Elder Scrolls Online Templar Sun Priest PVE Build Guide

Credits: Rinaldo's Templar Sun Preist 1.7(2.1) PVE Build Guide by RinaldoGandolphi

Templar is probably the most challenging class to master in both PVE and PVP. Templar's have more situational skills then other classes such as Eclipse, Javelin, and Ultimates such as Nova and Remembrance that are clearly slanted towards group play due to Nova's great synergy, and Remembrance keeping groups alive if used correctly.

Overall, a well played Templar makes every group all that much better, and can fulfill a DPS and Support Heal dual role better then any other class. I have seen a lot of folks asking about ranged Templar DPS types of builds online, and I figured I would post this try throw folks a bone who want a ranged Templar DPS spec. I have done a good bit of testing and such to find out what works and what don't(mostly). At worst this build guideline will give you a SOLID base to build around from there. That being said, lets get started.

Please Note: This build DOES NOT rely on nor use Biting Jabs/Puncturing Sweep or any type of melee oriented magic damage. If you are looking for a Biting Jabs build, there are two really good ones over at Tamriel Foundry, one magic based and one stamina based.I know a Jabs build has a little higher DPS, but this is a ranged build NOT a melee build. Please keep that in mind. 

Races

Breton - Probably the best overall race of a Templar Sun Preist Build due to the Cost Reduction Racial, the Added Spell Resistance Racial which helps you against ranged magic attacks, and the 10% increase to max Magicka.Will level light armor fast.

Altmer - Another very solid race choice.Equal to the Breton. It won't be as sturdy as the Breton against magick attacks, and its spells will cost slightly more, but the Altmer does have increased magick regen and will do slightly more damage with elemental attacks as well as leveling Destro Staff faster. Another very solid choice.

Dunmer - Again, Another Solid choice. Increased Flame resistance will help as its the most common damage type, increased magic and stamina(only 6% magic but also gets 6% stamina), and also gets its spell damage increased when using flame based attacks. Another good option.

Imperial - You will get a slightly larger Sun Shield, and have higher HP, This will allow you to allocate more attributes and enchants to magic. A viable race for this build.

Attribute Distribution

For Bretons, Altmer's, and Dunmers, you should go 20 Health and the rest magic. You want to be sitting at around 20k with food buffs. Imperials can put less attributes into health as they have racial passives that give them health.

Armor Types

You will want 7 Light Armor. Once you get the Undaunted Mettle Passive you will want to wear 1 Heavy Armor(Chest) and 1 Meduim Armor(Legs) and the rest light for the benefits. Prior to that however, you need 7 light for the cost reduction, regen passives it gives.

Weapon Types

You will be primarily utilizing 3 weapon types:

• Destruction Staff (Fire Type)
• Restoration Staff (To off heal and such)
• Dual Wield (Spell Damage)

Destruction Staff is going to be our primary bar for doing damage as we are a ranged caster. Duel Wield will be used on the second bar for its spell damage boost for Execute phases.The Resto Staff is for when your going to be healing, off healing, playing a support role in PVP with a group, etc.

Important Class Passives and Synergies

While you should probably take all your Templar class passives, a few in particular are very important for this build for doing damage.

Piercing Spear - Increases the damage bonus of your critical strikes by 10% and increases your damage against blocking targets by 10% with an Aedric Spear Ability Slotted.

Burning Light- Gives you a 25% chance to cause X amount of magic damage anytime you hit with an Aedric Spear Ability.

Balanced Warrior- Increases your Weapon Damage by 6% and your Spell Resistance by X (The Spell Resistance is important since were primarily ranged, it helps)

Spear Wall - Increases the amount of damage you can block from melee attacks by 15% as long as you have a spear ability slotted.

Prism - Grants Ultimate every time you use a Dawns Wrath Ability every 6 seconds.

Enduring Rays - Increases duration of Dawn's Wrath Abilities.

Illuminate Grants- Minor Sorcery to you and nearby allies for 20 secs every time you use a Dawn's Wrath ability(5% spell damage increase)

Restoring Spirit - Reduces all Magicka, Stamina, and Ultimate ability costs.

Twin Blade and Blunt - Increases Spell Damage a bit more while wielding two swords.

All of the Mage's Guild Passives - Increases Max Magic, Magic Regen, Cost of Mage's Guild Abilities, Duration of Mage's Guild abilties, and Empowerment Bonus from Might of The Guid.

All of the Fighters Guild Passives - Increased Ultimate regen from killing undead and daedra, increased damage against undead and daedra.

All Destruction Staff and Restoration Staff Passives

Champion Points Allocation

Below I will tell you where I think you should invest points in, not how many, just which ones to invest in that worth with this build style.

