Made A Huge Mistake

Scorpio_Alik'ri

I feel like I made a huge mistake when I created a Dragonknight wasting 2 months (since June 9). I honestly don't even know if I'm a tank, dps or healer because I'm not a good at any. I barely survive boss fights and pvp is suicide. The attribute points I get are evenly spread out and my primary skills are 1h + shield as a Redguard. Sometimes I use a bow for range.

So, should I start over with a Templar so I can heal myself? Because I don't want to tank putting all the attributes in health. I also want to do damage and as a DK, the skills don't damage but I do like the crowd control and stuns.

thunderwell

You spread your attribute points (health, magicka, stamina) evenly?
I think that might be your problem.
You should decide if you want to invest in magicka (and abilities that cost magicka) or stamina (and abilities that cost stamina).
Stick to one or the other.
Playing a class, you should focus on Tanking or DPSing or healing. Can't be all three.

yodased

Where to start?

1. Dks have the best self heal in the game.
2. Magic or stamina pick one. Health c. es from gear passive and food


You have amazing capabilities as both steam and magic dk. Stamina has burst from petrify and 2h or massive air from dw. You have amazing sustain and long term damage as a dk based on magic. You basically put dots on people then stay alive and watch them die.

Dk is imo the most versatile class. You can dps tank and heal as good as any other class and better in a lot of roles than the other classes.

Fyi though you will not be able to beat a good sorc with a magic dk

Scorpio_Alik'ri

@thunderwell, Yes my main problem was that I put my attribute points evenly throughout. A stamina DK would do a lot of damage using 1h and shield or 2h while being able to block at the same time. Is there anywhere I can respec my points?

thunderwell

There's a shrine that will allow you to respend your points.
It's in your faction's capital city/town.
Elden Root in Grahtwood for Aldmeri Dominion, not sure about the others.
Check your map when you get there, it should be called "rededication shrine."
You'll also find the shrine to reset skill points.

Sandshark95

@Scorpio_Alik'ri As the other posters mentioned, your attribute point distribution is almost definitely a large contributing factor to your discontent with your DK. You can respec your attributes at a Rededication Shrine in exchange for a bit of gold; the location of these shrines is always in the main city of the second area of your respective alliance, so either in the city of Wayrest in Stormhaven (Daggerfall Covenant), Elden Root in Grahtwood (Aldmeri Dominion), or Mournhold in Deshaan (Ebonheart Pact). Travel to the appropriate city for your faction, then open up your map and look for a Shrine icon (it should say "Rededication Shrines" when hovering over the correct icon). In Wayrest (DC), the shrines are in a building called the Temple of the Divines not too far from the city's Wayshrine. In Elden Root (AD), they're inside the big tree on the same floor as the Wayshrine (literally a few steps away from the Wayshrine). In Mournhold (EP), they're in the same building as the city's bank.

If you want to respec into a stamina build and don't want to be a Tank (I.e. you want to be a DPS or Damage Dealer), then forget about 1h/Shield. Sword + Board can't hold a candle to 2H or DW in the damage department. Now, if you do want to be a Tank or a damage-sponge, 1h/Shield is great for survivability; however, keep in mind that as a Tank role, your primary focus is absorbing damage, not dishing it out. You have to choose a main role, and your weapon choice should reflect the role you select.

Here's a couple decent stamina DK DPS builds you might be interested in:

http://deltiasgaming.com/2015/03/08/the-bloody-butcher-dragonknight-dps-build-for-update-six/

http://www.sypherpk.com/magicka-nb-2/

These builds are geared towards endgame content, so if you're not there yet, just ignore everything that doesn't apply to you and focus on the skills/abilities/attributes. Remember that some abilities can be morphed to use and scale with a different resource; for example, Fiery Breath in the Ardent Flame tree uses magicka, but once morphed to Burning Breath, it uses and scales with stamina. Here's a link to a page showing all the DK skills and their morphs if you're unfamiliar with the morphed names you'll likely see in most build guides (I'll also include links to 2H and DW skills and morphs):

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Dragonknight

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Two-Handed+Skills

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Dual+Wield+Skills

Hope that helps

Scorpio_Alik'ri

Thanks for the detailed info @Sandshark95. The whole time I was thinking that not putting points in health would mean instant death against bosses and in pvp.

