|
Sorry, forgot about gear and champion points.
CP: Remember for %-based CP adds, you get the most bang for the buck with the first CP and it goes down.
Warrior: Steed - try to get at least 30 points in here. Spell shield and medium armor focus for your build; resistant if you plan on PVPing (remember, only other players crit you. crit resistance is wonderful in PVP, useless in PVE)
Lady: Passive unlocks here are limited use for stamina DPS, but Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned, and Hardy are all solid points investments. I'd try to get each up to at least 5% reduction
Lord: 30 points here are MANDATORY for every build ever unless you plan to exclusively solo, due to the reduction in damage taken while rezzing another player. Battle Rez is primarily a DPS responsibility, so you MUST have this. The reason I say 30 and not 10 is the bonus to magic for the revived player. If your revived player is your healer, or a magic build this is huge for them. Get 30 points, no ifs ands or buts. I would focus on Bastion and Quick Recovery to get your 30.
Thief: Tower: try to get at least 75 points here; Warlord is obviously the focus.
Lover: as many points as you can here in Mooncalf. Stay away from the magic regen (you don't need it) and the health regen (it's terrible). The heavy attack restoration one might be worth some minimal investment where the CPs give the greatest return.
Shadow: Tumbling is a good investment since you'll be using this in both PVP and PVE. get at least 10 points just to get the gold bonus. The 75-point bonus is nice but probably not worth diverting that many points from stam recovery/cost reduction in the other 2 trees
Mage: Apprentice: You can pretty much ignore this tree until they raise the CP cap. Alternately, especially if you use Relentless Focus on your bow bar (which I do) you could get 30 points in here under Elborn, Spell Erosion or Elemental Expert for the spell crit. You do want some way to use your magic resource, but do this after you have a significant investment in the other trees
Atronach: Focus on Shattering Blows here, since its useful with both your weapons. Some minimal investment in melee weapon/bow expert may be worthwhile, but taking down damage shields fast is important and valuable, especially if you PVP. The 75 point passive is the best, but don't divert from Ritual to get it.
Ritual: The best tree of all for stamina DPS. Get 30 points here before you even THINK about anything else in Mage. All 4 abilities you can put points in are good (I like precise and mighty first); no point in this tree is a waste
Gear:
There's been a huge increase recently in gear sets, both the helm-shoulder combo and regular dropped sets. I still use crafted though, in part because I like to customize how I look, and in part because you can tailor the traits.
Jewelry: I put this first because it's easy - go for an Agility set. The Stamina agility jewlery is ridiculously expensive, but health will do fine. You want to try to stay above 20K health as a general rule, so this will help; you can just put fewer points in health. You can get a full set bonus just from jewelry
Primary Set: I like Night Mother's. Now, don't get confused, there's a dropped Night Mother's and a crafted - I meant the crafted the dropped set is for stealth. Get some, but use it for stealth quests and dailys, not for fighting. The reason I like the crafted is the 5-piece bonus that penetrates armor. This allows you to use less champion points in armor reduction, make less use of Piercing Mark, and avoid the armor piercing weapons trait. In a group you may well strip armor on the mob to 0 once everyone's armor-defeating abilities add up.
Secondary set: Hunding's Rage. This is a very straightforward set with no unusual bonuses; I go 2 pieces of armor and both weapon sets in this which gives a 3-piece bonus with the bow (or a 2 hander, which I also sometimes use) and a 4-piece while dual wielding. You can use this as your main set and make Night Mother's the 3/4 piece if you'd rather; in that case you'll want more CPs in Ritual in the armor pierce, to use Piercing Mark more, or use armor piercing weapon traits (although it's probably not necessary to do all 3).
Other options: Briarheart is an awesome set if you don't mind how it looks, and if you're patient enough to get a set. It can replace either of the above. Vampire's Kiss is great for soloing and use in Maelstrom Arena (or whichever is the solo version) because it heals you a LOT on each kill. If sustain is what you need, it gives it - just be advised it's not much for DPS. Engine Guardian goes well with it if you're doing arena.
Twice-born star is also an interesting possibility that I haven't messed with. You can have 2 guardian stones, so you could use a combination of Thief (crit chance) shadow (crit damage) or Tower (max Stamina, which boosts DPS as well as sustainment) but it's a pain to craft because you need a 9-trait crafter. I am getting there, but I can't make it for every slot yet. I can make any of the others though.
Look at the new sets; there's tons of them and there may be new options I haven't looked at closely
Traits and Enchants: Stamina for Enchants, stamina recovery on Jewelry. Weapon enchants should be disease on bow and main hand, poison or stamina-sucking on the offhand. Never dual-wield with 2 of the same enchant; they won't proc right.
Weapons - If you go Night Mother's, Precise (crit) is your best bet; Decisive (ultimate gain) or Nirnhorned (weapon damage) are alternatives. Nirnhorned is expensive and less effective though. If you don't go Night Mother I recommend Sharpened.
Armor: I like Divines (boosts Mundus stone effect). Infused (increases enchant effect) is good too. Impenetrable is useful in PVP; when doing so I switch to this for legs and chest. Training and Prosperous are both terrible; the others are useful but really not what a stamina DPS actually wants, although some people swear by well-fitted in PVP.
Last, put as much as you can in Stamina for ability points; only as much in health as you need to consistently survive. 20K seems to be a common recommendation. I tend to go a tad higher than that (21-22K) because I have slow reflexes.
_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
