Hey Magblades! How's Murkmire for you?

fred4 · December 2018

dagonbeer wrote: »

Whereas on my stamplar I can roll dodge/vigor and recover from being group targeted. Or magplar block heal to full.

It's funny you should say this. It's probably the standard thing to do, for those classes, or is it simply what you're comfortable with? I never fully developed my stamplar, but stam DK used to be my main. Nowadays I think both are kind of terrible. I have a decent stam DK build that a friend has adopted and regards highly, but it's not me anymore.

As to magplar, blocking and healing with Honor the Dead doesn't work well for me. It's precisely that playstyle which can make it hard to get back on offense, I feel. I don't cleanse and I hardly block. Instead I use a vMA resto and am built to heal in other ways, cutting back on the necessity for Honor the Dead, blocking, or purging. Established thinking dictates that, because Extended Ritual is such a unique and powerful skill, you must use it. I don't find it a good skill for solo / small scale and I don't use it at all. I am a melee / Sweeps templar, by the way.

As to the magblade, how cowardly you are depends on you. I've been up against a magblade - or was it a tanky stamblade - who was a hugely impressive 1vXer - I thought - using cloak, the shade, and Assassin's Will. What feels cowardly to me is abandoning the fight immediately when the gank doesn't make any inroads. That could also be viewed as realistic, I suppose. However with Shade, Healing Ward, Dampen, Forward Momentum and the resto ult, I can very well decide to brawl it out. I agree that healing back to full has become tough with the Healing Ward nerf. At the same time I've become tired of stalemating by wearing Troll King. The best players - especially with nightblades - have a feel for how hard they can push and be the one left standing. I'm working on that...

fred4 · December 2018

OK, this argument about NB being cowardly bugs me. On the one hand I agree, but on the other hand there is almost never an even fight in open world. There is strategy to being in the right place in any encounter, but in those moments when the tide is in your factions favor, is not everyone being cowardly by beating down the player, who found themselves out of position, 2 to 1, or 3 to 1, or X to 1? When you log on and you want to play solo, a cloaking nightblade is the go to option, IMO. If someone is obviously not a challenge, a fisherman or quester, you are free to ignore them.

kaithuzar · December 2018

Dk’s always make the excuse “its cowardly to use cloak, stand & fight me” BLAH BLAH
How about you stand & fight without skoria winning for you? How about you take off wings????

Hypocrites.

TheYKcid · December 2018

Frankly Magblades got hit a lot harder than sorcs.

They took the full brunt of the shield nerfs, while also losing a majority of the passive heals the class depended on, and to top it off their primary burst tool (Will) is trivially easy to dodge from range now.

The cloak-more-than-I-attack ones and Caluurion gankers still annoy the crap out of me and can go to hell, but I do feel objectively sorry for anyone playing more respectable builds and struggling because of the absurd slew of nerfs.

Agree with @kaithuzar that wings as a complete and total hardcounter to ranged builds is starting to become less and less justifiable in the current state of the game.

dagonbeer · December 2018

TheYKcid wrote: »

Frankly Magblades got hit a lot harder than sorcs.

They took the full brunt of the shield nerfs, while also losing a majority of the passive heals the class depended on, and to top it off their primary burst tool (Will) is trivially easy to dodge from range now.

The cloak-more-than-I-attack ones and Caluurion gankers still annoy the crap out of me and can go to hell, but I do feel objectively sorry for anyone playing more respectable builds and struggling because of the absurd slew of nerfs.

Agree with @kaithuzar that wings as a complete and total hardcounter to ranged builds is starting to become less and less justifiable in the current state of the game.

Pre-murkmire I was running spinners+shacklebreaker, now I'm one of the cloak-more -than-I-attack Caluurion gankers. I'm better off playing ranged magplar otherwise.

brandonv516 · December 2018

TheYKcid wrote: »

Frankly Magblades got hit a lot harder than sorcs.

They took the full brunt of the shield nerfs, while also losing a majority of the passive heals the class depended on, and to top it off their primary burst tool (Will) is trivially easy to dodge from range now.

The cloak-more-than-I-attack ones and Caluurion gankers still annoy the crap out of me and can go to hell, but I do feel objectively sorry for anyone playing more respectable builds and struggling because of the absurd slew of nerfs.

Agree with @kaithuzar that wings as a complete and total hardcounter to ranged builds is starting to become less and less justifiable in the current state of the game.

This is the playstyle that is most effective.

