Can someone please explain Bound Armaments to me?

Paragonx78

Sorry im fairly new and I been watching some videos and researching and I have found so much conflicting data.

How does this work? I understand its a buff that you cast and it adds damage to your light/heavy attacks and each attack stacks a dagger that you can cast at an enemy for half the cost of the buff.

Now here is where I am confused, half of the videos and guides iv read said that your better off not casting it as a skill because using it is a DPS loss, and that your better off just casting it as a buff and using other skills on GCD for dps.

So my question is, should I just turn it on and forget about it or weave it into my rotation and use it at full stacks and use a GCD to use it instead of main spammable?

Vevvev

Probably for the absolute endgame DPS pushes I can see it being a small DPS loss since it doesn't exactly come with an upfront damage on cast. Reason being is every ability you cast is governed by a 1 second global cooldown and when trying to perfectly optimize everything for peek efficiency some things with passive effects you just don't use. However, this being said that effect still does damage and while it might not be the greatest PVE DPS option on Nirn I can see it being used to add additional pressure on a target.

It might not be the best overall damage over time but in short bursts you can add additional damage to a rotation to take something out faster. I still would take a spammable with you when bringing this into a fight though as you don't want to be standing there spamming only light attacks.

Paragonx78

Vevvev wrote: »

Probably for the absolute endgame DPS pushes I can see it being a small DPS loss since it doesn't exactly come with an upfront damage on cast. Reason being is every ability you cast is governed by a 1 second global cooldown and when trying to perfectly optimize everything for peek efficiency some things with passive effects you just don't use. However, this being said that effect still does damage and while it might not be the greatest PVE DPS option on Nirn I can see it being used to add additional pressure on a target.

It might not be the best overall damage over time but in short bursts you can add additional damage to a rotation to take something out faster. I still would take a spammable with you when bringing this into a fight though as you don't want to be standing there spamming only light attacks.

Well I was planning on making this StamSorc a more solo oriented build with Ring of Pale order and rely on Brawler and the 2H execute with barbed trap/crit surge/hurricane. Maybe Fighter guild ultimate which would benefit Unbound armaments.

Anwyay I think maybe it would be good in situation like this where iv taken quite a few skills for defense in place of pure dps? What do you think?

Oreyn_Bearclaw

It actually works very similarly to nightblades relentless focus/merciless resolve. If you want to use it in the most efficient manner from a damage perspective, you cast, build stacks, cast, build stacks. It basically becomes every 5th skill in your rotation.

This is actually pretty common, as most classes have a skill that functions like this, not necessarily a skill that is based on building stacks, but essentially a class cornerstone skill that really becomes a focal point in your rotation.

NBs are going to try to proc merciless every 5th skill. mag Pet sorcs will cast Daedric prey every 6 skill. Stam sorcs build around bound armaments. Wardens and necros (sub assault, blastbones) will try to cast every 4th skill. Templars used to have POTL (but now stamplars just spam jabs and god knows what magplars do). mDKs will often build a rotation around Talons. You get the idea.

For example on my pet sorc, I use daedric prey as the focal point. If you think music, its on a 6 count with Daedric Prey always on the 1.

Paragonx78

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

It actually works very similarly to nightblades relentless focus/merciless resolve. If you want to use it in the most efficient manner from a damage perspective, you cast, build stacks, cast, build stacks. It basically becomes every 5th skill in your rotation.

This is actually pretty common, as most classes have a skill that functions like this, not necessarily a skill that is based on building stacks, but essentially a class cornerstone skill that really becomes a focal point in your rotation.

NBs are going to try to proc merciless every 5th skill. mag Pet sorcs will cast Daedric prey every 6 skill. Stam sorcs build around bound armaments. Wardens and necros (sub assault, blastbones) will try to cast every 4th skill. Templars used to have POTL (but now stamplars just spam jabs and god knows what magplars do). mDKs will often build a rotation around Talons. You get the idea.

For example on my pet sorc, I use daedric prey as the focal point. If you think music, its on a 6 count with Daedric Prey always on the 1.

Okay, this clears it up nicely , and thank you. I was just reading so much info where people was saying to not manually cast it because it was a DPS loss...

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Paragonx78 wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

It actually works very similarly to nightblades relentless focus/merciless resolve. If you want to use it in the most efficient manner from a damage perspective, you cast, build stacks, cast, build stacks. It basically becomes every 5th skill in your rotation.

This is actually pretty common, as most classes have a skill that functions like this, not necessarily a skill that is based on building stacks, but essentially a class cornerstone skill that really becomes a focal point in your rotation.

NBs are going to try to proc merciless every 5th skill. mag Pet sorcs will cast Daedric prey every 6 skill. Stam sorcs build around bound armaments. Wardens and necros (sub assault, blastbones) will try to cast every 4th skill. Templars used to have POTL (but now stamplars just spam jabs and god knows what magplars do). mDKs will often build a rotation around Talons. You get the idea.

For example on my pet sorc, I use daedric prey as the focal point. If you think music, its on a 6 count with Daedric Prey always on the 1.

Okay, this clears it up nicely , and thank you. I was just reading so much info where people was saying to not manually cast it because it was a DPS loss...

This is a really good guide on stam sorc at the moment. Of course, we have a major patch coming up so keep that in mind before you spend a bunch of mats or gold on gear.

I will also say that if you really want to push bound armaments (just like merciless resolve or relentless focus), it actually is every 4th skill not every 5th skill. The light attack that precedes your BA cast, can be the 4th stack. So BA, LA>Spam, LA>Spam, LA>Spam, LA>BA does give the 4 LAs you need between casts. Every fifth skill is probably more reasonable for most players as casting every 4th requires a perfect weave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7Ef9mj7Lvc&feature=emb_title

Vevvev

Paragonx78 wrote: »

Well I was planning on making this StamSorc a more solo oriented build with Ring of Pale order and rely on Brawler and the 2H execute with barbed trap/crit surge/hurricane. Maybe Fighter guild ultimate which would benefit Unbound armaments.

Anwyay I think maybe it would be good in situation like this where iv taken quite a few skills for defense in place of pure dps? What do you think?

Its clear Oreyn_Bearclaw knows this ability better than me so take what I say with a grain of salt lol.

If its anything like my Nightblade then what Oreyn_Bearclaw said is what you want to be doing when it comes to weaving it. When it comes to defensive abilities though I think the general consensus, or at least what I discovered personally, is to slot a major resolve skill, traversal skill, burst heal, maybe a trickle(heal over time) heal, and a good emergency ultimate. That's how my magDK is set up anyway.... I know Sorcs have Critical Surge which is an amazing heal over a long period of time so the Pale Order Ring isn't really that needed. However, that being said the Ring does give you more uptime on your damage rotation since the extra healing means you find yourself spending less time on the defensive.

At that point I think its personal preference but my vampire build still runs the set up I mentioned above even with the Pale Order Ring, but mostly because my strongest abilities cost health and getting health back when dealing damage with them makes them effectively free.