Replies: 1
My understanding is that all enemies across all activities have the same amount of resistance. I now have some guy telling me that most mobs only have 10-12k, and only end bosses have the 18kish. He’s specifically talking about bosses in HoF not having the 18k resistance. I’m like 90% he’s incorrect, but I had a hard time finding confirmation elsewhere. Am I incorrect here?
Replies: 0
Hey guys,
So, I am a very late embracer of the game. Picked it up last week and spent around 20 hours with 3 different classes. I am enjoying it but seem to be missing a “signature fun move”. Let me explain, I have played many an MMO over the years and the classes I enjoyed most were defined by 1 or 2 skills that just seem really fun to use:
WoW: Mage – blink: the moment I got blink with the mage I knew this class was for me, so simple yet so much fun.
frost nova: ahhh, frost nova and blink. Match made in heaven
Guild Wars 2: Warrior – Earthshaker: man this never gets tiring, leaping across the screen to smash down and stun foes.
So, I am looking for you guys to suggest your favourite “signature fun move” for me to choose a class to level up to end game 
Thanks in advance!
Replies: 5
In the past when I’ve looked for statistics like what percentage of characters are this race/class or that, the only things that come up are forum based surveys which aren’t ever going to be reliable and may be way off the mark. I was wondering why ZOS never puts such information out… seems like there is at least a small demand for it and I think it’d be very easy for them to pull up the info. Anyone heard of a reason why they don’t?
Replies: 87
What’s New:
– I’ll be deleting anything that was crossed out after the homestead patch and replacing it with new content. My original advice will no longer be viewable as it has been obsolete for at least 2 patches now.
- Visuals: I’ll be adding colors and pictures to make the guide easier to read and more appealing to the eye.
– Champion points: The changes are larger and complicated for CP so I’ll be going more into detail than I previously had about my allocation and the reasoning behind it.
– Resources: Resource management has changed greatly because of the replacement of the Magician CP category (Reduced Magicka Cost), other CP changes, and changes to skills.
– Resource Giving: Templars have lost the ability to give back stamina using Repentance and can now only rely on Shards (major nerf to Templars), but they have allowed Energy Orbs to heal as well as give back either Stamina or Magicka when using the syngergy (based on which resource percentage is lower at the time of activation)
– Gear: Minor changes to Vet level gear. Still playing around with which set is the best.
If you have already read the guide and just want to see the new stuff Hold CTRL+F key and search *
Purpose:
To share an effective build that works in end game content. To share strategies and safeguards against downfalls of being a nightblade healer. To break traditional roles and create a build that is not only has effective group utility, but outshines (in all possible ways) that of the Templar healer.
Introduction:
After getting into the 300-350 champ point range I realized that Templar healing had become something of a bore to me. In order to enjoy myself as a Templar healer I was forced to a: run vet trials or things like vet Dragonstar Arena, or b: join a group of newbs and power heal them through a dungeon. Thus I decided to create a BloodMage healer (as they’re often called).
Now, keep in mind, I would not create this as a first character, and maybe not even a second. You need to have plenty of experience healing and at least a little experience DPSing to properly execute this build. Further, I recommend going in with 100 Champ points into Blessed at the start of creating this build so that you can go into Normal dungeons as a healer role and not totally screw your team. The quicker you can get into Normal dungeons and begin working on rotation, the easier it will be later on in Vet dungeons.
Strengths:
1) Best part, of course, being able to DPS and heal at the same time! If you have ever read another bloodmage build before you know that this is what we go crazy about! There is an argument that you should just let the DPS do their jobs and heal them through whatever shit they get themselves into. While I do agree that a healer should…umm heal…the primary goal is to kill shit and move onto the next thing! The faster things drop, the less healing you have to do. My counterargument is: if you can DPS without sacrificing heals then you are doing a better job than other healers. I have had plenty of people start a dungeon with me on the first groups of adds and ask if the dungeon is set to vet. Shit drops that fast!
2) Nightblades give stronger HOT heals and buffs than Templars.
3) Single player content is not nearly as boring.
4) You can normally que as both DPS and Healer. Just switch out your resto staff for destro staff, switch a few skills, and BAM! You are now a DPS.
5) It is less boring than Templar healing because when everyone is at 100% health you can still do things other than Radiant Oppression or spamming Shards.
Weaknesses:
1) No spammable burst heal (ie: Breath Of Life). While I do agree that this kind of sucks, it is not the end of the world. I hardly ever even use BOL anymore on my Templar anyway unless the content is really intense.
2) No class skills to get rid of Negative Effects (ie: DOTs, poison, disease, fire, resistance drops, etc.). This is something that you really have to power heal through, but I will provide possible fixes for this later.
3) No class skills to give back stamina (ie: Repentance and Shards). I will provide possible fixes for this later.*As stated above, we can now use Energy Orbs to give back both Magicka and Stamina!
So, let’s get into the build.
Race: I run a Breton, but High Elf or Argonian could be good second choices.
*Why? Breton passives are everything about resource manipulation. High Elves are close behind but the last passive gives bonuses to elemental damage which doesn’t apply to NBs unless they are dps. Argonians get a healing bonus, but since NB healers DPS and heal I feel like this passive is only half as effective as it could be.
*Drink: Orzorga’s Red Frothgar (Increase Max Health and Mag Recovery)
*Potion: Crafted Magicka recovery (I also go with spell damage and spell crit just in case there is downtime on my Sap Essence) (Important that they are crafted potions because the generic ones have about half the uptime)
Bar 1: Dual Wield (Swords)
Why dual wield and not destro staff? Elemental Drain is the skill Templars run destro staff for, this gives Minor Magicka Steal and reduces the target’s magic defenses.
Secondly, it is super important that you go only swords on the Dual Wield due to the final passive in the dual wield tree. Now, DW swords yields the same magicka damage as wielding a Destro or Resto Staff without passives. This is a crap nerf, but I still find it more beneficial to DW because this gives you an additional armor slot. This way on your front bar you can run 5 piece/5 piece/2 piece giving you access to amazing 5th piece passives. Also, the destro staff passives do nothing for base magicka damage, only elemental damage, and the NB has only magicka damage. Thus, the destro staff benefits you no more than using DW.
Thirdly, it is recommended that you spend some time leveling Destro Staff because sometimes it is still fun to DPS on this build when you aren’t required to heal. More on that later.)
Ultimate: Soul Harvest (Morph of Death Stroke), Soul Siphon (Morph of Soul Shred), or Aggressive War Horn (Morph of War Horn)
Soul Harvest is there because it gives back Ult hella fast, it can nearly be spammed, it increases your DPS on target (which in turn increases your heals on your allies), and because with the Hemorrhage passive every time you crit you give your team Minor Savagery!
Aggressive Warhorn is a secondary option and possibly a more popular one. It is pretty clear why you would have it especially in trials. * I prefer this on my Resto bar.
1) Sap Essence (Morph of Drain Power)
I use this on adds to just help take them down quickly. This is essentially your burst heal but it is only super effective when there are 3 or more enemies. I do hit this once and a while against single target enemies to give me Major Sorcery as well.
2) Refreshing Path (Morph of Path of Darkness)
Keep this up at all times and try to cast it right where your allies are standing! Not only does this give some pretty awesome heals, but it also gives you Major Expedition, Major Resolve, and Major Ward with the Shadow Barrier Passive. This got a buff in Homestead patch making the heals hit harder, so it has never been more important to keep this up.
3) Flex Spot, I use either: Dark Shades (Morph of Summon Shade), Cleanse (Morph of Purge), Impale (Morph of Assassin’s Blade), or Energy Orb (Morph of Necrotic Orb)
Dark Shades: I use this the most often of the three because it debuffs the enemy with minor maim, causing them to do less damage. Less damage dealt means less you have to worry about healing. *Do keep in mind that they will steal your SPC buff so DO NOT use them in trials.
Cleanse: Super important to have when you need it! Do some PVP and unlock this ASAP! This is the only skill nightblades can use to take away negative effects! I only put this on my bar if I am going up against a dot heavy boss or dungeon. A must have for both White Gold Tower and Imperial City Prison! This skill is fucking costly so do not waste it!
Impale: I use this if I am in a relaxable dungeon and just want to have an execute. Having this on my bar has actually saved the team before just because everyone else died and I was able to execute quickly. Keep in mind that dpsing with this puts out no heals so use it only when you know the moment is right.*- I use this less now because of the necessity of Energy Orbs.
*Energy Orbs: These heal whoever they pass which is nice, but more importantly, when an ally activates the synergy it burst heals them and gives them back either magicka or stamina based on their total resource. Ungodly important now that all skills are way more expensive!
4) Funnel Health (Morph of Strife)
This is your main spammable ability. The higher you hit with this ability the more health you and your allies get back! This puts a HOT that ticks every 2 secs for 10 secs on only one person at a time, but you can increase that time by spamming it over and over. Normally my funnel health hits for at least 9K with 32% of that going toward heals, so my HOTs tick for about 3.2K every 2 secs!
*I finally got this to hit up to 12K with all my buffs down and debuffs on the boss! HOTs tick for 3.8K 
Bad news, this got hit with an increased magicka cost nerf in Homestead. It used to only cost me about 850 Mag, now it is up to 1.2K mag. Even though this sucks since I spam this like hell, it hasn’t affected my game that much. As long as I pop a potion and do a heavy attack with Resto Staff I am generally in a good position.
5) Inner Light (Morph of Mages Light)
Everyone knows why we keep this skill. Increased Crit % and more magicka. Very important.
Bar 2: Resto Staff
(With this build your DW is going to hit harder than your resto staff so clearly your Funnel Health and Sap Essence are going to be stronger on your DW.)
Ultimate: Either Soul Siphon (Morph of Soul Shred) or Aggressive War Horn (Morph of War Horn)
Soul Siphon: This is your only real burst heal and it heals really fucking well! Costs very little Ultimate, gives everyone Major Vitality, and puts a HOT on everyone! If you put Soul Harvest on your other bar you can nearly spam Soul Siphon all the time!
Aggressive War Horn: Same reasons as before.
1) Flex Spot, I use either: Reaper’s Mark (Morph of Mark Target), Siphoning Attacks (Morph of Siphoning Strikes), or Impale (Morph of Assassin’s Blade).
* Original Text: Reaper’s Mark: This is the one I use the most for boss fights. It is way more powerful than Elemental Susceptibility because it applies Major Fracture and Major Breach, If the enemy dies it gives you back health and applies Major Berserk to you, and procs your Assassin’s passives! Just make sure you are casting it every 20 secs or so.
* New Text: As stated earlier, I have all but given up on this skill as Major Fracture and Major Breach are normally given by the tank. I only really use this when the tank isn’t applying these affects himself.
Siphoning Attacks: I run really high Mag Recov so I very rarely use this, but if you find sustainability difficult go ahead. It will also proc your Siphoning passives giving you an extra 2% Healing done. *I prefer this one on my bar now since I gave up on Reaper’s Mark. Helps out a bunch! It is especially helpful now that sustainability has been impacted so hard in the Morrowind Patch
Impale: Same reasons as on bar 1. Don’t run this skill on both bars.
2) Combat Prayer (Morph of Blessing of Protection)
Not only does this burst heal (Not a strong burst heal so don’t rely on it) but it also gives Minor Berserk, Minor Resolve, and Minor Ward! The Berserk is especially important for you because it is going to cause your Funnel Health to hit harder, *but also affects your team’s dps to get the killing done faster.
3) Mutagen (Morph of Regeneration)
I have tried both morphs of this on this build, and for the Templar healer I like Rapid Regeneration more, but as a Nightblade it is just nice to have a failsafe. Mutagen is the perfect skill because it is a HOT on top of your Funnel Health HOT and if someone runs low on health the mutagen helps them out. With no BOL this is super helpful!
4) Ward Ally (Morph of Steadfast Ward)
I use this in DOT heavy fights mostly and this shield can normally protect an ally enough till their HOTS bring them up to full health. This is especially helpful is fights where you are really spread out. *This skill costs a lot so kinda try not to rely on it. This is like your BoL.
5) Healing Springs (Morph of Grand Healing)
Of course you have to have this skill as a healer, it is super important, and it stacks! On the NB healer I hardly ever throw down HS though because of all the HOTs that I have running, but if things get stressful have everyone stack up, pop 3 of these underneath everyone, and you will find a happy place.
Rotation:
Pop Mutagen and Combat Prayer before every fight. Run in and hit at least one enemy with Sap Essence to give yourself Major Sorcery. If there are easy adds I just keep spamming Sap Essence until they are all dead because no one is going down as long as you do that. Through Refreshing Path underneath your allies. If there is one tough add or a boss be sure to cast all debuff skills on it, keep up your buffs and HOTs and start spamming Funnel Health. Pop your Ultimates whenever you get them (and you will have them a lot because you are a Nightblade).
*Now, I also like to cast HS underneath wherever I think my allies are going to before fight just to add a little extra comfort. I also light attack now in between Funnel Health and Sap Essence. Yes, I do light attack with DW, and you’re thinking “you aren’t even doing any damage, what’s the point?” I’ll have you know that each light attack does 800 damage XP but I mostly light attck for 3 reasons. 1. because I use siphoning attacks more now than ever, 2. because I apply enchantment affects as well, and 3. because you can animation cancel these skills with light attacks sometimes allowing you to cast faster. Also, if you have an Infallible Aether sword or resto staff you can throw a heavy attack in here instead to apply the Major Vulnerability debuff.
Resto staff heavy attacks are very important to help keep your Magicka up. Pick your timing carefully.
*Champion Points:
What’s new: In this patch they changed the point values of CP as you invest in certain trees. At the start of each tree your CP counts for more, but as you put more into each one your points don’t give you as much. Also, certain more popular trees were nerfed to give less reward than others. Some of these we can work around, but mostly it has fucked us a bit.
How This Works: I’ll give the max percentages of the ones I find most important, but once those percentages are hit I’ll leave it up to you to place them where you see fit. Note, for those that are lower CP I advise putting at least 2 into every one mentioned in each category so that you can get at least a little benefit from each.
Blue: Blessed: 14%, Elfborn: 24%, Split the rest between Elemental Expert, Spell Erosion, and Master-at-Arms as you like.
Why? Blessed is a given but only maxes out at 15%, but the jump from 14% to 15% is 25 CP, thus I find it pointless to invest all of that CP for one extra percentage. Elfborn is second in importance because it causes your crit strikes and crit heals to be stronger, it maxes out at 25% so we get a little more bang for our buck with this one, and really it benefits NB healers more than any others because the harder our crit damage hits for the harder our heals will hit for too. Elemental Expert increases magic damage which helps but doesn’t need to be overhauled. Spell Erosion can help hit enemies harder but I wouldn’t necessarily go over 1000 on that one. Master-at-Arms increases your direct damage attacks, which all of our attacks are DD so that one helps out a little too.
Red: Quick Recovery: 5%, Bastion: 10% (For passives in case you need to res someone), Light Armor Focus: 2000, Spell Shield: 2000, Split the rest between Hardy and Elemental Defender as you like.
Why? Quick Recovery gives you more heals which is helpful and Bastion improves your damage shields which helps your team when you cast Ward Ally, but together putting at least 30 points into The Lord tree gives you passives that help with resurrecting allies. Light Armor Focus improves Physical Resistance when wearing at least 5 pieces of light armor (which you always should be), and Spell Shield increases Spell Resistance. Hardy and Elemental Defender have always been the favorites of the Red trees so these got super nerfed by only maxing at 15%. Putting points into Light Armor Focus and Spell Shield will help reduce this nerf.
Green: Arcanist: 14%, Tenacity: 14%, Split the rest between Warlord, Tumbling, and Shadow Ward as you like.
Why? They took away the Magician allotment which has truly been the worst thing about this patch. This means keeping up your resources is harder than ever. Arcanist increases your Magicka Recovery so is most important. Just as important is Tenacity which gives you more magicka and stamina back with your heavy attachs, so now it is more important that ever to find some time to heavy attack with your resto staff. Warlord, Tumbling, and Shadow Ward have no incredibly useful places in this build but do help a bit when it comes to CC breaking, avoiding AOE, and blocking, and putting points into those will keep you from wasting CP.
Mundus:
Original Text: I run The Shadow, but the Thief is another good choice.
*New Text: I now run the thief since I switched some gear around, so my advice to this: If you have 60% crit or higher go with the Shadow, otherwise hit up the Thief. Never get higher than 70%. (If you don’t know why then look up Crit % Diminishing Returns. I’m not about to go into a big explanation about it)
Gear
I will list a few different gear setups just for diversity. The most important thing is that you have 5 piece Spell Power Cure. It would be best to get 3 piece jewelry for that, and maybe SPC weapons (1 resto staff, 1 sword). Also, go Divines on all 7 pieces if possible
Monster Sets: I know that monster sets are not popular on healers but as of One Tamriel we have some choices. The sad thing is most people cannot see the potential of Monster sets for healers because they always think of them for Templars, but they never seem to try them on Nightblades. I have tried quite a few and I have found 3 that work well for me.
1: The Troll King: This set seems ridiculous. Health recovery increase to ally if your heal does not put them over 60%. That really just sounds ridiculous on a Templar healer because of the amazing burst heals. But, because of all the HOTs I drop as a nightblade healer everyone’s health recovery pretty much stays at a constant ungodly rate! I may have 3 HOTs tick at the same time, but the set procs based on each individual heal. And the best part, there is absolutely no cooldown (as of yet)!
* Nothing really new on this set, I just want to reinforce that I fucking love this set and will never substitute it for anything else in the current repertoire!
2: Sentinel of Rhugamz: This set is helpful to the Nightblade healer because it gives back stamina to the people that stand around the dwarven spider. As nightblades can’t give back stamina this is a fix (but not necessarily a solution). The main downside to this is that you don’t know where it is going to drop and you can’t always stand near the tank waiting for your monster set to proc. I would only really use this in trials where you are in the middle of everyone pretty much all the time.
3: Iceheart: I especially like this set for the spell critical on the first piece. If you are with a group that you are pretty sure aren’t going to have a problem this is a fun set to run. Damage the enemy, get a shield, damage more enemies. Couldn’t be more simple.
Starting Out
LEVEL 50
CHAMPION 160
(2 items) Adds 688 Spell Critical
(3 items) Adds 967 Max Magicka
(4 items) Adds 688 Spell Critical
(5 items) Adds 299 Spell Damage.
LEVEL 50
CHAMPION 160
(2 items) Adds 967 Max Magicka
(3 items) Adds 967 Max Magicka
(4 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
(5 items) When you heal a friendly target that is at 100% Health, you have a 50% chance to increase their Weapon and Spell Damage by 258 for 10 seconds.
