Magicka Templar Self-Healing - PvE Perspective

Altyrann

The double hit to Ritual of Retribution losing all healing and Sweeps seeing healing reduced is making PvE situations where self healing is required, which could be anything from trials to trying to solo challenging content, far less fun than it used to be. You have no solid reliable HoT (Purifying Light is hit and miss and limited in both range and duration) and your burst healing from Sweeps now takes longer to top you up, meaning you often end up with no real option but to spam sweeps heavily. This doesn't make for interesting gameplay in any way, shape or form.

VaxtinTheWolf

it's like no one knows that Extended Ritual exists. No, it doesn't do damage but it's always been there, my stamina templar tank uses it since it was adjusted to scale with max resources. However, if you are in a solo situation what is wrong with using one slot for Honor the Dead? That seems like a viable solution in those instances.

geschaftmaker

So they nerfed the Templar? Lol was just going to pick one for easy solo questing after removal of crystal blast from sorc. So now I shouldn't advise it for those who want one-bar easy soloing, right?

kathandira

geschaftmaker wrote: »

So they nerfed the Templar? Lol was just going to pick one for easy solo questing after removal of crystal blast from sorc. So now I shouldn't advise it for those who want one-bar easy soloing, right?

Templars are still perfectly fine. Especially in PvE. They have great survivability, and still pump out great DPS.

They are still an easy 1 bar solo class.

FrancisCrawford

Magplar and magicka sorcerer still have the two most comfortable and reliable self-heals in the game, hardcore tank builds perhaps excepted.

And sorcerer self-healing has its own series of issues and nerfs, including:

• The matriarch has always taken two bar spots.
• The matriarch no longer does good damage.
• Critical Surge has been great for a while, but ZoS keeps signalling an intent to nerf crit (including in today's patch).

geschaftmaker

@FrancisCrawford
Looks like finally everyone will be nerfed to pieces. But Templar at least permits play solo easily with one bar used.

Everest_Lionheart

You have to actively heal or at least be aware now when you are in combat so it’s an extra skill you need to slot. Dropping RoR and switching to Honor the dead is an easy enough change.

Anyone have thoughts about introspection from the psijic line? Could be an interesting option as well.

Vajrak

I keep seeing complaints about this, and it keeps coming to the same end result -- if you aren't generating enough to top yourself off in a single sweeps cast -- then you weren't doing enough damage to begin with.

Have yet to hit a situation PvE where self-healing beyond sweeps was required, including vMA.

Everest_Lionheart

Vajrak wrote: »

I keep seeing complaints about this, and it keeps coming to the same end result -- if you aren't generating enough to top yourself off in a single sweeps cast -- then you weren't doing enough damage to begin with.

Have yet to hit a situation PvE where self-healing beyond sweeps was required, including vMA.

Boss fights there isn’t much difference but when I’m soloing a dungeon on some of the larger add pulls I have to move 1 cast of sweeps off the spam phase of the rotation and in the middle of the build up.

Where my rotation went Channel accel, solar barrage, wall of elements, blazing spear, RoR, channel focus before now it goes channel accel, solar barrage, wall, spear, sweep, channel focus before the sweep spam.

Essentially I’ve replaced the cast of RoR with a sweep when I try to pull a couple trash mobs together. It amounts to an extra bar swap, easy enough but it was definitely an adjustment at first.

Altyrann

VaxtinTheWolf wrote: »

it's like no one knows that Extended Ritual exists. No, it doesn't do damage but it's always been there, my stamina templar tank uses it since it was adjusted to scale with max resources. However, if you are in a solo situation what is wrong with using one slot for Honor the Dead? That seems like a viable solution in those instances.

I'm not a fan of using Extended Ritual as a DD, because there are situations where you want to use Ritual of Retribution for AoE and swapping morphs is a faff. You can slot a heal easily enough but you end up with the same fairly dull gameplay as using Sweeps to heal. Because it is all instant, you end up just spamming one thing to survive when needed, which is just uninteresting to me anyway. YMMV.

Altyrann

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Vajrak wrote: »

I keep seeing complaints about this, and it keeps coming to the same end result -- if you aren't generating enough to top yourself off in a single sweeps cast -- then you weren't doing enough damage to begin with.

Have yet to hit a situation PvE where self-healing beyond sweeps was required, including vMA.

Boss fights there isn’t much difference but when I’m soloing a dungeon on some of the larger add pulls I have to move 1 cast of sweeps off the spam phase of the rotation and in the middle of the build up.

