Clockwork Sload - No stealth Mageblade. Meta Harder, Max Cheese.

Derra

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Pretty sure this build is about to become meta on all magicka classes except sorc. For better or worse, blobs just posted a mDK video with this setup.

Major defile is just super savage right now.

Yeah, I’ve been running this setup(with resto and stealth) but caluurion in place of sload and it’s broken AF. I think the Caluu proc is superior but I like the sload 2-4 pc so much more and the higher uptime on the 5pc pushed me to it

imo the best available procc is overwhelming.

MickeyBN

@Lexxypwns
I don’t really have access to Sloads, so what would suffice in its place? I was thinking Julianos or Shacklebreaker instead, thoughts?

Koensol

Just reading this inspired me to create my own heavy armor magblade cheese build. The possibilities seem endless this patch.

Lexxypwns

Derra wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Pretty sure this build is about to become meta on all magicka classes except sorc. For better or worse, blobs just posted a mDK video with this setup.

Major defile is just super savage right now.

Yeah, I’ve been running this setup(with resto and stealth) but caluurion in place of sload and it’s broken AF. I think the Caluu proc is superior but I like the sload 2-4 pc so much more and the higher uptime on the 5pc pushed me to it

imo the best available procc is overwhelming.

Agreed, on the sense that it is superior in a wider array of situations, especially considering the AoE vs ST reveal and arguably superior 2-4. However, the ability to ignore shields, which can slow the cancer of Duroks and the relative similarity in strength of the proc damage(its within 20% before accounting for mitigation, but before also concussion procs) was my deciding factor. If I were running a damage or sustain 5pc in place of Duroks I’d run Overwhelming or Caluu.

MickeyBN wrote: »

@Lexxypwns
I don’t really have access to Sloads, so what would suffice in its place? I was thinking Julianos or Shacklebreaker instead, thoughts?

Overwhelming or Caluu

Koensol wrote: »

Just reading this inspired me to create my own heavy armor magblade cheese build. The possibilities seem endless this patch.

Mageblade has been really versatile for a while now and gives us such a wide variety of options, that’s what makes it by far my favorite class. One day I can run something like this then later I can bomb, gank, go full group support. I really think the diversity of viable Mageblade builds should be a blueprint for refining other class tool kits, especially magplar and mag warden

Derra

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Derra wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Pretty sure this build is about to become meta on all magicka classes except sorc. For better or worse, blobs just posted a mDK video with this setup.

Major defile is just super savage right now.

Yeah, I’ve been running this setup(with resto and stealth) but caluurion in place of sload and it’s broken AF. I think the Caluu proc is superior but I like the sload 2-4 pc so much more and the higher uptime on the 5pc pushed me to it

imo the best available procc is overwhelming.

Agreed, on the sense that it is superior in a wider array of situations, especially considering the AoE vs ST reveal and arguably superior 2-4. However, the ability to ignore shields, which can slow the cancer of Duroks and the relative similarity in strength of the proc damage(its within 20% before accounting for mitigation, but before also concussion procs) was my deciding factor. If I were running a damage or sustain 5pc in place of Duroks I’d run Overwhelming or Caluu.

I went for sload, overwhelming and zaan on my NB.

Somehow getting incap defile almost every time zaan proccs feels enough for me.

Lexxypwns

Derra wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Derra wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Pretty sure this build is about to become meta on all magicka classes except sorc. For better or worse, blobs just posted a mDK video with this setup.

Major defile is just super savage right now.

Yeah, I’ve been running this setup(with resto and stealth) but caluurion in place of sload and it’s broken AF. I think the Caluu proc is superior but I like the sload 2-4 pc so much more and the higher uptime on the 5pc pushed me to it

imo the best available procc is overwhelming.

Agreed, on the sense that it is superior in a wider array of situations, especially considering the AoE vs ST reveal and arguably superior 2-4. However, the ability to ignore shields, which can slow the cancer of Duroks and the relative similarity in strength of the proc damage(its within 20% before accounting for mitigation, but before also concussion procs) was my deciding factor. If I were running a damage or sustain 5pc in place of Duroks I’d run Overwhelming or Caluu.

I went for sload, overwhelming and zaan on my NB.

Somehow getting incap defile almost every time zaan proccs feels enough for me.

