Easy Magicka Nightblade PvP Build (non-Vampire)

fred4

This is a single target, destro / resto, stealth / ganking build that avoids Merciless Resolve and is not overly reliant on heavy attacks. I make no claims that this is the best build ever. It is what I have enjoyed playing, coming from a stamina build. I had real difficulties finding a Magicka Nightblade PvP build that I enjoyed prior to putting this together. I mostly play in IC. It is quite easy to play and easy to obtain the sets, with one craftable and one overland (farm or buy in a guild store). As you can craft a sharpened destro staff, it avoids the huge cost of a sharpened Spinner's destro staff, or the effort to farm some other staff, such as Amber Plasm.

Magicka nightblades have a reputation for being hard to play in PvP. Merciless Resolve is one reason for that. You are a stealth / ganking class, but your big weapon is not available from stealth. It is clunky, it is telegraphed, and it only becomes available as your gank turns into a duel. Once that happens your chief advantage is arguably lost, as Magicka Nightblades tend to be lacklustre for damage until the finnicky Assassin's Will proc.

For single target fights your best opener is probably an Inferno staff heavy attack. If you want to maximise that, this brings another set of problems, such as:

* The setup time is very slow, especially when you count buffs like Merciless and Magelight for the Empower.

* You don't reliably get the crit from Shadowy Disguise, since the heavy attack charge time is increased in Homestead and just about the same as the Shadowy Disguise buff time. A reliable way to guarantee the crit is to re-cloak after the heavy attack. It's the cloak AFTER the heavy attack that guarantees the crit when the attack lands. Perhaps running up close to the target also solves the issue, as this reduces the heavy attack travel time. However this impedes your natural playstyle, which is ranged.

* To maximise heavy attack damage, you sacrifice other attack damage via CP (Staff Expert) and sets like Elegance or Stygian.

This build does not optimize for heavy attacks. It does not aim to one-shot people from stealth. You will have a (hopefully short) fight after the opener.

RACE

Breton. Other races work as well, of course, but Breton has an impact in so far as the cost reduction passive helps with perma-cloaking out of combat. See further discussion below.

GEAR

5x Way of the Arena
5x Spinner's
1x Monster helm or shoulder of your choice (for example Molag Kena, Bloodspawn)

5x light, 1x medium, 1x heavy armor.
All Magicka enchants on the armor.
All spell damage enchants on the jewelry.
Gear traits: Mostly Impenetrable. Some Divines or Well-Fitted also work.

1x Inferno staff, Sharpened
1x Resto staff, Defending

Weapon enchants of your choice. I currently use the raise weapon damage enchants.
All items at least purple quality, except weapons should be gold quality.
If you have access to a vMSA or vDSA weapon, you might use that instead of the monster helm / shoulder.

WHY WAY OF THE ARENA? WHY BLOODSPAWN?

I come from playing a stam DK. My DK build uses immovable and speed potions, as well as Forward Momentum, which gives you 8 seconds of snare and root immunity. Coming from that build to Magicka Nightblade was a shock. You get CCd, snared, rooted, out of stamina in no time, unable to act. This prompted me to look for a set that would mitigate this problem. Of course Reactive Armor is probably the better known set, but it is a heavy set with healthy jewelry. I wanted a set that you can craft for a 5/1/1 light armor build and for damage and perma-cloaking, see below. Along with CP, Way of the Arena cuts Break Free cost in half. Another way of looking at this is that you have doubled your effective stamina pool from 10K to 20K for breaking free, and you've doubled your effective stamina regen from 600 to 1200. This really does work. I find that I am much less likely to be helplessly CCd and out of stam with this set.

I used one piece Molag Kena when I started, but am now trying Bloodspawn, raising actual stam regen to 800 and effective stam regen to 1600. Thus, if I do find myself CCd and out of stam, it doesn't take "forever" for stam to come back and break free.

An alternative is the Amber Plasm set, however I did not find it as effective. You don't really need the magicka regen, you have to farm it, and so on. The boring stats of the Arena set (Health, Magicka, Stamina) are actually all useful for this build and allowed using all Magicka enchants.

