MAGBLADE pvp theorycrafting

thankyourat

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I was thinking 2h backbar actually, that's why no access to ward (or spot heal I know of... That maleficent move worries me)

I am thinking no ward (only hots + TK) could work, it would just mean a higher health disengagement level, also would make 1vX a bit harder to get out of... Just would have to get better...

You ever try resto as your attack bar and 2hand as the back bar for burst and mobility. It plays really smooth. Are you using troll king for your heavy armor build since you aren't using a resto staff?

No please just no

Its not bad it's basicaly the same thing as resto attack bar and dual weild burst bar. It sounds bad but you can one shot on your burst bar. 2hand and dual weild will give you the exact same spell damage. It has more burst than a destro build and more mobility. You give up some sustained damage for burst damage and mobility. The biggest factor is it plays great open world. It's decent in duels as well. I've beaten pretty much every type of magblade build you can name with this build. It's stronger than it sounds. That's what's great about magblade however you want to build it you can be effective

Waffennacht

@kaithuzar ele drain let's you have destro Passives, 8% more DMG, and the sustain.

If I was using scathing mage front bar (if I had inferno staff and another ring) I'd run pulse + mark

If I was running resto 2h/dw I'd rune infused spell DMG glyph front bar + mark, then weapon swap into tether Merc impale, then swap back. Which I would right now if it didn't require me to make another gold weapon

zParallaxz

thankyourat wrote: »

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I was thinking 2h backbar actually, that's why no access to ward (or spot heal I know of... That maleficent move worries me)

I am thinking no ward (only hots + TK) could work, it would just mean a higher health disengagement level, also would make 1vX a bit harder to get out of... Just would have to get better...

You ever try resto as your attack bar and 2hand as the back bar for burst and mobility. It plays really smooth. Are you using troll king for your heavy armor build since you aren't using a resto staff?

No please just no

Its not bad it's basicaly the same thing as resto attack bar and dual weild burst bar. It sounds bad but you can one shot on your burst bar. 2hand and dual weild will give you the exact same spell damage. It has more burst than a destro build and more mobility. You give up some sustained damage for burst damage and mobility. The biggest factor is it plays great open world. It's decent in duels as well. I've beaten pretty much every type of magblade build you can name with this build. It's stronger than it sounds. That's what's great about magblade however you want to build it you can be effective

Stop that nonsense dude destro is the highest single target damage u can get because of ancient knowledge passive and then dual wield with the twin blade and blunt passive. This idea of using any besides destro or dual wield is pointless and will only kill low skilled people. I don’t know where u get this idea that 2h has more burst than destro.

Waffennacht

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I was thinking 2h backbar actually, that's why no access to ward (or spot heal I know of... That maleficent move worries me)

I am thinking no ward (only hots + TK) could work, it would just mean a higher health disengagement level, also would make 1vX a bit harder to get out of... Just would have to get better...

You ever try resto as your attack bar and 2hand as the back bar for burst and mobility. It plays really smooth. Are you using troll king for your heavy armor build since you aren't using a resto staff?

No please just no

Its not bad it's basicaly the same thing as resto attack bar and dual weild burst bar. It sounds bad but you can one shot on your burst bar. 2hand and dual weild will give you the exact same spell damage. It has more burst than a destro build and more mobility. You give up some sustained damage for burst damage and mobility. The biggest factor is it plays great open world. It's decent in duels as well. I've beaten pretty much every type of magblade build you can name with this build. It's stronger than it sounds. That's what's great about magblade however you want to build it you can be effective

Stop that nonsense dude destro is the highest single target damage u can get because of ancient knowledge passive and then dual wield with the twin blade and blunt passive. This idea of using any besides destro or dual wield is pointless and will only kill low skilled people. I don’t know where u get this idea that 2h has more burst than destro.

The 2H passive makes it comparable DMG to DW, I do believe it's still less than inferno.

