Best class/build for aoe farming/grinding?

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Pencisl2 wrote: »

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

First off, they dont.

In PVE, historically the Meta stam DPS has been DW/BOW. Right now (thanks to some arena weapons), it is often actually 2h/DW for max melee damage, but people still do run DW/bow or 2h/bow.

Bow has been a standard back bar weapon mostly due to the VMA bow and the high damage from endless hail (and its ability to apply back bar enchants at 100% uptime). It also has a nice ranged DOT, and gives you some flexibility if you need to go ranged during a fight to play mechanics.

In PVP, it is a little more varied, but 2H is the most common front bar weapon for stamina (you see just about everything for backbar including sword/shield). This is because the 2H line offers a bit more utility than the DW line does, especially the skill Rally/forward momentum. It also offers a good single target spam, an execute and a gap closer. Depending on your class, you may already have Spam or Execute, and gap closers really arent that useful in PVE.

Solo PVE builds often mirror PVP builds to some degree as you generally need utility in the absence of group support. Brawler (2H) is also nice for solo AOE because of the damage shield it grants. You will likely pull more raw AOE damage with DW, but 2H can make you tougher to kill.

Pencisl2

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Pencisl2 wrote: »

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

First off, they dont.

I see you haven’t been reading and comparing premade builds on youtube and the usual sites. ONLY ones I know that don’t all use the same setups are skinny (because he provides a lot of different combos) and hack (because he does some off meta stuff).

Other than that they really do ALL demand 2h/bow.

fred4

Maybe the thing for you, then, will be to not run someone's premade build, but actually get more involved with buildcraft yourself. As Oreyn said, a major reason to run a bow back bar is to have 100% back bar enchant uptime via Endless Hail. You can achieve the same thing by running Blade Cloak on the back bar or by running Stampede on the back bar, which leaves an AOE on the ground. That said, I like the bow for vVateshran in particular, because there is a fair bit of running between the bosses and dodge rolling on the bow bar speeds you up. If you're ever chasing the Spirit Slayer title, that can make the difference, though you could also run Quick Cloak or Race Against Time or something else, I guess.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Pencisl2 wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Pencisl2 wrote: »

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

First off, they dont.

I see you haven’t been reading and comparing premade builds on youtube and the usual sites. ONLY ones I know that don’t all use the same setups are skinny (because he provides a lot of different combos) and hack (because he does some off meta stuff).

Other than that they really do ALL demand 2h/bow.

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

DW/DW and DW/Bow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F0YACSga1Q&t=3s
2H/DW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el38ub-eScw
2H/DW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8UIA00eWjQ
2H/DW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4FeY0ikiao&t=168s
2H/DW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55OPI1_yvTs
DW/Bow

I dont know who you look at for meta builds, but you wont do much better than Liko or Skinny. Almost every stamina class is pulling max melee damage with a 2H/DW setup.

If you just want to grind XP, you can certainly front bar a 2H. In PVP, its also the best front bar weapon for most setups, but probably the most common back bar is actually a sword and shield. 2H/Bow is certainly viable in PVE to pull very high DPS, but I dont believe its meta right now on any class for max ST damage. It might be the best option on some specific fights for some builds, but I wouldnt say that qualifies as meta.

Pencisl2

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

I wouldnt say that qualifies as meta.

Never even heard of liko. I have heard xynode (assuming he's the aussie one) mentioned once but his smug voice is grating.

alcast is almost all 2h/bow, so are most "solo" builds online. even skinny provides multiple 2h/bow builds per video depending on which of the two "acceptable" bows you have.

fred4 wrote: »

Maybe the thing for you, then, will be to not run someone's premade build, but actually get more involved with buildcraft yourself. As Oreyn said, a major reason to run a bow back bar is to have 100% back bar enchant uptime via Endless Hail. You can achieve the same thing by running Blade Cloak on the back bar or by running Stampede on the back bar, which leaves an AOE on the ground. That said, I like the bow for vVateshran in particular, because there is a fair bit of running between the bosses and dodge rolling on the bow bar speeds you up. If you're ever chasing the Spirit Slayer title, that can make the difference, though you could also run Quick Cloak or Race Against Time or something else, I guess.

I actually like bow as a main damage dealing weapon, I just REALLY hate ground targeted aoes, as rarely do enemies stay inside them and they provide a lag between hits.

I used about 100 soul shards yesterday to farm my way to cp 160, and almost all deaths were animation locks from either mystic orb or some ground target aoe.

I also wasn't planning on using any premade builds as none have I seen "worked" with my playstyle. I just want ideas.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Pencisl2 wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

I wouldnt say that qualifies as meta.

Never even heard of liko. I have heard xynode (assuming he's the aussie one) mentioned once but his smug voice is grating.

alcast is almost all 2h/bow, so are most "solo" builds online. even skinny provides multiple 2h/bow builds per video depending on which of the two "acceptable" bows you have.

fred4 wrote: »

Maybe the thing for you, then, will be to not run someone's premade build, but actually get more involved with buildcraft yourself. As Oreyn said, a major reason to run a bow back bar is to have 100% back bar enchant uptime via Endless Hail. You can achieve the same thing by running Blade Cloak on the back bar or by running Stampede on the back bar, which leaves an AOE on the ground. That said, I like the bow for vVateshran in particular, because there is a fair bit of running between the bosses and dodge rolling on the bow bar speeds you up. If you're ever chasing the Spirit Slayer title, that can make the difference, though you could also run Quick Cloak or Race Against Time or something else, I guess.

