I have recently come to a quandary between what would be better for over-land questing in PvE, trying to do world-bosses, and delve's... a magicka based Nightblade or a magicka based Templar.
Note - this is for overland PvE mobs, questing, Delves, and world bosses. This is not about group dungeons, Trials, Vet Trials, PvP, or any 'end-game' activity.
Templar is pretty easy to play solo - drop Restoring Focus (for greater defense, Channeled Focus if you need more magicka recovery), hit mobs with Vampire Bane/Reflective Light to put a DoT on them, then jab away with Puncturing Sweeps. Have another heal on the bar... and that's all you need for general PvE questing. Obviously solo'ing dungeons, world bosses, etc will need more than that.
Up till recently I was playing my Nightblade as a stamina build, but without Vigor. Although even without Vigor I was able to deal with PvE mobs, since I was using (terrible) DoT heals such as Refreshing Path (terrible due to it being magicka based), as well as leveling the Summon Shade skill... which was great as it did take agro quite often. I also got great heals when I killed something due to Killer's Blade & Vampire's Kiss armor proc. However I always felt squishy and in danger, as I didn't have a big 'on demand' heal outside on my Ult (Soul Tether).
So decided to respec and try a magicka Nightblade instead. Tossed on a green same-level armor set of Seducer (5-piece) and Magnus 4-piece (2 armor & dual swords) with some cheap +magicka jewelry. Switched my CP to be magicka focused, and dumped attributes all into Magicka. Hadn't leveled anything in Destruction Staff at this time... so went with all class skills - Swallow Soul, Impale, Summon Shade, Sap Essence & Grim Focus. I'd start the fight with Grim Focus for +8% damage, summon shade then spam Swallow Soul. Oh, and I'd use Sap Essence as soon as enemy in range, regardless of health, to get +20% weapon/spell damage.
What I found was so, so vastly different to how things were as a stamina NB.. I was powering through mobs, staying above 80% health virtually all the time... even when I accidentally aggroed 2 groups of 3. Truthfully I was floored at how easy it was to deal with multiple enemies and stay healed... just keeping summon shade up, hitting Sap Essence every 15 seconds or so when in range, or spammed when health is going down fast, while spamming swallow soul.
In fact due to Sap Essense, this character now had the same trait/'feel' as my templar - the more mobs I was fighting, the better the healing. This is due to both SE & PS healing based on the damage dealt, and the more mobs you hit... the more damage you cause, thus the more healing you do. Both Templar & Nightblade had the same CP in the +healing lines, as well as +Dot damage & +magic damage.
And this all on just 1 weapon/skill bar - simply due to me using the other bar for leveling skills & weapon's... and couldn't be bothered switching them around constantly between a 'fight' setup & 'learning/xp' setup.
So was wondering if anyone had any feedback/thoughts for general PvE questing, overland PvE mob fighting, doing World Bosses, etc ... magicka Templar or magicka Nightblade?
o_O