The Top Duelling and PvP build in SRS
Dovah's Fury
by Shalseth
Introduction
Do you enjoy having crazy pressure, good burst and survivability in PvP? Then this build is for you!
With multiple dots, high burst and a lot of healing, this build is incredibly potent, specifically in duels but also does well in battlegrounds and Cyrodiil. With decent 1vX capability, very strong sustain and pressure in 1v1s, this build is a nightmare to encounter on the battlefield.
GM Note: This build has consistently been the number one build in our weekly duelling contests. I am delighted that Shalseth has decided to share his knowledge with the guild. I for one will be trying to replicate this for one of my characters. The speed at which he bursts down even our tankiest players has to be seen to be believed. This is a fantastic build, if you are even slightly interested in PvP then you need to be looking at this build.
Set Information
Maarselok Monster set, both Heavy with max health enchants
5-piece Wretched Vitality active on both bars using medium hands and a light belt. Chest, Legs and Feet are all heavy. All tristat enchants.
Jewellery is all Rallying Cry with the infused trait and weapon damage enchants.
Front bar weapons are Rallying Cry maces.
One Sharpened one Nirnhoned. One poison enchant and one oblivion damage enchant (oblivion damage ignores enemy resistances, so very good in pvp)
Skills
Front bar:
Blood For Blood: The main damaging 'spammable' you'll be using, essentially becomes a free ability when paired with crit surge and/or resolving vigour, allowing for incredibly high sustain. Alternatively, if you don't enjoy the idea of being Molag Bal's minion for eternity, you could opt for 'Surprise Attack' from the assassination skill line, another very solid option that provides the Sundered status effect when used.
Shattering Rocks: A great stun that cannot be blocked, provides a burst heal, and a decent amount of flame damage when the stun ends. This ability allows you to stay offensive while also receiving a nice burst heal. Being able to do burst damage and healing from a stun means you can stay offensive and not die.
Merciless Resolve: This is the main burst ability we have slotted, allowing for massive damage once 5 stacks are reached. Also provides a burst heal when within melee range, you could be low health and hit shattering rocks into bow and get back to full health whilst doing massive burst. Potent combination.
Hurricane: Our source of major resolve on this build also provides minor expedition and gives us an AoE DoT which is doing more damage the longer it's active. Also boosts our weapon and spell damage whilst slotted due to the storm calling passive 'Expert Mage'. Also allows us to proc Wretched Vitality on the front bar.
Streak: Ranked by many PvPers as the best mobility tool in the game, this ability also boosts our weapon and spell damage whilst providing a nice escape tool from sticky situations. The other morph of this ability is more commonly used when another stun is slotted, as it tanks 1 projectile hit for you, but I prefer this morph to be able to stun multiple enemies at once, as that, in my opinio,n is better for 1vX and survivability than just 1 projectile tanked.
Ult. Soul harvest: A very cheap ultimate which is incredibly potent when used in conjunction with our other burst abilities, as it boosts our damage done by 20% to the enemy hit, making it a clear favourite for duels, as there's only one opponent. (I'd swap this for either of the Dawnbreaker morphs for BGs/Cyrodiil, I prefer Flawless Dawnbreaker, as we already have 2 stuns, and it increases our weapon and spell damage by 300 for 20 seconds.)
Back bar:
Our main burst heal on this build, I've set it to restore mag/stam and grant Major Vitality for 10 seconds, but you can use whatever you like in terms of scribing.
Shocking Contingency: Used sparingly to conserve magicka for more important things like healing and streaking, this is mainly slotted for the minor force buff. It's also very useful for adding additional potency to burst combos, as I'm using shock damage and damage over time as the first 2 scribed lines. Pop this before you enter a fight, and it'll almost double the damage of your first spammable hit whilst providing an AoE DoT.
Resolving vigor: The most potent heal over time ability in the game, also providing minor resolve, this ability is how we proc Rallying Cry on the front bar. Using resolving vigour then swapping to front bar essentially guarantees a proc every time due to our high crit%.
Elemental Susceptibility: Incredibly potent debuff that costs 0 resources to cast, also procs our Vateshran's ice staff, providing an AoE pressure tether that does great damage over time.
Critical Surge: This is our major brutality/sorcery buff on this build. Also provides a decent amount of healing every time you deal critical damage.
Ult. Corrosive Armour: Essentially the best PvP ult in the game for fighting multiple opponents, may as well be called god mode. Makes us ignore enemy resistances whilst capping damage received at 3% of our max health. Very broken ultimate 😄
Subclassed lines: Earthen Heart (Dragonknight), Assassination (Nightblade) and Storm Calling (Sorcerer)
Mundus: The Lover, for maximum pen
Race: Dark Elf, just cos I like them lol
Food: Jewels of Misrule, Orzorga's smoked bear haunch is slightly better but a lot more expensive.
Potions: Tristat
I'm also vampire stage 3 for the undeath passive.
Champion Points:
Blue
Master at Arms, Fighting Finesse, Deadly Aim, Wrathful Strikes.
You can swap Deadly Aim and Master at Arms for Ironclad and Focused Mending if you prefer to have slightly more survivability over damage.
Green
Gifted Rider, Steed's Blessing and War Mount are the only ones that matter, really
Red
Survival instincts, Pain's Refuge, Sustained by Suffering and Fortified. The only one of these I'd recommend swapping is Fortified.
Combo tips:
For duelling, you want to use resolving vigour 2 seconds before the fight starts, then shocking contingency and elemental susceptibility. Switch to the front bar and do a half-charged melee heavy hit into shattering rocks, which will simultaneously proc Rallying Cry, put the Maarselok and Vateshran DoTs on them and stun them. After this, your damaging abilities will take care of the rest. Don't forget to reapply the Vateshran tether when it runs out else you'll miss out on a lot of dps.
Potential Changes:
For duelling specifically, I think Zaan is probably better than Maarselok, but it can be cleansed quite easily and also moved away from with ease, which is why I prefer Maarselok, as you can control when you want it active.
But if you're duelling someone without a cleanse and no streak or vault, Zaan is gonna do more dps.
Battlegrounds/Cyrodiil related changed I would make to this build would be using Surprise Attack as Blood for Blood disables team heals for 3 seconds, also the monster set Bloodspawn would be better in BGs for ult regen and tankiness.
Another change that is totally viable is dropping the monster set for a mythic of your choice.
Playstyle tips:
The abundance of stamina we have on this build that isn't being used by our skills is instead used to block very frequently on the front bar as this will reduce our incoming damage massively whilst allowing us to stay offensive. You can also dodge roll very liberally due to the excess stamina. We also block alot on the back bar due to the 'Ancient Knowledge' passive from destruction staff
