Don't drop Inner Light for Ele Drain, instead drop Harness. The reason for this is, while Inner Light boosts your damage through giving you 7% more max magicka, Harness is a completely defensive skill. So it can be replaced on a dummy fight.
You should practise a LOT and get your rotation pierced into your mind and muscles. And don't forget to weave. Shoot a light attack in between each ability. Doing this step will drastically increase the effectiveness of Merciless and it adds a ton of DPS all by itself.

if you have access to summerset then elemental weapon is a better spammable than funnel. I'd swap siphoning strikes for either path or cripple, swap inner light on backbar to trap and trade shield out for ele drain when you parse. When parsing apply ele and your buffs, drop trap and then drop blockade, path and cripple then go into your spammable. Once bow proc is up use it, after that it's just maintaining buffs/debuffs and getting as many bow procs as you can

Joxer61 wrote: »

Don't use the "dummy"...go out and kill stuff and learn rotations that way.....no Boss just stands there smiling at you.

I aggree and dissagree with this statement. I think that you should learn your rotation and PRACTICE it on a dummy first so you don't have the pressure and can get the muscle memory to be able to do it without thinking about it. It will make it much easier to use in a real fight because you won't be having to think about what you have to hit in what order while trying to do mechanics. Once you got that down my personal experience is to get a friend that is a healer and another friend that is a healer and go take on world bosses.

Here is why I say this, your not in a dungeon and you are less likely to run into toxic players. People don't want you coming into dugeon runs and learning your rotation. You will get experience fighting a tanked boss while you will still have some mechanics to watch out for, and have your healer friend throw orbs, shards, and have other synergies so you can get used to using those in actual combat.

You can also pick up some good gear that will be usefull/profitable for you. Farming the motifs in Wrothgar, Summerset etc.
Also the Deshaan world bosses can drop some highly desired gear like mothers sorrow. Good luck!

qwyksylver wrote: »

if you have access to summerset then elemental weapon is a better spammable than funnel. I'd swap siphoning strikes for either path or cripple, swap inner light on backbar to trap and trade shield out for ele drain when you parse. When parsing apply ele and your buffs, drop trap and then drop blockade, path and cripple then go into your spammable. Once bow proc is up use it, after that it's just maintaining buffs/debuffs and getting as many bow procs as you can

I did make some changes to my skills that I use and one of them was getting my psijic skill line to 10. I'm using elemental weapon as my spammable and the precursor to channeled acceleration since I haven't unlock the morph just yet. And really drop siphoning attacks???? I thought siphoning attacks was a must have for magblades.

SilverWF wrote: »

Well, with that gear having 15k DPS is just not possible, really.
It sounds like you are not weaving - not using light attacks in between skills

Also would be nice to have a knowledge about your CP allocation.

Here is my lol tests (22k) from cp560
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xfZs5SN40k

Now it's a bit better - closer to 30k. And other gear: Julianos + Scathing Mage + Valkyn, bit changed CPs either
Still far from top with their 50k, but I didn't have Siroria at all - lazy to farm it...

Believe me, I'm not proud to admit to that. I was averaging 15k dps, right now I'm up to 20k dps which is still terrible and a far shot from my potential. Even my magwarden hits harder than my magblade currently. One of my biggest issues I'm having is resource management. I'm not sure if I'm over casting skills or what but once I start approaching 30% health on a test dummy the wheels start falling off the train and my magicka is critically low causing me to heavy attack when I should be ready for execution. I will post my cp allocation later when I'm able to get on.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Joxer61 wrote: »

Don't use the "dummy"...go out and kill stuff and learn rotations that way.....no Boss just stands there smiling at you.

If trying to actually learn a mageblade "rotation", you couldnt give worse advice. This must be practiced first if you want it to work in content. It is arguably the hardest rotation in the game as it really does need to be a dynamic rotation if you want good results. Stamblade is like a hybrid dynamic rotation, as their are static parts to it that repeat, which IMO, makes the stamina version slightly easier (harder to play in actual content though).

