MagDK sets

Octopuss

I've got a mix of Julianos and Burning Spellweave and Valkyn Skoria on, and unfinished (I haven't really played in a long time) Silks of the sun set.
Is any of this still desireable or should I start farming something completely different?

I don't really think I'll do trials ever again btw. Not sure if I will ever start actively playing again actually, considering where the game is going (or rather is not).

Stinkyremy

These sets are still good imo, especially BSW and silk for DK.
Silk is obviously the flame counterpart of various sets that increase dam of a specific thing. Flame in this case. Ysgramor for ice, netchs touch for shock ect. So it is a pretty basic set.
If you really want to be better damage I would suppose ( am no dps meta player) to instead of choosing a set that increases 1 specific thing, chose a set that increases many.
IIRC silk full gold is +400 dam for flame attacks, but if you look at DKs skills a lot of things that should be flame attacks, look like flame attacks, are actually magika attacks, so if you got a set that did for eg +461 to spell or magika dam it might be better dps overall.
Again I am no dd so I don't really do the numbers.

I am a DK main, tank main but respec to dd atm. I am farming VMA and am using elf bane. really for a DK this is a must have set as it increases all flame dots by 5 secs and by proxy increases your sustain. I am using it with withered hand FYI for VMA only but it I was gonna use it as a damage dealing build I would use it with Burning Spellweave and Valkyn Skoria too specifically for DK.
Unfortunately elf bane is a heavy armour set and the flame staffs are not only just low drop rng but extremely expensive in stores.
You will have to use jewellery with it which is cheap on console, most likely same on PC and a chest and legs heavy so running a 5/2 build which will nerf your overall damage.

Obviously for more overall damage the trial sets are better but I get the feeling that like me you are running a DK and want to run it as a flame build to capitalize on the classes uniqueness.
Plus also you don't need to be building some meta dps build running sets you don't really want to run unless you are running with a meta trial group doing vet trial runs HM ect.

oscarovegren

Maw of the infernal or Zaan as monstersets (Grothdarr is good with elf bane tho)

Valkyn in underperforming even on a class as magDK sadly. Only great in PvP dueling

You didnt mention which content you do. In trials you probably want mantle of siroria frontbared with either medusa, elf bane or mother sorrow on the body. vMA flame staff back (willpower infernostaff is also good) and monstersets mentioned above

For dungeons with a lot of mechanics you could swap mantle of siroria for BSW front

Everest_Lionheart

I played forever in Mothers sorrow and Julianos with a maw monster set. Switching Julianos for Siroria put me up 3K DPS from 67k to 70k.

Basic sets will work out just fine. For solo play you need a different setup. Some kind of mitigation is required. Heals are also recommended though I often run with a heal and use burning embers as my spamable instead with introspection from psijic I’m cast I run too low on health and rss because I can literally just float there in my channel and tank through almost all incoming dmg and heal plus recovery rss for the next burst.

I also run stuff like burning talons because it’s fun. Kind of a no-no in group dungeons unless you coordinate with your tank but it’s just fun the snare your enemies in a wall of fire while breathing fire in their face, go into your psijic channel skill and float there watching everything burn. It’s the games ultimate power fantasy!

Octopuss

I thought Valkyn was THE sh** last time I actively played (two years ago almost, lol). I thought the stats on it were pretty beefy.

I also briefly went though my skills and all of them do flame damage. BUT maybe the setup has shifted away from class skills. I mean, almost two years is a long time.

And like I said, no trials, not on this char at least. More like vet dungeons ready or something. I don't even intend to start playing the char anytime soon, I just want to upgrade him to be a little more up to current standards, so I am looking at sets that aren't flavour of the month kind of thing.

Vevvev

Valkyn has lost its effectiveness over the years sadly. Not too long ago it even had a bug where it had a very low chance to proc, but I think it's been fixed in the Stonethorn patch.

As for Elf Bane it's a very great set that is bought for AP in the town of Vlastarus. It doesn't increase damage but extends the duration of all flame related abilities by 5 seconds allowing you to spend less time refreshing your abilities. It's great to have as a weapon and jewelry set unless you want your weapons to be something else. Then I guess you could run 3 jewelry and 2 pieces of heavy Elf Bane armor. That way you can still get the 5 pieces of light armor for the bonuses. Elf Bane also buffs the duration of the Grothdarr set allowing it to effectively be active almost 100% of the time which is great in a PVP environment.

