Elsweyr theory-crafted Magblade PvP builds

kaithuzar · May 2019

Zer0_CooL wrote: »

And i always thought a build contains more then just a combination of three various sets.

I wrote my building in detail inside another post on the forum. I think it might’ve been in the PTS section but I didn’t want to write it all out again when it’s already here somewhere.

Front bar:
Sap, lotus fan, merciless(or whatever magic version is called), concealed(May swap to force pulse; undecided), mage light, soul harvest (could do Destro ult or meteor for group play; which I rarely do)

Back bar:
Cloak(the one that cloaks you...), RAT, fear, blessing of resto, siphoning attacks(magic ver.), psijic ult(8%dmg mit)

It works for me. Sure it would be nice to have fear or cloak front bar but have been loving lotus into merciless at point blank with speed normalization (inc) they adjusted.
I can’t really justify sap back bar because both the damage & heal are more so terrible there but I might if the return on killing combo increases drastically.

khajiitNPC · May 2019

My build won’t change much for Elsweyr, I’m running 5 Seducer, 5 Moon Hunter, and 2 Molag Kena. Jewelry 2 Arcane with damage glyphs, and 1 infused recovery. Definitely not BoS but very bursty and fun to play.

WacArnold · May 2019

How does the merciless stack actually work?

For example if i get 5 stacks and switch bars is it going to carry over? If not, will it still be there when i switch back? Can i stack it with temporal guard?

It only lasts 20 seconds right? Its not there forever as long as you are in combat, or use the bow proc right?

Insco851 · May 2019

WacArnold wrote: »

How does the merciless stack actually work?

For example if i get 5 stacks and switch bars is it going to carry over? If not, will it still be there when i switch back? Can i stack it with temporal guard?

It only lasts 20 seconds right? Its not there forever as long as you are in combat, or use the bow proc right?

Carries over. Stacks with named buffs. You can let it expire and still maintain the stacks like previously as long as you are in combat.

WacArnold · May 2019

Insco851 wrote: »

WacArnold wrote: »

How does the merciless stack actually work?

For example if i get 5 stacks and switch bars is it going to carry over? If not, will it still be there when i switch back? Can i stack it with temporal guard?

It only lasts 20 seconds right? Its not there forever as long as you are in combat, or use the bow proc right?

Carries over. Stacks with named buffs. You can let it expire and still maintain the stacks like previously as long as you are in combat.

Thats good news. I'm out of the loop I stopped playing for a while because last patch was trash imo for magblade. This change seems to be a lot better, as well as this patch in general and have got my interest up again.

kaithuzar · May 2019

I can sustain molag kena w/2.5k regen & Breton due to continuous attacks but since that’s not available for duels I decided to drop kena & alter the build.
I moved alessian to be a back bar only set, put on 3 willpower (Destro & neck), made neck gold like rest of gear & jewelry.
Use 1 piece chokethorn or something to give more recovery (scales higher as I’m using willows path).
Also dropped the 1x mag recovery from the jewelry so now running 3x infused sp dmg + 3x willpower front bar & have decent base damage.

I also swapped bars around so that I can lotus fan, fear, assassin’s w/o having to bar swap for the fear.

Bar1:
Lotus fan, assassin’s will, fear, concealed, mage light, soul harvest

Bar2:
Shadowy disguise, RAT, Sap, blessing of resto, teleport shade, psijic ult (8%dmg mit)

kaithuzar · May 2019

As an update I’ve dropped concealed for swallow soul. The biggest point to using concealed was that last patch Dk’s couldn’t reflect it. Now that wings have been changed, while swallow soul has a slightly lower tooltip, the fact that use can use the skill from range, weave better with a Destro staff, & have a hot attached; the small amount of speed gained from concealed isn’t enough to be worth slotting over swallow soul.

Insco851 · May 2019

kaithuzar wrote: »

As an update I’ve dropped concealed for swallow soul. The biggest point to using concealed was that last patch Dk’s couldn’t reflect it. Now that wings have been changed, while swallow soul has a slightly lower tooltip, the fact that use can use the skill from range, weave better with a Destro staff, & have a hot attached; the small amount of speed gained from concealed isn’t enough to be worth slotting over swallow soul.

