How Exactly Do Vampires Suck? (Figuratively, not -Blood)

Rodario

I'm thinking about making my nightblade alt a vampire just about from the start, so I'd have the skill line maxed before I hit 50. I've seen there's a lot of complaints from vamps though, which makes me wonder:

Will being a vampire hinder me in some way (apart from fire resi), even if I don't use any of the skills, or is the problem just that some of the skills are underpowered/useless?

Thanks in advance for your elaborations.

Blackwidow

In my humble opinion, the downside (fire damage) outweighs the good side (higher mana) and a couple of spells.

The higher mana means nothing with such a low softcap. The spells are not very good, IMHO, except the drain life one, in combat.

The Ultimate is not as good as some others and the mistform has never appealed to me, personally.

This is just my point of view.

Phinix1

Fire will definitely be an issue. It hurts! Getting fire resist jewelry is an option, but I would recommend going dark elf for the racial resist instead since that way you don't have to give up other stats.

Also, be prepared for health to basically not regenerate passively at all in later stages. Yes, once you unlock the passives later in the tree this is made a LITTLE better, but still, it takes forever and certainly takes health regen out of any meaningful equation for healing during combat.

You will rely on class, weapon, or other player heals for that, or your drain ability.

Sharee

One huge advantage is that with the dark stalker passive and concealed weapon, you will move in stealth faster than unstealthed.

Dark stalker cancels stealth penalty, and conc weapon makes you move 25% faster while stealthed, so the net effect is 125% move speed in stealth.

Blackwidow

Sharee wrote: »

One huge advantage is that with the dark stalker passive and concealed weapon, you will move in stealth faster than unstealthed.

Dark stalker cancels stealth penalty, and conc weapon makes you move 25% faster while stealthed, so the net effect is 125% move speed in stealth.

Yeah, I don't pvp, so that did not mean much for me, but I agree that is a big deal in Cyrodiil.

Lunerdog

Have cured both my Vamps now, got bored with it I think, would recommend a Dark Elf for the fire resist though.

Even then, don't be tempted to go jumping through fire traps, and if one of a trash mob is a pyromancer then hit the bugger first and hit hard.

pavelcherepanskyrwb17_ESO

Rodario wrote: »

so I'd have the skill line maxed before I hit 50.

Vamp skill line maxes out on level 10 so it doesn't take long at all to max it out. As for me, I maxed my vamp in the time I got from VR4 to VR4.5 so not long at all.

Sharee wrote: »

One huge advantage is that with the dark stalker passive and concealed weapon, you will move in stealth faster than unstealthed.

That one is a very good bonus of becoming a vamp but it has a limited use in PvE unless you can't be bothered to fight mobs and want to just sneak past.

As the others have said above fire resist and health regen penalty are quite awful. But generally speaking as long as the area is not swarming with fire mages, which is not so common, you're fine. I ususally don't even bother decreasing my stage and run around with bloodshot eyes on stage 4

All in all, as long as you don't PvP (which I don't, either) there are very limited advantages of becoming a vamp. I did it just for sh*ts and giggles and it works fine for me...

Mondo

Ugly face! Thats why

Breg_Magol

I'm trying vamp on both my DK and my NB.
I've had it for a week on the DK (VR1) and previously would faceroll through trash mobs 6 at a time. I would laugh at scamps and spit in the faces of fire-mages.

Now ..... whenever I see 3 scamps together I crap myself (Vamp lvl5) .. I go stealth, and make sure I don't go near them.
My oh my, scamps and firemages turn me into a paranoid quivering, nail chewing DK!

P.S. I've noticed that my DK also has stress lines around his eyes!

pavelcherepanskyrwb17_ESO

Yesterday I went back to Rift to get Lion's Den Group achievement. There were loads of fire mages around and whenever I wasn't careful to take them out first I died but it was on my favourite Stage 4 vampirism when a child with a box of matches can turn me into a crying mess

drkeys143

I agree with the above, the penalties are quite severe, but if you enjoy the vamp, you can adapt to overcome it to some extent. I am a dark elf NB, so I have the racial fire resist passives maxed out anyway, and tbh I don't find much of a problem with fire, and I love the increase in sneak movement.

