Vilestride & Abram: PvP Templar tank/healer build guide + Video

Vilestride

Feeling heavily inspired by Leo’s Build DK tank build and thread:

forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/219836/cor-leonis-dk-build-videos-lost-art-of-the-pvp-tank#latest

I wanted to put up a build for 1.7 that me and Abram have been working on for a group based Templar Healer/Tank. The Methodical, in depth and group oriented way of thinking showcased in Leo’s thread is something I think PvP guilds and players have lost touch with gradually since launch.



The purpose of this build was also inspired by a quote I heard from a player in 1.2:
“It doesn't matter how many HPS you can get, a dead healer doesn't heal ***” ~ Rooty San

With this in mind our goal for the build was this. Not only do we want to heal the group as much as possible, but we need to be survivable while doing so. Being a tank healer hybrid does amazing things for group. Not only do you provide healing and support abilities, you are also mitigating damage from enemies by taking the focus and being able to handle it. If they are beating on my shield, they are not beating on the DPS next to me who is squishier. This has proven to be almost as effective as a DK tank and in some ways more so as casting Breath of Life is like Taunt for PvP and is a sure way to have people focus you. This focus is another reason being tanky is a must.

GEAR

Chest: Heavy – Kagnaracs Hope (Infused) - Max Magicka
Shoulders: Heavy – Kagnaracs Hope (reinforced) - Max Magicka
Helm: Heavy – Kagnaracs Hope (Infused) - Max Magicka
Legs: Heavy – Kagnaracs Hope (Infused) - Max Magicka
Hands: Heavy – Seducer (reinforced) - Max Magicka
Belt: Light - Seducer (divines) - Max Magicka
Boots: Light – Seducer (divines) - Max Magicka

Neck: Arcane – Willpower – Spell damage
Ring: Arcane – Willpower – Reduced magicka cost
Ring: Arcane – Willpower – Reduced magicka cost

Weapons (first bar)
Sword: Kagnaracs Hope (Nirnhoned) – Disease
Shield: Seducer (Reinforced) – Max Magicka

Weapons (Seconds bar)
Sword: Seducer (Nirnhoned) – Disease
Shield: Seducer (Reinforced) – Max Magicka

The reason we have mixed matched sets on the weapons is so that on the offensive bar we complete the 5 piece Kagnaracs with only 4 seducer meaning we get the fast rez and extra spell damage here. On the second bar however, we lose those in exchange for the much better sustain of the seducer 8% reduced cost, which will allow us to spam heavy cost spells like Breath of life much longer and just manage our resources that bit better. This way we get the best of both worlds relevant to the situation.
You could run Infused on the shields as they are a big piece BUT firstly, they are also your highest piece for armour rating so the effect of reinforced will be maximised here. Secondly, your shields armour value gets nearly doubled if you have the 75 CP points into the steed tree. So again, any extra armour you can add to your shield is crucial

ABILITY BARS

Bar 1 – Sword and Shield: Offensive Bar
Dark Flare:
Only recently having swapped in Dark flare for Radiant destruction this ability has become a crucial aspect of the build. The small group AoE debuff is invaluable for quickly taking out those high priority and tanky target like healers and major DPS players
Toppling charge:
Good gap closer. Decent damage and a knock down. (though you may want to hold on the CC to allow for better CC such as fear)
Puncturing Sweep:
This will serve as your main DPS, both single target and AoE. The self-healing on this makes it very efficient and effective for sustain. This works best when you are able to funnel enemies into narrow spaces and can keep them all in front of you.
Proximity Detonation:
This is imperative for group play and every magicka build should be running it if they have it. This will serve as your co-ordinated group burst damage to bomb enemy large groups with. Time this with ultimates and other sources of significant damage. It will in a sense also work as a form of defence as it can force people to step back from you as it is about to go off.
Repentance:
One of the most efficient skills I the game. Free to cast and will tremendously increase your groups survivability. Unless using it solely for the passive, try not to have too many Templars in group using it as you can only absorb a corpse once anyway. This being said ensure to use it before the enemy does. Absorbing just 2-3 bodies will refill your stamina entirely.

Solar Prison:
This is a more expensive ultimate but the group damage mitigation and the powerful synergy if used can really turn the tide in a fight. Here you could also run barrier. However, we have found that with the changes in 1.7 the long damage mitigation from nova outweighs the barrier damage shield. This being said, For this build you do not have any points into bastion, so your shield strength is not optimal. For group play we prefer having our sorcs or even NB's run barrier.

