Magicka NB With 1H&S Good?

Vaerth

So, I actually prefer Magicka class skills the most in this game because the Stamina ones are not really my thing at all. I do not care much for the Animations of DW and Bow and 2H swings way to slow paced for me to feel engaged in the combat. I have played this game on and off since early access PC preorder. I am trying it again a 3rd time, and I can tell you why I leave every time. I never find a sweet spot for what I like and what works well, if that makes sense lol. I love the skills that use Magicka, but I hate using a staff lol. When I first played, I went full Magicka build but took a loss as I would not use a staff over DW / 2H even though I had no weapon skills on my bars lol. I also find the immersive heavily removed if I spam a bunch of buffs every fight, takes away from the game for me a bit lol. I am returning a 3rd time now, and I am driven back by the games lore, beautiful environments, and to try another faction. I will add, I am really bummed I have on PC the preorder that lets me make any race on any faction. I bought another copy for my new Xbox One X to try a Dunmer on AD and well, I guess I was spoiled on PC because it is not possible here sadly lol.

Anyway, since I cant do my race / faction on console like I did on PC (Must have been preorder perk, not sure). I am on my last tries with this, and I have not played in 2 days since I bought the game less than a week ago because if I can not get a good viable build to enjoy I will just cancel the sub and go back to another game. I want to enjoy ESO more but it is just not possible if I have no good way to play without a staff. I just find a staff is really not my style, nor has it even been lol. To those who love the staff, I am happy for you it is just not my theme.

I am willing to play as a NightBlade, Dragon Knight, or Sorcerer and i would like to do so with focus on Magicka. The problem is, I want to use 1 Hand and Shield or Dual Wield (even will take 2H) and not any staff. I got to VR7 in the past with a 2H Magicka NB build but the 2H swings felt unworthy of the clicks lol. So, out of the 3 weapons I mentioned and the 3 classes I like, do any of these combo well enough? What did Magicka tanks use before Frost staff was convert to tanking? Would 1H&S work for any of these classes as Magicka build?

Sorry to ramble, I try to explain myself a bit so people can understand where i am coming from lol

Ectheliontnacil

You can play any race the faction of your choice if you purchase the explorers bundle or some ***. Costs 1,5k crowns.

Sparr0w

Well dw/1hs/2h light/heavy attacks all scale off your max stamina and weapon damage (which playing magicka will be extremely low), same with skills that cost stamina.

However you may be able to find a couple niche builds of DW swords on a magicka nightblade or sorc, I'd say nightblade tho since their spammable isn't built into a weapon line (funnel/concealed)

jkolb2030

You can do a sword and shield magicka build nightblade for sure... It may not be great damage, because you'll be missing out on the damage scaling on your light attacks (high magicka pool boosts your light attacks with staves only) - but you'd probably end up playing some form of "sap tank" build if you go nightblade.

If you play a dragonknight class, you can do the same thing with a sword and shield and use their ardent flame class abilities for your damage. Again, you will be missing out on some light attack dmg scaling, but you will still be able to do some really good damage with the abilities themselves.

I feel like the sorc class may be a little lack luster for your if you do not use a staff. 2 of their main damaging abilities comes from the destruction staff tree, while the rest of their class based magic attacks are just DoTs.

Sword and Shield build will really work with any of the classes - you just have to figure out which class you like to play, as they all have different skill sets and playstyles.

Vaerth

Ectheliontnacil wrote: »

You can play any race the faction of your choice if you purchase the explorers bundle or some ***. Costs 1,5k crowns.

It is something i can still do now? I am willing to pay the crowns for it no problem but did not see it in the ingame store. My wife likes the Dominion best for the Wood Elf zones lol. We already played through Ebonheart and Daggerfall zones but never did Dominion yet so this will be a little fresh for us to explore lol.

Girl_Number8

It's in the crown store I am pretty sure~

jkolb2030

Vaerth wrote: »

Ectheliontnacil wrote: »

You can play any race the faction of your choice if you purchase the explorers bundle or some ***. Costs 1,5k crowns.

It is something i can still do now? I am willing to pay the crowns for it no problem but did not see it in the ingame store. My wife likes the Dominion best for the Wood Elf zones lol. We already played through Ebonheart and Daggerfall zones but never did Dominion yet so this will be a little fresh for us to explore lol.

