Magicka DK 5Heavy like Skaffa's build?

Vynist

Hey all!

I am recently returning after not playing for about 4 months. I played Templar since forever, but want to try something else now.

Currently I am lvling my v11 magicka DK. Now now, I know most people say they aren't too good right now but that's fine. I like playing underdog classes and making something work.

When I left, I always enjoyed watching Skaffa kill like 10 people on his 5 heavy, vamp, magicka DK, and I will be trying this out myself now.

- Can this build still work?
- What are some good sets/ideas to use? Light, heavy, mix of both?
- I hate grinding for Undaunted, and I only have enough money to fund v15, am I screwed, or can I make it work with v15 purples?

Regardless if it effective or not, I still want to try to make something work.

Any ideas, please feel free to share!

NOTE: Please do not let this conversation devolve into a strong/weak class debate. I just would like some ideas to make a good DK build

Alucardo

Magicka DK isn't what it used to be, but I've still seen some take on multiple players. Granted these players were terrible though. It's hard for any class these days to defeat multiple people.
If you want to run full heavy, I'd look at something with magicka sustain and spell power

5 pc Kagrenac's - http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Kagrenac's+Hope+Set
4 pc Magnus (2 gear, and 2 on sword and shield) - http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Magnus'+Gift+Set

I think a lot of people usually go 2 heavy so they can still make use of the light armour bonuses. If you want to go this route, go heavy on your chest and legs.
Sword and shield is useful for invasion (gap closer), more mitigation and getting that extra 4 pc of Magnus.

Because the heal from dragon blood is halved in cyro now I can see the appeal of being a Vampire for devouring swarm, but you'll need to keep in mind EVERYONE is running camo hunter these days, so you're not going to last long. A lot of my friends gave up Vampirism because of this.

Vynist

@Alucardo

Thanks for the gear suggestions! I was definitely leaning towards sets like that. Still can't make up my mind between 5H/2L or 2H/5L, I guess I will have to experiment and see what works for me. That would also depend if I'm running group or solo right? I'm assuming Heavy is better for solo and Light is better for group?

And yeah what is going on with camo hunter? I am a vamp on my templar and it seems camo hunter procs kill me soooo much more often now.

Alucardo

Vynist wrote: »

@Alucardo

Thanks for the gear suggestions! I was definitely leaning towards sets like that. Still can't make up my mind between 5H/2L or 2H/5L, I guess I will have to experiment and see what works for me. That would also depend if I'm running group or solo right? I'm assuming Heavy is better for solo and Light is better for group?

And yeah what is going on with camo hunter? I am a vamp on my templar and it seems camo hunter procs kill me soooo much more often now.

I like to have as much sustain as possible when doing solo play, so would generally lean towards 5L/2H. In a group it's easier to save your resources. If you can get enough sustain with 5H, then roll with that, because you'll need the extra mitigation on a mag DK sadly. Hoping they get a buff really soon.
With camo hunter, the more people post about how broken it is and the damage you can achieve on vamps with it, the more others adapt the skill. Not sure if it's actually broken, but with camo and dawnbreaker, it makes Vampires super squishy. It's almost not worth it any more, in PVP at least.

Vynist

Alucardo wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

@Alucardo

Thanks for the gear suggestions! I was definitely leaning towards sets like that. Still can't make up my mind between 5H/2L or 2H/5L, I guess I will have to experiment and see what works for me. That would also depend if I'm running group or solo right? I'm assuming Heavy is better for solo and Light is better for group?

And yeah what is going on with camo hunter? I am a vamp on my templar and it seems camo hunter procs kill me soooo much more often now.

I like to have as much sustain as possible when doing solo play, so would generally lean towards 5L/2H. In a group it's easier to save your resources. If you can get enough sustain with 5H, then roll with that, because you'll need the extra mitigation on a mag DK sadly. Hoping they get a buff really soon.
With camo hunter, the more people post about how broken it is and the damage you can achieve on vamps with it, the more others adapt the skill. Not sure if it's actually broken, but with camo and dawnbreaker, it makes Vampires super squishy. It's almost not worth it any more, in PVP at least.

Thanks for the info! And it would seriously be so weird to drop vamp at this point, as I am vamp on all my chars lol. But with dawnbreakers dropping everywhere, camo hunters proccing, and nerfed-mist-form, I might have to consider it

What would a DK do for mobility instead of mist form?

Alucardo

Vynist wrote: »

What would a DK do for mobility instead of mist form?

You really have no other option but speed pots
Etaniel runs vamp on his DK still, and he does really well. Check out some of his stuff. It's well impressive!

