Magicka Chars using Stam/Melee Weapons???

iC0UNT_6SH0Tz

Okay so I'm pretty new to ESO and have been looking at guides to research before I dive in on what I want to be my main char.

I've noticed some people making magicka builds (nightblade/sorc) using stamina weapons with or without skills. For the magicka nightblade what would intise someone to use duel wield. For the magicka sorc the guy only used defensive posture from sword and board with all passives. I understand this a little more but wouldn't magicka Chars benefit more from using staves?

Sorry if this has already been discussed. But some of the builds are new and I didn't want to dig through outdated posts with the new thieves guild updates.

kojou

Sword and Shield provides the same spell power as a staff, but with the addition of extra protection, so if you don't need the ranged weapon and only use class skills this works.

Dual Wield has a twin blade and blunt passive that works with swords for all magicka abilities effectively increasing spell power over staffs.

The disadvantage of both is that heavy attacks return stamina, and you have to be in melee range to weave light or heavy attacks, but for class AoE skills and Sorc overload this is a non issue.

Personally I would like to see a Light Armor passive that increases spell damage while a staff is equipped to make it more comparable to using Dual Wield, but I don't think that the way it is is unbalanced.

Also, I sometimes run my nightblade in PvP as a Magicka-Melee with dual wield, and I am sure I am not the only one.

Lynx7386

From what I've been told, dual swords will give you much higher spell power than either type of staff, as well as an extra item for set bonuses. On the negative side, you lose ranged attacks and the magic regeneration from the staff.

Using a shield is purely a defensive boost, but for a light armor character that shield can double your armor and resistances.

iC0UNT_6SH0Tz

Thanks for the replies! Might give the sword and board a try with my sorc I just started

Lynx7386

Yea i keep tossing around the idea of a light armor, dual sword / 1h+shield dragon knight, I just can't decide if it's a class I'll stick with

Forestd16b14_ESO

Long story short dual wielding gives the most spell power.

Yes dual wielding 2 swords gives more magic power than a magical staff.

Lynx7386

I really am starting to wonder how effective a "hybrid" dragon knight might be in that setup.

Using dual wield you have the highest base spell power and weapon damage.
Using igneous weapons you get +20% damage to both weapons and spells.
Slotting flames of oblivion increases both spell crit and weapon crit.

It seems like there's a good synergy here for a dragonknight to focus mostly (or entirely) on magicka while using melee weapons and still getting a fair bit of use out of light/heavy attacks.

Does anyone think this is viable? At the very least for soloing and occasional pvp?

Waffennacht

Lynx7386 wrote: »

I really am starting to wonder how effective a "hybrid" dragon knight might be in that setup.

Using dual wield you have the highest base spell power and weapon damage.
Using igneous weapons you get +20% damage to both weapons and spells.
Slotting flames of oblivion increases both spell crit and weapon crit.

It seems like there's a good synergy here for a dragonknight to focus mostly (or entirely) on magicka while using melee weapons and still getting a fair bit of use out of light/heavy attacks.

Does anyone think this is viable? At the very least for soloing and occasional pvp?

It will work until late game. Light and heavy attacks are based on spell damage (for staff) or weapon damage (dw, two handed etc)

Edit: and abilities scale off of their cost type. So if an ability costs stamina, its effectiveness is determined by how much stamina you have and your weapon damage. So when you hybrid you are not getting the maximum out of any particular ability

At some point the power gained through specialized actions greatly surpasses hybridization.

You'll wanna go either all magicka or all stam at some point.

The reasons the abilities state both spell damage and weapon damage is so the ability doesn't become exclusive to just one build set up. This way either a magicka or stam based dk can use the ability.

x_t7ink_x

Lynx7386 wrote: »

I really am starting to wonder how effective a "hybrid" dragon knight might be in that setup.

Using dual wield you have the highest base spell power and weapon damage.
Using igneous weapons you get +20% damage to both weapons and spells.
Slotting flames of oblivion increases both spell crit and weapon crit.

It seems like there's a good synergy here for a dragonknight to focus mostly (or entirely) on magicka while using melee weapons and still getting a fair bit of use out of light/heavy attacks.

Does anyone think this is viable? At the very least for soloing and occasional pvp?

I'm a hybrid tank which works wonders - but not for dps, without more of one or the other you will never get the damage output as a pure stam dk or a magic dk

Lynx7386

Yea but I'm saying that for a magicka dk,you can get enough boosts to weapon attacks to make light/heavy weaving with dual swords a viable option.

iC0UNT_6SH0Tz

Waffennacht wrote: »

Lynx7386 wrote: »

I really am starting to wonder how effective a "hybrid" dragon knight might be in that setup.

Using dual wield you have the highest base spell power and weapon damage.
Using igneous weapons you get +20% damage to both weapons and spells.
Slotting flames of oblivion increases both spell crit and weapon crit.

It seems like there's a good synergy here for a dragonknight to focus mostly (or entirely) on magicka while using melee weapons and still getting a fair bit of use out of light/heavy attacks.

Does anyone think this is viable? At the very least for soloing and occasional pvp?

It will work until late game. Light and heavy attacks are based on spell damage (for staff) or weapon damage (dw, two handed etc)

Edit: and abilities scale off of their cost type. So if an ability costs stamina, its effectiveness is determined by how much stamina you have and your weapon damage. So when you hybrid you are not getting the maximum out of any particular ability

At some point the power gained through specialized actions greatly surpasses hybridization.

You'll wanna go either all magicka or all stam at some point.

The reasons the abilities state both spell damage and weapon damage is so the ability doesn't become exclusive to just one build set up. This way either a magicka or stam based dk can use the ability.

So by the effectiveness of the skill, it this just based on attacks? For example stamina dks have a few stamina morphs in the ardent flame skill line so these will obviously be more effective. But since magicka will be the base stat, will this cause utility skills which cost magicka to be less effective: ie shields, talons, etc

f047ys3v3n

For some reason zos decided in 1.6 to make some weapon configurations worth a lot more in terms of base spell power than others. dual weild is like 400 more than destro staff. Since the destro staff abilities, particularly elemental ring for AOE, are not very good, and the passives only effect those abilities, it dosent make much sense to use the staff over dual weild which will give you higher spell power and an extra set peice bonus. For this reason templars and nighblades are usually dual weild on the aoe bar. Sword and shiled give the same spell power as a staff but adds a lot of armor, an extra full power resource enchant, and an extra peice of gear for a set bonus. I should also mention that stam skills that add buffs like say major expedition on one of the dual weild skills are unscalled and therefore as good for a magica as stamina user. These kind of skills exist in both the dual weild and sword and sheild line.

So yes, most pve magica players have a dual weild bar and many pvp players have a sword and sheild bar. Almost no one is destro / destro. There are probably more players with no destro (many templars are this way) than players with destro / destro (some sorcs and maybe dks?.) Magica is, in my opinion, better for most things than stamina but the destro line is itself weak.