My dps is really low and I don't know what i'm doing wrong, please help

CalibarZero · July 2018

https://imgur.com/yv218ej

no matter what I do I can't seem to go above 13k dps, my highest so far is 15k and that's about as high as I can push it

also, I don't know how to link images and make them viewable in the forums

Joker99 · July 2018

Just by taking a quick glance at parses you linked, I see that you're using the wrong food, no potions, and no poisons on bow bar. I reccomend you to get Max Health + Max Stamina food, Essence of Weapon Power pots, and Damage Health Poisons on bow bar, apart from that we're missing your current build and skills slotted on both bars.

Your Minor Berserk is also quite low which means you're not getting that extra damage, recovery and free bow procs which would increase your dps by a tremendous amount, and I also see that you're doing quite a lot of heavy attacks which shouldn't be neccesary but you'll do less and less as your dps increases. First you need to figure out your gear and then your rotation, please make the necessary adjustments pointed before.

CalibarZero · July 2018

@Joker99 hi, thanks again, i've been following this guide

https://alcasthq.com/eso-stamina-nightblade-build-for-pve/#content5

using hunding's rage as my 5 piece set on chest, waist, gloves, legs and boots,

strength of the automaton on head, arms and jewelry

and finally, agility on my weapons

my skill bars are the ones outlined in the build and my rotation is

endless hail > caltrops > poison injection >rearming trap > rend > surprise attack > heavy attack > surprise attack > repeat

Joker99 · July 2018

Automaton is not a preferable set for a stamblade, and agility isn't all that good on weapons only, first you should have a gear plan, and I'll describe you the one I'd go with in as much detail as possible.

The first changes I'd make is get 3 Agility jewelry and 2 Leki's Focus daggers and a bow, since the 2pc on this set provides weapon damage. Both these sets are purchasable for nothing at guild traders. After I get those I would try my hardest to get either Kra'gh, Selene or Velidreth, whichever you want but the difficulty of obtaining these, as well as the power of them is like this( ranked from easiest to hardest and least powerful to most powerful): Kra'gh->Selene->Velidreth

After acquiring those mentioned earlier I would then look into farming normal Craglorn trials which are Aetherian Archive, Hel Ra Citadel and Sanctum Ophidia, all of which are not hard at all. There I would look into getting Vicious Ophidian jewelry and 2 Daggers, and while at it, there's a set in Hel Ra Citadel called Advancing Yokeda of which I'd get the same pieces as Vicious Ophidian, you need both of these sets for endgame.

You have 5 pcs of Hundings rage for body, which is great, this set provides the perfect basis for it's replacement which is Relequen found in normal Cloudrest, however that set is unusable in some conditions, and you'll probably figure them by the time you get it, and it gets replaced by Hundings.

After acquiring the Vicious Ophidian and Velidreth set and pairing it with Hundings I would start learning vMA for getting the Maelstrom Bow which will improve your dps by a pretty long shot.
By the end, when you've acquired all the stuff you'd have 5 Advancing Yokeda 5 Relequen 2 Velidreth as your vet Trials build(Relequen is swapped in certain scenarios with Hundings), 5 Vicious Ophidian 5 Hundings 2 Velidreth for your vMA build and you have a platform to change sets easily and not having them being spread messy.

As for the rotation, I suggest you do it this way, as it's the most efficient compared to Alcast's:
Buff up with Relentless and Leeching -> Endless Hail -> Rearming Trap -> Caltrops -> Poison Injection -> Incap Strike (when it's up) -> Barswap -> Rending Slashes -> Bow Proc -> Surprise Attack until Endless Hail runs out and repeat. If the target is below 25% replace Surprise Attack with Killer's Blade.
Reapply Relentless whenever it runs out, don't forget to do it, it's the ultimate tool in a Nightblade's dps. As you get more accustomed to your rotation you can start to fit in one more bow proc as two per cast of Relentless Focus is generally the norm.
Your skill bars should look like this -> DW bar: Relentless Focus, Rending Slashes, Surprise Attack, Killer's Blade, Rearming Trap ( for passive weapon damage, we won't use it on front bar but back bar) ULT: Flawless Dawnbreaker ( again, for passive weapon damage, we use Incap as our ultmate)

Bow bar: Poison Injection, Razor Caltrops, Rearming Trap, Endless Hail, Leeching Strikes ULT: Incapacitating Strike.

