Hey Magblades! How's Murkmire for you?

brandonv516

I run two Magblades - a healer and a ranged damage build. Most of what I will discuss is related to Battlegrounds as that is what I participate in, but feel free to share your experiences in all PvP related content. I'm seeing a lack of Magblades in Battlegrounds and it feels a bit disheartening but I still believe in making the class work.

Healer - Maybe it's people finally taking NB healers serious enough to put focus on you or maybe there's just more damage in Murkmire, but those Healthy Offering stacks are rough keeping up with. I've considered using Naga Shaman over Shacklebreaker and going with Shrewd Offering for the reduced health penalty. This will give me Minor Mending, Major Mending, Minor Vitality, and Major Vitality (with Blackrose Resto Staff*).

Still running in heavy armor but seriously considering light armor. For monster sets I like Earthgore, Chokethorn, Bloodspawn, and Troll King.

Ranged Damage - I give credit to anyone who can run with Swallow Soul. I understand the healing potential of it but it just feels weak in PvP - and MagDKs especially make the skill even more of a joke. So I run Force Pulse and I love it! And to compliment this skill, I run Torug's with an Infused Inferno Staff. I tested all of the enchants for my damage bar but in the end they all felt inferior to Flame.

Running light armor with Blackrose Resto Staff (Berserker enchant) on backbar. For monster sets I like Troll King, Engine Guardian, or Bloodspawn. I would consider Elemental Weapon but from what I've seen it doesn't proc Caluurions (my other set). Caluurions is a good choice even for Ranged Magblade and I can make it extremely effective as you can see in this short clip:

https://youtu.be/hgLdyA4Kxhs

*If you haven't got a Blackrose Resto Staff yet, I encourage you to get it - it's very good and helps make up for the Healing Ward nerf. You don't even need the Perfected one unless you feel you must have it. The duration is short and it can get expensive if you spam it, but there is no cooldown on the buff.

So just a few questions:
Are you still playing Magblade?
What are your opinions on the class?
What do you have trouble with?
Do you think melee Magblade is viable after Murkmire?

Also if you have any Battlegrounds clips from after Murkmire, post them here! Love to see other perspectives - I'll share some of my own if any are interested.

Metemsycosis

Yes when I use a staff I also use force pulse. Everything else does 2.2k/ hit. And returns 340 health. Pathetic.

NB healers have always been good and now they're a bit better. Still believe fear is Central or vital to making it work so that hasn't changed. I run the path with muta and don't mind the sting of agony 2.0

I have trouble with stampede+ hurricane, rending slashes+ jabs, caltrops+ nado, etc. Basically things that constantly drain stamina combined with heavy AoE. I use mist for snare removal and it gets costly.

This patch I have to admit I like full heavy with 40k+ max Magicka, 27-30k health. Nice balance.

Light armor is good too but it's more difficult to hit the health I want to avoid burst. Much sweeter damage than ever tho. (recently zapped someone with a 14.6k merciless proc using juli, spinners, Kena).

kaithuzar

Sure every once in a blue moon you run into a squish noob that you can melt when kena procs but typically everyone in Cyrodiil is tanking for days.

Everyone except mag sorc & some stamblades are running s&b

A short rundown of the fights/what other players are thinking when they kill me

Mag warden - tank tank tank (shimmering shield w/s&b)...permafrost & I’m dead
(Whether you can see permafrost is debatable), forward momentum nerf makes it difficult to get out of even w/13k stam

Magplar - oh did you incap/soul harvest me? I couldn’t tell because I’m an Argonian healbot w/disease resistance running s&b spamming breath of life; you’ll die to my radiant + skoria if my friends don’t zerg you first

Magdk - flap flap (like always) so sorry to hear about the agony change but guess what?! I can still meteor + fossilize you , but what am I saying leap works so much better! Oh shoot my skoria killed you instead #inevitable

Stam warden - you wut bro? Have some beetles with dawnbreaker & steel potato; you died so fast I don’t even remember you.

Magsorcs - we cried so much that they actually gave us a buff! I bet you’ll run out of resources before I do (spam shields, streak, full sustain build & still hits for 5k on every attack)...

