Quick advice on armour needed - Heavy VS Medium for magicka users

Khenarthi

Hello to all awesome theorycrafters and experienced players.

My favourite character, and the only one currently at V16, is a Khajiit magicka Nightblade. She will never do the amount of DPS a Khajiit stamblade can reach, but she can solo all soloable things easily and bring a fair amount of support to a group in Cyrodiil, IC, or Public Dungeons, where there is more flexibility than in Group Dungeons. I don’t do the latter, so I will not get the passive that would make her benefit from getting one medium armour plus one heavy armour item into the mix (from the Undaunted skill line).

As soon as I gather all the necessary materials, and when Orsinium comes out, I will craft some new armour– going for 5X Twice Born Star for the 4 small pieces + head in light armour, and then probably Law of Julianos on the rest.

So far I have been using a 5x Seducer + 3/4 Magnus set with body and legs in heavy armour, but without any passives into the Heavy Armour skill, and I’ve been doing well enough.

At this point, how much of a benefit would I get by creating the chest and leg items in Medium rather than Heavy? I like having more stamina and stam regen than your average mage, so I can sneak like a pro and roll dodge a few extra times, but will this have a big impact in surviving a direct attack?

Any constructive advice will be greatly appreciated.

Flaminir

TBH my advice for a magicka mage without the Undaunted passive would be to go for 7 light.

You will get extra spell resistance, and TBH the benefit in terms of protection from just 2 pieces of heavy isn't all that big.... especially since they doubled the armor & spell resistances of light armor in the last patch.

I'd rather have the 6% cost reduction, 8% magicka regen, and extra spell resistance.

In terms of sustain that's a lot.

You can always swap some attributes over to stamina if you really want more of that quite easily... but its pretty hard to get those magicka sustain stats elsewhere other than using light armor.

Also... the benefits from medium.... anybody can sneak... especially with the 40% reduced cost from Legerdemain skill line (If you haven't levelled it... go steal stuff! ;o) Its the best way to be able to sneak... even full medium armor cant compare to this). And reducing the roll dodge cost by just 8%... that is going to make v little difference with the size of your stamina pool as a magicka build.

As a magicka build if you start splitting your resources away from magicka you start becoming weaker... and as a starting position Khajits have no passives to help your magicka, and you don't have the extra magicka from the Undaunted skill line... so I wouldn't suggest diluting it further if it were me.

Jbugz97

Flaminir wrote: »

TBH my advice for a magicka mage without the Undaunted passive would be to go for 7 light.

You will get extra spell resistance, and TBH the benefit in terms of protection from just 2 pieces of heavy isn't all that big.... especially since they doubled the armor & spell resistances of light armor in the last patch.

I'd rather have the 6% cost reduction, 8% magicka regen, and extra spell resistance.

In terms of sustain that's a lot.

You can always swap some attributes over to stamina if you really want more of that quite easily... but its pretty hard to get those magicka sustain stats elsewhere other than using light armor.

Also... the benefits from medium.... anybody can sneak... especially with the 40% reduced cost from Legerdemain skill line (If you haven't levelled it... go steal stuff! ;o) Its the best way to be able to sneak... even full medium armor cant compare to this). And reducing the roll dodge cost by just 8%... that is going to make v little difference with the size of your stamina pool as a magicka build.

As a magicka build if you start splitting your resources away from magicka you start becoming weaker... and as a starting position Khajits have no passives to help your magicka, and you don't have the extra magicka from the Undaunted skill line... so I wouldn't suggest diluting it further if it were me.

you know what ive been running with 2 medium for a while know and after reading your reply i think i might go home and try 7 light armor again see the different.

Khenarthi

Flaminir wrote: »

TBH my advice for a magicka mage without the Undaunted passive would be to go for 7 light.

You will get extra spell resistance, and TBH the benefit in terms of protection from just 2 pieces of heavy isn't all that big.... especially since they doubled the armor & spell resistances of light armor in the last patch.

