I've played a templar ever since beta stress testing was done.

I've played all builds. all different types of game play. When I rolled the character for live I chose a high elf templar because of the focus on magicka.

As everyone knows, the templar has been consistently the worst class to play in ESO. There have been multiple surveys that confirm this by other players.

Our DPS is last on the list. Even though we can put up some decent numbers, it is, still in fact, last place.
For PVE DPS it goes DK, NB, Sorc, Temp.
For PVP DPS it goes NB, Sorc, DK, Temp.
Now a lot of players who have never played a templar before generally come on the forums yelling about RADIANT DESTRUCTION this or BREATH OF LIFE that and BITING JABS this or BLAZING SHIELD that and these are generally the talking points people use to say the class is fine. But lets take a look at these.

1. Breath of Life and Honor the Dead - This is the number one argument people like to use on why they should get their healing buffed or why templars are a "good" class. What they don't know about is something called the "Smart Healing System" that ZOS has embedded in their code. Basically, when I hit BOL or HTD, the heal will go to the lowest health person in the range of the spell. So what that means is you are NEVER guaranteed to heal yourself unlike other classes unless you are out of range of other faction players. Other classes can stack up healing buffs through CP, mundus, Gear and Restoration staff abilities and are 100% guaranteed a self heal (in most cases 75%-90% of their total health bar is returned) in 1 or 2 instant casts.

How many times as a templar healer have you been in Cyrodill near a keep under siege with other players (whether in group or out of group) OR in a group for that matter going against another group, you get hit by siege or other players AOE's and are being drained of health fast, you try to heal your self using your "OP" class heal only to heal the dopes that are not even in your group who like to stand in siege fire or right in the middle of the opposing zerg and not cleansing, healing or moving themselves and you die? for me, its happened hundreds and hundreds of times.

So all of the sudden my "OP" class heal becomes a "maybe if I feel like it" heal. Here's an example you can try on your own. take you and a friend somewhere with an npc. Have your friend have only have 16 or 18k health and you 25-30k. you aggro the npc and let them hit you. as long as your health stays above your friends every heal you do will go to him instead of you even though he is at 100% health. try it.

This is a huge buff for night blades and sorcerers who have escape skills and shield (sorc) because of this they generally stack everything into spell and weapon power and have the lowest health in cyrodiil and because its usually group vs group they get all the heals. letting them survive longer until the templar is dead. then, when they are about to be overcome simply hit vanish or streak and live to fight on. the templar has to rez and horse it back to group. it's insane.

2. DPS - Another big problem with Templars is our dps skills. ALL OF THEM THAT ACTUALLY DO DAMAGE ARE CHANNELED OR DAMAGE OVER TIME. granted there is one or 2 that are instant such as javelin which of course costs an incredible amount of resources and hits like a wad of wet kleenex. lets take a look.

- biting jabs or puncturing sweep - channeled - 1.1 secs for 4 hits. ANY PLAYER WHO IS NOT ABSOLUTELY BRAND NEW TO GAME IS NOT GONNA SIT THERE AND TAKE THIS. they can simply roll dodge through you, side step, back up, block, or CC you SINCE YOU ARE COMPLETELY OPEN TO ANY ATTACK WHILE CASTING THIS. Not to mention the other player gets a full cc immunity for a .5 sec knock back.
*this skill should have the same immunity as wrecking blow and have a lower cast time. .5 secs instead of 1.1

-spear shards - instant - but has an arc travel time so its close to .3 or .4 secs for initial damage to be done. the damage on initial hit is 2 - 2.5k then the other player has to stand in it which the area is only 8 meters for them to take the dot. ANY PLAYER WHO IS NOT BRAND NEW TO GAME IS NOT GONNA SIT THERE AND TAKE THIS. they can simply roll dodge, side step, or back up. Most people will just hold block and move back so your chances of striking someone with this ability over and over is low because of the arc travel time and small DOT radius.

-Sun shield and its morphs - Now completely useless. 15% of my max health as a shield for 6 secs? please just remove this skill completely from game because now it seems like your just laughing at us. not one single person is gonna slot this. skill destroyed.

-vampires bane and reflective light - instant - with travel time - initial blast is to low and damage over time is to low. not to mention the dot can easily be removed or soaked up by a damage shield.

