• They stand still.
• They don't understand that when health dips below 60%, they are in danger of dying to a CC and then burst damage. You need to block, dodge, shield, cloak, do something to protect yourself at this point.
• They don;t keep up their buffs.
• They run too many offensive abilities and try intricate combinations that stand little chance of working.
• They don't have a plan to use their CC as a part of a strategy. Instead they'll just throw a javelin at me at a random time or something.

fred4 wrote: »

So the thing about being buffed at all times means better defense, sure, but also that you are ready to counterattack at all times.

Well, your gear is wrong. Are you a magplar or a stamplar? You can't really run Hunding's (stamina set) and a resto staff (magicka weapon). Well, you can, if you're building some sort of hybrid build, but lets assume that's not where you're at. First decision you have to make: Are you a magicka or stamina templar. If you don't know or don't care, then we need to know your race to make the appropriate recommendation.

Next: 1H+S and resto staff are both defensive weapons. That generally won't work. You need an offensive weapon and defensive weapon. Everything being equal, I recommend you ditch the resto staff and retain 1H+S as the back bar weapon.

As you like healing others from time to time, I would recommend you become a magicka templar. That means investing into magicka, magicka regeneration and using predominantly magicka skills. However your race should factor into the decision, if you want to be optimal.

Yes, your pen is ... non-existent. PvPers have anything from 10K to 30K penetration when they burst. How? Sharpened weapons, mauls / maces, sets that give pen (Spriggan, Stuhn, Spinner's, Heartland Conqueror etc.), light armor, Major and / or Minor penetration buffs (Elemental Drain, Pierce Armor and so on) and, to top it all off, Balorgh is often used as the monster set.

All Divines is a no no. On a ganking nightblade ... maybe ... but in general you want to run all Impenetrable or some mixture of Impenetrable and Well-Fitted. Divines might be used with the Shadow mundus or maybe a penetration or armor mundus, but ... meh. The regen munduses are good, because their value is relatively high and they boost your out of combat regen (when you're standing on a flag, doing a buff cycle for example). The weapon / spell damage munduses are also always a good compromise, because they boost both damage and healing as well as any proc sets you may wear. With those munduses you won't generally go Divines.

Damage, this patch, is extremely high and therefore half the population, those who know what they're doing, are running Pariah, one of the few sets that still provides reasonable all-round damage mitigation. The problem with having only 20K resistances is that some, heck even most PvPers, will hit right through that. Armor is mathematically still one of the best defenses, but you need to stack it. Especially on a templar that is traditionally one of the ways that class tends to work. If you're going that route you need to aim for at least 30K buffed resistances, ideally more like 35K. (However personally I find that good stamina sustain and speed - Wild Hunt - also works. You're more liable to be one shot, though.)

The top PvP monster sets include:
Balorgh (high damage after ultimate use)
Malubeth (on a melee class like templar - enhances self-healing)
Bloodspawn (just all round good PvP set)
Zoal (new, CCs (disables) opponents when you get stunned)
Engine Guardian (gives you resources and is annoying to fight against, since opponents frequently hit it instead of you)

Bewitched Sugar Skulls are fine, but it depends on the build.

As a stamina templar, the kind of sets you should be looking at include:

Pariah
Deadly Strike (+20% Jabs damage)
Good old Shacklebreaker for some magicka sustain
Eternal Vigor
Stuhn (if you use Toppling Charge)
Heartland Conqueror
Spriggan's

As a magicka templar:

Pariah
Amber Plasm
Shacklebreaker
Eternal Vigor
Auroran's Thunder or Overwhelming Surge
Stuhn (if you use Toppling Charge)
Heartland Conqueror
Spinner's

Very hard to get away from wearing one defensive set and one offensive set, these days, and Pariah is everyone's #1 on the list for the defensive set. Buffer of the Swift is another, but ... meh.

Amber Plasm, Shacklebreaker and Eternal Vigor give you opposite stat. As a stamplar you want that for Extended Ritual and possibly Toppling Charge. As a magplar you want that for dodge rolling, breaking free and sprinting.

Stuhn, Spinner's, Spriggan's are all pen sets, which are generally some of the best sets for PvP.

Thunder and Overwhelming Surge are lightning sets that may proc Minor Vulnerability on the target and that may help you keep nightblades exposed, because they are AOE.

Heartland Conqueror is new and very flexible. A typical way of running this might be with a Sharpened Weapon on the front bar for the pen and a Powered weapon on the back bar for extra healing. Defending is also a good back bar trait and, together with this set, another way to get your resistances up into the 30s, at least so long as you are on the back bar.

In either case you may consider becoming a vampire. Vamp stage 3 synergises with wearing Pariah and Mist Form is one of the best defensive skills a templar can use.

Heavy versus medium or light armor tends to be a personal preference. Medium / light facilitate higher damage and more dodge rolling. I prefer that. You can wear Pariah jewelry in that case.

Front bar weapon should probably be Lightning Staff (magplar) or DW (magplar) or 2H maul (magplar / stamplar)
Back bar weapon should probably be 1H+S (magplar / stamplar) or resto staff (magplar) or bow (stamplar)

Good Templar PvP skills include:

Jabs / Sweeps (front bar). You want to pay attention and push tooltip damage as high as you can. Something like 4K in CP with Major Brutality / Sorcery is a good value. Easier to reach on stamplar. Incidentally templar is mostly a pressure class. It's burst potential has been nerfed and was never that great. This, however, does make it easy to play. Combine Sweeps with Solar Barrage, Crescent Sweep and Elemental Drain as a magplar and you are an AOE monster. Radiant Glory / Oppression is iffy in a 1v1. Just doesn't do enough. However it's pretty nasty when you're zerging players.

Toppling Charge (front bar). Look no further for a gap closer, CC and source of off balance. Good on either flavor of the class.

Extended Ritual (back bar). Your cleanse and healing area to fight in. Can, in particular, prevent sorcs and DKs from bursting you in duels as you cleans off their effects (sorc curse / execute, DK DOTs). Class defining staple skill on both flavors of the class.

Channeled or Restoring Focus (back bar). Always keep this up. I prefer getting stam, rather than mag, via Restoring Focus on magplar as well as stamplar. Helps with retaining your stamina while sprinting or blocking. The resistances make this a staple skill on every single PvP class / build. No PvPer runs without their resistance skill and they never drop this buff.

Race Against Time or Mist Form or using bow + medium armor + Shuffle. Your speed / escape skills. Indispensible.

Honor the Dead and Living Dark on magplar. The latter is flexible, but kind of hard to live without. Also for the snare it puts on opponents.

Resolving Vigor, Rally and probably Repentence on stamplar. Your heals and sustain skills.

Crescent Sweep: Cheap, powerful and even works on stamplar.