Note: This is out of date as of 2023/Q1. I’ll try to update it soon.

INTRODUCTION

This document was created in order to give newer players and group leaders an idea of how to build their group compositions, how to gear, skill, and ensure that they have coverage for many of the potential requirements that running a group entails. This document is oriented towards medium to large groups, and is probably not as appropriate for small groups where everyone has more responsibilities and different build requirements.

Note that this is by no means a complete list or guide, and could be taken as the beginning of a “raid guide” document if your guild or regular group does not already have one.

You are welcome to make your own copy of this document – as many guilds have already done – and further develop it on your own to best suit your guild or group’s needs. I’m sure that the community would appreciate that any contributions or edits that you make in your own document be submitted back into this one for other players to benefit.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

The purpose of this section is to give you an overview of the roles and responsibilities that most leaders want to have in raids. By learning what these roles and their responsibilities are, you’ll be able to pick the ones that are most appropriate for your play style and be better able to contribute to your group’s success.

Each role may have multiple builds that work for it, and can serve multiple responsibilities. It is also important to note that each role’s responsibilities may be different depending on the size of your group. If you’re running 10 players or running 24 players, what you do to contribute to the group’s success may be very different!

Roles and their responsibility possibilities: Damage AoE damage Single target damage Execute damage Healing AoE healing Burst (single target) healing Cross healing Support Buffs (positive effects) Purging Disruption (fearing) or other hard cc / knock backs Snares, slows, and immobilization (caltrops, ice staff spells, poisons) Defile & Debuffs (negative effects including poisons)

There are multiple classes and builds that can meet each set of responsibilities, and every group should have at least one (and often multiple) players meeting each of them. For example, a magicka DPS player might slot purge, and a healing templar with high max magicka might slot jesus beam for execute damage. If you assume only one role and one responsibility, then you may not be able to perform well unless you are in a very large group where you depend on everyone else to perform (and get carried). Some groups that have a very specific group composition have players with a single responsibility (such as spam purge or retreating maneuvers). Nobody is perfect, and it’s your responsibility to cover for other people as you can while assuming your responsibilities.

BUILD REQUIREMENTS (General)

• All your gear must have the Impenetrable trait, unless you’re running the Impregnable set (which you should not usually be doing in larger groups).
• You must have tri-stat enchants on at least your major pieces (head / chest / pants). Tri-stat enchants on all your gear is preferable.
• You must have at least 26k health. 28k health is preferred on players other than bombers. Some niche builds use less health, though if you’re going to do that please ensure that you don’t end up as VD fodder.
• Tri-stat food is preferred for almost all builds. It gives the magicka builds added stamina to break free, roll dodge, and sprint. Your regen will suffer slightly, and groups should compensate for that with more synergies (shards/balls) and time for heavy attacks and moving out to restore resources. As of Q1/2020 the best tri-food is Bewitched Sugar Skulls as it also provides health regen.
• With the changes to DoTs (nerf as of Q4/2019) being a vampire is back on the table. Most players won’t need it (see Race Against Time mentioned later), though Elusive Mist will get you out of a lot of tight spots or bombs if you can’t RAT. The added resource regeneration, faster stealth movement, and reduced damage when at lower health are all great benefits. Note that you will take more fire damage (notably from fire siege and destro ultimates), so play accordingly.
• You must have appropriate immovable potions available during raids. These will be called for (usually when attacking or when being attacked) to prevent you from being stunned. Common potions used are health/immovable/magicka and speed/immovable/stamina, though there are others that are more viable for certain (stamina) builds.
• You must have appropriate poisons available during raids. I tend to prefer the 4.4 second immovable poisons on front bar, and double life-steal on back bar.
• If you are not in a Harmony build, then don’t hit offensive synergies. Some addons can prevent you from seeing them automatically (see the AddOns entry).

BUILD REQUIREMENTS (Healers)

• You should have a set of Bogdan, Earthgore, and Symphony available. Earthgore is no longer the best healing set, though the ground effect removal capability is still great and it will often save someone from death.
  
