Templar

PvE DPS GUIDE

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Templars channel the power of the Divines to obliterate their foes with blinding light and righteous certainty. Zealous and relentless, they do not stop until everything around them has been purified. That single-mindedness is reflected in channelled abilities like Puncturing Strikes and Radiant Oppression, which only deal their full damage if you commit to the attack and do not block, dodge or bar swap until it is complete. With extreme ramping damage as enemies near death, Oppression allows Templars to dominate in execute and look unassailably cool while doing so.

KEY PASSIVES

Less than half as powerful as it used to be, this still amounts to free damage. So long as you’re hitting your target at least twice per second with pretty much anything, this will proc continuously.

Minor Sorcery is the unique buff provided by this class, which is very easy to keep up with Backlash and Radiant Oppression. Solar Barrage is another good way to proc it during trash fights.

With Critical Damage capped at 125% this is not equally valuable everywhere, but it’s nice to have. Try to slot an Aedric Spear ability on both bars and keep it in mind when optimising your offensive stats.

Equivalent to other class ultigen passives, this one is somewhat easier to track. The 6s cooldown lines up perfectly with the duration of Backlash and is an extra incentive to recast it on cue.

Recent Changes

    • Weapon passives changed to shrink the gap between different weapon types.

    • Long Shots renamed Vinedusk Training, changed to a universal damage bonus.

    • Bonuses from Twin Blade & Blunt and Heavy Weapons reduced slightly.

    • Ancient Knowledge changed to boost damage types based on type of staff equipped.

    • Tri Focus restricted to the final tick of fully charged Lightning Heavy Attacks, rather than any tick.

    • Merciless Charge changed to increase all direct damage for 18s after casting Critical Charge.

    • 0.5s cooldown and 30% ramping damage per target added to Azureblight, base damage reduced.

    • Warchief, Battlereeve and General monster sets added to Cyrodiil.

    • Sourcing of Craglorn trial sets adjusted to fix curation.

    • Improved death notifications added to PvP areas.

    • Hundreds of bug fixes for quests, sets, items, companions etc.

    • Backlash maximum damage threshold lowered by 60%.

    • Solar Flare and its morphs updated to increase damage with class abilities by 5%.

    • Major Protection added to Focused Charge and its morphs.

    • Healing added to Rune Focus when outside the rune. Heal inside the rune increased by 200%.

    • Arcanist class added.

    • Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet set added.

    • Default melee attack range increased from 5 to 7 meters.

    • Spectral Cloak changed to activate only when in combat.

    • Plaguebreak changed to apply only to enemy players.

    • Empower bonus reduced to 70% from 80%.

    • Radial Sweep renamed Everlasting Sweep. Damage over time increased from 6s to 10s..

    • Major Berserk added to Wrecking Blow.

    • Jewelry damage glyphs hybridised. Stamina/Magicka Recovery added.

    • Runecarver’s Blaze and Ozezan the Inferno sets added.

    • Light Attack scaling increased, but base damage capped at 3,850 for melee, 3,465 for ranged.

    • Taunt added to single target pull abilities and procs when target is not already taunted.

    • Taunt immunity changed to activate only after 5 taunts from 2 players.

    • Pearls of Ehlnofey ultimate gain reduced from 5 to 3. Resource threshold raised from 30% to 50%.

    • Elemental Susceptibility fixed so Major Breach no longer overrides the ability.

    • Harmony trait changed to restore resources rather than boost synergies.

    • Syrabane’s Ward and Back-Alley Gourmand sets added.

    • Target marker system added.

    • Elemental Drain duration increased from 23 to 60 seconds.

    • Elemental Susceptibility changed to apply Burning, Chilled and Concussed every 6s. Duration reduced to 30s.

    • Volley fixed to scale dynamically and not solely with Weapon Critical.

    • Healing from Vigor reduced by 10%.

    • Occult Overload damage reduced by 60%, now applies a random status effect.

