pvp builds? the good, the bad, the popular?

Nocturne Saint · December 2018

So right now I want to start a discussion on pvp builds.
What builds do you love to play?
What builds do you hate to go against?
what builds are popular?
what builds are nich or don't work out too well and have too many cons?

if you list a build, what are the pros and cons of it?

VaranisArano · December 2018

I am not good at Battlegrounds - the no CP and small group gameplay does not come naturally to me after playing a healer in an organized raid.

However, I did find a build that works well for leveling my characters through the Daily Random Battleground: Ice Mage.

Ice Staff, Wall of Elements and Destructive Reach. (I fill out this build a self heal, a defensive skill, and an execute with my sorc and my nightblade.)

Its not a killing build. Its focused mostly on crowd control and area denial, which makes it excellent for objective matches and slowing enemies for my better-at-kiling-people teammates to tackle.

Combined with keeping my leveling gear close to my level for max battle-leveling benefits, using good tactics like sticking together and LOS, and focusing on playing the objective, this build gets me plenty of assists and performs well in the below 50 Battlegrounds, especially objective matches.

Jeezye · December 2018

From my perspective crafting builds is the very essence of eso and what keeps me playing after all the years. I hate playing "popular" builds and I there's nothing that gets me more excited to fight people that play something different I haven't encountered so far. It's really what makes the game interesting, diverse and seperates it from others.

My favourite builds in past was my saptank with old clouding swarm and conceiled weapon, just an amazing synergy, as well as my ranged frostplar with old shards. Both builds were super unique, competitive and felt great to play.

Sadly most class iconic skills have been nerfed or adjusted by now, and so far I really enjoy playing frostden with tons of crowd control, as well as NB offheal with tons of group buffs.

CyrusArya · December 2018

The best PvP class/build is the one that the player knows and understands in depth. Despite all the complaints and negative feedback you might see on the forums, imo the game is actually in a very balanced state relative to previous patches that people look back on nostalgically. Class balance is the best I’ve ever seen it personally, and each and every one can be very powerful in the right hands. With the sheer scope of sets and mechanics in the game right now, build crafting and the amount of possible viable setups is at an all time high. What it really comes down to is what appeals to you the most, and what you want to accomplish in PvP. You could probably have a thread like this dedicated to each class.

If you want my personal answer, Templar is my favorite class. Jabs is my favorite skill, and I enjoy the thematics, aesthetics, and feel of both Stamplar and Magplar the best. The class is in a great spot all around. While I don’t think it’s the best in any specific role, besides as a dedicated healer for magplar, the class performs at a high level all around if you enjoy a high pressure brawler playstyle. I like to build my Templars to have as much damage as possible, while having just enough survivability and sustain to skate by. Since the class is bound to channeled damage, when you do commit to the offensive, you want it to hurt.

But in all fairness I like to build every class a play with a similar design, with an emphasis on damage. You really need it with how tanky most players are these days.

RedTalon · December 2018

I have a build that mainly works well nfor land grabs and so on, since defending spots is critical, wouldn't recommend it outside of that and has a real random chance to go wrong. Its a build that only works if you don't care about killing other players and so on

Waffennacht · December 2018

Nocturne Saint wrote: »

So right now I want to start a discussion on pvp builds.
What builds do you love to play?
What builds do you hate to go against?
what builds are popular?
what builds are nich or don't work out too well and have too many cons?

if you list a build, what are the pros and cons of it?

I enjoy tankier specs for warden and now sorc, I really enjoy my Stam sorc as well

I hate facing similar tanky builds

Stam bleed builds are popular and AoE snares mag builds too

Hybrids I just can't get to work

ChunkyCat · December 2018

If you’re a Magicka anything, you need an ice staff.

Dracan_Fontom · December 2018

As of late, I have been greatly enjoying Battlegrounds. Having no cp makes it feel like it's more about skill rather than anything else.

Among my favorite builds to use have been a dw/resto nb with War Maiden, Shacklebreaker, and Zaan. Yes Ik cheesy but at least it's only 1 cheese. :P Every without Zaan, my character hits hard enough to be relevant and useful.

