HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

So per feedback from this thread I have shadowy disguise another try instead of dark cloak. Running Necro + lich + skoria for BGs. Haven’t dropped below a mil damage in about 4 games. stealth seems much more reliable and my shadow image is there for the oh *** moments. Working very well, high damage, decent healing, good group CC. Still feel like magblade needs some sort of change to swallow soul but idk what. Maybe even if they dodge you still heal or something, idk.

fred4 wrote: »

Neloth wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

So per feedback from this thread I have shadowy disguise another try instead of dark cloak. Running Necro + lich + skoria for BGs. Haven’t dropped below a mil damage in about 4 games. stealth seems much more reliable and my shadow image is there for the oh *** moments. Working very well, high damage, decent healing, good group CC. Still feel like magblade needs some sort of change to swallow soul but idk what. Maybe even if they dodge you still heal or something, idk.

just curious, what do you run to proc skoria reliably? I feel like all NBs dots are kind of weak and not worth slotting.

FWIW, I'm currently running Debilitate to control players and for the sustain. Lotus Fan also has a DOT, but is used for the Vulnerability and, in my case, to proc Caluurion.

Daffen wrote: »

Neloth wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Neloth wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

So per feedback from this thread I have shadowy disguise another try instead of dark cloak. Running Necro + lich + skoria for BGs. Haven’t dropped below a mil damage in about 4 games. stealth seems much more reliable and my shadow image is there for the oh *** moments. Working very well, high damage, decent healing, good group CC. Still feel like magblade needs some sort of change to swallow soul but idk what. Maybe even if they dodge you still heal or something, idk.

just curious, what do you run to proc skoria reliably? I feel like all NBs dots are kind of weak and not worth slotting.

FWIW, I'm currently running Debilitate to control players and for the sustain. Lotus Fan also has a DOT, but is used for the Vulnerability and, in my case, to proc Caluurion.

I see. In my opinion Elem drain > Debilitate, and lotus fan is extremely broken this patch, since it doesn't activate half the time when the target moves from it's range or LoSes, that's why I asked.

Also, infused shock frontbar > lotus fan, gives ability to slot inner light for more damage. Every magblade uses this skill setup: Ele drain, merciless, inner light, swallow soul, fear, incap/soul

brandonv516 wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

So per feedback from this thread I have shadowy disguise another try instead of dark cloak. Running Necro + lich + skoria for BGs. Haven’t dropped below a mil damage in about 4 games. stealth seems much more reliable and my shadow image is there for the oh *** moments. Working very well, high damage, decent healing, good group CC. Still feel like magblade needs some sort of change to swallow soul but idk what. Maybe even if they dodge you still heal or something, idk.

Weaker heals should not overwrite the HoT.

So if I crit Swallow Soul for 12k, that should be the number I get my heal % from for the next 10s.

Anything higher should overwrite, anything lower should be negated.

OR

Just make it every 1s.

Daffen wrote: »

WacArnold wrote: »

Has anyone tried hitis hearth? I tryed dark shade and loved it for duels, but for open world i feel naked without cloak to get away from multiple people. Hitis gives 1000 recov every second and dark cloak gave me 1300.

This would only be for open world but right now i have to slot some kind of heal besides rapid, with dark cloak i didnt need that extra heal in a 1v1 so i could open a skill slot up. But even in a 1v1 i felt as though i needed the extra defense from dark cloak to survive against high damage because if i get pinned down its hard to recover.

Anyways what im trying to do is to keep the same build as i was using in duels with dark cloak except with different gear to be able to use cloak for open world. I used zdans build for duels which was new moon/lich/troll and potentate rings.

Using hitis i could use it back bar keep potentates rings. I loose 8% dr front bar but keep it on my back and loose the lich proc. What i gain is the use of cloak. The 8% front bar kind of sucks. But im not so worried about lich because with ele drain and siphoning attacks lich hardly ever procs anyways.

I know this is not the best setup, however im not very good at 1vx unless the opponents suck lol so i just cloak out of those situations anyways. In 1v1 fights i like to stay out of stealth and fight but have to have cloak when i get jumped to get out of trouble. In a 1v1 i could manage with that sustain so the only thing i would miss is the 8% dr on the front bar but keep it with temporal on back.

i hate farming dungeon sets esp weps, so im just trying to get a feel if its worth it.

Like i said open world only in duels i would use dark cloak and bgs i stack damage.

Hiti's is definately a good set, after pvping as a magblade ive come to a few conclusions: orzorga is best food for 1vx if you are not using bloodspawn, necropotence with orzorga is better than lich with sugar skulls, hiti's is better than necropotence if you used troll king with necro as you can slot an offensive monster set and put potentates.

