In thisElder Scrolls OnlineDPS Guide I am going to cover a bunch of mechanics and how to improve your overall DPS. Having high Damage Per Second is very important forVeteran end game content, otherwise you become a liability, and it becomes much more difficult. Having great Gear, knowing what Skills to use and what to focus on is only one part of the equation.Rotationis what makes or breaks every DPS build.
ESO Damage Dealing Basics
Before you do anything else you need to choose is your DPS going to come fromMagickaorStaminabased Skills. Usually both versions work very well for each class with the biggest differences being Skills used and Damage type. If you choose Magicka as your DPS then ALL of your attribute points will go into Magicka since it increases the effectiveness of all Skills that use Magicka, on top of giving your a larger resource pool. If you chose Stamina as your dps then ALL of your attributes will go into Stamina since it increases the effectiveness of all Skills that use Stamina, in addition to the larger resource pool.
Besides Max Magicka and Max Stamina, they other stats that really impact your performance are Spell Damage and Weapon Damage. Magicka and Spell Damage work together to increase your overall damage per attack, and likewise Stamina and Weapons Damage do the same. These stats are roughly equal in terms of what they provide from a damage stand point, however Max Magicka and Max Stamina both allow you to use more Skills before running out of resources.
Damage Types, Resistance and Penetration
Damage in ESO is split into two groups:PhysicalandMagical. Physical Damage is mitigated byArmor (Physical Resistance)and Magical Damage is mitigated byMagical Resistance.
Physical Damage Sub Types: Poison and Disease
Magical Damage Sub Types: Frost, Shock and Flame
All Physical Damage Sub Types are mitigated by Armor (Physical Resistance) and their own mitigation (Poison Resistance for example). All Magical Damage Sub Types are mitigated the same way. So for example Frost Damage will be mitigated with Spell Resistance + Frost Resistance before applying damage.
Penetrationignores resistance, meaning you will deal more damage. In PvE the highest resistances go to around18kbut because of all the debuffs (Major and MinorFracture/Breach,Glyph of Crushing) that your Tank should do, realistically you need somewhere around10kPenetration. If you have 18k Spell Penetration and the enemy has 10k Spell Resistance, all that additional 8k Penetration is forfeit, meaning you gain nothing from it. For this reason you shouldn’t stack Penetration any higher than about 10k. In PvP, however, players tend to stack Resistance as high as they can, meaning Penetration will pay off more.
How to increase your Damage in ESO
Players will want to maximize their DPS, and they can start by focusing on the following:
Weapon Quality
Once you know what gear you are set on, and are level CP160, invest in the Tempering Alloy or Rosin to upgrade your weapon toGold Legendary Weapon Quality. The DPS difference from Purple to Gold is significant and will be noticeable. Materials or Weapons themselves can be purchased from Guild Traders, or you can refine raw materials or complete Crafting Writs to obtain them.
Increasing your Magicka or Stamina Attribute
The vast majority of skills scale off your Magicka or Stamina pool, so having a large pool means higher damage. Some skills are more affected by “Spell/Weapon Damage”, so optimize your setup so you have a large 40k ish attribute pool with around 2000 Spell or Weapon Damage. Please note that having high pools does not mean good regeneration, and sustained DPS will also need Magicka/Stamina Recovery in order to keep attacking through lengthier fights.
Sets can provide various bonuses that improve overall DPS. Damage Dealers useLightand/orMedium Armorbecause the passive Skills of both work very well for DPS. Unlike Weapons, Gold Legendary Quality is a nice-to-have rather than a must, but you should consider it anyway particularly for your Jewelry Glyphs.Glyphsshould be Legendary Quality and give you Max Magicka/Max Stamina, add Magicka/Stamina Recovery or Spell/Weapon Damage.Traitsplay significant role as well so focus on Sharpened for your weapons, Divine and Infused for your Armor, and Arcane/Robust for your Jewelry. Those who will do harder dungeons should get at least one or two Bloodthirsty traits on Jewelry in place of Arcane/Robust.
Sorcery/BrutalityBuffsare very important for DPS classes since they boost overall DPS by 20% for Major and 5% for Minor. Do not forget that Minor and Major buffs stack, so go through your Skills and find the innate buffs that you have and add them to your bar so you can self-buff during your rotation.
Potions that are good for DPS are Essence ofSpell Power,Spell Crit,Weapon Power, andWeapon Crit. Which one to use depends on your build and playstyle. They can be expensive to get so stick with Potions that restore only 2 stats until you get to tough end game content like Veteran Trials. Minimally you want to have Potions that give you back your primary resource and increase your Recovery with that resource (Magicka or Stamina).
Food can give significant buffs to Max Stamina, Magicka and Health which leads to improved performance and surviveability. Purple CP 150 food is the best choice and if you cannot craft it yourself it is available at Guild Traders for a fair price. My recommendation is to use regen drinks when in PvE content. Magicka users want to buy “Witchmother’s Potent Brew” and stamina users want “Dubious Camoran Throne”. If, however, you cannot find these, Blue food that increases Health and your primary Attribute (Stamina/Magicka) is better than nothing.
Critical Chance and Critical Damage
2 very important factors in any DPS build areCritical ChanceandCritical Damage. These 2 are increased through Buffs, Gear, Passive Skills, and Champion Points. It is important to have both as high as possible. Buffs that affect Critical Chance and Critical Damage areProphecy,SavageryandForce.
