“The Asuna Build”

Armor Types

Gear and Item Set Info

Why Dual Wield with Light Armor and Magicka!?

It works better than you'd expect.  Dual Wield gives a really good 'base modifier' to your abilities, while sticking to the theme of a rapier-wielding healer.  Light Armor grants spell penetration, and the all-important Harness Magicka skill, the best damage shield in the game.

What Sets?

On our chest, belt, hands, legs, and feet, we want to use 5/5 Innate Axiom from the Clockwork City expansion.  It's a crafted set that requires 2 traits, so this is super easy to get your hands on, and my is it effective.  Given how many class abilities we use in this build, the power you gain is well worth it.  As usual, to maximize the defensive value we get, you should get a heavy chestpiece and medium legs, both in Infused.  The other pieces should be Divines.  I recommend enchanting all your equipment with Health; our sets and racials give us good resources, so Health enchants will get us the durability we need to compete against others.

For our weapons and jewelry, we want to get 5/5 War Maiden from Morrowind.  This is one of the better sets for Templar, because it enhances Magic-type damage, which is all the damage that we deal.  On our weapons, we want to take Nirnhoned on the Dual Wield weapons, and either Powered or Defending on our Restoration Staff.  I recommend the Dual Wielders be enchanted with Weapon Power and Crusher, while your staff should have Absorb Magicka.  On your jewelry, definitely take Spell Damage as the enchantment, but feel free to sprinkle in Magicka Recovery where needed.

As far as Monster Sets are concerned, I recommend Earthgore or Troll King for when you want to be more of a healer, and Valkyn Skoria or Infernal Guardian for when you are in PvP or soloing.  Earthgore has a powerful HoT effect on low-health allies, but Troll King supercharges health recovery and is one of the better healer sets in the game.  Valkyn Skoria exploits the Degeneration and Reflective Light DoTs in our arsenal, but Infernal turns out shields into a damage spell of their own.  Use what you prefer and/or find most fun.

As far as subsittuions are concerned, if you feel like you need more defense or don't have Clockwork City, you can swap out the Innate Axiom for Kagrenac's Hope, crafted in the Earth Forge after clearing the Fighter's Guild quest line.  This gives Health, Magicka, and Magicka regen, and further speeds up your resurrection, while still giving some spell power.  Armor of the Seducer is also a good 3-piece set that reduces your magicka costs, and is stupidly easy to get, so consider that too.

If War Maiden's is too odious for you to get, or you don't have Morrowind, Queen's Elegance from Auridon is a strong choice.  In addition to good Magicka, it also empowers your light and heavy attacks by 20%, and can usually be found in Guild Vendors for a reasonable price.  Another good overland set is Spinner's Garments from Malabar Tol.  In addition to good resources, you get yet more Spell Penetration.

General Info

Background

This is another Sword Art Online-inspired build, only this time replicating the Lightning Flash herself, Asuna Yuuki.  This build marries a more historically-accurate Rapier-and-Dagger pairing, with a Restoration Staff that will make friends and foes alike recognize you as a berserk healer!

Races

Breton is a strong, and obvious choice, but Dunmer, Altmer, and Argonian also play to the strengths of this build reasonably well.  Dunmer is arguably better than Breton from a power perspective, while Argonians can more easily raise their Restoration Staff line.

Passives

As always, you should take all class and racial passives.  You'll need both the Mage's Guild and Psijic Order passives, since we use abilities from both schools extensively.  Getting 3/3 Medicinal Use is absolutely recommended.   You should take either 3/3 Connossieur or Gourmet as you see fit; for my part, I prefer Gourmet for the extra resources and power, but a strong case can be made for this build needing more sustain.  3/3 Undaunted Mettle will help you get a little better performance from the build too.

There's some more 'oddball' passives you'll want to get as well.  2/2 Soul Lock from the Soul Magic tree is very useful due to the up-close-and-personal nature of the main bar.  Taking Magicka Aid and Battle Resurrection from the Support skill line are good ideas too, though you'll need at least one Support skill slotted to take advantage of Magicka Aid - I personally recommend a Barrier morph on the backbar.  

Supplies

If you go the Drink route, I recommend swinging by Orsinium to learn Ozorga's Red Frothgar, from the Wrothgar expansion.  It grants Max Health and Magicka Recovery, which you probably need.  If that's too safe for you, Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup is reasonably easy to get, with reliable harvest points for the ingredients in Auridon and Rivenspire.

As for potions, your Main Battle Potion is brewed using Columbine / Bugloss / Namira's Rot.  Your Assault Potion is brewed with Corn Flower / Lady's Smock / Water Hyacinth.  Lastly, your GTFO Potion is brewed with Scrib Jelly / Namira's Rot / Butterfly Wing.

Outfit

ESO has few 'sexy', anime-like sets, but I've found that the Grim Harlequin style shows off some of your character's cuter curves.  If you can't do that, the High Elf Tunic 2 does a fair approximation of a short skirt, so go with that.

For your dual wield bar, you'll want an Apostle Sword paired with any unobtrusive, straight dagger.  For your staff, anything goes - I prefer Ancient Elf.

How to Asuna properly

Before starting any confrontation, buff up as many allies as possible with Combat Prayer.  Use Degeneration to get the Sorcery buff, and then immediately fire a Dark Flare.  By this point, you'll have both Sorcery and Empower, which will make your next light attack hit harder, so charge your sword with the Elemental Weapon spell, and try to hit the enemy a few times with that.  All the debuffs it could apply are helpful, but what you really want to see is the Vulnerability debuff applied as part of lightning damage.

Shield up, then switch to your back-bar.  Throw a Javelin to repel your enemy, re-apply Combat Prayer and an Assault Potion, and do any healing you need to do before you swap back to the main bar and spam Puncturing Sweep for a very likely kill.  You can use your main-bar ultimate as a strong source of damage and mitigation, but try to save it for larger battles.  Repeat until victory.

You don't have to throw a Dark Flare, though it is very useful to debuff healing in PvP situations.  Because you took all the Mage's Guild passives, using Degeneration on an enemy - or using Inner Light as a defensive measure - will apply Empower as well, so you can simply weave Mage's Guild abilities through your rotation to enhance your attacks, and strategically charge your dual wield weapons to deal massive damage.

Remember, though - while you're a berserk healer, don't go full berserk.  You've got limited durability, even with the measures this build takes regarding defenses.  If you have to choose between taking down an enemy and healing your team...always choose your team, they can cover your weaknesses and butter up enemies for you to take down more easily.  What's more, they depend on your Minor Berserk buff from Combat Prayer to operate at peak efficiency.

This character can duel reasonably well, so stick to dueling when necessary.  Generally though, support your group and try to keep every fight you get in as unfair as possible!

Champion Point Tips

I prefer non-CP PvP campaigns and Battlegrounds. 

However, in PvE, CP are always on, so give the following suggestions a try (bold denotes a priority for the build, while non-bolded is secondary or able to be ignored outright):

• Lord - No points invested, nothing really helps this build too much.
• Lady - 10-30 points in Light Armor Focus (about 1000 additional armor)
• Steed - 15+ each in Bastion and Iron-Clad
• Shadow - 30+ in Tumbling
• Lover - 15+ each in Arcanist and Healthy
• Tower - No points invested, nothing really helps this build too much.
• Apprentice - 15+ each in Elemental Apprentice, Elfborne, and Blessed
• Atronach - No points invested, nothing really helps this build too much.
• Ritual - No points invested, nothing really helps this build too much.

Build Rating