Skill Points
At level 50 you will receive the last of your 179 skill points, 690 health and the last of your 890 Stamina/Magicka. You can reset your skill points and adjust your Stamina/Magicka at any time, with a varying cost of gems up to level 50 when it costs 456 to reset.
Perks
Without doubt the most important perk is Enchantment Synergy and you can only allocate 2 points, but you have the possibility to add 5 more via your necklace. This perk multiplies all matching enchantments by up to 25%. This can increase your health, damage and defences, effectively strengthening every aspect of your character, hence its importance.
For example, if you have 2 (or more) pieces of armour enchanted for peerless health, they will get multiplied with the ES factor, if they have a matched secondary, for example Slash resist, that will get multiplied by the ES factor. If you have 2 rings (or neck/weapon/gauntlets) with the same elemental enchant, that will get multiplied by the ES factor, similarly if the have the same secondary, for example Physical Damage on Condition (PDOC), that will get multiplied. The same is true for ALL main enchants and ALL secondaries if you have 2 or more of the same. This can increase your health by 25%, your elemental damage by 25%, you damage bonuses by 25%, resistances by 25%, shorten condition by 25%, etc.
For 2 items this is significant boost, but once you start to get 3 or 4, it really starts to add up to a lot. That is why the higher level players do so much damage so quickly. For example, if a character has 4 x PDOC and 4 x EDIR, 3 health enchanted armour and double residence secondaries, this means they can do more than double the normal physical AND elemental damage, their health is over 3000 in the arena, and although armour is rated at 1000, but with resistances is the equivalent to 1400.
Maximum Power (MP) is a very useful perk, providing a boost to your very first spell in any round, such as Resist Elements (RE) or an attacking spell. Note many players use lightning bolt (LB) quickly at the beginning of a round to zap your Magicka pool and remove the benefit of MP.
Most people recommend maxing out your elemental perks (Fire, Frost, Shock and Poison). One potential exception is the second Shock point, where the cost of 5 skill points is high and many believe it is not worth it.
You will need advanced tempering on 3 to make end game weapons.
Most people believe Load Bearer is a poor place to spend skill points, and you are better off spending gems to increase you inventory capacity, however, you will need to spend at least 1 skill point on Load Bearer to enable Matched Set which can be useful by increasing your armour rating.
You should max out your weapons style, Armsman (versatile weapons), Barbarian (heavy weapons), scout (small weapons).
The usefulness of Willpower, Elemental Protection and Combat Focus will depend on your style.
Healing Surge and Mettle are seen as poor value for the arena, but the PvE game is helped by Healing Surge, so you may want to enable it early on, then abandon it with a reset when you focus becomes the arena. Mettle can be useful if you have build structured towards Reckless Fury.
Spells
Spells have an initial cooldown period from 0.5 to 10 seconds, and you must wait for this before your first cast. The buttons will be greyed out during the cool down period (filling with colour until the cooldown period ends) and light up when they are active (and you have enough Magicka to cast). They have a casting time from instant to 1.5 seconds and you cannot do anything during the casting time, because if you touch the screen (or button) it with break the cast, the spell will not become active, but the Magicka will have been spent. Lastly there is a cooldown period from 0.5 to 10 seconds before the spell can be cast again.
Below is an example of casting the Resist Elements spell and shows the casting time, spell effect animation, both start and finish and the duration of the spell.
The focus of defensive spells is to avoid incapacitation (being stunned or paralysed), avoid or slow conditioning and reduce elemental damage.
Ward - Lv 1.
This spell negates any excess damage from the attack that destroys it (even at level 1). This is the important utility of the spell. It also increases AR and reduces Elemental damage. It can be useful vs elemental weapon attacks in addition to negating big spells like Ice Spike (IS) and Paralyse.
Absorb - Lv 1.
This spell blocks status effects, for example it will prevent a paralyse spell from paralysing or a stagger bash from stunning (even at Lv1). This is the important utility of the spell as it is very cheap to use and may be able to be used multiple times in a round.