Vigor can replace rearming trap on front bar in solo situations but in a dungeon or a trial we mostly count on healers to keep us alive, even so Leeching Strikes gives a nice heal granted we consistently hit Light Attacks.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

SoLooney · July 2018

2 selenes or velidreth. 5 advancing yokeda and 5 perfected relequen.

reprosal · July 2018

SoLooney wrote: »

2 selenes or velidreth. 5 advancing yokeda and 5 perfected relequen.

I always laugh at the people who post endgame gear for someone who is just grasping the base concept of sets and proper enchants..

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO · July 2018

Light attack weaving adds tremendous DPS as it isn't dependent on the global cooldowns. Before each ability, you should be light attacking, then as quickly as possible, casting your active ability to cancel the light attack animation (widely [and appropriately] known as 'animation cancelling'). Practice on the dummy without worrying about the parse - just light attack, then as soon as you see the damage register, cast your active ability. Eventually, you'll be able to do it quickly, and light attacks should always be very close to the top (if not at the top themselves) of your outgoing damage on a parse. You will see a huge bump in DPS just by learning to weave light attacks and cancel the animations properly - it's one of the main factors separating a good DPS from an ok DPS player.

Additionally, like everyone else said, you should definitely be using blue health + max stam food, ( or dubious cameron if you can afford it), potions for sustain (and weapon damage if you aren't getting that from your active abilities), and weapon poisons. With a little practice, I'm sure you can easily push into 20k DPS without changing your gear at all.

But when you change your gear, 30k won't be a problem either.

W0lf_z13 · July 2018

don't know if you run this.... but a good addon that has helped me increase my dps ( was in the 20's ... now im hitting 30-35k ) is Action Duration Reminder ... the addon puts a timer over a skill that has a duration ... helps keep track of when you need to recast something .... if you don't have it already I recommend getting it

Sparr0w · July 2018

Rotation, CP allocation, gear, pots, enchants, passives, penetration, group buffs etc etc etc

If you post a video of your rotation as well as gear (with enchants) and CP we should be able to help

Agenericname · July 2018

W0lf_z13 wrote: »

don't know if you run this.... but a good addon that has helped me increase my dps ( was in the 20's ... now im hitting 30-35k ) is Action Duration Reminder ... the addon puts a timer over a skill that has a duration ... helps keep track of when you need to recast something .... if you don't have it already I recommend getting it

Very cool. I'm glad I read this thread.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · July 2018

reprosal wrote: »

SoLooney wrote: »

2 selenes or velidreth. 5 advancing yokeda and 5 perfected relequen.

I always laugh at the people who post endgame gear for someone who is just grasping the base concept of sets and proper enchants..

Seriously, oh you are pulling 13-15k? Well clearly your problem is you dont have the latest and greatest trail set. SMH.

To the OP, my only real criticism of your gear is that Automaton is not a great set for a stamblade, but you could certainly do worse. People always jump to gear when you have low DPS, but little secret, this game is like 75% rotation and 25% build. Gear can be the difference between 40-50k, but it aint the difference between 13 and 25k.

You have elected to play the DPS class with the highest ceiling, but also arguably the most difficult rotation. The rotation you posted is a shell of what end game players do.

First thing to know about nightblade, they live and die by the skill relentless focus/merciless resolve. Their entire rotation is centered around this skill. It gives a damage buff, and every 5 light attacks allows you to fire a spectral bow that hits really hard.

What does that mean? Well early on, you should just be trying to keep this skill active, as that alone adds damage. You should also be working on your light attack weaving. Basically you put a light attack in front of every skill. To be blunt, if you dont want to light weave, I would pick another class. No class is more dependent on a good light weave than nightblade. In practice, that means a really good nightblade can fire the spectral bow every 5th skill. Once you get the hang of just keeping the buff up, work on firing the bow when it is up. This only comes with practice.

