StamDk build advice

lukoi

One of the great things about ESO is the theorycrafing, build variety imo. I find myself now running multiples of the same basic class if only to have different playstyles on tap vice swapping equipment.

I have this dusty stamdk I originally built to be a PvE tank, only to find trials dont hild my attention at all, and I've decided to repurpose him into a pvp stamdk to go with my other DKs.

I'm looking for advice on whether I'm way off the mark or not here from more experienced players (I've been really playing for only the last 13 months or so).

Titan born, pariah (and I'm torn between Balorgh, Troll or Bloodspawn currently).

2H front bar - Noxious (which helps amplify ->,) Molten Whip, Dizzy, Execute & Shuffle (vice Fwd Momentum) w/ Onslaught

S/B bar - volatile armor, GDB, purge, vigor, igneous weapons w/ dragon leap

Should I be wearing the heavy set or the MA (I'm leaning towards MA)? I'm also torn on whether or not to use bow instead as I find magnum shot a very useful tool quite often, which would mean dropping GDB I guess?

Use Mighty Chudan and get rid of volatile armor for something else potentially (again maybe magnum shot)?

Opinions appreciated. Realize nothing about this build is probably that earth shattering or new, but I've less experience on stamdk than say templar or NB, so excuse my newbies rehashing of a classic please.

UrbanMonk

Nothing replaces BS on StamDK.
Rest depends if you are going for CP or NoCP.

lukoi

Well I like to play Cyro CP, and BGs, but I can look at swapping pieces if needed to be capable of moving between the two.

Urzigurumash

Titanborn + Pariah is obviously the hot new build, we'll see how it works out. Probably equally strong on DK with Corrosive and Necro with Bone Goliath.

Balorgh and Corrosive or Standard work pretty well together. In my opinion if you mostly use Leap or Onslaught or Spell Wall, you'd be better off with 1 piece Balorgh and 1 piece Kena. Regardless of the Ultimate used, there is a bit of contradiction with the Helping Hands passive and Balorgh: Balorgh rewards saving up ultimate, Helping Hands recommends casting the ultimate as soon as its ready.

Troll King lost a huge amount of power when they removed the HOT from Rally/Forward Momentum, and reduced Lingering Health pots duration. Cauterize is really too slow to proc it reliably, and GDB will often heal you over 50%, so you pretty much have to use Vigor to keep it up. It's just not the same on a StamDK anymore.

Bloodspawn has few drawbacks. Frankly unless you're running Champion of the Hist or Werewolf Hide, you should probably be in Bloodspawn until you really know why you'd prefer another Monster Set.

As for Chudan, nope. Not unless you'll be using GDB if you drop Volatile Armor - you need those Draconic passives.

As for dropping GDB if you use a bow - yes, absolutely. In my opinion, bow should really only be used in 5 medium, and GDB should really only be used in 5 heavy. Most of the time in 5 heavy I'm good with just GDB unless I want to heal my team with Echoing Vigor. In 5 medium, I drop GDB and use Resolving Vigor.

So, to summarize my thoughts:

- Start with Bloodspawn for any setup
- Pariah Body, Titanborn Jewels/weapons (good luck farming that): Use GDB, Vigor expendable, don't use Bow, use 2h/s&b.
- Titanborn Body, Pariah Jewels/weapons (much easier farm): Drop GDB, use Resolving Vigor, try both 2h/bow and 2h/s&b.

My only question, you were slotting Whip for the passive? I don't know it's worth the slot. I personally would replace Whip with Flames of Oblivion on that bar, or maybe the new Stone Giant.

Edit: As to my first statement, maybe Corrosive and Titanborn doesn't make much sense. I do think a Bone Goliath Necro will get the most out of this build combo, but maybe I'm missing something.

Urzigurumash

And, being mostly a BGs player, the question between Heavy and Medium is quite simple - if I have a healer, I'd rather be in Medium. If I don't, I'd rather be in Heavy.

Urzigurumash

One last thing, if you can sustain Purge on a StamDK, you'll be a god. I sure can't, and it's absolutely the biggest weakness without a healer.

lukoi

Thanks for the feedback @Urzigurumash.

I was slotting the lash and noxious together, as the latter amplifies damage of the former but given your tone, maybe I'm expecting too much from it value wise.

What did you mean about sustaining purge? Meaning I will run out of mana too often or something else? Not enough slots on the bar to keep it on?

