Calling all melee DKs

Elirienne · June 2014

I have just decided to start a new alt, a melee, one hand+shield DK.

Three things I am very keen on:

1.) I want that cool "fire rings sprout out of you and pulsate like the coolest thing ever" skill.
2.) I do not want to be a caster or ranger
3.) I want some kind of healing ability because I am a weakling little noob.

Please give me some pointers on where I should put my skill points - with my sorcerer, it was easy - all magicka, some health, zero stamina, and it works fine. But from what I see at skill descriptions, there are stamina abilities and magicka abilities.

Any tips, tricks and ideas more than welcome, tell me how you did your DK, let me learn from you.

Worstluck · June 2014

Elirienne wrote: »

1.) I want that cool "fire rings sprout out of you and pulsate like the coolest thing ever" skill. The skill is Inferno
3.) I want some kind of healing ability because I am a weakling little noob. Get Dragon Blood (green dragon blood too), it's indispensable

I focused on magicka, put all attributes in health. Get Standard of Might and Magma Armor. The thing about the DK, is that almost all of the class skills are useful, so it's really up to you how you want to play. All class skills are based off magicka (except crit, it gets complicated for melee class spells). For 1h/shield, besides three of the passives, the only useful skill for PvE for a DK is Puncture. I also take Shield Charge for PvP. DK's already have spammable spell reflect.

Elirienne · June 2014

Worstluck wrote: »

Elirienne wrote: »

1.) I want that cool "fire rings sprout out of you and pulsate like the coolest thing ever" skill. The skill is Inferno
3.) I want some kind of healing ability because I am a weakling little noob. Get Dragon Blood (green dragon blood too), it's indispensable

I focused on magicka, put all attributes in health. Get Standard of Might and Magma Armor. The thing about the DK, is that almost all of the class skills are useful, so it's really up to you how you want to play. All class skills are based off magicka (except crit, it gets complicated for melee class spells). For 1h/shield, besides three of the passives, the only useful skill for PvE for a DK is Puncture. I also take Shield Charge for PvP. DK's already have spammable spell reflect.

Is dragon blood a class ability?

So class skills magicka, but then what is the use of my sword and my shield?

I don't do pvp but I think my char already has puncture.

Are you saying no points to stamina?

Zakua · June 2014

Sword and shield, use puncture ( I think it morphs into Ransack IIRC???) it uses Stamina.

You'll end up with a few Class abilities (Molten whip, Dragons blood, burning embers...whatever you pref..etc..) that all soaks up magic. Your stam will be used up with Puncture and block/bashing.

I went half and half with points on my DK for magic and stamina. Setting anything in health IMO will gimp your ability to quickly shutdown incoming DPS. Even going full health does not seem to buy you enough of a health pool to tank and kill mobs...so I'd go glass cannon (so to speak).

Do you plan on using Heavy armor? I use all hvy then enchant to cap mag/stam and jewelry to soft cap my mag/stam recovery and whatever is left (2 or 3 pieces of armor??? I forget now) goes to bump up health.

3 man trash mobs that have 2 ranged (bow or casters) will give me a run for my money and if I am sloppy I am forced to drop my Ultimate on them lol. 3 dudes with swords...not a prob. Solo dungeon bosses...No prob unless they are stacked with adds..then you gotta be picky and kill healers (always a good choice no matter the situation...kill healers).

Or...go grab your self a Resto staff LOL

Elirienne · June 2014

Zakua wrote: »

Sword and shield, use puncture ( I think it morphs into Ransack IIRC???) it uses Stamina.

You'll end up with a few Class abilities (Molten whip, Dragons blood, burning embers...whatever you pref..etc..) that all soaks up magic. Your stam will be used up with Puncture and block/bashing.

I went half and half with points on my DK for magic and stamina. Setting anything in health IMO will gimp your ability to quickly shutdown incoming DPS. Even going full health does not seem to buy you enough of a health pool to tank and kill mobs...so I'd go glass cannon (so to speak).

Do you plan on using Heavy armor? I use all hvy then enchant to cap mag/stam and jewelry to soft cap my mag/stam recovery and whatever is left (2 or 3 pieces of armor??? I forget now) goes to bump up health.

3 man trash mobs that have 2 ranged (bow or casters) will give me a run for my money and if I am sloppy I am forced to drop my Ultimate on them lol. 3 dudes with swords...not a prob. Solo dungeon bosses...No prob unless they are stacked with adds..then you gotta be picky and kill healers (always a good choice no matter the situation...kill healers).

Or...go grab your self a Resto staff LOL

Thanks for the tips. No, no staff for me, tyvm... my sorcerer's had enough of it.How about I stack health with gear and half and half magicka and stamina with points?

Everyone seems to be telling me that wep skills are important.

crislevin · June 2014

Elirienne wrote: »

Zakua wrote: »

Sword and shield, use puncture ( I think it morphs into Ransack IIRC???) it uses Stamina.

