TEMPLAR 2 HANDED QUESTIONS

brandonedward

Hi folks. ( Skill Tree filled out at bottom )

So I'm level 33 now... and have been playing my 2Handed Templar successfully thus far, but I'm always looking to improve my build / character overall.

First off, I'm curious what others have been taking as far as Attributes. I'm 10/22/0 so far, with Magicka overcharged with a Blue HP+Magicka food I use. Not sure if I should be dumping any points into Stamina though, seems I don't need/use it as much. I'd like to put more into Magicka, but as said; it's overcharged.
2 Handed

I have Uppercut, but not using it anymore. I recently replaced it with Momentum for the buff. Also, I'm debating on whether or not I should replace Critical Rush with Cleave for more AoE; or replace it with Momentum seems trash mobs die so quick anyways. Unsure...
Armor

I was originally Heavy to take more hits / play more as a tank, but switched to Medium for more DPS. I honestly don't notice much of a difference as far as killing speed goes.

I was thinking... should or could I Light Armor instead? The only reason I ask this, is because I use Biting Jabs / Dawn's Wrath line quite a lot, and more Magic/Magic Regen, maybe I could spam more freely? Or would I just get pummeled by small groups of 3-4 mobs?

Thoughts

So far I haven't had any help as far as my build goes. I've asked previously, but no one had any tips / no one cared to post, but I know there are others now that are at max level and have experimented much more than I have, so I have 2 main concerns, or 2 things I am thinking about changing, and I'm wondering if they are smart decisions or not.


As mentioned; if I were to change from Medium to Light Armor; would I be able to spend Magicka more freely? I read a post and the person said he was able to "spam Biting Jabs" doing so. Whether this is true or not, that sounds awesome considering it's the main ability I use.


And my least concerns are: is Cleave good at all? It seems like if I took Cleave, I'd be AoE heavy, which isn't bad, but Biting Jabs is getting it done quite well. Then again, I could open up with Cleave seems it's a DoT more or less, then Biting Jabs away. Also, Cleave would use up Stamina, which is good, seems Biting Jabs and everything else is pretty much Magicka.

Critical Rush is fine and all, but most the time I'm approaching 2-3 mobs, and Crit Rush isn't an AoE; though fun/useful, but I'm curious if Cleave is working well for others.

I've heard people using Reverse Slash, but just looking at it... it's meh to me. I was liking Uppercut, especially for bosses/hard hitting mobs (was using the -20%dmg debuff on mobs) but I hate the "cast" time on it.










Here is my Skill Tree completely filled out =

http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#coke9Mbznl8rFTY8rFTd8wAEb8wAlr8b0pS8heas8frrp85MDohs808N7lLDm6rDG6MbMXv6MbMX28p7rMdBvj6MdBEI6cdBET8j7CLU06LUM6MrJPr8n7AmWQ8x7HLsfr6msff6bsfi6MwGN16MwGAR6MwGAs6zwGAa6zwGAb8v7ocanW8O7zzAZqS8P7zzLp4d847pzxLCe6cxLDm6MxLDo6zxLDs8zf7MmNbo6zDVRH8zu7kMHfYE6cHfZm


So far, I'll pop Momentum, start off with a Sun Fire (Reflective Light) to hit 2-3 mobs at once, Critical Rush in, and either start Biting Jabbing away at everything, or first cast Solar Barrage, then Biting Jabs until Ultimate pops (usually everything dies before that though). This is just an idea on my rotation as of now.




Soooo yea... I'm curious if anyone could suggest something I could do different here? Or maybe address my "Thoughts" and concerns I have seems I think they may be viable/fun to play around with. Or if anything... this I believe is a decent build/platform someone could use if they decide to level up a 2 Hander themselves.

Anywho, thanks for reading/replying if you did and have a good weekend folks! Looking forward to hearing any ideas/thoughts others have too.

Opioid

I've been running 1h/shield and 2h setups on my Templar with Heavy Armor. I've been considering moving to medium armor for better crit and stamina regen though. It'll be an eventual thing, once I have spare skill points to put into clothing so I can craft my own set.

For my DPS setup, I use Critical Charge, Uppercut and Reverse Slash from 2h, Puncturing Strikes from Aedric Spear and Solar Flare from Dawn's Wrath trees.

Critical Charge morphed to Critical Rush so it does more damage based on how far away I am when I charge.
Uppercut morphed to Wrecking Blow to give my next attack more damage.
Reverse Slash morphed to Executioner to do more damage to low health enemies.
Puncturing Strikes morphed to Biting Jabs for greater crit chance on low health enemies.
Solar Flare morphed to Solar Barrage to remove the cast time, does some AoE damage and buffs my next attack.

I also use the Radial Sweep ultimate morphed to Crescent Sweep for additional damage to enemies in front of me.

I usually open with a Critical Rush from as far away as possible, pop a Wrecking Blow, Biting Jabs, a couple regular attacks, block/interrupt/dodge as needed, then finish them off with Executioner. I'll weave Solar Barrage in as well, usually on higher health enemies. And of course, I pop Crescent Sweep when I have enough ultimate stacked up.

I used to use Cleave but it felt rather weak, so I replaced it with Wrecking Blow. Biting Jabs does solid damage in a cone in front of you, so that's one of my fillers when I'm waiting for some Stamina regen.
Reverse Slash is pretty nice, I'll usually pop that once or twice when the target is around 20% health and it makes quick work of dropping them.

