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EU Server Performance - Update from Matt Firor

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Hi everyone,

Today, members of the ESO team are participating in a Reddit AMA over on the ESO subreddit. We have seen your questions and concerns about EU server performance, server capacity, and issues with the Activity Finder, and wanted to make sure we addressed them in the AMA and here. Below is a response from Game Director Matt Firor.
Hello! I suspect we'll get questions about performance more than a few times today, so I prepared a description of what we have going on to address performance concerns - on a number of fronts.

Even though there is very little new information here, we definitely could be doing a better job of keeping everyone appraised of how things are going while we are in process. We will be better messengers in the future keeping everyone up to date on longer-term fixes and updates.

First, server capacity. As we all know, we had server capacity issues a few months back, especially on the PC EU servers. We were forced to temporarily cap the number of concurrent users on PC EU and put up a queuing system to enforce it. We got the new capacity online for PC EU in a week, and added that same capacity for PC NA (which was very close to experiencing the same problems). We took the queuing system down, and we can now support the concurrency demand we are seeing.

Second, the looking for group system. As we posted last week, we are working on a 100% revamp of this system, which is mostly used for Dungeon and Battleground queuing. We have a version done that we are testing in-house, although it will be a while before it goes live. We want to make sure that the solution we have scales correctly and will support the now massive numbers of players that are using the system. We are planning for revamped LFG system to be in Update 24, depending on how testing is going. Until then, we will continue with the only solution we have (which we posted about last week in the LFG update) - cap the number of players in the queue. We know it is extremely frustrating to not be able to queue for dungeons and BGs and get "cannot join queue" when you try, but at least now once you get into a queue successfully, you should be able to join the dungeon or BG.

Third: overall performance. Rich talked about this in his end of year message six months ago: we are currently implementing sweeping optimization and memory management client architecture changes that should improve client performance and especially client stability. These optimizations will be most noticeable on lower-spec PCs, base Xbox, and base PS4, but overall everyone should notice better stability and performance. This is scheduled for Update 24. Additionally, we have another set of optimizations scheduled for Q1 next year that will reduce the client "footprint" requirements and should speed up loading times.

Fourth: Longer term, we are in the beginning stages of combat system performance improvements that should improve overall game performance in Cyrodiil and Trials. Stay tuned for updates on this.

Obviously if anything else crops up, we'll investigate. I know that it can seem like it takes an inordinate amount of time to address performance problems, but we need to take our time and make sure that we don't introduce new issues while we do this. Thanks for your patience, and we will keep you updated.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/bwdb0r/welcome_to_the_elsweyr_update_22_aua/epwuxj0/

You'll find more details in our PC-EU Server Update thread from April here.

Thu'um skillline (Possible spoilers ahead )

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Since its possible that we may be going to skyrim next dlc/exp im curious if we may get a new skill line like psigic but inseatd the Thu'um.
Now learning to use the power isnt something that makes someone dragonborn as Ulfric learned and while it does seem uncommon so is psijic magic and a lot of other abilties we use (gameplay trumps lore most days)
So im wondering if we may get to learn to use some shouts in the future.
What do you think, do you like the idea?

ESO BEST ZONE PRELIMINARIES 4: KEEP VOTING FOR THE **WORST**

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The 4th elimination fight of seven; which zone's gonna catch it in the teeth? YOU DECIDE!


The lineup and current standing of all zones can be found here, if anyone's interested; this fight ends at noon CST (5pm UTC) on November the 13th - FIGHT!

PvP mindset and 1vXing

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I feel pretty confident with almost all 18 of my characters, some are built for “1vXing”, but I find that most of those I successfully 1vX are the same people over and over again. Typically it’s groups of no more than 5. But I know if I try to 1vX even two or three competent players, it’s not going to happen. I might kill one, but outside that I know I’m going to have to take my lumps.

Now when I watch a lot of 1vXing montages, I sort of see the same thing, 1vXer hitting the same groups or the group they are hitting are obvious potatoes just from how they play.

My question to the 1vXer, if you get xv1 do you qq about it? Personally I don’t because I know they outplayed me.

Takes 100 clicks to craft a CP160 Nirnhoned Resto Staff in Dragonguard style

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Just for the "fun" of testing:

1 click to interact with the crafting station (of course)

Then:

4 click to get from Bow to Restoration Staff
9 clicks to get from Sanded Maple (Level 1 mat) to Sanded Ruby Ash (CP150 mat)
1 click to get the mat to CP160
9 clicks to get to from No Trait to Nirnhoned trait
75 clicks to get from Molybdenum mat (Breton - first style) to Gilding Salts (Dragonguard - last style)

And 1 more click to craft it (of course)

Total:

100 Clicks to craft a CP160 Nirnhoned Resto Staff in Dragonguard style. :#

Someone needs improvement... cough!... crafting UI.. cough!...
 

What’s a YouTube Alternative. To Post my ESO Videos. (The new YouTube Policy, Has Me Worried)

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Ever since 2015, I have used YouTube For all my Videos of ESO. My Videos Mostly ESO, little bit others. YouTube has always been my favorite for posting ESO stuff. Sure, I have only 37 subscribers currently. I know I’m not OP in ESO. Nor do I wish to be OP in ESO. My ESO YouTube Videos are PvP based. Hence the meaning of OP. For past 5+ yrs (didn’t post PC video in 2014) I have been playing ESO.

I have slowly getting followers. However with the new changes to YouTube Policy (starting this December) It seems not the case anymore. This new policy is having many Youtubers nervous. Especially is small ones. I fear YouTube will delete my YouTube account (and all access of my gmail account. Least according to other websites. Save for this link)

So now I’m looking for a YouTube alternative. That I can post my ESO videos to that platform. I understand why YouTube is doing it. Besides they can. But I feel I should warn my Fellow Youtubers. Whom enjoy uploading there Videos of ESO. May it be guild relegated events. PvE/PvP and or both. So here is one link. From one website.

