Overview
Hello everyone and welcome to my Magicka Templar for PvE build! When I first started playing the game, there was so much information to soak in and so many details to keep in check that I was completely lost and my character went through a myriad of phases until I finalised my build choices. Mistakes where made, corrected and made again until my experiments finally bore fruit. I have to thank the countless players I overwhelmed with questions about spells, champion points etc because without them, my knowledge about the game would still be lacking. Thank you all, I dedicate this guide to you!NOTICE: Under no circumstances do I consider my build the absolute best way to play Magicka Templar and any suggestions are always welcome, as long as they come in a polite and kind manner! This guide is merely the result of experimentation, tweaking and many hours of tests that created the best results possible so far.Without further ado, let’s dive in The High Battlemage!
Why shall you try this build?
Magicka Templars (let’s just call them Magplars for sort) are considered by a good chunk of the community as a bad choice when it comes to Damage Dealers because of their lower DPS when compared to Magicka Sorcerers. While that is indeed true, Magplars have many other aspects that Sorcerers are lacking, which makes them better in a plethora of situations like Craglorn Bosses, surviving Trials when most healers are dead etc.
The High Battlemage is, as we already mentioned, a Damage Dealer Magicka Templar for the PvE content of the game. I highly recommend this build for new players, since the Templar class is fairly easy for beginners to ease into the game and understand how everything works. Therefore, let’s take a look at the Pros and Cons of this guide:
- Incredible amount of sustain
- Its rotation provides resources, defences and tons of DPS
- Simple to learn and pretty easy to master
- Can alternate between AOE and single target damage
- Ideal for solo players, Trials, Dungeons and the dreaded Maelstorm Arena
- Resource management can be tricky until you get used to it
- Lacks burst spells and damage
- Not suitable for PVP
Difficulty: 2/5
The core playstyle of High Battlemage is to apply DOTs (Damage Over Time) on enemies and set up defences immediately to survive. In that way not only will you absorb a fair amount of damage while boosting your Magicka regeneration, you will also deal damage at the same time. It’s a pretty safe playstyle that will allow you to watch enemies die while you are literally doing nothing. If things go sour and your life is in danger, there are several “get-out-of-jail-for-free” spells that you can use to leave your teammates wondering “How in the name of Akatosh did he survive that?”.
Race Choices
When it comes to your race choices, it all comes down to these three: Dark Elf, High Elf and Breton.
Ashlander’s first passive is a quick way to level up if you decide to go old-school and use dual wield instead of destruction staff (you don’t have any good reasons for that though). Dynamic gives some nice flat magicka for more spell casting and some flat stamina that helps with your blocks or dodges. Resist Flame’s health boost is minor and doesn’t make much difference in PVE while the flame resistance and burning immunity are good situational buffs against some enemies. Ruination is an excellent passive that will allow you to dish more damage in every case at all times.
The Altmer took a small beating with the new racial changes that shifted them in a more “all-round magicka” choice, compared to the resource beasts they used to be. Highborn will allow you to level your destruction staff the fastest out of all your choices while the extra experience is always a welcome addition. Spell Recharge is useful when you cast spells like Radiant Destruction, but you will find little use for it unless you do solo content. The magicka passive is pretty good though. Syrabane’s Boon gives you some nice flat magicka, while Elemental Talent allows your spells do do more damage but not your light or heavy attacks.
Bretons received some good buffs here and there with the new racial passives. Opportunist will allow you to level your Light armor faster, but the second passive is useless in PVE. Gift of Magnus gives you some nice flat magicka points while Spell Resistance is particularly useful against spells and bosses (or any enemy that has a chance to give you one of the aforementioned states). Last but not least, Magicka Mastery is almost double than what it was before, allowing you to cast more spells compared to other races.
So there you have it. Pick Dark Elf if you want the most damage output, Breton for the most survivability and resources and High Elf for a mix between the two.
Human, Vampire or Werewolf?
In ESO you have the option to become a Vampire, a Werewolf or simply stay the puny and pink mortal you are. But for our build which is the best choice?
Starting off, picking Werewolf is a complete waste of time and resources. Werewolf is focused mostly on Physical Damage, Health and Stamina leaving Magicka completely on the outside. Therefore avoid this option.
Human means that nothing changes, you get to keep your starting stats and no bonuses apply. If you are still not very familiar with this build and need some practice, I suggest you stick to being human for a while until you get used to it.
