Theory Crafting Questions

ms_sophysticated · August 2019

Hello everyone, I have been playing on console for about a year now and I have gotten to a point where I want to learn more about the game and the characters that I am putting gear onto.
For a while now I have been using a builds that I have found online from people like DottzGaming and Alcast, and various Youtube videos. but I want to try and do it for myself. mainly because to be honest, I don’t really understand what they are talking about half of the time, I just use the build because everyone told me it was what I needed to do.

Is there a resource available that I can goto, to try and better understand how and why it’s done?

I know that this is kind of a loaded question but any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Iskiab · August 2019

I don’t think there’s a source for theorycrafting. Tbh it’s not that hard, most of the time it can be mathed out for pve, for pvp it’s more complicated. It just takes a lot of time.

Just follow some steps and you’ll be okay... for pve at least:
- make sure you have one ability on each bar for class passives if you need them from a skill tree
- make sure you have your class’ big hitter slotted and use it
- make sure you only use abilities you need, passives for more damage are more important then which abilities you use
- always hit the pen cap, then just mess around and get the biggest tooltips you can

Other then that just use a build editor, then test it on PTS so you don’t waste gold and transmutation stones figuring out if it works. That’s for pve dps at least, just the biggest tooltips while hitting enough health and sustain.

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

Bladerunner1 · August 2019

There are a few good guides on how the game works here on the forum

Dealing damage
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/422268/a-comprehensive-guide-on-damage-dealing-in-elder-scrolls-online/p1

Mitigating damage
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/279426/damage-mitigation-explanation-updated-15-07-2019/p1

All the game buffs/debuffs and how to get them
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/284053/buffs-and-debuffs-a-full-list-updated-for-murkmire/p1

Other websites:

All the item sets
https://eso-sets.com/

All the skills with damage/healing calculation
http://esolog.uesp.net/viewSkills.php

Nestor · August 2019

Use the UESP Build Editor linked above.

The biggest thing to pull from builds is how gear and skills, in particular passives, can boost skills. Some skills you want to fire off before other skills as they give a boost or a synergy. Some builds work better with certain skills. Like you would not use Ice skills wearing Burning Spellweave, but instead Ice Heart. Not that you would really use an Ice set if you have a tank around, just an example.

Deltia has a series of videos that explain how gear and skills and potions and rotations synergize. It may not be all that current, but it's close enough and will help explain how this stuff works together.

http://deltiasgaming.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/deltiasgaming

malistorr · August 2019

IMO a good way to go about it is experiment with most or all the skills and/or classes. Then decide what role you want to play. Do you want to be a tank, healer, or dps? Then what skills do you like to use? From there, you can tailor your gear, mundus stone(s), and CP to get the strongest skills possible.

For example if you were a mag sorc you could use Netch's Touch if you like to use a lightning staff and DPS skills (AOE or single target) that do lightning (elemental not magic) damage.

Tailor your gear around your class, roles, skills/play style and not the other way around.

Other than that it's using the build editor and/or testing if you're really after doing the most DPS possible.

JumpmanLane · August 2019

Slap some of those Alcast or Dottz builds into the the UESP Build Editor and you’ll begin to see what does what and sort of why.

We were taught to theory craft like this: Build a glass cannon. If you can add anything add damage. Fight with that and add anything you might need, sustain and survivability from wherever you can get it (gear, cp, mundus, whatever) while retaining whatever damage you deem necessary to still be able to kill folks. But run that glass cannon for a WHILE. Don’t care about dying.

Some folks think you should start tanky (high survivability) but running a glass cannon will develop your skill at kiting, line of sighting, etc at staying alive. Same with sustain. Using the games Lil tricks at managing sustain when you have very little will make you a better player once you add sustain and survivability to your build.

Ultimately, you want just enough damage to actually kill folks, just enough sustain and survivability to survive a long drawn out 1v1 and the mobility and skill to reset when outnumbered and turn those vx’s into 1v1’s.

Then you’ll be like THAT’s the build!

IneedaDollar · August 2019

I cannot give you any specific sources but i can definetly give you some advices.
To begin with theorycrafting its a good idea to start asking yourself why people use certain skills or wear sets. Gain as much knowledge as you can get from any possible source and make sure to understand why certain things are good or meta.
Choices are often made to create a raid composition that sometimes forces players to wear support sets that are not optimal for themselves.
Keep that in mind.
Also setups can be very situational and doesnt necessarily work everywhere.
Furthermore there are a lot of people out there who just dont know what they are talking about so be careful with information from untrusted sources.
Also check out the math behind combat. You dont have to calculate everything while theorycrafting but you should have a basic understanding about how different stats interact with each other. (Google should help here)
But most important: murder your darlings.
If you theorycrafted something ask yourself why people are not already running a certain skill or set you are thinking of. Try to find reasons against your choices or more efficient alternatives.
Finally test your builds. Even the best build on paper could have some problems in reality. Collect as much data as possible to verify your build.
(Combat Metrics, Esologs, ...)
Sometimes stuff is just bugged or doesnt work as intended.
Last but not least: Always read patchnotes!
However learning everything about the game is not easy but definetly fun so make sure to prepare for a long road and dont be afraid to ask other players for help.
If you follow these advices you should have a much easier time learning and avoiding common misbeliefs.