What is your "baby tank" "baby healer" or "baby DPS" build? How do you play starting characters?

newtinmpls

I was kind of browsing through the complaints discussions regarding troubled experiences in random groups, mostly with what appeared to be newbies/lowbies.

I do love running way too many characters, and some I play so rarely that after years (yes, years) of play they are not max level. So I thought I'd ask folks what are their "starting builds" on characters that don't have tons of skyshards/skill points/experience?

My "Baby Tank"
I aim for three things: 1-Survive, 2-Taunt, 3-Pull.
Pretty much for me this means

1-(to survive)
At least every other point in health early on; food with a nice high max health (health and health regen is good at low levels); and an armor set that boosts Armor, Health or both (Death's wind and/or Fortified Brass are both good and easy to get early on).

2-(Taunt)
Yes, S&B is the earliest/easiest. Inner fire isn't available till Undaunted level 3, which can take a while. Destructive clench (frost destro staff) is the third skill down, which can take a while too. Also the tormentor set (Banished Cells so it's an early undaunted dungeon) also has a taunt after charge (or a few other things) which is not a bad option.

3-(pull)
Recently re-started a DK and was shocked at how long it takes to open the chains; it's the 4th skill which takes freaking forever. I go with opening fighters guild, and then converting silver bolts to silver leash - usually pretty easy to get going.

newtinmpls

My "baby healer"

Just about any class can do some sort of heals, but the easiest/earliest by far are from just playing with a resto staff. In a perfect world, I would want to offer some resources too - that can be tougher.

Heals
Resto Staff
1-Grand Healing, morphed as soon as possible to Healing Springs 'cause magicka regen is where it's at for healers
2-Regen, morphed as soon as possible to Mutagen 'cause heal more peeps
3-Undaunted Blood Altar - lot's of folks think of this as a tank skill, but anyone can throw it down, especially where there isn't much maneuvering room.
4-Strife - a NB skill that quickly morphs to heal other party members
5-Consuming Darkness - a NB ulti that does some decent group healing
6-Armor sets can help this; Combat Physician (from Wayrest) gives bonus heals with crit healing; Sanctuary (from Banished Cells) boots healing received. Or ColdHarbor's Favorite, but you might need a really crafty friend or guildmate to get a set.

Resources
Rune of Protection (fighter's Guild) at least gives stamina help in all it's morphs
Necrotic Orb - takes a while to get so it's not really a "baby" skill
Lamia Armor (from Arx Corinium); gives health, magicka and stamina to nearby party members on use of any Ulti. Can boost any healing ulti, or make any ulti contribute to not only healing but resources.

Soarora

Nowadays I start out with dpsing, 1 skill from each class line, switching out skills as they level. Then once I hit “dps queue is taking forever” I put on some group heals alongside my dps skills and queue healer. After I hit “none of these tanks are real tanks I’m so frustrated” I pull out frost clench and do all 3 roles at once (because the healers won’t be real either…), queueing tank… that is, until level 45 where I’ll just do skyreach until I’m ready to do a real role.

OBJnoob

Skysharts. Lol.

Someone had to say it.

Vevvev

I don't really have a baby build for players, just minimums and build advice.

Tank needs 25-35 HP (honestly more than 30k is a bit much but 35k is the minimum for veteran content for many) for normal dungeons, a taunt, and as much resistances as possible (Up to 33,000). Taunt everything and while I might get a little annoyed at the lack of pulls and mass CC you're still keeping the big boss away from the healer/DPS so we're good.

Healer just needs 2 heals over time and a burst heal. Everything else will come with experience, but it'd be nice if they paid attention to what I'll say about DPS and damage as it applies to them to...

DPS get as much Spell/Weapon damage and max Magicka/Stamina as possible. This'll make you hit harder and make all content fly by much faster! Outside of this also boosting critical chance and damage goes a long way in pushing out more DPS. Also slot an ability that deals high damage per cast and a couple that deal damage over time. Do not spam abilities that are designed to deal a large amount of damage over time as that's a waste of resources, and please don't use Frost Clench, Puncture, or Inner Rage as a spammable... those taunt enemies to you and then the tank loses control of the situation.

phaneub17_ESO

The optimism for starter tank dies fairly quickly. Everyone is a DPS at the start; go 3 Heavy, 2 Medium, and 2 Light then decide at 50 which path to pursue. At least now you have at least the armor skills to do anything you want, weapon and class skills are easier to level.

newtinmpls

I don't think I have ever really tried for a DPS. The group I play with - they have gung *** specialist builds, and after seeing so much crappy DPS in random normals, I just figure why not do something that gets me in faster and teaches me something.

Starter tanking can be quite fun once you get any kind of pull and lockdown; its interesting to gather the attackers so the DPS's can (ideally) mow them down.

What drives me buggy is the annoying DPS who runs around after the folks on the edge - jeez, have patience; your efforts are better spend AoEing the pile I'm building

dmnqwk

I level chars as tanks and healers a lot of the time because it's easier than taking up a DD slot when levelling.

