Starting out with ESO dungeons

probablyafk

I've been playing for a year or so and have a lvl 50 of each class at almost CP200. I have a background in high end raiding in WoW (some server faction firsts back in the day) so feel like I shouldn't have a problem with dungeons but for some reason I've never really done them here yet, just tried some a long time ago at lower levels - I guess I was waiting until I had a class I liked and felt comfortable with enough to contribute.

My problem is that right now there's so much vitriol on the forums and in towns right now about people failing in dungeon groups that it's kinda disparaging. Prior to One Tamriel I would have gone on some lower scaled runs to learn the mechanics so that when I do join in a run I'm don't get kicked for not knowing what I'm doing ... but now there's no option to do that.

Is the only option out there to trawl some youtube vids and learn the mechanics for a dungeon? Or is it fine to just jump in - i.e. the mechanics not that hard.

I'm playing DPS first to learn the fights ... what sort of DPS do I need to pull to be useful to a group? And how do I test that DPS - is there a training dummy equivilent? Most things either die to quick (delve bosses) or hit back too hard (world bosses) when I solo them so I don't really know what DPS I'm capable of in a group. I'm also not using pots/food constantly now and that seems to be a big part of the meta. Do I need to do all this and min/max myself just to get into dungeon groups? Or are normal dungeons a push over and it's only vets I need to worry about that stuff for?

Rune_Relic

Its so disheartening to see new and inexperienced players scared off of content by hardcore players.
All of this was predicted and ZOS was thoroughly forewarned.
Version 1/2 normal dungeons are for training and learning the mechanics, the bosses, AND TEAMWORK!

The group tool is a global grouping tool.
Not for elite bestest player ever only!
It has reached that moment in time where player CP and level has to be removed from the UI, to prevent players using it as data for preemptive kicking.

Please dont be afraid to to enter the normal dungeons and suck.
You cant improve without practice and everyone starts somewhere.
The problem is the other players you discuss.....not you

SquareSausage

Firstly food buff, every dungeon you enter you should be buffed. Preferably blue food with health + stam or magicka. If not got blue, go green and get health buff as if you are below about 18k you will prob get one shotted often.

try the dungeons on normal mode, get the feel for it.

I would personally watch videos for veteran or read strategy guides, but I know a lot dont and its evident when the fight commences. It greatly helps you if you have never done the encounter before.

Slot AoE skills as there is a lot of trash and most bosses have adds.

probablyafk

@Rune_Relic - Thank you, I appreciate the advice.

I can understand learning on a run and I'm not afraid to hold my own and ask for help. It's good to hear not everyone is as intolerant as the boards make it seem ...

That said some info on the type of DPS I'd need to pull would be good and what things are/are-not acceptable in dungeon groups. I'm happy to get food and pots if that's considered necessary for dungeoning here for example.

Right now I'm using a magisorc crit build for soloing (82% crit with that surge thingo what heals me on crits - so i basically never have to heal) but I assume it will be sub-optimal for group content - should have less crit, more spell damage, and probably think a little more about sustain. And my equipment is mostly purple (Julianos/Mothers Sorrow) with some blue and one green piece. Mostly divines. That kinda thing -- so it's servicable and not completely useless, it's not like I'm running my own super fluffy build - at the same time I want to know if I'd need to respec and reoptimise equipment for dungeons. If that's expected.

I heard about people being kicked for using some specific skills and other things, like using certain sets or no food ... so just the short list of what *not* to do would be great. I don't mind changing to be better but I just want to get in, see if I enjoy the dungeons and learn the mechanics ... without pissing my team off.

probablyafk

SquareSausage wrote: »

Firstly food buff, every dungeon you enter you should be buffed. Preferably blue food with health + stam or magicka. If not got blue, go green and get health buff as if you are below about 18k you will prob get one shotted often.

try the dungeons on normal mode, get the feel for it.

I would personally watch videos for veteran or read strategy guides, but I know a lot dont and its evident when the fight commences. It greatly helps you if you have never done the encounter before.

Slot AoE skills as there is a lot of trash and most bosses have adds.

Food necessary, got it. What about pots?

18k health is quite a lot higher than what I'm currently rolling (11k unbuffed) - I can swap out some stuff for some health then.

Do I need to self heal?

I'm using a lot of AoE in my build so that's great.

I was hoping to save trawling vids until I'd tried the bosses first on normal. I hope it's not necessary to do it before vet/harder content as there are a lot of possiblities of random dungeons out there ... it'd be a lot of watching videos and not much playing for a while

probablyafk

Oh, most bosses I've read about seem to be simple stack for ranged DPS right? Seems like that makes a difference for most healers in this game. And I assume if a healer wants me to do differently they'll tell me...

Oh, and I have FTC but I don't really use it. I suppose I should be getting recount or FTC working so I can see progress or something, right?

Andohir

ZoS should introduce a new optional matching-system: If one specific character has beaten all bosses of a dungeon several times (e.g. 5) there should be an option to make sure that in the next round in this specific dungeon one gets matched only with players who have been there and have killed all bosses at least 5 times too. In case of e.g. trying another role/performing the carebear/wanting to reduce the huge amount of soul gems, one simply unchecks the option to get into a less experienced party (or grouped with players who also unchecked it).

With an option like that players could expect already experienced players or even speedrunners or could, without it, expect unexperienced players with less damage/less skill points before the party is formed.

SquareSausage

healer likes to have people grouped up so can drop healing springs in the middle and hit everyone at the same time as they get magicka back for the more amount of people it initially hits. a group can be easily kept alive in even the biggest trash or add pulls with this skill if everyone is within its diameter.
if there are people spread out around the room it becomes a lot harder and magicka intensive as they need to use other costlier skills or run around trying to find the person.

OldGamerESO

Check out the guild Friendly Dungeon Runners if you are on PC. It was created specifically to be a safe place to learn how to run dungeons and to have fun with it.

Anything you read and hear on forums about specs and so forth are usually for Trials. When people say "end game" they don't usually mean 4 man dungeons. You can be "non-optimal" and still be good enough for 4 man content. Being familiar with the dungeon mechanics usually takes practice, and it really is the number one thing to master. What is "needed" sort of depends on the group. I do 3 dps + 1 healer in a lot of dungeons. Or even better is 4 dps with everyone doing some off healing. That is viable in almost all normal I and II dungeons and even many Vets. But only at high CP, good gear and knowledge of the mechanics. I only use that to contrast with the standard Tank, healer and 2 dps setup that everyone starts with and which is always a viable setup. I have 2 dedicated tank characters and it often happens that "elite" groups won't even let me use them for undaunted dailies.

Some tips for a dps:

• There are addons that will show your dps and give you a post battle breakdown of where all the damage comes from
• Top optimized DPS with maelstrom weapons, all gold armor, all gold enchants, perfect skill rotations, potions and all max buffs (warhorn, major savagery, major brutality, etc) is 35K to 50K on the boss depending on class and stam/magicka.
• Much more normal numbers on a PUG dungeon run with about 300 cp, purple armor with gold weapons, good rotation and with potions if needed (and missing warhorn and minor slayer and other buffs probably) is 12-17k on bosses depending on class and whether you are stam or magicka.
• AOE damage numbers are never stated when people say DPS. Anyone can pull 50k dps on a pack. My healer does 30K dps on trash pacts.
• DPS players usually has lower health and you usually sacrifice health for DPS. I think my dps chars usually run 12k. I am cheap so I usually get Healthy agility/will power jewlery which adds a little health.
• Food buffs are cheap and effective
• Your choice of weapons may come under discussion if it is unusual. People have strong opinions about stuff. For example a knightblade using a 2h greatsword is often laughed at, but personally I think it is a fine choice. Bow is often criticized in dungeons because it can be a crutch to avoid having to snuggle up the the boss and use melee (which is higher dps). Magic users are often criticized for running 2 staffs instead of 1 staff and 2 swords for execute bar. Personally I think its all good if you do decent dps and don't die due to stupidity.
• General tips: Have enough soul stones to resurrect a lot. Have enough potions and extra food. repair kits are good too. Have your bad space empty before entering dungeon. No one wants to wait 5 minutes while you empty your bags at any time during the run. Start with your gear fully repaired.

