How do you use your NB against multiple enemies?

Razzak

I am leveling a Nightblade and I have to say I love it in fights with 1-3 opponents. What makes me cringe, is when I see more than 3 enemies in front of me. Like public dungeons.
I usually open with Volley and then useTwisting path and Whirlwind skills in such situations, but it's just not enough. Whirlwind becomes really useful when my opponents are low on health, but Twisting path's damage accumulates very slowly. Or, at least, not fast enough for my cat.

So ... how do use your NB is such situation? Which skills and/or weapons do you find most useful against large groups of enemies? Which ones are good for doing AOE damage or CC and which are good for survivability?

SienneYviete

Lotus fan + Sap essence + steel tornado works great for larger groups, use siphoning attacks if you're still struggling for sustain with the above combo.

Chesimac

Sap Essence while block casting with Siphoning Strikes, and use VoB when up and I have found Shadow Image/Healing Ward works great at low health

Cody

block and spam sap essence if you are desperate.

veil of blades is great for taking on groups. it reduces the damage you take while snaring and DoTing enemies.

or get a destroy staff and use impulse

and whatever else I missed.

Brasseurfb16_ESO

I personnaly use Shadowy Disguise -> Soul Tether -> Steel Tornado and all enemies around me usualy die before the stun wears off.

Rune_Relic

Bombard on bow will snare and do lots of aoe cone too.
Just keep the stamina up...you get heavy attack time while the snares running and backup to keep your distance.

mousekime111rwb17_ESO

mark one target, put a st dot on them - whack away with steel tornado + light weaves on the target you've marked, they die when everything else is ~ 3/4 hp, mark and dot another target, same story, this time everything will be on about 20% hp and only 1 or two shots from death depending on where you are.

GrimMauKin

I tend to go in from stealth and take out one quickly followed by focussing on one opponent at a time. Blood Craze can take MOBs that bleed out pretty quickly and add health (even bled immune MOBS can go down quickly).

I've built a character with a high health regen, Kiss of the Vampire armour set, Blood Craze attacks and various skills and passives that add health at a kill; I can usually keep going whilst taking quite a bit of damage. If things get iffy dropping into Shadow Cloak for a breather/health regen can help (and you can keep activating Shadow Cloak to hide longer if you have the Magicka); Soul Tether is my usual "get out of jail free" card.

Stannum

My DW AoE build for public dungeons/Craglorn

1. Focused attack (buffs stamina regen, casted before charge)
2. Volcanic rune (on the mob cluster fo CC)
3. Ambush or Lotus Fan (charge in the middle of mob cluster)
4. Power Extraction (while mobs are flying with volcanic rune booom)
5. Steal Tornado (spamming untill all are down)

ulti: you may use Vail of Blades for emergency but I prefer Flawless Dawnbreaker for more dmg

khele23eb17_ESO

You usually get multi-mob packs in public group dungeons. A lot of those are populated by daedra and undead. If thats the case, activate Evil Hunter (you can have it on your other action bar), jump in, hold block, use sap essence/power extraction once and then spam Steel Tornado.

Hypertionb14_ESO

my trick to fighting groups of 6+

with the skill set of, Rapid Strikes, Steel Tornado, Power Extraction, Peircing Mark, Siphoning Attacks, Soul Tether

first toggle Siphoning Attacks on, then start off the fight by marking one of the mobs, any of them will do really but avoid on the tanky mobs. then just run in and Power Extract a few times and start spamming steel tornado.

when your Soul Tether is up and if the mobs still have more than 50% of their HP over all use Soul Tether, if they are below 50% its just going to be a waste.

the reason this simply setup works is that the marked mob will take enhanced damage, usually dieing in the middle of the fight before his buddys, this is a POWERFUL heal and will often negate any damage you might have taken to that point.. after that there is no need to reapply as you should be doing enough damage FAST that they all die before you drop below 75% hp again..

