Critique my *no-CP* Magplar build

RiskyChalice863

I’m wondering if anyone has thoughts on the below build for no-CP (specifically, BGs). So far, it seems to be working probably better than any PvP build I’ve ever used. In some BG matches, I’ve been able to get 30+ kills in a match (these are very likely low MMR matches, but still). And even in higher-level matches I feel like I’m almost always one of the standout players. Given that this is working so well, I am interested in optimizing it as much as I can, and would like some feedback.

Note that I have some particular questions below the build description.

So here’s the build:

Race: High Elf

Mundus Stone: Atronach (Magicka Recovery)

Food: Longfin Pasty (Tri-Stat)

Gear:
5x Amber Plasm
5x Spinners
2x Mother Ciannait

Right now, the Mother Ciannait is 1 light and 1 heavy, but I plan to farm a medium piece.

The gear is all impenetrable, except for the 1 light Mother Ciannait piece, because obviously there’s no use transmuting something I’m planning to drop.

The jewelry glyphs are 2x spell damage and 1x magicka recovery.

The armor enchants are all the default enchants (i.e. magicka on all the light pieces, and health on the heavy piece). In an ideal world, I’d eventually switch these to tri-stat, but that’d take quite some time to get the gold for.

The front bar lightning staff is nirnhoned with an absorb magicka glyph. The back bar restoration staff is infused, and I forget the glyph (will likely switch this to a berserker glyph). Right now, the restoration staff is Spinners, but I think Potentates probably makes the most sense ultimately, and that Willpower would be good too.

Skills:

Front Bar:

Puncturing Sweeps
Toppling Charge
Living Dark
Honor the Dead
Inner Light
Crescent Sweep

Back Bar:

Extended Ritual
Degeneration
Channeled Focus
Honor the Dead
Elusive Mist
Life Giver

Questions:

1. What do you think about the Mother Ciannait pick?

I’ve played around with various different monster sets, including Bloodspawn, Grothdarr, and Pirate Skeleton. As odd as it may sound, I actually like Mother Ciannait better. Grothdarr was absolutely incredible in BGs where lots of people were squishy. I could basically jump into entire teams and melt all of them. But it also leaves the build pretty squishy, so I think it suffers a bit in higher MMR matches. Bloodspawn is always good, but I like the extra magicka sustain on Mother Ciannait a little better than the stamina sustain on Bloodspawn (since I’ve got Amber Plasm anyways), and I don’t love that Bloodspawn has a proc chance on its resistance buff, since this build is relatively squishy and can potentially get burst down quickly without Bloodspawn proccing (whereas you’re guaranteed the Mother Ciannait proc right at the beginning of a fight and essentially every 6 seconds thereafter). Also, with such a low-cost ultimate like Crescent Sweep, I think the ult generation on Bloodspawn can sometimes be wasted. I also tried Pirate Skeleton, but didn’t love it. I intend to try Shadowrend too. I’ve also thought about Skoria, but somehow never have gotten a shoulder piece for it, so I’d have to get one of those to do it.

One option I’ve thought of that I’d have to do a bit of a difficult farm for is Thurvokun. If anyone has any experience using Thurvokun on a Magplar, did it work well?

2. If I took Honor the Dead off the front bar, what do you think would be best to replace it?

I like having my burst heal double barred, but obviously double barring it is a bit inefficient. If I took it off the front bar, what would people suggest?

I know Purifying Light is the conventional pick, but I feel like it’s not as good in no-CP, since stuff just dies quickly and so the 6-second cooldown can often make it a waste. My instinct is maybe to go with Dark Flare, for a similar burst combo that also provides AOE major defile. Radiant Aura is another option for sustain.

3. Is there a better backbar ult to use than Life Giver?

Life Giver is really strong, but I find I use Crescent Sweep so quickly that I almost never use Life Giver. So I’m thinking that maybe an ult that just has some passive benefit would be better instead. Maybe Barrier, for example? I could also go with Remembrance, for a similar type of ult without needing a resto staff.

Dropping Life Giver would potentially allow me to run sword and board or frost staff on my back bar for better blocking. I could even potentially run a bow on the back bar for the major expedition after dodge rolling (though that’s more of a long term option as this character has never leveled up bow at all).

4. Do you think Inner Light is worth the front bar slot over Camo Hunter?

My instinct is that Inner Light is better, but I think a Magplar could get pretty good uptime on Camo Hunter in no-CP.

5. Do you think NMA is way better than Spinners?

I have Spinners gear including a golded out lightning staff, jewelry I’ve put gold glyphs onto, and an armor piece I’ve transmuted to impen. So I’ve put a lot into it. Crafting NMA would cost me way more gold than I currently have (or require an amount of farming for mats that would make me quit the game instead of doing). I think it’d also require me to at least run an extra recovery glyph on my jewelry—which would mitigate the benefits of maybe slightly more damage and better healing. So I’m curious whether anyone has thoughts on if NMA really is noticeably better than Spinners?

Pauls

Why no execute?

FakeFox

I think you should really play with execute instead of double bar honor the dead.

