dazee wrote: »

More importantly where is my flying toaster car which also does my laundry for me and serves me coffee?

This is the real question.

Magicka templar dps here. I like to use Stalwart Guard to give borh myself and my partner dps minor force. It is very effective because as a templar, I am much tankier than most dps classes, and I have a lot of self heals.
1. I help keep the other dps alive.
2. Neither of us have to run channeled acceleration (which is costly to cast midfight in terms of cast time)
3. I get 10% more magicka recovery while it is slotted.
Unfortunately, people think it is a terrible choice because it uses up two slots. I tell myself it is worth it because while I lose an extra ability slot, the other dps gets to replace their channeled acceleration with inner light. I would love to see this more like other toggled abilities like the psjic order skill that changes your light attacks. It should be active with only one slot, no need to make it require both slots.
I don’t want OP’s idea of needing to recast it. That would defeat the purpose of the Stalwart morph for me. Reducing the damage absorption to 20%, and making it active on both bars by default would make guard the meta minor force ability for magicka templars for sure.

dazee wrote: »

so what does "Active" even mean in ESO? like that DK passive which works when something is "Active" does that mean during the skills effects or does it mean while slotted on current bar?

May not be the same in this game, but active usually means when you use the skill.

Noting a few things.

Minor Force fits well for the morph intended to be used on a PvE damage dealer as it reduces the group skill slot cost of Guard to a net of 1: support looses 2 slots while DD gains 1. It is a rare morph of a rare skill but still very useful (arguably pretty balanced) when used.

Any change could have significant PvP impacts that would need to be balanced; they worked on PvE/PvP guard balance last year and I think devs are relatively satisfied with results as they have no tweaked it since.

Targetting can be more troublesome than staying within tether range. If a buff to tethering constraint is the goal, lengthening the tether might be a more desirable buff.

I've mentioned this before. Double barring needs to go.

Stalwart (DD target morph) isn't really two skill slots though:

Support guarding a DD = -2 support +1 DD = 1 total skill slots (see above)
DD guarding a DD = -2 to slot guard +2 both DDs can unslot minor force = 0 total skill slots (Void points out this application)


Mystic (tank target morph)

When a tank is guarded then it does cost 2 slots, but that seems justified given the build opportunities it affords the tank. There are situations it is used to give a tank the edge to run more powerful buff sets and self-sustain so healer(s) can ignore the tank and simply focus on group. That ability to focus on group may make a hybrid z'en healer more plausible for the group to include. Thus, using guard can potentially have substantial benefits. Are 2 group skill slots with a beneficial healer passive for slotting a reasonable cost? As groups use it situation-ally, I assume the answer is situational.

I feel that the double bar requirement is why this skill is not used 90% of the time. Skill seems to be in a nice situational usage place for a non-class skill.

MaxJrFTW wrote: »

I've mentioned this before. Double barring needs to go.

So you want all skills to last for a maximum of 30 seconds?

If they get pets to work like the psijic order healing ability that'd be pretty neat.