Command Rotation

winged_tortoise

Hi, I’m a level 15 Dragon Knight and am having problems completing any of my quests. Before level 15 the game was pretty simple, but now I’m stuck and am trying to figure out how to move forward.

Looking critically at my performance I see three problems:

1. I’m not putting out enough DPS resulting in longer fights and more received damage.
3. I’m not good at blocking, dodging or avoiding attacks.
4. My Armor sucks.

I’d like to to deal with each of these things in separate posts. In this post I’d like to talk about my DPS.

My plan is to improve my DPS by choosing a good rotation and practicing it. Right now this rotation I’m using:

1. Buff: Hardened Armor
2. Light Attack (start attack weaving)
3. Buff: Searing Strike to set Seething Fury 1
4. Light Attack (+ 33% from Seething Fury)
5. Buff: Searing Strike to set Seething Fury 2
6. Light Attack (+ 66% from Seething Fury)
7. Molten Whip (+ 99% from Seething Fury—resets Seething Fury)
8. Light Attack (+ 99% from Seething Fury)
9. Repeat steps 2-9

So far that’s the rotation I’m using. I placed a training dummy in my Daggerfall Apartment and have been practicing it. Per my crude understanding of Combat Metrics the results look pretty good, yet I still cannot complete any of my quests and am quite stuck.

Questions—

1. How does my rotation look?

2. Should I add anything?

3. I’ve also toyed with working Rending Slashes into my rotation build to establish a DOT. Is that a good idea. The DOT lasts for 10 seconds. Should I refresh it every 3 rotations or so?

After a week of game play I am enjoying the game. The mechanics look interesting and, as ,Nick Fury would say, I’m looking forward to “Putting foot to ass”.

Thanks for the help!

Xogath

You don't need to worry about this type of thing at all until you're up against a dungeon boss or something.

Outside in the overworld, things die so quickly that you're not going to be able to establish any kind of rotation at all.

My 2H/Bow StamDK simply lays down Endless Hail, runs in to a group, hits them with Carve, and blocks until they all die. If I wanted them to die REAL quick, I could also hit them all with Noxious Breath, which lowers their Physical Resistance as well.

For world bosses, then yes, I use a bit of a rotation while also swapping out a weaker skill for Vigor, which heals me.

In your case, since you're using Dual Wield, get Whirlwind and morph it to Whirling Blades(?) as soon as possible. It's not only a strong area ability on its own, but also now Executes on low-health targets. So you could do the following on a group of enemies:

1. Gather them all
2. Noxious Breath (Major Fracture; now they take more physical damage plus a Poison DoT)
3. Whirling Blades x2 or x3
4. Loot

Singular NPCs should die in a couple Light Attacks, Rending bleed, and maybe a heavy attack.

As for Seething Fury.. most people who are even utilizing that terrible mechanic (DKs asked for a reliable spammable ability, but instead were given Seething Fury) simply slot Whip and ignore it, while spamming another Ardent Flame ability (Breath) every 4 seconds to maintain the 3 stacks for a passive 375 Weapon Damage at all times.

zvavi

Getting vigor from pvp for survivability.
Getting new weapons cause weapons dont scale to your level (if u r level 5 with lvl 5 weapons, u will have 1200 damage. If u r lvl 15 with lvl 15, same 1200 damage. Lvl 15 with lvl 5 weapons, 900 damage, numbers are examples and might not be accurate, at all)
Molten whip is there for the passive, if you are focusing on physical damage means that your magical abilities will deal less. Too lazy to elaborate.
AoE DoTs are op. Well. They are until next patch. But up till then, endless hail+caltrops are the way to go for trash mobs (on stamina characters)

winged_tortoise

Thanks!

Hail? You mean hail of arrows?

I’ll start working on my Vigor

zvavi

winged_tortoise wrote: »

Thanks!

Hail? You mean hail of arrows?

I’ll start working on my Vigor

Dont remember the name before morph, but ye, bow skill

Xogath

winged_tortoise wrote: »

Thanks!

Hail? You mean hail of arrows?

I’ll start working on my Vigor

The Bow line skill "Volley" morphs in to "Endless Hail", which is the ability we're referring to. Do keep in mind that those abilities are on the receiving end of some nerfs/slight changes with U23, so Endless Hail may not be the best choice by then.

Caltrops and Vigor are pretty easy to get if you do some BGs, which can also be fun if you step in to them with at-level equipment. A couple hours of good luck with groups, and you'll not only have Vigor and Caltrops, but possibly a nice PvP motif to go with it. (Firedrake and Pit Daemon are awesome)

Ragnarock41

If you're planning to be a stamina DK, you should morph searing strike to venomous claws and fiery breath into noxious breath, inferno also morphs into flames of oblivion, those three should be your main dps tools as stamina Dk. the other abilities and both morphs of whip are magicka exclusive, and they do not scale with stamina or weapon damage.

Keep this info in mind. You might be wondering why top tier stamina DKs are slotting whip in their bars, thats because somebody at zenimax HQ has a really bad taste of humor.

winged_tortoise

Thanks for the tips! I can see where that would kick out a ton of DPS.

Am I understanding correctly, spam Venomous Claws and apply Noxious Breath and Flames of Oblivion (debuff and buff) as needed?

Also, at this point I'm still Level 24. I have Searing Strike and Fiery Breath. I don't yet have Inferno/Flames of Oblivion, Noxious Breath or Venomous Claws. What should I use at my level? Fiery Breath doesn't have the Major Fracture debuff that Noxious Breath has. Should I still use it? I took one look at it's 2700 magika requirement and dismissed it. Right now Searing Strike is my main spamable. I cast it 3 times to Buff my weapon and spell damage by 375 (when Molten Whip is slotted) and then cast molten whip with +99% damage. Until I unlock Noxious Breath should I continue to do this? Then once I unlock Noxious Breath should I de-slot Molten Whip and use Noxious Breath as a buff and spam Searing Strikes/Venomous Claws. Finally, some time after level 42 should I add Flames of Oblivion to the rotation.

Also, I have an addon that tells me all my buffs. I don't have one that tells me what debuffs I have placed on others. Can you recommend one?

Thanks for the help!
My Notes:

Venomous Claws: A DOT that gives 455 poison damage plus 1084 over 8 seconds. The longer the poison is present the more damage it does.

Flames of Oblivion: a buff that gives me Major Prophecy and Major Savagery, buffing my spell and weapon criticals by 2191. It also has an AOE DOT casting a fireball at two enemys for 705 damage every 5 seconds.

Noxious Breath: a debuff that gives Major Fracture, lowering Physical Resistance by 5280. It also does 705 poison damage and has an 8s DOT for 824.

winged_tortoise

Wait! I tink I’m starting to see!

Lava Whip, Molten Whip and Flame Lash are all magicka. Now that I have Venomous Claws on my front bar should I take Molten Whip off and just spam Venomous Claws and save all my Magicka points for Green Dragon Blood, my healing spell.

I’m concerned that this will make my DPS go down, but I’m guessing I’ll be using less Magicka and will have more sustain.

That would give me two spells on my front bar: Venomous Claws and Green Dragon Blood, Noxious Breath and Flames of Oblivion aren’t available yet. What should I do for my other 3 skills. One will go to Bow, helping it level, right? What about the other two?