(Answered) Advice on Stam DK DPS Build?

Valykc

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Asmael

You seem to have sustain issues (considering you use Serpent, aren't CP-capped yet, plan to race-change to redguard and such), which also makes me wonder whether you use potions (crafted or not). Don't hesitate to use a heavy attack at the beginning of a rotation, as the DPS loss is minimal.

Another thing: 5/1/1 sounds cool and neat in theory, but you actually lose both damage and sustain for more survivability (since you get extra crit for each piece). Your health is very high, even for vet trials, while you have the same stamina as I do when I use no extra Undaunted mettle bonus and I play a Khajiit. Less health, more stamina is the way to go if you really want to keep competitive DPS.

Gold weapons are a must. Purple armor is fine, but the difference between gold & purple weapons can be a few thousands here and there.

Again: do you use crafted potions? My guess is nope, so you are not benefiting from Major savagery (crit) on your backbar.

You do not use caltrops, so that's an extra DPS loss (sadly, caltrops is mandatory if you want to keep playing stamina in vet trials, as it is too much of a DPS loss to not use it).

Get your CPs as well, 160 CPs is 53-54 missing in the blue one (and some extra stamina from the green one), so you're missing on quite a few % as well.

You may consider a heavy attack build, which:

• Makes maelstrom daggers irrelevant
• Can actually outDPS said maelstrom daggers (still need a maelstrom bow) at the cost of more complex rotation
• have virtually unlimited sustain, and allows you to stay Imperial (which would actually be better than Redguard for this setup) and drop anything sustain-related

I'll just quote my own comment on another thread if you're interested in this option:

W.I.P - heavy attack build / stam DK

Gear needs to be tested further still, but Twice Fanged Snake is pretty much guaranteed to be included

DW - Noxious Breath, Rending Slashes, Deadly Cloak, Venomous Claw, Rearming Trap // Flawless Dawnbreaker
Bow - Molten Armaments, <flex>, Razor Caltrops, Poison Injection, Endless Hail // Standard of Might

<flex> depends on raid situation, so it can be chains, Resolving Vigor, Acid Spray, Bone Shield, Igneous Shield... whatever floats your boat as long as it it not flames of Oblivion or any morph of Expert Hunter, since it would remove your crit chance on front bar on the next weapon swap. You don't really have time for FoO anyway.

Initial rotation (engaging boss with full ultimate)

Prebuff with Molten armaments then Deadly cloak

FHA stands for Fully charged Heavy Attack. It's important to never use a bow heavy attack, as those are weaker and slower than DW ones. LA stands for Light attack.

FHA > Hail > LA > Caltrops > LA > Poison Injection (swap) > FHA > Trap > FHA > Claw > FHA > Rending > LA > Breath > LA > Deadly cloak (swap) > LA > Standard of might

Normal rotation

LA > Hail > LA > Poison Injection (swap) > FHA > Trap > FHA > Claw > FHA > Rending

IF Deadly cloak is up for another 5 seconds THEN

FHA > Breath (swap)

ELSE

LA > Breath > LA > Deadly cloak (swap)

Refreshing long-duration DoTs and ultimates + specific situations

These are to be considered for each specific fight, if possible:
If you have 6 seconds left on Molten Armaments after applying Poison Injection, you have time to complete the FHA, thus you can refresh it on your next rotation
In some extremely deadly situations, it might be advisable to refresh Deadly cloak early if needed (such as Mage HM or vMoL HM), so you would change the DW part of your rotation by putting an LA > Deadly cloak before starting your first FHA.
If you have 5 or more seconds left on Deadly cloak, and you're about to apply noxious breath AND (Caltrops / Molten Armaments are about to run out OR Standard is going to be up) you can use a LA before Noxious breath to grant your other DoTs an extra 1s uptime on your next rotation.
Don't be afraid to weapon swap in the middle of a rotation if your Standard is ready.

This is a much more complicated rotation than the standard one, thus I would not recommend it if you're just getting started. Refreshing Molten Armaments or Caltrops too early can cause a severe drop of DPS in the long run. You also need good timing on your abilities and perfect use of AC.

Pratice and testing conditions - you do not need to use Major Fracture on a target dummy to know where you're at, but you do need to know how much of a difference it is (about 10%).

Final point: Standard of Might is still the superior choice compared to Rend for stam DKs (albeit by a smaller margin than before).

Correcting all the above points will most likely help you get much closer to 30k, but again, practice, proper weaving and good decision-making will not happen without experience.

