Magblade build/rotation?

Savage_Audacity

I am returning to the game and am wanting to start maining a magblade. Looking for a build and rotation to get 35k+ dps

Dexter411

Start from alcast build and then tweek it.
If You want more info I recommend GiliamTheRogue on YT.

P.s. too lazy to use google?

Savage_Audacity

I tried alcasts build and got bad results

Illurian

Savage_Audacity wrote: »

I tried alcasts build and got bad results

DPS is largely reliant on your own skill level though. Your ability to execute rotations flawlessly along with perfect weaving is what really boosts your dps.

Your response gives me the impression that you gave the build 2 rotations, didn't suddenly get 35k dps and concluded that it was a bad build.

LiquidPony

Savage_Audacity wrote: »

I tried alcasts build and got bad results

Check out LZH's setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOH0uQ-Qgbw

http://imgbox.com/4GwCCZpQ

Very similar to Alcast's build, bars are a bit different and LZH uses Aether instead of Moondancer (I prefer Aether on a Nightblade). Also note the double Infused staves ... I'm still running Nirn Maelstrom back and Infused Aether front on mine.

casparian

5 Julianos, 2 Skoria, and 3/4 Infallible Aether or Moondancer. Inferno staff front bar (Infused, Nirn, or Sharp, with shock enchant) and Maelstrom fire or lightning staff back bar (Infused, weapon damage enchant). Make sure weapons are gold and armor is at least purple. Run Witchmother's.

Front bar: Funnel, Impale, Harness, Inner Light, Merciless, Destro Ult
Back Bar: Wall, Cripple, Path, Inner Light, Siphoning Attacks, Soul Harvest

Basic rotation: Merciless -> BS -> Siphoning -> LA -> Wall -> LA -> Cripple -> LA -> Path -> BS -> LA -> Funnel -> LA -> Will -> LA -> Funnel/LA x3 -> Will -> recast Merciless -> BS -> repeat, recasting Siphoning as needed. Replace funnel weaves with Impale below 25% health, and replace destro ult with Soul Harvest in execute phase (for those juicy 40K+ Impales).

Start with that and you should easily get 30k+ on the 6mil dummy even with some rotation mistakes (missing a weave, bar-swapping when you shouldn't, etc.). Getting up to 35+ is just a matter of getting used to the class and perfecting the rotation.

When testing on the dummy, I use Lover stone and throw in Ele Drain in place of Harness, to better simulate actual raid conditions. In real raids, run the Apprentice stone.

It's possible that you can squeeze out ~2k more DPS with a fire/fire staff build running BSW instead of Julianos, but the rotation is more demanding. If you struggle with the Julianos build, then running BSW isn't going to automagically solve your issues.

casparian

LiquidPony wrote: »

Savage_Audacity wrote: »

I tried alcasts build and got bad results

Check out LZH's setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOH0uQ-Qgbw

http://imgbox.com/4GwCCZpQ

Very similar to Alcast's build, bars are a bit different and LZH uses Aether instead of Moondancer (I prefer Aether on a Nightblade). Also note the double Infused staves ... I'm still running Nirn Maelstrom back and Infused Aether front on mine.

LZH is probably the best PVE magblade in the game, and his build is obviously amazing. But I'm not sure I recommend his bar setup for people new to magblade, because the rotation that goes with it is far more complex than the standard one that has all DOTs on back bar. In general, the more bar-swapping a rotation involves, the better you have to be in order to pull good DPS with it. The magblade rotation is hard enough as it is, and one that involves as much bar-swapping as LZH can efficiently pull off is likely to be too difficult for people new to the class.

Lexxypwns

casparian wrote: »

5 Julianos, 2 Skoria, and 3/4 Infallible Aether or Moondancer. Inferno staff front bar (Infused, Nirn, or Sharp, with shock enchant) and Maelstrom fire or lightning staff back bar (Infused, weapon damage enchant). Make sure weapons are gold and armor is at least purple. Run Witchmother's.

