In general, Maelstrom is a great way to practice doing it all: self-healing, DPS, and following mechanics. Start with Normal first if you havent done it yet, then Vet ramps up the challenge.

If you are struggling with recognizing combat cues, there are some good mobs to practice with.

Interuptable attacks: streaky red lines
Atronachs and Daedra minibosses are excellent, with a variety of special attacks that make the fight more annoying if you don't respond in time. Trolls and Ogrim will heal if not interrupted.

Heavy attacks: flashing white lines during the windup, must be blocked
Two-handed wielding weapon users use this a lot, and it will often knock back or kill if not blocked.

Cones/Charges: a big red (or whatever color you make it) cone/rectangle on the ground. Best roll dodged out of, though block can work. Sonetimes block will stop a charge, other times you get knocked down anyway. (My combat AOE cues are now bright teal.)
Archer mobs often use this tactic. Minotaurs have a charge attack.


In PVP, be prepared to block, break free, and dodge roll quite a bit. Its very reactive based on what your opponent is doing, so you'll have to learn as you go.

winged_tortoise wrote: »

Thanks Varanis! You’re speaking into exactly what I want. Now it’s time to find a few good practice spawns.

If you can think of some good delves in DC land let me know. I know a good troll spawn at the Trolls Toothpick in northern Bangkorai. The key is having the practice mob near the Wayshrine/rez point. Please let me know if you can think of others. Easy to reach Atronach & Daedra delve bosses would be perfect.

For Atronachs, the Willowgrove area in Reapers March has a ton. It's very easy to run around and fight all types of atronachs. Alternatively, Spellscar in Craglorn if you want to challenge yourself with Atronachs+mobs.

For daedra minibosses, the best place is Imperial City as you can't walk 50 feet without fighting them. If you dislike the PVP aspect, try the farmstead in Bangkorai that's overrun with Daedroths.

This source is pretty good for finding farm locations for all the monsters that have achievement drops: https://www.esogoldstore.com/news/152--eso-trophies--collectible-achievement-guide-spoiler-alert

Thanks Varanis!

May I hit you with more game mechanic questions from my first practice sessions.

I decided to focus on trolls first. I’ve only been able to kill them if I pop and ultimate or a healing pot. After a practice session they seem quite easy.

Can you help me better ID the mechanics? I see three so far:

1. A big red AOE cue grows around the ogre just before he pounds. Before I always tried to bash it, but that doesn’t work. Dodging out of the circle seems to be the key. Am I correct?

2. A red wedge tip will also spawn in front of the ogre. I have no idea what this is. Do you? It seems to be disrupted with a bash. Am I on the right track.

3. On top of 1&2 I’m still taking a lot of damage. I note white flashes spawn around him just before I take a good hit. Are these attack cues? Should I block them? I assume they are not heavy attacks. I’m not getting knocked down or dazed, just damaged.

Thanks for the help.

winged_tortoise wrote: »

I found this post on mechanics:

http://esoacademy.com/npc-monster-combat-mechanics/

It goes over the game cues to block, bash and dodge. It’s just what I was looking for. When I see one of these cues should I animation weave a dodge roll, block or or bash as appropriate behind my skill?

Example, if a mob develops wite lines indicating a heavy attack should I block cancel it (add a block following my next skill) or should I stop what I’m doing and just block for about a second?

I hold block, personally, because I've been known to have lag issues where if I don't block when I see it, the game might not recognize that I blocked in time.

Many times my friends hear me exclaim "I blocked that!" and then they have to rez my poor tank.

So it depends to a degree on how responsive your game is to whether or not you can fit another skill in during the windup time.