Templar Nova - Proposed Buff Idea

Casul

Recently I started playing an Orc Stamplar and I have fallen in love with the class. Not totally sure why but the Nova ultimate has also found a special place in my heart.

But looking at the proposed strengths of this ultimate leaves much to be desired. The major maim being one of the significant draws of the ultimate pales in comparison to other classes which have identical uptime with normal class abilities (sorcerer encase). Rather then nerf sorcerer I propose that Templar Nova receive a change to increase the damage of class abilities by 20% while within the circle of Nova. This aligns with the “protect your home” feeling of the Templar kit as well as the existing unique buff from Solar Barrage.

The morphs can then expand on this concept by having the Solar Prison Morph trade the class skill damage buff for allowing for self synergy (it is a 200+ cost ultimate and with the old harmony buff gone I feel PvP would not be nearly as impacted as before.) While Solar Disturbance Morph would extend the class skill damage buff to exist on the character even after leaving the radius of Nova (similar to how the existing Major Maim functions).

I would like to hear the opinions of long time Templar players, as well as other classes, on this idea.

Theist_VII

An even better idea IMO would be to have your character become the Nova, as in the AoE is attached to you, that way enemies can’t just walk outside of your 200+ ultimate after taking 3,000-4,000 damage.

Then one morph could be a defensive version of it, where it causes enemies around you to deal a unique % of less damage, like it’s original 30% damage prevention.

We’re now in 2024, having ultimate level skills completely wasted by being small and stationary does not work, especially when the benefit does not warrant the risk.

Zama666

Elemental Storm cost just as much (250)
Northern Storm is (200)

I don't mind Nova as is, but does anyone EVER use the Gravity Crush?

Casul

Looking one eso skillbook it seems like Elemental Storm has significantly higher damage compared to Nova though. Especially with the Elemental Rage morph. I suppose the Gravity Crush synergy is the reason it has lower damage. Honestly I think they should just scrap the synergy on one morph if that’s the reason the skill is weaker then similar skills.

YandereGirlfriend

Zama666 wrote: »

Elemental Storm cost just as much (250)
Northern Storm is (200)

I don't mind Nova as is, but does anyone EVER use the Gravity Crush?

Gravity Crush is a group PvP morph specifically for the synergy. It's still the strongest damage synergy (though not by much...) but it's not nearly as impactful as was before Harmony was abolished.

It could definitely stand to receive a buff, as it is sort of under-powered for what it is in PvP (a single-use ultimate synergy barely stronger than Shackle, which is multi-use) as well as to give it some PvE utility. At a minimum, the synergy damage should be buffed to restore its place as the BFG of Cyrodiil, though that still doesn't do much for PvE. I also liked an idea above to put the Nova centered on the player and to have it be mobile.

Certainly, it would go for un-slottable to must-slot in PvE if it imparted some unique Damage Done % to enemies within the AOE, though that would contribute to global power creep.

Theist_VII

A skill that doesn’t move, should do more damage than a skill that follows the caster, yet Nova has damage parity with skills like Eye of the Storm and I use “parity” loosely because EotS STILL does more damage even though it’s tagged to you.

Now that could be either because of the synergy or because of Major Maim, my only problem with that is that Major Maim is no longer 30% damage reduction… it hasn’t been that in years.

Now Major Maim is a debuff found on Encase, an active skill, so there’s no reason why that should eat into the skill’s power budget as an ultimate, and the synergy is extremely unimpactful in the majority of situations because most fights are mobile.

Players and NPCs can quite literally walk out, or teleport out of your ultimate before receiving even two ticks of damage from the skill, and before your synergy is used.

Ultimates should be impactful, not risk complete failure with nothing to gain compared to alternatives.

YandereGirlfriend

Telos_Tim wrote: »

A skill that doesn’t move, should do more damage than a skill that follows the caster, yet Nova has damage parity with skills like Eye of the Storm and I use “parity” loosely because EotS STILL does more damage even though it’s tagged to you.

Now that could be either because of the synergy or because of Major Maim, my only problem with that is that Major Maim is no longer 30% damage reduction… it hasn’t been that in years.

Now Major Maim is a debuff found on Encase, an active skill, so there’s no reason why that should eat into the skill’s power budget as an ultimate, and the synergy is extremely unimpactful in the majority of situations because most fights are mobile.

Players and NPCs can quite literally walk out, or teleport out of your ultimate before receiving even two ticks of damage from the skill, and before your synergy is used.

Ultimates should be impactful, not risk complete failure with nothing to gain compared to alternatives.

Yeah, I mean, if you want to double the damage of the Gravity Crush synergy then that would still be pretty solid as the obvious PvP morph (and would restore it to what it was back during the golden age of Harmony). It would also be THE synergy to hit and to watch out for on the battlefield. It would be huge risk (you miss) and huge reward. Specifically, skill, both in casting and hitting the synergy, would be rewarded.

But then you would need the other morph to really double-down on PvE applicability.

ViggyBoi

Not sure they'd ever let you self synergize with one that strong, but Nova honestly is one of the cooler class abilities that I wish got more use. Templar is like the only class that can't even make good use of their offensive class ults atleast in pve. Some mock up ideas for how they could change it.

Nova - Call down a fragment of the sun, dealing X Magic Damage every 1 second for 8 seconds to enemies in the area and increase your damage done with class abilities by X% over the duration. An ally near the fragment can activate the Supernova synergy, dealing X Magic Damage to all enemies in the area and stunning them for 3 seconds.

Solar Disturbance - Call down a fragment of the sun, dealing X Magic Damage every 1 second for 13 seconds to enemies in the area and increase your damage done with class abilities by X% over the duration. The sun fragment gradually destabilizes, increasing in damage by X% per tick before exploding dealing X Magic damage. An Ally near the fragment can activate the Supernova synergy, dealing X Magic Damage to all enemies in the area and stunning them for 3 seconds.

Solar Prison - Call down a fragment of the sun, dealing X Magic Damage every 1 second for 8 seconds to enemies in the area and increase your damage done with class abilities by X% over the duration. An Ally near the fragment can activate the Gravity Crush synergy, dealing X Magic Damage to all enemies in the area and stunning them for 5 seconds. Enemies in the area have their movement speed reduced by X%.

I'm no game dev and math isn't my thing so I wouldn't know if a 15 second duration via Enduring Rays, a % damage buff to only certain abilities, and a strong synergy would be comparable in damage to the other classes, especially considering the damage would go to the synergy activator and not the Templar casting the Ultimate, but it would be better than how it performs now. One of the morphs can even retain its PvP group bombing utility too, just increase the damage and duration of one and keep the stronger synergy for the other.