Magblade PVP- Where am I going wrong?

Vermintide · June 2017

Sorry, yeah, it's one of these threads.

So I've been playing magblade since I started with this game. I really like the play style in PVE, but I feel like I have very little control over how well I'm doing in PVP. I've experimented with a lot of different skill set-ups and strategies, but I'm finding it hard to tell if my build is holding me back, or if it's purely an L2P issue. I think it's primarily the latter; kill counter tells me I'm usually getting 20 or so "kills" to each death, but that's only about 1-2 "killing blows", and most of those are probably just being lucky with executes. So I'm not doing terribly but hardly excelling.

So here is the basic outline of the build I've ended up settling on (non-CP, I'm only 250 or so):

5pc Julianos (heavy, mag enchants)
5pc Spinner's (mix of impen and divines)
2x Assassin's swords (sharpened)
Random destro or restro staff (sharpened/defending)
Thief mundus
Tri-stat food

Skills are usually something along these lines:

DW- Hidden blade, impale, lotus fan, crippling grasp, shadowy disguise - soul harvest
Staff- Merciless, siphoning attacks/elemental drain, swallow soul, refreshing path, healing ward/harness magicka - soul tether/elemental rage

I'm still lacking several Alliance War and Undaunted passives etc, but I can't see those few % here and there making a drastic impact. I consciously chose heavy over light armour because I just get stomped way too much in light. I'm not really decided yet which weapon set I prefer, they all seem to have their pros and cons. I think my biggest issue is sustain but I dunno how I can improve it without sacrificing damage. Nightblade is supposed to be for burst anyway right? I've tried a few variations using stuff like magelight on front bar, or having shades on back bar to do the teleport ninja line-of-sight thing; but every other skill I want to use means sacrificing a skill I rely on to not die and just aaaargh help.

Anyway I'll stop rambling on, I know there are a few really knowledgable NB players around here. Hope someone can give me some pointers

Xvorg · June 2017

Hi.

On you first bar how do you do dmg?

Regarding the sets, Julianos is good, spinner is good too, but having both and 2 assa sharpen swords is... weird.

Do you have regen? How much?

Vermintide · June 2017

Xvorg wrote: »

Hi.

On you first bar how do you do dmg?

Regarding the sets, Julianos is good, spinner is good too, but having both and 2 assa sharpen swords is... weird.

Do you have regen? How much?

Hey

Well the basic plan is to pew pew to proc merciless, snare them, stealth up, lotus fan in, CW spam, impale. That feels like how it's meant to be done, but I have varying degrees of success.

As for the swords, I just picked it as my last 2 piece for a bit more crit since I hope to eventually grind enough for a monster set and then shuffle things around.

Regen is at around 1k. Also vamp.

Aedaryl · June 2017

You can't be a good nightblade without Shadow Image, it's simply the best escape/repositioning skill in the game, really.

You put your shadow, then you go fight far (but in range) then when troubles come, you can port back to your shadow, and not dying like a bad cake.

Your build doesn't seems good at all for me.

As a pet sorc, I summon @NightbladeMechanics !

Xvorg · June 2017

Vermintide wrote: »

Xvorg wrote: »

Hi.

On you first bar how do you do dmg?

Regarding the sets, Julianos is good, spinner is good too, but having both and 2 assa sharpen swords is... weird.

Do you have regen? How much?

Hey Well the basic plan is to pew pew to proc merciless, snare them, stealth up, lotus fan in, CW spam, impale. That feels like how it's meant to be done, but I have varying degrees of success.

As for the swords, I just picked it as my last 2 piece for a bit more crit since I hope to eventually grind enough for a monster set and then shuffle things around.

Regen is at around 1k. Also vamp.

Oh, OK

If you are running 5 light, you need a bubble. If you are running 5 heavy, you need Seducer. The cost of skills in 5 heavy for a mageblade is high.

Also you don't have neither shadow, nor fear slotted, that puts you in a difficult situation when CCed.

What about CPs?

CavalryPK · June 2017

I want to be part of the conversation too !!!! But senpai would probably do a better job.

@Vermintide , before we dive in to the amazing world of magblades, please clarify if you are running with a large group (sounds like it) or small scale.

Cheers,

geonsocal · June 2017

@Vermintide ...ha, too funny - our builds are pretty similiar, except I'm 5 light, 2 medium and I have the juilianos 5 piece bonus on my DW bar...plus I use grothdar (procs off harness magicka)...and, I'm not a vamp on this character...

okay, maybe not all that similiar

definitely hit up the golden and start collecting monster pieces...

for sustain you're gonna have to lean on your staff (yeah, I know - heavy attacking isn't very "bursty")...or, maybe switch to regen drinks...siphoning strikes hasn't really helped me all that much...

