Character Builds

So, I'm running a Bosmer NB and had intended to go all stealth, with a primary focus in dual wield and backup in ranged (probably bow).  Quickly, I started having more fun in a hybrid DPS-tank mode and moved my focus towards heavy armor, dual wield, and the DPS skills under the Assassination tree.  Not to mention I SUCK at picking locks so I felt doing a 180 was in store.  

Last night I hit lvl 15 and unlocked my second attack bar - best thing ever!  For a minute I thought about actually taking a bow and building up some ranged skills and then I realized I could load up a two-handed weapon (currently a greatsword) and start working on the Shadow and Siphon trees to build up my tanking side.   I might also start carrying a shield for when the need arises to be more sword and board, but I'm still not 100% on that option.

I know that this seems like a kinda unorthodox way to run a NB, but the more I read on NB tanks, the more builds I was able to find.  I'm not one to pick a pre-gen build and the follow the "set" path, rather I like to play it by ear and focus on skills that seem to help fill the void in the party and those that are fun to play for me.  My character pretty much ends up looking like a Frankenstein, but the beast I've cobbled together so far seems to be working out pretty well.

im working on a a personal build for a sorc that i will share after its completed and tested

I have found much the same for me is true.  I don't follow set builds and tend to play it by ear.  Which is how I ended up with my Wood Elf.  Just trying different stuff out on several Alts I stumbled onto a Templar DPS/Bow build.  

My focus was always going to be DPS so I was trying out different stuff.  I really liked my Mage build but pretty much as soon as I made my Wood Elf I was in love.  The build has huge versatility and survivability.  DPS was no problem and keeping them at range was easy with some knock back abilities from the Templar line and Bow line. Couple that with DoT and AoE attacks and I can dish out some damage in a fight.

But the Templar also has some of the best healing abilities in the games as well.  Pretty soon I was adding a heal to my rotation which worked great solo and even better in the group.  So the DPS/Support was born.  Now that I am lvl 15 I added the Resto Staff as my second.  It just seemed a natural progression.  As a Ranged DPS I am already on the out side edges of the fight watching everything going on.  It was easy for me to keep an eye on things and monitor health bars over the guys fighting in the middle.

So now my focus will be mostly DPS on my first bar (bow) and mostly heal on my second (resto).  Stick the the edges and DPS unless things get really sticky.  Then just swap up and Heal until things get back under control.

I'll post up the specifics of my build once I get it a little more finalized.

Yeah I'm doing a bow/staff sorc with dps skills staff for aoe Bow for single target. Working nice at low levels can't wait to hit second island and run it

Great thing about this game is you can make any class into any roll.  Checkout the NB blood mage builds too.  They make the 2nd best healers due to the siphon tree heals.  I saved my group from a wipe on Thursday by pulling out my resto staff when the Templar went down, but mostly during the 4 dungeons we did I was playing a classic DPS roll.

I'm not putting any points in stamina, and none in the dual wield.  The class trees and resto tree only use magic, so this will make it easy to switch up if I change my mind.

There are two shrines in Deshaan to respec.  The attribute one is only 50 per point so pretty cheap, but the skill one will cost you.

Yeah, there's tons of different builds for the NB, all depends upon what you want to do.  I really do like that versatility that the game offers.  

I ended up starting up a second char in the Dominion and this time I went straight 1hd/shield tank.  He's an Orc and I took a little of the noob advice and spread my skill points more evenly over the 3 class skills, joined both the Mage's and Fighter's guilds, completed all the crafting certs, and mixed up my armor so he's 5/1/1 (heavy).  This better thought out build is leveling like crazy, I'm constantly seeing skills level up and be ready for morphs and I went from 1st to about 1/2 way through lvl 7 in a couple hours.

I haven't given up on my first character but I think this one will be a nice alternative to run when we need a little more meatshield in combat.

i heal so no build needed =)

I am such a noob that I had no idea people followed what others did with builds. Lol. I'm just doing what I feel like and what looks/sounds like what I want. So dual wield daggers/one handed melee weapons with a bow as a secondary. Do as much damage as possible.

S7 OC wrote:I am such a noob that I had no idea people followed what others did with builds. Lol. I'm just doing what I feel like and what looks/sounds like what I want. So dual wield daggers/one handed melee weapons with a bow as a secondary. Do as much damage as possible.

There's all sorts of info, and even services/site you can buy/join, that help you if you know exactly what you won't for end game play.  They'll tell you exactly where to put all of your stat and skill points to get you just what you want/need to be the "best" at what you want.  

