Ideas for a Templar Rework (new rendition)

The_Isatope8 · October 18

This post is meant to be a follow-up on the last rework concept I made to address the issues brought up by commentors. Many of the points I made regarding the current state of Templar still stand and my design philosophy remains unchanged. I have also made a post concerning the current problems with Templar when compared with its sibling classes and how it's outdated in the current state of ESO.

View previous post here.
View post concerning the problem with Templar in 2024 here.

I have stated that Templar is in a bad spot before and the latest patch notes don't change that at all. While it is sad to see how little is being done to combat Templars shortcomings; it is at least good to see that changes are being made at all, even if they are not immediately useful. I doubt that any developer will see this post, let alone read it, but on the off chance that one of them does take the time to go through some of this rework then i hope that they will find some inspiration here or in the comments provided by others who truly care about the Templar. Feel free to take the ideas, the entire point of this post is to conceptualize how to bring this class up to speed with its sibling classes while maintaining its identity and aesthetics.

Some of the biggest changes made this time round include small reductions to raw healing output across the board to compensate for better sustain and defensive/ offensive options. More buffs and debuffs were added to keep up with other classes, sparse damage tweaks and a more potent Burning Light proc will also help to lessen the gap between mid and execute range in a fight. Templar is still an execution specialist with the beam, but they will now have the tools to get good damage in up front while retaining a similar dps ceiling. In addition to damage and healing tweaks, more functionality was added to many skills and especially ultimate's to give Templar more build variety. Various resource changes were made to alleviate some of the strain caused by Templars notorious sustain problems.

Another massive change concerns Templars identity as the 'Stand Your Ground' class. In my previous post I stated that I wanted to reinforce this reputation by improving their Sacred Ground passive and how it interacts with Templars kit. Unfortunately, this design is outdated and can be detrimental in many cases. Many new trials, dungeons and world bosses force you to reposition and having to constantly recast abilities to maintain Sacred Ground is no longer viable. This problem is especially noticeable in PvP where speed and mobility are a top priority for most builds. Having so much of a classes defensive kit rely on barely moving in the current state of the game is nonsensical, so it was scrapped entirely. Instead of being the 'Stand Your Ground' class, Templar should lean more into its class fantasy and become the 'Aura' class. It is obvious that Templar is meant to emulate the paladin archetype, so I took inspiration from the DnD class to create a kit more befitting of the Templar. Another reason for this is the lore. Auras are mentioned multiple times in most of the in-game literature concerning Templars:

With Arcanist solidifying its reputation as the 'rune' class, Templar should start moving away from that aesthetic/ design. I understand that there are some people who enjoy the current playstyle, but that design is outdated and requires changes.

Templar also suffers from an identity crisis. What is the Templar meant to be? Dragonknight is a frontline bruiser, Nightblade is a stealthy assassin, Sorcerer is a battle mage and Necro is self-explanatory. But what is Templar? Many of their skills suggest that they are supposed to be a frontliner, but they don't hit hard enough up front to fulfill that role. They have great pure heals, but not much else so that rules out being a combat medic. They're built to stand their ground, but are forced to move so they aren't a bulwark. Templar is a weird mix of ideas that work on paper but feel conflicting in gameplay. Each class has a clearly defined theme/ style and their skills make sense within that aesthetic. Templar is a beacon of light, but can corrupt that light and use it to defile their enemies. They are bringers of life, but can siphon energy from the dead. They are supposed to empower their allies, but a nature hippy and a deadra simp can do that better than them.

Templar suffers from having too many conflicting ideas that makes them feel disjointed when compared to their sibling classes. Many of the changes I've made in this rework try to address this by bringing Templar more in line with their class fantasy and the tropes that inspired their design. It is for this reason that some skills, passives and ultimate's have been completely reworked, replaced and even moved to new skill lines in some cases to create a greater sense of thematic cohesion. Some of the heavily altered skills will have descriptions of what I think would be suitable animations.

I would also like to thank everyone who provided feedback in my last post as their input helped me create a more cohesive, interesting and hopefully more balanced version of this rework.

A special thanks to @Billium813, @VinnyGambini, @MEBengalsFan2001 and @Turtle_Bot for their input. They either helped inspire changes with their own posts or comments on my original post. They will be credited where their input was used. ZOS might have forgotten about Templar, but it's good to know that there are many who still care deeply about this class.

Edit: I have been made aware that some of the changes in this post are equivalent or bare similarity to changes proposed by other community members prior to me posting this rework. As such, I would also like to thank @Theist_VII and @The_Titan_Tim for their contributions. They will be credited where necessary. Additionally, I would like to apologize to these users for overlooking their work and seemingly plagiarizing it. the aforementioned Theist_VII made me aware of this problem in the comments below and I implore other commentors to make me aware of similar posts that I have failed to see so that I may credit the user responsible for their ideas.

Without further a do, here is the new rework:

Aedric Spear

Spear model changed to the Imperial Champion style instead of Nighthollow. Ideally ZOS would give Templar a completely unique spear model, but this is the simplest option.

Edit: Credit to @The_Titan_Tim for this suggestion, you can view their original comment under this post.

Puncturing Strikes
Launch a relentless assault, striking an enemy in front of you three times with your Aedric spear, dealing 889 Magic Damage to the target and 554 Magic Damage to all other nearby enemies. Each strike reduces the Movement Speed of the target by 40% for 0.5 seconds.
Developer Comment:
Credit to @Turtle_Bot for inspiring this change and changes to morphs with their comments in my original post.

This ability now requires a target to be cast on since it is considered single-target damage with an aoe component, similar to Sorcerers Daedric Curse ability. The cost is also determined by highest max resource to allow for more build variety. The extra aoe damage has also been increased by ~ 20% for better potential as a dps build.
- Biting Jabs (morph)
  Launch a relentless assault, striking enemies in front of you three times with your Aedric spear, dealing 919 Physical Damage to the target and 688 Physical damage to all nearby enemies. Each strike reduces the Movement Speed of the closest enemy by 40% for 0.5 seconds. Each hit increases the damage of the subsequent hit by 5%.
  Developer Comment:
  This morph now has some extra bite to it, the aoe damage has been increased by ~ 15% compared to it's current version.
- Puncturing Sweeps (morph)
  Launch a relentless assault, striking an enemy in front of you three times with your Aedric spear, dealing 889 Magic Damage and 574 Magic Damage to all nearby enemies. Each strike reduces the Movement Speed of the target by 40% for 0.5 seconds. If the target is hit with all 3 strikes, they are afflicted with the Hemorrhaging status effect. You heal for 28% of the direct damage done.
  Developer Comment:
  The single-target damage is less than that of it's counterpart, but the payoff is a nice DOT with reliable Hemorrhaging procs and healing. The healing had to be reduced to 28% (down from 33%) to compensate for the ~ 20% increase to aoe damage
Piercing Javelin
Hurl your spear at an enemy with godlike strength, dealing 1393 Physical Damage and stunning them for 4 seconds. This ability ignores the enemy's Resistances and cannot be blocked.
Developer Comment:
Cost is now determined by your lowest max resource on the base ability and morphs to create better resource distribution to help with sustain.
- Binding Javelin
  Hurl your spear at an enemy with godlike strength, dealing 1393 Physical Damage, pulling them to you and taunting them for 15 seconds if they are not already taunted. This ability ignores the enemy's Resistances and cannot be blocked.
  Developer Comment:
  The originals longer stun was only useful in PvP, so some new utility was added. By removing the stun in favor of a ranged pull, tanks have access to a useful tool that can proc important Aedric Spear passives. The relationship between the morphs is also amusing considering that one pushes and the other pulls.
  
  The animation for the pull would start like the original ability, but the enemy remains impaled on the spear as you summon it back into your hand.
Spear Shards
- Blazing Spear (morph)
  No longer immobilizes enemies hit.
- Luminous Shards (morph)
  Enemies hit by the initial hit are immobilized for 4 seconds
  Developer Comment:
  Edit: Credit to @Theist_VII for this change, you can view their original post here.
  
  This morph now immobilizes so that tanks can provide the valuable resource synergy to their teammates and that healers can help tanks by immobilizing nearby enemies for them while providing the aforementioned synergy.
Backlash
Summon an expanding beam of pure sunlight to doom an enemy, dealing 1227 Magic Damage immediately and marking them for 6 seconds. After the duration ends, the sunlight bursts, dealing 1161 Magic Damage to the enemy, which increases by 15% each time you deal damage to them, up to 210%. You can have only one Backlash active at a time. While slotted on either bar, you gain Major Brutality and Major Sorcery, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 20%.
Developer Comment:
Credit to @VinnyGambini and @MEBengalsFan2001for inspiring these changes, Click here and here respectively for their original posts.