LEVEL 50
CHAMPION 160
(2 items) Adds 967 Max Magicka
(3 items) Adds 688 Spell Critical
(4 items) Adds 688 Spell Critical
(5 items) Adds 1643 Spell Critical
Weapon 1: Julianos Sword
Off-Hand: Julianos Sword
Weapon 2: Julianos Resto Staff (Destro staff if DPSing)
Head: Monster Set
Chest: Julianos/SPC/*Mother’s Sorrow
Shoulders: Monster Set
Waist: Julianos/SPC/*Mother’s Sorrow
Hands: Julianos/SPC/*Mother’s Sorrow
Legs: Julianos/SPC/*Mother’s Sorrow
Feet: Julianos/SPC/*Mother’s Sorrow
Neck: SPC/*Mother’s Sorrow
Ring 1: SPC/*Mother’s Sorrow
Ring 2: SPC/*Mother’s Sorrow
Explanation: Just make sure you have 5 SPC at all times and 5 Julianos on the DW bar. When you switch to your staff you will lose a 5th passive from julianos. This is hardly the end of the world, but if you don’t want that to happen you could substitute a monster set piece for a julianos piece.
*I also understand getting SPC isn’t super easy and because of this I highly advise Mother’s Sorrow as a temporary option. This set can be found in the overworld in Deshaan. Be aware that this set can be annoying to farm and sells for a shit ton of money! Whatever you do, make sure you shop around for it, don’t get ripped off.
*Shit healing sets in my opinion:
Combat Physician: The least shitty set in this shitty sets area of the guide. Yes, you give an ally a damage shield, but it isn’t that strong and you can’t give it to anyone else for 6 seconds. You are better off with another set.
Prayer: This one gives a damage shield as well with no cooldown, but the shield is so week what’s the point. It looks good on paper, but after testing I can tell you it’s worthless.
Lich: Amazing for templar healers, shit for NB healers. It is amazing for recovery, shit for DPS. If you were gonna just be a full time healer you may as well be a Templar. Don’t waste your time farming this set.
Advanced:
LEVEL 50
CHAMPION 160
(2 items) Adds 967 Max Magicka
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times
(4 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
(5 items) When you use an Ultimate ability, you and the closest 2 allies within 28 meters of you gain Major Slayer for 10 seconds, increasing your damage done to Dungeonsand Trials Monsters by 15%.</td>
LEVEL 50
CHAMPION 160
(2 items) Adds 688 Spell Critical
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon and Trial Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
(5 items) Your fully charged heavy attacks do an additional 903 damage.
Enemies you damage with fully charged Heavy Attacks are afflicted with Minor Vulnerability for 10 seconds, increasing their damage taken by 8%.
(5 items) Adds 688 Spell Critical
Weapon 1: Torug’s Pact Sword/ Infallible Aether Sword or Master Architect
Off-Hand: Torug’s Pact Sword/ Infallible Aether Sword or Master Architect
Weapon 2: Master Resto Staff
Head: Monster Set
Chest: Infallible Aether or *Master Architect/SPC
Shoulders: Monster Set
Waist: Infallible Aether or *Master Architect/SPC
Hands: Infallible Aether or *Master Architect/SPC
Legs: Infallible Aether or *Master Architect/SPC
Feet: Infallible Aether or *Master Architect/SPC
Neck: Infallible Aether or *Master Architect/SPC
Ring 1: Infallible Aether or *Master Architect/SPC
Ring 2: Infallible Aether or *Master Architect/SPC
Explanation: You want to have the 5 piece SPC running at all times! Make sure you have at least 3 piece Infallible Aether to gain bonus damage against monsters. You could go 5 piece Infallible Aether if you can get 2 good swords and weave in heavy attacks to give extra DPS, but getting 2 Infallible Aether swords may take a bit of time and energy. Again, substitute pieces as you see fit.
*The Master Architect set may out perform IA. I haven’t acquired this set yet and will probably be a long time before I will be able to do testing. This set gives Major Slayer to you and 2 other allies every time you cast an Ultimate! This will be great for add clearing since we pop ultis like crazy! IA maybe more beneficial in single boss battles though. This is all hypothetical at this point.
The Master Resto Staff is the one that you get from completing Vet DSA (and is a fucking bitch to get I might add!) and this staff is desired by all healers. This is the best way for NBs to give stamina back to their teammates because every time you pop healing springs the first tick gives back stam. If you don’t have this staff don’t feel bad. Just tell your group to get better self-sustain.
*I am currently running this as I don’t have a Master Resto Staff (Fucking bitch ass allusive piece of amazingness):
Weapon 1: SPC Sword (took forever to find one)
Off-Hand: Infallible Aether Sword (Also took forever)
Weapon 2: SPC Resto Staff
Head: Troll King
Chest: Infallible Aether
Shoulders: Troll King
Waist: SPC
Hands: Infallible Aether
Legs: SPC
Feet: SPC
Neck: Infallible Aether (Gold :D)
Ring 1: SPC
Ring 2: Infallible Aether (Gold :D)
* Infallible Aether jewelry can drop in gold so it feels pretty good being able to literally gold everything out. So far this setup gives me exactly what I need. I hit hard and heal harder. Sucks to not have the stam regen buff, but most of my groups have pretty great sustain, so not a huge deal. Throwing in a heavy attack now and again with the swords is super swift so the IA debuff applies pretty regularly. All in all this is my favorite setup I have ran so far.
*Passives Needed:
Assassination: Executioner, Pressure Points, Hemorrage
Shadow: Refreshing Shadows, Shadow Barrier, Dark Vigor, Dark Veil
Siphoning: Catalyst, Magicka Flood, Soul Siphoner, Transfer
Restoration Staff: Essence Drain, Restoration Expert, Cycle of Life, Absorb, Restoration Master
Light Armor: Evocation, Recovery, Spell Warding, Prodigy, Concentration
Medium Armor: Wind Walker
Heavy Armor: Resolve, Constitution, Juggernaut
Undaunted: Undaunted Command, Undaunted Mettle
Mages Guild: Magicka Controller (seems like a lot for a little, but this passive goes a long way on your front bar!)
Fighter’s Guild: Banish The Wicked
All Racial Passives
Alchemy: Medicinal Use
Provisioning: Connoisseur
PVP (*still haven’t done much with this, probably won’t either)
Unfortunately, this is something a bit lost on me because I am not much of a PVPer, but I did notice when I was grinding AP that the enemies didn’t target me as much as they do on my Templar. I believe this is because of my funnel health. Most people are watching for Templars casting big circles around them, runes, mutagen, etc. But no one is really watching for a nightblade casting funnel health. It was kinda fun to hang back and watch enemies try to take out a dragonknight while I was stealthily healing him from afar. If someone wanted to create a good PVP loadout for this build I would be happy to add it to this section later.
Overcoming challenges:
Stamina: Master Resto Staff and Sentinel of Rhugamz *No longer a challenge thanks to Energy Orbs.
Negative Effects: Cleanse is clearly the best option we have.
Group Communication:
When going into an easy dungeon I may not say anything to my teammates, but when getting into more difficult content I always tell my teammates that I am a Nightblade Healer. I tell them how I heal and for them just to watch for problematic situations. The closer the group stays together the more likely we are to survive (In most situations). Communicate. For example: tell them to stack up on boss for heals and blast your healing springs. When facing Molag Kena I ask my team to say the work ‘hit’ when they get a DOT on them that way I know when to use Cleanse.
Trials Healing:
Healing trials on an NB is going to be quite a bit different to dungeon healing. The reason for this is numbers (clearly). You are going to end up being on your Resto Staff bar more often than DW (which sucks, but is important) because of the need to overcast Healing Springs and Combat Prayer (These skills are a must for trials!)
There is an even bigger reason why we stay on Resto staff more than DW and that is because healing the group takes precedence over doing DPS. Your Mutagen only hits 2 people at a time (sometimes just 1 other person) and your Funnel Health ALWAYS only goes toward 1 other person at random! In a dungeon this is fine because you only have 3 other people, but in a trial you have 11 other people to put HOTs on, which means you will have to cast this skill 3x more than you do in dungeons! So, not only do you have to worry about keeping Healing Springs and Combat Prayer up 100% of the time, but you also have to cast Funnel Health 3x more often (Holy Fuck)!
How To Take Some Pressure Off:
This is the only situation in which I would advise putting Funnel Health on your Resto Staff bar. Yes, you are going to lose damage output and your Funnel Health heals won’t be as strong, but that is better than being ungodly overwhelmed having to switch bars every 5 seconds (literally). Replace Reaper’s Mark and put that on you DW bar.
Also, because Funnel Health is now on your Resto Staff (which has essentially become your main bar) your damage output is going to be shot anyway. For this reason you can switch your DW to a Destro Staff for Elemental Drain. This will lower your damage output on your (now) back bar, but you won’t really be on this bar as much.
Replacing your DW for Destro Staff is more preference than anything so feel free to play with this to figure out which way you like more.
No matter what you decide to do with your back bar you need to have Energy Orb (Undaunted Skill, morph of Necrotic Orb) on it and you need to shoot out like 3 orbs whenever you get a chance to switch bars. It helps a lot that people can just heal themselves when needed, and the benefits of activating that synergy are just incredible *especially if your teammates are wearing Moondancer!
*So, I still agree that it maybe beneficial to swap for a Destro staff for Elemental Drain, but may not be totally necessary anymore. Elemental Drain now gives Minor Magicka Steal to enemies and enemies can only have this debuff once at a time. Templars can now give this to all enemies in a 10 meter radius using Radiant Aura, so if there is a Templar healer in your group (or even just a magplar dps) they should be applying this. In fact, I don’t really see much of a reason to use Ele Drain now that this is an option.
*When healing a vet trial (or even a normal) I suggest you volunteer to follow the magicka DPS around and let the Templar go with the tank. Know your strengths and weaknesses and play to them. You can support a group of mages as well as any Templar, but don’t pretend like you are better than one or you will definitely start a fight *No longer applicable advice.
Ultimates:
Put Soul Siphon on your Resto Staff Bar because this will give you an additional 2% healing done.
Put Aggressive Warhorn on your back bar (DW or Destro Staff).
When to use ultimates: If Aggressive War Horn is already up (because a lot of people will be running it in a trial group) pop your Soul Siphon as soon as possible, then save your ultimate. Communicate with your group and if no one has a War Horn then it is your turn to use it. Keep popping Soul Siphon as much as you can. Use good judgement and DO NOT stack multiple War Horns! You need to Pop Soul Siphon directly in the middle of your group so that everyone gets the full benefit and so that everyone can use the synergy.
Closing:
This build is super fun to play and after getting into it Templar healing becomes somewhat boring. There are plenty of situations in which I would still run a Templar healer (Vet DSA, Trials Leader Boards, etc.), but for all other content I love playing my Nightblade! The ability to DPS and heal at the same time just adds a level of excitement to the game that I have yet to experience on any of my other characters, and this one has easily become my main.
Replies: 194
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ledb7nE.jpg[/img]
I decided to make a thread about a PvE healer build because people have asked for it. This build is especially made for trials (end game content) but you are able to heal every content with this too. You will also find some suggestions for 4-men-content.
Keep in mind that I change things often (cps, skills, attribute points) depending on what trial we are on and what goal we have (speed run, no death, HM, etc.). But still you see the main idea of this build. As a healer it is important to use supporter sets and skills, which benefit the whole group.
1. Race
2. Gear
3. Skills
4. Attribute Points
5. Mundus Stone
6. Champion Points
7. Food / Potion
8. Passives
9. Stats
10. Build Video (my YouTube and Twitch channel)
[SPOILER]30/08/2016 – SotH DLC
10/09/2016 – Stats section added
06/10/2016 – One Tamriel DLC, updated
30/10/2016 – minor changes
28/12/2016 – minor changes
20/02/2017 – Homestead DLC, updated
16/03/2017 – minor changes
26/05/2017 – Morrowind Expansion, updated
26/06/2017 – added passives section and other minor changes[/SPOILER]
High Elf (recommended)
Breton
Argonian
Dunmer
There is one main set, Spell Power Cure and different trial sets, Worm Cult, Master Architect and Mending. Between those you switch to whatever benefits the group more. For vDSA and other 4-men-content it is best to have a DD setup with Spell Power Cure combined.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/FegxO3P.png[/img]
- if you feel like having too much resources, you can put a spell dmg glyph on a jewel
– on master architect, you need a master architect decisive lightning staff (weakening enchant) on backbar with warhorn cause you only need the 5th set bonus on one bar
– other possible sets to wear: Twilight Remedy, Sanctuary, Infallible Aether
Spell Power Cure is the main set you wear and a must have, we never swap this out. It has the chance to grant more weapon and spell damage when healing at 100% health. It affects only 6 group members at once.
Dropping in WGT.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/EgKbzGu.png[/img]
Worm Cult is the most important at the moment cause there are almost only magicka dds. It reduces the magicka cost for up to 12 group members by 4%.
Dropping in Vaults of Madness (golden jewels only from cyrodiil vendor).
[img]http://i.imgur.com/MKfoK40.png[/img]
.
Master Architect is the new trial set, it increases damage for 15% for 3 people. Positioning is important here, make sure two dds get the buff.
Dropping in Halls of Fabrication (golden jewels only in vet).
[img]http://i.imgur.com/O94igie.png[/img]
Mending is very useful, it reduces damage of all enemies. The incoming damage is reduced a lot.
Dropping in Aetherian Archive (golden jewels ony in vet).
[img]http://i.imgur.com/5tkLABp.png[/img]
Master Weapon is best choice. Restoration staff restores stamina to all and increases your max magicka. If you do not have the master weapons you can still use maelstrom weapons. Another possibility is to wear 1x kena for spell damage (or a monster piece which increases max health/magicka) and the set weapons (worm, master architect, mending or spc staves). Master destruction staff also increases max magicka. vMA destruction staff increases spell dmg.
Loot in last chest vDSA.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/yqsZ5ti.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/c1oBuun.png[/img]
Here is a different setup in case you do not have all those sets above yet.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/iT9rf1r.png[/img]
Main Bar
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xre8Tmb.png[/img]
Breath of Life: Immediate, strong heal.
Healing Springs: Great healing skill, you have to slot this. Also restores magicka to you and is very cheap.
Inner Light: Increases your max magicka by 7%.
Efficient Purge: Purge is important for some fights cause of the DoTs you have to cleanse (HoF mainly). If you do not need it, slot whatever you like.
Combat Prayer: Important skill. Grants 6 group members minor berserk, increasing damage. Keep it up!
Aggressive Horn: Must have for a healer. This is your main ultimate and has to be up all the time. It increases the crit strike damage, and max health, magicka and stamina.
Off Bar
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Xohi2bS.png[/img]
Blockade of Storms: Good damage skill and applies minor vulnerability.
Elemental Drain: Elemental drain restores magicka and reduces spell resistance of enemies, it should never run out on bosses. Keep it up on trash too.
Ritual of Retribution/Extended Ritual: Ritual cleanses effects from you and allies, heals and does damage.
Luminous Shards: Damage skill and when someone synergizes, they will restore their stamina and magicka.
Channeled Focus: Restores magicka and increases resistance.
Solar Prison: Reduces incoming damage and damages the enemies.
VERY IMPORTANT: Keep up buffs/debuffs, support group members with resources (shards, orbs, etc.), only heal if there is incoming damage (do not overheal)
Other useful skills
I will list some other useful skills, depending on the situation and what the other healer has slotted. Sometimes it is enough if one healer is using a certain skill (elemental drain for example). Make sure that at least one person in the group uses a dawn’s wrath ability to keep up minor sorcery, if not a dd then a healer.
Radiant Oppression: Good damage skill and also nice for vDSA or other 4-men-content.
Puncturing Sweeps: Does melee damage, good for vDSA or other 4-men-content, not trials.
Harness Magicka: Shield which absorbs damage and gives magicka back.
Ward Ally/Healing Ward: Shield which absorbs damage and heals, also for another person in group.
Mystic Orb/Energy Orb: Restores either stamina or magicka to one person when synergised (share the same cooldown as spears/shards).
Mutagen: Healing over time effect and cleanses.
Dark Flare: Does range damage (and keeps up minor sorcery).
Reflective Light: Does range damage (and keeps up minor sorcery).
Power of the Light: Reduces armor of enemies and does damage (and keeps up minor sorcery).
Purifying Light: Does damage and heals (and keeps up minor sorcery).
Radiant Aura: Applies minor magickasteal in aoe (just like elemental drain in single target), though does not debuff enemy.
Repentance: Restores your stamina and heals group members (with morrowind it only restores YOUR stamina).
52 points into magicka and 12 points into health. 18k health for trials is good.
Atronach mundus to increase magicka regeneration.
Arcanist 75
Tenacity 75
Warlord 29
Shadow Ward 31
Blessed 75
Elfborn 52
Elemental Expert 37
Spell Erosion 5
Master-at-Arms 18
Thaumaturge 23
Elemental Defender 43
Hardy 43
Thick Skinned 48
Ironclad 56
Spell Shield 20
Sorry for changing them again, I forgot to list some and I’m still testing different setups.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/bO0Azm7.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/p8sWtYh.png[/img]
Following skill line passives you need for this build:
Aedric Spear, Dawn’s Wrath, Restoring Light, Destruction Staff, Restoration Staff, Light Armor, Fighters Guild (Intimidating Presence, Banish the Wicked), Mages Guild, Undaunted, Support, Racial, Alchemy (Medicinal Use), Provisioning (Gourmand, Connoisseur).
Stats Buffed (SPC, Worm Cult, Master Resto infused)
main bar
[img]http://i.imgur.com/WDn16TE.jpg[/img]
Build video to this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlO_Ft1vCL4
Check out my YouTube and Twitch channel.
https://www.youtube.com/vanaevr
Replies: 143
LAST UPDATE: 2017-06-24
Welcome to Morrowind, fellow Stamblades.
This update has some major changes in how we play our favorite character so without long introduction, let’s find out how to play Stamblade in a competitive endgame PvE environment.
When you read this, I already completed the new trial “Halls of Fabrications” in Veteran Hardmode with this build on live server so I can give you some insights how to approach the issues you will have to solve when starting to play Morrowind – namely sustain and survival.
We still have very good Single Target DPS – even boosted by the new CP star “Master-at-Arms” and the changes to Relentless Focus. And we still are pretty good when it comes to sustain thanks to Leeching Strikes.
