DK Problems with 3 on 1

Kng_Ayumayuma · May 2014

Level 19 DK (2 hand / Sword & board) and I'm having trouble with 3 on 1 when 2 of the 3 ( or all 3) are caster/bow types. They split apart and I melee one while the other 2 kill me.

So, I'm wondering what do you do in that situation (at lvl 19)? Do you try to get them together? Or fight one at a time? If so how do you last long enough? I run out of mana and stam then its over. Change weapons, resto staff maybe?

2H slot 1: critical charge, obsidian shield, cleave, stone giant, uppercut
S&B slot 2: ransack, obsidian shield, low slash, spiked armor, dragon blood
standard of might on both bars.

Att points: mana 4, health 10,, stam 4

Thanks in advance

Armitas · May 2014

Once you get Volcanic rune it will become a lot easier. Volcanic rune will CC all 3 allowing you to burst them 1 at a time.

Until then. Charge into the squishiest target first, then move behind it so that you are facing all 3 targets then burst the squish down and repeat. By picking the squishy target you are also picking the ranged target. The remaining mobs will move to you.

Do a mix of light and heavy attacks by using the following combo. Charge your heavy and as soon as the wind up is complete follow it by a light and immediately use an ability. This will reduce your animation time for all 3 and allow you to make faster attacks and keep you from blowing through your stamina and magic so quickly. If you did it right you should notice your attack speed increase.

Make sure you block or interrupt all yellow and red power attacks. If you have reverse slash replace cleave with it, it well help out your dps a lot. Cleave is under performing right now, but will get buffed in craglorn. Replacing uppercut with searing strike might help out a lot too. Uppercut is really slow and locks you in the animation. You may want to replace obsidian shield with igneous weapons. It will boost your burst damage, and plays well with arcane fighter from the 2 hand passive. The trick is to turn a 3mob fight into a 2mob fight as fast as you can.

Saltypretzels · May 2014

You have a lot of single target skills on your bar. I like making one bar all AOE attacks, and one bar for single target/boss attacks.

I am also running a dragonknight w/ sword and shield and 2H. This is what I am doing:

AOE bar (two handed weapon)-- Critical Charge, burning talons, burning breath, and then cleave til everyone is dead. They don't have time to spread apart because of the burning talons root affect. On the fifth slot I just stick some heal or utility ability.

Single target (sword and shield)-- Shield Charge, Puncture, Searing Strike and then two healing/utility abilities. At higher levels you can look into lava whip also.

(This is from the perspective of a level 27 dragonknight but you should have access to most of these abilities by now).

Saltypretzels · May 2014

oh, and if you feel like you are constantly running out of magic and stamina, then put your level ups in there for a good while. At level 27 I have my stats mostly balanced and I tromp through everything.

serenity_painted · May 2014

You're having problems beacuse you're probably not doing enough damage, either singel target or area of effect. And/or your gear is outdated.
DK's have some of the most potent AoE in the game especially if you pair them with a fire staff.

But even if you don't wanto use a staff i still suggest you make an AoE bar with your 2h using something like: Dragon Breath, Talons morphed to do fire damage over time, Cleave, spiked armor, and whatever you like as the last skill, maby molten weapons or dragon blood? Also keep using Standard as your ultimate this skill is crazy good, if you're in a pinch you can always just use it and then hold block and it will just take care of any attacking *** for you. But you might wanto level another skill on your other action bar, dragonleap is really fun and the other one, magmasomethingorother is pretty sweet aswell.

I use something simmilar with a destruction staff and it works great against packs of mobs.

Also the second skill in the ardent flame line really boosts damage on a single target, DK's are great at stacking diffirent damage over time abilites to do alot of damage while you smack'em around so i'd suggest you get that for those 1 on 1's.

disexistencenub19_ESO · May 2014

Around the same level on my dual wield DK, I just run right into the middle of mobs and burning talons them. Hit them with flame breath with the armor reduction morph and then whirlwind them as they burn to death. Works like a charm.

I also sometimes prebuff before charging in with obsidian shield, to give me a buffer for the alpha strike. And I use dragon's blood when I really need the healing. Other than that, I just keep them locked up with burning talons if the mobs will spread out, by chaining it back to back when the root is ending the first time.

steven.flemingub17_ESO · May 2014

Once you get Volcanic rune it will become a lot easier. Volcanic rune will CC all 3 allowing you to burst them 1 at a time.

I've seen a few of vids of DK's and Templars using Volcanic Rune combined with Destro staff Pulse for serious aoe. Volcanic Rune definitely seems almost obligatory to any aoe, and since it's not class specific anyone can get it. The only problem is it requires Mage rank 6, which means you need to grab every lorebook from the first 3-4 major zones until you get it. Which if doing things normally and following the quest lines would put you at around 28-34? I'd recommend using Dulfy's site if you are trying to get your Mage level up: http://dulfy.net/2014/02/25/eso-lorebooks-locations-guide/

Great advice on how to prioritize enemies with 1h-sh and 2h.

