Stamina DK - solo normal dungeons?

scoffix · October 2017

Hi,
I've been looking for any guides/builds for soloing dungeons as stamina DK, not sure if I haven't looked long enough, but can't really find anything interesting. Can anyone give some advices, or soloing dungeons as stamina DK is not really possible?

VaranisArano · October 2017

It should be possible, though it won't be easy. I don't have any experience soloing on a StamDK, just magsorc and a stam sorc.

You'll need good sustain and good self-healing. DPS can be average, though the final boss fights become a long, drug-out endurance test if you don't have good DPS (I've completed the easier ones with 6-8k DPS during the final boss fights - I know, any decent DPS player is wincing right now) Looking at Maelstrom guides for StamDKs might be a good start because the Maelstrom Arena is also solo and harder than the easier normal dungeons, so those guides will focus on sustain and self-healing.

For my builds, I rarely struggled up until the final boss on the easier dungeons, but I'd still recommend using lots of AOEs on trash mobs. The biggest obstacles for me were that when you solo a group dungeon, you have to deal with ALL the boss' mechanics and when the boss no longer has three other people to torment, it turns out that the bosses have a LOT of mechanics that stun, root, fear, aoe, and damage you. You'll spend a lot of time recovering, dodging, or blocking these mechanics so DOTs on the boss become really important to keeping your DPS up.

Once you are ready to start, start on the easy ones like Banished Cells I, Fungal Grotto I, and Spindleclutch I. Those will be a good judge for how you handle the final boss mechanics, as BCI and Spindle I both had a bunch of stuns, roots, fears, aoes, and teleports to deal with. I learned a lot from those easy dungeons. My stam sorc had to adjust her self healing because she'd get damaged too much by the final boss of Spindle I to heal herself back up before the next big hit. My magsorc really needs better DPS or the fights drag on and on forever.

StamDKs should be able to handle soloing normal dungeons. Just focus on your sustain, your self-healing, and prepare for an endurance fight if you don't have the DPS for a straight burn on the final bosses.

SirAndy · October 2017

No experience with Stam DK either but i can tell you from experience with my squishy Stamblade that you need three things:

- AOE, AOE, AOE
- Plenty of damage mitigation
- A good self heal

You need good damage dealing AOE to wear down the trash mobs and boss ads and you need to be able to eat some of the incoming damage.
Caltrops and Endless Hail are consistently on top of my damage report when soloing normal group dungeons.

If my Stamblade can do this, so can your StamDk ...

NewFordOrder · October 2017

Steel Tornado on dual wield and brawler on 2h are helpful...

scoffix · October 2017

I'm leveling up in Cyrodiil to unlock Vigor at the moment. So basically bow/dw for trash mobs and 2h/1h+shield for bosses shouldn't be a bad choice? Thanks for all the answers btw!!

Kanar · October 2017

scoffix wrote: »

I'm leveling up in Cyrodiil to unlock Vigor at the moment. So basically bow/dw for trash mobs and 2h/1h+shield for bosses shouldn't be a bad choice? Thanks for all the answers btw!!

I'd go 2h/bow all the way. Brawler makes you really tough against the big packs of trash. Rally is a needed burst heal, and also slot vigor for HoT. You need fire and forget damage like endless hail, caltrops, venomous claw, trap and noxious breath so you can apply damage and then focus on staying alive against bosses. Reverse slice allows you to just plow through trash, and finish bosses fast while killing any adds.

You need high sustain, because no stamina = death. For most dungeons I'd slot damage sets but for some tough bosses you might need a defense set like fortified brass or pariah (yeah it's good for places where you get "nickel and dimed" to death like solo normal dungeons or vMA).

I'd use hardened armor or green dragon blood as my one defensive class ability. For ult it's flawless DB on 2h bar and standard of might or corrosive armor on bow bar, depending on the fight.

All medium armor and practice your dodge rolls. I'd basically use my vMA setup for solo dungeons.

Edit: I wouldn't use 1h/shield because you shouldn't be blocking and it is a huge damage loss vs bow.

malicia · October 2017

My stamDK is built as a tank, though I use her for PvP by changing CP and gear.

She has soloed the last boss of nEH2 previously, as the two DDs couldn't survive. The heal helped to keep my alive during the poison phase - not sure if my self-heal was enough for that. That was with PvP gear and skills and with pure tank CP. I think I could survive the poison phase by slotting more self-heal and saving pots for emergencies, but as it was it already took ages.

I think a stamDK would be able to solo most normal dungeons, but it would take forever, and I don't think it would be much fun.

GrigorijMalahevich · October 2017

Just go to Cyrodiil - get vigor
Put bow aoe skills on back bar to apply dots
Main bar use dual wield with some aoe and single target dots
In normal dungeon everything dies so fast that you barely care about anything...

Asardes · October 2017

vMA is harder than running normal dungeons solo aa the mobs there have the same health but the vMA ones hit as hard as vet dungeons. So you can follow some of those vMA builds. Ex. Alcast's "Venom".

Giraffon · October 2017

My favorite one to solo is Volenfell. The bosses there are mostly brutes so it's just tank vs tank and you get to poke around for some dwemer motifs while you are in there. I don't think any of the bosses have any one shot mechanics so you just brawl with them and wear them down until they drop.

And yes, I'm a stamina DK. I don't change my build for doing this solo. I run sword and board on both bars. I use talons and caltrops for trash mob DPS. I tank the bosses just like I would when I run with groups.

Vaoh · October 2017

It is absolutely possible.

I’m assuming that you use Dual Wield if running solo, so you will want to slot Blood Craze (morph of Twin Slashes) for heals and Deadly Cloak (morph of Blade Cloak) for increased damage mitigation. You also need to have Resolving Vigor (morph of Vigor) as an emergency heal that will save you basically every time. You want to have as much healing over time coming your way though so you can focus more on killing stuff instead of spamming Vigor or Dragon Blood.

Lacerate (DW skill line) is a powerful Ult lasts 8 seconds, and heals you once every 2 seconds for a good amount. The Rend morph extends this duration to 16 seconds. This is a powerful Heal over Times that go well with the HoT from Blood Craze.

The best tip I can give you for a solo Stamina build (all classes) is to try to join a group and farm Asylum Sanctorum on Normal difficulty until you earn Asylum DW weapons.

By using Asylum weapons, you can extend this duration to 26 seconds (28sec with Perfect Asylum weapons). You also extend the duration of your Deadly Cloak and Blood Craze by 10sec each. That will be *plenty* of healing on Stam DK to solo even Veteran dungeons. Worst comes to worst, you always can cast Igneous Shield to gain Major Mending for a bit as well to survive particularly dangerous situations.

Ertthewolf · October 2017

I solo normals and most vet bosses all the time with a stam dk werewolf build. vMA was easy as well with this build.....Got Flawless on my forth try.....It's a great ultimate for solo content when needed for survivability.

scoffix · October 2017

It seems Alcast uploaded new vid with Stamina DK which I will try to follow, I noticed he has Vigor slotted, where on his website it's not, I will keep it for emergency heals as stated before, thanks for all the tips!

Brrrofski · October 2017

Yes, easilly.

I use a heavy attack build with vigor as my only heal. Stick down your dots, heavy attack, roll and vigor if need be.