Whats good with magblades these days?

OWLTHEMAD

Magblade main, i typically stack as much damage as possible and rely on cloak for survivability. Fun, high risk, high reward, but these days it just doesnt feel like that build philosophy cuts it anymore. Its all tanks in groups now. I can fair well against up to two in an extended engagement but the big issue now is that time to kill even for an individual is just to high back-up comes before i can kill them even when lining up a perfect burst combo.. I barely even use merciless for damage anymore. Just for defense. Takes to long to build up when survivability depends on quick kills. My setup is still serviceable, but just looking to see if anyone has any ways to do what im doing even better or just a different build philosophy all together.

Iskiab

Idk, mine’s been shelved for a while and since I changed factions I’m leveling a new one.

I’d try out a variant of Fred’s build. Zaan, Caluurion and Darlok’s bane. Then go high speed, glassy and try to line up all the procs with Invig drain (block cancelled), harvest and the bow proc. Idk how well it’d work, but I only tried darloc recently and like it.

For BGs - way too much setup required to be competitive. I went magblade healer to adapt to the class’ deficiencies, but like doing damage and healing in my specs and Templar and Warden do it better.

If you’re pure solo Cyro, I’d try the first spec. If you’re in EU and BG they’re mostly mag with cross healing so magblade healers work okay, if you’re PC-NA it’s mostly stam with high burst so magblade healers aren’t competitive, because while they’re tanky it’s hard to recover from burst and you’re reliant on your group for some healing.

OWLTHEMAD

Ive always done well in non cp like bgs. Lasg patch less so what with all the templars but still plenty servicable. I just used to feel like an absolute monster and thought maybe i just wasnt adapting well. Cyrodil on the other hand is my main issue. Have trouble building for group play, and solo play is almost completely dead for me. Just trying to adapt so its fun again.

OWLTHEMAD

Im xbox btw

ThePhantomThorn

magblade sucks these days.

but, if your up 2 it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8LdRdEw7W4

best player i have ever seen.

kojou

Its good for leveling thieves guild and dark brotherhood.

Iskiab

Maybe give this a go, but back bar resto and impen might be a waste of time. Looks ridiculously squishy to me.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=203771

Iskiab

ThePhantomThorn wrote: »

magblade sucks these days.

but, if your up 2 it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8LdRdEw7W4

best player i have ever seen.

Wait, dark cloak stacks with itself? I always thought recasting it overwrote the existing hot!

brandonv516

I'm still running:

Caluurions
Bright Throat
Slimecraw

Works well overall. I compete with the usual BGs crowd daily but it's all I play, so I suspect that's why it works so well.

One important key to Magblade is knowing your bars like the back of your hand.

When I don't have a competent team I just pick off easy targets. But when I do, I complement them by slotting things like Lotus Fan (AoE debuff), Fear, Soul Tether for synergy, and Resto ultimate.

OWLTHEMAD

I am a skilled magblade, just yring to figure new settups for my magblade because my old settup no longer has the same umph it once had. My current settup, is brightthroat and crafty with brp resto back bar. Calurions and darlock brae could be interesting, but i dont like relying to heavily on proc sets. Might giveit a try though.

Ive been nothing but magblade for 3+ years but have only been doing Serious pvp since summerset. 1v1 i only run into a handful of people (usually magsorcs this patch) that can consistently beat me. I can even take on 2 rarely 3 tplayers by myself with moderate success depending on group composition and class, but in any serious group play i just dont have umph anymore and 1v1 matchups are really difficult to get without quick interference these days in bgs imp city and cyrodil.

I guess im just looking for ideas to try a different approach and see whats working for others to get something i havent thought of already.

Rahar

Ganking. Almost everything else can be done better easier on a different class.

Iskiab

Rahar wrote: »

Ganking. Almost everything else can be done better easier on a different class.

Agreed, this is pretty much true. Don’t listen to the people who roll fotm classes and then cry about proc sets. Do you think sorcs care when everyone cries about kill stealing with wrath? Nope. Do you think premades who all wear overwhelming surge or warden premades care it negates cloak? Nope, they go good, dead NB.

