Twilight Force – A ranged Magicka Nightblade DD Build (Morrowind Ready)

Masel

Changelog: Revamped the Build for Morrowind.



Hello, it’s Masel again with another vMA/DD Build. The Class of Choice Nightblade this time, and we’re doing some outside the Box Setup with this, as always.

Most Magicka Nightblade Builds will Force you to use Scathing Mage, as it has the highest uptime on a Magblade due to Twisting Path counting as Direct Damage. I'll add a version with scathing mage in it too. I wanted a build that dishes out good damage while still staying ranged. The only Monster Set that is really reliable on a Magblade that doesn't use Force Pulse is Grothdarr, which forces you to go Melee or waste the Proc completely. This Setup uses Illambris, which is (together with Skoria and Nerien'eth) the coolest Monster set right now. Illambris requires a certain level of Lightning and Fire Damage to be worth using. This Setup works great on all other classes too (meaning it tops 30k DPS quite easily without anything fully optimized), so try it out if you want!


I also added a Version that uses vMA staffs in NON-Sharpened Traits and simply modified CP, as it is fairly unlikely that you have both in sharpened.

Race:

Altmer, everything else loses a Margin of DPS and/or Sustain. Secnd And Third would be Dunmer and Breton.

Stats (with Major Sorcery on both and Lunar and Shadow Blessing, respectively):





Gear with double vMA/ 1 Master 1 vMA Staffs IN SHARPENED:




Gear with double vMA/ 1 Master 1 vMA Staffs IN NON-SHARPENED:



Alternative Setup with Scathing Mage:



The vMA Setup:



Why Illambris?

We’re using Lightning/Fire Blockade and Force Pulse, so we have easy Access to both Shock and Fire Damage. Illambris works at Range, does great damage and increases our chance to proc status effects.

Why Moondancer?

Moondancer offers minor slayer, tons of recovery, and a lot of damage. With a 50% Uptime of both procs you get 224 Recovery and 224 Spell damage, which is great! While active, the lunar blessing gets us to ~1900 recovery. So with the shadow you will slowly deplete magicka, while the lunar blessing will recover that quickly. Recovery is superior to cost reduction in my opinion as you can basically double it's effectiveness and it ticks all the time and keeps it's advantage, even between fights and while not using skills.

Why double vMA Staffs?

They keep the 189 Spell Damage when you apply a posion on them, simple as that. Master Staffs do it too. It's in fact an intended feature that was introduced with poison in the Dark Brotherhood DLC.

What’s with the Drain Magicka Poison on the front bar?

It restores a good amunt of resources without a real drawback. It suppresses the Crushing Wall/Destructiv Touch enchant, but NOT the 189 Spell Damage/1032 Magicka. You can combine any two Alchemy Ingredients with Alkahest that give "Restore Magicka" to get it (e.g. Columbine and Corn Flower).

How in hell am I supposed to Grind both vMA staffs in sharpened?

Good thing is, you dont need to! You can simply take out points of other cp stars and put them into Spell Erosion. The star is a lot more rewarding than before and you onyl need to put get up to 3k additonal penetration to reach the cap. While you will parse lower on a dummy with this, you will do more damage.

Sources of pen without sharpened:

LA Passive: 4884
Alkosh: 3000
Infused Crusher: 1944
Breach(Major): 5280
Added up that is equal to 15108.

To reach the Penetration cap we need 18200, so 3092 on top. To get that we need 36 points in spell erosion. You'll effectively lose the damage on elemental expert and elfborn, but you instead get damage from thee additional trait while full pen is achieved.

Minor Breach: 1320 < this one is often not there due to the lack of stamplars, and healers dont necessarily have room for it.

Bar Setup (Nightblade):

Main Bar (Lightning Staff):

Impale, Force Pulse, Crippling Grasp/Swallow Soul (in vMA), Relentless Focus, Inner Light, Thunderous Rage

Back Bar (Inferno Staff):

Harness Magicka, Refreshing Path, Blockade of Storms, Siphoning Attacks, Inner Light, Soul Harvest (for 10% crit damage bonus while on back bar)

CP Distribution:

The most important CP stars have jump points now, so yoou want to make sure that you are always just above the next full %-increase. 100 Points in Arcanist is a waste because you get 1% recovery for 25 CPs, and it's simply better to ditribute them elsewhere.

CP Distribution without Sharpened Staffs:

DPS-Parses, only drain and Orbs:

Coming Soon, i dont have access to willpower on the PTS and will be traveling from May 20th until June 9th, so i cant paste any before. Feel free to post yours below when MW hits


Feel free to make any remarks on how to improve the Build Further, and try it out it's awesome!

MartinDeShade

Your first set of gear, (completely geared set) doesn't include a 5th Infallible for Minor Vulnerability. So it looks like go with VMA staff or go with 5th Infallible for Minor Vulnerability.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

MartinDeShade wrote: »

Your first set of gear, (completely geared set) doesn't include a 5th Infallible for Minor Vulnerability. So it looks like go with VMA staff or go with 5th Infallible for Minor Vulnerability.

