Soooo... [Morrowind] Magblades... and how they work now in BG

Kay1

Neloth wrote: »

Why no-one here considering lich for sustain?

Because Lich is *** and Amberplasm is ten times stronger, Lich is only useful for people who struggle to manage their resources or shield stackers while Amberplasm gives you 100% uptime regen buff to both stam and mag and you need both for Magsorc and Magnb.

Of course that is my opinion.

5 War Maiden 5 Amberplasm and 2 Grothdarr, that's what I run

Dottzgaming

Out of all the gear ive tested ive been personally enjoying Skoria/Riposte/Trans the most, ESPECIALLY in BGs. I feel like we need the benefit from both utility sets to prevent us from getting totally blown up in light. or at least i do :P

After switching to the destro/resto side, i dont think ill touch non-bomber melee again until it gets buffed; destro too strong by comparison

Tawrich

Alright so, after a while of playing, I came to the conclusion that light armor is less playable even compared to one tamriel. Sure, if u are in a group ofc, u can shake off aggro by using cloak, reposition, fire, but if u are a solo player like me and are in CP zone, going light armor means forgetting about 1vXing at least in my opinion. Warmaiden/defense set is awesome, until u face a group of gankers and 1 healer, which is 80% of times in EU server Vivec campaign, and ur 1 defense set is just not enough to keep u alive under that fire. Riposte/transmute, even though its absolutely great in no CP, in CP it just doesnt have enough fire power against stamina setups which have infinite sustain, healing, roll dodge possibility and extreme damage, because its really not hard to focus on ur sustain while ur item sets do ur damage for u. As soon as they are pressured even a bit, vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge. Im even using mark target so I dont have issue against stamblades cloaking. (even though Miruku, after getting marked by me in a BG, didnt miss a chance to whisper me mid-match to flame me and say only noob nightblades use mark.) So on top of everything, its toxic too.

Most ppl are angry that they die to these setups alot unfairly, and I totally agree. I on the other hand survive them easily cuz transmute/riposte is so tanky, but on CP campaign I just cant finish them off, they all have massive sustains. Only in no CP they are easy to kill, especially with mark.

No CP is ofcourse very enjoyable in light armor and I even managed to 1vX using transmute/riposte, the issue is with CP campaign and I dont understand why.

I stress again, my issue is with 1vXing, not 1v1 or even 1v2

Please give me ur feedbacks, are u managing 1vX in light? Have u gone heavy? How do u deal with stamina setups?

CavalryPK

Tawrich wrote: »

Alright so, after a while of playing, I came to the conclusion that light armor is less playable even compared to one tamriel. Sure, if u are in a group ofc, u can shake off aggro by using cloak, reposition, fire, but if u are a solo player like me and are in CP zone, going light armor means forgetting about 1vXing at least in my opinion. Warmaiden/defense set is awesome, until u face a group of gankers and 1 healer, which is 80% of times in EU server Vivec campaign, and ur 1 defense set is just not enough to keep u alive under that fire. Riposte/transmute, even though its absolutely great in no CP, in CP it just doesnt have enough fire power against stamina setups which have infinite sustain, healing, roll dodge possibility and extreme damage, because its really not hard to focus on ur sustain while ur item sets do ur damage for u. As soon as they are pressured even a bit, vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge. Im even using mark target so I dont have issue against stamblades cloaking. (even though Miruku, after getting marked by me in a BG, didnt miss a chance to whisper me mid-match to flame me and say only noob nightblades use mark.) So on top of everything, its toxic too.

Most ppl are angry that they die to these setups alot unfairly, and I totally agree. I on the other hand survive them easily cuz transmute/riposte is so tanky, but on CP campaign I just cant finish them off, they all have massive sustains. Only in no CP they are easy to kill, especially with mark.

No CP is ofcourse very enjoyable in light armor and I even managed to 1vX using transmute/riposte, the issue is with CP campaign and I dont understand why.

I stress again, my issue is with 1vXing, not 1v1 or even 1v2

Please give me ur feedbacks, are u managing 1vX in light? Have u gone heavy? How do u deal with stamina setups?

@Tawrich

I enjoy no cp very much. however... lot of better players play in CP since in PC NA no cp campaign is empty. during my play time.


I am running RIposte/Trans. in CP I find that If I am not carful I will die but I have a chance to win. in no CP I feel slightly tanker. what gets me the win in NO CP is not my dmg numbers but better resource management.

CP and NO CP, I noticed that if a stamblade runs away and resets the fight I cannot do anything about it. one vigor plus several dodges. will take them out of execute range. I have a buddy that is running a proc build. he can 2 shot ppl and he has over 3k recovery.

I also feel that if you are facing 2 good players CP or no CP it does not matter. you will die...

It is harder to 1vX plebs in CP vs no CP.

I wish more ppl would play in no CP.

Tawrich

CavalryPK wrote: »

@Tawrich

I enjoy no cp very much. however... lot of better players play in CP since in PC NA no cp campaign is empty. during my play time.


I am running RIposte/Trans. in CP I find that If I am not carful I will die but I have a chance to win. in no CP I feel slightly tanker. what gets me the win in NO CP is not my dmg numbers but better resource management.

CP and NO CP, I noticed that if a stamblade runs away and resets the fight I cannot do anything about it. one vigor plus several dodges. will take them out of execute range. I have a buddy that is running a proc build. he can 2 shot ppl and he has over 3k recovery.

I also feel that if you are facing 2 good players CP or no CP it does not matter. you will die...

It is harder to 1vX plebs in CP vs no CP.

I wish more ppl would play in no CP.

I have exactly the same situation as you, exactly. I even watched some of ur videos (good content btw), generally similar playstyle with the difference that I run tri food and 1 recovery glyph+ siphoning attacks morph.

Yes, thats precisely my point, they are gankers with infinite sustain, they easily reset the fights, or just escape. So its not just me then, you are having trouble with them resetting fights too...at least Im not alone.

Ofcourse, if they stay in the fight I can kill them. Even with a warmaiden set I have no problem taking pressure from one proc set user. I can also get decent damage out of trans/riposte by bringing crit high with thief+crit pot. The issue is really not the damage. No matter how high ur damage is, if they are dodge rolling and ur attacks are missing, u can as well have rockets, whats the point if u cant deliver.

thankyourat

Tawrich wrote: »

Alright so, after a while of playing, I came to the conclusion that light armor is less playable even compared to one tamriel. Sure, if u are in a group ofc, u can shake off aggro by using cloak, reposition, fire, but if u are a solo player like me and are in CP zone, going light armor means forgetting about 1vXing at least in my opinion. Warmaiden/defense set is awesome, until u face a group of gankers and 1 healer, which is 80% of times in EU server Vivec campaign, and ur 1 defense set is just not enough to keep u alive under that fire. Riposte/transmute, even though its absolutely great in no CP, in CP it just doesnt have enough fire power against stamina setups which have infinite sustain, healing, roll dodge possibility and extreme damage, because its really not hard to focus on ur sustain while ur item sets do ur damage for u. As soon as they are pressured even a bit, vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge. Im even using mark target so I dont have issue against stamblades cloaking. (even though Miruku, after getting marked by me in a BG, didnt miss a chance to whisper me mid-match to flame me and say only noob nightblades use mark.) So on top of everything, its toxic too.

