Mag blade after 2 years away

Verbz · March 2020

So I've not played for a couple of years, magblade was always my fav class and if I return it will be on that shady little bas.... Bugger.

So what's the state of magblade in pvp nowerdays, what's any new sets like for it, how's the damage output if built into a glass cannon, has there been a lot of changes to skills, I've noticed from a few posts that cloak seems in a shocking state, is stealth/invis still buggy as hell?

Iskiab · March 2020

It’s been heavily nerfed. There are four main changes.

Merciless builds stacks of % mitigation now, funnel health is unusable, refreshing path no longer does damage, and there are cast times on all NB ultimates.

Noctus · March 2020

class is dead as far as pvp goes and in pve there are harder hitting classes. its good as healer tho.
the only magblades u see successfull in pvp are the ones that played the class for years in pvp who could probably do way better on a sorc.
i advice u to go stamblade for now.

Freakin_Hytte · March 2020

You're in for a bad time I'm afraid, magblade have recieved so many direct and indirect nerfs that it's in a weak spot.

But there's still a few of us out there struggling ^^ it's still a fun class to play imo, but it's far from where it was 2 years ago unfortunately.

nesakinter · March 2020

Noctus wrote: »

class is dead as far as pvp goes and in pve there are harder hitting classes. its good as healer tho.
the only magblades u see successfull in pvp are the ones that played the class for years in pvp who could probably do way better on a sorc.
i advice u to go stamblade for now.

Wont suggest stamblade myself. Outside of certain top tier players who have absolutely mastered stamblade, it is a dead class. Other stamina classes does everything better. The last good stamblades on pc na use more fighter guild skills than nb skills.

Verbz · March 2020

Thanks for the replies, will be looking forward to getting back to playing it, shame it's in such a bad place at the moment but eager to see what I can piece together with gear that I have or can pick up and what builds I can come up with to have fun in cyrodiil with, might take a look at my stamblade later down the line if I decide to stay on the game, I'd ask what changes have happened in there but that's for a different page lol, thanks again for the replies.

Rahar · March 2020

Verbz wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, will be looking forward to getting back to playing it, shame it's in such a bad place at the moment but eager to see what I can piece together with gear that I have or can pick up and what builds I can come up with to have fun in cyrodiil with, might take a look at my stamblade later down the line if I decide to stay on the game, I'd ask what changes have happened in there but that's for a different page lol, thanks again for the replies.

Sorry to disappoint on your return, but the posters in this thread pretty much covered the pain points. Hey, you could try ganking... but even that is a bit tough now without buggy vamp drain, lol

zyk · March 2020

If you're into PVP, don't bother. Outside of the performance issues and bugs which seem to be getting worse, there's been an incredible amount of gameplay changes that haven't improved anything but serve as a barrier of entry for returning players.

Metemsycosis · March 2020

As a returning player I suggest three things. Forget how you were on your magblade, try to have fun despite what others tell you, and don't make nerf posts.

Other than that maybe try a gank build, a bomb build, and a stat dense build. You'll find the first is "viable" the second to be very strong in group play and the third utterly lacking relative to other mag classes in the same gear.

fred4 · March 2020

Metemsycosis wrote: »

Other than that maybe try a gank build, a bomb build, and a stat dense build. You'll find the first is "viable" the second to be very strong in group play and the third utterly lacking relative to other mag classes in the same gear.

This strikes me as true.

Since the OP specifically asked about new sets and has been away for a couple of years: Caluurion. Not new, but tailor-made for gankblades. You may or may not want Zaan together with it, both sets from the same patch. It's not the only way to gank, but using procs has the advantage that you can spec into things like speed and stam regen, without losing that much burst, thus becoming somewhat of a brawler.

On the other hand the advantage of a stat-based build, specifically a mag-stacking one, is that shields become viable, but that's the kind of build where a magsorc or magden are IMO just flat out better. Shields will also allow you to brawl a little bit, but using them, and perhaps the shade, is a more delberate playstyle than the faster-paced, more stamina-like playstyle you get from investing into speed and stam sustain.

By the way, depending on how long you've been gone, you may remember the shade required a target. It no longer does, so that's a big boon, since you can set it up behind walls. On the other hand, you can't port back to it anymore while you're falling, e.g. jumping off a bridge, however you can do a similar effect with the Psijic Undo ultimae and that still works.

zDan · March 2020

A lot of people often say that magblade is terrible, don't get me wrong it's definitely close to bottom tier for open world for sure. But if you play the class enough and learn how to heal up, kite, when to burst etc it becomes super fun. Here is my build from Dragonhold which is also what I'm running this patch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8LdRdEw7W4

I also have multiple 1vX videos to back it up. Magblade honestly just takes A LOT of patience. You're gonna miss your combo roughly 80% of the time and have to reset lol.