• You should all be in 5 light / 1 medium / 1 heavy. If you’re in a 5 heavy setup, please speak with your raid or healing leaders and find what would be best for you.
• You should keep various sets of gear on you so that when the healer composition is determined, you can swap gear as needed. Transmutation, Gossamer, Olorime, and Worm are common sets.
• If you’re not sure about your second set and are not going to use two buff sets (like the above), use Kagrenac’s Hope.
• Almost all healers should have lightning staves on their back bar. You should very rarely be standing and blocking. If you’re blocking, you’re not healing. With the lightning staff, you have another channeled attack that can apply a debuff, and you will sometimes want to have Blockade on your back bar
• You must have RAT on your front bar.
• Barrier is suggested on your front bar, as it will give 10% magicka regen and your group will probably be using them.
• Regarding your back bar ultimate, the common ones are Remembrance (Templar), Resurrection (Necro), defensive Sleet (Warden), Aggressive Horn (NB). Use what is most appropriate for your raid comp and/or what your raid or healing leader needs.
• There should be two healers running healing balls (undaunted heal morph).

BUILD REQUIREMENTS (Magicka DPS)

• You should have a resto staff back bar for Radiating Regeneration.
• You must have Race Against Time (RAT) on your front bar.
• You must have Proxy Detonation on your bar. Front bar preferred as bar swapping in lag often doesn’t happen, and when the leader calls for everyone to proxy the bar swap can add 2 seconds before you can cast it.
• If your build is already min/max, then that’s great. If not, swap to The Lover mundus for more penetration.
• You should be in 5 light / 1 medium / 1 heavy. If you’re in a 5 heavy setup, please speak with your raid leaders and find what would be best for you.
• Most builds should be in New Moon / Spinner / Balorgh. There are a lot of viable options, and remember that solo/small builds are different from group builds where you have more dedicated healers and support to keep you alive while you kill things. Note that this suggestion is as of 2020/01/07 and this document may not be updated quickly when new patches hit.
• Some max magicka builds will use Crafty / Necropotence / Balorgh. Note that this suggestion is as of 2020/01/07 and this document may not be updated quickly when new patches hit.
• You must have efficient purge morphed, and put it on your bar if the raid leader calls for it. We all know that you don’t like this. Please just do it for the raid.
• Figure out who is running Harmony. There should be one player in harmony for every 8 people in raid. Those and NB bombers are the ones who should be in New Moon / Vicious Death / Balorgh.
• If you have a synergy-skill that does damage (graveyard, talons, etc) then have it on your bar and use it often. The players with the harmony trait on their jewelry will thank you.
• One (or two) of you need to run blue balls (undaunted damage morph). Figure out who is doing it.

BUILD REQUIREMENTS (Stamina DPS)

• Most builds should be in New Moon / Spriggan / Balorgh. There are a lot of viable options, and remember that solo/small builds are different from group builds where you have more dedicated healers and support to keep you alive while you kill things. Note that this suggestion is as of 2020/01/07 and this document may not be updated quickly when new patches hit.
• You must have Vigor (the morph that heals others) on your bar.
• You should have Caltrops on your bar.
• One or two should have Retreating on their bars, both to give riding speed (the addon Fast Ride can auto-swap the skill when you’re mounted so less necessary) and to reduce damage if being bombed while you’re spreading.
• If your build doesn’t do any AoE damage and doesn’t snare consistently (Bombard), then change it. You bring very low value to the group otherwise.

PLAYING REQUIREMENTS

• When joining the group, confirm your role and responsibilities, as well as the ultimates you’re running. The group leader will probably assign you a number, group or set for your ultimate and will call for it when needed. If the group uses an ultimate tracker addon (see the AddOns entry), enable it.
• When the group leader makes a call, follow it. Even if you think it’s wrong, even if it’s a horrible call, if people don’t follow the calls then you will lose in the long run. Discuss the calls made after the fighting is over. I’ve made many bad calls in my years of leading groups, and we have often succeeded due to group composition and coordination where another call would have been better or more efficient.
• Pay attention to your surroundings. If you see a group of proxys and destros moving at you, don’t just stand there waiting for the leader to make a call. Move out of the way. Be aware of distances and don’t just keep spreading. Get just outside opposing damage range, keep fulfilling your responsibilities, then get back to your leader.

