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Do you play a Magicka Dragonknight? Do you want something else than the usual 5 BSW/ 4 Aether/ 2 Grothdarr/ 1 vMA Inferno Setup and still be raidmaterial?
Then this guide is for you! The Goal of this Build is to provide strong DPS on a Dragonknight while using shock and fire damage and Heavy Attacks with a Lightning Staff. I’ve tried several builds that use lightning staff heavy attacks on a DK, and while they are very survivable, sustainable and very easy to play, the single target DPS mostly suffered and I’ve never managed to get past the 30k sustained single target DPS parse (selfbuffed).
This build does exactly that while using only AoE skills, and in the right hands and raid setup, it can surpass 40k Single target DPS easily while giving your group a lot of utility that Dragonknights have. I’ve had a breeze in vDSA (currently #30 PC EU, 45234 score) and every vet trial with this, including vHoF, vMoL and Craglorn Hardmode Trials, no death runs for the Hist-Dungeons etc. I even got the Duelist Title with the vMA version.This build is flexible to the extent that you can do both a Melee or Ranged Version, depending on what you are assigned to within your group or what the dungeon or fight requires you to do. For solo play, the build requires minor tweaks, but I added a vMA build for people who'd like to get their safe weekly and the DK flawless conqueror as easy as possible.
Let's go through the advantages and disadvantages that this build has:
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Selfbuffed Stats:
See listed below under the respective Setup Section.
Race:
Altmer or Dunmer. Dunmer gets 3% more out of the fire abilities than Altmer, and Altmer gets 2% more out of the shock abilities, so it doesn't make that much of a difference. I prefer Altmer for the regen and 1% more max magicka, plus you get better results in vMA and you have enough stamina due to undaunted infiltrator. Everything else is a DPS loss, after those two, Breton would be third.
Gear:
To understand the nature of heavy attacks, it is important to know that the Flat Damage Buff of the vMA lightning Staff Buffs every Tick of Lightning Staff Heavy Attacks and adds like 5k DPS to the Build. In HotR, multiple Combinations of Trait, 5-piece set and Mundus Stone became viable, so I'll list the two best ones i found via testings below:
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Combination #1 (Julianos+Infallible Aether):
This one is Basic, unconditional Damage that gives the highest upfront burst and consistent damage. I prefer this for vMA and DSA.
Combination #2 (Burning Spellweave + Martial Knowledge):
This one is the highest Damage overall due to the additional Burning effect you get from BSW adn the additional spell damage from Martial Knowledge is just as good as the Minor Slayer, but it has a proc based set in it. So for example in vMA or DSA, i often only use Blockade and heavy Attacks to kill low health mobs and BSW will not proc often enough to justify it.
Basically, all combinations of these 4 Sets will do fine for you, easiest to get will certainly be Julianos+Martial Knowledge, as you dont have to farm a bit for it and the Staffs can be bought.
As far as the Mundus Stone is concerned, you will want to choose either the Lover or the Apprentice, based on the spell penetration level you have available to you.
The I want to learn vMA Setup:
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Heres a full flawless run with the old version of this Build, but it works pretty much as in the video with the above setup:
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The I want to nuke vMA and Off-Balance Group Support Setup:
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Heres a full flawless run with the off-balance group support setup version of this Build:
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The Key here is the Synergy between Off-balance and Flame Lash. Flame Lash hits like a truck, heals you Back to full immediately and is FREE to cast against offbalance enemies. So only cast it when it procs, put Burning embers on another enemy. No other heals needed in vMA. If you want to learn the Arena i still recommend the above setup as it's easier to play.
