Slania Isara's Magicka Templar PvP Build (updated for Morrowind + HotR)

jrgray93

It's time for an update to the build for some reason formerly known as "Applesauce." I made some last-minute changes to boost the offensive capabilities and it's working out well.



So the basic idea that sets this build apart from a lot of Templar setups is that I haven't gone DW swords and abandoned weaving. Instead of focusing on raw power, the damage output comes from more varied sources. This lets you adapt to any situation and you can pretty much do full damage from any distance, meaning you never have to let up. There is a constant stream of damage output, rather than having the wildly uneven experience that hard-cast flares and dual-wielded swords gives you. This versatility opens up a lot more possibilities for offense and defense, allowing a more balanced stat distribution so you can approach different enemy builds or PvP scenarios with different strategies, making the whole experience a lot more fun.

(maybe a video here in the future)

Gear & Stats

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The gear for this build may not seem exceptional, but that's the beauty of it. It's well-rounded, because that's what magplars excel at. Don't let that fool you; the offense of this build is the best I've seen from a magicka Templar. The offensive strength comes more from the style and flow of the build rather than the raw numbers. Glass cannons can be fun, but why choose between offense and defense?



I put all of my stats into magicka.

• 2x Valkyn Skoria
• 5x Kagrenac's Hope
• 3x Willpower
• 1x Maelstrom / Master lightning staff (or inferno if you'd prefer that)
• 2x Seducer Sword and Shield

If you do not have Maelstrom gear, you can try replacing Willpower and Seducer for something like Arch-Mage, Bloodthorn, Curse Eater, or Lamia, and having a 4-piece front and 5-piece back bar setup. Remember, always gold your weapons. I am also about to start working on a guide for easy Maelstrom runs as a magicka templar, including easy Flawless title runs.

For your gear, you want loads of impenetrable traits. I personally run five impenetrable (six with shield) and two invigorating, but you may want more impenetrable traits if you're struggling. There are no damage avoidance tricks with this build, and you just have to take it. I run five heavy pieces and one light. Light armor is better now than before as a main armor type for magicka templars due to the nerf to proc sets, but I still find heavy to be vastly superior. The stamina return it gives you is a huge benefit. Furthermore, heavy armor improves your health pool and increases resource return from your heavy attacks.

Invigorating traits may not appear impressive at first glance, but they're far more useful in PvP than you may imagine. PvP is going to strain your health, magicka, and stamina all at once, so every bit of that 11-11-11 is going to help. This build aims to squeeze as much offense out of it as you can while being on the fine line of sustainability. Invigorating traits nudge that line in your favor.

Use magicka enchants on all gear, including your shield. I use three regeneration enchants on the jewelry because magicka sustain would be an issue with all of that heavy, otherwise. Weapon enchants do not matter as much, as you'll be using a poison on your primary bar. I use a stamina drain enchant on the back bar for a little added boost when I need to heavy attack for stamina. Your staff should ideally be sharpened and your sword nirnhoned, but you can make the primary bar work with any offensive trait and the back bar with defending or powered. I prefer nirnhoned on the back because DoTs will continue to receive benefits while you're healing.

I use Valkyn Skoria for the health and the burst. While Homestead made this proc no longer crit, it's still a hefty amount of burst. It's also the new thing to complain about now that stamina proc sets have been nerfed so much. I don't see it as being overpowered because magicka users aren't stacking two-or-three proc sets with it. That said, it's a lot more potent in BGs and non-CP camps. If you need a more defensive style, try Iceheart. Grothdar is okay, too, but I find the health and burst of Skoria outweighs the steady damage it provides. I believe Slimecraw would make a good option here as well. Maw and Shadowrend may even work with the recent changes. Feel free to use Malubeth if you're the kind of person Marsellus Wallace allegedly looks like.

The centerpiece of the gear is Kagrenac's Hope. This set has a wide array of stats, including health, magicka, regeneration, and spell damage, as well as a resurrection speed bonus for group play. I prefer this set to others because it has no gimmicks or requirements; it just works. It also avoids spell critical, which is in my opinion, easily the weakest spell-focused stat for PvP. If you're having trouble sustaining your stamina, Shacklebreaker is a great option. It's about equal in terms of damage output but will boost your stamina and stamina regen at the cost of health and allied player revive speed.

Because I have a Maelstrom weapon, I use Willpower jewelry to get the most out of these slots. If you do not have a Maelstrom weapon, you may be better off using something like the sets I mentioned before.

The weapon choice is what makes this build. The Maelstrom Lightning Staff provides 189 passive spell damage and an 8% bonus to area attacks like sweeps and walls, offsetting a lot of what you lose by not using two swords. Despite being hidden with a poison, as it is considered part of the Maelstrom enchant, the 189 spell damage is still there. Weave often and heavy attack for magicka return.

For my back bar, I wanted more magicka return, so I went with a two-piece Seducer setup. If you need more health, try Endurance. If Endurance is too hard to find, crafted Arena set gear is easy enough to obtain, but only provides roughly 2/3 the health of Endurance. I used to run Endurance but I found the extra health useless mid-fight because you had to heal back up after bar swapping from the lower-health bar.

