help me build a MagDk: a few questions

Rhaegar75

hey guys, I'm a little bored with my current toons (stamplar and stamdk) and I don't fancy getting back to my good old magplar. I still love the feel of DKs and I thought about starting to use a MagDK. I read around and tried to pinch ideas from Alcast, Nirnstorm and Dottz Gaming.

I'm planning to use a Heavy Armour build cause that suits my playstyle.... I also feel it's more forgiving towards mistakes. Let me add that I'm not a fan of proc-sets...I know BSW is highly recommend but I'm not keen on it...just me!!

I'm thinking about 2 out of the following 3 sets:

Rattlecage cause it would allow me a free space on the bar,
Shackle breaker cause of the boost to resources,
axiom cause I think is the closest non proc option to high spell damage (sadly it doesn't affect light and heavy attacks)

I was thinking to actually use Axiom and Shackle but I realized that it would cost me an arm and a leg just to craft the jewels.

What would you suggest out of the 3 sets above? Would you suggest any other good non proc sets?

Plasma_Elf

Out of those 3 sets, personally I would choose shackle/axiom. However, I would wear 5 light pieces. IMO light armor offers too much damage to give up, and you could put protective on your jewelry to help your tankiness in light. Spinner is a set worth considering if you are set on going heavy armor.

This also depends on whether you are playing no cp or cp.

Rhaegar75

Plasma_Elf wrote: »

Out of those 3 sets, personally I would choose shackle/axiom. However, I would wear 5 light pieces. IMO light armor offers too much damage to give up, and you could put protective on your jewelry to help your tankiness in light. Spinner is a set worth considering if you are set on going heavy armor.

This also depends on whether you are playing no cp or cp.

Thank you for reminding me of Spinner!!! Defo a solid option...I'll have to consider it now!

I also agree with the Light armour point but it really doesn't fit my playstyle

PapaWeeb

I'm using Bloodspawn/Rattlecage/Spellweave on a heavy s&b/destro MagickaDK. 5H 2L

I'd recommend Rattlecage even if there are slightly better damage sets. It gives you freedom to run whatever potions you want (I go tri-stat), less buff management, and that extra bar space is so needed on MagDK. You could swap burning spellweave for axiom, spinner, desert rose, bloodthorn, shacklebreaker, and more.


Spellweave> high damage and heals but has downtime
Axiom> good all rounder, most/all skills are class ones
Spinner> massive damage, doesn't effect heals though (except for embers heal)
Desert rose> tanky and amazing sustain, feels good tanking lots of players (and returns mag through mist)
Bloodthorn> Sustains both mag and stam even while blocking, good for keeping your block up
Shacklebreaker> Great all round stats, but no stam regen while blocking, no mag regen while in mist. My Dunmer with all tri-stat glyphs and witchmother's drink has enough stam to not benefit from it. My least favourite of these, but depends how you will play.


You can also swap Bloodspawn for Valkyn skoria, they're both amazing for Magdk. However I can kill 95% of Cyrodiil without the damage from Valkyn, and Bloodspawn on a DK is so synergistic. Hard to give it up

BlackMadara

You can get the same feel of heavy armor running full protective jewels in light. If you are still miss the stam return, higher hp, and higher base healing of heavy, then run what you like.

I would suggest the base damage set, sustain set, defensive set.

Damage - rattle or spinners if using a staff, or axiom if using SnB. You will have higher healing with rattle and axiom, and higher damage with spinner.

Sustain - shacklebreaker or bloodthorn. You will see the best sustain with bloodthorn in heavy when in combat and pairs well with HA constitution.

Defense - you can't go wrong with blood spawn.

RamiroCruzo

Personal opinion, Light Impreg, and Pirate Skeleton, there are too many 2H Ultimate spammers and Bleed Bots Overall mitigation is same as max resistances so no need to panic after seeing 24kish resistances, another set can be sustain or offensive, Spinner will make you hit 17k Penetration, Bloodthorn for good all round sustain but its bad when kiting on back bar, Lich on back bar and front bar Will Power. BRP Restoration staff with Bloodthorn and Spinner. BSW is awesome as well.

