Replies: 55
Ouroboros – The Do-Anything, Anytime MAgicka Dragonknight
Welcome to my write-up, forum-goers! I’ve been maining magicka DK for about 9 months and have created a relatively unique setup, so this write-up is long overdue. You may be confused by the somewhat clickbait-y title, but this isn’t just a compilation of multiple builds, nor am I just fishing for posts ![:P]()
This build is my attempt to create a viable setup for having the pre-CP system ability to switch to any needed role at any time by just swapping gear and skills on your bars. I’ve found too many times that, whether you’re running with a PUG, or even well-meaning guildies, or an unfortunate lightning storm takes out someone’s internet, things may simply not go as planned in a group, and now that I’ve entered the real world I don’t have time to wait for a healer or tank for an hour while the damage twiddle their thumbs. So if you’ve ever felt like you need to provide a little more support for your team, or need to be a little more survivable in a PUG, or even just want to try out a different role without having to level an entirely new character, this build is for you!
Before we begin…
Special Thanks
… to pretty much anyone who has contributed to magicka DK in the recent past! In particular,
With that, let’s begin!
BUild Goals
- Create an effective role setup for all situations optimized for both output (healing/damage), support and survivability
- Switch between roles without re-allocation costs of attribute points, skill points or CP
- Solid setups for both veteran and entry-level endgame play (much of the best gear is dropped now in 1T, but you can easily get away with crafted sets while you farm them)
Pros
- YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!
- You can often provide enough support for the group and survivability for yourself to carry other group members
- Save time and gold from leveling different characters for different roles
Cons
- Being a jack-of-all-trades means you’re not technically optimal for anything (min-maxers, this build isn’t for you!)
- Heavy investment for a single character (requires doing nearly all the content in the game for enough skill points if this is also your main crafter)
- Healer and Tank setups will require some changes to be viable in veteran-mode Trials
Change Log
- 12/30/16: Updated for One Tamriel with new sets, slightly modified skills and rotations, and alternative setups for the most demanding content when you’re ready!
Fixed Build Distributions
Anything that stays the same between all setups will go here: Race, Attributes, and CP’s.
Race
Dunmer: All of these build do try to do some sort of damage, and considering all we’re trying to do here I believe Dunmer to be the best fit here. Though Altmer would have some nice additional recover I’ve rarely felt like i would need it.
Attributes
64 Magicka/ 0 Health/ 0 Stamina: Our focus, even while tanking, is on maximizing our main resource here. If needed, we make up for lacking health/stamina in the gear enchants.
Champion Points
Let’s start with…
The Warrior:
The Lady: Hardy (45), Elemental Defender (45), Light Armor Focus (10)
The Lord: Bastion (87)
We rely heavily on damage shields when we use them, and will always be wearing light armor, which is the reasoning for the few points into Light Armor Focus. Otherwise points go into the main damage mitigation stars evenly. I’ll be the first to admit the Light Armor Focus points are likely more effectively used elsewhere, such as Thick-Skinned or split among other the other mitigation stars we’ve chosen.
The Thief:
The Tower: Magician (100)
The Lover: Arcanist (87)
Typical Thief distribution for magicka users. We won’t need any points in the stamina stars because we’ll only ever use one stamina ability and the Helping Hands passive returns stamina to us with Earthen Heart ability activations. You may want to modify this for a few points in Tumbling if you’re heavy on PvP.
The Mage:
The Apprentice: Elemental Expert (100), Elfborn (37), Blessed (13)
The Ritual: Thaummaturge (37)
This was the most difficult to distribute, but I’ve found that your damage is more dependent on an effective distribution than healing. So while we have a few points in Blessed most of them are going into what is most relevant for our damage. If you will only be using a few setups from this guide (such as Healer/Tank) redistribute into Blessed accordingly.
Mundus Stone
Realistically, you won’t always have time to switch your Mundus stone, and the setups share in their selection, which is why they’re included here.
Damage/ Healer: Thief - Tank/ PvP: Atronach
Simple choices here: we want to maximize output on the damage/ healer side and resource management on the tank/ PvP side. I ran Apprentice for a very long time but thanks to you theorycrafting folks and my own testing I confirmed Thief is better. I also tested shadow and it’s just very slightly worse with this build, so if you’re like me and care too much about aesthetic choices that people don’t even see it’s a viable option.
dAMAGE dEALER
[img]http://i.imgur.com/B0Z5unQ.png[/img]
Stats and gear, blue Health/Magicka food but otherwise unbuffed.
