Magblade - how to increase DPS?

Jorotarr

I've played around with several builds over the past couple months, including a few healing builds. I came to the conclusion I'm not the best healer, so I went back to some dps builds and finally found one that was fun for questing and did high dps. Or so I thought. My FTC addon was configuring an average of 8kdps spread out across AoE encounters and single target. Then I read that 20k dps is a good starting place and that it's based on the skeleton. So I went to find a skeleton, and after repeated attempts I'm still averaging 8kdps. But it's the highest dps I've managed from a build, even after trying out other "proven" builds. I'd be happy with even 15k, but I don't know how to get there. Here's what I've got:

Bar 1 (Single Target), Flame Staff

• Crippling Grasp
• Destructive Clench
• Funnel Health
• Impale
• Merciless Resolve
• U - Elemental Storm (to be replaced with Meteor soon)

Bar 2 (AoE), Lightning Staff

• Refreshing Path
• Elemental Blockade
• Sap Essence
• Pulsar
• Elemental Drain
• U - Soul Harvest

The only set I have now is 5 Julianos, and I'm going for 5 Julianos and 5 Treasure Hunter since I don't have Inner Light. Which I've tried, and it didn't significantly increase my dps. I've also tried Twisting Path over Refreshing Path, and it didn't significantly improve my dps output. Plus I'm still questing so I need Refreshing Path for soloing. Also tried slotting Force Pulse but Funnel Health had higher damage.

I've managed fine through normal dungeons, not tried vet yet. I feel like my skills are fairly solid, and I'm not trying to be the best of the best or anything. I feel like it's something I'm doing keeping me from at least 15k dps. Any ideas/tips?

LegacyDM

Are you constantly applying sap essence for major sorcerery? Need the 20% spell damage increase for 100% uptime. Try structured entropy instead of sap essence. Also, Vet bosses have 18k resistance. You may need to apply more spell penetration. You'll need to weave in and animation cancel fire medium/heavy attacks with your funnel health as well. I run a spinner/necropetence setup, but julianos should work too. Besides that, not sure. You sure your rotation is right? Give us some numbers. What's your spell damage, max magicka, and spell penetration?

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Julianos is a fine, but I am not a fan of treasure hunter. I would go with willpower jewelry as a place holder until you get better stuff, but that is just my 2 cents. On a mageblade, your goal should be BSW (julianos is fine for now), Ilambris x2, and Moondancer/Infall x3-4. Infall might actually be better than moondancer for nightblade because of passives, but its pretty close. Trial jewelry is likely a long way out, so willpower is probably your best substitute.

Your skills are mostly the right ones, but you have some order problems. First, do NOT run sap essence and pulsar at the same time. These two skills are both AOE spammables, so they are completely redundant. Sap is your better choice, but you really dont need either. You can AOE with a lighting staff heavy attack. Sap is nice for the major sorcery buff, but I think you are best of with potions for that buff, and structured entropy is probably the second best choice.

NB Meta bars look pretty much like this:

Fire: Force Pulse, Merciless Resolve, Elemental Blockade, Crippling grasp, Inner light, Meteor
Lighting: Twisting Patch, Shock Clench, Impale, Siphoning Attacks, Harnass Magic (flex), elemental Rage

This build does require potion use, but that's the way to pull max DPS. The rotation is very circular, and the dots are done in this order based on duration to maximize uptime: Buff Siphoning and Merciless and potion out of combat, LA (light attack)>Twisting, LA>Clench, Bar Swap, LA>Cripple, LA>Blockade, LA>Spectral Bow, LA>recast Merciless, LA>Force Pulsex2, start at the top.

Basically, you put your DOTs down, Fire your spectral bow, recast merciless, weave 2 force pulses, and repeat. Couple points about your comments. Force pulse is absolutely more DPS, but nothing wrong with running Funnel when solo or small group to boost healing. Inner light is also worthy of a spot on your front bar. We really dont even run it for the crit, as we can get that from potions. We run it for the mages guild passives (same reason we run meteor). More max magic means all your skills hit harder.

mNB is not the easiest class to pull high DPS. It requires a very good weave because that is what triggers your spectral bow to proc.

