Theorycrafters: LA/HA Crit Damage Build Help

Sahidom

Theorycrafters.

I have a challenge. Actually, looking for some assistance for a LA/HA critical damage build using a Restoration staff, as the main weapon.

Other aspects, I'm looking for suggestions on are the following:

Class suggestions to generate added burst?
Class suggestions with critical damage bonus or similar benefits? Whether +SD is better than +CritDamage for the most umbrella benefits?
In-Class skills that have a better, effective burst damage baseline?

How would you go about getting your LA/HA damage to be "threatfull" after damage mitigation i.e. no wet noodles on LA/HA.

The whole concept of the build is a "dueling" style where a heal is always on the finger tip and sustainable to build burst combos with class skills or seizing the advantage boost with Minor and Major Force uptime windows, Class critical damage Bonus etc.

Also. What gear would you blend for offense, defense and sustain? I am looking for some feedback, and thank you in advance to see this idea through.

remilafo

Easy..

Elegant set + empower + molag kena + another set increasing light attack dmg (there are many)

Templar best choice 100% empower uptime.

25k+ light attacks

Xvorg

Sahidom wrote: »

Theorycrafters.

I have a challenge. Actually, looking for some assistance for a LA/HA critical damage build using a Restoration staff, as the main weapon.

Other aspects, I'm looking for suggestions on are the following:

Class suggestions to generate added burst?
Class suggestions with critical damage bonus or similar benefits? Whether +SD is better than +CritDamage for the most umbrella benefits?
In-Class skills that have a better, effective burst damage baseline?

How would you go about getting your LA/HA damage to be "threatfull" after damage mitigation i.e. no wet noodles on LA/HA.

The whole concept of the build is a "dueling" style where a heal is always on the finger tip and sustainable to build burst combos with class skills or seizing the advantage boost with Minor and Major Force uptime windows, Class critical damage Bonus etc.

Also. What gear would you blend for offense, defense and sustain? I am looking for some feedback, and thank you in advance to see this idea through.

DK full heavy build with Molten armaments.

Knight Slayer + elegance/Torug's pact/destructive mage (with an infused staff and a flame/shock/oblivion glyph) and Skorya as monster set

The crit dmg is not what you have to aim for as @Iskiab says, try to focus on penetration and max stats. And sustain is not an issue since you have HAs as one of the dmg sources.

You can even drop the resto staff for that build if you go DK and try a shock staff instead (DK has a lot of heals)

Iskiab

I’ve never tried something like this, I don’t know if it’d work well. Give it a shot and let me know how it does.

All I can think of that boosts LA or heavy attack damage are DKs with the ability that boosts heavy attack damage (molten armaments) and sorc... sorta... with overload.

With that being said, the only class that could come close to pulling it off would be magdk. Sorcs and NBs are generally a little too squishy to heavy attack a lot, I heavy attack a lot on my magplar but not mid engagement. MagDKs and MagWarden are tanky enough to heavy attack a lot, Magnecro would be too thinking about it. I’d simplify looking and just choose MagDK unless I’m misunderstanding how often you’ll be heavy attacking.

Crit mod is okay for burst, but remember it’s unreliable and won’t break even with spell damage/Max stat builds unless you’re over 50% crit or so.

As a suggestion I’d try this:
- MagDK
- Forget about crit mod, go for ridiculously high stats and use the resto heavies to tank your sustain
- In general use your dots and cc to drain resources, don’t let them heavy to recover resources (for stam), and overwhelm them with pressure.
- Consider heavy (since you get more resources when you heavy) but it will tank your crit and pen

Could work? No idea.

RiskyChalice863

Probably the best way to build a heavy attack build IMO is to utilize the Undaunted Infiltrator set along with either Undaunted Unweaver or Infallible Mage (which is similar but has minor vulnerability built in and greater crit bonus).

Assuming Molten Armaments is fixed in this patch and actually buffs the damage on channeled heavy attacks, Dragonknights are probably the best option.

This would work on a restoration staff, though it is even better on a lightning staff (since the sets increase damage per tick of heavy attack damage, and restoration staffs have 3 ticks, while lightning staffs have 4 ticks).

For PvP, I prefer building this into penetration, but building it into crit works well too (penetration and crit chance and crit damage actually increase the damage from the sets, whereas magicka and spell damage do not). So you could do things like go Khajiit, use the Shadow or Thief mundus stones, and have crit bonus on your weapon. Put Cauterize on your bar for the major prophecy. You could use Race Against Time or perhaps Channeled Acceleration for minor force. You could choose a monster set that focuses on crits in some way (maybe Iceheart or maybe just two different sets with a 833 spell crit first piece), though I tend to go with defensive options that buff resistances for this build’s monster set.