Octopuss

I'd like to stick with all light armour as it should be...
I'll take a look at Alcast as usual I guess

Vevvev

Octopuss wrote: »

I'd like to stick with all light armour as it should be...
I'll take a look at Alcast as usual I guess

All light armor sounds good on paper but I like to run 6 light and 1 heavy to get some more use out of the Undaunted Mettle passive.

Vildebill

If it's PvE we're talking about, I'd say the best sets for a MagDK is Maw of the Infernal (Zaan is also good but Maw is just as good and doesn't require you to stand next to the boss) + either Mother's Sorrow or Medusa for the crit + either one of these sets:
* Siroria: Probably the highest damage but requires you to be static. It's also a trial set so it might be disqualified for you
* False Gods: Good damage and good sustain. DK is probably the worst class in regards of sustain, so if the group support isn't the best this set is king. Also a trial set.
* Succession: Great damage and very high uptime on MagDK if you use it on body and/or jewellery. You can farm it in Maelstrom Arena.
* Burning Spellweave: Good damage and a separate burning proc which deals extra damage.

I've probably missed some sets but you can never go wrong with these.

And I personally wouldn't cling on to Elf Bane any longer. It had its period when there was a bug with the Asylum Staff, but since that was fixed I'd say all alternatives above are better.

Octopuss

Anything trial or MA is out of the question
Technically, I am in a very active trial guild, but for the past year the only thing I've been doing is logging in and doing writs, lol

Sorrow>Julianos btw?

El_Borracho

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Danksta

El_Borracho wrote: »

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Elf bane and medusa?? For PvE?

Everest_Lionheart

Octopuss wrote: »

Anything trial or MA is out of the question
Technically, I am in a very active trial guild, but for the past year the only thing I've been doing is logging in and doing writs, lol

Sorrow>Julianos btw?

Honestly you’ll do fine in Mother’s Sorrow + Julianos. Julianos being crafted you can do your jewelry in this set yourself and save transmute stones. You can also craft heavy/medium pieces of it so you don’t have to worry about the weight of your monster set when it comes to utilizing the 5-1-1 undaunted passive. If you get 2 light pieces you craft heavy chest and medium pants.

Extra bonus here is no hours farming dungeons for gear. Medusa and BSW drop rates are the worst and if you want good traits than expect that to take even longer. I’ve been through CoA probably 80 times and have not seen a single BSW staff and nor do I have all the body pieces in divines. For medusa I have been through Arx Corinium about 60 times and because it’s a heavy set I’m looking for weapons and jewelry. Fortunately I got the flame staff, training trait of course because RNG is gonna RNG, but I am still missing 2 rings from the set.

Mothers sorrow is easy enough to farm yourself in Deshaan or pick up in traders for a little coin. The inferno staff is crazy expensive in the correct traits but again you can go all body and craft your Julianos staves in the desired traits and save yourself the headache. Buying green or blue divine body pieces shouldn’t set you back that much gold and upgrade them yourself.

Yes these are basic staple sets that are several years old, but they don’t suffer the nerf hammer of the month like ever. Saving that headache alone and allowing you to just queue up and run dungeons without the stress of drops sounds more like your style.

As for monster helms unless you are running the hardest content in the game and chasing the leaderboards it doesn’t really matter one way or another what you decide to wear. Maw is good now and easy to get. Skoria still works just fine. You could opt for a shield set like Iceheart if you wanted which is the best mag solo monster helm in most builds. You could even go 1pc slimecraw and 1pc domihaus and get a boost to mag, stam and crit.

It’s all up to you but MS+Juli will never go out of style.

Octopuss

I already have five pieces of BSW, and I don't want to EVER step into CoA again. That ring must had been like 30 runs at the very least. Well, CoA II even more because getting the Skoria head was pain in the arse, considering how long the dungeon is. Which is also the reason I don't want to get rid of this set I mean even Alcast has it in his DK build, so it cannot be as outdated as people say....

I guess I will stick with Julianos since that's what I have upgraded and transmued. That Silks staff can still be sold for nice sum it seems.

Grothdarr seems like a set to be used for trash fights.