LittlePinkDot

I dont know what your CP is, but I have found mgDK to be lacking in the damage department. I cant imagine what losing the dmg buffs from light armour would do. And to make matters worse magdk doesnt have an execute either. And most of your damage will be in melee range. I find it harder to stay on top of people. If I didnt do enough damage it would be harder to kill people before theu got a chance to get out of range and heal up.
DK skills are also expensive, so I chose Breton.

Rhaegar75

Thank you so much guys!!

All the comments really made me think a lot!! When I’m I. Cyro it’s not a problem cause I have all my CPs maxed out and life is a little easier!!

Battlegrounds however are a different business!!!!
With heavy my damage seems to really decrease.

I’m now thinking about adding fortified brass to the mix so I can run in 5 light. Second set would be a sustain one or damage if I don’t feel to squishy.

Another question: what are your overall aims when it comes to stats in pvp?

How much mag regain? How much spell damage, Crit Chance or penetration?
In my original build I had a huge mag pool but ended up with around 20% Crit Chance and about 3k spell damage. Too low?

TheBonesXXX

Light Armor without Swift is not a life.

DKsUnite

Rhaegar75 wrote: »

Thank you so much guys!!

All the comments really made me think a lot!! When I’m I. Cyro it’s not a problem cause I have all my CPs maxed out and life is a little easier!!

Battlegrounds however are a different business!!!!
With heavy my damage seems to really decrease.

I’m now thinking about adding fortified brass to the mix so I can run in 5 light. Second set would be a sustain one or damage if I don’t feel to squishy.

Another question: what are your overall aims when it comes to stats in pvp?

How much mag regain? How much spell damage, Crit Chance or penetration?
In my original build I had a huge mag pool but ended up with around 20% Crit Chance and about 3k spell damage. Too low?

CP pvp I look to hit 2k MR (1.5k if I have ele drain), ~3k SD, 40%+ crit, 5-10k pene

Janoy

@Rhaegar75 I’ve been rocking light fortified brass with bloodspawn on my dunmer magDK paired with BSW or spinners and I quite like it. When BSW proc’s I get around 2.9-3k spell power with 1,400ish regen (I also use elemental drain for some regen).

I’ve gone pretty even with the build, but I will admit that I often lose to skilled players (it’s probably more the skill gap than the build though). I find it difficult to beat DoT builds because the constant pressure forced me to blow through my magicka, especially if I don’t have an ult up to regain resources.

I was fighting an EP stamDK last night in Sotha who was just wiping the floor with me lmao, but he was really cool and would stop attacking if someone else joined the fight. *** I probably walked back to them 5-6 times from Nik before giving up, still fun!

Rhaegar75

Thanks guys. I’ve fiddled a bit and in BG I don’t think I could stick to heavy armour: penetration and Crit would be way too low.
Any of you having much luck in BGs with 5 heavy?

For a 5 light build I’m really considering fortified brass but is there any other solide defensive set?
As for the second set would you go damage or sustain?

I was still thinking axiom as I’ll mostly use class abilities. I really thought about BSW but I truly can’t be bothered to farm it.

VixxVexx

Heavy armor and it's passives feels like a waste to me. There's plenty of other sources for resistances like protective jewelry, bloodspawn, sword&board, nord, a tanking set. Any one of these or a combination of two, is more than enough. One of the more popular combos is protective jewelry and bloodspawn.

Fortified Brass is good but I personally prefer Pariah because it synchronizes very well with the vampire Undeath passive and (blackrose resto) Healing Ward.

Bloodspawn gives DKs indirect sustain through higher ult gen. Most mDKs only need around 1400 magicka recovery (unbuffed). You can go higher or lower depending on what skills you use.

Shackle is good overall and recommended as a base set.
Axiom is the most reliable damage but it doesn't buff light attacks (fine for s&b, bad for inferno staff weaves)
BSW is high damage but only up less than 2/3. (Annoying if you have to juggle it with Berserk weapon enchant)
Bright-Throat solves sustain and offsets the loss of max magicka from non-arcane jewelery. (even with food/drink nerfs)
Silks of the Sun only buffs your fire damage not your heals. (see Embers, Powerlash, Cauterize frontbar)
Spinner is highest damage but again doesn't buff heals.
Rattlecage is actually good if you want more barspace. (Max Health and stacking spell damage)

WoppaBoem

Bright Troat - Sun if you don't want BSW and BloodSpawn

Zer0_CooL

If you want high resistance, you can also go with a defensive set on jewlery and weapons, and still wear light armor.

