Templars - The (almost) One-Button DPS Class

jrgray93

I always felt like Puncturing Strikes was a bit too powerful compared to other Templar attacks. I have trouble justifying using other spells in combat. More specifically, I have trouble justifying NOT using Puncturing Strikes. So I did some tests to see how it compared to a nice mixture of tactically used Templar abilities. I tested against three enemy types, five times each, using two skill sets.

Enemy types:
A. Bear

B. Troll

C. 3x Cultists

Skills / strategy:
A. Spam nothing but Puncturing Strikes Rank IV with Burning Light passive at rank II

B. Mixture of Luminous Shards Rank II, Dark Flare Rank II, Vampires Bane Rank II
- Often finishing enemies' last ~100HP with Restoration Staff heavy
- Troll tests required various healing spells, also added Backlash Rank IV

I tried to keep my tests as real as possible. I let the game's own variables and my own failures be reflected in the results. For example, I had a rough start on the group cultist tests using the spell mix and left it in. I feel this helps emphasize the sheer lack of skill that is required to just spam one ability versus adapting to each situation with multiple abilities.

In my spell mix, I typically opened up with Dark Flare, followed immediately by Vampire's Bane. Depending on the fight, I would follow that with either Shards for area damage / stun or repeat the Flare / Bane combo.

Before you reply, please be aware that I know my strategy CAN be improved upon. I know that spamming Puncturing Strikes isn't going to be the 100% best thing to do in every situation. I know that some spells mixed in with Puncturing Strikes can provide good synergy between your skills and make it even more effective than spamming it. I know that what works in VR dungeons might not be reflected in my tests. What I'm trying to emphasize is that Puncturing Strikes is a very hard ability to say no to and still be as effective as you can be. It's hard to deny that 90% of quest content can be burned through by pressing one button.

And here is my spreadsheet with all of the results.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PpGGcymqEbk1JWGhXnYUL3EnzyT9CmhOlwFk5JBbxrA/pubhtml

Things of note:

1. Each and every time I changed to the spell mix, I saw increases in time spent, magicka used, and health lost. I saw decreases in DPS and damage done per magicka spent.
2. I saw a considerable increase in difficulty when fighting trolls with a spell mix compared to spamming Puncturing Strikes. I died three times while recording my results before deciding to throw heals into the mix (deaths not shown as encounters in graphs).
3. Fights with trolls where I was the most successful were because of pure luck. IE, the troll started smacking the ground repeatedly in a stationary AOE, allowing me to blast away from a distance.
4. Using a mixture of spells is less reliable in general due to the unresponsive nature of spells at times. I often found my Vampire's Bane not casting immediately after Dark Flare, throwing a wrench in my rotation. I have a 30U/5D Mbps connection, a $130 ASUS router, and great ping (ping assumed based on tests outside of ESO, fault lies within ESO).
5. My Puncturing Strikes isn't even evolved. It's showing massive advantages in every tested situation and isn't even healing me or dealing more crits yet.
6. I'm sure I'd see better results incorporating some Destro Staff skills. The point was to compare Templar abilities on an internal basis.

So what I see when I play other classes is a variety of spells that can both deal damage and provide good utility to justify using a different ability after that. On my DK, I can use multiple spells to provide AOE dots and various means of protecting myself. It encourages a true rotation. I often find with my Templar spells, all I'm doing is comparing spell damage output, and rarely deciding based on added utility and DoT, because the abilities lack an internal synergy with each other.

Dekkameron

My standard rotation against normal mobs is....

Reflective light (try and get as many as possible) then Invasion (Shield charge skill) then onto the Puncturing sweep spamming!

and that is pretty much it.

That is generally about 600 dps at VR5 for a pack of three on average.

Elad13

Yes templars need a total overhaul. ..not much else to say..other then we suck and Noone wants us in groups.

Mr.Turtlesworth

agreed. delete Templars.

jrgray93

Mr.Turtlesworth wrote: »

agreed. delete Templars.

Hey now, I have a VERY effective healing setup. All it needs is a little more magicka management like other classes have.

Dekkameron

jrgray93 wrote: »

Mr.Turtlesworth wrote: »

agreed. delete Templars.

Hey now, I have a VERY effective healing setup. All it needs is a little more magicka management like other classes have.

