How is MagDK nowadays?

Berchelous

I have not been playing for 6 months and i missed many big updates. How is magdk for no-cp pvp? Last time i was running grothdarr and elf bane together. Do i still need malacath band to be effective in cyrodiil? Any big changes to dragonknight skills or playstyle? Is vampire must for mobility?

Thanks for the answers

Exeter411

The change is in Cyrodill. Anything that causes a calculation by the server is disabled, so neither elf bane nor grothdarr will work. All mythic items are likewise disabled.

You can review the changes here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/565283/update-on-proc-set-plan-in-cyrodiil#latest

Vevvev

I combined it with Vampire and it's a monster on the battlefield, but magDK is one of those classes that does very well with proc sets. Without them the class has some flaws in it's design and they'll rear their ugly heads once you face opponents with a dedicated purge ability. You lack effective delayed burst damage the other classes do so you end up relying on your damage over time abilities to burn your foes to the ground.

This works incredibly well against people with no way to outheal your DoTs, but the moment you fight a Warden, Templar, or Necromancer (or any other class using Cleanse from the Support line) with a purge ability slotted it feels like you won't be able to even hurt them. I remember asking for advice in zone chat for how to get around this issue and this one dude recommend me all these sets, and they were all sadly proc sets. He didn't realize this till I sent him the list of all sets allowed in no-proc Cyrodiil.

So is it good? Yes and no, depends on who you fight, what their class is, what abilities they use, and their skill level.

Berchelous wrote: »

Is vampire must for mobility?

Vampire has no mobility that makes you faster than anyone else. If you have the CP passive that boosts sprint speed you'll go so much faster than Elusive Mist while sprinting it's not even funny. What Mistform does do however is allow you to get around a chaotic battle field without getting snared or stunned, and can help you get behind your allies in case you take too much aggro. Now if you bite the bullet and go stage 4, sprint will cost 50% less which is amazing for a magDK. You just have to contend with 0% health regeneration, everything that isn't a vampire ability costing 12% more, and taking 20% more flame damage. Thanks to DK's spell resistance the fire issue isn't as big of a problem, especially if you're a Breton to. Add in the stage 3 damage resistance and you can actually stay in stage 4 quite comfortably if you know how to manage your magicka.

Berchelous wrote: »

Do i still need malacath band to be effective in cyrodiil?

Malacath's Band of Brutality is a proc set and doesn't work. The full list of sets that do work are as follows:

• Amber Plasm
• Armor of the Trainee
• Beekeeper’s Gear
• Crafty Alfiq
• Draugr Hulk
• Endurance
• Fortified Brass
• Grace of the Ancients
• Hunding’s Rage
• Impregnable Armor
• Law of Julianos
• Leviathan
• Mother’s Sorrow
• Plague Doctor
• Shacklebreaker
• Spinner’s Garments
• Spriggan’s Thorns
• Willpower
• Agility

INe_Saninus

I can only speak on Battlegrounds. I haven't tried no proc Cyrodiil yet.

Absolute monster. One of my top performing toons, if not my top.
Battles it out with my Stamden for easiest matches with the highest scores.

Without procs though... (shrugs)

The class feels like it needs certain sets to perform.

Firstmep

INe_Saninus wrote: »

I can only speak on Battlegrounds. I haven't tried no proc Cyrodiil yet.

Absolute monster. One of my top performing toons, if not my top.
Battles it out with my Stamden for easiest matches with the highest scores.

Without procs though... (shrugs)

The class feels like it needs certain sets to perform.

I'm rocking no procs in bgs too, and magDK feels smooth af, charge up molten, fossilize or leap into whip, it's nice dmg for sure.
That being said I did try zaan +vate destro for a couple of games and yeah.. It's pretty disgusting.

INe_Saninus

Firstmep wrote: »

INe_Saninus wrote: »

I can only speak on Battlegrounds. I haven't tried no proc Cyrodiil yet.

Absolute monster. One of my top performing toons, if not my top.
Battles it out with my Stamden for easiest matches with the highest scores.

Without procs though... (shrugs)

The class feels like it needs certain sets to perform.

I'm rocking no procs in bgs too, and magDK feels smooth af, charge up molten, fossilize or leap into whip, it's nice dmg for sure.
That being said I did try zaan +vate destro for a couple of games and yeah.. It's pretty disgusting.

I'm still running the last patch cheese:
-Grothdar
-Elf's Bane
-Overwhelming back bar.

It's filthy, but still feels like you're playing a Mag DK.
Still crazy strong.

Sangwyne

DK as a whole isn't in a great spot. Like people here are saying, it crutched heavily on proc sets for survivability and damage, so in Cyrodiil where procs are disabled it's effectively cannon fodder, but even outside Cyrodiil you might as well just play a better class and run proc sets anyway. If you still insist on playing DK, just keep in mind that you'll need to work much harder than other classes to reach the same potential.

ketsparrowhawk

Best my magDK has felt in a long time in BGs. The huge max stam increase is incredibly beneficial. Their heals are very strong and the damage is awesome. Vamp isn’t a must at all imo. I use race against time and empowering chains for mobility and it works well for me. Been enjoying torugs (light) + spinner + malacath + maelstrom resto.

Overwhelming + grothdarr + brp staff + MA resto + malacath was my setup last patch and it was an absolute monster. But I like the torugs setup better.. I actually feel like I’m playing the class rather than the gear.

LightYagami

A big problem of MagDK is the combination of being melee, low mobility, and DoT oriented (low burst).

No matter which class, without the help of CP, you rely on GEARS. As class skills of magdks aren't very good and costs are high, the class need to depend on gears more than some good classes like stamdens and stamsorcs.

To fight 2H stamina opponents as a melee magicka class, you need extra stamina to roll dodge, block, and run. You may also need recoveries as the costs are really high.

In terms of amor weight, don't run 5 light as light armor defuffs make you even more vulnerable to high burst stamina enemies, especially considering magdks are melee and usually directly fight 2H stam toons. You may mix something like 4H 3L, 3H 4L, or something else.

Like some others mentioned above, you need to equip quite a few of proc sets of allowed. I personally prefer no-proc Cyrodiil because other classes are even way stronger with procs.

Unlike sorcerers or night blades, magdks have no good abilities to flee from a fight, so some players prefer vampire madgks for the mist form, especially if they're dark elfs and your passive hleps to mitigate the extra flame damage being a vampire. But don't forget that your non-vampire skill costs will be higher... It's a personal choice. Some people use race against time.

Vevvev

LightYagami wrote: »

Unlike sorcerers or night blades, magdks have no good abilities to flee from a fight, so some players prefer vampire madgks for the mist form, especially if they're dark elfs and your passive hleps to mitigate the extra flame damage being a vampire. But don't forget that your non-vampire skill costs will be higher... It's a personal choice. Some people use race against time.

Also wanna add that magDK players that go vampire make heavy use of the vampire spammable due to the increased skill costs. Blood for Blood even in no-proc Cyrodiil (which means you don't have the Pale Order Ring to make the ability free) is actually very good at curbing the cost problem due to it's health cost. If you're not comfortable with a health cost ability I've seen Arterial Burst get very low in it's cost to where it's like getting a Power Lash proc every time. Also Swarming Scion is a must for vampire MagDKs because it resets a fight and a Swarming Scion Fossilizing people is terrifying lol.