Maintenance for the week of March 25:
• [COMPLETE] ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – March 28, 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)

How to start crafting my own builds?

EthicX
EthicX
Hello!

For as long as I’ve played ESO on and off over the years I’ve always relied on others when it comes to builds for my classes. This is fine and all but I’ve been wanting to start trying to build my own. I’m curious...is there somewhere I can reference to know what are considered “good” or “optimal” stat counts for things like health, magicka, stam, crit/pen/power etc. in CP Cyrodiil?

I believe I read that there are no soft or hard caps for stats in this game so I’m not sure what appropriate targets I should be aiming for.
  • Kaysha
    Kaysha
    ✭✭✭✭
    This is a very serious question. From your question I would guess, that you have been a very casual player over the years, which is absolutly fine.
    You should have asked this ages ago. lol

    I or other players here could surely give you numbers to aim for. But I think you have to get there by yourself.
    You have to test. pretty simble.

    - you don´t need golden stuff (except weapon)
    - I would not go below 1500 regen in my main stat (only for pure burst builds)
    - don´t look for health when you select sets. you can get higher health with your stat distribution

    Other than that, it´s a pretty open playingfield.
    Try out which skills you like. Look how they scale. Decide which procs you like. Look up the databases for sets that cover the missing stats once you have the wanted proc sets (or no procs, also OK).
    Look up the passives for light, medium or heavy armor and decide what you like. Decide if you need 3 different armor types for the undaunted passiv or not. Decide what´s more important to you (e.g. medium armor build with eternal vigor has to be 5 medium 2 heavy with all jewels eternal vigor, here you would have to decide if you want a medium armor build or want to use mythic jewels).

    There are so many sets right now, that you can achieve what you want by multiple ways.
    If you don´t like arenas, don´t go for arena sets.
    If you don´t like trials, don´t go for trial sets. etc.
    There are always alternatives with nearly the same result.

    I don´t know if that helps you, probably not. You just will have to test :)
  • Kaysha
    Kaysha
    ✭✭✭✭
    One more thing...

    some sets allow you to wear them only on one bar, e.g. lich, clever alchemist, 7th legion, spriggan, spinner,...
    you need something like this to run a monster set (2 slots) + mythic jewel + 3 body slots 2 weapon slots + 2 body slots 2 waepon slots 1 jewel slot + trainee jewel.
    How much set bonuses you can squeeze in depends on the sets you want to use. Normally you could say, the more sets you use to their full potential, the better your build is.
  • Sahidom
    Sahidom
    ✭✭✭✭
    For stamina. I thought of 1pc Domhaus, 1pc Swarm Mother, 3pc Agility (no Stamina Ancient), 5pc Whatever set you like, and 2 pc trainee. You may ask why so much Magicka? Well, it finances your heal and utility skills on some classes. IF you went with HA, maybe Clever Alchemist with cool down glyphs than you'd be very tanky and have burst WD that cane be up 80-100%. And still have a large stamina gain from the other sets.
    Edited by Sahidom on February 20, 2021 7:46AM
  • GreenHere
    GreenHere
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭
    This isn't directly an answer to your question, but if you're gonna start tinkering with your own builds, this can be a pretty awesome tool:

    UESP Build Editor

    You'll have to find your own resource for telling you which sets are meta or not right now, but if you just wanna check set stats as a reference tool, this site is pretty handy:

    ESO-Sets.com


    Good luck! :)
  • Sheuib
    Sheuib
    ✭✭✭✭
    When you are creating a build you have to determine how you plan to play that character first. What abilities you plan on using. How do you plan to stay alive. etc. Once you figure out the play style of a particular character then you use gear to fill in the gaps that are missing from the play style.

    Say the abilities and buffs on your bars only allow for one heal. You might want to pick up a set that gives you another heal. Or, maybe you have heals, buffs, burst, and execute on your bar. Then maybe you pick up a set that gives you a dot.

    It is a never ending process. I am always tweaking my builds. Especially, when it is a new build. I usually start high on the damage side for a new build and back off as I see I need regen or defense. The tweaking is done by changing enchants, food, mundus, and traits.

    I always do my own builds. Yes, I do steal ideas from other players I see and how it performs for them but ultimately when I put a build together I make all my own decisions on what is needed.

