A True Endless Archive Build

fred4

This build addresses everything the archive throws at you that I know of. The marauders, particularly the fire one. Ground AOE damage. DOTs placed on you. Interrupting hard to reach, partially covered targets. Taking advantage of a certain vision to boost your damage. Sustain. Self healing. It's not that difficult to obtain, using one mythic, one DLC dungeon, one overland craftable, and one buyable PvP set.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=583874

I posted a new personal best of 5 4 2 (solo), about an arc higher than with my previous, not quite so archive-specific, builds. Got 3 stacks of that vision early on. Yes, I encountered all 3 types of marauders. No, I did not die to any of those. I first died to a forgotten boss mechanic and, eventually, to trash. May have lost focus after a break.

Yes, this is a Redguard magicka templar. No, you don't need to be a Redguard. Any race will do. I just had that character sitting idle. However, if you tell the forum why Redguard is, in fact, not completely wasted on this build, I'll give you an Awesome. In fact, if anyone wants to be the first to describe obvious aspects of the build to less veteran forum members, I'll be much obliged. I'll also give you an Awesome. Or if you can think of something to improve, by all means. I'm tired from my run. Over and out.

EDIT: After below recommendations and some trial and error - changing out Bahraha's for Sithis' Touch, Order's Wrath, Azureblight Reaper, and Dragon's Appetite - the final version of the build uses Alessia's Bulwark. I've updated the UESP link to reflect this. I only miss the stam regen from Dragon's Appetite, which helps keep the greaves in the green and allows dodge rolling more freely.

Necrotech_Master

interesting build, im guessing you went with the esoteric greaves to help deal with the incoming marauder dmg by basically the extra 50% dmg reduction as long as you maintained stamina

the only other "cheese" build ive heard for getting really deep archive runs (even solo) would be a DK focusing on perma magma shell

the build that ive heard was using drakes rush + elf bane + a 3 pc set (i think they backbar drakes rush because of the long cooldown)

elf bane extends the duration of magma shell by 5 seconds (17 sec total of basically full dmg immunity), drakes rush provides major heroism, and potentates i think the 3pc set that was used was for ult cost reduction

i think there are people that have been using this build to solo out as far as arc 18 at least, as some of the marauders at a certain point will have attacks that will start 1 shotting through block after a certain point, so either have to be good at dodging, or live in magma shell

i dont know how long it would have taken to get there though

my current warden build right now for the archive is using pearlescent + ice furnace + iceheart

iceheart for the extra shield + dmg, pearl for +dmg, or in a group +dmg reduction if either companion or player is dead, and ice furnace (jewelry + weapons) is pretty good for adding extra area dmg on a frost warden

this build with food and no archive bonuses is sitting at around 43k hp with toughness, if i get some max health boosters ill be closer to 50k

the only enemy that i have some difficulty with still is the fire marauder, especially in later arcs (like arc 6+)

ive made it to arc 9 a few times in a 2 person group

Jaimeh

Thank you for sharing your build--can I ask if the slow proc effect from Bahara's works on the Marauders? I've never used it, so not sure, but if it does that's super helpful. Also, is the Redguard stamina regen helping to offset the loss from the greaves, so you can stay above 50%?

Necrotech_Master

Jaimeh wrote: »

Thank you for sharing your build--can I ask if the slow proc effect from Bahara's works on the Marauders? I've never used it, so not sure, but if it does that's super helpful. Also, is the Redguard stamina regen helping to offset the loss from the greaves, so you can stay above 50%?

marauders, bosses, and the elite enemies are all immune to snares

im guessing bahrahas is mainly for survivability because of the "healing when it deals dmg", you have a little more control over its placement than leeching plate, but leeching plate is basically high uptime (it only comes in heavy armor though, where bahraha comes in any size)

im not sure if there is anything in the archive counted as "environmental dmg" so that line from bahraha might be wasted as well

Jaimeh

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

Thank you for sharing your build--can I ask if the slow proc effect from Bahara's works on the Marauders? I've never used it, so not sure, but if it does that's super helpful. Also, is the Redguard stamina regen helping to offset the loss from the greaves, so you can stay above 50%?