RiskyChalice863

I don’t love Radiant Oppression/Glory in BGs, to be honest. The targeting in this game is a bit whacky sometimes, so when there’s a group of people fighting and I aim at one that is low, the ability often goes onto someone at like a 20 degree angle from where I was aiming who isn’t low (particularly when you put pets into the mix). And when that happens, you’ve wasted the ability and the person who was low is probably healed up. In those scenarios, spamming Sweeps is better IMO (or at least more consistent), because it is AOE and therefore doesn’t have targeting issues and will do damage to the person no matter what. And even if we’re talking about single-person fights where targeting isn’t an issue, I find that it’s typically enough just to keep spamming Sweeps when someone gets low, and also Crescent Sweep ends up being a finisher a lot. I won’t say there’s never times where I fail to finish a kill I’d have very likely gotten if I had Radiant Oppression/Glory, but it’s actually not very often. This isn’t a build that has trouble finishing people off (in fact, it’s by far the best build I’ve ever played in terms of getting kills in BGs—20+ kill games are frequent, and even 30+ kill games happen occasionally).

It’s certainly possible I’m not at high enough MMR right now to encounter lots of people I’d need an execute to finish off. I don’t claim to be an amazing ESO player, and we just had the BG MMR reset anyways. But, in my experience, the higher the MMR a game is the more people group up, in which case the targeting issue becomes worse.

That said, I’ve not actually tried Radiant Oppression/Glory on this build. I’ll try it and see if I like it.

FakeFox

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

I don’t love Radiant Oppression/Glory in BGs, to be honest. The targeting in this game is a bit whacky sometimes, so when there’s a group of people fighting and I aim at one that is low, the ability often goes onto someone at like a 20 degree angle from where I was aiming who isn’t low (particularly when you put pets into the mix). And when that happens, you’ve wasted the ability and the person who was low is probably healed up. In those scenarios, spamming Sweeps is better IMO (or at least more consistent), because it is AOE and therefore doesn’t have targeting issues and will do damage to the person no matter what. And even if we’re talking about single-person fights where targeting isn’t an issue, I find that it’s typically enough just to keep spamming Sweeps when someone gets low, and also Crescent Sweep ends up being a finisher a lot. I won’t say there’s never times where I fail to finish a kill I’d have very likely gotten if I had Radiant Oppression/Glory, but it’s actually not very often. This isn’t a build that has trouble finishing people off (in fact, it’s by far the best build I’ve ever played in terms of getting kills in BGs—20+ kill games are frequent, and even 30+ kill games happen occasionally).

It’s certainly possible I’m not at high enough MMR right now to encounter lots of people I’d need an execute to finish off. I don’t claim to be an amazing ESO player, and we just had the BG MMR reset anyways. But, in my experience, the higher the MMR a game is the more people group up, in which case the targeting issue becomes worse.

That said, I’ve not actually tried Radiant Oppression/Glory on this build. I’ll try it and see if I like it.

I think the big thing with beam is that you can pick of escaping players, which is otherwise a big weakness of magplar, since you just can be kited pretty easily, even with a gapcloser and movementspeed.

MaxJrFTW

1. I personally wouldn't use Mother Ciannait, but i've never used it so for all i know it's a great set. At least on paper you're not getting much if any defense at all from a 2.5k dmg shield every 6 seconds.

If i had to make any change while keeping things similar i'd go for Grundwulf, much more mag sustain and more stam to block. Again this is coming from a position of ignorance because i haven't used Mother Ciannait.

2. Double barring honor the dead is a nub move imo. You could slot either morph of restoring aura, ele drain, solar barrage for the increases light attack dmg and aoe, could move degeneration to the front bar and back bar radiating regeneration.

3. Not for bgs. Devouring Swarm is a good selfish option since you're using vamp, a lot of self healing and dmg.

4. This is a no-brainer. Inner light is giving you major prophecy, 7% max mag, and 2% mag recovery.

5. I haven't got the slightest clue, but there can't be much of a difference either way. If you decide to keep Honor the dead on the front bar then NMA has a slight advantage because the 5pc also improves your healing, while the Spinner 5pc only increases your dmg.

As a side note, I believe radiant is a nub killer and nothing more. Decent players will block and heal the moment you channel that beam on them.

daemonor

Ok some points that i don't totally agree with. Jesus beam can be situationaly good - versus dodge rolling. You can't dodge sweeps but if someones rolling and sprinting you have to keep closing gap with charge which they dodge and then they outrun your sweeps while healing back with vigor for example.

Magplars are better stacking spelldamage due to minor sorcery and honor the dead being a huge instant heal which doesnt scale with pen.

Light vs Camo is debatable, 7% max mag and 2% mag rec is not significant at all in no cp, it comes down to minor berserking vs major prophecy (which you can technically get from spellpower pots).

Weapon layout - might sound crazy but there is an argument for using 2h sword on your mainbar since the %dmg increase passive benefits all of your abilities unlike inferno/lightning staves. You would want to go destro frost staff backbar then for ele drain and blocking. I prefer staff/1h+shield backbar because blockcasting heal while standing in ur rune focus is a good way to recover.

You most definitely absoloutely 100% positive do not want to double bar the healing spell. Dark flare is a good option for setting up burst - following it's cast with a charge into sweepspam.

