Mageblade, how to play properly? Bgs

Trashs1

guys, i play verry successful my mageblade as a destro bomb in my cryo guild group.

where i struggle is bgs

i tried now several specs, all with golden weapons:

2h/restro caluurions spinners 1 domi (was my best results FM is too good, but it feels kinda same as my stamblade)

dw/restro caluurions amberplasm 2 skoria (slowed to dead.. unplayable)

destro restro spinners front lich back 2 skoria (okeyish my sorc feels alot stronger... its kinda weak sorc)

what is the probably best build for solo/premade bgs?

i do pretty well on my stamden stamblade mageplar stamplar and magsorc. i feel magnb is the hardest class to learn properly. any advices to how to improove myself? any pro tipps here?^^

Thx a lot

Sixty5

First, I'd say go Vampire. Early on when you are learning the class, Mist Form is going to be huge for getting out of snares and such, and you get to run destro front bar.

Secondly, a lot of play with Magblade revolves around Merciless Resolve and its proc. You'll want to learn to time your Fear with a Skoria proc, and the shot from your spectral bow. It hits stupidly hard, even without much invested into offensive sets, so learning how to play around this skill is your first priority.

As far as gear goes, I've been playing around with a couple of options myself.
Skoria/other Monster set
Vicious Death/War maidens
Wizards Riposte/Transmutation
With the top 5 piece active on a front Destro bar, and the other set active on a back Resto bar.

It's been working out ok, but I need to practice the class a bunch more to give a real answer.

Trashs1

True. I habe problems to use the bow properly

Kaysha

DW/resto: Warmaiden/Lich with Lich frontbar + Skoria.

Cloak and concealed frontbar, mistform and shields/swallow soul backbar.
Shield->mistform->bar swap->cloak

no problem with snares.

kaithuzar

Merciless is fine for getting the 8% but unless you're using destro or trying to weave/light attack w/resto it's really difficult to get the proc w/passive dodge chance making light attacks miss or a messed up 2h light attack concealed rotation missing the light attack.

I don't rely on the bow proc unless it's a super tanky player. So kill the squish dudes first while saving the bow proc, when it finally does happen, for the harder to kill ones & hit them with a fear or incap first.

2h full damage is the way to go imo, just use forward momentum, cloak, & shade for defense.
Make sure you have a high stam pool to get out.

Trashs1

Different meanings here. Seem to be a good balance between the playstyles

Looking forward to more input

CapuchinSeven

I have some feelings about my bow proc.

Bow proc just isn't going to happen in melee unless the fight goes on for a while, that goes for stam or mag blade IMO. And when I play melee stam/mag blade I really really don't want the fight to go on for long.

It's more useful with ranged weaving but even then it can be a struggle to use it when it should be used (because it'll run out, although the changes recently have helped you'll still have to re-activate it). i.e during a fear/incap/etc.

Datthaw

Mercy bow is a must for magblade even in melee range, it is our only burst outside of incap and spammable. If you're having problems proccing it try to get a couple of light attacks in on your resto backbar then cripple and cloak into melee range to get your burst. Might work better then weaving with concealed. I honestly still have swallow souls slotted on my back baR with 2h build. It allows me to put some pressure from range to build mercy, give me a HOT to help survivability , and build ult for more incaps. So basically get a couple weaves in when you're buffing on back bar then close in for the kill. As far as gear goes shackle is amazing atm. I would pair shackle with any other set you want.

kaithuzar

Why does everyone seem to think "you need burst"???
I can sustain concealed weave/spam just fine & it normally hits opponents for 3-7k taking a decent chunk due to my 15k pen; no I typically don't need the burst unless it's a super tank

Vermintide

In general I think Magblade plays better if you don't approach it with the same glass cannon approach you would take with a stamblade. We simply aren't as good at it whichever way you slice it.

Instead I think they really excel as a mobile, skirmishing type of class. Control the fight with Stealth, shade, fear etc, and deliver that brutal incap/harvest > merciless combo when the time is right.

Try going for a defensive set like Riposte, or a sustain set like Amberplasm, instead of pure offense. I also find it's near enough mandatory to build some extra stam into a magblade, since CC are our one glaring weakness- Hence why you had such good results running FM.

Also, bar setup is a huge PITA because there are so many passives etc you need to take advantage of, make sure you carefully consider which skills you slot on which bar.

Trashs1

Vermintide wrote: »

In general I think Magblade plays better if you don't approach it with the same glass cannon approach you would take with a stamblade. We simply aren't as good at it whichever way you slice it.

Instead I think they really excel as a mobile, skirmishing type of class. Control the fight with Stealth, shade, fear etc, and deliver that brutal incap/harvest > merciless combo when the time is right.

