Magblade - Couple of Questions

NagualV · July 2020

Hey all, quick background - took over a year off after summerset, just got back into game month or so ago. Magblade main. Ranged, not bomber/gank. I use cloak.

Of all the classes in the game, i love Magblade the most, by far. It is my preferred playstyle. Ive read most of the posts about how its a bad class for pvp, and the reasons why, etc, and thats all fine. From my perspective, the class definitely feels less powerful than it was a year and a half ago. I dont care, im going to keep playing it, and it seemed to me with the new PTS notes that it is getting buffed, which is great.

So my questions are aimed at experienced magblades - what tips/tricks that youre willing to share would you advise me on how to best land our Soul Harvest/Assasins Will combo? Im really trying to learn the right timing(since as everyone seems to have pointed out, the cast time then projectile speed, coupled with the loud warning make it difficult). I have learned to Fear opponents before the soul harvest, and even against really good opponents that works....the problem is the timing of the assasins will.....that doesnt seem to land as often against really tough opponents.

The second question relates to Killer's Blade. Have you found it useful to use this after that combo, to finish them off if they are not dead somehow?

Just looking for advice, i want to get real good at the class.

J_Am · July 2020

I don't slot impale. If your opponent is weak enough that after your combo they have less 25% hp, you probably can finish with your spammable. But if your burst does not decrease their health to 25% impale just wasting your slot. I think it will be better to slot inner light of camo hunter since they give bonus at all stages of fight.

Vietfox · July 2020

You can either soul harvest > fear > assassins will OR incap > assassins will. Personally i went back to the old incap/will combo on a magblade and works really well.

I don't like Impale, as the comment above mine says you are better off running inner light and use your spammable to finish them off.

Augusten15 · July 2020

The way I've gotten decent on mine was by watching YouTube tbh. Just make sure you select videos that are Greymoor specific.

zDan has excellent 1vX footage with survival builds and lots of LoS. Eso Blob also has a heavy armor/malacath build I'm mirroring right now for ranged. Another dude (can't think of the name) has a high pressure DoT/survivability set up.

Magblade is a blast because there are so many options to learn about and different ways to play. Just know that there are plenty of "right" ways to execute your combos. Most high end players don't use Impale but then there's a guy on these forums that uses it with great success. There's probably no better feeling than letting off an assassins will crit from stealth, following it up with a LA/impale while someone is full health and watching the 300% proc because the first two hits brought them to 25%.

My current melee build melts people faster than my stamblade which is a blast given magblades can sustain stealth as long as needed to set up positioning. I just have to be aware against well organized groups to switch my set back to ranged survival or Ill die so fast that haunting curse is still blowing me up after I respawn.

Langeston · July 2020

Augusten15 wrote: »

The way I've gotten decent on mine was by watching YouTube tbh. Just make sure you select videos that are Greymoor specific.

zDan has excellent 1vX footage with survival builds and lots of LoS. Eso Blob also has a heavy armor/malacath build I'm mirroring right now for ranged. Another dude (can't think of the name) has a high pressure DoT/survivability set up.

Magblade is a blast because there are so many options to learn about and different ways to play. Just know that there are plenty of "right" ways to execute your combos. Most high end players don't use Impale but then there's a guy on these forums that uses it with great success. There's probably no better feeling than letting off an assassins will crit from stealth, following it up with a LA/impale while someone is full health and watching the 300% proc because the first two hits brought them to 25%.

My current melee build melts people faster than my stamblade which is a blast given magblades can sustain stealth as long as needed to set up positioning. I just have to be aware against well organized groups to switch my set back to ranged survival or Ill die so fast that haunting curse is still blowing me up after I respawn.

What sets are you running that makes melee more viable on your magblade than a stamblade???

Everything I've tried has been garbage even in no CP, and I always just wind up going back to Destro/Resto. Even if the builds would have hit harder, I probably wouldn't have been able to stick with melee because I rely so much on the heal from Swallow Soul.

Augusten15 · July 2020

Langeston wrote: »

Augusten15 wrote: »

The way I've gotten decent on mine was by watching YouTube tbh. Just make sure you select videos that are Greymoor specific.

zDan has excellent 1vX footage with survival builds and lots of LoS. Eso Blob also has a heavy armor/malacath build I'm mirroring right now for ranged. Another dude (can't think of the name) has a high pressure DoT/survivability set up.

