Dk build questions

ESOMark

Hey guys so I have been Pveing a lot recently and my dk build just I feel is not right. I tend to lose health and die a lot and I'm wondering if anyone has any self healing builds for a stam dk please send some ideas because I cannot seem to stay alive for a long time. Thanks

ESOMark

Or should I switch to a magicka dk? I'm not sure what to do

Lefthy

What do you call pveing? Solo content? Pledges?

For solo content you can work with almost anything i probably would go with heavy armor, two handed weapon and bow, and put vigor or dragon blood + igni shield to stay alive

For group content if you go dps you can start using 5 mediums + 2 heavy armors, dual wield and bow, put vigor somewhere or dragon blood + igni shield and avoid red.
Use health enchants and spend skill point on heavy armor line till you get something like 20k of hp so you dont get one shooted.

Corrosive armor its an awesome ult to avoid death.

From there you can work your way to a more high end dps build when you feel more confortable.

BlanketFort

Same problem here. My health is sitting comfortably at 20k and Stamina at 31k. Only heal I have is GDB and there is no spot on my bars to slot in Igneous Shield without sacrificing DPS. Because I don't and never will do PvP to get Vigor, my only solution was to learn to avoid red, level alchemy to create tri-pots, slot in Corrosive Armour and go for the healing morphs of Rending Slashes and Rapid Strikes.
My first option when need to heal is pop GDB (when I am at 20% health), then tri-pot, slash something with Bloodcraze for HoT and Bloodthirst. In an "oh s***" moment I use corrosive armour.
Used to be a lot easier on a MagDK, but I hate playing MagDK now.
I get into deep s*** when I'm out of magicka to pop GDB, my pots are on cooldown and not enough Ult for Corrosive Armour. Then I die.

TheRealPotoroo

How do you get such high attribute numbers? Even with armour etc enhancements I'm not even close (like Heath 17k, Stamina 18k).

altemriel

depends on if you play stamina DK or mag DK

put all your attribute points into either stamina or magicka (do not divide them).

Use the level of armor and weapons of your character level (not lower), use at least purple enchants, improve your gear to at least purple


rally, vigor, ingeneous shield, corrosive armor, green dragon blood

maybe it would help if you would write what kind of armor and weapons are you wearing (set gear?) and which skills are you using - that would be then easier to help you

TheRealPotoroo

altemriel wrote: »

depends on if you play stamina DK or mag DK ...

maybe it would help if you would write what kind of armor and weapons are you wearing (set gear?) and which skills are you using - that would be then easier to help you

It was more of a general question but upon reflection it wouldn't hurt. I've hit CP160 and I think I'm ready to respect/rebalance a bit. This is my first character and I've never felt 100% that I got the balance right because the game is so overwhelming. I was in here trying to find some advice on my CP160 armour build (especially what its traits should be) but you guys are just on a whole level above where I'd be if I was a whole level above where I am now, and frankly I'm drowning in detail and jargon and all the rest.

Some essentials: my character is a CP165 Orc Dragonknight. I like orcs because they're big and strong, they like heavy armour and blacksmithing, and are just generally good for a moderate player (I was a Nord heavy in Skyrim too). I mostly quest solo although I've started to get into groups to plunder farm. I've not yet finished questing, in particular I have lots of skyshards to get but I would like to start doing pledges and at least be useful, most probably as a tank.

Attributes:

Armour and accessories:

Fine Voidstone CP140 Cuirass Impenetrable +664 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Sabatons Reinforced +248 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Gauntlets Reinforced +248 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Helm Impenetrable +613 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Greaves Reinforced +613 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Pauldrons Impenetrable +248 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Girdle Training +248 Stamina

Necklace: Fine Ear of the Queen CP70 Shield-play +650 Arcane
Ring 1: Superior Werewolf's Hide Werewolf Ring Shield-play +820 Stamina
Ring 2: Superior Ring of the Wyrd Tree +145 Health regen +902 Health

Weapons and slots:
Note: since I mainly solo, my style such as it is is to where possible use Unrelenting Grip to isolate an NPC, use Ransack to weaken it then start shield bashing/fireballing etc until it is dead. Regen, rinse and repeat. After years of 2H in Skyrim, I have discovered the Joy of Shields and my favorite CP skill is Shield Expert (Lady 30).

1: Legendary Rubedite CP160 Sword of Flame +1916 Sharpened +2580
Fine Nightwood CP140 Shield Reinforced + 674 Health

Ultimate: Standard of Might IV

Slot 1: Ransack IV (OH&S)
Slot 2: Deep Slash IV (OH&S)
Slot 3: Unrelenting Grip IV (AF)
Slot 4: Volatile Armor IV (DP)
Slot 5: Flames of Oblivion IV (AF)*

2: Superior Voidstone CP140 Greatsword of Shock +1769 Sharpened +4740

Ultimate: Standard of Might IV

Slot 1: Brawler III (2H)
Slot 2: Uppercut IV (2H)
Slot 3: Unrelenting Grip IV (AF)
Slot 4: Volatile Armor IV (DP)
Slot 5: Flames of Oblivion IV (AF)*

* slot 5 varies according to need or desire, options include Green Dragon Blood III (DP), Burning Talons II (DP), Shield Charge IV (OH&S), Silver Shards III (FG), Trapping Webs IV (UD), Inner Fire IV (UD).