Most ppl are angry that they die to these setups alot unfairly, and I totally agree. I on the other hand survive them easily cuz transmute/riposte is so tanky, but on CP campaign I just cant finish them off, they all have massive sustains. Only in no CP they are easy to kill, especially with mark.

No CP is ofcourse very enjoyable in light armor and I even managed to 1vX using transmute/riposte, the issue is with CP campaign and I dont understand why.

I stress again, my issue is with 1vXing, not 1v1 or even 1v2

Please give me ur feedbacks, are u managing 1vX in light? Have u gone heavy? How do u deal with stamina setups?

Honestly it wouldn't matter if you are in light or heavy facing two procblades and a pocket healer will be pretty much impossible to beat. Especially in a cp campaign

CavalryPK

Tawrich wrote: »

CavalryPK wrote: »

@Tawrich

I enjoy no cp very much. however... lot of better players play in CP since in PC NA no cp campaign is empty. during my play time.


I am running RIposte/Trans. in CP I find that If I am not carful I will die but I have a chance to win. in no CP I feel slightly tanker. what gets me the win in NO CP is not my dmg numbers but better resource management.

CP and NO CP, I noticed that if a stamblade runs away and resets the fight I cannot do anything about it. one vigor plus several dodges. will take them out of execute range. I have a buddy that is running a proc build. he can 2 shot ppl and he has over 3k recovery.

I also feel that if you are facing 2 good players CP or no CP it does not matter. you will die...

It is harder to 1vX plebs in CP vs no CP.

I wish more ppl would play in no CP.

I have exactly the same situation as you, exactly. I even watched some of ur videos (good content btw), generally similar playstyle with the difference that I run tri food and 1 recovery glyph+ siphoning attacks morph.

Yes, thats precisely my point, they are gankers with infinite sustain, they easily reset the fights, or just escape. So its not just me then, you are having trouble with them resetting fights too...at least Im not alone.

Ofcourse, if they stay in the fight I can kill them. Even with a warmaiden set I have no problem taking pressure from one proc set user. I can also get decent damage out of trans/riposte by bringing crit high with thief+crit pot. The issue is really not the damage. No matter how high ur damage is, if they are dodge rolling and ur attacks are missing, u can as well have rockets, whats the point if u cant deliver.

Amen brother! and Thank you !

NightbladeMechanics

Tawrich wrote: »

CavalryPK wrote: »

@Tawrich

I enjoy no cp very much. however... lot of better players play in CP since in PC NA no cp campaign is empty. during my play time.


I am running RIposte/Trans. in CP I find that If I am not carful I will die but I have a chance to win. in no CP I feel slightly tanker. what gets me the win in NO CP is not my dmg numbers but better resource management.

CP and NO CP, I noticed that if a stamblade runs away and resets the fight I cannot do anything about it. one vigor plus several dodges. will take them out of execute range. I have a buddy that is running a proc build. he can 2 shot ppl and he has over 3k recovery.

I also feel that if you are facing 2 good players CP or no CP it does not matter. you will die...

It is harder to 1vX plebs in CP vs no CP.

I wish more ppl would play in no CP.

I have exactly the same situation as you, exactly. I even watched some of ur videos (good content btw), generally similar playstyle with the difference that I run tri food and 1 recovery glyph+ siphoning attacks morph.

Yes, thats precisely my point, they are gankers with infinite sustain, they easily reset the fights, or just escape. So its not just me then, you are having trouble with them resetting fights too...at least Im not alone.

Ofcourse, if they stay in the fight I can kill them. Even with a warmaiden set I have no problem taking pressure from one proc set user. I can also get decent damage out of trans/riposte by bringing crit high with thief+crit pot. The issue is really not the damage. No matter how high ur damage is, if they are dodge rolling and ur attacks are missing, u can as well have rockets, whats the point if u cant deliver.

After reading your comments, I think you need to work on lining up deliberate burst combos. Use undodgeable ccs like tether or fear to make your attacks hit. Tether > ass will > impale is good. Meteor > fear > ass will is good. If you can land an incap, that lines up a nice will proc as well.

You won't kill a stamblade by wearing him down or shooting at range. He has to close the gap at you, and you have to turn on him and burst him down quickly. Tether does wonders for this.

Miruku

Tawrich wrote: »

Alright so, after a while of playing, I came to the conclusion that light armor is less playable even compared to one tamriel. Sure, if u are in a group ofc, u can shake off aggro by using cloak, reposition, fire, but if u are a solo player like me and are in CP zone, going light armor means forgetting about 1vXing at least in my opinion. Warmaiden/defense set is awesome, until u face a group of gankers and 1 healer, which is 80% of times in EU server Vivec campaign, and ur 1 defense set is just not enough to keep u alive under that fire. Riposte/transmute, even though its absolutely great in no CP, in CP it just doesnt have enough fire power against stamina setups which have infinite sustain, healing, roll dodge possibility and extreme damage, because its really not hard to focus on ur sustain while ur item sets do ur damage for u. As soon as they are pressured even a bit, vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge. Im even using mark target so I dont have issue against stamblades cloaking. (even though Miruku, after getting marked by me in a BG, didnt miss a chance to whisper me mid-match to flame me and say only noob nightblades use mark.) So on top of everything, its toxic too.

Most ppl are angry that they die to these setups alot unfairly, and I totally agree. I on the other hand survive them easily cuz transmute/riposte is so tanky, but on CP campaign I just cant finish them off, they all have massive sustains. Only in no CP they are easy to kill, especially with mark.

No CP is ofcourse very enjoyable in light armor and I even managed to 1vX using transmute/riposte, the issue is with CP campaign and I dont understand why.

I stress again, my issue is with 1vXing, not 1v1 or even 1v2

Please give me ur feedbacks, are u managing 1vX in light? Have u gone heavy? How do u deal with stamina setups?

TBF mark shouldnt exist in the game tbf but meh idk why you even mentioned me but yea dont expect me to be nice when im playing none proc stambalde in a BG and i get marked and xv1d down:(

Tawrich

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

Tawrich wrote: »

CavalryPK wrote: »

@Tawrich

I enjoy no cp very much. however... lot of better players play in CP since in PC NA no cp campaign is empty. during my play time.


I am running RIposte/Trans. in CP I find that If I am not carful I will die but I have a chance to win. in no CP I feel slightly tanker. what gets me the win in NO CP is not my dmg numbers but better resource management.

CP and NO CP, I noticed that if a stamblade runs away and resets the fight I cannot do anything about it. one vigor plus several dodges. will take them out of execute range. I have a buddy that is running a proc build. he can 2 shot ppl and he has over 3k recovery.

I also feel that if you are facing 2 good players CP or no CP it does not matter. you will die...

It is harder to 1vX plebs in CP vs no CP.

I wish more ppl would play in no CP.

I have exactly the same situation as you, exactly. I even watched some of ur videos (good content btw), generally similar playstyle with the difference that I run tri food and 1 recovery glyph+ siphoning attacks morph.

Yes, thats precisely my point, they are gankers with infinite sustain, they easily reset the fights, or just escape. So its not just me then, you are having trouble with them resetting fights too...at least Im not alone.