Sandshark95

@Scorpio_Alik'ri No problem! Don't be afraid to drop a few points into Health if you feel too squishy (10-15 points is a good medium); just try to avoid putting any into Magicka as a stamina build, as your damage potential as a stam DK only increases with Stamina. For DPSing, you'll want to go for a minimum of 5 pieces of Medium armor and be sure to put points into the medium passives. Medium should do a decent job of protecting you, but you can always supplement with some health enchants or wear 2 pieces of Heavy armor if you feel the need. If you decide to go with 2H, the morphed skill of Momentum, Rally, is an excellent self-heal and damage buff you should definitely pick up to increase your survivability.

Jumper45

thunderwell wrote: »

You spread your attribute points (health, magicka, stamina) evenly?
I think that might be your problem.
You should decide if you want to invest in magicka (and abilities that cost magicka) or stamina (and abilities that cost stamina).
Stick to one or the other.
Playing a class, you should focus on Tanking or DPSing or healing. Can't be all three.

I dont think that is a problem at all. Its not much per point anyways.

Brrrofski

You have not wasted you time ar all.

I'm vet 9 and have respeced 4 times. I finally feel comfortable. My role is tank. I do the vet pledge most days now and engage the boss all fight long and seldom die. If I do, it's by using the wrong shield at the wrong time.

What do you want to do? Tank or dps? Forget being a healer. You can heal yourself fine, but your strength is tanking or dps.

Scorpio_Alik'ri

Brrrofski wrote: »

You have not wasted you time ar all.

I'm vet 9 and have respeced 4 times. I finally feel comfortable. My role is tank. I do the vet pledge most days now and engage the boss all fight long and seldom die. If I do, it's by using the wrong shield at the wrong time.

What do you want to do? Tank or dps? Forget being a healer. You can heal yourself fine, but your strength is tanking or dps.

I started off as a tank and have been wearing heavy armor but now I'm switching over to a stamina dps.

yodased

Brrrofski wrote: »

You have not wasted you time ar all.

I'm vet 9 and have respeced 4 times. I finally feel comfortable. My role is tank. I do the vet pledge most days now and engage the boss all fight long and seldom die. If I do, it's by using the wrong shield at the wrong time.

What do you want to do? Tank or dps? Forget being a healer. You can heal yourself fine, but your strength is tanking or dps.

I disagree completely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbORowuppno

Scorpio_Alik'ri

Wow that respec really helped a lot. Can't believe I wasted so many points in skills that I dont even use! I feel like a newborn again.

Killino

Awesome, I was just going to say I am a DK and absolutely love it. I haven't really lost a one on one fight. NOT saying I am a great PVP guy, I am saying DKs rule!!!

If what I type below helps anyone out, great!!! I have my points distributed pretty evenly but a few more in stam/health (only a level 45 so cant speak to veteran ranks).

I dual wield and destroy staff, I wear 3 -4 pieces of light armor (feet, sash and shoulders) the rest is heavy. I have just enough of each set armor to get the armor bonuses (up to level 5 traits). I have right at 10-11k resistance to both spell and physical damage. My skills focus on shields and defense first, damage second. I don't have an AOE bc I feel like they suck in pvp.

I personally use a destruction staff at a distance. I do this until I can either hit them with Ferocious Leap or Obsidian Shard. I hit them with Burning Embers when I close in and then run through all my stam with Rapid Strikes UNLESS its a WW or vamp then its silverbolts.

I don't have many skills really... Coagulated Blood for healing, dual wields described above and will add revealing flare when I get it and on the other bar three destro staff skills and two fighter guild skills.

My passives are on damage mitigation and increase to fire damage/weapon damage. ANY passive which do either of these I get to the highest I can.

I had an issue with sorceress at first. Their damage was just stupid (if they hit me from behind I would be dead before I could find them) now that I have added the light armor and passives they don't hit me nearly as hard. They get a jump on me at first but a couple heals and once I close the gap they seem to crumble. Now, the biggest damage I receive is from snipe from archers ... but its not enough to change my character or my strategy ... at this point anyway.