Welcome to the Damage section! We’ll focus on gear, bars, and general damage play.
Gear
I’ll outline my current setup and what we’d ideally use.
- 5x Burning Spellweave: If you don’t mind farming, this is the BiS set for almost every magicka user at the moment, and is particularly awesome for magicka DK’s. Simply put it’s the biggest boost to our damage, procced by what we were already doing, with a better uptime than most other similar sets. This is only beaten by Twice-born Star when in a raid group with over 50% Major Force uptime, and if you’re using this build that is unlikely for you to say the least. Julianos is an excellent substitute while you farm this, and Magnus would be as well if you’re new to damage and are having sustain issues.
- 2x Grothdarr/ Valkyn Skoria: The wave of new monster sets has shaken the meta substantially, but our friend Valkyn also got a boost. I’ve found that since we’re in melee range Grothdarr is significantly better, especially in AoE pulls, but if you are stuck at range for some reason Valkyn would be better. Take your pick
![:P]()
Both do insane amounts of flame damage, which is exactly what we want.
- 5x Silks of the Sun: While not BiS on its own, Sun is 1) more easily obtained as a BoE set from Stonefalls, 2) more consistent in its bonus effect and 3) helps survivability with its health bonus. Proccing Spellweave on your back bar, then flipping over to your main bar for the 5-piece Sun bonus means having +1000 spell damage for the duration of the Spellweave proc, which will be about half the time using this method. Does this beat a consistent set of bonuses from 4x Infallible Aether and constant 5-piece Spellweave? No, but it comes close and works well while you get what you need from trial runs.
Skills
[img]http://i.imgur.com/aP5VvN4.png[/img]
Bar 1:
- Molten Whip: Our main single target attack. Hits for a bunch when all our buffs are up. Empowers nearly every other ability on this bar passively.
- Elemental Blockade: Very strong ground AoE DoT, even stronger if you have the Maelstrom weapon. Have since switched away from Unstable Wall; any DPS lost from the explosion is gained by being able to use Whip for longer through the extended duration. Counterintuitively, it’s better.
- Burning Embers: Extremely strong single-target DoT that also happens to be a very strong heal. Spam if for some reason you’re at low health.
- Engulfing Flames: Another DoT that boosts all flame damage.
- Flames of Oblivion: ANOTHER very strong DoT that also provides our Major Prophecy on this bar.
- Standard of Might: Strongest damage ultimate in the game IMO, especially with all these boosts to its damage up. Best with relatively stationary bosses, for obvious reasons.
Bar 2:
- Burning Talons: Main AoE attack, and additional DoT. After testing against Elemental Ring I found that the significant increase in damage counters the slight increase in difficulty sustaining in AoE fights. If you’re having sustain issues, switch to Elemental Ring.
- Draw Essence: Strong AoE and also strong heal with multiple enemies around. Recast whenever the second explosion goes off in trash packs. Spam if you’re hurting.
- Eruption: Another strong ground DoT that snares targets. Place on both trash packs and bosses.
- Elemental Drain: Usually a healer runs this, but I’ve found it better to free them of that burden as I cast it more reliably as part of the rotation. Provides Major Breach and much-needed magicka restore.
- Molten Armaments: Our long-lasting source of Major Sorcery, and a nice bonus to our heavy attacks if and when we need to restore magicka. Buffs the group with Major Sorcery as well.
- Eye of the Storm: I severely underestimated this ultimate when it was first out, but it simply obliterates AoE pulls. Standard still outperforms it in most cases, but it shines as a starter/finisher when the damage output from the rest of your abilities is low (just starting the fight so nothing out or low on magicka). When you can, prioritize using Standard instead.
Playstyle
There are both some common and uncommon choices made here, the more uncommon choices made mainly for the sake of sustainability of our damage and ourselves. While getting extra orbs and other assistance from your group is great, 90% of the time, you won’t need it.
