NB Dual Wield/Bow PvE DPS Build Patch 2.0

Jeckll

Hi fellow nightblades,

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Check http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/nb-dual-wieldbow-pve-dps-build-1-6-6/ for the up2date build please.
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This is it – my take on Stamina Nightblades in 1.6. While many people started using a 2h Weapon, I will stick to Dual Wield and Bow and in this guide, I’m going to show you how to get competitive DPS with those weapons. (That means 11-15k average in trial encounters like Mantikora, Serpent, Mage and Warrior). This is just one way to achieve it and you have to see it as a general framework. What I’m going to show you does work for me, but you can always tweak stuff here and there to make it more comfortable for you. Also, I will go into detail quite a bit in this guide to make sure people that recently started can understand. So if you’re already a veteran player, you can skip those parts obviously.

As people started to give builds a name, I will go with “Ravaging Blade”. Keep in mind that the patch is still quite young so the build might change over time as I get more experienced.


BUILD OVERVIEW
The Ravaging Blade is a melee Stamina based PvE build, specifically designed to be effective in Trials, Veteran Dungeons and Dragonstar Arena. You will use Dual Wield mainly while Bow is your option if you have to stay away from the target for some reasons.


ADVANTAGES

• Amazing single target and AoE DPS with good sustain
• Very good defence with high Spell Resistance and Armor
• Roguish playstyle
• Very flexible in terms of weapons and skills
• Easy access with cheap crafted gear, good DPS progression with better setup

DISADVANTAGES

• Harder to master than ranged builds
• Requires good movement and coordination
• Requires constant Potion usage for maximum single target efficiency
• Tricky sustain especially when you have to block/dodge a lot.

RACE
I think the strongest choice at the moment is Redguard and Imperial. The more we can invest into the Champion System, the stronger Imperial will become. My primary issue with the build was that I could not sustain with the Skills I wanted to use and that’s also why I went back to Dual Wield because sustaining with Wrecking Blow was a pain in long encounters. With the Redguard passives, I think it would be way easier. The more you can invest into Stamina Cost Reduction and Stamina Regeneration, the easier sustain will become obviously and since there is no Softcap, the 22% extra Stats from Imperial are really, really strong. But don’t worry, the Rotation I will present will work with any race.


STATS
I think you should not get lower than 18k HP as a DPS for DSA Veteran or Sanctum Ophidia. Get 20k for Hardmodes. I personally prefer 20k all the time, but as Imperial, those Stats are easier to obtain. 18k does work. I like putting all my Attribute Points into Stamina and compensate with Gear Enchants to get the HP required but you can do as you like it. Please consider becoming a Werwolf. You gain 15% Stamina Regeneration in human form without any disadvantages. You only get additional Poison damage in Werwolf form - which I never use. Just be a Werwolf in human form all the time.

For DPS, I strongly suggest you take Weapon Damage as your primary stat, followed by Weapon Critical. Stamina is good but not that important.

Here are my Stats atm:





MUNDUS STONE
I use the Warrior right now, as it gives you the so much desired Weapon Damage. I also ran with Shadow after I got the +Crit passive from the Champion System but really, I felt like both are kind of equal. Just don’t get the Shadow before you have 90 Champion Points. Forget about the Thief in general. It’s just not that good anymore.



CHAMPION POINTS
I think there is a ton to test left in this section but I feel very comfortable with my allocation. You can vary here, just make sure to get 30 points into the Ritual for the extra Weapon Critical and most of your green points into the Warlord.

GREEN:

The Tower: 32 Warlord for 8% Stamina Cost Reduction. This is not a magical number to make things work, I just like straight numbers to calculate and as I happen to need 32 points to get 8%, I have spend those here.

