Ranged Class

dioc21

Hi,

I am new to the game, so don't really have much experience with all the different possibilities. I'm casual pvp, nothing to hardcore. I use to play DAoC and GW2 and the keep sieges seems to be pretty similar here. Since I'm casual I'm looking for a solo ranged class that can jump in on keep attacks/defense and be able to put out some damage. What are the best ranged classes that can hold their own and take people down during these situations. 99% of my game time will be solo due to my limited hours. Also, I play on an Xbox.

Thanks for any answers.

MartiniDaniels

Magicka sorcerer

LordTareq

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

Magicka sorcerer

Iskiab

If you’re looking for a bow build: stamwarden
If you’re looking for a magicka build: magsorc

wheem_ESO

Either Magicka Sorcerer or a Stamina bow build. Non-Sorcerer Magicka builds have atrocious mobility, and therefore suffer quite a lot when trying to solo in open world Cyrodiil.

Nightblades are the obvious choice if you want to gank with a bow build, and I don't think any of the others are particularly great at being dedicated archers. Depending on how things develop on the PTS over the next month, Stamina Necromancers could potentially be incredibly powerful with bows, though. If the speed and pathfinding on Blastbones is improved, and the Stamina morph doesn't get the secondary effect nerfed, Stam Necromancer archers will be applying both Major and Minor Defile, with each attached to a hard hitting ranged ability.

dioc21

Stamina Nightblade sounds fun but after reading all the recent posts on these forums it sounds like they won’t be good anymore? I use to play a bow thief on GW2 so it sounds pretty similar. I read the PTS notes, will snipe still be good? I won’t be able to play as a necro right off the bat as I don’t want to buy the expansions until I get pretty far along.

Toc de Malsvi

Necromancer is likely the hands down best "ranged" class, mag or stam. Their entire offensive skill tree works at a full 28m.

They will be THE ranged class. Coming out in 5weeks or so.

wheem_ESO

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

Necromancer is likely the hands down best "ranged" class, mag or stam. Their entire offensive skill tree works at a full 28m.

They will be THE ranged class. Coming out in 5weeks or so.

Since your signature indicates that you're playing on console, I assume you haven't done any actual testing of Necromancers on the PTS, right? I started a thread on the PTS forum - https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/469164/necromancer-mechanics-in-battlegrounds - after playing a bit in Battlegrounds with a Magicka Necromancer, and it's a pretty big letdown at the moment. You can't simply look at all the abilities having 28m range and think that such a thing makes them good all by itself.

Stamina Necromancers are strong because they're, well, Stamina-based builds that benefit from having access to the Stamina toolkit (they also get Major Defile on a class skill, while Magicka does not). Their Blastbones - which is where the Major Defile comes from - will also frequently be cast while in melee range for most builds, while the same won't necessarily be true for Magicka builds (and when it *is* true for Magicka builds, it'll mean that there wasn't really any point to them morphing the skill beyond the baseline version). Given the skeleton's current state of pathfinding, movement speed, and possibility of being snared/rooted/stunned/etc...being cast in melee range significantly increases the chances of a Blastbones actually connecting with its target.

The PTS is at the very beginning of this "cycle" still, and most people don't fully know how to play a Necromancer right now, but the scoreboard damage numbers I'm seeing from Magicka Necromancers in Battlegrounds is still pretty telling. Even with Blastbones hitting a lot harder than it will on live (I've seen like 9k sometimes in BGs), the overall damage isn't the least bit impressive. And that's largely because all a Magicka Necromancer has for viable damage are the Blastbones and Ricochet Skull (or alternative spammable). The Skeletal Arcanist pet seems to generally hit for something like 800-1k damage, occasionally getting as high as about 1.2k, and casts at the nearest enemy once every 2 seconds. While it's true that you very briefly get access to a corpse when it dies, there's not really any offensive way to make use of that corpse...Mystic Siphon ticks for like 200 damage in BGs, and unless your opponent lags out or goes AFK, you're not going to hit them with it anyway.

I'm hoping that Magicka Necromancers will get some pretty substantial tweaks before Elsweyr goes live, otherwise I think they'll probably be the worst offensive PvP spec in the game (CC or block their Blastbones and they have worse offense than a lot of healers do). They'd probably also get some nerfs because of Stamina Necromancers, just like what happened with the Magicka Warden after Morrowind was released.

LoreToo

Stamsorc
https://youtu.be/2jwZi0IBp5c

Toc de Malsvi

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

Necromancer is likely the hands down best "ranged" class, mag or stam. Their entire offensive skill tree works at a full 28m.

They will be THE ranged class. Coming out in 5weeks or so.