That being said, there's some simple tips that help all characters, even if you're kinda flying by the seat of your pants like you're doing and I did with my DPS/tank:

1.) Know what skills you really want to use and determine what stats they use so you can assign your stat points accordingly.  
2.) For your first 3 skill points, put one into each of your 3 class skills.  Also, try to always keep at least one active skill from each of your class skill trees in your attack bar.  This will "remind" you to use all your skills and will help level your class skills faster.  
3.) No matter what type char you want to make, try to always wear at least 1 piece of each type of armor - light, medium, heavy.  This will allow you to level all armor types at the same time.  You may start off thinking you Mage will never wear heavy armor but it's still nice to have an option to go Battle Mage later on.  

Those are a couple simple reoccurring suggestions that I've read over various sources and I followed them with my second char who seems to be leveling faster than my first.  Also, when I hit 15 and open my second bar in going to try and use that as a way to compliment my primary mode or attack style.  What that means will probably vary from character to character.

I've pretty much stuck to the Ignition Sorcerer Build.

It melts fools but can be a bit squishy if you aren't paying attention and all of a sudden find yourself dealing with an onslaught, but basically any time I have died (not counting PvP) it's been because I could have played better or got into a situation where I panicked and backed up into another group of mobs, lol.

Currently at VR1 with the main story beaten last night and full Mages Guild and Fighters Guild questlines done.  Every skyshard picked up in the EP area other than than the 6 in the PvP dungeon areas.  Sitting at approximately 20 skill points and trying to decide what I want to do with them.  There is a skill line for PvP playing that I might hit up if I continue to PvP.  It's a a lot of fun with a big group of people.  Had some epic battles Saturday night.

Still have one skill to get for DPS but that requires level 10 Mages Guild and I'm currently at about 7.5.  Only way to get Mage Guild levels is by collecting the proper lore books, which I have every one of them on the EP side so it's time to start collecting in other Alliance zones now that I am able to do so.

Have also been working on Clothing and Woodworking as my crafting professions.  My WW is at 30 and Clothing sitting at 32.  I haven't used the crafting much for myself since you are basically given or dropped enough equipment to progress through the story w/out much trouble, but now that I'm in the veteral levels crafting will help me gear more specifically for the fight that is yet to come!

OneBadHuskerFan wrote:I've pretty much stuck to the Ignition Sorcerer Build.

It melts fools but can be a bit squishy if you aren't paying attention and all of a sudden find yourself dealing with an onslaught, but basically any time I have died (not counting PvP) it's been because I could have played better or got into a situation where I panicked and backed up into another group of mobs, lol.

Currently at VR1 with the main story beaten last night and full Mages Guild and Fighters Guild questlines done.  Every skyshard picked up in the EP area other than than the 6 in the PvP dungeon areas.  Sitting at approximately 20 skill points and trying to decide what I want to do with them.  There is a skill line for PvP playing that I might hit up if I continue to PvP.  It's a a lot of fun with a big group of people.  Had some epic battles Saturday night.

Still have one skill to get for DPS but that requires level 10 Mages Guild and I'm currently at about 7.5.  Only way to get Mage Guild levels is by collecting the proper lore books, which I have every one of them on the EP side so it's time to start collecting in other Alliance zones now that I am able to do so.

Have also been working on Clothing and Woodworking as my crafting professions.  My WW is at 30 and Clothing sitting at 32.  I haven't used the crafting much for myself since you are basically given or dropped enough equipment to progress through the story w/out much trouble, but now that I'm in the veteral levels crafting will help me gear more specifically for the fight that is yet to come!

I too have adopted the ignition build. Its pretty sweet and deals lots of damage!
I can't wait to see the meteor in action! It'll be a while before i get to use it at the rate i'm going.

My Orc tanks is just shy of lvl 12 now. I looked into some suggestions on solid skills and how to fill out the skill bar and of the changes seem to be working out, although I really haven't run him in a group.

I picked up a morph on an attack that heals, which has been a big help (it's only a self heal though). The suggestions I read were to have 1.) buff, 2.) taunt, 3.) crowd control, 4.) support, and 5.) self heal. This will be my plan going forward. I've started unlocking some of the base styles of these skills, but it will take a little bit to open some of the better options and morphs, which will allow me to truly realize this setup.

Played a little me ore with the Orc and got him into lvl 13. I must be doing something wrong because I'm struggling to complete missions and more often than not I'm getting killed. Are tanks only useful for the non-solo missions if they have support with them? I didn't seem to have the same kind to trouble with my DPS dual wielder, but she would just cut everything down pretty quick and had a wicked attack that also healed her. My tank's healing attack doesn't seem as useful.

As lame as it is, and might not be your case. I noticed one night i was getting slaughter with like 3 hits. I hadn't repaired my armor and most of them were at 0%.