MUNDUS: Thief
DRINK: Witchmother's Potent Brew
POTION: Detection / Spell Power / Magicka

SKILLS - DESTRO BAR

Swallow Soul
Mass Hysteria
Flame Reach
Impale
Dampen Magic
Soul Assault

SKILLS - RESTO BAR

Concealed Weapon
Siphoning Attacks
Efficient Purge
Healing Ward
Shadowy Disguise
Any Ultimate of your choice

WHY THESE SKILLS? WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

Concealed Weapon, Efficient Purge, and Shadowy Disguise all work together to facilitate stealth. Concealed Weapon is there solely for the speed buff. It is a great shame having to slot this, but I find it very useful for keeping out of harms way and not be detected while stalking players in cloak.

Efficient Purge is there for when you want to escape and have difficulty re-entering cloak because of effects placed on you, or if you are snared. It is not a high health build, so I went with this morph over Cleanse.

Shadowy Disguise is cheaper than Dark Cloak at rank 4. If you are a Breton, with 100 CP in Magician (cost reduction), you will then require the Atronach mundus stone OR a drink (e.g. Witchmother's) to have just enough regen for perma-cloaking out of combat. Note that magicka regen enchants on rings or from item set bonuses DO NOT influence your OUT OF combat regen and therefore DO NOT help you perma-cloak. You also require at least 5 pieces of light armor. If you are a different race, you may require 6 pieces of light armor or a cost reduction enchant or both Atronach and drinks. This build does not require a potion to perma-cloak. You may use one, however, to recover magicka while perma-cloaking.

All of the above could arguably be replaced by a single skill for combat purposes: Mist Form. However I did not want my character to be a vampire.

I do not see a way around Siphoning Attacks. I find you have to slot it in PvP for the stamina sustain. You also want a Siphoning skill on this bar for more magicka, and therefore bigger Healing Ward.

Healing Ward is there for obvious reasons. The only other heal in this build is Swallow Soul.

If you are a Vampire you might use Devouring Swarm on the resto bar. I have been switching between Soul Harvest, Soul Tether, and the resto ult, but I basically never use the ulti on this bar.

When it comes to the destro bar, the first thing to keep in mind is that you want at least one ability from Siphoning, Assassination, and Destro Staff to optimize damage and shield size. Ideally you also want one or two Shadow abilities to balance out the health with the other bar. This constrains your skill choices quite a bit.

Swallow Soul. Your spammable. Never underestimate healing while attacking. Choose Funnel Health, if you prefer. The obvious alternative is Crushing Shock / Force pulse, which is good against flappy DKs, but you just knocked your only Siphoning ability off the bar, so replace Flame Reach with Agony or Crippling Grasp, if you're doing this.

Mass Hysteria. If stamina player(s) are wailing on you, this easily beats Flame Reach. Whereas on my DK I am very happy with Fossilize (a ranged single target abaility, like Flame Reach), my NB tends to be snared or immobilised and much more vulnerable. The AOE from Mass Hysteria counters players quickly, even when they are behind you and you have trouble turning. Then there's the maim, snare and increased resistances. Too good to pass up.

Flame Reach. You have to put a destro ability on the bar, the damage buff is too good not to. It was between this and Elemental Drain for me. Flame Reach is good against players trying to flee or reposition. It also works with a heavy attack, as part of the stealth opener.

Impale. Your Assassination ability.

Dampen Magic. I find that Healing Ward alone isn't really enough. I previously had Magelight slotted. It would be nice to have the crit, but I find the shield necessary.

Soul Assault. Cheese kills. This is what gets you kills and what makes the build easy. With Major Sorcery (from a potion), my tooltip is about 70K. This build also has 14K penetration. I've killed quite a few players outright from stealth with this. Good and alert players will counter it. Many don't.

