Magicka Templar or Magicka Nightblade for (Solo) PvP?

Seraphayel

Title says it all.

Which would you pick - and why?

TheCaptainJosh

Magicka Nightblade

I say magicka nightblade ONLY because of cloak and shade. Those two abilities allow you to disengage* whenever you get overwhelmed. Magplar has limited mobility, only class you can outrun is a magdk (who doesn't have talons or fossilize), another magplar, or a magcro.

However, if you aren't too attached to magblade, I would run a stamblade instead. Their survivability is far better than magblade because they have access to cloak, shade, AND roll dodge. Plus magblade is in a horrible spot in pvp if you aren't purely ganking or bombing.

*-when cloak and shade work, which is seemingly never

SshadowSscale

Magicka Templar

Magblade as a class does not even exist anymore.... you are way better of playing anything else except maybe for mag necro in solo pvp

Jackey

Magicka Templar

My main class so I'm just biased.

fred4

Magicka Nightblade

Seraphayel wrote: »

Title says it all.

Which would you pick - and why?

Since you mention "solo", albeit in brackets, I go with nightblade. I suppose you could play a vampire magplar solo with Mist Form, but anything else wouldn't really cut it.

Magblade has been suffering for a long time. The damage is not there or, if it is, your defense is in the toilet. It is markedly inferior to stamblade. You can build a stamblade for damage and it still works due to the power of dodge rolls and because of Rally. Magblade, not so much.

That said I truly believe that, for solo play, your choices are nightblade or sorc. However it really depends on your experience level and playstyle. I like mobility and I don't care for getting stuck in an endless 1vX running around the tree. If you like the latter, then a tanky stamden or stamcro might be your cup of tea. Not a magplar, though.

Magblades are still the #1 choice for bombers, if you like stakeouts and waiting for your opportunity. Wear Acuity + Vicious Death.

Gankers are feasible, though inferior to stamblades. I play one. The raw power just isn't there. Caluurion plus Zaan (which I use) is probably your best bet, possibly with a Vateshran destro (which I do not use). The time to kill, or who you can kill, is still inferior to stamblades. Survival ends up the tough part on that kind of build, as you get pushed into defense easily. I use a Juggernaut backbar and I find Wild Hunt plus all Swift plus as much stamina sustain as you can get mandatory to make the playstyle (a) viable and (b) fun. I suppose I am a frustrated stamblade at heart. I don't use Shadow Image, which you absolutely should, if you like the skill. Absent Shadow Image, I find speed and stamina sustain terribly important. A magicka-stacking, shielding build doesn't really cut it for me. One advantage and a reason I keep playing magblade is the freedom you gain from cloak sustain when there are NPCs around, who can be very persistent and give you away if you just crouch.

In duels magblades can be quite decent. It's the diffculty in 1vX situations that makes magblade weak. Your attack to defense ratio is poor. You take too long to kill and you don't have a burst heal. Forced into cloak you find that you have no heal that won't uncloak you, unlike stamblade, because you only have resto staff heals. That said, in AvA scenarios any nightblade can be devastating in finishing people off.

WabanakiWarrior

Magicka Templar

I have yet to face a scary magblade this patch. Maybe they're out there, but I have yet to encounter one. The class doesn't adapt well to the meta we're in.
I have encountered some hard hitting magplars though. They're all running proc sets but the class can adapt well to that playstyle.

DT-ARR

Magicka Templar

My main class was a magNB for years until i gave up about 6 months ago. The class in its current form has been gutted and is borderline unplayable in pvp outside of as a bomber. If you want to play a mag toon in pvp i'd say sorc. Otherwise any other class imo would be more viable as stam given the current meta.

fred4

Magicka Nightblade

I play magplar far less, but I believe it is not in a great spot in PvP either, at least not in solo PvP. As a templar your channelled spammable leaves you wide open to counterattack. You can't block-cast it. In PvE this is offset by the healing from the skill. In PvP that healing is poor, because it's based on damage and you score fewer hits than certainly on a PvE trash pull. If it's your first time in PvP you suddenly find that the so-called healing class doesn't actually have good healing. More specifically it doesn't have strong heals over time nor skills, such as warden's Living Trellis, that offset damage with heals. Well, OK, I'm wrong, there is Living Dark, which is quite good. Still, the typical way of building magplar has been to incorporate some passive defense. Pirate Skeleton in the past (when it was good), maybe Pariah, maybe something with health regen.

The eternal problem with magplar is that a 1H+Shield back bar works and you can recover from low health really quite well by cleansing and block-casting Honor the Dead. However as soon as you switch to your front bar, you're immediately in trouble again. You have to be very aggressive on the front bar, e.g. best have Living Dark up, Toppling Charge and spam the crap out of Sweeps. The problem is that that's only pressure, not burst. You can kill bad players that way. You won't kill better players and you won't kill people in a 1vX unless they're, well, really bad. In a sense that's the same problem magblade has. Your offense takes too long and you get forced back in defense before you can accomplish much.

