Buff Magblade. Please.

jdamuso

Considering that my magblade is always the last one standing in a zerg fight after my alliance has been wiped, and I always get kills, I would say magblades are just fine.

With that said, no proc sets where only a tiny issue for my magblade, I'm quite more powerful WITH procs, however with 16k penetration just about everyone dies to a magic knife in the back.

Perhaps it's your build/play-style that is failing?

Magblade has the highest probability of any light armor wearer to survive in outnumbered scenarios.

And heavy armor magblades are gods that cannot be killed by normal players.

Raeyleigh

jdamuso wrote: »

Considering that my magblade is always the last one standing in a zerg fight after my alliance has been wiped, and I always get kills, I would say magblades are just fine.

Perhaps it's your build/play-style that is failing?

Magblade has the highest probability of any light armor wearer to survive in outnumbered scenarios.

And heavy armor magblades are gods that cannot be killed by normal players.

I think youre missing the forest for the trees.

Sure, you can have a degree of succes as a good player on magblade, it is not impossible. I can do well on the class and so can probably anyone else who posted on this thread. But id be carefull calling the class powerfull just because i killed worse players than me, newbies and pvers, zerg surfed and ganked the unprepared on it. I can survive for almost ever if i wish to, but there is a sharp difference between staying alive by permanently running away and staying alive while actually doing things. People say the class is so bad because they experienced the comparison with other classes.

Last time i came back to the game i hopped on my magblade for some time and was rather content at first. Sure it obviously wasnt the sharpest tool in the shed but i was fine with it... until i logged on magsorc.
I quickly noticed that i can achieve double the result on a magsorc for a mere half of the effort.

And that goes for almost all classes actually. Sure if you compare it to other bottom of the barrel classes like magdk it seems ok, but there is an undeniable delta in power and efficiency compared to the top meta classes.
The two most similiar classes to compare it to are magsorc and stamblade, and those two are above and beyond of magblade.

ThePianist

I don’t know what a Nightblade is. I think it’s one of those classes that was able to purge with this skill called cloak. Oh wait.

Shadowy disguise is crap imo. Costs too much and can easily be countered by detect pots or detect poisons. Dark cloak is okay, the HoT is not bad, but good enough to run around rocks and LoS. It still costs too much. The duration for Dark cloak should be at least 16 seconds.

It’s still possible to 1vx as a magblade or stamblade, but you have to be very good at the class. The best way I can describe playing a NB in no proc Cyrodiil: it feels like the old vet Maelstrom arena where everything one shots you, including the ads.

I also haven’t seen any NB win in any dueling tournaments. A magdk won a 90 mil tournament, stamplar won a 5 mil tournament, and I think a stamdk/magplar won a 2v2 tournament.

I suggest new players and returning players to play busted classes like warden and necro. Here’s how busted stamden is lol. I have a pve warden tank with all my attributes into health. I decided to put on spriggans and hulking and go on adventure with this 5 man group. My dawnbreaker with a whopping 8k tooltip and shalks with 4k tooltip was able to pathetically 1vx a large group who was attacking one of our keeps that had the scroll. Play the meta, play busted classes. It’s your money and time. Don’t play a game, especially a class, that punishes you lol.

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO

IAmIcehouse wrote: »

It seems like we're just trying to "buff skills" rather than trying to see why OW magblade is performing so poorly and address those problems. It's not because it doesn't have enough HoTs. It's not because it doesn't have access to minor breach. And it's certainly not because people can rolldodge their spammable.

Give the class better access to Major Sorcery. Give the class some access to a self-burst heal--hell, you could make siphoning strikes act like Rally in terms of a burst-heal at the end, and we're good. We don't need a completely overhaul all of Magblade without addressing why it sucks.

I've mained a Nightblade since launch, and tend to prefer melee Magblades. Recently, though, I've switched to a Magicka Templar main, with basically the same gear and loadout.

The difference in performance is STARK. The Templar is MUCH better, both performatively and in the way it feels. I've come to the conclusion that the Magblade's kit just DOES not synergize well with itself.

Mayrael

I'm not sure we want overbuff magblade with direct number or % based buffs. Many people already mentioned that one of the biggest issues magblade faces is burst reliability. Everything that once magblade offered got terribly nerfed. Assassin's Will is to telegraphed and to slow, cast times on 2 out of 3 ultimates, swallow soul is like half speed of any other projectile, Impale is simply the worst pvp finisher in the game. Having no delayed burst ability also hurts a lot. In general magblade needs to work 2-3 times harder for kill than any other class, which is hilarious since it is supposedly an "assassin" class.

