You an NB? Tried stamina build yet? Using magicka buikd? Post your 1.6 NB thoughts!

deepseamk20b14_ESO

Okay, I'll start. I am coming from purely a PvP perspective. I tried a 2H/bow build the last several days and I was putting out a lot of damage but had next to no survivability. The only self heal I had was rally. Granted, if I had Vigor it probably would of been a lot better but the same stamina build issues still killed it for me.

My build was:
1st bar- Rally, Surprise Attack, Wrecking Blow, Ambush, Mass Hysteria, Soul Harvest

2nd bar- Poison injection, Focused Aim, Dark Cloak, Reapers Mark, Magnum Shot/Shadow Image, Soul Tether

Wrecking Blow hit hard but I seldom used it. It was to easy to either dodge, sprint out of range, or had to much of a wind up to where I was taking to much damage before I even hit the person.

Bow skills are still pretty much lack luster. Focused Aim hit really hard but never used outside keep defense/attack and initial attack. Kind of a waste honestly.

Magicka build. I got some of my survivability back but due to the changes in armor it needs a very close eye on health to make any of it work which means a lot of time taking a defensive stance and not an offensive stance. The worst part of the build is I feel like I am doing NO damage what so ever. Even though the tool tip for concealed weapon (for example) actually says it does more damage than Surprise Attack on my stamina build I am hitting for about 1000 less damage which makes little sense to me. Then there is Lotus fan. Now, the DoT plus initial attack damage is actually much more than Ambush on my stamina build however burst wins in PvP not to mention the loss of empower does hurt a bit. I do however really like the speed bonus with concealed, though on my stamina build I use Nights Silence so it was nice being faster there as well.

Build is:
1st bar- Impale, Concealed weapon, Dark Cloak, Lotus Fan, Mass Hysteria, Soul Harvest

2nd bar- Rapid Regen, Ward Ally, Swallow Soul, Degeneration, Reapers Mark, Soul Strike

Impale I like more than Killers blade regardless simply because of the range. Concealed weapon has good speed bonus but for some reason it hits like a wet noodle. Degeneration is actually a nice bonus to damage plus another small heal and it does similar damage to swallow soul. Reapers Mark at least helps manage enemies using medium or heavy armor. I'm going to do some more tests with this one tonight before I decide what build to go with.

So....how is everyone else's experience so far and what builds are you using?

Wing

i found the trick with Magicka based NB is it really requires both bars used in unison to work well, you don't really have engage / escape like other classes or what not. you have it pretty close.

you need things like: **note more listed then possible, but giving examples**

resto bar, the pre engage - dark shades (damage, debuff, and drain stamina) crippling grasp (dot damage, buff, debuff, mobility) Swallow soul (main weave, damage, healing) Degeneration (dot damage, buff, healing) Reapers mark (debuff) Combat prayer (prefer it over rapid regen as its an instant heal and buffs you and your shades) Soul tether (better for pvp then veil of blades now I think)

you engage and soften them up with your dots and dark shades, then once you think you have the initiative as far as resources go and the start to try to run, heal, or turtle, you switch to finisher mode. even just casting all of these then switching immediately to your engage bar is worth it.

S&B bar, lotus fan (jump on them, damage, dot) surprise attack (damage) impale (execute) Mass hysteria (obvious) dark cloak (just incase) Soul harvest (massive single target damage)

I would not use soul strike as its just too easy to interrupt. if they live through your engage and start to regain initiative switch back to your resto bar and take back the initiative, and if all else fails mass hysteria then dark cloak away. also the speed bonus you get from surprise attack works with invis from potions, so having some run speed / invis potions is kind of required on nightblades.

