Reincarnating the soul of the Templar

tinythinker

Also known as, where to go from here looking at where the devs are taking the game.


*Blazing Spear*

The easy answer here is to give it back the stun as Templars are hard up for CC as a class slanted toward melee. The developer comment said it was removed to make more of a choice between Blazing Spear and Luminous Shards, and now luminous shards no longer has CC either. Blazing Spear is less useful for resource gain than Luminous and only does a bit more damage to a small radius, which is great if the enemy happens to be stationary.

Returning the stun and reducing the increased damage that Blazing Spear received in compensation still fits the rationale of two good choices and will make many Templars, especially those who run vMA or play PvP very, very happy. Personally I would take it with half the damage of the pre-nerf Blazing Spear if the stun was returned.

If not, increase it's radius and if it's going to be mostly useful as a DoT for mobs taunted by a tank.



*Eclipse*

The not breaking free is great, the cost reduction is great, the reduction to 3.5 seconds is not great when coupled with CC immunity. It's a very situational ability in PvP and many mobs that it might be useful for in PvE were made immune. Keep it as 6 seconds.

(Oh, and again, please add a stun if the target tries to use a gap closer to the Unstable Core morph. Pretty please with a sweetroll on top.)



*Repentance*

Templars have enough heals. Repentance was cool for stamina resource management in a group utility setting with the caster getting the nice self buff through stam regen. We don't need another straight group heal, so if the whole "gives raw stamina to other players" thing is gone forever, even at a reduced amount of stamina per corpse, this ability needs something else. Maybe give several ult per corpse to the caster and their allies. Even if not with that change, let it be reborn as something distinctive and with great group utility.



*Rushed Ceremony*

We don't need a Templar version of Blessing of Protection. If it has to be positional/directional, OK, but it's clear that our group "save everyone" burst heal is now supposed to be Hasty Prayer with Resto Staff abilities like Healing Springs and Rapid Regen/Mutagen for paced healing.

Since launch, new Magplars have tried Healing Ritual and its morphs and then asked "Why not just use Rushed Ceremony?" We now have an answer, assuming players don't just go full Resto. Rushed and its morphs not only heal fewer after a prior nerf people but will only heal those in front of the caster. I doubt it will become an unpopular ability but basically it and Healing Ritual have always been very similar -- big burst. The goal seems to make them different and to quell complaints about BoL being unfair to non-Templar healers.

Like Repentance, maybe we can come up with something new here. Especially for Breath of Life -- to make it distinctive somehow. I think Honor the Dead will have a nice niche with the 60% cost recovery, but what of BoL? It can't be the buffs given by Blessing of Protection and its morphs, so no Minor Resolve, Minor Ward, or Minor Berserk. Minor Intellect and Minor Endurance are used by the Warden's frontal cone heal ability -- Fungal Growth's -- morph, Enchanted Growth. So protection, regen, and increased damage are out. My vote goes to:

Renaming the ability "Spark of Life", which heals two allies for a modest amount and causes enemies caught in the cone to have a 30% miss chance for 6 seconds (welcome back old friend, Blinding Flashes)

This is a great group utility and helps make Templar play less generic.



And there you have it. Trying to reincarnate the "lost soul" of the Templar, to use @Joy_Division's imagery. To make the gameplay more differentiated and a distinct choice for healer.

WhiteMage

tinythinker wrote: »

And there you have it. Trying to reincarnate the "lost soul" of the Templar, to use @Joy_Division's imagery. To make the gameplay more differentiated and a distinct choice for healer.

So why do we templars have to be healers? Who decided that if it's a healer, it is a Templar and if it is a Templar, it is a healer? Why do Templars have to be so centered around group play, so much more so than other classes? I think Templars lost their soul when our identity was pigeonholed into a labeled soul gem.

The Templar is a damn good class, and in no small part due to its group cohesion and synergies. I haven't delved into this very deeply yet, but perhaps we've been losing "our soul" as you say Joy said because we've had the wrong things nerfed? Our group-centric abilities add a whole lot already. Couple that with the things that make the class unique and you have a vastly overpowered class, one that is already on par with the other classes alone but scales much better in effectiveness in groups than other classes. I think every class should bring the same amount to the table in groups as alone, so maybe we need to look at NERFING the group power of Templars to "buff"/return its individual identity, or buffing the group power of other classes so the identity of the Templar, as Joy details it can make a comeback as well.

tinythinker

WhiteMage wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

And there you have it. Trying to reincarnate the "lost soul" of the Templar, to use @Joy_Division's imagery. To make the gameplay more differentiated and a distinct choice for healer.

So why do we templars have to be healers? Who decided that if it's a healer, it is a Templar and if it is a Templar, it is a healer? Why do Templars have to be so centered around group play, so much more so than other classes? I think Templars lost their soul when our identity was pigeonholed into a labeled soul gem.

The Templar is a damn good class, and in no small part due to its group cohesion and synergies. I haven't delved into this very deeply yet, but perhaps we've been losing "our soul" as you say Joy said because we've had the wrong things nerfed? Our group-centric abilities add a whole lot already. Couple that with the things that make the class unique and you have a vastly overpowered class, one that is already on par with the other classes alone but scales much better in effectiveness in groups than other classes. I think every class should bring the same amount to the table in groups as alone, so maybe we need to look at NERFING the group power of Templars to "buff"/return its individual identity, or buffing the group power of other classes so the identity of the Templar, as Joy details it can make a comeback as well.

No one has to be a healer. Blazing Spear and Eclipse are not healing skills, they are offensive. The other skills happened to be iconic healing/utility skills from a skill tree dedicated to healing and group utility. Nothing here says healers must be Templars or vice versa, the issue is putting something fun and useful back in where things have been stripped out.

tinythinker

Oh, I left out from my OP:

If not my Spark of Life idea for a remade Breath of Life, add minor expedition (movement speed) and minor blitz.

Ques es "minor blitz"? It could also be named minor onslaught or minor barrage, but it boosts weapon attack speed. New buff. Good buff in the new mechanics. Maybe it could grant major blitz. Whatever. Just faster weapon speed for faster-paced combat and a little extra resource recovery.

(Still would rather have Spark of Life, whether or not the new buff is added.)