The vampire is the best secondary choice of buffs, if you want to try it out. While its skill line has 3 interesting spells, they are merely optional and for fun purposes. It’s the passives you will want to pick if you become a vampire.
Keep in mind that being a Vampire has certain drawbacks. There are 4 stages based on how much time has passed since the last time you fed on the living. In all stages you take 50% more damage from Fire damage. In stages 2-4 your health regenerates 25/50/75% slower, but your Magicka ablities cost 20/40/60% less to cast. Sounds bad right? Truth be told, it’s not that bad as you think. First of all you don’t care about health regeneration since you have several skills that give you flat healing during battle and not regeneration. Secondly the fire damage is hardly noticeable since you can outheal the damage output of your PVE enemies. And last but not least, that 60% decrease in your spell costs means that you will be able to spam your skills a lot more and manage your resources more efficiently. Now let’s take a look at the passives you must pick for certain:
- Supernatural Recovery is like Christmas came early for your magicka bar. This passive increases Magicka and Stamina recovery by 10% when you have Vampirism Stage 2 or higher, which means you will get resources back a lot faster from every source, be it potions, Channeled Focus, synergies or Heavy attacks. Definitely a must have.
- Undeath is another useful passive that activates after Stage 3. It reduces damage dealt to you when you fall below 50% Health up to 33% based on your missing health. This allows you to make a last stand and gives you some valuable seconds to raise your defences and use your spells to replenish health when you are in a tough spot.
- Unnatural Resistance is a must since you aim to have Vampirism Stage 4. It reduces the severity of the Health Recovery determent in Vampirism stages 2 through 4, something you need to make your life easier as you fight mobs in the world.
Savage Feeding, Dark Stalker and Blood Ritual are mostly secondary and their impact is not that great in your gameplay. If you have some extra skill points, feel free to invest them here.
Attribute Points and Mundus Stones
Once you reach level 50, you will have a total of 64 attribute points to spend on Health, Magicka or Stamina. My personal advice is to assign them all to your Magicka, since you will need as many resources as you can. For example, if you assign 32 in Health and 32 in Magicka you will harm your magicka pool for the sake of some health that will make little to no difference.
When it comes to Mundus stones, these are your best choices:
It all comes down to how much your critical chance is, regardless of the Mundus stone you have picked. Keep in mind Templars have some extra crit chance thanks to some of their spells, so make your choices carefully. Anyway, if your critical chance is below 53%, you have to pick The Thief. If your critical chance is above that amount, pick The Shadow.
Consumables and Potions
Consumables are some of the key elements that will add more resources to your character and they can make the difference between a successful Exiled Crusader and a weak one. I highly suggest to max out Provisioning and Alchemy to craft your own consumables, else try the Guild stores and buy anything you need from there.
When it comes to food and drink, these are your best choices in order of effectiveness:
Keep in mind that the numbers you see are scaled, which means they will start low and increase as you go from Level 1 to maximum CP. Witchmother is the best general purpose choice since it gives you everything you need, Health, Magicka and Magicka Recovery in good amounts. The problem is that this recipe is somewhat expensive and difficult to make unless you buy some ingredients from the Guild store. The reason for that is that while Rice and Small Game are common ingredients, Bervez Juice is rare and can only be obtained from Provisioning Hirelings or Provisioning Writs. It is also used to make Psijic Ambrosia, one of the most expensive and rare consumables, which means Bervez Juice is usually sold quickly and in high amounts. Nightshade is also fairly rare since it grows in random spots in the world, therefore you will need some leg work to find it.
The best option when it comes to consumables is Clockwork Citrus Filet. It’s expensive to make since it requires Perfect Roe, a rare and expensive ingredient, but its buffs are the best you can find around. I suggest you buy or craft 15-20 of these and use them when things are getting serious like veteran Maelstorm Arena.
If for some reason you are unable to make Witchmother’s Potent Brew or you simply want to save it for tough times, Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup is your second best choice. It gives more amount of Health and Magicka than Witchmother’s at the cost of no Magicka Recovery. Since this consumable is cheap and easy to make, I highly suggest to use it when you are roaming the areas, farming mobs, doing quests and when you join a group for trials or dungeons.
