Why is DragonKnight still the only class with just 2 stamina costing morphs?

aeowulf · April 2018

it's not useless, otherwise DK builds would be replacing it with non-class skills, which aren't useless.

Saturn · April 2018

Yamenstein wrote: »

Supernatural wrote: »

Cauterize could be changed into a stamina morph which deals poison damage and also provides major savagery and then remove major prophecy on the base morph and have FoO give the major prophecy buff. That will give the stam dk some extra burst in solo PvE (like VMA) and PvP, where the class really suffers. Considering cauterize at its current state is pretty much useless, that is something that could be done.

One less skill for DK healers. So you'll have to suggest something else, can't shaft one play style for another.

@Yamenstein
Yes, you can. And in most cases you should, if it's something that people don't utilize. That's why they've already changed up so many skills, because no one used them. You don't see a lot of DK healers, and there are a lot of people who play stam DK, so the tradeoff would honestly be better overall. Besides, it's not like Cautrize is an amazing heal anyway, since you can't control the frequency of its healing nor direct it.
Also, DK healers just got the Cinder Storm remade to be a heal, which was done despite it being the preferred morph for PvE Tanks and for general use in PvP. So yes, you can shaft one playstyle for another. ZOS is quite good at it in fact.

GeorgeBlack · April 2018

aeowulf wrote: »

it's not useless, otherwise DK builds would be replacing it with non-class skills, which aren't useless.

Here's a lost of skills that I can replace Noxious Breath for in PvP:
MageLight just for the passive
Caltrops
Beast trap
SilverLeash
Flames of Oblivion
Wings
Molten arms
If not for flames of oblivion id even slot expert hunter over Noxious Breath

Here's what id replace it with as a PvE tank
All of the above except
MageLight
BeastTrap
FoO

Here's what I would replace them with a PvE dps
All the above except
MageLight.

As you can see one of the only two stamina costing DK skills does not find its way in any competitive build.
Only roleplaying.

GeorgeBlack · April 2018

Saturn wrote: »

Yamenstein wrote: »

Supernatural wrote: »

Cauterize could be changed into a stamina morph which deals poison damage and also provides major savagery and then remove major prophecy on the base morph and have FoO give the major prophecy buff. That will give the stam dk some extra burst in solo PvE (like VMA) and PvP, where the class really suffers. Considering cauterize at its current state is pretty much useless, that is something that could be done.

One less skill for DK healers. So you'll have to suggest something else, can't shaft one play style for another.

@Yamenstein
Yes, you can. And in most cases you should, if it's something that people don't utilize. That's why they've already changed up so many skills, because no one used them. You don't see a lot of DK healers, and there are a lot of people who play stam DK, so the tradeoff would honestly be better overall. Besides, it's not like Cautrize is an amazing heal anyway, since you can't control the frequency of its healing nor direct it.
Also, DK healers just got the Cinder Storm remade to be a heal, which was done despite it being the preferred morph for PvE Tanks and for general use in PvP. So yes, you can shaft one playstyle for another. ZOS is quite good at it in fact.

Spot on.

There are countless options to make DK a shielding/heal over time settup for healers and still improve stamDK options.
Zos doesnt wanna do it.

Saturn · April 2018

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Buff StamDK !

Honestly, I don't think Stam DK in general is in a bad spot, and I don't think a buff is necessary.

In PvE they are currently in 2nd behind NB in terms of DPS capabilities (although I'm not sure if Stam Sorc will shake up that ranking with Summerset), but in general melee (i.e. mainly stam dps) suffers from the fact that all endgame content (especially trials) heavily favour ranged dpses (i.e. mag dps) and as such find themselves in an awkward spot of not really being wanted, despite their capabilities working extremely well in older melee-friendly content.

For PvP it's perhaps a fair assessment, if you try to play stam dps without a sword & shield and heavy armour, but then most stam damage dealers in PvP find themselves almost forced to wear heavy to keep up, and there are few reasons not to wear a shield either, but I think that's a problem beyond just Stam DK and more just representative of the state of PvP as a whole.

