Sword and Shield DPS?

Drachenfier · May 2014

JJDrakken wrote: »

Drachenfier wrote: »

JJDrakken wrote: »

Considering how your shield bash with your passives and every rune on your equipment dedicated to it is like the strongest attack in the game.

Yes it's very viable, have fun with it now it's probably going get nerfed soon enough.

Fixed that for you, in bold.

It's just EVEN MORE Powerful. I can slice a mob with quick attacks, takes about 7-10 good slashes to drop a mob(no powers). I can smack that same mob like 3x, it's dead.(I have the passives). Plus shield bash animation is so quick! BAM BAM BAM. 3 Hits, while you are still winding up your 2nd attack.

I can kill trash mobs faster than that with two siphons. Big Whoop.

Lord_Draevan · January 2015

LadyInTheWater wrote: »

There's no reason it wouldn't be viable to play as DPS with a sword and shield. The only people who will disagree with this are the min/max players who plan on squeezing out every last drop of damage output.

The passives for the 1h+Shield skill tree add quite a bit in the way of defenses. If this was a different MMO, where tanks scooped up every add in the room and the DPS just needed to stand in one place and mash their damage buttons, it probably wouldn't be very useful.

But in ESO, where the tank is usually handling only one or two different monsters, the added survivability from the 1h+Shield passives would help you survive a minor mistake, whereas other DPS players would most likely die.

If it's fun for you, go with it. Just expect to get a lot of backlash from the Armchair Athletes who only care about big damage numbers.

On a side note, the healers might love you for using a taunt to pull an add off them once in awhile.

^This. My main is a medium armor,sword-and-board DPS and I do quite well, in both PvE and PvP. The bonus I like most is that One-Hand and Shield has a knockdown charging attack (Shield Charge), whereas the equivalent in Two-Handed (Stampede) only snares.

Obviously it's not the best if you're a min-maxer, but if that's not your goal, it's just as good as Dual-Wield or Two-Handed. Though expect lots of whining from "Armchair Athletes" who are too used to other MMOs where having a shield usually makes you a Tank due to armor/threat generation. Luckily in ESO it's taunt abilities that make you a tank, not armor.

Cuyler · January 2015

Shield bash damage is still good atm. I say go for it. As mentioned previously you won't be maxing dps, but that's only for trials and DSA anyhow.

If you do want to do trials however, you will get a couple funny looks and will most likely not be requested back as your dps will be at least 100-200 pts lower than a 2H. That being said you could probably find a group that is just practicing, but again those completing trials (and doing it in a timely fashion), are looking for very specific (and confining) roles.