What Set Combos do you enjoy?

Vignar_Giantsbane

I know the Meta is whatever Alcast and the other Guide Authors have run numbers on (so Rele tops out on Single Target Damage for Stam/Siroria for Mag etc); but I'm not talking Meta.

I wanted to see what other people enjoy running outside of Meta (or if Meta is what you enjoy running in Solo Content).

I run Wild Hunt on almost all my chars; helps quite a bit with survivability for yeeting out of red in PVE and running away from Dizzy/Executioner/Shalks in PVP (plus the obvious farming/questing benefits). But I also have Pale Order as a backup on most of them for harder bosses/Vaterashan Hollows/VMA.

If there's a flex spot I run Trainee.

Aegis Caller and Syvarras on my Stamcro with a Maelstrom 2hander (Redguard)

Pillars of Nirn and Vicious Ophidian + Masters 2hander on my Stamden (Redguard)

Sheer Venom and Venomous Smite/ or Darloc Brae with a Maelstrom 2hander or Masters Bow on my Stamblade (Woodelf, used to be Vampire but not anymore with changes)

Unleashed Terror or Aegis Caller + Unfathomable Darkness/Oblivions Edge (that 255 Weapon Damage 5 piece is NASTY) + Masters 2hander OR Stormfist/Shadowrend + Vengeance Leech double barred for Stamsorc (resource recovery).

Bone Pirate and Syvarras on Stamplar with Maelstrom 2hander (Nord)

Vaterashan Inferno + False Gods + Overwhelming Surge on Magplar (Breton)

Sometimes I rotate in Heem Jas on the Stam Builds

What about you guys; what do you like?

Taleof2Cities

Essence Thief + Morkuldin + Mephala on my Stamplar is definitely not meta but a lot of fun.

Athan1

Nightflame for the extra survivability and off heals.

Twice born star is my favourite bc I can change role/ focus of my build without respecing.

Been using new moon acolyte as well with no sustain issues.

Crafty is amazing for magicka builds. Ebon or Plague doctors when I tank. Simple sets but great result.

validifyedneb18_ESO

Pillar of Nirn / Blooddrinker / Deadly Strikes / Kragh (Variations)

Winterborn / Iceheart / Mothers Sorrow

Vevvev

Elf Bane + Grothdarr

Spell Strategist + Zaan

Burning Spellweave + Literally any flame set (Grothdarr, Zaan, Illambris, Maw of the Infernal, etc.)

Kjalnar's Nightmare + Spell Strategist

Draugrkin's Grip + Grothdarr/Zaans

Clever Alchemist + Spell Strategist

Clever Alchemist + Burning Spellweave (All time favorite right here for PVP)

4 piece Clever Alchemist + Ring of the Pale Order.

fred4

I'm a PvPer who mainly uses his magplar for PvE including vMA and vVateshran. I don't have access to trial sets. Double lightning staff with:

Mother's Sorrow front bar
Lich back bar
Grothdarr
1x Trainee
Wild Hunt or Pale Order or Thrassian Stranglers depending on content.

Thrassian is mainly for solo farming normal dungeons. I'm not pushed about it, but if I ever get really good at vVateshran I might try it there once you have the health buff. However I'm guessing that people shooting for a good time probably don't waste it getting those buffs. Also right now it's hard enough for me with Pale Order.

oscarovegren

Grothdarr + elf bane + BSW + vMA destro for the roleplay of a magdk PvE

Master destro, clever/arkasis back (4pc front) and balorgh for magden PvP for that group utility and super AoE burst from northern + deep fissure + shock clench

Overwhelming surge on magplar PvE for high concussion + off-balance uptime + amazing sustain

7th backbar on stamsorc (PvP)

Larcomar

Ah, a thread after my own heart

First of, yeah, if I'm queing for a vet pledge / pvp etc, Ill stick on the standard meta stuff, whatever that may be. My toons usually end up wearing some combo of Hundings/Julianos/MS etc. And yeah, they all look and play the same. But people have expectations....

Solo though? I try to make my toons look, feel and play differently, and, ideally, play to their strengths. I guess I like them to feel like they have some sort of theme to them and try to use class abilities where poss rather than just drop WOE / endless hail and spam FP / D-swing.

Like you, all have wild hunt - it's a masssive QOL improvement - and those that don't have passive self healing have pale order as a back up for harder stuff.

