Sunshine Daydream's Guide to ESO

Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Armor

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Style Key & Glossary

These skill lines are unlocked when your character wears 3 pieces of each given armor class (Heavy, Medium, Light).

After unlocking all 3 skill lines it is advisable to initially use a sash (waist) in Light Armor, bracers (hand) in Medium Armor, and the other 5 pieces in Heavy Armor; this provides the greatest armor rating while leveling all armor skill trees.

After you've invested in your armor skills sufficiently to take advantage of several passive benefits, change gear to focus on your build's chosen armor weight. When making this switch, you can keep a strong armor rating while continuing to train other armor skill lines:

Use	With	for Overall Armor Focus (the other 5 armor pieces)
Cuirass (Heavy Chest)	Guards (Med. Legs)	Light Armor (passive skills for magicka-based characters)
Cuirass (Heavy Chest)	Sash (Light Waist)	Medium Armor (passive skills for stamina-based characters)
Bracers (Med. Hands)	Sash (Light Waist)	Heavy Armor (passive skills that will help survivability)

Divines is the most often recommended armor trait, but the Infused trait may also be quite worthwhile on armor pieces with large enchantments (chest, legs, head, and shield if one is used) to maximize the bonus. A similar experience is found with the Reinforced trait being more beneficial on the pieces with large armor bonuses (i.e. not hands & waist). Other traits (such as Divines, Impenetrable or Sturdy) give the same benefit regardless of the armor's stats so are especially desired on smaller pieces such as hands & waist that would otherwise suffer a reduction of some trait's benefit. However, for low level gear most folks would prefer to seek out the training trait on all items.

It should be noted that values shown below reflect the ability and/or morph once it is fully trained which sometimes differs from earlier costs, durations, or damage values. All costs and damage values here are without attribute points placed, without equipment, without passive skills acquired or active skills slotted and without champion points spent to make it easier to compare skills regardless of gear/build differences.

Since Mundus buffs can be changed but not removed, either no mundus buff was in place (template character on PTS) or the Lover mundus (which only alters penetration) was used.

Remember that if a skill costs Magicka, it scales with your maximum Magicka (and Spell Damage) while if a skill costs Stamina, it scales with your maximum Stamina (and Weapon Damage). Ultimate abilities and Synergies scale with the combination that provides you with the best offensive stats.

Light Armor Skill Line
automatic	Bonuses	Reduces Damage Taken from Magical attacks (Magic, Flame, Frost, Shock) by 1%. Increases Movement Speed while Sneaking by 5% Reduces the cost of Roll Dodge by 3% Reduces the cost of Break Free by 5% Reduces the cost of Bash by 3%	per worn piece of Light Armor
automatic	Penalties	Increases Damage Taken from Martial attacks (Physical, Poison, Disease, Bleed) by 1% Increases the cost of Block by 3% Decreases Bash's damage done by 1%	per worn piece of Light Armor
Required Skill Level	Skill Name	Benefit	Cost
2	Grace	Each piece of Light Armor reduces the effectiveness of snares upon you by 1% and reduces the cost of Sprint by 1%.	Passive
6	Evocation	Each piece of Light Armor increases Magicka Recovery by 2% and reduces the Magicka costs of abilities by 1%.	Passive
10	Grace II	Each piece of Light Armor reduces the effectiveness of snares upon you by 2% and reduces the cost of Sprint by 2%.	Passive
14	Spell Warding	Increases Spell Resistance by 363 for each piece of Light Armor worn.	Passive
18	Evocation II	Each piece of Light Armor increases Magicka Recovery by 4% and reduces the Magicka costs of abilities by 2%.	Passive
22	Annulment	While wearing 5 pieces of Light Armor, surround yourself with a Damage Shield lasting up to 6 seconds which absorbs 181 damage. Annulment will now calculate their damage shield value taking Battle Spirit into account before the shield is capped. (Murkmire PTS 4.2.3 Patch Notes)	4590 Magicka
Morph Option 1	Dampen Magic	Absorbed damage increases by 6% per piece of Light Armor and this shield's cap increases to 50% of Max Health (40% standard).	4590 Magicka
Morph Option 2	Harness Magicka	Also restores 238 Magicka plus 6% per piece of Light Armor when the shield absorbs Spell Damage (up to 3 times).	4590 Magicka
30	Grace III	Each piece of Light Armor reduces the effectiveness of snares upon you by 4% and reduces the cost of Sprint by 3%.	Passive
34	Spell Warding II	Increases Spell Resistance by 726 for each piece of Light Armor worn.	Passive
38	Prodigy	Increases Spell Critical Critical Chance by 0.5% per piece of Light Armor.	Passive
42	Concentration	Increases Offensive Penetration (Spell and Weapon) by 469 per piece of Light Armor.	Passive
46	Prodigy II	Increases Spell Critical Critical Chance by 1% per piece of Light Armor.	Passive
50	Concentration II	Increases Offensive Penetration (Spell and Weapon) by 939 per piece of Light Armor.	Passive

