It’s a Magic World

kylewwefan

Ok, I’ve gotten fairly decent on my stamina characters, but the calls are constantly for MagBlade and Sorc. These, I’m not very good on and I don’t know why. Well, they can do alright in group, but I’m not even middle tier with them.

I’ve had probably around 30~50 Maelstrom runs on all Stam classes, but can’t do it on MagBlade and it’s very slow on pet Sorc for me. My guild mates seem to think MagBlade is the easiest class to do it on...and I can’t.

Maelstrom has a bit different of a BiS to it for Stam toons. Should I assume the same thing for magic toons? For MagBlade I tried going with a Destro/Resto build someone recommended. It was not good for me. Now I’m using BSW/IA/ Zaan. I think Skoria may have been better for me.

I was told siroria would not be good in there cause you have to move around too much. Also IA not so good because inferno staffs are better with light attacks than heavy, so it’s somewhat wasted. But plenty of gold jewelry’s! I have any flavor of Maelstrom or Masters staff could want.

Sorry I keep going back to Maelstrom; I view it as an excellent training ground. It’s helped me tremendously on Stam toons. Thoughts are it should do the same for magic.

This is every bit as much an L2P issue as gear right now. Stuck on round 7. I know what to do on Stam guys. But magic is being very difficult learning curve. I’m running out of resources. Half way in to the fight and standing in place to heavy attack is getting me killed and still not enough resources.

Ive been recommended to try Julianos/ Spinners. Switch to lightning staffs from inferno. Race change from High Elf to Dark Elf. I’m trying to get güd, or at least alright.

I’d really like to ditch the pets on my Sorc too, but get to that later.

boombazookajd

I'm not sure what you're getting at? You're clearing vMA with your stamina toons, the consensus being the hardest way to clear, and you're saying its a magic world and then you say you can't seem to play magicka characters well.

You're kinda proving your main title wrong, unless i'm misunderstanding what the "magic" means in the title.

I'm envious that you can clear vMA with stamina toons. I'm trying it on my magDK and couldn't imagine trying to beat it without harness magicka and reflective wings.

edit: not trying to come off as an @$$. You must be a genuinely good player to get through as a stam character, you just gotta learn the magicka side of it. I'm primarily a stamina player myself and learning magicka is a whole new thing, on top of learning vMA. You'll get the hang of it though.

kylewwefan

Thanks. I think? lol

I guess the point, is I see groups asking for magic class characters to join them a lot. That’s where “It’s a Magic World” came from.

The problem is, I’m not very good at magic toons.

I don’t find magic toons any easier to play and wander why players recommend them. I hear about this ranged thing, yet most times their standing right next to me on the boss. The point really falls flat.

I’m making an effort to try to get better though.

I tried Maelstrom on mag DK. The constant damage from the second round spinners did me in. Your healing options not so good. It’s another one I probably need to L2P.

kylewwefan

Ok. I finally beat it last night. First clear on MagBlade. Changed build around. A lot. This will make some people laugh. Not really for beginners as using 2 Maelstrom infernos.

5 BSW/ 3 Ancient Grace/ Skoria/ Infused Maelstrom BackBar/ Nirnhoned FrontBar. All stock jewelry and weapon glyphs. ( magic recovery/ Absorb magic) Blue food. Spell damage Mundus. Heavy Head/Med Shoulder for undaunted.

Inner Light/ Harness Magic both bars. Wall of Elements, Refreshing Path, Cripling Grasp, Meteor backbar. Swallow Soul, Structured Entropy, Impale, Destro Ult Front bar.

Hit a whopping 18k on 3 mil dummy. (A Good Nightblade might hit higher with same Setup. But this worked for me.)

I found this Ancient Grace set in guild bank. It gives 1k magic and %4 higher max magic.

I’ll admit, I have a lot of experience in here on Stam toons, but also I’m pretty terrible on magic toons. My bar setup and rotation or button smashing is simple as it gets and not very efficient. CP is also likely far from optimal.

code65536

Uuuuuuuuhhhh. Gear isn't that important. Any competent gear set would be fine.

For example, I run vMA on my third account with Skoria/Julianos/Destruction Mastery because I can't be bothered to farm BoP items for that account (Destruction Mastery 3x jewelry plus 2x body, infused Juli fire front with fire enchant, infused vMA fire back with spell damage enchant, 3x Juli body, 2x Skoria; the Skoria and vMA fire staff are the only BoP pieces). In your case, I'd do Skoria/BSW/Juli since you have BSW already.

But, no, you definitely do not go destro/resto in vMA on a magnb--this isn't 2015 any more.

