As a templar should I be wearing light armor?

GeneralCornwallace · April 2014

I am going to be mostly aedric spear specced, for some reason i originally was going to go medium armor, but kind of realized I should go either heavy or light.. light seems weird but it really does seem to have the most benefit.

genebcolonb14_ESO · April 2014

I use heavy and ive been ahead 2 levels with mobs and quests no problem...

Zargorius · April 2014

Depends on your playstyle. If you're heavy on Magicka and wanting more, go Light. If you mix in Stamina based skills and want more protection, go Heavy. Remember you can also mix up like 5 light / 2 heavy if you want.

GeneralCornwallace · April 2014

genebcolonb14_ESO wrote: »

I use heavy and ive been ahead 2 levels with mobs and quests no problem...

See surviving while questing heavy would for sure be better, but I feel like your dps is going to lack in the long run wearing heavy.. as all of my skills require magik and the light armor provides a lot of benefits to that.

GeneralCornwallace · April 2014

Zargorius wrote: »

Depends on your playstyle. If you're heavy on Magicka and wanting more, go Light. If you mix in Stamina based skills and want more protection, go Heavy. Remember you can also mix up like 5 light / 2 heavy if you want.

True I always forget we can use both armors at once.. interesting.. loving the games freedom of choice will make end game interesting that is for sure

aeonoceanstarb14_ESO · April 2014

heya. i think you'll gain the most benefit out of being either a tankhealer (heavy) or just a magicka powerhouse and light on your feet healer (light). medium really doesnt provide either of those and focuses more on stamina related things

krapmyself · April 2014

Focus on weapon and armor skills for a "class archtype" play style. Your class doesn't really decide what role your character does, the weapon and armor combination does. For example, if you want to use a lot of magic like skills, which includes class skills and staff skills, light armor is a good choice since it gives you lots of magic bonuses. However, medium armor is great for weapon skill use because of it's stamina and crit bonuses.

there are certain combinations that work better than others, but you have to work really hard to gimp yourself when choosing armor, weapon and class skills.

spinedoc · April 2014

I'm wearing heavy armor but have a magicka based dps setup, destro staff and the long range spell tree and the destro staff/flame knock back CC. I notice a LOT more survivability with heavy armor. I don't run out of magicka too much, and if I do I pop in resto staff for a couple of hits and am gtg.

When I get higher levels, and when I heal in dungeons I'm sure I'll go more for light armor, the heavy armor is just to get through the solo levels efficiently.

As for magicka and light armor, I don't see any huge benefits at first glance. The only one I see is reduce spell cost, 7 pieces = 7%, does that really make that much difference? I think I read that there was a 5 piece bonus in relation to magicka, maybe recovery or total amount? I'm assuming that's off of something crafted at one of the special crafting areas.

GeneralCornwallace · April 2014

spinedoc wrote: »

I'm wearing heavy armor but have a magicka based dps setup, destro staff and the long range spell tree and the destro staff/flame knock back CC. I notice a LOT more survivability with heavy armor. I don't run out of magicka too much, and if I do I pop in resto staff for a couple of hits and am gtg.

When I get higher levels, and when I heal in dungeons I'm sure I'll go more for light armor, the heavy armor is just to get through the solo levels efficiently.

As for magicka and light armor, I don't see any huge benefits at first glance. The only one I see is reduce spell cost, 7 pieces = 7%, does that really make that much difference? I think I read that there was a 5 piece bonus in relation to magicka, maybe recovery or total amount? I'm assuming that's off of something crafted at one of the special crafting areas.

True, I am only level 9 as well so have been using a 2h weapon, but almost wonder if I should go with a staff.. choices choices.. oh well, at least we can mess up badly and respec whenever haha

jambam817_ESO · April 2014

I've been a bit disappointed in my Templar/ Light Armor/ Dawns Wrath fire caster build, even with the Light armor regen. the spells are just so mana heavy, and the destruction staff uses mana too!
I'm honestly thinking of going Bow instead of Destro staff, so i can use my untouched Stamina pool. Destro+Class skills is a huge mana drain with not a lot of options to get it back.

kewl_ESO · April 2014

Templar / heavy armor has been alright with questing. grouping will be must need Light Armor! for magik regen to keep healing. I felt so useless and everyone died with my first group dungeon. thinking light armor for questing too do burn stuff down faster may be goood...