Burst isn’t there as a magblade. As soon as you Ult someone will stun you and kite your damage buff, just line everything up to hit at once and pray to the RNG god that your proc’s go off.

One thing, mist + shade when I added it before I quit magblade helps a lot to avoiding streaking sorcs. Invig drain block canceled also gives a little longer window to Ult.

As someone who switched to a magplar, disguise gives you at most a 30% chance to get away. Mist will get you out of sweeps if your shade isn’t up and you messsed up, you can also drop it and mist away then port back and cloak. Just be sure they aren’t camping the shade.

fred4

I'm an aforementioned magblade main. Current build:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=197810

This works in CP and no CP. I mostly play in CP IC and Cyro. No illusions. I have the same problem as you: TTK is too high against decent players or you can't kill them at all. Being just decent myself is perhaps reflected in the build. Fun to brawl with on account of the mobility and stam sustain, but not geared for maximum damage. I've pretty much accepted my limitations at this point.

I'll say a couple of things about this type of build. Forget Darloc Brae and forget Zaan. Darloc is completely redundant. It's a sustain set. If you want sustain and high sneak / cloak uptime on a magblade, you're better off building for that differently. If you want damage, you need a damage set instead and I'd probably get my sustain from a mix of Shade, Cloak and Meditate.

As to Zaan: I ran it for a good long time. If your preferred attack is Concealed, there is some sense to it. The problem is, you want the speed, you'll have Cloak on that bar too. You have Cloak on that bar, you probably want RAT and/or Siphoning Attacks on that bar to use in Cloak. You want to activate Caluurion, you want Lotus Fan on that bar. You have no room for more attack skills, such as Inner Light, Merciless or Impale. I find Impale (spam) important to finish off the majority of players and it's quite effective with Caluurion. If someone is hanging on by shielding or via Mist Form, another Caluurion proc can finish them off during Impale spam.

The upshot: Building for Concealed does not work. It's a dead skill other than for the speed and against the occasional flappy DK. Having your attacks on the other, ranged, bar works far better. Your playstyle changes, though. You go in for the burst, for example Lotus Fan -> Fear (Caluurion) -> Soul Harvest, but then you or your target backs off as you try to finish with Swallow Soul / Impale / Merciless. It's safer and more versatile for you, as you can try to execute from range while your target is retreating back into their zerg. I find it plays a lot better than trying to stay on top of people. That basically kills Zaan in my build.

Healing is a big issue. You run Caluurion, you get crit and spell damage. I wouldn't sneeze at the crit. You examine my build in detail, you'll see my stats and Swallow Soul tooltip is complete crap. Nonetheless it plays well and that's, in part, due to the crit, I think. Anyhow, you take it as far as I did, you have Caluurion, a lot of speed (Steed, all Swift) and the high (1.3K) stam sustain, you lose so much magicka, shields (Dampen) are useless. That's why I only have Healing Ward. Still beats Rapid Regen in my tests at low health, at least with the Blackrose resto. So healing: I'm following the old mantra of healing while attacking. Siphoning Attacks is important as is the Infused Restore Health enchant, not to be overlooked. Infused enchants fit in with low stat builds especially.

You may notice that I am not a vamp (for RP reasons) and I don't use the shade. I make up for that with very high speed and with stamina sustain for some roll dodging. You could absolutely build for more damage by forgoing speed and sustain. If you do that, you'll IMO need the shade. I just like the freedom that comes from sustaining perma-cloak. This is more of a Cyro and IC than a BG thing, as it allows you to completely avoid aggro from NPCs at all times, e.g. in IC and in keeps. It also allows you to get away with very low health, since a high-speed perma-cloaking - not crouching! - magblade is very difficult to detect and gank. For me those are huge quality of life benefits and why I build magblade this way.

We come, then, to sustain. Like I said: Forget Darloc. Too many compromises with that set. Not enough stats. I've gone back and forth between sets like Buffer of the Swift, Spinner, Auroran's Thunder, but at the end of the day nothing, and I mean nothing, beats Bright-Throat's, at least for what I'm trying to accomplish. Point 1: You need the magicka when you give up so much of it elsewhere. Point 2 is about the vagaries of the combat engine. If you cloak a lot, you will transition between being in combat and out of combat. Sources of magicka sustain that work in both cases include the Atro mundus, drinks, cost reduction and the 5-piece bonus from Bright-Throat's and only that one. The regen from sets like Amber Plasm does not work outside of combat. Lich, as used by the guy in the above video, would leave you permanently low if, like me, you move around in cloak by default.

