DPS Character Build Workshop

Let’s talk about improving character builds – DPS specifically, though some of the info will help with other roles.

Full disclosure up front: I do not have the bestest end-game character in Tamriel.  I am not a data-miner, and I can’t do advanced math.

But I am an academic, and I have done hella research.  There are a few basic misconceptions I made at first that I see other people making, and since I began improving my character I have made consistent jumps upwards in my DPS.  This post won’t help you get from 35K DPS to 45K, but if you’re starting out with build improvement and are confused by all the conflicting information, this will help.

One note before we start: this material is for group dungeon builds and end-game play.  If what you want to do is solo/PvE content, you can make it through that part of the game making your decisions for role-play or personal preference reasons – go ahead and do your quests with your mage in plate mail if you want, it’ll work.

But if you go into a group, you must effectively serve a particular role in that group.

Roles are like pants – you don’t want to wear pants when you’re home alone?  No problem.  But if you walk into a community space, people are going to expect you to know how pants work, and be wearing them.  If the requirements of the role conflict with how you want to play the character, then build another character, or get used to swapping out your gear/active abilities.  I am the Queen of Because: Role-Play Reasons, but “I don’ wanna play the character that way” doesn’t cut it if it means you’re wasting other people’s time by getting a party wiped over and over because you can’t fulfill the role you queued in for.

We dive in after the cut.

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Gear / Build / Weapon Bar interplay

Update: this was written in Sept 2017 and some of the specific info is now out-dated, but the essentials remain valid.

I’ve shied away from writing a build guide, because I freely acknowledge I am neither a data-miner, nor a math girl, nor am I a master DPS.  I can’t analyze the raw data for you, and I can’t pump out 55K DPS and then tell you how I did it.

But I have done hella research on DPS builds, and when I listen to people talk about their builds in chat I’ve noticed some common mistakes.  For example, I’ve had convos in most of my guilds about why the War Maiden set isn’t a strong choice for Sorcerers.  This isn’t going to be a pre-fab build, instead we’ll walk through an analysis of the build you’re using so you can strengthen it.  I’ll focus on Sorcs, ‘cuz it’s what I know, but some of it will apply to other classes. 

Excuses, Midyear Mayhem, and a Screencap

It’s very nearly August; I have no idea how that happened.  Time is a concept I don’t fully understand.

Excuses
Lately the time I usually spend on posts has been soaked up by a couple of things:

1) I am still obsessively doing research to fine-tune Zellfire’s build and have learned a ton about meta building along the way.  I might do a post on meta builds, because even though I’m far from an expert, and there’s a lot of information already out there, most of it is that “give a man a fish” type of advice – “here’s a build, do it this way”.  And that’s a good place to start, but when I hear people discussing how they can’t get past this or that threshold, it’s because they don’t understand how the meta information fits together and/or are doing something they were told to do that doesn’t work for them.

2) My other distraction is that I have an IRL friend who will hopefully be joining ESO soon, and I’ve been emailing them “Beginner’s Guide to ESO” information.  I may do a series of linked posts with those write-ups.  There were so many things I learned eventually but would have loved to have known sooner: stable training, crafting research, how zone sets drop….  I’d like to provide a source of basic starter information for someone who doesn’t yet know how to ask Google for specific things.

Midyear Mayhem is underway!
Midyear Mayhem is the latest holiday event, and it’s PvP themed.  I kind of have a love/hate relationship with PvP.  I do enjoy it once I’m in Cyro – even when I’m dying – but most of the time when I think of going it sounds… stressful.  I’ve also heard complaints about the purely code-driven aspects of the event – achievements not recording, servers crashing, queues in the hundreds, various other things.  I’ve experienced most of that myself.  I have started doing the event achievements, but for the first time I don’t know that I’ll finish them all, even on one character.

Having said all that, I think it’s a well-designed event, for the most part.  Part of the devs job is to get people to try content they’re avoiding, and I like that they’re giving incentives to give PvP a try.  And I really do want that laurel crown.  So I guess this weekend I’ll take a deep breath and give Battlegrounds a try even though I find the idea super intimidating and have been putting it off.  Way to go, devs, ya got me.

If you see me in Cyrodil or in a Battleground this weekend, wave hi before you kill me.  🙂

(Just being friendly!  Not at all an opportunity for me to get another couple of seconds to run!)

Screencaps
This week I sorted through a bunch of my screencaps and added new ones to my computer’s slideshow.  Here’s one of my favorites.  Happy Friday!

ESO Community Spotlight: Naryu cosplay

The Elder Scrolls Online website is going to be doing a series called “Community Spotlight” where they highlight fan art.  The first in the series focuses on a Naryu Virian cosplay that is amazing.  Really stunning craftsmanship.  If you haven’t seen the article, I highly recommend you go take a look:
ESO Community Spotlight – Valara Atran’s Naryu Cosplay  

In other news, this is the point where I say “wow, I haven’t posted in a while, how does ‘time’ work again?”.  <puts ‘Letters post’ on to-do list>