It might seem strange to move this ability to the Aedric Spear skill line, but it fits more in line with what this skill line is trying to accomplish. It's a good offensive tool that uses a spear model descending onto the target, so it has been swapped with Sun Shield. For those panicking about the ultimate generation provided by the Dawn's Wrath passives, the function of that passive has been moved to the Aedric Spear skill line as you will see later.

The changes to scaling (210%, up from 200%) increase damage by ~ 5%. Instead of needing to do a set amount of damage to maximize the damage, you have to deal damage to the marked target 14 times in the 6 second window. This change makes it much easier to use its full potential in PvP since it isn't too hard to deal damage, DOT's included, to enemies. While it might be easier, that doesn't mean it's guaranteed and you still need to use this ability skillfully. Since Major Brutality/ Sorcery is no longer on Biting Jabs, it is now a while slotted bonus to enable different builds to benefit from these buffs too.
- Power of the Light (morph)
  Deals physical damage and each hit of the ability applies the Sundered status effect.
  Developer Comment:
  This ability remains unchanged, but I feel as though a point should be cleared up now instead of later for the sake of clarity. One of the changes made to passives is that the duration of buffs and debuffs you apply are increased by 2 seconds (additional clarifications about different interactions and math's will be written in the passives description), thus allowing Minor Breach from Sundered to stay on the target when the second hit occurs.
- Purifying Light (morph)
  Summon an expanding beam of pure sunlight to doom an enemy, dealing 1227 Magic Damage immediately and marking them for 6 seconds. After the duration ends, the sunlight bursts, dealing 1161 Magic Damage to the enemy, which increases by 25% each time you deal damage to them, up to 200%. Also heals you and nearby allies in the area for 282 Health every second, over 10 seconds. You can have only one Purifying Light at a time.
  Developer Comment:
  This morph is mostly used by healers and tanks who don't deal much damage in any case. Because of this, the amount of times you would need to deal damage has been decreased to 8, down from 14. The healing tick rate has also been sped up, but the healing has been slightly reduced to compensate for potential critical strikes and the ability's low cost compared to other HOT's.
Balanced Warrior (passive)
Increase your critical damage and block mitigation by 10%
Developer Comment:
This redesign combines some of the components of the original Piercing Spear and Sacred Ground passives to make way for further changes.
Sacred Weapon (passive)
Casting an Aedric Spear ability while in combat generates 3 ultimate. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds.
Developer Comment:
This passives function is that of the original Prism passive, just with a new name. This change was made to keep the relatively ultimate generation with skills that are used across the vast majority of Templar builds, including tanks and healers.
Piercing Spear (passive)
Activating an Aedric Spear ability while in combat grants you Major Prophecy and Major Savagery for 10 seconds, increasing your weapon and spell critical rating by 2629. This duration is increased by 2 seconds for each Aedric Spear ability slotted.
Developer Comment:
This change is a complete overhaul of the original passive. Crit buffs are highly sought after, but are commonly available. This change aims to give all Templar builds important buffs for damage and healing. Templar is meant to be a relentless and precise warrior, so why not let them do that more effectively without using up limited bar slots?
Spear Wall (passive)
Activating an Aedric Spear ability while in combat gives yourself and nearby group members Minor Protection for 6 seconds, reducing your damage taken by 5%.
Developer Comment:
Credit to @Billium813 for this change, click here for their original post

A part of the Templars class fantasy is that of the protector. This change allows them to give their group a little more durability and fulfills the class fantasy better.
Summon Aedric Spear (ultimate)
Call on the power of the Aedra to bind a spear of holy light to you. While slotted on either bar, your weapons are transformed into a spear of holy light, increasing the range of your light and heavy attacks to 28 meters and increasing the maximum range of your melee weapon skills to 8 meters.

While active, Increase your direct damage done by 10% and heal for 15% of all direct damage done. When you target a creature in melee range with a heavy attack, you swing your spear around you, dealing damage to all nearby enemies.
Developer Comment:
Yes, that's right. Templar can now have their signature spear permanently!

The original skill is lackluster when compared to other class ultimate's, it's only saving grace is that it's dirt cheap. This complete overhaul aims to give Templar a completely unique Ultimate that functions unlike any other while still being useful.

The ultimate essentially has 2 forms: the passive form and the active form. The passive form simply gives some range increases and a cool weapon skin, but the active form costs 170 ultimate to activate and provides the damage increase/ heal. For all the sweep enjoyers, the animation can still be used while the ability is active, but doesn't carry over any of the effects from the original ability. The damage type dealt by the spears' light and heavy attacks are the same damage as the equipped weapon or physical damage if you are unarmed.

A quirk of this ability is that you will still be able to use weapon skills while not having weapons equipped. The skills will just use available stats to determine damage and will disregard the passives of the weapon skill line. You can't, however, use skills from different weapon skill lines on the same bar, otherwise the weapon skills won't work even if you are unarmed. It would be pretty cool if it was possible, but this ability is already loaded with enough effects.

Since this ultimate essentially provides you with a whole new weapon, new animations are required to make it feel right. I have a few ideas for animations and shall be detailed in a wall of text below:
- Unsheathe/ Sheathe
  Unsheathe: Enter weapon/ unarmed idle animation while spear materializes in characters' right hand. Materialize animation starts with particles of light spreading outward from the hand to form the two ends of the spear. Imagine the Gold Road Recall but with light particles instead of leaves.
  
  sheathe: Character enters standard/ personality idle animation with the unsheathe animation occurring in reverse, retracting the two ends of the spear into the center of the right hand until it can no longer be seen.
- Walk, jog and sprint
  Walk: walk with spear resting on right shoulder.
  
  Jog: Jog with spear swaying back and forth in the right hand.
  
  Sprint: Sped up jog animation.
- Ranged Light and Heavy attacks
  Light attacks: just a quick throw of the spear. The spear dissipates when striking an enemy and reappears in your hand thereafter.
  
  Heavy attacks: An animation similar to a javelin thrower, lining up the shot, drawing the spear back and throwing it. The spear dissipates when striking an enemy and reappears in your hand thereafter.
- Bow
  Idle: Spear held over shoulder as if about to throw it like a javelin.
  
  Melee Light Attacks: a quick one-handed jab with the spear.
  
  Blocking: Same animation as blocking with a staff, just with the spear in place of a staff.
  
  Vault (scribing): throw the spear down and jump back. when the jump is done the spear dissipates and reappears in your hand
  
  snipe: Same animation as heavy attack, just sped up to match the skill.
  
  Volley: same startup animation as spear shards, but when spear reaches it's apex it splits into tiny shards and rains down at the target location. after launching the spear a new one appears in your hands.
  
  Scatter shot: same animation as the Piercing Javelin skill.
  
  Arrow Spray: swing the spear in a small arc in front of you, sending out shards of light.
  
  Poison Arrow: same animation as the Piercing Javelin skill.
  
  Rapid Fire (Ultimate): Project slivers of light from the tip of the spear over the duration of the channel.
  Ballista (Morph): Plant the spear in the ground, which starts projecting slivers of light at the enemy. After activating, a new spear appears in your right hand. When the ability finishes, the planted spear dissipates.
- Destruction staff
  Same animations for abilities, ultimate's, blocking and idle, just with the spear in place of the staff.
  
  Melee Light Attacks: a quick two-handed jab with the spear.
- Dual Wield
  Idle:Spear held with both hands, tip angled slightly upwards held on the right side of the body.
  
  Melee Light Attacks: a quick one-handed jab with the spear.
  
  Melee Heavy Attacks: Swing the spear around you twice very quickly.
  
  Blocking: Same animation as blocking with a staff, just with the spear in place of a staff.
  
  Travelling knife (scribing): Flick the spear in front of you, sending out a shard of light that returns to the spear. The shard of light is a replacement texture for the traveling knife effect and does whatever it would do depending on the way that the skill was scribed.
  
  Flurry: 4 extremely fast, short range jabs with the spear.
  
  Twin Slashes: hold the spear with both hands and do 2 Quick slices with the tip of the spear.
  
  Whirlwind: spin around, twirling the spear around your body as you do so.
  
  Blade Cloak: The startup animation has you holding the spear above your head triumphantly, thereafter the same effects occur with the tiny knives being replaced with sharp shards of light. The visual effect persists until the ability is recast while the ultimate is not active or it expires.
  
  Hidden Blade: An underhand toss of the spear at the target.
  Flying Dagger: when you activate the ability again to jump at the target you perform the same animation as the Focused Charge skill.
  
  Shrouded Daggers: The visual effect of the bouncing dagger is replaced by the spear. When you use the skill, a new spear appears in your hand. The spear that was launched dissipates after hitting all of its targets.
  
