Theorycrafting for Light Armor Magicka Nightblade - Homestead Update

bubbygink · February 2017

Hi guys, I have been running heavy armor destro/restro on my magblade for months now and am wanting to try to switch to light armor for the Homestead Update (which drops today for me). I was wondering what you light armor magblades are running and have found effective.

I was thinking of trying 2 Pirate Skelton + 5 Transmutation (5th piece being resto bar) + 5 Necropotence. I am hoping the resistance and major protection from Pirate Skelly + the crit resit under my shields from Trans + the high max magicka (I'll run inner light as well as necro plus 5-1-1 for undaunted) for big shields will make me tanky enough to survive in open world. The recovery from trans should allow me to use duel food to get my health to a respectable level. Then I would probably run shadow mundus since my crit would already be quite high with light armor and inner light (but I do love thief as well) and shadow will help me burst tankier targets.

What do you all think? Would this build be effective? Has anyone tried it? What other light armor build have you all experimented with that you have found effective. I'll be running destro/restro as I don't like duel wield but other than that I'm open to trying different/unique sets. So I am open to any suggestions and ideas.

Gonna tag a few PvP magblades I usually see around forums to get bring this thread to their attention and get their input (hope you all don't mind): @thankyourat @Lexxypwns @NightbladeMechanics @Rohamad_Ali

Metemsycosis · February 2017

This sounds like a fun build. What are you thinking for your skill bars?

Not tagged here but I can tell you necro/trans lacks outstanding burst potential but allows extremely good sustained damage and is only truly survivable if you manage stamina well/ keep siphoning attacks up. I played with that for a few months straight. Not a bad set up imo.

Just got old that both necro/trans require a specific skill (shade, heal over time) to be effective, which makes choosing the rest of the skills a bit of a labor. If you intend to keep the pirate skeleton, I would consider ditching transmutation for something that directly impacts spike damage, like burning spell weave for example. I'm pretty sure burst is the name of the open world game anyway.

I've been running 2 kena 5 amberplasm 3 willpower with sharpened ice or fire staff, defending restoration. Very controlling /elusive play style with powerful - albeit predictable - burst. The same combos, like tether, spectral bow impale , or cripple reach soul assault, are still effective.

thankyourat · February 2017

Transmutation may be a little redundant with this build since with necro you will probably have a damage sheild up the whole time so you crit resist won't be very important. So a different back bar set like lich (you mentioned recovery) or alchamist maybe better. Or even necro with 3 agility and VMA/master/ or just regular sharpened destro would probably be pretty good as well. I don't really like running with a back bar set because with necro because you only get the magicka bonus on one bar meaning you have to front bar your damage shield and inner light, but if you don't mind that it's definitely a option. But necro pirate skeleton is really strong together. Almost trolling strong lol

I'm playing light armor now as well. I got tired of heavy, been running it since basically dark brotherhood it's gotten boring. Lol I been running 5 alchemist/5spinner/2 Kena and I been one shotting people with assassins will lol it's hitting as high 28k fully buffed on soft targets. I've also tried juliano/lich/skoria with the shadow mundus and it hit pretty hard. Not as hard as spinner/alchamist though

bubbygink · February 2017

Metemsycosis wrote: »

This sounds like a fun build. What are you thinking for your skill bars?

Not tagged here but I can tell you necro/trans lacks outstanding burst potential but allows extremely good sustained damage

Just tagged a few people to get the discussion rolling, looking from input from anybody who has any ideas/suggestions, so thanks for your input! I was thinking the lack of burst could be a problem. I know that my spell damage would be quite low, even with 3 +SD jewelry glyphs. I am used to running clever and with a spell damage weapon proc + clever + wrath I could get close to 4k spell damage on my heavy armor build. I would be missing this.

Metemsycosis wrote: »

Just got old that both necro/trans require a specific skill (shade, heal over time) to be effective, which makes choosing the rest of the skills a bit of a labor.

I use swallow soul so I think that would cover trans (unless I am mistaken) but I agree about using shade. I typically don't use it in open world (though love it for duels) as I prefer elusive mist. So this is certainly a downside. But I have always thought necropotence was just too good to give up for a light armor magblade. Maybe I am overestimating how good it is.
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Metemsycosis wrote: »

I've been running 2 kena 5 amberplasm 3 willpower with sharpened ice or fire staff, defending restoration. Very controlling /elusive play style with powerful - albeit predictable - burst. The same combos, like tether, spectral bow impale , or cripple reach soul assault, are still effective.

I forgot about amberplasm. I would have to farm it but it really is a great set. Would give excellent sustain. May have to try that one out.

As for my skill bars, I am not sure what I will do. Currently I run the following in open world:

Destro bar - Impale - Merciless - Swallow Soul - Fear - Sap Essence or Entropy
Resto bar - Healing Ward - Siphoning Attacks - Elusive Mist and 2 of the 3 of the following depending on the situation: Cripple - Path - Annulment.

I would have to make room for shade on there if I ran necro.

bubbygink · February 2017

thankyourat wrote: »

Transmutation may be a little redundant with this build since with necro you will probably have a damage sheild up the whole time so you crit resist won't be very important. So a different back bar set like lich (you mentioned recovery) or alchamist maybe better. Or even necro with 3 agility and VMA/master/ or just regular sharpened destro would probably be pretty good as well.