Where my rotation went Channel accel, solar barrage, wall of elements, blazing spear, RoR, channel focus before now it goes channel accel, solar barrage, wall, spear, sweep, channel focus before the sweep spam.

Essentially I’ve replaced the cast of RoR with a sweep when I try to pull a couple trash mobs together. It amounts to an extra bar swap, easy enough but it was definitely an adjustment at first.

This is broadly where I am landing. When doing things with significant incoming damage over time you end up unable to leave much time between sweeps because you have no healing when not actively using it. RoR was a really nice complementary skill with the HoT as it gave you some background healing while you could jump to Sweeps for burst where needed. Now, if for example going after a DLC world boss that is fairly hard work solo, you end up with an awful lot of sweeps spam. It works (resources permitting but I'm not going to jump into the state of sustain here) but it's really not very interesting.

Everest_Lionheart

Altyrann wrote: »

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Vajrak wrote: »

I keep seeing complaints about this, and it keeps coming to the same end result -- if you aren't generating enough to top yourself off in a single sweeps cast -- then you weren't doing enough damage to begin with.

Have yet to hit a situation PvE where self-healing beyond sweeps was required, including vMA.

Boss fights there isn’t much difference but when I’m soloing a dungeon on some of the larger add pulls I have to move 1 cast of sweeps off the spam phase of the rotation and in the middle of the build up.

Where my rotation went Channel accel, solar barrage, wall of elements, blazing spear, RoR, channel focus before now it goes channel accel, solar barrage, wall, spear, sweep, channel focus before the sweep spam.

Essentially I’ve replaced the cast of RoR with a sweep when I try to pull a couple trash mobs together. It amounts to an extra bar swap, easy enough but it was definitely an adjustment at first.

This is broadly where I am landing. When doing things with significant incoming damage over time you end up unable to leave much time between sweeps because you have no healing when not actively using it. RoR was a really nice complementary skill with the HoT as it gave you some background healing while you could jump to Sweeps for burst where needed. Now, if for example going after a DLC world boss that is fairly hard work solo, you end up with an awful lot of sweeps spam. It works (resources permitting but I'm not going to jump into the state of sustain here) but it's really not very interesting.

I’m sticking with my lightning staff and looking at going overwhelming surge plus medusa. If I could get either lightning staff to drop 🤣

Shouldn’t have to worry about sustain that way. Spam jabs and crits all day.

Altyrann

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Altyrann wrote: »

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Vajrak wrote: »

I keep seeing complaints about this, and it keeps coming to the same end result -- if you aren't generating enough to top yourself off in a single sweeps cast -- then you weren't doing enough damage to begin with.

Have yet to hit a situation PvE where self-healing beyond sweeps was required, including vMA.

Boss fights there isn’t much difference but when I’m soloing a dungeon on some of the larger add pulls I have to move 1 cast of sweeps off the spam phase of the rotation and in the middle of the build up.

Where my rotation went Channel accel, solar barrage, wall of elements, blazing spear, RoR, channel focus before now it goes channel accel, solar barrage, wall, spear, sweep, channel focus before the sweep spam.

Essentially I’ve replaced the cast of RoR with a sweep when I try to pull a couple trash mobs together. It amounts to an extra bar swap, easy enough but it was definitely an adjustment at first.

This is broadly where I am landing. When doing things with significant incoming damage over time you end up unable to leave much time between sweeps because you have no healing when not actively using it. RoR was a really nice complementary skill with the HoT as it gave you some background healing while you could jump to Sweeps for burst where needed. Now, if for example going after a DLC world boss that is fairly hard work solo, you end up with an awful lot of sweeps spam. It works (resources permitting but I'm not going to jump into the state of sustain here) but it's really not very interesting.

I’m sticking with my lightning staff and looking at going overwhelming surge plus medusa. If I could get either lightning staff to drop 🤣

Shouldn’t have to worry about sustain that way. Spam jabs and crits all day.

Using PFGD and Overwhelming here and sustain is still pretty shocking (pun just a happy coincidence). The Magblade feels much nice to play at the minute between sustain and a HoT from Swallow Soul if needed.

Vajrak

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Vajrak wrote: »

I keep seeing complaints about this, and it keeps coming to the same end result -- if you aren't generating enough to top yourself off in a single sweeps cast -- then you weren't doing enough damage to begin with.

Have yet to hit a situation PvE where self-healing beyond sweeps was required, including vMA.