Front bar: Funnel, Impale, Harness, Inner Light, Merciless, Destro Ult
Back Bar: Wall, Cripple, Path, Inner Light, Siphoning Attacks, Soul Harvest

Basic rotation: Merciless -> BS -> Siphoning -> LA -> Wall -> LA -> Cripple -> LA -> Path -> BS -> LA -> Funnel -> LA -> Will -> LA -> Funnel/LA x3 -> Will -> recast Merciless -> BS -> repeat, recasting Siphoning as needed. Replace funnel weaves with Impale below 25% health, and replace destro ult with Soul Harvest in execute phase (for those juicy 40K+ Impales).

Start with that and you should easily get 30k+ on the 6mil dummy even with some rotation mistakes (missing a weave, bar-swapping when you shouldn't, etc.). Getting up to 35+ is just a matter of getting used to the class and perfecting the rotation.

When testing on the dummy, I use Lover stone and throw in Ele Drain in place of Harness, to better simulate actual raid conditions. In real raids, run the Apprentice stone.

It's possible that you can squeeze out ~2k more DPS with a fire/fire staff build running BSW instead of Julianos, but the rotation is more demanding. If you struggle with the Julianos build, then running BSW isn't going to automagically solve your issues.

You should light attack after each bar swap as well since the GCD for light attacking will have expired. That should add as much as 1k DPS to your parse!!!111.... god I hate pve

casparian

Lexxypwns wrote: »

casparian wrote: »

5 Julianos, 2 Skoria, and 3/4 Infallible Aether or Moondancer. Inferno staff front bar (Infused, Nirn, or Sharp, with shock enchant) and Maelstrom fire or lightning staff back bar (Infused, weapon damage enchant). Make sure weapons are gold and armor is at least purple. Run Witchmother's.

Front bar: Funnel, Impale, Harness, Inner Light, Merciless, Destro Ult
Back Bar: Wall, Cripple, Path, Inner Light, Siphoning Attacks, Soul Harvest

Basic rotation: Merciless -> BS -> Siphoning -> LA -> Wall -> LA -> Cripple -> LA -> Path -> BS -> LA -> Funnel -> LA -> Will -> LA -> Funnel/LA x3 -> Will -> recast Merciless -> BS -> repeat, recasting Siphoning as needed. Replace funnel weaves with Impale below 25% health, and replace destro ult with Soul Harvest in execute phase (for those juicy 40K+ Impales).

Start with that and you should easily get 30k+ on the 6mil dummy even with some rotation mistakes (missing a weave, bar-swapping when you shouldn't, etc.). Getting up to 35+ is just a matter of getting used to the class and perfecting the rotation.

When testing on the dummy, I use Lover stone and throw in Ele Drain in place of Harness, to better simulate actual raid conditions. In real raids, run the Apprentice stone.

It's possible that you can squeeze out ~2k more DPS with a fire/fire staff build running BSW instead of Julianos, but the rotation is more demanding. If you struggle with the Julianos build, then running BSW isn't going to automagically solve your issues.

You should light attack after each bar swap as well since the GCD for light attacking will have expired. That should add as much as 1k DPS to your parse!!!111.... god I hate pve

Yeah, I put lighting attacking after barswap into my rotation outline. And the point isn't really to pump up your parse to iNsAnE NuMbErZ, but to make sure you're comfortable enough with the basic rotation to execute something reasonably close to it while also executing real trial mechanics. Having to do both at once is the fun part.

Savage_Audacity

casparian wrote: »

5 Julianos, 2 Skoria, and 3/4 Infallible Aether or Moondancer. Inferno staff front bar (Infused, Nirn, or Sharp, with shock enchant) and Maelstrom fire or lightning staff back bar (Infused, weapon damage enchant). Make sure weapons are gold and armor is at least purple. Run Witchmother's.