Sounds insane, I’m certainly gonna play around with that. If you line up all those procs it’s GG.

My favorite thing about Durok’s(and the reason I’m using it for this build) as I’m certain you’ve experienced is when you’re fighting several people and just using cripple weaves to control the fight before finding your burst target then you burst him and your next target is already at 75% health or something because they casted vigor then went back offensive expecting it to heal them up and he’s prime for burst again. I just love how it makes a Will proc basically a death sentence, you just can’t recover from that much damage and such a huge heal debuff. It’s one of the few sets that I feel like I can consistently clean up the end of a 1vX with. It could just be anecdotal but it feels like the extra aoe defile just starts a snowball effect, by the time you’ve killed 1 or 2 of a group the others are either struggling for resources from spamming heals or low enough health to eat a burst.

Gilliamtherogue

In this darkest hour, only the holy Light of Blessed Meridia can save us. Divines preserve us all for the abominations we have become.

Takes-No-Prisoner

Yup. I was doing the exact rotation yesterday Lexxy. Put out cripping grasp and fish for a soft target while not being cloaked. Find the healer then zoom in and focus them hard while they are defiled.

Oh yea, when I was defending a Keep yesterday, I pulled 3 stamina enemies to the side of the inner walls while I got focused and died by 2 more that showed up, the AD behind me where throwing projectiles at them the whole time they where focusing me. So by the time my face hit the floor, I see all three of those Stam toon smash that Vigor button while they have 5k health only to get nothing back cause they’re defiled.

They dropped instantly.

These 3 guys obvious had no way to clean that off.

Lexxypwns

Gilliamtherogue wrote: »

In this darkest hour, only the holy Light of Blessed Meridia can save us. Divines preserve us all for the abominations we have become.

Interesting. Proc’ing Meridia then going offensive on a stamblade while your target is helpless to stop you. That’s really tough man

Gilliamtherogue

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Gilliamtherogue wrote: »

In this darkest hour, only the holy Light of Blessed Meridia can save us. Divines preserve us all for the abominations we have become.

Interesting. Proc’ing Meridia then going offensive on a stamblade while your target is helpless to stop you. That’s really tough man

It's also very nice with the new Meditate skill :^)

https://clips.twitch.tv/NastyStylishBeanDeIlluminati

MickeyBN

@Lexxypwns

Got another question, would you consider dropping Inner Light for Destro Reach? Having a knock down and extra dmg skill seems like it’d be useful in this build.

Koensol

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Mageblade has been really versatile for a while now and gives us such a wide variety of options, that’s what makes it by far my favorite class. One day I can run something like this then later I can bomb, gank, go full group support. I really think the diversity of viable Mageblade builds should be a blueprint for refining other class tool kits, especially magplar and mag warden

100% agreed. That is the same reason why I like the NB class so much. You have so much flexibility and tools to fulfill different roles. I have a variation of your build in mind that goes a bit more into the debuff tank/healer role, with 5 durok's bane, 5 pariah (nice synergy with vampire undeath passive) and either pirate skelly or malubeth. I would probably use resto + SnB. Resto heavies are amazing paired with the nb's HoTs and SnB is ideal for turtling on the back bar. I would also aim for high health to get good value out of the dark cloak heal, but furthermore focus on abilities that debuff/cc enemies and buff/heal allies.

Lexxypwns

MickeyBN wrote: »

@Lexxypwns

Got another question, would you consider dropping Inner Light for Destro Reach? Having a knock down and extra dmg skill seems like it’d be useful in this build.

If I dropped inner light I’d 100% slot Cripple and wouldn’t consider dropping it for another hard CC. I actually play around with Cripple in that spot but there’s a strong case for both. If I’m solo open world and it’s not mega zergy I run cripple because it’s stronger in those types of fights. But if I’m fighting 5+ people it is much harder to apply a ST root and I much prefer the extra crit and max Magika.

If you prefer the ranged CC just drop Fear and run Soul Tether in place of meteor.

I know the damage seems really low but you cannot overlook the strength of a 45% heal debuff combined with Oblivion damage, we’re talking turning a vigor crit to maybe a 1k heal and then Sload canceling most of that out. Poor stam build is panicking trying to stay alive with Rally, but a poison proc outdamages that. And that’s with 0 damaging abilities factored in.

