Templars: Crit vs. Spell Damage; Ritual morphs; Destro vs. Resto

NBrookus · June 2016

I'm new to PvPing on my templar; I'm having fun but need to make some changes. Input would be appreciated. This is a build for solo/small group play.

My Breton templar is currently running Skoria, Transmutation and Alchemist with the Thief mundus. (Sometimes Malubeth instead; I can't decide which I prefer yet.) This gives me an unbuffed spell damage of 2k, 57% crit and 10k spell pen; buffed spell damage is 3200. The problem is I'm too stingy with the potions to make Alchemist work well for me, and when I do need one I'm usually dodging or moving and it doesn't work anyway. I'm considering options for swapping out Alchemist. He's pretty tough but needs to hit harder.

With everyone running impen, would stacking crit higher with Julianos even be effective for a non-healer? The other option I've thought of is to focus on spell damage instead with Kagenracs, the Apprentice mundus and (regen permitting) swapping my last jewelry enchant to spell damage instead.

2nd question: I've been running Ritual of Retribution, but the damage dealt doesn't seem to be worth the tradeoff versus reducing incoming debuff damage with the greater number of purges in Lingering. If I'm outnumbered, it's not unusual for me to see 7 or 8 debuffs running. Is anyone else running Ritual of Retribution?

3rd question: Every templar, even those not healing, seems to run resto/DW. Why not destro/DW? Assuming I have (roughly) a DW melee bar and a ranged bar, why would templars not run destro with crushing shock? The aedric spear passives are great, but crushing shock costs less than javelin and does more damage, and you'd have better access to weaving attacks. Aside from the undodgablility of the channeled staffs, is there some other advantage to resto I'm not accounting for?

imapogostick · June 2016

I believe I can only answer one question to number 3. I personally use restro staff for the extra magic you get back on heavy attacks. I use destro/resto on my bars being argonian is hard to sustain magic so for me I need resto

Sandman929 · June 2016

Bummer, I was looking forward to Ritual of Retribution on console. Maybe I can partially answer a few points here.

1. Not everyone is running Impen gear...in forums it seems like everyone says they are, but in PvP I still do good crit damage regularly. It's a big world, lots of players.
2. Haven't played the DB stuff yet.
3. One good reason I can think of to favor Templar skills is the Burning Light passive. A 25% chance to tack on a good bit of additional damage hitting with a Aedric Spear ability. If you're a magicka Templar, the only benefit to DW is the two weapon enchants. You're not going to be meleeing to any huge numbers with DW skills

NBrookus · June 2016

Sandman929 wrote: »

1. Not everyone is running Impen gear...in forums it seems like everyone says they are, but in PvP I still do good crit damage regularly. It's a big world, lots of players.

Cruising through my logs after fights, my crit damage looks pretty low usually. Given how many folks have recrafted gear for DB, there may be a lot more impen out there now. Although when I went to Azuras one night (our no-CP campaign), I was just slaughtering people; they were taking huge amounts of damage.

3. One good reason I can think of to favor Templar skills is the Burning Light passive. A 25% chance to tack on a good bit of additional damage hitting with a Aedric Spear ability. If you're a magicka Templar, the only benefit to DW is the two weapon enchants. You're not going to be meleeing to any huge numbers with DW skills

DW also offers a spell damage bonus plus the twin blade & blunt passive AND the extra set bonus. I don't use any of the DW weapon skills. Having ritual on that bar procs Transmutation quite a lot.

It's a good point about Burning Light. I was tinkering with my bars today and I can slot Blazing Spear in lieu of Aedric spear for the passives, then Crushing Shock as a replacement. I was using Vampire's Bane for the Major Prophecy buff, but it can go to make room since I have RML on my melee bar.

Baconlad · June 2016

In zergs you are best off running destro/ sword+shield. Due to throwing down ranged damage...since you don't want to be the one guy to be close to the enemy zerg. In open world small team or solo, DW/ sword+shield is best. Sword and shield gives GREAT defense combined with BoL and your other buffs. Resto I....not that great, you get hit harder when a shield is not up, and your BOL hits the same...so I don't like it.
. you don't need any regen. If you feel you must get more, don't go any further than atronach stone. Use kagrenacs, molag shoulder, torugs helm, and all weapons torugs pact, willpower rings. You may change your kags for any other set of you choosing.
. ah. And don't use crushing shock, its good...but spam reflective light when you have your destro staff on. Its AMAZING...but puncturing sweeps on a DW bar is better for small group...good luck I hop you take my advice

NBrookus · June 2016

That's a good point about S&B. I actually leveled my templar mostly in heavy armor with S&B and was originally planning on a Skoria/Elf Bane build. I have an impen shield of Transmutation; I may have to try that out tomorrow.

The past few nights I've been playing with
Julianos/Willpower/Malubeth or Skoria/Torugs 1/2 with destro
OR
Julianos/Malubeth/Transmutation with destro

Skoria is awesome at range when I find myself with a lot of players around, but I have a tendency to yolo in and there the Malubeth procs are superb. I'm tempted to go with a tank build but "solo tank" is a contradiction. I do miss the extra health of Clever Alchemist but like the improved spell damage and magicka. When I'm not getting zerg-stomped, any of them are fairly successful.

cazlonb16_ESO · June 2016

Resto staff on non healer builds is pretty much exclusively for resource management, i.e. the magicka gained by heavy attacks. If you don't need that, don't use one. Both destro staff and s+b have their pros and cons, basically destro staff is better for an artillery style build ans s+b for in your face playstyle.

Damage on Ritual is neglible even on a dd build and the other morph far better now. I definitely recommend switching, three more effects purged is infinitely more valueable than a super weak aoe dot.

Baconlad · June 2016

Yeah my bar set up on my Defense bar is extended ritual, channeled focus, absorb magick, harness magick, BOL, and remembrance. Some skills can easily be the other morph, like remembrance, practiced incantation works great! I use the ultimate because its SOO cheap, and it allows me to regen while its up, being just about unkillable. Rituals there so that when combined with my on cool down speed potions, I cannot be stopped, harness magick and BOL sp that I can alternate between the two, greatly prolonging my life

. my offensive bar is puncturing sweeps, toppling charge, dark flare, radiant destruction and structured entropy. Dark flare, darkflare, toppling charge, radiant destruction is pretty much a trump card against magick builds, against stamina builds, in their dodge roll spam phase, I radiant destruction them, in there offensive stage I either am on my defensive bar, or toppling charge a puncturing sweeps combo. I have noticed that with a speed potion, puncturing sweeps can hit them while they are dodgeing, and PS seems not to be able to be dodged....could be wrong its just and observation.
. Also blood spawn when swapped in from kena/ torugs helm is awesome for defensive phases