Thank you - this helps a lot

You can also look into a set like Bahraha's Curse, which will damage enemies and heal you at the same time. Here is the 5th piece bonus:

(5 Items) When you deal damage, you have a 25% chance to create desecrated ground for 5 seconds, which reduces the Movment Speed of enemies within by 70%, damages
them for 860 Magic Damage every 1 second and heals you for 100% of the damage done.
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Bahraha's+Curse+Set

Thank you all! A few questions:

JumpmanLane: Do you mean Sword and Board? I thought a Mag DK was supposed to be in light armor for the passives and use a destro staff. I also thought I put 100% of my points into Magika. Is that my error? When you did SnB from 30-50 what was your basic rotation? Did you put all points in Magika?

Thanks!

Disintegr8: What does 70-80% tank and 20-30% DPS mean? How you split your skills? Armor? What was a typical rotation?

I think I am an idiot. I am running around in light armor, all points in magika, destro staff. It seems like survival is hard from 30-50 so a pure caster set up might now work in those levels. I'm happy to grab an SnB and some more defensive stuff to outlast bad guys. I just do not understand ESO enough to know which abilities and morphs are critical 30-50.

Thanks all. I wonder if a dual wield stamina nightblade might be easier for me to learn. I've read that you just spam steel tornado - maybe that will not be ideal but a good, safe way for me to get to 50 and learn some stuff. Maybe a Mag DK is not a great first toon to get to 50 due to the way you have to balance the abilities.

I wish I was smarter...

Thanks again.

Yep - spam burning embers. very hard to die if you can repeatedly hit enemies with it. Get harness magicka (light armor skill) ASAP. When soloing you can run the armor skill for your major resistances.

My mag DK is one of my more survivable dps chars just because embers spam can be part of your rotation if you need constant healing. Combined with a shield you'll be good. You could also run cauterize instead of flames of oblivion (if you even have that unlocked yet - its the last skill in the line) that will tick and heal you, but that is the wrong morph for DPS roles...however it's a nice steady heal for soloing.

Are you steadily upgrading your sets every 5-10 levels? Which mundus stone are you using? Are you using food/drinks? This may also be a no/low CP issue because you are new.

mashugana wrote: »

I keep my gear within 5 levels but I do not really check or understand item sets and such. I have no idea what Mundus stone I use - i did not think that small buff would matter. And I use food and drink when I have it but it is just want i find. I do not know what foods are good for leveling or where to even buy food. I'm level 31 so I have no CP.

I also run out of Magicka quickly at level 31 so I rely a lot on heavy attacks. I'm noticing they do not hit has hard as they used to though.

Basically everything I did to survive from 1-30 is just not killing things quickly or keeping me alive 30+.

I love this game due to its complexity - but it can have a learning curve

For magclasses I usually run 5 Seducer and 4 kagrenac's since its easy to craft with all training traits.. Gives really good sustain plus some extra health. Then whatever random jewelry I can find that helps with mag regen/spell damage/ or incease max magika. Then I usually recraft this set every 15 levels. I'm CP 1000 so once I hit 50 I jump to that CP level and just build my class accordingly after that. I can usually grind a new toon in about 3 days (2-3 hours grinding each of those days with xp boost scrolls).

But also like everyone suggested making sure you using the healing version of embers and whip. Also note that embers can be applied to multiple NPCs so you can heal for each NPC you put the DOT on. Then usually any AOE skills to help burn down all the MOBs.

mashugana wrote: »

Thanks! I do not understand the shield comment. Are you saying get rid of Destro staff?

The light armor skill line has a skill called "annulment" . This will give you a shield that will absorb damage.

Running the draconic armor skill "Spiked Armor" will give you major resistance buffs - 5280 spell and physical resistance. every 660 points of resistance up to 33k reduces damage from physical or magick attacks by 1%, so keeping yourself buffed with this skill will reduce your incoming damage by ~8%

As of a recent update resistances are factored into the damage your shield takes, so running spiked armor with a damage shield will make it stronger. The damage shield strength is also based on your max health so adding some HP will help that out also. Make sure you're using a food buff.

This: https://www.xynodegaming.com/burn-dk

While not a levelling build watch the WHOLE vid and gleam from it what you can around why you use each skill and what they give you. Lots of info on how to stay alive and this applies to low levels or max!