#eso tips

Picture this: You wouldn’t say that your tank is bad at what he does, he can usually soak up damage without much problem, and your healer can usually power heal after that... Except today, you don’t know why they both keep going down, and your self heals don’t seem to be doing much either. What in Cyrodiil could the problem be? Meanwhile, your enemies are laughing.

Boon: The Apprentice, extra spell damage is life

Weapons: One bar, you’ll want a resto staff for the buffs, the other will be a destro staff. Our 5 piece set is going to be Healing Mage (AOE heals reduce your enemies’ weapon damage) and our 4 piece set is Mother’s Sorrow, make sure both your staves are from the same set and make sure both have the Powered trait.

Jewelry: All three pieces should be from the Mother’s Sorrow set.

Armor: We’ll want 5 pieces of light armor, with 2 pieces of heavy armor for the minor bonuses. If your staff is Mother’s Sorrow, all 5 can be from Healing Mage, if not, throw in that extra piece from Mother’s Sorrow. Our monster set is gonna be Sentinel of Rkugamz, both heavy

Overall Equipment: For Mother’s Sorrow, I like the unique jewelry pieces for their health bonuses which you can get from world bosses in Deshaan (necklace is at Short-Tusk's Hillock, ring is at Caravan Crest). I personally also like Mother’s Sorrow for our weapon, since it’s easier to grind delve bosses to find exactly what you want. Healing Mage can be found in the Aetherian Archive, so you’ll want to make some friends who know what they’re doing. Guilds, I’m telling you, are the best resource for this, just let them know what you’re doing and you can usually find a group to help you. Mother’s Sorrow gives us big bonuses to spell crit (crits make the world go round) so super useful, while Healing Mage adds Magicka, Magicka Recovery and a flat 2% bonus to heals. Sentinel can be found in Darkshade Cavern I, but is worth it for the additional 2% heal bonus, plus our only real way to restore our allies stamina.

Attribute Points: 44 magicka and 20 health, with the changes to the way attribute points work, we can afford to throw some bonuses into our health, thus making it so much easier to stay up in a pitched battle.

Race: So I made this with Breton in mind, but of course, an Altmer could be used. You could substitute a Dunmer or Argonian, but those are the least optimal (and c’mon, this is a frost mage, can you really see this as a Dunmer? lol)

Skill Bars “Just an Innocent Healer... Right?”

Frost Cloak->Ice Fortress. This one is a nice one, a lbuff to your and your allies’ Physical and Spell Resistance, with the morph giving you a flat bonus to damage resistance. It’s very hard to go down with this up, and it’s one of the first skills you get in the Winter’s Embrace tree, so you have plenty of time to get the morph.

Necrotic Orb->Energy Orb. If your allies are on top of their synergies, this one is fun. It starts as a damage ability, but evolves into a fun little skill that heals and restores magicka.

Fungal Growth->Enchanted Growth. An AOE heal cast in front of you, with the morph adding additional stamina and magicka regeneration to everyone it hits. It’s another one you get at the very beginning of the skill tree, so it’s one you’ll get used to using often

Nature’s Grasp->Natures Embrace. Spot an ally getting ganked, but running would take too long? Just swing in like Tarzan, and start laying down the buffs. It’s a good one to use, whether for travel, being a Big Damn Hero, or just goofing off.

Regeneration->Mutagen. I really can’t enough about how much I love this skill. A HOT that gives an “Oh Shit!” insurance if someone drops too low in health while it’s on them. It can keep you up just long enough to cast the rest of your heals and buffs

War Horn->Sturdy Horn. At least one person in every group should be running War Horn or one of its morphs, but this one is my favorite. It gives you and your allies even more Resistance while boosting your health, magicka and stamina for 36 seconds, plenty of time to get through a fight.

“Not so Much, Watch for Circles”

Arctic Wind->Arctic Blast. Heals you for 10% of your health, plus heals you by 2% of your health every 2 seconds and damages your enemies with the morph. It’s pretty awesome

Weakness to Elements->Elemental Susceptibility. Something good: Making your enemies weaker to spell damage, when most people use spell damage anyway. Something even better: It’s 21 seconds long, enough for most fights to be long over, and with the morph, refreshes every time you damage them. It’s awesome

Impulse->Pulsar. So Impulse is kinda blah, if we’re honest. It’s an AOE, but there’s so many better AOEs. Pulsar, though, is pretty unique, lowering anyone’s max health if they’re hit by the attack by 10%.