I dont know what your stats look like, but also be sure that you are running blue health/magic food, magic and spell damage enchants, and that you dont have more thatn 5-10 attributes in health (0 is the goal) with the rest into magic.

Anlaemar

It sounds like work is needed on your rotation more than anything.


Get a buff tracker if you don't have one.

Buff trackers are important for every roll to monitor all your buffs/debuffs/ground-aoes. You have priorities as a DPS when it comes to your skills.

Buffs > DoTS > Spammable


While not the best setup, here's how I have my bars set up:

B1 Fire - (1)Force Pulse (FH/SS), (2)Merciless Resolve, (3)Siphoning Strikes, (4)Sap Essence, (5)Inner Light, Ult: Metor
B2 Fire - (1)Twisting Path, (2)Elemental Blockade, (3)Crippling Grasp, (4)Impale, (5)Inner Light, Ult: Destro


I haven't seen many with this setup, but it fits all the "rules" while retaining my preferred placements as well as easy rotation. Simple breakdown using B1/2 + Skill #:

Prefight: B1 > 2 > 3 > BS (Bar swap)
B2: 1 > LA > 2 > LA > 3 > LA-BS-B1: 1 > LA x3-5 times (depends on you) BS and repeat



TL;DR

Work on your rotation. Gear makes a difference, but you'll see improvement with rotation faster then upgrading gear.

Jorotarr

LegacyDM wrote: »

Are you constantly applying sap essence for major sorcerery? Need the 20% spell damage increase for 100% uptime. Try structured entropy instead of sap essence. (...) Give us some numbers. What's your spell damage, max magicka, and spell penetration?

In boss fights it's sometimes challenging to always run up to the boss to hit them with Sap Essence for the buff. I thought of Structured Entropy, but then that would decrease dps since it provides little damage output. Here are my stats for Bar 1/Bar2:

CP230
Mundus: The Thief
Spell Damage: 1606/1420
Spell Crit: 56%/58%
Weapon Damage: 1132/1132
Weapon Crit: 29.4%/31.4%
Max Magicka: 27036/27036
Magicka Recovery: 1291/1291

My armor enchants are max magicka and my weapon enchants are absorb magicka. I also have mostly divine traits.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Julianos is a fine, but I am not a fan of treasure hunter. I would go with willpower jewelry as a place holder until you get better stuff, but that is just my 2 cents. On a mageblade, your goal should be BSW (julianos is fine for now), Ilambris x2, and Moondancer/Infall x3-4. Infall might actually be better than moondancer for nightblade because of passives, but its pretty close. Trial jewelry is likely a long way out, so willpower is probably your best substitute.

I'm on the right track then since I acquired 2 Willpower last night. I also just learned about 5/1/1 and so I put some skill points into medium and heavy armor and will be trying to get a medium and heavy Julianos piece soon.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

NB Meta bars look pretty much like this:

Fire: Force Pulse, Merciless Resolve, Elemental Blockade, Crippling grasp, Inner light, Meteor
Lighting: Twisting Patch, Shock Clench, Impale, Siphoning Attacks, Harnass Magic (flex), elemental Rage

Why Blockade on the fire bar? Isn't it good to knock the enemies off balance with lightning? And why Shock Clench vs Flame Clench? Also - is Elemental Drain not worth a slot for it's magicka regen to self and group plus the debuff?

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

(...) This build does require potion use, but that's the way to pull max DPS. (...) More max magic means all your skills hit harder. (...) I dont know what your stats look like, but also be sure that you are running blue health/magic food, magic and spell damage enchants, and that you dont have more thatn 5-10 attributes in health (0 is the goal) with the rest into magic.

I just posted my stats above. I definitely use health/magicka food. In regards to potions, I've never used them. What ingredients do I need, and what potions do I need to make? I also had no idea that more max magicka meant harder hitting spells, I just thought it meant I had a bigger resource pool. Good to know!

Anlaemar wrote: »

It sounds like work is needed on your rotation more than anything.


Get a buff tracker if you don't have one.

Buff trackers are important for every roll to monitor all your buffs/debuffs/ground-aoes. You have priorities as a DPS when it comes to your skills.

