Templar soloing, not as bad as I read, does it get better or worse?

SpineDoc · 07-08-2008, 08:58 PM

I rolled a templar when EQ2 first came out, played him until 50 throughout all the changes and updates. Soloing was completely impossible, literally killing a green no arrow mob was 5 minutes, plus resting afterwards. So I stopped playing him and leveled up a nec and guardian mostly soloing the timelines, both to 70.Anyhow I got curious about my beloved templar and dusted him off just last week with the SOE promotion. I had zero AA at level 50, my armor was so old you couldn't even make or buy it anymore, etc etc. Well instead of complaining I got off my duff and started doing all the timelines, handing in L and L quests, collections, etc. I just finished most of the solo content in Lfay, am level 56 and have 35AA, which I invested into solo DPS.Now I'm directly comparing my templar soloing to the guardian and the nec. In all honesty I think the temp and the guard were pretty comparable, maybe even a bit faster for the temp and a bit higher ability to take on higher mobs. The nec was a bit slower to solo, a strong fight would always require a lot of rest for the pet, or a lot of power recovery for the nec. All in all I think the templar is a pretty good solo toon, probably not the best of them all by far, but certainly not as sucky as so many have made it out to be. If I relied on only reading the forums I don't think I would have dusted off my templar.Anyhow what do you guys think after Lfay? I keep my LFG tag on constantly and am always oocing for groups, and am a great healer. But in the wake of EQ2's beginning to die, and the low population on my server I find myself doing the timelines. How will my templar continue to solo to 80? Will I begin to suck? Will I begin to shine? Will I stay about the same?

Tash 1 · 07-09-2008, 04:30 AM

Well since they have nerfed all low level content, due to the ever increasing level span and the at least atm low population makes it very hard to find grps. I doubt you have any trouble soloing all the way if needed. I solo from 70-80 with not much of troubles. And we can at least take on yellow heroics with out to much of effort.

I do how ever recommend that you get a AA respect mirror when you start to get some AAs. Have a Heal and one DPS spec. When soloing its all about dps and mitigation as a templar. Only for raids you will need the heal spec.

So my guess is that you be better and better at soloing with some "Hell levels" once and a while. But Since I Hate soloing I recommend to have that LFG slag up all the time SMILEY

/Hugs Tash

dancemice · 07-09-2008, 11:21 AM

i've solo'd for the majority of my levels - I have to say one thing - when played properly, the templar's ability to solo is quite high - If your not expecting to kill things fast. You have a far higher surviability then any other class - (via Healing) Just stay away from mobs that stun and stifle and you'll be fine. You can even take some heroics (Up to blue) with the proper setup.

-B-

Kendricke · 07-11-2008, 12:53 PM

We recently had a young Templar join our guild. This player is hardly inexperienced at MMO's, as he played a cleric in old Everquest for 7 years before finally making the jump to Everquest II, but this Templar is his first character here in the Shattered Lands. He even managed to solo his way up to around level 20 before he started to find soloing "too difficult" and started asking for advice.First, we found out he'd levelled to 20 in Greater Faydark, and immediately sent him over to Timorous Deep to complete the quests there. Even though those quests were grey to him, he managed to gain another 5 achievements (bringing him up to 17 total) and a load of gear upgrades.I then went out to Butcherblock and met up with him to see what he was doing. He was already following some advice I'd given on achievement buildouts (had him shift to Yaulp, then Enhance Smite 5, Enhance Strike 5, Enhance Combative 5, and then started him down the Stamina line for clerics) and had picked up a new mastercrafted 2 hander (a gift from a guildmate). On top of that, I picked up a 4 silver adornment for his hammer and then made sure he was using food and drink for regeneration between fights. He had a basic idea of the smite-strike-smite routine for soloing. I baselined his DPS on a few fights and found him hitting around 35-40 DPS at level 22. I worked with him on his actual spell order a bit and just from adjusting what he cast and in what order, he increased his DPS to 60-65. Let me repeat that tidbit: Without changing a single piece of gear, achievement, or upgrading a single spell, we managed to increase his solo DPS by 50% just through slightly adjusting his spell casting order.Obviously, gear and spell quality helps quite a bit. Achievements can make a remarkable difference. Yet, even with all of that, the difference between him barely killing bears and tearing through bears with 70+% power/health remaining was just adjusting what he was actually doing, and in what order. It completely altered his outlook on the class, and on soloing in general.

Kyom · 07-11-2008, 01:42 PM

seeing as I left very soon after EoF came out and quickly soloed to 80 after I came back:There are a few changes I noticed. Is it still a good idea to use a macro for the solo HO?What I mostly do is pull with mark, daze, warring, corruption, 2 HO (smite, strike) smite, rinse and repeat according casting timers. keeping warring up at all times and autoattacking. I use daze and stun in between once they are up so I don't have to heal while soloing due the smite line setup in my solo spec.I am also wondering what is more efficient / to try to get int AND str up or concentrate on one rather then not get any of them high.I am mostly concentrating on crit spell and int items for a damage gear setup.

zaltar · 07-11-2008, 03:52 PM

How about a different perspective . I made a Templar recently and he is now in T6 with over 50 aa and the cleric tree is almost maxed.Ok, you Templars let me say this , I love this class and anyone that even thinks Templars lack in damageor anything else for that matter is missing something.I get the best of both worlds , I can solo effectively and also play a key role in groups and I get asked to joingroups a lot which really helps with everything.I would rather solo with my Templar than my Monk , thats how well the class does for me.You have high survivability , can wear plate , use melee , dots and nukes not to mention all of the de buffsstuns , daze etc . plus the reactive heals , lotto heals and cures . Really what more could you ask for ?Now the way I normally keep my aa spec is rather than use points in the int line , I opt to use the melee relatedskills . I found the biggest 2 problems with the class were interrupts and power management however , by usingthe strength end line skill I can prevent interrupts and I can enhance my nukes through the Templar tree thus allowing me to use the points in the cleric tree for other things. I know some people prefer the spell speed/crits which is a matter of play style imho . I`m still looking for ways to regen power in combat faster , I have a fewitems/adorns etc but they are not as effective as I would like them to be , death only comes from running outof power and nothing else . The agi and sta lines are both excellent excellent sources for skills , for example consider the 32% additional blockfrom battle fervor coupled with an increase in double attack , that`s nothing to sneeze at . Hammer smite , 100% mele crits , str line bolt of power , do you know bolt of power procs on ANY type of attack weapon or spell ? Oh boy what about skull crack , thats a pretty darn good de buff for the duration not to mention the daze and damage. If I want to spec aa primarily for healing /raids etc I can find plenty of useful skills for that including theagi end line skills.With all of the options to stun , daze , interrupt etc , there seems to always be plenty of time to cast whateveryou want to without being attacked.Well I am no Templar expert by any means and I really enjoy reading reading all of the input here from you guysthat have mastered the class , I just wanted to add my 2 cents and say that imho Templars are incredible andI for one am very happy with this class , healer or damage solo and group they work well for all.

PRALL · 07-21-2008, 01:19 PM

I too had my templar on the shelf for a while. When I started playing him again, he was level 60 with ZERO AAs. (I'd put him on moth balls right before that expansion.)

