Trying to decide on a solo (PvE) class and having a hard time picking

sutasafaia

So I've spent the last couple weeks leveling three classes to ~15. The three are generally the big ones everybody seems to look at for soloing, being Magicka Templar, Magicka Nightblade, and Stamina Sorcerer. I was hoping I would simply end up enjoying one more than the other but they're all fun, and they all have their own little advantages that make them great at PvE. Unfortunately, my bank and various characters are now filling up on recipes and gear since I've been trying to pick a class before dumping all my good stuff on my "main" so now I'm sort of stuck needing to figure out which one to continue with. Trying to level all three simultaneously is getting me nowhere as far as actual progression goes. So now I need help.

As a note, I have nothing against grouping. I enjoy soloing group content when my guilds have down time and I like being able to do various dailies and achievements without needing to wait for people to help out. I also have nothing against PvP, but I tend to place that as last priority. So, that being said, this is what I feel about each of the three so far.

Magicka Templar: Kind of hilarious honestly. Spear spear spear spear spear heal spear spear spear. Massive magicka sustain issues in the 1-15 range I played the class but as a general rule I was never in any danger whatsoever unless I was stood in the fire, so to speak. Not much else to say about the class honestly, it was simple, straight forward, and felt immortal as long as I kept my magicka levels up. The class was just easy and fun to play.

Magicka Nightblade: At the 1-15 range, I almost felt like this character may have been more survivable than the templar. Of course that's likely because things didn't hit all that hard and the passive heal from the first siphon attack was enough to get by. Being ranged instead of melee was nice, although I noticed most of the time I ended up in melee range anyway. Not a big deal. The biggest thing for me with this class was, not surprisingly, the stealth. The PvP spring power, concealed weapon, and invisibility made this class so convenient it's almost not even worth caring about anything else. Stealth through a delve, take crystal, kill boss, leave...maybe 3 minutes tops. Don't want to fight all those enemies in the way? Stealth. Thieves guild missions? Stealth. Need to escape from something? Stealth. Stealth is the ultimate convenience. The class wasn't as easy to play as the templar but I did enjoy the stealth. A lot.

Stamina Sorcerer: This one surprised me. I've never enjoyed stamina classes, I was loathe to try this one out even with the praise of being so good at solo. I actually am having fun with it. Walking up and basically going blender on a swarm of enemies is fun to watch, and who doesn't love lightning? I don't really like relying so much on crits for healing but you can get your crit chance up there pretty high, and when you hit so many times a second you're basically guaranteed your heal/second anyway I suppose. Due to how different this class gets at later levels compared to early levels it's hard to say how I really feel about it. It's fun, yes, but...I'm not sure?

I'm very much a one character kind of person, hence the reason I've been testing and researching and reading and asking so many questions. I want to focus on one character and try to get as much done as possible, preferably as much solo as possible. I want to master all crafting on one character, get every recipe, achievements, etc. I know, alts are great, but I never seem to enjoy a game as much when I have a ton of alts. I tried to list my thoughts out as well as I could to see if there was any advice that could be given based on what I said. I know I said the most about Nightblade since stealth was so fun but that still doesn't cement the idea that it's the best soloer for me...certainly the most convenient one though.

So, which class do you think would suit me best? All of them can tank, which is my preferred role in groups. All of them are amazing for soloing. Maybe it would be better to look at which class has been good at soloing for the longest amount of time? Through all the nerfs/buffs which class has been the most consistent soloer?

TLDR: The best for soloing group content for me, or at least as close as you can figure it, I suppose.

I don't know. Please help.I'm very much undecided here and any advice is hugely appreciated.

sutasafaia

Just giving this a little nudge to front page again before work.

tunepunk

If you like to go melee/stamina i can recommend one setup i used for soloing almost all normal dungeons (except the ones with some group mechanic)

If you want to solo group content as a melee type character the only skills you need on your bar is Brawler from 2H line, and some form of self heal. Any class and race is ok for solo. This 2 skills alone will make you survive almost anything from large groups of trash mobs and bosses. The rest of the skills and second bar you can pretty much focus on getting as much DPS as possible, and sustain/regeneration as you will need to refresh the damage shield from brawler quite often...

That's just one suggestion, that I used myself for soloing all soloable group content, easy mode.

Tactic - Spam Brawler to stay alive, and use other skills to try to do as much DPS as possible.. Worked for me.

