Best class for Magicka?

skyfiredraco

And yes, i know "best" can be subjective

But currently i have two alts at max. My stam nightblade and my stam sorc. My nightblade is currently my crafter alt and my only real "active" character is my stam sorc.

But... i'm kinda bored with her at this point. Both characters i've ever played (up to champ 212 right now) have been stam and have either been 2h/bow or DW/bow (sorc is kinda up to both as i've gotten more skill points and gear options).

I have TONS of questing zones to go through yet (i only have hero of the aldmeri dominion achievement-wise) and i've yet to complete summerset. But i want to try something new and have never really tried a magicka build.

So i ask the general forum: For a mid-range player (not necessarily a newb but not exactly a pro) what would you suggest for a fresh magicka alt? With the consideration i'm probably gonna feed her a bunch of "training" gear and park her in the alik'r desert dolmen grind with some exp scrolls to get her topped up relatively quick, then jump into questing somewhere lol. (yes, i know there are faster ways, but its an easy way to get through my netflix queue and start questing around at a level i can get crafting mats and motifs i can actually use :P).

Ty for any advice guys

Banana

Nightblade is flavour of the month at the moment

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

Magicka Templar is a lot of fun and easy to play; very survivable for low CP characters.

Magicka Nightblade does massive damage and is also fun and survivable (due to siphoning skills) but requires a more disciplined rotation. I currently main a magblade and love it.

skyfiredraco

Banana wrote: »

Nightblade is flavour of the month at the moment

really?

hmm...

my stamblade could respec, still have all her crafting points and still have a crapton of points to burn...

wouldn't be hard to dump them into destro staff, light armor and the class skills...

thats a thought

how are wardens these days? Never jumped on that train when morrowind first came out and i kinda like having a bear to eat people while i chuck fireballs at em lol. But if the novelty would wear off quick i think i could pass there.

idk

Much really depends on what Zos does with shields and mNBs with the current PTS update, not to mentioned what your interest is.

On live it is a toss up between sorcs and NBs. If current PTS goes live mNBs will probably have a little better survival, better self healing, than sorcs. But you can run sorcs with pets that help do damage and can help reduce the damage you take. All can be fun. Both classes are inherently range. If you preferer melee go Templar. Not meta, but solid survival.

If you are getting bored already I suggest finding a good active social guild to do things with. Running with people, especially ones you get to know, is a big part of any MMORPG.

PeterUnlustig

Magsorc lol

Vahrokh

Go mag templar, it's like magsorc but it is getting improved. Magsorc has been good but after years of endless nerfs (including next patch), now only a masochist would play it.

MLGProPlayer

They're all fine, except warden. Only make a magicka warden if you're a masochist.

AcadianPaladin

I can only speak to my own observations of the ones I play -

Magplar. Mine's a 'pug healer'. That is she can not only heal/buff but also take a boss in her face and solo him down if necessary. Very flexible and durable with enough dps to get the job done. Solos nicely. Challenging in a fun way in groups as she is constantly and reactively adjusting the sliding scale of her dps and heals depending on how her group is doing. My fave character.

Magsorc. Mine is a dps but pretty defensive and packs a great burst heal for others. She runs a matriarch, some defensive skills and a couple AoEs. She also is very durable with moderate dps. I wouldn't recommend a magsorc without at least one summon for the passive bonuses and ability to optimize the Necropotence set.

Magblade. Another dps but has some nice heals that are purely incidental splash from her damage. Though not as durable as my magplar and magsorc, she has decent AoE and very good single target damage. Rather challenging to optimize her skills but quite fun. I think of her somewhat like a magsorc without pets. Can put out more dps than my other two but harder to keep alive.

grannas211

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

They're all fine, except warden. Only make a magicka warden if you're a masochist.

Feelsbadman

EvilAutoTech

My mag DK is a blast in PVE. She wears plague doc, dragon guard and illambris (sic). Not meta but a lot of fun. Only mag character I have past level 40.

huntgod_ESO

Magsorc with familiar and twilight is easy mode...basically you are hitting 4 buttons, though 99% of the time you can get away with just 2 and hitting empowered ward occasionally.

There are stronger builds, but you can run magsorc pet builds on auto pilot and also great for burning down groups with solid AOE.