The Steed -

• 0 points.

There is really nothing here in the tree we will use. I guess you could put points into Spell Shield if you have nothing else left to spend your red points on.

The Lady In the Lady Tree you want to Invest Points into:

• Elemental Defender
• Hardy
• Light Armor Focus(were wearing 5 pieces)
• Thick Skinned

This will overall reduce the damage you take and make you a bit more survivable.

The Lord In the Lord Tree, really only two options to invest in.

• Bastion
• Quick Recovery

10-20 points in Quick Recovery is nice. Bastion is not bad to invest in either, but Sun Shield isn't really large to begin with so don't invest points there while sacrificing from the Lady Tree as the returns are not that great IMO not when compared to the Sorc's Hardened Ward which receives far more benefit as it also scales from magicka which will be high to begin with as its their primary damage source. Health scaling shields don't get as much benefit from bastion as a magick scaling shield would IMO and this is why i suggest not giving up the benefits of the Lady Tree for Bastion points. The Lady Tree is far more valuable to your overall build.

The Tower

• Magician

This one will give us Spell Cost Reduction So its good to invest about 30 points into Magician and then move on. This is personal preference, but around 30 seems to be a good place here. Toy with this at your own leisure. Once you have enough points feel free to invest more here if you feel you need it.

The Lover

• Arcanist

This will give us more magicka recovery. So invest a lot of points here. Once you feel you have enough magicka recovery then you can invest green points elsewhere, but keep investing here to you have enough magicka recovery that your comfortable.

The Shadow

• Tumbling
• Defile

Investing some points into Tumbling will help as it will reduce the costs of roll dodging and breaking free which is useful in dungeons and such. 20 points or so will be good, invest more when you don't need any other green points elsewhere. Defile will help your Dark Flare ability, but I wouldn't invest any points in that unless you absolutely have nothing else left you need to invest in. Consider Defile as a last resort point sink since you won't be using Dark Flare that often.

The Apprentice

• Elemental Expert
• Spell Erosion
• Elf Born
• Blessed

This is the Bread and Butter of our Blue Champ points and where most of them will go. You will want to invest 70% of your Blue points into Elemental Expert. Since most of our attacks are elemental based(Destro Staff, etc) this is where we will be getting our damage from so go wild on Elemental Expert. You will also want to invest points into Elf Born, and Spell Erosion....10-15 points in Spell Erosion and 10-15 points into Elf Born with everything else into Elemental Expert until you max it out is the way to go here. Once you max out Elemental Expert, then start spreading points around between Elf Born, Spell Erosion, and Blessed.

The Atronach

• Staff Expert

Invest 10 points into Staff Expert and move on. This seems to be the sweet spot. Once you have invested enough into the Apprentice and you feel you don't need anything else there, then you can come back and add more points to Staff Expert. The rest of the passives here don't really help us and shouldn't invest in.

The Ritual

• Thaumaturge

We will NOT be investing in Thamaturge, at least not right away. Yes, I know most Templar Class abilities use this, but this build DOES NOT rely or use Biting Jabs, or any type of Melee oriented magic damage so putting points here will not give us the best investment. Its OK to invest in Thaumaturge once you have things squared away in The Apprentice and other areas, but not before.

Gear, Traits, and Enchants

For Gear your wanting to go for following: (This gear will get you started as its not too terribly expensive and then you can upgrade as you get the mats and jewelry)

• 4 Piece Magnus(Chest, Sash, Gloves, Legs) (Max Magic, Magic Regen, Spell Damage)
• 4 Piece Healers Habit(Necklace, 2 Rings, and Boots) (Max Magic, Magic Regen, Spell Damage)
• 2/3 Piece Torugs Pact (Spell Damage, Max Health, Spell Reistance)
• 1 Piece Molag Kena (Spell Damage)
• 3 Willpower (Max Magic and Spell Damage) This set will replace Healer's Habit once you get it, then add Torug's Boots

The 4 piece Healer's Habit can be replaced by 3 pieces of Willpower jewelry once you get them(I haven't gotten them yet), and then the boots can be replaced with Torug's Pact boots adding another piece or you could run 2 Will power Rings and Willpower Staffs, and swap out the Necklace for a necklace of Adroitness VR14 from Crypt of Hearts, and a VR14 Boots of Adroitness. This is up to you.

Armor traits:

Big Armor pieces - Head, Chest, and Legs Infused

Small Armor pieces- Sash, Boots, Gloves, and Shoulders Divines

The Molag Kena trait is random just use what you got until you get lucky and get a divine shoulder.

