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Favorite magblade setup?
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Stoopid_Nwah✭✭✭✭
That's what I was thinking, because I'm very used to running about 900 regen anyway and right now I only run destro/dw relying on the shield and cloak. I thought about using seduces for resources, but probably will go through my list of other options, just because damage is the only thing I can think of that will be frustrating for me.Stoopid_Nwah wrote: »
I mean there's always cloakStoopid_Nwah wrote: »
No kidding...imo necropotence is mandatory (to be competitive) for magblades in pvp with the exceptions being tanks and gankers.Stoopid_Nwah wrote: »
Or just every twenty seconds...unless that constitutes spamming to you.mr_wazzabi wrote: »5 Lich(jewels, 1 armor, defending resto) 5 Necropotence (4 armor, destro) 1 Grothdarr
Infinite sustain, huge shields, solid damage from the enormous magika pool. You can run 1 kena instead of 1 grothdarr, but since we're stacking magika with this setup I decided to go all in on that and squeeze every ounce of shield that I can.
Edit: Spinners is a really solid set as well if you can manage your shields well it can replace necro, but you'll lack some damage against sorcs and other shield users. Pirate king 2 piece is also dope AF
But you'll need to spam shades in order to get that 5pc bonus.
Right? I'll use soul harvest as often as shades
Yeah, I really don't know how else you get dampen big enough to realistically protect healing ward without making far too many other sacrifices. I suppose you could run 5 lich 2 pirate king 4 X and rely on pirate king procs to effectively increase the size of your shield, but you'd have trouble finding enough damage that way
okay but sarcasm aside, yes I agree, dampen isn't big enough without that 50k magicka pool. Pirate king is interesting, I got the shoulders finally today in divines, just not sure what sort of setup will fit with what I'm wanting to do with it.
I'm playing around with 5 Necro 2 pirate king 4 seducer, as long as you keep siphoning attacks up you have enough sustain, you just have to make sure you time your healing between procs, but since you've got a 12k dampen shield with 30% mitigation its not too much of a problem. It feels nearly broken in duels and its a game changer for open world.
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LegacyDM✭✭✭✭✭
✭i just gotta put out there, rattlecage isnt a good set. if it shared the buff with team, be one thing but sap essence and braain fart the mages dot both give the buff. they are not hard to manage the buff uptime, and both do good things, sap essence is like the ultimate aoe for mageblades and the mage ability (brain farting still) is really good dot (and the empower from using it is best time to use ultimate and/or cripple).
Disagree. If you run a dual wield sword setup with sword of omens and manage to get the magicka jewelry versions you can pump out good damage while freeing up skill slots. With the setup below I don't need to run entropy and can use mark instead.
Balanced aoe/single target damage with good regen
5 rattlecage - 3 jewelry 2 swords
5 krags
2 grothdarr
1 vdsa resto on off bar
high single target damage but less regen.
5 rattlecage
5 necropetence
2 slime crawlEdited by LegacyDM on November 16, 2016 7:27PMLegacy of Kain
Vicious Carnage
¥ampire Lord of the South0 -
Master_Kas✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »Don't you have you technically have to cast pets 2x to get the set buff and then to get pets that are buffed by it?
Unless they changed it from last time I used it, you only need to cast shades once but you then need to switch the bar to get the buff so always put the shade on your off bar (for magblade at least).
Hopefully they fixed it so it procs as soon as the shade is cast, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that so far.
it does proc right when you cast it, I tested it out yesterday
That's good to know. Still don't regret deconning my gold divines set though. Too much hassle in trials and not that useful in divines for PvP.
its bad for trails because the shades absorb group buffsMaster_Kas wrote: »Atm using 5x spinner, 2x groth, 5x vd (sometimes I swap out the vd jewerly for willpower)
DW + destro to kill as much as possible before going down.
Magblade feels pretty meh, you're either a kamikazee bomber, a weaker sorc (if you go destro/resto) or a weak stamblade (mag melee , dw resto).
WTB Magicka melee nb from 1.5 or before
Nah, magblade > sorc by far. You have ranged snares and roots, a cheaper spammable that heals you, allowing you to cast dampen and go offensive to refill your health. You have cloak to relive pressure and help protect your healing ward, shades as a superior positioning tool to streak, better aoe CC, and you can guarantee your high burst skill procs when you want it to, your burst isn't purgable, magika based dodge chance, better sustain, minor berserk, etc.
The only advantage sorc has really is mines, but these days most people know how to counter them.
edit: Its also worth noting that mageblade is able to run blue health/mag food for pvp and not have to worry about dying to 3 CCs because siphoning attacks handles your stamina.
Guess that depends on who you ask. I feel sorc's streak is more reliable for getting out of sticky situations compared to shade which can randomly stop working + need time to place it. Cloak easily countered by anyone who PvP for a while.
But it might be a EU thing since there seems to be TS blobs running around even at nighttime, EoTS, infernal guardian/shieldspam, soul assaults/magelights etc. making cloak pretty much useless to get away once they know you are there. Piercing mark seems to be something every sniper runs too aswel.
For ganking, my stamblade is way more bursty and mobile vs all the snares etc which can make cloak and shade more effective in practice. My sorc can also facetank way better with double shields compared to my magblade with dampen.
That's my opinion atleast.
But the statisfaction of wiping out large groups with EoTS, sap and vicious death keeps me playing it. 
Since we have sap and swallow soul, make's it easier to run destro for the ult, and DW with more damage for sap/swallow soul etc. Edited by Master_Kas on November 16, 2016 7:01PMEU | PC1 -
LegacyDM✭✭✭✭✭
✭PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »Don't you have you technically have to cast pets 2x to get the set buff and then to get pets that are buffed by it?
Unless they changed it from last time I used it, you only need to cast shades once but you then need to switch the bar to get the buff so always put the shade on your off bar (for magblade at least).
Hopefully they fixed it so it procs as soon as the shade is cast, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that so far.
it does proc right when you cast it, I tested it out yesterday
That's good to know. Still don't regret deconning my gold divines set though. Too much hassle in trials and not that useful in divines for PvP.
its bad for trails because the shades absorb group buffsMaster_Kas wrote: »Atm using 5x spinner, 2x groth, 5x vd (sometimes I swap out the vd jewerly for willpower)
DW + destro to kill as much as possible before going down.
Magblade feels pretty meh, you're either a kamikazee bomber, a weaker sorc (if you go destro/resto) or a weak stamblade (mag melee , dw resto).