Magblade is a blast because there are so many options to learn about and different ways to play. Just know that there are plenty of "right" ways to execute your combos. Most high end players don't use Impale but then there's a guy on these forums that uses it with great success. There's probably no better feeling than letting off an assassins will crit from stealth, following it up with a LA/impale while someone is full health and watching the 300% proc because the first two hits brought them to 25%.

My current melee build melts people faster than my stamblade which is a blast given magblades can sustain stealth as long as needed to set up positioning. I just have to be aware against well organized groups to switch my set back to ranged survival or Ill die so fast that haunting curse is still blowing me up after I respawn.

What sets are you running that makes melee more viable on your magblade than a stamblade???

Everything I've tried has been garbage even in no CP, and I always just wind up going back to Destro/Resto. Even if the builds would have hit harder, I probably wouldn't have been able to stick with melee because I rely so much on the heal from Swallow Soul.

Reach out to me in game. My @username is the same as my forum.

Fazuszek · July 2020

Do u have any build advise for a magblade, that use cloack and mobility?

fred4 · July 2020

Vietfox wrote: »

Personally i went back to the old incap/will combo on a magblade and works really well.

This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Ultimates and Will both have a delay. This means if you successfully stun with Incap, the target should not be able to break free and have time for a dodge roll to avoid Assassin's Will. Unlike Fear, Assassin's Will should be a guaranteed hit, if the stun succeeds.

Langeston · July 2020

Fazuszek wrote: »

Do u have any build advise for a magblade, that use cloack and mobility?

Mobility on a magblade is all about your skills for the most part. Concealed Weapon & Race Against Time on your Cloak bar on are a must — they allow you to move at 155% speed while Cloaked. If you have Wild Hunt or 3 Swift, that jumps up 15-28% depending on how you set it up. (The build I have the most fun on uses 3 Swift and Wild Hunt, giving me 190% movement speed in Cloak — but I do lose a decent amount of damage doing that.)

While that speed is useful and a lot of fun, if you want real mobility you need to learn to use Shade effectively. It's got a [very] steep learning curve, but if you can master it it's a fantastic ability for getting out of tight spots. I keep Shade on my Cloak bar too, but there are some good reasons you might want to put it on your front bar.

While you're learning to use Shade, make sure you have a good amount of sustain — both it and Cloak cost a lot of magicka and you're going to be pretty inefficient at first and you'll run out pretty quickly. I still like to run at least 2k-2.2k mag regen, but I'm pretty inefficient. (Bright Throat's Boast + Ghastly Eye Bowl gives you TONS of sustain and good damage, but at the cost of health.)

Make sure you stick with Shade though. It can be really frustrating at first, but it's well worth the time spent learning it. Also, get the "Shadow Image Range" add-on. It'll make your life a whole lot easier.

Vermintide · July 2020

Apparently heavy armour is viable and even strong these days, haven't read much about it round these parts though. Would be very interested if anyone knows much about it, I was a HA sap-blade waaay back pre-Morrowind when fun was still allowed.

The consensus here is that magblade has been kneecapped, and I can't help but agree. These days I just Fear>SH>Bow and hope. I find I have to fear first no matter what, or else I end up stunned or knocked back etc half way through, ruining the combo.

Vietfox · July 2020

fred4 wrote: »

Vietfox wrote: »

Personally i went back to the old incap/will combo on a magblade and works really well.

This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Ultimates and Will both have a delay. This means if you successfully stun with Incap, the target should not be able to break free and have time for a dodge roll to avoid Assassin's Will. Unlike Fear, Assassin's Will should be a guaranteed hit, if the stun succeeds.

Yeah, also that Reave bonus (stam + mag back) is really great. So is Defile from Soul Harvest, but if you add Reave to Ele drain + Siphoning the sustain is awesome even if it looks low on the character sheet, allowing you to focus more on either defense or damage.

Rianai · July 2020

fred4 wrote: »

Vietfox wrote: »

Personally i went back to the old incap/will combo on a magblade and works really well.

This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Ultimates and Will both have a delay. This means if you successfully stun with Incap, the target should not be able to break free and have time for a dodge roll to avoid Assassin's Will. Unlike Fear, Assassin's Will should be a guaranteed hit, if the stun succeeds.

Incap does not guarantee Assassin's Will, but from my experience it still increases the chance for a sucessful hit compared to a combo involving fear and/or Soul Harvest.

thankyourat · July 2020

With magblades don’t look at it as a combo and look at it more as a burst window that you open up after you soul harvest. I usually use fear into soul harvest and then I wait and see what my opponent does before I fire the bow. This could bait out dodge rolls and premature heals. Just make sure you have enough damage in your build to take advantage of the burst opportunity.