Skills:

Ardent Flame 50
Draconic Power 50
Earthen Heart 6

Two Handed 38
One Handed & Shield 50
Dual 6
Bow 6
Destruction 16
Restoration 2

Light 6
Medium 6
Heavy 50

Legerdomain 11
Soul Magic 5

Fighters 8
Mages 7
Thief 1
Undaunted 3

Assault 2
Support 2

Orc 50

Alchemy 8/R1
Blacksmithing 50/R10
Clothing 45/R1
Enchanting 45/R9
Provisioning 50/R1
Woodworking 50/R9

altemriel

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

altemriel wrote: »

depends on if you play stamina DK or mag DK ...

maybe it would help if you would write what kind of armor and weapons are you wearing (set gear?) and which skills are you using - that would be then easier to help you

It was more of a general question but upon reflection it wouldn't hurt. I've hit CP160 and I think I'm ready to respect/rebalance a bit. This is my first character and I've never felt 100% that I got the balance right because the game is so overwhelming. I was in here trying to find some advice on my CP160 armour build (especially what its traits should be) but you guys are just on a whole level above where I'd be if I was a whole level above where I am now, and frankly I'm drowning in detail and jargon and all the rest.

Some essentials: my character is a CP165 Orc Dragonknight. I like orcs because they're big and strong, they like heavy armour and blacksmithing, and are just generally good for a moderate player (I was a Nord heavy in Skyrim too). I mostly quest solo although I've started to get into groups to plunder farm. I've not yet finished questing, in particular I have lots of skyshards to get but I would like to start doing pledges and at least be useful, most probably as a tank.

Attributes:

Armour and accessories:

Fine Voidstone CP140 Cuirass Impenetrable +664 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Sabatons Reinforced +248 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Gauntlets Reinforced +248 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Helm Impenetrable +613 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Greaves Reinforced +613 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Pauldrons Impenetrable +248 Stamina
Fine Voidstone CP140 Girdle Training +248 Stamina

Necklace: Fine Ear of the Queen CP70 Shield-play +650 Arcane
Ring 1: Superior Werewolf's Hide Werewolf Ring Shield-play +820 Stamina
Ring 2: Superior Ring of the Wyrd Tree +145 Health regen +902 Health

Weapons and slots:
Note: since I mainly solo, my style such as it is is to where possible use Unrelenting Grip to isolate an NPC, use Ransack to weaken it then start shield bashing/fireballing etc until it is dead. Regen, rinse and repeat. After years of 2H in Skyrim, I have discovered the Joy of Shields and my favorite CP skill is Shield Expert (Lady 30).

1: Legendary Rubedite CP160 Sword of Flame +1916 Sharpened +2580
Fine Nightwood CP140 Shield Reinforced + 674 Health

Ultimate: Standard of Might IV

Slot 1: Ransack IV (OH&S)
Slot 2: Deep Slash IV (OH&S)
Slot 3: Unrelenting Grip IV (AF)
Slot 4: Volatile Armor IV (DP)
Slot 5: Flames of Oblivion IV (AF)*

2: Superior Voidstone CP140 Greatsword of Shock +1769 Sharpened +4740

Ultimate: Standard of Might IV

Slot 1: Brawler III (2H)
Slot 2: Uppercut IV (2H)
Slot 3: Unrelenting Grip IV (AF)
Slot 4: Volatile Armor IV (DP)
Slot 5: Flames of Oblivion IV (AF)*

* slot 5 varies according to need or desire, options include Green Dragon Blood III (DP), Burning Talons II (DP), Shield Charge IV (OH&S), Silver Shards III (FG), Trapping Webs IV (UD), Inner Fire IV (UD).

Skills:

Ardent Flame 50
Draconic Power 50
Earthen Heart 6

Two Handed 38
One Handed & Shield 50
Dual 6
Bow 6
Destruction 16
Restoration 2

Light 6
Medium 6
Heavy 50

Legerdomain 11
Soul Magic 5

Fighters 8
Mages 7
Thief 1
Undaunted 3

Assault 2
Support 2

Orc 50

Alchemy 8/R1
Blacksmithing 50/R10
Clothing 45/R1
Enchanting 45/R9
Provisioning 50/R1
Woodworking 50/R9

well, only looking at your first "spoiler" - your attribute points, clearly tells, that you need pretty much a big advice, not only a small advice, if you want to be competetive, or if you want to be useful in a group or if you want to "stay alive longer".
Please do not get upset or frustrated, I was the same like you, I played my first character until level 50 with no idea about builds, set gear or anything like that. Which resulted in the issue that you are dealing with - I could not get the maximum of my character.
Fortunatelly it is possible to completely respecify your character in ESO (for a bit of gold), so do not worry. I had a chat with my guild mate one day and he adviced me everything that I needed and my character stats almost doubled and my survivability and damage the same.