I fight mostly with the staff in cyro and just go to dual wield to try to finish folks off...

Vermintide · June 2017

Xvorg wrote: »

Oh, OK

If you are running 5 light, you need a bubble. If you are running 5 heavy, you need Seducer. The cost of skills in 5 heavy for a mageblade is high.

Also you don't have neither shadow, nor fear slotted, that puts you in a difficult situation when CCed.

What about CPs?

Yeah, like I said I have tried out using fear and shadow image, couldn't really get the hang of it though. General consensus is those are vital skills though it seems, what skill am I best dropping for it? I can do without the shield probably?

As for CP I'm not even gonna bother with it until I'm at 630.

CavalryPK wrote: »

I want to be part of the conversation too !!!! But senpai would probably do a better job.

@Vermintide , before we dive in to the amazing world of magblades, please clarify if you are running with a large group (sounds like it) or small scale.

Cheers,

Well, both, really. Depends what's going on, sometimes you go in Cyrodiil (like weekday evening time GMT, it's always at cap) and there's nothing for it except to tag along with the huge zergs. Other times I try to run around on my own as a scout of sorts and pick off stragglers.

geonsocal wrote: »

@Vermintide ...ha, too funny - our builds are pretty similiar, except I'm 5 light, 2 medium and I have the juilianos 5 piece bonus on my DW bar...plus I use grothdar (procs off harness magicka)...and, I'm not a vamp on this character...

okay, maybe not all that similiar

definitely hit up the golden and start collecting monster pieces...

for sustain you're gonna have to lean on your staff (yeah, I know - heavy attacking isn't very "bursty")...or, maybe switch to regen drinks...siphoning strikes hasn't really helped me all that much...

I fight mostly with the staff in cyro and just go to dual wield to try to finish folks off...

Heh, if what I hear about proc sets is all it's cracked up to be, then I'll certainly feel the benefit when I get that Skoria shoulder, right?

And I am definitely feeling siphoning strikes to be a waste of time at this point, used to be useful before Morrowind but now... Destro staff gets elemental drain which is way better...

geonsocal · June 2017

i stayed away from proc sets for quite some time (just wasn't comfortable with the low proc percentage of most)...then I started to take advantage of the "golden" vendor and a few undaunted pledges to start putting together some monster sets...

they make a really a really big difference, you can see that from looking over your own death recaps...

the damage monster sets allow you to build up your defense and still be able to put out some decent damage...

battlegrounds is what really what i soured me to start using viper and red mountain...proc sets are king in BG's...

just remembered, it's actually infernal guardian instead of grothdar I'm using on my magblade - it works really well on my destro bar...allows me to do some decent damage from range...

skoria will definitely help with a little health boost and damage output...looks like your current rotation has a few DoT's skills included...

to be honest though, I'm not really sure what monster set is BiS for a magblade...

bubbygink · June 2017

Destro(flame)/Resto Magblade is currently the strongest possible setup right now. You can get away with Duel Wield/Resto but simply won't have as much success. You can use a setup where you weave on your resto bar then go to your duel wield to burst (at least on XBox NA this seems to be the meta in highly competite duels) but in my opinion this just isn't as effective as a standard Desto/Resto setup. That being set, if you're committed to using duel wield there are possible setups that can work. But I do think resto staff is important to use - i.e. don't do Duel Wield/Destro

As for your skills, nothing strikes me as too crazy except for hidden blade and no source of major sorcery. No reason to run hidden blade, drop it from your bar. And you need a source of major sorcery unless you are getting it from potions - use either Sap Essence or Entropy (I prefer the Degeneration morph). The other thing I would do is run healing ward over harness - or, if you prefer, run both. The burst heal from healing ward will help you out. Put Merciless on your DW bar if running DW/Resto or on your Desro bar if running Destro/Resto. Soul tether or soul harvest/incap + spectral bow will be your burst combo. Oh and no reason to run Lotus Fan if doing Destro/Restro.

I'm not sure if you want your build to be for open world CP PVP, open world no-CP PVP, or BGs, but in all cases I would try to get a sustain/utility set to pair with an offensive set and a monster set. In no CP definitely use Skoria, I also prefer Skoria in CP but there are arguably some alternative sets here like bloodspawn. For sustain/utility sets I recommend looking at Wizards Riposte first, or otherwise Transmutation. Make your resto staff your 5th piece for these sets. Then make your destro staff the 5th piece for your offensive set. For offensive sets you have a number of choices: War Maiden, Spinners, Necropotence (use shade with it), or even the class Julianos if you don't want to farm. But combining those types of sets on Destro/Restro is best in my opinion. An easy set to start with could be 2 Skoria + 5 Julianos + 5 Transmutation/Riposte. Then upgrade Juli to another set when you get the pieces.

