Embarking on a journey through the sprawling domain of Tamriel in “The Elder Scrolls Online” (ESO) immerses players in a fantasy realm teeming with adventurous exploits, enigmatic lore, and a multitude of classes to master. Among these, the Templar class shines brightly, a beacon of divine power and versatile abilities. This guide will illuminate the path for players seeking to harness the light, focusing on the key aspects that make the Templar a formidable ally in battle and a cherished companion in dungeons. Whether you’re healing allies with celestial energy, smiting foes with radiant light, or shielding comrades with protective auras, the Templar is a class that commands respect on any battlefield.

Templar Healing Abilities#

The Templar class is renowned in ESO for its unparalleled healing capabilities, thanks to its Restoring Light skill line. This skill line is a cornucopia of life-sustaining spells that make the Templar the linchpin of any group’s survival.

• Rushed Ceremony: This ability is your bread and butter, a rapid heal that can snatch allies from the jaws of death. Morph it into ‘Breath of Life’ for an increased radius, ensuring no ally is left untouched by your healing light.
• Healing Ritual: A more meditative spell, this allows you to emanate healing energies in a wide area around you, perfect for moments when your group clusters for sanctuary.
• Restoring Aura: Providing passive bonuses to health and stamina recovery merely by being slotted, this skill’s active form is a boon to any party, enhancing healing received and resource regeneration.
• Repentance: The battlefield can be grim, but for a Templar, fallen enemies are a source of strength. This skill allows you to consume the corpses of your foes to restore health and stamina to you and your allies, a grim yet invaluable resource in prolonged fights.
• Rite of Passage: Your ultimatum in healing, this powerful channeled ability renders you immobile but showers your allies in a deluge of HP, often making the difference between victory and defeat.

Smite Foes with Radiant Energy#

While healing is a Templar’s calling card, they are no slouches in the damage department either. The Aedric Spear skill line offers a litany of offensive capabilities that not only decimate foes but often provide defensive perks, embodying the Templar’s role as a protector.

• Puncturing Strikes: A flurry of holy spears that damage and knock back enemies, perfect for creating breathing room. Its morph, ‘Puncturing Sweep,’ adds a self-healing component, showcasing the Templar’s balanced approach to offense and defense.
• Spear Shards: A versatile skill that not only damages and disorients foes but provides a synergy for your allies to exploit, restoring their resources.
• Sun Shield: A shield made from the very essence of sunlight, this ability absorbs incoming damage and explodes outward, dealing damage based on the absorbed amount. It’s a testament to the Templar’s doctrine: the best defense is a good offense.
• Radiant Destruction: Aptly named, this channeled beam of light incinerates enemies, dealing increased damage to those at low health. It’s your executive tool for dispatching foes teetering on the brink.

Protective Skills of the Templar#

In the thick of battle, a Templar’s resolve shines brightest. The Restoring Light and Aedric Spear skill lines both offer abilities that fortify your allies against the onslaught of enemies.

• Rune Focus: Create a sanctuary on the battlefield, enhancing your resistance and granting immunity to knockback and disabling effects within its sacred boundary.
• Channeled Focus: A morph of Rune Focus, this skill not only increases your defenses but also passively restores Magicka, allowing you to sustain your healing and attacking capabilities longer.
• Cleansing Ritual: Purify the battlefield, removing negative effects from you and your allies while healing over time. Its morph, ‘Extended Ritual,’ widens the area of effect, making it a staple in any group encounter.

Weapon Choices for Templars#

The Templar’s adaptability extends to their choice of armaments. While their class abilities are formidable, selecting the right tools of war can augment their divine prowess.

• Restoration Staff: The quintessential choice for Templars focusing on healing. Light and heavy attacks restore Magicka, and the staff’s skill line offers additional healing spells and buffs.
• Destruction Staff: For Templars who walk the path of righteousness through eradication, the destruction staff deals elemental damage, suited for both single targets and groups.
• One-Hand and Shield: Templars aiming to stand at the vanguard will find solace in the defense and crowd control offered by this combination, enhancing their durability in close-quarters confrontation.

Best Races for Templars#

Choosing a race for your Templar can significantly impact your effectiveness in your chosen role. While personal preference should never be discounted, some races synergize remarkably well with the Templar’s skill set.

• Breton: With innate bonuses to Magicka, spell resistance, and Magicka cost reduction, Bretons are ideal for Templars who wish to weave spells without cease, be it for healing or smiting.
• High Elf (Altmer): The Altmer’s bonuses to maximum Magicka and Magicka recovery make them exceptional for a damage-dealing Templar, where sustaining a barrage of radiant assaults is key.
• Argonian: Resilient and adaptive, Argonians excel as healing Templars due to bonuses to healing done and received, as well as significant boosts to resource management.
• Nord: For those who envision their Templar as a bastion against the darkness, Nords, with their increased health, stamina, and damage reduction, can wade through conflicts that would fell lesser mortals.

Embarking on the pilgrimage of a Templar in ESO means embracing the duality of destruction and preservation, embodying the very essence of light. With this compendium, neophytes and seasoned Templars alike can helm the path ahead, harnessing their celestial powers to restore peace and justice to Tamriel. Whether your journey leads you to the frontlines, shielding your allies from harm, or to the rear guard, mending wounds and bolstering spirits, remember—the light of the Templar is an enduring guide, a beacon against the encroaching shadows.

Dive deeper into the heart of battle, brandish your divine might, and let the light of the Templars shine undimmed. With each enemy vanquished, each ally restored, your legacy in Tamriel’s annals of heroism grows ever brighter. The path of the Templar is arduous, fraught with peril and demands sacrifice, but for those who wield the light unwaveringly, it is a journey of infinite reward.