Combat Tactics, When to Block, When to Dodge Roll

Kewljag_66_ESO · May 2014

So here is a list of situations I have found what to use at what times. These mainly excell in 1v1 and small skirmishes but are also are helpful in zerg stand offs and on keep walls. I do have a few questions on some abilities, hopefully some people know can answer those. I have found that in alot of situations blocking is more efficient than dodging because a timed block will take hardly any stamina and minimal damage (even with a bow)

NB : Teleport Strike, for half a second you can see them charge up this ability, as well as if you pan your camera and see a NB chasing you. You can block this without facing them and take minimal damage.
Siphon and Cripple are spells that you can see coming for a split second towards you, these must be dodged.
Death Stroke Ultimate, For a split second you see them put both hands up to strike you down, (Full charge they leap in the air) Dodging is best but Block this to avoid very heavy damage.

DK : Fiery grip (chain) block this to avoid being pulled. have to anticipate it
Dark talons, blocking seems to stop the stun but you still take damage, most Dks will do this as soon as they get to you.
Reflective scale, when you see them start glowing with a bubble around them do not use magic based damage on them , only melee.
Stone Fist, looks like a stone coming at you, you have a split second to block and not be knocked down.
Dragon leap Ultimate, probably better to dodge but blocking will avoid most of the damage.

Sorc : Shard this one i am not sure, I swear i have blocked it before but sometimes i have also been knocked down while blocking. So i would suggest dodging this.

Temp: Still not sure yet, please let me know if you can block the Spear attack..

1hand / Shield: Shield charge, anticipate this when you see them running at you from a distance, you do have a split second to see it coming as well. Block to avoid stun and damage.
Shield bash, This may change with patch but right now once they engage you in melee or after shield charge they will spam Shield bash, just hold block and usually they will dump all their staminia,

DW: FLurry, its a duration of many weapon swings (7), once it starts hold block, the last hit is the biggest damage hit so make sure you atleast block that one.

joshisanonymous · May 2014

Great post; finally something that's not about nerfing abilities or complaining about Cyrodiil.

I was just thinking today about when it's better to dodge and when it's better to block, particularly as my character is not built to soak up damage in any way, shape, or form. My gut feeling is that some of the attacks that you suggest should be blocked might be better to dodge if you're not using a shield. Is it not best for non-shield users to just dodge anything that has a damage component and block anything that doesn't have much of a damage component?

cortechsnub18_ESO · May 2014

Thanks for the info. Most posts around here are l2p or "you are doing it wrong". Very few actually provide information on how to play. These types of posts are appreciated.

Kewljag_66_ESO · May 2014

joshisanonymous wrote: »

Great post; finally something that's not about nerfing abilities or complaining about Cyrodiil.

I was just thinking today about when it's better to dodge and when it's better to block, particularly as my character is not built to soak up damage in any way, shape, or form. My gut feeling is that some of the attacks that you suggest should be blocked might be better to dodge if you're not using a shield. Is it not best for non-shield users to just dodge anything that has a damage component and block anything that doesn't have much of a damage component?

Im basing everything i posted off of being a DW NB in medium armor, so Shield and heavy armor would actually be even more effiecent at blocking. Another reason i prefer blocking for most of these is so that i can quickly counter in melee, dodge roll tends to put you away from your target so you cant do as much melee damage as fast and that makes healing and potions more effective against you. Also I like all my stamina going towards my DW flurry attacks, A dodge roll uses a chunk of staminai and seems to take away the ability to use that flurry 2 times. So in most cases i like the block trade off of a tiny bit of health and stamina in order to counter attack with flurry more times

EDIT. i am mainly about the sneaking and big sneak attack damage but once engaged my bread and butter combo is surpise attack (magika) 40% armor debuff followed up by flurry (stamina) with teh 20% attack speed bonus morph

Zubba · May 2014

Good post. But I wish to add that all this is hard to perform out of what you can see your opponent try to do, if playing on the EU server while its still located in USA.

Harakh · May 2014

This mostly dont work on a EU Server for EU player cause of latency problems and lag.