The point of the build is clearly to used a charged staff to proc concussed, which gives you the same buff, so no use for the five piece.

Masel

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

MartinDeShade wrote: »

Your first set of gear, (completely geared set) doesn't include a 5th Infallible for Minor Vulnerability. So it looks like go with VMA staff or go with 5th Infallible for Minor Vulnerability.

The point of the build is clearly to used a charged staff to proc concussed, which gives you the same buff, so no use for the five piece.

Yes exactly. With force pulse and the shock enchant, you basically keep it up 100%. I'll post a full run tonight or tomorrow depending on if I have the time to tape one.

It's just something different than the old sharpened meta that produces really good results

There are some errors in the gear setup (still shows robust traits on jewels )

Siliziumdioxid

One Question: I see Ilambris in a setup that claims to be ranged.
My question is: how do you make them stand in the AoE when you're not a melee range?

Masel

Siliziumdioxid wrote: »

One Question: I see Ilambris in a setup that claims to be ranged.
My question is: how do you make them stand in the AoE when you're not a melee range?

They just stand in it. Casters don't move out of it. And melee enemies that are already close to you will stay in it. In most cases, I stand where casters spawn (as they're the biggest danger in there), drop aoes and the melee enemies come to me anyway.

As I said, I'll post a video within the next days, it works great

Another advantage of using force pulse over jabs is that it is cheaper and provides 3600 magicka on kill. Sustaining Jabs in vMA is a very hard thing in my opinion.

DRXHarbinger

^ jabs in vma is a mop up. Wait until you have 4 adds in your face and mow them down. Most of the time you'll get an arcane well. But shock over jabs anywhere else in there. Unless you're confident the boss will die before you run out.

Also do you not prefer dampen over harness? I find harness ends up being cast a lot more making the magika regen off it negated. It's gone after like 1-2 hits. Only time I've found it useful is against crem guards. Small ticks but frequent you actually profit from it, I suppose the dot up top is the same. But other than that I find it a pig in rounds 5-7 as everything just hits too hard for it. Esp argonian archers.

Masel

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

^ jabs in vma is a mop up. Wait until you have 4 adds in your face and mow them down. Most of the time you'll get an arcane well. But shock over jabs anywhere else in there. Unless you're confident the boss will die before you run out.

Also do you not prefer dampen over harness? I find harness ends up being cast a lot more making the magika regen off it negated. It's gone after like 1-2 hits. Only time I've found it useful is against crem guards. Small ticks but frequent you actually profit from it, I suppose the dot up top is the same. But other than that I find it a pig in rounds 5-7 as everything just hits too hard for it. Esp argonian archers.

I just found it very annoying to always run out of magicka with jabs, and to have to run to each caster in slow motion with the templar. This way you can choose a spot, put down channeled focus and ritual of retribution and range kill everything around you.

I actually use dampen magic for the same reasons you mentioned, but it's a thing of preference I guess.

Masel

Updated with Flawless Templar run video and a Magicka Nightblade Version with more to come.

Masel

Updated with a full Magicka Nightblade run.

ScottishTornado85

It's yersel!

Masel

ScottishTornado85 wrote: »

It's yersel!

I don't really know what you want to tell me with that, sir (or madam)

Masel

Updated with new DPS-Parses.

mr_wazzabi

I hate rng.

3 hours of farming rivenspire for necropentence and only 1 divines body piece and 1 purple ring.

Artis

I like how charged makes sense - and it does - but what about the actual numbers? Are you sure it's optimal?

How does it compare to usual illambris+BSW+sharpened weapons? Even adding 17% to your DPS, my parse is higher - and I'm a breton.

Either way- great guide, thanks for your work.

Masel

Artis wrote: »

I like how charged makes sense - and it does - but what about the actual numbers? Are you sure it's optimal?

How does it compare to usual illambris+BSW+sharpened weapons? Even adding 17% to your DPS, my parse is higher - and I'm a breton.

I would test the normal BiS setup, but I can't, as I have never dropped a sharpened staff of moondancer or aether in my 689 cp lasting trial-heavy eso history. All I can say is that this setup yields better results than any other setup I tried before on the magblade.

Im a newbie on templars, so I can't really say how I'd perform there DPS-wise (can't sustain it without siphoning). So with adding 17% to my 35k DPS (which is using refreshing path and doesn't have undaunted leveled) your parse on the magblade is higher on a breton? That means you're pulling more than 40k without raidbuffs with only ele drain and without racial passives, is that even possible on a magblade?

Syrani

Just a quick question - why are you using a weapon damage enchant on your sharpened aether lightning staff? Shouldn't that be spell damage?

Masel

Syrani wrote: »

Just a quick question - why are you using a weapon damage enchant on your sharpened aether lightning staff? Shouldn't that be spell damage?

Syrani wrote: »

Just a quick question - why are you using a weapon damage enchant on your sharpened aether lightning staff? Shouldn't that be spell damage?

