fred4 wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

So I'm working on my PvP mageblade and I'm wondering if I should be melee or ranged. It depends on the skills I use.

Magblade is arguably hybrid melee / ranged, because it's ultimates (Soul Harvest / Soul Tether) are melee as are Concealed Weapon or Mass Hysteria for the stun. It is possible to work around that with Meteor and Flame Clench. I personally find it hard to say no to Soul Harvest / Incap Strike. I like a cheap ultimate.

Hitting someone multiple times with Concealed Weapon or Surprise Attack is difficult. Opponents roll, streak or are simply fast these days. Then there is lag. Surprise Attack is bread and butter for stamblades. I think it works better for them, because by the time you have specced a viable build, stamblade is still stronger than magblade and, therefore, requires fewer hits to secure a kill on average.

It's hard to decide because it's so hard to hit anybody in the first place.

I play a melee / ranged magblade. While you typically want to split skills to yield an offensive and a defensive bar, I find this doesn't really work for magblade. I run dual-wield / destro. The dual-wield bar boosts spell damage to about 1K higher than destro, which benefits procs. It includes Concealed Weapon, Shadowy Disguise, Soul Harvest and Caluurion. In other words I typically open with a gank, such as Light Attack -> Soul Harvest -> Concealed Weapon (+stun +Caluurion). Thereafter I anticipate that people back off and switch to my ranged bar, which includes Swallow Soul, Merciless Resolve and Impale. I aim to execute players from range. This plays well not just because your opponent may back off, but because you may want to back off too. If I attack someone at the edge of a zerg, I'll go in close on the melee bar, then I back off running backwards while trying to finish off the target. The drawback (in my build) is not having a ranged stun to coincide with Assassin's Will. On the other hand Assassin's Will into Impale times well, due to the Assassin's Will delay. It's nice to have Will on the ranged bar.

It may seem strange having two spammables. Splitting attack skills across two bars also has a drawback when, like me, you run Magelight. You want it on both bars. However in my long career as a magblade main, I eventually had to concede that I can't come up with anything better. Whatever I did, I ended up with some skill duplication between the two bars. On the other hand, my setup has the following advantages:

1. Radiant Magelight on both bars yields gank stun protection regardless of which bar you are on.
2. Concealed Weapon is also the stun in my build. It is not just a spammable.
3. Swallow Soul is also the HOT in my build. It is not just a spammable. If you shoot Swallow Soul at an NPC in IC or at a sorc's Ball of Lightning, the heal is substantial.

I swear buttons are late firing or not firing at all sometimes.

In the case of Assassin's Will there is a 400ms delay built into the skill, same as for ultimates. It could also be lag. The only solution to lag is to go into an empty Cyro campaign, Imperial City or a BG.

She's a dunmer vampire. I have that CP star where you regen health for every ultimate point you have. I regen more health than the skill blood for blood uses, so blood for blood is practically free.

I suppose you know that health regen is doubly nerfed in PvP, e.g. due to Battle Spirit and vampire. If that works to maintain Blood for Blood, well OK. In general I would not take that CP star anymore, especially if using a cheap ultimate.

I need to use lotus fan for a gap closer.

A gap closer is nice. As a rule of thumb I would play with a gap closer and Shadow Image and be slow or I would invest into speed, e.g. Celerity (CP), green out of combat speed CP, Wild Hunt, Swift jewelry, Concealed Weapon on the Cloak bar, Race Against Time. In the latter case you will be able to ditch Lotus Fan and Shadow Image for other skills. In the former case you will possibly have higher damage. Investing fully into speed (and recoveries) takes a toll on your damage.

And I use impale for an execute.

Historically I believe many nightblades have eschewed Impale for Grim Focus, due to lack of bar space. I certainly would run one of those skills if not both.

But I'm thinking of getting rid of grim focus because I would never get 5 light attacks on a target to use it. If the target isn't dead and ganked before that point I'll probably be dead anyway.

Grim Focus - awkward skills in general - is one of the reasons why people say nightblades have a high skill ceiling. I have avoided the skill for a long time, because of it's awkwardness. There is, however, no denying that some of the best nightblades, also stamblades, use that skill. It's probably not possible to kill better players without it in a duel. Let's say you're running Balorgh, Incap Strike and Clever Alchemist. I have certainly been taken out by nightblades suddenly generating huge burst with that type of setup.