Verbz · March 2020

Well my view is that the nightblade is a ganking class, and, while I do love playing an overpowered glass cannon for the giggles of blowing up fools in a few presses i also like playing them underpowered which allows for playing it properly, getting in to finish someone off amidst a crowd and causing havoc while ranged are popping them off and concentration is on the front wall of attackers, it's a sneaky class and should be played as such in my eyes but each to their own.

I've noticed a few sets I like the look of to mix n match so will see how they pair with some of the older sets I used to mix up.

I know I've definitely got my work cut out while trying to get up-to-date on all the changes I've missed not just on magblade but every other class and game mechanics, as if it wasn't bad enough sorting through my bank and all inventories lol. Thanks for the extra advice all 👍

raistin87 · March 2020

Dont bother coming back. Pvp is shade of its former self.

- Performance issues and lag persist.
- There is a strong trend towards overmonetization of the new content in terms of making classes/sets/skill lines locked behind paywall significantly stronger than existing ones. Good example of this is absolute gutting of NB during last 12 months.
- Incompetent design team - homogenization is absolutely step in the wrong direction as it will only make the game more bland without meaningfully improving balance. Numerous design failures (glyph gate, dot gate) which we clearly identified by the community during the PTS cycle, yet made it to the final patch.
- Declining community interest in pvp (clearly observable in the number of pvp forums posts and number of active pvp players) resulting in hardware downgrades and neglect by designers, perpetuating itself in a vicious cycle.

raistin87 · March 2020

Verbz wrote: »

Well my view is that the nightblade is a ganking class, and, while I do love playing an overpowered glass cannon for the giggles of blowing up fools in a few presses i also like playing them underpowered which allows for playing it properly, getting in to finish someone off amidst a crowd and causing havoc while ranged are popping them off and concentration is on the front wall of attackers, it's a sneaky class and should be played as such in my eyes but each to their own.

I've noticed a few sets I like the look of to mix n match so will see how they pair with some of the older sets I used to mix up.

I know I've definitely got my work cut out while trying to get up-to-date on all the changes I've missed not just on magblade but every other class and game mechanics, as if it wasn't bad enough sorting through my bank and all inventories lol. Thanks for the extra advice all 👍

in that case consider switching to stam, because snipe is back.

Verbz · March 2020

raistin87 wrote: »

Verbz wrote: »

Well my view is that the nightblade is a ganking class, and, while I do love playing an overpowered glass cannon for the giggles of blowing up fools in a few presses i also like playing them underpowered which allows for playing it properly, getting in to finish someone off amidst a crowd and causing havoc while ranged are popping them off and concentration is on the front wall of attackers, it's a sneaky class and should be played as such in my eyes but each to their own.

I've noticed a few sets I like the look of to mix n match so will see how they pair with some of the older sets I used to mix up.

I know I've definitely got my work cut out while trying to get up-to-date on all the changes I've missed not just on magblade but every other class and game mechanics, as if it wasn't bad enough sorting through my bank and all inventories lol. Thanks for the extra advice all 👍

in that case consider switching to stam, because snipe is back.

Oh nice, my stam was my first toon before switching to mag, always loved playing my sniper lol

exeeter702 · March 2020

fred4 wrote: »

Metemsycosis wrote: »

Other than that maybe try a gank build, a bomb build, and a stat dense build. You'll find the first is "viable" the second to be very strong in group play and the third utterly lacking relative to other mag classes in the same gear.

This strikes me as true.

Since the OP specifically asked about new sets and has been away for a couple of years: Caluurion. Not new, but tailor-made for gankblades. You may or may not want Zaan together with it, both sets from the same patch. It's not the only way to gank, but using procs has the advantage that you can spec into things like speed and stam regen, without losing that much burst, thus becoming somewhat of a brawler.

On the other hand the advantage of a stat-based build, specifically a mag-stacking one, is that shields become viable, but that's the kind of build where a magsorc or magden are IMO just flat out better. Shields will also allow you to brawl a little bit, but using them, and perhaps the shade, is a more delberate playstyle than the faster-paced, more stamina-like playstyle you get from investing into speed and stam sustain.