You'll end up with a few Class abilities (Molten whip, Dragons blood, burning embers...whatever you pref..etc..) that all soaks up magic. Your stam will be used up with Puncture and block/bashing.

I went half and half with points on my DK for magic and stamina. Setting anything in health IMO will gimp your ability to quickly shutdown incoming DPS. Even going full health does not seem to buy you enough of a health pool to tank and kill mobs...so I'd go glass cannon (so to speak).

Do you plan on using Heavy armor? I use all hvy then enchant to cap mag/stam and jewelry to soft cap my mag/stam recovery and whatever is left (2 or 3 pieces of armor??? I forget now) goes to bump up health.

3 man trash mobs that have 2 ranged (bow or casters) will give me a run for my money and if I am sloppy I am forced to drop my Ultimate on them lol. 3 dudes with swords...not a prob. Solo dungeon bosses...No prob unless they are stacked with adds..then you gotta be picky and kill healers (always a good choice no matter the situation...kill healers).

Or...go grab your self a Resto staff LOL

Thanks for the tips. No, no staff for me, tyvm... my sorcerer's had enough of it.How about I stack health with gear and half and half magicka and stamina with points?

Everyone seems to be telling me that wep skills are important.

you can't, if you do melee, you need point in health, gear enhant is not enough.

one hand and shied is fine, just remember to bash as frequently as you can.

you may not need much magicka if you don't want to, but essentials such as dragon blood should be slotted, it heals really well. Stonefist stuns enemy for 3 sec no questions asked, it can even go long range, definitely good.

if you intend to just weapon out with few magicka attack, molten weapons add a lot of weapon damage at early stage.

Hypertionb14_ESO · June 2014

My favorite build for my DK has Shield Charge(Invasion), Power Bash(Power Slam, Lava Whip(Flame Lash), Dragon Blood(Green Dragon Blood), and Drain Essence(invigorating drain)

Generally i just charge to start, double lash for damage and heal, Then either drain or Pbash and double lash again. I use GDB for healing any potentially heavy damage i might take.

S&B has 2 really good stun abilitys that you can synergize with Flame lash for Damage and healing. Shield Rush and Power Bash. In particular Power Bash works well as a "sleeper" type move that can remove a enemy from combat as long as you dont attack them.

Searing Strike is a works wonders Dot, and both morphs are useful, if you feel like you need more healing take the Burning Embers morph, the Unstable Flame morph is also really good as DOTs go and can really improve how much damage you are doing as you fight single targets.

I should also note that in reality, Green Dragon Bloods bonus to stam regeneration is not all that helpful... Stam regeneration in combat soft caps at 72 or so every 2 seconds. Of course the alternative morph isnt much useful either..

Zakua · June 2014

Elirienne wrote: »

Thanks for the tips. No, no staff for me, tyvm... my sorcerer's had enough of it.How about I stack health with gear and half and half magicka and stamina with points?

Everyone seems to be telling me that wep skills are important.

Sure thing, you can stack health with gear that is exactly what I used to do but I found out that I gassed out early during an engagement ( ran out of mag/stam) so I began to focus on recovery and over all mag/stam pool then once I hit soft cap on mag/stam amount AND mag/stam recovery I'd throw health pool enchants on what pieces of armor I had left...IIRC Health on my shield,belt and maybe boots...

EDIT: On my second abilities bar I'd put Spiked armor and Ring of preservation along with maybe ...oh darn whats it called...immovable or something like that. Then I'd pop all three of those and swap back to abilities bar #1 for my main attack abilities..

Wifeaggro13 · June 2014

Elirienne wrote: »

Zakua wrote: »

Sword and shield, use puncture ( I think it morphs into Ransack IIRC???) it uses Stamina.

You'll end up with a few Class abilities (Molten whip, Dragons blood, burning embers...whatever you pref..etc..) that all soaks up magic. Your stam will be used up with Puncture and block/bashing.

I went half and half with points on my DK for magic and stamina. Setting anything in health IMO will gimp your ability to quickly shutdown incoming DPS. Even going full health does not seem to buy you enough of a health pool to tank and kill mobs...so I'd go glass cannon (so to speak).

Do you plan on using Heavy armor? I use all hvy then enchant to cap mag/stam and jewelry to soft cap my mag/stam recovery and whatever is left (2 or 3 pieces of armor??? I forget now) goes to bump up health.

3 man trash mobs that have 2 ranged (bow or casters) will give me a run for my money and if I am sloppy I am forced to drop my Ultimate on them lol. 3 dudes with swords...not a prob. Solo dungeon bosses...No prob unless they are stacked with adds..then you gotta be picky and kill healers (always a good choice no matter the situation...kill healers).

Or...go grab your self a Resto staff LOL

Thanks for the tips. No, no staff for me, tyvm... my sorcerer's had enough of it.How about I stack health with gear and half and half magicka and stamina with points?