I actually like bow as a main damage dealing weapon, I just REALLY hate ground targeted aoes, as rarely do enemies stay inside them and they provide a lag between hits.

I used about 100 soul shards yesterday to farm my way to cp 160, and almost all deaths were animation locks from either mystic orb or some ground target aoe.

I also wasn't planning on using any premade builds as none have I seen "worked" with my playstyle. I just want ideas.

You will never hear me talk ill of alcast. He is an excellent resource, but his target audience is not the people chasing world records. Yes he does that himself, but his builds cater to mid tier players because that is the biggest audience. Those that are after concrete and well thought out builds, but arent looking to min/max to the nth degree. It is very hard to call his builds meta, certainly popular, but not meta.

Liko is probably the best resource there is if you are looking for Meta end game DPS builds capable of pushing score. He is one of the best DPS in the game. Not all the builds and videos he posts are his parses, mostly because I imagine it is a massive amount of work to fish for great parses on 12 specs each patch, but he always gives appropriate credit.

If you havent used it yet, check out is website/search engine "liko.gg", or check out his youtube channel. He built a very cool search engine for youtube designed around ESO PVE content. Very easy to search for videos about any class or specific content.

Pencisl2

I just came up with a mag build that melts enemies in a ring around me. It is absurd that set bonses have this much impact.

just using the usual julianos/mother's sorrow sets was so terrible felt like when I was cp120 and still using my level 30 training gear; but when I started using sets that require some conditional it changed everything. I don't want to post it here because I don't want it to get nerfed.

I just came up with a stam set based on some ideas here, but I am not looking forward to the grind of trying to get it. Shouldn't take long as I only need 5 pieces on top of the master's weapons. The sad thing is I'm only making these sets to make grinding easier.

seems all there is to do in the game is grind, and I don't even want to think about transmute stones.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Pencisl2 wrote: »

I just came up with a mag build that melts enemies in a ring around me. It is absurd that set bonses have this much impact.

just using the usual julianos/mother's sorrow sets was so terrible felt like when I was cp120 and still using my level 30 training gear; but when I started using sets that require some conditional it changed everything. I don't want to post it here because I don't want it to get nerfed.

I just came up with a stam set based on some ideas here, but I am not looking forward to the grind of trying to get it. Shouldn't take long as I only need 5 pieces on top of the master's weapons. The sad thing is I'm only making these sets to make grinding easier.

seems all there is to do in the game is grind, and I don't even want to think about transmute stones.

I assure you, there is no reason to be secretive. Nothing you found is going to be a great revelation to anyone. If proc sets are moving the needle that much in PVE, your rotation (yes, even AOE grind builds have a rotation) needs some work.

Take your build into skyreach and pull the first half up to the chest and see how you do. There are a lot of ways to nuke small zombie pulls, but you should be able to handle skyreach in only 3 pulls all by yourself. I would say that is the best benchmark to test an effective grind build. Once you can clear them all, then it comes down to time. I dont think a stam proc set build is going to be anywhere near the top, but certainly, I could be wrong.

Banana

From the guru himself

https://alcasthq.com/eso-grind-build-for-stamina-setups/
https://alcasthq.com/eso-grind-build-for-magicka-setups/

MudcrabAttack

Stamblade has all the benefits of magblade, it has built-in vicious ophedian/ false gods since you get back 1000 of a resource for every kill. Stamblade can slot soul harvest, same as a magblade, for all the ultimate generation per kill. Back bar destro staff ultimate will be as strong in the next patch for stamina builds as it is for magicka since CPs are scaling towards hybrid.

Even though 2H master maul might technically be the hardest hitting thing available for solo AOE, it's power comes from stacking loads of enemies in a 7meter cone, and that involves a lot of running in circles to aggro things. Nightblade can leap around within 22 meters to speed up the process.

But that method just seems like a lot of work to me. At some point years ago I switched to bow front bar because it makes better sense as my playstyle, there's a 20m cone with acid spray. Weak mobs die within two casts, especially when wearing sets like swamp raider and new moon acolyte. There's no need to run circles for rounding up mobs to hit them with AOE, just move in an efficient path straight ahead as everything in front of you dies.

RinaldoGandolphi

I'd say Mag DK

Draw Essence + Burning Talons + Engulfing Flames + Pulsar + Grothdarr + Ferocious Leap being super cheap = bank

Talon them all in place and aoe them down...easy peasey. MagDK Pyromancer style!