Yes, it is in the crown store under "upgrades" i believe. Listed within the Adventurer Bundle

Sparr0w

Easy to start would be 5x Julianos 5x Seducer (since you'll need the sustain). Heavy head, medium shoulder, light everything else. Infused big (head/chest/legs) divines small.

2x Swords front bar (Daggers could work too)
1x Inferno staff back bar (just use this for AoE's e.g. blockade, path etc)

I'd use witchmothers brew for max health/magicka and regen.

Go with the lover mundus stone as this will benefit swords as well as your skills.

Impale; Funnel/Concealed; Cripple; Merciless; Inner Light | Soul Harvest

Blockade; Path; Shield; Siphoning; <- Use any other skill and ulti here.

Make sure you have all class passives, light armour passives, the first 3 heavy armour passives, the last duel wield passive.

Anyone who mains a DW magblade feel free to pipe in, I've not ran one since console release & I've had a 3yr break since then.

Vaerth

jkolb2030 wrote: »

Vaerth wrote: »

Ectheliontnacil wrote: »

You can play any race the faction of your choice if you purchase the explorers bundle or some ***. Costs 1,5k crowns.

It is something i can still do now? I am willing to pay the crowns for it no problem but did not see it in the ingame store. My wife likes the Dominion best for the Wood Elf zones lol. We already played through Ebonheart and Daggerfall zones but never did Dominion yet so this will be a little fresh for us to explore lol.

Yes, it is in the crown store under "upgrades" i believe. Listed within the Adventurer Bundle

Thanks! If I can find a Magicka build that is good I will certainly buy this tonight! I wanted to be a Dunmer like I always have been but my wife just will not play on Ebonheart side again lol. Since she wants to do the original story on AD side, I am locked to that faction, for now, lol.

Vaerth

Perhaps a Nightblade with DW or 1H&S would work if I have Siphoning Attacks? I feel like 2H swings to slow for it to work well but perhaps the faster light attacks with this would work?

kylewwefan

Since you’re starting out. It will be quite some time before big damage or anything really matters. At one time, I was messing around with StamBlade S/B Bow. It wasn’t that bad, but admittedly not great. Many of S/B 2H builds for Dueling.

The problem is you wanting them to be a magic build DPS.

But that might not be what you’re really after. Any tank is the truest successful hybrid type build you can play. IMO.

You would use the S/B skill Puncture for aggro. Or undaunted Inner fire.

There have been attempts even at high level to use DW skill Blade Cloak on tanks for the %25 AOE Damage Reduction. Tanks use a lot of magic skills and reserve Stam for blocking.

If you continue venturing into the realm of weird niche builds...it’s going to get even weirder. The new Psijic Skill line has people doing all sorts of crazy things. That actually work.

The next obstacle you find is leveling. Leveling on a tank is terrible in my experience. Sure, you don’t die often, but neither does anything else.

PlagueSD

kylewwefan wrote: »

The next obstacle you find is leveling. Leveling on a tank is terrible in my experience. Sure, you don’t die often, but neither does anything else.

Sap tank spec is your best bet while using S&B and still doing decent DPS. Good survivability with enough DPS that it won't take "forever" to kill stuff. For DPS, just swap out monster set to Valkyn Skoria, and swap out inner rage for ele ring and pierce armor for impale. For dungeons and trials, I actually swap to light armor and go destro staff on both bars...unless I'm tanking, of course.



https://youtu.be/yuCeum-vQQk

Vaerth

kylewwefan wrote: »

Since you’re starting out. It will be quite some time before big damage or anything really matters. At one time, I was messing around with StamBlade S/B Bow. It wasn’t that bad, but admittedly not great. Many of S/B 2H builds for Dueling.

The problem is you wanting them to be a magic build DPS.

But that might not be what you’re really after. Any tank is the truest successful hybrid type build you can play. IMO.

You would use the S/B skill Puncture for aggro. Or undaunted Inner fire.

There have been attempts even at high level to use DW skill Blade Cloak on tanks for the %25 AOE Damage Reduction. Tanks use a lot of magic skills and reserve Stam for blocking.

If you continue venturing into the realm of weird niche builds...it’s going to get even weirder. The new Psijic Skill line has people doing all sorts of crazy things. That actually work.

