Beginners Guide to DPS • Savage Hearts ESO

UN Original Beginners Guide to the DPS role in Group Dungeons

The three primary roles in ESO with respect to PVE group dungeons and raids.

Healing
Tanking
Damage Per Second (DPS)

It is possible to go through the single player content in this game doing all manners of unnatural configurations; however, that does not work in group dungeons. The primary focus of the healer role is to keep the party alive (healing), provide resources/buffs, and last on the priority list is adding to damage.

The primary focus of the tank is to draw aggro from the mobs and bosses, provide party buffs, and lastly to provide dps. One of the common errors in group dungeons is for the tank or healer to start focusing on damage and ignoring their primary tasking causing the party to wipe.

This brings us to the dps role. The primary responsibility of this class is obviously going to be providing damage. This role also generally with a few exceptions should be resurrecting fallen party members. In certain dungeons/trials the dps may also provide auxiliary healing or tanking. This is the most popular role in eso and most mmos which also makes it have some of the widest fluctuations in player skills that you will see. There are few things more painful then slogging through a dungeon with bad dps as most dungeons contain a damage check that will stop you if your damage is too low.

Generally, the dps should let the tank draw aggro (I will admit to messing this one up as I get bored easily in some of the simpler dungeons and stop paying attention). There is no good mass aggro power in the game so typically a tank is going to lead with an aoe and pull the mob and then start spamming taunts or cc the mob in place. At this point you want your dps to start landing and it is going to break the initial mass aggro almost immediately but the tank should be into his taunt spamming which will over power your dps in terms of aggro. The dps should now be entering into a rotation of stacking damages and buffing oneself to provide max damage and or resource regeneration depending on the party.

Note: You will not achieve end game dps without a good skill rotation.

Healers running repentance, shards, necrotic orb (magica restore morph), elemental drain (weakness to elements morph from destruction staff) will greatly increase your dps and open up your skill selection. If a healer is not running these powers, then typically it is helpful to know what changes you have to make to your build or gear to accommodate although the group is going to suffer with less than optimal dps.

Execution

You should not be using an execute ability until you reach 25% or so of health on an enemy. If you are spamming radiant oppression (insert execute of choice although this is the most common one) on a boss at full health you are not going to get good dps. In the thieves guild expansion, you can use radiant oppression at a higher percentage than 25%; however, this is a function of both boss health and your level of resources.

Note: The important thing to remember as you balance between damage and survivability is that dead dps is really bad dps.

Damage Taken

With a few exceptions you should not be standing in red circles and expecting the healer to save you or face tanking mobs. What will happen is the healer will run out of resources and the party will wipe. There are a couple of exceptions to this in certain trials and boss fights; however, these strategies depend on the group being able to achieve a high level of dps and good heals.

Simple Mitigation for Damage Taken

Block

Seriously. If the tank loses aggro or something is about to knock you upside your head; block; do not just stand there and die. Blocking a heavy attack with also often cause an enemy to be off balance or stunned. Blocking during boss aoe attacks often times will be the difference between instant death and giving you healer and opportunity to heal you. If you cannot get out of the circle in time blocking is generally a better option then panic and screaming at the healer when you die.

Dodge or dodge roll

Yeah this works to…go figure. Does not even impact dps in a lot of cases. Simply walk outside of the red while continuing to dps. If you dodge roll you will lose dps but you lose a lot more if you die.

Bash

This will interrupt a lot of casts but not heavy attacks.

Note: Important thing is to know the best mitigation for your situation.

Range and Melee

Generally having the ability to switch from melee to range is a good idea even if you prefer melee or have weaker dps for range. There are some dungeon fights where it is simpler and almost required at times to range. (engine guardian is a good example as damage scales off proximity to the engine). (last boss of vfg is another good example). I have been in groups before where someone refused to switch and after the third or fourth death the rest of the party just stopped resurrecting as it was a waste of time.

