Optimizing Your Build- What matters most??

oneshot_onekill

Hi, I would say I am an intermediate level player in regards to skills/level. By that I mean I am not brand new to the game (I have had it since launch) but I am also not max level/done the hardest content. I have a question in regards to optimizing your builds, what matters most to do good, and what gives you the most return for your time. Let me give you an example: the most basic part of making a build is putting your attribute points in the right place. A stamina based character who puts all his attribute points in magicka is going to be hurting his build a lot; fixing this is easy though and takes little time, for which this person is getting a lot of return for his build for very little time. Now, this is easy and most people dont have trouble with this. What i need help with is past this point- what do you guys think a person should focus on in order to optimize their build? Would it be something like this? Attribute points>skills>gear>champion points>mundus stone? Do you guys have a different list order?

The reason why I ask is because when I do a dungeon I cant get past, i'm not sure what I should focus on. I understand that knowing the mechanics of a dungeon are important, but what if a person/team has the mechanics down. What part of their build should they look at first? Sorry if my question seems open ended

DKsUnite

I dont do DPS or dungeons but i would assume it goes attributes>gear+mundus>skills>CP

Tasear

Style, will I play my results.

Lynx7386

Your question is far too generic to answer. Healers will look at different things than DPS or tanks. Magicka DPS will look at different things than Stamina DPS. Every class looks at things differently as well.

Need to be a little more specific if you want some actual help here =P

BTW, Always do attribute points last when respeccing a character - set your skills, champion points, mundus stone, and put on your food/drink buffs before messing with attribute points. That way you can tweak your attributes to get you to the appropriate health and resource milestones.

Waffennacht

It's all important, but to simplify.

Damage dealers focus on wpn/spell dmg and Max resource - regen, health, and non main resource is secondary
Healers - same as damage dealers but uses healing abilities
Tanks - focus on health and regen stats

You ask about importance between the different state gainers. (I.e. food vs mundus). The stats are equivalent.

Example: if I choose the Mage Mundus that 2k ish mag is worth 2k ish spell damage. If I go for regen mundus, I can use more spell damage glyphs etc. Main resource = 10.1 damage stat.

Dunno if I helped

Lynx7386

Waffennacht wrote: »

It's all important, but to simplify.

Damage dealers focus on wpn/spell dmg and Max resource - regen, health, and non main resource is secondary
Healers - same as damage dealers but uses healing abilities
Tanks - focus on health and regen stats

You ask about importance between the different state gainers. (I.e. food vs mundus). The stats are equivalent.

Example: if I choose the Mage Mundus that 2k ish mag is worth 2k ish spell damage. If I go for regen mundus, I can use more spell damage glyphs etc. Main resource = 10.1 damage stat.

Dunno if I helped

I think you meant "that 2kish magicka is worth 200ish spell damage"

AcadianPaladin

It does no good to kick butt in a dungeon if you don't look good while doing it. So as Tasaer said, style plays very heavily.

SirAndy

oneshot_onekill wrote: »

Optimizing Your Build- What matters most?

Practice your rotation until your fingers bleed, you'll be surprised how much you're leaving on the table, even if you think you got it all down.

Ask me how i know ...

oneshot_onekill

Tasear wrote: »

Style will I play my results.

Yes, I try and not focus on what's best in slot, but whats "good and I like". So for example, if I like something, but statistically it's ***, I won't use it. If I enjoy something and it's good, but not quite best in slot, I'll use it.

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Your question is far too generic to answer. Healers will look at different things than DPS or tanks. Magicka DPS will look at different things than Stamina DPS. Every class looks at things differently as well.

Need to be a little more specific if you want some actual help here =P

BTW, Always do attribute points last when respeccing a character - set your skills, champion points, mundus stone, and put on your food/drink buffs before messing with attribute points. That way you can tweak your attributes to get you to the appropriate health and resource milestones.

I guess I'm not trying to give specific builds because I'm looking for more of a "way of thinking" than I am "fix this build ". You don't have some general, very important "rules" that should be followed that apply to all builds?

