Best armour options for a "bruiser" build?

MindOfTheSwarm

So I was thinking about making a bruiser style build that deals more damage than a pure tank but also not as squishy as a DPS at the cost of less damage. My question is what armour is best?

I mean Heavy has the advantage of having more raw defences and extra max health through passives, but with resistance caps being in place I found that with the right set up, I can actually hit the cap in Medium Armor that has the advantage of better Stamina Regen and Weapon Damage. Of course this means I would have to run Reinforced on my large pieces and Divines with The Lady for my smaller pieces, but then I could still run Medium Sets that are just better for upping my damage.

Alucardo

I'm still a fan of the classic Medium Fortified Brass. You get a nice little health bonus, as well as a stack of resistances. Because you're in medium you still get the damage and sustain benefits too.

fred4

This is for PvE? PvP?

Use a 1H+S back bar. Doesn't matter what else you do, this is probably the most important thing.

I prefer how medium armor feels in terms of sprint speed and sustain, but with options like Race Against Time, Swift jewelry and Steed the differences have become less pronounced. My Nord DK tends to feel tankier in heavy armor. At the same time she breezes through vMA. The damage is there. Just make sure you slot Camouflaged Hunter or at least use Crit potions.

Really anything goes. I am currently using heavy Shacklebreaker (wanted the extra mag sustain for my DK), Titanborn and Bloodspawn. The more weapon damage you have the more you heal. That's also why Warrior's Fury and similar sets work. For what it's worth my current DK build is here. This is a PvP build, but works just fine for solo PvE, including vMA:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=230513

It doesn't have to be Titanborn. Anything will work instead. Spriggan, New Moon Acolyte, Hunding's Rage...

Being at armor cap is not needed outside of maybe trials. Yeah, my build is, but that's only with Bloodspawn. If you look at Nefas' latest vet dungeon and arena tank build, it's more about the utility than it is about reaching the armor cap, although he has high health.

Another build pattern to combine tankiness and damage is using Seventh Legion on the back bar with Steed Mundus, gold food and a tri-stat potion. This will give you permanent 2K+ health regen without sacrificing much damage. A further option is using Cyrodiil's Crest on the back bar. I did half of vMA on a pure Psijic build as a challenge, consisting of New Moon, Cyrodiil's Crest, Troll King and 2x Agility. You just had to make sure to build for some healing, in this case by using Crushing Weapon with Cyrodiil's Crest and Troll King as a backup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT0T7PzHc3I

MindOfTheSwarm

fred4 wrote: »

This is for PvE? PvP?

Use a 1H+S back bar. Doesn't matter what else you do, this is probably the most important thing.

I prefer how medium armor feels in terms of sprint speed and sustain, but with options like Race Against Time, Swift jewelry and Steed the differences have become less pronounced. My Nord DK tends to feel tankier in heavy armor. At the same time she breezes through vMA. The damage is there. Just make sure you slot Camouflaged Hunter or at least use Crit potions.

Really anything goes. I am currently using heavy Shacklebreaker (wanted the extra mag sustain for my DK), Titanborn and Bloodspawn. The more weapon damage you have the more you heal. That's also why Warrior's Fury and similar sets work. For what it's worth my current DK build is here. This is a PvP build, but works just fine for solo PvE, including vMA:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=230513

It doesn't have to be Titanborn. Anything will work instead. Spriggan, New Moon Acolyte, Hunding's Rage...

Being at armor cap is not needed outside of maybe trials. Yeah, my build is, but that's only with Bloodspawn. If you look at Nefas' latest vet dungeon and arena tank build, it's more about the utility than it is about reaching the armor cap, although he has high health.

Another build pattern to combine tankiness and damage is using Seventh Legion on the back bar with Steed Mundus, gold food and a tri-stat potion. This will give you permanent 2K+ health regen without sacrificing much damage. A further option is using Cyrodiil's Light on the back bar. I did half of vMA on a pure Psijic build as a challenge, consisting of New Moon, Cyrodiil's Crest, Troll King and 2x Agility. You just had to make sure to build for some healing, in this case by using Crushing Weapon with Cyrodiil's Crest and Troll King as a backup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT0T7PzHc3I

Thanks for this.

fred4

Meant to say Cyrodiil's Crest, not Cyrodiil's Light.

Theignson

I think Fred summed it up nicely. The thing is, Fury and Bloodspawn are made for brawling, since as you wade in there fighting, your weapon damage goes up from Fury and your ultimate and resists go up from BS. Other sets are similar ie they reward you for running into a melee mess and going crazy.

MashmalloMan

Alucardo wrote: »

I'm still a fan of the classic Medium Fortified Brass. You get a nice little health bonus, as well as a stack of resistances. Because you're in medium you still get the damage and sustain benefits too.

Not sure if OP is talking about pvp, but if they are, Pariah is a way better Defensive Heavy Set, especially after the recent nerfs. Both Fortified Brass and Pariah have the same 2-4 pieces, but the 5th bonus is where Pariah kills Foritified Brass.

Fortified Brass
(2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(3 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(4 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(5 items) Adds 3460 Armor

Pariah
(2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(3 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(4 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(5 items) Increases your Physical and Spell Resistance by up to 11094 based on your missing Health.

What the set doesn't tell you is that it gets 2700 of that 11094 armor upfront, just for being at 100% hp. That means the remaining 8394 armor scales from 100-0% hp and as a total will surpass Fortified Brass at only 90% hp with only massive gains beyond that point.

Here is a reddit post from 2 years ago, nothing has changed for Pariah since then and they still haven't "adjusted" it since they nerfed Fortified Brass.
https://reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/87gx55/daily_set_discussion_mark_of_the_pariah/

Using Pariah on Jewelry/Chest/Legs and 5 other Medium pieces + Bloodspawn is probably OP's best bet for what they need in pvp. Add in a good back bar option like 1h +shield potentates or for a quicker playstle, Quick Cloak + Black Rose Prison Dual Wield.

MindOfTheSwarm

MashmalloMan wrote: »

Alucardo wrote: »

I'm still a fan of the classic Medium Fortified Brass. You get a nice little health bonus, as well as a stack of resistances. Because you're in medium you still get the damage and sustain benefits too.

Not sure if OP is talking about pvp, but if they are, Pariah is a way better Defensive Heavy Set, especially after the recent nerfs. Both Fortified Brass and Pariah have the same 2-4 pieces, but the 5th bonus is where Pariah kills Foritified Brass.

Fortified Brass
(2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(3 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(4 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(5 items) Adds 3460 Armor

Pariah
(2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(3 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(4 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(5 items) Increases your Physical and Spell Resistance by up to 11094 based on your missing Health.

What the set doesn't tell you is that it gets 2700 of that 11094 armor upfront, just for being at 100% hp. That means the remaining 8394 armor scales from 100-0% hp and as a total will surpass Fortified Brass at only 90% hp with only massive gains beyond that point.

Here is a reddit post from 2 years ago, nothing has changed for Pariah since then and they still haven't "adjusted" it since they nerfed Fortified Brass.
https://reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/87gx55/daily_set_discussion_mark_of_the_pariah/

Using Pariah on Jewelry/Chest/Legs and 5 other Medium pieces + Bloodspawn is probably OP's best bet for what they need in pvp. Add in a good back bar option like 1h +shield potentates or for a quicker playstle, Quick Cloak + Black Rose Prison Dual Wield.

Thanks for this will give Pariah a go.

Stx

Pariah + Titanborn seems like a cool combo.

Xvorg

Pariah + fury

It's like a Hulk build. The more dmg you get, the better. Combien with nord and Balorgh and DK as class. (Orc and Imperial can also be a good option)