Now I'm 80 with 105 AA. Still playing catch-up on AA. However, I'd say that my ability to solo has gone up 150%. Yaulp, melee crits, spell crits, aa spells... it all adds up. Granted, it still takes me FOREVER to kill a mob compared to most other classes, but it's half as long as it would be without the AA abilities.

Oakum · 07-21-2008, 02:20 PM

Quite a while back, the dps of clerics and shaman were raised to help them solo easier. I think a lot of people who say templers are impossibly to solo tryed it before that point or expect to solo was well as they did on their dps main, lol. Not saying its as easy as a druid but not nearly as bad as most people "remember" it being especially when they compare it to their brawler or dps main or before the dps hike, lol.

Kendricke · 07-21-2008, 06:26 PM

Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Granted, it still takes me FOREVER to kill a mob compared to most other classes, but it's half as long as it would be without the AA abilities.

Many people feel monks are a strong soloing class. I certainly do. However, I tend to average about the same with my 80 monk as I do with my 80 Templar. The monk averages around 1200-1400 right now, while my Templar only averages 900-1200, but my Templar NEVER needs to stop for downtime and rarely do I come across a fight I can't just muscle through. ...oh, and that's in my healing spec (with only 50% melee crit, no points in STR line). If I switch over to a full blown solo setup, things go a lot faster.

PRALL · 07-21-2008, 07:31 PM

Kendricke wrote:

Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote:
Granted, it still takes me FOREVER to kill a mob compared to most other classes, but it's half as long as it would be without the AA abilities.
Many people feel monks are a strong soloing class. I certainly do. However, I tend to average about the same with my 80 monk as I do with my 80 Templar. The monk averages around 1200-1400 right now, while my Templar only averages 900-1200, but my Templar NEVER needs to stop for downtime and rarely do I come across a fight I can't just muscle through. ...oh, and that's in my healing spec (with only 50% melee crit, no points in STR line). If I switch over to a full blown solo setup, things go a lot faster.

Still not 3k, but definately better than people make it out to be. Heck, when I'm not not the main healer in a group, I manage to pull 600-700 dps even while throwing cures and backup heals. I don't run a parser, so I don't have my solo stats for you. However, I agree with your prior comment where you advised a friend on the order of spellcasting. I played with that when I soloed a lot through my 70's, and it makes a big difference! Your point about less recovery time is also spot on. My power regen and healing make downtime a non-issue.

I'm curious .... if we timed how long it takes from the first hit on your monk until he was to full health and power, then did the same with the templar on the same mob.... would it average out? What I'm saying is does it take twice as long to kill with the temp, but half as long to regen coming out to be close to the same time-wise? More realistically possibly would be 5 min kill and 1 minute regen on temp = 6 minutes versus 2.5 mins kill and 2.5 min regen for monk = 5 minutes total??

Ginnsu · 07-27-2008, 01:24 AM

Kendricke wrote:

We recently had a young Templar join our guild. This player is hardly inexperienced at MMO's, as he played a cleric in old Everquest for 7 years before finally making the jump to Everquest II, but this Templar is his first character here in the Shattered Lands. He even managed to solo his way up to around level 20 before he started to find soloing "too difficult" and started asking for advice.First, we found out he'd levelled to 20 in Greater Faydark, and immediately sent him over to Timorous Deep to complete the quests there. Even though those quests were grey to him, he managed to gain another 5 achievements (bringing him up to 17 total) and a load of gear upgrades.I then went out to Butcherblock and met up with him to see what he was doing. He was already following some advice I'd given on achievement buildouts (had him shift to Yaulp, then Enhance Smite 5, Enhance Strike 5, Enhance Combative 5, and then started him down the Stamina line for clerics) and had picked up a new mastercrafted 2 hander (a gift from a guildmate). On top of that, I picked up a 4 silver adornment for his hammer and then made sure he was using food and drink for regeneration between fights. He had a basic idea of the smite-strike-smite routine for soloing. I baselined his DPS on a few fights and found him hitting around 35-40 DPS at level 22. I worked with him on his actual spell order a bit and just from adjusting what he cast and in what order, he increased his DPS to 60-65. Let me repeat that tidbit: Without changing a single piece of gear, achievement, or upgrading a single spell, we managed to increase his solo DPS by 50% just through slightly adjusting his spell casting order.Obviously, gear and spell quality helps quite a bit. Achievements can make a remarkable difference. Yet, even with all of that, the difference between him barely killing bears and tearing through bears with 70+% power/health remaining was just adjusting what he was actually doing, and in what order. It completely altered his outlook on the class, and on soloing in general.

This is the sort of stuff I am desparately in need of being spelled out for me - I am a returning player and so much has changed - I really don't know what I am doing. Is there a soloing guide or a build/template thread I can access? These boards are just a but lacking in those sorts of guides - I don't know if its just not enough critical mass of players in the game or what but even the websites don't adress alot of this. K hints at some of the stuff, but what was the secret sauce? What AAs do you take what *is* the proper casting order?????I am really groping to find my stride with all of my baby alts - my highest fyi is a lvl 20 dirge, so I am pretty 'clean slate' as far as how things go in this game, even though I am considered a 4 year vet heh.

PRALL · 07-31-2008, 05:01 PM

Ginnsu wrote:

This is the sort of stuff I am desparately in need of being spelled out for me - I am a returning player and so much has changed - I really don't know what I am doing. Is there a soloing guide or a build/template thread I can access? These boards are just a but lacking in those sorts of guides - I don't know if its just not enough critical mass of players in the game or what but even the websites don't adress alot of this. K hints at some of the stuff, but what was the secret sauce? What AAs do you take what *is* the proper casting order?????I am really groping to find my stride with all of my baby alts - my highest fyi is a lvl 20 dirge, so I am pretty 'clean slate' as far as how things go in this game, even though I am considered a 4 year vet heh.

The reason that you don't find such guides are because once you get enough points to start soloing decent, you'll rarely have to because you will almost always be in a group. You won't want to solo because there is a group out there that needs a plate healer and the XP will be so much better in that group. (So will the loot, but I digress.)

So, the short story on soloing.... First, have an AA mirror. When you are done trying to solo, you will need to switch back to your healing spec. Second, for your solo spec, you want to max out any AA ability that gives increased spell damage, melee damage, spell crit, melee crit, double attack and attack speed. Blessings and Yaulp also will help. All these are found in the cleric tree. In the Templar tree, you want to max out your smites. Third, find a weapon that will hit hard for the least amount of delay, gives strength, and adorn it with as many procs as you can. Finally, while fighting, watch for your autoattack to go off. Cast spells after a swing so that you are getting some melee damage in between spell timers.

There are other tweaks that others may suggest, but this will at least get you started.

EDIT: Shortened the quote so that it didn't include Kendricke's quoted lines.

Kyom · 08-01-2008, 03:21 AM

Kendricke wrote:

Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote:
Granted, it still takes me FOREVER to kill a mob compared to most other classes, but it's half as long as it would be without the AA abilities.
Many people feel monks are a strong soloing class. I certainly do. However, I tend to average about the same with my 80 monk as I do with my 80 Templar. The monk averages around 1200-1400 right now, while my Templar only averages 900-1200, but my Templar NEVER needs to stop for downtime and rarely do I come across a fight I can't just muscle through. ...oh, and that's in my healing spec (with only 50% melee crit, no points in STR line). If I switch over to a full blown solo setup, things go a lot faster.

