Buff, attack, avoid, attack - same as most builds i guess

SirAndy wrote: »

The "buff up before every fight" mentioned above is no good when you are surprise attacked.

Lol, exactly what I experienced - talking to an NPC, suddenly under attack, what to do beside run?

SirAndy wrote: »

- If the player added any negative effects/debuffs on you, purge them off
- If you can cast shields, do so to mitigate the next attack
- If you have a self heal, now is a good time to get your health back up
- Buff yourself
- Attack

Add dodge, block, breaking LOS, bunny hopping or any other preferred method of avoiding damage and you should have a fighting chance.

Sounds like good advice - I can see I need to study my PVP skill bar more and memorize some quick combos and reactions

If CC'd; break free and then roll as a follow up devastating attack is coming, then cast a heal or shield if the stunning attack did too much damage. If needing buffs; cast a HoT or shield then buff ability and except to have to shield or heal again.

Once buffed, then attack if an opportunity presents itself.

If not CC'd, then roll animation cancel a heal, then hard CC them, then buff up, etc

Thanks for all the tips everybody. Now I need to study my skill slots to make sure I understand and memorize which skills are buff, which are purify, etc. I can do this without thinking on my PVE characters but not yet on the PVP one. This is the price of playing multiple characters, I guess

LannStone wrote: »

After a year and half of playing to CP 963 - now soloing most normal dungeons with no problems - I finally went into Cyrodiil, mainly because I want to earn AP for those transmute crystals. I made the recommended PVP gear, slotted the recommended skills and shuffled CP to PVP for my magicka templar but went in fully expecting to die if I was attacked by another player - no problem. What I didn't expect was to die so quickly (I know you've heard that before, lol) I have over 3k critical resist with my gear. Bar One is Radiant Glory - Purifying Light - Puncturing Sweeps - Reflective Light - Degeneration. Bar Two is Living Dark - Honor the Dead - Channeled Focus - Ritual of Retribution - Toppling Charge. I'd like to be able to defend myself better when I'm surprised attacked when doing a quest. So here's the question: What do I do in those first few seconds of an encounter to maximize my chances of survival? Thanks

I assume the recommended build was lightning front bar, 1H+S back bar?

I keep up Race Against Time and Restoring Focus at all times. Yes, you read that right. I have no idea how to manage without good stam sustain. Getting that from Restoring Focus provides you with a minimum and it works while blocking or sprinting. I don't see Mist Form in your build and I don't see a snare removal skill. I suppose it is a heavy armor build? I still think your apparent lack of stam sustain could be an issue.

If you get ganked, your first reaction should be to dodge roll once. You will then probably have to block on the back bar while you purge effects - IMO use Extended Ritual, not Retribution by the way - and heal while the nightblade rattles off it's burst. Use ZOS combat text options, which I set up to only show temporary debuffs on me, not anything else. This gives you a quick idea as to whether purging is worth it or whether you just need to heal. Under high pressure the heal is the priority and you may also decide to use Spell Wall (1H+S ult) until you get your bearings.

What comes next depends. Against competent opponents you want to keep up Living Dark at all times. You may also decide to Toppling Charge them, even at close range, as that interrupts their attack rotation unless they used an Immovability potion. Point is that any CC, such as Toppling Charge, also makes for a good defensive option and one that can turn the fight.

I will say that you're playing someone else's build, which seems to have a rather complicated attack rotation. That smacks of a heavy armor build, which needs to get it's damage up more than a light armor one. I don't use Degeneration, I use Detection / Spell Power / Magicka pots. I also just use Inner Light instead of Reflective Light. I suppose your advantage is that you can use tri-pots for stamina sustain, whereas I get that elsewhere.

You need to duel some. At the end of the day attack is the best defense in any 1v1. If you get suprised (ganked) there will be a phase where you need to get your bearings and block the other person's burst, but in general the more aggressive player has the advantage in PvP. This is no more true than for templar, which IMO needs to be played very aggressively - stamplar more so than magplar, but still. A class with nice and straightforward skills, but possibly not the easiest to PvP with nonetheless.

LannStone wrote: »

After a year and half of playing to CP 963 - now soloing most normal dungeons with no problems - I finally went into Cyrodiil, mainly because I want to earn AP for those transmute crystals. I made the recommended PVP gear, slotted the recommended skills and shuffled CP to PVP for my magicka templar but went in fully expecting to die if I was attacked by another player - no problem. What I didn't expect was to die so quickly (I know you've heard that before, lol) I have over 3k critical resist with my gear. Bar One is Radiant Glory - Purifying Light - Puncturing Sweeps - Reflective Light - Degeneration. Bar Two is Living Dark - Honor the Dead - Channeled Focus - Ritual of Retribution - Toppling Charge. I'd like to be able to defend myself better when I'm surprised attacked when doing a quest. So here's the question: What do I do in those first few seconds of an encounter to maximize my chances of survival? Thanks

Make bar 2 your default bar so if you're surprised attacked, you can cast Ritual, then Honor the Dead without swapping (block cast these if your health is low. Once you heal up, you've got to put pressure on the bad guy, Cyrodiil's fights are usually won by the person who holds the initiative; don;t just stand there spamming Honor.

The other thing I would suggest is dropping Living Dark from your bar. It used to be a good skill, but its mechanics have changed and it received quite a hefty nerf. If you have the psijic skill unlocked, I'd recommend Race against Time as one of templar biggest weakness is they are slow. If not, having elemental drain on your front bar and degeneration on bar 2 would also work pretty well.

Joy_Division wrote: »

The other thing I would suggest is dropping Living Dark from your bar. It used to be a good skill, but its mechanics have changed and it received quite a hefty nerf.

I obviously disagree, but again it all depends on your exact build, for example how passively tanky you are - heavy armor, resistances in general, Pirate Skeleton monster set (also nerfed to bits), and so on. I find that Living Dark works for me, but I play light armor, not especially tanky. This is not merely about the healing, though. It's also about the snare reduction that Sweeps has had - I believe it's down to 40%. I notice the increased 60% snare when people attack me while I have Living Dark up. With many people so fast, these days, that makes a difference to me.

If you have the psijic skill unlocked, I'd recommend Race against Time as one of templar biggest weakness is they are slow.

I agree. That, or Mist Form. You need it or you better stay within your alliance's battle lines, e.g. within your group. If you venture out solo, then you need it.

If not, having elemental drain on your front bar and degeneration on bar 2 would also work pretty well.

I also agree with having a ranged opening skill on the back bar instead of Toppling Charge. That works well for me. However it's probably just more of a playstyle thing. If your back bar is 1H+S, you're not really going to activate the back bar enchant either way in most cases. Incidentally I tried Pierce Armor on the back bar, but found it pretty horrible. People just move so fast and the sound / animation it makes is so subtle, I typically ended up bar swapping, unsure whether it had connected. If you're using Ele Drain, look into that Vateshran destro that everyone likes now.

Thanks everybody for all the great advice - I will study it and make adjustments Meanwhile, in group fights, I'm having better luck on my all-out stealth nightblade bow ganker, because I'm not as fast as all these guys I see running around like mad dodging and casting. If a templar is slow, I'm even slower, which is probably part of my challenge I feel so powerful soloing dungeons with my AOEs and DPS but so weak in PVP, it's laughable. But I'll keep trying, lol

One of the hardest but arguably the most important things to learn in PVP is defensive rotations, and that just comes with practice.

Something that's helpful is have a buddy (with pvp gear) try to kill you while all you try to do is survive.

Thanks