Ofcourse, if they stay in the fight I can kill them. Even with a warmaiden set I have no problem taking pressure from one proc set user. I can also get decent damage out of trans/riposte by bringing crit high with thief+crit pot. The issue is really not the damage. No matter how high ur damage is, if they are dodge rolling and ur attacks are missing, u can as well have rockets, whats the point if u cant deliver.

After reading your comments, I think you need to work on lining up deliberate burst combos. Use undodgeable ccs like tether or fear to make your attacks hit. Tether > ass will > impale is good. Meteor > fear > ass will is good. If you can land an incap, that lines up a nice will proc as well.

You won't kill a stamblade by wearing him down or shooting at range. He has to close the gap at you, and you have to turn on him and burst him down quickly. Tether does wonders for this.

Thats actually a very good advice, I remember using tether combo in one tamriel when spamming templars were an issue, it really helped against templars and stamsorcs, I will use it again. Thanks.

The only issue was that since the introduction of 8% extra damage to fire staff, I always had problem including it in my bar while maintaining destro buff. Will figure something out.

Tawrich

Miruku wrote: »

Tawrich wrote: »

Alright so, after a while of playing, I came to the conclusion that light armor is less playable even compared to one tamriel. Sure, if u are in a group ofc, u can shake off aggro by using cloak, reposition, fire, but if u are a solo player like me and are in CP zone, going light armor means forgetting about 1vXing at least in my opinion. Warmaiden/defense set is awesome, until u face a group of gankers and 1 healer, which is 80% of times in EU server Vivec campaign, and ur 1 defense set is just not enough to keep u alive under that fire. Riposte/transmute, even though its absolutely great in no CP, in CP it just doesnt have enough fire power against stamina setups which have infinite sustain, healing, roll dodge possibility and extreme damage, because its really not hard to focus on ur sustain while ur item sets do ur damage for u. As soon as they are pressured even a bit, vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge. Im even using mark target so I dont have issue against stamblades cloaking. (even though Miruku, after getting marked by me in a BG, didnt miss a chance to whisper me mid-match to flame me and say only noob nightblades use mark.) So on top of everything, its toxic too.

Most ppl are angry that they die to these setups alot unfairly, and I totally agree. I on the other hand survive them easily cuz transmute/riposte is so tanky, but on CP campaign I just cant finish them off, they all have massive sustains. Only in no CP they are easy to kill, especially with mark.

No CP is ofcourse very enjoyable in light armor and I even managed to 1vX using transmute/riposte, the issue is with CP campaign and I dont understand why.

I stress again, my issue is with 1vXing, not 1v1 or even 1v2

Please give me ur feedbacks, are u managing 1vX in light? Have u gone heavy? How do u deal with stamina setups?

TBF mark shouldnt exist in the game tbf but meh idk why you even mentioned me but yea dont expect me to be nice when im playing none proc stambalde in a BG and i get marked and xv1d down:(

Miruku, glad to see u around. My small point there was, stamina nightblades nowadays are becoming an issue and one of the ways we have to counter them is causing backlash even from well known players who create youtube content (I hear ur content is good too, nice!). Mark is simply a counter to the playstyle of doing 1 burst rotation, cloaking away and repeating until ur opponent is out of resources. Magblades get most of their sustain and healing by actually being in the fight, if my target is cloaking away after their burst all the time, my resources finish eventually.

This is a simple counterplay, for which Im also giving up a slot on my bar that I extremely need for my tether combo. Spellpower potions used to give me that space but with stam sustain being removed from magblades, I need immov pots if I want to use trifood for the extra stats compared to witchmother pot.

Anyway, no pun was intended against u, mentioning u was to simply say that mark is becoming something hated by the community almost as much as proc sets, while its still not an op ability, templars cleanse it and id much rather put it out in favor of ele drain, but with current state of pvp, its simply necessary for solo players. Unless u can recommend me another counter against burst/cloak repeat playstyle, which I would greatly appreciate .

TheStealthDude

So I am looking for some help/feedback/constructive criticism on my setup. I am not that experienced at mageblade and alI my previous (limited) PvP experience comes from mDK and stamDK. I exclusively play No-CP and am happily running Riposte/Trans/Skoria (great gear setup, my test run with it in Cyrodil was very positive!). My concern is with optimizing my skill lineup, food, and potion combination.

My only requirements are that I stay Argonian and that I keep Impale in the build (preferably front bar). I feel that Impale is really too good to give up, since I play a lot of objectives in Cyrodil and am often on the peripherals of the zerg fights, where I often see targets of opportunity to quickly Impale for some easy AP. Generally I play solo, but sometimes with a few friends (but none of us really build to complement each other). I am also locked out of Soul Tether, since I use Soul Siphon as a healer for PvE.

With that said, here is my setup:

Front Bar (Wizard's Riposte Inferno Staff):
1) Funnel Health
2) Impale
3) Fear
4) Merciless Resolve
5) Elemental Drain
Ult) Meteor (unsure of which morph)

Back Bar (Transmutation Resto Staff)
1) Leeching Strikes
2) Cripple
3) Degeneration
4) Refreshing Path
5) Healing Ward
Ult) Light's Champion or Soul Siphon (not sure which to go with)

Food: Tri-Stat
Potion: Unstoppable, Restore Magicka, Spell Crit

Obviously, there are some issues with this setup. First, no Blur. I tried playing with Blur but no Degeneration and just felt that there was not enough DoT damage for Skoria to proc often. Blur seemed like the least important skill on my bar at the time. Second, a lack of repositioning skill, whether it be Shadow Image, cloak, or mist (I am currently a vamp). Refreshing Path is really my only escape skill.

Third, no health restore on the potion. I definitely feel like I need Unstoppable on my potion due to the previously mentioned mobility limitations. I also was trying to get that extra crit in there, but believe I can drop that for restore health if that's actually needed (thoughts on this from experience?). Being Argonian may mean I don't need the extra health restore. I can change this potion to whatever I can make up for, depending on other suggested changes.

Lastly, while Tri-stat food seems to be objectively better (and I do love that stam!), could I get better result with Witchmother's? Would that allow me to use Mark instead of Elemental Drain? I don't feel like I had a sustain problem in my ~2 hour test in Cyrodil, but I also want to use this character in BG's, where sustain seems to be more of an issue.

So I guess I am looking for thoughts on how I can better optimize this setup with the given parameters or if there is something critical I might be overlooking.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

CavalryPK

TheStealthDude wrote: »

So I am looking for some help/feedback/constructive criticism on my setup. I am not that experienced at mageblade and alI my previous (limited) PvP experience comes from mDK and stamDK. I exclusively play No-CP and am happily running Riposte/Trans/Skoria (great gear setup, my test run with it in Cyrodil was very positive!). My concern is with optimizing my skill lineup, food, and potion combination.

My only requirements are that I stay Argonian and that I keep Impale in the build (preferably front bar). I feel that Impale is really too good to give up, since I play a lot of objectives in Cyrodil and am often on the peripherals of the zerg fights, where I often see targets of opportunity to quickly Impale for some easy AP. Generally I play solo, but sometimes with a few friends (but none of us really build to complement each other). I am also locked out of Soul Tether, since I use Soul Siphon as a healer for PvE.

