Trying to decide on race (and 2nd weapon)

I find myself unable to make a decision on race.

I'm going to make a templar healer with a resto staff, as I've always been healing in MMOs and want to continue doing that.

So for race I'm considering Altmer or Breton. But I can't decide. And it always comes down to another question:

What will I use for secondary weapon? At the moment I'm considering destruction staff for dps when needed or one hand and shield defence for when the mobs decides to go for the healer.

How is the destruction staff for dps compared to resto staff? 

How would one hand and shield work for a healer templar in those "oops" moments?

Or maybe I should go for a third option?

If picking up destruction staff is the way to go, I think I might choose Altmer for the race bonuses. If I won't be using destruction staff, I might choose Breton.

Experiences? Comments? Inputs would be much appreciated!

Well bare in mind alter get a larger magicka pool which is nice and they have increased magicka regen basically but on.y in combat.   Bretons have the same increased magicka pool, but also get light armor ranks faster, get bonus spell resistance, and they have a reduced magicka cost for spells.  This last one is huge for a healer, even though it is only 3% it is still a reduction.  Me personally I like the Breton race better for a healer, while the alter make better dmg dealers because they also have increased dmg with fire, frost and shock dmg.  This benefits destruction staff, while it is great if you are using one doesn't contribute to you as a healer.  That being said the second weapon option is important, biutterfly also taking a totally different weapon type means more skill points to learn abilities for it, and as a templar you can still make great use of your class dmg dealing abilities and stick to still using a restoration staff alone because it is still a range weapon.   

Personally I would just stick to the restoration staff and just slot two of them after hitting 15 to give you two hot bars to swap with.  If your are diehard on using a different weapon then go with something different cause the staffs look very closely similar and it could be confusing in mid swap visually seeing a difference.  You could try a bow or you could melee.  Again that is really up to you, but my suggestion for race is to go with a Breton if you want to be a dedicated healer and want the better racial's for doing that.  Again I think having a reduced spell cost will benefit you more than just a tiny bit of mana regen that you can get also from passives and abilities.

as for the sword and board option, well it is more armor, but you can block with any weapon, and the sword and board abilities are more designed for tanking, than actually defending so with that in mind, swapping to this won't be any different than blocking with a staff unless you invest in some of the passives which inky increase the amount you can block and the cost of stamina use in sword and board skills.    As for the dmg difference between stave types, well they are honestly no real differences between the dmg if you have equally comparable stave types.  Destruction staves have a chance to proc something extra based on which type of staff you are using, but I have seen restoration staves with a built in bonus magic dmg while also giving you health.  Low end drops were doing 2-3 extra dmg per hit with 1-2 points of healing.  It's. to much but it does get better at higher levels and while a trade off, can keep you alive.

I haven't done any math, but would the Breton magica cost reduction not about even out with the Altmer magica regen?

Going along with Demosthenes questions.  I loved playing a "pure" healer with Templar and resto staff, I like the resto staff Hots mixed with restoring light burst heals, but while duoing wanted to be able to inflict more damage against easy mobs.  Would you consider a bow/melee better than destruction staff to preserve magicka as a second weapon?  I was contemplating going bow, so I could use up stamina when I didn't need to heal and then be fully prepared to swap and heal when needed.   That was part of why in the 2 Beta weekends I played I did not put any points in the other Templar lines (I also only was able to get to level 15 so didn't get to experience too much).

If you go pure healer, it's pretty mandatory that Resto Staff is one of your weapons.   It doesn't need to be 'both' of your weapons, but the skill line with resto is very powerful and shouldn't be ignored.

I think having some weapon skill that might save you in low mana and/or close combat situations is the next best bet.  S&S is very good, but almost any melee wpn with protection / healing / stamina focus makes sense.

same level and quality of resto staff or destruction staff would give same light and heavy damage.