MizoreReyes

Burning Spell Weave
Julianos
Shacklebreaker
Zaan
Elf Bane
Grothdarr
Valkyn Skoira
Mother's Sorrow
Silks of the Sun
Elemental Succession
Bright Throats Boast

then you have your universally good sets from Trials aka Sroira and False Gods.

But anyways your choice is very limited with MagDK. Most of these sets aren't optimal.

El_Borracho

Danksta wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Elf bane and medusa?? For PvE?

I know, sounds weird, but its effective in a lot of content if the fights are stationary. You give up a little crit you would normally get with MS, you lose the Minor Slayer, but the trade off is non having to slot Trap or Channeled Acceleration so you can replace it with another damage skill, preferably a DOT on the back bar.

I've run it with Medusa jewelry with a Medusa flame staff on the front bar so you get the minor force on your direct attacks with the extended DOT times on your back bar. Haven't seen a huge drop off between that and the Medusa/False Gods or MS/False Gods setup. But it will not compete with the Siroria/Medusa or Siroria/MS setups

Not saying this OP, but for MagDK, its a pretty easy setup for someone who doesn't like bar swapping or just wants to run outside the meta.

Drdeath20

As a magdk almost all DoTs and buffs are 20 seconds with elfbane on. I see 0 reason to further ease up that rotation with medusa. Hey if it works for you thats great. I usually struggle with sustain so i find wearing false gods to be a ideal.

Danksta

El_Borracho wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Elf bane and medusa?? For PvE?

I know, sounds weird, but its effective in a lot of content if the fights are stationary. You give up a little crit you would normally get with MS, you lose the Minor Slayer, but the trade off is non having to slot Trap or Channeled Acceleration so you can replace it with another damage skill, preferably a DOT on the back bar.

I've run it with Medusa jewelry with a Medusa flame staff on the front bar so you get the minor force on your direct attacks with the extended DOT times on your back bar. Haven't seen a huge drop off between that and the Medusa/False Gods or MS/False Gods setup. But it will not compete with the Siroria/Medusa or Siroria/MS setups

Not saying this OP, but for MagDK, its a pretty easy setup for someone who doesn't like bar swapping or just wants to run outside the meta.

You'd be giving up a lot of crit, penetration and sustain since you would be in at least 5 pieces of heavy armor.

YandereGirlfriend

If you use Elf Bane then Domihaus becomes an nice option.

You'll have permanent uptime on the 300 Spell Damage and, if you position yourself correctly, permanent uptime on the fire ring damaging the boss.

El_Borracho

Danksta wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Elf bane and medusa?? For PvE?

I know, sounds weird, but its effective in a lot of content if the fights are stationary. You give up a little crit you would normally get with MS, you lose the Minor Slayer, but the trade off is non having to slot Trap or Channeled Acceleration so you can replace it with another damage skill, preferably a DOT on the back bar.

I've run it with Medusa jewelry with a Medusa flame staff on the front bar so you get the minor force on your direct attacks with the extended DOT times on your back bar. Haven't seen a huge drop off between that and the Medusa/False Gods or MS/False Gods setup. But it will not compete with the Siroria/Medusa or Siroria/MS setups

Not saying this OP, but for MagDK, its a pretty easy setup for someone who doesn't like bar swapping or just wants to run outside the meta.

You'd be giving up a lot of crit, penetration and sustain since you would be in at least 5 pieces of heavy armor.

Agreed. And, again this is not for stuff like Vet Trials, or even Vet DLC dungeons. But if you can run with a group that gives you debuffs in a normal Vet Dungeon to compensate for those losses, you can get away with it. And obviously for solo overland (but what isn't good for that)

I am in no way recommending this type of build for endgame PVE or trials. NO WAY. But it is effective for those vet dungeons. At the same time, you could run almost anything and be okay in those.

Sorry, I can see why my original comment was confusing. Medusa + Elf Bane is not a viable endgame setup. Those set combined with other light armor sets would be. My bad

Everest_Lionheart

El_Borracho wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Elf bane and medusa?? For PvE?

I know, sounds weird, but its effective in a lot of content if the fights are stationary. You give up a little crit you would normally get with MS, you lose the Minor Slayer, but the trade off is non having to slot Trap or Channeled Acceleration so you can replace it with another damage skill, preferably a DOT on the back bar.