  Lacerate (Ultimate): Violently swing the spear from your left side, bringing it behind your back, then returning to neutral position.
- One Hand and Shield
  Idle: Same idle animation when using shield, but the right arm performs the animation of idle destruction staff with the spear.
  
  Melee Light Attacks: A quick jab with the spear over the shield that you have positioned in front of you.
  
  Blocking: Hold the spear next to your head and over the shield, classic phalanx stance.
  
  Puncture: turn your torso to the left and perform an underhand thrust with the spear.
  
  Low Slash: Swing the spear in a low arc from your left side.
  
  Defensive Posture: Position the shield in front of you and aggressively slam the shaft of the spear into the shield like a drum.
  
  Shield Charge:Hold the spear back when charging with the tip pointing downward.
  
  Shield Wall (Ultimate): Same animation, just with spear in place of primary weapon.
- Restoration Staff
  Same animations for abilities, ultimate's, blocking and idle, just with the spear in place of the staff.
  
  Melee Light Attacks: a quick one-handed jab with the spear.
- Two Handed
  Idle: standing confidently with the spear resting over right shoulder.
  
  Melee Light Attacks: Quickly swipe the spear in a diagonal arc in front of you with both hands.
  
  Blocking: Same animation as blocking with a staff, just with the spear in place of a staff.
  
  Uppercut: Draw the spear back with both hands and thrust in into the targets chest with an underhand strike.
  
  Stampede: Same animation as the Focused Charge skill.
  
  Cleave: Same animation as the melee heavy attack granted by this ultimate, as explained in its description.
  
  Reverse slash: Spin around while twirling the spear around your body, slashing the target with a diagonal strike when you have finished spinning around.
  
  Momentum: Same animation, but with the spear in place of the weapon.
  
  Berserker Strike (Ultimate): Slam the spear into the ground in front of you with an overhead swing.
- Unarmed
  Same idle, light/ heavy attack and block animations as the Dual Wield animations.
Players have spent years asking ZOS to add spears to the game, now they get their wish. Kind of.
- Glorious Spear (morph)
  Activating this ability removes all snares and immobilizations from you and grants immunity to them for 10 seconds.
  This is intended to be the more PvP-centric morph of the two. I wanted to put a snare remover somewhere in their kit, but I couldn't find a skill that might be able to make sense thematically so I slapped it onto this ability because it's themed like an infusion of divine energy.
- Everlasting Spear (morph)
  Duration increased to 14 seconds.

Dawn's Wrath

Sun Fire
Blast an enemy with a charge of radiant heat, dealing 1161 Flame Damage, and an additional 3470 Flame Damage over 22 seconds.
Developer Comment:
This skill is just a standard DOT since the crit buffs were moved to the Piercing Spear passive, so the flavor is in the morphs. the duration has also been increased by 2 seconds to compensate for the loss of the original Enduring Rays passive.
- Conflagration (morph)
  Ignite an enemy with a charge of radiant heat, dealing 1199 Flame Damage, an additional 3470 Flame Damage over 22 seconds. Enemies within 5 meters of the target take 280 Fire Damage every second for the duration.
  Developer Comment:
  'Reflective Light' renamed 'Conflagration'.
  
  Striking 3 random enemies with a DOT is decent, but it doesn't offer much opportunity to use the skill. The aoe damage is on par with Caltrops so it isn't anything crazy, it's perfectly fine cleave damage. The interesting thing about this skill is that it can open opportunities to play a some funny mind games in PvP. Any experienced PvP player will tell you that being inside a big red circle is gonna suck if you stay there too long. I think that there could be some funny uses for this in Cyrodiil if you just want a laugh.
- Scorching Fire (morph)
  Blast an enemy with a charge of radiant heat, dealing 1161 Flame Damage, and an additional 5370 Flame Damage over 30 seconds. Afflicts enemies with Major Breach, reducing their physical and spell resistance by 5948.
  Developer Comment:
  'Vampires' Bane' renamed 'Scorching Fire'.
  
  With the loss of crit buffs on this skill, Major Breach was introduced to Templars kit to open up more options for builds. The duration is still 30 seconds to keep the debuff duration on par with Weakness to Elements..
Solar Nexus
Conjure solar energy to flicker around you, dealing 217 Magic Damage every second for 20 seconds to enemies inside the area. While slotted on either bar, increase your damage done with class abilities by 5%. While this ability is active you gain Empower, increasing the damage of your heavy attacks against monsters by 70%.
Developer Comment
'Solar Flare' renamed 'Solar Nexus'.

In keeping with the theme of auras', the base version of this skill is now more akin to the original Solar Barrage skill. Sunsphere is also a while slotted buff for a little extra QOL. The burst of light every 2 seconds animation will be replaced by a similar wispy light aura that spins/ floats around the caster.
- Solar Flare (morph)
  Conjure a ball of Solar energy to launch at an enemy, dealing 1939 magic damage and afflicting them with Minor Cowardice and Minor Vulnerability, reducing their weapon and spell damage by 215 and increasing their damage taken by 5% for 16 seconds. While slotted on either bar , increase your damage done with class abilities by 5%. Also grants you Empower, increasing the damage of your heavy attacks against monsters by 70% for 16 seconds.
  Developer Comment
  Templar is meant to be a beacon of light, so being able to corrupt light doesn’t fit their theme and neither does the defile debuff. In lieu of this, the 'Dark Flare' has been renamed 'Solar Flare 'and afflicts Minor Vulnerability and Minor Cowardice instead. These buffs are available elsewhere, but having them be a part of Templars base kit is a nice change of pace. The cast time is now 0.5 (down from 0.8 seconds) with no travel time to make the skill better to use for ranged builds. Light is the fastest measurable thing we know of, why did this skill have a travel time in the first place? The damage has been lowered to match similar skills to compensate for the change to cast time, travel time and new effects. The dark ball of light animation will be replaced by a similar starting animation, but instead of lobbing it, the caster will thrust their hand forward and launch a crackling beam of light instantly. The light itself will have hints of green similar to Power of the Light.
- Solar Barrage (morph)
  Conjure solar energy to flicker around you, dealing 217 Magic Damage every second to enemies inside the area and reducing their movement speed by 30%. While slotted on either bar, increase your damage done with class abilities by 5%. While this ability is active you gain Empower, increasing the damage of your heavy attacks against monsters by 70%.
  Developer Comment
  A small snare was added to the skill to make it a little bit easier to keep enemies within your reach and the tick rate was increased because the original 2 second tick rate felt clunky to use.
Sun Shield
Surround yourself with solar rays, granting a damage shield that absorbs up to 4800 damage for 6 seconds. This portion of the ability scales off your Max Health. Nearby enemies take 1742 Magic Damage when the shield is activated. While slotted on either bar, when you block an attack you increase the strength of the shield by 15% stacking up to 4 times. This effect can occur once every second. Shield strength is capped at 45% of your max health.
Developer Comment:
Edit: Credit to @The_Titan_Tim for the stacking mechanic, you can view their original post here.

Sun Shield was made a Dawn's wrath ability because it's association with the sun and utilitarian function aligned better with the Dawn's Wrath skill line than Backlash. Sun Shield should be an iconic part of Templars kit, but the original was just worse than other available shields. Only being able to increase the size of the shield when multiple enemies are nearby is too situational and isn't useful in boss fights or PvP. This change aims to make the ability less restrictive with its' application. the damage component was kept as a legacy feature from the original more than anything else.

Templar already has strong healing, so the shield strength has to be capped to prevent them being Sorcerer levels of annoying in PvP. The health scaling portion has also been reduced so that building stacks is more important.