I will go in depth into every aspect but I try to give a TL;DR; whenever I can to make the read as comfortable as possible for those guys who just want a quick overview without the boring details. If you have questions or found errors, please write a comment. I try to answer and explain everything.
Thanks to everyone who is contributing, especially to @Asayre who’s providing valuable maths for this guide and all raiding guilds who are constantly challenging me to become better.
This is not a PvP guide and while PvP is required to get some of the skills I suggest here, there are far better sources to check for PvP builds.
ATTENTION: You have to click on the SPOILER buttons to get all the information. I had to put those in for reasons of clarity and comprehensibility.
For this build, we will use Dual Wield and Bow as a tool to achieve a maximum DPS. In group content, your survivability relies on your ability to avoid/mitigate damage by clever movement, well balanced skill sets, experience and your healer/tank. For solo content, we rely on Vigor, Killer’s Blade and Leeching Strikes.
a) Advantages
b) Disadvantages
TL;DR: Use Redguard
Morrowind is all about sustain and the more sustain you can get without having to adjust gear, skills, buff food or use extra Heavy Attacks, the better your total DPS will be. When Crit Damage Modifiers were nerfed in Homestead, Khajitt took a painful hit in terms of efficiency even in raids with solid Warhorn uptime. Next thing is: Redguard also benefits from not using vMA Dual Wield. What Khajiit has going on for them is that our Crit Damage Modifier increased due to how frontloaded the new CP System is. Khajiit is still a very good choice and wins in raw damage in optimized raids by a small margin while they lose by a small margin when it comes to solo play. Check the Spoiler for details.
All other races with Stamina based racial passives like Imperial, Orc, Bosmer and Dunmer work as well and the difference is pretty small.
[spoiler]
Solo, Redguard wins by 0.29% while in raids, Khajiit wins by 0.36%.
[/spoiler]
a) Potions
The main DPS setup of this build uses potions (Essence of Weapon Damage) to get the Major Brutality (20% Weapon Damage), Major Savagery (10% Weapon Crit) and 20% Stamina Regeneration all the time without having to use Evil Hunter, Drain Power, Flying Blade or Momentum. To get 100% portion uptime, you have to skill the “Medicinal Use” passive in Alchemy. I use these potions for all Trials including Maelstrom Arena.
This is quite expensive for many players, so I will also show you ways to play without constant potion usage and save some money in situations where you don’t have to give 100%. Just be aware that if you want to squeeze out the last bit of DPS, you’ll have to have those potions available.
b) Food
Use blue CP 150 food (Braised Rabbit With Spring Vegetables) which provides Stamina and HP.
To craft it, you need Small Game, Greens, Seasoning
If you have serious sustain issues even with the tips I will provide when it comes to rotation, you can also use Dubious Camoran Throne which provides 319 Stamina Recovery, 3192 Stamina and 3511 HP. Might be interesting for races with HP bonus like Imperial. I personally dont use it but if you dont need the extra HP, its a nice addition to help sustaining. But try to make it work with the normal buff food first
To craft it, you need White Meat, Beetle Scruttle, Insect Parts, Guts
HP: Get 16k for normal stuff, 17k for raids, 18k for hard modes.
Penetration: Get as close to 18.2k Penetration as possible with a balanced mix of Gear and CP. In the past, we relied on Armor Debuffs from the group like Alkosh or Crushing to get the boss armor value to 0. Now in Morrowind, we are able to get full penetration ourselves. This allows us to constantly deal maximum DPS without having to worry about debuff uptimes and it allows your tanks to wear better sets.
Other big factors that do not show up on the Stats Window are Crit Damage Modifier (especially for Khajiit) and “Special Buffs” like Monster Sets and vMA weapons.
Otherwise, we still want to get Weapon Damage, Weapon Crit and Stamina. Weapon Damage is especially valuable in Morrowind as it scales very well with Light and Heavy Attacks.
You dont have to be Werewolf or Vampire for this build. Vampire can help as you get 10% more Regen but there are situation where you will need to stay on Level 1 to make sure you’re not getting extra fire damage. If you play smart, it doesnt hurt to take the extra Regen.
TL;DR: Use the Thief
[spoiler]
If your Crit Damage Modifier is at least ~10% greater than your Critical Chance without any Mundus Stone, use the Thief.
Here is the exact equation. The Thief is better than the Shadow when:
This usually means that all races should run Thief. My Crit Chance without the Thief is 50,8%. My Crit Damage Modifier is 89%.
Crit Damage Modifier > 12/11 * Crit Chance
89% > 12/11 * 50,8%
89% > 55,4%
You can calculate your Crit Damage Modifier pretty easily:
First option: Hit a mob. Critical Damage / Normal Damage -1 (e.g. Light Attack does 2154 normal, 3964 crit. 3964/2154-1 = 0,84)
Second option: Base 50% + 10% Hemorrhage + 10% Beast Trap + XX% Precise Strikes= 89% / 100 = 0,84
[/spoiler]
This is a big part of Morrowind as the Champion System got changed drastically. It’s a lot more frontloaded now, meaning the first 40-50 points are very valuable while after that, the efficiency diminishes big time. Also, the system completely ignores decimals. That means 12.1% increase in a star gives you the same benefit as 12.9%. The system rounds it down to the next even number. In my example, 12.1% and 12.9% both will give you 12% benefit. So keep that in mind when you allocate your CP and always use a number slightly above an even number.
There is also a bug currently regarding the red stars. You have to allocate the points in Elemental Defender and Hardy first, then apply changes, then set the rest of the red stars for full benefit.
For the 90 and 300 CP templates, I assume Sharpened weapons and no extra Penetration from gear. They are not perfect but provide a little help to see what stars are worth it.
Template for 90 Champion Points
Template for 300 Champion Points
Now the following Template is my current CP allocation calculated for my gear, skills and rotation in Raids. Red points can vary depending on the raid you do. This is kind of a “nice for anything” setup but can be optimized depending on what you do.
Template for 630 Champion Points
[spoiler]
If you want to calculate your own optimal setup for blue stars, use this website of @Asayre: http://solinur.de/AsayreCP/CPOptimisation.html
I use the following Settings:
Damage done: 13 (5 from Minor Slayer + 8 from Minor Berserk)
Weapon Critical: Your Crit Chance with Minor and Major Savagery
Weapon Critical Modifer: 70 (50 base + 10 Hemorrhage + 10 Beast Trap) < You could add Major Force here if you know the uptime in your raid
Penetration:
Other: 5000 (TFS)
Damage Percentage:
Physical: 100% // Damage over Time: 52% // Weapon: 15% // Direct Damage: 33%
This Damage Percentage can be different for you but if you use the same skills and about the same gear, it will be kind of close.
Dont forget to click the Armor Debuffs that are available in your group. I used Major Fracture.
[/spoiler]
Since many players want tips to level up their Nightblades, I give you some general hints for that. Note that this guide is mainly focused on end game PvE so I will not go into too much detail here:
a) Gear
If you are lucky enough to get crafted gear, I suggest using this setup. It’s pretty solid and with all the training traits, you will level up really fast. Because of One Tamriel and the new scaling, it’s important to recraft this setup approximately every 10 levels. If you have only access to drop gear, try to have 1 heavy, 1 light and 5 Medium pieces all the time. The nice thing here is that you have the benefit of 2 5pc crafted sets as you can procc the Armor Debuff from NMG on your Bow bar and still have it active when you swap to DW, where the full Hunding’s Rage 5pc waits to help you kick some mobs
b) Skills
[spoiler]
DUAL WIELD
Killer’s Blade: [Assassination – Assassin’s Blade] Our main execute skill I use from 25% to 0%. Also an important part of the Nightblade heal mechanic as it restores HP on kill.
Surprise Attack: [Shadow – Veiled Strike] Surprise Attack is a superb skill that has great damage, provides Major Fracture and proccs the Shadow Barrier passive from the Shadow tree (Major Ward and Major Resolve). Also stuns when cast from sneak or invisibility. A perfect all-round skill.
Power Extraction: [Siphoning – Drain Power] Deals decent Damage, grants Major Brutality and as it is a Siphoning Ability, you gain Ultimate pretty fast. It also proccs the Axe bleed passive. Not quite as strong as Steel Tornado but because of the other benefits, the best choice for leveling up. Be aware that Drain Power is a Magicka Morph and deal pretty low damage. Only Power Extraction is a Stamina Morph.
REPLACEMENT: Until you unlock Power Extraction, using Steel Tornado [Dual Wield – Whirlwind] will work.
Reaper’s Mark: [Assassination – Mark Target] Our second heal on kill mechanic along with Killer’s Blade. Also a ranged Armor Debuff if you need to kite stuff. After the marked target dies, you gain a 25% damage buff for 5s. Perfect to kill groups really fast.
REPLACEMENT: Until you unlock Reaper’s Mark, Mirage [Assassination – Blur] is also nice.
Expert Hunter: [Fighter’s Guild – Base Skill] Grants 10% Crit Chance and 3% extra Weapon Damage. Never activate it. You dont need to morph it.
REPLACEMENT: Until you unlock Camouflaged Hunter, any Assassination Skill will do the trick.
Rend [Dual Wield – Lacerate] Awesome damage and heals you.
REPLACEMENT: Incapacitating Strike: [Assassination – Death Stroke] Very solid and cheap Ultimate.
BOW:
Relentless Focus: [Assassination – Grim Focus] 8% more damage plus additional Stamina Regeneration. This skill is really valuable. With Morrowind, you can now use Assassin’s Scourge multiple times without rebuffing. It’s basically damage without having to spend resources and it hits pretty hard now.
Poison Injection: [Bow – Poison Arrow] Great DPS especially from 50-0%. I keep it up all the time.
REPLACEMENT: Until you unlock Poison Injection unlocked, use Focused Aim [Bow – Snipe].
Endless Hail: [Bow – Volley] Insane AoE Dot that you should also keep up vs Single Target mobs. You can combine it with Bombard very well.
Bombard [Bow – Arrow Spray] Root groups of mobs while dealing damage from range or hitting single targets from the sides. Crowd Control is cool!
REPLACEMENT: If you want so kite a solo mob, you can also use Draining Shot [Bow – Scatter Shot].
Leeching Strikes: [Siphoning – Siphoning Strikes] This skill is redesigned. You gain a decent amount of HP back for every Light and Heavy Attack as well as some Stamina. After the buff runs out, you get a big chunk of Stamina back. This will surely help Stamina Nightblades to heal in combat when playing solo.
Flawless Dawnbreaker: [Fighters Guild – Dawnbreaker] 5% more Weapon Damage (+3 from the passive), low cost, high physical damage.
In generel, if you dont have those skills yet, work towards it. The most important skills are Killer’s Blade and Surprise Attack. The rest will come step by step. Use the first 3 skill points to unlock the the first skills in each class tree.
[/spoiler]
c) Passives
In general, you want all relevant passives unlocked that might help you.
In this link, I selected all relevant active and passive skills you will need.
The most important ones are:
Assassination: Hemorrhage // Shadow: Refreshing Shadows and Shadow Barrier // Siphoning: Catalyst and Transfer
All Dual Wield, Bow, Medium Armor and Racial Passives
d) Tricks
Healing via Killing: while we have limited options to heal directly in combat, we have strong “heal on kill” mechanics we can use to effectively kill groups of mobs. Mark the weakest mob in a group with Reaper’s Mark and start fighting. When you feel like you need healing, focus this mob down with Surprise Attack + Killer’s Blade. As soon as he dies, your HP will be full again. Then you can mark another target that is about to die.
Avoid damage: Stamina Nightblades are not heavy armored and we often cant just run into a group of mobs and brute force them down. We have a ton of tactical advantages. With Blur and it’s morphs, we can avoid 20% of incoming damage completely. Also we have Dark Shades or Mass Hysteria to reduce the damage of a mob by 15%. That’s cool already.
But how about avoiding 100%? Welcome to kiting! With a Bow, you can kite single mobs with Draining Shot and groups of mobs with Bombard as long as you have Stamina. Nice combo: Bombard and Endless Hail. Mobs stand still while hell rains down on them. You can also increase your Movement Speed with the Hasty Retreat passive from the bow line if you need to kite. While kiting, you can heal up with Leeching Strikes and gain some resources back.
Block and Dodge: Besides kiting, blocking and dodging heavy hitting attacks is really the key to survive. Whenever you block a heavy attack, make sure to to a heavy attack yourself to knock the opponent down. It doesn’t have to be fully charged. Just keep the button pressed for a second and use a skill (Medium Attack Weaving).
Open with a sneak attack on single targets: Sneak Attacks work on every Single Target attack from sneak that deals physical or poison damage as long as you stand behind your target. It deals 3.5x normal damage and stuns the mob. Most of the time, that gives you a substantial advantage. Also works with a bow heavy attacks or Poison Injection btw.
Adapt to your situation: If a mob or group is difficult, swap skills to counter them specifically.
So you finished leveling at Level 50, CP 160 and now you want to do group content and start getting better gear. The following is what you can craft to get started:
It also has the benefit of being able to use 2 crafted 5pc set bonuses by activating the NMG Armor Debuff on your bow bar and keep it after swapping to Dual Wield 5pc Hunding’s Rage. There are some nice drop sets you might have come across but imho, its not worth it farming those as this combo is already really strong and will enable you to farm the gear you really want right away.
If you cant buy Agility jewelry right away, use Endurance for the time being or farm a drop set jewelry like Leviathan, Spriggan or Defiler.
5Med-1Heavy-1Light will give you better stats but in my experience, sustaining is a lot harder. So I prefer going 7 Medium.
For skills you should use, just check the next sections.
This setup is designed to play undaunted pledges, 4-man dungeons. You don’t need to use “Essence of Weapon Damage” potions for this. Normal drop potions will be enough. This setup works also very well with 5 Medium, 1 Heavy (Chest) and 1 Light (Waist).
Penetration in Group: 100 [Base] + 5160 [Sharpened] + 5280 [Major Fracture] + 2618 [CP] + 2580 [NMG] + 1935 [Kra’gh] = 17673
a) Gear
REPLACEMENTS:
[spoiler]
For Night Mother’s Gaze:
(1) Two Fanged Serpent: 3 Medium, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants // Sharpened weapons
Just better in general but doesnt work well with weapons as you lose the penetration stacks when you are on your bow bar. That’s why I prefer using NMG. Drops in Sactum Ophidia.
(2) Hunding’s Rage: 3 Medium, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants // Sharpened weapons
Still works as replacement for virtually anything Craftable.
For Vicious Ophidian:
(1) Alkosh: Robust jewelry // 2 Medium, Divines Traits
The ultimate support setup with 5x NMG, 5x Alkosh. The Dot of the 5pc does very good AoE damage as well. Drops in Maw of Lorkhaj.
(2) Two Fanged Serpent: Robust jewelry // 2 Medium, Divines Traits
If you want to use this jewelry set, you most likely want to use Hunding’s Rage (not Spriggan or NMG) as the other 5pc set. Drops in Sactum Ophidia.
(3) Defiler: Robust jewelry // 2 Medium, Divines Traits
Dont have the set but the procc looks awesome on paper. Drops in Morrowind.
There are other 5pc sets available with jewelry that also work like Automaton, Briarheart, Poisonous Serpent, Defiler. The difference is pretty small. What you want is basically running 2 5pc sets.
For Kra’gh:
(1) Velidreth: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
If your target already has no armor left, Velidreth is the best choice. So count your total Penetration and check if you need Kra’gh. It’s also good in vMA, for AoE in general and if you have to move around a lot. Drops in Cradle of Shadows.
(2) Selene: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
Also a strong set for single target DPS mainly. Drops in Selene’s Web.
(3) Mephala: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
Mephala is a nice Stamina set as well, just not as strong as Kra’gh/Velidreth. The net is pretty small and you cant cast a new net while the old one is still in place which makes this set only really great in fights with no movement. Drops in Fungal Grotto II.
(4) 1 Kra’gh, 1 Velidreth: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
A possible combo to gain some extra raw stats. Kra’gh drops in Fungal Grotto I, Velidreth drops in Cradle of Shadows.
For Maelstrom Bow:
(1) Master’s Bow: Sharpened Trait
It’s still a decent choice considering with my setup, there is no way to incorporate this Weapon Slot in a set bonus. Drops in Veteran Dragonstar Arena.
(2) Night Mother’s Gaze: Sharpened Trait, Crushing Enchant
It’s pretty viable. Works until you get drop stuff. Craftable.
[/spoiler]
b) Skills
This is the skill set that works for people that are not interested in squeezing out the last bit of DPS in 4 player content like undaunted pledges. You dont need to use crafted potions with this setup.
[spoiler]
DUAL WIELD
Killer’s Blade: [Assassination – Assassin’s Blade] Our main execute skill I use from 25% to 0%.
Surprise Attack: [Shadow – Veiled Strike] Surprise Attack is a superb skill that has great damage, provides Major Fracture and gives you Shadow Barrier (Major Ward and Major Resolve). A perfect all-round skill.
Power Extraction: [Siphoning – Drain Power] Our AoE Spam Skill and source of Major Brutality. Alsoas a Siphoning Ability, you gain Ultimate pretty fast and it proccs the axe bleed passive. No need for Steel Tornado really if you don’t need the last bit of execute DPS.
Relentless Focus: [Assassination – Grim Focus] 8% more damage plus additional Stamina Regeneration. This skill is really valuable. Use Assassin’s Scource as often as possible. Aligns good with rebuffing Power Extraction.
Expert Hunter: [Fighter’s Guild – Base Skill] Grants 10% Crit Chance and 3% extra Weapon Damage. Never activate it. You dont have to morph it.
Flawless Dawnbreaker: [Fighters Guild – Dawnbreaker] 5% more Weapon Damage (+3 from the passive), low cost, high physical damage. Also great vs Deadra and Undead.
REPLACEMENT: Rend [Dual Wield – Lacerate] If you need extra Healing along with nice damage, use this. Issue is that most mobs do not live for 18s, so you rarely get the full benefit out of it.
BOW:
Rearming Trap: [Fighter’s Guild – Beast Trap] Rearming Trap is a great single target Dot and our source of Minor Force.
Poison Injection: [Bow – Poison Arrow] Great DPS especially from 50-0%. I keep it up all the time. Try to Weapon Swap this skill so the dot scales with the stats of your Dual Wield bar.
Endless Hail: [Bow – Volley] Insane AoE Dot that you should also keep up vs Single Target mobs. Combined with the Maelstrom Bow, this is our strongest DPS skill.