If you happen to have a siphon skill already on that bar- Ele Weapon is by far the better spammable.

Iskiab · May 2019

Insco851 wrote: »

kaithuzar wrote: »

As an update I’ve dropped concealed for swallow soul. The biggest point to using concealed was that last patch Dk’s couldn’t reflect it. Now that wings have been changed, while swallow soul has a slightly lower tooltip, the fact that use can use the skill from range, weave better with a Destro staff, & have a hot attached; the small amount of speed gained from concealed isn’t enough to be worth slotting over swallow soul.

If you happen to have a siphon skill already on that bar- Ele Weapon is by far the better spammable.

Agreed. The issue is moreso fitting a Siphoning ability on the front bar. I guess for pure damage debilitate works well, but I’m having trouble finding a good ability to fit.

kaithuzar · May 2019

So right now I’ve got swallow soul & mage light.
Are you saying that replacing those with ele weapon & debilitate is better?

I’m not really worried about my sustain at this point, but I’ll check it out.

Iskiab · May 2019

For ele weapon I like the ele weapon - lotus - la - x but have been leveling a necro. I messed around a bit with ele weapon last patch and used it with melee weapons, overall it’s nice. It’s somewhat back loaded which can come in handy.

This patch I’ve been preoccupied with alts and haven’t done any pvp as a magblade dps. You can try to make a build using it, but bar space is moreso an issue now then ever which makes finding a free skill slot problematic. I haven’t made a spec to take advantage of it in the current patch, I just like the ability.

WacArnold · May 2019

My play style is brawler, im trying to find a way to tank up without sacrificing a lot of damage. My thoughts were to use armor master on back bar spinner on front with 2 peice will power jewelry for a little extra mag and troll king for health recovery.

My skills would have to play a part on providing damage and sustain.

Front Bar: Lotus(damage), debilitating(sustain),structured(For health to keep bars equal), Swallow soul, merciless, and Soul Harvest.

Back Bar: MassH, RAT, Harden Ward, Combat Prayer(damage), Cloak(because I still like to sneak) and Temporal.

I know this is not the "ideal" set up however, my thoughts on a combo would be to buff up, use combat prayer (8% damage), Lotus in (8% damage) Soul Harvest (20% damage) and sin will for the kill.

Idk if this will be enough damage tbh or enough defense to keep me going.

Another thought would be to use the swift set to play off of good damage reduction and black prison restro so I could drop troll king to add more damage.

Not the best setup by far definitely has a lot of flaws. If anybody has any ideas how to make the general Idea I have in a brawler playstyle much better please let me know.

But I have to have cloak, its not in theme with a brawler but its why I play nightblade.

I also suck at using shade, but playing into the damage reduction shade would work great.

Jeezye · May 2019

I've actually returned to a necro build this patch and found myself surprisingly tanky while maitaining damage and sustain. Also with the lotus buffs I can finally return a hybrid melee/ranged setup.

Currently running destro + s/b with skeleton, shackle and necro, all triune.
50k mag, 30k hp, 16k stam and all the passive defensive buffs for beefiness.

Also the new blur is really nice for mobility, even though Im lacking major expedition atm..

Iskiab · May 2019

@WacArnold
You’re going to have a hard time playing a brawler without dark cloak, but it is possible.

Have you tried a health recovery build? The NB toolkit’s missing self self healing. Alessian Order might be a good set for you.

WacArnold · May 2019

@iskiab

Yeah I hear you, without dark cloak its going to be tough.

Alessian Order is definitely something I may need to get.

Iskiab · May 2019

Yea, try Alessian Order and Wlliow’s Path. Going high health recovery allow you to drop magblade dead weight skills like swallow soul. Passive health regen with resistances makes you tanky, it really opens up build possibilities.

There’s another magblade who plays that style, maybe they’ll comment and say how to get good damage in a spec like that.

Insco851 · May 2019

kaithuzar wrote: »

So right now I’ve got swallow soul & mage light.
Are you saying that replacing those with ele weapon & debilitate is better?

