Help with an experimental build "Elephant gun"

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

I have run into a problem, I love sniping and ganking, but in the current world of pvp there is an abundance of tanky dps builds running around. These people are almost immune to being ganked due to having high hp and usually heavy armor. So I want to try to make a build that will be able to successfully burst down these war elephants.

My idea so far is to use aggressive horn at max ultimate paired with balorgh, 5pc new moon, and 5 pc swamp raider. Vampire for simmering frenzy, rally, channeled acceleration. Obviously be a nightblade as well. Probably full divine's, bloodthirsty jewelry or infused.

Not sure whether to use lover or shadow mundus. They will obviously have stupidly high armor, so not sure what will hit harder. Any advice on how to improve my "Elephant gun" build? I am well aware its very impractical to farm max ultimate before attempting to take down these beasts for their prized ivory, but the whole point is to be able to do it. Its very satisfying for me to take down big targets, but its very hard after titanborn nerf.

Waffennacht

I just had to at least say that I absolutely love the name

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

Waffennacht wrote: »

I just had to at least say that I absolutely love the name

Thanks! I am going to test it out soon, just got to level up war horn and pray I get a Balorghs shoulder(running low on keys). Hopefully no one that helps me refine it will be on the receiving end.

HanStolo

elephant gun???
I'm in!

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

I hit a 15k snipe back in the titanborn days, I am hoping to break that record. THIS will be the final evolution in the arms race between defense and offense. I expect only a pure tank to withstand this and that is fair.

I wonder if titanborn is still worth using. It will only apply once you start combat, but its very rare anyone avoids the second snipe unless they have an immovable pot active. Would make the second snipe go through pretty much any amount of armor and it would hit harder if it crits. Which set to replace though, swamp raider or new moon? Was even considering mechanical acuity and titan born for a guarantee second shot crit.

SpiritofESO

The Lover Mundus stone for max armor penetration + essence of weapon power + poison glyph on bow -- heh, you know the rest.

Probably best to drop the impen trait armor and go partial or full Divines and keep Shadowy Disguise handy and Mother's Silence (ignore Sneak movement penalty) so you can beat feet real fast.

Also, seven pieces of Medium Armor gives +21% sprint speed + roll dodge and that's +30% more sprint speed for a few seconds for +51% sprint speed boost.

Also, also ( ) -- make the Weapon Power potion with Restore Stamina built in.

"Elephant Gun" ... maybe not, but definitely Shoot-and-Scoot, but will definitely get you the "Paragon" title (8 more kills than deaths) as well as "the Merciless" (four kills within 10 seconds of sequentially) (both of which titles I have and I think are more telling that Battleground Butcher, which I also have )

Best part -- lovely bow skills make MORE threads on the forums about how Snipe (Focused Aim morph) should be nerfed. (No, it won't be until they also nerf those OP AoEs which players run around with together for "cheap, no effort" kills and/or the massive Two-Hander damage.

So, yeah -- stealth and range are your friends. And, actually require some skill to use.

SpiritofESO

Oh, just another note -- my favorite armor set, Archer's Mind, got buffed this patch:

Archer's Mind

LEVEL 50 CHAMPION 160

(2 items) Adds 1096 Max Stamina
(3 items) Adds 833 Weapon Critical
(4 items) Adds 833 Weapon Critical
(5 items) Increases your Critical Damage done by 6%. Increases your Critical Damage done by an additional 12% when attacking from Sneak or Invisibility.

Also, even if you are in Sneak (which you should be) do Shadowy Disguise before firing your shot ("New effect
Guarantees a Critical Strike on your next attack.")

(Correction to above -- Night Silence, not Mother's Silence. Oops.)

Tammany

I do not know how to explain, but most fat hp tryharders are able to BF and dodgeroll right after the first snipe

LEVEL 50 CHAMPION 160

(2 items) Adds 1096 Max Stamina
(3 items) Adds 833 Weapon Critical
(4 items) Adds 833 Weapon Critical
(5 items) Increases your Critical Damage done by 6%. Increases your Critical Damage done by an additional 12% when attacking from Sneak or Invisibility.

