How much my DPS should be as a fresh 160CP player, and how can I improve it within reasonable limits

HaZmY

Hello fellow amigos!

I am fairly new to end-game content in the game, and I've just reached CP160 with my first character. I really enjoy the game and I will keep improving every day, but as an MMORPG veteran I am kind of confused as I feel I am doing things right, yet I am told my DPS is very low, so here I am asking for help and I hope you guys can assist me.

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I will try to share as much info as I can, if I miss something relevant please let me know!

I am a CP160 Magicka Dragonknight and I am doing 14-15k-ish Single Target DPS.

Weapons - - - Double Purple Julianos Infused Flame Enchanted Inferno Staffs

Gear - - - Full Purple Burning Spellweave Set from City of Ash, but not perfect traits, I only have 1 with Divine so far - No Monster set yet

Accessories - - - Willpower Amulet and Rings

I am also a Vampire.

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I am following Alcast's Magicka DPS guide to learn as much as I can and I am following his rotation also

https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-dragonknight-build-pve/

I am using skills according to it, trying to get gear and use CP points as told there.

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Combat :

I follow the rotation to the best of my abilities I have good uptimes on dot's and AoEs and I also weave light attacks between all skills and ani-cancel.

I use Food buff to have more Magicka and Health, but I don't use Potions yet.

Resource management is tough, but I now manage to not run out of magicka if I have a healer with good synergies. MagDK is pretty tough to not run out on Magicka.

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As I mentioned I am doing around 14k DPS like this, and I am told I should do between 20-25k, and I don't know how I can even get close to that right now. I don't consider myself a noob at all, and that is what confuses me.

I am mainly interested if that is corrent or not and to quote the title "reasonable limits" : I meant that without having to spend hundreds of thousands of gold on things like gold item upgrades or getting a Maelstrom staff from VMA.

Things things will come with time, but I can't get those yet, I am working on it

If you've read all this, thank you so much for your time and any criticism that is constructive is VERY much appreciated!

Xuhora

from a quick reading of what you do and what you have i saw the follow:
- Golden weapons do have a lot more DMG than purple ones, you should upgrade them before the Armor
- Mundus stone set correctly?
- do you use the crafted potions or the dropped potions? because the crafted ones give a hughe boost in sustain and dmg
- Monstersets add arround 1.5-3k DPS depending on which one you choose, just like that, for free, consider this

Merlin13KAGL

Would be cool if some of the high end DPS here would show a parse using non-trials gear and limiting CP's to 160, just to provide a baseline. We'd even pitch in the 6k gold for CP respec.

Would be interesting to see just how much difference the final CP's and gear truly makes, with perfect rotations eliminating inconsistency factors.

My current thinking is 15k+ is pretty solid at cp160. Gold the weapons, as recommended and you'll see a pretty healthy increase, then practice your rotations.

Good luck!

jkolb2030

The only problem with magDK right now, is that you need a lightning wall to proc offbalance in order to use your power lash so you can sustain your resources to finish a parse.

You will also notice a huge DPS loss if you do not have a staff from vet Maelstrom Arena, as those staves still add a ~2k dps increase because of their passive for increased damage from your light attacks while the wall of elements is down.

You will also notice a DPS loss with not having full divines on your gear, maybe not much but it definitely is a needed thing. Monster sets are also insane DPS increases that you are missing out on right now, although willpower is still a very good 3pc set to run instead.

I think if you can get your gear divines, gold your weapons, and get a lightning wall cast for you along with some spell damage potions, you could see 20k on a parse. And from there you can only get better as you finalize your gear.

HaZmY

Ah yes sorry, my mundus stone is the Lover, I forgot that from the post.

Yeah I am already saving up for upgrading my weapons, that is the goal.

I am not using potions yet, I haven't researched that topic but will look into it asap then.

And the monster set hasn't dropped yet unfortunately.

Thanks!

Fvh09NL

Dont worry too much, you'll increase your dps a lot by simply playing harder content more.

HaZmY

I am not terribly worried, just as someone who spends way too much time playing video games and MMORPGs, It somewhat matters to me that I should at least do it right then, I guess that makes sense.

