How I can improve my build - Stam DK DPS focusing on melee damage?

RABIDxWOLVERINE · March 2017

Hello all! I'm hoping some of you champion theory crafters out there can help me improve my build. I have limited time to play throughout the week so I cant grind pieces and test sets the way Id like, so I thought maybe I can use your experiences and knowledge to help me out. I'm also not the greatest player ever and have no intention of getting to that point. I just want to increase the effectiveness of my build and get better. I'm working on my rotation and Ive noticed a difference in my DPS just from that but I think I could still optimize my build a little.

Info on my character - I am playing as an Imperial DK focusing on Stamina and melee damage (DW/Bow). I am have all passives for both medium and heavy skill trees and am thinking about finishing the light skill tree for the undaunted bonus when I'm able to unlock that passive. I'm around 400 CP, play primarily PVE and I play on Xbox if that makes a difference. If you have any other questions ask me as this is all I can think of that might be important at the moment.

My current build is as followed.
4/5 pc NMG (all purple besides chest and axe/bow which are gold. armor traits are divines, axe/bow are sharpened, dagger is precise)
5 pc Leviathan (all purple, including jewelry. Armor is in divines)
2 pc Selenes (gold infused medium helm, purple light divine shoulders)

My bars are set up like this;
Front - DW (sharp axe/precise dagger) 1-rending slashes, 2-rearming trap, 3-rapid strikes(may go with the other morph), 4-venomous claws, 5-resolving vigor, U-Rend
Back - Bow (sharp) 1- endless hail, 2- Flames of Oblivion, 3- Poison Injection, 4-Igneous Shield, 5- Razor Caltrops, U- Ferocious Leap

Misc. Info
-I use pots to grant major brutality and savagery as well as increasing my stam rec.
-using tri-stat food
-5 points in health, 59 in stamina
-using warrior Mundus to increase my weapon damage
-weapon damage enchants on jewelry, axe and bow and foulness enchant on dagger
-Most armor is enchanted for stamina but I do have a health and magic glyph as well. All glyphs are gold.

I know that the meta now is 5pc twice fanged serpent 3 pc VO 2 vMA weapons and usually Kraghs from what I see but I don't think I can acquire this gear yet, I'm still trying to get vMA weapons!

How can I increase my DPS a little more? CP suggestions, gear suggestions, or any suggestions for that matter would be greatly appreciated.

Should I look at replacing NMG with a different craftable set or should I replace Leviathan with an overland set such as Hulking Draugr?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks for any info provided. I greatly appreciate it!!! If more info is needed please let me know and I will try to provide ASAP.

cpuScientist · March 2017

Until you can get the VMA weapons. I'd suggest (if you can afford or get lucky farming) 5 spriggan and 5 VO. If you cannot get 5 VO. You can go 5 spriggan and 5 hundings. Spriggan body and jewelry is fairly easy to farm or cheapish to buy. And just make the hundings weapons and body pieces. Run kraghs if not veli if not Selene. 7 medium, 6 with 1 heavy if you have problems with the lower health.

Also make sure all your weapons are SHARPENED. No precise or nirn. Seriously. SHARPENED SHARPENED SHARPENED!!!! Divines on all gear. Thief mundus stone. Ahhh that's about it.

Are you using weapon power/CRIT pots? If yes cool if not swap vigor with flames.

Also flawless dawnbreaker front bar. For the weapon damage boost. And standard of might back bar. You want to use standard. It's the best ULTI in game. Lasts 17 seconds and you do 15% more damage while it's up. It's a must have use, it's what really sets stamDK apart.

Also feel free to switch out to to the heal morph of flurry. It really helps keep you alive it's a powerful heal. About a 6k heal a second. Until you get to endgame speed trial runs. It's the better morph. Even then dead DPS is bad DPS.

RABIDxWOLVERINE · March 2017

Thanks @cpuScientist for the info I'll look into it

Vapirko · March 2017

Alcast has excellent stam DK dps build called Venom, I suggest checking it out. He provides both MA weapons and non MA builds. Atm meta seems to be 2fs five pc. I actually ran a few vet dungeons with someone running this set and VO jewelry about a month before alcast put it up. This person was also stam DK dps. I normally pull anywhere between 15-25k dps on vet bosses, because I play with a lot of lag from se asia, and because my gear is not BiS anymore. But anyway I normally do about 40-50 percent of my groups damage and I noticed this time I was pullling only 20-30 percent. The person running 5pc 2fs was hitting 40k dps on the bosses which Id say is up there. Anyway 2fs and VO are not super hard to get.

RABIDxWOLVERINE · March 2017

Vapirko wrote: »

Alcast has excellent stam DK dps build called Venom, I suggest checking it out. He provides both MA weapons and non MA builds. Atm meta seems to be 2fs five pc. I actually ran a few vet dungeons with someone running this set and VO jewelry about a month before alcast put it up. This person was also stam DK dps. I normally pull anywhere between 15-25k dps on vet bosses, because I play with a lot of lag from se asia, and because my gear is not BiS anymore. But anyway I normally do about 40-50 percent of my groups damage and I noticed this time I was pullling only 20-30 percent. The person running 5pc 2fs was hitting 40k dps on the bosses which Id say is up there. Anyway 2fs and VO are not super hard to get.

The venom build was kinda what I used as my guide for my current build especially when I was looking at my skills. Ive been tweaking it here and there over the last few weeks. One change that I made that I really like is adding Rend as my ultimate. It has a fairly cheap cost and it does like 40k damage over like 16 seconds and heals you for 50% of damage done. I feel like Ive been getting better DPS output with that than having the 3% bonus for flawless dawnbreaker slotted. Also with Standard of might I feel the cost is way to high for the 15% damage increase over 17 seconds. I'm thinking about getting rid of Ferocious Leap and adding SoM. So when I come into a boss fight I can throw SoM down and drop all my AoEs the switch to main bar and focus on doing damage and then Rend with my next ultimate.

I'm also working towards the undaunted passive and I think Ill switch to the 5/1/1 model to get that damage increase.

Thanks for the reply!

OrphanHelgen · March 2017

I think one of many reasons magicka dps is so good in AOE fights, is also due to their magic penetration in light armor passive. When tank and group debuffs the boss, its only the boss while adds stays on same high ressistance. That's one of the reason stamina dd's have to go twicefanged, but lose a 5 set bonus to get the same amount of penetration. Unless you have both twicefanged and kragh, there is no reason for you to go a precice dagger. Go sharpend and legendary weapons. If your selene 2 piece do not do more then 2k sustained dps, I would go velidreth or kragh. Kragh should be easy to get, maybe not the shoulders in divines but.