marauders, bosses, and the elite enemies are all immune to snares

Yeah, that's what I figured because they are elite, but I hoped otherwise because having them slowed would be so helpful (especially for the fire Marauder in later arcs, who basically needs to be kited for 84 years in order to kill him and live to tell the tale )

Necrotech_Master

Jaimeh wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

Thank you for sharing your build--can I ask if the slow proc effect from Bahara's works on the Marauders? I've never used it, so not sure, but if it does that's super helpful. Also, is the Redguard stamina regen helping to offset the loss from the greaves, so you can stay above 50%?

marauders, bosses, and the elite enemies are all immune to snares

Yeah, that's what I figured because they are elite, but I hoped otherwise because having them slowed would be so helpful (especially for the fire Marauder in later arcs, who basically needs to be kited for 84 years in order to kill him and live to tell the tale )

the snare on bahrahas is not really great, because the area is so small

and you get a much much stronger periodic snare from the crystalline support vision (which does a 93% snare on every enemy within 10 meters of yourself periodically) (which while useful, i wish it still did some form of dmg or something because it is 100% useless on any elite enemy or boss and doesnt actually slow down the enemy attacks, just their movement speed)

fred4

Jaimeh wrote: »

Thank you for sharing your build--can I ask if the slow proc effect from Bahara's works on the Marauders? I've never used it, so not sure, but if it does that's super helpful. Also, is the Redguard stamina regen helping to offset the loss from the greaves, so you can stay above 50%?

You get your Awesome for pointing out how Redguard helps with stam regen for the greaves .

I have not observed the (red) marauder being slowed, but also not really looked for that. You probably have to take it that it won't, because bosses aren't usually affected by stuff like that. The reason I'm wearing Bahraha is for the 40% damage reduction from "traps". This is one of those sets with a very unclear proc condition, but according to a very old Gilliam the Rogue video - before he joined ZOS - a lot of ground effects in dungeons are classified as traps. He used to wear that set back in the day. I'm supplementing it with Major Evasion from Quick Cloak for, hopefully, a lot of AOE damage reduction. This is something really hard to quantify, but the healing from Bahraha's can also be quite significant in Combat Metrics. The set is situational, but then the whole build is centered around finding the possibly strongest situational options, and combining them, rather than going for resistances and Magma Shell.

I got the fire marauder on Arc 3. Still ended up having to kite a fair bit, but without the risk of being straight up one-shotted when you fail to do that. Got the storm marauder on arc 4. The key to him is staying close, as the dangerous storms revolve around him. No snare needed. You need sto stay in the eye of the storm. The water marauder, on the other hand, is an odd beast. From looking at my stamina, the greaves do not mitigate the water splashes, not that there is much you need to mitigate. However, if you block, that is a big mistake. Fully blocking a water splash can eat 10K stamina, at least when wearing the greaves. I'm not sure there isn't some strange interaction going on, but at any rate, you can find yourself suddenly below 50% stamina when you thought you were full. The key is not to block his water splashes. I typically try to outrange.

fred4

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

Thank you for sharing your build--can I ask if the slow proc effect from Bahara's works on the Marauders? I've never used it, so not sure, but if it does that's super helpful. Also, is the Redguard stamina regen helping to offset the loss from the greaves, so you can stay above 50%?

im not sure if there is anything in the archive counted as "environmental dmg" so that line from bahraha might be wasted as well

Well, that is the question really. That is the main reason why I'm wearing the set, because see my above reply to Jaimeh. I just have no idea how to test this. There are these spinning wheel traps. There are ice shards. Flame wheels. The laser eye beams. Are you telling me those are not environmental traps? Genuine question. I have no idea and currently no plan other than to long term see whether Baharaha feels better or worse than the next set I will try.

Necrotech_Master

i guess it really depends on how monsters ground based aoe effects are coded, if they are counted as environmental dmg lol

but stacking that with evasion would certainly help against aoes

the aoes the water marauder can do can be dodged (at least the water splash, not 100% sure on the lightning one but the lightning one hurts a lot more)

the lightning marauder if the arena is large you can kite him away from the tornadoes because they only take up so much area, not necessarily the entire arena but it really depends on arena size, the problem mainly is that they dont go away so the longer the fight goes on the more and more tornadoes your dealing with until he dies

the fire one the biggest problems is his ranged attack (can be dodged), the multi hit melee attacks (need 2 dodges to avoid all the hits), and the heavy bleed on the melee attacks (not as bad if you can purge it)

fred4

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

and the heavy bleed on the melee attacks (not as bad if you can purge it)

You get another Awesome for mentioning the purge.