Absoloutely off topic, but work on your gold income. PvP costs a lot because there's a few different setups that you might want to try to find which one suits you best, and being so short of cash that you can't afford a craftable set is a pretty unfun place to be in. I would suggest leveling up as many chars as you can to 50 and doing crafting writs on all of them every day - 100% garuanteed profit 0% effort unlike farming or playing the market.

EtTuBrutus

Spinners/ amber
3288 max mag
258 spell dmg
833 spell crit
250 magicka regen
250 stamina regen
3450 penetration
-To supplement sustain youre using atro and 1 regen glyph, you're monster set needs to be defensive your youll get ran over-

nma/trans/ willpower front bar (while on front bar)
1752 mag
610 spell dmg
1666 crit
258 magicka regen
1487 spell penetration
1289 critical resistances

With everything the same besides sets:
You're currently gaining:
+1536 max mag
+250 stamina regen
+1963 penetration

By giving up:
-352 spell dmg
-833 crit rating
-8 magicka regen
-1289 crit resistance

That's how i look at it and it's why i run what i use.

RiskyChalice863

daemonor wrote: »

Ok some points that i don't totally agree with. Jesus beam can be situationaly good - versus dodge rolling. You can't dodge sweeps but if someones rolling and sprinting you have to keep closing gap with charge which they dodge and then they outrun your sweeps while healing back with vigor for example.

Magplars are better stacking spelldamage due to minor sorcery and honor the dead being a huge instant heal which doesnt scale with pen.

Light vs Camo is debatable, 7% max mag and 2% mag rec is not significant at all in no cp, it comes down to minor berserking vs major prophecy (which you can technically get from spellpower pots).

Weapon layout - might sound crazy but there is an argument for using 2h sword on your mainbar since the %dmg increase passive benefits all of your abilities unlike inferno/lightning staves. You would want to go destro frost staff backbar then for ele drain and blocking. I prefer staff/1h+shield backbar because blockcasting heal while standing in ur rune focus is a good way to recover.

You most definitely absoloutely 100% positive do not want to double bar the healing spell. Dark flare is a good option for setting up burst - following it's cast with a charge into sweepspam.

Absoloutely off topic, but work on your gold income. PvP costs a lot because there's a few different setups that you might want to try to find which one suits you best, and being so short of cash that you can't afford a craftable set is a pretty unfun place to be in. I would suggest leveling up as many chars as you can to 50 and doing crafting writs on all of them every day - 100% garuanteed profit 0% effort unlike farming or playing the market.

1. Yeah, I know Magplars scale particularly well with spell damage due to the minor sorcery, and obviously spell damage affects healing while penetration doesn’t. That said, penetration is balanced to provide higher damage boosts to make up for having no effect on healing. And it scales really well against tankier opponents (and less tanky opponents get totally melted by this build either way). It’s also worth noting that a significant component of Magplars’ self-healing comes from Sweeps, which do actually scale up with penetration since it’s based on damage done.

One thing I’ve been considering, though, is farming Scathing Mage to see if I like that more than Spinners. Sweeps should proc Scathing Mage basically constantly (maybe not if you’re stuck on the back bar for a while, but I probably wouldn’t back bar NMA anyways, due to the cost increase and the benefit you can get by back barring something like Potentates or Willpower). And since I’d almost certainly need an extra recovery glyph to sustain with NMA anyways, I suspect Scathing Mage would ultimately give me similar damage and healing numbers to NMA (likely a bit higher when it’s procced but even with Sweeps, it wouldn’t be on 100% of the time). It would also have its benefits carry over to the back bar even if I don’t back bar the set. And, crucially, it’d be much easier for me to get.

2. Inner Light vs. Camo is even more debateable because I haven’t actually maxed out Mage’s Guild, so it doesn’t give me 2% max mag or 2% mag recovery. It’s just the 5% max mag and Major Prophecy. I just cannot bear the Mage’s Guild grind. It is, IMO, by far the worst grind in the game, and just nowhere near worth it. Even getting it high enough to get Degeneration was like torture to me, and I refuse to do more of it (even just on one character and then getting it on other characters using the Crown Store). That said, after running some numbers, I think that even without the passives, Inner Light is better, since I think the damage increase is roughly the same as minor berserk, but Camo Hunter won’t have 100% uptime.

3. I agree that there’s a good argument for a Greatsword on a Magplar. I do tend to use light attacks between Sweeps a fair bit, though, which would do less damage—perhaps negating the benefits Greatsword would give. I’m thinking of trying to get a Spinners Greatsword to try it out. One downside is that I wouldn’t really be able to back bar sword and board if I used a Greatsword (since I do need to occasionally heavy attack for magicka sustain). I haven’t currently gone with sword and board, but I suspect it might be better—I just need to grind the sword and board skill line. And if sword and board IS better, then I’m not sure I want to bother golding out a Greatsword.

4. Yeah, I think Dark Flare is a good option. I like having the burst heal on my front bar to react quickly to burst damage. I play on Xbox with a normal controller, and the time it takes to reach down to the D-Pad to bar swap before using Honor the Dead can be just long enough to get me killed. It’s not like it takes me a long time or anything, but fractions of a second can matter a lot. In most BGs, there’s at least 1 or 2 times where having Honor the Dead front barred almost certainly saves me from dying. That said, I’ve ordered a controller with buttons on the back that I should be able to use to bar swap more quickly with. If that works better, then I think it’ll be much more viable to run something like Dark Flare on the front bar.

