To Be Or Not To Be A Vampire?

HEXENWOLF

Both my partner and I really, really hate how vampirism looks in ESO. (It seems we're not alone.) However, we both elected to become vampires early on because it is recommended for most builds. My question is, how big or small of a DPS increase is it to be a vampire? 10% extra recovery sounds like a fairly substantial amount, but I'm also terrible at math so I could be making something out of nothing. Neither of us are looking to top leaderboards but we have always tended towards min/maxing because we strive to be/play our best. Help would be appreciated!

MLGProPlayer

The regen passive is overpowered. It's the equivalent of putting 43 CP points into your regen tree, or picking a class with 10% resource regen, but you get this for free (on top of all those other passives). It's pretty insane. The drawbacks are mostly irrelevant in PvE. The extra fire damage is completely negated by CP passives and the vampire's own passives that reduce incoming damage. Health regen is the most useless stat in the game as all heals in this game come in bursts.

The only real drawback is looking like a necrotic troll.

OmniDo

I play a vampire because I love everything about being one, except the day-walking nonsense.
But as for benefits, Stage 2 is more than adequate for most situations, Stage 3 if youre tanking or expecting alot of incoming burst damage, and Stage 4 only if you want more mobility, but its a detriment otherwise.

Comparison of appearances, from Mortal to Monster:

Pink_Violinz

For dps it's not a deal breaker. Most can sustain perfectly fine without. For lower cp players and those who don't have their rotations perfect it may be very helpful, however. It really comes down to personal preference. DPS wise, it won't make a big change if you can already sustain.

Also, you can use a disguise or skin to hide it. Not the greatest solution, but they work.

idk

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

The regen passive is overpowered. It's the equivalent of putting 43 CP points into your regen tree, or picking a class with 10% resource regen, but you get this for free (on top of all those other passives). It's pretty insane. The drawbacks are mostly irrelevant in PvE. The extra fire damage is completely negated by CP passives and the vampire's own passives that reduce incoming damage. Health regen is the most useless stat in the game as all heals in this game come in bursts.

The only real drawback is looking like a necrotic troll.

It is not free. 25% increased damage from fire is not small when it comes to PvP and some of the newest end game content.

Anyone who has cleared vHoF can tell you the draw backs are not irrelevant in PvE.

CP does not completely negate the fire damage either.

Vampire passives that reduces damage (when low health already) does not reduces it severally. Again, those that have cleared the more challenging content as a vamp dps or healer probably never noticed that passive.

Just keeping the facts straight.

To OP, it is really a personal choice. I do recall after playing with my first vampire I realized I became better at avoiding damage. Bank in the day Vet CoA, now CoA II, was actually a challenge in HM. Two or three fights had fire damage.

Toast_STS

no

Aliyavana

you can always feed to avoid the negative affects in areas with lots of fire

HEXENWOLF

OmniDo wrote: »

I play a vampire because I love everything about being one, except the day-walking nonsense.
But as for benefits, Stage 2 is more than adequate for most situations, Stage 3 if youre tanking or expecting alot of incoming burst damage, and Stage 4 only if you want more mobility, but its a detriment otherwise.

Comparison of appearances, from Mortal to Monster:

Yeah, I actually really liked the earlier vampire stages. The thing is, I don't want to be fussed with remembering to eat a tasty human meal for cosmetic reasons. It seems awfully tedious over the course of hundreds of hours to keep making sure I look one way and not the another.

Pink_Violinz wrote: »

For dps it's not a deal breaker. Most can sustain perfectly fine without. For lower cp players and those who don't have their rotations perfect it may be very helpful, however. It really comes down to personal preference. DPS wise, it won't make a big change if you can already sustain.

Also, you can use a disguise or skin to hide it. Not the greatest solution, but they work.

I tried using the blood-forged skin to cover it up, but yeah, its really just too loud for my liking. Most of the skins are. I would use a disguise but it covers up the outfit and motifs I've worked so hard to earn. *Sigh* I feel like I'm always stuck being a dark, brooding character or wearing a helmet.

idk

If it is that troubling than do not be a vampire. Enjoy the game.