When max stacks are reached the ability's icon will glow similarly to Crystal Frags or Grim Focus.
- Radiant Ward (morph)
  When the shield expires you gain Magicka and Stamina equal to 10% of the damage absorbed by the shield.
  Developer Comment:
  The original morph simply increased the scaling of the shield size, but this change was made to aid tanks more than anyone else. It can still be used by anyone of course, but high health characters will get the most use out of it. Templar suffers from sustain problems so this alleviates a little bit of that strain.
- Blazing Shield (morph)
  Surround yourself with solar rays, granting a damage shield that absorbs up to 4800 damage for 8 seconds. This portion of the ability scales off your max offensive stats. Nearby enemies take 1742 Magic Damage when the shield is activated. While slotted on either bar, when you deal direct damage, you increase the strength of the shield by 10%, stacking up to 5 times. This effect can occur once every second. Whenever an enemy deals direct damage to you while the shield is active, 30% of the damage absorbed is dealt to them as Magic damage. Shield strength capped at 40% of your max health
  Developer Comment:
  It is difficult to figure out how to make this skill useful for damage oriented characters without breaking it, so I simply changed the condition in which stacks are built and how the shield reacts. The shield doesn't get quite as large as the other morph and takes longer to build stacks, but it scales off of offensive stats instead of health.
Eclipse
Envelop yourself in coronal filaments for 12 seconds to protect yourself. Anytime you take direct damage, you heal for 2066 Health. This effect can occur once every half second.
Developer Comment:
A few things were changed with this one. The first obvious change is that this ability and its morphs have the same base functionality as Living Dark. This was done because the original base morph and Unstable Core were nearly useless and far outclassed by other abilities. There exist maybe 3 extremely niche builds that use Unstable core over Living Dark, so I got around the problem by eliminating it. The second change is in the description. The original envelops you in a lightless sphere. I have already said that Templar suffers from an identity crisis earlier and this change aims to rectify that by bringing the aesthetic and description of the skill more in line with Templars themes. Instead of a dark sphere (corrupted light doesn't fit Templars 'Lightbringer' aesthetic), you will now be enveloped in a sphere comprised of muted, wispy tendrils of light. This change still fits the 'Eclipse' description, but focuses on the ring of light around the dark sphere instead of the darkness itself. The golden lining, if you will.
- Total Eclipse (morph)
  Envelop yourself in coronal filaments for 12 seconds to protect yourself. Anytime you take direct damage, the sphere lashes back at the attacker, reducing their Movement Speed by 40% for 3 seconds and healing you for 2066 Health. These effects can occur once every half second.
  Developer Comment:
  It's just a name and description change. 'Living Dark' sounds like a Nightblade or Necro ability, so the name was changed to fit the astronomical theme prevelant in the Dawn's Wrath skill line.
- Unstable Core (morph)
  Envelop yourself in volatile coronal ejections that lash out for 12 seconds. anytime you take direct damage you heal for 1530 Health. Enemies that attack you are afflicted with Minor Brittle, increasing their critical damage taken by 10% and have their speed reduced by 40% for 5 seconds.
  Developer Comment:
  Healing reduced to make way for longer snare and Minor Brittle. This change was made to add more utility to Templars tanking and PvP kit. The animation would differ from its base version and counterpart morph in that instead of a relatively calm sphere of wispy tendrils of light, it will sporadically deform in places and exude arcs of light to represent its Mass Coronal Ejection aesthetic.
Radiant Detsruction
Burn an enemy with a ray of holy fire, dealing 3432 Magic Damage over 1.8 seconds. Deals up to 340% more damage to enemies below 50% Health. You restore up to 400 Magicka/Stamina per tick, based on the target's missing Health.
Developer Comment:
Changes to the BEAM are often seen as heretical, but this one is necessary to make the rest work as intended. There is still a gap between mid and execute range, but that gap has been lessened with changes and tweaks made across the board. Base damage increased by 10%, but scaling has been reduced to 340% (down from 480%). This change brings it more in line with other execute abilities while still being a little stronger than the competition. The increased base damage is a mostly PvP focused change that will give the ability a bit more punch up front, making it easier to confirm a kill, though not as easily as its original.

Changes have also been made in regard to resources. This ability now has its cost determined by your highest max resource so that stam builds can make use of this skill as effectively as mag builds. The resources restoration component has been made a part of the base skill for convenience, but the amount of resources has been reduced to 400 in lieu of improved sustain.
- Radiant Oppression (morph)
  Burn an enemy with a ray of holy fire, dealing 3432 Magic Damage over 1.8 seconds. Deals up to 340% more damage to enemies below 50% Health. You restore up to 480 Magicka/Stamina per tick, based on the target's missing Health. The target has their movement speed reduced by 40% for 1 second.
  Developer Comment:
  This morph no longer increases the scaling, but slows the target. This was done with PvP in mind. Being able to snare the enemy allows you to confirm the kill a bit easier without worrying about them zipping away and breaking LOS or going out of the abilities range. The snare is applied with every tick of damage.
Enduring Rays (passive)
Increase the duration of debuffs you apply to enemies by 2 seconds. Increase the duration of buffs you apply to yourself and allies by 2 seconds.
Developer Comment:
The duration of some skills originally affected by this passive have been increased to compensate the loss of its original function. This new effect aims to give Templar Tanks and healers a bit of an edge when it comes to keeping good uptimes with buffs and debuffs. The 2 second duration increase is applied after any other effects that fiddle with durations. For example: an 8 second buff would be increased to 11.2 seconds when using Jorvald's guidance [8*((100/100)+(40/100))]. this passive would increase the duration of the buff to 13 [8*((100/100)+40))+2] seconds not 14 [(8+2)*((100/100)+40). This passive would also only apply to named buffs and debuffs.
Burning Light (passive)
When you deal damage you generate a stack of Burning Light for 3 seconds. After reaching 4 stacks, you deal 1194 Magic Damage to your target. This effect can stack once every half second and scales off your highest offensive stats.
Developer Comment:
Burning Light was moved to the Dawn's Wrath skill line for thematic reasons and to make way for the new Sacred Weapon passive. Increased the damage of this passive by roughly 33% to lessen the gap between pre-execute and execute phases of any fight. To compensate for this and other damage changes across the class, Radiant Destruction got its' scaling nerf.
Illuminate (passive)
remains unchanged, but was moved 1 spot down in the passive skills to make way for Burning Light.
Prism (passive)
When you cast an ability with a cost, increase your weapon and spell damage by 6% for 5 seconds.
Developer Comment:
Prism has received the 6% increase to weapon and spell damage that was originally on the Balanced Warrior passive since it's ultimate generation was moved to Sacred Weapon. It was also moved 1 spot down and takes the place of the Restoring Spirit passive that has been moved to the Restoring Light skill line.
Nova (ultimate)
Call down a fragment of the sun, dealing 1619 Magic Damage every second for 10 seconds to enemies in the area and afflicting them with Major Maim, reducing their damage done by 10%. You or an ally near the fragment can activate the Gravity well synergy, dealing 2607 Magic Damage to all enemies in the area, pulling them in and stunning them for 3 seconds. The pull ignores crowd control immunity if the affected creature is a monster.
Developer Comment:
The aoe damage has been increased by ~ 40% to represent how it it literally a fragment of the sun. It's supposed to hurt. The main new feature is the enhanced pull/ stun synergy, meaning that the synergy pulls elite enemies that cannot normally be pulled and ignores CC immunity on enemies that can normally be pulled, but not players so as to prevent shenanigans in PvP. This effect cannot be done to bosses or minibosses that are designated as such. The area has also been increased to a 10 meter radius, up from 8 meters and the cost has been reduced to 220 ultimate. These changes were made to make the ability give something unique to the player instead of a 'meh' aoe ability. The original was also much more expensive than it was worth, so the cost was reduced to something much more reasonable when considering what this ability now provides.
- Solar Nimbus (morph)
  Call down fragments of the sun to swirl around you. Enemies in the area take 1393 Magic Damage every second for 10 seconds and are afflicted with Major Maim, reducing their damage done by 10%. You can activate the Gravity well synergy by activating the ability again, dealing 5215 Magic Damage to all enemies in the area, pulling them to you and stunning them for 3 seconds. The pull ignores crowd control immunity if the affected creature is a monster.
  Developer Comment:
  This morph functions similarly to Wardens Sleet Storm ultimate in that it is cast on the character instead of a targeted location. Because of this, 'Solar Disturbance' was renamed to 'Solar Nimbus' to better reflect the change. The damage has been increased by ~ 20% from the original version. While the damage might not be as much as the unmorphed version or its counterpart morph, the extra damage provided by the self-synergy provides much more damage than the normal synergy, creating a 'bomb' ability. The reason for this is to make the ability more viable in PvP where trying to aim an ability at a moving target is quite difficult. Having a big bursty ultimate should go a long way in PvP, not to mention an elite pull in trials and dungeons.
- Solar Prison (morph)
  Radius increased to 12 meters, Enemies in the area have their movement speed reduced by 70%.
  Developer Comment:
  This morph aims to create a larger area of influence that the pull can affect. The slow component was added to reflect the name, essentially imprisoning enemies inside of a massive aoe.