That all said, I would like to see a stamina morph of the whip, since the main problem with Stam DK (not that it's a huge detriment, but just very limiting in terms of build diversity) is the lack of a good spammable.

Temeraire507 · April 2018

GeorgeBlack wrote: »

aeowulf wrote: »

it's not useless, otherwise DK builds would be replacing it with non-class skills, which aren't useless.

Here's a lost of skills that I can replace Noxious Breath for in PvP:
MageLight just for the passive
Caltrops
Beast trap
SilverLeash
Flames of Oblivion
Wings
Molten arms
If not for flames of oblivion id even slot expert hunter over Noxious Breath

Here's what id replace it with as a PvE tank
All of the above except
MageLight
BeastTrap
FoO

Here's what I would replace them with a PvE dps
All the above except
MageLight.

As you can see one of the only two stamina costing DK skills does not find its way in any competitive build.
Only roleplaying.

You obviously don't play PvE that often. For PvE Noxious Breath definitely needs no buff. It is around 0,5 to 0,75 * Venomous Claw but it is AoE and debuffs groups with Major Fracture. It is used along FoO, Caltrops, Trap Beast, and sometimes Molten Armaments so they can't replace it. Wings and Leash are crap in PvE for DD's and tanks use none of the skills you stated. Except sometimes slotting Noxious for AoE debuff and Wings in heavy projectile fights, although Absorb Magic (One Hand and Shield) is mostly prefered over Wings.

JumpmanLane · May 2018

Temeraire507 wrote: »

GeorgeBlack wrote: »

aeowulf wrote: »

it's not useless, otherwise DK builds would be replacing it with non-class skills, which aren't useless.

Here's a lost of skills that I can replace Noxious Breath for in PvP:
MageLight just for the passive
Caltrops
Beast trap
SilverLeash
Flames of Oblivion
Wings
Molten arms
If not for flames of oblivion id even slot expert hunter over Noxious Breath

Here's what id replace it with as a PvE tank
All of the above except
MageLight
BeastTrap
FoO

Here's what I would replace them with a PvE dps
All the above except
MageLight.

As you can see one of the only two stamina costing DK skills does not find its way in any competitive build.
Only roleplaying.

You obviously don't play PvE that often. For PvE Noxious Breath definitely needs no buff. It is around 0,5 to 0,75 * Venomous Claw but it is AoE and debuffs groups with Major Fracture. It is used along FoO, Caltrops, Trap Beast, and sometimes Molten Armaments so they can't replace it. Wings and Leash are crap in PvE for DD's and tanks use none of the skills you stated. Except sometimes slotting Noxious for AoE debuff and Wings in heavy projectile fights, although Absorb Magic (One Hand and Shield) is mostly prefered over Wings.

For PvE dd REARMING TRAP, poison injection, endless hail, volatile armaments, caltrops. Wings and Leash? What? Hehehe Vote to kick!

Temeraire507 · May 2018

JumpmanLane wrote: »

Temeraire507 wrote: »

GeorgeBlack wrote: »

aeowulf wrote: »

it's not useless, otherwise DK builds would be replacing it with non-class skills, which aren't useless.

Here's a lost of skills that I can replace Noxious Breath for in PvP:
MageLight just for the passive
Caltrops
Beast trap
SilverLeash
Flames of Oblivion
Wings
Molten arms
If not for flames of oblivion id even slot expert hunter over Noxious Breath

Here's what id replace it with as a PvE tank
All of the above except
MageLight
BeastTrap
FoO

Here's what I would replace them with a PvE dps
All the above except
MageLight.

As you can see one of the only two stamina costing DK skills does not find its way in any competitive build.
Only roleplaying.

You obviously don't play PvE that often. For PvE Noxious Breath definitely needs no buff. It is around 0,5 to 0,75 * Venomous Claw but it is AoE and debuffs groups with Major Fracture. It is used along FoO, Caltrops, Trap Beast, and sometimes Molten Armaments so they can't replace it. Wings and Leash are crap in PvE for DD's and tanks use none of the skills you stated. Except sometimes slotting Noxious for AoE debuff and Wings in heavy projectile fights, although Absorb Magic (One Hand and Shield) is mostly prefered over Wings.

