This discussion is obviously my opinion on why the Stamina Templar needs a specific class rework and possibly Templar as a whole.
With certain changes in ESO overall and the development as a game after 5 years, the class needs to be changed, the build template is outdated with certain additions being added.
So from my understanding from the skills and abilities of Templar (specifically stamina). The class was designed to be a melee power house, with an AOE spammable ability such as Biting Jabs to cut down multiple targets (with a damage passive that proc's when using this ability) is where most of the upfront damage comes from on the class, combine these abilities with weapon skill lines such as duel wield or two-handed the class starts getting a bit more damage, and then last but not least the hardest hitting skill in the kit which is power of the light (which is an ability that builds up damage based on copied damage to the target). With all of these skills they are pretty fierce, however the class was designed poorly with certain mechanics built into the game engine such as AoE Caps (meaning that area of effect abilities damage starts gradually decreasing after a certain amount of targets are hit, specifically for PvP). I know that a class should not specifically be designed based off of PvE versus PvP however, with this it means the class is hindered in PvP and excels in PvE mob packs (repentance gives a lot of stamina back when a lot of enemies are slain, but sustain falls off in single target fights). The kit also includes an AoE Ultimate ability Radial Sweep in which you swing an Aedric spear around you (6m Radius) and deal damage to every enemy hit, with a morph that deals physical damage and reduces your damage for each enemy hit (another AoE ability). However again in PvP this skill is hindered from the AoE Cap. So taking in all of this information it appears to be clear that the class is really focused on outnumbered fighting, this is why the class needs to be reworked. Outnumbered fighting can still work, but against trained opponents this kit is destined to fail. Ever since the introduction of Major Evasion where you take less damage from AoE abilities by 25% the class has really suffered damage in PvP environments, where your main spammable ability does less damage then your passive Burning Light that is a RNG roll when trying to connect a channeled ability on moving targets (off-topic you also have to connect the last biting jab to snare the target which I do not agree with especially when almost every class has a snare that is instantly applied that doesn't require manually tracking a target). Hopefully I am getting through to the reader with a trend here, and we can start to understand a core problem.
Now hopefully I've made you realize a few potential problems with the class, but let's start taking this class and applying it to every situation that you may encounter while playing in the game we all love and enjoy. So as an avid player of ESO, I love to do all the content in the game so everything I am writing is really being applied to every aspect of the game not just applied to PvP. Templar class is really sought after in Trials, but lets talk about why. The real reason that Templar is sought after in Trials is really simple because of Power of the Light (due to the ability granting minor fracture, and minor breach, combine this ability and add in some of the strongest healing abilities in the game and magicka templar will be picked over stamina almost every time) the reason for this is because it is the only ability that applies these unique buffs. And as a goal of an end game trial group having every unique buff and de-buff in the game is warranted in order to reach the top possible score for raids burning down trial bosses so fast that you are capable of skipping the mechanics of the fight to reduce the chances of any one member losing their life in the trial. But to think that you have to be a stamina templar in order to achieve this feat is simply naive, stamina templar's aren't the sought after one and the ability to put Power of the Light on a magicka templar is very easy and is done quite frequently. In fact Stamina Templar's really aren't the greatest in PvE either really (not saying that my class should be the top of every other class, wink wink). The fact of the matter is, with the way the game is designed currently there are very few ways to achieve the highest potential DPS (Damage per second) in the game and I am sure we are all familiar with what the set ups are. But just to shine some light generally most stamina classes follow a bow duel wield build, taking advantage of Maelstrom Arena bow endless hail and caltrops, followed by a static rotation. And just to clarify this current patch nightblades really outshine any other class in this by a generous amount. Why should I be discussing this information? Well, I wanted the reader to get a generalized idea that most classes follow the same rotation so it is easy to compare to one another. Stamina Templar is lack luster in this simply for the fact that their spammable ability is a channeled ability in the simplest answer I can give. So if you think about it, to achieve the maximum damage of Biting Jabs you have to hit the target with every single jab, with a channeled time of 1.1 seconds you need to wait 1.1 seconds to do the full amount of damage. When you compare that to a class such as a stamina nightblade who's main spammable ability is Surprise attack which is an instant cast ability the damage starts to pull in favor of the class that can just instantly cast the ability. Now one could assume that stamina templar should easily being doing more damage then a stamina nightblade because of the passive Burning light being applied when a stamina templar uses their ability right? Of course, that would make sense but then you add a class execute onto nightblade, and it suddenly out damages a stamina templar by a marginal amount. (if you were curious about Jabs comparison to Surprise attack here is a screen shot of the skills being used 5 times on a 6m target dummy with 0 gear, same food, and same mundus, with similar CP, also note these tests were done on the PTS with the reduced time to Biting Jabs and the new Surprise Attack change.)