Very true that trans could be redundant. I was just thinking it would help me not get instakilled if shield dropped but something like lich may just be the way to go if I am shooting for sustain. I do have access to vMA weapons but don't have a sharpened fire staff (got a sharpened ice but that is no good to me now

lol)

thankyourat wrote: »

I don't really like running with a back bar set because with necro because you only get the magicka bonus on one bar meaning you have to front bar your damage shield and inner light.

I thought about this being an issue too. Having Annulment and Inner Light on my front bar would probably force me to drop Impale and move either Fear or Sap Essence to my back bar. Definite downside having nerco on only one bar. I may have to reconsider that.

thankyourat wrote: »

I'm playing light armor now as well. I got tired of heavy, been running it since basically dark brotherhood it's gotten boring. Lol I been running 5 alchemist/5spinner/2 Kena and I been one shotting people with assassins will lol it's hitting as high 28k fully buffed on soft targets. I've also tried juliano/lich/skoria with the shadow mundus and it hit pretty hard. Not as hard as spinner/alchamist though

Another person running Kena. Maybe I will give that a try then. I also already have a sharpened spinners staff so could incorporate that in as well. Glad somebody else is trying out shadow mundus, think it is insane for burst. My only concern with your kena/alch/spinners build is sustain. Do you run witchmothers to sustain? Suppose you could get away with it due to the health from alch.

Metemsycosis · February 2017

You're not overestimating necropotence . I got thru half vma with a blue non ideal trait set. As someone told me hitting 50K Max magic and using siphoning attacks you don't need to worry as much or at all about magicka sustain. But getting stun locked is where I choose amberplasm over other sets. It has plus crit too which justifies the shadow mundus. But yes, the poster above suggests alchemist with kena. How could you turn down +1000 spell damage ??

thankyourat · February 2017

bubbygink wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Transmutation may be a little redundant with this build since with necro you will probably have a damage sheild up the whole time so you crit resist won't be very important. So a different back bar set like lich (you mentioned recovery) or alchamist maybe better. Or even necro with 3 agility and VMA/master/ or just regular sharpened destro would probably be pretty good as well.

Very true that trans could be redundant. I was just thinking it would help me not get instakilled if shield dropped but something like lich may just be the way to go if I am shooting for sustain. I do have access to vMA weapons but don't have a sharpened fire staff (got a sharpened ice but that is no good to me now lol)

thankyourat wrote: »

I don't really like running with a back bar set because with necro because you only get the magicka bonus on one bar meaning you have to front bar your damage shield and inner light.

I thought about this being an issue too. Having Annulment and Inner Light on my front bar would probably force me to drop Impale and move either Fear or Sap Essence to my back bar. Definite downside having nerco on only one bar. I may have to reconsider that.

thankyourat wrote: »

I'm playing light armor now as well. I got tired of heavy, been running it since basically dark brotherhood it's gotten boring. Lol I been running 5 alchemist/5spinner/2 Kena and I been one shotting people with assassins will lol it's hitting as high 28k fully buffed on soft targets. I've also tried juliano/lich/skoria with the shadow mundus and it hit pretty hard. Not as hard as spinner/alchamist though

Another person running Kena. Maybe I will give that a try then. I also already have a sharpened spinners staff so could incorporate that in as well. Glad somebody else is trying out shadow mundus, think it is insane for burst. My only concern with your kena/alch/spinners build is sustain. Do you run witchmothers to sustain? Suppose you could get away with it due to the health from alch.

When I run Kena/alchamist/spinners I run regen mundus. To help sustain Kena if I choose to use it. I only use it though if I can't kill a player with just alchamist or if alchamist is on cool down and I need some extra thumping power. Yes Kena is really good. What I like about it is it's controlled burst. Honestly running solo on a magblade I can sustain fine with only 1400 regen so I'm usually using tri stay right now but if I feel like I'm getting into a fight were I'll need extra regen I keep witches brew quick slotted I'll just drink it during the fight but I usually never have too. I only use the shadow with julianos/lich and it actually works great with that combination because lich is so strong so I ran dual stat food and the shadow mundus because julianos has the double crit bonus and still had no sustain issues at all. the build just felt right lol I did have to constantly drink potions either which I actually hate doing.

it's just the damage of alchemist kena is so high it's hard to switch it up. Lol I've been corrupted by the power creep

bubbygink · February 2017

Metemsycosis wrote: »

You're not overestimating necropotence . I got thru half vma with a blue non ideal trait set. As someone told me hitting 50K Max magic and using siphoning attacks you don't need to worry as much or at all about magicka sustain. But getting stun locked is where I choose amberplasm over other sets. It has plus crit too which justifies the shadow mundus. But yes, the poster above suggests alchemist with kena. How could you turn down +1000 spell damage ??

I do really like alchemist + kena, allows for insane burst. Alch is one of my favorite sets because I can use a 2 piece monster and another 5 piece with it, get crazy burst, and I really appreciate the health it offers in a meta where I think a solid health pool is necessary (I wouldn't dream of running around with 20,000ish health like I would months and months ago). Plus you can craft it in any weight. Really fits all my needs of customizability, flexibility, burst, and survivability.

I have not gotten a chance to try out pirate skelly but everyone tells me its insane tankiness in light. Since I feel that I've always been too squishy in light I've been inclined to go this way. But another offensive set like Kena certainly has benefit.