I've run it with Medusa jewelry with a Medusa flame staff on the front bar so you get the minor force on your direct attacks with the extended DOT times on your back bar. Haven't seen a huge drop off between that and the Medusa/False Gods or MS/False Gods setup. But it will not compete with the Siroria/Medusa or Siroria/MS setups

Not saying this OP, but for MagDK, its a pretty easy setup for someone who doesn't like bar swapping or just wants to run outside the meta.

I was originally going to do medusa frontbar with Siroria body but ended up settling on Siroria front with MS Body.

Thinking of passing the medusa to my solo magplar and running that with overwhelming on the body or possibly war maiden.

What I don’t like about the Siroria set is mobile fights. Still need to finish FG pieces and it won’t drop for me like ever. How does elf bane front with either Siroria or FG body work?

El_Borracho

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Elf bane and medusa?? For PvE?

I know, sounds weird, but its effective in a lot of content if the fights are stationary. You give up a little crit you would normally get with MS, you lose the Minor Slayer, but the trade off is non having to slot Trap or Channeled Acceleration so you can replace it with another damage skill, preferably a DOT on the back bar.

I've run it with Medusa jewelry with a Medusa flame staff on the front bar so you get the minor force on your direct attacks with the extended DOT times on your back bar. Haven't seen a huge drop off between that and the Medusa/False Gods or MS/False Gods setup. But it will not compete with the Siroria/Medusa or Siroria/MS setups

Not saying this OP, but for MagDK, its a pretty easy setup for someone who doesn't like bar swapping or just wants to run outside the meta.

I was originally going to do medusa frontbar with Siroria body but ended up settling on Siroria front with MS Body.

Thinking of passing the medusa to my solo magplar and running that with overwhelming on the body or possibly war maiden.

What I don’t like about the Siroria set is mobile fights. Still need to finish FG pieces and it won’t drop for me like ever. How does elf bane front with either Siroria or FG body work?

I've never front barred Elf Bane in the traditional sense (with a destro staff) as I prefer the VMA staff back bar with a Siroria/FG front bar setup. I did run Elf Bane back bar with the Perfected AS staff in the front under the old Force Pulse build. One way to front bar Elf Bane would be to run 2 destro staves, and that would only happen if you did not have the VMA staff.

There is another way to run both the Elf Bane and VMA staff and Siroria/FG at the same time, and that is to run 2 Elf Bane heavy body pieces and 3 jewels, 2 light monster pieces, a Siroria/FG destro inferno staff, and 3 light Siroria/FG body pieces.
Its what I do on my Magblade with Siroria and Medusa. I like that setup because that character can get kind of squishy when running content with "almost" one-shot mechanics so the 2 heavy Medusa pieces help with the resistances. I've played around with it on a Mag DK with Elf Bane, and it seems to work in a similar fashion as with the Medusa setup.

I've found this "2 heavy, 5 light" setup to be great on Medusa as the ability to slot a skill other than trap compensates for DPS lost with the MS + trap/accelerated loss. I feel that its also the best way to combine VMA staves with Elf Bane and another DPS set to get the most out of Elf Bane on a DK. Its always going to be slightly below the meta, but not enough to keep you out of the endgame content. The upside to that setup on a DK is that is helps a lot with sustain as you are getting extra uptime on your DOTs

Everest_Lionheart

El_Borracho wrote: »

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Elf bane and medusa?? For PvE?

I know, sounds weird, but its effective in a lot of content if the fights are stationary. You give up a little crit you would normally get with MS, you lose the Minor Slayer, but the trade off is non having to slot Trap or Channeled Acceleration so you can replace it with another damage skill, preferably a DOT on the back bar.

I've run it with Medusa jewelry with a Medusa flame staff on the front bar so you get the minor force on your direct attacks with the extended DOT times on your back bar. Haven't seen a huge drop off between that and the Medusa/False Gods or MS/False Gods setup. But it will not compete with the Siroria/Medusa or Siroria/MS setups

Not saying this OP, but for MagDK, its a pretty easy setup for someone who doesn't like bar swapping or just wants to run outside the meta.

I was originally going to do medusa frontbar with Siroria body but ended up settling on Siroria front with MS Body.

Thinking of passing the medusa to my solo magplar and running that with overwhelming on the body or possibly war maiden.

What I don’t like about the Siroria set is mobile fights. Still need to finish FG pieces and it won’t drop for me like ever. How does elf bane front with either Siroria or FG body work?