Morgul667

Nightblade or templar at the moment

Changes once in a while

ak_pvp

Next patch: OW solo: MagNB=Magplar=MagDK>Magden>Magsorc
MagNB has the best defense... if it works. Blur will be good next patch too and mark is weaker. Pretty decent offense, but single target with longish setup.
MagDK has good offense, but is strongly countered by the meta with bleed speed and defiles.
Magplar has worse offense, but does better vs the bleed/defiles.
Magden has great defense, one of the best healing and tankiness, with a bit of speed too. However it has an easily countered offense.
Magsorc has weak shields no tankiness/bad healing, and very easy countered dmg, so are probably goners.

DanteYoda

All my 7 characters are mag classes 2x magden 2xmagblade 1xmagdk 1x magplar 1x magsorc

They work far better in high ping game situations..

Bare in mind i'm only openworld pve..

FloppyTouch

Banana wrote: »

Nightblade is flavour of the month at the moment

Flavor of the years at this point

Sylvermynx

DanteYoda wrote: »

All my 7 characters are mag classes 2x magden 2xmagblade 1xmagdk 1x magplar 1x magsorc

They work far better in high ping game situations..

Bare in mind i'm only openworld pve..

Not quite this for me - I have some tanky girls for each flavor too. But yeah - high ping.... game shows 999+ 100% of the time.... And I know empirically that it's way closer to 2 full seconds. So yeah. The at-range magicka users (especially those with pets) are very much better in my situation.

I took a young (level 17) magplar through Sunken Road into lower Bangkorai yesterday instead of trying to live over jumping down Nilata Falls after the fall-damage change. She did fine even with the groups of three spiders. But that's not a very hard setup....

JinMori

FloppyTouch wrote: »

Banana wrote: »

Nightblade is flavour of the month at the moment

Flavor of the years at this point

Not for long, as it stands in the pts, tamplars and stam warden seem to be very close if not even better in some occasions, also mag dk can do a lot of dps.

skyfiredraco

tyvm for the replies guys! Gave me some things to think about

on thing i want to ask specifically though:

huntgod_ESO wrote: »

Magsorc with familiar and twilight is easy mode...basically you are hitting 4 buttons, though 99% of the time you can get away with just 2 and hitting empowered ward occasionally.

There are stronger builds, but you can run magsorc pet builds on auto pilot and also great for burning down groups with solid AOE.

may i ask what the general build is here?

i could respec my stamsorc easy enough and i wouldn't have to start anew on her quest progress lol. An easymode pet build with good aoe sounds nice for some open world questing fun

only problem i can see having is that all her gear is stam/weapon based lol... have to stick to some crafted and/or cheap stuff for awhile if i swap her out to magicka :P (which, admittedly i'd have to do for a fresh alt too *shrug*).

ty guys

ezio45

literally mags nightblade, anyone says otherwise and their lying or in denial.

this as coming from a proud af magsorc

_Ahala_

What’s powerful and weak changes cyclically as classes get buffed and nerfed each patch... Its best to just try out each of the classes and decide which one is most appealing to you as far as visuals and playsyle

technohic

I like templar, dk, and NB as magicka or stam either way. Sorc I want to like magicka as I feel they're the best ranged class closest to my add sniper I used to play in SWTOR, but just can't get into it. Don't like shields or double baring pets.

MLGProPlayer

_Ahala_ wrote: »

What’s powerful and weak changes cyclically as classes get buffed and nerfed each patch... Its best to just try out each of the classes and decide which one is most appealing to you as far as visuals and playsyle

The only constant is magden at the bottom.

_Ahala_

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

_Ahala_ wrote: »

What’s powerful and weak changes cyclically as classes get buffed and nerfed each patch... Its best to just try out each of the classes and decide which one is most appealing to you as far as visuals and playsyle

The only constant is magden at the bottom.

This will change... probably... eventually... I hope...

SpiderCultist

magden upcoming changes will make them quite strong, don't be afraid of rolling one

Finviuswe

The stamina magicka class. In other words, stam

fred4

It sounds like you want to continue with overland questing. This can be done easily with any class. That said, the class that is easiest right out of the gate has to be templar. Sweeps is your first skill and, once you have it morphed, you have single-target, AOE, and healing in one skill. For the story content that skill is all you need. This is not to say that templar is boring. More on that below.

