Best class/build for aoe farming/grinding?

Pencisl2

Be it for xp, cp, or drops what is the best class/build for aoe farming/grinding?

I kept hearing magblade but all the guides for it claiming it is the best for aoe are pushing 4 years old.

Runefang

Magblade still the best due to soul harvest, free ulti for kills means you get to cast more ultimates. Nobody can do skyreach quicker. Combine that with Sap Essence and you have more self-healing than you know what to do with.

Of course you can run front bar dead-water's guile and ring of the pale order on any class for virtually the same effect now days.

Dracane

I would say no class has an extremely strong focus on aoe output over another class. On all classes, I spam Unstable Wall of Elements for aoe situations, no matter what that class has in their arsenal.

Nightblade is good in the sense that their class aoe spammable also heals you. And much to my anger, they have the strongest ground aoe with twisting path. Makes me want to scream how Twisting Past deals almost twice the damage of lightning splash. Such a disgrace how they butcher classes over the years. I digress.

Dracane

Runefang wrote: »

Magblade still the best due to soul harvest, free ulti for kills means you get to cast more ultimates. Nobody can do skyreach quicker. Combine that with Sap Essence and you have more self-healing than you know what to do with.

Of course you can run front bar dead-water's guile and ring of the pale order on any class for virtually the same effect now days.

Totally forgot. Yea, that was and is the big reason. Especially next patch when Banish the Wicked basically gets deleted and nobody restores ultimate anymore from killing undead.

zvavi

Dracane wrote: »

Runefang wrote: »

Magblade still the best due to soul harvest, free ulti for kills means you get to cast more ultimates. Nobody can do skyreach quicker. Combine that with Sap Essence and you have more self-healing than you know what to do with.

Of course you can run front bar dead-water's guile and ring of the pale order on any class for virtually the same effect now days.

Totally forgot. Yea, that was and is the big reason. Especially next patch when Banish the Wicked basically gets deleted and nobody restores ultimate anymore from killing undead.

WAIT WHAT

Edit: NO. WHY. NO. WTF. WHY. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. WHY?!?!

FrancisCrawford

I've been meaning to start a thread like this myself. Please agree with, disagree with, or add to any part of this:

• Ring of the Pale Order is huge for AoE farming, in any build. I believe each enemy hit counts separately against the health-return cap.
• Consuming Trap is a useful way to get resource return in any build. Just hit somebody with it who will die soon.
• The old best way to get resource return on kills was with Impulse (either morph). Spamming an Impulse morph is out of fashion now -- but should it be?
• Vicious Serpent and False God's Devotion give major resource returns on kills, if you are willing to do trials to get them, and if you're willing to double-bar a five-piece set.
• Ideal builds for Ring of the Pale Order and other mythic items may include a two-piece monster set and two different single-barred 5-piece sets. But as per the previous point, that rules out a lot of 5-piece sets.
• If your build is 1, 2, 3/5, 5/3, you have one slot left over, presumably for Trainee gear. I used to assume that was for jewelry, but now that the Training trait is meta again, it could be a body piece too.
• Nightblades still get ultimate and resources on kills. Also, like sorcerers, they get a speed buff from what is a decent AoE anyway.
• Wardens and Necros have semi-spammable class AoE skills.
• Templars have a fully spammable class AoE skill, albeit in a channel. They also have other AoEs, especially for magplars.
• Repentance is appealing for magplars and amazing for stamplars.
• If you want to farm somewhere with ranged enemies in the mix, that complicates your build. Necros have beckoning armor. Stamina builds, and magicka builds that can spare some stamina, have Silver Leash. DKs and Wardens have the class chain skill. Anybody can of course just build to burn down the occasional ranged enemy.
• The Vatershan sword&board looks amazing in theory for mass chaining. How does it work in practice?
• Overwhelming Surge seems like it would be great for magicka AoE farming. How does it work in practice?

FrancisCrawford

zvavi wrote: »

Dracane wrote: »

Runefang wrote: »

Magblade still the best due to soul harvest, free ulti for kills means you get to cast more ultimates. Nobody can do skyreach quicker. Combine that with Sap Essence and you have more self-healing than you know what to do with.

Of course you can run front bar dead-water's guile and ring of the pale order on any class for virtually the same effect now days.

Totally forgot. Yea, that was and is the big reason. Especially next patch when Banish the Wicked basically gets deleted and nobody restores ultimate anymore from killing undead.

WAIT WHAT

Edit: NO. WHY. NO. WTF. WHY. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. WHY?!?!

But if you have a Fighter's Guild skill ON YOUR BAR, you get 1/3 of the previous benefit, against ANY kind of enemy.