Magicka

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Aegis Caller's Arm Cops Divines Magicka
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Relequen's Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Relequen's Belt Divines Magicka
Legs Relequen's Guards Divines Magicka
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller's Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller's Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Aegis Caller's Dagger Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Aegis Caller's Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • Aegis slightly outperforms Deadly if the conditions are right (and we use Dawnbreaker), but Deadly is more reliable.

  • Nirn, Yokeda and Whorl are all excellent alternative sets.

  • At least 1 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Thaumaturge - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Master-at-Arms to boost your direct damage instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Ghastly Eye Bowl

Increase Max Magicka by 4936 and Magicka Recovery by 493 for 2 hours.

"Eyeballs" and live worms in a chilled banana and fleshfly broth. Squirms inside all the way down!

Drink > Delicacies
Worms, Fleshfly Larva, Bananas, Rose

Essence of Spell Power

Grants Major Sorcery which increases your Spell Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Prophecy which gives you 2629 Spell Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Magicka immediately.
Grants you Major Intellect which increases your Magicka Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Corn Flower
Lady's Smock
Namira's Rot / Water Hyacinth

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Fruit recipes for maximum Magicka
Crunchy Spider Skewer for Magicka + Stamina Recovery

Max-level Savoury recipes for Health + Magicka
Witchmother’s Potent Brew for Health + Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Clockwork Citrus Filet for Health + Health Recovery + Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Essence of Weapon Power for Major Brutality + Savagery + Endurance
Tri Restoration Potion for Major Fortitude + Intellect + Endurance

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Barbed Trap, Power of the Light, Puncturing Sweep, Radiant Oppression, Inner Light, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Stampede, Ritual of Retribution, Solar Barrage, Vampire’s Bane, Carve, Shooting Star

ROTATION
127k DPS

Merciless Charge is great for boosting our pre-execute damage, together with improvements to Solar Barrage in Necrom, it makes Puncturing Sweep much more effective as a spammable. Unfortunately we are still obliged to boost Oppression with Deadly Aim and Thaumaturge , neither of which affect Sweep or Power of the Light (our main pre-execute sources of damage), which is a shame.

It feels odd to exclude Blazing Spear and have no Piercing Spear on the back bar, but everything is a bit easier without it and damage is about the same. Vampire’s Bane and Carve must be recast dynamically. Trap and Barrage can be static or staggered, based on weaving speed/preference. Open with Shooting Star, Trap and Barrage.

Templar damage does not get that high until we reach execute, so always try to nail the final phase. Replace Sweep with Oppression at about 40%, and drop Power of the Light at about 25% (unless to fill spare cooldowns or ease bar swaps). Ideally you want to recast all DOTs above 15% or so and leave them after that, but at least keep Stampede, Barrage and Trap going. Drop everything else at 15% and beam your way to victory.

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Prior Thierric's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Prior Thierric's Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Hands Burning Spellweave Gloves Divines Magicka
Waist Burning Spellweave Sash Divines Magicka
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Feet Burning Spellweave Shoes Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Dagger of Sul-Xan’s Torment Nirnhoned Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand Burning Spellweave Dagger Precise Disease
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 3-5 x Light is recommended. You can equip more Medium/Light pieces depending on your sustain and Critical Damage.

  • For important nukes, swap Sul-Xan for Acuity, Spellweave for Elf-Bane and Prior Thierric for Balorgh.

  • Other useful monster sets include Grothdarr, Stormfist, Kra’gh and Skoria, depending on what you need.