Again, I hope this helps other DKs who may be struggling. I doubt this is anything revolutionary but it is my concoction, which up to this point seems to work.

Scorpio_Alik'ri

@Killino, in pvp I found that having ranged weapons like bows, destruction staffs and silver bolts really help in group battles and while defending keeps. In 1v1 fights, I like to switch between 1h/shield and a 2H weapon. I've now put 1/3 of my attributes in health. The rest are in stamina so I can dps in close range melee with a 2 hander. For healing I go with green dragonblood to also aid in stamina regen.

My magicka passives are mainly in adherent flame (burning breath) and draconic power. Also passives in 1h-shield and 2H do more damage. I've sunk a lot of passives in heavy armor for health regen and Redguard skills for stamina. And for crafting, I put several in blacksmithing. I still have more than a dozen skill points left over from the respec .

Brrrofski

Scorpio_Alik'ri wrote: »

@Killino, in pvp I found that having ranged weapons like bows, destruction staffs and silver bolts really help in group battles and while defending keeps. In 1v1 fights, I like to switch between 1h/shield and a 2H weapon. I've now put 1/3 of my attributes in health. The rest are in stamina so I can dps in close range melee with a 2 hander. For healing I go with green dragonblood to also aid in stamina regen.

My magicka passives are mainly in adherent flame (burning breath) and draconic power. Also passives in 1h-shield and 2H do more damage. I've sunk a lot of passives in heavy armor for health regen and Redguard skills for stamina. And for crafting, I put several in blacksmithing. I still have more than a dozen skill points left over from the respec .

You're missing out if you don't have the earthen heart ones. Especially battle roar. Restores magic, stam and health by quite a lot when using ultimate. Ridiculously good passive

Scorpio_Alik'ri

Brrrofski wrote: »

You're missing out if you don't have the earthen heart ones. Especially battle roar. Restores magic, stam and health by quite a lot when using ultimate. Ridiculously good passive

I used earthen heart a lot in the beginning especially obsidian shard and ingenious shield as active abilities. I've used all of the passives unlocked so far (lvl 37) including battle roar but not magma armor as an ultimate yet.

Brrrofski

Well obsidian shield morph and molten weapons morph (into igneous for both) are the only actives I use. Those passives are wonderful though.

willymchilybily

Hey scorpio, Glad you are enjoying the DK again. for me just battle roar alone the passive is really great on the dragon knights really sets this class apart when coupled with some amazing abilities that seem to cater to any play style.

definately it was the attributes split 3 ways i think. Being a console guy I was new to the game also. made a DK too. And I've had a lot of fun. Now I'm low Veteran ranked with enough skill points, I'm really loving switching skills and armor around for different encounters and feeling like i can do it all. stick with it, it will pay off.

for me my main two play styles focus both on magicka PVE, I find it a blast (pun intended). so a bit different from you. interested in PVP. I've described what i find effective, but you may already know all this, but incase you want to see what others do. ive posted what i find key to me and how i play.

in light armor I focus on high damage (whilst levelling 1-50) and in heavy armor survivability (when ii hit the VRs and had later skills unlocked from the class line). Being able to solo the public dungeons is great fun.

when wearing light armor:

i focus entirely on damage and crowd control skills on one bar, for small mobs, on the other its a lot of dots and heals and shields/reflects. One of my favorite skills is lava-whip morphed to flame lash. almost any stun and knock down followed by a flame lash causes off balance then another flame lash gives a huge heal back when you are stacking magicka. of course if you are having issues with bosses its likely they are not able to be stunned or snared this is where the other bar comes in. green dragons blood for health and stamina regen, dots lots of dots and dodgerolls and well timed blocks. spell reflect if its a caster etc. I just find having magicka means you level the skills up alot faster as you tend to have more class skills slotted. after all you only have 2 weapon bars but 3 class skills. hence why i think starting off as a magicka class and swapping to stamina later if you want to is a good way to do it

when i was high enough level and had unlocked enough skills i switched to wearing heavy armor :

with 2 pieces of light and 5 heavy i am using magnus and warlock 5 piece sets nearly negates my issues with magicka regen for not using light armor.

my prefered crowd aoes is a bit different from the normal destructive staff elemental ring set up. I actually use sword and shield and using the first two passives in the skill line along with iron skin passive from draconic means i can block very well and a good amount. This coupled with the last two heavy armor passives makes it also very cheap to block even as a magicka user.