The next obstacle you find is leveling. Leveling on a tank is terrible in my experience. Sure, you don’t die often, but neither does anything else.

Thanks for the info!

I am not sure I want to have people depend on me heavily, so that is why I didn't want to actually tank. I am fine with Stamina playstyle but man the animations are really boring. It's like picking an cool Dragon Knight, you know, with Knight in the title and have the warrior style WITH fire was how I took it when i started a build. Well, turns out I get like 2 non fire (poison morphs are Stamina) and the rest just tooth pick style strikes on my targets. Really is nothing short of a bummer at this point, because if i want to use class skills I have a tiny amount of morhps that I can try, or I have only weapon skills. If I desire class skills, I must use a staff and elements of that types of staff. No melee, and having to kite is not fun for me. I do not like running away, feeling weak in close quarters. Perhaps this game just will not work for me lol, I do not regret the purchase as this is a lovely game but the combat has me very unsatisfied with the weapon / class skills like this. The bigger issue is that I was very open to trying ANY class that I could feel welcome with melee weapons and some class themes as well. Dual Wield dragonknight with fire breath and flaming weapons, fire whips, etc sounds good! But no, most of the fire skills are Magicka so I have to use a staff or suffer. There is a list of comparable class / weapon issues I have with ESO but they are likely just my personal issues lol.

Overall, I find it heavily lacking in the class / weapon skills. This game claimed to play your way... While that is true, doing so means you will suck terribly if you do not use a staff with class skills. This makes no sense to me why it matters why style I like. I mean, can weapon / class skills not just scale off you highest stat? Must it be Magicka is Staff only ALL other types Stamina?

Vaerth

Vaerth wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

Since you’re starting out. It will be quite some time before big damage or anything really matters. At one time, I was messing around with StamBlade S/B Bow. It wasn’t that bad, but admittedly not great. Many of S/B 2H builds for Dueling.

The problem is you wanting them to be a magic build DPS.

But that might not be what you’re really after. Any tank is the truest successful hybrid type build you can play. IMO.

You would use the S/B skill Puncture for aggro. Or undaunted Inner fire.

There have been attempts even at high level to use DW skill Blade Cloak on tanks for the %25 AOE Damage Reduction. Tanks use a lot of magic skills and reserve Stam for blocking.

If you continue venturing into the realm of weird niche builds...it’s going to get even weirder. The new Psijic Skill line has people doing all sorts of crazy things. That actually work.

The next obstacle you find is leveling. Leveling on a tank is terrible in my experience. Sure, you don’t die often, but neither does anything else.

Thanks for the info!

I am not sure I want to have people depend on me heavily, so that is why I didn't want to actually tank. I am fine with Stamina playstyle but man the animations are really boring. It's like picking an cool Dragon Knight, you know, with Knight in the title and have the warrior style WITH fire was how I took it when i started a build. Well, turns out I get like 2 non fire (poison morphs are Stamina) and the rest just tooth pick style strikes on my targets. Really is nothing short of a bummer at this point, because if i want to use class skills I have a tiny amount of morhps that I can try, or I have only weapon skills. If I desire class skills, I must use a staff and elements of that types of staff. No melee, and having to kite is not fun for me. I do not like running away, feeling weak in close quarters. Perhaps this game just will not work for me lol, I do not regret the purchase as this is a lovely game but the combat has me very unsatisfied with the weapon / class skills like this. The bigger issue is that I was very open to trying ANY class that I could feel welcome with melee weapons and some class themes as well. Dual Wield dragonknight with fire breath and flaming weapons, fire whips, etc sounds good! But no, most of the fire skills are Magicka so I have to use a staff or suffer. There is a list of comparable class / weapon issues I have with ESO but they are likely just my personal issues lol.

Overall, I find it heavily lacking in the class / weapon skills. This game claimed to play your way... While that is true, doing so means you will suck terribly if you do not use a staff with class skills. This makes no sense to me why it matters why style I like. I mean, can weapon / class skills not just scale off you highest stat? Must it be Magicka is Staff only ALL other types Stamina?