Valykc

Asmael wrote: »

You seem to have sustain issues (considering you use Serpent, aren't CP-capped yet, plan to race-change to redguard and such), which also makes me wonder whether you use potions (crafted or not). Don't hesitate to use a heavy attack at the beginning of a rotation, as the DPS loss is minimal.

Another thing: 5/1/1 sounds cool and neat in theory, but you actually lose both damage and sustain for more survivability (since you get extra crit for each piece). Your health is very high, even for vet trials, while you have the same stamina as I do when I use no extra Undaunted mettle bonus and I play a Khajiit. Less health, more stamina is the way to go if you really want to keep competitive DPS.

Gold weapons are a must. Purple armor is fine, but the difference between gold & purple weapons can be a few thousands here and there.

Again: do you use crafted potions? My guess is nope, so you are not benefiting from Major savagery (crit) on your backbar.

You do not use caltrops, so that's an extra DPS loss (sadly, caltrops is mandatory if you want to keep playing stamina in vet trials, as it is too much of a DPS loss to not use it).

Get your CPs as well, 160 CPs is 53-54 missing in the blue one (and some extra stamina from the green one), so you're missing on quite a few % as well.

You may consider a heavy attack build, which:

• Makes maelstrom daggers irrelevant
• Can actually outDPS said maelstrom daggers (still need a maelstrom bow) at the cost of more complex rotation
• have virtually unlimited sustain, and allows you to stay Imperial (which would actually be better than Redguard for this setup) and drop anything sustain-related

I'll just quote my own comment on another thread if you're interested in this option:

W.I.P - heavy attack build / stam DK

Gear needs to be tested further still, but Twice Fanged Snake is pretty much guaranteed to be included

DW - Noxious Breath, Rending Slashes, Deadly Cloak, Venomous Claw, Rearming Trap // Flawless Dawnbreaker
Bow - Molten Armaments, <flex>, Razor Caltrops, Poison Injection, Endless Hail // Standard of Might

<flex> depends on raid situation, so it can be chains, Resolving Vigor, Acid Spray, Bone Shield, Igneous Shield... whatever floats your boat as long as it it not flames of Oblivion or any morph of Expert Hunter, since it would remove your crit chance on front bar on the next weapon swap. You don't really have time for FoO anyway.

Initial rotation (engaging boss with full ultimate)

Prebuff with Molten armaments then Deadly cloak

FHA stands for Fully charged Heavy Attack. It's important to never use a bow heavy attack, as those are weaker and slower than DW ones. LA stands for Light attack.

FHA > Hail > LA > Caltrops > LA > Poison Injection (swap) > FHA > Trap > FHA > Claw > FHA > Rending > LA > Breath > LA > Deadly cloak (swap) > LA > Standard of might

Normal rotation

LA > Hail > LA > Poison Injection (swap) > FHA > Trap > FHA > Claw > FHA > Rending

IF Deadly cloak is up for another 5 seconds THEN

FHA > Breath (swap)

ELSE

LA > Breath > LA > Deadly cloak (swap)

Refreshing long-duration DoTs and ultimates + specific situations

These are to be considered for each specific fight, if possible:
If you have 6 seconds left on Molten Armaments after applying Poison Injection, you have time to complete the FHA, thus you can refresh it on your next rotation
In some extremely deadly situations, it might be advisable to refresh Deadly cloak early if needed (such as Mage HM or vMoL HM), so you would change the DW part of your rotation by putting an LA > Deadly cloak before starting your first FHA.
If you have 5 or more seconds left on Deadly cloak, and you're about to apply noxious breath AND (Caltrops / Molten Armaments are about to run out OR Standard is going to be up) you can use a LA before Noxious breath to grant your other DoTs an extra 1s uptime on your next rotation.
Don't be afraid to weapon swap in the middle of a rotation if your Standard is ready.

This is a much more complicated rotation than the standard one, thus I would not recommend it if you're just getting started. Refreshing Molten Armaments or Caltrops too early can cause a severe drop of DPS in the long run. You also need good timing on your abilities and perfect use of AC.

Pratice and testing conditions - you do not need to use Major Fracture on a target dummy to know where you're at, but you do need to know how much of a difference it is (about 10%).

Final point: Standard of Might is still the superior choice compared to Rend for stam DKs (albeit by a smaller margin than before).

Correcting all the above points will most likely help you get much closer to 30k, but again, practice, proper weaving and good decision-making will not happen without experience.

Wow, thank you so much for the insightful post! The sustain can be an issue if I'm solo but in most normal trial so far there's enough synergies and repentances going off that I haven't had issues. I will certainly work on your above points. No I wasn't using any crafted potions, just the essence of stamina ones. Seriously though, this has been the most helpful post I have ever received on the forums. Thanks so much