ESO Magicka Templar PvE Build

This guide explains how to use the best Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) Magicka Templar PvE build, skills, gear, champion points, and more!

This build has been updated for the Updated 42, the Gold Road Chapter of the Elder Scrolls Online

Why Should You Play the ESO Magicka Templar PvE Build?

Welcome to the ESO Magicka Templar Build for PvE in The Elder Scrolls Online. This build is intended for players looking to complete group trial content, but you can make a few adjustments to bring it into dungeons without any issues. With practice, you can hit some of the highest numbers possible, but it requires good buff uptimes and a lot of skill to play the magplar to its potential. If you’re looking for a build you can play without a group, make sure to check out our solo build here.

In ESO, the Magicka Templar is a simple upfront melee magicka-based damage dealer. While the magplar is very useful in endgame trials, the fact that your spammable heals a ton makes the magplar a little less punishing for newer players. Moreover, the Magplar has great damage over time, built-in area damage, and the strongest execute in The Elder Scrolls Online. This is one of the highest damage-producing builds in the game, and we will walk you through how to create it.

ESO Magicka Templar PvE Build Features and Mechanics

Below are some of the features found using the Magicka Templar PvE Build in the Elder Scrolls Online:

• Class – Templar
• Attribute: Magicka
• Weapon One – Dual Wield
• Weapon Two – Destruction Staff
• Armor Types: 6 Medium, 1 Light
• Mythic: Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet
• Race: Dark Elf
• Attributes: 64 Magicka
• Mundus Stone: Thief
• Best Grimoires: Ulfsild’s Contingency, Traveling Knife, Torchbearer

Use the following rotation as the starter point. After, apply your buffs and cast the DoT skills on cooldown for the best, highest DPS. The Damage over Time skills (DoTs) do more damage than your main spammable. Thus, they need to be cast less often and are easier to maintain, for example, The Degeneration from Mages Guild or the Barb Trap from Fighters Guild. Maintain DoTs and use your spammable skill as filler until you reapply the DoTS.

Replace your spammable with your in-class or weapon, and execute at certain percentages if you have one in this build. Executes are the skills that deal more damage and lower the opponent’s health. Ideally, these will replace your main spammable skill at anywhere between 40% (Radiant Oppression) to 20% (Mages’ Fury). At a high level, execute skills become so strong that the lower the enemy’s health, the fewer DoTs you maintain because it does so much damage.

Survival:

Use the healing skill when your health drops below 50% or the shield skill when you anticipate damage. Also, always use the suggested food and potions as they significantly increase your damage, survivability, and resource sustain.

If you run out of resources, do a heavy attack and return to your rotation. Remember that a heavy attack on off-balance enemies will return double the resources.

Skills

Front Bar – Dual Wield

Front Bar Weapon Style Choices:

1. Dual Wield
2. Flame Staff
3. Lighting Staff

Deadly Cloak (Morph of Blade Cloak | Skill Line : Dual Wield) – This skill reduces area damage, and tirggers area damage at the expense of stamina.

Power of the Light (Morph of Backlash | Skill Line : Dawn’s Wrath) – A powerful single target burst skill that should be reapplied after explosion. It works like a balloon soaking up damage (to a certain point) and exploding for that amount. This skill also activates a key passive, Illuminate which grants minor sorcerery (10% more spell damage) and Prism, more ultimate.

Barbed Trap (Morph of Trap Beast | Skill Line : Fighters Guild) – You can get minor force buff one of many ways, gear, or two commonly used abilities Barb Trap and Channeled Acceleration. Since we play in melee range, using barb trap makes the most since. Moreover slotting on our front bar increase of spell damage by 3% via slayer fighters guild passive. Another advantage is banished the wicked passive gives us ultimate when killing enemies too.

Puncturing Sweep (Morph of Puncturing Strikes | Skill Line : Aedric Spear) – Sweeps still remains a decent main spammable in PvE content. While it’s single target is a bit weaker, it does AoE damage as well and it’s still work using.