Undodgeable spamable is to much IMHO, but for example reworking killers blade (let's face it, nobody uses this morph, stamina has much better finishers elsewhere) into skill similar to mag sorcs curse but under control of the caster and with finisher scaling could be interesting. Can be used as delayed burst or as a finisher.

Other interesting skill could be delayed CC. E.g. undodgeable, unblockable single target CC with 2s delay, so we can place our burst more precise.

Scallan

I know I'm basically parroting what others have said but it's because it's true - we're not in a good state right now. They either need to lessen travel time on multiple abilities or make some of them undodgeable because it's kind of ridiculous how unreliable our attacks are compared to the other classes right now.

spacefracking

Yeah, any of that would be cool. I could at least 1v1 competantly in no-proc with a magblade. Definitely weaker than every other class tho.

Skander

The only problem with magblade is: it doesn't have a reliable self heal which can provide vs bursts.

In a 1v1 scenario is fine, even if the damage of the class per se, without procs, is lackluster and one of the most countered kits i've ever seen: you just need to A) block B)dodge C)reflect like wings, warden ice shield, s&b ultimate, Defesive posture.

When zerged without the possibility of escape tho, you just perish becouse you don't have the capability of dodging like a stamina or the speed someone would have with medium + bow.
Stamina also can provide the needed burst heal.


Shields are awful.


Nerf invisibility, not nightblades

Selot

I absolutely agree with the thread starter. Even in proc meta magblades were kinda meh but now there are just unplayable.

I've been playing magblade in pvp for 7 months and here's the list of what I've experienced during that period.

Assassination:
Soul harvest: remove the cast time and make it stun people if used with 120 ultimate
Impale: since this ability is considered projectile, it is slow and can be escaped easily. Just make it instant.
Lotus Fan: it's just the worst gap closer it the game. It's so annoying when you targed an enemy, press lotus fan but your character plays the animation for a second and stays in the place. Remove hidden cast time.
Merciless resolve: the skill is hard to proc, it has sound and it is so slow, not to mention how bugged it is. Just do something with it.

Shadow:
Consuming darkness: the most useless ultimate in the game since major buffs were nerfed. Rework it.

Cloak: neither invisibility nor dark cloak would provide you much efficiency. Magicka nightblade with invisibility is far behind the stamina one. Stamblade is very fast and it can permanently dodge and deal a lot of damage. Magblade can't.
Dark cloak is bad too. This skill is weak even on 30k hp magblades. And you keep nerfing it. It need a buff tho.
Mass hysteria:
This skill lacks an extra bonus. Single stun isn't enough. Just for comparison, streak stuns, deals damage and teleports the caster.

Siphoning:
Soul tether: remove cast time from both morphs
Funnel health: this morph is useless. Make it deal more damage but not heal you
Malevolent offering: rework shrewd morph of that skill, it isn't used at all. Let it make burst heal.
Cripple: the skill is SO SLOW. Make it faster. Also Debilitate's 'bonus' that gives magickasteal for 4 seconds is hilarious. Buff this.
Drain power: the idea to make this skill provide a major sorcery and brutality buff is incredibly dumb. What about giving that buff to siphoning attacks?

monkiie

I always think it would be fun to play magblade and then I think about magblade.

exeeter702

Selot wrote: »

I absolutely agree with the thread starter. Even in proc meta magblades were kinda meh but now there are just unplayable.

I've been playing magblade in pvp for 7 months and here's the list of what I've experienced during that period.

Assassination:
Soul harvest: remove the cast time and make it stun people if used with 120 ultimate
Impale: since this ability is considered projectile, it is slow and can be escaped easily. Just make it instant.
Lotus Fan: it's just the worst gap closer it the game. It's so annoying when you targed an enemy, press lotus fan but your character plays the animation for a second and stays in the place. Remove hidden cast time.
Merciless resolve: the skill is hard to proc, it has sound and it is so slow, not to mention how bugged it is. Just do something with it.

Shadow:
Consuming darkness: the most useless ultimate in the game since major buffs were nerfed. Rework it.