Boon & Champion Points

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For my Mundus Stone, I chose the Mage. The increased magicka works well in and out of PvP so I just set it and forget it. The Mage provides a hefty boost to your magicka pool and is within a percentage or two of the Apprentice stone. The biggest benefit is that passive magicka bonuses have a 100% uptime, whereas Major Sorcery is dependent upon you rebuffing it. The Mage will always be at 100% efficiency without requiring active attention, as the Apprentice does.

Champion points focus on the balanced theme of the build with plenty of raw offense and defense. The new front-loaded CP system really helps get a variety of stats. I've made an effort to keep my CPs as close to whole percentages as possible because of "CP jump points." I have not verified if those are a thing or not myself but it's an interesting read.

Apprentice
With the change to more front-loaded CPs and the better Mundus stones, critical damage is no longer all that great for magplars in PvP. Focusing on raw damage is far superior because most people are going to be running some degree of impen, anyway. Blessed took a nerf and really isn't worth how many points it asks for to get any benefit.

• 0 Blessed
• 13 Elfborn
• 23 Elemental Expert
• 19 Spell Erosion

Atronach
Much more going on here since CP changes.

• 39 Staff Expert
• 51 Master-at-Arms

Ritual
Off-balance is huge. Sweeps are huge. Thaumaturge should be huge.

• 75 Thaumaturge

Tower

• 34 Warlord
• 35 Sprinter

Lover

• 23 Mooncalf
• 56 Arcanist
• 4 Healthy
• 37 Tenacity

Shadow

• 20 Shadow Ward
• 11 Tumbling

Steed
Getting this over 75 points is a must. The health return when you take critical damage is very useful.

• 40 Ironclad
• 48 Resistant

Lady
Hardy and Elemental defender took a big hit in exchange for Thick Skinned and Ironclad. They aren't nearly as important as they used to be.

• 48 Thick Skinned
• 27 Elemental Defender
• 27 Hardy

Lord
Healing yourself is very important and a bit more physical resistance will offset using two light armor pieces.

• 15 Quick Recovery
• 15 Heavy Armor Focus

Potions, Poison, and Food

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Food is a simple choice; dual-stat health and magicka. Your stamina pool isn't as much of an issue with this build, as you can actively sustain it. You want your primary stats as high as they'll go.

Another important element of this build is poison. I don't think a lot of magicka users consider poisons in their builds but it works exceptionally well with the weaving element. I prefer to use Ravage Health + Creeping Ravage Health poisons, as they're simple, effective, and relatively innocuous from a balance perspective (looking at you, resource cost poisons). I do not go for three effects because I prefer the damage length of only two. Simply put, they add plenty of burst, even if they're not magicka-based and don't benefit from CPs. You can of course use any poison you prefer.

For potions, I use two or three, depending on the situation. My primary potion is defensive. I use Speed + Lingering Health potions. Having less healing options due to not using a resto staff makes this potion of huge benefit. It's basically 1vX in a bottle. I generally keep my wheel on this potion in case of surprise attacks.

My second most used potion is a basic magicka restore and Major Sorcery potion. It's simple enough to make and gives you much-needed sustain in long fights. I opt not to get the spell crit buff as well because I can get it from Vampire's Bane and this keeps potion cost lower.

I also use detection potions if I'm hunting down gankers. I usually craft them with Major Vitality, since the idea is usually to confront players stacking proc sets.

Lightning Staff

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Your first bar is a lightning staff. Inferno may also work as well. As I said before, the inferno staff passives make this very effective. This bar is all about offense. Part of what makes the offense work with this build is that you don't waste time bar swapping between attacks. It's all here.

Just remember to always weave. It may take some time to learn a good rotation for each encounter but it flows well and feels a lot more natural than a DW bar. Even without additional set bonuses and the 5% global damage increase, it's much more potent and melts most players with ease.



Puncturing Sweep is your bread and butter for melee-range combat. It's high-damage, heals you, and procs more damage via Burning Light. This is your go-to when other DoT effects are up.

Radiant Destruction is an obvious must for a magplar. It's easily the best execute in the game, but there are reports it is bugged and not scaling damage properly. Don't be bad. Don't use this ability over 50% health unless the target is obviously going to die during the channel. Radiant Glory is also a very solid option and the healing it provides you is fantastic.

Toppling Charge is a gap closer and stun combo. Use it often. It is sometimes worth backing away from an opponent to get a stun out, but be careful not to waste too much time against heavy snares from melee builds, such as tremorscale. Also be aware this spell will occasionally lock you into the animation. You can fix this by blocking, but this bug is still here from launch, despite being "fixed" a good ten times or so. Stun, count to six, and stun again. Remember this rule and you'll win against anyone who can't sustain stamina.

Wall of Elements is a widely misunderstood spell for PvP and that will work in your favor. It's admittedly not a ton of damage outright, but it ignores block, sometimes applies poisons, sets enemies off balance, and pulls players out of stealth. Players who move out of it can be coerced in to or out of locations you don't want them to be. However, most players won't consider it a significant threat, which lets you throw out just a bit more damage to aid in burst. It's also fun to throw into minefields that sorcerers camp in. Over the course of a duel, this spell can do a lot for you whether your opponent underestimates it or not.