AriBoh

People in some other threads have been saying using the unmoprhed version of ambush (teleport strike?) is basically ambush without the utility but is still good for magika burst damage.
So Teleport Strike > Soul Harvest > Concealed Weapon/Impale = Profit.
Haven't tried it myself as I'm still figuring out stamina DW/bow, like you said really low survivability but the initial damage is awesome.

deepseamk20b14_ESO

The soul strike I was using for just keep defenses. I generally have Soul tether in it's place. Forgot to put that on 2nd build. I was actually thinking about crippling grasp instead of lotus fan. Obviously it's not an instant gap closer but it could technically do the job with more damage. This is magicka build is similar to what I used pre-1.6 and I wouldn't say I was unbeatable but damn near close. I'd either win or be able to run the **** away lol. Had many fights lasting 10 minutes of just going back and forth, me draining them of HP and ST while they used everything they could to just keep HP up until they got to a friendly keep haha. I may try this tonight instead of lotus fan.

And yeah, thats pretty much how I have it set up. I use second bar to start off then engage, so I at least have a one up on the enemy and I can just cloak away and start the process over again.

deepseamk20b14_ESO

darkknightfkb16_ESO wrote: »

People in some other threads have been saying using the unmoprhed version of ambush (teleport strike?) is basically ambush without the utility but is still good for magika burst damage.
So Teleport Strike > Soul Harvest > Concealed Weapon/Impale = Profit.
Haven't tried it myself as I'm still figuring out stamina DW/bow, like you said really low survivability but the initial damage is awesome.

You know, that's actually not a bad idea. Why morph it. Not a bad idea at all. +1

Wing

deepseamk20b14_ESO wrote: »

darkknightfkb16_ESO wrote: »

People in some other threads have been saying using the unmoprhed version of ambush (teleport strike?) is basically ambush without the utility but is still good for magika burst damage.
So Teleport Strike > Soul Harvest > Concealed Weapon/Impale = Profit.
Haven't tried it myself as I'm still figuring out stamina DW/bow, like you said really low survivability but the initial damage is awesome.

You know, that's actually not a bad idea. Why morph it. Not a bad idea at all. +1

was just thinking the same thing XD

Kartalin

Here's what I've been using:

1st bar 2h: Brawler, Ambush, Wrecking Blow, Power Extraction. Rally, Soul Tether

For dueling I would swap out Brawler for Executioner. Immovable is another option instead of Power Extraction.

2nd bar Bow: Camouflaged Hunter, Razor Caltrops, Piercing Mark, Poison Injection, Lethal Arrow, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Instead of Mark I've been using Dark Shades and Inevitable Detonation on occasion. I'll also use Soul Assault instead of Dawnbreaker sometimes.

Attributes, I've gone 31 each in health and stamina. Also I'm a bosmer and a werewolf.

Where I've been experimenting is with armor, still trying to find what I like best. I have a full medium build that is 5 Hunding's Rage, 5 Shadow Walker, and whatever weapon. Another is stamina regen based with less damage and more protection, with 4 heavy and 3 medium: 5 Dreugh Knight, 3 Way of the Air, 2 Shadow Walker rings, and whatever weapon. Wish I had gotten the Dreugh Knight sword before it became FOTW.

nothing2591

Dual Wield : Killers Blade, Flying Blade, Surprise Attack, Ambush, Dark Cloak, Soul Harvest

Bow : Focused Aim, Venom Arrow, Reapers Mark, Relentless Focus, Rapid Maneuver , Soul Tether.

Using 5p hundings rage + 3p of the air for stamina regen will swap for morag tong. If my stamina runs out before my enemy is dead im most likely going to die or escape with cloak if it even works. Bow for zerg fests and DW for all the fun pvp

Can kill squishies pretty fast. A fun thing to do is assassinate players that are using siege weapons or burn them while they're still using them, sadly this build wont kill tanks or any class with op self healing which would be all classes but nightblades

Have to rely on hp pots for healing.. or life from kill with blade or mark. But who needs healing when you can 3 shot enemies ? :P

Code2501

To add a VR6 PvE perspective from a player that de-subed for a while and came back just to try 1.6:

Pre 1.5 I use to play a melee magicka NB, it wasn't perfect, especially cloak, but it worked and it was fun.
I mostly used a DW/Bow build wit 1 or less weapon skills and mostly pure class skills. Magicka regen was sufficient to pop in and out of stealth and lay down the DPS and HPS required to solo cadwells silver content without many troubles besides maybe gargoyles or 5+ mob groups.