To the OP. If your sustain is struggling, then one of 4 things is happening. Most likely, your light attack weave needs work. NBs sustain with light attacks. If you arent light attack weaving every skill, you are going to struggle. The other obvious problem is that your siphoning uptime is bad, which is how the first point works. Third, your elemental drain up time is bad. We need the return from this skill if we want to sustain without heavy attacks. Fourth, your potion uptime is bad.

As stated, when parsing on a dummy, Ele Drain replaces your shield on your back bar. If you are going to drop IL on your back bar, you do it for a skill that gives minor force (Channeled Acceleration or Trap).

If you are looking for a smooth circular rotation, look to another class. If you want to master a dynamic rotation, be prepared to spend hours and hours on a dummy.

The best advice I can give is to build towards a full rotation. Start by practicing your merciless. Keep the buff up, make sure you can weave funnel health and that every 5th skill is a bow proc. You should be getting 3 per cast of merciless. This alone takes practice. If you cant do that, the rest wont matter.

Then add in blockade, siphoning and elemental drain. This will allow you to sustain for longer, and it will start to feel like a rotation. Then add in Twisting Path and cripple. If you try to juggle everything out of the gate, it will likely go badly.

Dont think of a rotation, think of priorities. Your priorities are as follows: Merciless/Bow Proc>Elemental Blockade>Twisting Path>Cripple>Siphoning>Spam Skill. You also need ele drain (a friend can help you here) and potions up 24/7. You wont sustain without potions. Above 25% health, your spam skill is either funnel or elemental Weapon, and below it is impale. Below 25%, you can stop using Path and cripple.

Practice, practice, Practice.

Edit: Dont listen to anybody telling you to drop siphoning attacks.

Another great post, thank you. I do spend quite a bit of time in front of a target dummy, and I know the only way I'm gonna get better is by spending more time doing that. I'm in this for the long haul at this point.

SoLooney wrote: »

you didnt state your mundus stone, drop ward for ele drain, no vma staves, are your weapons at least gold, do you have alchemy maxed, do you use spell power pots, are you light attack weaving, are you keeping up buffs.

my advice, go get the psijic skill line maxed. you are using best in slot gear minus the vma staff and zaan.

the faster you kill the dummy, less of an issue sustain is. also, magblades have the best sustain out of all mag classes

My mundus stone is apprentice atm. My weapons are gold infused flame staffs (mothers sorrow). I do not have any vMA staffs. I am using trash mag pots, I will use spell power pots once I get a better handle on my rotation without it. I do have my alchemy to lv50 with medicinal use skills maxed. I recently finished the psijic skill line to lv10. I have the elemental weapon morph as my spam, and I nearly have accelerate ready to morph to channeled acceleration. I do not have zaans helm yet, and honestly don't know if using it in dungeons/trials is really that practical (for me) anyway.

I will post my cp distribution when I get on eso. I appreciate the feedback everyone has given.

There are people who will tell you that you can't do decent DPS on magblade without expensive spell power pots and a dynamic rotation.

I'm here to tell you that these people are wrong.

Yeah, you need a dynamic rotation to hit the big numbers that popular YouTubers are hitting. If you're on PC, a dynamic rotation is somewhat easier to achieve, thanks to add-ons that track ground AOEs and Merciless procs. If you want a dynamic rotation on console, you literally have to count light attacks in your head.

I dunno about you, but I can't do that. My main DPS is a 40k DPS pet sorc, and I'm used to static rotations.

So, I set out with the goal of creating a magblade build for my alt that could hit at least 30k DPS with a static rotation; I achieved a magblade that can hit 35k DPS with a static rotation while using trashpots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te6mFrpF5G8

Gear:
5x Imperfect Siroria, 5x Mother's Sorrow, 2x Valkyn Skoria, 1x VMA Inferno Staff

All divines with magicka glyphs on armour pieces, infused dual staves with flame damage on front bar and spell damage on back bar, 1x mag recovery glyph on one jewellery piece, 2x spell damage glyphs on the other jewellery pieces.