WTB Magicka melee nb from 1.5 or before
Nah, magblade > sorc by far. You have ranged snares and roots, a cheaper spammable that heals you, allowing you to cast dampen and go offensive to refill your health. You have cloak to relive pressure and help protect your healing ward, shades as a superior positioning tool to streak, better aoe CC, and you can guarantee your high burst skill procs when you want it to, your burst isn't purgable, magika based dodge chance, better sustain, minor berserk, etc.
The only advantage sorc has really is mines, but these days most people know how to counter them.
edit: Its also worth noting that mageblade is able to run blue health/mag food for pvp and not have to worry about dying to 3 CCs because siphoning attacks handles your stamina.
Wow, you just be fighting potatoes. A properly played sorc will beat a properly played magicka nb. magicka nb does not have the burst to take down a good shield stacking, high damage, mine laying, bolting sorc using eye of flame. Good luck with that...would love to see how you would do against the likes of kodi or force siphon on na true flame. These are the sorcs I fight in a regular basis and it's painful.Edited by LegacyDM on November 16, 2016 7:12PMLegacy of Kain
Vicious Carnage
¥ampire Lord of the South0 -
PS4_ZeColmeia✭✭✭✭✭PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »Don't you have you technically have to cast pets 2x to get the set buff and then to get pets that are buffed by it?
Unless they changed it from last time I used it, you only need to cast shades once but you then need to switch the bar to get the buff so always put the shade on your off bar (for magblade at least).
Hopefully they fixed it so it procs as soon as the shade is cast, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that so far.
it does proc right when you cast it, I tested it out yesterday
That's good to know. Still don't regret deconning my gold divines set though. Too much hassle in trials and not that useful in divines for PvP.
its bad for trails because the shades absorb group buffsMaster_Kas wrote: »Atm using 5x spinner, 2x groth, 5x vd (sometimes I swap out the vd jewerly for willpower)
DW + destro to kill as much as possible before going down.
Magblade feels pretty meh, you're either a kamikazee bomber, a weaker sorc (if you go destro/resto) or a weak stamblade (mag melee , dw resto).
WTB Magicka melee nb from 1.5 or before
Nah, magblade > sorc by far. You have ranged snares and roots, a cheaper spammable that heals you, allowing you to cast dampen and go offensive to refill your health. You have cloak to relive pressure and help protect your healing ward, shades as a superior positioning tool to streak, better aoe CC, and you can guarantee your high burst skill procs when you want it to, your burst isn't purgable, magika based dodge chance, better sustain, minor berserk, etc.
The only advantage sorc has really is mines, but these days most people know how to counter them.
edit: Its also worth noting that mageblade is able to run blue health/mag food for pvp and not have to worry about dying to 3 CCs because siphoning attacks handles your stamina.
Wow, you just be fighting potatoes. A properly played sorc will beat a properly played magicka nb. magicka nb does not have the burst to take down a good shield stacking, high damage, mine laying, bolting sorc using eye of flame. Good luck with that...would love to see how you would do against the likes of kodi or force siphon on na true flame. These are the sorcs I fight in a regular basis and it's painful.
Enough burst?PSN: ***___Chan (3 _s)
Hybrid, All-Role NB1 -
Tryxus✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »Don't you have you technically have to cast pets 2x to get the set buff and then to get pets that are buffed by it?
Unless they changed it from last time I used it, you only need to cast shades once but you then need to switch the bar to get the buff so always put the shade on your off bar (for magblade at least).
Hopefully they fixed it so it procs as soon as the shade is cast, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that so far.
it does proc right when you cast it, I tested it out yesterday
That's good to know. Still don't regret deconning my gold divines set though. Too much hassle in trials and not that useful in divines for PvP.
its bad for trails because the shades absorb group buffsMaster_Kas wrote: »Atm using 5x spinner, 2x groth, 5x vd (sometimes I swap out the vd jewerly for willpower)
DW + destro to kill as much as possible before going down.
Magblade feels pretty meh, you're either a kamikazee bomber, a weaker sorc (if you go destro/resto) or a weak stamblade (mag melee , dw resto).
WTB Magicka melee nb from 1.5 or before
Nah, magblade > sorc by far. You have ranged snares and roots, a cheaper spammable that heals you, allowing you to cast dampen and go offensive to refill your health. You have cloak to relive pressure and help protect your healing ward, shades as a superior positioning tool to streak, better aoe CC, and you can guarantee your high burst skill procs when you want it to, your burst isn't purgable, magika based dodge chance, better sustain, minor berserk, etc.
The only advantage sorc has really is mines, but these days most people know how to counter them.
edit: Its also worth noting that mageblade is able to run blue health/mag food for pvp and not have to worry about dying to 3 CCs because siphoning attacks handles your stamina.
Wow, you just be fighting potatoes. A properly played sorc will beat a properly played magicka nb. magicka nb does not have the burst to take down a good shield stacking, high damage, mine laying, bolting sorc using eye of flame. Good luck with that...would love to see how you would do against the likes of kodi or force siphon on na true flame. These are the sorcs I fight in a regular basis and it's painful.
Enough burst?
No, because the Target is Immune
"Stand strong, stay true and shelter all."
Tryxus - Guardian of the Green - Warden - PC/EU2 -
thankyourat✭✭✭✭✭
✭PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »Don't you have you technically have to cast pets 2x to get the set buff and then to get pets that are buffed by it?
Unless they changed it from last time I used it, you only need to cast shades once but you then need to switch the bar to get the buff so always put the shade on your off bar (for magblade at least).
Hopefully they fixed it so it procs as soon as the shade is cast, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that so far.
it does proc right when you cast it, I tested it out yesterday
That's good to know. Still don't regret deconning my gold divines set though. Too much hassle in trials and not that useful in divines for PvP.
its bad for trails because the shades absorb group buffsMaster_Kas wrote: »Atm using 5x spinner, 2x groth, 5x vd (sometimes I swap out the vd jewerly for willpower)
DW + destro to kill as much as possible before going down.
Magblade feels pretty meh, you're either a kamikazee bomber, a weaker sorc (if you go destro/resto) or a weak stamblade (mag melee , dw resto).
WTB Magicka melee nb from 1.5 or before
Nah, magblade > sorc by far. You have ranged snares and roots, a cheaper spammable that heals you, allowing you to cast dampen and go offensive to refill your health. You have cloak to relive pressure and help protect your healing ward, shades as a superior positioning tool to streak, better aoe CC, and you can guarantee your high burst skill procs when you want it to, your burst isn't purgable, magika based dodge chance, better sustain, minor berserk, etc.
