Note: everything in yellow text is a little about me as this is my first humble post in this awesome community. feel free to read or skip. The real point of the post will continue afterwards in standard white.

Let me start this by saying I was a lurker, and am a brand new member of the community! (Wow, I really hope we get an official one someday. This is for sure the biggest, but there are a few other active forums for this game out there.) It seems small compared to the massive forum that SWTOR had, but I am finding far less trolls here. And, unlike the SWTOR forums (where everyone said GW2 would herald in the new MMO era and crush all MMOs including SWTOR) this Forum seems to have the opposite view on GW2 (everyone makes it sound like the worst thing in MMO history.)... I also always play tank, as it is enjoyable and people say I am REALLY good at it. It also fits me most IRL.

Now, a little about myself before we move on. This will help give you an idea of where I'm coming from. I am a young gamer, only 19, and because of my hobbies in MMA and weightlifting as well as work I do not play MMOs 8 hours a day. That said, I also tend to focus on only one MMO at a time (I just can't seem to juggle games very well. I play SWTOR at least twice a week for raid nights, and play it other times when im in the mood. friday and saturday is usually my single player or local (splitscreen) multiplayer days.)... My first online game was Adventure Quest, which is like a MSORPG (S for single, lol). I then played Rune Scape, and i have vague memories of a friend's father playing EQ and me watching. I then played WoW, as i loved the RTS games but it was a little tongue in cheek for my tastes. When LOTRO came out I was excited, as I enjoy Lord of the Rings. That game was amazing to me, and it only got better with time. Appearance tabs and housing were some of my favorite things and I really hope to see Appearance tab at launch and hopefully housing with decoration included (spaceships in SWTOR dont count) soon after launch.

LOTRO was a lot like World of Warcraft, and I hadn't quite gotten sick of that style of gameplay. Sometime during all this MMO gaming, Oblivion came out and introduced me to the Elder Scrolls series. Needless to say, I fell in love. At the time I thought it was the perfect game and it seemed to have no limits. I later bought Morrowind that had all the expansion packs. I really wish I had played Morrowind first, since after being spoiled on Oblivion's combat system I had a hard time enjoying Morrowind's. Sorry, watching attacks phase through people and a RNG deciding if I hit or not was a turn off (forgive me I'll only be 20 in april!)... That said, I could see Morrowind was much richer behind the flashyness. I have UNFORTUNATELY not played Daggerfall, but my mother told me about the first text based one. LOTRO to me was so much better than WoW, but the whole time I kept saying to myself "If there was a elder scrolls MMO, I would only play that MMO until it died."

Then SWTOR was announced, and I was so excited. I tend to prefer CERTAIN Sci-Fi over Fantasy, if only because I can sorta pretend I might end up in what our current year thinks is Sci-FI stuff. Fantasy, however, would involve me wishing for a time machine... With that said though, Elder Scrolls &--#62; Everything IP wise. It's just if you showed me a classic/generic Fantasy vs an equally generic sci-fi id likely choose the sci-fi... I also am a pretty big star wars fan, and SWTOR looking more futuristic (star wars is a space fantasy, tech is stagnant) was a big appeal. I've never liked privelaged backstories so I was far more interested in a Trooper who through training and grit could kill sith rather than relying on force powers you inherited at birth. (I will go into why this preference makes Elder Scrolls my favorite series)... It was a lot like LOTRO/WoW, but no autto-attack DID make it a little more actiony... I still enjoy it to this day, but to be honest I am really looking forward to this game mostly for how different its combat will be (it took 3 games, but its getting a LITTLE stale).

Why am I so excited for this game? Action left/right click, a little bit of twitch but not so much it screws over people with worse latency (I tend to be okay, Living in Alaska i have like 40 ping for west coast, 60 for central, and 90 for east coast servers), not to mention the world and setting. I love pvp, and love raiding even more.

