[Archived] Night’s Guardian – Magicka Nightblade vMA Build

[ARCHIVED]: This build has been archived, which means it is no longer being updated. However, this web-page will be left up for those who still would like to refer to it.

Build Written By: Dottz Gaming – PC NA

Role: Damage Dealer

Patch: Wolfhunter

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Setup
   1. Gear
   2. Attributes
   3. Skills
   4. Vampire vs. Werewolf vs. Mortal
   5. Champion Points
   6. Other Important Info (Food, Mundus, Race, Potions, Passives)
3. Resource Management & Rotation
4. Tips & Misc
5. Contact Info
6. Update Log

Introduction

Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Magicka Nightblade vMA Build, Night’s Guardian, for the Elder Scrolls Online! This build is intended for completing veteran maelstrom arena and be safe while doing it!  This setup is NOT intended to get you some high score or a super-fast time, but it is setup to make beating vMA as easy as possible and be forgiving should you make a mechanical mistake.  As you learn vMA and get more proficient at it, your score and time will naturally increase and decrease respectively, and this build will be an easy one to progress with.  As time goes on and you feel like you can step out of your comfort zone a little bit, feel free to drop either the front or back bar Harness Magicka – whichever you prefer – and replace it with another ability, preferably something that will up your damage per second so that your completion time will be shorter and your score higher.

Setup

Gear

NOTE: The gear recommended above is slightly different than what I initially used. Originally, my weapons were Torug’s Pact and my jewelry was Willpower, so feel free to use that setup if you want something cheaper than War Maiden. With the changes in Summerset, I feel that having an additional 5 piece will be more beneficial.

Attributes

All points into Magicka.

Skills

Main Bar – Fire Staff: Swallow Soul, Elemental Blockade, Merciless Resolve, Harness Magicka, Inner Light, Elemental Rage

Back Bar – Fire Staff: Sap Essence, Impale, Siphoning Attacks, Harness Magicka, Inner Light, Soul Harvest

Vampire vs. Werewolf vs. Mortal

You are playing a vampire for this build.  I feel that when playing a magicka nightblade in PvE, at least from my experiences in veteran dungeons, the benefits from having vampirism outweigh the negatives.  It isn’t mandatory, but I use it.  I would recommend carrying double bloody mara on you though to keep your vampire stage at stage 2.  It’ll make the levels containing a lot of fire damage much easier.

Champion Points

CHAMPION POINT 780 SETUP

THE MAGE (BLUE)

• Elfborn – 66
• Spell Erosion – 47
• Elemental Expert – 75
• Master-at-Arms – 72

THE THIEF (GREEN)

• Warlord – 56
• Arcanist – 64
• Tenacity – 56
• Tumbling – 56
• Shadow Ward – 28

THE WARRIOR (RED)

• Ironclad –  66
• Hardy – 43
• Elemental Defender – 43
• Thick Skinned – 49
• Spell Shield – 36
• Bastion – 23

CHAMPION POINT 300 SETUP

THE MAGE (BLUE)

• Elfborn – 26
• Elemental Expert – 27
• Spell Erosion – 13
• Master at Arms – 34

THE THIEF (GREEN)

• Arcanist –  49
• Tenacity – 49
• Warlod – 2

THE WARRIOR (RED)

• Ironclad –  23
• Hardy – 23
• Elemental Defender -23
• Thick Skinned – 23
• Bastion – 8

Other Important Info

Buff Food

Witchmother’s Potent Brew (Increased Max Health, Magicka and Magicka Recovery)

Mundus

Apprentice – Increased Spell Damage

Race

1. High Elf
2. Dark Elf
3. Breton

Potions

Any potion that gives magicka restoration and increases magicka recovery.

Passives

Assassination (all), Shadow (all), Siphoning (all), Light Armor (all), Heavy Armor (all except the ones that require you to wear 5 pieces), Medium Armor (all except the ones that require you to wear 5 pieces), Destruction Staff (all), Dual Wield (Twin Blade and Blunt), Fighters Guild (Banish the Wicked), Mages Guild (all except persuasive passive), Vampire (all except Blood Ritual and Savage Feeding), Undaunted (all), Racial (all), Alchemy (Medicinal Use)

Resource Management & Rotation

Since we have a lot of mechanics to deal with, we don’t have a stereotypical “rotation”, but there is a check-list I like to follow when playing this build:

• Maintain Merciless Resolve buff and fire spectral bow whenever it procs.
• Refresh Siphoning Attacks every time the buff expires.
• Use Harness Magicka whenever you feel you may take big damage or are taking big damage. You have so much magicka sustain in the build that you can afford to be a little spammy with this button. Using it also procs infernal guardian to deal damage at a range.
• Try to keep as many enemies in my Elemental Blockade as possible.
• Focus on killing single targets at a time. When I do vMA, I prefer to kill 1 target at a time instead of focusing on AoE damage. In certain situations though where AoE pressure is necessary, Elemental Rage will be your go-to tool.
• Elemental Rage is your go-to ultimate, Soul Harvest is simply there for ultimate generation.  The only time I would recommend using Soul Harvest is if you’re near the end of a stage and want to rush-down a boss and do not have enough ultimate for Elemental Rage.  Combining Soul Harvest with multiple Impale’s will take those bosses down fast!

Tips & Misc.

My main tip is practice practice practice!  My first time doing vMA took me about 4.0-4.5 hours (did the majority of this on stream).  For some people, it may be shorter, for others, longer, but just take it at your own pace and do your best.  I would recommend doing some research on the instance and the mechanics behind if before entering so you have a rough idea of what to expect, but otherwise it’s just going to take time.  Magicka Nightblade is the 2nd easiest class to do vMA on, and this build is very forgiving so you should only need to focus on the instance’s mechanics!

The most common question I got about this build is why Infernal Guardian over Grothdarr or Valkyn Skoria?  I wanted something that would allow me to kite and stay at range, so Grothdarr immediately was out of the question.  Valkyn Skoria, while good, I don’t feel works well in this build because there isn’t enough to actually proc it.  Being that I ran Harness Magicka on both my front and back bar, and you use shields a lot in vMA, I felt that I would proc Infernal Guardian more reliably than Valkyn Skoria. Also, I preferred the 1 piece bonus of max magicka more than the 1 piece bonus of maximum health as a way to get more damage and larger shield sizes.

Contact

If you have any questions about the build, join our discord server and ask @Dottz about the build!

Update Log

11/27/2017 – Build created.
1/25/2018 – CP Updated
2/12/2018 – CP Updated
5/23/2018 – Gear and CP Updated for Summerset
9/4/2018 – CP Updated for wolfhunter