Buffs > DoTS > Spammable

I have a buff tracker, I guess I just need to keep a better eye on it. It's hard when the combat is so fast paced though. Good to know that Buffs > DoTs, I've been doing that backwards.


Basically I guess it's my rotation that's wonky, based on the last two posts. I don't "weave" light attacks, I just would do heavy attacks after casting all my buffs and DoTs. I also don't animation cancel, which is something I still don't quite understand.

code65536

Your loadout depends on what you're trying to do.

Here is the typical setup you'll see:
5p Burning Spellweave
2p Ilambris
4p Moondancer -OR- Infallible Aether

Front bar (fire): Force Pulse, Crippling Grasp, Elemental Blockade, Merciless Resolve, Inner Light, Shooting Star
Back bar (shock): Impale, Twisting Path, Shock Clench, Siphoning Attacks, Harness Magicka, Elemental Rage

This is the max-DPS build designed for endgame vet trials. However, I do not recommend this as your starting point, for two reasons:

• It's designed for well-coordinated groups with good resource and heal support.
• It maximizes DPS at the expense of the magblade's identity and unique strengths. It basically plays like a hobbled sorc.

It's not very fun, and you lose all the utility and self-sufficiency that is the hallmark of the magblade. This setup is what I'll use in a vet trial. But it is wholly inappropriate for anything outside of a vet trial.

Anyway, seeing as how you're still doing normal dungeons, you shouldn't be considering a setup like the one above.

This is what I use when I'm not in a vet trial:
5p Julianos
2p Skoria or 2p Grothdarr
4p Moondancer -OR- Infallible Aether (or 3p Willpower)

Front bar (fire): Funnel Health, Crippling Grasp, Elemental Blockade, Merciless Resolve, Inner Light, Soul Harvest
Back bar (shock): Impale, Refreshing Path, Sap Essence -OR- Harness Magicka, Siphoning Attacks, Inner Light, Elemental Rage

BSW is only slightly better than Julianos, and if you're not using Force Pulse, then you might as well use Julianos. Also, the utility from Sap is generally more useful than Shock Clench, and without Clench, you're better off with Skoria or Grothdarr.

This is a much more well-rounded setup. Not max-DPS, but much more sustainable and survivable and basically what you should use outside of vet trials. (And with the sustain changes next patch, you'll definitely want to use Funnel over Force Pulse even in trials.) And you really don't lose that much by going Julianos/Funnel.

And finally, if you are just starting out and don't have a whole lot of CP, I would recommend Destruction Mastery + Kagrenac for your gear. The gear is easy to acquire and the sets are more suited for lower-CP players.

As for your rotation, since it looks like you're just starting out, I would recommend trying just a simple front-bar-only rotation of reapplying Grasp/Blockade when they expire, firing and recasting Merciless when it procs, and weaving Funnel when not doing any of that. For a beginner like yourself, you should just focus on getting comfortable with your front bar and light-weaving every skill. Adding stuff like Path from the back bar will give you a bit of extra DPS, but it's a relatively smaller benefit than just getting used to weaving your front-bar correctly. Get more comfortable first.

As a point of reference, with my old Kagrenac and Destruction Mastery gear, trash magicka pots (I didn't have any source of Major Sorcery), no ele drain (not even from myself) and using only my front bar (except going to the back bar to execute at 25% and casting Siphoning Attacks when my magicka ran too low), I can easily exceed 20K on my target dummy, which is sufficient for any non-DLC vet dungeon. So try for that first. Higher numbers will require adding the back bar into the rotation, Major Breach from ele drain, spell power potions, fancier gear, etc.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Joromarr wrote: »

LegacyDM wrote: »

Are you constantly applying sap essence for major sorcerery? Need the 20% spell damage increase for 100% uptime. Try structured entropy instead of sap essence. (...) Give us some numbers. What's your spell damage, max magicka, and spell penetration?