The whole thing with templar is, you're melee. There is a proc and vision no one has spelt out yet that does so much damage, you can basically stay ranged if you really need to, but you're fundamentally still a templar. I was hoping Bahraha helps with standing in red and spamming Sweeps a little longer. The gist of that very old Gilliam the Rogue video was that a lot of ground AOE in dungeons is classified as traps, far more than you would think. Whether that holds true for EA, I have no idea. I'm in a testing phase as far as that goes, although I'm thinking of moving on to vRG farming during the event.

Necrotech_Master

fred4 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

Thank you for sharing your build--can I ask if the slow proc effect from Bahara's works on the Marauders? I've never used it, so not sure, but if it does that's super helpful. Also, is the Redguard stamina regen helping to offset the loss from the greaves, so you can stay above 50%?

im not sure if there is anything in the archive counted as "environmental dmg" so that line from bahraha might be wasted as well

Well, that is the question really. That is the main reason why I'm wearing the set, because see my above reply to Jaimeh. I just have no idea how to test this. There are these spinning wheel traps. There are ice shards. Flame wheels. The laser eye beams. Are you telling me those are not environmental traps? Genuine question. I have no idea and currently no plan other than to long term see whether Baharaha feels better or worse than the next set I will try.

the dwemer style blade traps i think are counted as environmental for sure, i think its like lava which is definitely environmental

but ive also seen on death recaps an unknown "environment dmg" sometimes but dont know if thats from a bug and it might even count fall dmg (though i dont know on that either since fall dmg is you hitting yourself with a hidden effect called "gravity")

i have no idea either if the eye beams or ice patches are counted as environmental or an attack cast by tho'at

usually i dont take too much dmg from the ice patches or eye beams as i usually avoid them most of the time though, but i dont know how to test it either, because the dmg from both the ice patches and the eye beams ramps in dmg if you sit in them

you could try to compare the dmg taken if you had a bahraha front bar weapon and different back bar weapon, so you could "turn off" that line of the set and see if the dmg taken is any different

fred4

I have some more time to describe the other key feature of the build after all. You're, of course, hoping for the Focused Efforts vision on a fully EA-achievement buffed character. +500% damage to status effects, stacked 3 times in my run. At one stack, the build becomes worthwhile. At further stacks, status effects begin to dominate your damage at the top of the chart in Combat Metrics. So why exactly is that? Answer:

• 2x Charged daggers, one with flame enchant, one with poison enchant. Good proc chances for Burning and Poisoned, as long as you're in range of a target and Quick Cloak is up and running.
• More chances to proc Burning from Reflective Light.
• The Unleashed proc. This is the holy grail. Due to PvP considerations it has a per target cooldown, not per caster. This means you can gap close to multiple spread out targets and straight up apply Hemorrhaging without waiting for a set cooldown. The Charged trait is not required here. The set applies the status effect 100% regardless. Also that status effect does not run out. It is constantly reapplied by the Unleashed proc. Furthermore Explosive Charge is an AOE skill, thus applying Hemorrhaging in an AOE fashion. This is basically the same reason you wear Ice Furnace on your ice warden. A constant AOE status effect.

Jaimeh

fred4 wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

Thank you for sharing your build--can I ask if the slow proc effect from Bahara's works on the Marauders? I've never used it, so not sure, but if it does that's super helpful. Also, is the Redguard stamina regen helping to offset the loss from the greaves, so you can stay above 50%?

You get your Awesome for pointing out how Redguard helps with stam regen for the greaves .

I have not observed the (red) marauder being slowed, but also not really looked for that. You probably have to take it that it won't, because bosses aren't usually affected by stuff like that. The reason I'm wearing Bahraha is for the 40% damage reduction from "traps". This is one of those sets with a very unclear proc condition, but according to a very old Gilliam the Rogue video - before he joined ZOS - a lot of ground effects in dungeons are classified as traps. He used to wear that set back in the day. I'm supplementing it with Major Evasion from Quick Cloak for, hopefully, a lot of AOE damage reduction. This is something really hard to quantify, but the healing from Bahraha's can also be quite significant in Combat Metrics. The set is situational, but then the whole build is centered around finding the possibly strongest situational options, and combining them, rather than going for resistances and Magma Shell.