Next, nightblades sustain by using Siphoning attacks/leaching strikes. Pick the stam morph obvioulsy, but basically, this skill returns stamina (or magic) when you (surprise surprise) light attack. So not only is your damage light attack dependent but so is your resource managment. A good nightblade should essentially never have to heavy attack.

The next thing to do is take your basic rotation and make a few fundamental changes. First, Leeching and relentless need to be kept up on cooldown. Its okay to let leeching drop off for a few seconds, but relentless should be up 100% of the time to the best of your ability. Then take the rotatoin you posted, and put a light attack in front of all your back bar skills, and instead HA>surprise attack x 2, try LightAttack>surprise attack x3. If the bow procs, fire it.

At some point, you will learn to break the circular rotation, but for now, keep it is circular as possible. Few other things to mention. Run food (blue health+stam or Dubious Cameron throne), run weapon power potions. Make sure all enchants are stamina and weapon damage. Make sure you have 5 pieces of medium armor. I would use the lover mundus stone.

Sparr0w · July 2018

@Oreyn_Bearclaw damn that edit was quick

Sound advice there OP ^

Oreyn_Bearclaw · July 2018

Sparr0w wrote: »

@Oreyn_Bearclaw damn that edit was quick Sound advice there OP ^

@Sparr0w
My edit skills are strong. You need them when your rants get as long as mine. haha Assuming you meant my change from light attack to heavy attack.

Sparr0w · July 2018

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Sparr0w wrote: »

@Oreyn_Bearclaw damn that edit was quick Sound advice there OP ^

@Sparr0w
My edit skills are strong. You need them when your rants get as long as mine. haha Assuming you meant my change from light attack to heavy attack.

@Oreyn_Bearclaw Yep barely had time to notice it, rants are awesome tho keep 'em coming

W0lf_z13 · July 2018

Agenericname wrote: »

W0lf_z13 wrote: »

don't know if you run this.... but a good addon that has helped me increase my dps ( was in the 20's ... now im hitting 30-35k ) is Action Duration Reminder ... the addon puts a timer over a skill that has a duration ... helps keep track of when you need to recast something .... if you don't have it already I recommend getting it

Very cool. I'm glad I read this thread.

it's a great addon ... I was either forgetting to recast elemental blockade and not noticing it for a few seconds OR recasting it TOO often which was burning out my mag ... and even when swapping bars the countdown just shifts upwards a bit so its always visible

Oreyn_Bearclaw · July 2018

W0lf_z13 wrote: »

Agenericname wrote: »

W0lf_z13 wrote: »

don't know if you run this.... but a good addon that has helped me increase my dps ( was in the 20's ... now im hitting 30-35k ) is Action Duration Reminder ... the addon puts a timer over a skill that has a duration ... helps keep track of when you need to recast something .... if you don't have it already I recommend getting it

Very cool. I'm glad I read this thread.

it's a great addon ... I was either forgetting to recast elemental blockade and not noticing it for a few seconds OR recasting it TOO often which was burning out my mag ... and even when swapping bars the countdown just shifts upwards a bit so its always visible

Action duration reminder is a wonderful addon if you are looking for a simple way to track your buffs. I also use Srendarr, but it takes a fair amount of messing with the settings. Basically, i turn everything off, and only use two of the buff timers. I then specifically white list (its in the settings), just my active skills that I plan to use. I also use Grim Focus Counter on all my nightblades. Learning to manage your grim focus (merciless/relentless) is the most demanding part of playing nightblade. This addon is mighty useful.

I setup my screen so it looks very similar to LZH's. My healthbars are different, and he doesnt use action duration reminder, but I setup my srendarr and grim focus counter exactly like his. He has a short addon video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjaGXJoEeFE

Agenericname · July 2018

W0lf_z13 wrote: »

Agenericname wrote: »

W0lf_z13 wrote: »

don't know if you run this.... but a good addon that has helped me increase my dps ( was in the 20's ... now im hitting 30-35k ) is Action Duration Reminder ... the addon puts a timer over a skill that has a duration ... helps keep track of when you need to recast something .... if you don't have it already I recommend getting it

Very cool. I'm glad I read this thread.

it's a great addon ... I was either forgetting to recast elemental blockade and not noticing it for a few seconds OR recasting it TOO often which was burning out my mag ... and even when swapping bars the countdown just shifts upwards a bit so its always visible

Pretty much the same except that it's merciless resolve and siphoning strikes that suffer the most for me. I'm gonna try this and see if it helps.

