Duelling Armour Types

g0dlik3buthumbl3

Hey folks, I'm getting more into duelling and wondered what kind of medium to heavy ratio other nightblades out there are running? I'm currently wearing 2 heavy and 5 medium, but feel it could be better being a bit more tanky, though i don't want to waste loads of resources to find upping the heavy armour results in too large a damage drop off. Also with HoTR is it worth running heavy after the nerfs to armour classes?

g0dlik3buthumbl3

Bump. Any one duelling out there?

Chrlynsch

Run at least 5 heavy, because... that's what the loudest people on the forum say.

olsborg

Why would you ever not wear 5 heavy if you build for dueling. . . .

IlCanis_LupuslI

Depends on Playstile and class.

IlCanis_LupuslI

As a Stamblade probably medium if your experienced....

g0dlik3buthumbl3

Okay, I'll try to provide more info. Up until now I've mainly pvp'd in Cyrodiil, rather than duelling. I've used a 5 medium 2 heavy build of spriggans and clever alchemist, tending to fight in and around keeps, usually 1 vs 1 or small group. I engage and fight for the duration of my buffs, then disengage my targets and fall back if I'm being overwhelmed. I have initially used the same build for duelling, but found this to be way less successful than in Cyrodiil, so thought perhaps everyone is running loads of heavy and just sacrificing damage when duelling. This will be my first duelling build, so I just wanted a bit of advice from duellers on the trade off between more resistances vs less damage and based on my previous play style, what they thought might be a good approach to improve my survivability without rendering my attacks ineffective. I've looked online to try and get some build advice, but there's not a lot of descriptive build videos out there for duelling. I figured I'll try and make an effective build myself, but wanted to get some insight first.

I also thought that with new balancing to traits and armour classes, people who have been on PTS might have some further insight.

All advice is welcome.

g0dlik3buthumbl3

Surely there must be some seasoned duellers on the forum?

Speed_Kills

I can help. Right now the dueling meta is 5 heavy. On a stamblade you can make good uses of several different heavy sets. In heavy you are able to facetank without having to waste resources on dodge roll. Heavy also allows you to put out similar damage to medium, in some cases more. For dueling 5 heavy is a win-win.
As for sustain, you don't have to build in too much sustain on a heavy stamblade. You can slap on serpent mundus and camoran throne drink and put everything else into damage. With practice you can even swap serpent to warrior.

g0dlik3buthumbl3

Brilliant man, thanks for the input. When you say damage can be higher than that of a medium build, is that because of the wrath passive stacking damage? Looking at sets then, dreugh king and 7th legion brute seem pretty strong to combine with spriggans, one kragh and one veli. Are there any other stamina sets currently excelling? I use eternal hunt in PVP sometimes for the recovery, but that seems it may be less important than the damage in dueling...

g0dlik3buthumbl3

Is the Ravager set any use for dueling? I used to use it back in day for Cyrodiil and seem to remember it having a fairly continuous up time. Switched to medium armour, so I've no idea how it now performs.

fred4

You know there is a duelling forum. Might have more luck there.

Dreugh King 5-piece is only interesting if, for some reason, you don't have Major Brutality, e.g. not using Rally for example.

I'd help, but I play magblade (used to play stam DK). I'd only be rambling .

DeHei

You need to make a build, what supports your playstyle
If you move and dodge a lot you should prefer medium armor. If you are a bit slow to react you should allways use heavy armor. If you use heals and shield over all you should run light armor. Easiest way you can deal with actually.
Sure, its more complex, but that would need much more time to explain.

g0dlik3buthumbl3

I actually didn't notice that there was a dueling forum. Oops.

I have been using dual wield, so no rally. I may switch to 2h though for dueling, so that would sort that problem and free up a 5 piece bonus.
No worries guys, I'll just have to start crafting sets and see what works. No PTS on console, so I was hoping to get a better idea into good sets before I started farming or using all my resources, but I'll just get grinding.

kaithuzar

my previous approach to dueling was "tank to let them waste their resources, then rip into them", this had some success but often was not ideal because I would waste my resources tanking them. Many people build around a one-shot style combo that they want to get off as soon as possible to win the fight before resources become an issue. With two good players it's kind of a timing issue, Who is going to get there combo off first and who is going to run out of resources first.
So you have to have some sustain but you typically build for more damage, the purpose of a dual is to kill your opponent after all.
The key thing to keep in mind when building for damage or your one shot combo is that the damage does not have to come from one source or two sources, The damage can collectively come together from five or six different places. Your ability to combo these damage sources into the smallest timeframe possible not allowing your opponent to react is what wins.