Razor Caltrops: Strong Stamina based Dot, nice Area of Effect, 12s Duration, extremely expensive. Keep this buddy up 24/7 if possible. If you run into Stam issues, that’S the first skill to skip. Since Morrowind, multiple Stamina user can use Caltrops.
REPLACEMENT: Bombard [Bow – Arrow Spray] if you need to CC Trash/Adds or just want a good range AoE, use Bombard.
Focused Aim [Bow – Snipe] might also be an option sometimes if you cant melee for some reasons.
Resolving Vigor: [Assault – Vigor] Sometimes you have to take care for yourself, so having a heal is nice.
Leeching Strikes: [Siphoning – Siphoning Strikes] This skill is redesigned. You gain a decent amount of HP back for every Light and Heavy Attack as well as some Stamina. After the buff runs out, you get a big chunk of Stamina back. Helps to sustain.
REPLACEMENT: Mirage [Assassination – Blur] Get some defense up in case you need it.
Incapacitating Strike: [Assassination – Death Stroke] While executing, you can use Incap Strike to boost your final damage. Also you need an Assassination Skill on both bars because of the Hemorrhage passive.
[/spoiler]
c) Rotation
In every rotation, you should use Light Attack Weaving for every skill on bow bar, even buffs. On DW bar, you can restore Stamina by Heavy Attack Weaving as many Skills as nessessary to make sure you can sustain. I also block cancel or swap cancel the animation of most of my skills.
1) Buff Relentless Focus, Leeching Strike before the fight starts
2) Rearming Trap, Endless Hail, Razor Caltrops, Poison Injection, SWAP
3) (Power Extraction, Assassin’s Scourge/Relentless Focus) , Dawnbreaker/Rend, Surprise Attack until Endless Hail duration is ~2s remaining, SWAP
4) Rearming Trap, Endless Hail, Razor Caltrops, (Leeching Strikes] Poison Injection, SWAP
5) GoTo 3.
Only use the skills in Brackets if you need to recast them. Use Assassin’s Scourge whenever possible, but rebuff Relentless only if its about to run out. You can rebuff Power Extraction and Relentless together as it has the same duration. Let Leeching Strikes run out to get the full benefit.
Keep Buffs and Dots up and spam Surprise Attack in between. If your target is below 25%, you use Killer’s Blade instead of Surprise Attack.
In a raid environment, you want to support your team rather than to go for your personal best performance. As the CP system is so frontloaded now, all dps can easily get full penetration on all trial mobs without support sets like NMG, Alkosh, Crushing Enchant. Both Stamina and Magicka users achieve full penetration with about 30 points into Piercing/Spell Erosion. In Halls of Fabrication, due to lesser Synergies and more movement, Alkosh uptime sucks anyways and Tanks can use other sets to help the group now.
In Halls of Fabrication, Stamblades can get a new way to support the group: War Machine Set!
With Incap Strike being such a cheap Ulti, Nightblades are very good at keeping Major Slayer up. You can even increase the uptime with Soul Harvest. I like Incap better as not all bosses feature adds or just a few ones.
a) Gear
This setup is designed for raids without Alkosh or Crushing Support.
Penetration in Raids: 100 [Base] + 5000 [TFS] + 5160 [Sharpened] + 5280 [Major Fracture] + 2618 [CP] = 18158
I use Double Sharpened to have equal Penentration on both bars and because I like Velidreth better in raids as it usually features adds.
You can also use a Infused Dual Wield Mainhand. You get 10-15% higher uptime for Berserker, much higher DPS with your Poison Glyph AND a Infused Mainhand applies on the Maelstrom Bow Enchant as long as you are on DW bar (Endless Hail will tick harder). To compensate, you can equip Kra’gh or use it if your raid runs Armor Debuffs like NMG, Alkosh, Crushing Enchant etc.
REPLACEMENTS:
[spoiler]
For Twice-Fanged Serpent:
(1) Night Mother’s Gaze : 5 Medium, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants
NMG is like a little TFS. Not that much penetration but works for the whole group. If you are not the only Stamina DPS, consider that set. Craftable.
(2) Hunding’s Rage: 5 Medium, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants
The classic set, very solid overall. Craftable.
For War Machine:
(1) Vicious Ophidian: 3x jewelry, Robust, Weapon Damage Enchants + Axe+Daggers, Sharpened, Poison + Berserker Enchant
VO is very valueable as sustain has become so much more important. Drops in Sanctum Ophidian.
(2) Spriggan’s: 3x jewelry, Robust, Weapon Damage Enchants + Axe+Daggers, Sharpened, Poison + Berserker Enchant
Also a nice substitute. Great if you are the only Stamina DPS in the raid. Drops in Bankorai.
(3) Automaton: 3x jewelry, Robust, Weapon Damage Enchants + Axe+Daggers, Sharpened, Poison + Berserker Enchant
Pretty good set now. About as good as Hunding’s Rage. Drops in Darkshade Caverns.
There are tons of possible setups for 2 5pc sets, its too much to list and rate them all.
For Velidreth:
(1) Kra’gh: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
It also works great, but make sure you do not stack too much penetration that way. Drops in Fungal Grotto I.
(2) Selene: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
Also a strong set for single target DPS mainly. Drops in Selene’s Web.
(3) Mephala: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
Mephala is a nice Stamina set as well, just not as strong as Kra’gh/Velidreth. The net is pretty small and you cant cast a new net while the old one is still in place which makes this set only really great in fights with no movement. Drops in Fungal Grotto II.
(4) 1 Kra’gh, 1 Velidreth: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
A possible combo to gain some extra raw stats. Kra’gh drops in Fungal Grotto I, Velidreth drops in Cradle of Shadows.
For Maelstrom Bow:
(1) Master’s Bow: Sharpened Trait
It’s still a decent choice considering with my setup, there is no way to incorporate this Weapon Slot in a set bonus. The new DSA offers a CP160 version of this bow. Drops in Veteran Dragonstar Arena.
You can also use the bow of the set your dual wield weapons are from.
[/spoiler]
b) Skills
Certain bosses require certain skills, but in general, this works. I will also list alternatives. This is the skill set I mostly use when playing end game raid content and anything that requires maximum DPS. You need to use Essence of Weapon Damage Potions all the time with this setup.
[spoiler]
DUAL WIELD
Killer’s Blade: [Assassination – Assassin’s Blade] Our Spam Skill from 25% to 0%.
Surprise Attack: [Shadow – Veiled Strike] Surprise Attack gives you great defense with Shadow Barrier (5280 Armor/Spell Resistance), Major Fracture and 3% more HP. With the addition of Master-at-Arms in the CP-System, this buddy can Rapid Strikes in terms of DPS.
REPLACEMENT: Rapid Strikes: [Dual Wield – Flurry] It’s cheaper, so it helps with sustain and the damage is great if you get another source of Major Fracture.
Rending Slashes: [Dual Wield – Twin Slashes] It is a great DOT which you have to keep up as much as possible. Like any DW Skill, it starts getting stronger against targets below 25%.
REPLACEMENT: Steel Tornado: [Dual Wield – Whirlwind] You can slot if for trash packs but most of the time, Adds die in cleave damage. So I prefer focusing on Single Target DPS.
Deadly Cloak: [Dual Wield – Blade Cloak] 25% AoE damage mitigation as well as a solid Dot with a long duration. Helps vs single and multiple targets.
Relentless Focus: [Assassination – Grim Focus] 8% more damage plus additional Stamina Regeneration. This skill is really valuable. Try to use the Assassin’s Scourge as often as possible.
Incapacitating Strike: [Assassination – Death Stroke] With Incap, you can get a solid uptime for your War Machine 5pc bonus. It’s like a Mini Standard of Might and you get insane burst whenever you use it. There are also reasons to use Soul Harvest to be able to boost the Major Slayer Uptime even more, but I will test that when I have my WM weapons. In vHoF, the adds I kill are not too many so the extra Ulti Regen is not that big of a deal. There are situations however, where you can boost your Ulti Regen greatly with Soul Harvest, making it possible to have really insane Major Slayer uptimes.
REPLACEMENT: Rend: [Dual Wield – Lacerate] Awesome Damage and heals you. If you dont have War Machine yet or need extra healing or need AoE – that’s a good choice.
Flawless Dawnbreaker: [Fighters Guild – Dawnbreaker] 5% more Weapon Damage (+3 from the passive), low cost, high physical damage.
BOW:
Rearming Trap: [Fighter’s Guild – Beast Trap] Rearming Trap is a great single target Dot and our source of Minor Force.
Poison Injection: [Bow – Poison Arrow] Great DPS especially from 50-0%. I keep it up all the time. Try to Weapon Swap this skill so the dot scales with the stats of your Dual Wield bar.
Endless Hail: [Bow – Volley] Insane AoE Dot that you should also keep up vs Single Target mobs. Combined with the Maelstrom Bow, this is our strongest DPS skill. 12s Duration works well with Trap and the new Caltrops.
Razor Caltrops: Strong Stamina based Dot, nice Area of Effect, 12s Duration, extremely expensive. Keep this buddy up 24/7 if possible. If you run into Stam issues, that’S the first skill to skip. Since Morrowind, multiple Stamina user can use Caltrops.
REPLACEMENT: Resolving Vigor: [Assault – Vigor] Sometimes you have to take care for yourself, so having a heal is nice.
Mirage [Assassination – Blur] Get some defense up in case you need it. I mainly have it on my bar to have access to hemorrhage but it also saved my life quite a few times. It’s a semi flex spot in my build.
REPLACEMENT: Leeching Strikes: [Siphoning – Siphoning Strikes] This skill is redesigned. You gain a decent amount of HP back for every Light and Heavy Attack as well as some Stamina. After the buff runs out, you get a big chunk of Stamina back. Helps to sustain. If you use Leeching Strikes, you need to slot Incap Strikes as Ultimate.
Cleanse [Support – Purge] There are situations in vHoF where you need to purge dots yourself.
Flawless Dawnbreaker: [Fighters Guild – Dawnbreaker] 5% more Weapon Damage (+3 from the passive), low cost, high physical damage.
REPLACEMENT: Incapacitating Strike: [Assassination – Death Stroke] If you dont have another Assassination Skill on that bar, you need Incap to access the Hemorrhage passive.
[/spoiler]
c) Rotation
I use Light Attack Weaving for every skill I use on the bow bar, even buffs. I also block cancel or swap cancel the animation of most of my skills.
To sustain, I use Heavy Attack Weaving for as many skills as necessary on the Dual Wield bar.
1) Buff Relentless Focus, Deadly Cloak, Mirage/Leeching Strikes before the fight
2) Rearming Trap, Endless Hail, Essence of Weapon Damage, Razor Caltrops, Poison Injection, SWAP
3) Surprise Attack, Rending Slashes, Incap Strike, Assassin’s Scourge, 2x Surprise Attack, SWAP
4) Rearming Trap, Endless Hail, Razor Caltrops, Poison Injection, SWAP
5) Keep your DW Dots up, use Assassin’s Scourge as often as possible and whenever Endless Hail is 2s from running out, swap to Bow and do 4)
The key is to keep Dots up and restore enough Stamina in the time where Incap is not up to make sure you can burst like a mad man when Incap is available. Try to time the rotation in a way that you can use Assassin’s Scourge 2x and prioritize the uptime of the bow bar dots as well.
Always Swap Cancel Poison Injection – that way the damage benefits from the Dual Wield bar.
Whenever every Dot/buff is running, you can use Surprise Attack or Killer’s Blade (in execute). While executing, you want to keep your bow bar Dots up but you dont need to reapply Deadly Cloak or Rending Slashes. You also want to keep up Relentless Focus to get Assassin’s Scourge proccs even when executing.
TL;DR: This setup is only for experienced vMA players as you have very low survivability. I completed vMA in Morrowind one time to check the difficulty with the new sustain system. I was baffled how easy it was. Leeching Strikes is so strong here, I have to use Vigor quite rarely now. The time was shitty but I had no issues whatsoever. Damage was better because of Master-at-Arms, but also the defense because of Iconclad and the additonal 5% damage reduction of Deadly Cloak.
a) Gear
PENETRATION INFO:
[spoiler]
The Maelstrom Arena is the only place left (I know of) where Mob Armor is not normalized, so every mob has an individual armor value. Therefor its hard to run a Penetration based setup without overdoing it at one mob type and not having enough on the other one. I tried to balance my approach. With my raid setup including 2618 Penetration from Piercing, I do have a decent amount already.
Boss Armor vMA:
If we calculate Penetration, we get 100 [base value] +5160 [Sharpened] + 2618 [CP] = 7878 as a standard penetration we always have even if we cant apply Major Fracture (AoE trash or ranged attacks). As the lowest armor value I found was 9.1k, we dont overdue it that was. Sidenote: In this scenario, Spriggan’s would still be superior as 5160+4000+100 = 9260 so we’re just slightly over the desired value…but only on DW bar and most stuff gets hit by bow first.
Now with Major Fracture applies, we add 5280 and get 13158. As I said, most mobs do have 12k or lower, so we’re pretty close here. Slightly too much but since we’re also have to deal with 18.2k Mobs from time to time, its okay. 1k over penetration means 2% DPS…still better damage wise than using TBS for example.
I think this will give experienced players a solid way to do vMA really fast. Remember that for learning vMA, I suggest using TBS as you might want some extra HP for that.
[/spoiler]
REPLACEMENTS:
[spoiler]
For Hunding’s Rage:
(1) Twice Born Star: 5 Medium, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants
The save way to run. More HP and both mundus stones apply to your Vigor heals as well. Craftable.
(2) Night Mother’S Gaze: 5 Medium, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants
You are stacking a bit too much overall Penetration with this but if you already have that set and dont want to craft Hunding’s, thats okay. Craftable.
For Vicious Ophidian:
It’s almost impossible to replace VO in vMA. It’s so good it’s hilarious. You get insane sustain and mobility plus very good DPS. It’s just…the best. If you need to replace VO, you have to adjust the build to fit your sustain needs. Especially if you are not a Redguard, you might need 1 Cost Reduction Glyph on your jewelry. You will definitely need Leeching Strikes.
(1) Leviathan: 3x jewelry, Robust, Weapon Damage Enchants + 2x Armor Pieces, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants
Leviathan is solid as your DPS and Heals will crit a ton. Drops in Crypt of Hearts.
(2) 3pc Agility/Endurance + any 2pc: Robust jewelry, Sharpened Daggers
Agility has more punch, Endurance more survivability and sustain. I would prefer using a 5pc set, but this one also works. The 2pc weapon set should have +Weapon Damage as bonus. If you cant get that, use a crafted set with +Crit Chance.
(3) Defiler: 3x jewelry, Robust, Weapon Damage Enchants + 2x Armor Pieces, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants
Dont have the set but the procc looks awesome on paper. Drops in Morrowind.
(4) Viper: 3x jewelry, Robust, Weapon Damage Enchants + 2x Armor Pieces, Divines Traits, Stamina Enchants
With the nerf to procc set in Update 13, this set is not as good anymore. But still works in vMA. Drops in Fungal Grotto.
For Velidreth:
(1) Kra’gh: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
It also works great, but the 2pc bonus proccs very often while running around which means it doesn’t hit anything. Great for bosses. Drops in Fungal Grotto I.
(2) Mephala: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
Mephala is a great Stamina set as well, just not as strong as Kra’gh/Velidreth. The net is pretty small and you cant cast a new net while the old one is still in place which makes this set only really great in fights with no movement. Drops in Fungal Grotto II.
(3) 1 Molag Kena, 1 Velidreth: Medium, Divines, Stamina Enchants
A possible combo to gain some extra Weapon Damage. Kena drops in White Gold Tower, Velidreth drops in Cradle of Shadows.
For Maelstrom Bow:
(1) Master’s Bow: Sharpened Trait
It’s still a decent choice considering with my setup, there is no way to incorporate this Weapon Slot in a set bonus. The new DSA offers a CP160 version of this bow. Drops in Veteran Dragonstar Arena.
(2) Hunding’s Rage: Sharpened Trait, Poison Enchant
As you run NMG Dual Wield anyways, using the bow as well seems obvious. Craftable.
[/spoiler]
b) Skills
[spoiler]
DUAL WIELD
Killer’s Blade: [Assassination – Assassin’s Blade] Our main execute skill I use from 25% to 0%. Also a great heal you definitely need.
Surprise Attack: [Shadow – Veiled Strike] In vMA, you need DPS AND survival. You want to use Surprise Attack for Major Fracture, Shadow Barrier and additional HP. Great Skill.
Deadly Cloak: [Dual Wield – Blade Cloak] The benefit of Deadly Cloak is for once the damage reduction for AoE effects but its also a nice AoE damage effect that can be applied before mobs spawn or while moving around, giving you some extra DPS.
REPLACEMENT: Ambush: [Assassination – Teleport Strike] Mobility is key in vMA. If you don’t have 5x Vicious Ophidian, this can help!
Steel Tornado: [Dual Wield – Whirlwind] I don’t use AoE a lot but sometimes, you need it.
REPLACEMENT: Rending Slashes: [Dual Wield – Twin Slashes] Especially vs bosses, Rending Slashes helps a lot to kill them faster. If you are quick, you can switch to Rending before every boss fight.
Resolving Vigor: [Assault – Vigor] Our main heal.
Rend: [Dual Wield – Lacerate] Extremely good ultimate for vMA. Very long duration Dot + heals you. You can skip Vigor for most bosses due to this. Only use it vs bosses as you usually will kill other stuff faster by using Incap Strike. Sadly, a lot of stuff dies so fast it’s almost not worth it nowadays
REPLACEMENT: Incapacitating Strike: [Assassination – Death Stroke] vMA has a ton of mobs that needs to die fast but Rend would be overkill.
BOW:
Rearming Trap: [Fighter’s Guild – Beast Trap] is great to place down on portals and helps a lot to burst down bosses. I also nails mobs down so they stay in your Arrow Barrage for a bit longer.
REPLACEMENT: Mirage: [Assassination – Blur] The extra defense you might need to survive.
Poison Injection: [Bow – Poison Arrow] A sick skill to combo with a heavy attack vs a spawning mob and to execute bosses really fast. Can also be a semi good ranged anytimer. Many Mobs die from a Heavy + Poison Injection.
Endless Hail: [Bow – Volley] Insane AoE Dot that you should also keep up vs Single Target mobs.
Leeching Strikes: [Siphoning – Siphoning Strikes] This skill is redesigned. You gain a decent amount of HP back for every Light and Heavy Attack as well as some Stamina. After the buff runs out, you get a big chunk of Stamina back. Helps to sustain and to survive.