BETAOPTICS · April 2014

Personally speaking from my own experience. Heavy armor doesn't really bring much benefit for you over the others. It seems that DPS is the way to go in PvE. content. It might be a whole different thing in PvP. though so consider that.

All in all, your own playstyle matters the most and you can make all styles work if they are your own styles but in my own experience, the heavy armor gives you very, almost non existent benefit over other armor types while having a lot of crippling aspects with them. Seems like most youtubers agree with this also. Most seem to recommend to " stay away " from heavy armor.

Vendrath · April 2014

For those running out of magicka quickly, remember to use your light and heavy attacks also.

haileyb14_ESO2 · April 2014

jambam817_ESO wrote: »

I've been a bit disappointed in my Templar/ Light Armor/ Dawns Wrath fire caster build, even with the Light armor regen. the spells are just so mana heavy, and the destruction staff uses mana too!
I'm honestly thinking of going Bow instead of Destro staff, so i can use my untouched Stamina pool. Destro+Class skills is a huge mana drain with not a lot of options to get it back.

I Use a bow on my Templar with mostly light up to the soft cap of regen and medium after that, works really well.

Makarion · April 2014

The major question is whether you plan to mostly solo or work in groups. I team mostly with my love, with him playing a Templar specced for resto staff, light armour and some fire spells; I'm a dragon knight in light armour (with buffs I go over the soft cap, anyway), one handed and shield, and the usual tanky DK abilities. We routinely do quests about 6-7 levels above our own, so it's got to be viable at least somewhat.

Now, having said that: I also have a templar that solos mostly, and light armour is much more of a drawback there - but, unless you plan to do something like a Khajiit in medium armour and dual wielding, I'd still stick with it. Heavy just doesn't bring enough to the table for a caster.

Decimus_Rex · April 2014

The

GeneralCornwallace wrote: »

I am going to be mostly aedric spear specced, for some reason i originally was going to go medium armor, but kind of realized I should go either heavy or light.. light seems weird but it really does seem to have the most benefit.

The beauty of this game is you can DO ANYTHING you want.

I personally went all heavy and seem to crush everything easier than any other template (shh don't tell the devs).

I can see the attraction for Light to get the the magika benefits and it may very well work if you spec. into other talents to compensate(i.e weapon and gear talents).

That's why I love this game not many boundaries.

cwlovell13ub17_ESO · April 2014

I am currently playing a level 18 Templar. Around 15 I switched from Sword and Board \ HA to a combo build. I am wearing 3 pieces of LA (trying to keep my Armor as high as possible without hitting mitigation) got MR and Skill Cost Decrease.

I still use my S\B skills, which use stamina. I do use a lot of mana based skills though which is why I have started wearing a few LA pieces. With two skill points I get 12% regen, and the next two should give me 6% cost reduction. I try and keep the LA to low armor pieces (sash, gloves, boot, shoulders, head) but I generally just tailor to what loot I have picked up recently (example: if I have great HA boots I will find another slow to use for LA). This does make being a straight healer difficult, but I figure for leveling that shouldn't be an issue. I can always make a full LA set if I want\need more mana bonuses. I like wearing a mixed set at the moment because I am leveling both skills while questing, and getting the benefits of both lines. I have also added a Resto Staff to my second weapon slot to start leveling resto skills.

Would love to hear more thoughts on pros\cons of going mix, right now I don't really see a downside to mixed while leveling as you get experience in both lines. I can see for dungeon running and PvP one would want to be spec'd fully one way or another, but even in the PvP I have done it is nice to be able to heal and do some damage when needed.

Chomag · April 2014

Don't bother with Templar. Their dps is supbar at high levels and their healing isn't far ahead.

TheGodless1 · April 2014

GeneralCornwallace wrote: »

genebcolonb14_ESO wrote: »

I use heavy and ive been ahead 2 levels with mobs and quests no problem...

See surviving while questing heavy would for sure be better, but I feel like your dps is going to lack in the long run wearing heavy.. as all of my skills require magik and the light armor provides a lot of benefits to that.

Well, there's ways around that...not without some time and effort, but it's there. Craft some heavy armor for yourself, improve it, then enchant with magika regen glyphs, or even spell cost reduction/max magika, etc. Then like another poster suggested, mix the armor up. I use light belt and gloves. They don't provide as much protection as the other pieces anyhow so those are a good place to put light armor on for the passive to light. Or do the same with medium armor or any combo to help maximize your weak spots and help resource regeneration. Glyphs can really work wonders at low levels to give you that little extra edge.