NOTABLY ABSENT

Merciless Resolve. Any stealth ganker would want this for the Minor Berserk, right? The way I understand that buff, it is supposed to give you an 8% damage increase on actual damage, NOT just your spell damage parameter. Well, it doesn't. In tests on my target skeleton it gives merely 5%. Basically I hate this skill, and the buff isn't even as good as it says it is. Dismissed. Wish it worked more like a Fighter's Guild Ultimate, with a permanent damage buff while slotted and available indefinitely, once charged.

Shadow Image. Did I mention I wanted an easy to play build? Must learn to use this some day.

OPENING FROM STEALTH

You have a couple of options. As I mentioned, the surprise of getting Soul Assaulted from cloak makes opening with that stronger than it has any right to be. It can be an "I win" button, but it can also go horribly wrong. You don't want to be too far, or they'll LOS you or run out of range. You don't want to be too close, since that makes it easier for stam players to counterattack and kill you. They can also just block, be too tanky, cast a shield or heal.

Option two is, you simply start weaving Swallow Soul (opening with a heavy). I like this, because you get a feel for how tanky they are. Once their health has dipped, only then Flame Reach, Soul Assault, Impale.

Option three is a heavy attack + CC opener. Cloak, swap bars, hold the heavy attack button, press Flame Reach: Heavy Attack and Flame reach will go off together, when charged. I haven't done this often enough. I have a feeling it may, in fact, be better to withhold the CC until you have gauged their tankiness and only use it before Soul Assault instead.

bubbygink

Merciless Resolve is an absolute must run skill for magblade. That skill quite literally makes the magblade. It is the hardest hitting non-ultimate in the game by a decent margin and hits harder than many ultimates, even single target ones. How in the world do you even burst people without it?

fred4

bubbygink wrote: »

Merciless Resolve is an absolute must run skill for magblade. That skill quite literally makes the magblade. It is the hardest hitting non-ultimate in the game by a decent margin and hits harder than many ultimates, even single target ones. How in the world do you even burst people without it?

Well, a couple of things. I have not duelled with this build and it probably won't work at the highest level, nor does it aim for that. I have, however, played it for a week in IC, and I am racking up AP faster than my stam DK, who is a practiced dueller. Being able to choose your fights and the surprise effect from ganking seems to have something to do with that. Some players have killed me back and I would judge them stronger than me in a straight up duel at this point.

This build has about 40K magicka, 2K unbuffed spell damage and 14K spell pen. While the spell damage is low, it really does hit hard, thanks to the flame staff passive and careful inclusion of available passives on the destro bar. Basically I don't burst people, I wear them down with a funnel weave first. Funnel Health / Swallow Soul has a reputation for being weak. It's not that weak in light armor / Spinner's.

Lexxypwns

Even if Merciless gave you no buff, its worth having just for that sweet sweet will proc

fred4

Actually, bubbygink, let me break down some numbers for you. My tooltips are currently as follows:

Soul Assault: 71K over 4 seconds = 17.75K DPS
Assassin's Will: 18.5K
Soul Tether: 12.5K (burst)

You can only execute 1 ability per second (roughly), due to global cooldown. Assasin's Will is barely higher than Soul Assault, in terms of DPS. Assassin's Will + Soul Tether = (18.5 + 12.5) / 2 = 15.5 DPS. Granted, you could fit two light attacks into those two seconds as well, but you can see that Soul Assault is very competitive. To beat it, you might empower your Assassin's Will proc and get the guaranteed crit from Shadowy, but that is all so telegraphed. Supposing you do that, those are also two seconds during which you have not attacked, but cast Entropy/Magelight, then Shadowy Disguise. Maybe you have light attack weaved that as well, but you have definitely slacked off the pressure in the two seconds before your big burst, giving your opponent time to heal.

Now, you can argue that empowered Assassin's Will is instant burst, which is true, and it's important. Having been up against Soul Assault on my stam DK, I can tell you it has it's own advantages. I believe it ticks 8 times over 3.5 seconds. That is nasty. Unless you run 1H + Shield (my DK does not) it is a pain to block. It really runs down your stamina. I've also seen it burn through shields, which you may have to spam to defend against it.

