[Build] Light Armor Support Magplar for No CP -- BGs and Small Scale (Murkmire)

Kartalin

I want to lead with an apology for continuing this snare/root BS, but I finally reached a point where I figured I might as well do it too. Also I haven't finished leveling my magden, so I put this together on my magplar where arguably it might work better, at least what I'm doing.

Goal
The idea behind this build is to play a support role for teammates as well as provide some offense as well. Because we run light armor and ele drain we have quite a bit of spell penetration so our skills are still doing decent damage. In a one versus one scenario we can kill potatoes but it's of questionable effectiveness against more skilled opponents. So it's not a solo build, I want to stress that. We'll be able to keep a small team alive while simultaneously pestering opponents with roots and snares.

Gear - as shown in screenshot, build video, and gameplay video

• 5 Hist Sap
• 5 Gossamer
• 2 Pirate Skeleton

5 light armor, 1 medium, 1 heavy for undaunted bonuses (both 5 piece sets are light armor so you'll need med and heavy monster pieces) and includes 3 protective jewelry. Charged Ice staff and Infused Resto staff, 1 spell damage glyph, 2 magicka recovery glyphs, purple tri-food, and the Atronach mundus.



Equipment and Other Options
Hist Sap is the base of the build. Since it has been updated to include snares and immobilizations it has a pretty high uptime, what with all the snares being thrown around by basically everyone nowadays. I've gone with Gossamer here which can proc a major evasion buff (25% AOE damage reduction) for 6 seconds and Pirate Skeleton which gives a 6% chance on any damage to gain major protection for 12 seconds with essentially a 3 second cooldown between potential procs. Since making the videos that are linked below, I've been playing around with Valkyn Skoria as an alternative to Pirate Skeleton. This reduces our resistances a bit but gives more health putting us at 23.5k, and arguably our resistances will be good enough already with the protective jewelry. Another option that I have yet to explore but am looking forward to trying is replacing Gossamer with Transmutation, in which case a Transmutation resto would be back barred with a Willpower staff front bar as I do not have a Master or Maelstrom Ice staff. Since we're using both Frost Reach and Blockade of Frost both arena weapons are viable, with the vDSA staff the better option of the two. Switching Gossamer to Transmutation will essentially trade magicka for magicka recovery if we look at the set bonuses, so we can adjust other parts of the build accordingly if we like. We could change one jewelry enchant to spell damage instead of recovery, and, especially if we go with Skoria over Pirate Skelly, we can change our health glyphs to either tri-glyphs or magicka glyphs. Builds like this that use protective jewelry over arcane tend to have a little less max magicka, understandably, but we make up for that in survivability.

The protective jewelry is key in allowing us to fight in light armor and not constantly be concerned about going on the defensive and healing, especially if we also run resto ult. The ice staff is charged so we increase our chance of immobilizing opponents with blockade of frost. Currently I am using an infused resto, this could easily be switched to a powered or defensive resto if desired.



Buffed Stats - non CP (with tri-food and spell power pot active and standing in rune, no campaign buffs outside of battle spirit)

Note: I have since switched up my weapon enchants, with the weapon damage enchant on the resto and absorb magicka enchant on the destro.

Potions
Since we aren't running entropy Spell Power Potions (major sorcery, major prophecy, magicka) are probably the best option. In the vids you see me talking about and running immovable potions, but I've since changed my mind on this. I also mention that lingering health pots are an alternative -- they work well in conjunction with Hist sap, basically because you end up doubling down on the health return -- but I've found that getting the extra magicka and major buffs from spell power potions make the most sense.

Skills

Ice Staff:

1. Frost Reach
2. Elemental Drain
3. Blockade of Frost
4. Purifying Light
5. Total Dark
6. Crescent Sweep

Resto:

1. Elusive Mist
2. Extended Ritual
3. Reflective Light
4. Honor the Dead
5. Channeled Focus
6. Light's Champion

Skill Alternatives
If you play in a more stamina heavy group then I would recommend swapping Ele Drain (which doesn't help your teammates much) for a mobility skill like Explosive Charge. Notice I'm supporting Explosive Charge over Toppling. Two reasons: one, this gives you an AOE interrupt ability, and two, it doesn't automatically CC opponents leaving your teammates' Dawnbreakers to still knock them down. The only other skill I might consider replacing, since we're running spell power pots now, is taking off Reflective Light. This would let us move either Purifying Light or Total Dark to the back bar and run Radiant Glory on the front bar. I would only suggest making this change if you feel you need a legitimate execute, i.e. in a battleground to combat enemy magsorcs trying to kill-steal. Generally your allies will have a more useful (non-cast time/channel) execute so this would not typically be a high priority switch.