Pencisl2

Dracane wrote: »

I would say no class has an extremely strong focus on aoe output over another class. On all classes, I spam Unstable Wall of Elements for aoe situations, no matter what that class has in their arsenal.

Nightblade is good in the sense that their class aoe spammable also heals you. And much to my anger, they have the strongest ground aoe with twisting path. Makes me want to scream how Twisting Past deals almost twice the damage of lightning splash. Such a disgrace how they butcher classes over the years. I digress.

So the strongest aoe in the game is one that gives a movespeed buff? Wonderful.

As for every class being very similar, I hear that a lot but from playing the game I note it really isn't true. sorc and templar seem to pull ahead considerably (have yet to try nightblade but might), and dk just feels terrible in anything outside of single target (they don't feel all that great to play even there though.

I think a lot of people forget what the game is like at lower levels, especially without cp.

orion_1981usub17_ESO

I use a frost magicka warden with with ice furnace and frozen watcher. It's a aoe tank that can whittle away unlimited mobs. S/b and ice staff using frost aoe, warden vines , healing blast and undaunted spike bone armor. I went and gathered up all the start mobs in pirate haven dungeon to test it out... hilarity unsued! Bodies stacked 10 high.

Pencisl2

orion_1981usub17_ESO wrote: »

I use a frost magicka warden with with ice furnace and frozen watcher. It's a aoe tank that can whittle away unlimited mobs. S/b and ice staff using frost aoe, warden vines , healing blast and undaunted spike bone armor. I went and gathered up all the start mobs in pirate haven dungeon to test it out... hilarity unsued! Bodies stacked 10 high.

That's a hack the minotaur hybrid build.

does it work at lower levels? also I hear magden has some garbage damage, especially when going down the frost tree, how is the damage in your build?

orion_1981usub17_ESO

His build uses frozen watcher and winter respite for the heals, but I never had a problem with health since I'm stacking vines, shield and defense and my ice furnace doubles the passive damage from the build. Of course on console its hard to measure the exact dps. But just the passive damage is base 4k per sec to all enemies in the aoe. With the actual skills and ultimate I hit 35k on test dummy but that can't hit me so the boney shield isn't doing damage returned. The secret of this build is sustainability, it might burn mobs a tad slower but it never needs to stop, recharge or take a breather and the only limit is how poorly you manage ranged mobs since the aoe is localized and you need to los to gather them up every once and awhile. It's a really fun build that finally allows frost wardens to have fun and really annoys zergs in pvp.

FrancisCrawford

Pencisl2 wrote: »

Dracane wrote: »

I would say no class has an extremely strong focus on aoe output over another class. On all classes, I spam Unstable Wall of Elements for aoe situations, no matter what that class has in their arsenal.

Nightblade is good in the sense that their class aoe spammable also heals you. And much to my anger, they have the strongest ground aoe with twisting path. Makes me want to scream how Twisting Past deals almost twice the damage of lightning splash. Such a disgrace how they butcher classes over the years. I digress.

So the strongest aoe in the game is one that gives a movespeed buff? Wonderful.

As for every class being very similar, I hear that a lot but from playing the game I note it really isn't true. sorc and templar seem to pull ahead considerably (have yet to try nightblade but might), and dk just feels terrible in anything outside of single target (they don't feel all that great to play even there though.

I think a lot of people forget what the game is like at lower levels, especially without cp.

Without looking it up, I'd guess that the strongest AoEs in the game are probably Magicka Detonation and the stamina version of Shalks.

Which reminds me -- has anybody tried Magicka Detonation in PvE farming? And if so, which morph?

Vevvev

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

zvavi wrote: »

Dracane wrote: »

Runefang wrote: »

Magblade still the best due to soul harvest, free ulti for kills means you get to cast more ultimates. Nobody can do skyreach quicker. Combine that with Sap Essence and you have more self-healing than you know what to do with.

Of course you can run front bar dead-water's guile and ring of the pale order on any class for virtually the same effect now days.

Totally forgot. Yea, that was and is the big reason. Especially next patch when Banish the Wicked basically gets deleted and nobody restores ultimate anymore from killing undead.

WAIT WHAT

Edit: NO. WHY. NO. WTF. WHY. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. WHY?!?!

But if you have a Fighter's Guild skill ON YOUR BAR, you get 1/3 of the previous benefit, against ANY kind of enemy.

R.I.P. my magDK getting ultimate from undead kills... great.

orion_1981usub17_ESO

Magicka detonation is terrible in pve, the 8 second wind up time makes it miserable to time out and it's max benefit is capped at 6 mobs for a fairly hefty magicka cost. Honestly mobs simply don't last long enough for it to be viable farming skill. My passive blocking will have done 32k damage base before your detonation goes off.