I haven't played much magicka based builds, but I'm sure you can build something using the same kind of tactic. Refresh damage shields often, as you will take a lot of damage by soloing group content.

A good set for refreshing damage shields is Torug's pact. Make a weapon with infused enchant, and glyph of hardening. You will get a pretty strong Damage Shield that refreshes fairly often (resource free). I'm currently using this on my DW magicka build when soloing veteran dungeons.

There are several good sets in game also that offer damage shield effects which are very useful when soloing hard content. Of course at the cost of a little loss in DPS, but if you're not in a hurry and just want to complete stuff, I find that Damage Shields are amazing.

BlackSparrow

You said you like to tank in group content? For that reason alone, it would make sense to go with the sorcerer, since it's a stamina class. (Though you can tank on a magicak class with ice staff now, I think you still need stamina for blocks and bashes, but someone can correct me on that).

What I would do is go ahead and focus on the sorc, while keeping the other two around. Don't go full ham on teaching the sorc recipes etc. yet... just play the sorc exclusively for a week or two. If it clicks, start giving them the "main" treatment.

The important thing about a main is that you have fun with their playstyle. You can still keep the other two around (in case, say, you need something to scratch a stealth or spear itch), but the character you should enjoy most should be your main, because you'll be spending the most time with them.

Thelon

switch that Stam sorc to Magicka, summon some pets and go ham

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/303570/the-unholy-herdsman-thelons-pet-build-one-tamriel

sutasafaia

Thanks for the answers. I guess what it really comes down to is I really enjoy all three, so figuring out which is the best for soloing group content is basically the next step at that point if it can't be a matter of which I enjoy most. Each of them is different enough that I enjoy them for different reasons but I really do want to focus on one =/

The Magplar is certainly the easiest, has AoE, has good health sustain, not so good magicka sustain though, at least not yet

Magblade has crap AoE at my level, but great resource sustain, pretty good health sustain, stealth is the best thing ever, but I don't know if they really have the same health sustain as templar in the long run

Stam Sorc is amazing AoE, has terrible health sustain at my level since the pet only gives 2-3 heals before you're out of magicka (and that dark spell unlocks later on) but great later on, and their resource sustain is kind of tedious right now but apparently easy later as well since it's just turn on all your AoE auras and walk into things. Plus the pet to tank means I can stand there and stab things.

I just have no end game experience to know which will turn out to be the best suited to my needs, which is basically soloing any/everything that can be solo'd (particularly group content) when I'm not busy doing group stuff.

I did see your build before Thelon when I was searching for solo builds, was considering making it, but I seem to have problems enjoying pets in this game, at least as far as a pure pet build goes. Having the heal pet around isn't terrible though.

[Edit] Because of the next post mentioning Will it Blend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaXHOvwqIdo

Lynx7386

Once you get to level 20 or 30 on a stamsorc you won't even use pets anymore, just buff up and connotate every group of mobs with "will it blend?" In your best gameshow host accent

GrigorijMalahevich

Magplar; mag sorc and stam sorc

sutasafaia

Thanks again, just giving another little nudge before work. At least with me working so much I have time to get some ideas built up >.>;

DeathlurkZ

I have been running a magplar, im cp90 now, and still enjoy it. Magicka sustain is so easy later.

I don't have any complaints about my magplar, but I also do not have experience with a magnb or a stamsorc... so I cant compare.

sutasafaia

I think the biggest problem for me at this point is that they all solo well, they can likely all solo (more or less) the same group content, but they all do it slightly differently. I enjoy them all but want to pick a main, but don't want to end up getting really far into the game, having dumped tons of time and materials into the character, only to find out maybe I should have played a different one.

Of course, the fact I have a very specific name I like to use on my main does not help. I guess I could just name change whoever ends up my main, but that isn't really the point...

I suppose the fact that the game is balanced enough to have multiple choices is a good thing but it sure doesn't make my brain hurt any less

pizzaow

I wouldn't worry much about dumping too much time/energy into one character vs another... After you hit level 50, they all share experience (champion) points. And, if you get really into the game, you'll eventually go back to level up all of them.

