Thoughts on MagDen pve (come on,dont be shy..i know you are out there!)

Joxer61 · November 2018

So....anyone other than Liko and Stil playing a Magden and if so how you doing post Murkymires? I am finding it fun as, which is always a good thing and the damage and such is palatable...not the 60k + you see other classes doing but then its not always all about being equal with everyone else! The bear damage reduction is a bummer but then every class got spanked a bit this time around did they not? I have found that instead of an Ice mage sort of thing (which, while fun lets be real, damage was blah) I have now leaned towards a "Ace Ventura" sort of thing what with a crap ton of critters on my bars. Defiantly some different gameplay for sure and lets hope they all have their shots!
Anyways, was just curious about how the class/builds is doing and thus the reason for the post. Feel free to offer up any gems of wisdom (other than "re-roll", that's just mean!) or experiences and the like. Cheers!!!

Saint314Louis1985 · November 2018

just Leveled one up and finding it to be pretty good for running 3dps + tank hm dungeons. I also like having double bar inner light + blue Betty and being able to use trash pots with no loss.

Kanar · December 2018

I don't like pet gameplay so was quite happy when the bear got nerfed. However, I don't like how their solution is tied to number of animal companion abilities slotted.

Ice staff needs to be changed back to DPS. The snare and immob is useless in pve even for a tank.

Joxer61 · December 2018

Kanar wrote: »

I don't like pet gameplay so was quite happy when the bear got nerfed. However, I don't like how their solution is tied to number of animal companion abilities slotted.

Ice staff needs to be changed back to DPS. The snare and immob is useless in pve even for a tank.

SO the whole "Ace Ventura" theme you're not feeling eh...lol? Its a shame Ice Mage cant be a thing.....the game sells itself on playing "your way" so playing as one would be right in that same trend one would think.
Simple fix too, as you mentioned, just some changes to ice staff (revert it back) and ice skills on a whole and Bam, everyone has a whole other option to which to play and have fun with.

Ah well.....maybe one day down the road so until then I shall run around like a little zoo keeper!!!

Rylisin · December 2018

My Main is a Magden and I honestly wish I could test him out post-nerfmire but given the horrible ping issues NZ / AUS players are still experiencing after nearly 2 months (with no answers from ZoS) I haven't been able to do much except craft. Pre-Murkmire I was getting 28-30k on a 6 mil dummy wearing Siroria, Necropotance, Zaan and an vMA inferno on the backbar. I could probably have gotten it higher with more practice and less ping though lol. I also don't run bear, i found him too big a pain to use in trial runs or dungeons. He's good solo though if im having a lazy day.

I would like to see changes people have already mentioned on the forums, including making Ice dps viable. Give tanking a staff where they can have an entire skill line dedicated to magic tanking and everyone will be happy imo. I do wish if they made ice viable, some ice damage sets other than the two i've mostly seen people talking about on forums. My ultimate dream with my boy is full ice mage and ice sets, i like the theme.

The class itself has lots of promise and its personally my favorite because its fun and rotation /skills are interesting to use. At the moment, i really feel like it hasn't changed much aside from previous patches so it's not great but its not terrible either.

WrathOfInnos · December 2018

The sustain is pretty good this patch, but the damage is lower than ever.

Joxer61 · December 2018

Ryzakier wrote: »

My Main is a Magden and I honestly wish I could test him out post-nerfmire but given the horrible ping issues NZ / AUS players are still experiencing after nearly 2 months (with no answers from ZoS) I haven't been able to do much except craft. Pre-Murkmire I was getting 28-30k on a 6 mil dummy wearing Siroria, Necropotance, Zaan and an vMA inferno on the backbar. I could probably have gotten it higher with more practice and less ping though lol. I also don't run bear, i found him too big a pain to use in trial runs or dungeons. He's good solo though if im having a lazy day.

I would like to see changes people have already mentioned on the forums, including making Ice dps viable. Give tanking a staff where they can have an entire skill line dedicated to magic tanking and everyone will be happy imo. I do wish if they made ice viable, some ice damage sets other than the two i've mostly seen people talking about on forums. My ultimate dream with my boy is full ice mage and ice sets, i like the theme.

The class itself has lots of promise and its personally my favorite because its fun and rotation /skills are interesting to use. At the moment, i really feel like it hasn't changed much aside from previous patches so it's not great but its not terrible either.

Bingo! Just the feedback I was looking for! I too am in shittypingland...Qlds/Brissy and yea, with a constant 380 lat it sucks. Its a lot of the reason I went back and made a magden….melee and me + bad lat = lots of deaths, not fun. Hoping staying ranged will be a tad more forgiving.
But yea, I find the class fun as...have a stam, a tank and now my mag so will stick with it cuz its fun regardless.....and our net isn't going to improve anytime soon so just have to adapt eh!
Cheers!!! ')

Rylisin · December 2018

@Joxer61 , magicka dps is a little harder with higher ping (light attack lag yay!) which is frustrating but since you're at range you wont die a lot like you could in melee range. But we adapt for sure, I ended up converting my MagBlade to a healer so I could continue to play group content with my friends since it's a tad more forgiving when the spikes hit. Really been enjoying it too, nice change of pace!

