Do certain sets not apply in raids if they're popular on dummies? Are dummies the only thing PvE'rs should focus on? A lot of you guys have seen in Discords or guild chats where people say you are required to hit a certain minimum of DPS yet there are still a lot of misconceptions regarding what kind of dummies you need to practice on or if they're even needed at all.
A player trying to get into endgame may ask "What's all the hubbub over hitting something in a static environment? Aren't mechanics more important?"
For a lot of teams and guilds, they may not have a lot of time taking in every interested person or applicant for each raid and testing them out. People asking for "DPS parses" is another way of them asking "Do you know how to do your rotation?", "Are you familiar with your class?", etc.
Funnily enough, the top endgame scorepushing guilds don't care as much about dummy parses as most guilds do as they will usually try people out in raids and see for themselves whether they want a person or not as they may have more time, either way though you also can't forget about the social aspect where people who know each other will often vouch for one another!
Does this mean dummies are useless? Not at all! Dummies, or in this case a specific dummy, are still a great way of getting your baseline number by yourself and if you can't hit a certain threshold in a static environment you most likely won't expect to hit that threshold or whatever you're hitting on the dummy in a much more dynamic environment where mechanics and incoming damage need to be taken care of at the same time as you deal damage.
If you guys would like to check out endgame content creators who show you dummy parses and also use them to analyze DPS, check out:
Also don't worry about killing the dummies, they will respawn shortly after you finish killing them!
Target Skeleton Dummies
The Target Skeleton practice dummies that can also be in the form of an Argonian or Khajiit skeleton above are dummies that have 3,007,501 Health, these dummies were the first iteration of target dummies that came out after the Homestead patch in the year 2017. These were meant to replace the typical DPS tests players had to do in groups to test one person by going into Spindleclutch or Wayrest and having that one person parse on the Bloodspawn or Slimecraw bosses.
These dummies do not have any buffs or debuffs already applied onto them which means the tester must apply it themselves (which may lead to certain classes having advantages over others if you want to make comparisons) or have somebody buff/debuff for you.
The 3 million health dummies are no longer accepted as standard for single target DPS parses by all endgame guilds.
The dummies in the picture above are the 6,015,002 Health target practice dummies in their multiple forms whether it's a Bone Goliath, a Frost Atronach or a Minotaur Handler. Just like their 3 million health dummy counterparts, these dummies were meant to replace the dungeon boss DPS parsing and these became quite popular for sometime after the Homestead patch in 2017 as they lasted longer and gave more accurate baselines for a person's DPS.
However just like the 3 million health dummies, these dummies do not have any buffs or debuffs already applied onto them which means the tester must apply it themselves (which may lead to certain classes having advantages over others if you want to make comparisons) or have somebody buff/debuff for you.
The 6 million health dummies are no longer accepted as standard for DPS parses by all endgame guilds.
Clockwork City DLC Dummy
One special dummy that many people probably want to see mentioned is the Precursor Maker. This dummy has 321,812 Health and will often talk when he gets hit, killed or gets out of combat should you stop hitting them. Quirky dialogue can include the following:
"Whatever are you doing?"
"Ouch!"
"I can feel pain you know!"
"I'm not configured for combat."
"Forgive me, Lord Sotha Sil."
"I must say, your aim is definitely improving."
"Please be more careful in the future."
You can obtain this dummy once per character by doing the Clockwork City DLC quest "The Precursor". Due to its low resistances and extremely low health, this dummy is not fit for DPS testing however it can be used to quickly generate ultimate and build up your ultimate for your next parse without touching other dummies that you could save untouched for other players in a guild hall.
Centurion Dummies
The Target Centurion Dummies have two versions: Robust and Dwarf-Brass. Robust Refabricated Centurions have 51,747,104 Health while the regular Dwarf-Brass Centurions have 25,873,548 Health.
The Dwarf-Brass Centurion was meant to replace the normal Trial DPS tests (typically the Lightning Storm Atronach in normal Aetherian Archive instances) where people would bring about three DPS players who would do their rotations simultaneously while a healer and tank provided the typical raid buffs such as Minor Vulnerability, Major Force, Infused Crusher, Alkosh and Major Courage.