Soul Tether is the best solo ult NB has for large groups, its very hard hitting even on stam builds and stuns for a long enough duration to easily finish large groups off with your Tornado Spam. the hit from it will usually put those mobs in the range where you will be hitting them hard with the tornados.

i use this setup to solo public dungoens with my stamina build on live.. i have taken great pleasure out of running into groups of 10 and burning them down with ease... of course i can also manage to solo the Group Challenge with that NB character in spite of the stamina build so maybe its partially just me being used to that playstyle.

i have Rapid Strikes slotted for single targets, and it alone is usually all i need to burn down a single mob.


Bow is also good on some mobs in the same fashion, using Bombard instead of Steel Tornado... that one skill is able to Root Lock large groups of mobs effectively permantly tho it doesnt stop ranged attackers from hitting you.

Razzak

Why or what is Siphoning attacks/Leaching strikes good for? It seriously reduces your damage while forcing you to use only basic attacks. Is those 3% really that much?

Chesimac

Razzak wrote: »

Why or what is Siphoning attacks/Leaching strikes good for? It seriously reduces your damage while forcing you to use only basic attacks. Is those 3% really that much?

Siphoning attacks you have a 10% chance for all attacks to restore 15% of your magicka and stamina.

Razzak

Chesimac wrote: »

Razzak wrote: »

Why or what is Siphoning attacks/Leaching strikes good for? It seriously reduces your damage while forcing you to use only basic attacks. Is those 3% really that much?

Siphoning attacks you have a 10% chance for all attacks to restore 15% of your magicka and stamina.

Exactly my point. It's 10% chance for something to happen against 25% less damage from all your attacks. Meaning you can throw a party when it does happen. Or is it actually really helpful in "real life"?

eliisra

Razzak wrote: »

Exactly my point. It's 10% chance for something to happen against 25% less damage from all your attacks. Meaning you can throw a party when it does happen. Or is it actually really helpful in "real life"?

If you're AoE'ing with something like Impulse, Cleave or Whirlwind, it's pretty good. It will proc a lot when hitting many enemies, keeping your recourse up so you can keep spamming. Sap Essence makes up for the loss of weapon power.

Topic: Nightblade have great synergy with weapon skill line AoE. It becomes a great AoE class around level 40-50. The problem is AoE grinding when you're a proper lowbie, you have literally nothing good. This while templar + DK get's nice class skill AoE pretty early on. It's not the biggest problem in ESO lol, but it surely slows down leveling.

kijima

Last night in PvE I was running around in VR10 areas to mobs of 5 NPC's, and being a vamp NB, bats is a no brainer with a group like that. The bar I use for that rotation is as follows.

Start in stealth an get in behind one of the mob then:

Ambush>Bats>Block and Sap Essence Spam>Consuming Trap>Whirlwind to finish them off before bats runs out and that by this stage they are all low health and whirlwind is the finisher.

If I do this quick enough at the end with whirlwind, I get the benefit of consuming trap before it wear off topping up my magicka, health and stamina so I can move onto the next mob of 5.

I do this with swallow soul on my bar for the extra heals, works a treat.

Jacques Berge

I'm a one partner type of guy... More than two ruins the intimacy. I want to be able to whisper sweet nothings into your ear... As I remove your internal organs.

spryler

Bombard is an amazing CC on a bow wielding NB. I use a combo of Scorched Earth and Bombard to take on large groups of non-casters.

Vizier

With my NB vs multiple enemies.

Always start from stealth.

Vs 2- Melee - Ambush, light weave dead. Cloak / Concealed weapon Stun/ Hvy attack, light weave..dead.
Bow- Snipe, poison arrow or light weave, dead; Poison arrow/cloak/concealed weapon stun, light weave...dead. Some die sooner but usually never past this for both melee or distance. You can throw in a funnel health if you think your going to take some damage but usually vs 2 the amount of damage taken is marginal.

Vs 3 or more. Trick is killing one fast and second fast after that.
Melee- Abush, concealed weapon, dead. If the target doesn't die with concealed weapon or they are particularly strong compared to my level I might hit first target with funnel health before it dies. If it's a strong group or four or more I will rapid fire funnel health hitting 2-3 enemy for stacked health regen.