5. I do have multiple characters that have been leveled, but only one of them has crafting skills at 50. Also, honestly, grinding crafting writs just sounds really not fun to me. I’ve not really tried to do it virtually at all, and so maybe it’s less of a grind than I imagine, but the idea of farming mats all the time on multiple characters just sounds awful to me and like it would probably consume a large portion of the time I have to play the game. Maybe I’m wrong though? Can it just be a matter of buying the materials off of a guild trader and then turning a profit on them by doing the writ? In any event, if I need gold, I’ll often just farm certain public dungeons that basically have so many adds that you can just constantly run around getting 100-300 gold per add pull. It’s probably not the most efficient way to do it, but I can get tens of thousands of gold pretty quickly that way.

Iskiab

Looks okay, but you’re missing power of the light. It’s a great delayed burst ability and would help your damage a lot. Replace honour the dead on your front bar.

Spinners is fine.

What pots are you using? You could go sp + crit plus mag and use camo hunter instead of inner light.

Definitely potatoes back bar.

RiskyChalice863

EtTuBrutus wrote: »

Spinners/ amber
3288 max mag
258 spell dmg
833 spell crit
250 magicka regen
250 stamina regen
3450 penetration
-To supplement sustain youre using atro and 1 regen glyph, you're monster set needs to be defensive your youll get ran over-

nma/trans/ willpower front bar (while on front bar)
1752 mag
610 spell dmg
1666 crit
258 magicka regen
1487 spell penetration
1289 critical resistances

With everything the same besides sets:
You're currently gaining:
+1536 max mag
+250 stamina regen
+1963 penetration

By giving up:
-352 spell dmg
-833 crit rating
-8 magicka regen
-1289 crit resistance

That's how i look at it and it's why i run what i use.

It’s an interesting alternative build, and I imagine it works quite well.

You did forget about the NMA cost increase though.

And if you’re back barring Transmutation (which it seems like you are, and obviously makes sense since the 5-piece works when back barred), then you can’t actually get the 1752 max mag and 1666 crit at the same time. It’d be 1752 max mag and 833 crit on one bar, and 1666 crit on the other bar.

That means that when both builds are on the front bar, the differences are more like this:

I’d be gaining:
+1536 max mag
+250 stamina regen
+1963 penetration
5% lower ability costs

By giving up:
-352 spell dmg
-8 magicka regen
-1289 crit resistance

Also, just in general, I really really like the stamina regen from Amber Plasm for no-CP. In no-CP, magicka characters really struggle with having enough stamina to do the breaking free, blocking, and dodge rolling that is often necessary to stay alive. In my opinion, it’s by far the biggest issue magicka builds have in no-CP. That 250 stamina regen on Amber Plasm is really amazing and adds tons of survivability.

RiskyChalice863

Iskiab wrote: »

Looks okay, but you’re missing power of the light. It’s a great delayed burst ability and would help your damage a lot. Replace honour the dead on your front bar.

Spinners is fine.

What pots are you using? You could go sp + crit plus mag and use camo hunter instead of inner light.

Definitely potatoes back bar.

My issue with Purifying Light is basically that stuff typically dies so quickly in no-CP that Purifying Light can often be counterproductive. For instance, if I come across someone and both of us can actually kill the other one within 5 seconds, then Purifying Light isn’t necessary and can just function as a wasted GCD that may allow the other person to take the initiative in the fight and kill me before I can kill them when I’d otherwise have gotten the kill if I’d just gone straight into my Toppling/Sweeps. That said, I have occasionally come across some tanky people that I wish I had Purifying Light for. It may be that as I get into higher MMR games (which I assume will happen, since this build is performing extremely well in the BGs I’ve been playing so far) that gets more and more common. If so, then I’d likely need to slot Purifying Light or Dark Flare to break down tankier players.

As for potions, I’m just running tri-pots. Spell Power + Spell Crit pots would be interesting and open up skill slots for other stuff. But I really have no idea how people afford chugging those things.

Iskiab

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Looks okay, but you’re missing power of the light. It’s a great delayed burst ability and would help your damage a lot. Replace honour the dead on your front bar.

Spinners is fine.

What pots are you using? You could go sp + crit plus mag and use camo hunter instead of inner light.

Definitely potatoes back bar.

My issue with Purifying Light is basically that stuff typically dies so quickly in no-CP that Purifying Light can often be counterproductive. For instance, if I come across someone and both of us can actually kill the other one within 5 seconds, then Purifying Light isn’t necessary and can just function as a wasted GCD that may allow the other person to take the initiative in the fight and kill me before I can kill them when I’d otherwise have gotten the kill if I’d just gone straight into my Toppling/Sweeps. That said, I have occasionally come across some tanky people that I wish I had Purifying Light for. It may be that as I get into higher MMR games (which I assume will happen, since this build is performing extremely well in the BGs I’ve been playing so far) that gets more and more common. If so, then I’d likely need to slot Purifying Light or Dark Flare to break down tankier players.