Bar 2 - Sword and Shield: Healing/Tanking Bar
Blazing spear:
Either morph of this is fine. Luminous is a little better for group and doesn't hard CC allowing for fears or better CC to take its place. However, I take this morph because I am already lacking in DPS and the blazing spear dots can proc burning light which can lead to decent AoE DPS. Ensure to keep you and your group fighting in your shards at all times, both for damage and so the synergy is there when allies need it for stamina. It is important to keep a blazing spear ability on your defence bar so that you get the 15% extra block mitigation for physical attacks while on this bar.
Channelled Focus:
This is another buff you want to ensure you have active at all times. Both resistances it grants you will be felt and appreciated in combat. As well as this the magicka return it gives you equates to about 450 extra actual magicka regen and will erase any magicka sustain issues coupled with reduce costs and otherwise decent regen anyway.
Purifying ritual / (Purge/Cleanse)
Use either of these skill depending on group size. Groups of 4+ I will usually run purge so my group does not have to synergize to cleanse themselves. It is just more practical though it costs more and doesn't have a heal (HOWEVER, if you have enough sustain then the cleanse morph of purge is 10x better as the heal is amazing. I will be taking this morph once I have a few more CP and can invest even more into sustain)
Defensive stance
The passive alone from this skill earns its place on the bar. The reflect will mitigate a lot of damage and can be timed well for extra burst. I usually don’t waste stamina activating it unless a meteor is impending. Be sure to not spam this and conserve your stamina for blocking and rolling when needed.
Breath of life:
Your go to button. This is what you will use to heal your group and yourself. This skill is amazing and has never seen its way off my bars as a magicka Templar.


Remembrance:
This skill can really get you out of a tight corner. firstly is is a massive group heal and incredibly cheap ultimate cost for its value. it is essentially 4 seconds of group invincibility. I is also good because it can give your resources that small break if they need it. Though it does make you an obvious target with the goal of this build being half a tank this can be a good thing. At half the cost of barrier and lasting a few seconds I definitely think this is something all healers should run. I am having alot of luck leaving my barriers to my sorcs (though negate is also crucial) or better yet magicka NB's

STATS

I have all my attribute points into magicka, if you are a better race than me you may wish to put some into health. I am a Redguard which is far from ideal but when I started this game I had no idea what was what and just picked on preference. If I could re-select my race (fingers crossed one day we can) I would go either Breton, High elf, Imperial or even Nord.



With your buffs up your resistances go to 30k spell and 25k physical and with just a minor sorcery buff from any dawns wrath ability your spell damage goes to 2k. Though this isn't much it is not the purpose of the build to be offloading alot of damage.

CHAMPION POINTS

I have 394 CP. I am distributing them as follows.

Red Tree
- 100 points into steed: all into block expertise
- 32 points into Lady: all into hardy
- 0 points into Lord

Green Tree
- 10 points into tower: All into Magician
- 91 points into Lover: 10 into Mooncalf, 80 into Arcanist and 1 into healthy
- 30 points into Shadow: All into Tumbling

BlueTree
- 120 points into Apprentice: 73 into blessed, 27 into elfborn, 20 into Spell Erosion
- 0 points into Atronach:
- 11 points into Ritual: All into Thaumaturge

Lastly here is a video with some pointers and tips to guide you through the build, it showcases some of the strengths and play style aspects you need to consider when playing a similar role. ENJOY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBjW-iORooA

Poxheart

Good footage with some good tips.

gibous

Vile great build and vid man. Cool of you to credit Rooty and Leo as well.

Ishammael

Thanks for this, very helpful!

Kas

Very interesting choice on the 4/5 -> 5/4 gear swap setup (i guess with a chance for 5/3 with 2hander).

the build very much matches my philosophy for templar in 1.6 / 2.0. i'm still not sure if i agree with it in 2.1 - mainly because beigger heals can now actually do something rather than overheal and because of combat physician and spellpoweer cure which can be used according to grp size - but only if swapped for 5 light.

there are a couple of points in your vid where you're definitly "action bound" while healing (enough h/m/s but you're kinda stuck spamming BoL). Bigger heals (spelldamage on heal bar) would have enabled you to do another action in between. e.g. eclipse an caster and with the additional relief on healing maybe charge and sweep to try to turn the momentum.

of course there are other situations where you really needed the def.

thanks a lot for sharing, i'm still not sure if it will be 5light or 5heavy for me in 2.1. I still feel like it's light but that might very well be a mistake caused by the wish to utilize the tower/prison sets somehow.