Templars do suffer a fair bit from magika issues i agree, but i think that is on purpose so we don't become unkillable

Nox_Aeterna

Do what tons already did , jump ship to sorcs.

They do all the templars do , but better.

Only thing you lose is the time spent on the char.

ExiledKhallisi

use burning spear+ps+aedric spear spammable ult for much better dps

jrgray93

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

use burning spear+ps+aedric spear spammable ult for much better dps

Well, like I said, I know it can be improved upon but I wanted to point out the sheer absurdity of just using one ability being effective. I actually have Luminous Shards because I am primarily a healer and it is to support my group while the immediate damage provides a nice bit of AoE DPS support.

someuser

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

use burning spear+ps+aedric spear spammable ult for much better dps

Yeah, there is a few different combos out there. I don't think puncturing strikes is anywhere good enough to use by itself.

I am running a lvl 31 Templar doing about 400 dps burst and sustained 250.

Csub

Nox_Aeterna wrote: »

Do what tons already did , jump ship to sorcs.

They do all the templars do , but better.

Only thing you lose is the time spent on the char.

I am still loving my Templar healer, thank you very much! :P

hamon

yes we know temps can heal , and survive half decent. but we can't heal our way to victory. at some point we need to be able to have a half-way decent damage set up.
everything is just underpowered by a huge margin in that department.

try a sorc for a week or 2 and you,ll be amazed at the diffrence. you just walk along and blow stuff up hardly breaking stride.

phaneub17_ESO

I have Shielded Assault, Solar Barrage, Puncturing Sweep, and Breath of Life on my action bar. I alternate the last button with Reflective Lights for trash groups and range, Defensive Stance for caster elites, or Luminous Shards if I want to stunlock something. Always Solar Barrage before a Crescent Sweep for the extra damage boost and double AoE.

vyndral13preub18_ESO

Agreed. Even when I try to play a full range Templar it ends up on my bar and I spend my time wishing the mobs would run up on me.

jrgray93

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Agreed. Even when I try to play a full range Templar it ends up on my bar and I spend my time wishing the mobs would run up on me.

That's what I'm saying. It almost always ends up on my bar. I much prefer a casting / utility heavy bar that makes me play with a bit more variety, but it's just not as effective as ANYTHING that incorporates puncturing strikes.

SaibotLiu

Templar was gonna be the alpha class up until right before launch, when they messed with the resource management.

Then everyone who knew better rolled a DK, who would have otherwise been Templars. Kind of a commentary on how pathetic MMO players can be, needing to play the most OP class to be competitive.

Amsel_McKay

Puncturing Strikes is the second most DPS templar build... I dont even use it anymore.

Paladin_echo1

This Templar is my cash cow. Please do not ruin puncturing strikes... My Templar kills the easiest against all mobs out of all the classes. Nightblade ought to be a dps for such occasions, but Nightblade sucks at mobs. It has no class skills that support destruction like me good Templar with its survivability. Even my DK got showed up by my Templar now. Regular maps it is good, but dungeons on the other hand... Templar needs MORE MAGIC!

jrgray93

You misunderstand. I'm not calling for a nerf to PS so much as incentive to not use it.

Paladin_echo1

jrgray93 wrote: »

You misunderstand. I'm not calling for a nerf to PS so much as incentive to not use it.

I hope ZOS sees it this way... They tend to have been going the nerf route when it comes to things like this. I hope they improve the other Templar moves. I noticed I had the same issue show up. I almost want to reskill and only learn puncturing strikes because of how bad the other moves are in usefulness.

kijima

No, Nerf the lot of them!

/end sarcasm

monden1980b16_ESO

Didn't read the first post, but I guess you are complaining how "OP" puncturing strikes is?

It's strong against trash mobs, yes... any other situation (harder PvE encounters or PvP) it's still useful, but if you just rely on this one ability, you are lost

So basically, yes, it's a bit boring to spam it on trash mobs... if you don't like it and feel you want some challenge, use other abilities (stamina weapons should do the trick).

It's fine as it is...

Francescolg

You see: Puncturing Strikes itself is a (let's call it) "normal dmg spell" (comparing the DPS). In PvP it's good but - not beeing able to block - & - beeing caught in animation mode - make the skill difficult to use = you will not use it, secondly it triggers a cc-immunity timer (if I am right)...