As for potions, I’m just running tri-pots. Spell Power + Spell Crit pots would be interesting and open up skill slots for other stuff. But I really have no idea how people afford chugging those things.

I don’t think it takes long to start seeing better players. With the way the system’s setup there’s usually one or two good players per team and the rest new people after not long.

You’re right about purifying light but it also depends on your target. If is a NB or the person’s using a bow purifying light isn’t required. If they’re using S&B the burst will come in handy. I usually try and push to the back for the bow user easy kill, but sometimes you need to kill tanky types.

Oh something else I didn’t mention, switch your front bar glyph to a shock glyph.

Tri stat potions are good too, what you’re doing works. You’ll have plenty of stamina sustain which is good.

RiskyChalice863

Iskiab wrote: »

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Looks okay, but you’re missing power of the light. It’s a great delayed burst ability and would help your damage a lot. Replace honour the dead on your front bar.

Spinners is fine.

What pots are you using? You could go sp + crit plus mag and use camo hunter instead of inner light.

Definitely potatoes back bar.

My issue with Purifying Light is basically that stuff typically dies so quickly in no-CP that Purifying Light can often be counterproductive. For instance, if I come across someone and both of us can actually kill the other one within 5 seconds, then Purifying Light isn’t necessary and can just function as a wasted GCD that may allow the other person to take the initiative in the fight and kill me before I can kill them when I’d otherwise have gotten the kill if I’d just gone straight into my Toppling/Sweeps. That said, I have occasionally come across some tanky people that I wish I had Purifying Light for. It may be that as I get into higher MMR games (which I assume will happen, since this build is performing extremely well in the BGs I’ve been playing so far) that gets more and more common. If so, then I’d likely need to slot Purifying Light or Dark Flare to break down tankier players.

As for potions, I’m just running tri-pots. Spell Power + Spell Crit pots would be interesting and open up skill slots for other stuff. But I really have no idea how people afford chugging those things.

I don’t think it takes long to start seeing better players. With the way the system’s setup there’s usually one or two good players per team and the rest new people after not long.

You’re right about purifying light but it also depends on your target. If is a NB or the person’s using a bow purifying light isn’t required. If they’re using S&B the burst will come in handy. I usually try and push to the back for the bow user easy kill, but sometimes you need to kill tanky types.

Oh something else I didn’t mention, switch your front bar glyph to a shock glyph.

Tri stat potions are good too, what you’re doing works. You’ll have plenty of stamina sustain which is good.

Yeah, I’m probably about 25-35 BGs in with this character since the MMR reset. It’s definitely higher MMR games than when I first played it after the reset, but the build is still doing really really well (as in, usually most kills and damage of anyone in the game and plenty of games where I die like 1 time while everyone else has died at least like 6 or 7 times), so I suspect the MMR of the games will continue to go up from here. At that point, I may need to get Dark Flare or Purifying Light into the build to break people down.

I’ve thought about putting a shock glyph on, and I agree it’s probably better, but I do worry a bit since the magicka sustain is currently just barely teetering on the edge of okay (as in, potion often comes back up right as I am running out), and the absorb magicka glyph is giving me a bit of sustain. That said, minor vulnerability will indirectly help sustain by making stuff die quicker, and also sustain tends to get easier the longer you play a build. So I’ll make the swap and see how it goes.

And yeah, I’m liking the tri-pots on this build. Amber Plasm + tri-pots + High Elf is just really great for stamina sustain. The survivability it adds is really nice. I’ve never had a magicka build that I could dodge and block with so much.

I’ve just managed to get myself a Potentates dagger with a Defending trait, and a Potentates shield with an impenetrable trait—it took getting about 7 Potentates rings first, but the RNG gods did eventually bless me. And I farmed sword and board from level 2 all the way up to level 34 (which means it’s now better than frost staff for blocking, though obviously there’s still a few more passives I’ll need to get to have all the relevant ones). So my plan is now to run Potentates sword and board back bar, with Remembrance as my back bar ult instead of Life Giver. I think that’s probably better than running the resto staff. I’ll lose some useful resto staff passives. But with a Potentates sword and board with defending and impen traits on the back bar instead of a Spinners resto staff with an infused trait, I will be A LOT tankier on the back bar. And ultimately, resto staff didn’t drop from any of the many Potentates boxes I bought, so I’m going to at least try Potentates sword and board to see if I like it.

Iskiab

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Looks okay, but you’re missing power of the light. It’s a great delayed burst ability and would help your damage a lot. Replace honour the dead on your front bar.

Spinners is fine.

What pots are you using? You could go sp + crit plus mag and use camo hunter instead of inner light.

Definitely potatoes back bar.

My issue with Purifying Light is basically that stuff typically dies so quickly in no-CP that Purifying Light can often be counterproductive. For instance, if I come across someone and both of us can actually kill the other one within 5 seconds, then Purifying Light isn’t necessary and can just function as a wasted GCD that may allow the other person to take the initiative in the fight and kill me before I can kill them when I’d otherwise have gotten the kill if I’d just gone straight into my Toppling/Sweeps. That said, I have occasionally come across some tanky people that I wish I had Purifying Light for. It may be that as I get into higher MMR games (which I assume will happen, since this build is performing extremely well in the BGs I’ve been playing so far) that gets more and more common. If so, then I’d likely need to slot Purifying Light or Dark Flare to break down tankier players.