Vampire's Bane will be your go-to weaving spell and generally your opener. It does a fair amount of immediate damage but a ton of damage over time. This spell is also a solid option for when you are being repeatedly rooted and can't turn around for Puncturing Sweep. The snare is also useful for tracking down fleeing enemies, allowing you to get into range to charge. Lastly, it provides ultimate on cast and a crit buff to you while active. Watch for reflects, but generally try to keep this spell up 100% of the time.

Soul Assault is a great ultimate. If used correctly, it provides stun immunity and burst at key moments in a fight, generally allowing you to break stalemates. It's also very effective against fleeing gankblades. I defaulted to this ultimate because the only useful class-based magicka PvP ult for Templars was Crescent Sweep, which was a solid option but deals physical damage now. Meteor is usually okay but any skilled player will block it and move out of the AoE. The destro ult is expensive and admittedly cheesy, and everyone knows how to counter it at this point. As Templars do not have a block break for Meteor, I find Soul Assault more useful. Just watch your health while you channel it and don't be afraid to bar swap to cancel it and heal if needed. It's a cheap ultimate and not worth dying over. I've also been experimenting with Dawnbreaker of Smiting. It's looking promising so far!

Sword & Shield

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The second bar is a fully defensive shield bar. I opted for a shield over a resto staff for the increased defensive capabilities and the ultimate. Blocking plays a major role in gank / burst defense and a resto staff just won't cut it. You should be on this bar between fights for the defensive and regenerative benefits.



Volcanic Rune has been buffed a couple of times this year. It provides a safety net for enemies using gap closers, allows you to stun players without moving away to charge, and even does a bit of damage. It plays well into the area denial theme and is also a huge boon for 1vX gameplay, particularly in towers. Again, this is a fun spell to toss into a sorcerer minefield.

Degeneration has numerous uses. First of all, it makes you significantly harder to kill by giving you health return while you're heavy attacking for magicka or stamina. It also provides a means of getting your spell damage buff without being forced to use potions. The direct healing it provides isn't too bad, either.

Channeled Focus is another spell that benefits from the area denial theme. Your Wall of Elements and Volcanic Rune can go a long way to keeping your focus your house, so to speak. The benefits of this spell are obvious, with a defensive buff and a ton of magicka return. Keep it up at all times.

Honor the Dead is the obvious morph choice for PvP, in my opinion. The sustain it provides allows you to be a lot more liberal in its use, but it may hurt you in group play. With this build, Breath of Life is just too expensive. Anyway, I'm sure you all know this heal is essential.

Extended Ritual is the 5-effect cleanser. It's very tempting to use Retribution for the wide-area stealth killer, but cleanse is king in PvP. Use it often if you have enemies layering DoTs on you. The heal and minor mending passive are also very useful.

Spell Wall is a big reason I switched to S&B for my back bar. It's a fantastic defensive ultimate but it allows you to swap back to your primary bar for offense if you want. It can also be the final nail in the coffin for a sorcerer, making them frag themselves. Best of all, it's only 96 ultimate for a Templar, and the cost is identical to Soul Assault, so you get a consistent experience between bars and don't have to worry about being tempted by a readied ultimate while saving for an expensive one.

Minno

Glad to see an update to this! Stats look good!

Always prefer to balance my Templar according to the armor he is using, and definitely follow a balanced mindset for combat.

Lexxypwns

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

jrgray93

Lexxypwns wrote: »

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

Do you start every reply with a condescending, absolute statement? You know what else hard-counters debuffs? Just cleanse them. I find crits to be far inferior to raw damage on a magicka templar because of crit resistance. They're nice, sure, but not as helpful as other stats. Besides, you'll still have a solid 35% or so crit chance.

Minno

Lexxypwns wrote: »

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

If you think about it, you two are both correct. While increase chance to do extra DMG and healing is beautiful especially for Templars, it won't save you if in two hits you'll be in execute range.

I think his build is more important to remain flexible to maintain consistent DMG or defense and with HA you could lose that flexibility trying to add spell crit. He could run slimcraw for the extra spell crit and consistent 8% DMG but he might lose the burst HA needs from valkyn.

Just some thoughts.

Baconlad

Lightning staff stun is much better option for stun. It ensures that no matter how close your enemy is you can cast it. It doesnt knockback. And does slightly more damage.

Its down sides are apparent. It does not close distance. But i noticed that in 1vX situation being always on the run. I rarely want to gap close

Lexxypwns

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

Do you start every reply with a condescending, absolute statement? You know what else hard-counters debuffs? Just cleanse them. I find crits to be far inferior to raw damage on a magicka templar because of crit resistance. They're nice, sure, but not as helpful as other stats. Besides, you'll still have a solid 35% or so crit chance.

I apologize if I sound condescending that isn't my intent. But I'm not sure how you reliably burst down well built characters without some crit damage and that seems detrimental to overall performance. The average build mitigates maybe 30% of your bonus crit damage. On magplar that's minimum 30% more damage on each crit(60%bonus healing on heal crits). If you start putting points in elfborn that even more damage and healing.

