• It's designed for well-coordinated groups with good resource and heal support.
• It maximizes DPS at the expense of the magblade's identity and unique strengths. It basically plays like a hobbled sorc.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Joromarr wrote: »

LegacyDM wrote: »

Are you constantly applying sap essence for major sorcerery? Need the 20% spell damage increase for 100% uptime. Try structured entropy instead of sap essence. (...) Give us some numbers. What's your spell damage, max magicka, and spell penetration?

In boss fights it's sometimes challenging to always run up to the boss to hit them with Sap Essence for the buff. I thought of Structured Entropy, but then that would decrease dps since it provides little damage output. Here are my stats for Bar 1/Bar2:

CP230
Mundus: The Thief
Spell Damage: 1606/1420
Spell Crit: 56%/58%
Weapon Damage: 1132/1132
Weapon Crit: 29.4%/31.4%
Max Magicka: 27036/27036
Magicka Recovery: 1291/1291

My armor enchants are max magicka and my weapon enchants are absorb magicka. I also have mostly divine traits.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Julianos is a fine, but I am not a fan of treasure hunter. I would go with willpower jewelry as a place holder until you get better stuff, but that is just my 2 cents. On a mageblade, your goal should be BSW (julianos is fine for now), Ilambris x2, and Moondancer/Infall x3-4. Infall might actually be better than moondancer for nightblade because of passives, but its pretty close. Trial jewelry is likely a long way out, so willpower is probably your best substitute.

I'm on the right track then since I acquired 2 Willpower last night. I also just learned about 5/1/1 and so I put some skill points into medium and heavy armor and will be trying to get a medium and heavy Julianos piece soon.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

NB Meta bars look pretty much like this:

Fire: Force Pulse, Merciless Resolve, Elemental Blockade, Crippling grasp, Inner light, Meteor
Lighting: Twisting Patch, Shock Clench, Impale, Siphoning Attacks, Harnass Magic (flex), elemental Rage

Why Blockade on the fire bar? Isn't it good to knock the enemies off balance with lightning? And why Shock Clench vs Flame Clench? Also - is Elemental Drain not worth a slot for it's magicka regen to self and group plus the debuff?

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

(...) This build does require potion use, but that's the way to pull max DPS. (...) More max magic means all your skills hit harder. (...) I dont know what your stats look like, but also be sure that you are running blue health/magic food, magic and spell damage enchants, and that you dont have more thatn 5-10 attributes in health (0 is the goal) with the rest into magic.

I just posted my stats above. I definitely use health/magicka food. In regards to potions, I've never used them. What ingredients do I need, and what potions do I need to make? I also had no idea that more max magicka meant harder hitting spells, I just thought it meant I had a bigger resource pool. Good to know!

Anlaemar wrote: »

It sounds like work is needed on your rotation more than anything.


Get a buff tracker if you don't have one.

Buff trackers are important for every roll to monitor all your buffs/debuffs/ground-aoes. You have priorities as a DPS when it comes to your skills.

Buffs > DoTS > Spammable

I have a buff tracker, I guess I just need to keep a better eye on it. It's hard when the combat is so fast paced though. Good to know that Buffs > DoTs, I've been doing that backwards.


Basically I guess it's my rotation that's wonky, based on the last two posts. I don't "weave" light attacks, I just would do heavy attacks after casting all my buffs and DoTs. I also don't animation cancel, which is something I still don't quite understand.

So blockade is one of the strongest skills in the game. Lighting blockade does work, especially in small man for the off balance, but fire is more damage. A healer should be running lighting blockade for you, but they dont always. The same applies to ele drain. Ele drain gives major breach and magika steal. Well a tank should be taunting with pierce armor to give you the major breach, and magika steal is again generally the job of the healer, either by running radiant aura or ele drain. Damage dealers really shouldn't have to run ele drain in a group, but when solo, it is certainly useful or if your healer is not up to scratch.

