How to you decide what skills and rotations to use each patch?

akl77

With the frequent meta changes, how do you decide what skills and rotations to use now?

Goregrinder

Self invented without testing

I use other people's guides as templates for what is working for the current patch, but change their gear sets and some skills based on what I find works better for me.

Donari

Don’t care what meta and never change my skill or rotations for new patches

This is the first patch that's had any real impact on my DK's play. She's my only max level character so the rest are still works in progress anyway. So far since I hit 50/CP 160 on her, the same build has been plenty effective for what I do in the game, ie exploration and questing.

But today I found myself noticing a nerf. A skill that was an instant stun now takes three uses in quick succession to get the stun. So no more dropping an arrow volley on a group of mobs then stunning them all fast to keep them in the arrows for a while. Tons of stamina on my Redguard but half the bar disappears getting something stunned and it gets a lot of motion and attacks off in the process.

So I'm going to have to find something else to put in that skill slot. Possibly a few new things on the bar to move to a new synergy.

redspecter23

I pinpoint the skills that ZOS decided for me that I don't want to use like Liquid Lightning. I take that off my bar and replace it with literally anything else... even just a random mages guild ability that I never cast. My dps and sustain then go up.

BattleAxe

Self invented and tested on target dummy

Donari wrote: »

This is the first patch that's had any real impact on my DK's play. She's my only max level character so the rest are still works in progress anyway. So far since I hit 50/CP 160 on her, the same build has been plenty effective for what I do in the game, ie exploration and questing.

But today I found myself noticing a nerf. A skill that was an instant stun now takes three uses in quick succession to get the stun. So no more dropping an arrow volley on a group of mobs then stunning them all fast to keep them in the arrows for a while. Tons of stamina on my Redguard but half the bar disappears getting something stunned and it gets a lot of motion and attacks off in the process.

So I'm going to have to find something else to put in that skill slot. Possibly a few new things on the bar to move to a new synergy.

A suggestion to ur loss of stun replace it with either turn evil fighters guild or draconic powers talon

Hapexamendios

Look at Alcast. Tweak to my own preferences. No testing.

Reverb

Look up alcast website and YouTube

I used to test everything and figure out which builds and loadouts work best for me. I don’t have the time or enough f***s left to do that every few months for every competitive toon, so I just go to the @Alcast site now and go from there.

But if zeni keeps making changes this frequently I’m not even going to bother with internet builds, I’ll just stop running content

akl77

Other

Reverb wrote: »

I used to test everything and figure out which builds and loadouts work best for me. I don’t have the time or enough f***s left to do that every few months for every competitive toon, so I just go to the @Alcast site now and go from there.

But if zeni keeps making changes this frequently I’m not even going to bother with internet builds, I’ll just stop running content

I agree, I put other as I don’t even know if I’m still motivated enough to play, didn’t even bothered to read patch Notes.

IndianaJames7

Other

For PVE: Don’t update my build unless it is significantly outperformed by new meta. If I do update it’s pretty much copy paste from Alcast.

PVP: F*** ‘meta PvP’ builds. I theorycraft something I think is cool and unique and grind/ fully gold the gear before even testing it. If it works well then awesome! I now have a solid setup that basically no one else in Cyrodiil is using. If it doesn’t work well? Well s*** I spent too much time building this setup, so I’m still gonna use it for a few months atleast lol

Goregrinder

Self invented without testing

IndianaJames7 wrote: »

For PVE: Don’t update my build unless it is significantly outperformed by new meta. If I do update it’s pretty much copy paste from Alcast.

PVP: F*** ‘meta PvP’ builds. I theorycraft something I think is cool and unique and grind/ fully gold the gear before even testing it. If it works well then awesome! I now have a solid setup that basically no one else in Cyrodiil is using. If it doesn’t work well? Well s*** I spent too much time building this setup, so I’m still gonna use it for a few months atleast lol

I agree 100% for PVP. **** the meta, I usually throw whatever on until I find something that works and gets me frags and just rock it.

Kiralyn2000

Don’t care what meta and never change my skill or rotations for new patches

Eh, whatever.

Dusk_Coven

Self invented without testing

I play what feels comfortable to me and test it on delve boss to make sure I can do that at least on my crafters.
I have a good gear combo on my main so she's usually good to go with the same skill set.

Grandma

Other

literally all of these [except alcast this patch because he didn't really test- no disrespect at all, he was working on his dissertation]. I'll ask some resources in my guilds- I'm friends with a few people who are close to liko and those folk so I get to hear their thoughts on things, I ask my guild leaders who decide the criteria for the dps thresholds, I decide myself looking at the patch notes, I look at youtube videos that go over different rotation ideas, and then I settle on something i like, usually borrowing a combination of all those things and inventing a few things myself.

support build skills are waaaaaaaaaay more versatile. I can pretty much do anything I want there as long as I can clear the content. Lately i've been even going double resto for some content and it's a lot of fun and super useful/more nifty than you might think.