When you speak in absolute statements about things most of the pvp community believes to be false you're likely to receive blunt replies, I apologize again if that offended you.

jrgray93

Lexxypwns wrote: »

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

Do you start every reply with a condescending, absolute statement? You know what else hard-counters debuffs? Just cleanse them. I find crits to be far inferior to raw damage on a magicka templar because of crit resistance. They're nice, sure, but not as helpful as other stats. Besides, you'll still have a solid 35% or so crit chance.

I apologize if I sound condescending that isn't my intent. But I'm not sure how you reliably burst down well built characters without some crit damage and that seems detrimental to overall performance. The average build mitigates maybe 30% of your bonus crit damage. On magplar that's minimum 30% more damage on each crit(60%bonus healing on heal crits). If you start putting points in elfborn that even more damage and healing.

When you speak in absolute statements about things most of the pvp community believes to be false you're likely to receive blunt replies, I apologize again if that offended you.

Fair points. I too apologize for my overly-defensive reaction. Your input is appreciated. I'd encourage you to try it out for yourself. I'll look more into the crit situation and see if I'm mistaken.

Baconlad wrote: »

Lightning staff stun is much better option for stun. It ensures that no matter how close your enemy is you can cast it. It doesnt knockback. And does slightly more damage.

Its down sides are apparent. It does not close distance. But i noticed that in 1vX situation being always on the run. I rarely want to gap close

This is also a good point. I'll give it a shot but a lot of this build is an "in your face" style of playing. It's not about ranged play, but it can be when necessary. The gap closer is of huge benefit.

IcyDeadPeople

Can you share a bit how you manage stamina while blocking? 10k seems like it would run out pretty quickly, and noticed you aren't using any sturdy pieces, only 20 pts in Shadow Ward.

Lexxypwns

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

Do you start every reply with a condescending, absolute statement? You know what else hard-counters debuffs? Just cleanse them. I find crits to be far inferior to raw damage on a magicka templar because of crit resistance. They're nice, sure, but not as helpful as other stats. Besides, you'll still have a solid 35% or so crit chance.

I apologize if I sound condescending that isn't my intent. But I'm not sure how you reliably burst down well built characters without some crit damage and that seems detrimental to overall performance. The average build mitigates maybe 30% of your bonus crit damage. On magplar that's minimum 30% more damage on each crit(60%bonus healing on heal crits). If you start putting points in elfborn that even more damage and healing.

When you speak in absolute statements about things most of the pvp community believes to be false you're likely to receive blunt replies, I apologize again if that offended you.

Fair points. I too apologize for my overly-defensive reaction. Your input is appreciated. I'd encourage you to try it out for yourself. I'll look more into the crit situation and see if I'm mistaken.

Baconlad wrote: »

Lightning staff stun is much better option for stun. It ensures that no matter how close your enemy is you can cast it. It doesnt knockback. And does slightly more damage.

Its down sides are apparent. It does not close distance. But i noticed that in 1vX situation being always on the run. I rarely want to gap close

This is also a good point. I'll give it a shot but a lot of this build is an "in your face" style of playing. It's not about ranged play, but it can be when necessary. The gap closer is of huge benefit.

I truly believe that on DoT based builds like this you will see a significant increase in effectiveness with more crit. Wall of elements isn't scary as you've pointed out, but if that crits at the same time as a reflective light DoT crits that's a potential 6k damage, in the background while you're doing whatever.

I've played without crit and while you can gain a lot by sacrificing it I never felt it was a fair trade off since crit greatly increases your burst and even more significantly increases your healing, since you can't resist crit heals.

Furthermore, templars only receive a few offensive passives, one of which is crit damage. It makes the most sense to build to synergize with class passives.

Let's look at some math. We will take a 1.7 CHD modifier(Templar passives +10% from elfborn). At 33% crit that's a damage increase of 23%. At 60% crit that increases to 42% more damage.
Now, not only is that big sustained damage it's big BURST damage as well. Even if your opponent has 50% crit resist you're still increasing your overall damage by 9.5% between 30 and 60 crit while increasing your healing just as much.

Now,elfborn and Templar passives have no opportunity cost because you're investing in them anyway. Building crit, however, does have an opportunity cost and it is important not to discount that.

On Kags, in comparison to Julianos, you sacrifice 2 lines of crit and just under 100 spell damage for health, recovery, fast rezzes. To see if it is worth switching we will look at your build. As it stands, recovery is low so you can't afford to lose that without adding it back in somewhere. Let's say you switched to prismatic glyphs and witch mothers, it would push your stamina to ~13k and your health to ~25k while dropping your magika to ~40k at 2k recovery. At this point if you switch to julianos you can recoup ~4.2% damage from the crit, plus the 100 spell power.

This results in more overall damage, higher healing and superior stam and magika sustain. I would never re-gear over such a small bonus, but arguing that crit is the weakest option on a magplar is pointedly incorrect sir.