Cloak: neither invisibility nor dark cloak would provide you much efficiency. Magicka nightblade with invisibility is far behind the stamina one. Stamblade is very fast and it can permanently dodge and deal a lot of damage. Magblade can't.
Dark cloak is bad too. This skill is weak even on 30k hp magblades. And you keep nerfing it. It need a buff tho.
Mass hysteria:
This skill lacks an extra bonus. Single stun isn't enough. Just for comparison, streak stuns, deals damage and teleports the caster.

Siphoning:
Soul tether: remove cast time from both morphs
Funnel health: this morph is useless. Make it deal more damage but not heal you
Malevolent offering: rework shrewd morph of that skill, it isn't used at all. Let it make burst heal.
Cripple: the skill is SO SLOW. Make it faster. Also Debilitate's 'bonus' that gives magickasteal for 4 seconds is hilarious. Buff this.
Drain power: the idea to make this skill provide a major sorcery and brutality buff is incredibly dumb. What about giving that buff to siphoning attacks?

Forcing magblades to chose between ally burst heal or self burst heal, would harm magblade healers. Which is aside the point as properly designed magblade does not need a self burst heal. That isnt where the fix should come from at all.

Selot

Forcing magblades to chose between ally burst heal or self burst heal, would harm magblade healers. Which is aside the point as properly designed magblade does not need a self burst heal. That isnt where the fix should come from at all.

Have you ever tried to play magblades? I guess you haven't. Lack of burst heal is a big problem. If magblade's health drops to execute percentage, it means instant death for him.

exeeter702

Selot wrote: »

Forcing magblades to chose between ally burst heal or self burst heal, would harm magblade healers. Which is aside the point as properly designed magblade does not need a self burst heal. That isnt where the fix should come from at all.

Have you ever tried to play magblades? I guess you haven't. Lack of burst heal is a big problem. If magblade's health drops to execute percentage, it means instant death for him.

What a cute statement. I honestly find there are far too few of us left that have actually been playing magblade in pvp from the begining.

If ZOS actually refocused on the design philosophy that was in place for the spec historically, it would see a return to form where it was strong and never once needed a self target burst heal.

Magblade has always thrived on mobility and attrition. Most that demand they he given a one button burst heal dont actually know what they are talking about. There are numerous ways to return magblade to its former glory outside of that short sighted, inexperienced suggestion.

And this is besides the point the above recommendation was making regarding shrewd. If they want to target that skill as the answer to magblades self defense, (be it a self burst heal or something else entirely) it still nueters magbalde healers in pvp who then have to give up the defense option if they want to function as a healer in pvp via taking healthy offering, what is arguably the best burst heal in the entire game.

Selot

I don't see any problem with making two morphs of malevolent offering, one for self healing and another for healing teammates.

exeeter702

Selot wrote: »

I don't see any problem with making two morphs of malevolent offering, one for self healing and another for healing teammates.

Then you did not pay attention to what was being said.

Magblade does need help in ways to self defend against burst, or to deter it as they have traditionally been able to do as a core design of the spec. This weakness is not unique to magblades that are built to endure and deal damage, it is also an issue for magblade healers.

Thus, targeting malevolent offering as the solution to this weakness, effectively prices magblade healers out of taking advantage of it since healthy offering is mandatory in a pvp environment for a magblade healer (an environment where actual pvp performance matters, as I'm sure you can get away with not using it while running around in a ball group blasting away any keep doors and seige machines spamming springs and purge but I digress), so they would never be able to benefit from the very change that would be trying to address their weakness.

Uniform abilities that are applicable to all specs that still have analogous stamina counterparts are the areas to address a defensive buff.

You dont need a massive burst heal only for yourself while still possessing shadowy disguise for free resets, which is why making sure cloak is reliable matters and should be a priorty, and is precisely why dark cloak was changed into its current form. Zos understood the dichotomy of choosing to be able to take hits and sustain or to take the more offensive option that is afforded with a high damage stealth based build approach. It's why the nerf to dark cloak was asinine and was the opposite of what needed to happen and I still struggle tO wrap my head around that nerf, however small it was.

Magblade needs it's hot potency and attrition ability restored to what it once was, with things like minor vit returning to swallow soul, refreshing path dealing damage, siphoning attacks giving both resources and more health per attack. Swallow soul needs to have a flat heal value based on tooltip instead of being based on damage dealt per application, or if it remains per application, it needs to know not to overwrite itself with weaker instances of the hot when reliably weaving it into targets with wildly shifting mitigation states. Migrate the lost damage reduction effect from the previous version of resolve to mirage or shadow image, and give assassins will heal full range instead of melee range.