When you get this set up together you can focus on food and sustain. I really recommend using Leeching Strikes to get you your stamina sustain. Then just focus on balancing magicka sustain and damage with your food and glyphs. Trifood is always nice but you may ave to go with witchmothers if you want to sustain. You can get away with this if you use Leeching Strikes. If in no-CP I recommend using some tri-glyphs to get max health and stam up a bit.

As for combat, make sure you keep your buffs up - mainly this means merciless, siphoning/leeching, path, and major sorcery. Also, if you are running them, keep cripple and degeneration on your target. Practice light attack weaving on EVERY ability - even on Resto bar. This will help keep your merciless up as quick as possible. Keep buffs up as mentioned and LA + Funnel weave until you get your spectral bow. Then try to combo it (with an ultimate if you have it) when you have an opening to do as much damage as possible or get the kill. Don't feel like you have to shoot the spectral bow right away, you can hold it for a bit and wait for an opening.

Anyway, that is a very general guide I tried to throw together real quick. I'm sure I glossed over a lot of things and obviously if you are intent on using duel wield some stuff can be disregarded. If you have any other questions I'll do my best to answer. I'm sure some other knowledgeable magblades will chime in too. Magblade can be a tough class to play but can be very rewarding when you figure it out - it is still deadly in the right hands.

CavalryPK · June 2017

Vermintide wrote: »

Sorry, yeah, it's one of these threads.

5pc Julianos (heavy, mag enchants)
5pc Spinner's (mix of impen and divines)
2x Assassin's swords (sharpened)
Random destro or restro staff (sharpened/defending)
Thief mundus
Tri-stat food

Skills are usually something along these lines:

DW- Hidden blade, impale, lotus fan, crippling grasp, shadowy disguise - soul harvest
Staff- Merciless, siphoning attacks/elemental drain, swallow soul, refreshing path, healing ward/harness magicka - soul tether/elemental rage

OOK. here we go. couple of friendly observations:

This patch with heavy armor you have to build for sustain... this means you have to run a sustain set.. my favorite is Transmutation. but there are many other sets. like Lich, Seducer, Magnus, and Mandy more. My favorit sweet spot for magik regen is at least 1900. and my spell dmg minimum is 1900. swap spinner for one of the sets here.
With higher mag regen ... you now can run leaching strikes to compensate for you low stamina poll and stam rege.
You need to make you DW bar your burst bar and you back bar you pew pew bar. This means Merciless resolve goes to you DW bar, while swallow soul/funnel health goes to your back resto bar. basically , on your DW bar you cast Merciless swap to you healing bar, do light attack with funnel health until you proc your Merciless... swap back to DW bar and CC your enemy Shoot the bow and use ultimate.. on the most effective order.
Your DW bar need to have degeneration for major sorcery.
Get Rid of hidden blade, Lotus fan,... replace them with degeneration and mark target.
Swap your siphoning strikes with leaching strikes only when you reach minimum 1900 mag regen
your food should be witch mothers potent brew.
if you are running lich then you may go to Tri Stat food.

The way I see it you want to play your magblade like a stamblade.. the problem is you are a magblade. and you need to make sure you have your healing over time effects are constantly active. which means... you need to constantly funnel heath. you have to make sure you light attack between each skills. unless you are doing the kill combo. your healing path, and degen, should have 100% up time. since you are going to be using funnel with light attacks you will be proccing your merciless more often and easier. your dps bar is your resto bar,, you kill bar is your DW bar.

you can check out my YouTube channel and see how I play my magblade. In Homestead I ran heavy juliano and transmutation... but I play destro / Resto...

This patch you actually can run all light armor with certain sets.

Magblade is life, Magblade is love !