Minno

Lexxypwns wrote: »

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

Do you start every reply with a condescending, absolute statement? You know what else hard-counters debuffs? Just cleanse them. I find crits to be far inferior to raw damage on a magicka templar because of crit resistance. They're nice, sure, but not as helpful as other stats. Besides, you'll still have a solid 35% or so crit chance.

I apologize if I sound condescending that isn't my intent. But I'm not sure how you reliably burst down well built characters without some crit damage and that seems detrimental to overall performance. The average build mitigates maybe 30% of your bonus crit damage. On magplar that's minimum 30% more damage on each crit(60%bonus healing on heal crits). If you start putting points in elfborn that even more damage and healing.

When you speak in absolute statements about things most of the pvp community believes to be false you're likely to receive blunt replies, I apologize again if that offended you.

Fair points. I too apologize for my overly-defensive reaction. Your input is appreciated. I'd encourage you to try it out for yourself. I'll look more into the crit situation and see if I'm mistaken.

Baconlad wrote: »

Lightning staff stun is much better option for stun. It ensures that no matter how close your enemy is you can cast it. It doesnt knockback. And does slightly more damage.

Its down sides are apparent. It does not close distance. But i noticed that in 1vX situation being always on the run. I rarely want to gap close

This is also a good point. I'll give it a shot but a lot of this build is an "in your face" style of playing. It's not about ranged play, but it can be when necessary. The gap closer is of huge benefit.

I truly believe that on DoT based builds like this you will see a significant increase in effectiveness with more crit. Wall of elements isn't scary as you've pointed out, but if that crits at the same time as a reflective light DoT crits that's a potential 6k damage, in the background while you're doing whatever.

I've played without crit and while you can gain a lot by sacrificing it I never felt it was a fair trade off since crit greatly increases your burst and even more significantly increases your healing, since you can't resist crit heals.

Furthermore, templars only receive a few offensive passives, one of which is crit damage. It makes the most sense to build to synergize with class passives.

Let's look at some math. We will take a 1.7 CHD modifier(Templar passives +10% from elfborn). At 33% crit that's a damage increase of 23%. At 60% crit that increases to 42% more damage.
Now, not only is that big sustained damage it's big BURST damage as well. Even if your opponent has 50% crit resist you're still increasing your overall damage by 9.5% between 30 and 60 crit while increasing your healing just as much.

Now,elfborn and Templar passives have no opportunity cost because you're investing in them anyway. Building crit, however, does have an opportunity cost and it is important not to discount that.

On Kags, in comparison to Julianos, you sacrifice 2 lines of crit and just under 100 spell damage for health, recovery, fast rezzes. To see if it is worth switching we will look at your build. As it stands, recovery is low so you can't afford to lose that without adding it back in somewhere. Let's say you switched to prismatic glyphs and witch mothers, it would push your stamina to ~13k and your health to ~25k while dropping your magika to ~40k at 2k recovery. At this point if you switch to julianos you can recoup ~4.2% damage from the crit, plus the 100 spell power.

This results in more overall damage, higher healing and superior stam and magika sustain. I would never re-gear over such a small bonus, but arguing that crit is the weakest option on a magplar is pointedly incorrect sir.

He can try hitting 23 elfborn, putting him at 70% crit DMG. He can swap to thief without dropping kags.

41% crit chance is no 50-60% chance, but a better boost without much regearing (for players that don't have the items, gold, or time to regear. )

Otherwise, I love the witch drink+tri stats enchants.

WillhelmBlack

IcyDeadPeople wrote: »

Can you share a bit how you manage stamina while blocking? 10k seems like it would run out pretty quickly, and noticed you aren't using any sturdy pieces, only 20 pts in Shadow Ward.

It's not a block build. 10k is too low for any Templar build though, you are right to point that out. all the stats don't look great to me, 43k Magicka will hit hard yeah but with 10k stamina the rest of the stats are pointless if you're feared with 5 or 6 ppl smacking you.

If I wanted to go glass I'd go War Maiden/Soulshine. Bump that spell power to 3500k with over 40k Magicka easy. Get some of them disgusting Dark Flare>Javelin>Beam combo's going on, know what I mean?

Minno

WillhelmBlack wrote: »

IcyDeadPeople wrote: »

Can you share a bit how you manage stamina while blocking? 10k seems like it would run out pretty quickly, and noticed you aren't using any sturdy pieces, only 20 pts in Shadow Ward.

It's not a block build. 10k is too low for any Templar build though, you are right to point that out. all the stats don't look great to me, 43k Magicka will hit hard yeah but with 10k stamina the rest of the stats are pointless if you're feared with 5 or 6 ppl smacking you.

If I wanted to go glass I'd go War Maiden/Soulshine. Bump that spell power to 3500k with over 40k Magicka easy. Get some of them disgusting Dark Flare>Javelin>Beam combo's going on, know what I mean?

He does have Constitution + s+b ulti+ block reduction through S+B. Dawn's wraith ensures consistent uptime of Spell Wall with the high resistance values from HA letting him pick times to block but not consistently holding it down.

