Stamina vs Magicka Nightblade

CallMeBigPapi · December 2016

My main character is a stamina nightblade. His burst damage is ridiculous (viper + selene's web + surprise attack from stealth) easily hits 50k. I can sustain beautifully with heal over time potions, vigor, siphoning strikes, and vice cannon. I have a magicka nightblade, and the only things he seems to be able to to do are
a) bomb (hard to pull off)
b) cloak (for like a minute straight)
c) kite and cut off LOS until he dies
Playing magicka NB always seems to be playing on one's heels, is it possible to build a decent magicka nightblade? All of sypher's builds involve kiting, cutting of LOS, buffing up to increase dodge chance, and bursting DPS if possible (I can't burst with magicka at all). It seems impossible to be able to goe toe-to-toe so to speak like a stamina NB can as far as being competent and forcing the other person to go on the defensive.

So the question is this: How does one play a formidable magicka NB w/out running around like a little b****

Ghettokid · December 2016

Secret behind every succesfull magblade can be found behind his helmet. It is green face with huge teeth.

bubbygink · December 2016

If you haven't tried it yet I would suggest trying out heavy armor. When I am in light armor on my magblade I feel like I am constantly on the defensive or, to put it your way, I feel like I am always on my heels. It seems difficult to even get some breathing room to put out some damage. Heavy gives some added tankiness and synergizes well with magblade to allow for you to get offensive.

If you are running destro/restro, I would say the most effective meta build is 2 piece monster set (skoria, grothdarr, pirate skele, etc.) 5 piece spinners, and 5 piece clever (with the 5th clever being your back bar). Make the 4 clever body pieces and one of the monster pieces heavy and run 5/1/1 or 5/2. Then utilize the witchmothers potent brew and siphoning attacks for great sustain.

You should check out this video which explains in detail how to succeed as a magblade far better than I could:

https://youtu.be/GRWX9iG-_Ms

Waffennacht · December 2016

@bubbygink is right.

I've made an alt mNB. Heavy Armor has ridiculous synergy with mNB. Passive health, passive vitality and HoTs. The passives for crit help the lack in HA, swallow soul is so cheap you can spam it all day getting great health in return.

I run DW and Resto. Resto synergies even better than NB with HA. Again passive healing (rapid regen is on my bar, it ticks for up to 1400 when crit)

I go DW swallow soul, agonize, cripple, innerlight, shades ult the 50 cost one

Resto healing ward, rapid regen, impale, entropy, mericless resolve, Pancea - (life's champion) super super underrated ult

Alchemist, Transmutation, Skoria. Practically unkillable and stull hits like a truck. I got tons of PvP duels and open world footage if anyone cares to see, if so i can post it.

thankyourat · December 2016

The thing about magblade is the amount of cc's you can block because of siphoning attacks. You should never take a cc from javelin, dizzing swing, crystal frag, or shards. Also you should always be moving to make yourself more difficult to target, and always keep your shade down so you can kite away if someone gets to close. Make sure you light attack before every skill, block, or roll Dodge to keep your bow procd. With magblade you need to set up your burst you can't win with your spammable DPS like you can with a stamblade. The burst combo I like use is assasins will agony/clench soul harvest. I like soul harvest over soul tether because for 50 ultimate it's up all the time it hits really hard and is a heal debuff so its alot of pressure. If you are feeling too pressured use crippling grasp to get some distance away from your shade then teleport too it. Magblade is probably the best class at relieving pressure while still keeping pressure on your opponent. Heavy armor works on magblade but I prefer light armor for more damage (Use skoria)

PrinceRyzen · December 2016

Waffennacht wrote: »

@bubbygink is right.

I've made an alt mNB. Heavy Armor has ridiculous synergy with mNB. Passive health, passive vitality and HoTs. The passives for crit help the lack in HA, swallow soul is so cheap you can spam it all day getting great health in return.

I run DW and Resto. Resto synergies even better than NB with HA. Again passive healing (rapid regen is on my bar, it ticks for up to 1400 when crit)

I go DW swallow soul, agonize, cripple, innerlight, shades ult the 50 cost one

Resto healing ward, rapid regen, impale, entropy, mericless resolve, Pancea - (life's champion) super super underrated ult

Alchemist, Transmutation, Skoria. Practically unkillable and stull hits like a truck. I got tons of PvP duels and open world footage if anyone cares to see, if so i can post it.

I'd definitely like to check out the footage if you post it. Anything on YT?

thedude33 · December 2016

Good info

Knootewoot · December 2016

I am a light armored melee nightblade. Yes, I die a lot but I also make enough kills even from within an enemy zerg but it's hard to pull of.