Sincerely, Concerned ESO Youtuber (PvP)
Lilith_Serjustin (PS4 EU gamertag. Unable change my forum again due to change once)


https://www.notebookcheck.net/YouTube-changes-Terms-of-Service-to-emphasize-it-can-delete-channels-that-are-not-commercially-viable.442636.0.html

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/t/terms

"DPS is through the roof" thread part 2

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Since the original thread got locked due to outdated information, I'm starting a new one. Particularly because I was intrigued by what @Morgha_Kul was wondering:
Morgha_Kul wrote: »
I wonder if someone with higher dps might try something and report back.

First, tell us what kind of dps you're getting as you are, kitted out normally.

Next, tell us what your dps is with GENERIC gear. No sets, nothing green, blue, purple or better... just plain white gear.

Finally tell us what dps you get in both prior conditions if you take away ALL Champion Points.

In each case, use the same skills and weapons (eg. if you're using a 2H sword in one test, use a 2H sword in all tests).

This will give us four data points.

Normal, advanced and set gear with full CP.
Generic, white gear with full CP.
Normal, advanced and set gear with NO CP.
Generic, white gear with NO CP.

Just curious to know what kind of numbers we will see. It might help us determine where the damage is coming from. Is it the gear? Is it the CP? Is it the skill of the player?

I can provide the first two data points.

I am max CP and my main is a magden. I have my CP allocated more or less the way that Alcast recommends, and my parse gear is (all Legendary) Spell Strat jewels, Bloodthirsty + spell dmg enchants + front bar inferno staff that's precise with a flame enchant; perfected False God's body, all Divines; Zaan head and shoulders, Divines; vMA inferno back bar, infused + weapon damage enchant.

Shadow mundus, all attributes into magicka, Ghastly eye bowl parse food, spell power potions

Front bar: Fissure, Dive, Fetcher, Degeneration, Bird of Prey
Back bar: Unstable Wall, Winter's Revenge, Elemental Drain, Barbed Trap, Bird of Prey.
Eternal Guardian ulti

My best 3 mil parse with the full setup described above is around 50k:

dSW0L6T.png

In general, my LA/second ratio is between .87 and .91

I then went into the PTS and made all-white gear with the same traits/enchants as I described above. Bar setup/mundus/etc stayed the same

I was pretty shocked. My DPS was halved:

aInjuS6.png

LA/second ratio is about .87. Perhaps a bit lower, but it's within what I expect to be normal for me. I say that to highlight the fact that I'm LA weaving fairly consistently across parses.

I don't know what I expected, but it sure wasn't as drastic of a drop as this turned out to be. I tried over and over and couldn't get above 25k. I incrementally improved the gear to green, then blue, and finally purple. Each improvement netted about a 1.5k DPS increase- I was hitting about 28.5k with all purple gear. I parse consistent numbers, so there's little variance in terms of numbers within each gear setup.

For funsies, I used the generic purple gear but swapped in the vMA inferno staff on the back bar:

9pFpyVd.png

THEN, I made white sets of Julianos, Innate Axiom, and 2 pieces of Assassin's Guile (adds spell crit). Same traits/enchants as above. Easy 32k. I got distracted for a few seconds and missed a few light attacks, so my LA/second ratio is low, so it could be even higher with a better parse:

tzj5ECA.png

Removing CP from the equation next is going to be catastrophic to my sustain- I'm pushing it as-is. I'll try that later, but I forsee a LOT of heavy attacks and general struggle bus-iness in my future. Not looking forward to that,

Do you think the Coldharbour Arcanaeum furnishing pack will return to the crown store?

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As title says, I wonder if you guys think it will or should return? It's a pretty cool furniture pack and I sadly wasn't playing yet when it was introduced in the crown store the first time :(

I feel like a lot of the Coldharbour furniture is locked behind the two packs and I wish the items were available individually in the crown store.

Housing Contests - Win a Notable Home! :)

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Hello!

I shall be holding 2 housing contests over the next few weeks. The contests both have different entry dates, and I shall be touring and judging them myself the day after the deadline.

The first prize for each contest is a notable home, the second is a classic home, the third is a staple home. There will also be some custom furnishing packs designed by myself and other members of my guild as additional prizes, and all other entrants will receive something for their efforts. Nobody will walk away empty handed, even if your prize is something small.

The homes will be paid for and names given out to ZOS once the winners for contest 2 are announced, and will also be completely empty, with not one item in them, as they always are when bought directly through support.

You can enter either or both contests by either responding to this post, sending me a pm either on here or on Discord, or via email at ElaraNorthwind@gmail.com with your username, the contest you wish to enter (1, 2 or both) the home(s) you shall be entering and which server you are on (NA or EU). You will need to ensure that I have permission to enter your home the day after the deadline.

Rules

- You may enter both contests, but each may only be entered once.
- There are no limitations with regards to homes used or item limits.
- Please do not post any screenshots of your home in the forum post or in my discord server. I am going to really struggle with judging, because I love every home equally, so I would prefer to
enter each one with a fresh perspective and without expectations.
- Anybody can enter the contests on PC, either EU or NA. Sadly, I am unable to tour homes on console, and homes on PTS are not allowed, as everybody needs to work with the same tools for a
fair chance of winning!

Contest 1 - A Tiny House. Deadline: 15th November 2019

This one is a bit of a building challenge. The task is to design and build a tiny home! The home MUST use up to 10 Orcish Platforms (Block) to form the base and area of your home, and your entire build must be upon these platforms. They can be arranged in anyway that you like, and you are allowed to build vertically as much as you wish, so long as the other levels also do not exceed the size limitation. Anything outside of the platform area will not be counted towards your build or your score. You may send no more than one paragraph with your entry if you wish, which will be read during the tour.

You will be judged on how functional and livable your tiny home is, does it contain everything a home would need? How creative your build is, and how well you have utilized the small space!

Prizes

First Prize - A choice between Lake Xanmeer Manor OR Colossal Aldmeri Grotto

Second Prize - A choice between Frostvault Chasm OR Velothi Reverie

Third Prize - Any small, 200 item home.

