Dark Templar Facts and Infos Compiled by Leinez This little pdf is a compiled collection of important Dark Templar facts and infos threads from the general beta forum. Most of the posts where posted by me. If not, I have included the writers name. Some infos may be outdated and not 100% correct. Have fun with it. ☺ Table of contents Dark Templar Facts and Infos ..................................................................... 1 Dark Templar – What is a Dark Templar?................................................... 2 Dark Templar general Infos about the Archetype ........................................ 3 Dark Templar skills and abilities ............................................................... 4 Dark Templar ability – Sadism – Facts and Myths ....................................... 5 Dark Templar Crowd Control writeup......................................................... 6 Dark Templar Feat overview .................................................................... 7 Depravity Tree .................................................................................... 7 Desecration Tree ............................................................................... 10 Soldier General Tree .......................................................................... 12 The newly added Feats and Tier 8 feat feedback: ................................... 15 Feat specs on lvl 80.............................................................................. 17 All infos and content is registred by funcom @ age of conan – hyborean adventures. This infos are still under NDA and you should not reveal it to others outside of the general beta. If you have questions about this write-up. Feel free to contact me: [email protected]

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Dark Templar — What is a Dark Templar? The Dark Templar as a soldier archetype is one of three tank classes in AoC. He uses dark magic and poison to devour and kill his opponents. And he uses auras and spells to boost the power of his team-mates. He can sacrifice a bit of his own health to heal his fellow team mates. One key ability of the Dark Templar are his lifeleeches. There are several buffs, combos and feats which enhances his lifedrain. The lifedrain is always a % value of his melee damage. On lvl 80 fully buffed, a Dark Templar will get to about 25% lifedrain. This is huge and a great benefit over other melee classes. The Dark Templar uses Auras, which are a group wide buffs, covenants which are only personal buffs and spells. He can only have one aura and one covenant active at any time. But he has many different covenant at his disposal. The Dark Templar has many abilities which add “proc’s”. Some of them trigger if he hits someone, other trigger if he’s getting hit. The procs are mainly unholy damage procs. Some of them are poison. He has some aoe procs too, which is really great to solo. He has some very handy Crowd Control abilities at his disposal. But that’s one of his problems too. All the Crowd Control lays in his feat trees. This means he won’t have crowd control if he doesn’t feat it. This makes a DT very weak in the early game to pvp with. A Dark Templar will shine in pve and pvp equally. With his lifeleeches, crowd control and handy group buffs, he will be a valuable team member in group pvp. I’ve played a total of 164 levels as a DT (because of 2 wipes) in the general Beta since October 2007. And I will play another DT at launch.

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Dark Templar general Infos about the Archetype The Dark Templar is a soldier archetype. He will become Frenzy Stance and Defensive Stance at about lvl 15. The Dark Templar will become a charge ability at about lvl 18. Armour: Light Armour – LvL Req: 1 Medium armour – LvL Req: 1 Heavy Armour LvL Req: 30 Weapons: 1H Edged – LvL Req: 1 1H Blunt – LvL Req: 1 Crossbow LvL Req: 50 Shield LvL Req: 1 Talisman – Lvl Req: 1 # #Feat - Talisman mastery - You only gain a benefit from using a talisman if you have the Talisman Mastery feat trained, in relation to the effects on your soul covenant spells (you can still offhand them for the mods from the item, regardless). If you have TM trained to max and are holding a talisman in the offhand, the power of most of the triggered effects from the soul covenant you are running is increased by around 40% (for rank 5 TM). This only ever affects your soul covenant spells, not any other spells you have (doesn't affect Aura of Dread Fury, for example). Keep in mind that most of your magical attacks will also be passively increased by using a Talisman when compared to without, even if it doesn't have a specific Unholy Damage buff on it. This is stated by a dev. Despite some myths, the Dark Templar will never be able to dual wield or use 2 – hand weapons.