Restoring Light

Rushed Ceremony
- Breath of Life (morph)
  Beacon your inner light, healing yourself for 3310 Health, scaling off of your Max Health. You gain up to 3 ultimate based on the severity of your wounds.
  Developer Comment:
  Templar has always been the selfless healer of the group, but would it be so bad to give them one selfish heal? This ability accomplishes that by making this Templars only selfish heal with health scaling. The ultimate component might seem very strong at first, but the scaling only starts when you are at 45% health, from there the ultimate gained corresponds with each 15% interval and reaches its maximum at around 15% health. The healing combined with passive heal scaling provided by the Mending passive should keep you topped off enough of the time that the ultimate component won't become too strong.
Healing Ritual
Focus your spiritual devotion, healing you and nearby allies for 2352 Health and an additional 3162 health over 12 seconds.
Developer Comment:
The healing of the initial hit has been reduced to make way for a HOT component. This ability is meant to give Templars more options and interactions with other parts of their kit
- Hasty Prayer (morph)
  Grants Major expedition to you and nearby allies, increasing your movement speed by 30% for 4 seconds. When Major Expedition expires you and nearby allies gain Minor Expedition for 4 seconds, increasing your movement speed by 15%.
  Developer Comment:
  The original was a little lackluster and too simple, so it now grants Major Expedition for 4 seconds and Minor Expedition for 4 seconds when Major Expedition expires. With the new Enduring Rays passive, each buff will have a duration of 6 seconds and will line up nicely with the duration of the HOT.
- Ritual of Rebirth (morph)
  Focus your spiritual devotion, healing yourself and nearby allies for 2352 Health and an additional 4216 health over 16 seconds.
  Developer Comment:
  Just a basic upgrade of the original ability with a longer lasting HOT
Consecration
Consecrate the souls nearby allies to apply Minor Endurance, Minor Fortitude, and Minor Intellect to nearby group members for 40 seconds, increasing Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery by 15%. While slotted on either bar you gain these effects.
Developer Comment:
Since this ability is setting up the juicer effects of the morphs, it now costs 4590 Magicka to cast. The duration and additional effects can't be given for free. This ability essentially serves the same purpose of the original Restoring Aura ability. It was also renamed to fit the theme that the morphs will continue to expand upon. Allies can only be affected by 1 instance of Consecration at any time. Receiving it from a different source will only refresh the timer.
- Radiant Consecration (morph)
  Consecrate the souls of nearby allies to apply Minor Endurance, Minor Fortitude, and Minor Intellect to nearby group members for 40 seconds, increasing Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery by 15%. Whenever you heal a Consecrated ally, you grant them Minor courage, increasing their weapon and spell damage by 215 for 4 seconds. While slotted on either bar you gain these effects.
  Developer Comment:
  The original ability, 'Radiant Aura' gave the sustain buffs for free for a minute, but the skill was outmatched by other similar skills that all provided additional effects. To combat this issue, the effect of providing Minor Courage has been added with the caveat that the affected allies must be healed by you. The duration of the buff will be increased to 6 seconds with the Enduring Rays passive and is granted to you permanently while slotted on either bar. With Templar getting a long lasting sticky HOT added to its kit, there shouldn't be a problem keeping the buff up. Allies can only be affected by 1 instance of Radiant Consecration. Receiving it from a different source will only refresh the timer.
- Sanctify (morph)
  Sanctify the souls of nearby allies to apply Minor Endurance, Minor Fortitude, and Minor Intellect to nearby group members for 40 seconds, increasing Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery by 15%. While slotted on either bar, you gain these effects. Sanctified allies have 1 negative effect removed from them once every 6 seconds.
  Developer Comment:
  Yes, sadly repentance is gone. Being able to get a hit of resources is nice, but the way its done doesn't fit Templar. Siphoning energy from the dead should remain a Necro exclusive and the ability only restoring Stamina pigeonholes the ability into being a stam exclusive instead of being universally useful in Templars Kit. The sustain issues Templar faces have been alleviated a little by the changes in this post so it was removed.
  
  Reworking Repentance is also a very challenging thing to do since there aren't a lot of ways to make it viable without copying other abilities or breaking the ability. I did have an idea for Repentance that will be in the spoiler below if you are interested in seeing it:
  - Repentance
    Repent before the Aedra, regaining 1600 Magicka and Stamina and inflicting yourself with Minor Vulnerability and Minor Timidity, causing you to take 5% more damage and lose 1 ultimate every 1.5 seconds for 8 seconds.
  The idea behind this was to make it more akin to nightblades Siphoning strikes ability with the trade off of getting debuffed instead of costing health. While repenting the Templar should be timid and Vulnerable, but I don't think that these debuffs would appropriately offset the resource gain enough, thus making the skill too powerful. Maybe a cast time could be implemented to offset the gain further, but there's a lot of theoretical stuff to go into that would be too challenging to do without actually testing it in gameplay.
  This morph is the more PvP-centric morph since you can now attach a timed cleanse to allies that can run off with it. Since it lasts long, there shouldn't be too many problems with reapplying the effect when your allies come close to you again. Allies can only be affected by 1 instance of Sanctify. If an affected player is a Templar, then the effect will simply proc their new Shield of Faith passive instead of stacking with it. Receiving it from a different source will only refresh the timer.
- Cleansing Aura
  Exalt in the sacred light of the Aedra, cleansing up to 3 harmful effects from yourself immediately and healing you and nearby allies for 382 Health every second for 20 seconds. Allies in the area can activate the Purify synergy, cleansing all harmful effects from themselves and healing for 1912 Health.
  Developer Comment:
  Credit to @Turtle_Bot for inspiring these changes, you can view their comments in my original post.
  
  This ability was one of the best ways to proc the old Sacred Ground passive, but since that old thing was removed this skill has been realigned to be an aura instead. The tick rate has been increased, but the healing has been toned down due the the fact that this ability is now mobile and doesn't require you to be standing in a ground-based immobile circle. Ground heals have always been more powerful than mobile heals so that facet of the game design should remain consistent. The healing component was based off of the Regeneration skill, but made ~ 10% stronger to compensate for its shorter range. It also cleanses 1 more negative effect as standard.
  - Purifying Aura (morph)
    Exalt in the sacred light of the Aedra, cleansing up to 5 harmful effects from yourself immediately and healing you and nearby allies for 394 Health every second for 30 seconds. Allies in the area can activate the Purify synergy, cleansing all harmful effects from themselves and healing for 1912 Health.
    Developer Comment:
    Formerly 'Extended Ritual', this ability is pretty much identical mechanically to its original except with a smidge less healing and a lot more mobility. One of the common complaints about this cleanse is that 5 cleanses aren't enough to keep up with how easy it is to apply negative effects in PvP. Elemental Susceptibility is a free skill that applies 4 negative effects on its own and is very common in PvP. The reason why more cleansing wasn't added to this skill is because Templar now gets a passive cleansing effect from its new Shield of Faith passive that will be expanded upon later.
  - Aura of retribution (morph)
    Exalt in the sacred light of the Aedra, cleansing up to 3 harmful effects from yourself immediately. Enemies in the area take 435 Magic Damage every 2 seconds for 20 seconds which increases by 12% per tick and have their movement speed reduced by 30%. Allies in the area can activate the Purify synergy. cleansing all harmful effects from themselves and healing for 1912 Health.
    Developer Comment:
    This skill is pretty much identical to its original counterpart except made mobile to fit the new design in addition to a new animation to further the difference between this morph and its counterpart. While the other morph retains that same basic visual effects as the original skill, this morph will feature flickering tendrils of light around the edges similar to dancing flames.
- Divine Armor
  Conjure armor of celestial protection to gain Major Resolve for 20 seconds, increasing your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948 and healing you for 367 health every second, scaling off your max health. You also recover 141 Magicka and Stamina every second over the duration.
  Developer Comment:
  Credit to @Turtle_Bot for the resource changes, their original comment can be found under my original post.
  
  Since the whole 'Stand Your Ground' aspect of Templar was removed, the rune went away with it to make way for a new skill that retains the concept of the original, but with a new minor effect accompanied with brand new visual effects. The base healing has received a slight increase to counterbalance the loss of increased healing while standing in the rune. In addition to this, the cost has been increased to 2700 of your lowest resource since it doesn't need to be recast as much for the sake of repositioning. The lowest resource aspect is to create better distribution of resources for the sake of sustain. As the name suggests, Templar can now clad themselves in a suit of armor in a similar way to the Bone Armoror Fatewoven Armor skills.
  
