ARE STAMINA BUILDS WEAKER THAN MAGIKA BUILDS? Does stamina need more love?

SRIBES

Stamina builds have always been weaker than magika builds for the most part but it has gotten much better in 1.5.
I was curious what people thought about this, I for one feel like stamina still needs some love and I was hoping we could discuss it. Here are some of my ideas.

•Not make stamina AoE attacks blockable. (magika AoE is not blockable, why is stamina?)
•Make stamina sets more viable; examples
Warlock but for stamina, when under 33% stamina gain 33% stamina.
Magnus but for stamina, x% chance to make a stamina ability cost nothing.

• Give all weapon abilities ultimates, make two handed, bow, and duel wield AoE burst based so like dragon leap. Give sword and shield an ultimate where they activate it and all the damage they block for 5 seconds is stored up and 50% of it is gained back as stamina, magika or health based on what they are lowest on.

I feel these buffs would help put stamina builds on par with magika builds, but that's just my opinion. Some of you may think they are already great.

Erlex

Stamina builds are fine.

I do NOT think that all magicka abilities are currently balanced (many need buffs and other need nerfed), however, the best magicka builds and the best stamina builds are overall pretty equal ATM IMO. Things are moving in the right direction so far.

chipputer

Oh. This topic again.

Stamina builds will always, technically, be "weaker," as long as rolling and breaking free continue to cost as much stamina as they do. However, smart play and proper application of both of those abilities will allow a stamina build to be amazing (but not as good as it could be if supported by magicka abilities like Repentance or Radiant Aura).

Niastissa

Other

I use a hybrid build. I use both stamina and magicka. It allows me to control players and mobs for a near indefinite duration. That said stamina is important for more then just attacks. I need it to sneak block and shield bash. Stamina is a much more used resource then magicka which is why it feels weak.

I think it's fine and that stamina builds should not overlook the other resources at their disposal.

guybrushtb16_ESO

Stamina needs more buffs.

Personally, I am somewhat partial about the state of stamina dps. So far, the sheer damage stamina does was buffed almost every patch, to the point where it is almost equal and at least it can hold it's own in pretty much any content there is. Buffing stamina damage much more might actually shift balance in the other direction now. Unfortunately, there still are problems with actually applying this damage in practice, some of which are deeply engrained in the combat system, so it will be hard to adress them by simple ability fixes.

As I personally see it, the main problem currently is how stamina draws from it's primary pool for almost everything; players are often required to block, dodge or sprint to mitigate incoming damage, and in those scenarios magicka still pulls ahead. Yes, stamina builds do get to dodge slightly cheaper, but that doesn't nearly equal the advantage magicka builds get here. Having a seperate resource pool, which also has it's seperate 100% regeneration means magicka builds will have a much easier time maintaining their resources. Stamina builds will always have cut into their primary resource "income" to maintain defenses whereas magicka builds can devote 100% of their magicka to damage.

Numerous suggestions have been made, either introducing a third shared resource for dodging/rolling/blocking, or allowing some way of paying those actions with magicka, but AFAIK so far the devs didn't really acknowledge this as an issue. The closest we got so far was a "but stamina builds can roll more often!", which doesn't sound like they have given it much thought honestly.

TL DR; Stamina got some neccessary buffs, but they are not quite there yet. Pure dps is fine but other areas are still lacking.

AshySamurai

Update 1.5 made stamina able to out dps magica, thanks you zenimax!

eliisra

Other

Yeah, because we definitely need to buff bows again

I don't think we can talk about stamina builds as if they're all the same thing. Just because weapons scales of the same resources, doesn't mean they're identical in strength.

Highest dps builds and burst in the game are currently stamina based, for example. Giving stamina builds even higher dps, would be madness. Back at square one again, where only one build is viable in endgame PvE.

But I don't think stamina builds are fine. My issue is really how magicka builds offer more survivability, since defensive skills and ultis tends to scale of it. This while stamina builds have higher skill burst, especially in PvP (but the closets you get to survivability is cheap dodge spam and avoidance). I would rather see they where closer to each other in every aspect of combat. That would truly be "play the way you want to".

Weapon skill line ultimates would also be pretty glorious.

bosmern_ESO

Other

Stamina builds are at an even playing field with magicka builds when it comes to PvE, but PvP wise they lack a bit.

The only reason why I say that is because sprinting, CC break, roll dodge, and blocking all reduce stamina which reduces your move pool. Meaning magicka builds get to use more abilities before their resource runs out.

eventide03b14a_ESO

Stamina needs more buffs.

Stamina builds are great at single target damage but I feel that for AoE damage magicka is still king. Looking at the stamina based AoE attacks, they don't do as much as damage or are as resource sustainable as magicka attacks. Anyone who thinks that stamina builds are fine is probably only using the bow, which has come a long way, but the DW and 2H are not on par with their staff counterparts nor are they comparable with most class abilities in terms of AoE damage.