One last point: the skills on your bars, the weapons you choose and your rotation have a massive impact on your boss DPS. And some rotations are even harder to handle if the fight requires lots of movement. These rotations can have 10-15 steps that mix Dots, light/medium and heavy weaves and direct damage. Do you empower your ultimate? do you switch to an execute bar with a weapon with a different enchant or higher damage? Are you juggling your own buffs? Do you have set procs? Are you debuffing the boss? So much to master. And it is often not intuitive. There is a lot of advice out there (check out deltia's stuff for example) but you may or may not like it. I personally can't handle the best rotations, just too complicated for me, but they may work for you.

Hope that helps.

Rhazmuz

Read around these forums or tamrielfoundry for good builds. Or ask here, and describe how you wanna play (stam or magicka).

Get a feel for a build you like, and get somewhat comfortable with the rotation/skills described for the build, so you know how to play it.

Then try out some normal dungeons and see how it goes. When you feel ready try and go for some easier veteran dungeons.

Generally I would say you dont need to min/max to the extreme, you just need to take the time to get an idea about what works and what doesnt work in regards to builds (ie dont go as dps with heavy armor and 2 hander/restostaff and only do heavy attacks).

To me what separates good players from the scrubs is the fact that they are willing to learn and improve, and try to get a decent grasp of what works in terms of mechanics, skills and gear.

Suter1972

SquareSausage wrote: »

healer likes to have people grouped up so can drop healing springs in the middle and hit everyone at the same time as they get magicka back for the more amount of people it initially hits. a group can be easily kept alive in even the biggest trash or add pulls with this skill if everyone is within its diameter.
if there are people spread out around the room it becomes a lot harder and magicka intensive as they need to use other costlier skills or run around trying to find the person.

totally agree with that, ive only done a couple of dungeons but I had a really hard time trying to heal the group where 2 of them were running off ahead. I generally stay back and make sure the last player has come through. (like herding sheep!). I then follow the last into the fight room and heal from there. If they run off ahead of the group its their fault if they die.

would love to find a group of lower levels like me that we can all learn together without the stress

Elsonso

Rune_Relic wrote: »

It has reached that moment in time where player CP and level has to be removed from the UI, to prevent players using it as data for preemptive kicking.

I think I agree about character level. With One Tamriel, levels are bragging rights more than they are functional.

I am not sure about Champion Rank, though. It depends on whether this is scaled or added to the scaling. I am not clear on how that works, and I doubt ZOS will tell us, if they even know for sure.


As for dungeons, don't touch them except with friends. Too toxic.

Rune_Relic

probablyafk wrote: »

@Rune_Relic - Thank you, I appreciate the advice.

I can understand learning on a run and I'm not afraid to hold my own and ask for help. It's good to hear not everyone is as intolerant as the boards make it seem ...

That said some info on the type of DPS I'd need to pull would be good and what things are/are-not acceptable in dungeon groups. I'm happy to get food and pots if that's considered necessary for dungeoning here for example.

Right now I'm using a magisorc crit build for soloing (82% crit with that surge thingo what heals me on crits - so i basically never have to heal) but I assume it will be sub-optimal for group content - should have less crit, more spell damage, and probably think a little more about sustain. And my equipment is mostly purple (Julianos/Mothers Sorrow) with some blue and one green piece. Mostly divines. That kinda thing -- so it's servicable and not completely useless, it's not like I'm running my own super fluffy build - at the same time I want to know if I'd need to respec and reoptimise equipment for dungeons. If that's expected.

I heard about people being kicked for using some specific skills and other things, like using certain sets or no food ... so just the short list of what *not* to do would be great. I don't mind changing to be better but I just want to get in, see if I enjoy the dungeons and learn the mechanics ... without pissing my team off.

I am a tank/regen build that can solo group dungeon with 5-15k dps depending on if i am 1h/s tanking or DW aoe.
I amplify my health/stamina regen with drinks.
I use tripots/cloak to handle damage spikes that could kill me (if things ever get that bad....rare).
I use skills to give me buffs that are appropriate for my playstyle.
I stay alive when everyone around me is dead.
You should figure on having 20k health when buffed if you dont want to be dead a lot.
ie...Its no really my place to tell you what makes the best DPS build.
If you want my personal opinion though....

As a DPS you had to go all stamina or all magicka as the damage calculations used that as half the damage.
Many will tell you to max out crit and get the guaranteed +50% damage.
There is CS passives that can increase crit damage too.
[you would invest in CP for spell OR weapon based damage to maximise damage impact]
However..some new 1T armour sets provide the damage for you as a supplement.
So do you use a set with damage chance or stack set piece damage/crit ?
So the game isnt the same as the way it was before 1T

Your main focus has to be on crit/penetration/damage and resource to not only amplify damage but allow you more hits before exhaustion.
For maximum impact you will need stamina/weapon damage, weapon crit and non staff weapons or magicka/spell damage, spell crit for staff weapons.
Ultimates scales off whichever is highest so is immaterial as long as one is high.

At some point you will need.
1. food/drink buffs
2. potion/buffs
3. enchantments/poisons on gear
4. racking skills on the tool bar to have as many different buffs up as possible with a focus on your role on a rotation.
5. use of skills with team/group buffs.
6. eventual coordination of group buffs/skills/ultimates
7. picking gear to complement/amplify not only your own playstyle but to synergise well with the group.
8. optimising synergies throughout the group

You need to handle a lot of trash as said above.
As a rule you will need opening, sustain and execution phases with a focus on AoE for mobs and single target for Boss.
Dots will need to be maintained to pull up the DPS in the sustain phase, unloading ultimates as soons as charged.
Often that solo boss will instigate a storm of adds so AoE is a must.
Sneak and burst damage will need to be maximised for the opening phase.
Your execute needs to be amplified as much as possible for the last 25% health or so.
Your DPS should rocket with the opening and execution phase.
The sustain phase is where the main DPS problem is ..especially for bosses with massive health..any damage from any source you can stack here is critical (disease,poison,burning and skills).
As is any damage buffs and resource help from team mates.

There is a lot to learn. Better to take your time and understand how everything interacts.
Make friends. Learn together. Play as a team regardless of trinity.
Whatever works for you and your mates in the end.
You will create intimate bonds as a team and that only comes about by compensating for each others flaws.

Milvan

My main advice is get some comrades that worth dying for and get out there. PUGs can give you hard time. I suggest you to join a friendly guild and try to run some content just for fun first before engaging in the fast run farm thing.

Also, don't listen to the these casual-solo-scrolls, most of the dungeons are fairly easy geared up and with 200cps.

raglau

probablyafk wrote: »

My problem is that right now there's so much vitriol on the forums and in towns right now about people failing in dungeon groups that it's kinda disparaging. Prior to One Tamriel I would have gone on some lower scaled runs to learn the mechanics so that when I do join in a run I'm don't get kicked for not knowing what I'm doing ... but now there's no option to do that.