Then I have my nb healer, which actually I haven't been enjoying that much. Personally having a healer in anything or than Chaosball is almost useless. But he's been fun still. Having Transmutation, Shacklebreaker makes me very tanky and it's fun to see my opponents struggle to kill me or my teammates.

The last build I have been using is a bit of an odd one. A sword and board/destro magsorc, with Lich, Shacklebreaker, Blood Spawn and 2 piece death's wind. This has been so much fun in battlegrounds. I have never thought I'd be able to play a sorc well in PvP till I found this build. I have decent survivability, burst and healing (tanks to Clannfear) and it's been awesome playing it.

As for builds I hate, I actually hate fighting Templars and Dragonknights. Idk why but both those classes seems to always be a direct counter to me dk especially on a sorc and it's a pain to fight them. But I'm just bad soo

Heimpai · December 2018

ChunkyCat wrote: »

If you’re a Magicka anything, you need an ice staff.

Even magblade? I can’t figure out how to make a good one, guess I’m only good at stam 😩

ChunkyCat · December 2018

Depends.

Does your Magblade use Magicka?

heavier · December 2018

sustain stamplar
it's a poor decision because I'm helf
would prefer some ambiguity in racial passives so each doesn't cement itself as being 'the one way to get this buff u need in order to play the way you want to and not having it leaves you significantly weaker if you try to do something else'
helfs are a flexible people...would like to see passive morphs for specific racial skills perhaps...maybe permanent choices to mutate the passive so it's :^) lore friendly
i'd mutate 4% magicka -> 3% hp if I could

strengths: jack of all trades master of none, except thriving on mass scale pvp I guess
counters: lag, burst proc dot (bleeds poisons proc to sporadically),
balances: needs more slots for skills because I'm stretched pretty thin and still lacking a lot of utility maybe add an additional slot that can only accept damage shields or single target dot similar to ult but with damage shields

weakness: when I've run out of sustain and I get slowed down and focused.

SkysOutThizeOut · December 2018

I agree with @CyrusArya, the game is the most balanced it has been for a long time, at least pre-cwc. Right now I think build diversity is rich for those who search.

My favorite build is a hybrid dk in light armor, non meta

Was mag for 2 years. My playstyle was decimated over the course of this year and I was able to rediscover this patch in the form of a hybrid. And it is my most favorite build I’ve ever ran and beat all around build I’ve ran. Cp and non-cp.

The only thing I need is major breach

.

Richard_scottub17_ESO · August 2019

So i play a stam dps but for role play reasons i only use crafted sets minus the monster set. I run hundings rage and twice born star with velidreth

Iskiab · August 2019

ChunkyCat wrote: »

If you’re a Magicka anything, you need an ice staff.

Not always true. It depends on how popular vampire is in pvp. If I encounter a lot fire staff all the way.

Love to play - generally stealth classes and healers.

Hate to play against wardens. All the aoe spam and permafrost... blah. It’s annoying

What builds are popular - DKs, Wardens and I’m actually seeing more NBs in pvp surprisingly

What build is niche? Stealth NBs. I feel like their only role is to keep people honest by taking down glass canon specs. If people are using pvp builds they aren’t usually successful

NB healer - my main build.
Pros: Sustain, healing output, versatility, escape/utility abilities are very strong, fun
Weaknesses - not as tanky as other classes, lots of weak class abilities, lack of access to named buffs from class abilities (like crit and major sorcery)

ChunkyCat · August 2019

I posted that years ago.

heng14rwb17_ESO · August 2019

GO TEMPLAR OR GO CRY !

Syiccal · August 2019

I played magsorc again in bg just now, first time In a while. I forgot how much it's easy mode on a sorc, huge burst, streak away if get in trouble, astro when out numbered and dark deal for easy mag return.

Insco851 · August 2019

Another year old necro. Lol

jaws343 · August 2019

My favorite build I put together was a Doylemish and Sergeant's Mail build on a stam DK. Running Petrify and Invasion for stuns and gap closing. You could land crazy combos and the two heavy sets provided a decent amount of survivability.

HEBREWHAMMERRR · August 2019

Jeezye wrote: »

From my perspective crafting builds is the very essence of eso and what keeps me playing after all the years. I hate playing "popular" builds and I there's nothing that gets me more excited to fight people that play something different I haven't encountered so far. It's really what makes the game interesting, diverse and seperates it from others.

