The Total Templar

Ten Ton Hammer Guide to the Templar

Chapter 1 - Credits & The Basics
Chapter 2 - Quests
Chapter 3 - NPC Locations
Chapter 4 - Spell Tiers: Finding and Comparing Upgrades
Chapter 5 - Weapons
Chapter 6 - Armor
Chapter 7 - Spells
Chapter 8 - Methods and Techniques
Chapter 9 - 1H+Shld vs. 1H+Symbol vs. 2H Debate
Chapter 10 - Where To Hunt

6.0 - Armor

6.1 - Cleric Armor (lvl. 10-19)

The EQ2 manual mistakenly asserts that clerics are granted the ability to wear medium armor (e.g. leather). This, unfortunately, is not true. We're stuck with light and very light armor until we become Templars at 20, when we get...heavy armor! While you're stuck with lighter armor, take the opportunity to save up some silver to completely upgrade your armor when you make Templar. 1.5 gold bought me a nice set of steel vanguard, though I had to sell most of what I was replacing to the merchant. With a little more patience in the player market you might be able to make due with less.

Templars get heavy armor at 20, and it's a good thing. HP for HP, we're outclassed by druids and shamans (who don't get the ability to wear heavy armor), and the AC provided by our superior armor helps mitigate the damage we inevitably receive. So it's important to upgrade as soon as you can afford to.

But there's good news! You will get most of your armor investment back by completing Ian's armor multi-quest (see chapter 2) and selling back your armament. The quest is DEFINITELY worth doing as the armor you get has far better stats than anything storebought, and you'll rarely suffer for a lack of armor quest (AQ) groups in the related zones.

6.3a - 30+ Armor

Special thanks to Athian of Unrest for this great info :

"In looking for an upgrade I found that Pristine Forged Feyrion Vanguard was an upgrade from the Hearth Forged. While you can buy lower grades of the Feyiron armor before level 30, the Hearth Forged armor is still doing quite well and you might as well wait to get the most bang for your buck by upgrading at level 30.

"So for level 30 i recommend Pristine Forged Feyrion armor. With some of the recent patch changes, this armor has become easier for the Armorers to make. Personally I found the cost of it on my server was very high in qeynos. So I went to the Fence broker and saw that players in Freeport were selling it cheaper, even with the 40% commission. So I contacted one of the armorers listed there and set up a deal with them to buy a full suit. I purchased a full suit for 13gp, while this suit would of costed me about 28-35gp in Qeynos.

"As far as quests go, I only know of some for Chest and Legs, but if people are looking for full suits- this is very good armor."

But, free is better!! Courtesy of Rokee of Oggok, check out this suit of heavy armor dropped from Nightblood Scourges (low 30s mob in northeast EL), it offers a total of +65 WIS with the ring:

Nightblood Helm

• Properties ATTUNEABLE
• Slot / Type Head / Armor
• Food Quality Level: 0 Duration: 0 min.
• Skill Requirement Heavy Armor Required Lvl: 38 Recommended Lvl: 42
• Defensive Spec Armor Class: 147
• Statistics +8 Wisdom +11 Agility +25 Health
• Resistances +320 vs.Magic +120 vs.Mental
• Inventory Weight: 4.0

Dropped By A Nightblood Scourge

Nightblood Breastplate

• Properties ATTUNEABLE
• Slot / Type Chest / Armor
• Food Quality Level: 0 Duration: 0 min.
• Skill Requirement Heavy Armor Required Lvl: 38 Recommended Lvl: 42
• Defensive Spec Armor Class: 369
• Statistics +6 Strength +11 Wisdom +29 Health
• Resistances +320 vs.Magic +120 vs.Mental
• Inventory Weight: 4.0

Dropped By A Nightblood Scourge

Nightblood Legplates

• Properties ATTUNEABLE
• Slot / Type Legs / Armor
• Food Quality Level: 0 Duration: 0 min.
• Skill Requirement Heavy Armor Required Lvl: 38 Recommended Lvl: 42
• Defensive Spec Armor Class: 221
• Statistics +10 Stamina +8 Wisdom +27 Health
• Resistances +320 vs.Magic +120 vs.Mental
• Inventory Weight: 4.0

Dropped By A Nightblood Scourge

Nightblood Pauldrons

• Properties ATTUNEABLE
• Slot / Type Shoulders / Armor
• Food Quality Level: 0 Duration: 0 min.
• Skill Requirement Heavy Armor Required Lvl: 38 Recommended Lvl: 42
• Defensive Spec Armor Class: 221
• Statistics +9 Wisdom +8 Agility +29 Health
• Resistances +320 vs.Magic +120 vs.Mental
• Inventory Weight: 4.0

Dropped By A Nightblood Scourge

Nightblood Tonlets

• Properties ATTUNEABLE
• Slot / Type Feet / Armor
• Food Quality Level: 0 Duration: 0 min.
• Skill Requirement Heavy Armor Required Lvl: 38 Recommended Lvl: 42
• Defensive Spec Armor Class: 147
• Statistics +5 Stamina +10 Wisdom +33 Health
• Resistances +320 vs.Magic +120 vs.Mental
• Inventory Weight: 4.0

Dropped By A Nightblood Scourge

Nightblood Vambraces

• Properties ATTUNEABLE
• Slot / Type Forearms / Armor
• Food Quality Level: 0 Duration: 0 min.
• Skill Requirement Heavy Armor Required Lvl: 38 Recommended Lvl: 42
• Defensive Spec Armor Class: 221
• Statistics +10 Wisdom +7 Agility +29 Health
• Resistances +320 vs.Magic +120 vs.Mental
• Inventory Weight: 4.0

Dropped By A Nightblood Scourge

And finally....

