How is magDK's self-healing in PvE questing (solo)?

Kamatsu · March 2017

- This is not for PvP
- Do not have Undaunted
- No group buffs, no grouping. Solo & self-reliant.
- I do have CP, around 250 or so. I'll be going my usual 10 in Quick Recovery, 10 in Blessed, 50/50 physical/magic damage resist, 10 in magicka recovery, rest in cost reduction (while I still can! lol), split between DoT & magic damage boost's.
- Single-bar use, as other bar used to level skills & weapons (and I don't want to spend minutes swapping skills back and forth each time I hand in a quest)

Looking at playing a magicka Dragon Knight, and playing it with a single bar while still leveling other skills, weapons, etc off the other bar. Obviously once I have them all leveled I'll switch to a dual-bar setup... till then I'll be going one-bar (as I'm too lazy to constantly swap skills on/off the 2nd bar). So with that in mind, I've been thinking about the following skills:

1. Molten Whip (main damage skill)
2. Burning Embers (DoT & heal based from DoT)
3. Engulfing Flames (DoT & boost #1 & #2)
4. Coagulating Blood (heal)
5. Igneous Shield (shield & boost's healing)

Now obviously getting all these skills will take some time as 3 of them are only available at level 20 of the skills, which even with training gear can take time. Also lacking Inner Light from the Mage's Guild skill line, so lower magicka and spell crit - however I feel that while leveling up and doing PvE questing this shouldn't be too big an issue (it wasn't on my other chars).

What I'm wondering is how well this will stay self-healed?

I've heard that even with the changes to Co-Blood it's not that great a heal... but I was thinking that with Ig-Shield and the heal from Burning Ember's I should have enough healing for dealing with PvE groups. Please remember I've mainly been playing a magplar using jabs as constant self-healing, as well as magblade with refreshing path and strife (so 2 constant healing DoT's on me).... so I'm used to playing classes that have constant healing at all times. So going from that to something with seems to be more a 'heal every 10 seconds, and blah(?)-heal-on-demand"

Thinking about the Destruction Staff skills... I am not sure which, if any, of them could be used instead of the DK skills - since all the sklills I mentioned above get boosted by each other and/or the passives... and appear to do better than the Destro skills. And yes, I do know/realize that later on mixing skills over 2-bars is better... but for now looking at 1-bar only.

So I was wondering if I could get some thoughts, feedback, etc on how well mDK's self-healing, skills and such prior to starting, and while I'm unable to play (have net access, can't game). I do prefer to use DK skills if/where possible. Thanx in advance.

Sharee · March 2017

Unless you want to solo in group content areas (or do veteran maelstrom arena) your self-healing should be perfectly fine with about any class/spec. The game is balanced with new, inexperienced players in mind - anyone who knows what he's doing should have no problems at all.

As for DK skills, you might consider deep breath if you are often standing in a crowd of mobs, the healing is powerful if you use it surrounded by 3-6 targets. For destro, wall of flame is a very good AOE skill.

In case you are curious, my mDK front bar is stone giant, blockade of fire, dampen shield, wings, and igneous weapons. In normal pve i oneshot almost everything with a fully charged heavy attack(igneous buffed)+stone giant, combined with standing in blockade and reflecting any ranged attacks stuff dies so fast i dont really need any healing, whatever damage gets through the shield can take NP.

Voryn_Dagoth · March 2017

Burning Embers, Deep Breath and Dampen Magic, these three together keep me alive without noteworthy issues.

Kamatsu · March 2017

@Sharee - right now not considering trying to solo any of the group content (apart from public dungeon quest's). I might try doing that or the maelstrom arena at some point, but it's not a concern for me right now.

I did look at Deep Breath/Draw Essence, and might actually swap Coagulant Blood with it. It appears to work the same as NB's Sap Essence, with some differences. I use Sap Essence on my NB as it gives Major Brutality & Sorcery, but also heals me based on how many mobs it hits. Deep Breath/Draw Essence's healing actually looks to be superior to Sap Essence, and while it doesn't provide a buff... it does do extra damage to mobs in range.

I'm assuming by your skills, you open by buffing with Igneous Weapons, pull with blockade, stun with Stone Giant, then heavy attack on stunned mob? Toss in Wings and/or Shield if needed? Or do you always cast them regardless?