With that said, here is my setup:

Front Bar (Wizard's Riposte Inferno Staff):
1) Funnel Health
2) Impale
3) Fear
4) Merciless Resolve
5) Elemental Drain
Ult) Meteor (unsure of which morph)

Back Bar (Transmutation Resto Staff)
1) Leeching Strikes
2) Cripple
3) Degeneration
4) Refreshing Path
5) Healing Ward
Ult) Light's Champion or Soul Siphon (not sure which to go with)

Food: Tri-Stat
Potion: Unstoppable, Restore Magicka, Spell Crit

Obviously, there are some issues with this setup. First, no Blur. I tried playing with Blur but no Degeneration and just felt that there was not enough DoT damage for Skoria to proc often. Blur seemed like the least important skill on my bar at the time. Second, a lack of repositioning skill, whether it be Shadow Image, cloak, or mist (I am currently a vamp). Refreshing Path is really my only escape skill.

Third, no health restore on the potion. I definitely feel like I need Unstoppable on my potion due to the previously mentioned mobility limitations. I also was trying to get that extra crit in there, but believe I can drop that for restore health if that's actually needed (thoughts on this from experience?). Being Argonian may mean I don't need the extra health restore. I can change this potion to whatever I can make up for, depending on other suggested changes.

Lastly, while Tri-stat food seems to be objectively better (and I do love that stam!), could I get better result with Witchmother's? Would that allow me to use Mark instead of Elemental Drain? I don't feel like I had a sustain problem in my ~2 hour test in Cyrodil, but I also want to use this character in BG's, where sustain seems to be more of an issue.

So I guess I am looking for thoughts on how I can better optimize this setup with the given parameters or if there is something critical I might be overlooking.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I absolutely love your set up. I don't know if you watched my vids. but I am running almost exactly the same. with exception that I am Altmer and I use swallow soul vs funnel. my degen is on the front bar and I am using cloak on back bar for better survivability.

Tri stat food is nice. I prefer witchmother.. with that I have 2.1k mag regen.

I think your build is very solid. Tho I do not use blur. I use cloak instead.. when I am about to get swarmed.. I do fear then cloak right away. most of the time works.

I use health mag and immov pot. I find it more often than not it is the potion that saves your life not the mighty healing ward.

I think you have the flexibility to run both foods. when in the middle of the fight you feel like sustain is the issue you can swap foods with the quick use button.

I would def swap pots to immov heath and manage.. and run thief mundus. with witch mother. you do not need elem drain at all.

casparian

One thing Ele Drain will give you, though, is 8% more single-target damage on your front bar, as well as over twice the spell penetration you would have without it. Plus, using Ele Drain allows you to use get about the same magicka regen as you would with Witchmother's while running tri-stat food, plus the added max stats. That's three huge bonuses (ST damage, spell penetration, and giving me enough recovery to be able to run tri-stat food) from one skill. I couldn't do without it this patch.

My bar setup (also using Riposte + Trans):

Front bar: Funnel Health, Ele Drain, Mass Hysteria, Impale/Cloak, Assassin's Will, Incap Strike
Back Bar: Degeneration, Healing Ward, Refreshing Path, Crippling Grasp/Shadow Image, Leeching Strikes, Light's Champion

The fourth slot on each bar is a flex slot with an offensive and a defensive option. I would like to run Elusive Mist in some situations, but haven't found a place for it -- I've been thinking of slotting it instead of Leeching Strikes, since I have 14k stamina (praise be to Hakeijo). But I'll have to experiment.

You could drop Degeneration and get your major sorcery from potions, but I prefer to run Immovable + Spell Crit + Magicka potions (so I can get my Major Prophecy, another buff I can't live without). Degeneration is also a very good heal if you hit all your weaves.

Miruku

Tawrich wrote: »

Miruku wrote: »

Tawrich wrote: »

Alright so, after a while of playing, I came to the conclusion that light armor is less playable even compared to one tamriel. Sure, if u are in a group ofc, u can shake off aggro by using cloak, reposition, fire, but if u are a solo player like me and are in CP zone, going light armor means forgetting about 1vXing at least in my opinion. Warmaiden/defense set is awesome, until u face a group of gankers and 1 healer, which is 80% of times in EU server Vivec campaign, and ur 1 defense set is just not enough to keep u alive under that fire. Riposte/transmute, even though its absolutely great in no CP, in CP it just doesnt have enough fire power against stamina setups which have infinite sustain, healing, roll dodge possibility and extreme damage, because its really not hard to focus on ur sustain while ur item sets do ur damage for u. As soon as they are pressured even a bit, vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge. Im even using mark target so I dont have issue against stamblades cloaking. (even though Miruku, after getting marked by me in a BG, didnt miss a chance to whisper me mid-match to flame me and say only noob nightblades use mark.) So on top of everything, its toxic too.

Most ppl are angry that they die to these setups alot unfairly, and I totally agree. I on the other hand survive them easily cuz transmute/riposte is so tanky, but on CP campaign I just cant finish them off, they all have massive sustains. Only in no CP they are easy to kill, especially with mark.

No CP is ofcourse very enjoyable in light armor and I even managed to 1vX using transmute/riposte, the issue is with CP campaign and I dont understand why.

I stress again, my issue is with 1vXing, not 1v1 or even 1v2

Please give me ur feedbacks, are u managing 1vX in light? Have u gone heavy? How do u deal with stamina setups?

TBF mark shouldnt exist in the game tbf but meh idk why you even mentioned me but yea dont expect me to be nice when im playing none proc stambalde in a BG and i get marked and xv1d down:(

Miruku, glad to see u around. My small point there was, stamina nightblades nowadays are becoming an issue and one of the ways we have to counter them is causing backlash even from well known players who create youtube content (I hear ur content is good too, nice!). Mark is simply a counter to the playstyle of doing 1 burst rotation, cloaking away and repeating until ur opponent is out of resources. Magblades get most of their sustain and healing by actually being in the fight, if my target is cloaking away after their burst all the time, my resources finish eventually.

This is a simple counterplay, for which Im also giving up a slot on my bar that I extremely need for my tether combo. Spellpower potions used to give me that space but with stam sustain being removed from magblades, I need immov pots if I want to use trifood for the extra stats compared to witchmother pot.

Anyway, no pun was intended against u, mentioning u was to simply say that mark is becoming something hated by the community almost as much as proc sets, while its still not an op ability, templars cleanse it and id much rather put it out in favor of ele drain, but with current state of pvp, its simply necessary for solo players. Unless u can recommend me another counter against burst/cloak repeat playstyle, which I would greatly appreciate .

There isnt much you can do vs a good stamblade as a magicka NB a good one atleast well the thing is about as i call them the "pleb-blades" People who see Hexys, Crescent, Khara's (rest in peace my old duo partner ) Or my videos and wanna do it too then they re roll the class and end up getting 5v1d by the very people they made the class for. I know mark is needed for the breach but imho its either.