I don't think a lot of people go for my exact playstyle. The benefits are that I'll outsustain everyone in CP or no CP. If you find yourself in a duelling situation that swings some fights for you. I'm also quicker than most other builds at changing my position and taking opportunities. The most obvious example is going after riders, but it works great in general on any loose and disorganised battlefield that isn't dominated by organised ball groups. One of the key strategies is to pop up everywhere and never stay in one place where people have become alert. Lotus Fan is my opener. I've tried for more burst by adding Elemental Weapon + light attack before Lotus Fan. Technically that creates more burst, as verified on a target skeleton, but it still only scratches alert, tanky players.

phoenixkungfu

Jesus, nothing eazy. Magic blade is amazing here is a universal build for every class damage damage dealer. I just cant take it anymore. Go high crit. Mother sorrow and treasure hunter. If your not in the mode to farm mother sorrow and jul(crafting set). This set up works on every class. Mother sorrow pairs with alot of sets. Just make sure your crit is over 50%. The higher the crit the better. Shadow is best boon in high crit build. Good luck

fred4

phoenixkungfu wrote: »

Jesus, nothing eazy. Magic blade is amazing here is a universal build for every class damage damage dealer. I just cant take it anymore. Go high crit. Mother sorrow and treasure hunter. If your not in the mode to farm mother sorrow and jul(crafting set). This set up works on every class. Mother sorrow pairs with alot of sets. Just make sure your crit is over 50%. The higher the crit the better. Shadow is best boon in high crit build. Good luck

Look: A PvEer. How quaint!

Teasure Hunter? You've still got much to learn, young padawan.

In fairness, OP, this thread belongs in the PvP Combat forum.

Iskiab

fred4 wrote: »

I'm an aforementioned magblade main. Current build:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=197810

This works in CP and no CP. I mostly play in CP IC and Cyro. No illusions. I have the same problem as you: TTK is too high against decent players or you can't kill them at all. Being just decent myself is perhaps reflected in the build. Fun to brawl with on account of the mobility and stam sustain, but not geared for maximum damage. I've pretty much accepted my limitations at this point.

I'll say a couple of things about this type of build. Forget Darloc Brae and forget Zaan. Darloc is completely redundant. It's a sustain set. If you want sustain and high sneak / cloak uptime on a magblade, you're better off building for that differently. If you want damage, you need a damage set instead and I'd probably get my sustain from a mix of Shade, Cloak and Meditate.

As to Zaan: I ran it for a good long time. If your preferred attack is Concealed, there is some sense to it. The problem is, you want the speed, you'll have Cloak on that bar too. You have Cloak on that bar, you probably want RAT and/or Siphoning Attacks on that bar to use in Cloak. You want to activate Caluurion, you want Lotus Fan on that bar. You have no room for more attack skills, such as Inner Light, Merciless or Impale. I find Impale (spam) important to finish off the majority of players and it's quite effective with Caluurion. If someone is hanging on by shielding or via Mist Form, another Caluurion proc can finish them off during Impale spam.

The upshot: Building for Concealed does not work. It's a dead skill other than for the speed and against the occasional flappy DK. Having your attacks on the other, ranged, bar works far better. Your playstyle changes, though. You go in for the burst, for example Lotus Fan -> Fear (Caluurion) -> Soul Harvest, but then you or your target backs off as you try to finish with Swallow Soul / Impale / Merciless. It's safer and more versatile for you, as you can try to execute from range while your target is retreating back into their zerg. I find it plays a lot better than trying to stay on top of people. That basically kills Zaan in my build.