  The visual effects for this would be more similar to the arcanist skill, but with wispy tendrils of gold and baby-blue light instead of eldritch sigils.
  - Restoring Armor (morph)
    Conjure armor of celestial protection to gain Major and Minor Resolve for 20 seconds, increasing your Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948 and 2974. You heal for 413 health every second, scaling off your max health . You also recover 242 Stamina and 141 Magicka every 1 second over the duration.
    Developer Comment:
    This is the replacement for 'Restoring Focus' and is the more tanky morph since it now provides more stamina return and Minor Resolve. Being able to get both buffs from 1 skill can potentially open up some more variety with tank builds since Templar also got a health scaling self heal in the form of the reworked 'Breath of Life' skill mentioned earlier. Stamplars have been neglected for a long time, so its time to give them something nice to work with.
  - Armor of Devotion (morph)
    Conjure armour of celestial protection to gain Major Resolve for 30 seconds, increasing your Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948 and healing you for 413 health every second, scaling off your max health. You also recover 242 Magicka and 141 Stamina every 1 second over the duration.
    Developer Comment:
    This is the replacement for 'Channeled Focus' and is the magicka morph, trading the additional armor buff of its stamina counterpart for a much longer duration. Magplars are fairly decent, but they suffer with sustain because of how much of Templars kit revolves around Magicka based abilities. This problem has been alleviated a little by the resource changes and sustain enhancements, but the kit is still heavy on Magicka so not having to recast a very important armor buff as often can go a surprisingly long way in terms of sustain.
- Light weaver (passive)
  When you heal yourself or an ally under 50% health, you grant them 2 ultimate This effect can occur once every second.
  Developer Comment:
  The original skill was too restrictive with its Restoring Light skill exclusivity. This change just makes it more universally applicable.
- Restoring Spirit (passive)
  When you use a Templar ability, you restore 777 Magicka and Stamina. This effect can occur once every 4 seconds.
  Developer Comment:
  Having a passive named 'Restoring Spirit' in the Dawn's wrath skill line didn't fit the aesthetic of that skill line so it has replaced the original Master Ritualist passive. Master ritualist was weird to say the least. The res speed was nice but fits Necro better and the soul gem interaction is useless if you are in a semi-competent team.
  
  This original version of this passive was a 6% decrease to all ability costs, while useful for ultimate's, it was pretty much useless otherwise since it did little to aid Templars notorious sustain issues. This passive seems very strong at first, but when compared to sustain passives that other classes have access to, this rework fits in quite nicely. DK gets combustion which allows them to get 2000 mag and stam in the span of 4 seconds only using Elemental Susceptibility, Necro gets better cost reductions that the original Restoring Spirit and Arcanist can get 225 mag or stam back when the generate crux in addition to extra recoveries by slotting skills and an 18% increase to their Magicka and Stamina recoveries.
- Mending (passive)
  Increase your healing done by up to 8% in proportion to the severity of the target's wounds. When you cast a Restoring Light ability you gain Minor Mending for 8 seconds, increasing your healing done by 8%.
  Developer Comment:
  This passive had the same problem as the original Light Weaver passive where it was tied exclusively to Restoring Light abilities. The extra healing now scales dynamically with all sources of healing, but to a lesser degree because it can benefit multiple sources of healing. Minor Mending was also put into this passive since Sacred Ground was removed. It's strange that a passive called MENDING didn't have Minor Mending included in the first place.
- Shield of Faith (passive)
  When you cast a Restoring Light ability with a duration, you gain 2000 armor for the duration. Every 5 seconds a negative effect is removed from you over the duration.
  Developer Comment:
  This is the replacement for 'Sacred ground' that was alluded to a few times throughout this post. I have already discussed how negative effects are very common and easy to apply in PvP in the spoiler of the 'Purifying Aura' ability rework. The passive cleanse takes a little bit of pressure off of Templars sustain by not having to recast an expensive skill as much. The armor was added to open up some more build options for Templar since their healing has been nerfed a little across the board. The passive cleanse can't be spammed or reset in any way since it acts according its own independent timer and casting a Restoring Light ability with a duration will only extend the timer instead of resetting it to zero.
- Incantation (ultimate)
  Channel the grace of the gods, healing you and nearby allies for 2090 Health every second for 8 seconds. You and affected allies take 5% less damage for the duration.
  Developer Comment:
  Here it is, Templars biggest Aura yet. The original was situationally useful at best and that its only saving grace was it slow cost. 'Rite of Passage' was renamed to better fit with the names of the morphs and because it fits what the ability actually does more. The first glaring change is that the healing per tick has been reduced by ~ 33%. This seems like a bad change at first, but the ability no longer locks you into an 8 second channel. You are free to move around and do things while the 20 meter radius aura of healing and damage reduction is ticking. The fact that you can act as normal and provide a unique damage reduction makes up for the healing nerf and makes the skill much more versatile than its original iteration. Having an ability that takes the action out of an action based game was a poor design choice to start with. Due to the changes, the ability's cost has been increased to 140 ultimate, up from 125.
  - Protective Incantation (morph)
    Channel the grace of the gods, healing you and nearby allies for 2090 Health every second for 8 seconds. You and affected allies take 5% less damage for the duration. If cast with 170 or more ultimate, the duration is increased to 10 seconds, affected allies take 10% less damage for the duration, you take 25% less damage and gain immunity to knockbacks and effects that forcefully move you. The additional cost cannot be reduced in any way.
    Developer Comment:
    This morph is designed to be the tankier morph of the two, having extra unique damage reduction coupled with a longer lasting heal and immunity to disabling effects makes this morph suitable for PvP and PvE alike. The ability acts normally if cast under 170 ultimate, but only gains the additional effects when the requirement is met or exceeded.
  - Inspiring Incantation (morph)
    Channel the grace of the gods, healing you and allies in the area for 2090 Health every second for 8 seconds. You and affected allies take 15% less damage for the duration. If cast with 220 or more ultimate, you and allies in the area gain Major Force, increasing your critical damage by 20% for 8 seconds. The additional cost cannot be reduced in any way.
    Developer Comment:
    Major force is an extremely important buff and its sources are rather limited so having it built into Templars kit gives them some much needed utility in a group. The cost requirement is cheaper than Aggressive Horn, but doesnt provide the max resource bonus so the damage output between the 2 is almost closed when taking into account the better uptime provided by this morph. The 'Enduring Rays' passive will also extend the duration of Major Force to 10 seconds to bring it in line with Warhorn. The ability acts normally if cast under 220 ultimate, but only gains the additional effects when the requirement is met or exceeded.
Congratulations if you managed to make it through this literary abomination. Constructive criticism and feedback is always appreciated, especially if new ideas or perspectives are brought to light. Feel free to rip this whole thing to shreds as finding problems helps me streamline this concept further and create a more cohesive rework in the future.

VinnyGambini · October 18

This changes looks so amazing, they will never come true. Fully agree with everything you posted here.

Froil · October 18

Gotta say these are some pretty interesting changes; I'd love to see these even if it was only for testing purposes.

Turtle_Bot · October 18

A lot of really nice ideas here.

I have a few things that need addressing (or further clarification) balance wise:

Shield of Faith (passive)
When you cast a Restoring Light ability with a duration, you gain 22000 armor for the duration. Every 5 seconds a negative effect is removed from you over the duration.

From how this reads, this seems completely broken for a passive, basically permanent 22k armor as long as you keep rotating your HoTs is crazy. You can run around in 7 light armor all of which are pure DPS sets (no lines of armor) and still be comfortably (and permanently) above the armor cap without even needing major or minor resolve.
Unless there is something I have missed, I would reduce the armor value on this passive by 90% and that would still keep this as a very strong passive due to the bonus passive auto cleanse.

Protective Incantation (morph)
Channel the grace of the gods, healing you and nearby allies for 2090 Health every second for 8 seconds. You and affected allies take 5% less damage for the duration. If cast with 170 or more ultimate, the duration is increased to 10 seconds, affected allies take 10% less damage for the duration, you take 35% less damage and gain immunity to disabling effects for the duration. The additional cost cannot be reduced in any way.

This also seems far too strong, 50% (35 +10 +5) mitigation on a mobile AoE heal over time with zero downsides AND provides CC immunity is insane. It basically takes the current ball group setups and combines their entire defense (outside of shields) into a single ultimate.
This is so strong that I doubt even ball groups, let alone unorganized groups or solo players, could kill a solo player that had this ultimate active.

I would go back to the drawing board on this morph, because to attempt to balance it it would require a prohibitive 500 ultimate cost and even that still seems OP considering everything it provides.
I do like the idea of the other morph being the group support morph for PvE content though, maybe lean into that PvE/PvP separation where this morph has a shorter duration for a more bursty heal (helps in PvP), while the other morph has the longer duration and provides it's major buff (in this case major force).

Nova (ultimate)
Call down a fragment of the sun, dealing 1619 Magic Damage every second for 10 seconds to enemies in the area and afflicting them with Major Maim, reducing their damage done by 10%. You or an ally near the fragment can activate the Gravity well synergy, dealing 2607 Magic Damage to all enemies in the area, pulling them in and stunning them for 3 seconds.

You mentioned this ultimate having some unique CC functionality, in particular regarding ignoring CC immunity. I would keep ignoring CC immunity effect to be limited to PvE only.
PvP is already plagued by Rush of Agony as a mass pull set that has many bugs with CC immunity and doesn't grant CC immunity on its pull. Adding that effect onto a skill (even on an ultimate) is just not a good idea. Limiting it to PvE would allow it to remain as your design to give plar tanks something unique for bosses, but removes that game-breaking function from PvP where it would 10000% cause massive balance issues.

