Ian_Stormbringer wrote: »I have decided to go the Stamina build. What would best choice for my 2nd choice of weapon? Bow/2Hand/or Res Staff? Or do I just stay with S/B and what would my bars look like then?
Ian_Stormbringer wrote: »So, I understand that the Templar is the route, but I want to play this world as a traditional Paladin. Which means, in my mind, S/B, Heavy, Heal. Is this possible if I don't want to be a Elite player. I love to grind and pick up everything. I do play solo alot do to my gaming hours. I have read many sites but none really explain the traditional Paly. What skill and attributes should I follow. Any suggestions from vets would be helpful. I am L25 at the moment but do not know the path to choose. May the Eagles show you the path.
A sword and shield Templar is sometimes called a stamplar. This is because the game currently rewards stacking one attribute as opposed to spreading out your attributes evenly. (Hybrid builds are coming into ascendancy now though). Since sword and shield is a stamina skill line, it makes sense that the rest of your character should be stamina too. There are skill morphs in the Templar skill lines that allow you to use stamina to cast instead of magicka. As you level you always want to be wearing at least 1 of each weight armor (heavy, medium, light) because you'll then be prepared to switch around combinations and passives in the future.
A sword and shield Templar is sometimes called a stamplar. This is because the game currently rewards stacking one attribute as opposed to spreading out your attributes evenly. (Hybrid builds are coming into ascendancy now though). Since sword and shield is a stamina skill line, it makes sense that the rest of your character should be stamina too. There are skill morphs in the Templar skill lines that allow you to use stamina to cast instead of magicka. As you level you always want to be wearing at least 1 of each weight armor (heavy, medium, light) because you'll then be prepared to switch around combinations and passives in the future.
Um...a s&b templar is generally called a tank, not a stamplar. And in that role it's imo more efficient as a magplar/healthplar who can take advantage of Blazing shield (awesome templar shield scaling with your health) and have enough sustain to self heal/off heal. Stamina management gets tricky in harder content (starting with vet dlc dungeons I'd say) though.
Can totally be a stamplar too but magplar tanks can offer far more to the group imo. They're also getting great sustain help from Channeled Focus. And they're way shinier(Blazing shield is literally a gold light halo around your whole body)I'd recommend tanking with possibility for offheals(building for magicka sustain pretty much) in group content, that sounds like it'd suit OP well. For solo content, well you can pretty much do whatever albeit heavy armor will slow you down a bit. Just slot Sweeps and sweep everything to death though
A sword and shield Templar is sometimes called a stamplar. This is because the game currently rewards stacking one attribute as opposed to spreading out your attributes evenly. (Hybrid builds are coming into ascendancy now though). Since sword and shield is a stamina skill line, it makes sense that the rest of your character should be stamina too. There are skill morphs in the Templar skill lines that allow you to use stamina to cast instead of magicka. As you level you always want to be wearing at least 1 of each weight armor (heavy, medium, light) because you'll then be prepared to switch around combinations and passives in the future.
Um...a s&b templar is generally called a tank, not a stamplar. And in that role it's imo more efficient as a magplar/healthplar who can take advantage of Blazing shield (awesome templar shield scaling with your health) and have enough sustain to self heal/off heal. Stamina management gets tricky in harder content (starting with vet dlc dungeons I'd say) though.
Can totally be a stamplar too but magplar tanks can offer far more to the group imo. They're also getting great sustain help from Channeled Focus. And they're way shinier(Blazing shield is literally a gold light halo around your whole body)I'd recommend tanking with possibility for offheals(building for magicka sustain pretty much) in group content, that sounds like it'd suit OP well. For solo content, well you can pretty much do whatever albeit heavy armor will slow you down a bit. Just slot Sweeps and sweep everything to death though
Sometimes. Sometimes called. Sometimes. You are the second person in this thread to point this out..... I guess I should change my wording. I agree that magplar tank is amazing too. Templars in general are the best "overall" class in that they aren't OP but are very satisfying when you build them with a goal in mind, and all 3 roles are acceptable. It is my opinion that a stam skill user (sword and shield) would benefit from being stam based, but as I pointed out in my post, I have a magNB tank so I KNOW that either can be done and done well.