I got the fire marauder on Arc 3. Still ended up having to kite a fair bit, but without the risk of being straight up one-shotted when you fail to do that. Got the storm marauder on arc 4. The key to him is staying close, as the dangerous storms revolve around him. No snare needed. You need sto stay in the eye of the storm. The water marauder, on the other hand, is an odd beast. From looking at my stamina, the greaves do not mitigate the water splashes, not that there is much you need to mitigate. However, if you block, that is a big mistake. Fully blocking a water splash can eat 10K stamina, at least when wearing the greaves. I'm not sure there isn't some strange interaction going on, but at any rate, you can find yourself suddenly below 50% stamina when you thought you were full. The key is not to block his water splashes. I typically try to outrange.

Thanks for the detailed explanation and sharing your observations and strategy on the different Marauders with this build, it's very interesting and well thought out. And yay for the awesome!

SkaraMinoc

Without Azureblight, later Arcs will be miserably slow.

fred4

<-- Investigating alternatives to Bahraha's, the most questionable part of the build after this discussion. It may not be doing much of anything whereas the other sets have clearly defined benefits. Unfortunately this one likes their light armor passives. Azureblight doesn't fit a magicka build that's already wearing Unleashed. Maybe to swap in after getting a lot of magicka recovery visions. "Miserably slow" is indeed the term I'd use for when I've gone into the archive with tanky builds that might technically go far.

Necrotech_Master

when i have 3+ stacks of focused efforts, i just start using elemental susceptibility as a spammable lol

even with 3 stacks i can avg almost 60k dmg per cast of ele sus

the most stacks of focused efforts ive had was 5 stacks, which was getting almost 100k dps spamming ele sus (it avg closer to about 65, but thats still huge for a tank build lol)

while that dmg is pretty single target, i can still kill enemies in arc 8 pretty quickly without too much danger to myself because im in a mostly tank build

i usually tend to go more for offensive verses on a tank build as those also contribute a lot of dmg

fred4

Did some more testing. As far as I can see Bahraha does not mitigate the ice shards nor the eye beam in the Tho'at fight. While the DPS and healing contribution is frequently significant, we're talking in the 5% to 15% range here. I will probably settle on something more consistent. It's boring, but I find I can never argue with high crit nor, in the absence of a tank, high pen. E.g. Order's Wrath, Night Mother's Gaze, something like that. You get more crit heals too, so who's to say Bahraha does anything useful after that? It's 2/3/4 bonuses - health, mag, stam - are weak.

On the medium armor front there's Sul-Xan, Hexos, Deadly, but I've always found light armor rules for magplar. I tried Azure, which I found wholly unconvincing solo on arc 1, but could see how that would change later on, or when partnered with a tank, or with a build that had more DOTs. The main problem with Azure in the context of this build is losing pen and having to switch to the Atro mundus, losing crit %.

Necrotech_Master

the thing about the archive is you dont really need a lot of pen

the mobs have 9100 armor, tho'at has 18200 armor

there is also the beatdown verse which doing a heavy attack completely negates the targets armor

if you can apply major/minor breach, that along with your pen of maybe 3k should be more than enough to negate most enemies armor

a lot of the thing with the enemies is that they get significantly more health in later arcs

arc 1 = mostly overland hp (30-60k)
arc 2 = slightly increased (40-80k)
arc 3 = around 200k
arc 4 = around 350k
arc 5 = around 500k

by like arc 9 the generic mobs are pushing 1.8 mil hp, armor pen is not the problem its mostly raw dmg and survivability that you need

so your not lacking pen, the enemy health pools just get much higher

azure would not be as good for a templar since they fixed its interaction with jabs, it would be more potent on something like an arcanist

fred4

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the thing about the archive is you dont really need a lot of pen

the mobs have 9100 armor, tho'at has 18200 armor

See now, I knew this and I'm going to argue about it . If you're with a tank, I agree it's all gravy, especially so if you're an arcanist, cause that class has native pen buffs that put even a medium armor character at around 5K, in a typical build, without making an effort to specifically build for pen.

there is also the beatdown verse which doing a heavy attack completely negates the targets armor

However, now let's say you are a solo magplar. I don't really have time for heavy attacks. The higher you go, the more sustain you have from mag recovery visions and the more you need to cast skills every second to rebuff and to heal from Sweeps. There just isn't much room for heavy attacks in my playstyle other than in the low arcs where the content is easy anyway.

