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ya i added standard in, as for fiery grip... my 3 main damge/utility abilities are all less than 10m range. hardly a ranged spec really and i need to stay on my target. plus i also like the empowering chains morph, one of the themes of my build is to stack damage increasing effects.

i may be wrong here, but i think all damage that comes from the basic attacks and possibly abilities of the weapon trees count as "weapon damage". the types of damage for the purpose of potential mitigation for a destruction staff are fire, frost, and shock. i think resto staffs do magic damage and all other weapon trees do physical. any increases to weapon damage and the type of damage apply to the output of the given weapons basic and, possibly, ability attacks... i would assume. weakness to elements is absolutely a must for dks, molten weapons is very tempting as well, i may try to fit it in. the same goes for dragon standard of might which is too good to pass up really, i'm just hung up on the idea of meteor + weakness to elements... i'll give up warhorn for it here is an updated version of my dk pvp build: altmer dk 7heavy-destroweakness to elementsdestructive touchlava whip or molten weaponfiery grip immoveableult-meteor-restodragon bloodentropyregenerationequilibriumrapid maneuvers ult-dragon standard of might

ya I realize dk/staff is a melee build and my main problem with that is wearing heavy armor rather than light for magicka benefit. I actually like the idea of a close range staff variant, it makes better use of destructive touch and the destructing clinch morph. what's needed are solid magicka regen mechanics, the elemental drain morph on weakness serves this purpose really well, but i'm not sure its enough, i could use a resto staff with regeneration, entropy, and dragon blood in conjuction with equilibrium for my weapon swap... perhaps a build that looks like this: altmer dk 7heavy-destroweaknessdestructive touchforce shocklava whipfiery gripult-meteor-restodragon bloodentropyregenerationequilibriumimmoveableult-warhorn

In obsessing about what PVP class/build I want to play at launch I find myself endlessly considering all classes and combinations (mostly nightblade variants), but the one and only thing I am completely set on using is the Destruction Staff. I love the abilities it offers, most notably Weakness to Elements, Force Shock and Destructive touch and I love the gameplay feel of the weapon with its 3 damage and status effect options. So rather than theorycraft from a class first perspective I want to think destro staff first and hear people ideas about how to use them with various classes/armors/races etc. My initial idea for using destro was with a nightblade, my current iteration of this bar looks like: -destro nb altmer light armorweakness to elementsforce shockhasteaspect of terrorshadow cloakULT-meteor The idea being to empower basic attacks using haste/weakness to be able to get off as many sped up heavy attacks as possible while kiting and ccing using force shock and aspect when necessary. I really like this idea and it might be what I end up doing, but I'm having a hard time committing because the Dragon Knight variant is soo seemingly over powered... There are just so many easy synergies with this combo, the dk, destro, and racial (altmer/dunmer) passives alone are ridiculous not to mention abilities that stack damage bonuses like weakness and lava whip. Between staff and class abilities there is a tonne of cc options and Weakness to Elements is an unreal combination with the whole Ardent Flame tree. I have so many scattered ideas for a PVP bar, but here's my preliminary idea: -destro dk altmer weakness destructive touch lava whip force shock fiery grip ult-meteor good cc combo with destructive touch and lava whip, and weakness+meteor make me drool. i think this bar needs work as I'm not the most familiar with DK. I've prioritizing destro abilities and my other bar will obviously be centered around survival. I haven't totally thought through a DK build, but I want to hash something out... thus this post for input... I also want to consider templar and sorc destro staff builds... the Storm Calling tree seems to have some synergy, specifically with surge, all the shock damage, and mobility. Templar doesn't seem to have much synergy with destro, but maybe I'm missing something.

ya i've debated small details like that and I prefer aspect over destructive because it effects 2 people and the snare morph after the fear effect ends is pretty nice. aside from the speed burst you get from cripple, i dont really need it on the destro bar as force shock and basic attacks will apply snares. annulment is something i've been considering for sure, great ability.

here's the caster NB build i think i'm pretty much set on: altmer7 light armor30 magicka19 health-resto staffstrifeentropycrippleregenerationshadow cloakULT-consuming darkness-destro staffweakness to elementsforce shockhasteaspect of terrorshadow cloakULT-meteor basically pop out of crouch, bust out dots on target, then switch to destro bar pop weakness/haste for quick heavy attack spam while kiting with force shock/cripple. shadow cloak/fear/heal when necessary. stay at range, kite, disappear.

are there no haste/attack speed enchants?