Really no pun intended, I mean it as friendly advices:

1. you have divided your attribute points into health and stamina, which is the first "mistake" - if you want to really get the maximum of your character, you should never divide atribute points, but put it in only one attribute (stamina if you play stamina character - meaning "if you use mainly stamina skills" (see tooltip for each skill if it feeds on magicka or stamina - you are calling them "slots" - but they are commonly called "skills" (which you use), the thing that you are calling "skills" are "skill levels", which are not so important here), or if you use mainly magicka skills - then put all your attribute points into magicka
hybrid builds are possible (magicka-stamina build for example), but as weapon damage scales of max stamina and spell damage scales of max magicka), a hybrid build is hard to create and pure stamina build or pure magicka build will usually outperform hybrid builds in ESO.

2. your "role" - if you play mainly as damage dealer, or tank or healer - based on that - check the best set gear (my point 3 bellow)

3. if you want to get maximum of your character, you should really check out info about set items and their set bonuses and not just use "any crafted item", or "any dropped item", but should use more pieces of the same set, to get the bonuses, that each of that set gives to character stats. check out for example these sets - for stamina damage dealer character:
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Hunding's+Rage+Set
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Night+Mother's+Gaze+Set

there are sets which help tank characters too, or you can be a tanky damage dealer or a tank with decent damage, but there should be your main "focus" in your role


4. enchants - do you use them on your armor and weapons? You are not mentioning them, so I suppose not. they greatly increase the character stats, so I would recommend you check them out and get them, for damage dealer stamina character I would recommend enchanting at least 5 armor pieces with max stamina enchants

5. improving of your armor and weapons - done in crafting stations - this greatly improves your stats too - at least improve them all to purple, if not gold (gold tempers are hard to get and expensive to buy, but possible)


6. armor traits - you are writing you use reinforced, impenetrable, training traits on armors - which is a bit not the best again

best traits for armor are:
- for PVE: divines, infused
- for PVP - impenetrable

you are not writting about jewelry enchants - best are weapon damage enchants - use them if you do not yet

7. Mundus stone bonus - they were present in Skyrim too (they were called Boon stone if I remember correct) - in ESO it works like that, that you find the Mundus stone, accept the bonus of it and you have it active permanently then (until you accept the bonus of another Mundus stone) - check them out and use them too

8. you are not mentioning using healing skills (to stay alive longer) - I would recommend using rally (from 2H skill line), or Green dragon blood from DK skill lines, or Vigor from PVP skill line

9. food or drinks - for PVE it is better to use foods for bonuses - best the one that increases max health (and max stamina - for stamina character, or max magicka for magicka character), for PVP I have read that it is better to use drinks (increase regeneration of health, or/and stamina or magicka)
there are also drinks which increase max health and health regeneration, or weapon damage, etc...

TheRealPotoroo

altemriel wrote: »

1. you have divided your attribute points into health and stamina, which is the first "mistake" - if you want to really get the maximum of your character, you should never divide atribute points, but put it in only one attribute

If I put everything into Stamina then how do I have enough Health to solo ever again? I can see how that would work if I was always with a healer but this is a big worry for me.

4. enchants - do you use them on your armor and weapons? You are not mentioning them

I enchant everything I can. Example: Fine Voidstone CP140 Cuirass Impenetrable +664 Stamina

5. improving of your armor and weapons - done in crafting stations - this greatly improves your stats too - at least improve them all to purple, if not gold (gold tempers are hard to get and expensive to buy, but possible)

I was saving my high end tempers until I got to CP160. My Legendary Rubedite sword was my first crafted Legendary item, but I don't have enough to waste.

6. armor traits - you are writing you use reinforced, impenetrable, training traits on armors - which is a bit not the best again

best traits for armor are:
- for PVE: divines, infused
- for PVP - impenetrable

Infused I kind of get but what do Divines get me? I really want to get the traits right before I commit my high end tempers.

you are not writting about jewelry enchants

Necklace: Fine Ear of the Queen CP70 Shield-play +650 Arcane
Ring 1: Superior Werewolf's Hide Werewolf Ring Shield-play +820 Stamina
Ring 2: Superior Ring of the Wyrd Tree +145 Health regen +902 Health

7. Mundus stone bonus

It might not be visible on the character screenshot but I'm currently using The Lady (Physical Resistance).

Asardes

If you want do be a good DD use at least 5 medium armor for increased sustain, weapon critical and weapon damage. Or even full medium. But for higher stats actually it's better to go 1 light (waist) + 5 medium + 1 heavy (chest) to use the Undaunted Mettle passive, once you level that skill by doing dungeons. You should either go full divines, or divines on small pieces, and infused on big pieces (head, chest, legs). Jewelry should be robust and weapons sharpened for increased penetration. Always use stamina enchants on weapons and weapon damage enchants on jewelry and weapons because all your stamina skills scale of your stamina and weapon damage. Critical hits do 50% more damage, and can do more than that if you put CP in precise strikes and/or have Shadow mundus. Thief mundus increases your critical chance. You want to increase your critical damage and critical chance to do as much DPS as possible pick one of those stones or pick both if you can get someone to craft Twice Born Star set for you. Night Mother's Gaze and Hunding's Rage sets are also good. There are also dropped sets, but don't bother farming those until you have a good idea what you want to do with your char, as farming is very time consuming. Level bow and dual wield, optionally two handed if you want to go PvP. Put all your points in stamina, as ~17-18K health is enough for a DD but you should be aiming to at least 35K stamina and 4K weapon damage (buffed) and at least 50% critical chance. Your stamina regeneration should be around 1K for PvE, 1.5K for PvP. Critical chance is less important in PvP since most people use impenetrable, which reduces damage from critical hits, so stamina regeneration and weapon damage are more important; you can swap Thief mundus with serpent (regeneration) or Warrior (weapon damage).

