Here we go again.
Overall problems of class remaining and just getting worse -
1. Entire templar damage can be hardcountered by Evasion buff.
2. Entire templar defense can be hardcountered by Defile debuff.
3. Stand-you-ground class that don't have access to stamina sustain passive, that forcing to play magplar into more tankier-less damage playstyle with every update.

Templar damage capabilities getting continuous nerfs:
1. Evasion buff change - it changed from rng buff against which templars had benefit of having lower damage but ignoring evasion aoe skills. Like Jabs that were hitting far less than other spammables but ignored Evasion. Yet because DK and Wardens with their far superior arsenal of AoE nuke skill Evasion started to be hardcounter of entire arsenal of templar damage kit, that especially hurted Jabs.
2. "DoT meta" inadequate changes hurted damage capabilities even harder: magplar being dot-based class for years before dot meta, with problems like Entropy being subpar skill but niche for templar to get buff. Yet after whine about dot being too strong zos didn't just turned back those new dot skills like soul trap and entropy but nerfed all dots, i.e. somehow after years and years of dots being as they are and yet templar being worst damage-oriented class in pvp, in just 1 update it considered that dots too strong and everything got nerfed.
For templar it meant:
a. that not just they getting hardcountered by evasion but also their overall damage output in pvp became even lower because it was dot class like dk.
b. Pre-dot meta problems became even worse, like Entropy which was templar pain-point, not just turned back into low damage it once dealt but also get inadequate treatment of loosing its auxiliary power that every skill should have according to zos, turning into skill that literally being even worse than pre-dot meta when it was already terrible...
c. In exchange of ruining dot damage toolkit in favor of burst damage (which is meta for all those years) for Templars there was actually no improvements of burst capabilities. Only change to burst capabilities were made through inadequate changes of Backlash that just turned this "burst" skill into another dead skill in nocp pvp.
Recap: Templars, specifically magplars just left offboard from competitive play as pvp class, with its damage first being nerfed by Evasion changes, than lowered even harder with dot nerfs and fact that its burst capabilities remained as bad as they were (actually even worse in group scenario).


1. Jabs: still remain as terrible spammable as its cons not took into full consideration of pros in pvp.
1. Its not equalized with other comparable spammables like Flurry and Uppercaut in cast time, instead its cast time is equal to one of ranged spammables - 1.0s. This main reason why you ant use it fluidly in melee playstyle. It also bring problem of its raw damage because default Jabs damage tooltip is obviously higher than Uppercaut but Jabs taking 1.2s casttime with weaving literally exclude itself from perfect rotation within global cooldown of 1.0sec, that literally decrease its actual damage, in addition to having such stuff as Empower buff - making formula "jabs deal more damage coz less light attacks" to actually not working.
2. In addition to cooldown there is no treatment of Jabs being spammable that became affected by Evasion. Like, Onslaught got damage decrease treatment coz it ignore armor, yet Jabs don't have damage increase coz it hardcountered by Evasion, it only got wrong treatment of being longest channel. However treating Jabs this way also problematic because unlike Onslaught that works in 100% scenarios against armor, Jabs while being hardcounteredb Evasion in lot of cases (that simply tied to fact that mainly stam builds have access to it and stam builds are majority as they are bis for a long time) also don't have that sort of punishment against numerous builds, i.e. to majority of magicka builds that don't have access to this buff. So, treatment is problematic as without it - Jabs vs Evasion deal literally no damage, but with it - Jabs vs non-Evasion users will deal more than intended damage. Also in pve there is no evasion debuff and Jabs don't need change there.
So, to fix those 2 problems I just suggest to treat Jabs like Uppercaut-Onslaught: 1. decrease cast time from 1.0 to 0.8s with approximately decrease of damage tooltip 2. turn skill into pseudo-aoe target-based skill instead of aoe-based - like Flurry, can be casted only on targetable enemy and "deal X damage to targeted enemy while dealing X% of damage dealt to main target to enemies in 5m range around", can be dodged by also ignore Evasion. Its visual can be just bit changed from effect of "spark" that proc on every affected by hit enemy into same spark but bit increased in size that proc only on 1 targetable enemy while enemies around receive damage from this visible "spear shards" of spark.

