Can you mix Stam and Mag skills and survive?

mashugana · January 2020

I'm returning after a long break. I watched videos of people touting the game saying 'if you want a magic user who swings a sword you can do that!" But in my experience you have to go all Magika (no sword skills) or all Stamina (no magic). Is this still true?

I just want to play, level, and enjoy the game - no need to min/max or PvP or end game. But I also do not want to create a character that cannot handle basic content or is useless in a group.

Can I make a character that can have Stamina sword attacks and fling spells and survive? Or is it really one or the other? Conceptually I'd like to try and make a sword mage that has melee attacks and the occasional spell for fun. I also like the idea of a death mage that has some kind of dark magic combined with dagger attacks. I am not sure if ESO is flexible enough for that or if my craziness i just asking too much

Thanks for any advice.

Dagoth_Rac · January 2020

You will be fine in anything but the most difficult game content. Regular overland content and story questing can be completed with just about any mix of gear and skills. And there is a lot of regular overland content and story questing. Just use what you like until and unless you want to do veteran dungeons, Trials, PVP, etc.

r3turn2s3nd3r · January 2020

mashugana wrote: »

I just want to play, level, and enjoy the game - no need to min/max or PvP or end game. But I also do not want to create a character that cannot handle basic content or is useless in a group.

You'll be fine in overland, normal dungeons and probably vet base game dungeons. I wouldn't suggest taking in to vet DLC dungeons. The issue you will see isn't really going to be one of being survivable, it's going to be 'gimped' damage.

The amount of damage you do (simplified answer) is a formula that (generally) takes the maximum resource and spell / weapon damage of the skill.

So, let's use a Sorc and frags as example, the player that has 3K spell damage and 20k maximum magicka is going to hit for less damage than the player that has 3K spell damage and stacked 40k in magicka when they cast a frag.

This only becomes a problem in higher end content and anything with a dps check though.

Royaji · January 2020

I like the wording of this question. Survive? Sure, you can stay alive just fine on a hybrid. Will you be any good at killing stuff? That's where we'll have a problem .

Although for the purposes of overland questing anything goes. This kind of content is balanced to be extremely easy. Just be considerate to others and don't bring this kind of character to veteran dungeons or other harder group content.

Nestor · January 2020

Outside of harder Vet Dungeons and Vet Trials you will be just fine.

Normal Trials and Most Vet Dungeons will require an understanding and patient group.

Story Content and Zone Content, you will handle just fine.

Danikat · January 2020

Agreed with all of the above. My main character is a templar with two thirds of her attribute points in stamina, one third in magicka and a mix of weapon and class skills and I actually took it a step further and don't use Champion Points at all because otherwise I think overland content and quests would be too easy and that's what I spend the majority of my time doing.

It does take me longer to kill things than other people, but we're talking about having to push 3 or 4 buttons instead of just 1 or 2, maybe having to use a healing skill or potion every so often. Unless you're in a hurry to get the game over with as soon as possible I don't think it would be an issue.

I've also done various normal mode dungeons but as I have no idea what anyone else was using and this was guild groups with no one was recording our DPS to make sure we were allowed to be there I suppose I can't prove they weren't carrying me.

Starlock · January 2020

mashugana wrote: »

Can I make a character that can have Stamina sword attacks and fling spells and survive?

Yup. One of my characters does exactly this.

I haven't played him recently so I don't know how he's weathered the last couple of patches, but I'm sure he's mostly fine for the content I tend to run (overland, soloing world bosses, occasional 4-person dungeons). He's an exiled dunmeri ashlander who in spite of being a magicka-based character uses two swords and a 1h+shield for his weapons. This means he can't restore his primary resource (magicka) by heavy attacking. When he fights, I just have to be a lot more mindful and strategic about using his primary resource pool than I do on my other characters. There are various ways you can get it to work.

mashugana · January 2020

Great advice! Thank you. If I ever get to the point of Vet content I'll respec into something more focused. But it sounds like for just leveling and having fun I can mix and match at will. Good fun.