Healing is a big issue. You run Caluurion, you get crit and spell damage. I wouldn't sneeze at the crit. You examine my build in detail, you'll see my stats and Swallow Soul tooltip is complete crap. Nonetheless it plays well and that's, in part, due to the crit, I think. Anyhow, you take it as far as I did, you have Caluurion, a lot of speed (Steed, all Swift) and the high (1.3K) stam sustain, you lose so much magicka, shields (Dampen) are useless. That's why I only have Healing Ward. Still beats Rapid Regen in my tests at low health, at least with the Blackrose resto. So healing: I'm following the old mantra of healing while attacking. Siphoning Attacks is important as is the Infused Restore Health enchant, not to be overlooked. Infused enchants fit in with low stat builds especially.

You may notice that I am not a vamp (for RP reasons) and I don't use the shade. I make up for that with very high speed and with stamina sustain for some roll dodging. You could absolutely build for more damage by forgoing speed and sustain. If you do that, you'll IMO need the shade. I just like the freedom that comes from sustaining perma-cloak. This is more of a Cyro and IC than a BG thing, as it allows you to completely avoid aggro from NPCs at all times, e.g. in IC and in keeps. It also allows you to get away with very low health, since a high-speed perma-cloaking - not crouching! - magblade is very difficult to detect and gank. For me those are huge quality of life benefits and why I build magblade this way.

We come, then, to sustain. Like I said: Forget Darloc. Too many compromises with that set. Not enough stats. I've gone back and forth between sets like Buffer of the Swift, Spinner, Auroran's Thunder, but at the end of the day nothing, and I mean nothing, beats Bright-Throat's, at least for what I'm trying to accomplish. Point 1: You need the magicka when you give up so much of it elsewhere. Point 2 is about the vagaries of the combat engine. If you cloak a lot, you will transition between being in combat and out of combat. Sources of magicka sustain that work in both cases include the Atro mundus, drinks, cost reduction and the 5-piece bonus from Bright-Throat's and only that one. The regen from sets like Amber Plasm does not work outside of combat. Lich, as used by the guy in the above video, would leave you permanently low if, like me, you move around in cloak by default.

I don't think a lot of people go for my exact playstyle. The benefits are that I'll outsustain everyone in CP or no CP. If you find yourself in a duelling situation that swings some fights for you. I'm also quicker than most other builds at changing my position and taking opportunities. The most obvious example is going after riders, but it works great in general on any loose and disorganised battlefield that isn't dominated by organised ball groups. One of the key strategies is to pop up everywhere and never stay in one place where people have become alert. Lotus Fan is my opener. I've tried for more burst by adding Elemental Weapon + light attack before Lotus Fan. Technically that creates more burst, as verified on a target skeleton, but it still only scratches alert, tanky players.

I overlooked darloc because it’s medium and only looked at it recently. I wouldn’t make the same mistake and give it a shot.

As long as you’re crouched Darloc gives 600 mag a second or something ridiculous like that, that’s equivalent to 1200 mag regen. Plus it gives health and stam allowing you to sneak cost free while returning stamina if you’re a vampire. It’s OP. Imagine an always up engine guardian that returns all 3 stats all the time.

That allows you to sustain perfectly fine while running 3x spell damage glyphs on your jewellery.

With that being said I haven’t tried it in pvp, only pve. Using sneak vs disguise will have its own drawbacks. You’ll need to adapt to using it and optimize around the set, something I haven’t explored yet, but I’d definitely try it out before dismissing it. Especially because it’s cheap, there’s no reason not to.

I know you don’t like vampire, but I started using it as a gathering build. I’m always crouched on that build in 3x swift, full spell damage glyphs, marauder’s haste so dampen every 6 seconds, rat every 3 or so seconds, using steed, sneaking everywhere all the time at speed cap always full stam and mag without every using a pot or regen drink.

fred4

I'm not dismissing Darloc out of hand. I have tried it for farming Psijic on my DK and I briefly tried it on my magblade in PvP.

In PvE I found it "meh". You still aggro mobs, just less easily.

In PvP, on a magblade, it's pointless:

(1) Crouch is not invisibility. Cloak is far superior. If you're cloaking, you don't need Darloc to sustain crouch running.

(2) It's no use in combat. You're not crouching in combat. Skills knock you out of crouch.

So you like it to cloak away and recover? That might be reasonable, if it weren't for Meditate. If you're into that playstyle, you're IMO far better off wearing a damage set plus all damage glyphs, while using Cloak / Shade + Meditate for sustain.

