Perfected B&S from vDSA good for necro when farming TV in IC?

subarctic · January 2023

The perfected B&S has healing taken bonuses, so will that have any useful function as a backbar set to protect my toon against gankers in IC when farming TV? Or should I use another B&S set? Need B&S ulti, because it helps against Soul Strike that hits hard and neutralizes invisibility for 3 seconds.

Dr_Con · January 2023

The perfected sword and board has makes it so your pierce ability gives healing and resists for the amount of healing or overhealing done. The 4% healing taken stat is equivalent to half of minor vitality and is negligible.

Soulstrike is negated by breaking line of sight with the caster.

Lephrel · January 2023

You are using vampire sprint invisibility on a necro or invis potions? That is interesting to say the least. ^^
But I feel like if you are too squishy to deal with a soul assault on necro with 1hs, you may wanna build your necro a bit tankier. Both invis pots and stage 4 vamp come with huge drawbacks, but if you're having fun, don't let me stop you. ^^

Generally speaking, the 1hs from vDSA isn't the best for pvp. Remember, both your healing and damage are decreased in pvp. So the set bonus from vDSA 1hs is nerfed twice over.
There are tons of other defensive options out there, however. Mara's is a no brainer, sets like rally and daedric trickery also give some nice defense...the options are endless.

subarctic · January 2023

Tired of playing NB, so enjoy sneaking around as a necro vamp, level 1, since vamp fits the class, but I get wrecked if discovered. Have tried to run away, but get killed within seconds by players who hit hard, even though I have 1400 cp. Retreating manouver, caldrops, vigor, expunge and even invisibility potion have not been enough to get away. Nice if anyone has more advice on how to survive being hunted by gankers when carrying 5000 TV in the tunnels under IC. Best monster set for example?

For convenience I want to use front bar for offensive skills when farming TV and backbar for skills that make defense and escape easier.

ZOS_Icy · January 2023

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fred4 · January 2023

subarctic wrote: »

Tired of playing NB, so enjoy sneaking around as a necro vamp, level 1, since vamp fits the class, but I get wrecked if discovered. Have tried to run away, but get killed within seconds by players who hit hard, even though I have 1400 cp. Retreating manouver, caldrops, vigor, expunge and even invisibility potion have not been enough to get away. Nice if anyone has more advice on how to survive being hunted by gankers when carrying 5000 TV in the tunnels under IC. Best monster set for example?

Zoal plus Slippery CP, hands down. Won't save you from all types of ganks and you will still need to gather general PvP experience. No way around that. Zoal is extremely annoying to most melee gankers, though, and has saved my bacon countless times.

For convenience I want to use front bar for offensive skills when farming TV and backbar for skills that make defense and escape easier.

That's normal. Generally best to set up PvP builds that way.

You may not get away from a tryhard ganker, but here are some tips:

On PC, get Miat's PvP Alerts addon. It makes a sound when you get attacked out of nowhere. Whether it's from behind or with some skill that makes little noise, doesn't matter. Miat's always warns you with the same sound. Your reaction should be to block or dodge roll (or both).
I've always found 1H+S the tankiest backbar option. The Master's 1H+S, though, is more a PvE weapon, unless you want to play an outright (troll) tank, in which case you might use it (on a DK with Cinder Storm and very low block / skill costs). Pay attention to your block cost. 1H+S in medium armor gets you to around 1.2K, I think. That tends to be OK, but if you're using Rallying Cry to cover the crit resistance, I would go so far as wearing some or all Sturdy gear on top.
Tankiest / universal PvP gear setup I run: Rallying Cry + Mara. Mara both bars. Rallying Cry only on one bar is OK.
You might slot Radiant Magelight for gank protection. Not sure exactly what that does anymore, since I rarely use it, but you might look that up.
You might use Sea Serpent's Coil (mythic).
Always have detection potions on your quickslot bar, to be used after NB attacked and while you see the NB, so you might hunt them. Using these potions speculatively is usually a waste, though.
Queue for a Cyro campaign to get out of IC and save Tel Var from anywhere.
Have 35K health, maybe even 40K. It's a turnoff for nightblades. You get ganked less. I'm not kidding. High health doesn't necessarily mean you're tanky. You could be high health / low resistance / high weapon / spell damage for a rounded build. All the NB sees is the high health, which makes them think you're probably a tank or that they can't kill you one way or the other. So they won't even try.
A set I've used in the past is Juggernaut. The heal from it has been nerfed, but it's still half-decent. If you're unlucky, though, a nightblade can hit you to just above the proc threshold, then kill you in the next GCD. The set also procs randomly for no reason sometimes (incurring a long cooldown), especially from IC NPC flag guards. Another set in the same vein is Meridia's Blessed Armor. The problem with those sets are the cooldowns. They solve your immediate problem, but if you are not experienced in subsequently duelling a nightblade, that's only a temporary reprieve.
Fred's DK special option: Back bar Steadfast's Mettle (overland set), all medium armor, all Sturdy, possibly some block cost reduction. I've had block cost as low as 400 with this and, as a DK, you can spam Cinder Storm to get back 1K stamina per second. This allows you to lock down and tank players completely, at least on DK. You can't really be killed, unless you get CCd and focused by more than one good player. I was experimenting with this, because medium armor has the damage, but also the block cost reduction. You are not an actual tank. In fact you are possibly quite squishy when not blocking, but you can sit on your back bar and go into full lockdown, if you so choose, because blocking costs so little stamina. It's not something I plan to continue myself, because outright tanking just tends to attract more players until you die. In the sewers against a single nightblade it may put them off, though. I'd look for an addon that can quickly queue you for Cyro, while you sit there blocking maybe. Not sure such an addon exists, though.

fred4 · January 2023

subarctic wrote: »

Tired of playing NB, so enjoy sneaking around as a necro vamp, level 1, since vamp fits the class, but I get wrecked if discovered. Have tried to run away, but get killed within seconds by players who hit hard, even though I have 1400 cp. Retreating manouver, caldrops, vigor, expunge and even invisibility potion have not been enough to get away. Nice if anyone has more advice on how to survive being hunted by gankers when carrying 5000 TV in the tunnels under IC. Best monster set for example?

For convenience I want to use front bar for offensive skills when farming TV and backbar for skills that make defense and escape easier.

Actually, since you're a vamp, one way to annoy the crap out of all attackers is with a high-sustain Mistform build. It's something I've never done myself so I don't know how to properly build for that, but I believe it's still viable.