All Armor enchants should be Magicka. As for Jewelry, 1 Cost Reduction Enchant, 1 Spell Damage Enchant, and 1 Magic Regen Enchant is a good place to start. See how your resource management, etc feels like and then go from there. If you don't feel you need the cost reduction or regen, feel free to add another Spell Damage Enchant.

Weapon Traits:

Torug Pact Fire Staff - Nirnhoned/Precise/Sharpened. All are good, remember Templar gets bonus Critical Strike damage for having a spear ability slotted so don't rule out Precise, but Sharpened/Nirnhoned seem to be the most popular. The Enchantment should be either Frost or Shock (Remember it benefits Elemental Expert, poison, disease, etc do not)

Torug Pacts Restoration Staff - I would say Precise here. If your healing a better crit rating can never hurt you. Enchant should either be Fire, Frost, Shock, or an enchant that deals damage and restores magic. Your choice here.

Dual Wield Torug Pact Swords- Sharpened, Precise or Nirnhoned. Nirn and Sharpened seem to be the most popular. As for Enchants, don't bother enchanting them because we will rarely if ever attack with them, were not using them for that. Were using them on our execute and bust healing bar.

Mundas Stone

The Apprentice is probably the best stone for this build. However, packing Spell Damage on your Jewels and going for the Atronach Stone to make up some regen is another way to do it as well. The Mage Stone may be best if your healing more often, but I like the Apprentice Stone. This just boils down to how you want to build it.

Weapon and Skill Choices and Rotations

Bar One Fire Destruction Staff

1. Force Pulse - Our main damage ability, ranged, deals elemental damage. Benefits from Elemental Expert. Can hit two additional Targets that have an elemental effect on them (Burning, Chilled, Concussed)

2. Vampire's Bane/Flame Clench - Deals Flame Damage and puts a Fire DOT on the Target for 8.4 Seconds. Benefits from Elemental Expert. Grants 3 Ultimate every time its cast with the Prism passive and also grants Minor Sorcery for a 5% Spell Damage increase that lasts for 20 seconds., gives Major Prophecy on activation(Hitting multiple targets with Vamp's Bane will allow Force Pulse to hit additional enemies)

Can Also use Destructive Clench here if you feel you don't need the Minor Sorcery since we get Major prophecy from Magelight, I still like the Minor Sorcery of Vampire's Bane but the extended DOT of Flame Clench is a suitable replacement that also ignores 10% of the enemy Spell Resistance.

3. Elemental Ring/Elemental Drain/Necrotic Orb/Evil Hunter/Purifying Light - Use Elemental Ring for trash pulls, heavy AOE mobs, and such, and switch out Elemental Ring for Elemental Drain in single target fights. This is a flex slot, if you don't need Elemental Drain because someone else is running it,Feel Free to slot another skill here such as Necrotic Orb, Evil Hunter, Purifying Light.Im not a big fan of Purifying Light, its probably best used when doing a healing role to help the tank. Again the use of Purifying Light is your choice.

4. Structured Entropy - This will give us Major Sorcery as well as Might of the Guild Empowerment. It will also increase our Max HP by 8% which helps our survivability and also helps our Sun Shield very slightly.

5. Inner Light/Radiant Magelight - I know Vampires Bane gives Major Sorcery, but im running it for its DOT and Minor Sorcery Buff. Inner Light/ RML will increase your Max Magic and Magic Regen by Mage's Guild Passives. You get slightly more damage from Inner Light, but RML can be a life saver in the Imperial City. What morph you pick depends on what you value more, but RML doesn't lose very much DPS to Inner Light, but pick the morph you like the most.

6. Ultimate Crescent Sweep - This is our Aedric Spear Ability. Since we have this slotted on our bar, all our Critical Attacks will get a damage bonus from the Piercing Spear Passive of The Aedric Spear Class Tree. This Ultimate is also very cheap and does a good amount of damage within 5 meters. So don't be afraid to use it on Trash Pulls if you have a good healer. You can also take the Empowering Sweep morph if you prefer to be more tanky, but the 33% damage increase from Crescent is noticeable from a damage standpoint as long as you line up and smack em hard!

Bar Two Dual Wield

1. Blazing Spear - Our Spear ability for Bar two so we get the Piercing Spear Crit passive. This is used on AOE trash pulls and it pulses for damage and each tick has a chance to proc Burning Light. Enemies standing close by in the AOE Allows Force Pulse to hit Multiple Targets, so it Synergies with our main damage skill.