I'd rather have the 6% cost reduction, 8% magicka regen, and extra spell resistance.

In terms of sustain that's a lot.

You can always swap some attributes over to stamina if you really want more of that quite easily... but its pretty hard to get those magicka sustain stats elsewhere other than using light armor.

Also... the benefits from medium.... anybody can sneak... especially with the 40% reduced cost from Legerdemain skill line (If you haven't levelled it... go steal stuff! ;o) Its the best way to be able to sneak... even full medium armor cant compare to this). And reducing the roll dodge cost by just 8%... that is going to make v little difference with the size of your stamina pool as a magicka build.

As a magicka build if you start splitting your resources away from magicka you start becoming weaker... and as a starting position Khajits have no passives to help your magicka, and you don't have the extra magicka from the Undaunted skill line... so I wouldn't suggest diluting it further if it were me.

This is excellent advice - I usually read the patch notes but had somehow missed it... found it now on patch notes for version 2.1.4.

This Khajiit is my little overachiever - she has Legerdemain maxed (as well as being able to craft everything) so I do get a sneaking bonus there.

Thank you @Flaminir !

FriedEggSandwich

Not sure if it would be different for a khajit NB but as an altmer sorc I wear 2x heavy and 5x light. I have 34k magicka, 3k spell damage buffed and 1900 regen unbuffed. My spell res is 21k with nirnhoned firstaff and my physical res is 17k, both those resistances are buffed with boundless storm though. Thanks to the heavy armour passives I get 100 magicka and stamina back when I'm hit every 4 seconds, and some health and health regen. It works well for me, feel much tankier with no wards and don't feel like I sacrificed too much regen. But like I said; no idea if this would work well for a khajit NB.

Jade1986

I would say 5 light 2 heavy. No sense using medium armor as a magic user. Light for magic dps and those 2 heavy pieces for some more survivability.

hardcore_gmr

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

Not sure if it would be different for a khajit NB but as an altmer sorc I wear 2x heavy and 5x light. I have 34k magicka, 3k spell damage buffed and 1900 regen unbuffed. My spell res is 21k with nirnhoned firstaff and my physical res is 17k, both those resistances are buffed with boundless storm though. Thanks to the heavy armour passives I get 100 magicka and stamina back when I'm hit every 4 seconds, and some health and health regen. It works well for me, feel much tankier with no wards and don't feel like I sacrificed too much regen. But like I said; no idea if this would work well for a khajit NB.

Altmer has highest magic potential, best magic regen and sorc has best spell damage skills, nice magic regen skills, and best class passives for magic. You aren't even maxed and you probably are at about what a nightblade is capable of at max. You picked what some consider to be the master combo for magic users, sorc and altmer. It's not really fair to compare a stam race magic user to the master combo for magic

Reeko

If you prefer to solo then stay with 5 light and 2 heavy. That extra resist goes further than you think. Make them reinforced too and you really see the difference! You say you have none of the heavy passives yet are talking about the medium armor passives? That is where you sorta lost me.

Sadly that undaunted passive is very much needed for you. I myself play a Khajiit magicka nightblade and as one i highly recommend going for the Undaunted passive. 6% to all your stats is HUGE! And then if you get the passives for all 3 armors your really noticing a difference!

Khenarthi

Thank you all for your input.

Reeko wrote: »

If you prefer to solo then stay with 5 light and 2 heavy. That extra resist goes further than you think. Make them reinforced too and you really see the difference! You say you have none of the heavy passives yet are talking about the medium armor passives? That is where you sorta lost me.

Sadly that undaunted passive is very much needed for you. I myself play a Khajiit magicka nightblade and as one i highly recommend going for the Undaunted passive. 6% to all your stats is HUGE! And then if you get the passives for all 3 armors your really noticing a difference!