Our final choice is Orzorga’s Red Frothgar. It gives the second most amount of Health and the most Magicka Recovery at the cost of no flat Magicka increase. While Orzorga will keep your Magicka pool small, it will allow you to regenerate extremely fast. This means that with some small breaks from Spell casting, you will never run out of Magicka. I highly suggest to use this when you are doing Veteran Maelstorm Arena or Group Quests and Delves in Craglorn, since you will need to spam many Spells there. It’s also the best choice if you are still learning how to properly manage your resources.
As for which potions to use, two are the essential choices: the standard Restore Magicka potions that you will find in enemy corpses every once in a while and Spell-Crit Potions, which you will have to craft with Cornflower, Lady’s Smock and Water Hyacinth. This potion will restore your Magicka for the same amount as the standard potion and it will also increase your Spell Damage and Critical chance for a certain amount of time.
Basic Equipment
Now let’s take a look at the best choices you have when it comes to your equipment. Below you will find a list with the gear I’m currently using and in my personal opinion the best combinations of sets to make your Magplar as efficient as possible.
Valkyn Skoria
- (1 items) Adds 1206 Max Health
- (2 items) When you deal damage with a damage over time effect, you have an 8% chance to summon a meteor that deals 9000 Flame Damage to target and 4000 Flame Damage all other enemies within 5 meters. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.
Skoria is one of the BiS (best in slot) Monster Set choices when it comes to magicka damage dealers. Not only it provides you with some much needed health, it also adds an extra damage source that seems random at first, but will proc a lot more soon than you think thanks to your many DOT spells. It’s ideal for the Exiled Crusader’s playstyle in my opinion and the best available choice.
How to get: You can find the helmet in the dungeon City of Ash II, where it has 100% chance to drop if you run it on Veteran. Shoulders have a chance to drop from Gilirion the Redbeard’s Chest using a Pledge Key you can obtain as a reward for daily Undaunted quests.
Mother’s Sorrow
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (3 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (4 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (5 items) Adds 1924 Spell Critical
While many will disagree that Spinner’s is the best set for magicka users, Mother’s Sorrow is a better choice here thanks to your Reflective Light Spell. If you combine them, you get a total of 5781 Spell Critical, not counting further buffs from potions, gear or other Spells. If you take every piece of gear and buff in account, you will have about 60-65% Critical Chance. In other words, one in every two spells will deal extra damage which is something you definitely need.
How to get: You can find everything you need in Deshaan. If you can afford it, you can always check the Guild Stores for any missing pieces.
Perfect Mantle of Siroria
- (2 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon and Trial Monsters by 5%
- (4 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (5 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka. Dealing direct damage to an enemy with a single target ability creates a ring of fire beneath you for 10 seconds. Standing in the ring grants you a stack of Siroria’s Boon for 5 seconds. Each stack increases your Spell Damage by 30. 20 stacks max.
Yet another BiS for magicka users, Perfect Siroria bonds really well with Mother’s Sorrow. These two sets give you extremely high numbers of both spell damage and criticals, allowing you to stomp anything PVE has to throw against you. Keep in mind that Siroria requires you to stand inside the circle for as long as possible to get the extra spell damage, and if you do you get 600 extra spell damage, a huge number. If you combine it with Channeled Focus, you get crazy buffs for limited mobility. If you can’t get Perfect Siroria easily since it requires you to do the trial named Cloudrest in veteran mode, you can replace it with the simple version Mantle of Siroria. Their only difference is that simple Siroria provides 1096 magicka less.
How to get: Perfect Siroria drops in Cloudrest Veteran, while Simple Siroria drops in Cloudrest Normal.
Extra Equipment Choices
While Siroria and Mother’s Sorrow work just fine together, there are some other sets which can work fine as well and add more spice to your playstyle. For example you can choose two sets that provide plenty of resources to spam spells more often at the cost of reduced damage or go full glass cannon and trade any resources you may have for spell damage and criticals. You can experiment a bit with the choices below, but in my opinion Siroria and Mother’s Sorrow are the best choices for this build.
- (2 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- (3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
- (4 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- (5 items) Reduce the Magicka cost of abilities by 8%
How to obtain: Craftable at Temple of the Eight (Grahtwood), Fisherman’s Island (Stormhaven) and Berezan’s Mine (Deshaan)
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (3 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (4 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (5 items) When you deal damage with a Flame Damage ability, you have a 15% chance to apply the burning status effect to the enemy and increase your Spell Damage by 525 for 8 seconds. This effect can occur once every 12 seconds.