As for potions, I’m just running tri-pots. Spell Power + Spell Crit pots would be interesting and open up skill slots for other stuff. But I really have no idea how people afford chugging those things.

I don’t think it takes long to start seeing better players. With the way the system’s setup there’s usually one or two good players per team and the rest new people after not long.

You’re right about purifying light but it also depends on your target. If is a NB or the person’s using a bow purifying light isn’t required. If they’re using S&B the burst will come in handy. I usually try and push to the back for the bow user easy kill, but sometimes you need to kill tanky types.

Oh something else I didn’t mention, switch your front bar glyph to a shock glyph.

Tri stat potions are good too, what you’re doing works. You’ll have plenty of stamina sustain which is good.

Yeah, I’m probably about 25-35 BGs in with this character since the MMR reset. It’s definitely higher MMR games than when I first played it after the reset, but the build is still doing really really well (as in, usually most kills and damage of anyone in the game and plenty of games where I die like 1 time while everyone else has died at least like 6 or 7 times), so I suspect the MMR of the games will continue to go up from here. At that point, I may need to get Dark Flare or Purifying Light into the build to break people down.

I’ve thought about putting a shock glyph on, and I agree it’s probably better, but I do worry a bit since the magicka sustain is currently just barely teetering on the edge of okay (as in, potion often comes back up right as I am running out), and the absorb magicka glyph is giving me a bit of sustain. That said, minor vulnerability will indirectly help sustain by making stuff die quicker, and also sustain tends to get easier the longer you play a build. So I’ll make the swap and see how it goes.

And yeah, I’m liking the tri-pots on this build. Amber Plasm + tri-pots + High Elf is just really great for stamina sustain. The survivability it adds is really nice. I’ve never had a magicka build that I could dodge and block with so much.

I’ve just managed to get myself a Potentates dagger with a Defending trait, and a Potentates shield with an impenetrable trait—it took getting about 7 Potentates rings first, but the RNG gods did eventually bless me. And I farmed sword and board from level 2 all the way up to level 34 (which means it’s now better than frost staff for blocking, though obviously there’s still a few more passives I’ll need to get to have all the relevant ones). So my plan is now to run Potentates sword and board back bar, with Remembrance as my back bar ult instead of Life Giver. I think that’s probably better than running the resto staff. I’ll lose some useful resto staff passives. But with a Potentates sword and board with defending and impen traits on the back bar instead of a Spinners resto staff with an infused trait, I will be A LOT tankier on the back bar. And ultimately, resto staff didn’t drop from any of the many Potentates boxes I bought, so I’m going to at least try Potentates sword and board to see if I like it.

Nice yea, I’ve never been a fan of S&B, my first main was a magblade so I got used to evading instead of face tanking. I prefer resto just for radiating regen and the best heavies, but S&B I see a lot use.

Just be warned about remembrance. 9/10 times you use it you’ll die. If another group is pushing and you remembrance your team will scatter and it becomes a ‘get the healer’ moment. People will usually Debuff you and get their burst ready and as soon as the channel is done burst hard.

I had a couple of games against warbor and I saw him use it well. I had my Ult up and he was at the back of his group and I chain toppled to get to him healing at the back, and as soon as I was close he remembranced and I was forced to retreat. In a situation like that it worked well for him, so make sure you only pop it if you’re with brawlers and maybe preemptively against someone’s burst? I’m not sure how to best use it, I like being evasive so don’t like the ability.

RiskyChalice863

Iskiab wrote: »

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Looks okay, but you’re missing power of the light. It’s a great delayed burst ability and would help your damage a lot. Replace honour the dead on your front bar.

Spinners is fine.

What pots are you using? You could go sp + crit plus mag and use camo hunter instead of inner light.

Definitely potatoes back bar.

My issue with Purifying Light is basically that stuff typically dies so quickly in no-CP that Purifying Light can often be counterproductive. For instance, if I come across someone and both of us can actually kill the other one within 5 seconds, then Purifying Light isn’t necessary and can just function as a wasted GCD that may allow the other person to take the initiative in the fight and kill me before I can kill them when I’d otherwise have gotten the kill if I’d just gone straight into my Toppling/Sweeps. That said, I have occasionally come across some tanky people that I wish I had Purifying Light for. It may be that as I get into higher MMR games (which I assume will happen, since this build is performing extremely well in the BGs I’ve been playing so far) that gets more and more common. If so, then I’d likely need to slot Purifying Light or Dark Flare to break down tankier players.

As for potions, I’m just running tri-pots. Spell Power + Spell Crit pots would be interesting and open up skill slots for other stuff. But I really have no idea how people afford chugging those things.

I don’t think it takes long to start seeing better players. With the way the system’s setup there’s usually one or two good players per team and the rest new people after not long.

You’re right about purifying light but it also depends on your target. If is a NB or the person’s using a bow purifying light isn’t required. If they’re using S&B the burst will come in handy. I usually try and push to the back for the bow user easy kill, but sometimes you need to kill tanky types.

