Any hope for Vampire builds?

Faulgor · November 2020

Is there still any point to being a Vampire?

I really tried to make something work. With the Ring of Pale Order, I thought maybe I could finally use Simmering Frenzy effectively. Or with a dedicated build, at least the ultimate more frequently?

But man, it's just not there. Even with a Vampire Lord set on a Sorcerer, Frenzy quickly costs too much, the ultimate is still not that cheap, and it's not even that good when you get to use it. The higher skill cost is also just not worth it, even if you use Eviscerate as well - which is not a given, considering sustain seems mostly fine this patch, and there are plenty of other spammables.

I've heard of stamina builds using Frenzy + Pale Order effectively in some instances, but even then you wouldn't go beyond stage 1.

So, does anyone have any ideas how to make Vampires cool again?

Vevvev · November 2020

I never go Simmering Frenzy and stick with Sated Fury. With the Ring of the Pale Order Sated Fury becomes a free burst heal even with Blood for Blood equipped.

To make a vampire build truly work you have to play to it's strengths and that strength is found in the passives, Blood Frenzy, and the ultimate. The sheer amount of offensive power vampire gives you is rediculous, and the spell and weapon damage from the Strike From the Shadows passive and Blood Frenzy can be buffed with major and minor Sorcery/Brutality. The trick is not dying...

To not die is with the vampire ring and is makes Blood for Blood free to cast allowing you save your magicka for healing abilities, buffs, crowd control, and DoTs to place on your foes. I play Vampire with a magicka Dragonknight and the amount of pressure that class can put on people suits the playstyle perfectly. Also the class buffs Blood for Blood's range to 7 meters over 5.

To make it work on a sorc you could use Critical Surge to help with keeping Sated Fury up, and if you go Arterial Burst it is guaranteed crits below 50% health. Thing is even then you really shouldn't be getting that low of health to begin with and I mainly use the vampire spammable for sustain reasons. Arterial Burst and Blood for Blood are very magicka efficient.

Last thing I'll say though is never use Vampiric Drain outside if Exhilarating Drain for ultimate generation. The ability is just a waste of a slot since the healing is abysmal even with the Ring, the damage is worthless even when under the effects of Blood Frenzy, and the channel can be interrupted leading to you getting stunned.

Faulgor · November 2020

Interesting. I didn't consider Sated Fury because healing is not that much of an issue, especially on Sorc, and the base ~660 spell damage didn't seem that significant to me. I'm also still upset they nerfed it by increasing the health cost over time like Simmering Frenzy.

You mentioned Strike from the Shadows. Which stage are you usually running at, and how do you make best use of the passives? I assume you mainly talk about PvP, but I'm focused on PvE (especially the vet solo arenas and dungeons) atm.

Also, did you consider using the new H/M/S cost reduction glyphs on jewelry? It seems a nice idea on paper, but it's probably not worth the loss of better glyphs.

The problem with Sorc is that Blood for Blood doesn't proc Crystal Fragments, and using Arterial Burst kind of negates the main reason to use it as a spammable in the first place, mitigating Sorcs' bad sustain. I tried Vamp on Templar first, but jabs is just the superior spammable ... DK and Nightblade might just be better suited, Warden probably too.

Vevvev · November 2020

Vampire requires you to build for it and to let it overtake your class's playstyle or let it get corrupted by it. I've learned all my Dragonknight's health regeneration buffs are completely and totally worthless when I run stage 4, and for the longest time I struggled to make vampire work till that ring came out.

Vampire is very much a melee playstyle and if you want to use Sorc's ranged playstyle vampire would only hinder you unless you delve as little into vampire as possible. Like for example only slotting Sated Fury and Mistform, going stage 2, and everything else is what you generally use. That way you get all the damage buffs and only have to suffer the 5% increased cost which is easily mitigated by the light armor passives and/or being a Breton.

Also I run 3 spell damage glyphs on my magDK and don't even try to mitigate the the non-vampire cost increase since I actually use the vampire spammable. I do make sure to always have a flame ability on hand and use a flame staff so I can take advantage of the Combustion passive so I always have an overflow of magicka in the event I do start having to use my healing and AoE abilities.

You have to experiment with it and by the sound of it the skill line does not synergize well with Sorcerer if you plan to use Crystal Frags with it. (Unless you went Arterial Burst, but now you're in melee.)

Faulgor wrote: »

You mentioned Strike from the Shadows. Which stage are you usually running at, and how do you make best use of the passives? I assume you mainly talk about PvP, but I'm focused on PvE (especially the vet solo arenas and dungeons) atm.

I proc it with Elusive Mist, but I don't keep it active 100% of the time like some people try to do. Its more like a small buff after you use the ability to purge whatever immobilization or snare that has been placed on you. I like to run stage 3 in duels but stage 4 when I plan to use the Swarming Scion ultimate. I've used stage 4 with my vampire build to clear both vMA and veteran Vateshran.

Here's the build and what I do for flipping it from PVP to PVE is changing out Fossilize for something like Engulfing Flames. It is for a Dragonknight though so... not sure how to properly adapt it to a Sorcerer since I have not played that class extensively in years.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=289388