The only advantage sorc has really is mines, but these days most people know how to counter them.
edit: Its also worth noting that mageblade is able to run blue health/mag food for pvp and not have to worry about dying to 3 CCs because siphoning attacks handles your stamina.
Wow, you just be fighting potatoes. A properly played sorc will beat a properly played magicka nb. magicka nb does not have the burst to take down a good shield stacking, high damage, mine laying, bolting sorc using eye of flame. Good luck with that...would love to see how you would do against the likes of kodi or force siphon on na true flame. These are the sorcs I fight in a regular basis and it's painful.
Enough burst?
I've hit NPCs for over 50k with the the spectral bow. But that burst isn't readily available and it will only hit for a quarter of that in PvP. to kill a sorc you need to get in their mines cc them when their shields are down and they are out of stamina and combine that with a soul tether or other ultimate to basically one shot them before they start shield stacking again. Lol it's not impossible but it's kind of ridiculous. I don't even fight sorcs in mines in open world PvP I'll just walk away1 -
PS4_ZeColmeia✭✭✭✭✭I'm doing 17k concealed weapon and 20k heavy attacks, PvE obviously. I get what you mean but I don't feel like I have a problem breaking shields especially if I get burning effects.PSN: ***___Chan (3 _s)
Hybrid, All-Role NB0 -
Lexxypwns✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭thankyourat wrote: »PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »Don't you have you technically have to cast pets 2x to get the set buff and then to get pets that are buffed by it?
Unless they changed it from last time I used it, you only need to cast shades once but you then need to switch the bar to get the buff so always put the shade on your off bar (for magblade at least).
Hopefully they fixed it so it procs as soon as the shade is cast, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that so far.
it does proc right when you cast it, I tested it out yesterday
That's good to know. Still don't regret deconning my gold divines set though. Too much hassle in trials and not that useful in divines for PvP.
its bad for trails because the shades absorb group buffsMaster_Kas wrote: »Atm using 5x spinner, 2x groth, 5x vd (sometimes I swap out the vd jewerly for willpower)
DW + destro to kill as much as possible before going down.
Magblade feels pretty meh, you're either a kamikazee bomber, a weaker sorc (if you go destro/resto) or a weak stamblade (mag melee , dw resto).
WTB Magicka melee nb from 1.5 or before
Nah, magblade > sorc by far. You have ranged snares and roots, a cheaper spammable that heals you, allowing you to cast dampen and go offensive to refill your health. You have cloak to relive pressure and help protect your healing ward, shades as a superior positioning tool to streak, better aoe CC, and you can guarantee your high burst skill procs when you want it to, your burst isn't purgable, magika based dodge chance, better sustain, minor berserk, etc.
The only advantage sorc has really is mines, but these days most people know how to counter them.
edit: Its also worth noting that mageblade is able to run blue health/mag food for pvp and not have to worry about dying to 3 CCs because siphoning attacks handles your stamina.
Is that for pve cause swallow soul heals you for only like 1000hp over a period of time max. I think sorc is better too only because it has an anti melee kit with mines and streak and it's alot more bursty. And all of it's abilities work as intended where as magblade is just buggy. Agony is also pure garbage because it breaks on dot ticks. Magblade isn't far off from sorc, they are pretty close but sorc with better defenses and better offense. shield stacking is still as op as it's ever been. Shade is nice to get distance but it's only better than streak if you are fighting in a place with a lot of elevation. And if someone gap closes you they follow you to your shade either that or you just won't teleport at all. It's 50/50 lol
Magblade has a kit that soft counters melee, both anti melee kits are hard countered by mist form. That's a scratch
Agony is indeed garbage, fear however, is the best CC in the game.
Mageblade has better defense because native, magika based dodge chance is more important that hardened ward, with 6 seconds shields there's no real point to stacking more than 2. Furthermore, mageblade has the hardest hitting non-ulti in the game and doesn't rely on purgable skills for its burst, swallow soul is better than crushing shock, cripple provides a ranged root and snare, sorc has nothing on par with that. Assassin's will and frags are about equal, though will is more reliable, hits harder, and has less of a telegraph. Impale > fury. Ultimately all sorc has is curse, but I'd rather the strong ranged DoT in cripple than curse
Shade is as unreliable as streak, but at least sometimes it gets you behind LoS
Magblade > Sorc by far and we haven't even mentioned the AoE damage utility sap provides and a reliable aoe snare on gap close.
To those saying magblade lacks damage to kill a shield stacking sorc, lol. Nothing in the game is gonna hurt worse than assassin's will, eye, fear, swallow in a combo and none of it is purgable. Don't look at duels against each other, look at what you face daily in open world cyrodiil, mageblade has a more diverse and effective toolkit by far.
Edit: Just want to add that mines only work on stam builds, any mag build worth their salt is gonna eat them with mist form and dare you to keep casting them and mageblade is best equipped to do this without running out of resources because siphoning attacks is amazing.
Mag sorc is the worst mag build this patch, even mDK is better atm.Edited by Lexxypwns on November 17, 2016 4:13AM3 -
acw37162✭✭✭✭✭
✭5 PC SPC Front bar Destro
5 PC Lich Back bar Resto or Destro depending on if I'm healing or not
2 PC Iceheart/Grothdar/Kena/Skoria
Or
5 Infaliable Aether
5 SPC
2 Monster helm of choice0 -
thankyourat✭✭✭✭✭
✭thankyourat wrote: »PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »Don't you have you technically have to cast pets 2x to get the set buff and then to get pets that are buffed by it?
Unless they changed it from last time I used it, you only need to cast shades once but you then need to switch the bar to get the buff so always put the shade on your off bar (for magblade at least).
Hopefully they fixed it so it procs as soon as the shade is cast, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that so far.
it does proc right when you cast it, I tested it out yesterday
That's good to know. Still don't regret deconning my gold divines set though. Too much hassle in trials and not that useful in divines for PvP.
its bad for trails because the shades absorb group buffsMaster_Kas wrote: »Atm using 5x spinner, 2x groth, 5x vd (sometimes I swap out the vd jewerly for willpower)
DW + destro to kill as much as possible before going down.
Magblade feels pretty meh, you're either a kamikazee bomber, a weaker sorc (if you go destro/resto) or a weak stamblade (mag melee , dw resto).
WTB Magicka melee nb from 1.5 or before
Nah, magblade > sorc by far. You have ranged snares and roots, a cheaper spammable that heals you, allowing you to cast dampen and go offensive to refill your health. You have cloak to relive pressure and help protect your healing ward, shades as a superior positioning tool to streak, better aoe CC, and you can guarantee your high burst skill procs when you want it to, your burst isn't purgable, magika based dodge chance, better sustain, minor berserk, etc.