AoE/ Trash: Buff up by using Molten Armaments. If you have time, full heavy attack the biggest trash mob just to get the fight started. Make sure at least one mob has Elemental Drain debuff on them at all times, preferably all the larger mobs in the pack. Cast Eruption in the middle, then Draw Essence into the pack and got to town with Burning Talons, recasting Draw Essence whenever the second explosion goes off (roughly after 1 to 2 Talon casts). If it’s a particularly beefy trash pull make sure to switch to your main bar to place Engulfing Flames on the trash at least, and Unstable Wall of Elements for an even greater damage boost. I only recommend this if you’re not hurting, though. Stay on your off bar and spam Draw Essence if you’re in trouble. There will rarely ever be a trash pull more complicated than a simple stack and burn, however.
Single Target/ Boss: This is where the feared reputation of a magicka DK comes in. Don’t fear, though, it’s merely a matter of practice. I’ll try to clearly explain what I only truly know as muscle memory at the moment. The general idea is simply to refresh all our DoT’s, buffs and debuffs on cooldown, and weave Molten Whip with medium attacks in the process. The trick is dealing with all the skills we’re using. I’ve found that my non-weaving time is broken up into cycles: (Key: Molten Whip = MW, Elemental Blockade = EB, Burning Embers = BE, Engulfing Flames = EF, Flames of Oblivion = FoO, Eruption = Eru, Elemental Drain = ED, Molten Armaments = MA, Medium Attack = Med, Full Heavy Attack = Full)
- Cycle 1: EF, Med, BE, Med, EB, Med
- Cycle 2: FoO, Med, EF, Med, BE, Med, EB, Med
- Cycle 3: (Bar Swap) ED, Med, Eru, (Bar Swap) EF, Med, BE, Med, EB, Med
- Cycle 4: (Bar Swap) MA, Med, ED, Med, Eru, (Bar Swap) FoO, Med, EF, Med, BE, Med, EB, Med
There’s a lot of pre-cooldown refreshing with these cycles, so it’s more of a starting point. You want to get to the point of naturally weaving any skill that’s about to expire instead of your Molten Whip when you need to. I’d recommend a cooldown tracking add-on like Srendarr for this. That being said, thee rotation with the cycles above is as follows:
- MA, Full, ED, Med, Eru, (Bar Swap)
- FoO, Med, EF, Med, BE, Med, EB, Med
- (MW, Med) x 5~6, Cycle 3
- (MW, Med) x 4~5, Cycle 2
- (MW, Med) x 5~6, Cycle 1
- (MW, Med) x 4~5, Cycle 4
- (MW, Med) x 5~6, Cycle 1
- (MW, Med) x 4~5, Cycle 2
- Repeat Steps 3-8 until dead
![:D]()
If at any point during the fight you start hurting, don’t forget you can cash in you Burning Embers heal at anytime by recasting it; with this much of a boost to its damage it could very well heal you from zero to full by itself. If it’ll save the run, it’s worth breaking rotation. When a few larger mobs spawn during a fight, continue the rotation exactly as you left it from that boss; if it’s a large trash pack, break entirely and use your AoE setup. It’s a good idea to begin single-target rotation from the start afterward, if you’re unsure of where your cooldowns are at.
Finally, I’ll leave you with some parses. By no means the best you’ll ever see, but just to show viability of top DPS, even with all the sacrifices we’ve made like no Rearming Trap or Inner Light. (Note: old parses still; on average new setups are a 3-4k DPS increase from my rough estimation, but need to redo the tests again.)
[img]http://i.imgur.com/IVvYrqX.png[/img]
DPS test on Slimecraw in normal Wayrest Sewers, using Apprentice mundus stone.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/BPPojak.png[/img]
DPS test on Slimecraw in normal Wayrest Sewers, using Shadow mundus stone.
I seem to have misplaced my Thief test, but output is slightly higher than Shadow. Will update soon.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/5HOluyW.png[/img]
Parse of normal Sanctum Ophidia Mantikora fight, with Apprentice mundus stone. Hit with AoE “popcorn” attack three times, best parse was ~26k with Apprentice (hit once).
[img]http://i.imgur.com/kKk64Uv.png[/img]
Parse of normal Sanctum Ophidia Mantikora fight, Thief mundus stone. Hit once.
