dragon knight pve - i need help urgently

Nemesis7884 · April 2017

i leveld a second character after my magplar - which was a breeze - i can take on unlimited numer of enemies + bosses its really comfortable... now with a stam knight (med armor dw/bow) im having huge issues, im dying constantly in open world pve - even normal mobs kill me with 2-3 hits, bosses - i can't take any of em...im doing slightly more damage than my magplar but i am so fragile...and even if i use the shields i have, they are gone in an instant and eat so much of the magicka i don't have... im really frustrated right now cause i can hardly finish any quests... and i now im doing something wrong since people are obvoiusly playing the class well....i also played a sorc a long time ago after release (since deleted) and never had such issues? any tips?

Any good open world aoe pve build / rotation that still leaves som room that i can level skills?

Nemesis7884 · April 2017

jeeez normal mobs take 1/3 of my health with a hit while i need 5 flurries to kill them :-(

Tasear · April 2017

Have you looked into dragon Knight healing... Might be a thing very soon.

Vapirko · April 2017

Your basic DW/Bow build is 5 hundings and 4 NMG on DW + agility rings. You want to hit around 17-19k health with food for solo play. For DW slot blood thirst and blood craze for the health return, along with flames of oblivion for crit and extra dps. Also steel tornado for trash and deadly cloak for some protection and a bit of extra damage. On bow bar you can put what you like. Endless hail, poison injection, vigor, hardened armor, igneous weapons is what i typically run. You can also put rearming traps and or caltrops somewhere in there if you want. Rearming trap is helpful to deal with adds and for the extra damage. For ultimates, flawless dawnbreaker on your dw and standard of might or corrosive armor on your bow, depends on what youre doing. The DK igneous shield is useless except for the major mending buff. I dont bother to run it in pve. As solo classes stam dks dont have the best survivability. They're the bottom rung choice right now for content like vMA, because of sustain issues and the fact that they're melee with no good ranged attacks. And you must go to cyrodiil to get vigor if you want to play solo. Green dragon blood just isnt that good, and there is no dk heal over time.

Hope that helps. DK's are not great solo build classes right now. I would also recommend running a heavy chest piece for more sustain. If you have undaunted passives leveled then also run a light belt and the rest medium, everything divines. Weapons should be sharpened.

This is a pretty basic solo dk build for dw/bow.

Edit: and thief mundus stone.

Nemesis7884 · April 2017

lol 2h bosses one shot me even with all shields on - talking about quest bosses that is

Nemesis7884 · April 2017

i cant even ride around, 2 normal mobs kill me - first shoots me from horse, second one shots me wirth wrecking blow...jeeez i must be unbelievably incompetent

Asardes · April 2017

Until you can unlock vigor in PvP you can use 2H for more survivability. Rally for heals, brawler for a bit of AoE and shield. Doesn't come close to steel tornado but it's fine for overland content.

Vapirko · April 2017

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

i cant even ride around, 2 normal mobs kill me - first shoots me from horse, second one shots me wirth wrecking blow...jeeez i must be unbelievably incompetent

Yeah, if youre dying that quickly something is very wrong. If youre having that much trouble head over to one of the theory crafter pages like Alcast and have a look at the explanation of champion points and skills complete with a video. It can help to explain some things and get you oriented.

Enslaved · April 2017

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

i leveld a second character after my magplar - which was a breeze - i can take on unlimited numer of enemies + bosses its really comfortable... now with a stam knight (med armor dw/bow) im having huge issues, im dying constantly in open world pve - even normal mobs kill me with 2-3 hits, bosses - i can't take any of em...im doing slightly more damage than my magplar but i am so fragile...and even if i use the shields i have, they are gone in an instant and eat so much of the magicka i don't have... im really frustrated right now cause i can hardly finish any quests... and i now im doing something wrong since people are obvoiusly playing the class well....i also played a sorc a long time ago after release (since deleted) and never had such issues? any tips?

Any good open world aoe pve build / rotation that still leaves som room that i can level skills?

