DW Magblade question

superior987 · March 2018

I’ve seen in a couple threads that Zaan is helping make dw magblades a solid choice. Does anyone have a proper build that’s working for them? I keep only seeing parses and I’m not great at reconstructing from those. Thanks!

Krayl · March 2018

Also interested in a good starting point.

Lexxypwns · March 2018

So, imo, for DWmageblade open world/BGs either Shacklebreaker or Amberplasm are your starting points.

Good damage set options to pair with those on your front bar are: War Maiden, Caluurion, Julianos, Spinners, Vicious Death(med/large scale only imo), Acuity, and maybe some others I’m forgetting. Spinners has great synergy with zaan, caluurion is a Double proc nightmare.

Vma resto is also beautiful for helping your sustain.

For DW mageblade the weakness is roots/snares and you need to build accordingly. Shadow Image and Cloak account for escaping, but you’ll also probably need to slot Lotus so that you can gap close opponents. Healing ward, merciless, and a spammable are a must. That’s 6/10 skill slots so you’ve got to be flexible with the others depending on what you’re doing. Sap/entropy unless you’re using spell power pots. From there probably cripple, a second shield, and either fear, mutagen/rapid regen. Obviously you can run det in there for group play.

Personally if I were to switch to DW, I’d run 5 Spinners, 5 Amber, 2 Zaan, VMA resto.

Sap, cloak, conceal, merciless, lotus, incap/tether
Shield, shield, shadow image, cripple, RR, lights champion

Hoked_on_ponix · March 2018

You could go full cheese like me and run 2 Zann, 5 Caluurion's Legacy (front bar), 5 Lich, and VMA resto.

superior987 · March 2018

Right on, thanks! Any thoughts on PVE? I’ll mostly be vet dungeoning and trials.

Runefang · March 2018

superior987 wrote: »

Right on, thanks! Any thoughts on PVE? I’ll mostly be vet dungeoning and trials.

2x Zaan, Master Architect (Jewellery + 2x Body), Mechanical Acuity (2x Swords, 3x Body). Moondancer could replace either Master Architect or Mechanical Acuity as well. Even Moondancer + Julianos is perfectly viable. The key is that whatever you use for swords are a proc based set like Acuity, Moondancer or Architect. So you can't run Mother's Sorrow or Julianos on the front bar since thats a dps loss

Its just the usual Food, CP, Mundus, Race, Skills etc that you see on most Magblades. Just look at Alcast's build for that.

Rotation wise you're using Shooting Star/Destro Ulti first up and then Soul Harvest from then on to keep Master Architect procced as much as possible.

Abstraqt · March 2018

https://youtu.be/i3DYkL0lF1Q

Change torugs for warmaiden or amberplasm if you want, also zaans could be used instead of skoria

witchdoctor · March 2018

@Runefang

Quick question: how does one light weave skills for a DW magNB?

I get that the DW bar will be all class skills. But are you still LA weaving with swords in between skills?

BohnT · March 2018

Argonian Meele Magnb:

Clever Alchemist+ Necropotence+ 2pc Maw of the infernal
6 light 1 heavy
3 Potion speed glyphs on jewelry
Eye bowl as food (you'll be at 25k health)
Atronach or apprentice (depending on your sustain)

No worries if you have 9k stam you will easily sustain.
For snare removal you slot mist form, with shade you get out of sticky situations.

You want to be in cloak 90% of the fight, then get out of cloak nuke someone with incap+ will and get away again and Kite more.

Runefang · March 2018

witchdoctor wrote: »

@Runefang

Quick question: how does one light weave skills for a DW magNB?

I get that the DW bar will be all class skills. But are you still LA weaving with swords in between skills?

Correct you're still LA weaving with swords, otherwise your bow procs will available.

witchdoctor · March 2018

Thanks, @Runefang

I crafted up some MA swords (making my front DW bar 2x Grothdar, 5x Moondancer, and 5x MA) last night.

