Musclemagic

6% less crit chance, but might be better-- Shadow Cloak + Veiled Strike instead of Blur/Haste. Being able to open with Veiled Strike into 2 flurries right away is nice.

Yeah, more RNG. But, on average it's more effective because it causes all effects (not only the damage) to miss. Depends on playstyle choice though, for sure it's greater risk.. I guess I'm okay with that. XD ps- Do you (or anyone) know if you can dodge an AOE in ESO? __________________________ I like RNG... dodge crit FTW! Here's a solid single-target build with both! Khajiit – NB – Heavy – DW + S&S DW- Teleport Strike + Flurry spam = single target death with Assassin's Blade finisher. 15% incrs damage against stunned targets. 5% crit chance from Dagger in Offhand. Crit rating and extra crit damage from being Khajiit. 15% crit chance from 5 (x3%) Assassination abilities slotted. 20% extra damage on targets under 25%.. 5% base crit chance + 20% + racial and crits doing +30% (on top of regular crit bonus) damage = huge hits all day. [*] Blur – M [*]Haste – M [*]Teleport Strike – M [*]Flurry – S [*]Assassin's Blade – M [*]Death Stroke – U S&S- Summon Shade not only helps tank things but increases stamina regen on top of the weaken. Strife for a small HOT. Blur/Immovable for passive dmg reduction. Defensive Posture for the active and small passive block bonus. [*] Blur – M [*]Immovable – S [*]Defensive Posture – S [*]Strife – M [*]Summon Shade – M [*]Consuming Darkness – U I know the S&S bar sucks compared to a DK or even a Temp S&S build, and there's no AOE anywhere, but I think it's a very strong single-target build for sure. The thing is that it will easily kill anyone in light armor and then be strong enough to survive a group fight as melee..which is hard to do as most other DPS builds. I can see a DK build with DW+S&S working better for S&S but a lot slower kills in DW.

QQ - Does anyone know if Breton will be all magic resistances @ 750 res @ clvl 50? Dodging, while you will get hit by the full damage if you're hit, you won't get any of the effects that come from being hit-- if the spell causes a slow, knockback, etc.. you won't get any of that nonsense! ^.^ I almost want to make a dodge/miss build. XD Templar's Blinding Light ability seems OP, I wonder what's up with it.

Ha, this thread is an instant classic!!!!!!! HAAAAAAAHAHAAHA!

I need to get a dragonborn costume.... >|

I think tanks will do plenty of DPS because they'll get the first hits as well as the most AOE damage in (probably). I feel like tanks are OP when it comes to min/max of overall numbers, the problem is that they need to put in a lot more stam/MP because their regen is so much lower from Heavy Armor. I actually think that a tank in Medium might be the best choice if you plan on soloing a lot, because you'll be able to use like 20% more abilities, yeah? What do you think? They definitely won't do as much as a pure dps, but I think they'll do quite a lot in comparison to how much they can survive..which is why I think whichever alliance has the most tanks is the one that will win the most Cyrodiil battles..which is why I'm going Daggerfall.

Yeah, I meant Spiked/Obsidian, not Magma- My bad. XD I agree that you should take something from Draconic Power for the passives, but I think Dragon Blood's the better choice if you're going to take Obsidian Shield (I get them all confused, I keep meaning to take Obsidian + Blood... I actually think we're agreeing on this? XD)

DK build I could see myself using: Redguard, S+B/Bow, Heavy Armor. S+B - Fiery Reach Inferno Spiked Armor Ash Field Defensive Posture +Magma Armor. Bow - Volley Molten Weapons Dragon Blood Reflective Scale Snipe +Powercharge (works well with Molten Weapons)