BlackMadara

For a defensive set, other than fortified brass, try out pariah, impregnable, or buffer of the swift.

I prefer pariah out of those options. The resistance bonuses encourage me to keep arcane jewels and allow me to use skoria over blood spawn (I like meteors).

Impregnable opens up trait options, but I only considered using it for a block heavy bulld. I would also still run protective jewels in light impregnable, which further lowers magicka.

Rhaegar75

What do you make of the following build in non CP? I feel that the stats are decent....extra magicka wouldn't harm though.
What would you change?

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=138272

jarrandub17_ESO

For No-Cp try Icy/Brights/Blood. Flame destro on front, ice destro on back. 2 protective jewelry...and Breton. 😉

Sanguinor2

You should definitely find a Slot for fossilize, one of the strongest if not the strongest single target cc in the game and without it you are not gonna get power lashes off for extra healing and more Damage.
One Thing I also would recommend is running a defensive ult on your backbar spellwall is Pretty strong, you could also use ice destro frontbar (dont put Points into the first destro passive if you do) and a resto backbar for resto ult, also helps your allies and makes you very tanky for its Duration.

Zavijah

@Rhaegar75 I'm glad you've put the idea of Heavy Armour to bed. And ditch Rattlecage for Igneous Weapons ability as you, and group members can get a lot more out of it.

In both PVE & PVP I am using Burning Spellweave in Divines, and Impen on respective pieces.

Depending on group play I'll drop volatile armour given what Templars can do for Mighty Chudan, or if backed by good healers then Valkyn.

In PVP my secondary set currently is Spinner's, given how it cuts' through resistances and I have no complaints as to performance though I don't see why you couldn't use fortified and then Valkyn. It's really up to you.

For PVE, you can see my actual build on the UESP build editor website

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=131508

Or if wary of link, then go search for it, character Zerutan - make up your own mind. But I know what I like, and what I am good at.

Rhaegar75

just out of interest...any good alternative to Bright Throat?

The second set is Axiom, I like it so I won't change it

EdoKeledus

Rhaegar75 wrote: »

just out of interest...any good alternative to Bright Throat?

The second set is Axiom, I like it so I won't change it

Crafty Alfiq with Elsweyr https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Crafty+Alfiq+Set

But for now we have Shacklebreaker.

HazelRose

I'm running valkyn, curse eater, and shacklebreaker (5 light, 2 heavy) in battlegrounds right now. Then I use a 2-handed and resto staff. Not really an optimal build. But I'm in low MMR matches for now so I figure I'll use the 2-handed as long as it stays fun. But I do recommend 5 light, shacklebreaker, valkyn + defensive set with two recovery bonuses.

BlackMadara

LaveniaRose wrote: »

I'm running valkyn, curse eater, and shacklebreaker (5 light, 2 heavy) in battlegrounds right now. Then I use a 2-handed and resto staff. Not really an optimal build. But I'm in low MMR matches for now so I figure I'll use the 2-handed as long as it stays fun. But I do recommend 5 light, shacklebreaker, valkyn + defensive set with two recovery bonuses.

So your build can't be bound by the mortal or ethereal coil? Sorry... I couldn't help myself...

HazelRose

BlackMadara wrote: »

LaveniaRose wrote: »

I'm running valkyn, curse eater, and shacklebreaker (5 light, 2 heavy) in battlegrounds right now. Then I use a 2-handed and resto staff. Not really an optimal build. But I'm in low MMR matches for now so I figure I'll use the 2-handed as long as it stays fun. But I do recommend 5 light, shacklebreaker, valkyn + defensive set with two recovery bonuses.

So your build can't be bound by the mortal or ethereal coil? Sorry... I couldn't help myself...

What? I don't understand the reference. I'm just saying the build's not very good but it's fun and good doesn't matter as much in low MMR.