The only advantage sorc has really is mines, but these days most people know how to counter them.
edit: Its also worth noting that mageblade is able to run blue health/mag food for pvp and not have to worry about dying to 3 CCs because siphoning attacks handles your stamina.
Is that for pve cause swallow soul heals you for only like 1000hp over a period of time max. I think sorc is better too only because it has an anti melee kit with mines and streak and it's alot more bursty. And all of it's abilities work as intended where as magblade is just buggy. Agony is also pure garbage because it breaks on dot ticks. Magblade isn't far off from sorc, they are pretty close but sorc with better defenses and better offense. shield stacking is still as op as it's ever been. Shade is nice to get distance but it's only better than streak if you are fighting in a place with a lot of elevation. And if someone gap closes you they follow you to your shade either that or you just won't teleport at all. It's 50/50 lol
Magblade has a kit that soft counters melee, both anti melee kits are hard countered by mist form. That's a scratch
Agony is indeed garbage, fear however, is the best CC in the game.
Mageblade has better defense because native, magika based dodge chance is more important that hardened ward, with 6 seconds shields there's no real point to stacking more than 2. Furthermore, mageblade has the hardest hitting non-ulti in the game and doesn't rely on purgable skills for its burst, swallow soul is better than crushing shock, cripple provides a ranged root and snare, sorc has nothing on par with that. Assassin's will and frags are about equal, though will is more reliable, hits harder, and has less of a telegraph. Impale > fury. Ultimately all sorc has is curse, but I'd rather the strong ranged DoT in cripple than curse
Shade is as unreliable as streak, but at least sometimes it gets you behind LoS
Magblade > Sorc by far and we haven't even mentioned the AoE damage utility sap provides and a reliable aoe snare on gap close.
To those saying magblade lacks damage to kill a shield stacking sorc, lol. Nothing in the game is gonna hurt worse than assassin's will, eye, fear, swallow in a combo and none of it is purgable. Don't look at duels against each other, look at what you face daily in open world cyrodiil, mageblade has a more diverse and effective toolkit by far.
Edit: Just want to add that mines only work on stam builds, any mag build worth their salt is gonna eat them with mist form and dare you to keep casting them and mageblade is best equipped to do this without running out of resources because siphoning attacks is amazing.
Mag sorc is the worst mag build this patch, even mDK is better atm.
I disagree that dodge chance is better than damage shields. Two shields will insure the safety of your health double take is only a 20% chance I feel it's more for the movement speed than it is for the dodge chance, I also think mages wrath is better than impale because it has a chance to proc implosion, both of those executes are pretty horrible though.i think crystal frag is better than assassins will in terms of you have a bigger window to use it in, you can also animation cancel it. If you try to do that with the spectral bow most times it will just disappear. The spectral bow send to hit harder for the most part though, but I would need to test this. Swallow soul I do feel is better because it's dirty cheap, but the damage of force pulse is higher. I actually use force pulse over swallow soul for PvE, it's also much more fluid to weave. I think the only thing magblade has going for it is versatility. You can go ranged or melee or a combination of both no other magicka class can do that it has alot of aoe's and great passives, it's good at alot of stuff but it's not really the best at anything and it's very slow paced if you are playing a destro build. With all its burst coming from the spectral bow unlike the sorc because a sorc had curse making it far more bursty which is better for PvP. In PvP burst damage and mobility are King and the sorc outshines magblade in both of those aspects and in terms of burst it's really not that close magsorc honestly hits just as hard as stamblade (minus the proc sets). Magblade can be bursty like that but you are kind of forced into a dual wield role which is what I'm playing now because I find it actually better for open world PvP and I'm liking the change of pace. But it's weaker in dueling scenariosEdited by thankyourat on November 17, 2016 5:52AM0 -
AzuraKin✭✭✭✭✭i just gotta put out there, rattlecage isnt a good set. if it shared the buff with team, be one thing but sap essence and braain fart the mages dot both give the buff. they are not hard to manage the buff uptime, and both do good things, sap essence is like the ultimate aoe for mageblades and the mage ability (brain farting still) is really good dot (and the empower from using it is best time to use ultimate and/or cripple).
Disagree. If you run a dual wield sword setup with sword of omens and manage to get the magicka jewelry versions you can pump out good damage while freeing up skill slots. With the setup below I don't need to run entropy and can use mark instead.
Balanced aoe/single target damage with good regen
5 rattlecage - 3 jewelry 2 swords
5 krags
2 grothdarr
1 vdsa resto on off bar
high single target damage but less regen.
5 rattlecage
5 necropetence
2 slime crawl
freeing up slots? dude sap essence and entropy are to very important skills for mages. 1. sap essence is the strongest insta damage non-ult aoe ability in the game. whirlwind only matches and maybe slightly surpasses at eabout 5-10% health left at best. detonation beats it yes but it takes 4-8 seconds depending on morph which is why i also dont count it as beating it as its really only doing damage every 8s while sap is a spammable aoe. entropy is strong for single target because it also grants major sorcery, but also empower giving the nightblade 2 aspects to its use, normal: entropy + crippling grasp and entropy + ult + crippling grasp to thier rotation. ult takes precident as it does more damage, and if you using meteor it also grants empower still to crippling grasp. and as entropy does damage on par with nb's instant damage skills, there is no dps loss there only gain from the empower from the skill. you are not freeing up a slot with rattlecage, your losing power over using better sets like spc, willpower + 2p torugs, whats the proc set scathing mage i believe that triggers off class skills, just to name a few off hand.Edited by AzuraKin on November 17, 2016 6:49AMv160 spellsword (nightblade)
v160 restoration archmage (Templar)
v160 battlemage (sorcerer)
v160 restoration archmage (Templar)
v160 warrior (DragonKnight)
v160 assassin (nightblade)
v160 swordsman (sorcerer)
v160 spellsword (nightblade)0 -
shezof✭✭✭2x grohdar or infernal guardian
3x jewelry 1 piece body 1 piece resto lich
1x destro fire 4x body spinner
i use this setup,unlimites magicka and overall nice damage.but you may have troubles with wing spamming dks and shield stacking sorcs.0 -
shezof✭✭✭i just gotta put out there, rattlecage isnt a good set. if it shared the buff with team, be one thing but sap essence and braain fart the mages dot both give the buff. they are not hard to manage the buff uptime, and both do good things, sap essence is like the ultimate aoe for mageblades and the mage ability (brain farting still) is really good dot (and the empower from using it is best time to use ultimate and/or cripple).
i think cripple cannot be empowered, also agree about rattlecage.
