Magicka Dragonknight Maelstrom Arena build

Etaniel · February 2016

Hey folks ! Seeing that the dk leaderboards for the arena still haven't reached 100 players in NA, and a lot of people are still having a hard time finishing it, I thought I'd share my setup ! Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G4kmcDTfrw

Feel free to ask questions if you feel I didn't cover enough, even give me advice if necessary !

Alagras · February 2016

This looks good, I just wonder one thing: where do you get your 20k health from?

I think I saw one healthy ring, + 6% undaunted passive from wearing 3 armour types and... + 8 % from Entropy I think.
With all points in magicka and 0 health enchant on gear, 20k seems high to me....no?

Where did I miss something?

Etaniel · February 2016

Alagras wrote: »

This looks good, I just wonder one thing: where do you get your 20k health from?

I think I saw one healthy ring, + 6% undaunted passive from wearing 3 armour types and... + 8 % from Entropy I think.
With all points in magicka and 0 health enchant on gear, 20k seems high to me....no?

Where did I miss something?

The only thing that I didn't mention is the hp + magicka blue food, but I'm guessing you took that into account no?

Joy_Division · February 2016

As one of those players with a 300+ score on the leaderboards, I would agree with most of the advice and reasoning you are giving to people who just have the goal in completing it.

As for why more of us on the NA server are not doing Maelstrom on our DK, it's probably because I had a more enjoyable and shorter time getting my root canal.

There are two aspects of your build that I would question.

1. You don't have any shields and your DPS skills does not heal you while you are doing damage. That's asking a lot. I'm guessing you have every melee spawn memorized and are on point in dropping eruption on them so that you are never overwhelmed. Speaking from my own experience, there were many times the only reason I did not die was because I cast draw essence every other skill. But obviously it can be done with pure DPS + no shields ... it's just difficult to imagine.

2. By far the most difficult encounter a dragonknight will face in on the final boss when the first Crematorium guard spawns. On my Sorcerer, it gets melted in 4 of 5 overload hits. On my templar, I can face tank it by puncturing sweeping it + the healer and the boss every time. On a Dragonknight ... you have no shield and your DPS skills do not heal you, how exactly are you killing it? Obviously you CAN and I believe you, but this is one of those things I think anyone who is looking for advice to finish the arena is going to have to be told or shown how to do.

But, as I said, I have a 300 score and the experience so traumatized me that I would rather eat broken glass than do the arena on a magicka DK when I have other more suitable classes to farm the gear I am looking for. So my questions stem from ignorance rather than as an authority or something.

Etaniel · February 2016

Joy_Division wrote: »

As one of those players with a 300+ score on the leaderboards, I would agree with most of the advice and reasoning you are giving to people who just have the goal in completing it.

As for why more of us on the NA server are not doing Maelstrom on our DK, it's probably because I had a more enjoyable and shorter time getting my root canal.

There are two aspects of your build that I would question.

1. You don't have any shields and your DPS skills does not heal you while you are doing damage. That's asking a lot. I'm guessing you have every melee spawn memorized and are on point in dropping eruption on them so that you are never overwhelmed. Speaking from my own experience, there were many times the only reason I did not die was because I cast draw essence every other skill. But obviously it can be done with pure DPS + no shields ... it's just difficult to imagine.

2. By far the most difficult encounter a dragonknight will face in on the final boss when the first Crematorium guard spawns. On my Sorcerer, it gets melted in 4 of 5 overload hits. On my templar, I can face tank it by puncturing sweeping it + the healer and the boss every time. On a Dragonknight ... you have no shield and your DPS skills do not heal you, how exactly are you killing it? Obviously you CAN and I believe you, but this is one of those things I think anyone who is looking for advice to finish the arena is going to have to be told or shown how to do.

But, as I said, I have a 300 score and the experience so traumatized me that I would rather eat broken glass than do the arena on a magicka DK when I have other more suitable classes to farm the gear I am looking for. So my questions stem from ignorance rather than as an authority or something.

I have a video on my channel with the last boss fight as dk.

I swap out mutagen for harness magicka for the last 2 stages. Dealing with the first crematorial guard on the boss fights requires an ultimate, or you're going to have a bad time.

The other ones, deal with adds first, and then refresh healing ward + harness after every fire breath and you're good to go.

Draw essence is a good skill, but in my experience it does too low damage, and it's not enough to outheal the incomming trash damage. Plus you have to go melee, and I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible

Alagras · February 2016

Etaniel wrote: »

The only thing that I didn't mention is the hp + magicka blue food, but I'm guessing you took that into account no?

hmm in fact you did mention it in the video, my bad. It still would expect 17-18k but looks like I'm wrong.

What you say about range > melee is interesting, I'm running magicka with a 1h and shield bar (several melee skills) and I find myself using the charge to close gaps and it ends up costing too much stam. I'll change for chains but if it doesn't work I'll remember your advice.

Thanks!