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Best Weapon Traits

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO
Hi all, so I have some weapons that I plan on transmuting cause their current traits aren't great. I have a Decisive Maelstrom's Maul, Precise Asylum's Perfected Dagger, and Decisive Asylum's Perfected Axe. I run a stam DK who is currently geared for PvE, but I'd like for these weapons to be applicable to both PvE and PvP. My gut instinct is to go Nirnhoned on all of them, cause more damage is always better, right? But also, I know a lot of people say Sharpened/Infused/Precise are all good, so I just want to know your thoughts. What weapon trait is the most versatile, and effective both in PvP and PvE for a stam DK?
  • VaranisArano
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    Sharpened is for when you need more penetration, so it depends on how much penetration you or your group already has from gear sets, buffs, debuffs, etc. In some PVE instances like trials, your group may already fully penetrate the boss's resistances so the sharpened trait is effectively useless. In PVP, sharpened is useful for overcoming player resistances.

    Nirnhoned is great for giving additional weapon/spell damage. If that's where you want your focus, go for it.

    Infused is great for buffing enchantments, so is mostly useful for procing enchantments when using light attacks or for rotations where you need infused to buff something on one bar before switching to the next.

    Precise is useful for increasing your weapon/spell critical. In PVP, most players will run impenetrable gear and other forms of cirt resistance and in PVE most DPS only run about 50-70% criticals. So unless you are lacking in crit or running a crit build, I wouldn't recommend precise for a PVP/PVE build.
  • Narvuntien
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    Nirnhoned is now BIS

    Infused is great for single target dps and Tank swords.

    Sharpended is great for PVP and 4 man dungeons with unexperienced/no tanks, as long as you don't hit the peneration cap it will give you the most damage.

    Precise is good for dual wield to increase your crit but otherwise is just kind of meh compared to the others but there is a big gap to everything else.

    Charged is good on Lightning staves when you are running around solo or on a Healers backbar. its not terrible on inferno staffs.

    Powered for healers
    Edited by Narvuntien on October 31, 2017 7:20AM
  • Lightspeedflashb14_ESO
    Lightspeedflashb14_ESO
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    Narvuntien wrote: »
    Nirnhoned is now BIS

    Infused is great for single target dps and Tank swords.

    Sharpended is great for PVP and 4 man dungeons with unexperienced/no tanks, as long as you don't hit the peneration cap it will give you the most damage.

    Precise is good for dual wield to increase your crit but otherwise is just kind of meh compared to the others but there is a big gap to everything else.

    Charged is good on Lightning staves when you are running around solo or on a Healers backbar. its not terrible on inferno staffs.

    Powered for healers

    Math please.
  • DeHei
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    Nirnhoned is a great allround trait! It increase damage and healing, so isnt wrong anytime to use it.

    Precise, if you want to play a critbuild or push your low critratio (precise isnt working great in PvP, because your crits are much lower against impenetrable targets)

    Sharpened can sometimes be a good solution to get the penetration cap. Magicka player with light armor have allready good penetration! Together with lover you are allready very fast at your penetration cap (18,2k or 18,5k against trialbosses; but before you should check the debuffs your group can hold; stamina DDs dont need that mass penetration, because of good penetration synnergy of some sets! The resistances from enemies are really low then allready!)
    In PvP sharpened doesn´t work against shield stacking targets, but its only possible to push the damage from proccsets over sharpened!

    Infused is great for some build like obliviondamage or together with torugs pact to increase this enchantdamage. Together its great to get better uptimes for offbalance with elemental blockade and a shockenchant. Sometimes this is better then nirnhoned in some rotations. Together with asylumdestrostaff you can hold up statuseffects very good.

    Charged this can be very useful only on destrostaffs i think. With good charged weapons you can hold up statuseffects allready very good without using a asylumstaff and force pulse. This can be better for sologaming and damage, but you need to test it for yourself.

    powered is really nice for some ultregbuilds, but for damage we have surely better traits!
    DeHei - EP Magicka Templar Allrounder
    De Hei(Youtube)
  • NegativeVibes
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    Go nirnhoned on the vma maul. You already get penetration from maul passives
  • Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO
    Update: I have retraited my Maelstrom Maul to Nirnhoned, as that seems to be the most popular answer. Now, with weapon damage buff, I have 3.6k weapon damage and 7k penetration, running Lover Mundus. Is this an appropriate combination of damage and penetration? If not, what recommendations would you guys make? Thanks in advance!
  • Amdar_Godkiller
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    As far as I understand it:


    Dual wield is best infused main hand, sharpened/precise off hand

    For everything else there's nirnhoned.
  • Nestor
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    Take a look at this, it is for Homestead, but the main point is the same today as it was when this was posted. The traits are almost the same, give or take 1%,. Yes, 1%. And what is best really depends on both your build and how you approach combat.

    So, it really comes down to what you feel your character needs more of, Penetration, Criticals, Damage, Protection, or something else:

    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/318595/introduction-to-pve-damage-calculation-homestead/p1
    Enjoy the game, life is what you really want to be worried about.

    PakKat "Everything was going well, until I died"
    Gary Gravestink "I am glad you died, I needed the help"

  • deepseamk20b14_ESO
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    I think most people nailed it already. My tid bit of input would be on infused. In PvE i have it in front bar while dual wielding with weapon damage enchant and the weapon damage is up almost 100% of the time. Off hand can be either sharpened or nirmhoned and you would be fine. My off hand is sharpened currently.