Try going for a defensive set like Riposte, or a sustain set like Amberplasm, instead of pure offense. I also find it's near enough mandatory to build some extra stam into a magblade, since CC are our one glaring weakness- Hence why you had such good results running FM.

Also, bar setup is a huge PITA because there are so many passives etc you need to take advantage of, make sure you carefully consider which skills you slot on which bar.

I went with the following bars:

Front bar
Gap closer, conz, bow, fm, siphoning attacks or sap essence ult incap

Back bar
Shade, heal ward, fear rune, cripple, dampen magic ult restro

Should be fairly ok

Vapirko

Don’t forget to put dampen over healing ward when you use it to ensure that healing ward isn’t at full strength when it expires.

Trashs1

Vapirko wrote: »

Don’t forget to put dampen over healing ward when you use it to ensure that healing ward isn’t at full strength when it expires.

Yes thx That i ofc know of my sorc too:) im not a new player im just actually dont perform well enough on my own standarts with a mageblade and trying to resolve that

HEBREWHAMMERRR

With BG CPs we aren’t the greatest. When NonCP goes live we will shine again just like prepatch when they decided to make that terrible change.

It’s been said in here but BGs aren’t your mindless cyrodill stack on crown proxy up gameplay. You need to build for resource sustain as well as generate enough damage to keep up pressure and be able to coordinate well timed bursts, especially with your group. People saying bow isn’t that important are just wrong here. Our damage is decent but not nearly enough to just sustain killing without throwing out a well timed bow w/ cc for burst kills. Make sure you have a way of stam sustain (siphoning morph works great), make sure you have some decent health regen (swallow soul, refresh path, degeneration, ward, healing ulti). Solo and group play are way different but I believe we strive in a group setting as we provide the ultimate support with healing, damage, burst and CC.

Hope this helps!

Trashs1

Thx but we have no cp bgs since 14 on pc

jaws343

I had pretty good success running Knight's Slayer and Torugs pact on my magblade. Fire heavy attacks were hitting for 10-15K+ with the oblivion damage enchant. Use cloak and charge a heavy to get the guaranteed crit. You can one shot some builds.

Spec into tankiness and survivability and add many cp into shattering blows and light and heavy attack damage. Use light and heavy attacks as spammables with killer's blade and the spectral bow as executes.

Subversus

I put together a build for noCP on the build editor this morning with the items I knew I had in my bank.

34.8k mag, 10.4k stam, 2.1k and 1k regens respectively, something like 3k spell dmg buffed with enchant + sorcery. Can't wait to try it out, but by the looks of it it looks like something I'd run in CP as well, albeit with a tad more damage.

Trashs1

Subversus wrote: »

I put together a build for noCP on the build editor this morning with the items I knew I had in my bank.

34.8k mag, 10.4k stam, 2.1k and 1k regens respectively, something like 3k spell dmg buffed with enchant + sorcery. Can't wait to try it out, but by the looks of it it looks like something I'd run in CP as well, albeit with a tad more damage.

may u post the build link?

Subversus

Trashs1 wrote: »

Subversus wrote: »

I put together a build for noCP on the build editor this morning with the items I knew I had in my bank.

34.8k mag, 10.4k stam, 2.1k and 1k regens respectively, something like 3k spell dmg buffed with enchant + sorcery. Can't wait to try it out, but by the looks of it it looks like something I'd run in CP as well, albeit with a tad more damage.

may u post the build link?

http://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=46700

Could probably drop the last regen enchant for dmg as well, cause I already have a bunch of sustain besides the 2k, but better safe than sorry lol.

The only buffs I have on in there are sorcery+intellect as I run the alliance war spell power pots and chug them on cooldown.

Trashs1

Subversus wrote: »

Trashs1 wrote: »

Subversus wrote: »

I put together a build for noCP on the build editor this morning with the items I knew I had in my bank.

34.8k mag, 10.4k stam, 2.1k and 1k regens respectively, something like 3k spell dmg buffed with enchant + sorcery. Can't wait to try it out, but by the looks of it it looks like something I'd run in CP as well, albeit with a tad more damage.

may u post the build link?

http://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=46700

Could probably drop the last regen enchant for dmg as well, cause I already have a bunch of sustain besides the 2k, but better safe than sorry lol.

The only buffs I have on in there are sorcery+intellect as I run the alliance war spell power pots and chug them on cooldown.

are u using flame reach as your spamable?

i had something like:

spc front trans back 2 skoria in mind

Lexxypwns

Once we get the shadow image fixes on console Both myself and my wife are gonna start recording lots of magblade BG content.