By the way, depending on how long you've been gone, you may remember the shade required a target. It no longer does, so that's a big boon, since you can set it up behind walls. On the other hand, you can't port back to it anymore while you're falling, e.g. jumping off a bridge, however you can do a similar effect with the Psijic Undo ultimae and that still works.

unless I somehow missed a patch note in the fast few major updates explaining this change, this has always been the case. The key here is that you can teleport mid air (I havent used this skill since elsweyr) so long as you actively jump off with the actual jump command as opposed to running off an edge or ledge, which has historically never worked since the game is recognizing you as being in a falling state whereas with manually jumping off, you are in a jump state which as everyone knows, the game fully allows you to cast abilities mid jump, test it out in game and let me know if this has changed as I'm not able to atm nor have i bothered to log into the game in the last few weeks.

fred4 · March 2020

exeeter702 wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Metemsycosis wrote: »

Other than that maybe try a gank build, a bomb build, and a stat dense build. You'll find the first is "viable" the second to be very strong in group play and the third utterly lacking relative to other mag classes in the same gear.

This strikes me as true.

Since the OP specifically asked about new sets and has been away for a couple of years: Caluurion. Not new, but tailor-made for gankblades. You may or may not want Zaan together with it, both sets from the same patch. It's not the only way to gank, but using procs has the advantage that you can spec into things like speed and stam regen, without losing that much burst, thus becoming somewhat of a brawler.

On the other hand the advantage of a stat-based build, specifically a mag-stacking one, is that shields become viable, but that's the kind of build where a magsorc or magden are IMO just flat out better. Shields will also allow you to brawl a little bit, but using them, and perhaps the shade, is a more delberate playstyle than the faster-paced, more stamina-like playstyle you get from investing into speed and stam sustain.

By the way, depending on how long you've been gone, you may remember the shade required a target. It no longer does, so that's a big boon, since you can set it up behind walls. On the other hand, you can't port back to it anymore while you're falling, e.g. jumping off a bridge, however you can do a similar effect with the Psijic Undo ultimae and that still works.

unless I somehow missed a patch note in the fast few major updates explaining this change, this has always been the case. The key here is that you can teleport mid air (I havent used this skill since elsweyr) so long as you actively jump off with the actual jump command as opposed to running off an edge or ledge, which has historically never worked since the game is recognizing you as being in a falling state whereas with manually jumping off, you are in a jump state which as everyone knows, the game fully allows you to cast abilities mid jump, test it out in game and let me know if this has changed as I'm not able to atm nor have i bothered to log into the game in the last few weeks.

Thank you very much! I'd say you're right.

fred4 · March 2020

raistin87 wrote: »

- Declining community interest in pvp (clearly observable in the number of pvp forums posts and number of active pvp players) resulting in hardware downgrades and neglect by designers, perpetuating itself in a vicious cycle.

A Cyro hardware downgrade after the last Midyear Mayhem early this year would explain a lot, but do you have concrete knowledge of that? Some people think it really went down the drain with the current patch. Some think it started earlier and on the consoles as well, which were only patched 2 weeks after PC.

Iskiab · March 2020

fred4 wrote: »

raistin87 wrote: »

- Declining community interest in pvp (clearly observable in the number of pvp forums posts and number of active pvp players) resulting in hardware downgrades and neglect by designers, perpetuating itself in a vicious cycle.

A Cyro hardware downgrade after the last Midyear Mayhem early this year would explain a lot, but do you have concrete knowledge of that? Some people think it really went down the drain with the current patch. Some think it started earlier and on the consoles as well, which were only patched 2 weeks after PC.

I think it’s hardware related too. Performance issues were first noticible in murkmire, then got progressively worse. During the mid year mayhem it was a bit better and got worse right after it ended. Now it’s where we are now.

At one point in the no-CP campaign there was all three factions in the same emp keep fighting it out and performance wasn’t that bad. It’s a huge drop.

If it was just software related they’d be better off rolling back all their ‘improvements’.

Deathlord92 · March 2020

Magblade and stamblade in a bad spot I play both but believe me when I say if you are good on the class you can still be very lethal. As some of the players here have said though what ever nb can do sadly the other classes just do better.

Verbz · March 2020

Deathlord92 wrote: »

Magblade and stamblade in a bad spot I play both but believe me when I say if you are good on the class you can still be very lethal. As some of the players here have said though what ever nb can do sadly the other classes just do better.

Yea it's expected for the stealthy class to get nerfed into the ground, I sat through it on wow with rogue, darkrunner in archeage, the list goes on, it's a recurring pattern lol

Deathlord92 · March 2020

Verbz wrote: »

Deathlord92 wrote: »

Magblade and stamblade in a bad spot I play both but believe me when I say if you are good on the class you can still be very lethal. As some of the players here have said though what ever nb can do sadly the other classes just do better.

Yea it's expected for the stealthy class to get nerfed into the ground, I sat through it on wow with rogue, darkrunner in archeage, the list goes on, it's a recurring pattern lol

To many cry babies unfortunately cloak is very easily countered when you have detect pots and certain skills.

technohic · March 2020

I actually tried running my NB yesterday as I feel most other classes feel like brawlers and very similar. I've been making rounds playing all classes up until they pissed me off with poor game performance but wanted to give it a shot. This may or may not be what others see. Just what I feel is a difference for me from other classes where I have similar sets or stats.