Where exactly is the pen coming from? Caltrops? No room. Power of the Light? No room. Light armor? Gave that up. That pen vision that you get? Aye - it should be coming from that, but that vision is a percentage. So my question is, what is that vision based on? A percentage of what? Of your native pen, the one you get from armor? Also a percentage of Caltrops, when you use that? Basically it seems to me that, as with recovery, you can rely on the archive giving you pen only if you already have some of it as a base stat. This is a 5/1/1 build. It has about 4.5K pen at base in light armor. Get the pen visions and we can double that to 9K as far as I can see. In other words, I think 5x light armor is just about right when you have no tank with you and no other sources of pen. For the Tho'at fights you might use Elemental Susceptibility.

if you can apply major/minor breach, that along with your pen of maybe 3k should be more than enough to negate most enemies armor

TL;DR: There are opportunity costs for that, in terms of time, in terms of bar space, and in terms of compromising the Esoteric Greaves in this build, e.g. if you use Caltrops to accomplish your goal.

Necrotech_Master

it probably will depend on your build, on my warden setup for the archive, i have 0 pen bonus (well the 700 base pen from cp)

but i use an ice staff (wall of ice applies minor breach), and elemental susceptibility (major breach, which also becomes my spammable after a few stacks of focused efforts)

so in my setup major and minor breach are already included making the normal mobs pretty negligible in terms of armor

i also heavy attack a lot in this setup (which works to trigger ferocious support), but can also proc other verses like beatdown or bountiful resources

once i have 4 stacks of focused efforts i can avg 60k dps spamming elemental susceptibility with basically no pen bonus

jaws343

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

it probably will depend on your build, on my warden setup for the archive, i have 0 pen bonus (well the 700 base pen from cp)

but i use an ice staff (wall of ice applies minor breach), and elemental susceptibility (major breach, which also becomes my spammable after a few stacks of focused efforts)

so in my setup major and minor breach are already included making the normal mobs pretty negligible in terms of armor

i also heavy attack a lot in this setup (which works to trigger ferocious support), but can also proc other verses like beatdown or bountiful resources

once i have 4 stacks of focused efforts i can avg 60k dps spamming elemental susceptibility with basically no pen bonus

I've managed ARC 4 Thoat with only 900 pen solo. It is a bit of a slog, but some of the buffs you can get really overcome that setback once you get going.

Although, I think I may be swapping in elemental susceptibility for some of the other utility and damage it brings.

Necrotech_Master

jaws343 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

it probably will depend on your build, on my warden setup for the archive, i have 0 pen bonus (well the 700 base pen from cp)

but i use an ice staff (wall of ice applies minor breach), and elemental susceptibility (major breach, which also becomes my spammable after a few stacks of focused efforts)

so in my setup major and minor breach are already included making the normal mobs pretty negligible in terms of armor

i also heavy attack a lot in this setup (which works to trigger ferocious support), but can also proc other verses like beatdown or bountiful resources

once i have 4 stacks of focused efforts i can avg 60k dps spamming elemental susceptibility with basically no pen bonus

I've managed ARC 4 Thoat with only 900 pen solo. It is a bit of a slog, but some of the buffs you can get really overcome that setback once you get going.