Vermintide · June 2017

bubbygink wrote: »

Destro(flame)/Resto Magblade is currently the strongest possible setup right now. You can get away with Duel Wield/Resto but simply won't have as much success. You can use a setup where you weave on your resto bar then go to your duel wield to burst (at least on XBox NA this seems to be the meta in highly competite duels) but in my opinion this just isn't as effective as a standard Desto/Resto setup. That being set, if you're committed to using duel wield there are possible setups that can work. But I do think resto staff is important to use - i.e. don't do Duel Wield/Destro

As for your skills, nothing strikes me as too crazy except for hidden blade and no source of major sorcery. No reason to run hidden blade, drop it from your bar. And you need a source of major sorcery unless you are getting it from potions - use either Sap Essence or Entropy (I prefer the Degeneration morph). The other thing I would do is run healing ward over harness - or, if you prefer, run both. The burst heal from healing ward will help you out. Put Merciless on your DW bar if running DW/Resto or on your Desro bar if running Destro/Resto. Soul tether or soul harvest/incap + spectral bow will be your burst combo. Oh and no reason to run Lotus Fan if doing Destro/Restro.

I'm not sure if you want your build to be for open world CP PVP, open world no-CP PVP, or BGs, but in all cases I would try to get a sustain/utility set to pair with an offensive set and a monster set. In no CP definitely use Skoria, I also prefer Skoria in CP but there are arguably some alternative sets here like bloodspawn. For sustain/utility sets I recommend looking at Wizards Riposte first, or otherwise Transmutation. Make your resto staff your 5th piece for these sets. Then make your destro staff the 5th piece for your offensive set. For offensive sets you have a number of choices: War Maiden, Spinners, Necropotence (use shade with it), or even the class Julianos if you don't want to farm. But combining those types of sets on Destro/Restro is best in my opinion. An easy set to start with could be 2 Skoria + 5 Julianos + 5 Transmutation/Riposte. Then upgrade Juli to another set when you get the pieces.

When you get this set up together you can focus on food and sustain. I really recommend using Leeching Strikes to get you your stamina sustain. Then just focus on balancing magicka sustain and damage with your food and glyphs. Trifood is always nice but you may ave to go with witchmothers if you want to sustain. You can get away with this if you use Leeching Strikes. If in no-CP I recommend using some tri-glyphs to get max health and stam up a bit.

As for combat, make sure you keep your buffs up - mainly this means merciless, siphoning/leeching, path, and major sorcery. Also, if you are running them, keep cripple and degeneration on your target. Practice light attack weaving on EVERY ability - even on Resto bar. This will help keep your merciless up as quick as possible. Keep buffs up as mentioned and LA + Funnel weave until you get your spectral bow. Then try to combo it (with an ultimate if you have it) when you have an opening to do as much damage as possible or get the kill. Don't feel like you have to shoot the spectral bow right away, you can hold it for a bit and wait for an opening.

Anyway, that is a very general guide I tried to throw together real quick. I'm sure I glossed over a lot of things and obviously if you are intent on using duel wield some stuff can be disregarded. If you have any other questions I'll do my best to answer. I'm sure some other knowledgeable magblades will chime in too. Magblade can be a tough class to play but can be very rewarding when you figure it out - it is still deadly in the right hands.

Thanks dude, this was a very informative post. What I gather from this is that I am at least heading in the right direction, I just need to get a better handle on the intricacies of the class. A lot of what you're saying is stuff I already know in theory but struggle to apply. Using the stam morph of Leeching is something I'd never have considered though, I will give it a try. CC is definitely something that leads to a very rapid death for me, at one point I had mist form on my bar for that reason alone.

I will see what happens if I drop Juli and go for Seducer/Spinners (since I don't have any other jewellery and seducers is easily craftable) to give more of a balance of offense/sustain. It's getting the last Skoria piece that's really gonna be a ***- RNG hates me it seems. As for combat itself weaving is something I do struggle to pull off consistently, it could be lag or something, but it just really never seems to be as smooth as it should be. I will get better at that with time.

Let's just say I'm pretty wed to DW because I didn't start this character intending for it to be a "caster" build; I'd have just rolled a sorc if I wanted that. I realise it may not be optimal, but I'd like an illusion assassin kind of playstyle, so I'm gonna bash away at that 'til I can make it work

Maybe I should have just gone stam, but it sucks for PVE and I'll be damned if I'm grinding up another alt.

CavalryPK wrote: »

Vermintide wrote: »

Sorry, yeah, it's one of these threads.

5pc Julianos (heavy, mag enchants)
5pc Spinner's (mix of impen and divines)
2x Assassin's swords (sharpened)
Random destro or restro staff (sharpened/defending)
Thief mundus
Tri-stat food

Skills are usually something along these lines:

DW- Hidden blade, impale, lotus fan, crippling grasp, shadowy disguise - soul harvest
Staff- Merciless, siphoning attacks/elemental drain, swallow soul, refreshing path, healing ward/harness magicka - soul tether/elemental rage

OOK. here we go. couple of friendly observations:
This patch with heavy armor you have to build for sustain... this means you have to run a sustain set.. my favorite is Transmutation. but there are many other sets. like Lich, Seducer, Magnus, and Mandy more. My favorit sweet spot for magik regen is at least 1900. and my spell dmg minimum is 1900. swap spinner for one of the sets here.