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Dark Templar skills and abilities These are only the skills and ability's you get through leveling cause the skills and ability's gained through feats are posted a bit further down in this compilation.. Combos Leech life (Rank 1 - 6) buffs yourself with a lifeleech buff. Blood for Aid (Rank 1 - 3?) / Desolated Bulwark (Rank 1 - 2?) debuffs the enemy with a armor penetrating debuff. And your hit rating against that enemy is increased. desolated bulwark is just an improved blood for aid. Don't know why its called differently. Mystical Bane (Rank 1 - 4?) does a bit of mana damage to the enemy. (Can be improved via feats to proc a mana restoration effect on you). Unhallowed Blight (Rank 1 - 3?) your unholy attacks will do more damage against that foe. Spells / Auras Drain Life (Rank 1 - 4?) all your hits will return a % amount of health. Blood Pact (Rank 1 - 2?) all your hits will return 100% health. Damages yourself and has 30min cooldown. Can be reduced via feats. Martyrdom (Rank 1 - 4?) damages yourself and places a HoT effect on your team and yourself. Can be feated to return mana and stamina too. Aura of Dread Fury (Rank 1 - 5?) your hits and the whole party melee hits will do a passive amount of unholy damage wich is added to the weapon damage. (This is not stated in the combat log). And if you get hit, it can proc a minor aoe damage effect. Aura of Infusion (Rank 1 - 4?) if you get hit there is a chance, that the whole party members in the area of the aura will become a HoT. Covenants Covenant of Pestilence (Rank 1 - 5?) If you get hit there is a chance that a aoe damage effect procs. And the covenant places a -5% hinder movement debuff on you. Covenant of War (Rank 1 - 3?) if you get hit there is a chance that you will become a minor damage shield and a minor damage reflection shield. Covenant of Vengeance (Rank 1 - 2?)All your melee hits have a chance that covenant of vengeance procs. It will boost your attack rating ant let you do more melee damage, white and combo alike. Covenant of Death (Rank 1) I don't know if this one is still in. It was a lvl 80 group dungeon (onyx chambers) end boss drop. If you get hit there is a chance that you will become another +6 drain life buff. (This would boost you on lvl 80 with stacked sadism and leech life on the target above 30% health drain! ) This is pretty much it. Keep in mind. You can only have one aura and one covenant up at the same time. Blood Pact will overwrite drain life. Everywhere where i have added a ? after the rank i am not sure if this value is correct. But everywhere else it is.

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Dark Templar ability — Sadism — Facts and Myths Sadism is still a thing which isn't quite clear. How to gain sadism, what does sadism. And there is some info which is outdated cause sadism has changed since the beginning of the beta. Sadism is gained very early as a passive ability (around lvl 10 or probably earlier). Sadism procs when someone in your group gets hit. Sadism is a self buff only. (it was a group buff before). Sadism can be stacked up to 10 times. The sadism buff wears out if he isn't refreshed after 10sec. If your sadism counter reaches 10 you begin to pulse aoe unholy damage every 3sec. Sadism gives you every stack +1% damage +1% lifetap +1% magical damage +1% magical lifetap There are many feats which are connected to sadism: Depravity tree: Vile Soul tier 5 2 Point Feat Effect: You will start to pulse aoe damage when your sadism counter reaches 8 / 5 rather then 10. Masochism: left depravity tree tier 6 feat 5 Point feat Effect: There is a chance that you add a sadism counter when you get hit Depravity: left depravity tree tier 7 feat 5 Point feat Effect: Your sadism counter will be raised by 1 everytime covenant of vengeance procs Desecration tree: Ritualistic Bloodshed tier 5 2 Point Feat Effect: Gives the Dark Templar a clickable ability to increase the sadism counter by one. However it does a bit of mana damage to the dark templar. The cooldown of the ability let you stack sadism to 10 and keep it up as long as you have mana left. How to get to 10 sadism stacks as fast as possible and keep it up to get the most out of it: If you have specced all the depravity feats mentioned above, you can stack sadism even if you aren't in a group. But you will only stack sadism if you fight (get hit or proc covenant of vengeance). And you can only keep it up by fighting. Contra: If you make a pause wich is longer than 10sec, sadism will wear out. And you have to stack it up again from 0.