The biggest thing is never overextending or getting overexposed unless you’ve got a means to survive(resto ult) or escape(shade, FM, mist, cloak)

Subversus

Trashs1 wrote: »

Subversus wrote: »

Trashs1 wrote: »

Subversus wrote: »

I put together a build for noCP on the build editor this morning with the items I knew I had in my bank.

34.8k mag, 10.4k stam, 2.1k and 1k regens respectively, something like 3k spell dmg buffed with enchant + sorcery. Can't wait to try it out, but by the looks of it it looks like something I'd run in CP as well, albeit with a tad more damage.

may u post the build link?

http://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=46700

Could probably drop the last regen enchant for dmg as well, cause I already have a bunch of sustain besides the 2k, but better safe than sorry lol.

The only buffs I have on in there are sorcery+intellect as I run the alliance war spell power pots and chug them on cooldown.

are u using flame reach as your spamable?

i had something like:

spc front trans back 2 skoria in mind

I use flame reach as my cc. Strife as a spammable, as it's cheaper. Idk that setup sounds strong I guess. I don't really like skoria open world though, it's not as "on demand" as I'd like my burst to be. It can proc or it can not when I need it the most. Otherwise that build sounds cool, especially with spc buffing your whole squad.

How would you sustain that though? Also I'd probably run riposte open world but that might be just me.

MrDenimChicken

Vermintide wrote: »

In general I think Magblade plays better if you don't approach it with the same glass cannon approach you would take with a stamblade. We simply aren't as good at it whichever way you slice it.

Instead I think they really excel as a mobile, skirmishing type of class. Control the fight with Stealth, shade, fear etc, and deliver that brutal incap/harvest > merciless combo when the time is right.

Try going for a defensive set like Riposte, or a sustain set like Amberplasm, instead of pure offense. I also find it's near enough mandatory to build some extra stam into a magblade, since CC are our one glaring weakness- Hence why you had such good results running FM.

Also, bar setup is a huge PITA because there are so many passives etc you need to take advantage of, make sure you carefully consider which skills you slot on which bar.

you think incap/harvest is better to pair with the merciless combo vs meteor on a ranged mag nb? for example, get merc bow up, stealth, meteor + flame reach + merc bow once meteor lands? or is that too predictable, and that's why harvest would be better out of stealth?

I'm still trying to find the exact best ult + bow combo.

Bfish22090

I use 5 light fortified brass in impen. 2 troll king med/heavy in inpen. Then 5 spinners with all spell dmg and nirn/sharp swords. Spell dmg munys,vamp and gold cwc food.
Does pretty well as far as sustain tankiness and dmg

Vermintide

MrDenimChicken wrote: »

you think incap/harvest is better to pair with the merciless combo vs meteor on a ranged mag nb? for example, get merc bow up, stealth, meteor + flame reach + merc bow once meteor lands? or is that too predictable, and that's why harvest would be better out of stealth?

I'm still trying to find the exact best ult + bow combo.

Frankly I've never found Meteor all that useful, far too expensive, and easily dodged and blocked. I tried it for a while and found good players are night impossible to land a hit on, regardless of CC.

Most magblade builds you'll find your bars too crowded to slot impale, and besides merciless, we don't have any other burst. So a cheap, hard hitting ulti like incap/harvest is almost a necessity. Plenty of people here will tell you incap is best, even on mag builds, because of the CC alone. Personally I prefer the ulti regen from harvest, and the bow will snare an opponent by 40% anyway. I usually go for stealth > magelight to empower > bow > harvest.

It all boils down to playstyle though. What works for me might feel like hot garbage to you.

Lexxypwns

Vermintide wrote: »

MrDenimChicken wrote: »

you think incap/harvest is better to pair with the merciless combo vs meteor on a ranged mag nb? for example, get merc bow up, stealth, meteor + flame reach + merc bow once meteor lands? or is that too predictable, and that's why harvest would be better out of stealth?

I'm still trying to find the exact best ult + bow combo.

Frankly I've never found Meteor all that useful, far too expensive, and easily dodged and blocked. I tried it for a while and found good players are night impossible to land a hit on, regardless of CC.

Most magblade builds you'll find your bars too crowded to slot impale, and besides merciless, we don't have any other burst. So a cheap, hard hitting ulti like incap/harvest is almost a necessity. Plenty of people here will tell you incap is best, even on mag builds, because of the CC alone. Personally I prefer the ulti regen from harvest, and the bow will snare an opponent by 40% anyway. I usually go for stealth > magelight to empower > bow > harvest.

It all boils down to playstyle though. What works for me might feel like hot garbage to you.

