Gearing My MagDK

Maulkin · October 2018

ThumbtackJake wrote: »

I'm just looking for feedback on where to go from what I've thrown together since hitting 50 recently on this guy.

5x Silks of the Sun (chest, belt, boots, gloves, pants)
5x Julianos (Ring, Ring, Necklace, Staff)
2x Vicious Death (Head, Shoulders) - Just grabbed it for the 124 spell damage until I could get my DPS high enough to start vets and get a decent monster set

Should I try switching one of the sets out to BSW? Not really 100% on where to go from here.

The first thing you should farm, if you're gonna star farming stuff, is a Zaan monster 2-piece. That alone is a significant improvement to your DPS. It's an easy farm, you might only need to get into the dungeon once. The shoulder you just get from Undaunted Dailies.

Second thing to farm would be a vMA inferno staff. This is a bit of tougher farm, as you need to build experience in the dungeon and it's tougher if you're low CP, but it's still the best investment of your time going forward.

Now for the 5-piece sets... I would say skip BSW. It's a nightmare of a grind to drop the inferno staff (since it's a front-barred set) and you only get uptime in the 50-60% range. Theoretical max is 66%, but never happens. This translates to about ~270 sp dmg on average. And this will be deprecated by Spell Strategist next patch which in theory will have a 100% uptime of 500 spell dmg, so almost twice as good.

It looks like Siroria on the body and Spell Strategist on the front bar, might be the strongest combo next patch. So don't waste time farming stuff that will get deprecated. Keep your Sun and Julianos for now and if you decide to farm a 5-set now, farm Siroria.

I would say Sun on the body and Spell Strategist on the front-bar (which will be a PvP rewards sets and can be bought) is a very combo if you don't want to farm anything beyond the vMA staff and your monster helm.

Good luck!

md3788 · October 2018

The first thing you should farm, if you're gonna star farming stuff, is a Zaan monster 2-piece. That alone is a significant improvement to your DPS. It's an easy farm, you might only need to get into the dungeon once. The shoulder you just get from Undaunted Dailies.

Zaan is best for parsing, yes, but Valkyn can be better in dungeons since many boss fights have you dodge rolling out of AoE and therefore breaking the 8m range

Now for the 5-piece sets... I would say skip BSW. It's a nightmare of a grind to drop the inferno staff (since it's a front-barred set) and you only get uptime in the 50-60% range. Theoretical max is 66%, but never happens. This translates to about ~270 sp dmg on average.

You're forgetting the 129 spell damage of the 3 piece set. That comes out to 418 spell damage when up 55% (which is very generous as all MagDK abilities are flame damage. I'm usually at around 60% uptime)

Spell Strategist on the front-bar

This set shouldn't be front barred since as far as i've heard on PTS you lose the spell damage on the back bar (similar to siroria). I haven't personally confirmed this though.

Just my .02

sedi · October 2018

Thanks so much for that rotation @md3788 I will definitely try it later. I think my light and heavy attacks is a big problem as well as letting my blockade run out sometimes.

Maulkin · October 2018

md3788 wrote: »

Zaan is best for parsing, yes, but Valkyn can be better in dungeons since many boss fights have you dodge rolling out of AoE and therefore breaking the 8m range

Depends on the boss fight. Zaan is far superior in any tank and spank. Skoria is very good in anything that requires a lot of movement. You can't go wrong with either, to be honest. If you want to get more content specific, Grothdarr is superior against mobs

md3788 wrote: »

You're forgetting the 129 spell damage of the 3 piece set. That comes out to 418 spell damage when up 55% (which is very generous as all MagDK abilities are flame damage. I'm usually at around 60% uptime)

I'm not forgetting it, the 3-piece is just irrelevant in the discussion. It's a standard spell damage bonus, no more no less. My best ever BSW uptime on a dummy parse was 61% and my average is about 57%. It's just a normal factor when the buff wears off while you're on your back-bar and it takes couple of secs extra downtime before you proc it.

md3788 wrote: »

This set shouldn't be front barred since as far as i've heard on PTS you lose the spell damage on the back bar (similar to siroria). I haven't personally confirmed this though.

I heard it's a target debuff (mark on target) that applies on both bars. I also haven't tested myself, so it could be just nonsense. In which case I'm happy to be corrected. I'll ask more peeps and find out.

If it's a body set, then it's a good alternative to Siroria for fights where you can't stay stationary. If it's a front-bar set, it's a BSW killer.

md3788 · October 2018

I'm not forgetting it, the 3-piece is just irrelevant in the discussion. It's a standard spell damage bonus, no more no less. My best ever BSW uptime on a dummy parse was 61% and my average is about 57%. It's just a normal factor when the buff wears off while you're on your back-bar and it takes couple of secs extra downtime before you proc it.

Just making sure. A lot of people claim Julianos is better when BSW uptime is less than ~55% but they always forget about that additional 129.

If it's a body set, then it's a good alternative to Siroria for fights where you can't stay stationary. If it's a front-bar set, it's a BSW killer.

I actually may use it as a siroria replacement (or at least try it out). While I can maintain a good amount of stacks in a lot of fights, it's just one more thing to pay attention to!

Reinhor · October 2018

Reading this discussion when I just finished to farm my BSW today.... I want to kill myself (or my character), if the set became less useful.

Saint314Louis1985 · October 2018

Try absorb magica enchant front bar and 1 recovery glyph on jewelry and drop your ultimate on second rotation