How far can you get?

t.steve1991ub17_ESO · January 2015

The whole premise of this game at the beginning was to "play how you want to play" Well I made a bunch of characters and soon after deleted them most likely just because I was unsatisfied with their appearance or something minor like that. Then while I was thinking of what to make next I was doing some research on the forums and the general consensus is that when you get to "end game" aka late veteran levels not everything is viable. Me being a fan of skyrim I wanted to make a two-handed warrior type character with little to no magic using abilities. I guess my question and reason for making this post is am I wasting a lot of time and effort to make this character if I will not be able to progress with it?

KhajitFurTrader · January 2015

Depends on how you want to "progress". Depends on what you see as being "end game".

If group content is your thing, it depends on how openminded the people you want to play with are. There will always be those who stubbornly insist that everyone only uses the latest FOTM "cookie cutter build"; a little bit of luck may be involved to find those who are not afraid and embrace diversity.

If you prefer to explore the beauty of Tamriel alone, I'd say: do what you want, experiment, find out what works best for you. As long as stuff falls over dead more often than you do, you're good. If you feel you've arrived at a dead end, ask around. Knowledgeable and helpful people can be found, sometimes it just takes a while to find them. If all else fails, take the FOTM cookie cutter builds as a base for inspiration, they work for a reason.

Be bold and adventurous in finding your kind of fun, ESO lets you do that. Don't believe those who try to tell you otherwise.

tiamak · January 2015

I had my eyes on a purely stamina based warrior as well. But, as you will have found out by now, all your class skills are magicka based. So, unless you are willing to do without any of those skills, you're not going to play a char with "little to no magic using abilities".

That being said, I've heard that stamina based chars are quite viable now. You might not be at the spearhead of DPS, but you will dish out the pain quite competently. My main is stamina based and he progresses. So, that would be the answer to your question.

newtinmpls · January 2015

All the class skills are magicka based? Hmmm... that seems weird. But frankly, I still don't care. My Orc warrior characters don't really use the sorcerer skill tree for more than familars, bound armor and lightning form. The rest of their points go into more weapon-related stuff (usually two-handed weapons and heavy armor). I still have fun, and I still mostly survive.

Prokonto · January 2015

well... what i find effective at my trial runs with stamina build are dw/bow/med Nightblades. only those can do more that 1k+ dps constant fueled by stamina but in some cases i see them even at 2k+ dps in some fights but they are werry well geared in end game gear in that cases. so if u wanna solo do what u wanna but on trial runs i will not count at u place for some special care from community, esp pug wise.

AlexDougherty · January 2015

Gotten one character to VR3, two to VR2, one to VR1, and have just started two new character to try new playstyles.

I can play as I want, not every playstyles with every class (wish I was that good), but most playstyles with every class and all playstyles. (stealth is a pain though)

Cuyler · January 2015

t.steve1991ub17_ESO wrote: »

The whole premise of this game at the beginning was to "play how you want to play" Well I made a bunch of characters and soon after deleted them most likely just because I was unsatisfied with their appearance or something minor like that. Then while I was thinking of what to make next I was doing some research on the forums and the general consensus is that when you get to "end game" aka late veteran levels not everything is viable. Me being a fan of skyrim I wanted to make a two-handed warrior type character with little to no magic using abilities. I guess my question and reason for making this post is am I wasting a lot of time and effort to make this character if I will not be able to progress with it?

In general, ESO favors more traditional archetypes even though they claim "play as you want" (because of the way classes are distributed). With that said there is more than one way to achieve these "more viable" endgame builds.

In general you want to determine your role, that is, Tank, Dps, or healer. I know you mention "2H warrior". I assume this means Dps as Tanks primarily use sword and shiled.

So if we can establish your role as melee Dps? then there are a couple of things you want to consider:

1-Survivability. You'll be close to the action which means damage shields and self heals will be needed.
2-Gap closer. You need to reach the enemy which mean you'll need a charge or chains.
3-Damage. If this is your role after all, you need to have competitive damage or people will over look you.