I really REALLY must do something horribly wrong. I can only push out around 400 - 500 if I am reading ACT right. SMILEY

(this is with healing gear/specc).I do have a dps set with spell crit chance and all the other yadda yadda - but even with this I think I get around 700 only.

LowfyrWildforge · 08-15-2008, 11:26 AM

You're not doing something wrong, you're just heal specced, is all. Get yourself a mirror, and make a set specifically for soloing.

Kyom · 08-15-2008, 01:56 PM

Heh, no, I do have a dps spec (well pvp rather) and a mirror. I still only choke out around 700 solo or in MT group but that is mostly due to the fact that I don't have master spells on my DDs. I compared with another templar in guild with master damage spells and more spell damage add gear. The difference made sense.Not to mention, in the mt group I don't get the nice buffs he had in the ot group with his damage setup and damage gear :pSo next time I am in OT group I try to see how far I can push it.Soloing will always be lower due to lack of raid buffs, obviously. Anyway, after talking to him and comparing spell levels I felt better SMILEY

RingleToo · 08-15-2008, 02:51 PM

Early on, before AA's and when interrupts were common, soloing with a templar was a lesson in frustration. That's certainly changed. By level 70 my templar was easily soloing things my swashy at level 75 had a tough time with. (By "easily" I don't mean fast lol). At level 80 my templar solos mobs my lvl 80 swashy runs from. (Again, "fast" is definitely not part of the equation).

Certainly some changes made to the templar, the advent of AA lines, and improved loot tables (i.e. gear) have made a difference. And no flattery intended, but I have to give credit to Kendricke, too. I don't know if he still has any of his early posts on how to play/equip a templar for better dps/soloing, but those were very helpful in "building" my templar.

LowfyrWildforge · 08-21-2008, 01:24 PM

First, don't even consider raid DPS if you're in the main tank group. That should be whatever your autoattack dps is, plus the damage from the smite corruption, master smite, thermal shocker, and maybe the odd warring faith to complete an HO. Other than that, you should be healing.

Your dps is rarely gonna top 400.

Solo, a templar is the immovable object. With the right gear and enough time, you can kill just about anything.

SpineDoc · 09-07-2008, 10:43 PM

I'm happy to report that at level 66 and with 67AA I feel like I am a very decent soloer, much better than when I first started this topic actually. I'm closing in on the 25% bonus if you don't cast a heal spell so I expect another jump in soloing abilities soon.Doing some green quests in Lfay today I was quite pleased that I could easily beat 2 ^^^ mobs 8 levels below me at the same time. Even a named ^^^mob 6 levels below me was not too bad, certainly beatable. Sure they are not wizard or nec stats, but for the most "unsoloable" class in the game I am quite pleased.And to think, I still have only half my AA.

SilkenKidden · 09-08-2008, 06:42 PM

Kendricke wrote:

We recently had a young Templar join our guild. This player is hardly inexperienced at MMO's, as he played a cleric in old Everquest for 7 years before finally making the jump to Everquest II, but this Templar is his first character here in the Shattered Lands. He even managed to solo his way up to around level 20 before he started to find soloing "too difficult" and started asking for advice.First, we found out he'd levelled to 20 in Greater Faydark, and immediately sent him over to Timorous Deep to complete the quests there. Even though those quests were grey to him, he managed to gain another 5 achievements (bringing him up to 17 total) and a load of gear upgrades.I then went out to Butcherblock and met up with him to see what he was doing. He was already following some advice I'd given on achievement buildouts (had him shift to Yaulp, then Enhance Smite 5, Enhance Strike 5, Enhance Combative 5, and then started him down the Stamina line for clerics) and had picked up a new mastercrafted 2 hander (a gift from a guildmate). On top of that, I picked up a 4 silver adornment for his hammer and then made sure he was using food and drink for regeneration between fights. He had a basic idea of the smite-strike-smite routine for soloing. I baselined his DPS on a few fights and found him hitting around 35-40 DPS at level 22. I worked with him on his actual spell order a bit and just from adjusting what he cast and in what order, he increased his DPS to 60-65. Let me repeat that tidbit: Without changing a single piece of gear, achievement, or upgrading a single spell, we managed to increase his solo DPS by 50% just through slightly adjusting his spell casting order.Obviously, gear and spell quality helps quite a bit. Achievements can make a remarkable difference. Yet, even with all of that, the difference between him barely killing bears and tearing through bears with 70+% power/health remaining was just adjusting what he was actually doing, and in what order. It completely altered his outlook on the class, and on soloing in general.

Thanks for the AA line advice. Could you give the names of the spells you mean when you say smite-strike-smite? And what spells did you tell him to use to increase the DPS? What order?

My level 66 templar almost always partners with a friend, level 66 wizard, and I could really use some advice. I find the templar trying to be tank and healer. I've set most AA's to enhance healing. After that I enhanced the ones that give fighting stats. The way my friend and I play is he stuns or roots the enemy. I then cast all the reactives, which I can't cast until combat is engaged, go into attack mode, and fight while casting offensive spells. If we have more than one mob on us I soon have to start concentrating on healing my wizzie friend and recasting the reactives as one mob dies and another becomes prime.

I'd really appreciate if you could give me a AA spec and a starting encounter script. So far I can only put 50 points into Templar achievements. I'm not at all sure what lines to do in the other line. I went down one complete line and now need to go down another. Why is there a whole line given over to fighting undead? There are skellies in the game, but I don't see fighting them as a main priority.

About the weapon. You mention a 2 hander but then a hammer. Is the 2 hander the hammer? I have a one hander, with a wand that casts lightening for when I run out of power. I put adornments on the weapons, but just pick something that fits the weapon type, figuring it will help. Any particular advice there?

Well, thank you for any advice you can give me. And please explain Yaulp. I never use it. That's the one that takes away healing ability and gives fighting isn't it? Even in the few instances I'm truly solo, I need to heal myself.

El Conquistador · 09-10-2008, 02:31 AM

Kendricke must be out knocking 'em dead today, so I'll just stick my nose in here and point you to these excellent past posts of his:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=177987

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=370169

These are a year or two old, but the AA lines haven't changed much in that time to render them obsolete.

The idea of smite - strike - smite is just this: Kendricke feels that it's most efficient to cast two smites for each strike, the strike being the 'nuke' with a bonus to undead. He explains the rhythm of smite -strike - smite in one of the above posts.

Yaulp is very useful for solo or duo purposes, but not recommended for groups doing heroic content. True that it reduces your healing by a small amount, but the benefit outweighs that small detriment. Since you're in a duo with a wizard you must do the tanking, so the added damage from yaulp may help you keep agro a bit longer. I would also advise buying a mastercrafted maul with automatic hate gain when in front of the mob. but nothing you can do will keep a mob away from a wizard forever. Your friend will have to hold himself back a little until it's time to 'finish it' and then pour it on before the mob reaches him.

You may also find that creating a macro for your heroic opportunity starter and two smite/strikes will help you do a bit more damage. That just leaves you with one button to cue up those three actions, so they're more likely to follow each other immediately. However, that may interrupt the rhythm Kendricke refers to above, so perhaps better to keep them on separate buttons - you can try both ways and see what works for your style.