Post 1.6 the same build, plus the 27CP performs poorly.
Observations with the Magicka melee option...
I was using Killers Blade Pre-1.6 for the health boost it gave when burning down groups, and I could still do so I guess, but it does not do the damage required to actually assassinate when Magicka speced, so the only option for a working finisher is impale and the range does not make up for the lack of a heal when meleeing.
Lotus Fan vs Ambush, again downgrading to the morph I never used as a magicka melee NB, damage is a sidegrade, AOE range is still pitifully small and does not make up for the loss of a damage buff to your next strike imo. If the AOE was bigger (read, more reliable)it may be a reasonable substitute but as is its a clear downgrade. You need to burst down single targets in groups or you take too much damage in light armor, so vs a group doing extra damage to one or two other mobs in a non focused way does not work, even if your lucky and manage to get them all in the range of the AOE, which often does not happen.

Concealed Weapon vs Surprise Attack, I use to use CW anyhow, so not an issue for my build, but making yet another burst skill stamina only leaves magicka melee with no burst morphs and nothing to compensate for wearing light armor (which also appears to have been nerfed since I left.)

Cloak, SD was nerfed from a dot perspective, use to be you could ride the duration out and gain Crit ticks on dots/hots making siphon skills more effective. It also still drops in mid combat at random, even DC. Still a bugged skill that fails to work as advertised yet drains precious magicka resources for little benefit.

Mass Hysteria has a slight buff to 3 targets, which helps groups, but uses magicka that depletes my options for damage and when combined with Cloak can leave me dry and relying on weaker Heavy/light attacks to actually kill things.

My backup ranged line is less affected, Swallow Soul, Crippling Grasp, Shades don't appear to have changed function.

Overall my old build does not work melee, I could use stam skills, but all the skills they switched to stamina are DPS skills so they dont function when magicka speced. The loss of a useable finisher and single target burst implies they want magicka melee to switch to AOE with Lotus and the change to Sap Essence. That works against groups, but poorly vs bosses.
The old melee playstyle use to work against both.
I also find that I have to dodge and block alot more to survive as a magicka melee build, because there are no stamina utilities elsewhere in the class that let you use the secondary pool for survival.

Flipping it around and respeccing to stamina I can pretty much play the melee NB I use to play. The difference, well Medium armor > Light armor for one, quite a bit less squishy.
The other key difference using the stamina skills is my utility (cloak, fear, blur if you use its buffed version) all use my non DPS bar, so I don't take a damage hit by mixing magicka with stamina. I obviously loose siphons when going stamina, but the heal on kill makes up for it with the solo pve content I was doing the way I was doing it.
Stamina build also seems to do more clean burst.

In total having tried the magicka versions of my old build vs a stamina build suplimented with magicka utility the stamina build is obviously superior.

I'm not sure where this leaves me as a player wanting to still play the effective magicka melee NB I had in 1.4. seemingly nowhere.

In closing, It feels like they realized they were gutting a playstyle that worked to pacify "Stam NB" players, and I can see some half hearted attempts to re-imagine the magicka melee NB as something else with the change to Sap Essence, but the lack of effort, combined with the general over-nerfing of light armour leaves the playstyle lacking. And its not like Mag Melee NB was OP before or anything so /baffled.

If you want to melee, your now forced to use stamina or suffer.

Hopefully ZOS will finish re-imagining the Mag Melee assassin in future patches, but its going to need some work to fix what wasn't broke before they broke it.

GrimMauKin

From a mainly PVE stance, the 1.6 changes have ruined my VT14 50/50 hybrid nightblade who relied heavily on Killer's Blade, Concealed Weapon and Ambush (all now stamina based) alongside dual wield and bow skills. Several attribute and morph respecs. later I just can't find a mix that works for me (at least in the sense of "play the way you want to" approach).

Putting everything into Stamina just doesn't work when 95% of the Nightblades' 3 skills trees are powered by Magicka.

I've finally de-subbed after 10 months; I think I'll be giving Dragon Age Inquisition my attentions (and money).

