Attribute Points?

SalvadorDeSloth

I'm new to this game and see so many different opinions. I see some people saying to invest all 49 points in health and some to put it in magic or stamina depending on the build. I've heard the 49 health is almost necessary for veteran zones. I'm trying to go for a dps sorcery, any help? Thanks!

Ranique

I suggest browsing and searching for builds. I have never seen any build that invests all attribute points in health. You might have seen some sarcastic notes bout the difficulty level of graclorn if you want to solo it and missed the sarcasme (this zone is designed to be tackled with a group of four players and should bot be allowed to be solo-able. There is a lot of critism bout that and that can lead to such sarcastic comments).

In my opinion there are only 2 rules when it comes to a build.
1: choose magica or stamina. Your damage depends on the pool the skill draws mana from. So if a skill needs stamina to activate, the dps scales of the total amount of stamina. If a skill needs magica, the dps scales of the total amount of magica. There are some hybrid builds (using both) but they are rare and considered oddballs. It can work succesfully, but most hybrid builds I've seen are not as effective and the real exceptions are very rare.
2: I've seen builds using up to 50% of health (50% of all attribute points), but personally I think that is way too much. I personally have always used 25% and less and have had no trouble at all. Only when fully building on tanks it might be interested to go further, but then again, most tank-capacity doesnt come from health anyways.

The most important thing you should learn though are the following two things.
1: don't fall for the min-max trap. The min-max tactic is not working in this game, so don't worry too much bout it. It is better to follow your nose and do what you are comfortable with. Don't go for what works in theory, but for what works in the game
2: at level 20 you'll reach your alliances capital. There is a shrine where you can reset your attribute points, and also one where you can reset your skillpoints (for a modest fee). You can even get there early on by finding someone on your server and in your alliance to help you teleport there. This means you can always reset the direction you have chosen. It is also why people e.g. run with 5+1+1 armor pieces. They use for example 5 light pieces, 1 medium and one light. This way they unlock all the passives and if they want to go a different direction they can directly. Same goes for the secondary weapon you equip and the skills on that bar (just don't forget to switch weapon when you hand in quest rewards)

SalvadorDeSloth

Ranique wrote: »

I suggest browsing and searching for builds. I have never seen any build that invests all attribute points in health. You might have seen some sarcastic notes bout the difficulty level of graclorn if you want to solo it and missed the sarcasme (this zone is designed to be tackled with a group of four players and should bot be allowed to be solo-able. There is a lot of critism bout that and that can lead to such sarcastic comments).

In my opinion there are only 2 rules when it comes to a build.
1: choose magica or stamina. Your damage depends on the pool the skill draws mana from. So if a skill needs stamina to activate, the dps scales of the total amount of stamina. If a skill needs magica, the dps scales of the total amount of magica. There are some hybrid builds (using both) but they are rare and considered oddballs. It can work succesfully, but most hybrid builds I've seen are not as effective and the real exceptions are very rare.
2: I've seen builds using up to 50% of health (50% of all attribute points), but personally I think that is way too much. I personally have always used 25% and less and have had no trouble at all. Only when fully building on tanks it might be interested to go further, but then again, most tank-capacity doesnt come from health anyways.

The most important thing you should learn though are the following two things.
1: don't fall for the min-max trap. The min-max tactic is not working in this game, so don't worry too much bout it. It is better to follow your nose and do what you are comfortable with. Don't go for what works in theory, but for what works in the game
2: at level 20 you'll reach your alliances capital. There is a shrine where you can reset your attribute points, and also one where you can reset your skillpoints (for a modest fee). You can even get there early on by finding someone on your server and in your alliance to help you teleport there. This means you can always reset the direction you have chosen. It is also why people e.g. run with 5+1+1 armor pieces. They use for example 5 light pieces, 1 medium and one light. This way they unlock all the passives and if they want to go a different direction they can directly. Same goes for the secondary weapon you equip and the skills on that bar (just don't forget to switch weapon when you hand in quest rewards)

Thank you for all the detailed information! That really helped a lot! I have one more question if you don't mind answering. When you get to the endgame stuff, if i focus on magic 1-50 ( and a sprinkle of health here or there) should i enchant my gear for magic and health or just health? I'm sorry for all the questions I'm just very new.

Dagoth_Rac

SalvadorDeSloth wrote: »

I'm new to this game and see so many different opinions. I see some people saying to invest all 49 points in health and some to put it in magic or stamina depending on the build. I've heard the 49 health is almost necessary for veteran zones. I'm trying to go for a dps sorcery, any help? Thanks!