And no, you do not want 3x magicka recovery enchants. Your damage is waaaay too low and you actually lose sustain. Low damage is why my sustain feels like garbage when I run vMA on a low-CP account, not because of less regen from lower CP (which is only a few % difference), but because when my damage is low, I'd need to cast one or two extra Funnels to kill a typical enemy. That's somewhere between 2-5K extra magicka to kill each trash mob. What would 3x recovery give me? Something like 600-800 extra magicka every 2 seconds? Needless to say, that's not a good tradeoff. Not to mention, the longer things stay alive, the more chances they have to damage you, and the more magicka you'll have to waste on casting Harness.

I'd go 3x SD enchants with blue food if you're very experienced with vMA on a magnb. 3x SD enchants with Witchmothers if you're new to vMA on a magnb. And 2x SD enchants plus 1x cost reduct enchant with Witchmothers if you're new to vMA entirely (if you do want sustain, cost reduct is better than regen, but I'd still never go with 3x sustain enchants).

Also keep in mind that each time your Impale, Merciless, or Destro Ult gets a killing blow, you get a lot of magicka refunded from the passives in the Assassination and Destro skill lines.

Your bars also need a lot of adjustment. For vMA, this is what a magnb's bars need to look like:

• Front:
  • Funnel Health
  • Impale
  • Merciless Resolve (Merciless is the main reason why magnb dominates over other magicka DPS; this is not an optional skill)
  • Elemental Drain (for the destruction staff slot passive; competitive players will run Force Pulse instead of Elemental Drain--and alongside Funnel--particularly if they are using any Asylum front bar, but I don't play competitively and personally prefer Elemental Drain, which I use only on bosses and "mini-bosses", to help with sustain and to debuff their resistances)
  • Inner Light
  • Soul Harvest (the 10 ult/kill slot passive is extremely strong, which is why you need to slot this skill and why it must be on your main killing bar)
• Back:
  • Harness
  • Refreshing Path
  • Blockade
  • Siphoning Attacks (extremely important source of both magicka sustain and healing; don't know why you don't have this slotted)
  • Flex Spot (either Inner Light or Rearming Trap or that Psijic Minor Force skill)
  • Destro Ult

boombazookajd

Sounds like I need to respec my stamblade to a magblade and run vMA with him rather than my magDK >_<

kylewwefan

I think there’s some big big big major differences from pc to console. You just won’t understand. It was the same with my first clears on other toons. At least in vMA. No one ever would recommend recovery glyphs for the same reasons you cite.

But it worked.

You gotta find something that works for ya. You know. The builds n stuff I’ve seen, just didn’t work for me. I’m not the greatest player ever. I gotta keep it simple. Easy rotation. Good recovery. Mobile.

Splattercat_83

You are used to stamina classes and starting to get a taste of that Magic pie. Be patient they are two totally different beasts. To top it off you trying to do vet maelstrom with it too, which you know what to expect cause you've done it before on other characters, but its like looking at a picture upside down. I play mostly magic characters, and when I have tried it on a stam character it rocked my world too. You are also trying it on one of the hardest characters (rotation wise) there is to play for a magic class.

Be patient with it, sounds like you are working on the dummy so thats a good start. The rotation is key! Check out Oscarflip and LZH on their runs. It will really help you learn what gear to use and what cp and mundus. Lover works really good in there. I like grothdar for my monster set in there because for the most part everything is going to be in melee range and the bost to your max magic is nice too. BSW is a great set to use, actually its half of my build Im running right now because I have yet to get a siroria chest and like you said you don't want siroria for maelstrom anyway. I currently hit 43.4k with BSW and mothers Sorrow and Zaan. I run a really easy rotation and its easy on the resources too. If you want I can send it to you in a private message.

hang in there bro, you will get there!

kylewwefan

Man. If I could play like OscarFlip...well, one can dream. I’m still very much like a beginner when it comes to magic builds. Heck, the way I play Stam toons may be a bit off.

Trying to set my bar up to emulate Stam toons By button press sequence. It’s odd using shields to me and probably spam them more than necessary.

@code65536
I know it’s on every nightblade build out there, but Merciless Resolve is not worth the bar space if you’re too clumsy (like me) to get the procs. Starting to feel the same about siphon strikes. I always hit it again too early and never get the return. I will try a cost reduction Glyph and a spell damage or two.

I have since gone back on MagBlade with same gear/setup and got a leaderboard score. Now working on MagWarden. Maybe one day I re spec the Mag DK and have a go at it too.

You know ol OscarFlip just got a 600k+ score on his MagWarden? That dude is crazy monsta good. Like e-sports good.

On PS4 you’re in competition with about a dozen other players on Warden Leaderboard. Makes it very easy to get a spot. But you’re not gonna be number one. Lol! All you gotta do is get on there.