Would like advice on building vamp-necro character

Dunelfe · January 2021

Hi, I would like some help on making a build for a character I really want to play; A Breton Vampire-Necromancer. A thing to note is that she is a bit of an RP character, since I have her in Skyrim as well, where she's like the evil vampire queen and I'll have her in Oblivion and Morrowind too, but I'm getting off-track here.

I am not sure where to spend points in. See, her playstyle is as follows; She will use spells and summon minions to attack from a distance (For ESO this would be the blastbones and the flaming skulls) but if enemies get too close, she will wail on them with a greatsword (In Skyrim this is a mace) or use her vampiric abilities. And here's where I get stuck.

I don't know what to invest in; Magicka, or Stamina. See for the vampire part, all vampire necromancers I've seen are Magicka which is fine with me. The problem I have though is that they use a staff, and I am not fond of using staves and it wouldn't really work in an RP sense. Then if I look at the Stamina Necromancer; That would work, they use a greatsword and generally seem to attack from a distance first as well BUT I can't find any stamina vampire necromancer builds. And the vampire perk tree mainly uses Magicka so that conflicts again. So, I'm turning to here in the hopes I can get some advice from the knowledgeable community to help me. Please keep in mind she will not be my main character (I haven't decided on what kind of character my main should be yet) but I do want to have a decent build so she can survive in PvE and dungeons/boss fights.

So to sum it up; She will be a vampire necromancer. Her way of attacking is attacking from a distance with magic and sending minions to attack her enemies. If enemies get too close she wails on them with a greatsword (or the vampire abilities). She is NOT a tank but it would be nice to solo a whole group of enemies should something like that ever happen (I saw a build that used brawler to help with this).

Should I go with stamina after all? And lose some of the vampire abilities efficiency? Or should I go Magicka? But could I safely switch out the staff for a greatsword and/or vampiric abilities? I hope I have given you enough information, if not let me know and I'll answer any questions you have. For context, I've looked at this build for the stamina necromancer;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMYQ28EX93M

And this build for the Magicka vampire necromancer;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1aacKDglBs

Vevvev · January 2021

To answer your question on magicka or stamina.... Magicka, always. While magcro has a few issues if you go stamina vampire in ESO is only going to hurt you since you can't use most of it's kit, which means its non-vampire cost increase debuff is really going to hurt you.

Dunelfe · January 2021

Vevvev wrote: »

To answer your question on Magicka or stamina... Magicka, always. While magcro has a few issues if you go stamina vampire in ESO is only going to hurt you since you can't use most of its kit, which means its non-vampire cost increase debuff is really going to hurt you.

Indeed, I was thinking the same since the vampire perk tree doesn't have any morphs to stamina. However, I got to ask; would it be a safe bet to differ slightly from the other builds and use a greatsword instead of a staff? I can possibly deal with light armor since I can just slap a skin on it. Unless Medium armor somehow works as well.

StarOfElyon · January 2021

I play an Altmer vampire necro that's a hybrid. She first applies a dot with the back bar staff (where my defensive skills are as well). She also summons the Skeletal Arcanist and the Spirit Mender. Then I switch to the 2H front bar where blast bones is. I play a more brutal, brawler style with her. She finds dishing out physical punishment with her maul to be cathartic.

A Breton would help with the cost increase from Vampire but honestly, as long as you don't expect to be great at pvp, anything can be made to work.

I found that with a magicka race, it's helpful to put a lot of points into stamina. My Altmer has 64 points into stamina. Any magicka sustain I need comes from food or gear. But then again, I don't play the META.

Vevvev · January 2021

I understand the desire to roleplay a spell sword but you'll enjoy the flame staff better. Vampire's primary damage dealer is a direct damage melee attack. Flame staves will be effected by your magicka offensive stats that will make vampire stronger, and having a flame staff equipped boosts all direct damage by 8%. If you have issues getting into melee light attack spamming is a thing with flame staves till you can close the gap.

As for armor light armor will aid you more for damage, but if you truly desire medium armor you're in luck as the Undaunted Mettle passive rewards wearing a variety of armor as it boosts magicka, stamina, and health by 2% per type of armor. At least 5 pieces of light will be all you need and then you can go 1 piece of medium and 1 piece of heavy if you so desire. The 5/1/1 combo is great for dishing out damage and you get some benefit from the armor passives. Medium armor for instance is great with the stage 4 passive as it let's you run faster, while light armor let's you run for cheaper.

Dunelfe · January 2021

StarOfElyon wrote: »

I play an Altmer vampire necro that's a hybrid. She first applies a dot with the back bar staff (where my defensive skills are as well). She also summons the Skeletal Arcanist and the Spirit Mender. Then I switch to the 2H front bar where blast bones is. I play a more brutal, brawler style with her. She finds dishing out physical punishment with her maul to be cathartic.

A Breton would help with the cost increase from Vampire but honestly, as long as you don't expect to be great at pvp, anything can be made to work.

I found that with a magicka race, it's helpful to put a lot of points into stamina. My Altmer has 64 points into stamina. Any magicka sustain I need comes from food or gear. But then again, I don't play the META.

Well luckily I don't plan on doing PvP so that's already settled. And, while I don't really focus on a META either since I just want to have fun. I do want my characters be able to hold their ground against a small group of enemies or small bosses. So I at least want to have some direction into the META.

