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Our latest featured ESOTU player build is the Aedric Warden—a Templar build that provides a balance of hard-hitting close-range and long-range DPS, with a touch of support.
Welcome back to the Battlemaster's Corner, where we feature character builds devised by you, the ESOTU community! In this article, you'll meet the Aedric Warden. This Templar build draws power from the Dawn's Wrath and Aedric Spear skill lines. Coupled with Two-Handed weapon and Bow skills, this Templar is capable of devastating damage, and even a little support. If you're looking for a new build to try out on your Templar, give the Aedric Warden a try!
We always enjoy receiving your character builds and seeing all the creative ways you combine abilities. If you have a character build you'd like to see in a future Battlemaster's Corner, please send it to us at community@elderscrollsonline.com. Don't forget to include a handful of nice screenshots of your character for us to choose from!
The Aedric Warden
“Through Service, We Find Purpose."
Many who worship and preach the word of the Divines dwell as priests within the safe confines of church walls, or travel in the escort of a companion or caravan. They preach their word in cities and villages with relative comfort. Some even strap on heavy armor and wield massive weapons going on to fight on the front lines as Crusaders and Holy Warriors—Knight Templars who seek to inspire their comrades.
Then there are those who devote themselves to traveling the world as a warrior, not a knight. They spread the word through action as a cleric, but are not priests or preachers. They walk the shadows, but are neither thieves nor assassins. These Templars are unique in their approach to serving the light, for it is within their own power to be equal parts as open-minded as Stendarr's Mercy and as sharp as Meridia's Sword. They train and live their lives with one goal in mind: Guard the living world of Nirn against the darkness and dangers of undead and evil Daedra.
These are the Aedric Wardens. Whether they worship the Divines directly, or serve the goodness of the Holy Light through Daedric Princes and benevolent intentions, these men and women are Tamriel's first line of defense. Together they protect all of Nirn against the evils and plagues of darkness that seek to consume her as they watch over Man and Mer alike.
An Aedric Warden is a DPS Templar build that serves as a multi-role fighter would in a battle, but with a more destructive edge. It allows for both melee and ranged damage dealing with a spot of support here and there through the use of Dawn's Wrath and Aedric Spear skills.
The Aedric Warden build relies on first creating your character from any race with a Stamina-boosting passive, such as a Redguard, an Imperial, or a Wood Elf. The specifics are as follows:
- Attribute Distribution: My current attribute allocation is 45 Health and 17 Stamina. Your race choice may warrant some slight changes, depending what you want or how they're built.
- Armor Type & Traits: I currently use six pieces of Medium Armor, and one piece of Heavy Armor. If possible, try to obtain a Light Armor Undaunted piece for a 5/1/1 set-up, instead. Each piece should have the Infused Trait (chest, head, and legs if possible), and the Divines Trait on the rest.
- Primary Weapons: A Two-Handed Sword (I call him Matutinus) and Bow (I call her Vidaume) are my primary tools for the job. Two-Handed maces also work very well with this build. Matutinus has the Sharpened Trait on it, and Vidaume possess the Precise Trait.
- Primary Item Set: Hunding's Rage is the Aedric Warden's primary set, using five (5) pieces to obtain what is quite possibly the best DIY set bonus in the game for a melee character. Pair this with two (2) pieces of the Engine Guardian set to help—albeit a bit randomly—with Stamina regeneration when it does proc (it procs often), and two (2) pieces each of The Two-Fanged Snaked and Shadow Walker sets, both for the Weapon Damage buff.
- Mundus Stone: The preferred Mundus Stone is The Warrior, for more stable but fearsome weapon damage.
- Champion Points: Spend your Champion Points on passives in the Thief and Mage constellations that increase Physical Damage and Stamina regeneration. You can also choose any of the Warrior constellation passives, at your discretion.
Now onto the actual weapon loadouts!
