The build MUST BE BASED OFF A BRETON is the only prerequisite.

GeorgeBlack wrote: »

Proxy Lotus fan tether sap essence VD

Weapons? Armor?

Try to stick to set armor (Craftable) so when newer players try this build they have access.
Thanks for the comment!

Clever alchemist viscous death. You can have 4 CA on the body and a CA resto staff on the back bar. Then 3 VD on the body and 2 VD swords. Use 3 willpower jewelry with spell damage enchants. Swap to your back bar, use a potion, then swap back to your front bar and you'll keep the spell power buff.

Use spell power potions.

Play style is to stay in stealth, cast proxy det, count to five, drink a potion, bar swap to front bar, then lotus fan, soul tether, then swallow soul or sap essence to clean up whoever doesn't survive. Basically, you want to time soul tether and proxy det to go off at the same time. Then cloak up and wait for your next victims.

This play style can burst down 6-10 people at a time.

Autolycus wrote: »

You can use my Breton magblade as a base for your new build. I run 5 Julianos, 2 Molag Kena, 3 Willpower, and the weapons are a vMA destro and a resto (any resto will work, I just use a gold resto as a placeholder because it really doesn't matter in this build). Dual swords are an option too, but you lose the ability to cast healing ward for those "oh snap" scenarios. Using Orzorga's food for max health and tri-recovery.

Bar 1: Fear, Crippling Grasp, Swallow Soul, Impale, Merciless Resolve. Ult: Soul Harvest
Bar 2: Double Take, Sap, Concealed Weapon, Healing Ward, Agony. Ult: DB of Smiting (changing with DB)

This is not your typical magblade gank setup. This build has high sustain (even without the use of siphoning attacks, and with kena proc'd during the vast majority of encounters. It works very well in small- and large-scale pvp. As long as your buffs remain active, you can be targeted by 8 people at once and still self-sustain. With a healer, it's quite difficult to bring this build down.

Note also that there are no damage shields and there is no use of cloak whatsoever in this build. It is purely an "in-your-face" duelist style magblade. Timing is crucial to avoid certain attacks. For example, anticipating a gap close and dodge rolling through your enemy to end up behind them, and then countering immediately with Agony or Cripple, sets you up with a very solid start to the encounter. Orzorga's goes a very long way towards allowing you to dodge roll every time you need to. There is such a thing as dodging too much, so keep that in mind. A great many things are best to just be healed through via Swallow Soul damage.

CP allocation is almost identical to your typical meta allocation, but with a few exceptions. A handful of points into Blessed and Quick Recovery afford you more self-healing potential, at the expense of a couple % to DoT effects. As a Breton, it is unnecessary to put any (or many, your choice) points into Elemental Defender. I choose to overweight Hardy and Thick Skinned instead.

Disclaimer: I make no claims that this is the "ultimate" NB setup for pvp. This is simply what works for me, what I enjoy best, and is not your "typical" magblade setup.

No cloak or ward? Oh my... I really hope you like to dodge roll lol!

Well, I do use healing ward, so there's that. I don't find myself spamming it a lot, but it's a damage shield nonetheless. It gets a decent boost from points in Blessed and Quick Recovery, but I don't invest in Bastion.

The beautiful thing about this build is the high damage potential, coupled with the damage-based healing. In most cases, offense is the best defense for this setup. I designed it around the premise that an "unrelenting" assault keeps the enemy on their toes, or in best-case scenarios keeps them on the defensive, in which case it's a matter of who can outlast the other.

When used properly, this build can be very effective against shield stackers, as the constant pressure of DoTs and Swallow Soul weaves applies constant and heavy pressure to damage shields. While most of it can still be mitigated by a player who is good at shield stacking, it leaves very little room for offense, because most of the sorc's time is dedicated to reapplying shields. Keeping them on the defensive keeps the battle in your control, meaning you can more easily spot an opening to secure a win. The only thing that becomes particularly worrisome from a sorc is Overload, where dodging one or two is required, and the rest can be healed through simply by using Swallow Soul. It is good practice with this build to pay close attention to your opponent. If you see their shields drop to lower thresholds, tossing Agony (I prefer Prolonged Suffering for the single target DoT) on them is often enough to set up a winning combo.

Stam melee find this build particularly frustrating at times. The typical mentality when a stam build sees me is "hey look, a squishy magblade in all cloth, lemme get up there and smash his face!" Almost every time I get crit rushed or spambushed, a quick sap + concealed weapon + DB of smiting typically kills those players outright before they can recognize I'm not as squishy as they think. It makes me sad that DB of smiting is going to suck for mag builds in DB.

@J011Y_R063R shades can be used in this setup as well, if you're interested. I sometimes switch out agony for it. I would suggest that shades are more useful in open terrain, where you have things like rocks, trees, and shallow cliffs to line-of-sight your opponents. It's not a very good option for dueling or for IC sewers/districts, where using something like Agony could easily win you the fight without having to dance around.

Resipsa131 wrote: »

@AverageJo3Gam3r Do you keep the bonus of Clever Alchemist if you use it on the back bar 5 piece and then switch to Front bar that only has 3 pieces of it? That's pretty cool I did not know that

The Clever Alchemist set gives you a buff when you drink a potion. So you can use it on the back bar as long as you remember to switch to it whenever you drink a potion.

@Autolycus I tried your build and I liked it the burtsy damage was super cool and I enjoyed the 1v1 damage there. My only issue with it, there was no invis involved. I have become too accustomed to invis and I cannot play without it now lol.