Dunelfe · January 2021

Vevvev wrote: »

I understand the desire to roleplay a spell sword but you'll enjoy the flame staff better. Vampire's primary damage dealer is a direct damage melee attack. Flame staves will be effected by your magicka offensive stats that will make vampire stronger, and having a flame staff equipped boosts all direct damage by 8%. If you have issues getting into melee light attack spamming is a thing with flame staves till you can close the gap.

As for armor light armor will aid you more for damage, but if you truly desire medium armor you're in luck as the Undaunted Mettle passive rewards wearing a variety of armor as it boosts magicka, stamina, and health by 2% per type of armor. At least 5 pieces of light will be all you need and then you can go 1 piece of medium and 1 piece of heavy if you so desire. The 5/1/1 combo is great for dishing out damage and you get some benefit from the armor passives. Medium armor for instance is great with the stage 4 passive as it let's you run faster, while light armor let's you run for cheaper.

I see... I'll have to think about it, I suppose staffs could work if the vampire abilities are melee damage and all. And I guess staffs could work somehow roleplay-wise as she does use several Daedric staffs in Skyrim... I just personally don't enjoy staffs in ESO due to how clunky they feel to me, the whole spam auto-attack, and the charge-up. It just feels odd to me somehow for a reason I can't put my finger on. I'll look into it however.

As for the armor, light armor seems the best case then. I was thinking medium though because of more survivability. But come to think of it, since I'm not a tank and try to be more distant, I suppose light should be fine.

Vevvev · January 2021

Horthal wrote: »

Vevvev wrote: »

I understand the desire to roleplay a spell sword but you'll enjoy the flame staff better. Vampire's primary damage dealer is a direct damage melee attack. Flame staves will be effected by your magicka offensive stats that will make vampire stronger, and having a flame staff equipped boosts all direct damage by 8%. If you have issues getting into melee light attack spamming is a thing with flame staves till you can close the gap.

As for armor light armor will aid you more for damage, but if you truly desire medium armor you're in luck as the Undaunted Mettle passive rewards wearing a variety of armor as it boosts magicka, stamina, and health by 2% per type of armor. At least 5 pieces of light will be all you need and then you can go 1 piece of medium and 1 piece of heavy if you so desire. The 5/1/1 combo is great for dishing out damage and you get some benefit from the armor passives. Medium armor for instance is great with the stage 4 passive as it let's you run faster, while light armor let's you run for cheaper.

I see... I'll have to think about it, I suppose staffs could work if the vampire abilities are melee damage and all. And I guess staffs could work somehow roleplay-wise as she does use several Daedric staffs in Skyrim... I just personally don't enjoy staffs in ESO due to how clunky they feel to me, the whole spam auto-attack, and the charge-up. It just feels odd to me somehow for a reason I can't put my finger on. I'll look into it however.

As for the armor, light armor seems the best case then. I was thinking medium though because of more survivability. But come to think of it, since I'm not a tank and try to be more distant, I suppose light should be fine.

If you are ever going to do the tanky thing on a magicka build don't go medium armor as it's mostly about the stamina DPS role instead of how you'd expect in other games. Since every class can do everything your specialization boils down to the armor and sets you wear. Thankfully for us roleplayers we have outfitting to look like whatever we want.

As for staves feeling clunky that's a problem of all projectile based weapons. Trick is to light attack first and then cast an ability as the ability's animation takes over the light attack animation. As for me I very rarely heavy attack with a flame staff as I use a restoration staff for heavy attacking since it restores more magicka. Unless you have a purpose built heavy attack build light attacks deal more damage per second than heavies.

StarOfElyon · January 2021

Horthal wrote: »

Vevvev wrote: »

I understand the desire to roleplay a spell sword but you'll enjoy the flame staff better. Vampire's primary damage dealer is a direct damage melee attack. Flame staves will be effected by your magicka offensive stats that will make vampire stronger, and having a flame staff equipped boosts all direct damage by 8%. If you have issues getting into melee light attack spamming is a thing with flame staves till you can close the gap.

As for armor light armor will aid you more for damage, but if you truly desire medium armor you're in luck as the Undaunted Mettle passive rewards wearing a variety of armor as it boosts magicka, stamina, and health by 2% per type of armor. At least 5 pieces of light will be all you need and then you can go 1 piece of medium and 1 piece of heavy if you so desire. The 5/1/1 combo is great for dishing out damage and you get some benefit from the armor passives. Medium armor for instance is great with the stage 4 passive as it let's you run faster, while light armor let's you run for cheaper.

I see... I'll have to think about it, I suppose staffs could work if the vampire abilities are melee damage and all. And I guess staffs could work somehow roleplay-wise as she does use several Daedric staffs in Skyrim... I just personally don't enjoy staffs in ESO due to how clunky they feel to me, the whole spam auto-attack, and the charge-up. It just feels odd to me somehow for a reason I can't put my finger on. I'll look into it however.

As for the armor, light armor seems the best case then. I was thinking medium though because of more survivability. But come to think of it, since I'm not a tank and try to be more distant, I suppose light should be fine.

My Redgaurd uses light armor. It's fine for her magick attacks but I think I notice the lack of significant damage from her sword melee attacks. It's a shame that damage has so much to do with armor weight.