  • Whirling Blades also works very well as a secondary spammable for trash pulls, as an execute and/or a way to ease Magicka sustain.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. And if trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs will provide a higher proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge may be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Inner Light / Camouflaged Hunter, Whirling Blades, Blazing Spear, Radiant Oppression, Deadly Cloak, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Ritual of Retribution, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Proximity Detonation, Solar Barrage, Fiery Rage

Stamina

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

Single Target

Relequen + Pillar of Nirn + Master’s Bow + Ur-Mage

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw’s Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Pillar of Nirn Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Relequen's Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Relequen's Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Relequen’s Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Pillar of Nirn Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Pillar of Nirn Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Pillar of Nirn Bow Precise Flame
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand The Master’s Bow Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • At least 1 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Pillar of Nirn for Whorl of the Depths according to situation or preference.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Thaumaturge - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Master-at-Arms to boost your direct damage instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice

Increase Max Stamina by 4936 and Stamina Recovery by 493 for 2 hours.

A seasonal meal enjoyed during the New Life Festival. A good serving of this Dark Elf meal keeps the scrib on the surface of the broth.

Food > Delicacies
Saltrice, Flour, Potato, Scrib Jelly

Tri Restoration Potion
or
Essence of Health

Restore 8369 Health, 7582 Magicka, and 7582 Stamina immediately.

Grants Major Fortitude, Major Intellect, and Major Endurance which increase your Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by 30% for 36.3 seconds.

These effects are scaled based on your level. (45 second cooldown)

Bugloss
Columbine
Mountain Flower

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Vegetable recipes for maximum Stamina
Candied Jester’s Coins for Stamina + Magicka Recovery

Max-level Ragout recipes for Health + Stamina
Dubious Camoran Throne for Health + Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Artaeum Takeaway Broth for Health + Health Recovery + Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Essence of Weapon Power for Major Brutality + Savagery + Endurance
Essence of Spell Power for Major Sorcery + Prophecy + Intellect

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Barbed Trap, Power of the Light, Lethal Arrow, Radiant Glory / Oppression, Blazing Spear, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Poison Injection, Ritual of Retribution, Endless Hail/Arrow Barrage, Degeneration, Vampire’s Bane, Shooting Star

SEMI-STATIC ROTATION
130k DPS

Stamina Templar is still in a weird place because so much of our power stems from a single expensive Magicka ability. The usual melee setups still work, but Wrecking Blow no longer offers great Major Berserk uptimes, while Merciless Charge + Biting Jabs divides our damage between direct and over time, so we’re almost entirely reliant on a strong execute but lack the Magicka sustain to pull it off. It works fine for very short fights, but for trial bosses over a minute long, the Bow/Bow setup should be a safer and stronger bet.

Bows are now much more competitive on the front bar, which lets us keep up stacks on the Hawk Eye passive and make our Bow back bar DOTs more powerful as well. Poison Injection capitalises on Deadly Aim & Thaumaturge, while boosting our execute, and Bows also raise our Critical Chance and sustain, especially for longer executes.

You can follow the rotation as shown to keep things almost entirely static. But it’s also easy to treat Trap, Injection & Ritual as a single unit and recast them together every 20s for more DPS (throw a Power in between them when you need to). You can also go dynamic with Endless Hail for another little bit extra. Make sure you recast Degen on cooldown either way, and use Blazing Spear whenever it runs out and/or when you need to barswap (the upfront hit is pretty strong). Open with Hail, Shooting Star and Trap.

For short fights, refresh your DOTs at 40% and beam the rest of the way. In longer executes you may need to conserve your Magicka until about 30%. Make sure to drop Spear as soon as you start beaming, and also drop Power after 25% and once you know you can sustain without it. From 15% try to cast nothing but Glory/Oppression. Ideally you want to refresh Injection, Degen and Bane before this so they last until the end, but after ~10% let those expire too and just beam your way to victory.

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw’s Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Burning Spellweave Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Hands Bracers of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Waist Belt of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Feet Boots of of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand The Master’s Greatsword Nirnhoned Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 1-2 x Light is recommended. You can equip more Medium/Light pieces depending on your sustain and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Slimecraw 1-piece for a Stormfist, Kra’gh or Skoria 1piece, depending on what you need.