Since your signature indicates that you're playing on console, I assume you haven't done any actual testing of Necromancers on the PTS, right? I started a thread on the PTS forum - https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/469164/necromancer-mechanics-in-battlegrounds - after playing a bit in Battlegrounds with a Magicka Necromancer, and it's a pretty big letdown at the moment. You can't simply look at all the abilities having 28m range and think that such a thing makes them good all by itself.

Stamina Necromancers are strong because they're, well, Stamina-based builds that benefit from having access to the Stamina toolkit (they also get Major Defile on a class skill, while Magicka does not). Their Blastbones - which is where the Major Defile comes from - will also frequently be cast while in melee range for most builds, while the same won't necessarily be true for Magicka builds (and when it *is* true for Magicka builds, it'll mean that there wasn't really any point to them morphing the skill beyond the baseline version). Given the skeleton's current state of pathfinding, movement speed, and possibility of being snared/rooted/stunned/etc...being cast in melee range significantly increases the chances of a Blastbones actually connecting with its target.

The PTS is at the very beginning of this "cycle" still, and most people don't fully know how to play a Necromancer right now, but the scoreboard damage numbers I'm seeing from Magicka Necromancers in Battlegrounds is still pretty telling. Even with Blastbones hitting a lot harder than it will on live (I've seen like 9k sometimes in BGs), the overall damage isn't the least bit impressive. And that's largely because all a Magicka Necromancer has for viable damage are the Blastbones and Ricochet Skull (or alternative spammable). The Skeletal Arcanist pet seems to generally hit for something like 800-1k damage, occasionally getting as high as about 1.2k, and casts at the nearest enemy once every 2 seconds. While it's true that you very briefly get access to a corpse when it dies, there's not really any offensive way to make use of that corpse...Mystic Siphon ticks for like 200 damage in BGs, and unless your opponent lags out or goes AFK, you're not going to hit them with it anyway.

I'm hoping that Magicka Necromancers will get some pretty substantial tweaks before Elsweyr goes live, otherwise I think they'll probably be the worst offensive PvP spec in the game (CC or block their Blastbones and they have worse offense than a lot of healers do). They'd probably also get some nerfs because of Stamina Necromancers, just like what happened with the Magicka Warden after Morrowind was released.

You'd be very wrong there. I transferred to console when xbox came out. I test every PTS.

Toc de Malsvi

@wheem_ESO

How do you get into BGs on the PTS. I sat in que for over and hour and a half last night.

Toc de Malsvi

Also BGs aren't the place to really test ranged dps. Most maps have a ton of LOS options and without the NB shade skill you cannot easily keep distance.

wheem_ESO

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

@wheem_ESO

How do you get into BGs on the PTS. I sat in que for over and hour and a half last night.

Some games have been happening closer to primetime hours, with very rare ones outside of that.

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

Also BGs aren't the place to really test ranged dps. Most maps have a ton of LOS options and without the NB shade skill you cannot easily keep distance.

Non-Sorcerer Magicka setups can't easily keep distance on any decent Stamina build in any environment if they're not in a zerg, or with an organized group that's helping them out. And Battlegrounds are the perfect place to test, since that's where I'll be doing 99% of my PvP.

Offensive Magicka Necromancers are not good at all in the current state of the PTS. You can get some OP burst from Blastbones damage being too high, but that's about it. And if your opponent sees you coming and is paying attention, they can block the Blastbones and facetank you easily enough. I'm not the only person who has actually played Magicka Necromancer that recognizes it's pretty much bottom of the barrel right now. Hopefully that won't be the case by the end of the PTS cycle, since utilizing my Warden's Shalks against good players has been an annoyance for the past 2 years, and Magicka Warden keeps continually getting nerfed, without any of it's issues being taken care of.

Iskiab

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

@wheem_ESO

How do you get into BGs on the PTS. I sat in que for over and hour and a half last night.

Earlier in PTS it was 15 minute queues. The next day I hit one and got an hour queue time so logged off. It was enough to put me on the leaderboard. Guessing based on leaderboard scores there was 20-30 games total.

People should try coordinating playtime to get queue times down.

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO

Iskiab wrote: »

If you’re looking for a bow build: stamwarden
If you’re looking for a magicka build: magsorc

This is FANTASTIC advice.

The way things stand now, targeting becomes a HUGE issue for your opponents with your pets in the way.

Iskiab

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

If you’re looking for a bow build: stamwarden
If you’re looking for a magicka build: magsorc

This is FANTASTIC advice.

The way things stand now, targeting becomes a HUGE issue for your opponents with your pets in the way.

I’ve seen DK bow builds as well but I didn’t think it was as effective. Pit two archers against each other and one can’t damage the other because of reflections/absorptions and guess who wins?