Lava_Croft

I for one am very curious what it is that ZOS pictured in their minds when thinking of Magicka Nightblades in 1.6.

Takhistis

Okay, so I'm just a leveling NB and new player. Am lvl 34 atm
Main hand: Bow
off hand: sword&dagger
Armor: Medium
Main skills: Impale-Reapers Mark-Magnum Shot(sometimes switching for Snipe)-Bombard-Swallow Soul
Off hand: Impale (Yes, I can't get used to switching weapons just to execute)-Rending Slashes-Blade Cloak-Lotus Fan-Whirlwind
Passives: pretty much every bow, DW and Medium armor passive Available
Using Night Silence set 5/5 for faster stealth (combined with my stealth regeneration and lower stealth cost I can stealth insanely long and far xD)
Really liking it, with charged shot and some Snipe, against 1 target, or Bombard spam against multiple enemies, lets me kill almost anything in open world and delves very fast

kaithuzar

I think magic was really nerfed in 1.6, while there are builds, keeping your buffs up (entropy, sap, et al) makes it really difficult to do any kind of great dmg. (pve or pvp)
Personally I don't think it's really fair how anyone rocking a two handed sword gets to spam one button "brawler or wrecking blow your choice" & effectively get good dps; while on the contrary, a magic nb can keep up buffs on him/herself & be struggling to maintain. I'm not saying "nerf two handed", I'm saying "BUFF Magic NB a bit".

I think the "I win" button in pvp is going to be 5 medium 2 heavy rocking a two handed greatsword with evasion tank skills/armor. You don't need to heal if you don't get hit.

Dekkameron

I am still using essentially the same build as i did pre-1.6 for PVE grinding.

Sword/shield: Funnel health(or swallow soul i cant make up my mind), Structured entophy, Dark Shades, Inner Light, Siphoning attacks with normally Veil of blades ultimate.

Destruction staff: Sap Essence, Elemental Blockade, Pulsar, Inner Light, Siphoning attacks with normally Veil of blades ultimate.

5 heavy, 2 light with 4 pieces of twilight and 5 Magnus.

If i need to i can switch in a resto staff easily enough changing only two skills.

raglau

I'm respeccing after a four month sojourn. Am guessing putting all attribs into health is no longer viable?

How easy is a respec after my free one, these days?

KleanZlate

Pibbles wrote: »

I'm respeccing after a four month sojourn. Am guessing putting all attribs into health is no longer viable?

How easy is a respec after my free one, these days?

IIRC ability respec is around 3K but I don't remember how much the skills respec costs. There's also an option of only respecing your ultimates.

kaithuzar

After talking to some of the best sorc's in game. I'm doing decent pve dmg w/ the following:
spell sym, force pulse, destr. clench, cripple, mage light
(assissination abilities to boost crit), mark target, impale, mage light

I messed up the rotation, but using soul harvest & spell pot was able to hit 12k on nomeg in bangkorai

4 martial, 2 torugs, 2 adroitness, 2 cyrodiils light, master's destro staff w/infused
91 champion pts

-kai

AssaultLemming

My PvE magicka nb currently:

4 piece vr14 martial knowledge
2 piece undaunted (valkyn or nerieneth is what I want here)
2 piece torugs pact (staff + 1 armour)
Still need new jewellery, currently soul shine with spell damage. Planning on cyro light here I guess.

41 points health
21 points magicka

All magicka enchants

7/7 light, or 5 light + whatever undaunted.

Resto/destro

Destro: funnel health, sap essence, impale, siphoning, inner light.
Resto: degeneration, cripple, refreshing path siphoning, inner light.

With vr5 blue food this gives me around 20k hps 25k magicka with only purple gear and enchants for now.

It needs some tweaks still, but it's working okay for now. I'm contemplating swapping out the staffs for dual swords to get the extra spell damage and a third piece of torugs which would give me 1000hp, then reassigning some attribute points from health to magicka, but I'm not sure if the trade off for lower light attack damage will be worth the extra damage from increased spell power and magicka.