I would recommend your magplar... you mentioned that it's fun and easy, so go with that! For solo play, you it sounds like you already have it nailed... I personally find it more fun to attack more difficult content, then to struggle with my character's mechanics and since you are already comfortable with magplar, try something harder: take on a public dungeon solo, aggro several groups of adds and kill them all, you can even solo most group dungeons...
Magplar one of the best classes for group play too, since you can play the hardest end-game content as either a DPS or a healer (everyone always needs a healer - instant queues in activity finder).
I know you mentioned tanking as your preferred role, but as a magplar you'll eventually you'll encounter some content that makes it more difficult than it is fun. So, I'd recommend focusing on DPS and healing (both fun roles in ESO). The nice thing about magplar is it's one of the least squishy magica-based races and you'll provide some great group utility in the process (repentance, shards, healing...).

I helped my wife make a magplar hybrid DPS/healer that I'm very jealous of... I'm actually in the process of leveling up a magplar of my own, so I can duplicate the build

sutasafaia

Yea, there's no question that Magplar was the easiest, but that may simply come down to the fact that when I last played ~a year ago Magplar was my only character as well, so I got very used to how they play. I'm even leaning a bit towards the Magplar at this point, although I keep looking at the stealth from Magblade as well just from a pure convenience standpoint. The fact that I find all three fun is where the real problem lies, if I enjoyed one vastly more than the others this would be easy.

I think it might end up coming down to this: Out of the three, which is going to be the hardest to kill while having the most sustain? Which has the least reliance on having a healer around to maintain their resources? Also, do any of these three not require convoluted animation cancels...very important.

They're each incredibly "tanky" in their own way between Magplar's spear and oh crap super heal, but NB is basically always healing thanks to all the HoT's and even they have some ability to emergency heal (but not on par with templar), while Sorc walks in and just constantly crit heals. From what I've read, Magplar and Magblade have a vastly easier time managing resources than the sorc, but all the big solo vids that seem to pop up are from Sorcs. That said, I'm not so much interested in the ultimate high end group content soloing, that just gets too stressful and frankly I doubt I'll ever get to that point, but still...

Yea, I drive myself a bit crazy, I really do. More than a bit maybe. Thank you for the vote and long post about Magplar though, it's definitely something I'll think about while I try to figure this out a bit, and maybe get some more ideas floating in here from players. If you look up indecisive in a dictionary I'm pretty sure my picture is right there

I have yet to try a group delve on any of them, the last time I tried was on my old Magplar from a year ago. That's basically the sort of stuff I like doing, difficult group content that isn't super insane...like vWGT >.> not even going to TRY and solo that one

sutasafaia

Welp, off to work, hopefully this is the last day I need to do this

Molydeus

I solo world bosses and dungeons every day using the Culmination: Summoner pet build. Magicka sorc with Necropotence and pets.

sutasafaia

You know, at this point...referring strictly to soloing for my magplar/magblade decision (I honestly think stam sorc is out at this point).

There's no question that the stealthing is an absolutely huge bonus, I can go into a delve, kill boss, get shard, and leave in about 3-4 minutes tops. I can skip anything/everything I don't feel like doing, I can do the thief/brotherhood dailies with virtually zero worries. But...I'm just not sure how well I'm really going to stack up compared to a Magplar for soloing in the long run. I'm having fun with Nightblade but the idea that I'm going to end up coming up to something I can't beat where if I was playing Magplar I could beat it...makes me really consider swapping to the Magplar full time, even though it's losing the convenience of stealth. There's no question my Magplar has a vastly easier bar to deal with vs the clusterfork of my nigthblade bar, heck I only need one bar on my magplar vs needing two on nightblade.

As stupid as this is going to sound, and to most people it will sound stupid, it even sounds stupid to me as I type it, I almost feel like I'm waiting for somebody to give me permission to play Magblade instead of Magplar. That sounds pathetic huh I wish I could express my thoughts more clearly here but it's really difficult. I enjoy both classes but I don't want to end up hitting a wall I could have passed if I had played one vs the other...I guess? It's causing me to have a near endless loop of second guessing myself whenever I choose one or the other.

=/

Sorry for ramble. I make my head hurt.

Iziquiel

Which one do you have most fun playing?

If it's the Night blade go for it, it's you who has to play the character and if it's not one you enjoy then I suspect you will regret it.

sutasafaia

I have the most fun with Nightblade, at this point that isn't a question. However...I also like Magplar, and I feel like I could enjoy them just as much (although friggin A is nightblade a pain to play sometimes). My big worry is that I'm going to encounter something that's impossible to do on the blade that I could have done if I had played Magplar instead and it's going to make me feel like I chose wrong, and as stupid as that sounds that's a big deal to me.

Obviously there are things that Sorc can solo that neither of them can do, but Sorc isn't what I have the most fun on.