Heres the builds ive theorycrafted and used as well as zdan's setup.
Zdan: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=215184
Necro: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=218116
Hiti's: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=218788

Ive also tried swapping necro with bright throat but i had too low stam sustain and i kepy dying because of it. Hitis was a pain to farm, i spent 5 hours doing the dungeon on normal mode just go get the resto staff.

A tip for doing 1vx on magblade is to always keep you shade up and fight out of sight from it while still beeing in range (easiest to do in towers) that way if you get bursted down you are able to teleport away and heal up. Another tip is to not use your merciless resolve proc once you have 5 stacks, the reason is that the 10% damage mitigation it gives you is really strong and its better to use it once you have a target in low hp and you are sure to hit.

Theres different combos that work against different players: test their reaction when they get feared, do they break free fast? Do they roll dodge straight away? Are they blocking straight away? If they are slow to break free you are able to soul harvest - fear - merciless and most likely kill them, if they roll dodge straight away they will probably roll dodge after soul harvest therefore i reccomend soul harvest - swallow soul - either fear or merciless after they roll dodge - merciless if u feared them.

Against blocking targets it becomes a little bit harder to finnish them off (the reason i like zaan) it really depends on if they block after soul harvest or not, if they only block when they are low hp you can use this combo soul harvest - merciless - fear - swallow soul, if you are lucky and merciless crits they will be around 20% health and they will block which is why we fear them so you are able to hit the last swallow soul or two. I also reccomend trying different combos and switch up your combo so that the enemy cant predict what you might do next.

Before you start your combo its important to see how tanky they are and bring their hp down to the % health where they dont heal up straight away and they will die from your combo and keep your buffs and debuffs up. Against really tanky targets that deal low damage i reccomend baiting them to overextend and not look at their health. An example of this is to drop your health down to 50% and act like you are going defensive while still damaging them, and right before your combo drop down to as low health without dying (depends on their damage) this method will most likely bring your target down to 40% hp and they will forget about their armor buffs and hots making it much easier for you to secure your kill.

fred4 wrote: »

Just to add a few thoughts on how to balance a build for damage, sustain and survivability. Pick two. Only half kidding.

Where does your survivability come from? Be clear about your playstyle. You can:

(A) Shield. Stack magicka. A good way to get damage and survivability, even if ultimately sorcs and magicka wardens are better at this.

(B) Become somewhat tanky without investing into tanky sets. Merciless Resolve: -10% damage, on and off. Shadow Image: -15% damage reduction in a duel. Blessing of Potentates: -5% damage from players, either back bar or on both bars by using a set, such as Lich, on the back bar. Temporal Guard: -8% damage on back bar.

(C) Avoid damage by being fast and elusive. Shadow Image, Cloak, Race Against Time, Swift jewelry, Concealed Weapon on Cloak bar, stamina sustain.

I wouldn't wear a tanky set on magblade. You could try Armor Master, but at any rate I go for sustain, especially stamina sustain. Having 1K stam regen for dodge rolls and break free lets you stay in the fight for longer, otherwise it is prudent to disengage more frequently and that's no fun. Dodge rolling is also a good defense. If there is a choice between wearing, for example 1x Mighty Chudan for more resistances or 1x Bloodspawn for stam regen, I choose the latter these days. I was also running Eternal Hunt on magblade until recently.

I tend to sacrifice a lot of damage to enable my playstyle. In terms of going toe to toe with good players, you probably have to go for a more traditional playstyle, using the Shade and Merciless. Investing into the opposite stat or investing into speed via Swift jewelry seems to always result in a sub-optimal build, damage-wise. This is because to get a really hard hitting build, percent multipliers come into play, such as the 8% mag from slotting a Siphoning skill plus 7% from Inner Light, or the 20% spell damage from Major Sorcery, as well as the resource multipliers from CP. These tend to pay off when you fully invest into one approach, such as stacking magicka. For example you can quite easily build for 50K+ magicka in CP, giving you much better shields and high damage. As soon as you don't fully commit to that, say because you wear Caluurion, you tend to compromise your build a lot.

fred4 wrote: »

Yeah, I forgot about the healing. Magblade isn't good at it anymore. I stack what I can. This includes:

Siphoning Attacks.
(BRP) Healing Ward or Rapid Regen, take your pick.
Swallow Soul is still the spammable of choice, due to the heal.
That Infused Restore Health enchant.
The health regen from gold food.

I now also have Barrier, though am not planning on using it actively. The problem with the above is that most of the heals come from being on the attack, but most other classes now play that game better. You're really scraping the bottom of the barrel for healing on a cloaking magblade. Every other class can do the same and has better heal(s) stacked on top. If you think you can face tank someone even for a few seconds and outheal them, you have another thing coming.