MagBlade Theorycrafting Changes Thread

Jeezye

Any new insights on the new patch?? I jumped in yesterday and found AW is a lot more reliable now, feels pretty good now that we got used to the delay.

I sadly also noticed my damage overall went down significantly, and had a hard time to actually bring down decent players, even with the classic harvest - stun - aw combo. Seems as dots, especially cripple, are beyond useless now, taking my CMX into accound.

One thing that stood out though is twising path. for some reason its damage is 30% above single target coefficients while being an AOE, granting movespeed and also only marginally costing more than cripple e.g. That one makes it back on the bars for sure.

Any other thoughts?

Zevrro

brandonv516 wrote: »

ExistingRug61 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Think the new maurader + Alfiq + ? with a 2 hander would work well? Concealed has the cheap cost and stun when you combine it with Shadowy Disguise.

Or should I say, what sets would you try if you wanted to try maurader + 2H (Onslaught) + Concealed? No one seems to like 2 handers but me and I want to see if my no-CP build can be adapted to CP. Should be a proc set I think so the BRP resto is an option.

One random thing that might be useful is checking if hardening (shield) glyphs proc marauder. I know it says "whenever you use a damage shield ability" but so does infernal guardian and hardening glyphs proc that (or at least they used to last time I tried, although only with direct weapon damage abilities and LA/HA I think).
If it does then you get basically free full uptime on the speed just by light attacking, but may not be worth losing a damage enchant and you may be casting a shield frequently enough anyway.

What about the damage shield provided through the Psijic passive for blocking?

Psijic passive doesn't work with it.

Rianai

The shield glyph does proc marauder's haste tho.

It is a very fun set, but after testing it for a bit (proccing it with glyph on resto staff) i dropped it again, because better stats seemed more valuable and it was a bit unreliable, because sometimes light attacks wouldn't register or players weren't in range. It might work better when using an actual shield, but that hurts sustain so much, so i try to get away without one.

Iskiab

Jeezye wrote: »

Any new insights on the new patch?? I jumped in yesterday and found AW is a lot more reliable now, feels pretty good now that we got used to the delay.

I sadly also noticed my damage overall went down significantly, and had a hard time to actually bring down decent players, even with the classic harvest - stun - aw combo. Seems as dots, especially cripple, are beyond useless now, taking my CMX into accound.

One thing that stood out though is twising path. for some reason its damage is 30% above single target coefficients while being an AOE, granting movespeed and also only marginally costing more than cripple e.g. That one makes it back on the bars for sure.

Any other thoughts?

What’s twisting path? Jk.

If you’re into dots I’d check out the damage variant of orbs. Not the best solo, but twisting and orbs both have the advantage of not being a cleansible effect.

If small-large scale is your thing you can probably make a nice spec using twisting, orbs and sap.

If you’re fighting an organized/good group they’ll be on top of cleanses making any dots useless anyways.

rabidmyers

Jeezye wrote: »

Any new insights on the new patch?? I jumped in yesterday and found AW is a lot more reliable now, feels pretty good now that we got used to the delay.

I sadly also noticed my damage overall went down significantly, and had a hard time to actually bring down decent players, even with the classic harvest - stun - aw combo. Seems as dots, especially cripple, are beyond useless now, taking my CMX into accound.

One thing that stood out though is twising path. for some reason its damage is 30% above single target coefficients while being an AOE, granting movespeed and also only marginally costing more than cripple e.g. That one makes it back on the bars for sure.

Any other thoughts?

what's AW and CMX?

Maulkin

rabid64 wrote: »

Jeezye wrote: »

Any new insights on the new patch?? I jumped in yesterday and found AW is a lot more reliable now, feels pretty good now that we got used to the delay.

I sadly also noticed my damage overall went down significantly, and had a hard time to actually bring down decent players, even with the classic harvest - stun - aw combo. Seems as dots, especially cripple, are beyond useless now, taking my CMX into accound.

One thing that stood out though is twising path. for some reason its damage is 30% above single target coefficients while being an AOE, granting movespeed and also only marginally costing more than cripple e.g. That one makes it back on the bars for sure.

Any other thoughts?

what's AW and CMX?

Assassin's Will. Combat Metrics

Iskiab

So question, is the Caluurion damage ball dependent on the weapon you're using? I've always wondered and haven't checked ACT.

Just messing about a bit I came up with this, I don't know if it's hot trash or might be okay. If using a 2h makes the caluurion ball disease damage the glyph should proc defile, otherwise probably better to use an oblivion enchant. Getting the proc might be an issue with so many aoes on the front bar, but maybe limiting them would help fire the Caluurion ball with merciless, I'm not sure and it would need playing with.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186704

Either way a niche spec, I'd never try it outside an organized group and the stam recovery is trash. It's interesting though, the damaging orbs are double the damage of twisting path.

fred4

Iskiab wrote: »

So question, is the Caluurion damage ball dependent on the weapon you're using? I've always wondered and haven't checked ACT.

I'd have to double check, but I'm quite sure it is buffed by the +single target damage from flame staff. It's also buffed by penetration, e.g. Sharpened weapon.

Koensol

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Admittedly, hardly played the game this patch. ESO got kind of stale and BL3 is a blast. Hopped on this weekend, didn’t have a game under 1mil damage and 250k healing. 5 crafty Alfiq, 5 lich, BRP resto and Skoria. Heavy dot build with double healing drain poisons front bar, +9% healing back bar. Been rolling over people in BGs and single handedly carrying teams. Just have to know when to cloak away, when to get aggressive and when to defensively put up a heal. Other than that stack dots, watch the skorias rain down and time up that burst 👍🏻

Why would you run crafty over necro? Do you not use shade? I've also gone back to a more max mag based build on my argonian having a decent damage shield is the only way to survive outside of cloak spam. With my woodelf I'm still build around steed and Regen with high movement speed. I run both builds and the max mag is definitely better for standing and fighting. On my woodelf I have to constantly cloak image and roll around otherwise I get mollywhomped without a damage shield.

No shade. No shields aside from Ward to proc BRP resto. Insane sustain, great healing, solid burst when timed with Skoria proc. 1.3 mil damage and 550k healing in my one BG I did last night. Lol

Thats a solid score. What is your bar setup?

Front bar - entropy, mass hysteria, inner light, swallow soul, spectral bow

Back bar - debilitate, healing ward, cloak, rapid regen, siphoning attacks

Certainly impressive healing numbers for just rapid regen + resto ult. Also, how do you feel healing ward compares to ward ally? I personally use ward ally for 100% guarantee I get the shield and for support on group mates with blackrose resto. I haven't tested the new heal ward since I assumed it was trash on a brawler kind of build, which is how I play magblade. What is your experience?

My Healing Ward with a less than 3K tooltip on a low-stat build has crit for up to 5K with Blackrose resto in CP IC. It will crit for about 4.2K in repeatable tests at around 30% health. The problem with it is that, when you get hit, it's still only a small shield and tends to get consumed without healing. To get the ideal numbers basically means you successfully cloaked or shaded.

I play exclusively no CP. CP is a massive carry and in my opinion a lot more boring, so I focus all my builds towards no CP and BGs. As for the bolded part in your argument, this is what I figured what would happen. I always play with dark cloak so I felt I cannot make the most out of that healing.

As for dark cloak, I understand the critique towards it, and can see why people opt for shadowy disguise, but I personally hate the cloakspam playstyle. With cloak you don't have to think as much about your positioning, which makes you lazy. I used to play exclusively stamblade back in the day, and boy was it a rude awakening to actually have to learn positioning when playing other classes. Also with dark cloak I feel I am more able to stay with the group in a brawl without having to pop out and leaving my team with 3 man. What many cloakers don't realize is that even when you cloak and do not run away, the enemy only sees your 3 teammates and they will receive more focus from the enemy team as a result. The healing from dark cloak isn't the best but its decent when stacked with other hots like refreshing path, swallow soul, siphoning strikes, etc. I can definately feel an increase in sturdyness.

Your assertion that CP is a massive carry is the one thing that I find flat out incorrect, at least as it pertains to my own build. It actually performs better in no CP. I just find it different. Players may be less tanky overall, but because of the lower damage I find the average 1v1 time actually a bit longer. It's harder to heal and harder to sustain and this is conducive to fights having an outcome, rather than stalemating. If that's what you mean by it being less boring, then I agree with that part. At any rate, as a squishy sustain build and, well, a proc build, no CP actually suits me a great deal, yet I still play CP most of the time. I've historically played a lot in IC. I would like to play in Cyro more, but am quite intolerant of lag. My continued preference for CP has a lot to do with that, as it's just the better option for (solo) farming, in IC, when there's a lull in PvP.

Of course there are builds that are better suited to no cp, than to cp. Proc builds are an example of that. That has nothing to do with what I mean with 'carried', though.

The reason for why CP is a carry, has multiple reasons.
- You are often fighting people with lower cp than you. 100% carry right there. I have hit people with 18k bow procs in cp, which is close to impossible in no cp.
- It is a lot easier to build for full damage and still have decent sustain and defence, than in no cp. No cp builds require a lot more focus on sustain and mitigation, and thus sacrifices, whereas in cp these things are handed to you. In cp people are more often slotting more damage, because the "tank meta" is more evident there.
- Another issue is health. In no cp, some class + race combo's have trouble reaching acceptable health levels. In cp you are at 26-28k without even trying.
- Solo play in cp and no cp is a difference of night and day. Especially as a magicka build. In no cp you will run dry of stamina so much faster, plus free damage from procs actually hurts like hell there. CP feels like a walk in the park, because heals, sustain and mitigation are so much more potent. In no cp you have to be fast, mobile and have top knotch movement, else you will simply crumble under the pressure of even 2 halfway decent players.

