Is Ranged MagBlade just forgotten? I'm genuinely confused.

FoJul · July 2023

Please, someone tell me that they remember the good days of playing a Ranged Magblade with swallow soul. After countless patches of all the (META and BIS) cycles, I haven't saw any competent Ranged Magblade in years. I genuinely believe no one even knows this playstyle exist.

With all the new players come in and see me using swallow soul, I'm actually getting asked what that skill is/does. The only thing Ranged Magblade has gotten was a buff to a melee skill giving the class, not range 10% damage. Its just on my bar not even being used outside of the passive because this playstyle has less damage than almost all other classes. Necro is the only exception.

They took our dark cloak away, our ranged execute is bad, they nerfed fear traps for what reason? Yeah I get that Melee Magblade may be the best class at the moment, but the Ranged Magblade is just not playable. With this next patch they are taking another 10% damage from our inferno passive. That number may just be 10% but, at the end of the day my single target abilities are about 85% of the playstyle. So we are getting hit again (Unintentionally). I'm so confused on how Melee Magblade keeps getting buffed and the ranged aspect of the class is going untouched. How are Dk's able to get *Imaginary numbers* on their stat sheet with corrosive/acuity and my Ranged Magblade cant even break 6k spell damage. Give Range Magblade something, literally anything. I've been playing this game for an embarrassing amount of time. I've bitten my lip and dealt with it for way to long. I want to play Range Magblade again (Competitively). I'm so tired of concealed weapon. I want to use swallow soul and actually unalive something on this game. I love ESO but come on.

ZOS_Kraken · July 2023

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to combat & character mechanics as we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding.

MetallicMonk · July 2023

Would be a fun playstyle to bring back.

FrancisCrawford · July 2023

Ranged magblade is my go-to spec for hunting mudcrabs, especialy on days when there's a "Kill X enemies using class skills" endeavor.

I adopted this approach after I realized how expensive Mudcrab Chitin had become.

OBJnoob · July 2023

I don't think there's much that can be done and I don't think it has anything to do with the class. Which unfortunately means I don't think it's getting fixed.

Heals that scale off damage done just aren't very good. The damaging portion of the ability "has" to do less damage than a normal damaging ability for balance reasons. But by the time this fairly weak damage gets through battlespirit and defense... And then the heal gets halved by battlespirit again... It just isn't worth anything.

But honestly what's wrong with just using force pulse instead? Or the Psijic spammable? NB healing is a lot stronger than it used to be. I understand wishing a skill you like was better but... You really don't need it. At all.

FoJul · July 2023

That's the thing though. Force Pulse is okay I guess, and ele weapon just feels strange in Open world scenario.

That being said, our ranged execute is hot garbage, and our only reliable stun is 5 meter radius. That leaves me with abilities that can be blocked and dodged like flame clench, or soul tether(and everyone knows not to rely on stun from ults) I can't off balance weave like a melee blade. The list goes on.

Ok yeah I got healing, but there is no damage in the toolkit outside of assassins will and ultimate.

Every single change, in the last like 3-5 years. Has been centered around melee blade and cloakblade. I would trade Cloak/Gank Blades for better ranged toolkit. Make cloak cost 6k magicka I could care less.

They can literally just up the damage on swallow soul by a little bit. They can give us dark cloak back. They can take away a little damage on the Merciless. I just wished we had a better ranged toolkit.

They literally nerfed fear traps and maybe like .0001% of Nightblades actually used them. For what? The ranged execute is delayed, and by the time it hits they already burst healed to 80% HP. Literally outside of Soul Tether/Merciless the playstyle has no options.

Another point, why did they make dark cloak absolutely useless to both PvP and PvE. I have to be a sentry just to get the heal that I used to get? Like I get it the healing is pretty decent but compare it to templars and DKs, its not enough to justify that it has no damage.

LittlePinkDot · July 2023

I've got a ranged mageblade ganker. I use swallow soul and crippling grasp and Impale.
Just had to try to get as much damage as possible. Full glass cannon.
Innate axiom/Orders Wrath.

merpins · July 2023

Haven't played it since 2017. Was my favorite build until it got nerfed into the ground. Would still probably be one of my favorite builds if it came back.

Your note on its "nerf" though; I'd actually argue it got a buff with the bow change. It now actually has a good crit rate option. Pure damage got a nerf, but I'd probably switch to bow for sustain anyway. With how much crit rate bow gives next patch, it might even be worth it to do a nirnhoned bow.

FoJul · July 2023

Honestly good luck, bow and swallow is clunky. At that point you might aswell go stamina rangeblade and use Crushing weapon. Which is overall a completely different playstyle and your getting into stamina bow blade territory.

At the end of the day, the so called *buff* its not even really a buff its more of quality of life thing. Just makes it where you dont have to recast every 45 seconds. Woopty doo aint no one ask for that!

merpins · July 2023

FoJul wrote: »

Honestly good luck, bow and swallow is clunky. At that point you might aswell go stamina rangeblade and use Crushing weapon. Which is overall a completely different playstyle and your getting into stamina bow blade territory.