For PvE dd REARMING TRAP, poison injection, endless hail, volatile armaments, caltrops. Wings and Leash? What? Hehehe Vote to kick!

What do you actually want to say? Please clarify your point. I will not try to interpret it in order to give you the chance to say it was meant in another way.

Twohothardware · May 2018

StamDK doesn't need more damage dealing morphs for those that keep calling for a Stamina version of Lava Whip, what StamDK needs is to be able to actually make use of all of it's different utilities like Igneous Shield, Green Dragon Blood, Wings, Choking Talons, ect but can't because you're forced to choose between just a couple because you can't maintain a bunch of different expensive Magicka skills.

At least one of those above skills need a morph converted to Stamina. My suggestion is for Green Dragon Blood to be changed to Stamina and scale off Max Stamina like Coagulated Blood was changed last year to now scale off Max Magicka.

This is the most logical choice because Stamina Warden has the Stamina morph Soothing Spores which gives Warden a burst heal outside of Rally and the passive for it gives Major Mending when under 50% health, something that StamDK only gets by using an expensive Igneous Shield.

StamDK can't use Green Dragon Blood at the same time as Igneous Shield and Spiked Armor because you run out of Magicka too fast, let alone think you'll have any Magicka at all for Wings. Meanwhile Stamina Warden can easily use Soothing Spores (Stamina burst heal + Major Mending), Ice Fortress (gives Minor Protection), and keep up Shimmering Shield (gives Magicka return).

That is where the imbalance lies between classes like StamDK and StamWarden, Dragonknight has too many skills all split up while Warden has the same buffs condensed into fewer skills and with Stamina morphs.

JumpmanLane · May 2018

Temeraire507 wrote: »

JumpmanLane wrote: »

Temeraire507 wrote: »

GeorgeBlack wrote: »

aeowulf wrote: »

it's not useless, otherwise DK builds would be replacing it with non-class skills, which aren't useless.

Here's a lost of skills that I can replace Noxious Breath for in PvP:
MageLight just for the passive
Caltrops
Beast trap
SilverLeash
Flames of Oblivion
Wings
Molten arms
If not for flames of oblivion id even slot expert hunter over Noxious Breath

Here's what id replace it with as a PvE tank
All of the above except
MageLight
BeastTrap
FoO

Here's what I would replace them with a PvE dps
All the above except
MageLight.

As you can see one of the only two stamina costing DK skills does not find its way in any competitive build.
Only roleplaying.

You obviously don't play PvE that often. For PvE Noxious Breath definitely needs no buff. It is around 0,5 to 0,75 * Venomous Claw but it is AoE and debuffs groups with Major Fracture. It is used along FoO, Caltrops, Trap Beast, and sometimes Molten Armaments so they can't replace it. Wings and Leash are crap in PvE for DD's and tanks use none of the skills you stated. Except sometimes slotting Noxious for AoE debuff and Wings in heavy projectile fights, although Absorb Magic (One Hand and Shield) is mostly prefered over Wings.

For PvE dd REARMING TRAP, poison injection, endless hail, volatile armaments, caltrops. Wings and Leash? What? Hehehe Vote to kick!

What do you actually want to say? Please clarify your point. I will not try to interpret it in order to give you the chance to say it was meant in another way.

To clarify, I state as simply as I can: I agree with you.

RoyJade · May 2018

Twohothardware wrote: »

StamDK doesn't need more damage dealing morphs for those that keep calling for a Stamina version of Lava Whip, what StamDK needs is to be able to actually make use of all of it's different utilities like Igneous Shield, Green Dragon Blood, Wings, Choking Talons, ect but can't because you're forced to choose between just a couple because you can't maintain a bunch of different expensive Magicka skills.

At least one of those above skills need a morph converted to Stamina. My suggestion is for Green Dragon Blood to be changed to Stamina and scale off Max Stamina like Coagulated Blood was changed last year to now scale off Max Magicka.