Anyway, as far as the rest of your post that I snipped out, I see where you come from. I have actually been thinking to try a high burst damage setup using shadowy disguise + concealed, with good stam sustain so I can make more use of roll dodge. Was thinking to use the new marauder set with blackrose resto so I can healward + dodgeroll into cloak and then use RAT and dart out of trouble with the combined speed of those 3 sources. Then my 2nd 5 piece set would probably be something like amberplasm, with slimecraw monsterset. I have found combining slimecraw with lotus fan and soul harvest makes you reach very high burst even when your other sets are not even that damage oriented. Was hitting some people for 10k + bow procs with such setups.

Iskiab

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Admittedly, hardly played the game this patch. ESO got kind of stale and BL3 is a blast. Hopped on this weekend, didn’t have a game under 1mil damage and 250k healing. 5 crafty Alfiq, 5 lich, BRP resto and Skoria. Heavy dot build with double healing drain poisons front bar, +9% healing back bar. Been rolling over people in BGs and single handedly carrying teams. Just have to know when to cloak away, when to get aggressive and when to defensively put up a heal. Other than that stack dots, watch the skorias rain down and time up that burst 👍🏻

Why would you run crafty over necro? Do you not use shade? I've also gone back to a more max mag based build on my argonian having a decent damage shield is the only way to survive outside of cloak spam. With my woodelf I'm still build around steed and Regen with high movement speed. I run both builds and the max mag is definitely better for standing and fighting. On my woodelf I have to constantly cloak image and roll around otherwise I get mollywhomped without a damage shield.

No shade. No shields aside from Ward to proc BRP resto. Insane sustain, great healing, solid burst when timed with Skoria proc. 1.3 mil damage and 550k healing in my one BG I did last night. Lol

Thats a solid score. What is your bar setup?

Front bar - entropy, mass hysteria, inner light, swallow soul, spectral bow

Back bar - debilitate, healing ward, cloak, rapid regen, siphoning attacks

Certainly impressive healing numbers for just rapid regen + resto ult. Also, how do you feel healing ward compares to ward ally? I personally use ward ally for 100% guarantee I get the shield and for support on group mates with blackrose resto. I haven't tested the new heal ward since I assumed it was trash on a brawler kind of build, which is how I play magblade. What is your experience?

My Healing Ward with a less than 3K tooltip on a low-stat build has crit for up to 5K with Blackrose resto in CP IC. It will crit for about 4.2K in repeatable tests at around 30% health. The problem with it is that, when you get hit, it's still only a small shield and tends to get consumed without healing. To get the ideal numbers basically means you successfully cloaked or shaded.

I play exclusively no CP. CP is a massive carry and in my opinion a lot more boring, so I focus all my builds towards no CP and BGs. As for the bolded part in your argument, this is what I figured what would happen. I always play with dark cloak so I felt I cannot make the most out of that healing.

As for dark cloak, I understand the critique towards it, and can see why people opt for shadowy disguise, but I personally hate the cloakspam playstyle. With cloak you don't have to think as much about your positioning, which makes you lazy. I used to play exclusively stamblade back in the day, and boy was it a rude awakening to actually have to learn positioning when playing other classes. Also with dark cloak I feel I am more able to stay with the group in a brawl without having to pop out and leaving my team with 3 man. What many cloakers don't realize is that even when you cloak and do not run away, the enemy only sees your 3 teammates and they will receive more focus from the enemy team as a result. The healing from dark cloak isn't the best but its decent when stacked with other hots like refreshing path, swallow soul, siphoning strikes, etc. I can definately feel an increase in sturdyness.

Your assertion that CP is a massive carry is the one thing that I find flat out incorrect, at least as it pertains to my own build. It actually performs better in no CP. I just find it different. Players may be less tanky overall, but because of the lower damage I find the average 1v1 time actually a bit longer. It's harder to heal and harder to sustain and this is conducive to fights having an outcome, rather than stalemating. If that's what you mean by it being less boring, then I agree with that part. At any rate, as a squishy sustain build and, well, a proc build, no CP actually suits me a great deal, yet I still play CP most of the time. I've historically played a lot in IC. I would like to play in Cyro more, but am quite intolerant of lag. My continued preference for CP has a lot to do with that, as it's just the better option for (solo) farming, in IC, when there's a lull in PvP.

Of course there are builds that are better suited to no cp, than to cp. Proc builds are an example of that. That has nothing to do with what I mean with 'carried', though.

The reason for why CP is a carry, has multiple reasons.
- You are often fighting people with lower cp than you. 100% carry right there. I have hit people with 18k bow procs in cp, which is close to impossible in no cp.
- It is a lot easier to build for full damage and still have decent sustain and defence, than in no cp. No cp builds require a lot more focus on sustain and mitigation, and thus sacrifices, whereas in cp these things are handed to you. In cp people are more often slotting more damage, because the "tank meta" is more evident there.
- Solo play in cp and no cp is a difference of night and day. Especially as a magicka build. In no cp you will run dry of stamina so much faster, plus free damage from procs actually hurts like hell there. CP feels like a walk in the park, because heals, sustain and mitigation are so much more potent. In no cp you have to be fast, mobile and have top knotch movement, else you will simply crumble under the pressure of even 2 halfway decent players.

Anyway, as far as the rest of your post that I snipped out, I see where you come from. I have actually been thinking to try a high burst damage setup using shadowy disguise + concealed, with good stam sustain so I can make more use of roll dodge. Was thinking to use the new marauder set with blackrose resto so I can healward + dodgeroll into cloak and then use RAT and dart out of trouble with the combined speed of those 3 sources. Then my 2nd 5 piece set would probably be something like amberplasm, with slimecraw monsterset. I have found combining slimecraw with lotus fan and soul harvest makes you reach very high burst even when your other sets are not even that damage oriented. Was hitting some people for 10k + bow procs with such setups.

If you’re only no-CP I’d try BTB, Pelinals and Balorg. 2H-resto, 5m-2L, 3x WP glyphs.

No-CP doesn’t have the magicka boosts that CP has so it works. Medium armour weapon damage passives are converted into spell power.

Main issue is lack of crit and being dependent on onslaught for pen, but the burst is great. Might work with marauder, I’m not sure.

When everything is up you get over a 10k concealed tooltip in no-CP with 100% pen.

P.S - there’s the build.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade. Mist form is nice on a magblade it you haven’t tried it too, it stops magicka but not stamina regen. Looking at it now Sap might fit nicely on that front bar, getting major brutality is always an issue and it’d allow better pots.

fred4

@Koensol and @Iskiab, you're both approaching something similar to the build I run. The following are my experiences with that type of build:

I briefly tried Onslaught, but don't find it works that well on magicka builds, including my NB. The higher cost over Soul Harvest is real. I see what you're doing with Sap. As an AOE focused group build, I guess the playstyle is different. In a 1v1 (gank), though, I find Onslaught is outweighed by the better light attack damage from flame staff, the cheaper NB ult, defile, +20% damage, all that does, and the ability to keep shooting from range as enemies back away from you. I played 2H forever for Forward Momentum. The switch to a destro front bar with Swallow Soul on that bar was a big improvement over my 2H builds.

My second observation is that the healing from Siphoning Attacks is strong. I see 1.5K crits in CP. @Iskiab, your's is a higher stat build and your Radiating Regeneration should approach the same values. On a lower stat build, SA will beat it, as long as you can stay on the attack. To facilitate that, I have switched to an Infused weapon with a restore health enchant on the front bar. It's no use against burst, but having Swallow Soul + Enchant + SA works quite well when you're facing a more attrition type build, such as some DKs, templars and stamsorcs.

Now, I know some of you don't care to use Shadowy much, but the point about the Idle Magicka Regen is one of the things that keeps me from building my sustain the same as most people do. I use magicka cost reduction jewelry, drinks and Bright-Throat's. Just briefly again: Out of combat cloak sustain depends on your Idle Magicka Regen, which is not influenced by magicka regen from gear and jewelry. It is only influenced by Atro Mundus, drinks and, as I have recently found, the 5-piece bonus from Bright-Throat's (and ONLY that one). The combat engine will put you out of combat at various times, when you're cloaking. Your cloak sustain will simply be better, if you pay attention to getting your magicka regen from the right sources. This is something I would always try to take advantage of. Running cost reduction also cheapens SA to the point where you can keep constantly refreshing that, in Cloak.

In terms of getting away without using the shade, nothing feels as good as building completely into speed. However, what would keep me from using that new shield / speed buff set is that it's stat-poor - even more so if you have to double-bar it, due to using a Blackrose resto. It's the same story with Amber Plasm. Neither of those sets give you a lot of magicka. If you are just using Healing Ward and not Dampen that might work, though.

