brandonv516 wrote: »

Biggest change this patch that hurts Magblade is cast times.
-For damage, Soul Harvest is inferior to Shooting Star
-For heals, Soul Siphon is inferior to Barrier

Biggest change this patch that benefits Magblade is Rapid Regen.
-I no longer feel the need to slot the Resto ultimate anymore
-This does still pigeon-hole Magblades into Destro/Resto

Yup, agree 100%. Barrier with the support passive for 20% extra mag recovery helps a lot too. Soul Siphon can still be decent if you need a Siphoning passive on your back bar, but Siphoning Strikes does a better job and helps sustain more.

Soul Siphon’s still a great ability, it’s too bad it doesn’t fire consistently. Before I dropped it I think about half my casts were getting interrupted, it was pretty ridiculous.

There are some builds that don’t need rapid regen though if you’re into funky hybrids.

Anyone noticing fear is forcing a small animation before break? Was testing with a buddy, thought maybe lag, switch areas, same scenario. Fear stun even with quickest break free- .75-1 second~ stun.

Also soul syphon synergy was not showing up in group play... any one else?

Iskiab wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Any one have any success with a solo melee magblade so far this patch? I attempted one that was decent got a few good 1vXs with it. Though I had to flat out run from certain Templar builds lol it’s just no way to beat them with those dots and that bubble.

Have you tried Onslaught and Balorgs?

My alt isn’t quite setup yet to give it a decent chance but I was thinking 2h/resto, pelinal & mechanical acuity, balorgs. Shadow mundus Khajit.

I’m making the move to the CP campaign and haven’t gotten a feel for what works yet.

In no-CP I haven’t been ganked it a long time, tried CP today and gank attempts were a joke, I didn’t even need to dodge roll, I could flat out ignore them as a healer. I don’t know if gank builds will work.

I actually played a onslaught ganker magblade the first time around before it was nerfed a couple years ago. You would routinely hit players for more than 22k with onslaught. They eventually nerfed a few sets that made it good though. I haven’t tried it recently I don’t think it would be effective at ganking though because you give up the burst from the Destro staff heavy attackThough elemental weapon may help there. Destro staff ganker on magblade is really strong. Proc set ganker is actually pretty weak for solo ganking but it’s effective at Xv1 ganking. I was thinking more of a balanced build though with good sustain and not so much a ganking build.

I put together a more brawler style 2h build for this patch but haven't put it together in-game yet to try it out:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=174965

Ele weapon TT on the above is around 10k - slightly less than a heavy fire destro but then it'd be at 100% pen and damage can be stacked higher if you swapped out Buffer for Clever Alch, used shadow cloak etc.

With the aoe on onslaught I think you could put together a pretty nasty gank/bomb hybrid tbh with a simple Balorg/Clever Alch/VD setup or similar! Bombing not really my thing though lol

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

jimijac0me wrote: »

I put together a more brawler style 2h build for this patch but haven't put it together in-game yet to try it out:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=174965

Ele weapon TT on the above is around 10k - slightly less than a heavy fire destro but then it'd be at 100% pen and damage can be stacked higher if you swapped out Buffer for Clever Alch, used shadow cloak etc.

With the aoe on onslaught I think you could put together a pretty nasty gank/bomb hybrid tbh with a simple Balorg/Clever Alch/VD setup or similar! Bombing not really my thing though lol

I think you misclick a bar skill, you don't have ele wep on there. I assume it takes saps place?

No the build I posted wasn't meant to be using Ele weapon, more just a 2h build I was looking at trying out.

Someone a few posts up mentioned Ele weapon could replace the destro heavy attacks, so I was just commenting on that

Iskiab wrote: »

Ah nice, someone posted a melee magblade build. It’s with 810 CPs vs this one with zero CPs but it’s still okay I think for a comparison.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=166272

Basicly it’s fart around at ranged on the back bar, go in for the kill when acuity procs and onslaught is up. Issue is pen without onslaught.

Edit - added CPs for an easier comparison.

Gave a 2h onslaught- Ele weapon gank build a try for a bit yesterday. It’s okay. Good for No cp. I’m not sure it’s going to get routine kills in CP however. If I can’t one shot someone with the combo in bgs, I have my doubts it’ll one shot in cp.

This setup also pointless to run merciless front bar.

I switched up abilities for an easy comparison. I’d go concealed and debilitate. It’s without balorg.

Looking at the tooltips it’s comparable to a mag 2h build, likely perform better in no-CP than CP because magicka’s relatively more powerful with the stat boosts in CP.

The appeal is moreso the crit modifier with mech acuity, but would likely run better with more dots and maybe Iceheart for better defense. 3k crit modifier is a 45% reduction in crits so the build would have a 70% crit modifier which is decent. Issue is moreso lack of pen without onslaught.

ScruffyWhiskers wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

It’s without balorg.

