jimijac0me wrote: »

Hmm I’ve also been interested in how lotus was a nerf lol, not sure anyone used it for the dot and seems like lotus- tether will be stronger. Shade range nerf sucks though, I still find myself outside range often enough as it is

I think it’s somewhat a nerf just because other classes got minor vulnerability this patch. If you’re solo it won’t make a difference or be better, if you run in groups the patch will mean there are better sources.

Browsing through the notes I think Onslaught bombing will be better, but in group play magblades will be relatively weaker. Right now magblades are in a good spot in group play... if you spec for it... but post patch I think they’ll be weaker.

fred4 wrote: »

IMO shade range nerf was uncalled for and merely reflects the bean counter approach ZOS have recently adopted.

While shade is a cool skill, I never liked it, because the range already felt limited and because it is a toggle. Toggles are usability nightmares as soon as there is any hint of lag. Press the shade key once and nothing may happen. Press it twice and the lag is suddenly gone and you've already ported back to it and wasted it.

Shade is my favorite magblade skill! Pretty bummed it's getting nerfed but I don't think it'll break the skill.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=170445

^ This is my build in an easy to consume format. This build started to take shape some 2 years ago, and this is the current iteration.

Offensive pressure is simple: LA-weave. Just semi-charge light attacksy for about 500ms (or half a second) so that every light attack you land, the shock enchant procs. I find that it's the best dps instead of straight up LA weaving and only getting shock enchant procs every 2 seconds. Lighter on the sustain side this way too.

Kill combo happens when you have the spectral bow. So always light attack weave even on the resto bar. The full combo starts with a light attack weave RAT into weapon swap, enabling minor force and the torug's infused spell damage buff glyph on the resto staff. Then it's soul harvest => hysteria => spectral bow (all with uncharged light attack weaves that should equate to two shock enchant procs). Then after that it's LA-weave of swallow soul to execute the target. If they dont die, just do it again since the bow should be up soon.

Defense is tricky-er because positioning is very important, and defensive rotations change depending if stam is low or mag is low. But first, always have the shade up (it's the only dot that helps with maintaining magickasteal of ele drain). Doesn't have to be behind a tree or w/e (but that's ideal), it just has to be a bit away. Then the main goal is to make yspace. Never use cloak first. You'll only be revealed instantly. You want to either RAT or roll away, and then cloak. LOS also matters a lot.

In summary: it's very mobile and bursty, good recoveries, and it has decent sustained pressure with the 6k shock enchant with torug's and infused making it available every 1.5 seconds. Use RAT, dodge roll, shade to make space, then use cloak to exponentially grow the space you make.

Videos just for fun: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/493654/magblade-pvp-videos-for-fun

I’ll also add, the cast times added to soul harvest and soul tether really hurt us on 250+ ping, so I can see that I need to swing more towards attrition than burst which sucks

jimijac0me wrote: »

I’ll also add, the cast times added to soul harvest and soul tether really hurt us on 250+ ping, so I can see that I need to swing more towards attrition than burst which sucks

I know how you feel. I play on average of 250 to 300 ping as im located in SEA. What a dream it'd be to play with 200 ping or less!

zammo wrote: »

ScruffyWhiskers wrote: »

The cripple and lotus nerfs are silly though.

Look at it another way, all single target DoTs got the same treatment, every class got hurt by that, so across the board we're about equal in that regard. Lotus Fan however now puts minor vulnerability on every target hit, not just the initial target anymore. I have no problem saying that's a decent buff!

Yeah, its a buff for group play. My point was that it had acquired a decent damage component on the DOT (cripple was really effective as well) and then they went and ruined everything by going way over the top with access to mega DOTs via entropy and soul trap and the nerf hammer got swung and hit everything.

In this age of 25k+hp, huge resistances and mitigation and a declining pool of players who are new or underpowered for CP pvp, my prospects look bleaker by the day. Not everybody is afk either.

The only time DW was better than Destro staves in one way was when destro staves only counted as 1 armor piece.

When they made destro count as two, it became better than DW in every single aspect.

Iskiab wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

jimijac0me wrote: »

Out of curiousity what health are you guys running on these builds?

My exact build is here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/6312003/#Comment_6312003

Have you tried running DW on your front bar? You’ll miss ranged light attacks but see a good bump to your front bar damage skills. MH nirn, OH sharpened.

Looking again, why inner light on your back bar?

A good bump in front bar damage? Hahahahaha. You are SO wrong:

(1) Destro gives +8% single target damage. I believe that includes the procs.
(2) Destro does elemental-based light attacks that scale with magicka and spell damage, spell crit and spell pen.
(3) Full Sharpened beats Nirn, more so, since my build is about the procs not my skill damage.

So unless you're telling me there is something about how "wrong-(stamina)-weapon" light attacks now scale, that I've missed, destro light attacks and destro staff synergy with the procs far outweighs any possible skill damage gains from DW in my build.

Inner Light is my flex-spot. I like it, because the slight magicka gain improves my shields and the crit improves my heals, e.g. Swallow Soul and Healing Ward. No room for it on the front bar and also the procs don't crit anyway. Between Inner Light and Willpower I have almost 4K more magicka on the back bar. However other skills in that spot include Retreating Maneuvers, Siege Shield and Deep Thoughts in no CP.

I like Swallow Soul for IC, but for Cyro you could arguably run Cripple + Entropy or Soul Trap on the back bar this patch. What I don't like about Entropy is that blue health projectile every 2 seconds, as it can give away your cloaked position. Again it comes down the procs being the "star-feature" of the build. I don't particularly care for Major Sorcery. Indeed, I have always found Immovability potions far more effective when the other choice was a Sorcery or Brutality potion, so I don't get it from potions either.