Amber Plasm is a curious set. Mathematically it's one of the very best, but in real magblade builds I find it still doesn't give me enough stam regen. It sits in a kind of no man's land in so many ways. In no CP, I prefer Shackle for the bigger stam pool. In general, I prefer Shackle for the bigger shield (magicka). When I'm playing with a lower stamina pool, I prefer even more stamina regen than I can get from Amber. This is why I use Hissmir Fisheye Rye. If I was relying purely on Amber Plasm, I still feel forced to slot Deep Thoughts, but if I slot Deep Thoughts, I can ditch Amber Plasm altogether. Low stamina is one of the main reasons I cannot stay in a brawl with my group mates and take some aggro off them. Amber Plasm doesn't quite cut it for me. Combining it with tri-food might change that, but is a no no, if you are seriously into perma-cloaking, as I am.

As a side-note: I use perma-cloaking to get around. I don't lose magicka while doing it. In fact I gain some and have enough sustain to keep casting RAT, while cloaking, even in no CP (with help from SA). In Cyrodiil I am roughly as fast as a sprinting horse without Rapids. Cloaking at all times is gank protection and one of the ways I get away with low health. I never get shot off a horse, cause I'm not riding. It also enables some fun things, such as setting sieges on fire and loitering within enemy keeps. Yes, you could do those things with a less sustainy build, but I personally find a sustain build - both magicka and stamina - much more enjoyable than being resource constrained. You're always ready to act. You might die or you might choose to disengage with Cloak, but you're rarely in a position where it's like: I can't engage right now, because I need to recover my resources.

fred4

Incidentally I am back to my dual regen drink build (slightly-modified ). Just can't beat it for my playstyle:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=183609

fred4

Marauder's Haste with Mage Mundus + 2 Arcane jewelry is comparable to Bright Throat's + Steed + 2 Swift jewelry. The former should give slightly more magicka, the latter slightly more sustain, speed (at gold quality) and health regen. If you tried the latter already, you'll know what to expect. I shall, however, try stacking with all my other speed, just to see how ridiculous it will get .

Iskiab

fred4 wrote: »

Incidentally I am back to my dual regen drink build (slightly-modified ). Just can't beat it for my playstyle:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=183609

Hum, have you tried Vampire and the Shadow Mundus?

Vampire just for more stam and mag regen, stealth speed and mist form. I’ve found mist form the only defense that works when your stamina is low.

I love crit since playing CP for those huge crit mods. You’d lose 10% speed but a 13% extra crit mod makes a big difference with how crits work. For example, against your build with 3k crit resists you’ll have a 35% crit mod which is so so, a 53% mod gives a lot more punch.

Another option is woodelf, I tried it on my sorc and it’s great. The extra stam means I can use Disaster Mara for more stats, and the stam regen means I can use dark deal and not worry about running out of stam.

fred4

Alternatively Bright-Throats + 3x gold Swift comes within 2% of the speed of Marauder's Haste + 3x Arcane, while the latter falls short on magicka. It's clearly not a great set, except possibly when you stack it with all speed or maybe when you find a build you can single-bar it in.

fred4

Iskiab wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Incidentally I am back to my dual regen drink build (slightly-modified ). Just can't beat it for my playstyle:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=183609

Vampire just for more stam and mag regen, stealth speed and mist form. I’ve found mist form the only defense that works when your stamina is low.

You want me to turn this girl into a vampire ?

fred4

Iskiab wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Incidentally I am back to my dual regen drink build (slightly-modified ). Just can't beat it for my playstyle:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=183609

Hum, have you tried Vampire and the Shadow Mundus?

Vampire just for more stam and mag regen, stealth speed and mist form. I’ve found mist form the only defense that works when your stamina is low.

I love crit since playing CP for those huge crit mods. You’d lose 10% speed but a 13% extra crit mod makes a big difference with how crits work. For example, against your build with 3k crit resists you’ll have a 35% crit mod which is so so, a 53% mod gives a lot more punch.

Another option is woodelf, I tried it on my sorc and it’s great. The extra stam means I can use Disaster Mara for more stats, and the stam regen means I can use dark deal and not worry about running out of stam.

You're right, I should try the Shadow Mundus. I've stayed away, because Caluu / Zaan can't crit, but I also have some 60% crit due to those sets.

I don't play vamp for RP reasons. It's one of the reasons for sticking with NB (or sorc), since other magicka classes kind of need Mist for soloing.

I have an AD woodelf. It's a good idea, since they changed the stam regen bonus to a flat value and it's got that speed passive. Every time I try stamblade, I get hugely confused, cause I'm such a magblade guy. I should try running the woodelf as a magblade, yeah.

Pijng

Iskiab wrote: »

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade.

Man you made me laugh hard af on this one.

Wow, that's some lit build, it seems like it's time to revive my melee mnb. Also, are you okay playing without fear?

fred4

Pijng wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade.

Man you made me laugh hard af on this one.

Wow, that's some lit build, it seems like it's time to revive my melee mnb. Also, are you okay playing without fear?

This build seems highly changed, since I looked at it a few hours ago.

All hybrids I've tried have never stood the test of time. The only reason to be one in this build seems to be Vigor. Two overlapping short heals? I don't know. I don't think it would work for me. I'd probably replace Pelinal's with Vicious Death, Vigor with Healing Ward and Rapid Regen with Radiating Regeneration.

Iskiab

Pijng wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade.

Man you made me laugh hard af on this one.

Wow, that's some lit build, it seems like it's time to revive my melee mnb. Also, are you okay playing without fear?

I don't like fear that much anymore. It's expensive and when someone has immunity on them it'll do nothing but cost 3k magicka.

You need a stun but I try the concealed stun, or Accelerating Drain.

My Khajit magblade is an alt and I'm still messing around with it. I like the sets I'm using for the most part, when I die I'll throw on iceheart instead. When I miss burst I'll go back to balorgs.

Accelerating drain I like a bit better than the fear, at least if the stun doesn't land you'll do more then drain your magicka.

That build is also using the Balorg 500 spell damage proc, I should take it off because it really inflates numbers.

Thing I like most is using mist form while disabling your magicka regen lets your stamina regen recover. In 4 secs you'll get 2500 or whatever, almost enough for a dodge roll. I'm still messing with it because I'm a khajit with low crit, seems dumb to me, but in no-CP there's no good way to get your crit up without breaking the build.

Edit - took off Balorg inflating the tooltips. Tried Inner Light but... I'll miss lotus. I like that it being a port breaks cast time attacks.

Koensol

Iskiab wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Admittedly, hardly played the game this patch. ESO got kind of stale and BL3 is a blast. Hopped on this weekend, didn’t have a game under 1mil damage and 250k healing. 5 crafty Alfiq, 5 lich, BRP resto and Skoria. Heavy dot build with double healing drain poisons front bar, +9% healing back bar. Been rolling over people in BGs and single handedly carrying teams. Just have to know when to cloak away, when to get aggressive and when to defensively put up a heal. Other than that stack dots, watch the skorias rain down and time up that burst 👍🏻

Why would you run crafty over necro? Do you not use shade? I've also gone back to a more max mag based build on my argonian having a decent damage shield is the only way to survive outside of cloak spam. With my woodelf I'm still build around steed and Regen with high movement speed. I run both builds and the max mag is definitely better for standing and fighting. On my woodelf I have to constantly cloak image and roll around otherwise I get mollywhomped without a damage shield.

No shade. No shields aside from Ward to proc BRP resto. Insane sustain, great healing, solid burst when timed with Skoria proc. 1.3 mil damage and 550k healing in my one BG I did last night. Lol

Thats a solid score. What is your bar setup?

Front bar - entropy, mass hysteria, inner light, swallow soul, spectral bow

Back bar - debilitate, healing ward, cloak, rapid regen, siphoning attacks

Certainly impressive healing numbers for just rapid regen + resto ult. Also, how do you feel healing ward compares to ward ally? I personally use ward ally for 100% guarantee I get the shield and for support on group mates with blackrose resto. I haven't tested the new heal ward since I assumed it was trash on a brawler kind of build, which is how I play magblade. What is your experience?

My Healing Ward with a less than 3K tooltip on a low-stat build has crit for up to 5K with Blackrose resto in CP IC. It will crit for about 4.2K in repeatable tests at around 30% health. The problem with it is that, when you get hit, it's still only a small shield and tends to get consumed without healing. To get the ideal numbers basically means you successfully cloaked or shaded.

I play exclusively no CP. CP is a massive carry and in my opinion a lot more boring, so I focus all my builds towards no CP and BGs. As for the bolded part in your argument, this is what I figured what would happen. I always play with dark cloak so I felt I cannot make the most out of that healing.

As for dark cloak, I understand the critique towards it, and can see why people opt for shadowy disguise, but I personally hate the cloakspam playstyle. With cloak you don't have to think as much about your positioning, which makes you lazy. I used to play exclusively stamblade back in the day, and boy was it a rude awakening to actually have to learn positioning when playing other classes. Also with dark cloak I feel I am more able to stay with the group in a brawl without having to pop out and leaving my team with 3 man. What many cloakers don't realize is that even when you cloak and do not run away, the enemy only sees your 3 teammates and they will receive more focus from the enemy team as a result. The healing from dark cloak isn't the best but its decent when stacked with other hots like refreshing path, swallow soul, siphoning strikes, etc. I can definately feel an increase in sturdyness.