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If you spec into ritualistic bloodshed you can stack sadism by clicking on the ability. You can stack sadism before a fight to 10 and if you click it every time before the timer wears out you can keep it up forever. Ritualistic bloodshed does 15% mana damage from the remaining mana, wich means you can use it even if you have only 2 mana left. *changed: it now uses 15% of your total manapool. Spec into mana leech (and all the other mana related feats) to top up your mana* Contra: if you forget to press the ability and the timer wears out you have to stack again from 0. And its easy to forget to press the button, especially if you are engaged in a pvp fight. Final note: you can see, that sadism stacked to 10 is a godly buff wich helps in every situation cause its passive and counts towards every hit and proc. In group situations, stacking sadism won’t be a problem at all. If you play solo. You have to spec into a feat connected to building up sadism counters to get a profit out of sadism.

Dark Templar Crowd Control writeup Snare: Dark Burden Duration = 10 sec Effect = 35% hinder movement Cooldown = 30sec Range = about 4m (relatively close) Where is it attained = Tier 3 Depravity feat (2 points must be feated into this, the first point is a combo, the 2nd this spell.) Comment: Not a bad spell. Awesome to close the gap to a fleeing enemy, or to flee for yourself. Its the only hostile spell a dark templar will get. Fear: Dooming Presence Duration/Effect = 6 sec aoe fear Combo = (E) - (Q) *new key sequence* Cooldown = 60sec Where is it attained = Tier 8 Desecration feat Comment: Awesome combo, aoe fear. What would you want more? And the damage from the combo isn't bad either. The dmg got upped a bit last patch. Stun: Mind Wrack Duration/effect = 3 sec cone stun Combo = (E) *single key combo now* Cooldown = 50sec Where is it attained = Tier 5 Depravity feat Comment: Its a very good combo now. The animation is very short and you'll get much more out of your stun! Stun: Mind Shatter Duration/effect = 6 sec cone stun Combo = (E) - (Q) - (UR) - (Mid) *new key sequence* Cooldown = 55sec Where is it attained = Tier 7 Depravity feat Comment: One of the best combos for a DT. Its a 4 hit combo with a very fast animation. So you'll have the most out of your stun. [email protected]

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Dark Templar Feat overview This Feat overview is compiled from 3 Threads. One is from caedas and the other one about the newer feats is from me. The one from caedas is from a early stage of the beta and some feedback from him is thus outdated. But the core of the abilities haven’t changed.

Depravity Tree Blighted Touch - Works just fine. At 5 spec it procs often, multiple times during a fight vs a single mob. Although after this last big patch the frequency seems to have been reduced. Or it could be that I was just having absurdly horrid luck against the last 10 mobs I just fought. It used to go off at least twice during a fight vs a +1-2 level mob. Now I sometimes don't see it for two or tree fights in a row. But... when it does go off it is for roughly 50-110. Blighted Soul - It works, and even when fighting a single mob this effect procs, seemingly as an additional aoe effect. The aoe damage is rather low, doing anything between 8 and 30 damage, it seems. It also has random seeming range. Two mobs could be right on top of each other and none of my procs will hurt the secondary mob. Other times they are further apart and the aoe burns the secondary mob down to half health by the time I'm done with the first. Crystalized Ether - I have had no use for this whatsoever, yet, due to not needing mana. Like Recovery (in the general soldier tree) it lists two OOC amounts. I've been assuming that this is a bug and or typo, and the smaller number is supposed to be In Combat. IF that is the case, this feat would work well with Soul Barrier and Ether Leech. Dark Hand - Boosts the dps of your weapon. This seems to work, as the bonus damage is apparent when you hover over your weapon in the inventory screen. Devouring Blood Frenzy - Is supposed to be a 'proc' of sorts, giving you health when you hit in frenzy stance. I fought 8 or so mobs with this specced, and never did I gain any health from a frenzy hit. It didn't matter if I had the Drain Life spell active, or had Devouring Touch specced, or had both. It looks broken. Consuming Bulwark - I had this specced prior to last patch and it worked. Almost every time I was hit, I would gain a tiny amount of life. Anywhere between 1 and 6 or so. I'm not sure if it was depending on how hard you were struck, and I can't verify this now because since untraining (post patch), this feat will no longer work for me. I get hit in defensive stance and no life gain occurs, ever. Other DT's online at the time tested their for me, and theirs works. So, it's broken for me.

