Does a solo-play 'Paladin' make any sense?

Petoften

What I mean by the term is a char that can solo well that tries to combine damage mitigation, doing damage, and healing in a nice combination, instead of doing just one.

The basic approach is a templar with sword and shield.

But lots of questions come up about the viability, including when they do run into group play - what is their role, damage, tank or heals? (It would seem damage by default since they aren't specially strong in tanking or healing). What kind of armor would be best? Heavy?

Does this type of build make much sense?

HonestGabe

Depends on what kind of content you are running. In pvp that would work fine as a support role.

You would most likely want to Queue as tank in LFG and just be off heals.
In raids you could be either but youd want a set of light armor with resto/destro weapon setup if you are healing.

My suggestion is to wear a dps set when soloing and switch to tank/healer set when grouping. Otherwise soloing will be slow.

Cronopoly

Plenty of us have done it. Heavy Armor can fit this role very well. Any class can do it. My personal preference would be with Templar, or Warden. There's definitely enough skills/cp to go around to make it happen especially if you want some group heals potential.

I would typically leave harder content (Trials) out of this conversation as you would be expected to be strickly specialized for your role. Just throwing that out there.

Petoften

Cronopoly wrote: »

Plenty of us have done it. Heavy Armor can fit this role very well. Any class can do it. My personal preference would be with Templar, or Warden. There's definitely enough skills/cp to go around to make it happen especially if you want some group heals potential.

I would typically leave harder content (Trials) out of this conversation as you would be expected to be strickly specialized for your role. Just throwing that out there.

Thanks, that's fine - this is more for things like running a random dungeon or a world boss.

p00tx

PvP doesn't really require a strict adherence to role speccing (like PvE typically does). I main a Magplar "healer" in PvP, and while I typically run a primarily healing rotation when I'm in a group, I'm still perfectly capable of killing and adding to the overall dmg of the group. When I'm soloing in Cyrodil/Sewers, I can survive on my own, plus do a little fighting, provided it's not against a massive zerg or a really well-organized small group. 1v1 or 1vx (with the x=normal players) is totally doable.

I think you should spec yourself in any way that seems fun, and then be flexible and willing to swap skills now and again when needed.

**edit: I just saw that you're talking about over-land stuff. A paladin is more than enough to complete base game over-land stuff. It's probably actually the best suited to it. The stuff in my first paragraph still applies to this playstyle.

Camael

Templars are great in 3-role. Overland content, dungeons and PvP included(PvP with some gear adjustments). 1h+shield and restoration staff would probably fit you best (I used to play that setup for a long time,currently 2h and resto). Heavy armor preferably (you can try Twice Born Star set as first as it is easiest to adapt due to double mundus stone effect) or Fortified Brass set in Light (bit more challanging) depend of your preferances. Skills setup is different topic as you need to balance between content. I'm often asked by my guildies to help with dungeon runs and they ask me themself to be a "fake tank" or healer or DD they simply know I can do all.

May the Stendarr guide your sword!

raj72616a

it's not like single player Elder Scrolls games.

ZoS seems to care about game balance, so you can't excel in both defense and offense.
having good damage mitigation means that you have to sacrifice your ability to damage and to heal.

however damage skills and heal skills scale on the same stats, so you can do well with these two.

if you wear heavy armor, your damage and heal would be bad. your dps can be as bad as 5k or below. while spamming light attack in optimal armor sets can reach 15k dps, and top players can do 40k+ and above. if you think doing one-tenth damage compared to good players is viable, then you might go for it, but you will be a burden in group dungeons if you are not a tank.

if you wear medium armor, the damage mitigation would not be extremely bad, templar's Restoring Focus skill will give you a very strong buff to resistance. Empowering Sweep ultimate skill will reduce incoming damage by 30%. stamina-based damage can be good. stamina-based healing from Vigor skill would be good. but you cannot fulfill the role of a proper healer.

if you wear light armor, magicka-based damage and healing will be good. you can fulfill healer role. but your defense will be bad. there used to be the armor skill Annulment to defend against burst damage, but that had been nerfed already. even then, you could not tank with just a big damage shield. tanks need stamina to roll dodge from AoE or one shot mechanics, bash interrupt, taunt and block etc, an light armor magicka user can hardly do all that.

NoMoreChillies

Warden paladin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvO2Gtr8jTQ

Narvuntien

I would say no, my attempt makes me completely unkillable but also 0 damage.

I remember I was stuck 1v1ing the queen of the reef world boss for 15 min and I had to type in zone chat (in the middle of the fight) for a dps to help and she went down as soon as someone helped me.