Switching from a flame staff to DW swords is about a 10% tooltip increase....

Yep tooltip wise, DW will show the higher numbers. But tooltips are not everything. It doesn't reflect penetration.

And the fact that you can deal significant light attack weaved damage beats out any tooltip increase DW may have.

You also get to have ele drain. The most OP mag skill in the game imo.

HaruKamui wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

jimijac0me wrote: »

Out of curiousity what health are you guys running on these builds?

My exact build is here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/6312003/#Comment_6312003

Have you tried running DW on your front bar? You’ll miss ranged light attacks but see a good bump to your front bar damage skills. MH nirn, OH sharpened.

Looking again, why inner light on your back bar?

A good bump in front bar damage? Hahahahaha. You are SO wrong:

(1) Destro gives +8% single target damage. I believe that includes the procs.
(2) Destro does elemental-based light attacks that scale with magicka and spell damage, spell crit and spell pen.
(3) Full Sharpened beats Nirn, more so, since my build is about the procs not my skill damage.

So unless you're telling me there is something about how "wrong-(stamina)-weapon" light attacks now scale, that I've missed, destro light attacks and destro staff synergy with the procs far outweighs any possible skill damage gains from DW in my build.

Inner Light is my flex-spot. I like it, because the slight magicka gain improves my shields and the crit improves my heals, e.g. Swallow Soul and Healing Ward. No room for it on the front bar and also the procs don't crit anyway. Between Inner Light and Willpower I have almost 4K more magicka on the back bar. However other skills in that spot include Retreating Maneuvers, Siege Shield and Deep Thoughts in no CP.

I like Swallow Soul for IC, but for Cyro you could arguably run Cripple + Entropy or Soul Trap on the back bar this patch. What I don't like about Entropy is that blue health projectile every 2 seconds, as it can give away your cloaked position. Again it comes down the procs being the "star-feature" of the build. I don't particularly care for Major Sorcery. Indeed, I have always found Immovability potions far more effective when the other choice was a Sorcery or Brutality potion, so I don't get it from potions either.

Switching from a flame staff to DW swords is about a 10% tooltip increase....

Yep tooltip wise, DW will show the higher numbers. But tooltips are not everything. It doesn't reflect penetration.

And the fact that you can deal significant light attack weaved damage beats out any tooltip increase DW may have.

You also get to have ele drain. The most OP mag skill in the game imo.

Reaper’s mark is better than ele drain in almost every way.

By the way, you guys realize that the pen passives from destro staffs only work on destro staff abilities right?

Iskiab wrote: »

HaruKamui wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

jimijac0me wrote: »

Out of curiousity what health are you guys running on these builds?

My exact build is here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/6312003/#Comment_6312003

Have you tried running DW on your front bar? You’ll miss ranged light attacks but see a good bump to your front bar damage skills. MH nirn, OH sharpened.

Looking again, why inner light on your back bar?

A good bump in front bar damage? Hahahahaha. You are SO wrong:

(1) Destro gives +8% single target damage. I believe that includes the procs.
(2) Destro does elemental-based light attacks that scale with magicka and spell damage, spell crit and spell pen.
(3) Full Sharpened beats Nirn, more so, since my build is about the procs not my skill damage.

So unless you're telling me there is something about how "wrong-(stamina)-weapon" light attacks now scale, that I've missed, destro light attacks and destro staff synergy with the procs far outweighs any possible skill damage gains from DW in my build.

Inner Light is my flex-spot. I like it, because the slight magicka gain improves my shields and the crit improves my heals, e.g. Swallow Soul and Healing Ward. No room for it on the front bar and also the procs don't crit anyway. Between Inner Light and Willpower I have almost 4K more magicka on the back bar. However other skills in that spot include Retreating Maneuvers, Siege Shield and Deep Thoughts in no CP.

I like Swallow Soul for IC, but for Cyro you could arguably run Cripple + Entropy or Soul Trap on the back bar this patch. What I don't like about Entropy is that blue health projectile every 2 seconds, as it can give away your cloaked position. Again it comes down the procs being the "star-feature" of the build. I don't particularly care for Major Sorcery. Indeed, I have always found Immovability potions far more effective when the other choice was a Sorcery or Brutality potion, so I don't get it from potions either.

Switching from a flame staff to DW swords is about a 10% tooltip increase....

Yep tooltip wise, DW will show the higher numbers. But tooltips are not everything. It doesn't reflect penetration.

And the fact that you can deal significant light attack weaved damage beats out any tooltip increase DW may have.

You also get to have ele drain. The most OP mag skill in the game imo.

Reaper’s mark is better than ele drain in almost every way.

By the way, you guys realize that the pen passives from destro staffs only work on destro staff abilities right?

Yep I realize that, I was just saying that tooltips aren't a good metric as a general statement because penetration isn't reflected. Not specifically on the destro staff vs DW topic. I can see why my statement was confusing!


I don't think i'd slot reapers mark ever in PVP. Minor magickasteal is too good.

Im running
2 engine guardian
5 heavy impreg
5 lich fb destro
Brp resto

Refreshing path, fear, merciless resolve, swallow soul, impale, meteor.

Mist, cloak, cripple, rapid regen, ward, panacea

Dw healing is awesome on magnb. I use that with innate axiom heavy for big path and offering and tether numbers.

Similar to 2h but looks cooler imo