REPLACEMENT: Razor Caltrops: Only use it if you are Redguard or really experienced with resource management.
Relentless Focus: [Assassination – Grim Focus] 8% more damage plus additional Stamina Regeneration. This skill is really valuable. I also like to use the Assassin’s Scourge procc whenever I run around, swap to my bow bar and see that it’s ready.
Incapacitating Strike: [Assassination – Death Stroke] vMA has a ton of mobs that needs to die fast but Rend would be overkill. Use this to burst down mobs like mini bosses or Deadroths in Stage 9.
REPLACEMENT: Ballista: [Bow – Rapid Fire] To burst down bosses even faster, this one is pretty awesome.
[/spoiler]
c) Starter Video
I made a video a while back showing how to clear it with crafted gear only. It doesnt reflect the new sustain issues in vMA but you can see mechanics and stuff. If you want to see flawless speedruns, check Andy S on Youtube.
As always, I will add DPS screens over the time. We’re doing vHoF all the time currently testing new strategies so as soon as we got fixed strategies, we will focus more on DPS and I will give you some nice parses
DPS Dummy 3 Mio: 46.6k
Halls of Fabrication – Boss 1: Hunter-Killer Negatrix / Positrox: 54.4k AoE / 49k Single
Halls of Fabrication – Boss 2: Pinnacle Factotum: 32.6k
Halls of Fabrication – Boss 3: Archcustodian: 35.3k
Halls of Fabrication – Boss 4: Reducer, Reclaimer, Reactor: 36.7k
Halls of Fabrication – Boss 5: Assembly General: 35.7k
How Dots work
[spoiler]
What that means:
[/spoiler]
How Twice Fanged Serpent works
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]
Dagger vs Sword vs Mace
[spoiler]
A basic comparison between the weapon types. The more Armor Debuffs are applied, the worse Maces get because Armor Debuffs get substracted before the % based penetration of Maces apply.
[/spoiler]
Infused vs Sharpened?
[spoiler]
Why is Infused considered okay on Dual Wield Main hand?
Because it empowers the Glyphs of the main hand, off hand as well as the vMA Enchant that empowers Cruel Flurry.
Here is a spreadsheet.
[/spoiler]
What proccs Axe Bleed?
[spoiler]
Does procc it:
Doesnt procc it:
[/spoiler]
Surprise Attack vs. Rapid Strikes
[spoiler]
TL;DR: Surprise Attack has more benefits. It does more damage with my CP Setup, allows you to weave faster which means potentially more Assassin’s Scouge Proccs and definitely more Axe Bleed Proccs (Surprise Attacks procc it as well, while Rapid Strikes does not). Surprise Attack also gives you Shadow Barrier. Rapid is just easier to sustain.
[/spoiler]
What are Elemental Status Effects and how to apply it?
[spoiler]
There are more Status Effects than the Elemental based ones, like CC effects for example. This part only covers Elemental Status Effects as they are the most relevant ones when it comes to DPS.
Elemental Status Effects are secondary effects applied by using Skills that deal some sort of elemental damage (fire, frost, lightning). Since Patch 2.1, the chance to apply an Elemental Status Effect is as following:
This is also true for Poison Damage, proccing a Status Effect called “Poisoned” which is a DoT that ticks 7 times (12s duration).
You can increase the chance to apply Elemental Status Effects by a Destruction Staff passive called Elemental Force or by using a Weapon with “Charged” Trait.
Elemental Status Effects are:
[/spoiler]
Here, i want to tackle frequently asked questions I have to answer a lot on a daily base.
(01) Can I run X skill instead of Y?
(02) Why do you have more/better/less/worse stats than me?
(03) How do I get 17k HP? Should I use Prismatic Enchants?
(04) Why is my damage so low compared to yours? I have the same gear and the same skills!
(05) Why have you thrown away your maces?
(06) Why not a sword?
(07) All Divines? Why not Infused on the big pieces?
(08) 5/1/1 or 7 Medium?
(09) Can I play bow as main weapon with this build?
(10) What about the Viper Set?
(11) What Addons do you use?
(12) How much armor does a mob have?
(13) Why Sharpened weapons? Can I use Precise?
(14) Why does Penetration offer such a high DPS increase compared to other stats like +Crit Chance?
(15) What’s the difference between Armor Debuffs and Penetration?
(16) How do you get away with so low health?
(17) What are CP Jump Points and why should I care?
[spoiler]
(1) Can I run X skill instead of Y?
Sure! My guide is a general framework that works in most cases, but if you feel you need another skill in a certain situation, you can surely swap around stuff and look if it works better for you.
(2) Why do you have more/better/less/worse stats than me?
First off, I’m a Redguard, which means I get 10% extra Stamina but no HP bonus like Imperials or +Crit like Khajiit. Also, I have maxed Champion Points. Every Champion Point you spend gives you extra stats until 300 CP (Red= HP, Green = Stamina, Blue = Magicka). My Gear is completely upgraded to legendary.
(3) How do I get 17k HP? Should I use Prismatic Enchants?
With maxed CP, you can get 17k with 1 HP Setbonus like TBS or running 5/1/1 with any set that doesn’t have a set bonus. Don’t use Prismatic Enchants in PvE. They are expensive and only beneficial if you have a good use from Magicka, which we dont have in PvE. Rather have 1 large piece with HP enchant.
(4) Why is my damage so low compared to yours? I have the same gear and the same skills!
First off, DPS is a group effort. If you don’t have a good team, your DPS will be lower by default. Also, this is my build I practiced A TON to play it the way I do. Don’t get discouraged if you cant compete with my DPS on the first try…or the first week. Practice your rotation, your light and heavy attack weaving and your block canceling. Also learn the encounters you are facing. The better you know the boss you’re fighting, the more you can concentrate on your DPS and less on the environment.
(5) Why have you thrown away your maces?
Sharpened is just so strong, there is no need to run a mace anymore in PvE. Also you can stack a ton of Armor Penetration. The third reason is that the 10% penetration of Maces get applies AFTER Armor Debuffs. So you’ll get a really low benefit especially in raids.
(6) Why not a sword?
Swords do not compare to daggers anymore. With all the Crit Damage Modifiers we have now, 5% extra crit increases our damage more than the 2.5% extra damage you get from swords. In PvP, swords and maces are still better than a dagger because you cant crit on Damage Shields and everyone runs Impenetrable.
(7) All Divines? Why not Infused on the big pieces?
While it depends on the Mundus Stone you use, I calculated that for the Shadow, Thief and the Warrior Mundus, Divines gives me more DPS than Infused, even on big parts. Not much else to say.
(8) 5/1/1 or 7 Medium?
I prefer 7 medium since you gain a lot of sustain. If you need extra HP or maybe even additional Armor and Spell Resistance you get from the heavy chest piece, 5/1/1 works as well. You just need more Heavy Attacks. In raids, I would always try to run 7 Medium.
(9) Can I play bow as main weapon with this build?
There are actually quite a few options to run a bow build now. While bow works with the gear I use, It’s not necessarily the best. This build is designed for melee combat mainly.
(10) What about the Procc Sets like Viper?
The nerf to Procc Sets in Update 13 killed Viper and Red Mountain for PvE.
(11) What Addons do you use?
Here is a Screenshot of my UI with the most important Addons displayed.
(12) How much armor does a mob have?
Since One Tamriel, all monsters in dungeons and trials do have 18.2k armor. Trash as well as all bosses. That includes vDSA. Monster in the normal upper world, as well Delves and Public Dungeons, do have 9.1k now. That means for questing, it’s pretty easy to cap penetration by only using Sharpened weapons plus a Major Fracture defuff from Surprise Attack or Reaper’s Mark. vMA is the only exception to that rule. Mobs there still have individual armor values. Most of them have 12k or less, though. The max is 18.2k as well.
(13) Why Sharpened weapons? Can I use Infused/Precise?
The DPS increase of Sharpened is almost double the amount a Precise weapon offers and it’s a great way to gain Penetration. Thanks to strong Sets like TFS, Kra’gh and the new frontloaded CP system, its also possible to allocate CP in a way to compensate and use a Infused weapon or even a Precise one. I got about the same Single Target DPS with a Infused Weapon and Kra’gh compared to Sharp Weapons with Veli. Its up to you.
(14) Why does Penetration offer such a high DPS increase compared to other stats like +Crit Chance?
Did you ever think about why stats are the way they are in ESO? Why a Weapon Damage Setbonus gives more DPS than a Stamina Setbonus for example or in this case, why Penetration is better than crit?
It’s fairly simple from a developer point of view. If you compare Stamina with Weapon Damage: Weapon Damage only buffs your Damage, while Stamina buffs your Damage AND gives you a higher Stats Pool which allows you to fight longer AND has more defensive uses (Block/Dodge). So if Stam and Weapon Damage Set boni would give the same amount of DPS, Stamina would be superior as it has added benefits.
Penetration is a even more complex thing. While Stam/WD do buff your defense as your heals with Vigor are also increased for example, Penetration doesnt have a defensive part. Its “just” offense. And it has a HARD CAP, which means you cant stack it infinitely like Stam/WD.
Crit also has a hard cap, but it’s way harder to reach than Penetration. Also, like Stam/WD, crit also buffs your defense and has great synergies in groups.
So its only natural that from all damage increasing components, Penetration has the highest amount of restrictions and therefor grants the highest DPS bonus.
(15) What’s the difference between Armor Debuffs and Penetration?
Armor Debuffs do reduce the target’s armor, which means everyone who hits that target does more damage. Penetration only works for yourself.
Armor Debuffs apply BEFORE percentage based penetration is calculated, so if you run a mace (10% penetration), it doesnt penetrate 10% of the targets real armor but 10% of (Armor – Armor Debuffs).
Examples of Armor Debuffs: Major/Minor Fracture, Crushing, 5p Alkosh bonus, 5p Night Mother’s Gaze bonus, 5p Sunderflame bonus
Examples of Penetration: Sharpened weapons, 1p Kra’gh bonus, 5p Spriggan bonus
(16) How do you get away with so low health?
Ebon Armor and constant Warhorn in a raid group helps a lot, especially if you don’t run TBS or a monster set with +HP bonus. Other than that, it’s a ton of practice and knowing when you have to be careful. The better you understand a mechanic, the less HP you need as you usually die because of bad positioning or other small errors in your play.
(17) What are CP Jump Points and why should I care?
The new CP system doesnt care about decimals. That means for example that 12.1% and 12.9% both increase your value by 12%. Everything gets rounded down. So you have to make sure to allocate your CP in a way that you always have a number slightly higher than a full number like 12.1%.
[/spoiler]
Replies: 713
Current Version: 1.4.8a
Website: Website
Download Hook64
If you are upgrading from versions prior to 1.4.7, you must overwrite all of the files for it to work properly.
Note: You need to install the following Microsoft files to run Hook64:
Microsoft .NET 4.6.2
Microsoft C++ Redistributable 2015 x86
Microsoft C++ Redistributable 2015 x64
If you want more detailed information or screenshots, please visit the website listed above.
Replies: 62
The Infinite Tank
[IMG]http://esoacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/1-7d8415ec636a9e5e54979f461a50eb91/2015/08/art-eso-nord-zoom.jpg[/IMG]
UPDATED: Mayu 29th 2017 – Morrowind Patch
Note: I can’t take full credit for this build. It’s based on blazing shield builds of many others who have done it in the past, this is just my version of that sort of build. This build also still will be refined as i’m just starting to get into tanking. (this is my alt)
Objective: Create a strong, extremely difficult to kill endgame PvE tank that can take serious sustained punishment while being able to do damage as well. Not test for Vet Trials.
Theory: This is a Templar Magicka Based Tank that will use the Sun Shield ability as it’s main spammable skill. The Sun Shield gets bigger the more health you have so we will go very strong into health and also strong into magicka regen. While the cost of the shield isn’t high, we will be using it over and over again so strong magicka regen, and strong health numbers are the main focus here.
Race:
Breton – Max Magica, Cost Reduction and Spell Resistance
Why Breton instead of Nord?
With Morrowind sustain changes, the extra magicka pool and regen is very much needed. Breton also gives spell resistance which is nice, and with Radiant Ward, our shield will be bigger to slightly offset the health reduction but we also compensate for Nord damage reduction passive in a few ways.
Mundus Stone:
Atronach (magicka regen)
Attributes:
Make sure you have AT LEAST 60k Health.
64 – Health
0 – Magicka
0 – Stamina
Armor & Jewelry: 7-Heavy (Divines) & Healthy Trait
5pc Heavy PLauge Doctor – grants lots of health!
5pc Warrior-Poet - Grants us the health bonus we lost from being a Nord
Note: Anyway you can get these sets is fine, but use Endurance for your weapons, so when you swap to resto backbar you only lose about 1k health and not a massive 5pc health bonus from our sets.
Food:
Banana Bunny Hash,.. Adds Max Magicka and Max Health. Can can try Health and Magica Regen if you want but the extra big magicka pool is nice, just make sure your magicka is higher so that shards gives you magicka and not stamina.
Weapon 1: Sword and Shield
1pc: Sword of Endurance – Defending – any enchant that incorporates restore magicka
1pc: Shield of Endurance – Health enchant – Infused
Weapon 2: Resto Staff
1pc: Any Random Restoration Staff – Defending – Any absorb magicka enchant
Potions:
Cheap Stamina Potions – Since our stamina pool is low and our regen not that great, we have this incase we run out and need to taunt. We only use one stamina ability so it doesn’t happen very often.
Cheap Magicka Potions – Just in case.
Skills
Why Radiant Ward instead of Blazing Shield?
With sustain changes, a lower cost shield helps quite a bit, plus the shield gets bigger by more, the more adds there are than blazing shield, (6% vs 4%) but we sacrifice DPS for this change.
Bar 1: S&B
Pierce Armor – Our main taunt which also applies Major Breach & Major Fracture (reducing resistance of enemy)
Radient Shield - Our main skill which this build focuses on. This will be spammed either every 6 seconds (it’s duration) or just before it’s about to expire because of taking damage. Either way it will absorb damage. The higher your health the higher the shield is.
Channeled Focus – This will always be down for two reasons,..1: It grants a good amount of physical and spell resistance 2: it grants loads of magicka regen which we will need since our magicka pool is small.
Structured Entropy – This is here for the passive max health bonus, adds 8% max health! plus magicka bonus through mages guild passives
Volcanic Rune – Our only CC ability
Ultimate – Spell Wall [S&B Ultimate] – immediately swap bars and do a heavy resto attack to replenish magicka, with heavy armor passive and resto passive and the changes to heavy attacks in this patch, the resource return in insane.
Bar 2: Resto Staff
Bone Shield – A stamina based shield similar to Radiant Ward, synergy grants Minor Vitality (increasing healing received by 8%) and a shield to ally!
Power of the Light – Adds Minor Fracture, replace this with whatever you want if you have a Stamina Templar DPS using this.
Inner Fire – Ranged Taunt, only use when needed. No need to morph this skill. It has a high magicka cost and not needed most of the time, but when it is needed, it sure is handy!
Ring of Preservation – Costs lots of stamina, but lasts long and reduces your damage taken by 8%, similar to Nord Passive.
Repentance – In case you need health and there are bodies around.
Ultimate – Empowering Sweep – (take reduced damage for each enemy hit, in case you need it)
Basic Rotation:
For Mobs:
Radiant Shield -> Channeled Focus -> Radiant Shield -> Volcanic Rune -> Radiant Shield Spam etc etc….
For Boss:
Radiant Shield -> Channeled Focus -> Run and use Pierce Armor -> Position Boss with back toward DPS -> Channeled Focus -> Radiant Shield -> Power of the Light -> Radiant Shield Spam – Repeat (use Bone Shield Supplimental, Ring of Preservation when needed) If you have a healer running shards, it will be more than enough to sustain your magicka, but if you need to replenish, use magicka potion or S&B Ultimate, swap bars, 1 or 2 resto heavy attacks and you’re back in business.
DO NOT HOLD BLOCK (a little weird i know) only use block for boss heavy hits or when needed otherwise you will lose stamina which is needed for taunt or dodge roll.
Champion Points:
RED
100 into Bastion – (you will see the tool tip on Radiant Shield show higher percentage of Health will become a shield)
Rest of the points put into whatever resistances you need.
BLUE
This doesn’t matter too much, as your damage is pretty bad anyway.
GREEN
100 into Magicka Regen
100 into resource return from heavy attack
10 into whatever you want.
Conclusion
This is built for 4-man content, I haven’t tried trials, so I still have a bit to learn but i’ve done vWGT, vICP and vCOA with this build and it was with ease.
Below are my UNBUFFED stats (except for food)
I’ve found this tank to be sooooo much fun to play. Enjoy!
[IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/kb20dj.jpg[/IMG]
Cheers all and have fun.
Replies: 704
[spoiler]
24-Jun-2016: Updated for Dark Brotherhood DLC
20-Aug-2016: Updated for Shadows of The Hist DLC
30-Oct-2016: Updated for One Tamriel
11-Feb-2017: Updated for Homestead
21-Feb-2017: Changed CP Distribution to Benefit From Exploiter Passive
26-Apr-2017: Swapped Over to Daedric Prey + Necropotence Set
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[img]http://i.imgur.com/YLk75Sx.jpg[/img]
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The Magicka Sorcerer continues to outshine when it comes to ranged DPS. The ability to do comparable DPS to other melee damage dealers makes it a must have in any group that intends to do Trials. Very powerful in Dungeons and Arenas including Maelstrom. However, in case you are looking for Maelstrom build, this is not what you are looking for as this build is aimed towards group content with good group resource support. If you wanna make it work in Maelstrom you gotta make your adjustment to it
Now that Dark Elf got buffed its probably your best choice as sorcerer, but doesn’t mean High Elf is useless now. I even believe they might be both equally powerful.
I have all my 64 attribute points into Magicka. and I barely hit the 17k hp. You might gonna need to invest some points into HP if you lack CP. usually 18k is high enough for end game content as a DD with low amount of CP and 17k hp if you have a decent amount of CP.
The Thief
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[img]http://i.imgur.com/8fb7ren.png[/img]
I usually use Essence of Spell Power to buff myself with Major Sorcery which is very important for Damage Dealers, also to restore good amount of magicka back. The crit bonus is invalid because we have inner light which gives the exact same buff. Also make sure to have 3 skill points in Medical Use under Alchemy skill tree to increase the duration of the buff significantly.