It might work out that I swap a single staff for swords and make a melee range bar with restoring path, lotus fan, sap essence because I wouldn't be light attacking while using those anyway, and leave the other bar as degeneration, impale, funnel health with fire destro staff.

Anyway, work in progress!

Desdemonte

I haven't been able to find a decent PvP Magicka build that works well for me so I went whole hog into Stamina. There are definitely some trade-offs. I like being in medium armour finally, for the Passives it grants. The unfortunate thing is that the sneaking part of being a "sneaky assassin" removes my ability to attack a lot of the time! lol Plus some of my preferred class abilities stayed Magicka, like Impale. Overall, the 1v1 seems stronger in PvP as Stamina than Magicka was pre-1.6. The group PvP AoE play is a bit different, but still OK. Now that Sap is fixed, at least I can help spread some heals if doing a bit less damage. Now I just spam Whirling Blades instead of Sap, where the opposite used to be true.

So far for 1v1 DW, I'm liking different combinations of Shadow Image, Ambush, Shadowy Disguise, Killer's Blade, Strife, Flying Blade, Blood Craze, Blur, Surprise Attack, Quick Cloak, Piercing Mark, Soul Tether and Veil. Depending on how you put them together, you can maintain some nice passives. I don't find Bow has really changed much for PvP.

My current difficulty is figuring out an effective Stamina end-game AoE PvE build. I know it's in there somewhere but I am yet to discover it. I believe I can do a good build with DW/Bow, but I don't have most of the bow skills levelled. I feel very squishy sometimes, even in full medium armour. I ran vet CoH the other day and was being melted left and right. I was using Piercing Mark, and then tried taking it off my bar which seemed to help quite a bit. Makes me think the caster debuff is actually still there. Even so, I still died easily because I just could not get decent ranged DPS up so had to melee a lot. That Lich end boss seems ridiculously strong too lol.

Xundiin

This is what I've been running. It's primarily a healing build, but it works for leveling and 1v1 n 2 and group play. 1v3 I'm not good enough with the build yet to get it to work and I'll most likely change a few things to be a bit more viable in those situations.

Anyway here is the build:

Race : Bosmer
Mundus: Mage

Armor: 5 Light/2 Heavy
5 Piece Seducers
2 Piece Magnus
3 piece warlock

Weapons: SnB and Resto
Torug's Pact on 1H and Shield
Magnus on Resto Staff

Enchants:
Armor all magicka
Weapons 1H Disease
Resto Absorb Magicka

Traits:
For PVE: Infused on major pieces and divines on minor
For PVP: Impen on all armor pieces.
weapons get precise.

Stats:
M42/H20/S0

Bar 1: SnB
1 Funnels Health
2 Structured Entropy
3 Sap Essence
4 Impale
5 Inner Light
Ult Soul Tether

Bar 2: Resto
1 Rapid Regen
2 Healing Springs
3 Healing Ward
4 Spell Symmetry
5 Inner Light
Ult Veil of Blades

As I said it works well in PVE and group PVP is does pretty good. 1v1and 1v2 is ok. I'll more than likely drop Inner Light and Spell Symmetry for Immovable Brute, Mass Hysteria, and Refreshing Path. I'm also a Werewolf for the extra +15% in combat Stamina regen.

Xundiin

kaithuzar wrote: »

I think magic was really nerfed in 1.6, while there are builds, keeping your buffs up (entropy, sap, et al) makes it really difficult to do any kind of great dmg. (pve or pvp)
Personally I don't think it's really fair how anyone rocking a two handed sword gets to spam one button "brawler or wrecking blow your choice" & effectively get good dps; while on the contrary, a magic nb can keep up buffs on him/herself & be struggling to maintain. I'm not saying "nerf two handed", I'm saying "BUFF Magic NB a bit".

I think the "I win" button in pvp is going to be 5 medium 2 heavy rocking a two handed greatsword with evasion tank skills/armor. You don't need to heal if you don't get hit.