Videos

Build Video -- about 20 minutes in length

https://youtu.be/ulkvgUuANS8

Gameplay Video -- also about 20 minutes in length, features 1 full deathmatch (basically), highlights of a second deathmatch, and an open world fight.

https://youtu.be/j87DvT3D5ao

Please reply with any questions, thanks for reading!

Brutusmax1mus

I can't read the actual heal per second of the hist healing, what is it?

What is the average uptime of gossamer you've found?

Kartalin

Hist sap gives me a tool tip of 2930 in the build video (without major sorc, not sure how that affects it), this amounts to just under 1500 per second with battle spirit.

For Gossamer, I think my uptime is somewhere around 25-35% which is part of why I want to try out Transmutation instead. If I was running more of a dedicated healer build (i.e. with healing springs spam), I think Gossamer would work better.

Brutusmax1mus

I highly recommend transmutation

Grimlok_S

You'd have a much better uptime on trans. If your teammates are stambros they'll likely have evasion up one way or another.

Kartalin

Waffennacht

Trans, especially in BGs, is way too valuable compared to gossamer.

Brutusmax1mus wrote: »

I highly recommend transmutation

This

Edit: love the build's concept btw

Minno

Grimlok_S wrote: »

You'd have a much better uptime on trans. If your teammates are stambros they'll likely have evasion up one way or another.

This is why you should use trans. Could also use a selfish alteration mastery or the set that boosts major/minor buff duration.

Mojomonkeyman

Very good build, Im playing something similar. I wouldn't give too much about the punks preaching trans over gossamer - gossamer is the real deal since major evasion changes - especially on classes that have native access to multiple per second hots and major prot for major mitigation stacking. All those heavy impact aoe damage skills from db & spin2win to woe & permafrost get so much more easy to deal with, not just for you but also your group.

That combo allows usually for heavily reduced block uptime, which means stamina sustain will improve a lot and therefore allow for more focus on damage elsewhere. I have around 60-70% average uptime on gossamer in bgs on myself infight, around 30-40% on my grp mates (mag warden - 3 long lasting per sec single target hots: trellis, vines and corrupting synergy + trees as aoe per second hot + afterburn hot from thicket morph).

Id drop hist for a 5-piece that generates points in BGs, so ideally something that either heals your group, deals damage or boosts your stats to increase damage passively.

Edit: Gossamer will proc on lingering hp pot ticks and hp drain poison ticks as well!

Brutusmax1mus

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

Very good build, Im playing something similar. I wouldn't give too much about the punks preaching trans over gossamer - gossamer is the real deal since major evasion changes - especially on classes that have native access to multiple per second hots and major prot for major mitigation stacking. All those heavy impact aoe damage skills from db & spin2win to woe & permafrost get so much more easy to deal with, not just for you but also your group.

That combo allows usually for heavily reduced block uptime, which means stamina sustain will improve a lot and therefore allow for more focus on damage elsewhere. I have around 60-70% average uptime on gossamer in bgs on myself infight, around 30-40% on my grp mates (mag warden - 3 long lasting per sec single target hots: trellis, vines and corrupting synergy + trees as aoe per second hot + afterburn hot from thicket morph).

Id drop hist for a 5-piece that generates points in BGs, so ideally something that either heals your group, deals damage or boosts your stats to increase damage passively.

Gossamer does nothing vs dots/ single target and many people run it themselves. Personally, i'd never rely on a healer to give me a 10% chance at a 6 second buff when i could get so much more out of blade cloak. It suffers from redundancy, and it sounds like poor uptime. So unless you're going in premade where you're teams relying on a chance at the effect, some of your team probably already has it.

Punk.

Mojomonkeyman

Brutusmax1mus wrote: »

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

Very good build, Im playing something similar. I wouldn't give too much about the punks preaching trans over gossamer - gossamer is the real deal since major evasion changes - especially on classes that have native access to multiple per second hots and major prot for major mitigation stacking. All those heavy impact aoe damage skills from db & spin2win to woe & permafrost get so much more easy to deal with, not just for you but also your group.

That combo allows usually for heavily reduced block uptime, which means stamina sustain will improve a lot and therefore allow for more focus on damage elsewhere. I have around 60-70% average uptime on gossamer in bgs on myself infight, around 30-40% on my grp mates (mag warden - 3 long lasting per sec single target hots: trellis, vines and corrupting synergy + trees as aoe per second hot + afterburn hot from thicket morph).

Id drop hist for a 5-piece that generates points in BGs, so ideally something that either heals your group, deals damage or boosts your stats to increase damage passively.

Gossamer does nothing vs dots/ single target and many people run it themselves. Personally, i'd never rely on a healer to give me a 10% chance at a 6 second buff when i could get so much more out of blade cloak. It suffers from redundancy, and it sounds like poor uptime. So unless you're going in premade where you're teams relying on a chance at the effect, some of your team probably already has it.