In boss fights it's sometimes challenging to always run up to the boss to hit them with Sap Essence for the buff. I thought of Structured Entropy, but then that would decrease dps since it provides little damage output. Here are my stats for Bar 1/Bar2:

CP230
Mundus: The Thief
Spell Damage: 1606/1420
Spell Crit: 56%/58%
Weapon Damage: 1132/1132
Weapon Crit: 29.4%/31.4%
Max Magicka: 27036/27036
Magicka Recovery: 1291/1291

My armor enchants are max magicka and my weapon enchants are absorb magicka. I also have mostly divine traits.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Julianos is a fine, but I am not a fan of treasure hunter. I would go with willpower jewelry as a place holder until you get better stuff, but that is just my 2 cents. On a mageblade, your goal should be BSW (julianos is fine for now), Ilambris x2, and Moondancer/Infall x3-4. Infall might actually be better than moondancer for nightblade because of passives, but its pretty close. Trial jewelry is likely a long way out, so willpower is probably your best substitute.

I'm on the right track then since I acquired 2 Willpower last night. I also just learned about 5/1/1 and so I put some skill points into medium and heavy armor and will be trying to get a medium and heavy Julianos piece soon.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

NB Meta bars look pretty much like this:

Fire: Force Pulse, Merciless Resolve, Elemental Blockade, Crippling grasp, Inner light, Meteor
Lighting: Twisting Patch, Shock Clench, Impale, Siphoning Attacks, Harnass Magic (flex), elemental Rage

Why Blockade on the fire bar? Isn't it good to knock the enemies off balance with lightning? And why Shock Clench vs Flame Clench? Also - is Elemental Drain not worth a slot for it's magicka regen to self and group plus the debuff?

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

(...) This build does require potion use, but that's the way to pull max DPS. (...) More max magic means all your skills hit harder. (...) I dont know what your stats look like, but also be sure that you are running blue health/magic food, magic and spell damage enchants, and that you dont have more thatn 5-10 attributes in health (0 is the goal) with the rest into magic.

I just posted my stats above. I definitely use health/magicka food. In regards to potions, I've never used them. What ingredients do I need, and what potions do I need to make? I also had no idea that more max magicka meant harder hitting spells, I just thought it meant I had a bigger resource pool. Good to know!

Anlaemar wrote: »

It sounds like work is needed on your rotation more than anything.


Get a buff tracker if you don't have one.

Buff trackers are important for every roll to monitor all your buffs/debuffs/ground-aoes. You have priorities as a DPS when it comes to your skills.

Buffs > DoTS > Spammable

I have a buff tracker, I guess I just need to keep a better eye on it. It's hard when the combat is so fast paced though. Good to know that Buffs > DoTs, I've been doing that backwards.


Basically I guess it's my rotation that's wonky, based on the last two posts. I don't "weave" light attacks, I just would do heavy attacks after casting all my buffs and DoTs. I also don't animation cancel, which is something I still don't quite understand.

So blockade is one of the strongest skills in the game. Lighting blockade does work, especially in small man for the off balance, but fire is more damage. A healer should be running lighting blockade for you, but they dont always. The same applies to ele drain. Ele drain gives major breach and magika steal. Well a tank should be taunting with pierce armor to give you the major breach, and magika steal is again generally the job of the healer, either by running radiant aura or ele drain. Damage dealers really shouldn't have to run ele drain in a group, but when solo, it is certainly useful or if your healer is not up to scratch.

One nice thing about the fire blockade and shock clench combo is that it gives both a fire and lighting DOT to proc both elements on the Ilambris monster set when you get it. Now you have to realize, that I am posting meta bars for end game content. I would probably not try to control 4 DOTS (Twisting, Clench, Crippling, blockade) and 2 buffs (merciless and siphoning) right out of the gate. One reason we put the buffs in this order is based on duration, that way you can maximize the uptime. Ideally, you want to reapply DOTS right as they run out. Too early or too late and its a DPS loss (better to error on the side of too late than too early). Getting a rotation where you cast all your DOTs in order is very helpful. You could certainly drop clench or crippling grasp for something like structured entropy.

There are 2 buffs any magic DPS needs. Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy. You get both by running potions on cooldown: Corn Flower, Lady's Smock, Water Hyacinth. Running potions all the time can be pricey, so you can certainly look to get the buffs elsewhere, but it comes as a DPS loss because you must add it into your rotation. Potions can be drank at any time independently from your rotation, assuming they are off cooldown. You also want to make sure you get your "medicinal use" passive from alchemy to boost the duration, so the buffs can be up 100%.