I apologize for typos, I am at work lol

To add, if the game did not have good story and character creation and a beautiful game world. I would have already quit. The combat is so dull compared to other game I have tried (Neverwinter, WoW, etc) that I actually prefer to run from point A to point B quests more than I like fighting. The attacks are weak / slow and there is no "impact" in the feeling when you strike. The weapon skills are lame, and I dislike builds that apply like 3+ buffs prior to a fight. I just takes the immersion away so much to see that and the combat is not really exciting at all lol. The class skills do give a better animation are make it feel more exciting, but if I do that I am forced to use a Staff (my LEAST favored option) or to suck at combat. Overall, it does indeed seem the ZoS made a game that has me literally unable to play how I like without having a crappy character build lol. The irony here is that I love the class skills (Magicka) and I hate using a staff. I love DW, 1H&S, Bow, and 2H appeal but hate the weapon skill lines and using Stamina for attacking skills. Eh, perhaps I am just spoiled with games that let me use a sword, and a spell, without have to have all the crap in between.

I have been back here for less than a week and everyday I play I am one step closer to ending the sub I got first day lol. This thread is pretty much my last hope for ESO to work out in a satisfactory way for me. My wife loves Lightning and is fine with a staff, so she is fine with her build... But mine... I just can not get into it at all with weapon skills and with a staff, which seems to be the bane of any build I would like. Perhaps we will end our time with ESO yet again and return to Neverwinter or another game with less going on and more focus on playing. I will say, I like some points and stats but this game is a little over board, I spend to much time on this when I just want to login and play the damn game lol.

Vaerth

PlagueSD wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

The next obstacle you find is leveling. Leveling on a tank is terrible in my experience. Sure, you don’t die often, but neither does anything else.

Sap tank spec is your best bet while using S&B and still doing decent DPS. Good survivability with enough DPS that it won't take "forever" to kill stuff. For DPS, just swap out monster set to Valkyn Skoria, and swap out inner rage for ele ring and pierce armor for impale. For dungeons and trials, I actually swap to light armor and go destro staff on both bars...unless I'm tanking, of course.



https://youtu.be/yuCeum-vQQk

Staff is what I am trying to get rid of lol

From what I have been told, it is not possible to enjoy class skills without a staff

PlagueSD

Vaerth wrote: »

PlagueSD wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

The next obstacle you find is leveling. Leveling on a tank is terrible in my experience. Sure, you don’t die often, but neither does anything else.

Sap tank spec is your best bet while using S&B and still doing decent DPS. Good survivability with enough DPS that it won't take "forever" to kill stuff. For DPS, just swap out monster set to Valkyn Skoria, and swap out inner rage for ele ring and pierce armor for impale. For dungeons and trials, I actually swap to light armor and go destro staff on both bars...unless I'm tanking, of course.

https://youtu.be/yuCeum-vQQk

Staff is what I am trying to get rid of lol

From what I have been told, it is not possible to enjoy class skills without a staff

Not entirely true. Quite a few class skills have stamina morphs. I use quite a few on my Stamblade. Also, don't knock magicka abilities on a Stam character. I forget which boss it is, but there's one boss that places a debuff on a party member that "detonates" and does damage to the group based on the party members total magicka. It's ALWAYS a good idea to have a way of "dumping" resources.

Guppet

PlagueSD wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

The next obstacle you find is leveling. Leveling on a tank is terrible in my experience. Sure, you don’t die often, but neither does anything else.

Sap tank spec is your best bet while using S&B and still doing decent DPS. Good survivability with enough DPS that it won't take "forever" to kill stuff. For DPS, just swap out monster set to Valkyn Skoria, and swap out inner rage for ele ring and pierce armor for impale. For dungeons and trials, I actually swap to light armor and go destro staff on both bars...unless I'm tanking, of course.



https://youtu.be/yuCeum-vQQk

You can swap the livewire with leaching or thunderbug for more dps. Leaching still gives decent heals, thunderbug puts out crazy dps and actually does what livewire looks like it should do, also every 3 seconds rather than 10.

Your also best doing your sets as follows.

One set is jewellery and weapons, the other armour except helm and shoulders (they should be available for monster).

If you always do you sets this way, you can then mix and match sets really easily. You can even use sets not designed for your armour type very effectively, just by using those in the jewellery and weapon set slot.

bg22

If you want to use 1h/shield, then play MagDK.

It works perfectly well with that class.

Or play a StamNB. You can still use class skills. Don’t expect to be awesome tho.

Vaerth

bg22 wrote: »

If you want to use 1h/shield, then play MagDK.

