[ARCHIVED] Unchained – Magicka Dragon Knight PvP 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[ARCHIVED]: This build has been archived, which means it is no longer being updated.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: Murkmire

Table of Contents

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

Introduction

Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Magicka Dragon Knight DPS PvP Build, Unchained, for the Elder Scrolls Online! This build is intended for PvP of all kinds: battlegrounds, Cyrodiil, dueling, and Imperial City.  This build can be played in both CP and no-CP pvp without any changes to the build!

For this build, I decided to go back to a similar playstyle that I had back in Clockwork City but modified it a bit to be more relevant in the current patch. This build is tanky due to the heavy armor and being able to block, offers plenty of damage via penetration, a high magicka pool and good spell damage, has good mobility via Mist Form, and has TONS of healing to keep you alive.

Of the three MagDK PvP builds on my website, this build is definitely the tankiest of the three. If you want something with a bit more damage and slightly less tankability, check out my Burn build. If you want to go full damage, but be a bit squishier due to that fact, check out my light armor destruction staff Undead build!

Keep in mind that PvP builds are very personal.  This is what worked for ME.  If you don’t like something about it, change it to fit your playstyle.

Setup

Gear

Gear Explanation

• 1h/Shield and Destruction Staff: I really believe 1/shield is the way to go this patch.  Damage is really, really high right now and being that our mobility is not great, we need to be able to mitigate damage via block so we can reach our targets.  Ice Destruction staff was chosen as a way to give us access to Elemental Drain, but still allow us to block on our back bar.
• Shacklebreaker: A staple magicka dragon knight set, this gives us access to a great stat pool for our magicka/stamina, magicka recovery and spell damage. Just a great all-around set.
• Spinner’s Garments: Recommended to me by a friend, I considered this set in the past but never ran it and instead elected to run BSW in similar versions of this build.  But after taking a second look at the set, I really can see why this set is amazing for magicka dragon knight. The sheer amount of penetration gained from the 5 piece grants us so much additional damage, and it gives our heavy armor build the same penetration levels as a light armored build.
• Blood Spawn: A staple set for the Magicka DK, this set offers us a lot. The extra stamina recovery will help maintain our stamina pool, the extra resistances will help keep us tanky in a very high-damage meta, and the ultimate return will help us with both damage and sustain. I’ve also tested Valkyn Skoria on this build, but I prefer Blood Spawn. The extra tankiness, sustain, and damage via extra ults that Blood Spawn offers is better than the Skoria burst in my opinion.

Attributes

All points into Magicka.

Skills

Main Bar – Sword & Shield: Flame Lash, Burning Embers, Shattering Rocks/Fossilize, Burning Talons, Inner Light, Ferocious Leap

Back Bar – Ice Staff: Degeneration, Elemental Drain, Coagulating Blood, Volatile Armor, Elusive Mist, Shooting Star

Ability Explanation

1. Flame Lash: Bread and Butter spammable.  Deals great damage, and when power lash procs, you get a heal, and extra damage. Be prepared for people to whisper you telling you “all you do is spam whip” when you kill them.  All these flavors and they chose to be salty.
2. Burning Embers: Great single target DoT that can be placed on multiple people that heals you based on damage done.  By boosting the damage of this ability, we give ourselves offensive based healing capabilities which is fantastic.
3. Fossilize/Shattering Rocks: Amazing stun, I recommend this over Stone Giant any day. You can’t mess up with this ability, and the best part is that you get healed if the enemy attacks you within 4 seconds after the stun. You can also run Fossilize for the root if you dont think the heal is worth it.
4. Burning Talons: With the changes in Murkmire slowing everyone down, Talons has regained its viability for the MagDK, and boy did I miss this. It helps keep targets locked down, allows you to easily proc power lash, and it adds an additional DoT to your opponent.
5. Inner Light: This skill gives us major prophecy, which boosts are crit giving us better offensive and defensive capabilities, and gives us a massive boost to our magicka pool. Since both Spinners and Shacklebreaker grant a ton of additional magicka, using this helps further amplify that pool to grant us more damage and healing.
6. Ferocious Leap: Tons of damage, CC, a damage shield, and it looks really cool.  This ultimate is a staple in any Magicka DK PvP build.
7. Degeneration: I’m using this over Structured Entropy because we have a destruction staff on our back bar, so since our light/heavy attacks will deal some decent damage, we have a chance to proc a decent heal. Also, I didn’t like how structured entropy made my execute range bigger.
8. Elemental Drain: This ability – I can’t say enough good things about it.  Elemental Drain is the main reason I chose a destruction staff over a restoration staff.  Not only do we get major breach, but it also gives us a massive boost to our sustain for 0 cost.
9. Coagulating Blood: Our defensive burst heal on the build.  You should be primarily using Burning Embers and Power Lash for healing, and this as your emergency heal.
10. Volatile Armor: Gives us a lot of extra resistances and adds another DoT to the build.  This ability is really good for making us tanky.
11. Elusive Mist: For Murkmire, I went back to vampirism in order to regain access to Elusive Mist. This skill gives us a TON of extra mobility, as well as let our stamina take a rest while we are in Mist Form (since we wont need to block, sprint, etc). With the changes in this patch, Dawnbreaker has seen less play in favor of the 2h ultimate, making vampirism a bit more viable than previous patches. In the end, I think this is personal choice. If you want to remain mortal, run Reflective plate. If you want to run vampirism, use Elusive Mist.
12. Shooting Star: This ultimate deals a ton of damage and grants us Mage’s Guild passives on our back bar. While we do normally use Ferocious Leap, this skill is great for helping us nuke down hard to kill targets and provide big battle roars for a nice flood of resources.