Further prizes include custom furnishing packs designed by myself and some of my favourite decorators, blueprints, and lux vendor items.



Contest 2 - A Mystery to be Solved. Deadline: 22nd November 2019

This contest is to design a home with a mystery for us to solve when we visit! Did a murder happen here? Was there a burglary? Leave clues around your home, and see if we can figure it out! You may send a paragraph to be read during the tour to set the scene, but this must not contain any sort of clue as to the mystery.

You will be judged on the creativity of your build, story and the clues you leave. The mystery doesn’t have to be obvious, but shouldn’t be impossible to solve at the same time. You will also be judged on how aesthetically pleasing your build is, and how well you have used the space and items available!

Prizes

First Prize - A choice between Hunters Glade OR Tel Galen

Second Prize - A choice between Alinor Crest Townhouse OR Amaya Lake Lodge

Third Prize - Any small, 200 item home.

Further prizes include custom furnishing packs designed by myself and some of my favourite ESO decorators, blueprints and lux vendor items.

I wish everybody the best of luck! And remember, I will be judging this myself, so you don’t have to spend a small fortune to enter. To me, a small simple home can be just as wonderful as an elaborate, 700 item custom one. Creativity and use of items is the most important thing! The tour will either be streamed or put into a video, depending on how many entries there are.

Have an absolutely wonderful weekend, and I hope to see many of your beautiful homes when I tour the entries! And remember, everybody will win something, even if it is simply a bottle of wine and a glass ;)

Undaunted about the Undaunted Celebration?

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Undaunted about the Undaunted Celebration?

Consider the math...

Length of the event
11/14 - 11/18 = 5 days
5 x 24hrs = 120 hrs (presuming no sleep, work, school etc.)
HOURS TOTAL = 120 (presuming no down time on the dungeon finder)

Collectibles
Bloodspawn - 11 items
Engine Guardian - 11 items
Illambris - 11 items
ITEM TOTAL = 33

Presuming a drop rate of 1 page in every 4 dungeons 33 x 4 = 132 runs
Average length of a dungeon= 30 min
132 x 30
HOURS OF PLAY NEEDED = 66

THUS If you play 13 hours a day you MIGHT just collect them all

Still feeling undaunted?

But hey I'm a no life no skill ESO luvin baby boomer...bring it

MagBlade Theorycrafting Changes Thread

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So... what’s everyone thinking with the PTS changes?

I logged onto PTS and checked some stuff out but no duels or BGs. Here are my thoughts:
- refreshing path’s been buffed a bit but is being overshadowed by other abilities. It’s almost exactly the same healing as illustrious healing but a smaller area and costs a lot more
- Combat Prayer got a buff but the healing’s still pretty low
- The other morph of combat Prayer looks a lot better. Before when both were weak it didn’t make much of a difference, now it’s an extra 1k base in pvp heal per player, that’s a lot
- Rapid regen and mutagen both look good
- BRP resto with the ward is meh as a healer, cloak blades might like it but the tooltip’s low in no-CP
- The lotus fan nerf is a little too big imo. Unless you’re a melee I don’t see the point with all other dots getting a buff
- Sap’s healing is okayish, I could see someone making a sap tank build if it wasn’t for onslaught
- Onslaught buff will make for some people interesting 2h magblade builds.
- Dot tooltips are great, crazy long ramp up
- My gear was a little different but healthy Offering seemed changed, I’m not sure

Here’s what I’m thinking for my build when the patch hits:
Breton
5L-1M-1H. Buffer of the swift, Transmutation and the grundwhatever monster set, master’s staff back bar. 2x sp glyphs, 1x mag recovery
Healthy Offering, Illustrious Healing, Mutagen, Refreshing Path, Shadowy Disguise - Soul Siphon
Soul Splitting Trap, debilitate, entropy, Flame Reach, Shade - Soul Harvest

Sort of like a hot healer with healthy Offering for burst healing. Dots for offense, but I might drop one for impale.

What are you guys planning on doing with your jewellery traits? Protective looks... meh. Triune or leave as magicka?

Pay to permanently unlock slots in a Home

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(sorry if this is a duplicate) I thought someone might have thought of this before, but my searches turned up nothing.

I would love it if I could pay to unlock the slots in a home. That way you could have one or two homes in tamriel that have all their slots unlocked. It could be an individual, who doesn't plan on getting a subscription (for long) who unlock's a small home so you can put all your storage coffers in it, or it could be a guild home owner who needs to stop subscribing, and wants to let people keep using the home's attuned crafting stations.

I was thinking the pricing would need to be low enough to make people who don't/can subscribe think its fine to pay for a few homes, but once they start wanting to unlock all the homes they will just subscribe (which i think zenni wants us to do anyway)

INN ROOMS: 200 crowns. - ththiseis will only give you an extra slot for a storage coffer and an extra slot for an assistant, while it *can be valuable* most people won't do it unless they just really have a special reason. But if it's cheap enough, some people might buy, because cause "why not?". But there will be so many inn rooms that will be included in future ESO chapters that it will quickly become too expensive to just unlock them all, and people who consider this option will be more tempted to get a subscription

APARTMENTS: 300 crowns. These have no more utility slots than the small apartments, so they have the same problem. Honestly, 300 crowns feels like too much.

SMALL HOUSES: 800 crowns, per home. (I'm not so sure about the prices as the homes get bigger and get more slots. So I try to include my reasoning for why I choose those prices, even if the number are off) This is a pretty big change to have a small in game home be able to hold all the storage coffers. But, the users who would be doing this would likely be individuals who just get tired of bouncing between homes all the time.

MEDIUM HOUSES: 1500 crowns per home. This gives you the ability to put a good number of useful services into the home once it's unlocked in addition to having all the coffers. Other than individuals who have been playing for a bit (with a sub), it would be something purchased by small guilds of IRL friends, probably one friend would just buy the hall on their own.

