What PvP build are you following?

i also would recommend, that he first starts palying in a no cp campaign to learn about the pvp environment and also how to play. you also wont feel that power creep in non cp, since everyone is on your level powerwise, only skill and experience will make the difference then. so playing there and experiencin pvp will help a lot out. and as soon as you have a higher cp number, you may step into cp pvp.

ShadowMonarch wrote: »

You're CP 109 that is why.

This.

It doesn't matter whether you play in CP or no CP. You will reach CP160 pretty quickly, and as long as you are below that threshold your gear will almost immediately lose it's stats, as soon as you've gotten it, due to the way battle-levelling works. Once you have reached CP160 you can start farming monster helm sets and gold out your weapons without them going out-of-date as you level up further.

You really need every edge you can get, in PvP. That means enough skill points for at least the following passives:

Racial
All DK skill line passives
All passives for the armor types you are wearing, except the ones that requre 5 medium or 5 light
All passives for the weapon types you are using
Undaunted Mettle
Medicinal Use (Alchemy passive)
You may want most Fighter's Guild passives, if you use Figher's Guild skills
Alliance War passives, as you earn them, especially Continuous Attack
Vigor

I play a stam DK, and stam DK is rated pretty much at the bottom for PvP these days. That's the bad news. The good news is that when people say that, they are only referring to competitiveness at the highest level.

The problem with DK and templar, and with the melee playstyle in general, is that you will be in the thick of things, and you have no escape. If the odds turn against you, you will die. You don't have the burst of a stamden to kill players as efficiently as they can. You don't have the speed of a sorc to escape and string opponents out along your escape route. You don't have the control a nightblade has with cloak. Tankiness is your strength, and 2H / 1H + Shield is a solid choice for DK.

The general playstyle of DKs is to DOT people up. DOT = damage over time, in particular Venomouse Claw, and Noxious Breath. The other strength of DKs is that their ultimates restore resources. Never underestimate a DK who is starting to get low on health, because they are just waiting to counter attack with their ultimate and restore their health / magicka / stamina in the process. That's what you must do. Apply your DOTs, use Heroic Slash to build extra ultimate, use Reverberating Bash to stun enemies and debuff their healing. Once you have ultimate, switch to the 2H bar, jump them with Take Flight and hit them with Executioner/Reverse Slice. That's the meta of how DKs fight. The meta monster set for DKs is probably Blood Spawn, by the way. By far the best set to generate extra ultimate.

For what it's worth, the above is not how I run my DK. My build is non-meta. That means by definition it's probably not as good as the above, but I want to mention it here to illustrate some of the things I like about DK. My build revolves around healing instead of tankiness. I run medium Viper + Spriggan, or Viper + Fortified Brass. The latter basically gives me the tankiness of a heavy armor set. I then run Troll King, which synergises with my character being a Nord, and lets me live without using Rally as a burst heal. Instead I use Forward Momentum. This skill gives you mobility. You cannot be rooted or slowed for 8 seconds. I also use Immovability, Speed and Stamina potions. When I am in trouble, I run, flap my wings and Vigor up. Wings (Dragonfire Scales) have been nerfed quite a lot, but it is a fun DK signature skill.

The other DK skill I love is Fossilize. This is a 2-stage CC, which either gives you a breather to cast defensive / healing skills, or lets you pummel the enemy while they break free and roll dodge. I run dual-wield / 2H. Dual-wield includes further healing skills, such as Bloodthirst, and Blood Craze.

If you run my type of build, you will want a fair bit of magicka sustain. I am happiest when I have 1K+ magicka recovery, otherwise wings lose their effectiveness. That has meant using tri-drinks in the past (since it's also a health regen focused build). I am currently trying to make do with just 800 mag regen from the Atro mundus alone.

In terms of gear, make sure you use a gold weapon, as the stats go up substantially from purple with CP160 weapons. All things being equal I recommend Nirnhoned main weapons as the best compromise in PvP, although that is somewhat build dependent. I'd strongly recommend you research the Nirnhoned trait for the various weapon types, though, so you can transmute weapons as necessary.

Finally, the best and most enjoyable way to learn PvP, I find, is duelling friends of your own skill level. PvP is all about experience, building muscle memory, and the eventual speed of your decision making. An experienced PvPer will just rattle off their burst combo, and their defensive skills, with no hesitation and completely annihilate a new player who hesitates about what to do. Play against duellers who think at the same speed you do, and you can figure out what works, and what doesn't.

And finally: The traits of your gear should be Impenetrable. The other good PvP trait for stamina characters is Well-Fitted, but for a heavy armor build I'd recommend Impenetrable with possibly some Sturdy.

Oops, still one more thing: When you play 1H + S, the way to generate the most damage - and this a pretty much a requirement - is to hit people with a light attack, followed by an ability (typically Ransack or Low Slash) and then a bash. That is not Reverb Bash, that is Bash as in two mouse buttons together, which you may want to remap to a different key, on PC. All of these things can be fitted into roughly 1 second. If you have nothing else to do right now but spam Ransack / Low Slash, you do need to fit in the light attack and bash as well, otherwise you (a) won't generate ulti (from the light attack) and (b) you won't do enough damage to get people down to where you can burst them with your ulti / execute combo. Of course, in reality you need to do still more. You also need to apply your DOTs and Reverb Bash.

There is one skill that makes things a bit easier. Flames of Oblivion. (A), it passively gives you crit. (B), it effectively puts an unpurgeable DOT on the nearest enemy. On the other hand some people also like the Cauterize morph for extra healing.

Hit 160 cp and go into battlegrounds.

Good luck!

dueldragon wrote: »

I don't really know how to be strong enough or at least half competent to kill anyone, I'm following a PVP build.. but it's still not enough. I'm not sure which sets to go for (I can't craft the sets the build tells me to use ) and my normal light attacks and heavy attacks stand at a whooping 600-700 damage.... while everyone else does 1.5k and above (how do I reach those numbers, btw?) . I'm CP 109, and I've never really gotten into PVP. This is the first time where I actually want to play it and get serious about it. I don't want to point fingers and yell "OP NERF DIS PLEES" because I'm well aware of the fact that I'm at fault. Can anyone guide me/just help me through this?

With just 109 CP, don't go into a CP campaign; instant kill, usually, even if you're running in a zerg, and given a crown is a good Samaritan enough to let you in. Relatively, for anyone under 500 CP (being conservative here) the non-CP campaign would be more fitting. In Vivec or Shor, those under 500 CP are practically getting 1-3 shot kill. As far as build and skill rotations, combat mechanic and whatnot, it would be easier for you to check out those how-to youtube clips posted by those self-proclaimed ESO gurus.