I should mention as well that I typically run solo or in small groups (2-4 people) and typically don't have a healer. So I like to have some kind of tankiness which is why I have leaned toward pirate skelly for survivability.

bubbygink · February 2017

thankyourat wrote: »

When I run Kena/alchamist/spinners I run regen mundus. To help sustain Kena if I choose to use it. I only use it though if I can't kill a player with just alchamist or if alchamist is on cool down and I need some extra thumping power. Yes Kena is really good. What I like about it is it's controlled burst. Honestly running solo on a magblade I can sustain fine with only 1400 regen so I'm usually using tri stay right now but if I feel like I'm getting into a fight were I'll need extra regen I keep witches brew quick slotted I'll just drink it during the fight but I usually never have too. I only use the shadow with julianos/lich and it actually works great with that combination because lich is so strong so I ran dual stat food and the shadow mundus because julianos has the double crit bonus and still had no sustain issues at all. the build just felt right lol I did have to constantly drink potions either which I actually hate doing.

it's just the damage of alchemist kena is so high it's hard to switch it up. Lol I've been corrupted by the power creep

I too usually only run about 1300-1400 regen on my heavy build (also get constitution sustain from that of course) although I have been waiting to see how the Swallow Soul increase will affect my sustain with that. I typically just buy the alliance pots for my clever but man I do burn through those quickly with it lol.

I think I will definitely give the kena+alchemist+spinners a try. I actually typically run heavy alch + spinners now so I would really just be changing my alch to light and throwing on kena. Do you feel like you have any trouble with survivability on that build? I assume you would have pretty low health and would, of course, be in light. I just feel like I get wrecked so quickly when I have low health in light. It is why I originally went to heavy.

Lexxypwns · February 2017

IMO, transmutation is completely unneeded for mageblade if you've got necro+ pirate. That's a 14k+ dampen with an effective 30% size increase. Furthermore, light armor + major protection is far more mitigation than your current heavy setup if you're not running pirate. Now, if you want sustain either go lich or warlock back bar. I actually prefer warlock because it works in mist form.

You could easily run 5 necro 2 pirate 4 alchemist and have insane amounts of damage, though you'll have to keep siphoning up and drink potions on cool down to sustain. The nice thing with alchemist on light armor builds is that the HP helps to pull you out of 1 shot territory and allow time to recover. IMO, this is the strongest 5-1-1 light armor build ATM.

Lexxypwns · February 2017

IMO, transmutation is completely unneeded for mageblade if you've got necro+ pirate. That's a 14k+ dampen with an effective 30% size increase. Furthermore, light armor + major protection is far more mitigation than your current heavy setup if you're not running pirate. Now, if you want sustain either go lich or warlock back bar. I actually prefer warlock because it works in mist form.

You could easily run 5 necro 2 pirate 5 alchemist and have insane amounts of damage, though you'll have to keep siphoning up and drink potions on cool down to sustain. The nice thing with alchemist on light armor builds is that the HP helps to pull you out of 1 shot territory and allow time to recover. IMO, this is the strongest 5-1-1 light armor build ATM.

IMO, don't run spinners on light armor builds, you'll have 10k pen without it and there's better ways to get damage at that point since you risk over penetration is breach is applied. And remeber, destro ult gets 10% penetration as a passive so youre building inefficiently this way. Furthermore, the biggest threat to mNB right now is a mag sorc and it's not worth running something they hard counter. Just my two cents tho...

SneaK · February 2017

Clever/Lich/Monster... I dunno.

You may look back into Cloak though. I know a lot of people dropped it and only use mist nowadays, but I just don't think I could deal on a LA magblade without it. Another thing to think of too, it gives that guaranteed crit (no shields anyway), so if you front bar it and use it in and out of your big heavy attacks you'll have an increase in damage.

I don't know your button layout, but I recommend back bar'ing Hysteria on your "Y" button. I'm not sure how or why, but this was a huge quality of life upgrade for me when I was on the magblade.

For ganking, I'd like to try CA/Elegant/Monster.

exeeter702 · February 2017

Lich plus necro ranged magnb is pretty solid in small scale.

On console however playing ranged magnb is incredibly frustrating. Trying to line up merc procs, having all of your ranged kiting tools constantly dodged and trying to reliably use shade swap with what is an abysmal camera turn speed all make for a questionable experience.

But either way, i stick with it.

5l-1-1
5 necro constant, you want to maintain the buff when bar swaping.
5 Lich backbar. Dw lets you run a monster set but you loose out on healing ward and more importantly and often overlooked, resto staff love taps cant be dodged and make for easily confirmable merc resolve procs from range. Therefore if you go restl back bar just run a single max magicka or spell damage monster shoulder like groth or kena.

Impen is fine even with a strong dampen in case of oh *** moments. If you opt for impen, inner light might be a tad more appealing. If you run devines, radiant might be more wise..but it really depends.

Then you have to decide where to make the compromises with your bars. Running magelight (esp. Inner light) on both bars limits your utility. Major prophecy on back bar is a bit redundant imo but if you want keep healing ward and dampen on the ame bar, the magicka boost from maged guild passives and inner light will make the shields a bit stronger.

I run something like this personally.

Front destro
Magelight
Shade
Frost clench (flex - ele drain / mark)
merc resolve (on damage bar for crit bonus)
Swollow soul
Soul assault

Back resto
Mass hysteria
Entropy (degeneration for consistent hp across bars)
crippling (siphoning on bar increased magicka)
Healing ward
Dampen magicka
Bats (or meteor along with entropy and siphon skill for max magicka and better shields.