Stam sorc - speed might suck but so do you trying to deal with bleeds & the largest persistent aoe in game #GoodLuckCloaking
I guarantee implosion is on the death recap

Stam nb - running 14k+ mag I can cloak just as good & still kill you w/multiple 10k snipes that hit at the exact same time

Other magblades - if I bring my dueling build into Cyrodiil I can guarantee 1 kill...

Knootewoot

Are you still playing Magblade?

Yes, it is the only class i like.

What are your opinions on the class?

It is great fun, but challenging. Especially running a melee magblade in light armor without Caluurion

What do you have trouble with?

Mostly DK's. That's because magDK's who whip me to death with flame whip since i am also a vampire.

Do you think melee Magblade is viable after Murkmire?

Yes. I run DW melee magblade in light armor.
I cannot show my face and not die though. There is always another NB nearby who can one-shot me (even with full impenetrable and radiant magelight on and 23k health). So i have to stay hidden.
I don't have caluurions, so i rely on other damage sets like Warmaiden. I also like to wear Kragnerac's hope because it gives extra health/recovery and 220 damage and i can rez people quick
I do prefer Skoria over Zaan. Because of the extra health mainly. I do have Zaan but hardly use it.

Overall Melee magblade is a very hard to play class. Outnumbered i cannot do much except flee or die. I use DW, but sometimes use flamestaff just to toss people of walls (which don't work anymore).
Ranged i use when i do PvE tough.

Vapirko

Magblade is my for fun class, so I’m not claiming to be much good at it. But man have I been struggling this patch. I was running my old build of war maiden and lich and skoria but the light armor shield just isn’t good enough anymore and healing ward is mostly useless. So I went heavy armor with shacklebrealer and bright throat but it’s not much better. The lack of a good heal outside of swallow soul is miserable. Anyone got any pointers if I want to salvage this class?

Sparr0w

Well every aspect of stamblade (PvE wise) got the nerf hammer.

Stamblade DD are still fine

Magblade DD got sustain wrecked, so not good here.

Tankblade got sustain nerfed, damage mitigation nerfed, couple sets and playstyles dead.

Healblade got nerfed, sustain & dps wise.

Does also translate to PvP, sustain is worse, healing is worse, vitality removed, dodge removed.

Also shade is broken, plus bow gets dodged by any competent player so yeah...

arkansas_ESO

Vapirko wrote: »

Magblade is my for fun class, so I’m not claiming to be much good at it. But man have I been struggling this patch. I was running my old build of war maiden and lich and skoria but the light armor shield just isn’t good enough anymore and healing ward is mostly useless. So I went heavy armor with shacklebrealer and bright throat but it’s not much better. The lack of a good heal outside of swallow soul is miserable. Anyone got any pointers if I want to salvage this class?

Short answer: there isn't, this is life on a class without a burst heal.

Long answer: you can either build around invisibility and mobility and pray you never get hit, or you can try to build around the Dark Cloak morph and use it as a weaker, magicka version of Vigor. Try running something like 5pc Impregnable, 5pc Spinner's/Strategist/Moon Hunter on your front bar, with the Black Rose resto staff on your back bar and Valkyn or Balorgh as your monster set. You need to have at least 30k health to make the Dark Cloak heal worthwhile, so run prismatics and be an Argonian.

Neloth

Yes, magNB is in a good place balance-wise, but it has several already-mentioned problems:

- shade works only on flat terrain, so no more wall- and tower-kiting
- ass will is too easy to dodge, even easier than frag. Yes, it works after incap or fear or clench on potatoes, but decent players CC break and roll dodge before it lands. I really think they should remove its sound to begin with, if travel time delay stays.

On the other hand cloak is OP, it allowes much easier solo open world compared to other classes. NB skills are generally multi-effective, so you don’t have a bar space problem (for example you get resists buff just for using shadow skills). Sustain is also very good, as usual.

Heresyall

Magnb is fine on cp but on no cp it feels so weak with the increase of the number of the dks

Datthaw

I've been running bgs, and with all the changes I switched from heavy brawler to cloak abuse. I can pretty much 1 shot most people from cloak combo but man... if they look at me I die.

frostz417

kaithuzar wrote: »

Sure every once in a blue moon you run into a squish noob that you can melt when kena procs but typically everyone in Cyrodiil is tanking for days.

