Took my mDK to full-out PVP mode: Need suggestions

Savos_Saren

Hey guys! I decided to dedicate my mDK to PVP and I'd like any suggestions that you have for ways to increase his stats. His health is about 5,000 points lower because he's not in Cyrodiil (missing the Battle Spirit bonus)



He's wearing 5 BSW, 5 Kagrenac, 2 Skoria.

Armitas

Pretty standard sets but we usually couple them with a sustain set if solo. If you are using any health or stamina glyphs replace it and one magicka with two prism glyphs. That will result in more total stats without any loss.

Savos_Saren

I've got all prismatic enchantments on all of my gear. Are you saying that I should replace a couple of them with a purely magicka glyph?

Calboy

You NEED to implement sustain into your build otherwise, although initially it will be very fun, you will run out very quickly and be worthless.

Savos_Saren

Calboy wrote: »

You NEED to implement sustain into your build otherwise, although initially it will be very fun, you will run out very quickly and be worthless.

@Calboy
1135 Magicka recovery isn't enough sustain? How much should I have?

Calboy

Well I mix and match alot but like to run with 5l/2h with seducer and spinners using all damage glyphs and witch mothers for extra sustain so I'm sitting at around 1800ish maybe 1900, can't remember. I like sustain in pvp though because I'm generally roaming solo and I've had too many fights on my dk in other sets that just end up with me running out of magicka and then it's pretty much game over.

Tbh, everyone has differing play styles and you will soon find what works for you.

NBrookus

jaburns wrote: »

Calboy wrote: »

You NEED to implement sustain into your build otherwise, although initially it will be very fun, you will run out very quickly and be worthless.

@Calboy
1135 Magicka recovery isn't enough sustain? How much should I have?

In group play where I am heavily CC'ing and rooting, I run 1800-2000.

EldritchPenguin

NBrookus wrote: »

jaburns wrote: »

Calboy wrote: »

You NEED to implement sustain into your build otherwise, although initially it will be very fun, you will run out very quickly and be worthless.

@Calboy
1135 Magicka recovery isn't enough sustain? How much should I have?

In group play where I am heavily CC'ing and rooting, I run 1800-2000.

How do you even get to 2,000 recovery? Shroud of the Lich?

Armitas

jaburns wrote: »

I've got all prismatic enchantments on all of my gear. Are you saying that I should replace a couple of them with a purely magicka glyph?

No, you have good and healthy max stats. I was trying to think of a way to increase them but that move only works if you have two differing max stats. With two differing enchantments you can switch to prismatic and break even on the prior stats while gaining a new one. You are not in that situation so keep what you have. You may however want to put a max Magicka enchant on your shield rather than prism since the max health and max stam will fluctuate every time you bar swap.

Bandit1215

I recommend dropping kagrenacs for desert rose to get some good sustain

psychotic13

Stats are pretty good, what weapon do you run on your back bar?

BlackMadara

1100 mag recovery in 5 heavy is essentially 1550 mag recovery if you're hit every 4 seconds. This is manageable depending on your play style but you will feel strain in stressful situations or if you spam high cost skills. You can use ults for resources, but that may be too inconsistent. You can work around the low recovery by using low cost skills like embers more frequently to stay topped off then using higher cost skills like talons or deep breath when setting up a kill combo with meteor. Slotting a resto (or next patch a ice staff) can net you recovery with heavy attacks but thats dangerous.

When you are in situations that you have to spam defensive skills (igneous, db, mist form, deep breath) you will run low. This is the main reason I've decided to use a sustain set on my heavy dk. Until I can get the right pieces in desert rose, I've been running a 5L set up that I'm in love with.

Savos_Saren

@psychotic13

I run a BSW inferno staff on my back bar. I use: Dragon Fire Scales, Force Pulse, Inner Light, Molten Armaments, Elemental Blockade, and Meteor as my ultimate.

On my Sword and Board front bar, I use: Burning Embers, Flame Lash, Volatile Armor, Burning Talons, Petrify, and Devouring Swarm as my ultimate.