Spammables have been nerfed in general. Only ones that seem good are jabs/sweeps and dizzy outside of having a weapon set to buff others. Some spammables are ranged so it makes sense. What doesnt make sense is where NBs melee spammable is not up there. I think it might be close as far as scaling, but NB seems to have its damage boosts in passives using crit rather than raw damage. That's obviously hit or miss, reduced by crit resist, and even if you can somehow cloak to force crits, you're losing more in the GCD you used to crit. So not only is veiled strike weaker, dizzy tooltips do not match what I get on other character. My magblades force pulse, a ranged spammable is close to veiled strike and its ranged. Yes, you get damage bonuses from veiled strikes morphs from varrying degree, as well as teleport strike to go melee, but defense...more on defensives later.

Ultimates have cast times. Seem so very small but liability lag we have makes that unbearable for a class meant to hit quickly and disappear quickly.

Last issue that stands out to me is a weird marriage of defense and offense. Major resolve/ward is activated when using a shadow ability. That's not horrible as it means no slot used for an armor buff, but it's short to where you need an ability activated pretty often to keep it up. Add to this that there us no minor protection built in to the class but rather 2% per stack of merciless. goes up to 10% total but there's a ramp up time. I dont know about you, but in this crappy performance, it often takes me longer than 4 seconds to get it to register. By the time it's up, you need to be about done with your target. And then; when you spend the proc for the delayed burst you lose it. So you are left with cloak and shadow image to GTFO and good luck if someone has a counter. Makes the melee damage a lot riskier than other classes for little reward.

Another thing is that delayed burst is active. Other classes like my templar or Warden, I set up the burst ahead of time so while time doing an ulti -execute combo, they just go off and supplement. NB you have to manually trigger it.

Just a few things. I'd like to run NB more because it plays different but it feels handicapped with the assumption that the escape tools will work, and they do on bad players, but who needs help with bad players?

Iskiab · March 2020

technohic wrote: »

I actually tried running my NB yesterday as I feel most other classes feel like brawlers and very similar. I've been making rounds playing all classes up until they pissed me off with poor game performance but wanted to give it a shot. This may or may not be what others see. Just what I feel is a difference for me from other classes where I have similar sets or stats.

Spammables have been nerfed in general. Only ones that seem good are jabs/sweeps and dizzy outside of having a weapon set to buff others. Some spammables are ranged so it makes sense. What doesnt make sense is where NBs melee spammable is not up there. I think it might be close as far as scaling, but NB seems to have its damage boosts in passives using crit rather than raw damage. That's obviously hit or miss, reduced by crit resist, and even if you can somehow cloak to force crits, you're losing more in the GCD you used to crit. So not only is veiled strike weaker, dizzy tooltips do not match what I get on other character. My magblades force pulse, a ranged spammable is close to veiled strike and its ranged. Yes, you get damage bonuses from veiled strikes morphs from varrying degree, as well as teleport strike to go melee, but defense...more on defensives later.

Ultimates have cast times. Seem so very small but liability lag we have makes that unbearable for a class meant to hit quickly and disappear quickly.

Last issue that stands out to me is a weird marriage of defense and offense. Major resolve/ward is activated when using a shadow ability. That's not horrible as it means no slot used for an armor buff, but it's short to where you need an ability activated pretty often to keep it up. Add to this that there us no minor protection built in to the class but rather 2% per stack of merciless. goes up to 10% total but there's a ramp up time. I dont know about you, but in this crappy performance, it often takes me longer than 4 seconds to get it to register. By the time it's up, you need to be about done with your target. And then; when you spend the proc for the delayed burst you lose it. So you are left with cloak and shadow image to GTFO and good luck if someone has a counter. Makes the melee damage a lot riskier than other classes for little reward.

Another thing is that delayed burst is active. Other classes like my templar or Warden, I set up the burst ahead of time so while time doing an ulti -execute combo, they just go off and supplement. NB you have to manually trigger it.

Just a few things. I'd like to run NB more because it plays different but it feels handicapped with the assumption that the escape tools will work, and they do on bad players, but who needs help with bad players?

Yup, sounds about right. NB does have access to minor protection with dark cloak, but you have to give up shadowy disguise which isn’t worth it.

Rapid regen going on random people is a mag issue in general too. Melee is more difficult as mag because of it, I really hope they change rapid regen to a self heal.

In BGs right now all it takes is one new player who never heals themselves to kill you. You’re half health so you heal? Nope - goes on the 25% health noob who just wants to press damage buttons. It’s a big reason why it’s always stamina who go 15+ kills per game with two deaths, but mag will always die more no matter the class.