Alucardo

The general idea though is that DKs shouldn't need mobility. They're supposed to hold their ground, but in its current state, they can't really do that (unless you're fighting potatoes). There's been a lot of threads with ideas to help make them the tanks they're supposed to be, so hopefully ZOS will listen and give them a well needed buff.

Lexxypwns

How many CP do you have?

You could run 4 Elf Bane 5 Kag's 3 willpower jewelry with spell dam enchants OR like 5 kags 3 archmage 1 Kena Or 5 kags 2 torugs 1 kena 1 bloodspawn(I'll explain this below)

I'd highly encourage you to run DW as opposed to SnB if you can get used to not having a gap closer, it requires better positioning, but most people just charge you when they see you anyway and you've got scales for the ones that don't. If you're going to run DW you can run quick cloak(bloodspawn setup here for stam sustain) for mobility and a nice defensive buff that applies to tons of skills since AoE is such a large category

Just don't run any damage on your resto staff bar and you will negate not having your kag's 5 pc on that bar.

Also, definitely don't go vamp unless you're ok with getting 1 shot or are willing to build around not being one shot as a vamp(radiant magelight)

Vynist

Alucardo wrote: »

The general idea though is that DKs shouldn't need mobility. They're supposed to hold their ground, but in its current state, they can't really do that (unless you're fighting potatoes). There's been a lot of threads with ideas to help make them the tanks they're supposed to be, so hopefully ZOS will listen and give them a well needed buff.

Hmmm okay yeah that makes sense. Well, looks like my initial idea of making a good DK build will be much harder than anticipated lol. That's fine though, as I said in OP, I enjoy running underdog builds till I find something that works. I did that with templar (before IC update) and got pretty good, hopefully I can work something out with DK.

Vynist

Lexxypwns wrote: »

How many CP do you have?

You could run 4 Elf Bane 5 Kag's 3 willpower jewelry with spell dam enchants OR like 5 kags 3 archmage 1 Kena

I'd highly encourage you to run DW as opposed to SnB if you can get used to not having a gap closer, it requires better positioning, but most people just charge you when they see you anyway and you've got scales for the ones that don't

Just don't run any damage on your resto staff bar and you will negate not having your kag's 5 pc on that bar.

Also, definitely don't go vamp unless you're ok with getting 1 shot or are willing to build around not being one shot as a vamp(radiant magelight)

I am running around 248-ish CP. Not the best I know.

And great idea about DW! You're right about the gap closing and scales too, didn't consider that. Instead of gap closing, I could use Fossilize with DW right?

I was initially thinking S&B because that's what Skaffa was running, but that was before the stam regen blocking change. How important is blocking in (a.) 1v1 and also in (b.) open world 1vX?

Lexxypwns

Vynist wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

How many CP do you have?

You could run 4 Elf Bane 5 Kag's 3 willpower jewelry with spell dam enchants OR like 5 kags 3 archmage 1 Kena

I'd highly encourage you to run DW as opposed to SnB if you can get used to not having a gap closer, it requires better positioning, but most people just charge you when they see you anyway and you've got scales for the ones that don't

Just don't run any damage on your resto staff bar and you will negate not having your kag's 5 pc on that bar.

Also, definitely don't go vamp unless you're ok with getting 1 shot or are willing to build around not being one shot as a vamp(radiant magelight)

I am running around 248-ish CP. Not the best I know.

And great idea about DW! You're right about the gap closing and scales too, didn't consider that. Instead of gap closing, I could use Fossilize with DW right?

I was initially thinking S&B because that's what Skaffa was running, but that was before the stam regen blocking change. How important is blocking in (a.) 1v1 and also in (b.) open world 1vX?

Look, 5 heavy isn't gonna be as good as 5 light, but if you want to do it then that's probably the best setup since you'll actually get damage, sustain may be a problem though, I'd say its pretty likely considering the lack of CP you have.

As far as blocking, its super situational, basically if I'm going to die if I don't block something, I block it, otherwise I find other ways to deal with damage, you're going to have to nut hug a lot of rocks for LoS though.

Joy_Division

If you left before the IC blocking changes, you are going to be in a rude awakening real quick if you try to use your stamina gap-closing and blocking on a magicka build.