Fox56b16_ESO · April 2014

Chomag wrote: »

Don't bother with Templar. Their dps is supbar at high levels and their healing isn't far ahead.

Veteran Bowplar/Healer here.

- As a Bowplar I outperform every other class when it comes down to singletarget DPS and I can kite stuff around forever. VR mob groups die before a single enemy ever reaches me... and even when *** hits the fan I just throw in my vampire ultimate and any given mob group dies within the next 5 seconds while I get healed over the top. Destrustaff may be stronger for AoE, and twohanded for direct burst damage, but just for raw singletarget DPS, templar just rocks. Not to mention, templar has the single strongest damage spell ingame: http://esohead.com/skills/21761-backlash

- As a healer, the HPS is just insane. And those "sorcs and NBs have more magicka...."-sayers: I overcharged max magicka and magicka-regeneration while wearing full medium armor as a dunmer with a few enchants. Magicka isn't even an issue in veteran dungeons, but the templar burstheal capabilities are. I don't even get a sweat when everyone in the groups stands in some AoE-stuff, the templar healing ultimate basically eliminates the need of any reaction for 6 seconds. Cakewalks.

lichmeister · April 2014

i have found that the playstyle for the templar is very proactive. my survivability is best when i get in everyones face (as opposed to my 1st toon: bow weilding sorceror who prefers to kill from max range and does well at it). i started out using light armour and firestaves, with plans on being all about the magicka but i found all my most lethal skills had a limited range. at level 16 i swapped out the light for a full set of heavy armour and melee weapons and have yet to die. as a backup, i am swapping to the resto staff so i can solo melee style but swap over to ranged/healing in a group.

keto3000 · September 2014

@Fox56b16_ESO‌ @lichmeister‌ @cwlovell13ub17_ESO‌ TY all for affirming my own thoughts on this build. (My first MMO here! My first, main toon is a sorc mage.) I'm currently working on a lvl 17 "Bowplar" too. Experimenting w/all attribute points into HP. 5 medium armor w/magic enchants/2 light armor w/magic enchants. 3 jewelry with stamina reduction/max/recovery if possible is my plan. Have to test it all out, but I'm really enjoying the templar/bow style of play!

Cody · September 2014

You wear whatever the heck you want to wear.

Richard.A.Ferrellub17_ESO · September 2014

Chomag wrote: »

Don't bother with Templar. Their dps is supbar at high levels and their healing isn't far ahead.

Negative ghost rider.

5M/2L Imperial DW/DW Templar. 750-800 dps single target.

Power of the Light --> Vampire's Bane --> Blood Craze ---> Flurry/LA weaving

When Backlash explodes, rinse and repeat.

Solar Barrage + Whirlwind for solid AoE DPS.

Tamanous · September 2014

I've managed to get by with 5 med/2 light with my bow/dual Templar but I keep testing to see if 5 light/2 med or a mix between is my best choice. I am still leveling my clothing profession though and when putting together set bonuses I will make my final choice later.

It is a hard choice and will hinge some a few specific skills likely. Hell I may even swap between being more caster or more stamina based on occasion. It can be done both ways for sure. I am not worried about dps atm. It is very impressive and solo grinding public dungeons (minus bosses) is easy.

As mentioned in the post above mine Flurry weaving is impressive dps and very stamina efficient. I do not understand those who think Flurry sucks. It's average damage approaches what my Bow crits from stealth and you can animation cancel a large portion of it's animation time while still getting all the damage. Weave light attacks for maximum dps or heavy to save resources and it becomes 100% sustainable with even stamina gain possibly. I find Templar works extremely well both bow and DW. Not enough simply play it and learn all the tricks.

I have zero urge to change my weapon choices. There are so many combinations due to great synergy with Templar abilities that I keep trying new load outs and seeing that many builds work and I can specialize in multiple directions.

Pmarsico9 · September 2014

Richard.A.Ferrellub17_ESO wrote: »

Chomag wrote: »

Don't bother with Templar. Their dps is supbar at high levels and their healing isn't far ahead.

Negative ghost rider.

750-800 dps single target.

That's 20-30% below AVERAGE FOR EVERY OTHER CLASS SINGLE TARGET AT VR12.

Artis · September 2014

That's not true. What do you think is AVERAGE single-target dps of a NB in medium armor? haha.

Don't forget, that in LA+staff templars would deal more. Their dps is good.