React

Bring this build into BG's after the 5th and I'll show you why you should stop playing cheese and start playing real builds on your "main"

NyassaV

Gilliam tried this approach on stamblade (in heavy with momentum and without in medium) and he didn't like it. I really didn't like it either. Playing without cloak will be a pain in the ass as is with playing without healing ward. The buffer ward provides in addition to the heal could be stacked with dark cloak for better defense. I'd drop magelight for shade

KingJ

NyassaV wrote: »

Gilliam tried this approach on stamblade (in heavy with momentum and without in medium) and he didn't like it. I really didn't like it either. Playing without cloak will be a pain in the ass as is with playing without healing ward. The buffer ward provides in addition to the heal could be stacked with dark cloak for better defense. I'd drop magelight for shade

I think its a better setup but most NB aren't used to playing without cloak.isn't as easy on a stamblade as other stam classes since we don't have the best healing.I believe its 1000 times easier to run something like this on a magblade since you don't need cloak on a magblade to survive. They have multiple HOT to compensate for the lack of cloak.Cloak is more important to stamblades imo.

Lexxypwns

Liam12548 wrote: »

Bring this build into BG's after the 5th and I'll show you why you should stop playing cheese and start playing real builds on your "main"

GTFO, With your zaan bleedplar complaining about cheese.

Edit: Didn’t you wear Bleesed Meridia for the 1 duel we had?

Gilliamtherogue

NyassaV wrote: »

Gilliam tried this approach on stamblade (in heavy with momentum and without in medium) and he didn't like it. I really didn't like it either. Playing without cloak will be a pain in the ass as is with playing without healing ward. The buffer ward provides in addition to the heal could be stacked with dark cloak for better defense. I'd drop magelight for shade

I've actually given up on Cloak since Sload's has become popular and I've been loving Shadowy Image. Heavy Armor, Troll King, Meridia, and Meditate are enough to counteract 1v1 and 1v2 situations with sload users for the most part, unless they out play with proper burst lineup and you don't respect and avoid it. Image helps retreat after they dump all their cooldowns, and reengage in that time when they're useless.

mursie

Derra wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Derra wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Pretty sure this build is about to become meta on all magicka classes except sorc. For better or worse, blobs just posted a mDK video with this setup.

Major defile is just super savage right now.

Yeah, I’ve been running this setup(with resto and stealth) but caluurion in place of sload and it’s broken AF. I think the Caluu proc is superior but I like the sload 2-4 pc so much more and the higher uptime on the 5pc pushed me to it

imo the best available procc is overwhelming.

Agreed, on the sense that it is superior in a wider array of situations, especially considering the AoE vs ST reveal and arguably superior 2-4. However, the ability to ignore shields, which can slow the cancer of Duroks and the relative similarity in strength of the proc damage(its within 20% before accounting for mitigation, but before also concussion procs) was my deciding factor. If I were running a damage or sustain 5pc in place of Duroks I’d run Overwhelming or Caluu.

I went for sload, overwhelming and zaan on my NB.

Somehow getting incap defile almost every time zaan proccs feels enough for me.

I run this setup - it is insane. it's literally not fair in some respects. that said - in no cp the stam pool is so pitiful. even with tri-glyphs I'm barely breaking 10K stam pool. Shade helps alot but there is just so many good abilities i can't choose what to do.

2h bar is pretty straight forward: conceal/cloak/hysteria/forward momentum/merciless

it's the back bar I can't figure out: running vMA resto and want to incorporate the following:

1. Mark - love the ability to screw other nightblades. love the heal attached to it. love the major breach
2. degeneration - love the major sorcery
3. leeching strikes - love the stamina return
4. shade - love the minor maim and port
5. healing ward - i guess i suck with this ability. i get everyone uses it but i just don't see the benefit - barely a 2K shield. seems pitiful
6. mutagen - necessary for the vMA resto. don't love the fact it doesn't always land on you
7. cripple - love the snare/root
8. swallow soul - love the HoT and dmg

so yea - 8 abilites... five slots. hard for me to choose what to do. so so hard. I have surge active on 2h bar only. my only issue with surge - i set it off qiute a bit just hitting cloak or merciless...thereby losing some ticks some time. other than that... zaan/surge/sload is pure evil.

