I'm making a stamina build Nightblade - surprisingly, no, this isn't a Dual Wield/Bow Crit build, but a stamina build aimed at sustaining through longer fights while dealing decent damage. So with the aim of "sustainable stamina build" I encountered two problems:
1) 'sustaining' yourself through a fight (being tanky/sturdy) in PvP usually comes down to how many damage shields you can throw up while keeping your resources in check - and why this is a problem is because neither the Nightblade skill-lines or the weapon-skill lines offer damage shields. This means you would have to depend on: a. Harness Magicka, b. Healing Ward (restoration skill), c. An armour set with a damage shield bonus
--- a) I don't want to use harness magicka because the damage shield off it is terrible and it is meant to be used for magicka regen - something useless for the purposes of this build.
--- b) I don't want to use Healing ward, because that would mean I would be forced to use a resto staff, when I would much rather use a more stamina based weapon.
--- c) I am considering this (something like whitestrake's retribution set)
2) Because of the dismal options when it comes to stamina based damage shields (other than an armour set bonus), I turned my attention to trying to circumvent the problem entirely: by being sustainable without a damage shield. This means, I believe, that I should be focusing on maxing my Health regen and Stamina regen, and simultaneously maxing my max health and max stamina. This leads to one problem: drink buffs (which focus on regen) are incredibly ineffective because it would mean giving up food buffs, which is so much more useful. Because Nightblades don't have an easy self-heal you can't risk running with low health (in my personal experience).
So the question is, what armour sets can I depend on to save me? They would have to have 2pc/3pc/4pc bonuses that focus on stamina or health regen/weapon damage/max stamina or health/weapon critical and a 5pc bonus focusing on maybe a damage shield or an alternative bonus that you can argue will be advantageous. I feel the role of your armour set is far more crucial in a Nightblade than in any other class when focusing on sustainability because of our lack of damage shields/self-heals.
I am considering the following:
Hundings Rage
Whitestrake's Retribution
Shadow Dancer's Raiments
Ashen grip
Twilight's embrace or willow's path (I can't remember which one it is that has a regen bonus with a 5pc, but it's one of these two and I am considering that one.
That's all the sets I can think of.