When I thought of this question, I was playing my stam sorc. I have a 5pc hundings rage/5 sword dancer/2 piece sellstrix. My build is more focused on AOE damage. I was doing the final boss of selenes web. I had trouble killing the adds ands staying alive. After I couldn't do the dungeon,i rechecked all my gear and found some things I was missing(no enchantments, cp points put on stupid things). Since I fixed all of that, my build had 2500 weapon damage , 32k stam, 45 percent weapon crit. Me changing my gear and seeing all the stuff I had wrong made me think of "well what could I fix next" and like a billion other questions kept popping in my head lol

Lynx7386

oneshot_onekill wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Style will I play my results.

Yes, I try and not focus on what's best in slot, but whats "good and I like". So for example, if I like something, but statistically it's ***, I won't use it. If I enjoy something and it's good, but not quite best in slot, I'll use it.

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Your question is far too generic to answer. Healers will look at different things than DPS or tanks. Magicka DPS will look at different things than Stamina DPS. Every class looks at things differently as well.

Need to be a little more specific if you want some actual help here =P

BTW, Always do attribute points last when respeccing a character - set your skills, champion points, mundus stone, and put on your food/drink buffs before messing with attribute points. That way you can tweak your attributes to get you to the appropriate health and resource milestones.

I guess I'm not trying to give specific builds because I'm looking for more of a "way of thinking" than I am "fix this build ". You don't have some general, very important "rules" that should be followed that apply to all builds?

When I thought of this question, I was playing my stam sorc. I have a 5pc hundings rage/5 sword dancer/2 piece sellstrix. My build is more focused on AOE damage. I was doing the final boss of selenes web. I had trouble killing the adds ands staying alive. After I couldn't do the dungeon,i rechecked all my gear and found some things I was missing(no enchantments, cp points put on stupid things). Since I fixed all of that, my build had 2500 weapon damage , 32k stam, 45 percent weapon crit. Me changing my gear and seeing all the stuff I had wrong made me think of "well what could I fix next" and like a billion other questions kept popping in my head lol

Are you soloing these dungeons or doing vet/group content?

oneshot_onekill

Lynx7386 wrote: »

oneshot_onekill wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Style will I play my results.

Yes, I try and not focus on what's best in slot, but whats "good and I like". So for example, if I like something, but statistically it's ***, I won't use it. If I enjoy something and it's good, but not quite best in slot, I'll use it.

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Your question is far too generic to answer. Healers will look at different things than DPS or tanks. Magicka DPS will look at different things than Stamina DPS. Every class looks at things differently as well.

Need to be a little more specific if you want some actual help here =P

BTW, Always do attribute points last when respeccing a character - set your skills, champion points, mundus stone, and put on your food/drink buffs before messing with attribute points. That way you can tweak your attributes to get you to the appropriate health and resource milestones.

I guess I'm not trying to give specific builds because I'm looking for more of a "way of thinking" than I am "fix this build ". You don't have some general, very important "rules" that should be followed that apply to all builds?

When I thought of this question, I was playing my stam sorc. I have a 5pc hundings rage/5 sword dancer/2 piece sellstrix. My build is more focused on AOE damage. I was doing the final boss of selenes web. I had trouble killing the adds ands staying alive. After I couldn't do the dungeon,i rechecked all my gear and found some things I was missing(no enchantments, cp points put on stupid things). Since I fixed all of that, my build had 2500 weapon damage , 32k stam, 45 percent weapon crit. Me changing my gear and seeing all the stuff I had wrong made me think of "well what could I fix next" and like a billion other questions kept popping in my head lol

Are you soloing these dungeons or doing vet/group content?

4 man group dungeons with my friends

Jarryzzt

My way of thinking (for DPS chars). Mileage varies.

1. Stamina or magicka.
-- This also pretty much determines the likely weapon setup unless I am doing something experimental (e.g. double bow Warden).

2. Skill selection. [Some of the below overlap.]
-- What DoTs am I going to lay down and how many?
-- Do I have an execute skill?
-- What buffs will I be using?

---

What is my source of +20% Berserk?

---

Do I have any sources of +8% Berserk or +crit/crit damage?
-- What debuffs will I be using, if any?

