Wizard's or Critical Riposte?

EF321

Hi,

I want to get new PvP body armor set for my Magsorc, and I want it to be on a more defensive side.
So far I am looking at two very similar sets, Wizard's riposte and Critical riposte. Critical riposte provides more crit protection and applies more crit debuffs to enemy, but wizard's give you some sustain and damage, which are very welcome. Critical can also be crafted in heavy, further boosting defensive capabilities, but then I will not have all the mag bonuses light armor provides.

So, which set should I get? And is impen still a trait to go, even for sets that provide crit resist?

Fennwitty

Neither of those are particularly good sets for survivability.

They do nothing until *after* you've been crit -- and you're probably dead by then.

Go for more +Armor/Defense or HP.

Impenetrable is still a good trait in my opinion. Makes it a lot easier to manage yourself in a fight if you reduce being crit.

EF321

Fennwitty wrote: »

Neither of those are particularly good sets for survivability.

They do nothing until *after* you've been crit -- and you're probably dead by then.

Go for more +Armor/Defense or HP.

Impenetrable is still a good trait in my opinion. Makes it a lot easier to manage yourself in a fight if you reduce being crit.

So, fortified brass it is? Or Almalexia's mercy?

gariondavey

Back bar armor master
Buffer of the swift
Much better choices

Firstmep

Armor master is pretty good for backbar on sorc, since you already use annulment, and extra hp on that bar can give slightly bigger shield too.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Neither TBH.

If you want defense on a mag sorc, stack well-fitted and max magic. Roll dodge and shields for days. One nice thing about Mag sorc is that Crafty Alfiq is both offensive and defensive set. I went 7 well-fitted a few patches ago and never looked back. Combine with the CP slottable Arcane Alacrity (roll dodge cost reduced if you have a shield active) and you will be amazed at how much you can roll dodge.

Roll dodge is the most powerful defensive tool in all of Cyrodill and there is no reason you need to be a stam build to take advantage of it. I was blown away at how much my survivability went up, and I can still effectively run two damage sets.

Or more acurately, a 5 piece (Crafty Alfiq, Max magic, both offense and defense), a 3 Piece (ancient grace, more max magic), a one piece monster (Domihaus,stam+magic), a one piece mythic, and either an arena weapon like vateshran staff (2 piece) or 2 pieces of trainee. In no proc land, you would run 2 trainee over the vateshran staff, and they mythic was either a second one piece monster piece or could used to complete a monster set (if you dont want a mythic when procs are enabled).

Obviously Malacath was nerfed (or at least changed), and it's probably a little early to know what the new meta will bring, but as long as Malacath is in play, impen is less than optimal. Not saying a few pieces arent useful, but the idea of 7 impen or GTFO of PVP has not been the case for a while.

Give a Roll Sorc a try, I promise you wont regret it. My experience with going very defensive on my mag sorc sets was that I had trouble getting kills.

EF321

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Neither TBH.

If you want defense on a mag sorc, stack well-fitted and max magic. Roll dodge and shields for days. One nice thing about Mag sorc is that Crafty Alfiq is both offensive and defensive set. I went 7 well-fitted a few patches ago and never looked back. Combine with the CP slottable Arcane Alacrity (roll dodge cost reduced if you have a shield active) and you will be amazed at how much you can roll dodge.

Roll dodge is the most powerful defensive tool in all of Cyrodill and there is no reason you need to be a stam build to take advantage of it. I was blown away at how much my survivability went up, and I can still effectively run two damage sets.

Or more acurately, a 5 piece (Crafty Alfiq, Max magic, both offense and defense), a 3 Piece (ancient grace, more max magic), a one piece monster (Domihaus,stam+magic), a one piece mythic, and either an arena weapon like vateshran staff (2 piece) or 2 pieces of trainee. In no proc land, you would run 2 trainee over the vateshran staff, and they mythic was either a second one piece monster piece or could used to complete a monster set (if you dont want a mythic when procs are enabled).

Obviously Malacath was nerfed (or at least changed), and it's probably a little early to know what the new meta will bring, but as long as Malacath is in play, impen is less than optimal. Not saying a few pieces arent useful, but the idea of 7 impen or GTFO of PVP has not been the case for a while.

Give a Roll Sorc a try, I promise you wont regret it. My experience with going very defensive on my mag sorc sets was that I had trouble getting kills.

Interesting. I already have Alifq on jewelry/weapons and Necropotence in divines on body. Just for the sake of not having duplicate sets in other pieces/traits, would Bright Throat's Boast in well-fitted be a good option?

And what mythic would you recommend?

Oreyn_Bearclaw

EF321 wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Neither TBH.

If you want defense on a mag sorc, stack well-fitted and max magic. Roll dodge and shields for days. One nice thing about Mag sorc is that Crafty Alfiq is both offensive and defensive set. I went 7 well-fitted a few patches ago and never looked back. Combine with the CP slottable Arcane Alacrity (roll dodge cost reduced if you have a shield active) and you will be amazed at how much you can roll dodge.

Roll dodge is the most powerful defensive tool in all of Cyrodill and there is no reason you need to be a stam build to take advantage of it. I was blown away at how much my survivability went up, and I can still effectively run two damage sets.