Lexxypwns

mursie wrote: »

Derra wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Derra wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Pretty sure this build is about to become meta on all magicka classes except sorc. For better or worse, blobs just posted a mDK video with this setup.

Major defile is just super savage right now.

Yeah, I’ve been running this setup(with resto and stealth) but caluurion in place of sload and it’s broken AF. I think the Caluu proc is superior but I like the sload 2-4 pc so much more and the higher uptime on the 5pc pushed me to it

imo the best available procc is overwhelming.

Agreed, on the sense that it is superior in a wider array of situations, especially considering the AoE vs ST reveal and arguably superior 2-4. However, the ability to ignore shields, which can slow the cancer of Duroks and the relative similarity in strength of the proc damage(its within 20% before accounting for mitigation, but before also concussion procs) was my deciding factor. If I were running a damage or sustain 5pc in place of Duroks I’d run Overwhelming or Caluu.

I went for sload, overwhelming and zaan on my NB.

Somehow getting incap defile almost every time zaan proccs feels enough for me.

I run this setup - it is insane. it's literally not fair in some respects. that said - in no cp the stam pool is so pitiful. even with tri-glyphs I'm barely breaking 10K stam pool. Shade helps alot but there is just so many good abilities i can't choose what to do.

2h bar is pretty straight forward: conceal/cloak/hysteria/forward momentum/merciless

it's the back bar I can't figure out: running vMA resto and want to incorporate the following:

1. Mark - love the ability to screw other nightblades. love the heal attached to it. love the major breach
2. degeneration - love the major sorcery
3. leeching strikes - love the stamina return
4. shade - love the minor maim and port
5. healing ward - i guess i suck with this ability. i get everyone uses it but i just don't see the benefit - barely a 2K shield. seems pitiful
6. mutagen - necessary for the vMA resto. don't love the fact it doesn't always land on you
7. cripple - love the snare/root
8. swallow soul - love the HoT and dmg

so yea - 8 abilites... five slots. hard for me to choose what to do. so so hard. I have surge active on 2h bar only. my only issue with surge - i set it off qiute a bit just hitting cloak or merciless...thereby losing some ticks some time. other than that... zaan/surge/sload is pure evil.

If you’re running sload or Surge you don’t need Mark.

http://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=67300

That’s what I’d do if I wanted to run that gear setup. Zaan procs, incap, GG. I think you’re still in trouble outnumbered though, but you could also make that a heavy build for a tangier feel that still has insane proc damage

I’m going to be updating this build after playtesting and releasing a destro/resto version this week!

mursie

i like your judgement on alot of things lexxy but i have to disagree on this specific build you outlined for zaan/surge/sload.

Couple of points:

1. having overwhelming on both bars and at range takes away some of the ability to time the burst of that proc that 2h'er naturally gives you as you open in melee with concealed weapon.
2. first point above also doubles for the zaan proc
3. I really think the two sets (surge/zaan) are best for a melee brawler that opens back bar with some damage peppering..and then closes the gap quite quickly with a concealed weapon shadow cloak speed burst... and hopefully by only having one bar of overwhelming (and that being the 2h bar) you minimize wasted procs of that set.

I do like the infused big pieces for more stat pool and protective on jewelry is interesting as well. although maybe tri-une there would be good too? not sure what stats tri-une offers.

finally - your weapon damage enchant on back bar is again something i would want to flip bars on. have that proc on my 2H as i begin my concealed weapon/light attack weave in melee with procs.

THanks as always for the advice and points. I'm very new to magblade... 2h'er just hit 38 today so i don't even have the forward momentum morph... but i can tell you that the damage on this setup is just filthy.

Lexxypwns

mursie wrote: »

i like your judgement on alot of things lexxy but i have to disagree on this specific build you outlined for zaan/surge/sload.

Couple of points:

1. having overwhelming on both bars and at range takes away some of the ability to time the burst of that proc that 2h'er naturally gives you as you open in melee with concealed weapon.
2. first point above also doubles for the zaan proc
3. I really think the two sets (surge/zaan) are best for a melee brawler that opens back bar with some damage peppering..and then closes the gap quite quickly with a concealed weapon shadow cloak speed burst... and hopefully by only having one bar of overwhelming (and that being the 2h bar) you minimize wasted procs of that set.