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Devourer's Might - Increases damage of the Feast and Leech combos. Against a series of level 41 mobs I made the following observations, attacking single shielded sides of the mob: Without feat, Feast and Leech would hit for anything between 110-178 With feat, Feast and Leech would hit for anything between 120-215. So it appears it does boost damage, but it isn't significant. Before my testing, another DT (level 40) said that he used Feast often, stating that it would do "300 damage per hit, as opposed to Enraging Strike III, which did half that". Now, for me this is utterly untrue. I had stopped using Feast due to its massive stamina requirement and meager damage compared to basic styles. Even with Devourer's Might, Feast basically equaled ESIII or Unhallowed Strike. Dissipate Ether - Boosts mana damage of Mystical Bane combo. Seems to work. Incinerate Ether - Allows Mystical Bane combo to deal damage to target equal to mana damage. Requires Dissipate Either. This also works, and against level 41 and 42 mobs it would do a respectable 200 damage on average. Spell: Dark Burden - This works. This is your snare spell. Dread Lord - It is supposed to reduce cooldown time of your combos. It is fixed and its working. Sadistic Glee - Haven't used this yet. I haven't had too much grouping happen recently, and when I did, I was tanking, thus not allowing for Sadism to go off much. When I remember Sadism activating - stacked 4 times - I noticed that the benefits seemed minor. This however is a separate class matter. Combo: Mind Wrack - It works. You get a new melee combo. It is a one step combo, and deals fairly decent damage. It does appear to stun the enemy, but the duration is extremely short. In the end, not bad for one point. Ether Reap - Gives mana regen chance upon hitting with Mystical Bane. Since I tested it about 10 times and a mana regen effect kicked in each time, I'd say this wasn't as much a chance as it is a sure thing. At level 46 I had five pulses of 16 mana each (80 mana total), which is much better than any other mana regen effect the Dark Templar currently has. But With Soul Barrier being rather poor, currently, this isn't very useful. Mystical Bane, as discussed earlier, is a good damage dealing combo when fed points into. Hexer's Might - This is basically the same as Devourer's Might, but affecting Unhallowed Blight (UB) and Blood for Aid (BfA). As its predecessor, Hexer's Might also works. My tests here were with full 5 point spec, at level 46, against a level 49 mob, and again when attacking a single-shielded side: Without feat, UB hit for ~150-190. BfA hit for ~184-215. With feat, UB hit for ~160-221. BfA hit for ~260-306. The difference in UB damage is, for whatever reason, minimal. BfA however gets a nice boost.

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Gore Fiend - I haven't grouped much between 40 and 60, and when I did, I don't recall any fatalities. I myself have had ONE fatality, between roughly level 45 and 60. I don't know how everyone else is faring in that department, but they are certainly rare for me. As such, I have no comment on the actual functioning of this feat. However, Sadism as a whole seems highly underwhelming to me. Masochism - Gives you a chance for a Sadism counter when you're struck. At full 5 point spec, against two equal level mobs, I would perhaps get two stacking Sadism counters, at most. This gives you +200 life drain (in whatever units the game uses) and +2% damage. As it stands, it doesn't go off enough and Sadism, as stated above, is weak. Perhaps some level 80 DT has better experience with it than I. Depravity - Works in conjuction with the 'Blasphemous Vengeance' spell, which I do not have. I don't seem to recall a scroll for this either, though I could be wrong. No clue if this feat works or not. Touch of Death & Air of Death - Gives you a clickable ability, that when activated, boosts damage of your next combo. It has about a 30 second cooldown, and added about 55-113 unholy damage (I forget what level I tested it at, likely around 45) to my next combo. So for 5 feat points you get a little bit of damage every 30 seconds. I am not impressed. Air of Death makes that damage AoE, which is rather useless due to the infrequency of this effect. There is a funny thing about Air of Death, which I'll mention again later. Combo: Mind Shatter - This combo is a beautiful thing. The earlier (and prerequisite) Mind Wrack did respectable damage and had about a 2.5 second stun. Mind Shatter is so much more. On a single target, you seem to get 4 swings. If you fight 2-3 targets, you get 7 swings, and unlike other DT combos, it hits all targets. At level 60, against 2-3 level 60 mobs, I would hit for ~900-1350 damage (7 swings). Against a single mob the damage would be lower, ~500-800 (4 swings). It affects foes in a cone in front of you, and stuns them all for 5 seconds. Great combo. Unholy Strength - Allegedly raises the damage of all Dark Templar combos. It is down the list of feats in this tree, so I already have Devourer's Might and Hexer's Might. Sadly, I don't think this feat works properly right now. I tested a variety of DT combos, both with and without this feat. I used Drain Life 1, Leech Life 3, Unhallowed Blight 2, Blood for Aid, and Desolate Bulwark. As with previous tests, I did my best to hit single shielded sides, however, as some of these combos involved two steps, the mobs would often switch shields around, so this is as accurate as I could get. Leech Life 3 and Unhallowed Blight 2 seem to get a small boost. The other combos, unless I was unlucky (each series of tests involved about a dozen mobs, with 2-3 combos executed on each), seem to get no benefit, and even less damage on some occasions. I also tested Mind Shatter, and it seemed unaffected as far as I could tell. Drain Strength - I couldn't tell an immediate difference in enemy damage at first glance, but I have not yet dedicated time to test this properly. If I find the motivation, this may be in my next post.