I did more or less a 1/2/1 split on Magicka/Health/Stamina points so I'd have a decent health pool and a fair amount of both magicka and stamina for all my attacks.

Criselli

Cleave is pretty handy for tanking lots of small trash. You can get a pretty huge damage shield with enough mobs hit (with the correct morph of course).

Axer

Your doing it about right (i've the same build, with offset being 1hand/shield). Though I'm VR5 now and find two handed to be just insanely weak for dps purposes, so I almost always use 1hand and shield, despite my preference.

Uppercut: Yea forget it, its a trash skill. At the higher lvls it will only get you killed due to its too slow anim.
Cleave: Terrible on its own. Once morphed to brawler, its an ok aoe tanking tool. Though if your not building to be a group tank, not worth slotting.

If you are building to be a tank, I'd recommend:
14/35 as final attrib spread. (Lets you hit OC limit for both hp+magicka endgame, with more of a focus on hp, which is generally needed)
-Alt wep set 1hand and shield. Lvl it extensively. Later in the game it becomes not only your defensive set, but also superior dps.

2hand is just sadly pretty lacking atm. Other then brawler as an ok aoe-defensive move, most of it' is plain infeiror to duel wield, bow and destro staff.

Personally leveling duel wield now, and while I don't have it very high yet, it alreayd looks vastly superior dps. And utility too honestly, given 1 more slot for set bonuses.

brandonedward

I posted this same question elsewhere and got several good suggestions. My build is different now, but mostly went and changed the things I was questioning.

I have noticed that Sword/Board seems a bit better than 2Hand, though some of the skills I'm using seem like it would work better as a 2H skill; mostly looking at Biting Jabs. It has the same speed whether it's 2H or 1Hand (I'm assuming) so I think it would be best to use with slower or higher DPS weapons; unless it doesn't really matter considering it's "Spell Damage" and not weapon damage.

I'm not too fond of cleave now that I've taken it, but there isn't many other good options that would do better than it. The DS / AoE is fine, but meh...


Also, I'm not focusing on Tanking at all right now (leveling as DPS); I figure I'll be a healer end-game (if there is any for PvE), but I have enjoyed MTing on other MMOs and was successful in doing so, but playing a healer is natural; considering I played a Cleric on EQ for since day 1 over there so...


Decisions decisions decisions...

Also, here's the new build I'm using = http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#cokexvbznl8wAvm8wAEb8ffoA8frrn8b0pS8heaR85mb0pS8N7BLDm6rDG6MbMXv6MbMX28L7IMdoQr6zdoQC6MdoQF8j7C68n7LbWQ6MWU6zfwe08x7HNsfd6Lsfr6MwGN16MwGAR6MwGAs6zwGAa6zwGAb8v7oManW8O7VzAZqS8P7V6847ezxLCe6cxLDm6MxLDo6zxLDs8zf7zmNbo8zu7DcHfYE6cHfZm


It's working pretty well. I thought switching to Light Armor and taking on groups of 3-4 wouldn't be fun, but they're still going down pretty quickly, and Repentance is pretty amazing...

Axer

brandonedward wrote: »

I have noticed that Sword/Board seems a bit better than 2Hand, though some of the skills I'm using seem like it would work better as a 2H skill; mostly looking at Biting Jabs. It has the same speed whether it's 2H or 1Hand (I'm assuming) so I think it would be best to use with slower or higher DPS weapons; unless it doesn't really matter considering it's "Spell Damage" and not weapon damage.

It, and every other class skill in the game is considered a spell, thus doesn't get affected by weapon damage.

And if it did, it would be vastly better to duel wield, as duel wield add BOTH weapons to your weapon damage score - setting it severely higher then any two hander in the game.
(Related: Since templars ultimate lvl50 passive is +4% weapon damage, the fact duel wield gives vastly more means it more suited to the class, or really any class that boosts/deals any weapon damage - tho this changes a bit end game vs weaker trash, as hp starts to vary more wildly).

Only way to up it is +spell damage jelwery.

And really the best way to use it, is to spam it non stop, with half of a light attack in between (as you can interupt the light attack with another spear stab). The light attack is really only put in there to get more total damage before you run outa magicka (as the games set up so spamming a ful bar generally wont kill even trash mobs, less your 100% magicka focused).

Add a fire enchant to your wep, and get some burn damage over time while spammign the spear. and 1hand/2hand/duel wield fire dmg enchants are all teh same, so again its better to duel wield, as you could potentially apply 2 fire hits, or 1 fire + other enchant like say a damage shield for tanking.

Arcane fighter does mean you have a higher chance to apply that fire dot, but the base chance is extremely high anyways, and pretty sure its 100% on a crit regardless of style too, so yea, still weaker then 2x enchants on duel wield.

brandonedward

So basically I should just switch to DW. Alright, suppose I shall give that a try once I'm home. I really do not care for the 2H skills anyways. The DS from cleave is pretty weak also.

Criselli

You have to hit a lot of mobs for the DS to be useful at all. Even then with many mobs it gets chewed through very quickly. Shield Charge morph is a significantly stronger shield compared to the Cleave one, but it can still help absorb the alpha strike.