How do you solo this game as a DPS?

Azurephoenix999 · August 2015

Just attempted the quest Master of Leki's Blade in Alik'r Desert over 20 times, still haven't managed to beat it.
I recently switched to a DPS build, but now my health is so damn low that I can't stand against the pupils for longer than 30 seconds.

I tried doing a healer/tank build initially but it took me WAY too long to kill most enemies, so I paid to reset my attributes and skill points. I invested my attribute points the same, except all the ones I had previously invested in health I dumped into stamina, increasing my DPS.

One of them is always using one of those charged up attacks, forcing me to use stamina to either dodge, block, or interrupt it.

My stamina is drained ridiculously quickly and when it runs out I can't block or dodge anymore. The next thing I know one of them uppercuts me, sends me flying, and then they kill me before I can recover.

I have a healing spell (I'm a Templar), but casting it takes 1.7 seconds (I swear to god even the morph with "reduced cast time" is still too damn long), during which I can't dodge or block. I die whilst casting it every single***-ing time. Even when I cast it my health is only restored to about half.

As for potions, they're worthless considering once I've used one, I can't last long enough to use another. I get that they added the cooldown for balancing issues, but unless they can come up with an in-game excuse as to why that's not allowed, I think they should at least reduce it.

UPDATE: Whilst writing this I wasted 2 skill points on the "instant" healing spell. Firstly, that spell is NOT instant. You still have to wait for the animation to complete itself. Secondly, it restores *** all of my health. In order to get proper use out of that spell, I'd need to cast it twice in quick succession, which drains magicka like crazy and wastes time.

The same thing happens, the students force me to use all my stamina to dodge/interrupt/block their attacks. When it's all out, one of them stuns me and then they kill me before I can recover.

If spending in-game or real money to rearrange your stats and skills is mandatory to progress in this game, then why the *** do they market it as allowing people to play how they want?

PLEASE, someone tell me how I can survive in this game as a DPS!

Dagoth_Rac · August 2015

What is your character level and what is your health? You typically need a minimum amount of health before you worry about anything else. Also, you don't always need to dodge, block, or interrupt. Charge attacks, in particular, you can usually just walk out of the red rectangle on the ground.

Momentum (morph to Rally), from the Two-Handed line, is just about a must for a stamina Templar. It is the only decent stamina-based heal available to you, unless you PvP (there is a stamina-based heal-over-time there, but it takes a long time to unlock). The Templar heals are magicka based and will do very little healing unless you have lots of magicka and high spell damage.

If you plan to solo everything, a magicka-based DPS Templar may be a better choice. You can use skills like Puncturing Sweep, Blazing Spear, Sun Fire, Dark Flare, and Radiant Oppression, to do very good magicka-based damage. Puncturing Sweep heals you as it damages enemies, too. And as a magicka-based DPS, you can also use the Templar heals in a pinch and they will do excellent healing.

Stamina Templar DPS is really better for groups, where you can let the Tank take the brunt of the enemy attacks and leave it to someone else to heal you. Stamina Templar DPS is not a very self-sufficient build.

predkill29 · August 2015

I'm a dps with only 10 points into health. I put health glymphs on my armor and you can also eat some food to increase health with all of that im around 20,000k health.

Azurephoenix999 · August 2015

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

What is your character level and what is your health? You typically need a minimum amount of health before you worry about anything else. Also, you don't always need to dodge, block, or interrupt. Charge attacks, in particular, you can usually just walk out of the red rectangle on the ground.

Momentum (morph to Rally), from the Two-Handed line, is just about a must for a stamina Templar. It is the only decent stamina-based heal available to you, unless you PvP (there is a stamina-based heal-over-time there, but it takes a long time to unlock). The Templar heals are magicka based and will do very little healing unless you have lots of magicka and high spell damage.

If you plan to solo everything, a magicka-based DPS Templar may be a better choice. You can use skills like Puncturing Sweep, Blazing Spear, Sun Fire, Dark Flare, and Radiant Oppression, to do very good magicka-based damage. Puncturing Sweep heals you as it damages enemies, too. And as a magicka-based DPS, you can also use the Templar heals in a pinch and they will do excellent healing.

Stamina Templar DPS is really better for groups, where you can let the Tank take the brunt of the enemy attacks and leave it to someone else to heal you. Stamina Templar DPS is not a very self-sufficient build.

When I said "charge" attack, I meant the one that they charge up before they use it. The ones that are devastating to you if you respond to them incorrectly. So yeah, when I'm bombarded by enemies that use those attacks ALL the time, on top of being minibosses (tons of health and thus take longer than usual to bring down) makes it almost impossible for me to succeed.