With higher mag regen ... you now can run leaching strikes to compensate for you low stamina poll and stam rege.

You need to make you DW bar your burst bar and you back bar you pew pew bar. This means Merciless resolve goes to you DW bar, while swallow soul/funnel health goes to your back resto bar. basically , on your DW bar you cast Merciless swap to you healing bar, do light attack with funnel health until you proc your Merciless... swap back to DW bar and CC your enemy Shoot the bow and use ultimate.. on the most effective order.

Your DW bar need to have degeneration for major sorcery.

Get Rid of hidden blade, Lotus fan,... replace them with degeneration and mark target.

Swap your siphoning strikes with leaching strikes only when you reach minimum 1900 mag regen

your food should be witch mothers potent brew.

if you are running lich then you may go to Tri Stat food.

The way I see it you want to play your magblade like a stamblade.. the problem is you are a magblade. and you need to make sure you have your healing over time effects are constantly active. which means... you need to constantly funnel heath. you have to make sure you light attack between each skills. unless you are doing the kill combo. your healing path, and degen, should have 100% up time. since you are going to be using funnel with light attacks you will be proccing your merciless more often and easier. your dps bar is your resto bar,, you kill bar is your DW bar.

you can check out my YouTube channel and see how I play my magblade. In Homestead I ran heavy juliano and transmutation... but I play destro / Resto...

This patch you actually can run all light armor with certain sets.

Magblade is life, Magblade is love !

This is also some good food for thought, thanks.

So I don't need a "spammable" on the DW bar, I just need merciless, some form of CC, and a hard hitting ultimate? Then I should be trying to keep my distance until the combo is ready and BAM... Sounds good. But of course, I've assembled many good sounding plans like this over the last few weeks, and they never quite go to plan

I was mainly keeping CW around because of the stun and steath speed buff, but i doubt it would be too painful to lose... I think I would like to keep lotus fan around though because I'm not quite skilled enough at gap closing without it just yet. It's no use having a debuff on a target if I can't even get within range to hurt 'em heh.

CavalryPK · June 2017

Vermintide wrote: »

I was mainly keeping CW around because of the stun and steath speed buff, but i doubt it would be too painful to lose... I think I would like to keep lotus fan around though because I'm not quite skilled enough at gap closing without it just yet. It's no use having a debuff on a target if I can't even get within range to hurt 'em heh.

Yeh your spammable should be your funnel health, CW is a nice to have but honestly, you need something that is healing you. And each time you shoot funnel its healing you for 2.5 k non crits.

On the other hand, you could just lotus fan then do light attack and funnel health. For your spammable.

Vermintide · June 2017

So I made a few alterations and tried out some suggestions from this thread this morning; I can say I'm noticing a bit of an improvement already, but obviously it still needs work.

Any more general tips as for how to develop your situational awareness and strategy in Cyrodiil? The main cause of death for me now seems to be underestimating enemy numbers and then getting flattened beneath a huge zerg I somehow didn't anticipate :P

I also tried a couple of battlegrounds, but I quickly came to the conclusion I'm definitely leaving those alone until proc sets are fixed or I have one of my own.

ninjaguyman · June 2017

If you want to try a set up without any monster sets, I've had decent success using 5x necropotence+5x shacklebreaker. I use a 5/1/1 light set up in cp campaigns and front bar 2x willpower. however I use light armor, and also sword and board front bar. but I dont think it would be far fetched to adapt this to a 5 heavy/ 2 light set up by making shacklebreaker heavy and still using 2 swords front bar. where I get my tankyness from s&b, you'd get tankiness from heavy armor basically. by using shacklebreaker, and a few tristat glyphs you can use witchmothers potent brew, and still have a decent stam pool. its also up to you if you use siphoning attacks or leeching strikes, since a plus side of using dw or s&b front bar means we have access to stamina via heavy attacks. I think heavy attacks as well as argonian potion passive is already enough for my stamina sustain, so I use siphoning attacks still.

Even with my s&b I almost always choose to not have a gap closer, there are just too many things that I need in my build. but it seems like your gonna be on resto bar most of the time since thats where you spammable is, and just swap to dw when you're trying to burst. so you really shouldn't need a gap closer. also hidden blade is for the most part useless on a mag build. So that gives you 2 free slots in your build. One of these should be put towards a major sorcery spell( sap or entropy). the second should be fear, as you dont have a cc in your build currently, which is a big problem.