Now that is just a template and if you look, you will notice where the compromise comes in. Cloak and mist form... You can put mist form on front bar instead of clench or a major breach source but the skill works so well with HW. Or you can put cloak in its place instead. Or perhaps put cripple instead of frost clench and on back bar put either cloak or mist form in its place. Then you would have to slot soul siphon or tether for siphoning max magicka passive since it outweighs mages guild passive for max magicka.

There are tons of variables. Frost staff buff will likely make the build stronger, just have to remember not to hold block during lich procs.

thankyourat · February 2017

bubbygink wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

When I run Kena/alchamist/spinners I run regen mundus. To help sustain Kena if I choose to use it. I only use it though if I can't kill a player with just alchamist or if alchamist is on cool down and I need some extra thumping power. Yes Kena is really good. What I like about it is it's controlled burst. Honestly running solo on a magblade I can sustain fine with only 1400 regen so I'm usually using tri stay right now but if I feel like I'm getting into a fight were I'll need extra regen I keep witches brew quick slotted I'll just drink it during the fight but I usually never have too. I only use the shadow with julianos/lich and it actually works great with that combination because lich is so strong so I ran dual stat food and the shadow mundus because julianos has the double crit bonus and still had no sustain issues at all. the build just felt right lol I did have to constantly drink potions either which I actually hate doing.

it's just the damage of alchemist kena is so high it's hard to switch it up. Lol I've been corrupted by the power creep

I too usually only run about 1300-1400 regen on my heavy build (also get constitution sustain from that of course) although I have been waiting to see how the Swallow Soul increase will affect my sustain with that. I typically just buy the alliance pots for my clever but man I do burn through those quickly with it lol.

I think I will definitely give the kena+alchemist+spinners a try. I actually typically run heavy alch + spinners now so I would really just be changing my alch to light and throwing on kena. Do you feel like you have any trouble with survivability on that build? I assume you would have pretty low health and would, of course, be in light. I just feel like I get wrecked so quickly when I have low health in light. It is why I originally went to heavy.

The health on this build is actually almost 26k. Because of alchamist and undaunted passives. And my crit resist is like 2300 which I think is pretty healthy for a light armor magblade and with a defending back bar resto my resist is almost 17k on the back bar. But all the reasons we switched to heavy are still there lol. I have been using cloak actually it's so buggy but when it works and shadow image works my survivability is very high alot of times I don't even need annulment just healing ward, but as you know those skills are buggy and don't always work. But if you are using just annulment you are going to get bursted so fast lol. I was using mist form but I felt to squishy and mist form stopped my healing and I wasn't tanky enough in light for my healing to be cut off and my regen to be stopped (not a problem in heavy because of constitution passives) so I dropped it for shade but now the snares are just ridiculous so I put on conceal weapon for more movement speed (it's actually working decent it surprised me)

The survivability with light armor magblade I think is just low, but it's very high when you skills work. I've tried all the defensive sets blood spawn (actually decent), pirate skeleton, troll King worked decently when combined with cloak. But I found all of them to have the same problem snares pin you down and burst one shots you. Or you build so defensive that you don't have any burst. What I found as a light armor magblade my best defense is having alot of burst damage and being able to use my shade to reposition. That's why i ended up settling for Kena as my 2 piece. And with all the health a crit resist on this build even in light armor you will be hard to one shot.

Lexxypwns · February 2017

The other upside of alchemist over spinners is that you can fit a heavy chest and medium legs into your build for 5-1-1 and maximize your native resist while keeping necro

bubbygink · February 2017

Lexxypwns wrote: »

IMO, transmutation is completely unneeded for mageblade if you've got necro+ pirate. That's a 14k+ dampen with an effective 30% size increase. Furthermore, light armor + major protection is far more mitigation than your current heavy setup if you're not running pirate. Now, if you want sustain either go lich or warlock back bar. I actually prefer warlock because it works in mist form.

Good to hear that the mitigation is superior than heavy armor, that is what I was shooting for. I run annulment now but do you think it is worth switching to dampen for the increase? Also, do you run inner light and dampen on your front bar?

Lexxypwns wrote: »

You could easily run 5 necro 2 pirate 5 alchemist and have insane amounts of damage, though you'll have to keep siphoning up and drink potions on cool down to sustain. The nice thing with alchemist on light armor builds is that the HP helps to pull you out of 1 shot territory and allow time to recover. IMO, this is the strongest 5-1-1 light armor build ATM.

As I mentioned earlier, love the health from clever as I think it is critical to having higher health so I certainly agree there. I am sort of leaning toward this setup now (so I'd be swapping out trans in my original build idea for clever). Would you run witchmothers with this setup or just carefully sustain with bi/tri food? And then I'm guessing either thief or shadow? In my opinion those are really the only two mundus worth running for me, just so much more valuable than any others.

Lexxypwns wrote: »

IMO, don't run spinners on light armor builds, you'll have 10k pen without it and there's better ways to get damage at that point since you risk over penetration is breach is applied. And remeber, destro ult gets 10% penetration as a passive so youre building inefficiently this way. Furthermore, the biggest threat to mNB right now is a mag sorc and it's not worth running something they hard counter. Just my two cents tho...

Agreed on spinners. I have a bit of CP into the pen passive too so I feel like I have plenty of pen in light. Love spinners on heavy though to make up for the lost light armor passive.

bubbygink · February 2017

exeeter702 wrote: »

Lich plus necro ranged magnb is pretty solid in small scale.

On console however playing ranged magnb is incredibly frustrating. Trying to line up merc procs, having all of your ranged kiting tools constantly dodged and trying to reliably use shade swap with what is an abysmal camera turn speed all make for a questionable experience.