I'm excited about the upcoming changes. Though scales will get a nerf... all of my destro abilities increase in damage. Volatile Armor will get a buff and so does my Flame Lash. (Though, I'm thinking about changing my Flame Lash to Molten Whip to increase the damage/heals from Burning Embers!)

Everything's situational, too. Sometimes, I replace Molten Armaments with Elusive Mist before rushing in a keep. When we're facing zergs- I'll replace Petrify with Eruption. I'm definitely going to test the new ultimate, Ferocious Leap, since it will now have fire damage.

@BlackMadara

You're absolutely right. I've survived pretty intensive fights by "tagging" multiple enemies with Burning Embers and locking them down with Talons. My sustain does benefit from the 5 heavy pieces, too!

NBrookus

EldritchPenguin wrote: »

NBrookus wrote: »

jaburns wrote: »

Calboy wrote: »

You NEED to implement sustain into your build otherwise, although initially it will be very fun, you will run out very quickly and be worthless.

@Calboy
1135 Magicka recovery isn't enough sustain? How much should I have?

In group play where I am heavily CC'ing and rooting, I run 1800-2000.

How do you even get to 2,000 recovery? Shroud of the Lich?

75 points in arcanist + a set with 2 recovery bonuses (Seducer) + Witchmother = about 1900. The loss of stam versus running tri-foods is a significant trade-off tho and I am very stingy with my stam bar.

But if the OP can sustain on 1135 recovery... go for it. I'd love to have a buffed spell damage that high! Since I don't run with a staff, I have no way of replenishing magicka other than pots & ults.

psychotic13

jaburns wrote: »

@psychotic13

I run a BSW inferno staff on my back bar. I use: Dragon Fire Scales, Force Pulse, Inner Light, Molten Armaments, Elemental Blockade, and Meteor as my ultimate.

On my Sword and Board front bar, I use: Burning Embers, Flame Lash, Volatile Armor, Burning Talons, Petrify, and Devouring Swarm as my ultimate.

I'm excited about the upcoming changes. Though scales will get a nerf... all of my destro abilities increase in damage. Volatile Armor will get a buff and so does my Flame Lash. (Though, I'm thinking about changing my Flame Lash to Molten Whip to increase the damage/heals from Burning Embers!)

Everything's situational, too. Sometimes, I replace Molten Armaments with Elusive Mist before rushing in a keep. When we're facing zergs- I'll replace Petrify with Eruption. I'm definitely going to test the new ultimate, Ferocious Leap, since it will now have fire damage.

@BlackMadara

You're absolutely right. I've survived pretty intensive fights by "tagging" multiple enemies with Burning Embers and locking them down with Talons. My sustain does benefit from the 5 heavy pieces, too!

I had a similar conversation with @Waffennacht about his heavy armour nightblade. Why do you use SnB? You don't use any abilities and I think the only passive you'll benefit from is the block one, if you block as part of your playstyle fair enough, if not I'd recommend trying DW instead.

With DW you'll lose resistance and 1 big glyph, but if you went DW with 1 sharpened and 1 defending you keep the resistance (there's a small difference between a shield and a defending 1h weapon) and gain more spell damage from the extra sword, plus you now have access to the twin blade and blunt passive giving an extra +5% damage on top of the extra spell damage.

Other than that, I can't see many people running wings next patch cause there's not actually that much to reflect anymore, gives you space for another ability. Also I personally wouldn't run blockade for PvP purposes, unless you're fighting some potatoes no one will stand in it, unless you're really good at keeping them locked in talons

Doesn't volatile do poison damage? I'd go with the other morph. Have you ever thought of using a BSW resto too for healing Ward? Or do you do fine with just Embers to heal.

I'm building a similar setup and am planning DW/Resto, thinking of using light armour but not sure if the DK would be able to pull it off.

Waffennacht

@psychotic13 's suggestion of DW with one defending trait is actually quite good!

You lose like 500 resist but gain nearly 6% more damage (the second weapon adds some to your spll wpn dmg plus the passive)

If you're not using SnB abilities then the DW is the way to go

Savos_Saren

@psychotic13 @Waffennacht

Brilliant gentlemen!!!! I've always kept SnB for the block passive- but I'll give DW a try! I'll let you know if I notice any huge difference in survival.