Is the only option out there to trawl some youtube vids and learn the mechanics for a dungeon? Or is it fine to just jump in - i.e. the mechanics not that hard.

The main thing is that it's incredibly rare for a dungeon party to go bad IME, and I have been playing since beta. I've been farming dungeons over and over since the start of the Witches Festival and I have not been in one bad group, in fact the people have been really amazing and polite, right from level 12 up to max CP. When people say goodbye they often say things like, "really nice group, thank you". So don't let forum posts skew your view, you know how it is, keyboard warriors come to the forum to whine, real warriors are too busy playing to whine!

ESO dungeons are not mechanically hard, they are very simplistic and the game is casual friendly. However, from a confidence perspective it's not a bad idea to watch YouTube playthroughs etc.

I'm levelling an alt at the moment and what I've been doing is deliberately selecting the normal dungeons below my 'rank' in the Finder, so that I know I can do my job in the heat of it whilst also noting mechanics and how they affect my new role. I would say do not do version 'II' or veteran variants of any dungeon until you know the normal 'I' variant inside out.

covenant_merchant

OldGamerESO wrote: »

under discussion if it is unusual. People have strong opinions about stuff. For example a knightblade using a 2h greatsword is often laughed at, but personally I think it is a fine choice. Bow is often criticized in dungeons because it can be a crutch to avoid having to snuggle up the the boss and use melee (which is higher dps). Magic users are often criticized for running 2 staffs instead of 1 staff and 2 swords for execute bar. Personally I think its all good if you do decent dps and don't die due to stupidity.

You can make a very high DPS build with 2h heavy attacks but that's a very particular gameplay style. I did vDSA with a DPS who had a 2h and was using heavy attacks. Turned out to be my best run in just under one hour with 2 deaths (he was pulling 35k dps).
You need a bow on your back bar as a stam build at any rate for your dots (arrow barrage and poison injection). As such it is not criticized. Players using Snipe and/or only light attacks are.
The current meta on magicka builds are double destruction staves, unless you're in vMSA, where anything holds.

@probablyafk You seem to have a pretty good idea of what sets to use. Since you do not have vMSA weapons or undaunted sets, Julianos + Mother's Sorrow is the way to go imo. And you do need surge in group dungeons, if only for major brutality. And given that magicka sorcs tend to be squishy, the heals from it can't hurt.
For food, on a magsorc, you need max health and max magicka blue food, and if you have enough crit, go for Shadow stone (increases said crit damage). A good thing to know is that, in this game, even with 100% crit chance, your hits won't always crit. Sad but true. If you have Mother's Sorrow, I'd go for Shadow stone if I were you.

Do you play with double destruction staves and destro ulti / meteor or destro + dual wield with overload? Because your bars and skill rotation would be slightly different depending on the way you play your sorc, but both choices are viable.

Regarding dungeon mechanics, most of them are pretty simple. The first 4-5 bosses have in general no particular mechanics, just your bread-and-butter DPS. As for the last bosses, they have around 5M health and one-shot mechanics. Just assume that every red aoe they do is a one shot, and you have to get out of it. The only dungeons with more difficult mechanics overall are the DLC ones, as well as City of Ash II if you don't happen to have an experienced group.
You can do most dungeons with around 15k dps tbf. Nonetheless, you ought to aim higher.

There was an unkillable and non-aggressive NPC that served as a training dummy of some sorts in Rivenspire, but ZOS killed it. We can only hope they will bring something similar in the game with the housing update.

As you have rightfully stated, given all the QQ about inexperienced players in-game and on forums, I would advise not to disclaim it when you join a group. While personally I'm always sticking with low CP dudes in dungeon groups, since as I said before, they're pretty easy and you can carry the group through it if needed (well unless it's the DLC ones), I know that a lot of players leave if/when somebody mentions "hey guys, it's my first time in this dungeon ^^" or some similar greeting. And to be honest, I've had many better random runs with CP200 guys than with clueless CP561 ones. Just like Alliance War Ranks, CP don't mean much in this game.

For dungeon mechanics, as I said they are pretty straightforward, however some bosses in some dungeons have specific ones that you would need to know to avoid a group wipe (since resing isn't always possible and lengthens the battle) and bear the weight of shame. I don't know if you have already looked them up, I know that when I started it seemed like a tedious and lengthy process to find explanatory videos for every dungeon, so I learned by doing. But then again, people didn't cry as much about it before.

I can sum specific mechanics for specific bosses if you'd like.

tinythinker

Might help some players...
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/135387/getting-into-group-dungeons-basic-advice-for-those-new-to-this-part-of-eso

covenant_merchant

Following my previous comment, if you don't feel like watching 16-minute videos per dungeon to learn about the mechanics. Deltia has concise written guides for the main veteran (version II) dungeons. Ex: http://deltiasgaming.com/2014/11/11/eso-veteran-dungeon-guide-elden-hollow/ (you can reach the rest from this page).


For the normal (version I) dungeons, everything is straighforward. Tank faces the boss away from the group and blocks its heavy attack/cast/w/e. DDs keep their rotation up and get the hell out of huge-ass AOE attacks (you see the animation way before the attack fires so by all means you have time to get out of it). Healer drops a ritual and heals with healing springs with the occasional flash heal after the boss's heavy attack on the tank.

Often, the boss will turn and launch an attack on a player other than the tank. That doesn't mean your tank sucks and has lost the aggro. While the bosses (excluding Quintus in Volenfell) are all tauntable, it's a mechanic outside of his control. So be prepared for it (cf: last boss in Direfrost Keep, last boss in Elden Hollow). Actually, now I realize it would be easier to just write about the updated "normal"/"version I" last dungeon bosses' mechanics in a list.

So, for normal dungeons. AD territory.

Auridon - Banished cells I : Epic quest to banish an evil lich king. Said lich king ports around the room and every 12-15 seconds summons a lot of fire aoe around the room, which you have to get out of asap. At the same time, he will spawn a blue ball in the middle-east of the room (at his initial spawn point). Said ball will move towards him and, as DD, you need to kill it asap, before it reaches the boss. Otherwise it will heal him and make your efforts in DPSing him worthless.


Grathwood - Elden Hollow I : Racist High Elves and their Orc slaves chill underneath the AD capital.
Last boss is called Canonreeve whatever. She is a stationary boss that, as usual should be tanked facing away from the group. She does a huuuge AOE attack which everyone, including the tank has to get out of, otherwise it's a one shot. Also, she will periodically turn away from the tank and cast a small circle underneath a player's feet. Said circle will suck and stun the player in, but you have more than enough time to get out of it. Healer should be ready with a flasheal just in case.


Greenshade - City of Ash I : Formerly rich Bosmer city that got sold by said Bosmers and subsequently ruined by daedras. (Cf: Deal with the Devil)
Last boss is a daedric archer that will port around the room and spawn flame atronachs. He does no damage, the atronachs do no damage, and the fight is boring. However, one of the bosses called Razormaster something (2nd boss found on the east side of the dungeon, top of the stairs) will be a NB boss fought on a very small platform. Said boss will throw fire bombs all around the platform, and while you can stand for one tick in the fire, make sure you move and react fast, and get out. Same goes for the Flame Atronach boss found right behind the barricade in the middle of the dungeon.
It's a fire-fire lava-lava dungeon, so double emphasis goes on dodging the hell out if you're a vampire.

