Poison Mage - could use some tips/brainstorm

Oceanchanter

I know, I know.
Not the most optimal/meta oriented idea.
But it's not about the idea being optimal, but to reach certain goal.

I figured Necromancer would be best for that.
The help I need is with gear ideas, maybe some scribing suggestions.

I've tried Inferno Impulse + Sheer Venom, and after giving it a thought I've decided to abandon it; flames and posion fit DK, doesn't fit the idea I have in mind, and it's not as reliable as I thought (enemies must burn in order for Sheer Venom to trigger, it is a magicka skill, this is a Stam Necro).
I already realized Azureblight Repaer does not proc on Poisoned status, so it can be put on the shelf.

So, the goal is to:
- deal mainly poison damage, Venom Skull being the bread and butter. I realize there are not many sources of Poison damage, so Bleed and Disease can fall through the cracks.
- DoT oriented
- I want to avoid using bows, as optimal as it might be otherwise. The idea is for Poison Mage; Venom Skull is not ideal for weaving anyway
- anything that would scream Posion Mage/Plague Doctor

Still waiting for the day ZOS allows Poison Damage to be used for Elemental Explosion, Wield Soul, Soul Burst, and Contingency.
Please, ZOS, there's no reason to not allow it.

Kittytravel

So since we are using Staff instead of Bow it sounds like we might need some help with Stam sustain.

Redguard is a good choice for Adrenaline Rush. We can also take Argonian and abuse their Potion Spam to deal with resource sustain.
Death Gleaning from Necro will help that too.
If that's all not enough we can pop on Restoring Tether.
If we don't need any of this it just opens up our build for more skills.

We can do Bone Armor or Bitter Harvest to proc Death Gleaning.
Now as far as skills go it sounds like 'Poison Mage' and 'Plague Doctor' can be at odds since 'Plague Doctor' could fit Disease and Poisons. I'll move forward with Plague Doctor since it livens up the build and makes it easier to put together.
If Venom Skull is our bread and butter then we can compliment it a little bit with the Blighted Blastbones and Detonating Siphon abilities for Disease damage.

We probably want to slot in Pestilent Burst from Scribing. Disease + Lingering + Courage just a source for minor courage.
If you have Trample available with an undead mount for the theme you can pop in that skill and use it; it's unwieldy but the corpses of the dead mount would fit the theme a little bit; and it can be disease!
You can throw Major Heroism on that one so that you can summon your ult a bit more.

So that gets us to 6 skills, one poison 5 disease based.

Set's wise; we could go a little goofy and play into the theme more with Serpent's Disdain. Just make your Poison and Disease status effects last much longer. It'll also be great since it'll help up the damage on your out-of-ordinary weapon choice of staves without breaking the theme too much.
Swamp Raider seems like a decent choice if you want to empower abilities directly.
Plague Slinger seems like it would be a very thematic choice for Plague Doctor; summoning poison rats to do your work. You can use Maim Potions in dungeons to always have it's effect active. (Obviously take off Snakeblood from your Alchemy passives or it will only last 1 second). I haven't tested this personally but as it doesn't specify "from an enemy" I assume it would work.

Lastly your monster set would likely be Velidreth. You could use a mythic like Deathdealer's Fete or Velothi-Ur Mages Amulet as well.
CP I think would be pretty easy to set up.

That's about the best I can come up with for a poison/disease build that doesn't use bow/arrow with necro. Maybe someone else can do better.

Oceanchanter

Kittytravel wrote: »

So since we are using Staff instead of Bow it sounds like we might need some help with Stam sustain.

Redguard is a good choice for Adrenaline Rush. We can also take Argonian and abuse their Potion Spam to deal with resource sustain.
Death Gleaning from Necro will help that too.
If that's all not enough we can pop on Restoring Tether.
If we don't need any of this it just opens up our build for more skills.

We can do Bone Armor or Bitter Harvest to proc Death Gleaning.
Now as far as skills go it sounds like 'Poison Mage' and 'Plague Doctor' can be at odds since 'Plague Doctor' could fit Disease and Poisons. I'll move forward with Plague Doctor since it livens up the build and makes it easier to put together.
If Venom Skull is our bread and butter then we can compliment it a little bit with the Blighted Blastbones and Detonating Siphon abilities for Disease damage.

We probably want to slot in Pestilent Burst from Scribing. Disease + Lingering + Courage just a source for minor courage.
If you have Trample available with an undead mount for the theme you can pop in that skill and use it; it's unwieldy but the corpses of the dead mount would fit the theme a little bit; and it can be disease!
You can throw Major Heroism on that one so that you can summon your ult a bit more.

So that gets us to 6 skills, one poison 5 disease based.