I would gladly give up the burst (in BGs or open world, not duels) for Healing Ward + FM in heavy

Going infused resto + nirn 2hand would be a solid combo.

thankyourat

@zParallaxz the heavy weapons passive from the 2hand skill tree matches twin blade and blunt from the dual weild skill line now. 2hand swords now grant additional spell damage that is equal to the spell damage gained from dual weild. A lot of people don't know about this because it was never put in the patch notes but it's been working like this for about 3 patches now. The extra 5% damage done plus the higher base damage of 2 hand swords (2hand swords give 1571 vs 1335 for staves) does in fact give you more burst damage than a inferno staff and is only 1 damage less than dual weild. Even with ancient knowlege both 2hand swords and dual swords give more burst damage than destro staffs

zParallaxz

Waffennacht wrote: »

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I was thinking 2h backbar actually, that's why no access to ward (or spot heal I know of... That maleficent move worries me)

I am thinking no ward (only hots + TK) could work, it would just mean a higher health disengagement level, also would make 1vX a bit harder to get out of... Just would have to get better...

You ever try resto as your attack bar and 2hand as the back bar for burst and mobility. It plays really smooth. Are you using troll king for your heavy armor build since you aren't using a resto staff?

No please just no

Its not bad it's basicaly the same thing as resto attack bar and dual weild burst bar. It sounds bad but you can one shot on your burst bar. 2hand and dual weild will give you the exact same spell damage. It has more burst than a destro build and more mobility. You give up some sustained damage for burst damage and mobility. The biggest factor is it plays great open world. It's decent in duels as well. I've beaten pretty much every type of magblade build you can name with this build. It's stronger than it sounds. That's what's great about magblade however you want to build it you can be effective

Stop that nonsense dude destro is the highest single target damage u can get because of ancient knowledge passive and then dual wield with the twin blade and blunt passive. This idea of using any besides destro or dual wield is pointless and will only kill low skilled people. I don’t know where u get this idea that 2h has more burst than destro.

The 2H passive makes it comparable DMG to DW, I do believe it's still less than inferno.

I would gladly give up the burst (in BGs or open world, not duels) for Healing Ward + FM in heavy

Going infused resto + nirn 2hand would be a solid combo.

Bro the only reason mag classes ever used dual wield was for the extra set piece, besides that it has no other purpose. I still don’t know why Ur using dude, heavy was made classes that have no mobility such as magplar and magdk. But magblades have snares and movement speed boosts. If u feel like the snares from people are to much just put on efficient purge.

zParallaxz

thankyourat wrote: »

@zParallaxz the heavy weapons passive from the 2hand skill tree matches twin blade and blunt from the dual weild skill line now. 2hand swords now grant additional spell damage that is equal to the spell damage gained from dual weild. A lot of people don't know about this because it was never put in the patch notes but it's been working like this for about 3 patches now. The extra 5% damage done plus the higher base damage of 2 hand swords (2hand swords give 1571 vs 1335 for staves) does in fact give you more burst damage than a inferno staff and is only 1 damage less than dual weild. Even with ancient knowlege both 2hand swords and dual swords give more burst damage than destro staffs

What platform do you play on, I want to 1v1 or 100k duel you to prove my stance that 2h or heavy will never kill a competent player.

Vapirko

kaithuzar wrote: »

What I've been wondering about lately is ele drain vs mark target/piercing mark?

Is ele drain really a viable source of resources as people are claiming?
Mark target would eliminate the need for detect pots, maybe?

Right now I'm not running either but I feel the extra penetration is hard to pass up

You’re not passing up the extra pen. They both provide it. And yes ele drain is a pretty reliable source of resources, all you have to do is land one dot on them. I find that I rarely need siphoning strikes.

Waffennacht

@thankyourat destro gets the 8% boost (inferno) the penetration passive, while 2h/DW only gets the sword passive.

I wouldn't run the 2h set up in a duel, the whole reason to run 2h is for FM and to escape. You can't escape in a duel lol.

There's absolutely no reason not to go Destro/resto in a duel imo (unless set thingy)

arkansas_ESO

Waffennacht wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Datthaw wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Datthaw wrote: »

kaithuzar wrote: »

Typically people say running rattlecage isn't efficient because you get the same buff from sap; which is what I do.
However, it's great on magplar & not bad on magdk

Never been a fan of sap. Doesn't fit light armor playstyle imo. Maybe on a melee magblade, but destro resto degeneration is my go to

+ Mage guild passives.