Skill Ranks
Skill Ranks can boost damage or duration, depending on the Skill used. Slot your skills in your bar when turning in quests and defeating enemies to rank them up and unlock morphs and more powerful abilities. The Maximum Rank for any Class Skill is 4. Additionally, do not neglect to put points into passive skills for Medium Armor and Light Armor, as they will improve your DPS sustain by lowering your resource consumption and improving regeneration.
DPS Gear:Sets,EnchantmentsandTraits
Gear is important for any role. Damage Dealers usually stick with Light or Medium Armor or mix both of them in same build. An optimized build is usually taking advantage of the Undaunted Passive Skill “Undaunted Mettle”, that gives you a bonus for wearing a piece of each armor type. For example a Magicka Build would wear a Heavy Chest, Medium Legs and light everything else to get a 4% stat bonus and maximize protection from the armor.
Here is a list of some general good dps armor sets that are not too hard to obtain (Can be crafted / found overworld / easy dungeons)
Stamina Builds
Magicka Builds
Monster Sets
Enchantments
DPS enchantments are straightforward and most people use these setups:
Armor: Depending on the build, what you should focus on here is either increased Max Stamina or Magicka. It might be tempting to slot Health Glyphs, but it is always better to increase your surviveability via shields and bubbles than by pumping numbers. As a guideline, an optmized magicka Sorceror will have only 16k-18k health, and survive by virtue of their damage shield skills such as Annulment. However, since the Murkmire changes, it may be a good idea to put Prismatic Glyphs on your Chest, Legs and Head to further increase your surviveability if you find you are dying often.
Weapon: Weapon Enchantment should always beGlyph of Weapon Damageon your front or back bar, but ideally not both since they don’t stack. This Glyph affects Light & Heavy attacks and Skill damage, so you want to keep it up as often as possible. Consider using an Infused Trait on the weapon that uses this Glyph for best results. If you are dual wielding then you should know that 2 same enchantments on both weaponsDO NOT STACK. For dual wielding slot Weapon Damage Glyph on Primary Weapon and Glyph of Poison/Disease/Flame/Frost/Shock on Secondary.
Jewelry: The best Jewelry Enchantments for DPS classes areGlyph of Increased Physical/Magical HarmandStamina/Magicka Recovery. Remember that Enchantments on JewelrySTACKS, meaning you can have the same Glyph on all pieces of Jewelry.
DPS Champion Skills
It is easy to get confused with all the Champion Skills available. There are many good Skills but not so many great ones. Remember that game always rounds up the percentage gains of Champion Skills, meaning if it says for example that you get increased Damage by5.6%, the actual gain is5%and0.6%is forfeit. Here are best Champion Skills for Magicka and Stamina Builds.
How many points goes into each of these Champion Skills depends on many things such as Build, Content, Skill Passives… By using these, however, you are on the right path to maximize your DPS.
The best Gear in the game won’t help you if you do not know how to properly rotate Skills. There are also some ‘hidden’ mechanics that players use to maximize their Damage output. In this section we will explore these, beginning with Weaving and Canceling.
Light Weaving and Swap Canceling
Light Weavingmeans hitting an enemy with Light Attack and Skill at the same time. It increases overall DPS a lot and it also helps with Ultimate gain since every Light/Heavy Attack generates a buff for 8 seconds that restores Ultimate. To do this move, simply start a Light Attack and before it hits an opponent use any Skill from the rotation. That will cancel the animation of Light Attack and prioritize Skill instead but both attacks will deal damage. This also works with Heavy Attacks, so practice until you get the hang of it.
Swap Cancelingmeans switching Weapons while casting a Skill. If you cast a Skill and swap bars immediately, the skill will still fire but the animation won’t play. This move is very useful for heavy bar swapping rotations, and is a more advanced technique. This saves valuable time when DPSing, and improves your overall damage out put.
Skill Priority
General Skill and Attack rotation looks something like this:
While learning these rotations you will constantly run out of Magicka or Stamina and that is normal. Be patient, practice on enemies and dummies if you have one and also install Add On likeCombat Metricsthat will tell you how much DPS you are doing. The number that you are looking to reach for the toughest Veteran content is around 30k.
Final Tips
Practice is the most important thing for any DPS Class. After awhile all the timing and reflexes will become muscle memory. Even with bad gear you can reach decent DPS numbers if you can nail the rotation.
While practicing do not waste expensive potions. Use those only for toughest content. However, Food is relatively cheap and lasts for a long time and should be used even when practicing.
Mundus Stonesfor DPS Classes areLover,Thief,Shadow,Mage,Apprentice, and theTowerand. It mostly depends on the scenario and build you are running which one you are going to use but you cannot go wrong with these.
Do not forget to take care of your Health as well if you are having trouble.18kwith Buffs is enough for most content but if you are inexperienced attempt to increase it to20kuntil you feel familiar with the Dungeons your are running and the setup you are using. Staying alive is always more important than dealing damage. After all, you cannot DPS if you are dead!
Stay tuned for moreESO Guidesas we take on Crafting, Dungeons, PvP and of course, Builds! If you want to find out more about the upcoming changes with Update 19 read about them inElder Scrolls Online Wolfhunter Changes: The Age Of The Werewolf. You can also check out the upcoming dungeons inThe Elder Scrolls Online: Wolfhunter Dungeons Preview.