Zodiarkslayer

orion_1981usub17_ESO wrote: »

Magicka detonation is terrible in pve, the 8 second wind up time makes it miserable to time out and it's max benefit is capped at 6 mobs for a fairly hefty magicka cost. Honestly mobs simply don't last long enough for it to be viable farming skill. My passive blocking will have done 32k damage base before your detonation goes off.

Boy,if that's the standard, my mag sorc will have done 150k cleave damage in 8s time!

I don't get the discussion. For farming you want to be fast and hit hard on a lot of weak enemies. Even if you farm double XP enemies, they have only 60k health.
Why all that DoT nonesense, when you kill after two/three ticks?

Every class has its own farming setup. All can use weapon skills lines. One just needs to pracrise how to utilize it. They are all pretty much on par

Successful farming is about where, not how!

fred4

As a PvPer I don't go out of my way to make great PvE builds. This is, perhaps, why I do NOT rate magblade very highly, even though it is my main. Yes, it has an AOE that hits all around and heals you. Yes, it has Twisting Path. I still find it easier to get more damage out of my magplar and feel tankier than on my magblade. As I'm writing this, I'm not sure whether I bothered to make a Pale Order build for the magblade, whereas I have one for the magplar, but the above goes back to observations before Pale Order existed.

I farm Skyreach in 3 pulls. As long as Banish the Wicked exsists in it's current form, the extra ulti gen from magblade is kind of irrelevant for that place. I frequently get back to back destro ults regardless of class.

What beats both of those options for sheer tankiness and damage is a Master's 2H Brawler build. I'm not sure sure how high it scales. To the best of my recollection I had a value of 36K per target against 9 target skeletons, when Reverse Slice did 25K per target against those skeletons near death with the same build. The combination of the Brawler shield plus the heal from Pale Order is ridiculous, though Brawler plus Crit Surge alone works well enough for me in vVateshran too.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=306920

If you want to get technical, the vTrials crowd will tell you magblade is currently tops. When Markarth was on the PTS I watched one of Alcast's first vVateshran runs on YouTube. He raved about magblade. Oh, the damage, he said. But that's Alcast. I have never been able to replicate his results. Back many patches ago he demonstrated a 35K parse on a basic target skeleton using a static rotation. I got 25K with that rotation and I'm quite sure I didn't miss weaves. At times I have thought that people flat out lie about their parse results, but I suppose in reality they do some things they're unable to put into words.

When I watch some of those crazy 600K+ vMA YouTube videos, one thing that becomes apparent is how well those people use their time inbetween combat. They lay down their ground AOEs, their trap, they manage to hold over a spectral explosion from the previous round in the final fight. They also don't slot the amount of, perhaps redundant, defensive skills I slot - a holdover from PvP for me. That's finally beginning to make sense to me. Twisting Path is honestly not that great, if you use it inside a rotation, especially an imperfect rotation. Like I said, I get more damage out of my magplar and that's mostly due to the raw damage of Puncturing Sweeps. Where a skill like Twisting Path comes into it's own is when you lay it down at points in the combat where you would otherwise be idle, such as when waiting for the next spawn in an arena.

The question you have to ask yourself is: Who are you? Do you identify with the Alcasts of this game or do you identify more with someone like me, a shlob who doesn't take PvE seriously enough to fully work out the kinks in their rotation nor their builds. In the latter case you might take my advice and stay away from magblade in favor of magplar, a Bawler build or, perhaps, something like a pet sorc (though I don't know how that's doing in the current meta).

Pencisl2

fred4 wrote: »

As a PvPer I don't go out of my way to make great PvE builds. This is, perhaps, why I do NOT rate magblade very highly, even though it is my main. Yes, it has an AOE that hits all around and heals you. Yes, it has Twisting Path. I still find it easier to get more damage out of my magplar and feel tankier than on my magblade. As I'm writing this, I'm not sure whether I bothered to make a Pale Order build for the magblade, whereas I have one for the magplar, but the above goes back to observations before Pale Order existed.

I farm Skyreach in 3 pulls. As long as Banish the Wicked exsists in it's current form, the extra ulti gen from magblade is kind of irrelevant for that place. I frequently get back to back destro ults regardless of class.