Getting 20% block reduction through CP or sturdy seems to be the sweet spot for 10-12k Stam. Plus he can gain some steam back through S+b heavy attack if needed.

It's no DK block build, but there's strengths+weaknesses. His old videos showed the build in action against a few enemies at once. He should post new videos though.

Lexxypwns

Minno wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

Do you start every reply with a condescending, absolute statement? You know what else hard-counters debuffs? Just cleanse them. I find crits to be far inferior to raw damage on a magicka templar because of crit resistance. They're nice, sure, but not as helpful as other stats. Besides, you'll still have a solid 35% or so crit chance.

I apologize if I sound condescending that isn't my intent. But I'm not sure how you reliably burst down well built characters without some crit damage and that seems detrimental to overall performance. The average build mitigates maybe 30% of your bonus crit damage. On magplar that's minimum 30% more damage on each crit(60%bonus healing on heal crits). If you start putting points in elfborn that even more damage and healing.

When you speak in absolute statements about things most of the pvp community believes to be false you're likely to receive blunt replies, I apologize again if that offended you.

Fair points. I too apologize for my overly-defensive reaction. Your input is appreciated. I'd encourage you to try it out for yourself. I'll look more into the crit situation and see if I'm mistaken.

Baconlad wrote: »

Lightning staff stun is much better option for stun. It ensures that no matter how close your enemy is you can cast it. It doesnt knockback. And does slightly more damage.

Its down sides are apparent. It does not close distance. But i noticed that in 1vX situation being always on the run. I rarely want to gap close

This is also a good point. I'll give it a shot but a lot of this build is an "in your face" style of playing. It's not about ranged play, but it can be when necessary. The gap closer is of huge benefit.

I truly believe that on DoT based builds like this you will see a significant increase in effectiveness with more crit. Wall of elements isn't scary as you've pointed out, but if that crits at the same time as a reflective light DoT crits that's a potential 6k damage, in the background while you're doing whatever.

I've played without crit and while you can gain a lot by sacrificing it I never felt it was a fair trade off since crit greatly increases your burst and even more significantly increases your healing, since you can't resist crit heals.

Furthermore, templars only receive a few offensive passives, one of which is crit damage. It makes the most sense to build to synergize with class passives.

Let's look at some math. We will take a 1.7 CHD modifier(Templar passives +10% from elfborn). At 33% crit that's a damage increase of 23%. At 60% crit that increases to 42% more damage.
Now, not only is that big sustained damage it's big BURST damage as well. Even if your opponent has 50% crit resist you're still increasing your overall damage by 9.5% between 30 and 60 crit while increasing your healing just as much.

Now,elfborn and Templar passives have no opportunity cost because you're investing in them anyway. Building crit, however, does have an opportunity cost and it is important not to discount that.

On Kags, in comparison to Julianos, you sacrifice 2 lines of crit and just under 100 spell damage for health, recovery, fast rezzes. To see if it is worth switching we will look at your build. As it stands, recovery is low so you can't afford to lose that without adding it back in somewhere. Let's say you switched to prismatic glyphs and witch mothers, it would push your stamina to ~13k and your health to ~25k while dropping your magika to ~40k at 2k recovery. At this point if you switch to julianos you can recoup ~4.2% damage from the crit, plus the 100 spell power.

This results in more overall damage, higher healing and superior stam and magika sustain. I would never re-gear over such a small bonus, but arguing that crit is the weakest option on a magplar is pointedly incorrect sir.

He can try hitting 23 elfborn, putting him at 70% crit DMG. He can swap to thief without dropping kags.

41% crit chance is no 50-60% chance, but a better boost without much regearing (for players that don't have the items, gold, or time to regear. )

Otherwise, I love the witch drink+tri stats enchants.

That's totally true and at the very minimum worth a test.

I run try-glyphs on every magika build since they can all use the stam. Maybe I'm just not so hot at stam management and need the buffer though

Minno

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Minno wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

jrgray93 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

"It avoids spell critical which is easily the weakest spell focused stat for pvp"

Wrong. Spell critical is even more important on magplar than ANY other class. You know that crit heals hard counter heal debuffs and crit damage provides the best possible burst?

Do you start every reply with a condescending, absolute statement? You know what else hard-counters debuffs? Just cleanse them. I find crits to be far inferior to raw damage on a magicka templar because of crit resistance. They're nice, sure, but not as helpful as other stats. Besides, you'll still have a solid 35% or so crit chance.

I apologize if I sound condescending that isn't my intent. But I'm not sure how you reliably burst down well built characters without some crit damage and that seems detrimental to overall performance. The average build mitigates maybe 30% of your bonus crit damage. On magplar that's minimum 30% more damage on each crit(60%bonus healing on heal crits). If you start putting points in elfborn that even more damage and healing.

When you speak in absolute statements about things most of the pvp community believes to be false you're likely to receive blunt replies, I apologize again if that offended you.

Fair points. I too apologize for my overly-defensive reaction. Your input is appreciated. I'd encourage you to try it out for yourself. I'll look more into the crit situation and see if I'm mistaken.

