New templar in need of help (ps4)

WatchfulPoet

Hello all. I'm new to the game and only been playing since last week.

I have a level 19 Templar and I'm incredibly lost. I play on the ps4 on the EU server.

Every guide I look for o line is either aimed at end game, or is out of date. I don't know whether I should be running with a destro staff, or dual wield, or one weapon and a shield.

I was playing mainly with just a destro staff as I only want to do pve DPS. But Im getting tired of only pulling one mob at a time as i can't seem to DPS multiple mobs when using a staff, other than using puncturing sweeps, but it seems to hit weak and I in out of Magicka.

I have all my points in the Magicka section, and my general rotation is

Use reflective light(dawns wrath) to pull a mob, then hit them with destructive clench (destro staff) which knocks them over. Then I use hard attack on my staff to fire at them. If they get close I spam them with puncturing sweeps. If more than one mob comes from me I'm generally screwed and either come close to dying or run out of Magicka.

Right now I'm level 19 and struggling against level 16!

I don't know what I'm doing wrong and trying hard to stick with it as I'm really enjoying the game. Just not sure what I'm doing wrong or where I'm going wrong.

Hope someone can help, sorry for the long post.

NikaTheCat

Don't worry. If you're been playing only for a week, then it's nothing weird if you struggle a bit. There is just so much information to be learned in this game, you will get it in time. Also, you are only level 19, it's your first character, meaning you don't have Champion points to increase the stats of the new chars. It's supposed to be a little harder. Believe me, it will be such a faceroll later, that you might even deliberately not use the champion points on your new alts before max level.

I don't know how much you actually know, so I might be Captain Obvious here, but here is some advice that a new player might not know:

1) PASSIVE SKILLS - many new players, myself included, want to try out all the shiny active skills, that they ignore the passives. Remember that you only have 10 skill slots and 2 ultimate slots on your skill bars, so the maximal skill points used for active skills is 24 (ability + morph for each). Realistically, you will unlock a lot more active skills, but you can use only 12 in a fight, which means all the others are useless in that moment. However, passive skills are active all the time and they increase the damage of your active skills, as well as other useful bonuses, such as damage mitigation, sustain etc. For example, if you have Illuminate passive from the Dawn's Wrath skill line, each time you start a fight with Reflective Light, you will gain 5% more spell damage, making you hit harder. And when all your enemies are burning in your holy fire, sweep their faces off with some Aedric justice, increasing the damage of your Puncturing Sweeps with such passives as Burning Light etc. Even if you're using only one skill out of a skill line, getting all the passives in that skill line is always beneficial. The only thing to think about at low levels is prioritizing the passives, as you don't have that many skill points.

2) GEAR - new players usually just look at the stats of looted weapons and armor, and just equip whatever has the biggest numbers and quality colour. It is not wrong, however two things to look out for are set items and armor type.
Armor type is relevant because of the PASSIVES (yes, these again). Even if you find a heavy chest piece with 1000 armor, the light chest piece with 700 armor might be better because of the passives that allow for better damage and sustain for a magicka build. The numbers I gave are imaginary, so you will have to see for yourself if increased mitigation is a fair trade off for damage and sustain. Many magicka players run in full light armor just fine.
Set items are items that have apply additional stats and bonuses the more items of the same set you have. So using a non set piece of armor or weapons or jewelry is just a waste. The best thing about set items is that many of them are craftable (except jewelry). But to craft them you have to level blacksmithing, woodworking and clothing, to find specific crafting locations and the sets require a specific number of traits researched on the item you want to craft. So START RESEARCHING THEM NOW, it takes a sh*tload of time. If you have friends in the game, you can ask them to craft something too. Or maybe join a guild or ask in chat, there are a lot of helpful people out there.

3) SKILL AND SKILL LINE LEVELING - your skills and skill lines are leveling when you have a skill equipped on your bar and you get experience. For example, if you kill a mob and get experience for that kill, then each skill that you have on your bar at that moment increases in level. Also the skill line of the weapon you have equipped is leveling (the more skills of the skill line you have on your bar, the faster it is leveling). The interesting thing is that it works even if you're not using the skill, it just has to be on your bar. This also means that spamming only one skill will not level it faster. Another thing to understand is that this works also with finishing quests. Before finishing the quest, just put the skills you want to level on your bar to level them faster. I have all the skills that I use maxed out, therefore when finishing the quest I just put some skills I never use on my bar just to level them, in case I ever use them.
Also, remember to unlock all the guild skill lines, by going to the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild and the Tavern for the Undaunted skill line in the first major city of your Alliance.

4) RIDING SKILL - this has nothing to do with damage, but the earlier you start to level your riding skill the better, as it takes HALF A YEAR to level it completely on one character. So save up some money, buy the cheapest horse and start going to the stalls each day to level it up.

There are a lot of guides out there for beginners, even if they are old they may still be valid.
1) Here is a link to a Wiki page, it has a lot of general info about skills, sets, armor etc.

2) Deltia has a lot of helpful guides on his webpage and youtube chanell:

3) Also, this guy Aggelos has reviewed each skill. I don't agree with everything he says, but it's a helpful guide nonetheless.