I also recommend putting merciless resolve on your dw bar. its there for the 5% extra damage from the dw tree, so might as well use the extra damage for your burst skill.

As for situational awareness, just be aware of where you decide to start a fight. For example, dont start a fight when you're on a direct path between two keeps, unless you have a good line of sight spot to run around( but even then i'd hesitate to fight there). Its basically like the enemy reinforcement line and even if you only see 1 or 2, more are bound to come running in that direction.

Also try shadow image or mist form instead of cloak. I tend to value those more in 1vx situations for juking enemies, but any repositioning tool(cloak/mist form/ shade) should work fine.

Vermintide · June 2017

By the way- Does the DOT from Lotus Fan proc Skoria? Because I figure if I aim to run that set eventually I'll need more than one DOT. I've tried running without it and I'm having far less success because of how slippery people are.

Maybe dropping impale for fear, then keeping lotus could work? If the burst goes off well I'm finding it pretty redundant anyhow.

NightbladeMechanics · June 2017

Your play style will stick with dual wield + resto.

Try these bars:
dw -- lotus, concealed, shadowy disguise, cripple, fear, incapacitating strike
resto -- shadow image, swallow soul/funnel health, merciless, healing ward, mark, light's champion

Use spell power pots. If you cannot use spell power pots, switch cripple for sap essence or mark for entropy.

Change your mundus to Shadow. You want big crits from stealth using cloak to guarantee them. Think of hitting people with very high burst crit combos of 2-4 abilities. You'll have 40-50% crit from your build, so 2 should crit on their own. Make another crit artificially with cloak, and you'll have huge burst with Shadow.

This setup wants to pew pew on your resto bar with funnel, fire off merciless, and jump in on your dw bar. That's how you've been playing according to the OP, and that happens to be the strongest way to play dw mageblade currenntly. Just switch your soul harvest morph to incap for PvP. Master-at-Arms CP will amplify it, so it will deal almost the same damage. You want that cc in PvP, though.

Do you have access to any drop sets like Necropotence or Amber Plasm? Those are really strong. For now, I recommend Willpower jewelry + Seducer armor + 2 Magnus armor + 2 Magnus swords + Magnus resto staff. This will put 4 Magnus on your front bar and 3 Magnus back bar. That should give you enough magicka sustain to use 3 damage jewelry glyphs, but you can change those out how you like. You definitely need more magicka sustain to play dw mageblade in PvP.

Or you could start farming those Undaunted Pieces. Selene's and Engine Guardian are your best bets for dw. Grothdarr is decent, but it will pull you out of cloak if enemies are nearby, getting you killed from time to time. Valkyn and Malubeth are best for destro/resto setups, and Pirate Skeleton is naturally strong on any of them as long as you don't use CP in Befoul. I recommend using lots of CP in Befoul if you're using soul harvest/incap.

If you get a 2pc in decent traits, use Willpower + Torug's or a damage 5pc in your jewelry and weapons.

I've played just about every dw/resto build imaginable this patch, and the best damage and sustain combination that I've found is Necropotence + Amber Plasm + Selene's with one cost reduction glyph. War Maiden and Spinner fall short when using Incap, and other sustain sets leave me short of where I like my magicka sustain to be. Even Seducer + a third damage glyph was inferior sustain and damage to Amber + a cost reduction glyph.

Vermintide · June 2017

Thanks again for a very insightful response, NightbladeMechanics. I read on another thread that you have a melee magblade video coming out- Can't wait to see that frankly.

So for the time being I've settled as thus:

Switched the Julianos out for Seducer.

DW: merciless, cripple, lotus, fear, cloak, incap
Destro: Degeneration, ele drain, swallow soul, path, harness, fury.

I'll probably swap out path for shadow image once I can get a bit more confident in using it.

Also yeah, destro rather than restro, against previous advice. Less survivability but it seems to fit my playstyle better. That is, kill the enemy before they get a chance to hurt me, I seem to be able to weave much more effectively with it. Plus it actually seems to have better sustain- drain is free to cast, returns magicka, as well as inflicting the same debuff as Mark. Overall a sharpened inferno staff + spinners+ debuff + dark elf passives seems to equal crazy damage! But then perhaps a shapened resto staff would have similar effects, which I shall try out when I have one handy.

