best lightning staff heavy attack damage

malistorr

Hi all,

I heard a long time ago that the 1st 3-ticks of a lightning staff heavy attack are damage over time (DOT) and therefore are buffed by Thaumaturge. Anyone know if that's still the case? And if so, what type of damage is the last tick of the heavy attack and what CP would buff that?

For a mag sorc DPS who just wants to heavy attack with a lightning staff a lot I'm assuming that Thaumaturge is a must to use for 1 of the 4 slottables to maximize DPS (with this specific play style). I was wondering what other slottable CPs (blue) would be best in this scenario in your opinion and why? Again the goal is max DPS with lightning staff heavy attack (taking into account concussion/off balance).

I think I will use an infused (shock glyph) Maelstrom Arena lightning staff (Crushing Wall) on the back bar to maximize concussion and off-balance and probably a lightning staff front-bar with spell damage glyph. The Crushing Wall staff gives a bonus to heavy attacks in the wall of elements and I'll probably use Noble Duelist Silks and Undaunted Unweaver sets to do the same. I'll use a couple skills back-bar including wall of elements and then swap to front bar to heavy attack with the lightning staff. I heard this is the best way to maximize uptime on concussion/off balance since wall is being used on back bar with shock glyph and infused. So I will get the 70% bonus to heavy attack also from the enemy off-balance. This was the strategy anyway a couple years ago. But I've been away from the game awhile so just wondering which slottable CPs to use with this play style and if the above combination of traits and glyphs on the lightning staffs would be the best for keeping concussion and off-balance up and getting the best DPS for lightning staff heavy attacks?

Thanks

El_Borracho

Thaumaturge, Wrathful Strikes, Deadly Aim, and Fighting Finesse. The next update will lower the utility of Backstabber that the last update gave us.

Your sets may vary with the content you are running. For instance, I run Undaunted Infiltrator jewelry and weapons in VMA because I like the stamina resources they give over more magicka that Unweaver gives. I'll also confess I have never tried Noble Duelist and instead use Infallible Aether because of Minor Slayer and Minor Vulnerability in the same content.

Dauntess13

What about the CP for heavy attack damage? Is it worth slotting over something else? I'm using Noble duelist, infallible aether. Im not familiar which abilities are buffed by what CP. Is there a list somewhere?

mocap

infallible aether + torugs pact + MA. Backbar shock glyph, front bar fire glyph. Drop ult, unstable wall, myst orb, swap, drop additional DoT then heavy attack 3-4 times. ​Ez dps build.

Duelist is a bit better than Torugs for sure, but good luck farming jewelry and lightning staff.

malistorr

Thanks for the answers so far. I thought a back bar shock glyph would be best for concussion/off balance combined with infused for max uptime. If I'm right as far as I know that will give me the best damage from my heavy attacks. I saw a couple builds recently that were mag sorc dps and even though they were also going to heavy attack a lot they said to use a spell damage back-bar glyph and I don't think that would be better. I'd have to test it but I'm not playing on PC any longer. I'm on Xbox now.

You think fire is better than spell damage on front lightning staff for DPS? I'll try it.

Since I want to mostly heavy attack I don't think Torugs would work. I need the heavy attack bonuses from NDS and UI or UU. Also, the other set bonuses from Torugs are not for mag DPS they are for tanks. I think I'm going with Unweaver instead of Infiltrator because the extra magic instead of stamina does give me more mag pool (which I don't really need due to heavy attacking) but the extra mag is also more DPS.

And to trigger the Undaunted Unweaver heavy attack bonus I thought of using the Crystal Weapon morph of Crystal Shards. I'm curious to see if that has much impact on the total damage the heavy attack does. I think it's just a capped amount of physical damage (I'm guessing on the last tick only and 1 heavy attack only) and the part that reduces armor I'm not sure if that will help the damage of staff magic attacks or if it would only help if I were going to attack with a non-magic weapon next. I'm guessing it's the 2nd.

El_Borracho

I don't know if Crystal Weapon works on a staff as its physical damage. You can use Barbed Trap to trigger UU at the start of the fight if you want, even though it takes 1.5 seconds to arm.

malistorr

I thought of using dark conversion but don't really need it unless it's a very tough fight and I need some healing. I figured Crystal Weapon (if it's possible) is the best stam-using skill to use for increasing DPS. But if it's not possible then it's either Barbed Trap or Dark Conversion. DC is slow though and doesn't do damage so I don't really like using it. We'll see.

AcadianPaladin

If my magsorc wanted to be all about heavy attacks, I think she'd double slot Inner Light, Bound Aegis, Twilight Matriarch and Clannfear. Never need to touch any of them except Matriarch only when a burst heal is needed. For the two remaining slots, I'd slot Surge (passive damage boost and healing) and Elemental Sustain (debuff and forget - don't care about the magicka steal on a heavy attack build). Cast Elemental Sustain once per foe that needs debuffing. Cast Surge every 33 seconds. Cast Matriarch only when a burst heal is needed. Then hold down that heavy attack key.

