keep your vr level crafter, start a new char to play.

Yeah, you have an open character slot playing a new character would help you learn and adjust to changes to the game whether or not you decide to go back to one of the older ones.

Speaking of, the last section of this mini-guide has some quick tips on changes returning players might want to know (see very end under heading "Update 6/Version 2.0"). There are also plenty of other tips and tricks and guides on new aspects of the game around the forums as well and of course people who visit this forum to help like MissBizz there

Crabby654 wrote: »

Thank you for the replies! I guess making the same exact character I have gives me some pause because I do want to make a sorc again. I was thinking maybe I'll go a mix of heavy and light armor and use a 2 handed sword? Then I realized maybe that's not optimal and I begin to fall into the min max trap with gear and stats.

Well, you could go with a stamina sorc. Something a little different. And yes, there are some effective stam sorcs out there. They added stamina morphs to some sorc skills and they are supposed to be working on more changes to benefit stam sorcs right now. Would give you some variety and more options going forward.

Since you want to go dunmer the Dynamic passive that increases both max magicka and stamina would help since the max magicka would be good for the one or two magicka abilities you would want on each bar and the max stamina would be good for the three to four stamina abilities slotted. You could use fire enchants on your weapons and/or go for gear that deals fire damage as part of the set bonus, like Ashen Grip, which also gives max health, weapon power and weapon critical bonuses (weapon power/crit=good for stamina builds). Or Coat of the Red Mountain, etc, which gives weapon damage, weapon crit, spell power, and a 10% chance to do flame damage with weapon attacks. Or similar sets. That would make more of the dunmer passive Flame Talent and its bonus to fire damage. Especially if you put points into the championship passive for increasing elemental damage, which would boost both fire and shock effects.

Or you could just make a fire mage using a Dunmer DK if you decide you are not wedded to the idea of a new Sorc

Crabby654 wrote: »

Oh interesting ideas. I feel like I would want to stay as a sorc because I would probably fall back into using staves..maybe, ugh I dont know! However you have me curious, the fire enchant to weapon, is it an actual enchant? Also passive +fire damage will add to the fire damage?

Weapon enchants come from glyphs, which are made by enchanters. There is a glyph that adds fire damage to a weapon. The racial and championship passives that boost particular damage do so by a percentage. So, many people like to play dragonknights with dunmer because they get 7% bonus to fire damage from the Flame Talent passive and DKs have all of those fire based abilities. If you add in a boost to elemental damage from the Championship System the extra damage goes up more.

The championship passive Elemental Expert boosts all elemental damage based on a percentage that increases with the more points you invest. So, if you used a bow with a fire enchant, the fire damage added by the enchant would get boosted by whatever percent bonus you have for that championship passive.

Sorcs have lots of abilities and a cool passive for shock damage (Disintegrate: Gives a 6% chance to instantly disintegrate low health targets, dealing X damage), so if you wanted you could ignore playing up the fire damage for Dunmer and just paly up the Sorc lightning aspect. So if you had two daggers for dual wield that had shock damage glyphs you could get that Elemental Expert boost to the damage listed for the glyph and possibly disintegrate an opponent with low health.

Also, even magicka spells do more damage with non-staff weapons equipped. I know there are some varying idea about stam sorc builds out there if you are interested but there are lots of options so try to figure out what sounds fun and suits your play style. People's opinions will vary on how easy stam sorcs are to play in PvE vs PvP, but there some folks who do it very well in PvP. Plus, you can always respec if it isn't fun. Not trying to push that option, just giving ideas about something different than what you already have.

Crabby654 wrote: »

So playing a dunmer DK does sound fun, however I feel hung up on playing a sorceror. I always play "mage" characters in almost any game I play and when spell crafting comes out (in the far future) I really feel like I "should" be on sorceror to take full use of it? Hmm

Well, all class abilities are "spells", even stamina based ones. I have no interest in pushing any particular build for you. If you play a stam sorc and don't like it you could always respec to a magicka sorc, but you already have one of those.

Anyway, here is what a fire mage DK might look like in the current game as a dark elf wearing a Silks of the Sun armor set for your consideration:

Destruction Staff Attack: Base Attack Value + Dunmer Flame Talent (+7% flame damage) + Sun set 5 piece bonus (+5% flame damage) + Elemental Expert (+X% damage based on investment) + Staff Expert (+X% based on investment)

Each such attack, if the staff had a flame enchant, would also separately do the following damage:

Flame Glyph Base Damage + Dunmer Flame Talent (+7% flame damage) + Sun set 5 piece bonus (+5% flame damage) + Elemental Expert (+X% damage based on investment)

The silks set is light armor, but choices to get to 5 pieces include a destruction staff and a pendant, so you could limit it to 3 pieces of light armor if you wanted to run with some pieces of medium or heavy armor for more protection or you could add other light armor sets that would increase spell damage (which would also increase the above damage). Not to mention that the Flame Talent, Sun set, and Elemental Expert bonuses would apply to everything in the Ardent Flame skill line for DKs. You wouldn't be tanky, but could make up for some of the light armor weakness with Spiked Armor, Reflective Scale, and/or Obsidian Shield.

Basically, you could just run around turning every opponent into a pile of ash. I'm not a min-maxer but it sounds like a lot of fun.

Crabby654 wrote: »

I'm a tad out of the loop with min/maxing or good builds for ESO at the moment. Out of curosity, in a purely PvE setting would a DK + Fire Destro staff be viable in Trials or end game PvE?

I think so, but can't speak from personal experience. Generally if you can play well enough to learn the mechanics of the specific trial or for DSA, and as a DPS can put out and sustain the necessary damage (a good dunmer fire mage build should have no issues with that), that is all you need.

Crabby654 wrote: »

Well I did end up making a DK with a destro staff it's pretty fun. Now let's say when spell crafting comes out and I decide to be a full on fire Mage, do you think that not having the Passives from sorcerer trees will hurt bad?
I guess that's my main concern.

Each race and class has its own passives which can effect things like healing, damage inflicted, etc, so it depends on what type of spell you would want to create. But since there have been no details at all given about spellcrafting after it was teased last summer any specific advice would be based on speculation.

In any case, glad to hear you are having fun! If I had a free character slot (*ahem* devs, cash shop item) I would try it myself.

Crabby654 wrote: »

Good point there is almost no info on spellcrafting. However do you think not being a sorcerer will cripple magick spell based builds?

Personally? I don't. There are magicka spell based builds for all classes so gimping all but Sorcs would be a very foolish move on the part of ZOS.