So mag being stuck with unreliable self healing + weak melee abilities means forget melee on most mag classes in general.

technohic · March 2020

Iskiab wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

I actually tried running my NB yesterday as I feel most other classes feel like brawlers and very similar. I've been making rounds playing all classes up until they pissed me off with poor game performance but wanted to give it a shot. This may or may not be what others see. Just what I feel is a difference for me from other classes where I have similar sets or stats.

Spammables have been nerfed in general. Only ones that seem good are jabs/sweeps and dizzy outside of having a weapon set to buff others. Some spammables are ranged so it makes sense. What doesnt make sense is where NBs melee spammable is not up there. I think it might be close as far as scaling, but NB seems to have its damage boosts in passives using crit rather than raw damage. That's obviously hit or miss, reduced by crit resist, and even if you can somehow cloak to force crits, you're losing more in the GCD you used to crit. So not only is veiled strike weaker, dizzy tooltips do not match what I get on other character. My magblades force pulse, a ranged spammable is close to veiled strike and its ranged. Yes, you get damage bonuses from veiled strikes morphs from varrying degree, as well as teleport strike to go melee, but defense...more on defensives later.

Ultimates have cast times. Seem so very small but liability lag we have makes that unbearable for a class meant to hit quickly and disappear quickly.

Last issue that stands out to me is a weird marriage of defense and offense. Major resolve/ward is activated when using a shadow ability. That's not horrible as it means no slot used for an armor buff, but it's short to where you need an ability activated pretty often to keep it up. Add to this that there us no minor protection built in to the class but rather 2% per stack of merciless. goes up to 10% total but there's a ramp up time. I dont know about you, but in this crappy performance, it often takes me longer than 4 seconds to get it to register. By the time it's up, you need to be about done with your target. And then; when you spend the proc for the delayed burst you lose it. So you are left with cloak and shadow image to GTFO and good luck if someone has a counter. Makes the melee damage a lot riskier than other classes for little reward.

Another thing is that delayed burst is active. Other classes like my templar or Warden, I set up the burst ahead of time so while time doing an ulti -execute combo, they just go off and supplement. NB you have to manually trigger it.

Just a few things. I'd like to run NB more because it plays different but it feels handicapped with the assumption that the escape tools will work, and they do on bad players, but who needs help with bad players?

Yup, sounds about right. NB does have access to minor protection with dark cloak, but you have to give up shadowy disguise which isn’t worth it.

Rapid regen going on random people is a mag issue in general too. Melee is more difficult as mag because of it, I really hope they change rapid regen to a self heal.

In BGs right now all it takes is one new player who never heals themselves to kill you. You’re half health so you heal? Nope - goes on the 25% health noob who just wants to press damage buttons. It’s a big reason why it’s always stamina who go 15+ kills per game with two deaths, but mag will always die more no matter the class.

So mag being stuck with unreliable self healing + weak melee abilities means forget melee on most mag classes in general.

Yeah thats weird that minor protection is a choice. Others its just a given.

brandonv516 · March 2020

technohic wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

I actually tried running my NB yesterday as I feel most other classes feel like brawlers and very similar. I've been making rounds playing all classes up until they pissed me off with poor game performance but wanted to give it a shot. This may or may not be what others see. Just what I feel is a difference for me from other classes where I have similar sets or stats.

Spammables have been nerfed in general. Only ones that seem good are jabs/sweeps and dizzy outside of having a weapon set to buff others. Some spammables are ranged so it makes sense. What doesnt make sense is where NBs melee spammable is not up there. I think it might be close as far as scaling, but NB seems to have its damage boosts in passives using crit rather than raw damage. That's obviously hit or miss, reduced by crit resist, and even if you can somehow cloak to force crits, you're losing more in the GCD you used to crit. So not only is veiled strike weaker, dizzy tooltips do not match what I get on other character. My magblades force pulse, a ranged spammable is close to veiled strike and its ranged. Yes, you get damage bonuses from veiled strikes morphs from varrying degree, as well as teleport strike to go melee, but defense...more on defensives later.

Ultimates have cast times. Seem so very small but liability lag we have makes that unbearable for a class meant to hit quickly and disappear quickly.

Last issue that stands out to me is a weird marriage of defense and offense. Major resolve/ward is activated when using a shadow ability. That's not horrible as it means no slot used for an armor buff, but it's short to where you need an ability activated pretty often to keep it up. Add to this that there us no minor protection built in to the class but rather 2% per stack of merciless. goes up to 10% total but there's a ramp up time. I dont know about you, but in this crappy performance, it often takes me longer than 4 seconds to get it to register. By the time it's up, you need to be about done with your target. And then; when you spend the proc for the delayed burst you lose it. So you are left with cloak and shadow image to GTFO and good luck if someone has a counter. Makes the melee damage a lot riskier than other classes for little reward.