hmsdragonfly wrote: »
Skillbars: Sword/Shield both
Bar 1: Harness Magicka, Pierce Armor, Purifying Light, Radiant Aura, Structured Entropy Ult: Empowering Sweep
Bar 2: Blazing Spear (Flex), Inner Fire, Ritual of Retribution, Channeled Focus, Structured Entropy Ult: Empowering Sweep
What about Heroic Slash and Absorb Magic :O
What about BoL :O
hmsdragonfly wrote: »
Skillbars: Sword/Shield both
Bar 1: Harness Magicka, Pierce Armor, Purifying Light, Radiant Aura, Structured Entropy Ult: Empowering Sweep
Bar 2: Blazing Spear (Flex), Inner Fire, Ritual of Retribution, Channeled Focus, Structured Entropy Ult: Empowering Sweep
What about Heroic Slash and Absorb Magic :O
What about BoL :O
Re: Heroic Slash -- Your ult generation is already high between outgoing damage, extra from the purifying light proc, and you are using a low cost ult (72). The minor maim can be helpful, but since you are mostly vested into mag, and no penetration for either mag or stam, the damage is negligible. Minor Maim @ cost of stam vs more options to build up fast ult and keep a 19% or greater damage reduction up majority of the time.
Re: Absorb Magic -- you can utilize it if you like, it will reduce the block cost and raise the mitigation a little -- but honestly, good usage of harness magicka means you don't need to bother with blocking as often, just the biggest hits. Defensive posture overall is actually better, since Absorb magic has a cap on how much damage it will absorb, the rest goes through to you, but Defensive Posture will reflect the same projectile, no matter how much damage it is going to do. Even if the reflect can't stun the mob (like a boss that has immunity) the damage reflect is still more useful than the piddling heal, since this is a mag based build, not a stamina one. 2k stamina for a minor heal is not a good trade.
Re: Breath of Life -- is a ridiculous and atrocious waste of magicka. If you look in the flex options I gave, Honor the Dead and Hasty Prayer are both listed, because HtD is more mana efficient as an emergency heal than Breath of Life, and Hasty Prayer is a great PBAoE heal, for higher restore, lower cost, and gives ult generation to an ally if they are below 60% hp. With a good recovery stat, you can actually cast Hasty Prayer about 60 times in combat, while keeping taunt up, without running out of magicka -- Harness and synergies extend this even further, as well as heavy attacks if utilizing the archmage set. Why have 2 mediocre heals when you can have 5 (self+allies) overwhelming ones, that fit in the HoT aura of Ritual of Retribution already, for a slight cast time (so you have to be a tank, know the fight, watch for high damage/casts that can't be interrupted).
I've been using variations of this setup since beta, and have managed to tank all content in the game besides the newest dlc and paywall stuff(which once my computer is fixed and running properly, I will do that as well, at least the dlc).
hmsdragonfly wrote: »
Minor Main is meant for squishy DDs and healer in your group, not for yourself.
hmsdragonfly wrote: »You should use Aggressive Warhorn instead of the low cost ult anyway if you run with a competent group.
hmsdragonfly wrote: »Both Absorb Magic and Defensive Posture are good. You don't use them anyway except for a few fights like final boss in ISP.
hmsdragonfly wrote: »Breath of Life isn't meant for myself but for people in my group. Breath of Life can heal 2 targets while Honor the Dead can only heal one...people are often far away from me, especially if they are ranged DDs, Hasty Prayer's radius is 10m, it's not big enough to reach everyone in the group most of the time. Besides, i am not dropping block while tanking one of the difficult bosses, it's too scary for me.
I follow the idea of keeping the primary damage mob AWAY from the squishies -- on a low stam build, spamming heroic slash isn't a good use of your pool over taunting, blocking/bashing, break-free, etc. Since primary damage received is on my end, including AoEs, having minor maim is optional, not required.
I already said at the original post that I was not including PvP skills -- so no Barrier, no Vigor, no Aggressive Warhorn. Warhorn does have it's uses, but notice the original was also for a primarily solo player? The build I am giving allows them to output good numbers and survival both in and out of party, without requiring PvP play. Also note: Warhorn is a great boost to the party output (I am not denying that), but a decent damage/resilience boost Ult that you can spam every few seconds is pretty useful also, especially in solo play where if you get mobbed, an extra 4% damage PER MOB on top of it's base 15% (so 1 target = 19%, 10 targets, which is possible = 55% mitigation on top of your other mitigations) can make a big difference. Also useful in some trials, where warhorn is just not the best option (like tanking the mage Axes).
If a mob is stunned, it won't be able to be pulled with Swarm Mother. I prefer using Swarm Mother to gather all the mobs up so the DDs can AOE them down quickly at once. So, stun is out of the question for me. It's about your health going up a little vs your health don't go up at all, so I prefer my health going up even just a little. It's all about preference, you don't cast it much anyway.Both are good -- but Posture is more reliable. A small heal + damage taken vs no damage taken and a possible stun (if not on a boss).
This is a two part to address -- Honor the Dead vs Breath of Life is a question of mana management. 2 casts of Honor the Dead on sub 75% hp targets will restore more hp and ultimately cost less magicka than a heal and a half from one cast of Breath of Life.