Levelling Tanks:
I use Adept Rider and Fortified Brass to level them up. Having the speed to get there first makes tanking easier because too many people forget first person to damage a mob gets initial aggro on it (keeps the groups together while you worry about taunting things).
Sword and Shield with Pierce Armor and you're halfway there. I know people go on about silver leash or unrelenting chains but honestly, if you're new to the business you do not have the resources to pull things. You wont see a high return on stamina or magicka from CP because you wont be getting the killing blow to trigger it.
The second half is physician, heal thyself. Ensure you slot some kind of self healing ability so you dont die if the expected 'fake healer' occurs. If your class lacks an option, unlock Vigor from the pvp line (by entering a battleground and doing what you can without any semblence of an idea what to do, if that's what it takes).

Pierce Armor and self healing and you're good to go.

When you hit 50, things change and you can begin to look at proper tanking, such as rounding up mobs, but for levelling... don't bother because you just don't have the resources to handle it as quickly as they die.

Levelling Healers
I use Adept Rider and Order's Wrath to level these. Having the speed to keep up with the group makes healing easier because panic is the easiest way for people to die.
Restoration staff will cover all of your needs for healing, so everything else is just to flesh out your kit later. But to start with Blessing of Protection + Regeneration is all you need. Some classes have other heals to support this kit but realistically, those 2 heals are all you have to worry about - 1 is a nice hot over people while the other is a direct aoe burst.
Don't be afraid to heavy attack a lot for resources, don't let your magicka get below 50% because you fear not contributing to dps is an issue. Eventually you can hit 50 and make hybrid healer specs that push 20-30k dps while still capable of hitting 10k hps if the fight suddenly requires it.

These days Ice Staves are the go to staff for healers on the backbar, to provide the shield when using blockade.

When you begin starting out at 50, there are plenty of existing guides to follow so I won't add much about that except the number 1 key to being a support character is not letting rubbish DD get away with acting like children, doing whatever they want in a silly way. If they have to die because they don't want to work as part of a team, let them. And don't feel bad. It's easy to stress yourself out thinking you can't let other people die even if they're idiots. That's 100% false. Let them die and then feel confident knowing you're helping them become better players, or helping them not to group with other people and ruining their experience too. (Just don't be one of those silly tanks who throws a strop in dreadsail reef because they didn't get to pull the mobs and so end up letting people die. Those people don't belong in groups).

Elendir2am

Note to leveling up of DK tank to get Fiery Grip.
Burning Embers (as self heal) and both morphs of Fiery Breath (debuf) are useful for tanks. Using this skills allow you to level Ardent Flame skill line faster.

BXR_Lonestar

Honestly? I don't overthink it. I raise all of my characters as DPS until they level all their class skills, get the faction skill lines I want, etc., then I convert them to whatever role I want them to play.

In terms of gear, I don't even bother with making special gear because they level so fast that its not even worth trying to get specific gear. I just grab and wear whatever drops. The only thing I do to "kit" them out is I drop all my xp scrolls on that character and I give them 300k gold to buy their backpack expansions to the max and start training their mount.

In terms of leveling, I just go to the Alik'r desert anchors and just run those until level 10, then I'll do random dungeons to get the bonus XP. Another good way to get easy XP and level up is if you have one of your partners run the character around so you can get wayshrines and discover markers on your map. If the character will need the PVP skill lines, I'll take them into cyrodil and zerg surf until I have those completely unlocked, and often times, I'll get levels (and skill points) that way too.

Everest_Lionheart

My baby DPS all have 2000 CP behind them. I’m still running Julianos + Seducer on mag toons and Hundings + Ancient Dragonguard on stam. The gear is all training. I try to level up all the class skill lines possible before level 50 to get a well rounded kit while I build my fighters and mages guild lines. Since those are a grind as well as undaunted under the new system I am or patient with levelling those class skills as I have 8 other trial ready DPS ready to jump into any content. No need to rush them anymore, just wish there was a better path to undaunted and psijic skill lines.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

I really dont have "baby" toons. All 18 of mine have been at max level for a while, but when leveling, I level as a DPS. It makes very little sense to level as a tank or a healer, especially as most of your leveling is solo, whether questing or grinding. Tank/healer only makes sense as a role in group content. When solo, it is your job to kill stuff. No reason why I want to make that part artificially harder than it needs to be. If I know the toon is going to play a tank/healer, I be sure to keep a S+B or Resto staff skill slotted on my bar, so that when I hit 50, I have the skills I need.

On the occasion I do enter groupfinder sub 50, I almost always play as a DPS, and run a simple version of an endgame rotation based on the skills I have.

I finally deleted all my "leveling" gear, but I did have a stam and magic version of basic craftable DPS gear in training traits, always in 5/1/1 so I level all three armor lines. Hundings/Julianos +shacklebreaker was my go to. If I ever make it again for a new class release, it will be Orders Wrath and probably Hundings/Julianos (adept rider is also a solid choice), all training , about every 10 levels. I have done the main story enough times. No secret I grind new toons at this point. Can get to 50 in about 4 or 5 hours pretty easily solo, faster with events and a buddy or a stockpile of alchemy writs.