Mundus:

Lover (just for the skeleton parse -- use Apprentice if you're in an optimized group... or stick with Lover, whatevs)

Food:

Witchmother's for more sustain

Skills:

Front Bar: Twisting Path, Impale, Degeneration, Merciless Resolve, Inner Light, Fiery Rage
Back Bar: Unstable Wall of Fire, Crippling Grasp, Elemental Drain/Harness Magicka, Siphoning Attacks, Inner Light, Soul Harvest

Why Degeneration? Sure, you end up overcasting it with my rotation, but it's much cheaper than Swallow Soul (helping with sustain), it obviates the need for spell power pots when you're practicing, and it's not bad for self heals. You also get empower from the Mage's Guild passive that increases the damage of your light attack just before you hit your Merciless Bow proc. If you want to waste money on spell pots and risk running out of magicka, throw Swallow Soul in its place. Why the other, shorter morph of blockade? Because the purpose of this build was to design a static rotation that still maximizes Merciless Resolve bow procs. Unstable Wall of Fire's final damage burst procs just as you're ready to cast the skill again, so there's no downtime on the dot.

Rotation:

Prebuffs + Initial Ult: Merciless Resolve > Siphoning > Ele Drain > Destro Ult

Main rotation: LA > Blockade > LA > Crippling Grasp > Weapon Swap > LA > Twisting > LA > Degeneration > LA > Bow Proc

After every third bow proc, recast Merciless Resolve, swap cancel, cast Siphoning Attacks, and start in on the main rotation. The only difference this time is that you throw in LA > Elemental Drain after Crippling Grasp.

When you're in execute range, work in as much Impale spam as you can while still keeping up your dots.

Easy peasy 35k. No, you won't be at the top of any leaderboards, but you can still complete all the content in the game with the added bonus of NOT having to master a difficult dynamic rotation. If I were to gold everything out, I could probably squeeze even more out of it.

SilverWF wrote: »

@Aurielle
How ppl can play without damage numbers? Your video shows literally nothing.

LOL, you can see the results at the very end in text chat. My video does not show “literally nothing.” It shows me hitting 35.7k DPS on a 3 million dummy. I don’t enable floating damage numbers because I’m on console, and I need to do everything I can to reduce random frame rate stuttering.

MooseKnuckles88 wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

There are people who will tell you that you can't do decent DPS on magblade without expensive spell power pots and a dynamic rotation.

I'm here to tell you that these people are wrong.

Yeah, you need a dynamic rotation to hit the big numbers that popular YouTubers are hitting. If you're on PC, a dynamic rotation is somewhat easier to achieve, thanks to add-ons that track ground AOEs and Merciless procs. If you want a dynamic rotation on console, you literally have to count light attacks in your head.

I dunno about you, but I can't do that. My main DPS is a 40k DPS pet sorc, and I'm used to static rotations.

So, I set out with the goal of creating a magblade build for my alt that could hit at least 30k DPS with a static rotation; I achieved a magblade that can hit 35k DPS with a static rotation while using trashpots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te6mFrpF5G8

Gear:
5x Imperfect Siroria, 5x Mother's Sorrow, 2x Valkyn Skoria, 1x VMA Inferno Staff

All divines with magicka glyphs on armour pieces, infused dual staves with flame damage on front bar and spell damage on back bar, 1x mag recovery glyph on one jewellery piece, 2x spell damage glyphs on the other jewellery pieces.

