AA Advice for New Templar

[Fing]

<p>Just started a templar and I had some questions about AAs.</p><p>First, I'm thinking of going up the Int tree to get the spell crits and the reduced casting time.</p><p>Then...</p><p>Not sure if the buckler is worth it or I should then go up the stam tree like 448.  I'm assuming that you can't use a buckler if you want to use the second tier stam spell?</p><p>Or should I keep the buckler and go up the str tree?</p><p>I'll be soloing for the most part with occasional grouping.  I am interested in DPS.  The first point in the KOS rocked, Yalp is it?  </p><p>Comments, advice?</p>

[Fing]

<cite>Fingis wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Just started a templar and I had some questions about AAs.</p></blockquote><p>I wrote this at work, when I got home and looked at the KOS AAs, I decided to go with the Agility tree.  448.  </p><p>My plan now is:</p><p> AGIL 448</p><p>STR 448</p><p>I'm keeping the buckler since I like the way it looks and the mitigation may help a bit.</p><p>And then I think I'll put the rest in the Templar tree.</p><p>One question I have is if the Mez spell in the agility tree is worth it?  A 10second mez every 40 secs?</p><p>And would it be worth puting 8 in WIS and 8 in INT?  Just to buff intelligence and wisdom?</p>

[ParlMoebius]

<p>I wouldnt bother with the wisdom line just to buff your wisdom stat, or intelligence for that matter, those stats can be raised enough with gear and/or potions; better to do that than waste aa's on them.</p><p>Sta is a good one for raising your dps when soloing, max out the melee crit rate.  Along with that, if you put your kos points into the damage spells, you'll notice a huge difference in the speed of casting, and the reduced power cost, great for soloing or small groups where every bit of dps helps.</p><p>I personally like the strength line, mostly for the focus increase, a big bonus when soloing and likely to run into a lot of interrupts.  The proc isnt bad either, if you use a faster one handed, as I do in conjunction with a symbol in my off hand.</p><p>I havent got all my aa's yet, so I havent tried every combo, there are others with a wider range of experimentation who can probably give you alternate specs.</p>

[Eriol]

First get the cast-time reductions on your two primary nukes from the EoF tree.  They make such a massive difference in power usage alone that they are worth it right there (it halves power consumption for both, as well as helping the cast time).  Then go and get the 100% crits from teh stamina tree, massively boosting your melee damage output.  Then go down agility to increase your melee DPS another 40%.  Yes the ability in agility isn't usable with the ability from STA, but I'm of the attitude: "if you're soloing, use a two-hander and use the STA ability, and if you're grouping, get a buckler and make use of your new mez."  It's a start that gives you flexibility both ways, but helps both. After that it's up to you.  Personally I'm going into the trauma cures extra reactive, since they're f'n everywhere late-game (and earlier too really) so you may as well get an extra heal out of it too, and then I dunno.  STR or INT in KoS depending if you want more punch to your melee or your spells.  For EoF... I dunno there either.  I'm really of two minds there (at least), but I'm sure there's more advice here to come.

[Uilamin]

<cite>Eriol wrote:</cite><blockquote>First get the cast-time reductions on your two primary nukes from the EoF tree.  They make such a massive difference in power usage alone that they are worth it right there (it halves power consumption for both, as well as helping the cast time).  Then go and get the 100% crits from teh stamina tree, massively boosting your melee damage output.  Then go down agility to increase your melee DPS another 40%.  Yes the ability in agility isn't usable with the ability from STA, but I'm of the attitude: "if you're soloing, use a two-hander and use the STA ability, and if you're grouping, get a buckler and make use of your new mez."  It's a start that gives you flexibility both ways, but helps both. After that it's up to you.  Personally I'm going into the trauma cures extra reactive, since they're f'n everywhere late-game (and earlier too really) so you may as well get an extra heal out of it too, and then I dunno.  STR or INT in KoS depending if you want more punch to your melee or your spells.  For EoF... I dunno there either.  I'm really of two minds there (at least), but I'm sure there's more advice here to come. </blockquote>Horrible idea as templars are not a primary damage source.  Keep in mind in groups/raids you are expected to be healing/debuffing. Now if you never plan to raid and mainly solo then it is a different story.

[Eriol]

<cite>Uilamin wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Eriol wrote:</cite><blockquote>First get the cast-time reductions on your two primary nukes from the EoF tree.  They make such a massive difference in power usage alone that they are worth it right there (it halves power consumption for both, as well as helping the cast time).  Then go and get the 100% crits from teh stamina tree, massively boosting your melee damage output.  Then go down agility to increase your melee DPS another 40%.  Yes the ability in agility isn't usable with the ability from STA, but I'm of the attitude: "if you're soloing, use a two-hander and use the STA ability, and if you're grouping, get a buckler and make use of your new mez."  It's a start that gives you flexibility both ways, but helps both. After that it's up to you.  Personally I'm going into the trauma cures extra reactive, since they're f'n everywhere late-game (and earlier too really) so you may as well get an extra heal out of it too, and then I dunno.  STR or INT in KoS depending if you want more punch to your melee or your spells.  For EoF... I dunno there either.  I'm really of two minds there (at least), but I'm sure there's more advice here to come. </blockquote>Horrible idea as templars are not a primary damage source.  Keep in mind in groups/raids you are expected to be healing/debuffing. Now if you never plan to raid and mainly solo then it is a different story. </blockquote>He's levelling up, which can be done with a lot of solo, or a bit of solo, or none at all.  What this offers is any way you cut it, he'll be "adequate" and not be feeling pain from slowness of kills (well, LESS pain).  End-game raiding?  Obviously a whole other thing.  This guy asked for advice while levelling, and I gave it.

