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XxBradeyxX

There are a few builds floating around and I want to make a decent magdk for Vet Trials and endgame. As of now I know of a heavy attack build and a build using bsw and aether. Which one preforms better?

SydneyGrey

I don't know which builds you're talking about, but here's what I use on my first bar. This is my skill rotation. 1, 2 and 3 must be used in order. This rotation is for use with a lightning staff, because other kinds of staffs don't set the enemies off-balance. Maybe other people might have a rotation and skill set that's better than this, but it works for me.
I'll let other people give you advice about armor, because I just use easy-to-get sets: the Elegance set and a crafted Julianos set.

1. Molten Armaments (morph of Molten Weapons) - increases spell damage by 20%
2. Elemental Blockade (morph of Wall of Elements - used with lightning staff it becomes Blockade of Storms) - sets enemies off balance and does damage
3. Flame Lash (morph of Lava Whip) - damage plus a good heal if enemy is off balance, which is why you use Blockade of Storms first
4. Burning Embers (morph of Searing Strike) - a damage-over-time (DoT) spell
5. Inner Light - (morph of Mage Light) - passively increases the spell critical rating

Haquor

Ive done a lot of testing with mine have settled with a setup very similar to what alcast has on his website. I do ok and can get over 40k in trials and solo parse on a dummy for between 38 to 39.5k with the following. It works well for me and i recommend checking out alcasts guide if you need more info ref cp etc.

2x grothdar/valkyn, 5x burning spellweave, 4x IA (IA jewellery and inferno staff front bar) and vma lightning backbar.

Bar 1inferno) engulfing flames, whip, burning embers, elemental drain(not used, just for destro passive), inner light, Meteor

Bar 2 lightning) eruption, blockade, flames of oblivion, rearming trap, harness magicka, standard of might

Everything is light weaved.

Rotation goes: trap-eruption-blockade-foo-engulfing-embers-whipx4-blockade-whipx2-engulfing-embers and restart.

In theory i should be able to get 5x whips out instead of 4 before the second blockade but i find im not able due my ping maybe or some other factor.

Use standard of might when it is up. If it is up initially at start of fight just barswap and drop it before you start your first whips.

I have compared valkyn and grothdar a fair bit and i find valkyn is very slightly behind with dps. But you get a health bonus snd dont need t9 be in melee range for it to damage like grothdar. Thats a plus incase you need to move out for mechanics.