Radiant Oppression (Morph of Radiant Destruction | Skill Line : Dawn’s Wrath) – An executable ability you want to use when the enemy is in execute range roughly 35% health replaces Sweeps as main spammable. The strength of this ability is how hard it hits single target. You still need to light attack weave in between applying it. Also be careful to avoid damage as you’ll be vulnerable. In fact, the other morph, Radiant Glory is what I use solo or on the beginner friendly build.

Flawless Dawnbreaker (Morph of Dawnbreaker | Skill Line : Fighters Guild) – Great damage buff just for slotting on your front bar or activate when you won’t be able to recast meteor.

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Back Bar – Fire Staff

Back bar options:

1. Inferno Staff
2. Lighting Staff
3. Two Handed

Blazing Spear (Morph of Spear Shards | Skill Line : Aedric Spear) – Spear remains one of the strongest damage over time ability the Templar possess. It does damage up front, damage over time and can proc the Burning Light passive. Moreover, slotting this skill on our front bar will increase overall critical damage by 10%, making it a very strong choice and a damage over time effect you want to maintain throughout the fights.

Ritual of Retribution (Morph of Cleansing Ritual | Skill Line : Restoring Light) – Imagine having a skill that does crazy high AoE damage and provides a powerful group synergy? That’s what you get with Ritual of Retribution and you should maintain this skill alongside of Blazing Spear for huge AoE damage. Keep in mind you’ll need to come in close range and place down so you hit the maximum amount of targets.

Solar Barrage (Morph of Solar Flare | Skill Line : Dawn’s Wrath) – Powerful area based damage and buff. Consider this your flex spot if you need a heal or a shield.

Vampire’s Bane (Morph of Sun Fire | Skill Line : Dawn’s Wrath) – Vampire’s Bane is a very strong single target DoT. Consider this your flex spot on your front bar and swap to Inner Light if you want simpler gameplay.

Blockade of Fire (Morph of Wall of Elements | Skill Line : Destruction Staff) – Great damage over time still and high powered DoT.

Shooting Star (Morph of Meteor | Skill Line : Mages Guild) – Great burst ultimate in stationary fights.

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Scribing Skills & Grimoires – ESO PvE Magicka Templar Build

Ulfsild’s Contingency, Traveling Knife, and Torchbearer are the best Grimoires (skills) for the ESO PvE Magicka Templar Build  Contingency grants powerful area-based damage and buffs. Traveling Knife gives you a ranged bleed attack that does damage on the return. Torchbearer also gives you a good spammable when in melee range or if your class is single-target heavy. You can also use the Bow Vault skill as an immobilization or mobility tool. Below are the suggested combination of Grimoires, focus, signature, and affix scripts:

• Ulfsild’s Contingency (Mage Guild) – Flame Damage (focus script), Class Mastery (signature script), Vulnerability (Affix Script)
• Traveling Knife – Bleed (focus script), Lingering Torment (signature script), Berserk (Affix Script)
• Torchbearer (Fighters Guild) – Flame Damage (focus script), Class Mastery (signature script), Breach (Affix Script)

The Scribing System utilizes one of 11 new skills from the Gold Road Chapter called Grimoires.  With Grimoires, you can customize spells via Scripts.  The scribing feature requires the purchase of the Gold Road Chapter (sponsored link).  To learn more about scribing, check out our full guide here.

Passives Skills

Consider taking all of the passives in the below skill trees to increase your ESO Magicka Templar builds performance without slotting any skills:

• Aedric Spear (class skill line)
• Dawn’s Wrath (class skill line)
• Restoring Light (class skill line)
• Light Armor
• Medium Armor
• Undaunted
• Fighters Guild
• Mages Guild
• Destructive Staff
• Dual Wield
• Psijic Order
• Racial
• Alliance War Support
• Alliance War Assault
• Crafting, Alchemy Medicinal Use

Rotation and Parse

The Magicka Templar is in a great spot in this patch. Templar still excels at execute damage, with the best execute ability in the game, Radiant Destruction. Templar is exceptionally useful in many groups trying to speed up the execution of a fight. Still, the air damage on the plane is not as serious as other options. While we went with the Charged Trait on both daggers, you could just as easily run Nirnhoned/Charged or Nirnhoned/Precise on your daggers. This will increase your beam damage but decrease your damage before execute. Either are still viable.