Malabal Tor - Tempest Island: Maomer (Sea Elves that look like blind vampires) prepare to invade AD land and you decide to meddle.
Among bosses with notable mechanics, there is Stormfist, a giant-ass storm atronach that will "bump" players. Meaning that periodically, he will do an AOE circle around him, and while it won't one shot, the players will be thrown in the air. I usually stay in it on purpose just for fun.
The last boss is the Chief Maoemer, can't remember the name but it hardly matters. So, she does a ground huge AOE attack that will one shot even most tanks. Seriously, I had 30k shields with heavy armor + ebon + maxed resistances on my mana sorc tank and it brought me to 10% health. Safe to assume that it one-shots even the tank. So everyone needs to get out of this huge circle. Apart from that, she will teleport onto a random player. This teleport one shots, but you see her coming. Well more like gliding (just imagine Voldemort/Dementors gliding above ground, only not in slow-motion) so you need to block it or dodge. Preferrably dodge.

Reaper's March - Selene's Web : Mages' guild expedition to capture Selene, the queen of feral bosmer in order to torture and poke and prod her soul for eternity.
The archer boss on the left (West) side of the dungeon has 3 spectral panthers fighting for him. While it is crucial that the tank taunts them since their attacks kill most DDs and Healers, you only need to DPS the boss. He will roll dodge a lot around the clearing, but he's pretty easy to get down. If you focus the panthers, they will keep respawning. So, focus the boss.
The cute giant bear boss in the right (East) side of the dungeon will do charge attacks that you can easily side step. He will also have a lot of strangler adds. Don't focus them, they will die once the boss is down. Focus the boss.
Last boss: Selene has 3 phases. First, you are standing on a web and she's in spider form. Don't waste your ultis for this phase is pointless. Just bring her to 50%, at which point, she will make the web crack and you will fall all together in the room underneath, her still in spider form. Keep up the DPS and keep your ultis. Around 10-15%, she will pull you into unbreakable cocoons to her, and transform into a Bosmer chick. Her Health Bar will replenish to 5M / 100%. And that's where the real boss fight begins. So, Selene will do a heavy attack that will spawn a spectral bear on the tank. The bear will one shot, no matter what, but has a small radius of melee damage, so the tank as well as everyone in its way needs to get the hell away. The bear will spawn a lot, but once you get a grip on its rotation, it's easy to avoid. Additionally, she will spawn adds, more numerous as the time passes. Archers, Healers and Melee 2h wrecking blow spamming Bosmer. The tank will most likely not get the aggro of every add. Or if he will, he might forget about dodging the bear and die. Just ignore these adds and focus the boss. If you feel like your group has a low DPS output, then pack the adds with the boss (tank has to chain pull or use the Swarm Mother set for the distance adds), and AOE them down.

covenant_merchant

Normal / Version I dungeons - DC territory

Glenumbra - Spindleclutch I : Fighter's Guild expedition was hired to clean the cave and proved to be hacks. Now you have to save what remains of them and hear a giant-ass spider whisper you sweet nothings in a menacing yet oddly sexual manner.
So, spiders as well as spider bosses should be bashed when they start to eat out the corpses of their spider friends and heal. Otherwise, the dungeon is quick and easy, just like some people I know.
Apart from the last boss : the Whisperer. She has two attacks which won't go on the tank. One is called Arachnophobia aka Fear. It hits at random, and if it hits you, your screen will go white and you will be stuck in an unbreakable stun for 2 seconds. The other attack is called Spit. It is crucial that the tank faces AWAY from the group, because this spit is very difficult to dodge and one shots. So, best if the tank tanks her while standing on the small stairs behind the boss. As soon as the boss turns away from the tank, you have to dodge, because she will spit/arachnophobia you. The 2 DD and Healer should not be packed but stand at equivalent distances from one another, so that you see the person on which she plans spitting. It avoids wasting stamina and DPS dodging for nothing. You especially as a mana sorc. Apart from that, she will periodically pull players to her in a cocoon and do a large AOE attack. Break the cocoon and get the hell out of it. At any rate, this fight is difficult for mana builds because of stamina regen issues. I know that I failed survivor's challenge the first time on HM since I had no stamina left to dodge the 3rd or 4th spit on my mana sorc. (And got so much crap for it, even though we got the achievement like 15 minutes later).

Stormhaven - Wayrest Sewers I : Breton traitors conspire against King Emeric in sewers of all places (idk why people keep thinking that sewers, cathedrals, basements and dark, shady places make for awesome plotting rendez-vous areas. If I were them, I'd do it in a nicely lit and totally not shady looking mansion or something, because nobody looks for evil cults in taverns and boudoirs).
At any rate, all bosses are fairly standard. The second boss in the room with the altars will port around and summon spectres. Said spectres do frost lines on the ground that will immobilize you but otherwise not do significant damage. They remain after the boss dies, so feel free to kill them before doing in the boss, but it's not mandatory.
The last boss will do a cone cleave attack that you can easily side step and tank can block. Periodically, she will disappear from the room and summon spectral bats. Just kill them with aoe damage, and if your healer's fast enough, you can even get a free repentance out of it.

Rivenspire - Crypt of Hearts I : Cheating woman got her soul shattered, imprisoned and tortured by a jealous husband under daedric infulence for whom "an eye for an eye" was simply not enough.
The Bone Colossus boss will keep moving around the room, so your ground dots will be mostly useless. Also, this boss is crosseyed, meaning there's a chance his charge animation will point one way, but he will go another. So be prepared for it, just in case.
Last boss: Twin Daedras Ilambris- Blue and Red. The Blue one is a melee 2h dude whose heavy attacks the tank must always block. The Red one is a stationary fire mage that will remain in the middle of the room. Best if the tank packs the Blue one on him so that you can dot him down. For this fight, once one of the Twins dies, the other will go into "enrage" mode. Meaning constant huge aoe damage attacks. Best if you kill the Red one first, if only because he does aoe stuns and fire lines on the ground around the room. While you can avoid the fire lines by side stepping them, they're annoying and hurt a lot, and the stun covers almost all the room, so there's that. Once the Red Twin is down, focus the remaining Blue one. His enrage mode consists of lightning small AOE bubbles on the ground and lightning strikes which are accompanied by dramatically raising his hands in the air. You can avoid them, and if needed, the tank can move the boss around the room.

Alik'r Desert - Volenfell : You help treasure hunters reach some fabled Dwemer treasure, killing evil Imperial treasure hunters along the way.
Quintus Verres : Untauntable boss. Yeah, he ignores the taunt, and as such will just aggro on a player. Hopefully said player feels tanky and is ready to block his attacks, cause they one shot. In the meantime, the tank can chill, go through his friendslist and think about his life. At 10% health, he will go back to his backpack, and summon a huge gargoyle. Said gargoyle will finish him and start the next boss fight. It will do a cone aoe attack that will petrify players, so best if the tank turns it away from the group. Otherwise, fairly standard.
Boilbite : Assassin Beetle boss + 2 adds. It ambushes on a random player and does small poison AOE ground dots, which you can escape.
Dwemer Steam Sphere boss : reached after a tunnel of steam. Said steam one shots, so you need to cross the tunnel at intervals when it doesn't fire. Otherwise, the boss does small aoe attacks which can be sidestepped.
Last Boss: 3 dwemer centurions - Blue, Red, Green. The Green one heals, the Red one will aggro on random players and do fire dots, and the Blue one will stay on the tank and do lightning attacks. Focus the green one first, if you can since it heals. Then red, then blue. The poor guy who has the aggro of the Red centurion has to move. Even with Hardened Ward on a sorc dps, you take too much damage to stay in one spot.

