I think I'm missing something

[snoopykoo]

Ok... so I played for the first time over the weekend (I know, I know, everyone here's been playing for months and thinks nothing of my opinion). Anyway, I was really looking forward to finally playing a Templar and I'm happily grinding up to level 10 and so on and so forth. My girlfriend's playing next to me with a mage and I think 'she's doing lots of damage', but it doesn't bother me much... the fact that neither of us can actually survive fighting two monsters at once does get me a little bit, but I figure it'll change later on.

Fast forward to level 10 and I'm a Templar looking forward to trying out everything. I blow all my money on Plate (except when I have more defense on the green chain I had before), lookin' decent... and I go out to hunt. And bam, I suck. I didn't expect to do much damage, so killing things wasn't really my priority, but I can't even TAKE any damage... two or three monsters on me at once and I had to run away with my tail between my legs (literally, as I was playing an Asmodian). Don't get me wrong, I love tank classes, but I think I'm missing something really important here... I think I had all the skills, over the weekend, I tested out block stones and crit stones (as per the discussions that I've read on here) and they both did nothing to stop my epic suckage. Is it one of those classes that starts off worthless and comes into its own later? PVP was hit and miss depending on the person I was fighting... if they knew anything about their character, they'd win (my gf got the hang of kiting at the end of the beta, so I doubt I could have won after that). Obviously, I still want to play a Templar and I'll take it up further when they put the cap higher than level 10, but I guess I'm looking for some reassurance that it's not the gimped class of the game from some players who've taken it further.

Do we get a defense boost for wearing plate armor over the stated defense or anything? Things hit me just as hard as they hit everyone else and I only have like 200 more hp to soke it up... and no offense to kill them.


On a side note, just to test out other classes, I built up a Chanter... is this class overpowered in the beginning? I easily soloed the Elyos campaign quests all the way to the level 15 one against those frill dinosaur looking things and then ran out of time to finish off the next quest (keep in mind, this is while locked at level 10). I'm pretty sure that with another few hours of game time, I'd have soloed that one, too... I didn't even bother putting on any manastones. It's just super depressing that a semi-healer class out plays a tank in PVE (and I never lost a dual in PVP, either... fought every class but a Templar, coincidentally).

[Aion77]

Why are you trying to fight 2-3 things at once in the first place? Last I checked there's no reason to do that. Just get crit stones and kill single targets and if you want pull a 2nd when the 1st is close to death to chain them.

[snoopykoo]

Because by the time I kill anything, all the other spawns in the area have wandered over to me.

[Daitana]

The start is rough, especially if you have crappy gear. Melee classes seem very gear dependent. I admit when it goes live, I will be grinding greens first chance I get, just for that reason.
But when you actually get semi-decent gear it isnt so bad, and yes stack your gear for crit. Especially for pve.
I also prefer to use a mace for the steady damage, and parry stats. But thats entirely up to you.

[gwin]

snoopykoo Templers are fine, at 10 you are not even a templar yet, just a warrior. You gonna get tons of abbilities and will take dmg just fine. Let me put it this way in the end game, Temp can tank 4-5 elites at a time while Gladiator 1 or 2. Also a temp won PvP tournament in Korea, you will not be gimped in any way : )

[Vari]

At lvl 10 even with all crit stones with white/green armor you're most likely looking at a sub 100 crit level, probably 70s-80s? Don't expect to be critting much or seeing much benefit from stones, later on when your gear is blue and has 4 slots, imagine 4 slots per item, and 10 crit or more stones in there each. So your experimenting with stones at lvl 10 isn't going to yield much for you, sorry.

Also, don't expect to start killing things and a semi-decent rate until level 16 when you get 2 more dps abilities, and becomes even better at 19/20. Without cool downs, don't expect to be tanking 2-3 mobs at a time either; you'll die, and fast. Without a green shield +, your block skills will also seem to rarely proc. Templars are incredibly gear dependent, even more so than gladiators imo. Use swords or maces, whatever you can find that gives you the best damage every 2-3 levels or so. Also keep your shield upgraded, green shields are >>> white shields.

Healer classes will always have it easier, just a facet of the game. However I can say if you grind through the frustration it becomes pretty rewarding later on. I mean c'mon, seriously? You're judging the balance of a game at level 10?

[Sildroni]

not sure why you are having trouble - skills available at level 10 have alot of survivability built into them.

Shout is a great skill - ups our damage potential AND protects from damage. My first go around in the beta 2 weeks ago i was using shield block alot, this time I used Shout almost exclusively and really didn't get into trouble unless I was working on a
lvl 14+ mob and I got jumped by another.

For lower level mobs my damage was enough to kill them quickly so I didn't have to outlast them much.

I had planned on getting a full set of the green chain enhanced up to +10, but my luck was so bad that Id get +1 or +2 and then a streak of failures that brought me back down to no enhancements. Got a few manastone failures too. Even with that basic setup I was having almost no issues with killing stuff.

