Magblade PvP: what are you running?

OWLTHEMAD

Came back to game a month ago, and looking forward to some pvp.

Lots has changed since i left and I no longer have a grasp on what sets are good and what aren't.

Interested In hearing about your builds in ANY kind of detail, and how you play yours.

spacefracking

Gear:
New moon acolyte
Pariah (or if I'm feeling like I'm somewhat on my game that day, plaguebreak)
Ring of the wild hunt
1 piece magma incarnate
2x heavy, 5x light
Sharpened frontbar, powered backbar

Enchants:
7x health enchants
3x spell damage enchant
Weapon/spell damage front bar
Backbar, idk, absorb mag? Doesn't really matter

Champion points:
Fitness: 1400 health, slippery, +10% speed, Regen
Pew pew pew: +10% direct damage, +10% single target damage, +10% crit damage, -10% single or direct damage

Abilities (the most important part imo):

Front bar:
Shadowy disguise
Mirage
Concealed weapon
Swallow soul
Merciless resolve
Soul harvest

Back bar:
Piercing/reaper's mark
Crippling grasp
Race against time
Rapid regeneration
Healthy offering
Soul tether

Other:
Atronach mundus
Stage 3 vamp
Clockwork citrus filet or bewitched sugar skulls (maybe witchmother's if you don't have that fish money)
Spell power/crit/mag regen pots
Panache

Prebuff mirage and merciless resolve
Burst: swallow/concealed/soul harvest
Debuff if they're annoying: crippling grasp reaper's mark
If there's more than one or they're really annoying: soul harvest
To not die: healthy offering, always keep swallow soul ticking, rapid regen

Good luck

fred4

You've probably seen me around. I've been a melee magblade since Forward Momentum was the only snare removal. I've been running Caluurion since it came out. Nowadays Caluurion is meta for stamblades. <Sigh>. One of the main changes last November was the complete hybridisation of weapon / spell damage and crit on armor sets as well as the hybridisation of light and medium armor passives.

The build I like to run is the following:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=401286

More on what's actually effective below.

I play a lot in IC. This build is equally adept at boss farming from range, whereas PvP mostly happens on the melee bar. I have previously described the ins and outs of it here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/578324/imperial-city-melee-magblade-build

The main change has come from the introduction of a burst heal (Healthy Offering) for magblades, allowing me to up my ranged attack power by switching from resto to destro. The heal is quite strong. I have no HOTs outside of Swallow Soul, but block-spamming Healthy Offering works surprisingly well at times, albeit with the big caveat that you're neither moving nor cloaking while doing it.

The build is a true hybrid in terms of the bar setup and game play. There is no front / back bar. There is a melee and a ranged bar. Both are used. Alas it is still a weak build. TTK is still long compared to stamblades and, perhaps, some other magblades. I'd better not attack tankier or simply well-played targets, although I try.

As a melee player, my playstyle has arguably been that of a stamblade in many ways. I've invested into stamina regen via double-regen drinks for a long time, so I have some dodge roll sustain. On the other hand I've been married to perma-cloaking. Please see my other post as to why I value it so much. It's fair to say that most people don't or, perhaps, they don't appreciate what they're missing in a place like IC. I like the freedom of movement while remaining hidden from players, NPCs and flag guards (!) alike. You can do it on a stamblade, but you have to be more circumspect.

Since cloaking freely is so ingrained into my playstyle, I've been finding it exceedingly hard to transition to stamblade, even with Darloc Brae on the back bar. You can use that set with vamp and it works, but it's such a pain. When you mix cloak and crouch, the game gives you no indication that you are crouching. You don't know what will happen when you stop cloaking and you only have some faint Darloc Brae sparkles to go on that sometimes show and sometimes don't or are very hard to see. If that set had a more pronounced - even annoying - visual effect, like Transmutation, that might go a long way to making Darloc Brae more useable.

But wait! We now have greater hybridisation support, right? Here's the build that my magblade has sadly been reduced to, if I want to be more effective at PvP:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=412307

Is that still a magblade? Well, yeah. It plays like a melee magblade in terms of cloak sustain. It's also a light armor build, so if you value that squishy feel, you got it . It's a little slower and might want to use Shadow Image. It's still subject to change, but it works.

Why does it work? I can tell you, empirically from duels, that it does. Stam hits harder, even in light armor. ZOS never managed to fix that and I continue at failing to completely wrap my head around it. I can only speculate. The Sundered status effect from Surprise Attack. The lower physical resistance of light armor / Breton / templar targets. The light armor physical damage penalty. The - ahem - Vateshran proc. Yeah, that works. The Vateshran proc carries over to the dual wield bar, so your non-gank burst is:

Heavy Attack (+ Vateshran proc) -> Incap Strike -> Light attack -> Surprise Attack or Assassin's Scourge (+ Caluurion)

Perhaps the major difference is that dual-wield execute, though. I can't count the number of times I've failed to secure a kill due to a nearly dead target dodge rolling. Whirling Blades fixes that.

You lose solo IC boss farming with this build. It's not just because of Swallow Soul safer ranged / healing gameplay, but because of stam sustain issues. My magblade has, therefore, reverted back to her old build, while I have transplanted the DW / 2H build onto my Bosmer stamblade, switching the Serpent to the Atro mundus for her. <Sigh>

OWLTHEMAD

I've been thinking about going back to an old setup based on torus pact with masters inferno. Thought I'd experiment with pairing it with heartland conqueror back bar damage enchant and front bar either flame or magicka drain.

Toss bow proc and lotus fan in the mix. Mag reco on jewelry maybe protective trait.