Joosef_Kivikilpi

fred4 wrote: »

I'm an aforementioned magblade main. Current build:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=197810

This works in CP and no CP. I mostly play in CP IC and Cyro. No illusions. I have the same problem as you: TTK is too high against decent players or you can't kill them at all. Being just decent myself is perhaps reflected in the build. Fun to brawl with on account of the mobility and stam sustain, but not geared for maximum damage. I've pretty much accepted my limitations at this point.

I'll say a couple of things about this type of build. Forget Darloc Brae and forget Zaan. Darloc is completely redundant. It's a sustain set. If you want sustain and high sneak / cloak uptime on a magblade, you're better off building for that differently. If you want damage, you need a damage set instead and I'd probably get my sustain from a mix of Shade, Cloak and Meditate.

As to Zaan: I ran it for a good long time. If your preferred attack is Concealed, there is some sense to it. The problem is, you want the speed, you'll have Cloak on that bar too. You have Cloak on that bar, you probably want RAT and/or Siphoning Attacks on that bar to use in Cloak. You want to activate Caluurion, you want Lotus Fan on that bar. You have no room for more attack skills, such as Inner Light, Merciless or Impale. I find Impale (spam) important to finish off the majority of players and it's quite effective with Caluurion. If someone is hanging on by shielding or via Mist Form, another Caluurion proc can finish them off during Impale spam.

The upshot: Building for Concealed does not work. It's a dead skill other than for the speed and against the occasional flappy DK. Having your attacks on the other, ranged, bar works far better. Your playstyle changes, though. You go in for the burst, for example Lotus Fan -> Fear (Caluurion) -> Soul Harvest, but then you or your target backs off as you try to finish with Swallow Soul / Impale / Merciless. It's safer and more versatile for you, as you can try to execute from range while your target is retreating back into their zerg. I find it plays a lot better than trying to stay on top of people. That basically kills Zaan in my build.

Healing is a big issue. You run Caluurion, you get crit and spell damage. I wouldn't sneeze at the crit. You examine my build in detail, you'll see my stats and Swallow Soul tooltip is complete crap. Nonetheless it plays well and that's, in part, due to the crit, I think. Anyhow, you take it as far as I did, you have Caluurion, a lot of speed (Steed, all Swift) and the high (1.3K) stam sustain, you lose so much magicka, shields (Dampen) are useless. That's why I only have Healing Ward. Still beats Rapid Regen in my tests at low health, at least with the Blackrose resto. So healing: I'm following the old mantra of healing while attacking. Siphoning Attacks is important as is the Infused Restore Health enchant, not to be overlooked. Infused enchants fit in with low stat builds especially.

You may notice that I am not a vamp (for RP reasons) and I don't use the shade. I make up for that with very high speed and with stamina sustain for some roll dodging. You could absolutely build for more damage by forgoing speed and sustain. If you do that, you'll IMO need the shade. I just like the freedom that comes from sustaining perma-cloak. This is more of a Cyro and IC than a BG thing, as it allows you to completely avoid aggro from NPCs at all times, e.g. in IC and in keeps. It also allows you to get away with very low health, since a high-speed perma-cloaking - not crouching! - magblade is very difficult to detect and gank. For me those are huge quality of life benefits and why I build magblade this way.

We come, then, to sustain. Like I said: Forget Darloc. Too many compromises with that set. Not enough stats. I've gone back and forth between sets like Buffer of the Swift, Spinner, Auroran's Thunder, but at the end of the day nothing, and I mean nothing, beats Bright-Throat's, at least for what I'm trying to accomplish. Point 1: You need the magicka when you give up so much of it elsewhere. Point 2 is about the vagaries of the combat engine. If you cloak a lot, you will transition between being in combat and out of combat. Sources of magicka sustain that work in both cases include the Atro mundus, drinks, cost reduction and the 5-piece bonus from Bright-Throat's and only that one. The regen from sets like Amber Plasm does not work outside of combat. Lich, as used by the guy in the above video, would leave you permanently low if, like me, you move around in cloak by default.

