Newbie stam DK

washbern

Hi everyone.

So, my first character ever was a stam DK. I got to about level 38 and BAM! I find myself getting murdered by even the simplest content. My Magsorc dances through almost everything while for the life of me I can't figure out how the motherduck to play a melee class. I tried my stamden and very similar issues.

How do you guys survive on stamina classes?!

My stamden is wearing spriggans, validreth and hunding and I can't solo a world boss to save my life. Bone shield goes down as the boss looks at me, brawler does a bit of a better job but I feel squishier than my light armor counterpart. What the gosh darn heck?!

Thank you!

Please help!

Munkfist

Make sure to have a heal slotted on your bar to offset some of that incoming damage. The mushrooms are great for it (Soothing Spores), and just watch out for the red. Magicka have a bit of an easier time, especially sorcs as they have shields and some built in heal skills.

gwdodd

Been playing for over a couple weeks now. I'm up to level 30, stamina nightblade. I see other players at or around level 30 using magic or bows and melting everything easily and I'm working like he11 to get through these dungeons.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong but my patience for a video game is wearing thin.

I can usually take down a dungeon boss if I think, use all my abilities and food.

A shoutout to my in-game bff in The Lone Wolf Help guild who has been instrumental in getting me this far; you know who you are!

VaranisArano

For a leveling Stam character, there's 3 main factors to survivability.

1. Battleleveling - you must keep your armor and weapons close to your level to get the benefit of battleleveling to CP 160. If my gear hits 5 to 7 levels below my Level, I start feeling much squishier.

2. Self heals - you need some sort of self healing, whether that's a class skill, Vigor from PVP, or the healing morphs from Dual Wield (prob the earliest Stam self heal). Use those heals proactively, in a rotation with your damage skills.

3. Killing things quickly - as a Stam build, your best skill is Endless Hail from Bow. It does an AOE DOT and is crucial for melting mobs of enemies while you use your single target damage skills. Particularly for StamDK which has good single target Dots, I'd recommend using a bow on the back bar to get you that AOE damage that StamDKs don't get from their class toolkit.


Personally, if you don't want to PVP for Vigor (the best on-demand stam heal open to everyone), the easiest way to get that for the base game classes like Stam DK is to take the healing morphs from Dual Wield. Your Skill advisor will say this is an "unadvised morph" because it does less damage, but ignore that until you feel like you can survive. Those skills, particularly the morph of Twin Slashes, are easy to work into a solid damage rotation that should keep constant healing uptime.

Rev Rielle

Well, if you don't already (and you may very well do) the first things to make sure you're doing right is generic for all classes: Learning the combat mechanics. That is to know when to interrupt, block, and dodge specific enemy attacks. I can't stress this enough, it's important above everything else. Nearly all enemies from the simplest overland content to veteran trial bosses have the same graphical signals indicating a specific type of attack is coming, it's just a matter of paying attention and learning them. The "Combat" heading under the Help options (F1) has a nice little blurb and image on each, as well as a lot of other useful information, that can help identify what signs to look for. Now this doesn't mean jumping or kiting about madly during battles, quite the opposite really. Once you learn these attack signs you'll see it's far more efficient to keep still and only react when needed.

Second is probably to look at the skills you're using. If you want to be soloing world bosses and the like, you're best served not picking all the highest-damage dealing morphs; go for at least some with a healing aspect to them. Blood Craze from the Dual Wield line is one such morph example. Now alone, such heals are insignificant, but when grouped together in twos or threes or fours from different skills, they will become meaningful and make quite a bit of difference to your survivability without really effecting your damage dealing output. Also, do not be afraid to use a magicka skill here or there. Even when stamina based you will have enough magicka resources and regeneration to cast a magicka spell in your rotation. An example of this would be the Cinder Storm morph of Ash Cloud for Dragonknights. Finally on topic of skills; be sure you're using a skill that gives you Major Ward and Major Resolve, this can be very important. Using the Dragonknight as an example again the classic skill to give you this is Spiked Armour and its morphs.