---

Do I have any skill-based sources of piercing?
-- What defenses will I be using? [Self-heal, shield, et cetera.]
-- What skills will I include purely/primarily/largely for the passive bonus? [Inner Light is a good example.]
-- What am I double-barring and why? [Pets, always-on-buffs, something I plan to recast on both bars, et cetera.]
-- Spammable or heavy attack or both?
-- Which ultimate will I be using in what situation?

---

Are any ultimates there just for the passives (e.g. Dawnbringer with Ballista on the backbar or "anything" with Soul Harvest on the backbar)?
-- Are there any skills that help with sustain?

3. Set up both bars.
-- Ergonomics trump "meta". You have to be comfortable in executing the rotation.
-- Which bar do I want my various utility skills on? [Buffs, debuffs, self-heals.]

---

I.e. at which point in the rotation do I want to be using them?
-- What is my opening bar? When do I switch and switch back?
-- Make sure the skills most frequently used are associated with the buttons easiest to press (especially on a controller).
-- Controller-specific - LA weave very difficult (for me) with a skill bound to RB. Therefore, try to not bind frequently used skills to RB...

4. Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe gear.
-- What sets fit the playing style (ranged, close-up, et cetera)?
-- What sets complement the skills (e.g. if have high crit damage but low crit, consider Mechanical Acuity)?
-- What holes does the build have (e.g. poor AoE) and can any set compensate?
-- Gear availability. [Trumps everything.]
-- Do I need a monster set or is 5x5x1 / 5x4x1 the way to go?
-- Am I going to use a "special" weapon and should I consider 5x5 or 5x3x2 for the other slots?

5. Practice rotation.
-- Revise to make it more ergonomic.
-- Pay attention to sustain. Insert extra heavy attacks as necessary in lieu of "optimal" rotation.
-- Consider how defensive skills (shields, self heals, et cetera) fit.

---

Will they be used as emergency burst? Have 100% uptime? Something else?
-- Run multiple (many!) dungeons and compare how well the rotation fares on a dummy vs. in the middle of a hectic boss fight.
-- Do not hesitate to change skills, bar setup or even gear if something isn't working until you find something that does.
-- Look at the DPS parses (especially from "live" fights rather than dummies).

---

Which skills are the highest damage dealers?

---

Which ones are underperforming?

---

What is the buff/debuff uptime?

---

What is the aggregate DPS output and is it higher/lower than expected/desired?

---

What can be done with the rotation to fix this?

---

I mean, that's pretty much how it goes. Sometimes I hit on what I want nearly straight away - other times I change gear/skill setup/rotation three, four, five times to find a combination that works for me.

Tasear

I only play support besides my werewolf so there's more freedom. I am quite serious on style. Though my style is more about how live to my characters higgest potential.

For instance I think wardens look better in mending because they have cloak that gives restiances and more defensive buffs.

My sorc looks good in twlight because..of the name..I mean buffs for Magicka and heals over time.

My mysterious Templar so far does better giving stamina back to allies with sentiental set.

My nightblade enjoys master artectect for it's self and others or so is the current state.

Dragon Knight will like guidance I believe.

My tanks enjoys shields and evasion and speed

oneshot_onekill

Jarryzzt wrote: »

My way of thinking (for DPS chars). Mileage varies.

1. Stamina or magicka.
-- This also pretty much determines the likely weapon setup unless I am doing something experimental (e.g. double bow Warden).

2. Skill selection. [Some of the below overlap.]
-- What DoTs am I going to lay down and how many?
-- Do I have an execute skill?
-- What buffs will I be using?

---

What is my source of +20% Berserk?

---

Do I have any sources of +8% Berserk or +crit/crit damage?
-- What debuffs will I be using, if any?

---

Do I have any skill-based sources of piercing?
-- What defenses will I be using? [Self-heal, shield, et cetera.]
-- What skills will I include purely/primarily/largely for the passive bonus? [Inner Light is a good example.]
-- What am I double-barring and why? [Pets, always-on-buffs, something I plan to recast on both bars, et cetera.]
-- Spammable or heavy attack or both?
-- Which ultimate will I be using in what situation?