I don't think a lot of people go for my exact playstyle. The benefits are that I'll outsustain everyone in CP or no CP. If you find yourself in a duelling situation that swings some fights for you. I'm also quicker than most other builds at changing my position and taking opportunities. The most obvious example is going after riders, but it works great in general on any loose and disorganised battlefield that isn't dominated by organised ball groups. One of the key strategies is to pop up everywhere and never stay in one place where people have become alert. Lotus Fan is my opener. I've tried for more burst by adding Elemental Weapon + light attack before Lotus Fan. Technically that creates more burst, as verified on a target skeleton, but it still only scratches alert, tanky players.

I see you're a non-vampire Nightblade of similar culture. I rock Icy Conjurer though for the Lotus opener. The tank meta here though is getting really tiresome for how much work a Mageblade has to put in to secure a kill. Recently, well, the past two years, the reward just hasn't felt worth the effort. Mageblade main here since 2014. I hear you, bro.

Iskiab

fred4 wrote: »

I'm not dismissing Darloc out of hand. I have tried it for farming Psijic on my DK and I briefly tried it on my magblade in PvP.

In PvE I found it "meh". You still aggro mobs, just less easily.

In PvP, on a magblade, it's pointless:

(1) Crouch is not invisibility. Cloak is far superior. If you're cloaking, you don't need Darloc to sustain crouch running.

(2) It's no use in combat. You're not crouching in combat. Skills knock you out of crouch.

So you like it to cloak away and recover? That might be reasonable, if it weren't for Meditate. If you're into that playstyle, you're IMO far better off wearing a damage set plus all damage glyphs, while using Cloak / Shade + Meditate for sustain.

I see what you’re saying, I haven’t tried it in practice but I think you could make a darloc build still. You’d just have to build around it somehow.

It’s the combination of speed from vampire, dampen and rat not breaking stealth, plus some attacks not taking you out of crouch that creates the build opportunity. Darloc gives resources when you’re crouched, not stealthed. Vampire would be required.

When my new magblade on DC is ready for pvp I’m planning on testing it out further.

fred4

I'm never a vampire as you know. I tried it with Shadow Dancer. Damage was poor, of course, but I wore that setup purely to evaluate the sustain.

OWLTHEMAD

My only problem with these setups is the reliance on caluurions to kill anything which feels like a 20 second leash. If it had a lower cooldown i would love it as i used caluurion when it first came out and timing it with soul harvest merciless and skoria was difficult but super fun. Problem is with the 20 second cooldown i feel like i can out perform it with raw stats, i have been contemplating darloc brae as a more obvious inclusion to add another heal and good sustain, but again feel as though i have to sacrifice a lot of magicka to run it which again forces shorter engagements. I suppose i should share what ive been running :

Bright throat body all impen with magicka enchant
Crafty jewelry swift and front bar weapon infused with disease enchant
Brp resto back bar, infused with weapon damage enchant
Jewelry enchants swap between damage and recovery depending on cp and non cp environment
Monster helm trades between thurvokun, zaan and balorgh situationally. Thurvokuun and zaan both have defensive and offensive aspects. Thurvokun for heal spammers. Zaan for everybody else. Balorgh and patience against higher skill opponents.
Steed mundus.

At work so cant remember exact bar settup but on back bar i have concealed weapon radiating regen (duration of heal allows engagements to last a little longer and endure a bit more risk) cloak, resto barrier and i believe mirage(?) Snare removal and major evasion are both super important. Front bar is lotus ,merciless ,fear, swallow, and recently impale. Ulti is soul harvest, back bar ulti is flexible and situational. My combo usually is lotus, fear soul harvest, swallow spam, impale. Sometimes ill wait to fear until after soul harvest if i want to use merciless. With cast times its hit or miss. It hits fairly hard but has no reliable burst and relies on relentless aggression and commitment when you do engage. Which is challenging because you are made of glass.
Also im a vampire and i use light attack cripple on back bar to proc weapon damage and keep pressure from dots.
Unfortunately despite hitting quite hard in general, stacking major and minor defial still can not out pace the heals of these templars,

OWLTHEMAD

Also, without decent burst, a sorc with good sustain can shield through most of what you do hence balorgh on occasion to save up and just over power them with raw damage, but it requires perfect execution.