Khivas_Carrick · September 2014

But not good enough as other classes can do more.

Plus they're pigeonholed into using sticks and dresses.

Many want to wear metal plating and wielding large metal objects.

Locriana · December 2015

Ok... Please can anyone tell me HOW light armor can be of any benefit at all, considering the following?
My sorcerer has all light armor except a heavy helmet. Her spell resistance goes DOWN from 3273 to 2961 when I put a light armor helmet on her. This is AFTER I seemingly wasted a skill point on light armor SPELL WARDING, which is supposed to INCREASE your spell resistance by 464 when wearing all light armor. In other words, my spell resistance should have gone up, not down, by putting on another piece of light armor.
Perhaps I should have put the point into Evocation or Recovery but is seems like reducing the magicka cost of spells by 1% per light armor piece (evocation) is pretty negligible.
Spell warding is a third tier skill, seemed to be a good idea until I looked at the character stats...

???

hrothbern · December 2015

Locriana wrote: »

Ok... Please can anyone tell me HOW light armor can be of any benefit at all, considering the following?
My sorcerer has all light armor except a heavy helmet. Her spell resistance goes DOWN from 3273 to 2961 when I put a light armor helmet on her. This is AFTER I seemingly wasted a skill point on light armor SPELL WARDING, which is supposed to INCREASE your spell resistance by 464 when wearing all light armor. In other words, my spell resistance should have gone up, not down, by putting on another piece of light armor.
Perhaps I should have put the point into Evocation or Recovery but is seems like reducing the magicka cost of spells by 1% per light armor piece (evocation) is pretty negligible.
Spell warding is a third tier skill, seemed to be a good idea until I looked at the character stats...

???

As long as you are low level, the only difference between the kinds of armor is the base Armor Resistance, giving you Spell and Physical Resistance of the same value. You see the value of your base Armor Resistance on the piece of Armor.
Heavy Armor, HA, has the highest base Armor Resistance, followed by Medium Armor, MA, and Light Armor, LA, has the lowest base Armor Resistance.
The rate of base Armor Resistance is: HA:MA:LA = 4:3:2.

Only AFTER you have developed your type of Armor high enough, the Armor passives are unlocked. After you spend Skill Points in these Armor passives, you will get the REAL benefits of the Armor passives, and you get the real differences.

For example: at higher level of your Armor, the cost reducing benefits of LA increase to up to 3% Magicka Cost reduction per piece. That becomes really important once you can put 3 Skill Points in that passive.

To the point of my advice:

Start with 3-5 pieces of Heavy Armor, because at low level there is only base Armor Resistance,where HA is strongest. Always use HA for your breast (the Cuirass).
Use 1-2 pieces of LA, to develop the Light Armor line, so you could later on switch to much more LA, when you can put Skill Points in the LA Armor passives. Use waist and hands for the LA pieces.
Use 1-2 pieces of MA, to develop the Medium Armor line, so could later on switch to much more MA, when you can put Skill Points in the MA Armor passives.

In this way all your Armor lines get developed and you can switch later on to any Armor type that looks best fitting to your play style. Meanwhile having the advantage of high base Armor Resistance of mostly HA used.

Locriana · December 2015

Thanks Hrothbern for the advice, it seems reasonable but for the fact that my Dark Elf really loves her robes...Ha Ha. And she's done fine with them, considering she likes to cook and enchant. But spending skills points on Spell Resistance still doesn't make any sense, since there are only two levels of that passive available. And the first one actually reduces the spell resistance, as my numbers show. Unless I am missing something -- why is this option even there if it has the effect of seriously lowering spell resistance? I guess i would like for it to somehow make some sense, because it has me not trusting spending skill points in these passives. It seems a lot of the old benefits of mages wearing light armor are gone, and it is really only a detriment.

I get your point about the magicka cost reduction, though I'm not sure I want to spend three more skill points to test it out...considering what happened with the spell resistance thing... Don't you think they should have scaled these 'benefits' so LA could at least equal the heavy armor spell resistance? Not physical, just magical.

Just not making sense to me. But then many of the passive skills seem way too low to be of any noticeable benefit. I gotta say, though I do very much like a lot of things about ESO, there's a lot wrong with the skill lines, imho. There needs to be a third weapon bar at some point for example, or what's the use of having so many spells -- you can't fit even a small number of them on two weapon bars. And the passives for the most part seem, as I mentioned, pointless.

Cheers