All weapon skills alone do not synergize with our light-attacks, no matter if staff or weapon. Our (other than 'Puncturings Strikes) AE attacks do really mediocre dmg, even compared to Impulse and it's morphs. "Our" best group CC is Volcanic Rune.. Vampire's light is limited to three targets, as an other spell is, WHY? Every f...g AE in this game has more targets, solely not our whoohoooo 6 SECOND HARD HURTING DOT.. (not 10, not 15, not more).. ONLY 3 Targets...! Our Synergies are all broken or not much-effective like our AE-Debuff-- If you add 50 Power to an AE like Impulse (that was weak before), you gain nothing (even 260-270 instead of 200 dmg.. doesn't kill anything, not to mention single attacks). Puncturing Strikes (+morphs) do not get one (!) Bonus, except the respective passive DoT.
How nice it would be two have several combos that work with puncturing strikes to choose from. Actually it's pretty hard to push the Stikes dmg, +magicka, +weapon crit

Our heal is nowhere near OP, sometimes it feels like 1 Magicka = 1 HP in heals. Even a 600 base instant heal is nowhere OP in any PvP situation, it simply does not outheal the inc dmg, it is not enough to sustain classes who know what they are doing in any duel, where you need sustainability and not just shield + melee weapon spam. A 1000 instant base heal would be appropriate. + Punturing strikes should benefit from at least 2 different sorts of spells/skills for preparation, to make it imba when we choose to do so. Blazing spear's base dmg needs a buff (compared to magicka cost - compared to other classes spammables).
Many of our spells/effects are by far too short, see the bubble, see any other meaningful skill, time limit is often 4-6 seconds, in PvP with lags, wtf uses blinding light?

Dekkameron

You can do the amusing if somewhat inefficient "spartan charge" as i called it..

It's: Invasion (shieldcharge) followed by a punctuaring sweep, followed by a binding javelin then another invasion.. etc etc. You can throw peeps all around th map just by pressing skills and no movement lol. (till your mana runs out in a feew seconds)

NadiusMaximus

Wet noodle attack = deal 10 aoe dmg to one enemy directly in front of you within 5 feet, damage ticks an extra 5 damage for 2 seconds. Other players can pick up the noodle resulting in a +3 stamina boost while dealing 2 damage to one enemy directly in front of them within 2 feet. Cool down of 13 min. Magika does not replenish during this time.

jrgray93

Well, like I said, I'm not advocating using nothing but PS or saying it is the best thing to do. Just saying it completely trivializes most other abilities in most situations. I don't even use it on my healing templar anymore because I got so sick of it.

Dekkameron

NadiusMaximus wrote: »

Wet noodle attack = deal 10 aoe dmg to one enemy directly in front of you within 5 feet, damage ticks an extra 5 damage for 2 seconds. Other players can pick up the noodle resulting in a +3 stamina boost while dealing 2 damage to one enemy directly in front of them within 2 feet. Cool down of 13 min. Magika does not replenish during this time.

Sounds OP!

danno8

This is no surprise. Bots have been using nothing but PS spam since the beginning because it is easy and effective.

However it is not the most effective. Even in general questing you will get a large DPS increase if you use Reflective Light-->Solar Barrage-->Impulse-->Solar Barrage-->Radial Sweep for groups of 3 or more (very common) even though it uses more magicka.

For anything that can not be cc'd, PS can mean death.

It is effective against Trolls due to the timing of their attacks falling just over the 1.1 second channel so PS constantly interupts all their attacks.

Before the VR nerf, spamming PS would definitely get you killed, however now it is perfectly viable if you are into the "path of least resistance" kind of leveling experience. Especially with the "Sweep" morph. Too bad imo.

jrgray93

It's like nobody even read in my original post that I said it isn't the most effective thing to do.

kitsinni

I like that people think puncturing strikes is the go to move. It stops people from realizing how good templars can be and helps avoid the nerf bat!

It is the most effective lazy way to play though and you can get through most crap just using it.

SDZald

Mr.Turtlesworth wrote: »

agreed. delete Templars.

Hey now that is my character you are wanting to delete Not to worry when they finish nerfing, all classes will be boring and useless.