My other option is to be ranged and use swallowing soul+ impale and simmering frenzy.

Ranged and melee is not mutually exclusive on a magblade. Simmering Frenzy is an option, perhaps combined with a Master flame staff to get your spell damage up. Not something I have really explored. The feedback I have gotten in previous patches from a friend that did was that magblade is still lacklustre. That's been the general refrain. I think the class has gotten better with the change to Malevolent Offering, but stamblade still has the edge.

If this begs the question: Why play magblade? - It feels different to play. There are advantages to cloak sustain and it IMO has a more pronounced hybrid melee / ranged character. There are bow stamblades of course, but the (decent) player who mixes up Snipe with a good melee rotation is pretty rare in my experience. On the other hand, if you're thinking of going purely ranged, you might be better off playing a sorc .

My gear is spell strategist

It's single target, ties you to that target and doesn't really have the duration for you to successfully backbar it. It does not improve your heals (other than Swallow Soul). I can think of any number of sets that are, if not outright better, then certainly more rounded. A Master's destro, Stygian, Innate Axiom, War Maiden (does not improve healing, but applies to all targets all the time), maybe even Spinner's. If you have the set and don't want to farm, there's probably not that much in it, but it would not be my choice. My choice (of course, hehehe) is Caluurion. On the other bar I use Innate Axiom, one of the few sets that has a double bonus on the 3 piece (magicka + stamina). I like my stamina!

And Valkyn Skoria.

Not sure how Skoria stacks up now that it can crit again. It had been pretty nerfed. Suits a magblade historically alright, esp. when you run Crippling Grasp and Degeneration, which you might do in a pure ranged build. As I play hybrid melee / ranged, I use Zoal. My only concession to defense. So good on nightblade, if you want a defensive set.

and the set I can't remember the name of but when you have a drink buff active you get a bunch of magicka recovery. And yes I need the sustain set. I'm a resource hog, that's why I never do a no CP anything.

I'm the same, because I like perma-cloaking. However I use only damage sets and full spell damage enchants, because I get sustain from the Atro mundus and from a very high value drink (Hissmir Fisheye Rye). Two reasons. One is that your out of combat sustain is calculated differently to the in combat sustain by the game engine. Most sustain sets don't work when you're permanently cloaking outside of combat. Don't know about yours. The other is that I value stamina sustain very highly for my hybrid melee / ranged playstyle. If you play like a stamblade and you play without Shadow Image, you need it for dodge rolls. I have also, after years of dithering, given up crit resist entirely in favor of running all Well Fitted. This is viable in light armor now. I'm not looking back. I do get one shot sometimes, but I find fully committing into damage avoidance the better bet than trying to be tanky on average. Some people go the latter route and they also stack (resto) heals. I believe that can be viable too. It comes down to what playstyle you like or are accustomed to. For what it's worth, my current build is here:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=401286

fred4 wrote: »

A couple of random thoughts:

• My most frequent and easily winnable fights are against other nightblades. One way or the other someone will win. Stalemates are rare, because nightblades tend to be squishy. Unless one of them manages to cloak away that is. I permanently slot Detection / Spell Power / Magicka potions. This is why I don't get my crit from a potion.
• I do not view Shadowy Disguise as a replacement for dodge rolls. If you don't use Shadow Image you need dodge rolls and all the speed you can muster to make Shadowy Disguise work. Dodge rolls enable Shadowy Disguise. One is not a replacement for the other. That said, if your playstyle focuses purely on ganks and/or is purely ranged, maybe that's different. My experience is, of course, based on the mixed melee / ranged build that I play.
• If you want to gank people from range, you should probably look into using heavy attacks and/or light / medium attacks + Elemental Weapon (Psijic) as an opener.
• Simmering Frenzy will make you squishy. Some gankers run it, perhaps with a set like Titanborn (since all sets have hybrid stats now). If you've tested that in PvE, bear in mind that Battle Spirit cuts your health regen in half. You might look into a set called Darloc Brae, although you probably want something to stack more spell damage instead.