5L/2H or 7L for magicka nightblade (and other questions)

tinythinker · May 2015

I've seen many interesting post-1.6 builds for magicka nightblades, but I am new to the class as a whole and suggestions are very welcome. At the moment I am wondering whether the extra spell pen for 7L is worth more than the increased protection of 2H? Is it about even in trade-off? I can solo public dungeons and dolmens at my VR with my PvE bars, but so far I don't seem to do much damage in PvP at VR7. I have 5L Seducer for regen and Torug's Pact for a bit more spell damage. Will try to add two rings of Cyrodiil's Light for a bit more damage.

With blue food I am at 22,372 magicka (using all points in magicka and infused on armor), spell damage 1136, spell crit 38%, 30 points in Spell Erosion (ignore 10.8% of spell resistance) and 20 in Thaumaturge (increase magic damage by 8.4%).

With same food, here are examples of tool-tip damage (not all are currently slotted for PvP bars):

Crushing Shock: 978 cold, fire, and shock damage
Concealed Weapon: 3513
Impale: 1757 (base/non-scaled)
Swallow Soul: 3257
Crippling Grasp: 1056 initial/5980 over 8 seconds*

Is this good enough to be competitive? I am sure I need to "L2P" as I have already said I am just now learning this class in PvP, I just want to make sure I am not handicapping myself with insufficiently strong attacks. I mean, not everyone has nirnhoned armor, right?

(*No visible buffs, but my values keep shifting. Grasp has shown both 6200 and 6300 over the last 30 minutes or so.)

LameoveR · May 2015

Infused - Chests and legs with health enchantment.
All other - Divines with magicka enchantment.
What's the boon?
And yes, vr7 newcomer can't compete vr14, if only vr14 not AFK.

TheFamousMockingbird · May 2015

I added 2 heavy to my magicka NB and honestly it really doesn't add much more durability. Light armor is so flimsy now that any little bit or armor penetration goes through it like tissue. The only benefit I should see is the 50% duration increase from the Shadow Barrier passive that you get for 2 pieces of heavy. Sadly the duration buff does not appear to be working ATM.

Draehl · May 2015

full light for pvp, 5l/2h for pve IMO.

Erondil · May 2015

Draehl wrote: »

full light for pvp, 5l/2h for pve IMO.

Lol I would go for the contrary tbh. Damages are much higher in pvp than in pve and you need much more self-survivability.

Zsymon · May 2015

My brother uses heavy chest and shoulders (imperial), daedric light pants for the robe look, everything else light as well. Looks very cool, especially with the Dwemer light head.

Lava_Croft · May 2015

Heavy chest for sure. Argonian heavy helmet for increased style points.

Bodycounter · May 2015

LameoveR wrote: »

Infused - Chests and legs with health enchantment.
All other - Divines with magicka enchantment.
What's the boon?
And yes, vr7 newcomer can't compete vr14, if only vr14 not AFK.

Pretty much this.

tinythinker · May 2015

Lava_Croft wrote: »

Heavy chest for sure. Argonian heavy helmet for increased style points.

I have the Argonian light helm. It has a feather right over the forehead.

Chikenuget · May 2015

I use 5L/ 2H. The heavy pieces are chest and pants with infused trait.

I would say maybe around V12 as a magicka NB you can be competitive.
If you still want to PvP you will have to play a bit smarter and choose targets wisely. Generally you will not be allow to make many mistakes.

tinythinker · May 2015

LameoveR wrote: »

Infused - Chests and legs with health enchantment.
All other - Divines with magicka enchantment.
What's the boon?
And yes, vr7 newcomer can't compete vr14, if only vr14 not AFK.

TheFamousMockingbird wrote: »

I added 2 heavy to my magicka NB and honestly it really doesn't add much more durability. Light armor is so flimsy now that any little bit or armor penetration goes through it like tissue. The only benefit I should see is the 50% duration increase from the Shadow Barrier passive that you get for 2 pieces of heavy. Sadly the duration buff does not appear to be working ATM.

Draehl wrote: »

full light for pvp, 5l/2h for pve IMO.

Erondil wrote: »

Draehl wrote: »

full light for pvp, 5l/2h for pve IMO.

Lol I would go for the contrary tbh. Damages are much higher in pvp than in pve and you need much more self-survivability.

Chikenuget wrote: »

I use 5L/ 2H. The heavy pieces are chest and pants with infused trait.

I would say maybe around V12 as a magicka NB you can be competitive.
If you still want to PvP you will have to play a bit smarter and choose targets wisely. Generally you will not be allow to make many mistakes.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I managed to get 32 killing blows yesterday in open field skirmish situations (groups between 5v5 to 35v35 that weren't tightly clustered in "swarming formation") and at least two of them were my own effort start to finish. I even had a VR14 tea-bag me for 10 seconds when I did meaningful damage to him (how dare I?

) before dying from NPC aggro.

Not saying that any of that is in any way impressive, but the combat situations I was able to put myself in offered a really great environment in which to practice a new class for PvP. Managed to keep the K:D ratio just under 3.0 by effective use of Dark Cloak. Hopefully I can get better with more practice/at higher vet ranks.