---

Are any ultimates there just for the passives (e.g. Dawnbringer with Ballista on the backbar or "anything" with Soul Harvest on the backbar)?
-- Are there any skills that help with sustain?

3. Set up both bars.
-- Ergonomics trump "meta". You have to be comfortable in executing the rotation.
-- Which bar do I want my various utility skills on? [Buffs, debuffs, self-heals.]

---

I.e. at which point in the rotation do I want to be using them?
-- What is my opening bar? When do I switch and switch back?
-- Make sure the skills most frequently used are associated with the buttons easiest to press (especially on a controller).
-- Controller-specific - LA weave very difficult (for me) with a skill bound to RB. Therefore, try to not bind frequently used skills to RB...

4. Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe gear.
-- What sets fit the playing style (ranged, close-up, et cetera)?
-- What sets complement the skills (e.g. if have high crit damage but low crit, consider Mechanical Acuity)?
-- What holes does the build have (e.g. poor AoE) and can any set compensate?
-- Gear availability. [Trumps everything.]
-- Do I need a monster set or is 5x5x1 / 5x4x1 the way to go?
-- Am I going to use a "special" weapon and should I consider 5x5 or 5x3x2 for the other slots?

5. Practice rotation.
-- Revise to make it more ergonomic.
-- Pay attention to sustain. Insert extra heavy attacks as necessary in lieu of "optimal" rotation.
-- Consider how defensive skills (shields, self heals, et cetera) fit.

---

Will they be used as emergency burst? Have 100% uptime? Something else?
-- Run multiple (many!) dungeons and compare how well the rotation fares on a dummy vs. in the middle of a hectic boss fight.
-- Do not hesitate to change skills, bar setup or even gear if something isn't working until you find something that does.
-- Look at the DPS parses (especially from "live" fights rather than dummies).

---

Which skills are the highest damage dealers?

---

Which ones are underperforming?

---

What is the buff/debuff uptime?

---

What is the aggregate DPS output and is it higher/lower than expected/desired?

---

What can be done with the rotation to fix this?

---

I mean, that's pretty much how it goes. Sometimes I hit on what I want nearly straight away - other times I change gear/skill setup/rotation three, four, five times to find a combination that works for me.

Damn this post was awesome.

1. For a stam sorc, you think bow/dual wield is good?

2. -Do you recommend a particular amount of dots? I have two on my bow bar (arrow barrage/acid spray) and one on my dual wield bar (blood thirst).
-I don't have an execute skill. Not sure if a stam sorc has one. They necessary?
-is berserk one of those things that you don't "have" to have, but is so good it's almost necessary ? I'm guessing cus that's all you singled out? I have these for the enchantments on my weapons
-for defense, my dual wield ultimate and my dw bloodthirst move heal me. I also have dark deal to heal. Do you think some defense/self heals are necessary even with a healer present?
-I had no idea people slotted ultimates for passives. Right now my ultimates are the bow and dw ones.

3. -I have a bow/dw bar. To be completely honest, I'm not sure exactly WHY I have it likes this, besides the fact that it seemed cool. I think I've read some where that bow has sub par dps to dw? Also, I figured i might need a good source of ranged dps just in case I can't be on the enemy due to an attack or something. Do people usually devote a whole bar to utilities/buffs/debuffs /heals? I usually had some on each bar, don't know if that's more efficient or not
-I have an elite controller so all my skills are pretty easily accessible

4. not sure what you're trying to say by crossing out "this on the tree of woe". For my sets, I'm running 5 hundings/5 sword dancer/2 sellstrix. Like I said earlier I'm going for an AOE dps build. I feel like these five piece sets let me do a ton of AOE damage, then sellstrix constantly cc's mobs and does more damage to groups.

5. .in combination with my armor, I have AOE type skills. On my dw bar, I have steel tornado, deadly cloak, and hurricane. These three make for good passive AOE and I spam steel tornado. If I can, I'll swap bars first so I can lay down arrow barrage and acid spray.
-I think I might need to reconsider why I have a bow, or change some of the skills so it has a better purpose. Right now I mainly stay on my dw bar, but switch to my bow bar when I have to (like when I'm not able to get close up dps) or when I want to use critical surge (major brutality). Other than those two things I hardly use my bow bar.
-for dps parses, what do you mean? Like the damage info? Can you look at that on Xbox?