Maybe you can use 2h and remove bow. Equip brawler and use it every few seconds when surrounded by mobs to get damage shield. Or use bombard on bow. Or use choking talons to reduce mob damage by 15%. Various options, really.

DRXHarbinger · April 2017

Is your armor leveled to your character or are just wearing any random crap?

Cloudslinger · April 2017

Tasear wrote: »

Have you looked into dragon Knight healing... Might be a thing very soon.

Tell me more...

Im currently trying out NB healing and its not horrible. I've been thinking about DK

Mattock_Romulus · April 2017

Definitely use Rally until you obtain Vigor from PVP. Make sure you keep a food buff with health up. Use an armor buff too.

Nemesis7884 · April 2017

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

Is your armor leveled to your character or are just wearing any random crap?

random crapp for now

i think the main issue happend when my character got to lvl 50 and immediatly jumped to cp 200...with lvl 45 random green crapp gear...but thats where i am at and where i have to make it work for now

Nemesis7884 · April 2017

Vapirko wrote: »

Your basic DW/Bow build is 5 hundings and 4 NMG on DW + agility rings. You want to hit around 17-19k health with food for solo play. For DW slot blood thirst and blood craze for the health return, along with flames of oblivion for crit and extra dps. Also steel tornado for trash and deadly cloak for some protection and a bit of extra damage. On bow bar you can put what you like. Endless hail, poison injection, vigor, hardened armor, igneous weapons is what i typically run. You can also put rearming traps and or caltrops somewhere in there if you want. Rearming trap is helpful to deal with adds and for the extra damage. For ultimates, flawless dawnbreaker on your dw and standard of might or corrosive armor on your bow, depends on what youre doing. The DK igneous shield is useless except for the major mending buff. I dont bother to run it in pve. As solo classes stam dks dont have the best survivability. They're the bottom rung choice right now for content like vMA, because of sustain issues and the fact that they're melee with no good ranged attacks. And you must go to cyrodiil to get vigor if you want to play solo. Green dragon blood just isnt that good, and there is no dk heal over time.

Hope that helps. DK's are not great solo build classes right now. I would also recommend running a heavy chest piece for more sustain. If you have undaunted passives leveled then also run a light belt and the rest medium, everything divines. Weapons should be sharpened.

This is a pretty basic solo dk build for dw/bow.

Edit: and thief mundus stone.

thanks i will look into this and the 2h variant

anyone thinks it might be worth it to choose the molten armaments morph of molton weapons since rally already gies brutality and it gives you a huge boost to heavy attacks?

DRXHarbinger · April 2017

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

Is your armor leveled to your character or are just wearing any random crap?

random crapp for now

i think the main issue happend when my character got to lvl 50 and immediatly jumped to cp 200...with lvl 45 random green crapp gear...but thats where i am at and where i have to make it work for now

That's exactly why..your gear scales all your defense and offense based on its level. In short you are massively gimping yourself. Make cp 160 crafted gear and watch everything die 10x faster.

Edited for thinking cp 200 gear existed. Noob.

Tasear · April 2017

Have you looked into dragon Knight healing... Might be a thing very soon.

Cloudslinger wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Have you looked into dragon Knight healing... Might be a thing very soon.

Tell me more...

Im currently trying out NB healing and its not horrible. I've been thinking about DK

Ingenouus weapons, magma shell, ingenouus shields, healing springs, combat prayer mage light, resto staff ult, fot sets use combat physican and lamia song you will be on your way to being a do Healer.

