1.6 changes guide break down and magicka vs stamina comments - please advise

wilsonirayb16_ESO

Is there a guide any where that discusses what the significant changes of 1.6 mean for new players trying to understand the best in-game choices to make regarding class/race/skills? And also a mention to the controversy of magicka vs stamina builds?(as it seems a lot of unhappy people who committed points to stamina?)

Messy1

wilsonirayb16_ESO wrote: »

Is there a guide any where that discusses what the significant changes of 1.6 mean for new players trying to understand the best in-game choices to make regarding class/race/skills? And also a mention to the controversy of magicka vs stamina builds?(as it seems a lot of unhappy people who committed points to stamina?)

Are you returning for welcome back beta weekend?

wilsonirayb16_ESO

Yes.

And maybe I meant to say 'unhappy people who committed points to magicka' ?
But did they not reset character points any ways?

I was intending on picking up Magicka based NB again, but then got interested in Sorcerer for PVE levelling.

skarvika

Go with a stam build unless you're playing sorc, for obvious reasons. Nightblades are also viable with magicka, but stamina seems to be better. Running a full magicka build is ESO hard mode.

wilsonirayb16_ESO

For Sorcerer I found this that discusses some specifics http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/148321/sorc-1-6-discussion/p1

In regards to stamina vs magicka, what I have gathered is that :

Melee weapons = stamina
Magicka weapons = magic

However for abilities, it's not quite as clear. NB Assassin abilities use magicka, but they simulate a physical action (stabbing). Do they count as magicka because they are 'magic daggers?'

And further your comment skarvika, I haven't committed much because I just started the character again. However you are suggesting to then focus on melee type/bow weapon skills in favor of the NB class magicka based abilities?

nikolaj.lemcheb16_ESO

The biggest change is that everything that cost stamina now use weapon damage and is resisted by physical resistance (armor).

Everything that cost magicka now use spell damage (including staff abilities) and is resisted by spell resist (+special resist like fire, poison and so on).

All classes have gotten stamina options in some of their morphs.

Light armor now give the weakest protection also against types of damage so you can no longer tank in light armor. All 3 armor types are viable now but with light you need damage shields to survive.

There are no longer any softcaps, what you see if what you get. There are still hardcaps on resistance though. This means that hybrid specs has become a lot weaker compared to pure magicka or stamina specs.

All numbers have been multiplied by 5 to 10, they used the difference in multiplication to balance things.

Health on bonuses and gear is no longer 1.5 times stamina or magicka, only 1.1.

daemonios

The new meta in 1.6 and up is go full ballista on your main attribute. If you choose magicka, pick gear sets that max your magicka and your spell power, don't bother too much with other stuff like crit or regen (you get a lot of that through champion points anyway).

Magicka sorcs are really fun now. No longer tied to light attack + crushing shock weaving, you can have more diverse builds. Just watch your health (you should have around 20k for end-game content) and survivability. Pack empowered ward if you're getting one-shotted, other than that you should be OK if you avoid heavy attacks and AoEs. Popular builds are 4 or 5x Martial Knowledge (mucho spell power) or 5x Necropotence (mucho magicka) along with Cyrodiil's light for jewelry and some other magicka/spell power sets just to complete your gear.

wilsonirayb16_ESO

daemonios wrote: »

The new meta in 1.6 and up is go full ballista on your main attribute. If you choose magicka, pick gear sets that max your magicka and your spell power, don't bother too much with other stuff like crit or regen (you get a lot of that through champion points anyway).

Magicka sorcs are really fun now. No longer tied to light attack + crushing shock weaving, you can have more diverse builds. Just watch your health (you should have around 20k for end-game content) and survivability. Pack empowered ward if you're getting one-shotted, other than that you should be OK if you avoid heavy attacks and AoEs. Popular builds are 4 or 5x Martial Knowledge (mucho spell power) or 5x Necropotence (mucho magicka) along with Cyrodiil's light for jewelry and some other magicka/spell power sets just to complete your gear.

Then isn't NB in an awkward position with class abilities being magicka based? Or should they just be used sparingly as damage augments or utility to complement weapon abilities?

daemonios

wilsonirayb16_ESO wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

The new meta in 1.6 and up is go full ballista on your main attribute. If you choose magicka, pick gear sets that max your magicka and your spell power, don't bother too much with other stuff like crit or regen (you get a lot of that through champion points anyway).

Magicka sorcs are really fun now. No longer tied to light attack + crushing shock weaving, you can have more diverse builds. Just watch your health (you should have around 20k for end-game content) and survivability. Pack empowered ward if you're getting one-shotted, other than that you should be OK if you avoid heavy attacks and AoEs. Popular builds are 4 or 5x Martial Knowledge (mucho spell power) or 5x Necropotence (mucho magicka) along with Cyrodiil's light for jewelry and some other magicka/spell power sets just to complete your gear.

