What is a good solid magicka nightblade setup to run VMA with?

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · August 2016

Hey, Seeking some helpful advice.

I'll be truthful I have a bomber nightblade who's a Lieutenant in Cyro but has barely stepped foot in PVE. They've been retired for a while and I was thinking of doing VMA.

Anyone know solid setup?
Armour, skills, weapons, mundus?

I received a vma Inferno sharpened Destro staff in leaderboard reward yesterday. Rather than let it go to waste I figure I use it on nightblade.

Thanks.

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · August 2016

I was thinking:
Destro/resto
Nirienth (another set I have and never used)
Julianos
Willpower

Mundus thief?
The sustain would be bad though.

Note I don't wanna consume expensive pots so if have to run entropy or sap essence for spell power. Also have to use inner light. I'd use basic magicka trash pots with tri food.

My mages guild is level 3 lol.

heystreethawk · August 2016

Wrecking_Blow_Spam wrote: »

I was thinking:
Destro/resto
Nirienth (another set I have and never used)
Julianos
Willpower

Mundus thief?
The sustain would be bad though.

Note I don't wanna consume expensive pots so if have to run entropy or sap essence for spell power. Also have to use inner light. I'd use basic magicka trash pots with tri food.

My mages guild is level 3 lol.

Yup, that's a solid setup. Get that mage's guild up for meteor, and run soul harvest on your other bar to rack up the ult. After you get used to the mechanics, you might be able to drop resto for dw, using swallow soul and refreshing path for heals. Use harness magicka + siphoning attacks and you won't have trouble with sustain. I know you don't want to use the pots, but they're a game changer.

edit: I swear that you will have a much better time with the pots, but go for entropy over sap essence if you have to go potless. You've got excellent ranged dps as a magicka nb, and this won't be a trash mob aoe fest like regular dungeons, you'll want a ranged single target approach. Sap will slow you down.

Bakven · August 2016

1. Try asking on the dungeon part of the forums
2. I'd go with twice born star and use the thief and shadow mundus
3. Double bar Mage light for extra magicka on both bars
4. Check out some magicka night blade vMSA builds on YouTube for more ideas

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · August 2016

Ok thanks for info the info.

Mac10murda · August 2016

I use 5 tbs 1 kena and torugs hand and staff , with thief and shadow mundus , would this be better if I switched to 5 julianos ?

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · August 2016

^^
I'm not sure hence my questions. Hopefully someone can enlighten us.

MrTarkanian48 · August 2016

@Wrecking_Blow_Spam

You have the right idea on your setup.

I have taken a break from vMA for awhile since I have all but one of the weapons (sharpened inferno, congrats on the drop) that I would like, but when I was farming it I ran it on a high elf NB.

When I was running it I used 5 Julianos (TBS may be preferred now, but I had gold julianos already and did not want to spend the mats), 2 Neriene'eth (All divines), 3 Willpower (All Arcane with SD Enchant), Maelstrom Destro (Sharpened Frost), Maelstrom Resto (Precise). If you dont have a Maelstrom Resto, just use a precise/sharpened/nirnhoned non set piece.

If you run Julianos use the thief. If TBS use Thief/Shadow

Front bar:
Inner Light
Funnel health/swallow soul
Merciless Resolve
Crippling Grasp
Impale
Ulti: Soul Harvest (Don't use this ulti, just slot for +10 ulti on each kill which means you can charge more Ice Comets faster)

Back Bar:
Inner Light (Or refreshing path for more heals)
Rapid Regen
Siphoning Attacks
Sap Essence
Entropy (Proxy if using pots)
Ulti: Ice Comet. (Swap to Veil of Blades on some rounds if more mitigation is needed)

Keep Merciless up, and weave LA and Funnel to proc the hard hitting spectral bow.

Keep Crippling grasp up for speed and solid dot damage

Keep Siphoning attacks up and you will have no resource issues even with low regen. Funnel health is cheap, and you restore alot of resources with the destro weave.

You can swap soul harvest to your AoE bar to pull more ulti on AoE situations, but this seemed to work for me better since I feel like I am getting more kills on the destro bar. Try both ways and see what works for you.

@Sharmony has a youtube channel, and has a similar setup with some tweaks. Check out his build videos.

This may not be the absolute optimal setup. This works for me, but you can tweak things to your liking. Just be sure to slot Inner Light, double bar if possible. Also have a siphoning skill on each bar for the 8% Magicka passive. I am pretty sure the guys topping the leaderboard are running DW/Destro and just nuking the arena. But you need to be a fairly advance player to pull this off. This setup has got me through the arena dozens of times, and back then I was making the leaderboard on each run.