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Desecration Tree Devouring Touch - A small lifetap, activated per hit. And I mean small. 1-5 points healed on any normal hit, more if you crit. It seems to have a synergy with the Drain Life buff, which roughly doubles it's effect. With Dev Touch specced to 5, with Drain Life (rank 2), it would heal for 4-10, and more if doing a powerful combo or crit. It obviously heals a % of the damage you deal, because when hitting in Frenzy stance, it would heal for much more, sometimes upwards of 40 health. Vigor Leech & Ether Leech - They work, but they aren't overly impressive. On a normal hit I would receive about 3 stamina and mana. Using combos (and it seems based on the damage you deal) I would receive anywhere from 4 to 10 stamina and mana. I'd say this feat needs boosting, along with Devouring Touch. Spell: Weapon of the Damned - It works, and it works well. Coupled with Blighted Touch and Corrupt Weapon, you have a nice series of stacking unholy damage procs. Both Blighted Touch and this go off rather frequently, in my experience. These are good feats. Talisman Mastery - I was curious about this one for a while, and recent database updates have finally cleared up that Weapon of the Damned is a Covenant spell, thus affected by this feat. While fighting level 41 and 42 mobs, here are the damage outputs of Weapon of the Damned, both with and without Talisman Mastery, while using the talisman called "Phaedra's Blackstone" (+60 mana +5 unholy damage): Without feat, it would proc for 40-80. There may be exceptions to this, but very rare. With feat, it would proc for 80-120. I saw one exception hit for 65, on a level 42 mob, on a triple shielded side. The difference is apparent. I like this feat. Improved Dread Fury – It adds a little magic lifetap effect to the aura of dread fury. This way your proc’s will convert some of the damage into hp. Corrupt Weapon - A very nice two point feat, and it works. This goes off about as often as Blighted Touch and Weapon of the Damned, and it is a bleed proc, affecting the enemy three times, for around 15-30 damage each, every activation (thus about 45-90 damage each proc). Improved Soul Covenants - Raises frequency of Covenant effects (thus the frequency of Weapon of the Damned). Seems to work, but it's tough to say without extensive testing. Approach of Death - Another excellent, working feat. Anytime Weapon of the Damned goes off when the enemy is at about 50% or lower, an additional damage effect procs. It hits for about 9-39 damage, and sometimes it goes off TWICE during the same Weapon of the Damned activation. Improved Martyrdom – It adds a stamina and mana restoration effect to martyrdom. Not too shabby in group play..

