Templar

Radial Sweep
(Not Needed)

Puncturing Strikes
(Unnecessary)
Use it for solo situations to do some damage.

Piercing Javelin
(Not Needed)

Focused Charge
(Unnecessary)
This can be used alongside the Tormentor set to do AoE Taunting but this is not something that is advised for most content but could be useful for beginner Tanks in dungeons.

Spear Shards
(Situational)
This is a damage skill that provides a synergy to 1 person in your group and will also give back resources to anyone who uses it. The main use for this skill as a Tank is to place Olorime on your group from range. So in situations where you stand out of group, you can provide a great group buff while at the back of a room.

Radiant Ward → Morph of Sun Shield
(Vital)
This is a huge damage shield that scales with Max Health and costs Magicka. Templars have access to a number of healing over time skills but no burst heal. By using this in combination with those skills you can absorb damage with your damage shield while healing missing health via your healing over time. This is a great survival tool and fortunately it costs Magicka so you can use it a lot. When you do use it, it will also proc the Spear Wall passive that gives you extra mitigation from Minor Protection.

Spear Wall
(Vital)
When using an Aedric Spear ability you gain Minor Protection which will work nicely alongside the use of Radiant Ward to reduce your incoming damage.

Burning Light
(Unnecessary)
Another damage passive that should proc automatically from Shards or Ward. If you never use Shards or Ward then you’ll never proc the damage but if you want to do some extra free damage then this passive will do that.

Balanced Warrior
(Vital)
Extra resistances, always nice for a Tank.

Nova
(Situational)
This causes Major Maim to enemies. You would only slot this if you are expecting a mechanic or fight that your group struggles with to help make it easier to deal with but usually you will just stick to using Warhorn, or Barrier for a defensive Ultimate.

Sun Fire
(Situational)
You would potentially use this skill if you are Tanking using Elemental Catalyst to maintain the fire weakness.

Solar Flare
(Not Needed)

Power of the Light → Morph of Backlash
(Vital)
This is not as essential as it used to be since you can now get Minor Breach from using your taunt Pierce Armor. It is still useful however in situations where you are at range or the Main Tank is at range or you have a number of adds to deal with. So in Asylum Sanctorium you could apply it to all of the spheres, or in Sunspire if the Main Tank is range tanking Lokkestiiz you would use this on the Main Boss so your group doesn’t miss 3k penetration. It also procs the Illuminate passive which is the main reason a Templar is needed in a Magicka group. If you don’t need the Minor Breach then use the other morph.

Purifying Light → Morph of Backlash
(Optional)
You could use this in situations where Power of the Light is not needed. You need to be using at least one Dawn’s Wrath skill and this will do a little bit of healing so it’s an option if you don’t have any other skill to use and this morph is better if you don’t need the Minor Breach because it costs Magicka so it will be better for your sustain.

Living Dark → Morph of Eclipse
(Situational)
As a Tank we benefit from this skill scaling with Max Health. When dealing with multiple enemies its actually a very good heal because it will tick every half a second, so if you are in an add pull and taking a lot of damage, you can pop this for a 3 second heal that will heal you potentially 6 times and because it scales with Max Health its a strong heal over time. It’s not quite a burst heal but if you combine it with other HoTs and Damage Shields it is a great survival tool for a Templar Tank.

Radiant Destruction
(Not Needed)

Prism
(Vital)
A good passive to increase Ultimate gain. It will give you Ultimate every 6 seconds so it works well with keeping up Power of the Light when casting that skill it will return the Ultimate from this passive.

Illuminate
(Vital)
This is the main Templar group buff and the main reason you would even use a Templar. It adds around 2k DPS to each of your Magicka DD’s, won’t help Stamina DDs. It’s easily maintained while you keep the uptime of Power of the Light or any of the Dawn’s Wrath skills.

Restoring Spirit
(Vital)
Important passive to help the sustain on a Templar, very vital passive.

Rushed Ceremony
(Unnecessary)
This is basically your burst heal. Not worth using because the heal is so low as it scales with Spell Damage and Max Magicka so it has a really high cost and real low healing potential. It can also heal someone else and not you so its a very bad option for a self heal. It’s better to rely on Radiant Ward along with your healing over time abilities that do scale with Max Health.

Ritual of Rebirth → Morph of Healing Ritual
(Unnecessary)
This is the only way to guarantee yourself a burst self heal – Heals a similar value to Rushed Ceremony but is around 2k more Magicka to use since its an AoE Heal and will heal nearby people. You also gain Ultimate for using this via the Light Weaver passive if you heal anyone under 60% health. It’s an extremely expensive heal but its the best Magicka based heal available to a Templar Tank. This doesn’t scale with Max Health either so again its a fairly weak heal.

Radiant Aura → Morph of Restoring Aura
(Vital)
Applies Minor Magickasteal as an Area of Effect to all enemies that it hits, so its a good way to help group sustain during add pulls. While slotted gain Minor Fortitude/Endurance/Intellect increasing Health/Stamina/Magicka recovery, 10% Magicka recovery is nice, the others aren’t really necessary. This would likely be the better morph for Trials as you help your group sustain and you don’t really need the heal from Repentance, the Stamina from the other morph is nice but hard to benefit from in Trials.

Repentance → Morph of Restoring Aura
(Optional)
Gives the same recovery passives as Radiant Aura but will give you 3000 Stamina and you and your group 3000 health for each nearby corpse you absorb. This would be a great way to heal and sustain but the issue is that it’s usually boss fights where sustain becomes more difficult and you are unlikely to have any corpses available to repent on a boss fight. This morph would be excellent for 4-Man content as you’ll get a group heal plus Stamina for yourself.

Extended Ritual → Morph of Cleansing Ritual
(Vital)
This is one of the primary skills for a Templar Tank. It provides a group synergy to purge and cleanses negative effects. You can also use this to proc gear sets like SPC, Symphony and more because it covers a huge area and has a long duration you just place it on the ground and leave it to proc the sets. The heal will be a small heal over time but it works really well combined with other healing over time, and because its such a large healing area you dont need to keep replacing it, it will usually cover your full combat area.

Restoring Focus → Morph of Rune Focus
(Vital)
This is your main tool for Stamina sustain. It’s a very cheap skill to cast and you gain Stamina even while blocking and you don’t need to be stood inside the rune which is nice. You also gain Major Resolve, and when you are stood on top of the rune you also gain a heal over time that scales with your Max Health. This is a really nice heal and works great if you are stacking different healing sources. If you need Magicka Sustain you can use the Mage Guild skill Spell Symmetry alongside this which is the other morph of Balance.

Sacred Ground
(Vital)
Another good Tank passive increases the amount of damage you can block plus increases the healing you do with all healing abilities by 8%. You need to be stood inside one of your Restoring Light abilities which should be easy since you’ll usually be inside both your Ritual and Rune for the Healing and the Resources/Resistances.

Light Weaver
(Vital)
Will give Ultimate to all allies, a small boost that you will likely proc from your Extended Ritual.

Master Ritualist
(Optional)
Allows you to resurrect people quicker and with full Health, might as well have this passive but you should almost never be resurrecting people as a Tank.