What is the best solo build?

SuperiorMadness · April 2018

Hello! I wanted to know what is the best race and class to do solo 90% of the game.....if it's even possible.

Marginis · April 2018

In my opinion what you're looking for is 1. basic survivability and 2. utility.

Nightblades have some great siphoning abilities for healing yourself, and you don't really need to look any further than cloak for utility.
Dragonknights have great tanking utility, and as strong tanks, their survivability is also pretty great (an understatement).
Templars can also be fairly defensive and are known for their strength in healing.
Wardens can accomplish any role in the game quite well, so they have a little bit of utility in everything, which incidentally makes them pretty darn good at surviving stuff themselves.
Sorcerers are the trickier ones here, using their pets to stave off enemies more than using self healing abilities, but can get some decent utility with speed boosts and other buffs.

Overall, I recommend Nightblade (my personal pick), but any can really work depending on how you like to play. As far as race goes, choose whichever you like most. If you care about min/maxing, do a little research to see what race goes good with what build (Redguards are the best for stamina tanks, typically, and you might want to go High Elf for most magicka DPSers, for example), but all races should be at least viable with any build.

As for your build, if you want to be able to do 90% of the game with it, you'll want to avoid specializing too much or too little. Specialize too much, like for a vet trials tank build, and you will struggle a bit more with overworld because you have no DPS (in trials you would rely on the DPS to do damage, your only goal would be to survive). Specialize too little, and your teammates will get annoyed at you in something as simple as regular dungeons for not having good enough DPS, not being able to tank, and only having one healing ability. What you're looking for is that sweet spot in between. I recommend making sure you have one or two self heals, enough survivability to deal with most stuff you'll encounter, and pushing your DPS as far as it can go with those constraints. It might also work to do something like have DPS on your front bar and healer on your backbar, if you're running a magicka build, as those two overlap a good amount. It is also possible to solo up to vet dungeons by yourself as a good tank, just remember that your DPS will be very low (so it will take forever for most content comparative to most other builds) and you'll still have to give yourself some self healing too.

I definitely think though, that it is completely viable (definitely possible) to solo anything the game throws at you outside of trials. It's just a matter of which route you want to go and how much you value soloing over efficiency.

Sparr0w · April 2018

High/Dark elf Mag pet sorc, Redguard Stam 2H sorc - Could always go argonian for the resource management & extra health.

Tbh if you know your class well enough you can solo most of the game on anything. I've done most dungeons solo on a woodelf stamblade. For build help look towards the VMA builds as these are purely solo focused, maybe even PVP ones.

Beardimus · April 2018

Right now, blades are OP

DocFrost72 · April 2018

Sparr0w has it nailed down good. Best mag setups for soloing are mag sorc and mag nightblade, and best setups for stamina are stamina sorc, or anything running dual wield and two handed. Course, I solo on a stamplar but as was said, that's cause I've played one for 3.5 years.

Sparr0w · April 2018

Yup nightblades are decent solo as well, StamBlades due to constant resistance buff/debuff, MagBlades due to spammable healing them.

If you list what console/server you're on could get someone to craft you some gear to get you started (assuming you're new?)

SuperiorMadness · April 2018

Yes Sparr0w, i'm mostly new.......i used to play a year ago, but left. I'm on pc/eu
Anyway thank you for the help

SuperiorMadness · April 2018

Hello Marginis, thanks for the inshigt

I have a question......what exactly means DPS? I never understood that one.

AcadianPaladin · April 2018

DPS means damage per second. It is also use as sort of a generic term referring to killing power. Some characters excel at doing area damage while others deliver high damage more focused on a single target. Both have their advantages but both also share a need for survivabiltiy while running solo. The Area of Effect (AOE) damage specialist will mow down groups but take longer on big single foes - and needs to be able to survive such encounters via shielding or healing or such. The Single Target specialist can take on single heavy foes efficiently but will needs survivability when running solo to withstand being overwhelmed by groups of smaller foes.

Generally, magic users tend to do a bit better when it comes to AoE whereas stam users generally provide better single target damage - but that is rather a broad generalization.

Sparr0w · April 2018

@Marginis Solid advice but you're forgetting that Sorcs constantly have major & minor resolve/ward, as well as double shield (if mag) & a large heal on critical strikes

Plus said pets can be morphed to heal you if you choose that route. Most of the first solo dungeon clears were done on a sorc due to the above factors & being able to tank bosses with pets & escape the 1 shot mechanics from what I've read.

Also on the NB you're forgetting Blur and morphs for 15% dodge chance, minor ward/resolve or Major Expedition.

I will agree with MagBlade being my personal preference if going magicka, however I'd still recommend MagSorc due to being fairly new & Nightblades having one of the hardest rotations to get down

Asardes · April 2018

Full medium armor 2W/Bow Khajiit stamina NB who has never set foot in BGs or Cyrodiil

Stinkyremy · April 2018

argonian 2h nightblade for fast farming, swim fast, fast distance travelling strikes, go invisible to farm without having to agro, and you can hit mobs hard.
you could always go orc nightblade instead for the faster sprint speed

Marginis · April 2018

DPSers, sometimes referred to as DD, are meant to deal as much damage as they can as quickly as they can. Tanks are meant to survive at all costs and hold aggro from enemies (making the enemies attack them instead of teammates). Healers are meant to keep everyone alive with healing. These are the bare basics of these roles, but generally, these are the roles groups are split into. Beyond classes, each character tends to fall into one of these roles just based on what they excel at or what they do for the group in group play.

Aside from that you'll also hear about magicka, stamina, and hybrid builds. Magicka builds use magicka as their primary stat, tending to focus on spell damage and staves, stamina builds use stamina as their primary stat, tending to focus on physical damage and non-staff weapons, and hybrids use a bit of magicka and stamina. Choosing which you want to be will determine which weapons and abilities you should use to get the most bang for your buck. For example, you generally don't want to be a healer using a restoration staff, and then put all your points in stamina, where you could have instead put your attributes points in magicka to make your heals more powerful.

Lastly, I should mention that on my notes about classes, I skipped over some things some players find really valuable. What I wanted to emphasize was a class' utility that is specific to that class. Each class tends to be better than the others at certain things, yes, but as the game is constantly tweaked, that "meta" can be unreliable. Additionally, any class can effectively perform the role of tank, DPS, or healer, and all classes have some sort of access to important buffs, like major ward and major resolve (very important to tanks). It's just a matter of how they build to achieve a result, more than if they can achieve a result.

SuperiorMadness · April 2018

Thank you all for the help! I really appreciated it

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What is the best solo build?

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