This is the most logical choice because Stamina Warden has the Stamina morph Soothing Spores which gives Warden a burst heal outside of Rally and the passive for it gives Major Mending when under 50% health, something that StamDK only gets by using an expensive Igneous Shield.

StamDK can't use Green Dragon Blood at the same time as Igneous Shield and Spiked Armor because you run out of Magicka too fast, let alone think you'll have any Magicka at all for Wings. Meanwhile Stamina Warden can easily use Soothing Spores (Stamina burst heal + Major Mending), Ice Fortress (gives Minor Protection), and keep up Shimmering Shield (gives Magicka return).

That is where the imbalance lies between classes like StamDK and StamWarden, Dragonknight has too many skills all split up while Warden has the same buffs condensed into fewer skills and with Stamina morphs.

I agree with most of your post, except one thing : green dragon blood is a tank skill and should not be changed to a stamina one.
I think spiked armor should see a cost decrease : both morphs are really weak, adding a cost decrease as a morph effect for one of them seem fine. Why not giving a 15-20% cost decrease for hardened armor, change volatile's damage to physic or poison, increase the damage and change the morph and his scaling to stamina ?

Temeraire507 · May 2018

JumpmanLane wrote: »

Temeraire507 wrote: »

JumpmanLane wrote: »

Temeraire507 wrote: »

GeorgeBlack wrote: »

aeowulf wrote: »

it's not useless, otherwise DK builds would be replacing it with non-class skills, which aren't useless.

Here's a lost of skills that I can replace Noxious Breath for in PvP:
MageLight just for the passive
Caltrops
Beast trap
SilverLeash
Flames of Oblivion
Wings
Molten arms
If not for flames of oblivion id even slot expert hunter over Noxious Breath

Here's what id replace it with as a PvE tank
All of the above except
MageLight
BeastTrap
FoO

Here's what I would replace them with a PvE dps
All the above except
MageLight.

As you can see one of the only two stamina costing DK skills does not find its way in any competitive build.
Only roleplaying.

You obviously don't play PvE that often. For PvE Noxious Breath definitely needs no buff. It is around 0,5 to 0,75 * Venomous Claw but it is AoE and debuffs groups with Major Fracture. It is used along FoO, Caltrops, Trap Beast, and sometimes Molten Armaments so they can't replace it. Wings and Leash are crap in PvE for DD's and tanks use none of the skills you stated. Except sometimes slotting Noxious for AoE debuff and Wings in heavy projectile fights, although Absorb Magic (One Hand and Shield) is mostly prefered over Wings.

For PvE dd REARMING TRAP, poison injection, endless hail, volatile armaments, caltrops. Wings and Leash? What? Hehehe Vote to kick!

What do you actually want to say? Please clarify your point. I will not try to interpret it in order to give you the chance to say it was meant in another way.

To clarify, I state as simply as I can: I agree with you.

Thank you for explaining. I just was unsure what you wanted to say

Twohothardware · May 2018

RoyJade wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

StamDK doesn't need more damage dealing morphs for those that keep calling for a Stamina version of Lava Whip, what StamDK needs is to be able to actually make use of all of it's different utilities like Igneous Shield, Green Dragon Blood, Wings, Choking Talons, ect but can't because you're forced to choose between just a couple because you can't maintain a bunch of different expensive Magicka skills.

At least one of those above skills need a morph converted to Stamina. My suggestion is for Green Dragon Blood to be changed to Stamina and scale off Max Stamina like Coagulated Blood was changed last year to now scale off Max Magicka.

This is the most logical choice because Stamina Warden has the Stamina morph Soothing Spores which gives Warden a burst heal outside of Rally and the passive for it gives Major Mending when under 50% health, something that StamDK only gets by using an expensive Igneous Shield.

StamDK can't use Green Dragon Blood at the same time as Igneous Shield and Spiked Armor because you run out of Magicka too fast, let alone think you'll have any Magicka at all for Wings. Meanwhile Stamina Warden can easily use Soothing Spores (Stamina burst heal + Major Mending), Ice Fortress (gives Minor Protection), and keep up Shimmering Shield (gives Magicka return).