This build utilizes Whorl of the Depths and Deadly. Deadly increases the damage of your channeled abilities and DoTs, pushing the damage of your Radiant Destruction execute ability. Whorl of the Depths is a very strong AOE proc set that offers a ton of extra critical chance. If you have the perfected version, that extra line of crit will push your beam damage up even further.

Skill Rotation

To start your parse, pre-buff with Solar Barrage>Deadly Cloak, then engage with Shooting Star>Bar Swap>Barbed Trap>Power of the Light>Bar Swap>Vampire’s Bane>Blockade>Degeneration>Ritual of Retribution>Bar Swap>Puncturing Sweeps>Power of the Light and continue using Sweeps as your spammable while applying Power of the Light every sixth skill cast. Like Daedric Prey on the Sorcerer, you get an explosion from Power of the Light as the ability expires, so you’ll want to ensure that skill fully expires before reapplying it, or you’ll lose half of the skill’s damage. You’ll then start to execute the fight by swapping Radiant Glory into your rotation instead of Puncturing Sweeps.

The key to a solid Templar parse is to time your execute correctly. The percentage on a boss where Radiant Destruction begins to overtake Puncturing Sweeps in damage is 40%-43%. You can turn on health percentages in the settings to see the boss’s health percentage, and you’ll change your skill priority once you reach that point. From there, you apply every DoT as it falls off while substituting beam instead of Sweeps.

At around 20%, you’ll reapply your DoTs again, ending with Blockade, then keep beaming, only applying Power of the Light. If you have the ultimate for a Flawless Dawnbreaker, that will give you some weapon and spell damage to further push your beam damage, and you’ll stop applying Power of the light at 10%, beaming until the boss dies. If you can learn to time your abilities to where they are falling off as the boss dies, you’ll hit some crazy numbers in execute.

Gear – Best in Slot

Use this for the best slot Damage for group Magicka Templar PvE gear:

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	medium	Slimecraw	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	light	Perfect Whorl of the Depths	Divines	Magicka
Chest	medium	Deadly Strikes	Divines	Magicka
Legs	medium	Deadly Strikes	Divines	Magicka
Gloves	medium	Deadly Strikes	Divines	Magicka
Boots	medium	Deadly Strikes	Divines	Magicka
Belt	medium	Deadly Strikes	Divines	Magicka
Weapon One	Dagger	Perfect Whorl of the Depths	Charged	Flame
Secondary	Dagger	Perfect Whorl of the Depths	Charged	Poison
Weapon Two	Fire Staff	Perfected Crushing Wall	Infused	Spell Damage
Necklace		Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet	Bloodthirsty	Spell Damage
Ring 1		Perfect Whorl of the Depths	Bloodthirsty	Spell Damage
Ring 2		Perfect Whorl of the Depths	Bloodthirsty	Spell Damage

In PvE, high-end DPS builds, magicka, and stamina builds run similar gear setups, including medium armor. Medium is stronger in trials due to the passive bonuses. If you don’t play with the coordinate trials team, you can swap to Light, though it will suffer overall damage loss.

Monster Helms and Mythic

Velothi Ur-Mages Amulet: mythic item requiring the Antiquies system and Necrom Chapter.  Requires five leads; find them here. Incredibly strong passive damage in the current meta.

Slimecraw: obtained in Wayrest Sewers I Veteran dungeon and Maj Undaunted Vendor. Gives us the highest critical chance for a one-piece item.

FLEX OPTIONS

1. Harpooner’s Wading Kilt Set = great mythic if avoiding damage and can keep the stacks up.
2. Mora’s Whisper = This provides up to 10% critical chance but requires collections of Mages Guild Books on your specific character.
3. Death Dealer’s Fete = is a great option because it boosts max stats with zero downsides.