Went and ran some guild pledges. It was different! I caught myself HA on the DW bar when resources were low ... which of course was wrong since the toon isn't stamina.

I went 2x sharpened just cause this toon is principally a healer in group content, so I'd only DW solo or in dungeons.

I'm not particularly solid on magNB DPS (hell, any magicka DPS, I prefer stam), but it seemed OK. I'll probably stay with it just because visually it looks better IMO.

Last question: what enchants would you recommend?

Runefang · March 2018

witchdoctor wrote: »

Thanks, @Runefang

I crafted up some MA swords (making my front DW bar 2x Grothdar, 5x Moondancer, and 5x MA) last night.

Went and ran some guild pledges. It was different! I caught myself HA on the DW bar when resources were low ... which of course was wrong since the toon isn't stamina.

I went 2x sharpened just cause this toon is principally a healer in group content, so I'd only DW solo or in dungeons.

I'm not particularly solid on magNB DPS (hell, any magicka DPS, I prefer stam), but it seemed OK. I'll probably stay with it just because visually it looks better IMO.

Last question: what enchants would you recommend?

@witchdoctor that's a good question. Currently I'm going Nirnhorned main hand and Infused off-hand. Fire enchant on the main hand and Shock enchant on the off-hand. Backbar is Nirnhorned with Weapon/Spell Damage.

I believe optimal would be a magicka version of the usual stamina set up:
Sword 1: Nirnhorned with Fire Enchant
Sword 2: Infused with Spell Damage Enchant
Back Bar Fire Staff: Nirnhorned with Damage Health poisons active (Shock Enchant)

I want to switch between ranged and melee easily on my magblade so I'm not going to change the enchant or use poisons on my back bar to suit an optimal melee set up.

witchdoctor · March 2018

Thanks, @Runefang !

Krayl · March 2018

I don't have Zaan's yet but I'm running this for PVE:

Grothdar x 2
BSW x 5
Julianos x 5

Backbar is julianos staff to retain 5 pieces when weapon swapping; I have mech. acuity set ready to test with Master Architect but I didn't find acuity to work as consistently well as this setup.

dark elf for fire damage bonus.

Main hand - Julianos Infused / Fire
Off hand - BSW Infused / spell damage

Backbar - Julianos flame staff / infused / fire

with that much fire BSW is up about as much as it can be or at least feels that way relative to my magDK.

Don't have very accurate dps numbers to give because I'm on console but I hold my own with it. Lack of range is limiting but i got used to that playing a magDK for a while.

SmellyUnlimited · March 2018

If you did do 2 sword on a bar, what would be the recommended traits? I’m guessing Nirnhoned on both?

SmellyUnlimited · March 2018

Runefang wrote: »

witchdoctor wrote: »

Thanks, @Runefang

I crafted up some MA swords (making my front DW bar 2x Grothdar, 5x Moondancer, and 5x MA) last night.

Went and ran some guild pledges. It was different! I caught myself HA on the DW bar when resources were low ... which of course was wrong since the toon isn't stamina.

I went 2x sharpened just cause this toon is principally a healer in group content, so I'd only DW solo or in dungeons.

I'm not particularly solid on magNB DPS (hell, any magicka DPS, I prefer stam), but it seemed OK. I'll probably stay with it just because visually it looks better IMO.

Last question: what enchants would you recommend?

@witchdoctor that's a good question. Currently I'm going Nirnhorned main hand and Infused off-hand. Fire enchant on the main hand and Shock enchant on the off-hand. Backbar is Nirnhorned with Weapon/Spell Damage.

I believe optimal would be a magicka version of the usual stamina set up:
Sword 1: Nirnhorned with Fire Enchant
Sword 2: Infused with Spell Damage Enchant
Back Bar Fire Staff: Nirnhorned with Damage Health poisons active (Shock Enchant)

I want to switch between ranged and melee easily on my magblade so I'm not going to change the enchant or use poisons on my back bar to suit an optimal melee set up.