I wear 5 khrag's hope (so I can rez mates quick) and 5 spinner and 1 molag kena and 1 infernal guardian (why no set? because this combination just looks cool)

I sneak around for prey as a vampire. When I see an enemy I cast cripple and entropy (or I use potion for major sorcery)
and the 2 dots soften them up. then I lotus fan to them, cloak, heavy attack+concealed weapon and use impale when I get them under 25% health.

It works except for HA guys. Then you cry and die.

It's really hard currently as melee magblade but I still find it fun to play. I have also thought of going ranged using destroy staf and wear HA like @KenaPKK does. And he is the best magblade around. But it's not my playstyle using staffs and heavy armor. So I stick to my light armor and dual blades.

I do have a resto staff on my backbar but sometimes I have dual blades there also and use harness magicka and swallow soul for heals.

Yes, you can give in and go easy mode playing stamblade with 3 proc sets and blindfold and just press 2 buttons. Even I am on the brink of doing it sometimes. I got velidreth, vicecannon, viper and red mountain at my armory but so far I could resist. I used them one and ganking really became boring one shotting people.

Problem with magblade is, you do get first shot but you cannot one shot. that means if your victim was a proc set user you can get *** in a second with light armor after your initial attack.

Waffennacht · December 2016

@PrinceRyzen yeah, I fell asleep last night and at work now, when I get home I'll tag you and post the vid. Unfortunately I don't know of a way to do any of this on my phone lol

I have a 30 sec clip of me 1v2 then a 3rd, then a 4th, a 5th and finally when the 6th showed up they got me. It's actually pretty cool, each player enters the battle with a unique move.

Oh and the cool thing about transmutation and resto, pair up with a former emp and rock out.

Life's Champion, healing ward and rapid regen on a dps sorc that casts eots, yeah we killed a lot that day!

zuto40 · December 2016

i met a very interesting mageblade using red mountain and force pulse with flame reach and valkyn skoria, it was a very strong combination and if i hadnt LoS'd him so much i'd of died easily

bubbygink · December 2016

zuto40 wrote: »

i met a very interesting mageblade using red mountain and force pulse with flame reach and valkyn skoria, it was a very strong combination and if i hadnt LoS'd him so much i'd of died easily

@zuto40 That actually sounds very interesting. One issue I see is that you would probably have to use two medium body pieces and two robust jewelry pieces. But I am assuming crushing shock counts as 3 hits so it would be 30% chance to proc every attack right? Your max stats would be lower but would be a lot of pressure with Skoria+Red Mountain.

zuto40 · December 2016

bubbygink wrote: »

zuto40 wrote: »

i met a very interesting mageblade using red mountain and force pulse with flame reach and valkyn skoria, it was a very strong combination and if i hadnt LoS'd him so much i'd of died easily

@zuto40 That actually sounds very interesting. One issue I see is that you would probably have to use two medium body pieces and two robust jewelry pieces. But I am assuming crushing shock counts as 3 hits so it would be 30% chance to proc every attack right? Your max stats would be lower but would be a lot of pressure with Skoria+Red Mountain.

idk how he did it, i know he used the 4 red mountain, he had a robe, he had valkyn skoria, and he had a maelstrom destro, i asked him about the build but he never replied

Waffennacht · December 2016

@bubbygink you would still go all magicka, Shadow of Red mountain procs on weapon attacks (force pulse) no melee weapon necessary - this includes staff attacks.

The problem becomes the weapon crit, and weapon damage bonus from red mountain 2 and 4 piece bonus.

Ironically CP allocation would be better for the magicka build as the fire damage from Red Mountain is in the magicka tree.

bubbygink · December 2016

Waffennacht wrote: »

@bubbygink you would still go all magicka, Shadow of Red mountain procs on weapon attacks (force pulse) no melee weapon necessary - this includes staff attacks.

The problem becomes the weapon crit, and weapon damage bonus from red mountain 2 and 4 piece bonus.

Ironically CP allocation would be better for the magicka build as the fire damage from Red Mountain is in the magicka tree.

@Waffennacht Right I get that. But the downside is that you would need to use Red Mountain jewelry which only comes in robust AFAIK. So originally I envisioned 1 Red Mountain Destro, two medium Red Mountain armor pieces, and two robust Red Mountain jewelry pieces. But @zuto40 just mentioned this guy was also using Maelstrom destro (was he using WoE too to proc RM more?) so he must have been using 2 medium RM pieces and 3 robust RM jewelry pieces. So not only will the 2-4 piece bonuses be a problem bust also having 3 robust instead of 3 arcane. Plus having to use 2 medium instead of 5/1/1 or 5H/2L.