Everyone except mag sorc & some stamblades are running s&b

A short rundown of the fights/what other players are thinking when they kill me

Mag warden - tank tank tank (shimmering shield w/s&b)...permafrost & I’m dead
(Whether you can see permafrost is debatable), forward momentum nerf makes it difficult to get out of even w/13k stam

Magplar - oh did you incap/soul harvest me? I couldn’t tell because I’m an Argonian healbot w/disease resistance running s&b spamming breath of life; you’ll die to my radiant + skoria if my friends don’t zerg you first

Magdk - flap flap (like always) so sorry to hear about the agony change but guess what?! I can still meteor + fossilize you , but what am I saying leap works so much better! Oh shoot my skoria killed you instead #inevitable

Stam warden - you wut bro? Have some beetles with dawnbreaker & steel potato; you died so fast I don’t even remember you.

Magsorcs - we cried so much that they actually gave us a buff! I bet you’ll run out of resources before I do (spam shields, streak, full sustain build & still hits for 5k on every attack)...

Stam sorc - speed might suck but so do you trying to deal with bleeds & the largest persistent aoe in game #GoodLuckCloaking
I guarantee implosion is on the death recap

Stam nb - running 14k+ mag I can cloak just as good & still kill you w/multiple 10k snipes that hit at the exact same time

Other magblades - if I bring my dueling build into Cyrodiil I can guarantee 1 kill...

Best post I’ve ever seen

Vapirko

arkansas_ESO wrote: »

Vapirko wrote: »

Magblade is my for fun class, so I’m not claiming to be much good at it. But man have I been struggling this patch. I was running my old build of war maiden and lich and skoria but the light armor shield just isn’t good enough anymore and healing ward is mostly useless. So I went heavy armor with shacklebrealer and bright throat but it’s not much better. The lack of a good heal outside of swallow soul is miserable. Anyone got any pointers if I want to salvage this class?

Short answer: there isn't, this is life on a class without a burst heal.

Long answer: you can either build around invisibility and mobility and pray you never get hit, or you can try to build around the Dark Cloak morph and use it as a weaker, magicka version of Vigor. Try running something like 5pc Impregnable, 5pc Spinner's/Strategist/Moon Hunter on your front bar, with the Black Rose resto staff on your back bar and Valkyn or Balorgh as your monster set. You need to have at least 30k health to make the Dark Cloak heal worthwhile, so run prismatics and be an Argonian.

I was trying the beak morph of dark cloak but it just kinda suck. Looks like I might put my magblade to rest for a bit.

jaime1982

I play magnb daily, only a few months in but I like it so far.

PapaWeeb

kaithuzar wrote: »

Everyone except mag sorc & some stamblades are running s&b

I'll have you know my magsorc has a s&b

CavalryPK

I played magblades since beta. I recently changed to magsorc. and PVP suddenly became more fun. being able to have control of terrain... (streak) is super important.

with magblades without 2hander if you get rooted and snared... you are done.

brandonv516

Vapirko wrote: »

Magblade is my for fun class, so I’m not claiming to be much good at it. But man have I been struggling this patch. I was running my old build of war maiden and lich and skoria but the light armor shield just isn’t good enough anymore and healing ward is mostly useless. So I went heavy armor with shacklebrealer and bright throat but it’s not much better. The lack of a good heal outside of swallow soul is miserable. Anyone got any pointers if I want to salvage this class?

Dampen/Harness in my opinion is just a waste of resources. I use Refreshing Path on my front bar and Healing Ward, Siphoning Attacks, & Resto Ultimate on my back bar. That's it for healing (unless you count Engine Guardian).

I used Heavy Armor right when Murkmire dropped but it was so weak in regards to output damage that it made me want to vomit. And you would think because a severe loss in damage, you would be super tanky right? Nope, you melt fast compared to Heavy Armor Stamina builds. So I went Light Armor and I don't use Dampen/Harness - instead I use Cloak + Shade strategically and I crutch on the Resto Ultimate when I really need it.

CavalryPK wrote: »

I played magblades since beta. I recently changed to magsorc. and PVP suddenly became more fun. being able to have control of terrain... (streak) is super important.

with magblades without 2hander if you get rooted and snared... you are done.