The main prob is the healt regen, so I find I am now using more potions than I used to (beforehand I hardly used any), but this can be mitigated by using the drain and the devouring swarm ult morph.

I would still recommend you try it, you may need to adopt a different play style, and you can always cure if you don't like it, I believe it only costs a paltry sum (600g), though I stand corrected on this

Sharee

pavelcherepanskyrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Yesterday I went back to Rift to get Lion's Den Group achievement. There were loads of fire mages around and whenever I wasn't careful to take them out first I died but it was on my favourite Stage 4 vampirism when a child with a box of matches can turn me into a crying mess

As far as i am aware, the vampirism stage has no effect on your fire vulnerability, it is always 50% regardless of stage. Stage only affects your health regeneration, and the cost of your vampire abilities.

moxiesauce

Rodario wrote: »

I'm thinking about making my nightblade alt a vampire just about from the start, so I'd have the skill line maxed before I hit 50. I've seen there's a lot of complaints from vamps though, which makes me wonder:

Will being a vampire hinder me in some way (apart from fire resi), even if I don't use any of the skills, or is the problem just that some of the skills are underpowered/useless?

Thanks in advance for your elaborations.

It really doesn't suck outside of fire dmg, there's ways to help that. It's just if you want to be serious about PvE its better to just be human and throw the points into things to help your raid. PvP it's great and leveling its great.

DeLindsay

Rodario wrote: »

Will being a vampire hinder me in some way (apart from fire resi), even if I don't use any of the skills, or is the problem just that some of the skills are underpowered/useless?

Fire weakness is absurdly easy to deal with BUT, it will take being Dunmer and/or using up 1-2 Jewelry pieces (best bought from the Magus in any Mage's Guild) with a Fire resist Glyph. With a Legendary Glyph I take MUCH more damage from Frost casters than Fire casters. Keep in mind even 1 Legendary glyph or just being Dunmer is not enough with the 52% SPen casters in 7pcs of Light Armor with a Fire Destro staff have. It's perfectly fine in PvE though.

The more annoying thing is Silver Bolts/Shards while in PvP. The proc can be nasty but that's not a huge concern outside of that bug for a bit that gave it a 100% chance haha. It's more that it's close to a perma CC on you as a Vampire/WW. It just about removes you from the fight until you're dead. But, saying that there are other CC's that do the same and have nothing to do with being a Vampire so it's kind of moot.

Also right now there is 1 passive that's broken, Undeath and another passive that's broken for some but not all, Unnatural Resistance. Both are listed as known issues and will be fixed by ZoS, at some point. Keep in mind you can always level it and cure it if you decide it's not for you. If later you want it back you will be at w/e level you got it to the first time.

Rodario

Thanks for all the answers so far. How many pieces of fire resi jewelry would it take to cancel out the debuff with blue quality enchants? I've heard 50% additional fire damage, but I'm not sure what amount of fire resistance equals a 33% reduction...

DeLindsay

For PvE just wear one (or be Dunmer) with an Epic or Legendary glyph. For PvP wear 2 or 1 + being Dunmer and that will cover it for the most part.

Vacerias

DeLindsay wrote: »

For PvE just wear one (or be Dunmer) with an Epic or Legendary glyph. For PvP wear 2 or 1 + being Dunmer and that will cover it for the most part.

There is a cap so wearing 2 Fire Resists Rings will not help you.

DeLindsay

Vacerias wrote: »

DeLindsay wrote: »

For PvE just wear one (or be Dunmer) with an Epic or Legendary glyph. For PvP wear 2 or 1 + being Dunmer and that will cover it for the most part.

There is a cap so wearing 2 Fire Resists Rings will not help you.