SydneyGrey · April 2017

I've been playing Dragonknight without using Vigor, and she's been pretty badass and doesn't die. Mine is a magicka DK, though, not stamina. Basically, ZOS hates stamina classes, so gives the stronger spells/abilities to magicka.
They're about to nerf Vigor in the next patch to make it crappier, by the way.

isthatujonwayne · April 2017

I used dw/bow. 5 viper 5 vo and 2 velidreth. Was really good dmg. Vigor is a must tho

Vapirko · April 2017

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Vapirko wrote: »

Your basic DW/Bow build is 5 hundings and 4 NMG on DW + agility rings. You want to hit around 17-19k health with food for solo play. For DW slot blood thirst and blood craze for the health return, along with flames of oblivion for crit and extra dps. Also steel tornado for trash and deadly cloak for some protection and a bit of extra damage. On bow bar you can put what you like. Endless hail, poison injection, vigor, hardened armor, igneous weapons is what i typically run. You can also put rearming traps and or caltrops somewhere in there if you want. Rearming trap is helpful to deal with adds and for the extra damage. For ultimates, flawless dawnbreaker on your dw and standard of might or corrosive armor on your bow, depends on what youre doing. The DK igneous shield is useless except for the major mending buff. I dont bother to run it in pve. As solo classes stam dks dont have the best survivability. They're the bottom rung choice right now for content like vMA, because of sustain issues and the fact that they're melee with no good ranged attacks. And you must go to cyrodiil to get vigor if you want to play solo. Green dragon blood just isnt that good, and there is no dk heal over time.

Hope that helps. DK's are not great solo build classes right now. I would also recommend running a heavy chest piece for more sustain. If you have undaunted passives leveled then also run a light belt and the rest medium, everything divines. Weapons should be sharpened.

This is a pretty basic solo dk build for dw/bow.

Edit: and thief mundus stone.

thanks i will look into this and the 2h variant

anyone thinks it might be worth it to choose the molten armaments morph of molton weapons since rally already gies brutality and it gives you a huge boost to heavy attacks?

Random crap is your prob. Use the sets I mentioned. Also 2H is inferior to dw in almost every setting in pve. There are some vma 2H setups but you'll want to run dw.

GreenhaloX · April 2017

Vigor is good healing and much better than Coagulating blood or Rally for DK. I've been playing a StamDK for a long time and it is my foundation. Despite many that are against and trash talk 2H (I have to say I don't give a freaking ***), I favor using 2H with my StamDK.. and I have use DW and also have a MagDK; although the DW and Mag are brutal in its own way. For a dps that gets close and personal, I dish out more power and damages with the 2H's Wrecking Blow and other skillsets combo. I'm not talking about dps ratio and calculation. For me, I don't care much about what the overall end value or numbers with a dps rotation; rarely are you're going to get a perfect rotation fighting against live target/enemy. When I can take out a 100 something k target with 2 or 3 hits or when I can solo a high level world or dungeon boss just fine.. I'm good. However, yes, my complain with a DK is the shield. It sucks! When a sorc can have 10-13k protective shield and a StamDK's Igneous Shield are only blocking in the 3k.. you have to scratch your head and say, wtf?! Well, granted those squishy sorcs need that high level protective shield; no complain there.

So, sorry about this long-winded commentary.. just go with heavy armor for a DK; stam or mag. Try a HA-based set. You'll get better survivability and sustainability with the HA (unless freaking it will also get nerfed as well) while still putting out good dps. I use DKS with my StamDK.. HA benefits are there, plus Major Brutality at all times; you can't go wrong. If you prefer not to use DKS, you can use the Igneous Weapon to jack up with Major B, while still getting the benefits of other HA sets. Believe me, I solo any world bosses.. even the DLC ones and dungeon bosses with my DKS StamDK and rarely die or reset the boss. Well, spamming Vigor and Igneous Shield are there, but not as must as when using my medium-build dps toon. I die a lot more when trying to solo higher level bosses with my MA toons. Even with my new tank toon, I rarely die, even while leveling as a lowbie. I've been soloing world and delve bosses and dolmens and not even close to CP. I may not put out as much dps as MA-based toons, but my survivability is much greater with the HA. Heck, lots of higher CP level toons are dying and respawning, but I'm still jabbing and pommeling on.