Vietfox · July 2020

Rianai wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Vietfox wrote: »

Personally i went back to the old incap/will combo on a magblade and works really well.

This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Ultimates and Will both have a delay. This means if you successfully stun with Incap, the target should not be able to break free and have time for a dodge roll to avoid Assassin's Will. Unlike Fear, Assassin's Will should be a guaranteed hit, if the stun succeeds.

Incap does not guarantee Assassin's Will, but from my experience it still increases the chance for a sucessful hit compared to a combo involving fear and/or Soul Harvest.

In my experience, when it misses, it's because of lag or some weird ***.

When using Soul Harvest i've been more succesful with SH first, then Fear > Will.
To cancel Fear still feels clunky but you give them less time to react to AW.

NagualV · July 2020

Thanks for all your comments, very helpful!

Qrähe · July 2020

I generally play with my guild in noCP and do my fights aren't the normal 1v1 or 1v2 from playing a gank magblade. Personally I wanted to run a vamp magblade and I've found that I'm able to sustain and have high spell damage by using Seducers with NMA front bar, Molag Kena monster set, and Masters back bar. With stage 2 vamp I have 18% increased cost when molag kena is up but seducer drops that by 10% so having about 2.3k magicka regen helps sustain. I can normally hit about 5 to 6k spell damage for a quick burst window of 4 seconds and in that time frame assassins will is super deadly. I'm excited for next patch because warmaidens can replace NMA and I can drop molag kena for bal and swap seducer for either mothers sorrow or Medusa.

I will say it feels harder to maintain the kill pressure on magblade over a Magsorc. That just is such an easy mode.

killingspreeb16_ESO · July 2020

Vietfox wrote: »

Rianai wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Vietfox wrote: »

Personally i went back to the old incap/will combo on a magblade and works really well.

This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Ultimates and Will both have a delay. This means if you successfully stun with Incap, the target should not be able to break free and have time for a dodge roll to avoid Assassin's Will. Unlike Fear, Assassin's Will should be a guaranteed hit, if the stun succeeds.

Incap does not guarantee Assassin's Will, but from my experience it still increases the chance for a sucessful hit compared to a combo involving fear and/or Soul Harvest.

In my experience, when it misses, it's because of lag or some weird ***.

When using Soul Harvest i've been more succesful with SH first, then Fear > Will.
To cancel Fear still feels clunky but you give them less time to react to AW.

The target will always have enough time to break and roll the bow thanks to the delay on it unless the opponent is lagging or just really slow at CC break.

Might be more fluid than fear>bow but it does not guaranteed the bow hit on the target.

mav1234 · July 2020

Langeston wrote: »

What sets are you running that makes melee more viable on your magblade than a stamblade???

I don't believe that a melee magblade would be more viable/stronger than a stamblade right now. I know some people are making melee "work", but the tools just aren't there IMO, although caluurions is still very strong on them. I am actually disappointed to see the change to caluurions that makes it a little less controllable, but now it'll work with malacath (insane!).

Augusten15 wrote: »

Reach out to me in game. My @username is the same as my forum.

could you possibly just share with us here? Not everyone on the same platform...

fred4 · July 2020

mav1234 wrote: »

Langeston wrote: »

What sets are you running that makes melee more viable on your magblade than a stamblade???

I am actually disappointed to see the change to caluurions that makes it a little less controllable, but now it'll work with malacath (insane!).

Me too. I'm secretly concerned that opening the set up to control without crit (by bar swapping) will make it viable for more classes and it will subsequently be nerfed, leaving magblade on the floor as collateral damage yet again. While the set could always be used by every class, it was IMO a bone thrown to melee magblades.

As to running it with Malacath, it's the same story. I am not planning to use it with that mythic. I don't think I will even try, unless I hear it's really strong. I don't think it will be on magblade. The set has two crit bonuses, which go to waste. You also throw away your NB crit bonuses, which will be even more plentiful next patch with the revisions to Grim Focus. So, no, I don't think it will be insane, at least not on magblade.

I am a CP player. People say no CP is now more unbalanced than CP. Maybe that's where proc sets are insane? I think I'd favor different versions of Battle Spirit between CP and no CP, for example reverting the healing nerf in no CP only.