Then isn't NB in an awkward position with class abilities being magicka based? Or should they just be used sparingly as damage augments or utility to complement weapon abilities?

I'm not very familiar with NB, but since 1.6 they've made it possible to morph a number of class skills so that they are stamina-based. I've seen this first-hand on my stamina DK. Not a perfect solution (since if you choose based on magicka vs. stamina cost, you lose the ability to choose based on the actual morph differences), but better than nothing.

Worstluck

wilsonirayb16_ESO wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

The new meta in 1.6 and up is go full ballista on your main attribute. If you choose magicka, pick gear sets that max your magicka and your spell power, don't bother too much with other stuff like crit or regen (you get a lot of that through champion points anyway).

Magicka sorcs are really fun now. No longer tied to light attack + crushing shock weaving, you can have more diverse builds. Just watch your health (you should have around 20k for end-game content) and survivability. Pack empowered ward if you're getting one-shotted, other than that you should be OK if you avoid heavy attacks and AoEs. Popular builds are 4 or 5x Martial Knowledge (mucho spell power) or 5x Necropotence (mucho magicka) along with Cyrodiil's light for jewelry and some other magicka/spell power sets just to complete your gear.

Then isn't NB in an awkward position with class abilities being magicka based? Or should they just be used sparingly as damage augments or utility to complement weapon abilities?

With recent changes, they have really altered the way a Nightblade can spec. Many of the skill morphs (Ambush, Killer's Blade, Surprise Attack, Power Extraction) will now use stamina and scale off of weapon damage, versus spell power and magicka. Fully specced stamina Nightblades with dual wield, two-hander, and bow are very powerful now.

Personally I stick with a magicka-based build most of the time as a Nightblade, so I don't use those mentioned morphs. Magicka will still power skills like cloak and many of the other skills, but being fully stamina-based is completely viable, and actually more powerful at the moment. With my magicka build, I am built for sustain, healing, survivability in PvP; I just don't have the burst of a stam build.

joshisanonymous

If you go magicka:

• Use abilities that cost magicka for damage because they still scale off that stat.
• Focus on spell damage, because any abilities that cost magicka rely now on spell damage, even for staves.
• Use damage shields for defense. You won't have enough stamina to be blocking or dodging constantly, but you will have the resources to keep shields up.

If you go stamina:

• Use abilities that cost stamina for damage because they still scale off that stat. (NOTE: Some class abilities now cost stamina, too.)
• Focus on weapon damage, because any abilities that cost stamina rely now on weapon damage, even if they're class abilities.
• Use dodging for defense if you're DPS, block if you're a tank. You'll probably want medium armor if you're DPS, which makes almost constant dodging a real possibility, but you'll chew through your stamina quickly if you're blocking. However, if you're a tank, you'll probably be using heavy armor, which means the opposite: dodging will cost a lot but you can potentially block constantly.

If you go health:

• I'm not too sure. I'm trying it right now on my nightblade as a tank using heavy armor and I feel pretty impenetrable in PvE, even when not blocking, but I run low on my offensive stats pretty easily. It's mostly a matter of figuring out how to keep those up moreso than figuring out how to do damage. Damage is basically out of the question, which is okay, because, ya know, I'm a tank.

wilsonirayb16_ESO

Thanks all so far the answers and there's some great tips in here too.

I see what you mean about the morphs altering the base requirement to stamina, however obviously not ideal since it eats up a skill point and of course takes away the other option in the morph tree. Do ALL NB abilities have a 'use stamina' morph, or just some?


Currently I am running around with a bow(reminds me, need a better on). My hotbar consists of Poison Arrow, Assassin's Blade, Teleport Strike, Strife and Shadow Cloak. I haven't spent any attribute points yet. Armor is a mixture of green L/M/H with mostly magicka stats but some health/stamina. EDIT: Any crafters got some hand me downs : )?

It is early days, but it feels like all of these aren't necessary. I start out with sneak + heavy white attack + poison arrow. Then another heavy white attack. By then the mob is often quite low and I can finish it off with another heavy white attack, a teleport strike + assassin's blade, or wait for it to get to me and throw another assassin's blade. If it's two mobs, I tend to start out the same, but after the poison arrow on the first mob, I hit it with Strife. Then I teleport strike the second mob, stealth and then throw out some combination of Assassin's Blade and a few white hits from the bow.

The single target fight is pretty static and has the same rotation 99% of the time. The multi mob encounters kinda start out the same as I detailed, but can change quite drastically at any given time. On the one hand I like that, though I realize that's mainly because I am not working to a perfect rotation - and that's ok.

I just wonder if I'm wasting my time and should try to be more specific about what I am doing. Strife seems very weak, and I can't tell if it stacks by using it more than once - so in terms of self sustainability - how do I increase my life span? I don't really like being a potion popper and stealth lasts so short, it seems underwhelming for solo PVE.




I guess a more important question would have been, is there any drawback to staying Magicka NB. So far you've said it outputs less damage, but for levelling up?