Healing Seed->Corrupting Pollen. We’ve got heals, we’ve got heals for DAYS, this is more than just another heal. Major Defile is a pain in the ass to other healers, and sucks for tanks and DPS, too. 

Purge->Cleanse. Inevitably, you’re gonna get notice, and who knows, you might even run into another debuffer. This will help; it removes negative effects, and the morph heals for 15% of the target’s health if it removes even one.

Secluded Grove->Healing Thicket. We could go damage, but I really love this one. Say me and my group is taking a keep; I can usually drop this 3-4 times from the time we break down the front door to the time the flags flip, because it’s so cheap, and yet can be the difference between getting wiped on a flag and chasing off defenders.

So everyone knows that StamDKs are a pain in the ass, add 2H swords and it’s even worse. Not only do they do a lot of damage very quickly (Crit Rush, Dizzying Swing, Noxious Breath, Executioner), they also can buff themselves to do even more damage (Rally) and have one of the most overpowered heals over time combos in the game (Green Dragon Blood, Resolving Vigor, Rally). This one is very straightforward, which isn’t to say that there’s no skill involved, but it’s good for those who just want to obliterate everyone on the opposing teams.

So now for the fun part: The sets

Monster Set: We’re gonna go damage here, as much as possible. I’d suggest Kra’gh. The physical penetration is nice, add in that nasty aoe in front of you and you have another way to hit like a truck. Full Set: Toothrow. You can find this one in the Wayrest Sewers, and it’s great for a DPS. We get a little bit of max stamina, which is always nice, but it gives us a BIG boost to critical chance. Crits make DPS work better, and a crit on one of your big damage abilities can drop another DPS with ease. Partial Set: We’ve got another 4 spots not taken up by either Toothrow or Kra’gh. We want to stay up in a fight, so personally I like the tankiness of Hatchling’s Shell. We don’t have a lot of health without food buffs or enchantments (I’d switch out some of your enchantments for added health, otherwise you’ll be a target when people figure out how squishy you are) HS adds to your resistances and also gives you some extra healing, buffing your back bar. Now, if you’re going to be in PvP before level 50 (and why not?) then you’ll want a couple sets to train yourself up to 50. Night Mother’s Gaze is good to have a complete set, with Kvatch Gladiator to fill in the rest of the pieces. Don’t be afraid to switch out pieces if you get them from chests or mail, but these will keep you with a high crit chance even from early on.

On to our skills! We’re going to have a 2h sword on each bar for damage. Pure and simple damage... plus that way it makes it hard for your enemies to know when you’re on your buff bar and when you’re on your damage bar. 1st Bar: Damage for DAYS Critical Charge->Crit Rush: Our gap closer, one that’s always a critical hit and does more damage the further away they are from you when you start. There’s little more terrifying than an enemy flying across the battlefield to smack you down with a critical hit, especially when you didn’t see them coming. Uppercut->Dizzying Swing: Follow up a Crit Rush with a Dizzying Swing and you’ll stun and knock back your target. If it just so happens to knock your target into Crit Rush range, who are you to argue? People are going to hate you for this simple combo, but w/e. Reverse Slash->Executioner: Your finishing move right here, unless your attack is blocked, your target will be going down after a smack or two of this if you hit while they’re under 50% health. If you hit while they’re above, tho, people will make fun of you, t’s just not worth it. Searing Strike->Venomous Claw: A nasty little DoT that you want to weave in when you’re melting a target, especially against tanks. DoTs hurt, and this one gets worse the longer it lasts, setting you up for a good Executioner strike. Fiery Breath->Noxious Breath: This is what happens when you feed a DK too much garlic. Not only is this a good DoT, it also lowers your enemy’s physical resistance, so they’re that much easier to melt. Dawnbreaker->Dawnbreaker of Smiting: A stun, a DoT, an AoE, and relatively cheap when it comes to ults, DoS is nasty in both PvP and PvE. Werewolves suck, this makes them suck less.