Bangkorai - Blackheart Haven : Crew of skeleton pirates straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean goes on a mutiny and needs your help with killing their captain. Said Haven also contains harpies and daedras.
First Mate whatever boss: surrounded by harpies, she will charge a cast attack that does "void" on a random player and one shots him. The tank has to BASH it. You can see her charge her cast like a templar charges a dark flare. If you or your tank doesn't bash it, someone will die, and you'll have their death on your conscience, and it will all be very sad.
The Roost Mother harpy boss: teleports around the room and does a lot of fire aoe, so dodge, dodge, and again dodge.
Captain Blackheart: last boss. Emerges from the water in a really epic way. He will summon skeleton archers which the tank has to taunt and pull to the boss to kill them with ground dots, and will charge a random player and transform them into a skeleton for 15 seconds. Once a skeleton, you're useless. You cannot heal nor do damage to the boss, so feel free to run around and dodge the arrows from archers the tank hasn't taunted. If you're lucky, the boss will spare your healer. If the tank's the one being transformed, just block the boss' attacks (they don't one shot. Well unless you don't block/dodge) until your tank is back to normal.

SolarCat02

Tips on getting into dungeons?

Regarding getting a group:
- Find a friend to run them with. This could be someone else who wants to learn, or someone familiar who wants to teach. Learning dungeons is easier with someone else I'm chat, plus if you have an ally who won't third any vote-to-kicks...
- Check the undaunted dungeons for the day, and avoid those ones. You will run into less people looking for a speed run, and more people interested in just running the dungeon.

For running the dungeon itself:
- Hybrids don't work well in dungeons, so pick magicka or stamina for your attacks and stick with it. Buffs and shields and such can use either pool, of course.
- Eat food. Whatever food you use, make sure it increases your max health. I like blue food (health + magicka or stamina), Orzoga's from Wrothgar (health + regen for magicka or stamina), or that new purple from the witch's festival (health + magicka and magicka regen).
- Play in 3rd person, with the camera pulled back far enough you can see where you are stepping. It is the only way to guarantee you know what you are standing in, so you can get out of the red.
- Block and roll dodge as needed. You will live longer, and your healer will thank you.

Other notes:
- Even with an awesome tank, you will still have to deal with mobs attacking you. ESO doesn't have an AoE taunt, and a tank can't withstand the full attention of a mob anyway without putting a strain on most healers, so a good tank will prioritize the things most likely to cause the biggest issues for the rest of the team. As such, understand that you still need to defend yourself on some level. You can't just stand in one spot for most fights.


I hope this helps!

covenant_merchant

Normal / Version I dungeons - EP territory + Coldharbour

Stonefalls - Fungal Grotto I : Probably evil cultists need your help in cleaning a grotto perfect for their probably evil rituals. Said grotto has an epic goblin vs. dreugh fight for territory. You side with the goblins after killing their chief in an Xv1, if only because they look more sentient.
Second Boss: Goblin Chief King whatever. Will do the inner rage synergy on a player. Said attack explodes after 3 seconds doing aoe damage, so the player targeted by it should move just a bit away from the group before it explodes to avoid hurting others. (It's not a strong attack though, so feel free to stay packed if you feel like it). Additionally, he will cast a purple link between two players. As long as this link holds, both players will lose health and ultimately die. As soon as you see this link, the players bound have to move AWAY from each other until it breaks.
Dreugh King: last boss. Does a huge AOE attack that will one shot, so move out. He will also spawn 2 waves of mudcrabs that easily die from ground dots on the boss. Otherwise, fairly standard melee enemy. At 40% he will move to the right corner of the room and resume the same mechanics.

Deeshan - Darkshade Caverns I : Shady Dunmer hires you to clean his mine, turns out to be evil, and so you hunt him down through dwemer ruins lying beyond to avenge all the innocents you've killed while helping him.
Last Boss: Dwemer Centurion. He will randomly target a player and charge him with a red cone aoe in front of him. Said player needs to run. Don't stay in the red cone of death, just kite the boss around the room. The rest of the team can distance damage him. Otherwise, it's a fairly standard melee boss. Tank him away, DDs dps from sides/behind, healer heals.

Shadowfen - Arx Corinium : Abandoned Imperial fort has Nereids vs/ Lamias fight for territory. You help the Nereids, probably because they look cuter and have boobs.
Wamasu Boss: emerges like a badass from a waterfall and does lightning AOE. Said AOE touches all the water surfaces, so move on the land when it hits. Makes sense since water conducts electricity. (Well not water per se but the minerals contained within, but whatever).
One of many Lamia bosses (the one in the room with the lever you have to pull to get the drawbridge down) : will emit a shrill (a song maybe. at any rate, sounds like a shrill). During this channel, you will have to go under a protective purple sphere that will appear in the room. Said sphere will be located above the Lamia's pet snake, so don't kill it before the boss.
Last boss: Sellistrix, queen of the Lamias. The room will be mostly water surfaces with small patches of land. The boss will do a shrill aoe cone attack on the tank, so he has to tank it away from the group to avoid collateral damage. She will also summon lightning to touch all water areas, so when it hits, go on the land. When the lightning aoe goes on the land, move to the water.

Eastmarch - Direfrost Keep : 3-D projection of a dead Nord guides you through his ancestral home, which has been overtaken by an evil frost witch.
The boss in the very left side of the dungeon, where you have to stand on pressure plates to open the gate to it, will summon scamps who will one shot someone once they explode. When scamps appear - focus them, they die super easily.
The last boss: Frost Witch whatever. She will mostly ignore the taunt. Seriously, it says she's taunted, but she will keep damaging other players. She has several mechanics: 1. She will do a drain animation on a player. You have to CC break instantly. As long as the drain holds, she heals. For a lot... 2. She will teleport to a player and launch an aoe attack, which one shots. Everyone needs to get out of it. 3. She will summon several frost atronachs during the battle. Said atronachs die easily from the ground dots, no need to bother with them.

The Rift - Blessed Crucible : Dunmer gambler asks you to fight in gladiator style battles, which he rigs in your favor (which is mostly pointless since you would've won anyways). Consequently, the public as well as arena competitors turn on you, and you have to fight your way through them to save the unfortunate gambler.
The Pack : Standard waves of adds followed by 3 bosses which turn into werewolves at around 30% health. Just bash the healer boss, and otherwise DPS.
Second-to-last boss : dunmer dude with 2 flame atronachs around him. Kill the atronachs - they heal the boss.
Last Boss - Lava Queen, whom you fight on a platform surrounded by lava. While seemingly a standard melee boss, she will periodically do fire lines all around her. These fire lines are very difficult to avoid if you're in melee, and will one shot. Stay ranged. You can clearly see the animation before she launches the attacks (she crouches a bit on herself and starts casting), so just get the hell away from the boss. The tank should too. These lines really hurt Additionally, she will summon flame atronachs that will grant her temporary invincibility via channels from them to her. They will be around the edges of the platform in the lava. You need to kill them, then resume DPSing the boss. But seriously, avoid the fire lines, they're a b***.