My favourite builds in past was my saptank with old clouding swarm and conceiled weapon, just an amazing synergy, as well as my ranged frostplar with old shards. Both builds were super unique, competitive and felt great to play.

Sadly most class iconic skills have been nerfed or adjusted by now, and so far I really enjoy playing frostden with tons of crowd control, as well as NB offheal with tons of group buffs.

This. My favorite builds are outside the box theorycrafted builds I have come up with. I fine tune them to play playstyle and have came up with some very unique ones throughout the years and often get messages asking me wtf I’m running.

Some of my all time favorites :

5 clever alchemist + 5 spinners (ice staff) + tremorscale. (This was patch heavy ice staff attacks counted as a taunt) people who be permasnared between cripple, tremor, merciless, fear. It was a blast.

5 heavy seducer (destro) 5 fasallas (1h/s) + trollking. Excellent group play sap tank build. This was at release of destro ulti when it was extremely powerful. I would select a week target, mark him, drop destro run in to a group, execute him and gain major berserk. Very fun and effective.

Day 1 morrowind build 5 riposte (inferno) 5 trans + skoria. Extreme group utility that stacked heavy dots / hots and provide a TON of aoe. Could take on 4-5 people easy in BGs before people caught on how strong riposte really was.

5 shackle + 5 lich + zaan w/ willpower 2H. Very fun 2H mag build that focused around forward momentum as your snare immunity. Extremely sustain focused to prolong fights and wait for the right timing of a bow + zaan + soul harvest burst to drop targets.

I recommend going with a well thought build that goes with how you like playing the game. Obviously I’m a magblade day 1 and have thought of nearly everything under the sun for just one class and have played it so many different ways. It’s what keeps the game fun. Wrathstone patch tomorrow I have an amazing build to bring out that’s going to keep up the trend of new exciting builds for me

Grandma · August 2019

I'm very new to cyrodil, and relatively new to pvp [in about my 1600 hours in the game, the ratio of hours i've spent pve to pvp is 50 to 1], but i finally found a build setup that clicked for me and i'm having a LOT of fun. got 200k AP over the past 2 nights, and i know that's not much, but as a new player that was fun for me. This build is a hodge-podge of the sets from a magblade build i found on youtube, and the skills of alcast's recommended stuff with some minor changes.

class: warden
attribute: 64 magicka
mundus: apprentice [up for debate]
sets: all impen except one or two, jewelry is 2 defending 1 arcane.
monster: bloodspawn, 2 med rn might get 2 light or 1 heavy 1 med
set1: shacklebreaker body
set2: Spinner's front bar
set3: perfected BRP resto back bar
bar1:
1) fetcherfly infection 2) scorch 3) crushing [might change to reach] 4) Shimmering Shield 5) bird of prey R) permafrost
bar2:
1) Degeneration 2) ward ally 3) radiating regeneration 4) living trellis 5) blue betty R) Lifegiver [might switch to thicket]

[changes from alcast is reach, permafrost morph, ward ally instead of harness because of brp resto]

it's really fun! i'm actually enjoying pvp very intensely for the first time ever. it used to be a chore, but now i'm really having a lot of fun. It has high defense and mobility so I can generally escape a 1vx situation [i don't expect to win those until im very experienced in pvp and have more damage skills anyway] and stay alive WAY longer than when i had no idea what i was doing. I still don't know what i'm doing but the gear really carries me. It's also really fun to run ahead into the enemy army that's retreating with permafrost and catch some of the stragglers and get more kills for my allies. It also has great self and group healing potential, if I do ward ally and land trellis on someone i can usually save them from a sticky situation.

I'm also open to some tips on how to make it a bit stronger. I'm comfortable on survivability right now, so maybe a bit more damage/cc? I'm thinking of swapping out bloodspawn for something more offensive. also I don't have my major resistances rn so i might swap into ice fortress since i believe the alcast build was designed this way around using chudan.

