PvE DD meta in 2020

The_Tarantian

Hello there.
Returning player here, was wondering about current DD meta in PvE, especially interested in state of magblade (my main back in the days) and magcro/stamcro (a new class for me, since I've missed Elsweyr chapter), but would appreciate the overall review very much too.

Thank you in advance and have a good day.

VoidCommander

Magblade is terrible in pve. Sorry.

WrathOfInnos

In PVE, Stamcro and MagDK are leading the pack, with Stamplar and Magblade not far behind. Magcro is pretty buggy (so is stamcro), but always in demand for the powerful Vulnerability buff. All the other classes are pretty close too, but Wardens are the worst DPS option for both Mag and Stam.

Ashtaris

I don’t think I would pick Nightblade, Stam or Mag, for any kind of content right now. They have been basically trashed by ZOS lately.

WrathOfInnos

Not sure where all the Magblade hate is coming from. They are currently the top ranged DPS (MagDK and Stamcro pull higher numbers, but are melee). This makes them ideal for content like vAS where a lot of movement is required. Take a look at the the top DPS from logs: https://www.esologs.com/zone/rankings/7#boss=23&metric=bossdps

Even for fights where everyone stacks on boss, Nightblades are just behind Stamcro and MagDK. Check out the current DPS leaderboard for Yolnahkriin: https://www.esologs.com/zone/rankings/12#boss=44&metric=bossdps

The_Tarantian

I thank ya'll, the opposing opinion do not really help to clarify things though Wrath backed up his words with some numbers though, so I am guessing magblade isn't that hopeless after all.

Also, what about stamsorcs? I've heard they are in quite a good place right now with decently simple rotation.

And tank meta - were there any significant changes? DK's still as good as ever?

p.s. Could we make overall tiers list by any chance?

WrathOfInnos

Not sure about Stamsorc. They got a nice buff with the new Bound Armaments, but I never see anybody play one. Might just be that they don’t bring any useful buffs to a group.

DK is still a great tank, but any class can do the job fine.

Overall tiers list gets tricky since there’s a wider span within each class than the separation between them. And builds affect it too, like Magcro is pretty high on the list if it uses a damage ultimate, but they almost always have to use their group debuff ultimate. Same for Magblade since a lot of the parses you’ll see are lower than other classes. This is because they are playing a buff role with Master Architect, but in a situation where they go full DPS they are near the top.

Septimus_Magna

For mag DDs the meta gear usually is 5x Mothers Sorrow, 5x False God, 2x Zaan and vMA inferno on the back bar.
Some mag DKs run the perfected Asylum inferno staff on the front bar.

Runefang

The_Tarantian wrote: »

I thank ya'll, the opposing opinion do not really help to clarify things though Wrath backed up his words with some numbers though, so I am guessing magblade isn't that hopeless after all.

Also, what about stamsorcs? I've heard they are in quite a good place right now with decently simple rotation.

And tank meta - were there any significant changes? DK's still as good as ever?

p.s. Could we make overall tiers list by any chance?

As Wrath said tier lists are hard if its based on the ceiling (i.e going full damage) because optimised groups rarely allow every class to go for full dps and often exclude many classes from dps roles period.

But based on the logs its something like this:
MagDK
Stamcro
Stamplar
Magcro / Magblade / Magplar
Magsorc
Magden / Stamblade / StamDK / StamSorc
Stamden (last by a huge margin)

The top end logs tend to be skewed towards classes that are either amazing dps (MagDK / Stamplar) and those which are played for group buffs (Stamcro / Magcro). In general, magicka dps outdoes stamina dps except Stamplar / Stamcro.

I looked at all damage not just damage to bosses by the way for the rankings.

Vaoh

Wrath is correct.

Also there a few important things you should know about - combat will feel more clunky than before. It’ll happen in a lot of little ways when in trials especially.

The primary issue will be with casting Wall of Elements, Mystic Orb, Steadfast Ward, Combat Prayer, and certain other abilities where oftentimes abilities are being placed on the floor in a cone/forward form you sort of way. Your character may become self immobilized for 0.1 - 1 seconds. This happens much more often when you cast these sorts of abilities in succession or if you barswap -> immediately cast one of these skills. It’s not every time but it’s easily replicated. In vSS (stand-still trials) it won’t be too bad. In trials with lots of movement (vAS lightning mechanic) it can be dangerous sometimes.

Furthermore, Blocking was reworked. In a lot of cases you won’t notice a difference. In some cases however your block will fail. Sprinting also now takes priority over Block, so if you are sprinting and then attempt to block it won’t do anything. Also if you stop sprinting and then immediately block, it can sometimes pull up block, drop block for a split-second, and then pull up block again which is enough to cause you to occasionally fail a block against a mechanic that can kill you.

There are also little moments where you may double cast a skill because you start spamming the button since the skill just won’t work for some reasons. Sometimes animations will also “lock up” so that you are standing still doing nothing on your screen but on the server you are casting abilities, so then after a few seconds everything catches up and it makes your character look like you casted 5 skills in 1 second.

Besides that..... gl! Both Magblade and Stam Sorc can play really well.

FakeFox

The_Tarantian wrote: »

And tank meta - were there any significant changes? DK's still as good as ever?

DK, Warden and Necromancer are the three good support choices. DK has lost quite a bit of power, but still has unique support. Nightblade and Sorcerer are by far the two most survivable options, but don't offer much apart from their minor buff.

thadjarvis

Not the ideal meta but an objective representation of actual player choices for DLC hm trials over the first two weeks of April.

34% (yes 1/3) are MagDK
54% are the other 4 non-Warden mag's
7% is Stamplar/StamCro

The other 5 builds constitute <5% of DPS used

https://imgur.com/hyFn4JR

Note that Magika consumes 90% of DPS in HM trials currently. I believe that is the highest since esologs existed.

That does not mean the list is the ideal meta. Eg the total average necro per group is only 1.5 (included support data in that number as well). Ie there should be more Necro's but with the glitchiness of BB's few want to play that headache. Similarly there are an average of 1.3 DK tanks per trial. Is there any need for more than one *** tank with magDK dominance?


To OP:
MagDK is BiS in terms of parse/use for the groups running (mostly Mag)
MagNB is the 2nd most popular so data shows should have zero issues joining groups as it clearly is done
MagNecro IMO is the most sought after DPS build by groups due to mag heavy and lack of necros in general

yRaven

VoidCommander wrote: »

Magblade is terrible in pve. Sorry.

Looks like MagBlade will be Meta next Patch, as it's doing literally 125K Parse on PTS