Datolite

Petoften wrote: »

What I mean by the term is a char that can solo well that tries to combine damage mitigation, doing damage, and healing in a nice combination, instead of doing just one.

The basic approach is a templar with sword and shield.

But lots of questions come up about the viability, including when they do run into group play - what is their role, damage, tank or heals? (It would seem damage by default since they aren't specially strong in tanking or healing). What kind of armor would be best? Heavy?

Does this type of build make much sense?

You just described my PvP build. Except I wear light armor, but heavy is very viable for a support build in BGs or Cyrodiil.

In PvP, solo builds have to do all three, there is no trinity.

For solo PvE, try heavy armor with a focus on damage/magicka sets. So Bright-Throat's Boast, Julianos, Seducer, and Valkyn Skoria.

Taloros

A templar can be styled very easily to fit a Paladin role. May I tell you about my newest character...:



Attributes and Mundus:
34 Magicka, 20 Health, 10 Stamina
The Lord

Tank Mode
Skills:
Pierce Armor*, Heroic Slash*, Puncturing Sweep*, Introspection, Radiant Ward*, Empowering Sweep
Blockade of Frost, Luminous Shards*, Silver Leash, Purifying Light, Channeled Focus*, Icy Rage
*Core Skill

Sets:
Any Monster Set
Warrior Pet (Jewelry*, Chest, Legs)
Magicka Furnace (Sword/Shield/Ice Staff, Hands, Belt, Shoes)
*with Magicka recovery enchantment

Solo Mode
Skills:
Pierce Armor, Radiant Glory, Degeneration, Introspection, Radiant Ward, Empowering Sweep
Blockade of Storms, Luminous Shards, Reflective Light, Channeled Focus, Thunderous Rage

Sets:
As before, or use Julianos + Burning Spellweave or similar damage sets

The character is great for questing - almost unkillable, but still enough damage not to die of boredom during fights. She has almost infinite magicka during questing as well as tanking due to the Magicka Furnace set. Even with five pieces of light armor, she hits the armor cap with sword and shield due to Channeled Focus. Introspection and (in solo mode) Radiant Glory allow her to fly, form a WoW-style Paladin bubble, glow in the dark and shoot beams of holy light to exterminate evil whereever she meets it.

The sword and shield aren't all that useful in solo PvE. Pierce Armor gives some sort of justification, but it's really all about the looks. A Paladin carries a sword, not a stick. Run around with the sword and shield out, use Pierce Armor, than switch to staff and blast everything away.

The character is a bit more fragile than e. g. a full health Dragonknight, but tough enough to tank veteran dungeons - at least those I tried with her so far. Remember to keep Radiant Ward up and use Introspection if in trouble.

Cinbri

Paladins in Elder Scrolls are warriors in heavy armor with destructive magic. So you have to use heavy armor if you wana be true eso paladin.

Cheveyo

It isn't possible.

This game forces you to specialize. If you attempt to do more than one thing, you'll do them all terribly. And I mean TERRIBLY. Not just slightly worse than normal. I mean you'll have trouble killing most enemies. It'll take you 10 times longer to kill anything than if you're just a straight up tank or healer.

Hybrids aren't viable in this game. And they're not fun to attempt.


Best you can do is be a tank. You'll get some self-healing, but it wont be great. You wont do that much damage, either.

Psyonico

@Cheveyo , I disagree, I've got a stamina Templar tank that has near max resist, near 35k health and can pull 15k+ damage. No, it's not amazing damage, and he has a little trouble in vet dlc dungeons, but he still works

raj72616a

Psyonico wrote: »

@Cheveyo , I disagree, I've got a stamina Templar tank that has near max resist, near 35k health and can pull 15k+ damage. No, it's not amazing damage, and he has a little trouble in vet dlc dungeons, but he still works

i do not see how that's possible.
high resist and 35k health means that your mag/stam, wpn damage, spell damage can't be good. and you'd miss out on the light/medium armor passives.

and more importantly you need to dedicate your skill slots to pierce armor, heroic slash, silver slash, restoring focus etc, you need to use tanking weapon on at least one bar and cannot use both for dps weapon. so how is it possible to run a dps rotation to reach 15k single target dps while also tanking, especially when your weapon choice, stats, skill sets are all non-optimal for damage-dealing?