These are the avenues to address magblades defense issue, not another self target panic burst heal button to hammer on after you los via shade and cloak away. Issues with offensive abilities of magblade have already been addressed here, and I will not repeat them. But with those issues taken care off, and cloak being reliable, their stealth based playstyle will return and be potent. You dont get to be a stealth based glass cannon with the escape options that magblade has and still have a self targeted burst heal. This was explicitly by design and for good reason.

Fix magblade offensive ability reliability and consistency and make cloak dependable. Then fix the self sustaining capability of the brawler / ranged kiting caster magblade and magblade healer via it's hots and relationship to its siphoning heaming done passive that already exist. Smartly played magblade soft this nature have always thrived in the past and it absolutely separates the average from the good ones and was always one of the greatest appeals of the spec.

Raeyleigh

exeeter702 wrote: »

What a cute statement. I honestly find there are far too few of us left that have actually been playing magblade in pvp from the begining.

Why do i constantly read this arguing from authority in your comments? What is the merit in that? Might as well saved some time by just typing "shut it".
On what is the assumption based on that you are so much more experienced and worthy than anyone else here. Do you know each of us ingame somehow? Hell, if you didnt kept reminding us on every second comment of yours, i might even assume you started with the game maybe a year back or so based on what youre arguing.
Perhaps i started this game in beta as a magblade, kept playing as such and am one of, if not the best on my server. Or maybe i didnt, how would you know?

exeeter702 wrote: »

If ZOS actually refocused on the design philosophy that was in place for the spec historically, it would see a return to form where it was strong and never once needed a self target burst heal.

This is completly and utterly false. Having access to a potent burst shield/heal in healing ward was the backbone of magblade defense for virtually ever. The moment healing ward was "reworked", more like nerfed into the ground, was the exact moment magblades defense became hot garbage, because the class was never able to stand on its hots alone. Even saptanks used it back in the day.
You know which class was also struck by that? Magsorc. Did their defense become garbage? No. Why? Because they can stack burst proof shields and got a potent burstheal via matriarch. Unlike magblade they can still come back from being bursted, even without hitting streak, and are ever the top tier class they always were.
Your suggestion is to just buff the hots until theres no need to burstheal anymore? Until magblade walks around like necros do, or what? Even said necros need to hit a burst heal every now and then.
I would love the old healing ward back as it would instantly solve the problem, but off the top of my head i cannot name a single instance in which Zo$ decided to go back on a poor balancing decision, so im not gonna bet on that at all.

exeeter702 wrote: »

You dont need a massive burst heal only for yourself while still possessing shadowy disguise for free resets, ...

Did this just become a nerf sorc and stamblade thread?

exeeter702 wrote: »

Thus, targeting malevolent offering as the solution to this weakness, effectively prices magblade healers out of taking advantage of it since healthy offering is mandatory in a pvp environment for a magblade healer, so they would never be able to benefit from the very change that would be trying to address their weakness.

What? It bears repeating. What?
On another thread these days you claimed that healblades have no need at all for a self burst heal, but now its suddenly so precious that you'd forgo healthy offering for it? What?
This isnt even a nerf to healblade in the slightest. At worst this would be a buff. You realize the ability could be made to mirror breath of life for example without pricing healblades out of a burstheal for their allies? Since when are viable options bad? What?
I can get behind your absolute bias toward your all time favourite healblade spec, but why do you block buffs for the actual dps magblade playstyle? What?

exeeter702

@Realeigh

Sigh look man.. again with the misunderstandings here. I was not subscribing to belief that a self burst heal is needed. That has absolutely not changed. Please read what was said.

IF offering is the targeted skill to address magblades defense issue, regardless of if its a self burst heal or changed into something else entirely, (as I clearly stated) that actively would harm magblade healers since they are heavily reliant on healthy offering and also need some help in the defense department. Hense why it's a short sighted suggestion. Dont mix up what was being said. I value magbalde as a whole, not just healer spec, you can leave the rhetoric. Especially with that ridiculous nerf sorc comment. These classes do not exist in a vacuum and its entirely possible to view these issues on their own without drawing such contrasts. The cloak comment is absolutely reasonable. And your explanation of magblades back then is wildly different from how it actually worked. Yes HW was an option but it was not their crux by any stretch of the imagination. But regardless of that, HW was never a burst heal in the same vein that people are asking for for magblade now. The reason HW worked so well with magblade was that it afforded them a health buffer for hots to do their work, which is why LA shield was equally as popular for non cloak based magblades at the time. As an aside, I was also referring to magblades as they worked in pvp prior to sorcs having matriarch as a burst heal, which was in TG, the same update that agony was changed into the first version of offering ie the strongest single target hot (that also self targeted) in the game. Not sure how relevant that is but regardless.

