Mag Heavy Attack Build help needed

khaoticfury

I have been working some one bar heavy attack builds, but am unable to break 10-15k single target dps....

Currently at almost 1100 CP, and am wearing Mother's Sorrow, Necropotence, and Iceheart, all Gold

The two classes I have been working with are Sorc and Warden.

Both average 3800 spell damage, 65% crit chance

General rotation is buff, dot, dot, HA, repeat (Sorc- crit surge, unstable wall, imp ability / Warden- blue betty, unstable wall, deep fissure)

*Note* I do not LA weave. I have tried it, and the game just stops being fun and starts being work, hence the HA builds.

Not sure what I can do to increase my dps....i would be totally happy with 25k single target DPS. I was thinking of replacing Necropotence with Law of Julianos, but not sure if the added crit and spell damage will outweigh the Magicka added by Necro set.

I am hesitant to replace Iceheart, because of the added crit and how much it saves my butt solo.

Any advice is welcome and appreciated.

SirAndy

A few things for that kind of build:

- Try to focus and getting your critical chance up as high as possible. 65% is OK but still a bit low.
- After crit chance, focus on crit damage
- Try to get your max Magicka above 40k, sacrifice some max health if needed. No need to put any points in stamina.
- Use a lightning staff

I know you mentioned a 1 bar setup, but things like crit surge that have very long runtimes are better put on a back bar, since you don't have to recast them often. That would free up a slot on your front bar to allow you to weave in another damage skill into your rotation. Or allow you to slot Inner Light on your front bar.

khaoticfury

SirAndy wrote: »

A few things for that kind of build:

- Try to focus and getting your critical chance up as high as possible. 65% is OK but still a bit low.
- After crit chance, focus on crit damage
- Try to get your max Magicka above 40k, sacrifice some max health if needed. No need to put any points in stamina.
- Use a lightning staff

I know you mentioned a 1 bar setup, but things like crit surge that have very long runtimes are better put on a back bar, since you don't have to recast them often. That would free up a slot on your front bar to allow you to weave in another damage skill into your rotation. Or allow you to slot Inner Light on your front bar.

not quite sure how to get my crit any higher AND magicka. If i switch from Necropotence to Julianos, I would gain crit but lose max mag. I could squeeze in another 3% crit if i lose 2nd piece of iceheart and replace with another crit monster piece. but don't know how to get the max magicka......

khaoticfury

khaoticfury wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

A few things for that kind of build:

- Try to focus and getting your critical chance up as high as possible. 65% is OK but still a bit low.
- After crit chance, focus on crit damage
- Try to get your max Magicka above 40k, sacrifice some max health if needed. No need to put any points in stamina.
- Use a lightning staff

I know you mentioned a 1 bar setup, but things like crit surge that have very long runtimes are better put on a back bar, since you don't have to recast them often. That would free up a slot on your front bar to allow you to weave in another damage skill into your rotation. Or allow you to slot Inner Light on your front bar.

not quite sure how to get my crit any higher AND magicka. If i switch from Necropotence to Julianos, I would gain crit but lose max mag. I could squeeze in another 3% crit if i lose 2nd piece of iceheart and replace with another crit monster piece. but don't know how to get the max magicka......

forgot to add.....i do already have inner light on bar....

Elendir2am

With this rotation, you probably don’t have any problem with magicka, so I think that Necropotence is unnecessary. Law of Julianos would be better. Max magicka give you less dmg then direct buff or better critical.

khaoticfury

khaoticfury wrote: »

khaoticfury wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

A few things for that kind of build:

- Try to focus and getting your critical chance up as high as possible. 65% is OK but still a bit low.
- After crit chance, focus on crit damage
- Try to get your max Magicka above 40k, sacrifice some max health if needed. No need to put any points in stamina.
- Use a lightning staff

I know you mentioned a 1 bar setup, but things like crit surge that have very long runtimes are better put on a back bar, since you don't have to recast them often. That would free up a slot on your front bar to allow you to weave in another damage skill into your rotation. Or allow you to slot Inner Light on your front bar.

not quite sure how to get my crit any higher AND magicka. If i switch from Necropotence to Julianos, I would gain crit but lose max mag. I could squeeze in another 3% crit if i lose 2nd piece of iceheart and replace with another crit monster piece. but don't know how to get the max magicka......

forgot to add.....i do already have inner light on bar....

and for the sorc-

khaoticfury

with those loadouts, and my rotation, is 25k single target dps even possible, or am I just screwed if i don't go 2 bar and LA weave?

khaoticfury

If i can figure out how to get my dps up enough, i also want to try the following:

khaoticfury

so is that the only advice, to change necropotence to julianos?

khaoticfury

out of the 3 classes and loadouts i posted, which one should have highest dps??

WrathOfInnos

I think your rotation is holding you back. The point of weaving, either heavy or light attacks, is that is deals damage in the time between skill casts (the global cooldown). There shouldn’t be skills back to back, always throw either a light or heavy attack between them. There also should never be two light attacks, two heavy attacks, or a consecutive light and heavy attack.

Try something like:
Buff, Heavy, DoT1, Heavy, DoT2, Heavy, DoT3, Heavy, repeat

As you get more comfortable you can start to replace some heavies with skills, and light attack whenever you end up with two or more skills in a row without a heavy.

For gear you’ll need a maelstrom staff to get the most out of Lightning heavy attacks. You should drop Necropotence, it has been nerfed several times over the years and is currently very weak. A set with Minor Slayer would also help, I hear many heavy attack builds like Infallible Aether, which drops from all 3 Craglorn trials on normal or veteran.

