Larcomar wrote: »

Animation cancelling isn't as a big a thing in pvp. Between all the movement and the lag, I find an awful lot of LAs miss anyway.

Oh boy. No, just no. Magplar is a pressure class, but whether it's burst or pressure, all damage counts and you need it. You have to at least try, not least to activate your enchant(s).

geonsocal wrote: »

if you're streaking all over the place with your sorcerer ... you can go less tanky

Sure. In principle. Though on a magsorc shields make you tanky(ish) and on a stamsorc you are curiously vulnerable to ranged attacks when your Crit Surge healing falls off. I think saying this about nightblade would be more apt. I've had great results on stamsorc in low MMR BGs, but not by relying on Streak alone. You IMO need a bit of tankiness on that class (if not a one shot ganker) or, against low MMR players, Brawler and sustain works.

or using falcon's swiftness with your warden

Oh boy, again. No. Warden is a slow class and Falcon's Swiftness does little to change that. It's a bad skill. In order to feel mobile you need at least Race Against Time for the added snare removal, or you need Mist Form for tankiness and mobility.

I agree with magplar. It's overtuned at the moment, it's direct, fun, easy to play and easy to get started with. All those things. It's suited to group play and less to solo play, but the former is what you're doing in BGs. There is only one thing, but this is true for PvP in general: Templar works best, if played very aggressively. You have to be on the attack as much as possible. That only comes with experience. Templar has so much damage baked into it's spammable, it's possible to build somewhat tanky and still do decent damage. This may be the ticket for BGs, even if I'm a huge fan of sustain an mobility myself. Having good sustain in low MMR BGs has been my ticket to success more than anything, giving me the ability to stay on attack, to heal, and to dodge roll. The armor sets I like for magplar include:

On the front bar: Deadly Strike, War Maiden, Overwhelming Surge, Auroran's Thunder, Spinner's
On the back bar: Wretched Vitality (Race Against Time will activate both buffs), perhaps Rallying Cry
Monster helm: Zoal, Engine Guardian, Magma Incarnate
Mythic: Markyn, Gaze of Sithis, Wild Hunt
Leaving room for: 1x Trainee on the body
Alternative on full body (both bars): Amber Plasm, Eternal Vigor, Pariah (maybe), Aetherial Ascension (maybe)

Can't have both full monster set and mythic with the full body option.

The weapon types to consider IMO include: dual wield + resto, destro (fire or lightning) + resto, lightning staff + 1 hand and shield. Of those options lightning + 1H&S IMO makes you feel the most tanky. Don't wear Gaze of Sithis in that case. You want the ability to block.

Larcomar wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

...Falcon's Swiftness does little to change that. It's a bad skill"

Really? getting a bit off topic now, but 6 secs of major exped for 2700 mag + minor berserk / evasion for being slotted ain't bad. It's a skill I wish I had on a lot of other clases. If only so I didn't have to grind psyjic out.

Actually yes, I really mean that.

A speed skill without root/snare removal is nothing to write home about. The 6 seconds are meaningless. The low cost is meaningless. The skill is mainly useful for magicka builds who have the sustain to use it either way and will do so to prevent running down their stamina pool by sprinting less and dodge rolling less. But it needs root/snare removal. Root/snare removal means it can be used instead of a dodge roll in many cases. That's the big thing. That's how you stay alive and don't end up with low stamina, unable to break free.

If Race Against Time didn't exist, Falcon's Swiftness might be OK. However Race Against Time does exist and I always find myself reverting to that, whenever I try a theory-crafted build that includes Falcon's Swiftness. Sustaining RAT on a magicka build is not a problem. 6 seconds versus 4 seconds is meaningless, because in the situations you truly need a speed skill, you will be casting it more often than every 6 seconds to remove roots and gain that 2 second immunity anyway. 2 seconds of immunity sounds like nothing, but it's not. It's highly valuable. It's the time it takes to move out of range of DK talons or the templar Jabs snare, for example. Granted, it doesn't help against Bombard spammers, but you encounter those mostly only in organised groups, which means you're doomed on a class without Streak or Shadow Image anyway. I don't play vamps. Mist Form seems like the next step up from both RAT and Falcon's Swiftness, but I don't know much about how that plays.

What also killed Falcon's Swiftness for me was when ZOS attached the Minor Berserk passively. This means that, in order to utilise the damage buff, you now have to front bar the skill. An infuriating decision that only looks good on paper. Speed / snare removal skills play better on the back bar. You want / need the front bar space for other skills. If I'm slotting a passive skill on the front bar, it has to be Magelight or Camou Hunter for the added crit and potion flexibility. I guess you could back bar Falcon's Swiftness and use the evasion morph, but hello RAT and hello Shuffle, both better skills.

Stamina wardens could use the skill, but they need it less. They are likely wearing more pieces of medium, even today for the sustain. As a result they can sprint faster. They also have better dodge roll sustain. If they are using a bow, they get the speed from just dodge rolling. Furthermore they have access to Shuffle by wearing 5 medium. 5+ seconds of snare immunity and Major Evasion beats a speed skill on a stamina build any day. Look at how Shuffle was tuned by ZOS. The only skill left with snare immunity lasting that long. I believe that was a deliberate choice for the skill to stay relevant. Why does Deceptive Predator have Minor Evasion? It would need extra super duper Huge Evasion to bring something of comparable value, compensating for the lack of root / snare immunity and the fact that it doesn't carry to the front bar. Yes, it gives you Major Expedition, but 5+ seconds of root / snare immunity >> Major Expedition. In theory the two skills are stackable, but no one has the bar space nor could they afford the opportunity cost. You're only going to slot one or the other.

Anyhow, this is an opinion piece. Your playstyle and experience may differ, of course.