GUIDES ON HOW TO PVP

• Read this: https://darkelves.com/eso/
• Now seriously, if you haven’t read all of it, go back and read it. You may think that you know everything, and it’s very possible that you do. Go back and read it all so that if there is anything wrong, a mistake was made, or if there’s more information that you believe should be added you can let Nait (@crown77) know so that he can update/fix/add whatever is needed.
• Most important are the Offence, Defence, and Siege sections, but again, READ IT ALL.
• If there’s something you didn’t understand, ask questions. There’s no shame in asking questions. We’d rather you ask questions than be the reason that we wiped.

NORMS FOR Q1 2020

Ultimates and proxies are the group’s main damage. They tend to build squishy so that their ultimates hit as hard as possible.

While any class can be a magicka support, Sorcerers tend to be best for higher sustain and value as their negates don’t need high damage capabilities. They are the best choice for a cleanse-spammer, while providing some cc on opponents with Encase. The group need to have one magicka support for every 8 players.

Magicka Templars are primarily healers, and will run Remembrance ultimates for massive healing when the group is being bombed. Necromancers and Wardens are also amazing healers, NBs can be niche build healers, and DKs less so. Each healer will each run a complementary healing support set so that the group has optimal buffs. The group needs to have one healer for every 4-5 players (depending on skill, comp, and what you intend to fight).

Specialized or niche builds can be of great benefit to the group, though too many of them will take away from an optimal group composition. One magicka Warden in a defile build, and one magicka DK in a cc build can make great additions to a larger group.

Stamina Wardens use their stamina healing (Soothing Spores) which is not affected by being in an opposing player’s Negate. Stamina Wardens tend to have the highest damage from their Shalks, and coordinating these with their own Dawnbreakers and magicka players’ Proxy Detonations can insta-wipe opposing players. If there no magicka Wardens in group, then stamina Wardens will take on the responsibility for Sleet ultimates.

In every group of 12 players, optimal ultimates are usually going to be something like (+ or – 1 on each) the following, so that the group has multiple waves of ultimates available.

• 2 Negates (sorcs – obviously)
• 3 Barrier and/or Remembrance (healers)
• 2 Sleet (Warden)
• 5 Damage (destros, colossus, banner)
• Optional: Leap / DawnBreaker on some builds

RAID BUILDS

My latest raid builds sheet can be found here. I’ve removed the old builds from this sheet as too many have changed over the past few patches.

FINAL COMMENTS

If the build that you like playing isn’t listed, then please discuss it with leadership. You may be the meanest 1 v Potato bad-ass around, but we play in groups and need everyone in synergistic builds for the greatest likelihood of success when fighting our opponents who are also running in groups (or zergs).

LICENSE

I’ve added the Creative Commons Non Commercial license details to the document, primarily so that nobody tries to sell a copy of this (as someone previously tried to do with the guides on my web site turned into PDFs).

REVISION HISTORY

• Revision 0.1 on 2017/11/01 – First draft shared with Pugs of Daggerfall for comment
• Revision 0.2 on 2017/11/06 – Initial Publication / Request For Comment on ESO Forums
• Revision 1.0 on 2018/01/29 – Moved to https://darkelves.com/raid-requirements
• Revision 1.1 on 2018/02/10 – Added stamina builds and corrected a few minor things
• Revision 1.2 on 2018/05/06 – Clarified a few things and preparing for Summerset additions
• Revisions 1.3 through 1.8 over most of 2019 were minor updates.
• Revision 2.0 on 2019/10/21 – The final dragon bones patch.
• Revision 2.1 on 2019/12/04 – Link to builds
• Revision 2.2 on 2020/01/07 – Updated Healer/DPS requirements