Vampire vs. Mortal

For this build I recommend playing a mortal or vampire.  The 10% extra recoveries and undeath are nice, but the main reasons against vampirism is that fire hits hard, and many stam classes choose to run dawnbreaker.  Plus, the new Reflective Plate is a great choice for those who do not want to run vampirism, so we no longer need to rely on vampirism for getting out of roots and snares. With the changes in Murkmire though, Dawnbreaker has seen less play in favor of the 2h ultimate, making vampirism a bit more viable than previous patches. In the end, I think this is personal choice. If you want to remain mortal, run Reflective plate. If you want to run vampirism, use Elusive Mist.

Champion Points

CHAMPION POINT 810 SETUP

THE MAGE (BLUE)

• Blessed – 32
• Elfborn – 37
• Spell Erosion – 34
• Elemental Expert – 75
• Master-at-Arms – 81
• Thaumaturge – 11

THE THIEF (GREEN)

• Warlord – 66
• Sprinter – 20
• Arcanist – 75
• Tumbling – 37
• Shadow Ward – 72

THE WARRIOR (RED)

• Ironclad – 56
• Resistant – 57
• Thick Skinned – 51
• Hardy – 37
• Elemental Defender – 37
• Quick Recovery – 32

Other Important Info

Buff Food

• If you feel you have enough sustain
  • Longfin Pasty with Melon Sauce: Maximum Health, Magicka and Stamina
• If you feel you need more sustain
  • Witchmother’s Potent Brew: Maximum Health, Magicka and Magicka Recovery

Mundus

Atronach – Increased Magicka Recovery

Race

Dark Elf – Normally I list other alternative races, but with how potent fire is now and our use of vampirism in this build, the Dark Elf flame resistance is too needed.  Besides that, Dunmer just offers the perfect racial passives for a MagDK and is the best race damage wise.

Potions

Tri-Stat (Bugloss, Columbine and Mountain Flower)

Passives

Class (all), Heavy Armor (all), Light 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), 1h & Shield (all), Destruction Staff (all except Tri-Focus), Mages Guild (all except persuasive passive), Undaunted (all), Racial (all), Alchemy (Medicinal Use), Assault (all), Support (all except the first)

Tips & Misc.

• Maintain your buffs to maximize the amount of tankiness and damage potential that the build offers.
• Maintain Cauterize at all times to ensure you always have that HoT running on you.
• Your offense is also your defense. If you need a BIG heal in a pinch and don’t have an ultimate or a potion up, re-apply Burning Embers.  The re-application of burning embers will cause you to be healed since the original DoT “ended”, and you’ll be maintaining the damage pressure on your opponent.
• Elemental Drain maintenance is very important for damage and sustain.  Always make sure this ability is up on your opponent.
• Use Talons and Fossilize to lock down and control your opponents and keep up with them. MagDK’s have a lot of control, using it to your advantage will be key in scoring kills.
• When your opponent is rooted, stand behind them so they can’t hit you.
• Stunning someone before you use an ultimate will cause them to take the full brunt of your assault, so use Fossilize in those key moments.

Contact

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

Update Log

6/1/2018 – Build created.
6/8/2018 – CP updated after initial playtesting
7/10/2018 – FoO changed to Inner Light
8/13/2018 – CP updated for Wolfhunter
10/22/2018 – Skills and cp updated for murkmire
10/25/2018 – Skills and CP changed after initial testing