And frankly most suggestions that are targeted towards fixing magblades self defense issue are not well thought out or are done so from the completely wrong perspective, when looking solely on how the spec has functioned in the past. It's not about a position of authority, it's about having spent so much time with these subjects in game and on the forums and seeing this time and time again. Its exhausting. I realize how it reads, but I've seem it happen enough times that feedback from these very forums end up in game and completely backfires. Also I have no shame and am quite proud of the amount of hours I've spent playing the class, and want nothing more than for them to be brought out of this rut.

A burst heal is a bandaid fix that is frankly lazy and is only a solution if they are unwilling to properly fix the spec at the foundation. Arguing that a burst heal is the answer to thier issues is extremely short sighted. If you want to settle for that level mediocrity form zos then that is an entirely separate discussion, and if you can say that zos is not going to bother then sure, beg for a burst heal and let the pvp in this game continue on its trajectory with the design philosophy that is at work, homogenization and all.

What bothers me is that there is such a small chance that wheeler and co actually read this and consider the poor suggestions being made alongside the good ones.

Sedare38

Hey ZOS, I'm glad my Stamblade can effectively use Caluurions better than my Magblade. When a stamina based, weapon damage oriented build can proc much higher and get to the cap much easier than a magicka build using multiple magicka damage enchancing sets, then there's a problem. And this is on No-CP.

Fix Magblades. Make siphoning strikes/attacks our major sorcery/brutality ability, so we can front load it.

Mayrael

Sedare38 wrote: »

Hey ZOS, I'm glad my Stamblade can effectively use Caluurions better than my Magblade. When a stamina based, weapon damage oriented build can proc much higher and get to the cap much easier than a magicka build using multiple magicka damage enchancing sets, then there's a problem. And this is on No-CP.

Fix Magblades. Make siphoning strikes/attacks our major sorcery/brutality ability, so we can front load it.

Oh, I would love that, but due to "standardization" ZOS will never do it because magblade already has access to major sorcery via sap essence. I'm leaving out the detail that they don't stick to this "standardization" when it suits them but that's another topic for discussion.

Sedare38

Mayrael wrote: »

Sedare38 wrote: »

Hey ZOS, I'm glad my Stamblade can effectively use Caluurions better than my Magblade. When a stamina based, weapon damage oriented build can proc much higher and get to the cap much easier than a magicka build using multiple magicka damage enchancing sets, then there's a problem. And this is on No-CP.

Fix Magblades. Make siphoning strikes/attacks our major sorcery/brutality ability, so we can front load it.

Oh, I would love that, but due to "standardization" ZOS will never do it because magblade already has access to major sorcery via sap essence. I'm leaving out the detail that they don't stick to this "standardization" when it suits them but that's another topic for discussion.

Yeah I'd rather have sap essence/power extraction not have major sorc/brut and instead have something that siphons, which they already do, kinda. Power extraction siphons enemy dmg, while doing a crap ton of dmg and sap essence heals while doing dmg which is i guess like siphoning health . . . I'd rather have the secondary effect be more siphoning like maybe stamina on power extraction and magicka on sap essence so you're doing 2 siphoning things. Put major sorc/brut on the leching/siphoning attacks then. The heals/resource gains are pretty pitiful as is, so adding that dmg bonus would be nice.

Raeyleigh

exeeter702 wrote: »

What bothers me is that there is such a small chance that wheeler and co actually read this and consider the poor suggestions being made alongside the good ones.

I dont even think we disagree much. The main point of contention here is probably that im willing to settle for a lot less at this point in time.

Zo$ gutted magblade for years. Since 2 years the class is bottom of the barrel garbage and all they can be bothered with is nerfing it further and buffing stamblade. I have no expectation or even hope they will revert any change however bad it was, or even listen to their community.

My bet is that theyre going to change offering regardless of what any of us thinks of it, just because theyre so strung up in their homogenization mindset. IF they even bother to do something at all.

