~ Buffy ~
Buffy manifests in ESO as both a templar and a sorceress. It seems that is what it takes to fully capture the little elf’s complex nature. In both forms, her appearance is the same, she puts all attribute points into magicka, maintains a continuous food boost to both magicka and health, wears light armor and wields dual staves.
She also labors under a couple limitations. Firstly, she is Bosmer so will always suffer from a slightly lower magicka pool than an Altmer or Breton. This is the price Buffy pays to be the smallest healer and smallest mage on the battlefield. Secondly, though she loves dungeon crawling, she refuses to repetitively ‘farm’ dungeons for gear. So her gear is carefully chosen from only crafted or overland dropped sets that nicely suit the class she is actively playing.
More on each of her two ‘builds’ –
Templar
The ‘mission’ of Buffy as templar is to be a healer who is capable of comfortably completing any content designed for solo play. Happily, the same robust magicka pool that supports strong heals also supports solid magicka dps. The selection of damage spells she slots are carefully chosen to generally provide team healing/support while also providing some damage. While most of her support abilities are inherent to the templar class, others require her to use a restoration staff on one bar and a destruction staff on the other bar. Happily, the same healing that helps others also helps Buffy in such a way that self-healing is her primary defense, augmented by selective blocking.
She wears Seducers (for sustain) and Robes of the Hist (to stay on her feet and auto heal when disabled).
Though she has many more skills than she can slot at one time fully developed and ready for use, this is how her bars most often look:
Bar 1 (Sharpened lightning staff): Elemental Drain, Blazing Spear, Reflective Light, Purify, Puncturing Sweep. Ult = Thunderous Rage.
Bar 2 (Powered resto staff): Extended Ritual, Rapid Regeneration, Healing Springs, Breath of Life, Radiant Glory. Ult = Nova.
Her ‘rotation’ is quite reactive to those she is supporting and can include frequent bar swaps.
Character sheet
screenshot of stats. Of note is her high magicka regen. This is to enhance her ‘up time’ of continuous support by reducing her use of time-consuming heavy attacks to regenerate magicka.
Sorceress
The ‘mission’ of Buffy as sorceress is to be a self-contained team that includes plenty of damage (Buffy), a solid tank (Spike her clannfear) and a strong healer (Drusilla her winged matriarch).
In addition to delivering plenty of lightning damage, Buffy busily wards both herself and her pets with a strong magical shield as she directs the efforts of her tank and healer. Her defense is Spike, augmented by her magical shield and mobility, which includes dodge-rolling.
She wears Law of Julianos (all good magic stuff) and Necropotence (loads of pure magicka).
Bar 1 (Sharpened lightning staff): Liquid Lightning, Empowered Ward, Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch. Ult = Thunderous Rage.
Bar 2 (Sharpened lightning staff): Power Surge, Elemental Drain, Crystal Blast, Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch. Ult = Thunderous Rage.
Her ‘rotation’ is pretty simple. Prep the fight from her back bar, then switch to her front bar to keep her area over time damage spells and shield active, punctuated by two heavy attacks. Use the matriarch to heal the clannfear as required. Refresh the back bar stuff every half minute or so.
She is a bit specialized – even somewhat limited – as a solo adventuress with a flair for world boss killing. Though her clannfear is a magnificent tank, bosses are easily distracted from him when other players show up. If other player(s) can hold the boss in place they are a help. If they cannot, they are a hindrance, as they simply pull the boss off Buffy’s clannfear which can result in a very dangerous rogue world boss chasing random players (including the no-melee Buffy).
Character sheet
screenshot of stats. Of note is her large (for a Bosmer) magicka pool and high critical%. Both contribute to her objective of high dps, while the high crit% also gives her a strong and continuous self heal via her Power Surge aura.
Summary
One thing that both mystifies and gratifies me is that as either class she very much feels like Buffy. The templar highlights her nurturing nature and the noble influence of her internal paladin. The sorceress exemplifies her traditional role as a no-melee glass cannon who relies on summoned help. I had expected to become easily confused switching between the two playstyles but, happily, such is not the case. I’m delighted to report that my old fingers seem well-able to support Buffy’s whim to switch between the two styles as frequently as she changes outfits or hairstyles.