Ok so:
1. Survivability:
DKs currently reign supreme for damage mitigation. TPs are the kings of self heals. NBs have a siphoning skill line and good self heals as well. Sorc forget it, they basically have no survivability except LoH. I would rate them as DK>TP>NB>SC it terms of survivability.

2. Gap closer.
Chains, shield charge, Critical charge, Bolt escape, veiled strike, etc. Chains is a DK only ability. Sheild charge is a S+B skill (which you wouldn't be using a shield). Bolt escape is SC only skill. Veiled strike is a DW skill (which you could think about dualwielding instead of 2H). 2H has critical charge.
Basically you can close the gap with any class using Critical charge but the stam abilities in 2H skill line synergize best with heavy armor and medium armor making some classes inherently better for it.
DK>NB>TP>SC>

3. Damage
Most importantly you need to do damage if your role is Dps. Currently overall damage is rated as DK>NB>SC>TP, but this is with specific builds. For example DK using a "crushing shock" build is #1. You want to do 2H so that won't be the case here. 2H damage uses stamina, therefore again heavy armor and medium armor. Any damage you can mitigate will require less of your stamina for blocking therefore more for damage. If I had to choose damage with a 2H would rate like:
NB>DK>SC>TP

Conclusion:
DK = 1+1+2 = 4
NB = 3+2+1 = 6
TP = 2+3+4 = 9
SC = 4+4+3 = 11
*the lower the number the more synergy with your chosen archtype.

Disclaimer: there are some very large generalizations here, the level of detail to truly answer your question is reserved for theory crafting, min/maxing and takes a lot of time to explain.

Note: the thing with most endgame content is that players are chosen for the specific functions they can provide. For example as a sorc, I'm included because I use crushing shock to disrupt casters and have negate for the same reason (Not to mention as a Dps I average 1.1k). My point being there is no real requirement in say a trials for example that one says, "I really need a 2H melee Dps here." That is the issue. Some builds are absolutely needed or the whole raid wipes.

Nestor · January 2015

If you level your character correctly (have 5 pieces of your preferred armor plus one each of the other with the Training Trait) and use each weapon type as you level until it gets to 50 or near to 50 while leveling, then you can pretty much take any class of character any where in the game. You may have to respec your points but you won't have to build up skill trees too.

To handle the skills while leveling, use one bar for your main weapon, and the other bar for your weapon you are training. Make sure the training bar mostly has skills that you need to level and swap to that when turning in any quest. This way the mobs will level your main weapon skills and the quests will level your skills that you are training. You can also do this by putting 3 skills on each bar you use all the time, and two skills you need to level. Some combo like this will work for you.

yodased · January 2015

You can do fine with a complete weapon build in both PvE and PvE.

One thing though, you are going to need a ranged weapon to be effective in dungeons and in pvp.

There are certain fights (Last boss in DC for example) that are simply so much harder than they need to be at melee range.

Lynx7386 · January 2015

t.steve1991ub17_ESO wrote: »

The whole premise of this game at the beginning was to "play how you want to play" Well I made a bunch of characters and soon after deleted them most likely just because I was unsatisfied with their appearance or something minor like that. Then while I was thinking of what to make next I was doing some research on the forums and the general consensus is that when you get to "end game" aka late veteran levels not everything is viable. Me being a fan of skyrim I wanted to make a two-handed warrior type character with little to no magic using abilities. I guess my question and reason for making this post is am I wasting a lot of time and effort to make this character if I will not be able to progress with it?

You can do well with that type of character (assuming you use medium armor and not heavy).

My nightblade runs 7/7 medium with a greatsword, and 4 out of 5 of his hotbar abilities are from the 2h weapon line (critical rush, wrecking blow, executioner, and rally, the only class skill being used on that hotbar is focused attacks for extra stamina regeneration). He uses a similar bow-heavy setup for his second bar.

Stamina and weapon builds are much more capable now than they were at launch. Templars and Nightblades seem to be the best classes to do that kind of thing with, though, due to innate stamina recovery.