How to get that insane Maelstrom DPS?!

MasterPerceval · September 2016

I really can not put my head around some of you who get that insane 30k single target DPS. I run a magsorc with 5 Kagrenacs, 3 arcane willpowers (all spell power enchanted) and three Torug's Pact. My staff is a golden inferno staff with Nirnhoned trait and magic damage enchantment. I also use the apprentice mundus stone for more spell power and run divines (Purple) on all armor. Currently I am sitting at 3034 spell damage unbuffed. When buffed it becomes 3600.

In good fights, where I don't get interrupted and where I don't have to do self heals I can get 10k dps max (in fights that take +30s), but when the fight is a bit more challenging I only get up to 6k dps.
I understand that the guys I am talking about are all cp531+ (I am cp245), but even with full gold gear and more CP spent you'd get at most 200 spell dmg extra, which would put me at 4000 spell dmg buffed. Yet I can not imagine those 400 extra spell dmg will make me do 30k dos all of a sudden.

Would really like some input on this, because I have trouble figuring this out. Thanks!

DPShiro · September 2016

Use Julianos, work on your rotations, use Thief Mundus, use Sharpeend Staff on front bar.

High Spell power =/= high DPS.

Also did you enchant your Maelstrom staff with Spell power?!

Qbiken · September 2016

DPShiro wrote: »

Use Julianos, work on your rotations, use Thief Mundus, use Sharpeend Staff on front bar.

High Spell power =/= high DPS.

Also did you enchant your Maelstrom staff with Spell power?!

don´t inchant your maelstrom staff OP,

Asardes · September 2016

Is the rotation OK? 10K seems awfully low. Basically you get that just spamming crushing shock and light attacks without buffs

Destruent · September 2016

Which skills and consumables do you use? How did you distribute your CP? We will need some more information about our character/playstyle to help you

MasterPerceval · September 2016

@DPShiro

Haha I do not have a maelstrom staff, re-enchanting that would be bad!
I understand that spell power isn't everything when it comes to high DPS, but I can't imagine how some simple changes like replacing nirnhoned with sharpened and using Julianos will get me there (i have tried this setup before with little difference)

DPShiro · September 2016

Qbiken wrote: »

DPShiro wrote: »

Use Julianos, work on your rotations, use Thief Mundus, use Sharpeend Staff on front bar.

High Spell power =/= high DPS.

Also did you enchant your Maelstrom staff with Spell power?!

don´t inchant your maelstrom staff OP,

That why I asked.
It looks like he did, and that would be very bad.

Flaminir · September 2016

Hi

So your dps can be probably split into 3 simple factors...

1. Gear
2. Champion points
3. Skills / rotation

A few tips...

Gear:

- Nirnhoned was nerfed badly... swap your nirn staff for a Sharpened version, & use the spell power glyph on it instead of magic damage.
- Julianos or twice born star will do more damage than Kagrenacs. (If you're running vMA then go for twice born... the extra health & stamina are very handy in there)
- Use the thief mundus stone for more crit chance (If using twice born star set use Thief & shadow).

Champion points

As you say, you're still working these up... the important ones are in the blue section... you need to stack into elemental expert. Maybe just a couple into spell erosion, and Elfborn (Probably literally only 3 in each.... the rest in ele expert to start with)

Skills / Rotation

So here's a question... what skills are you using and in what order? If you can give us a list of whats on both your bars that would help.

The basics are that as a standard sorc build you have two strong ground based DoT's (Damage over time)... Liquid Lightning & Elemental Blockade. You need to keep both of these up all the time. Then use force pulse with a fire staff light/medium attack between each one...

So liquid lightning / blockade / force pulse / light attack / force pulse / light attack...... etc until you need to put down liquid or blockade again.

The next thing is crystal fragments... have that on your bar, and whenever you see the instant cast proc then use it... and then carry on with your rotation.

Use Shooting star (Meteor morph) as an ultimate whenever you can.