Jameliel

Be. Champion points to negate the fire damage, and you can't beat the undead passive. With the proper build you can be tanky and hard to kill. Faster mag regen. What's not to like except the ghastly look of your character=)

Anastian

That 10% extra regen is a nice crutch in Trial settings (very long fights that can drain your resources and require sustained high level DPS). Everywhere else, Vampirism is not necessary as already mentioned. Even in Trials if you master your skill rotation and have good group support (orbs, shards etc., the various sinergies you can activate to get your resources back) you will not need that regeneration.

In PvP, it's going to be a trade off between the regeneration bonus, the undeath passive (reduces damage when you are low on health), the ability to sneak instantly at night and most importantly the mist form (a great, if not the only effective escape tool for DKs and Templars) against 25% extra damage from fire (all Magickas are at least partially fire damage based), a reduced health regeneration (it's not that necessary but still, it's a bit of self healing that cannot be denied through defile), the risk to receive absurd damage from Prismatic glyphs and higher incoming damage from Fighters Guild skills, in particular from Dawnbreakers which are the bread and butter of many Stamina based characters.

As you can see, it's a matter of trade offs and you and your fiancee should consider the kind of playstyle you prefer the most, before contracting Vampirism. I honestly hated the looks and delayed as much as I could the infection, until in this patch I needed to really maximize my damage output in PvE trials - Then I just made an alt I never use for this purpose only and got it infected. My main is a PvPer and will NEVER be a vampire, I don't want to be ugly :P

Fischblut

If you really don't like how it looks, you would have only two real reasons to be vampire - speed in stealth is great for some characters (it was invaluable in heists and sacraments), and Mist form can be useful if you play in pvp ball groups.
I see no benefits for damage dealing at all - on my dds mag (or stam) recovery with potion ( +20% ) is around 850; 10% more won't make a difference, and fire damage hurts much more than it does on ordinary characters - the health drops faster than it would drop on non-vampires. I have only 2 vampires, both are made just for looks - and they always have some Bloody Mara drinks in their inventories, in case of dungeons In pvp, if you're a vampire you will face Prismatic enchants and Fighter's guild abilities even on 1st stage anyway, so might as well be 4th stage for some little benefits.

Cloudless

It's only "recommended for most builds" because most builds suggesting that you become one share that (extremely unhealthy) min-maxing attitude that you'd only be needing if you plan to be the first one in the world to speedrun/no-death this or that new vet trial, or aim to be at the very top of the game's leaderboard.

Not really worth working on my character's appearance only to end up covering his face 24/7 out of shame, personally speaking. :P

DanteYoda

Yeah... no thanks..

mocap

Vampire damage reduction passive is linear, so you practicaly need to be dead in order to get that 33% reduction. Regen passive is so-so (or even closer to meh). My templar have Aura sloted (+10% regen) and it's nothing when compared to just one heavy attack, especially from resto staff.

madchuska83

I actually cured my Vampirism last night. Before Summerset I was able to hide most of the Vampiric features by having Bound Aegis on. Now that my Daedric aura and glowing purple eyes are gone, I couldn't stand to look at myself. I went from about 1450 to 1300 Magicka recovery. Not nearly as much of a boost as I thought.

Scorpiodisc

HEXENWOLF wrote: »

Both my partner and I really, really hate how vampirism looks in ESO. (It seems we're not alone.) However, we both elected to become vampires early on because it is recommended for most builds. My question is, how big or small of a DPS increase is it to be a vampire? 10% extra recovery sounds like a fairly substantial amount, but I'm also terrible at math so I could be making something out of nothing. Neither of us are looking to top leaderboards but we have always tended towards min/maxing because we strive to be/play our best. Help would be appreciated!

The vampire regen makes it a "must-have" for people that need to min-max their toons down to the nth degree. However, if you never plan to try and be S-tier on the leaderboards then there is no reason to do it...aside from the achievement for it. I suppose the stealth bonus is good for a "sneaky" character too.

AhPook_Is_Here

for that amount of regen being a vampire is a no brainier for PVE. For PVP it's even a better idea, for sneak speed and a good survival ability. Go to stage 4 and never look back once you have your passives leveled. The drawbacks are inconsequential, health-regen is meaningless to DPS builds and 25% fire damage is so little extra damage it doesn't even merit making choices like being Dunmer or adding fire resist to a jewelry. Honestly they should just remove those 2 drawbacks because they just confuse players trying to decide, everyone should be a vampire there is no good reason not to be.