How important is snare removal to your guys' magNB?

Snare removal? Cyro is full of snares. I run mistform and immovable pots. Snares snares snares everywhere

Hrm, maybe I can rely on Immovable potions.... Ty

Immovable pots don't stop snares or roots. You can try mist form. I'm not a huge fan of mist form though because i play a hot based build. I just try to avoid open fields, and have a way out planned before the fight starts

I'm not the biggest fan of mist form either (and frankly being a vamp will mess up my build)

My options seem to be: Light armor FM + annulment or heavy + resto + ?? Escapist poisons?

If you are down for using 2hand FM is great. But even in light armor without a 2hand you can get away without using any snare removal With smart use of cloak and good fight placement.

I was checking last night, seems to me that cloak doesn't remove snares, dunno if that's intended or not (and NPCs have a weird ability that instantly and consistently breaks cloak) but due to my lack of experience on NBs i don't think I can rely on smart use of cloak yet lmao.

Oh I'm definitely down for using 2h - except it's a bit risky on heavy (0 access to wards meaning your survival is dependent on being offensive, not easy to down when facing 3 opponents on a flag) but FM + Shield + major Expedition + cloak = not gonna die.

I can switch to light easily enough, but I like my heavy armor theme ATM.

Cloak hasn't removed snares since it got changed from a DOT purge to Minor Protection back in the Thieves Guild patch

Waffennacht

arkansas_ESO wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Datthaw wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Datthaw wrote: »

kaithuzar wrote: »

Typically people say running rattlecage isn't efficient because you get the same buff from sap; which is what I do.
However, it's great on magplar & not bad on magdk

Never been a fan of sap. Doesn't fit light armor playstyle imo. Maybe on a melee magblade, but destro resto degeneration is my go to

+ Mage guild passives.

How important is snare removal to your guys' magNB?

Snare removal? Cyro is full of snares. I run mistform and immovable pots. Snares snares snares everywhere

Hrm, maybe I can rely on Immovable potions.... Ty

Immovable pots don't stop snares or roots. You can try mist form. I'm not a huge fan of mist form though because i play a hot based build. I just try to avoid open fields, and have a way out planned before the fight starts

I'm not the biggest fan of mist form either (and frankly being a vamp will mess up my build)

My options seem to be: Light armor FM + annulment or heavy + resto + ?? Escapist poisons?

If you are down for using 2hand FM is great. But even in light armor without a 2hand you can get away without using any snare removal With smart use of cloak and good fight placement.

I was checking last night, seems to me that cloak doesn't remove snares, dunno if that's intended or not (and NPCs have a weird ability that instantly and consistently breaks cloak) but due to my lack of experience on NBs i don't think I can rely on smart use of cloak yet lmao.

Oh I'm definitely down for using 2h - except it's a bit risky on heavy (0 access to wards meaning your survival is dependent on being offensive, not easy to down when facing 3 opponents on a flag) but FM + Shield + major Expedition + cloak = not gonna die.

I can switch to light easily enough, but I like my heavy armor theme ATM.

Cloak hasn't removed snares since it got changed from a DOT purge to Minor Protection back in the Thieves Guild patch

Oh that's what's up, it's been 2 years since I've used a night blade

thankyourat

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

@zParallaxz the heavy weapons passive from the 2hand skill tree matches twin blade and blunt from the dual weild skill line now. 2hand swords now grant additional spell damage that is equal to the spell damage gained from dual weild. A lot of people don't know about this because it was never put in the patch notes but it's been working like this for about 3 patches now. The extra 5% damage done plus the higher base damage of 2 hand swords (2hand swords give 1571 vs 1335 for staves) does in fact give you more burst damage than a inferno staff and is only 1 damage less than dual weild. Even with ancient knowlege both 2hand swords and dual swords give more burst damage than destro staffs

What platform do you play on, I want to 1v1 or 100k duel you to prove my stance that 2h or heavy will never kill a competent player.