Psychotic- volatile does magic damage... and is about to get a buff!

I have hopes for Dragon Scales (aka Wings) in that PTS isn't finalized yet. I'm also a little sentimental for the animation.

CMurder435

Better still think max mag pool should be increased and as someone suggested, drop prismatic on ur shield for max magicka perhaps

Savos_Saren

Thanks @CMurder435! Yeah- I contemplated wearing Grothgarr for the higher magicka bonus, too. I'll have to test that as well.

CMurder435

jaburns wrote: »

Thanks @CMurder435! Yeah- I contemplated wearing Grothgarr for the higher magicka bonus, too. I'll have to test that as well.

That's a good idea. Groth is a strong set and swapping ur enchant along with swapping ur monster set will put your max mag a bit higher. I'd def recommend that. Our skills are expensive and our battle roar passive recovers resources so for me max magicka is super important.

Riggsy

Im contemplating a switch to magDK for pvp because Im rather bored with stam. Do you guys recommend trainee 5 set?

Savos_Saren

@Riggsy

Trainee is good for extra resources- but it offers no damage or recovery. I have the jewelry, sword, and shield. It's a little tedious to farm in the beginning zones- just make sure you have the treasure hunter passive!

I recommend getting an arcane, robust, and heathy piece of jewelry if you're going for max resources. Or you can go with all arcane jewelry for higher stats in magicka as @CMurder435 suggests.

Calboy

The trainee set is an absolute beast! I just can't get purple jewels for the life of me so it puts me off

psychotic13

I'm using trainee on my sorc, it gives damage through the max magicka that you get. I run 3 purple jewels a sharpened sword and a reinforced chest, most other pieces are garbage with the training trait.

Calboy

How did you get your purple jewels @psychotic13

psychotic13

Calboy wrote: »

How did you get your purple jewels @psychotic13

Bought them off of the guild traders for about 50k a pop, you can get them through treasure maps though from the starter areas, purple are supposedly quite rare though

I've gone with 3 arcane pieces as I'm stacking magicka on my sorc.

Waffennacht

Calboy wrote: »

The trainee set is an absolute beast! I just can't get purple jewels for the life of me so it puts me off

If paired with an equally beasty set. I have the set, purple, reinforced. - Haven't really found a build I like it on

Familiar is getting a slight debuff in the stun department,

Which the changes to curse, im gonna run Prey, esp now that it Buffs the familiar AoE and won't be a dps loss (Prey over Haunt is same dps...)

Im gonna pair all this together in my new build

Familiar + Prey
Frost Staff Heavy + Tremorscale
Reach Roots

So we have 8 sec 70% snare that happens every 4 secs with burst dmg no cost that returns magicka
Reach then Roots
Familiar stuns (frags doesn't hit often, still in build of course) paired with Prey for more Burst

Could even run Hindrance posions... then the frost destro ult... no one moves ever again!

Savos_Saren

You know- with the change to Black Rose, using a set like Trainee might ne a good secondary set since both give all three stats...

Savos_Saren

Here's the latest update with my build. I took @psychotic13 @Waffennacht and @CMurder435 's advice and changed my build to dual wield (one defending and one precise... i don't have sharpened). The defending sword has "Crusher" enchantment and the precise sword has "weapon/spell damage" enchant. I changed Valkyn to Grothdarr. All prismatic enchantments. Again- this is outside of Cyrodiil- so add 5,000 to my Health.

psychotic13

How do you find DW, Worth the extra damage? What are you using to heal and how do you find your resources with 1.1k regen

Waffennacht

That's really good looking! I'm a bit concerned with your sustain, however I don't know the costs of DK abilities so it may not be too low.

I've been running into every son of a gun that's using magicka cost increase poisons. I know for magicka builds poisons are far more effective than stamina cost increase poisons (example Healing Ward's cost 3k, Vigor 2k meaning approx 2k cost increase for healing while 1k cost increase for vigor)

So I suggest some way of handling that BS.

(PS if you have a solution, I'm all ears )