A: Use eledrain for more sustain and major breach
B: Use mark to xv1 or just completely kill a stamblade well a bad one
I can normally deal with mark with smart fears and images which let me get out and burst heal which is what NB does normally. Magicka NB has been in a touch spot but yea I know magblades can 100% struggle vs a stamblades damage and they need some love and their stamina sustain and gone down and their greatest strength is fighting and staying in the fight to keep healing. The tether burst combo is nice sadly I cannot really comment on counter burst cloak play styles since they are *** fight against on any class I don't blame you for slotting mark for the pleb blades but id honestly just slot ele drain but up to you. I personally really hate the skill with a passion especially in XV1 scenario when you have stamblades or magicka NB's who mark you and just spam you like a few certain X Brotherhood nightblades do *cough Dar Vantis*

I don't play magicka NB that much I think there is like 2 clips of it on my old youtube channel and thats about it TBH since stamblade best blade.

-Miruku The Macro Princess QQ Extraordinaire.

Tawrich

Miruku wrote: »

Tawrich wrote: »

Miruku wrote: »

Tawrich wrote: »

Alright so, after a while of playing, I came to the conclusion that light armor is less playable even compared to one tamriel. Sure, if u are in a group ofc, u can shake off aggro by using cloak, reposition, fire, but if u are a solo player like me and are in CP zone, going light armor means forgetting about 1vXing at least in my opinion. Warmaiden/defense set is awesome, until u face a group of gankers and 1 healer, which is 80% of times in EU server Vivec campaign, and ur 1 defense set is just not enough to keep u alive under that fire. Riposte/transmute, even though its absolutely great in no CP, in CP it just doesnt have enough fire power against stamina setups which have infinite sustain, healing, roll dodge possibility and extreme damage, because its really not hard to focus on ur sustain while ur item sets do ur damage for u. As soon as they are pressured even a bit, vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge. Im even using mark target so I dont have issue against stamblades cloaking. (even though Miruku, after getting marked by me in a BG, didnt miss a chance to whisper me mid-match to flame me and say only noob nightblades use mark.) So on top of everything, its toxic too.

Most ppl are angry that they die to these setups alot unfairly, and I totally agree. I on the other hand survive them easily cuz transmute/riposte is so tanky, but on CP campaign I just cant finish them off, they all have massive sustains. Only in no CP they are easy to kill, especially with mark.

No CP is ofcourse very enjoyable in light armor and I even managed to 1vX using transmute/riposte, the issue is with CP campaign and I dont understand why.

I stress again, my issue is with 1vXing, not 1v1 or even 1v2

Please give me ur feedbacks, are u managing 1vX in light? Have u gone heavy? How do u deal with stamina setups?

TBF mark shouldnt exist in the game tbf but meh idk why you even mentioned me but yea dont expect me to be nice when im playing none proc stambalde in a BG and i get marked and xv1d down:(

Miruku, glad to see u around. My small point there was, stamina nightblades nowadays are becoming an issue and one of the ways we have to counter them is causing backlash even from well known players who create youtube content (I hear ur content is good too, nice!). Mark is simply a counter to the playstyle of doing 1 burst rotation, cloaking away and repeating until ur opponent is out of resources. Magblades get most of their sustain and healing by actually being in the fight, if my target is cloaking away after their burst all the time, my resources finish eventually.

This is a simple counterplay, for which Im also giving up a slot on my bar that I extremely need for my tether combo. Spellpower potions used to give me that space but with stam sustain being removed from magblades, I need immov pots if I want to use trifood for the extra stats compared to witchmother pot.

Anyway, no pun was intended against u, mentioning u was to simply say that mark is becoming something hated by the community almost as much as proc sets, while its still not an op ability, templars cleanse it and id much rather put it out in favor of ele drain, but with current state of pvp, its simply necessary for solo players. Unless u can recommend me another counter against burst/cloak repeat playstyle, which I would greatly appreciate .

There isnt much you can do vs a good stamblade as a magicka NB a good one atleast well the thing is about as i call them the "pleb-blades" People who see Hexys, Crescent, Khara's (rest in peace my old duo partner ) Or my videos and wanna do it too then they re roll the class and end up getting 5v1d by the very people they made the class for. I know mark is needed for the breach but imho its either.

A: Use eledrain for more sustain and major breach
B: Use mark to xv1 or just completely kill a stamblade well a bad one
I can normally deal with mark with smart fears and images which let me get out and burst heal which is what NB does normally. Magicka NB has been in a touch spot but yea I know magblades can 100% struggle vs a stamblades damage and they need some love and their stamina sustain and gone down and their greatest strength is fighting and staying in the fight to keep healing. The tether burst combo is nice sadly I cannot really comment on counter burst cloak play styles since they are *** fight against on any class I don't blame you for slotting mark for the pleb blades but id honestly just slot ele drain but up to you. I personally really hate the skill with a passion especially in XV1 scenario when you have stamblades or magicka NB's who mark you and just spam you like a few certain X Brotherhood nightblades do *cough Dar Vantis*

I don't play magicka NB that much I think there is like 2 clips of it on my old youtube channel and thats about it TBH since stamblade best blade.

-Miruku The Macro Princess QQ Extraordinaire.

Today I made a skill trade and Im very satisfied with the result.

So I slot out mark, I put ele drain front bar and brought out destructive reach, which ended up freeing a spot on my back bar ( cuz in order to slot a destro skill I had put my fear back bar), on that spot I put refreshing path ( which I had always used but was forced to remove some days ago because of lack of bar space) which now I use to bring stamblades out of cloak.

I had success fighting with several stamblades in IC with it, they died cuz they didnt try to escape though, but those mid-fight cloaks of theirs were broken with refreshing path.

So yeah Im glad we had this discussion, Im putting mark out in order to free up more space for very needed stuff . No more marking at least for a while, better deal with stamblades with refreshing path and use the space for other good stuff.

NightbladeMechanics

Tawrich wrote: »

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

Tawrich wrote: »

CavalryPK wrote: »

@Tawrich

I enjoy no cp very much. however... lot of better players play in CP since in PC NA no cp campaign is empty. during my play time.


I am running RIposte/Trans. in CP I find that If I am not carful I will die but I have a chance to win. in no CP I feel slightly tanker. what gets me the win in NO CP is not my dmg numbers but better resource management.

CP and NO CP, I noticed that if a stamblade runs away and resets the fight I cannot do anything about it. one vigor plus several dodges. will take them out of execute range. I have a buddy that is running a proc build. he can 2 shot ppl and he has over 3k recovery.

I also feel that if you are facing 2 good players CP or no CP it does not matter. you will die...

It is harder to 1vX plebs in CP vs no CP.

I wish more ppl would play in no CP.

I have exactly the same situation as you, exactly. I even watched some of ur videos (good content btw), generally similar playstyle with the difference that I run tri food and 1 recovery glyph+ siphoning attacks morph.

Yes, thats precisely my point, they are gankers with infinite sustain, they easily reset the fights, or just escape. So its not just me then, you are having trouble with them resetting fights too...at least Im not alone.

Ofcourse, if they stay in the fight I can kill them. Even with a warmaiden set I have no problem taking pressure from one proc set user. I can also get decent damage out of trans/riposte by bringing crit high with thief+crit pot. The issue is really not the damage. No matter how high ur damage is, if they are dodge rolling and ur attacks are missing, u can as well have rockets, whats the point if u cant deliver.

After reading your comments, I think you need to work on lining up deliberate burst combos. Use undodgeable ccs like tether or fear to make your attacks hit. Tether > ass will > impale is good. Meteor > fear > ass will is good. If you can land an incap, that lines up a nice will proc as well.