What beats both of those options for sheer tankiness and damage is a Master's 2H Brawler build. I'm not sure sure how high it scales. To the best of my recollection I had a value of 36K per target against 9 target skeletons, when Reverse Slice did 25K per target against those skeletons near death with the same build. The combination of the Brawler shield plus the heal from Pale Order is ridiculous, though Brawler plus Crit Surge alone works well enough for me in vVateshran too.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=306920

If you want to get technical, the vTrials crowd will tell you magblade is currently tops. When Markarth was on the PTS I watched one of Alcast's first vVateshran runs on YouTube. He raved about magblade. Oh, the damage, he said. But that's Alcast. I have never been able to replicate his results. Back many patches ago he demonstrated a 35K parse on a basic target skeleton using a static rotation. I got 25K with that rotation and I'm quite sure I didn't miss weaves. At times I have thought that people flat out lie about their parse results, but I suppose in reality they do some things they're unable to put into words.

When I watch some of those crazy 600K+ vMA YouTube videos, one thing that becomes apparent is how well those people use their time inbetween combat. They lay down their ground AOEs, their trap, they manage to hold over a spectral explosion from the previous round in the final fight. They also don't slot the amount of, perhaps redundant, defensive skills I slot - a holdover from PvP for me. That's finally beginning to make sense to me. Twisting Path is honestly not that great, if you use it inside a rotation, especially an imperfect rotation. Like I said, I get more damage out of my magplar and that's mostly due to the raw damage of Puncturing Sweeps. Where a skill like Twisting Path comes into it's own is when you lay it down at points in the combat where you would otherwise be idle, such as when waiting for the next spawn in an arena.

The question you have to ask yourself is: Who are you? Do you identify with the Alcasts of this game or do you identify more with someone like me, a shlob who doesn't take PvE seriously enough to fully work out the kinks in their rotation nor their builds. In the latter case you might take my advice and stay away from magblade in favor of magplar, a Bawler build or, perhaps, something like a pet sorc (though I don't know how that's doing in the current meta).

What class would you recommend for your masters brawler build? dk?

that is an endgame of endgame build there, so maybe sorc? I don't care for stamsorc because it feels like spinning plates because you are made of tissue if you so much as let one of the many buffs or defensives fall off or even stop attacking.

fred4

Pencisl2 wrote: »

What class would you recommend for your masters brawler build? dk?

I would actually recommend DK over sorc, yeah. The DK class DOTs are good, one of them is also AOE and you get the AOE penetration buff. Furthermore Endless Hail and the two DK DOTs are all 14 seconds in duration. This makes your rotation easy. Just check visually whether Endless Hail has run out, then reapply it and the DOTs.

My stamsorc runs Brawler, but is currently configured for PvP. It has noticeably less PvE damage. Aside from not being spec'd properly, I think the lacking DOTs and pen have something to do with that, despite some of the sorc passives being really good (+ damage against high-health targets, +regen from passive).

that is an endgame of endgame build there

For the purposes of soloing stuff, which is what you're looking for, perhaps yes. I've done vVateshran, no death, no sigils in 42 minutes on that build - comfortably. I've also solo'd some base-game vDungeon with it, though I can't remember which one. I tend to draft in friend(s) for the final boss fight to get a better item drop chance, so don't hold me to it .

so maybe sorc?

Nah.

I don't care for stamsorc because it feels like spinning plates because you are made of tissue if you so much as let one of the many buffs or defensives fall off or even stop attacking.

You can't let your Crit Surge fall off on stamsorc, that is true, although if you're wearing Pale Order I imagine it's less of an issue. With any of these AOE builds, though, you absolutely can't stop attacking. That's how they survive and thrive. Same for magblade. Same for magplar. Same for Brawler. You solo stuff, you want to have your sustain sitting where it's comfortable, whether that is from Vicious Ophidian or something else. When you interrupt your Brawler spam for buffs and Endless Hail / Venomous Claw / Noxious Breath, that's when you're most vulnerable. One of the boons of Brawler versus Puncturing Sweeps is that you can block cast it, though. Very useful against that Minotaur in vVateshran.

fred4

I haven't used this in ages, but you might check out a set called Vengeance Leech which, like Vicious Ophidian, restores resources from killing stuff. Unlike Vicious Ophidian you can just buy it, although there is a problem: It's a jewelry / weapon set, thus you can't fit Master's 2H, Vengeance Leech and Pale Order into the same build. I don't think I'd give up Pale Order.

Were you to go magicka, then you restore resources like crazy in places like Skyreach simply from using the destro ult and / or laying down Elemental Blockade. One of the destro staff passives restores magicka from killing with a destro ability.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Mageblade. Great sustain, Great AOE spam, great passive heals, and soul harvest allows you to essentially stack destro ultimates on top of one another.

Now that we have ring of the pale order, really any class can be an effective XP grinder, but I still dont believe any hold a candle to magblade. If my account was deleted tomorrow, first class I make is a mageblade without question.