Magblade definitely has a steep learning curve. Being able to properly weave is so much more important on magblade than any other class. But I love it and thing it is very strong in the right hands.

exeeter702 wrote: »

Impen is fine even with a strong dampen in case of oh *** moments. If you opt for impen, inner light might be a tad more appealing. If you run devines, radiant might be more wise..but it really depends.

Agree about impen, I still run it even with shields to give me added survivability.

exeeter702 wrote: »

There are tons of variables. Frost staff buff will likely make the build stronger, just have to remember not to hold block during lich procs.

Not a fan of frost staff personally. With siphoning attacks I am able to utilize stam to block just fine and sustain it. I think flame staff is still the way to go personally.

bubbygink · February 2017

thankyourat wrote: »

The health on this build is actually almost 26k. Because of alchamist and undaunted passives. And my crit resist is like 2300 which I think is pretty healthy for a light armor magblade and with a defending back bar resto my resist is almost 17k on the back bar. But all the reasons we switched to heavy are still there lol. I have been using cloak actually it's so buggy but when it works and shadow image works my survivability is very high alot of times I don't even need annulment just healing ward, but as you know those skills are buggy and don't always work. But if you are using just annulment you are going to get bursted so fast lol. I was using mist form but I felt to squishy and mist form stopped my healing and I wasn't tanky enough in light for my healing to be cut off and my regen to be stopped (not a problem in heavy because of constitution passives) so I dropped it for shade but now the snares are just ridiculous so I put on conceal weapon for more movement speed (it's actually working decent it surprised me)

The survivability with light armor magblade I think is just low, but it's very high when you skills work. I've tried all the defensive sets blood spawn (actually decent), pirate skeleton, troll King worked decently when combined with cloak. But I found all of them to have the same problem snares pin you down and burst one shots you. Or you build so defensive that you don't have any burst. What I found as a light armor magblade my best defense is having alot of burst damage and being able to use my shade to reposition. That's why i ended up settling for Kena as my 2 piece. And with all the health a crit resist on this build even in light armor you will be hard to one shot.

Great point about sustain with mist form in light. Didn't think about no resource return at all when I am in it. Used to being able to get a decent amount back from constitution. Snares are just my worst enemy in open world though (I hate tremor so much lol) and I believe mobility is key. That is why I just cannot see myself giving up mistform. Maybe a combination of doubletake/shade/etc. could help out.

Another benefit to having concealed on your bar is that it probably useful to counter the FotM magicka DKs I am sure will be everywhere. But I just don't think I could find room for it on my bar.

Also just hate using cloak since, as you said, it is so buggy. But maybe I will try it out again. @SneaK also suggested trying it out again above. Maybe I will give it another go.

thankyourat · February 2017

Lexxypwns wrote: »

The other upside of alchemist over spinners is that you can fit a heavy chest and medium legs into your build for 5-1-1 and maximize your native resist while keeping necro

What I found good about spinners though is no one in PvP buffed up has less than 20k resist when they are buffed even my light armor magblade on the back bar has almost 23k resist fully buffed. So spinners will basically almost do more damage than any other damage set. Like I run about 14 to 15k spell pen and you can definitely tell the difference between necro and spinners. Unless you are fighting a magsorc. What I did like about necro was in duels the shield is huge making you very tanky. If you start shield stacking in open world though most of the time you are dead because it just sucks away all your momentum

SneaK · February 2017

Impale also got a range buff I believe.

thankyourat · February 2017

bubbygink wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

The health on this build is actually almost 26k. Because of alchamist and undaunted passives. And my crit resist is like 2300 which I think is pretty healthy for a light armor magblade and with a defending back bar resto my resist is almost 17k on the back bar. But all the reasons we switched to heavy are still there lol. I have been using cloak actually it's so buggy but when it works and shadow image works my survivability is very high alot of times I don't even need annulment just healing ward, but as you know those skills are buggy and don't always work. But if you are using just annulment you are going to get bursted so fast lol. I was using mist form but I felt to squishy and mist form stopped my healing and I wasn't tanky enough in light for my healing to be cut off and my regen to be stopped (not a problem in heavy because of constitution passives) so I dropped it for shade but now the snares are just ridiculous so I put on conceal weapon for more movement speed (it's actually working decent it surprised me)

The survivability with light armor magblade I think is just low, but it's very high when you skills work. I've tried all the defensive sets blood spawn (actually decent), pirate skeleton, troll King worked decently when combined with cloak. But I found all of them to have the same problem snares pin you down and burst one shots you. Or you build so defensive that you don't have any burst. What I found as a light armor magblade my best defense is having alot of burst damage and being able to use my shade to reposition. That's why i ended up settling for Kena as my 2 piece. And with all the health a crit resist on this build even in light armor you will be hard to one shot.

Great point about sustain with mist form in light. Didn't think about no resource return at all when I am in it. Used to being able to get a decent amount back from constitution. Snares are just my worst enemy in open world though (I hate tremor so much lol) and I believe mobility is key. That is why I just cannot see myself giving up mistform. Maybe a combination of doubletake/shade/etc. could help out.

Another benefit to having concealed on your bar is that it probably useful to counter the FotM magicka DKs I am sure will be everywhere. But I just don't think I could find room for it on my bar.

Also just hate using cloak since, as you said, it is so buggy. But maybe I will try it out again. @SneaK also suggested trying it out again above. Maybe I will give it another go.