To answer some of your questions:

• Camouflaged hunter will proc multiple times from stealth (disregard the tooltip cooldown, it's wrong). You will take 7-8k hits just from camo hunter. Any stam DK that copied Alcast's build and the usual fear ambush stealth NB will one-shot you. Don't expect Heavy armor to save you from the NBs.
• VR15 purple armor isn't bad, though you should be aware the gap between gold VR16 and VR15 stuff is noticeably larger than the old V14 to VR13 comparison. You do, however, need gold VR16 weapons to compete.
• You are stepping into something far greater than "templar underdogs pre-IC."
• The other thing IC did was reduce damage/healing by an additional 30%. This means PvP is so burst oriented otherwise you will never kill your opponent. You already have little as a DK and if you think about going heavy armor, you will have less and hurt your sustain. This pushes you toward Light, but you have no mobility and now you old source of defense (blocking) has been compromised.
• You are going to need a resto staff to keep yourself alive.

DKs didn't reroll stam because it was the flavor of the month. They went stam because it's the only way to compete against players who are just as skilled as you. As a stam DK, you have an excellent magicka dump (scales), a physical ultimate that is devastating with a real weapon (Leap, 2-hander), and are not handicapped by equipped a terrible resto staff (vigor, rally).

BuggeX

dont recraft to much, in 1-2mounths will the next dlc Change anything aigan.

Vynist

@Joy_Division
@Lexxypwns

Thanks for the info! I will definitely be using this information as I move forward

Vynist

BuggeX wrote: »

dont recraft to much, in 1-2mounths will the next dlc Change anything aigan.

True enough, but the overall sets shouldn't change too much, right?

Alucardo

Vynist wrote: »

True enough, but the overall sets shouldn't change too much, right?

Naw, the sets listed in this thread are in a pretty good place and I don't foresee them getting nerfed in any way. With all the crying Kags might lose its resurrection bonus or something, but that won't affect you as a mag DK.
@Joy_Division pointed something out pretty important, use a resto staff on your buff bar or something. Blessing of Restoration heals pretty well, especially with Igneous up. You'll want as much heals as possible with the current damage being dished out these days

Vynist

Alucardo wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

True enough, but the overall sets shouldn't change too much, right?

Naw, the sets listed in this thread are in a pretty good place and I don't foresee them getting nerfed in any way. With all the crying Kags might lose its resurrection bonus or something, but that won't affect you as a mag DK.
@Joy_Division pointed something out pretty important, use a resto staff on your buff bar or something. Blessing of Restoration heals pretty well, especially with Igneous up. You'll want as much heals as possible with the current damage being dished out these days

On your damage comment, ohmyword yeah it's so weird!

I thought they reduced the pvp damage, but it seems burst is higher than before. I seriously don't get it lol

Alucardo

Vynist wrote: »

On your damage comment, ohmyword yeah it's so weird!

I thought they reduced the pvp damage, but it seems burst is higher than before. I seriously don't get it lol

Lol yeah they reduced the damage, then added new sets and jewellery pieces to make up the difference #ZOSLogic

Darnathian

My suggestion. dont spend any real gold on new gear. just make all vet 15 gear. try every thing out again and get a feel for the game. finish leveling your toon while waiting for this balancing patch and start saving mats. we have zero clue at this point whats coming.

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

Lexxypwns

Darnathian wrote: »

My suggestion. dont spend any real gold on new gear. just make all vet 15 gear. try every thing out again and get a feel for the game. finish leveling your toon while waiting for this balancing patch and start saving mats. we have zero clue at this point whats coming.

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

This is the best advice unless you just have millions of gold lying around

Lyzaaa

Darnathian wrote: »

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

Skaffa is alive just on EU now

Vynist

Darnathian wrote: »

My suggestion. dont spend any real gold on new gear. just make all vet 15 gear. try every thing out again and get a feel for the game. finish leveling your toon while waiting for this balancing patch and start saving mats. we have zero clue at this point whats coming.

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

Skaffa never released his build, but I know what he was running because I asked his friend, Lisbette (can't remember the spelling), and she told me. I think he got mad at her for that lol.

AverageJo3Gam3r

Vynist wrote: »

Darnathian wrote: »

My suggestion. dont spend any real gold on new gear. just make all vet 15 gear. try every thing out again and get a feel for the game. finish leveling your toon while waiting for this balancing patch and start saving mats. we have zero clue at this point whats coming.

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

Skaffa never released his build, but I know what he was running because I asked his friend, Lisbette (can't remember the spelling), and she told me. I think he got mad at her for that lol.

I don't get that. It's not like a build is nuclear launch codes. Chill out people.

Darnathian

Vynist wrote: »

Darnathian wrote: »

My suggestion. dont spend any real gold on new gear. just make all vet 15 gear. try every thing out again and get a feel for the game. finish leveling your toon while waiting for this balancing patch and start saving mats. we have zero clue at this point whats coming.