I finally won against those students, but I cheated by climbing on top of this tent-thing (two of them ceased combat for some reason so I only had to focus on one).

Azurephoenix999 · August 2015

predkill29 wrote: »

I'm a dps with only 10 points into health. I put health glymphs on my armor and you can also eat some food to increase health with all of that im around 20,000k health.

I don't use glyphs as my enchanting skill sucks and I don't know anyone who makes them, and although I'm a master provisioner, eating food never occurred to me.
Thanks for the advice! I'ma make myself a ***-ton of pies....or should I have a drink?
I'm assuming recovery is more important than maximum when you're a DPS, so I'll make myself a drink.

Dagoth_Rac · August 2015

Azurephoenix999 wrote: »

predkill29 wrote: »

I'm a dps with only 10 points into health. I put health glymphs on my armor and you can also eat some food to increase health with all of that im around 20,000k health.

I don't use glyphs as my enchanting skill sucks and I don't know anyone who makes them, and although I'm a master provisioner, eating food never occurred to me.
Thanks for the advice! I'ma make myself a ***-ton of pies....or should I have a drink?
I'm assuming recovery is more important than maximum when you're a DPS, so I'll make myself a drink.

Food is usually better for a DPS. Damage scales with the maximum of the resource used to activate it. So if you have more stamina, your stamina-based skills will do more damage. And with more stamina, you will be able to use the skill more before running out of stamina.

Are all your skills stamina-based? If you are using magicka-based skills despite having most of your attributes in stamina, they will do garbage damage. If you are going to be a stamina build, use skills that are stamina-based. Save magicka skills for when you are in a pinch or just for utility/buffs. Something like Rune Focus is very cheap in terms of magicka and gives you a flat buff to armor and spell resist, so it will work just as well for a stamina build as a magicka build. Are you wearing medium armor? Medium armor has many passives that aid stamina-based DPS.

You can buy glyphs from enchanter NPC merchants. They are not as good as the ones that other players craft, but they can still make a big difference. 7 glyphs on your armor, 3 on your jewelry, 1 (or 2, if you dual wield) on your weapon(s). Armor, jewelry, and weapons use different kinds of glyph, so be careful. You cannot put a stamina glyph on jewelry or a fire damage glyph on armor or a stamina cost reduction glyph on a weapon, etc.

Do you know how to "break free"? If you get stunned, knocked back, etc., hold block then tap the attack button. It is basically the same action as interrupting. It costs stamina, but you will break out of the disabling effect and become immune to further disabling effects for a period of time. A lot of people seem to not be aware of this.

Are you using AoE damage when fighting multiple enemies? Biting Jabs, Brawler (2H skill, also gives you a damage shield when it hits enemies), Whirlwind (DW skill), are good ways to damage lots of enemies at once. If you are fighting multiple enemies and trying to kill them one-by-one, you'll be in trouble. It will take too long and use too much stamina.

For your build, blue food that raises stamina and health is probably best. The ingredients are not too hard to find and you'll live longer plus do more damage!

Speely · August 2015

General advice:

Always have food or drink going. I like food for PvE as long as all armor recovery/sustain skills are unlocked. Drinks are nice before that, though.

Use both Health and Stam glyphs. Even whatever drops is better than nothing. For soloing, dividing them about equally works well if you have about 10 points or so in Health. I like to keep my invested Health at 1/3 of my Max Stam or Magicka for any DPS build because I solo so much. The ratio always works for me.

Templar healing spells are very lackluster for Stamina builds aside from Repentance. Use that for soloing. Also keeps that Stam going, and it will be more effective for Stamplars in the next update.

Watch out when using Biting Jabs around tough enemies. As a channel, it leaves you defenseless. Magicka Temps can get away with Sweep more because of the great heal. A Stamplar is left more vulnerable. Don't be afraid to block cancel when you see an attack charging. Also move around while it channels. Strafe and maximize enemies hit. The range is great and you can get away with some maneuvering advantages that let you avoid attacks rather than having to block cancel. (Many enemy strong attacks are 5-6m and Jabs is 8m.)

Rally is pretty good as a heal for a high-Stam build, and as a solo Stamplar almost required. It seriously makes it feel like a whole new class having that one dependable heal.

Remember to use potions (It's easy to forget. I do.)

Scyantific · August 2015

Reroll Sorc, load up on Crit Rate, Surge + Uppercut

Repeat as necessary

We do this with vet BC all the time. Never needed a dedicated healer for it.