Magden is fun and works well at range for me and you'll have access to the magicka shield (even though those got nerfed to Oblivion) which can save you in a pinch, especially when the lag comes in. Strong self heals too, so you might not be doing amazing top-tier damage, but you can still take a beating

supaskrub · December 2018

I really do like Magden ... if I have one fault to pick it’s winters revenge duration, for a dps it just doesn’t sit right for me, it’s relatively expensive to use when you’re rotation means you either have to be dynamic and recast it after 12 seconds which invariably means a barswap to cast just one skill or you stick to a static rotation and overcast at the expense of around 1k magicka wasted, I would have no complaints if the duration was reduced to 8 seconds and the magicka cost reduced pro rota.. that saving of 1k magicka then in indirect terms means a lot.

But that said, it’s a great class, I don’t get the Liko numbers either but self sustained and no outside buffs I get around the 38k mark which I’m happy with, it’s just that overcasting on revenge that hurts me on hard solo content and leaves me running dry on occasion unless I take the heavy attack approach which I find irritating on any class.

I’m just taking mine through her first vma run (no bear) and taking a pause between stages.. she seems to hit harder than my no pet sorc for some reason but does not feel as fluid to play which I put down to various self buff casting time animations.. but it is a long time since I’ve been in vma so I may be wrong

f047ys3v3n · December 2018

I've been fiddling around with the magden a little and have a few thoughts.

1) They sustain is very good for a mag toon but still not enough to go full light attack rotation like many stam toons. As such it is not a huge boost to dps and means you have the complication of when you need to fit in heavies anyway.

2) The rotation is a nightmare. All of the warden's DOT's seemed to be differently timed. As such, you will be bar swapping almost every cast and having to keep track of many separate duration DOT's. ZOS has as tendency to do this DOT timing thing. I don't know if they think it is good for making dps more difficult or what but the mag warden is about as bad as it gets.

3) The payoff is not great. In the end the dps is not crazy low for a mag ranged toon but it is not better than really any of the others leading you to wonder what the point is vs playing something easier to manage.

4) There is no compelling group or individual reason to play magden. It doesn't offer great synergies for the tank like sorc, or great passive group heals like mNB used too. Even it's class passive group buff is un-exciting.

5) All it's synergies with ice are useless since you can't run an ice staff because of the taunt anyway.

All in all it is just not impressive. Stam warden on the other hand, is pretty buff with the huge dps numbers stam can do and even more sustain than most stam with survivability that is huge. One of my buddies switched and is destroying my dps numbers while surviving at least as well.

LeHarrt91 · December 2018

I was adamant to use Deep Fissure in my rotation due to the cost decrease, and using, Siroria, Mothers Sorrow, Zaan and Destro, Ice Comet i hit just under 40k on a 3 mil as a Breton. I tried a solo 6 mil but i think i only got 36k, i probably will do more testing on it tho.

md3788 · December 2018

f047ys3v3n wrote: »

5) All it's synergies with ice are useless since you can't run an ice staff because of the taunt anyway.

You will not taunt if you do not put points into Tri-focus, which there is no reason to do if you're running an ice staff. I don't get why this is so hard for people to understand.

supaskrub · December 2018

md3788 wrote: »

f047ys3v3n wrote: »

5) All it's synergies with ice are useless since you can't run an ice staff because of the taunt anyway.

You will not taunt if you do not put points into Tri-focus, which there is no reason to do if you're running an ice staff. I don't get why this is so hard for people to understand.

It’s hard to understand because if you do put points in tri-focus you get + single target damage with inferno and + aoe damage with shock staves and a poor ‘tuant’ with an ice staff.

You remove those points and you have an ice staff that gets nothing, an inferno that gets nothing and a shock staff that gets nothing. That is the issue, putting ice staff taunt onto tri-focus is silly logic. I believe this thread is about magwarden dps and the bottom line is if you want to run a frost warden dps in PvE it falls behind a magwarden that would run double inferno and for grouped mobs also behind a shock staff. The only benefit a frost staff with no tri-focus brings is crowd control.

LeHarrt91 · December 2018

supaskrub wrote: »

md3788 wrote: »

f047ys3v3n wrote: »

5) All it's synergies with ice are useless since you can't run an ice staff because of the taunt anyway.

You will not taunt if you do not put points into Tri-focus, which there is no reason to do if you're running an ice staff. I don't get why this is so hard for people to understand.

It’s hard to understand because if you do put points in tri-focus you get + single target damage with inferno and + aoe damage with shock staves and a poor ‘tuant’ with an ice staff.

You remove those points and you have an ice staff that gets nothing, an inferno that gets nothing and a shock staff that gets nothing. That is the issue, putting ice staff taunt onto tri-focus is silly logic. I believe this thread is about magwarden dps and the bottom line is if you want to run a frost warden dps in PvE it falls behind a magwarden that would run double inferno and for grouped mobs also behind a shock staff. The only benefit a frost staff with no tri-focus brings is crowd control.

Yes but that is only when doing heavy attacks, most rotations are Light Attack rotations as Light Attacks do way more damage.

The important passive in Ancient Knowledge but frost only increases block amount and reduced block cost.

Kanar · December 2018

I ran vMA with dual ice staff, iceheart, necropotence and mother's sorrow. No bear.

Ice heart makes you tanky af. I think I had frost cloak slotted too. I easily sailed through with a ~420k score on my first run (have a ton of practice on my stamDK though). I did find the DPS to be low, but burst is good for non-boss mobs. In later runs I started using skoria for more damage.

I skip the tri-focus passive. It's not very good unless you use shock. With fire it's more damage on heavy attacks. Whoopity Doo.

I want an ice build but think I'm gonna have to go fire front bar, vMA ice staff back bar. This is my first halfway serious magicka character so trying out different stuff.