2. Dark Flare: perfect time to finally treat this skill now as only Solar Barrage morph was treated for all previous patches making this morph literally bis in every scenario, even in pvp where in theory Dark Flare defile debuff should make skill shine. If we cant have actually worth Backlash than Dark Flare is best skill for this.
Original non-morphed skills of Flare and sorcs Frags are exactly equal type of skills because it have same cast time, same damage, same cost, however morph of Dark Flare as viable as that other morph of Frags that noone even know how to called as noone use skill coz cast time. So, to gain templars actual burst capability as their dot identity got nerfed - just turn Dark Flare morph into either:
1. As suggested earlier - some kinda of version of Bound Weapons/Assassin Scourge - where light attacks would store damage in form of floating orbs and then caster can instantly release it into barrage of those orbs applying major defile to target.
2. But since Bound Weapons were already copy of Assassin it safier to assume that treat Dark Flare to be closer equivalent of Crystal Fragments is more viable option.
a. So, just change Dark Flare morph effect by removing its Empower buff that should be representation of Solar Barrage morph and by per se it lost its viability after its original function was changed from self-empowering Flare into moderate buff of empowering light attacks.
b. Remove default apply of aoe major defile by skill itself and add proc chance "Casting any other Magicka Ability has a 35% chance of causing your next Dark Flare to be instant, deal 33% more damage, and apply Major Defile." so instead of reducing skill cost it would apply oppressive major defile effect.
Skill would look smth like this:

Ofc with less time of Defile 2sec(4sec with enduring rays passive) to amtch possibility to apply it more oftenly. And rename it into "Dark Barrage".

Such type is what class need unlike Backlash. Backlash usefulness decreased overtime. First inadequate changes to its damage capability I described several times in previous posts, when group utility of skill got removed but all mechanics based on this utility were not adjusted. Secondly, Backlash is telegraphed, not just showing enemy that he gona be focused but also cant store damage passively, like other burst abilities, while you in defense for example, with dot nerfs allowed to passively store damage usefulness of such type of skill decreased a lot. In fast-paced combat (people who play battlegrounds a lot experience this) skill that you forcing you to stay on one target for duration longer than duration of other burst skills, while also being forced to be offensive for full duration for backlash to deal damage - such skill literally have no place in combat. You simply cant dynamically switch targets or cast skill during defensive window to suddenly deal enough amount of damage that would force target to go defensive and you go offensive.

3. Breath of Life - after all unjustified nerfs, skill morph mechanic simply cant compete with other morph or similar skills. Even Matriarch skill have more total heal per cast than BoL. And since too much heal on this morph considered to be OP, here is other ideas for skill:
1. Remove additional heal and turn it similar to Rune Focus - make BoL to restore stamina overtime when heal target that below 75%hp. Tempalr stamina sustain is terrible as it don't have passive or other ways to restore stam apart of Restoring Focus. On magicka build it means that you either forced to use stam focus to get some sustain in exchange of ruining your mana sustain and thus decrease heal/damage or use ordinary mana focus and thus have zero class possibilities to sustain stamina. With such change we would have build diversity.
2. Remove main heal and change it into hot that heal based on % of max hp.
For any of those take golden essence flow animation from Unstable Core that have absolutely no meaning there and add it to BoL effects:


4. Eclipse: there is literally everything going wrong with skill.
1. Fantasy power it represent -
A. skill represent eclipse, i.e. anti-light and visual effect or pure dark is match this but not completely - Living Dark doesn't make it look like light changing it directing by block of darkness, instead this shiny effect looks like source of protective power is light-based. Also name of morph imply that of some kind of inner darkness like possession, that how such effect could look: Such effect could be easily achieved by effect of darkness of zero stage of unstable core+ floating shadows of living dark for example Or by simply adding to it some kind of void glowing, that represent it dark theme and would keep it visible at dark areas. Would lok smth like this:

B. Visual of Living Dark do not fit its effect:

This looks more like shadow improving speed of one who embraced it and thus speed effect as morph version is more RP-wise.
C. Skill is moderate healing while bubble type of effect in game represent either damage shield(like 2nd secret boss in Hallowgrave dungeon) or sort of mitigation. Also "darkness" similarly to "light" effect helps with blocking (Shadowguard CP). Moderate heal on skill doesn't fit any of those. It either should be changed to not being orb or its effect should me switched to fit its visual effect.