I have experimented with similar stuff (by using my 1.6 setup and seeing how it goes), full light magicka shield stacking (very good but loses effectiveness the bigger your own grp gets because of the problem that spamming healing ward is not nearly as good as usign it once on oneself), light armor and block cost reduce glyphs builds (with drinks you can sustain spam-healing very well) and I will definitly try out high health bshield stuff. I'm stil far from convinced that either direction is the way to go in this patch.

No offense intended (really nice vid) but what you show in the video is MUCH less than what was possible for grps of 3-4 in 2.0 and i'd love to get back to that state (while keeping the far superior strength when going solo as mag templar in 2.1)

aco5712

uuu i got mentioned :O nicely done we need more tanky supports in this game

too bad you dont have a extra skill slot. Dark flare with the aoe healing debuff is too good in group play. Only thing i could think of replacing is toppling charge with dark flare but the trade has its negatives aswell
you thought about rememberance instead of nova for smaller group? 22% mitigation + free healing so you can get your stats regened and you basically cant die in it?

you have great sustain though. I would love to have my temp with alliance rank 10 and kaeg set.

sidenote:
im actually in the process of rewriting some of my build. I have been able to now keep basically the same tankability but increase my DPS by a large amount. When i get my daggers to gold, i should be able to pull 3k wep damage unbuffed and 4k wep damage with full buffs while still being able to tank. Quite excited

Vilestride

aco5712 wrote: »

uuu i got mentioned :O nicely done we need more tanky supports in this game

too bad you dont have a extra skill slot. Dark flare with the aoe healing debuff is too good in group play. Only thing i could think of replacing is toppling charge with dark flare but the trade has its negatives aswell
you thought about rememberance instead of nova for smaller group? 22% mitigation + free healing so you can get your stats regened and you basically cant die in it?

you have great sustain though. I would love to have my temp with alliance rank 10 and kaeg set.

sidenote:
im actually in the process of rewriting some of my build. I have been able to now keep basically the same tankability but increase my DPS by a large amount. When i get my daggers to gold, i should be able to pull 3k wep damage unbuffed and 4k wep damage with full buffs while still being able to tank. Quite excited

Dark flare is the one Ability I crucially miss since my 1.6 and prior build, I don't know why I really took it out other than it just sometimes can be a drag to have the cast time. However It is the one thing I am trying hardest to put back in. perhaps thinking of dropping radiant destruction even at times, as I feel for group play having that Small AoE debuff might actually be more useful and getting stuck in RD animation is as dangerous as getting stuck in dark flare ani anyway, if not worse. And I will definitely try remembrance out, the break for my regens would be nice and I have seen alot of other good tanky templars use it well like vanzan and his crew.

I definitely want to level my DK to try out a similar build to yours leo, do you think a similar affect could be achieved with a magicka DK though? perhaps less tanky but provide more CC type stuff? still using reactive gear?

The other thing I suppose I didn't really accent in this build which would definitely call for changes if others were to use it is that I am usually leading my groups. so sustain and survivability is almost my highest priority because the was I see it your lead should be dying last if not next to last, or your whole group is doomed. And Kas I definitely agree with you that alot of the time I get stuck spamming BoL when I could and should be doing other things, I guess one thing the vid doesn't show is alot of the time its because I am actually just focusing on leading my other guys and not actually necessarily always even focusing on what I am doing for a few seconds, kinda like self auto pilot BOL spam cause I know at least its doing something haha.

I also wanna add that abram is having even more luck than me with the build and I think if you are a better race than redgaurd (preferably Breton IMO) you have inherently higher spell pen and can definitely afford to drop a reduced cost ring for more spell damage OR alternative take the apprentice stone over the atronach

aco5712

Giahh wrote: »

I definitely want to level my DK to try out a similar build to yours leo, do you think a similar affect could be achieved with a magicka DK though? perhaps less tanky but provide more CC type stuff? still using reactive gear?