Edited by shezof on November 17, 2016 7:30AM0 -
LegacyDM✭✭✭✭✭
✭i just gotta put out there, rattlecage isnt a good set. if it shared the buff with team, be one thing but sap essence and braain fart the mages dot both give the buff. they are not hard to manage the buff uptime, and both do good things, sap essence is like the ultimate aoe for mageblades and the mage ability (brain farting still) is really good dot (and the empower from using it is best time to use ultimate and/or cripple).
Disagree. If you run a dual wield sword setup with sword of omens and manage to get the magicka jewelry versions you can pump out good damage while freeing up skill slots. With the setup below I don't need to run entropy and can use mark instead.
Balanced aoe/single target damage with good regen
5 rattlecage - 3 jewelry 2 swords
5 krags
2 grothdarr
1 vdsa resto on off bar
high single target damage but less regen.
5 rattlecage
5 necropetence
2 slime crawl
freeing up slots? dude sap essence and entropy are to very important skills for mages. 1. sap essence is the strongest insta damage non-ult aoe ability in the game. whirlwind only matches and maybe slightly surpasses at eabout 5-10% health left at best. detonation beats it yes but it takes 4-8 seconds depending on morph which is why i also dont count it as beating it as its really only doing damage every 8s while sap is a spammable aoe. entropy is strong for single target because it also grants major sorcery, but also empower giving the nightblade 2 aspects to its use, normal: entropy + crippling grasp and entropy + ult + crippling grasp to thier rotation. ult takes precident as it does more damage, and if you using meteor it also grants empower still to crippling grasp. and as entropy does damage on par with nb's instant damage skills, there is no dps loss there only gain from the empower from the skill. you are not freeing up a slot with rattlecage, your losing power over using better sets like spc, willpower + 2p torugs, whats the proc set scathing mage i believe that triggers off class skills, just to name a few off hand.
I agree with keeping sap essence in the bar. The problem is your not always going to be in range to use it. With rattle cage you can ensure 20% uptime all the time. Especially when your at a ranged group or Zerg fight and need to spam funnel health. No reason whatsoever to run entropy if you have rattle cage. The damage over 11 or 14.4 seconds (don't remember how long it is) isn't worth it and I can think of far better things to slot if you make up major sorcery from rattlecsge.
You have your playstyles and rotation and I have mine. But to say rattle age is useless is wrong and misleading. I've provided two successful setups that use rattlecsge. My necropetence build can get me a 10k+ funnel health with a magicka recovery of around 1650. In that build I don't need to use siphoning attacks, entropy, or go stave.
I don't use meteor I use bat swarm while procing grothdarr. sometimes throw in proxy det into the mix and finish off with sap essence.Edited by LegacyDM on November 17, 2016 9:18AMLegacy of Kain
Vicious Carnage
¥ampire Lord of the South0 -
AzuraKin✭✭✭✭✭i just gotta put out there, rattlecage isnt a good set. if it shared the buff with team, be one thing but sap essence and braain fart the mages dot both give the buff. they are not hard to manage the buff uptime, and both do good things, sap essence is like the ultimate aoe for mageblades and the mage ability (brain farting still) is really good dot (and the empower from using it is best time to use ultimate and/or cripple).
Disagree. If you run a dual wield sword setup with sword of omens and manage to get the magicka jewelry versions you can pump out good damage while freeing up skill slots. With the setup below I don't need to run entropy and can use mark instead.
Balanced aoe/single target damage with good regen
5 rattlecage - 3 jewelry 2 swords
5 krags
2 grothdarr
1 vdsa resto on off bar
high single target damage but less regen.
5 rattlecage
5 necropetence
2 slime crawl
freeing up slots? dude sap essence and entropy are to very important skills for mages. 1. sap essence is the strongest insta damage non-ult aoe ability in the game. whirlwind only matches and maybe slightly surpasses at eabout 5-10% health left at best. detonation beats it yes but it takes 4-8 seconds depending on morph which is why i also dont count it as beating it as its really only doing damage every 8s while sap is a spammable aoe. entropy is strong for single target because it also grants major sorcery, but also empower giving the nightblade 2 aspects to its use, normal: entropy + crippling grasp and entropy + ult + crippling grasp to thier rotation. ult takes precident as it does more damage, and if you using meteor it also grants empower still to crippling grasp. and as entropy does damage on par with nb's instant damage skills, there is no dps loss there only gain from the empower from the skill. you are not freeing up a slot with rattlecage, your losing power over using better sets like spc, willpower + 2p torugs, whats the proc set scathing mage i believe that triggers off class skills, just to name a few off hand.
I agree with keeping sap essence in the bar. The problem is your not always going to be in range to use it. With rattle cage you can ensure 20% uptime all the time. Especially when your at a ranged group or Zerg fight and need to spam funnel health. No reason whatsoever to run entropy if you have rattle cage. The damage over 11 or 14.4 seconds (don't remember how long it is) isn't worth it and I can think of far better things to slot if you make up major sorcery from rattlecsge.
You have your playstyles and rotation and I have mine. But to say rattle age is useless is wrong and misleading. I've provided two successful setups that use rattlecsge. My necropetence build can get me a 10k+ funnel health with a magicka recovery of around 1650. In that build I don't need to use siphoning attacks, entropy, or go stave.
I don't use meteor I use bat swarm while procing grothdarr. sometimes throw in proxy det into the mix and finish off with sap essence.
sap essence is for groups, not single player, in pve you use it against mobs/adds. in pvp you use it when pushing through opposing forces. single opponents or when at range, you use entropy. you gain buff and you got a dot going on a guy to annoy him.v160 spellsword (nightblade)
v160 restoration archmage (Templar)
v160 battlemage (sorcerer)
v160 restoration archmage (Templar)
v160 warrior (DragonKnight)
v160 assassin (nightblade)
v160 swordsman (sorcerer)
v160 spellsword (nightblade)0 -
Sunburnt_Penguin✭✭✭✭✭I honestly don't know how you guys are having a good time on your magblade with the current state of PvP. I've tried all sorts of sets (Destro/Resto Spinners, BSW, Lich, DRose and Kags) all with 5L and 5H/1/1) and regardless of what I run with, I just can't compete in anything other than duels.