Although, I think I may be swapping in elemental susceptibility for some of the other utility and damage it brings.

ele sus really does a whole ton

chilled is minor maim (enemy deals less dmg)
concussed is minor vuln (enemy takes more dmg)
burning is just raw dmg

focused efforts multiplies this significantly

even a 2 stack of focused effort you will usually see
~20k burning crits
~35k chilled crits (if you are on a warden)
~13k concussed crits

and all of that just keeps going up the more focused efforts you have

on a full dps this will do more dmg for sure, on my arcanist ive seen as high as 78k burning crits with only like 2 or 3 stacks of focused efforts

gariondavey

fred4 wrote: »

This build addresses everything the archive throws at you that I know of. The marauders, particularly the fire one. Ground AOE damage. DOTs placed on you. Interrupting hard to reach, partially covered targets. Taking advantage of a certain vision to boost your damage. Sustain. Self healing. It's not that difficult to obtain, using one mythic, one DLC dungeon, one overland, and one buyable PvP set.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=583874

I posted a new personal best of 5 4 2 (solo), about an arc higher than with my previous, not quite so archive-specific, builds. Got 3 stacks of that vision early on. Yes, I encountered all 3 types of marauders. No, I did not die to any of those. I first died to a forgotten boss mechanic and, eventually, to trash. May have lost focus after a break.

Yes, this is a Redguard magicka templar. No, you don't need to be a Redguard. Any race will do. I just had that character sitting idle. However, if you tell the forum why Redguard is, in fact, not completely wasted on this build, I'll give you an Awesome. In fact, if anyone wants to be the first to describe obvious aspects of the build to less veteran forum members, I'll be much obliged. I'll also give you an Awesome. Or if you can think of something to improve, by all means. I'm tired from my run. Over and out.

Neat build, Fred. Have you considered dragon's appetite instead of the bahrahrahahahahahaha's curse? You have lots of aoe dots that will get you lots of stacks from dragon's appetite so you will have lots of healing, it'll increase all your damage, and it has some sustain in the 2-4 pieces.

fred4

gariondavey wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

This build addresses everything the archive throws at you that I know of. The marauders, particularly the fire one. Ground AOE damage. DOTs placed on you. Interrupting hard to reach, partially covered targets. Taking advantage of a certain vision to boost your damage. Sustain. Self healing. It's not that difficult to obtain, using one mythic, one DLC dungeon, one overland, and one buyable PvP set.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=583874

I posted a new personal best of 5 4 2 (solo), about an arc higher than with my previous, not quite so archive-specific, builds. Got 3 stacks of that vision early on. Yes, I encountered all 3 types of marauders. No, I did not die to any of those. I first died to a forgotten boss mechanic and, eventually, to trash. May have lost focus after a break.

Yes, this is a Redguard magicka templar. No, you don't need to be a Redguard. Any race will do. I just had that character sitting idle. However, if you tell the forum why Redguard is, in fact, not completely wasted on this build, I'll give you an Awesome. In fact, if anyone wants to be the first to describe obvious aspects of the build to less veteran forum members, I'll be much obliged. I'll also give you an Awesome. Or if you can think of something to improve, by all means. I'm tired from my run. Over and out.

Neat build, Fred. Have you considered dragon's appetite instead of the bahrahrahahahahahaha's curse? You have lots of aoe dots that will get you lots of stacks from dragon's appetite so you will have lots of healing, it'll increase all your damage, and it has some sustain in the 2-4 pieces.

That seems like an excellent idea. I shall try it. Thank you!

caperon

This build reaches Arc 9. Pretty sure you can get deeper playing better than i did. Yes, you kill with focused efforts. No point in building for anyhting else.

The gear works in any class, set the skills to your liking.

robpr

caperon wrote: »

This build reaches Arc 9. Pretty sure you can get deeper playing better than i did. Yes, you kill with focused efforts. No point in building for anyhting else.

The gear works in any class, set the skills to your liking.

This is fantastic setup. Alessia bonus might sound strange for PvE, but 30k armor + Alessia reduces damage of Gothmau from almost 20k to just 7k in Arc 3. I use Serpent's Dispain instead of Heartland but the effect is the same - mobs become so spongy you have to rely on Focused Efforts to go through, but I can easy go to Arc 5-6 without dying unless I got very unlucky with visions or Gothmau + Infuser and 2 Negate dudes. Can't go further due to wrist pains tho. Used on Magplar, no problems.

Thanks for sharing

Theignson

These are great builds/ideas and thanks for sharing.

The disappointing realization for me, however, is that the best success in EA really depends on the visions/verses, not your build. If you get the right visions/verses you can simply melt the bosses. If you get the wrong ones, its a slog.

