ESO Templar Class Mastery Passives for 2026

This guide breaks down all Templar Class Mastery Passives, including how to access them, what they do, and which passives are best.

Related Articles

• ESO Class Mastery Guide
• ESO Roadmap 2026 Overview
• ESO Seasons Explained
• ESO Update 49 Guide
• Gold Coast Bazaar Guide

Update 50 is bringing one of the most exciting additions to Elder Scrolls Online in years: Class Mastery Passives. These are exclusive passive bonuses available only to pure class builds — characters who use all three of their native class skill lines without subclassing. Every class gets five passives to choose from, and you can slot two at a time.

ESO Templar Class Mastery Passives List

Bastion of Light Light consecrates the ground on which you tread.	Effect: Sacred Ground is now applied while you are in your own Nova and Spear Shards, and while Radial Sweep and Solar Barrage are active. While Sacred Ground is active, you heal for 2096 Health every 1 second. If you are at full Health after being healed from this effect while in combat, you also gain 2 Ultimate.
Devout Guardian Radiant is the shield that pushes back the dark.	Effect: While Sacred Ground is active, you gain a damage shield for 6 seconds, up to once every 6 seconds. The shield absorbs up to 4765 damage and provides 300 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery while active. If the shield breaks, you gain 10 Ultimate.
Bright Harbinger Light’s banner instills hope. You are its bearer.	Effect: Upgrades rank 2 of Illuminate to also grant Bright Harbinger for the duration, which grants 300 Weapon and Spell Damage to allies and doubles for you.
Judgment’s Brand Judgement follows in the wak of your radiance.	Effect: When rank 2 of Burning Light deals damage, your Templar abilities gain 1400 damage done for 3.1 seconds. This bonus is halved against players.
Steadfast Candescence Your conviction is unwavering. Light gives no quarter.	Effect: Sacred Ground now activates and refreshes itself while Bracing. Increases the amount of damage you can block by 20% while stationary.

Templar Class Masteries Explained

Bastion of Light

Bastion of Light is a simple passive, buffing the effects you already receive from the Sacred Ground passive. In addition to Minor Mending being triggered by standing in Cleansing Ritual, Rune Focus, or Rite of Passage, you can now gain the effect with while standing in your Nova and Spear Shards, and while Radial Sweep and Solar Barrage are active. Furthermore, you will also regain 2096 Health every 1 second for as long as Sacred Ground is active, and also gain 2 Ultimate if you are already at full Health while being healed from this effect. This is a decent passive for Templar Solo Builds and even healers looking for more healing and Ultimate generation.

Devout Guardian

Devout Guardian is also another class mastery the buffs the Sacred Ground passive, this time with a damage shield. The shield absorbs up to 4765 damage and provides 300 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery while active. This makes it a useful choice for any players having survivability and/or resource sustain issues, and will be especially good for Templar Solo builds.

Bright Harbinger

The Bright Harbinger class mastery provides a buff to Rank 2 of the Illuminate passive. This is a nice option for a support build that wants to provide a damage buff to themselves and their allies. Along with the base Minor Sorcery, you will now also grant 300 Weapon and Spell Damage to allies and doubles for you. This one is great for support builds and solo players alike, as long as you are already proccing Illuminate.

Judgment’s Brand

Judgment’s Brand is a must have for DPS Templar builds and Solo Builds, and requires that you have upgraded the Burning Light passive to Rank 2. With it, not only will you generate stacks of Burning Light, but your Templar abilities also gain 1400 damage done for 3.1 seconds. Keep in mind that this bonus effect will be halved against players in PvP.

Steadfast Candescence

Steadfast Candescence is yet another option that buffs the Sacred Ground passive, and a good choice for Temple Tank builds. With it, you no longer need to activate specific abilities to trigger Sacred Ground. Instead, the act of blocking will be enough to activate or refresh the effect. Additionally, it increases the amount of damage you can block by 20% while stationary.

Templar Best Class Mastery Passive

The best class mastery passive for the Templar class is Judgment’s Brand, which increases the damage done by your Templar abilities by 1400 for 3.1 seconds whenever Burning Light deals damage. This will be especially good if your build is focused on Biting Jabs or Puncturing Sweep, as those attacks hit more frequently and will therefore benefit the most from the increased damage applied to each hit.

How Class Mastery Works

In order to use the new Class Mastery passives, your character must have hit Level 50 and also leveled their three class skill lines to level 50. Once your skill lines are maxed out, a new skill line option called Class Mastery will appear.

The Class Mastery skill line contains 5 passives. Players have 2 skill points here to spend, allowing you to unlock 2 of the 5 passives.

Class Mastery passives can be reset at any time, allowing you to experiment or change your build on the fly.

Keep in mind that Class Mastery passives are fluid and may change from patch to patch. The developers have stated that as classes become reworked, their Mastery passives will need to be adjusted to compensate.

Is Class Mastery Better Than Subclassing?

The honest answer is: it depends on your class.

Subclassing in ESO is still extremely strong. Subclassing gives you access to two additional passive trees, extra skill options, and the utility that comes with mixing and matching class lines. That is a significant amount of power and flexibility. For focused builds such as DPS Builds, Tank Builds, and Healer Builds, Subclassing is generally going to still be preferred, though not always. Some classes, such as Nightblades and Wardens have exceptionally powerful damage passives through Class Mastery, making their pure class builds a strong alternative for group DPS setups.

ESO Class Mastery Passives FAQ

1. How do you unlock Class Mastery?

You must level all three of your class skill lines to rank 50. Once that condition is met, the Class Mastery passive skill line unlocks automatically.

2. How many passives can you use?

Each class has five Class Mastery Passives. You can slot two at a time.

3. Do they cost skill points?

No. Class Mastery Passives are completely free. You can respec them the same way you respec normal abilities.

4. When does this go live?

Class Mastery Passives are scheduled for Update 50, arriving in June 2026 as part of ESO Season 0.

5. Can I use Class Mastery Passives if I subclass?

No. Your Class Mastery skill line disappears as soon as you enable subclassing for your build.

Check out more ESO Updates and Guides!