Everyone seems to be telling me that wep skills are important.

Wep skills are not viable in end game . Get readu for that heavy armor spec to be a pain in the ass to manage in solo vr content

Worstluck · June 2014

Well, I didn't use heavy armor, except for two pieces to get a set bonus with my weapon. I used medium or light while leveling, so I didn't really have resource problems. With Razor Armor, I was able to easily reach the softcap. I didn't really tank much, so I am not sure what DK tanks are equipping. I generally don't like using many weapon skills, as I use my stam for rolling and blocking.

Liquid_Time · June 2014

Your call has been heard. We shall now gather and chant the song of DK's!

Note: Ignore my signature..

Sharee · June 2014

My DK is still leveling (46 now). 2H sword/medium armor. Uses Critical rush(opener, strong damage), Brawler (puts a damage shield on you, multiplied by # of opponents hit), and Burning embers (put this on every opponent, get healed for every cast after 8 seconds, excellent magicka to damage ratio).

Those 3 are permanently on my bar, and are enough to handle packs of 3 mobs, usually even with no health lost thanks to the combination of damage shield and embers healing(assuming of course you dodge out of fire and block heavy attacks). Very low magicka consumption, which leaves plenty to play with for the last 2 slots. You can change them according to need/what you think is fun (currently slotted ash cloud and burning talons).

Zakua · June 2014

Yes Sharee those are good abilites for the 1-50...matter of fact it's almost hard to do it wrong early on except for a few bosses just about any combo works, pick your flavor.

I'm V9 so the easy street on 3man trash mob days are long gone

...Oh how I do miss the early days from time to time.

Save your Soul Gems up!

ArRashid · June 2014

Inferno is currently THE worst skill ever to have as a... well.. anyone.
It unlocks way too late and practically inverts magicka regeneration.

Example:
- my DK has 93 Magicka regen every 2 seconds (aka WAY over the cap)
- turning Inferno on STOPS all magicka regeneration (therefore regen is set to 0)
- Inferno costs 50 magicka/s, with my 24% reduction it's 38 magicka every second (76 every 2 sec).

If I am to interpret it the same way as regens, I go from 93 regen to -76. That's 169 difference. That's effin tragic. Especially considering all this is to deal less than 45 damage per second in a tiny radius around you.

Either the devs were really high making this one up, or we're supposed to sacrifice 180% of our magicka potential for a nice visual effect that does nothing to help you.

Worstluck · June 2014

Inferno is not completely terrible if you use it with a Destro staff. I take Sea of Flames, slot Inner Light, Elemental Ring/Pulsar, Molten Whip, and Engulfing Flames and I can AoE packs of three VR mobs pretty easily. I do however finish the fight with pretty low mana, so it would be nice if they could reduce the cost as it's not very efficient.

Sharee · June 2014

Zakua wrote: »

Yes Sharee those are good abilites for the 1-50...matter of fact it's almost hard to do it wrong early on except for a few bosses just about any combo works, pick your flavor.

I'm V9 so the easy street on 3man trash mob days are long gone ...Oh how I do miss the early days from time to time.

Save your Soul Gems up!

<shrug>

I've heard the same about my NB. "Yes dualwield/medium armor works fine 1-50, but wait till you get to VR ranks, you will not be able to handle groups of 3 and die constantly!"

I'm VR now, and while the mobs are more punishing when i screw up (stand in fire, not block), i can handle the VR content just fine. I expect the 2H/medium DK will do fine as well (he certainly is more powerful at 46 than my NB ever was)

ArRashid · June 2014

Worstluck wrote: »

Inferno is not completely terrible if you use it with a Destro staff. I take Sea of Flames, slot Inner Light, Elemental Ring/Pulsar, Molten Whip, and Engulfing Flames and I can AoE packs of three VR mobs pretty easily. I do however finish the fight with pretty low mana, so it would be nice if they could reduce the cost as it's not very efficient.

Well.. I'm using Blockade of Fire which deals about 2.5x more damage per second, while hitting almost whole room with it's HUGE AoE, and still needing 60% less magicka per second..

jelliedsoup · June 2014

There are non-melee DKS?

ArRashid · June 2014

jelliedsoup wrote: »

There are non-melee DKS?

Apparently, yes.
For AoE, one has to be in melee for maximum effect (talons, impulse), but people beating trials in record times are people who just use Inner light for crit, while spamming Force Shocks and weapon attacks (with animation canceling exploiting ofc).. well, they should get close to apply DoTs, but then they can get pretty far for another 8 seconds (molten whip is great to have on bar if you're using fire class abilties - DoTs, but not so much for actually using it - spamming Molten Whip+light attacks yields just about 300 dps..).

Elirienne · June 2014

Thanks to everyone for the useful tips. Trying to get my head around everything I heard. Appreciate the suggestions