The Lover: After 32 points into the Warlord, I put the rest into Mooncalf for additional Stamina Recovery. Don’t let people fool you. Stamina Cost Reduction is way better than Stamina Recovery. But I like the Synergizer passive in the Lover, so the next 30 Points should go into Mooncalf

BLUE:

The Ritual: A no-brainer really. Perfect Strikes is awesome so invest your first 30 points into that. I did 50% into Mighty, 50% into Precise Strikes. I tested Piercing and on regular mobs and vet dungeon bosses, I did more damage with 15 Precise/15 Mighty than with 10 Precise Strikes/10 Mighty/10 Piercing as long as you have Major Fracture (Armor Debuff) on them. Trial bosses tend to have more armor, so splitting the points into 3 parts might be ok. But after you spend 30 points into the Ritual, I'D prefer going for Blade Expert in the Atronach.

RED:

The Steed: Not much to say here. I went 50:50 on Spell Shield and Medium Armor Focus.



GEAR
I tried a ton of different stuff and there are other combinations and slight variations that result in kind of similar DPS. The following setups work best for me, but feel free to swap around stuff as you please.

THE BEAST MODE

This is what I use and it's in my opinion the best balance in terms of Weapon Damage, Weapon Critical, Stamina and Sustain.
I use this setup for maximum single target DPS in Trials.

The core of my Ravaging Blade build is...who would have guessed: The Ravanger Set. I think most people already heared about it as I think every Stamina based DPS build will sooner or later incorporate this set. The 5 piece bonus grats hilarious 600 Weapon Damage as a proc on melee hits. I will show you some tricks to proc this even more often. To be honest - it's up like 98% of the time. Really - it's that good. It comes with Jewellry (2 rings, 1 neck) and 2 pieces of Heavy Armor. So we get additional 2% on all stats from the undaunted passive "Undaunted Mettle" as well as additional defence. And we can still get all the benefits from Medium Armor as 5 slots are still available.

You can buy the Ravanger VR14 at the Elite Gear Vendor in Cyrodiil. It costs 248.000 AP per piece. You can ask people how do a lot of PvP to buy them for you.

As I mentioned earlier, Weapon Damage is the most important aspect of DPS atm, so I combined the Ravanger with 4 pieces of the Morag Tong Set (2 Daggers). Those Set bonuses are too good to pass and since we only use 2 small parts, the "Well-Fitted" trait is not that bad overall. Traits are kind of overrated anyways in my opinion.

The Morag Tong Set is a random drop from Vr14 PvP chests in Cyrodiil. Those chests cost 6.400 AP each but you have to get really lucky to get the pieces you need. I bought mine at the Guild Traders.

With 3 pieces of armor left, I use the Vicious Ophidian to complete my setup. Not only do I get 8% Stamina cost reduction with it, since 1.6, there is actually a double 3pc bonus, making the set a monster in terms of Weapon Critical. Bonus: You get a 75% speed increase after killing a mob, making this set most benefical for DSA Veteran to quickly switch between targets without having to swap to bow all the time.

The Vicious Ophidian drops at the Serpent, the last boss of the Sanctum Ophidia Trial. It comes with random traits, so you have to get lucky to get the right pieces.

Speaking of bow, I use the Master's bow as I cant get any other set bonus with this slot.

The Master's bow drops at the last boss of Dragonstar Arena. There is a chance to get a VR13 version in normal mode, but you want to aim for the VR14 version, that only drops in veteran mode. It comes with random traits and you want to get Infused or Precise. Infused is great because it buffs the enchantment.

THE JACK OF ALL TRADES

While the Beast Mode is more about raw strength in a Single Target environment, I love this setup when doing stuff like veteran dungeons, grinding, quests and for AoE heavy stuff in general.

It shines because of the premiere sustain you get from the 5 pieces of Vicious Ophidian. 2075 Stamina every time a monster dies (you dont have to do the killing blow) is huge for sustain and allows you to AoE in veteran dungeons and DSA Veteran without having to slot Siphoning Attacks.

The Vicious Ophidian drops at the Serpent, the last boss of the Sanctum Ophidia Trial. It comes with random traits, so you have to get lucky to get the right pieces.

For adding the damage required to compete, you need 5 pieces of the Ravanger Set here as well. Coupled with 2 Morag Tong Daggers and a Master's Bow, you are more than well equiped to be a premiere DPS.

