Raging Juggernaut - Magicka DK Solo PvP Build

BlackMadara

What's up guys, I'd like to share my mDK build with y'all. I have put a lot of thought into this build, focusing on a specific play style that has always intrigued me, DoTs. I want to burn people down as I tread, unstoppable, through their smoking ashes, and this is what I have come up with. That said, this build maintains the burst needed to secure kills in PvP. Wall of text incoming.

This build is meant for Solo Open World PvP, with a variation that I find works better for No-CP BGs. It is built upon the pillars needed for such an environment, Damage, Sustain, and Survivability.

I designed a system where i broke down each stat that is available in the game into a base value to determine the sets I would run. These values are based upon the 2,3,4 set bonuses on item sets. I then broke down every set, enchant, mundus, trait, etc. that I thought was viable for mDK Solo build, separated them into damage, sustain, survivability categories and attempted to make the most efficient stat stick I could that adhered to my way of play.

Sets:
- 5 light armor, 2 heavy armor (5 light allows higher damage and you lose a bit of stamina sustain and healing power compared to heavy with this build.)

- 2p Valkyn Skoria (Prismatic glyph head and mag on shoulder)

- 5p Mark of the Pariah
- -Chest and Legs (Prismatic Glyphs)
- -Jewels (1 Triune, 2Arcane, SD enchants)

- 5p BSW
- -Feet, Hands, Belt (Mag glyphs)
- -SnB back bar (Infused weapon damage glyph sword, sturdy mag glyph shield)

- Willpower Fire Staff (Sharpened, absorb mag glyph)
-
All impen
Dark Elf, Atronach Mundus, spell damage pots, non vamp, and 3.3k crit resists in CP

All golded out, this will put you at:
27k HP
35k Mag
17k Stam
21k physical 27k spell resists (scales up with lower hp and 3k more resists on SnB bar)
1150 mag regen
3.5k Spell Damage (fully buffed)(7500 effective SD against a 21k resist 3000 impen target)
39% crit
11k Spell Pen (CP)
80% crit damage

Explanation of set choices:

This build is based around Pariah. This set is highly efficient for mitigation, and scales very well with the anti execute function of Coag Blood. It also allows riskier play to secure kills in low health situation, getting off that last Power Lash at 30% hp to get the kill and pop back up to full. The 2,3,4 piece bonuses allow a very tanky spec in 5 light, without having to run protective jewels. At 30% hp, you reach past spell resistance cap and about 31k physical resistance on the SnB bar. Even with bleeds, this allows me to heal back out of execute range and play risky at the same time.

BSW is my set of choice for damage, and it is one of the best damage sets in the game, even considering its uptime. I run 2 fire DoTs that keep a high uptime of the proc, and burning status effect is decent damage (despite popular opinion). The play style is one of control/positioning on the back bar until BSW procs, then going into the traditional Petrify-Whip-Leap-Power Lash combo on the front. You lose the chance to proc BSW and 3% crit chance on the front bar, but a Willpower staff gives enough of a damage boost that I find it effective enough to compensate.

Alternative damage sets are Spinner, Axiom/Silks, and Julianos, listed in order of pure damage efficiency. Axiom is better all around though due to the stamina bonus and bonus to heals, although restricted to class skills.

I run Spinner's in BGs, with 1 spinner ring with mag regen enchant, spinner pants, Pariah Destro Staff(nirn), pariah SnB, medium Valkyn Helm. This keeps both sets active and allows a 5-1-1 set up for more stats. Not having to rely on BSW proc in a group is useful as well to help secure kills with the team.

I love Valkyn Skoria, I am biased, and refuse to not run it after years of farming. That said, the hp bonus is very useful, and the damage you get from the proc is insane. I find that it lines up consistently with BSW proc and my damage combo. I have tried running Grothdar and Blood Spawn as alternatives. These are viable, but I find Grothdar to be underwhelming compared to Valk and Blood Spawn to be inefficient paired with Pariah at low hp. You go too far past the resistance cap for my liking, and would need to run a different 5p set other than Pariah.