2. Scalding Rune - A Ground based AOE Skill from the Mage's Guild, it benefits from Elemental Expert, it does Flame Damage, and it puts a DOT on enemies hit. This is used in conjunction with Blazing Spear, Crescent Sweep, Fire Ring, and Force Pulse to AOE Down Trash Mobs. The Fire DOT Scalding Rune puts on enemies it damage also allows Force Pulse to hit additional targets close by, so again it synergizes with our main damage filler skill.Volcanic Rune is better for CC, but i have found Scalding Rune to be better from a damage perspective and synergizes with Force Pulse.

3. Channel Focus - This is a must have, its part of your rotation. The effect lasts 8 seconds after you move out of it. It grants Major Ward and Major Resolve which increases your Armor and Spell Resit by a good bit which helps your defense as well as restores 120 magic per second while the effect is active which helps your sustain, overall a much needed skill.

4. Radiant Oppression - This is our execute skill when the boss or enemy gets around 35-25% Health start using this to finish off the target.

5. Inner Light/Radiant Magelight - I know Vampires Bane gives Major Sorcery, but im running it for its DOT and Minor Sorcery Buff. Inner Light/ RML will increase your Max Magic and Magic Regen by Mage's Guild Passives. You get slightly more damage from Inner Light, but RML can be a life saver in the Imperial City. What morph you pick depends on what you value more, but RML doesn't lose very much DPS to Inner Light, but pick the morph you like the most.

6. Ultimate Shooting Star - This is our big hitter, and its on our dual wield bar for that reason, it gets its damage buffed that way. I find the Ultimate return to be more beneficial then the Ice Comet morph as it means you can usually cast Shooting Star more often so its a win-win. If your using Ice Comet im sure thats fine, I just prefer the Ultimate Return and Flame Damage over Frost damage as undead are weak against fire and a great many undead trash and boss mobs exist in this game.

Rotation Single Target

Single Target is pretty easy:

1. Cast Entropy

2. Cast Vampire's Bane/Flame Clench

3. Cast Elemental Drain

4. Weave Light Attack with Force Pulse

5. Drop Shooting Star when you can

6. Refresh Vampires Bane, Entropy, and Elemental Drain when they expire, and repeat step number 4

7. Once Boss gets into execute, Bar swap, pop Radiant Destruction until dead.

AOE isn't so bad either:

Rotation AOE Mobs

1. Cast Scalding Rune on Targets

2.Throw Blazing Spear on Targets

4. Cast Entropy

5. Cast Vampires Bane

6. Use Crescent Sweep if its charged.

7. Spam Fire Ring and Force Pulse until enemies are dead.

8. If Trash still alive repeat Step 1-6

Rotation as a Healer Resto Staff

1. Healing Springs

2. Rapid Regen

3. Quick Siphon

4. Energy Orb/Combat Prayer

5. Magelight

6. Nova Ultimate

Rotation as a Healer Dual Wield

1. Breath of Life

2. Purifying Ritual

3. Channel Focus

4. Repentence

5. Magelight

6. Remembrance Ultimate

Resto Staff for standard Heals, switch to Dual Wield for Burst heals when needed...Remembrance is your panic button and dirt cheap. Nova when you need damage reduction.

Conclusion

This build is still a work on progress. As for DPS numbers, Those will vary depending on how good you are at doing the rotations, latency, etc. Im still not as good on my Templar as my Sorc because i have been playing my Sorc since beta. However, its important to understand that magic ranged Templar builds don't synergize as well with elemental attacks as Sorc's do. However, the ranged Templar Caster is also capable of healing all the games content as well so this build will give you passable DPS to complete end game content should the need arise.

Its important to understand that Templar Biting Jabs/Puncturing Sweep builds WILL do more DPS then this ranged Sun Priest Caster build. This is because Spear Spam gives more chances to proc Burning Light, more points invested into Thaumaturge which is where most of the Templar's Class Skills are Magic damage will benefit from. However, this will require you to be in melee range which has very real risks for those without high armor ratings. I wasn't fond of the idea of being in melee range with mostly light armor and a stick.

This build is for people who want to use their Templar as a ranged caster DPS and a Healer while also being able to play a Healer or a dual Healer/Damage support role in a PVP group. This build will excel there which was my intention. I wanted an alternative to Jabs, Jabs, Jabs. I know lots of folks like that, but thats just not for me.This gives folks who also don't want the Jabs, Jabs play-style an option as well.

As always, feel free to to make suggestions if you think something would work better. My ingame name is the same as my forum handle so if you have any questions, feel free to pst me. This is just my way of giving back, this game has a great community, and i hope that this build will help someone with their Templar or perhaps even inspire someone to come up with a better version or a new one all together. Regardless, Thanks for taking the time to read, and good luck on your travels! 

Source: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/219232/rinaldos-templar-sun-preist-1-7-2-1-pve-build

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