Sorry you didn’t get an answer in December. I always try to answer all nightblade posts...so do a couple of others. It must have gotten buried during the holiday breaks or something.

I think the info you got about setting him up as a healer is great. My friend recently started running his magblade in PvP with me, and man do his heals help, lol. I’d also consider having a dps setup on hand because you might want it for running around and doing 95% of the pve content. A good basic start is alcast’s azure build at alcasthq.com.

In regards to your specific comments about staves...I’m kinda with you in that I don’t particularly care for Destro abilities. But magblades have a great class tool box, and they can get by with few weapon skills. You have a couple of options, which work with varying results depending on content.

1. Destro offense bar with few Destro skills. Pro: the Destro passives, you get to use the ultimate. This is basically a strategy of sticking with the staff but reducing its use so that it isn’t as annoying for you.
2. Dual sword offense bar. Pro: you get the same attack boost from the passives. You can bring in a monster helm set...which can be pretty powerful. Consider your benefits of a 5/5/2. Con: no Destro ultimate, light and heavy attacks become useless on offense bar. This doesn’t work great in end game content, but it’s fine for world questing and stuff like that.

Hybrids

You mention being a hybrid build before. If you haven’t, I recommend respec on attributes. I advise all in magic for a magblade...then hone health with enchantments as you need. Get your magic up to the 35k+ range, and you’ll hit like a truck.

Armor

Magblades have enough resource management tools that they can give up 1-2 pieces of light armor for heavy. If you’ve worked up your undaunted, 1 heavy and 1 medium works.

Traits

PvP is brutal right now, lol. You will almost certainly want an alternate armor set that invests in impenetrable if you want to PvP. There’s just no way of getting out of trading some power for protection unless you want to play super-ranged and can always escape. I play a stamblade, and when I hit an impen magblade my opening attack does maybe 8k. If I hit someone with no impen and I Crit, I hit for like 16k. That’s how important it is right now.

On weapons the current thinking is nirnhoned on offense, and infused on the back weapon. Honestly, sharp and precise work almost as good as nirn. I do like infused...it’s pretty powerful.

Merciless resolve

As wonky as this skill can be, it’s a core skill for blades. If you can learn to use the spectral proc effectively, it does insane damage. In case you didn’t see the changes, it’s now a set cast time with the bow proc every five light attacks. You can proc the bow multiple times per cast of merciless resolve if you get that many might attacks in (which is hard to do). I don’t feel like it works as intended, but if you practice it gets somewhat consistently usable.

Grothdarr

If you go for a monster helm, this is one that I love on my magblade and one that terrifies me in PvP. It’s an aoe nightmare. Valkyn provides better single target dps.


Have fun! If you have any questions, use @davey1107 in your post so I get a notice. Again, sorry the blade community missed your post before. We were likely all out slaughtering templars.

exeeter702 wrote: »

ValkyriesWolf wrote: »

Thank you very much for your answer, @Azurya.
I'll have a look at both builds.
And perhaps someone else has a healer build, because even if others are better in that department, I want to evaluate all possible options, before making a lasting decision. ^^

Dont get too caught up on it. You should know that argonian nb healers are exceptional. If you have any questions just ask. Here is a basic ability bar setup for nb healers i made a while back in another thread.

@exeeter702 is it possible to tell a little more about a NB healer?
what gear? How do I set CP? Mundus?
Still have a argonian NB waiting for a task, pls tell me more!!
Thanks in advance!

Yeah...PvP is HORRIBLE with a slow connection. Stay out of that hot mess, lol. I’m looking over my assault/support skills to see if a magblade would miss out by never unlocking them. Nah...nothing here is that fantastic. Magic detonation is kinda fun...not vital...if you ever want those skills, go into your stinky internet PvP and just follow your faction to take keeps. Do this every one in a while amd you’ll unlock them. Again, not necessary.

Anyway, let’s talk CP. if you look at alcasthq.com, he has a 300 point config for all builds. That might help. But I’ll make some broad notes. There’s no right or wrong here...it’s mostly about homing to best suit your play style. If you never bash, there’s or reason to spend on reducing bash costs.

So a broad look:

Greens (resource management)

“A grade” passives

Recovery is king in this whole section. You want to focus heavily on magic recovery at first. At max cp I stop at 75 in arcanist. Here you get 14% recovery. Spending another 25 points slowly raises this to 15%...I don’t think it’s worth it. You can round out with some health and stam recovery...they help.

B grade

Tumbling is probsbly the best b grade passive...dodge roll is important and expensive. Some in tenacity is good. Warlord to make break free easier. Shadow ward if you block a lot. These all depend on your play style. Shade reduces sneak cost, but before thinking about this one invest in legerdemain and reducing sneak through that skill point passive.

Reds (defense)

A grade

Hardy and elemental defend do the same thing, one for physical damage and one for magic. Focus early points here, ultimately working toward 50-65 in each. Ironclad reduces all direct damage of both types...here too. These three lines can be used for most early red cps

B grade

Spell resistance is ok to toss a few into. Thick skinned to reduce DoT damage.

Most others you can ignore. Don’t be drawn to armor passives or healing...the benefit is usually less than just buffing the other passives I’ve mentioned.

Blue (ka-pow)

A grade

Elemental expert buffs all your magic damage. This is the first and most important passive. Work toward 50-65 here.

Elfborn adds an additional buff to your magic hits that CRIT. As a magblade, you should be critting, amd so this is another essential passive. Work toward 60-65 here. Early cps can all go into these two.

Master at Arms: kinda confusing, it buffs direct damage. What is direct damage? Everything that isn’t a DoT or AOE. Look at your tool tip for lotus fan. You hit an enemy for 5000 damage, reduce their speed, then do 4000 more damage over 8 seconds. The first amount is direct damage...this is buffed by Master at Arms. Alcast doesn’t use this passive...I disagree with that for how pull be using your character. 25-50 points here will really amp your power as a pve blade.

B grade

Thaumaturge: the more DoT skills you use, the better this is. Alcast sets himself up for trials...for your blade you might consider a few points here, probably more like 25 at max cp.

Spell erosion: penetration is good. Buy a few of these here and there to ultimately have 10-25 or so in this.

Ignore most of the others. Don’t be lured by weapon passives...just because someone uses staffs doesn’t make staff expert a good choice. In blue you want to prioritize the passives that are used more frequently. Something that boosts damage on all magic attacks is way, way more useful than one that boosts damage on light attacks.


Hope that helps. If you mostly focus on the passives I’ve listed, most any combination of them will work well.

@exeeter702 what is the skill on place4 on the front bar??? The one before Funnel Health???

THX in advance! And yes you were right: NB-Healing is great fun!!!

already found it, wall of elements, true?