The enchant that gives both spell and weapon damage is called weapon damage enchant. There is no spell damage enchant

Syrani

Oh that's right - I forgot it was both. I am old, I have senior moments sometimes (a lot).

SirDopey

Nice build man. Working on a NB now to take into vMA - until now all my clears have been on stamina and want to start doing more with magicka toons.

When you're doing vMA what do you rely on for major sorcery since there's no molten armaments? Pots? Do you get a dps loss subbing relentless for entropy?

I'm encouraged by your numbers, your average/max numbers on metric are very similar to mine yet im struggling to see more than 20K against the skeleton, guessing I just need to keep working on rotation speed.

Masel

SirDopey wrote: »

Nice build man. Working on a NB now to take into vMA - until now all my clears have been on stamina and want to start doing more with magicka toons.

When you're doing vMA what do you rely on for major sorcery since there's no molten armaments? Pots? Do you get a dps loss subbing relentless for entropy?

I'm encouraged by your numbers, your average/max numbers on metric are very similar to mine yet im struggling to see more than 20K against the skeleton, guessing I just need to keep working on rotation speed.

I don't even have major sorcery in there, because I'm cheap and you get on the boards with this without potions.

Rotation is a big part of the deal! So you need to practice in keeping your buffs up all the time

Keep in mind that the build is not BiS for a trial environment. My raidguild is not a competitive trial guild and I'm the designated buff guy with lightning blockade, so I build all my setups around that thought. Don't get me wrong you can achieve more than 40k single target dps with this setup, so no worries there!

Masel

Updated with a new magblade parse with Undaunted Mettle leveled.

Masel

Updated with new parses and a DK and Sorc Option.

SirDopey

Do you know if "charged" weapon trait continues once you weapon swap. For example, say I have charged vma lightning staff back bar and drop elemental blockade then switch to my front bar (precise inferno or some *** cause vma hates me) will the charged weapon trait from the lightning staff still have an effect while the blockade is ticking???

GrigorijMalahevich

Very nice build brother! Thank you!

I will try this on my mag DK as I just run with him 5 elegance + 5 aether + vma light sharp and vma resto back bar. Easiest vma clears - blockade, molten, dampen and on big mobs eruption and sometimes rapid and/or healing ward - super easy and I barely have to move or do anything, though DPS is 24k on normal skeleton, due to (420 cp) no exploiter. Will try to swap to your setup and see the difference.

On my magplar (did first clear and didn't have 50 destro staff, so massive problem with sustain and feels like magplar has to cast rune and two fields for proper sustain and use degeneration for hp - really a lot of skills that require to be constantly up. Had to swap glyphs to cost resuction and mag recovery, also had to put iceheart on for extra survival. Died 5 times only on last boss due to sustain issues and much lower dps than on magdk or magsorc.

How to better distribute CP if I only have 420? For magplar and magdk

Thank you!

@Masel92

Artis

Masel92 wrote: »

Artis wrote: »

I like how charged makes sense - and it does - but what about the actual numbers? Are you sure it's optimal?

How does it compare to usual illambris+BSW+sharpened weapons? Even adding 17% to your DPS, my parse is higher - and I'm a breton.

I would test the normal BiS setup, but I can't, as I have never dropped a sharpened staff of moondancer or aether in my 689 cp lasting trial-heavy eso history. All I can say is that this setup yields better results than any other setup I tried before on the magblade.

Im a newbie on templars, so I can't really say how I'd perform there DPS-wise (can't sustain it without siphoning). So with adding 17% to my 35k DPS (which is using refreshing path and doesn't have undaunted leveled) your parse on the magblade is higher on a breton? That means you're pulling more than 40k without raidbuffs with only ele drain and without racial passives, is that even possible on a magblade?

It wasn't 35k when I typed that comment. Also, right now it's not 35k, it shows 36k or something. Which is still a little lower than my breton DPS with sharpened. How come? I'm trying to understand. And no, I'm not pulling 40k under those conditions, the DPS I was talking about in that comment was 36994 with only elemental drain and Rank I destro ulti. And the one you had linked back then was something else, not 36k, I forgot what. Maybe I read it wrong though, don't remember now. Maybe I looked at your DK or sorc DPS by mistake?

And seeing that they are comparable, but you are providing offbalance for yourself and specced for it, while I'm not - I think it follows from here that in the group the difference will be even higher. I might be wrong of course.
p.s. is there any way to make the forum notify if someone quotes me?

Masel

Updated and revamped the Build for Morrowind.

Weesacs

@Masel92 - I really enjoy your builds Masel - are you going to do one for Magicka Templar for Morrowind any time soon?

Qbiken

@Masel92 Back at it again with those ´"easy to get setups"

Just need to get myself some more moondancer stuff until morrowind is released

Siliziumdioxid

Is there another setup for vMA? it's just that 5 piece Moondancer doesn't seem to make that much sense in vma.

Masel

Siliziumdioxid wrote: »

Is there another setup for vMA? it's just that 5 piece Moondancer doesn't seem to make that much sense in vma.

Just added one will post a full run when I'm back!