Thanks for you post it's helped a ton so far

Saint_Bud

If you are a damage dealer, you should be a nb, if not reroll a nb char.

Septimus_Magna

First and foremost definitely skills, if you dont use the right skills you'll be doing a bad job regardless of what you're doing.
Rotation of the skills is also an important factor, Ive seen ppl in good setups struggle to break 20k dps while other easily pull 30k in the same setup. Watch YT build videos about your class (from the most recent update) and practice the rotation.

In dungeons its just as important to understand the mechanics, if you dont do the mechanics right you or someone else usually dies. Again, watch videos that explain the dungeon mechanics. Some mechanics are really obvious and some are hard to figure out on your own.

Attributes, gear and CP is important but it wont magically ensure you'll clear a dungeon. For gear you'll want sets that boost whatever you're doing, the most noticeable difference after that is the weapon quality (for DDs and healers).

fred4

Lynx7386 wrote: »

BTW, Always do attribute points last when respeccing a character - set your skills, champion points, mundus stone, and put on your food/drink buffs before messing with attribute points. That way you can tweak your attributes to get you to the appropriate health and resource milestones.

I fully agree with that! If you automatically go full stamina or full magicka, before doing anything else, you're doing it wrong.

For example, for a PvP build, the alternate stat is almost always very useful, which is why the Shacklebreaker set is so popular, as it gives you both stats. It also follows that all Hakeijo enchants are almost always the optimal way to build, if you have the gold or play-time in Imperial City for that. This may lead you to use Ghastly Eye Bowl or Lava Foot Soup, in place of the more ubiquitous Witchmother's Potent Brew or Dubious Camoran Throne. You may find that the Hakeijo enchants get you in the ballpark of where your health should be, and that investing a few points into health and using Ghastly / Lava Foot gives you a better build than just throwing on Shacklebreaker / Witchmother's / Dubious without prismatic enchants and calling it a day.

fred4

Waffennacht wrote: »

You ask about importance between the different state gainers. (I.e. food vs mundus). The stats are equivalent.

Example: if I choose the Mage Mundus that 2k ish mag is worth 2k ish spell damage. If I go for regen mundus, I can use more spell damage glyphs etc. Main resource = 10.1 damage stat.

You mean 2K ish mag is worth 200 ish spell damage.

The exact trade-off is something you'd need to test for your character. For example, if you are a Breton NB or warden, slotting Inner Light and a Siphoning skill / Northern Storm, you will get +25% magicka. On the other hand your spell damage will be buffed by +20% from Major Sorcery. How it pans out - what is better - will depend on your exact build.

Light and Heavy attacks are buffed more by spell damage. The ratio is roughly 40:1, e.g. 40 magicka = 1 spell damage for those types of attacks. Thus, if you rely on a lot of heavy attacks, for example, then spell damage is more important for you than magicka.

Interestingly the Atro vs Mage decision does not come down purely to the math. The math refers to in-combat values. The Atro mundus also buffs out-of-combat mag. regen, whereas jewelry magicka recovery enchants, and magicka recovery item set bonuses, do not. Thus, if you have a lot of buffs to refresh inbetween combat, you will notice that your magicka regenerates quicker with the Atro mundus than if you used magicka recovery enchants to give you the exact same on-paper recovery stats.

fred4

oneshot_onekill wrote: »

Damn this post was awesome.

I agree.

BTW, I'm a PvPer who is trying to reply to some of this. I sure hope there will be more answers from people more qualified than I.

1. For a stam sorc, you think bow/dual wield is good?

Yes.

2. -Do you recommend a particular amount of dots? I have two on my bow bar (arrow barrage/acid spray) and one on my dual wield bar (blood thirst).

Bloodthirst is a spammable channel. Do you mean Blood Craze?

Arrow Barrage is a bread and butter skill. Keep it! I personally prefer this morph, but I think that high-end PvEers usually go for Endless Hail, which has better application for nuking bosses. If you happen to have Maelstrom daggers, the Cruel Flurry enchantment can boost all your DOTs the longer they run, which is another reason for Endless Hail. Maelstrom daggers are or used to be quite OP, I think.

