New Moon Acolyte Question

JackSmirkingRevenge

Hello everyone,
I have a quick question, I am currently running MS as a body set and front barring NMA. I figured that the expensive spells, wall, boneyard etc are backbar anyway so would be better off not effected by the 5% cost increase. Is that the wrong assumption? should I be using MS on the front bar instead?

feedback appreciated!

Thanks

WrathOfInnos

You’re right about front bar NMA. This also lets you put your main ultimate back bar and using it without increasing its cost. Front bar ult will have 5% higher cost, but it can be something like Shooting Star just for the Mages Guild passives.

You still might have trouble sustaining even with no cost increase on back bar skills. NMA is typically combined with False Gods for this reason. Perfected False Gods ends up being a negligible difference in damage compared to Sorrow, and will cancel out the sustain curse of NMA.

One other thing about NMA is that it’s typically not used on Necromancer in end game scenarios because you don’t really need that much penetration (due to the Necro passive 1500 Spell Pen). It does help if you are missing a debuff like Alkosh, Crusher or Minor Breach. But just be aware that if a groups is coordinating debuffs the 4pc bonus on NMA will not do anything. The exception here is trial trash, since Crusher won’t be applied to everything NMA is good on all classes.

JackSmirkingRevenge

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

You’re right about front bar NMA. This also lets you put your main ultimate back bar and using it without increasing its cost. Front bar ult will have 5% higher cost, but it can be something like Shooting Star just for the Mages Guild passives.

You still might have trouble sustaining even with no cost increase on back bar skills. NMA is typically combined with False Gods for this reason. Perfected False Gods ends up being a negligible difference in damage compared to Sorrow, and will cancel out the sustain curse of NMA.

One other thing about NMA is that it’s typically not used on Necromancer in end game scenarios because you don’t really need that much penetration (due to the Necro passive 1500 Spell Pen). It does help if you are missing a debuff like Alkosh, Crusher or Minor Breach. But just be aware that if a groups is coordinating debuffs the 4pc bonus on NMA will not do anything. The exception here is trial trash, since Crusher won’t be applied to everything NMA is good on all classes.

Appreciate the feedback. I am currently working on False Gods but don't have it yet. I currently am running 3 grave lord skills on the front bar with 62ish percent crit, (assuming then I get minor slayer from a sorc) that would put me around 70 base and 100 in execute with death knell passive.

The other options I have to front bar atm are scathing mage (not sure how good that is even with the buff) and spell strategist. also could body elemental succession as I have a full 5 body with divines and front bar MS? Just trying to juggle all these sets lol. Thanks again for the help!

JackSmirkingRevenge

As an aside I didn't have to much trouble sustaining with the NMA setup the past few trials I have run, but still if its not as good as the options I listed above, would love the feedback!

WrathOfInnos

I haven’t had good results with Scathing, even after the buff. Spell Strat is a good option for bosses, and will outperform NMA for single target, but it’s useless for cleave and AoE.

Where are you getting sustain from? Breton? Recovery food? Grundwulf? Weapon or jewelry enchants?

JackSmirkingRevenge

Jewelry enchants were enough. Is that the only reason nma underperforms? The stats seem really strong. Just cant settle on a good set combo. Ele succession looks solid if I could front bar ms?

WrathOfInnos

JackSmirkingRevenge wrote: »

Jewelry enchants were enough. Is that the only reason nma underperforms? The stats seem really strong. Just cant settle on a good set combo. Ele succession looks solid if I could front bar ms?

I don’t have a set of Succession to try, some seem to like it on Magcro, others say it’s weak because it doesn’t buff Orb or Entropy.

For jewelry enchants, you should try gradually swapping them over to Spell Damage. Each piece gives 174 Spell Damage, for a total of 522. That’s more than the 5 piece bonus on NMA, Spell Strat or Succession. See how sustain feels with 1 or 2 recovery, and if possible go all 3 damage. This is the main reason people like False Gods, but it will likely also require other group buffs like Ele Drain, Worm and Hollowfang to get rid of the Recovery jewelry entirely.

JackSmirkingRevenge

With my current set up nma front bar and ms body I only use 1 rec piece and clockwork food. Also high elf. I dont have real sustain issues in trials, I weave pretty well I believe. I just want to make sure I'm using the right sets and didnt know if NMA was weak BECAUSE of possible sustain, or just weak because of the bonuses. If it's because of sustain and I seem to have good enough sustain with it, il probably use it. But if it is just a weak set, il swap it out....if that makes sense lol

WrathOfInnos

JackSmirkingRevenge wrote: »

With my current set up nma front bar and ms body I only use 1 rec piece and clockwork food. Also high elf. I dont have real sustain issues in trials, I weave pretty well I believe. I just want to make sure I'm using the right sets and didnt know if NMA was weak BECAUSE of possible sustain, or just weak because of the bonuses. If it's because of sustain and I seem to have good enough sustain with it, il probably use it. But if it is just a weak set, il swap it out....if that makes sense lol

Ah, so most of your sustain is coming from Clockwork Citrus. That works pretty well since it’s easy to swap food as needed (unlike changing race or enchanting jewelry). Damage and survivability will increase significantly going to bistat food like Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl though. The difference in Max Magicka between those 2 foods is over 2k, which after % modifiers works out to about 270 Spell Damage.