Baconlad wrote: »

Lightning staff stun is much better option for stun. It ensures that no matter how close your enemy is you can cast it. It doesnt knockback. And does slightly more damage.

Its down sides are apparent. It does not close distance. But i noticed that in 1vX situation being always on the run. I rarely want to gap close

This is also a good point. I'll give it a shot but a lot of this build is an "in your face" style of playing. It's not about ranged play, but it can be when necessary. The gap closer is of huge benefit.

I truly believe that on DoT based builds like this you will see a significant increase in effectiveness with more crit. Wall of elements isn't scary as you've pointed out, but if that crits at the same time as a reflective light DoT crits that's a potential 6k damage, in the background while you're doing whatever.

I've played without crit and while you can gain a lot by sacrificing it I never felt it was a fair trade off since crit greatly increases your burst and even more significantly increases your healing, since you can't resist crit heals.

Furthermore, templars only receive a few offensive passives, one of which is crit damage. It makes the most sense to build to synergize with class passives.

Let's look at some math. We will take a 1.7 CHD modifier(Templar passives +10% from elfborn). At 33% crit that's a damage increase of 23%. At 60% crit that increases to 42% more damage.
Now, not only is that big sustained damage it's big BURST damage as well. Even if your opponent has 50% crit resist you're still increasing your overall damage by 9.5% between 30 and 60 crit while increasing your healing just as much.

Now,elfborn and Templar passives have no opportunity cost because you're investing in them anyway. Building crit, however, does have an opportunity cost and it is important not to discount that.

On Kags, in comparison to Julianos, you sacrifice 2 lines of crit and just under 100 spell damage for health, recovery, fast rezzes. To see if it is worth switching we will look at your build. As it stands, recovery is low so you can't afford to lose that without adding it back in somewhere. Let's say you switched to prismatic glyphs and witch mothers, it would push your stamina to ~13k and your health to ~25k while dropping your magika to ~40k at 2k recovery. At this point if you switch to julianos you can recoup ~4.2% damage from the crit, plus the 100 spell power.

This results in more overall damage, higher healing and superior stam and magika sustain. I would never re-gear over such a small bonus, but arguing that crit is the weakest option on a magplar is pointedly incorrect sir.

He can try hitting 23 elfborn, putting him at 70% crit DMG. He can swap to thief without dropping kags.

41% crit chance is no 50-60% chance, but a better boost without much regearing (for players that don't have the items, gold, or time to regear. )

Otherwise, I love the witch drink+tri stats enchants.

That's totally true and at the very minimum worth a test.

I run try-glyphs on every magika build since they can all use the stam. Maybe I'm just not so hot at stam management and need the buffer though

I run 800-1k Stam Regen and at least 3 tri stat enchants with witch brew. And I "dual" weapon so I can heavy attack with a mag or Stam return if I need.

But that's me, and the only way I found to offset my Stam costs comfortably.

WillhelmBlack

Minno wrote: »

WillhelmBlack wrote: »

IcyDeadPeople wrote: »

Can you share a bit how you manage stamina while blocking? 10k seems like it would run out pretty quickly, and noticed you aren't using any sturdy pieces, only 20 pts in Shadow Ward.

It's not a block build. 10k is too low for any Templar build though, you are right to point that out. all the stats don't look great to me, 43k Magicka will hit hard yeah but with 10k stamina the rest of the stats are pointless if you're feared with 5 or 6 ppl smacking you.

If I wanted to go glass I'd go War Maiden/Soulshine. Bump that spell power to 3500k with over 40k Magicka easy. Get some of them disgusting Dark Flare>Javelin>Beam combo's going on, know what I mean?

He does have Constitution + s+b ulti+ block reduction through S+B. Dawn's wraith ensures consistent uptime of Spell Wall with the high resistance values from HA letting him pick times to block but not consistently holding it down.

Getting 20% block reduction through CP or sturdy seems to be the sweet spot for 10-12k Stam. Plus he can gain some steam back through S+b heavy attack if needed.

It's no DK block build, but there's strengths+weaknesses. His old videos showed the build in action against a few enemies at once. He should post new videos though.

You get all that with the sets I mentioned but it hits harder, more crit for heals and using tri food you also have 14k Stam and same mag recovery. I hate to put the guys gear choice down but Kagrenacs is prehistoric man, Shacklebreaker is way better and if you PvP, you're gimping yourself without it.

For min max Magplar in most PvP situations:

Shacklebreaker / War Maiden or BSW / Valkyn. 3 Tri glyphs and Witch Brew. You will feel OP, you will be OP.

For a glassier set up but still 14k Stam and heavy and SnB ulti use Soulshine or Spinners instead of Shackle.

I've used tons of Magplar set ups in heavy and light over the years. Shacklebreaker is by far the best crafted PvP set ever made, almost P2W since it comes with the expansion.

jrgray93

I just throw in a quick s&b heavy attack when I reapply my circles on the back bar. Takes very little time and regenerates most of my stamina. It's not a block build. The block is for few situations. I'll work on a new video soon.

Lexxypwns

Just to be clear, I really enjoy a lot of the non-meta skills OP is using, I can see the amazing potential here on what seems like a difficult, fun, effective, build.