[Athellias]

<p>No priest is a primary source of damage and they shouldn't be. However, we can all contribute more than just pure healing/debuffing, even more so in a group then in raids for obvious reasons. Also, it shouldn't be a surprise that most of our achievements (KoS tree) are damage oriented except for Inspired Renewel (heal crits) and other indirect boosts to healing like Facile Grace (casting speed), Divine Recovery, Shield Ally and some end-line abilities. In order to have any of these abilities you have to choose damage oriented achievements and it comes down to what type of damage you want to dish out. Do you want to be more melee focused or caster focused or a combination of the two?</p><p>In a group situation, if you just stand back and heal and that's it, you're wasting an awful amount of potential and probably not having much fun. In raids, there are plenty of opportunities to get up close and personal as long as you know when to back off and not be so friendly. Some times you should just be healing but most of the time have some fun with it and get in the fight.</p><p>If you are caster focused, as with the INT, WIS and Holy Smites lines you'll be using more power, not so much with Judging and Holy Smites maxed out but you'll still be using power and casting time to deal out damage.</p><p>-damage spell crits -reduced casting speed -additional damage spells (Divine Castigation, Turn Undead) -reduced hate -weapon damage proc (undead only)</p><p> If you are melee focused, as with the STR and STA lines you deal out damage for free, as in no power cost.</p><p>-additional debuff (Skull Crack); applies to epics as well -knockdown (Hammer Smite) -100% melee crits -15.6% heal crits (if maxed out) -weapon damage proc (interrupts target as well and applies to epics) -increase to disruption (decreases targets resistance to disruption spells) and focus (balances out the negative effects of Yaulp)</p><p> I think you can tell I'm partial to the STR and STA lines. I combined that with Blessings, Compliances and Holy Smites from the EoF tree. Cures still don't seem to be working correctly.</p><p>STR  4588 STA 4488</p><p>Blessings: Mark of Kings ( 5 ) Amending Fate ( 5 ) Involuntary Restoration ( 5 ) Unyielding Benediction ( 3x2 ) Blessings ( 1 )</p><p>Compliances: Spurn ( 5 ) Complacency ( 5 )</p><p>Holy Smites: Judging Smite ( 5 ) Holy Smite ( 5 )</p><p> After respec'ing quite a bit I feel all the other abilities are just too situational or not woth the points that can be spent elsewhere with more benefit.</p><p>Overconfidence is nice for another deaggro but I only see using it on named pulls or when a squishy gets too confident. Other times the tank just gets back aggro too quickly anyway.</p><p>Smite Wrath is only useful for heavy soloing but still useless because Unyielding Benediction is considered a "beneficial spell" and stoneskin procs quite often which triggers Disable Smith Wrath negating the benefits of this ability most of the fight.</p><p>Manacure still seems to be broken and even if it's working correctly, the requirements are too restrictive (it should be a group buff) and if you raid a lot, this requires changing the makeup of the MT group to apply in specific situations where each of the damage types are encountered.</p><p>The auto-cures themselves do not seem to auto-cure consistently and the reactive heal associated with them is pathetic. However, any more powerful and they'd be too powerful. Invest points in these at your own risk.</p><p>Honorable Mentions:</p><p>Sign of Frailty - this is nice due to the reduction in resistability and increase in duration; nice for soloing and grouping</p><p>Soothe - this is nice to have for an additional deaggro for groupies however it can be dangerous depending on how quickly the tank gets back aggro and if you cast it once they do</p><p>Glory of Battle - personally, this is not worth the amount of points per rank; I used to love this proc for free heals but it was dramatically reduced some time ago and I usually only have 1 person to place this on.</p><p> Bottomline: There's nothing like swingin a big hammer and dealing some divine judgment. Have fun with it. </p>

[ParlMoebius]

<cite>Eriol wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Uilamin wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Eriol wrote:</cite><blockquote>First get the cast-time reductions on your two primary nukes from the EoF tree.  They make such a massive difference in power usage alone that they are worth it right there (it halves power consumption for both, as well as helping the cast time).  Then go and get the 100% crits from teh stamina tree, massively boosting your melee damage output.  Then go down agility to increase your melee DPS another 40%.  Yes the ability in agility isn't usable with the ability from STA, but I'm of the attitude: "if you're soloing, use a two-hander and use the STA ability, and if you're grouping, get a buckler and make use of your new mez."  It's a start that gives you flexibility both ways, but helps both. After that it's up to you.  Personally I'm going into the trauma cures extra reactive, since they're f'n everywhere late-game (and earlier too really) so you may as well get an extra heal out of it too, and then I dunno.  STR or INT in KoS depending if you want more punch to your melee or your spells.  For EoF... I dunno there either.  I'm really of two minds there (at least), but I'm sure there's more advice here to come. </blockquote>Horrible idea as templars are not a primary damage source.  Keep in mind in groups/raids you are expected to be healing/debuffing. Now if you never plan to raid and mainly solo then it is a different story. </blockquote>He's levelling up, which can be done with a lot of solo, or a bit of solo, or none at all.  What this offers is any way you cut it, he'll be "adequate" and not be feeling pain from slowness of kills (well, LESS pain).  End-game raiding?  Obviously a whole other thing.  This guy asked for advice while levelling, and I gave it. </blockquote><p>And OP said he was interested in DPS.</p><p>Any of these routes are perfectly fine, they will ease soloing greatly.  Even at 70 with a DPS spec, I've never found my healing power to be lacking in group or soloing situations.  I occasionally raid, but not often enough to be concerned with squeezing out every last bit of healing power.</p><p>I think people sometimes lose sight of the fact that your aa's give additional customization and increases to abilities... they dont take away.   You're not losing your base healing capacity, your adding to it, or to your dps, or group usefullness etc. </p>