I've never front barred Elf Bane in the traditional sense (with a destro staff) as I prefer the VMA staff back bar with a Siroria/FG front bar setup. I did run Elf Bane back bar with the Perfected AS staff in the front under the old Force Pulse build. One way to front bar Elf Bane would be to run 2 destro staves, and that would only happen if you did not have the VMA staff.

There is another way to run both the Elf Bane and VMA staff and Siroria/FG at the same time, and that is to run 2 Elf Bane heavy body pieces and 3 jewels, 2 light monster pieces, a Siroria/FG destro inferno staff, and 3 light Siroria/FG body pieces.
Its what I do on my Magblade with Siroria and Medusa. I like that setup because that character can get kind of squishy when running content with "almost" one-shot mechanics so the 2 heavy Medusa pieces help with the resistances. I've played around with it on a Mag DK with Elf Bane, and it seems to work in a similar fashion as with the Medusa setup.

I've found this "2 heavy, 5 light" setup to be great on Medusa as the ability to slot a skill other than trap compensates for DPS lost with the MS + trap/accelerated loss. I feel that its also the best way to combine VMA staves with Elf Bane and another DPS set to get the most out of Elf Bane on a DK. Its always going to be slightly below the meta, but not enough to keep you out of the endgame content. The upside to that setup on a DK is that is helps a lot with sustain as you are getting extra uptime on your DOTs

Interesting. I will take a look at that idea. My DK is super squishy and any added HP/resistance is definitely welcomed. I’m progging vSS currently and my 18k HP is really toeing the line. I’m also the only DK in the group which means it’s me providing igneous weapons for the group meaning if I hit the floor the DPS races get harder for the group. None of the boss mechs bother me, but sometimes I get caught during add phases. That frost Atro cleave to the back of the head is easily the most annoying usually because I’m hitting my channel accel and at the back of the group in transition. With medusa no more channel accel and I can put back my spell symmetry for sustain. I take it out for igneous weapons currently.

zvavi

z'ens redress

Hotdog_23

Run silk and BSW forever on MagDK but dropped silk for false gods when it came out. Probably going to drop BSW and go with medusa if I ever get around to it but it's not a priority for me. Really need to switch to Elf bane instead of medusa since I still use Grothdarr,. Hate Maw and combat pets in general.

LightYagami

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

If you use Elf Bane then Domihaus becomes an nice option.

You'll have permanent uptime on the 300 Spell Damage and, if you position yourself correctly, permanent uptime on the fire ring damaging the boss.

2 pcs Domihaus is good for stationary PvE fights only. It's not a good choice for PvP or dynamic fights.
The ring is very disappointing as only those standing on the rim, instead of inside the whole circle, will be damaged.

El_Borracho

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Elf Bane is made for DKs. I run it with FG or Medusa or MS and either Zaan or Grothdaar, depending on content. Someone said its expensive, but that's all relative Expect to spend around 5K-10K per body piece and 10K-20K for jewelry. You only need a staff if you don't have a VMA staff and you backbar Elf Bane. Elf Bane and Grothdaar is a great combo for a DK as you get a 10 second uptime.

As far as I know, you want to have a 100% uptime on Elf Bane if you run a VMA staff, so you have to run a combo of jewelry and armor to get that. Set up all your DOTs on the back bar, including wall of elements, drop them. You then front bar MS, Medusa, or FG for your whip and other non DOT attacks. Rinse, repeat.

Elf Bane is best for trials or dungeons with stationary bosses. If you are fighting mobile bosses, or something like the witches in Icereach, its not as effective.

Elf bane and medusa?? For PvE?

I know, sounds weird, but its effective in a lot of content if the fights are stationary. You give up a little crit you would normally get with MS, you lose the Minor Slayer, but the trade off is non having to slot Trap or Channeled Acceleration so you can replace it with another damage skill, preferably a DOT on the back bar.

I've run it with Medusa jewelry with a Medusa flame staff on the front bar so you get the minor force on your direct attacks with the extended DOT times on your back bar. Haven't seen a huge drop off between that and the Medusa/False Gods or MS/False Gods setup. But it will not compete with the Siroria/Medusa or Siroria/MS setups

Not saying this OP, but for MagDK, its a pretty easy setup for someone who doesn't like bar swapping or just wants to run outside the meta.