QUOTE: I then cast all the reactives, which I can't cast until combat is engaged, go into attack

mode, and fight while casting offensive spells.

I'm not sure what this line means, as you can cast reactives (group and single) before the pull. Cast your group reactive first since it takes longest, then your single reactive on yourself and if you wish, on your wizzie. In the meantime he's cast his root and started nuking (gently, gently...) and if the root breaks in the first 30 seconds your reactives are set and ready to heal you. Don't forget that you have your own stun that you can cast if the root breaks, giving him another 6 seconds or so of recovery time to recast his root.

SilkenKidden · 09-10-2008, 08:30 PM

Esstrella@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Kendricke must be out knocking 'em dead today, so I'll just stick my nose in here and point you to these excellent past posts of his:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=177987
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=370169
These are a year or two old, but the AA lines haven't changed much in that time to render them obsolete.
The idea of smite - strike - smite is just this: Kendricke feels that it's most efficient to cast two smites for each strike, the strike being the 'nuke' with a bonus to undead. He explains the rhythm of smite -strike - smite in one of the above posts.
Yaulp is very useful for solo or duo purposes, but not recommended for groups doing heroic content.   True that it reduces your healing by a small amount, but the benefit outweighs that small detriment. Since you're in a duo with a wizard you must do the tanking, so the added damage from yaulp may help you keep agro a bit longer. I would also advise buying a mastercrafted maul with automatic hate gain when in front of the mob.   but nothing you can do will keep a mob away from a wizard forever. Your friend will have to hold himself back a little until it's time to 'finish it' and then pour it on before the mob reaches him.
You may also find that creating a macro for your heroic opportunity starter and two smite/strikes will help you do a bit more damage. That just leaves you with one button to cue up those three actions, so they're more likely to follow each other immediately. However, that may interrupt the rhythm Kendricke refers to above, so perhaps better to keep them on separate buttons - you can try both ways and see what works for your style.
            QUOTE: I then cast all the reactives, which I can't cast until combat is engaged, go into attack
                           mode,  and fight while casting offensive spells.
I'm not sure what this line means, as you can cast reactives (group and single) before the pull.   Cast your group reactive first since it takes longest, then your single reactive on yourself and if you wish, on your wizzie.   In the meantime he's cast his root and started nuking (gently, gently...) and if the root breaks in the first 30 seconds your reactives are set and ready to heal you. Don't forget that you have your own stun that you can cast if the root breaks, giving him another 6 seconds or so of recovery time to recast his root.

Thank you very much for your informative answer and the links. I will study all.

I may have used the wrong terminology. I was refering to the mark spells and Involuntary cure. there are three of them, one works only when the MOB dies. The other two cause healing to the group when the MOBs tale damage. You need to target an enemy to cast them.

I do cast the wards beforehand, those that target the group, but I want to get them in as close to combat time as possible. Must admit, sometimes they don't get cast until they are needed for healing.

My wizzie friend will be happy if I can keep the agro off him for a bit longer. Thank you for the help.

Tash 1 · 09-11-2008, 03:31 AM

I admit that the Templar Wizard combo for me seems like the worst possible combo lol SMILEY But on the other hand it must be really fun to try on.

My personal advice would be forget about holding aggro against a Wizard. You going to lose... badly! So better let the Wizard be the tank. Not that he tanks better but that you can not possible hold aggro. You have no taunts feeble DPS compared to the Wizard and the aggro from the heals are not enough to out weight that.

So Spec the Wizzy for Tanking. Make use of your stuns And don't count so much on your reactives. They will not do more than take a small part of the healing. So load of communication between you so your root stuns etc works together.

I would guess that wizzy templar success would be in Crowd control more than Healing tbh.

/Hugs Tash

SilkenKidden · 09-11-2008, 06:13 AM

Tashiana@Runnyeye wrote:

I admit that the Templar Wizard combo for me seems like the worst possible combo lol But on the other hand it must be really fun to try on.
My personal advice would be forget about holding aggro against a Wizard. You going to lose... badly! So better let the Wizard be the tank. Not that he tanks better but that you can not possible hold aggro. You have no taunts feeble DPS compared to the Wizard and the aggro from the heals are not enough to out weight that.
So Spec the Wizzy for Tanking. Make use of your stuns And don't count so much on your reactives. They will not do more than take a small part of the healing. So load of communication between you so your root stuns etc works together.
I would guess that wizzy templar success would be in Crowd control more than Healing tbh.
/Hugs Tash

LOL. That's the way the cookie crumbled. This team of templar and wizzie are alts. They do have a tough time of it. Our main duo is monk/warden, much better.

My wizzie friend will not be happy to hear he will be slated for main tank, but that is the way it usually ends up - with him backing away and the MOB chasing him while I try to heal and get the agro back.

I'll try working on the stuns and roots. That is my most neglected set of spells.

Despite the problems, we do have fun - when we aren't at each other's throats because my friend thinks using evac is a sign of weakness. We are currently in Kylong Plains. The quest exp is great there. I'm at 66 now and some of the quests give 4%.

I did try the smite/strike/smite routine tonight (from Kendricke and Estrella - see notes above) and it worked well until I lost the agro and had to start spamming heals on the wizzie. I did manage to keep it for a lot longer and had to heal myself a lot more often too. That made for a very hectic night.

Thank you all for your advice.

Sadaro · 11-24-2008, 02:23 PM

A few points on Templar soloing:

- As mentioned above, it's possible, but slower than other classes.

- The hardest thing about soloing Templars is dealing with adds. Learning to pull and where to pull helps minimize adds.

- From levels 10-60, you solo questing is your best bet for AA and experience. You should be able to find more quests than you can do. If you can find an instance group, go for it -- a dungeon will give you decent discovery and named AA, but it's hard to find a group.

- From 60-70 the questing options thin out a little bit. You may need to grind or do instances to level.

- Once you hit 68+, the RoK expansion has enough quests to get you to 80 (or close to).

- http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Solo_Timelines has the best list of solo quests I've found.

There are a few heroic quests you might want to consider:

- http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Stiletto%...rs_Intercepted, which gives you the manastone.

- http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Screaming_Mace, which gives you the screaming mace

There are also 3 main Templar solo styles. You should play with them to see what works best:

- Melee focused. Use Yaulp, get to 100% melee crit ASAP to maximize melee damage. Cast spells when you can, but the focus is on melee damage.

- Divine damage focused. Spend initial AA's on the INT line and/or the nuke efficiency AA's. You'll still melee, but the focus is getting your nukes off quickly/regulary for the most damage.

- Healing focused. Turn off Yaulp. Use your reactive heals to maintain your health. Melee only, or melee+your DoT. This method takes much longer, but minimizes your power costs (useful if you run low on power)

In my limited experience, I prefer divine focused damage -- faster kills and faster soloing. I'll occasionally drop to healing focused if I'm running low on power.