Resist Elements - Lv 4-5.
At this level it resists most weapon elemental damage and helps prevent conditioning. Combined with spell resistance and a high block it will also prevent almost all IS and Para spells.
Blizzard Armour - Lv1.
This spell will half the damage from an attack including the attack that breaks it. It will half each component of the attack (for example half the physical and half the elemental damage) and importantly it is applied before all resistances.
The focus of offensive spell casting should be to condition your opponent, enabling PDOC and EDOC bonuses to be applied during subsequent attacks.
Ice spike (IS)- Lv 8-14.
You are aiming to 'stun' the opponent so you need to overcome resistances to deliver enough damage.
Frostbite (FB) - Lv 5-16.
At level 5 this spell will condition the opponent if you have 3 or more EDIR bonuses. It becomes expensive to cast at higher levels. It also provides increased resistances to physical damage.
Lightning Bolt (LB) - Lv 6-16.
The higher level the better, but even a lower levels LB has utility, as it will negate the Maximum Power perk effect. A decent level LB used immediately will prevent a lot of warriors from casting RE. This is a cheap spell to cast, and it has a very quick cool-down. It can be used to bait the opponent into your block. At a very high level and combined with a high level of Max Power it is possible to immediately condition your opponent at the start of the match.
Delayed Lightning Bolt (DLB) - Lv 7-10.
You are aiming to condition and drain you opponent with this spell and so it needs a reasonably high level to ensure this. Higher levels are viable if you want to do more damage. DLB is a very useful spell vs mages since it will overcome resistances from their Resist Elements spell and do enough damage to condition.
Thunderstorm (TS) - Lv 1-9.
This spell gets expensive at higher levels but can still be effective at lower levels particularly with fortify shock. Higher levels are usable so long as you cast early in the match and don't expect to cast it twice.
Fireball (FB) - Lv 6-16.
You should generally aim to condition the opponent with this spell, so higher levels are better. This is a cheap spell to cast.
Wall of Fire (WoF)- Lv 1-6.
This spell gets expensive at higher levels but can still be effective at lower levels. If your opponent sees a wall of fire they may not attack, making even Lv1 viable. Higher levels are usable so long as you cast early in the match and don't expect to cast it twice.
Consuming Inferno (CS) - Lv 2-10.
At lower this spell will condition the opponent if you have 3 or more EDIR bonuses. At higher levels the spell becomes too expensive. This spell drains your stamina while you cast it and if you have no stamina, it will drain your health.
Paralyse (Para) - Lv 6-12.
You are aiming to 'paralyse' the opponent so need to overcome resistances to deliver enough damage. Lower levels (e.g Lv6) are also viable Vs opponents not using spell resistance or other poison resistances.
Blind - Lv 4-14.
You are aiming to 'blind' the opponent, so you need to overcome resistances to deliver enough damage.
Poison Cloud - Lv 6-16.
This spell once cast will do its damage over the next 5 seconds. It is a cheap spell to cast even at the higher levels.
Abilities
Abilities have an initial cooldown period from 1.77 to 10.5 seconds, and you must wait for this before your first use. The buttons will be greyed out during the cool down period (filling with colour until the cooldown period ends) and light up when they are active (and you have enough Stamina to use). There is no waiting time, they are all instant use when available. Note, some animations last longer than their action, for example Guardbreaker looks like it is still playing on your opponent’s screen, but you can block, and they will not immediately see the block, as the animation is still playing. Lastly there is a cooldown period from 5.8 to 10.5 seconds before the ability can be used again.
Abilities are generally thought to be optimal at level 1 unless specified in this guide. This is because the damage gained by boosting the ability is not worth the additional stamina cost.
Quick strikes (QS)
Very cheap to use and best at level 1. Great to have as these can still be available to use late in the match after you have been partially ravaged (build dependent).
Piercing Strikes (PS)
These pierce through a bit of resistance and block rating. Some advocate the use of these at Lv4 for the extra damage, alongside a cheap option like quick strikes.