  • Hitting the penetration cap of 18,200 in trash pulls is important. Using a Sharpened Master’s Maul on the front bar, upgrading to the Perfected version and wearing more Light pieces are some of the things you can do to help you get there.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. And if trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs will provide a higher proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge may be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Camouflaged Hunter, Reverse Slice, Carve, Stampede, Ring of Preservation, Everlasting Sweep

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Ritual of Retribution, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Proximity Detonation, Solar Barrage, Fiery Rage

Recent Changes

Update 44

  • Banner Bearer Grimoire introduced.

  • Azureblight Reaper set reworked. Base damage reduced, scaling damage per target massively increased.

  • Critical strike chance removed from Pyrebrand set. Damage adjusted.

  • Golden Pursuits and 2-sided Battlegrounds introduced.

  • Imperial City Keys and Vaults system replaced with Imperial Fragments and merchants.

Templar

  • Taunt added to Focused Charge.

  • Minor Maim added to Sun Shield. Scaling per enemy increased.

Update 43

  • Spattering Disjunction, Pyrebrand, Corpseburster, Umbral Edge, Beacon of Oblivion, Aetheric Lance & Aerie’s Cry sets added.

  • Curation added to dungeon-specific Undaunted Monster set shoulder coffers.

  • Undeath passive damage reduction lowered to 15% from 30%.

  • New arenas, bosses, Verses and Visions added to Infinite Archive.

  • Various Scribing tooltips tweaked, Affix Script compatibility increased.

  • Home Tours introduced.

Gold Road (Update 42)

  • Scribing and Skill Styling systems introduced

  • Lucent Echoes and Highland Sentinel sets added.

  • Gradual Ravage Health potions fixed to not trigger item sets.

  • Various damage reduction effects fixed to be multiplicative rather than additive.

  • Mages Guild passive Everlasting Magic duration increased changed from 20% to 2s.

  • Delay added to Rush of Agony proc, range increased from 10m to 12m.

  • Various Werewolf abilities tweaked to increase its general effectives in PvE.

Templar

  • Immobilize added to the initial hit of Blazing Spear.

Scions of Ithelia (Update 41)

  • Status Effects system overhauled, bringing them closer together in power.

    • Burning damage reduced by 6%.

    • Chilled damage increased by 106%.

    • Concussed damage increased by 106%, plus 15% extra to recently Concussed enemies.

    • Diseased damage increased by 88%, AOE damage added.

    • Hemorrhaging damage reduced by 20%, stacking added, Mangle removed.

    • Overcharged damage increased by 106%, Magicka restore added.

    • Poisoned damage reduced by 30%, duration reduced, ramping execute added.

    • Sundered damage increased by 106%, bonus Weapon & Spell Damage added.

  • Charged trait reduced from 365% to 235% increased status effect chance.

  • Barbed Trap changed to apply Hemorrhaging only on the initial hit.

  • Guaranteed Sundered status effect added to Snipe.

  • Guaranteed Hemorrhaging status effect added to every tick of Lacerate.

  • Executioner changed from Physical to Bleed Damage.

  • Runecarver’s Blaze fixed to apply Burning more often; a significant damage increase.

  • Mantle of Siroria perfected bonus changed from Max Magicka to Weapon & Spell Damage.

  • Vitality and Defile changed to affect damage shield strength as well as healing.

  • Inner Rage cost reduced by 40%, damage reduced by 10%, multi-synergy added.

  • Inner Beast damage increased by 80%, Minor Vulnerability & Minor Maim added.

  • Torc of the Last Ayleid King Mythic introduced.

  • Rewards system updated for XP, gold and Undaunted Keys

  • Buff/debuff tray updated to track taunt stacks.

  • Unified repair kits and stackable siege weaponry introduced

  • Role Play and Story playstyle options added to the Group Finder.

Templar

  • Power of the Light changed to always apply Sundered whenever it ticks.