Magplar's problems are compounded by class passives that favor crit, but by a tankiness requirement that favors heavy armor. You really feel the damage loss on a heavy armor templar. My solution has been Eternal Vigor + Amber Plasm, light armor. This plays great and is a lot of fun, but as with magblade it diverts potential damage into stamina sustain, another testament as to why stamina is better for PvP overall. The alternative that, I believe, magplars go for is the ubiquitous Vateshran destro and Zaan. It pairs well with Toppling Charge. Heavy armor and Malacath to go along with that, probably.

NagualV

Magicka Nightblade

Magblade because its who I am.....

Not easy to play though

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Magicka Nightblade

It really comes down to playstyle. If you want to be elusive, go Nightblade. If you want a more stand your ground type or perhaps a support role (not applicable when solo unless zerg surging), go Templar.

If you want to be uber powerful, play stam and pick another class.

Faded

Magblade. First last and always. Reason: stubborn.

If I were starting now? Neither. Stamina anything is better for solo.

Seraphayel

Surprised it’s pretty even, I really thought Magblade would clearly win here.

danno8

Seraphayel wrote: »

Surprised it’s pretty even, I really thought Magblade would clearly win here.

It's because the're both so bad right now.

Doczy

Magicka Templar

stay away from magblade bro. or you gonna smash your keyboard every minute. all skills "dodged" zero defence zero healing and weak damage.

dont believe people saying nb have cloak.

cloak is broken . even flowers can see you and hit you.

warg_derpin_gdf

Magicka Templar

meh. Magika Templar. Magika Templar because the Templar class, traditionally involves magic, and defense in magic. Nightblade magic is cool, but in terms of "more real" game stress, it's better to have only stealth and deception spells AND rely on bare bones magic stats, this way you're not copping out %100 when things get a lttle tough, and escapes and steals will be that much more rewarding lol. Kinda goes for criticals too, because, one, critical stuff usu relies on stamina, which, overall is going to save your bacon more than stealth, and two, personally, I only like excessive critical hit characters in party battle settings. Last, with Elder Scrolls games, Nightblade is gonna get by just fine with poison equips and focusing on the Alchemy stat.

More personally, it depends on how you want to play. Nightblade is going to be story heavy, so much so, you might as well go full magic character unless you're definitely going Thieve's Guild anyway. Magicka Templar is going to be perfect for Fighter's Guild, Undaunted, etc, and all in all just swathing a path through every manner of undead concoctions.

Seraphayel

Okay I just leveled both to around 20-25 and tried to PvP with them - man, they butchered MagBlade a lot. I can’t kill anything and don’t even leave any impression on enemies health bars.

Ecfigies

stamblade, stamina warden, stamcro or magsorc should be your pick for pvp solo but with the recents changes, everything is dying really, really fast.

magblade good for pve, bad for pvp because has no burst healing which you kinda rely a lot in pvp to get out of the execute range, a lot of hots needed also, rotation gets messy if not a very very skilfull player which makes even harder, also depends of proc gear to survive and to deal damage, BRP Resto it's a must for this class.

magplar it's good, maybe the best choice here, has healing, hots, damage, mitigation, has a little bit of a problem with mobility but can be worked around also burst very predictable.

exeeter702

Seraphayel wrote: »

Okay I just leveled both to around 20-25 and tried to PvP with them - man, they butchered MagBlade a lot. I can’t kill anything and don’t even leave any impression on enemies health bars.

I would kill to have an end game pvp experience on magblade to resemble low level pvp lol.

Honestly though that level range if you are doing bgs, Magblade is fine. That level range really isnt indicative of much.

Joy_Division

Not even joking: neither.

Wing

Magicka Templar

templar

dont start crutching on cloak, it will make you bad and you will start complaining whenever you have to do or deal with things every other class has to deal with all the time. it will become such a huge crutch that you wont even realize it and when you try to walk on other classes you will find your legs have atrophied from using crutches and everything will seem like an unfair struggle when in fact its just reality.

go templar

learn to walk, die, walk again, die, run, die, sprint, die.

and then

live, stride with head held up high as you move around as if by ultra instinct while other NB's you encounter slink away in their cloak with wobbly legs as you kick their crutches out from under them with your skill and mastery that comes from walking on your own two legs.

and laugh and shake your head, as you look back on it and think, that was ALMOST you.

Sangwyne

Joy_Division wrote: »

Not even joking: neither.

Pretty much. Play a Sorc until proc sets make their comeback, then back to Stamden spamming their free purge/sustain/buff skill, free ult, shalks, and absolutely unholy %HP burst heal, which is also a %HP HOT, AOE DOT that applies Chilled, Minor Main, Minor Brittle, and Glacial Presence, along with it being an unblockable AOE 4s stun.