2. Balance-wise -
A. Chains of healing power nerfs turned skill into supbar. It cant fit role of strong defensive skill when outnumbered. Amount of heal it provide under heavy pressure is literally similar that provide other skills without any conditions (Spirit Guardian for example), also it don't actually scale on amount of enemies attacking. For example Scales - it is 50% reduction to all incoming ranged damage, i.e. more opponents -more mitigation but not full protection, or Crystal Shield - 100% protection but to limited amount of incoming damage yet having additional bonuses in exchange. For Living Dark it doesn't mean how many enemies attacks as it will scale on stat of caster and thus don't have interaction with number of enemies.
B. Its cost and duration didn't brought to standard of similar skills.
C. Changes to snare of Living Dark goes against how skill treated according to game rules. Changed from root with unlimited range and cooldown into snare with melee range and cooldown. First it goes against role this soft CC was doing - help fight not only melee but also ranged opponent. Also 0.5s cooldown on similar skills added to effects that don't have range restriction (Fiery Scales and Crystal Ward shooting back projectiles). Having melee skill push its effect to effects of Spiked Armor and Undaunted Shield, but it not belong here, because such effects don't have cooldown on their effect in melee range, and don't have target cap; it means if there is 3 people hitting you - 3 people will receive punishment and there is no 0.5s cooldown on it. So, having current snare goes against powerlevel of effects.
I suggest either change effect completely like : a. instead of snare it apply speed. b. change effect into offensive damage dealing like similar effects of Scales and Crystal Shield.
D. Unstable Core after chains of nerfed turned into dead skill - firstly - it not reliable - nor damage nor CC, as both effects scattered across full duration of skill. Secondly it has same problem as Backlash - it not dynamic skill that you can use in open field; only place where it would work is 1v1 but it doesn't - its damage reduced to fit that it turned into aoe, and in only scenario where skill was shining -1v1, it meant that skill per se started to deal less damage and in addition it started t o be affected by evasion buff, turning amount of damage it can deal (even with current cooldown bug when you can proc endlessly within 1sec) into literally unexisting amount. Thirdly - it doesn't fit goal of making skill work in PvE as since overhaul as I repeatedly reported being its effect attached to damage make it unable to proc against majority of adds. I suggest to fully treat this skill into being self-buff and turn Unstable Core into self-buff too and then differentiate both morphs into offensive and defensive. Or turn Unstable Core into self-buff that would work like aoe unblockable stun. We already have ranged CC that help increase gap - Javelin, melee CC that help melee style to close gap - Toppling, we simply don't need Unstable Core in its form of weird mix of CCs+damage as in result it lack potential in both of it.

So, to fix problems of Fantasy Power and skill effectiveness I suggest next( incase bubble style remain):
1. As mentioned above in addition to change Unstable Core into self-buff to rename Living Dark into Solar Eclipse and rename Unstable Core into Lunar Eclipse.
2. For Living Dark/Solar Eclipse - to change it into ordinary black orb of 1st stage of Unstable Core:

and change pattern of floating shadows into white/gold color so it would be smth like representation of coronal flashes or aura of light that you can see during solar eclipses, that would allow to see this effect in dark areas, also black bubble will undoubtly shows up the source of power of skill.
Its morph effect should become oppressive (wrath-type) - turn either back into root that have 0.5s cooldown and melee range restrictions (effect with such restrictions should be strong), or similarly allow it to shoot at enemy fireballs every 0.5sec.
For Unstable Core/Lunar Eclipse make it apply same 1st stage black bubble like Solar Eclipse but make its morph effect protective - for example - apply major protection on caster for 2sec(4sec with enduring rays passive) and visual effect of it would be represented by strengthened bubble effect - Unstable Core's 2nd/3rd stage. So skill on cast for 4sec will look like:

so caster see when effects ends and after it ends bubble turn into ordinary black one:

3. Most important - remove heal and grant effect that match it visual. There is couple ideas:
A. Change it into smth like "block next X attacks". Like mix between Scales and Crystal, where it would still proc only on direct attacks but will reduce its damage for 50% (in addition synnergize possibility with block effects), have limited amount of procs but its strong effect will be block helps against blockable CCs. Visually it will fit - black bubble blocking incoming damage. Also amount of block can be represented by sphere "cracking" with glowy yellow cracks Incase bubble effect will be swaped - just change those randomly floating shadows into shadows of specific number that would show amount of attacks to be blocked as they would be source of blocking.
B. Just make so skill simply grant Major Protection for duration of skill. And then grant Unstable Core other effect ofc. But it will make skill into weaker version of Scales as it will work also against melee opponents, however will be unable to stack with this strong buff. From fantasy power point of view it would be looking like black bubble indeed mitigate some incoming damage. It will also decrease templar problem of all sources of defense being just yet another healings.
C. Change Unstable Core into back to Blinding Light or dark version of it, smth like" Consuming Darkness" - aoe melee CC, similar to Polar Winds or Talons, that apply either conditional hard cc with some defensive effect or soft CC like roots.

5. Rite of Passage:
It is understandable that its name and names of morphs suggest that it some Incantation and thus should be static with large effect but again from fantasy power I can show that this rule doesn't set in stone.
I will take as example Disney Tangled TV Series cartoon that had incantation in most traditional definition of word:
Checking incantations of same origin, i.e. light-based:
A. Healing Incantation - it is indeed static incantation during which caster is healing all targets around while being protected as caster. B. But here is Hope Incantation - battle-typed incantation that doesn't severe mobility or heal to allies nearby, instead it grant its defensive powers to caster only.
^^ As you can see Incantations types can be different and we can apply this difference for ultimate morphs:
Keep Practiced Incantation into what it now to keep traditional visage of word, but change Remembrance into more battle-typed version of heal and apply some buff (CC immunity/Major Protection or other sort of buff) to caster only.

6. Passive:
Was said enough about it, especially Master Ritualist that have no rights to exist as class passive. Whatever effect you decide to change it into - as cons of effect it should require Restoring Light skill to be on bar. This way in exchange of strong request it will require from pvp builds to break their mainstream archetype of slotting only offensive skills on mainbar(that don't have restoring light skill) and all defensive on backbar

@ZOS_Gilliam

Regarding Backlash:
After latest skill changes only remaining mechanic that was justifying low % of stored damage amount is possibility to stack damage or saving damage stored of previous Backlash and transfer it into next Backlash. However this code of this mechanic actually not working as in PvP scenario it saving only % of damage dealt by initial hit of Backlash, and not by all incomed and stored damage, so de facto it not working. In PvE it also causing weird results that easy to create:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-zhnjmQS3s

^^ So, just like Blazing Shield in 5.2.7 each new Backlash should "wipe its memory clean of all the transgressions it experienced, if any", i.e. to no longer has its memory.
And after that the very last reason of not updating Backlash to new rules will be gone.

StarOfElyon wrote: »

That feeling when shuffle makes it pointless for you to even fight anymore

ZOS, please fix the way puncturing sweeps interacts with Shuffle.

Shuffle plus the DW weapon. Don't even bother fighting, just move away!

mmtaniac wrote: »

only balanced mitigation in pvp are armor you can counter it somehow but major protection should be on ults or some specifi to use abilities like necro abilities with eating corpses still he need produce those corpses not just cast ability and tadam im invicible

That where the problem with vanilla classes vs p2w classes. Necro have this super strong buff in skilline, it conditional but still allowing them to run glasscannons and still be tanky. While wardens have another unique Major Heroism buff attached to Shimmering Shield, that allowing them to literally have ult generation of Emperor, which allow to spam ults left and right. But for vanilla classes - there is no implemented unique powerhouse stuff.
It one of the things that making gap between p2w and vanilla classes bigger and bigger.