From roughly April 2014 to March 2015, putting all your attributes in health was the way to go. There were caps on how much health/magicka/stamina you could have, and that made builds very, very different. All points into health is not the way to go anymore.

Also note that veteran zone difficulty has fluctuated. When the game out on PC, vet zones were certainly harder than normal zones, but not too much. Then Craglorn came out and suddenly the existing vet zones became way, way more difficult. The 4-man VR11 content in Craglorn was often easier to solo than the vet zones! They toned that down a few months later. Just doing solo questing and exploration in vet zones is not a big deal anymore. Lots of different builds and playstyles do just fine in it. So I would not be overly concerned about having the perfect build to survive vet zones.

Now, if you want to do the VR14 endgame group content like Veteran Dragonstar Arena and Sanctum Ophidia, you will need to put more thought into your build. Assuming you are using magicka skills as a Sorcerer DPS, you will want just enough points into health to not get one-shot. Then put the rest into magicka. For your gear, go for spell damage bonuses and/or max magicka bonuses. General recommendation is 18K health. Once you reach that in any way (attribute points, enchantments, set bonuses, jewelry traits, etc., etc.), everything else should go towards damage stats like spell damage and max magicka. As a Sorceror, you may be able to go lower than 18K health because Sorcerers can use a lot of damage-absorbing shield spells to avoid getting one-shot. I am not familiar enough with Sorcerers to know the exact details.

Check Deltia, TamrielFoundry, YouTube, etc. There are guides on how to build for the tougher content.

SalvadorDeSloth

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

SalvadorDeSloth wrote: »

I'm new to this game and see so many different opinions. I see some people saying to invest all 49 points in health and some to put it in magic or stamina depending on the build. I've heard the 49 health is almost necessary for veteran zones. I'm trying to go for a dps sorcery, any help? Thanks!

From roughly April 2014 to March 2015, putting all your attributes in health was the way to go. There were caps on how much health/magicka/stamina you could have, and that made builds very, very different. All points into health is not the way to go anymore.

Also note that veteran zone difficulty has fluctuated. When the game out on PC, vet zones were certainly harder than normal zones, but not too much. Then Craglorn came out and suddenly the existing vet zones became way, way more difficult. The 4-man VR11 content in Craglorn was often easier to solo than the vet zones! They toned that down a few months later. Just doing solo questing and exploration in vet zones is not a big deal anymore. Lots of different builds and playstyles do just fine in it. So I would not be overly concerned about having the perfect build to survive vet zones.

Now, if you want to do the VR14 endgame group content like Veteran Dragonstar Arena and Sanctum Ophidia, you will need to put more thought into your build. Assuming you are using magicka skills as a Sorcerer DPS, you will want just enough points into health to not get one-shot. Then put the rest into magicka. For your gear, go for spell damage bonuses and/or max magicka bonuses. General recommendation is 18K health. Once you reach that in any way (attribute points, enchantments, set bonuses, jewelry traits, etc., etc.), everything else should go towards damage stats like spell damage and max magicka. As a Sorceror, you may be able to go lower than 18K health because Sorcerers can use a lot of damage-absorbing shield spells to avoid getting one-shot. I am not familiar enough with Sorcerers to know the exact details.

Check Deltia, TamrielFoundry, YouTube, etc. There are guides on how to build for the tougher content.

Thanks for all of that information man! Just out of curiosity, why is spending all the attribute points in health not the way to go anymore?

ConnorWoods

Because there isn't caps anymore and damage is scaled off your attribute pool, so piling it all into stamina for instance will make you a stamina powerhouse, anything above 15 in health imo is a waste.

Nestor

Because they changed how spells and weapons scale damage. It used to be all over the place with some coming from Stamina, some coming from Magic. Couple that with the softcaps, there was no advantage to dumping it all into Stamina or Magic. You needed to spread it around. Since Health was the only thing not softcapped, it seemed anyway, the mantra was, all attributes in Health, and use Glyphs to buff Magic and Stamina as needed. Now, with the removal of caps, you need as large a pool as possible to get the competitive DPS needed for PvP and End Game Trials.

So, now every point you spend in health makes you weaker.

In other words, unless your a Tank, your goal is not to out-survive them, but burn them down before they can kill you.

All that being said, you can get away with just about anything you do from 1 to 50, and you can get away with almost that many things in PvE VR Content.

SalvadorDeSloth

Thanks everyone for all the help