How to obtain: City of Ash
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (3 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (4 items) Adds 1487 Spell Penetration
- (5 items) When you deal damage, you have a 10% chance to summon a line of flame that moves forward, dealing 8,000 Flame Damage to any enemy in its path. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds
How to obtain: Bloodroot Forge (Requires the Horns of the Reach DLC)
- (2 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
- (4 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (5 items) Adds 299 Spell Damage.
How to obtain: Craftable at Boreal Forge (Wrothgar) (Requires the Orsinium DLC)
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
- (3 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- (4 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (5 items) When you cast a Magicka ability, you have an 8% chance to negate that ability’s cost
How to obtain: Craftable at Arananga (Greenshade), Vaewend Ede (Rivenspire), Xal haj-ei Shrine (Shadowfen)
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
- (3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon and Trial Monsters by 5%
- (4 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (5 items) When you activate a synergy, you gain a shadow blessing that increases your Spell Damage by 448 or a lunar blessing that increases your Magicka Recovery by 448 for 30 seconds. You can only have one blessing active at a time
How to obtain: Maw of Lorkaj (Requires the Thieves Guild DLC)
- (2 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (3 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (4 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (5 items) Increases your Light and Heavy Attack damage by 20%
How to obtain: Auridon
- (2 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- (3 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- (4 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (5 items) Reduces the cost of all of your abilities by 6%
How to obtain: Rewards of the Worthy (armor only), Cyrodiil – Cropsford Elite Gear Vendor
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (3 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (4 items) Adds 140Spell Damage
- (5 items) While you have a Destruction Staff equipped, your Max Magicka is increased by 2521
How to obtain: Dragonstar Arena
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (3 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (4 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (5 items) When you deal direct Critical Damage, you have a 20% chance to increase your Spell Damage by 516 for 6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds
How to obtain: Imperial City Prison (Requires the Imperial City DLC)
- (2 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- (3 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (4 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- (5 items) When you fall below 33% Magicka, increase your Magicka Recovery by 1032 for 20 seconds. This effect can occur once every 1 minute
How to obtain: Crypt of Hearts
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (3 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (4 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (5 items) Adds 3450 Spell Penetration
How to obtain: Malabal Tor
- (2 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (3 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (4 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (5 items) When you deal damage, you cause the enemy to take 10% additional damage from the next attack. This effect can occur once every 4 seconds
How to obtain: Craglorn
- (2 items) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (3 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka
- (4 Items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
- (5 Items) Adds 400 Spell Damage to your Magic Damage abilities
How to obtain: Vvardenfell (Requires the Morrowind DLC)
- (1 item) Adds 833 Spell Critical
- (2 items) When you damage a nearby enemy with a Light or Heavy Attack, you have a 20% chance to create a beam of fire that will connect you to your enemy. The beam deals 3440 Flame Damage every 1 second to your enemy for 5 seconds. Every second, this damage increases by 50%. The beam is broken if the enemy moves 8 meters away from you. This effect can occur every 18 seconds.
How to obtain: Head from Veteran Scalecaller Peak (Requires the Dragon Bones DLC), Shoulders have a chance to drop from Urgalarg Chief-bane’s Chest using Pledge Key.
Active Skills
As you would have guessed, your Active Skills are the bread and butter of your damage output. While you can experiment with different combinations, I highly suggest you stick to the plan below for maximum efficiency. There are some spell swaps you can do to increase your defences and we will go through them later.
The final strike reduces the Movement Speed of the closest enemy by 70% for 2 seconds
You Heal for 40% of the damage done with this ability.
Upon activation, you gain Major Prophecy, increasing your Spell Critical rating by 2191.
– Fiery Rage Increases the damage by 10%.
– Icy Rage immobilizes enemies hit for 3 seconds.
– Thunder Rage increases the duration by 2 seconds.
– Blockade of Fire deals extra damage to burning enemies.
– Blockade of Frost reduces enemy Movement Speed and immobilizes chilled enemies.
– Blockade of Storms sets concussed enemies off balance.
While active, an ally can activate the Blessed Shard synergy, restoring 3960 Magicka or Stamina, whichever percentage is higher.
Standing within the rune increases Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance granted by 50%.
