Bow AOE?

LotusBladedancer

I'm new to the game and wanting to create a stealthy Nightblade Assassin style character and hoping for some advice..

I am thinking of using dual wield for single target (using the assassin abilities) and bow for mobs (aoe damage- bosses where you have to keep a distance)

Is this possible? or is the bow mainly good for single target damage? I'd hate to plough 30+ hours into a character to then only find my skills/weapons are ineffective.

All advice appreciated.

Junglejim82

I'm the same dw and bow . I'm only Lv30 ATM but my go to aoes are whirlwind/steel tornado morph and lotus flower morph. No bow aoes on my load out's . Finding dw viable in most encounters so far . I use mark target on mobs (35% health back on marked kill ) when soloing or if no healer to keep my self heals up and it's working fine . Bow I switch to just in single target boss encounters as needed . I'm in do doubt I'll be respeccing at vr levels but for now levelling and dungeons are cake with dual wield

tinythinker

LotusBladedancer wrote: »

I'm new to the game and wanting to create a stealthy Nightblade Assassin style character and hoping for some advice..

I am thinking of using dual wield for single target (using the assassin abilities) and bow for mobs (aoe damage- bosses where you have to keep a distance)

Is this possible? or is the bow mainly good for single target damage? I'd hate to plough 30+ hours into a character to then only find my skills/weapons are ineffective.

All advice appreciated.

Volley and Arrow Spray are the AoE attacks for bow. Volley sounds more like what you are talking about, as you get a circle for targeting and anything in that circle will be hit by a rain of arrows for 5 seconds. But, mobs will move out of that circle and head toward you so they need to be slowed, stunned or otherwise cc'd.

Arrow Spray hits any targets right in front of you with a hail of arrows and snares them. One of that ability's morphs, Bombard, immobilizes and then snares them. On one of my characters I used Caltrops (an Alliance War skill) to snare and do damage and then Arrow Spray on top of it. I guess I could use Caltrops+Volley or Arrow Spay+Volley as well. Volley has a longer range than Arrow Spray but the snare of the latter lets you move back as you continue to attack.

The issue is going to be how hard your attacks hit. With high enough weapon damage (and possible weapon crit as well), either Bow-based AoE attack could take out a group of mobs pretty fast.

(And, just FYI, Whirldwind (especially Steel Tornado) from DW is also a great AoE for stamina builds. I know you mentioned using DW for single targets, but I just wanted to add that info.)

Shader_Shibes

Steel Tornado = best AOE in game. You'd be mad to not use it.

LotusBladedancer

Thanks for replies... I am thinking..

Using Steel tornado ect for mobs and the assassin abilities for single targets, is it viable to make a character use dw for both mobs and single target?

Ixtyr

I run your exact desired build for end-game content, but I have different build-outs for PvP ganking, PvP AoE, PvE Soloing, Group Single Target, and Group AoE DPS. I'll give you my best advice on abilities & affordable, good gear.

Basically, each different loadout I use has the same gear, stats, enchants, Mundus, etc., I just swap abilities out for utility based on the situation. So, if I'm doing full AoE to max that type of damage, I'll run Quick Cloak, Sap Essence, and Steel Tornado on my Dual Wield bar, and Volley & Barrage on the Bow side - but when I go for max single-target damage, I swap those out and use (for Dual) Surprise Attack (basically your go-to attack to spam), with Killer's Blade for an execute, Twin Slashes for an added DoT, etc, but put Poison Injection & Focused Aim (morphs are your choice, that's just what I use) for the Bow bar. In PvP, I'd swap some skills out for Mass Hysteria, and run Ambush as a good gap closer. There's a lot of flexibility for swapping things around for your given situation, so feel free to do what feels good for you.

I assume you're currently more focused on a good build for soloing most PvE content, so here's what I use:
Bow
Poison Injection
Barrage
Reaper's Mark
Focused Aim
Evil Hunter (from Fighter's Guild)
Ult: Either Meteor (morph of your choice) or Soul Tether

Dual Wield
Surprise Attack
Killer's Blade
Ambush
Blade Flurry (or Evil Hunter)
Steel Tornado
Ult: Either Veil of Blades, Soul Harvest, or Flawless Dawnbreaker (the latter adds a bunch of weapon damage just for being slotted, so it's great to have)

That build-out can be tweaked to make it work for your situation, but all-in-all, it gives great survivability and whatnot when doing solo content (or soloing supposed "group" content like certain public delves or Craglorn, etc).

Basically, use Dual Wield to Ambush in, use Surprise Attack until 25% and then Killer's Blade to finish off mobs. If you're in a group of mobs, spam Steel Tornado to kill things quickly.

Use the Bow if you feel like staying at a distance. Snipe is your main attack, but try to keep the DoT from Poison Injection up on larger mobs to do extra DPS, and weave light/heavy attacks in here and there. Barrage is great for adding control by rooting enemies at a distance, and it does good damage as well.

Use Reaper's Mark before killing mobs for the extra healing, and always keep Evil Hunter up. If you need more survivability, you can always swap something out for Strife.

As for stats, I build 100% into Stamina, put nothing in Magicka, and only put enough points into Health to give me enough to survive (between 18-20k with Food Buff on at VR14) - but basically, a good ratio while leveling is to go with 1 point in health per every 2 points in Stamina. Make sure to run Blue Stam/Health Food if you can, it adds to survivability a lot. Your priority when building out is to get your Weapon Critical to about 50% or so on each bar, and then pump everything else into Reduce Stamina Cost enchants and Weapon Damage. Armor Penetration is nice to have as well, as is Spell Resistance, but that's more of a min-max thing at end-game so don't worry too much about it.

As for gear, I run a 5-set of Hunding's Rage Medium crafted gear, then 2 pieces of medium armor Ashen Grip crafted gear plus Ashen Grip for all weapons (3-set for Bow, 4-set for Dual). That gives nice stamina boosts and weapon damage help. Jewelry doesn't matter while you level, I run Shadow Walker 3-set for my VR14 though.

That gear (aside from the Shadow Walker) is super-cheap and easy to get, either craft it yourself or find someone who can craft it for you (might be tougher to find on Consoles, though, since fewer players have the ability to make 6-trait Hunding's gear). It's also viable for end-game content when you get there - not the BEST, by any means, but I push great damage with it. And it's also good for PvP as a stamina build, and it's awesome for Solo content.

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Last note: I've been very vocal in my guilds, on my weekly ESO podcast (TESO Nation), and while streaming about the fact that you don't need to min-max, especially while leveling. Ideally, you should try to level EVERYTHING while you're gaining experience from all of those quests - level your Light and Heavy armors, all of your weapons, and all class abilities while you can, it'll make swapping builds when you hit max level a lot easier. But, if you're looking for something that'll help you figure out your playstyle, this build should be a good starting point for you. Mix it around for what you like most, and most importantly, have fun.

I hope that was helpful.



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EDIT: Oh, also, yes, you can go full-DW for AoE & Single Target. I've done it, and it actually theoretically does more damage. Just run an AoE set on one bar, and Single Target on the other. It'll just require you have two pairs of weapons for your gear sets.