If you want to be a tank use at least 5 heavy armor for increased resistance, regeneration from hits, increased health and healing. Going full heavy has diminishing returns because you would most likely hit the mitigation cap while warded (spiked armor), and going above 33.5K resistances doesn't give you any benefit. Mitigation is capped at 50% incoming damage. Having around 30K resistance is more than enough. So it's best to go 1 Light (waist) + 1 Medium (hands) + 5 Heavy (other pieces), infused on big pieces, divines on small ones, all prismatic defense glyphs that boost all your stats. Weapon should be defending or decisive with crusher enchantments to decrease enemy armor even more. Jewelry should be either healthy or robust, with shield play enchantments. Tanks should have at least 25K health, which is enough even for veteran dungeons. For veteran trials 28-30K is better. Stamina pool should be as high as possible because you have to block, and while blocking you don't regenerate stamina. Also replenishing from shards is 1/4 of that pool, so the bigger the better. Besides blocking you have to break stuns, interrupt, gap close, sprint, taunt, debuff. All which take stamina. But tanks also use magicka skills a lot for utility: ward, shield, CC, grabbing enemies. So your magicka regeneration should be enough to sustain that so pick a set that gives you at least one magicka regeneration bonus and atronach mundus if you plan on tanking. Also for DK in particular and any tank in general group utility is important, so you should regenerate ultimate fast. A good set for tanking is Tava's Favor (magicka, stamina, ultimate regeneration), other good sets are Armor of the Seducer (magicka regeneration) and Willow's Path (all stat regeneration). Your current attribute distribution is pretty good for a tank actually. As tank you should have about 30K physical & magic resistance, >25K health, >25K stamina, >12K magicka, >1K magicka regeneration. Weapon and spell damage are not important. You should always use 1H+S on your main bar, and either 1H+S or 2H on your back bar. Get all heavy armor passives, pick the class skill morph that grant you the maximum utility vs. damage when there's no stamina morph available.

As general rules:
- always use set gear, non set gear is a waste. Here's a list of most set in the game. Some are crafted, some are dropped in dungeons or trials, and some dropped in various zones. http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Sets You should have a number of items from the same set in order for it to work. For example if you have 5 x Hunding's Rage (armor) + 4 x Night Mother's Gaze (armor + weapons) + 3 x Agility (jewelry) it will work pretty well, but not have 11 items from 8 different sets. That won't work.
- when doing hard content always use food buffs, for your build CP150 blue health+stamina food or health + stamina (various recipes) regeneration (Ozorga's triple trifle pockets) are best. 12K health is enough to solo overland content, 18K to play dungeon. If you die with more than that it's probably because you don't do enough damage to kill the enemies.
- when playing in a group always stick to the chosen role. If you claim to be a tank, then taunt, CC and debuff mobs, if you are a DD kill them fast. A stamina DK can do both very well but for the beginning stick to a role and learn it.
- go PvP and level your AWA skills, vigor and warhorn are your main priorities, also maneuvers to move faster overland

W0lf_z13

@TheRealPotoroo is ur gear part of gear sets? if not I would strongly recommend starting there as stated previously... gear sets boost ur stats pretty well....

..................

and @ESOMark ... i would strongly recommend getting vigor from the assault skill line in Cyrodiil ... doesn't take TOO long to get ... I have a magDK as well as a stam.. the dk heals are "ok" but not great.... id also recommend slotting beast trap/rearming trap from the fighters guild line ... a def DPS boost (if u dont have it)

W0lf_z13

@TheRealPotoroo the Divines trait adds more of the effect from the mundus stone ... the more divines traits u have the bigger the overall mundus boost ... typically for PvE the BiS ( best in slot ) set up would be ( for dps ) all 7 pieces in divines to max out the mundus stone effects ... then sharpened on the weapons for more penetration

khur

Builds in this game are about stacking armor set bonuses. What I mean by that is that while these set bonuses individually look not super important and the sheer number of choices can seem overwhelming.... Well, this is the game. Committing to sets changes how it plays drastically. I can tell by your mismatched jewelry that you're making choices for a character you want to build (which is great). But you're not stacking up the foundations for those choices. Enchants, for instance, are like paint on the walls. The set bonuses themselves would be the walls. Hope that makes sense.