Venom strikes (VS)
These boost any poisons (aversions) you are using in addition to doing some extra damage. Note this ONLY works with aversions (brewed poisons) NOT the Poison element.
Recovery Strikes (RS)
These strikes are expensive but have the added bonus of being available to use when you are stunned (i.e. you use them to recover from a stun). It can therefore be viable to deliberately hit a high block and then use recovery strikes. Be aware that this ability has many bugs, it can cancel other abilities and cause ghost swings where you do no damage. These issues can be avoided with good timing (i.e. when you press the RS button).
Dodges
Not massively useful in arena (they will often take too much damage during the dodge) but they can be useful. They can be used to avoid paralyse and ice spike effects. Focussing dodge is great for timing up cool-downs, meaning your abilities and spells will be available sooner. This is particularly useful with Reckless Fury. Adrenaline dodge can be useful for PvE.
Power attacks (general) - These abilities are often used to hide a block... the animation is longer than the ability itself so people will often hit into it because it looks like the attack is in progress, but actually the user is already blocking.
Power attack
Cheap and powerful but only really viable for a 2H build. Other abilities have better utility.
Skullcrusher
More powerful version of power attack.
Guardbreaker (GB)
More powerful again than Skullcrusher, this ability will stun anyone who is blocking. Very useful vs opponents who hide behind their shield a lot.
Indomitable Smash
No extra damage but while being used it raises your resistances to very high levels, making you almost impervious to damage. As a result, this ability can be used in response to an ice spike or paralyse spell.
Bashes (general) - All bashes come with a high block built in at the start (for 0.5s) that will stun your opponent if they are attacking manually. To land any bash the opponent must not be blocking at the moment the bash lands
Shield Bash
This bash can be useful if well timed so that you stun the opponent with the high block and then land the bash.
Harrying Bash
Very useful bash that is ideal at Lv4. At Lv4 it will prevent your opponent using spells or abilities for 6 seconds. This is very useful vs any players who rely on abilities a lot. It can also be used to prevent Ward/RE/Absorb being cast so that you can use and land a big spell like paralyse.
Staggering Bash
Very useful bash that stops your opponent from attacking by staggering them. Some people use it at higher levels to increase the duration of the stun (e.g. level 5) in order to land more than one hit.
Reflecting Bash
Generally thought to be less useful for arena due to high points and stamina cost and SB/HB being more useful, this bash reflects damage back at the caster.
Reckless Fury (RF)
The ultimate weapon if you can pull it off. RF will make you invulnerable for 5 seconds (at Lv1). It has a long initial cooldown (10.5 seconds) and subsequent cooldown (10.5 seconds) so it is best paired with Focussing Dodge to reduce this cool-down time (otherwise you will be dead before you can use it). During use, in addition to being invulnerable to dying you cannot be blocked, and you cannot use spells or abilities. The typical approach once you fire it off is to hit your opponent until they die. The duration of RF is increased by the Mettle perk if you are in the critical health range.
Races
At the beginning of the game, you need to choose you character’s race. However, at this early stage you have no real idea of what type of race would benefit your character, as you have worked out a play style. Thankfully you can change your character’s race and look at any time by visiting Theodor Gorlash. You will find him waiting at the top left of the stairs to the left from your main gate.
Note that your appearance, including height and size etc. have no effect on your character’s performance, these are cosmetic only.
The racial effects are relatively small, but as you progress in the arena, all the small differences start to add up. There are no real hard and fast rules as to what character to choose, most styles can work well with several races, but you should focus on something that helps your strengths. For example, there is little point being a Nord which enhances heavy weapons by 5% if you are using small weapons. Consequently most 2 handers are Nords and most small weapons users are Argonians, but not all. Similarly, if you are a mage, you will want something that increases Magicka regen, increases spell damage or increases your weapon style etc.
Here are some suggested options and notes below. If you want some feedback on races and what works best, ask in Discord when people who have experimented with many races can answer your questions and offer recommendations.