Gear Sets

Deadly Strikes: These were obtained in Cyrodiil, Bruma Elite Gear Vendor. Incredible damage with damage over time and spammable execute skills.

Perfect Whorl of the Depths: obtained in Veteran Dreadsail Reef trial DLC High Isle. It’s one of the hardest-hitting proc sets in the game.

Perfected Crushing Wall: from Veteran Maelstrom Arena in Orsinium. Increase your overall DPS due to the ability of the wall of elements and more damage.

FLEX OPTIONS

1. Pillar of Nirn: Obtained in Falkreath Hold dungeon, Horns of the Reach DLC.
2. Perfected Bahsei’s Mania = You’ll get a flat damage increase if you can manage around 20-50% magicka.
3. Perfected Mantle of Siroria = Update, 35 made this popular again, so consider using it in parse/stationary trials.
4. Perfected False Gods = great resource sustain set.
5. Order’s Wrath = Crafted and best overall option for great damage.
6. Mother’s Sorrow = a decent overland set, for starters.

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Gear – Beginner

This setup is great for beginners who do not have access to trial gear:

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	light	Iceheart	Divines > Any	Magicka
Shoulders	light	Iceheart	Divines > Any	Magicka
Chest	light	Withered Hand	Divines > Any	Magicka
Legs	light	Withered Hand	Divines > Any	Magicka
Gloves	light	Withered Hand	Divines > Any	Magicka
Boots	light	Withered Hand	Divines > Any	Magicka
Belt	light	Withered Hand	Divines > Any	Magicka
Weapon One	Inferno Staff	War Maiden	Precise > Sharpened	Flame
Weapon Two	Lighting Staff	Willpower	Infused > Any	Weapon Damage
Necklace		War Maiden	Arcane	Spell Power
Ring 1		War Maiden	Arcane	Spell Power
Ring 2		War Maiden	Arcane	Spell Power

• Iceheart: obtained in Direfrost keep and Glirion undaunted vendor. Great defensive set.
• Withered Hand: obtained in Alik’r Desert overland or from guild traders (delves, dolmans, world bosses, chest). WHY? If you’re a new player, have low champion points, and lack trial gear, this gives great sustain and healing when killing mobs and is ideal for a newer player.
• War Maiden: obtained in Vvardenfell or on Guild Traders. WHY? Incredible value for a front set without managing a complex rotation or uptime like Kinra’s.
• Willpower: obtained in Imperial City, dungeon finder, or guild traders. WHY? Bigger magicka pool = bigger shields and useful on the back bar.

Race

The best racial choice for the Magicka PvE Templar build is below:

1. High Elf: Gain resource sustain passive, max magicka, and weapon and spell damage. The downside of High Elf is a lack of stamina or flame resistance.
2. Dark Elf: Gain max magicka, stamina, and weapon and spell damage. The flame resistance is also helpful and considered the strongest overall PVE DPS race.
3. Khajiit: This race gets recovery, max stats, and critical damage and healing. Consider the Khajiit a great option if you aren’t over the critical cap of 125%.

Attributes

The best choice is 64 magicka, which increases damage, healing, and shields.

Mundus Stone

The Thief is the best Mundus Stone for PvE Builds because it gives Increases Weapon and Spell Critical Strike a chance.

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Champion Points

Craft	Warfare	Fitness
Treasure Hunter	Fighting Finesse	Siphoning Spells
Gifted Rider	Thaumaturge	Boundless Vitality
War Mount	Master-at-Arms	Rejuvenation
Steed’s Blessing	Wrathful Strikes	Fortified

Warfare Constellation Champion Points

Below is a step-by-step method for slotting your champion points in the Warfare tree (blue).  We have used the minimum possible to reach four slottable selections; all maxed out.  If you have more CP, consider taking more in the passives for optimal performance.