There is nothing to say you can't combine Merciless Resolve and Soul Assault. On the other hand, I slot Impale, a much more straightforward ability and, due to the constraints placed on the bar layout by various passives, it is actually hard to slot both without accidentally removing a useful passive.

fred4

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Even if Merciless gave you no buff, its worth having just for that sweet sweet will proc

I know this is the conventional playstyle and I'm not ruling it out in future for myself. I find it an awfully finnicky ability though. It's like constantly looking at the dashboard of my car, when I should be looking at the road. The sound effect that announces Assassin's Will is the same one that plays when it expires and the action bar seems to not always accurately reflect whether it's up or down (I use FTC, maybe that's buggy). If you're counting light attacks, you might as well forget that as well. Sometimes it takes more than 4, maybe if some of the attacks are dodged. Then, whoops, you've missed your window.

I have a personal preference that I want to be more concerned with the environment, the opposing player, than any finnicky mechanics of my build.

Metemsycosis

I can't imagine playing without the spectral bow either. Even if I don't get to proc it, I like having a consistent 36% increase to damage using a flame staff. On top of that yeah using soul assault to drain resources when you have assassins will and impale on the same bar is really really nice.

Lexxypwns

fred4 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Even if Merciless gave you no buff, its worth having just for that sweet sweet will proc

I know this is the conventional playstyle and I'm not ruling it out in future for myself. I find it an awfully finnicky ability though. It's like constantly looking at the dashboard of my car, when I should be looking at the road. The sound effect that announces Assassin's Will is the same one that plays when it expires and the action bar seems to not always accurately reflect whether it's up or down (I use FTC, maybe that's buggy). If you're counting light attacks, you might as well forget that as well. Sometimes it takes more than 4, maybe if some of the attacks are dodged. Then, whoops, you've missed your window.

I have a personal preference that I want to be more concerned with the environment, the opposing player, than any finnicky mechanics of my build.

That's all well and good, but in 1vX situations you need an ability that can punish and doesn't leave you open to counter attack

fred4

If you can 1vX, you have my respect. I do not aim for it with this build and I concur that Soul Assault is generally unsuitable for that. Let me give you an example where it did work though, a gank picking off 1 of X. This was at the flag in Elven Gardens. Three were standing there, turning it. There is a platform to the side that is rather awkward to get to from the flag. I killed one with Heavy / Flame Reach / Soul Assault from there. No one reacted decisively and I was able to recloak and escape. That was all I aimed for.

It is possible I am constantly up against inferior players, but that has not been my experience as DK in PC EU CP IC. Many people know how to duel. As I use stealth and detect pots now, it is possible I am picking off players who would rather stay hidden or who avoided my DK. It is possible that, after the double AP event, the competition is softer than it was. Whatever the reason, I find the build surprisingly effective as it is.

kaithuzar

Just throwing a suggestion, there is a morph of immovable called "immovable brute" that gives reduce cost of break free by 5% per piece of heavy armor "while slotted" ie.. you don't have to hit the button. I run a 5x heavy build & am able to get a full 20% reduced to my break free & typically run around 15k stam pool. I typically slot it on my defense/back/resto bar & use tripots. That's just how I go about it.

-Kai

fred4

Thanks. I'd totally forgotten about that skill. My issue is that you can't control what bar you are CCd on. Can you weapon swap while CCd? Even if that works, I don't fancy having to do it under pressure. It would open up using the Arena set on only one bar with a 2 piece monster set though.

fred4

A quick update. I threw out Way of the Arena and the 1x Kena in favor of 5x Skooma Smuggler on the back bar, still 5x Spinner on the front bar, and 2x Troll King. As I am getting used to the build, I don't miss Way of the Arena now, and the added tankiness from Troll King feels good.

Skooma Smuggler is one of the few sets where the buff carries over to the other bar. I wouldn't, as of yet, change any of the skills. There is no Major Sorcery, no Major Savagery, and no speed buff in this build. The build wants magicka / major sorcery potions. You can't make such a potion that also includes speed. Skooma Smuggler bridges the gap.