You can buy the Ravanger VR14 at the Elite Gear Vendor in Cyrodiil. It costs 248.000 AP per piece. You can ask people how do a lot of PvP to buy them for you. The Morag Tong Set is a random drop from Vr14 PvP chests in Cyrodiil. Those chests cost 6.400 AP each but you have to get really lucky to get the pieces you need. I bought mine at the Guild Traders. The Master's bow drops at the last boss of Dragonstar Arena. There is a chance to get a VR13 version in normal mode, but you want to aim for the VR14 version, that only drops in veteran mode. It comes with random traits and you want to get Infused or Precise. Infused is great because it buffs the enchantment.

THE STARTER

No one starts with all the premiere gear I use for this build and fear not - you dont have to. Just use the Starter gear and work towards getting better stuff. That's what MMOs are about, right? Getting those shiny drops :P You can use the Starter without having to have a ton of Champion Points or something like that. It will give you a solid foundation to get into PvE in ESO.

I chose the Shadow Walker Jewellry but really, if you are just starting, use anything you like here. A very cheap option is to get 2 Pact/Dominion/Covenant rings. They are common PvP drops and give you some Weapon Crit. Not so bad.

The rest are just crafted sets. Hunding's Rage and Ashen Grip are excellent choices for starting the way of a Stamina Nightblade and you can wear them while leveling as well. Before 1.6, this actually was my raid setup, so you dont have to hide with this stuff. If you already have 90 Champion Points, I suggest using 2 Swords instead of Daggers.

First thing you want to invest in is the Ravanger Pieces. Start with rings and Jewellry and get the 2 armor pieces afterwards. Your first goal should be 5 Ravanger, 5 Hunding's Rage. That is already a very good overall. There are also lower VR versions of the Ravaging Set which are extremely cheap. So if you're kind of low on money and AP, consider those to get things started.

SKILLS
I will give you some ideas for good skill combinations that I tested and found very effective. Keep in mind that I switch around skills quite a bit to adept to the encounter ahead. I know many of you guys do not have access to Caltrops. I highly suggest making it a project to get it. It adds a lot to any Stamina based build. Until then, feel free to add some utility skill you might find useful to help the raid like Shades, Circle of Protection or something like that.

SINGLE TARGET DPS

Suggested Gear: The Beast Mode

So where do we start. The key to getting the Ravanger work is knowing that Caltrops does proc the set. (Power Extraction does it, too btw.) So you can get the proc even before you start stabbing things. I use Anti-Cavalry Caltrops because they last 5s longer than the Razor morph.

This setup uses Potions (Panacea of Weapon Power) to get the Major Brutality (20% Weapon Damage), Major Savagery (10% crit) and 20% Stamina Regeneration all the time without having to use Evil Hunter, Drain Life or Momentum. To get 100% Portion uptime, you have to skill the "Medicinal Use" passive in Alchemy and get 1 Jewellry Glyph with reduced Potion Cooldown. Medicial Use seems to be buged atm. When you die, you have to relog to get the benefit again (at least that's how it is for me atm.). So be prepared - not everyone can afford to constantly use Potions.

Another key difference between the Ravanger Blade and my old build is the main skill I'm using. While most people still use Rapid Strikes, I switched to Surprise Attack because Light Attack -> Surprise Attack spam does more damage than Medium Attack -> Rapid Strikes. But additionally, Surprise Attack does proc Shadow Barrier constantly, giving me way better defence as well. To good to be true? Yes - kind of. Because it's a lot harder to sustain this rotation. So to make it work, you have to get creative - or let me get creative for you :P

To get this thing to work, you need to put all your green Champion Points into the Warlord to get 8% Stamina cost reduction there as well as the 8% you get from the Vicious Ophidian 3 piece bonus. That, combined with 2x Stamina cost reduction glyphs and 1 Potion Cooldown Reduction glyph does give you a good sustain for almost any fight in the game. For the longest fights (hello, Serpent), I throw in some rounds of Rapid Strikes from time to time when I get low until a new Spear or Potion is ready. Then I return to my usual rotation.