Drop Acid Spray, and replace it with Poison Injection, unless you have that bow (Master? Asylum?) that specifically buffs Acid Spray. At any rate Poison Injection is a strong execute, feeding into your next question.

-I don't have an execute skill. Not sure if a stam sorc has one. They necessary?

My instinct would be to say, yes. Also 2H Reverse Slice is a really good AOE skill rolled up into an execute, but that is my impression in casual play, e.g. levelling with it in Spellscar. I don't know what's optimal for trials.

All DW skills include a small amount of execute damage (+10%). Steel Tornado scales to the damage of a single-target skill when enemies are in execute range, which makes it the strongest spammable AOE in the game. However it is not the single target execute you may be looking for, so I'll leave this for others to answer.

-is berserk one of those things that you don't "have" to have, but is so good it's almost necessary ? I'm guessing cus that's all you singled out? I have these for the enchantments on my weapons

I believe you will want a so-called berserker enchant - the raise weapon damage enchant - on an infused weapon these days. Whether that's optimally the bow or one of the DW weapons, I cannot say.

What the poster meant, howeve, were the berserk buffs. NB gets Minor Berserk from Grim Focus, Warden from Bird of Prey. I don't think sorc can get it from a class skill. Anyone can get it from Combat Prayer, a resto staff skill. It is usually the healer who gives this to the group.

Major Berserk can be gotten from the sorc Atro, but I don't know whether people use that skill other than in duels, and certainly not on a stamsorc. The poster probably meant the 20% spell damage from Major Brutality.

-for defense, my dual wield ultimate and my dw bloodthirst move heal me. I also have dark deal to heal. Do you think some defense/self heals are necessary even with a healer present?

Do some PvP and get Resolving Vigor, so you can play around with it, if necessary. Best stamina healing skill in the game. I am not up to date on what's optimal for PvE stam sorc, but based on past experience I'd strongly recommend Crit Surge for Major Brutality and healing.

-I had no idea people slotted ultimates for passives. Right now my ultimates are the bow and dw ones.

I like the DW ulti. Rend lasts so long, great for healing if you need it. However it has a narrow cone. Flawless Dawnbreaker will give you passive damage, as well as burst, DOT, and hits in a wider cone.

Minno

fred4 wrote: »

Lynx7386 wrote: »

BTW, Always do attribute points last when respeccing a character - set your skills, champion points, mundus stone, and put on your food/drink buffs before messing with attribute points. That way you can tweak your attributes to get you to the appropriate health and resource milestones.

I fully agree with that! If you automatically go full stamina or full magicka, before doing anything else, you're doing it wrong.

For example, for a PvP build, the alternate stat is almost always very useful, which is why the Shacklebreaker set is so popular, as it gives you both stats. It also follows that all Hakeijo enchants are almost always the optimal way to build, if you have the gold or play-time in Imperial City for that. This may lead you to use Ghastly Eye Bowl or Lava Foot Soup, in place of the more ubiquitous Witchmother's Potent Brew or Dubious Camoran Throne. You may find that the Hakeijo enchants get you in the ballpark of where your health should be, and that investing a few points into health and using Ghastly / Lava Foot gives you a better build than just throwing on Shacklebreaker / Witchmother's / Dubious without prismatic enchants and calling it a day.

I like this advice. To add to this, blabafat used to tell Templars that it was easier to swap enchants for stats but attributes were more important to start on your max stat for offense/heals because its harder to swap your attributes than to get new gear for enchants.

Tasear

Minno wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Lynx7386 wrote: »

BTW, Always do attribute points last when respeccing a character - set your skills, champion points, mundus stone, and put on your food/drink buffs before messing with attribute points. That way you can tweak your attributes to get you to the appropriate health and resource milestones.

I fully agree with that! If you automatically go full stamina or full magicka, before doing anything else, you're doing it wrong.