Still working on a few of them but here are some -

- My Magdk is a super tanky, in your face, flame throwing brawler. He's a nord for starters and wears heavy armor just to, you know, make the point. He rocks Grothdar + Elfbane + BSW and makes heavy use of talons, flame breath and inhale as well as his whip. Great flamy fun. I particularly love the effect on inhale. Def my most impressive toon visually, and probably my favorite toon for soloing harder stuff.

- My templar feels a bit like she lacks an obvious class focus - it's just "magic" - but is probably my fav toon for casual dungeons. She rocks Grothdar, Overwhelming surge (body) and Thunderbug (weps jewels), buffs with Solar Barrage, then leaps all over the place with Toppling charge and spams mobs to death with jabs. The combined AOE from Grothdar, OS, Thunderbug and Solar barrage is insane. Esp with 75 in thaumaturge for the off balance perk. I just wish thunderbug was 8m instead of 5.

- My stamblade is a sneaky scout sniper. He wears night mother's embrace, maelstrom axe BB, jailbreaker BB, and ofc his wild hunt ring. It doesn't give him any flashy effects but what it does gives him is getting on for 200 run speed in stealth, reduced stealth detection, reduced stealth cost and great stam regen. He can sneak in pretty much anywhere, headshot every mob going and be the other side of the zone before any of our rather dumb pve enemies notice.

- The mage is your classic shock archetype. He's my oldest toon and has gone through multiple roles and mutiple loadouts. but for solo I always focus on the shock stuff, too much fun not to. For easier content, I think he's currently rocking Ilambris, Overwhelming Surge and Thunderbug - I love dropping a liquid lightning, streaking in, then spamming pulsar. For tougher content, he swaps to OS + MS, and goes full pet with Maw, VF, birdy and the atronarch backing him up. Sometimes swap one set out for mad tinkerer. Which is huge fun with lots of mobs.

- My khajit magblade is my main thief. If he's strictly thieving ie avoiding combat he'll wear 4 piece darloc brae, 3 piece night terror and 5 piece night mother's embrace. And yes, he's literally invisible. If he's actually trying to kill something, Ill usually swap him into his main / "proper" gear, but give him swords to duel wield and sneak round Blade of Woeing mobs. Thinking I may develop that theme further - pelinals or soemthign maybe. Think he's just got MS swords at mo.

- My stamcro is pretty new. Currently rocking Crimson heavy armor + Unfathomable darkness + Maelstrom axe + Masters bow, buffs up with beckoning armor and wades in, using the various corpse spells to blow stuff up and get lots of ultimates. The pummelling goliath ulti is great fun but colossus nevers gets old. Still needs some work - wd welcome any suggestions for necro'y sets - but fun so far, if too much pre buffing on short timers.

- The warden is really a tank / pvp main and I don't solo much on him. But for tooling around I've really been enjoying just slapping on Syvarra's + Unleashed terror + either Selenes or Maelstrom axe, stampeding everything in sight and then going to town with cleave / reverse. It doesn't feel very "wardeny" other than the bear I guess but, tbh, he started off as a proper mag warden and I really didn't get on with the whole flowers and ice thing.

Really got to check out some of the other suggestions in this thread. Essence Thief + Morkuldin + Mephala sounds like fun!

Starlock

I couldn't care less about the competitive meta; I follow the roleplayer's meta - use whatever is the best fit for the character concept. I balance that somewhat against what is effective for doing the types of content I like doing, but the need for compromises pretty rare. It really isn't hard to be creative and do nearly everything in this game, though it does require some awareness of the weaknesses and strengths of particular approaches.

Lately I've been rolling around with a character who is a psychopomp. One of the sets she uses is Morihaus, an under-appreciated set that gives your character a powerful stun along with damage. Considering she doesn't otherwise have any sort of stun slotted, it's pretty hilarious to steam roll through mobs, stun them, and let some AoEs do the rest of the work. As an orc she also has some background to justify using Morkuldin, so the spectral sword wails on them too once they've been bowled over. Her monster set needs work, though. I'm still using Slimecraw, but let's be honest - that set really sucks now. It fits her berserker attitude, but I will be switching to Scourger as soon as I can get the right helm weight for that as the life drain also fits aspects of her background.