Make sure to have 1 piece Heavy and 1 piece medium for benefit from the Undaunted Mettle passive which will increase your max stats by 6%. What you will need is:
[img]http://image.prntscr.com/image/4cc5d3ddfbf7410f8b89de35a54ea40b.png[/img]
Sharpened is way superior in casual group, and slightly superior in a really good group.
Infero/Lighting all the way on bosses and on trash fights, this is due to the incredible amount of damage our pet can produce. With that our dps from AOE abilities is substantially high therefore Lighting is more beneficial on main bar
Necroptence outperforms BSW while you have pet running and using Daedric Prey which get boosts pets damage quite ridiculously high in raids. However, we will still need BSW in some fights that is not good for pets.
[img]http://image.prntscr.com/image/3e5774b5e83e4bfc99202d7e1ce0d9a5.png[/img]
As for rotation it is as following:
Potion > Shooting Star > Liquid Lightning > LA > Elemental Blockade > LA > Pet Pulse > LA > Curse > Swap > LA > Force Pulse > LA > Crystal Frags (when proced) ….. and repeat
[img]http://image.prntscr.com/image/bcbce51b78c3475db6309ef6118f64bd.png[/img]
This bar setup was inspired by Senaxu, stack as much magicka as possible on main bar. Had pretty good results with it.
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Replies: 1,242
[img]http://i.imgur.com/TkE5GnD.png[/img]
Welcome to my build-thread for the Magicka DK in Morrowind. This build is, for all intents and purposes, for PvE only and will aim to keep Magicka DKs at their current, highly esteemed level. Morrowind has brought alot of resource changes which affects our playstyle in a few very noticeable ways. This buildpost will be two-part and will provide you with a decent explanation of both parts so you can make up your own mind about how you want to play your Magicka DK.
This build is largely based on @IWM’s Magicka DK build, but with my own opinions and testing for this new DLC. I’ll be trying to minimize the grind for gear, whilst putting in my opinions on several different setups, tell you why they may or may not work aswell as listing my preferred and basic setups.
Enjoy!
[spoiler]
11.03.2016 – The Birth of the Build
11.03.2016 – Fixed typos
28.03.2016 – Updated the build extensively. Added new gear, new skills, MoL specific setups, updated CPs and added more depth to the MoL section.
29.03.2016 – Fixed errors with gearsets and changed non-Kena gear to a levelling build. Thanks @Latin for the help with enchants!
30.05.2016 – Fixed errors, typos and cleaned up the vMoL section a bit. Started minor updates for Dark Brotherhood.
03.08.2016 – Major update to reflect changes in the Shadows of the Hist DLC.
03.08.2016 – Updated build with a less complex rotation, courtecy of @AlfonsoV
06.08.2016 – Updated Character Sheet picture and fixed typos all over OP. Thanks @Drungly for pointing out errors!
10.08.2016 – Made an attempt to make the rotation more simple and understandable. Also reintroduced the FAQ section.
26.09.2016 – Updated the build for One Tamriel! Also changed the “Gear I want to test” section to “Optional Gearsets” to reflect the large influx of options we now have when choosing gear.
26.09.2016 – Fixed typos and formatting. Clarified why I’m using Entropy.
28.09.2016 – Fixed even more typos…
29.09.2016 – Uploaded some new parses
08.10.2016 – Fixed some minor stuff and added more parses from pre-1T.
19.10.2016 – Added new parses with the 1T setup and revised the rotation.
25.10.2016 – Fixed an error in the rotation. Thanks @RUNNINGCOUNT
19.11.2016 – Updated the BiS gear
29.11.2016 – Fixed some formatting. Added AA parses. Fixed parse section formatting.
01.12.2016 – Added some new parses and renamed the build, thanks @ConnorWoods and @Kieranwoods93
02.12.2016 – Revised the rotation alittle as I thought I had done that weeks ago. Further explained some aspects of the build.
03.02.2017 – Updated for Homestead.
07.02.2017 – Fixed some images such as character sheet and CPs.
11.02.2017 – Updated some parses. Some are from Homestead, others are from One Tamriel.
16.02.2017 – Revised the rotation (thanks to @Vezuls) and added some new parses.
08.03.2017 – Added some parses
14.03.2017 – New AA parses
21.03.2017 – HelRa parses
30.03.2017 – AA parses
10.04.2017 – Added Video-Guide for rotation!
11.04.2017 – Fixed some errors in the text rotation. Thank you, @RUNNINGCOUNT
02.06.2017 – Updated the build for Morrowind
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[img]https://i.gyazo.com/975892e6e42965afe25d450d39a4e711.jpg[/img][img]https://i.gyazo.com/8d315338c6c0214d889f9aa41ae6900c.jpg[/img]
As you can see I have provided two character sheets. The first is using Grothdarr, Blue mag+HP food and one regen glyph. The second is using Skoria, Witchmother’s Brew and 3 Spell DMG glyphs.
[img]https://i.gyazo.com/7bd7c06490a0c6def0970634419b615c.png[/img]
Perfect for leveling. Magicka Furnace gives alot of magicka aswell as resistances and Torug’s gives Spell DMG and health so it’s the perfect combo. Skills are mostly the same, but if you’re solo leveling you might wanna consider some more self-heals such as inhale, rapid regen and/or healing ward.
[img]https://i.gyazo.com/de5feb00fdbef27b6bc4f2fe0e06ff0d.png[/img][img]https://i.gyazo.com/c1f2d161c4ec4ec8d078f3973f88afbc.png[/img]
Divines on all 7 pieces is extremely important. You also want 5 Light, 1 Medium, 1 Heavy for the Undaunted passives.
As I said in my opening statement, this build will be two-part for Morrowind. This is due to the sustain changes and how it affects gameplay in various trials. Because of how hard of a nerf the sustain changes were, we need to focus more on regen – especially for Halls of Fabrication. The first screenshot is aimed for the older trials where healers are comfortable enough to provide proper sustain utility. In vHoF, there is still so much going on with every fight having sustain-crippling mechanics. Until these are more avoidable, we need to run Witchmother’s Brew. With the change in health this results in, we also need to up that with Skoria. Which gear you choose is solely up to you, but I prefer the setups as I’ve listed them – one for older trials and one for vHoF. Both are working well in all trials, but the latter allows you more mistakes in terms of draining shock and the likes.
This section will be updated at a later point. For now, the only other option is substituting Silks of the Sun with Burning Spellwave – a very viable option, but impossible while running Witchmother’s Brew.
[img]https://i.gyazo.com/77e4b8d3fe4a16c2456950a4a71c67c0.png[/img]
These are my skills in most instances. I’ll go into more detail below.
The choice here is relatively set in stone. We want to maintain a decent level of spell critical, so we’re going for the Thief stone. If you want the math behind it, check out @Asayre‘s fantastic work.
Many people fear Magicka DKs for their rotation and the complexity involved. I think my rotation is fairly simple once you get into it, but it relies on alot of weaves and muscle memory. Keep your tongue straight and it’ll work like a charm!
First off, terminology. FHA = Full Heavy Attack, LA = Light Attack, MA = Medium Attack, BC = Block Cancel.
Pre fight you need to activate FoO, your potion and Inner Light in order to empower your Full Heavy. FHA -> eruption -> LA -> FoO -> LA -> trap -> LA -> standard -> LA -> embers -> LA -> engulfing -> LA -> Blockade -> 6x whip+LA -> LA -> Embers -> LA -> Engulfing -> LA -> Blockade -> LA -> Eruption -> LA -> FoO -> LA -> Trap -> LA -> 3x Whip+LA -> Embers -> LA -> Engulfing -> LA -> Blockade -> 5x Whip+LA -> and rinse and repeat the rotation highlighted in green. Now, some aspects cannot be put into the rotation, such as reactivating Standard and Potions. Reactivate potions on cooldown and drop your standard either on cooldown or when it seems reasonable (Like when Mantikora spawns on Serpent or when Hulk spawns on Rakkhat). Additionally, with the sustain changes this patch, you will want to put a few Full Heavies into your rotation here and there. How these will fit for you is something I cannot decide or predict. I usually put one in as a substitute for 2x Whip + LA every other rotation and I’ll do fine. Without Witchmother’s Brew, you’ll definitely have to do a few more, but try some skeleton tests to see how it should fit into yours. From there, adapt to the mechanics in whichever dungeon or trial you do and you’ll be fine.
The video below will show you how it works in practice and explains alittle more about situational skills and when to use your ulti etc.
These are extremely subject to change as my testing progresses. I’m basing my Mage CPs on @Asayre‘s incredibly helpful spreadsheet.
In this patch, we still want to take full advantage of Off-Balance especially now that we run Flame Lash. Due to the changes in CPs, we also want a more even distribution given how frontloaded most trees are. With this in mind, our CP spread will look alot like:
[img]https://i.gyazo.com/aaa4024147f176e65e48f1eb606b01f0.png[/img]
Q: What kind of potions and food do you use?
A: Max Magicka + Max Health food or Witchmother’s Brew. Unfortunately we’re chugging potions like we have a bad Skooma addiction. If you don’t have the gold to spend, atleast try to use 2stat pots with Spell DMG and Magicka. If you’re really that cheap, you can also keep Entropy on your bar…
Q: When do we get more parses?
A: I upload them as often as I get them. I’m picky about my parses – especially now that we’re running a very different setup from previous updates – so don’t expect new parses every week.
Q: What are your thoughts about this update and the state of Mag DK’s?
A: I don’t enjoy most of the changes to be very honest. Sustain needed a change, but not as huge as this. MagDK used to have a very intriguing playstyle and rotation. Now it just feels like meh. I’m still attempting to stick with my long-time love in this game, but it’s starting to get tedious for me atleast…
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2.7.x
[img]http://i.imgur.com/zsnZ40I.png[/img]
2.6.x – While Chaining
[img]http://i.imgur.com/iH4TcFS.png[/img]
2.6.x – Non-HM
[img]http://i.imgur.com/YhBj996.png[/img]
2.7.x – With HM
[img]http://i.imgur.com/QxHzhIH.png[/img]
All parses 2.7.x
[img]http://i.imgur.com/2gpun1j.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/vkZkU5b.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/cKxzMbS.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/JNTonii.png[/img]
All parses 2.7.x
[img]http://i.imgur.com/9AVLR6i.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Ot2TVtP.png[/img]
Coming soon
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First off, I’d like to thank @IWM, Mashinate, for the original Whips ‘n’ Chains build. I’d also like to thank him for theorycrafting with me alittle during the early phases of TG PTS.
Secondly, I’d like to thank @AlfonsoV for helping me getting started with the Magicka DK aswell as theorycrafting and testing with me for hours on end. It’s been a hell of a ride!
Notable thanks go out to @Cordee for helping me with testing, @benawaw89 for healthy theorycrafting, @Koshka-Murka for moral support and @Asayre for being nothing short of a mathematical gaming genius. I’d also like to give a shoutout to the fantastic people such as @SleepyRip, @SapphireFury, @Wikter, @GeorgeWall and many others that were nice enough to share their dropped armor pieces since RNGesus is never on my side.
Replies: 0
I’m trying to get used to the non-pet sorc because of how quickly it dies in vHoF and other junk. I’ve been testing and I can’t get any higher than a 36k parse.
Currently I am using (will replace once I complete Netch’s Touch):
• 5x Divines Julianos
• 2x Divines Ilambris
• 4x Moondancer (Lightning Front)
• 1x Lightning vMSA
I need major help on optimal CP allocation and a rotation that utilizes Destructive Clench.
Replies: 392
[img]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc37/Invellous/a217fc7a-fb9f-40ca-9707-754cf95eed69_zpsjbbzypzk.png[/img]
02/26/2017: Updated for Hamestead DLC. Made adjustments to sets, added Original Set. Deleted Sturdy Explain section and replaced it with Block Cost sub section. Adding Addon section soon.
A brief apology to everyone who has followed this guide for any length of time. Previously my Sturdy explained section was incorrect regarding how block cost reductions were calculated. I have moved to correct this thanks to a heads up from user nox-uk. Users who followed this guide previously were spending nearly twice what I claimed they would be on blocking. That should be resolved now. Thank you all for your support and my deepest apologies for not double checking my information!
10/23/2016: Updated for One Tamriel! Adjusted Champion Point section to reflect new cap. Edited Mundus Stone section. Edited Beginner’s Set, All-Purpose, and Ultimate Generator. All-Purpose now offers additional options. New Monster Sets section added. Skills have been adjusted slightly. New Videos section added.
9/18/2016: Big update finally finished! A near complete re-write of the original. Format changes. Additional information added! Multiple sets added including a potential Update 12 set.
Warm sands, friends! Welcome to my magicka nightblade tanking guide! Through this guide I aim to you teach not only how to build an effective magicka nightblade tank but how to find great success in playing this unique and rewarding approach to tanking in the Elder Scrolls Online. Please, follow khajiit and take a look!
Like all classes in the Elder Scrolls Online the nightblade class possesses a number of distinct advantages and disadvantages when it comes to tanking as described below.
Bearing in mind both the advantages and disadvantages of the nightblade class as described above I have chosen to focus my attention on enhancing the defining elements that make a magicka nightblade not only an effective but competitive tanking class. To accomplish this I have chosen sets that offer bonuses to Maximum Magicka, Magicka Recovery, Spell Damage and utility that compliments both the skills used, proposed rotation and the overall ‘rhythm’ of the play-style without sacrificing essential tanking stats. Such stats are acquired through both the chosen sets and skills used in the rotation such as Mirage, a morph of the Assassination skill Blur that grants Major Evasion and when morphed to Mirage grants both Minor Resolve and Minor Ward. When used with the skill Refreshing Path, a morph of the skill Path of Darkness to activate the Shadow passive Shadow Barrier which grants both Major Resolve and Ward the two work together to increase both Physical and Spell Resistance by 6,270 at max level!
There are several strong options for this build that compliments any number of the propose set combinations. Three of which are ideal for playing both a damage dealer and tank while the last is more ideal for a strict tank setup.
Argonian offers bonuses to Maximum Health(3/6/9%), Maximum Magicka(1/2/3%), and both healing done and received(1/3/5%) you will be hard pressed to find a better choice , especially when you take into consideration the bonus they receive when drinking resource restoring potions such as tri-stat potions, restoring upwards to 12% more resources! Altmer and Breton are tied for second.
Altmer offers greater resource management and total with a bonus to Maximum Magicka(4/7/10%) and Magicka Recovery(3/6/9%). The bonus damage to Flame, Frost, and Shock Damage(2/3/4%) is appreciated but underwhelming.
Breton stands side by side the ‘superior’ *cough* elf with a bonus to Maximum Magicka(4/7/10%), and Spell Resistance(1,320/2,640/3,960) which would bring your Spell Resistance closer to the cap(33,000) when you have the following buffs active; Minor Resolve, Minor Ward, Major Resolve, and Major Ward. They also offer a minor reduction to the Magicka cost of abilities, upwards to 3%.
Imperial is another strong choice with a massive bonus to Maximum Health(4/8/12%) and a strong bonus to Maximum Stamina(4/7/10%) giving them some of the biggest boosts to much needed resources. The Red Diamond passive also serves as another source of healing if not unreliable.
Currently I play a Khajiit, which is the absolute worst race for this build. I chose the race because I love the race and their lore, and I role-play one as well. Despite not having any bonuses to essential stats I have had great success in playing this build and have used it in all of the Trials on normal, the newest dungeons on both veteran and hard mode and even veteran Dragonstar Arena. So if you did not pick one of the above ‘superior’ races then do not fret, you will still be able to play as a magicka nightblade tank and be successful!
Your attribute allocation may vary from my own depending on the race you chose for your nightblade and the number of Champion Points you have access to. Currently my magicka nightblade tank is a Khajiit and I possess roughly 592 Champion Points at the time of this writing. With the sets that I use and the number of Champion Points that I have invested I am able to reach the Health milestone of 28,000+ Maximum Health with food buffs without investing a single point into the Health attribute. I currently use epic 160cp tri-stat food.
Health: 17(+/-) - Invest here if your character’s Maximum Health is below 28,000+ with their Champion Points spent, food buff applied, and gear and skills equipped on their main bar.
Magicka: 47(+/-) - Once you can achieved a minimum of 30,000 Health with food buffs then you should invest any remaining attributes here.
Stamina: 0 - You will generate enough Stamina via Siphoning Attacks that you will not need to invest a single point into Stamina to maintain a healthy level throughout encounters.
The below allocation has been adjusted to assume that readers possess the maximum number of Champion Points in each category, 200 points. Keep in mind this allocation can change based upon your character’s race, the gear you are wearing and the content you are facing. They are placed assuming you have four pieces of epic 160cp gear with the Sturdy trait.
The Warrior:
Elemental defender and Hardy are given a balance allocation that fits most content outside of Veteran Trials. An investment in Quick Recovery is made to compliment the healing nature of nightblade tanks’ skills. Bastion receives a minor investment to boost the shield on Harness Magicka.
* I would highly recommend when going into a Veteran Trial that you boost either Elemental Defender or Hardy to 100. Which one will be determined based upon the primary source of damage in the Trial. For the Craglorn Trials I would advise 100 into Hardy, especially in Hel Ra Citadel where you will be taking a LOT of physical damage. Once I have experienced other veteran Trials as a tank I will be able to recommend other allocation options.
** If you do not intend to use Bastion or Quick Recovery points can be moved from one to the other or invested elsewhere as you see fit. I find this to be an effective allocation but others may not.
The Thief:
Due to the Champion Point increase we are able to achieve a good balance of resource sustainability while still having room to invest into Shadow Ward without sacrificing much. The investment there allows us to drop Defensive Posture without missing the additional cost to block thus offering skill flexibility.
The Mage
Disclaimer: I readily admit this may not be the best or most effective allocation but seems to work.
This has always been the area in which I am uncertain that my choice is most optimal but it seems to work fine. A balance between damage and healing with some investment in critical to boost both damage and healing criticals with a very minor investment in Spell Erosion because… not much else you can do with 6 points. It may be better to drop points from Elfborn and Spell Erosion and max out out Blessed for the sake of maximizing your healing over time spells and Sap Essence.
*If you are using Bahraha’s Curse it may be worth while to investment at least 27 points into Thaumaturge as it will boost the damage of area of effect field thus increasing the healing received from it. Elfborn is the best place to draw points out of as item based skills can not longer result in critical hits.
The Atronach, is by far the best choice in my opinion. Offering 210 Magicka Recovery, which boosts sustain.
