I wouldn't exactly call Alcast an idiot, but here is a link anyways:
https://alcasthq.com/eso-most-recent-builds/

SocialAssassin wrote: »

First, of I would like to start out by saying much respect for able to make and calculate these insane builds. I would imagine you have to sit arround all day and think these out? But then again I honestly don't know? So is there and Idiot Guide to builds? Because that would be nice If it wasn't for the skill advisor in-game. I would be totally lost? Lol! And I am assuming having a good build is more important for PVP? Or does it come to down to gear in the end?

There are many sources of builds on the web and You Tube. Ultimately there's no "best" build but the best one that works for you, so look for ones that show the playstyle.

PVP has some basic build requirements (like impen and sustain and self-healing), but it's more about reacting to an opponent and situation, whereas higher level PVE is more about learning mechanics and executing them properly with a team.

Designing a build is actually pretty easy. Reverse engineering is the best way.

- use the most stat dense sets, food/drink, pots, etc...
- set benchmarks that you want to hit for basic defense like 2k recovery, 25k resists, 14k stam, etc...
- put stuff together that hits your benchmarks while having the most oomph
- test it live and tweak

Like protective used to be good because the offense you got from arcane jewellery was small but the mitigation was a good amount. Post patch the mitigation amount is small so there are more effective ways to get mitigation.

Some other things to keep in mind:

For light armour/magicka builds they work best with magicka and penetration because of shields and mag % buffs

For medium/stam builds they work best with weapon damage because of weapon damage buffs, this almost always means infused jewellery

All the sets that give mag and stam, or mag and stam recovery, in the same stat line are great. Conversely all the sets with 3 piece mag, then 4 piece stam, are bad. Not stat dense enough.

As you can probably tell I like good but balanced builds.

SocialAssassin wrote: »

First, of I would like to start out by saying much respect for able to make and calculate these insane builds. I would imagine you have to sit arround all day and think these out? But then again I honestly don't know? So is there and Idiot Guide to builds? Because that would be nice If it wasn't for the skill advisor in-game. I would be totally lost? Lol! And I am assuming having a good build is more important for PVP? Or does it come to down to gear in the end?

Learn game mechanics first. Try out the common builds other have posted. These will get you some of the way there, but to get there you really need to customise the build to your playstyle. When you're ready to make your own build check out:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor

Easily the best eso build website. It matches real game data and lets you make the builds and see how the stats looks before making any commitments in game.

PvP wise. Best advice is learn positioning. It is by far the biggest factor that will determine the outcome. Doesn't matter what build you got, if you can't position yourself you will not be able to be an effective pvper. I'm talking line of sight, high ground, tracking of enemy movement, when to engage, when to press, when to move out of the way is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you master it you can run whatever build you want and succeed.

It really depends on where you want to be - you could spend weeks theorycrafting and farming a build, or you could get a crafter to make you a stamina DPS set and call it a day, or you could be anywhere in between. Here's my process, very generally, if it helps at all.

0: Look up some builds online or find an experienced player to get an idea of what's out there, and what's effective. I personally love going to Alcast for this.
1: Decide on your role: Tank, healer, or DPS.
2: Decide whether you want to run stamina, magicka, or be a hybrid.
3: Pick a race and class according to what synergizes with the role and attributes (Dunmer are excellent hybrids, Altmer are great with magicka; Templars are solid healers, Dragonknights make great tanks; for example).
4: Refer back to what you looked up and see what they did to make their build successful. Instead of looking at specific abilities, however, look at the different things those abilities offer. You might see, for example, that a PVE trials tank is looking to have a taunt, a self heal, a CC ability, something to give them Major Ward and Major Resolve, and then the rest might be group buffs or utility.
5: Make a list of what you need.
6: Find abilities/gear that do those things. This usually requires a bit of googling, looking stuff up on the wiki, testing stuff in-game, farming for gear.
7: Put it all together, test it, see how it works, and if there's something you think you're missing or can do better, alter the build.

Here's an example I ran a friend through recently.

0: He came to me, which, while there are far more experienced players, I can at least give a baseline for what to do.
1: He wanted to be a stealthy sneaky Wood Elf, so DPS fit the bill.
2: Bosmer have some synergy with stamina abilities, so stamina DPS it is.
3: Stamina DPS can work well with any class, but he wanted to be sneaky, so... Nightblade, Bosmer, stamina, DPS. The foundations of the build are taken care of.
4: My friend was looking to play PVE and do most content outside of trials and vet dungeons, so all he really needed to be successful was a self heal. Many good PVE stamina DPS builds use 7 medium armor, a bow on backbar and dual wield daggers on front bar, so we also put that on. I crafted him some Hundings Rage armor pieces until he could farm for more specific gear, as that set helps increase the dps of stamina builds. Outside of that, I recommended running a few buffs to increase his damage, a few damage over time abilities to stack on a target, and a spammable ability to use until the buffs and dots needed to be refreshed.
5: We made a list.
6: He decided to use Vigor for his self heal, his backbar was used for buffs, and his frontbar was used for bleeds and his spammable. I made him his armor and enchanted it with a bit of stamina and health (made sure he had 20k health), and he put the rest of his attribute points into stamina to increase his dps. Instead of walking him through champion points, he decided just to take a layout from a stamina DPS build online.
7: He's been using the build for a while now, and after having looked up some armor sets, he has an idea for modifying the build to really focus on bleeds, so he's currently farming for gear that will synergize with that.

Easy, 7 step process. Some of it takes a while, depending on how invested you want to be, but it works for me. You could always just find someone else's build and use that, but this helps you actually learn the game too, so you can be better off when balance changes run through and you need to switch things up, I've found.

I dunno, this is just what I do. Hope I helped!