It may not be "respected" by other classes but it is what we have right now that works. A player of the same skill level on any other class is going to win if you go toe-to-toe.

So I will continue to bide my time and jump out of the shadows when I'm ready to strike. Until I find something more effective, I'll continue this method.

thankyourat · December 2018

TheYKcid wrote: »

Frankly Magblades got hit a lot harder than sorcs.

They took the full brunt of the shield nerfs, while also losing a majority of the passive heals the class depended on, and to top it off their primary burst tool (Will) is trivially easy to dodge from range now.

The cloak-more-than-I-attack ones and Caluurion gankers still annoy the crap out of me and can go to hell, but I do feel objectively sorry for anyone playing more respectable builds and struggling because of the absurd slew of nerfs.

Agree with @kaithuzar that wings as a complete and total hardcounter to ranged builds is starting to become less and less justifiable in the current state of the game.

You can be forced into cloaking more than you attack this patch if you are fighting someone with really high damage. You basically only have Cloak to protect yourself. The game is basically forcing magblades into Cloak spam. My biggest problem is cloak just isn't that good of a survival tool. It can be good 1v1 and good for escaping but open world in-combat it's horrible. It's just too much AOE, roots and detection in cyrodiil. The odds of running into a player who doesn't have a counter to cloak is rare.

TheYKcid · December 2018

That's fair. I guess I still hold an outdated grudge from previous patches lol.

brandonv516 · December 2018

thankyourat wrote: »

TheYKcid wrote: »

Frankly Magblades got hit a lot harder than sorcs.

They took the full brunt of the shield nerfs, while also losing a majority of the passive heals the class depended on, and to top it off their primary burst tool (Will) is trivially easy to dodge from range now.

The cloak-more-than-I-attack ones and Caluurion gankers still annoy the crap out of me and can go to hell, but I do feel objectively sorry for anyone playing more respectable builds and struggling because of the absurd slew of nerfs.

Agree with @kaithuzar that wings as a complete and total hardcounter to ranged builds is starting to become less and less justifiable in the current state of the game.

You can be forced into cloaking more than you attack this patch if you are fighting someone with really high damage. You basically only have Cloak to protect yourself. The game is basically forcing magblades into Cloak spam. My biggest problem is cloak just isn't that good of a survival tool. It can be good 1v1 and good for escaping but open world in-combat it's horrible. It's just too much AOE, roots and detection in cyrodiil. The odds of running into a player who doesn't have a counter to cloak is rare.

Agreed. I've seen many Magsorcs adjust by setting themselves up with more resistances and slotting the Twilight now. Those same Sorcs NEVER ran that pet.

As Magblades we can try to do the same but will fall short without our own burst self heal.

Cloak + Shadow Image is our only savior for being outnumbered and people still want the former nerfed.

dagonbeer · December 2018

brandonv516 wrote: »

thankyourat wrote: »

TheYKcid wrote: »

Frankly Magblades got hit a lot harder than sorcs.

They took the full brunt of the shield nerfs, while also losing a majority of the passive heals the class depended on, and to top it off their primary burst tool (Will) is trivially easy to dodge from range now.

The cloak-more-than-I-attack ones and Caluurion gankers still annoy the crap out of me and can go to hell, but I do feel objectively sorry for anyone playing more respectable builds and struggling because of the absurd slew of nerfs.

Agree with @kaithuzar that wings as a complete and total hardcounter to ranged builds is starting to become less and less justifiable in the current state of the game.

You can be forced into cloaking more than you attack this patch if you are fighting someone with really high damage. You basically only have Cloak to protect yourself. The game is basically forcing magblades into Cloak spam. My biggest problem is cloak just isn't that good of a survival tool. It can be good 1v1 and good for escaping but open world in-combat it's horrible. It's just too much AOE, roots and detection in cyrodiil. The odds of running into a player who doesn't have a counter to cloak is rare.

Agreed. I've seen many Magsorcs adjust by setting themselves up with more resistances and slotting the Twilight now. Those same Sorcs NEVER ran that pet.

As Magblades we can try to do the same but will fall short without our own burst self heal.

Cloak + Shadow Image is our only savior for being outnumbered and people still want the former nerfed.

Yeah, unfortunately we share a suffix with arguably the best solo class in the game. Hopefully if they ever nerf cloak (and they shouldn't) they'll give it the shadow barrier treatment (ie. keep current duration based on 5 light armors)

Tirps · December 2018

brandonv516 wrote: »

Cloak + Shadow Image is our only savior for being outnumbered and people still want the former nerfed.

