Templar Tank General Advice

Turelus

So I am going to be rolling a Templar Tank tonight as something new and interesting.

Just looking for any general advice from players who play them. I've checked build ideas on the normal sources already, I know the basics of tanking as a whole, so just things which might be a bit different being a Templar over other classes.

GimpyPorcupine

Re-roll.

DocFrost72

Stam or mag?

GimpyPorcupine wrote: »

Re-roll.

And *** this dude in particular.

Koolio

I magplar tank VDSA all the time with 3 DPS. I love it.

Turelus

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Stam or mag?

GimpyPorcupine wrote: »

Re-roll.

And *** this dude in particular.

Was probably going to be more stamina focused, but open to magicka.

At present I've reviewed Alcasts build, but was checking Tamriel Foundry and looking for others if you have links/information.

Don't worry I expected re-roll posts, I can troll them even more by letting them know I already have a max level DK tank on the account.

GimpyPorcupine

Seriously, I've tanked with every class, and Templar is my least favorite. They lack a good AOE lockdown like Talons, Encase, or Gripping Shards, and I use these a lot to keep trash in the AOEs. They do have some good passives and skills, but I personally don't think they're enough to make up for the lack of a hard CC.

Turelus

GimpyPorcupine wrote: »

Seriously, I've tanked with every class, and Templar is my least favorite. They lack a good AOE lockdown like Talons, Encase, or Gripping Shards, and I use these a lot to keep trash in the AOEs. They do have some good passives and skills, but I personally don't think they're enough to make up for the lack of a hard CC.

I'm aware they lack what the DK or even Warden has in advantages of tanking, I still plan to roll a Templar tank for something new and interesting.

If you have any feedback on overcoming the limitations please provide some insight, if you don't have anything to say other than how bad the class/role combination is then I really am not interested and would rather you didn't turn the thread into a debate about classes and roles.

jypcy

If you need a hard CC you can use volcanic rune or back bar a frost staff and use blockade. Since Templars don’t have the stam regen options that dks and wardens have, it might be worth it to go full sturdy and use block cost jewel enchants, then back bar any kind of staff for your mag regen. You should be able to sustain fights fine on just heavy attacks and tripots even without everything into block cost (unless you roll an argonian, which I imagine is still ez-mode sustain.... but then you’d have to be an argonian ), but until you get comfortable with your stam sustsin, having lower block cost might be the way to go. Repentance also seems like it could work for some fights, but I’ve never used it on my tankplars.

DocFrost72

If you're leaning towards stam, some things to keep in mind;

It might be tempting to try out restoring focus instead of channeled focus, but I'd recommend the latter. While minor protection and vitality are no joke, the mag return and cost reduction in channeled focus give you a really noticeable helping magic sustain. It's essentially 480 mag regen, or time and a half (roughly) of the atronach stone with divines x 7.

Nova (much like veil and sleet storm) are underrated skills. Not to mention, your nova stacks with sources of major protection for group strategy. I fondly remember the days of old where a nova rotation beat out a warhorn rotation . Consider Solar disturbance, since templars generally have less CC capabilities and anything you can add is nice.

Speaking of...

Stam or mag, backbar a frost staff! Something the templar sorely lacks is CC utility. We have no class root, so we need to improvise. Look no further than backbar frost staff. You know tanking stuff you said, so I assume you knew all about crusher uptime getting great synergy with wall of elements (blockade for size and duration here). What's great about frost is it snares and roots enemies caught in it with surprising efficiency. Even stam toons can use this.

Power of the light is a powerful (hehe) group buff that not only gives one of the only sources of minor breach in the game to my knowledge, but increases allied spell damage by 5% and returns ultimate for you.

Sun shield is a templar health shield. You can combine it with bone shield if you want to help allies with durability and sustain (activating a synergy gives resources with undaunted passives). The morph I pick 9 times out of 10 is radiant ward. The extra percentage, to me, is worth it over dmg.

Templar tank's biggest benefit is relatively cheap in house purge through cleansing ritual. HoF is literally catered to templars: mech Dino twins fight will never be the same with the tank cleansing the poison off itself, and tanking left side trifecta boss with his fire mallet of death becomes a lot less serious when it maybe gets one tick each time it happens.

Repentance is a skill I love to hate. In trash packs, it is phenomenal. The heal and stam restore with lots of bodies is great. During boss fights, or fights where the trash runs out, it's... not the greatest thing. Consider front bar slotting for the passive increased mag regen.

To more general stuff, you may consider shield ult up front for stam management, as that is a huge dent in the templar tank armor. If you can get it and plan to run vigor or cleansing ritual (I choose extended morph), run sentinel of Rekugamz. It is critically underrated as both a healing and support set, and as a templar tank can help net you additional stamina resource management for not just you but the entire team.