Skills:
Front Bar - Debuffs and Damage

Fossilize - best CC in the game. Shattering rocks is also usable, but I find the root to be better. I do not run any other roots.
Cauterize - powerful HoT. I did not run this at first, but my survivability went through the roof after placing this on my bar. Typically my second most healing in a fight, behind Burning Embers
Engulfing Flames - mediocre DoT and a powerful effect. 10% more fire damage on a spec that only does fire damage. There is no other (de)buff/skill that matches the damage potential this gives.
Flame Lash - bread and butter, I do not spam this unless going for a kill. I use it to set up power lash combo. This helps sustain and secures kills for myself.
Elemental Drain - best sustain buff ever. This skill allows me to drop a regen set. Keep this on target, they melt and you won't run out of magicka for a while with pots, battle roar, etc.
Ferocious Leap - best ult for mDK. Cheap and does a lot of damage. Combo with Engulfing and Ele Drain for MASSIVE damage.

Back Bar - Defense

Reflective Plate - reflect and snare removal. I don't spam this if I can help it. Paired with Race I can get away from many stupid situations, roots and snares be damned.
Volatile Armor - weak DoT, resists, and healing passive. I keep this on my bar due to easy access to 12% healing passive. The DoT isn't too bad either, but i don't prioritize it for damage
Burning Embers - strong DoT and heal. This is my main source of healing in combat and applies high pressure. Keep this on as many targets as possible and see the 10k heals roll in
Race Against Time - speed and crit damage. My escape and running a b**** down tool. Increase crit damage is nice, major expo is nice, and 50% sprint cost reduc is amazing. My fill slot.
Coagulating Blood - oh *** heal. Only used when I am at around 30% hp. Too expensive to spam, but not needed due to embers, whip, and caut.
Standard/Meteor/Temporal Guard - fill spot for ult. I have been experimenting with Standard for the Defile debuff for Temps/Wardens. Meteor is useful to take out tankier targets. The initial damage is the same as leap but the DoT on the ground will chew through someone rooted in it. Temporal guard for tankiness on back bar, do not actually use the ult. Bats could work too but I do not run vamp anymore, tired of other mDKs, Skoria, and dawnbreaker ripping me open with free damage.


Playstyle:

Keep Volatile, Cauterize, Embers and Ele Drain up at all times. This is the best advice I can give myself. These buffs mean life or death for me. Other than that, I typically have a high uptime on Engulfing Flames. Buff up, apply DoTs, pop spell power pot, BSW should proc, bar swap, foss, whip, leap, power lash, and valk meteor should drop on their head. This combo kills most. The reason for whip, leap then lash is so you can catch people in dodge roll with the leap and lash after the roll is done. If done quick enough, you can get 2 whip combos off in the time of BSW proc. Race against time allows for better kiting on the back bar until BSW procs, general kiting for combat, and you can literally run a streaking sorc down (it is hilarious). My main defense is offense with healing. Pressured situations, I block cast Coag, pop wings to remove snares, Race for major expedition, and use LoS. I do this at about half stam. Race makes sprint cost almost nonexistent in light armor. If buffed up and playing well, this is typically unnecessary. Heavy attack on SnB bar for quick stam regen as well. Mag regen is effectively over 2k with ele drain up, battle roar, burning regen passive and absorb mag enchant. Even then, I do not seem to spam enough to run dry often, it is all in the play style.

My biggest weakness are mTemplars. Purge is the bane of my existence, followed closely by defile. Temps can be damn near unkillable if they have the regen, but I do not die to them often either. It is a stalemate of juggernauts until one runs dry.

That's it. This build isn't for everyone. It is MY build and works for me. Maybe it can work for you too. This was requested by @Slycology so here you go bud.

Slycology

THANK YOU! You are a gentleman and a scholar!

Spartabunny08

Awesome build

Brutusmax1mus

I can't believe up operate on 1.1k regen. That's what separates the dragon knights from the noodle nights

Brutusmax1mus

Fyi im a noodle night

Waffennacht

Liking the build. May steal ideas for non-DK.

If you wanted more sustain but didn't wanna change pariah or bsw, how would you go about it?