I kind of had that "eureka!" moment the first time a guy tried to gank me, but I actually pulled the burst combo off perfectly and slaughtered him. Thanks for the tips so far everyone, but more is always appreciated

Asardes · June 2017

5 Spinner's Garments (or any light DPS set) 5 Vicious Death (2W on front bar) 2 Grothdarr (1 medium & 1 heavy). Arm proxy detonation teleport in zergs from stealth, empower, soul tether, spam sap essence a few times until they drop, stealth, rinse and repeat. Works brilliantly in keeps and resources when everyone piles on those flags

Xvorg · June 2017

I'm working on a dotblade. I was using sun + WM but I'm considering dropping sun for another set. Right now I'm considering:

1. Julianos (nice crits, useful for dots)
2. Kagrenacs (mag regen)
3. Magnus + pieces + monster (ideally skoria)
4. Mother's sorrow
5. Treasure hunter

Any idea? (Julianos up to know seems to be the best option)

Rohamad_Ali · June 2017

I tried a few set ups listed in here today in battlefields and I have never died so fast in all my years of playing .

Xvorg · June 2017

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

I tried a few set ups listed in here today in battlefields and I have never died so fast in all my years of playing .

as a mageblade on LA you need shields badly. The idea of a DoTblade relies on anullment + ward using dots as main source of dmg. IDK how much DoTs help your sustain and since you are using shields as main defense, you need to use cloak as less as possible.

The good side of the build? Soul assault hits like a truck, nevertheless I have the impression that shatter soul hits harder in less time, but it depends on crits.

Metemsycosis · June 2017

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

Your play style will stick with dual wield + resto.

Try these bars:
dw -- lotus, concealed, shadowy disguise, cripple, fear, incapacitating strike
resto -- shadow image, swallow soul/funnel health, merciless, healing ward, mark, light's champion

Use spell power pots. If you cannot use spell power pots, switch cripple for sap essence or mark for entropy.

Change your mundus to Shadow. You want big crits from stealth using cloak to guarantee them. Think of hitting people with very high burst crit combos of 2-4 abilities. You'll have 40-50% crit from your build, so 2 should crit on their own. Make another crit artificially with cloak, and you'll have huge burst with Shadow.

This setup wants to pew pew on your resto bar with funnel, fire off merciless, and jump in on your dw bar. That's how you've been playing according to the OP, and that happens to be the strongest way to play dw mageblade currenntly. Just switch your soul harvest morph to incap for PvP. Master-at-Arms CP will amplify it, so it will deal almost the same damage. You want that cc in PvP, though.

Do you have access to any drop sets like Necropotence or Amber Plasm? Those are really strong. For now, I recommend Willpower jewelry + Seducer armor + 2 Magnus armor + 2 Magnus swords + Magnus resto staff. This will put 4 Magnus on your front bar and 3 Magnus back bar. That should give you enough magicka sustain to use 3 damage jewelry glyphs, but you can change those out how you like. You definitely need more magicka sustain to play dw mageblade in PvP.

Or you could start farming those Undaunted Pieces. Selene's and Engine Guardian are your best bets for dw. Grothdarr is decent, but it will pull you out of cloak if enemies are nearby, getting you killed from time to time. Valkyn and Malubeth are best for destro/resto setups, and Pirate Skeleton is naturally strong on any of them as long as you don't use CP in Befoul. I recommend using lots of CP in Befoul if you're using soul harvest/incap.

If you get a 2pc in decent traits, use Willpower + Torug's or a damage 5pc in your jewelry and weapons.

I've played just about every dw/resto build imaginable this patch, and the best damage and sustain combination that I've found is Necropotence + Amber Plasm + Selene's with one cost reduction glyph. War Maiden and Spinner fall short when using Incap, and other sustain sets leave me short of where I like my magicka sustain to be. Even Seducer + a third damage glyph was inferior sustain and damage to Amber + a cost reduction glyph.

Does the bear animation count as a pet ?

NightbladeMechanics · June 2017

Metemsycosis wrote: »

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

Your play style will stick with dual wield + resto.

Try these bars:
dw -- lotus, concealed, shadowy disguise, cripple, fear, incapacitating strike
resto -- shadow image, swallow soul/funnel health, merciless, healing ward, mark, light's champion

Use spell power pots. If you cannot use spell power pots, switch cripple for sap essence or mark for entropy.

Change your mundus to Shadow. You want big crits from stealth using cloak to guarantee them. Think of hitting people with very high burst crit combos of 2-4 abilities. You'll have 40-50% crit from your build, so 2 should crit on their own. Make another crit artificially with cloak, and you'll have huge burst with Shadow.