Medium Armor Skill Line
automatic	Bonuses	For 2 seconds after Roll Dodging, reduces Damage Taken from Area of Effect (AoE) attacks Increases Movement Speed by 2% while immune to crowd control Reduces the cost of Sprint by 1% Reduces the cost of Sneak by 5% Reduces the cost of Block by 3%	per worn piece of Medium Armor
automatic	Penalties	none	per worn piece of Medium Armor
Required Skill Level	Skill Name	Benefit	Cost
2	Dexterity	Increases Critical Damage and Critical Healing by ???% per equipped piece of Medium Armor.	Passive
6	Wind Walker	Each piece of Medium Armor increases Stamina Recovery 2% and reduces the Stamina cost for abilities by 1%.	Passive
10	Dexterity II	Increases Critical Damage and Critical Healing by ???% per equipped piece of Medium Armor.	Passive
14	Improved Sneak	Reduces the cost of Sneak by 4% per piece of Medium Armor and reduces the size of your detection area by 3% per piece of Medium Armor.	Passive
18	Wind Walker II	Each piece of Medium Armor increases Stamina Recovery 4% and reduces the Stamina cost for abilities by 2%.	Passive
22	Evasion	While wearing 5 pieces of Medium Armor, shroud yourself in a mist to gain Major Evasion for 20 seconds.	3672 Stamina
Morph Option 1	Shuffle	Removes snares & immobilizations and grants immunity to such for 0.5 seconds per piece of Medium Armor worn.	3672 Stamina
Morph Option 2	Elude	The duration is extended by 5% for each piece of Medium Armor	3672 Stamina
30	Dexterity III	Increases Critical Damage and Critical Healing by 2% per equipped piece of Medium Armor.	Passive
34	Improved Sneak II	Reduces the cost of Sneak by 7% per piece of Medium Armor and reduces the size of your detection area by 5% per piece of Medium Armor.	Passive
38	Agility	Increases Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 1% per piece of Medium Armor.	Passive
42	Athletics	Each piece of Medium Armor increases the Movement Speed of Sprint by 2% and reduces the cost of Roll Dodge by 2%.	Passive
46	Agility II	Increases Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 2% per piece of Medium Armor.	Passive
50	Athletics II	Each piece of Medium Armor increases the Movement Speed of Sprint by 3% and reduces the cost of Roll Dodge by 4%.	Passive

Heavy Armor Skill Line
automatic	Bonuses	Reduces damage taken from Martial attacks (Physical, Poison, Disease, Bleed) by 1% Increases the amount of damage Blocked by 1% Increases the damage done with Bash by 3% Reduces the damage taken while immune to crowd control by 1%	per worn piece of Heavy Armor
automatic	Penalties	Increases Damage Taken from Magical attacks (Magic, Flame, Frost, Shock) by 1%. Reduces Movement Speed bonus of Sprint by 1% Increases the cost of Roll Dodge by 3% Increases the size of your detection area while Sneaking (making you easier to detect) by 10%	per worn piece of Heavy Armor
Required Skill Level	Skill Name	Benefit	Cost
2	Resolve	Adds 114 120 Physical & Spell Resistance per piece of Heavy Armor worn.	Passive
6	Constitution	Each piece of Heavy Armor increases Health Recovery by 2% and up to once every 8 seconds if you take damage 108 Magicka & 108 Stamina is restored per piece of Heavy Armor.	Passive
10	Resolve II	Adds 229 241 Physical & Spell Resistance per piece of Heavy Armor worn.	Passive
14	Juggernaut	Each piece of Heavy Armor increases Maximum Health by 1%.	Passive
18	Constitution II	Each piece of Heavy Armor increases Health Recovery by 4% and up to once every 4 seconds if you take damage 108 Magicka & 108 Stamina is restored per piece of Heavy Armor.	Passive
22	Immovable	While wearing 5 pieces of Heavy Armor, gain Major Ward and Major Resolve for 20 seconds and immunity to Knock-Back & disabling effects for 4 seconds.	3923 Stamina
Morph Option 1	Immovable Brute	While slotted, each piece of Heavy Armor also decreases the cost of Break Free by 4%.	3923 Stamina
Morph Option 2	Unstoppable	Each piece of Heavy Armor also increases the duration of this ability by 5%.	3923 Stamina
30	Resolve III	Adds 343 362 Physical & Spell Resistance per piece of Heavy Armor worn.	Passive
34	Juggernaut II	Each piece of Heavy Armor increases Maximum Health by 2%.	Passive
38	Revitalize	While wearing 5 or more pieces of Heavy Armor, increase the resources Heavy Attacks restore by 12% 2% per piece of Heavy Armor worn.	Passive
42	Rapid Mending	While wearing 5 or more pieces of Heavy Armor, you increase Healing received by 8% 1% for every 2 pieces of Heavy Armor worn.	Passive
46	Revitalize II	While wearing 5 or more pieces of Heavy Armor, increase the resources Heavy Attacks restore by 25% 4% per piece of Heavy Armor worn.	Passive
50	Rapid Mending II	While wearing 5 or more pieces of Heavy Armor, you increase Healing received by 8% 1% per piece of Heavy Armor worn.	Passive

A logical follow-up to this topic would be Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Equipment Sets in ESO.

Sunshine Daydream's Guide to ESO

Sunshine Daydream

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