There's quite a bit more that could be said, and some finer points around weaving etc to get the dps much much higher, but to start with & keep things simple this is a good basis to get your dps up to the 20k mark. Once you're there then some fine tuning etc can be done, & skills worked on to get it to 30k+

DPShiro · September 2016

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@DPShiro

Haha I do not have a maelstrom staff, re-enchanting that would be bad!
I understand that spell power isn't everything when it comes to high DPS, but I can't imagine how some simple changes like replacing nirnhoned with sharpened and using Julianos will get me there.

Well the topic rather confusing then.
But yes, sharpened, better sets, good cp distribution and working on your rotations works wonders.

Tyrion87 · September 2016

To be honest, vMA is all about damage. The higher, the better.

So you want to use Julianos instead of Kagrenacs, 2pc of Kena (you're a magsorc, so you rely heavily on overload light attacks during the harder fights). And replace nirn weapons with sharpened (torugs swords/inferno staff), the staff with spell dmg enchant. And also you need to have all your gear pieces in divines with magicka enchant and put the Thief mundus stone on you (+ bound aegis and inner light on all of your bars). With this you can easily reach 30k dmg (when buffed with power surge, even without kena's overkill) with your overload light attacks or crystal frags when it proc (mainly via force pulse attacks).

To have better sustain and to help my resource management in vMA, I often use heavy attacks to get some magicka back. Sometimes these attacks do wonders if I have 15CPs put into Tenacity (increases the amount of magicka your heavy attacks restore) and 30CPs into Staff Expert (for more dmg on staves) - with this setup my heavy attacks can also hit for 30k dmg.

And of course when you use power sigils, you have even more dmg.

Flaminir · September 2016

Tyrion87 wrote: »

To have better sustain and to help my resource management in vMA, I often use heavy attacks to get some magicka back. Sometimes these attacks do wonders if I have 15CPs put into Tenacity (increases the amount of magicka your heavy attacks restore) and 30CPs into Staff Expert (for more dmg on staves) - with this setup my heavy attacks can also hit for 30k dmg.

@Tyrion87 Aether/Lightning staff heavy attack build FTW!

MasterPerceval · September 2016

@Flaminir @Tyrion87

Very insightful! My rotation is quite the same as Flaminir described so I'm sorted on that. The meteor ult is something I still have to acquire (god it's tedious to level Mages Guild).

My problem with using other munduses than the one that gives you more magicka regeneration is that it leaves my magicka regen abysmally low at 944. This make me run out of magicka faster (I have 36k max magicka atm)

I have 30CP into elemental and I could squeeze in a few more from other things I need less.
I'll have to spend some cash and get me a julianos and a sharpened staff!

Thanks very much!

schroed360 · September 2016

First i don t know the sorc class well but will try to help. First i m not certain but i m under the impression that magika sorc is not the best at single target dps. But from where you are (6-10k) you should aim a 15 up to 20-25k when at max cp.

First for short fight with 1000 ulti banked you can pull insane number with 3 elegant jewelry + 2 sword 2 kena an another 5 set( don t know what s optimal probably TBS)

After that 4 moondancer/ infaillible aether + 5 TBS 1 kena ma inferno + maybe 2 torug sword or dual inferno don t know since this is sorc specific. That sounds like a solid setup
That is for the gear.
First thing i notice get ris of nirn on your weapon and take sharpened instead.
Julianos also will be better than kagrenac( but it is not bad at all).
TO is close try looking for illambris as soon as possible since you did not mention kena and this one is not easy to use efficiently especially at low cp i guess.

But i m under the impression that there is à far more important part of your lack of dps that is due to playstyle. Do you know what animation cancelling is? If not you should start there. If yes keep improving at it.
Finally look at guide of your class but don t just copy past them. You need to understand them then practice them maybe tweek them a bit to fit your playstyle and so on.

TLDR : first study
Second : practice
Then start again!

But don t worry the learning curve as a DD is not easy in this game especially when you just start the game ( just assuming due to cp) in six month you ll pull 15-20k with an alt with vr 1 gear !! Good luck on improving yourself and your character.

Edit And go for thief mundus stone also

MasterPerceval · September 2016

@schroed360 Thanks!