(To go with this, I feel like we would also need an automated system in place to help guilds collect resources for unlocking a home. It would need a feature where someone is designated the guild hall owner, and a feature lets guild mates donate to help unlock the home - the crowns would have to only be used for unlocking the current guild hall and if it doesn't ever get unlocked, auto return to the people who donated.)

LARGE HOUSES: 2500 crowns. Primarily for guild halls that need to be unlocked when the owner's sub ends, so they can keep adding to service collections. But individuals might still think it's worth it.

MANORS: 4000 crowns. You get the idea.

So, what do you all think? Am I way off on prices? Is this a terrible idea? Thanks for reading!

Moonlight Demons

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Looking for active members and activities officers
The Guild has recently switched leaders.
Focusing on running trials and other events for guild members.
Wan to run multiple trials a week alongside of running muti events during the week. Have over 100 members.
Looking for active plays should would like to hold officer positions to run events during the week, and also help coordinate the trials. Most of our members are new to trials so need those who are willing to explain mechanics along side the guild leader.
All are welcome to join. Message xLadyDragon86x on xbox for invite. Or you can comment your gamertag below.

Why are the majority of sets just trash?

Unusually high amount of crashes at Froustvault

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We are having some problems to do this dungeons becouse every time we complete the mouse phase the game kicks atleast 1 player out. happened now 5 tries in row (HM).

STONE GIANT... are you serious, lol?

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Did anyone even test this dumb change to what was our only ranged stun?

So my Mag DK, runs into a Sorc in Cyrodil... he starts his barrage, (a little while ago you took our deflect away, so I need to get close I guess--- but since he has streak and major expedition I can't really catch him, but I can stun him right? I have a staff, but Shock Reach won't do that, a Flame Staff just knocks him farther away, and a Frost Staff just kills your damage
so now he is kiting me, stunning me with Crystal Blast, Rune Cage, etc.... The range on fossilize is only 7meters, but I know, I love STONE GIANT! A heal and a stun, that is great skill.... even if I don't stun, I can stay in the fight right?

oh wait, the Heal is gone, and now I have to hit him 3x in 6 seconds? and it's stam based... so while he is dodging, streaking and dropping an endless barrage of 8k frags on my head I am trying to hit him with 3 worthless Stone Giants? and hoping that he doesn't have Immunity (lets not forget people have CC, Stun, and Off Balance Immunity about 80% of the time now).

So is Mag DK the only class that has no ranged stuns or immobilizes now?

and Chains? I really don't want to give someone CC immunity just so I can get close to them....
So now half our skills are like less than 1000 damage dots (which translates to a worthless 300-400 (not thousand, hundred) damage per tic or just impossible like Stone Giant? I\m not sure what the developers have against combat, but this is horrible

ESO Future in Next 2-3 Years

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As we do not have ESO Roadmap from Developers, will it be alive in next 2-3 Years?

Patch 5.2.5 PvP Tierlist

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After lengthy discussions and multiple changes throughout the process I'd like to share the PvP Tierlist created by many of the most experienced players out there

u2EIX2l.jpg

Please read the following explanation before commenting on the tier list to avoid unnecessary posts
rjwXDvJ.jpg

Everyone wanting to have longer discussions about the tier list or the game in general is invited to join the Class Discussion discord (https://discord.gg/jSKfFY) as we can have better, more direct discussions there with the players who made the list and the class reps.

Short list of the YouTube accounts of some of the players involved.
Note the initial explanation was updated as some parts were missing

Did I miss the exact reason 7 day campaign is going away?

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Yolnakhriin,..... R.I.P. (In a long line of now-gone servers, I might add)

Does anyone know why?

Stamina Nightblade "Iron Cannon" PvP Build + 1vX/2vX Video - Max Possible Damage Build (Dragonhold)

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Hey there, some people have been asking me to update my Rollerblade and Brawlerblade builds for Scalebreaker and now, Dragonhold. While updating the old builds, I was testing their viability in the Scalebreaker DoT PvP meta and I realized that though both were viable with some changes, they were not exactly optimal as none of them had the required damage to deal with the general high tankiness everybody was stacking to survive DoTs. They were both balanced builds with decent sustain, mitigation and damage but still lacked in comparison in most respects to classes like magplar, stamplar or magDK and really struggled to threaten the tanky setups resulting in constant stalemates. So I decided to make a whole new 2H/Bow build with aspects of both my older builds with a totally new playstyle of ranged non-snipe stamina nightblade with massive damage stats.

Some people wanted gameplay for my builds for which I lacked the hardware on my laptop. This time however I was back home with my desktop in the time of making the build, so I added a 30 minute long gameplay montage with all PvP scenarios from CP IC, Cyrodiil open world solo duo outnumbered PvP to non-CP Battlegrounds. I suggest watching the video(at least parts of it) before reading the long write up, as it will help you understand how the build operates as it has a totally unique playstyle.
Gameplay
image

I know the video is long so here are some "chapters" to split the video.

Imperial Sewers DC Base Solo/Duo - 0:31
Cyrodiil Solo vs Pugs - 2:49
Battlegrounds Deathmatch - 7:11
Imperial Sewers Center Solo Zerg-hunting - 8:22
Cyrodiil Solo Zerg-hunting - 9:36
Imperial City 1vX - 12:15
Cyrodiil Gate 1vX - 18:39
Cyrodiil 1vX+2vX - 23:01
Cyrodiil Resource Solo vs Small Scale groups - 26:49

Note - If you are viewing on PC or TV screens, use the 4k quality option or at least 2k even on lower resolution displays if you have the bandwidth, as the videos were recorded in very high bitrate for max graphical fidelity and much of the details are lost due to youtube compression on 1080p or lesser resolutions with low bitrates. However youtube allows much higher bitrates on 4k playback hence much of the original quality is retained.

Includes gameplay from both Scalebreaker and Dragonhold, which does not matter as the build remains unchanged being a burst build apart from the fact that it is easier to survive open world now.
General Information

It is commonly believed in ESO PvP, that full damage builds are not viable especially in the tank meta, mainly because glass cannons end up taking more damage than they can deal. This is true for most setups, barring few exceptions. Over the years we have such builds become unviable like the melee bow stamblade, all divines max magicka shield stacking magsorc due to gradual streamlining of the game. However, the changes intentionally or unintentionally made certain things possible that could have never been done before. My goal here was to create a full damage build which dealt times more damage than it takes on average from any range and get out of any situation.