Assuming that shadow imagine works, which it doesn't in most cases if there are any elevation in terrain

Jeezye · December 2018

TBH, while I agree with most of the comments written, for me the hardest hit has been the tremendous cut in passive heals in the nightblade kit alongside with very unreliable damage sources.

I was enjoying the magblade class becaues it provided so many HOTs tied to their offensive abilities. Swallow Soul's efficience has been cut over and over, doesn't connect to the target because of rolls/cloak/reflects and the heal is only mediocre. Path was one of my main arguments, providing strong HoTs + some additional damage - completly split into two morphs now. Sap Essence does decent damage but the healing component doesn't even closely compare to DK's draw essense while beeing much more resource hungry. Leeching Strikes is decent but I usually can't find a slot for it.

On the flip side, all offensive abilities are getting reflected, absorbed or dodged. For my taste, the class feels to have completly lost its identity and the only reliable way for me to play it is as an off healer...

Tirps · December 2018

Jeezye wrote: »

On the flip side, all offensive abilities are getting reflected, absorbed or dodged. For my taste, the class feels to have completly lost its identity and the only reliable way for me to play it is as an off healer...

Yeah, tbh Mag NB is better healer than dd in this patch lol

WacArnold · December 2018

I just got back into eso after a break i switched my magblade to a stamblade but i dont really like it lol. Trying to come up with a build for a magblade but after reading this i am discouraged. I dont remember who said destro restro melee but that has sparked my intrest. However getting in close sounds horrible this patch lol.

WacArnold · December 2018

Just read something about somebody using torugs and dots to dot up a player and watch him die. This guy was a stam player using alot of bleeds though. But My question is can this be translated to magblade to a pop in dot up and leave untill you can pop back in and kill them. Is something like this even possible?

arkansas_ESO · December 2018

WacArnold wrote: »

Just read something about somebody using torugs and dots to dot up a player and watch him die. This guy was a stam player using alot of bleeds though. But My question is can this be translated to magblade to a pop in dot up and leave untill you can pop back in and kill them. Is something like this even possible?

That was back when enchants procced on every tick of weapon DOTs, and has since been changed back (with the exception of werewolf bleeds, because ZOS)

sadlythebest · December 2018

Definitely feel the pain of the patch nerfs. However, its gotten me into playing a brawler Magblade using elemental weapon and Concealed Weapon. Still learning it but it definitely feels fresh.

Lucky28 · December 2018

Have 3 magblades almost 2 magblade GO's. i have abandoned the class...... ZOS did there thing and destroyed the class, it's just straight not fun to play anymore, the class has gone stale.

Leeched · December 2018

Magblade in BGs is definitely dead if you don't happen to play a heavy armor tank build...

Heimpai · December 2018

Lucky28 wrote: »

Have 3 magblades almost 2 magblade GO's. i have abandoned the class...... ZOS did there thing and destroyed the class, it's just straight not fun to play anymore, the class has gone stale.

Weren’t people complaining about sorcs? Yet magblade was the one actually nerfed

mav1234 · December 2018

sadlythebest wrote: »

Definitely feel the pain of the patch nerfs. However, its gotten me into playing a brawler Magblade using elemental weapon and Concealed Weapon. Still learning it but it definitely feels fresh.

I was just theorycrafting this a bit. Was planning something like light fortified brass and btb plus a defensive monster set (TK?) ... still hoping to slot cloak because I love the guaranteed crit and the light passives would make up for the defensive sets. The other option might be heavy with offensive sets, maybe abandoning cloak or going with the heal morph and playing it something like a stam char. That might be more effective...

Xvorg · December 2018

Trying a DoTblade with shalk's + spinner + Skoria

Swallow soul + reach + cloak + cripple + flex (entropy/soultrap/Merc ress) U Shatter Soul

Ulti is build quite fast, Swallow is quite weak but it helps with healing. The rest, is basically the same any DoT build can do.

On the good side, you can go full heavy without losing much penetration when combining Lovers + CP + Spinner. You can even throw decisive as trait in the staff to build stam even faster. The down side is the mini game with sustain since you are quite dependant on cloak.

I've been thinking on dropping swallow for pulse, but healing will go down to zero in that bar. And taking away one of the dots is not a good option imho.

