Templar Tank, insight would be appreciated!

Celestrael · July 2015

So I briefly beta tested the PC version of ESO and I came back for the console release on PS4. Definitely enjoying the game but I'm trying to make sure I'm setting myself up correctly for endgame.

I'm a 30 Imperial Templar, with the desire to play a "Paladin" like style. Up to this point I've been sword and board + 7 pieces of heavy and splitting my attribute points between Health and Stamina. Regarding Skills, I use the taunt from 1H, Puncturing Sweep, the knockdown (the name escapes me), the single target heal from the healing tree for self heals, the buff from the healing line, and the ultimate is from the Aedric Spear line.

I've been trying to gather information the best i can but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there on Templar tanks (as they seem to be corralled into just being healers). Reading the most recent notes from Zenimax on them wanting to buff up the weaker lines in Templar (most likely Spear) I'm going to stay the course and keep going tank!

From what I understand, the first thing i'm doing wrong is I should be wearing 1 piece of light and 1 piece of medium. Which is contrary to my purist playstyle but I've found the game penalizes purism pretty much across the board so I'll get over it. I suppose I should also add one of the magicka dps skills to my bar too to level that, but which one? Am I doing my attribute points right? I've been thinking about what to do with my second weapon/bar and haven't decided yet. I was thinking 2H. Is that viable or should I do something else? Any general suggestions for skills I should be leveling up?

I really wish I was having more success finding information and insight elsewhere on my own but most links I find when searching are sites pushing paid guides (which probably suck).

Stannum · July 2015

IMHO if you want good templar tank it's better to use magika skills and split attr between health and magika.
Why i think so
1) You will need stamina for blocking and bashing, if you' use it for attacks too you will run out of it very fast. Tank without stamina cannot tank. And you cannot get stamina with heaby attack, when you do heavy you cannot block, tank without block - dead tank.
2) All you heals/shields/buffs works on magika. So you can split you survival resources and use both effectively stamina for blocking magika for healing/shielding. You also can attack with magika and if you run out of it you still have stamina so can continue blocking.

Another point - try to use mixed armour. Leave 5 heavy (for defence bonuses), but use medium gloves and light belt (or light gloves and belt). That will somewhat emprove resource managment and will give you attr pool bonuses when you get undawnted passive.

Skill's and skill's rotation, i think you can find yourself
blazing shield and channeled focus must have tank skills other are optional.

Celestrael · July 2015

So I should morph my Aedric Spear skills back to Magicka versions, dump my attributes into Magicka, and use stam only for blocking and bashing? What about taunting? Do I keep the 1h taunt or get a new one?

With 5 pieces of heavy, wont my magicka regen be painfully slow? I'll have stam to block and bash but what about for my attacks?

Do you know a good resource for finding skills and rotations?

Stannum · July 2015

Celestrael wrote: »

So I should morph my Aedric Spear skills back to Magicka versions, dump my attributes into Magicka, and use stam only for blocking and bashing? What about taunting? Do I keep the 1h taunt or get a new one?

inner rage cost magika but has rather high cost so it's good for taunting bosses but should be used on 15s CD, swarms of adds try to first dmg aggro (with smth like topplin charge with solar barrage)

With 5 pieces of heavy, wont my magicka regen be painfully slow? I'll have stam to block and bash but what about for my attacks?

With 7 heavy your stamina regen will be even more painfully slow. But 5h + 1m and 1l or 5h + 2l has better regen then 7h. you can also emprove you regen with proper sets (like seduser or warlock jewelry). Channeled focus will aslo help with magika regen.
As for attacks - its not the main tank goal, but you can use sollar barrage for AoE, toppling cahrge for gap closer and may be vampire bane for single target (it also has DoT so you don\t need to spam it). Blazing shield will also help with returning dmg. Btw you can also use structured entropy as it buffs you dmg boosts hp? gives small HoT and aslo regen buff.

Celestrael · July 2015

After reading the plans for nerfing blocking (no more stam regen while blocking), it actually might be an idea to convert my attacks to Magicka so that I can use my stam pool just for blocking.

So it's a no-go on inner rage and I should stick with the stamina taunt?

Stannum · July 2015

stamina taunt is cheap but melee ranged, inner rage has high cost but is ranged and has synergy. You can try both and leave the one you like most. (As for me, i used inner rage)

Lord Xanhorn · July 2015

Magicka Templars are really fun once your get the hang of it. Its one of the classes that really benefits from the often overlooked Drink buffs for Magicka and Stam regen.