Elder scrolls is my favorite universe because (with the exception of absurdly rare individuals like Septim's and Dragon Born) other than your race people don't seem to be born privelaged. At no point do they make it seem a 190 pound scrappy redguard wont have a chance against a 320 pounds of muscle orc in a swordfight. It is much more about your training and skill. But that is just physical, and not the REAL difference from other fantasy worlds i am talking about here. MAGIC is what is so different. Harry Potter, Dragon Age, and just about every fantasy world it is portrayed that magic is almost ENTIRELY if not COMPLETELY dependant on whether or not you were born with it. While in these universe's it often seems common, that is only because they are the focus. And all lore/reasoning SHOWS that it is still a vast minority. I HATE HATE HATE the idea of your abilities being dictated by what baby you happen to be born as. For this reason and this reason alone, I NEVER EVER pick magic for the characters I try to make represent me. They are always magicless warriors (or in SWTOR case, a Trooper) that through hard work can hold their own against even powerful spellcasters (or sith/jedi for swtor) in a fight to the death. But in Elder Scrolls? Sure, some may be born with an affinity for it (Bretons, Altmer, etc)... But everyone HAS the capacity. random bandits have it, civilians have it, undead have it, rank and file soldiers have it, EVERYONE has it. that is due to lore reasons of where magick comes from in ES, and I love it. It is entirely possible in lore to be an Orc warrior who was raised by, say, some sympathetic bretons and was taught from a young age to use magic. this Orc grew up educated and eventually went to the Mages Guild and got more and more skilled. BLAM, you have what is seen as a brute using magic effectively, even if it doesnt come to them as naturally as Altmer.


What's my point? Well, Elder Scrolls is the only series I incorporate magic into my character and I love it. My traditional character I always use? Heavy armor sword+shield warrior who uses alteration to increase defenses and specializes in restoration to recover lost health. They tend to be Paladin (or Templar, eh?) like. I always have loved holy/angelic armors and the brighter and more good-guy appearances. FINALLY! A world where my not-privelaged/not-genetic-lottery-winning character can use magic and it not be seen as some sort of 1/100 gift by any means. This completes the Paladin thing so wonderfully. Now, on to the actual post:

I am going to play as the Templar, as I love templar/paladin archetypes and unlike most Universes where magic is a privelaged at birth thing, it is a skill that anyone can learn (but some have more affinity for it) in Elder Scrolls (so i will use it)...
We know when you level up, much like Skyrim, we will spend a point in Health, Magicka, or Stamina... That is all fine and dandy, but will there be a respec for it? Admit it, people are going to screw up. I don't care if it costs a LOT of money, but the option should be there. What if a noob tank wannabe spends pretty much ALL their points into health, then doesnt have enough stamina to perform enough abilties and block and stuff? There should be a respec option for those decisions, even if at a high cost to keep people from doing it willi-nilly.

What my question is, is how are we going to know how to balance them? Trial and error? if thats the case we DEFINITELY need respec for those 3 stats, even at a high cost if needed. Templar could very well be confusing if you want to do it like I do and make it a Fortress. You need a lot of health, and the self heals (there are even abilities that you can find on some sites that we can go off of) from many attacks are likely important to your survivability. My question is, with a pure warrior for instance all you need is hardcoe health and stamina. For a heavy armor tanky warrior with a lot of emphasis on holy/restoration magic/heals, how do you split that up? For physical skills like attacking, blocking, dodging, breaking CC, etc. you need stamina. for all that restoration style defense boosts/heals you need magicka! and for being tanky you need health.
Would you split it 50health/25stamina/25magicka percentage wise? Would that make your resource pools far too small considering they might be balancing with 20health/20stamina/60magicka for pure mages in mind? Am i forced between choosing a magical (tons of bubbles, heals, and holy attacks) or physical (blocking, evading, strong strikes) Paladin? I was really hoping I could have a strong base of health and melee basic attacks, and then augment myself with those selfheals/bubbles. If you go look at the Templar and their known abilities, you get an attack that simultaneously heals you? that sounds useful. So does the 'templar and everyone else around templar gets heals' ability. I love the idea of being tankish while providing some small regenerative healing to others and myself (i could give a damn about dps. thats what you pure-mages and assassin-wannabes are for).