So far I have been using 2 pieces heavy, but with the last big patch respec I forgot to put in those passives. I can survive well enough even like this so I thought I might be able to swap to medium, since I prefer its looks and the passive abilities it would give. I just do not know how much squishier this will make me.

For the Undaunted, I am afraid I will be stuck at 4 for a very long time. The last time I did a Group Dungeon was over a year ago (I got all the normal dungeons plus the first two vet dungeons completed only) and I remember it being a lot of pressure, people running ahead without giving me time to regen, no time to read the dialogs... not to mention some moaning about my character choices. I do not wish to gimp the group in such a stressful environment, so I just stopped doing these altogether.

Reeko

Khenarthi wrote: »

Thank you all for your input.

Reeko wrote: »

If you prefer to solo then stay with 5 light and 2 heavy. That extra resist goes further than you think. Make them reinforced too and you really see the difference! You say you have none of the heavy passives yet are talking about the medium armor passives? That is where you sorta lost me.

Sadly that undaunted passive is very much needed for you. I myself play a Khajiit magicka nightblade and as one i highly recommend going for the Undaunted passive. 6% to all your stats is HUGE! And then if you get the passives for all 3 armors your really noticing a difference!

So far I have been using 2 pieces heavy, but with the last big patch respec I forgot to put in those passives. I can survive well enough even like this so I thought I might be able to swap to medium, since I prefer its looks and the passive abilities it would give. I just do not know how much squishier this will make me.

For the Undaunted, I am afraid I will be stuck at 4 for a very long time. The last time I did a Group Dungeon was over a year ago (I got all the normal dungeons plus the first two vet dungeons completed only) and I remember it being a lot of pressure, people running ahead without giving me time to regen, no time to read the dialogs... not to mention some moaning about my character choices. I do not wish to gimp the group in such a stressful environment, so I just stopped doing these altogether.

Yes but that was a year ago. Get some friends or guildies together. You only really need to do 1 dungeon a day. 2 if you want silver key and lvl it up abit faster. It does not take long at all trust me. Just get 3 peeps you are comfortable with. Pugs can be ok too just keep telling yourself its once a day lol

Khenarthi

Reeko wrote: »

Khenarthi wrote: »

Thank you all for your input.

Reeko wrote: »

If you prefer to solo then stay with 5 light and 2 heavy. That extra resist goes further than you think. Make them reinforced too and you really see the difference! You say you have none of the heavy passives yet are talking about the medium armor passives? That is where you sorta lost me.

Sadly that undaunted passive is very much needed for you. I myself play a Khajiit magicka nightblade and as one i highly recommend going for the Undaunted passive. 6% to all your stats is HUGE! And then if you get the passives for all 3 armors your really noticing a difference!

So far I have been using 2 pieces heavy, but with the last big patch respec I forgot to put in those passives. I can survive well enough even like this so I thought I might be able to swap to medium, since I prefer its looks and the passive abilities it would give. I just do not know how much squishier this will make me.

For the Undaunted, I am afraid I will be stuck at 4 for a very long time. The last time I did a Group Dungeon was over a year ago (I got all the normal dungeons plus the first two vet dungeons completed only) and I remember it being a lot of pressure, people running ahead without giving me time to regen, no time to read the dialogs... not to mention some moaning about my character choices. I do not wish to gimp the group in such a stressful environment, so I just stopped doing these altogether.

Yes but that was a year ago. Get some friends or guildies together. You only really need to do 1 dungeon a day. 2 if you want silver key and lvl it up abit faster. It does not take long at all trust me. Just get 3 peeps you are comfortable with. Pugs can be ok too just keep telling yourself its once a day lol

I still dislike the mere thought of these activities, so if I force myself to do it, ESO starts feeling like a second job instead of something I do to relax after getting home from work... it defeats the purpose of playing, for me.

For now I will stick to 2H+5L... eventually when more mats become availavle I may try 7L just to see how ot goes.