Oh something else I didn’t mention, switch your front bar glyph to a shock glyph.

Tri stat potions are good too, what you’re doing works. You’ll have plenty of stamina sustain which is good.

Yeah, I’m probably about 25-35 BGs in with this character since the MMR reset. It’s definitely higher MMR games than when I first played it after the reset, but the build is still doing really really well (as in, usually most kills and damage of anyone in the game and plenty of games where I die like 1 time while everyone else has died at least like 6 or 7 times), so I suspect the MMR of the games will continue to go up from here. At that point, I may need to get Dark Flare or Purifying Light into the build to break people down.

I’ve thought about putting a shock glyph on, and I agree it’s probably better, but I do worry a bit since the magicka sustain is currently just barely teetering on the edge of okay (as in, potion often comes back up right as I am running out), and the absorb magicka glyph is giving me a bit of sustain. That said, minor vulnerability will indirectly help sustain by making stuff die quicker, and also sustain tends to get easier the longer you play a build. So I’ll make the swap and see how it goes.

And yeah, I’m liking the tri-pots on this build. Amber Plasm + tri-pots + High Elf is just really great for stamina sustain. The survivability it adds is really nice. I’ve never had a magicka build that I could dodge and block with so much.

I’ve just managed to get myself a Potentates dagger with a Defending trait, and a Potentates shield with an impenetrable trait—it took getting about 7 Potentates rings first, but the RNG gods did eventually bless me. And I farmed sword and board from level 2 all the way up to level 34 (which means it’s now better than frost staff for blocking, though obviously there’s still a few more passives I’ll need to get to have all the relevant ones). So my plan is now to run Potentates sword and board back bar, with Remembrance as my back bar ult instead of Life Giver. I think that’s probably better than running the resto staff. I’ll lose some useful resto staff passives. But with a Potentates sword and board with defending and impen traits on the back bar instead of a Spinners resto staff with an infused trait, I will be A LOT tankier on the back bar. And ultimately, resto staff didn’t drop from any of the many Potentates boxes I bought, so I’m going to at least try Potentates sword and board to see if I like it.

Nice yea, I’ve never been a fan of S&B, my first main was a magblade so I got used to evading instead of face tanking. I prefer resto just for radiating regen and the best heavies, but S&B I see a lot use.

Just be warned about remembrance. 9/10 times you use it you’ll die. If another group is pushing and you remembrance your team will scatter and it becomes a ‘get the healer’ moment. People will usually Debuff you and get their burst ready and as soon as the channel is done burst hard.

I had a couple of games against warbor and I saw him use it well. I had my Ult up and he was at the back of his group and I chain toppled to get to him healing at the back, and as soon as I was close he remembranced and I was forced to retreat. In a situation like that it worked well for him, so make sure you only pop it if you’re with brawlers and maybe preemptively against someone’s burst? I’m not sure how to best use it, I like being evasive so don’t like the ability.

I’ve never been into face tanking much either—mostly because I play almost entirely magicka characters and in no-CP and so it’s not really been much of an option. But with the stamina sustain I’m getting on this build, it has made it feel much more viable to block cast Honor the Dead when I’m in trouble (obviously Stam regen doesn’t matter while actually blocking, but the point is that I will typically have more stamina to start with, so I can keep blocking for a while).

Not to mention that I suspect the combination of Elusive Mist and sword-and-board blocking would make it very hard to kill me if I’m wanting to escape a situation or stay alive until help comes (particularly as your stamina regens in Mist, while your magicka regens while blocking).

And yeah, I’ve used the Templar healing ult before on builds quite a while back—though I think I used the Practiced Incantation morph and not Remembrance. I definitely had a similar experience with it. I’m hoping Remembrance—with its 10 seconds of major protection—is a bit better. Practically speaking, though, it barely matters since I have basically never used Life Giver on this build, mostly since I use Crescent Sweep basically off cooldown, so I virtually never even build enough ultimate to use Life Giver. For me at the moment, it’s mostly just a matter of being able to ult to heal a Chaos Ball holder every once in a while—which Remembrance can do too. Also, I may ultimately shift to Spell Wall or Devouring Swarm anyways (and ultimately that new vampire ultimate looks like it’ll be incredibly good, so I’ll probably slot that when it comes).

daemonor

At the current patch I wouldn't bother being hard on myself for dying cuznot being able to barswap+heal 1 second faster, currently the game feels more like a roulette anyway, skills might decide not to go off on your main bar aswell.

And you don't need level 50 crafting for max gold rewards, just the character level to be 50, all of your profesions can be at 1 with 0 points. I wouldn't do it without craftbag but with craftbag you basically buy (if you don't already have them) all the level 1 mats required and decon all the stuff you get from rewards and use LazyWrit addon. Takes a few minutes per char and the gold adds up pretty fast.

I'm not a fan of POTL in BGs either, sometimes applying ele drain potl and charging with sweeps - thats 4 gcds - feels like an eternity before you actually start doing damage. In the meantime some stam boi can dizzy>ult>exec and proceed to the next target already with mad dodge rolls and vigor ticks.