Lastly is probably your equipment. From what you've said it sounds like you're set up for maximum damage-dealing, which is fine, but such builds are based on group content where you more often than not will have a healer and tank with you for support. So changing some things may help. Usually the easiest thing - in my experience - to change is your monster helm and shoulders. There are a whole heap of options out there that can help, don't be afraid to experiment and see what works for you. If Monster Helms aren't feasible for you, look at replacing another set you have with something else, for example the Briarheart set from Wrothgar may be a useful set for you especially if you have a high critical hit chance. This set is freely traded so if you do not have the patience to hunt it down yourself, look about in guild traders.

I hope that helps.

VaranisArano

gwdodd wrote: »

Been playing for over a couple weeks now. I'm up to level 30, stamina nightblade. I see other players at or around level 30 using magic or bows and melting everything easily and I'm working like he11 to get through these dungeons.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong but my patience for a video game is wearing thin.

I can usually take down a dungeon boss if I think, use all my abilities and food.

A shoutout to my in-game bff in The Lone Wolf Help guild who has been instrumental in getting me this far; you know who you are!

So first thing, understand that some of those leveling players may have CP unlocked for their low level character, which makes a huge difference. They may not be "actually" level 30.


Aside from that, if you arent using a bow, try using the skill Endless Hail (morph of Volley). When I level, I start every fight with Endless Hail, which hits all the enemies in a mob, then I start doing whatever single target damage skills I have while they are taking damage from the falling arrows. It essentially means I'm doing extra damage throughout the fight in addition to whatever I'm doing with class skills and other weapons.

gwdodd

VaranisArano wrote: »

gwdodd wrote: »

Been playing for over a couple weeks now. I'm up to level 30, stamina nightblade. I see other players at or around level 30 using magic or bows and melting everything easily and I'm working like he11 to get through these dungeons.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong but my patience for a video game is wearing thin.

I can usually take down a dungeon boss if I think, use all my abilities and food.

A shoutout to my in-game bff in The Lone Wolf Help guild who has been instrumental in getting me this far; you know who you are!

So first thing, understand that some of those leveling players may have CP unlocked for their low level character, which makes a huge difference. They may not be "actually" level 30.


Aside from that, if you arent using a bow, try using the skill Endless Hail (morph of Volley). When I level, I start every fight with Endless Hail, which hits all the enemies in a mob, then I start doing whatever single target damage skills I have while they are taking damage from the falling arrows. It essentially means I'm doing extra damage throughout the fight in addition to whatever I'm doing with class skills and other weapons.

Thanks a bunch, Varanis!

It makes sense what you said regarding veteran players leveling a lower level character. I remember seeing a statistic saying that only 3% of the player base are actually new at the game (like me). And I seriously don't even want to know what having CP unlocked for low level characters means.

I tried using a bow during the first couple of days that I started playing but the damage dealt was very underwhelming so I switched to 2-handed, then 1-handed with shield and when I hit level 15 I run with both. I prefer 1-handed with shield but I've recently discovered that I do much better against dungeon bosses with 2-handed. A sword for every occasion, I guess. I grabbed a purple Prophet Bow a few levels ago and based on your suggestion, maybe I'll replace my 2-handed and start using it. Also, the armor set my bff was kind enough to send me is getting a little squishy.

Thanks so much for your input and feedback!

washbern

i find that DK leveling is sooooo hard because there are almost no in class heals. Yeah, i'll need to look at the DW morphs. For a class that is one of the best tanks when you put all the points into health, it sucks so much if i go the dps route.

El_Borracho

Level 38 is not that high, but even still, soloing a world boss with a StamDK is still going to be hard. I can't figure out how you are a level 38 and wearing a Velidreth helmet, but I'll ignore that. Best (only?) self heal for most stamina builds is Vigor through the Assault skill line.

DK has been buffed with more DPS, but its not as destructive as the sorcs or even some stamblades when it comes to one-on-one fights versus world bosses or soloing dungeons. DK is more of a slow burn with survivability. Sounds like something in your CP is not set up correctly, you are using the wrong food, or you just don't have enough CP points to buff up your build.