This is very disappointing. I've seen a lot of your content and I'm really sorry to hear you've lost interest in Magblade.

To anyone feeling like Magblade is a lost cause, I'd really like to share a short clip of some BGs action. It might not be everyone's playstyle but this is how I feel like I have to play to compete:

https://youtu.be/UACjOdx-XH0

Not many kills to display I'll admit (not like the Sorcerer getting his Guard on lol) but hopefully gives others ideas of where to go from here.

Metemsycosis

I like that your team won and you didn't die. That's just as important in TDM.

25k health is good when you don't use dampen/harness and teleport is superior fight control anyway. Also like the double dipping of siphon+ele drain -- very clever. I'm not sure I like soul harvest on an almost purely ranged build, tho; personally, I'd pick meteor or even tether so if you get ganged up on you have strong AoE.

Knootewoot

CavalryPK wrote: »

I played magblades since beta. I recently changed to magsorc. and PVP suddenly became more fun. being able to have control of terrain... (streak) is super important.

with magblades without 2hander if you get rooted and snared... you are done.

You left us 😪

brandonv516

Metemsycosis wrote: »

I like that your team won and you didn't die. That's just as important in TDM.

25k health is good when you don't use dampen/harness and teleport is superior fight control anyway. Also like the double dipping of siphon+ele drain -- very clever. I'm not sure I like soul harvest on an almost purely ranged build, tho; personally, I'd pick meteor or even tether so if you get ganged up on you have strong AoE.

Thanks for the response.

I was more of a distraction than anything else at the end lol, allowing teammates to catch us up.

I cycle through the ultimates you spoke of above and I probably should have used something different. I do like Incap for when I can get a Concealed/Caluurion's proc off on a lonely target - wrong match for that though.

Soul Assault is another option when an enemy is dangerously low but against good players it's just too risky.

I'm actually testing Dawnbreaker right now and it's powerful on magicka too (when it doesn't disappear).

brandonv516

These are some weaknesses/issues I brought up to Class Rep @Tasear in another thread:

-Too many reflectable ranged skills
*Cripple or Impale (only reflectable execute in the game) needs to go through reflect

-Cripple needs a HoT morph as it's the only skill in the NB healing tree without one

-Refreshing Path heal is weak/promotes teammates to leave the healing area with Major Expedition/the loss of damage limits exposing other NBs
*Should provide a debuff to enemies in the path

-Healing Ward nerf hurt Magblade a lot (Blackrose Resto helps some)

-Shade has been buggy for many players specifically regarding elevated summoning

-Soul Tether very susceptible to same glitches as missing Dawnbreakers

What do you guys think?

Tasear

Sharing thread for other class reps to see too.

Solariken

kaithuzar wrote: »

Stam warden - you wut bro? Have some beetles with dawnbreaker & steel potato; you died so fast I don’t even remember you.

Lol the whole post had some truth to it but this one is especially funny (because it's true).

Minno

Solariken wrote: »

kaithuzar wrote: »

Stam warden - you wut bro? Have some beetles with dawnbreaker & steel potato; you died so fast I don’t even remember you.

Lol the whole post had some truth to it but this one is especially funny (because it's true).

Lol steel 🥔

Knootewoot

I wear 7 light armor and have the passives from CP. How can I tell how much penetration I have, and how many is advice?
I have the magical version of Spriggan ( forgot name hehe)
Is it better then earlier for example?

I know our stamina counterparts prefer Spriggan over automaton.

Heimpai

Knootewoot wrote: »

I wear 7 light armor and have the passives from CP. How can I tell how much penetration I have, and how many is advice?
I have the magical version of Spriggan ( forgot name hehe)
Is it better then earlier for example?

I know our stamina counterparts prefer Spriggan over automaton.

There’s an add on for it idr the name

Aju‘s penetration display or harvens extended stats if you want more than penetration

HowlKimchi

After some time with murkmire,

I am still having fun with my destro/resto magblade. Offense is still backloaded but burst is still very lethal even with defensive sets. I am currently running 5-11 light with a defensive set on on both bars, a front bar offensive set, and a blackrose resto back bar.