I do not know what animation cancelling is, could you explain it to me?

I have been playing eso for three months now, so I am not very experienced but I can weave okay by now.

LaiTash · September 2016

Flaminir wrote: »

There's quite a bit more that could be said, and some finer points around weaving etc to get the dps much much higher, but to start with & keep things simple this is a good basis to get your dps up to the 20k mark. Once you're there then some fine tuning etc can be done, & skills worked on to get it to 30k+

So baically perfect weaving, rotation, play by the meta and you get close to a facerolling 160cp stamblade

Why, zeni

Asardes · September 2016

Magicka regen around 1K is perfectly ok. Do you put elemental drain on bigger mobs and bosses? Do you do heavy attacks as part of your rotation to get some of it back? Do you execute with endless fury? Do you have 2/2 Destruction Expert? Do you have 120 CP in The Apprentice to access arcane well passive? Raw regeneration is just part of sustain.

Flaminir · September 2016

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@Flaminir @Tyrion87

Very insightful! My rotation is quite the same as Flaminir described so I'm sorted on that. The meteor ult is something I still have to acquire (god it's tedious to level Mages Guild).

My problem with using other munduses than the one that gives you more magicka regeneration is that it leaves my magicka regen abysmally low at 944. This make me run out of magicka faster (I have 36k max magicka atm)

I have 30CP into elemental and I could squeeze in a few more from other things I need less.
I'll have to spend some cash and get me a julianos and a sharpened staff!

Thanks very much!

That magicka regen is actually higher than most end game dps builds, so don't worry

I promise you... theres nothing in the blue cp tree that will boost your dps at that level more than stacking into ele expert.... If there's just 30 in there now I'd respec and pump almost all in there.

Also the thief stone will give you up to 18% higher crit (With all yellow & divines gear.... That is HUGE in terms of dps.
(BTW, make sure all your gear is divines.... big bits & small... literally every piece).

@MasterPerceval Can you let us know what skills are on both of your bars? There may be something there we can help with easily.

MasterPerceval · September 2016

@Flaminir

Front bar (destro): Crystal Fragments, Crushing Shock, Hardened Ward, Endless Fury, Lightning Flood. ULT: Overload

Back bar (resto): Streak, Blessings of Protection, Power Surge, Elemental Drain, Healing Ward. ULT: Storm Atronach

Current stats (buffed):

max magicka: 33084
max health: 18509
max stamina: 8908

Spell dmg: 3285
Spell Crit: 48%
Spell res: 15289

Mag recovery: 944

Mundus: Just changed it to Thief
Also I am a vampire (got it yesterday, so still need to lvl it)

Tyrion87 · September 2016

Flaminir wrote: »

Tyrion87 wrote: »

To have better sustain and to help my resource management in vMA, I often use heavy attacks to get some magicka back. Sometimes these attacks do wonders if I have 15CPs put into Tenacity (increases the amount of magicka your heavy attacks restore) and 30CPs into Staff Expert (for more dmg on staves) - with this setup my heavy attacks can also hit for 30k dmg.

@Tyrion87 Aether/Lightning staff heavy attack build FTW!

@Flaminir
Well, everything that involves Aether is FTW

but lighting staves are disqualified for me as I can't medium weave with them... their only advantage is nice animation, nice AOE splash dmg and the most practical aspect for me -> you actually don't need to aim the target perfectly, the lighting just finds its way to the target, and all you need to do is just hold the left mouse button even if you stand with your back to the enemy

But I saw that people has advised OP to use Aether/Moondancer/Elegant (including elegant sharpened swords whose price is just ridiculous...). I think OP has never seen these sets so far or at least has not got them yet. And to get all of the pieces you want with the perfect trait is just a huge piece of a trial grindfest - very unnecessary for completing the vMA :-)

You're on PC/EU OP, so if you want, you can PM me ingame (my ingame @ username is the same as the forum one), send me all the materials needed and I can craft Julianos for you.