Speaking of rotation, that is what I do: I start by buffing Relentless Focus. So you start the fight with 8% extra damage even before you usually get a Combat Prayer. Also, the 10% Stamina Recovery are nice. I tend to use the Spectral Bow 2 seconds before the duratation expires. If I get Combat Prayer constantly and the fight is not that long, I dont recast it. But if I dont get Combat Prayer, I have the buff up all the time.

Then I use Anti-Cavalry Caltrops to get my Ravanger Set going. Wait with your Panacea of Weapon Power Potion until the Ravanger procs. With higher base Weapon Damage, the additional 20% you get from the potion are worth more.

As soon as you get 200 Ultimate, you want to use your Shooting Star Ultimate. Flawless Dawnbreaker is only for the passive Weapon Damage increase. Shooting Star is in my book the best ultimate right now. The other morph does better single target damage but Shooting Star is better over all as you get a lot more benefits in AoE sitations and fire damage is frankly just better against trolls in Sanctum Ophidia :P

I use Reaper's Mark only to debuff adds I have to kill that are not tanked, so the Major Fracture debuff is acutally helpful.

Focused Aim and Poison Injection are only on this bar for situations where you cant get close to your target for whatever reason. Do not use bow as main DPS weapon. You will be disappointed :P I have Poison Injection to keep the Weapon Damage buff of the Master's bow going if I have to use Focused Aim for a longer period of time.

So with Relentless Focus, Caltrops, Shooting Star and a Potion running, swap to bar 1 for serious damage. Light Attack weave Rending Slashes to keep the DOT up and otherwise, use Light Attack -> Surprise Attacks. Recast Relentless Focus if nessessary. If you do, use the Spectral Bow 2 sec before the buff runs out. You can block cancel the animation of the bow and the buff itself so it's okay even DPS wise. At 25%, start Light Attack ->Killer's Blade. If you're running out of Stamina (~20%), start using Heavy Attack weaving Rapid Strikes. Keep Rending Slashes up.

SPECIAL ADVICE FOR STARTERS: You might want to do the Heavy Attack Weaving into Rapid Strikes the whole time while keeping the Rending Slashes buff up if you have stamina issues with Surprise Attacks. just keep the left mouse button pressed the whole time and everytime your arm starks to go backwards by starting a heavy attack, press the hotkey for rapid strikes. It's way easier to learn and does good dps for starters. In that case, just swap Surprise Attacks for something else like Ambush or only use it as an opener or if you really have Stamina to spare.

AOE DPS

Suggested Gear: The Jack of all Trades

This setup is mainly for Trashpacks in Sanctum Ophidia. So skip it, if you're not there yet. I use Siphoning Attacks to Sustain infinitely. When doing Trash packs, I dont use Panaceas of Weapon Damage. I get my buffs by sloting Evil Hunter for Crit and by using Sap Essence. Power Extraction does insane DPS but it is not as good as Steel Tornado due to the limited range. Therefore, I prefered Sap Essence because it works as a Magicka dump.

I usually start by using Relentless Focus, Caltrops and Scorched Earth while running in, then 1x Sap Essence and Swap to my real DPS bar. Deadly Cloak activated to greatly decrease the AoE Damage I get as well as some extra DPS. Then it's time to spam Steel Tornado. I only reapply Scorched Earth when I have to swap bars anyways for Sap Essence and/or Caltrops. I always use Shooting Star as active ultimate. If I have to, I obviously use Veil of Blades to support the team. If I have to slot Energy Orb, I swap it for Scorched Earth.

THE JACK OF ALL TRADES

Suggested Gear: The Jack of all Trades

This is what you can use most of the time. It's a solid mix of AoE and Single Target skills and doesnt require expensive Potions to give you all the buffs. If you are a Starter, swap Surprise Attacks for Rapid Strikes, put Sap Essence on the bow bar and slot Rending Slashes on the DW bar.