Iron Cannon is a yolo build that goes all out on damage investment, both for CP and non-CP, while also having high survivability. This approach to building usually has two problems, i.e. sustain issues and low defense. However, both of those issues have been solved resulting in a build that has highest damage of all builds in the game within the limits of viability, ridiculous escapability and mobility, ability to operate from any range from straight melee to max range while also retaining the rollerblade aspect of the OG nightblade assassin playstyle. Also this is not a gank build by any means as it does not need stealth to burst and has enough survivability to take a fair beating, but it can still gank better than most dedicated gank builds.

Single Target Melee Damage - SSS
Single Target Ranged Damage - SSS
AoE Damage - SSS
DoT Damage and Pressure - A+/S (depends on setup)
Mobility - S+
Mitigation - C
Magicka Sustain - SS
Stamina Sustain - B
Self Healing - SSS
Stats
Z4AelQx.png
Buffs - All selfbuffs, set procs and Continious Attack. These stats are from choosing the first choices for the gear choices. Alternate gear choices mentioned can get over 9k weapon damage but at the cost of other stats. Also these are actual realistic max stats in battle without any external temporary buff like the various Cyrodiil bonuses, Ayleid well etc. I have provided build editors links later on in the comparison.

Stats without Continuous Attack:
Weapon Damage: 7808 Magicka Recovery: 964 Stamina Recovery: 2052
 
Gear
Ko1lbUJ.png
Choices
I left some choices above to let you decide what suits you better. I personally went with the first choice shown for each decision as it was giving me the highest possible stat density while satisfying my personal minimum stat requirements of at least 24.3k HP(so that one Shadow skill equipped can put me at 25k), 15k Magicka, 2k stamina recovery, 900 magicka recovery buffed. Your personal mileage may vary so changing certain things will suit you better especially if you are trying the build on a different race than mine(I use Khajiit). Some basic explanations below.
For armor weight - 5M/1/1 is best for max damage and hence my choice. Stamina sustain is this build's Achilles' heel and as such 6M/1H or 7M is a good choice if you struggle with sustain and you will also get more Critical Hit Chance which will help in burst when Acuity is down.

For armor trait - As long as you have 5 impenetrable, you should have decent Critical Resistance. For the other two traits, Divine or Well-Fitted is great depending on what you currently prefer between 1% Critical Hit Damage or 5% cost reduction on dodge and sprint. You can take one of each as well like me. Getting more Impenetrable is also a great choice if you are struggling with survival.

Triune vs Infused Jewellery - Infused is an excellent trait as the 104 Weapon Damage from it is massive to our build as we have a massive weapon damage multiplier that can get as high x1.77. At the same time, Triune is already 50% more stat dense than any other trait in the game. Triune allows you to get to a decent Magicka pool while getting free Health with it without having to give up Stamina. I use one Triune to put my max magicka at 15.5k and go Infused for the rest. If you want to exchange damage for a higher Magicka pool, you can get more Triune and just remove some of the attribute points in Health and put them in Stamina.

Spriggan's Thorns vs New Moon Acolyte - Spriggan's Thorns and New Moon Acolyte both have more or less the same max damage i.e. when Acuity and Balorgh is up. One of NMA's set bonus is Critical Hit Chance which is wasted when Acuity procs, so inspite of having better 5-pc damage bonus, NMA is not ahead of Spriggan in max damage realistically. Main difference between them is that when other buffs are down, NMA has more damage but even when front-barred, the sustain is worse due to the cost increase as the fact that NMA has no resource bonus unlike Spriggan has two Stamina bonuses. Also, you will need to run three Triune to get to 30K Stamina. For these reasons, Spriggan is still a great choice which I used for this build when I created it last patch, even though NMA does give higher damage when Acuity is in cooldown. I usually finish my targets within the Acuity window so essentially they are the same damage to me. However, I used NMA a few times and find it a very interesting choice and probably better than Spriggan on pure sustain races. Even on mixed sustain races like Khajiit, Argonian, it is good and on Khajiit the extra Critical Hit Chance does help burst outside. Essentially go with whatever, you can sustain as NMA is just slightly higher damage with worse sustain than Spriggan's Thorns.

Nirnhoned vs Sharpened Maul - Sharpened is more damage than Nirnhoned by a small margin, especially on NMA which lacks the high penetration of Spriggan but lesser healing from Rally. You are fine with both.

Frontbar Enchant/Poison - Minor Brutality poison is the best choice imo if you can stay in close in and just stay in melee range long enough to proc it as Minor Brutality increases both damage and heals by boosting the already super high Weapon Damage. In fact, the increase in damage is more than every other choice, if Minor Brutality procs during the same window as Acuity. Otherwise, Absorb Stamina, Shock and Disease enchants are all great as they are a guaranteed proc and adds to your burst with additional effects. Double-DoT poison is the preferred choice, if you want higher pressure to go with your burst.

If you are still confused between choices, check "Comparison of Damage to Other Full Damage setups and Hypothetical Maximum Possible damage" part where I show some examples in the end and directly compare their damage/sustain etc.
Nature
Stage 4 Vampire - Dark Stalker helps conserve magicka by decreasing Cloak usage and allowing us to use other Magicka skills more often. It also helps to get into Sneak and exit combat easily when needed. Undeath gives the tankiness necessary to survive long enough to reset from tough situations and with the decrease of usage of DBoS by most people, it is much more viable surviving as a vampire.
Race

Khajiit - It is the number one race for this build by a big margin. Not only does it have the highest max damage, highest burst and highest self-healing with the Critical Hit Damage and Healing bonus, it also has highest combined sustain on all resources than all pure damage races with the tri-stat recovery, higher health and magicka combination than any race with the tri-stat resource bonus. In fact since this build uses Dark Stalker stealth to conserve magicka, the -3m stealth radius also helps(you can see this in action in the vid vs other stealthblades, where I walk over to find a hiding NB and break his stealth, while staying in stealth myself and the funny thing is many such NBs were bosmer who are supposed to be better at this). This build fits Khajiit like a glove. The tooltips and gear choices explained are all done from the perspective of a Khajiit.

