It gets better with gear and level. Use resto or destruction staff heavy attacks to restore magicka.

wizardpsx wrote: »

So i had a level 10 Stamina-based (red guard) and i was able to spam quite a few attacks before mobs died at my level. I don't remember were i was at but its some purple ghosts in swamps in DC.

my level 6 magicka templar runs out of mana spamming the 1st skill in the ardent spear line. i've put all points into magicka. the spear doesn't even hit that hard, and i've generally gone to attacking with destro staff and saving magicka to heal myself.

how come magicka builds can't spam class skills to deal dmg, but stamina based builds can spam weapon skills.

I would say that is because stamina skills generally have a lower cost since stamina is also used for defensive abilities (roll dodge, break free, block). Using up one's whole resource pool naturally takes longer on stamina than magicka if you never need to use these defensive abilities.

That said, the power curve is much steeper for magicka leveling than for stamina leveling. With magicka, you start really slow but the power gain is very noticeable after a while. Stamina starts out quite powerful but the perceived strength does not increase at magicka's rate.

Defilted wrote: »

You need to look at your skills and make sure the current skill you are spamming is supposed to work that way. [...] I know these are not templar abilities but the concept is the same. the spells by themselves spammed are not resource efficient unless the skill states it is to be used this way.

OP is talking about a level 6 templar. I seriously doubt that he even has enough skills unlocked to start forming a rotation

Correction, I had a 3 spell Single target DPS rotation by level 4. It was not the best, but these spells allowed me to level the correct class skills to build the better rotation later.

Lets do a for example with his/her class after I took a quick look at what he/she has at the beginning of the game.


Dawns Wrath: Sun fire Level 1
Blast an enemy with a charge of radiant heat to deal 9 fire damage and set them ablaze. Flames reduce enemy movement speed by 40% and deal an additional 12 fire damage over 5 seconds
Upon activation you gain major prophecy increasing your spell crit rating by 10

-Slows movement by 40%
-Causes 12 damage over 5 seconds
-Increases spell crit

Dawns wrath: Solar flare Level 4
Conjure a ball of solar energy to heave at the enemy for 24 magic damage
Also grants you Empower, increasing the damage of your next attack by 20%

-24 damage
-Increases next attack damage by 20%

Ardent Flame: Puncturing strike level 1
Launch a relentless assault, striking the enemies in front of you four times with Aedric spear and dealing 1 magic damage with each strike
The nearest enemy takes 140% additional damage and is knocked back on the last hit.

-deals one damage per strike
-140% damage to nearest enemy

Ardent flame: Piercing Javelin level 4
Hurl your spear at an enemy with godlike strength dealing 9 magic damage and knocking them back 5 meters

-9 damage
-Snare


If I was playing this character I would be looking at what initiator skill augments the next skill i use the best.

I could initiate with Sun fire which slows and applies a dot, followed by dawns wrath which causes 24 magical damage plus the increased spell crit chance from sun fire, then it increases the next attack by 20%, followed by Piecing javelin. this is a nice rotation and I am pretty sure that at level 6 this would kill almost anything. Again this is a 10 min review of skills I have not really spent time looking at but this is why you have to read the skills you are using and see how they synergize with the other skills you have available to you to help you with resource management to be able to kill mobs with one mana pool.

From my experience playing a Templar, even though it has not been very long, I have found that spamming any skill will always take forever to kill any mob. I use a very basic rotation which seems to work best and does a ton of DPS.

1. Engage the mob with Piercing Javelin, this will knock-back the mob, great for grouped mobs as one gets knocked back so i can focus on the other.
2. Light attack
3. Puncturing Strikes does great amount of damage fast to all mobs in-front of me
4. light attack
5. Since I am Duel Wielding I will hit the mob with Furry but any Weapon attack would work
6. Light attack

Rinse and repeat. I also have a "heal" on my bar to use if i get desperate but i haven't had to use it often.

My build so far

It would depend on your personal play style and also depend on what skills are within that particular weapon that could further augment what you are doing. I know this is not a great answer, but this is the question you need to ask yourself before making that decision. I think the best way to do it is look at a weapon you enjoy using and see what skills that weapon has that can augment what you are already doing.

Are you thinking of going ranged?
Staff or bow?

Are you going heavy melee tanky?
Sword and shield

Melee DPS
Duel or 2 handed?

Woody5910 wrote: »

I'm working on a Dawn's Wrath Templar so I should dump all my points into Magicka, right?

I would look into how the skills in the "Dawns Wrath" skill tree Morph. I think it was Piercing Javelin that seemed to change from Magicka to Stamina once I morphed it.

Woody5910 wrote: »

What weapon should I use then?

The weapon type you use is completely up to how you play or want to play as Defilted stated above. I have used both 2 handed and duel wield. I liked 2 handed just fine it gets the job done, but i prefer the duel wield only because as a Dunmer (Dark Elf) I get a 15% experience gain with toward the duel wield skill line.

Try out different weapons and use the one you like the best, that is one thing about ESOTU that is different than most other MMO's is that your Class / Race is not limited to what your character uses, be that weapons or armor.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Im in the teens now and i notice with level i was able to cast a little more spells. but my major concern is my light/heavy attacks seem to have the same DPS as my spells.

i've gone something like 10 magica/3 health and my spells just dont seem very UMPH. I looked at guides online and noticed templar spells cost more and hit harder but i get the feeling that just holding down heavy attacks seems to kill mobs just as much as magicka skills.

it almost seems better to attack with staff and just use mana to cc/utility/heal

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

My fav templar build for early leveling is 2h magicka build.

Solar Flare, Sunfire, critical charge, cleave, and then finish with puncturing strike. Its what I feel is the epitome of battle mage. You can do that whole rotation by level 4 or 5 and ride it all the way to V14.

Eventually you will want

Reflective Light (Sunfire morph)
Dark Flare (Solar Flare morph)
Critical Rush (Crit Charge morph)
Puncturing Sweeps (Morph)
Repentance (one of the best templar abilities IMO)
Radiant Oppression
Breath of Life
Purifying Light

Just to name a few.

how should i place my points while leveling? all stam? split 50/50, any in health?

also what level could i respec at as i have points in armor and weapons i wouldn't be using

For leveling I went with the adage "put it where you need it". If I ran out of resources often, I'd put the next couple of points into the respective resource. If I died too often and not for my own stupidity, I'd put the next couple points in health. Never failed me.

You can respec any time, but it only makes sense if you run out of skill points and want to spec necessary stuff. If you then have a couple unused abilities and enough gold to respec, do it.

Once you have found your build, respec again to tailor it to this specific build. But this step I would recommend only after you have reached at least veteran ranks, since you really should use the leveling phase to max out as many skills as possible - even if you never intend to use them.

Ya I would put all magicka and none in health or stam. Also, be sure to always enchant your gear with magicka as well. The white enchants from the vendor should be fine for leveling. Once you get puncturing sweeps and repentance, all of your resource problems go away.

Oh and I would go 5-1-1 , light,medium,heavy. And put all the passives into light as they come up.

You dont really have enough skill points to have a complete setup with all the passives unlocked until about level 30. So dont be frustrated that you have to choose where to put them. Eventually you will have enough for all the passives in your armor line, race line, weapon lines, and class lines.