I was reading some where that currently stamina abilities damage is scaling with Stamina while magicka abilities are not scaling with magicka. How true this is I don't know. But if it is true I would say that right there is the problem.

dreamfarer

Xundiin wrote: »

I was reading some where that currently stamina abilities damage is scaling with Stamina while magicka abilities are not scaling with magicka. How true this is I don't know. But if it is true I would say that right there is the problem.

That seems in line with the research I did last night.

On a level 49 Nightblade specced for all Magicka with an unmorphed Veiled Strike the damage I did attacking from Hide was barely meeting the tool tip damage, while damage out of hide was far less. This was fighting against tigers in the Rift.

On a level 26 Nightblade specced for Stamina, the same was true with an unmorphed Veiled Strike, but when I morphed it to the Stamina option, the damage rocketed up to significantly more than the tooltip text when attacking from Hidden. When attacking normally with the morphed version, the damage was what the tool tip reported.

So I think Veiled Strike is simply bugged. Hopefully the devs won't take forever to fix it and hopefully they'll adjust the damage back upwards since in its current incarnation it means there's little or no reason to ever hide or be stealthy as a Magicka based Nightblade.

f047ys3v3n

I've tried both stam and magica in 1.6 and here are my thoughts:

Magica:
Gear: 2 adroitness, 2 cyriidils light, 4 martial knowledge (before I knew of the infaliable aether changes), 2 Mephalas.

This bar was somewhat similar to my 1.5 build. A funnel health weave buffed with entropy and peircing mark using either crippling grasp or destructive reach as a dot. I also used siphoning strikes with most trials of this build. For the AOE bar sap essence is used.

I feel the bottom line with this build is that it is pretty weaksauce. Funnel health took a massive damage output nerf in 1.6 which, coupled with the nerfs to the force shock destro abilities, leaves the magica NB with no strong options for a primary damage ability in the weave. Buffing these weaksauce attack options with the entropy and piercing mark does not improve things much as these buffs are not very long duration and so require vigilance to keep up and, importantly, cost a damage cycle every time you cast for fairly high dps cost. They are buffs to be sore but they won't knock anybody's socks off. I'm sure the thought was that in PVP funnel health was seen as putting out too much damage being as it is the primary NB heal as well. So be it, we balance for PVP again even though most serious PVP'rs have long been DK's and Templars anyway leaving NB lacking for PVE damage output.

The numbers I was getting for single target dps sustained were ~7.5k. With gear changes, enchant changes, dropping siphoning strikes, and practice I estimate maybe 9.5k tops. One of my buddies, Stevostud, who is probably the best PVE NB in the game and used to average about 75dps better than me in 1.5 is getting about 9k at the moment. It's all pretty low considering a stiff breeze now blows a light armor user over. NB magica users were simply very dependent on funnel health for dps before and veil for utility. With the changes to these two things they are very much lacking.

Stam:
Gear: 2 two fanged snake, 2 shadow walker, 5 vicious ophidian, bloodspawns head, masters bow and greatsword (yea, I have kickass stam gear)

The first thing to talk about with stam is how low bow dps is. I know all the PVP people are all up in arms about the crazy OP bow but I am here to tell you that, from a PVE endgame standpoint, it's dps is downright terrible. You would be lucky to get 6.5k sustained either button mash sniping or weaving and that is with a masters bow. Don't have a masters bow? Well, your not even in the game then are you. The masters bow is the only thing to recommend using bow at all and as I said, even then, the dps is terrible. Bow dps is so low I contemplated not having a dedicated ranged bar and instead doing a dual wield bar with flying blade for ranged and spinning blades for AOE. This would give me a trash bar without buffs but with both AOE and ranged in the dual weild and a boss bar in the 2 handed greatsword.