Other races are all viable but every one of them falls short on Khajiit in terms of overall combination of damage, stamina sustain and magicka sustain. Some notable alternatives are mentioned below.
Nord - Easily the race that comes second to Khajiit, with the ultimate regen which fills up Balorgh faster and resists. Basically you are exchanging some damage and sustain for better survivability. Use more triune for higher magicka sustain and remove all health attribute points to put into stamina.
Bosmer - The race that comes third closest to Khajiit with higher stamina sustain, falls short significantly signicantly in Health and Magicka resource and recoveries. The penetration gives decent damage increase but is still significantly lesser than Khajiit or Orc. The mobility is great for kiting and is the main reason to go to for Bosmer. Use NMA instead of Spriggan.
Imperial - Huge resources bonuses, nice tri-stat sustain proc. Use more triune for higher magicka sustain and remove all health attribute points to put into stamina, which will result in a massive stamina pool, which will both help in damage and sustain. Use NMA instead of Spriggan as the Imperial cost reduction passive counter-acts the NMA cost penalty.
Orc - Has 2.4% lesser max damage and 0.7% average damage than Khajiit as well as lesser sustain across the board. The mobility passive is nice though. Use more triune to make up for lesser magicka sustain.
Argonian - Nearly the same resources, sustain and self-healing power as a Khajiit. Damage is lesser significantly but the Potion passive will help in resetting battles for less experienced players.
Mundus Stone
The Shadow
Potions and Food
Food - Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice
Potions - Tri-stat potion(main), Stamina Immovability potion, Stamina Invisibility/Rogue's Escape potion, Trash Stamina potion needed.
Champion Points
Blue Tree
The Ritual
Precise Strikes - 51
Piercing - 43
Mighty - 49
The Atronach
Physical Weapon Expert - 23
Shattering Blows - 16
Master-at-Arms - 81
The Apprentice
Blessed - 7

Red Tree
The Lord
Quick Recovery - 27
The Lady
Thick Skinned - 7
Hardy - 64
Elemental Defender - 49
The Steed
Medium Armor Focus - 10
Ironclad - 51
Spell Shield - 10
Resistant - 52

Green Tree
The Shadow
Shade - 18
Shadow Ward - 26
Tumbling - 53
The Lover
Mooncalf - 64
Arcanist - 56
The Tower
Sprinter - 23
Warlord - 30
Skills
2H Bar
  1. Utility Spot
    • Shadow Image - Debate-ably the strongest defensive and escape skill in the game. Minor Maim + Teleport through everything + as well as some chip damage. Best skill in the NB kit and a must have in any NB PvP build ever since the bug fix. Gives us 3% HP to put us at 25k health.
    • Turn Evil - AoE Fear + Minor Protection + 3% weapon damage. It is used as an offensive and defensive stun when we are not using any back bar CC. However, unlike the other CC options, it is melee only. If it is used, Shadow Image goes to back bar.
  2. Camouflaged Hunter - It basically sits in our bar and gives us Minor Berserk + Major Savagery + 3% weapon damage. It is unreliable to find a NB but can be used mid-fight against NB just before burst to deny them a reset via Cloak.
  3. Silver Shards - Our primary spammable with a hefty 18k tooltip at max on a Spriggan setup. While it has around 9% lesser damage than Surprise Attack, it has splash damage AoE and works from range. Deals 20% more damage to undead and gives us 3% weapon damage.
  4. Rally - Our source of Major Brutality and a burst heal.
  5. Flex Spot
    • Relentless Focus - It is our primary burst skill with a massive 36.7k max tooltip Bow proc. Also gives us 2% crit chance and builds upto 10% mitigation, which is pretty nice when we are setting up a burst.
    • Deep Thoughts - A great source of overall sustain that is occasional used in 1vX situations with spread out pugs, that are not tanky enough not to warrant using the Bow proc. Note that when it is used, the frontbar Ultimate is locked to Incapacitating Strike to give the Assassination passives.
  6. Ultimate
    • Dawnbreaker of Smiting - A great source of massive AoE burst+CC with a 31k max tooltip and a 30k tooltip AoE DoT over 5 secs. It is usually my preferred opener against multiple enemies but is unreliable mid-combo as it misses a lot since the cast time change. Also gives us 3% weapon damage.
    • Incapacitating Strike - Great option for cheap burst with a 31.5k max tooltip. Low cost and is almost always available. Gives us 20% vulnerability against the target for 5 secs(equivalent to around 21k penetration according to my tests) which can be used to deal some serious damage. Gives us Reave and 2% crit chance as well access to Assassination passives when Relentless Focus is dropped.
    • Onslaught - The strongest burst ultimate in the game with 34.5k max tooltip that also ignores resists on the initial hit as well for followup burst for the next 5 seconds. Has a decent AoE splash damage radius which is no where as big as DBoS but helps against stacked enemies. Due to the high cost for a primarily single-target ultimate in this build, it is competing with Ballista for usage, which is by far the stronger damage ultimate at least in this build, barring a few scenarios. However, it is occasional slotted to fight the strongest defensive setups, against which neither the other two melee ultimates nor Ballista can put a dent.
Bow
  1. Poison Injection - A decent DoT, with a 16k max tooltip on the DoT and 10k direct damage tooltip. It is mainly used to get the Master Bow buff.
  2. Shadowy Disguise - The most annoying skill in the game for enemies that gives invisibility, suppresses DoTs and can be used as an alternative dodge. Also gives us 3% HP, Major Ward, 10% weapon damage and guaranteed crit for the next direct damage skill.
  3. Utility
    • Manifestation of Terror - One of the CCs primarily used in the builds. It can be setup prior to burst as an off-GCD CC, also can be camped like mines for a off-GCD defensive CC. Best for fighting multiple melee builds at once and as well when we have hold a particular area like a resource flag.
    • Magnum Shot - The most reliable CC available that can also be used from range. Its knockback flight time allows us to make sure that our target eats our burst. Best option against mobile targets as well as ranged targets. Also has a surprising high max tooltip of 14.2k with 5x Hawk Eye, which makes it a very bursty combo enabler.
    • Concealed Weapon - It is also another alternative for CC, which is less reliable in a crunch but provides 25% speed boost in stealth, which is nice to have.
    • Shadow Image - Used here, when Turn Evil is as CC instead of the earlier three options.
  4. Resolving Vigor - Our primary HoT. You will want to keep this up as much as your sustain can allow.
  5. Race Against Time - Our source of snare removal and Minor Force. Also gives us access to Psijic passives as well as a way to get Major Expedition without breaking Cloak/stealth.
  6. Ultimate
  7. Ballista - A generally high pressure medium burst ultimate, which has been converted into a sheer maelstrom of destruction both in terms of burst and pressure, sitting at a max tooltip of 143k with 5x Hawk Eye, which is essentially nearly 30k damage per sec. Also it has no cast time and hence can be used defensively.
THE IRON CANNON