It works perfectly well with that class.

Or play a StamNB. You can still use class skills. Don’t expect to be awesome tho.

If I focus on MagDK I will be good with 1H/S? Lets say most if not all my skills are Magicka, with full points in Magicka, it would still be a good character with no staff? Other here said it would suffer with the build type. I would be Dunmer if I went DK Magicka for the obvious bonuses to fire damage and magicka lol.

Can anyone else chime in on this? Seems like I was told before by others here that it will be "ok" to bad at best with a non staff on all classes if I go Magicka. I am not really wanting to do Stamina, pretty much focuses on Magicka build that uses no staff at all (Neither Destro or Resto staff, never liked either when I got to VR7 before I did some with just 2H and bow Stamblade 3 years ago).

If anyone can say why or why not to the DK Magicka build with melee I would love to hear it. I am down for DW, 2H, or 1H&S for the DK class as well, does not have to be only 1H&S but I would love to have a good build focused on Magicka without any types of staff.

bg22

Vaerth wrote: »

bg22 wrote: »

If you want to use 1h/shield, then play MagDK.

It works perfectly well with that class.

Or play a StamNB. You can still use class skills. Don’t expect to be awesome tho.

If I focus on MagDK I will be good with 1H/S? Lets say most if not all my skills are Magicka, with full points in Magicka, it would still be a good character with no staff? Other here said it would suffer with the build type. I would be Dunmer if I went DK Magicka for the obvious bonuses to fire damage and magicka lol.

Can anyone else chime in on this? Seems like I was told before by others here that it will be "ok" to bad at best with a non staff on all classes if I go Magicka. I am not really wanting to do Stamina, pretty much focuses on Magicka build that uses no staff at all (Neither Destro or Resto staff, never liked either when I got to VR7 before I did some with just 2H and bow Stamblade 3 years ago).

If anyone can say why or why not to the DK Magicka build with melee I would love to hear it. I am down for DW, 2H, or 1H&S for the DK class as well, does not have to be only 1H&S but I would love to have a good build focused on Magicka without any types of staff.

Yup. It’s successful in PvP. I main’d a s/s MagDK for about 2 years. I would recommend staff for trials and some vet dungeons, but it’s absolutely more than sufficient for pvp and 99% of content.

I ran Silks of the Sun weapons/jewelry, and Desert Rose or Innate Axiom or Shacklebreaker, along with Valkyn Skoria for pvp or Grothdar for PvE.

I recommend mostly Sturdy gear.

Vaerth

bg22 wrote: »

Vaerth wrote: »

bg22 wrote: »

If you want to use 1h/shield, then play MagDK.

It works perfectly well with that class.

Or play a StamNB. You can still use class skills. Don’t expect to be awesome tho.

If I focus on MagDK I will be good with 1H/S? Lets say most if not all my skills are Magicka, with full points in Magicka, it would still be a good character with no staff? Other here said it would suffer with the build type. I would be Dunmer if I went DK Magicka for the obvious bonuses to fire damage and magicka lol.

Can anyone else chime in on this? Seems like I was told before by others here that it will be "ok" to bad at best with a non staff on all classes if I go Magicka. I am not really wanting to do Stamina, pretty much focuses on Magicka build that uses no staff at all (Neither Destro or Resto staff, never liked either when I got to VR7 before I did some with just 2H and bow Stamblade 3 years ago).

If anyone can say why or why not to the DK Magicka build with melee I would love to hear it. I am down for DW, 2H, or 1H&S for the DK class as well, does not have to be only 1H&S but I would love to have a good build focused on Magicka without any types of staff.

Yup. It’s successful in PvP. I main’d a s/s MagDK for about 2 years. I would recommend staff for trials and some vet dungeons, but it’s absolutely more than sufficient for pvp and 99% of content.

I ran Silks of the Sun weapons/jewelry, and Desert Rose or Innate Axiom or Shacklebreaker, along with Valkyn Skoria for pvp or Grothdar for PvE.

I recommend mostly Sturdy gear.

Would it work well for PvE? I do not really ever do any type of PvP in ESO I find it actually the worst PvP in any game I have ever played lol. Just my opinion of course, but the PvE is great so I am happy with that. This will be a pure PvE build, heavy focus on class skills and Magicka.