If not using potions, you can get major sorcery from Sap essence or Structured entropy and major prophecy from inner light. Structured entropy can be used at range and is actually a small DOT, so there are worse things to add to your damage rotation. It is certainly better than Sap Essence on bosses, but in trash pulls, sap can be very powerful. You could certainly treat that as a flex spot and switch depending on the fight. You need one of them if not running potions. Inner light also gives you a ton of magic (more damage) so even if running potions, you typically still slot it, at least on your front bar.

Yes, damage does scale off both spell damage and max magic (or weapon damage and max stamina if its a stamina ability) so you always want to boost your primary stat pool as high as possible. 10.5 points of magic is roughly equal to 1 point of spell damage, but that ratio is not always a constant for all skills. This is important in practice because usually you are having to make trade offs. The most obvious one initially is the Health vs Magic balance. Every point you put into health is a point you dont put into magic, so you are trading damage for survival. There is no right answer here. Competitive players put nothing into health, but in the beginning, that's probably a bad idea. You do no damage when dead. I usually recomend 5-10 pts in health when learning. Try to get to at least 18k health (structured entropy on your front bar also gives health).

As for animation canceling, this is something you should look up some youtube videos on if you want to play nightblade. Nightblades probably depend more on AC than any class. Your main buff is merciless resolve. It does two things. One is that it gives you a damage buff. You want this buff active 100% of the time. The second thing it does is that it "procs" a spectral bow once you get off 4 light attacks. Now you dont want to just stand their and spam light attacks, as its horrible DPS. But what you can do is "weave" light attacks in between just about any skill. That way, you accumulate your required 4 light attacks when applying your buffs/DOTs, and then you can fire your spectral bow when you get there. Remember that when you fire a spectral bow, you need to reapply the buff.

The best way to practice is to get on a target dummy and work on weaving force pulse or funnel health. Basically, you cast light attack and then immediately follow with your skill. So it becomes Light attack>Skill, Light attack>skill. Skills can not be fired faster than one per second based on the global cooldown inherent in all skills. Light attacks, heavy attacks, Blocks, Dodge rolls, bar swaps, all act independently of the global cooldowns, so basically, you can add them into your rotation without slowing it down. A good place to start is cast merciless resolve and weave light attacks and force pulse until you see the bow proc. It should only take 4 weaves, but it will likely take more in the beginning. Try the following: LA>Mericless, LA>Force pulse (x4 or however many it takes), LA>Spectral Bow, LA>Mericless and repeat. Then when you get that down, start adding in DOTs. The only other buff is siphoning strikes. You really dont need it all the time, i usually apply pre fight and when my magic falls below 50%. This is another skill that is based on weaving. You get resources back based on Light Attacks.

Long story short, NBs rely on weaves to proc both their main damage skill (mericless) and to manage their resources (siphoning strikes), so you want to practice it. If you are on PC/NA, you are welcome to use my test dummy anytime, just message me in game.

Edit: I also agree with just about everything @code65536 said. The take away is start simple and then expand your rotation, and what works for a max CP player in a trial is not necessicarily the best for someone learning. I also agree, that shock clench is probably the first thing I would remove, and that funnel health>>Force pulse outside of trials.

Artis

Why do you all put impale on the back bar and merciless on the front? Impale is a huge chunk of DPS and could benefit from 8% damage bonus + it's convenient to spam it reapplying blockade and CG in the execute phase if all those things are on the same bar.

Another question - does it make sense to go for 4 moondancer/IA on the back bar if one can use 3 of them and another vMA staff? 189 spell damage vMA staff gives > 129 spell damage 4piece bonus of moondancer.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Artis wrote: »

Why do you all put impale on the back bar and merciless on the front? Impale is a huge chunk of DPS and could benefit from 8% damage bonus + it's convenient to spam it reapplying blockade and CG in the execute phase if all those things are on the same bar.

Another question - does it make sense to go for 4 moondancer/IA on the back bar if one can use 3 of them and another vMA staff? 189 spell damage vMA staff gives > 129 spell damage 4piece bonus of moondancer.