The Origin of Iron Cannon and its Difference to Glass Cannon
Iron Cannon is a term that originated in Runescape PvP. There your overall level rose from a weighted average of total experience across all your combat skill levels like Attack level, Defense level, Constitution level, Ranged level, Agility level, Magic level etc. Non-combat skills also increased character level but had much lesser weight-age than combat skills so didn't affect character levels that much. In Runescape PvP, you could only attack enemies near your own level or higher in most PvP areas, which meant you had to plan how you gained experience and carefully invest in skill levels for your character. PvPers generally wanted to limit their character levels to have a wider pool to people to attack and get their required combat skills as high as possible without getting their character level too high. Properly planned Lv70 pure builds could destroy Lv140 hybrid builds by having much higher level for the things they need and ignoring the rest.

For e.g., Warrior type builds leveled only Attack, Strength, Constitution and Defense while Rangers leveled Defense, Agility, Strength and Range. People who went Glass Cannon upgraded only Attack Level, which increased accuracy/hit-chances while also let them use the highest tier weapons and Strength which increased their damage and ignored everything else.

Several years after launch, a new build called Iron Cannon made by a well-known PvPer appeared in the scene that pretty much butchered higher level tanks, balanced builds and glass cannons of mage, ranged and melee types alike in certain conditions. It was very similar to glass cannons but at same time differed a lot in how it actually played out. It focused its skill levels into Strength even higher than glass cannons to squeeze out every last drop of burst damage, just enough Attack levels to wield high tier weaponry much lesser than glass cannons leaving them at much lesser accuracy/hit-chance compared to glass cannon. For the remaining skill levels, it just leveled Defense to Lv5, which took very little experience hence not adding even a single-level to Character level and put the rest they wanted in a non-combat skill Prayer, which being a non-combat skill didn't affect levels much. Prayer inspite of being a non-combat skill let you access to some temporary buffs called boons which affected combat that costed you prayer points. One particular boon would let you gain high accuracy while active but could be sustained for a short window as it drained prayer points very fast and another boon gave you a short burst of huge self healing. Defense Lv5 let this build use Iron Armor(hence the name), which was a big step up from going naked or using Bronze Armor like glass cannons. How this build operated was that in-combat even though it had bad accuracy and missed a lot, it had huge damage making it a major threat when it actually hit and had just enough defense to survive otherwise one-shots. It would suddenly activate boons and gain accuracy to burst down people with its insane damage and used healing boons to survive. People often made the mistake of not recognizing an iron cannon and thinking it was a bad foe due to the seeming low defense and accuracy and lowered their guards only to get deleted when they least expected.

People using this build type started killing people three times their level. Lv50 Iron Cannons had enough damage to slaughter Lv150 balanced builds. It became considered so overpowered that the devs, who generally did not make change widespread combat, made Prayer a combat skill, increased required Defense level to use Iron Armor and the Attack level required to use high tier weaponry significantly. Funny thing is that even though the nerfs targeted against this particular build ended up affecting other builds even more, still leaving it comparatively overpowered.

How Iron Cannon works in ESO PvP
This stamblade build was heavily inspired by the original Iron Cannon build concept. In this case, Spriggan/New Moon Acolyte, Balorgh, Master's Bow+Berserker enchant buff, triple Weapon Damage jewelry combined with ridiculously high Weapon Damage multiplier and Minor Berserk gives us huge damage potential. We have a seriously high Critical Hit Damage modifier at more than 2.12 or more thanks to Khajiit and Shadow to push burst at max when the big tooltips starts critting. Much like the OG Iron Cannon's prayer boons, Acuity, by giving 100% crit rate, provides a window where we can go full Beast Mode on enemies with every critical hit multiplying our already crazy damage.

As for survivability, with huge Weapon Damage and Critical Healing Modifier, comes crazy self-healing power. That when combined with the high magicka sustain of this build, just enough health and natural evasiveness, mobility of stamina nightblades results in great survivability as long as you know how to properly use the NB evasion toolkit to full extent.

I will explain both the offense and defense aspects of the build in more details later on.

Comparison of Damage to Other Full Damage setups and Hypothetical Maximum Possible damage

Effective Weapon/Spell Power is a very good measure of raw damage of a build. It takes into your combat damage stats like Weapon Damage, Stamina, Penetration, Critical Hit Chance and Damage Modifier as well as CP and other damage bonuses like buffs such as Minor Berserks and debuffs on enemies. The opponent's target resists and critical resists can also affect Effective Weapon Power. It does not take set damage procs like Velidreth or enchants/poisons like Disease enchants or Double-DoT poisons into account but takes damage/debuff procs, enchants and poisons into account. With Effective Weapon Power(referred to as EWP hence onwards), you can compare the damage between the damage of builds ignoring the damage of proc. However, this excludes proc set builds from the comparison. To give you a reference to compare a build's damage to, the average PvP build has between 8000 - 12000 EWP self-buffed, with the mean being at 10000 EWP for the default enemy resists stats in UESP build editor. The average stamina NB build has around 12000 EWP at the higher range of PvP builds and 20% higher than the average PvP build of all classes.