I have been using an interesting build for the arena and campaign referred to as a Zerg bomber. I am digging it! I pop in blow up and shade out HAHA Its been really fun! And by using a mix of Double take and concealed weapon, because this is a newer character I have been able to outrun my horse while completely invisible. At higher levels and with the right set bonuses I hear you can ultimately maintain this permanently. So very little cost with SERIOUS movement speed while completely invisible!

As far as my Zerg bomb build goes; first things first PROXIMITY DETONATION!! (Morph of magicka detonation in the assault tree)After that by using relentless focus (Morph of grim focus) for extra damage and stamina regin (YAY DODGE ROLL!!) Then activate siphoning attacks (morph of siphon strikes) for even more stamina and some magicka regin (YAY EVEN MORE DODGE ROLL!!!) Now this is where it gets tricky, try to maintain your invisibility with Shadowy Disguise or Dark Cloak (Morphs of Shadow cloak) when the det is ALMOST ready, I hit my ultimate Soul Tether (Morph of soul shred) and spam Sap Essence (morph of drain power). Soul tether stuns and sap essence drains all the people within a 8 meter radius of their health and gives it to you. after that you should just be cleaning up the stragglers that accidentally survived that brutal onslaught with basic melee attacks, Lotus Fan (morph of teleport strike) and Concealed weapon (Morph of Veiled strike).

It is a super fun way to wipe a team of 6-10 out and laugh hysterically as they try to survive. The damage done here can easily be increased by a ridiculous amount with the Viscous Death set, but I am using it with Julianos and Magnus and it is working well. Some other abilities I use include the Shadow Image (Morph of Summon Shade) Mass Hysteria (Morph of Aspect of Terror for the cleanup stage of the Zerg bomb) and Healing Ward (Morph of Steadfast Ward in the resto staff skill tree). Putting on the Healing ward before jumping into the Zerg (Large group of enemies) and popping your detonation combo is a good idea I just always forget to

If you guys have any ideas on this specific build (sorry @Autolycus im in love haha) let me know and I will try em out! Hopefully there isn't too much to improve upon here but I am willing to try some new things!

J011Y_R063R wrote: »

I have changed it up a little because the movement speed was hindering my DPS so now when I need it I use the above build for serious movement speed and fast guerrilla warfare type ganking. When I am the only person there however and I need more ganking power I switch my concealed weapon, and Summon Shade for Impale (Morph of assassins blade), Swallow Soul (Morph of Strife). Swallow Soul with Relentless Focus and Siphoning Attacks, sets me up for a long fight of dodge rolling and general maneuverability that you would need in a 1v1 or no place to hide scenario. While on the other hand, I can use my Lotus Fan, stealth, Sap Essence and Impale for more of a 1vX scenario.

Let me know what you guys think. I am always looking for more bang for my buck.

The more you play around with the build, the closer you come to the setup I originally gave you :P

I read your notes regarding the use of cloak, and I saw all the "developments" as your build has changed from post to post. All of the things you describe are things which I have considered at one point or another. I too also ran a movement build like you described, with infinitely sustainable, faster-than-horse, invisible running. And, like you, I gave that build up for something less versatile and more competitive.

For awhile I used cloak only in Cyrodiil, and I utilized the build I gave you for small-scale pvp (like in IC districts, and let's be honest this isn't always "small"). Eventually I became more and more comfortable without the use of cloak, and now I don't run it at all. I even duel without cloak. If you want, I can tell you how to turn the tide against every class and virtually every build, because at the end of the day, the trick is knowing your opponent and being quicker and hitting harder. You must anticipate their moves and have an answer for them. Cloak is not an answer to that; rather, it's an "oh no I don't know what to do so I must hide" button.

For me, I offload everything I possibly can to potions and gear when it comes to buffs and sustain. I get Major Sorcery, Intellect, and Prophecy from potions. I utilize Orzorga's Bear Haunches for the added health and recoveries. Between the two, I don't have to use Siphoning Attacks, so it's not on my pvp build either. I also don't run magelight in pvp. Keep in mind that this is with Kena active 100% of combat. Yes, this build can sustain Kena without Siphoning Attacks.

People will tell you now and forever that you are a moron for not running magelight, because extra magicka = extra damage. It's a totally valid point, but the fact is that it simply isn't applicable to this build. I've been developing and testing this build for a long time, and I can guarantee if you use this build properly, you won't need it. The burst damage on this setup is extremely high. I've killed people with the initial DoT tick of Agony with this setup, and I've hit 14k Swallow Soul crits. Damage potential is not lacking, and since you're getting your Prophecy from potions, there are other options you can put on your bar that make you more competitive.

But, as always, there are limitations to this build. If you plan on busting a group of 8 players in 2s, you're going to need more burst than what this build provides. But if you want to go literally anywhere in Cyrodiil or IC and be a formidable opponent, even when you are not the one to initiate the fight (which is key for NBs, who usually are the ones to initiate), then this build will work for you.

I havent posted in a while so here it is!

I am still using my high DPS build as stated in the last change for PVP 1vX scenarios. That being said I use @Autolycus build (High Sustain) for dueling and for the Veteran Malestrom Arena (vMA). These skills give me a lot of utility and a lot of sustainable damage.

For any questions shoot me a message or post on here I will answer what I can. I am still getting used to the vMA build so those questions may be better addressed to @Autolycus .

That being said some of these things may change when Dark Brotherhood (DB) hits so stay tuned. If anyone wants to post something they think is working out pretty well for them im all ears. So far Autolycus and @AverageJo3Gam3r are WINNING lol.

Thanks for the posts and keep em coming!