Shader_Shibes · August 2016

5x Twice Born Star, 2 Nerien'eth, 3 Infallible Aether jewelry. Generic sharpened inferno staff if you don't have vma inferno. If you don't have Nerien'eth you can use Torugs head/shoulder + Torug staff.

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · August 2016

@MrTarkanian48 some very helpful info. I have another question. Do you think valkyn skoria would be better than Nirienth?
Not using force pulse which helps proc Nirienth more.

Also on your destro bar why no Wall of elements? I thought with a maelstrom destro you'd use that.

MrTarkanian48 · August 2016

Wrecking_Blow_Spam wrote: »

@MrTarkanian48 some very helpful info. I have another question. Do you think valkyn skoria would be better than Nirienth?
Not using force pulse which helps proc Nirienth more.

Also on your destro bar why no Wall of elements? I thought with a maelstrom destro you'd use that.

IMO and from what I have heard is that Nerien'eth outperforms Skoria on Mag NB since you don't have as many dots as a DK or Templar (less opportunites to proc), but you do have a lot of instant damage skills going constantly. Since you are constantly weaving LA and funnel, with merciless resolve. All these things can proc Nerieneth, but wont proc skoria. The only real dots you have are cripple, Meteor, and Blockade of Elements (if you choose to run it).

Force Pulse is higher dps and increases proc chance for Nerien'eth. It comes with some drawbacks though. It is about double the magicka cost, and it doesn't provide a heal. With siphoning attacks up I can spam the funnel weave and my magicka bar doesn't move. The only times I ever dip low is when I need to spam sap essence, but this is rare. Also the combo of rapid regen and funnel health keeps a lot of hots ticking and keeps your health topped off. If you are running in a group content I go DW/destro, and will run force pulse for max damage. But for vMA I opt for Funnel Health. Swallow Soul would be even better, but I would often run group content as well, so was to lazy/cheap to respec everytime. If you try FP and feel like you are still survivable and not having resource management issues, by all means go for it.

I personally don't use blockade, but I know many people do. If you find it works for you Id recommend it. The real problem for me is lack of bar space. You can lose entropy if you run spell pots, and slot blockade. I usually would run entropy since my goal was just to make the leaderboard and not necessarily compete for the top spot. Or just get major sorcery from sap, but that requires you to be in melee range which isn't always preferred or possible. When you are farming for vMA weapons and doing a lot of runs, burning spell power pots can get expensive. I just seem to find the other abilities more important to me for the way I run it. Now that I think about it I think I dropped inner light on resto bar to slot healing ward for emergency situations. The point is bar space is tight so you need to figure out what you can and can't live without.

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · August 2016

@MrTarkanian48 thanks for the helpful info.

I'm just farming weapons, getting leaderboards so I don't wanna blow loads of gold on pots. I'm not interested in best scores etc atm so long as I'm on leaderboards.

Thanks for the info regarding Nirienth and Skoria. What do you think of maybe 1 piece Molag and 1 health piece? Or is it best to just go Nirienth over a little bit of spell dmg.

MrTarkanian48 · August 2016

Wrecking_Blow_Spam wrote: »

@MrTarkanian48 thanks for the helpful info.

I'm just farming weapons, getting leaderboards so I don't wanna blow loads of gold on pots. I'm not interested in best scores etc atm so long as I'm on leaderboards.

Thanks for the info regarding Nirienth and Skoria. What do you think of maybe 1 piece Molag and 1 health piece? Or is it best to just go Nirienth over a little bit of spell dmg.

My gut would be to go Nerien'eth if you have the option. You will still get the health, which you will need. I prefer to run at least 18k in vMA. A big part is you wanted to get Undaunted level 9 with undaunted mettle passives, wear 5L-1M-1H, and have all divines trait. The goal is to have very high max magic as your spell damage won't be particularly high.

If I remember correctly my lich crystal would crit for around 18k. It is also an AoE that can hit multiple enemies if in close proximity. The only problem with the lich crystal is it pops up, and has a short delay before it goes off. This means that it is most effective on stationary targets, and if the target is moving it can move out of the AoE and avoid damage. That being said, it is very effective on a magblade and procs often. It is also totally brainless to use, and you do not need to think about it. Just do your thing and the procs will come, unlike some other sets that you need to deviate your normal play style to proc.

Another option would be to go 2 pc kena. Kena is supposed to proc after 2 consecutive light attacks, but due to game code reasons beyond my comprehension, it procs when weaving LA in between certain abilities. One of these abilities is funnel health. It does increase resource management issues, but with siphoning attacks and the cheap cost of funnel, it should be manageable. The drawback is no health bonus and you may have to move some attributes into health.

All that said, you can complete the arena without either, and the setup you proposed. Most of it is just learning the mechanics to a point that its automatic.

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · August 2016

Ok thanks again for helpful info. I'll likely go Nirienth. Never used before and it does look really cool.