Which is better: Nightblade or Templar in ESO?
As a long-time Elder Scrolls Online player and content creator, I get asked often – should I play a Nightblade or a Templar? Which class is better? The answer comes down to your playstyle and content focus. In this extensive guide, I‘ll compare the two classes across key metrics to help you decide.
Unmatched Damage Potential with Nightblades
Seasoned Nightblade players can achieve some of the highest damage outputs in ESO. For example, the max parses on 21 million HP trial dummies:
- Nightblade – 113k DPS
- Templar – 105k DPS
Based on community theorycrafters who analyze combat logs, Nightblades simply have better access to damage-amplifying skills. Flexible skill combinations allow them to capitalize on monsters‘ vulnerabilities too.
While Templar DPS is no slouch, veteran players find the Nightblade‘s complex rotation allows for higher skill expression. By mastering abilities like Merciless Resolve and light attack weaving, elite Nightblades push the damage ceiling higher.
For newcomers however, acquiring gear sets that optimize Nightblade damage can be an arduous gear hunt. Templars reach sufficient DPS thresholds faster. But min-maxers will revel in the Nightblade DPS chase.
Survivability and Sustain – The Templar‘s Forte
While Nightblades have tremendous healing skills like Refreshing Path and Siphoning Attacks, Templars take the edge for survivability through sheer tankiness.
Heavy armor Templars can shield themselves for up to 15k HP via abilities like Radiant Ward. Combine this with potent self-healing, and they make extremely durable tanks perfect for leading group content like dungeons and trials. Templar tanks can also flex into secondary healing roles seamlessly.
Meanwhile Nightblades rely more on evasion and mobility for survival. By stacking invisiblity skills like Shadowy Disguise with Evasion synergies, they escape danger rather than mitigate damage directly. This enables exciting daredevil playstyles.
Ultimately Templar survivability lends itself towards group support and serving as reliable anchors for your team. If you prefer tanking and healing others, it may suit you better than the Nightblade‘s solo style.
Mastering the Nightblade‘s Complexity
Based on early impressions when leveling characters, the Templar is widely regarded as one of the most beginner friendly classes. With intuitive synergies between their abilities, even novice players can graspsolid DPS fundamentals quickly.
Early leveling builds like Puncturing Sweeps spam rewarded sustainable damage for minimal effort. In contrast, Nightblades need to juggle damage-over-time abilities and proc mechanics while mastering light attack weaving to see impactful returns. This makes their learning curve steeper.
For example, understanding how skills like Merciless Resovle reward higher execution damage requires knowledge of skill interactions. And without properly sustaining Relentless Focus stacks, DPS flounders. There are nuances that take hours in target dummies to internalize.
Once mastered however, the dynamic Nightblade rotation becomes almost rhythmic. Few things are as lethal as watching a flawlessly-piloted Nightblade assassinate monsters. But be prepared for studious dedication getting there!
Specialized Roles for Different Content
Based on the above comparisons, we can summarize specialized roles each class fills best:
Nightblades
- Pushing max damage output for Veteran Dungeons and Trials
- Soloing world bosses and dungeons with self healing
- Ganking unsuspecting enemies in Cyrodil PVP
Templars
- Serving as versatile Tanks and Healers for all group content
- Providing reliable buffs/debuffs to amplify team coordination
- Approachable early game with easier fundamentals
As an example, Nightblade mobility and invisibility enables devastating ganks in ESO‘s PVP battlegrounds. Templars cannot swiftly assassinate targets as effectively given their stationary caster nature.
Meanwhile, a Templar‘s toolkit suits supporting allies naturally. Restoration staff abilities coupled with ritual-based buffs gives them strong group utility that outclasses the Nightblade‘s selfish skillset.
So in conclusion, while the Nightblade‘s complexity is rewarded with lethality, the Templar makes an accessible jack-of-all-trades for every game scenario. Evaluate these tradeoffs based on how you want to experience ESO! Both classes are esteemed for their specialties.