First step: decide damage or tank or heal

2nd: Stam or magic

3rd . 12 slots to fill armor wise (with sword and shield or dual weld). You should probably start with 2 five piece armor sets, avoiding head and shoulders for now if possible. (Fill the slots, but don't worry about the set bonuses)

4th. Test . Then refine. This is the fun bit?

altemriel

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

altemriel wrote: »

1. you have divided your attribute points into health and stamina, which is the first "mistake" - if you want to really get the maximum of your character, you should never divide atribute points, but put it in only one attribute

If I put everything into Stamina then how do I have enough Health to solo ever again? I can see how that would work if I was always with a healer but this is a big worry for me.

it is better to use healing skills, or enchants (increase max health) for that, than using attribute points for that

4. enchants - do you use them on your armor and weapons? You are not mentioning them

I enchant everything I can. Example: Fine Voidstone CP140 Cuirass Impenetrable +664 Stamina

ok, sorry, I missed that. also which quality of enchants do you use? use purple or at least blue glyphs (the effect is stronger then)

5. improving of your armor and weapons - done in crafting stations - this greatly improves your stats too - at least improve them all to purple, if not gold (gold tempers are hard to get and expensive to buy, but possible)

I was saving my high end tempers until I got to CP160. My Legendary Rubedite sword was my first crafted Legendary item, but I don't have enough to waste.

well usually only the last tempers (gold) are considered to be used on your gear that one uses for the rest of the game after reaching veteran level. blue and purple are really easy to get (deconstructing, buying in guild stores, guild traders), so improving even your lowel level gear to at least blue, if not to purple is really advisable

6. armor traits - you are writing you use reinforced, impenetrable, training traits on armors - which is a bit not the best again

best traits for armor are:
- for PVE: divines, infused
- for PVP - impenetrable

Infused I kind of get but what do Divines get me? I really want to get the traits right before I commit my high end tempers.

you are not writting about jewelry enchants

Divines maximize the effect of Mundus stone, the more pieces of "divines" trait you wear, the more and it help really much, believe me or try it out yourself

Necklace: Fine Ear of the Queen CP70 Shield-play +650 Arcane
Ring 1: Superior Werewolf's Hide Werewolf Ring Shield-play +820 Stamina
Ring 2: Superior Ring of the Wyrd Tree +145 Health regen +902 Health

I am not sure what you mean with these bolded parts, if you mean trait of the jewelry piece, that you can also enchant jewelry, to maximize the effect.

7. Mundus stone bonus

It might not be visible on the character screenshot but I'm currently using The Lady (Physical Resistance).

It is really much better to mainly use the bonuses of set gear to maximize your stats, than relying primary on enchants or traits.

Syrani

I just started out with a baby stam DK DPS myself. I am using this build here: http://alcasthq.com/venom/

I am using the "best in slot" gear (mostly - I am missing the Kragh monster set and one sharpened Maelstrom axe or dagger), but you would want to use the "alternative" set choices until you can replace them with the ones from "best in slot".

All the gear he lists there is set gear, meaning you get bonuses for wearing 2 to 5 pieces of each set. What bonus you get depends on which set it is. Most of the gear you have is simply basic crafted pieces without any set bonuses. I highly recommend that you do not waste upgrade mats on the gear you are currently using, and instead work on getting some set gear made for you.

Here is a link to the sets he is talking about:

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Twice-Born+Star+Set

*This one requires a crafter to have 9 traits researched (per piece) in order to make it. If you are in a guild, ask around to see if someone can make it for you, and see if they will take it up to purple quality. You will probably need to upgrade it to gold yourself, unless you have ALOT of gold to pay someone to do it. If you want to upgrade it yourself, make sure you level up your armour crafting skills so that you get the passive from those lines that allows you to use less upgrade mats per upgrade. For this set, it is very very important that you use all divines, so that you get the most benefit from it's 5 piece bonus (it gives a boost to mundus stone effects).

EDIT: Once you get this set, you will want to get the thief and shadow mundus boons.

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Night+Mother's+Gaze+Set

*Although I can't remember how many traits you have to have researched in order to make this, I know it is significantly less than Twice Born. If you have been leveling your armour crafting somewhat, then you may be able to make this set yourself. Just make sure you have researched the traits he recommends you use, so that you can make it exactly like he said.

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Agility+Set

*This set comes as drops from dungeons, and chests in imperial city (in Cyrodiil). This set can be sold or traded, so your best bet is to buy these. The best trait for all 3 pieces (necklace and 2 rings) is Robust, although they can be very expensive. If you don't have enough money to buy the robust versions, you could buy ones with the Healthy trait for now.


Before you make this stuff, or have someone make it, be sure to check out the link to the build I posted at the top. You want to make sure you are having the gear made with the weights, traits, and enchants he recommends.

If you are on PC/EU, send me an ingame mail @Raelin and I can make the armour and weapons for you.

Good luck!

Lashiing

I have a dk tank, I use 5x seducer, 5x footman, 2x blood spawn

s&b:
vigor
defensive
volitile armor
pierce
igneous shield
corrosive

keep volitile up all the time, keep defensive up if there are projectiles coming at you
since igneous is your only magicka ability you should be able to spam it in sticky situations, pair that with vigor and you'll never die

Darkestnght

@BlanketFort - you may want to reconsider visiting PvP for that Vigor and Caltrops - very much worth it for PvE.

I was of the same mind set as you about PvP for over a year. I tired PvP and hated it, mainly because I had no clue as to what I was doing and getting killed instantly. However if you have some spare time and can get your hands on some Impenetrable gear, just go to a keep and follow other around and you will learn the ropes quickly. You do not even have to chat with anyone it becomes very apparent after awhile where to go and what to do. Considering the time we put into PVE it takes very little time for those Alliance and Support skills lines increase when you are in PvP. Sure you will die , a lot, but you loose nothing but the time it takes to respawn and get back in the battle. PvP can be fun and crazy battles are fun to be in and watch. I just laugh when I die as it is just a game and no big deal. Those that tea bag you you'll have to ignore they think they are still playing COD.