I do like the infused big pieces for more stat pool and protective on jewelry is interesting as well. although maybe tri-une there would be good too? not sure what stats tri-une offers.

finally - your weapon damage enchant on back bar is again something i would want to flip bars on. have that proc on my 2H as i begin my concealed weapon/light attack weave in melee with procs.

THanks as always for the advice and points. I'm very new to magblade... 2h'er just hit 38 today so i don't even have the forward momentum morph... but i can tell you that the damage on this setup is just filthy.

It’s all preference, but you can’t have the same damage on a 2h/resto build because the sustain requirements are much higher and you lose out on tons of weave damage. Your burst may be higher, but not enough so justify the huge loss in pressure and honestly I think you’d be hard pressed to sustain a 2h setup with this high effective spell damage. That build is running 10.5k effective spell damage and you’ll really feel the loss of light attack weaves(4.5k non crit tooltip and 15k pen) on a build that’s got that type of offense. You also lose out on elemental drain, which means you have even more sustain to recoup. There’s also the possibility of running elemental weapons in place of funnel which would further improve sustain and bring your burst in line with a 2h build but I haven’t tested that. You could also easily shift surge to only front bar and fit vma resto back bar on this setup, if you prefer to control the surge proc.

I would never give up Infused back bar with Nirn front bar+double DoT unless it was to run Cost Poisons back bar. It’s a loss of ~300 spell damage, 2 status effects, and an increase in pressure. The ability to add more status effects also makes purge less useful, there’s plenty of situations where you simply cannot purge everything in a single cast. Zaan+incap+sload+Surge+minor vulnerability+ele drain+poisons is like 11 status effects, it’s possible that you purge twice and zaan is still ticking on you, if you had to break the incap CC before you started purging you’ll be dead and if you try to heal before purging you’ll be dead

Also, I see no reason to run a 2h build without Nirn main hand since it’s less than 100 less spell damage than infused+berserker and again, you can add a poison.

But this is all just personal preference.

mursie

i agree nirn main hand - with a weapon dmg enchant (yes it isn't infused but it procs on your burst). back bar should be infused/defending with magicka absorb.

Lexxypwns

mursie wrote: »

i agree nirn main hand - with a weapon dmg enchant (yes it isn't infused but it procs on your burst). back bar should be infused/defending with magicka absorb.

Nirn back bar is BiS if you’re not using Infused+Berserker because it will increase your healing ward size, all your HoTs, DoTs, etc. Powered increases all the healing but not the DoTs or Healing Ward size.

I’d really reconsider what seems to be your principled stance against poisons. A non-infused berserker glyph isn’t likely to be up through your entire burst window. It doesn’t last the entire length of the defile from incap

MickeyBN

@Lexxypwns

What happened to the Duroks/Sloads/Troll King build you were showcasing?

Lexxypwns

MickeyBN wrote: »

@Lexxypwns

What happened to the Duroks/Sloads/Troll King build you were showcasing?

Still BiS imo. I was just showing how I’d go about building around 3x procs. I’m going to be updating the base build a bit this week, but no major changes

mursie

Lexxypwns wrote: »

mursie wrote: »

i agree nirn main hand - with a weapon dmg enchant (yes it isn't infused but it procs on your burst). back bar should be infused/defending with magicka absorb.

Nirn back bar is BiS if you’re not using Infused+Berserker because it will increase your healing ward size, all your HoTs, DoTs, etc. Powered increases all the healing but not the DoTs or Healing Ward size.

I’d really reconsider what seems to be your principled stance against poisons. A non-infused berserker glyph isn’t likely to be up through your entire burst window. It doesn’t last the entire length of the defile from incap

I guess im thoroughly confused now. I'm saying your offensive 2h bar should be nirnhoned. you're doing conceal/light attack weaves in melee with your procs occurring from zaan and surge and your spectral bow on cooldown. In this setup - i would run beserker on the nirn mainhand 2h bar. I didn't think poisons (double dot damage health poisons) would be very effective on a magicka dealer due to low tooltips. I only play non-cp. Is this incorrect?