That is where the imbalance lies between classes like StamDK and StamWarden, Dragonknight has too many skills all split up while Warden has the same buffs condensed into fewer skills and with Stamina morphs.

I agree with most of your post, except one thing : green dragon blood is a tank skill and should not be changed to a stamina one.
I think spiked armor should see a cost decrease : both morphs are really weak, adding a cost decrease as a morph effect for one of them seem fine. Why not giving a 15-20% cost decrease for hardened armor, change volatile's damage to physic or poison, increase the damage and change the morph and his scaling to stamina ?

DK tanks don't need the additional healing from Green Dragon Blood scaling based on health. Other classes like Templar are able to tank without it, it's just not the easy mode that tanking on DK is and so if anything it would allow for other classes to come in and fill the tank roll if DK wasn't always the definitive choice. ZOS can buff Igneous Shield to give a larger damage shield for tanks to help make up for less healing from Green Dragon Blood.

Green Dragon Blood is the burst heal that StamDK needs to be on a more competitive footing with Stamina Warden which has taken over as the best choice for a tanky race that can also deal high burst damage in PvP. Warden's Soothing Spores does the same thing as Green Dragon Blood but it's based on max Stamina and also gives Major Mending when under 50% health, something DK has to cast the expensive Igneous Shield prior to healing in order to get.

And Spiked Armor already got a cost reduction last year, it's not the problem. It's the high Magicka cost from trying to use Igneous Shield or Green Dragon Blood or Wings together that leaves you unable to sustain them. Igneous Shield only lasts a fraction of a second when you're taking damage in PvP, Green Dragon Blood scales off of health instead of Stamina so a StamDK has to cast it multiple times to get any healing from it, and DK's Wings have no built-in in resource return like Warden's Shimmering Shield that gives Magicka back and helps you keep it up almost permanently.

StamDK needs one of the above skills which are necessary to the classes defensive capability in PvP converted into a Stamina morph so that StamDK can actually sustain it and Green Dragon Blood is the most logical choice.

Riggsy · May 2018

Off topic:

NBrookus wrote: »

Why do you not use Take Flight instead of Ferocious Leap?

Lichbourne90 wrote: »

U do know there is a physical leap morph right?

Yes, but for my build.the damage shield when dropping in on a Zerg outweighs the extra damage done by Take Flight.

On topic:

JumpmanLane wrote: »

PvP get vigor. PvP get caltrops. Do your fighter’s guild get beast trap. I don’t understand why you’d want morphs in Stam you wouldn’t slot lol.

That's not an argument. There are plenty of generic Mag skills in Mages Guild, Support, etc too. You say we don't want stam morphs but until we actually get some its hard to say if they are better or not. Not to mention a lot of useless DK abilities mean the passives are wasted (which also need to be reworked).

Ocelot9x · May 2018

After seeing the patch notes I gave up. Another 6 months of "oh,you're on your dk? Isn't better if you log the stamden?"

BattleAxe · May 2018

One change I’d wanna see is FoO back to wut it used to be

JumpmanLane · May 2018

Temeraire507 wrote: »

JumpmanLane wrote: »

Temeraire507 wrote: »

JumpmanLane wrote: »

Temeraire507 wrote: »

GeorgeBlack wrote: »

aeowulf wrote: »

it's not useless, otherwise DK builds would be replacing it with non-class skills, which aren't useless.

Here's a lost of skills that I can replace Noxious Breath for in PvP:
MageLight just for the passive
Caltrops
Beast trap
SilverLeash
Flames of Oblivion
Wings
Molten arms
If not for flames of oblivion id even slot expert hunter over Noxious Breath

Here's what id replace it with as a PvE tank
All of the above except
MageLight
BeastTrap
FoO

Here's what I would replace them with a PvE dps
All the above except
MageLight.

As you can see one of the only two stamina costing DK skills does not find its way in any competitive build.
Only roleplaying.