As for the skills, @MasterPerceval:
Front bar (inferno staff): Crystal frags, force pulse, hardened ward, bound aegis, inner light (ult: Meteor - don't use it, it's just for extra magicka).
Second bar (swords): liquid lighting, boundless storm (for some rounds I replace it with streak for my convenience), power surge, bound aegis, inner light (ult: Overload).
Overload bar: liquid lighting (or endless fury/boundless storm for some rounds), power surge, hardened ward, bound aegis, inner light.

xblackroxe · September 2016

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@Flaminir

Front bar (destro): Crystal Fragments, Crushing Shock, Hardened Ward, Endless Fury, Lightning Flood. ULT: Overload

Back bar (resto): Streak, Blessings of Protection, Power Surge, Elemental Drain, Healing Ward. ULT: Storm Atronach

Current stats (buffed):

max magicka: 33084
max health: 18509
max stamina: 8908

Spell dmg: 3285
Spell Crit: 48%
Spell res: 15289

Mag recovery: 944

Mundus: Just changed it to Thief
Also I am a vampire (got it yesterday, so still need to lvl it)

Improvementrs:
-) change lighning flood to liquid lightning its the better ability for pve
-)be lowest vamp stage for vma as there is much firedamage
-) run Inner light on both bars. Remove blessing of restoration and endlessfury as you already have 2 shields and a heal in powersurge. Also you dont need an execute as you should use your overload on bosses. If you dont have enough damage put the execute on your overload bar and dont use up all your ulti so you can still use it.
Also i guess you have ele drain on your destro bar as you cant use it with a resto staff equipped.

Thats basically it for now and should help you be better. The more you get co, knowledge of your class and vma the more you can go offensive and use dw on backbar loose drain and switch it for wall of elements and other improvements. But for niw these tips together with the new equipment should be a solid choice for you.

Asardes · September 2016

Slotting bound aegis on both bars will permanently (it's a toggle, just like the pets) gives you the same resistance blessing of protection provides, and more importantly +8% magicka. At your numbers that would be an extra 2.6K, which is not negligible. The base skill itself is not bad, but the combat prayer morph will increase your damage by 8% - for healing group content this is a no brainer morph anyway. You should also put boundless storm on one of your bars and refresh it as part of your rotation for huge resistance boost and some good AoE - as a vampire you will need to boost your magicka resistance anyway to survive fire damage. Liquid lightning is the better morph IMO because it has more duration. For extra area elemental blockade is way better and they can be used together as part of the rotation - put the former close to bigger enemies and overlap with the latter. Crystal frags and streak are situational, but for a quick acting DoT with AoE you want to use velocious curse on the biggest mob - the explosion hits the others hard. If you have problems with sustain slotting harness magicka and activating it helps you recover a lot of it.

ku5h · September 2016

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@Flaminir

Front bar (destro): Crystal Fragments, Crushing Shock, Hardened Ward, Endless Fury, Lightning Flood. ULT: Overload

Back bar (resto): Streak, Blessings of Protection, Power Surge, Elemental Drain, Healing Ward. ULT: Storm Atronach

Current stats (buffed):

max magicka: 33084
max health: 18509
max stamina: 8908

Spell dmg: 3285
Spell Crit: 48%
Spell res: 15289

Mag recovery: 944

Mundus: Just changed it to Thief
Also I am a vampire (got it yesterday, so still need to lvl it)

For PvE you want your bars to look something like this (using 2xdestro staff):
Main: -force pulse-frag-Impulse for trash/curse for boss-mage light-bound armor-meteor ulti
Off bar:- liquid lightning-elemental blocade-mages wrath(use it on off bar so you can easily reapply dots and continue to execute)-mage light(you can also put rearming trap here)-bound armor-meteor ulti

Destruent · September 2016

ku5h wrote: »

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@Flaminir

Front bar (destro): Crystal Fragments, Crushing Shock, Hardened Ward, Endless Fury, Lightning Flood. ULT: Overload

Back bar (resto): Streak, Blessings of Protection, Power Surge, Elemental Drain, Healing Ward. ULT: Storm Atronach