You can but you wouldn't really be able to off dps imo. Full spell damage DK builds still lack damage and you would be losing a 5 piece armour set which would hurt you. You would have to commit to full support i think. Might be able to run cinder storm, scales, fossilize, talons, chains, maybe pulsar for the debuff if you want to run destro, inhale is a must for the heal, volcanic rune, combat prayer maybe if you want to run resto, invasion/defensive posture. You have alot more options for control as a magicka build compared to stam but not the DPS

Vilestride

Yeah I feel you, I just think i love all the DK abilities to much to not go magicka haha, but I gotta level first and that's a long way away, hopefully by the time I do, they are are somewhere closer to what they used to be. In the mean time I guess stam it is.

Naski

Hey Vilestride,
first of all I'd like to say that your build was the first build I used after reaching max level,
there are so many builds I tried after that, but I always came back to your build.

But now, what I'd like to ask is, did you change anything noticable until now?
Are you using prismatic Glyphs, did you change your equipment sets?
Did you change the Mundus stone you're using?

Thanks in advance

Vilestride

Naski wrote: »

Hey Vilestride,
first of all I'd like to say that your build was the first build I used after reaching max level,
there are so many builds I tried after that, but I always came back to your build.

But now, what I'd like to ask is, did you change anything noticable until now?
Are you using prismatic Glyphs, did you change your equipment sets?
Did you change the Mundus stone you're using?

Thanks in advance

Hi, uhh so yeah I haven't updated this in a while. There are a few changes I have made in the last few months, BUT they are just trial at the moment. But if in doubt this build is still a pretty good point in its evolution and I have come back to it from time to time myself.

Sooooo currently I have swapped out that 5 piece kagnaracs for 5 piece of the reactive set. So I am running 5 piece reactive and 4 piece seducer on both bars with 3 piece willpower on the jewellery. I have also made a few tweaks to CP now having reached the 501 cap, but I wont go into detail here, just spread the points how you feel you need to cover your strengthens and weaknesses. IMO 100 points into block cost reduction is still a key for CP in this build.

and the only other major change I can think of is running 3x reduced cost jewlery enchantments instead of the 1 spell power to sustain magicka even better. and I am currently running mist form as a key ability on my bar set up, I use this when I have high amounts of magicka but am running out of stam to give my stam a break for a bit and take 75% less damage (so you pretty much wont die while in it). If you have the focus of the enemy just mist around a tree a couple times and you should be good for stam for another 10-20 seconds :P.

The pros of playing with reactive over kagneracs is I find I am definnilty harder to kill. the main thing that used to kill me was getting burst down when I was in a fear and either couldnt break it fast enough, or couldnt break it at all. Now I take 35% less damage while feared of CC'd so its not as a big a deal. The way I play with this set up is pretty much living between ulti and pots, and managing recources between then, which takes some getting used to.

The down side of this is I do miss the insta res of kags some times, and my heals are about 5-10% weaker if I had to guess, but I have no doubt I am nearly twice as hard to kill.

This thread here I have posted my latest video which features the new build a fair bit if you want to check it out and get an idea on the build changes.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/246925/defiance-5-vilestride-templar-healer-tank-feat-haxus#latest

Karamis_Vimardon

Can confirm Viles updated build is ridiculously tanky seeing it in action. Thinking of making the switch to 5 reactive myself.

Naski

Oh wow, I didn't even expect you to reply that fast.
Thanks for your detailed answer.

One last question before I stop nagging:
What is your opinion on the impenetrable trait?
So would you still go 3/2/2 Infused divines reinforced, on armor?

Vilestride

Naski wrote: »

Oh wow, I didn't even expect you to reply that fast.
Thanks for your detailed answer.

One last question before I stop nagging:
What is your opinion on the impenetrable trait?
So would you still go 3/2/2 Infused divines reinforced, on armor?

ohhh sorry, yeah no, I definitely suggest impen now. I actually am using 2 impen, on my legs and shoulders, infused on my head and chest, then divines on the arms waist and feet. Still reinforced on the shield due to the champion point passive. If I could change it I would probably drop those 2 infused pieces for more impen or divine to.

EdmundTowers

Will this still be viable with the upcoming BoL nerf?

Vilestride

EdmundTowers wrote: »

Will this still be viable with the upcoming BoL nerf?

I haven't tested on PTS, I suspect it will still be strong, maybe not for large groups, but 12 or less and it should still be good. Cant say for sure though

akredon_ESO

#iamstealingthisbuildandmakingchangestoit