As for backbar - the resto staff bar I was thinking defending for more resists or powered for larger heals. or infused with a magicka absorb glyph since you likely swap to this bar and light attack cripple weave with some heavy attacks mixed in for magicka regen.

You would do a different approach?

Lexxypwns

mursie wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

mursie wrote: »

i agree nirn main hand - with a weapon dmg enchant (yes it isn't infused but it procs on your burst). back bar should be infused/defending with magicka absorb.

Nirn back bar is BiS if you’re not using Infused+Berserker because it will increase your healing ward size, all your HoTs, DoTs, etc. Powered increases all the healing but not the DoTs or Healing Ward size.

I’d really reconsider what seems to be your principled stance against poisons. A non-infused berserker glyph isn’t likely to be up through your entire burst window. It doesn’t last the entire length of the defile from incap

I guess im thoroughly confused now. I'm saying your offensive 2h bar should be nirnhoned. you're doing conceal/light attack weaves in melee with your procs occurring from zaan and surge and your spectral bow on cooldown. In this setup - i would run beserker on the nirn mainhand 2h bar. I didn't think poisons (double dot damage health poisons) would be very effective on a magicka dealer due to low tooltips. I only play non-cp. Is this incorrect?

As for backbar - the resto staff bar I was thinking defending for more resists or powered for larger heals. or infused with a magicka absorb glyph since you likely swap to this bar and light attack cripple weave with some heavy attacks mixed in for magicka regen.

You would do a different approach?

If I was running 2h resto I’d run Nirn 2h+DoT poisons Infused resto w berserker glyph. DoT poisons are really really strong and since they’re damage health and not actually poison they’re the same tooltip for stam or mag. It’s resource free damage that in no-CP will overwhelm most HoTs by itself while it’s active. Basically when a poison proc in no-CP it’s going to negate Vigor+Rally ticks until it’s duration is over.

Lexxypwns

Updated the original build for what I'm running after a bit more testing. This is what feels best for me based on my personal experience.

Tommy_The_Gun

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Premise

The meta this patch is absolutely awfully. Sload's completely ruins shadowy disguise. Defiles are everywhere and all but require you to either have a purge or damage shield. I've honed this build to counter this meta while also abusing it to the fullest extent. We're taking advantage of everything we can here to cheese kills and survive in this crazy meta. Damage is very high and so much of it ignores traditional mitigation in one way or another(or altogether).

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=65875

Race
Argonian - Don't get cute, its the best mageblade race, it offers the most sustain and the healing bonuses are great and this build can take advantage of the added HP bonus as well. Other races work, but this is the min/max choice for this particular build by a long shot.

Durok's Bane - Chest, Legs, Boots, Infused Resto with Berserker Enchant

Durok's is beautiful for this particular setup. The 5 piece is one of the strongest 5 pc sets available in game. We need max health because we're using that higher health pool to "mitigate" Sloads by giving us a longer window that we can survive it, we're utilizing health regen as a counter for Sload, and the healing gained has excellent synergy with the class toolkit and the Argonian passives. We're stacking into befoul to take maximum advantage of this set, giving us a 45% tooltip. While it doesn't add any traditional damage, the pressure from the 5pc adds an unseen killing power that doesn't show up on the character sheet, this is what makes the otherwise mediocre damage numbers passable. I just want to reiterate, this set cuts healing by 45% for 10 seconds and is effectively unpurgable since it reapplies the debuff on the first instance of damage.

Sload's Semblance - 1x Infused Necklace, Sash, Bracers, Nirnhoned Destro with Double DoT poison
Enough has been said about Sload's on this forum, I don't need to tell you about it. What I will do is mention that the 2/3pc bonuses are on both bars giving us those max stats when we weapon swap, the 4pc spell damage is only on the offensive bar as well as the 5pc, allowing me to have absolute control over the timing of the proc. The synergy between the withering pressure of Sload's and the huge heal debuff of Durok's is a huge contributing factor to our killing power. Again, none of this shows up on the character sheet so you can disregard some of the otherwise underwhelming numbers. We don't allow purge to be a viable counter to Sload because of the array of debuffs and effects we apply.

Troll King

Mageblade will have this set up whenever it is needed. Now, Troll King+Major Fortitude is enough to counter 2 Sload procs, overall this build is boasting a whopping 3600 health regen, which is absolutely nuts when paired with the class HoTs and a strong damage shield.