OWLTHEMAD

With out wings, dks are pretty much a joke, but you really need watch distance on all stam builds.

price101610

NMA precise inferno front bar, Maelstrom resto backbar. Valkyn monster w/ False God Body Divine. FB- Ele Weapon, Impale, Soul Swallow, Bow Proc (forget name), Inner Light, Shooting Star
BB- Mass Hysteria, Radiating Regen, Resto Shield, Leeching strikes, Channeled Acceleration, your choice ulti. Key is to remain in back of pack for BGs or Cyro, and be the glass cannon that wipes people out with 2-3 skills/LAs. Leave fear traps before entering combat so you can dip out if your front line gets decimated. Your not gonna be able to use this build solo, but in a coordinated group with a healer and tank, you will routinely have most kills in BGs.

fred4

OWLTHEMAD wrote: »

My only problem with these setups is the reliance on caluurions to kill anything which feels like a 20 second leash. If it had a lower cooldown i would love it as i used caluurion when it first came out and timing it with soul harvest merciless and skoria was difficult but super fun. Problem is with the 20 second cooldown...

The cooldown is 10 seconds, not 20.

Zaan is 18. Maybe you were thinking of that.

OWLTHEMAD

Really? I swore it used to be 20. Hmmmm.... maybe ill toy with it again after all.

brandonv516

OWLTHEMAD wrote: »

Really? I swore it used to be 20. Hmmmm.... maybe ill toy with it again after all.

Caluurions has surprisingly been untouched since introduction.

Joosef_Kivikilpi

OWLTHEMAD wrote: »

My only problem with these setups is the reliance on caluurions to kill anything which feels like a 20 second leash. If it had a lower cooldown i would love it as i used caluurion when it first came out and timing it with soul harvest merciless and skoria was difficult but super fun. Problem is with the 20 second cooldown i feel like i can out perform it with raw stats, i have been contemplating darloc brae as a more obvious inclusion to add another heal and good sustain, but again feel as though i have to sacrifice a lot of magicka to run it which again forces shorter engagements. I suppose i should share what ive been running :

Bright throat body all impen with magicka enchant
Crafty jewelry swift and front bar weapon infused with disease enchant
Brp resto back bar, infused with weapon damage enchant
Jewelry enchants swap between damage and recovery depending on cp and non cp environment
Monster helm trades between thurvokun, zaan and balorgh situationally. Thurvokuun and zaan both have defensive and offensive aspects. Thurvokun for heal spammers. Zaan for everybody else. Balorgh and patience against higher skill opponents.
Steed mundus.

At work so cant remember exact bar settup but on back bar i have concealed weapon radiating regen (duration of heal allows engagements to last a little longer and endure a bit more risk) cloak, resto barrier and i believe mirage(?) Snare removal and major evasion are both super important. Front bar is lotus ,merciless ,fear, swallow, and recently impale. Ulti is soul harvest, back bar ulti is flexible and situational. My combo usually is lotus, fear soul harvest, swallow spam, impale. Sometimes ill wait to fear until after soul harvest if i want to use merciless. With cast times its hit or miss. It hits fairly hard but has no reliable burst and relies on relentless aggression and commitment when you do engage. Which is challenging because you are made of glass.
Also im a vampire and i use light attack cripple on back bar to proc weapon damage and keep pressure from dots.
Unfortunately despite hitting quite hard in general, stacking major and minor defial still can not out pace the heals of these templars,

Almost impossible to hit Calurian's buffed by Soul Harvest due to the cast time.... and then there is Crescent Sweeps with no cast time... love it.

Iskiab

I was thinking the other day. Anyone tried lotus fan - flame med attack for the stun?

Fear takes a full GCD plus harvest cast time giving ample opportunity to get away. Off balance med flame stun can be done a lot faster.

Rianai

Lotus does not apply off balance. Concealed from stealth and Tactician passive are the only ways to set an enemy off balance as magblade.

OWLTHEMAD

Rianai wrote: »

Lotus does not apply off balance. Concealed from stealth and Tactician passive are the only ways to set an enemy off balance as magblade.

It does apply minor vulnerabilty though, which aside from the cp point passive for extra damage to off balance, is the same status effect.