Rabid Wolf – StamDK PvE 2H/Bow (Wolfhunter)
Class: DRAGONKNIGHT
Race: Nord
Main Role: Damage
Health, Magicka, Stamina
| HEALTH | MAGICKA | STAMINA |
| 0 | 0 | 64 |
Skills
Bar 1
Weapon 1: Two Handed
Two Handed Skill
Brawler
Fighters Guild Skill
Rearming Trap
Dragonknight Skill
Venomous Claw
Two Handed Skill
Rally
Dragonknight Skill
Flames of Oblivion
Fighters Guild Skill
Flawless Dawnbreaker
Bar 2
Weapon 2: Bow
Bow Skill
Poison Injection
Bow Skill
Endless Hail
Assault Skill
Razor Caltrops
Dragonknight Skill
Noxious Breath
Dragonknight Skill
Molten Armaments
Dragonknight Skill
Standard of Might
Armor Types
| Light Armor | Medium Armor | Heavy Armor |
| 0 | 6 | 1 |
Gear and Item Set Info
5 Pieces Hunding's Rage (Crafted set)
5 Pieces Sunderflame (Dungeon set - City of Ash I & II)
2 Pieces Spawn of Mephala (Monster set - Fungal Grotto II vet & Maj al-Ragath's chest)
| Gear | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
| Chest | Heavy | Divine | Max Stamina |
| Belt | 6 x Medium | Divine | Max Stamina |
| Hands | Divine | Max Stamina | |
| Pants | Divine | Max Stamina | |
| Shoes | Divine | Max Stamina | |
| Head | Divine | Max Stamina | |
| Shoulder | Divine | Max Stamina | |
| Necklace | Jewelry | Bloodthirsty | Physical Damage |
| Ring | Jewelry | Infused | Physical Damage |
| Ring | Jewelry | Infused | Physical Damage |
| Weapon 1 | Greatsword | Infused | Berserker Glyph (Okori) |
| Weapon 2 | Bow | Infused | Poison Damage Glyph |
Sunderflame's unique penetration bonus got changed for Minor Breach & Minor Fracture, which is sort of a nerf if you have a stamina Templar in your group. But the bonus flame damage from heavy attacks got buffed from 700 to 4000 damage. Without any cooldown. This is a huge buff for stamina DKs.
If you want to go all-poison, you can use Viper's Sting instead of Sunderflame, but the theorical DPS from both set is in favor of Sunderflame.
It is possible to use Valkyn Skoria (Monster set - City of Ash 2 vet & Glirion the Redbeard's chest) instead of Spawn of Mephala, for added survivability and more fire flavour, at the cost of a little DPS loss (about 0.5k less on my testing). We have so many DOTs running that it will proc on cooldown. With this Monster set, Nord passives, Undaunted passives, Heavy Armor Juggernaut passive and 300CP bonus I'm sitting at more than 20k HP, without any attribute point in Health. Quite handy when you need more survivability because you're soloing or the healer is struggling.
Concerning what gear to use into which slot, it really depends on what you can loot first. However :
- To get a heavy chest piece, you'll obviously need to craft it in Hunding's Rage set.
- Jewelry will be much easier to get in Sunderflame set until the jewelry crafting economy stabilize itself at lower costs (and vet City of Ash I is really easy, don't be afraid to give it a try).
Don't hurry yourself to transmute your jewelry from Robust to Infused/Bloodthirsty. Robust still performs very good compared to new traits, and you should prioritize other gear transmutation before changing jewelry traits.
For the weapons :
- You have a vMA/Master bow, then you need to get Sunderflame melee weapon ; or
- You don't have a vMA/Master bow, then it's doesn't matter which set are both melee and bow (but needs to be the same) ; or
- Last option would be to use an Agility bow and Sunderflame melee weapon until you can get a vMA/Master bow, but I would only recommand the Agility bow as a temporary placeholder
General Info
All my "Rabid" serie of StamDK builds are designed to be achievable on one character, allowing to swap playstyles depending on the mood and still be efficient. Check out the variations here :
- DW/Bow - Rabid Fox
- SnB/Bow - Rabid Coyote
- vMA - Rabid Wyvern
- Non-CP PvP - Rabid Dragon
13 August 2018 update :
Wolfhunter update. Championpoints adjustement. Traits and glyphs adjustement.
