First Crafted set for a freshly leveled Mag Templar

JMadFour

Got my Templar to CPs, going to get his starter gear crafted today.

I play my Templar mainly as a Ranged Mage, using Elemental Weapon as my spammable, with Sweeps on my back back for aoe/heals when I need to melee. Maybe one day I'll do my 2nd loadout as a healer.

The gear I make is going to be fully crafted, no dungeon/overland to start with and no trials because I don't do trials anyway. I have a character that is nearly 8-traited on every craft except Jewelry so I can make and upgrade nearly everything myself. It will be mainly for soloing with my companion(including dungeons and WBs if possible) until I can get better sets from dungeons and whatnot.

I have two questions.

1)Which combo of sets would be better - Order's Wrath/Innate Axiom, Order's Wrath/Claw of the Forest Wraith, Innate Axiom/Claw of the Forest Wraith?

2)Should I use a Resto staff instead of Lightning/Ice on my back bar and just use Solar Barrage/Ritual of Retribution along with Sweeps for AOE instead of Elemental Blockade? Or would I be sacrificing too much by not using Elemental Blockade? Front Bar will be a fire staff.

Thoughts?

fred4

Can't really go wrong with Order's Wrath. The problem with the other two sets is that they will neither buff Elemental Weapon nor your light attacks.

Honestly, for solo play I would front bar Puncturing Sweeps, because it's single target + AOE + healing. Using Elemental Weapon sounds ... masochistic. In case of Sweeps, Axiom or Claw starts to make sense, but I do not know which is better. I suspect Claw. Crit tends to be the best stat for PvE DPS and templar has +10% crit damage. Axiom with that double mag / stam line is more of a PvP option. I'd pair with Order's Wrath, because Wrath is the most flexible set that I would make jewelry of and that will likely retain the most long term value, assuming you are CP160+.

That said, what I'd really do for soloing is pick up Hexos Ward in a guild store. Get purple jewelry of that set. It's much cheaper than crafting, though you will want to transmute it to Bloodthirsty. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.

As an experienced solo player: You need to stay on the attack. Any healing or shield you need to actively cast doesn't progress the fight, with the possible exception of heavy attack builds. Not progressing the fight is fine in easy content, but the harder the content gets, the more taking time out for a heal or shield is an issue until there comes a point where that's all you do. This, then, results in your death as you run out of resources. As a magplar you have one of the best healing while attacking skills in Puncturing Sweeps. I would use it as your spammable. It is strong.

That said, I do not find magplar the best solo class, and that's because Sweeps is a channel and you can't block while your're doing it. This is where Hexos Ward comes in. It's a shield you don't need to cast and one of the best shielding sets in the game. It also gives you weapon damage and crit, making it the defensive set for the damage-conscious DD.

The other consideration is that, the more difficult the content gets, the more you must stay relentlessly on the attack with Sweeps to avail of the healing and with other skills to progress the fight. Heavy attacks are one option, but you are open and not healing while channeling those. A Wretched Vitality back bar (activated via the templar rune) is something to consider while going full damage on jewelry and mundus. This leaves room for something like:

Willpower front bar + 1x jewelry (guild store, cheap)
Order's Wrath both bars
Wretched Vitality back bar
1x other (Druid's, Trainee, Slimecraw, Magma Incarnate, or a mythic)

Technically a dual-wield front bar is probably best damage for a Sweeps build, but I prefer a lightning staff as the easiest way to pull off occasional heavy attacks and restore magicka. Note even the single target component of Sweeps is buffed by lightning staves, not flame staves (Radiant will be a bit down though).

Back bar should probably be an Infused flame staff for optimum damage, with a +452 weapon / spell damage enchant. Yes, you must use Unstable Wall (or Elemental Blockade) on the back bar. This is to keep 100% uptime of the enchant (which you will get, even if you bar swap). A tankier option would be to use an ice staff, e.g. for the block cost and mitigation. Don't use a resto unless maybe you want to cast Regeneration to heal your companion. That would be a notable DPS loss though, because you want Unstable Wall on the back bar.

FrancisCrawford

Some thoughts:

• I'm not convinced crit is best for solo play.
• It's very tempting to go with 1 inferno bar and 1 lightning bar for templar. Your best damage skill is single-target, namely Jesus Beam. (I prefer the self-healing morph, but YMMV). You'll also want to bring some AoE skills.
• The Aedric Spear skills you actually want to use are all AoE, but it's still very natural to put one on the inferno staff bar for the passives. Oh well.
• Heavy attack builds are fun. Choose something that will go well with Sergeant's Mail.