Celestrael · July 2015

Do you know anywhere that has a good guide to being a magicka templar tank? I could really use the guidance because i haven't the slightest idea what I'm doing. lol

p_tsakirisb16_ESO · July 2015

Celestrael wrote: »

Do you know anywhere that has a good guide to being a magicka templar tank? I could really use the guidance because i haven't the slightest idea what I'm doing. lol

There are few around.

The beauty of this game is freedom. Something the significant majority of the players haven't comprehend yet.

I would say for Templar roll an Altmer or Breton and put all attributes to Health.
That way if you decide to go MA you are fine. If you decide to go STA you only need to make a second set of gear, that give STA bonuses.

MA Templar Tank, you go for 2 Light rest HA (especially now with the upcoming changes with STA regen or else Med), shield & sword
Radial Sweep & Puncturing Strikes are your bread and butter. One lowers the damage you take, the other heals you while doing good damage. (5000+ single target, on multiple targets multiply it, pierce armour applied)
Also Repentance is good to regen the whole grp constantly.

For keeping aggro on you, caltrops for AOE and Pierce Armour for single target.

After that you need to experiment how you like it most. I have a Khajiit like that, and is superb tank, and can off heal if needed. Breton/Altmer are far superior though.

Celestrael · July 2015

I went Imperial because I spent 100 bucks on the Ultimate Edition. lol

jkemmery · July 2015

p_tsakirisb16_ESO wrote: »

For keeping aggro on you, caltrops for AOE ...

For those who may not know, Caltrops is an Alliance War ability and only available to you if you PVP past a certain level. My main is an Alliance War Corporal Grade 1 and still does not have caltrops.

Celestrael · July 2015

So I've noticed a pretty substantial decrease in my DPS switching. I'm also finding that I run out of Magicka pretty quickly and it's slow to recover.

I redid my attributes and am now 15 health, 15 magicka. I redid my morphs to turn my Aedric spells back into Magicka spells. I added a cloth gloves and did 2 Recovery in the Light Armor tree.

Anything else I need to do to make me more effective?

RavenSworn · July 2015

You also need magicka reduction gear sets or enchants on your jewelery. Going either resto for extra healing and magicka returns or destro for extra aoe damage on your secondary bar will also help with your magicka issues.

Visemere · July 2015

Celestrael wrote: »

So I've noticed a pretty substantial decrease in my DPS switching. I'm also finding that I run out of Magicka pretty quickly and it's slow to recover.

I redid my attributes and am now 15 health, 15 magicka. I redid my morphs to turn my Aedric spells back into Magicka spells. I added a cloth gloves and did 2 Recovery in the Light Armor tree.

Anything else I need to do to make me more effective?

if your pve levelling, honestly, id stick to simple stuff.

im full heavy 1h shield, all heavy passives (except ultimate) morphed to biting jabs (stam version) and i have zero downtime levelling. I have the 3 target morphed dawns ability to pull, 1h snare 1h taunt, then biting jabs, heal and aedric ultimate.

i literally dont stop at VR3, ever, even up against 3-4 mobs of same level in delves.

These guys are giving you specs for end game stuff when you have the passives and armor sets to make it work, so it will seem slow right now.

as for attributes, the key is use them as a buffer not a priority, SKILLS > GEAR > Attributes

get your skills, get your gear to maximise those skills, plug the holes with attributes.

if you have rings and necklace, enchant them with reduce magicka/stamina enchants (you can buy these from a vendor)

if your magicka based, enchant all your gear with +Magicka or +health or +stamina then use your attributes, at level 15 its too early to pigeon hole really, but keep 5 heavy, 1 medium, 1 light armour no matter what you do, because they will level up with you giving you access to passives in each line to help out with resource management.

me personally, im sticking to 7 heavy 1h sheild and bow 2nd bar, i just like my play style, it means in keep sieges i can range dps or jump in and **** *** up with my 1h and shield... its all preference, there is no right spec.

Visemere · July 2015

oh and my staminga regen is amazing in 7 heavy, helps with Champions points, food buffs and passives from heavy armour.

definitely take the time to level provisioning, seriously, its worth it.

Celestrael · July 2015

I probably should have left things alone, then. The way I was playing before was working fine for me. I dunno if I want to spend the coin to reset my stuff again though. Sigh, this game is confusing. lol