JumpmanLane

idk wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

The regen passive is overpowered. It's the equivalent of putting 43 CP points into your regen tree, or picking a class with 10% resource regen, but you get this for free (on top of all those other passives). It's pretty insane. The drawbacks are mostly irrelevant in PvE. The extra fire damage is completely negated by CP passives and the vampire's own passives that reduce incoming damage. Health regen is the most useless stat in the game as all heals in this game come in bursts.

The only real drawback is looking like a necrotic troll.

It is not free. 25% increased damage from fire is not small when it comes to PvP and some of the newest end game content.

Anyone who has cleared vHoF can tell you the draw backs are not irrelevant in PvE.

CP does not completely negate the fire damage either.

Vampire passives that reduces damage (when low health already) does not reduces it severally. Again, those that have cleared the more challenging content as a vamp dps or healer probably never noticed that passive.

Just keeping the facts straight.

To OP, it is really a personal choice. I do recall after playing with my first vampire I realized I became better at avoiding damage. Bank in the day Vet CoA, now CoA II, was actually a challenge in HM. Two or three fights had fire damage.

Recently did vCoA2 the other day, popped some drink of Mara. Went in Stage 1 came out Stage 3 (I use Invigorating Drain just cus lol). Wasn’t all that bad. 75 cp in Elemental Defender. Only wiped 2x on Skoria itself as I and another of my pals didn’t know Valkin’s mechanics. But our other two pals coached us through it. Like WHEN exactly to run to the paths.

DuskMarine

HEXENWOLF wrote: »

Both my partner and I really, really hate how vampirism looks in ESO. (It seems we're not alone.) However, we both elected to become vampires early on because it is recommended for most builds. My question is, how big or small of a DPS increase is it to be a vampire? 10% extra recovery sounds like a fairly substantial amount, but I'm also terrible at math so I could be making something out of nothing. Neither of us are looking to top leaderboards but we have always tended towards min/maxing because we strive to be/play our best. Help would be appreciated!

if you dont have vampire you wont have your best sustain you can get.

bardx86

Vampires are sexy!

firedrgn

You can do everything in game with out it. You dont need the passives. Looks like xhit .. i cured mine.

Damn hidious if you ask me.

ADarklore

It's funny people talking about how the 10% regen is "huge"... when you look at it... 10% is absolutely NOTHING for many builds. My Magicka character has about 800 Magicka regen- so 10% gives it a whopping extra 80 regen every two seconds in combat. Unless you're heavily invested in regen- I'm invested in cost reduction- the 10% regen from vampire isn't worth looking like a nasty troll.

bloodthirstyvampire

Well if not, then in the words of Harkon, you are prey

Banana

Vampires suck and are hideous

HEXENWOLF

Its intriguing to me that answers here are split nearly 50-50 with some thinking its almost mandatory and others thinking that looking like a troll isn't worth it at all. I guess this explains why I've been so conflicted about my choice. I really wish Zenimax would address vampire aesthetics or put a cosmetic in the store which allows players to hide it - then this is a non-issue. I've changed my mind about being a vampire almost twenty times today because people here make good points. Nonetheless, thank you for all the feedback!

MLGProPlayer

HEXENWOLF wrote: »

Its intriguing to me that answers here are split nearly 50-50 with some thinking its almost mandatory and others thinking that looking like a troll isn't worth it at all. I guess this explains why I've been so conflicted about my choice. I really wish Zenimax would address vampire aesthetics or put a cosmetic in the store which allows players to hide it - then this is a non-issue. I've changed my mind about being a vampire almost twenty times today because people here make good points. Nonetheless, thank you for all the feedback!

It's terrible MMO game design to tie gameplay benefits to cosmetic drawbacks. Character customization is half the fun of playing an MMO. People want their characters to look cool.

Why build a complex character creation tool, outfit system, and all those motifs and costumes for the players to use if it will all just get ruined when someone becomes a vampire?

elijafire

Vampire is mandatory unless you want to purposely gimp yourself then go for it.

Iccotak

You can do good builds without being a vampire.

Iccotak

illusiouk

All my toons are vampires, Elusive mist is a life saver in PvP.