Improving DPS

cgartner

Hello fellow ESO players.

I would like some input from other DPSers out there as to how I can increase my DPS output. I'm running a CP 485 Nord Nightblade. I recently did a wholesale change on my toon from what was a completely gimped build, into my current build. But, my DPS output, while improved, is still not meeting my goals.

Relevant build details as follows:

Max Stamina 17202 / Max Health 26878 / Max Magicka 12120
Weapon Damage 2434
Weapon Critical 65.2%

Passives:
Dual Blades -- full points in all passives
Medium Armour -- full points in all passives

Wearing / Wielding:
Dual Blades -- 2 Daggers of Bahraha's Curse - this boosts Weap. Critical with the dual blades passive. Also, have Necklace of Bahraha's Curse, and two Bahara's Curse armor pieces for the 5-item proc (25% chance to create desecrated ground below the target damaging them for 850, and healing me for same amount). Each blade has gold disease damage enchantment, and poison damage enchantment respectively.
Briarheart armour - 5 pieces - giving a 10% chance to proc with a critical, increasing weapon damage by 449. With my crit rating, the proc pretty much always fires and is up much of the time. Also has a self-heal.
Two rings of Fasalla's Guile - no direct impact on damage or DPS, used for boost to HP. However, all jewelry have weapon damage enchantment.

All armour and weapons are gold, except the necklace which is purple.

Champion points:
50 points - Precise Strikes
36 points - Mighty
75 points - Melee Weapon Expert

Mundus Stone: Thief

I think I've covered off the relevant build details as they relate to DPS. My goal was weapon damage of 3000+ or more, and single-target DPS of 15-20K. With the Briarheart weapon damage proc I'm pretty much running weapon damage of 2900+ with the buff. Single target DPS is reliably in the 7-8K range (much improved from my gimped build, which struggled to hit 5K). No issues with AoE DPS, which reliably runs at 25-35K+ when in a group of mobs. It's just the single target DPS that I'm still finding wanting.

I know damage directly scales with Stamina, so I'm wondering if losing the Rings of Fasalla's Guile and wearing something to boost stamina would be the way to go. Also, I've considered dual wielding swords, instead of daggers. This would increase damage by 2.5% per sword, but my weapon crit rating would drop. Perhaps my current weapon crit is overkill and this would be a worthwhile sacrifice....would love some input on this.

In enjoy the self heals of Bahraha's Curse and Briarheart, and use these sets in large part because of the self heal damage mitigation. Am I sacrificing DPS as a result (by spurning other sets), and would I be wise to consider other sets in their place?

I use the LUI add on to monitor DPS.

That covers it I think. If I've missed anything, please ask. Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any and all responses.

Cheers.....

SirAndy

Are your daggers sharpened? Also, use two different enchants on them, otherwise they won't proc both.

I would ditch Bahraha's Curse for a proc set like Red Mountain or Way of Fire and make sure all armor pieces are Divines and you have the Thief mundus.

Trade base health for stamina. Your stamina pool should be around 30k and your health around 20k (buffed with blue food).

Do you have any monster shoulders/helmets you can use?

cjhhickman39

A few suggestions would be to tryout the spriggins set teamed up with your bireheart set the penetration will help your dps by bypassing your targets armor
As suggested above by Sir Andy all points to stam and if you feel squishy you can try a Heath enchant or two or heathy agility jewelry
If you try swords go with the precise trait to keep your crit up

cjhhickman39

One other question you never mentioned your skill setup? Are you getting damage buffs from any that your using? From your post i get the idea you use duel wield on both bars so a close look at your skill can also help your dps

davey1107

I agree with the other responses, and add:

1. You need to be buffing with major brutality for 20% more damage. A nightblade can get this via rally on the 2h, shrouded dagger via dual or power extraction. I find rally to be the best source, and like a 2h back bar. But I also use bow sometimes then get MB from shrouded daggers.

2. Congrats, you're ready to graduate from Bahara's Curse. You were right to use it...it's a fantastic set for grinding up champion points...but at 500+ it's a crutch you don't need. There are better sets...vipers sting, red mountain, etc. You want a set with a 5th trait that helps your dps, and ideally the other 3 buffs are all stamina...no slots wasted. I love your character concept. If it were me, I'd go hundings/briar...which means briar jewelry, which means time (x5 billion) or $$$$$$$.

3. In a 5/5/2 config you can get waaaaaay more dps from a monster helm set than any two other pieces. Farm or spend the $100k at the weekend vendor when she has a good stam mask. Then farm the shoulders. Valkyn would be amazing. Kraghs or velidreth also massive dps. A few of the other stam damage ones would be okay.

4. If you don't want to do monster helms, at least make the two odd pieces robust agility. Agility is designed to compensate for having and odd number of sets...the buffs are larger per piece.

5. Champion points - your champion points are off. Way off. You're maybe handicapping yourself by 10% less hitting power. The key in the CP system is to stay basic - use the buffs that apply more often to more attacks, and pile them in there. Some specifics in all lines (even though you only mention blues):

Blue:
Melee weapon expert: 0. Nada. Zero. But if this concerns you, go ahead and triple my recommended amount. Lol. Why? Your light and heavy attacks are like 1/10th your attacks. Why buff these instead of the lines that apply to ALL attacks, including light and heavy?

Instead, pile into mighty. This buffs all physical damage...almost every attack you're making. Your end game goal is 85-100 in mighty. Secondarily for you is precise strikes. This buffs every crit hit. On my stam builds, I might put a few into DOT increase, but otherwise it's all mighty and precise. Let's say your snipe with 0 CPs hits for 10,000. It would crit for 15k. If mighty is a 20% buff it's now hitting for 12,000, crit for 18k. And if we increase precise to a 15% buffmtomcrit hits, now it smacks for 19,800. This cp config gives your snipe 2,000 or 4,800 more damage, versus the approx 400 extra damage you're getting from light hits in melee weapon expert. And that math applies to every attack. My NB rocks the shrouded daggers with One cast pulling 11k, 12.5k and 14k on three targets.

Reds:
Because your blues are off, you might be off in red. I pile all in hardy and elemental defender (sometimes spending a handful in something else useful, like healing received). These two mitigate incoming physical hits and incoming magic hits. Stopping both types equally is far more effective than anything else to spend on in here, ESPECIALLY armor passives. These are worth far, far, FAR less than hardy and elemental defend.

Greens:
Here you have a little more of a choice, but you want to keep it to stamina recovery and reduce stam cost. You can pile into one then the other, or mix it up between the two. Warlords is really the more useful...it maxes out about 15% cost reduction. This is very, very, very, very helpful on a stamblade. But if you pvp a lot, recovery also becomes important. For my stamblade, I also put a few into magic cost reduction and magic/health recovery...but just 5-10 to get the benefits where the first passives in a line offer a big buff. My stamblade has quite a few magic sinks.

Hopefully these tips help. If you have questions, respond here with @me and it will ding me so I see it.