Mundus:

Lover (just for the skeleton parse -- use Apprentice if you're in an optimized group... or stick with Lover, whatevs)

Food:

Witchmother's for more sustain

Skills:

Front Bar: Twisting Path, Impale, Degeneration, Merciless Resolve, Inner Light, Fiery Rage
Back Bar: Unstable Wall of Fire, Crippling Grasp, Elemental Drain/Harness Magicka, Siphoning Attacks, Inner Light, Soul Harvest

Why Degeneration? Sure, you end up overcasting it with my rotation, but it's much cheaper than Swallow Soul (helping with sustain), it obviates the need for spell power pots when you're practicing, and it's not bad for self heals. You also get empower from the Mage's Guild passive that increases the damage of your light attack just before you hit your Merciless Bow proc. If you want to waste money on spell pots and risk running out of magicka, throw Swallow Soul in its place. Why the other, shorter morph of blockade? Because the purpose of this build was to design a static rotation that still maximizes Merciless Resolve bow procs. Unstable Wall of Fire's final damage burst procs just as you're ready to cast the skill again, so there's no downtime on the dot.

Rotation:

Prebuffs + Initial Ult: Merciless Resolve > Siphoning > Ele Drain > Destro Ult

Main rotation: LA > Blockade > LA > Crippling Grasp > Weapon Swap > LA > Twisting > LA > Degeneration > LA > Bow Proc

After every third bow proc, recast Merciless Resolve, swap cancel, cast Siphoning Attacks, and start in on the main rotation. The only difference this time is that you throw in LA > Elemental Drain after Crippling Grasp.

When you're in execute range, work in as much Impale spam as you can while still keeping up your dots.

Easy peasy 35k. No, you won't be at the top of any leaderboards, but you can still complete all the content in the game with the added bonus of NOT having to master a difficult dynamic rotation. If I were to gold everything out, I could probably squeeze even more out of it.

I'm on console too, and not having those fancy add ons definitely makes me feel gimped at times. Ty for sharing this, I'll see if I can replicate this later since I have 99% of the gear (no vma staff)

No problem, hope it helps. Remember, too, that CP is also a factor. Which reminds me... The part of my CP setup that’s relevant to damage/sustain looks like this:

Apprentice:
Elfborn: 48
Elemental Expert: 43
Spell Erosion: 10

Atronach:
Staff Expert: 16
Master at Arms: 61

Ritual:
Thaumaturge: 72

Lover:
Arcanist: 100

Also, are you a vampire? If not, the passives help a lot with sustain.

Ty for putting down your cp distribution. I would have to tweak mine a bit since I'm only cp480.

No, I'm not a vampire. I'm not completely familiar with vampirism in eso. I know it helps with magicka regen, but also grants extra fire damage the higher the level I become as well as looking....creepier lol

Keep working on your rotation. Magblade pve dps is very high. You have to keep up your buffs and hit spectral arrow at least twice per cycle.
I drop path, blockade. Cripple. la between all (and cancel the ani of the la) swap. Spam funnel or impale, depending on health remaining of target.
Just get your rotation down and your dummy parses will skyrocket. I don’t personally rely on dummy parses because they are not realistic, but my magblade is 40+ after learning how to weave the la’s, which is hard with some of the magblade skills, funnel fights me

I’m on console, you can get there. Honestly speaking, sorcs are easier on console tho

I’m no mag blade expert but I can do alright. I do two things differently than most. I use 2x spell dmg and 1x mag regent glyphs on jewelry. I also use a static rotation, which I find easier to maintain in actual fights especially on console with no addons. My rotation is as follows.

Siphoning merciless destro ult (la blockade la path la cripple la funnel la bow la funnel la funnel la blockade la cripple la bow la path la blockade la ele drain la cripple la funnel la bow la merciless la siphoning) then repeat what’s in the (). Use the cheap nb ult (forget the name) as soon at its ready and right before a bar swap. You can directly replace funnel with ele weapon if you’d like.
I hit around 41-43 on dummy with this rotation. That’s wearing burning spellweave and master architect. Think it would go up if I had Siroria.
Hope it helps.

Aurielle wrote: »

There are people who will tell you that you can't do decent DPS on magblade without expensive spell power pots and a dynamic rotation.

I'm here to tell you that these people are wrong.

Yeah, you need a dynamic rotation to hit the big numbers that popular YouTubers are hitting. If you're on PC, a dynamic rotation is somewhat easier to achieve, thanks to add-ons that track ground AOEs and Merciless procs. If you want a dynamic rotation on console, you literally have to count light attacks in your head.