Your assertion that CP is a massive carry is the one thing that I find flat out incorrect, at least as it pertains to my own build. It actually performs better in no CP. I just find it different. Players may be less tanky overall, but because of the lower damage I find the average 1v1 time actually a bit longer. It's harder to heal and harder to sustain and this is conducive to fights having an outcome, rather than stalemating. If that's what you mean by it being less boring, then I agree with that part. At any rate, as a squishy sustain build and, well, a proc build, no CP actually suits me a great deal, yet I still play CP most of the time. I've historically played a lot in IC. I would like to play in Cyro more, but am quite intolerant of lag. My continued preference for CP has a lot to do with that, as it's just the better option for (solo) farming, in IC, when there's a lull in PvP.

Of course there are builds that are better suited to no cp, than to cp. Proc builds are an example of that. That has nothing to do with what I mean with 'carried', though.

The reason for why CP is a carry, has multiple reasons.
- You are often fighting people with lower cp than you. 100% carry right there. I have hit people with 18k bow procs in cp, which is close to impossible in no cp.
- It is a lot easier to build for full damage and still have decent sustain and defence, than in no cp. No cp builds require a lot more focus on sustain and mitigation, and thus sacrifices, whereas in cp these things are handed to you. In cp people are more often slotting more damage, because the "tank meta" is more evident there.
- Solo play in cp and no cp is a difference of night and day. Especially as a magicka build. In no cp you will run dry of stamina so much faster, plus free damage from procs actually hurts like hell there. CP feels like a walk in the park, because heals, sustain and mitigation are so much more potent. In no cp you have to be fast, mobile and have top knotch movement, else you will simply crumble under the pressure of even 2 halfway decent players.

Anyway, as far as the rest of your post that I snipped out, I see where you come from. I have actually been thinking to try a high burst damage setup using shadowy disguise + concealed, with good stam sustain so I can make more use of roll dodge. Was thinking to use the new marauder set with blackrose resto so I can healward + dodgeroll into cloak and then use RAT and dart out of trouble with the combined speed of those 3 sources. Then my 2nd 5 piece set would probably be something like amberplasm, with slimecraw monsterset. I have found combining slimecraw with lotus fan and soul harvest makes you reach very high burst even when your other sets are not even that damage oriented. Was hitting some people for 10k + bow procs with such setups.

If you’re only no-CP I’d try BTB, Pelinals and Balorg. 2H-resto, 5m-2L, 3x WP glyphs.

No-CP doesn’t have the magicka boosts that CP has so it works. Medium armour weapon damage passives are converted into spell power.

Main issue is lack of crit and being dependent on onslaught for pen, but the burst is great. Might work with marauder, I’m not sure.

When everything is up you get over a 10k concealed tooltip in no-CP with 100% pen.

P.S - there’s the build.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade. Mist form is nice on a magblade it you haven’t tried it too, it stops magicka but not stamina regen. Looking at it now Sap might fit nicely on that front bar, getting major brutality is always an issue and it’d allow better pots.

That build no doubt hits very hard, I'm just not a fan of 2h ult or any melee weapon on magblade, outside of dw when bombing. I am a true destro resto magblade Reason I mentioned concealed was just for the speed bonus on backbar. I would never use it as a spammable, since its sustained damage output is lackluster compared to the dmg you put out with destro la + swallow soul/force pulse.

I recently revisited an old experimental build which I made for no CP, that requires very little mag recovery to sustain, hits very hard and is still sturdy enough to stay on the group. I have changed some things to it to add more damage at a loss of resistance, which I can since merciless now gives mitigation too and dark cloak has increased duration. It is focussed purely on single target burst damage, so my total damage numbers in BG are not as high as they would be on other specs, but I am either getting the KB's or setting up the kills for teammates with well times combo's. So far I am really happy with how it works and how hard it hits, although you are a bit susceptible to being burst down when you get focussed. So positioning is important. I worked in quite a bit of max stam, to make sure I can dodge/sprint to safety if needed.

Sets are 5 desert rose + 5 magicka furnace (front bar destro) + 2 slimecraw + blackrose resto. Here is the build: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=185754

I'm using spell power + crit pots to give me 40% crit on front bar, which is further capitalized by nb passive and RAT. Also using double dot poisons for a bit more pressure. I went with mage mundus as I don't want my max magicka to be too low, considering how magicka furnace set works. Currently I would still lose some value of that 5 piece if it procs at close to 80%, but usually when fighting for prolonged time in BG's your magpool sits at lower percentages, so its not a huge deal. Plus I can control when it procs since its on 1 bar.

As you can see though, offensive stats are very solid all round, with 40% crit, 32k mag, 3,2k spell dmg, 10k pen, and on top of that receiving 8% dmg from slimecraw, 8% dmg from lotus fan and an additional 20% dmg from soul harvest. I am blowing consistent 8-12k assassins wills into people, depending on how tanky they are. Meanwhile, sustain is no problem at all with breton, siphoning strikes, ele drain and since both sets proc on cooldown on BG's with all the AoE and dots flying around. Defense is okay too, and both sets offering a convenient line of armor fits nicely too.

It's noting BiS, just a fun build that actually can work well in a team that throws around some support heals, to make sure you can go all out aggressive when there is a window of opportunity.

Iskiab

Koensol wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Admittedly, hardly played the game this patch. ESO got kind of stale and BL3 is a blast. Hopped on this weekend, didn’t have a game under 1mil damage and 250k healing. 5 crafty Alfiq, 5 lich, BRP resto and Skoria. Heavy dot build with double healing drain poisons front bar, +9% healing back bar. Been rolling over people in BGs and single handedly carrying teams. Just have to know when to cloak away, when to get aggressive and when to defensively put up a heal. Other than that stack dots, watch the skorias rain down and time up that burst 👍🏻

Why would you run crafty over necro? Do you not use shade? I've also gone back to a more max mag based build on my argonian having a decent damage shield is the only way to survive outside of cloak spam. With my woodelf I'm still build around steed and Regen with high movement speed. I run both builds and the max mag is definitely better for standing and fighting. On my woodelf I have to constantly cloak image and roll around otherwise I get mollywhomped without a damage shield.

No shade. No shields aside from Ward to proc BRP resto. Insane sustain, great healing, solid burst when timed with Skoria proc. 1.3 mil damage and 550k healing in my one BG I did last night. Lol

Thats a solid score. What is your bar setup?

Front bar - entropy, mass hysteria, inner light, swallow soul, spectral bow

Back bar - debilitate, healing ward, cloak, rapid regen, siphoning attacks

Certainly impressive healing numbers for just rapid regen + resto ult. Also, how do you feel healing ward compares to ward ally? I personally use ward ally for 100% guarantee I get the shield and for support on group mates with blackrose resto. I haven't tested the new heal ward since I assumed it was trash on a brawler kind of build, which is how I play magblade. What is your experience?

My Healing Ward with a less than 3K tooltip on a low-stat build has crit for up to 5K with Blackrose resto in CP IC. It will crit for about 4.2K in repeatable tests at around 30% health. The problem with it is that, when you get hit, it's still only a small shield and tends to get consumed without healing. To get the ideal numbers basically means you successfully cloaked or shaded.

I play exclusively no CP. CP is a massive carry and in my opinion a lot more boring, so I focus all my builds towards no CP and BGs. As for the bolded part in your argument, this is what I figured what would happen. I always play with dark cloak so I felt I cannot make the most out of that healing.

As for dark cloak, I understand the critique towards it, and can see why people opt for shadowy disguise, but I personally hate the cloakspam playstyle. With cloak you don't have to think as much about your positioning, which makes you lazy. I used to play exclusively stamblade back in the day, and boy was it a rude awakening to actually have to learn positioning when playing other classes. Also with dark cloak I feel I am more able to stay with the group in a brawl without having to pop out and leaving my team with 3 man. What many cloakers don't realize is that even when you cloak and do not run away, the enemy only sees your 3 teammates and they will receive more focus from the enemy team as a result. The healing from dark cloak isn't the best but its decent when stacked with other hots like refreshing path, swallow soul, siphoning strikes, etc. I can definately feel an increase in sturdyness.

Your assertion that CP is a massive carry is the one thing that I find flat out incorrect, at least as it pertains to my own build. It actually performs better in no CP. I just find it different. Players may be less tanky overall, but because of the lower damage I find the average 1v1 time actually a bit longer. It's harder to heal and harder to sustain and this is conducive to fights having an outcome, rather than stalemating. If that's what you mean by it being less boring, then I agree with that part. At any rate, as a squishy sustain build and, well, a proc build, no CP actually suits me a great deal, yet I still play CP most of the time. I've historically played a lot in IC. I would like to play in Cyro more, but am quite intolerant of lag. My continued preference for CP has a lot to do with that, as it's just the better option for (solo) farming, in IC, when there's a lull in PvP.

Of course there are builds that are better suited to no cp, than to cp. Proc builds are an example of that. That has nothing to do with what I mean with 'carried', though.

The reason for why CP is a carry, has multiple reasons.
- You are often fighting people with lower cp than you. 100% carry right there. I have hit people with 18k bow procs in cp, which is close to impossible in no cp.
- It is a lot easier to build for full damage and still have decent sustain and defence, than in no cp. No cp builds require a lot more focus on sustain and mitigation, and thus sacrifices, whereas in cp these things are handed to you. In cp people are more often slotting more damage, because the "tank meta" is more evident there.
- Solo play in cp and no cp is a difference of night and day. Especially as a magicka build. In no cp you will run dry of stamina so much faster, plus free damage from procs actually hurts like hell there. CP feels like a walk in the park, because heals, sustain and mitigation are so much more potent. In no cp you have to be fast, mobile and have top knotch movement, else you will simply crumble under the pressure of even 2 halfway decent players.