Ideally, yes, you want impale on the fire bar. The problem is that it really messes with the rotation. You end up with 4 casts on your back bar, which cuts into your front bar single target uptime, which ends up being a bigger DPS loss. I think this is one of those things where you realize its not ideal, but it's better than the alternative.

As for staffs, a NB ideally will front bar a VMA staff to buff blockade, and back bar an IA/Moondancer staff. You run the weapon/spell damage enchant on the back bar which carries over to your front bar. The only real benefit to the VMA staff is the blockade buff. The flat spell damage buff is essentially a wash with the proc based craftable enchant. If you run both, they stack on your front bar, and your back bar is in basically the same spot is if you had a VMA staff there. Really no reason to ever double bar a VMA staff.

Specifically on a NB, I think IA is a hair better than moondancer. On every other class, moondancer is better.

KingYogi415

Best way to increase DPS is to roll a sorc.

Cheers!

Artis

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Artis wrote: »

Why do you all put impale on the back bar and merciless on the front? Impale is a huge chunk of DPS and could benefit from 8% damage bonus + it's convenient to spam it reapplying blockade and CG in the execute phase if all those things are on the same bar.

Another question - does it make sense to go for 4 moondancer/IA on the back bar if one can use 3 of them and another vMA staff? 189 spell damage vMA staff gives > 129 spell damage 4piece bonus of moondancer.

Ideally, yes, you want impale on the fire bar. The problem is that it really messes with the rotation. You end up with 4 casts on your back bar, which cuts into your front bar single target uptime, which ends up being a bigger DPS loss. I think this is one of those things where you realize its not ideal, but it's better than the alternative.

As for staffs, a NB ideally will front bar a VMA staff to buff blockade, and back bar an IA/Moondancer staff. You run the weapon/spell damage enchant on the back bar which carries over to your front bar. The only real benefit to the VMA staff is the blockade buff. The flat spell damage buff is essentially a wash with the proc based craftable enchant. If you run both, they stack on your front bar, and your back bar is in basically the same spot is if you had a VMA staff there. Really no reason to ever double bar a VMA staff.

Specifically on a NB, I think IA is a hair better than moondancer. On every other class, moondancer is better.

I guess I need to test both setups and see what works best for me. I see how it can be a bigger DPS loss, but I'm not convinced, since the execute phase is a huge chunk of NB's DPS and it's good to have blockade and CG up while weaving impale - in that phase with impale on the front bar you can be on your front bar for 100% of the time.

Ah yes, thanks. I already realized this. The spell power enchant Playing with vMA weapons and talking about them so much I kinda forgot about other enchants. Thanks

QuebraRegra

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Joromarr wrote: »

LegacyDM wrote: »

Are you constantly applying sap essence for major sorcerery? Need the 20% spell damage increase for 100% uptime. Try structured entropy instead of sap essence. (...) Give us some numbers. What's your spell damage, max magicka, and spell penetration?

In boss fights it's sometimes challenging to always run up to the boss to hit them with Sap Essence for the buff. I thought of Structured Entropy, but then that would decrease dps since it provides little damage output. Here are my stats for Bar 1/Bar2:

CP230
Mundus: The Thief
Spell Damage: 1606/1420
Spell Crit: 56%/58%
Weapon Damage: 1132/1132
Weapon Crit: 29.4%/31.4%
Max Magicka: 27036/27036
Magicka Recovery: 1291/1291

My armor enchants are max magicka and my weapon enchants are absorb magicka. I also have mostly divine traits.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Julianos is a fine, but I am not a fan of treasure hunter. I would go with willpower jewelry as a place holder until you get better stuff, but that is just my 2 cents. On a mageblade, your goal should be BSW (julianos is fine for now), Ilambris x2, and Moondancer/Infall x3-4. Infall might actually be better than moondancer for nightblade because of passives, but its pretty close. Trial jewelry is likely a long way out, so willpower is probably your best substitute.