Champion Points and Builds

The best place to look for extensive understanding of this topic is the theory crafting section of tamriel foundry. There are actually calculators and such things for champion points. A good starter site for learning the mechanics of eso and some builds can be found at deltias gaming it has a lot of helpful information for easy reference. Not going to link them here but google works. Most of the builds I am running can be found at either of these sites, out of respect for the time the builders spent in putting these together, I am not going to post any builds here.

Mundus Stones

Depends on build but most likely as a dps you will be using the thief unless you are running twice born star then you will run the thief and shadow.

Single Target DPS Levels

Sustained boss fight no adds.

Excellent 40k+ (average dps for single target boss fight)
Good 25k+ (average for single target boss fight)
Average 10-15k (average for single target boss fight) // Will beat most dungeons with good mechanics (little to no room for error at the low end)
Bad < 10k (average for single target boss fight)

AOE DPS levels

Excellent 60-100k+
Good 30-60k
Average 15-30k
Bad < 15k

Miscellaneous

Standard group dungeon configuration – 2 dps, 1 healer, and 1 tank

Alternate group dungeon configurations – 2 dps, 1 healer, and tank/dps 3 dps, and 1 healer

Most all dungeons can be run in this configuration – 3 dps and 1 heal/tank

4 dps (have run this on a few silvers at v16) some bosses are immune to aggro (e.g., engine guardian) and having a tank is pretty much worthless for the fight. There are normal dungeons and vet dungeons both scale to v16; however, a normal dungeon at v16 is not comparable to a vet dungeon at v16.

Wgt and vwgt are almost identical; however, if you run both a v16 you will notice the difference. Your dps will often be lower in the vet dungeons. Not all dungeons have a vet dungeon version. I may eventually write an actual dungeon guide this is more miscellaneous info.

Standard configuration for dungeons is generally the most forgiving for beginners; 3 dps and 1 healer is probably the optimal for most dungeons but it is not as forgiving in most fights.

Trials (have not run them all will add as I get more experience): 8 dps, 2 tanks, and 2 healers. I have run the aa where I was asked to change one skill to a siphon ability and functioned as a healer for part of the dungeon where the group splits into three separate groups. This keeps it at needing two healers.

Disclaimer

This is intended to help beginners with pve dps. Recommended changes, corrections, constructive comments let me know.

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15 Comments

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Dartagnon

9 years ago

Excellent guide, a lot of necessary information. This should help a lot of the new players, and even some of the older ones.

Ognisty

Great info Nate. Thank you for writing this article. :-)

cthayer540

Thanks for the great info Nate! Sometime I would like to get together with you in-game and work on getting my sorc into that 20k+ range.

chuckyb

Excellent review that all of us need to pay attention to and make any necessary changes.

Nai_Usagi

I’ve gone back to this a couple times now. Thanks for the article!

tocov500

Thanks for sharing. Very Helpful. Well written.

mooseo

Ive changed just a few skills up on my night blade and now I’m seeing 12k to 14k dps. I’ve seen as high as 18.9k one time. This was a good article thanks Nate.

Author

nate_2003

Nice. I hit close to 20K in the fight with the final boss in MoL the other day. That is the best sustained DPS I have ever managed to produce. Might have been a case of a blind squirrel and the proverbial nut though.

Lextor

This guide will help a lot of people. And gives them some info to know where there DPS stands. And as a group if we can get to the higher DPS the trials will be much easier.

Calabar

8 years ago

How do you check your DPS output ? Do you use a add-on or is it a setting I haven’t seen in controls ?

Reply to Calabar

I use FTC (foundry tactical combat) for dps meter, healing meter, and buffs. There are several other good add ons as well.

Reply to nate_2003

Thanks for your response & this great thread of knowledge , new to game didn’t even realize it used add-on LOL , Thought it was like skyrim used mods.

There is an article on here with a list of add ons as well that might be worth looking at

Here is the article:
https://www.savagehearts.us/helpful-addons-for-eso/

Just read this for the second time. Very helpful. Thomas II.