Below we are providing the EWP of various popular sets combinations at default UESP settings. You can click on the build to open a UESP build editor page to see the EWP of the build, its stats, active buffs and other details. Further details in the spoilers.
We are using the default enemy resists stats in UESP build editor and same buffs across all builds (i.e. all buffs available solo in this build like Minor Berserk, Major Brutality, etc as well as Continuous Attack and class passives like Minor Savagery, etc) to standardize the comparison. To make the comparison fair one-to-one, I will establish the minimum requirements for the non-damage stats like health, magicka and stamina recovery so they remain constant while the damage stats change as well making sure the build is actually viable at least theoritically and not just a tooltip build.

After that, I will pick the setup that has the highest EWP while maintaining high uptimes for max proc of its set combinations(i.e. not something that you can't realistically keep up like Fury+Ravager, especially on a build with low mitigation). Then I will remove the mininum non-damage stats requirement for that build and focus every last thing into damage for that build to get the maximum possible damage for the strongest glass cannon setup.

Mininum Stat Requirements - 24.3k HP, 15K Magicka, 2k Stamina Recovery, 900 Magicka Recovery buffed but without Continuous Attack (2.25k Stamina Recovery, 1040 Magicka Reovery buffed with Continuous Attack)

All setups have all weapon damage jewelry enchants, weapon damage enchants on maul, etc as these by default have far better raw damage stats than any alternatives. All builds are using Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice food to reach the minimum stamina recovery and all Prismatic enchants on armor. The remaining magicka and health for the minimum is gained by either using Triune instead of Infused or by using attribute points, depending on which way is giving the higher EWP for that particular build. The things being changed are the two 5-piece sets, for which we try combinations of the best damage sets in the game. Also keep in mind the 2,3,4-piece set bonuses can affect EWP so certain sets with very similar 5-piece bonuses can end uo with fairly different EWP.

EWP of Permanent Stat Increasing Viable Setups
Spriggan's Thorns + Hunding's Rage + Balorgh + Master's Bow 22442
Spriggan's Thorns + New Moon Acolyte + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23284
Temporary Stat Increasing Viable Setups
Spriggan's Thorns + Armor of Truth + Balorgh + Master's Bow 22710
Spriggan's Thorns + Night Mother's Gaze + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23179
Clever Alchemist + Warrior's Fury + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23299
Clever Alchemist + Armor of Truth + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23462
Armor of Truth + New Moon Acolyte + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23593
Twice Fanged Snake + Night Mother's Gaze + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23799
Ravager + Night Mother's Gaze + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23959

All of these builds have ridiculously high damage at nearly twice that of the average stamina nightblade setup. The average EWP is 23303 and the highest build is barely below 24k. Some of them are very unrealistic like the Fury build. Some of them have very long cooldowns like Clever Alchemist setups, resulting situations you may need to wait pretty long for that sweet burst. Some of them is very wonky to pull off in combat like the Ravager+NMG combination, which will take a minimum of 5 seconds to fully proc if you get a critical hit every second and since one of the sets will need to front-barred meaning you will need to be on front bar exclusively to gain Ravager stacks.

The build is highest EWP of these setups as well as realistically high uptimes is Armor of Truth + New Moon Acolyte(+Balorgh+Master's Bow which was constant) at 23593. So I am going removing the Mininum Stat Requirements and convert it to a fully glass cannon build with zero sustain, zero mitigation by using all Infused jewelry, all attribute points in Stamina, Stamina enchants, pure Stamina food instead of Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice to get the ultimate damage stats. This adds further 360 Weapon Damage, 4k stamina to the build after buffs at the cost of 3k Magicka, 4k Health and 1k Stamina Recovery. So let's look the new EWP.

EWP of Unviable Highest Damage Pure Glass Cannon Setup
Armor of Truth + New Moon Acolyte + Balorgh + Master's Bow(Full Glass Cannon) 24952

The build gets 1359 more EWP, which is a pretty bad deal for the loss of 3k Magicka, 4k Health and 1k Stamina Recovery essentially killing the viability of the build.

So the Unviable Highest Damage Pure Glass Cannon Setup still has lesser than 25k EWP. Take a wild guess of the EWP of the Iron Cannon build in these exact same settings and conditions. 25k? 26k? 27k?

EWP of Iron Cannon build
Iron Cannon is over 30K EWP while maintaining Mininum Stat Requirements for all variants. Three variants are shown.
Mechanical Acuity + Spriggan's Thorns(2xInfused+1xTriune+Nirnhoned Maul) + Balorgh + Master's Bow 30039
Mechanical Acuity + New Moon Acolyte(3xTriune+Sharpened Maul) + Balorgh + Master's Bow 30444
Mechanical Acuity + New Moon Acolyte(2xInfused+1xTriune+Sharpened Maul) + Balorgh + Master's Bow 30908

The first variant is more stamina sustain oriented, the most balanced variant and the one I used for the video. The second one has higher magicka sustain, slightly higher damage on paper but worse stamina sustain, lesser healing power across both bars. The third one has the highest damage on paper and the setup I am currently using, but stamina sustain is significantly lower with cost increase on front bar and a much smaller stamina pool. Essentially there is not really much feel-able difference in actual play in damage between the builds as all of them have over thrice the damage of the average PvP builds and this being a fairly unforgiving build, added stamina strain or lesser healing power is not really a good thing if you are not used to the build's playstyle so I would suggest using the first variant(all the first gear choices).

You can get around a further 2k more EWP by dropping things like Prismatic enchants, Health Attribute points for max damage alternatives but you will give up so much Health, Magicka and Stamina Recovery that it will kill the viability of the build
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