DK AoE bar with Flames of Oblivion, Whirling Blades, and Draw Essence?

tinythinker

Does anyone see a viable bar for PvP using these three things? I get the sense there might be something here, but I would love feedback. I have 50 on most weapons (46 or 47 on two-handed) and 50 on all armor types so I am flexible on the loadout.

The damage/crit bonus, the damage/stam recovery, and the damage/health recovery/magicka recovery looks like it ought to have a decent synergy.

So, thoughts?

ryanmjmcevoy_ESO

I love Steel Tornado, a morph of Whirlwind. On my DK I keep igneous weapons up to overcharge my weapon damage, and I keep Burning Talons up for the DoT and because DW skills get a ~15% damage bonus against rooted enemies.

I've tried the Draw Essence and found it lackluster, but maybe others use it well. The problem with Flames of Oblivion is that, especially in PvP, you need your mana for dragon blood and buffs, so constantly dumping it over time like that could hurt you.

tinythinker

ryanmjmcevoy_ESO wrote: »

I love Steel Tornado, a morph of Whirlwind. On my DK I keep igneous weapons up to overcharge my weapon damage, and I keep Burning Talons up for the DoT and because DW skills get a ~15% damage bonus against rooted enemies.

I've tried the Draw Essence and found it lackluster, but maybe others use it well. The problem with Flames of Oblivion is that, especially in PvP, you need your mana for dragon blood and buffs, so constantly dumping it over time like that could hurt you.

Thanks for the feedback @ryanmjmcevoy_ESO‌

Yeah, I know Flames can be a drain if you are using magicka for other stuff, I just sensed there might be some synergy I was missing. The idea was to mainly combine Flames with Whirling Blades as the main combination of effects. I was thinking of Cinder Storm or Molten Armaments for a second magicka effect since they last so long after single cast.

I considered the first because it snares cheaply and helps avoid being hit, saving on damage and keeping folks in range of Blades, and the second for increased weapon damage and 40% increase to critical strike chance. By only popping one of those along with toggling on Flames I figured it wouldn't completely eat up all the magicka too quickly. I also considered Talons but worried people would break out too quickly to be effective for multiple hits.

As for Draw Essence, yeah, I think its potency was reduced in a previous patch, but if you have some low health people around you it can heal you/restore a little magicka in a nice burst while finishing them off. I guess it would just need to be a bigger burst to make it worth it for PvP as opposed to clearing trash mobs.

I was also thinking about basically swapping in dual wield for sword and board on a single target bar I use that already has Talons, Burning Embers, and Flame Lash. Adding Blood Craze and Rapid Strikes might work nicely, as Embers and Craze are DoTs with heals at the end and Talons would allow for the immobilization needed to get the second healing attack on Lash. Rapid Stikes would be there as the spam button while letting the DoTs do their work. But that is a different bar so maybe it should go in a different thread.

ryanmjmcevoy_ESO

Molten Armaments does not apply the critical chance to the caster. I don't think they changed that in 1.4, but I know that the crit chance only applies to allies you cast it on, which is why I prefer Igneous.

Cinder storm is a fantastic skill, but in PvP it works more in choke-points. Open-field combat or 1v1s have a lot of movement going on and it only takes one roll dodge to get out of it, then it's useless to you.

I also never found the stamina recovery from Whirling Blades terribly useful, especially compared to the damage increase from Steel Tornado. You can overcharge stam recovery in different ways, such as enchantments, sets, and green dragon's blood.

Burning Embers/Unstable Flame is a great DoT and I always have it slotted on my DPS bar. Flame Lash I use less often now because I use Magicka to keep my buffs going most of the time, but that's also one of the best class skills in the entire game.

I don't have a ton of experience with Flames of Oblivion. I've tested using it for sustained DPS on the PTS a few times and it wasn't bad, but I just felt that my magicka was better spent on other things, such as Flame Lash.

Also use Rapid Strikes a lot. My single-target sustained DPS setup isn't the greatest right now, but I spam RS while the DoTs are going, like you said, until I can start Steel Tornado-ing.

wllstrt75b14_ESO

Molten armaments does not even buff party members with the crit rate. Was testing this with a group of 4 yesterday and none received crit bonus buff.

tinythinker

ryanmjmcevoy_ESO wrote: »

Molten Armaments does not apply the critical chance to the caster. I don't think they changed that in 1.4, but I know that the crit chance only applies to allies you cast it on, which is why I prefer Igneous.

wllstrt75b14_ESO wrote: »

Molten armaments does not even buff party members with the crit rate. Was testing this with a group of 4 yesterday and none received crit bonus buff.

Weird. The tooltips are always vague and often misleading, but my experiences with DK and Templar skill lines is that often even if it says it affects allies it often affects you as well. But if it isn't even helping allies, that makes it terrible. I hope that observation of its ineffectiveness was included in a bug report.

I tried out a couple of configs of Flames of Oblivion, Whirling Blades, and Draw Essence. Not for long and not in exhaustive combinations of other abilities. So far I can't see the PvP synergy being very good.

I think for Draw Essence to be useful you would want a high spell crit/high spell damage build, lots of light armor and magicka/spell crit enchants and the like. Then maybe go with a destruction staff for AoE and use the other morph of Inferno, Sea of Flames, which restores magicka for enemies killed. So, something like:

1) Toggle Sea of Flames
2) Alternate between Impulse and Draw Essence
3) Drop Standard
2) Alternate between Impulse and Draw Essence
4) Drop Standard

I have tried to avoid extreme stamina and extreme magicka ability build and gear loadouts, favoring more of a 60-40 or 70-30 approach to abilities and gear slanted heavily to the 60-70 side (or just heavy with the right enchants and jewelry), but the abilities I mentioned in the original post seem to work best with going primarily stamina or primarily magicka in emphasis and that makes Draw Essence/Flames of Oblivon and Whirling Blades mutually exclusive.

I have also been trying the other idea I mentioned, with Burning Embers, Blood Craze, Molten Armaments, and Rapid Strikes along with Whirling Blades. It's kind of OK, but Blades it seems blades is rarely used and just doesn't get much done. I would use Flame Lash but the bar has immobilize a target unless I drop something for Talons.

For single targets the other abilities in concert really rack up the damage fast, but you are left very vulnerable. You have no gap closer or escape, and nothing for reflecting spell projectiles unless you swap something out for Reflective Scales. I guess I am used to Crippling Slash, Invasion and Defensive Posture from One Hand and Shield in concert with Flame Lash.

I will keep experimenting, though. If anyone has any suggestions for the original AoE ability combo mentioned or my single target dual wield combo, let me know.

Domander

I don't think of draw essence as a dps skill, there are too many better things to use in it's place if you're going for damage.

tinythinker

Not necessarily pure DPS with the highest and fastest damage numbers, but more as part of a decent damage/sustain combination.