General PVP build question

charunks · September 2017

Hello,

I seem to have some trouble in PVP. I've been playing casually, but never seem to be viable in one on one fights.

At times I encounter a player who takes hardly any damage at all, yet they trash my character literally in under 2 seconds. Nightblades, some 2H wielders (high damage) and magDK's (Im vamp) seem to fall into this category often.

Battles litteraly go like this;

enemy guy is busy trashing some dude with the same colortag as I,
I: entropy, vamp bane, toppling charge
enemy; starts attacking me
I: puncturing sweeps tics 1, 2 and 3.
enemy; kills me and continues his travels deconstructing the next alliance-brother.
I: look at log an see that I have suffered at least 5 attacks in under 1.5-2 seconds.

When doing damage on these players, it doesn't seem to matter much what I am wearing (plate / cloth). this due to cloth having more penetration.
When recieving damage it also doesn't seem to be of much an issue what I am wearing. Noticable is the slight moment I am standing longer in the field due to more hitpoints with plate.
I have all the skillpoints in both armor options.

I'm at cp level 640. I have around 2600 critres. CP-points wise I have 54 points in reduction of direct damage and also 54 in crit damage reduction and 54 in physical dmg reduction. on the offence I have 54 in magic dmg increase, 54 points in damage over time and 54 in penetration.

Currently I am running
- valkyn Skoria
- Soulshine on the body
- Warmaiden jewelry / weapons (penetration trait).

Stat in cyrodills;
- Hitpoints; 27K
- magicka; 34k
- spellpower 1.8k

What am I missing? Any special buffs, unique questrewards I fail to see?

Grimlok_S · September 2017

Defensively, extended ritual is your best friend.

It's basically 1 button that forces a magdk like me to reset their entire rotation, big mag drain.

You'll want self heals. Breath of life is a fantastic group heal, or the other morph if you play exclusively solo.

A lot of clever templars run a sword and shield on their healing bar, so you can block cast BoL. Drop extended ritual and mist form away if you need to recover stamina.

Both your sets are offensive focused. Maybe try something like wizards riposte, which debuffs enemies who critically hit you, making them deal 15% less damage.

Takes-No-Prisoner · September 2017

charunks wrote: »

I: look at log an see that I have suffered at least 5 attacks in under 1.5-2 seconds.

This is animation canceling.

Try it yourself press your Sweeps button, block immediately and watch what happens. He is basically doing it so fast you don't see his attacks.

How do you deal with that? Put up shields or block, have a buff tracker on and watch for debuffs and put down Ritual. Also move away from him if you need some breathing room. It resets the fight and makes the attacker, if hes smart, back off and re-evaluate his new situation hes put in. If hes not next to you, he cannot melee/animation cancel you which is where most melee builds are their most strongest. Most enemies-- at this point once you backed away abit-- will go back to trying to re-pressure from a distance.

I could type a lot more about that, but we'd be playing a theorycrafted situation that may-maynot happen. But you get the idea.

charunks wrote: »

Stat in cyrodills;
- Hitpoints; 27K
- magicka; 34k
- spellpower 1.8k

If that is your spellpower unbuffed, it might be too low.

You haven't told us what weapon set up you're using. Most MagTemp I see on PS4 NA are running S+B on buff/tank bar, Dual Wield Swords on the other bar for the extra spell damage.

technohic · September 2017

The problem with soulshine on a templar is that your HTD/BOL doesn't get the boost. If you're a templar; thats bread and butter with extended ritual.

NBrookus · September 2017

Aside from gear, there are probably a few things going on. 1) You are dying to burst combos that you don't recognize being set up or 2) they are good animation cancellers and you are missing the (often fleeting) windows of visual indicators that those skills are being fired or 3) both. You can't respond to or mitigate what you don't see. If you find yourself dying to the same skills and classes, post some death recaps and people can help give you pointers to deal with them.