07-08-2008, 08:58 PM	#1
SpineDoc Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 651	I rolled a templar when EQ2 first came out, played him until 50 throughout all the changes and updates. Soloing was completely impossible, literally killing a green no arrow mob was 5 minutes, plus resting afterwards. So I stopped playing him and leveled up a nec and guardian mostly soloing the timelines, both to 70.Anyhow I got curious about my beloved templar and dusted him off just last week with the SOE promotion. I had zero AA at level 50, my armor was so old you couldn't even make or buy it anymore, etc etc. Well instead of complaining I got off my duff and started doing all the timelines, handing in L and L quests, collections, etc. I just finished most of the solo content in Lfay, am level 56 and have 35AA, which I invested into solo DPS.Now I'm directly comparing my templar soloing to the guardian and the nec. In all honesty I think the temp and the guard were pretty comparable, maybe even a bit faster for the temp and a bit higher ability to take on higher mobs. The nec was a bit slower to solo, a strong fight would always require a lot of rest for the pet, or a lot of power recovery for the nec. All in all I think the templar is a pretty good solo toon, probably not the best of them all by far, but certainly not as sucky as so many have made it out to be. If I relied on only reading the forums I don't think I would have dusted off my templar.Anyhow what do you guys think after Lfay? I keep my LFG tag on constantly and am always oocing for groups, and am a great healer. But in the wake of EQ2's beginning to die, and the low population on my server I find myself doing the timelines. How will my templar continue to solo to 80? Will I begin to suck? Will I begin to shine? Will I stay about the same? __________________ 92 Inquisitor 92 Templar (retired until they are fixed) 92 Coercer 92 Guardian 92 Wizard 92 Beastlord

07-09-2008, 04:30 AM	#2
Tash 1 General Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 240	Well since they have nerfed all low level content, due to the ever increasing level span and the at least atm low population makes it very hard to find grps. I doubt you have any trouble soloing all the way if needed. I solo from 70-80 with not much of troubles. And we can at least take on yellow heroics with out to much of effort. I do how ever recommend that you get a AA respect mirror when you start to get some AAs. Have a Heal and one DPS spec. When soloing its all about dps and mitigation as a templar. Only for raids you will need the heal spec. So my guess is that you be better and better at soloing with some "Hell levels" once and a while. But Since I Hate soloing I recommend to have that LFG slag up all the time /Hugs Tash __________________

07-09-2008, 11:21 AM	#3
dancemice Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 201	i've solo'd for the majority of my levels - I have to say one thing - when played properly, the templar's ability to solo is quite high - If your not expecting to kill things fast. You have a far higher surviability then any other class - (via Healing) Just stay away from mobs that stun and stifle and you'll be fine. You can even take some heroics (Up to blue) with the proper setup. -B- __________________ Dogs have Owners - Cats have Staff.

07-11-2008, 12:53 PM	#4
Kendricke Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 4,032	We recently had a young Templar join our guild. This player is hardly inexperienced at MMO's, as he played a cleric in old Everquest for 7 years before finally making the jump to Everquest II, but this Templar is his first character here in the Shattered Lands. He even managed to solo his way up to around level 20 before he started to find soloing "too difficult" and started asking for advice.First, we found out he'd levelled to 20 in Greater Faydark, and immediately sent him over to Timorous Deep to complete the quests there. Even though those quests were grey to him, he managed to gain another 5 achievements (bringing him up to 17 total) and a load of gear upgrades.I then went out to Butcherblock and met up with him to see what he was doing. He was already following some advice I'd given on achievement buildouts (had him shift to Yaulp, then Enhance Smite 5, Enhance Strike 5, Enhance Combative 5, and then started him down the Stamina line for clerics) and had picked up a new mastercrafted 2 hander (a gift from a guildmate). On top of that, I picked up a 4 silver adornment for his hammer and then made sure he was using food and drink for regeneration between fights. He had a basic idea of the smite-strike-smite routine for soloing. I baselined his DPS on a few fights and found him hitting around 35-40 DPS at level 22. I worked with him on his actual spell order a bit and just from adjusting what he cast and in what order, he increased his DPS to 60-65. Let me repeat that tidbit: Without changing a single piece of gear, achievement, or upgrading a single spell, we managed to increase his solo DPS by 50% just through slightly adjusting his spell casting order.Obviously, gear and spell quality helps quite a bit. Achievements can make a remarkable difference. Yet, even with all of that, the difference between him barely killing bears and tearing through bears with 70+% power/health remaining was just adjusting what he was actually doing, and in what order. It completely altered his outlook on the class, and on soloing in general. __________________ * -Opinions expressed in this post do not represent any current or past employers.

07-21-2008, 01:19 PM	#7
PRALL General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 109	I too had my templar on the shelf for a while. When I started playing him again, he was level 60 with ZERO AAs. (I'd put him on moth balls right before that expansion.) Now I'm 80 with 105 AA. Still playing catch-up on AA. However, I'd say that my ability to solo has gone up 150%. Yaulp, melee crits, spell crits, aa spells... it all adds up. Granted, it still takes me FOREVER to kill a mob compared to most other classes, but it's half as long as it would be without the AA abilities. __________________

07-11-2008, 01:42 PM	#5
Kyom General Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 99	seeing as I left very soon after EoF came out and quickly soloed to 80 after I came back:There are a few changes I noticed. Is it still a good idea to use a macro for the solo HO?What I mostly do is pull with mark, daze, warring, corruption, 2 HO (smite, strike) smite, rinse and repeat according casting timers. keeping warring up at all times and autoattacking. I use daze and stun in between once they are up so I don't have to heal while soloing due the smite line setup in my solo spec.I am also wondering what is more efficient / to try to get int AND str up or concentrate on one rather then not get any of them high.I am mostly concentrating on crit spell and int items for a damage gear setup.

07-11-2008, 03:52 PM	#6
zaltar Lord Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 175	How about a different perspective . I made a Templar recently and he is now in T6 with over 50 aa and the cleric tree is almost maxed.Ok, you Templars let me say this , I love this class and anyone that even thinks Templars lack in damageor anything else for that matter is missing something.I get the best of both worlds , I can solo effectively and also play a key role in groups and I get asked to joingroups a lot which really helps with everything.I would rather solo with my Templar than my Monk , thats how well the class does for me.You have high survivability , can wear plate , use melee , dots and nukes not to mention all of the de buffsstuns , daze etc . plus the reactive heals , lotto heals and cures . Really what more could you ask for ?Now the way I normally keep my aa spec is rather than use points in the int line , I opt to use the melee relatedskills . I found the biggest 2 problems with the class were interrupts and power management however , by usingthe strength end line skill I can prevent interrupts and I can enhance my nukes through the Templar tree thus allowing me to use the points in the cleric tree for other things. I know some people prefer the spell speed/crits which is a matter of play style imho . I`m still looking for ways to regen power in combat faster , I have a fewitems/adorns etc but they are not as effective as I would like them to be , death only comes from running outof power and nothing else . The agi and sta lines are both excellent excellent sources for skills , for example consider the 32% additional blockfrom battle fervor coupled with an increase in double attack , that`s nothing to sneeze at . Hammer smite , 100% mele crits , str line bolt of power , do you know bolt of power procs on ANY type of attack weapon or spell ? Oh boy what about skull crack , thats a pretty darn good de buff for the duration not to mention the daze and damage. If I want to spec aa primarily for healing /raids etc I can find plenty of useful skills for that including theagi end line skills.With all of the options to stun , daze , interrupt etc , there seems to always be plenty of time to cast whateveryou want to without being attacked.Well I am no Templar expert by any means and I really enjoy reading reading all of the input here from you guysthat have mastered the class , I just wanted to add my 2 cents and say that imho Templars are incredible andI for one am very happy with this class , healer or damage solo and group they work well for all.