Lol we both play xbox na we've already dueled like 3 times that i remember. i beat your mag warden. You beat me with your mag dk. All three times i was playing destro/resto magblade. Could i beat you with a 2hand /resto magblade on your mag dk probably not. Could i beat a player just under your caliber who was playing a different class with it most definitely. I've beaten really good players with this build so i know it can kill competent builds. If I'm going to play someone in the top 1% of players I'm going to play destro/resto with strong meta sets for the other 99% there's no need i can play whatever is fun. I don't play heavy armor it's too weak against players in light.

Edit: but as soon as i get back in town I'll get with you so you can take the build out for a spin.

thankyourat

@Waffennacht the spell pen from the destro staff passive only applies to destro staff abilities. So if you want to benefit from that you need to use force pulse instead of strife. The spell pen doesn't apply to your class abilities

kaithuzar

I run crushing shock anyways so I'm getting the destro passive on that. I just wasn't sure regarding if the sustain from ele drain was worth it over using mark. Not certain if I want to fit mark on my bar but it's something to think about

Calboy

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

@zParallaxz the heavy weapons passive from the 2hand skill tree matches twin blade and blunt from the dual weild skill line now. 2hand swords now grant additional spell damage that is equal to the spell damage gained from dual weild. A lot of people don't know about this because it was never put in the patch notes but it's been working like this for about 3 patches now. The extra 5% damage done plus the higher base damage of 2 hand swords (2hand swords give 1571 vs 1335 for staves) does in fact give you more burst damage than a inferno staff and is only 1 damage less than dual weild. Even with ancient knowlege both 2hand swords and dual swords give more burst damage than destro staffs

What platform do you play on, I want to 1v1 or 100k duel you to prove my stance that 2h or heavy will never kill a competent player.

Pfft all you do is pop an immovable pot and sprint away whenever a top 50%er lines you up. I've seen it many times xbox na.

zParallaxz

Calboy wrote: »

zParallaxz wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

@zParallaxz the heavy weapons passive from the 2hand skill tree matches twin blade and blunt from the dual weild skill line now. 2hand swords now grant additional spell damage that is equal to the spell damage gained from dual weild. A lot of people don't know about this because it was never put in the patch notes but it's been working like this for about 3 patches now. The extra 5% damage done plus the higher base damage of 2 hand swords (2hand swords give 1571 vs 1335 for staves) does in fact give you more burst damage than a inferno staff and is only 1 damage less than dual weild. Even with ancient knowlege both 2hand swords and dual swords give more burst damage than destro staffs

What platform do you play on, I want to 1v1 or 100k duel you to prove my stance that 2h or heavy will never kill a competent player.

Pfft all you do is pop an immovable pot and sprint away whenever a top 50%er lines you up. I've seen it many times xbox na.

Who are u?

zParallaxz

I don’t think I’ve ever ran unless it was more than 3 people in the entirety of my eso career.

Waffennacht

Well I def like the survivability of heavy...

Lord-Otto

Waffennacht wrote: »

Well I def like the survivability of heavy...

Use Dampen Magic, not Harness. There's your survivability, plus the sweet passives.
I believe after the damage passives on heavy got removed, healing heavy mag NB became quite inferior to LA.

Subversus

Waffennacht wrote: »

Datthaw wrote: »

kaithuzar wrote: »

Typically people say running rattlecage isn't efficient because you get the same buff from sap; which is what I do.
However, it's great on magplar & not bad on magdk

Never been a fan of sap. Doesn't fit light armor playstyle imo. Maybe on a melee magblade, but destro resto degeneration is my go to

+ Mage guild passives.

How important is snare removal to your guys' magNB?

I run mist form on my magblade. Used to run cloak+shade but shade is busted so I'll wait till that's over.

Subversus

kaithuzar wrote: »

What I've been wondering about lately is ele drain vs mark target/piercing mark?

Is ele drain really a viable source of resources as people are claiming?
Mark target would eliminate the need for detect pots, maybe?

Right now I'm not running either but I feel the extra penetration is hard to pass up

I almost never run mark over drain. It's benefits far outweigh the need to mark someone. 600 mag regen is insane.

Datthaw

Subversus wrote: »

kaithuzar wrote: »

What I've been wondering about lately is ele drain vs mark target/piercing mark?

Is ele drain really a viable source of resources as people are claiming?
Mark target would eliminate the need for detect pots, maybe?

