Replies: 180

Reflective Light DPS Build

Build Highlights:

PVE ranged magicka build using Reflective Light and a Destruction Staff
Good ranged alternative to the standard Sweep build for magicka Templars
Great multi-mob damage and good single target damage for dungeons and trials
Most of your damage is fire, which scales well with the DK fire buff
You can easily swap between healing and dpsing

Race:

Dunmer

Attributes:

All into Magicka

Mundus:

Thief

Sustenance:

V15 Blue Magicka/Health food

Champion Points:

Warrior – Any helpful mitigation
Thief – Arcanist 100, Magician 87
Mage – 92 Elemental Expert, 18 into Elfborn, 2 into Erosion, 75 Thaumaturge

How To Dress:

Head- Valkyn Skoria (heavy/divines)
Shoulders – Valkyn Skoria (med/divines)
Chest - Julianos (light/divines)
Gloves - Julianos (light/divines)
Waist - Julianos (light/divines)
Legs - Julianos (light/divines)
Feet - Julianos (light/divines)
Neck - Infallible Aether (arcane/spell power)
Rings – Infallible Aether (arcane/spell power)
Main Weapon - Maelstrom Destruction Staff (precise, but try to get sharpened)
Off Weapons - Willpower Swords (sharpened–enchants don’t matter)
Alternative Gear – Twice Born Star in place of Julianos. 5 Moondancer, if you can manage to get the jewelry and sharpened swords, is an upgrade.

Character Stats:

These are my stats when I am holding my destro staff:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/02NU1ea.png[/img]

The Build:

Dungeon/Trial Set-Up:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/bFbEbvY.png[/img]

Destro Bar:

Inner Light: Provides 5% Magicka, provides Major Prophecy buff
Reflective Light: Fire-based skill, provides 3 ultimate every 6 seconds, provides Minor Sorcery to you and allies, hits up to 3 targets
Channeled Focus: Magicka regen/armor buff
Elemental Blockade: Fire DoT ground AoE, also used to provide the buff from your Maelstrom Staff.
Stalwart Guard: Major Crit damage buff to you and an ally
Empowering Sweep: Slotted strictly for the passive (increased critical strike damage by 10%)

DW Bar:

Inner Light: Provides 5% Magicka, provides Major Prophecy buff
Radiant Oppression: Class execute. Start executing at 20% or below
Ritual of Retribution: Large ground based DoT
Blazing Spear: AoE ground spell. Slotting provides Aedric Spear passive
Stalwart Guard: Major Crit damage buff for you and an ally
Shooting Star: Ultimate damage spell, fire based, returns some ultimate per mob hit, empower before use by pushing Entropy

Rotation:

Single Target/AoE: Channeled Focus, spell power buff, Ritual of Retribution (every other rotation), Blazing Spear, Elemental Blockade, medium/light weave Reflective Light a few times. Restart. Reapply buffs as needed. Execute at 35-40%

Other Useful Spells:

Spell Symmetry: Slot this if you want to use it for magicka return
Harness Magicka: Slot this shield for survivability in high damage fights
Purifying Light: Slot this if there is only one target, if the target is constantly moving, or if you have to stay max range
Structured Entropy: Slot this if the health/magicka/spell power buffs would be more beneficial than Guard
Rearming Trap: Use in place of Guard if you prefer to free up a spot on your main bar
Elemental Storm: Another very good ult. You can use this instead of meteor, just remember to rearrange things so you have the Aedric Spear passive.

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DPS Screenshots:

Maw of Lorkhaj

First boss–Zhaj’hassa the Forgotten:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/IxyzkX4.png[/img]

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Second boss–Vashai & S’kinrai:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/fMhsvZk.png[/img]

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For More Videos: My Youtube Channel

How This Works (Reflective Light Vs. Force Pulse):

[spoiler]

I’ve been getting several questions regarding Reflective Light as a spammable, especially when compared to Force Pulse. Let’s look at a comparison of the two spells:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/vYwT1x5.png[/img]

…at first glance, it appears that Force Pulse is clearly the superior spell for single target. The tooltips state that Force Pulse will give you 1768 x 3 = 5304 damage and Reflective Light will give you 3663 damage. However, notice that Reflective Light is also a DoT, and the tooltip tells us it provides 5696 damage over 6 seconds. Over the course of 6 seconds, Reflective Light has a total of 5 hits. The first hit is for the initial 3663 damage. The next 4 hits disperse the damage over time effect. Therefore, the DoT ticks for 1/4 of 5696, which comes out to 1424 each time. It is because of this DoT that Reflective Light works as a spammable.

The initial hit of Reflective and the first tick of the DoT will both hit by the time the enemy is hit with another Reflective. So, Reflecitve is actually giving you 3663 + 1424 = 5087 damage. Here is an example using a 1 sec screenshot of both spells. They are both at 100% crit with the same gear/mob. You can see that Reflective has 2 hits (the initial hit and the first tick of the dot) and Force Pulse has 3 hits (each element type).

[img]http://i.imgur.com/oec2A7O.png[/img]

Now the output of the spells looks quite comparable:

Reflective Light: 5087 Damage

Force Pulse: 5304 Damage

However, when you are in a group, the DKs will be providing a debuff on the mobs. The debuff is called Engulfing Flames. It increases the fire damage that the mobs take by 10%. Force Pulse hits for fire, ice, and lightning damage. The fire portion of Force Pulse is 1768. Because of this, Engulfing Flames puts Force Pulse to 1768 x .10 + 5304 = 5480 damage. Reflective Light is 100% fire damage. Because of this, Engulfing Flames brings Reflective up 10%, or 5595 damage.

Now the output of the spells has taken a turn:

Reflective Light: 5595 Damage

Force Pulse: 5480 Damage

Aside from this, Reflective Light has superior splash damage. It will hit 2 additional mobs for the full amount of the first. Whereas, Force Pulse will hit 2 additional mobs for only 2228 damage, and only if they have a status effect.

Force Pulse is not an inferior spell by any means. It hits with 10% more spell penetration than Reflective, and it restores more magicka when Elemental Drain is on the target. However, I wanted to point out that the two spells are very comparable and have different strengths and weaknesses.

I hope this clears things up. Feel free to ask any questions if needed.

[/spoiler]

*****

Thanks Everyone!

This topic was modified 44 minutes ago by Tondodino.