Need help w/scribing skill in my rotation

ellmarie · October 6

I am a oakensoul magplar and have Deady & Orders. I hit my rotation like this, Solar Barrage, Magical Contingency (scribing skill), Extended Ritual, and launch Blazing Spear at group ads. Then use puncturing sweep when needed. I noticed last night that the Magical Contingency gets canceled if I use Solar Barrage or Blazing Spear.

So the Scribing skill reads: Imbue yourself with the magical runes of Ulfsild for 22 seconds. These runes trigger when you cast an ability with a cost, causing a burst of magic around you. Deals 8649 Magic Damage to enemies. Beneficial Signature and Affix scripts only apply to you. For 5 seconds, you gain 1320 Armor and 150 Weapon and Spell Damage. If Sacred Ground is active on you, these values are increased by 50%. Grants Minor Resolve for 22 seconds, increasing Physical and Spell Resistance by 2974.

So, I'm really not good with reading exactly what cancels out what. This is why I don't do dungeons much. lol.

Is there a better scribing skill for me to use then?

Solar Barrage
Conjure solar energy to blast enemies around you, dealing 435 Magic Damage every 2 seconds and increasing your damage done with class abilities by 5% for 20 seconds. While this ability is active you gain Empower, increasing the damage of your Heavy Attacks against monsters by 70%.
New effect
Deals damage in multiple blasts as damage over time around you instead of at a single enemy.

Blazing Spear
Send your spear into the heavens to bring down a shower of divine wrath, dealing 2339 Magic Damage to enemies in the area and an additional 181 Magic Damage every 1 second for 10 seconds. Enemies hit by the initial hit are immobilized for 4 seconds. An ally near the spear can activate the Blessed Shards synergy, restoring 3960 Magicka or Stamina, whichever maximum is higher.
New effect
Increases damage dealt. Initial hit immobilizes enemies.

Aurielle · October 6

ellmarie wrote: »

I am a oakensoul magplar and have Deady & Orders. I hit my rotation like this, Solar Barrage, Magical Contingency (scribing skill), Extended Ritual, and launch Blazing Spear at group ads. Then use puncturing sweep when needed. I noticed last night that the Magical Contingency gets canceled if I use Solar Barrage or Blazing Spear.

So the Scribing skill reads: Imbue yourself with the magical runes of Ulfsild for 22 seconds. These runes trigger when you cast an ability with a cost, causing a burst of magic around you. Deals 8649 Magic Damage to enemies. Beneficial Signature and Affix scripts only apply to you. For 5 seconds, you gain 1320 Armor and 150 Weapon and Spell Damage. If Sacred Ground is active on you, these values are increased by 50%. Grants Minor Resolve for 22 seconds, increasing Physical and Spell Resistance by 2974.

So, I'm really not good with reading exactly what cancels out what. This is why I don't do dungeons much. lol.

Is there a better scribing skill for me to use then?

Contingency doesn’t get cancelled when you activate another skill… read the skill description closely. Anything you cast with a cost during that 22 second window after pressing the skill causes Ulfsild’s Contingency to activate, dealing 8.6k instant burst damage and giving you class-specific buffs for 5 seconds, plus Minor Resolve for 22 seconds. You can even activate Ulfsild’s Contingency with a roll dodge. If you think it’s “getting cancelled” when you get to Solar Barrage or Blazing Spear in your rotation, it’s probably because the five second class script buff has fallen off — like it’s supposed to. If you want to keep the class script buff up at all times, you have to activate Contingency every five seconds.

Soarora · October 6

Contingency does not cancel when you cast a skill, it’s the opposite in that it casts when you cast a skill. It’s best used for applying buffs/debuffs, re-casting once those buffs/debuffs run out. What kind of content are you trying to run? Overland? PvP? Dungeons?

ellmarie · October 7

Ok, thank you both. I only do overland pve. But this was in a dungeon last night that I noticed. I just can't tell if the skill is helping my rotation or not.