![g5o5OjC.png]()
![rM31eAC.png]()
Now with these numbers we can safely confirm that having an instant cast ability will out perform a channeling one based on current damage numbers (note those comparisons were done with no gear same food and similar CP, also please understand that it is very very hard to have an exact test with 0 crits or 100% crits and compare them). Something more interesting starts to happen when these instant cast abilities are paired with Light Attack weaving as well, something that wont be as successful with a channeled ability. This is where my complaint comes with the new change to Empowering Sweep on the PTS (Empowering Sweep (morph): Redesigned this morph to offer damage, rather than survivability. The damage pulse after the initial hit now lasts 6 seconds at base, but is increased by 2 seconds for each enemy hit, up to a maximum of 6 enemies. It also now grants Empower for the duration, rather than Major Protection.). This change was designed to give a bit more oomph to the Stamina Templar but it is counter intuitive, you see the ultimate is an Area of Effect ultimate so assuming you use it on more then one enemy you would then only have damage for your light attacks, but your main spammable attack is Biting Jabs a channeled ability that is not very successful with light attack weaving as we just discussed. My solution would be to grant Minor Berserk to the Ultimate but this is just my own personal feedback. So what am I saying here with all of this typing the design of Stamina Templar is flawed greatly. Simple number adjustments would be okay, sure. But overall the Kit / core design of the class from my understanding is to be able to fight outnumbered and receive it's resources back through Repentance (Consecrate the souls of the fallen, healing you and your allies for 2702 Health and restoring 2702 Stamina to you each corpse in the area.) And yes this would be fantastic if smart healing and AoE caps did not exist, with the introduction of Champion Points the mitigation in the game has been increased,the healing as well, and the damage, but the damage is not at the same rate of growth as other defensive utilization in champion points, especially for a class that is designed to play against a lot of enemies. I don't want to complain just to complain, I hope I am able to present problems that I see with this class, and I also hope that we are all starting to come to certain realizations about this class.
So, now lets move on to the next question we should all be thinking. What can we do? That's a great question what can we do, I know redesigning skills is a big sigh, but hey someone gets paid for it right? (Yeah im talking to you combat team, im trying to get you those big $). I am by no means a combat designer, and I have no idea what the perfect solutions to these problems that I am presenting are, but some possible suggestions I have for these problems would be the ability to remove AoE caps so the design of fighting larger amounts of players will be more effective (but the downside of this would mean damage done to large amounts of players would go up greatly), also adjusting damage numbers and account for buffs such as major evasion. Maybe even letting power of the light's copied damage be able to crit would also help greatly, or the ability to stack multiple power of the lights on a single target similar to Sorcerers Curse. An idea of Biting Jab's not being a channeled AoE also would help Stamina Templar as well. This is purely my own constructive feedback on Stamina Templar as a whole from my 200 days of play time, I love this class I am sad of being below average and would love some combat love to be applied to Stamina Templar, especially with the upcoming release of a strong burst class (make sure you get Elsewyr Necro is incredible!). The point of me typing all of this would be to get some acknowledgement of the class falling off the bandwagon so to speak, and falling down the totem pole close to the bottom. To make some awareness of core problems the class is suffering from and hopefully assist in making some much needed changes to help put the class back on par with other classes to help take a direction of balance to the game. Thank you all for taking the time to read this, feel free to post some disagreements you have or point out some flaws in my discussion, or even if you have some suggestions of your own to throw out.
Please note the suggestions for "What can we do" was to keep the community interested in the post to express their own concerns and encourage livelihood in this discussion, I do not want to make suggestions to ZOS or tell them what to do in any way.