Even with 40k mag, 5 light and 50 points in to bastion; dampen and ward (which rarely goes to me) are just not enough to protect me from the bursts and neither is my 15k phys/spell and 2.7k crit resistance. I've tried using blessing of restoration for a decent immediate self heal coupled with dampen (to avoid the ward issues) which used to work very well but now it just gets blitzed because of the burst I'm receiving.
Then when I go 5 heavy, I'm even noticeably easier to kill because dampen is like a wet paper towel and without it I find myself constantly casting ward (as 90% of the time it doesn't go to me) which drains my resources.
In both armour cases, I've tried mirage for the dodge chance which helped a bit but feel like I need to go vamp for mist form to avoid my 15k stamina getting drained from soft CCs, but then comes the dawnbreaker issue and whether i'll need to slot purge on an already packed bar. Cloak is so buggy that I find it worthless to run in combat.
In addition, I found that relying on siphoning attacks for resource management is extremely inconsistent because of the dodge and shuffle users. In vMA I can use it with 700 regen and never run out of magicka with a pot but in PvP, its like I'm not even weaving.
I'm at a loss here with my favourite class. ATM it's either just suck it up accept the fact that I'm gonna get wrecked or switch to my Templar (which I don't really like) and have success.0 -
Naughty_Ryder✭✭✭I'm rocking:
Gear:
Molag Kena Guise (Gold 1/1)
5/5 Mother's sorrow (Gold 2/5 - 3/5 Purple Jewellery)
5/5 Julianos (Gold) (4 Gold Armour - 2 Gold Staves)
Julianos Inferno Staff (Gold)
Julianos Restoration Staff (Gold)
Abilities:
Destro Bar: Blockade of Fire / Impale / Merciless Resolve / Inner Light / Swallow Soul.
Resto Bar 1 (Adds): Path of Darkness / Sap Essence / Siphoning Attacks / Inner Light / Healing Ward
Resto Bar 2 (Boss): Crippling Grasp / Entropy / Sophing Attacks / Inner Light / Healing Ward
Extras:
+ Purple Food for Magicka and Health.
+ Also have Golden Turug's Helm
+ Also have Golden Julianos Sword and Golden Torugs sword.Fairies are invisible and inaudible like angels. But their magic sparkles in nature.
- I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.0 -
psychotic13✭✭✭✭✭
✭I'm using necropotence, Stygian kena and grothdarr, it's a gank build but it one shots people0 -
PS4_ZeColmeia✭✭✭✭✭psychotic13 wrote: »I'm using necropotence, Stygian kena and grothdarr, it's a gank build but it one shots people
DW? or just 4pc necro?PSN: ***___Chan (3 _s)
Hybrid, All-Role NB0 -
psychotic13✭✭✭✭✭
✭PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »psychotic13 wrote: »I'm using necropotence, Stygian kena and grothdarr, it's a gank build but it one shots people
DW? or just 4pc necro?
Yeah DW, shadow Mundus full divines
0 -
PS4_ZeColmeia✭✭✭✭✭psychotic13 wrote: »PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »psychotic13 wrote: »I'm using necropotence, Stygian kena and grothdarr, it's a gank build but it one shots people
DW? or just 4pc necro?
Yeah DW, shadow Mundus full divines
I'm using staff to weave, but you should look at spell power mundus & infused on main armor. I calculated it to be a net gain on damage, but I suppose it depends how much you want a strong crit base. Then again, I don't use necro so I'm sure that might adjust to the benefit of your set up.PSN: ***___Chan (3 _s)
Hybrid, All-Role NB0 -
Lexxypwns✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭thankyourat wrote: »thankyourat wrote: »PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »Don't you have you technically have to cast pets 2x to get the set buff and then to get pets that are buffed by it?
Unless they changed it from last time I used it, you only need to cast shades once but you then need to switch the bar to get the buff so always put the shade on your off bar (for magblade at least).
Hopefully they fixed it so it procs as soon as the shade is cast, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that so far.
it does proc right when you cast it, I tested it out yesterday
That's good to know. Still don't regret deconning my gold divines set though. Too much hassle in trials and not that useful in divines for PvP.
its bad for trails because the shades absorb group buffsMaster_Kas wrote: »Atm using 5x spinner, 2x groth, 5x vd (sometimes I swap out the vd jewerly for willpower)
DW + destro to kill as much as possible before going down.
Magblade feels pretty meh, you're either a kamikazee bomber, a weaker sorc (if you go destro/resto) or a weak stamblade (mag melee , dw resto).
WTB Magicka melee nb from 1.5 or before
Nah, magblade > sorc by far. You have ranged snares and roots, a cheaper spammable that heals you, allowing you to cast dampen and go offensive to refill your health. You have cloak to relive pressure and help protect your healing ward, shades as a superior positioning tool to streak, better aoe CC, and you can guarantee your high burst skill procs when you want it to, your burst isn't purgable, magika based dodge chance, better sustain, minor berserk, etc.
The only advantage sorc has really is mines, but these days most people know how to counter them.
edit: Its also worth noting that mageblade is able to run blue health/mag food for pvp and not have to worry about dying to 3 CCs because siphoning attacks handles your stamina.
Is that for pve cause swallow soul heals you for only like 1000hp over a period of time max. I think sorc is better too only because it has an anti melee kit with mines and streak and it's alot more bursty. And all of it's abilities work as intended where as magblade is just buggy. Agony is also pure garbage because it breaks on dot ticks. Magblade isn't far off from sorc, they are pretty close but sorc with better defenses and better offense. shield stacking is still as op as it's ever been. Shade is nice to get distance but it's only better than streak if you are fighting in a place with a lot of elevation. And if someone gap closes you they follow you to your shade either that or you just won't teleport at all. It's 50/50 lol
Magblade has a kit that soft counters melee, both anti melee kits are hard countered by mist form. That's a scratch
Agony is indeed garbage, fear however, is the best CC in the game.
Mageblade has better defense because native, magika based dodge chance is more important that hardened ward, with 6 seconds shields there's no real point to stacking more than 2. Furthermore, mageblade has the hardest hitting non-ulti in the game and doesn't rely on purgable skills for its burst, swallow soul is better than crushing shock, cripple provides a ranged root and snare, sorc has nothing on par with that. Assassin's will and frags are about equal, though will is more reliable, hits harder, and has less of a telegraph. Impale > fury. Ultimately all sorc has is curse, but I'd rather the strong ranged DoT in cripple than curse
Shade is as unreliable as streak, but at least sometimes it gets you behind LoS
Magblade > Sorc by far and we haven't even mentioned the AoE damage utility sap provides and a reliable aoe snare on gap close.