I then slot obsidian shield. As activating earthen heart ability goes really well with the later passives for that stamina and ultimate regen, and the morph igneous shield further buffs the healing I intitiate. eg from dragon blood/inhale by 30%!!. popping the igneous shield then green dragons blood (prefer morph) give me really nice stamina regen and an amazing heal despite being a magicka user with mostly magicka regen focus!!, with these two i have ashcloud morph to eruption and inhale morphed to deep breath. 2 heals and 2 earthen heart abilites on the bar for stamina and ultimate regen and 2AOE damage moves. all from 4 abilities, great sustain and survivability for crowds, i normally slot dragon leap ultimate and magelight for increased magicka damage and a cheap ultimate. For the single target other bar i mostly use what i did in levels 1-50 but switching it up when i get bored or want to try something new.

Dont be afraid to respec if you dont like what you are doing or you followed someones advice/guide but its not working for you. anyway have fun with your dragon knight its a really well rounded class i feel

ghostwise

Yup! Respeccing is much needed for newer players. Everyone is bound to goof up a bit when leveling their first character. You can respec attributes, your skills, or just your morphs. It's surprisingly cheaper than I thought it would be to.

Brrrofski

Just use all your spare skill points on any active abilities to try them out. Respec at vet, try somewhere out. Respec at 8 and get a real feel for hour build.

That's what I did. Vet 9 now and I really feel powerful now. My tanking is bang on and I can do dps if need be.

I only achieved it by trying things out and respeccing. Abilities and champion points

Scorpio_Alik'ri

willymchilybily wrote: »

Hey scorpio, Glad you are enjoying the DK again. for me just battle roar alone the passive is really great on the dragon knights really sets this class apart when coupled with some amazing abilities that seem to cater to any play style.

definately it was the attributes split 3 ways i think. Being a console guy I was new to the game also. made a DK too. And I've had a lot of fun. Now I'm low Veteran ranked with enough skill points, I'm really loving switching skills and armor around for different encounters and feeling like i can do it all. stick with it, it will pay off.

for me my main two play styles focus both on magicka PVE, I find it a blast (pun intended). so a bit different from you. interested in PVP. I've described what i find effective, but you may already know all this, but incase you want to see what others do. ive posted what i find key to me and how i play.

in light armor I focus on high damage (whilst levelling 1-50) and in heavy armor survivability (when ii hit the VRs and had later skills unlocked from the class line). Being able to solo the public dungeons is great fun.

Dont be afraid to respec if you dont like what you are doing or you followed someones advice/guide but its not working for you. anyway have fun with your dragon knight its a really well rounded class i feel

As a stamina dps, I usually wear heavy, sometimes medium, armor. Its interesting to experiment with different skills and see which ones work with your build. For the first bar I have a sort-of-tanky 1h/shield with green dragon blood, corrosive magma ultimate and the battle roar passives. The second is a 2H build with 4 stamina based skills including stampede for range and ferocious leap as an ultimate.

Vizier

IMO DK's are the strongest class in the game capable of just about anything. Their mitigation and self heals are just crazy. So keep with it man.

The learning curve on this game is a long one. It's going to take awhile to get to where you're really comfortable and understand what your class capabilities are. Just when you think you got it, you discover their's another level of play you never thought existed. Honestly it takes a good 6 months to a year depending on class and player aptitudes. Two months is not enough time.

Scorpio_Alik'ri

@Vizier, Yup. Everyday I'm learning something new and getting stronger. My problem was that I tried doing everything at once instead of picking a specific build to focus on.

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO

The best piece of advice I've ever been given concerning character building in this game can be summed up in one word:

OVERSPECIALIZE

Scorpio_Alik'ri

I guess many people come in with that Skyrim mentality that isn't really specific to a class or build.