That would clearly be a dps loss to what I'm running now but it would be survivable, simple and effective.

malistorr

That's similar to what I do. I do slow Inner Light and Bound Aegis for the buffs to DPS. But I don't use pets since casting them and using their extra power uses a lot of time that I'd rather be heavy attacking with. Mostly just wanted to verify that infused shock is the way to go to maximize uptime of off balance (back bar) and that the 70% damage boost is still there.
At first I didn't see the CP that adds 15% to heavy attack but I see it now so for sure I'll have to use that and Thaum. Still have to decide on the other 2 slottable blue CP and which glyph on front bar lightning staff.

Dauntess13

Just throwing this out there. I pretty much use the same skills you guys use but I use volcanic rune before every heavy attack in my rotation. It hits for decent damage, only costs like 2k Magicka but gives you empower for 3 seconds and also gives 2% more Magicka for being a slotted mages guild skill.

BXR_Lonestar

mocap wrote: »

infallible aether + torugs pact + MA. Backbar shock glyph, front bar fire glyph. Drop ult, unstable wall, myst orb, swap, drop additional DoT then heavy attack 3-4 times. ​Ez dps build.

Duelist is a bit better than Torugs for sure, but good luck farming jewelry and lightning staff.

The reason you use Torugs is not for the DPS boost. You use Torugs for the proc condition to keep a high uptime on a shielding glyph (at least for the Solo/Arena easy sorc). That is why I'm farming up Infalliable Ether for my petsorc, because when I'm not in an arena or I'm playing with a group, I won't need as much survivability, and I can go to a setup that gives me higher DPS.

malistorr

The whole point of my build is to buff lightning staff heavy attacks as much as possible and do almost completely that. So switching to any other set goes against what I'm trying to do (buff heavy attacks). I am also looking for the CPs that will buff heavy attacks the most (hence my original post). I'm also looking for the combination of glyph and trait on the staffs to buff heavy attack. MA staff gives the buff to heavy attack when using wall of elements, infallible aether is a good set and I've used it before but Undaunted Infiltrator or Unweaver and Noble Duelist give much more buff to the heavy attack. Every buff to heavy attack matters a lot and I have to max them all out as much as possible. I believe all these buffs stack or multiply somehow because I remember seeing each tick hit for 25-36K damage when I used this setup on PC a year+ ago.

Now I've switched to Xbox and leveling up another high elf vampire mag sorc and will be putting the whole setup together again. I slot inner light and bound aegis for obvious reasons. I don't use pets since the time to cast them and use their upgraded damage attack takes a lot of time away from heavy attacking (so defeats the purpose of my whole build). I don't use other skills because that defeats the purpose of my whole build. Everything about the build is max damage heavy attack and do almost only that. When entering a fight I use Boundless Storm and Critical Surge for obvious reasons, lay down the wall of elements for that 3rd large heavy attack buff and then I just swap to front bar and just heavy attack away. Everything is dead before I would even need to do another rotation unless it's a boss fight. But this build is mostly for pve and trash mobs anyway.

So looking for feedback on CP, traits, glyph etc. on how to buff heavy attack with a lightning staff (because even though I think I have the best DPS setup for this play style I'm open to other ideas on improving DPS even more).

I used back bar lightning MA staff with shock glyph and infused. Front staff also lightning and if my penetration is good I figured either infused or precise trait. Anyone have a suggestion? Also, for glyph I figured either fire, shock, or weapon damage. Considering I'm using back bar shock infused and getting my concussion and off balance using wall of elements there not sure best trait and glyph for front bar staff. I'm back to work full time and not on PC anymore so taking many hours to test all this is out of the question for me.

Dauntess13

malistorr wrote: »

The whole point of my build is to buff lightning staff heavy attacks as much as possible and do almost completely that. So switching to any other set goes against what I'm trying to do (buff heavy attacks). I am also looking for the CPs that will buff heavy attacks the most (hence my original post). I'm also looking for the combination of glyph and trait on the staffs to buff heavy attack. MA staff gives the buff to heavy attack when using wall of elements, infallible aether is a good set and I've used it before but Undaunted Infiltrator or Unweaver and Noble Duelist give much more buff to the heavy attack. Every buff to heavy attack matters a lot and I have to max them all out as much as possible. I believe all these buffs stack or multiply somehow because I remember seeing each tick hit for 25-36K damage when I used this setup on PC a year+ ago.