02 August 2018 update :
Swapped Rearming Trap and Noxious Breath for more DPS. Added a Monster set variation (Valkyn Skoria) in the "GEAR AND ITEM SET INFO" section. Some adjustements on glyph names.
10 July 2018 update :
Added an explanation on gear/slot allocation.
19 June 2018 update :
Added a 300CP setup.
8 June 2018 update :
I finally came back to a heavy attack build, because I got good results with it (25k dps with non-optimal traits), and it is very beginner-friendly and cheap to play, having Major Brutality and Savagery in the skills.
Dummy Parse
25k+ DPS with purple gear and non-optimal traits and non-optimal player. No Maelstrom/Master bow used.
Skills
You can use Resolving Vigor instead of Flames of Oblivion if playing solo, or if the healer is struggling.
Races
Orc > Khajiit > Redguard > Imperial > Any other races
I'm playing as a Nord, because roleplay. Redguard isn't the best race for this specific stamina build, because we have no need of extra sustain due to the heavy attack rotation.
Buff-food
Blue Max Health+Max Stamina food
Mundus Stone
The Lover (Increased Penetration)
Potions
Stamina Potions
Passives
Ardent Flame (All)
Draconic Power (Iron Skin, Scaled Armor)
Earthen Heart (All)
Medium Armor (Dexterity, Wind Walker, Agility, Athletics)
Heavy Armor (Resolve, Constitution, Juggernaut)
Bow (All)
Two Handed (All)
Fighter’s Guild (Intimidating Presence, Slayer, Banish the Wicked, Skilled Tracker)
Undaunted (All)
Racial (All)
Alchemy (Medicinal Use)
Rotation
Apply Rally and Molten Armaments before fight and keep them up
Noxious Breath>Light Attack>Endless Hail>Light Attack>Razor Caltrops>Light Attack>Poison Injection
Swap
Rearming Trap>Heavy Attack>Brawler>Heavy Attack>Venomous Claw>Heavy Attack>Flames of Oblivion
Swap>Restart
Evolutions, Improvements
As you progress through the game and get more gold and better performance, you can consider the following.
Potions
If you use weapon power potion made with the following :
| Blessed Thistle | Dragonthorn | Wormwood / Water Hyacinth |
You can swap out Rally for Reverse Slice (start using it at ~30% hp), for more damage during execute phases, and global DPS improvement.
Weapons
A Maelstrom bow (or Master bow, in a lesser extend) will of course be a big boost to your damage output. In that case make sur you have it Nirnhoned, and use a Sunderflame (heavy attacks on frontbar) or Viper's Sting (melee attacks on frontbar) greatsword, to keep the 5 pieces bonus from Hunding's Rage.
Monster Set
Velidreth (Monster set - Cradle of Shadows vet & Urgarlag Chief-bane's chest) can be a good improvement over Spawn of Mephala, especially against bosses with large hitboxes, allowing 2 or 3 spores to hit them, effectively doubling or tripling the damage it deals.
Champion Point Tips
780CP
The Ritual
56 Mighty
44 Thaumaturge
56 Precise Strikes
29 Piercing
The Atronach
9 Physical Weapon Expert
66 Master-At-Arms
The Lover
100 Tenacity
49 Mooncalf
The Tower
17 Warlord
The Shadow
47 Shadow Ward
47 Tumbling
The Lady
49 Hardy
49 Elemental Defender
48 Thick Skinned
The Steed
81 Ironclad
33 Spell Shield
300CP
The Ritual
27 Mighty
31 Thaumaturge
23 Precise Strikes
19 Piercing
The Lover
49 Tenacity
49 Mooncalf
The Tower
2 Warlord
The Lady
23 Hardy
23 Elemental Defender
23 Thick Skinned
The Steed
31 Ironclad
This is close to what I’m running except noxious on 2h, no rally or WB, no heavy attacks, rearming trap in place of noxious on bow, vigor in place of molten (since I’m not doing HA), new psijic order food (for sustain), weapon power pots, and crushing weapons. Rotation LA before ever skill, rearming, poison injection, endless, caltrops, swap, noxious, claw, brawler, flames, crushing 4x. Also if you’re running enchants instead of poisons I’d run infused on bow with weapon dmg instead of nirnhoned
I’m actually working on a light attack based build, but it implies a lot of changes. Sunderflame and Spawn of Mephala can’t be used anymore, Molten Armaments become useless, and sustain will be an issue without heavy attacks.