Willpower - 2pc jewelry 1 Infused 1 Triune

Adds more max magika which is great for boosting our damage and healing.

Skills

Funnel Health - Spammable damage, decent HoT, some group utility.

Mass Hysteria - Instant CC, goes through block, applies a snare. We use this both offensive and defensively. Animation cancel it with a bar swap when its time to go defensive and it will buy you time to get a healing ward off. You could replace this with Time Stop, its a wonderful skill, but I prefer the defensive applications of Mass Hysteria for my personal play style.

Sap Essence - AoE damage, a small utility heal, Major Sorcery. You could replace this with Degeneration which is a totally good option and a bit of extra healing, max magika, and regeneration. This is a play style decision, I often fight outnumbered and alone and the AoE damage has sneaky synergy with Durok's since inexperienced players assume their health will top off when they're not being focused, it also let's me see if anyone is taking noticeably more damage so I can single them out.

Merciless Resolve - Bread and butter. Everything we do offensively is built around this skill. You want to have it up often and fire it as often as possible, but you also want to be cognizant that it is central to your burst and hold it in reserve when you're ready to use a combo.

Elemental Drain - Major Breach, Minor Magikasteal, Ancient Knowledge passive. This skill boosts our damage significantly and adds significant sustain, this is a big part of what allows us to run the sustain levels we are.

Soul Tether - AoE burst and CC, Strong healing. CC'ing several players and picking up a good heal as part of your burst combo extends your window and really let's you dig in and focus a target to finish them off. You can run Shooting Star here since it has great synergy with fear and huge damage, don't run the other morph though since fear already applies a strong snare.

Shadow Image - This is our primary positioning tool. Master this skill, its worth the time investment to become skilled with it because it allows insane fight control and its one of the absolutely coolest skills in the game in my opinion.

Refreshing Path - More AoE pressure that's usually mostly irrelevant but has sneaky synergy with Durok's. Decent HoT, Major Expedition, Shadow Passives. You can replace this with Deep Thoughts if you want, but its a much more deliberate play style that requires you to play completely around Shadow Image to use it effectively and you'll lose some uptime on Major Ward and Resolve.

Healing Ward - Our primary burst recovery mechanic and a soft counter for Major Defile. A big shield that's primarily used to give our HoTs and Health Regen time to reset our health, we don't ever really need this burst heal to go off. The interaction between Healing Ward and HoTs is what makes using a shield more forgiving when outnumbered, but there are times when it will be inadequate and that's where Shadow Image comes into play, if you've used it correctly it will buy you some space and work as an excellent way to relieve pressure that would normally overcome a shield based defense.

Siphoning Attacks - With good weaving this is both an excellent sustain tool and a heal. Always weave, on both bars. The synergy with Merciless Resolve is absolutely perfect, managing those two buffs and weaving properly is a huge part of the Mageblade experience.

Crippling Grasp - This is a ranged root that offers excellent fight control, use this in conjunction with Shadow Image to create and maintain space against dangerous melee opponents. It also adds a fat DoT and gives us Major Expedition. For some reason people dodge roll out of this root even though it is insanely short. It's basically a second spammable and I've even toyed with the idea of running it in place of Funnel Health and slotting Race Against Time in this slot to give me on demand Major Expedition and Minor Force. As of yet I haven't started testing that, but this skill is so good and the cost increase on Funnel has me really considering it.

Light's Champion - This is our get out of jail free card, you're effectively unkillable when you cast it.

We're running a combination of Tri-Glyphs and 1 Triune jewelry enchant along with infused trait on large armor. This allows us to run the clockwork food and get the insane health regen we have here.