Selot

Zos please

Deathlord92

I completely agree with your idea for shrewd offering and siphoning strikes it’s something I have also always wanted for the class. As for concealed weapon though I’d much rather it gives a hot or minor breach when you hit someone this would be instead of movement speed when in stealth us melee magblade assassins are around.

DrSlaughtr

Magblade and stamblades are great at two very similar play styles. There's a reason why you don't see NB brawlers all over the place anymore. They can't compete.

Would it be nice if they were capable of other play styles like they used to? Yes. But magblade can actually do two styles quite well. Bombing AND ganking, where as stamblades are only really good at snipe/incap builds.

Neither have a burst heal but that's the tradeoff for being capable of inflicting massive burst damage. And it's really not that big of a deal because all you need are a few ticks of vigor or radiant while invisible and you're good to go.

Also someone said stamblades can infinitely dodge which is laughable. Ramping cost starts to hurt real fast. Meanwhile magblade can shade a whole lot more than a stamblade can.

xDeusEJRx

TheEndBringer wrote: »

Magblade and stamblades are great at two very similar play styles. There's a reason why you don't see NB brawlers all over the place anymore. They can't compete.

Would it be nice if they were capable of other play styles like they used to? Yes. But magblade can actually do two styles quite well. Bombing AND ganking, where as stamblades are only really good at snipe/incap builds.

Neither have a burst heal but that's the tradeoff for being capable of inflicting massive burst damage. And it's really not that big of a deal because all you need are a few ticks of vigor or radiant while invisible and you're good to go.

Also someone said stamblades can infinitely dodge which is laughable. Ramping cost starts to hurt real fast. Meanwhile magblade can shade a whole lot more than a stamblade can.

Magblade is not good at ganking. Magblade is good at ganking with PROCS. But that doesn't make it a magblade specific thing, anyone can slap on procs and gank with it. But other classes don't because they could do it better without use of procs. I mean stam sorc gank builds can do what magblades do with much greater success. Magblade is only really good at bombing.

Magblade in pvp is really just a broke version of stamblade even though the class favors mag over stam.
Neither has access to a class burst heal indeed, but at least stamblade has access to a decent heal without being forced to run a particular weapon (vigor). Magblades have no choice but to run resto staff to seek some form of healing, whether it be healing ward, regen, or blessing of protection, which severely limits what freedom you get on the class. I prefer running a frost staff back bar on mag toons instead of resto personally, but I don't have the option to because I would have no reliable source of healing in PVP, especially as a solo.

Despite most of the class abilities having mag morphs, stamblades tend to have a much easier and can really perform much better as a brawl blade than a magblade can. Sure I could give in and play a gank/bomb play style, but it gets boring real fast waiting for the enemy faction to actually do something before my build can be useful, especially during dead hours when the map doesn't move at all

Myux

please save us.

save magden too. theyre on the same tier of garbage as us. though at least they have group utility.

Rakdos

Raeyleigh wrote: »

Many posts were made on this issue, atleast 1 per patch. Im going to add another one.
Magblade has become the single worst pvp spec. The last decent patch the class had was Elsweyr, since then its sharply going downhill only.

The two classes that are most comparable to it are Magsorc and Stamblade, which are both infinitly better than Magblade. Magsorc didnt see a bad patch since ages, and after elsweyr nerfs Stamblade was buffed patch after patch to ensure it is a good pvp spec once again. Magblade had no such privilige.
The only thing Magblade can do well in pvp is bombing and ganking with several proc sets. Imagine the outcry if the only viable playstyle for Stamblades was snipe ganking.
And depending on how the proccset changes on the pts play out it might just be bombing soon.

This isnt even a case similiar to Magden or Magcro, who were released with lacking and incomplete kits for pvp purposes. In theory Magblade still has a complete ability kit and once upon a time Magblade was a good spec in pvp. It is just that everything was ripped away from this class. Hollowed out, leaving but an empty husk of its former self behind this class had everything taken away from it. Except permanent invisibility of course, out of all the things that were removed this just had to stay...
And many of these relentless nerfs were due to pve. Dont ever let one of those "muh pvp nerfs affect pve" apes cry you a river, just slap them this class's fate right in the face.
Even now, on the pts the singular change to the nightblade class is a nerf to darkcloak, an ability primarily used by nonexistant nightblade tanks and a few magblades. For the meme i guess.