Notes on veteran Trials: This will perform adequately for trials, but there are 3 things you should do to bring yourself into shape:
- Use a damage shield. You are too squishy. Period. In the vast majority of boss battles AoE’s specifically targeting adds are useless, you want the adds to fall into whatever you’re hitting the boss with. Replace Talons with Dampen Magic and you will survive.
- (Highly Recommended) Farm for Infallible Aether (or Moondancer). The 8% bonus to damage is the best buff you can get in this game as a DPS for obvious reasons. The ideal setup in this scenario would be 5x Spellweave, 2x Grothdarr and 4x Infallible Aether, or if you can get the Maelstrom flame staff, 4x Aether on Bar 1 and 3x Aether/Maelstrom on Bar 2. I’m currently running the following since it’s what I have; dead slots make me sad
![:(]()
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Z75C9FO.png[/img]
- (Highly Recommended) Learn to use Rearming Trap. I myself have yet to do this, but there’s a reason every top build runs it; there are very few sources otherwise, and all only target one person. If you’re healer/support isn’t being good about Ele Drain you likely won’t make it through the trial anyway, so replace Ele Drain on your bar with Trap while you’re using it. If you’re paranoid about having Ele Drain like I am, replace Draw Essence with it during boss fights.
HEALER
[img]http://i.imgur.com/mzA0Pr4.png[/img]
Stats, blue Health/Magicka food but otherwise unbuffed.
Welcome to the Healer section! We’ll focus on gear, bars, and general healer play.
GEAR
I’ll outline my current setup and what we’d ideally use.
- 5x Spell Power Cure: Arguably the best healing/support set in the game at the moment, but unfortunately behind DLC. The boost to damage becomes very important later on though. Until then, use any of the typical magicka crafted sets. In particular, Kagrenac’s is a good choice for being able to get people up, and Eyes of Mara is good for learning how to use resto staff abilities if you’ve completed the Mages’ Guild questline.
- 5x Infallible Aether: Very annoying and difficult to get, but that Vulnerability de-buff is going to do wonders for helping your group; if you can get it it’s amazing. That being said there are many alternatives. The main one is also in high demand for trials, Worm’s Rainment, reducing the magicka cost of abilities for the whole group. Also, because of our constant use of damage shields, Trinimac’s Valor may also be effective. Most healer sets will be just fine; “healer” sets in general just give nice supports and usually don’t affect your healing ability directly.
- 2x Bogdan/ Chokethorn: Honestly, use whatever you have here, although apparently both of the direct heal monster sets are good so you should try to get them if stacking heals is the main goal. Otherwise go with two 1-piece bonus sets that will improve either your healing output or survivability, depending on how comfortable you are.
SKILLS
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Yre9FN2.png[/img]
Bar 1:
- Healing Ward: Your primary “Oh ****” button. Use this to save someone whenever they get hit hard. If you need to, immediately Combat Prayer. Speaking of which…
- Combat Prayer: IMO a must have buff and burst heal for any healer. Use on cooldown.
- Siphon Spirit: Wasn’t using this at first, but especially given our lack of burst heal, we need all the HoT’s we can get, and on top of that it restores magicka. You should also be using this on cooldown, though don’t worry to much outside of bosses.
- Rapid Regeneration: Our main HoT, constantly topping your group up thanks to the plethora of shields.
- Inner Light: Our source of Major Prophecy and also more Magicka. DKs have Cauterize as the opposing morph to Flames of Oblivion, but the heal is both weaker than the fireball of FoO and is also completely random. Especially since we will also deal damage, it’s not worth it. If you want to add additional damage to an ailing group however, Flames of Oblivion IS worth slotting over Inner Light, here.
- Magma Shell: Your super “Oh ****” button. Makes you functionally invincible and grants a full health damage shield to everyone else if they’re close enough. Run in and pop if everyone is about to die, or use it to save yourself as you resurrect someone.
Bar 2:
- Igneous Shield: Our secret weapon as a DK healer. Keep this up on cooldown along with Rapid Regeneration, and it’ll do 90% of the work for you thanks to both the Major Vitality and protecting your group’s health while you top them up.
- Obsidian Shard: A useful CC that also heals you; extra healing is never bad. If trash is knocking people about because the tank isn’t doing their job, pop this a couple of times at the biggest mobs. Can also be weaved with light attacks during boss fights. If your group needs it, replace this with mystic orb for more magicka sustain.