To those saying magblade lacks damage to kill a shield stacking sorc, lol. Nothing in the game is gonna hurt worse than assassin's will, eye, fear, swallow in a combo and none of it is purgable. Don't look at duels against each other, look at what you face daily in open world cyrodiil, mageblade has a more diverse and effective toolkit by far.
Edit: Just want to add that mines only work on stam builds, any mag build worth their salt is gonna eat them with mist form and dare you to keep casting them and mageblade is best equipped to do this without running out of resources because siphoning attacks is amazing.
Mag sorc is the worst mag build this patch, even mDK is better atm.
I disagree that dodge chance is better than damage shields. Two shields will insure the safety of your health double take is only a 20% chance I feel it's more for the movement speed than it is for the dodge chance, I also think mages wrath is better than impale because it has a chance to proc implosion, both of those executes are pretty horrible though.i think crystal frag is better than assassins will in terms of you have a bigger window to use it in, you can also animation cancel it. If you try to do that with the spectral bow most times it will just disappear. The spectral bow send to hit harder for the most part though, but I would need to test this. Swallow soul I do feel is better because it's dirty cheap, but the damage of force pulse is higher. I actually use force pulse over swallow soul for PvE, it's also much more fluid to weave. I think the only thing magblade has going for it is versatility. You can go ranged or melee or a combination of both no other magicka class can do that it has alot of aoe's and great passives, it's good at alot of stuff but it's not really the best at anything and it's very slow paced if you are playing a destro build. With all its burst coming from the spectral bow unlike the sorc because a sorc had curse making it far more bursty which is better for PvP. In PvP burst damage and mobility are King and the sorc outshines magblade in both of those aspects and in terms of burst it's really not that close magsorc honestly hits just as hard as stamblade (minus the proc sets). Magblade can be bursty like that but you are kind of forced into a dual wield role which is what I'm playing now because I find it actually better for open world PvP and I'm liking the change of pace. But it's weaker in dueling scenarios
1. you can't animation cancel frags, but you can ani cancel will, learn mechanics before you try to debate with me please. Also, will hits like 30% harder
2. Dampen is gonna be as big as hardned ward because mageblade can run necro without wasting 2 slots on garbage pets and since shields last only 6 seconds they're reactive no proactive, meaning having hardened, harness/dampen, and healing ward is redundant, if you start spamming those 3 shields you're not doing anything but draining your resources. At this point a 20% dodge chance that lasts 20 seconds is better than a third shield for sure.
3. The damage difference between force pulse and funnel is overstated because force pulse requires you to "roll" 3 crits to achieve maximum damage, whereas funnel only requires one. The reason to use force pulse for pve is to proc elemental drain and nerein'th, this is another lack of understanding of mechanics on your part. Also, Funnel from a NB hits harder than crushing shock from a sorc because of minor brutality.
4. Impale is objectively better than fury in every single way, hits harder and doesn't require an rng proc that cannot crit to do effective damage and isn't subject to the opponent just blocking after you hit them with it to ensure the secondary explosion doesn't hit hard.
5. Curse is hard countered by templars or anyone in a group with a templar, has a long telegraph, and if you dodge roll the explosion you also dodge the rest of the sorc burst during your invulnerability frame
I didn't even mention yet how fast mageblade generates ulti significantly faster than all other classes. Mageblade, nor any other magika build, doesn't require dw for burst because eye, which, btw, is gonna hit harder on NB than sorc.
I'm sorry, maybe you feel that sorc is better, but an objective look at the two classes shows mageblade is significantly better at everything except wasting magika stacking 3 shields you don't need.Edited by Lexxypwns on November 17, 2016 3:45PM1 -
Lexxypwns✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭Sunburnt_Penguin wrote: »I honestly don't know how you guys are having a good time on your magblade with the current state of PvP. I've tried all sorts of sets (Destro/Resto Spinners, BSW, Lich, DRose and Kags) all with 5L and 5H/1/1) and regardless of what I run with, I just can't compete in anything other than duels.
Even with 40k mag, 5 light and 50 points in to bastion; dampen and ward (which rarely goes to me) are just not enough to protect me from the bursts and neither is my 15k phys/spell and 2.7k crit resistance. I've tried using blessing of restoration for a decent immediate self heal coupled with dampen (to avoid the ward issues) which used to work very well but now it just gets blitzed because of the burst I'm receiving.
Then when I go 5 heavy, I'm even noticeably easier to kill because dampen is like a wet paper towel and without it I find myself constantly casting ward (as 90% of the time it doesn't go to me) which drains my resources.
In both armour cases, I've tried mirage for the dodge chance which helped a bit but feel like I need to go vamp for mist form to avoid my 15k stamina getting drained from soft CCs, but then comes the dawnbreaker issue and whether i'll need to slot purge on an already packed bar. Cloak is so buggy that I find it worthless to run in combat.
In addition, I found that relying on siphoning attacks for resource management is extremely inconsistent because of the dodge and shuffle users. In vMA I can use it with 700 regen and never run out of magicka with a pot but in PvP, its like I'm not even weaving.
I'm at a loss here with my favourite class. ATM it's either just suck it up accept the fact that I'm gonna get wrecked or switch to my Templar (which I don't really like) and have success.
Mageblade currently requires a very patient approach to open world and a willingness to disengage and pick your spots, try to frustrate people into mistakes, outplay them, and hope their double/triple proc sets don't melt you even when you outplay them.
As far as stam drain, make sure you're keeping siphoning attacks up, then your light attack weaving keeps your stam full enough, if you're having trouble procing it, make sure you do "medium" channels with your resto between shield stacking, the channeled attack doesn't get roll dodged.
I seriously recommend trying pirate king on your mageblade, the 30% is basically like having heavy armor for your shields and the minor defile is overcome by the fact that you can get HUGE healing ward heals when you protect the whole shield and by proc'ing that healing ward heal during downtime on your skeleton proc0 -
PS4_ZeColmeia✭✭✭✭✭Sunburnt_Penguin wrote: »I honestly don't know how you guys are having a good time on your magblade with the current state of PvP. I've tried all sorts of sets (Destro/Resto Spinners, BSW, Lich, DRose and Kags) all with 5L and 5H/1/1) and regardless of what I run with, I just can't compete in anything other than duels.
Even with 40k mag, 5 light and 50 points in to bastion; dampen and ward (which rarely goes to me) are just not enough to protect me from the bursts and neither is my 15k phys/spell and 2.7k crit resistance. I've tried using blessing of restoration for a decent immediate self heal coupled with dampen (to avoid the ward issues) which used to work very well but now it just gets blitzed because of the burst I'm receiving.