Also, even if you are in Sneak (which you should be) do Shadowy Disguise before firing your shot ("New effect
Guarantees a Critical Strike on your next attack.")

This set does not outweight NMA nor SR.
Max stamina is a weak damage boost for NB bow build, 2x useless crit bonuses and 18% crit damage is weaker than straight penetration/weapon damage bonus that increased by buffs and armour in additional.

SpiritofESO

Tammany wrote: »

I do not know how to explain, but most fat hp tryharders are able to BF and dodgeroll right after the first snipe

Sorry, but definitely not true. My experience is that, since they are engaged attacking nearby opponents, they are not even aware that my bowshots are coming from 40 meters away ... until it is too late. Usually they Dodge-Roll when they realize they are almost dead and the Poison Injection DoT finishes them off.

How do I know this? Heh, I do this to my opponents every day in PvP.

~~~

Also, to the above OP, remember that Poison Injection will stun and crit if used from Sneak and does the following:

New Effect
Deals up to 100% more damage to enemies under 50% Health.

~~~

So ---> Snipe (Focused Aim), Poison Injection, Snipe, Snipe, then Poison Injection under 50% health.

If anybody gets close to you ---> Magnum Shot (stun), go Invis, Roll-Dodge, Sprint. Lovely.

Waffennacht

Ive been thinking about this for a bit now.

I do not think a pure offensive build will work against an "unkillable" build.

You wont get through the health in a single strike from stealth before they can react and heal up and block.

So, Im betting you'd deal significant damage, but then be forced to brawl, at which point you'll end up outta resources ans probably too weak to defend yourself.

I was thinking maybe a brawler type build that can capitalize on the long combat times.

I was also thinking a set like knight slayer may be an option to use large health pools against the opponent.

Something that the longer the battle goes, the harder you hit, with something to actually put the tank down when it gets low.

Bloodthirsty - along with any execute type abilities are very strong against tanks.

Some thoughts so far

Beardimus

Waffennacht wrote: »

Ive been thinking about this for a bit now.

I do not think a pure offensive build will work against an "unkillable" build.

You wont get through the health in a single strike from stealth before they can react and heal up and block.

So, Im betting you'd deal significant damage, but then be forced to brawl, at which point you'll end up outta resources ans probably too weak to defend yourself.

I was thinking maybe a brawler type build that can capitalize on the long combat times.

I was also thinking a set like knight slayer may be an option to use large health pools against the opponent.

Something that the longer the battle goes, the harder you hit, with something to actually put the tank down when it gets low.

Bloodthirsty - along with any execute type abilities are very strong against tanks.

Some thoughts so far

@Waffennacht good to see you back I sense you have the itch on some fantastic build ideas

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

The idea of the build is to be a single target killer in the way a bomb blade is a group killer. You massively buff up with channeled acceleration, rally, aggressive horn, full 500 ult balorgh's, and then get very low hp with simmering frenzy before bursting down 1 single target. Very impractical for serious pvp or bgs, but in a situation where you really want to kill 1 guy this is what I am trying to accomplish. I knew it would never work on actual tanks, but the guys who try to blur the line between tank and dps should be vulnerable.

I tested it out a bit yesterday and it is a huge pain to set up all the buffs and pray your target doesn't run off too far. Works terrible in imperial city due to all the los issues, but in Cyrodiil I did manage to take some tusks. People that would be impossible to gank in one stealth combo are vulnerable to this. Found a good target and I know he was very tanky because I tried bursting him down without balorgh's and he tanked it. Same guy was wading through my allies and barely taking damage. I ended up stalking him and used my full power, he went down in three hits. The typical Dk in heavy armor, 2h, shield, and over 25k hp.

I think this is less of a real build and more of a weapon you pull out when you spot some big game because like I said its very impractical for real pvp. I think people that gank alot will know the feel of having to ignore a target because he is too tanky. I only have to swap two items from my normal setup and swap 1 ult, so its easy to pull out when you need the big damage.

The elephant gun could probably use some more min maxing to reach full potential and I will try to further boost its kill power, but I got another annoying build type I want to be able to kill. The infamous dodge roll spammer! My next project will be to develop another weapon style build that can deal with one of the most annoying types of people to kill. Probably very dot heavy and paired with detect pots so they cannot cloak away.