I still don’t want to include raid sets in the build, because I want it to be beginner-friendly, that’s the reason why I also want to keep a source of major brutality and major savagery in the slotted skills, to allow the use of simple stamina potion.
What should I set for Ultima on slot R ?
First of all, thank you in advance for the build.
I wanted to ask a question about gearing. Right now I’m at 100 CP and still leveling to 160 CP. But I do want to inquire beforehand how exactly should I approach my gearing routine. What pieces are better to craft (Hunding) and what pieces should I search for in City of Ash? What abilities do I have to use when clearing trash? (I assume the rotation you’ve posted applies to bossfights, a.k.a. single target dummies).
@Major
About Gear
It’s a matter of preference/opportunity before you get a Maelstrom/Master bow. Why? Because without this bow, you can use weapons of Sunderflame or Hunding’s Rage set indifferently, you will have both 5pc sets active permanently.
Once you get the Maelstrom/Master bow, you will have one of the 5pc set active only on your frontbar, that’s why we try to slot the proc-based set (Sunderflame) on the frontbar, and the permanent one (Hunding’s Rage) on non-weapon slots.
You will have to look for Sunderflame jewelry, because it is actually really expensive to craft purple jewelry, and I don’t think it worth the cost compared to a bit of farming in CoA dungeons.
To sum it up, before you are able to finish vet Maelstrom/ vet Dragonstar arena, it will probably be easier to slot Sunderflame on jewelry + 2 body pieces, and use crafted Hunding’s Rage weapons + 3 body pieces (much easier than farming for the right weapon). Just be aware that sooner or later, you will have to get Sunderflame weapons. So don’t decon them if you find them.
About Trashfights
Thanks to 2H passives, Brawler, Noxious Breath, Endless Hail and Razor Caltrops, we have a lot of AoE abilities. So when fighting trash, I follow my rotation without Rearming Trap (easier to sustain), Poison Injection and Venomous Claw (most mobs die too fast for them to deal enough damage). I focus on the priority target mob and position myself so I can damage other mobs as well with AoE. The key is to position yourself so you can hit them with Noxious Breath (AoE Major Fracture). My priorities are : Healing Mobs > CCing Mobs > Highest HP > Remaining trash.
Much appreciated!
Last question I’d like to ask: should I implement Heavy attacks in my rotation even if I don’t have Sunderflame yet?
I can’t grasp how exactly do I weave heavy attacks, I’m too used to weaving light attacks only. Whenever I’m in a trash fight I find myself spamming Cleave and Noxious Breath with some light attacks thrown in-between. It works now but it takes a heavy toll on my resources, so I’d like to improve my muscle memory and start using Heavy Attacks even if I don’t really have the required item set.
Other than that, I’ve already noticed a great improvement of my DPS even with improper gear and uncapped CP gear (I’m around 120, and my gear is 80-90 ish CP). I’m able to push 10k on bosses where previously I could only aim for like 4-5k. Once again, thanks for the build!
@Major
You should try to use heavy attacks from now. It will help you get a natural feeling with and Molten Armaments buff your heavy attacks damage a lot.
Once you figure it out, you’ll see a heavy attacks rotation is much easier to pull smoothly than a light attacks rotation.
The idea is to keep the attack button/key pressed, and when your character is arming his strike (when he brings his weapon on his back) you hit the button/key of your incoming skill while you keep pressing the attack button/key. If done right, your character will finish his heavy attack and the skill will be launched at the same time.
You can basically do your whole frontbat rotation like this. Keeping on heavy attacks during the whole rotation and triggering skills in the right order at the right time.
Take some time to practice on dummies. The timing window to trigger skill is quite wide, you shouldn’t have lot of trouble to figure it out.
How do you keep both 5 set bonuses if you use a VMA bow instead of a Sunderflame?
@Jet
You can’t. That why you want to use Hunding’s Rage set on body pieces to keep its bonus permanently and Sunderflame on melee weapon, as you’re doing heavy attacks on your frontbar only anyway.