Iskiab · August 2019

Grandma wrote: »

I'm very new to cyrodil, and relatively new to pvp [in about my 1600 hours in the game, the ratio of hours i've spent pve to pvp is 50 to 1], but i finally found a build setup that clicked for me and i'm having a LOT of fun. got 200k AP over the past 2 nights, and i know that's not much, but as a new player that was fun for me. This build is a hodge-podge of the sets from a magblade build i found on youtube, and the skills of alcast's recommended stuff with some minor changes.

class: warden
attribute: 64 magicka
mundus: apprentice [up for debate]
sets: all impen except one or two, jewelry is 2 defending 1 arcane.
monster: bloodspawn, 2 med rn might get 2 light or 1 heavy 1 med
set1: shacklebreaker body
set2: Spinner's front bar
set3: perfected BRP resto back bar
bar1:
1) fetcherfly infection 2) scorch 3) crushing [might change to reach] 4) Shimmering Shield 5) bird of prey R) permafrost
bar2:
1) Degeneration 2) ward ally 3) radiating regeneration 4) living trellis 5) blue betty R) Lifegiver [might switch to thicket]

[changes from alcast is reach, permafrost morph, ward ally instead of harness because of brp resto]

it's really fun! i'm actually enjoying pvp very intensely for the first time ever. it used to be a chore, but now i'm really having a lot of fun. It has high defense and mobility so I can generally escape a 1vx situation [i don't expect to win those until im very experienced in pvp and have more damage skills anyway] and stay alive WAY longer than when i had no idea what i was doing. I still don't know what i'm doing but the gear really carries me. It's also really fun to run ahead into the enemy army that's retreating with permafrost and catch some of the stragglers and get more kills for my allies. It also has great self and group healing potential, if I do ward ally and land trellis on someone i can usually save them from a sticky situation.

I'm also open to some tips on how to make it a bit stronger. I'm comfortable on survivability right now, so maybe a bit more damage/cc? I'm thinking of swapping out bloodspawn for something more offensive. also I don't have my major resistances rn so i might swap into ice fortress since i believe the alcast build was designed this way around using chudan.

Looks good, I'd go all impen, you'll notice quite a big difference.

lukoi · August 2019

Well, bear in mind, I came back to ESO in Feb of this year (after only playing the game a few months in 2014), so I'm basically a 6-7 month newb.

I play three characters generally, and all are focused on PvP, but spend plenty of time in PvE (just aren't optimized for it kit wise).

(1) Bow/Bow Stamblade with Tzogvin, Blood Pirate's, Bloodspawn that is alot of fun, but certainly not meta. Won't even list the skills as I basically need to go back and rework them to get more current with the scalebreaker patch.

(2) DW/Bow Stamblade with Spriggan, BPT, Slimecraw that is my current fave - dies a bit more often than the Bow/Bow in BG's, but averages a higher score no doubt. KDR is lower due to mixing it up with DW quite a bit, but KPM is a smidge higher.

Whirling Blade//Power Extraction//Rending Slash//Vigor//Ambush//Soul Tether (U) or if I need to swap it, DBoS (U)
Leeching Strikes//Draining Shot//Poison Inject//Trap (or Turn Evil I suppose is a good option here)//Dark Cloak//Ballista (U)

(3) 2H/Bow Stamplar with Coward's, 7th Legion, and either Bloodspawn or Velidreth+Molag - I am leveling this specifically because Templars are my biggest pain in the ass to deal with in BG's on a Stamblade. Other classes I can kill or simply move on from usually, but Templars seemed to my counter, so I rolled one up and it's been fairly fun although it's not done yet.

Forward Momentum//Execution//Critical Rush//Camo Hunter (passive buff)//Extended Ritual//Crescent Sweep (U) - (practically spammable)
POTL//Draining Shot//Poison Inject//Turn Evil//Restoring Focus (procs 7th)//Temporal Guard (U) - passive buff OR Ballista (U)

Additionally, I'm always open to recommendations/tweaks to improve these builds.

Good hunting!

Urzigurumash · August 2019

jaws343 wrote: »

My favorite build I put together was a Doylemish and Sergeant's Mail build on a stam DK. Running Petrify and Invasion for stuns and gap closing. You could land crazy combos and the two heavy sets provided a decent amount of survivability.

A DK after my own heart. Have you switched to Shielded Assault with the nerf to Invasion? Still using Petrify after the cost increase? My least favorite change for this style, so far, is the removal of the HoT from FM, which I did not expect to be very consequential.