The Harvester has made a triumphant return to Elder Scrolls Online update 6. My old Imperial Templar has seen some buffs making it a powerhouse with magicka or stamina. This build is all about in your faction action from the making the Blazing Harvester is one of my favorite builds ever. Here’s the Blazing Harvester – Templar PvP Build.
UPDATED BUILD
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Blazing Harvester Guide Video Here
Table of Content
Objective
This build is focused on either Player vs. Player (PvP) or soloing. You can make modification to do high end DPS, but truly it’s a front line fighter with a kick. Most of my PvP/solo builds have similar characteristics. They are tanky, have great resource management, heal when in a pinch and of course kill mobs. With a Dual Wielding axe machine, the Blazing Harvester can do exactly that.
For this build I’ll be using Big-Jake an Imperial Templar. If you can’t choose Imperial. Redguard would be ideal for stamina regeneration if you wanted to play more on medium armor side, or High Elf for magicka users. Additionally, I’m not using Werewolf or Vampire and chose a natural approach.
The upside to this build is you can use it throughout the entire game and make modification once you reach end-game. The downside is it’s not the “best” tank, DPS or healer. It’s the jack of all trades, damage, tanking and healing when needed.
+ Massive area damage (AoE)
+ Near endless resources
+ Extremely hard to kill
– Gear dependent
– The fewer the opponents the weaker you become
Skills
Unlike previous builds, this one has a lot of combinations of skills and abilities which gives you flexibility depending on your play style. I’ve found it most effective to wear 5 medium, 1 heavy and 1 light armor. Though you can play 5 light, 7 medium, whatever.
The premise of the build is doing damage over time (DoT) to proc the Valkyn Skoria set and the Dual Wielding passive Twin Blade and Blunt.
You use axes and combination of AoE damage to proc meteors, which can’t be dodge in PvP or solo play. After you kill enemies you’ll either get back resources with killing blows (due to Dominion‘s three piece) or from corpses. Either way, the more chaos, death and destruction, the better. The below setup is the idea behind this build, that way YOU can make it work for you.
Concept Bars
Bar One – Straight Area Damage
- Skill 1 – Gap Closer
- Skill 2 – Defensive
- Skill 3 – Flex
- Skill 4 – Main DPS skill
- Skill 5 – Heal
- Ultimate – Damage mitigation
Bar Two – Straight Single Target Damage
- Skill 1 – Ranged stun
- Skill 2 – Buff or debuff
- Skill 3 – Flex
- Skill 4 – Heal debuff
- Skill 5 – Heal
- Ultimate – Ranged
Best Results Bars
Bar One – Dual Wield for area damage and protection in a zerg.
- Toppling Charge (morph of Focused Charge | Aedric Spear skill line) – This is our magicka based gap closer which also works as a stun. The advantage of the Templar is it has class specific leap or gap closer. Making it an ideal pairing with the Dual Wield skill line that lacks one. I also try to use this when enemies peel back to constantly stun them every fives seconds. In this build, if you run out of magicka, you’re fine. If you run out of stamina, you’re dead so a magicka opener works great.
- Quick Cloak (morph of Blade Cloak | Dual Wield skill line) – After talking with the developers about 1.6 changes, I knew Quick Cloak was my dream PvP ability. It reduces AoE damage by a flat 20%, speed boost, and return physical damage, wow. Remember that there’s no AoE caps any longer so instead of getting hit by six players, you can get hit by 100. I envision this being a major part of PvP, however it has a draw back.
- Option B – Biting Jabs (morph of Puncturing Strikes) – The drawback is if you use Cloak, you lack single target pressure. A good option if you’re leveling is Biting Jabs. It scales off of stamina now and HITS LIKE A TRUCK. You can also use the other morph Puncturing Sweeps if you prefer to use light armor. Either way, flex these in and out depending on your content.
- Radiant Shield (morph of Sun Shield | Aedric Spear skill line) – I maybe the only Templar using this morph outside of dedicated tanks, but I think it’s great for this build. This morph now reduces spell cost which fits perfect in a stamina based build. Additionally, the shield will strengthen as enemies hit you. This is a defensive ability for the build, not an offensive one. Keep the shield up when you’re being targeted but don’t spam cast. Damage comes from damage over time (DoTs).
- Spiked Bone Shield (morph of Bone Shield | Undaunted skill line) – A great choice for group play and/or if you lack magicka to constantly recast Radiant Shield. I like this morph for the duration increase and returning physical damage back upon attackers.
- Steel Tornado (morph of Whirlwind | Dual Wield skill line) – Holy AoE Batman. Steel Tornado is still beast mode in 1.6, combine with some axes for a bleed chance proc. Spam this in a group of 20 people and you’ll produce a meteor shower. Did I mention it does more damage to low health targets? Every finishing kill you get resources back making it the zerg buster. The low cost of this ability with the stamina return on corpses and kills is astounding. However, this isn’t your single target focus but it can destroy a zerg.