    One thing to remember always keep anything you gold out. I have a lot of gold sets now. It makes changes to builds easy.
  • Sungod
    Sungod
    ✭✭✭
    If you are interested in the new testing 3 week period:
    https://youtu.be/1lwlehlknGg
  • fred4
    fred4
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭
    I assume PvP builds, this being asked in the PvP section of the forum. Right now Cyro and not Cyro are quite different, due to the test. CP and no CP also differ.

    I personally still operate with an absolute minimum of 20K health in CP PvP, which is very low. This is as a nightblade and when I'm running Juggernaut on the back bar as an emergency failsafe. Even then I prefer to be a bit higher up in the 20K to 25K range.

    Next up is probably a shield-stacking sorc. If you have the discipline down, I would limit my health to be just high enough in that same range, 20K to 25K, to where it's not the limiting factor of the shields (which are limited to 60% of max health). Everything else goes into magicka and possibly stamina.

    As a stam DK I am in the 25K to 30K health range, which is still on the lower side right now. This has to do with playstyle. I play medium armor builds and I prefer good sustain. For me personally, be it on stamina or magicka builds, if I have a choice between health and better stamina sustain, I go for stamina sustain for more dodge rolls. If I have a choice between stamina and stamina regen, I tend to go for stamina regen within limits (more below).

    Should you play stamden, the meta is to go for higher health, anywhere from 30K to 40K, to take advantage of the Arctic Blast heal. Your stamina pool will be low, below 30K, and you either run procs or you stack weapon damage. Many players go for this option right now, not just on stamden.

    As a magicka character you want a minimum of stamina for break free and occasional dodge rolls. For me that is 12K in CP or 15K in no CP. You can achieve this via Hakeijo enchants alone in CP, leaving you free to use a sustain food. The alternative is to use Bewitched Sugar Skulls. Some people go for more, e.g. in the 15K to 20K stamina range, but I personally find stamina regen more important at that point. This DOES have to do with playstyle, so your mileage may vary and you will have to experiment. I find, if you don't have much stam regem, the higher pool is of limited value, unless you have some way of replenishing it, such as Meditate (Psijic), Restoring Focus on magplar, Bull Netch on warden, Leeching Strikes on magblade, streaking away on sorc or that universal get out clause: Mist Form, which conserves stamina by not using it. Heavy armor passives as well as high elf passives also help to restore some stamina and potions, of course.

    Minimum magicka on stam characters is much less of an issue. You can deliberately limit your magicka use by only using few magicka skills and only ones that have long durations. Base magicka of less than 10K is fine in that case. This allows you to stack more damage. On the other hand there may be that magicka class skill that is just too good or that you like, such as Arctic Blast or perhaps Fossilize. The poster children for using magicka on stamina builds are stamblade and stamsorc, though. Stamsorc thrives from using a set such as Eternal Vigor to support Dark Deal and Streak and also to fill in the occasionally spotty healing on that class. For stamblade it's probably more a question of playstyle. You need magicka for Cloak and Shadow Image, but the stop / start nature of the class gives you more flexibility in how you achieve that. You could go for the larger pool (Sugar Skulls) and base regen, you could simply Meditate out of sight behind a tree, all the way up to using Darloc Brae on the back bar for super, if finnicky, magicka sustain on that class.

    In terms of the sets that you use, it's simple. If you are considering stat sets, for example for the Cyrodiil tests, look at the total of what the 5-piece gives you and divide that by the value(s) a 2 to 4 piece bonus line would give you. Hunding's Rage and Julianos are the baseline at a factor of 2.33 for the 5-piece. Sets like Shacklebreaker and Amber Plasm give you MUCH better value, IF you have use for the opposite stats. Never consider a set that gives you health in the 5-piece. I don't think any of those are much good anymore. The first place you should be looking at, if you want extra health, is tri-stat (Hakeijo) enchants, because they give you 1.5 times more stats than a regular enchant. The next place is your attributes, which are normally all in stamina or all in magicka. Divert some into health.