07-21-2008, 02:20 PM	#8
Oakum Loremaster Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 1,441	Quite a while back, the dps of clerics and shaman were raised to help them solo easier. I think a lot of people who say templers are impossibly to solo tryed it before that point or expect to solo was well as they did on their dps main, lol. Not saying its as easy as a druid but not nearly as bad as most people "remember" it being especially when they compare it to their brawler or dps main or before the dps hike, lol. __________________

07-21-2008, 06:26 PM	#9
Kendricke Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 4,032	Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote: Granted, it still takes me FOREVER to kill a mob compared to most other classes, but it's half as long as it would be without the AA abilities. Many people feel monks are a strong soloing class. I certainly do. However, I tend to average about the same with my 80 monk as I do with my 80 Templar. The monk averages around 1200-1400 right now, while my Templar only averages 900-1200, but my Templar NEVER needs to stop for downtime and rarely do I come across a fight I can't just muscle through. ...oh, and that's in my healing spec (with only 50% melee crit, no points in STR line). If I switch over to a full blown solo setup, things go a lot faster. __________________ * -Opinions expressed in this post do not represent any current or past employers.

07-21-2008, 07:31 PM	#10
PRALL General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 109	Kendricke wrote: Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote: Granted, it still takes me FOREVER to kill a mob compared to most other classes, but it's half as long as it would be without the AA abilities. Many people feel monks are a strong soloing class. I certainly do. However, I tend to average about the same with my 80 monk as I do with my 80 Templar. The monk averages around 1200-1400 right now, while my Templar only averages 900-1200, but my Templar NEVER needs to stop for downtime and rarely do I come across a fight I can't just muscle through. ...oh, and that's in my healing spec (with only 50% melee crit, no points in STR line). If I switch over to a full blown solo setup, things go a lot faster. Still not 3k, but definately better than people make it out to be. Heck, when I'm not not the main healer in a group, I manage to pull 600-700 dps even while throwing cures and backup heals. I don't run a parser, so I don't have my solo stats for you. However, I agree with your prior comment where you advised a friend on the order of spellcasting. I played with that when I soloed a lot through my 70's, and it makes a big difference! Your point about less recovery time is also spot on. My power regen and healing make downtime a non-issue. I'm curious .... if we timed how long it takes from the first hit on your monk until he was to full health and power, then did the same with the templar on the same mob.... would it average out? What I'm saying is does it take twice as long to kill with the temp, but half as long to regen coming out to be close to the same time-wise? More realistically possibly would be 5 min kill and 1 minute regen on temp = 6 minutes versus 2.5 mins kill and 2.5 min regen for monk = 5 minutes total?? __________________

07-27-2008, 01:24 AM	#11
Ginnsu Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 38	Kendricke wrote: We recently had a young Templar join our guild. This player is hardly inexperienced at MMO's, as he played a cleric in old Everquest for 7 years before finally making the jump to Everquest II, but this Templar is his first character here in the Shattered Lands. He even managed to solo his way up to around level 20 before he started to find soloing "too difficult" and started asking for advice.First, we found out he'd levelled to 20 in Greater Faydark, and immediately sent him over to Timorous Deep to complete the quests there. Even though those quests were grey to him, he managed to gain another 5 achievements (bringing him up to 17 total) and a load of gear upgrades.I then went out to Butcherblock and met up with him to see what he was doing. He was already following some advice I'd given on achievement buildouts (had him shift to Yaulp, then Enhance Smite 5, Enhance Strike 5, Enhance Combative 5, and then started him down the Stamina line for clerics) and had picked up a new mastercrafted 2 hander (a gift from a guildmate). On top of that, I picked up a 4 silver adornment for his hammer and then made sure he was using food and drink for regeneration between fights. He had a basic idea of the smite-strike-smite routine for soloing. I baselined his DPS on a few fights and found him hitting around 35-40 DPS at level 22. I worked with him on his actual spell order a bit and just from adjusting what he cast and in what order, he increased his DPS to 60-65. Let me repeat that tidbit: Without changing a single piece of gear, achievement, or upgrading a single spell, we managed to increase his solo DPS by 50% just through slightly adjusting his spell casting order.Obviously, gear and spell quality helps quite a bit. Achievements can make a remarkable difference. Yet, even with all of that, the difference between him barely killing bears and tearing through bears with 70+% power/health remaining was just adjusting what he was actually doing, and in what order. It completely altered his outlook on the class, and on soloing in general. This is the sort of stuff I am desparately in need of being spelled out for me - I am a returning player and so much has changed - I really don't know what I am doing. Is there a soloing guide or a build/template thread I can access? These boards are just a but lacking in those sorts of guides - I don't know if its just not enough critical mass of players in the game or what but even the websites don't adress alot of this. K hints at some of the stuff, but what was the secret sauce? What AAs do you take what is the proper casting order?????I am really groping to find my stride with all of my baby alts - my highest fyi is a lvl 20 dirge, so I am pretty 'clean slate' as far as how things go in this game, even though I am considered a 4 year vet heh.

07-31-2008, 05:01 PM	#12
PRALL General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 109	Ginnsu wrote: This is the sort of stuff I am desparately in need of being spelled out for me - I am a returning player and so much has changed - I really don't know what I am doing. Is there a soloing guide or a build/template thread I can access? These boards are just a but lacking in those sorts of guides - I don't know if its just not enough critical mass of players in the game or what but even the websites don't adress alot of this. K hints at some of the stuff, but what was the secret sauce? What AAs do you take what is the proper casting order?????I am really groping to find my stride with all of my baby alts - my highest fyi is a lvl 20 dirge, so I am pretty 'clean slate' as far as how things go in this game, even though I am considered a 4 year vet heh. The reason that you don't find such guides are because once you get enough points to start soloing decent, you'll rarely have to because you will almost always be in a group. You won't want to solo because there is a group out there that needs a plate healer and the XP will be so much better in that group. (So will the loot, but I digress.) So, the short story on soloing.... First, have an AA mirror. When you are done trying to solo, you will need to switch back to your healing spec. Second, for your solo spec, you want to max out any AA ability that gives increased spell damage, melee damage, spell crit, melee crit, double attack and attack speed. Blessings and Yaulp also will help. All these are found in the cleric tree. In the Templar tree, you want to max out your smites. Third, find a weapon that will hit hard for the least amount of delay, gives strength, and adorn it with as many procs as you can. Finally, while fighting, watch for your autoattack to go off. Cast spells after a swing so that you are getting some melee damage in between spell timers. There are other tweaks that others may suggest, but this will at least get you started. EDIT: Shortened the quote so that it didn't include Kendricke's quoted lines. __________________

08-01-2008, 03:21 AM	#13
Kyom General Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 99	Kendricke wrote: Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote: Granted, it still takes me FOREVER to kill a mob compared to most other classes, but it's half as long as it would be without the AA abilities. Many people feel monks are a strong soloing class. I certainly do. However, I tend to average about the same with my 80 monk as I do with my 80 Templar. The monk averages around 1200-1400 right now, while my Templar only averages 900-1200, but my Templar NEVER needs to stop for downtime and rarely do I come across a fight I can't just muscle through. ...oh, and that's in my healing spec (with only 50% melee crit, no points in STR line). If I switch over to a full blown solo setup, things go a lot faster. I really REALLY must do something horribly wrong. I can only push out around 400 - 500 if I am reading ACT right. (this is with healing gear/specc).I do have a dps set with spell crit chance and all the other yadda yadda - but even with this I think I get around 700 only.