Cloak is still buggy lol but works sometimes. Yea I go back and forth with mist form. I'm thinking about using it instead of annulment cause 75℅ damage reduction very strong defensible ability and I actually don't keep my damage shield up 100℅ of the time on my magblade because it puts breaks in my pressure. Also I use dark cloak which everyone thinks is weak but the 8℅ damage mitigation is very strong when multiple opponents combined with minor main from fear or image and I actually use veil of blades on my back bar as my oh crap ultimate and just too play something different it's not a bad skill either makes you very tanky when you put all of that together plus all those abilities proc shadow barrier passives, with the nerf to proc sets I think I can maybe get by without annulment. I'll have to see though. Yes concealed weapon is great against mag dks I always like to have something unflectable on my build also concealed weapon makes them not cast wings so you can sneak a spectral bow in there. I also been thinking about running cleanse instead of annulment with the nerf to proc sets. Because it will get rid of marks in addition to snares, and has a burst heal. With mist form disabling regen, cleanse and mist form shoul basically be the same resource management. Alot of this depends on if they really fixed cloak and how much burst damage does the nerf to proc sets actually reduce though

thankyourat · February 2017

@Lexxypwns what else did you run with necro and skeleton? I had a build that was just regular 5 necro 2 skeleton 3 willpower 1 ice staff sharpened that I used for duels it was very strong I don't think I every lost with that build. I see you mentioned 5 alchemist was that your other set how did you set up your bars. I never tried only having necro on one bar I always felt it would limit my bar set up by making me front bar my damage shield. And if you aren't using alchamist are you relying on the destro ultimate for kills. When I tried necro/ pirate without alchamist I found it was lacking the burst I wanted because I didn't have that extra damage set, but maybe if I switch the ice staff for the flame staff and use the destro ultimate for the new 8℅ damage passive it may be worth trying again. Because you really are super tanky using it. I just hate using the destro ultimate lol

bubbygink · February 2017

thankyourat wrote: »

@Lexxypwns what else did you run with necro and skeleton? I had a build that was just regular 5 necro 2 skeleton 3 willpower 1 ice staff sharpened that I used for duels it was very strong I don't think I every lost with that build. I see you mentioned 5 alchemist was that your other set how did you set up your bars. I never tried only having necro on one bar I always felt it would limit my bar set up by making me front bar my damage shield. And if you aren't using alchamist are you relying on the destro ultimate for kills. When I tried necro/ pirate without alchamist I found it was lacking the burst I wanted because I didn't have that extra damage set, but maybe if I switch the ice staff for the flame staff and use the destro ultimate for the new 8℅ damage passive it may be worth trying again. Because you really are super tanky using it. I just hate using the destro ultimate lol

I'm also trying to think about how to set up bars for the 2 Skelly / 5 alch / 5 necro setup.

Would probably put swallow soul, merciless, inner light, dampen, destro ult (as you said, need that passive) and maybe impale or fear. Back bar would have healing ward and siphoning attacks and fear if not on the front. And of course shade. Lots of other skills I'd like to work in. Cripple, most form, etc.

Lexxypwns · February 2017

thankyourat wrote: »

bubbygink wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

The health on this build is actually almost 26k. Because of alchamist and undaunted passives. And my crit resist is like 2300 which I think is pretty healthy for a light armor magblade and with a defending back bar resto my resist is almost 17k on the back bar. But all the reasons we switched to heavy are still there lol. I have been using cloak actually it's so buggy but when it works and shadow image works my survivability is very high alot of times I don't even need annulment just healing ward, but as you know those skills are buggy and don't always work. But if you are using just annulment you are going to get bursted so fast lol. I was using mist form but I felt to squishy and mist form stopped my healing and I wasn't tanky enough in light for my healing to be cut off and my regen to be stopped (not a problem in heavy because of constitution passives) so I dropped it for shade but now the snares are just ridiculous so I put on conceal weapon for more movement speed (it's actually working decent it surprised me)

The survivability with light armor magblade I think is just low, but it's very high when you skills work. I've tried all the defensive sets blood spawn (actually decent), pirate skeleton, troll King worked decently when combined with cloak. But I found all of them to have the same problem snares pin you down and burst one shots you. Or you build so defensive that you don't have any burst. What I found as a light armor magblade my best defense is having alot of burst damage and being able to use my shade to reposition. That's why i ended up settling for Kena as my 2 piece. And with all the health a crit resist on this build even in light armor you will be hard to one shot.

Great point about sustain with mist form in light. Didn't think about no resource return at all when I am in it. Used to being able to get a decent amount back from constitution. Snares are just my worst enemy in open world though (I hate tremor so much lol) and I believe mobility is key. That is why I just cannot see myself giving up mistform. Maybe a combination of doubletake/shade/etc. could help out.

Another benefit to having concealed on your bar is that it probably useful to counter the FotM magicka DKs I am sure will be everywhere. But I just don't think I could find room for it on my bar.

Also just hate using cloak since, as you said, it is so buggy. But maybe I will try it out again. @SneaK also suggested trying it out again above. Maybe I will give it another go.