Like I said, you might want to try adding volcanic rune into your rotation if you have mages guild leveled up. When you max skill out, it costs like 2k magic which is cheap and it gives empower which increases heavy and light attack damage by 40%. I also love the fact it stuns enemies too. I use my sorc to solo and I went into vHallows blind and only died once and honestly I'm not that good at this game. Just keep trying stuff out yourself too. Your playstyke is different than everyone else's, so some skills, traits, etc might be better for you.

malistorr

Ah because of the passive, I get it. I don't think that will work for me since using any other skills besides heavy attacking would be a big sacrifice of DPS on this build. If the buff lasted more than 3-seconds or if I didn't have to stop heavy attacking to do that it might be worth it but probably not with my rotation (or lack of). Most of what we fight in ESO is trash mobs anyway and the fights are over so quickly that I don't want to do anything different with my rotation. I'm just looking to increase heavy attack damage through gear, CP, and staff trait/enchant. Thanks anyway.

If the buff lasted 8 or 10 seconds I'd consider it in boss fights that last a lot longer.

BXR_Lonestar

Dauntess13 wrote: »

malistorr wrote: »

The whole point of my build is to buff lightning staff heavy attacks as much as possible and do almost completely that. So switching to any other set goes against what I'm trying to do (buff heavy attacks). I am also looking for the CPs that will buff heavy attacks the most (hence my original post). I'm also looking for the combination of glyph and trait on the staffs to buff heavy attack. MA staff gives the buff to heavy attack when using wall of elements, infallible aether is a good set and I've used it before but Undaunted Infiltrator or Unweaver and Noble Duelist give much more buff to the heavy attack. Every buff to heavy attack matters a lot and I have to max them all out as much as possible. I believe all these buffs stack or multiply somehow because I remember seeing each tick hit for 25-36K damage when I used this setup on PC a year+ ago.

Like I said, you might want to try adding volcanic rune into your rotation if you have mages guild leveled up. When you max skill out, it costs like 2k magic which is cheap and it gives empower which increases heavy and light attack damage by 40%. I also love the fact it stuns enemies too. I use my sorc to solo and I went into vHallows blind and only died once and honestly I'm not that good at this game. Just keep trying stuff out yourself too. Your playstyke is different than everyone else's, so some skills, traits, etc might be better for you.

I'll have to try this out, but on my petsorc, I only have room for 3 skills on my front bar which makes it tough to pick and choose which ones I want to run. Also, right now, I'm doing so much damage that by the time I lay down my AoE's from my backbar, I barely get to heavy attack before groups are dead. I'll definitely have to try this on vet content though to see how much more I can boost my heavy attack damage.

Do you cast rune in between every heavy attack?

Dauntess13

BXR_Lonestar wrote: »

Dauntess13 wrote: »

malistorr wrote: »

The whole point of my build is to buff lightning staff heavy attacks as much as possible and do almost completely that. So switching to any other set goes against what I'm trying to do (buff heavy attacks). I am also looking for the CPs that will buff heavy attacks the most (hence my original post). I'm also looking for the combination of glyph and trait on the staffs to buff heavy attack. MA staff gives the buff to heavy attack when using wall of elements, infallible aether is a good set and I've used it before but Undaunted Infiltrator or Unweaver and Noble Duelist give much more buff to the heavy attack. Every buff to heavy attack matters a lot and I have to max them all out as much as possible. I believe all these buffs stack or multiply somehow because I remember seeing each tick hit for 25-36K damage when I used this setup on PC a year+ ago.

Like I said, you might want to try adding volcanic rune into your rotation if you have mages guild leveled up. When you max skill out, it costs like 2k magic which is cheap and it gives empower which increases heavy and light attack damage by 40%. I also love the fact it stuns enemies too. I use my sorc to solo and I went into vHallows blind and only died once and honestly I'm not that good at this game. Just keep trying stuff out yourself too. Your playstyke is different than everyone else's, so some skills, traits, etc might be better for you.

I'll have to try this out, but on my petsorc, I only have room for 3 skills on my front bar which makes it tough to pick and choose which ones I want to run. Also, right now, I'm doing so much damage that by the time I lay down my AoE's from my backbar, I barely get to heavy attack before groups are dead. I'll definitely have to try this on vet content though to see how much more I can boost my heavy attack damage.

Do you cast rune in between every heavy attack?

I do heavy attack after I cast rune. I know what you mean about too much damage. Personally, I've gotten to the point where I know how much damage I do, so if see a lower health enemies, I'll only cast blockade, rune, then heavy attack to avoid using extra Mana. I stick with blockade cuz of the passive on destruction staff that gives you Mana on kill.

Nirntrotter

I used IA, Torugs, vMA staff (shield/shock) and Pale Order for my Spirit Slayer and Flawless runs. Fighting Finesse, Deadly Aim, MaA, Thaum, I think. Tristat food. Prebuff with Channeled Acceleration (and Molten Armaments, because DK), wall > orb > HA. that's 85% of what I was doing. And running around. Nice and chill.