Resto heavy attacks are sort of damage over time, though, so it’s not really conventional “burst” damage. You would definitely have a burst window when the enemy is off balance, though, since heavy attacks have a big damage multiplier on off balance enemies. During those 7 seconds someone is off balance, you can melt them. And if they get close to death, you can in a sense burst them with Leap.

In terms of skills, if you’re a DK, then you definitely want one of the fossilize morphs and one of the whip morphs. This is how you proc off balance. Cauterize is a heal and gives you major prophecy, so you’d probably want that. Depending on what type of PvP you’re playing, you might want Empowering Chains (to get in range to use the fossilize/whip combo—may not be necessary in BGs though). You could potentially use something else there though (perhaps a DoT with a heal component, such as Structured Entropy or Burning Embers). If you’re using Undaunted Unweaver rather than Infallible Mage, you’ll need a stamina skill to use to proc it. In PvP, the best is probably Crushing Shock, since you can just activate the skill, not actually use a heavy attack, and therefore get the vast majority of the cost refunded, and slotting the skill will allow you to get a damage shield when blocking. If you’ve got Infallible Mage instead of Undaunted Unweaver, then you could slot a DoT or some kind of heal or active defensive ability instead.

I know you specified resto staff, but my recommendation would be to use lightning staff on the front bar, and Resto staff on the back bar. The back bar can have stuff like Rapid Regen, Race Against Time, Volatile Armor, Coagulating Blood, and Molten Armaments. I kind of prefer having two of Efficient Purge, Elusive Mist, and Wings instead of Race Against Time and Coagulating Blood, but the latter two would give you minor force and stronger raw burst healing, so they fit what you’re looking for a bit more maybe. In terms of ultimate abilities, I like Ferocious Leap on the front bar. I absolutely love Life Giver (resto ult), but I’m actually not sure you even really need it on a DK, since Ferocious Leap can reset the fight really well too and also does big damage and stuns. So you could probably go with some other option on the back bar.

Sahidom

All good build advice.

Theorycrafting the build on UESP character builder. The classic sets, Mothers Sorrow and Spinners, returned a benchmarked 11k effective spell power.

I tried the Knight Slayer set but the damage on the 5 pc seemed negligible.

Unsure here but Oblivion damage (not tested) damage done numbers are less than tooltip, may need to know whether this damage type falls under the same mitigation scenario, as bleeds, but with spell resistance.

I will continue to tease out this idea.

Restoration staff offers some decent utility, thanks to the PVE crowd. E.g. minor berserk, major force, mending, damage shield stacking...

I feel that I need to understand the LA/HA algorith and the Max. Magic or SD coefficients for the best return as the coefficient.

Xvorg

Sahidom wrote: »

All good build advice.

Theorycrafting the build on UESP character builder. The classic sets, Mothers Sorrow and Spinners, returned a benchmarked 11k effective spell power.

I tried the Knight Slayer set but the damage on the 5 pc seemed negligible.

Unsure here but Oblivion damage (not tested) damage done numbers are less than tooltip, may need to know whether this damage type falls under the same mitigation scenario, as bleeds, but with spell resistance.

I will continue to tease out this idea.

Restoration staff offers some decent utility, thanks to the PVE crowd. E.g. minor berserk, major force, mending, damage shield stacking...

I feel that I need to understand the LA/HA algorith and the Max. Magic or SD coefficients for the best return as the coefficient.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor

Try that, it helps a lot with builds and it has the complete Formula o HA for each weapon

tunepunk

Infused Torugs's pact might be a good option, as triggers very often, on light and heavy attacks. It will most likely be more net damage than going all in for only increasing la/ha damage directly.

I never had much success putting all eggs in one basket (ie light attacks). For dueling i find it way better to chose skills or gear that doesn't require a target, that can't be blocked or dodged, or does damage even when you're not (like when you're blocking, casting or using healing skills or shields)

For example: Elemental Blockade might seem like a low damage aoe skill at glance, but what it's good at is to carry other effects. Couple elemental blockade with infused (+torug's pact) weapon and your target will take a nice bit of damage as long as they stay in the aoe. You'll be surprised how many don't bother to get out of low damage AOE's like that one. Combine that with some other sets that can trigger off your elemental blockade and you can pretty much kite your opponent to death in the AOE and use LA as a compliment rather than something you rely on 100% for damage.

I have a magdk build using stamina sets like way of fire, and red mountain. Yeah you lose a little bit of damage from the stamina oriented bonuses but it's nothing compared to the benefits of having those two set's triggering pretty much constantly from, blockade, crushing shock, and destructive reach. You can focus on surviving, staying out of range and keep applying your weapon skills.

If you wanna focus on LA as your main damage I would probably choose sets and skills that can help you with CC. Good duelling opponents usually move around alot and are hard to target which makes LA very unreliable no matter how much damage you spec in to it.