Scathing Mage vs. TBS on Melee Magicka NB

Mricci1988

Hi everyone,

Building my Magicka Melee NB and its my first time on major crafted sets...

Wanted to know if it was better to do the following for DPS focusing on a Concealed Weapon centric build.

Build is:
Magicka Melee Nightblade
Breton
Mundus: ???
Bar One: Dual Weild Swords
- Twisting Path
- Concealed Weapon
- Impale
- Dark Shades
- Inner Light
- Soul Harvest

Bar 2: Sword and Board
- Structured Entropy
- Grim Focus
- Crippling Grasp
- Proxy Det
- Inner Light
- Flex Ulti (meteor, Dawnbreaker etc.)

For gear I am debating between:
- Scathing Mage x5
- Skoria x2
- Willpower x3
- Torgus Pact Swords x2

or

- Twice Born Star x5
- Skoria x2
- Willpower x3
- 2 Torgus Swords

Does this build work at all? I mean i am not looking to do insane things like 40 - 50k DPS....I am happy with around 30k DPS....average.

What do you guys think?

Mush55

My opinion you would be better off with TBS , scathing is a damn good caster set (I use it) for a full magic dps you wont benefit doing melee in this set.

But I may be wrong, nothing stopping you making a TBS set then farming scathing set (good luck 4 months on still not a perfect set ) and trying it out..

kaithuzar

If those are your options I would vote scathing, high elf, atro (magic recovery mundus)
By the way you have almost no healing with that build...you need to heal in pvp it's not pve where you stand there & do a dps rotation.
There is an option of having very little healing, however you need higher dmg mitigation to make up for that ( you don't have the dmg mit right now so that's out of the question, pick up a resto staff...)
I would take off inner light as well.

But then again I'm using a bit a different setup in case you wanted some ideas.

5 heavy 2 light
4 elf bane, 1 kena, 5 worm cult, 2 seducer (dual wield/resto)

ScruffyWhiskers

Hey Kaithuzar,
I've been wondering about that type of build. How do you go about playing that if you don't mind me asking?

Autolycus

Skoria isn't a strong option for magblades because of low DoT ratios. In other words, we don't use enough DoTs to make the proc reliable. Scathing + Nerieneth is technically BiS for magblades, but only if you use Force Pulse (destro), meaning you're not a "melee" build. I mean, technically you can stand in melee range, but I don't think that's what you meant.

Scathing is extremely hard to get. It's only BiS if 6 of you gear (or better) are divines. If you aren't going to run Force Pulse in this build, and you aren't going to run Nerieneth, then don't bother with Scathing. You will be wasting a significant (and I mean huge) amount of time. I've been grinding for BiS Scathing for about a year now, over 300 runs. Still missing two pieces.

My recommendation would be either TBS or Julianos. Either way I would replace Skoria; I've tried it and it's lackluster for magblades.

Mush55

Didn't read the bit about skoria, you want nerieth if you want to run 2 part monster set, I use 1 kenna and 2 turogs for more spell damage on my mage blade.

Skoria works well on dual wield stam sorc due to the amount of dots you can put up.

CasNation

As @Autolycus already said, you are wasting your time with scathing if you aren't using force pulse.

Speaking of which, why aren't you using force pulse? Just aesthetic reasons or...? With either set up I think you will have trouble sustaining with the high chatty if concealed weapon.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Scathing requires 2 things on a NB to make it BIS. First you need to be weaving with force pulse, because each weave gives 4 chances for it to proc. Second, you need to be running twisting path. For whatever reason, this skill still procs scathing. It's also why NBs are pretty much the only class running this set. Force pulse alone is not enough.

You could certainly test and see. Combat metrics allows you to see your uptime on the scathing proc. If it is higher than about 60% its probably worth running over julianos at least. On my caster, it is usually in the low to mid 70's, thus making it the superior choice.

iam117

doing a melee magicka nb unfortunately wont net you really high numbers, will almost assuradely not net you 30k dps average, it is however a fun build. if your looking to do straight dps in a group environment, as a melee build, i would run this:

5x juli, 2x neri, 3x willpower, 2x torugs

bar 1 dw sharpened swords (enchant with wep dmg):

Merciless resolve, Twisting path, Cripple, Concealed Weapon, Inner Light, ULT - shooting star

bar 2 sharpened Destruction staff (or torugs dw, or if your sold on 1h/s)

Impale, Degeneration, Dark Shades, Sap Essence(swap for wall of ele for single target), Inner Light, ULT – Soul Harvest

make sure your weaving with the swords to proc enchant and merciless.

i assume your using degeneration (entropy) for the spell buff? if not, then ditch it and make that spot wall of ele. this allows you to play melee style while still using the strong dot (wall of ele) on your back bar, this will not get close to a destro build though dps output wise, but will still be fun to play. will get alot of hate if you play with the wrong folks tho. if your planning to min/max in the near future and go destro front bar, i would do 5xtbs in place of juli.