- Elemental Drain: If you were confused as to why healers run with inferno staves in their back pocket, this is why. While we keep it up on our damage setup the vast majority of groups don’t run with it if the healer doesn’t. This combined with the Burning Embers ticks helps our own sustain as well.
- Molten Armaments: Same as the damage use, a buff to our spell damage and heavy attacks. And in the healer spec, we will be doing A LOT of heavy attacking, so very useful all in all.
- Inner Light: See Bar 1, same purpose, same suggestions.
- Aggressive Warhorn: Get used to casting this on cooldown. A boost to both the resources of your group and their critical strike damage. Use this whenever your ultimate is ready and your team isn’t literally about to keel over in unison.
PLAYSTYLE
Not much to explain here because it’s mostly typical healer job, but if you main a damage role and don’t often heal it’s important you take these ideas into consideration.
Your first priority is always healing, but DKs do it in a way where we can afford to make it not an immediate priority. You don’t wait for your group to reach low health then blast them with heals; you instead just give them massive recovery. Always, always, ALWAYS keep Rapid regeneration up, the heal is stronger than you may give a HoT credit for. Consistently activate Igneous Shield on cooldown, cast Combat Prayer to boost group damage (remember it’s a cone, so practice your aim), and pop a Healing Ward on anyone who suddenly gets hit hard. Easy enough.
Which is why healers aren’t just healers anymore. If done right, healing, especially in a 4-person setting, is easy. Its being useful that’s hard, which is where the second bar comes in. You should be consistently casting Elemental Drain on any large targets, and keeping Molten Armaments up (which is easy with such a long duration). Whenever it doesn’t risk your survival or messing up mechanics, go to town with full heavy attacks or light attack weave with Obsidian Shard. Yes, you should probably be doing damage just like the others. Use mystic orb every 10 to 15 seconds if your group needs the synergy, especially in large trash pulls where the synergy is more effective and most people have greater difficulty sustaining. If everything goes right, you should actually be spending most of your time NOT on your healing bar; just make sure you can instantly switch to healing at a moment’s notice. Not having an easy group burst heal is both a blessing and a curse. It makes your life more difficult than sitting and spamming one button, but in making it work you will actually be a better healer for it. Have fun with it ![:)]()
Notes on veteran Trials: While I’ve been secondary healer for a normal trial with no issues, you will definitely need to make some changes for the build to be effective, and it’s difficult to justify the loss of the different types of support that templars can provide. That being said, there’s always two healers. I would feel iffy about taking this into a vet trial, but if the templars in the group are enough to satisfy the needs of the group overall, it may work. Two things must be done, though:
- Replace Rapid Regeneration with Healing Springs. A strong HoT on 2 people is not enough, there are 12 of you. Healing Springs is the only way you’re going to be able to do your job effectively. Don’t feel bad though; all healers need to do this anyway.
- Run whatever is needed. This is a no-brainer, right? It should be, but teams often don’t communicate effectively enough. Make sure that between you and the other healers, you’re doing your job by providing every support you can. Your healing ability is essentially the restoration staff line; that gives you a lot of flex that others don’t have. Use it effectively and play around with what works best for the group.
Tank
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Q2UymQH.png[/img]
Stats, blue Health/Magicka food but otherwise unbuffed You should use purple tri-stat food; I forgot to switch :P.
Welcome to the Tank section! We’ll focus on gear, bars, and general tank play. Before we continue, though, you may be thinking: how the **** are we going to tank in light armor??? To show you it can be done, check out our buffed stats:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/aAcVhvR.png[/img]
Stats, blue Health/Magicka food, Volatile Armor, Dampen Magic + Armor Master, and Molten Armaments. Not shown: ~26k total damage shield, and again forgot to switch to purple tri-stat food. Derp.
Now, time to see how we get there!
GEAR
I’ll outline my current setup, what we’d ideally use, and a theoretical setup for next patch as well.
- 5x Armor Master: The only reason we’re able to tank in light armor. The 5-piece resistance buff stacks with the major and minor resistance buffs. Also provides bonuses to our health, which we’re missing without the heavy armor.