Mage blade grind bars:

1 (lightning). Sap Essence, Flex, flex, flex, flex, Soul Harvest.
2. (Fire or Lighting, doesn't really matter) Unstable Wall, Twisting Path, Mystic Orb, Siphoning Attacks, Flex, Destro Ult.

Put whatever you want in the flex. On the front bar, use it to level class or weapon skill lines. On the back bar, maybe slot a shield or use something like trap or channeled acceleration for minor force (i usually run trap, you could also make twsiting path a flex spot, or use refreshing path for more heals). Crippling grasp is also not bad if you arent wearing False God to keep up major expedition between pulls. Yeah, CG doesnt give major expedition any longer. Oops..

Keep up siphoning attacks, pull enemies with light attacks (or medium/heavy lighting staff attacks). Pick your spot, drop wall, path, orb, destro, spam sap essence until any from the back need reapplied.

I run false god, grothdar, and Julianos for grinding, all in training except the back bar staff which is infused. You might do better than julianos, but I like it because its crafted so easy to get 5/1/1 and build around false god if you dont have all the pieces.

Pencisl2

fred4 wrote: »

For the purposes of soloing stuff, which is what you're looking for, perhaps yes.

Just wanted to respond to this one line. Well since you have all yellow meta gear. Meta mythics. Meta trial and rare drop gear. Max cp, and everything min/maxed.

Yes, it is end game of end game. If I wanted to recreate that set I would need either an absurd amount of gold to buy runs, a dedicated trials guild, and weeks to months of solid daily playtime to fish for drops (and that's without even considering the cp).

Kind of odd that the solo build requires me to basically beat the game with the highest level group content first.

Also, I seem to like a sword and shield / dual wield build on my dk. If I have to see another 2h / bow spammy stam build I might just quit.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Mageblade. Great sustain, Great AOE spam, great passive heals, and soul harvest allows you to essentially stack destro ultimates on top of one another.

Now that we have ring of the pale order, really any class can be an effective XP grinder, but I still dont believe any hold a candle to magblade. If my account was deleted tomorrow, first class I make is a mageblade without question.

Mage blade grind bars:

1 (lightning). Sap Essence, Flex, flex, flex, flex, Soul Harvest.
2. (Fire or Lighting, doesn't really matter) Unstable Wall, Twisting Path, Mystic Orb, Siphoning Attacks, Flex, Destro Ult.

Put whatever you want in the flex. On the front bar, use it to level class or weapon skill lines. On the back bar, maybe slot a shield or use something like trap or channeled acceleration for minor force (i usually run trap, you could also make twsiting path a flex spot, or use refreshing path for more heals). Crippling grasp is also not bad if you arent wearing False God to keep up major expedition between pulls.

Keep up siphoning attacks, pull enemies with light attacks (or medium/heavy lighting staff attacks). Pick your spot, drop wall, path, orb, destro, spam sap essence until any from the back need reapplied.

I run false god, grothdar, and Julianos for grinding, all in training except the back bar staff which is infused. You might do better than julianos, but I like it because its crafted so easy to get 5/1/1 and build around false god if you dont have all the pieces.

Now this I will use, thank you!

fred4

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Crippling grasp is also not bad if you arent wearing False God to keep up major expedition between pulls.

When did you last play? Major Expedition was removed from Crippling Grasp ages ago. Sorry, couldn't resist nitpicking, but it's true.

fred4

@Pencisl2, what you need for my build is the Master's 2H and Pale Order. That is it. You can get the non-perfected weapon from normal DSA, which is easy, albeit a bit time consuming. Same for mythics, but some of them are worth it, e.g. Pale Order and Wild Hunt (in general). Forget VO and the Maelstrom bow. No need for those, they're strictly optimisation. Not important and neither is gold jewelry or armor. Only gold weapons are IMO a must.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

fred4 wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Crippling grasp is also not bad if you arent wearing False God to keep up major expedition between pulls.

When did you last play? Major Expedition was removed from Crippling Grasp ages ago. Sorry, couldn't resist nitpicking, but it's true.

Haha. You are right about that. Totally forgot. Last time I played? Yesterday. Last time I grinded XP on my mageblade, been a little while. I run False god anyway, so not an issue. A single target DOT is generally useless when grinding, but a source of major expedition is nice. I used to use CG as a pull skill back in the day, but yeah, no place on a grind build these days. My Bad.

fred4

Pencisl2 wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

For the purposes of soloing stuff, which is what you're looking for, perhaps yes.

Just wanted to respond to this one line. Well since you have all yellow meta gear. Meta mythics. Meta trial and rare drop gear. Max cp, and everything min/maxed.