The rotation is straight forward really. I use Caltrops, Surprise Attacks and Killer's Blade for Single Target encounters and Scorched Eath, Caltrops, Sap Essence into mass Steel Tornado for AoE. Not much to explain here. Dont be fooled. Even this simple Single Target Rotation gives me at the very least 10k, even in "Jack of all Trades" gear. But in the typical short Veteran Dungeon boss encounter, it's way higher.

GENERAL TIPS FOR THE RAVANGING BLADE

• Get Caltrops. It's important for any Stamina based build, especially for the Ravanger.
• Use your tools to survive. Deadly Cloak for AoE and Surprise Attack for Single Target does make you way stronger in terms of defence than Light Armor Users and some other Stamina users. You will survive longer while receiving damage and therfore deal more damage.
• Stamina management is hard, especially with lower Champion Points and without the Vicious Ophidian. Another way to get decent Stamina Recovery is using a piece of the Blood Spawn Set (Drops in Spindleclutch) and getting 2 pieces of Shadow Walker for extra Weapon Damage for example (thx @Alcast). Remember, you can always resort to Rapid Strikes as a solid alternative if you are running low on Stamina.
• Farm those Champion points until lvl 90. 12% crit is awesome. After that, just relax and let it go *singing Frozen Theme*
• Use Shards, but also other Synergies. With the undaunted passive, you get resources back for every Synergy you use. Most of them are really strong now in 1.6.
• You cant get close to a boss? You have to play ranged? OOOOKAAAAY. Use Relentless Focus, Focused Aim, Poison Injection and Caltrops. If you dont have the Master's Bow, start using Poison Injection at 50% boss HP. Swap Flawless Dawnbreaker to the bow bar for that.

VIDEO AND SCREENS
I'm very sorry I cant come up with a proper video and some more screens, yet. But the build is kind of fresh and I have to do a lot of utility stuff in the raid lately. I promise I will add a ton of proper media later.



Sanctum Ophidia - Serpent ~ 12k DPS in 5:45 minutes





Thanks to all the other builders out there like @Alcast who helped me test things and theorycraft, my guild Jianji where I'm able to test a ton in trials and who helped me get all the gear I need and the people playing with me, reading about my thoughts and are willing to discuss about Nightblades to become better at the game we love.

psufan5

This is awesome man.

psufan5

I just wish I could find a group to do dungeons, let alone those raids

Jeckll

They say the dungeon group finder is way better now. But really finding a decent guild is pretty important. The gear I'm using is obviously hard to get (The Beast Mode) but there are other viable setups that are okay,

Just think about the general principle: Weapon Damage > Weapon Crit > Stamina. This is a pretty straight forward rule if you are looking for gear to improve your DPS.

Glad you liked it, thanks for reading!

psufan5

Jeckll wrote: »

They say the dungeon group finder is way better now. But really finding a decent guild is pretty important. The gear I'm using is obviously hard to get (The Beast Mode) but there are other viable setups that are okay,

Just think about the general principle: Weapon Damage > Weapon Crit > Stamina. This is a pretty straight forward rule if you are looking for gear to improve your DPS.

Glad you liked it, thanks for reading!

Currently I have the ravager from PVP, Hundings, and using nights silence weapons for the stamina. I have 4005 weapon damage when my buff procs which is decent, but my stamina is only 21000 ish.

I really hope they make race changes in the new store

Jeckll

They said that this would be a feature for the crown shop and I think Zenimax could make a ton of money with this feature. Would love to try the build as a Redguard :P

psufan5

I tried relentless focus and I have yet to see any damage increase with it. Might switch it out for another power.

vins0071ub17_ESO

Howed you get the HP's so high , You got 0 in attributes and all the gear u listed is Stamina, i currently run same attributes , but my gear is mix of stamina and health and i can only get 14,400 HP with no food ect.
My gear is 5 Hundings and 3 Vipers sting, my rings are low lvl for my VR14, but both are crit 576, 1 is stamina the other is health rec.