The Robust Refabricated Centurions have been sometimes used by entire raid teams (12 people) practicing their rotations, buff uptimes and debuff uptimes. These tests however are quite unheard of and quite rare especially these days when you can parse on the next dummy alone and without scheduling a virtual raid.
Neither of these dummies are accepted as standard DPS parses by all endgame guilds.
Raid Dummy
The Target Iron Atronach Dummy or more commonly referred to by many players as the "raid dummy" has 21,002,944 Health. Unlike every other dummy mentioned on this guide, the raid dummy actually does offer buffs and debuffs to anyone engaged in combat with it making it ideal for people to test their baseline DPS by themselves:
Buffs
- Aggressive Horn
- Major Force
- Hircine's Veneer
- Worm's Raiment
- Major Courage
- Major Slayer
- Minor Courage
- Minor Brutality
- Minor Savagery
- Minor Prophecy
- Minor Sorcery
- Minor Berserk
- Minor Toughness
- A Blessed Shard Synergy every ~20 seconds.
Debuffs
- Major Breach
- Minor Breach
- Minor Vulnerability
- Major Vulnerability
- Major Slayer
- Infused Crusher
- Minor Magickasteal
- Linebreaker/Alkosh (6000 Penetration)
- Minor Brittle
- Engulfing Flames (6%)
- Off Balance (still on cooldown)
- Elemental Catalyst / 15% Critical Damage Buff
As of Update 35 (Lost Depths), the amount of Penetration you need for the raid dummy is: 470.
17,030 Penetration is given from the dummy alone and 700 from your Champion Points passive; maximum amount of Penetration needed is 18,200.
Due to the fact that the raid dummy has no bias as to whether your class has an innate source of Major Fracture, Minor Prophecy or whatever buff and that you don't need to change your bars to put on a sustain skill you would never cast in a raid anyway (such as Elemental Drain) and the fact that you can practice on your own without requiring assistance has made the raid dummy the most standard dummy to use for all endgame PvE players.
Many clueless individuals have unfortunately declared that this dummy does not provide good baselines as it's too "cheesey" by offering too many buffs and debuffs or because people switch to recovery/max stat foods to parse on it (they have to as such foods actually simulate raid sustain).
However as one can note, you will actually even gain MORE buffs and debuffs in actual raids such as reliable sources of Major Slayer, Major Vulnerability, Martial Knowledge, Minor Courage, Z'en's Redress and more in decently organized raid groups. Indeed, the raid dummy often shows the baselines but not the max ceiling of your DPS.
This dummy can certainly be daunting to many newer players in terms of spending some time practicing on it but it will certainly be worth it and go a long way. Many people have come to ESOU's Discord to ask us how one could "translate" what they get on a 6 million health dummy to a 21 million health dummy; it's hard to do this "translation" because it involves a fair amount of variables, it's simply easier to practice on the raid dummy.
With all this being said, raid dummies are often used to compare Class A to Class B though these comparisons aren't always hugely accurate particularly when it comes to individual player skill and group capability which can see a closing of the gap in numbers between different classes.
There can certainly be a lot of frustrations as you practice, we would definitely recommend not parsing for too long on this dummy for long, extended amounts of time. Take a break, do something else, come back later and go at it again. Don't stress out too much if you're trying to hit a certain number, the dummy parses aren't the end all be all, these dummies are to provide a baseline and give you a lot of practice, that's all!
The Harrowing Reaper (Raid Dummy)
The Harrowing Reaper, Trial Dummy was released during the last week of Update 29 (Flames of Ambition DLC). The only differences between the Harrowing Reaper and the Iron Atronach is their hitboxes.
The hitbox of the Harrowing Reaper is noticeably bigger than the Iron Atronach which means skills like Mystic Orb will get more ticks on the Reaper than the Iron Atronach.
For example: Mystic Orb can get 19 ticks on the Iron Atronach while hitting 21 ticks on the Harrowing Reaper.
This new dummy could be used to compare numbers for larger bosses such as Saint Olms or the Dragon bosses of Sunspire as they also have similarly large hitboxes that are great for Orbs.