Yes, it is end game of end game. If I wanted to recreate that set I would need either an absurd amount of gold to buy runs, a dedicated trials guild, and weeks to months of solid daily playtime to fish for drops (and that's without even considering the cp).

Kind of odd that the solo build requires me to basically beat the game with the highest level group content first.

Also, I seem to like a sword and shield / dual wield build on my dk. If I have to see another 2h / bow spammy stam build I might just quit.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Mageblade. Great sustain, Great AOE spam, great passive heals, and soul harvest allows you to essentially stack destro ultimates on top of one another.

Now that we have ring of the pale order, really any class can be an effective XP grinder, but I still dont believe any hold a candle to magblade. If my account was deleted tomorrow, first class I make is a mageblade without question.

Mage blade grind bars:

1 (lightning). Sap Essence, Flex, flex, flex, flex, Soul Harvest.
2. (Fire or Lighting, doesn't really matter) Unstable Wall, Twisting Path, Mystic Orb, Siphoning Attacks, Flex, Destro Ult.

Put whatever you want in the flex. On the front bar, use it to level class or weapon skill lines. On the back bar, maybe slot a shield or use something like trap or channeled acceleration for minor force (i usually run trap, you could also make twsiting path a flex spot, or use refreshing path for more heals). Crippling grasp is also not bad if you arent wearing False God to keep up major expedition between pulls.

Keep up siphoning attacks, pull enemies with light attacks (or medium/heavy lighting staff attacks). Pick your spot, drop wall, path, orb, destro, spam sap essence until any from the back need reapplied.

I run false god, grothdar, and Julianos for grinding, all in training except the back bar staff which is infused. You might do better than julianos, but I like it because its crafted so easy to get 5/1/1 and build around false god if you dont have all the pieces.

Now this I will use, thank you!

<In a French accent>: A few moments later -> Looks up False God and finds it's another trial set. Look I get it, you gotta play what you want to play, but you're going to end up taking neither of our posts quite literally here, since I presume you don't have False God either. It's the Vicious Ophidian of the magicka world.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

fred4 wrote: »

Pencisl2 wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

For the purposes of soloing stuff, which is what you're looking for, perhaps yes.

Just wanted to respond to this one line. Well since you have all yellow meta gear. Meta mythics. Meta trial and rare drop gear. Max cp, and everything min/maxed.

Yes, it is end game of end game. If I wanted to recreate that set I would need either an absurd amount of gold to buy runs, a dedicated trials guild, and weeks to months of solid daily playtime to fish for drops (and that's without even considering the cp).

Kind of odd that the solo build requires me to basically beat the game with the highest level group content first.

Also, I seem to like a sword and shield / dual wield build on my dk. If I have to see another 2h / bow spammy stam build I might just quit.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Mageblade. Great sustain, Great AOE spam, great passive heals, and soul harvest allows you to essentially stack destro ultimates on top of one another.

Now that we have ring of the pale order, really any class can be an effective XP grinder, but I still dont believe any hold a candle to magblade. If my account was deleted tomorrow, first class I make is a mageblade without question.

Mage blade grind bars:

1 (lightning). Sap Essence, Flex, flex, flex, flex, Soul Harvest.
2. (Fire or Lighting, doesn't really matter) Unstable Wall, Twisting Path, Mystic Orb, Siphoning Attacks, Flex, Destro Ult.

Put whatever you want in the flex. On the front bar, use it to level class or weapon skill lines. On the back bar, maybe slot a shield or use something like trap or channeled acceleration for minor force (i usually run trap, you could also make twsiting path a flex spot, or use refreshing path for more heals). Crippling grasp is also not bad if you arent wearing False God to keep up major expedition between pulls.

Keep up siphoning attacks, pull enemies with light attacks (or medium/heavy lighting staff attacks). Pick your spot, drop wall, path, orb, destro, spam sap essence until any from the back need reapplied.

I run false god, grothdar, and Julianos for grinding, all in training except the back bar staff which is infused. You might do better than julianos, but I like it because its crafted so easy to get 5/1/1 and build around false god if you dont have all the pieces.

Now this I will use, thank you!

<In a French accent>: A few moments later -> Looks up False God and finds it's another trial set. Look I get it, you gotta play what you want to play, but you're going to end up taking neither of our posts quite literally here, since I presume you don't have False God either. It's the Vicious Ophidian of the magicka world.

You wont do better the FG or or VO (magic and stam) for XP grinding (or solo arenas). The cost reduction, magic return, and constant major expedition is just too strong if killing a million zombies is your goal, or really any time you need to be self sufficient. You can do better in terms of damage, but what these practically do is is shorten the time between pulls. They arent mandatory, but these are the two most useful sets in PVE. Even if not BIS for damage, they will always work as the basis for any DPS build in group content as well unless chasing world records.