Or more acurately, a 5 piece (Crafty Alfiq, Max magic, both offense and defense), a 3 Piece (ancient grace, more max magic), a one piece monster (Domihaus,stam+magic), a one piece mythic, and either an arena weapon like vateshran staff (2 piece) or 2 pieces of trainee. In no proc land, you would run 2 trainee over the vateshran staff, and they mythic was either a second one piece monster piece or could used to complete a monster set (if you dont want a mythic when procs are enabled).

Obviously Malacath was nerfed (or at least changed), and it's probably a little early to know what the new meta will bring, but as long as Malacath is in play, impen is less than optimal. Not saying a few pieces arent useful, but the idea of 7 impen or GTFO of PVP has not been the case for a while.

Give a Roll Sorc a try, I promise you wont regret it. My experience with going very defensive on my mag sorc sets was that I had trouble getting kills.

Interesting. I already have Alifq on jewelry/weapons and Necropotence in divines on body. Just for the sake of not having duplicate sets in other pieces/traits, would Bright Throat's Boast in well-fitted be a good option?

And what mythic would you recommend?

So I don't run pets in PVP, so I dont use necro. Only exception is that I do carry a set of Necro and Imperial Physique for when I want to play in the sewers with crazy stats.

Bright Throats is a perfectly reasonable set choice, but honestly, I think it is overkill in sustain and limits you to Drink buffs. Its basically a little less max magic than Alfiq (approx 1600) for an additional 260 in recovery. Some might say that's a pretty good trade off.

My mag sorc is a Breton, that plus attro mundus and dark conversion are enough for my sustain needs. If you arent breton, you probably want at least one piece jewelry of sustain, but BTB would certainly cover that allowing you to go full spell damage on enchants. I really prefer to run tri stat food, on a roll sorc to keep my stamina high, so that means I dont get sustain from food, and it makes BTB a deal breaker for me. Since most drinks give regen buffs (probably going even more overkill on sustain), I would probably run the mage mundus if wearing BTB. You probably also want a few more tri-stat glyphs (I typically run 2-3) to get your stamina up.

If running BTB, I would probably put it on the body. I would get ancient grace for my weapons and one piece jewelry (3 pieces total). My other jewelry would be a mythic and 1 trainee. my 6th and 7th body piece would 1 piece domihaus, and another piece of trainee most likely or perhaps a completed monster set. Both Trainee and Ancient Grace are very stat dense sets if you need 2-3 pieces. You could certainly juggle those how you see fit. Trainee comes in literally everything you can imagine, all pieces and armor weights, which is nice, because it allows you to go 5/1/1 on armor, which I still prefer in PVP for the stats. AG is only weapons and jewelry.

All that said, I think Crafty is the better option than BTB if only because of the food restriction. I have 2 full gold sets, one well fitted, one impen if it makes you feel better about doubling up. Haha. In no CP, i do switch a few pieces from well-fitted to impen, so a few double pieces in different traits actually works out well. You do want it on the body for the most part due to the fact that ancient grace is only jewelry and weapons. You could run one piece of jewelry if you need.

In terms of mythics, honestly my favorite for open world is Ring of the Hunt and for BGs or small scale, I was running malacath. I am not sure Malacath is still the best choice after the change because I havent played any PVP this patch. Ring of the hunt is great for getting around Cyro for ticks, and I build so I am nearly at the speed cap in combat, which helps with kiting if 1vX or flat out getting out of a bad sitution if you are overwhelmed. Boundless for Major expedition+Sprint+ROTH+one Swift Trait+1 piece medium armor (40+30+15+7+3) puts you at 195/200 possible movement speed in combat, well over the cap if outside of combat.

Luckylancer

These sets are as good as impregnable BUT impregnable works on first critical damages. These sets take full damage from first hit (you wont die by then lol)

Why would you use these sets: you can 1 bar these (I suggest front bar), these sets help your teammates as well

My personel suggestion: pay your win fee and use gaze of sithis. Use many impen trait and wear heavy on your big body pieces. Use light gloves and belt.

exeeter702

Its important to understand that there are technically better mitigation sets for selfish 5pc options.

Wizards and critical reposte provide support to teammates in a sense in that you are debuff enemy players who hit you, assuming you can deter aggression, this is technically a net damage mitigation buff for your group, but even then there might be too many asterisks involved.

And back in morrowind when wizards riposte was added, an initial crit would get reduced via minor maim on the first proc iirc. I dont know if that has changed in recent updates and with the nerf to wizards reposte that made it harder to back bar, effecting its potential uptime, with general power creep, and malacath even post nerd, the set has fallen out of favor.

Swift and pariah are decent options. Armor master isnt bad assuming you are running annulment. However even in light of the sheild changes that have them benefit from resistances, I think as magsorc, you are better off stacking max magicka and leaning heavily into well fitted, and dodge roll. That plus damage shields and streak provide you enough lasting power.

YandereGirlfriend

I also view Wizard's Riposte as basically a group support set rather than a selfish defensive set.

Critical Riposte doesn't seem worth using for the 5-piece if you're fighting anyone with access to a purge.

Impregnable is definitely the best of the Critical Resistance sets for solo play.