Front bar: Funnel, Impale, Harness, Inner Light, Merciless, Destro Ult
Back Bar: Wall, Cripple, Path, Inner Light, Siphoning Attacks, Soul Harvest

Basic rotation: Merciless -> BS -> Siphoning -> LA -> Wall -> LA -> Cripple -> LA -> Path -> BS -> LA -> Funnel -> LA -> Will -> LA -> Funnel/LA x3 -> Will -> recast Merciless -> BS -> repeat, recasting Siphoning as needed. Replace funnel weaves with Impale below 25% health, and replace destro ult with Soul Harvest in execute phase (for those juicy 40K+ Impales).

Start with that and you should easily get 30k+ on the 6mil dummy even with some rotation mistakes (missing a weave, bar-swapping when you shouldn't, etc.). Getting up to 35+ is just a matter of getting used to the class and perfecting the rotation.

When testing on the dummy, I use Lover stone and throw in Ele Drain in place of Harness, to better simulate actual raid conditions. In real raids, run the Apprentice stone.

It's possible that you can squeeze out ~2k more DPS with a fire/fire staff build running BSW instead of Julianos, but the rotation is more demanding. If you struggle with the Julianos build, then running BSW isn't going to automagically solve your issues.

Thanks I’ll give it a try

Left4Daud

casparian wrote: »

5 Julianos, 2 Skoria, and 3/4 Infallible Aether or Moondancer. Inferno staff front bar (Infused, Nirn, or Sharp, with shock enchant) and Maelstrom fire or lightning staff back bar (Infused, weapon damage enchant). Make sure weapons are gold and armor is at least purple. Run Witchmother's.

@casparian

I'm working on farming these set pieces but don't have them at the moment. What else can you recommend for a decent 3/4 piece to run with the other sets you mentioned? Would Willpower suffice or is a there an overland set with decent 4 piece stats that you would recommend?

Thank you!

casparian

Left4Daud wrote: »

casparian wrote: »

5 Julianos, 2 Skoria, and 3/4 Infallible Aether or Moondancer. Inferno staff front bar (Infused, Nirn, or Sharp, with shock enchant) and Maelstrom fire or lightning staff back bar (Infused, weapon damage enchant). Make sure weapons are gold and armor is at least purple. Run Witchmother's.

@casparian

I'm working on farming these set pieces but don't have them at the moment. What else can you recommend for a decent 3/4 piece to run with the other sets you mentioned? Would Willpower suffice or is a there an overland set with decent 4 piece stats that you would recommend?

Thank you!

Willpower plus random staves would be fine. So would one of literally dozens of 4-piece sets (basically, whatever you can get your hands on that has a mix of spell crit, spell damage, and max magicka). Either option would be totally sufficient for vet dungeons and normal trials (where you can get Infallible/Moondancer staves, as well as purple jewelry from the weekly reward coffers). Until you get hold of true endgame gear (Maelstrom staff etc.), having gold weapons + mastering the rotation is more important than what you choose to mix with Julianos.

Left4Daud

Appreciate the tips, thank you!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Alcast’s rotation is the place to start, LZH’s is the goal. The difference is that Alcast’s build tries to at least resemble a circular rotation by casting all 3 dots in order, whereas LZH juggles them all independently. All that bar swapping actually benefits you on NB if you can pull it off because you can block cancel a lot of skills. You will notice that LZH always gets three bow procs per cast of merciless which it not easy to accomplish.

As is always the case, the more complicated rotation has a higher ceiling and a lower floor. I would run alcast’s until you can hit 30k at least. I personally do a hybrid. I always cast blockade and crippling together, but I independtly manage twisting path. I setup my bars like LZH. Blockade and grasp both have the same duration, but grasp has a travel time. The further you are from the boss, the more ticks of grasp you will lose if you always cast them together. I personally can’t justify the more complex rotation for marginally better DPS, but people like LZH are on another level and can pull it off. My hybrid build of the two tops out around 38k for me. I if could consistently get 3 procs per merciless it would approach 40, but I am a realist. Haha