Neither are that hard to get. You need 5 pieces that arent head or shoulders, and you can build around with a trial set. You can join craglorn groups for normal SO or SS and have a full set in a few runs. Again, if someone deleted my account tomorrow, these are the first two sets that I farm.

To the OP: If you dont have False God on a magic toon, Vengeance Leach can be a reasonable substitute for the resource return. But honestly, just run normal Sunspire a few times and politely let the group know you are after any False God pieces they dont need. Thanks to the sticker book, you dont really care about traits. You should be able to find a pickup group in craglorn pretty fast. If you havent started reserach yet, I would suggest you research Divines and training on all your armor pieces.

Pencisl2

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Pencisl2 wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

For the purposes of soloing stuff, which is what you're looking for, perhaps yes.

Just wanted to respond to this one line. Well since you have all yellow meta gear. Meta mythics. Meta trial and rare drop gear. Max cp, and everything min/maxed.

Yes, it is end game of end game. If I wanted to recreate that set I would need either an absurd amount of gold to buy runs, a dedicated trials guild, and weeks to months of solid daily playtime to fish for drops (and that's without even considering the cp).

Kind of odd that the solo build requires me to basically beat the game with the highest level group content first.

Also, I seem to like a sword and shield / dual wield build on my dk. If I have to see another 2h / bow spammy stam build I might just quit.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Mageblade. Great sustain, Great AOE spam, great passive heals, and soul harvest allows you to essentially stack destro ultimates on top of one another.

Now that we have ring of the pale order, really any class can be an effective XP grinder, but I still dont believe any hold a candle to magblade. If my account was deleted tomorrow, first class I make is a mageblade without question.

Mage blade grind bars:

1 (lightning). Sap Essence, Flex, flex, flex, flex, Soul Harvest.
2. (Fire or Lighting, doesn't really matter) Unstable Wall, Twisting Path, Mystic Orb, Siphoning Attacks, Flex, Destro Ult.

Put whatever you want in the flex. On the front bar, use it to level class or weapon skill lines. On the back bar, maybe slot a shield or use something like trap or channeled acceleration for minor force (i usually run trap, you could also make twsiting path a flex spot, or use refreshing path for more heals). Crippling grasp is also not bad if you arent wearing False God to keep up major expedition between pulls.

Keep up siphoning attacks, pull enemies with light attacks (or medium/heavy lighting staff attacks). Pick your spot, drop wall, path, orb, destro, spam sap essence until any from the back need reapplied.

I run false god, grothdar, and Julianos for grinding, all in training except the back bar staff which is infused. You might do better than julianos, but I like it because its crafted so easy to get 5/1/1 and build around false god if you dont have all the pieces.

Now this I will use, thank you!

<In a French accent>: A few moments later -> Looks up False God and finds it's another trial set. Look I get it, you gotta play what you want to play, but you're going to end up taking neither of our posts quite literally here, since I presume you don't have False God either. It's the Vicious Ophidian of the magicka world.

You wont do better the FG or or VO (magic and stam) for XP grinding (or solo arenas). The cost reduction, magic return, and constant major expedition is just too strong if killing a million zombies is your goal, or really any time you need to be self sufficient. You can do better in terms of damage, but what these practically do is is shorten the time between pulls. They arent mandatory, but these are the two most useful sets in PVE. Even if not BIS for damage, they will always work as the basis for any DPS build in group content as well unless chasing world records.

Neither are that hard to get. You need 5 pieces that arent head or shoulders, and you can build around with a trial set. You can join craglorn groups for normal SO or SS and have a full set in a few runs. Again, if someone deleted my account tomorrow, these are the first two sets that I farm.

To the OP: If you dont have False God on a magic toon, Vengeance Leach can be a reasonable substitute for the resource return. But honestly, just run normal Sunspire a few times and politely let the group know you are after any False God pieces they dont need. Thanks to the sticker book, you dont really care about traits. You should be able to find a pickup group in craglorn pretty fast. If you havent started reserach yet, I would suggest you research Divines and training on all your armor pieces.

So i craft the pieces or use a transmute station?

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Pencisl2 wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Pencisl2 wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

For the purposes of soloing stuff, which is what you're looking for, perhaps yes.

Just wanted to respond to this one line. Well since you have all yellow meta gear. Meta mythics. Meta trial and rare drop gear. Max cp, and everything min/maxed.

Yes, it is end game of end game. If I wanted to recreate that set I would need either an absurd amount of gold to buy runs, a dedicated trials guild, and weeks to months of solid daily playtime to fish for drops (and that's without even considering the cp).