Cheers

WalksonGraves

Oh god does pvping as a tank suck. My advice is reroll dps and suffer through it. PVP is such a nightmare time sink if you don't have a group I hate how mandatory it is.

TheRealPotoroo

WalksonGraves wrote: »

Oh god does pvping as a tank suck. My advice is reroll dps and suffer through it. PVP is such a nightmare time sink if you don't have a group I hate how mandatory it is.

Yes, I'm truly not interested in PvP or anything that relies on it. One day I might pay someone to let me kill them so I can get the Duelist achievement but that's as far as it goes.

As for the rest, there's a huge amount to think through. I've got 6 traits on a few things, with some more 5 trait gear being upgraded so I'm close to being able to do sets like Hunding's Rage. The problem is I haven't researched Divines or Infused on most of it and I'm at the stage where researching is getting over a week. Anyway, it is what it is, I can always craft something temporary at CP160 to replace my current set while I wait.

Asardes wrote: »

If you want to be a tank use at least 5 heavy armor for increased resistance, regeneration from hits, increased health and healing. Going full heavy has diminishing returns because you would most likely hit the mitigation cap while warded (spiked armor), and going above 33.5K resistances doesn't give you any benefit. Mitigation is capped at 50% incoming damage. Having around 30K resistance is more than enough. So it's best to go 1 Light (waist) + 1 Medium (hands) + 5 Heavy (other pieces), infused on big pieces, divines on small ones, all prismatic defense glyphs that boost all your stats. Weapon should be defending or decisive with crusher enchantments to decrease enemy armor even more. Jewelry should be either healthy or robust, with shield play enchantments.

I've always put Sharpened on my swords, why Defensive and what is a crushing enchantment?

altemriel

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

WalksonGraves wrote: »

Oh god does pvping as a tank suck. My advice is reroll dps and suffer through it. PVP is such a nightmare time sink if you don't have a group I hate how mandatory it is.

Yes, I'm truly not interested in PvP or anything that relies on it. One day I might pay someone to let me kill them so I can get the Duelist achievement but that's as far as it goes.

As for the rest, there's a huge amount to think through. I've got 6 traits on a few things, with some more 5 trait gear being upgraded so I'm close to being able to do sets like Hunding's Rage. The problem is I haven't researched Divines or Infused on most of it and I'm at the stage where researching is getting over a week. Anyway, it is what it is, I can always craft something temporary at CP160 to replace my current set while I wait.

Asardes wrote: »

If you want to be a tank use at least 5 heavy armor for increased resistance, regeneration from hits, increased health and healing. Going full heavy has diminishing returns because you would most likely hit the mitigation cap while warded (spiked armor), and going above 33.5K resistances doesn't give you any benefit. Mitigation is capped at 50% incoming damage. Having around 30K resistance is more than enough. So it's best to go 1 Light (waist) + 1 Medium (hands) + 5 Heavy (other pieces), infused on big pieces, divines on small ones, all prismatic defense glyphs that boost all your stats. Weapon should be defending or decisive with crusher enchantments to decrease enemy armor even more. Jewelry should be either healthy or robust, with shield play enchantments.

I've always put Sharpened on my swords, why Defensive and what is a crushing enchantment?

Hunding`s range is one of the best crafted stamina sets for damage type of characters, there are for sure better sets for tanks (more max health or health regen or damage mitigation bonuses), I would go for that definitelly for sure, for PVE craft 5 pieces medium armor (increases stamina regeneration), heavy is for being a bit more tanky (harder to hit and able to taunt), check this out:
http://www.theelderscrollsonlinepowerguide.com/guides/armor-types-guide.aspx
Or you can do 5 pieces medium and the rest 2 pieces with an another set (bellow) and do those 2 pieces heavy.

Put that Hunding`s to 3 or 4 pieces divines and rest infused. Enchant at least 3 pieces with increase max stamina enchants, rest you can either do increase max health enchants, or all stamina. Weapons, swords are best sharpened I guess.

Then you have 3 or 4 (for dual wield) slots left. There you can put an another set to stack the bonuses. Nightmother`s gaze is also a great set for stamina DK. Do the rest of the armor of it and the weapons and shield.

If you can not do divines or infused, then do some other trait, I am not sure which one, but check this out:
http://www.theelderscrollsonlinepowerguide.com/guides/armor-types-guide.aspx
If you would have some parts divines, check out the Warrior Mundus stone - weapon damage (for stamina damage character) (if you are on pc and use addons, get the Mundus map addon for finding them on the map where they are)


but the set items are the most important. then when you research divines or infused for those parts that you now can not, then replace them.

Asardes

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

WalksonGraves wrote: »

Oh god does pvping as a tank suck. My advice is reroll dps and suffer through it. PVP is such a nightmare time sink if you don't have a group I hate how mandatory it is.

Yes, I'm truly not interested in PvP or anything that relies on it. One day I might pay someone to let me kill them so I can get the Duelist achievement but that's as far as it goes.