One nice thing about the fire blockade and shock clench combo is that it gives both a fire and lighting DOT to proc both elements on the Ilambris monster set when you get it. Now you have to realize, that I am posting meta bars for end game content. I would probably not try to control 4 DOTS (Twisting, Clench, Crippling, blockade) and 2 buffs (merciless and siphoning) right out of the gate. One reason we put the buffs in this order is based on duration, that way you can maximize the uptime. Ideally, you want to reapply DOTS right as they run out. Too early or too late and its a DPS loss (better to error on the side of too late than too early). Getting a rotation where you cast all your DOTs in order is very helpful. You could certainly drop clench or crippling grasp for something like structured entropy.

There are 2 buffs any magic DPS needs. Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy. You get both by running potions on cooldown: Corn Flower, Lady's Smock, Water Hyacinth. Running potions all the time can be pricey, so you can certainly look to get the buffs elsewhere, but it comes as a DPS loss because you must add it into your rotation. Potions can be drank at any time independently from your rotation, assuming they are off cooldown. You also want to make sure you get your "medicinal use" passive from alchemy to boost the duration, so the buffs can be up 100%.

If not using potions, you can get major sorcery from Sap essence or Structured entropy and major prophecy from inner light. Structured entropy can be used at range and is actually a small DOT, so there are worse things to add to your damage rotation. It is certainly better than Sap Essence on bosses, but in trash pulls, sap can be very powerful. You could certainly treat that as a flex spot and switch depending on the fight. You need one of them if not running potions. Inner light also gives you a ton of magic (more damage) so even if running potions, you typically still slot it, at least on your front bar.

Yes, damage does scale off both spell damage and max magic (or weapon damage and max stamina if its a stamina ability) so you always want to boost your primary stat pool as high as possible. 10.5 points of magic is roughly equal to 1 point of spell damage, but that ratio is not always a constant for all skills. This is important in practice because usually you are having to make trade offs. The most obvious one initially is the Health vs Magic balance. Every point you put into health is a point you dont put into magic, so you are trading damage for survival. There is no right answer here. Competitive players put nothing into health, but in the beginning, that's probably a bad idea. You do no damage when dead. I usually recomend 5-10 pts in health when learning. Try to get to at least 18k health (structured entropy on your front bar also gives health).

As for animation canceling, this is something you should look up some youtube videos on if you want to play nightblade. Nightblades probably depend more on AC than any class. Your main buff is merciless resolve. It does two things. One is that it gives you a damage buff. You want this buff active 100% of the time. The second thing it does is that it "procs" a spectral bow once you get off 4 light attacks. Now you dont want to just stand their and spam light attacks, as its horrible DPS. But what you can do is "weave" light attacks in between just about any skill. That way, you accumulate your required 4 light attacks when applying your buffs/DOTs, and then you can fire your spectral bow when you get there. Remember that when you fire a spectral bow, you need to reapply the buff.

The best way to practice is to get on a target dummy and work on weaving force pulse or funnel health. Basically, you cast light attack and then immediately follow with your skill. So it becomes Light attack>Skill, Light attack>skill. Skills can not be fired faster than one per second based on the global cooldown inherent in all skills. Light attacks, heavy attacks, Blocks, Dodge rolls, bar swaps, all act independently of the global cooldowns, so basically, you can add them into your rotation without slowing it down. A good place to start is cast merciless resolve and weave light attacks and force pulse until you see the bow proc. It should only take 4 weaves, but it will likely take more in the beginning. Try the following: LA>Mericless, LA>Force pulse (x4 or however many it takes), LA>Spectral Bow, LA>Mericless and repeat. Then when you get that down, start adding in DOTs. The only other buff is siphoning strikes. You really dont need it all the time, i usually apply pre fight and when my magic falls below 50%. This is another skill that is based on weaving. You get resources back based on Light Attacks.

Long story short, NBs rely on weaves to proc both their main damage skill (mericless) and to manage their resources (siphoning strikes), so you want to practice it. If you are on PC/NA, you are welcome to use my test dummy anytime, just message me in game.

Edit: I also agree with just about everything @code65536 said. The take away is start simple and then expand your rotation, and what works for a max CP player in a trial is not necessicarily the best for someone learning. I also agree, that shock clench is probably the first thing I would remove, and that funnel health>>Force pulse outside of trials.