- Repentance (morph of Restoring Aura | Restoring Light skill line) – My favorite Templar skill comes back since Radiant Aura was nerfed into the ground. Every corpse now gives use stamina and health. Oh yeah, this ability doesn’t have a AoE cap either, so you can hypothetically heal 100 nearby players. Even better, it now gives us 10% magicka regeneration on top of 10/10% health and stamina. The only time I’d take this off my bar is if another Templar was constantly zapping bodies.
- [Ultimate] Empowering Sweep (morph of Radial Sweep | Aedric Spear skill line) – This might seem like an odd ultimate to use, but remember the no AoE caps thing? Imagine hitting a group of 20 people each reducing your damage by 4%. I’m not good at math, but that’s a lot. Another overlooked factor of this ability is in patch 1.6 it has an additional DoT effect. Keeping this on targets every 10 seconds isn’t hard while light attack weaving.
- Remembrance (morph of Rite of Passage | Restoring Light skill line) – If you want some more utility and even more tanky, try Remembrance. Nothing like ramboing in with a group of three buddies, pop this ultimate and watch as no ones health bar drops. You can also use Vampire Bats though I removed this after update 1.5.
General Rotation
- Buff with Quick Cloak into a “rambo leap” with Toppling Charge.
- Now you’re in the enemies face, one more buff with Radiant Shield. Now hit one light attack and about two Steel Tornados.
- Most likely your opponents will be beating on you and pop the Radiant Shield before they stun you. Break CC, pop a potion, Radiant Ward and spam some more Steel Tornados.
- A few seconds later, you’ll have an ultimate up and use Empowering Sweep as it comes up.
- As enemies die, hit Repentance to continue fighting. This is truly amazing AoE DPS to witness.
Priorities
- Keep up Quick Cloak AoE damage reduction
- Keep your Radiant Shield while getting pressured. Don’t repeat casting it, it’s not your main source of damage.
- Repentance dead bodies as they fall.
- Pop Weapon Power potions on cool down (every 45 seconds).
- Ultimate every time it’s up.
- Spam Steel Tornado as stamina dictates. Save around 1000 for CC break.
- Laugh as you kill everything. Though it has to be a creepy sinister laugh.
Bar Two – Bow for single target damage and utility.
- Blazing Spear (morph of Spear Shard | Aedric Spear skill line) – Ranged stun, AoE damage and a big DoT. Don’t spam cast this ability as now it generates CC immunity, but it’s still a great magicka dump and the group synergy is amazing for teammate support. You also want to keep the spear in place to continue the magicka damage procing more meteors.
- Power of the Light (PoL) (morph of Backlash| Dawn’s Wrath skill line) – Now an instant cast that scales off of stamina, PoL is an absolute powerhouse range DPS ability. Use this in combination with Lethal Arrow to store up damage and BOOM, watch a target explode. It also reduces armor so you have reason to continue to keep this up on targets.
- Bombard (morph of Arrow Spray | Bow skill line) – A great root locking targets into place. A decent AoE damage tool for solo or group play.
- Purifying Ritual (morph of Cleansing Ritual | Restoring Light skill line) – This is our flex spot and I consider a cleanse or purge of some sort almost mandatory in PvP. With the reduction of healing debuff (down to 45% from 100%) you still need to cleanse yourself and your group. I only swap this out when I have a primary dedicated healer in the group. It’s even great for solo play as a small heal but it adds up over time.
- Razor Caltrops (morph of Caltrops | Alliance War Assault skill line) – Hopefully you can punt off the cleanse duty and slot Razor Caltrops. Put this down on a keep breach, an open field, or behind you. Not only does it slow down enemies, but procs meteors like nothing else. It does require a high amount of stamina so only cast when an opportune time exist.
- Lethal Arrow (morph of Snipe | Bow skill line) – Our high burst damage dealer with a Major Defile healing debuff. You can also use Dark Flare instead for magicka user though I prefer this with stamina. If you really wanted to burst down an enemy, you could slot Poison Injection in slot three stun them with a Lethal Arrow, PoL, Injection, Lethal, dead.
- Breath of life (morph of Rushed Ceremony | Restoring Light skill line) – I go through fits where I love this ability than I think it’s a waste of a slot. Even playing stamina I love it for the oh crap moments.
- Resolving Vigor (morph of Vigor | Alliance War Support skill line) – I’m not Alliance Rank 10 though Vigor is an insanely powerful heal for group play.