- 4x Death’s Wind: Needed a 4-piece which serves to boost our physical resistance on the 2-piece and confer useful bonuses otherwise (the 2 piece being major should we ever switch to a monster set). Other viable options here are Alessia’s Bulwark if you feel like you must be at capped resistances and Spectre’s Eye if you need a few extra resources (max magicka). Why no Blood Spawn? It is an option and I have grown to wanting to use it again, but originally the set was buggy and barely ever procced. If you find yourself with resource issues, Engine Guardian would be a better choice. Otherwise Lord Warden would be the set I recommend if you can get it, as it also provides your group with the resistancesif they stand in the area.
- 3x Transmutation: The 2- and 3-piece bonus confer magicka recovery, perfect for us since we need that more than stamina recovery with this build. Combined with our recovery enchants, we’re getting nearly +1000 magicka regen compared to our damage and healer setups with these jewelry. You can attempt to obtain gold if you wish, but I was using a purple neck and blue rings and it’s both much cheaper and equally effective.
SKILLS
[img]http://i.imgur.com/gDzVtQx.png[/img]
Bar 1:
- Inner Rage: Our only taunt. Pierce Armor is redundant and while we’re missing out on one of the few sources of Major Fracture, we can switch to it if your group primarily consists of Stamina users. But by default I believe having a ranged, Magicka taunt is more important.
- Heroic Slash: By default our only Stamina (and 1H/S) ability, important to conserve stamina for blocking. The bonus to Ultimate generation and the Maim debuff it provides are too good to pass up, though. Use on cooldown.
- Burning Embers: While it’s probably a smarter idea to use Coagulating Blood here, Burning Embers is a much stronger base heal and adds to group damage. Switch it out if you’re in a ranged fight, however.
- Igneous Shield: An additional boost to our damage shields along with Dampen Magic, but primarily our source of Stamina through the Helping Hands passive. Use on cooldown or whenever you need to spam Burning Embers for a heal.
- Dampen Magic: This is how we proc our Armor Master buff, granting us a boatload of resistance and bringing us to heavy armor levels of resistance in light armor. Most tanks that use Armor Master use Shuffle as their skill here, and we use it on the back bar now, because dodge is amazing. It eats a big chunk from your stamina pool though, and we want to conserve this for blocking, so we alternate between this and Shuffle. The near full-health damage shield this confers will easily protect us from those hits we don’t dodge. This, on top of our resistances underneath our shields, grants a huge boon to our survival.
- Magma Shell: Your super “Oh ****” button. Makes you functionally invincible and grants a full health damage shield to everyone else if they’re close enough. Run in and pop if everyone is about to die, or use it to save yourself as you resurrect someone.
Bar 2:
- Unrelenting Grip: The first mistake I made in the original design of this was ignoring the usefulness of chains. As a DK it is essentially required; especially if your group is struggling with damage, pulling mobs into a neat little ball is the best thing you can do for them. and if they can’t be pulled, oh well: free damage!
- Burning Talons: Very strong DoT that immobilizes targets. Use especially on larger mobs and larger trash pulls.
- Molten Armaments: Same as the damage use, a buff to our group’s spell damage and our own heavy attacks. You will use heavy attacks but very infrequently, this is mostly here as group utility. Draw Essence is an option for greater survivability, but replace with whatever you believe the group needs most.
- Volatile Armor: Our source of the major resistance buffs, and a nice little bit of extra damage on top of it. The other morph is an option but the damage shield isn’t long or strong enough to be useful. Activate on cooldown.
- Shuffle: See Bar 1. Originally not used in this build, but considering how amazing dodge chance is I gave it a shot and it worked. This was mostly because of the long duration of the buff though; it’s important to conserve stamina, so don’t overuse it!
- Standard of Might: I’ve elected for Standard of Might here primarily for the 20% mitigation it grants you; it’s the closest thing we have to a Nova or Veil of Blades. Use this when your group isn’t hurting; extra damage never hurts! Replace with Aggressive Warhorn for groups that know what they’re doing.
PLAYSTYLE
While tanking isn’t exactly rocket science, our decision to be in light armor puts us in an interesting position. On the one hand, the light armor provides us with resource management advantages that would be impossible in heavy armor were it not for the Constitution passive, along with a massive damage shield thanks to Dampen Magic. On the other hand, we need to make strong use of those resources to make sure we maintain all the buffs that make this possible. Drop one, and you may as well not block a 1-shot hit for all the help it will do you.
