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  Marginis

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  Honestly those are two pretty different directions to go in. If going in for PVP, potentates is an excellent choice, if just for the player damage reduction.
  
  If PVE, however, it really depends on your ult choice. Having your ult 15% faster is really good if you have a build based around that, whereas it doesn't do much with a poor ult. Willpower is good for just increasing your damage in the neutral game, with everything, but won't really be worth as much, if, say, your focus is on tanking.
  
  In regard to your post however, I wouldn't use willpower for extra shield strength. The boost it gives to that is marginal at best.
  
  My recommendation? Go with Willpower if you want a little more offensive capability, and Potentates for defense.

  @Marginis on PC, Senpai Fluffy on Xbox, Founder of Magicka. Also known as Kha'jiri, The Night Mother, Ma'iq, Jane Shepard, Damia, Kintyra, Zoor Do Kest, You, and a few others.

  #2

  May 2022

  Answer ✓

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  Marginis

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  fred4 wrote: »

  I think some who replied missed the fact that you're probably just going to run a two piece backbar set, not 3-piece, right? I also happen to know that you PvP. Therefore:
  
  If you ran Negate on the back bar and you were thinking of using a 3-piece set, only then would I consider Potentates for the ulti cost reduction. That said: As a rule of thumb you should rarely use your back bar ultimate in PvP. Negate and, to some extent the sorc Atro, are the exceptions to that. In general, however, if I was building for ulti cost reduction - and I am not suggesting that you do - I would aim to have that on the front bar or on both bars, not the back bar only.
  
  But like I said: You're probably only thinking of the two piece, right? As a two piece Potentates is IMO dead. It has been nerfed too much. A 3% cost reduction stacks multiplicatively with other mitigations. It won't amount to 3% in practice. It will be less. I would probably wear a two piece of Critical Riposte (crafted) over Potentates these days. That's about a 6% crit damage reduction. There are no multiplicative factors to dilute that 6% as far as I'm aware. Yes, it only applies to crits, but crits, or a random sequence of crits, are still one of the most dangerous things that could kill you.
  
  However: You are a mag-stacking sorc with two shields on your back bar? Use Willpower as a 2-piece! It's a no-brainer. It's especially a no brainer, if:

  • You are using magicka-boosting skills on the back bar, such as the Atro (from sorc skill line passive).
  • You are using Inner Light on the front bar. A Willpower back bar will help to balance your magicka between the two bars, so you don't lose magicka from bar swapping, while at full magicka.
  • You are using one hand + shield on the back bar. A shield with a magicka enchant will increase back bar magicka even further.

  In other words: I would do everything to maximise shield size. This is because, from practical experience in CP, a 40K magicka based (single) shield sucks, but a 50K+ magicka based (single) shield rocks. It's the difference between the average nightblade putting you on the defensive so much that you die and gaining enough breathing room, so you recover from their gank. That said, I am talking about my magden, which uses a single shield (Dampen) in CP. For a sorc in no CP, these thresholds may be different. My experience may also be a bit out of date, since I don't play my high magicka magden often.
  
  Anyhow, max magicka still works for my magden in CP when I do play it. It's not like she is a big threat in terms of damage, but hey, it's a magden, not a sorc. Defensively I still find alternating a shield with a heal or, in your case two shields, works under pressure. Of course I am talking about CP, where magicka on my warden is 50K+ (use Death Dealer's Fete). I see Malcolm posting videos of a dodge rolling non-shielding magsorc, these days. I don't know if he's doing that because he's bored with "normal" sorc or whether the meta really has changed in the hybrid direction for sorc. I also don't know whether there is a separate meta for no CP, as I know you do a lot of BGs, but I don't.

  
  To be fair, one does not have to only use two pieces of a set to only get the bonus on one bar. I actually did run a build once that got the two piece bonus of Potentates and the four piece bonus of Galanwe on back bar, but got the full 3 and 5 piece bonuses on front bar, as the other 5 piece I was running at the time was only useful on back bar, so turning that into a 3 piece bonus on front bar was no big deal.
  
