Mixing Armour Weights

Tantala

I've just reached the stage of crafting armour for my prime character and I will (unadventurously) be making a Hunding's set for a stamina warden. The simple option is to use all medium armour but I've come across suggestions that it is worth using a single heavy and a single light item to access the relevant passives. The obvious slot for a heavy item is chest, which I had intended to craft first, so I'd be grateful if anyone could confirm that mixed-weight is a useful idea or possibly one which has gone out-of-date with changes in the game.

Any alternaives/advice would be gratefully received.

mmtaniac

On pvp you need atleast 3 heavy 3-4 medium(or light).
On pve you can do what you want ,on stamina i would personally use 7 medium. On pve you still have healer, and tank you just need focus on your role. If you want undaunted bonus than make 5/1/1. This should work too and you have extra resources, and use many more skill points for armor passives.

Tantala

Thanks for that. I'm playing PvE and mainly solo (recently returned from a long layoff). I was unaware of Undaunted Mettle which looks like a interesting asset so I think I'll give 5-1-1 a run for its money. Nothing is irreversable so I can always go back to all medium if I want to.

DrSlaughtr

If we're talking pvp, each piece of heavy drastically cuts damage. Undaunted is also less effective because you aren't getting a steady supply of synergies. The main reason to run any heavy pieces is to push your armor rating up.

So then you just gotta decide where you want to be on tankiness vs damage scale.

fred4

Tantala wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm playing PvE and mainly solo (recently returned from a long layoff). I was unaware of Undaunted Mettle which looks like a interesting asset so I think I'll give 5-1-1 a run for its money. Nothing is irreversable so I can always go back to all medium if I want to.

Given the choice of weights, such as when you're crafting everything, for solo PvE I personally go:

1 medium, 6 light for a magicka character
All medium on a stamina character

It basically gives you the best sustain and damage. @TheEndBringer, Undaunted Mettle gives you stats. You're thinking of Undaunted Command which, as you say, is less useful in PvP. Undaunted Mettle is useful everywhere, although I'd argue it is more useful in PvP than PvE. In PvP I really care about my off stat and my health. As a DD or solo player in PvE, not so much.

For solo play, let me give you some specific recommendations:

Stamina: Vicious Ophidian
Magicka: False God's Devotion

No surprise there. The two BIS sets for solo play outside of heavy attack builds. Of course those are trial sets, but you can accumulate the body pieces fairly quickly by running normal trials. Vicious Ophidian drops from all Craglorn trials, notably Hel Ra, which PUGs run a lot. You'll want those sets to be active on both bars, thus you can leave it at getting the body pieces. You don't need the weapons, which would be more time-consuming to get.

For solo magicka builds I'd front bar Hexos Ward, which is an overland set you can buy from guild traders or farm. The remainder of the build can be a monster set, or something like Pale Order and 1x Slimecraw. You want crit %. Hexos Ward is one of the reasons I tend to end up with 1x medium. If you want to fit Pale Order, you end up with a Hexos Ward weapon, 2x jewelry and the chest.

For solo stamina builds I'd fill out the build with something like Briarheart, which is also easy to get. It's not much better than Hunding's, but it gives you that little bit of extra healing. If you can get yourself to farm Dragonstar Arena - it's easy on normal mode, albeit time-consuming - then combine the Master's 2H weapon with the 2H Brawler skill (morph of Cleave). You will be tankier than on a magicka build and you will do a lot of AOE damage. If you get that Titanic Cleave weapon you may have to jig things around a bit to also fit Pale Order. The combination of Brawler and Pale Order is extremely strong for solo play.

You can also push the combination of Brawler, Titanic Cleave and Vicious Ophidian into tanking territory while still doing decent damage. I run a random group tank that will, in fact, solo or carry everything up to vet hard mode non-DLC dungeons. You do need Vicious Ophidian or some other sustain set to survive via Brawler shield spam, but this is very powerful. For this type of build I recommend wearing as much medium armor as you can. You need the sustain. There are various ways to still reach resistance cap (33K) despite this, for example using the Tormentor set on the back bar as a tank. Here is my stamsorc hybrid tank / DD as an example:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=421256

That build is min-maxed for pugging dungeons. I have 45% crit and constant healing from Crit Surge as well as building into health regen. The self-healing from that and Dark Deal / Meditation makes Pale Order completely redundant, even solo. I've soloed City of Ash 2 with this on vet hard mode. World bosses, including the hardest ones, such as the Unfinished Dolmen, are easy to solo on this build. Elsweyr dragons are probably better soloed on a ranged build, though.

Having said all that, if you've just made a 5-1-1 setup, that's totally fine. It doesn't make much of a difference as long as the 5 is medium or light.

El_Borracho

Undaunted Mettle is a passive that works better for tanks in PVE. A few years ago, it was useful for mag characters, too, but now its better for PVE DDs to wear 7 light or 7 medium.

