Hey Everyone,

I am trying to decide if I want to go the Templar cleric/tank route and design a character as close to a classic heavy armor, shield/mace cleric healer/tank or look into the Sorcerer healer/tank set up with the same heavy armor, mace/shield etc...

Anyone know of a list of skills available to each class to help determine the best course? Classic Clerics ala Vanguard can tank and heal a group just as well as a dedicated healer.... this is the role I am looking to go for.

Anyway, thanks for the help!

I do not know which method I will be going with. But then again if I get the game (which looks highly likely) I will be playing multiple characters.

I would not focus too much on the builds right now, since they are likely going to be polished and worked on over the next few months.

it feels to me that sorcerers would be more survivable in PvP but I would go Templar for PvE, personally

Yea, I only got a three day look at the Templar in the last beta. EDITED....

Guess I'll keep debating.

By the way Bluesnacks, why do you say that?

well, first you are under NDA so you can not say anything about the beta, I was speaking from a fansite, the sorcerer has tons of escape abilities

http://tamrielfoundry.com/

1. Look under "Game Info".

2. check each class's skills.

3. spend the next several hours theorycrafting

4. ???

5. profit.

Yep. Bolt Escape and Lightning Form are both vying for space on my healing bar right now. And of course there's the most delectable Dark Exchange. Can't wait to give that bad boy a whirl.

You cannot talk about your beta experience here at all. You are under non-disclosure agreement.

The skills can be freely examined on Tamriel Foundry.

Personally, I think either of the options you mentioned would be viable. If you choose the sorcerer route, you'll have plenty of Tanky abilities like Lightning Form, Bound Armor, and Conjured Ward. There are also skills that offer self-healing (Dark Exchange and the Winged Twilight morph, according to Nick Konkle), crowd control (basically the whole Dark Magic line), Melee focus (surge), and Gap Closers (bolt escape.)

If you were to be a sorcerer with Heavy Armor, Sword and Shield, and a Resto Staff, you could easily make a cleric.

4. Is ZOS makes changes to the skills, so back to step 1.

I thought Surge affected any weapon? Never saw anything that specifically said just melee weapons.

You ruined it.

Not saying it just affects melee. What I mean is it could be useful for a Tanky Melee cleric type build.

Me bad, Must have been the 3rd cup of coffee talking.

Okies.

OT, there's also the point that's come up a lot, that Sorc's magicka regen/cost reduction passives may make it better at healing than Temp. You do lose a couple of very nifty support abilities though (e.g. Purify and Eclipse). Also, DK has a couple of very awesome support deals, particularly Obsidian Shield, as well as a buttload of self-buffs.

Either way, as long as you run a resto staff, you can cleric (i.e. tank and heal) it up with any class. Just a matter of what style you prefer.

I don't think that a healer in full heavy armor would be effective...


Back to the class decision:
I think the Templar should be the class that suits you better, since it has access to more heal skills.

But keep in mind that no matter how many skills you have in total you can only use 5 at a time.

Reason? Or are you just assuming that mage has to have light armor?

And yeah, most of Temp's heals are redundant if you're rocking a restro.

I'm not assuming anything.

Heals are magic spells.
So...
...healing requires magicka.
...healing gets stronger with the more magicka you have.
Light Armor grants more magicka and more magicka-regen and higher spell crit.


As for redundant healing abilities on the templar:
No, those aren't redundant.
The OP says that he intends to use a Sword & Board, the Templar is able to cast at least some healing while equipped with other weapons than Restoration Staff.