Troubleshoot Build

ICouldBeAPsycho · January 2023

Hello Guys,

I hope you all are well and looking forward to the new year.

I'm hoping some of the more knowledgeable players can review my build and stats and advise where I'm missing the plot.

I've attached a screenshot of my stats fully buffed. I'm wearing Order's Wrath, Winter's Respite, one piece Slimecraw and the Oakensoul Ring. I know that my build is not optimised for organized groups or content, but I 99% play solo and do PVE content. I'm also not the greatest with complicated rotations and bar swapping which is why I've chosen these sets and especially the Oakensoul Ring.

My reasoning behind these sets is that the Order's Wrath will give the damage and the Winter's Respite will provide the survivability. I can solo pretty much any world boss and normal dungeon. If I learn mechanics I may survive a few veteran dungeon bosses. The concern I have is with how long it takes me to actually bring down a boss. I feel as if the fight goes on forever. I know I'm sacrificing a lot of damage by only having one bar, but do my stats show if I'm missing something? Do I need more crit? More spell damage? More penetration? Or should I replace these sets?

If anyone does advise on different sets, I would like to push my luck and your knowledge by asking if there are any sets which are better for me that have some sort of animation or visual effect when proccing. What I mean is the Winter's Respite has the frost effect on the ground, something like Stormfist has the thunderfist which closes on the enemy or even Unfathomable Darkness which spawns crows. Again, I 99% play solo so I'm just trying to have fun and enjoy what I'm playing. I like sets that proc these cool animations.

Of course, I am willing to be flexible here and I understand I need to have balance and may need to sacrifice effects for performance as required.

Please advise

fred4 · January 2023

Not enough information. Class. Race. Skills. Food. Potions. Weapon type. Golded out weapon? Armor weights. Armor traits. Mundus stone. Jewelry enchants. Jewelry traits. Weapon enchant. Playstyle, e.g. is this a heavy attack build? Put your build into a build editor (UESP or maybe Alcast), if you can. Make it fully reflect reality in terms of traits, enchants and gear quality.

Your mag regen looks too low for a solo build that isn't a heavy attack build in my opinion. Crit is already quite high, so presumably Divines and Thief mundus? No problem there, although I tend to go for Hexos Ward (instead of Winter's Respite), when I want some survivability. That set has two more crit bonuses. Something that procs and is universally useful: Pillar of Nirn. Something for better sustain: False God.

OBJnoob · January 2023

Fred is right (I feel like I say that a lot,) at the VERY least we need to know what class you are and what skills you're using.

But even without knowing that... I think you should take off winters respite. I knew what it was but went ahead and looked it up to see the actual value of the heal. Looks like a pretty small number, and I notice it only ticks every 2 seconds. A pretty weak heal in my opinion. Not bad if you're playing in a group because it can effect everybody but as a solo player you can do better.

Also, I think you should sacrifice some max magicka for either some mag recovery or some more spell damage. But I suppose when you change sets that might take care of itself.

I might go with Robes of the Hist if I were you. I don't PvE much so I'm not sure how frequently you get stunned or immobilized but I feel like snares are pretty common. It's a stronger heal and it ticks every second. Also, the other bonuses are a little better I think.

Either way... I notice from the picture that you only have like 360CP. You're doing great. Don't worry.

ICouldBeAPsycho · January 2023

fred4 wrote: »

Not enough information. Class. Race. Skills. Food. Potions. Weapon type. Golded out weapon? Armor weights. Armor traits. Mundus stone. Jewelry enchants. Jewelry traits. Weapon enchant. Playstyle, e.g. is this a heavy attack build? Put your build into a build editor (UESP or maybe Alcast), if you can. Make it fully reflect reality in terms of traits, enchants and gear quality.

Your mag regen looks too low for a solo build that isn't a heavy attack build in my opinion. Crit is already quite high, so presumably Divines and Thief mundus? No problem there, although I tend to go for Hexos Ward (instead of Winter's Respite), when I want some survivability. That set has two more crit bonuses. Something that procs and is universally useful: Pillar of Nirn. Something for better sustain: False God.

My apologies. I've left a lot of guesswork here.

Templar, High Elf, Longfin Pasty food (it was cheap), I haven't slotted potions (I actually forgot about this), all my gear is purple, light, max magicka enchant and divines, Thief mundus, spell damage enchants on jewelry, shock damage enchant on weapon. Playstyle is rather simply. I basically put down heals and dots (which proc Winter's Respite) and then go for heavy attacks and a few jabs.

I'll check a build editor and the sets you mentioned.

Thanks a lot!

ICouldBeAPsycho · January 2023

OBJnoob wrote: »

Fred is right (I feel like I say that a lot,) at the VERY least we need to know what class you are and what skills you're using.