08-15-2008, 11:26 AM	#14
LowfyrWildforge Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 112	You're not doing something wrong, you're just heal specced, is all. Get yourself a mirror, and make a set specifically for soloing.

08-15-2008, 01:56 PM	#15
Kyom General Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 99	Heh, no, I do have a dps spec (well pvp rather) and a mirror. I still only choke out around 700 solo or in MT group but that is mostly due to the fact that I don't have master spells on my DDs. I compared with another templar in guild with master damage spells and more spell damage add gear. The difference made sense.Not to mention, in the mt group I don't get the nice buffs he had in the ot group with his damage setup and damage gear :pSo next time I am in OT group I try to see how far I can push it.Soloing will always be lower due to lack of raid buffs, obviously. Anyway, after talking to him and comparing spell levels I felt better

08-15-2008, 02:51 PM	#16
RingleToo Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: watervliet Posts: 324	Early on, before AA's and when interrupts were common, soloing with a templar was a lesson in frustration. That's certainly changed. By level 70 my templar was easily soloing things my swashy at level 75 had a tough time with. (By "easily" I don't mean fast lol). At level 80 my templar solos mobs my lvl 80 swashy runs from. (Again, "fast" is definitely not part of the equation). Certainly some changes made to the templar, the advent of AA lines, and improved loot tables (i.e. gear) have made a difference. And no flattery intended, but I have to give credit to Kendricke, too. I don't know if he still has any of his early posts on how to play/equip a templar for better dps/soloing, but those were very helpful in "building" my templar. __________________

08-21-2008, 01:24 PM	#17
LowfyrWildforge Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 112	First, don't even consider raid DPS if you're in the main tank group. That should be whatever your autoattack dps is, plus the damage from the smite corruption, master smite, thermal shocker, and maybe the odd warring faith to complete an HO. Other than that, you should be healing. Your dps is rarely gonna top 400. Solo, a templar is the immovable object. With the right gear and enough time, you can kill just about anything.

09-07-2008, 10:43 PM	#18
SpineDoc Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 651	I'm happy to report that at level 66 and with 67AA I feel like I am a very decent soloer, much better than when I first started this topic actually. I'm closing in on the 25% bonus if you don't cast a heal spell so I expect another jump in soloing abilities soon.Doing some green quests in Lfay today I was quite pleased that I could easily beat 2 ^^^ mobs 8 levels below me at the same time. Even a named ^^^mob 6 levels below me was not too bad, certainly beatable. Sure they are not wizard or nec stats, but for the most "unsoloable" class in the game I am quite pleased.And to think, I still have only half my AA. __________________ 92 Inquisitor 92 Templar (retired until they are fixed) 92 Coercer 92 Guardian 92 Wizard 92 Beastlord

09-08-2008, 06:42 PM	#19
SilkenKidden Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 2,039	Kendricke wrote: We recently had a young Templar join our guild. This player is hardly inexperienced at MMO's, as he played a cleric in old Everquest for 7 years before finally making the jump to Everquest II, but this Templar is his first character here in the Shattered Lands. He even managed to solo his way up to around level 20 before he started to find soloing "too difficult" and started asking for advice.First, we found out he'd levelled to 20 in Greater Faydark, and immediately sent him over to Timorous Deep to complete the quests there. Even though those quests were grey to him, he managed to gain another 5 achievements (bringing him up to 17 total) and a load of gear upgrades.I then went out to Butcherblock and met up with him to see what he was doing. He was already following some advice I'd given on achievement buildouts (had him shift to Yaulp, then Enhance Smite 5, Enhance Strike 5, Enhance Combative 5, and then started him down the Stamina line for clerics) and had picked up a new mastercrafted 2 hander (a gift from a guildmate). On top of that, I picked up a 4 silver adornment for his hammer and then made sure he was using food and drink for regeneration between fights. He had a basic idea of the smite-strike-smite routine for soloing. I baselined his DPS on a few fights and found him hitting around 35-40 DPS at level 22. I worked with him on his actual spell order a bit and just from adjusting what he cast and in what order, he increased his DPS to 60-65. Let me repeat that tidbit: Without changing a single piece of gear, achievement, or upgrading a single spell, we managed to increase his solo DPS by 50% just through slightly adjusting his spell casting order.Obviously, gear and spell quality helps quite a bit. Achievements can make a remarkable difference. Yet, even with all of that, the difference between him barely killing bears and tearing through bears with 70+% power/health remaining was just adjusting what he was actually doing, and in what order. It completely altered his outlook on the class, and on soloing in general. Thanks for the AA line advice. Could you give the names of the spells you mean when you say smite-strike-smite? And what spells did you tell him to use to increase the DPS? What order? My level 66 templar almost always partners with a friend, level 66 wizard, and I could really use some advice. I find the templar trying to be tank and healer. I've set most AA's to enhance healing. After that I enhanced the ones that give fighting stats. The way my friend and I play is he stuns or roots the enemy. I then cast all the reactives, which I can't cast until combat is engaged, go into attack mode, and fight while casting offensive spells. If we have more than one mob on us I soon have to start concentrating on healing my wizzie friend and recasting the reactives as one mob dies and another becomes prime. I'd really appreciate if you could give me a AA spec and a starting encounter script. So far I can only put 50 points into Templar achievements. I'm not at all sure what lines to do in the other line. I went down one complete line and now need to go down another. Why is there a whole line given over to fighting undead? There are skellies in the game, but I don't see fighting them as a main priority. About the weapon. You mention a 2 hander but then a hammer. Is the 2 hander the hammer? I have a one hander, with a wand that casts lightening for when I run out of power. I put adornments on the weapons, but just pick something that fits the weapon type, figuring it will help. Any particular advice there? Well, thank you for any advice you can give me. And please explain Yaulp. I never use it. That's the one that takes away healing ability and gives fighting isn't it? Even in the few instances I'm truly solo, I need to heal myself.