Tammany

SpiritofESO wrote: »

My next project will be to develop another weapon style build that can deal with one of the most annoying types of people to kill. Probably very dot heavy and paired with detect pots so they cannot cloak away.

double dot canerous set is pretty popular novadays, EP PC run a party of nighblades with dot sets

Alienoutlaw

stuhn's with spriggans, 1 balorg 1 Kra'gh, perfected malestrom 2h can hit almost 30k pen tanks go down fast

TwinLamps

If you use warhorn in PvP Im sure ppl will die.
Laughing, if nothing else.

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

TwinLamps wrote: »

If you use warhorn in PvP Im sure ppl will die.
Laughing, if nothing else.

The added 15% crit damage is just a plus, the real purpose is to have an ult I can use to proc Balorgh's and then snipe down a single target from stealth. I wanted to be able to kill heavy armor dps builds from stealth(with a bow) and it actually works. The only thing I am surprised about is that they don't get alerted by the horn prior to their quick death, I was actually concerned it would give it away.

Alienoutlaw wrote: »

stuhn's with spriggans, 1 balorg 1 Kra'gh, perfected malestrom 2h can hit almost 30k pen tanks go down fast

Melee is always so much better at killing =(. It wouldn't make sense to call it Elephant gun though if I had to use melee.

Alienoutlaw

ah the flaw in my otherwise not so bad post

UppGRAYxDD

TBS/NMA or Spriggins/1 balorgh/1kena
Lover and Warrior, all divines, and infused won dmg jewelry.
Use focused aim, rotation: buff up, cloak, fire 2 snipes at max distance or near it, then immediately use the NB mark on your target. This is the way...

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

UppGRAYxDD wrote: »

TBS/NMA or Spriggins/1 balorgh/1kena
Lover and Warrior, all divines, and infused won dmg jewelry.
Use focused aim, rotation: buff up, cloak, fire 2 snipes at max distance or near it, then immediately use the NB mark on your target. This is the way...

I want to be able to use titanborn strength so bad! Why did they have to nerf it! Its the whole reason I made this silly build. The set had one niche as a ganking set for vampire's! ONE PURPOSE! Nerfed into oblivion and now used by no one. They could have just toned down the bonus for being under 50% hp or made it require you to be under 30%, but no they had to make it require being in combat. Was my favorite set in the game man, I even made it full gold and I never make sets full gold. I actually don't even remember anyone complaining that it was op, very strange. Pretty sure everyone was and still is on the nerf sheer venom and venomous smite band wagon. It was like having a baby Balorgh's every time you were under 50%, so perfect and pure.

Firstmep

xxslam48xxb14_ESO wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I just had to at least say that I absolutely love the name

Thanks! I am going to test it out soon, just got to level up war horn and pray I get a Balorghs shoulder(running low on keys). Hopefully no one that helps me refine it will be on the receiving end.

Titanborn is better than new moon especially since you are using shimmering frenzy.

Berchelous

Just kill the tank players and we deal

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

Firstmep wrote: »

xxslam48xxb14_ESO wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I just had to at least say that I absolutely love the name

Thanks! I am going to test it out soon, just got to level up war horn and pray I get a Balorghs shoulder(running low on keys). Hopefully no one that helps me refine it will be on the receiving end.

Titanborn is better than new moon especially since you are using shimmering frenzy.

It would work on the second shot, but that one is always the hardest to land. I really struggle to find any purpose for this set to exist now that it requires in combat to function. No matter how elusive you are staying under 50% hp is a death sentence and that is why gankers are the only ones that used it. Even a roll spammer gets hit every now and again so they wouldn't want to use this set. I thought maybe if you had a super huge shield on your character at all times to protect your <50%hp, but investing into that would ruin the whole point of doing big damage. Can't use it in pve content because healers always heal you above 50%. Seriously stupid move to make it require in combat. They should have just reduced the benefits of being under 50% a hair to appease the probably two guys that gripped over it existing.

Berchelous wrote: »

Just kill the tank players and we deal

No promises.

