Build Questions that are Probably Pretty Obvious

LostHorizon1933

... to someone reading this, but not to me.

Context -- I've generally always made my own builds, but I recently looked up some to see what other people had done about hybridization, if anything (answer seems to mostly be nothing). And I realized there are things I've never figured out. Such as these three:

1. Elemental Weapon

So, I like Crushing Shock, as I hate the Red Throwers, especially the guy with the undodgeable "GRONK GRONK GRONK" (the red ring of death). Crushing Shock is like making them watch 40 hours of HGTV in one second!

But in a decent number of online builds, I saw people using Elemental Weapon instead, which has never been a favorite. I have to think, there's an application there, and I'm just missing it.

2. Vigor

A lot of stamina builds seem to use Vigor (what are the odds they would be from New Jersey, huh?) despite having healing abilities within their class.

I usually run Magicka, but when I was toying with the idea of Stamina, I saw it again and again. (In the end, I had no stamina for Stamina, sorry, so this is an academic question.)

3. Haunting Curse

Yes, I'm a sorcerer. (And I play one in the game too, heh heh hehhhhh.) I see some folks using Haunting Curse.

3.5 seconds, man, that's a lot of time.

So the first person I shoot with HC runs straight into my two AoEs, gets cracked in the head with Crushing Shock, maybe even a C Frag if they're still alive. But they generally not, so I've seen an awful lot of corpses sit there and go BANG.

(Funny and true, there was a bug where the corpses of people I killed would explode the 2nd time, at the 8.5 second mark, and would go "OH!")

WrathOfInnos

Crushing Shock and Elemental Weapon have similar base damage, with EW only ~3% ahead. However Ele Weapon also procs Spell Orb, which is about half of a spammable's damage for free every 5 casts. It also causes status effects, more frequently than Crushing Shock unless you are running charged trait or an asylum staff. Crushing is just more forgiving if you miss light attacks, and can be useful for interrupts.

Stamina used Vigor because most class heals only scaled with Magicka or Spell Damage until recently. Now they scale with highest stats, so expect to see Stam builds use more class heals.

Curse is only for bosses that are expected to survive the full duration. It's generally not worth slotting for quests or overland, just dungeons, trials, PvP and maybe some world bosses.

Tannus15

To start it really helps if you state if you're talking about a PvE or PvP context.

Ele weapon just straight up hits harder than crushing shock and you get a status effect and you get the bonus damage from the balls passive. For PvE it's stronger and for PvP ele weapon and the light attack land in the same attack, usually with an enchantment proc, so it's a lot of damage in one moment which can be weaved into a second attack, say ele weapon > light attack > crushing shock so all 3 hit within 1 second.

most class heals don't use stamina. pretty simple.

haunting curse in PvP is about lining up the hits. you can go haunting, flame reach, fragproc / ele weapon, execute and there is a good chance your mages fury is going to land at the same time as your curse is going to pop so you've just loaded all your damage into a few seconds. in PvE haunting hits hard twice for a single GCD so it's effective from a sustain perspective. most people will run prey though just for the pet damage increase and the free pet targeting even though you have to cast it twice as often as haunting.

PvP_Exploiter

Will try my best but not sure if I'm interpreting the questions correctly or what you're aiming for.

So point 1 and 3 look to me as they fall into the same reason. They're both good for single-target damage, so when fighting bosses. That tends to be what most published builds are for.
Overland content and "trash" packs tend to die a lot quicker and as such don't really require a certain build, just do what works.

Although Haunting Curse is usually the PvP morph as in PvE the pets are just autobot damage and the Daedric Curse buffs that.

Point 2, Vigor, it is basically the only heal in the game which costs Stamina and is a "burst" heal.
Typically you go all in one one stat. So all attribute points, armour glyphs, food and recovery. So before this patch using a magicka based heal will not only be weaker but if you need it often you might run out of juice. Especially if you had other magicka abilities.

Pretty much every class has a burst heal that costs magicka but none have a stamina one. There are some skills which heal and cost stamina, like fighters guild Circle Of Protection, but that's a slow-burner and probably won't save your life especially as you need to stand in it.

LostHorizon1933

@WrathOfInnos @Tannus15 @PvP_Exploiter thank you for those quick answers! I felt stupid for having those questions, but I feel kind of smart for having asked them here!

LostHorizon1933

Oh, and the question came up PVP or PVE. I am a chemist by training, so I’m used to putting atoms together to make molecules. The skills are like the atoms, the smallest part of the element. I like rigging my own builds, but it’s nice to see what the logic was behind other builds, since usually they don’t provide too much context or explanation, I guess assuming everyone knows.

Tannus15

LostHorizon1933 wrote: »

Oh, and the question came up PVP or PVE. I am a chemist by training, so I’m used to putting atoms together to make molecules. The skills are like the atoms, the smallest part of the element. I like rigging my own builds, but it’s nice to see what the logic was behind other builds, since usually they don’t provide too much context or explanation, I guess assuming everyone knows.

PvP vs PvE is the most important context. Some skills or morphs are must have in one and completely useless in the other. Honestly I wouldn't use a build if it didn't state what content it's intended for.

PvP_Exploiter

I guess it's also worth mentioning about Elemental Weapon, it can be used with any weapon.

Since Duel Wield has the highest damage potential it gives you a good spammable that costs magicka, whereas to use Crushing Shock you have to use a destro.

LostHorizon1933

PvP_Exploiter wrote: »

I guess it's also worth mentioning about Elemental Weapon, it can be used with any weapon.

Since Duel Wield has the highest damage potential it gives you a good spammable that costs magicka, whereas to use Crushing Shock you have to use a destro.

WHAT!!!

I cannot wait to try that tomorrow!

PvP_Exploiter

LostHorizon1933 wrote: »

PvP_Exploiter wrote: »

I guess it's also worth mentioning about Elemental Weapon, it can be used with any weapon.

Since Duel Wield has the highest damage potential it gives you a good spammable that costs magicka, whereas to use Crushing Shock you have to use a destro.

WHAT!!!

I cannot wait to try that tomorrow!

I kinda drip feeding information, so sorry.
But if you do use it on a melee weapon you are required to hit the next light attack so need to be melee range.

One of it disadvantages but depends on your playstyle. Most enemies are melee so it's not as issue, but for bosses etc might not be ideal if you like to kite and avoid damage while using ranged abilities.

Then again you're not stuck using the same thing for every encounter so give it a try