Metemsycosis

@Waffennacht
I'd go 2 reduce cost on jewels. Or Back bar shooting star and try out engine guardian.

BlackMadara

Waffennacht wrote: »

Liking the build. May steal ideas for non-DK.

If you wanted more sustain but didn't wanna change pariah or bsw, how would you go about it?

I would add mag regen to the jewelry. Cost reduction glyphs have diminishing returns and do not give the full value on the tooltip. I find mag regen to help with sustain more often, as long as you do not run mist form. The best practice for sustain that i have noticed is keeping high uptime of ele drain.

AverageJo3Gam3r

How do you get major sorcery? Pots?

Minno

Brutusmax1mus wrote: »

Fyi im a noodle night

ele drain gives him 300 per second, assuming he is getting in dmg in between the 2second dot ticks. So that 1150 will feel a little bit more like 1750.

TheStealthDude

I run a very similar build for no-CP!

5x Pariah, 5x Innate Axiom, 2x Zaans (would probanly use Skoria if I had another DoT, but I dont use Engulfing Flames). 5L/2H. Destro/Resto (though I dont use any resto skills at the moment).

I love Pariah and I REALLY like pairing Vampire with it. Its just ridiculous how much damage you can shrug off at low health. Risky play style, but its fun.

My bars are set up a bit different. I have really been enjoying Empowering Chains on my front bar with burning embers, whip, fossilize, elemental drain and leap.

Back bar has Reflective Plate, Volatile Armor, Coagulating Blood, Degeneration, FoO, and Temporal Guard.

I would love to get talons on the front in place of elemental drain, so i am thinking of switchinf to a back bar destro (Ice, probably). If not, I also want to find a way to work Healing Ward or Ward Ally in the back bar just for the synergy, but I am not convinced its needed. Maybe if I dropped coagulating? Who knows.

BlackMadara

@AverageJo3Gam3r Yea, I use sorc, mag, crit pots for the main pot. Sorc, mag, detect for NB confrontations. Tri pots for emergency situations when low on stam. I find the extra slot worth it.

@Minno Indeed, that combined with battle roar, combustion passive, constitution, and the absorb magicka glyph, puts me at 2200 regen best case scenario and around 2000 for normal combat situations.

@TheStealthDude I love Pariah! I decided to drop vamp mainly due to fights with other DKs being more difficult, and i was tired of taking insane dawnbreakers. That is a solid set up. Good luck out there bud.

Ariades_swe

I like this.
Gonna try out pariah instead of impreg which I run now.

Brutusmax1mus

Minno wrote: »

Brutusmax1mus wrote: »

Fyi im a noodle night

ele drain gives him 300 per second, assuming he is getting in dmg in between the 2second dot ticks. So that 1150 will feel a little bit more like 1750.

Oh im aware, its just too low for me. 1700 on any mag class is minimum for me ca Although i haven't played mine as anything but a hybrid in bgs for months and they've made sustain improvements since then.

Hylda69

Does a sharpened staff better than nirn?
I'm still searching my own playstyle with my DK, tank in pve but mDK in pvp.

Thx for the share.

BlackMadara

@Brutusmax1mus DK regen is different than other classes due to battle roar. It adds about 200 regen. If you are able to proc burning often, you get another 100-200 regen. With my absorb mag enchant, and magicka steal, my build is at an effective 2000-2300 regen depending on when I drop ults, burning procs, and uptime of ele drain. That, combined with my playstyle of low cost dot application and set burst windows, leaves my magicka pool at healthy levels.

@Hylda69 Sharpened is more damage. Nirn would allow more healing from power lash proc and cauterize heals. I prioritized the damage because 1) I already had a willpower sharpened fire staff and 2) I feel like I have enough healing.

Purdomination33

Running a MagDK in BG's right now and I run a similar setup; 5x Pariah (destro front bar/S&B back bar), 5x Spinner & Skoria. 5L-2H.

I am relatively new to Magicka DK in BG's and PVP. I am finding play style using Destro front bar as a fun mix of my trusty StamDK and MagSorc. Newish character so have not leveled Undaunted, Mages Guild or Psijic. I could really use the Psijic skills and Meteor.