Bar 2: Buff It Up For Max Rage Rapid Maneuver->Retreating Maneuver: Someone should always have this on their bar when you’re running through Cyrodiil, so it might as well be the stam build. It removes snares from you and makes it so they can’t be reapplied for several seconds, you book it out of a sticky situation, or just use it to travel across the map. Trapping Webs->Shadow Silk: An AOE snare with an extra surprise: It turns into an AOE attack after a few seconds, with a DOT against enemies if your allies are on point with their synergies. You can also trade this out for Ring of Preservation, boosting your stamina recovery and lowering the amount of damage you take and cutting the cost of roll dodge on top of that. Vigor->Resolving Vigor: An emergency HoT to pop in the middle of a fight, especially if you get caught in the middle of a Silence bubble and your healer needs backup or if you’re rushing a breach and there’s DoTs on the breach. Personally, I think most players should keep a skill like this on one of their bars Dragon Blood->Green Dragon Blood: One of the better heals you can get as a stamDK, or really as a stam build in general. Not only does it give you heals, it buffs your health and stamina recovery and your healing received, making all your HoTs work even better. Momentum->Rally: Major Brutality <3 20% weapon damage <33 a HoT that burst heals when it expires <333 Downside? None. Berserker Strike->Onslaught: This damn attack. It ignores all a target’s resistances and gives them to you for 8 seconds AND if you kill with it, it refunds the Ultimate cost. Combine that with some of our passives and we heal and get magicka and stamina back, too. Speaking of werewolves above, if you want to be one, feel free to switch this one out for werewolf transformation.

So how do we use this potential badass on a battlefield? Rally and Green Dragon Blood should already be up when you run into a fight, Rapid/Retreating Maneuver will close the gap enough for you to swap to Crit Rush. From Crit Rush, Dizzying Swing to stun them, then lay down Noxious Breath and Venomous Claw for the DoTs and debuff. Rinse and repeat from Crit Rush until they’re under 50% health until you can use Executioner. If you start to get surrounded, don’t panic, Dawnbreaker will make them think twice, Vigor will give another HoT, Dragon Blood will be your burst heal and trapping webs will be a nasty surprise. If you can swap bars to hit Onslaught, awesome, if not it’s not a big deal.

So something I've noticed about leading PVP groups is that if you go down, you're usually the priority to be picked up. This happens whether you ask it or not and can be a boon if you're the healer. At the same time, other players usually melt if they have a full group focusing on them. SO why not combine these two concepts to create a badass group leader that can keep their team on their feet and make it really easy for your team to pick out one person to beat down? At the same time, we want to have some survivability so that our team doesn't wipe because they're trying to get us. Credit goes to one of my friends (he'll know who he is once I share this :) You rock for giving me evil ideas for the armor setup)

What do our sets look like, you may ask. The Trolliest ever, I respond.

Monster set: Troll King, both pieces. +2% heal is great, but the 2nd effect is what will make us a truly superb healer while still staying up: "When you heal a friendly target, if they are still below 60% Health, their Health Recovery is increased by 1548 for 10 seconds." Think about that for a second. If your heals tick on someone whose health is below 60%, fairly common in Cyrodiil, their health recovery is increased drastically. This applies to you, too, and meshes well with our main heavy set. Full Set: Juggernaut. This has a pretty nice 5 item bonus: "When you take damage while under 30% Health, heal for 18060. This effect can occur once every 1 minute." So if your enemies figure out who's healing your squad, this will provide a HUGE heal if they get you low. Not only that, but if your health is high enough (via glyphs and item bonuses) this could end up activating your Troll King set. That's just not fair to try and fight against, and makes you tanky as hell. Partial Sets: So, we're left with 4 more item slots, and for this, we're going to go with more tankiness. Bastion of the Heartland gives us more health, healing received, and reduces the damage we take from other players. It's one of my favorites, I'll admit. Akaviri Dragonguard is a good one while you don't have the full BOTH (also my favorite acronym lol) giving us magicka recovery, health, and healing received.

What about before you hit 50CR160? There's a nifty little set called Whitestrake's Retribution. Max Health, Health Recovery, and Spell Resistance is great, but it's 5 piece bonus is pretty similar to Juggernaut. Instead of actual health, however, it gives us a damage shield. Not quite as good, but it can happen every 15 seconds, as opposed to 1 minute. If you can find someone to craft it all in training (and there's no reason why you can't, srsly, most good PvP guilds have crafters who'll do it for the materials only) even better. We want to level as fast as possible, and as fun as non-vet PvP can be, Troll King <3.