That brings me to the greatsword bar. Yep, everybody uses the two handed weapons now after the rapid strikes nerf don't they. Spam spam spam that wrecking blow FTW. So, I can get 11k while using siphoning strikes doing this. Probably switching the enchants to stam cost reduction and going without siphoning strikes will be better as the more I play the more I realize that siphoning strikes, even after the buff, is probably still not worth using let alone taking up a bar slot. It is important to remember when using greatsword, just as when AOEing that ult generation, broke as it now is only building when you have light attacked in the last few seconds, must necessarily interrupt your button mashing. It is a terrible system that must be considered because weapons that use a traditional weave for max dps will keep ult generation up without any other considerations. Have I mentioned how stupid that ult generation is. I'll mention it again. It's stupid. While I think the NB greatsword DPS has the potential to easily be the highest NB dps you must keep in mind that puddles, mechanics, etc. can conspire to separate you from many bosses leaving you no dps at all. You should also keep in mind that this rout is available to all classes and, from what I have seen, most others buff greatword dps better than NB making this look less than compelling to me not so much from a weapon choice standpoint as from a class choice one.

Also of note for stam is that just as for magica the NB buffs and dots are pretty weaksauce. The previously best in game impale is also kind pathetic on the greatsword bar as, though it is slightly cheaper, it does basically the same damage as the greatsword execute. Another note for casual players is that NB DOES NOT HAVE A STAMINA BASED HEAL. So, if you are a casual quester and want to be successful you either have to go magica, use the greatsword heal, or reach level 10 in PVP to be able to unlock that stam heal. Great class design here.

The road ahead:
I have not yet decided what to do with my NB. The biggest reason for this is that I am leveling my DK (sure wish I had a templar as well.) Leveling lowbees is a much better way to get CP as they get full XP in low level zones which have been nerfed less by the crack ninja nerf team at ZOS. Furthermore, my DK is still a functional mage caster which is how I have practiced and therefore prefer playing. I may keep the NB stam and really only use it in PVP. I far prefer that in PVP and realistically, with the armor changes, light armor is not viable for almost anyone in PVP. Bow / Sword and board is a good PVP combo I think. I may also convert the NB back to a light armor caster as that is what I am adept at in PVE and just deal with the crazy squishy light armor and lack luster dps output. It would be functional enough to pick up dailies with or do weekly leaderboards though I'm not sure I care about any of the loot anymore. It is unfortunate as neither option will get me back to 1.5 where I could go light armor in PVE and do good dps without falling over all while switching to medium armor in PVP to be a stealthy sniper guy. Way too boost play the "way you like" guys.

In any case, I just don't recommend NB in general at this point as Templars and DK's are pretty clearly the way to go (It is nice to see two good classes instead of 1 I might add) and I am actually even doing a little more DPS with my Sorc togglemancer than my NB at the moment.

Rune_Relic

Desdemonte wrote: »

I haven't been able to find a decent PvP Magicka build that works well for me so I went whole hog into Stamina. There are definitely some trade-offs. I like being in medium armour finally, for the Passives it grants. The unfortunate thing is that the sneaking part of being a "sneaky assassin" removes my ability to attack a lot of the time! lol Plus some of my preferred class abilities stayed Magicka, like Impale. Overall, the 1v1 seems stronger in PvP as Stamina than Magicka was pre-1.6. The group PvP AoE play is a bit different, but still OK. Now that Sap is fixed, at least I can help spread some heals if doing a bit less damage. Now I just spam Whirling Blades instead of Sap, where the opposite used to be true.

So far for 1v1 DW, I'm liking different combinations of Shadow Image, Ambush, Shadowy Disguise, Killer's Blade, Strife, Flying Blade, Blood Craze, Blur, Surprise Attack, Quick Cloak, Piercing Mark, Soul Tether and Veil. Depending on how you put them together, you can maintain some nice passives. I don't find Bow has really changed much for PvP.

My current difficulty is figuring out an effective Stamina end-game AoE PvE build. I know it's in there somewhere but I am yet to discover it. I believe I can do a good build with DW/Bow, but I don't have most of the bow skills levelled. I feel very squishy sometimes, even in full medium armour. I ran vet CoH the other day and was being melted left and right. I was using Piercing Mark, and then tried taking it off my bar which seemed to help quite a bit. Makes me think the caster debuff is actually still there. Even so, I still died easily because I just could not get decent ranged DPS up so had to melee a lot. That Lich end boss seems ridiculously strong too lol.

