How to Increase DPS in ESO

This article originally appeared in MmoGah and has been published here with permission.

 

Do you want to do more damage in The Elder Scrolls Online? If you are struggling with DPS in ESO, Lucky Ghost will list the most important things you can do to increase your damage while Parsing or Fighting enemies in the game. 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8x3ee8SstM

 

Choose the Right Rotation

 

AoE vs. Single Target

 

First, you have to recognize what type of damage you want to do. The most important factor in your Rotation is how many enemies you are approaching: If you're approaching more than a couple of enemies, you'll want to lead with your AoE abilities and use an AoE spammable, such as Brawler or Whirling Blades, or Unstable Wall of Elements. It's better to do 4K damage to six enemies than 9K damage to one. 

 

Conversely, if you're walking up to a boss with no adds or you're Parsing, you'll want to use a single target spammable because 4K damage to one target is worse than 9K damage to that same target.

 

The mistake many new players make is using the same Rotation, whether walking up to a bunch of trash mobs or a Parse Dummy. 

 

 

Light Attack Weave

 

 

Light Attacking between every ability will do huge things for your damage. Below is why Light Attack Weaving is so crucial in ESO:

  

Light Attacking Generates Ult Charge

 

Light Attacking Weaving will generate Ult charge. If you're not consistently Light Attacking, your Ultimate will take a very long time to become available again.

 

Light Attacking Triggers Weapon Enchants

 

Light Attacking will also Proc Enchants on your weapons. There's a long list of Enchants that you can take advantage of, and you have a chance of activating them every time you Light Attack. 

 

Light Attacking Provides Set Bonus

 

Many sets in this game, such as Relequen, Siroria, and even some Monster sets, benefit from Light Attacking. If you're wearing one of these sets and you're not Light Attacking, you are completely wasting the bonus that those sets are providing.

 

 

Use Your Ultimate Often

 

As long as you're Light Attacking between your abilities, your Ultimate will be coming up every one or two minutes. In other words, it's going to be available very often, so you should use it very often. 

 

 

Use Potions

 

Potions are incredibly important in The Elder Scrolls Online. They increase your Weapon or Spell damage by 20%. They also increase your critical rating and sustain so that you don't run out of resources.

 

 

When you get serious about doing damage or any time you're Parsing, you should use good Potions every time they come from Cooldown.

 

Potions can be a little expensive for a new player, but it's worth it. Anytime you're using a Parse Dummy to test your damage, you should always use good Potions such as Essence of Weapon Power or Essence of Spell Power. If you're not using Potions when you Parse, you’ll have no idea what you're capable of.

 

 

Use Food 

 

Like Potions, Food is pretty important, and you should never Parse or go into a Dungeon/Arena/Trial without Food equipped.

 

Every 1,000 of a resource that you get adds 100 of that type of damage. That means 1,000 Stamina is about 100 Weapon Damage, and 1,000 Magicka is 100 Spell Damage. 

 

The size of your resource pool is directly related to how much damage your character will do. It's a part of the formula that determines how much the next attack is going to do. That means if you're eating a Food that adds 5,000 Magicka, the food also adds 500 Spell damage. 

 

 

Food makes your character much stronger so that you don't run out of resources. If you're running out of resources, the reason might be that you're not using Potions or Food, or both. 

 

The effects of Food can last two hours. Don't be the guy that says Food is expensive. It's not. Selling a few trash items to a Vendor pays for your Food for the next couple of hours.

 

 

Get the Right Gear

 

There are hundreds of sets in TESO, but not all of these sets are created equal. Some of them are downright bad, some of them are amazing, and some are just okay. If you're wearing one of the sets that are just okay, your damage is just going to be okay; if you're wearing one of the bad sets, your damage is going to be bad.

 

AoE vs. Single Target

 

In The Elder Scrolls Online, some sets are better for single target damage but horrible at AoE damage; some do well in PvP but badly in PvE. Therefore, it's important to make sure the sets you're wearing are good at what you want to do. If you want to do a lot of damage, you need to wear a set that allows you to do that. The easiest way to achieve this is to follow guides that have a proven record of taking down content that requires high levels of damage.

 

If you only want to do Quests or Delves, it doesn't matter what you wear because that type of content doesn't require a high level of DPS. But if you want to do the Veteran mode of Arenas/Dungeons/Trials, you need to make sure that the build you're following uses sets that will be good for putting out large amounts of damage. 

 

If you want to Parse, be sure to wear Parse Gear; If you want to do AoE damage, make sure you're wearing AoE gear.

 

 

Keep Your Dots and Buffs Up at All Times

 

Dots and Buffs are the hardest part for new players, and these will be the single largest DPS loss in your build until you master recasting these abilities as soon as they fall off.

 

It's easy to cast them the first time, but it is difficult to cast them again the second they fall off. If you use Arrow Barrage, you'll want to let it take all the way down, and as soon as it's done and hit zero, you need to recast it again. Don't recast it before it hits zero because if you reapply your AoE abilities too soon, you will run out of resources. If you reapply them too late, you will lose damage. Therefore, the sweet spot is to reapply them the second they fall off.

