Templar Tank build help

Ibage

I'm currently level 16 and until now, I've been running 2H and medium armor. I'm looking to tank for instances but I'd like a build that doesn't leave me beating on an enemy while solo for an hour. I'd like a solid build for soloing and tanking dungeons.

Sandshark95

You're still a low level, so I wouldn't completely commit to a "build" right now; most "builds" you'll encounter are geared towards endgame content, which you're nowhere near yet. It's good to have that stuff in mind while leveling, but leveling up an array of your skills and unlocking morphs you think you might want to try should be your top priority. You might know you want to Tank now, but just in case you change your mind later, it's best to level up all your class skill lines fairly equally, along with at least two armor types and two weapon types so you can have options. That said, I don't mind sharing a few tips to get you started with tanking:

1.) Pick your poison: stamina or magicka. What kind of Tank do you want to be? I can't tell you which is better for a Templar Tank, seeing as my Tank happens to be a magicka DK and my Templar is a Healer. However, I'd lean towards magicka, purely because most Templar skills are magicka based and going magicka would allow you to make the most of your class's healing abilities. Inner Rage (morph of Inner Fire, Undaunted Skill Tree) is a ranged magicka taunt, and may likely end up being your main taunt once you unlock it (if you decide on focusing on magicka).

2.) Pick up 1h/Shield. It doesn't matter if you're a stamina or magicka Tank; this is any tank's go-to weapon. The name of the game is survivability, and a Sword+Board gives you plenty. The first skill in its tree, Ransack (morph to Pierce Armor), is an excellent stamina taunt that also reduces enemies' armor; this skill in combination with Inner Rage gives you two taunting abilities (one magicka and one stamina). 1h/Shield doesn't put out the most DPS, so choose a secondary weapon for soloing that will provide you with better numbers. 2h is great for damage, and the last skill in its tree, Momentum (morph to Rally), is a great self-heal and damage buff. Other secondary options include Resto Staff (if you don't mind sacrificing a little DPS for some healing abilities), Destro Staff (good DPS for a magicka build), and DW (good AoE). Keep in mind that you can still use a melee weapon as a magicka build (they actually increase your spell damage); you simply won't be using a lot of weapon skills.

3.) Wear mostly Heavy armor. Tanks need health--lots of health. Heavy armor is your friend. Mix in a piece or two of either medium or light (or both, more of a bonus from Undaunted passive) for extra passives to stamina and magicka, respectively. Your primary attribute stat is going to be health, and any points you don't invest into health will go into either stamina or magicka (depending on which you picked to focus on).

4.) Slot "Tanky" abilities on your bar, such as damage shields, self-heals, and taunts. Your two main priorities as a Tank are keeping aggro and staying alive; any skill that'll help you do those two things more effectively is worth using.

Hope that helps

GilGalad

My vet 14 stamina Templar works perfectly fine as a medium armor tank for all the dungeons. It's actually the tank setup with the best dmg output, but you have to know the bosses and mechanics well, to know when you have to block. Otherwise you will get 1 shot pretty often!

Here are my bars:

1h+Shield (defending, reinforced):
Puncture (1h taunt), blazing shield (sun shield morph), elude (medium armor skill), heroic slash (deep slash morph), channeling focus (Rune Focus morph, alternative for lower levels: breath of life or honor the dead)

2H (mace or sword, sharpened):
Brawler (carve morph), biting jabs, rally (momentum morph), evil hunter (the stamina return could help in lower levels, later use camo hunter), caltrops (if you don't have them take the 2h charge here for example)

In AOE situations you can just jump in and spam brawler, it will give you a nice dmg shield and do decent dmg. Only taunt the big, hard hitting enemies. For boss fights make sure to keep elude up, the 20% dodge chance it's incredibly good. Blazing shield and the rally heal help you survive. If you know there won't come a hard hit for some seconds switch to your 2h bar and make 1 brawler + biting jabs. If you don't do a lot of DPS in the beginning its fine - I mean you are the tank!
The setup should work fine for soloing all kind of open world content.

Gear:
Since you are at low level I would recommend crafted gear, 7/7 medium armor (big parts infused, small parts divines)
5x Hundigs Rage (gives everything needed for doing dmg), armor
4x night silence (gives some stamina and stamina regeneration you might need), armor + weapons (you will only have the 3 piece bonus on your 2h bar but that's fine).
For the jewelry everything that gives you stamina or health will work. Enchant them with stamina cost reduction or stamina reg).
If you don't have enough traits, ask in zone chat or in one of your guilds - there should be enough crafters out there!

Attributes and armor enchants
I would go mainly for stamina, if you get 1 shot too often put some points in health. As a vet 14 you should have at least 18k health but I'm not sure how much you need on lower levels.

buff food:
Take blue max stat stamina + health if you can get it on your level. Otherwise I would go for pure health or stamina, depending on the situation. If you have problems managing your stamina then take drinks that increase your regeneration.

Mundus:
Tower or. Warrior

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Greetings
Gil-Galad

Steel_Brightblade

Looks very familiar to my dps set up but I seem to have problems with magic when tanking, just trying to keep blazing shield up. I'm vr 7 atm and have 22K health. I have no issues with stamina at all. I'm just wondering how you have the magic to use breath of life, also I imagine it only heals for about 2000 ish without points in magic.

Brangwen

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/zomnomnombies-tankplar-build/

GilGalad

Steel_Brightblade wrote: »

Looks very familiar to my dps set up but I seem to have problems with magic when tanking, just trying to keep blazing shield up. I'm vr 7 atm and have 22K health. I have no issues with stamina at all. I'm just wondering how you have the magic to use breath of life, also I imagine it only heals for about 2000 ish without points in magic.

Channeling Focus helps you with your magica management (basically gives it 480 magica regeneration). I don't use breath of life, it was just mentioned as alternative for low levels. Rally as heal is totally enough. If you don't have problems with your stamina, spam brawler instead of blazing shield. If you take a hard hit -> dodge -> rally heal -> back to full live.

Steel_Brightblade

Thanks, hoping I can get this to work for me as it would mean not having to carry around spare armour for different roles.