Right now I'm not running either but I feel the extra penetration is hard to pass up

I almost never run mark over drain. It's benefits far outweigh the need to mark someone. 600 mag regen is insane.

Elemental drain is an amazing skill. I never really used it much until I started running an icestaff build and I found myself having sustain problems spamming forcepulse (even with siphon strikes) tbh where the ice build is at now i dropped cloak for elemental drain because it's so good. Found I don't need cloak with mistform and vamp stealth. Plus I avoid large fights and keep battles like the plague te lag will kill me no matter what.

Subversus

Datthaw wrote: »

Subversus wrote: »

kaithuzar wrote: »

What I've been wondering about lately is ele drain vs mark target/piercing mark?

Is ele drain really a viable source of resources as people are claiming?
Mark target would eliminate the need for detect pots, maybe?

Right now I'm not running either but I feel the extra penetration is hard to pass up

I almost never run mark over drain. It's benefits far outweigh the need to mark someone. 600 mag regen is insane.

Elemental drain is an amazing skill. I never really used it much until I started running an icestaff build and I found myself having sustain problems spamming forcepulse (even with siphon strikes) tbh where the ice build is at now i dropped cloak for elemental drain because it's so good. Found I don't need cloak with mistform and vamp stealth. Plus I avoid large fights and keep battles like the plague te lag will kill me no matter what.

Yeah, I either run mist form or cloak + shade, no in-between. I like how drain synergizes with constitution and mist form as well, which is nice.

Heresyall

My eyes.

Subversus

Heresyall wrote: »

My eyes.

You're welcome to chime into the discussion with something constructive any time mate.

Dreth

On the topics of death knights, this is how I have wanted to play my magblade from the beginning and brings to memory my old leeching/baharas/malubeths build from loooong ago. I put that build down years ago, and decided to join this light armor cant-kill-anything-without-will-proc club. I hate it. I hate weaving LA/swallow. I hate waiting for will to proc and it proccing outside a window of opportunity. It might work for some but in my experience its garbage. Melee magblade needs to make a comeback.

Some play LA melee magblade. Damage is ok. Burst sucks next to my stamblade. We really have no hard hitting combo outside of assn will. I put down my magblade for a long time because of this, thinking the class was just inferior or not for me, and picked up my magdk. I LOVE magdk. Through playing my magDK I sort of had a thought why cant I do the same tanky, sustained damage over burst playstyle that I do on my magDK that makes it so damn fun? This is what made me pick back up my magblade and see what could be done.

So last night I threw on some heavy shacklebreaker, TK, and war maiden. Running sword and board front bar with resto back. Its a blast! Finally I have the survivability to make my hots actually effective rather than people just bursting through them. Mobility still sucks but cloak helps with that. I dont have ambush slotted but I could. Crit and penetration is where I suffer. I slotted magelight and I am sitting at around 40% which is ok for me but I hate wasting a skill slot on it. Penetration is like 3.5-4k(?) which is just what I get from CP. So maybe some polishing is necessary but I can say I think there is definitely hope for this playstyle. Thank you for making this thread. Magblade has always been my favorite class and I have been killing myself to find a way to make this work outside of assassins will.

Datthaw

Dreth wrote: »

On the topics of death knights, this is how I have wanted to play my magblade from the beginning and brings to memory my old leeching/baharas/malubeths build from loooong ago. I put that build down years ago, and decided to join this light armor cant-kill-anything-without-will-proc club. I hate it. I hate weaving LA/swallow. I hate waiting for will to proc and it proccing outside a window of opportunity. It might work for some but in my experience its garbage. Melee magblade needs to make a comeback.

Some play LA melee magblade. Damage is ok. Burst sucks next to my stamblade. We really have no hard hitting combo outside of assn will. I put down my magblade for a long time because of this, thinking the class was just inferior or not for me, and picked up my magdk. I LOVE magdk. Through playing my magDK I sort of had a thought why cant I do the same tanky, sustained damage over burst playstyle that I do on my magDK that makes it so damn fun? This is what made me pick back up my magblade and see what could be done.