@Runefang
How do you proc the enchants? Are you doing actual light attacks with the weapon’s, or would something like Concealed Weapon proc them? And have you noticed a damage increase (presumably from adding 5 piece so you can run Zaan’s?)

Runefang · March 2018

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

Runefang wrote: »

witchdoctor wrote: »

Thanks, @Runefang

I crafted up some MA swords (making my front DW bar 2x Grothdar, 5x Moondancer, and 5x MA) last night.

Went and ran some guild pledges. It was different! I caught myself HA on the DW bar when resources were low ... which of course was wrong since the toon isn't stamina.

I went 2x sharpened just cause this toon is principally a healer in group content, so I'd only DW solo or in dungeons.

I'm not particularly solid on magNB DPS (hell, any magicka DPS, I prefer stam), but it seemed OK. I'll probably stay with it just because visually it looks better IMO.

Last question: what enchants would you recommend?

@witchdoctor that's a good question. Currently I'm going Nirnhorned main hand and Infused off-hand. Fire enchant on the main hand and Shock enchant on the off-hand. Backbar is Nirnhorned with Weapon/Spell Damage.

I believe optimal would be a magicka version of the usual stamina set up:
Sword 1: Nirnhorned with Fire Enchant
Sword 2: Infused with Spell Damage Enchant
Back Bar Fire Staff: Nirnhorned with Damage Health poisons active (Shock Enchant)

I want to switch between ranged and melee easily on my magblade so I'm not going to change the enchant or use poisons on my back bar to suit an optimal melee set up.

@Runefang
How do you proc the enchants? Are you doing actual light attacks with the weapon’s, or would something like Concealed Weapon proc them? And have you noticed a damage increase (presumably from adding 5 piece so you can run Zaan’s?)

I haven't noticed much of damage increase beyond just having Zaan over another monster set but I haven't practiced with it much. That said the highest Magblade parses (legit ones anyway) I've seen in this patch have all been with DW set ups.

Enchants are usually procced off skills or LA/HA. I know the weapon damage enchant is an exception, it's only procced from light and heavy attacks.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · March 2018

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

If you did do 2 sword on a bar, what would be the recommended traits? I’m guessing Nirnhoned on both?

Never nirn on off hand. Nirn on off hand only adds 12 weapon damage. Worthless on on a mag build.

Nirn main, infused off. Infused off reduces the main hand enchant cool down as well.

SmellyUnlimited · March 2018

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

If you did do 2 sword on a bar, what would be the recommended traits? I’m guessing Nirnhoned on both?

Never nirn on off hand. Nirn on off hand only adds 12 weapon damage. Worthless on on a mag build.

Nirn main, infused off. Infused off reduces the main hand enchant cool down as well.

@Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

How do you weave your light attacks in between for bow proc? I was trying it but (maybe it was just lag) siphon + LA was clunky. I tried holding a light attack then using siphon but it seemed to not count the LA. I so want this build to work so I can run Zaan, or possibly Valkyn.

Krayl · March 2018

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

If you did do 2 sword on a bar, what would be the recommended traits? I’m guessing Nirnhoned on both?

Never nirn on off hand. Nirn on off hand only adds 12 weapon damage. Worthless on on a mag build.

Nirn main, infused off. Infused off reduces the main hand enchant cool down as well.

@Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

How do you weave your light attacks in between for bow proc? I was trying it but (maybe it was just lag) siphon + LA was clunky. I tried holding a light attack then using siphon but it seemed to not count the LA. I so want this build to work so I can run Zaan, or possibly Valkyn.

were you actually making contact with the enemy on your LA? Because you're using a sword you have to be in melee range and the LA has to be a successful hit to count. You'll also want to make contact to get procs for siphoning attacks to work. I haven't had any issues outside of the fact that after playing at range for so long it took me some time to make sure my light attacks were actually landing.

Undefwun · March 2018

^^
Seems to be my issue. I think I get too close and miss. That’s what it feels like anyway