Have you tried bombard on the bow ?
The aoe snare/cripple on cone works really well and gives you options.
It doesn't give you exceptional DPS....but it gives you the time to do more DPS then your enemies.

I prefer lowering my enemies DPS and focusing on staying alive then maxing out my own.
What can I say..my reflexes aint what they used to be so I need to buy time.

Defensive stance + sap + bombard....should be able to take out the mages...heal through the archers...and soften up the rest. Take out the melee once the ranged are dead. I use invasion on the archers while the rest are crippled.

kokoandshinb14a_ESO

nothing2591 wrote: »

Dual Wield : Killers Blade, Flying Blade, Surprise Attack, Ambush, Dark Cloak, Soul Harvest

Bow : Focused Aim, Venom Arrow, Reapers Mark, Relentless Focus, Rapid Maneuver , Soul Tether.

Using 5p hundings rage + 3p of the air for stamina regen will swap for morag tong. If my stamina runs out before my enemy is dead im most likely going to die or escape with cloak if it even works. Bow for zerg fests and DW for all the fun pvp

Can kill squishies pretty fast. A fun thing to do is assassinate players that are using siege weapons or burn them while they're still using them, sadly this build wont kill tanks or any class with op self healing which would be all classes but nightblades

Have to rely on hp pots for healing.. or life from kill with blade or mark. But who needs healing when you can 3 shot enemies ? :P

Cloak is a great defensive skill that offers good offensive advantages as well

Knootewoot

I used to be Stamina NB at start around 1.3 but it didn't work out quit well compared to Magicka. Then i went Magicka which was awesome: 5 pieces seducers, 4 pieces magnus and 3 jewels with spell damage
stealth-->camo hunter -> ambush --> concealed weapon--> concealed weapon-> (if ultimate up: soulharvest)--> impale
enemy dead = good
enemy not dead = fear / cloak /ambush etc (or run like the wind)

Then 1.6 came and i did zero damage with around same setup. Maybe everybody i attacked was stacking shield or so i do not know

So back to stamina:

5 pieces hunding and 4 ashen grip

Stealth-->camo hunter-->grim focus--> lethal arrow -->before lethal arrow hits-->ambush-->suprise attack--> (if ultimate up: soulharvest)

Enemy low health--> impale (or the other morph, but if stamina low i prefer the magicka morph)
enemy not so low health-->Vigor-->blur--> rapid attacks from DW
enemy shield up and to strong or outa stamina--> blur, or skill from medium armor cloak and run away weeee

It works for me. I die in a few blows, but mostly i can get away if attack fails. Of course i try to target vampires first with light armor and no shields up

When in a group i use more AoE stuff like whirlwind and some PvP buffs (retreating manouvres, caltrops and Vigor)

Lilselvag07

Hey Guys I have NB(tank) I currently tried making a thread for some help and it failed. I am looking for anyone who will give me some insight if I am doing the right thing. I have of course read all of the above builds. I am hoping for some critiques and ideas. And if I am doing something off the wall stupid please inform me. question for 1.6 tanks. I am a Vr9 Siphon Tank.

All heavy armor
5 histbark, four song of Lamae, (I do not have really anything for trinkets and rings basically filled with basic magic increases, because I continue to run out of magic.)

1st Bar: Sword and Shield
Mirage
Refreshing Path
Sap Essence
Ransack
Siphoning attacks
Ult: Veil of Blades (heard it got nerfed but still only good thing we got)

2nd Bar: dual wield (Sword/Dagger)
Reapers mark
Shadowy Disguise
Surprise attack
Siphon attacks
Merciless resolve

Vrathak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbk9MrwcxGg&feature=youtu.be

Enough said.

Spangla

So the weakest class has been nerfed in 1.6 - yep, this sounds like something this dev team would do.

Magica nb in pvp right now it unplayable, this patch is a disaster for nb's.

Spangla

Vrathak wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbk9MrwcxGg&feature=youtu.be

Enough said.

You realise any class could do this, so easy

Vrathak

I know a templar who did it... Havent seen a DK or a sorc yet but there has to be
a way for sure