As for the rest, there's a huge amount to think through. I've got 6 traits on a few things, with some more 5 trait gear being upgraded so I'm close to being able to do sets like Hunding's Rage. The problem is I haven't researched Divines or Infused on most of it and I'm at the stage where researching is getting over a week. Anyway, it is what it is, I can always craft something temporary at CP160 to replace my current set while I wait.

Asardes wrote: »

If you want to be a tank use at least 5 heavy armor for increased resistance, regeneration from hits, increased health and healing. Going full heavy has diminishing returns because you would most likely hit the mitigation cap while warded (spiked armor), and going above 33.5K resistances doesn't give you any benefit. Mitigation is capped at 50% incoming damage. Having around 30K resistance is more than enough. So it's best to go 1 Light (waist) + 1 Medium (hands) + 5 Heavy (other pieces), infused on big pieces, divines on small ones, all prismatic defense glyphs that boost all your stats. Weapon should be defending or decisive with crusher enchantments to decrease enemy armor even more. Jewelry should be either healthy or robust, with shield play enchantments.

I've always put Sharpened on my swords, why Defensive and what is a crushing enchantment?

To increase your resistance when tanking. The tank is not required to do a lot of damage, but to resist damage taken. Whatever takes you closer to the cap it's far more valuable then things that increase your damage. Making a 1H sword sharpened and using it with a shield when tanking won't make any difference. You'll be doing 5.5K instead of 5K DPS with those heroic slashes. As DD the weapons should be sharpened though because they can boost your DPS by quite a lot. Especially if the tank is using that crushing enchantment to lower the resistance of the target even further. A crusher enchantment is one that's made using a negative potency rune + Deteri. For example:
Itade + Deteri + Kuta = Truly Superb Glyph of Crushing - Reduce target's armor by 927 for 5 seconds
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Glyphs
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Glyph+of+Crushing

Gargath

ESOMark wrote: »

Hey guys so I have been Pveing a lot recently and my dk build just I feel is not right. I tend to lose health and die a lot and I'm wondering if anyone has any self healing builds for a stam dk please send some ideas because I cannot seem to stay alive for a long time. Thanks

For me Stamina DK also is not good in self healing. I was bored of spending too many tri-pots on healing and bored of very high dps from one side and poor sustaining from another.
I figured it out I need to change it for Magicka DK and check if it works - and so far I'm happy with this decision.
I played Stamina a lot with 1H+S and DW, All Medium armor, 5pcs. Hunding's Rage, 5 pcs. Viper's Sting and 2 pcs. Monster set Spawn of Mephala. Sadly my only healing was coming from CP130 Infused Master Sword (before I finally gave it to my other tankish alt) and two quite inconvenient in use DW abilities - Twin Slashes -> Blood Craze and Flurry -> Bloodthirst. I think Bloodthirst was quite ok with healing, but needed to be spammed a lot, and it was annoying in time.
And btw I also hate pvp so there was literally no way for me to go and play dying in pvp just to get Vigor.

So, although my race is Redguard I changed it to pure Magicka and based him on dealing Flame damage. Even without race passives for Magicka, he is still a good DD and his stamina racial are useful for running and roll dodge when necessary.
I changed weapons to precise Lighting Destro Staff (which I love to use to start any fight from ranged heavy aoe attacks) with Gold Flame glyph, on main bar - to deal damage and sustain magicka. On secondary bar - defending trait Healing Staff also with Gold Flame Glyph.
All armor Light Infused/divines traits. Crafted 5x Armor of the Seducer (4 pcs. armor +both staffs) + 5x Silks of The Sun set + 1 pc Shoulders Mighty Chudan for defending (it also looked better with my armor motif). Sun's Jewellery enchants changed for gold spell power glyphs. Main stats ~31k magicka, ~20k health, ~15k stamina, with Blue CP150 food (magicka+health).

I also use Molten Armaments, which is an obvious choice, since except of high spell damage it gives +40% more damage on my heavy aoe Lighting Staff attacks.

For healing I learnt to use this interesting mechanics with Flame Lash using Petrify.
To make a healing from Lash target needs to be immobilized or stunned, so Petrify with long duriation is very good. Petrify + double Lashes and HP is back . Ofc not on bosses or targets immune to stun. So I also use often on many targets Searing Strike -> Burning Embers which provide great damage & healing.
For groups of mobs I use Inhale -> Draw Essence which works really nice for damage/healing.
For ultimate fights, like soloing stronger mobs/bosses - Grand Healing -> Healing Springs from Resto Staff (maybe I'll change to Regeneration later) helps a lot to sustain these few seconds needed for dealing more damage.
Summarizing, I'm happy I changed stamina for magicka,, dps is a bit lower now but I no longer need to use tri-pots for self healing and can solo some of the lesser bosses, which wasn't possible on stamina build.
Hope it helps .

Edit: this is my Flame Lash stats and main bar view:

TheRealPotoroo

Asardes wrote: »

If you want to be a tank ... it's best to go 1 Light (waist) + 1 Medium (hands) + 5 Heavy (other pieces), infused on big pieces, divines on small ones, all prismatic defense glyphs that boost all your stats.

1. Where do I get prismatic glyphs (please don't say PvP)? I've just hit Enchanter Lvl 50/Rank 10.
2. Infused or Divines on a shield?