- [Ultimate] Solar Prison (morph of Nova | Dawn’s Wrath skill line) – Massive buff for Nova making it the new “banner” on the PvP battlefield. Reduced cost, more damage, and a mega synergy. I love this ability on my back bar when the group needs a big wipe, try combine this with a Sorcerer’s negate and watch bodies drop.
General Rotation
- Get in stealth, Lethal Arrow, PoL, Blazing Spear, Lethal than recast PoL when it pops.
- Make sure to always light attack at least once every 8 seconds to generate ultimate.
- Get a cleanse down in your fighting area if you plan on staying there over 10 seconds or lay down Caltrops.
- Breath of Life as needed when allies just need a small heal.
- Drop Solar Prison AFTER the opposing Sorcs have done their Negates.
- Laugh hysterically kind of like Mr. Evil from Austin Powers (no really try it).
Priorities
- Keep down a Purify or Caltrops in areas your group will be standing in.
- Breath of Life or Vigor for healing.
- Stun enemies from stealth with Lethal Arrow or Blazing Spear every 5 seconds.
- Keep up PoL debuff for reduced armor and Lethal Arrow reduced healing.
- Drop down the mother nuke (Solar Prison) when you reach an ultimate.
Gear
Set Bonuses
  | Vicious Serpent – You can only obtain this through Serpent Trial which I know not everyone has access to. Two alternatives, Way of the Arena for PvP or Hundings Rage or solo/more damage.
- Â (2 items) Adds weapon critical
-  (3 items) Reduces the stamina costs of feats by 8%. When you kill an enemy, gain 75% increased movement speed for 3 seconds and adds weapon critical
- Â (5 items) When you kill an enemy you restore stamina and adds weapon damage
  | Valkyn Skoria’s Set – You can obtain the head from City of Ash and the shoulders through Undaunted Pledges only. Unfortunately, there is no substitute for this. The entire build centers around doing DoT Damage and proccing major meteors. The good news is you won’t lose tankiness without it and you can start trying for the shoulders around Veteran Rank 1.
- Â (1 item) Adds maximum health
- Â (2 items) 4% chance when damaging an enemy with a damage over time effect to call a meteor dealing 7200 flame damage to target and 2700 flame damage
  | Vengeance Leech Set – This is obtained through PvP rewards or bought at vendors. This isn’t a hard set to get and doesn’t make or break the build. Though the amount of resource return in 1.6 is astounding.
- Â Â Â (2 items) Adds 990 maximum health
- Â Â Â (3 items) When killing an enemy, restore 1400 health, 1400 magicka and 1400 stamina
   | Eagle Eye Set – A decent set for bow users found through PvP only. Some alternatives are Hawk Eye or Shadow Walkers.
- Â Â Â (2 items) Adds weapon critical
- Â Â Â (3 items) Increases range of bow attacks by 3 meters
Priorities Numbers
- 25,000 health in Cyrodiil
- 20,000 stamina in Cyrodiil
- 50% weapon critical
- 1500 weapon damage
Armor Weight – Ideally you can run five medium one heavy one light for the Undaunted Mettle passive boosting your overall numbers. Though five light and swapping out some magicka abilities works great as well.
Traits – It seems now Impenetrable trait has limited usefulness in PvP so I recommend using something different. If you want to be really tanky, go Reinforced or Nirnhoned. If you want more damage, try Divines and Infused. I plan on using a mix of Reinforce, Nirn and Impenetrable for a tankier setup.
Mundus – For stamina users, I like the Warrior. If you go with a more magicka based build and want sustained, Atronatch isn’t bad either.
Attributes – I know I’ll get 3000 questions on attributes, but I went 20 health 42 stamina. Granted I’m an Imperial with 6% bonus via Undaunted so these numbers may change for your racial choice.
Racial – Imperial all the way. Redguard, High Elf, anything with some type of resource regeneration works great. Heck, even an Argonian makes a great choice (just not a Nord).
Food – Tri stat food all the way for this one.
Champion Points
Look what I’ve added! Yep, wanted to help you get a good setup of champ points. I’m going to go with a 360 build. Yes we start with 70 next week, but I plan on this build lasting for awhile so 360 should keep us busy this year.
 Where to spend (The Mage – The Ritual)
Mighty (spent 100 max) – With the amount of testing I did, nothing came close to matching the damage from Mighty. Yes diminishing returns and all that, but flat damage you can’t beat in my opinion. I’m sure there’s 100 people that can prove me wrong, but for a straight forward approach to doing damage, this makes sense.
Piercing (spent 20 points) – Armor reduction goes well with PoL and some of our other gear so why not invest in that? Mainly our damage is coming from meteor procs, but less armor means bigger Steel Tornados.
Passives with 120 points spent
Opportunist (10 points) – This passives gives a damage boost afters interrupting an enemies. Since we are up front fighting, a bash here and there now generates a damage boost, great!