Punk.

If you can't deal with single target and dot pressure you have a lot to think about, not just sets. Guess we are just not discussing on the same level. What kills people nowadays in team settings is strong aoe combos. At least here on PC EU. OP mentioned several times that he is aiming to create a build for small group/team settings.

haakira

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

Brutusmax1mus wrote: »

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

Very good build, Im playing something similar. I wouldn't give too much about the punks preaching trans over gossamer - gossamer is the real deal since major evasion changes - especially on classes that have native access to multiple per second hots and major prot for major mitigation stacking. All those heavy impact aoe damage skills from db & spin2win to woe & permafrost get so much more easy to deal with, not just for you but also your group.

That combo allows usually for heavily reduced block uptime, which means stamina sustain will improve a lot and therefore allow for more focus on damage elsewhere. I have around 60-70% average uptime on gossamer in bgs on myself infight, around 30-40% on my grp mates (mag warden - 3 long lasting per sec single target hots: trellis, vines and corrupting synergy + trees as aoe per second hot + afterburn hot from thicket morph).

Id drop hist for a 5-piece that generates points in BGs, so ideally something that either heals your group, deals damage or boosts your stats to increase damage passively.

Gossamer does nothing vs dots/ single target and many people run it themselves. Personally, i'd never rely on a healer to give me a 10% chance at a 6 second buff when i could get so much more out of blade cloak. It suffers from redundancy, and it sounds like poor uptime. So unless you're going in premade where you're teams relying on a chance at the effect, some of your team probably already has it.

Punk.

If you can't deal with single target and dot pressure you have a lot to think about, not just sets. Guess we are just not discussing on the same level. What kills people nowadays in team settings is strong aoe combos. At least here on PC EU. OP mentioned several times that he is aiming to create a build for small group/team settings.

Transmutation also has the advantage of you being able to only have it on one bar and use an additional weapon set (blackrose, maelstrom, asylum or just a 2 piece mag recovery like a seducer staff).

Also, knowing that it's 100% uptime vs only 10% is a little bit better when trying to predict and prepare for incoming burst from a team.

But nonetheless, an interesting set.

Brutusmax1mus

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

Brutusmax1mus wrote: »

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

Very good build, Im playing something similar. I wouldn't give too much about the punks preaching trans over gossamer - gossamer is the real deal since major evasion changes - especially on classes that have native access to multiple per second hots and major prot for major mitigation stacking. All those heavy impact aoe damage skills from db & spin2win to woe & permafrost get so much more easy to deal with, not just for you but also your group.

That combo allows usually for heavily reduced block uptime, which means stamina sustain will improve a lot and therefore allow for more focus on damage elsewhere. I have around 60-70% average uptime on gossamer in bgs on myself infight, around 30-40% on my grp mates (mag warden - 3 long lasting per sec single target hots: trellis, vines and corrupting synergy + trees as aoe per second hot + afterburn hot from thicket morph).

Id drop hist for a 5-piece that generates points in BGs, so ideally something that either heals your group, deals damage or boosts your stats to increase damage passively.

Gossamer does nothing vs dots/ single target and many people run it themselves. Personally, i'd never rely on a healer to give me a 10% chance at a 6 second buff when i could get so much more out of blade cloak. It suffers from redundancy, and it sounds like poor uptime. So unless you're going in premade where you're teams relying on a chance at the effect, some of your team probably already has it.

Punk.

If you can't deal with single target and dot pressure you have a lot to think about, not just sets. Guess we are just not discussing on the same level. What kills people nowadays in team settings is strong aoe combos. At least here on PC EU. OP mentioned several times that he is aiming to create a build for small group/team settings.

I never said it's bad, the main reason id choose trans is its ease of use, reliability, uptime, flexibility to back bar, doesn't suffer from redundant buffs (especially for stam builds). He said he's seeing a 35% uptime. That's unpredictable and has no place in a skilled setting.

Neither build should have a hard time keeping your team alive in ground based aoe dots.

Glory

Nice work. I've run similar setups in the past, and I've come to many of the same conclusions (protective + LA, etc.).

Regarding Gossamer, I agree with your assessment that is is a valuable buff, but I think the set needs a buff on its uptime to make it really worth running. There are just too many other ways to gain major evasion in this game to keep Gossamer @ 10% chance on hot ticking for only 6 seconds.

I wish they would up it to a higher proc chance (40% chance on healing or something?) or a longer uptime (15 seconds when it procs?).

Kartalin

Definitely, even 20% proc chance would be a good improvement -- with just Ritual running you would have around a 50% uptime on average for Gossamer at that point. 30-40% would make it truly viable.