The Ritual is another valid option as it boosts healing by 10%, though I would only use it if you are comfortable with your Magicka Recovery and or using buff food / drink that boosts Magicka Recovery such as Witch Mother’s Potent Brew; increases Maximum Health and Magicka and Magicka Recovery or Orzorga’s Red Frothgar; increases Magicka Health and Magicka Recovery. I have also used The Thief and often do outside of Trials and veteran Dragonstar Arena as it makes it easier to swap from tank to damage dealer.
In this section of the guide readers will find several sub-sections that include a brief list of universal traits used across all proposed sets, a Beginner’s Sets section listing gear combinations that do not include a Monster Set or dropped set from overland zones and or dungeons. A Veteran Sets section that lists ‘advanced’ sets intended for players more familiar with the game with 300 or more Champion Points. Sets include both Monster Set options and may contain a overland and or dungeon dropped set. The Monster Sets sections lists the various Monster Sets deemed worthy of use and explains in which circumstance a Mageblade Tank should use them.
‘Big Pieces’ (Helmet, Chest, Legs) - Maximum Health / Prismatic
‘Small Pieces’ (Belt, Boots, Gloves, Shoulders) - Maximum Health / Prismatic
Jewelry - 3 Legendary(Gold) Shield-Play Enchantments (Reduce Block Cost)
One-Hand Weapon(s) - Crusher
Shield(s) – Maximum Health / Prismatic
‘Big Pieces’ (Helmet, Chest, Legs) - Infused
‘Small Pieces’ (Belt, Boots, Gloves, Shoulders) - Strudy
Jewelry – Healthy*
One-Hand Weapon(s) – Defending
Shield(s) - Reinforced
* Some overland and dungeon drop sets listed in the Veteran Sets may only drop in jewelry with the Arcane or Robust trait. In such cases and or in the case of the Healthy trait being abnormally rare then using jewelry with Arcane is acceptable. Attributes and or enchantments may need to be altered in such circumstances to insure Maximum Health stays above 28,000.
In previous versions of the guide I had a break down of what I had thought to be a correct means of calculating block reduction. Thanks to nox-uk I learned that I was incorrect. I have gone to the Youtuber Woeler’s website (https://woeler.eu/index.php) and used his Block Cost Calculator (https://woeler.eu/blockcost.php) to determine where our cost of block should be with the combined enchantments, gear traits, champion point investments and passives. I have tested the results using AUI’s Combat Message text options and the results seem to be fairly close.
Those familiar with his video might be asking, why are you using both Sturdy and Shadow Ward? They suffer from diminishing returns. This is true, however, with the increase to the Champion Point cap and the nightblade’s natural resource sustainability I find that the investment is far from a waste. It allows us to invest in the Infused trait on our chest, helmet, and legs slot and to drop Defensive Posture and it’s morphs at a minimal cost to sustainability. This ‘loss’ is made less apparent with the use of Seducer or a Ice Staff, if you so choose to use one alongside controlled use of Swallow Soul rather than spamming it to conserve magicka.
Previously I was blocking at twice the amount I thought I was and still was capable of tackling Veteran DSA and Hel Ra Citadel with no magicka sustain issues, going into this patch with minor adjustments I can not see this allocation into Shadow Ward possibly harming the build in anyway, in fact, I see it being much more effective than before.
For aspiring Mageblade Tanks
[spoiler title="Beginners' Sets"]
5 Seducer – 4 Magnus’ Gift – 3 Willpower
Tested – Normal Dungeons – Veteran Dungeons – Normal Trials
Tri-Stat Food
This combination takes advantage of Seducer’s five-piece bonus to make up for a lower Champion Point total and or allow greater flexibility. While not the most interesting of combinations players will enjoy superior resource sustainability thanks the Seducer’s five-piece, Block Cost reduction and Tri-State food.
5 Kagrenac’s Hope – 4 Magnus’ Gift – 3 Willpower
Tested – Normal Dungeons – Veteran Dungeons – Veteran DSA
Tri-Stat Food
This combination offers a balance of bonuses that bolsters Maximum Magicka, Magicka Recovery and Spell Damage. The 25% reduction in resurrection speed helps players in clutch situations that can save a group from a total wipe!
5 Tava’s Favor – 4 Seducer – 3 Trinimac’s Valor / 3 Willpower
Tested – Normal Dungeons – Veteran Dungeons
Tri-Stat Food
This set takes advantage of the increase to Ultimate generation from Tava’s Favor while insuring the player has plenty of Magicka with four bonuses to Magicka Recovery to keep it up! A perfect combination for starting players looking to take off the Seducer training wheels while becoming familiar with a set that serves as a staple for main tanks in harder content!
[/spoiler]
For experienced Mageblade Tanks.
[spoiler title="Veteran Sets"]
The Relentless Knight set is designed with maximum resource sustainability in mind. This is achieved by using the Seducer set to further reduce the cost of spells and allow a greater flexibility in Champion Point allocation. Bloodthorn’s Touch further bolsters the rate of recovery with a bonus to Maximum Magicka and Magicka Recovery. The five-piece bonus nets an additional 636 Magicka and Stamina per Light Attack once per 5 seconds thus increasing the value of each Light Attack while Siphoning Attacks is active and softening the blow taken when forgetting to reapply Siphoning Attacks. Tri-Stat food offers a much needed bonus to Maximum Health and Maximum Stamina. Blue Bi-Stat food can be used in place of Tri-Stat for a slightly higher bonus to Maximum Health and Maximum Stamina.
The Night Cleric set focuses on group support and healing by taking advantage of a popular set among healers; Spell Power Cure, boosting both the Night-Cleric’s and the groups Weapon and Spell Damage by using several skills and sets to trigger it as often as possible.
Bahraha’s Curse while difficult to obtain in ideal traits will increase self-healing substantially while increasing Spell Power Cure’s up-time, insuring it stays on the Night Cleric more often increasing damage and healing output.
Sentinel of Rkugamz is ideal for this set and will not only increase your stamina sustainability but that of your party as well, manly melee damage dealer The lock-out period is short enough to not outright break the set. Swarm Mother can be used in place of this set to make trash pulls more manageable. For boss fights Chokethorn is a viable option as is Engine Guardian to a far lesser extent.
Swallow Soul can be changed over to Funnel Health to increase the up-time of Spell Power Cure on group members but will reduce personal healing in take and thus up-time on Spell Power Cure.
Credit is owed to the renown player and build creator, Deltia for the inspiration to use Spell Power Cure as a part of a group support focused build. His build ‘The Catalyst’ is a fun alternative to the Night Cleric set and is worth looking into!
Tested – Normal Dungeons – Veteran Dungeons
Tri-Stat Food
5 Tava’s Favor – 5 Akaviri Dragonguard – 2 Bloodspawn / 2 Monster Set
The Ultimate Generator aims to increase a Mageblade tank’s ability to generate Ultimate as quickly as possible to push out more Aggresive Warhorns and or Veil of Blades. The base set, Tava’s Favor is a well known set used by a lot of tanks. It offers a bonus to Maximum Health, Magicka Recovery and Stamina Recovery. Decent bonuses but the five-piece is what makes it, when you dodge an attack you generate 9 Ultimate over 3 seconds. This when combined with proper Mirage upkeep will keep the Ultimate coming in steadily!
Akaviri Dragonguard is now much easier to acquire and much cheaper to buy! This set has some great bonuses; 4% Healing Taken, Maximum Health, and Magicka Recovery AND reduces Ultimate cost by 15%! There is a lot of value there and now with it being so easy to pickup it makes Blessing of Potentates a thing of the past.
Also, if you wish to use Decisive on your one-hand weapons over Defending that is perfectly acceptable, however, for harder content such as Trials I would stick with Defending for the bonus to your Resistances.
For single target Blood Spawn is perfectly acceptable to use, however, for trash packs put on Swarm Mother as you will be on your back bar and generating more than enough Ultimate with Soul Harvest. Engine Guardian is another option for single target as it will help bolster sustainability in place of Seducer.
The TrialBlade set has two available combinations.
The first aims to make up for the lack of a damage shield by opting for Vampire Cloak, a set that offers a bonus to Spell Damage, two bonuses to Maximum Health and Minor Protection at all times, reducing damage by 8%. This set is ideal for fights where the boss deals a LOT of damage in one blow or in several rapid blows such as the Warrior rather than aiming to heal through it with Bahraha’s Curse. Witchmother’s Potent Brew can be used to make up for magicka sustain if it becomes a problem, or Tri-Stat food if it is not.
The second is to opt for Bahraha’s Curse over Vampire Cloak. Rather than aim to reduce damage in take this combination uses Barhaha’s Curse to deal additional damage and healing, an ideal set to use when using Sentinel of Rkugamz on boss fights to increase the up-time, giving both the tank and damage dealers in melee range an additional source of healing and stamina sustain.
No other name really suits The Original as it is just that, my original gear set. Most guides focus on one set in particular and while I offer several alternatives this one is my favorite and has served me the most loyally.
This makes use of Bahraha’s Curse to add another source of damage and healing while enjoying a bonus to Maximum Health, Magicka, and Stamina. Due to the recent Homestead patch Bahraha’s Curse now can trigger more reliably as it is trigger by not only damaging abilities but Light and Heavy Attacks as well.
Seducer now becomes more valuable as we have removed our Reduce Spell Cost Enchantments to block more efficiently. Double Magicka Recovery offers enough passive regeneration to allow the use of Tri-Stat food for a larger stat pool. The 8% reduction in spell cost makes using spells less costly as well.
This build can and has done it all and while hard to put together due to the nature of Baraha’s Curse, specifically jewelry, it is my personal favorite. Blue(uncommon) jewelry from before the Dark Brotherhood patch can still before found that possess the Healthy trait otherwise purple(epic) Arcane jewlery will be needed thus increasing the chance of you needing to move attribute points from Magicka into Health or swapping Prismatic enchants to Maximum Health.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title="Monster Sets"]
One of the boons of playing a MageBlade Tank is that you can swap Monster Sets freely without suffering for it as others might. Each listed set serves a specific purpose and can and should be used as the situation demands.
Engine Guardian – General Use
Good ol’ reliable Engine Guardian. For many tanks this is the ‘go to’ set. This one is great for sustainability and useful in all situations whether it be a boss fight, trash pull, or simply questing. An all around great choice.
Blood Spawn – Ultimate Generation
Another familiar set best used during trash pulls where you will see a major increase in ultimate generation. I find this to be marginally useful in single target fights. Compliments the Ultimate Generator’s Theme.
Swarm Mother – Area-of-Effect Crowd-Control
Let me start by saying I LOVE this set, truly. This is Zenimax Online Studio’s greatest gift to the MageBlade Tank in a long time. When you block an attack from an enemy that is further than 5 meters from you, you spin strands of spider silk to pull the enemy to you. This effect can occur once every 2 seconds. With this set you basically have chains! The only enemy type I have noticed that it will not pull are bosses. This is my go to between boss fights. Get it, use it, love it!
Grothdarr – Damage / Solo content
Finally a use for all of those Grothdarr pieces you got that were not Divines! This set is amazing in area-of-effect pulls for damage. I have hit over 30,000 DPS with this set on my tank. By and large less useful than Swarm Mother for trash pulls. It is a decent set to use during a boss fight in a dungeon that is a cake walk for you and your group.
Pirate Skeleton + Mighty Chudan – Resistance Boost
By far the least interesting of the sets but if you want to increase your resistances so that they are closer to the cap then this is the combination for you. If you do not need the damage from Grothdarr, the sustain from Engine Guardian or Ultimate from Blood Spawn than using one piece from each of these sets is perfectly acceptable. If you do use this do yourself a favor and use the Pirate Skeleton helmet for some extra style points, like me!
[img]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc37/Invellous/Pirate-jhiit_zpszgkhqlhb.png[/img]
[/spoiler]
Puncture – Our main taunt, applies Major Breach and Fracture.
Siphoning Attacks – Our lord and savior, and the reason that nightblades possess superb resource sustainability.
Refreshing Path - Damages enemies and heals the player. The skilled use to proc Shadow Barrier. Keep it up at all times.
Swallow Soul / Funnel Health – Spammable skill. Applies a heal over time buff. Use with Light Attack weaving.
Harness Magicka / Flex – Thanks to a change in how we reduce the cost of block we can now opt out of Defensive Posture to slot Harness Magicka instead, a more effective means of reducing damage. This is particularly useful in Trials. Outside of Trials Inner Light can be placed on both bars instead or Stalwart Guard instead to increase the damage of a damage dealer or boost a healers critical heals while redirecting damage to you instead. Credit to LoterkESO for inspiration to use this skill in place of Defensive Posture and it’s morphs
Ultimate: Veil of Blades / Aggressive Horn or Shield Discipline* – Both are perfectly acceptable options. In Trials always differ to Aggressive Warhorn unless mitigation is demanded.
Mirage – Source of Major Evasion, Minor Resolve and Ward.
Heroic Slash – Source of Minor Heroism and Minor Maim. I no longer recommend Dark Shadows as they can still steal Spell Power Cure procs.
Inner Rage - Ranged taunt. Compliments the Swarm Mother set.
Sap Essence – The skill by which a Sap Tank took it’s name. Main source of damage and healing during trash pulls, and source of Major Brutality and Sorcery. Can be used repeatedly to heal.
Harness Magicka / Flex - This is to be considered a Flex Slot if you chose Harness Magicka on the front bar. Naturally, if you chose Inner Light or Stalwart Guard you should slot it here as well. You could alternatively keep Harness Magicka on the bar back as well if only for the Mages Guild passives. Volcanic Rune and Necrotic Orb and it’s morphs are ideal alternatives as well.
Ultimate: Soul Harvest – The only Ultimate that should be on your back bar. The Ultimate generation from this skill is insane, 10 per kill!
* In boss fights your main Ultimate; Aggressive Horn or Veil of Blades, can be moved to the back bar and Shield Discipline put on the front bar. The reason for this change it allow you to have a way to recover safety if and when your find your magicka and or stamina at critical levels. Use Shield Disciple to Light Attack during times where you usually could not, specifically in Veteran Trials to trigger Siphoning Attacks without losing block. During the duration you can weave Light Attacks and reapply Pierce Armor for free and or use Absorb Magic for to heal during the duration.
Some might argue that the Ultimate is better spent on Aggressive Horn or Veil of Blades, but remember a tank that dies can easily have the rest of the group follow him / her to the grave. Better to use it before you take a killing blow from a boss and recover than to die hoping to live through it.
A tank’s first and foremost responsibility is to establish ‘aggro’ also known as ‘threat’ in other games on enemies, especially bosses(duh!) and keep it. That is the purpose of the role and the only reason you are there. Dealing damage and healing is secondary. With that in mind it is important to keep all buffs and debuffs refreshed at all times while avoiding hazardous mechanics. This is not always easy to manage. There will be times when a buff or debuff must be forgotten if only momentarily to taunt an enemy to make sure it does not run off after the healer. That said, a solid rotation can make the difference and minimize that down time.
Pre-cast Siphoning Attacks and Mirage > Aggressive Horn > Pierce Armor > Refreshing Path > Swallow Soul / Funnel Health > Swap Bar > Heroic Slash > Sap Essence > Swap > Swallow Soul / Funnel Health > Harness Magicka as needed > Siphoning Attacks > Pierce Armor > Refreshing Path > Swap > Reapply Mirage and Sap Essence if needed > Heroich Slash > Swap > Repeat.
Pre-cast Siphoning Attacks and Mirage before moving in to engage then hit Aggressive Horn if available. Once in range use Pierce Armor and begin the rotation as shown above while Light Attack weaving each skill. Use Aggressive Horn as it recharges, ideally when the group will have the greatest window of opportunity to deal as much damage as possible without interruption by mechanics. If you chose Veil of Blades save it for situations that require mitigation such as when a party member has gone down. Drop it then with a Refreshing Path on top of whomever is attempting the resurrection.
Pre-cast Mirage and Siphoning Attacks > Refreshing Path > Pierce Armor / Inner Rage > Sap Essence.*
Unfortunately Zenimax Online Studios has decided not to introduce a taunt skill that targets more than one enemy. What this means is that target prioritization is key, specifically in harder content. Melee target are the most apparent threat and should be taunted as quickly as possible. Archers and casters can be taunted with Inner Rage if equipped. Inner Rage becomes especially valuable in content such as veteran Imperial City where there are multiple dangerous enemies that are easier to control if taunted with Inner Rage before engaging them at melee range. If you have Swarm Mother equipped you can block ranged targets’ attacks to pull them to you
Prioritize Siphoning Attacks, Refreshing Path, Mirage, and Sap Essence in that order. Failure to keep Siphoning Attacks up while spamming Sap Essence will drain Magicka rapidly regardless of Magicka Recovery if not restored via a potion or other means. Refreshing Path is essential in keeping Shadow Barrier activated and offers healing. Mirage is perhaps the least important of the set but should not be neglected if possible.
*Harness Magicka should be used as needed if you slot it on the back bar or when you bar swap to help mitigate unblocked damage during the swap. If you slot Volcanic Rune try and drop it as often as possible to disrupt trash packs.
Below are various videos I have upload to Youtube displaying various feats. This section will gradually see updates by way of additional videos.
Below is a list of addons that I find to be very useful for not just tanking but playing in general in a PvE setting.
@mrowmrif2, for all of your advise thorough out all these long months. Without your help this could never have been accomplished.
Zatani, Jade Drakkan, and K’tea of Ebonheart Pact, for you three letting me tank our khajiit all star team runs which has helped me further test my build to improve it!
Quiz of Aldermi Dominion and all of the members of Kings and Thieves, you guys have helped me stress test it in veteran Imperial City Prison and White-Gold Tower and I have had a blast doing so! Looking forward to tanking in trials ones day with you and new content.
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Hello YF community. I was building my first tank because of the new Warden class and while I was distributing champion points in the shadow tree I came across a concern that may come up for tanks specifically. My concern is loosing taunt while heavy attack weaving with the shadowstrike passive in the shadow tree. As a stam tank imperial Warden I found myself putting the majority of my point into this tree because of having the bull netch for stam regen and health return from basic attacks from imperial passives. The situation I think about is during a boss fight with ads where I kill an ad with a heavy attack and then go invisible for 2.5 sec which, I would think, cause the boss and ads to loose taunt and start attacking my teammates. If anyone has experienced this, or if anyone knows if they programed a way for that not to happen where the enemies might sit there clueless as they do when you are solo fighting with a nightblade please comment. I know it’s a rare instance, but that could really mess up a no death or speed run.
Replies: 4
I’ve noticed recently I started getting pop-ups on mobile browsing with the “your phone is infected blah blah blah” or “your service has been cancelled if you don’t download this.” It’s so bad I don’t really like using my mobile on this site now. Which sucks because I like checking this website on breaks when I’m bored. 
