Magblade Vampire Build For CPpvp fueled from boredom.

exeeter702

Honestly, i dont know what im expecting here, but i just want to see if there is any possible way to make a full all in vamp build for cp PVP if even just to be annoying and not much else. Was bored at work and plugged this into uesp, not pts changes but little will change at this point in time.

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=260863

The stats are while in scion form (188 ult spent Balorg) with buffs up without any stars aligning perfect scenarios. This is just with proper spell damage/crit pot uptime, dark cloak rolling, with 5 stacks of merc resolve and sated fury toggled. Depending on how the backbar ends up looking, vamp lord on back bar might not be necessary.

The following are things i consider non negotiable and why

• Blood For Blood - Even with its (potential) nerf incoming, there really is no other spamable that will hit as hard as this while still being affordable. The question becomes is the self healing from the rest of the setup going to be enough. Granted i never assume im getting heals from someone else when conjuring up builds.

• Dark Cloak - With the massive health pool, this heal is not bad. Minor prot and the enabler of shadow barrier makes this key imo.

• Crippling Grasp/Siphoning Spamable - There is no other way to make full use of transfer passive unless you slot swallow soul or sap. Its true recasting grasp every 4 seconds is not the most efficient in terms of damage/magicka cost, but its a small concession that helps with being kited in scion form. Slotting swallow soul would be cheaper but having two spamables on here is already too costly on bar space. Sap essence is wack in pvp imo, but would be a decent trade out, if you are sitting in large groups and just spamming it while in scion form i guess but at that point while in form, you arent even benefiting from the passive anyways since you cant generate ult while transformed. Using sap would allow you to go crit/health/mag pots. Healthy offering would easily work and the minor mending would be completely welcomed, but requiring an ally recipient would limit its use, and while offering is an exceptional skill, this by no means is a healer build. Siphoning strikes should never be recast every 4 seconds so that is out of the question regarding the transfer passive.

• Shalk's Exo - Ult gen is crucial as i want to generate as much of it as possible to reduce the downtime of transformation. 5 heavy magicka set with passive ult gen fits the bill.

• 5 heavy - Not trying to die when out of form, and the healing bonus pairs very nicely with argonian + dark cloak

• Vamp Lord - goes without saying but no other set will increase the uptime on transformation than this. The additional non vamp cost increase does hurt though. This set does make affording the various health prices on sated and bfb more reasonable.

• Merciless Resolve - Losing the 10 percent mitigation next patch will sting, but gaining crit healing in particular will definitely help out any build that is relying on any form of healing incoming. The burst is still too valuable to not take regardless of how deep your appreciation goes for seeing the word "dodged" scroll down your screen.

• Balorg - Frankly, the way i see it, this build lives or dies on Scion form. For that reason alone, i dont see any other monster set cutting it. Especially if room cant be made for major breach.

• Scion ult - No explanation required.

Close considerations

• Lotus fan - Scion form without a gap closer is comically easy to kite. And while your ranged skills still punch (a little) the bat damage needs to be utilized. This is a 5h build so i figured it is crucial to get as much damage from outlier sources as possible. Shock glyph uptime is not adequate enough.

• Sated Fury - This is nearly a non negotiable one. I really want to try and make this work, even if it means it will see use only during transformation or for the quick off GCD toggle for a bow proc. Raw spell damage is needed wherever i can get it.

• Siphoning attacks - Sustain will be tight, and the additional heal is always welcome via on hit effect as well as 3 percent from soul siphoner. Likewise we need a way to gain magicka flood passive on back bar.

The flex spots is where i feel the compromises really sting.

• Ele drain - This build has no major breach, which will hurt its damage. Is balorg + sharpened front bar + minor vuln enough? Do we make room for back baring mark? I feel the minor magicka steal is the better choice but if sustain is ok, is losing breach too hefty a price?