Coldharbour - Vaults of Madness : Free the ghosts of imprisoned workers of the Mad Architect in a dungeon with lots of potential for fall damage. Said workers looooove to talk, meaning the quest takes ages. Just like the Blessed Crucible and City of Ash, it's a fire-fire lava-lava dungeon, so vampires beware.
First boss : Specter. He will do a channel on a player. While the channel holds, ALL the damage you do to the boss will be transfered to the player caught. So, if you really want the no-death run, just stop all DPS when it happens. And avoid dots. Otherwise, make sure the player's sacrifice was for the greater good and avenge him.
Second Boss: Harvester. She will stun a random person for 20 seconds. 20 seconds of unbreakable stun is annoying but there's nothing you can do about it, so just chill. She will also have healing bubbles going towards her from all sides, just like any standard harvester. Said bubbles are down in one or two Force Pulse, just make sure you don't forget them.
Grothdarr : Does really cool lava aoe, but make sure you side step.
Titan boss : does a jump-stun and randomly aggros on a random player with a wide line of fire reaching all across the room. Just dodge it.
Last boss - Mad architect aka the Boss with by far the coolest mechanics in-game. It's a stationary lich boss that will summon daedra casters and melee zombies from around the room. These will die from ground dots, just make sure the tank pulls them to the boss. Then, he has two mechanics: if he summons a purple globe around him, stay close to him for the duration. Going outside will one shot. If however, the ground beneath his feet glows purple, gtfo dodge. Staying close will one shot.

Aaaaaaaand that pretty much covers it, and now i'm tired and not even sure it was worth it. At any rate, good luck man, and hopefully this helps.

Waffennacht

@kasa-obake such a great mini guide, loved it. Also major props on water and electrolytes and conduction

HatchetHaro

Firstly, start off with normal dungeons (except for the dlc ones; they're still significantly harder). If I were you, I'd still refrain from all the story II dungeons since those were originally intended for vets and the mechanics in there are much more complicated.
So go with all the story I dungeons such as Fungal Grotto I, Spindleclutch I, Direfrost Keep, the lot.

Secondly, get good gear. If you're CP160 without a good set of armor, complete with set bonuses, you're doing it wrong. Trust me, the DPS role is really dependent on gear. If you're a stamina user, acquire a good set of stam dps armor, such as Hunding's Rage, Night Mother's Gaze, Twice Born Star, etc. If you're magicka user, get a good set of mag dps armor, such as Julianos, Torug's Pact, etc. If you can't craft it, ask a crafter in one of your guilds; most likely they'll do it for you at a discount just because you're a guildie.

Thirdly, be sure to announce in the group chat if it's your first time in the dungeon. There are still helpful players around who can guide you through the boss fights and tell which mechanics to watch out for and how to counteract them.

Lastly, take constructive criticism well. Someone's going to be unhappy with your performance, and chances are that person knows more than you do in that department. If they flame you, ignore them, but usually people would just point out your sub-par performance and suggest builds, strategies, and skill rotations that you could use to improve.

Seriously, though, if you even plan on doing vet mode, I highly suggest getting another loadout just for tanking, since that is a role that is less about your skill and more about your ability to think, thus making it much easier for you to learn the fights without having to focus much on your skill rotations. All you need to be a proper tank is a taunt and a set of heavy armor; just run up to the enemy, stab them with your taunt, and block their heavy attacks. Boom, that's tanking for you. There are plenty of tanking sets in this game, and if you're starting out, pick between Hist Bark, Whitestrake's Retribution, Alessia's Bulwark, and Song of Lamae; you can even mix and match them, and reach the 3-piece and 4-piece bonuses on them since the 5-piece bonuses are a bit niche.

drakhan2002_ESO

At the lower end of the CP scale, 200 CP is not a lot of CP...you might get kicked from groups. Most groups I see want to see at least 300+ CP. Don't kill the messenger - just try to group < 300 CP and see what people say...

probablyafk

Firstly I want to thank all the people who replied here - honestly this is an amazing amount of useful information. More than anything else it makes me think it's just a few bad eggs on forums and chat causing all the raucus.

I went on my first dungeon runs today and it was totally fine on normal. With health/magicka food I was at 17k health which seemed to work fine - i stayed out of the fire, so to speak, so never died in four dungeon runs. I also was careful to stack for the heals as much as was possible.

I pulled a respectable 11k-15k on most bosses but there were a few who moved around a lot where my DPS dropped significantly to more like 8k. I'll have to work on an alternative strat for that as right now Liquid Lightning/Elemental Barrier do a lot of my DPS .

I've subsequently changed Thief mundus to Shadow. So 82% crit is down to 68% or something but my crits are hitting harder, I think this will help.

I used potions a bit, mainly because of sustain issues. I'm not chain chugging them yet though, only using at start and end.

I feel like the biggest thing holding me back is purely just dealing with longer fight tactics - getting the rotation down to rebuff things like power surge and the lightning form thing (not sure I need that but the survivability seems useful). I also need to be better at using my Ultimates - I should be using it to get back Magicka at the right times and, with my high crit, it should be doing more % of my damage so obviously it's a weak point. BUT! I know what the weaknesses are and I guess it's just practice to improve.

I'm not sure about tanking or healing just yet. I think I'll do another week of normals and then next week try out my first vet dungeon. I feel like I need to consistently hit 15k on boss fights before I step into vets. Plus that should give me more of a chance to learn the encounters.

But yeah, I don't think I would have bothered doing these if people hadn't responded here so a huge thanks to you all.

Also special thanks to @kasa-obake for the insanely awesome mini-guide! I've bookmarked this page so I can come back and check it out again

Seriously, this whole thread reaffirms my feeling of sticking around in ESO. So cool!

probablyafk

Oh, and I wish I'd read @kasa-obake 's mini-guide before doing Selene's Web! I used my Ulti right away on the spider - oops!

p.s.
That bear boss was one of the annoying ones for me - the charge makes it annoying for my area based dots. Enough that I wondered if I should think of a new spec entirely. Maybe I need like an outfitter mod or something so I can quickly change to a movement-based boss setup with VelCurse and CrystalFrags more etc.

covenant_merchant

@probablyafk You're welcome, glad I could be of any assitance. For your bars, if you're playing with double destruction staves (which are the way to go now), your bars should look like this : lightning staff on your front bar (heavy attacks with it do AOE damage which is perfect for trash waves. They also make restoring magicka easier), and fire staff on your back bar (fire wall of elements does more damage).

First bar : crystal fragments - velocious curse - force pulse - bound aegis - inner light -- Destro Ulti. If you're planning on sticking to PvE mostly, you need the stationary morph, the one that does additional effects. With a lightning staff, it will last 2 seconds longer whereas the fire staff morph does 10% more damage. However, given the tooltip, a 9 second x 8.1k damage is better than 9.1k for 7 seconds ( I gave an approximate tooltip, can't remember the exact one but my point still stands). Also, lightning has a chance to proc the Implosion passive from your Storm Calling tree, which is great.

Second bar : power surge - liquid lightning - boundless storm - bound aegis - flame wall of elements - Meteor / Overload.
If you slot overload, on the overload bar, you'd have to have bound aegis - inner light - execute - hardened ward and rearming trap (for the Minor Force : extra crit damage), but you can just move stuff around depending on the buffs you have and need.

Depending on your group, a few changes are possible. If you feel squishy or that your healer isn't reactive enough, you might want to replace boundless storm with hardened ward (conjure ward morph - daedric summoning tree). You would lose about 1k damage that boundless storm ticks provide you, but if it helps you survive, it would be worth it.