Anyway, as far as the rest of your post that I snipped out, I see where you come from. I have actually been thinking to try a high burst damage setup using shadowy disguise + concealed, with good stam sustain so I can make more use of roll dodge. Was thinking to use the new marauder set with blackrose resto so I can healward + dodgeroll into cloak and then use RAT and dart out of trouble with the combined speed of those 3 sources. Then my 2nd 5 piece set would probably be something like amberplasm, with slimecraw monsterset. I have found combining slimecraw with lotus fan and soul harvest makes you reach very high burst even when your other sets are not even that damage oriented. Was hitting some people for 10k + bow procs with such setups.

If you’re only no-CP I’d try BTB, Pelinals and Balorg. 2H-resto, 5m-2L, 3x WP glyphs.

No-CP doesn’t have the magicka boosts that CP has so it works. Medium armour weapon damage passives are converted into spell power.

Main issue is lack of crit and being dependent on onslaught for pen, but the burst is great. Might work with marauder, I’m not sure.

When everything is up you get over a 10k concealed tooltip in no-CP with 100% pen.

P.S - there’s the build.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade. Mist form is nice on a magblade it you haven’t tried it too, it stops magicka but not stamina regen. Looking at it now Sap might fit nicely on that front bar, getting major brutality is always an issue and it’d allow better pots.

That build no doubt hits very hard, I'm just not a fan of 2h ult or any melee weapon on magblade, outside of dw when bombing. I am a true destro resto magblade Reason I mentioned concealed was just for the speed bonus on backbar. I would never use it as a spammable, since its sustained damage output is lackluster compared to the dmg you put out with destro la + swallow soul/force pulse.

I recently revisited an old experimental build which I made for no CP, that requires very little mag recovery to sustain, hits very hard and is still sturdy enough to stay on the group. I have changed some things to it to add more damage at a loss of resistance, which I can since merciless now gives mitigation too and dark cloak has increased duration. It is focussed purely on single target burst damage, so my total damage numbers in BG are not as high as they would be on other specs, but I am either getting the KB's or setting up the kills for teammates with well times combo's. So far I am really happy with how it works and how hard it hits, although you are a bit susceptible to being burst down when you get focussed. So positioning is important. I worked in quite a bit of max stam, to make sure I can dodge/sprint to safety if needed.

Sets are 5 desert rose + 5 magicka furnace (front bar destro) + 2 slimecraw + blackrose resto. Here is the build: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=185754

I'm using spell power + crit pots to give me 40% crit on front bar, which is further capitalized by nb passive and RAT. Also using double dot poisons for a bit more pressure. I went with mage mundus as I don't want my max magicka to be too low, considering how magicka furnace set works. Currently I would still lose some value of that 5 piece if it procs at close to 80%, but usually when fighting for prolonged time in BG's your magpool sits at lower percentages, so its not a huge deal. Plus I can control when it procs since its on 1 bar.

As you can see though, offensive stats are very solid all round, with 40% crit, 32k mag, 3,2k spell dmg, 10k pen, and on top of that receiving 8% dmg from slimecraw, 8% dmg from lotus fan and an additional 20% dmg from soul harvest. I am blowing consistent 8-12k assassins wills into people, depending on how tanky they are. Meanwhile, sustain is no problem at all with breton, siphoning strikes, ele drain and since both sets proc on cooldown on BG's with all the AoE and dots flying around. Defense is okay too, and both sets offering a convenient line of armor fits nicely too.

It's noting BiS, just a fun build that actually can work well in a team that throws around some support heals, to make sure you can go all out aggressive when there is a window of opportunity.

That looks really similar to the MagDK cheese 1vX builds you’ll sometimes see. Have you tried using the same trick?

Add vampire and mist form. While Mist Form will disable your mag regen it won’t disable magicka proc sets, so hit mist form under pressure and you get a lot of magicka back while misting. Usually when I see desert rose I think of guard too; the damage you take from guard will proc it, though I haven’t seen it a lot since guard was changed and am not sure if it still works.

Other than that it’s the typical Magblade issue: poor stamina sustain so you’ll eventually get cc’d and not be able to break free. That monster set that gives mag and stam back might help, IDK.

Koensol

Iskiab wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Admittedly, hardly played the game this patch. ESO got kind of stale and BL3 is a blast. Hopped on this weekend, didn’t have a game under 1mil damage and 250k healing. 5 crafty Alfiq, 5 lich, BRP resto and Skoria. Heavy dot build with double healing drain poisons front bar, +9% healing back bar. Been rolling over people in BGs and single handedly carrying teams. Just have to know when to cloak away, when to get aggressive and when to defensively put up a heal. Other than that stack dots, watch the skorias rain down and time up that burst 👍🏻

Why would you run crafty over necro? Do you not use shade? I've also gone back to a more max mag based build on my argonian having a decent damage shield is the only way to survive outside of cloak spam. With my woodelf I'm still build around steed and Regen with high movement speed. I run both builds and the max mag is definitely better for standing and fighting. On my woodelf I have to constantly cloak image and roll around otherwise I get mollywhomped without a damage shield.

No shade. No shields aside from Ward to proc BRP resto. Insane sustain, great healing, solid burst when timed with Skoria proc. 1.3 mil damage and 550k healing in my one BG I did last night. Lol

Thats a solid score. What is your bar setup?

Front bar - entropy, mass hysteria, inner light, swallow soul, spectral bow

Back bar - debilitate, healing ward, cloak, rapid regen, siphoning attacks

Certainly impressive healing numbers for just rapid regen + resto ult. Also, how do you feel healing ward compares to ward ally? I personally use ward ally for 100% guarantee I get the shield and for support on group mates with blackrose resto. I haven't tested the new heal ward since I assumed it was trash on a brawler kind of build, which is how I play magblade. What is your experience?

My Healing Ward with a less than 3K tooltip on a low-stat build has crit for up to 5K with Blackrose resto in CP IC. It will crit for about 4.2K in repeatable tests at around 30% health. The problem with it is that, when you get hit, it's still only a small shield and tends to get consumed without healing. To get the ideal numbers basically means you successfully cloaked or shaded.

I play exclusively no CP. CP is a massive carry and in my opinion a lot more boring, so I focus all my builds towards no CP and BGs. As for the bolded part in your argument, this is what I figured what would happen. I always play with dark cloak so I felt I cannot make the most out of that healing.

As for dark cloak, I understand the critique towards it, and can see why people opt for shadowy disguise, but I personally hate the cloakspam playstyle. With cloak you don't have to think as much about your positioning, which makes you lazy. I used to play exclusively stamblade back in the day, and boy was it a rude awakening to actually have to learn positioning when playing other classes. Also with dark cloak I feel I am more able to stay with the group in a brawl without having to pop out and leaving my team with 3 man. What many cloakers don't realize is that even when you cloak and do not run away, the enemy only sees your 3 teammates and they will receive more focus from the enemy team as a result. The healing from dark cloak isn't the best but its decent when stacked with other hots like refreshing path, swallow soul, siphoning strikes, etc. I can definately feel an increase in sturdyness.

Your assertion that CP is a massive carry is the one thing that I find flat out incorrect, at least as it pertains to my own build. It actually performs better in no CP. I just find it different. Players may be less tanky overall, but because of the lower damage I find the average 1v1 time actually a bit longer. It's harder to heal and harder to sustain and this is conducive to fights having an outcome, rather than stalemating. If that's what you mean by it being less boring, then I agree with that part. At any rate, as a squishy sustain build and, well, a proc build, no CP actually suits me a great deal, yet I still play CP most of the time. I've historically played a lot in IC. I would like to play in Cyro more, but am quite intolerant of lag. My continued preference for CP has a lot to do with that, as it's just the better option for (solo) farming, in IC, when there's a lull in PvP.

Of course there are builds that are better suited to no cp, than to cp. Proc builds are an example of that. That has nothing to do with what I mean with 'carried', though.

The reason for why CP is a carry, has multiple reasons.
- You are often fighting people with lower cp than you. 100% carry right there. I have hit people with 18k bow procs in cp, which is close to impossible in no cp.
- It is a lot easier to build for full damage and still have decent sustain and defence, than in no cp. No cp builds require a lot more focus on sustain and mitigation, and thus sacrifices, whereas in cp these things are handed to you. In cp people are more often slotting more damage, because the "tank meta" is more evident there.
- Solo play in cp and no cp is a difference of night and day. Especially as a magicka build. In no cp you will run dry of stamina so much faster, plus free damage from procs actually hurts like hell there. CP feels like a walk in the park, because heals, sustain and mitigation are so much more potent. In no cp you have to be fast, mobile and have top knotch movement, else you will simply crumble under the pressure of even 2 halfway decent players.

Anyway, as far as the rest of your post that I snipped out, I see where you come from. I have actually been thinking to try a high burst damage setup using shadowy disguise + concealed, with good stam sustain so I can make more use of roll dodge. Was thinking to use the new marauder set with blackrose resto so I can healward + dodgeroll into cloak and then use RAT and dart out of trouble with the combined speed of those 3 sources. Then my 2nd 5 piece set would probably be something like amberplasm, with slimecraw monsterset. I have found combining slimecraw with lotus fan and soul harvest makes you reach very high burst even when your other sets are not even that damage oriented. Was hitting some people for 10k + bow procs with such setups.