 

Another example is Barbed Trap. This Buff will start ticking down from 18 seconds as soon as it activates, giving you 10% increased Critical damage for the duration. It also puts a decent amount of DoT on the enemy, so you are getting a DoT and a Buff simultaneously from this ability, which means the second it comes up, you will want to recast it again.

 

Once you've got into the habit of Light Attack Weaving, the biggest thing you can do to increase your damage is to master the upkeep of your DoTs and your Buffs. It's what all the new players struggle with. But once you get into the habit of reapplying them, your damage will go through the roof.

 

Also, remember that your Rotation will depend on what you're fighting – if you're fighting a large pack of enemies, you don't want to start spamming a single target DoT or a single target spammable. Instead, you want to lay down your AoE DoTs and AoE abilities to make sure you're hitting all of those enemies at once.

 

 

Get Your Gear Traited and Enchanted Correctly

 

Don't underestimate the importance of having the correct Enchants and Traits on your gear. The Enchants will add Maximum Stamina, and the Traits, such as Divines, increase your Mundus Stone effect by 9%.

 

Enchants and Traits are also important in Jewelry. Weapon damage Enchantment and Bloodthirsty Trait are going to add a massive amount of damage to your character. Once you have all of your gear properly Traited and Enchanted, it's going to have a very significant impact on the amount of damage you can do.

 

 

Gold Your Gear Out

 

It's important to gold out your gear once you're going for big Parses to put out high DPS. But not every piece is equally as important to gold out. Some pieces are significantly more impactful than others when they're golded.

 

First of all, you'll want to gold out your weapons first because weapons are going to have the single largest impact on your overall damage output. After that, move on to your Monster sets, then your body gear, and lastly, your Jewelry. 

 

Jewelry is the last step because it is costly to gold. Often, you may not even get around to it. When the gear meta changes fast, it's not uncommon to leave your Jewelry purple and save yourself a lot of ESO money it would have taken to gold these out. You might lose a couple of percent of damage, but it's nothing too significant. However, when you start trying to go for a 90K or 100K Parse, golding out the Jewelry does help. 

 

Don't worry if you only have one or two pieces of a set golded. You are still receiving the benefit of having those pieces golded. The game does not require you to have all five pieces of a set golded out before you start receiving the benefits of having the set golded out.

 

 

Practice

 

Nobody hits high DPS without ever touching a Parse Dummy. When practicing your Rotation on a Dummy, you will want to keep up those DoTs and Buffs, using the spammable anytime all of them are ticking. Not only that, but you're going to practice Light Attack Weaving, use your Ultimate as soon as it comes up, and use Potions anytime their Cooldown is over.

 

You can come and Parse once every 50 Champion levels. Don't start Parsing before 160, and there's no point in Parsing before you have two five-piece sets and a Monster set on. Every 50 CP levels or so, you can come to practice and check how much damage you did, and then come back 50 CP levels later and see how that's improved.

 

Things that will increase your damage: 

 

•   Champion Points

•   Gear improvements

•   Getting and golding out your Trial sets

•   Getting Arena weapon

 

Practice on the Target Iron Atronach, Trial

 

The best Dummy for practicing is the Target Iron Atronach, Trial because this guy replicates real game circumstances best. This Dummy gives you a bunch of resources and Buffs, which will significantly increase your damage and sustain, making you feel like you are playing with a group as opposed to playing yourself. 

 

Also, make sure you are standing behind the Parse Dummy, particularly if you're using the Backstabber star because it is the best one for Parsing, but it only works when you're Flanking the enemy. 

 

 

Useful Addons for PC

 

For PC users, there are some Addons you can use to make the process of increasing your damage much easier.

 

 

Combat Metrics

 

When you're Parsing or in a Dungeon, this tool tells you how much damage you're doing. Using this Addon, you will get real-time feedback as you're fighting or Parsing. 

 

Not only that, but you can also open it up by typing /cmx into the chatbox, and it's going to bring up a report of your damage. 

 

 

 

Light Attack Helper

 

Light Attack Helper is a tool that helps you track your Light Attacks, and it does this by incrementing a counter each time you actually hit a Light Attack. You'll want to shoot for a Light Attack ratio of roughly 0.8. Above 0.8 will be fantastic, and 0.9 will be amazing.

 

Global Cooldown Bar (GCD Bar)

 

If you are only Light Attacking between every ability, you can cast an ability once per second. The Global Cooldown Bar is a tool that tells you when you're allowed to cast your next ability. 

 

As soon as the bar completes, it means one second has passed, and then you can use another ability straight afterward. If you are casting abilities before the bar finishes, it means you are casting abilities too early, and you will be missing Light Attacks.

 

Those are the tips on how to improve your damage in The Elder Scrolls Online. If you found this guide helpful, be sure to Like and subscribe to Lucky Ghost's channel. You can also bookmark our ESO news page for more tips and news in the future. 

 

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