I'm on the right track then since I acquired 2 Willpower last night. I also just learned about 5/1/1 and so I put some skill points into medium and heavy armor and will be trying to get a medium and heavy Julianos piece soon.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

NB Meta bars look pretty much like this:

Fire: Force Pulse, Merciless Resolve, Elemental Blockade, Crippling grasp, Inner light, Meteor
Lighting: Twisting Patch, Shock Clench, Impale, Siphoning Attacks, Harnass Magic (flex), elemental Rage

Why Blockade on the fire bar? Isn't it good to knock the enemies off balance with lightning? And why Shock Clench vs Flame Clench? Also - is Elemental Drain not worth a slot for it's magicka regen to self and group plus the debuff?

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

(...) This build does require potion use, but that's the way to pull max DPS. (...) More max magic means all your skills hit harder. (...) I dont know what your stats look like, but also be sure that you are running blue health/magic food, magic and spell damage enchants, and that you dont have more thatn 5-10 attributes in health (0 is the goal) with the rest into magic.

I just posted my stats above. I definitely use health/magicka food. In regards to potions, I've never used them. What ingredients do I need, and what potions do I need to make? I also had no idea that more max magicka meant harder hitting spells, I just thought it meant I had a bigger resource pool. Good to know!

Anlaemar wrote: »

It sounds like work is needed on your rotation more than anything.


Get a buff tracker if you don't have one.

Buff trackers are important for every roll to monitor all your buffs/debuffs/ground-aoes. You have priorities as a DPS when it comes to your skills.

Buffs > DoTS > Spammable

I have a buff tracker, I guess I just need to keep a better eye on it. It's hard when the combat is so fast paced though. Good to know that Buffs > DoTs, I've been doing that backwards.


Basically I guess it's my rotation that's wonky, based on the last two posts. I don't "weave" light attacks, I just would do heavy attacks after casting all my buffs and DoTs. I also don't animation cancel, which is something I still don't quite understand.

So blockade is one of the strongest skills in the game. Lighting blockade does work, especially in small man for the off balance, but fire is more damage. A healer should be running lighting blockade for you, but they dont always. The same applies to ele drain. Ele drain gives major breach and magika steal. Well a tank should be taunting with pierce armor to give you the major breach, and magika steal is again generally the job of the healer, either by running radiant aura or ele drain. Damage dealers really shouldn't have to run ele drain in a group, but when solo, it is certainly useful or if your healer is not up to scratch.

One nice thing about the fire blockade and shock clench combo is that it gives both a fire and lighting DOT to proc both elements on the Ilambris monster set when you get it. Now you have to realize, that I am posting meta bars for end game content. I would probably not try to control 4 DOTS (Twisting, Clench, Crippling, blockade) and 2 buffs (merciless and siphoning) right out of the gate. One reason we put the buffs in this order is based on duration, that way you can maximize the uptime. Ideally, you want to reapply DOTS right as they run out. Too early or too late and its a DPS loss (better to error on the side of too late than too early). Getting a rotation where you cast all your DOTs in order is very helpful. You could certainly drop clench or crippling grasp for something like structured entropy.

There are 2 buffs any magic DPS needs. Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy. You get both by running potions on cooldown: Corn Flower, Lady's Smock, Water Hyacinth. Running potions all the time can be pricey, so you can certainly look to get the buffs elsewhere, but it comes as a DPS loss because you must add it into your rotation. Potions can be drank at any time independently from your rotation, assuming they are off cooldown. You also want to make sure you get your "medicinal use" passive from alchemy to boost the duration, so the buffs can be up 100%.

If not using potions, you can get major sorcery from Sap essence or Structured entropy and major prophecy from inner light. Structured entropy can be used at range and is actually a small DOT, so there are worse things to add to your damage rotation. It is certainly better than Sap Essence on bosses, but in trash pulls, sap can be very powerful. You could certainly treat that as a flex spot and switch depending on the fight. You need one of them if not running potions. Inner light also gives you a ton of magic (more damage) so even if running potions, you typically still slot it, at least on your front bar.

Yes, damage does scale off both spell damage and max magic (or weapon damage and max stamina if its a stamina ability) so you always want to boost your primary stat pool as high as possible. 10.5 points of magic is roughly equal to 1 point of spell damage, but that ratio is not always a constant for all skills. This is important in practice because usually you are having to make trade offs. The most obvious one initially is the Health vs Magic balance. Every point you put into health is a point you dont put into magic, so you are trading damage for survival. There is no right answer here. Competitive players put nothing into health, but in the beginning, that's probably a bad idea. You do no damage when dead. I usually recomend 5-10 pts in health when learning. Try to get to at least 18k health (structured entropy on your front bar also gives health).