You won't kill a stamblade by wearing him down or shooting at range. He has to close the gap at you, and you have to turn on him and burst him down quickly. Tether does wonders for this.

Thats actually a very good advice, I remember using tether combo in one tamriel when spamming templars were an issue, it really helped against templars and stamsorcs, I will use it again. Thanks.

The only issue was that since the introduction of 8% extra damage to fire staff, I always had problem including it in my bar while maintaining destro buff. Will figure something out.

flame reach, funnel, impale, merciless, fear, tether, and spell power pots is how've I've always done it.

Miruku wrote: »

Tawrich wrote: »

Miruku wrote: »

Tawrich wrote: »

Alright so, after a while of playing, I came to the conclusion that light armor is less playable even compared to one tamriel. Sure, if u are in a group ofc, u can shake off aggro by using cloak, reposition, fire, but if u are a solo player like me and are in CP zone, going light armor means forgetting about 1vXing at least in my opinion. Warmaiden/defense set is awesome, until u face a group of gankers and 1 healer, which is 80% of times in EU server Vivec campaign, and ur 1 defense set is just not enough to keep u alive under that fire. Riposte/transmute, even though its absolutely great in no CP, in CP it just doesnt have enough fire power against stamina setups which have infinite sustain, healing, roll dodge possibility and extreme damage, because its really not hard to focus on ur sustain while ur item sets do ur damage for u. As soon as they are pressured even a bit, vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge vigor roll dodge. Im even using mark target so I dont have issue against stamblades cloaking. (even though Miruku, after getting marked by me in a BG, didnt miss a chance to whisper me mid-match to flame me and say only noob nightblades use mark.) So on top of everything, its toxic too.

Most ppl are angry that they die to these setups alot unfairly, and I totally agree. I on the other hand survive them easily cuz transmute/riposte is so tanky, but on CP campaign I just cant finish them off, they all have massive sustains. Only in no CP they are easy to kill, especially with mark.

No CP is ofcourse very enjoyable in light armor and I even managed to 1vX using transmute/riposte, the issue is with CP campaign and I dont understand why.

I stress again, my issue is with 1vXing, not 1v1 or even 1v2

Please give me ur feedbacks, are u managing 1vX in light? Have u gone heavy? How do u deal with stamina setups?

TBF mark shouldnt exist in the game tbf but meh idk why you even mentioned me but yea dont expect me to be nice when im playing none proc stambalde in a BG and i get marked and xv1d down:(

Miruku, glad to see u around. My small point there was, stamina nightblades nowadays are becoming an issue and one of the ways we have to counter them is causing backlash even from well known players who create youtube content (I hear ur content is good too, nice!). Mark is simply a counter to the playstyle of doing 1 burst rotation, cloaking away and repeating until ur opponent is out of resources. Magblades get most of their sustain and healing by actually being in the fight, if my target is cloaking away after their burst all the time, my resources finish eventually.

This is a simple counterplay, for which Im also giving up a slot on my bar that I extremely need for my tether combo. Spellpower potions used to give me that space but with stam sustain being removed from magblades, I need immov pots if I want to use trifood for the extra stats compared to witchmother pot.

Anyway, no pun was intended against u, mentioning u was to simply say that mark is becoming something hated by the community almost as much as proc sets, while its still not an op ability, templars cleanse it and id much rather put it out in favor of ele drain, but with current state of pvp, its simply necessary for solo players. Unless u can recommend me another counter against burst/cloak repeat playstyle, which I would greatly appreciate .

There isnt much you can do vs a good stamblade as a magicka NB a good one atleast well the thing is about as i call them the "pleb-blades" People who see Hexys, Crescent, Khara's (rest in peace my old duo partner ) Or my videos and wanna do it too then they re roll the class and end up getting 5v1d by the very people they made the class for. I know mark is needed for the breach but imho its either.

A: Use eledrain for more sustain and major breach
B: Use mark to xv1 or just completely kill a stamblade well a bad one
I can normally deal with mark with smart fears and images which let me get out and burst heal which is what NB does normally. Magicka NB has been in a touch spot but yea I know magblades can 100% struggle vs a stamblades damage and they need some love and their stamina sustain and gone down and their greatest strength is fighting and staying in the fight to keep healing. The tether burst combo is nice sadly I cannot really comment on counter burst cloak play styles since they are *** fight against on any class I don't blame you for slotting mark for the pleb blades but id honestly just slot ele drain but up to you. I personally really hate the skill with a passion especially in XV1 scenario when you have stamblades or magicka NB's who mark you and just spam you like a few certain X Brotherhood nightblades do *cough Dar Vantis*

I don't play magicka NB that much I think there is like 2 clips of it on my old youtube channel and thats about it TBH since stamblade best blade.

-Miruku The Macro Princess QQ Extraordinaire.

I find the opposite to be true. Even with proc sets on the stamblade and the mageblade in light armor without annulment, this 1v1 matchup tends to favor the mageblade.

Glory

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

I find the opposite to be true. Even with proc sets on the stamblade and the mageblade in light armor without annulment, this 1v1 matchup tends to favor the mageblade.

Playing my mageblade (and I'm awful), I found that in a 1v1 scenario I was advantaged over the stamblades. Even having to recovery from a gank attempt including proc sets.

bubbygink

Figured I'd give this thread a bit of a bump now that Morrowind has been out for a while and see what all the Magblades are running. I'm particularly interested in BG setups. I know the typical 2 Skoria + 5 Riposte front bar + Transmutation is very popular and well-rounded but I have been trying to focus more on damage.

The more offensive set up I have been running with lately is 2 Skoria + 5 Spinners front bar + 5 lich back bar. I've toyed around with some other sets and have ultimately settled on Spinners edging out War Maiden as best offensive set for me. Necropotence would be better but I don't like running shade in BGs. WM is better against shields when I'm doing my typical rotation but it doesn't buff my Ice Comet which I use frequently in my kill combos. And I think Spinners is just better against anything not using shields. Lich + Witchmothers gives amazing recovery (I use leeching strikes to sustain stam) and allows me to use 3 spell damage enchants on my jewelry and keep constant pressure with little need for heavy attacks.

I use triglyphs on all my big pieces and on one small pieces. This gives me 22k health and 10k stamina in BGs which both seem to be solid amounts. My bar has been crowded so I don't run a skill for major sorcery and have been using the Spell Power + Spell Crit + Mag Restore pots to get Major Sorcery/Prophecy/Intellect.

Overall I feel like I have a very strong, sustainable offensive setup which can certainly put up 1mil+ damage in a BG even without a support class helping out. The awesome thing is that even though I'm focusing on damage, with Refreshing Path and Funnel Health it is very common for me to have 200k+ healing in matches too. This healing pretty much comes passively from allies standing on my path and getting my funnel ticks - I also do throw out healing wards now and then when a teammates is heavily pressured - but for the most part I strictly focus on damage but still give great support heals.

Just thought I'd get the discussion rolling again. Anybody else want to share some setups they've had success with - particularly in BGs?

SanTii.92

Oh boi, this thread didn't age well. Mnbs are so strong rn.

bubbygink

SanTii.92 wrote: »

Oh boi, this thread didn't age well. Mnbs are so strong rn.