Another thing is that delayed burst is active. Other classes like my templar or Warden, I set up the burst ahead of time so while time doing an ulti -execute combo, they just go off and supplement. NB you have to manually trigger it.

Just a few things. I'd like to run NB more because it plays different but it feels handicapped with the assumption that the escape tools will work, and they do on bad players, but who needs help with bad players?

Yup, sounds about right. NB does have access to minor protection with dark cloak, but you have to give up shadowy disguise which isn’t worth it.

Rapid regen going on random people is a mag issue in general too. Melee is more difficult as mag because of it, I really hope they change rapid regen to a self heal.

In BGs right now all it takes is one new player who never heals themselves to kill you. You’re half health so you heal? Nope - goes on the 25% health noob who just wants to press damage buttons. It’s a big reason why it’s always stamina who go 15+ kills per game with two deaths, but mag will always die more no matter the class.

So mag being stuck with unreliable self healing + weak melee abilities means forget melee on most mag classes in general.

Yeah thats weird that minor protection is a choice. Others its just a given.

Used to be a pretty good trade-off before they changed Dark Cloak to a heal rather than a second morph of Invisibility.

Langeston · March 2020

brandonv516 wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

I actually tried running my NB yesterday as I feel most other classes feel like brawlers and very similar. I've been making rounds playing all classes up until they pissed me off with poor game performance but wanted to give it a shot. This may or may not be what others see. Just what I feel is a difference for me from other classes where I have similar sets or stats.

Spammables have been nerfed in general. Only ones that seem good are jabs/sweeps and dizzy outside of having a weapon set to buff others. Some spammables are ranged so it makes sense. What doesnt make sense is where NBs melee spammable is not up there. I think it might be close as far as scaling, but NB seems to have its damage boosts in passives using crit rather than raw damage. That's obviously hit or miss, reduced by crit resist, and even if you can somehow cloak to force crits, you're losing more in the GCD you used to crit. So not only is veiled strike weaker, dizzy tooltips do not match what I get on other character. My magblades force pulse, a ranged spammable is close to veiled strike and its ranged. Yes, you get damage bonuses from veiled strikes morphs from varrying degree, as well as teleport strike to go melee, but defense...more on defensives later.

Ultimates have cast times. Seem so very small but liability lag we have makes that unbearable for a class meant to hit quickly and disappear quickly.

Last issue that stands out to me is a weird marriage of defense and offense. Major resolve/ward is activated when using a shadow ability. That's not horrible as it means no slot used for an armor buff, but it's short to where you need an ability activated pretty often to keep it up. Add to this that there us no minor protection built in to the class but rather 2% per stack of merciless. goes up to 10% total but there's a ramp up time. I dont know about you, but in this crappy performance, it often takes me longer than 4 seconds to get it to register. By the time it's up, you need to be about done with your target. And then; when you spend the proc for the delayed burst you lose it. So you are left with cloak and shadow image to GTFO and good luck if someone has a counter. Makes the melee damage a lot riskier than other classes for little reward.

Another thing is that delayed burst is active. Other classes like my templar or Warden, I set up the burst ahead of time so while time doing an ulti -execute combo, they just go off and supplement. NB you have to manually trigger it.

Just a few things. I'd like to run NB more because it plays different but it feels handicapped with the assumption that the escape tools will work, and they do on bad players, but who needs help with bad players?

Yup, sounds about right. NB does have access to minor protection with dark cloak, but you have to give up shadowy disguise which isn’t worth it.

Rapid regen going on random people is a mag issue in general too. Melee is more difficult as mag because of it, I really hope they change rapid regen to a self heal.

In BGs right now all it takes is one new player who never heals themselves to kill you. You’re half health so you heal? Nope - goes on the 25% health noob who just wants to press damage buttons. It’s a big reason why it’s always stamina who go 15+ kills per game with two deaths, but mag will always die more no matter the class.

So mag being stuck with unreliable self healing + weak melee abilities means forget melee on most mag classes in general.

Yeah thats weird that minor protection is a choice. Others its just a given.

Used to be a pretty good trade-off before they changed Dark Cloak to a heal rather than a second morph of Invisibility.

Really? I didn't know that. What did Dark Cloak used to do?

brandonv516 · March 2020

Langeston wrote: »

brandonv516 wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

I actually tried running my NB yesterday as I feel most other classes feel like brawlers and very similar. I've been making rounds playing all classes up until they pissed me off with poor game performance but wanted to give it a shot. This may or may not be what others see. Just what I feel is a difference for me from other classes where I have similar sets or stats.