I’m not really worried about my sustain at this point, but I’ll check it out.

So my front bar is: Swallow, Ele Weapon, Fear, Merciless and Magelite.

I can swap swallow out for siphoning strikes if I felt the need but I combo ele and swallow as a delayed burst skill some times so for now I’m keeping it. Swallow isn’t my spammable- I get a crit on it for the hot and basically go to Ele Weapon.

You can do Ele>la>swallow if you have a clean lineup on someone. Or if you run invis.

Ele by itself still out bursts swallow. You always get additional status effects and the small dmg that comes with them as well.

Cripple on my back bar for infused berserk procs basically every time I swap bars for a combo opening.

Mind you I’m running a Khajiit and stacking crit modifiers. Soul harvest hits for 11k crits pretty regularly. Biggest bow proc damage I’ve ever gotten as well... a 19.6k crit. 0_o

kaithuzar · May 2019

Iskiab wrote: »

Yea, try Alessian Order and Wlliow’s Path. Going high health recovery allow you to drop magblade dead weight skills like swallow soul. Passive health regen with resistances makes you tanky, it really opens up build possibilities.

There’s another magblade who plays that style, maybe they’ll comment and say how to get good damage in a spec like that.

That’s me but I just switched to using swallow soul lol XD
Same cost as concealed, slightly less tooltip damage but both are good imo.

Just to tinker, since I use a variety of pots, I swapped sap for debilitate & shade for refreshing path, will probably swap back to shade; just playing around.

Kaysha · May 2019

Swap debilitate for concealed and you have quite exectly my bar setup. I use healing ward instead of blessing

HowlKimchi · May 2019

Didn't change too much from last patch. Just switched refreshing path with RAT. I'm running a ranged high health recovery build with cloak, 2 light armor damage sets and troll king. I feel so potent this patch. Like I can get kills then still get to LOS now more easily against multiple people. I've always thought that getting snare immunity would make gameplay more fluid, and it really did. Very happy with magblades right now.

kaithuzar · May 2019

HaruKamui wrote: »

Didn't change too much from last patch. Just switched refreshing path with RAT. I'm running a ranged high health recovery build with cloak, 2 light armor damage sets and troll king. I feel so potent this patch. Like I can get kills then still get to LOS now more easily against multiple people. I've always thought that getting snare immunity would make gameplay more fluid, and it really did. Very happy with magblades right now.

Agree completely, just a few questions:
how are you sustaining? Jewelry enchants?
What’s your penetration at? Using eleD or mark?
I’m guessing you’re using Atro mundus, but wanted to ask anyways.

Insco851 · May 2019

kaithuzar wrote: »

HaruKamui wrote: »

Didn't change too much from last patch. Just switched refreshing path with RAT. I'm running a ranged high health recovery build with cloak, 2 light armor damage sets and troll king. I feel so potent this patch. Like I can get kills then still get to LOS now more easily against multiple people. I've always thought that getting snare immunity would make gameplay more fluid, and it really did. Very happy with magblades right now.

Agree completely, just a few questions:
how are you sustaining? Jewelry enchants?
What’s your penetration at? Using eleD or mark?
I’m guessing you’re using Atro mundus, but wanted to ask anyways.

I run a similar setup, double dmg+troll king.

Mage Mundus
Recovery food
2 recov glyphs.
+85 from race.
47k max mag.

1870~ recovery.
Pot puts me around 2100.
Plus the possible continuous.

No ele drain, no siphoning strikes. I can sustain as long as I use a mag pot every other But dependent on Harness.

Kaysha · May 2019

kaithuzar wrote: »

Agree completely, just a few questions:
how are you sustaining? Jewelry enchants?
What’s your penetration at? Using eleD or mark?
I’m guessing you’re using Atro mundus, but wanted to ask anyways.

dmg set frontbar, 2 willpower rings, Lich back bar, Trollking

Lover Mundus
Recovery food
1 recov glyph
Jewelery traits: protective, swift, infused
37k max mag.

1780 recovery front bar without Lich
1990 recovery back bar without lich
15k pen
no eleD or mark