As you have been away for a while, I think the best combo for stamina for non-trials content is Relequen body + Medusa weapons & jewelry + a 2 piece monster or 1 monster with the kilt. No need for synergies and the content you want to do is not suited for a set like Kinras. Even the old standby of Relequen + AY is still effective

DrSlaughtr

fred4 wrote: »

Tantala wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm playing PvE and mainly solo (recently returned from a long layoff). I was unaware of Undaunted Mettle which looks like a interesting asset so I think I'll give 5-1-1 a run for its money. Nothing is irreversable so I can always go back to all medium if I want to.

Given the choice of weights, such as when you're crafting everything, for solo PvE I personally go:

1 medium, 6 light for a magicka character
All medium on a stamina character

It basically gives you the best sustain and damage. @TheEndBringer, Undaunted Mettle gives you stats. You're thinking of Undaunted Command which, as you say, is less useful in PvP. Undaunted Mettle is useful everywhere, although I'd argue it is more useful in PvP than PvE. In PvP I really care about my off stat and my health. As a DD or solo player in PvE, not so much.

For solo play, let me give you some specific recommendations:

Stamina: Vicious Ophidian
Magicka: False God's Devotion

No surprise there. The two BIS sets for solo play outside of heavy attack builds. Of course those are trial sets, but you can accumulate the body pieces fairly quickly by running normal trials. Vicious Ophidian drops from all Craglorn trials, notably Hel Ra, which PUGs run a lot. You'll want those sets to be active on both bars, thus you can leave it at getting the body pieces. You don't need the weapons, which would be more time-consuming to get.

For solo magicka builds I'd front bar Hexos Ward, which is an overland set you can buy from guild traders or farm. The remainder of the build can be a monster set, or something like Pale Order and 1x Slimecraw. You want crit %. Hexos Ward is one of the reasons I tend to end up with 1x medium. If you want to fit Pale Order, you end up with a Hexos Ward weapon, 2x jewelry and the chest.

For solo stamina builds I'd fill out the build with something like Briarheart, which is also easy to get. It's not much better than Hunding's, but it gives you that little bit of extra healing. If you can get yourself to farm Dragonstar Arena - it's easy on normal mode, albeit time-consuming - then combine the Master's 2H weapon with the 2H Brawler skill (morph of Cleave). You will be tankier than on a magicka build and you will do a lot of AOE damage. If you get that Titanic Cleave weapon you may have to jig things around a bit to also fit Pale Order. The combination of Brawler and Pale Order is extremely strong for solo play.

You can also push the combination of Brawler, Titanic Cleave and Vicious Ophidian into tanking territory while still doing decent damage. I run a random group tank that will, in fact, solo or carry everything up to vet hard mode non-DLC dungeons. You do need Vicious Ophidian or some other sustain set to survive via Brawler shield spam, but this is very powerful. For this type of build I recommend wearing as much medium armor as you can. You need the sustain. There are various ways to still reach resistance cap (33K) despite this, for example using the Tormentor set on the back bar as a tank. Here is my stamsorc hybrid tank / DD as an example:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=421256

That build is min-maxed for pugging dungeons. I have 45% crit and constant healing from Crit Surge as well as building into health regen. The self-healing from that and Dark Deal / Meditation makes Pale Order completely redundant, even solo. I've soloed City of Ash 2 with this on vet hard mode. World bosses, including the hardest ones, such as the Unfinished Dolmen, are easy to solo on this build. Elsweyr dragons are probably better soloed on a ranged build, though.

Having said all that, if you've just made a 5-1-1 setup, that's totally fine. It doesn't make much of a difference as long as the 5 is medium or light.

I was referring to command. Meddle is meh. Let's say you have a baseline 29k stamina with the 3% bonus.

That's a big whopping 870 extra stamina. Meanwhile for medium you're giving up 2% damage and 2% crit damage plus the other buffs from medium passives. Similarly you lose pen and crit from light.

This patch a good mix of medium and light is pretty great.

fred4

El_Borracho wrote: »

Undaunted Mettle is a passive that works better for tanks in PVE. A few years ago, it was useful for mag characters, too, but now its better for PVE DDs to wear 7 light or 7 medium.

As you have been away for a while, I think the best combo for stamina for non-trials content is Relequen body + Medusa weapons & jewelry + a 2 piece monster or 1 monster with the kilt. No need for synergies and the content you want to do is not suited for a set like Kinras. Even the old standby of Relequen + AY is still effective

The OP mentioned solo play in their second post. The Kilt has no role in solo play. Technically a competent player can solo a lot with your setup, but it isn't solo gear. It is group play gear. You're also recommending two trial sets. The OP mentioned crafting Hunding's. If that's what they're doing, they probably have not farmed trials or they don't have transmute crystals. Your suggestions would require substantial farming, because two trial sets mean they need to farm weapons and/or jewelry. That's why I only recommended one set and even that is a catch-22 and not an immediate solution. If there is one trial set you want to get as a solo player, it's the one I mentioned, and if it's going to be a mythic item, it's going to be Pale Order, not the Kilt.