Jewelry should be either healthy or robust, with shield play enchantments.

I suppose I could enchant a ring or something with shield play, yes?

Asardes

Prismatic defense glyphs are those which are created using a positive potency and a Hakeijo essence rune. Don't bother creating anything but gold C160 prismatic defense glyphs though because Hakeijos tend to be very expensive. And they have actually decreased a lot in price a lot since they became available to buy with Tel Var stones in Imperial City sewers vendors; before they only dropped from trove scamps and Molag Bal event. You don't actually need to PvP to get them, or even have the DLC. Because people usually put them on guild stores. They are about ~7.5K on EU PC right now, but when I bought them to make my armor 6 months ago they were going for 30K because of their rarity. On the same server Kuta is ~5.5K and Repora ~400g. So it will cost you about 13-14K per glyph. Don't know on other servers though.
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Glyph+of+Prismatic+Defense

Big pieces are: Chest, Legs, Head and Shield - if you put an enchant on them it will have full strength
Small pieces are: Hands, Feet, Shoulders, Waist - if you put an enchant on them it will only have 40% strength

Infused gives you extra 20% enchantment strength for gold quality, so it's best to maximize the resources by making the big pieces infused, especially if you use prismatic defense glyphs. Divines enhances the effect of your mundus stone by 7.5% per piece, regardless of what piece it is so it's better to have it on the small pieces.
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Traits

For tanks is important to have high resource regeneration. You don't regenerate much stamina anyway, because you are blocking most of the times, so probably the best mundus to have is atronach, which gives you magicka regeneration.
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Mundus+Stones

As tank you need to block a lot of hits, and also bash to interrupt enemies when they channel attacks, so you need to do that using less resources. That's why I suggested the shield play enchantment. It's created using a negative potency rune and Kaderi essence rune. http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Glyph+of+Shielding

You can also decrease the cost of blocking by using sturdy gear pieces or CP, but it doesn't reduce the cost of bashing. And block cost reduction has diminishing returns since you can't decrease it to 0. The reduction that comes from the jewelry glyphs and a few CP in Shadow Ward and Bashing Focus is more than enough to manage you resources.
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Champion+Skills

Mr_Apollo

Stam DKs ive seen normally use 2h and bow or 2h and dwal wield, I personally don't enjoy stam builds (though thinking of a stamdk cause dk is personally, one of the best classes ive played), but heres the self heals ive found for DK.

Burning Embers (Morph of the Searing strikes) - Do it twice on the same enemy and it heals you, it can be spammed to heal yourself
Obsidian Shard (Morph of Stonefist) - Heals you and an ally, I use it on my DK healer, quite useful as quick heal, not as good as Breath of Life though
Coagulating blood or Green Blood (Morph of Dragon blood) - Heals you, since youre a DK stamina I advise on Green Blood cause it gives you more stamina regen
Draw Essence or Deep breath (Morph of Inhale) - Ive seen it heal but I'm not exactly sure about it
Rally (Morph of Momentum) - I see it being used so often, its one of the 2h must haves

Really, just make your build around it, I'm normally a support role, usually tank, so I'm not good as DPS, but make your build around all this. By putting Igneous shield you can actually raise your healing done, because it gives you major mending, if you have it, pop it down and spam those heals

sneakymitchell

ESOMark wrote: »

Hey guys so I have been Pveing a lot recently and my dk build just I feel is not right. I tend to lose health and die a lot and I'm wondering if anyone has any self healing builds for a stam dk please send some ideas because I cannot seem to stay alive for a long time. Thanks

https://youtu.be/vemr8LNY2y8

TheRealPotoroo

Asardes wrote: »

Hakeijos ... are about ~7.5K on EU PC right now,

I found them in my zone (NA DC) for ~10-11k, with a couple of hopefuls ~55k.

Infused gives you extra 20% enchantment strength for gold quality, so it's best to maximize the resources by making the big pieces infused, especially if you use prismatic defense glyphs. Divines enhances the effect of your mundus stone by 7.5% per piece, regardless of what piece it is so it's better to have it on the small pieces.
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Traits

I read in an older thread to ensure at least one big piece should be Nirnhoned. Is that no longer valid?

For tanks is important to have high resource regeneration. You don't regenerate much stamina anyway, because you are blocking most of the times, so probably the best mundus to have is atronach, which gives you magicka regeneration.
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Mundus+Stones

My thinking right now is Hist Bark for the Physical Resistance and Major Evasion with either Willow's or Tava's for the regen. I want sets I can craft rather than relying on high end drops from bosses I'm not even fighting yet.

Asardes

Nirnhoned and reinforced are viable if you're not using 5 heavy armor, because you are far from the mitigation cap, and the extra resistance really helps. I have 5 pieces heavy, 1 light and 1 medium, all either infused or divines, with defending weapon on both bars and 2/5 set bonus that gives me another 1.9K and my resistance sits at 31K while warded. If the healer is using combat prayer I reach 32.5K. The cap is 33.5K, which gives a mitigation of 50%. Everything above the cap is simply disregarded. The extra 1K I would get from reinforced or nirnhoned big pieces would amount to 1*50%/33.5 = 1.5%. Having high resource pools and regeneration is far more important than 1-2% extra damage mitigation.