My #1 issue is burst healing, I have no burst heal when I need it. Using 5x light, even with Pariah, I find it tough to consistently get in close without dying. It is probably my rotation and skills, I might need to switch up the skills as I tend to use Destructive Reach and Blockade too much which offer zero heals.

I switch up the skills pretty often but I have been using the setup below. Pariah Staff's are not easy to find, I prefer Lightning staffs due to the DOT/non-reflect able heavy attack. The stun when using Destructive reach (opposed to knock back with Flame Staff) is better suited for a brawler MagDK.

Front bar-Pariah Sharpened Fire Staff
-Whip-it
-Elemental Blockade
-Destructive Reach
-Embers
-Ele Drain
-ULT: Leap

Back Bar-Pariah Sword/Pariah Shield
-Coag Blood
-Volatile Armor
-Molten Armaments
-Flex spot...Wings/Degeneration
-Cauterize
ULT: Magma Shell

Xvorg

Question, why Pariah and not Vampire's Cloak?

That minor protection buff is quite interesting on a DK, besides 2 and 4 bonus give 2.4K health and the 3rd bonus is an extra spell dmg, making CDB heal even better.

BlackMadara

@Xvorg I was originally running temporal guard ult on my back/bsw bar, so I could stack both defensive effects. I only recently changed my back bar ult to shifting standard for a defile against temps. I tend to switch between the two.

Also, I like to have 35k max mag in CP (30k in no CP) and 20k physical resist. With the resist buff piece on pariah, I can use triune/arcane jewels for max stats and retain high resistances in light armor.

@Purdomination33 it is more difficult to heal in spinner due to a large sum of its offensive stats are in pen, which doesnt buff heals except for burning embers. In BGs, I rely on my team to provide off healing, make sure to keep embers on multiple targets, and keep cauterize up. Most of my healing is from cauterize and embers, it takes some getting used to. Only use coag as a last resort. Sometimes, it's even better to fossilize into power lash. That way you you relieve pressure, apply pressure and heal. It takes some practice to know when and how to use each healing mechanic. Still trying to get better at it myself.

Purdomination33

"@Purdomination33 it is more difficult to heal in spinner due to a large sum of its offensive stats are in pen, which doesnt buff heals except for burning embers. In BGs, I rely on my team to provide off healing, make sure to keep embers on multiple targets, and keep cauterize up. Most of my healing is from cauterize and embers, it takes some getting used to. Only use coag as a last resort. Sometimes, it's even better to fossilize into power lash. That way you you relieve pressure, apply pressure and heal. It takes some practice to know when and how to use each healing mechanic. Still trying to get better at it myself."

@BlackMadara So last night I tried to switch my skills up and failed pretty freaking badly. One of the things that stood out how difficult it was to actually get in close enough to a target to hit them w/Embers and Whip. Well get close with some HP left that is! That 'Race Against Time' skill's speed burst probably makes all the difference, need to unlock it.

Light Armor MagDK is no easy mode that's for sure. So many different buffs and DOT's need to stay active in order to survive. The challenge is entertaining (whole point after all) and a mDK can be brutal to combat when played well.

What class do you run? I am currently running Argonian, its just ok. My original thought was to run Alchemist with infused Potion Cool Down glyphs but I very much lacked a decent Magicka pool. Running a Light Armor build in BG's means you can get melted with a quickness if you are not careful. The additional healing an Argonian provides does not seem to make much of a difference, once your HP drops it goes damn quick.

BlackMadara

Purdomination33 wrote: »

"@Purdomination33 it is more difficult to heal in spinner due to a large sum of its offensive stats are in pen, which doesnt buff heals except for burning embers. In BGs, I rely on my team to provide off healing, make sure to keep embers on multiple targets, and keep cauterize up. Most of my healing is from cauterize and embers, it takes some getting used to. Only use coag as a last resort. Sometimes, it's even better to fossilize into power lash. That way you you relieve pressure, apply pressure and heal. It takes some practice to know when and how to use each healing mechanic. Still trying to get better at it myself."