WrathOfInnos

I’ve been enjoying some Moondancer + Mechanical Acuity recently. It won’t compete with Siroria, but if there are enough synergies available it seems to beat the popular FGD + MS setup in group content (and solves the problem of needing a set that works well on front bar only).

I‘ve also been using the Master Lightning Staff frequently. Clench is unfortunately a weak skill compared to any single target spammable or shock ring for AoE, but I like the reduced cost and 700 Spell Damage more then any monster set.

MudcrabAttack

Here are some off meta combos that hold their own.

Nightblade Archer High Single Target
Flanking Strategist, Relequen, Vateshran Bow front bar, Maelstrom Bow back
Why run this?
I found the Flanking Strategist Gold Jewelry pretty cheap on guild traders and Nightblade needs to fight from the flank anyway, and already has a lot of built-in crit

Nightblade Archer AOE DPS
Swamp Raider, Mechanical Acuity, Domihaus
Why run this?
Most times mobs are dying in less than 10 seconds, so Acuity has a higher average crit than Leviathan and Swamp Raider buffs acid spray, lethal arrow, and Nightblade disease skills quite nicely.

UrbanMonk

Well if we are not talking numbers then I just posted my ice themed magden build. And many with whom I already talked about this said why use ice staves when fire is more damage on same setup. Well sometimes you do things for fun and it doesn't have to be meta all the time.

https://youtu.be/PeO1kxTxRZ0

xPoisin

I am running Veli + Briar+ Ravager (jewels+bow) on my bow/bow stamden and it is realy fun to see all trash to die after one/two shots For solo play in harder content just wear Pale order and mix ravager cuirass with briar and slimecraw for some more crit and still hits more than 30K each shot

Zodiarkslayer

For PVE I enjoy Leviathan for Stamina Sorcerer, Nightblade and Warden. The additional static critchance is much better than any stackrelying set, like Tzogvin's or Advancing Yokuda. Especially for short fights it performs better, because i barely get two attacks off on trash packs. And it is easy to acquire for me, because I have all setpieces already for reconstruction (25 TC cost).
As second set I take either Hunding's (Nightblade), Dead Water's (Warden) or Spriggan's (StamSorc). The off Meta Monster Set I really like, is Sellistrix, because it procs so often and gives free stun. In dungeon runs I barely get attacked that way.
Dead Water's Guile is also really powerful, when you combine it with a low cost Ulti and an additional Ulti source, like Nord racial passives (Flawless Dawnbreaker uptime).

For my MagSorc I play a Heavy Attack build with Iceheart, Undaunted Unweaver and Noble Duelist. That is easy Mode for Soloing Dungeons and Questing. Even Vet DPS is good with that combo. I get betweeen 30k and 60k realtime depending on boss mechanics.

StarOfElyon

Most of my characters are hybrids so a combination of New Moon Acolyte, Innate Axiom, Shacklebreaker, Pelinials will be on most of them.


Monster set is typically Balorgh but if I use a mythic sometimes I'll wear one Domihaus instead.

Mythic choices are usually Torc of Tonal Constancy or Ring of the Wild Hunt.

ThePedge

Perfected False Gods and Mother's Sorrow

tsaescishoeshiner

I've been having a lot of fun in PvP with Zaan's + Vateshran inferno staff on a magDK. I run it with 5-piece Elemental Succession and 3-piece Ancient Grace and call the build "Oops! All Beams"

Edit: fixed a set name

WrathOfInnos

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

I've been having a lot of fun in PvP with Zaan's + Vateshran inferno staff on a magDK. I run it with 5-piece Elemental Succession and 3-piece Trainee and call the build "Oops! All Beams"

Move that build to a Templar and use Soul Assault as your ultimate

BisDasBlutGefriert

dw Stamdk
Unfathomable darkness + defiler with gryphon axes

Annoying as heck for others trying to target enemy, but I enjoy it in overland pve while questing

ealdwin

I was messing around on the pts earlier this week trying out some builds. For fun I ran Grothdarr and Overwhelming Surge on a vampire with the blood mist morph. Got to say, that was a neat aesthetic.

Hotdog_23

UrbanMonk wrote: »

Well if we are not talking numbers then I just posted my ice themed magden build. And many with whom I already talked about this said why use ice staves when fire is more damage on same setup. Well sometimes you do things for fun and it doesn't have to be meta all the time.

https://youtu.be/PeO1kxTxRZ0

Nice video, thanks for sharing