Was curious if that 20-25k with my situation is really possible?

Thanks for the answers!

Sparr0w

20-25k with potions is possible 160-200 yeh (Spell power potions I think - Crit, Spell Damage & Magicka return) but 15k is totally fine for most content. Your DPS will improve over time without endlessly bashing on a dummy

Have you got the spell crit passive from CP & a form of major&minor breach (lower target resistances)?

Only thing after this is are you hitting your LA/HA weaves as half the time you'll likely be missing these. BUT all in all 14-15k for a new cp160 is a great start, theres people cp300-400+ which pull less DPS

Joker99

Have you set your blue CP acording to jump points, if not here’s a link to a guide about how to set them, and what they are: https://alcasthq.com/eso-championpoints-jumppoints/
Here’s another guide for MagDk in the Dragon Bones patch, this is a bit more catered to endgame players but it does have some good information for a new player: https://youtu.be/TUSkY5UZFgo
As for build, 5 BSW 3 Willpower is ok, aim to acquire a Monster Set, prefferably Grothdarr because it’s easy to get.
This setup should be more than enough until around CP300 when you want to start learning VMA for the Inferno Staff.
Make sure you have Spell Damage enchants on all your jewelry and, at least when you practice the rotation or for boss fights, use Spell Power pots, they are expensive but if you want to practice right you have to do it with them.
Other than that, gold out the staves, it gives a significant dps increase, use infused with flame enchant front bar and nirnhoned/ infused with spell damage enchant back bar. There’s no reason to gold the armor now as it gives minimal gain but do get all divines on it at least.
Use The Apprentice mundus, you can use Lover in low pen groups but Lover on the dummy is a no go.
Srendarr or Action Duration Reminder are both great addons to keep track of your dots, use one of them. Don’t try to force a circular rotation on MagDk, you’ll lose significant dps, instead try to cast the dot that is about to run out, it sounds messy but it gives a dps boost and makes you a better player, being able to withstand a dynamic rotation would also make transitioning to a MagBlade or StamBlade easier due to the nature of their rotations, if you ever want to play one.
The last part would be weaving, I’ll assume you know what it is, but if you don’t or if you want to know more here’s a video that explains it pretty well and why it’s reccomended to weave every skill: https://youtu.be/EGEh_NVnJtY
Finally if you’re on PC EU i can invite you in a trials guild where you can start doing veteran trials, there are no requirements other than being CP160, there are also a lot of people even more experienced than me there that can help you improve on your class even more, just leave your @ name here and I’ll send you an invite later.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

In my experience, 20-25k is doable at 160 CP for people that really know the game. They will need to use all the tricks in their bag (potions, major breach, lover, gold weapons and enchants, at least purple gear, BIS traits, etc.) to hit those numbers at that CP, but it can be done. Most people at 160CP, however, dont fall into that category. If you are really pulling 15k DPS for a full dummy pull, you actually arent as far off as you think. This is a game of inches and most subtle changes you make only amount to 1-2k DPS increase, but they can really add up.

If you really want advice on your specific rotation (I assure you, your rotation is a big part of the problem because it ALWAYS is), we need a video or at least a DPS recap.

jnelson1182

I'm having the same issues on the same character lol, the only difference is I'm not running willpower, I have 5pc burning spell weave, or sometimes I switch to 5pcs of suns I prefer the visual effects of bsw which is why I run it more I haven't noticed much of a difference between the two when looking at dmg but I am still pretty new to the game.

Sparr0w

Just had a quick glance at the build & it doesn't appear to have much, if any spell penetration or lower the enemies resistance so this is where you'll likely be losing a lot of DPS on a target dummy (unless someone else is applying debuffs?).

Problem with following endgame builds at lower level/cp is that they're build around having a structured team with the tank, dps and healer all providing constant buffs and debuffs, as well as a nice supply of CP to make up for loses in the build (e.g. the 45 points in spell erosion to increase spell penetration)

Try swapping to the lover mundus for penetration & have someone apply minor/major fracture to simulate a proper scenario, see how you do then.

If still lacking after this then the only thing it'll be is rotation, keep at it

LeagueTroll

For fresh cp 160, 20k if you follow a proper build.