A good thing to know too is that sorcs' sustain sucks. A lot. So you should get used to constantly being out of magicka. Of course than can be lessened with proper group buffs provided by the healer, but don't have high hopes for it. So don't hesitate to chug potions every 44 seconds. Oh and, regarding potions, invest 3 skill points into the Medicinal Use passive of the Alchemy crafting tree. It's seriously worth it.
Basically, when you look at the potion's effects, it gives you 20% + magicka recovery for less than 20 seconds by default. Investing in that passive lengthens the duration of the increased mana recovery, meaning that on crafted potions, it will last more than the cooldown on your potion (47 seconds compared to 44). And while crafted magicka potions (Spell Power pots they're called) are expensive as hell and regular looted magicka potions suffice for normal dungeon runs with randoms, if you want to pull a very good DPS, you'd need to spam them.
One raid usually represents around 100 of these, and to give you guesstimate, it's about 20-21k gold per stack. Or you can craft them yourself. For that, you'd need Lady Smock - Corn Flower - Water Hyacinth and Lorkhan's Tears, but said flowers are expensive too and rare to find. If you feel like making some gold, run around the Hollow City in Coldharbour and harvest them. That's how I made most of my gold in-game, though the place is constantly packed. I remember I went there at 4am on a week night once, and met 6-7 other farmers picking the same flowers in a manly fashion. Point is, ESO flower market is one of the most profitable one, and as a magicka sorc, you're one of the classes who needs them the most.
Also, given that you're a magicka sorc, you have the advantage of speed and mobility over other classes, which is awesome. Should you actually consider farming your ingredients, don't forget to slot rapid maneuver or refresh boundless storm every 7 seconds to gain the 40% increase movement speed, slot streak to teleport. And if you're really gung-*** about farming and have 2-3k gold to spare, you can get yourself special farming gear for cheap. I recently made it and have no regrets. It's such a wonderful feeling to steal columbines from under other people's noses. (5 Fiord's Legacy - 5th piece bonus reduces the cost of sprint and increases the sprint's speed by 15% and 3x Cyrodiil's Crest - increases mounted speed by 15%. Pair that an undaunted shoulder and head piece that gives you stamina regen / max stamina, and slot a shield on your back bar for the extra well-fitted piece. (Naturally, all your pieces should be in well-fitted to reduce the cost of sprint even more)).
At any rate, that was a huge digression but I feel that it was needed. #Flowersmatter

So, back to the whole magicka regen issues. If you're running dungeons with inexperienced healers, they probably do not offer group buffs on top of healing. In this game and in the dungeons you are attempting, healing per se isn't vital. Other than the one-shot mechanics that cannot be healed through, enemies deal no significant damage to warrant 100% uptime on healing springs and Breath of Life. The healer's role such as it is, is to provide group buffs that increase your DPS, and it does make a significant difference. So, a good healer should debuff the boss with elemental drain, which would restore a lot of magicka to you, throw shards and necrotic orbs for stamina and magicka regen, and try to keep the maximum uptime on combat prayer for the 8% more damage. An excellent healer would also wear Spell Power Cure and aether / worm and debuff the boss even more with Power of Light, but we're not here to talk about their class.
Should you realize that your healer does not provide orbs or shards, cry about it until he does so. Seriously, being out of magicka because of their ineptitude annoying as hell. And if you see that he doesn't put elemental drain on, I'd advise to replace Velocious Curse by Elemental Drain and apply it yourself. The skill doesn't cost magicka and will restore a great deal to you in addition to lowering the enemy's spell resistance.

Regarding wards and self-healing. Sorcerer is by far the worst class for self-healing and healing in general, having no passives that increase it like major mending/vitality like DKs and templars do, or spammable skills like the nightblade's 900mana cost Swallow Soul or Sap Essence aoe that heal the caster. Your survivability as a sorc is conditional on shields, and though it's a very important thing to know and use for PvP, it holds for PvE too. You have several options for shields, and while you can stack all of them in PvP, in PvE you have a limited amount of slots and have to chose between Hardened Ward, Healing Ward and Harness/Dampen Magicka. Given that healing ward is conditional on a restoration staff, that's out of the window.
I know a lot of players and YT builds suggest using Harness Magicka (the Annulment morph from Light Armor skill line tree) which restores magicka to you when you get hit by spells. The amount of magicka restored increases with the number of light pieces you have. Hardened Ward is just the last skill in the daedric conjuring tree. Thing is, I am sticking to Hardened Ward for several reasons : 1. it costs less. 2. when you slot it, you gain 20% increased stamina recovery from the daedric tree passive, which is useful for CC breaking and other unavoidable dungeon mechanics. (On your front bar, you get the same stamina recovery by slotting Velocious Curse) 3. by slotting it, you also gain more spell damage from the Storm Calling tree passive that increases your weapon and spell damage per Sorcerer ability slotted. 4. in PvE you don't need to spam shields. And given that they now have a 6 second duration, most of the time, you don't take nearly enough damage in these 6 seconds to restore a significant amount of resources to you.

As for light armor pieces, optimally, you should wear a 5 light - 1 medium - 1 heavy piece to benefit from the Undaunted Mettle passive (Undaunted skill line tree). You probably haven't unlocked it yet, but it gives you 6% more health - stamina and magicka if you wear 5 - 1 -1. Be proactive and chose/craft your gear accordingly to be ready for when you unlock it. (To maximize your resistances, you should go for a heavy chest, but as long as you have a heavy armor piece equipped, it's good. Personally, I wear a light dark brotherhood robe because it look cute and heavy Ilambris helm, but i'm the sort of person that would go for style over mini-maxing. Heavy chest is just really nitpicking).

Finally, for your rotation. Before the combat, buff yourself up with surge + boundless storm. Then apply liquid lightning and wall of elements, switch to the front bar, apply curse (or elemental drain if your healer doesn't have it) and weave force pulse and light attacks. Use crystal fragments only when they proc instantly, and resume the LA + force pulse weaving. Reapply your dots when they run out. Keep your ulti for when the tank throws an Aggressive War Horn (Alliance War ulti which optimally, the tank should use. It increases your stats by 10% for 33 seconds and gives you more crit damage the first 9 seconds). If the tank doesn't run it though, just ulti dump at your convenience. For bosses that aren't stationary, Meteor is superior to Elemental Rage since it has more damage on its initial impact. Or if you have overload slotted then use it.

You have add-ons that can help you with keeping an eye on Crystal Frags procs and your buffs in general. FTC for instance will write on your screen CRYSTAL FRAGS PASSIVE whenever it's up. It will also be accompanied with a sound effect. If you dislike add ons, you can just rely on watching your crystal frags icon glow whenever your passive procs. Your hands will also have small purple rocks gravitating around them, but this can be hard to see if you have boundless storm on. Also, once you know your rotation, you don't need to look at your bars, and eventually, if you stick to this class, you'll conceivably be able to play without UI for the lolz.

That was a no UI duel I did with a friend, but yeah just relying on visual cues for the frags' proc is a b*** so I'd suggest using add-ons. ( I would've put a screenshot from PvE, but sadly my lack of memory space forces me to get rid of everything as soon as I'm done uploading/using it).
Srrendar is the best buff/debuff add-on and while I think my interface is prettier, it all boils down to personal tastes.


Edit: Oh and regarding the dungeon mechanics. If you're doing the dungeons in normal mode, the mechanics I have put so much emphasis on will hardly one-shot. However, once you graduate to the vet version of said dungeons, it will. I know I used to stand in the red and shieldstack through out of laziness, but once I got to the vet versions and got rekt in spite of my shield, I realized that I should just dodge or side-step. Better get used to it now.

probablyafk

Ahh yeah it's funny that's kinda close to what I'm running but just has so many small optimisations that make sense. With the Ulti use - is it worth going with overload and the magick a morph as a way of getting magicka return while still keeping up high DPS? I'm using the destro ulti with stationary morph already and I do like it for the big DPS boost.

I am using lightning destro on my front bar, but that's also the bar I have EB on - so I'll try swap it around and put fire destro on the back bar and see how it goes.

And I better get on the alchemy leveling up - I farmed while leveling most of my toons so I have quite a lot of ingedients, although I did sell a bunch of ladys smock recently. Another bad move it seems. But yeah, that and leveling undaunted are two things that I think I have to just get on with.