Here is the current build I am mulling over: altmer, nightblade7 light armor 30 magicka 20 health resto staff bar:mark targetstrifeentropycrippleshadow cloakdeath strokefrost staff bar:hasteweakness to elementsforce shockrapid manoueverspurgehighborn resto staff bar is for laying mark+dots/hots then escaping via shadow cloak. frost staff bar is for kiting while spamming basic attacks with haste, weakness, and frost shock debuffs up. basically a pure ranged caster nb build. i figure that i will use light attacks to proc frost snares and be able to get heavy attacks off with the time afforded via kite/snaring. some changes I am contemplating are: -possibly incorporating more healing some how via resto staff abilities, perhaps totally revamping into a healing support build with more cc. -finding a way to be more bursty if destro heavy attacks turn out to be insufficient. -working in annulment to counter the negative effect of mark target. thoughts?

ahh yes, thanks for bringing those to my attention, valuable skills for sure. i see you edited your post to include them. I can see them being totally necessary for some builds, but not all. in group play i would think that you wouldn't want all of your group members to have both abilities on their bars. definitely abilities to consider and coordinate with your group.

@theory: mark is too good not to use imo, my questions about it are: what does "resistances" encompass? just spells? poisons? does armor count as a resistance? I also have a question about evasion: what is dodgeable? just melee attacks? all spells? you can probably see where I am going with this in that I wonder whether annulment would be better than evasion for the purpose of mitigating the negative effect of mark. for general use i can understand the use of evasion as just a straight up damage mitigator vs whatever is dodgeable. could it be worth incorporating 1 piece of heavy armor to get immovable for the same purpose as well as gaining cc protection? i was also wondering why you've dropped entropy from the light armor/spell variant of your build? here is what i'm considering currently: Breton, 6 light, 1 heavy resto staff bar:mark targetstrifeentropycrippleshadow cloakdeath stroke bow bar:hastesiphoning strikesscatter shotimmoveableshadow cloakconsuming darkness distance hit and run is obviously what i'm going for here, alternatively here is a dw bar in place of my bow bar for burst finishing: dual wield bar: immoveableblur teleport strikeassassin's bladeshadow cloakconsuming darkness pardon my ignorance regarding game mechanics.

One of the differentiating factors about this game is that the class/skill system offers significant customization and I think there are more viable options, pvp wise, than people seem to be discussing. I can absolutely see, in pve, there being some very specific builds to max dps, but there is more play style/skill involved in pvp that allows increased flexibility in build choices. That said, I thoroughly believe in min/maxing whatever you decide to play. It's absolutely important to have a synergistic and well thought out build. I just think it too early to put limits on what's viable for each class.

I was just wondering what peoples thoughts on Heavy armor Nightblades were... I posted a build i thought might be appropriate earlier. I'd like to see what some other peoples build ideas are and their rationale for skill choices and/or play styles with this set up. Is anyone else planning on playing this?

1st post on this site, pretty happy to have an outlet for my post beta, pre game release obsessing... Here's the build I've been thinking about lately, I primarily plan to PVP: orc, all heavy armor. bar 1, Dual Daggers: 1. Teleport Strike, Ambush Morph 2. Flurry, Rapid Strikes Morph 3. Assasin's Blade, Impact Morph 4. Haste 5. Siphoning Strikes Ult. Berserker Rage Bar 2. Resto Staff 1. Strife, Funnel Health Morph 2. Entropy 3. Cripple 4. Force Siphon 5. Immovable Ult. Soul Shred Obviously I'm going for a more tanky, toe to toe style NB build. Bar 1 is offensive, hopefully sustainable burst damage. Tele Strike and Assassin's Blade with increased range allow me to stay on the target with the 1.5 sec. stun allowing for effective Flurries and basic attacks. Flurries haste buff along with Haste and Siphoning Strikes should provide the resources to sustain offence. Bar 2 is obviously a a kiting, dot/hot survival bar. Gear will stack health regen primarily then magicka regen and crit. This is my preliminary idea for my character. I am very appreciative of criticism keeping in mind that my build theme is heavy armor/tank/survival NB.