Mange · May 2014

Two things, rolling does dodge crystal shard and blocking is not a good counter to spam bash you need to use a gap closer or escape rather. You will run out of stamina before they do by a long shot. Make them chase you with their stamina and try to deplete them before fighting back, especially if you intend to cast something or use something interruptable.

Kewljag_66_ESO · May 2014

Mange wrote: »

Two things, rolling does dodge crystal shard and blocking is not a good counter to spam bash you need to use a gap closer or escape rather. You will run out of stamina before they do by a long shot. Make them chase you with their stamina and try to deplete them before fighting back, especially if you intend to cast something or use something interruptable.

Thanks for the info. With bash i guess it depends. if you dodge they are only able to use it once. but making them run out of stamina chaisng you is a good idea. However in my situations i am about teh assasins tyle play so i open with heavy sneak attack damage and stun and lay it on them, once the stun wears off or they break out of it, i hold block and they are always in a panic and spam bash and dump everything on me. Yes it still hurts, it might even take me to 50% life but after that i can easlily finish them off. But like i sad in my situations i have already done alot of damage to the target before they can spam it on me.

joshisanonymous · May 2014

Kewljag_66_ESO wrote: »

Im basing everything i posted off of being a DW NB in medium armor, so Shield and heavy armor would actually be even more effiecent at blocking. Another reason i prefer blocking for most of these is so that i can quickly counter in melee, dodge roll tends to put you away from your target so you cant do as much melee damage as fast and that makes healing and potions more effective against you. Also I like all my stamina going towards my DW flurry attacks, A dodge roll uses a chunk of staminai and seems to take away the ability to use that flurry 2 times. So in most cases i like the block trade off of a tiny bit of health and stamina in order to counter attack with flurry more times

EDIT. i am mainly about the sneaking and big sneak attack damage but once engaged my bread and butter combo is surpise attack (magika) 40% armor debuff followed up by flurry (stamina) with teh 20% attack speed bonus morph

I see. I'm DW/bow but I think my playstyle is different. I don't expect to stay within melee range much past my initial burst before moving on to kiting. Using just melee weapons, I can see why would be better to block than dodge, of course. From a distance, I'm not so sure because I don't know what the damage mitigation difference is and the sitaution might require either that I conserve stamina or that I create more distance, particularly with bow where you get a 15% speed boost after dodging. It would be really great just to have a list of all the abilities that can be dodged at all, actually.

Edit: Come to think of it, the only DW ability that I have is Sparks (Heated Blades), and it's not even normally on my bar. Stamina usage in melee for me doesn't hurt my damage in the slightest. Although blocking does still seem a bit better depending on what you're being attacked with.

ArcanusMagus · May 2014

This is a great post! Thanks for the information!

NekOnOkO · May 2014

Sadly nothing of these will work on so-called EU megaserver.

Nooblet · May 2014

When to block: Always
When to roll dodge: When you are rooted.

wpitterlb14a_ESO · May 2014

Kewljag_66_ESO wrote: »

Sorc : Shard this one i am not sure, I swear i have blocked it before but sometimes i have also been knocked down while blocking. So i would suggest dodging this.

You can block the stun from shard only if you start blocking before the project launches (so during the casting animation, or before the cast itself when they get off a crystal proc), and hold the your block until the projectile hits. If you are close (melee range) its best to try to hit them with a disrupt/bash. If you are very far away its best to try to roll dodge it because holding block that long will allow them to get off another spell or two. At medium range (too far to disrupt them, but not so far that the projectile travel time will be that long) is when you want to block since it takes much less stamina than rolling, and allows you to counter attack much faster.

Its worth noting that you can dodge roll out of it while the projectile is traveling, so its a good backup plan if you didn't get your block up in time.

As far as I can tell these mechanics are the same for just about every spell with a projectile in the game, as well as for ranged basic attacks with bows/staffs.

Censorious · May 2014

Best way to deal with Crystal Shard is just walk away. It'll be a week next Tuesday before the animation completes and the damn thing actually fires.

Take your time, no rush.

nukeyoo · May 2014