Shield Stacking Priority

tist

When stacking harness magicka and ward which will protect you first? The first cast or most recent cast.

Dracane

The one you cast first, has higher priority.
It's wise, to cast harness Magicka after your main shield, so that you make sure to get the 3 Magicka absorb ticks.

tist

I may be misunderstanding but wouldn't it be better to cast harness magicka before ward that way it procs the mana restore sooner than later.

Dracane

tist wrote: »

I may be misunderstanding but wouldn't it be better to cast harness magicka before ward that way it procs the mana restore sooner than later.

No that's the trick. Harness procs, as soon as you are hit, not when the shield itself is hit.
If you cast harness first, 1 or 2 spells can destroy it and then you don't get the full potential out of it. So you better cast it as number 2

Dracane

Dracane wrote: »

tist wrote: »

I may be misunderstanding but wouldn't it be better to cast harness magicka before ward that way it procs the mana restore sooner than later.

No that's the trick. Harness procs, as soon as you are hit, not when the shield itself is hit.
If you cast harness first, 1 or 2 spells can destroy it and then you don't get the full potential out of it, considering it's a very expensive spell . So you better cast it as number 2

tist

Oh. Very cool, thanks for the tip.

Rioht

So would the proper cycle be harness magicka, hardened ward then ward ally?

tist

According to dracane it would be hardened ward/Healing ward then Harness magicka. I dont think its wise to use healing ward as a shield at full hp because its a very small shield, you're better off just refreshing hardened ward until you lose hp.

I do have one question, if you know dracane. If I castered hardened ward then harness magicka and recasted ward before it depleted would ward still be considered priority?

Dracane

Hardened Ward>Harness Magicka>Healing ward

Because healing is a bit more important. If your healing ward gets destroyed, you won't get the heal. And Healing ward is pretty expensive, only use it when your health got hit.

And @tist Recasting hardened ward, will place Harness at position 1, so Harness will get hit instead.
Also, I wouldn't worry too much about the right rotation. Because when fighting a flame DK for example, your shields will be down after 1 second if you don't recast them after each attack. You probably won't have the time to think about rotation most important thing is: Don't let them touch your health bar, or you're 1-2 hit.

tist

Thanks for the response. I know the rotation will go out the window in the heat of battle but I enjoy the theory behind it

Erock25

@dracane does have a good point about ensuring that you get all three magicka regen procs by using Hardened Ward first, but in PVP I always cast Harness Magicka (or Dampen Magicka morph) first because this makes it so incoming spell dmg uses up Harness Magicka shield first, instead of incoming spell dmg hitting Hardened Ward first. For simplicity sake, let's say both my Hardened Ward and my Harness Magicka are 10k each. If I cast Hardened first and I take 5k Wrecking Blow, then 5k Crystal Frag, then 8k Snipe, that full 8k Snipe is hitting me unshielded. If I cast Harness Magicka first, the 5k wrecking blow reduced my Hardened Ward to 5k left, while the Crystal Frag hits my Harness Magicka, and I still have 5k Hardened Ward left over to partially mitigate that Snipe.

Dracane

Erock25 wrote: »

@dracane does have a good point about ensuring that you get all three magicka regen procs by using Hardened Ward first, but in PVP I always cast Harness Magicka (or Dampen Magicka morph) first because this makes it so incoming spell dmg uses up Harness Magicka shield first, instead of incoming spell dmg hitting Hardened Ward first. For simplicity sake, let's say both my Hardened Ward and my Harness Magicka are 10k each. If I cast Hardened first and I take 5k Wrecking Blow, then 5k Crystal Frag, then 8k Snipe, that full 8k Snipe is hitting me unshielded. If I cast Harness Magicka first, the 5k wrecking blow reduced my Hardened Ward to 5k left, while the Crystal Frag hits my Harness Magicka, and I still have 5k Hardened Ward left over to partially mitigate that Snipe.

Yes, definately a good step in big fights.

Because physical damage is by FAR more dangerous to us than magical damage. So it can be wise to absorb spells first and have the shield for physical damage, because Harness only protects against Magic.

But for this, Dampen Magic might be more usefull. But Harness is too good overall and I will not respec every time