If you’re only no-CP I’d try BTB, Pelinals and Balorg. 2H-resto, 5m-2L, 3x WP glyphs.

No-CP doesn’t have the magicka boosts that CP has so it works. Medium armour weapon damage passives are converted into spell power.

Main issue is lack of crit and being dependent on onslaught for pen, but the burst is great. Might work with marauder, I’m not sure.

When everything is up you get over a 10k concealed tooltip in no-CP with 100% pen.

P.S - there’s the build.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade. Mist form is nice on a magblade it you haven’t tried it too, it stops magicka but not stamina regen. Looking at it now Sap might fit nicely on that front bar, getting major brutality is always an issue and it’d allow better pots.

That build no doubt hits very hard, I'm just not a fan of 2h ult or any melee weapon on magblade, outside of dw when bombing. I am a true destro resto magblade Reason I mentioned concealed was just for the speed bonus on backbar. I would never use it as a spammable, since its sustained damage output is lackluster compared to the dmg you put out with destro la + swallow soul/force pulse.

I recently revisited an old experimental build which I made for no CP, that requires very little mag recovery to sustain, hits very hard and is still sturdy enough to stay on the group. I have changed some things to it to add more damage at a loss of resistance, which I can since merciless now gives mitigation too and dark cloak has increased duration. It is focussed purely on single target burst damage, so my total damage numbers in BG are not as high as they would be on other specs, but I am either getting the KB's or setting up the kills for teammates with well times combo's. So far I am really happy with how it works and how hard it hits, although you are a bit susceptible to being burst down when you get focussed. So positioning is important. I worked in quite a bit of max stam, to make sure I can dodge/sprint to safety if needed.

Sets are 5 desert rose + 5 magicka furnace (front bar destro) + 2 slimecraw + blackrose resto. Here is the build: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=185754

I'm using spell power + crit pots to give me 40% crit on front bar, which is further capitalized by nb passive and RAT. Also using double dot poisons for a bit more pressure. I went with mage mundus as I don't want my max magicka to be too low, considering how magicka furnace set works. Currently I would still lose some value of that 5 piece if it procs at close to 80%, but usually when fighting for prolonged time in BG's your magpool sits at lower percentages, so its not a huge deal. Plus I can control when it procs since its on 1 bar.

As you can see though, offensive stats are very solid all round, with 40% crit, 32k mag, 3,2k spell dmg, 10k pen, and on top of that receiving 8% dmg from slimecraw, 8% dmg from lotus fan and an additional 20% dmg from soul harvest. I am blowing consistent 8-12k assassins wills into people, depending on how tanky they are. Meanwhile, sustain is no problem at all with breton, siphoning strikes, ele drain and since both sets proc on cooldown on BG's with all the AoE and dots flying around. Defense is okay too, and both sets offering a convenient line of armor fits nicely too.

It's noting BiS, just a fun build that actually can work well in a team that throws around some support heals, to make sure you can go all out aggressive when there is a window of opportunity.

That looks really similar to the MagDK cheese 1vX builds you’ll sometimes see. Have you tried using the same trick?

Add vampire and mist form. While Mist Form will disable your mag regen it won’t disable magicka proc sets, so hit mist form under pressure and you get a lot of magicka back while misting. Usually when I see desert rose I think of guard too; the damage you take from guard will proc it, though I haven’t seen it a lot since guard was changed and am not sure if it still works.

Other than that it’s the typical Magblade issue: poor stamina sustain so you’ll eventually get cc’d and not be able to break free. That monster set that gives mag and stam back might help, IDK.

My previous version of this build used vampire + mistform and it worked. But that was before RAT and phantasmal escape. For this playstyle, and I think magblade in general, either RAT or phantasmal escape + path are always superior to mistform. You are right about the synergy between mistform and the magicka restore proc sets, though. It's just, magblade has no burst heal to quickly heal up after going out of mistform. Hots don't really synergize well with it. Plus I like minor force for this build, because I focus on high burst, and vamp regen passive kind of goes to waste as well with just 900 regen. And finally I hate dying to magdk's just because vamp or eating 8k dawnbreakers just because vamp. So no vamp for me, haha.

Stam sustain is indeed a weakness. I used to have a bit more max mag enchants on my gear to make more efficient use out of magicka furnace, but found that the extra stam from tristat enchants and traits was simply needed. It adds an additional skill element to the gameplay though, for example deciding when to break free and when to just eat a stun. Positioning is also key. Not getting stunned in the first place is a good way to preserve stam.

Another thing I considered was bloodthorn set. But that doesn't have the juicy line of armor on it.

Iskiab

I think those armour lines are actually a downside rather than upside. It’s such a relatively small amount compared to say going Nord or a 1 piece monster set.

I’d actually try Grundwulf or whatever it’s called. You’ll lose damage from no minor berserk but the monster set looks decent to me, only reason I don’t use it is because monster sets are so good for defense.

I’d steer clear of Blood thorn. You’ll get less magicka back from dropping one of your existing sets, plus it’s not efficient. It has a harder condition to meet then other kind of procs (% on direct damage is harder to meet then % of crit damage because of dots). In a sense you’d be using 3 sustain sets, but being able to devote all your jewellery glyphs to damage might be worth it.

WacArnold

You could also try max stam. And less regen to see if that works for your playstyle. I am a dark elf and use spring with btb to get 43k mag. 45k mag on back bar with will power for shield and 17 stam. I found i can manage high stam and obtain it eaiser than stacking regen.

Using rat i can conserve stam and mainly use for a dodge roll here and there.

Or if your mag sustain is fine and you have a open slot try the stam morph of siphoning strikes.

I have found it easier to manage stam that way over using a set for it.

But like iskiab said the new montser may work for you.

ExistingRug61

Iskiab wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Admittedly, hardly played the game this patch. ESO got kind of stale and BL3 is a blast. Hopped on this weekend, didn’t have a game under 1mil damage and 250k healing. 5 crafty Alfiq, 5 lich, BRP resto and Skoria. Heavy dot build with double healing drain poisons front bar, +9% healing back bar. Been rolling over people in BGs and single handedly carrying teams. Just have to know when to cloak away, when to get aggressive and when to defensively put up a heal. Other than that stack dots, watch the skorias rain down and time up that burst 👍🏻

Why would you run crafty over necro? Do you not use shade? I've also gone back to a more max mag based build on my argonian having a decent damage shield is the only way to survive outside of cloak spam. With my woodelf I'm still build around steed and Regen with high movement speed. I run both builds and the max mag is definitely better for standing and fighting. On my woodelf I have to constantly cloak image and roll around otherwise I get mollywhomped without a damage shield.

No shade. No shields aside from Ward to proc BRP resto. Insane sustain, great healing, solid burst when timed with Skoria proc. 1.3 mil damage and 550k healing in my one BG I did last night. Lol

Thats a solid score. What is your bar setup?

Front bar - entropy, mass hysteria, inner light, swallow soul, spectral bow

Back bar - debilitate, healing ward, cloak, rapid regen, siphoning attacks

Certainly impressive healing numbers for just rapid regen + resto ult. Also, how do you feel healing ward compares to ward ally? I personally use ward ally for 100% guarantee I get the shield and for support on group mates with blackrose resto. I haven't tested the new heal ward since I assumed it was trash on a brawler kind of build, which is how I play magblade. What is your experience?

My Healing Ward with a less than 3K tooltip on a low-stat build has crit for up to 5K with Blackrose resto in CP IC. It will crit for about 4.2K in repeatable tests at around 30% health. The problem with it is that, when you get hit, it's still only a small shield and tends to get consumed without healing. To get the ideal numbers basically means you successfully cloaked or shaded.

I play exclusively no CP. CP is a massive carry and in my opinion a lot more boring, so I focus all my builds towards no CP and BGs. As for the bolded part in your argument, this is what I figured what would happen. I always play with dark cloak so I felt I cannot make the most out of that healing.

As for dark cloak, I understand the critique towards it, and can see why people opt for shadowy disguise, but I personally hate the cloakspam playstyle. With cloak you don't have to think as much about your positioning, which makes you lazy. I used to play exclusively stamblade back in the day, and boy was it a rude awakening to actually have to learn positioning when playing other classes. Also with dark cloak I feel I am more able to stay with the group in a brawl without having to pop out and leaving my team with 3 man. What many cloakers don't realize is that even when you cloak and do not run away, the enemy only sees your 3 teammates and they will receive more focus from the enemy team as a result. The healing from dark cloak isn't the best but its decent when stacked with other hots like refreshing path, swallow soul, siphoning strikes, etc. I can definately feel an increase in sturdyness.

Your assertion that CP is a massive carry is the one thing that I find flat out incorrect, at least as it pertains to my own build. It actually performs better in no CP. I just find it different. Players may be less tanky overall, but because of the lower damage I find the average 1v1 time actually a bit longer. It's harder to heal and harder to sustain and this is conducive to fights having an outcome, rather than stalemating. If that's what you mean by it being less boring, then I agree with that part. At any rate, as a squishy sustain build and, well, a proc build, no CP actually suits me a great deal, yet I still play CP most of the time. I've historically played a lot in IC. I would like to play in Cyro more, but am quite intolerant of lag. My continued preference for CP has a lot to do with that, as it's just the better option for (solo) farming, in IC, when there's a lull in PvP.