Waffennacht · December 2016

@bubbygink for PvP robust isn't a horrid choice - 2400ish magicka being stamina? Ok, well if you then run Blue food (magicka and health) or witches brew (mag, health and mag regen) you're essentially using Purple food (stam, health, and mag)

The stamina from jewelry can be used efficiently, however you cannot work around the weapon crit, and to a lesser extent the weapon damage

Two medium is fine, 8% cost reduction to roll dodge and stam regen again really helps for CC break and dodge roll.

If it were me, I'd then slot shuffle to take advantage of the added stam etc (apparently it's better than blur too)

It's not a min max build but It could be cool.

thankyourat · December 2016

zuto40 wrote: »

i met a very interesting mageblade using red mountain and force pulse with flame reach and valkyn skoria, it was a very strong combination and if i hadnt LoS'd him so much i'd of died easily

I fought an AD magblade who used that same build. It was very strong

zuto40 · December 2016

thankyourat wrote: »

zuto40 wrote: »

i met a very interesting mageblade using red mountain and force pulse with flame reach and valkyn skoria, it was a very strong combination and if i hadnt LoS'd him so much i'd of died easily

I fought an AD magblade who used that same build. It was very strong

Legate Yhrn?

zuto40 · December 2016

@Waffennacht @bubbygink I actually have a clip of one of my battles with him http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/Inferno Staff/video/24922015 I thought I had another longer one but I guess not

thankyourat · December 2016

zuto40 wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

zuto40 wrote: »

i met a very interesting mageblade using red mountain and force pulse with flame reach and valkyn skoria, it was a very strong combination and if i hadnt LoS'd him so much i'd of died easily

I fought an AD magblade who used that same build. It was very strong

Legate Yhrn?

Yea that's him

Waffennacht · December 2016

@PrinceRyzen here is a quick video I slapped together. It's the last 6 duels I had, I'm working on an open world video, but this is what you get for now lol

Edit: Last 40 secs of the last 6 battles I should say, and each opponent is 561 and a skilled duelist

https://youtu.be/K54IJiQ3Otw

PrinceRyzen · December 2016

Waffennacht wrote: »

@PrinceRyzen here is a quick video I slapped together. It's the last 6 duels I had, I'm working on an open world video, but this is what you get for now lol

Edit: Last 40 secs of the last 6 battles I should say, and each opponent is 561 and a skilled duelist

https://youtu.be/K54IJiQ3Otw

Thanks for posting. Being so use to destro I have such a tough time wrapping my mind around dual wield. I weave everything.

I also noticed you used the two shades. What is it you like about them? I haven't tested them in a long time. I stick to the other morph. That teleport in open world is life saving.

Waffennacht · December 2016

@PrinceRyzen I like the shades because in PvP they deal 1.2k dps, and provide major maim. The higher dps was the reason.

I don't run away, even in open PvP, no need for teleport. Weaving is good, if you wanted, just use transmutation resto staff, Alchemist destro staff and weave. It'd work fine. I prefer the cheaper ults for consistency, but you could easily run eots.

If you wanna be more supportive/ healer Tank thing, I've toyed with the idea of Blood Spawn helm over skoria and running the above mentioned destro plus Eots.

Edit:In a group setting, Blood Spawn + Life's Champion frequently casted +transmutation would make your group unkillable.

PrinceRyzen · December 2016

Waffennacht wrote: »

@PrinceRyzen I like the shades because in PvP they deal 1.2k dps, and provide major maim. The higher dps was the reason.

I don't run away, even in open PvP, no need for teleport. Weaving is good, if you wanted, just use transmutation resto staff, Alchemist destro staff and weave. It'd work fine. I prefer the cheaper ults for consistency, but you could easily run eots.

If you wanna be more supportive/ healer Tank thing, I've toyed with the idea of Blood Spawn helm over skoria and running the above mentioned destro plus Eots.

Edit:In a group setting, Blood Spawn + Life's Champion frequently casted +transmutation would make your group unkillable.

I focus more so on damage and killing. Support never interested me.

Once I try out heavy armor (I'm thinking 5 heavy clever Alchemist and undecided 2nd set) Perhaps then I'll see what life is like without teleport. When in light armor I prefer having the teleport. 1v1 is easy. But when groups give chase and you're solo, against groups spamming snares, no way I'm trying to tank. Lol.

Teleport allows me much needed control of engaging. Plus I believe it still applies minor maim so no loss there.

My main question regarding heavy armor is how well does it perform in a destro gank situation?

If I run 5 heavy with clever and elegance, is heavy attack ganking a viable option?