I'm simply suggesting that by adopting some meta build principles this setup could really be unleashed to its fullest and shine.

Minno

WillhelmBlack wrote: »

Minno wrote: »

WillhelmBlack wrote: »

IcyDeadPeople wrote: »

Can you share a bit how you manage stamina while blocking? 10k seems like it would run out pretty quickly, and noticed you aren't using any sturdy pieces, only 20 pts in Shadow Ward.

It's not a block build. 10k is too low for any Templar build though, you are right to point that out. all the stats don't look great to me, 43k Magicka will hit hard yeah but with 10k stamina the rest of the stats are pointless if you're feared with 5 or 6 ppl smacking you.

If I wanted to go glass I'd go War Maiden/Soulshine. Bump that spell power to 3500k with over 40k Magicka easy. Get some of them disgusting Dark Flare>Javelin>Beam combo's going on, know what I mean?

He does have Constitution + s+b ulti+ block reduction through S+B. Dawn's wraith ensures consistent uptime of Spell Wall with the high resistance values from HA letting him pick times to block but not consistently holding it down.

Getting 20% block reduction through CP or sturdy seems to be the sweet spot for 10-12k Stam. Plus he can gain some steam back through S+b heavy attack if needed.

It's no DK block build, but there's strengths+weaknesses. His old videos showed the build in action against a few enemies at once. He should post new videos though.

You get all that with the sets I mentioned but it hits harder, more crit for heals and using tri food you also have 14k Stam and same mag recovery. I hate to put the guys gear choice down but Kagrenacs is prehistoric man, Shacklebreaker is way better and if you PvP, you're gimping yourself without it.

For min max Magplar in most PvP situations:

Shacklebreaker / War Maiden or BSW / Valkyn. 3 Tri glyphs and Witch Brew. You will feel OP, you will be OP.

For a glassier set up but still 14k Stam and heavy and SnB ulti use Soulshine or Spinners instead of Shackle.

I've used tons of Magplar set ups in heavy and light over the years. Shacklebreaker is by far the best crafted PvP set ever made, almost P2W since it comes with the expansion.

I'd argue it's BiS if you need the Stam boost. Otherwise kags has that sweet 313 SD boost through the mag pool stat with the equal extra health + mag recovery. Plus you don't need the DLC to craft it. War maiden isn't bad, and BSW is beastly.

I've used shackle on heavy, and while the Stam+Regen was lovely, I was left pressed to ditch it in favor of other sets. Plus finding or paying for those enchants/runes doesn't help players who only log on for an hour or two a night, even for me with my 7am-9pm work schedule. Therefore if a build will take too much time finding items, I generally avoid it knowing I'd rather be playing than grinding pve dungeons or running around Tamriel picking mats.

But that's not a negative comment on those that can dedicate more hours. Some builds, despite having less than BIS items, are better for new players or those of us with strict RL commitments. We may not top leaderboards, but the builds are fun and easy to gear up.

Brutusmax1mus

I'm having tons of success in shackle/soulshine.

jrgray93

Shacklebreaker is about equal with Kags in terms of damage output. Kags benefits from health, while SB will give you a bit of stamina and, admittedly, a sizable bonus to stamina recovery. That said, I have no trouble sustaining my stamina as-is. If you do, perhaps SB is a better choice. For me, the health and increased revive speed are more important.

Look, I appreciate constructive feedback but I know what works for me and I posted it to share it, not to have it picked to pieces and not to look for suggestions. It works. It's not the easiest magplar build to play, but it's extremely effective. I rarely fail to top BG boards. I rarely ever lose duels.

i.imgur.com/jolJa59.jpg

That screenshot is from before the latest update, during the PvP event. I am using a setup that is heavier on offense now.

Minno

jrgray93 wrote: »

Shacklebreaker is about equal with Kags in terms of damage output. Kags benefits from health, while SB will give you a bit of stamina and, admittedly, a sizable bonus to stamina recovery. That said, I have no trouble sustaining my stamina as-is. If you do, perhaps SB is a better choice. For me, the health and increased revive speed are more important.

Look, I appreciate constructive feedback but I know what works for me and I posted it to share it, not to have it picked to pieces and not to look for suggestions. It works. It's not the easiest magplar build to play, but it's extremely effective. I rarely fail to top BG boards. I rarely ever lose duels.

i.imgur.com/jolJa59.jpg

That screenshot is from before the latest update, during the PvP event. I am using a setup that is heavier on offense now.

We need that video! Some of us can't play during work, so we need videos to contain the urge to play ESO lol.

VirtualElizabeth

Boomarking this for review tonight! I am thinking of swapping the Kags for Shacklebreaker since I love me some dodge rolls. Thanks for posting this!

jrgray93

VirtualElizabeth wrote: »

Boomarking this for review tonight! I am thinking of swapping the Kags for Shacklebreaker since I love me some dodge rolls. Thanks for posting this!

Thanks!

I've taken some feedback from here and experiences with other players and I'm working on a more offensively minded, alternative setup. This build is still ideal for a lot of things, like relic carrier and more tanky situations.