I'm not sure I'd say they're "so strong" but clearly the most underrated class in the game in my opinion. I almost never see them in BGs. Like I can literally remember the exact times I've gone up against other Magblades because it is so rare to see them, at least on my platform - XBox NA. I think a large reason is that most nightblades have specced to stamina to play the procblade meta. Also, Magblade is a little tricky to get the hang of at first because you need to get used to weaving and keeping track of merciless.

But overall I think Magblades are absolutely competitive. In 1v1s Magblades are one of the best classes, in small scale and BGs Magblades do very well because of the passive group healing I mentioned above and because of the ability to take advantage of great utility sets like Trans. And in large scale Magblades also do well because of bombing capabilities. I think Magblade can excel in any PvP content. But then again, I actually think balance is very good right now all things considered so any class in the right hands will perform well.

CavalryPK

I cant believe my thread is going so strong. Awsome. OP here... and vivala magblades!!!!!

I have been looking in to a potential build that gives you a lot of burst damage but also keeps you sneaky enough that you can run away with the ability to reset the fight mostly.

After senpai released the build video, I have had my eyes set on necro and amber.... I have all the necro..... buuuut I cannot get the stupid amber set even tho I farmed the ROM for many times.

I wanna run this set with molag kena monster set and see how bursty my magblade gona be.

the kill combo is gona be Spectral bow + Lotus Fan + Incap/tether + Concealed Weapon.

It is gona be pusnishing to play since you would not have lots of room for errors. but that sneak speed ( CW+Vamp+cripple) Is really nice. especially in IC.

NightbladeMechanics

@bubbygink Spinner Lich is tried and true. Highest damage short of bsw or scathing, but very low survivability. I recommend using Harness. Once you're bursted, good luck recovering without it, especially if heal debuffed or against procs.

I use melee builds now. They hit harder, and I personally find using mobility as my defense to be more fun and challenging. Destro is simpler and more forgiving imo.

Amber + Necro or Spinner are my favorite setups. Today I put together Spinner + Lich + Willpower, following the same build pattern as my old setup from IC patch, which is quite a bit more damage but very limited stam sustain. Not sure how I like it yet. I can't decide if I like Valkyn, Grothdarr, or Engine more. Selene's is pretty sick too when using Incap, but I came to prefer Tether since it's undodgeable and aoe.

Idk. I honestly hate BGs. Organized teams with more magplar and sorcs win. Resto ult, snb ult, and Negate dominate. One good player stomps unorganized teams. Two game modes outright discourage PvP... lol I had fun and beat lots of both organized and unorganized teams, but then BGs got old quickly for me. I haven't played them for weeks.

bubbygink

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

@bubbygink Spinner Lich is tried and true. Highest damage short of bsw or scathing, but very low survivability. I recommend using Harness. Once you're bursted, good luck recovering without it, especially if heal debuffed or against procs.

100% agree with all of that. I always run the extra shield in addition healing ward in this set up. That is what squeezes entropy off my bar and has got me using the Spell Power pots.

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

I personally use melee builds now. They hit harder, and I personally find using mobility as my defense to be more fun and challenging. Destro is simpler and more forgiving imo.

Amber + Necro or Spinner are my favorite setups. Today I put together Spinner + Lich + Willpower, following the same build pattern as my old setup from IC patch, which is quite a bit more damage but very limited stam sustain. Not sure how I like it yet. I can't decide if I like Valkyn, Grothdarr, or Engine more. Selene's is pretty sick too when using Incap, but I came to prefer Tether since it's undodgeable and aoe.

I have been wanting to try out a melee build this patch but haven't gotten around to it yet. Amber seems invaluable for a melee magblade. Have you tried Overwhelming Surge @NightbladeMechanics ? I think it could actually be solid in no-CP for a melee magblade this patch. Especially paired with something like Grothdarr (and Amber for sustain).

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

Idk. I honestly hate BGs. Organized teams with more magplar and sorcs win. Resto ult, snb ult, and Negate thrash those fights. One good player stomps unorganized teams. Two game modes outright discourage PvP... lol I haven't played BGs for weeks.

Yea unfortunately CTF definitely encourages avoiding PVP unless your defending your team's flag. Domination I think still provides for some good action and of course TDM is best. I have solo queued a lot (not by choice lol damn queues...) and it has been a blast in my opinion. Finally some guaranteed small scale. But yes, organized teams definitely run through them but that is to be expected and will be true of any type of PVP I think.

WacArnold

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

Mageblade was nerfed compared to last patch, but it's actually in a better place now relative to the other classes. This is due to the new CP, sets, light and medium armor meta, and controlled numbers in BGs (although it still excels open world).

Once they started re-buffing Siphoning Attacks, I said that mageblade would surprise people this patch, and it is. Melee is entirely viable and strong. Destro can heal-tank in light armor the way it did in heavy last patch and bursts almost as hard, or it can spec more damage and nuke like never before.

It's just slightly harder to pull off. I have to go for now -- just saw this post and wanted to chime in -- but I'll return a little later and elaborate and answer questions.

What do you think about the shacklebreaker set? i was thinking of dropping amberplasm for it to combine with necro. I haven't been able to see how good it is since I'm on console but it looks really strong

My impression having tried it is that it is good for dw mageblade but doesn't do enough for destro or 2h. It's good for rounding out stats, but mageblade doesn't always need to invest an entire 5pc set into that.

I rule it out as an option for destro/resto mageblade because you want its 5pc on both bars. The 5/5/2 build pattern with separate 5pc bonuses on staves + Undaunted that I started using back in 1.6 and IC patch have proven more competitive over time and become the meta for sorc and mageblade since One Tamriel (even though it was always that strong). With all of the powerful 5pc sets out there, I see no reason to give up an entire second one just to have Shacklebreaker on both bars. Willpower and vMA/Master staves are strong damage, but the utility from other 5pc sets are simply too much to pass up.

My 2h/resto Forward Momentum mageblade archetype from IC patch has also become much more viable this patch. It builds the same way as destro -- in fact, you want that 5/5/2 even more because vMA/Master 2h weapons don't give spell damage. That is unless you use Pelinal's, which is really good in these builds since Forward Momentum buffs weapon damage, but that rules out Shacklebreaker anyways.

It's dual wield that likes Shacklebreaker a lot. 5 Shackle + 5 War Maiden + Undaunted with the Shackle on both bars is great for balanced stats if you need the max stam and stam regen. However, recall that the point of melee mageblade is not to brawl. You don't tank or heal or shield through damage. You use cloak and shade to evade damage. I didn't find the max stam and stam regen to be terribly necessary.

I have tested and found all of the following to excel this patch:

Best destro builds:
Maiden + Trans
Maiden + Riposte
Riposte + Trans (preferred)
All with Undaunted

Heavy is no longer necessary at all with the introduction of Riposte. You can play a cloakless, shieldless, sap heal-tanky destro mageblade and be plenty lethal with that last build variation. Like I said, I called this set to go underhyped but be very strong, and it is.

Best 2h builds:
Necro + Pelinal's + 1 Kena with weapon damage glyphs, using Forward Momentum as your buff
Maiden + Trans (preferred)
Maiden + Riposte

Best dw builds:
Maiden + Trans
Maiden + Riposte
Rattlecage + Trans (preferred)
Rattlecage + Riposte

Shacklebreaker works for dw, but I don't find it to be optimal.