Current stats (buffed):

max magicka: 33084
max health: 18509
max stamina: 8908

Spell dmg: 3285
Spell Crit: 48%
Spell res: 15289

Mag recovery: 944

Mundus: Just changed it to Thief
Also I am a vampire (got it yesterday, so still need to lvl it)

For PvE you want your bars to look something like this (using 2xdestro staff):
Main: -force pulse-frag-Impulse for trash/curse for boss-mage light-bound armor-meteor ulti
Off bar:- liquid lightning-elemental blocade-mages wrath(use it on off bar so you can easily reapply dots and continue to execute)-mage light(you can also put rearming trap here)-bound armor-meteor ulti

We are talking about maelstrome here...not group-PvE.

Tyrion87 · September 2016

ku5h wrote: »

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@Flaminir

Front bar (destro): Crystal Fragments, Crushing Shock, Hardened Ward, Endless Fury, Lightning Flood. ULT: Overload

Back bar (resto): Streak, Blessings of Protection, Power Surge, Elemental Drain, Healing Ward. ULT: Storm Atronach

Current stats (buffed):

max magicka: 33084
max health: 18509
max stamina: 8908

Spell dmg: 3285
Spell Crit: 48%
Spell res: 15289

Mag recovery: 944

Mundus: Just changed it to Thief
Also I am a vampire (got it yesterday, so still need to lvl it)

For PvE you want your bars to look something like this (using 2xdestro staff):
Main: -force pulse-frag-Impulse for trash/curse for boss-mage light-bound armor-meteor ulti
Off bar:- liquid lightning-elemental blocade-mages wrath(use it on off bar so you can easily reapply dots and continue to execute)-mage light(you can also put rearming trap here)-bound armor-meteor ulti

Lol if you use destro staff on both bars and don't have power surge slotted, umm how do you heal yourself as a sorc? Especially as you recommend to not slot Hardened Ward... In most builds with destro/dual wield setup for vMA, the main and only heal for a sorc comes from Power Surge. So it is essential to have really high crit chance.

Flaminir · September 2016

@MasterPerceval
Just so we're clear... is this for maelstrom arena (Vet or normal?)... or just for general sorc dps?

Either way... suggest that you add inner light to both bars (Probably by taking off streak & blessing of protection) ... and make sure you have the mages guild passives that boost the max magicka & regen...

This will instantly give you an extra:

7% max magicka
2% magicka regen
10% spell crit

Its pretty much the single biggest dps boost you can make to your bar in a single skill.

Also when you unlock meteor then put this on your main bar... and move overload to the back bar. This will give all your main attacks a DPS boost from the 2% extra magicka from having meteor slotted.

Asardes · September 2016

Flaminir wrote: »

@MasterPerceval
Just so we're clear... is this for maelstrom arena (Vet)... or just for general sorc dps?

Either way... suggest that you add inner light to both bars ... and make sure you have the mages guild passives that boost the max magicka & regen...

This will instantly give you an extra:

7% max magicka
2% magicka regen
10% spell crit

Its pretty much the single biggest dps boost you can make to your bar in a single skill.

Also when you unlock meteor then put this on your main bar... and move overload to the back bar. This will give all your main attacks a DPS boost from the 2% extra magicka from having meteor slotted.

And you can empower attacks when you activate it though that passive is hard to get.

AtmaDarkwolf · September 2016

MasterPerceval wrote: »

I really can not put my head around some of you who get that insane 30k single target DPS. I run a magsorc with 5 Kagrenacs, 3 arcane willpowers (all spell power enchanted) and three Torug's Pact. My staff is a golden inferno staff with Nirnhoned trait and magic damage enchantment. I also use the apprentice mundus stone for more spell power and run divines (Purple) on all armor. Currently I am sitting at 3034 spell damage unbuffed. When buffed it becomes 3600.

