal_Mother

Design-- the class is underperforming due to poor design

I would have said just bugs, but ZOS says some of these are working as designed - thus problems are now by design.

Dredlord

Design-- the class is underperforming due to poor design

the class just plain plays like ***, at the moment the bugs aren't even that bad.

The worst part is the clunky design, flaky animations that lock you out of actions, even weapon switch.

Weapon switch is responsive on my other characters but frequently it gets me killed on my templar because a skill on my previous bar is activated on the wrong weapon set.

1.6 broke templars so badly in pvp it's ridiculous.

Ffastyl

Design-- the class is underperforming due to poor design

Templars are invaluable to groups. No class can compare to Templars in group support. But solo they are the weakest. It takes a lot of work to make a Templar offensively viable in solo encounters. BUT the class archetype is Support/Healer, which Templars fulfill perfectly! It's just when you want to roll solo or as not a healer that issues crop up.