I'll be playing sorcerer hybrid (dps and some healing) and I follow this thread closely, so hopefully the statement below will help:

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/the-preserver-pvp-sorc-healing-guide/

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/mages-guild-sorcerer-high-single-target-dps-aoe-backup/

I'm quoting this from the link above:

• Breton – My first choice solely because of the 3% magicka cost reduction. No other race has it and healers always want lower costs. Not to mention the bonus maximum magicka a breton gets and the spell resistance make them my first choice if you plan on healing in ESO.

  Altmer – If you plan on being more of a hybrid player and wanting to deal a great amount of damage, Altmer is the race for you. 6% increased fire, electrical and frost damage is a serious boost along with all the magicka passives make altmer a very strong 2nd choice and the best choice if you plan on being a hybrid.

• Restoration Staff with Precise Trait – This is a big change. Cycle of Life will increase your damage by 10% when at full health.

Someone ask question regarding single target dps :  <- Link to the forum question

Q: So does that mean, that the destruction is worse for dealing damage than the restoration staff ?

A: "When you are talking about single target damage with a rotation that doesn’t involve any destruction staff spells or weapons attacks, yes. For AoE or builds involving weapon attacks then destruction staff is much better."

Demosthenes,

"What will I use for secondary weapon? At the moment I'm considering destruction staff for dps when needed or one hand and shield defence for when the mobs decides to go for the healer."

Probably restoration staff would be fine, you could utilize block and use instant cast as shown in the video below. (minute 4:00)

As others have stated, Resto staff would work fine, you can just use Dawn's Wrath or Aedric spear for damage.

Both trees also have some nice defensive abilities.

You will have enough skill points to use a few different weapons, all you class abilities, and many many more left over for the guilds, crafting, etc.  You just wont get many of those points till later.  I would go with the destruction staff as a 2nd weapon.  Even though the light and hevy attacks do the same damage there are some great destruction staff skills for both pve and pvp. 

i went lizard templar resto staff, works great you get healing bonus as a lizard, though i bought the imperial edition and imperials have bonus to 1h+shield and stamina so im thinking of making an imperial nightblade tank now

Hello,

I also planned on making a templar for the Ebonheart pact and the family - mainly for tanking/healing. For that purpose i thought of using Hammer and shield as 1st weapon, 2h-hammer as a dps-weapon when i'm on my own and maybe resto staff to support the healing abilities. As for race I wanted to use the Imperial, Nord or redguard - those seem most suitable for tanking.

How does healing do with heavy armor? I had this idea of a battle chaplain in mind. Resto staff (not sure about second weapon), but with heavy armor to help in the middle of a fight.

If you go with heavy armor, you will likely need extra magicka regen on your gear for longer fights.

I run a Breton Templar resto staff, heavy armor (magika enchants) and light armor for head and belt just for a bit of extra magika regen....  I'm still a low lvl 12 I think and well last night I was running with a group in AvA and I did just fine considering my lvl....  ok  yes if I wasn't carefull I would run out of mana pretty fast but over casting is most of the time the problem.....  with some mana food and potions on hand I could keep my mana up pretty well and heal tons...

I use a bow as secondary simply because of the good dps you can get from it using stamina only,  plus it keeps me at range where most healers try to be :)

I also run  spear

[Active] Puncturing Strikes - A four hit attack dealing chained damage to any foes in front of you, the final hit knocks back the closest enemy

simply a strong aoe and fairly cheap mana cost

[Active] Piercing Javelin - Hurl a spear, dealing damage and knocking the target backwards.

once morphed is a very nice knocked down, in AvA I like to use it on healers for my group

[Active] Spear Shards - Deals Magic damage to all enemies in a target area. One target is disoriented for a short duration. An ally may pick up the spear granting both of you bonus damage for a short time.

another aoe can be use to stun down a target

also I use restoring skill line vary out the skills I use.....

if you plan on going shield, or simply be a frontline healer invest in

[Active] Healing Ritual - Heals all nearby allies, the caster receives additional healing.

this skill allows you to heal around you but heals you even more, and it isn't to magika expensive

anywho I run Templars in many ways so if you have anymore questions let me know