In good fights, where I don't get interrupted and where I don't have to do self heals I can get 10k dps max (in fights that take +30s), but when the fight is a bit more challenging I only get up to 6k dps.
I understand that the guys I am talking about are all cp531+ (I am cp245), but even with full gold gear and more CP spent you'd get at most 200 spell dmg extra, which would put me at 4000 spell dmg buffed. Yet I can not imagine those 400 extra spell dmg will make me do 30k dos all of a sudden.

Would really like some input on this, because I have trouble figuring this out. Thanks!

First off, your dps so..

About all I'd say you got 'right' is your arcane willpower (And eventually even that you will replace, for pve, with IA)

First off, the staff: You want sharpened, which will generally be a 10-12% increase in your dps than a nirn.

Second, you want thief(or shadow if crit is above 50% without thief) or both shadow AND thief(explained more below)

Third, you should run 5 julianos and 2(or 3) tourgs. (more damage) or, when you can get it, 5 piece twice born.(All armor, currently bug that if on weapon, even if 2nd bar is ALSO TBS, you will lose the 2nd mundus)

Divines on all armor is great(Esp with TBS+Thief/Shadow)

And next, this is the big one, which BY ITSELF can prob easily add 40-60% more damage, LEARN TO WEAVE. with weaving 1 spender (Main damage spammable skill) and heavy attacks, you can easily, without ANY backside gear, hit 15k dps.

The fact is its NOT about your spell power but more about crit, sustain, and how many 'sources' of damage you can land in the shortest time frame.

Make sure all stats are in arcane (or stamina if your a stam build, by which, for dps, most of the above applies just swapping out the stamina version/variant in each example) and +Spell damage glyph on your jewellery (All magica on all armor pieces)

MasterPerceval · September 2016

Thanks everyone for the overwhelming amount of help! I have been reading everything carefully and will use it to my advantage!

schroed360 · September 2016

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@schroed360 Thanks!

I do not know what animation cancelling is, could you explain it to me?

I have been playing eso for three months now, so I am not very experienced but I can weave okay by now.

Actually it sounds you are already cancellig the animation of your medium attack.! Aka weaving . Just look for vidéo on you tube since there s more than just weaving. You can cancel with block or bar swap etc especially for ground aoe since the force shock weave with medium does not need block.

Aeaeren · September 2016

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@DPShiro

Haha I do not have a maelstrom staff, re-enchanting that would be bad!
I understand that spell power isn't everything when it comes to high DPS, but I can't imagine how some simple changes like replacing nirnhoned with sharpened and using Julianos will get me there (i have tried this setup before with little difference)

It's your rotation. Make sure you drop Blockade, Liquid Lightning and Light attack between every skill. Typical I do LL> Light/Med Attack, Blockade>Weapon swap > Curse >Light/Med Attack > Force Pulse>Frags if Procced and repeat FP and Frags until Curse explodes then reapply curse and back to Force pulse/Frags until dots wear off then rinse and repeat.

SnubbS · September 2016

MasterPerceval wrote: »

@Flaminir

Front bar (destro): Crystal Fragments, Crushing Shock, Hardened Ward, Endless Fury, Lightning Flood. ULT: Overload

Back bar (resto): Streak, Blessings of Protection, Power Surge, Elemental Drain, Healing Ward. ULT: Storm Atronach

Current stats (buffed):

max magicka: 33084
max health: 18509
max stamina: 8908

Spell dmg: 3285
Spell Crit: 48%
Spell res: 15289

Mag recovery: 944

Mundus: Just changed it to Thief
Also I am a vampire (got it yesterday, so still need to lvl it)

This is kind of boring boring. But for vMSA this is what you need.

Eleblockade/ForcePulse/Frags/Aegis/InnerLight/Meteor/Overload
Hardened Ward/Power Surge/Liquid Lightning/Aegis/InnerLight/Overload.

Gearwise - 5x Julianos 5x Elegant 2x Kena is Ideal. 5x Julianos 2x Kena 3x Willpower/Aether & 2x Torugs/VD Swords is also an option. Anything else and I can't promise it's going to be as easy as possible -- it's still very doable in Kags, you're just gimping yourself.

Sharpened on every weapon, Divines on every gear piece if possible. Thief Mundus.