Then when I go 5 heavy, I'm even noticeably easier to kill because dampen is like a wet paper towel and without it I find myself constantly casting ward (as 90% of the time it doesn't go to me) which drains my resources.
In both armour cases, I've tried mirage for the dodge chance which helped a bit but feel like I need to go vamp for mist form to avoid my 15k stamina getting drained from soft CCs, but then comes the dawnbreaker issue and whether i'll need to slot purge on an already packed bar. Cloak is so buggy that I find it worthless to run in combat.
In addition, I found that relying on siphoning attacks for resource management is extremely inconsistent because of the dodge and shuffle users. In vMA I can use it with 700 regen and never run out of magicka with a pot but in PvP, its like I'm not even weaving.
I'm at a loss here with my favourite class. ATM it's either just suck it up accept the fact that I'm gonna get wrecked or switch to my Templar (which I don't really like) and have success.
Mageblade currently requires a very patient approach to open world and a willingness to disengage and pick your spots, try to frustrate people into mistakes, outplay them, and hope their double/triple proc sets don't melt you even when you outplay them.
As far as stam drain, make sure you're keeping siphoning attacks up, then your light attack weaving keeps your stam full enough, if you're having trouble procing it, make sure you do "medium" channels with your resto between shield stacking, the channeled attack doesn't get roll dodged.
I seriously recommend trying pirate king on your mageblade, the 30% is basically like having heavy armor for your shields and the minor defile is overcome by the fact that you can get HUGE healing ward heals when you protect the whole shield and by proc'ing that healing ward heal during downtime on your skeleton proc
I kinda didn't think pirate would proc enough to provide enough mitigation to be worth it, especially with running mirage.PSN: ***___Chan (3 _s)
Hybrid, All-Role NB0 -
psychotic13✭✭✭✭✭
✭PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »psychotic13 wrote: »PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »psychotic13 wrote: »I'm using necropotence, Stygian kena and grothdarr, it's a gank build but it one shots people
DW? or just 4pc necro?
Yeah DW, shadow Mundus full divines
I'm using staff to weave, but you should look at spell power mundus & infused on main armor. I calculated it to be a net gain on damage, but I suppose it depends how much you want a strong crit base. Then again, I don't use necro so I'm sure that might adjust to the benefit of your set up.
I did try Destro and a heavy attack gank build but it wasn't for me, so I switched to DW and use shadowy disguise for the guarenteed crit on the first blow, pumping up the shadow mundus I believe is the best potential damage. Stygian gives a massive boost to that first blow aswell normally can soul harvest > impale and they're dead.0 -
PS4_ZeColmeia✭✭✭✭✭Yeah I went the other way, I was DW and then went staff because I liked the ease of weaving (especially since I primarily play on my Vita so it really makes the ease of weaving more forgiving). Other than that, I think our play style is pretty similar. How is your merciless resolve on dungeon bosses?PSN: ***___Chan (3 _s)
Hybrid, All-Role NB0 -
LegacyDM✭✭✭✭✭
✭i just gotta put out there, rattlecage isnt a good set. if it shared the buff with team, be one thing but sap essence and braain fart the mages dot both give the buff. they are not hard to manage the buff uptime, and both do good things, sap essence is like the ultimate aoe for mageblades and the mage ability (brain farting still) is really good dot (and the empower from using it is best time to use ultimate and/or cripple).
Disagree. If you run a dual wield sword setup with sword of omens and manage to get the magicka jewelry versions you can pump out good damage while freeing up skill slots. With the setup below I don't need to run entropy and can use mark instead.
Balanced aoe/single target damage with good regen
5 rattlecage - 3 jewelry 2 swords
5 krags
2 grothdarr
1 vdsa resto on off bar
high single target damage but less regen.
5 rattlecage
5 necropetence
2 slime crawl
freeing up slots? dude sap essence and entropy are to very important skills for mages. 1. sap essence is the strongest insta damage non-ult aoe ability in the game. whirlwind only matches and maybe slightly surpasses at eabout 5-10% health left at best. detonation beats it yes but it takes 4-8 seconds depending on morph which is why i also dont count it as beating it as its really only doing damage every 8s while sap is a spammable aoe. entropy is strong for single target because it also grants major sorcery, but also empower giving the nightblade 2 aspects to its use, normal: entropy + crippling grasp and entropy + ult + crippling grasp to thier rotation. ult takes precident as it does more damage, and if you using meteor it also grants empower still to crippling grasp. and as entropy does damage on par with nb's instant damage skills, there is no dps loss there only gain from the empower from the skill. you are not freeing up a slot with rattlecage, your losing power over using better sets like spc, willpower + 2p torugs, whats the proc set scathing mage i believe that triggers off class skills, just to name a few off hand.
I agree with keeping sap essence in the bar. The problem is your not always going to be in range to use it. With rattle cage you can ensure 20% uptime all the time. Especially when your at a ranged group or Zerg fight and need to spam funnel health. No reason whatsoever to run entropy if you have rattle cage. The damage over 11 or 14.4 seconds (don't remember how long it is) isn't worth it and I can think of far better things to slot if you make up major sorcery from rattlecsge.
You have your playstyles and rotation and I have mine. But to say rattle age is useless is wrong and misleading. I've provided two successful setups that use rattlecsge. My necropetence build can get me a 10k+ funnel health with a magicka recovery of around 1650. In that build I don't need to use siphoning attacks, entropy, or go stave.
I don't use meteor I use bat swarm while procing grothdarr. sometimes throw in proxy det into the mix and finish off with sap essence.
sap essence is for groups, not single player, in pve you use it against mobs/adds. in pvp you use it when pushing through opposing forces. single opponents or when at range, you use entropy. you gain buff and you got a dot going on a guy to annoy him.
I know what sap essence is for, smart guy. To play mageblade effectively you need to balance group play with solo play. If your good at one but not the other your going to die a lot. Predominately, however, mageblade are best at group play. If you want to solo or dual go play a stsmblade and go gankpeople from horseback. The point I'm making is you don't need to slot entropy when using rattlecage. Your not always going to be in range to use sap and there are better skills you can slot over entropy.
Why don't you people think out of the box for once and use something that's not a cookie cutter fire destro, entropy, skoria meteor based build. I've already provided two non conventional dual wielding/resto builds that are highly effective that use rattlecage.Legacy of Kain
Vicious Carnage
¥ampire Lord of the South0