Tantala

Thanks for all the info guys. FYI, I've been playing Elder Scrolls games since, well, The Elder Scrolls. I was in at the start of ESO and I've been coming and going since as my time available for gaming changed. As a result I have a mess of characters generally dating from each expansion I purchased and showing varying levels of progress. One of my first characters is now repurposed as a crafting alt and has 9 traits for every craftable item except necklace, which is researching at the moment. When I came back this time I decided to start all over again from the beginning but not to get bogged down crafting on my prime char. I found a guide to playing the entirity of ESO in order of availability and it is my current aim to take one character through all the expansions in chronological order. I'm mainly playing solo but I'm up for the occasional PUG however I don't want to get bogged down grinding for drops which limits me somewhat. I'm also aiming to end up with a complete set of gold-quality gear along the way.

Wish me luck and a long life ... I have a feeling I'm going to need both to finish this marathon.

fred4

Tantala wrote: »

Thanks for all the info guys. FYI, I've been playing Elder Scrolls games since, well, The Elder Scrolls. I was in at the start of ESO and I've been coming and going since as my time available for gaming changed. As a result I have a mess of characters generally dating from each expansion I purchased and showing varying levels of progress. One of my first characters is now repurposed as a crafting alt and has 9 traits for every craftable item except necklace, which is researching at the moment. When I came back this time I decided to start all over again from the beginning but not to get bogged down crafting on my prime char. I found a guide to playing the entirity of ESO in order of availability and it is my current aim to take one character through all the expansions in chronological order. I'm mainly playing solo but I'm up for the occasional PUG however I don't want to get bogged down grinding for drops which limits me somewhat. I'm also aiming to end up with a complete set of gold-quality gear along the way.

Wish me luck and a long life ... I have a feeling I'm going to need both to finish this marathon.

Well, since you're doing story / questing, what both myself and El_Borracho recommended is way too high end compared to what you really need. Overland questing is designed to require very little in the way of combat knowledge and gear. Gold weapons are worth investing in. Gold gear / jewelry absolutely is not. I don't wear gold body pieces as a matter of principle - it's far too expensive for what it gives you - and I'm an endgame player. The thought of you golding out a set of Hunding's Rage and calling it a day is kind of painful to me. If you're going to gold out a set, at least make it a meta set. Meta is always changing, though, so my advice is: Don't. You may pick up gold jewelry somewhere along the way, e.g. from trials or the Cyrodiil vendor. Golding out jewelry youself is almost a sin.

WrathOfInnos

For PVE it is best to go 6 light + 1 medium or 6 medium + 1 light depending on which resource most of you skills use. I could maybe see a argument for going 5-2 or even 4-3 on some hybrid builds.

DPS should not go 5-1-1 these days, that was only good back when the 6th or 7th piece of light or medium armor gave no damage bonuses. Any heavy pieces are a damage loss now.

El_Borracho

Yeah, I'm with @fred4 on the gold gear thing and on my gear recommendation if you are just doing the occasional dungeon. I'll gold out my weapons and monster sets as I run a lot of trials and vet DLC dungeons. I would never consider golding out a crafted armor set, especially for casual stuff. Heck, Relequen has been the standard for stamina DDs in group play since it came out and my sets are still purple. Just can't do it.

There are a ton of fun overland sets you can also buy from guild traders. One that came to mind is Venomous Smite. A sneaky strong set out of Western Skyrim. I also strongly agree with Briarheart. But to get back to the Undaunted Mettle passive, it won't do anything noticeable for you in overland. The reason it works well for tanks is because the X% health means something when your health is between 35k-45k

Tantala

Your points are well taken, guys. I'm basically doing some of this just for the fun of trying it out. It may sound silly, but I'm also trying to stay out of zones I haven't yet reached as part of my story progress.

I've made one piece of gold just to see how much difference it makes, and TBH it doesn't seem to help a lot. SInce I don't need to minimax I'll stay with purple for the rest. Courtesy of the current event I now have a set of Hundings stations in my crafter's house in Audiron. I'll probably go 6-1 with the Hundings as some of the sneeky passives could be useful for thieve's guild or dark brotherhood adventures) and in the short term I'll make a set of Ashen Grip for the remaining slots, the crafting station being conveniently located on Audiron plus I like the idea of spitting fire. Hopefully that should get me through everything I want to do in the old Alliance territories and I can upgrade from it as and when I am in a position to do more challenging content.

Tantala

Thanks for all your advice, guys, Just for general interest I have upgraded to 5 pieces of medium hundings (all purple) and 5 pieces of Ashen Grip (3 blue jewelry and 2 purple weapons). Head is a random light purple drop and chest is a heavy gold item I made by mistake (don't ask). Everything has appropriate gold glyphs.

With this setup I attacked my bone goliath training dummy which is rated as equivalent to a veteran dungeon boss. I had enough self/passive healing to survive and slowly wear the thing down although I probably would have died of boredom IRL before the dummy succumbed. I figure this should take me through all the solo content I am interested in and also allow me to join PUGs etc without embarrassing myself. For my own amusement I can also do some light farming for better dropped sets as I progress.

theendoftheriver

I usually run 5 medium and 2 heavy in PvP. In PvE it's much more flexible. I probably do 80% PvP but in PvE I still run 5/2. If I was going to optimize, I'd probably go 5/1/1 in PvE.