But even without knowing that... I think you should take off winters respite. I knew what it was but went ahead and looked it up to see the actual value of the heal. Looks like a pretty small number, and I notice it only ticks every 2 seconds. A pretty weak heal in my opinion. Not bad if you're playing in a group because it can effect everybody but as a solo player you can do better.

Also, I think you should sacrifice some max magicka for either some mag recovery or some more spell damage. But I suppose when you change sets that might take care of itself.

I might go with Robes of the Hist if I were you. I don't PvE much so I'm not sure how frequently you get stunned or immobilized but I feel like snares are pretty common. It's a stronger heal and it ticks every second. Also, the other bonuses are a little better I think.

Either way... I notice from the picture that you only have like 360CP. You're doing great. Don't worry.

My current skills (and I think I might be missing something here) are Puncturing Sweep (spammable), Radiant Glory (execute), Blazing Shield, Solar Barrage (increases heavy attack damage), Blazing Spear (DOT and procs Winter's Respite), Ice Comet (ultimate).

I'll look into the Robes of Hist set.

Thank you very much for the input. I appreciate it. As I get better I'll start moving onto a second bar and better rotations and gear.

fred4 · January 2023

A couple of minor points:

I'd use Witchmother's Potent Brew as the food, although this depends on playstyle. More below.
Oakensoul already gives you Empower, the heavy attack damage buff. Solar Barrage is redundant from that point of view, although it does give you Minor Sorcery.
You didn't list your weapon type. With your kind of build I'd recommend a Sharpened or Precise lightning staff.
You don't mention jewelry traits. They will want to be Bloodthirsty.
Instead of shock damage enchant, use an increase weapon / spell damage enchant (Okori).

The main problem looks to be your rotation, if the following is accurate: "and then go for heavy attacks and a few jabs". Heavy attacks are there to restore magicka "in emergency", unless you specifically make a heavy attack build. For the latter you would have to wear two sets from the following list: Sergeant's Mail (Chest, jewelry, weapon), Noble Duelist, Storm Master, Undaunted Unweaver, Undaunted Infiltrator. You'd also ideally be a sorc. I'm going to assume that's not what you want to do.

For a normal magicka templar solo build all you want is the ability to sustain Puncturing Sweeps. The second thing is learning how to weave light attacks. Nothing else matters. You could almost leave the rest of your skill bar blank.

Weaving means you need to get into a rythm. Left mouse-click -> Puncturing Sweeps. All the time. Every second. That's more or less it, if you can sustain it. You heal from Sweeps.

Blazing Shield is not a good skill. It was once meta in PvP. Then it got nerfed. In PvE, generally speaking, actively casting a shield is a waste of time. It doesn't progress the fight and costs a lot of magicka. I know Blazing Shield does some damage, but it scales with health and monsters don't really attack you enough. Not like PvP. Now I can see how a shield would work with your current playstyle. If you are / were running a heavy attack build, then using a shield inbetween heavy attacks, in harder content, may be necessary and makes sense. Still, it should probably be Harness Magicka, which should give you a bigger shield (but check tooltips of the skills in your exact build). Deltia, a well-known YouTuber and magplar main, prefers running a shield (Harness) on (solo) magplar for emergencies. I just run Honor the Dead, e.g. a big burst heal. Either will work and either are just for emergencies. You can't afford to cast these skills frequently in a non-heavy attack build, because they stall the fight for one second and they run down your magicka like crazy. Templar needs to be played super aggressively. Puncturing Sweeps is your main heal. Staying on attack with that skill is almost always the right call, unless you're progressing to really hard content, where occasional blocking, shielding, and burst healing may become necessary.

With this in mind, I'd make the following changes to your build:

Use Siphoning Spells from the red CP tree
Food: Witchmother's Potent Brew or Ghastly Eye Bowl
Mundus: You may need to switch to the Atronach for sustain in solo play
Have magicka trash potions ready or daily reward tri-stat potions
Be sure to level Alchemy and get the Medicinal Use passive

Skills:

Puncturing Sweeps
Radiant Glory
Channeled Focus - needed for sustain (and to activate Winter's Respite), despite Oakensoul making this skill partially redundant
Power of the Light - gives Minor Sorcery, reduces (boss) target resistance and deals damage
Harness Magicka or Honor the Dead
Meteor, Elemental Rage, Flawless Dawnbreaker, Crescent Sweep, Nova are all good

If sustain, magicka or stamina, is (still) an issue, then maybe swap Power of the Light out for Elemental Drain (destro staff skill).

ICouldBeAPsycho · January 2023

fred4 wrote: »

A couple of minor points:
I'd use Witchmother's Potent Brew as the food, although this depends on playstyle. More below.