@BlackMadara So last night I tried to switch my skills up and failed pretty freaking badly. One of the things that stood out how difficult it was to actually get in close enough to a target to hit them w/Embers and Whip. Well get close with some HP left that is! That 'Race Against Time' skill's speed burst probably makes all the difference, need to unlock it.

Light Armor MagDK is no easy mode that's for sure. So many different buffs and DOT's need to stay active in order to survive. The challenge is entertaining (whole point after all) and a mDK can be brutal to combat when played well.

What class do you run? I am currently running Argonian, its just ok. My original thought was to run Alchemist with infused Potion Cool Down glyphs but I very much lacked a decent Magicka pool. Running a Light Armor build in BG's means you can get melted with a quickness if you are not careful. The additional healing an Argonian provides does not seem to make much of a difference, once your HP drops it goes damn quick.

Approaching an opponent can be difficult with this set up. What I will normally do is, use ele drain from distance, light attack, bar swap, wings, race, and then sprint. Now this depends on numbers. In BGs, try to stick with your team, it makes a big difference.

Light armor is more difficult in terms of survival, but once you get the hang of the buff uptime and DoTs, you melt people. The damage is worth it imo. I played different Heavy armor builds before, but the kill pressure in light has shown me the light (pun intended).

I run a Dark Elf because I am greedy and wanted to the extra damage when I started the game. My second choice in race would definitely be Argonian. The potential sustain is crazy, not only with HP but with mag and stam too. My advice is to learn how to utilize blocking. This is harder in no CP but still doable. If you are still having a hard time, I suggest running a sustain set instead of damage. Bloodthorne is a good choice. It was what i originally paired with Pariah. When I started noticing that I would have more mag and stam at the end of fights, due to better resource management, I started to try different damage sets. It takes practice to know when to go offensive and how, when to go defensive and how, when to LoS, when to CC etc.

Purdomination33

Ha should have clarified, by "horrible" I mean I was sometimes outside the top 4 in overall score <-humble brag much. Trying to finetune things so that I can consistently get top score or close to it. A lot depends on matchups really. Groups with a good healer and a ranged Snipe-*** can be tricky.

Common knowledge but damn, the lack of execute is an absolute killer! I bet I legit miss out on 5+ kills per match. And Bloodthirsty is hardly the answer. Why should this be the only class forced to transmute jewelry sacrificing valuable Magicka to gain a paultry boost when every other classes have easy access to a real execute? And not like 10% going to make a huge difference. If my whip hits for 5,500 tooltip in BG's that 10% makes it around 6,100 for one hit at most? How about a 300% bonus like other executes?!?!

Off the top of my head I cannot think of a single execute skill a mDK can realistically utilize...am I overlooking something??

TheStealthDude

Purdomination33 wrote: »

"@Purdomination33 it is more difficult to heal in spinner due to a large sum of its offensive stats are in pen, which doesnt buff heals except for burning embers. In BGs, I rely on my team to provide off healing, make sure to keep embers on multiple targets, and keep cauterize up. Most of my healing is from cauterize and embers, it takes some getting used to. Only use coag as a last resort. Sometimes, it's even better to fossilize into power lash. That way you you relieve pressure, apply pressure and heal. It takes some practice to know when and how to use each healing mechanic. Still trying to get better at it myself."

@BlackMadara So last night I tried to switch my skills up and failed pretty freaking badly. One of the things that stood out how difficult it was to actually get in close enough to a target to hit them w/Embers and Whip. Well get close with some HP left that is! That 'Race Against Time' skill's speed burst probably makes all the difference, need to unlock it.

Consider Empowering Chains in place of Race against Time. Its a gap closer that has decent damage, gives a couple empower buffs AND gives Major Expedition. Its a more aggrrssive option for mobility, but I have been enjoying it significantly in BGs.

Ariades_swe

I tried your build but with overwhelming instead of bsw since I can't be arsed farming. I start to love pariah coming from impreg.
I've been trying out resto staff instead of s&b as well but I think as of this patch s&b is the way to go.
Playstyle is a bit similar to my destro/s&b magplar but with access to a superior cc.