Below are recommended Warfare Champion Point selections for the Magicka Templar PvE Build:

1. Precision 10
2. Wrathful strikes (slottable) 50
3. Fighting finesse(slottable) 50
4. Extended might – sub con – piercing 10
5. Masters at arms (slottable) 50
6. thaumaturge (slottable) 50

This would be the minimum setup, spending 220 CP (660 total required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Precision 10
2. Piercing 10
3. Tireless discipline 20
4. Eldritch insight 20
5. Blessed 20
6. Quick recovery 20
7. Flawless ritual 40
8. War mage 30
9. Battle mastery 40
10. Mighty 30
11. Elemental aegis 20
12. Hardy 20
13. Preparation 20

This would max out the Warfare tree with all active and passive champion points at 520 spent 1,560 total spent.

Fitness Constellation Champion Points

Below are recommended Fitness Champion Point selections for the Magicka Templar PvE Build:

1. Fortified (slottable) 50
2. Boundless vitality (slottable) 50
3. Rejuvenation (slottable) 50
4. Sprinter 10
5. Winder chaser – sub constellation – hasty 8
6. Hero’s Vigor 10
7. Siphoning spells (slottable) 50

This would be the minimum setup, spending 228 CP  (684 total required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance. 

1. Hero’s Vigor 10
2. Tumbling 30
3. Sprinter 10
4. Defiance 20
5. Hasty 8
6. Tireless guardian 20
7. Fortification 30
8. Nimble 6
9. Mystic tenacity 50
10. Tempered soul 50
11. Piercing gaze 30
12. Savage defense  30
13. Bashing brutality 20

This would max out the fitness tree with all active, passive champion points at 542 cp spent and 1,626 total spent.

Craft Constellation Champion Points

Below are recommended Craft Champion Point selections for the Magicka Templar PvE Build:

1. Steed’s blessing (slottable) – 50
2. Breakfall 10
3. Wanderer 15
4. Steadfast 10
5. Treasure hunter (slottable) 50
6. Rationer 10
7. Liquid efficiency (slottable) 75
8. Angler’s Instincts 25
9. Reel technique (slottable) 25

This would be the minimum setup, spending 370CP (1110 total required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Steadfast enchantment 40 cp
2. Breakfall 40 cp
3. Wanderer 60
4. Fortunes favor 10
5. Rationer 10
6. Friends in low places 25
7. Out of sight 30
8. Fleet of Phantom 40
9. Soul’s Reservoir 33
10. Gilded fingers 50
11. Fortunes favor 40
12. Inspiration boost 45
13. Infamous 30

This would max out the crafting tree with all active, passive champion points at 823 cp spent 2,469.

Consumables

The best consumables for the Magicka Templar PvE build are Clockwork Citrus Filet and Essence of Health tri-stat potions. Clockwork Citrus Filet gives a lot of health, magicka, and sustain, giving you a little bit of everything. Templar sustain can be tricky, so while the Mistral Banana-Bunny Hash food gives more health and magicka, you’ll often want the sustain from Clockwork in content. If you still struggle with magicka sustain, you could switch to Ghastly Eye Bowl, but you really want that health in content, if possible.

For your potions, both of your major weapon/spell damage and critical chance buffs are sourced through the build, so you can run tri-pots. This gives you a large burst of resources when you need them. You can of course switch these out for heroism potions, but with Update 42, many groups can source Minor Heroism through group scribing skills instead.

• Clockwork Citrus Filet: Increase Max Health by 3326, Health Recovery by 406, Max Magicka by 3080, and Magicka Recovery by 338 for 2 hours. Ingredients: Frost Mirriam (1), Lemon (1), Perfect Roe (1), Red Meat (1).
  • Mistral Banana-Bunny Hash: Increase Max Health by 5395 and Max Magicka by 4936 for 1.5 Hours. Ingredients: Bananas (1), Seasoning (1), Small Game (1).
• Essence of Health (tri-stat): Restore 7329 Health, 6618 Magicka, and 6618 Stamina immediately. Grants Major Fortitude, Major Intellect, and Major Endurance, which increase your Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by 20% for 31.7 seconds. (effects are scaled based on your level) Ingredients: Bugloss, Columbine, Mountain Flower.

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Build Summary – Magicka Templar PvE Build

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