Thanks again.

FrancisCrawford · January 2020

You could have a good build -- here I mean "good" by any PvE standards other than elitist endgame -- that relies on stamina-based damage and still flings spells, because:

A number of skills with a magicka "feel" now have stamina morphs as well.
Stamina-based characters can easily find useful ways to use magicka for "utility" spells.

The newer classes -- warden and necromancer -- were designed that way from the ground up. Among the older classes, I think stamina nightblade most fluidly fits that model.

fiender66 · January 2020

I do it almost always while levelling. E.g. a templar with mag skills but stam shards, or a DK with stam skills but heavy use of the mag soul skill.
OFC this has no sense in terms of measured DPS, but is very handy for sustain, especially till you don't have any balanced set (then well into lvl 50.

Grianasteri · January 2020

Of course you can do it. It will just result in well below the potential damage output and resource pools that are possible.

Hybrid builds are very niche in ESO, because to achieve the highest possible (and required in many circumstances) damage output and resource pools, you need to "min/max", so that means concentrating on either magica or stamina, not both.

Since magica skills need magica and generally scale from your max magica, and Stamina skills need stamina and generally scale from your max stamina... if you try to combine these in any way its a struggle because the damage output and resources will be so below par.

That said, it IS possible to make viable hybrid builds, using specific sets. I have made one and it was viable for overland and normal dungeons with absolutely no problems at all. I would say it was great fun to play with. But to push on into vet dungeons and trials... no, its just not good enough.

mr_coops · January 2020

Hack the Minotaur is currently doing hybrid build season on his YouTube

HankTwo · January 2020

You can do well with a hybrid in both PvE (apart from veteran DLC content) and PvP. However, keep in mind that hybrids have very narrow build options. You really need to invest as much as you can in the double resources to become viable. Otherwise your stats will be lacking too much.

Ashnarug · January 2020

just started a new Imperial 1h-S Dragonknight who will have Health at 40 and both Magicka and Stamina at 12. Keeping a respect scroll handy if that doesn't work well. First time I try an hybrid.

ghastley · January 2020

I think it's more a case of "can I avoid the appearance of magic and survive", as a Stamina-based character's abilities are going to look like the spells that they are. Trap beast, for example, is a conjuration spell, even if it consumes stamina not magicka.

You can certainly pick the most spell-like abilities for a stamina build and survive.

A magicka-only build can avoid waving a "weapon" around, but will have a staff whether they like it or not, too.

It's also very likely that a stamina build will slot a magicka-using heal, as you're always going to have some in your pool.

thadjarvis · January 2020

@mashugana

As you know you loose some ESO math leverage so focusing on one max pool. In normal groups it'd be fine. If you can do it intelligently I would think you could hit over 20k DPS which certainly covers base game vet content.

Though you may be able to achieve the feel you are looking for with a more traditional powerful approach which would help if you want to go well into harder content:

"Conceptually I'd like to try and make a sword mage that has melee attacks and the occasional spell for fun"
That's pretty much how a Stamplar feels.
Stam DK's may provide that feel using fire skills (not constantly but it's thrown in there).

"I also like the idea of a death mage that has some kind of dark magic combined with dagger attacks."
Uh, StamCro may give that feel. You can be like 95% optimal with daggers, throwing skulls, summon various skeletons to kill stuff, and suck the life out of dead things.
NB is another possibility for this feel. More blood than death and less magic feel skills as some of the mag skills actually feel more physical.

SydneyGrey · January 2020

Survive, yes. Do a lot of damage and have your skills be the strongest they can be? No. Basically you can do it, but it will make fights a little harder and longer because a lot of your skills will be weaker.
Many skills scale based on your maximum magicka or max stamina, and so if you had low stamina and tried to use a stamina-based skill (for example), your damage would be weaker than it would be otherwise.
If you don't mind some skills being weaker than they should be, then go ahead. You can still have a lot of fun with a build like that, and fun is the most important thing.