Spammables have been nerfed in general. Only ones that seem good are jabs/sweeps and dizzy outside of having a weapon set to buff others. Some spammables are ranged so it makes sense. What doesnt make sense is where NBs melee spammable is not up there. I think it might be close as far as scaling, but NB seems to have its damage boosts in passives using crit rather than raw damage. That's obviously hit or miss, reduced by crit resist, and even if you can somehow cloak to force crits, you're losing more in the GCD you used to crit. So not only is veiled strike weaker, dizzy tooltips do not match what I get on other character. My magblades force pulse, a ranged spammable is close to veiled strike and its ranged. Yes, you get damage bonuses from veiled strikes morphs from varrying degree, as well as teleport strike to go melee, but defense...more on defensives later.

Ultimates have cast times. Seem so very small but liability lag we have makes that unbearable for a class meant to hit quickly and disappear quickly.

Last issue that stands out to me is a weird marriage of defense and offense. Major resolve/ward is activated when using a shadow ability. That's not horrible as it means no slot used for an armor buff, but it's short to where you need an ability activated pretty often to keep it up. Add to this that there us no minor protection built in to the class but rather 2% per stack of merciless. goes up to 10% total but there's a ramp up time. I dont know about you, but in this crappy performance, it often takes me longer than 4 seconds to get it to register. By the time it's up, you need to be about done with your target. And then; when you spend the proc for the delayed burst you lose it. So you are left with cloak and shadow image to GTFO and good luck if someone has a counter. Makes the melee damage a lot riskier than other classes for little reward.

Another thing is that delayed burst is active. Other classes like my templar or Warden, I set up the burst ahead of time so while time doing an ulti -execute combo, they just go off and supplement. NB you have to manually trigger it.

Just a few things. I'd like to run NB more because it plays different but it feels handicapped with the assumption that the escape tools will work, and they do on bad players, but who needs help with bad players?

Yup, sounds about right. NB does have access to minor protection with dark cloak, but you have to give up shadowy disguise which isn’t worth it.

Rapid regen going on random people is a mag issue in general too. Melee is more difficult as mag because of it, I really hope they change rapid regen to a self heal.

In BGs right now all it takes is one new player who never heals themselves to kill you. You’re half health so you heal? Nope - goes on the 25% health noob who just wants to press damage buttons. It’s a big reason why it’s always stamina who go 15+ kills per game with two deaths, but mag will always die more no matter the class.

So mag being stuck with unreliable self healing + weak melee abilities means forget melee on most mag classes in general.

Yeah thats weird that minor protection is a choice. Others its just a given.

Used to be a pretty good trade-off before they changed Dark Cloak to a heal rather than a second morph of Invisibility.

Really? I didn't know that. What did Dark Cloak used to do?

First iteration was Invisibility with a purge-type effect.
Second iteration was invisibility with Minor Protection attached.
Third obviously we now have a heal.

exeeter702 · March 2020

brandonv516 wrote: »

Langeston wrote: »

brandonv516 wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

I actually tried running my NB yesterday as I feel most other classes feel like brawlers and very similar. I've been making rounds playing all classes up until they pissed me off with poor game performance but wanted to give it a shot. This may or may not be what others see. Just what I feel is a difference for me from other classes where I have similar sets or stats.

Spammables have been nerfed in general. Only ones that seem good are jabs/sweeps and dizzy outside of having a weapon set to buff others. Some spammables are ranged so it makes sense. What doesnt make sense is where NBs melee spammable is not up there. I think it might be close as far as scaling, but NB seems to have its damage boosts in passives using crit rather than raw damage. That's obviously hit or miss, reduced by crit resist, and even if you can somehow cloak to force crits, you're losing more in the GCD you used to crit. So not only is veiled strike weaker, dizzy tooltips do not match what I get on other character. My magblades force pulse, a ranged spammable is close to veiled strike and its ranged. Yes, you get damage bonuses from veiled strikes morphs from varrying degree, as well as teleport strike to go melee, but defense...more on defensives later.

Ultimates have cast times. Seem so very small but liability lag we have makes that unbearable for a class meant to hit quickly and disappear quickly.

Last issue that stands out to me is a weird marriage of defense and offense. Major resolve/ward is activated when using a shadow ability. That's not horrible as it means no slot used for an armor buff, but it's short to where you need an ability activated pretty often to keep it up. Add to this that there us no minor protection built in to the class but rather 2% per stack of merciless. goes up to 10% total but there's a ramp up time. I dont know about you, but in this crappy performance, it often takes me longer than 4 seconds to get it to register. By the time it's up, you need to be about done with your target. And then; when you spend the proc for the delayed burst you lose it. So you are left with cloak and shadow image to GTFO and good luck if someone has a counter. Makes the melee damage a lot riskier than other classes for little reward.