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Sacrificial Fury – When you use martyrdom. You will become a melee damage buff for a short time. Soul Barrier - This is beyond my personal experience, at least until I grind up to 40+. Another DT, level 43, (thanks, Darkur) did a quick test for me and said it would absorb various amounts of damage, up to about 120 damage. Each point of damage absorbed would use up two points of mana. Soul Barrier duration is about 18 seconds, or it ends if your mana is depleted. When the spell ends it also actually gives you a small heal over time, which is nice. I'll test this spell in greater depth, soon. Ritualistic Bloodshed – Using this ability gives you a sadism counter. However it uses 15% of your mana pool. And with every stack the mana usage is increased by 2%. This is great to keep sadism at 10. Desecrated Blood - Supposedly increases the chance to proc Blood of the Damned. Blood of the Damned appears to be a broken spell. The database entries for it are incomplete and show up as gibberish in my combat log. My foe does not seem visibly affected by it. I do however get hurt by the spell, as it states in its own description. For now, the spell and the feat appear useless. Stay with Weapon of the Damned. Improved Infusion - I find it useless. Infusion to begin with, is too weak. This feat gives the Infusion aura a minor mana regen of about 5 points every few (45?) seconds. I was too underwhelmed to even time the pulses correctly, sorry. Soul Infusion - Since Soul Barrier works, I'll go out on a limb and say this works also, but I have not had a chance to test this due to a lack of pvp and caster mobs during my recent leveling. Improved Blood Pact - Reduces the cooldown of the Blood Pact spell. Blood Pact itself is broken at this time. This feat however, works. At full spec it reduces Blood Pact cooldown from 30 minutes to 5. Invulnerable Soul - Works in conjuction with Hex-Marked Soul, which I can not use yet, due to lack of rank 1 scrolls. When I am eventually able to use the Hex spell, I'll test this. Cabalistic Hunger - A small lifetap when one of your procs goes off. And it is small. Weaker than your standard, 1st tier melee lifetap. A Blighted Touch proc going off for 150 would heal me for 6 points or so. As other lifetaps, it is a percentage of your damage dealt. This is most useful with Covenant of Putrescence due to how often it procs, but still only feeds you 3-4 health most of the time (at level 60). A full life-tap build may find use for this, but I deem it too weak. Vile Pestilence - Boosts the chance for Pestilential Body to proc. It seems to work. Using the same talisman as before (when testing Weapon of the Damned), and with full Talisman Mastery, this would go off almost every time I got hit for ~82-180 damage, in an area. Fighting 2-3 equal level mobs (at 60), this would inflict much pain upon them. You will be happy to know that having points in Weapon of the Damned and Covenant of Putrescence also raises the proc chance for Pestilential Body. [email protected]

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Body of Pestilence - Removes the 5% movement penalty when using Pestilential Body. Pestilential Cloud - Increases Pestilential Body area of effect. I can't be sure on this, but it seems to work. When fighting 3 mobs, they would all get hit every time, at a reasonable range. Spell: Covenant of Putrescence - This, my fellow testers, is your best friend as a Dark Templar. It is a variation of Pestilential Body. Instead of the proc activating when you get hit, it activates when you strike (it shows up as Pestilential Gauntlet in combat log). And honestly, it seems to go off on each hit. Thus, fighting 2-3 foes of equal level is possible without a potion, especially when combined with Blighted Soul, and other procs. At level 60, without Talisman Mastery, it does ~65-95 damage, and with it, the damage increases to ~80-180. That's per hit, in an AoE. Earlier in this post I mentioned a funny thing about Air of Death. With Putrescence active, I get Air of Death dealing damage and showing up in my combat log. This must be a bug, but it's a nice one for now Vile Putrescence - Increases the area of effect of Covenant of Putrescence. Once again, this is tough to test. I will assume that it does work, because I can move around while fighting 3 mobs and they will all take the AoE damage.

Soldier General Tree This was posted by johnnie0jr Tier 1 Feats Recovery This is a decent feat, about the same as all of the other tier 1 feats for the archtypes. I do think it would be better served as some kind of % for scaling purposes but still not a bad feat. (To note, the feat does scale as you level, it just does not seem to scale based on your hps. Thank you Jenius! Regen was 38.9 at level 27) Tier 2 Feats Stone Skin Gives 1% resists to all spells per point in the talent, 5% at 5/5. Improved Frenzy Stance Increases both the physical and magical damage of Frenzy Stance by 2% per point, 10% at 5/5. Hateful Strikes Purely a pve ability, just helps hold aggro. Goad Another pve only ability, basically your taunt from other games.