CalibarZero · July 2018

Thanks again for all the help, I managed to bring my dps to be at least consistently 15k dps and got it as high as 17k

I tried light weaving at the start but found i’m Not skilled enough for it yet and was losing dps, but i’ll Definitely try to practice it more

I also changed the enchants on my jewelry from the default enchants to weapon damage enchants on my automaton set

Finally I got an agility necklace, two leki’s rings a medium selene’s Mask with the divine’s trait and a light selene’s epaulets

My dps overall was higher with the automaton set but managing my stamina was much harder while my dps was lower with my monster set but I was able to consistently keep up my rotation

Edit: typed on phone, I wish I had 15k FPS

reprosal · July 2018

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

reprosal wrote: »

SoLooney wrote: »

2 selenes or velidreth. 5 advancing yokeda and 5 perfected relequen.

I always laugh at the people who post endgame gear for someone who is just grasping the base concept of sets and proper enchants..

Seriously, oh you are pulling 13-15k? Well clearly your problem is you dont have the latest and greatest trail set. SMH.

To the OP, my only real criticism of your gear is that Automaton is not a great set for a stamblade, but you could certainly do worse. People always jump to gear when you have low DPS, but little secret, this game is like 75% rotation and 25% build. Gear can be the difference between 40-50k, but it aint the difference between 13 and 25k.

You have elected to play the DPS class with the highest ceiling, but also arguably the most difficult rotation. The rotation you posted is a shell of what end game players do.

First thing to know about nightblade, they live and die by the skill relentless focus/merciless resolve. Their entire rotation is centered around this skill. It gives a damage buff, and every 5 light attacks allows you to fire a spectral bow that hits really hard.

What does that mean? Well early on, you should just be trying to keep this skill active, as that alone adds damage. You should also be working on your light attack weaving. Basically you put a light attack in front of every skill. To be blunt, if you dont want to light weave, I would pick another class. No class is more dependent on a good light weave than nightblade. In practice, that means a really good nightblade can fire the spectral bow every 5th skill. Once you get the hang of just keeping the buff up, work on firing the bow when it is up. This only comes with practice.

Next, nightblades sustain by using Siphoning attacks/leaching strikes. Pick the stam morph obvioulsy, but basically, this skill returns stamina (or magic) when you (surprise surprise) light attack. So not only is your damage light attack dependent but so is your resource managment. A good nightblade should essentially never have to heavy attack.

The next thing to do is take your basic rotation and make a few fundamental changes. First, Leeching and relentless need to be kept up on cooldown. Its okay to let leeching drop off for a few seconds, but relentless should be up 100% of the time to the best of your ability. Then take the rotatoin you posted, and put a light attack in front of all your back bar skills, and instead HA>surprise attack x 2, try LightAttack>surprise attack x3. If the bow procs, fire it.

At some point, you will learn to break the circular rotation, but for now, keep it is circular as possible. Few other things to mention. Run food (blue health+stam or Dubious Cameron throne), run weapon power potions. Make sure all enchants are stamina and weapon damage. Make sure you have 5 pieces of medium armor. I would use the lover mundus stone.

Oreyn I wasn’t mocking the OP at all. Just the person who suggested to use perfected relequen..

I am defending the OP in that he is unable to acquire said gear at his ESO experience to date.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · July 2018

@reprosal
Oh I know.