Used to have fun with it though it might be nice to bring back. Not sure about the knock back on destructive touch though.

Stx

Stuhn's front bar flame staff, robes of the hist body, 2x trainee resto staff on backbar, balorgs monster set

ArgonianAustin

fred4 wrote: »

You've probably seen me around. I've been a melee magblade since Forward Momentum was the only snare removal. I've been running Caluurion since it came out. Nowadays Caluurion is meta for stamblades. <Sigh>. One of the main changes last November was the complete hybridisation of weapon / spell damage and crit on armor sets as well as the hybridisation of light and medium armor passives.

The build I like to run is the following:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=401286

More on what's actually effective below.

I play a lot in IC. This build is equally adept at boss farming from range, whereas PvP mostly happens on the melee bar. I have previously described the ins and outs of it here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/578324/imperial-city-melee-magblade-build

The main change has come from the introduction of a burst heal (Healthy Offering) for magblades, allowing me to up my ranged attack power by switching from resto to destro. The heal is quite strong. I have no HOTs outside of Swallow Soul, but block-spamming Healthy Offering works surprisingly well at times, albeit with the big caveat that you're neither moving nor cloaking while doing it.

The build is a true hybrid in terms of the bar setup and game play. There is no front / back bar. There is a melee and a ranged bar. Both are used. Alas it is still a weak build. TTK is still long compared to stamblades and, perhaps, some other magblades. I'd better not attack tankier or simply well-played targets, although I try.

As a melee player, my playstyle has arguably been that of a stamblade in many ways. I've invested into stamina regen via double-regen drinks for a long time, so I have some dodge roll sustain. On the other hand I've been married to perma-cloaking. Please see my other post as to why I value it so much. It's fair to say that most people don't or, perhaps, they don't appreciate what they're missing in a place like IC. I like the freedom of movement while remaining hidden from players, NPCs and flag guards (!) alike. You can do it on a stamblade, but you have to be more circumspect.

Since cloaking freely is so ingrained into my playstyle, I've been finding it exceedingly hard to transition to stamblade, even with Darloc Brae on the back bar. You can use that set with vamp and it works, but it's such a pain. When you mix cloak and crouch, the game gives you no indication that you are crouching. You don't know what will happen when you stop cloaking and you only have some faint Darloc Brae sparkles to go on that sometimes show and sometimes don't or are very hard to see. If that set had a more pronounced - even annoying - visual effect, like Transmutation, that might go a long way to making Darloc Brae more useable.

But wait! We now have greater hybridisation support, right? Here's the build that my magblade has sadly been reduced to, if I want to be more effective at PvP:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=412307

Is that still a magblade? Well, yeah. It plays like a melee magblade in terms of cloak sustain. It's also a light armor build, so if you value that squishy feel, you got it . It's a little slower and might want to use Shadow Image. It's still subject to change, but it works.

Why does it work? I can tell you, empirically from duels, that it does. Stam hits harder, even in light armor. ZOS never managed to fix that and I continue at failing to completely wrap my head around it. I can only speculate. The Sundered status effect from Surprise Attack. The lower physical resistance of light armor / Breton / templar targets. The light armor physical damage penalty. The - ahem - Vateshran proc. Yeah, that works. The Vateshran proc carries over to the dual wield bar, so your non-gank burst is:

Heavy Attack (+ Vateshran proc) -> Incap Strike -> Light attack -> Surprise Attack or Assassin's Scourge (+ Caluurion)

Perhaps the major difference is that dual-wield execute, though. I can't count the number of times I've failed to secure a kill due to a nearly dead target dodge rolling. Whirling Blades fixes that.

You lose solo IC boss farming with this build. It's not just because of Swallow Soul safer ranged / healing gameplay, but because of stam sustain issues. My magblade has, therefore, reverted back to her old build, while I have transplanted the DW / 2H build onto my Bosmer stamblade, switching the Serpent to the Atro mundus for her. <Sigh>

I like the way you think playing nb, the same thinking me and my brother share about cloaking. The darloc struggle is real about wondering if its on or not. Been using it for a long time and really love it on my stamblade, weve been using the torc mythic though as long as i can think and i just cant ever get rid off it. I love recovery and i was running the recovery drink you use too but since health went up, i had to drop it and increase my health for pvp.

Ididuz

This is the best bg build what I have. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=293721

ArgonianAustin

Ididuz wrote: »

This is the best bg build what I have. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=293721

would wretched vitality be better though? Instead of eternal vigor.

fred4

ArgonianAustin wrote: »

Ididuz wrote: »

This is the best bg build what I have. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=293721

would wretched vitality be better though? Instead of eternal vigor.

IMO, yes. It can be back barred and Mirage will fully proc it. That leaves room for 1x Trainee and a mythic while front-barring Sorrow or keeping full Sorrow and front barring something like a Master's Inferno.

Ididuz

I thought this set procs when using abilities on the target, not on self. For example, Elemental Drain.

Ididuz

Since I have the main edition and do not have access to mythic things, with two sets on different panels, I used the following build. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=293721

ArgonianAustin

Ididuz wrote: »

I thought this set procs when using abilities on the target, not on self. For example, Elemental Drain.

wretched vitality proc on self buffs too. I wear it on my stamblade and proc it with race against time.

Ididuz

Then I will definitely try this set.

exeeter702

ArgonianAustin wrote: »

Ididuz wrote: »

I thought this set procs when using abilities on the target, not on self. For example, Elemental Drain.

wretched vitality proc on self buffs too. I wear it on my stamblade and proc it with race against time.

Does it proc off of shadow barrier passive?

EDIT: nvm, just tested it and it does.