Oakensoul already gives you Empower, the heavy attack damage buff. Solar Barrage is redundant from that point of view, although it does give you Minor Sorcery.

You didn't list your weapon type. With your kind of build I'd recommend a Sharpened or Precise lightning staff.

You don't mention jewelry traits. They will want to be Bloodthirsty.

Instead of shock damage enchant, use an increase weapon / spell damage enchant (Okori).

The main problem looks to be your rotation, if the following is accurate: "and then go for heavy attacks and a few jabs". Heavy attacks are there to restore magicka "in emergency", unless you specifically make a heavy attack build. For the latter you would have to wear two sets from the following list: Sergeant's Mail (Chest, jewelry, weapon), Noble Duelist, Storm Master, Undaunted Unweaver, Undaunted Infiltrator. You'd also ideally be a sorc. I'm going to assume that's not what you want to do.

For a normal magicka templar solo build all you want is the ability to sustain Puncturing Sweeps. The second thing is learning how to weave light attacks. Nothing else matters. You could almost leave the rest of your skill bar blank.

Weaving means you need to get into a rythm. Left mouse-click -> Puncturing Sweeps. All the time. Every second. That's more or less it, if you can sustain it. You heal from Sweeps.

Blazing Shield is not a good skill. It was once meta in PvP. Then it got nerfed. In PvE, generally speaking, actively casting a shield is a waste of time. It doesn't progress the fight and costs a lot of magicka. I know Blazing Shield does some damage, but it scales with health and monsters don't really attack you enough. Not like PvP. Now I can see how a shield would work with your current playstyle. If you are / were running a heavy attack build, then using a shield inbetween heavy attacks, in harder content, may be necessary and makes sense. Still, it should probably be Harness Magicka, which should give you a bigger shield (but check tooltips of the skills in your exact build). Deltia, a well-known YouTuber and magplar main, prefers running a shield (Harness) on (solo) magplar for emergencies. I just run Honor the Dead, e.g. a big burst heal. Either will work and either are just for emergencies. You can't afford to cast these skills frequently in a non-heavy attack build, because they stall the fight for one second and they run down your magicka like crazy. Templar needs to be played super aggressively. Puncturing Sweeps is your main heal. Staying on attack with that skill is almost always the right call, unless you're progressing to really hard content, where occasional blocking, shielding, and burst healing may become necessary.

With this in mind, I'd make the following changes to your build:

Use Siphoning Spells from the red CP tree
Food: Witchmother's Potent Brew or Ghastly Eye Bowl
Mundus: You may need to switch to the Atronach for sustain in solo play
Have magicka trash potions ready or daily reward tri-stat potions
Be sure to level Alchemy and get the Medicinal Use passive

Skills:

Puncturing Sweeps
Radiant Glory
Channeled Focus - needed for sustain (and to activate Winter's Respite), despite Oakensoul making this skill partially redundant
Power of the Light - gives Minor Sorcery, reduces (boss) target resistance and deals damage
Harness Magicka or Honor the Dead
Meteor, Elemental Rage, Flawless Dawnbreaker, Crescent Sweep, Nova are all good

If sustain, magicka or stamina, is (still) an issue, then maybe swap Power of the Light out for Elemental Drain (destro staff skill).

This is really valuable information. Thank you so much for educating me! :-) I will definitely take your advice.

I've started playing a lot more aggressively with my MagPlar. I've realised that I actually prefer to be up close and personal so this definitely has me spamming Puncturing Sweeps a lot more. I now see why you said I could actually just build to sustain this skill as its damage and heals.

I really do appreciate you taking the time to help.

Zodiarkslayer · January 2023

@ICouldBeAPsycho This is how I play my MagPlar. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=444907

I swap out Extended Ritual and Blazing Spear for more defensive options like the Rune or the Light Armor Shield, if I need it. But Sweeps is almost always enough.

It sounds like you could use a source for AoE Major Breach. Razor Caltrops is the only option, sadly. But you have to PvP a little. I did that on all my chars during the PvP event. It is quickly and easily done. In case you do not have it.

All abilities of the MagPlar should be AoE, especially if you insist on using a Lightning Staff. Any single target ability is a detriment. That includes Power of the Light.

I really felt a surge in power when I switched to Dual Wield. I mean as Templar I will be in melee range anyway. So why not try it? As a bonus I can run Bloodthirst( not AoE, but the heal can be nice) or Deadly Cloak, too. I can fine tune my sustain this way.

I would forget any execute on an Oakensoul one bar build. There is not enough bar space, in my opinion. But hey, people are known to disagree on that.
They are wrong, btw. They want to RP Jesus or Dragonball or something. 😅

Hope I could help a bit more.

