Magblade Build Question

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · July 2021

So, I’ve decided to dust-off my PVE magblade which I haven’t played with for quite some time and run through some DLC content. I don’t want to borrow gear from my other characters since I still use them for dungeons and trials. So, I’ll be using some gear sets that I have banked. Which of the following two builds would you think is best? I have full sets of each including jewelry and inferno staves.

5x Burning Spellweave
5x Mother’s Sorrow
1x Ring of the Pale order
1x Slimecraw

or

5x Burning Spellweave
5x Medusa
1x Ring of the Pale order
1x Slimecraw

Neither build is BIS but should be more than enough to clear anything. Which would you choose?

mazeikeen · July 2021

Either one looks fine for what you plan on doing. Mothers Sorrow and Medusa are pretty equal in terms of DPS. MS comes sightly ahead but Medusa has the minor force buff which means you don't have to run channeled acceleration/barbed trap for that buff. I prefer medusa for solo because it frees up a bar slot for another dot like degeneration or mirage for damage mitigation if you need it.

Ultimately you're choosing whether you want constant minor force to free up a skill slot or you want to min/max your crit.

Late night edit: Oops. My brain basically only read that OP was debating between the two sets (MS and Medusa) without taking into account the other sets they were pairing with it. I should not post on the forums when I have only had one cup of coffee 🙃

WrathOfInnos · July 2021

The problem with BSW + Medusa is that you’d want BSW on the front bar staff, which forces you to wear 2 heavy armor with Medusa. If you’re also wearing the Ring of Pale Order that forces a 3rd piece of heavy armor since you can’t fit a Medusa ring. 6-7 Light Armor is important for sustain, crit chance and spell penetration.

If you’re set on using BSW then I’d combine it with another light armor set and just use Barbed Trap for Minor Force.

Front bar Medusa (with jewelry) is also popular this patch, and can work well paired with something like Bahsei, False Gods or Sorrow.

Also be careful with Pale Order in group content, it was changed to give less healing in groups. It’s probably worth getting a Harpooner’s Wading Kilt for the magblade.

El_Borracho · July 2021

Short answer, I'd go Mothers Sorrow with BSW. 7 light is better than a mishmash of light and heavy.

Long answer, if you have a Medusa inferno with the 3 jewelry pieces, I'd run that with MS and a monster set over that. Yes, yes, its the evil meta. But its very effective on magblades. Some mag builds have still been going with the 1 piece of heavy armor with 6 pieces of light, which would work with MS & Medusa (big armor piece) & Pale Order, so that is a third option.

Are you doing overland content? Healers hate that pale order ring in dungeons, you know, in the rare instance you have an actual healer in group. Slimecraw is a good call. Other option is Domihaus or Swarm Mother if you want a boost to magicka and stamina, but that's more in line with a solo arena build. Or lose the ring and go with traditional Zaan 2 piece or Grothdarr 2 piece. Its still strong

El_Borracho · July 2021

@WrathOfInnos I also was thinking of the kilt, but its a medium armor piece. I haven't tried it out with a mag build yet and was wondering if it as effective as with a stam build

WrathOfInnos · July 2021

El_Borracho wrote: »

@WrathOfInnos I also was thinking of the kilt, but its a medium armor piece. I haven't tried it out with a mag build yet and was wondering if it as effective as with a stam build

It has downsides, but it’s still the best option if you can maintain stacks. Next patch it’s looking much better because the 1pc of Medium Armor will give 2% crit damage and 2% Spell Damage, in addition to the 2% Max Mag and 2% Max Health from Undaunted Passives.