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ESO offers countless combinations of itemisation, skill selection and tactical execution that provides a sometimes bewildering level of depth and complexity for its players trying to optimise their performance for whatever they are doing. This is not helped by murky and sometimes buggy mechanics and vague tooltips. As a result the game is not easily “solved”, there is no absolute “correct strategy” and performance between players can vary massively depending on experience, ability and various other variables.
Frustration can arise if there is a mismatch between your expectation and your reality. As with all things in life, your level of achievement depends on a function of Ability (Talent) and Application (Effort). For example you cannot expect to conquer endgame trials if you refuse to optimise your build for “roleplay reasons”, or cannot be bothered learning tactics or making the necessary connections with other players to form competent teams.
Hence this guide was written based on my personal experience of playing with people of all levels of competency, to help you objectively assess your own capabilities and set reasonable levels of expectations.
PvE Competence Categories:
1) Super Casual
For whatever reason, these guys are unable or unwilling to grasp even basic concepts in ESO. They do not understand the core triumvirate of dps, tank and healer. They have not researched builds and have little or no understanding of mob mechanics, itemisation, skill rotations and basic tactics. They will struggle to complete undaunted dungeons unless carried by much stronger players. Typically these are roleplayers/singleplayers who don’t care, or kids who are too young to learn.
2) Lazy Casual
Lazy Casuals know that they are supposed to be a tank, dps, or healer, but their understanding of the game is shallow and patchy. They will often ask questions in zone or guild chat, like “what is the best weapon for a Night Blade?”, but not spend the time and effort to learn the principles behind the answers they are getting. The result is a botched mix of different items and skills that do not complement each other. Most lazy casuals are also almost constantly broke, so their itemisation is usually far from optimal. A team of these players can probably complete the easier undaunted dungeons, but will struggle with goldkeys on everything except Wayrest Sewers.
3) Competent Casual
Unlike the above, these guys do understand basic principles fairly well. They know that dps need to specialise damage output, tanks need to taunt, and healers need to support his team with more than just Healing Springs. They are also reasonably skilled and know when to use AoE skills, when to single target, and to keep self buffs active as much as possible. However, for various reasons, these players often cannot afford optimal gear and struggle to implement the principles they have learnt, especially when under pressure. More specifically the DDs in this category can achieve 7-10k dps (on Bloodspawn), the tanks are survivable, but often fail to taunt properly, and the healer mis-times support skills and burst healing. A team of Competent Casuals can complete all goldkey runs and normal DSA, but will struggle to complete endgame trials unless carried by better players.
4) Proficient
Proficient players have a solid grasp of theory-craft, and the experience and skill to implement it. They usually have optimal or near-optimal skill rotations, and near-optimal itemisation. Proficient players also understand and try to implement advanced techniques like animation cancelling and are familiar with the specific mechanics of various dungeons and trials. More specifically, a proficient DD should achieve 9-14k dps (on Bloodspawn) and reasonable AoE dps (impossible to quantify), the healer will keep party buffs and heals active most of the time, and support the team with resource replenishment. The tank taunts all bosses and most dangerous ads, and groups them together for DDs to AoE dps. A team of proficient players will sail smoothly through all undaunted dungeons and be capable of completing all trials, albeit with some difficulty, especially in the case of vDSA and Sanctum Ophidia.
5) Elite
Elite players not only understand theory-craft, they do everything in their control to put theory into practise. They have fully optimised builds, including race, class, itemisation and skill rotations, and they are proficient with executing complicated rotations as well as advanced techniques like animation cancelling. Elite teams will often develop new, riskier, but faster tactics for completing trials, and they will put in the necessary hours and/or grind to have a competitive amount of champion points to compete at the highest level. An Elite DD will achieve 13k-18k dps on single target, with very good AoE capability as well. An Elite tank will not only maintain aggro on all dangerous enemies, but know when to face specific enemies away from team mates, which attacks don’t need blocked, which need to be avoided, when to bash… etc. Elite tanks sacrifice some survivability for more team support, particularly with more dps contribution to achieve faster trial completion times. An elite Healer is a jack-of-all trades. In addition to healing and buffing team mates, he supports DDs with resource replenishment, can off-tank when needed, and contributes dps whenever possible. A team of Elite Players will comfortably complete all PvE content in ESO, and challenge for weekly leaderboards on a regular basis.
6) Professional
The super elite few might not be paid to play ESO, but they play with the focus, dedication and ambition necessary to excel in any field. Not only do they understand the nuances of almost all game mechanics, they constantly experiment to advance theory-craft to achieve the previously impossible. These guys play for hours every day, and spend the majority of their time participating in trials, experimenting for trials or grinding for champion points. “Professional” DDs achieve absurd dps numbers well over 20k+ on single target, and similarly obscene numbers for AoE. Tanks at this level are also dps machines that happen to also taunt dangerous mobs and bosses and Healers similarly heal in addition to dps, support and offtanking as necessary. Together such a team cooperates to achieve greater performance than the sum of their parts, and aim not only to make weekly leaderboards, but to top it, with multiple characters…
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This topic was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by
Heindrich. Reason: typo