This setup wants to pew pew on your resto bar with funnel, fire off merciless, and jump in on your dw bar. That's how you've been playing according to the OP, and that happens to be the strongest way to play dw mageblade currenntly. Just switch your soul harvest morph to incap for PvP. Master-at-Arms CP will amplify it, so it will deal almost the same damage. You want that cc in PvP, though.

Do you have access to any drop sets like Necropotence or Amber Plasm? Those are really strong. For now, I recommend Willpower jewelry + Seducer armor + 2 Magnus armor + 2 Magnus swords + Magnus resto staff. This will put 4 Magnus on your front bar and 3 Magnus back bar. That should give you enough magicka sustain to use 3 damage jewelry glyphs, but you can change those out how you like. You definitely need more magicka sustain to play dw mageblade in PvP.

Or you could start farming those Undaunted Pieces. Selene's and Engine Guardian are your best bets for dw. Grothdarr is decent, but it will pull you out of cloak if enemies are nearby, getting you killed from time to time. Valkyn and Malubeth are best for destro/resto setups, and Pirate Skeleton is naturally strong on any of them as long as you don't use CP in Befoul. I recommend using lots of CP in Befoul if you're using soul harvest/incap.

If you get a 2pc in decent traits, use Willpower + Torug's or a damage 5pc in your jewelry and weapons.

I've played just about every dw/resto build imaginable this patch, and the best damage and sustain combination that I've found is Necropotence + Amber Plasm + Selene's with one cost reduction glyph. War Maiden and Spinner fall short when using Incap, and other sustain sets leave me short of where I like my magicka sustain to be. Even Seducer + a third damage glyph was inferior sustain and damage to Amber + a cost reduction glyph.

Does the bear animation count as a pet ?

Shadow Image does. Necro is classic mageblade.

QuebraRegra · June 2017

The "port" from shadow image is nice, but the real value I think is when it's combined with NECROPOTENCE yes? It always seemed to me that NECRO is actually best on a MAGBLADE. I'd have more light armor for sustain, and lean on the bubble/heal, and unbreakable fear for survival (cloak if things really get ugly).

I don't find the MAGBLADE to be the biggest burster (like a STAMBLADE), but it has far more utility as an off healer, and for CC in a group (LOL that ICE staff!).

QuebraRegra · June 2017

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

I tried a few set ups listed in here today in battlefields and I have never died so fast in all my years of playing .

??? even with HEALING WARD running? Y'know what, sometimes you just have to listen to "THE GAMBLER" and cloak and run from that oncoming zerg of 50+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X7Sx62plCw

Johngo0036 · June 2017

Hi,

Go and check out sinfullduck on youtube, i like his builds,
Here is a link to his melee magicka NB:

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

Rohamad_Ali · June 2017

QuebraRegra wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

I tried a few set ups listed in here today in battlefields and I have never died so fast in all my years of playing .

??? even with HEALING WARD running? Y'know what, sometimes you just have to listen to "THE GAMBLER" and cloak and run from that oncoming zerg of 50+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X7Sx62plCw

Yep . Soon as I un cloak I end up at the bottom of one of these .

Rohamad_Ali · June 2017

Johngo0036 wrote: »

Hi,

Go and check out sinfullduck on youtube, i like his builds,
Here is a link to his melee magicka NB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAkvxEiWMvU

Overwhelming and pact are both damage sets . Which is fine if you you are dueling or can fight people one at a time . Sustaine is a huge issue in battlefields and in Cyrodiil where it's mostly groups to fight . I have no idea how that set could work in those settings .

If you wait around for ganks in a battlefield you lose the objective . He has a interesting idea for short fights .

Vermintide · June 2017

Alright so. I've been messing around with all the advice I've had here for a few nights, and I am definitely doing better. Nowadays I can fight someone and think "Damn, I could have had that if I remembered to keep my debuff on him..." rather than "What the crap, what even."

However, one thing- How do I open a fight effectively? The class and the burst combo is easily defended against if I just pop out of stealth and start spamming funnel at them. Cripple is way too easily dodged, and I save my fear in case they try and slip away just before the execute. I'm thinking of putting concealed weapon back on my bar just for this purpose.

I'm starting to absolutely lose my mind over the 10 skill limit here though. For PVE I comfortably have everything I need on my bars, but for PVP... It's a nightmare. I'm laying awake at night wondering if impale is worth it, whether I should have merciless on front or back bar... Make it stop

leepalmer95 · June 2017

Magblade PVP- Where am I going wrong? Bookmark

I highlighted where your going wrong.