Could someone please explain...

LadyLethalla

... which is better - more max Magika or more Spell Damage?
I read a post a few days ago that said (rightly or wrongly) that increasing SD is better than more Magicka - but I'm sure I read that more Magicka = more damage.
Could someone please explain how it works, exactly? And did it change recently?
thanks.

UPrime

Max Magika increases SD. However, given 2 equal buffs, the direct SD buff will give you more than you'd get from equal Magika buff. Since part of the magika buff is a bigger resource pool.

Hopefully I'm making sense.

Metafae

a set bonus providing spell damage compared to one providing max magic, you will find your skills go up in damage slightly more with the spell damage bonus than with the max magic.

The trade off is that with max magic, though less of a boost to dps, you have also increased your total available pool of magicka, and can therefore cast maybe 1 more skill before running out.

LadyLethalla

Thanks for the clarification.

Lord-Otto

Keep in mind, some very few skills do not scale with spell damage - namely pets (and shields). It's an important reason why mag builds, especially (pet) sorcs, prioritize max mag.

Also, spell damage can be buffed by major and minor sorcery, and Continuous Attack (in Cyro). It's trickier for max magicka, as you need a racial passive, slotted skills (Inner Light, Bound Aegis) or exclusive passives (like NB's Magicka Flood). What this means is that it depends on your race and group how much the difference in tooltip damage will be.

Item sets typically give better returns for spell damage. I think 100 spell damage equal about 1100 max magicka bonus in tooltip damage. So, if a set piece gives you 1k max magicka versus 130 spell damage (rounded) - you get the idea.

Lastly, check the date of your source. Staff light and heavy attacks used to scale exclusively with spell damage, which was a big thing for dps. Since Summerset, max magicka also affects staff attacks, making the difference here smaller.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

People forget that you get 20% more max stats from the first 300 champion points, 100 into each tree. So that tooltip of 1096 max stat is actually 1325.

jcm2606

It really depends on the build. In a vacuum, spell damage is going to beat max magicka (in most cases), as skills (generally) scale more with the damage stat than the max resource (at a ratio of about 10.5:1, so 10.5 max resource is about equal to 1 weapon/spell damage).

Knowing this, you can easily check if a max magicka bonus beats a spell damage bonus, by taking the max magicka bonus and dividing it by 10.5, then comparing the number you get out of that with the spell damage bonus. If the spell damage bonus is less than the number you just got, in a vacuum, the max magicka bonus will perform better (for most skills).

The thing is, though, things rarely happen in a vacuum. There will be multipliers that will boost your bonuses, and these can affect the comparison. Magicka generally has more multipliers towards max magicka, while stamina generally has more multipliers towards weapon damage. So for magicka builds, generally max magicka is the way to go.

Lord-Otto

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

People forget that you get 20% more max stats from the first 300 champion points, 100 into each tree. So that tooltip of 1096 max stat is actually 1325.

Good point, Undaunted is also there. But since you generally have Major Sorcery up 24/7, you could also consider spell damage boni to be more like 155 in reality.

LadyLethalla

Thanks everyone.

So, the reason I'm asking is that I want to complete VMA before Nerfmire hits consoles, on my main, a Redguard magblade. Why a Redguard? She was stam but I decided to respec as mag a few patches ago, and haven't regretted it. After Nerfmire she will probably return to stam.

Currently she's wearing Skoria, 5pc Mother's Sorrow (back bar) and 5pc Siroria with a VMA Inferno. She is up to the final boss but hasn't managed to get through the crystal phase yet.

Now, I have extreme lag and I'm not good enough to get her past Voriak Solkyn as a stam (or, I really doubt it). As it is I'm doubtful I can get her Stormproof before Nov 6th... sure as hell won't be trying after that date.

I'm thinking my options are either race change to Altmer or Dunmer (would prefer not to waste 6k crowns total) or change a set, maybe something with SD, or possibly Burning Spellweave.
I know MS and Siroria are currently "meta" but I think (hope) I will have an easier time if she is a little more powerful.

Lord-Otto

Stupid question: You know you don't have to kill all crystals in one go, right? You can always jump down in the middle when the DoT becomes too strong, just gotta kill a crema guard.

LadyLethalla

Oh yes I know. But invariably the crem guard kills me before I get back up. Or lag. Or both.

Lord-Otto

Run circles around it, speed sigil helps. Keep an ultimate ready. With the setup you have, your dps should be alright, I'm suspecting it's just a practice thing.