Summon Aedric Spear (ultimate)
Call on the power of the Aedra to bind a spear of holy light to you. While slotted on either bar, your weapons are transformed into a spear of holy light, increasing the range of your light and heavy attacks to 28 meters and increasing the maximum range of your melee weapon skills to 8 meters.

While active, Increase your direct damage done by 10% and heal for 15% of all direct damage done. When you target a creature in melee range with a heavy attack, you swing your spear around you, dealing damage to all nearby enemies.

This seems very close in design to current overload (making light/heavy attacks 28m range), just with crit surge added onto it instead of the raw damage, which just seems broken if I am reading this correctly.
I'd remove the range increase to light/heavy attacks, (plars main spammable is melee anyway), lean more into its current design as a cheap source of burst damage.
Maybe something like:

Summon Aedric Spear (ultimate)
Call on the power of the Aedra to bind a spear of holy light to you for 10 seconds. On activation you swing the spear around you dealing X damage to nearby enemies and an additional Y damage every second. You also heal for 15% of the damage this ability deals.
- Glorious Spear (morph)
  Duration is reduced to 8 seconds, but you now also swing your spear a second time hitting nearby enemies for X damage when this ability ends.
- Everlasting Spear (morph)
  Increased the duration to 12 seconds. While active, increase your direct damage done with Aedric Spear abilities by 8%.
This aims to keep this ability as the cheap burst of damage ultimate that it has always been, while updating it for the modern game.
Glorious Spear gives you a second burst when the ability ends, which would be intended for PvP where burst is king, while everlasting spear has a longer duration and increases damage done by aedric spear abilities while it is active, which is intended for PvE where sustained damage is of higher priority.

Some less balance oriented and more visual feedback on the following:

Solar Flare (morph)
Templar is meant to be a beacon of light, so being able to corrupt light doesn’t fit their theme and neither does the defile debuff. In lieu of this, the 'Dark Flare' has been renamed 'Solar Flare 'and afflicts Minor Vulnerability and Minor Cowardice instead. These buffs are available elsewhere, but having them be a part of Templars base kit is a nice change of pace. The cast time is also 0.5 (down from 0.8 seconds) with no travel time to make the skill better to use for ranged builds. Light is the fastest measurable thing we know of, why did this skill have a travel time in the first place? Another change is that the damage has been lowered to match similar skills. The range and travel time played a part in the damage reduction too since the damage was too much for a fairly quick spammable, so it needed to be toned down. The dark ball of light animation will be replaced by a similar starting animation, but instead of lobbing it, the caster will thrust their hand forward and launch a crackling beam of light instantly. The light itself will have hints of green similar to Power of the Light.

How the animation for this skill was described is extremely similar to a rework idea I had for 1 morph of Sorcerers Overload ultimate (or 1 morph of mages fury) to make it into an activatable ability instead of a toggle (or an actual spammable in the case of fury).

Spears definitely are templars thing, but that instant travel time lightning bolt 100% should be a sorcerer thing. Don't get me wrong here, I really like the idea, just the zero travel time for the projectile seems too close to the "lightning" theme of sorcerers (admittedly current flare is basically sorcerers old (deleted) crystal blast, but ST instead of AoE and no stun).

Maybe a reduced travel time (similar to javelin) could be the answer here. Still quick but not instant. Otherwise not sure what to do here since the light theme does intertwine with lightning in a lot of aspects.

spoilered them to save space (I am guilty of walls of text too

)

Hopefully ZOS can take some of these ideas on board, there is a lot of good stuff here outside of the potential issues I've raised above.

The_Isatope8 · October 18

@Turtle_Bot thanks for catching a bunch of those issues

Clarifications and explanations are listed in the following wall of text:

Shield of Faith (passive)
the armor buff was a horrible typo, it was meant to be 2k not 22k
Protective Incantation (ultimate morph)
The damage reduction on Protective incantation was meant to be 25% according to my notes not 35%. The line about cc immunity was used as a placeholder and both problems slipped through the cracks while I was proofreading (a giant wall of text has a very unpleasant effect on your eyes after a while). Its actually supposed to work similarly to the Unstoppable ability that grants you immunity to knockback and wont allow you to be moved around by any means other than user input. The damage reduction also doesnt stack. at base you and allies within the area get 5% damage reduction while the ability is active. The enhanced version cast with 170 or more ultimate replaces your allies 5% damage reduction with the 10% damage reduction and replaces your damage reduction with the 25% damage reduction.

The idea behind the morph was to be similar to Arcanists Gibbering Shelter ultimate which absorbs 60% of all incoming damage with a gigantic shield and gives allies a shield as well. The intention was to give Templar a massive healing field with unique damage reduction and immunity to effects that are especially annoying to tanks as their iconic tanky ultimate. As it was written with mistakes included, it's completely broken, thanks for catching that.
Nova (ultimate)
I really should've worded this ability better. The CC immunity ignore is only meant to apply to monsters instead of players. 2 or more Templar bombers placing a zerg in a stun lock is one of the most annoying, broken things i can think of.
Summon Aedric Spear (ultimate)
Overload enhances light and heavy attack, this skill only increases the range while keeping the normal damage of the attacks the same as if they were made with the equipped weapons. The increase heal and damage aren't passive and require the ultimate to be activated. The buffs are why it was made more expensive as compensation.

In regards to this ability originally being a burst tool; I like to think that Templar should be better at sustained damage like DK or Arcanist, rather than burst damage like NB or sorc. Templar has more built in channel and cast time abilities than any other class. In my mind this means that they're designed to commit to their offense by harassing their opponents, wearing them down instead of nuking them with a combo. I personally prefer the reworked ultimate to function like an enhancement tool rather than a burst tool. Templar definitely has burst tools in its kit in the form of Backlash and Solar Nimbus synergy, but that's more of a necessity for PvP since every class needs the ability to do lots of damage in a small window.

I understand that the loss of a burst tool isn't a change that some would like to see, but the changes reflect how I believe this class is meant to be played, thus I am going to have to disagree with you on keeping the ultimate as a cheap burst tool. I will, however, say that your ideas for reworking the ability are good, they just don't fit with what I was trying to create.

I also just love the idea of Templar actually being able to keep their holy spear of light as a weapon since it helps to compound their identity further. It also just looks really cool in my mind and cool factor is a necessary component for making a class enjoyable. Everyone wants their main class to look good and play well.
Solar Flare (morph)
One of the biggest complaints about the original Dark Flare is that it feels bad to use since it's too slow. Slow cast time and slow travel times made the skill feel unpleasant to use. I don't think that the reworked skill will clash too much with lightning themed abilities since the aesthetic and sound design are very different, not to mention that light is faster than lightning so the travel speed shouldn't have been there in the first place.

I wanted to make the skill feel more punchy with new animations and being sped up across the board. I previously mentioned that a class needs to look good and play well, at this point I would like to say that the abilities need to feel good to use too. Jabs feels good to use, Radiant Destruction feels good to use and Backlash feels good to use because they're fast, punchy and have great visual/ sound effects. Templar was lacking in terms of its ranged tools so giving them a proper ranged spammable other than an ability intended to be used as a stun was a priority. I wanted to create something that felt good to use and I like to think that the changes would accomplish that if they were to be tested.

I have edited the post to get rid of these mistakes to prevent others from thinking that I'm trying to make Templar completely broken.

gariondavey · October 18

I like the major prophecy when casting an aedric spear ability passive change.
I also like the backlash change.

Wuuffyy · October 19

So much more effort to provide meaningful feedback and suggestions than I could ever imagine...

Just for it to be outright ignored without even so much as a second thought.

That's how I see this going...

Turtle_Bot · October 19

The_Isatope8 wrote: »

@Turtle_Bot thanks for catching a bunch of those issues
Clarifications and explanations are listed in the following wall of text:
Shield of Faith (passive)
the armor buff was a horrible typo, it was meant to be 2k not 22k

Protective Incantation (ultimate morph)
The damage reduction on Protective incantation was meant to be 25% according to my notes not 35%. The line about cc immunity was used as a placeholder and both problems slipped through the cracks while I was proofreading (a giant wall of text has a very unpleasant effect on your eyes after a while). Its actually supposed to work similarly to the Unstoppable ability that grants you immunity to knockback and wont allow you to be moved around by any means other than user input. The damage reduction also doesnt stack. at base you and allies within the area get 5% damage reduction while the ability is active. The enhanced version cast with 170 or more ultimate replaces your allies 5% damage reduction with the 10% damage reduction and replaces your damage reduction with the 25% damage reduction.

The idea behind the morph was to be similar to Arcanists Gibbering Shelter ultimate which absorbs 60% of all incoming damage with a gigantic shield and gives allies a shield as well. The intention was to give Templar a massive healing field with unique damage reduction and immunity to effects that are especially annoying to tanks as their iconic tanky ultimate. As it was written with mistakes included, it's completely broken, thanks for catching that.