How long do you guys go on if you don't get focused efforts or other best visions? EG do you stop after arc 3 and start over? Or just keep slogging until you get them?

fred4

Theignson wrote: »

These are great builds/ideas and thanks for sharing.

The disappointing realization for me, however, is that the best success in EA really depends on the visions/verses, not your build. If you get the right visions/verses you can simply melt the bosses. If you get the wrong ones, its a slog.

I completely get what you mean. My build isn't the tankiest for that reason. I've also been in EA with my tanky Master's 2H Brawler sorc up to the end of arc 3. That felt like a slog, especially the Marauders and Tho'at fights. Not my idea of fun. Magplar, however, has better single target damage and Dragon's Appetite feels competitive with Order's Wrath if not even better on a build that applies status effects, regardless of Focused Efforts. I stuck with light armor in order to have crit and a base-level of pen too.

EDIT: If you've only read the first post, I switched out Bahraha for Dragon's Appetite. I also tried Order's Wrath for early arcs, while the greaves, Vengeance Leech and Unleashed remain fixed features of the build. Unleashed + Appetite is not bad. Even without Focused Efforts it's decent. I'll probably try that combo (with some changes) in PvP too. It seems like a very PvP thing to do.

The Esoteric Greaves are my attempt to square the circle for protection against one shots. This is moderately successful, but arc 5 is where I hit the limit with being overwhelmed, but also with my patience. It actually gets interesting at that point, but it's also at least 2 hours into a run. I could probably get to arc 6 with a bit of luck, but not much further on this build. I don't want to go tankier. I guess next stop might be a nightblade, e.g. to avail of class-based Major and Minor Weakening, based on what @robpr just shared. Thank you! Or just actually wear Alessia's Bulwark in light armor myself.

How long do you guys go on if you don't get focused efforts or other best visions? EG do you stop after arc 3 and start over? Or just keep slogging until you get them?

My base-level damage is definitely down compared to an Arcanist or heavy attack sorc, with whom I've played. It's still a DD, though. I would probably keep going into arc 4 with this build and quit if I didn't get a single Focused Efforts vision by the end of that.

MidniteOwl1913

Theignson wrote: »

These are great builds/ideas and thanks for sharing.

The disappointing realization for me, however, is that the best success in EA really depends on the visions/verses, not your build. If you get the right visions/verses you can simply melt the bosses. If you get the wrong ones, its a slog.

How long do you guys go on if you don't get focused efforts or other best visions? EG do you stop after arc 3 and start over? Or just keep slogging until you get them?

Yes, the RNG plays a huge part in success, that's one of the things that I most dislike. If I screw up, so be it, but having the game do it to me is just really frustrating, aggravating, and discouraging.

fred4

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

Theignson wrote: »

These are great builds/ideas and thanks for sharing.

The disappointing realization for me, however, is that the best success in EA really depends on the visions/verses, not your build. If you get the right visions/verses you can simply melt the bosses. If you get the wrong ones, its a slog.

How long do you guys go on if you don't get focused efforts or other best visions? EG do you stop after arc 3 and start over? Or just keep slogging until you get them?

Yes, the RNG plays a huge part in success, that's one of the things that I most dislike. If I screw up, so be it, but having the game do it to me is just really frustrating, aggravating, and discouraging.

There's probably a gambling / addiction aspect to this. If you get the vision(s) it keeps you playing longer or, when you don't get them, you keep playing hoping you will. Maybe that's the theory...

fred4

Theignson wrote: »

The disappointing realization for me, however, is that the best success in EA really depends on the visions/verses, not your build. If you get the right visions/verses you can simply melt the bosses. If you get the wrong ones, its a slog.

See my earlier comment - I agree. That said, building towards the archive is also extremely rewarding, because we finally get to explore sets and mechanics that were rarely used before. Ice Furnace and Alessia's Bulwark are examples of that. The need to be tanky and do damage bears some resemblance to PvP, but EA has it's own meta. And you truly do need to be tanky, unlike in the solo arenas that can ultimately be steamrolled with the same tired old sets borrowed mostly from the trial meta. Until the EA meta is fully explored (weeks from now, hehehehe), this is pretty interesting for theory-crafters. It is a boon for me personally as someone who has farmed almost the whole stickerbook and has crystals to spare.