While slotted, your Max Magicka is increased by 2% and you gain Major Prophecy, increasing your Spell Critical rating by 2191.
After impact, enemies in the target area take 457 Flame Damage every 1 second for 10 seconds
You generate 9 Ultimate for each enemy hit by the initial blast
This should be your standard skillset that works in every situation and has something for every situation you will find yourself in. However I highly suggest you also get these following skills for situational moments like trials or the Maelstorm Arena, since they can be huge game changers in certain cases:
- Elemental Drain
- Harness Magicka
- Structured Entropy
- Balance
Passive Skills
Your passive skills are listed right below your active ones and they can compliment your damage output and your resource management. They add the extra buff your character will need to survive and wreak havoc to your enemies. Below you will find a list of essential passives and secondary choices.
- Aedric Spear: Take everything
- Dawn’s Wrath: Take everything
- Restoring Light: Take Sacred Ground (2/2) and Master Ritualist (2/2)
- Destruction Staff: Take everything
- Light Armor: Take everything
- Medium Armor: Take everything except Agility and Athletics
- Heavy Armor: Take everything except Wrath and Rapid Mending
- Fighters Guild: Take Intimidating Presence
- Mages Guild: Take Persuasive Will and Everlasting Magic (2/2)
- Undaunted: Take Undaunted Mettle (2/2)
- Psijic Order: Take everything
- Race Skills: Take everything
- If you feel like pickpocketing NPCs to increase your income, Thieves Guild is the place to invest points. Same goes for the Dark Brotherhood passives if you want to go on a murder spree in Tamriel.
- If you plan to do quests and hunt Skyshards, I highly recommend you add points to the crafting skill trees and max them all. However, to save some skill points, always add 1 single point in the Keen Eye (1/3). After a while you will be able to spot materials in the world and maxing the distance by which they glow will not help much, especially since the whole glowing effect is easy to miss.
Champion Points
Champion points are pretty tough to earn, but they really make all the difference in the world in certain cases, especially once you reach the maximum available CP. I’m still testing the best combinations but for now, the list below should work fine until I come up with something better. Keep in mind you can always experiment and find something that suits you best. Also, the list represents the entirety of the Champion Points, so if you are still below the limit I suggest you invest your points evenly and not max one element at a time.
- The Lord
– - The Lady
49 Hardy, 49 Elemental Defender, 48 Thick Skinned - The Steed
80 Ironclad, 44 Spell Shield
- The Ritual
66 Thaumaturge - The Apprentice
56 Elemental Expert, 50 Elfborn, 23 Spell Erosion - The Atronach
55 Master-at-Arms, 20 Staff Expert
- The Tower
42 Warlord - The Lover
100 Arcanist, 34 Tenacity - The Shadow
40 Tumbling, 54 Shadow Ward
Update Log
18/8/2018
– Updated the guide for the Wolfhunter patch.
27/8/2018
– Updated the Active Skills section with a better combination of spells that deals more damage.
– Added Human, Vampire or Werewolf? section where I explain which is the best choice for this build.
– Added Extra Equipment Choices section where you can find the best alternative sets to match your playstyle.
13/11/2018
– Updated the Active Skills section with the new descriptions of each skill.
– Updated the Extra Equipment Choices section with the most viable choices for PVE and deleted the PVP ones.
– Updated the Champion Points section to CP 810.
– Added the Clockwork Citrus Filet in the Consumables and Potions section.
19/12/2018
– Replaced Empowering Sweep in backbar with Shooting Star for more damage.
– After testing, I replaced Julianos with Burning Spellweave since its combo with Mother’s Sorrow has a better damage output. Also updated the equipment icons and changed the pieces’ distribution.
5/4/2019
The High Battlemage was updated and refreshed.
– Replaced BSW with Perfect Siroria, since its damage output with Mother’s Sorrow is far grater. Also changed the jewelry traits.
– Replaced all Mundus Stones with the two best choices, Thief and Shadow for the highest possible damage.
– The skillset was updated since I came up with a new combo that deals even more damage. Purifying Light was replaced with Elemental Weapon, Structured Entropy was replaced with Solar Barrage and main bar’s Inner Light was replaced with Channeled Acceleration. Also added a list of situational spells that are huge game changers in certain situations.
– Updated the racial passives with the new ones plus each race has a new analysis.