RavenSworn

raj72616a wrote: »

Psyonico wrote: »

@Cheveyo , I disagree, I've got a stamina Templar tank that has near max resist, near 35k health and can pull 15k+ damage. No, it's not amazing damage, and he has a little trouble in vet dlc dungeons, but he still works

i do not see how that's possible.
high resist and 35k health means that your mag/stam, wpn damage, spell damage can't be good. and you'd miss out on the light/medium armor passives.

and more importantly you need to dedicate your skill slots to pierce armor, heroic slash, silver slash, restoring focus etc, you need to use tanking weapon on at least one bar and cannot use both for dps weapon. so how is it possible to run a dps rotation to reach 15k single target dps while also tanking, especially when your weapon choice, stats, skill sets are all non-optimal for damage-dealing?

There's a crafted set called fortified brass, which will increase your resist higher than usual and you can make it in any type which means that you gain light armor / med armor passives too.

There's innate axiom while not the best example, gives extra spell and weapon damage to class skills while putting out max stats.

The best hybrid however are light armor based since the light armor passives are much better imo. (I've yet to test it with the new changes though). You can always use light armor but have equal stats in max Stam but you focus on bleed damage with dual wield backbar and direct damage with staff frontbar. Cp wise, thaumaturge and direct damage cp(can't remember the name) maxed out so you gain full bonuses from these.

So yeah, it is possible but would it be top of the line build in trials pumping 65k? Nope. But it is viable. Something for you to try out.

raj72616a

RavenSworn wrote: »

raj72616a wrote: »

Psyonico wrote: »

@Cheveyo , I disagree, I've got a stamina Templar tank that has near max resist, near 35k health and can pull 15k+ damage. No, it's not amazing damage, and he has a little trouble in vet dlc dungeons, but he still works

i do not see how that's possible.
high resist and 35k health means that your mag/stam, wpn damage, spell damage can't be good. and you'd miss out on the light/medium armor passives.

and more importantly you need to dedicate your skill slots to pierce armor, heroic slash, silver slash, restoring focus etc, you need to use tanking weapon on at least one bar and cannot use both for dps weapon. so how is it possible to run a dps rotation to reach 15k single target dps while also tanking, especially when your weapon choice, stats, skill sets are all non-optimal for damage-dealing?

There's a crafted set called fortified brass, which will increase your resist higher than usual and you can make it in any type which means that you gain light armor / med armor passives too.

There's innate axiom while not the best example, gives extra spell and weapon damage to class skills while putting out max stats.

The best hybrid however are light armor based since the light armor passives are much better imo. (I've yet to test it with the new changes though). You can always use light armor but have equal stats in max Stam but you focus on bleed damage with dual wield backbar and direct damage with staff frontbar. Cp wise, thaumaturge and direct damage cp(can't remember the name) maxed out so you gain full bonuses from these.

So yeah, it is possible but would it be top of the line build in trials pumping 65k? Nope. But it is viable. Something for you to try out.

non heavy fortified brass means you are giving up dps set bonus such as those of julianos and hunding's rage, which are huge. and you are missing on the heavy armor passive that boost your health, so you would have to sacrifice yet more points in stamina or magicka to get more health.

no one in this thread posted a build that :
1. has abt 35k health,
2. has high damage resistance,
3. can tank dungeons, and
4. can do 15k single target dps.

because that is not possible.

Taloros

The TE didn't ask for a high-end trial build:

Petoften wrote: »

Thanks, that's fine - this is more for things like running a random dungeon or a world boss.

Let's try to answer the question that was asked, not use it as an excuse to complain some other topic.

Everstorm

Currently fooling around with the following:

Altmer Templar with Pelinal's Aptitude, Shacklebreaker and Grothdarr. Using 2 hander and a bow (sharpened). Lover Mundus for penetration on both damage types. All points and glyphs into stamina, infused jewelry with weapon damage. Got a medium and a heavy armor setup, still undecided what I prefer.
On the front bar I'm using my magicka for Honor the Dead (heal) and Reflective Light (3 target DoT). Stamina for Brawler, Biting Jabs and Forward Momentum. Back bar still under construction, still missing some skills and low on skillpoints.

Still work in progress but I did some of the easier old world world bosses solo. Solo questing is no problem of course. Weapon/spell damage up to 3000 with medium armor and Momentum. Sustain is doable. This is with max CPs.
It obviously won't top any leaderboards for anything but it's fun enough to do overworld stuff. I took the twohander over sword and board for more dps and to have access to major brutality, don't want to spend all afternoon clearing a delve.

ArchMikem

Off the top of my head, a 1H&S/Bow Khajiit or Redguard Stamina Templar wearing 5 medium and 2 heavy. Hundings Rage, Spriggans, and a healing Monster Set like Trollking, Bogden, or Earthgore if you dont mind the blood rain.