Once health tics are rolling I cloak/ concealed weapon-stun-heavy attack next target. I usually get the kill on concealed weapon though. If the damage to them is minimal I have a choice to make. Pop ultimate then light weave/concealed weapon the group as I keep funnel health going. They usually just melt OR hit aspect of terror watch two run away then concentrate on the one that stayed or if it's only two left Ambush or range one then revert to the rotations above.

Be in the habit of keeping your funnel health going and remember it stacks when you hit multiple targets with it.

I usually don't run into much trouble unless it's 5 or more enemy vs a combination of melee and ranged. As a rule I charge the ranged enemy so the melee will follow and any AOE I use like veil and scorched earth to hit all of them.

If you are a bow build don't underestimate the value of Scorched Earth. It does decent damage, burns afterword and breaks up enemy attacks with a light stun or disrupt. It's not in the tool tip but I've seen NPC get knocked down, stunned and disoriented just from that attack. A method you can use is to hit small group with Scorched earth switch then ambush as the arrows start to land. You'll find the group much easier to deal with. My bow NB was also able to grind zombies with this solo pulling groups of 10 or so. I would hit groups of 4-5 to build ultimate then pull a group of 10 or more and pop veil on them while spamming funnel health all the while ensuring scorched earth was going. Works great.

khele23eb17_ESO

Razzak wrote: »

Chesimac wrote: »

Razzak wrote: »

Why or what is Siphoning attacks/Leaching strikes good for? It seriously reduces your damage while forcing you to use only basic attacks. Is those 3% really that much?

Siphoning attacks you have a 10% chance for all attacks to restore 15% of your magicka and stamina.

Exactly my point. It's 10% chance for something to happen against 25% less damage from all your attacks. Meaning you can throw a party when it does happen. Or is it actually really helpful in "real life"?

I dont like the damage penalty either but its not 25% less damage from all attacks. Its 22% less weapon damage. Which is not the same.

Crescent

Razzak wrote: »

Chesimac wrote: »

Razzak wrote: »

Why or what is Siphoning attacks/Leaching strikes good for? It seriously reduces your damage while forcing you to use only basic attacks. Is those 3% really that much?

Siphoning attacks you have a 10% chance for all attacks to restore 15% of your magicka and stamina.

Exactly my point. It's 10% chance for something to happen against 25% less damage from all your attacks. Meaning you can throw a party when it does happen. Or is it actually really helpful in "real life"?

It's not a 25% damage you fool.

It reduces WEAPON DAMAGE by 25%. Weapon damage is a fraction of what goes into calculating your total damage. It's a far smaller damage loss than you think.

You know what's a greater damage loss? RESOURCE STARVATION. YOU DO 0 DPS IF YOU CAN'T USE SKILLS. YOU ALSO DO 0 DPS IF YOU DIE.

What are you gonna do if you run out of stamina and magicka, light/heavy attacks against a single target out of 6-8+ targets?

Shunravi

VOB
*SAP*
*SAP*
*SAP*
*SAP*
*SAP*
*SAP*
*SAP*
*SAP*


(throw in WW or impulse as you see fit)


Or have fun with it; ambush, surprise attack, impale the priority target. Then use volcanic rune to launch them into the air, and ambush to one in midair. Insanely fun.

I used path a lot on my PvE melee build, it doesn't slow them down, but it speeds you up. Its great for avoiding the red, even in tight spaces.

When I used bow I used scorched earth and bombard, along with either path or crippling grasp, to aoe and kite the mobs.

A trick i use for sustain is reapers mark. I mark my second or third target, and kill them when I need the massive burst heal.

If you practice good damage mitigation, sap essence should be the only heal you really need in many situations.

Anyways.... there are other good tips in the thread. Have fun!

tino.antoninieb17_ESO

Mark target, volcanic rune, sap essence, ww ( stam morph) while holding left mouse. Veil of blades if necessary. Usually that will do.