PRIMARY WEAPON: TWO-HANDED WEAPON (MELEE DPS)
First Skill Slot: Puncturing Strikes (Biting Jabs) – A great opening to any aggressive negotiation, Biting Jabs serves to provide both a powerful single-target and AoE attack. It also grants you a passive 10% critical buff, on top of the Piercing Spear passive that provides extra critical damage. Also, each hit can proc the passive Burning Light.
Second Skill Slot: Momentum (Rally) – Invoking the power of the Divines to bolster your own strength, Rally provides you with a much needed buff to your raw Weapon Damage, and in turn your overall DPS. It's also a very potent self-heal, allowing you to survive a great many dangers you might face.
Third Skill Slot: Reverse Slash (Reverse Slice) – When an enemy gets low enough health, use Reverse Slice to force them to lie down and bleed—and any of their friends in close vicinity, too. Reverse Slice's damage cap is the same as most, if not all execute abilities, but it comes with a handy-dandy AoE attack that has the capability of wiping out multiple enemies in one fell swoop.
Fourth Skill Slot: Backlash (Power Of The Light) – Calling down a ray of the mighty sun's energy, you can single-out and weaken an enemy for attack, lowering their armor and turning them into a walking six-second time bomb. Can't beat that now, can you?
Fifth Skill Slot: Uppercut (Wrecking Blow) – Wrecking Blow is the bread and butter of the Aedric Warden's attacking method. Weave it with Heavy Attacks to help maintain Stamina longer, and deal a vicious amount of damage to an enemy.
Ultimate: Dawnbreaker (Flawless Dawnbreaker) – A gift from Meridia, the Aedric Warden's sword can channel her energies to summon Dawnbreaker, creating a massive wave of destruction. More importantly, simply having this Ultimate equipped allows you to gain a bonus to your Weapon Damage.
SECONDARY WEAPON: BOW (RANGED DPS)
First Skill Slot: Spear Shards (Blazing Spear) – This skill exists for two purposes. First, it's an attack that does a modest amount of single-target and AoE damage and has a chance to proc the Burning Light passive. Second, and most important, it adds a resource manager for your tank. This is incredibly valuable. It also serves to aid either the healer (who, if a Templar, should be throwing shards or using Repentance regularly) in bolstering your party or melee DPS support should you not have a Templar healer with you.
Second Skill Slot: Expert Hunter (Evil Hunter) – The anatomical and magical study of dark creatures often proves very useful in hunting your enemies down, regardless of whether you hunt them or are one yourself. In this case, a touch of “divine" magic goes a long way, especially for the bow. Bows are made all the more deadly by the free 10% critical rating, as well as the chance to restore Stamina and ability to blast an enemy in the face with magicka damage.
Third Skill Slot: Poison Arrow (Poison Injection) – Arrows? Awesome. Poison? Useful to nearly anybody. Poisoned Arrows? It's the logical next step. Arrows that have an injection system to give you a shot of deadly poison? Pure genius. Poison Injection is a ranged damage-over-time ability that is exactly that. After whittling down your enemy to 50% health, the damage-over-time ticks exponentially increase in strength, causing massive damage.
Fourth Skill Slot: Radiant Destruction (Radiant Oppression) – Having a ranged execute for when you're shooting your enemy from a distance certainly has its uses. Radiant Oppression makes for a very powerful attack choice, even as a Stamina user.
Fifth Skill Slot: Snipe (Focused Aim) – Attacking from afar can be extremely dangerous. Ok maybe not that dangerous. In fact, it can be downright unfair for the enemy if done right—but that's ok, because it's your enemy. Focused Aim embodies this idea, allowing you to attack from afar with a hard-hitting ability that also lowers your enemy's armor. Stand back and let those arrows fly, young archer.
Ultimate: Nova (Solar Prison) – There isn't as dire a need for high weapon damage with the Bow as there is for melee weapons. The bow part of this build is intended to be more for support than frontline combat. As such, Solar Prison makes for an exceptionally powerful Ultimate choice. With this particular Nova morph, you get high AoE damage, an incredible Synergy, and 30% damage reduction for anyone in your group who stands within it. It's almost perfect.