• Mist Form - As i mentioned, spell damage from anywhere is welcome since the sets are not exactly damage oriented themselves(the 5pc bonuses anyways). There would be no way to enable strike from shadows outside of sprint cloak passive which is not practical in anyway outside of cheeky gank setups. Mist form would be the only way. Remember that UNtoggling mist form can be done off the GCD, so you can quickly use a GCD to light attack and toggle on and off mist form for a quick 6 second spell damage buff. One glaring weakness to this setup is that there is no snare removal. Without mist form, there is little recourse when getting rooted or cc locked.

• Hypnosis/Mass Hysteria/Flame Clench - Generally i always consider hard CC a must in any pvp build, if only to check someones stamina in a build that is focused on attrition. NB esp, without a CC, landing bow procs is hard. But imo, the irony is that masking bow shots behind other things tends to make it land more often, whereas trying to stun first almost always results in a break free followed by a roll dodge and there goes all your burst damage. Hysteria is hard to afford at stage 4 while provided a health boost if back bared to boost dark cloak a bit more. Hypno, while fickle with its "facing you" criteria, esp in cyrodil has a no limit recipient application rage, much more affordable and the extra couple of yards make it an attractive choice. Clench if you need more 1v1 shenanigans or whatever. But i just dont know if this setup can do without a stun of some kind.

• RAT - This would solve 2 problems, immobility and movement speed. At that point it becomes strike from the shadows spell damage vs having minor force. (mist vs rat). I cant really decide. Mist form has the added benefit of being able to mist into a group will transformed i guess, but the lack of healing might make that a quick death sentence.

• Phantasmal - If damage is not the primary focus or a concern, or maybe as is often the case in cyrodil, you are dealing with tons of aoe, maybe this would be better than RAT.

• Rapid Regen - Pairs nicely with dark cloak, assuming its not stolen by someone nearby.

• Exhilarating Drain - Widely considered abject trash by most (and for good reason). The thing is, the ult gen is just very attractive and the heal is not really that bad, glaring weakness ofc being the "bash me please" beam protruding from your palm but any ability to help transformation uptime shouldnt be ignored i guess. The question becomes, is there enough healing with dark cloak and drain alone? probably not. Dark cloak, drain and regen? Maybe.

Secondary Ult. While this build is likely to live and die based on scion form, the second ult should really be about its slotted benefits or maybe the one off scenario use case

• Soul Siphon/Soul Tether - "Something something something, cast time ults, something something". Honestly i still consider soul siphon the strongest healing ultimate in the game but that is a contentious opinion and not entirely relevant here. If we can do without siphoning strikes then slotting this will cover magicka flood on the back bar. Not sure i would use this ult outside of very specific scenarios on this build, even less so with soul tether but the 3% healing buff and magicka pool buff is nice.

• Soul Harvest - Back baring Scion ult doesnt really harm the build at all unless you are opting for front bar vamp lord / back bar arena wep/potentates or whatever, and if you are in an environment where kills are coming in (or if you are in IC) then this might be a good front bar slot. Its cheap and can be thrown out without really hurting transformation uptime that much. Sometimes a kill is one of these away and might be the better choice then trying to wait a few more seconds for scion to be ready.

• Precog - Another unpopular ult but in light of dark cloak on magblade, this might have a use over temporal guard, especially if you are not running mist form and need an escape tool+CC immunity in one. Meh, honestly i dont know.

• Barrier - Another group utility ult if the situation would benefit from it with the added boon of magicka regen on the back bar.

• Resto Ult - Again, maybe healing a few homies is the better choice between transforming and your other ult.

Abject trash build? Perhaps. Do you think it could be functional in cyrodil or is this memes? Fill in the ability bar blanks, is it still 1 or 2 skills shy of being functional? Will the self healing be woefully inadequate without rapid regen? Can we do without a hard CC? Is vamp lord price reduction, argonian, and 5 heavy along side the heals enough to sustain BfB outside of scion form or will time out of scion form mostly encompass cripple, cloak, drain, repeat until ult is ready again?