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Improved Defensive Stance Terrible feat, gives .3% to all physical resists for each point in it. When compared to Improved Frenzy Stance it is even worse. Iron Skin, another tier 2 feat in the same tree, gives 1% for each point in it and it does all melee resists + poison resist. No idea what they were thinking when they made this one. Should be changed to either 1.3%+ per point (since it is defensive stance only) or add in physical and magical resists at the rate of .75% or so. Could possibly be combined with Surging Health as well, since even with both feats combined it's still one of the weakest feats in the tree. Iron Skin I find this to be a really nice feat. It adds 1% per point to all 3 physical resistances and poison. A very solid tier 2 feat, scalable and all around nice. Tier 3 Feats Burning Vigor I did not test this extensively but it appears to be about the same as surging health, another waste of feat points. Should probably be combined with some other feat or replaced entirely. Sustained Rage Not a great feat but not terrible either. Gives a total of 3.1 damage at level 27. Is required to get Anticipation. Counterstrike Stance This feat is a complete waste at anything past level 10 (ie any time you can get it). With 3/3 in the feat I was reflecting 1 damage on hit, even when hit for 50 I was only reflecting 1 damage a hit. I was also reflecting 1 damage per hit with 1/3. Not sure if the feat is not functioning correctly or if it is truly meant to be that weak. (was 2 damage at level 27 with 3/3). Surging Health Another feat I had high hopes for and was highly disappointed in. At level 27 this feat was proccing for about 16. It has a low proc rate, 5% or so it seemed to me. It only heals like 1% of my total health and with only a 5% proc chance that is horrible. You get 4% lifetap in the Desecration tree (tier 1) and it procs on every single hit. It seems that Funcom decided to make the general feats much weaker then the class feats. No idea why they would do this, a feat point is a feat point and they should all give the same level of benefit. Here are my ideas on how to fix this feat: If you fix improved defensive stance by combining it with this feat then make this one a 10% proc rate and restore 6% health (with 3/3, 2% per point) in combination with new benefit from improved defensive stance. If you do it without combining with defensive stance I would go more along the lines of 10% proc rate with 12%(4% per point) health restored. (can be tweaked as necessary)

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Tier 4 Feats Guarded Frenzy This is one of the best feats in the whole tree, and maybe the only feat in the tree that is worth taking it and it's pre-req both instead of having to sacrifice points to get what you want. Base Frenzy Stance is 50% damage and 100% magical damage while taking 200% more damage from all sources. With Improved Frenzy Stance it goes upt o 60% and 110% but you still take 200% more damage, so it's still a losing stance overall, if you are getting hit. With Guarded Frenzy it reduces the 200% damage taken down to 100%, meaning you go from losing a lot to actually gaining in every way. An extremely powerful feat, almost worth taking it even with having to take all of the other garbage feats in the tree. Cunning Deflection Not a great feat but it's not terrible either. It seems to reduce the damage of the next attack (or maybe even all attacks that hit in the same second as the next attack) by 50%. Has a 30 second cooldown and a 20ish second duration, or until hit. The first melee swing to hit you after using this ability will also cause the attacker to take a decent bit of damage (120-130 at 27). I think this ability is a bit weak with a 30 second cooldown, I would either reduce the colldown to 10ish seconds or cause it to reduce the damage/counter attack all attacks for 5 seconds. Has no stamina cost. Anticipation Another worthless feat. This is just another damage shield but one with a proc chance instead of every swing. The proc chance seems to be about 80% but it only reflects 7ish damage at level 27. The description of the feat is very misleading and the feat itself is a waste of points. They should either increase the damage by a good bit, make it % of damage taken, or just turn it into a full on damage shield AND increase the damage some. Lifesaver Another bad feat, not good but compared to most of the feats in this tree it's great. Gives a bit of passive health regen while in defensive stance. (19.4 at level 27). The only reason I gave this a green rating is because it's better then most of the garbage in here. Makes no sense to me that the tier 1 feat gives double the regen in all stances while a tier 4 feat gives half as much AND requires defensive stance. Tier 5 Feats Volcanic Rage Increases damage by 20% for 20 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown. Improved Goad Mob Untested but appears to increase the range/effect of Goad Mob. Goad Mob Untested but appears to be an aoe taunt..

