Hey, I will try to give you some advices, I main this class since two years playing it every day.
Starting from a gear wise, you should have ready 5 basic sets to swap between them.
- Perfected Siroria - As long as your raid group will cover all 3 Major Slayer spots you may use this set for maximum damage yield, at 4 stacks it's already at Julianos level, really great choice for certain fights, where for most of the fights you can just stay in the circle and get benefit from it. As long as you don't lose your stacks (ressing, or boss mechanics) it will yield for highest possible dps. First few encounters that come to my mind are Valariel, Hunter-Killers Fabricants, Stonebreaker.

- Master Architect - Most important set you should have ready for end-game raiding. Since you are a nightblade, you can make most use of this certain set, and bring around 50% Major Slayer uptime to you and 2 folks around you. If you have stamblades in group you can let them use Relequen, because they have higher ST potential, and you can stay on Major Slayer duty. Insanely strong in pledges, vMA, raids, just have it.

- Mother's Sorrow - Because critical rating becomes more and more valuable every patch (more cp, more points in Elfborn) in Summerset and Wolfhunter this one became really strong, even being only on frontbar. On target dummy DPS it provides is really close to BSW and Julianos, but because of our passive (Hemorrhage - 10% more crit damage) and Warhorn, in raids scenarions it slighty outparses those two I mentioned before. Also, because of Siroria is giving you huge amount of Spell Damage, it's good to invest into critical rating to balance stats out. This set will be probably static and always on your frontbar, so absolutely must have.

- Burning Spellweave - Not necessary for raids, but if you will aim for vMA high scores this one is really strong for bursting bossess and one-shoting low hp mobs with Perfected Asylum Destro. It's always good to have.

- Julianos - I always have Julianos ready in my backpack, because it is just static, good set providing decent amount of Spell Damage without any conditions. First use that comes to my mind is Zaan encounter in SCP HM, where you don't really want to risk and going into melee for the boss, where MA doesn't make sense, also you want to save Destro Ult for one of the fight phases, and Siroria isn't that great because you will frequently lose stacks due to poison mechanic. Julianos is craftable and it's fine to set a Dressing Room setup for it, even when you're progressing new dungeon and don't feel confident enough, Julianos will definietely help you.

About monster sets, there is only 2 combinations that you should be interested in, and those are:
- Zaan 2 pieces - When you can just stay and attack your boss Zaan will outparse every other combination in the game, let's say it works good on Valariel or vDSA last boss, but you need to know how to use it properly. If you're skilled enough in certain fights and you have decent team, you can even use it in fights like Zhajhassa (1st boss vMoL). I rarely use Zaan, I prefer the other option.
- 1 Piece Slimecraw, 1 Piece Zaan/Iceheart - This one doesn't have any conditions, and gives you 9% of critical chance. It's static, good, doesn't force you to stay 5 seconds in melee range on the boss, what can be problematic if fights is mobile (Cloudrest, Asylum), and offers very similiar DPS to the Zaan. I use this one in most cases.

In terms of enchants and traits - it should be always Max Magicka Enchants, Thief Mundus Stone (Lover for vDSA or vMA), Divines Small Pieces, Infused big pieces. Staves' enchants are dependant of the fight, but you can't go wrong with double Infused Staves with Flame Enchant on Frontbar and Shock enchant on backbar. Rings' trait should be Bloodthristy x3, because it makes most dangerous phases of boss fights shorter and way more safer (Rakkhat, Assembly General, The Mage, Thurvokun, etc). I personally use 2 BT 1 Arcane, because more BT in team less effective it becomes, and NB has already really strong execute tool.

You don't need any sustain tools, you can easily use Bi-stat food for most of the content, as long as you have some magicka support (Orbs, Worm 5 piece), and you're really good at the rotation. Putting bow proc high in your rotation priority saves you a lot of magicka, since Assassin's Will is a free-cost, what means it's a free action what doesn't take magicka from you. Same for MA setup with Soul Harvest, Soul Harvest is free action aswell and you might want to use it as soon as possible, to get highest possible Major Slayer uptime.

In terms of rotation, I found best this exact priority list: Blockade of Fire, Assasin's Will, Merciless Resolve, Minor Force (Channeled Acceleration or trap)Twisting Path, Crippling Grasp, Elemental Weapon/Every other spammable, Ultimate. Siphoning attacks you should use wisely, and plan your resources depending of the lenght of the fight. If boss HP is hitting 10%, and you sill have 60% of magicka, there is no reason to use it.
How does execute look like? You keep blockade and Minor Force up, you drop ultimates than spam the Impale as much as you can. Since Bloothristy is multiplicative same as Impale, it outdamages full durations of the two other dots by single use.

To let you know how the rotation looks in the practice, here you can see my latest video of my Magblade doing solo 6 mln Robust Dummy with raid setup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWWSWM4kVJ8

Good luck! If you will have more questions, ask me here or directly using private messages.

md3788 wrote: »

@gethemshauna awesome response. I appreciate the time you put into that post and it's very helpful. At the moment I am not doing any endgame raiding and I don't have access to Master Architect, though I'd like to start farming this set. What should I use as a spammable as I don't have the Psijic line unlocked yet? Should I drop inner light on one bar to make room for trap?

Hey!

Even if you're far away from CP cap, it's good to prepare all tools to make yourself ready for that. If you don't have access to the Elemental Weapon, you can't go wrong with Funnel Health, what offers additional utility to the team. If additional amount of healing isn't needed, you should go for Force Pulse, what has little splash, fire part scales with Engulfing Flames, and restores you magicka back if you will get a killing blow with it.

Your backbar should look following:
1. Refreshing/Twisting Path
2. Blockade of Fire
3. Siphoning Attacks
4. Inner Light/Shield
5. Trap/Channeled acceleration