    For PvP I really like an infused bow on my back bar. Cloak, heavy attack and proc weapon damage bar swap and do a burst combo. This is just one of the many ways to do things, I just have very good luck with this setup.
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  • Lightspeedflashb14_ESO
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    I think most people nailed it already. My tid bit of input would be on infused. In PvE i have it in front bar while dual wielding with weapon damage enchant and the weapon damage is up almost 100% of the time. Off hand can be either sharpened or nirmhoned and you would be fine. My off hand is sharpened currently.

    For PvP I really like an infused bow on my back bar. Cloak, heavy attack and proc weapon damage bar swap and do a burst combo. This is just one of the many ways to do things, I just have very good luck with this setup.

    Off hand daul wield ought never be nirn, you only gain like 12 weapon damage. That is right, just 12. So it is always better to have a different off had trait then nirn, even if it is infused, as the other traits give the full half bonus in your off hand.

    Edited by Lightspeedflashb14_ESO on October 31, 2017 10:06PM
  • Lightspeedflashb14_ESO
    Lightspeedflashb14_ESO
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    Update: I have retraited my Maelstrom Maul to Nirnhoned, as that seems to be the most popular answer. Now, with weapon damage buff, I have 3.6k weapon damage and 7k penetration, running Lover Mundus. Is this an appropriate combination of damage and penetration? If not, what recommendations would you guys make? Thanks in advance!

    Mauls percentage based penetration is based on how much your target has after debuffs but before your own penetration, so the long and short of it in pve where mobs have at most 18k armor, mauls are only worth using if you don't have major fracture on the target, so basically never because tanks put it on all the important mobs and 3 out of the 5 Stam versions of the classes apply it themselves. I would drop the lover and get the warrior, better for PvP and in pve get a Sharp battleaxe or greatsword.
    Edited by Lightspeedflashb14_ESO on October 31, 2017 10:19PM
  • Amdar_Godkiller
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    Update: I have retraited my Maelstrom Maul to Nirnhoned, as that seems to be the most popular answer. Now, with weapon damage buff, I have 3.6k weapon damage and 7k penetration, running Lover Mundus. Is this an appropriate combination of damage and penetration? If not, what recommendations would you guys make? Thanks in advance!

    Mauls percentage based penetration is based on how much your target has after debuffs but before your own penetration, so the long and short of it in pve where mobs have at most 18k armor, mauls are only worth using if you don't have major fracture on the target, so basically never because tanks put it on all the important mobs and 3 out of the 5 Stam versions of the classes apply it themselves. I would drop the lover and get the warrior, better for PvP and in pve get a Sharp battleaxe or greatsword.

    Lover is by far the strongest mundus if you are not at full penetration for PVE (basically anytime that you aren't running a fully optimized 12 man raid). It's inferior to the warrior in most cases for PVP however.
  • WrathOfInnos
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    Narvuntien wrote: »
    Nirnhoned is now BIS

    Infused is great for single target dps and Tank swords.

    Sharpended is great for PVP and 4 man dungeons with unexperienced/no tanks, as long as you don't hit the peneration cap it will give you the most damage.

    Precise is good for dual wield to increase your crit but otherwise is just kind of meh compared to the others but there is a big gap to everything else.

    Charged is good on Lightning staves when you are running around solo or on a Healers backbar. its not terrible on inferno staffs.

    Powered for healers

    Math please.

    Yes please, can anyone provide the math behind this claim? Every time I look at the numbers infused comes out ahead of Nirnhoned.

  • Lightspeedflashb14_ESO
    Lightspeedflashb14_ESO
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    Update: I have retraited my Maelstrom Maul to Nirnhoned, as that seems to be the most popular answer. Now, with weapon damage buff, I have 3.6k weapon damage and 7k penetration, running Lover Mundus. Is this an appropriate combination of damage and penetration? If not, what recommendations would you guys make? Thanks in advance!

    Mauls percentage based penetration is based on how much your target has after debuffs but before your own penetration, so the long and short of it in pve where mobs have at most 18k armor, mauls are only worth using if you don't have major fracture on the target, so basically never because tanks put it on all the important mobs and 3 out of the 5 Stam versions of the classes apply it themselves. I would drop the lover and get the warrior, better for PvP and in pve get a Sharp battleaxe or greatsword.

    Lover is by far the strongest mundus if you are not at full penetration for PVE (basically anytime that you aren't running a fully optimized 12 man raid). It's inferior to the warrior in most cases for PVP however.

    There is no "by far" in this game anymore, at least in the math that I have seen, most notably here, https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/359916/mundus-trait-and-cp-optimisation-for-pve-damage-dealers/p1, less then 3% difference between the relevant mundas and weapon traits. Would like that thread to be updated, hence my math please comment.

    The reason for warrior in PvP would be wards and the fact they have no armor, as I am sure you know well and good.
    Narvuntien wrote: »
    Nirnhoned is now BIS

    Infused is great for single target dps and Tank swords.

    Sharpended is great for PVP and 4 man dungeons with unexperienced/no tanks, as long as you don't hit the peneration cap it will give you the most damage.

    Precise is good for dual wield to increase your crit but otherwise is just kind of meh compared to the others but there is a big gap to everything else.

    Charged is good on Lightning staves when you are running around solo or on a Healers backbar. its not terrible on inferno staffs.

    Powered for healers

    Math please.

    Yes please, can anyone provide the math behind this claim? Every time I look at the numbers infused comes out ahead of Nirnhoned.

    Please O great and wise @Asayre, please bring your wisdom to this thread.
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