  You do have a solid point though, that using Potentates for just the damage reduction from players isn't terribly great by itself. Potentates is really only good with the full 3 pieces.

  @Marginis on PC, Senpai Fluffy on Xbox, Founder of Magicka. Also known as Kha'jiri, The Night Mother, Ma'iq, Jane Shepard, Damia, Kintyra, Zoor Do Kest, You, and a few others.

  #3

  May 2022

  Answer ✓

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  Marginis

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  eMKa8 wrote: »

  Hi All , thanks for all The answers. To give some clarity i am indeed talking about pvp.
  I am a magsorc with 2 shields and rapid regen on BB.
  
  My FB weapon is the Master Inferno staff (linked to the ability for 600 extra dmg for 4 seconds)
  
  My BB weapon was only used for the two piece bonus.
  
  Why ? Because i run a monster set / i run ring of the wild hunt / i also run the master inferno staff
  And then i have 5 body pieces of crafty alfiq.
  
  
  So i only am looking for a good BB resto staff and will only use 2 piece bonus (not 3 or more)
  
  To my understanding willpower is then indeed better than potentates?
  
  Can someone do the math of that ?
  My shield size will grow with around 600 , 2 times … however in pvp it will half. So that is 600
  
  600 extra shield towards 3% dmg reduction of potentates …
  
  Does that mean that whenever an enemy deals more than 20K dmg that then i would be better of with blessing anyway?
  I made the calculation of 600 / 3 x 100 = 20k
  
  I might be totally off ofcourse
  Haha

  
  Might be worth considering that the 3% damage reduction only applies when that set is active (on the active bar), and that the increased power to shields, however minor, will stay, so long as you cast the shields while on the bar with the Willpower set weapon. So it's not necessarily even worth doing the math, as Potentates doesn't seem like it fits your situation too well.
  
  Also keep in mind what @fred4 said - that 3% will be less than a straight 3% of damage, in practice.
  
  Additionally, Willpower will help your other spells in back bar, other than just shields, which is a bit more relevant in PVP.
  
  With this added context, (so long as we are only considering these two options,) there's a fairly clear decision even without exact numbers.

  @Marginis on PC, Senpai Fluffy on Xbox, Founder of Magicka. Also known as Kha'jiri, The Night Mother, Ma'iq, Jane Shepard, Damia, Kintyra, Zoor Do Kest, You, and a few others.

  #4

  May 2022

  Answer ✓

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  fred4

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  By atro I mean the Atronach ultimate, but I got confused. The summoning skill line gives you health and stamina recovery, not magicka. You have that covered via Conjured Ward and other skills already. I got confused with stamsorc, where the Atronach is often the only slotted skill from that skill line and gives you something useful (for stamsorc) e.g. the recoveries.

  PC EU: Magblade (PvP main), DK (PvE Tank), Sorc (PvP and PvE), Magden (PvE Healer), Magplar (PvP and PvE DD), Arcanist (PvE DD)
  PC NA: Magblade (PvP and PvE every role)

  #5

  May 2022

  Answer ✓

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  Didgerion

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  eMKa8 wrote: »

  Hi All , thanks for all The answers. To give some clarity i am indeed talking about pvp.
  
  To my understanding willpower is then indeed better than potentates?
  
  Can someone do the math of that ?
  My shield size will grow with around 600 , 2 times … however in pvp it will half. So that is 600
  
  600 extra shield towards 3% dmg reduction of potentates …
  
  Does that mean that whenever an enemy deals more than 20K dmg that then i would be better of with blessing anyway?
  I made the calculation of 600 / 3 x 100 = 20k
  
  I might be totally off ofcourse
  Haha

  
  Potentates doesn't work too well on magsorc and the reason is the shields you apply on the back bar are often intended to absorb damage on the front bar. There is no need to do the numbers for the back bar. Willpower is clearly the winner the moment you switch bars.
  
  As for the current pvp meta, potentates is very very strong on the back bar since it duffs up the already high mitigation even higher and makes it easier to fully recover the big pool of HP.
  

  #6

  May 2022

  Answer ✓

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