At the end of the day, the so called *buff* its not even really a buff its more of quality of life thing. Just makes it where you dont have to recast every 45 seconds. Woopty doo aint no one ask for that!

I'm not trying to pick any fights. I haven't done a swallow soul build in 6 years, I couldn't tell ya whether or not bow + that skill feels good to use because I haven't done any build testing in a long time for that. But I'd trust your judgement on it. I can still see it being pretty good. Maybe.

FoJul · July 2023

Yeah, I might give it a try. I wish it didn't have to be that way though. I wouldn't have even made a forum account if it wasn't for the inferno nerf.

I mean, my playstyle is losing every single dmg bonus and every *edge* that I thought I had on this character, is non existent. In and situation, Ranged Magblade will get outplayed.

Whats next, they gonna remove deadly aim and master-at-arms.

Zodiarkslayer · July 2023

You are overreacting...

Swallow Soul follows the standard for ranged spammables. So there will naturally be no damage increase, unless the standard itself changes.

In PvE MagBlade is one of the strongest SOLO classes, if you know what you are doing. Granted, it isn't commonly used in Trial, but what ranged DD is?

And if you are complaining about PvP, I can assure you, that my Breton MagBlade can make short work of anything and anyone in a 1v1 situation. However, I play NoProc NoCP campaigns, because that is where Magbalde is strongest. I dont even need to be ganking or cloaking.

FoJul · July 2023

Well I'm assuming you read the thread where it says Ranged MagBlade, because i can guarantee you, your not making short work of anything except bad players. I want Range Magblade back in a competitive standing point. Not melee concealed/incap combos.

If I have to slot a melee stun, a melee spammable (concealed) and a melee execute. That is not a Ranged Magblade.

FoJul · July 2023

Zodiarkslayer may I ask what sets your using? Or can I see a layout of your Ranged Magblade build?

Zodiarkslayer · July 2023

Of course. Here you go
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=534379

And PvP works only like this: You kill the players that are worse than you and the players better than you, will kill you.
And that is why I play NoProc, too. Its much more natural PvP.

OBJnoob · July 2023

I also frequent the Noproc campaign. I thought, for no apparent reason, orders wrath didn't work. Some clarity, please, @Zodiarkslayer ?

Zodiarkslayer · July 2023

OBJnoob wrote: »

I also frequent the Noproc campaign. I thought, for no apparent reason, orders wrath didn't work. Some clarity, please, @Zodiarkslayer ?

Yeah, it does work in NoProc. I checked it again in NoProc Cyro just now to be sure. Every bonus is working. Guaranteed!

I remember, that when I researched it a couple o months back, there were a lot of people claiming on the forums and reddit that it doesn't work. Yet in all lists of Youtubers, it said it does. So I checked it out myself, because I have a lot of OW pieces from deleted toons just gathering dust. And viola! "It just works!" 😂

To make one last remark on why the ranged MagBlade is forgotten...
Ranged builds in general are intentionally kept back, because of PvP and the argument that range allows for kiting and easily avoiding damage from melee players. That is and has been ZOS' point on the matter for years.
In my opinion that logic is deeply flawed, because every player has easy access to teleports, pulls and leaps in PvP, either by class, guild or weapon abilities. And most competitive builds will run them anyway, not just to intentionally counter ranged builds.
Additionally, as a ranged build, you have the disadvantage of being easily LOS'd through clever use of the environment.

It won't change, I fear.

Weckless · July 2023

I second this. I was fighting an arcanist using the old ranged set up and the damage is embarrassing. It got to the point i just started trolling him with shade trying to call a draw. He wasn't having it and got tunnel vision and i got lucky and was able to surprise him after not attacking for a good 30 seconds but if not for that i don't think it would have ever ended.

Weckless · July 2023

OBJnoob wrote: »

I don't think there's much that can be done and I don't think it has anything to do with the class. Which unfortunately means I don't think it's getting fixed.

Heals that scale off damage done just aren't very good. The damaging portion of the ability "has" to do less damage than a normal damaging ability for balance reasons. But by the time this fairly weak damage gets through battlespirit and defense... And then the heal gets halved by battlespirit again... It just isn't worth anything.

But honestly what's wrong with just using force pulse instead? Or the Psijic spammable? NB healing is a lot stronger than it used to be. I understand wishing a skill you like was better but... You really don't need it. At all.

The heal from swallow soul doesn't get hit by battle spirit twice. No heal that scales off of damage does.

Weckless · July 2023

And we dont want to use force pulse because we like swallow soul. Its one of the only benefits of the playstyle is that it gives a smidge of survivability. Id be happy with removing the travel time at this point it doesnt make sense and breaks immersion anyway. Swallow soul isn't a projectile lol.

Weckless · July 2023

If they simply added a guaranteed status effect proc on swallow soul it would probably help it damage wise with the change to inferno next patch. Add that and remove the travel time and voila

FoJul · July 2023

@Dekrypted , This would be a great idea. I know quite a few people who would like to do a swallow soul build but just can't cause it so bad. One of the best duelers in the game told me he wasn't even attempting a build cause he knows it would flop.

FoJul · August 2023

swallow soul just under everyones radar.