Two Handed-Solo PvE

Delta1038 · February 2019

So I have made a few test builds in ESO, mainky Templar and Dragonknights (those are the two classes I like the most). While dual wielding and weapon+shield are easy to make and relatively easy to play as, I have been really unhappy with my Two Handed builds. I am primarily a solo player who focuses on PvE content, doing dungeons on normal and even then pretty rare. My main priority has been to play ESO like Morrowind through Skyrim, single player focus. My biggest issue has been not feeling as good a damage deal as dual wielding or not surviving as wrll as weapon+shield. Any advice or suggestions on armor, skills and morohs, or general tactics would be appreciated as well as anything that may be useful to make these builds viable for normal dungeons runs.

Banana · February 2019

Try a stamina sorcerer. Crit surge Rally Vigor Brawler easy survival.

FrancisCrawford · February 2019

Using different weapons on different bars increases your damage, because of DoTs. I don't know whether that feels realistically enough to you to be pleasing.

Beyond that, some of the strong heals available to stamina players -- some of them less reliable or more situational than others -- include:

Vigor from PvP.
Rally from 2-Handed.
Critical Surge from Sorcerer.
Reaper's Mark from Nightblade.
Repentance from Templar.
The whole Green Balance line from Warden.
The projectile shield skills from Dragonknight and Warden.
Deadly Cloak from Dual Wield, Shuffle from Medium Armor, or Mirage from Nightblade.
Various monster sets.

There are more, but those are some of the biggies.

El_Borracho · February 2019

You could build a DK with an eye towards tanking in the future, if you plan on doing group content. That would make your sword and board more applicable. Don’t need the tank gear to run overland but will if you pursue this for group content. EDIT forgot gear. Livewire is great for solo play. Resilient Yokeda and Thunderbug are fun boom tank sets. Seventh Legion is a PVP centric set, but it too is good for soloing. All are heavy sets.

As for the 2H play style, anything goes in solo play. 2H would probably do fine in most vet dungeons and normal trials. You might have a harder time in vet DLC trials only because of the small but noticeable gap in DPS with DW.

Either way, you could look into gear like Sunderflame if you prefer heavy attacks as sustain is an issue with 2H in PVE. Leviathan is a good all around. Vicious Serpent is a must, again because of the sustain issues. Hundlings, Spriggans, and all of the other stamina melee gear will work. I suppose the Relequen/AY setup could be adapted. Would be easier to get an AY greatsword than a pair of daggers. Figuring out a rotation that would take advantage of AY would be tricky.

commdt · February 2019

With correct build and rotation 2H is on par with dual in PvE, at least for a sorc. And as a solo experience 2H is the most brilliant for surviving while outputting damage. All you need is Momentum (Rally) and use your Brawler (Cleave morph) often. It gives you damage shield for each enemy hit up to 10k+ I guess, which really makes difference. With my 20 level twink I managed to gather half of public dungeon - lots of mobs + 2 bosses and just spammed Brawler, weaving it with HA, and I was just immune. It will be good also to get Master 2H (though youll need a group for this), with it brawler hits really hard. I did veteran Maelstrom on my tank with it without much effort.

Sword and shield is only for PvP or tanks in PvE, in solo PvE it is useless (too litle damage for not too much survivability), so youll be far better off with 2H + Bow. If you are struggling to survive, you can also use heavy armor, it gives you significant bonus to survivability

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · February 2019

. All you need is Momentum (Rally) and use your Brawler (Cleave morph) often. It gives you damage shield for each enemy hit up to 10k+ I guess, which really makes difference.

This. This is all you need for survivability as a Stam toon. Better then anything in the
dw or s/b trees. Keep up rally and spam brawler if you need to, though on my Stam toons, I get around 3k base ward, which can scale up by a factor of 6. So around a 20k ward when I hit 6 mobs.

Stx · February 2019

I have a question for 2 hand dps. Which trait is best? I have been told infused, but also sharpened and nirnhoned. Without sharpened my pen is at 9300, and without nirn my self buffed weapon damage is at 4800.

Also, an unrelated question but but applies to soloing: Which set is better for single target dps, velidreth or Selenes? And also how much of a dps loss would blood spawn be? The resists would be nice for a solo build but maybe not if it's a large dps loss.

Armann · February 2019

On my stamsorc I use Stormfist, Briarheart (body) and Pariah (jewelry, weapons). Tanky with decent damage and regen.