I dunno about you, but I can't do that. My main DPS is a 40k DPS pet sorc, and I'm used to static rotations.

So, I set out with the goal of creating a magblade build for my alt that could hit at least 30k DPS with a static rotation; I achieved a magblade that can hit 35k DPS with a static rotation while using trashpots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te6mFrpF5G8

Gear:
5x Imperfect Siroria, 5x Mother's Sorrow, 2x Valkyn Skoria, 1x VMA Inferno Staff

All divines with magicka glyphs on armour pieces, infused dual staves with flame damage on front bar and spell damage on back bar, 1x mag recovery glyph on one jewellery piece, 2x spell damage glyphs on the other jewellery pieces.

Mundus:

Lover (just for the skeleton parse -- use Apprentice if you're in an optimized group... or stick with Lover, whatevs)

Food:

Witchmother's for more sustain

Skills:

Front Bar: Twisting Path, Impale, Degeneration, Merciless Resolve, Inner Light, Fiery Rage
Back Bar: Unstable Wall of Fire, Crippling Grasp, Elemental Drain/Harness Magicka, Siphoning Attacks, Inner Light, Soul Harvest

Why Degeneration? Sure, you end up overcasting it with my rotation, but it's much cheaper than Swallow Soul (helping with sustain), it obviates the need for spell power pots when you're practicing, and it's not bad for self heals. You also get empower from the Mage's Guild passive that increases the damage of your light attack just before you hit your Merciless Bow proc. If you want to waste money on spell pots and risk running out of magicka, throw Swallow Soul in its place. Why the other, shorter morph of blockade? Because the purpose of this build was to design a static rotation that still maximizes Merciless Resolve bow procs. Unstable Wall of Fire's final damage burst procs just as you're ready to cast the skill again, so there's no downtime on the dot.

Rotation:

Prebuffs + Initial Ult: Merciless Resolve > Siphoning > Ele Drain > Destro Ult

Main rotation: LA > Blockade > LA > Crippling Grasp > Weapon Swap > LA > Twisting > LA > Degeneration > LA > Bow Proc

After every third bow proc, recast Merciless Resolve, swap cancel, cast Siphoning Attacks, and start in on the main rotation. The only difference this time is that you throw in LA > Elemental Drain after Crippling Grasp.

When you're in execute range, work in as much Impale spam as you can while still keeping up your dots.

Easy peasy 35k. No, you won't be at the top of any leaderboards, but you can still complete all the content in the game with the added bonus of NOT having to master a difficult dynamic rotation. If I were to gold everything out, I could probably squeeze even more out of it.

You can actually keep track of your light attacks towards bow procs on your buff tracker.

Danksta wrote: »

MooseKnuckles88 wrote: »

This feels like insanity, I can not seem to hit any harder than 21k to 22k dps if my life depended on it.

Gear:
Head: Skoria heavy divines purple
Chest: siroria light divines gold
Shoulder's: skoria light infused purple
Waist: siroria light divines purple
Hands: siroria light divines purple
Legs: siroria light divines infused
Feet: siroria light divines purple
Neck: mother's sorrow purple mag rec enchant
Ring1/2: both mothers sorrow mag rec enchant

Fb weapon: mothers sorrow infused flame staff gold with shock enchant
Bb weapon: mothers sorrow infused flame staff gold with flame enchant

I'm gonna keep trying to get my dps higher no matter what. One issue I've been having is the elemental weapon skill charges but doesnt cast. Sometimes I charge my weapon 2 or 3 times and my light attack doesnt cast.

3 magicka recovery enchants aren't really helping your DPS, but really at the point you're at it's mostly rotation issues.

I agree, I'm not really having sustain issues anymore, more like rotation issues. I'm thinking of dropping elemental weapon and going back to funnel. I know I'm charging my weapon but my light attack won't cast causing me to have to recharge my weapon causing my dots and buffs to fall off.