Ring of the Nightblood

• Properties ATTUNEABLE
• Slot / Type Left Ring Right Ring / Armor
• Skill Requirement Magic Affinity Required Lvl: 30 Recommended Lvl: 40
• Effect Battlement of the Mind
• Defensive Spec Armor Class: 63 
• Statistics +9 Stamina +9 Wisdom +6 Agility +36 Health +36 Power 
• Resistances +235 vs.Fire +235 vs.Disease +134 vs.Mental 
• Inventory Weight: 0.5
  

Dropped By N'Kzak the Unnatural, a rare named that spawns near the Nightblood Scourges.  Additionally, check out Chapter 5 - Weapons for info on a +18 WIS 2-handed hammer dropped by these mobs as well!

6.3b - 40+ Armor

[Thanks to Gunthore Soulspell of Highkeep for comments in this section!]

Soooo. You've got your Nightblood armor and now you're level 40+.  It's time to upgrade again!  "But," you say, "my armor is till even-con at 41!"  Ahh, but we need more power, my friend.  In the 40s, grouping opportunites pick up.  At 41, for example, you can group with level 50 players, and to do that you don't want to run short on mana.  The NB armor was great for solo & small groups with the health and armor bonuses and amazing WIS, as well as easy on the pocketbook, but now we need more power and better secondary stats.  It's time to make the switch to player-crafted Fulginate!  It looks cool, and offers enough power, armor, and stats to make up for the loss to your already astronomical WIS.

Head to your broker, but before you buy check the Freeport fence too!  Sometimes you'll find a bargain.  Start by buying only the Fulginate (pristine is awesome, pristine imbued is even better!) that has WIS stats unless you can afford more.  You might look funny in the meantime, but Templars aren't vain, right? :)

Regarding your shield / symbol, a "pristine conditioned teak buckler" is the way to go (40, 5 int, 9 wis, 27 health, 25 power, 200 ac at lvl 50 plus a nice amount of shielding factor).  Upgrade to Cedar as your cash flow allows, but this is pretty expensive as its crafted from a T5 rare.  Your jewelry could probably stand an upgrade at this point too; see if you can find a bargain from the Splitpaw overflow!

Some other great suggestions [Thanks Eyenea of Oasis!]

• Golden Efreeti Boots - with Flowing Thought V as a permanent effect, the benefit to your power reserves will outweigh the "very light" armor class in a lot of cases.
• Robe of the Invoker - its version of Flowing Thought stacks with the GFB
• Pristine Ebon Gauntlets - These playercrafted gauntlets offer +8 WIS over the Fulginate version. A must-have if you've sacrificed a little too much WIS for power.

6.4 - Activatable Slot Items

Looking for something useful to fill your activatable slots during combat? Consider saving up for some hex dolls. These level 30 dolls, ranging from +9 to +12 stat boosts (depending on the rarity of the components / fabric used in manufacture), are available for many primary attributes. Our focus is Wisdom, so look for "Discord" hex dolls - the full name will be something like "Pristine Discord Imbued Cloth Hex Doll." [Thanks Flakenhippy of Innothule for this suggestion]!

Also, don't have your manastone! What kind of Templar are you anyway? :) Thanks to Eyenea of Oasis for pointing out that since there's no low hitpoint aggro in EQ2, the Manastone can be a lifesaver as it converts a chunk of health to power in roughly a 3-to-1 ratio.

6.5 - Shields

Another pricey player-crafted item definitely worth looking into at level 40 is a:

Pristine cedar buckler

• INT +8, WIS +12, Power +34, Health +34
• Shield Factor 235 (280 at lvl 50)

[Again, thanks to Flakenhippy of Innothule for this suggestion]

Low on cash and looking for a quested symbol? Try out the:

Tarton's Wheel

• Symbol (level 42-50)
• WIS +10, INT +12, Power +50, Health +23
• Click effect: Void Shift (Decreases threat by 500+ and warps the target a short distance away)

6.5 - Jewelry

Check out the Augur quests for folks 25-35 looking for some decent +WIS jewelry.

For the 40+ crowd, check out to solid +WIS, +Power rings (Thanks Eyenea of Oasis):

• Ring of Xanth
• Pristine Imbued Ruby Ring of Wisdom ( +8 STA, +6 AGI, +6 WIS, +33 health, +35 power, +360 diseaseR and mentalR, +320 heatR, click effect: Gleam of Wisdom (+14 WIS)

Have more armor suggestions? Mail 'em to me! The credit is yours when its posted!

Chapter 1 - Credits & The Basics
Chapter 2 - Quests
Chapter 3 - NPC Locations
Chapter 4 - Spell Tiers: Finding and Comparing Upgrades
Chapter 5 - Weapons
Chapter 6 - Armor
Chapter 7 - Spells
Chapter 8 - Methods and Techniques
Chapter 9 - 1H+Shld vs. 1H+Symbol vs. 2H Debate
Chapter 10 - Where To Hunt