Datthaw · December 2018

So fyi, if you think you can rely in dark cloak and harness with shade while wearing armor master..dont. just dont. Save your mats

WacArnold · December 2018

Is scorge harvester worth a ***?

Iskiab · December 2018

I’ve been having success as a magblade but you’re dependent on a couple things:

Healing: your weakness is you’re too squishy. I personally run heavy fortified brass in all armor slots, eathgore monster, and bright throat weapons and jewellery. Cloak is a must, otherwise why bother playing a NB. Biggest weakness is lack of a defensive stun. Funnel health is garbage, I dont put it on my bar. Refreshing path, healthy offering and the fear trap are the only non-ultimates class skills I use. Time stop is great and always on my bar, the combination of NB and time stop will make sure your the most hated opponent so you NEED to gear like a tank and cloak under pressure.

Madglade dps: Asylum staff spamming crushing shock combined with ice heart is what saves the class. Then I run 5 bright throat and 3x transmutation (for the regen set bonus’). You’ll need regen in all jewellery too. The goal is to be able to cloak at will and indefinitely. You’ll also need concealed blade on your bar for faster stealth or Templars will be able to run you down too easily. Fear trap works well too, I’ve been messing around with inevitable detonation too but am undecided on whether it’s good or not. Crushing is mandatory because it hits 3x so it’s 3x the chance to proc Ice heart. Alternating cloak and crushing provides a ton of survivability. I’ve won some 1v2s and gotten kills against 3 but you’ll likely die.... eventually. My goal in these encounters is usually to tie up the other team in objective based BGs, cloak and NBs generate so much hate you need to use it to your advantage, people will often ignore objectives just to chase you down so use it to your advantage.

WacArnold · December 2018

I went heavy armor with 2 damage sets its ok vs some people I have had success, but the downside is the balance for resources and damage. The average player will take good damage and its fine, but a long time player the fights are drawn out extremely long and I struggle for resources, and by that time they usually have backup. As of right now there is no way I can hold my own against 2 people that have any idea of how to fight. I have a lot of fine tuning to do to see what the best balance is damage/resource wise, however my options seem extremely limited in what I can accomplish with the mitigation I have to run. Very limited in bar space as well, I should be running siphoning but I just cant find the bar space for it.

Not a good patch to return to, but it is what it is i guess.

Iskiab wrote: »

I’ve been having success as a magblade but you’re dependent on a couple things:

Healing: your weakness is you’re too squishy. I personally run heavy fortified brass in all armor slots, eathgore monster, and bright throat weapons and jewellery. Cloak is a must, otherwise why bother playing a NB. Biggest weakness is lack of a defensive stun. Funnel health is garbage, I dont put it on my bar. Refreshing path, healthy offering and the fear trap are the only non-ultimates class skills I use. Time stop is great and always on my bar, the combination of NB and time stop will make sure your the most hated opponent so you NEED to gear like a tank and cloak under pressure.

Madglade dps: Asylum staff spamming crushing shock combined with ice heart is what saves the class. Then I run 5 bright throat and 3x transmutation (for the regen set bonus’). You’ll need regen in all jewellery too. The goal is to be able to cloak at will and indefinitely. You’ll also need concealed blade on your bar for faster stealth or Templars will be able to run you down too easily. Fear trap works well too, I’ve been messing around with inevitable detonation too but am undecided on whether it’s good or not. Crushing is mandatory because it hits 3x so it’s 3x the chance to proc Ice heart. Alternating cloak and crushing provides a ton of survivability. I’ve won some 1v2s and gotten kills against 3 but you’ll likely die.... eventually. My goal in these encounters is usually to tie up the other team in objective based BGs, cloak and NBs generate so much hate you need to use it to your advantage, people will often ignore objectives just to chase you down so use it to your advantage.

Have you been using this in Cp or just BGS? I completely agree with you concealed is a must. I really hate to use crushing because that dot on swallow soul is extremely crucial. Have you noticed a considerable difference in healing without it?

Iskiab · December 2018

I agree my action bars are extremely crowded, everything a NB needs is split amongst too many abilities.

I run with zero self healing except for siphon health. The uptime on iceheart using crushing is really good, the only downside is the beam it shoots giving away your position. Siphon soul was getting reflected so I ended up dropping it entirely.

My action bars these days are:

Merciless, crippling (rarely used and mostly for the passive), concealed blade (again for the passive), crushing, cloak - ultimate undo

Siphon, ele drain, fear trap, inevitable detonation, cloak - ultimate undo.