And Necropotence is less damage than Maiden in most builds now. It's no longer optimal unless you're using Pelinal's or Annulment........and honestly, if you're using Annulment, just why? It's never been necessary or optimal, it's expensive, and it crowds your bar. Stop building around mechanics that your class has no inherent strength for. Emphasize its strengths -- heals over time, easy use of mitigation utility sets, and elusiveness. I'll point the way.

I have been using rattle + trans as a destro I like the extra skill slot that opens up. Does this under perform when using a destro staff?

thankyourat

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

@bubbygink Spinner Lich is tried and true. Highest damage short of bsw or scathing, but very low survivability. I recommend using Harness. Once you're bursted, good luck recovering without it, especially if heal debuffed or against procs.

I use melee builds now. They hit harder, and I personally find using mobility as my defense to be more fun and challenging. Destro is simpler and more forgiving imo.

Amber + Necro or Spinner are my favorite setups. Today I put together Spinner + Lich + Willpower, following the same build pattern as my old setup from IC patch, which is quite a bit more damage but very limited stam sustain. Not sure how I like it yet. I can't decide if I like Valkyn, Grothdarr, or Engine more. Selene's is pretty sick too when using Incap, but I came to prefer Tether since it's undodgeable and aoe.

Idk. I honestly hate BGs. Organized teams with more magplar and sorcs win. Resto ult, snb ult, and Negate dominate. One good player stomps unorganized teams. Two game modes outright discourage PvP... lol I had fun and beat lots of both organized and unorganized teams, but then BGs got old quickly for me. I haven't played them for weeks.

I go on and off with melee builds as well. i played a 2hand/resto build The other day that was 5 julianos/5 riposte/2 bloodspawn. It felt really good especially with foward momentum. I'll probably switch out julianos for war maiden if i can find a sword. I'm not sure I'm sold on blood spawn though I'm having a hard time choosing a monster set. I wish concealed weapon didn't cost so much magicka though. In open world cyrodill i actually think it may be stronger than destro/resto because of the speed and snare immunity

NightbladeMechanics

WacArnold wrote: »

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

Mageblade was nerfed compared to last patch, but it's actually in a better place now relative to the other classes. This is due to the new CP, sets, light and medium armor meta, and controlled numbers in BGs (although it still excels open world).

Once they started re-buffing Siphoning Attacks, I said that mageblade would surprise people this patch, and it is. Melee is entirely viable and strong. Destro can heal-tank in light armor the way it did in heavy last patch and bursts almost as hard, or it can spec more damage and nuke like never before.

It's just slightly harder to pull off. I have to go for now -- just saw this post and wanted to chime in -- but I'll return a little later and elaborate and answer questions.

What do you think about the shacklebreaker set? i was thinking of dropping amberplasm for it to combine with necro. I haven't been able to see how good it is since I'm on console but it looks really strong

My impression having tried it is that it is good for dw mageblade but doesn't do enough for destro or 2h. It's good for rounding out stats, but mageblade doesn't always need to invest an entire 5pc set into that.

I rule it out as an option for destro/resto mageblade because you want its 5pc on both bars. The 5/5/2 build pattern with separate 5pc bonuses on staves + Undaunted that I started using back in 1.6 and IC patch have proven more competitive over time and become the meta for sorc and mageblade since One Tamriel (even though it was always that strong). With all of the powerful 5pc sets out there, I see no reason to give up an entire second one just to have Shacklebreaker on both bars. Willpower and vMA/Master staves are strong damage, but the utility from other 5pc sets are simply too much to pass up.

My 2h/resto Forward Momentum mageblade archetype from IC patch has also become much more viable this patch. It builds the same way as destro -- in fact, you want that 5/5/2 even more because vMA/Master 2h weapons don't give spell damage. That is unless you use Pelinal's, which is really good in these builds since Forward Momentum buffs weapon damage, but that rules out Shacklebreaker anyways.

It's dual wield that likes Shacklebreaker a lot. 5 Shackle + 5 War Maiden + Undaunted with the Shackle on both bars is great for balanced stats if you need the max stam and stam regen. However, recall that the point of melee mageblade is not to brawl. You don't tank or heal or shield through damage. You use cloak and shade to evade damage. I didn't find the max stam and stam regen to be terribly necessary.

I have tested and found all of the following to excel this patch:

Best destro builds:
Maiden + Trans
Maiden + Riposte
Riposte + Trans (preferred)
All with Undaunted

Heavy is no longer necessary at all with the introduction of Riposte. You can play a cloakless, shieldless, sap heal-tanky destro mageblade and be plenty lethal with that last build variation. Like I said, I called this set to go underhyped but be very strong, and it is.

Best 2h builds:
Necro + Pelinal's + 1 Kena with weapon damage glyphs, using Forward Momentum as your buff
Maiden + Trans (preferred)
Maiden + Riposte

Best dw builds:
Maiden + Trans
Maiden + Riposte
Rattlecage + Trans (preferred)
Rattlecage + Riposte

Shacklebreaker works for dw, but I don't find it to be optimal.

And Necropotence is less damage than Maiden in most builds now. It's no longer optimal unless you're using Pelinal's or Annulment........and honestly, if you're using Annulment, just why? It's never been necessary or optimal, it's expensive, and it crowds your bar. Stop building around mechanics that your class has no inherent strength for. Emphasize its strengths -- heals over time, easy use of mitigation utility sets, and elusiveness. I'll point the way.

I have been using rattle + trans as a destro I like the extra skill slot that opens up. Does this under perform when using a destro staff?

That's great if you have a sharpened Rattlecage fire staff, but that's such a difficult drop to get. I have been using spell power pots for my buffs for ages, so I'm comfortable with that. Rattle would sacrifice damage in order to use a different potion, essentially. Tradeoffs.

Purdomination33

Bomblade groups are everywhere. Proxy+Sap Essence+Eye of Flame. All you need.

Omnipresent

@ words guys, TETHER TANK lol.. i think thats the best option for NB in BG. Get a good tank that can take lotsa hits and hold on for dear life!

casparian

Finally closing in on 5 Amber Plasm. I don't have optimal Amber pieces yet, though, since one of those pieces is an Infused sword. I'm confident that Sharp would be better than Infused here, but I'm trying to figure out whether that grind is worth it. (Heem-Jas and I know each other very well at this point.) How much worse exactly is it to run an Infused sword?

If I use an Infused sword, the tradeoff is that I have to run a somewhat suboptimal CP distribution, by taking points out of one of the damage stars and putting them into Spell Erosion. In exchange, I get a slightly harder-hitting Oblivion damage glyph and I get to run my damage set (Necro) on both bars. With Mark applied, I have 14k spell penetration.

If I use a second Necro Sharp sword, I get to improve my CP distribution and my attacks hit somewhat harder. On the other hand, I lose my Necro 5-piece on the Resto bar, decreasing the damage I do during poke-at-range and making it harder to justify slotting Merciless there. With Mark applied, I get 15k spell penetration, plus I get a few more CP for one of the damage stars.

How much worse is Infused, in practice?

Of course, the best thing to do is to get a Sharpened Amber sword -- then I'll have the best of both worlds. Maybe I'll get lucky!