Might not be that simple, but might make sure its all at top notch

Thanks for the input Coop. I usually carry a couple repair kits for field work and if I'm hitting merchants often enough I'll usually check and repair my gear every couple times I hit one. Also, about every other level or so I either swap out with stuff I've found or build completely new gear, but I'll still keep an eye on that.

I think the biggest issue is that my tank doesn't have a lot of solo healing and doesn't DPS things quickly so without a healer/support I can't keep on my feet. Tanks are supposed to draw in enemies in, eat damage, and be healed by the support characters. I do 1 & 2 really well but I've been working mostly solo or with randoms and I don't get the healing.

Spend points on magic to up the effectiveness of your self heal as well as to be able to cast it more often.  Chew health pots when needed.  Keep a health food or drink active at all times.  Work on blocks and rolls.  Focus on the weakest enemies first to whittle down their numbers quickly.  Finally, you may just be at a tough spot before you get the skills/stats needed to survive more reliably.

With most tank builds you will have your tank skills for grouping, but when solo you'll need to adapt to a more well rounded skill set - no need to focus on holding agro when no one else is there, so dump some points in stuff that is more stingy.  Rather than going strait to the elite tank build I'd try to make something a bit more leveling friendly. There are plenty of skill points in this game.  If you mess up the build a bit now you can always respect it once you get near max.

sadly its true tanks need a good to ok healer with them but like coolhand said stack some health pots mybe a point or to into a healing skill.

i have the other problem (well not really a problem just how i picked to play healer)
i have no DPS skill on my tool bar i stack all healing for pve and pvp i have a mix of healing and support.

might take me x2 as long to kill something in pve but i dont die =)

Lots of good info again. I had swapped out my party skills with some solo skills, which helped out some. I'll have to start putting some points into majika to help with my healing, but I really need a better solo healing option. I've got some that I'm working on but I need to get my Draconic skill up to lvl 20 to open up the base option.

now that i hit 50 i have a whole f#ck load more to worry about lol

Is it a huge no no, to run random armor?

Like i literally have Heavy, Medium, and Light in everything. I just look at which one looks the best, has the superior ranking, or maybe increases magika or something.

S7 COOP wrote:Is it a huge no no, to run random armor?

Like i literally have Heavy, Medium, and Light in everything. I just look at which one looks the best, has the superior ranking, or maybe increases magika or something.

Yes.  Many passives you have (or could have) depend on the number of a particular light/medium/heavy armor you are wearing.  For instance on my mage with using light armor my passives are...

Evocation (0/3)

• Reduces Magicka cost of spells by 1% per piece of Light armor equipped.
  

Recovery (0/2)

• Increases Magicka regeneration by 2% per piece of Light armor equipped.
  

Spell Warding (0/2)

• Increases base Spell Resistance by 4% per piece of Light Armor equipped.
  

Prodigy (0/2)

• Grants 5% chance for Spells to cause Critical Damage while a Light Armor set of 5 or more pieces is equipped.
  

Concentration (0/2)

• Your spells ignore 3% of enemy Spell Resistance per piece of Light armor equipped.
  

So basically right now, with all my light armor passives leveled up and using 7 pieces of light armor I am getting a 21% reduced magicka cost, 28% increased magicka regeneration, 56% base spell resistance, 10% additional chance for spell crit damage and 42% enemy spell resistance.

If I was wearing random pieces of light/medium/heavy I'd be missing out on a ton of boosts.  So I can rock and roll as long as I don't get within melee range of the enemy.  That's when it all falls apart.  Luckily most things are dead before they ever get close enough.  Or I can just dodge, dip, dive, duck and dodge my way around if need be.  

Forgot to mention that rule of thumb for Elder Scrolls in general (at least as far as Skyrim and ESO) is to wear at least 5 of whichever type you are running for your build.

Perfect thank you! Guess i've got some purple and light blue heavy armor for anyone who wants it. That's what i've been using cause i run solo primarily and it keeps me alive pretty well, But i really need to focus on being a DPS from distance and using my light armor. I'm LVL 34 if anyone needs it let me know. I'll try and put it in the bank so its open to whoever. I've never used the bank so i'll work on that tonight.

I run 5/1/1 with the 5 being what my character primarily needs. That allows you to still level up the other armor types in case you decide to run some other type of armor later on. I read this online as a good low level tactic, but it could probably be used end-game if you don't have a complete armor set.

I do the same as puppet for the armor. Also, I have changed my build around a bit, and still can cruise though stuff at my level, so I would imagine all those perfect builds only are really going to come to play at the end game. I just need to be sure and max out all the skills by the time I get there so I can use them.

~mrmiller