You obviously don't play PvE that often. For PvE Noxious Breath definitely needs no buff. It is around 0,5 to 0,75 * Venomous Claw but it is AoE and debuffs groups with Major Fracture. It is used along FoO, Caltrops, Trap Beast, and sometimes Molten Armaments so they can't replace it. Wings and Leash are crap in PvE for DD's and tanks use none of the skills you stated. Except sometimes slotting Noxious for AoE debuff and Wings in heavy projectile fights, although Absorb Magic (One Hand and Shield) is mostly prefered over Wings.

For PvE dd REARMING TRAP, poison injection, endless hail, volatile armaments, caltrops. Wings and Leash? What? Hehehe Vote to kick!

What do you actually want to say? Please clarify your point. I will not try to interpret it in order to give you the chance to say it was meant in another way.

To clarify, I state as simply as I can: I agree with you.

Thank you for explaining. I just was unsure what you wanted to say

Oh, no problem. You were spot on. I wasn’t very clear. I TOTALLY agree.

JumpmanLane · May 2018

Riggsy wrote: »

Off topic:

NBrookus wrote: »

Why do you not use Take Flight instead of Ferocious Leap?

Lichbourne90 wrote: »

U do know there is a physical leap morph right?

Yes, but for my build.the damage shield when dropping in on a Zerg outweighs the extra damage done by Take Flight.

On topic:

JumpmanLane wrote: »

PvP get vigor. PvP get caltrops. Do your fighter’s guild get beast trap. I don’t understand why you’d want morphs in Stam you wouldn’t slot lol.

That's not an argument. There are plenty of generic Mag skills in Mages Guild, Support, etc too. You say we don't want stam morphs but until we actually get some its hard to say if they are better or not. Not to mention a lot of useless DK abilities mean the passives are wasted (which also need to be reworked).

I rolled and leveled a magdk this week and YOU are RIGHT. A guy here explained earlier here (and I agree) that the reason HE wanted more Stam morphed skills is for class identity, not dps. (I’d said: why would you want Stam DK morph skills you’d never slot. It didn’t occur to me about what YOU just said about wasted passives).

Having rolled and played a MagDK I REALLY get the OP’s (and your point) NOW about wanting to have more Stam DK morphs. I REALLY get it. I’m realizing there are SO many viable builds with a mag DK in PvE AND PvP that, with a magicka build, I’m leveling WAY more skill lines (needing way more skill POINTS). I just have way more options. I can slot way more DK skills with a magicka build.

I could run SnB SnB, Destro Restro, SnB Destro, SnB Restro, on and on and on and ACTUALLY slot a lot of DK skills. With StamDK I can make a GREAT PvE build but it wouldn’t necessarily involve a lot of actual DK skills. StamDK in PvP is just in a bad place. I haven’t been around too long but the sense I get is that in PvP, StamDK has been nerfed six ways to Sunday. So, I can’t really say what it’s WAS like to play.

What I can say is this: In PvP if I want to play MagDK any way that I want, TRULY in a play style that IS “play how you want” then there’s options for it, there’s skills for it. With StamDK, in PvP, not only am I severely gimped, I’m shoehorned into running one particular build or else I’m REALLY severely gimped.

While I was pvping with a MagDK, I was telling a pal of mine, omg THIS is how I wanted to play a StamDK in Cyrodiil. The trouble is that with StamDK in pve you can run a REALLY strong build (albeit with a bunch of skills out side of the DK lines) and get great dps with REALLY simple rotation. In PVP any other class can do everything you’d do better and easier. You’re stuck playing a certain build a certain way or you’re in a REALLY bad play.

So, the long and the short of it...I get it. I get it.

Svidrir · May 2018

Need more morph for sorcerer too !

Everyone should have as many choices as the warden actually!

Twohothardware · May 2018

Svidrir wrote: »

Need more morph for sorcerer too !

Everyone should have as many choices as the warden actually!

Every class should have a Stamina based class heal. Dragonknight doesn't have one, Sorcerer doesn't have one, Nightblade doesn't have one, and Templar doesn't have one. Only Warden has a Stamina based burst heal to use in conjunction with Rally and Vigor. Warden also gets buffs like Major Mending from passives while Dragonknight has to cast an expensive Igneous Shield prior to healing.