I was originally going to do medusa frontbar with Siroria body but ended up settling on Siroria front with MS Body.

Thinking of passing the medusa to my solo magplar and running that with overwhelming on the body or possibly war maiden.

What I don’t like about the Siroria set is mobile fights. Still need to finish FG pieces and it won’t drop for me like ever. How does elf bane front with either Siroria or FG body work?

I've never front barred Elf Bane in the traditional sense (with a destro staff) as I prefer the VMA staff back bar with a Siroria/FG front bar setup. I did run Elf Bane back bar with the Perfected AS staff in the front under the old Force Pulse build. One way to front bar Elf Bane would be to run 2 destro staves, and that would only happen if you did not have the VMA staff.

There is another way to run both the Elf Bane and VMA staff and Siroria/FG at the same time, and that is to run 2 Elf Bane heavy body pieces and 3 jewels, 2 light monster pieces, a Siroria/FG destro inferno staff, and 3 light Siroria/FG body pieces.
Its what I do on my Magblade with Siroria and Medusa. I like that setup because that character can get kind of squishy when running content with "almost" one-shot mechanics so the 2 heavy Medusa pieces help with the resistances. I've played around with it on a Mag DK with Elf Bane, and it seems to work in a similar fashion as with the Medusa setup.

I've found this "2 heavy, 5 light" setup to be great on Medusa as the ability to slot a skill other than trap compensates for DPS lost with the MS + trap/accelerated loss. I feel that its also the best way to combine VMA staves with Elf Bane and another DPS set to get the most out of Elf Bane on a DK. Its always going to be slightly below the meta, but not enough to keep you out of the endgame content. The upside to that setup on a DK is that is helps a lot with sustain as you are getting extra uptime on your DOTs

Interesting. I will take a look at that idea. My DK is super squishy and any added HP/resistance is definitely welcomed. I’m progging vSS currently and my 18k HP is really toeing the line. I’m also the only DK in the group which means it’s me providing igneous weapons for the group meaning if I hit the floor the DPS races get harder for the group. None of the boss mechs bother me, but sometimes I get caught during add phases. That frost Atro cleave to the back of the head is easily the most annoying usually because I’m hitting my channel accel and at the back of the group in transition. With medusa no more channel accel and I can put back my spell symmetry for sustain. I take it out for igneous weapons currently.

VSS is one of the Trials I was thinking of with that setup. Medusa can also allow you to slot Coagulating Blood for the "oh s***" moment if you get slapped instead of a damage skill, too

Vildebill

I fail to understand the greatness of Elf Bane that many of you talk about. As have been mentioned earlier, it was great when we had the asylum staff bug and the more force pulses you made, the higher the DPS, but now that the bug is gone, is it really that good?

Please enlighten me if I missed something, but I find it hard to believe that Elf Bane can compete with sets like Siroria for spell damage or False Gods for the sustain MagDK desperately needs.

El_Borracho

Vildebill wrote: »

I fail to understand the greatness of Elf Bane that many of you talk about. As have been mentioned earlier, it was great when we had the asylum staff bug and the more force pulses you made, the higher the DPS, but now that the bug is gone, is it really that good?

Please enlighten me if I missed something, but I find it hard to believe that Elf Bane can compete with sets like Siroria for spell damage or False Gods for the sustain MagDK desperately needs.

Siroria and False Gods are better sets for damage and sustain, but Elf Bane has utility for stationary fights if you don't have either of those sets. And it has built-in sustain to some degree because you don't have to cast DOTs as often. Add in that the Mag DK is almost all flame-damage based, and its pretty solid for that class

Drdeath20

Vildebill wrote: »

I fail to understand the greatness of Elf Bane that many of you talk about. As have been mentioned earlier, it was great when we had the asylum staff bug and the more force pulses you made, the higher the DPS, but now that the bug is gone, is it really that good?

Please enlighten me if I missed something, but I find it hard to believe that Elf Bane can compete with sets like Siroria for spell damage or False Gods for the sustain MagDK desperately needs.

Your able to get off alot more spammables on a trial dummy and its also a quasi sustain set. I dont know about being really good but its on par with all the top non trial back bar sets.

Octopuss

I've just checked, and both Medusa and Elf bane are heavy armour sets.
What am I missing? Noone in his right mind uses heavy armour on mag chars