Grackula · May 2014

stonefist/stonegiant works well to knock down 1-2 mobs while you take out the 3rd.
usually i approach and use Silver Shards (hits up to 3) then use choking talons.
from there you can knock down 1-2 with stone giant.

tapping all mobs with Burning Embers/Unstable Flame isn't a bad option either.

igneous shield isn't bad to pop before you run in. be sure to wait 2-4 seconds to regen the magika cost if you want a full bar before running in.

Obscure · May 2014

Option 1: Petrify the caster, Stonefist the melee, burst down the archer with whatever you like. Then kill the melee, then kill the caster.

Option 2: Dark Talons all three, Reflective Scales to let the caster and archer eat their own damage while you burst down the melee.

Option 3: be awesome at blocking, dodging, and interrupting using Venom Arrow/Draining Shot/Force Shock/Stonefist/Petrify/Fiery Reach or good old fashioned bashing.

Option 4: medium armor Elude, dual wield Ember Explosion, earthen heart Cinder Storm, and ignore their attacks as you use Whirling Blades to convert their HP into your XP. 3 enemies? Bah! Bring in the whole effin' dungeon! Only going to charge your ult faster!

steven.flemingub17_ESO · May 2014

tapping all mobs with Burning Embers/Unstable Flame isn't a bad option either.

I've found it a bit difficult to try and tag each mob consistently and simultaneously block all the attacks. Maybe I'm just getting old and losing my mouse twitch factor. Usually when I encounter a 3 mob group, the make-up almost always includes at least one melee with a knockback that must be blocked, and a caster with an aoe. If there is a bow user they usually try to run and then rock you with ugly bow aoe. In any case, all three are hitting you almost immediately as soon as you charge in, and the melee knockbacks must to be blocked. So turning the camera at each while blocking and attacking is a bit too much for me.

The big problem is that even with blocking, there is only a small window to even the odds before you simply take too much damage and can't heal through it even with green dragon blood\armor buffs. Getting the total number of enemies down seem to be the highest priority, which mean focusing on one target at a time. At least until you get volcanic rune.

What makes volcanic rune so powerful is not so much the damage, but the aoe knockback\toss. It buys you precious time to reduce the enemy count while at the same time preventing the dangerous moment when all enemies would be hitting you simultaneously. It's also why I like to use Dragon Leap. With the morph that reduces the ultimate cost, it's available about every 3rd encounter, and it has a knockdown\toss. It's a great opener since you prevent the 3 sources of damage right at the start and get a head start on reducing the total number.

columbineb14_ESO · May 2014

I'm at level 30 and I do tend to fear 3-mob situations b/c I haven't found any good AOEs the way I'm currently spec'd - I'm aware of the problem and am trying to build up skill lines to them. (Relied too heavily on certain skill lines too early and didn't try enough new stuff because I was scared of a skill point shortage.)

But I'll testify that you can do wonders just by trying to keep everyone on their asses with Stone Fist, which is very spammable. Keep two knocked down and concentrate on killing the third one. Kill casters first. Interrupt and block constantly. I've had fights where I pretty much only used that (using no other skills to preserve magic) and normal weapon swings plus Uppercut if my stamina permits.

Of course if you get a mob immune to knockdown that goes out the window ....

Kng_Ayumayuma · May 2014

Wow, thank you all for such great advice. Its clear I need more AOE. Lots of choices, need to reread all of it again.

Tankqull · May 2014

get rid of obsidian shield not needed solo below vetranks and slot dark talons - problem with ranged classes solved. and you are too focused on endu dmg abilities .
my advice blow vetranks: my spec(won´t help you much but you can guess my intention)
-charge in -> dark talon -> apply searing strike on all three and finish the rest of off their HP rinse and repeat. normally 2mobs die before talons run out and the 3. is down to 60-40%hp(below vets)

Theron75 · May 2014

My DK is "Tanky DPS" build: 1H/1H. At level 24, my stats are evenly distributed.

1) Shield Charge - Target one of the ranged, so you knock them down.

2) Fiery Breath/Burning Breath - AoE DoT + 40% armor reduction. This starts them burning, and sets up the DPS.

3) Dark Talons/Burning Talons - AoE DoT + immobilize. Now there are 2 DoTs ticking, and targets still haven't been able to spread out.

This is where I swap bars to my single target abilities. I'll just start with the one with lowest health, and start beating them down one at a time. Even if archers have backed away, they have 2 DoTs ticking. Usually, by the time I'm ready to pick off the last target, he's about half dead from the DoTs.

Adding Silver Bolts (from Fighter's Guild) is a great way to deal with those stragglers as well.

[EDIT] Forgot to add...I always use a fire weapon enchant. With the passive fire buffs available to DK, you'd be silly not to.