Another thing is that delayed burst is active. Other classes like my templar or Warden, I set up the burst ahead of time so while time doing an ulti -execute combo, they just go off and supplement. NB you have to manually trigger it.

Just a few things. I'd like to run NB more because it plays different but it feels handicapped with the assumption that the escape tools will work, and they do on bad players, but who needs help with bad players?

Yup, sounds about right. NB does have access to minor protection with dark cloak, but you have to give up shadowy disguise which isn’t worth it.

Rapid regen going on random people is a mag issue in general too. Melee is more difficult as mag because of it, I really hope they change rapid regen to a self heal.

In BGs right now all it takes is one new player who never heals themselves to kill you. You’re half health so you heal? Nope - goes on the 25% health noob who just wants to press damage buttons. It’s a big reason why it’s always stamina who go 15+ kills per game with two deaths, but mag will always die more no matter the class.

So mag being stuck with unreliable self healing + weak melee abilities means forget melee on most mag classes in general.

Yeah thats weird that minor protection is a choice. Others its just a given.

Used to be a pretty good trade-off before they changed Dark Cloak to a heal rather than a second morph of Invisibility.

Really? I didn't know that. What did Dark Cloak used to do?

First iteration was Invisibility with a purge-type effect.
Second iteration was invisibility with Minor Protection attached.
Third obviously we now have a heal.

The issue is zos wanted the minor protection to be the tank morph hut when NB tanks used it in pve, the stealth aspect caused aggro issues. They could have done something else with dark cloak and converted mirage or double take to be the tank self casted defensive buff but here we are. I'm guessing the logic behind the first dark cloak change is that the minor protection was a concession only when the core function of the skill (invisibility) failed, whereas in an ideal situation, cloak doesn't break at all, and the minor protection goes entirely unused.

I've said this before, but cloak should be reworked into a skill that directly interfaces with, bolsters, and enhances the basic sneak mechanic, with a while slotted and on use effect. Then convert death stroke into a strong signature cloaking skill that is to parts, hard stealth on activation with full movement, and for the next X seconds, the ultimate can be casted again for what is now incap. Adjust the cost accordingly.

It's far more involved but having NBs have their potent invisibility option tied to a measurable cool down (being an ult) where they can use it to escape or use it offensively) means you can balance the power of invis instead of having it be overwhelmingly strong or 100 percent useless depending on the scenario as is the case now.

Think about it for a second because no, it actually would not be OP. The ult would be immune to standard detection skills and act as a purge on use, and the cloak ability change could be anything along the lines of maybe being...

"While slotted, your sneak cost is reduced by (x) %. When activated, you immediately enter sneak, sneak cost is removed for x seconds and your movement speed is increased by y %"

Then change concealed weapon as its passive movement buff is baked into the new cloak on use.

And adjust vampire passives accordingly since it's getting reworked anyways.

I'll stop ther because I need to wipe.

SRASinister · March 2020

If you're looking to gank like you have hinted at then you should watch Unfading Silence's youtube video on magblade ganking where he uses NMA and Spell strategist with a rotation that works on ganking most players. Otherwise if you're not ganking good luck.

NightAngel690 · April 2020

zDan wrote: »

A lot of people often say that magblade is terrible, don't get me wrong it's definitely close to bottom tier for open world for sure. But if you play the class enough and learn how to heal up, kite, when to burst etc it becomes super fun. Here is my build from Dragonhold which is also what I'm running this patch...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8LdRdEw7W4

I also have multiple 1vX videos to back it up. Magblade honestly just takes A LOT of patience. You're gonna miss your combo roughly 80% of the time and have to reset lol.

Listen to this guy. He knows his magblades. The only people who think magblade is dead are the people who got carried by a few skills and are now having to grow thumbs. Scale breaker was crap but that was just because of the dot meta.

Lately, you don’t even need to use a shield. Hots and mitigation are the way to go.

With that being said, crafty btb or necro if you want to use shields, btb spinners brp resto for good min max, lich nma is decent as well, amber swift for Melee, caluurions x if you want to gank. Monster sets, 2 max for shields(squishy but high damage),two one piece armour if you want to survive a little longer (or bloodspawn), zaans for ganking. Armour master is also viable with any sustain set. Clever is decent but expensive to run.
I personally liked crafty btb open world solely for the healing and damage but it’s squishy if you don’t play it properly.
Just be sure to have your cp set up properly and you can be decent. Maybe not good but decent.
I’ve been maining a magblade for a while now and I rarely have trouble unless I’m being completely Zerged down or fighting multiple people who are also good. Even then, just kite, heal, and hope to kill as many before you die.