Iki

Hi lukoi, I would drop whip, ign wep and purge from your bars. Stam-build can`t really afford to spam purge enough to make it worth a slot and since momentum already give you major brutality, igneous weapons is waste of slot. Also, consider spell wall as defensive ultimate to your s&b bar and then have leap or onslaugh at 2-h bar.

Take a look at my stam-dks bar-setup.
2-h: 1. fossilize 2. nox breath 3. executioner 4. d-swing 5. forward momentum (could be rally with medium armor build and shuffle slotted) leap as ulti.
S&b: 1. fragmented shield 2. volatile armor 3. defensive stance (or shuffle if I use medium armor build) 4. cauterize/gdb 5. vigor spell wall ultimate.

Explanation to details that differ from your setup: Fossilize helps a lot killing some targets, remember that leap is blockable cc unlike fossilize, so latter really helps against blocking targets and can also save your life, as you are able to cc dangerous attacker when your leap isn`t up.
Fragmented shield give major mending which boosts your healing a lot, it`s too good skill to not slot, it also give some stam back when you are blocking for your life.
Defensive stance can be quite helpful against ranged opponents and it also reduces cost of blocking and that way helps with stamina-sustain. When I use medium armor, I tend to replace it with shuffle that give me major evasion, as with medium armor can afford to dodge hard hitting projectiles, so def stance is needed less.
Gdb might be able to save your own life when you lose lots of health, but cauterize can provide small burst heals also to your wounded allies, so if you are team-player consider trying that skil.
Spell wall doesn`t really need explaining, just read its tooltip and it should be clear why it`s awesome oh [snip]-ultimate.

lukoi

Thanks @iki.

I realize now I put FWD momentum on there when I meant to put Shuffle in that slot (since Ign was giving me Major brutality as well as teammates for a longer span).

But I will definitely check out all of your recommendations here.

I get whipped ALOT in BGs, like straight spammed with it, so I perhaps mistakenly assumed it was a more important skill than it is on a good DK build.

Urzigurumash

@lukoi

Yeah, I don't think whip is worth the passive damage. It's a great skill on a MagDK, and you can make it a great skill on a StamDK in BGs by equipping Pelinal's, which you can run on only the bar with whip. Ideally put any and all magicka damage skills on that bar.

Speaking of which, I concur with Iki that Fossilize is indispensable. I always run Fossilize in a 1v1 setting, and Talons in an XvX setting. This costs a decent amount of mag, and combined with the quintessential Volatile Armor, there simply is not enough mag to rely on Purge whatsoever.

As Iki says, it is a waste to have Igneous Weapons and Momentum. Personally I love the heavy attack buff of Molten Armaments, and giving that morph Major Brutality has allowed me to drop Momentum altogether. Which means I'm often stuck in a snare, but since I'm usually in heavy armor, being snared isn't as punishing as it is in medium.

Furthermore, in my experience, it seems Fragmented Shield is more useful to combine with Vigor than with GDB. Since Minor Brutality is essential, a StamDK should always have at least 1 Earthen Heart skill slotted. I think it is a reasonable rule that in heavy, this can be Molten Armaments, but in Medium, this should be Fragmented combined with Vigor, and Momentum slotted for Major Brutality.

The heavy attack buff of Molten Armaments has stronger synergy with the heavy attack resource restoration passive of Heavy Armor than with any Medium passives, in my view.

Maybe any type of StamDK should be slotting Stone Giant as its first choice for Earthern Heart passives, but I'm not quite sure. I'm not exactly convinced a split-function AoE/Single Target ability is something I want to use.

lukoi

Thanks much for the feedback folks, will grab some of this gear and start testing these combinations.

Asardes

This is the build I'm running. Simple, maybe outdated, but I kinda like it
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=165561

WhoThenNow7

Asardes wrote: »

This is the build I'm running. Simple, maybe outdated, but I kinda like it
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=165561

I don't think it shows what sets you're wearing?

Edit: Didn't realize I could click on each piece.

Faulgor

Haven't played stamDK myself in a while, but seen some running around in noCP apparently using a DoT build?
2H/Bow with poison injection, venomous claw, noxious breath, double dot poisons, battleaxe bleed. Stone giant spammable + executioner for direct hits. No idea if they'd actually run something like Deadly Strike, but it might be worthwhile in noCP where you don't have that many +% bonuses.
I don't know how effective this is against competent players, but the fossilize spam helped me realize my magplar has way too little stam atm.

lukoi

Appreciate it Faulgor but not really interested in a bleed/DoR based build in the current meta.