Ran in a group of 8 last night and since the other magplar was already using Trans so I went ahead and used Gossamer. I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off with SPC or even Kags at this point though (Olorime would be great if I ever bothered to do normal trials anymore). I did record it though so I hope to have some more gameplay to add to this thread at some point.

airilie

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

If you can't deal with single target and dot pressure you have a lot to think about, not just sets. Guess we are just not discussing on the same level. What kills people nowadays in team settings is strong aoe combos. At least here on PC EU. OP mentioned several times that he is aiming to create a build for small group/team settings.

Uh, what? Single target attacks deal more damage, and there is no limit to how many people could be hitting you. I mean I get the point you're trying to make, but acting like ST damage is negligible is ridiculous

Brutusmax1mus

Kartalin wrote: »

Definitely, even 20% proc chance would be a good improvement -- with just Ritual running you would have around a 50% uptime on average for Gossamer at that point. 30-40% would make it truly viable.

Ran in a group of 8 last night and since the other magplar was already using Trans so I went ahead and used Gossamer. I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off with SPC or even Kags at this point though (Olorime would be great if I ever bothered to do normal trials anymore). I did record it though so I hope to have some more gameplay to add to this thread at some point.

Spc, trans, reposte should be in every group larger than 5 imo.

Minno

Kartalin wrote: »

Definitely, even 20% proc chance would be a good improvement -- with just Ritual running you would have around a 50% uptime on average for Gossamer at that point. 30-40% would make it truly viable.

Ran in a group of 8 last night and since the other magplar was already using Trans so I went ahead and used Gossamer. I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off with SPC or even Kags at this point though (Olorime would be great if I ever bothered to do normal trials anymore). I did record it though so I hope to have some more gameplay to add to this thread at some point.

Don't be afraid of jourvalds. Lights champion will give Major protection for longer on friendly targets and your will give out minor sorcery for longer. If trans+SPC are already used, can't go wrong with increasing buffs/debuffs on Jourvalds.

Kartalin

Brutusmax1mus wrote: »

Kartalin wrote: »

Definitely, even 20% proc chance would be a good improvement -- with just Ritual running you would have around a 50% uptime on average for Gossamer at that point. 30-40% would make it truly viable.

Ran in a group of 8 last night and since the other magplar was already using Trans so I went ahead and used Gossamer. I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off with SPC or even Kags at this point though (Olorime would be great if I ever bothered to do normal trials anymore). I did record it though so I hope to have some more gameplay to add to this thread at some point.

Spc, trans, reposte should be in every group larger than 5 imo.

Definitely, and I forgot about riposte. Got plenty of both it and SPC so I will prep them for that scenario.

Good thing I'm sitting on twenty-five 50 crystal geodes still, for moments like this...

Kartalin

.

Minno wrote: »

Kartalin wrote: »

Definitely, even 20% proc chance would be a good improvement -- with just Ritual running you would have around a 50% uptime on average for Gossamer at that point. 30-40% would make it truly viable.

Ran in a group of 8 last night and since the other magplar was already using Trans so I went ahead and used Gossamer. I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off with SPC or even Kags at this point though (Olorime would be great if I ever bothered to do normal trials anymore). I did record it though so I hope to have some more gameplay to add to this thread at some point.

Don't be afraid of jourvalds. Lights champion will give Major protection for longer on friendly targets and your will give out minor sorcery for longer. If trans+SPC are already used, can't go wrong with increasing buffs/debuffs on Jourvalds.

Only afraid of having to farm it, lol. At least I can do it on normal difficulty now and improve jewelry to purple.

Minno

Kartalin wrote: »

.

Minno wrote: »

Kartalin wrote: »

Definitely, even 20% proc chance would be a good improvement -- with just Ritual running you would have around a 50% uptime on average for Gossamer at that point. 30-40% would make it truly viable.

Ran in a group of 8 last night and since the other magplar was already using Trans so I went ahead and used Gossamer. I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off with SPC or even Kags at this point though (Olorime would be great if I ever bothered to do normal trials anymore). I did record it though so I hope to have some more gameplay to add to this thread at some point.

Don't be afraid of jourvalds. Lights champion will give Major protection for longer on friendly targets and your will give out minor sorcery for longer. If trans+SPC are already used, can't go wrong with increasing buffs/debuffs on Jourvalds.

Only afraid of having to farm it, lol. At least I can do it on normal difficulty now and improve jewelry to purple.

OH DAMN FORGOT ABOUT FARMING PVE

Kartalin

Some more gameplay video as promised above:

https://youtu.be/zbB5_D_P_Qo

1 MagDK, 2 Magplars, 1 Magden, 1 Magsorc, 1 Stamsorc, 2 Magblades for most of the video, later on we gain another magden for a bit and then lose a magblade.

katorga

Great retro-punk playlist!!!! Dead Kennedys 4evah.