magdk question

Syiccal

does a light armour dk need sheild to survive, will I likely be to squishy without them?
heavy I'd nice but prefer the dmg from light .
currently using s+b/ice staff

Grimhallow

S&B ice staff is fine in light armor, though you might die a few times before you figure out what your exact limits are.

ak_pvp

No but its better to. Way back when I ran a dw/s&b DK, but now you probably have to go 2x s&b or with one icestaff.

You will be squishy though and bleeds/dots will hurt. You also lose damage from no inferno front bar and weaving.

Syiccal

I just have trouble at min finishing classes with sheilds , they can stack constantly through my dmg, im in heavy and I'm using skoria/shackle/Sun. I have to wear them down which takes a while

DKsUnite

Syiccal wrote: »

does a light armour dk need sheild to survive, will I likely be to squishy without them?
heavy I'd nice but prefer the dmg from light .
currently using s+b/ice staff

Yes you will need snb at least for your defensive bar. I myself run a inferno/snb setup.

Syiccal wrote: »

I just have trouble at min finishing classes with sheilds , they can stack constantly through my dmg, im in heavy and I'm using skoria/shackle/Sun. I have to wear them down which takes a while

You won't do much against someone with shields. Best chance is to time your ulti/burst when their shield is about to expire. If they never let their shields expire then you are better off finding someone else to fight.

Savos_Saren

With some ingenuity, you can get some pretty impressive stats with SnB/Destro in light armor. I highly recommend SnB since blocking with an Ice Staff will consume magic (we already have a hard enough time sustaining magic) and Inferno Staff on your back bar.

To piggy back on what @DKsUnite said- wearing heavy armor is a pain in the ass to try to pierce through shields (or to get spell penetration at all). The extra 4884 spell pen from light armor is definitely worth it.

Too bad there's no magicka-based version of bleeds. Then you could get away with heavy armor and damage that ignores all spell resistances- just like how some stamina-based builds get to wear heavy armor and ignore all your physical resistances with bleeds.

Ariades_swe

Savos_Saren wrote: »

With some ingenuity, you can get some pretty impressive stats with SnB/Destro in light armor. I highly recommend SnB since blocking with an Ice Staff will consume magic (we already have a hard enough time sustaining magic) and Inferno Staff on your back bar.

To piggy back on what @DKsUnite said- wearing heavy armor is a pain in the ass to try to pierce through shields (or to get spell penetration at all). The extra 4884 spell pen from light armor is definitely worth it.

Too bad there's no magicka-based version of bleeds. Then you could get away with heavy armor and damage that ignores all spell resistances- just like how some stamina-based builds get to wear heavy armor and ignore all your physical resistances with bleeds.

What you on about?
Spell pen doesn't affect shields....
If you dont put points in the tri focus passive frost staff will use stam for blocking.

raasdal

IMO, unless you are specifically focusing on either Max Health (Healthden etc.) or Health Regen, there is no reason to NOT use LA over HA.

For the example of MagDK, you can simply change Sun or Shackle to Pariah or Brass, and you will have the same resistances and tankiness, as you would in heavy. More so actually, as Pariah confers more resistance than 5 heavy does.

The 5 pcs. bonus of HA are pretty worthless. 8% healing and 25% more restore on Heavy Attack. Meh.

The 5 pcs. bonus of LA are insane. They are stronger than any 5 pcs. item set in the game. 4k Spell Pen and 10% Crit.

So the point is; You could potentially swap out Sun for Pariah, and then change out Heavy for Light, and you would probably be at the same damage, if not even better. Light Armor passives are just that strong.

DKsUnite

The rule i live by: It's easier to make light armour tanky than it is to make heavy armour hit hard

KingExecration

DKsUnite wrote: »

The rule i live by: It's easier to make light armour tanky than it is to make heavy armour hit hard

Or just go all damage in light and hope your console opponents have the lag you do and can’t defend lmao

Checkmath

OP stated to have snb and ice staff, so i assume he is blocking a lot. in the case shields are a bad choice, since the mitigation from blocking isnt applied to the shield. so even though you are blocking with a shield up, you still use stamina, but your shield gets damage as if you werent blocking. i only would use a shield before going into mistform (when you use that), since the 75% of mistform count towards your shield.
Anyway a dk in permablock and light armor can be pretty tanky.
In your current setup, i dont recommend using a damage shield. if you would go for a destro/resto setup, then i strongly recommend running a shield, but this isnt the case.

devilsTear

I'm having a great time with my destro resto magDK, 5p bloodthorn with 5p desert rose and skoria/bloodspawn.
It's a different playstyle then s&b magDK but it's fun as hell and also quite tanky and mobile + the sustain is excellent, the damage isn't bad either.
I do use the harness magicka shield on it.

LinearParadox

I do not recommend going for LA and depending entirely on block.
There are too many things that block doesn't help against these days, and too many things that drop block - and if you're in LA, they can drop you in a second.

I run heavy on my MagDK, after quite a bit of experimentation, I've found a balance between durability and damage(mostly DoT pressure) while being able to sustain decently well, that makes me happy.

That being said, LA will hit significantly harder, but there's always a tradeoff; you might be able to kill people you couldn't before, but you might also find yourself dying in situations you used to be able to survive.
However... straight armor values are much less valuable this patch (much to my frustration) because of the prevalence of bleed damage and oblivion damage, both of which ignore armor and block in case you didn't know.

In the end... you can't have it all. Any build is going to have a weak spot, and no matter what, sometimes you're gonna come up against someone that's built to exploit that particular weakness, it's just a matter of asking yourself "what do I expect to be able to survive, who do I expect to be able to kill?"
If you wanna be able to kill that perma-blocking Templar with Pirate Skele, spamming purge and breath and just eating damage like a super tank... then you're gonna lose durability to have that much damage.
If you wanna be able to tank 3 people, chaining Embers heals and whips while juggling ults for resources and just DoTing everyone and being a disruption for you team, etc... then you're gonna have to realize that some people are just simply going to be outside your kill range.

All in the mindset

Fiveboro

A lot of helpful responses on this thread. Ultimately, it's going to come down to the style of play you want. It sounds like you're running more typical DK perma block build in heavy armour.

I spent a lot of time in heavy arm running setups like that, but nowadays i've switched and am loving the new setup. Based on your question, it seems like you're looking to get into a higher dmg DK that relies more on shields than SNB.

I do use shields in LA with destro/resto here's how i set it up:

5xL, 1xH,1xM Destro/Resto, all impen, heavy piece on chest, all max magicka glyphs
5x Shacklebreaker, 5x BSW, 2x Skories
Destro Bar: Flames of Oblivion, talons, whip, burning embers, fossilize
Resto Bar: healing ward, volatile armour, entropy, wings, FLEX SPOT (Mist Form - mobility in PVP or Harness Magicka - shield stack for duels similar to sorc)

mikey_reach

I really love light impreg body with desert rose on the snb bar