Umm, it wouldn't say "it covers 20m" as people might understand it as the DD will still get healed if he is 20m away from you, I would say that it covers a circle of 314m2 with a radius of 10m so if the DD is farther than 10m, he isn't going to get healed by Hasty Prayer.As for the range on Hasty Prayer -- Radius on Ritual of Retribution is 12m. Hasty Prayer is 10m. It is a PBAoE, centered on the Templar, thus Ritual covers 24m while Hasty Prayer covers 20m. If the DD is in your Ritual area you need to take ~2 steps forward for them to be in range for Hasty Prayer to connect. If they are not in the area of your ritual, then they shouldn't need the heal anyway, as they are going near max range/outside of mob reliable damage range (28m linear). Your melee DD's (who will likely need the heal more if anyone needs it) will be in range for it.
As for dropping block during difficult bosses -- if it's too scary for you, that may be a question of build: This build+skill combination+harness magicka+ult=BIG RED HITS without block get reduced/mitigated to about 50-60% , with block they barely touch you. Consider a 30k hp pool+10k shield+near maxed mitigations (45-50% reduction)+HoTs incoming from Ritual/Purifying Light+your own incoming heal from casting it -- the hit you take (as long as it isn't a knockback/down skill, obviously block/dodge those) will not only touch you for at most about 10k damage -- but you'll be restoring that back as soon as the cast finishes. It's a high attention balancing act that makes tanking a lot more interesting.
One of my favorite examples of using this combination: a low dps firemaw fight -- with the healer able to take over DPSing because Hasty+Ritual of Ret+Harness let me put out 200k heal PER SECOND while keeping taunt up on the boss/0 need to block.
Ian_Stormbringer wrote: »So, I understand that the Templar is the route, but I want to play this world as a traditional Paladin. Which means, in my mind, S/B, Heavy, Heal. Is this possible if I don't want to be a Elite player. I love to grind and pick up everything. I do play solo alot do to my gaming hours. I have read many sites but none really explain the traditional Paly. What skill and attributes should I follow. Any suggestions from vets would be helpful. I am L25 at the moment but do not know the path to choose. May the Eagles show you the path.
Ian_Stormbringer wrote: »So, I understand that the Templar is the route, but I want to play this world as a traditional Paladin. Which means, in my mind, S/B, Heavy, Heal. Is this possible if I don't want to be a Elite player. I love to grind and pick up everything. I do play solo alot do to my gaming hours. I have read many sites but none really explain the traditional Paly. What skill and attributes should I follow. Any suggestions from vets would be helpful. I am L25 at the moment but do not know the path to choose. May the Eagles show you the path.
I have been playing a 2h heavy armor paladin for over 20 years since d&d.
I have found that templar does NOT fit the bill. Warden and dk seems to fit much better.
Paladins use swords and maces - not spears.
In fact. When warden came out i made a stamden and the first thing i said was, " this is the templar i always wanted."
Ian_Stormbringer wrote: »So, I understand that the Templar is the route, but I want to play this world as a traditional Paladin. Which means, in my mind, S/B, Heavy, Heal. Is this possible if I don't want to be a Elite player. I love to grind and pick up everything. I do play solo alot do to my gaming hours. I have read many sites but none really explain the traditional Paly. What skill and attributes should I follow. Any suggestions from vets would be helpful. I am L25 at the moment but do not know the path to choose. May the Eagles show you the path.
Ian_Stormbringer wrote: »So, I understand that the Templar is the route, but I want to play this world as a traditional Paladin. Which means, in my mind, S/B, Heavy, Heal. Is this possible if I don't want to be a Elite player. I love to grind and pick up everything. I do play solo alot do to my gaming hours. I have read many sites but none really explain the traditional Paly. What skill and attributes should I follow. Any suggestions from vets would be helpful. I am L25 at the moment but do not know the path to choose. May the Eagles show you the path.
I have been playing a 2h heavy armor paladin for over 20 years since d&d.
I have found that templar does NOT fit the bill. Warden and dk seems to fit much better.
Paladins use swords and maces - not spears.
In fact. When warden came out i made a stamden and the first thing i said was, " this is the templar i always wanted."
Thats a very narrow definition of a paladin, taken from a single IP.
Doesn't have to be the OPs definition.
Ian_Stormbringer wrote: »So, I understand that the Templar is the route, but I want to play this world as a traditional Paladin. Which means, in my mind, S/B, Heavy, Heal. Is this possible if I don't want to be a Elite player. I love to grind and pick up everything. I do play solo alot do to my gaming hours. I have read many sites but none really explain the traditional Paly. What skill and attributes should I follow. Any suggestions from vets would be helpful. I am L25 at the moment but do not know the path to choose. May the Eagles show you the path.