This isn't really what I was trying to argue, I was saying that the diminishing returns on % dmg reduction makes it not worth taking spiked armor, obsidian shield, immovable, and whatever else % reduction there is at the same time... And, yes...I don't know if that's how it really works, but if it works additionally rather than being multiplicative then the game would be broken, so I actually would bet you money that I'm right. I wasn't talking about regeneration at all, just the Dragon Blood heal + having the regen active for the 12% incrs healing if you take Obsidian instead of Spiked to get that passive... as long as you have the +12% incrs healing, the +28% regen+7%+5% is just decent..this'll probably be additive because it's beneficial positive rather than negative benefits, but the difference here between additive and multiplicative isn't much anyway. Let's pretend it's additive and do the math. If you have Dragon Blood on all the time and that's your only +5% ability then you're getting +40% hp regen, which is only 1.2% extra per second on a base of 3%. That's a big difference over time but if you're getting bursted it's probably nothing worth jizzing over. I wouldn't worry about getting that +% regen...but this really is just heresay at this point, since we don't know how many seconds the fights will last it's impossible to calculate the actual difference that % per second will make. Spiked VS Magma depends... but my point is that because of DR you should just take one or the other, there's so much DR (because I really do guarantee it will be multiplicative) that any other form of ability will be a better choice. It has to be right, there's no way that 40% + 30% + 20% reduction is going to apply like that. 100% x .4 = 60%, x.3 = 42%, x.2 = 33.6% damage taken rather than 10%. It's still really good, for sure, but it's not as good as other distributions because on top of it being multiplicative there's also going to be soft-caps if not even hard-caps within every stat...so you'll want to divvy it up as even as possible. Edit: Just take obsidian shield instead of Spiked Armor and you'll still get Helping Hands, yeah?

You guys aren't really seeing the math behind it, I don't think...Say you have 1000 hp (to make #'s easier). You take 30% less damage through one of your passives... then you take 40% less through another passive. That's 40% of 70% (new total instead of 100%, because 30% less already).. meaning you only get another 28% damage reduction off from keeping that 40% reduction spell up. Another one added...like 20% is only (100-30 = 70, -28 = 42%.. 42 x .2 = 8.4) 8.4% less damage taken from keeping up a spell 100% of the time.. definitely not worth it. Casting Obsidian Shield every 20s, more if you're under attack, isn't nearly as good as Dragon Blood because of diminishing returns. Honestly, I'm just telling you guys right now, you should be taking Spiked Armor and Dragon Blood and no other damage reducer.. unless you're using Immovable as an ST suck.. Use Ash Cloud instead, and it doesn't have diminishing returns. Dodge Chance for enemy to miss Reduced damage of enemy Resistances Armor Flat % Self-Reduction Flat damage reduction per hit taken Due to diminishing returns, whichever one of these is the lowest % of your total damage reduction (based on total health for the flat numbers) is the one that you'll want to raise at any given time to maximize your passive survivability. Soaks, I think your build is pretty much spot on for PVE. I really really like it, it's almost exactly what I'd use if I was going to PVE (I always tank PVE). I don't think it's the best for full on mitigation/damage output, but I think that it overcomes a lot of the mob mechanics (esp boss mechanics) that I picture dungeons having. I think overcoming those mechanics is the heart of making dungeons run smoothly, which is why DK's make the best tanks and everyone who disagrees is a fool.

Here's the thing about group fights.. I've lead a ton of high rated (2400+ mmr) RBGs in WoW, and placement is everything.. Overextending is death, you're not going to ever really WANT to shield charge. You're always going to want to pull the kill target close to your own group rather than extend yourself. It's a hundred times more effective in group fights, so unless it's a small battle (like 3v3 or less) then shield charge isn't as good of a choice. Being able to place yourself where your teammates are going to AOE and then you pull an extra guy in can make such a huge difference, and something like Ash Cloud to keep them in there is nothing short of amazing. Dark Talons might be one of the best PVP techniques possible, pair it with an archer using Volley and a temp spamming Solar Flare... It only will work with placement though, get them in a choke and use Fiery Reach over and over on all the guys outside of the area.. It's pretty much a required skill for DK PVP IMO...

Ah, yeah.. I meant gems not shards. Thanks for the good post, I didn't put much real thought into it until I read what you wrote. I guess I feel like in most games with siege weapons the good people know how to use it and the bad people don't even try to use it, so unless I'm in a premade I always end up piloting vehicles when I should be the one out in the battlefield...it helps win the battle, but I dislike it. You're completely right, I don't know the mechanics of it.. It could actually be amazing. If it's like..we need to move a battering ram to the gate, that could be cool.. I hope it's not like, "Spawned" things that we lose if we don't end up using though. This is what I'd really like to see-- something like a timer(think bomb-deactivation in an FPS) on a battering ram that's always in place that we can activate if there's enough of us to break down a door. The rest of the battle would be fighting through hallways and such rather than trying to break down walls. I like the idea of ladders to storm walls, too. That's a great idea! I do admit it adds just another layer of strategy to the game, but it always distracts me from my pwning... I'd rather storm the keep on foot like a total badass, haha "Emperor" just got a new perspective for me.. it'll basically be like the battle's boss... I keep picturing Isle of Conquest in WoW where the emperor would be the boss inside the keep after we make it in.