Cloak is still buggy lol but works sometimes. Yea I go back and forth with mist form. I'm thinking about using it instead of annulment cause 75℅ damage reduction very strong defensible ability and I actually don't keep my damage shield up 100℅ of the time on my magblade because it puts breaks in my pressure. Also I use dark cloak which everyone thinks is weak but the 8℅ damage mitigation is very strong when multiple opponents combined with minor main from fear or image and I actually use veil of blades on my back bar as my oh crap ultimate and just too play something different it's not a bad skill either makes you very tanky when you put all of that together plus all those abilities proc shadow barrier passives, with the nerf to proc sets I think I can maybe get by without annulment. I'll have to see though. Yes concealed weapon is great against mag dks I always like to have something unflectable on my build also concealed weapon makes them not cast wings so you can sneak a spectral bow in there. I also been thinking about running cleanse instead of annulment with the nerf to proc sets. Because it will get rid of marks in addition to snares, and has a burst heal. With mist form disabling regen, cleanse and mist form shoul basically be the same resource management. Alot of this depends on if they really fixed cloak and how much burst damage does the nerf to proc sets actually reduce though

Nah, man, the minor protection on dark cloak is so short as to render it irrelevant. Even in a 5v1 it's prolly only gonna stop like 3k damage. The guaranteed crit on a spectral bow does much more for your survivability, in the form of getting kills faster. By the time you've got enough incoming damage in 2 seconds for that minor protection to be worthwhile you're at a point where you need the burst to immediately start eliminating targets or you need to try to escape

thankyourat · February 2017

Lexxypwns wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

bubbygink wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

The health on this build is actually almost 26k. Because of alchamist and undaunted passives. And my crit resist is like 2300 which I think is pretty healthy for a light armor magblade and with a defending back bar resto my resist is almost 17k on the back bar. But all the reasons we switched to heavy are still there lol. I have been using cloak actually it's so buggy but when it works and shadow image works my survivability is very high alot of times I don't even need annulment just healing ward, but as you know those skills are buggy and don't always work. But if you are using just annulment you are going to get bursted so fast lol. I was using mist form but I felt to squishy and mist form stopped my healing and I wasn't tanky enough in light for my healing to be cut off and my regen to be stopped (not a problem in heavy because of constitution passives) so I dropped it for shade but now the snares are just ridiculous so I put on conceal weapon for more movement speed (it's actually working decent it surprised me)

The survivability with light armor magblade I think is just low, but it's very high when you skills work. I've tried all the defensive sets blood spawn (actually decent), pirate skeleton, troll King worked decently when combined with cloak. But I found all of them to have the same problem snares pin you down and burst one shots you. Or you build so defensive that you don't have any burst. What I found as a light armor magblade my best defense is having alot of burst damage and being able to use my shade to reposition. That's why i ended up settling for Kena as my 2 piece. And with all the health a crit resist on this build even in light armor you will be hard to one shot.

Great point about sustain with mist form in light. Didn't think about no resource return at all when I am in it. Used to being able to get a decent amount back from constitution. Snares are just my worst enemy in open world though (I hate tremor so much lol) and I believe mobility is key. That is why I just cannot see myself giving up mistform. Maybe a combination of doubletake/shade/etc. could help out.

Another benefit to having concealed on your bar is that it probably useful to counter the FotM magicka DKs I am sure will be everywhere. But I just don't think I could find room for it on my bar.

Also just hate using cloak since, as you said, it is so buggy. But maybe I will try it out again. @SneaK also suggested trying it out again above. Maybe I will give it another go.

Cloak is still buggy lol but works sometimes. Yea I go back and forth with mist form. I'm thinking about using it instead of annulment cause 75℅ damage reduction very strong defensible ability and I actually don't keep my damage shield up 100℅ of the time on my magblade because it puts breaks in my pressure. Also I use dark cloak which everyone thinks is weak but the 8℅ damage mitigation is very strong when multiple opponents combined with minor main from fear or image and I actually use veil of blades on my back bar as my oh crap ultimate and just too play something different it's not a bad skill either makes you very tanky when you put all of that together plus all those abilities proc shadow barrier passives, with the nerf to proc sets I think I can maybe get by without annulment. I'll have to see though. Yes concealed weapon is great against mag dks I always like to have something unflectable on my build also concealed weapon makes them not cast wings so you can sneak a spectral bow in there. I also been thinking about running cleanse instead of annulment with the nerf to proc sets. Because it will get rid of marks in addition to snares, and has a burst heal. With mist form disabling regen, cleanse and mist form shoul basically be the same resource management. Alot of this depends on if they really fixed cloak and how much burst damage does the nerf to proc sets actually reduce though

Nah, man, the minor protection on dark cloak is so short as to render it irrelevant. Even in a 5v1 it's prolly only gonna stop like 3k damage. The guaranteed crit on a spectral bow does much more for your survivability, in the form of getting kills faster. By the time you've got enough incoming damage in 2 seconds for that minor protection to be worthwhile you're at a point where you need the burst to immediately start eliminating targets or you need to try to escape

Yes I'm not completely sold on dark cloak. I can tell a difference but like you said I don't know if it's worth losing the guaranteed crit on heavy attacks and other abilities. Honestly I'm not sold on cloak as a whole. What I'm trying to do is build a light armor build that doesn't need to run annulment so I was trying out damage mitigation on cloak, but if cloak isn't going to work it's going to be difficult kind of forcing me into necroprentence, I think it possible cause as a solo magblade I still do well and get good 1vXs regularly and I even had some good ones when I dropped annulment for path. Because of how strong siphoning attacks is letting me block most CCs and allow me to roll dodge as a magicka build. Combined with major evasion, minor maim, healing ward is huge when you are low health, and two hots I found myself to be decently tanky in light armor even without dampen. The only thing that made me put it back on was cloak was unreliable and stamblades are just annoying. If cloak works I'll probably drop it completely. But I am probably going to go back to shadow cloak because heavy attack soul harvest usually hits for around 15 to 17k even more if I'm fully buffed. If they can't fix cloak though I'm probably going to have to go back to using necro again though which would be disappointing. Because I hate playing my magblade like a sorc. It's why I went heavy armor in the first place lol

HEBREWHAMMERRR · February 2017

Just a thread I was looking for, some Magblade theory crafting! I have an idea here..a little out there but it seems enticing. I have two characters, my Magblade day 1 and just leveled a magsorc so this combo is somewhat universal for them around necro.