So last night I threw on some heavy shacklebreaker, TK, and war maiden. Running sword and board front bar with resto back. Its a blast! Finally I have the survivability to make my hots actually effective rather than people just bursting through them. Mobility still sucks but cloak helps with that. I dont have ambush slotted but I could. Crit and penetration is where I suffer. I slotted magelight and I am sitting at around 40% which is ok for me but I hate wasting a skill slot on it. Penetration is like 3.5-4k(?) which is just what I get from CP. So maybe some polishing is necessary but I can say I think there is definitely hope for this playstyle. Thank you for making this thread. Magblade has always been my favorite class and I have been killing myself to find a way to make this work outside of assassins will.

I always want to try snb magblade. I dropped heavy armor when the wrath changes came, like so many others. I've ended up going a different route though with an ice staff build. TK looks awesome to use, I want to try it but I'm a vamp atm and would need it cured (because vamp passives reduce the proc also? Correct me if I'm wrong) I think it could work well with my setup running winterborn.

kaithuzar

@Dreth I agree with a lot of what you said!
The biggest difference is that while I did the same as you & have a magdk as well, I've almost never actually played it. I've taken my experience of magdk primarily from fighting them over the years & adapted my playstyle to be similar due to my noticing their strengths.

I was one of the first, if not the first to perform the meteor + agony combo based on dk's doing meteor then fossilize on me.
Even though I run destro/resto now, I always build for survivability & damage mitigation first over damage. Even my friend & fellow combatant miat, whom I have the utmost respect for after our few conversations, has stressed as a great method for 1vx cyrodiil play!
Between the CP, gear, and skill combo's I definitely advise you to find your own playstyle as their are seemingly infinite possibilities!
And if you get bored or think something is too easy/cheesy, you can always find way of making things harder on yourself by pushing the limits & upping your gameplay! If it's too easy to survive in heavy, swap to light! In 5 light armor I can get 30k spell & phys resist! I challenge you to optimize, it's a journey that's both fun & never ending; although it can be aggregating at times.
Light armor will give you the crit & pen you are lacking, you just need to find resist elsewhere. IMO, if you want to run heavy you almost have to run spinners.
While you can do sharp weapon+cp+mundus, it just doesn't seem worth it imo.
Personally I never liked/was good at s&b magblade but if you can pull it off more power to you man.
The way I build, I want to kill you with my normal rotation, not because you couldn't sustain, not because I used the stereotypical burst of assassin's will, but because my scathing proc'd, my build was better, I could take your dmg & you couldn't take mine, I won straight up & in your face, not sitting in cloak or jumping & rolling around. I know it can be done because I've done it before & im so damn anxious to come back from vacation & do it again.
Sorry for the lengthy post had a bit to drink tonight lol

Dreth

My experience so far has been a good one, but not because I feel like the heavy/snb has been all that strong. But it feels NATURAL. A lot of things just flow with this build compared to a meta style ranged/kite destro/resto build.

A lot of people try and think of magblade as an offensive class, but I would argue the opposite. We have no burst heal. The way to get the most out of hots is to slow the rate at which your health depletes. You wont survive burst some of these guys are putting out on the hots alone. By building defensively, I think you really maximize the sapping nature of the class, wearing them down slowly with sustained damage rather than bursting up front like a magDK.

Concealed weapon keeps major ward/prot up 100% of the time (not to mention stealth bonus). You dont have to worry about how you are going to gap close to pop your incap when you have tried the whole fight to keep the enemy away from you. You dont have to use the clunkiest weave in the game. You dont have to remember to lay down refreshing path every 6 seconds just to keep major ward/prot up when as soon as you lay it down you have to evacuate anyways bc you are getting pressured, rendering the damage/heals from the ability useless. A ranged raw damage magblade just doesnt make sense to me and it wasnt til I played a magDK that made me realize that ultra burst dps isnt the only way to play this class. Not to say there are not some very talented players out there doing it and making it work flawlessly, who I do commend, but I believe based on the way this class is designed they are fighting an uphill battle and this class needs to be reworked in order to better support that style of play if thats how its intended.