I don't think blocking/bracing/sprinting/dodge rolling will be that stamina intensive when we're lvl 50.. but just a guess. I agree, the defensives in this game are so much stronger than the offensives that it's ridiculous for someone with a dps build to try and 1v1 a tank.. Especially because it's not like taking a defensive ability makes you do less damage- Yes, it takes up some of your mp/st, but it appears to be way more powerful than each offensive attack. I personally think they need to increase the stam/mag cost of defensives... right now Healing is a bit gimp seeming too... but I'm sure with all the internal high-end testing they're doing they'll get it all sorted by launch.I went off on a few topics here, but I totally agree with your post. Yeah, I just think shadowcloak is almost worthless. Different playstyles. Hopefully between cripple and scatter shot I'll be able to get away from 1v1's with bow-speed.. at least until Ult's up and then I can slip away. Against any other DPS though in 1v1 I think this is the strongest, against a caster DW will take them out easy and against a melee in medium or another archer.. there's no stronger 1v1 build unless you're going for a bloodknight build... which you are! XD I see your playstyle, I'm sure it'll work really well but it's too passive for me to enjoy! I couldn't use a pvp build without Fiery Reach and Searing Strike for single targets and Ash Cloud for groups. They're too strong to pass up. Check if it gives you more than x% HP compared to the MP cost to keep one of those -x% damage shields active... because of diminishing returns on things, it's a lot better to just have one active for maximum effective HP rather than building your character to be able to use them both at the same time. 1000 hp and 1000 mp, 500 points to place, you can either take 20% less than 70% of your hp (140 hp) and put the 500 points into MP, or you can put 500 points into HP. That's an extreme example, but you get what I'm saying? You'll need to predict your numbers and see where the tipping point lays. ------------- As per my previous post, my favorite build so far (temp bow/resto) is going to take both Immovable and Rune Focus but I'm only going to use one or the other usually, and immovable's a stamina sink for me because I can't use much st with resto staff out. You get the difference though? Mine are situation specific while I feel like you have too much overlap so you'll have diminishing returns. ------------- They need to get rid of Soul Shards.. Soul Shards just add a tedious element to the game. Yes, you need some kind of punishment for ressing on the spot or ressing someone else on the spot... but just make it so you can only spot-res with like 15% of hp/st/mp, and make it cost a ton of mp to res someone else. This way you wouldn't want to do it in combat even if you could cast it in battle. Or, if anything..keep the soul shards but give us a different way to get them. Casting Soultrap on everything 10 seconds before it dies will get annoying and then at clvl50 you get them automatically anyway so what's the point of doing it while leveling up?? So far I love everything about the game except for this one little part... Oh...and I don't like siege weapons in any game..I think you should be able to use the character you worked hard for exclusively rather than getting a character all built up and then playing a Chess-Game at high end PVP instead of actually using that character. How would PVE be if you just used random weapons and crap to win high-level dungeons instead of character synergy within a group? :S But that's off topic. I think they need to change the soul shard mechanic... Discuss?

Khajiit – Medium&Light Armor – NB – DW/Bow – Alchemist I chose Khajiit for the extra crit damage and crit rating, I’m going to use a dagger in off-hand for 5% and then bow gives 5% passive crit chance as well. I went with medium and light armor simply so I can cast abilities more often with the regeneration passives that those armors give. I’ll be alchemy because NB gets +20% potion effectiveness. DW- Against casters - The more Assassination abilities, the higher my % crit chance. - Teleport Strike – M - Gap Closer - Assassin’s Blade – M – Big finishing damage - Death Stroke – U - Amazing Single Target Ult - Twin Slashes – S - Dmg + really heavy DoT - Flurry – S - Big damage - Hidden Blade – S - Interrupt/slow Bow- Against melee - Kite and kill - Cripple – M – Slow + DoT - Strife – M – DoT + HoT - Summon Shade – M – DoT + Weaken - Scatter Shot – S – KB + Disorient - Haste – M – DPS buff, need an assassination ability on bar to get +20% crit damage (and 3% more crit’s nice.) - Consuming Darkness – U - Probably the best “oh $h!t†button in ESO.. I know I've done this build a few times, but I do think it's probably THE best 1v1 build. Assassin's blade hitting for 20% extra damage (from DW passives) = wtf pwn.