Scardan

fred4 wrote: »

Maybe the thing for you, then, will be to not run someone's premade build, but actually get more involved with buildcraft yourself. As Oreyn said, a major reason to run a bow back bar is to have 100% back bar enchant uptime via Endless Hail. You can achieve the same thing by running Blade Cloak on the back bar or by running Stampede on the back bar, which leaves an AOE on the ground. That said, I like the bow for vVateshran in particular, because there is a fair bit of running between the bosses and dodge rolling on the bow bar speeds you up. If you're ever chasing the Spirit Slayer title, that can make the difference, though you could also run Quick Cloak or Race Against Time or something else, I guess.

Endless Hail has higher damage per second, why would you run Stampede or Blade Cloak instead as "optimized" DD?

fred4

Scardan wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Maybe the thing for you, then, will be to not run someone's premade build, but actually get more involved with buildcraft yourself. As Oreyn said, a major reason to run a bow back bar is to have 100% back bar enchant uptime via Endless Hail. You can achieve the same thing by running Blade Cloak on the back bar or by running Stampede on the back bar, which leaves an AOE on the ground. That said, I like the bow for vVateshran in particular, because there is a fair bit of running between the bosses and dodge rolling on the bow bar speeds you up. If you're ever chasing the Spirit Slayer title, that can make the difference, though you could also run Quick Cloak or Race Against Time or something else, I guess.

Endless Hail has higher damage per second, why would you run Stampede or Blade Cloak instead as "optimized" DD?

Because the OP is a role-player who complained about every recommendation he saw being the same hackneyed setup.

Pencisl2

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Pencisl2 wrote: »

I just came up with a mag build that melts enemies in a ring around me. It is absurd that set bonses have this much impact.

just using the usual julianos/mother's sorrow sets was so terrible felt like when I was cp120 and still using my level 30 training gear; but when I started using sets that require some conditional it changed everything. I don't want to post it here because I don't want it to get nerfed.

I just came up with a stam set based on some ideas here, but I am not looking forward to the grind of trying to get it. Shouldn't take long as I only need 5 pieces on top of the master's weapons. The sad thing is I'm only making these sets to make grinding easier.

seems all there is to do in the game is grind, and I don't even want to think about transmute stones.

I assure you, there is no reason to be secretive. Nothing you found is going to be a great revelation to anyone. If proc sets are moving the needle that much in PVE, your rotation (yes, even AOE grind builds have a rotation) needs some work.

Take your build into skyreach and pull the first half up to the chest and see how you do. There are a lot of ways to nuke small zombie pulls, but you should be able to handle skyreach in only 3 pulls all by yourself. I would say that is the best benchmark to test an effective grind build. Once you can clear them all, then it comes down to time. I dont think a stam proc set build is going to be anywhere near the top, but certainly, I could be wrong.

yeah, that's why people on the forums have stopped posting builds because they just magically get nerfed after, and of course "proc sets" are so meaningless they are getting nerfed to the ground.

I don't know if what I'm using is considered a proc set, but thanks for the consistent condescension. I'll just add this to the pile of "things the community says" that directly contradict other things said.

fred4 wrote: »

Scardan wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Maybe the thing for you, then, will be to not run someone's premade build, but actually get more involved with buildcraft yourself. As Oreyn said, a major reason to run a bow back bar is to have 100% back bar enchant uptime via Endless Hail. You can achieve the same thing by running Blade Cloak on the back bar or by running Stampede on the back bar, which leaves an AOE on the ground. That said, I like the bow for vVateshran in particular, because there is a fair bit of running between the bosses and dodge rolling on the bow bar speeds you up. If you're ever chasing the Spirit Slayer title, that can make the difference, though you could also run Quick Cloak or Race Against Time or something else, I guess.

Endless Hail has higher damage per second, why would you run Stampede or Blade Cloak instead as "optimized" DD?

Because the OP is a role-player who complained about every recommendation he saw being the same hackneyed setup.

Oh, joy, I'm a "roleplayer" now.

Scardan wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Maybe the thing for you, then, will be to not run someone's premade build, but actually get more involved with buildcraft yourself. As Oreyn said, a major reason to run a bow back bar is to have 100% back bar enchant uptime via Endless Hail. You can achieve the same thing by running Blade Cloak on the back bar or by running Stampede on the back bar, which leaves an AOE on the ground. That said, I like the bow for vVateshran in particular, because there is a fair bit of running between the bosses and dodge rolling on the bow bar speeds you up. If you're ever chasing the Spirit Slayer title, that can make the difference, though you could also run Quick Cloak or Race Against Time or something else, I guess.

Endless Hail has higher damage per second, why would you run Stampede or Blade Cloak instead as "optimized" DD?

you do realize the "buff/dot backbar featuring endless hail" playing now at the lounge of your local casino assumes you are using the maelstrom bow, right? Skinny will say to use the other morph if you use the only other acceptable bow in the game: master's bow.

fred4

Pencisl2 wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Scardan wrote: »

Endless Hail has higher damage per second, why would you run Stampede or Blade Cloak instead as "optimized" DD?

Because the OP is a role-player who complained about every recommendation he saw being the same hackneyed setup.

Oh, joy, I'm a "roleplayer" now.

So am I to a degree. This is not meant to be disparaging. For example I have not played vampires for 5 years and this can really hold you back on a PvP nightblade.