EtTuBrutus

xxslam48xxb14_ESO wrote: »

Firstmep wrote: »

xxslam48xxb14_ESO wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I just had to at least say that I absolutely love the name

Thanks! I am going to test it out soon, just got to level up war horn and pray I get a Balorghs shoulder(running low on keys). Hopefully no one that helps me refine it will be on the receiving end.

Titanborn is better than new moon especially since you are using shimmering frenzy.

It would work on the second shot, but that one is always the hardest to land. I really struggle to find any purpose for this set to exist now that it requires in combat to function. No matter how elusive you are staying under 50% hp is a death sentence and that is why gankers are the only ones that used it. Even a roll spammer gets hit every now and again so they wouldn't want to use this set. I thought maybe if you had a super huge shield on your character at all times to protect your <50%hp, but investing into that would ruin the whole point of doing big damage. Can't use it in pve content because healers always heal you above 50%. Seriously stupid move to make it require in combat. They should have just reduced the benefits of being under 50% a hair to appease the probably two guys that gripped over it existing.

Berchelous wrote: »

Just kill the tank players and we deal

No promises.

WW with Titanborn, eternal vigor, pure tristat/triune, 3x tri regen, hp to 35k. Lots of fun.

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

EtTuBrutus wrote: »

xxslam48xxb14_ESO wrote: »

Firstmep wrote: »

xxslam48xxb14_ESO wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I just had to at least say that I absolutely love the name

Thanks! I am going to test it out soon, just got to level up war horn and pray I get a Balorghs shoulder(running low on keys). Hopefully no one that helps me refine it will be on the receiving end.

Titanborn is better than new moon especially since you are using shimmering frenzy.

It would work on the second shot, but that one is always the hardest to land. I really struggle to find any purpose for this set to exist now that it requires in combat to function. No matter how elusive you are staying under 50% hp is a death sentence and that is why gankers are the only ones that used it. Even a roll spammer gets hit every now and again so they wouldn't want to use this set. I thought maybe if you had a super huge shield on your character at all times to protect your <50%hp, but investing into that would ruin the whole point of doing big damage. Can't use it in pve content because healers always heal you above 50%. Seriously stupid move to make it require in combat. They should have just reduced the benefits of being under 50% a hair to appease the probably two guys that gripped over it existing.

Berchelous wrote: »

Just kill the tank players and we deal

No promises.

WW with Titanborn, eternal vigor, pure tristat/triune, 3x tri regen, hp to 35k. Lots of fun.

Maybe.

I got a question for anyone to answer. We got two sets that I know of now that require you to be in combat to function, but I don't have much of a clue as to what counts as being in combat. Normally combat music plays when you are in combat, but sometimes that happens even if you aren't attacking anything. Sometimes the game lets you re-sneak even though the combat music is playing and other times you can't re-sneak for a very long time. So basically wtf counts as being in combat to proc titanborn and clever alchemist? Like if I re-sneak in the middle of a fight does that cancel combat? Does combat start the second I land any damage on an enemy or receive damage? What if my team mates are fighting and I am sitting in stealth?

Ahzek

@xxslam48xxb14_ESO
Combat mostly starts when you damage someone, get damaged by someone, heal someone in combat or take aggro of an NPC.

Combat ends whenever it feels like it, especially in cyro. Your best best is simply to get one of the many addons which display the "entered combat"/"left combat" messages whenever it happens. Other than that you could also enter a menu like inventory or the stat screen to check wether you are in combat. If the game considers you to be in combat the border of your screen will be pulsing red while in those menus.

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

Ahzek wrote: »

@xxslam48xxb14_ESO
Combat mostly starts when you damage someone, get damaged by someone, heal someone in combat or take aggro of an NPC.

Combat ends whenever it feels like it, especially in cyro. Your best best is simply to get one of the many addons which display the "entered combat"/"left combat" messages whenever it happens. Other than that you could also enter a menu like inventory or the stat screen to check wether you are in combat. If the game considers you to be in combat the border of your screen will be pulsing red while in those menus.

Ill have to get that addon, I really want to keep using titanborn strength so it will come in handy.