Oh for PvE (non-dueling) 2H/Bow.. when you unlock the skillsets, this is the winning rotation I've have so successfully use against higher level enemies and targets:

Start off with Arrow Barrage/Poison Injection/Noxious Breath (from back bow bar), then switch to front 2H bar and hit Igneous Shield/Beast Trap/Venomous Claw, and then pommel with a couple AC combo of a heavy attack/Wrecking blow. Unfortunately for console, we don't have that timer.. so, it just takes some guessing to see when the DoTs will need to be re-apply. I figured.. a couple whacks with the AC combo is good enough, then reapply the rotation. Of course, you may have to hit Igneous Shield and Vigor in between here and there. Yeah man, HA-based build with this rotation/skillset.. I've been soloing many bosses and whatnot.

isthatujonwayne · April 2017

^^^^^^ playing 2h pve is the wrong way to go. Dw is the way. Pvp yeh but not pve

SydneyGrey · April 2017

I've been using sword-and-shield with my magicka DK, with heavy armor. She's a Breton, so she gets some natural spell resistance (and a higher magicka pool), and the heavy armor gives her physical resistance as well, so it balances nicely.
Everybody is saying dual wield is better, which makes me think I maybe should consider doing dual wield. I already have all the sword-and-shield passives though. LOL.

Nemesis7884 · April 2017

GreenhaloX wrote: »

Vigor is good healing and much better than Coagulating blood or Rally for DK. I've been playing a StamDK for a long time and it is my foundation. Despite many that are against and trash talk 2H (I have to say I don't give a freaking ***), I favor using 2H with my StamDK.. and I have use DW and also have a MagDK; although the DW and Mag are brutal in its own way. For a dps that gets close and personal, I dish out more power and damages with the 2H's Wrecking Blow and other skillsets combo. I'm not talking about dps ratio and calculation. For me, I don't care much about what the overall end value or numbers with a dps rotation; rarely are you're going to get a perfect rotation fighting against live target/enemy. When I can take out a 100 something k target with 2 or 3 hits or when I can solo a high level world or dungeon boss just fine.. I'm good. However, yes, my complain with a DK is the shield. It sucks! When a sorc can have 10-13k protective shield and a StamDK's Igneous Shield are only blocking in the 3k.. you have to scratch your head and say, wtf?! Well, granted those squishy sorcs need that high level protective shield; no complain there.

So, sorry about this long-winded commentary.. just go with heavy armor for a DK; stam or mag. Try a HA-based set. You'll get better survivability and sustainability with the HA (unless freaking it will also get nerfed as well) while still putting out good dps. I use DKS with my StamDK.. HA benefits are there, plus Major Brutality at all times; you can't go wrong. If you prefer not to use DKS, you can use the Igneous Weapon to jack up with Major B, while still getting the benefits of other HA sets. Believe me, I solo any world bosses.. even the DLC ones and dungeon bosses with my DKS StamDK and rarely die or reset the boss. Well, spamming Vigor and Igneous Shield are there, but not as must as when using my medium-build dps toon. I die a lot more when trying to solo higher level bosses with my MA toons. Even with my new tank toon, I rarely die, even while leveling as a lowbie. I've been soloing world and delve bosses and dolmens and not even close to CP. I may not put out as much dps as MA-based toons, but my survivability is much greater with the HA. Heck, lots of higher CP level toons are dying and respawning, but I'm still jabbing and pommeling on.

Oh for PvE (non-dueling) 2H/Bow.. when you unlock the skillsets, this is the winning rotation I've have so successfully use against higher level enemies and targets:

Start off with Arrow Barrage/Poison Injection/Noxious Breath (from back bow bar), then switch to front 2H bar and hit Igneous Shield/Beast Trap/Venomous Claw, and then pommel with a couple AC combo of a heavy attack/Wrecking blow. Unfortunately for console, we don't have that timer.. so, it just takes some guessing to see when the DoTs will need to be re-apply. I figured.. a couple whacks with the AC combo is good enough, then reapply the rotation. Of course, you may have to hit Igneous Shield and Vigor in between here and there. Yeah man, HA-based build with this rotation/skillset.. I've been soloing many bosses and whatnot.