Of course there are builds that are better suited to no cp, than to cp. Proc builds are an example of that. That has nothing to do with what I mean with 'carried', though.

The reason for why CP is a carry, has multiple reasons.
- You are often fighting people with lower cp than you. 100% carry right there. I have hit people with 18k bow procs in cp, which is close to impossible in no cp.
- It is a lot easier to build for full damage and still have decent sustain and defence, than in no cp. No cp builds require a lot more focus on sustain and mitigation, and thus sacrifices, whereas in cp these things are handed to you. In cp people are more often slotting more damage, because the "tank meta" is more evident there.
- Solo play in cp and no cp is a difference of night and day. Especially as a magicka build. In no cp you will run dry of stamina so much faster, plus free damage from procs actually hurts like hell there. CP feels like a walk in the park, because heals, sustain and mitigation are so much more potent. In no cp you have to be fast, mobile and have top knotch movement, else you will simply crumble under the pressure of even 2 halfway decent players.

Anyway, as far as the rest of your post that I snipped out, I see where you come from. I have actually been thinking to try a high burst damage setup using shadowy disguise + concealed, with good stam sustain so I can make more use of roll dodge. Was thinking to use the new marauder set with blackrose resto so I can healward + dodgeroll into cloak and then use RAT and dart out of trouble with the combined speed of those 3 sources. Then my 2nd 5 piece set would probably be something like amberplasm, with slimecraw monsterset. I have found combining slimecraw with lotus fan and soul harvest makes you reach very high burst even when your other sets are not even that damage oriented. Was hitting some people for 10k + bow procs with such setups.

If you’re only no-CP I’d try BTB, Pelinals and Balorg. 2H-resto, 5m-2L, 3x WP glyphs.

No-CP doesn’t have the magicka boosts that CP has so it works. Medium armour weapon damage passives are converted into spell power.

Main issue is lack of crit and being dependent on onslaught for pen, but the burst is great. Might work with marauder, I’m not sure.

When everything is up you get over a 10k concealed tooltip in no-CP with 100% pen.

P.S - there’s the build.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade. Mist form is nice on a magblade it you haven’t tried it too, it stops magicka but not stamina regen. Looking at it now Sap might fit nicely on that front bar, getting major brutality is always an issue and it’d allow better pots.

I think the partial hybrid is interesting, but I always find the cost of running medium pelinals to be hard to overcome.

For example, consider swapping:
Pelinals + Infused Weapon Damage + Warrior + Medium Armour + Brutality
for
New Moon Acolyte + Infused Spell Damage + Serpent + Light Armour + Sorcery

By my calculations this should result in approx (can't do it in the builder as NMA is not there yet)
+100 Spell Damage
+6k Spell Pen
+14% Spell crit
-1400 Weapon Damage
-2% Weapon crit
~same mag regen (mag rec from extra Light pieces balances lost mag rec line of Pelinals)
~same stam regen (Serpent balances loss of stam rec line of Pelinals and stam rec bonus of removed Medium pieces)
+5% all active ability cost (New Moon Acolyte)
-8% all magicka ability cost (cost red from extra Light pieces)
Trade roll dodge/sprint speed medium passive for sprint cost/snare reduction light passive
[edit] Also lose some max health, hopefully didn't miss anything else

Basically, you give up a chunk of weapon damage for for a little spell damage but more importantly get the Light armour passives for crit and pen, and a bit extra of each from New Moon Acolyte.
This would mean vigor would probably have to be removed in favour of a magicka heal, and your 2H light attacks would be somewhat worse.
Mag sustain is probably fairly similar as while the light armour cost reduction outweighs the penalty from New moon acolyte, your magicka requirement goes up slightly due to swapping vigor for a magicka heal.
Stam sustain should feel similar as although you don't have to use stam to cast vigor, this is probably offset by dodge roll costing more as the medium armour roll dodge reduction passive is gone. Although if it is too much/too little then stam regen can be easily adjusted by changing mundus and jewelery glyph/traits to get the value you need.
The other downsides are a reduction in defense due to light armour instead of medium, and the cost increase from NMA will affect your Ults.

Overall I think the net result would be an increase in your mag damage and healing at the cost of some 2H light attack damage, a slight cost increase to Ults, and having to find a skill to replace vigor.

Iskiab

ExistingRug61 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

GhostofDatthaw wrote: »

HEBREWHAMMERRR wrote: »

Admittedly, hardly played the game this patch. ESO got kind of stale and BL3 is a blast. Hopped on this weekend, didn’t have a game under 1mil damage and 250k healing. 5 crafty Alfiq, 5 lich, BRP resto and Skoria. Heavy dot build with double healing drain poisons front bar, +9% healing back bar. Been rolling over people in BGs and single handedly carrying teams. Just have to know when to cloak away, when to get aggressive and when to defensively put up a heal. Other than that stack dots, watch the skorias rain down and time up that burst 👍🏻

Why would you run crafty over necro? Do you not use shade? I've also gone back to a more max mag based build on my argonian having a decent damage shield is the only way to survive outside of cloak spam. With my woodelf I'm still build around steed and Regen with high movement speed. I run both builds and the max mag is definitely better for standing and fighting. On my woodelf I have to constantly cloak image and roll around otherwise I get mollywhomped without a damage shield.

No shade. No shields aside from Ward to proc BRP resto. Insane sustain, great healing, solid burst when timed with Skoria proc. 1.3 mil damage and 550k healing in my one BG I did last night. Lol

Thats a solid score. What is your bar setup?

Front bar - entropy, mass hysteria, inner light, swallow soul, spectral bow

Back bar - debilitate, healing ward, cloak, rapid regen, siphoning attacks

Certainly impressive healing numbers for just rapid regen + resto ult. Also, how do you feel healing ward compares to ward ally? I personally use ward ally for 100% guarantee I get the shield and for support on group mates with blackrose resto. I haven't tested the new heal ward since I assumed it was trash on a brawler kind of build, which is how I play magblade. What is your experience?

My Healing Ward with a less than 3K tooltip on a low-stat build has crit for up to 5K with Blackrose resto in CP IC. It will crit for about 4.2K in repeatable tests at around 30% health. The problem with it is that, when you get hit, it's still only a small shield and tends to get consumed without healing. To get the ideal numbers basically means you successfully cloaked or shaded.

I play exclusively no CP. CP is a massive carry and in my opinion a lot more boring, so I focus all my builds towards no CP and BGs. As for the bolded part in your argument, this is what I figured what would happen. I always play with dark cloak so I felt I cannot make the most out of that healing.

As for dark cloak, I understand the critique towards it, and can see why people opt for shadowy disguise, but I personally hate the cloakspam playstyle. With cloak you don't have to think as much about your positioning, which makes you lazy. I used to play exclusively stamblade back in the day, and boy was it a rude awakening to actually have to learn positioning when playing other classes. Also with dark cloak I feel I am more able to stay with the group in a brawl without having to pop out and leaving my team with 3 man. What many cloakers don't realize is that even when you cloak and do not run away, the enemy only sees your 3 teammates and they will receive more focus from the enemy team as a result. The healing from dark cloak isn't the best but its decent when stacked with other hots like refreshing path, swallow soul, siphoning strikes, etc. I can definately feel an increase in sturdyness.

Your assertion that CP is a massive carry is the one thing that I find flat out incorrect, at least as it pertains to my own build. It actually performs better in no CP. I just find it different. Players may be less tanky overall, but because of the lower damage I find the average 1v1 time actually a bit longer. It's harder to heal and harder to sustain and this is conducive to fights having an outcome, rather than stalemating. If that's what you mean by it being less boring, then I agree with that part. At any rate, as a squishy sustain build and, well, a proc build, no CP actually suits me a great deal, yet I still play CP most of the time. I've historically played a lot in IC. I would like to play in Cyro more, but am quite intolerant of lag. My continued preference for CP has a lot to do with that, as it's just the better option for (solo) farming, in IC, when there's a lull in PvP.

Of course there are builds that are better suited to no cp, than to cp. Proc builds are an example of that. That has nothing to do with what I mean with 'carried', though.

The reason for why CP is a carry, has multiple reasons.
- You are often fighting people with lower cp than you. 100% carry right there. I have hit people with 18k bow procs in cp, which is close to impossible in no cp.
- It is a lot easier to build for full damage and still have decent sustain and defence, than in no cp. No cp builds require a lot more focus on sustain and mitigation, and thus sacrifices, whereas in cp these things are handed to you. In cp people are more often slotting more damage, because the "tank meta" is more evident there.
- Solo play in cp and no cp is a difference of night and day. Especially as a magicka build. In no cp you will run dry of stamina so much faster, plus free damage from procs actually hurts like hell there. CP feels like a walk in the park, because heals, sustain and mitigation are so much more potent. In no cp you have to be fast, mobile and have top knotch movement, else you will simply crumble under the pressure of even 2 halfway decent players.

Anyway, as far as the rest of your post that I snipped out, I see where you come from. I have actually been thinking to try a high burst damage setup using shadowy disguise + concealed, with good stam sustain so I can make more use of roll dodge. Was thinking to use the new marauder set with blackrose resto so I can healward + dodgeroll into cloak and then use RAT and dart out of trouble with the combined speed of those 3 sources. Then my 2nd 5 piece set would probably be something like amberplasm, with slimecraw monsterset. I have found combining slimecraw with lotus fan and soul harvest makes you reach very high burst even when your other sets are not even that damage oriented. Was hitting some people for 10k + bow procs with such setups.