Once you leave questing behind, you'll get to the more difficult endgame content. You may notice that there are difficulty jumps that may stymy you from time to time, until you've learnt more about your class and game mechanics. In no particular order you will need to weave light attacks, block, bash and roll dodge at appropriate moments. As a light armor user you will probably need to get disciplined with shields. As a damage dealer you will need to learn at least a rudimentary rotation, because some high-end content punishes you when you don't do enough DPS. Listing content by difficulty, from easy to hard, we have roughly:

Overland questing, public dungeons
Most world bosses, normal non-DLC dungeons, normal arenas, normal trials, Imperial City, Craglorn group delves
Some harder world bosses, Imperial City bosses, normal DLC dungeons, veteran non-DLC dungeons
Veteran DLC dungeons, veteran arenas, veteran trials, and PvP

In general you will find that magicka classes have to be conservative with their dodge rolls, due to their severely constrained stamina. You can use heavy armor to become tankier, or use light armor and shields to compensate for that. Whereas there is something very direct about stamina classes, there tends to be something more cerebral about the magicka playstyle. Templar is the exception, as you can rush in and hit everything with Sweeps.

I find it more gratifying to be able to rush in and do immediate damage. The two classes that have this greater directness are templar and nightblade. While all classes benefit from having a proper rotation, and all have delayed abilities that are useful in PvP, the other magicka classes, warden, sorc, and DK, tend to force you more into the classes' intended playstyle. You can't as easily mix and match abilities as you can with templar and nightblade. As a magicka DK you'll want to coordinate your whip with Talons and/or Fossilize, as that is how you sustain and heal. As a warden you tend to build around Shalks and must learn a rotation. The most extreme example of being shoehorned into one playstyle is the non-pet PvP sorc, who tends to have a very rigid rotation with shield stacking, Fury and Curse almost mandatory.

In summary, if you want something direct and easy to use, go templar. If you want the most versatile mix and match class, go nightblade. If you want uncertainty about the future (read PTS patch notes), go sorc. If you fancy something revolving around fire or ice, go DK or warden respectively.

Strider__Roshin

ezio45 wrote: »

literally mags nightblade, anyone says otherwise and their lying or in denial.

this as coming from a proud af magsorc

Why even mention your class if it's not Nightblade? Most people don't like talking up their class because they like to act like it's always the weakest and needs buffed.

Anyways yeah it's either Nightblade or Dragonknight in my opinion. I prefer magDK over Magblade, but that's because I prefer Stamblade and I typically like only one version of a class.

WuffyCerulei

Each class has its own to the table when it comes to magicka.
Sorcs have magicka 2 playstyles: pet and non-pet. Pet sorcs have an easy rotation and can do massives aoe damage. Non-pet sorcs can dish put hard single-target damage. Both builds can survive pretty well with cheap shields and power surge.
Templars can be both range (force pulse, dark flare, or elemental weapon) and melee (puncturing sweeps). With the buffs to Radiant Destruction (aka Jesus beam), they're getting up there with nightblades with dps. Templars also have a lot of utility compared to other classes. They can restore resources with shards, give Minor Sorcery (gonna be 10% extra spell damage to the group next patch), give another purify to the group, off heal somewhat, and rez people faster and have them at full health when rezzed.
Nightblades are currently the top single target magicka dps. They can self heal quite well and sustain well too. They're currently very popular with that healing, but in Murkmire, Funnel Health and Refreshing path won't do as much damage or no damage at all.
Dragonknights are the pure melee class of ESO. Though they lack in utility for groups, they make up with doing a crap ton of fire damage. If you love flashy fire, this is the class for you.
Wardens are close to utility with Templars, with Minor Toughness and heals, but don't have as much as temps. They're also lacking a little compared to the other classes in damage, but will be doing better next patch. Despite being a weaker dps, their playstyle is a lot of fun.

Knootewoot

magNB is always fun, whether it's melee or ranged. You can toss away the shields except for ward and see how you do it. I first went HA without shields, but am now 5 light again. Yeah, no shield is insta death, but thank the nines they didn't nerf cloak yet.

Edit: i'm in a freakin' loading screen in Cyrloadingdill

N3CR01

skyfiredraco wrote: »

Banana wrote: »

Nightblade is flavour of the month at the moment

really?

hmm...

my stamblade could respec, still have all her crafting points and still have a crapton of points to burn...

wouldn't be hard to dump them into destro staff, light armor and the class skills...

thats a thought

how are wardens these days? Never jumped on that train when morrowind first came out and i kinda like having a bear to eat people while i chuck fireballs at em lol. But if the novelty would wear off quick i think i could pass there.

Exactly what I did. Didn't wanna have an alt to just re rolled from StamBlade to MagBlade.
Best decision I ever made. So much more powerful and fun to play, wish I started with a mage from the off.