I don’t know what the rest of your build is, but generally heavy attack builds don’t need sustain. Make sure your weapons are enchanted with damage glyphs like Berserker or Flame, and your jewelry should be 3 spell damage glyphs (not recovery or cost reduction).

FrancisCrawford

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

I think your rotation is holding you back. The point of weaving, either heavy or light attacks, is that is deals damage in the time between skill casts (the global cooldown). There shouldn’t be skills back to back, always throw either a light or heavy attack between them. There also should never be two light attacks, two heavy attacks, or a consecutive light and heavy attack.

Try something like:
Buff, Heavy, DoT1, Heavy, DoT2, Heavy, DoT3, Heavy, repeat

As you get more comfortable you can start to replace some heavies with skills, and light attack whenever you end up with two or more skills in a row without a heavy.

For gear you’ll need a maelstrom staff to get the most out of Lightning heavy attacks. You should drop Necropotence, it has been nerfed several times over the years and is currently very weak. A set with Minor Slayer would also help, I hear many heavy attack builds like Infallible Aether, which drops from all 3 Craglorn trials on normal or veteran.

I don’t know what the rest of your build is, but generally heavy attack builds don’t need sustain. Make sure your weapons are enchanted with damage glyphs like Berserker or Flame, and your jewelry should be 3 spell damage glyphs (not recovery or cost reduction).

I doubt the OP is farming trial gear.

But to another of your points -- jewelry glyphs shouldn't be magicka recovery in a build like this.

Anyhow, I thought heavy attack builds normally included sets that buff heavy attacks or all basic attacks (note: The Maelstrom staff is an example of the latter), plus a source of Empower (commonly from the Mages Guild skill line, although templars obviously have a different option). And even then heavy attack damage was less than 50% of total damage done.

Rebiludo

Actualy, the best build is zaan + IA + Noble Duelist + Vma inferno.
Volatil familiar, wall, dot, degen HA rune HA rune HA (repeat)
80k+ on iron atronach in live. Not tested in PTS with the weapon attack star CP.

If range, i just switch duelist to medusa

WrathOfInnos

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

I think your rotation is holding you back. The point of weaving, either heavy or light attacks, is that is deals damage in the time between skill casts (the global cooldown). There shouldn’t be skills back to back, always throw either a light or heavy attack between them. There also should never be two light attacks, two heavy attacks, or a consecutive light and heavy attack.

Try something like:
Buff, Heavy, DoT1, Heavy, DoT2, Heavy, DoT3, Heavy, repeat

As you get more comfortable you can start to replace some heavies with skills, and light attack whenever you end up with two or more skills in a row without a heavy.

For gear you’ll need a maelstrom staff to get the most out of Lightning heavy attacks. You should drop Necropotence, it has been nerfed several times over the years and is currently very weak. A set with Minor Slayer would also help, I hear many heavy attack builds like Infallible Aether, which drops from all 3 Craglorn trials on normal or veteran.

I don’t know what the rest of your build is, but generally heavy attack builds don’t need sustain. Make sure your weapons are enchanted with damage glyphs like Berserker or Flame, and your jewelry should be 3 spell damage glyphs (not recovery or cost reduction).

I doubt the OP is farming trial gear.

But to another of your points -- jewelry glyphs shouldn't be magicka recovery in a build like this.

Anyhow, I thought heavy attack builds normally included sets that buff heavy attacks or all basic attacks (note: The Maelstrom staff is an example of the latter), plus a source of Empower (commonly from the Mages Guild skill line, although templars obviously have a different option). And even then heavy attack damage was less than 50% of total damage done.

Idk if the OP has done any trials, but I know that any player can farm nAA or nHRC easily by joining groups in Craglorn. I’d say IA is a much easier set to obtain than the Undaunted ones everyone seems to recommend for heavy attack builds (personally I think they are very overrated). Minor Slayer is a pretty significant damage boost this patch, much better than it was with the old CP system.

NoMoreChillies

Rebiludo wrote: »

Actualy, the best build is zaan + IA + Noble Duelist + Vma inferno.
Volatil familiar, wall, dot, degen HA rune HA rune HA (repeat)
80k+ on iron atronach in live. Not tested in PTS with the weapon attack star CP.

If range, i just switch duelist to medusa

this

although IA can be a struggle to get and vMa inferno for newer players also.

maybe try:
Undaunted Ifiltrator
Undaunted Unweaver
Maw of Malfernal

easy to farm gear which would get you into trials (Infallable Aether) and veteran Maelstrom arena (vMa inferno)

Skyn

Hi,
I'm using undaunted infiltrator and noble duelist with a maelstrom inferno.
On a temp or a DK it's easy to get to 40k. I actually prefer the Templar as i can reach high dps with less effort 😉.
It's good on a sorc too but the others have easy access to empower, oh and I can't deny that zaan helps a lot.

In order I would farm unweaver first (bonus as you'll be farming medussa at the same time), then noble duelist. With those equipped maelstrom normal is easy.

I know some people are a bit sniffy about heavy attack builds but from there I've gone on to even higher dps by adding in more light attack weaving.

GreenHere

Not long ago there was a similar thread with some info in it that might interest you, @khaoticfury .

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/568401/magsorc-heavy-attack-dps-build-in-flames-update

I posted what I had goin on at the time, and it's pretty solid for the level of play you're looking into, I think. Other builds are stronger, and there's definite room for improvement on the stuff I laid out in that thread, but overall it spells out exactly what I did to make a "stupid-easy" build for some people's request. It's all fairly amateurish, BUT it'll nearly double the DPS you're working with now. Might be worth a gander!