-Solar flare and morph - channeled - 1.1 sec cast time - also has a high arc travel time so it can be close to 2 secs or more before any damage is done. ANY PLAYER WHO IS NOT ABSOLUTELY BRAND NEW TO GAME IS NOT GONNA SIT THERE AND TAKE THIS. due to the high arc travel time this skill is avoided 99% of the time. Who's idea was it to give these skills high arc paths? its just awful. The instant cast version of this has damage so low it makes you laugh.

-backlash - instant - but it has a 6 sec build up time which can be removed or mitigated so no damage is even done.

-eclipse - instant - however its cc breakable and cannot be applied to ANYONE who is under cc immunity. ANYONE WHO IS NOT BRAND NEW WILL INSTANTLY CC BREAK THIS FOR THE IMMUNITY - there is no instant damage so it gives people a free immunity going in to a fight for some stamina.

-Radiant Destruction - the skill there has been soooo much crying over. lets break it down. 1. you have to be low health, under 20% for the bonus effect to kick in. even then the damage IS SPREAD OUT OVER 3.4 SECS. mine on pts does 9443. lets do the math 9443 / 3.4 secs = 2777 damage per second which is then cut by 50% for IC which is now 1388 per second. LOL 1,388 DAMAGE PER SECOND! - NOT TO MENTION IS CAN BE INTERRUPTED, CLEANSED, RANGED, BUBBLED AND LEAVES YOU OPEN THE ENTIRE TIME TO BE CC'D OR ATTACKED. with all the heal stacking that will be going on people are going to be insta healing to 75 - 100% health or bubbling or my favorite spamming cloak. So to get someone to 20% health with these mechanics AND awful templar dps is going to be very very hard.

lets look at the healing, the meat of what makes the templar class.

1. rushed ceremony and morphs - a good skill - that is if your lucky enough for it to be applied to you. even then it requires you stop dps in order to cast it. a superior skill is hardened ward where the sorcerer can stack magicka and spell damage into it have a huge bubble and can continue with full cannon dps.

2. healing ritual and morphs - the cast time is way to long and leaves you open to be interrupted, and cc'd

3. restoring aura and morphs - the +20% buff does not apply to magicka only health and stamina. the repentance morph requires dead bodies for it to work. npcs that are dead vanish very fast so you have to be johnny on the spot with this.

4. cleansing ritual and morphs - good cleanse skill heal over time is a little low for a burst damage game.

5. rune focus and morphs - used to be a good skill now you have to stay within the small area to gain the magicka or healing buff. the area itself is small.

On top of all this we have no speed buff, no escape, no aoe cc, bad regen, sub par passives, and little to no instant dps skills.

MY SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE TO ME.

1. there needs to be a hierarchy in your smart healing system. it should go self>group>everyone else. the way it is seriously nerfs the core of our class.

2. puncturing sweep and morphs should have same immunity as wrecking blow and be .5 sec to cast. even dropping the 4th hit with the knock back will do if thats whats needed to make the change. I'm also not sure why this skill works differently with burning light. the proc chance is much lower then 25% which i'm sure is by design. please revert whatever changes you made to it.

3.changes to ultimates need to happen - i'd make the dot damage from NOVA an instant cast explosion that comes from the player and does aoe damage and reduces enemy player damage by 15%. 20k aoe damage (scaled with moderate spell or weapon power) with 15 meter radius and 15% enemy reduced damage seems fair for 240 ultimate. seeing is how dawn breaker, dragon leap, and overcharge already do similar damage. with dawn breaker and overcharge being much more cheaper. the way it is now, as much as you want them to, no one is gonna stand in your nova.

4.make repentance a toggle skill that automatically takes the essences from killed npcs and players.

5.Solar flare being thrown instead of heaved(straight flight time instead of high arc) . put it on par with crystal fragments in terms of speed and cast time and damage. keep the de-buff and no insta cast proc chance.

6.Eclipse being cast on self not on target.

7.make spear shards an aoe root or stun. similar to talons.

8. scale sun shield with spell damage and max magicka and extend the time to 20 secs.

I welcome to any feedback anyone else has concerning this breakdown. but before you comment please ask yourself.
do I have a v14 templar?
have I experienced all game content?
Do i understand that Imperial city is a pvp update?