Previous Versions

Premise

Mageblade typically relies on Stealth and Shields as primary defensive mechanics. When left unchecked these mechanics are two of the strongest defensive mechanics in the game, however, they each have an array of soft and hard counters. With Sload coming into meta and being a hard counter to both of our main defensive mechanics and the introduction of a health based heal I decided to do some maths and see if I could break our dependence upon Stealth and Shields while also answering our biggest weakness - Snares. As such, we're stacking a decent amount of health and healing bonuses on our back bar to get that cloak heal as high as possible. I'm able to get an in Cyrodiil, non-crit, tooltip of 8,992 on this particular set, comparable to any other burst heal in game. We're also boasting a dodge roll cost under 2600. The regen looks low but we have a lot of unseen sustain: Minor Magikasteal, Siphoning Attacks, Consitution, and Resourceful which add over 1000 effective magika recovery.


http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=62049

Race
Argonian - Don't get cute, its the best mageblade race, it offers the most sustain and the healing bonuses are great and this build can take advantage of the added HP bonus as well.

Sets

Durok's Bane - 2x Arcane Rings(Unique drop) - Chest, Legs, Boots

Durok's is beautiful for this particular setup. The 5 piece is one of the strongest 5 pc sets available in game and unlike many other builds I've found a way to make the 2-4 bonuses relevant. We need max health, we're utilizing health regen as a counter for Sload(more on this later), and the healing gained allows us to push the Cloak tooltip higher as well as boosting our HoTs. We're stacking into befoul to take maximum advantage of this set. While it doesn't add any traditional damage, the pressure from the 5pc adds an unseen killing power that doesn't show up on the character sheet, this is what makes the otherwise mediocre damage numbers passable.

Sload's Semblance - 1x Infused Necklace - Medium Gloves, Light Waist, Nirnhoned Inferno
Enough has been said about Sload's on this forum, I don't need to tell you about it. What I will do is mention that the 2/3pc bonuses are on both bars giving us those max stats when we weapon swap, the 4pc spell damage is only on the offensive bar as well as the 5pc, allowing me to have absolute control over the timing of the proc. The synergy between the withering pressure of Sload's and the huge heal debuff of Durok's is a huge contributing factor to our killing power. Again, none of this shows up on the character sheet so you can disregard some of the otherwise underwhelming numbers.

Troll King

Mageblade will proc this set without any extra effort and it has great synergy with the HoT based healing available as well as offering group synergy.

Endurance 2h infused sword
We're running this 2pc to boost our back bar health, we could run willpower jewels and move Durok's back bar, but that causes us to lose too much healing on cloak.

Skills

The front bar skills are pretty self explanatory, Funnel Health is your spammable and gives us a nice HoT. Elemental Drain for sustain and penetration Inner light packs in a ton of passive damage Merciless Resolve adds even more passive damage and obviously the whole mageblade tempo is build around setting up combos with will Mass Hysteria offers an unblockable CC that we're going to combo with Shooting Star and a spectral bow proc as our finisher against tough targets. We mitigate the expensive cost of Meteor by running heavy and using fear to ensure that every time we drop one its going to do full unblocked damage.

The back bar skills are where things get different so I'll be breaking down the non-traditional ones. Siphoning Attacks is another sustain tool and heal that's dependent on good weaving to proc Refreshing Path is a bread and butter heavy mageblade HoT.

Dark Cloak
Our big burst heal, as I already mentioned we have a tooltip of 8,992 in Cyrodiil. That's a bit lower than BoL, but still quite good. Try not to spam this, use it intelligently when its required and take advantage of that low dodge cost and dodge roll cancel this ability, that will give you a big burst heal as well as a small immunity window in which your HoTs and Health Regen will top your health the rest of the way off.

Forward Momentum
A mostly irrelevant HoT, but more importantly it purges snares and gives you immunity. This, combined with the major expedition from Path is how we kite, although you'll mostly be "stationary" kiting around LoS rather than drawing people on long chases because we don't need to gain significant separation to make stealth work.

Structured Entropy
This is your Major Sorcery buff and it also grants you 8% increased max health, boosting our cloak heal. Typically mageblades run degeneration if they slot this skill because of the healing it offers and the fact that the added HP on only 1 bar is typically useless.

Soul Tether
We can't run a traditional defensive ultimate because we're not using a resto staff. As a result I was left to choose between Barrier or Soul Tether, ultimately I went with Tether because along with offering 1,350(in cyrodiil) healing per target it also gives an aoe stun that buys you time and it also passively increases back bar healing, making cloak heal stronger.

Miscellaneous
Tri-Pots
Double DoT poison front bar

Wait a second... So in order to counter meta build (Sload + Durok) you are using... a meta build (Sload + Durok) ? ? ?