TL:DR? ... A bunch of info about myself, question on if the Health/Stamina/Magicka point allocation was respeccable or if you think it will be, will Templar be okay using something kinda like a 50H/25S/25M balance so they got those self heals/support abilities AND the physical blocking and power attacking and dodging and... (okay lets face it, stamina is extremely important for Melee chars), and for that matter will it be POSSIBLE to be 50/25/25 specced and not have far too tiny of resource pools to do anything?

Share your thoughts on this. I for one think anything other than spending half your level up allocations to health will gimp you as a tanky character. but what do i know?

I want to run around in heavy armor with a sword and shield, have some self heal capabilities and be able to block effectively and at least have enough stamina that i can wind up my attacks often. I want to be as tanky as can be, but wouldnt mind some support abilities (like the one where everyone around me gets a smaller version of the self heal it is giving me.)
it says I am not allowed to post links, but go to the class section of TamrielFoundry, go to templar, and look at abilities... Ill wait... Back? Sun strike and rushed ceremony are the two abilities im thinking of when im wanting enough magicka to cast them... but i REALLY want stamina for blocking, dodging, and using power attacks... but above all i need health to be durable!

Sorry if this was really disorganized and ranty, and for any moderators NO THIS IS NOT some sort of general class discussion that you can redirect this thread to. This is a specific question about Templars and how my tanking desires are effected by how your resource pools work.
We only have SOME info on 2, and only know of 2 other classes afterall.

Glad to be here guys! A proud arctic welcome to you!

First and foremost I would like to welcome you to the ESO official forums!

I think mostly you have to go with your experience from ES single player games and go from that as to where to put your level up points, be it Stamina, Health, or Magicka. I personally like to play a class that uses dual short sword, restoration, stealth, bow and whatever else I can cram in there.. so I tend to try to keep my primary stats fairly equal as I level up...

Glad to be here!

That's what I'm afraid of though! If i do what I did in Skyrim (leveling up i had a pattern of: +1health, +1health, +1stamina, +1magicka... so its a mirror of the 50/25/25 system i talked about for this game) it might not work. In skyrim, magicka and stamina come back VERY quickly. By level 20, I could take a lot of hits and return some big hefty ones. Basic attack took no stamina, so it was really about saving my stamina for effective blocks. I would then use a shield bash followed by a power attack, and wouldnt do a big stamina combo like that until it returned. From how the devs talk about it, they make it sound like when you run out of stamina you are screwed. this makes me think it doesnt return quickly.
As for Magicka, if 25% of my points go into it im sure I have enough max to cast sun strike, but what of rushed ceremony? if this also regens slowly i could be looking at 2 slots of my small quickbar being taken up by skills i use once per battle.

My point is I really want a respec for this as it concerns me. maybe 40/30/30 works infinitely better than 50/25/25? i am willing to pay lots of $$$ for that mistake (face it, the reason some protest respecs is because they feel people stop to be unique cuz you could just respec entirely. im not asking for the ability to respec on a whim)

And my primary concern is in an mmo space, is me being split 50/25/25 gonna be a problem if everyone wants a tank that is 75 health/ 25 resource? Because if that is how tanks must be built, and i for example do 80/10/10 to be as beefy as the game needs me to be, wont me having 10/10 rather than 20 in a resource make me lose steam far too quickly? to qoute the combat team 'if you run out of stamina, you're dead. there is a lot of focus on managing your resource pools'... That sounds like making my resource pools too low a problem. But i do NOT WANT to sacrifice the ability to block/stagger/interrupt for magic, while simultaneously i do not want to sacrifice those wonderful (even if small) self heals and support abilities for standard warrior fare (since this is the only IP I can stand having magic on my character/representation of myself in said universe)

Well I hope I get into beta so I can test out stuff like this before launch, otherwise my first char at launch is my testing char so I can figure it all out I guess...

I'm gonna let you know right now. I didn't read. http://d22zlbw5ff7yk5.cloudfront.net/images/cm-21545-650528a3316409.gif