With changes to ice staff and blocking scaled off your magicka I got to thinking how viable it'd be to combo this with necro. The obviously tradeoff here is going to be..where's the burst if you're blocking constantly? I'm thinking a necropotence / spinners (extra max mag and pen) with an ice staff, and either skoria or some other monster set, don't have troll king or pirate skeleton yet so I was thinking if survivability was a problem bloodspawn on sorc could be nice for destro uptime.

All just theorycrafting last night but let me know thoughts. Also going to say that I realllllly need to farm amberplasm it seems very beneficial for sustain this patch.

HEBREWHAMMERRR · February 2017

Also to add to that, I suppose infernal guardian could work too for added damage with shields but guessing that'd be better for sorc rather than Magblade..

bubbygink · February 2017

@HEBREWHAMMERRR I think the changes to ice staff are definitely interesting, and depending on what you're going for in your build, it could be very strong. But the thing is, with siphoning attacks, my stamina sustain is pretty great. Sure I run out every now and then if I mess up and dodge roll when I am low or something, but generally I don't have to worry too much about it. So I feel like if I used an ice staff to utilize magicka to block I would just be wasting excess stamina. i would pretty much always be full on it if I was only using it for break-frees and not blocking. For that reason I prefer the flame staff for more damage and what amounts to better magicka sustain since I'd be using be other resource for blocks.

On another note, I did notice a bit of a difference in sustain from the funnel cost increase on my heavy armor build yesterday. I only rely on wichmothers to sustain (thief mundus and no magicka recovery glyphs or bonuses) but that may be a bit tricky now. Most of the time I was ok but there was a time or two I ran out of magicka when I knew that I hadn't in similar situations before. I'm guessing transitioning over light should fix that.

psychotic13 · February 2017

X5 necro x5 alchemist x2 skoria = winning

exeeter702 · February 2017

bubbygink wrote: »

@HEBREWHAMMERRR I think the changes to ice staff are definitely interesting, and depending on what you're going for in your build, it could be very strong. But the thing is, with siphoning attacks, my stamina sustain is pretty great. Sure I run out every now and then if I mess up and dodge roll when I am low or something, but generally I don't have to worry too much about it. So I feel like if I used an ice staff to utilize magicka to block I would just be wasting excess stamina. i would pretty much always be full on it if I was only using it for break-frees and not blocking. For that reason I prefer the flame staff for more damage and what amounts to better magicka sustain since I'd be using be other resource for blocks.

On another note, I did notice a bit of a difference in sustain from the funnel cost increase on my heavy armor build yesterday. I only rely on wichmothers to sustain (thief mundus and no magicka recovery glyphs or bonuses) but that may be a bit tricky now. Most of the time I was ok but there was a time or two I ran out of magicka when I knew that I hadn't in similar situations before. I'm guessing transitioning over light should fix that.

Based on current pvp environments. You would be the envy of all magblades if you can legitimately say you have more than enough stamina (recovery) to meet all the dodge roll and blocking needs...

Frost staff defensive buffs outweigh the fire staff damage increase in my honest opinion. And with major evasion and and unchained being slightly nerfed a hard cc like fear with frost root makes kiting and playing at range that much more effective. Although yes the argument can be made that between crippling grasp root, shade swap and fear you should be ok.

bubbygink · February 2017

exeeter702 wrote: »

Based on current pvp environments. You would be the envy of all magblades if you can legitimately say you have more than enough stamina (recovery) to meet all the dodge roll and blocking needs...

I don't that is true at all. I mean sure I can't just hold block and block cast, but I always block (or try to at least lol) the heavy hitters like meteor, incap, dark flare, crystal frag, etc. I also, of course, break free when needed. And even will dodge roll every now and then if my stamina is topped off. And I run with only 10k stamina. If you are utilizing siphoning attacks correctly you should have plenty of stamina unless you like to block cast a lot or you dodge roll a lot (which you shouldn't on a magblade).

Just above, @thankyourat echoed this sentiment as well saying: "Because of how strong siphoning attacks is letting me block most CCs and allow me to roll dodge as a magicka build." I think most experienced magblades would agree that with siphoning attacks we DO have more than enough stamina recovery to block and break-free under normal circumstances.

exeeter702 wrote: »

Frost staff defensive buffs outweigh the fire staff damage increase in my honest opinion. And with major evasion and and unchained being slightly nerfed a hard cc like fear with frost root makes kiting and playing at range that much more effective. Although yes the argument can be made that between crippling grasp root, shade swap and fear you should be ok.

As I mentioned in a post above, there certainly could be scenarios where this is true. Perhaps, for example, if you're in a very organized group that fights very outnumbered forcing you to blockcast a lot then you may prefer ice staff for survivability and you'll still be able to get kills since you're in such a coordinated group. But in my honest opinion it is in very limited situations because, as I said, magblades utilizing siphoning attacks properly typically have plenty of stamina anyway and a 8% damage bonus is HUGE.