Kind of odd that the solo build requires me to basically beat the game with the highest level group content first.

Also, I seem to like a sword and shield / dual wield build on my dk. If I have to see another 2h / bow spammy stam build I might just quit.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Mageblade. Great sustain, Great AOE spam, great passive heals, and soul harvest allows you to essentially stack destro ultimates on top of one another.

Now that we have ring of the pale order, really any class can be an effective XP grinder, but I still dont believe any hold a candle to magblade. If my account was deleted tomorrow, first class I make is a mageblade without question.

Mage blade grind bars:

1 (lightning). Sap Essence, Flex, flex, flex, flex, Soul Harvest.
2. (Fire or Lighting, doesn't really matter) Unstable Wall, Twisting Path, Mystic Orb, Siphoning Attacks, Flex, Destro Ult.

Put whatever you want in the flex. On the front bar, use it to level class or weapon skill lines. On the back bar, maybe slot a shield or use something like trap or channeled acceleration for minor force (i usually run trap, you could also make twsiting path a flex spot, or use refreshing path for more heals). Crippling grasp is also not bad if you arent wearing False God to keep up major expedition between pulls.

Keep up siphoning attacks, pull enemies with light attacks (or medium/heavy lighting staff attacks). Pick your spot, drop wall, path, orb, destro, spam sap essence until any from the back need reapplied.

I run false god, grothdar, and Julianos for grinding, all in training except the back bar staff which is infused. You might do better than julianos, but I like it because its crafted so easy to get 5/1/1 and build around false god if you dont have all the pieces.

Now this I will use, thank you!

<In a French accent>: A few moments later -> Looks up False God and finds it's another trial set. Look I get it, you gotta play what you want to play, but you're going to end up taking neither of our posts quite literally here, since I presume you don't have False God either. It's the Vicious Ophidian of the magicka world.

You wont do better the FG or or VO (magic and stam) for XP grinding (or solo arenas). The cost reduction, magic return, and constant major expedition is just too strong if killing a million zombies is your goal, or really any time you need to be self sufficient. You can do better in terms of damage, but what these practically do is is shorten the time between pulls. They arent mandatory, but these are the two most useful sets in PVE. Even if not BIS for damage, they will always work as the basis for any DPS build in group content as well unless chasing world records.

Neither are that hard to get. You need 5 pieces that arent head or shoulders, and you can build around with a trial set. You can join craglorn groups for normal SO or SS and have a full set in a few runs. Again, if someone deleted my account tomorrow, these are the first two sets that I farm.

To the OP: If you dont have False God on a magic toon, Vengeance Leach can be a reasonable substitute for the resource return. But honestly, just run normal Sunspire a few times and politely let the group know you are after any False God pieces they dont need. Thanks to the sticker book, you dont really care about traits. You should be able to find a pickup group in craglorn pretty fast. If you havent started reserach yet, I would suggest you research Divines and training on all your armor pieces.

So i craft the pieces or use a transmute station?

Honestly depends on how many pieces you have of the set in terms of trait change vs reconstruction. If its a crafted set, just craft in the trait you need to start with. At some point it becomes cheaper to reconstruct than transmute what you already have. That is why I suggest researching both Divines (best damage) and training (best for anyone not at the CP cap) so you can reconstruct what you need. The first few traits don't take very long, so you can easily knock out both in a few days. Once you know a trait for a given type of armor, and have a set piece, you can reconstruct said said piece in whatever triat you know. If you are on PC/NA, let me know and I can make you some pieces for research.

On Armor, I would start with training, than Divines, then go down the list. On magic weapons, I would start with training, Precise and infused. On jewelry, I would start with Arcane and Bloodthirsty. But ideally, you have a crafter that knows them all. The more traits on a given item, the longer it takes. If memory serves the first few traits only take a few hours, the 9th trait takes like a month. That is why you should start with the traits you will likely need first.

Pencisl2

fred4 wrote: »

@Pencisl2, what you need for my build is the Master's 2H and Pale Order. That is it. You can get the non-perfected weapon from normal DSA, which is easy, albeit a bit time consuming. Same for mythics, but some of them are worth it, e.g. Pale Order and Wild Hunt (in general). Forget VO and the Maelstrom bow. No need for those, they're strictly optimisation. Not important and neither is gold jewelry or armor. Only gold weapons are IMO a must.

Would stamplar work instead?

Brrrofski

Vicious ophidian or vengeance leach.

Master 2h.

Insert another damage set.

Cleave your way to glory.

Pencisl2

What is with EVERY stam build going 2h and bow?