I apologize in advance for the jargon in this post – it probably won’t make any sense to anyone who doesn’t play Elder Scrolls Online. But I do, and as well as write down my results today, I want to make them available to guildies who may take an interest in the subject of simple, off-meta ways to get decent Damage Per Second in ESO.
So the thing is, in Update 37 I finally got my hands on the Oakensoul Ring in Elder Scrolls Online, and farmed the typical Storm Master / Sergeant’s Mail sets that go with it in all the “Brokensoul OP” heavy attack builds that are all the rage these days. Not surprisingly, this current “meta” for heavy attack builds drastically improved my MagSorc’s badly outdated heavy attack build on the dummy – the “OakenSorc” is very much a thing now. But I also tested stuff on my Magicka Dragonknight and got some interesting results. Also, Storm Master is getting nerfed in Update 38 so I’m looking for potential replacements.
DK in Oakensoul+Storm Master+Sergeants Mail: ~85-90k
As I expected, this was pretty close to my OakenSorc setup, which does 90-93k DPS. Sorcs aren’t the only class that can heavy attack well – but I knew that already.
DK in Kilt+Storm Master+Sergeants Mail: ~85-90k
I’ll admit, I was a little surprised that once I switched the Backstabber for other CP – I think it was Wrathful Strikes – I did pretty much the same damage on a 2-bar heavy attack build using the Harpooner’s Wading Kilt and a Maelstrom Inferno back bar as on the Oakensoul build. It makes sense though – the Molten Armaments gives the Empower buff for a pretty long time – 37 seconds. It’s not permanent like on the Ring, but still, it lasts long enough that I only have to cast it a few times. Much better than the Mages Guild skills giving the buff for 10 seconds only.
Granted, with two bars this build may be a little more complicated to keep all the abilities up because both bars are in play, but I actually preferred the light attack back bar rotation because it’s a little more varied than just keeping down the left mouse button constantly, which is a bit strenuous for the fingers. And it’s not an instant wipe in Cloudrest if you get Relequen’s bar swap mechanic…
Since my Sorc still gets slightly better damage with the HA build, I decided to also test some of the other old heavy attack sets I’ve been using and collecting in the past to see what they could do with Oakensoul. Predicatably, this setup was the best on the dummy because the dummy always favours a medium armour setup.
DK in Oakensoul + Infallible + Noble Duelist: 70k
It was of course predictable that two light armour sets would mean lots of overpenetration and only 115% crit damage, so the DPS output was bound to be lower. But still, I was a little shocked to see just how poorly this setup fared compared to the other ones I tested. Of course Oakensoul already provides Minor Force, so the 3-piece bonus on Infallible Aether is wasted. Yet I didn’t expect this to have quite as much of an impact as it did – Oakensoul here went way lower than the other setups I tested.
DK in Kilt+Infallible+Noble Duelist: ~85k!
I must admit I forgot to save the screenshots and my memory is a wee bit less certain of the result here, but I *think* roughly 85k was indeed what I got with this setup.
Backstabber CP and The Harpooner’s Kilt at full stacks makes up for the missing crit damage compared with a medium armour set- but as I’m still seriously over-penetrating, this time I was surprised at how high damage I got – almost as much as with the dominant Sergeant’s / Master build. Again, this is of course a 2-bar-build, and it’s getting obvious that for Dragonknights, you don’t actually need the Oakensoul Ring to do a viable heavy attack build; it’s more for convenience and simplicity than anything else. And I’m not at all sure that the difference between this and the standard Sergeant’s / Storm Master set is very relevant, as the extra penetration provided by all the light armour is often much more useful in real content than on the dummy. Not all groups provide as much pen as the trial dummy, so in real content, this build won’t need to add Force of Nature or something to get to the pen cap.
DK in Infallible+Noble Duelist + Grothdarr: 77k!
This result sits in-between the two Mythic results with 2 light armour sets, yet this time I was seriously surprised at how much the a simple 2-bar setup with a monster set outclassed Oakensoul – by a full +10% higher DPS. (Especially surprising since one of my Grothdarr pieces was actually heavy armour, which is obviously sub-optimal for DPS.)
77k is still way less than 85k (and even further below 90k!) But it may well be superior to the Kilt in cases where it’s hard to keep up stacks on the Kilt – which may be rather common, since Noble Duelist require that I be in melee range, and I intend this setup for trash packs as much as than anything else; getting hit by stray arrows can easily mess with the stacks here. (I’m contemplating whether the Sea-Serpent’s Coil might also be a good option in such trash fights, haven’t made my mind up yet.)
Since my Kilt unfortunately had to go back to my Sorc until I can get more transmutes, in the end this is the setup that is currently on my off-meta MagDK alt !
1bar Stamsorc in Sergeant’s+Undaunted Infiltrator: ca 86,5k
I thought I’d also test a Stamina build with Infiltrator, which boost Stam but procs off Magicka skills. I got 99% uptime using Daedric Prey and Volatile Familiar + Trap, Hurricane and Tormentor. Looks like this won’t overtake Storm Master as BiS setup even with the nerf coming to that set, but it’s pretty close in terms of damage.
1bar DK in Sergeant’s+Undaunted Infiltrator: ca 80k
I’m somewhat surprised, I must admit, at how low the damage was here compared to Storm Master. I guess I shouldn’t be, a 6k DPS drop was what I got on the Sorc as well tbh. Also, it’s about the same as I get with a non-pet Sorc AoE setup, and since DK has no pets and this is essentially an AoE setup… go figure. But I was a bit surprised that it gets totally outclassed by a 2bar MagDK in Infallible Aether, Noble Duelist and Kilt.
Update 38 Results
In Update 38 Storm Master got its duration and proc conditions altered and Empower buff was slightly reduced, so I tested again to see the effect.
Classic Oakensorc in Oakensoul+Storm Master+Sergeants Mail: ~88-89k
So that’s actually just 3-4k drop in DPS, though I was hoping to still break 90k… ah well. Still only a 5% DPS drop.
1bar Stamsorc in Sergeant’s+Undaunted Infiltrator: 82.5K
Down 4k, that’s a 5% DPS loss. Surprisingly far behind Storm Master still, I fear.
2bar DK in Kilt/Infallible/Noble Duelist: 79k
That’s down 6k DPS from Update 37, or some 7% DPS.
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