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

Skaffa never released his build, but I know what he was running because I asked his friend, Lisbette (can't remember the spelling), and she told me. I think he got mad at her for that lol.

well. what was it? its obselete now anyways. just curious

Vynist

Darnathian wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Darnathian wrote: »

My suggestion. dont spend any real gold on new gear. just make all vet 15 gear. try every thing out again and get a feel for the game. finish leveling your toon while waiting for this balancing patch and start saving mats. we have zero clue at this point whats coming.

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

Skaffa never released his build, but I know what he was running because I asked his friend, Lisbette (can't remember the spelling), and she told me. I think he got mad at her for that lol.

well. what was it? its obselete now anyways. just curious

I will try to ask Skaffa because if he's running the same setup I wouldn't want to "publish" it, weird I know. I have pictures of his setup up though so it's the exact thing if I do post it. It was 5H/1M/1L and he ran 30k magicka which was pretty high back then, idk what the equivalent would be now.

Minno

Vynist wrote: »

Darnathian wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Darnathian wrote: »

My suggestion. dont spend any real gold on new gear. just make all vet 15 gear. try every thing out again and get a feel for the game. finish leveling your toon while waiting for this balancing patch and start saving mats. we have zero clue at this point whats coming.

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

Skaffa never released his build, but I know what he was running because I asked his friend, Lisbette (can't remember the spelling), and she told me. I think he got mad at her for that lol.

well. what was it? its obselete now anyways. just curious

I will try to ask Skaffa because if he's running the same setup I wouldn't want to "publish" it, weird I know. I have pictures of his setup up though so it's the exact thing if I do post it. It was 5H/1M/1L and he ran 30k magicka which was pretty high back then, idk what the equivalent would be now.

Won't be hard to keep it in forever. My buddy is working on this build as we reroll DKs. The info is out there regardless.

Vynist

Minno wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Darnathian wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Darnathian wrote: »

My suggestion. dont spend any real gold on new gear. just make all vet 15 gear. try every thing out again and get a feel for the game. finish leveling your toon while waiting for this balancing patch and start saving mats. we have zero clue at this point whats coming.

also i dont think Skaffa is around anymore. might be because they destroyed mag dk. i would be curiius what his build was. but to the best of my knowledge he never released it.

Skaffa never released his build, but I know what he was running because I asked his friend, Lisbette (can't remember the spelling), and she told me. I think he got mad at her for that lol.

well. what was it? its obselete now anyways. just curious

I will try to ask Skaffa because if he's running the same setup I wouldn't want to "publish" it, weird I know. I have pictures of his setup up though so it's the exact thing if I do post it. It was 5H/1M/1L and he ran 30k magicka which was pretty high back then, idk what the equivalent would be now.

Won't be hard to keep it in forever. My buddy is working on this build as we reroll DKs. The info is out there regardless.

Yeah I understand that. I am lvling my DK which is v12 and despite what people say about heavy armor, I still want to make a heavy armor magicka DK lol.

Asmael

Currently rolling a mag DK with the intent to rock the world (read that as "I'm not rerolling another class for vet anytime soon"), quite satisfied with it right now, and going a completely different direction. Note that what's below is what I intend to roll, so I didn't quite get to test the final version, since I'm still trying out a few things.

When it comes to gear, I intend to roll:
- 1x Molag Kena
- 1x Bloodspawn
- 5x kagrenac's hope
- 3x Willpower
- 2x Endurance

Running 5 lights, 1 heavy, 1 medium (to get extra stats from Undaunted Mettle).

I'm using food buff (mag / health) , all attribute points into magicka.

The interesting part is survivability: I'm running DW for offensive bar, for extra damage, so I can't block attacks (and can't block crits), which means that you'll take crits upfront. You're no sorc, you don't have big shields to nullify crits, so you pretty much have to run Impenetrable on most armor pieces, or get used to get hit for 9k+ crits. As an extra, not rolling a vamp, because:
- 20 (25?)% extra damage taken from fire
- 9% extra damage passively from fighters guild
- 60% extra damage from Dawnbreaker (which is used by a LOT of people)
- Camo hunter instagib

If you don't want DW and run SnB instead, this is not required as much, but it definitely helps.

I tried running 5H / 2L a bit, but it turns out this screwed up my sustain pretty badly, even tho I ran Atronach + 5 piece seducer, so I switched back to 7L, and dropped Atronach for Serpent (tho I wouldn't suggest Serpent on a SnB build).

In the end, I will have more than decent damage, very nice stamina regeneration for a mag build, resistance to crits + quite a few extra health bonuses with food and set pieces.

I do not think it's possible to run a competitive mag DK without a nice amount of CPs (250+), simply because of the prohibitive costs.