For example, for a PvP build, the alternate stat is almost always very useful, which is why the Shacklebreaker set is so popular, as it gives you both stats. It also follows that all Hakeijo enchants are almost always the optimal way to build, if you have the gold or play-time in Imperial City for that. This may lead you to use Ghastly Eye Bowl or Lava Foot Soup, in place of the more ubiquitous Witchmother's Potent Brew or Dubious Camoran Throne. You may find that the Hakeijo enchants get you in the ballpark of where your health should be, and that investing a few points into health and using Ghastly / Lava Foot gives you a better build than just throwing on Shacklebreaker / Witchmother's / Dubious without prismatic enchants and calling it a day.

I like this advice. To add to this, blabafat used to tell Templars that it was easier to swap enchants for stats but attributes were more important to start on your max stat for offense/heals because its harder to swap your attributes than to get new gear for enchants.

Leaves more options when moving from dps to healer or simply PvP to pve.

fred4

3. -I have a bow/dw bar. To be completely honest, I'm not sure exactly WHY I have it likes this, besides the fact that it seemed cool. I think I've read some where that bow has sub par dps to dw?

That's probably true if you used the bow as your primary weapon, e.g. you used Snipe. Don't do that. Bow is a great secondary weapon, due to Endless Hail, one of the best AOE DOTs in the game, and Poison Injection. One thing to note about Arrow Barrage / Endless Hail is that it ticks more frequently than other skills, namely every 0.5 seconds. This makes it ideal to proc enchants, poisons, and armor sets, such as Red Mountain.

Also, I figured i might need a good source of ranged dps just in case I can't be on the enemy due to an attack or something. Do people usually devote a whole bar to utilities/buffs/debuffs /heals? I usually had some on each bar, don't know if that's more efficient or not.

Ranged DPS is good for exactly that reason. Splitting skills is fine. I'd even say it is the smart way to go. Your DW bar will have better stats and give you better Vigor heals, for example.

-I think I might need to reconsider why I have a bow, or change some of the skills so it has a better purpose. Right now I mainly stay on my dw bar, but switch to my bow bar when I have to (like when I'm not able to get close up dps) or when I want to use critical surge (major brutality). Other than those two things I hardly use my bow bar.

You are running a squishy build and could build for greater tankiness, sure. 1H+S would enhance your blocking and tankiness. 2H would give you a burst heal with Rally, and an execute. That said, for pure AOE DPS, I believe DW / bow is best. You are not using your build to full potential. On mobs, always keep up Arrow Barrage / Endless Hail. On bosses also keep up Poison Injection.

Jaimeh

oneshot_onekill wrote: »

The reason why I ask is because when I do a dungeon I cant get past, i'm not sure what I should focus on. I understand that knowing the mechanics of a dungeon are important, but what if a person/team has the mechanics down. What part of their build should they look at first? Sorry if my question seems open ended

In the case you describe (following mechanics, but still wiping) I would say gear, playstyle, and coordination. By playstyle, I mean having a good rotation, managing resources well so you don't stop doing damage, and using skills/weapons that suit the fight (for e.g. a sorc using mines on a single target that's also immune, or a dps using a resto staff when there's a healer); by gear I mean players having sets suitable for their role, and even then, taking into account group composition (a healer wearing Worm with stam dps, etc.), and then by coordination I mean assigning certain actions to certain members, even when everyone knows the mechanics (for instance, bodies must be cleansed in FH, but there's not point having everyone do the purifying ritual).

fred4

And, in case you don't already, always keep up light / heavy attack weaving. Both DW and bow are particulary good (easy / fast) for weaving heavy attacks to restore stamina. You can basically hold the light / heavy attack button while activating other skills, and you will tend to weave heavy or partial heavy attacks automatically.

Waffennacht

Whoops, yeah 200, but you guys helped me out already

oneshot_onekill

fred4 wrote: »

And, in case you don't already, always keep up light / heavy attack weaving. Both DW and bow are particulary good (easy / fast) for weaving heavy attacks to restore stamina. You can basically hold the light / heavy attack button while activating other skills, and you will tend to weave heavy or partial heavy attacks automatically.

Thanks man, I read all your other posts. It helped a ton. I didn't think of poison injection for an execute. I'll take all the tips and info from this thread and improve my game

raj72616a

dungeon mechanics > rotation > equipments > stats race mundus