09-10-2008, 02:31 AM	#20
El Conquistador Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 63	Kendricke must be out knocking 'em dead today, so I'll just stick my nose in here and point you to these excellent past posts of his: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=177987 http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=370169 These are a year or two old, but the AA lines haven't changed much in that time to render them obsolete. The idea of smite - strike - smite is just this: Kendricke feels that it's most efficient to cast two smites for each strike, the strike being the 'nuke' with a bonus to undead. He explains the rhythm of smite -strike - smite in one of the above posts. Yaulp is very useful for solo or duo purposes, but not recommended for groups doing heroic content. True that it reduces your healing by a small amount, but the benefit outweighs that small detriment. Since you're in a duo with a wizard you must do the tanking, so the added damage from yaulp may help you keep agro a bit longer. I would also advise buying a mastercrafted maul with automatic hate gain when in front of the mob. but nothing you can do will keep a mob away from a wizard forever. Your friend will have to hold himself back a little until it's time to 'finish it' and then pour it on before the mob reaches him. You may also find that creating a macro for your heroic opportunity starter and two smite/strikes will help you do a bit more damage. That just leaves you with one button to cue up those three actions, so they're more likely to follow each other immediately. However, that may interrupt the rhythm Kendricke refers to above, so perhaps better to keep them on separate buttons - you can try both ways and see what works for your style. QUOTE: I then cast all the reactives, which I can't cast until combat is engaged, go into attack mode, and fight while casting offensive spells. I'm not sure what this line means, as you can cast reactives (group and single) before the pull. Cast your group reactive first since it takes longest, then your single reactive on yourself and if you wish, on your wizzie. In the meantime he's cast his root and started nuking (gently, gently...) and if the root breaks in the first 30 seconds your reactives are set and ready to heal you. Don't forget that you have your own stun that you can cast if the root breaks, giving him another 6 seconds or so of recovery time to recast his root. __________________

09-10-2008, 08:30 PM	#21
SilkenKidden Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 2,039	Esstrella@Antonia Bayle wrote: Kendricke must be out knocking 'em dead today, so I'll just stick my nose in here and point you to these excellent past posts of his: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=177987 http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=370169 These are a year or two old, but the AA lines haven't changed much in that time to render them obsolete. The idea of smite - strike - smite is just this: Kendricke feels that it's most efficient to cast two smites for each strike, the strike being the 'nuke' with a bonus to undead. He explains the rhythm of smite -strike - smite in one of the above posts. Yaulp is very useful for solo or duo purposes, but not recommended for groups doing heroic content. True that it reduces your healing by a small amount, but the benefit outweighs that small detriment. Since you're in a duo with a wizard you must do the tanking, so the added damage from yaulp may help you keep agro a bit longer. I would also advise buying a mastercrafted maul with automatic hate gain when in front of the mob. but nothing you can do will keep a mob away from a wizard forever. Your friend will have to hold himself back a little until it's time to 'finish it' and then pour it on before the mob reaches him. You may also find that creating a macro for your heroic opportunity starter and two smite/strikes will help you do a bit more damage. That just leaves you with one button to cue up those three actions, so they're more likely to follow each other immediately. However, that may interrupt the rhythm Kendricke refers to above, so perhaps better to keep them on separate buttons - you can try both ways and see what works for your style. QUOTE: I then cast all the reactives, which I can't cast until combat is engaged, go into attack mode, and fight while casting offensive spells. I'm not sure what this line means, as you can cast reactives (group and single) before the pull. Cast your group reactive first since it takes longest, then your single reactive on yourself and if you wish, on your wizzie. In the meantime he's cast his root and started nuking (gently, gently...) and if the root breaks in the first 30 seconds your reactives are set and ready to heal you. Don't forget that you have your own stun that you can cast if the root breaks, giving him another 6 seconds or so of recovery time to recast his root. Thank you very much for your informative answer and the links. I will study all. I may have used the wrong terminology. I was refering to the mark spells and Involuntary cure. there are three of them, one works only when the MOB dies. The other two cause healing to the group when the MOBs tale damage. You need to target an enemy to cast them. I do cast the wards beforehand, those that target the group, but I want to get them in as close to combat time as possible. Must admit, sometimes they don't get cast until they are needed for healing. My wizzie friend will be happy if I can keep the agro off him for a bit longer. Thank you for the help.

09-11-2008, 03:31 AM	#22
Tash 1 General Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 240	I admit that the Templar Wizard combo for me seems like the worst possible combo lol But on the other hand it must be really fun to try on. My personal advice would be forget about holding aggro against a Wizard. You going to lose... badly! So better let the Wizard be the tank. Not that he tanks better but that you can not possible hold aggro. You have no taunts feeble DPS compared to the Wizard and the aggro from the heals are not enough to out weight that. So Spec the Wizzy for Tanking. Make use of your stuns And don't count so much on your reactives. They will not do more than take a small part of the healing. So load of communication between you so your root stuns etc works together. I would guess that wizzy templar success would be in Crowd control more than Healing tbh. /Hugs Tash __________________

09-11-2008, 06:13 AM	#23
SilkenKidden Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 2,039	Tashiana@Runnyeye wrote: I admit that the Templar Wizard combo for me seems like the worst possible combo lol But on the other hand it must be really fun to try on. My personal advice would be forget about holding aggro against a Wizard. You going to lose... badly! So better let the Wizard be the tank. Not that he tanks better but that you can not possible hold aggro. You have no taunts feeble DPS compared to the Wizard and the aggro from the heals are not enough to out weight that. So Spec the Wizzy for Tanking. Make use of your stuns And don't count so much on your reactives. They will not do more than take a small part of the healing. So load of communication between you so your root stuns etc works together. I would guess that wizzy templar success would be in Crowd control more than Healing tbh. /Hugs Tash LOL. That's the way the cookie crumbled. This team of templar and wizzie are alts. They do have a tough time of it. Our main duo is monk/warden, much better. My wizzie friend will not be happy to hear he will be slated for main tank, but that is the way it usually ends up - with him backing away and the MOB chasing him while I try to heal and get the agro back. I'll try working on the stuns and roots. That is my most neglected set of spells. Despite the problems, we do have fun - when we aren't at each other's throats because my friend thinks using evac is a sign of weakness. We are currently in Kylong Plains. The quest exp is great there. I'm at 66 now and some of the quests give 4%. I did try the smite/strike/smite routine tonight (from Kendricke and Estrella - see notes above) and it worked well until I lost the agro and had to start spamming heals on the wizzie. I did manage to keep it for a lot longer and had to heal myself a lot more often too. That made for a very hectic night. Thank you all for your advice.

11-24-2008, 02:23 PM	#24
Sadaro Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 70	A few points on Templar soloing: - As mentioned above, it's possible, but slower than other classes. - The hardest thing about soloing Templars is dealing with adds. Learning to pull and where to pull helps minimize adds. - From levels 10-60, you solo questing is your best bet for AA and experience. You should be able to find more quests than you can do. If you can find an instance group, go for it -- a dungeon will give you decent discovery and named AA, but it's hard to find a group. - From 60-70 the questing options thin out a little bit. You may need to grind or do instances to level. - Once you hit 68+, the RoK expansion has enough quests to get you to 80 (or close to). - http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Solo_Timelines has the best list of solo quests I've found. There are a few heroic quests you might want to consider: - http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Stiletto%...rs_Intercepted, which gives you the manastone. - http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Screaming_Mace, which gives you the screaming mace There are also 3 main Templar solo styles. You should play with them to see what works best: - Melee focused. Use Yaulp, get to 100% melee crit ASAP to maximize melee damage. Cast spells when you can, but the focus is on melee damage. - Divine damage focused. Spend initial AA's on the INT line and/or the nuke efficiency AA's. You'll still melee, but the focus is getting your nukes off quickly/regulary for the most damage. - Healing focused. Turn off Yaulp. Use your reactive heals to maintain your health. Melee only, or melee+your DoT. This method takes much longer, but minimizes your power costs (useful if you run low on power) In my limited experience, I prefer divine focused damage -- faster kills and faster soloing. I'll occasionally drop to healing focused if I'm running low on power.