This is why anyone who chooses a class or even a race without looking at all the passives for the weapons and everything they want is going to suck... not only will their stam/mag/health ratios be totally off..for example, if you're a high elf and you're in light armor it changes everything compared to a khajiit in heavy armor for example. This is why I LOVE this game already! HUGE skill curves when it comes to character design, which is what it should be all about- The character. ^.^

Definitely! Passives > Actives so much in this game it's ridiculous. When building your character you need to look at all the passive options you have and then make the best 2 bars you can with actives that are bolstered by the most amount of passives you can. This is how min/maxing works in this game compared to others, choosing actives that are not only a perfect balance, but are bolstered by passives more than any other build..that's what will truly make your character the strongest!

If it's PPM then it'll be better to have slow because you can almost control when to hit to get a proc. But yeah, if it's a flat percent and the damage isn't scaled then faster's better in that regard. The cool thing about Dual Wield is that you can switch your weapons whenever you want, so chances are that you'll end up using the best 1h you can in mh and 2nd best in oh at all times--it'll probably outweigh any passive of proc benefits. Lots and lots of time to test it because you aren't ever trapping yourself into daggers or swords or anything, you can swap with no repercussions! ^.^

You might want a slower weapon as main with a fast dagger as off-hand. Dagger in offhand gives you +5% crit chance, meaning the slower (bigger) hits with mainhand will be bigger % damage since it's mainhand. Yeah, they will add up to be the same..and it depends on your build, but in most situations slower weapons outdamage faster. And crit in offhand..idk, it all depends on the rest of your build, but crit builds will probably do really well with dual wield.

It definitely pushes players into a category. It's really hard because this will mean each alliance has more of a certain type of character, and whichever type is the strongest in group PVP means that that alliance will win the most battles.

Interesting, I will be doing it opposite. Clear goals, so I don't waste points in things that won't apply. I'm going to level up in PVE using a very slight variation of my PVP build. Actives help me decide passives, while passives help you decide actives.. interesting! XD Definitely going into class skills first is a good idea, because if you're just using an armor and a weapon it'll get XP anyway. Good call.

Here's a topic I'd like to discuss: What will be the fastest way to level? Using one tree heavily until it's higher level, and then using the lower level skills on the higher monsters that you'll be fighting in conjunction with your other abilities? Because it'll be quicker to level something up if it's "catching up" to the monster levels you're fighting... But, on the other hand, if you are more steady then everything will level together...just a bit slower? Overall it shouldn't effect your C.Lvl, just your experience in the skill trees. Or, maybe I have this all backward. Can anyone comment?

I think he was just throwing out a quick example rather than really trying to spec. It was a really good post, everyone should be weary of what he said while they're making their initial builds... It's a good idea to use that build until you're maxed on passives* rather than actives, and then start branching out. Otherwise you won't have access to the passives you probably want/need ASAP.

Templar – Heavy Armor – Bow/Resto – Orc Bow Solar Flare – M Sun Fire – M Piercing Javelin – M Snipe – S Rapid Maneuver – S *Berserker Rage – U Resto Staff Sun Shield – M Immovable – S Rune Focus – M Healing Ritual – M Regeneration – M *Barrier – U I definitely enjoy this build more without forcing the 2 weapon skills. Piercing Javelin > Scatter Shot (Not in 2v2/3v3, but in both 1v1 [further range] and in big group fights [more damage for picking off almost-deads] it is better.) and Healing Ritual > Blessing of Protection (with Sun Shield, Immovable, and Rune Focus, it's better to have a more specific heal on top of just Regeneration.)

I'm proud to be in the majority vote right now. (Professionals unite!)

Yupyup, that's why (at least at first) you want to have your active abilities nailed down so that you can fill your passives as quickly as possible. ^.^ Ah, okay. The quakecon video did support 2 weapon / 3 others scenario so I didn't want to rule it out. (And, it wasn't a misconception from GW2, Maria actually said it straight up in 2 interviews--but the interviews were about a year ago now so I didn't know if it was still relevant) I kind of didn't think so, because otherwise people would be talking about it more. I'm stoked to see what you come up with! Right now I'm tweaking mine since we don't need 2 weapon abilities. Like I said in a PM to you, there are only a couple things I'm changing anyway.