As for animation canceling, this is something you should look up some youtube videos on if you want to play nightblade. Nightblades probably depend more on AC than any class. Your main buff is merciless resolve. It does two things. One is that it gives you a damage buff. You want this buff active 100% of the time. The second thing it does is that it "procs" a spectral bow once you get off 4 light attacks. Now you dont want to just stand their and spam light attacks, as its horrible DPS. But what you can do is "weave" light attacks in between just about any skill. That way, you accumulate your required 4 light attacks when applying your buffs/DOTs, and then you can fire your spectral bow when you get there. Remember that when you fire a spectral bow, you need to reapply the buff.

The best way to practice is to get on a target dummy and work on weaving force pulse or funnel health. Basically, you cast light attack and then immediately follow with your skill. So it becomes Light attack>Skill, Light attack>skill. Skills can not be fired faster than one per second based on the global cooldown inherent in all skills. Light attacks, heavy attacks, Blocks, Dodge rolls, bar swaps, all act independently of the global cooldowns, so basically, you can add them into your rotation without slowing it down. A good place to start is cast merciless resolve and weave light attacks and force pulse until you see the bow proc. It should only take 4 weaves, but it will likely take more in the beginning. Try the following: LA>Mericless, LA>Force pulse (x4 or however many it takes), LA>Spectral Bow, LA>Mericless and repeat. Then when you get that down, start adding in DOTs. The only other buff is siphoning strikes. You really dont need it all the time, i usually apply pre fight and when my magic falls below 50%. This is another skill that is based on weaving. You get resources back based on Light Attacks.

Long story short, NBs rely on weaves to proc both their main damage skill (mericless) and to manage their resources (siphoning strikes), so you want to practice it. If you are on PC/NA, you are welcome to use my test dummy anytime, just message me in game.

Edit: I also agree with just about everything @code65536 said. The take away is start simple and then expand your rotation, and what works for a max CP player in a trial is not necessicarily the best for someone learning. I also agree, that shock clench is probably the first thing I would remove, and that funnel health>>Force pulse outside of trials.

I might be in the wrong, but this sounds like good concise info to me... I need to bookmark this.

overclocker303b14_ESO

KingYogi415 wrote: »

Best way to increase DPS is to roll a sorc.

Cheers!

Pleasantly surprised to see this wasn't the first reply and some good feedback in this thread.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

overclocker303b14_ESO wrote: »

KingYogi415 wrote: »

Best way to increase DPS is to roll a sorc.

Cheers!

Pleasantly surprised to see this wasn't the first reply and some good feedback in this thread.

Agreed. Posts like that just arent helpful and come from either someone trying to be funny or a place of ignorance. Are sorcs overtuned at the moment, yep, they sure are. But it is really only from an AOE/Splash damage standpoint. All magic classes can break 50k single target with the right support. While I agree that NB is not my first choice for a DPS this patch, one of the best DPS on NA runs one and runs one well.

People act like every sorc out there is pulling 55k single target, which just is not the case. Sorcs have notoriously attracted some of the better button pressers in ESO, people like Streak or Yolo. Sorcs have traditionally required a very tight weave with a non-circular rotation and exceptional resource management to be competitive. Now we are seeing some OP parses come out of the best players and everyone loses their minds. The changes definitely simplified the rotation and gave a lot more passive splash damage, which made the class more accessible to your average player. They are not however as far out in front of the pack as the forum rage would suggest.

Liofa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcTQjKjmXpo

Here is what you should be doing . Watch > learn > benefit . Small info , this guy created the Shock Clench meta for NB after countless hours of theorycrafting and practice . Better learn from the creator right ? You might want to slow down the video in case you can't catch up with animation cancelling .

Artis

Liofa wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcTQjKjmXpo

Here is what you should be doing . Watch > learn > benefit . Small info , this guy created the Shock Clench meta for NB after countless hours of theorycrafting and practice . Better learn from the creator right ? You might want to slow down the video in case you can't catch up with animation cancelling .

Nice link.