[snoopykoo]

I realize that the game is still young at level 10, but all of the other (basic) classes have already come into their own. Mages have (relatively) powerful attacks, scouts have decently high dps with the dual weapons, priests have the heal+dps that I know they're known for later... and warriors suck. I don't expect much difference between a Glad and Temp at level 10, but I do kind of expect them to fall into at least the general role of a warrior class by then. A level 10 Temp is just a Priest that can't heal, has no buffs, and doesn't have a ranged opening attack.

As for killing things, the cool downs on the skills meant that for a good long while, I was relying entirely on the base damage of the weapon, which was a +1, with my full crit stones (which took me up to something like a 90 crit rating, but I can't recall the exact number... after putting them on my shield and sword, I was in the mid 70's, then there was 6 more over the rest of my stuff). I had a hell of a time killing even level 10's by myself... I even followed around other Temps to see how they did and it was the same, give or take a margin of error for critical hits.

I appreciate the info on the upcoming dps skills... I always knew temps were gear-centric characters, and I've always been one of those guys who searches for hours finding just the right boots, so that's cool with me and it's how I play anyway. I'll just wait it out and see if I start to enjoy the class more later on.

[btt363]

Level 13 is where you start to be a real tank with Divine Armor 1.............
Templars are team players and never meant to solo

Since you sound like you prefer to solo, you might want to consider other classes like chanter, assassin, ranger, sorcerers and spiritmaster. they could either deal more damage or could CC better


sin soloing elites:

YouTube - Aion - KOR Assassin with 44% crit rate

YouTube - Aion - KOR Assassin with 44% crit rate

ranger soloing elites:

YouTube - Ranger soloing elite mob

YouTube - Ranger soloing elite mob

sorcerer soloing elites:

YouTube - AION Solo Elite Sorcerer

YouTube - AION Solo Elite Sorcerer

[Daitana]

Trust me when I say, no class really blooms until at least 19ish. Anything before that is just an introduction to the class.
You think a templar pre-19 is bad? Try leveling an archer with a bow, that's just terrible. I ended up doubling my pve speed dual wielding as an archer until then, shooting with my bow then trading out my duel weps when the mobs got close.
It's hard, very hard at the start. But worth it.

[snoopykoo]

I'm actually hoping to do a two-person party with whatever the lady friend chooses. She was leaning towards a Spirit Master at last mention.

My real concern is the lack of natural defense that the warrior class seems to have, but you guys have at least convinced me to give it longer.

[maeveth]

Originally Posted by snoopykoo

I'm actually hoping to do a two-person party with whatever the lady friend chooses. She was leaning towards a Spirit Master at last mention.

My real concern is the lack of natural defense that the warrior class seems to have, but you guys have at least convinced me to give it longer.

It gets significantly better. Though don't expect to be tanking elites w/o a healer for a while.

[Nimreth]

Seriously, if u like being a tank, play Templar. The beginning is rough, I had the same feeling. But later as u get more skills u become to feel more satisfied. Unless you equip full crit stone and reach crit 250-300 u wont be lvling fast solo. On the other hand templar + healer can do everything ... doing elite areas for exaple, it s bit longer but doable...

about pvp ... without some crucial skills u ll be pwned, really. U re gonna feel useless as hell. Every ranged class can kite u and every healer outheal u. But! Once u get pull attack, things get better, once u get CC immutiny skill things are even better, once u get at lvl40+ .. I m gonna quote Elliot:

Aion Classes Overview 1.2 Read What They Read, See What I See]

Originally Posted by Elliot

Templars

* The best end game PvP class ? has no real issues dealing with any other class except other Templars. (AionChosun tournament made that pretty obvious)

* 3 instant cast defensive cooldowns (1min 30s of invincibility if you pop them all in a row) + 4k DP instant full health will keep you alive in any situation
* Currently #1 on future nerf list

My advice: If u like it, stick with it!

[Hong]

Originally Posted by snoopykoo

I'm actually hoping to do a two-person party with whatever the lady friend chooses. She was leaning towards a Spirit Master at last mention.

My real concern is the lack of natural defense that the warrior class seems to have, but you guys have at least convinced me to give it longer.

I'll be honest with you. If you really want to have an enjoyable time with your girl, roll a Cleric unless she's rolling one. You can't duo, or do crap without a Cleric.

Templars are absolutely useless without a healer.

Kiting is your best option for PvE.

I'll even say it again, if you want to solo as a Templar, prepare to get KS'd massively by every class. If you duo, then you better kite and provoke depending on what mob you're dealing with.

[Moonlight Shadow]

I've played an assassin to level 20 something (can't remember exact level) and a templar to level 20. Assassins can kill faster but have to rest a lot more often so I found templars a lot easier to level at the start.

As a templar, I can kill many mobs in a row without resting (except caster mobs, they hurt) and my kill rate is only a little bit slower then other classes. Things change at higher level of course but based on videos I've seen, level 40+ templars solo fine and kill fairly quickly.

It is a tanking class after all, you're not supposed to dish out crazy damage and with decent gear you take very little damage.