How do you keep the combo from just getting countered? Bow is loud so is harvest and you’re not CC’ing. I’ve never had succes with any burst combo on mageblade that doesn’t involve a Hard CC. As soon as I hear that bow shoot off I block and most good players will as well, I just can’t see this being a consistent way to get the burst off. I’m not knocking it because mageblade is so diverse and has so many viable ways to play it, just genuinely surprised this works for you

I do agree about meteor though. Meteor isn’t up enough. It’s great for spanking pugs or a group ulti dump, but unless you’re wearing Duroks then the high availability of incap is too good to pass imho. Besides, you need fear to ensure you land it and then you’ll have to lose bar space somewhere.

@MrDenimChicken The meteor combo that works best is meteor-pause-fear-will so that the meteor empowers the spectral bow and they hit at the same time during the fear CC. But it’s still possible for them to CC break and block the combo or eat only half of the combo

Vermintide

Lexxypwns wrote: »

How do you keep the combo from just getting countered? Bow is loud so is harvest and you’re not CC’ing. I’ve never had succes with any burst combo on mageblade that doesn’t involve a Hard CC. As soon as I hear that bow shoot off I block and most good players will as well, I just can’t see this being a consistent way to get the burst off. I’m not knocking it because mageblade is so diverse and has so many viable ways to play it, just genuinely surprised this works for you

I do agree about meteor though. Meteor isn’t up enough. It’s great for spanking pugs or a group ulti dump, but unless you’re wearing Duroks then the high availability of incap is too good to pass imho. Besides, you need fear to ensure you land it and then you’ll have to lose bar space somewhere.

@MrDenimChicken The meteor combo that works best is meteor-pause-fear-will so that the meteor empowers the spectral bow and they hit at the same time during the fear CC. But it’s still possible for them to CC break and block the combo or eat only half of the combo

Nah I usually do try drop fear or cripple on 'em before that, often I'll find that after breaking the CC they are too busy trying to go back on the offensive or heal up, and then bam. Quite honestly though, I just rely on having worn them down a bit first. I mean I'm far from the greatest of players, so usually the fight has already gone on a while before I get the combo up; if they manage to counter it, I'll already have them on the back foot by doing so.

I think in no-CP it becomes much more viable and effective to pressure people like that. Most people are hard pressed for sustain without their CPs, so if your build favours it, you get the chance to force them into a position they can't recover from. I noticed a huge jump in my effectiveness going from CP to no-CP, at least, and that's what I think it comes down to.

Lexxypwns

Vermintide wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

How do you keep the combo from just getting countered? Bow is loud so is harvest and you’re not CC’ing. I’ve never had succes with any burst combo on mageblade that doesn’t involve a Hard CC. As soon as I hear that bow shoot off I block and most good players will as well, I just can’t see this being a consistent way to get the burst off. I’m not knocking it because mageblade is so diverse and has so many viable ways to play it, just genuinely surprised this works for you

I do agree about meteor though. Meteor isn’t up enough. It’s great for spanking pugs or a group ulti dump, but unless you’re wearing Duroks then the high availability of incap is too good to pass imho. Besides, you need fear to ensure you land it and then you’ll have to lose bar space somewhere.

@MrDenimChicken The meteor combo that works best is meteor-pause-fear-will so that the meteor empowers the spectral bow and they hit at the same time during the fear CC. But it’s still possible for them to CC break and block the combo or eat only half of the combo

Nah I usually do try drop fear or cripple on 'em before that, often I'll find that after breaking the CC they are too busy trying to go back on the offensive or heal up, and then bam. Quite honestly though, I just rely on having worn them down a bit first. I mean I'm far from the greatest of players, so usually the fight has already gone on a while before I get the combo up; if they manage to counter it, I'll already have them on the back foot by doing so.

I think in no-CP it becomes much more viable and effective to pressure people like that. Most people are hard pressed for sustain without their CPs, so if your build favours it, you get the chance to force them into a position they can't recover from. I noticed a huge jump in my effectiveness going from CP to no-CP, at least, and that's what I think it comes down to.

For no-CP I completely alter my mageblade style of play

NyassaV

MagBlade is the hardest class to play well. As to how you play it is up to you. Destro/Resto is technically the best but other ways are extremely viable too.

MrDenimChicken

Vermintide wrote: »

MrDenimChicken wrote: »

you think incap/harvest is better to pair with the merciless combo vs meteor on a ranged mag nb? for example, get merc bow up, stealth, meteor + flame reach + merc bow once meteor lands? or is that too predictable, and that's why harvest would be better out of stealth?

I'm still trying to find the exact best ult + bow combo.