I played around and decided you need cloak on both bars. I was getting caught buffing too many times on my backbar. Undo is for if someone lands a stun/cc, if you’re fighting more than one person any cc will mean death and undo will get you out of a bind.

I love undo. I’m constantly moving, and a fun tactic is to be running away cloaked with people chasing you. Hit undo and pot, you’ll port behind them (your position 5 secs or whatever ago) and I go immediately on the offensive.

I’ve messed around with no merciless but the damage buff is too nice. I’d love to be able to use mark target instead of ele drain too but you need a destruction ability on each bar.

kaithuzar · December 2018

Iskiab wrote: »

I agree my action bars are extremely crowded, everything a NB needs is split amongst too many abilities.

I run with zero self healing except for siphon health. The uptime on iceheart using crushing is really good, the only downside is the beam it shoots giving away your position. Siphon soul was getting reflected so I ended up dropping it entirely.

My action bars these days are:

Merciless, crippling (rarely used and mostly for the passive), concealed blade (again for the passive), crushing, cloak - ultimate undo

Siphon, ele drain, fear trap, inevitable detonation, cloak - ultimate undo.

I played around and decided you need cloak on both bars. I was getting caught buffing too many times on my backbar. Undo is for if someone lands a stun/cc, if you’re fighting more than one person any cc will mean death and undo will get you out of a bind.

I love undo. I’m constantly moving, and a fun tactic is to be running away cloaked with people chasing you. Hit undo and pot, you’ll port behind them (your position 5 secs or whatever ago) and I go immediately on the offensive.

I’ve messed around with no merciless but the damage buff is too nice. I’d love to be able to use mark target instead of ele drain too but you need a destruction ability on each bar.

Why Destro Staff on back bar? Just use resto & replace ele drain with Mark.
Or you could try s&b w/blood spawn.

Idk man, I guess if you absolutely need cloak on both bars for your playstyle, but you should really try & get used to it on one to help with bar space, then you could use a heal like blessing of restoration. You could also chose to put either fear or mark on front bar if you wanted cloak on back.

Whatever works for you though.
Ice heart uptime is good to hear but I typically prefer like 5 light armor master w/dampen on both bars (if you want to use shields), otherwise I’m either running 1 pirate, 1 chudan or impreg w/reinforced & nirn & using blessing of resto

Iskiab · December 2018

Thing is the build is a glass canon that ends up being extremely tanky (in a sense) because of iceheart and crushing. It’s so reliant on that combination that under pressure it’s cloak - crushing - cloak - crushing etc and any break from those abilities means death.

What usually kills me is a cc where I die before undo fires (or I lack ultimate to use it), a Templar runs me down (by far the largest threat to the build), but usually I’m refreshing siphon and merciless. Cloak negates ground effects and dots (and people love using them) so lack of a cloak will mean more damage incoming then any rest ability I could use.

I’d like to add refreshing path but really the area is so small I don’t think it’s worth it. In my mind I’m tempted because I imagine some healing and run speed to help me escape, but I’m constantly moving in pvp. The archer who provides maim could be nice for another port too but not being able to use it while cc’d makes undo better.

Iskiab · December 2018

WacArnold wrote: »

Have you been using this in Cp or just BGS? I completely agree with you concealed is a must. I really hate to use crushing because that dot on swallow soul is extremely crucial. Have you noticed a considerable difference in healing without it?

Oh realized I never answered your questions. This build is BG only, it would be trash in cyrodiil because I play in the non-CP one in a pvp guild. In cyrodiil I heal and time stop spam, cloak allows me to be aggressive (a little) and get some good ones out. Swallow soul I don’t use in pvp or pve, and the damage shield on iceheart is a million times better.

Cyrodiil pvp healing involves healthy offering focused targets, time stop spam, potentially inevitable detonation (still undecided), setting up fear traps to counter enemy pushes, and in a charge reshreshing path/combat prayer/healing springs during heavy damage switching back to time stop once the team is past the enemy kill zone.

NB healing is decent and I try to focus on what Templars can’t provide. Templars have better survivability passives and NBs have better healing passives. Survivability for healers > raw healing so a heavy armour tank set is required. Cloak can get you out of trouble (sometimes) so I tend to stay further up then the templars for soul siphon on focused targets and better time stop placement. NB healing is decentish but templars are superior overall, but I feel one NB healer in the mix of templars adds something because it’s a different tool set and I play more in the front line.