BlackMadara

@Purdomination33 Don't bother with bloodthirsty. I ran so calculations, and if you are bursting someone down, 1, 2, or 3 bloodthirsty would rarely get you any more kills. You lose damage on preexecute, and it doesn't make up for it in many situations in execute range. Most of the time, you will get the kill anyway, so just retain damage with arcane.

No execute kinda sucks, but it is manageable if you set your burst up at certain health thresholds of the enemy. This depends on that enemies defenses.

@TheStealthDude I also like empowering chains, but for open world, race against time has performed better. I can literally run down streaking sorcs, and use it to reposition. I am liking chains for BGs though.

@Ariades_swe Yes, join the pariah club! I agree with S&B over resto. It is more forgiving and mDK has a lot healing potential anyway.

Master_Kas

This was pretty solid thanks.

Currently running it without the willpower staff as I still haven't got a BSW 1h. I'm using it with vampire, and slotted chains instead of race against time. Pretty effective so far

TheStealthDude

Pariah is such an underrated set and is now going to stay as a staple for my Light Armor mDK!

For BGs last night, I tried out switching my front bar weapon to a 2H sword and swapped Ferocious Leap for Onslaught, as well as swapping out Axiom for BSW. It was pretty interesting and had mixed results.

The meta still seems to largely favor Stamina classes at the moment (in my observations), so I thought Onslaught might be a useful ultimate to get around Major Evasion and heavy armor. I had some matches where I was making really good use of Onslaught as a combined offensive, defensive, and resource sustain tool. I also had some matches where I felt like it was too clunky compared to leap or just wasnt getting the killing blows like I expected. However, part of that my be due to me not really proccing BSW as much as I need to and/or me just not being able to track when its up/down in the midst of combat, as well as general inexperience in PvP (compared to many of the regular players here).

I might try out Julianos instead and see if the consistent spell damage helps. Has anyone else tried Onslaught recently on magDK for no-CP PvP? Would love to hear from someone better than me on their experience with it and would challenge others to try it out!

gepe87

I'm trying this build and im enjoying. Can you tell me if Spell Strategist could work? More damage uptime (still lower than bsw) and get more spell damage (from SS 3rd piece) instead spell crit (from BSW 3rd piece). Spell crit on noCP is garbage

BlackMadara

gepe87 wrote: »

I'm trying this build and im enjoying. Can you tell me if Spell Strategist could work? More damage uptime (still lower than bsw) and get more spell damage (from SS 3rd piece) instead spell crit (from BSW 3rd piece). Spell crit on noCP is garbage

I utilize BSW due to it being able to proc on the back bar. This allows me to use willpower front bar for more damage. If spell strategist proc carries over from back to front bar, without having 5 pc front bar, then it can work.

Also, this build is focused on CP open world PVP. I am currently theory-crafting something better suited for battlegrounds.

Jakx

Thinking about trying fortified brass until I can get the right Pariah pieces. Its an interesting build and wanna get in there to see how it feels.

mursie

I've been struggling hard in no-cp bg's on the magdk. I'm at a point to try just about anything but pariah just baffles me. The entire idea of it seems counter to the way dmg is done in this game. I'd much rather be proactive and mitigate the damage on the front end to ensure I don't get into the lethal execute range of just about every class over having my defenses ramp up at exactly the point in time that everyone's damage ramps up. Basically - you're eating tons of dmg at the beginning of the fight with low mitigation and then banking on higher mitigation at very low health levels..at exactly the point in time when people are now able to nuke you with extreme execute dmg. the outcome is usually the same = death.

not to mention, it seemed like health had to drop to nearly 20% before u truly got the full pariah effect.

As of today, I am beginning to think you have to use a flame staff to actually do any meaningful damage in pvp. and you have to be in light armor. I was trying to execute dmg on a snb bar with a resto back bar but I just don't think it gets the job done.

two major issues in bg's: the mdk damage is somewhat mediocre - no execute. creating a need to apply more control and pressure to whittle a target down for a kill. Yet - in bg's the aoe dmg being thrown around by the stam variants is so quick and so strong that sitting around trying to apply pressure is nearly impossible. death will happen way before you're able to apply enough dmg.

FML