    Build patterns are another consideration. For the Cyro test, I think the following build pattern is neat:

    Jewelry: 1x Agility (for stam) or 1x Willpower (for mag) plus 2x Endurance
    Front bar weapon: 2x Agility or Willpower
    Back bar weapon: 1H+Shield, 1x Agility/Willpower, 1x Endurance

    This gives you a damage boost on the front bar and a defense boost (health regen) on the back bar. Pair it with a body set and two mismatched monster pieces. Doesn't apply to all builds, obviously. On magblade or magsorc I would straight up magicka stack with Alfiq, Ancient Grace and Willpower. On magplar I love very high stam sustain in light armor, e.g. Amber Plasm plus Shacklebreaker. Talking about the Cyro test here.

    There are some pieces that are especially good at padding out builds for their larger than normal bonuses in a 1, 2 or 3 piece. These include Trainee, Domihaus, Swarm Mother, Ancient Grace, Ulfnor's Favor (as a 3-piece) and Agility / Willpower / Endurance. Always keep these in the back of your mind. Adjust your enchants and attributes around sets not the other way round.

    Outside of the Cyro test many people run Malacath and heavy armor, but my personal favorite is Wild Hunt with light or medium armor. If you want to fit a monster set into a mythic build, you have to look for suitable front and back bar sets that are useful on a single bar or that carry their buffs over to the other bar. This basically rules out sustain sets, such as Eternal Vigor, Amber Plasm and Shacklebreaker. Instead you're looking at sets such as Caluurion, Stuhn, Mechanical Acuity or any other proc or damage sets on the front bar and a sustain or buff set on the back bar. The latter could be Clever Alchemist, Lich or a proc set, such as Sheer Venom, Unfathomable Darkness and so on. The final part of the jigsaw in this build pattern tends to be 1x Trainee for the health.

    That said, arena weapons are currently popular, particularly the Vateshran 2H and destro staff. In that case you may end up with a back bar set, body set and monster set, but no mythic, though there are lots of other possibilityes. The UESP build editor helps.
    PC EU (EP): Magicka NB (main), Stamina NB, Stamina DK, Stamina Sorcerer, Magicka Warden, Magicka Templar, Stamina Templar
    PC NA (EP): Magicka NB
  • fred4
    fred4
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭
    I hadn't even touched on crit, pen and weapon power.

    Penetration: As much as you can get basically. 5K from light armor passives. 3K from a Sharpened weapon. More from running a maul. More, possibly, from Mundus, though that's a tossup between other good options. Another 5K from Major Breech. More from a set like Valkyn Skoria. Around 3K to 4K from CP (but not more - not efficient from CP - you'd give up too much other stuff). Minor Breech, if you can get it (Pierce Armor). You can't really have enough. I'd probably stop at 20K, but that value is hard to reach. Most of my builds do not come close. 10K minimum, I suppose.

    Crit: Very, very build dependent. Procs don't crit. Malacath builds don't crit. On the other hand nightblades, templars and Khajiits benefit from crit, due to passives. Race Against Time or Gryphon's Ferocity boosts crit damage as does the Senche set. You can go Shadow mundus, all Divines and Mechanical Acuity. The highest possible damage on a nightblade bomber involves Acuity and Vicious Death. Nightblades tend to benefit from crit in general, due to passives and Grim Focus. I shoot for 35% to 45% in my average builds (any class), but that may be a little higher than most people. I often slot Magelight or Camou Hunter to get there.

    Weapon power. It really depends on the build as well. If you're running procs, this can be stuck at baseline. If you're building for stats on something like a stam DK, then shoot for 4K self-buffed (no Continuous Attack) weapon damage minimum along with 30K stamina.

    For magicka classes magicka tends to be more important than spell damage. As a light armor magsorc, aim for 45K magicka minimum. Same for a stat-based magden or magblade, if they use shields. Magden gets 30 seconds +magicka from Northern Storm. Magblade gets +8% magicka from Siphoning passive. Adding Inner Light and front barring Dampen Magic is a possible build pattern.

    As a magplar, due to passives and no shields, I forget magicka and go for spell damage. I look more at my unbuffed Sweeps tooltip than anything. If that sits at 3K+, I'm happy, whichever way I got there.
    PC EU (EP): Magicka NB (main), Stamina NB, Stamina DK, Stamina Sorcerer, Magicka Warden, Magicka Templar, Stamina Templar
    PC NA (EP): Magicka NB
Sign In or Register to comment.