UntilValhalla13 wrote: »

Biscuit_290 wrote: »

Alcast is telling me to use staves on mag dk dps. I am tired of using that since it's all I've ever done in MMOs. Will I lose a lot if I use melee weapons or should I go with a stam build? If the latter, what kind of weapons do I need to equip?

Daggers on the front bar are also viable, since PvE is all about crit damage. Dks are mostly melee oriented, so it synergizes well. The highest dps parses have dual daggers.

This is very true. If any magic class lends itself to DW, its DK. You would still back bar a fire staff, and truthfully, you will do better most of the time with a staff on your front bar, especially when learning. Will you pull like 2k more DPS with daggers? Yes, but it forces you into melee essentially 100% of the time. A staff gives much more flexibility. Of course, nothing stops you from carrying both. Most of my magic toons run a staff 98% of the time. That said, if its a fight I know I can keep my nose on the bosses arse, I swap to daggers for a bit more damage.

Yes.

I have Imperial mDK and Redguard sDK and in usual pug dung they are doing around 60% dmg with 30-35k dps on st (sometimes when team is good i can hit almost 50k).

But you really need to think about your build.

Daggers are great BUT you will need a source of penetration, because most of tank is not covering all 18k of enemy resistance. You can get it from set, use maces/maul or replace Thief with Lover Mundus. Also, you can go in dots, because with duel wield most of your skills will have dot component.

However, although most of DK class skills have melee range, but in this patch, thanks to poison dmg bonus, you can make a really nice bow build.

Also, combustion could help with sustain, especially with charged trait, but if you play anything more than normal, you shouldn't put all sustain on kills, because you will lose resources at first harder mob. Seriously, Lava Soup is really cheap, get some.

xPoisin wrote: »

Inam playing DKs for a looong time as a main. I have learned one thing years ago and that is the fact about hybridization especially for mag DKs.
For the most fights I am using mag and stam skills because you can get nice numbers (not the META) from using razor caltrops (major breach and a snare) while dualwielding on frontbar (also getting nice crit with nirnhooded dagger and some sustain with charged dagger in offhand) and using stave on backbar (maelstrom fire staff still the best). Sometimes i switch from daggers to inferno staff and Inuse stamina morph of fiery breath for the pen with almost same results.
With the current changes to DK class it seems that the tank-only class got ressurected to viable play in DPS role with major use of class abilities instead of other (mostly weapon) skill line dependent gameplay.

I would never call a DK the tank only class. Like any class, they have had their time in the sun, and they have had their time when they are less than ideal. I remember many years ago, we had meta raids that were 7-8 DKs as damage dealers. First class I ever saw break 2k DPS (you read that right, that was a ton of damage in the early game), was a DK Skoria DOT build. It wasnt that long ago, that DKs moved back into the spotlight and were considered Meta DPS with a talons, VAS staff build. In fact, Mag DK was the first magic class I broke 100k on a trial dummy. For the last year or two, they have mostly been known as Z'en DKs, because every raid group needed one for buffs. DKs got a nice buff recently, not at the top, but very strong.

Point is, if you always want a meta DPS, well you need a dozen characters, because pretty much every spec has had their time in the spotlight. If you only play one class, you simply can't guarantee where you will be in the pecking order from patch to patch. That said, every class can pull competitive DPS to clear any content. Trial Dummy parses at the extreme edge of things can be missleading. You see spec X pull 120k, and spec Y pull 105k. That gap is almost always smaller in the hands of the masses at similar skill level.

And yes, Hybrid DKs can actually pull really good damage if built well.

El_Borracho wrote: »

With @Oreyn_Bearclaw. I had a Stam DK DW when I first started this game. It was a trials beast. Damage, survivability, sustain. Recently, Mag DKs have been on a roller coaster between top DD, down to middle, and now back up near the top. At one point, running Zaan, Siroria,, and Elf Bane was beyond ridiculous DPS in PVE. Zaan + Elf Bane PVP was even better. To the point they had to change Elf Bane because it was too powerful, especially on DKs.

While DKs make great tanks, that doesn't mean they can't be great DDs. The biggest knock on DKs as DDs is that they can have a boring rotation. Oh, the horror.

As for alternatives, I have a number of alternate DD characters. Occasionally, one will far outpace the others, such as the magblade earlier this year. But for the most part, all put out similar damage. Its matters more how you play them.

Yep, I have no idea what the pecking order is currently TBH. Let's say for argument (just making this up) that Magplar is the worst class and a stamblade is the best class for ST DPS. Well, a good Magplar will smoke an average Stamblade every single time. If you arent on the bleeding edge of DPS, probably 110k+ DPS, and pushing leaderboards or trifectas, your class just doesnt matter. Play the one you enjoy. If you play it well, you wont have any trouble finding people to play with.