Evaluating the best attack ability.

Doctor_David

So what is the approach to evaluating the best attack ability? I'm not so much looking for Mage Fury is better than that other spell, but a more general rule I can use in the future.

I'm assuming that damage is not the only important stat. Casting time and resource cost must also matter? I guess I could look at how much damage I could do divided by casting time, but then the instant casts do infinite damage per second?

Any help?

Grianasteri

I think its helpful to consider that there are different types of damage or "attack" skills, which are used for slightly different purposes and in different scenarios.

Many builds utilise a "spammable" skill, which is cheap, fast to cast and cumulatively does good damage as a result. There are a number of good spammable skills across the classes and skill lines.

We have dot damage skills, which are applied once then tick damage - most would probably agree poison injection is one of the better.

Aoe damage, putting down damage across an area - endless hail with a vMA bow or Wall of elements with a vMA staff are strong.

So I guess the question is a bit more complex! As you say, its not just about raw damage and there is also cast time to consider. For instance many bow builds use lethal arrow, which has a cast time, as the spammable, because its cheap and does a lot of damage.

Vyvrhel

Doctor_David wrote: »

So what is the approach to evaluating the best attack ability?

Go to PTS and experiment on dummy with different equipment and different builds. The best thing you can do.
PVE rotation typically looks like applying DOTs, then using a skill called "spammable" until it is time to renew the DOTs. Think about is as two separated phases which depend on each other.
So what is the best attack ability (I suppose you mean the spammable) for you depends on many things. What buffs you have, what debuffs are on the target, what are your racial traits, what sets you use, and on your playstyle.
Sort this out and you will find it easily by yourself.

Doctor_David

I'm trying to evaluate different single target attacks. What is PTS?

Vyvrhel

Doctor_David wrote: »

I'm trying to evaluate different single target attacks. What is PTS?

Public test server.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/pts

Evaluating different single target attacks does not make much sense to me, since they are rather different. There are execute attacks, debuff attacks, spammables... all tools for different purpose.
If you are looking for a one button build, consider going werewolf, you can do solid damage spamming only light attacks.