Bars with Guard
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Main Bar (Lightning Staff): Harness Magicka, Burning Embers, Engulfing Flames, Stalwart Guard, Inner Light, Thunderous Rage
Back Bar (Dual Wield): Molten Armaments, Eruption, Elemental Blockade, Stalwart Guard, Inner Light, Shooting Star
Bars without Guard
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Main Bar (Lightning Staff): Harness Magicka, Burning Embers, Engulfing Flames, Flames of Oblivion, Inner Light, Thunderous Rage
Back Bar (Dual Wield): Molten Armaments, Eruption, Elemental Blockade, Rearming Trap (Flex Spot), Inner Light, Shooting Star
Solo/vMA Bars
Learning Setup:
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Main Bar (Lightning Staff): Harness Magicka, Coagulating Blood (i highly recommend Flame Lash instead), Elemental Blockade, Dragonscales, Inner Light, Shooting Star/Thunderous Rage
Back Bar (Restoration Staff): Healing Ward, Molten Armaments, Rapid Regenaration, Eruption, Inner Light, Shooting Star
Off-Balance Setup for Solo:
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Main Bar (Charged Spinner/IA/MD Staff): Harness Magicka , Burning Embers, Flame Lash, Dragonscales, Inner Light, Thunderous Rage (For 8% Destro passive on this bar)
Back Bar (vMA Lightning Staff): Harness Magicka, Molten Armaments, Elemental Blockade, Eruption, Inner Light, Shooting Star
You can put all you want on the flex spots, I like to have a shield ready on the main bar and chains on the back bar to help chain in adds, but you could also put mages guild skills there to get additional max magicka. I use Thunderous Rage, as it is the most powerful DPS-Ultimate right now and got buffed by ~2.5%. I mostly weave in light DW attacks right before going back to th front bar to activate your SD/Crusher glyphs and thus empower the first 1 1/2 heavy attacks and blockade with it.
Lets go through possible skills you could put on the flex spots:
Dampen Magic: Strong shield, your emergency button i case you don't trust your group enough to go without shield.
Harness Magicka: Weaker than Dampen Magic, but helpful when you get a lot of elemental damage in.
Unrelenting Grip: In any case you have a non-dk tank (without swarmmother) or just have a lot of ranged trash to chain in.
Elemental Drain: In case the healer doesn't run it, you can put this on your front bar.
Scalding rune: Procs Illambris' fire version, but is not as good as eruption.
Dragonscales: Cool when you have a lot of ranged things that can't all be taunted by your tank.
CP Setup
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The 75 Points in Thaumaturge make room for the exploiter passive, that grants us 10% damage on EVERYTHING when the enemy is off balance. The Destro Ultimate concusses enemies and Elemental Blockade sets them off balance, so you can use the combination to get another 10% damage while the destro ultimate is active+70% more heavy attack damage against off balance enemies, plus the 10% for the time when blockade/illambris concuss enemies. Due to the heavy attack return, i use 34 points in Tenacity to unlock the windrunning passive for 2% more runnign speed and the sustain is awesome.
Rotation:
The Rotation is as easy as effective: Find someone to guard, Magicka DDs like the free minor force.
Due to the 39s duration of Molten Armaments, you only need to recast it every two full rotation cycles.
Throw in your Ultimate (Meteor/Thunderous Rage/Standard of Might) between the second and third heavy attack when it is ready.
Eruption, meteor, Burning Embers and engulfing flames proc the fire version of Illambris, while your heavies, thunderous rage and blockade proc the lightning version, so you get a great uptime on both, especially with a few adds to bosses around.
Target skeleton parses (alone, selfbuffed with Stalwart Guard, without Ele Drain):
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Keep in mind that these are Robust target dummy parses. I can get more on a normal one, but i usually test on the big one so one can see the consistent base DPS that you can get in trials and factor in Sustain rather then a bursty 3m parse.
Keep in mind that every single ability and attack except burning embers is full aoe here, and that i suck at remembering rotations and screwed them up quite often.
An issue that this build has is blockcasting. E.g. In vHRC, I usually have between 39k and 43k dps until the starburst phase kicks in, and you can't blockcast heavy attacks, so the dmg drops significantly when you can't channel. Same holds for the ground atronach in vAA.
If you want to try it out, I recommend farming the lamia boss with the pet snake (slikhlenia or something) in arx corinium for sweetsong, a unique precise sword of the undaunted infiltrator, then farming the first boss for legs and a unique necklace and then going for a ring of the set in chests.
Big shoutout to all the Peeps who let me use those weird Builds in Endgame Content
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The build is constantly in development, so any advice in how to improve it further (while staying outside the box please, I know what is BiS on mag dks) is welcome! I will update it continously.
