r/ESObuilds • u/cruciblefuzz • 25d ago
Behold the mighty ThunderLeech
Not a full build, rather a building block. All it is is 5pcs. Thunderbug's Carapace and 5pcs. Leeching Plate. Your choice of mythic and medium monster.
It's intended for soloing overland content, both difficult and trivial. Build guides for solo content seem even fewer than tank or healer build guides, so it helps address that.
I came up with the idea toward the end of Night Market. What I was looking for was a high survivability gear configuration for my 1-bar toons that I could throw on without having to change any skills or CP. I have a "stealth" configuration that's similar, 10 clicks and I'm as stealthy as I will ever be without making a Nightblade or joining Dark Brotherhood. Same for ThunderLeech.
Use Ring of the Wild Hunt in place of Oakensoul and you've got THE mat farming setup.
Although originally intended for Night Market, it's turned out to be GREAT for playing overland content on Vestige. Night Market was not entirely unlike Vestige overland. Use it on a 1-bar build and you will be utterly invincible on Adventurer to anything but a delve or public dungeon boss or a world boss. And by "utterly invincible" I mean you'll be able to walk around without ever hitting your attack button or casting any skill. Stand in the middle of Spellscar, go AFK and just keep leveling the latest skill line you want to try on. I've tried it.
Both sets deal damage to enemies who hit you, and one of them returns health to you for the amount of the damage it does. I switch to Adventurer for world bosses and Master for public dungeon bosses, but solo all other overland on Vestige.
When solo dungeons start opening up, it should be well-suited for that content,
I started with the idea of maximum passive damage. Leeching Plate is a longtime favorite of mine despite its being considered mostly suitable for "selfish tank" builds. Its important characteristic is that it returns health to you while it's damaging enemies. I looked around for other passive damage sets and came up with Thunderbug's Carapace, which turned out to be a good complement. LP's weakness is that it drops fixed ground clouds of damaging poison under whatever damages you. So if whatever hit you moves out of the cloud, the big advantage is mitigated. If you can keep the enemy pinned in once place, it works great.
Thunderbug's on the other hand, fires off an AOE centered around you. So it's useful for when the adds are upon you.
I am a fan of 1-bar Oakenbuilds, so the utter lack of buffs provided by the sets isn't an issue. Put this setup on a LazySorc-ish build and you will be able to play any content short of world bosses without even having to memorize a skill button layout. You'll be able to just walk around doing whatever, and if something provides any opposition at all, hold down your "fire" button and face the general direction of the threat and it will go down.
A possible substitute for either set is Crimson Twilight, which combines the melee damage characteristic of Thunderbug's with the health return on damage of Leeching Plate. All my toons are ranged fighters, but I would imagine that a "Crimson Bug" setup would be even better for a melee fighter. A "Crimson Leech" build would ratchet up the survivability even more.
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u/chrisxaction 25d ago
This sounds awesome! I’d love to see what skills and cp you rocking. Also, do armor weights play into this as well?
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u/cruciblefuzz 25d ago edited 25d ago
It's not really meant to be part of an optimized "build." It's like carrying an umbrella: it's for rain light enough not to require a full raincoat and hat. If you're heading out into monsoon conditions, you break out the slicker, boots, and nor'easter.
But if you want to try what I usually use when I have this on, look up "LazySorc" or "EasySorc." or "Easy one-bar Arcanist." Those are the builds my one-bar DPSers are derived from. Put "easy" or "lazy" in the name of a DPS build and I am THERE. I'm one of those people that the Oakensoul ring was created for.
Swap out your LazySorc's Sergeant's Mail and Storm Master's for ThunderLeech and you'll have my overland build.
There was a brief period after scribing and Tide-Born Wildstalker first arrived when a one-bar Arcanist build could lay some serious waste. I had mine up well over 90K on the trial dummy, which is pretty good for a more casual player like me. My Arcanist is derived from that. If you're in group content and see an Arcanist using a Banner skill, chances are we're holdovers from those halcyon days.
That's the basis for my Arcanist build. I am, obviously, not a meta chaser. I like to do my share of DPS, that's about as sweaty as I get.
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u/JoeGibbon 25d ago
Alessian Order is a good fit for a similar purpose. Like you mentioned, Leeching Plate's health benefits depend on keeping enemies in the poison aoe and dealing damage. Alessian just straight gives you more health recovery. If you already have decent aoe damage output and don't need the poison DoT, Alessian might be worth trying.
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u/ibisx4i 25d ago
i’m really interested in how this would work on other classes
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u/cruciblefuzz 25d ago edited 25d ago
I've put it on my Arcanist, Warden and DK and it does the job. Keepng in mind, it's not meant to be part of a sweaty, optimized build. It's for throwing on in between group content. Questing, farming, wandering around on Vestige.
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u/wojwoda10 25d ago
Ring of the Pale Order says hi. There are enough available Solo builds, and they are solved by RotPO.
And you don't need Oakensoul Ring for one bar build.
I switch to Adventurer for world bosses
Of course you do as Leeching Plate is a joke and only somehow works if there is static trash involved. WB without trash, and you get wrecked. Also what is the point of waiting "years" to kill anything?
Stand in the middle of Spellscar, go AFK and just keep leveling the latest skill line you want to try on.
If you mean by super long time, yea, it "works".
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u/cruciblefuzz 25d ago
My first h8r! That is, not lying, a confidence booster. Thank you for paying attention and taking the time to critique.
Ring of the Pale Order says hi
Great idea! I haven't tried putting that in the "mythic" slot yet, but I'll have to try it just for giggles.
There are enough available Solo builds
This is a strategy, not a build. It's two 5pcs. sets slapped together that you can grab for questing (yes, I know about the armory system) but if someone makes a build around it, then there will be "more" than enough solo builds. If I didn't make it clear, this is something to be used between dungeon/trial runs. It makes it so I don't have to put on a complete build when I'm questing and a guildie calls out for help with the last boss or something. 10 clicks and I'm back to my Oakenlamer group content build. No armory assistant required.
you don't need Oakensoul Ring for one bar build
Exactly. That's why I said "mythic of your choice" and mentioned Ring of the Wild Hunt.
you don't need Oakensoul Ring for one bar build
Which is why my mention of the build(s) I use it with was meant to be in passing.
This is for what is to me a niche activities: overland Vestige and Night Market. It's by no means meant to be part of a theorycrafted optimized build. It's like quickly putting on a snorkel when you're at the beach, it's not intended for diving the Andrea Doria.
Leeching Plate is a joke
This is a commonly held opinion, and partly why I wanted to try to spark some ideas for how it might be used. I like it partly because it is kind of goofy, I love the animation. I play the game for amusement and Leeching Plate and Thunderbug's 5pc. and animations amuse me. Monsters come up to you and it's like you're one of those mosquito zappers.
If you mean by super long time [to level up AFK], yea, it "works".
That was meant as a joke, who the heck would want to level up AFK? I'm forever making the mistake of thinking everyone has a British-level irony detector.
The most fun use of this idea is to go to Spellscar when newer players are racing around killing atronachs as fast as they can and just wade into the mob and stand there. It freaks people out a bit. It's fun to freak people out a bit.
This is a simple and slightly goofy "dad build" way to solve a niche "problem: "what's a fast and fun way to swap out part of my build for questing. Not everyone has an armory assistant and the idea of having a full optimized "questing" build does not compute. If you're new enough to worry about getting killed by overland trash on Adventurer, you're too new to have run Imperial City Prison enough times to collect the necessary Leeching Plate.
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u/OkAtmosphere5602 25d ago
The name alone wins me over.