If you’re only no-CP I’d try BTB, Pelinals and Balorg. 2H-resto, 5m-2L, 3x WP glyphs.

No-CP doesn’t have the magicka boosts that CP has so it works. Medium armour weapon damage passives are converted into spell power.

Main issue is lack of crit and being dependent on onslaught for pen, but the burst is great. Might work with marauder, I’m not sure.

When everything is up you get over a 10k concealed tooltip in no-CP with 100% pen.

P.S - there’s the build.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=186721

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade. Mist form is nice on a magblade it you haven’t tried it too, it stops magicka but not stamina regen. Looking at it now Sap might fit nicely on that front bar, getting major brutality is always an issue and it’d allow better pots.

I think the partial hybrid is interesting, but I always find the cost of running medium pelinals to be hard to overcome.

For example, consider swapping:
Pelinals + Infused Weapon Damage + Warrior + Medium Armour + Brutality
for
New Moon Acolyte + Infused Spell Damage + Serpent + Light Armour + Sorcery

By my calculations this should result in approx (can't do it in the builder as NMA is not there yet)
+100 Spell Damage
+6k Spell Pen
+14% Spell crit
-1400 Weapon Damage
-2% Weapon crit
~same mag regen (mag rec from extra Light pieces balances lost mag rec line of Pelinals)
~same stam regen (Serpent balances loss of stam rec line of Pelinals and stam rec bonus of removed Medium pieces)
+5% all active ability cost (New Moon Acolyte)
-8% all magicka ability cost (cost red from extra Light pieces)
Trade roll dodge/sprint speed medium passive for sprint cost/snare reduction light passive
[edit] Also lose some max health, hopefully didn't miss anything else

Basically, you give up a chunk of weapon damage for for a little spell damage but more importantly get the Light armour passives for crit and pen, and a bit extra of each from New Moon Acolyte.
This would mean vigor would probably have to be removed in favour of a magicka heal, and your 2H light attacks would be somewhat worse.
Mag sustain is probably fairly similar as while the light armour cost reduction outweighs the penalty from New moon acolyte, your magicka requirement goes up slightly due to swapping vigor for a magicka heal.
Stam sustain should feel similar as although you don't have to use stam to cast vigor, this is probably offset by dodge roll costing more as the medium armour roll dodge reduction passive is gone. Although if it is too much/too little then stam regen can be easily adjusted by changing mundus and jewelery glyph/traits to get the value you need.
The other downsides are a reduction in defense due to light armour instead of medium, and the cost increase from NMA will affect your Ults.

Overall I think the net result would be an increase in your mag damage and healing at the cost of some 2H light attack damage, a slight cost increase to Ults, and having to find a skill to replace vigor.

I’ll check it out, if you can get similar numbers in no-CP in light it would be infinitely better.

I was mainly trying to figure out a way to get rid of the downside of using using a 2H weapon for onslaught with weak light attacks because they scale with stam and weapon damage. If you can do it in light you’re better off, the crit and pen passives for light are great, plus the cost reduction of light is good too - even though it has 2k regen it doesn’t feel like it without Siphoning Strikes or Ele drain.

Vigor isn’t necessary and was more of a neat thing where it could be done rather being seminal to the build.

It was more of a ‘hey would this work?’ where it did in no-CP. In CP the extra magicka scaling from hitting 300 CPs means it’s a lot weaker and I didn’t like it, there are better options where I favour crit mod builds. There’s something gratifying about smacking someone from stealth with an over 100% crit mod for big numbers that’s fun.

ExistingRug61

Iskiab wrote: »

I was mainly trying to figure out a way to get rid of the downside of using using a 2H weapon for onslaught with weak light attacks because they scale with stam and weapon damage.

Yeah I figured that was the case. At least with New Moon Acolyte there is still some benefit for the 2H light attacks from the raw weapon damage it gives, but obviously not as much as you had with Pelinals. I guess it depends if the increase it mag damage counteracts it.

I am trying to figure out a build that is somewhere between yours and @fred4's.
Basically Calu + swift melee magblade, but with dual wield not flame staff. So I can relate to:

Iskiab wrote: »

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade.

My answer to "Why dual wield on Magblade?" would probably be similar.
Obviously dual wield is a definite non-optimal choice, but its my preference in terms of style and I just want to see if its viable at all. My only consolations is that at least the twin blade and blunt passive should buff calu proc along with higher base spell damage (and being able to go nirn + 1/2 strength sharpened may be a slight bonus).

I was intending it for no-CP, in CP I think dual wield would be an even greater loss due to the light attacks being non-magicka damage.

It is challenging to find the right set to pair with Calu for this type of build though though. Ideally I want additional penetration as I feel that is very strong in no-CP plus its one of the few ways I have to maximise Calu's proc (ie: spinners, lover mundus). The more recent sets that provide free off-stat are also nice as these buff the dual wield light attacks (ie: shackle, new moon acolyte). But the biggest problem is trying to get enough sustain, especially given I would prefer out of combat mag regen and reasonable stam regen. Have to give something up, and I'm feeling like the most likely scenario is I will end up with really low max mag.

Iskiab

ExistingRug61 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

I was mainly trying to figure out a way to get rid of the downside of using using a 2H weapon for onslaught with weak light attacks because they scale with stam and weapon damage.

Yeah I figured that was the case. At least with New Moon Acolyte there is still some benefit for the 2H light attacks from the raw weapon damage it gives, but obviously not as much as you had with Pelinals. I guess it depends if the increase it mag damage counteracts it.

I am trying to figure out a build that is somewhere between yours and @fred4's.
Basically Calu + swift melee magblade, but with dual wield not flame staff. So I can relate to:

Iskiab wrote: »

People always ask me why I don’t just play a stamblade. Silly question, because I’m a magblade.

My answer to "Why dual wield on Magblade?" would probably be similar.
Obviously dual wield is a definite non-optimal choice, but its my preference in terms of style and I just want to see if its viable at all. My only consolations is that at least the twin blade and blunt passive should buff calu proc along with higher base spell damage (and being able to go nirn + 1/2 strength sharpened may be a slight bonus).

I was intending it for no-CP, in CP I think dual wield would be an even greater loss due to the light attacks being non-magicka damage.

It is challenging to find the right set to pair with Calu for this type of build though though. Ideally I want additional penetration as I feel that is very strong in no-CP plus its one of the few ways I have to maximise Calu's proc (ie: spinners, lover mundus). The more recent sets that provide free off-stat are also nice as these buff the dual wield light attacks (ie: shackle, new moon acolyte). But the biggest problem is trying to get enough sustain, especially given I would prefer out of combat mag regen and reasonable stam regen. Have to give something up, and I'm feeling like the most likely scenario is I will end up with really low max mag.

One place a Magblade can get away with DW is as a healer. I use DW with Symbiosis, doesn’t work well in small scale because radiating regen is too important in places like BG healing but with 6+ it works.

I use DW as a MagDK too. You could try applying the same idea to magblade.

Jorvlund + BRP DW and a 5 piece proc set on your back bar like Caluurion. Jorvlund extends the duration of the major protection from the BRP DW to a decent amount of time. It works on a MagDK because they’re overloaded with major and minor buffs, IDK if you could make it work as a magblade.

MagDKs also get 1k stam from using one of their skill lines so play completely differently. Stam is easy to get and the issue is running out of magicka. Self healing is also a non-issue as a MagDK.

I’d consider shalks too. It depends on your playstyle, if you’re a ganker trying a gank with 500 ultimate with balorgs is great. Downside is not great stats and you need more patience then I have for your Ult to build, but it’s very easy to stay in combat in cyrodiil.

fred4

If you don't want to invest into stam sustain, then I think Meditate (Deep Thoughts) works well. I used it for a while, usually behind some obstacle.

My biggest problem at the moment is dealing with Toppling Charge into Sweeps. Templars do so much damage, it's almost a guaranteed kill and it's only their spammable. I have a woodelf stamblade I rarely play. When I did, it was remarkable how easily it dealt with the templar I encountered by just dodge rolling on the bow bar. Might have been a bad templar, but I don't know.

I have gotten into the habit of casting Healing Ward into dodge roll on the magblade (I have the stam sustain to do it), but it doesn't feel as good as stamblade, even with that +20% speed set. I tried going slightly hybrid by using a bow on my off bar and Vigor, but the heal was dismal. I did give some consideration to stamina, weapon damage and weapon crit, but no way.

I tried going medium in that hybrid setup. I also tried heavy. Heavy Seducer isn't bad, but better than wearing Buffer of the Swift? I don't know. I don't really think so. The damage loss is so very, very palpable in heavy and medium.

You can arguably use the shade against templars, but I don't like it all that much. I am now practicing to cast RAT - not Healing Ward - whenever I dodge roll and see how that goes. The extra speed you get as a medium (woodelf) stamblade with a bow seems crucial. Of course the stamblade, in all medium, also had 7 seconds of root and snare immunity from Shuffle.

If you don't get out of range of Sweeps or DK Breath, it's no good. Wish I could trade blows, but I usually can't. Siphoning Attacks + Swallow Soul + Infused healing enchant is rarely enough healing.

There's an art to being in the right position at any given time. I'm trying to run through players to escape their attacks, but the margin of error on magblade - at least mine - is so very very slim.