Replies: 5
Looking for a guild to join? Need help with your trait research, pesky achievements, dailies, dungeons, PvP, or just want people to talk to and game with? Then look no further. Here at the Loony Misfits we are a group of goofy people (hence the name of the guild) looking for new members to join our ranks. We just got a guild house with a training dummy and dueling arena. Our current goals for ESO are to get groups together for trials, get a guild trader and filling the guild house with crafting stations. There are guild events held usually on the weekends. We strive to always extend a helping hand to our guild members whenever possible.
Our help also extends out to other games as well. Some of which are Overwatch, Destiny, Minecraft and Halo. Also when no one is online we have a Facebook, kik, and Band chat to reach out for help or organize events.
We accept anyone but do prefer gamers who can be mature. If you are interested then message me on Xbox (GT: LunaKnightWings), send me a private message or comment below with your GT. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you and have a great day.
Replies: 1,218
If you are an un-guilded player who is looking for an active guild to join in anticipation of TESO, please use this thread to post a little bit about yourself, so interested guilds may contact you. There are no specific rules about what you should include, however, the more accurately you describe yourself as a gamer, the better chance a guild with similar interests has of finding you.
→ Guild Leaders: Do not advertise your guild in this thread. If you see individuals who are LFG that you are interested in recruiting, please contact them through private message. This thread is for un-guilded players. If you advertise here, not only will I delete the post from this thread, but I’ll find your main guild recruitment thread and delete that too.
→ Players: if you successfully find a guild, please edit your original post to indicate that you are no longer LFG. Otherwise you will likely continue receiving PMs.
Replies: 0
This build is not going to give you the highest dps scores you’ve ever seen, that’s not the point. It’s designed to help people move from beginner to intermediate level. What I want to stress the most about this build is that gear and skills are not the most important thing to improving dps. I’ve seen countless people running around in BiS gear but who can’t hit 15k. What matters most is rotation, rotation, rotation. This build has a very simple rotation that will help you reach some bigger numbers. It’s well suited for the average player who does not want to farm dungeons or trials to get their gear. To keep it simple, I’ve stuck to an easy-to-get monster set and crafted/overland gear. I’ve also designed the build around the ability to offer a lot of utility in either solo play (you can do vMA with this build) or running with a PUG group that is say… clueless. However, if you run with a group that you trust and what you want to do is farm trials, I have advanced sections in this build as well but it won’t be the main focus.
While practicing on the target skeleton, I hit 24k dps (this was with purple armor, no Maelstrom Bow and 450cp, if you use what the advanced section of this build recommends you will easily hit that magic 30k number) once I practice it more, I will definitely be at 25k. I also tried to keep as many Warden class skills as possible just to see what the class is capable of doing, but I will recommend alternatives where applicable. Hope you enjoy!
Anything that is geared towards advanced players will have a * next to it.
I believe that Wardens are the best class for the average player because they are able to do everything relatively well while remaining relatively simple. As a stamina warden, you get access to both major brutality, and major savagery in your kit. So, you don’t have to run expensive potions to get those buffs, which is a huge advantage in this build. The fact that you don’t have to spend your limited time farming gold is also definitely an added bonus. You also get to boost your group’s dps as you can inflict enemies with major breach and major fracture, making everyone in the group do more damage to them. Wardens also have a very simple and cheap ultimate that doesn’t require a lot of planning. And, you get access to amazing self-healing that is unmatched by any other stamina class. Stamina Wardens, unlike many other stamina classes, also don’t have to do PvP to get access to a heal like Vigor, because it has something better. So, if PvP is not your thing you don’t have to do it. Plus, wardens just have really cool animations.
Most optimal – Khajiit and Redguard
Secondary – Orsimer (Orc), Imperial and Bosmer (Wood Elf)
What makes Khajiits strong is their 8% extra weapon critical rating, which will serve to increase your dps even further. Something to keep in mind though, is that weapon critical is a percentage based scaler, which means that the less efficient your rotation is the less critical hits you will be getting off reducing the effectiveness of the Khajiit passive, if you can pull off the rotation really well a Khajiit will pull ahead of all other races, this is because percentages get stronger the bigger the base number they’re affecting.
What makes Redguards strong is their unmatched stamina sustain. Every three seconds, on either a light or heavy melee attack, you will restore extra stamina, this can make it so that you never run out of stamina with this build. However, if you can’t weave properly in between attacks, you will see no benefit whatsoever to playing a Redguard and you would be better suited playing something else.
The two optimal races are reliant on you being able to properly execute the rotation of the build. If you find yourself having trouble with it, you would be better off playing one of the secondary races since they offer flat stat increases rather than percentage based ones, like maximum health, maximum stamina, and stamina recovery, and those bonuses will always be felt regardless of how well you can play.
The best mundus stone to run is by far the Thief, it gives extra weapon and spell critical (we only care about the weapon critical). This will turn more of your attacks into critical strikes which will give you more overall damage. Fairly simple stuff.
If you’re playing a Khajiit and running the advanced gear set-up and skills, you may find that you deal more damage using the Shadow stone rather than the Thief stone, since it increases critical damage done. I have not tested these numbers and would love to hear from anyone who would want give it a try. If you’re playing any other race, stick to the Thief since Khajiits get the 8% weapon critical.
As a stamina dps, you want to put all points into stamina. However, you want to make sure that you have sufficient health when buffed so you may have to put some points into health depending on what race you’re playing. I like to have between 17k-17.5k health. Place your points accordingly.
I’m not going to claim to have come up with this champion point layout on my own, I’ve based it off of what other people have done. This will be what it should look like when you’re at 630cp, the max currently allowed in the Morrowind patch. If you’re below that be sure to get as close as you can to just over a whole number because there are jump points. What are jump points? Hypothetically, say you have a node that reduces incoming damage. If you put points in it and it says “reduces by 15.9%,” the game will count it as 15%, so be sure to either get it to just over 16% or remove points to get it closer to 15% and place those points elsewhere.
The Lady
– 56 Hardy
– 56 Elemental Defender
– 28 Thick Skinned
The Steed
– 61 Ironclad
The Lord
– 9 Expert Defender
The Ritual
– 61 Thaumaturge
– 56 Precise Strikes
– 56 Mighty
The Atronach
– 37 Master-At-Arms
The Lover
– 100 Tenacity
– 100 Mooncalf
The Shadow
– 5 tumbling
The Tower
– 5 Warlord
Buff Food -> Use Braised Rabbit with Spring Vegetables
2x Kra’gh (Head and Shoulder)
5x Hunding’s Rage (3 body pieces and 2 daggers + bow)
5x Spriggan’s Thorns (2 body pieces and 3 jewlery)
2x Velidreth (Head and Shoulder)
5x Two-Fanged Snake (Body Pieces)
5x Vicious Ophidian (Jewlery and Daggers)
1x Maelstrom Bow
You should use a 6 medium / 1 heavy setup to maximize the damage and recovery you get from the medium armor passives, all while ensuring that you get your health bonus from using a piece of heavy. Use divines on the armor pieces to maximize the bonus from the mundus stone, enchant them with maxima stamina. Don’t hesitate to run your monster set, even if it’s with bad traits, you’re better off using it than not. Use sharpened on your weapons because it deals more damage than any other trait, enchant them with berserker, poison and disease. I like to run 1 (one) monster set (Kra’gh), 1 (one) flat damage set (Hunding’s Rage) and 1 (one) scaling damage set (Sprrigan). More explanations below.
“Why are you using Kra’gh? [Insert ESO pro name] said that Velidreth is better!”
Well, [insert ESO pro name] would be correct. However, this is an average player guide and Kra’gh has some distinct advantages. For one, Velidreth requires the Shadow of the Hist DLC, while Kra’gh only requires the base game. Since not everyone will have all the DLC I decided to leave it out. Also, while both shoulder pieces are RNG, obtaining the helms are significantly different. Kra’gh requires you to complete the (arguably) easiest veteran mode dungeon, Fungal Grotto I, whereas Velidreth requires you to complete (arguably) the hardest veteran mode dungeon Cradle of Shadows. The average player would much rather farm Fungal Grotto I. This set offers some extra physical penetration as well as those dreugh limbs that deal extra damage, just be sure to be in melee range for them to deal their damage.
This is your bread and butter basic flat stat increase set, the set gives you max stamina, weapon critical and weapon damage. You will only have the 5 piece bonus active on your front bar, but that’s where it matters anyways. The other benefit is that it’s very easy to obtain and gets the job done well.
This set is great as it gives you max stamina and some extra weapons damage, but the most important thing it offers is the 5 piece bonus which gives a bunch of extra physical penetration. Physical penetration is a percentage scaling bonus meaning that the more efficient your rotation is the more damage you will be able to deal, this is great because you will see a large benefit as your practise and get better with this build.
If you have access to one, use it. If not, just use a Hunding’s bow until you one day get one. This build will get you through vMA though, so don’t give up you’ll get it one day. It will add a ton of damage and it’s a must for any true endgame stamina build.
– Cutting Dive: This is your source of basic damage, it will take some getting used to because there is a delay between when you use the ability to when it actually hits the enemy since there is travel distance. It’s also a very cheap ability to use. It triggers the Bond with Nature passive so every time it’s used, you’ll restore 1260 health. What makes this ability better than what other stamina classes have to offer is that it’s ranged so you can hit far away enemies.
Alternative: Rapid Strikes, if you would rather play a more traditional stamina build use Rapid Strikes from the dual wield tree. Just note that you will be losing out on the range but gaining dps on enemies below 25% health.
– Rending Slashes: The only DoT you have on your front bar. It’ll deal initial damage, as well as damage over 9 seconds. Use this ability after switching over from your back bar. Since this is a DoT it’s important that you try and maintain this 100% of the time.
– Steel Tornado: This is what you want to use during trash fights and when you’re being overwhelmed by adds during a boss fight. This allows you to kill the trash mobs extremely quickly because the ability itself has a built in execute, and it uses the Slaughter passive from the dual wield line. Just be sure not to spam this ability too much since it’s costly.
– Subterranean Assault: A truly spectacular and unique ability to the warden. It has a learning curve, since after using the ability there’s a three second delay before it goes off. This allows you to position this ability properly, or even change targets if there’s something more important to hit. It also deals poison damage so it has a chance of poisoning enemies and making them take extra damage over time. It will also inflict enemies with major breach and major fracture, which is not that important in boss fights since your tank will (hopefully) already be applying these debuffs. This ability shines in solo play where you would otherwise not have access to the debuffs. It’s also useful in trash fights where your tank will not be able to hit all enemies with the debuff. Overall an amazing ability.
– Soothing Spores: The only burst stamina heal in the game. This is useful to have since you can’t always trust PUG healers and, in solo play, it’s very helpful. If you’re low on health when you use it, you’ll gain major mending, making it heal you right back up. It also grants you minor toughness, which will give you 10% extra max health. While it may seem strange to run a heal on a dps, it’s better to stay alive. After all, a dead dps deals no dps.
– Poison Injection: A staple of stamina builds, this deals initial damage upon impact and also acts as a DoT afterwards. The DoT also acts as an execute, gaining strength after enemies fall under 50% health, and dealing up to 260% more damage, the less health they have. You want to make sure you keep this up 100% of the time.
– Endless Hail: This is your most important skill, doubly so if using a Maelstrom Bow. This will deal more damage than any other skill you have and will also hit enemies in a circular area.
Alternative: Arrow Barrage, this is the other morph of the same ability, it offers a larger area that it hits, I don’t like to use it since it has a shorter duration and costs more to use, but it’s up to you. I like to block cancel the animation of this ability.
– Rearming Trap: Another very powerful skill, it deals initial damage as well as acts as a DoT afterwards. It will also immobilize enemies who get caught in it, except for bosses. What makes this ability truly powerful is that when the trap is triggered, it grants you minor force, which will make your critical hits deal 10% more damage.
– Green Lotus: This is a really cool and helpful buff that gives wardens a lot of survivability. It grants you major savagery, which increases your weapon critical. It also makes it so that your light and heavy attacks restore health to either you, or, if your health is full, a member of your group. It will also heal your bear if it needs healing.
– Bull Netch: This great skill doesn’t require any resources to cast. Every warden should be running either the stamina or magicka version of this skill. This skill counts as a pet, but you only need to have it on one bar and it won’t disappear if you change bars. While it’s active, it will restore stamina and grant you major brutality, increasing your weapon damage by 20%. Something to note, even though the skill has a very long animation, you don’t need to watch the animation. The netch appears immediately when you activate the skill. So, you can use this skill, then bar swap to cancel the animation.
– Wild Guardian: You have to have this skill on your front and back bars or else the bear will disappear when you swap bars. The bear excels at single target damage. In AoE fights, it won’t preform as well, but you can keep it focused on the most important target since it will attack whatever you heavy attack. Since this build uses heavy attacks, you’ll have good control over the bear. For 75 ultimate, you can recast the ability and the bear will do a special attack, which will deal a ton of damage. This special attack also deals extra damage on enemies under 25% health, making it an execute ability as well. The bear can also help in solo play since it will sometimes get aggro, keeping enemies away from hitting you.
– Everything from all class skill lines: Animal Companions, Green Balance, Winters Embrace
– All Dual Wield Passives
– All Bow Passives
– All Racial Passives
– All Medium Armor Passives
– Heavy Armor: Resolve, Juggernaut, Constitution
– Fighter’s Guild: Intimidating Presence, Slayer, Banish the Wicked, Skilled Tracker
– Undaunted: Undaunted Command, Undaunted Mettle
– Alchemy: Medicinal Use
– Provisioning: Gourmand
Front Bar
– Rapid Strikes
– Rending Slahes
– Blade Cloak
– Subterranean Assault
– Green Lotus
– Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker
Back Bar
– Poison Injection
– Endless Hail
– Rearming Trap
– Razor Caltrops
– Bull Netch
– Ultimate: Ballista
Before Fight -> Bull Netch -> Green Lotus
Fight Begins-> Rearming Trap -> Light Attack -> Endless Hail -> Light Attack -> Poison Injection -> swap -> ^ Rending Slashes -> Heavy Attack -> Subterranean Assault -> Heavy Attack -> Cutting Dive -> swap -> Endless Hail -> Light Attack -> Poison Injection -> swap -> Rending Slashes -> Heavy Attack ->Subterranean Assault -> Heavy Attack -> Cutting Dive -> swap -> Rearming Trap -> Light Attack -> Endless Hail -> Light Attack -> Poison Injection -> Light Attack -> Green Lotus -> Light Attack -> Bull Netch -> swap -> Repeat from ^
Use your ultimate whenever it’s available on your front bar.
Thanks for reading my build. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, I would be more than happy to hear them. Hope you have fun trying out this build. If you liked this build stay tuned, I’m working on a Magicka Warden for no-cp PvP and Battlegrounds, look for it in the coming weeks.
Replies: 0
Ok I have been playing around with my Warden and I really like playing her.
I have full magicka 64 points which gives me a lot of magicka about 38k but my health is low about 14k for normal dungeons I survive ok but did my first veteran dungeon and I need more health as I died when I should not have.
I have llambris head and shoulders. 5 piece Julianos, 3 piece War maiden
I would like some advice on how I can improve my health total and keep my magicka high
Replies: 22
Hello Everyone,
I’ve been reading the forums and I tried finding unarmed topics and builds. Most topics I’ve seen where these questions were asked were answered with it’s boring, it sucks, or maybe if you used this build.
I decided to make an unarmed character from start to finish (currently at level 21) without using weapons and keeping damaging class skills at a minimum. I choose dragonknight as there seems to be more self buffs in this class than others and I never made a dragonknight before.
My overall experience has been quite awesome so far. I am still able to do guild, main story, and general questing by myself without much difficulty. It is honestly a little slower but not difficult.
Here are a few things I have learned that may already be general knowledge:
Unarmed damage does increase with your character level.
Equipping just a shield will not increase your shield and sword skill line and you still deal unarmed damage while having increased armor. I currently don’t use a shield just for looks. The shield stays on your bank as you punch.
As posted in other topics, you can still interrupt and block enemy attacks.
Here are the skills I am using. I am hoping to replace some of them when I get the levels.
Spiked Armor -> Razor Armor : This is what I use most of the time before a fight. I try to balance out my character with just enough heavy armor to hit soft cap and then use light armor where I can.
Stone Fist -> Not morphed yet : I don’t often use this ability anymore. I used it most often while fighting multiple casters because I used to have low spell resistance.
Searing Strike -> Burning Embers : I know this is a damage ability but it was my only source of healing until dragon blood. I will eventually use another ability to replace this one. But great for leveling,
Dragon Blood -> Green Dragon Blood : The only true heal I have. I stack mostly health to try to get as much back as possible because the heal is based on percent of missing health. The stamina morph choice is for the only stamina ability I currently have.
Immovable -> Not morphed yet : This is the only stamina ability I have and I feel free to use before every fight. It helps soft cap my spell resistance and gets close to physical damage resistance soft cap when used and spiked armor not on.
Magma Armor -> Magma Shell : I hardly use it but when I do I really need it. I choose the party buff shield for when I run dungeons. I have ran all the dungeons I can at level and no one complained yet.
Eventually I hope to move to this build
Spiked Armor, Dragon Blood , Petrify, Annulment, and Immovable. This is more focused on dealing only unarmed damaged minus the damage return from spiked armor. The petrify is there in case I pulled one too many mobs but I may change it for another ability. I still don’t have a set build as I am just casually playing and learning as I go. For example, I was hyped when I got Obsidian Shield. I soon learned it costed too much mana for a relatively small shield. Being a group buff I understand why it is but for solo play I felt the mana could be used better.
I am always switching around my armor to hit armor soft cap with spiked armor and using as much light armor as possible for the light armor mana passives. I am soft capped at 35 mana regen at my level. I never feel strained for resources. The only time I stress is seeing the dragon blood heal if I used it too early but I am still able to mitigate enough damage to take a lot of hits if the battle goes too long.
To wrap it up. This is not a guide or a build but a small proof of concept that an unarmed damage only character using minimum class damaging abilities is more than possible and enjoyable in my opinion. Punching that last guy (avoiding spoilers) at the end of the level 20 main quest felt pretty good.
I decided to post something in case other people wanted to try an unarmed character and wanted to see an example of a success in progress (still level 21). As I only play a few hours a day I will not be able to post a level 50 veteran rank 10 story anytime soon.
I’m sorry if someone else has posted something similar on this forum and I have not come across it prior to making this topic.
Replies: 563
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