FriedEggSandwich · August 2015

As a templar levelling you should be cc'ing and stacking dots and hots. Templars slso have a mean execute. There are also 2 shields you can use; blazing shield, the templars own, and healing ward from resto staff skill line. You could also pick up a sword and shield to mitigate the damage you take. It's definitely possible to level templar with just destro/resto staff though. In fact I know it's possible to level tenplar just by spamming blazing spear, cos I've done it.

ontheleftcoast · August 2015

Glass cannon builds, either stamina or magicka, take some effort to play properly. There are some basic rules of the road that apply to all of them. The first is situational awareness. You're not a tank, period. This means you have to move, move, move, then move some more, and then be prepared to keep moving. Standing still is a death sentence. I like to move in a counterclockwise circle facing my enemy as I wail on them. And if the ground under you turns red be prepared to dodge roll if you can't get out of the red zone immediately. You might not have lots of healing available but find various ways to do it anyway. For example, glyphs on weapons that proc for damage and return you health. Certain skill and weapon abilities can return health over time. Use these in combo with your power attacks. And don't forget food is your friend, personally I like the blue foods that buff health + either stamina or magicka more than the green or purple foods.

Azurephoenix999 · August 2015

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

Azurephoenix999 wrote: »

predkill29 wrote: »

I'm a dps with only 10 points into health. I put health glymphs on my armor and you can also eat some food to increase health with all of that im around 20,000k health.

I don't use glyphs as my enchanting skill sucks and I don't know anyone who makes them, and although I'm a master provisioner, eating food never occurred to me.
Thanks for the advice! I'ma make myself a ***-ton of pies....or should I have a drink?
I'm assuming recovery is more important than maximum when you're a DPS, so I'll make myself a drink.

Food is usually better for a DPS. Damage scales with the maximum of the resource used to activate it. So if you have more stamina, your stamina-based skills will do more damage. And with more stamina, you will be able to use the skill more before running out of stamina.

Are all your skills stamina-based? If you are using magicka-based skills despite having most of your attributes in stamina, they will do garbage damage. If you are going to be a stamina build, use skills that are stamina-based. Save magicka skills for when you are in a pinch or just for utility/buffs. Something like Rune Focus is very cheap in terms of magicka and gives you a flat buff to armor and spell resist, so it will work just as well for a stamina build as a magicka build. Are you wearing medium armor? Medium armor has many passives that aid stamina-based DPS.

You can buy glyphs from enchanter NPC merchants. They are not as good as the ones that other players craft, but they can still make a big difference. 7 glyphs on your armor, 3 on your jewelry, 1 (or 2, if you dual wield) on your weapon(s). Armor, jewelry, and weapons use different kinds of glyph, so be careful. You cannot put a stamina glyph on jewelry or a fire damage glyph on armor or a stamina cost reduction glyph on a weapon, etc.

Do you know how to "break free"? If you get stunned, knocked back, etc., hold block then tap the attack button. It is basically the same action as interrupting. It costs stamina, but you will break out of the disabling effect and become immune to further disabling effects for a period of time. A lot of people seem to not be aware of this.

Are you using AoE damage when fighting multiple enemies? Biting Jabs, Brawler (2H skill, also gives you a damage shield when it hits enemies), Whirlwind (DW skill), are good ways to damage lots of enemies at once. If you are fighting multiple enemies and trying to kill them one-by-one, you'll be in trouble. It will take too long and use too much stamina.

For your build, blue food that raises stamina and health is probably best. The ingredients are not too hard to find and you'll live longer plus do more damage!

Some skills Magicka, some stamina. I rely on Stamina for dealing damage, and on Magicka for healing and execution (I use Radiant Glory to finish off tough enemies. I find it restores my health really well when stacked on top of that Twin Slash morph).

I'm thinking of switching to Medium Armor (I currently use Heavy), but I'm raising my clothier skill before I do that so I can craft a full set at my current level.

I know how glyphs work, I know how Breaking free etc. works too (and I feel slightly insulted that you thought I didn't). Those are exactly what I was doing during the fight. You can't do any of that stuff without stamina, and since they pretty much spammed their stunning moves, I was running out of stamina really quickly.

I use Whirlwind as one of my main skills. I'm thinking of having Blazing Shield for the tougher enemies, though I'm not sure.

I know all about food. It just never occurred to me to actually use it (I tend to stockpile my ingredients instead of actually using them).

newtinmpls · August 2015

And always be moving. Doesn't have to be much, not dodge-rolling, just keep moving at all times. it really confuses the AI.

Azurephoenix999 · August 2015

newtinmpls wrote: »

And always be moving. Doesn't have to be much, not dodge-rolling, just keep moving at all times. it really confuses the AI.

I only dodge roll when they try to use a ranged attack and I'm not within interrupting distance.