There is indeed a cap, it's 3150 Resistance. And when a player has 52% SPen and drops your 3150 Fire resist down to 1512, you'll be wishing you had thought ahead and wore 2. You can indeed go OVER the hard cap, it just doesn't effect you greater than 50% mitigation. It's when penetration is involved that it helps.

Solanum

In PVE the omnipresence of fire can be a bit of a nuisance.
With fire-resist you'll get quite far, but it'll still affect you more then others.
The damage reduction we receive is quite nice, as well as the passive regeneration to magicka and stamina.

In PVP I've got mixed feelings, the drain seldom activates properly (might have to due with the server location for me) and the fighterguild abilities, for example Silver shards, do carry a severe impact. (read, a spammable ability that can take down over half your health on a lucky proc)
Take into account that even without the fighters guild abilities, their passives (which everyone with a few points to spare can get) will increase damage done to a vampire by 9 percent.

The stealthspeed increase is awesome though. No doubt there.

Nova Sky

As a vampire myself, I find it incredibly useful to run around with not only a level-50 destro staff, but a level-39 (and strengthening) resto staff on my second bar.

Combined with a piece or two of jewelry, and it's pretty good to be a vampire, even to the point of staying in Stage 4 the entire time.

KleanZlate

I'm a Dunmer NB Vamp and have been for quite a while (I'm VR9 and became a vampire sometime before VR1). The fire thing doesn't bug me that much and I haven't used any jewelry against it, yet.

I like to play as a vampire. I hear some people don't bother with the vampire stages and just stay on stage four which makes your health regenerate 75% slower. On the plus side vampire abilities cost 60% less at stage 4 but I don't use any of them. If you try to stay at stage one your health regens normally but you'll have to feed every half hour and that can be a bit bothersome to say the least. I try to stay above stage 3 so that gives me 90 minutes between feeding.

Don't underestimate the sneak speed passive that's been mentioned above. You almost go as fast sprinting but for a fraction of the stamina cost. I use it constantly in both PvE and PvP. It also works with Shadow Cloak so you can use to "sprint" out of a messy situation. It's so addictive that I'm finding it hard to create a new character without it. ZoS should make it a NB passive

To feed you have to sneak behind a humanoid npc and hit 'E' to feed. Shadow Cloak makes this easy but the best part is you can do it to other players in PvP. It takes a few seconds, you gain a bit of health and the player is stunned afterwards. And you can always feed when using Shadow Cloak. Even in the middle of a fight. It's a great feeling to drain another player in PvP

So, the only downside for me is the feeding schedule. There is a nice feeding ground in Malabal Tor where I can feed of neutral bandits so if I need to go from stage 4 to 1 in a hurry I just teleport there

demonlkojipub19_ESO

21% less at stage 4...

And the biggest con about being a vamp is the 9% more damage youll be taking from players who have the slayer trait at 3 in pvp, which is just about everyone.

EQBallzz

I have a V12 Khajiit NB that is a vamp. I think if you were planning to tank it's probably not a good choice but for DPS it works well. The sneak speed increase is awesome in PvE and PvP. It also meshes well with NB well due to siphon. Since I run around in permanent stage 4 it's nice to have siphon ability to keep health up instead of relying on passive regen. Just get a FR glyph and enchant your neck to offset the fire dmg.

Dunmer is nice for the FR but I think Khajiit look better as vamps than the humanoid characters who get quite ugly (especially in stage 4). Plus, with the Khajiit you also get the added sneak bonuses and health regen passives which pair well with the vamp.

Enkil

I am debating on whether to make my Breton or Dunmer a vampire... Any advice? Can Breton high spell resists be as effective as Dunmer fire resistance?

DeLindsay

Enkil wrote: »

I am debating on whether to make my Breton or Dunmer a vampire... Any advice? Can Breton high spell resists be as effective as Dunmer fire resistance?

