My DK Build

jackleminer55 · December 2014

So I just wanted to get feedback on a build I've created. I die fairly fast, and I was wondering what I am doing wrong. Currently, I am weilding a staff and second bar is 1h+s. First bar is engulfing flames, elemental blockade, dark talons, green dragon blood, and impulse. 2Nd bar is inhale, invasion, gdb, annulent, and volatile armor.

I have 10 points in health, and the rest in magicka. I am wearing 2 heavy and 5 light all w/ magicka enchants

So, why am I dying so fast and what can i do to perform better?

Thanks

PBpsy · December 2014

In end game a DPS should have 2.5k health with buffs as a minimum.

Epona222 · December 2014

I don't tend to min/max, but if I was trying to be most effective in group situations I would with DK either go pure tank build with most attribute points in health and sword + shield as primary weapon and using taunts and blocking, or go dps with more points in magicka and a 2 hand sword, relying more on spell attacks & damage for getting in the high range of dps.
It seems as though you are trying to do a bit of both - which is absolutely fine if you are doing PvE questing solo, but for group trials and stuff like that is sometimes a bit too jack of all trades. I do a lot of solo play and have run into similar issues myself.

Oh and I don't particularly like destro staff with DK personally, as the vast majority of DK class skills have limited range, pairing that with a destro staff doesn't seem that useful or intuitive.

HeroOfNone · December 2014

As said before, most folks should have 2.3 health at minimum before food buff. I recommend putting all attribute points into health and then adjusting your magicka, stamina, health through runes.

If you haven't already, practice animation canceling. It's required for most high dps roles and if you're soloing in a grouping zone like craglorn.

Second, keep green dragon blood on both bars. It's a solid recovery and with the lag with switching weapons it's much more reliable. Keep it on slot 5.

Next, being a DK we have huge innate damage with aoe fire. With destro, use engulfing flames and then impulse to handle groups. Slot chains if you need yo pull in enemies or elemental drain to get magicka back. For single target or situational ranged fights get crushing shock. Interupts are important on healers and in trials it's essential on upper hel rah, crushing shock is a good skill to get used to animation canceling as well. Single target you can also use unstable flame so you can max your dps rotating elemental drain, engulfing flames, unstable flames, and animation cancel with crushing shock till you need to refresh debuffs. Use green dragon blood as a health rescue. If you have a group change out green dragon blood with mage light for the crit.

With the sword and board you should do more of a control snd sustain build. Invasion is good to knock down enemies, cinder storm gives damage, miss chance, and snare. Burning talons does good damage, roots, goes through block, and can synergize. Past that, a lot of DKs will use unstable flame, unstable flames, for damage. Using absorb magic or reflective sCale is also useful with caster mobs. Change this up for bosses by changing talons for unstable flame or flame whip (the one you didn't use) since you can't lock down a boss with it. All these abilities you can use while blocking, which helps you sustain and survive.

If with a group you can also consider using heal staff instead of sword and board. This will help keep a group up if the healer is down and helps you build ultimate quickly. Ultimates like standard of might, bat swarm, and others will replenish magicka and health, really necessary for higher dps fights.

Go ahead and try this and adjust to how you see fit! Realize though also that some abilities are more PVP based in their use verses PVE, so don't be surprised if not all work out well in either situation

jackleminer55 · December 2014

Thanks a lot, @heroofnoneb14_ESO‌! I created a new build where both bars are destro staff. 1st bar is crushing shock, engulfing flames, unstable flame, igneous weapons, and inner light. 2nd bar is elemental blockade, burning talons, elemental ring, green dragon blood, and under light again to keep the crit bonus up. I'll still have to work on the attributes though, because out I were to put all ought them into health, I still only have 2100, and only about 1600 magicka. I want to get near the magicka soft cap and still have around 2800 health, (2800 was recommended by @deltia) and Im not sure how.

Thanks

xMovingTarget · December 2014

2800 is too much. Around 2650(with buffood) is more than enough. allocate the rest in your primary stat.(Magicka/Stamina). I am doing just fine with 2600HP. DsA VET no problem, SO no problem.

HeroOfNone · December 2014

Sounds like you don't have a great set bonus to go with the armor. Look into some powerful dropped sets like warlock (light armor in all slots, necklace, and very rare rings, like to purcha see vet 1 versions for cheap. Try to pay less than 5-10 a piece). You can also get some good crafted sets like seducer (5 piece reduced magicka cost 8%) willows path (increased magicka regen), and others.I recommend look at what jewelry slots you can fill and build around that.

2800 is a bit on the high side for health. It's a safe mark foe people that stand in the red, solo, or go into pvp, but you'll want to get that down over time. I recommend 2300 without buff since that is around the one shot damage of a boss, with food and blocking you should be ok. Start testing your limits though and adjust.

jackleminer55 · December 2014

@heroofnoneb14_ESO‌ thanks. Also can you take a look at my skills as well that I posted in my last post?
Thanks

HeroOfNone · December 2014

Skills seem good, though I would consider cinderstorm/ash cloud over blockade. You're going to be able to keep spell damage up, but weapon damage, which staffs go off of, is hard on light armor without certain sets. Cinderstorm is a average dps and a good debuff in one. Both work off spell crit, which is your primary goal so you can continually drop ultimates in aoe mobs

Some of this will change in 1.6, but you should be setup to handle those changes pretty well.

In group play, consider spell symmetry to boost up magicka regen. In pvp consider switching the aoe bar up for reflective scales and control abilities like chains for survivability.

jackleminer55 · December 2014

wow, thanks @heroofnoneb14_ESO‌ , I will see how well I do (as I haven't actually tried out that new skill setup yet) and take into account what you said.

Thanks!

HeroOfNone · December 2014

No problem, I'll be back to streaming after the holidays if you want to see a bit more of how some of these skills work together in different fights. There are alwaya some past broadcasts on on Twitch channel and there are plenty of other skilled DK streamers (ones that can certainly animation cancel better than me) can show ya.

jackleminer55 · December 2014

@heroofnoneb14_ESO‌ whats you're twitch channel called? Also would you go for empowering chains or extended chains?

HeroOfNone · December 2014

Twitch.tv/heroofnone , also in my signature =3

Extended chains for the utility.