EtTuBrutus

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

EtTuBrutus wrote: »

Spinners/ amber
3288 max mag
258 spell dmg
833 spell crit
250 magicka regen
250 stamina regen
3450 penetration
-To supplement sustain youre using atro and 1 regen glyph, you're monster set needs to be defensive your youll get ran over-

nma/trans/ willpower front bar (while on front bar)
1752 mag
610 spell dmg
1666 crit
258 magicka regen
1487 spell penetration
1289 critical resistances

With everything the same besides sets:
You're currently gaining:
+1536 max mag
+250 stamina regen
+1963 penetration

By giving up:
-352 spell dmg
-833 crit rating
-8 magicka regen
-1289 crit resistance

That's how i look at it and it's why i run what i use.

It’s an interesting alternative build, and I imagine it works quite well.

You did forget about the NMA cost increase though.

And if you’re back barring Transmutation (which it seems like you are, and obviously makes sense since the 5-piece works when back barred), then you can’t actually get the 1752 max mag and 1666 crit at the same time. It’d be 1752 max mag and 833 crit on one bar, and 1666 crit on the other bar.

That means that when both builds are on the front bar, the differences are more like this:

I’d be gaining:
+1536 max mag
+250 stamina regen
+1963 penetration
5% lower ability costs

By giving up:
-352 spell dmg
-8 magicka regen
-1289 crit resistance

Also, just in general, I really really like the stamina regen from Amber Plasm for no-CP. In no-CP, magicka characters really struggle with having enough stamina to do the breaking free, blocking, and dodge rolling that is often necessary to stay alive. In my opinion, it’s by far the biggest issue magicka builds have in no-CP. That 250 stamina regen on Amber Plasm is really amazing and adds tons of survivability.

Good point about the spell crit. Regarding the cost increase, yea its there, but if you're using it and you're sustaining it, it's ignorable. Fyi, i don't use nma/ trans. It was just an example.

Stamina is vital. It's why i use bloodspawn and snb actually. Pared with high elf, it's plenty of sustain and i run wmpb.

EtTuBrutus

Another thing to think about.

7x max mag glyphs plus trifood:
10181 magicka
4105 stamina
4462 hp


7x Triglyphs plus witch mothers:
6230 magicka
3038 stamina
6531 health
319 magicka regen.

Here you're trading
+3951 max magicka
+1067 stamina

Vs
+2069 hp
+319 magicka regen

Now add mundus and convert effective spl power:
10181 mag
4105 stam
4462 hp
238 regen
Effective spell power =969


Vs
6230 magicka
3038 stamina
6531 health
238 spell dmg
319 regen
Effective spell power = 831 (about equal to 8725 max mag if you think if it's impact like that)

So if u want to trade 1k stamina and the equivalent of 1456 max mag (slightly more dmg, although the minor sorcery buff for templar passives favors spell dmg over max mag) for 2k more hp and 81 more regen.

Slight ways to alter builds to get where you want. Really thinking about it like this is only helpful if you're considering you're baseline and goals. Obviously spinners/ amber has totally different holes to fill than something like btb/ pariah.

coletas

Bright + new Moon + bloodspawn. S/b and ice staff and go steal wallets 1 chudan/1pirate is nice too. My main build with this lag is with bloodspawn+bright+pariah anyway.

RiskyChalice863

I’m thinking of trying out to swap Cyrodiil’s Light in for Spinners and Grothdarr in for Mother Ciannait. In essence, that’s basically just swapping out Spinners’ 5-piece penetration bonus for Grothdarr’s 2-piece, and switching out the Mother Ciannait damage shield for Cyrodiil’s Light’s 15% damage mitigation when using Sweeps. I tend to think that that’s a good trade-off. It could also be Skoria or Slimecraw instead of Grothdarr—the point is basically to do a damage monster set.

Any thoughts? In the end, I suspect the damage would be very similar, the sustain would be a bit lower (just from losing the Mother Ciannait sustain), and I’d be a lot tankier while on the offensive.

Dirt_Rooster

Yeah try out Groth instead of mother. Also try out new moon with a greatsword. Went 53-0 recently with this setup but not sure if I want to reveal anything more about it. In bgs I 100% most people with jabs before the channel even ends. Magplar is absolutely stupid in bg's and there's no reason to run anything defensive(depending on your playstyle).

EtTuBrutus

RiskyChalice863 wrote: »

I’m thinking of trying out to swap Cyrodiil’s Light in for Spinners and Grothdarr in for Mother Ciannait. In essence, that’s basically just swapping out Spinners’ 5-piece penetration bonus for Grothdarr’s 2-piece, and switching out the Mother Ciannait damage shield for Cyrodiil’s Light’s 15% damage mitigation when using Sweeps. I tend to think that that’s a good trade-off. It could also be Skoria or Slimecraw instead of Grothdarr—the point is basically to do a damage monster set.

Any thoughts? In the end, I suspect the damage would be very similar, the sustain would be a bit lower (just from losing the Mother Ciannait sustain), and I’d be a lot tankier while on the offensive.

The damage would not be similar for your magic abilities. You ever watch your game play? You don't cast sweeps for 5 seconds in a row. Cyrodiils light isn't that utilized as much as you're thinking. You know what will extend your intensive window just as much as cyrodiils light? Purifying lights heal. It'll also make your combos actual combos.