Nihilr · October 9

I noticed that if you animation cancel the weaving in combat it will animate the explosion prematurely. I know this because I can see the timer isn't present on Contingency, I activate it, animation cancel and *boom* AoE effect before I LA and use the ability it's supposed to activate on.

Is that what you mean?

ellmarie · October 9

I just tried my rotation out on a WB and all was good. Even noticed when I recast solar barrage and had timer left on Contingency, that also went up along with barrage. All I do is solar, contingency and keep heavy attacking. Launch Blazing once in awhile. All was good. So I don't know what was going on in the Shipwright's Regret the other night.

Aurielle · October 10

ellmarie wrote: »

I just tried my rotation out on a WB and all was good. Even noticed when I recast solar barrage and had timer left on Contingency, that also went up along with barrage. All I do is solar, contingency and keep heavy attacking. Launch Blazing once in awhile. All was good. So I don't know what was going on in the Shipwright's Regret the other night.

What timer are you referring to, @ellmarie ? If it’s a 22 second timer with the Contingency icon, the skill hasn’t actually activated yet… That timer is just showing you how much time you have left to activate the skill. Hitting Solar Barrage, Contingency, then heavy attacking couldn’t possibly activate Contingency, because heavy attacks don’t cost anything…

Contingency is a little confusing at first compared to other skills, because when you initially click the skill (starting the 22 second timer), you have to follow up with another ability that has a magicka or stamina cost to actually activate Contingency. It’s primarily used to stack burst damage in PVP and/or activate buffs.

Edit: Quick video demonstrating how Ulfsild's Contingency works.

https://youtu.be/nMyAVT9TUUI

When you first press the skill, you'll notice a 22 second buff icon called "Ulfsild's Contingency" and your character will have a pair of yellow Mage's Guild symbols over their shoulders. The skill has not actually activated at this point and isn't dealing any damage/healing/activating any buffs, etc. If you then use any skill that does NOT have a cost (e.g. Elemental Susceptibility) or do light/heavy attacks, Contingency will remain in that inactive, unprocced state. However, when you use Contingency along with an ability that has a cost, you'll hear an explosion sound, the yellow symbols over your shoulders disappear, the 22 second buff icon disappears, and is replaced by a shorter Contingency buff (i.e. the signature script) and the skill timer on your skill bar then syncs up with whatever buff you've set for the Affix script. In my case, it's Minor Resolve.

ellmarie · October 11

Oh my thank you so much @Aurielle. This is exactly what I meant. Wow, this is why ESO is way over my head at far as skills go. And why I usually follow someone's builds because I don't know what I'm doing...I just want to do. I guess I will have to figure out another scribe skill that suits my rotation.

Aurielle · October 11

ellmarie wrote: »

Oh my thank you so much @Aurielle. This is exactly what I meant. Wow, this is why ESO is way over my head at far as skills go. And why I usually follow someone's builds because I don't know what I'm doing...I just want to do. I guess I will have to figure out another scribe skill that suits my rotation.

No problem, @ellmarie , and don’t be so hard on yourself — Ulfsild’s Contingency is unlike most other skills in the game, and it’s not exactly explained well in the tooltip. Usually, when you press a skill button in this game, the skill just automatically activates. With Contingency, pressing the skill button merely primes it for activation within 22 seconds. It can still be used effectively in PVE situations, but it’ll see most utility in PVP, where combining burst heals or burst damage is more important.

If you want a scribed skill that’s less tricky to manage with no cast times, I’d recommend playing around with Wield Soul. Maybe try it with Shock Damage, Lingering Torment, and Empower — that’ll give you a burst of shock damage on activation, shock damage over time for ten seconds, and ten seconds of Empower, which will increase the damage of your heavy attacks. Breach instead of Empower would also be a good option.

ellmarie · October 12

Thanks again @Aurielle! I do have the shock on my magsorc that I like. I was trying something different for my templar. I did have a wield soul before with Magic damage, Lingering Torment and Breach. I was hoping build something with the class mastery skill. But I like the sound of the Empower script.