Shader_Shibes

vins0071ub17_ESO wrote: »

Howed you get the HP's so high

Imperial.

iliatha

12k on serpent isnt that impressive, im doing more with magicka / ranged nb and dont have to melee every boss. There should be better ways to do stamina based dmg, thinking of 2h and stuff but yea, already heard that dual wield kind of sucks since patch.

Father

kai_dahmenb16_ESO wrote: »

12k on serpent isnt that impressive, im doing more with magicka / ranged nb and dont have to melee every boss. There should be better ways to do stamina based dmg, thinking of 2h and stuff but yea, already heard that dual wield kind of sucks since patch.

Can you share your build and gear?
I'm really struggling with magicka nb right now ;/

Daisijie

i want a video please

Shader_Shibes

Father wrote: »

kai_dahmenb16_ESO wrote: »

12k on serpent isnt that impressive, im doing more with magicka / ranged nb and dont have to melee every boss. There should be better ways to do stamina based dmg, thinking of 2h and stuff but yea, already heard that dual wield kind of sucks since patch.

Can you share your build and gear?
I'm really struggling with magicka nb right now ;/

+++++++++++

Jeckll

kai_dahmenb16_ESO wrote: »

12k on serpent isnt that impressive, im doing more with magicka / ranged nb and dont have to melee every boss. There should be better ways to do stamina based dmg, thinking of 2h and stuff but yea, already heard that dual wield kind of sucks since patch.

You are right and you can pull way more on the Serpent if you dont have to do the Lamia adds. It's just a benchmark. If you can pull more than 12k with a Magicka Build on the Serpent, I'm also curious about it. 10-11k was the max. I saw so far with a Magicka based build. 14-15k is a normal benchmark for Stamina based DPS in our raid. I cant speak for others. 2H and DW are quite equal at the Serpent. In shorter fights, 2h can pull ahead slightly with less effort.

vins0071ub17_ESO wrote: »

Howed you get the HP's so high .

Emperor buff and I'm Imperial.

Daisijie wrote: »

i want a video please

We're doing AA and HR Hardmode all the time at the moment and I'm not allowed to use the footage, yet. Sorry. Therfor, I cant provide more media right now. But I will soon.

iliatha

Jeckll wrote: »

You are right and you can pull way more on the Serpent if you dont have to do the Lamia adds. It's just a benchmark. If you can pull more than 12k with a Magicka Build on the Serpent, I'm also curious about it. 10-11k was the max. I saw so far with a Magicka based build. 14-15k is a normal benchmark for Stamina based DPS in our raid. I cant speak for others. 2H and DW are quite equal at the Serpent. In shorter fights, 2h can pull ahead slightly with less effort.

ah yes doing Lamia hurts :] Will try to get a nice screenshot on wednesday evening, hopefully it works. My Raid group does like 1 successfull SO raid on a raid day...
around 14k can happen on serpent, obviously its easier to pull off on AA bosses 2 & 3, max was 15.5k on Maw of the Infernal (banished cells) without evil hunter. So 12k on Serpent is like easy if i dont get mana debuffed a lot or some other ** happens ;D

But thanks for sharing your builts and stuff. Just interesting to see for me!

edit: ok just got 12,9 on ftc, think like arounf 14 is possible for players who can test more often on serpent. Doing different stuff since 1.6 every week doesnt always help ;D Would benice to see some top dps screens from stam nbs, wondering whats possible there

Rukistyle

Can you say me what passives abilities you learn?

Tamorand

All of them

AzuraKin

I find it funny you state 30k dps but your picture you posted of so is only 11k. burst damage is only useful 1 place pvp. pve you measure dps at least a full minute.

Jeckll

AzuraKin wrote: »

I find it funny you state 30k dps but your picture you posted of so is only 11k. burst damage is only useful 1 place pvp. pve you measure dps at least a full minute.

Hi mate. The build is from March, it's ancient. Dont know where I stated 30k, probably AoE back then. Nevermind - up2date guide is my signature. There are also screens from vICP and vWGT bosses that are more recent and longer than a full minute.

Cheers.