I want to discuss the change to the Altmer and Breton passive from 10% Max Magicka to 2000 Max Magicka. I’ve been hearing many people claiming this is a nerf, but looking at the numbers I believe it can be a buff in some cases. Overall it is such a small change it should not have any noticeable effect.
Using my Altmer magblade as an example, I currently have 42.6k Max Magicka (with BSW and MS, 3 Infused Armor, passives and Warhorn). The removal of the 10% buff bring my Max Mag multiplier from 1.41 down to 1.31, which works out to a 3020 Magicka loss. Notice this number is significantly smaller than just taking 0.1 X 42.6k.
Now the new passive adds 2000 Max Magicka. I’m theorizing that this fits into the calculation at the same point as assigned attributes and gear bonuses. It therefore gets a 20% bonus from CP, and the 1.31 multiplier I mentioned previously. This brings the new passive up to 3144 Max Magicka.
So my net gain from the change is 3144 - 3020 = 124 more Magicka. This results in a very slight (0.1 to 0.2%) DPS gain. In reality it will not have any noticeable effect.
Now to be fair, we can look at the other side of this change, a worse case would be a Magplar (no class Magicka multiplier) with a high mag pool (assuming Perfected Siroria set and 3X Arcane jewelry). Here the loss of the 10% racial passive decreases Max Magicka from 46.1k to 42.6k or a 3.5k loss. The new racial passive adds back 2000 x 1.2 x 1.23 = 3k. So for this build we lost 500 Max Magicka, which translates to roughly a 0.5% DPS loss.
The only cases where this loss becomes more severe are if you are not utilizing Undaunted passives, are not receiving the Warhorn buff, or do not have Inner Light and the associated Mage’s guild passives. At most, I see the Magicka reduction capping out around 1% DPS loss. And the change of the other Altmer and Breton passives more than makes up for this.
Using my Altmer magblade as an example, I currently have 42.6k Max Magicka (with BSW and MS, 3 Infused Armor, passives and Warhorn). The removal of the 10% buff bring my Max Mag multiplier from 1.41 down to 1.31, which works out to a 3020 Magicka loss. Notice this number is significantly smaller than just taking 0.1 X 42.6k.
Now the new passive adds 2000 Max Magicka. I’m theorizing that this fits into the calculation at the same point as assigned attributes and gear bonuses. It therefore gets a 20% bonus from CP, and the 1.31 multiplier I mentioned previously. This brings the new passive up to 3144 Max Magicka.
So my net gain from the change is 3144 - 3020 = 124 more Magicka. This results in a very slight (0.1 to 0.2%) DPS gain. In reality it will not have any noticeable effect.
Now to be fair, we can look at the other side of this change, a worse case would be a Magplar (no class Magicka multiplier) with a high mag pool (assuming Perfected Siroria set and 3X Arcane jewelry). Here the loss of the 10% racial passive decreases Max Magicka from 46.1k to 42.6k or a 3.5k loss. The new racial passive adds back 2000 x 1.2 x 1.23 = 3k. So for this build we lost 500 Max Magicka, which translates to roughly a 0.5% DPS loss.
The only cases where this loss becomes more severe are if you are not utilizing Undaunted passives, are not receiving the Warhorn buff, or do not have Inner Light and the associated Mage’s guild passives. At most, I see the Magicka reduction capping out around 1% DPS loss. And the change of the other Altmer and Breton passives more than makes up for this.