Our priority, then, is to make sure these buffs are up 100% of the time. Volatile Armor and Shuffle have a duration of 20 seconds, the Armor Master proc has a duration of 10 seconds, and our main tanking skills (Inner Rage, Heroic Slash and Burning Embers) have durations of roughly 15, 12, and 10 seconds respectively. If using Molten Armaments, it has a duration of roughly 40 seconds. So, generally your skill use will be:
- Cycle 1 (Every 10 Seconds): Dampen Magic, Burning Embers, Heroic Slash, Inner Rage
- Cycle 2 (Every 20 Seconds): Volatile Armor, Shuffle, Cycle 1 Skills
- Cycle 3 (Every 40 Seconds): Molten Armaments, Cycle 2 Skills
Otherwise, you should be light attacking every few seconds to proc your enchant and ultimate gain, and blocking otherwise. Make sure you’re using Burning Talons and Unrelenting Grip on any mobs to keep them from getting to the rest of the group. Always taunt what you can, especially if it’s on your healer or damage. Focus the big guys on your first pull. One last tip: as DKs our sustain comes from ultimate use; unless you’re in a full PUG and want to make sure you don’t collapse when the rest of your team does, don’t hesitate to use your ultimate whenever you have them. If you do happen to be suffering from sustain issues with this build, that’s your solution. Alternatively, replace Standard of Might with Spell Wall, a morph of the new 1H/S ultimate, which only costs 100 so should be up often.
Notes on veteran Trials: I have tanked everything except veteran trials and DSA with this setup. The main change I would consider to this build is changing a jewelry enchant to physical resistance, just to make sure we are always fully capped on resistances when buffed. That being said, this build is dangerously reliant on keeping buffs active for our mitigation, and if they drop we’re not much better off than the DPS, which in a veteran trial is a no-no. I can’t really argue for getting away from heavy armor here. However, if you have the skill points to spare, it’s only a few extra to get all the important benefits for actually tanking (Wrath passive be damned). Using suggestions from others in this thread and others, I’ve elected to try an ultimate regeneration build that plays to the strengths of a DK, particularly the Battle Roar passive. I won’t take up a full write-up but here’s the jist:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/60WHB65.png[/img]
The main idea is this: take advantage of every ultimate generation mechanic we can get through Tava’s favor and Blood Spawn, and combining this with Akaviri Dragonguard to reduce their costs and have them up even more often! So far my tests have been pretty successful overall, the main one being veteran DLC dungeons. Your mileage may vary depending on how good at tanking you are, but I encourage trying this out as well!
PvP
This section will be lacking for a while, as I don’t enter Cyrodiil very much simply because I’m not compelled to often enough (not even regarding the cheating issue). On top of this, magicka DK is notoriously difficult in PvP at the moment. In the meantime I will refer you to what I’ve been theorizing until such time as I can flesh this section out with a proper build. In that regard, Sypher has recently released a magicka DK build (granted, also using vampire and heavy armor) that looks promising, and I encourage those of you interested to check him out. I will likely be using his setup as a base to adapt it to our build here. A variant I’ve been using while I farm for the sets has been very successful for me in duels; don’t expect to 1vX with it, though.
GEAR
I’ll outline my current setup and what we’d ideally use.
5x Burning Spellweave: Getting this in Impenetrable will be a significant bonus to our damage when it activates, and luckily if you’re farming this for your DPS build it is very likely you’ll get a set in Impen while you’re at it. Spinner’s is also a very popular pick, but since it’s so popular it’s also ridiculously expensive. it’s up to you here, but the main idea is getting a set that boosts damage. Kagrenac’s is also a good option here, especially in a group where you will likely be in a support role.
5x Shroud of the Lich: Arguably the best direct sustain boost for a magicka build, which is what we need here. I don’t really see this build fully working without it, but I haven’t farmed the pieces yet. anyone that has them, let me know if you can try this out and see how it goes! Crafted replacements for this include Seducer and Magnus.