Im going to be constructive and add a list of possible changes that would buff pvp magblade to be viable without further buffing pve magblade or in general stamblades.

-Soul harvest: Add a stun at 120 ult just like incap. Ideally remove the cast time, from this and infact every other ult. Nobody asked for it back then and to this day nobody likes it either.
-Impale: Remove travel time. Ideally make the ability scale down from 50% health similiar to executioner.
-Teleport strike: Remove the hidden cast time, remove the second los check.
-Reapers mark: Add minor breach. stamblades already have it, infact every stamina class has it now plus its also on pierce armor. It would be a decent reason to use this instead of ele drain.

-Consuming darkness: Literally the worst ultimate in the game since major buffs were nerfed. Wasnt used even before that. Just rework it.
-Concealed weapon: Increase the movement speed in stealth buff to 40%. This will add back a portion of the mobility that was lost for this playstyle.
-Dark cloak: Reduce the cost. You have to recast it every 8 seconds for your Major Resolve passive anyways and the skill costs too much for how little it does.
-Refreshing path: Make it wider and make the hot stay for 4 seconds after leaving it.
-Mass hysteria: Add back the slow at the very least. Minor breach or a 2 second root are also good options.

-Soul tether: Remove the ult cast time. Infact, remove cast times from every ult in the game. I already mentioned it once.
-Swallow soul: No longer a projectile and undodgeable. So many things have become undodgeable, might aswell just add it to that list. Instantly solves the problem of an utterly unreliable offensive kit without taking any counterplay away from the big hits.
-Shrewd Offering: Can now affect the caster himself. Nobody uses this morph and magblade is in dire need of a good defensive heal. Alternativly buff the crap out of Healing ward.
-Cripple: Increase the projectile speed significantly. Ideally this skill needs major expedition back.
-Siphoning strikes: Put Major brutality and sorcery on this ability and its morphs. It makes 0 sense on the Drain Power skill. Stamblades use Momentum for its heal already anyways.
-Sap Essence: Make the heal increase by 100% per target hit instead of 20%. In turn remove the heal to allies function.

None of these changes by itself would fix the class. I recommend all of them at once. Nothing in there is outrageous or unique.

I play magblade since 2014 as my main character, eversince they nerfed the proc set to the ground I made a templar.

The reason I choose templar is for that 10% extra critical damage, since templar and nightblade are only 2 class have that passive from their class skill line, I thought the play style would be similar. Once I reach max level, I immediately realize how effective the templar are. they just far way superior than magblade in every single perspective. the spammable, the ultimate, the charge, the excution, and the burst heal.... everything...

back to the nightblade, I think currently the magblade is no longer a good pvp-dd anymore, maybe a dedicated healer is a better role for magblade?

All in all, I dont think zos will change magblade dramaticly just because of the PVP performance. so the easiest solution for us player is just reroll another class.

ResidentContrarian

You all know that the class won't ever get buffed as long as invis mechanics offer too much. It's the sad, but true reality.

But it's also funny that vamp+ any other spec (minus DK) can outperform a mag NB at ganking, and the proc sets that enable ganking are arguably better on other classes.

But there is no way that ZOS will walk back stealth changes for vamp, and they are likely balancing the class in consideration for that ability, which I think is a bad thing.

Andre_Noir

ResidentContrarian wrote: »

You all know that the class won't ever get buffed as long as invis mechanics offer too much. It's the sad, but true reality.

Still don't get how invis mechanic transfer to basicly every magicka class is suck. Except "balanced" streak ofc

Alchimiste1

ResidentContrarian wrote: »

You all know that the class won't ever get buffed as long as invis mechanics offer too much. It's the sad, but true reality.

But it's also funny that vamp+ any other spec (minus DK) can outperform a mag NB at ganking, and the proc sets that enable ganking are arguably better on other classes.

But there is no way that ZOS will walk back stealth changes for vamp, and they are likely balancing the class in consideration for that ability, which I think is a bad thing.

I couldn't care less about invis mechanics. Give us summerset magblade with no cast time on ults, minor vitality on swallow, expedition on cripple, actual defense ( magblade defense was structured around un-critable shields and old blur) having low resistances then wasn't a problem. The shield changes were meant to hit magsorcs but actually hit magblade the worst.

what a time to be a magblade.

instead the most recent change we got was a nerf to dark cloak which now heals for like an average of 850 in cyrodiil lol.