--

Regarding Skaffa, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's just Sypher who played on his account, who didn't even use Skaffa's own build but someone else's.

Lexxypwns

Asmael wrote: »

Currently rolling a mag DK with the intent to rock the world (read that as "I'm not rerolling another class for vet anytime soon"), quite satisfied with it right now, and going a completely different direction. Note that what's below is what I intend to roll, so I didn't quite get to test the final version, since I'm still trying out a few things.

When it comes to gear, I intend to roll:
- 1x Molag Kena
- 1x Bloodspawn
- 5x kagrenac's hope
- 3x Willpower
- 2x Endurance

Running 5 lights, 1 heavy, 1 medium (to get extra stats from Undaunted Mettle).

I'm using food buff (mag / health) , all attribute points into magicka.

The interesting part is survivability: I'm running DW for offensive bar, for extra damage, so I can't block attacks (and can't block crits), which means that you'll take crits upfront. You're no sorc, you don't have big shields to nullify crits, so you pretty much have to run Impenetrable on most armor pieces, or get used to get hit for 9k+ crits. As an extra, not rolling a vamp, because:
- 20 (25?)% extra damage taken from fire
- 9% extra damage passively from fighters guild
- 60% extra damage from Dawnbreaker (which is used by a LOT of people)
- Camo hunter instagib

If you don't want DW and run SnB instead, this is not required as much, but it definitely helps.

I tried running 5H / 2L a bit, but it turns out this screwed up my sustain pretty badly, even tho I ran Atronach + 5 piece seducer, so I switched back to 7L, and dropped Atronach for Serpent (tho I wouldn't suggest Serpent on a SnB build).

In the end, I will have more than decent damage, very nice stamina regeneration for a mag build, resistance to crits + quite a few extra health bonuses with food and set pieces.

I do not think it's possible to run a competitive mag DK without a nice amount of CPs (250+), simply because of the prohibitive costs.

--

Regarding Skaffa, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's just Sypher who played on his account, who didn't even use Skaffa's own build but someone else's.

That's not a bad gear setup, but as a DK its worth it to go purple foods on a food build, that extra max stam matters because of passives, you're going to be using earthen heart abilities, there's no reason not to get as much stam back as possible from them and it won't bring your mag/hp down a lot

Vynist

Asmael wrote: »

Currently rolling a mag DK with the intent to rock the world (read that as "I'm not rerolling another class for vet anytime soon"), quite satisfied with it right now, and going a completely different direction. Note that what's below is what I intend to roll, so I didn't quite get to test the final version, since I'm still trying out a few things.

When it comes to gear, I intend to roll:
- 1x Molag Kena
- 1x Bloodspawn
- 5x kagrenac's hope
- 3x Willpower
- 2x Endurance

Running 5 lights, 1 heavy, 1 medium (to get extra stats from Undaunted Mettle).

I'm using food buff (mag / health) , all attribute points into magicka.

The interesting part is survivability: I'm running DW for offensive bar, for extra damage, so I can't block attacks (and can't block crits), which means that you'll take crits upfront. You're no sorc, you don't have big shields to nullify crits, so you pretty much have to run Impenetrable on most armor pieces, or get used to get hit for 9k+ crits. As an extra, not rolling a vamp, because:
- 20 (25?)% extra damage taken from fire
- 9% extra damage passively from fighters guild
- 60% extra damage from Dawnbreaker (which is used by a LOT of people)
- Camo hunter instagib

If you don't want DW and run SnB instead, this is not required as much, but it definitely helps.

I tried running 5H / 2L a bit, but it turns out this screwed up my sustain pretty badly, even tho I ran Atronach + 5 piece seducer, so I switched back to 7L, and dropped Atronach for Serpent (tho I wouldn't suggest Serpent on a SnB build).

In the end, I will have more than decent damage, very nice stamina regeneration for a mag build, resistance to crits + quite a few extra health bonuses with food and set pieces.

I do not think it's possible to run a competitive mag DK without a nice amount of CPs (250+), simply because of the prohibitive costs.

--

Regarding Skaffa, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's just Sypher who played on his account, who didn't even use Skaffa's own build but someone else's.

Thanks for the input!

And concerning Skaffa, I am referring to the time when Skaffa would play 1.5/1.6 on NA server

Wing

the Skaffa DK is a vampire DK that uses 2 piece bloodspawn and at least 5 heavy armor. and I have seen him use the vampire drain as CC / Damage / ult return. Its a sturdy build that thrives in mass combat using things like talons and inhale constantly and getting vamp drain in between before ulting with devouring swarm, then rinse and repeat.