Toc de Malsvi

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

@wheem_ESO

How do you get into BGs on the PTS. I sat in que for over and hour and a half last night.

Some games have been happening closer to primetime hours, with very rare ones outside of that.

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

Also BGs aren't the place to really test ranged dps. Most maps have a ton of LOS options and without the NB shade skill you cannot easily keep distance.

Non-Sorcerer Magicka setups can't easily keep distance on any decent Stamina build in any environment if they're not in a zerg, or with an organized group that's helping them out. And Battlegrounds are the perfect place to test, since that's where I'll be doing 99% of my PvP.

Offensive Magicka Necromancers are not good at all in the current state of the PTS. You can get some OP burst from Blastbones damage being too high, but that's about it. And if your opponent sees you coming and is paying attention, they can block the Blastbones and facetank you easily enough. I'm not the only person who has actually played Magicka Necromancer that recognizes it's pretty much bottom of the barrel right now. Hopefully that won't be the case by the end of the PTS cycle, since utilizing my Warden's Shalks against good players has been an annoyance for the past 2 years, and Magicka Warden keeps continually getting nerfed, without any of it's issues being taken care of.

The burst seems good on necro, I don't play magicka enough to be able to accurately dps test it. I tried the stam necro and it felt fine other than trying to use skills that relied on bodies, they often failed to cast in combat.

I would think the Ricochet effect and Blastbones AOE would play really well in BGs. I can agree that the damage from the summoned mage/archer thing is really low but I did notice some targetting issues with it even though you cannot actually target it. While it wouldn't highlight to be targeted, it seems to act as a incredibly thin LOS. Snipe was often failing to cast against Necros, it seemed to be related to the untargettable pets.

I have had one BG que pop since the PTS for Elsweyr was released, but it failed to form group. All the fights I've had were practically(cyrodiil) or actually duals.

wheem_ESO

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

@wheem_ESO

How do you get into BGs on the PTS. I sat in que for over and hour and a half last night.

Some games have been happening closer to primetime hours, with very rare ones outside of that.

Toc de Malsvi wrote: »

Also BGs aren't the place to really test ranged dps. Most maps have a ton of LOS options and without the NB shade skill you cannot easily keep distance.

Non-Sorcerer Magicka setups can't easily keep distance on any decent Stamina build in any environment if they're not in a zerg, or with an organized group that's helping them out. And Battlegrounds are the perfect place to test, since that's where I'll be doing 99% of my PvP.

Offensive Magicka Necromancers are not good at all in the current state of the PTS. You can get some OP burst from Blastbones damage being too high, but that's about it. And if your opponent sees you coming and is paying attention, they can block the Blastbones and facetank you easily enough. I'm not the only person who has actually played Magicka Necromancer that recognizes it's pretty much bottom of the barrel right now. Hopefully that won't be the case by the end of the PTS cycle, since utilizing my Warden's Shalks against good players has been an annoyance for the past 2 years, and Magicka Warden keeps continually getting nerfed, without any of it's issues being taken care of.

The burst seems good on necro, I don't play magicka enough to be able to accurately dps test it. I tried the stam necro and it felt fine other than trying to use skills that relied on bodies, they often failed to cast in combat.

I would think the Ricochet effect and Blastbones AOE would play really well in BGs. I can agree that the damage from the summoned mage/archer thing is really low but I did notice some targetting issues with it even though you cannot actually target it. While it wouldn't highlight to be targeted, it seems to act as a incredibly thin LOS. Snipe was often failing to cast against Necros, it seemed to be related to the untargettable pets.

I have had one BG que pop since the PTS for Elsweyr was released, but it failed to form group. All the fights I've had were practically(cyrodiil) or actually duals.

If you want to know what Magicka Necromancer's offense feels like, take every damaging ability off your bars, except for the Blastbones and the Skull spammable (or some alternative to it). Oh and don't use axes.

Also, that burst damage is going to go down once bugs with the Blastbones get fixed...assuming the bug is with the actual ability, and not its tooltip. My Magicka Warden and Magicka Necromancer aren't in the same gear, but with Major Sorcery up my Warden's Deep Fissure tooltip is 14,996, while my Necromancer's Blastbones is 13,407. Yet, when I actually nuke random NPCs in Glenumbra, the Blastbones hits harder without Major Breach than Deep Fissure hits with it. Plus, the Blastbones is apparently critting a lot more than it's supposed to (it's not 100% chance in all circumstances like some people are claiming, though).

Magicka Necromancer is crutching on a broken Blastbones right now, and it's still hot garbage for offensive roles in PvP.