Swomp23

LadyLethalla wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

So, the reason I'm asking is that I want to complete VMA before Nerfmire hits consoles, on my main, a Redguard magblade. Why a Redguard? She was stam but I decided to respec as mag a few patches ago, and haven't regretted it. After Nerfmire she will probably return to stam.

Currently she's wearing Skoria, 5pc Mother's Sorrow (back bar) and 5pc Siroria with a VMA Inferno. She is up to the final boss but hasn't managed to get through the crystal phase yet.

Now, I have extreme lag and I'm not good enough to get her past Voriak Solkyn as a stam (or, I really doubt it). As it is I'm doubtful I can get her Stormproof before Nov 6th... sure as hell won't be trying after that date.

I'm thinking my options are either race change to Altmer or Dunmer (would prefer not to waste 6k crowns total) or change a set, maybe something with SD, or possibly Burning Spellweave.
I know MS and Siroria are currently "meta" but I think (hope) I will have an easier time if she is a little more powerful.

Hi there. I first cleared vMA for the first time about 3 weeks ago with my Magblade, so I know what boat you are in. I have a couple of questions.

How the hell did you get a vMA Inferno if you didn't beat vma yet? Or I just misunderstand and you might have beat vma with another character, but if you did, beating it with a magblade really shouldn't be that hard.

Second question is, are you really sure siroria is your best bet for vMA? You are moving so much in the arena, I have difficulty seeing how you could take advantage of this set. I beat it with 5 MS, 5 Juli and Valkyn Skoria. 5 light 2 heavies, golded front bar. I did die about 200 times on the last boss on my 1st clear, but on my 4th run, I beat the complete arena in 90 mins. Seriously, try swapping your siroria for juli. Easy to craft and it should be much easier to handle. 1 less thing to think about, as you don't have to stay in that circle.

Seriously, for me, the crystal phase was the easiest of the 3. The hardest by far being the 1st one with the crem guard. Just drop your 3 dots on it, ele drain and spam it from afar while you hide behind the wall. The only hard part is to remember to dodge the skulls. The major expedition from your path here really helps a lot to get and stay behind the wall.

Hang in there buddy, you'll make it!

greenmachine

Swomp23 wrote: »

LadyLethalla wrote: »

Second question is, are you really sure siroria is your best bet for vMA? You are moving so much in the arena, I have difficulty seeing how you could take advantage of this set. I beat it with 5 MS, 5 Juli and Valkyn Skoria. 5 light 2 heavies, golded front bar. I did die about 200 times on the last boss on my 1st clear, but on my 4th run, I beat the complete arena in 90 mins. Seriously, try swapping your siroria for juli. Easy to craft and it should be much easier to handle. 1 less thing to think about, as you don't have to stay in that circle.

Good point. When I was first trying vMA I was using Mechanical Acuity, a switch to Julianos made things a lot easier.

LadyLethalla

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Run circles around it, speed sigil helps. Keep an ultimate ready. With the setup you have, your dps should be alright, I'm suspecting it's just a practice thing.

Oh I have finished it on my pet sorc multiple times and on a non pet Redguard sorc once (or maybe that should be 'just'). I know to kite but invariably there's always a damn ghost or three and a lich crystal right there. Plus lag equals dead.


So... I believe the consensus is swap to Juli (which I already have a set of, on another toon) before race changing, yes?

LadyLethalla

Thanks everyone who posted

Very happy indeed to say that my (still) Redguard magblade is now Stormproof. I think I'll use those Crowns for a Summerset furniture pack to celebrate.

Lord-Otto

Congratulations! \(^.^)/

Skullstachio

LadyLethalla wrote: »

Thanks everyone who posted

Very happy indeed to say that my (still) Redguard magblade is now Stormproof. I think I'll use those Crowns for a Summerset furniture pack to celebrate.

If necessary for future reference, I would recommend bookmarking this thread as it actually taught me a fair bit in terms of Damage optimisation.
(Note: the thread was created by @Masel and for one, really knows a good amount.)

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/422268/a-comprehensive-guide-on-damage-dealing-in-elder-scrolls-online/p1

LadyLethalla

Alpha-Lupi wrote: »

LadyLethalla wrote: »

Thanks everyone who posted

Very happy indeed to say that my (still) Redguard magblade is now Stormproof. I think I'll use those Crowns for a Summerset furniture pack to celebrate.

If necessary for future reference, I would recommend bookmarking this thread as it actually taught me a fair bit in terms of Damage optimisation.
(Note: the thread was created by @Masel and for one, really knows a good amount.)

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/422268/a-comprehensive-guide-on-damage-dealing-in-elder-scrolls-online/p1

Thanks @Alpha-Lupi