2x Infernal Guardian/ Valkyn Skoria/ Grothdarr: Infernal Guardian is ridiculously good. High proc chance, large mortars, and pulls people out of cloak to boot. In duels it’s devastating since there’s only one target, so the “farthest enemy” qualifier is a moot point. In open world I’m not so sure but others seems to be having a lot of success with it. With our DoT’s Valkyn also makes sense and also provides needed burst damage, and while Grothdarr isn’t bursty in the same way the damage is still very nice, especially in AoE pushes. I think this is a matter of “what are you doing” rather than “what is best”.
SKILLS
Again, massive disclaimer that this is highly subject to change, and may not be as strong as you’d want it to be. I’ve had it working well though.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/52z1l1z.png[/img]
Bar 1:
- Molten Whip: Our main attack. Either this morph or Flame Lash would work depending on how its used. Note that while Molten Whip doesn’t heal you, a) you need Molten Whip for every other PvE situation and b) Molten Whip strengthens Burning Embers, which does heal you.
- Burning Embers: Dragon Blood is a poor excuse of a heal in PvP. Even with Battle Spirit debuffs, however, Burning Embers can easily heal for half your health or more. The DoT also keeps your enemy on their toes. THis is your greatest weapon; try your best to be in a position to use it (difficult due to its melee range).
- Obsidian Shard: A useful CC that also heals you; extra healing is never bad. Another option I used previously (better in 1v1’s) is Fossilize for the additional root after the CC breaks.
- Dragon Fire Scale: Another no-brainer, we can’t pass up the opportunity to mitigate roughly a little less than half the damage in the game. Unfortunately the good players know this, so it doesn’t quite work out that way.
- Burning Talons: Very strong DoT that immobilizes targets. Get around them when you get them and go to town.
- Eye of the Storm: If you kill someone with this build, it’ll likely be with this. This ultimate is ridiculous, and we need to take advantage of it. We use this morph for the same reason we can’t really use Standard: it’s too easy to move out of stationary AoE’s.
Bar 2:
- Engulfing Flames: Another DoT that boosts all flame damage. Replace this with something else if you wish, but I think the boost to our damage is pretty necessary. we don’t have a lot of burst outside of ultimates and procs.
- Dampen Magic: A no-brainer if we insist on wearing light armor. Even with the Battle Spirit debuff it still grants a sizeable shield, and we need all the extra resistance to the proc set war that raging out there.
- Healing Ward: Your primary “Oh ****” button. Use this when you start hurting, and immediately cast Dampen Magic over it so you can get the heal off of it. Originally ran combat Prayer in this slot, and if you’re in a group it may be a better option. I’ve switched it out though mainly because of our CP distribution favoring shields over direct heals, and the particular ultimate we use here.
- Volatile Armor: Our source of the major resistance buffs, and a nice little bit of extra DoT on top of it if you’re using Valkyn. With our shield stacking it seems counterintuitive to prioritize resistances, but when we don’t have shields we are way too squishy; this buys us a little extra time. Activate on cooldown.
- Molten Armaments: Buff to our spell damage. Given getting a heavy attack off in PvP is very difficult, Structured Entropy is likely a better choice. When you can get a heavy attack off, though, it’s great damage. Take your pick.
- Life Giver: As with the other bar, the new weapon ultimates come to the rescue. Super cheap, which means being up often and helping with resources through Battle Roar, and while it doesn’t necessarily stop us from dying (seriously I hate this proc set meta), it does make it significantly more difficult. On top of this it casts 3 very useful abilities at once for free, without needing them on your bar. What the tooltip doesn’t say is that it will cast whatever version of each ability you morphed it to, not just the base versions, which means we get Rapid Regeneration, Combat Prayer, and Healing Ward all at once, setting us up for the offensive.
Thank you all for reading this admittedly freakishly large post! I’ll be updating this as regularly as I can, as I don’t see myself letting off of the dragon fire any time soon. Especially given that the more CP’s get unlocked, the more viable this will become.
One last note on set selection: ZOS recently teased a chance to proc sets in general, removing crit chance from all of them. Many have cried wolf but I’m personally withholding judgement; it doesn’t seem like they understand the issue with this chance but this doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t also be changing sets individually. In the long run I think our set choices will hold with Update 13, but it may be a smart idea to lean toward stat bonus boosting sets as opposed to direct damage/healing sets in your farming time.
This build is my attempt to create a viable setup for having the pre-CP system ability to 
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Z75C9FO.png[/img] 