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The newly added Feats and Tier 8 feat feedback:

Depravity Tier 2 Pact of Malacodor 5 Point Feat Effect: Trains the spell "Pact of Malacodor" if used, gives all melee attack a unholy proc. However this spell consumes a significant amount of life force. Comment: This spell consumes about 1 / 5 of your life force if used. (in normal stance) It will give all your melee attacks a unholy proc for the next 30 sec. It hits only enemys who are hit by your weapon. Its a 100% proc chance on a hit. Its useful if noone hits you. Not very useful while leveling. Tier 5 Vile Soul 2 Point Feat Effect: You will start to pulse aoe damage when your sadism counter reaches 8 / 5 rather then 10. Comment: The pulsing aoe damage is not that great that you will use this feat often. There are much more useful feats in terms of stacking sadism. More later. Reaper of Malacodor 1 Point Feat Effect: Trains the spell "Reaper of Malacodor" Grants all your melee hits a aoe unholy proc. However it consumes a significant amount of life force. Comment: You will have a aoe unholy damage on every hit for 30 sec. Its a 100% proc chance on a hit. However when used it consumes exactly 50% of your life force (it kills you if aou're in frenzy ). Very good in situation where you aren't getting hit and there is need of aoe damage. Tier 8 Ravenous Eater 1 Point Feat Effect: When you use a Leech life or Soul for our Feast combo. It grants you a secondary effect wich boosts your damage for a short time. Comment: If i use Leech Life VI it will give me +45 damage for 5 sec. This is huge! Good if you want to land your finishing blow after a life leech opener. Dread Shadow 1 Point Feat Effect: When you use your strongest "a soul for our feast" combo it will summon a dread shadow pet who fights on your side for a short time. Comment: It summons a very cool looking dread shadow wich fights for about 10 sec. It will summon as many dread shadows as you hit. (4 hts = 4 pets ). Very unique feat, and very high on the coolness list. And the Dread Shadow hits very fast for about 50-140 dmg.

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Desecration Tier 2 Curse of Gwahlur 5 Point Feat Effect: Grants you a chance to inflict the curse of gwahlur on a enemy who strikes you. It will feed you with life as it damages the enemy. Stacks up to 3 times. Comment: A nice feat. It procs quite frequently and it will provide you with some life per tick. But its not that much. And the damage is quite useless. But you can feat around weapon of the dammned with this feat. Tier 3 Changed Feat: Improved Dread Fury 5 Point Feat Effect: It improves the aura of dread fury with magical lifetap. Comment: a very useful feat! It converts 4% of your proc unholy damage into life for you. Very nice if used together with covenant of pestilence and cabalistic hunger, because the massive aoe damage. If you fight with such feats against many mobs you will actualy gain health. Tier 5 Changed Feat: Ritualistic Bloodshed 2 Point Feat Effect: Gives the Dark Templar a ability to increase the sadism counter by one. However it does a bit of mana damage to the dark templar. Coment: This is the feat i used the most while leveling, in fact i use it almost every time when i'm playing. With this feat you can stack your sadism counter to 10 and keep it up as long as you want. *changed: you need a minimal amount of 100 mana to cast RB now* Tier 6 Cabalistic Hunger 5 Point Feat Effect: Converts part of the spell damage into life for the dark templar. Comment. Another +4% magical lifetap. Very good with other proc and lifetap builds. Tier 8 Dooming Presence 1 Point Feat Effect: Summons a terrifying cloud of fear in a area around the templar. Comment: Gives you a 2 key combo to activate a 6sec aoe fear. A fery useful pvp move, cause you can combine it with the other stuns from the depravity tree. Godly in pvp!! The new animation is quite cool too! A warping pillar of doom comes down on the templar and explodes around him.

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Warped Dread 1 Point Feat Effect: The dark warrior's outworld is so strong they can summon its power to protect themselfs, absorbing damage. The shield also warps realyti so enemy hits are likely to miss. Comment: Gives you a 2 key combo, wehn activated the enemy gains a -50% miss chance debuff for 6 sec. The shield however doesn't funtion while i was testing it. Maybe a good combo in combination with covenant of invulnerability and soul barrier.

Feat specs on lvl 80 This are just examples of feat specs which could be useful on lvl 80. But this is just speculation, because there might be changes to feats and abilities until launch. The heavy Crowd Control spec (Dooming Presence and Mind Wrack) http://hybes.de/featPlaner.php?class...,703-11,731-13 The CC heavy spec with dooming presence and mind shatter. A 100% covenant free build. http://hybes.de/featPlaner.php?class...,731-13,705-11 A Covenant free damage build with improved aura of infusion. If the imp aura of infusion isn't that good, i will put the points in the soldier general tree into recovery.

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