what annoys me a bit is the insane difference between my magicka templar and my stamina knight...templar i can solo everything in the crappiest gear with 1 eye closed and 1 hand behind the back lol...

i will try different combinations, dw, 2h, bow to see what i like more....

do you think it might be worth using molton armaments? sorcery is worthless, but it increases heavy attacks by 40% which is a lot and you get brutality from rally?

the main issue im having with the dw set up is that it takes a long time to apply all the single dots to a lot of enemies and staying alive... and using steel tornado on high health target doesnt do much damage and eats a lot of stamina...i would want some kind of initial burst damage that gets groups down and then spin-to-win...but everything is dot based, which of course makes dk a great tank i guess in a battle of attrition

DHale · April 2017

Do you have vigor? That is vital.

Stamden · April 2017

It's going to get much worse after this patch

TheStealthDude · April 2017

isthatujonwayne wrote: »

^^^^^^ playing 2h pve is the wrong way to go. Dw is the way. Pvp yeh but not pve

2H is actually pretty close to DW DPS if you don't have Maelstrom weapons, which I am pretty sure the OP doesnt. And for Solo play, it has plenty utility that stam dk can take advantage of.

If you aren't doing high-end game content, definitely consider looking at 2H over DW.

isthatujonwayne · April 2017

When I played dk I used to use. Dw bar : rending slashes. Venomous claw. Spin 2 win. Noxious breath. dawnbreaker/ rend
Bow bar. Vigor. Rearming trap. Igneous. Endless hail. Poison injection. Corrosive/ ballista

This was a vma setup but i used to run dungeons with it aswel.The damage was really good. Just got to get used to using just the 1 heal.

isthatujonwayne · April 2017

TheStealthDude wrote: »

isthatujonwayne wrote: »

^^^^^^ playing 2h pve is the wrong way to go. Dw is the way. Pvp yeh but not pve

2H is actually pretty close to DW DPS if you don't have Maelstrom weapons, which I am pretty sure the OP doesnt. And for Solo play, it has plenty utility that stam dk can take advantage of.

If you aren't doing high-end game content, definitely consider looking at 2H over DW.

I'll have to disagree. I never use vma weapons with my dk but I can guarantee the dps is a lot higher than using 2h. Just not having steel tornado on u are missing out on massive are damage

parkham · April 2017

@Nemesis7884

Vapirko wrote: »

[..]I would also recommend running a heavy chest piece for more sustain. [..]

This is true and immediately noticeable regarding survivability as well.

I'm running around in pickup armor doing all the quests in Stonefalls at the moment. I swapped a heavy chest to a light in order to complete a set on my Level 11 Dragon Knight and the difference was immediately apparent.

Keep a heavy chest piece.

techprince · April 2017

You need vigor. Vigor crits are like 3.5k each tick, combine that with a shield.

TheStealthDude · April 2017

isthatujonwayne wrote: »

TheStealthDude wrote: »

isthatujonwayne wrote: »

^^^^^^ playing 2h pve is the wrong way to go. Dw is the way. Pvp yeh but not pve

2H is actually pretty close to DW DPS if you don't have Maelstrom weapons, which I am pretty sure the OP doesnt. And for Solo play, it has plenty utility that stam dk can take advantage of.

If you aren't doing high-end game content, definitely consider looking at 2H over DW.

I'll have to disagree. I never use vma weapons with my dk but I can guarantee the dps is a lot higher than using 2h. Just not having steel tornado on u are missing out on massive are damage

Well you can disagree, but 2H can work fine. Is it competitive for Leaderboards? No (due to the disparity in vMA weapons). But it's perfectly viable. You just have to know what you are doing. 2H can actually do excellent, not to mention cheaper, AOE with Cleave (I prefer the Carve morph for one of the few sources of minor heroism in the game) + Reverse Slice (the AoE morph, also functions as your spammable and execute).

And don't forget that we have a second bar, so you can have bow or DW on the back bar as well.