On to the fun part: Our skill bars. Bar 1: Focus on the glowing one! Destro Staff: Lightning. There's some passives on the Destruction tree that increase the effectiveness of our AOEs, we may only have 2, but there's only 1 direct single damage attack we use, and I have to admit I just like the Lightning heavy attack better than the Flame heavy attack, which would be our second choice. Piercing Mark: This will make it easier for your team to focus down one enemy, and is also great against Nightblades since it helps you find them even if they try to stealth. That would be great by itself, but it also lowers their resistances and heals you for 40% if the target dies, so there's no downside. Pulsar: A tidy little AOE, with an extra special "Oh Shit!" for your enemies; it lowers their max health for 30 seconds. Combine that with Piercing Mark and your enemies will vanish. Funnel Health: Such an easy one to spam, drops a nice little HoT on you and one member of your squad. Straightforward, keeps your team up and can activate Troll King. Sap Essence: Another goldie from the Siphoning tree, ups your spell damage if you hit even one enemy, but really shines vs zergs. Pops a heal for you and your allies that increases for every enemy you hit with it and is a decent sized AOE on top of that. Dark Shades: Why have one leader when you can have 3? Your two shades not only damage enemies, they also reduce the damage your enemies do by 15%. 4 seconds might not seem like a long time, but it can seem like forever when 10 or more people are melting your health. You can swap this out for Impale if you want a little extra DPS against low health enemies, or prefer a flame staff to a lightning staff. Ult: Sturdy Horn: War Horn is great as is (+10% to all resources, everyone should run with this if they can), but throw in added time and extra resistances and it can make all the difference in taking a keep. Hopefully, you have several people with this on their bar so you can stagger it out, but if not, you should be able to pop it pretty frequently anyway (at least once or twice a siege, when rushing a breach or when a breach is getting rushed)

Bar 2: Let’s stick together Restoration Staff: You're a healer. This is how you heal, but I'd think that goes without saying :) Blessing of Restoration: A burst heal, albeit a minor one, but it hits a large area and increases everyone's resistances. If  your group is running tight, you can hit even a large group pretty easily with only one or two casts. Efficient Purge: Purge is expensive, but it's our only real way to get rid of negative effects on our team. Efficient Purge lowers the cost by about 1/3rd. You can swap in the other morph if you want some extra healing, but Troll King should take care of that for you. Illustrious Healing: An AOE Heal, great for rushing/defending a breach, and another way for Troll King to proc. It's relatively cheap while covering a pretty large area. Dark Cloak: When things get too hot, this helps you duck out to fight another day. Other uses: Burning a forward camp, ambushing at gates, surprising enemy forces when you arrive just too late to stop them from starting to flip flags, AND SO MUCH MORE. While sweeping for people hiding in a keep, this can be swapped out for Radiant Magelight. Anyone who's spent even a little bit of time in PvP should know how useful this is, but for those who aren't familiar with what stealthed enemies can do: two Nightblades and 6 ballista can drop a wall from inside a keep in only a couple minutes, and be a pain in the ass for defenders IF they manage to show up on time. You'll want someone to have this as one of their skills in any group, so it might as well be you. Mutagen: A cheap HoT that gives a burst heal when someone falls too low on health while taking off a harmful effect. That might not sound like much, but if your buddy who insisted on bringing a vampire to PvP catches fire, that'll remove the fire and heal his goth butt enough for you to swoop in with some real heals. (And Troll King ftw) Ult: Soul Siphon: Take a great skill for damage, take away the damage and add super heals to you and your allies AND make you and your allies take more healing makes this one of your best burst heals. It's cheap to cast and can make all the difference when you're getting swarmed.

So, how do our skills all fit together? As a leader, communication is key. Piercing Mark gives a visual aid to your team, to help them know who to go for next, Pulsar and Dark Shades will do passive damage to your enemies’ effectiveness, while Sap Essence and Funnel Health will keep your own forces up. The way I’d fire them off goes: Dark Shades (lasts 15 seconds, gives you some passive DPS) Sap Essence (increase your spell power) Piercing Mark (signal your team) Pulsar (lowers enemy health, plus DPS) Funnel Health (HoT, especially useful if we have high critical chance) If we forwent Dark Shades, hit Impale once your target is below 25% health for an almost instant kill. Weave in Light and Heavy attacks for extra damage and to restore magicka as needed, rinse and repeat as needed. Our second bar comes up more defense than anything else. You’ll want Mutagen to be up pretty much all the time, Blessing of Restoration helps if your team is getting too low on health and can hit a large portion of your group if you’re good, Illustrious Healing can be thrown down where most of your team is standing, and can proc Troll King if anyone runs into trouble, Purge comes in handy if you’re getting hit by siege or any kind of DoT. Dark Cloak doesn’t need any more explanation, I think, nor does Radiant Magelight. Our Ults have different purposes: War Horn is good to pop before anyone needs heavy healing, Soul Siphon is heavy healing. Pop War Horn as you run into a group, hit Soul Siphon as you’re fighting to keep people from going down. Easy enough to remember, I think :)