No, because specific resists do not suffer from DR (Overcharged) and "resist all" does. Granted it won't hurt to be Breton and it's certainly better than say Reguard for one purely going for resistance Racials. That's why a player can use a single Fire resist glyph and get to (or very close to) the 3150 Resistance cap (for Fire) because they'll have say 1250 Fire resistance plus 2K "Spell Resistances" which put them over the cap and give a tiny bit of wiggle room when they are hit with SPen.

Dontezz

Ok Im just gonna through this out there about vamps in PvP.. Which is the only place they shine.. or can.. being a Darkelf NB Vamp .. sorc 2nd.. can be almost OP in PvP.. the stealth rocks if used well.. and with the cloak and mist utilized you become a escape artist from most situations.. Throw in a resto staff and full light armor.. and Wow.. one of if not the best gank builds you can get if played well.. Utilizing hit and run tactics with self heals ... watch out Cyrodil...

Samadhi

DeLindsay wrote: »

Vacerias wrote: »

DeLindsay wrote: »

For PvE just wear one (or be Dunmer) with an Epic or Legendary glyph. For PvP wear 2 or 1 + being Dunmer and that will cover it for the most part.

There is a cap so wearing 2 Fire Resists Rings will not help you.

There is indeed a cap, it's 3150 Resistance. And when a player has 52% SPen and drops your 3150 Fire resist down to 1512, you'll be wishing you had thought ahead and wore 2. You can indeed go OVER the hard cap, it just doesn't effect you greater than 50% mitigation. It's when penetration is involved that it helps.

I only wear one Fire Resist ring in PvP, and barely notice the damage on Fire type skills.
I notice that everyone who targets me spams fire; but my combat cloud and even death recaps when I die do not show very threatening numbers compared to non-fire damages.
Two Fire Resist rings may have benefit in terms of damage mitigation simply because so many people focus on using fire skills against a vampire though.

Re: Negatives of Vampire
There basically are none. Or, at least, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

I leveled to v5 before trying any of these skill lines.
I went Werewolf first, and leveled it to 10. Werewolf is dismal. Using it as an Ultimate killed me more than it benefitted me. I got cured of it within a week.
I went Vampire at v10, and leveled it to 10. Vampire is huge reward for low cost.

Negatives:
I hate the ugly look, I miss my Bosmer's pitch-black eyes.
I have to use a Fire Resist enchantment as one of my limited 3 jewelry enchant slots.
The decrease to Health Regen at Stage 4 means I have to use healing skills a lot; I already do that though, so it had no actual change on my playstyle. Someone else may need to start using Resto staff though.
I find the drain skill a little lackluster in that it can only be applied to a target once; however, it is quite powerful in effect.
Undeath passive is a little meh, because it does not seem to be functioning as intended -- it does however make me slightly more difficult to kill by giving added damage reduction when I get low on health. It does not seem to reach 50% but it does reduce the numbers on the damage I take.

Positives:
My sneak speed is faster than my normal walking speed with Concealed Weapon slotted; this allows me to reliably play a melee assassin character using Dual Wield now.
Faster Magicka and Stamina regen has me above softcap on both stats; when 1.3 gets here and the Softcaps increase I will have an even larger increase.
Elusive Mist can be cast while stealthed; at Night I enter stealth more quickly meaning the speed bonus stacks on my Concealed Weapon bonus -- Elusive Mist serves me as a better escape skill than Shadow Cloak does.
Bat Swarm ultimate morphs are great in terms of damage and benefit to cost (at stage 4 vamp) ratio.

At first, I was discouraged by giving up a 13 Spell Damage enchant slot for a Fire Resistance enchant.
Effectively, I'm using one jewelry slot in order to be vampire, which gives me stamina and magicka regen, damage mitigation, sneak speed and two useful skills.
Ultimately, the sneak speed alone is worth it to me as a Nightblade.

I wish Werewolf were even half this good.

Edit: that turned into an ugly wall of text.

Rodario

@Samadhi‌

Thank you for that great and comprehensive answer. I believe this tells me everything I need to know.