I suspect since you mention NBs (fear), 2H (dizzying swing) and magDK (CCs and roots for days) you might be running out of stamina. Stamina management is very important in PvP. No stamina = dead magplar. Sets like Shacklebreaker, tri-food, tri-glyphs, investing in block cost reduction and selectively using mistform instead of blocking or dodging can all help.

Speaking of burst, you need to using purifying light to set up your burst combo. It makes a big difference. It you are having trouble getting entropy + reflective + purifying all buffed before engaging you may want to choose a potion that gives you your spell power and spell crit buffs.

Your spell power looks really low. Mine is 3k, buffed, not counting the war maiden boost.

CP-points wise I have 54 points in reduction of direct damage and also 54 in crit damage reduction and 54 in physical dmg reduction. on the offence I have 54 in magic dmg increase, 54 points in damage over time and 54 in penetration.

CP has a thing called jump points. Basically CP rounds down to the closest percentage. 56 points will get you to 12.08% in Hardy, for example, which is actually 12%. 54 points is something like 11.5%.... which is 11%. So always allocate to just over the nearest percentage. Minor quibble and it's not why you are dying, but no sense leaving stats on the table.

Waffennacht · September 2017

There are only 3 ways of surviving in this game

1. Shields - high number damage shield that is cast constantly - very strong 1v1, less powerful the more players
2. Block/Mitigation - block prevents massive damage (with SnB) and also does very well 1vX must be built with block cost reduction. Massive mitigation via Pariah, Mist Form etc is like blocking
3. Roll Dodge - arguably the weakest ATM, typically with Medium armor, the dodging of attacks in a window is more to allow the user a chance to kill before being killed

Heals are used in conjunction with the above, simply healing won't be enough to survive.

SugaComa · September 2017

Put points into iron clad on your CP switch out some health for more magica

Use entropy vamp bane and purifying light in that order

Put in a light attack between each skill

Then if your still at a distance chuck blazing spears followed by Jesus beam

If close go sweeps followed by Jesus beam

If using skoria use ritual of retribution channeled focus and blessing of light

Retribution will cleanse you and do damage and process skoria giving you advantage at a distance, channeled focus will reduce damage and recover magica blessing is your oh *** heal

I use 5 julianos 2 skoria mix of light n heavy I carry 5 light and 5 heavy of each to mix n match depending on how many enemy I'm going up against

I find crits are weaker in PvP than pve so I switch out my imperial wrath jewelry for ancients grace

My staffs are generic crafted ones ...I use disease enchants and have points in befoul

I'm not a great at being able to 1v anything ... What my set up does let me do is play at a distance and essentially weaken the enemy or put an end to them while they're in a weakened state

I also use destructive reach to stun if they get too close to give me my distance back, I don't use gap closers they often put me in a more vulnerable position.

To complete my cp I have 72 in thermatuage, 54 in elemental damage 40 in befoul 75 in arcanist

Rest are spread into blessed and other things I find useful at the minute but at only 550+ CP I have spare to spend in areas other wouldn't consider

I will always respect every 30 additional cp to readjust but those listed are my main stays

Thogard · September 2017

Most people will say you need to animation cancel.

And while you definitely should, I don't think that's the issue.

What you need to focus on is being able to A. Mitigate the enemy's burst, and B. Time your damage so they can run mitigate it.

If someone is dodgerolling, you need to use your jabs, because jabs hits dodge rollers
If someone is blocking, use purifying light because that goes through block.

Etc etc.

TheDoomsdayMonster · September 2017

@charunks

If surviving an opponents burst is an issue, I'd strongly suggest replacing Skoria with Mighty Chudan...

Mighty Chudan will significantly increase your survivability (8255 total Physical and Spell Resist + 1205 Max Health Bonus)....

Also Mighty Chudan has a very significant advantage to it that's often overlooked; its benefits are in constant effect...

You don't have to wait on it to Proc...

No matter whats going on, Mighty Chudan will be giving you its full benefit and you never need to think about your defense or devote a single drop of Magicka to refresh it...

I use Chudan (and love it); you'll see an immediate increase in your survivability over Skoria...