So far I don't feel squishy but I did run around with hardened ward long enough to get it up to IV (I made a point of leveling everything on this toon once I decided it was the one I'd mostly use for CP leveling) and I've played with it a bit - I really like it and have no problems swapping it in.

Again, this is great advice and I appreciate it a lot

OldGamerESO

@kasa-obake : thanks for the great write up. I am leveling a magicka sorc and thats some good info. Regarding your comments about healers. I think I just realized I am a terrible healer! I use combat prayer + regen mostly. I do throw shards as well. But mostly I have been DPSing because people ask me too and a lot of time DPS is low. Just last night in vet WGT would not complete unless I went borderline full dps with only BoL to heal people to full every other cast. Your vision of a healer is much different than that. Is that just for trials? I never thought of being responsible for other people's magicka for example. I throw shards because stam users complain about it, but secretly I always thought they were just not managing their resources properly. Also, generally 4 man dungeon bosses don't last long enough for people to really have sustain issues do they? Combat prayer makes sense of course but I never through about elemental drain and necrotic orb. I will start messing with them. And Spell Power Cure.. I have been throwing those pieces in the bank as useless but I guess I need to take another look. Any other suggested places I can read about for healing 4 man content?

covenant_merchant

@OldGamerESO No, trials require a bit different healing bars and skills spread out between two healers with complimentary sets. If one is already wearing Infallible Aether, the other should go for Worm or Hircine or Twilight's Remedy or Gossamer (if the tank is wearing Tava).
Spell Power Cure is the best healing set there is. Nice 4 trait bonuses and the fifth one will make your group's DPS go through the roof.

When acting like a substitute DD, naturally nobody expects you to provide all the possible group buffs, so it's fine. I know I did quite a lot of dungeon runs as DD with just combat prayer and healing ward on my back bar on my sorc. However, on an actual templar healer, it is far more rewarding in the end to go full support with Radiant Destruction as only "damage" skill.

Stamina DDs do not suffer that much from resource management, and it is quite easy to restore with repentance. On magicka classes however, it is really really really really tougher. That's why healers go for Worm set (reducing magicka costs by 5%) instead of any other most of the time if they don't have Aether.

This is the thread for current best healing sets. It's quite short and to the point, so feel free to check it out.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/296348/best-templar-healing-sets-post-update-12#latest

Mundus stone : Ritual

CP breakdown :
Blue - 100 points is Blessed
Rest of them in Elfborn (increasing your healing crits)

Green - 100 points in Reduce Cost of spells
Rest in Magicka Regen

Red - Depends on you. I usually put 30 points in Quick Recovery, and the rest spread between Hardy and Elemental Defender. Given that you're a healer and therefore unlikely to get melee damage, which the tank should intercept, I'd say put more points in Elemental Defender. Unless you're in a specific instance in trials like Sanctum Ophidia, where for the last boss in vet HM, you would need 100 points in reduce poison damage. But that's all very specific.

Race : Best races are Breton, High Elf and Argonian. I play as Argonian for the max health bonus: without it, you sit at around 17k health, which is a bit low. I know a lot of Breton templars who use 1 piece Valkyn/ Nerieneth for the max health bonus, or invest 10 attribute points in Health instead of magicka.

Skills : The following should be your skill bars for dungeons and vDSA, give or take a few changes.
First bar - Destruction Staff - Ritual - Power of Light - Spear Shards (any morph. I have the Luminous one to restore magicka too (*have I mentioned how much sorcs and nightblades suffer from mana regen issues already xD*)) - Elemental Drain - Radiant Destruction - Meteor or Nova as ultimate. Explanation : Power of light is the only skill in-game that provides Minor spell and physical debuffs, and while it is a stamina skill, you should have enough resources to use it on bosses. (don't bother using it on trash packs).
Also, you can slot repentance instead of shards to have more stamina regen on your front bar. I'm just used to having my bars in the order I mentioned, but as long as you have the skills, it hardly matters.

Restoration bar : Healing Springs - Breath of Life - Necrotic Orbs (Healing Orbs are better suited for trials, but in dungeons, Necrotic ones end up restoring more magicka) or Channeled focus if you have 2 stamina dds in your group, Repentance and Prayer of Combat. Ulti - Aggressive War Horn (more crit more fun).

With Ritual Mundus and full CP in healing, you'll end up wasting far less resources and time healing, since your heals will be more powerful, and will be able to spend more time debuffing the enemies and providing group buffs.

Those are the bars of what would be considered an "op" healer. It assumes that the rest of the group is decent. I'm not talking about some extraordinary DPS or anything (though with all the buffs, many average DDs can reach it), just decent players with decent gear pulling 15k+ dps, and a tank that is resistant and not getting one-shot at every turn.
However, if your group is bad, don't bother wasting your time trying to buff them up. Just do damage and eventually you'll pull through.

Good things to know as a healer :

• Your healing scales with your maximum magicka pool as well as spell damage. Yes, spell damage is important, so wearing one piece Kena can't hurt. And Spell Power Cure will proc on you too, thus increasing your spell damage and healing, creating a virtuous circle.
• A Breath of Life / flash heal should by all means bring the affected group members to full health in one go. Bonus points for casting it in 4 seconds after dropping a ritual or a rune (Major Mending passive proc).
• An uptime of 60%+ on Prayer of Combat is already very good. (Can be checked with Combat Metrics).
• If you have Radiant, don't bother using it if the boss is above 30% health.
• While Power of Light is awesome, keep enough stamina to CC break and avoid bosses' mechanics. Try to use it though right before the DDs use their ulti.
• The Gossamer set from CoS is ONLY viable when the tank is wearing Tava, giving him super fast ulti regen for more war horns. On the contrary of SPC, it doesn't proc if you heal someone at full health.
• If you really want to do high end content, you have to chug Spell Power potions for the major sorcery - more damage = more heals.
• You should have 18k health in dungeons. Any less is a guaranteed one-shot.
• Being a vampire is good. More mana regen and more stamina. Just keep it stage 2 or 3 since many dungeons are fire-fire lava-lava. However, since I'm lazy, I keep ending up in Stage 4 vampirism and yet tank the last boss of vDSA (which involves a lot of fire) from 75% to 0% while the tank gets the adds away (burst strat), without any particular issue. If you're a vampire though, consider prioritizing Channeled Focus for the extra resistance over another skill in your bars.
• You need to always keep up your Ritual. Always. It represents more than decent healing ticks, especially for the tank who probably has Increased Healing received. And it procs Spell Power cure without you having to spam healing springs or anything.
• As a reference, while fully buffed yourself, meaning the Major Mending passive is up (after dropping Rune or Ritual), your healing springs should do around 5k heals.

EDIT :
This is what one of the Well-Fitted healers sent me when I respec'ed my stamplar to magicka and started actively healing end-game content regarding bars. Their guild is one of the top PvE guilds on PC EU, vMOL speed runs, HM, and what not. But the same holds of course for 4-man dungeons.

Integral1900

I stick to normal ones, now that all the story elements can be done that way there is no reason for me to do vet, besides my competitive side escaped years ago

Don't worry about maximising your dps, gold gear or even maelstrom weapons, just give it a go, normal ones are balanced for less than four players anyway, and I guarantee you'll do better than me. Just be willing to listen to advice and try not to to be the player with restoration staff and a bow that just sits there doing light attacks

Generally the dungeon will telegraph mechanics if you observe it as you play, though some do it better than others, "yes white gold tower, I see see you hiding in the corner you nasty little goblin..."