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK

How dare you not put Liko on there Haha, Liko is by far the best DD in ESO

Zacuel

Look up alcast website and YouTube

Flocking to alcast naturally.

I also use alcast guides for putting pants on in the morning and everything else.

Jeremy

Other

akl77 wrote: »

With the frequent meta changes, how do you decide what skills and rotations to use now?

You don't have an option for what I would consider the most obvious option. By playing the game.

Araneae6537

I’ll at least try out the abilities recommended by AlcastHQ for my desired role and goals for that character and at least keep them on my bar long enough to fully level them but ultimately make swaps and adjustments based on what I like and how I want to play that character.

So AlcastHQ and Other? Why is YouTube in the poll options twice? 🤔

akl77

Other

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK wrote: »

How dare you not put Liko on there Haha, Liko is by far the best DD in ESO

His videos are all about target dummy parse instead of actual raiding builds, and no website too.
Target dummy just a big cheese tbh, I’m sure he doesn’t use the same thing in his raid run.
And that big cheese number probably why ZOS keeps nerfing cos he thought we don’t play contents only target dummies parses.

Nestor

Don’t care what meta and never change my skill or rotations for new patches

Sometimes I swap a skill or two, but usually my rotations don't change all that much.

More its enchants that change.

srfrogg23

Self invented without testing

I play tanks and healers most of the time. Target dummies don't help with that.

ccfeeling

Look up alcast website and YouTube

Alcast & other famous ESO youtubers

max_only

Other

Multiple of those.

For solo, I do what I want.
For group PvE, I get as close to expectations/meta as possible (Alcast is the almighty for the pve guild I play with)
For group pvp, i try to find what works for me and I choose morphs my pvp guild recommends.

max_only

Other

Grandma wrote: »

literally all of these [except alcast this patch because he didn't really test- no disrespect at all, he was working on his dissertation]. I'll ask some resources in my guilds- I'm friends with a few people who are close to liko and those folk so I get to hear their thoughts on things, I ask my guild leaders who decide the criteria for the dps thresholds, I decide myself looking at the patch notes, I look at youtube videos that go over different rotation ideas, and then I settle on something i like, usually borrowing a combination of all those things and inventing a few things myself.

support build skills are waaaaaaaaaay more versatile. I can pretty much do anything I want there as long as I can clear the content. Lately i've been even going double resto for some content and it's a lot of fun and super useful/more nifty than you might think.

That’s interesting. You don’t need elemental drain with the people you support?

MLGProPlayer

Self invented and tested on target dummy

Self-tested (there are very few variations of viable skills and gear), but I'll always have a look to see if it matches up with the top players.

Girl_Number8

Other

On the PTS, then I fine tune things on live with my guildies and friends.

ManwithBeard9

Don’t care what meta and never change my skill or rotations for new patches

Been using the same basic build since Theive's Guild dropped. A few set changes along the way. Swapped out "Rearming Trap" for "Race Against Time", that's basically the only skill change I've made.

yRaven

Look up alcast website and YouTube

Follow the boss

Tannus15

Self invented and tested on target dummy

On the PTS.

I always start with my live setup as a benchmark, then add or remove whatever was buffed or nerfed and see how much impact that has

If removing a nerfed skill has higher dps than keeping it, or the same dps but the rotation is easier without it, then I drop it.
If a skill is buffed, i swap it in and give it a crack.

Then I play with any changed / new sets etc to see where they stand.

Then I try and think about any other changes which might make builds better or worse and try some random stuff.

Anotherone773

What’s rotation

I typically flip a die or roll a quarter. Rotations are for followers, not leaders.

Glurin

Other

I chose other because I don't care about the meta, but I do change skills as I feel it's needed. My builds are self invented, some testing on a target dummy, but I don't obsess over it. Just enough to get a rough estimate is all I need.

Also, I PUG when I do dungeons. Even vet dungeons. Even vet DLC dungeons. Yes, it can be painful. But what I've discovered doing that is that stubbornly clinging to the meta no matter the cost causes more problems in PUGs than anything else. Just a little bit of flexibility goes a long way when you're being teamed up with three random complete strangers.

Zer0_CooL

Other

Well since TC did not specify PvP or PvE, i'd guess for PvE there is a clearer meta For each role and class, and therefor copy past from a Youtube video is totaly working.
PvP it's another story. I prefere to build according my playstile and test out new setups.