How do you get such a high wep damage then? Is stam really that better than magicka? I knew it was different and stam got more but that is just silly. I struggle to get 2400 spell damage with 2 infused spell damage enchants on jewelry. This game is whack sometimes.

For spell/weapon damage yes it is. The armour weights are balanced with light getting pen, crit and sustain. Medium gets crit, sustain and weapon damage, heavy gets health and healing received. So a 5m with fighters guild abilities will have a ton higher weapon damage.

In the CP campaign max mag with some class’ mag boosts can compete with weapon damage for high tooltips, in no-CP the missing mag boosts at 300 CPs means spell damage is better.

Prior to this patch I would have said it’s a wash between medium and light. With the onslaught change and using mechanical acuity I’d say 5m is better, who needs pen when you can bypass all resistances if you can land onslaught.

Pen’s still the best dps stat so missing pen from 5L will hurt a lot, tooltip’s only part of the picture.

I’d love to be able to fit lotus fan on this build, the ability’s a lot of fun. Any ideas how?

I could definitely get higher tooltips with bright throat over acuity, but auto crits with a 70% modifier is too good to pass up I think. I was also thinking shalks exoskeleton for more onslaught uptime.

Hey mates, as I'm still dreaming of a tanky bruiser magblade that will probably never come back to life, I kinda messed around with my old favourite playstyle with s/b + resto.

What I found is that the new absorb missile has a really nice shield and healing TT at 30k hp (which I aim at with dark cloak magblades anyways). And the nice part is that it is really nicecly layered over the new healing ward, thus protecting the procs AND benefiting from the major viatlity of BRP. So basically, after breaking free you can cast healing ward + almost free absorb missile and have tons of healing/shields to jump back into the fight.

I'm playing on my laptop atm with poor connection and stuff, but it felt kinda unique and quite effective. Will play around a bit with it, especially since s/b bash now also benefits from spelldamage

ScruffyWhiskers wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

[
I’d love to be able to fit lotus fan on this build, the ability’s a lot of fun. Any ideas how?

I look at the front bar and it's very close to mine in spirit: lotus, concealed, inner light, cripple, shadowy, soul harvest. And I have roughly the same concealed tool tip unbuffed (no maj sorc or CA.) Could you comfortably switch out the elemental for lotus? I tend to think of my front bar as strictly melee. You could do just as much damage weaving concealed and light attack as elemental and you get the resistance bonus from the passive.

Also, curious why iceheart. I would guess to chase down nb's and just get a small shield buffer up in a brawl?

And one last thing if you don't mind. Isn't 1700 magicka recovery on the low side without something like siphoning attacks? I know that 15 seconds of aggressive fighting would leave me tapped if I was that low.

Well I was thinking I’d only be really aggressive when Onslaught was up. Otherwise cloak/stealth around with dots waiting for procs/onslaught to be up.

I’ve always liked Iceheart as a set but haven’t used it in a while. I used to use it with the asylum staff spamming crushing shock because it technically hits 3x so 3x the chance to proc. If dots can proc Iceheart, it should be a good choice. It’s like a free harness magicka so can’t be reduced by major defile.

That gives me an idea, might be best is to use the asylum staff on my back bar and mechanical acuity 2h. Issue will moreso be fitting Siphoning Abilities... hum.

The build is 100% just an idea, no idea if it will suck or not. I’ve yet to create a build I didn’t have to tweak the skills once I played it a little. Main concept is the sets to use.

So from what you guys are saying this would be an improvement?

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=166272

I think being a vampire depends on who you’re fighting. With the damage reduction when you’re low health I think it is.

I mainly see Wardens, sorcs using lightning, stamdks and Templars using lightning. You’ll get beat by MagDKs for sure, but if they aren’t a MagDK why not.

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

stamdammered wrote: »

Just a quick vent... I’ve been up and down this thread a ton and used a lot of your ideas as well my own and “meta” builds in the last two patches but as a casual player solo MagNB is just too far behind to be worth playing anymore imo. Switched over to StamNB and it’s just flat out better... higher burst and better survivability, which means more kills and the fast, fun gameplay that this class was designed for. The crazy part is it’s not over performing... just if you play well it performs well. Literally just by switching from mag to stam. Hope they figure it out as I love the dynamic rotations of the Magblade, but it’s going on the shelf for a while. Best of luck and respect to those of you sticking it out, hope to be back! For what it’s worth because it’s a theory crafting guide and I don’t want put a completely irrelevant post, I had the best luck with Spinners/Necro/BS/BRP backbar and crafty/necro/bs.

Yeah magnb is not so much a fad but a lifestyle. Yeah we get buffed sometimes and will be somewhat fotm but when it gets down and dirty people scuttle off (no offense at all) it's not an easy spec and one you need to enjoy

This patch has basically benched my mnb though. Dots will just rek a brawler type build and the cloak build is just getting eaten alive by the 11 million jab spammers on every corner.

As well as terrible sustain.