Nova (ultimate)
I really should've worded this ability better. The CC immunity ignore is only meant to apply to monsters instead of players. 2 or more Templar bombers placing a zerg in a stun lock is one of the most annoying, broken things i can think of.

Summon Aedric Spear (ultimate)
Overload enhances light and heavy attack, this skill only increases the range while keeping the normal damage of the attacks the same as if they were made with the equipped weapons. The increase heal and damage aren't passive and require the ultimate to be activated. The buffs are why it was made more expensive as compensation.

In regards to this ability originally being a burst tool; I like to think that Templar should be better at sustained damage like DK or Arcanist, rather than burst damage like NB or sorc. Templar has more built in channel and cast time abilities than any other class. In my mind this means that they're designed to commit to their offense by harassing their opponents, wearing them down instead of nuking them with a combo. I personally prefer the reworked ultimate to function like an enhancement tool rather than a burst tool. Templar definitely has burst tools in its kit in the form of Backlash and Solar Nimbus synergy, but that's more of a necessity for PvP since every class needs the ability to do lots of damage in a small window.

I understand that the loss of a burst tool isn't a change that some would like to see, but the changes reflect how I believe this class is meant to be played, thus I am going to have to disagree with you on keeping the ultimate as a cheap burst tool. I will, however, say that your ideas for reworking the ability are good, they just don't fit with what I was trying to create.

I also just love the idea of Templar actually being able to keep their holy spear of light as a weapon since it helps to compound their identity further. It also just looks really cool in my mind and cool factor is a necessary component for making a class enjoyable. Everyone wants their main class to look good and play well.

Solar Flare (morph)
One of the biggest complaints about the original Dark Flare is that it feels bad to use since it's too slow. Slow cast time and slow travel times made the skill feel unpleasant to use. I don't think that the reworked skill will clash too much with lightning themed abilities since the aesthetic and sound design are very different, not to mention that light is faster than lightning so the travel speed shouldn't have been there in the first place.

I wanted to make the skill feel more punchy with new animations and being sped up across the board. I previously mentioned that a class needs to look good and play well, at this point I would like to say that the abilities need to feel good to use too. Jabs feels good to use, Radiant Destruction feels good to use and Backlash feels good to use because they're fast, punchy and have great visual/ sound effects. Templar was lacking in terms of its ranged tools so giving them a proper ranged spammable other than an ability intended to be used as a stun was a priority. I wanted to create something that felt good to use and I like to think that the changes would accomplish that if they were to be tested.

I have edited the post to get rid of these mistakes to prevent others from thinking that I'm trying to make Templar completely broken.

Thanks for the clarifications.

Shield of Faith: I thought as much, but still had to double check (mostly because of plars passive that grants 33k armor while rite is channeled).
Protective Incantation: The mitigation values being replaced when cast with more ultimate makes more sense. Still seems very strong though at 25% with CC immunity and a heal on top for only 170 ultimate cost, but would need testing imo to determine the sweet spot (undeath mitigation required halving and was sitting at 15-20% in terms of practical mitigation).
Note: I'm not against the idea of this morph, just the values need very careful consideration/testing with the additional effects it has and being a group wide heal. Gibbering shield looks strong at first, but shields don't get things like block mitigation while heals can use block mitigation, so that 25% can, in practice, be anywhere from 35% to 50%+.
Nova (ultimate): Glad being a PvE exclusive effect was the intention for ignoring CC immunity. Thought as much, but had to clarify.
Summon Aedric Spear (ultimate): A few things to note here on why this design may become an issue:
1. A lot of things are balanced around being melee or range, suddenly having melee damage, but on ranged attacks is very strong and is part of the reason overload is a toggle that cannot passively apply its range increase.
2. Overload is partially balanced around the fact that it doesn't interact at all with ulti proc sets like Balorgh, and this rework gets around that limitation by being an activated ultimate instead of a toggle while still applying the best part of overload, being the range increase to light/heavy attacks.
3. Admittedly I actually do really like current Aedric Spear ultimate and my only gripe with it's current iteration is that it's damage seems slightly below par, despite how cheap it is to cast, so I would like to see this remain as an option for those who enjoy it.
Maybe meet in the middle and 1 morph can be similar to your rework that becomes a self buff for the plar, but the other morph remains as an updated version of it's current form?
Of course we can also simply agree to disagree here, nothing wrong with that.
Solar Flare (morph): I completely agree the travel time/animation + cast time is very clunky to use and I am all for speeding it up to be a reliable ability, my thoughts were more just pointing out it was interesting how similar your idea was to my own ideas for addressing these same issues that also affect overload. (I might have over explained this originally, so my bad on that one).

Like I said, I like many of the ideas here, so hopefully ZOS will listen and look into at least some of them for plar.

VinnyGambini · October 22

So, You guys posted some amazing suggestions, but will ZOS even listen?

Any feedback ZOS?

The_Isatope8 · October 22

It would be nice if the devs actually had a gander at this post and took inspiration from it, but I'm not gonna @ them. It would be very entitled of me to call them to this post that breaks down every flaw they have implemented to make Templar what it is today. Not to mention the arrogance of suggesting that I know how to design better changes than the professionals.

if anyone wants to @ ZOS then feel free to do so since they should listen to the community and if anyone thinks that the game can benefit from my suggested changes then you can bring the devs' attention to this, but only if you deem the changes good enough to give ZOS inspiration for future updates.

SONEshock · October 23

The_Isatope8 wrote: »

It would be nice if the devs actually had a gander at this post and took inspiration from it, but I'm not gonna @ them. It would be very entitled of me to call them to this post that breaks down every flaw they have implemented to make Templar what it is today. Not to mention the arrogance of suggesting that I know how to design better changes than the professionals.

if anyone wants to @ ZOS then feel free to do so since they should listen to the community and if anyone thinks that the game can benefit from my suggested changes then you can bring the devs' attention to this, but only if you deem the changes good enough to give ZOS inspiration for future updates.

I detected zero arrogance on this thorough post. These changes would breathe a ton of new life (and usefulness) into the class.

@ZOS_Kevin may or may not skim this and forward it to the relevant parties but let's leave that up to them. It's absolutely worth looking at.

Theist_VII · October 23

I see a lot of suggestions echoed in the OP without a reference to the threads they came from, perhaps leaving a bread trail for which these ideas came would help whichever community manager reading it to parse for actionable feedback.

Puncturing Strikes style change suggestion.

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

If they were to have chosen something like Imperial Champion Staves instead of Nighthollow ones, the reception would have been a lot better…

You can clearly see that the style is less imposing on the appearance of a traditional spear.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/622704/rework-templar-jabs/p2

Luminous immobilize instead of Blazing.

Theist_VII wrote: »

Pardon me if I’m mistaking this, but did they say that the addition to Blazing Spears of an Immobilization was to help tanks?

Why would you add an immobilize to the morph designated for damage dealers instead of either the base ability or the morph already designated for supports?

Also want to add, although I appreciate the recognition that we’re not there yet with Templar tanking, I don’t feel that building tank utility onto a damage focused morph works towards that goal.

We have seen how pulling a skill in complete opposite directions leaves it stretched too thin, failing at both of its intended purposes. Most notably with skills like Blazing Shield and Nova, and I’m afraid Blazing Spears will land next to them.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/656556/blazing-spears-for-tanking/p1

Sun Shield shield building stack mechanic.

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

So here is my challenge, if you had to completely rework Sun Shield and its morphs, and envision them around their ability names, what would you consider for them?…
Sun Shield

Radiant Ward

Blazing Shield

My answer to this would be…

Sun Shield could be an ability that while slotted on either bar builds up stacks by blocking direct damage, to increase the size of the ward when activated. Radiant Ward could add block mitigation for each stack, with Blazing Shield building up Bash Damage with each stack.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/639316/sun-shield-rework-when/p1

Great ideas all of them, and I 100% support having them on your list, although I tend to agree with @Tyrant_Tim on their change to Blazing Shield over yours. That being said, in the future I would advise quoting everyone who helped contribute or noone, anywhere in-between is distasteful.

The_Isatope8 · October 24

Thank you for bringing this to light as I was unaware of these previous discussions/ comments made by others. Their work will be credited where it is necessary. It never ceases to amaze me how dedicated the fans of Templar are to suggesting changes for the class.

I would like to apologize to @Theist_VII and @The_Titan_Tim for overlooking their work, their usernames will be credited where necessary. If anyone finds older posts that have changes similar to the ones in my post then I implore you to make me aware of them too so that I can appropriately credit the user.

Edit: credit edited into main post