Need clarification or any additional stuff? I tried to be thorough, but I'm at work and likely missed something

Edited for grammatical inconsistencies and spelling mistakes.

Turelus

Thanks for the feedback! A lot to digest but given me some great info.

Merlin13KAGL

You can dual S&B or you can offbar Frost or DW (for blade cloak, but not as effective as it once was without Tava's)

Breton or Argonian as good baselines. Altmer/Dunmer possible too.

Spectre's Eye is a good set to start with, coupled with Plague Dr or Ebon for increased health. Once you get more comfortable with the build, you can swap out Specre's for another tank set. (Seducer's is also a good set) You can do anything from full heavy to 6/1 or the usual 5/1/1.

Atronach mundus with full divines, or a combo of Sturdy and divines. Well fitted isn't a terrible trait either if you don't have access to the other two.

Usual S&B setup with Heroic, Pierce Armor, Absorb Magic, Sun Shield (morph of your choosing), Repentance, Empowering Sweep.

Back bar has some flex room. Ritual of Retribution (AoE snare, purge, and small heal), Breath of Life, Channeled Focus (keep this up 100% of the time - good mitigation buff + 480 equivalent Mag Regen), Spear Shards (morph of choice), Focused Charge/Shielded Assault (your call, depending on if you want to burn mag or stam), and whatever you like for last slot (Mystform, Invigorating Drain)

Put Inner fire in there in place of the skill you would least use (usually shield charge). Aggressive Warhorn/Nova for 2nd Ult.

You get a lot of resources back from Repentance and Channeled Focus. Empowering Sweeps' damage mitigation can be tremendous, esp in trash pulls.

Spear shards can aggro ranged adds, plus give your group some resources in the process.

Keep your shield going, and you can still block or move as you need to - have enough Stam do safely do this from time to time. You're own experience will help you determine what value this is.

The usual monster sets apply. I can list them if you like. Same with CP suggestions.

Regarding overcoming the stigma? Yeah, you don't have chains, but if you're first on the scene and taunting the heavy hitters, then throwing down Ritual of Retrib followed by Empowering Sweep, lack of chains is not necessarily a deal breaker.

The biggest thing that gets missed, though it should go without saying, is that it will play very differently than tanking with DK or warden.

I would argue that it will make you even better in the process, because you don't automatically have access to some of the in class benefits of the other two.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you'd like more detail or have questions.

Aurielle

In case it hasn't been mentioned yet, Swarm Mother is our only alternative to chains. If you want to be able to pull and stack ranged adds, consider giving it a try. If not, you'll be doing a LOT of running around...

aeowulf

What content are you planning on tanking?

Right now, non-dk/warden tanks are not likely to be tanking vet trials. I've grouped with a few templar tanks in vet pledges, they are certainly fine in that content. I can't provide info on sets etc, just encouragement not to give up if that's your target content.

Turelus

aeowulf wrote: »

What content are you planning on tanking?

Right now, non-dk/warden tanks are not likely to be tanking vet trials. I've grouped with a few templar tanks in vet pledges, they are certainly fine in that content. I can't provide info on sets etc, just encouragement not to give up if that's your target content.

Mostly it'll just be vet dungeons, I might off tank with it for vet trials and the groups I run with are open to non-meta.
I do have a DK tank though so if I always have to option to tank more optimally, this is more just for something fresh and more challenging for myself.

Aurielle wrote: »

In case it hasn't been mentioned yet, Swarm Mother is our only alternative to chains. If you want to be able to pull and stack ranged adds, consider giving it a try. If not, you'll be doing a LOT of running around...

That's my plan for overcoming that issue. I also have friends with DK DPS who can throw a chain in if needed (yes people I just triggered I know it lowers their DPS but we play as a close group for fun not perfect optimisation).

Merlin13KAGL thanks for more feedback, threads been great for info from everyone.

Narvuntien

I am glad I am not completely insane for using Spectre's eye. I needed physical resistance and not spell resistance offered by Torag's because I am a Breton. It was what I needed to hit all the thresholds.

I am a magicka tank not a stamina tank.

I find that the worse your group is the worse it goes for you. For example I did a normal wayrest sewers pledge and struggled because every mob a couple of members of the trash would avoid my volcanic rune and my dps would struggle with them. Then I did Vet Hard Mode Blessed Crucible from zone chat and the group was just amazing (warden healer so no skill overlap). The normal was more of a struggle than vet hard mode .

Simply a templar tank isn't going to carry a group.

I use Shadowrend and not swarm mothers I actually want the stats it gives me and its more useful against bosses and trash never bothers a competent dps.

Structured Entropy, Pierce Armor, Sun Shield, absorb magicka, Repentance, Warhorn
Cleansing focus, Reflective light, Inner fire, volcanic rune, extended ritual, Sweep.