JumpmanLane · May 2018

Twohothardware wrote: »

Svidrir wrote: »

Need more morph for sorcerer too !

Everyone should have as many choices as the warden actually!

Every class should have a Stamina based class heal. Dragonknight doesn't have one, Sorcerer doesn't have one, Nightblade doesn't have one, and Templar doesn't have one. Only Warden has a Stamina based burst heal to use in conjunction with Rally and Vigor. Warden also gets buffs like Major Mending from passives while Dragonknight has to cast an expensive Igneous Shield prior to healing.

You’re right. It’s wild how tanky a MagDK is running light armor due to the crazy heals!

Mataata · May 2018

I don't see why there isn't a stam version of inhale honestly. It's a great melee range attack + heal. It could easily do poison damage instead and go along with the poison breath theme.

Juhasow · May 2018

Supernatural wrote: »

Ulfgarde wrote: »

You might only have 2 stamina costing skills, but you still have a ton of utility as an stamDK. Consider igneous, volatile armor, green dragon blood, fossilize, etc. All very much viable and useful to a stamDK depending on how you play it.

The problem is more that you lack implicit sustain in your class, with a sustain passive that encourages bad ulti usage. You also do not have enough damage in general to take down targets as you would on other classes. Instead, you focus on wearing down single enemies over time with DoTs and weaved skills (heavy attack + skill + bash), assuming you're 2h/1h&s. StamDK has enough CC and implicit DoT pressure to keep people on the defensive. What they lack is raw damage and burst potential, and in open world they can be quite challenging to play sometimes.

Next patch will buff magDK's sustain fairly well, but not as well for stamDK's. I don't get the stam whip unless it has a specific mechanic attached to it. Heroic slash / Puncture are strong enough abilities. Cauterize is a skill I would like to see use for stamDKs; either that or buff FoO.

I am gonna have to disagree a bit with utility. Igneous shield is a solid ability sure, but has been nerfed over the pass of time and is not as good as it once was. Volatile armor, on the other hand, is an ability I never liked during my time in PvP with a stam DK. Do not get me wrong, it provides some good damage mitigation, but you sacrifice an entire slot for just that, while other classes get their major resistances passively. Dragon blood is pretty weak compared to rally and vigor, and the recovery buffs it provides are irrelevant, as you will most likely be gaining those by potions. And finally, why would I run fossilize when I can reverb bash? Deals more damage, costs stamina, and adds a healing debuff.

I will agree 100% on the sustain part though. Your sustain comes through your ultimates as well as from igneous shield (or other earthen heart abilities). In both cases, you have to make an action to get resources back. Helping Hands and battle roar could use some love.

A cauterize change could definetely work, it is something I have also suggested. I'd change it to a stamina morph and have it deal poison damage as well as provide major savagery on activation (so that it will be active on both bars and not on the one that it is slotted) for maybe 20 secs instead of 15? Since most stamina dragonknights run heavy armor in PvP and have relatively low crit chance, it would be a welcome change and would also free some bar space, as I see lot of dks running evil hunter nowadays.

And finally, maybe have major ward and resolve granted passively instead of being locked behind volatile armor? Would be free some more bar space and would make it so that you can use more magicka solely on igneous and wings? Some thoughts..

I totally disagree about Volatile Armor. Only 1 class which is nightblade gets major resistances pasively other classes needs to use class abilities to have it. If we talk about getting something passively Spiked Armor is very strong since it gives easy acces to Burning Heat passive which means almost 100% uptime of 12% more healing received which is the strongest passive in that category not underlying minor/major criteria. Spray of spikes that Volatile armor is doing is also usefull tool to fight nightblades since rannge of it is not bad and it allows to kick nb's out of Cloak pretty easily. The returned portion of melee dmg is also additional source of direct dmg which can help proc some sets effects. Stamplars for example would gladly exchange their Restoring Focus for skill like Volatile Armor.