I tried a Spinner Ice Staff. Frost Reach is interesting, as it is an immobilize, not affected by CC immunity. Like DK talons, it is a pain to fight against, however it feels somewhat indistinct in use. Some players roll out of it immediately. The loss of damage with the Ice Staff is also noticeable. In the end I bit the bullet on a Spinner's Inferno Staff.

Lexxypwns

fred4 wrote: »

A quick update. I threw out Way of the Arena and the 1x Kena in favor of 5x Skooma Smuggler on the back bar, still 5x Spinner on the front bar, and 2x Troll King. As I am getting used to the build, I don't miss Way of the Arena now, and the added tankiness from Troll King feels good.

Skooma Smuggler is one of the few sets where the buff carries over to the other bar. I wouldn't, as of yet, change any of the skills. There is no Major Sorcery, no Major Savagery, and no speed buff in this build. The build wants magicka / major sorcery potions. You can't make such a potion that also includes speed. Skooma Smuggler bridges the gap.

I tried a Spinner Ice Staff. Frost Reach is interesting, as it is an immobilize, not affected by CC immunity. Like DK talons, it is a pain to fight against, however it feels somewhat indistinct in use. Some players roll out of it immediately. The loss of damage with the Ice Staff is also noticeable. In the end I bit the bullet on a Spinner's Inferno Staff.

Ice staff root is ridiculously strong, but a mageblade has cripple to do a better job of that, imo. Ice staff root best synergizes with sorc and magplar.

fred4

Another update. I'm still using Skooma Smuggler, Spinner's and Troll King. Love the speed buff from that first set. As you approach player(s) or a flag in IC you quaff a detection potion in stealth, speed up, quickly survey the area, then attack (or not).

The abilities that have proven the flex-spots are Mass Hysteria, Impale, and Purge. As I usually open up with Flame Reach, from a distance, Fear has found surprisingly little use. Then there's the unreliability of it. I tested this on the bunch of 3 Clannfear. If one of them has CC immunity from having been Flame Reached, a subsequent Fear will not CC ANY OF THEM. Fear is so broken. Because I use Flame Reach first, as I approach from range, someone is inevitably CC immune and Fear is very hit and miss. Wish I could Fear and Cloak when I'm focused by melee players, but I invariably find that shielding / shield stacking is the far safer bet. Mass Hysteria sucks in this build.

Purge is nice to counter sorc burst and templar backlash, however it is expensive and it rather delays your counter-attack. You are not safe after purge, you usually best shield as well, and so you are left wondering whether shielding alone would have been enough. Then there's the fact that it uncloaks you. If you're using it during an escape attempt, cloaked, but still having a snare or curse on you, it's such a clunky ability that gets you right back to being focused again. I have replaced it with Shuffle. Shuffle is rather nice, because Major Evasion is such a good buff and it does not uncloak you. It's good for escape, but it's also good while running around cloaked. The resource management of this build is such that you can just about perma-cloak out of combat. Activate any buffs while doing that, such as Siphoning Attacks, and you're running a magicka deficit. Shuffle does not add to that deficit, as it consumes stamina. It works out rather nicely.

I changed my CP to get the Unchained passive for Shuffle, moving some points out of Bastion. Supposing you break free, cloak, then Shuffle, yes, the Unchained passive still applies. You can do magicka abilities first and Unchained applies to the first stamina ability within 5 seconds.

I also tried Retreating Maneuvers instead of Shuffle. For some reason that ability feels buggy to me, not always activating when it should. The high cost also means you will rely more on the Unchained passive, which is less of an issue with Shuffle. It also uncloaks you. I therefore dismissed it.

As to Impale, I find the hard 25% cutoff rather hit and miss. People are often capable of healing right out of execute range, in which case you kill them easier by just Swallow Sould spam. To be honest I've felt a bit the same about the 2H execute on my DK. People use it speculatively, I think, as part of a burst combo. Well, this build doesn't exactly have that. What makes it work is basically the strength of Soul Assault. This kills many people outright, if they were softened up a little in the first place. If they don't die from Soul Assault, they're often ready for another CC, e.g. Flame Reach. This, and a subsequent Funnel, kills them just as likely as Impale would.