Set's wise; we could go a little goofy and play into the theme more with Serpent's Disdain. Just make your Poison and Disease status effects last much longer. It'll also be great since it'll help up the damage on your out-of-ordinary weapon choice of staves without breaking the theme too much.
Swamp Raider seems like a decent choice if you want to empower abilities directly.
Plague Slinger seems like it would be a very thematic choice for Plague Doctor; summoning poison rats to do your work. You can use Maim Potions in dungeons to always have it's effect active. (Obviously take off Snakeblood from your Alchemy passives or it will only last 1 second). I haven't tested this personally but as it doesn't specify "from an enemy" I assume it would work.

Lastly your monster set would likely be Velidreth. You could use a mythic like Deathdealer's Fete or Velothi-Ur Mages Amulet as well.
CP I think would be pretty easy to set up.

That's about the best I can come up with for a poison/disease build that doesn't use bow/arrow with necro. Maybe someone else can do better.

It was a good idea to make a post here; I didn't know about Serpent's Disdain set's existence until now.
It should work wonders. I'll add it to my list.

As for Stamina, it's fine. Stam drain morph from Vampiric Drain works wonders.
I could craft this set as Light now, but I need to do a lot of research on my Tailor character to make Medium armor for it for Stam recovery.

Swamp Raider sounds like a decent choice over Plague Slinger; farming Scalecaller Peak is not really up my alley; especially if I want to farm jewelry and weapons (I still have flashbacks from 3 weeks of farming Bedlam Veil just to get the Tarnished ring I was missing for my other character).

Using current bonuses to earn Tel Var stones (I dont really like Cyrodill farming) I've got some set pieces for Vicecanon of Venom; I have nothing else to spend those stones on.
I highly doubt I'll get the pieces I need, but it's worth a try. Already got the staves.

YandereGirlfriend

This is for PvE, right?

I really love the idea from the poster above about using Trample + an undead mount! That's genius!

You'll have to lean hard into Scribing, I think, as well as embrace a lot of Disease damage for the fantasy to really come together. Like the other poster mentioned, you can use all of these Scribed for either Poison or Disease damage:

1. Wield Soul (single-target, morph to DOT)
2. Soul Burst (AOE, morph to DOT)
3. Trample (AOE, morph to DOT)
4. Travelling Knife (AOE, can also boost status effect chance -> more Poisoned and Diseased procs)

For Necro skills you have:

1. Venom Skull
2. Blastbones
3. Detonating Siphon
4. Pestilent Colossus

And miscellaneous skills:

1. Shadow Silk

For sets, consider Morag Tong, as it boosts both Poison and Disease damage by a unique 10% and it is very easy to permanently keep up.

Other thematic sets that I really like and have used are:

1. Phylactery's Grasp
2. Widowmaker (this is harder, though, since you're not using a weapon ability spammable)
3. Maarselok

Vicecanon of Venom is a neat set but it is very strict with having to attack from the rear 90 degree cone of an enemy, which is not always easy to do in solo PvE where mobs are constantly turning to face you.

But good luck with whichever route your pursue! These sorts of thematic builds are one of the most awesome aspects of ESO.

Stx

If I were going to make a poisonmancer character I would probably go with something like this:

Skill 1) Venom Skull - Spammable
Skill 2) Blastbones - AoE burst + corpse generator
Skill 3) Detonating Siphon - AoE damage, passive damage, strong DoT
Skill 4) Soulburst - Disease damage, lingering dot, minor breach script
Skill 5) Elemental Susceptibility - Very good source of major breach, minor vulnerability, burning, and minor maim.
Ultimate: Petulant Colossus - Disease damage and major vulnerability

For gear I would use Morag Tong, Swamp Raider, and Oakensoul.

You could make a two bar build but I think you would have a really hard time filling up your slots with poison/disease abilities without using a bow.

Kahnak

I feel like Stam DK would be a better option for this considering they do more Poison damage through passives and have more abilities that do poison damage.

Regardless, build is not a bad excuse to dump those crown store poisons clogging up your bank/storage space. That being said, enchantments will always perform better.

A combination of the below will get you decent damage and are thematic for what you're trying to pull off:

Morag Tong - probably one of the better sets to wear for overall DPS. Will definitely benefit the group the most
Venomous Smite - great for localized AOE damage. Procs often. Really easy to use.
Poisonous Serpent - personal favorite for this theme, but harder to acquire, is missing the Minor Slayer buff present on most trial DPS sets and will be nerfed when the next patch drops.
Witch Knight's Defiance - big spell damage/weapon damage buff that is really easy to maintain on this kind of setup
Defiler - Set with some good stat lines. Defiler does the poison damage, but the stun is marginally useful. Results can vary if you're unused to how pets work in the game. Not stellar, but can be fun to use.
Swamp Raider - probably the least useful, but relatively easy to get ahold of. Could be considered the 'Automaton' or 'Netch's Touch' for Poison Damage, as they are functionally the same.