Perfect Strike (30 points) – Getting 12% weapon critical with only a 30 point investment is key for high damage. A must have damage passive.
Exploiter (75 points) – Getting another damage bonus for off balanced enemies doesn’t seem that effective. But pair that with the Dual Wield Ruffian passive, anything that is effected by stuns will get hit much harder. off balance damage
Last Stand (120 points) – Ultimate generation is key, and getting an extra boost is perfect for our build. Now when in a pinch, you can rapidly deploy Empowering Sweep to reduce damage around you. Highly valued 120 point passive.
 Where to spend (The Warrior – The Lady)
Hardy (60 points spent) – Elemental damage and magic is a common theme in Cyrodiil. Mitigating a high amount of poison in particular will be key to stopping the endless snipers. I good place to dump half of my points into.
Elemental Defender (60 points spent) – The most common type of damage is fire. Now mitigating a ton of it with the Champion System will be key for defensive minded players. This also my persuade me to go Vampire once I get enough Champion Points.
Passives with 120 points spent
Spell Absorption (10 points) – If we do get hit by a massive elemental damage (including Fighters Guild) it will proc a magicka boost. Even though we don’t use magicka for primary damage, defense we do. This is essentially a free Radiant Ward keeping us fighting even longer. A awesome 10 point passive.
Resilient (30 points) – You’ll see a lot more critical hits going on in PvP. This 30 pointer is a must for returning a small amount of health every time you get dealt a critical.
Critical Leech (75 points) Now throw on top of that getting healed when you critical hit and you have some serious defense.
Unchained (120 points) Being stunned in Cyrodiil is the number one source of my stamina, and Unchained keeps me fighting. Combine this with Way of Arena to make a super powerful combination (reduced CC and next ability cost less).
 Where to spend (The Thief -The Lover) 
Mooncalf – People often argue with me in the battle between regeneration and reduce cost. I personally like regeneration because it’s “always on,” not just when I use an ability. Add that to jewelry enchants for insane stamina regeneration every two seconds.
Tenacity – I do a lot of heavy attacks in between Steel Tornados to proc my bleed from Axes and this passive gives me a boost to stamina regeneration. An undervalued passive but useful for my build.
Passives with 120 points spent
Plentiful Harvest (10 points) – A utility passive, nothing useful on the battlefield.
Synergizer (30 points) – What I think will be highly sought after for the ultimate generation. Good team oriented teams will want people with this passive because hypothetically you could build ultimate out of combat with this (sorry ZOS if you’re reading).
Master Gatherer (75 points) A utility passive, nothing useful on the battlefield.
Windrunning (120 points) – If you stay still, you’re dead. It’s what I live by (trust me watch my stream). Adding even a small boost to movement speed can give you dramatic results. Now add that to reduced sprinting cost via medium armor passive, you can literally sprint to heal.
Leveling
I’m leveling WTF DO I DO?
As a Templar, nothing is more strong than Puncturing Sweeps starting out. You can literally level 1-50 with all light armor and pressing one button. Don’t believe me? Look around in your zone and you’ll see multiple spammers. You can access that ability right out of the gate so start using it. Make sure to level all of your skill lines in your class and Dual Wield primary.
Once you hit level 15 and get your second bar, equip a Bow and start leveling it up. By then, you should unlock Piercing Javelin. I like this ability as a knockback stun leveling. Keep enemies away from you for another 15 levels or so. Now you’ll start to get some better abilities, medium armor passives and the build will come together.
What should I do about gear?
Don’t worry about it honestly. Try a combination until you feel comfortable with your resources and stats. Light armor is powerful starting out though medium will round out your build around 45. just MAKE SURE you have at least one of each armor type equipped. I’d do 4 medium, 2 light, 1 heavy until I reached 50 on a specific line. It doesn’t need to be top notch set to work, just repair and go.
What should I do about attributes?
Don’t worry about it honestly. I generally dump all my stats into health until I reach around VR 1 then respec. People get way to concerned with attributes while leveling. You should be worried about obtaining skill points and passives as this will give you dramatic improvements in your build over 100 health. Trust me, I’ve leveled a lot.
When should I PvP?
Don’t worry about it honestly. Try it out. If you’re not VR 14 with full legendary gear, that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and learn. You will however be at a major disadvantage until you reach that threshold. Starting out, go to the non-veteran campaign and experiment. After you get comfortable, step up to a low population server and progress further. When you think you’re ready join the big league pop lock server and get ready for some fun.
Remember this is a game, it’s suppose to be fun. If this build isn’t fun for you, make it your own. My guides are for you use as you see fit. I want to spend the time in game, PTS, getting my teeth kicked in over and over so you don’t have to. With that being said, enjoy the Blazing Harvester. It’s an absolute blast!