Frankly I've never found Meteor all that useful, far too expensive, and easily dodged and blocked. I tried it for a while and found good players are night impossible to land a hit on, regardless of CC.

Most magblade builds you'll find your bars too crowded to slot impale, and besides merciless, we don't have any other burst. So a cheap, hard hitting ulti like incap/harvest is almost a necessity. Plenty of people here will tell you incap is best, even on mag builds, because of the CC alone. Personally I prefer the ulti regen from harvest, and the bow will snare an opponent by 40% anyway. I usually go for stealth > magelight to empower > bow > harvest.

It all boils down to playstyle though. What works for me might feel like hot garbage to you.

wouldn't you want to do incap/harvest before bow so that you get the empower on the incap and then the +20% damage on the bow?

Trashs1

Subversus wrote: »

Trashs1 wrote: »

Subversus wrote: »

Trashs1 wrote: »

Subversus wrote: »

I put together a build for noCP on the build editor this morning with the items I knew I had in my bank.

34.8k mag, 10.4k stam, 2.1k and 1k regens respectively, something like 3k spell dmg buffed with enchant + sorcery. Can't wait to try it out, but by the looks of it it looks like something I'd run in CP as well, albeit with a tad more damage.

may u post the build link?

http://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=46700

Could probably drop the last regen enchant for dmg as well, cause I already have a bunch of sustain besides the 2k, but better safe than sorry lol.

The only buffs I have on in there are sorcery+intellect as I run the alliance war spell power pots and chug them on cooldown.

are u using flame reach as your spamable?

i had something like:

spc front trans back 2 skoria in mind

I use flame reach as my cc. Strife as a spammable, as it's cheaper. Idk that setup sounds strong I guess. I don't really like skoria open world though, it's not as "on demand" as I'd like my burst to be. It can proc or it can not when I need it the most. Otherwise that build sounds cool, especially with spc buffing your whole squad.

How would you sustain that though? Also I'd probably run riposte open world but that might be just me.

in my humble opinion, if flame reach is only your cc the master staff isnt worth it.. 1 piece domi would be by far more benfecial. also on a range mageblade if have often problems to come close enough to hit with incap (them snares...)

in my setup idea im sitting on 1800 mag reg in no cp. and for me atm, im by far not the best player, its enough in no cp and with the cheap range magblade skills

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Vermintide wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

How do you keep the combo from just getting countered? Bow is loud so is harvest and you’re not CC’ing. I’ve never had succes with any burst combo on mageblade that doesn’t involve a Hard CC. As soon as I hear that bow shoot off I block and most good players will as well, I just can’t see this being a consistent way to get the burst off. I’m not knocking it because mageblade is so diverse and has so many viable ways to play it, just genuinely surprised this works for you

I do agree about meteor though. Meteor isn’t up enough. It’s great for spanking pugs or a group ulti dump, but unless you’re wearing Duroks then the high availability of incap is too good to pass imho. Besides, you need fear to ensure you land it and then you’ll have to lose bar space somewhere.

@MrDenimChicken The meteor combo that works best is meteor-pause-fear-will so that the meteor empowers the spectral bow and they hit at the same time during the fear CC. But it’s still possible for them to CC break and block the combo or eat only half of the combo

Nah I usually do try drop fear or cripple on 'em before that, often I'll find that after breaking the CC they are too busy trying to go back on the offensive or heal up, and then bam. Quite honestly though, I just rely on having worn them down a bit first. I mean I'm far from the greatest of players, so usually the fight has already gone on a while before I get the combo up; if they manage to counter it, I'll already have them on the back foot by doing so.

I think in no-CP it becomes much more viable and effective to pressure people like that. Most people are hard pressed for sustain without their CPs, so if your build favours it, you get the chance to force them into a position they can't recover from. I noticed a huge jump in my effectiveness going from CP to no-CP, at least, and that's what I think it comes down to.

For no-CP I completely alter my mageblade style of play

would u plz enlighten us? sinc ethis is a bg topic and therefore a no cp playstyle discussion

Bfish22090 wrote: »

I use 5 light fortified brass in impen. 2 troll king med/heavy in inpen. Then 5 spinners with all spell dmg and nirn/sharp swords. Spell dmg munys,vamp and gold cwc food.
Does pretty well as far as sustain tankiness and dmg

thats something completely different and i like the idea. i will do the mats on uesp planer on this build 4 sure.
im quite a bit concerned about the dmg potential on this setup...and how do u handle snares? and how do u have a decent stam pool without shackle or trifood?

well, the longer i think about your setup, i really think trans+ wizards riposte might be more tanky and better sustain...