I was just jumping on your bandwagon. Haha

Oreyn_Bearclaw · July 2018

CalibarZero wrote: »

Thanks again for all the help, I managed to bring my dps to be at least consistently 15k dps and got it as high as 17k

I tried light weaving at the start but found i’m Not skilled enough for it yet and was losing dps, but i’ll Definitely try to practice it more

I also changed the enchants on my jewelry from the default enchants to weapon damage enchants on my automaton set

Finally I got an agility necklace, two leki’s rings a medium selene’s Mask with the divine’s trait and a light selene’s epaulets

My dps overall was higher with the automaton set but managing my stamina was much harder while my dps was lower with my monster set but I was able to consistently keep up my rotation

Edit: typed on phone, I wish I had 15k FPS

The light weave is your biggest issue. Dont spend a lot of gold and effort micromanaging your gear. Just remember what we all learned in the Wizard of Oz. It's going to get darker before it gets lighter. I kid, but if you try to fundamentally change your rotation/playstyle, it will prob get worse before it gets better. End Game DPS is designed around a good light weave, and on no class is that more prevalent than on nightblade.

Probably the best advice I can give you is not to worry about full parses right now. Think of it as learning a new piece on a musical instrument. You dont start out just playing the whole thing. Break it into pieces and practice each piece. For example, just practice starting on your front bar. Then Bar swap, LA>hail, LA>PI, LA>trap, LA>Caltrops, Swap cancel. Swap canceling is basically when you bar swap immediately after you cast a skill. It allows you to skip some of the animation and speed up your rotation a bit.

The order of the back bar is not terribly important, but I do it that way on purpose. Caltrops has a really long animation, so its good to put it last because you can bar swap cancel most of it. Same could be said about hail, but if you have a VMA bow, swap canceling hail can make the buff not apply (or at least it used to). Hail is also your best damage skill, so I like to put it first to make sure it has the best uptime of the bunch.

Another thing you can practice is casting relentless focus, then just practice light weaving surprise attack to get a feel for it. Fire the bow when it is up. Practice until you can get at least 2 procs per cast of relentless, and keep in mind that three is the gold standard. But just juggling those two skills with a good light weave is a really important piece of the puzzle.

CalibarZero · July 2018

https://youtube.com/watch?v=B9CWc2qgxJ4

here's the video of me doing my rotation for the people asking me to do it

and here's the parse of it after the video

N2pQRUe

https://imgur.com/a/N2pQRUe

hope this helps

Oreyn_Bearclaw · July 2018

CalibarZero wrote: »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=B9CWc2qgxJ4

here's the video of me doing my rotation for the people asking me to do it

and here's the parse of it after the video

https://imgur.com/a/N2pQRUe

hope this helps

The whole thing is just a little slow, but you are actually closer than you think. You might actually be over casting leeching strikes in the beginning. Make sure you actually let it run out. You get a big burst of stam when the timer hits zero. Also, once you hit 25%, simply replace surprise attack with killer's blade. No need to go back and forth. Both are spam skills. Use SA from 100-26% and KB from 25-0.

If you have to heavy attack, dont do it on your bow bar. Do it on your DW bar. Its much faster and should hit harder. Your goal should be to spend as little time as possible on your bow bar.

One thing to always check. On that parse you did about 100 light attacks in 160 seconds. That means about .625 light attacks per second. Really good players are .9 or above. Your data is a little skewed because of the bow heavy attacks you are doing, but its a fair indicator of the pace of your rotation.

witchdoctor · July 2018

@CalibarZero ,

Both Oreyn and Joker have given great advice.

I just wanted to double in on: learn to light attack weave! As someone who *understood* how to do it, and always *thought* they were ... once you really *are* doing it, your DPS will increase.

Oreyn mentioned breaking down your rotation and just practising LA weaving on your front bar. I wholeheartedly suggest the same. I have a third addon for you: light attack helper.

This little gen just helped me break the 30K plateau and am now at 35K (and hopefully higher!). For a NB, though, the grim focus counter addon will be better, once you have the whole rotation included. This is because the grim focus addon will highlight when your spectral bow has procced, which, as said earlier, is critical to NB DPS.

So, I'm suggesting light attack helper in those little nugget of rotation parts of learning, then graduate to grim focus. Srendarr is just all around excellent.

Light attack helper - http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info2048-LightAttackHelper.html

Grim focus - http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1918-GrimFocusCounter.html

Srendarr - http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info655-Srendarr-AuraBuffDebuffTracker.html

Good luck!