I dont know how many of you magblades have stamblades, but if you want to see pure burst, readily available at almost any time, lots of utility, burst heals and strong hots, it will really make you scratch your head and wonder where the hell magblade fell so far short of its stamina counterpart.

Again, this is all my opinion, and I am no elite 1vX'er, but finding a build with my magblade after struggling so long to try and force a playstyle that always just seemed like a crappy sorc was extremely refreshing, and I wish more people were open to building for melee magblade instead of the will proc meta we have right now.

Datthaw wrote: »

Dreth wrote: »

On the topics of death knights, this is how I have wanted to play my magblade from the beginning and brings to memory my old leeching/baharas/malubeths build from loooong ago. I put that build down years ago, and decided to join this light armor cant-kill-anything-without-will-proc club. I hate it. I hate weaving LA/swallow. I hate waiting for will to proc and it proccing outside a window of opportunity. It might work for some but in my experience its garbage. Melee magblade needs to make a comeback.

Some play LA melee magblade. Damage is ok. Burst sucks next to my stamblade. We really have no hard hitting combo outside of assn will. I put down my magblade for a long time because of this, thinking the class was just inferior or not for me, and picked up my magdk. I LOVE magdk. Through playing my magDK I sort of had a thought why cant I do the same tanky, sustained damage over burst playstyle that I do on my magDK that makes it so damn fun? This is what made me pick back up my magblade and see what could be done.

So last night I threw on some heavy shacklebreaker, TK, and war maiden. Running sword and board front bar with resto back. Its a blast! Finally I have the survivability to make my hots actually effective rather than people just bursting through them. Mobility still sucks but cloak helps with that. I dont have ambush slotted but I could. Crit and penetration is where I suffer. I slotted magelight and I am sitting at around 40% which is ok for me but I hate wasting a skill slot on it. Penetration is like 3.5-4k(?) which is just what I get from CP. So maybe some polishing is necessary but I can say I think there is definitely hope for this playstyle. Thank you for making this thread. Magblade has always been my favorite class and I have been killing myself to find a way to make this work outside of assassins will.

I always want to try snb magblade. I dropped heavy armor when the wrath changes came, like so many others. I've ended up going a different route though with an ice staff build. TK looks awesome to use, I want to try it but I'm a vamp atm and would need it cured (because vamp passives reduce the proc also? Correct me if I'm wrong) I think it could work well with my setup running winterborn.

Thats a good question. I am vamp mainly for the recovery and undeath. Tbh I have a hard time telling how well TK is working for me and since my damage is considerably lower, something like skoria to pack more punch might be more useful. I would love to make a frost knight build out of this. I will probably stick with heavy unless I can find the same mitigation in light (which I doubt), but I am a sucker for RP builds. I chose SnB for the utlity of running two sets and the extra stats, but an ice staff build would def have me interested.

Xvorg

Waffennacht wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I was thinking 2h backbar actually, that's why no access to ward (or spot heal I know of... That maleficent move worries me)

I am thinking no ward (only hots + TK) could work, it would just mean a higher health disengagement level, also would make 1vX a bit harder to get out of... Just would have to get better...

You ever try resto as your attack bar and 2hand as the back bar for burst and mobility. It plays really smooth. Are you using troll king for your heavy armor build since you aren't using a resto staff?

I have not tried that. The damage would suffer.. by at minimum 10% (though you could sub mark over drain) but lose penetration and DMG buff Passives. I would rather try to do 2h resto with 2h burst, the play sounds interesting...

Resto bar would look like... Swallow, healing, cripple, mark, and entropy prob 2h looking like... FM, Merc, refreshing, impale and cloak.

Hit Merc swap, set up Burt via heavies, cripple and swallow + be immortal lol with all them hots and resto

Swap to 2H when ult is ready and burst -could potentially roll lotus (does it stun from invis or is that only the Stam version?) And run berserker to hit through resistance...?

I'm outside smoking and it's really @#$&in cold can't think too much

What about using pelinal's? I've been considering that option from a while in a 2H and destro option.

Of course, you need to build towards WD and pelinals must be 5 LA to retain certain penetration. A 4 pieces DKS or even Morag Tong could help. Even that crap of Ice Furnace seems a decent option in 4 pieces.

And you get a monster available