As of right now, I am using Structured Entropy and Piercing Mark in place of Mass Hysteria and Impale. Structured Entropy lifts the health of the Destro bar to just about the same as the Resto bar, which has the two Shadow abilities on it. It's always good to have stats balanced between bars. It's also the source of Major Sorcery, which means I have switched the potion to Immovable / Detection / Magicka (Corn Flower, Columbine, Wormwood).

Finally Piercing Mark has been rather useful. As a perma-cloaking NB you tend to find players who would have preferred to remain hidden. You see them as you pass closely, you use the Detect pot to keep seeing them, you wind up your heavy attack / Flame Reach, then you mark. Quite a few NBs are unprepared for being marked.

fred4

Here comes the probably final update. I switched out the resto staff, so I could get Forward Momentum from the 2H skill line. What a relief! This skill is much cheaper than Shuffle, let alone Retreating Maneuvers. It does not uncloak you. It is a small HOT, which activates Troll King when Swallow Soul is not running. It reliably gets you away from Sweeps / Jabs spamming templars or Low Slash spammers. Into cloak, and off you go. Pop a pot with Skooma Smuggler, and you have a good chance of getting away from streaking sorcs as well.

Do I miss Healing Ward? Yes. Would I rather have Healing Ward or Forward Momentum? The latter! At the very least this makes for an interesting and unique build. Troll King makes it work. Healing is on the low side, but escaping is improved. Magicka management also feels improved, because I'm not shield-stacking anymore.

I also ditched Structured Entropy for Radiant Magelight. I'd never used that before. The anti-gank protection is really nice. The offensive and defensive bar are the same now, with Dampen Magic and Radiant on it. The off bar is for getting away.

Entropy didn't really work out. I think it's a good ability to gain Major Sorcery and the Empower, prior to your big (Merciless Resolve) attack. This build is, however, about sustained pressure, so that didn't really fit. Casting Entropy always felt like a wasted Swallow Soul to me.

I am mainly back to the Detection / Major Sorcery / Magicka potions. The typical gameplay is to pop the pot, in stealth, as you approach your target, then do a quick survey for stealthed players, before engaging. An immovability pot would be nice, but half of the immovability buff is typically wasted with this gameplay.

The final skill lineup is:

Destro bar:

Swallow Soul
Radiant Magelight
Flame Reach
Impale
Dampen Magic
Soul Assault

2H bar:

Concealed Weapon
Siphoning Attacks
Piercing Mark
Forward Momentum
Shadowy Disguise
Ice Comet

Mundus is either the Atronach and all Spell Damage enchants on jewelry, or the Thief and swap in one Magicka cost reduction enchant. In CP campaigns this results in a small mag regen surplus while running around perma-cloaked. It feels much better than break even. You'll usually arrive with full magicka at your next fight.

fred4

Well, that didn't take long. All I want to say is that I'm still trying stuff, and I can only recommend the same to everyone, whether you are adopting this build or another.

I have swapped out Meteor for Reviving Barrier, and I think it's a keeper. As far as defensive ultis go, Bolstering Darkness / Veil of Blades is not mobile enough for me, and Soul Tether has never worked for me as an "oh sh*t" defensive ulti. Every ability has it's advantages, of course. The nice thing about Barrier is, it protects your allies as well, even if you are not grouped. Great for IC. I'm hoping Barrier will make up for the loss of Healing Ward.

The other thing I'm trying is Lotus Fan instead of Impale. I know it makes no sense for this build, but I wanted to keep an Assassination ability on the bar for the passives, so I didn't want Crippling Grasp. It's really nasty to be in a 70% snare, so I'm trying that on my enemies now. I find a heavy attack often too slow and cumbersome, as an opener, so Lotus Fan, then Flame Reach, puts 2 DOTS on the enemy, the big snare, and knocks them back from you again. Not bad.