Boss fights there isn’t much difference but when I’m soloing a dungeon on some of the larger add pulls I have to move 1 cast of sweeps off the spam phase of the rotation and in the middle of the build up.

Where my rotation went Channel accel, solar barrage, wall of elements, blazing spear, RoR, channel focus before now it goes channel accel, solar barrage, wall, spear, sweep, channel focus before the sweep spam.

Essentially I’ve replaced the cast of RoR with a sweep when I try to pull a couple trash mobs together. It amounts to an extra bar swap, easy enough but it was definitely an adjustment at first.

...roll dodge. Not even teasing, it gives more than enough time to drop RoR, focus, sweep while gathering.

Everest_Lionheart

Vajrak wrote: »

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Vajrak wrote: »

I keep seeing complaints about this, and it keeps coming to the same end result -- if you aren't generating enough to top yourself off in a single sweeps cast -- then you weren't doing enough damage to begin with.

Have yet to hit a situation PvE where self-healing beyond sweeps was required, including vMA.

Boss fights there isn’t much difference but when I’m soloing a dungeon on some of the larger add pulls I have to move 1 cast of sweeps off the spam phase of the rotation and in the middle of the build up.

Where my rotation went Channel accel, solar barrage, wall of elements, blazing spear, RoR, channel focus before now it goes channel accel, solar barrage, wall, spear, sweep, channel focus before the sweep spam.

Essentially I’ve replaced the cast of RoR with a sweep when I try to pull a couple trash mobs together. It amounts to an extra bar swap, easy enough but it was definitely an adjustment at first.

...roll dodge. Not even teasing, it gives more than enough time to drop RoR, focus, sweep while gathering.

If I go one mob at a time instead of pulling multiple mobs together I can pretty much do my old rotation. The major expedition from precasting channeled acceleration really works wonders for Templar rotation. I like the idea of roll dodge but I’m worried to strain the stamina pool in case I need it in dungeons like Arx Corinium where I prefer to pull 3 mobs together and have already dropped my stam pool from sprinting.

Once I’m finally set I’m good. As I said I don’t necessarily mind the changes. It’s taken magplar out of mindless EZ mode and made it so you have to pay attention a little bit now. Still it’s way easier to solo compared to say MagDK where you can kill everything super fast but your access to heals is more limited. I play Stamden and stamNB also, two classes with a lot more complexity to them. Magplar was my break from getting so sweaty!

Everest_Lionheart

Altyrann wrote: »

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Altyrann wrote: »

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Vajrak wrote: »

I keep seeing complaints about this, and it keeps coming to the same end result -- if you aren't generating enough to top yourself off in a single sweeps cast -- then you weren't doing enough damage to begin with.

Have yet to hit a situation PvE where self-healing beyond sweeps was required, including vMA.

Boss fights there isn’t much difference but when I’m soloing a dungeon on some of the larger add pulls I have to move 1 cast of sweeps off the spam phase of the rotation and in the middle of the build up.

Where my rotation went Channel accel, solar barrage, wall of elements, blazing spear, RoR, channel focus before now it goes channel accel, solar barrage, wall, spear, sweep, channel focus before the sweep spam.

Essentially I’ve replaced the cast of RoR with a sweep when I try to pull a couple trash mobs together. It amounts to an extra bar swap, easy enough but it was definitely an adjustment at first.

This is broadly where I am landing. When doing things with significant incoming damage over time you end up unable to leave much time between sweeps because you have no healing when not actively using it. RoR was a really nice complementary skill with the HoT as it gave you some background healing while you could jump to Sweeps for burst where needed. Now, if for example going after a DLC world boss that is fairly hard work solo, you end up with an awful lot of sweeps spam. It works (resources permitting but I'm not going to jump into the state of sustain here) but it's really not very interesting.

I’m sticking with my lightning staff and looking at going overwhelming surge plus medusa. If I could get either lightning staff to drop 🤣

Shouldn’t have to worry about sustain that way. Spam jabs and crits all day.

Using PFGD and Overwhelming here and sustain is still pretty shocking (pun just a happy coincidence). The Magblade feels much nice to play at the minute between sustain and a HoT from Swallow Soul if needed.

And here I just made a stamblade instead of mag. Same thing for sustain though. She can sit in there beating on stuff for days with leeching strikes and swallow soul. I like that swallow soul doesn’t take from the stam pool as well. It’s basically a free damage/hot skill for stamblade.