AJTC5000 · January 2023

Can only echo what the others have said - your primary focus as a Magplar DD is being able to sustain Puncturing Sweeps as your bread and butter heal. That means you'll be in melee range as much as you can, so skills like Ritual of Retribution, Channeled Focus etc synergise very well. My typical skill bars are something like this:

Front:

FLEX SPOT - Inner Light/Elemental Drain/Deadly Cloak - your buff and/or debuff skill depending on whether you run dual-wield or staff front-bar
Purifying Light/Power of the Light - procs Minor Sorcery
Puncturing Sweeps - bread and butter damage + healing, and your Aedric spear ability for this bar (10% crit damage just for having it slotted + Minor Protection for 3s on cast (basically all the time))
Radiant Destruction - execute (can start using from about 40% now)
Barbed Trap - procs Minor Force and FG passives
Dawnbreaker - FG passives

Back:

FLEX SPOT - Inner Light/Honor the Dead/Shield - buff and/or survivability skill
Ritual of Retribution - Cleanse and AoE DoT
Blazing Spear - Aedric spear ability for this bar
Your choice of weapon DoT depending on your back-bar weapon - Unstable Wall/Stampede/Endless Hail/Deadly Cloak
Channeled Focus
Shooting Star

Once you get some more CP you'll have more options/flexibility, but if you're set on solo content I would also recommend Ring of the Pale Order. Combined with Sweeps you can run a full damage build (Minor Slayer sets from trials etc) and be basically unkillable without having to run more defensive skills/morphs - PO will also let you be able to run the higher-damage morph of beam and still get healing back.

False God's Devotion is an amazing set for magicka sustain to pair with Order's Wrath, if you can get some Sunspire runs under your belt. Otherwise, if you're gonna be using Sweeps a lot, Winter's Respite becomes a little under-powered IMO - consider replacing it with something like Julianos, Mother's Sorrow, or Hexos' Ward if you're running some high-damage content (the damage shield will stack with your healing).

Can also highly recommend visiting Skinny's website, as he breaks down a lot of different build options for both magplar, stamplar and hybrid builds!

https://www.skinnycheeks.gg/templar

fred4 · January 2023

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

All abilities of the MagPlar should be AoE, especially if you insist on using a Lightning Staff. Any single target ability is a detriment. That includes Power of the Light.

I really felt a surge in power when I switched to Dual Wield.

Fair points. I don't necessarily disagree. In fact, I frequently run Solar Barrage instead of PoTL for ease of use myself. I will say this, though:

I have not felt the power of Dual Wield on my magplar over a lightning staff. Depends on skills, I suppose.
On an Oakensoul build I'd use a weapon with which you can restore magicka via heavy attacks. Your goal is not to oversustain so much that this will never be necessary. Lightning staves are easier to aim and restore magicka with than other destro staves.

I would forget any execute on an Oakensoul one bar build.

ZOS have buffed the crap out of Radiant. It is extremely strong. Using a staff you can continue weaving light attacks while backing off from the target. Take the first boss in Hel Ra, for example. It goes into it's "and now I kill you all with AOE" phase at low health. It is very nice to start playing ranged on the "home stretch" in the execute phase. I feel it significantly increases your survivability as well as your damage uptime against bosses that move. Maybe not, if you're very good and know all the mechanics, but it is nice to play. Healers like you to stay balled up in a group, so they can heal you better, but in trial PUGs I've felt just as safe, if not safer, via the positioning freedom I get with Radiant while still doing damage.

Perhaps, on a one bar build, you could do more overall DPS by using other skills. It depends what you're after. Something min-maxed or something that's nice to play while arguably still being pretty competitive.

Zodiarkslayer · January 2023

fred4 wrote: »

ZOS have buffed the crap out of Radiant. It is extremely strong. Using a staff you can continue weaving light attacks while backing off from the target. Take the first boss in Hel Ra, for example. It goes into it's "and now I kill you all with AOE" phase at low health. It is very nice to start playing ranged on the "home stretch" in the execute phase. I feel it significantly increases your survivability as well as your damage uptime against bosses that move. Maybe not, if you're very good and know all the mechanics, but it is nice to play. Healers like you to stay balled up in a group, so they can heal you better, but in trial PUGs I've felt just as safe, if not safer, via the positioning freedom I get with Radiant while still doing damage.

Certainly. But the OP stated he/she does 99% SOLO.
And I wouldn't use an Oakensoul build in a Trial anyways, because of rationals like the one you made above. Unless my Team expicitly allows it, of course.

fred4 wrote: »

I have not felt the power of Dual Wield on my magplar over a lightning staff. Depends on skills, I suppose.

You will. Just give it time.

I use Nirn/Sharp dual Maces, btw.