Have to say, that looks nice. Curious, since you kill stuff so fast I guess sustain isn't a problem? Even if/when facing 3-6+ groups solo in PvE? (Obviously doing stuff solo & in a group is different, as in group you can get added buffs, regen tossed on you, etc)

@Voryn_Dagoth That to me makes an interesting choice. Dampen Magic vs Igneous Shiled. Dampen provides a way bigger shield, esp if your wearing 5-7 pieces of light armor, but Igneous hugely boost's your self-healing capability. However, point in favor of Dampen - don't need to worry about self-healing if you take no damage as it's absorbed by shield.

Thank you both for the comments/thoughts/replies

Voryn_Dagoth · March 2017

@Voryn_Dagoth That to me makes an interesting choice. Dampen Magic vs Igneous Shiled. Dampen provides a way bigger shield, esp if your wearing 5-7 pieces of light armor, but Igneous hugely boost's your self-healing capability. However, point in favor of Dampen - don't need to worry about self-healing if you take no damage as it's absorbed by shield.

Unless you are playing a tank in PVE or in PVP, Igneous Shield is redundant, as the shield is too small and Major Mending will just "overheal". If you have the combat under control and correctly apply your DoTs, than you don't even have to wait for Embers to run out, but you can recast it immediatly (and don't forget you can cast it on several targets at the same time) to get back at full health. Same is true for Deep Breath, as in a dire situation when mobs are pushing too hard, you can recast it immediatly, just to get your health back, before the flame damage output. The interrupt will also help you to stand at a safe spot.

Dampen Magic is imho the best skill, as it is a real lifesaver and gets a lot of pressure off of you. As you already said, in the best case you don't even need healing, with a good timed shield. But if you get into trouble, it creates a nice buffer to heal up without too much stress. Depending on the boss fight, I actually put it into my rotation and I would recommend to animation cancel the shield and Deep Breath, for example with a bar swap or block, to save some crucial time.

One very important heal I forgot to mention, is actually the Battle Roar passive. Since you focus on solo-play, I think Ferocious Leap is one of the Ultimates to go with. It doesn't give you that much of an heal back in comparison, but since it is low-cost you get it up very fast (especially if you make sure to regularly use an Earthen Heart Skill), has some nice damage and most importantly, another insane shield. It is THE emergency skill, followed by Dampen Magic.

Coalgulating Blood is now a great heal (in PVE), as it is essentially unconditional and very strong, but as you suggested yourself, I would first try to use Deep Breath or maybe even Reflecting Scale, depending on the fight at hand. The big disadvantage is the fact, that in comparison to the other mentioned skills, you won't do any damage while healing.

Last but not least, you maybe want to check out the VMA guide from Alcast, since it is a good basis for Solo PVE, even if you are not going for VMA yet: http://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-dragonknight-maelstrom-pve/

Sharee · March 2017

Kamatsu wrote: »

Curious, since you kill stuff so fast I guess sustain isn't a problem? Even if/when facing 3-6+ groups solo in PvE? (Obviously doing stuff solo & in a group is different, as in group you can get added buffs, regen tossed on you, etc)

My build is centered around fully charged heavy attacks, which are both the main damage source, free to cast, and restore magicka, so sustain isn't a problem, yes.

Kamatsu wrote: »

I'm assuming by your skills, you open by buffing with Igneous Weapons, pull with blockade, stun with Stone Giant, then heavy attack on stunned mob? Toss in Wings and/or Shield if needed? Or do you always cast them regardless?

Igneous buff has a very long duration (~40s or so) so it should be up all the time. Open from range with a fully charged heavy attack, then immediately cast stone giant when the fire projectile launches. They hit roughly at he same time, SG does double damage since the target is not CC immune, so basically one-shot.

If there is still are ranged enemies, wings+kill them in the same manner as above. Once melees are in range make them stand in wall of fire and shield yourself. When rangeds are down, kill the melee ones.

At high CP levels, you can make the whole encounter trivial if you get the 120 point CP passive from the thief tree - it makes you invisible for 2.5 seconds (stunning all the mobs aggroed on you) everytime you get a kill from a heavy attack (doesnt even have to be fully charged).

Note you should have a pretty aggressive setup for this - i am wearing a combination of 5/5 crafted kagrenac's hope and 5/5 silks of the sun, with molag kena shoulder, all jewelry enchants are spell damage. 5 Light/1med/1hvy. Shouldn't be too hard to get, since you can have a crafted weapon and don't have to farm for sharpened.