Magblade playstyle is still my favorite in BGs and in Open world. While snares are indeed my biggest hurdle, Shade when it works is still king. And if the shade is down, the light armor passives and my build (lots of hots) somewhat give me breathing room to lay down the shade, make room, cloak and disengage. I have some clips of myself being able to get away from large groups of people who chase me down after going deep to get a kill, and even a few 1v2s and 3s ending with me either killing all of them, or getting a few of them and disengaging succesfully.

The change to major evasion is pretty nice for my burst since it’s more guarenteed, but I hate the small delay on the spectral bow they added. My ping (I live in SEA) makes it harder to combo it with mass hysteria so I have to be more unpredictable with it when against people who know what they’re doing, sometimes firing it off first out of nowhere and then doing the hysteria->soul harvest->spam swallow soul/concealed to finish them off, yes it’s a damage loss for the bow and it might be blocked, but it’s better than it missing completely. It’s easier to stack attacks this patch for the bow anyway.

Overall I love the utility and burst and trickery magblade brings to the table, but I still wish some changes were reverted (namely loss of minor vitality, spectral bow delay, and dot of refreshing path), which were all collateral damage to magblades because of magblade PVE, and stamblade PVP over-performance.

On a final note, my bar space is crowded this patch more than ever, and I am forced to use pots to get major sorcery. I wish we had an easier time getting the buff since if I am forced to use a tripot or immov pot (godamn snares), I am losing 20% damage for the whole cooldown. I believe that an offensive class by archetype/design should have an easy time in getting major sorcery outside of combat without relying on a pot.

brandonv516

HaruKamui wrote: »

After some time with murkmire,

I am still having fun with my destro/resto magblade. Offense is still backloaded but burst is still very lethal even with defensive sets. I am currently running 5-11 light with a defensive set on on both bars, a front bar offensive set, and a blackrose resto back bar.

Magblade playstyle is still my favorite in BGs and in Open world. While snares are indeed my biggest hurdle, Shade when it works is still king. And if the shade is down, the light armor passives and my build (lots of hots) somewhat give me breathing room to lay down the shade, make room, cloak and disengage. I have some clips of myself being able to get away from large groups of people who chase me down after going deep to get a kill, and even a few 1v2s and 3s ending with me either killing all of them, or getting a few of them and disengaging succesfully.

The change to major evasion is pretty nice for my burst since it’s more guarenteed, but I hate the small delay on the spectral bow they added. My ping (I live in SEA) makes it harder to combo it with mass hysteria so I have to be more unpredictable with it when against people who know what they’re doing, sometimes firing it off first out of nowhere and then doing the hysteria->soul harvest->spam swallow soul/concealed to finish them off, yes it’s a damage loss for the bow and it might be blocked, but it’s better than it missing completely. It’s easier to stack attacks this patch for the bow anyway.

Overall I love the utility and burst and trickery magblade brings to the table, but I still wish some changes were reverted (namely loss of minor vitality, spectral bow delay, and dot of refreshing path), which were all collateral damage to magblades because of magblade PVE, and stamblade PVP over-performance.

On a final note, my bar space is crowded this patch more than ever, and I am forced to use pots to get major sorcery. I wish we had an easier time getting the buff since if I am forced to use a tripot or immov pot (godamn snares), I am losing 20% damage for the whole cooldown. I believe that an offensive class by archetype/design should have an easy time in getting major sorcery outside of combat without relying on a pot.

Thanks for sharing. Would love to see clips too! Glad to hear you are making the most of what we have to work with.

What would you like to see as a source of Major Sorcerery? Make Sap Essence provide it even without a target? A different skill altogether?

CatchMeTrolling

There’s an influx of dks in bgs, that’s a good reason not to play magblade. Plus, all the snares and roots.

The average player is going to pick up something different to play.

Brutusmax1mus

Im running btb and armor master on both my mnb n msorc. It's pretty nice. Definitely not hiting 14k assassins will any more though.

Vapirko

Why did Assassins will need to be easier to dodge while Snipe was made harder to dodge? Doesn’t make sense. AW was never a problem pre Murkmire, now it’s a half joke.

brandonv516

CatchMeTrolling wrote: »

There’s an influx of dks in bgs, that’s a good reason not to play magblade. Plus, all the snares and roots.

The average player is going to pick up something different to play.

I noticed that too lol. DK is a real Goliath this patch!