Need help with Nightblade build

ForfiniteStories

This class is confusing me. I've already reset my skills and attributes multiple times to acquire the most efficient DPS as possible, and I getting very frustrated with the thought having to do so yet again.

I want to either use pure stamina or pure magicka, but the various abilities and whatnot are all over the place. If I were to increase both attributes equally, my DPS would be average, as it wouldn't be based off of one good attribute. DPS are supposed to do as much damage as possible, but Nightblade abilities and relative abilities seem to hinder that.

My Nightblade is Assassin, Medium Armor, and is equipped with a sword and a dagger.

So here's the deal: I tried going full fledged stamina-based, but there was too much of a lack of stamina-based abilities for the Nightblade. I could think of only one morph that made an ability stamina-based, despite other abilities, including the ultimate, using a weapon and needing to be in close range. Even if I were to only have stamina-based abilities (therefore mostly Duel Wielding abilities) the desired ultimate (the Assassin ultimate) is magicka-based for whatever rational reason or lack thereof.

So now I am going for a full-fledged magicka-based Nightblade. That's right, a melee fighter who uses sharpness of blade and strength of arm and leg that needs magicka... All the sense in the world is made.

However, I now realize that my Medium Armour might not be adequate for a Magicka-based role. So... my rogue-type character is supposed to wear light armour? Since when in the history of fantasy-RPGs did such characters wear light armour instead of medium? Remember, I am only in this predicament due to a lack of stamina-based abilities for the Nightblade. I wouldn't even consider light amour if I could avoid it.

So this begs the question, is Medium Armor good for a Nightblade under the Assassination skill tree? Some of the Medium passives are useless in this regard, such as the passive that increases stamina regeneration, but others may or may not assist in the effectiveness of this tree. Such as the first passive in the Medium Armour skill line: Dexterity. It increases critical strike chance with physical-based attacks. Are Assassin abilities physical-based? Like, the ones in which you get up close and personal and use a "weapon"? I heard that those count as physical-based abilities...

...But then. But then I moved my mouse cursor over both Spell Critical and Weapon Critical in the Character sheet/menu.

And find that Physical Damage is associated with Weapon Critical. Which is fine, of course, if my Assassin abilities use Weapon Critical. But this hints that physical-based attacks are rather relative to Weapon Abilities, hence Weapon Critical. Otherwise it would just be called Physical Critical, no? If you are confused at my explanation, or lack thereof, then you are supposed to be; I am as equally confused.

But then Spell Critical says it gives my Magicka-based abilities (therefore Assassin abilities I assume) a greater chance to do Critical Damage.

So... what I heard about Assassin abilities being physical-based isn't true then? So my Medium Armour dexterity passive isn't increasing the critical rate of any of my Assassin abilities, even the ones that seem to need physical contact?

I am confused. Please help! Thank you as well.

I don't know if I need any other questions answered. This is so much information to take in at once with all these different stats and stuff. Been pulling my hairs out just wanting to play the damn game as a rogue-type character, and the most effective DPS I can be, whose never even heard of the Mages Guild or even witnessed the use of magic, nor dresses in associated fabric.

ForfiniteStories

*there is only one stamina-based ultimate out of the four I could choose, the one for Medium Armour, and it is rather defensive instead of DPS-ish.

kijima

I'll just leave this here: http://www.sypherpk.com/stamina-nb-1/

ForfiniteStories

kijima wrote: »

I'll just leave this here: http://www.sypherpk.com/stamina-nb-1/

That doesn't seem to help, but thanks anyway.

ForfiniteStories

Alright, judging from what little I've seen of the linked video, and from everything else I read. And from taking a close look at not only the abilities and morphs of my class and armor, and what they mean, I've come to the realization that the NB is clearly meant to be played with equal points put into both Stamina and Magicka. There are just not enough abilities specializing in either to make the sole specialization in either feasible.

On another note, I did inspect the passives of the Shadow ability line. The abilities themselves are magicka-based. The first passive is stamina-based. But the second passive health based.
Which totally sucks for anyone wanting to put all their points into just one attribute lol

ShadowMole25

Out of the 5 Assassination skills, only 2 of them do damage, and both of them have stamina morphs. The other 3 abilities are utilities, and don't have to scale for damage. You also have weapon abilities, which are stamina, that you can also use. If you use magicka only for utilities, then you can put everything into stamina for your damage abilities.

One hand and shield is usually used for tanking, if you want dps, try looking into 2 handed or dual wield.

http://eso-skills.com/skill/index.html?z=PJf4ORK@D8EpXKP%5_1yq@DA01wvX&p=916291729182919290629072908290920052006200720082009202520262027202820292101310221032104210521113112211321152230423142324233423443051306330733081309131513252326240524062407241624172551355235533&a=121238&c=ShadowMole25&b=Wanders-Many-Rivers&j=t&q=250&w=20&m=0

I use dual wield and bow abilities my main source of damage and use class abilities mainly for utility/CC. I have some attribute points in health and magicka because I mainly play PvP and try to stay alive while doing damage. Also, I am not a min/maxer, I can understand how to do it.

Celless

Hi there.

The ultimate may do magic damage, but the damage of the ultimate chooses your higher offensive stat. So if you are invested in stamina and weapon damage, your Ultimate will scale from those attributes, but still deal magic damage.

The stamina morphs, Killer's Blade and Ambush, will also be impacted from stamina, weapon damage, and weapon critical. It can be confusing and there may be some tool tips out there and bugs too that can lead to different interpretations or results from patch to patch.

Celless

If you went magicka and picked magicka morph Impale and wore light armor with its passives, you would be benefitting from the spell critical instead. So the tree can benefit magicka builds too, but may have a few more abilities that favor stamina or close range.

deepseamk20b14_ESO

Before you start looking at all of these build links people are posting I think you need to go back to the basics and learn the game mechanics as of 1.6. You seem to lack a lot of understanding about how the game works now since 1.6. NOT a bad thing, everything has a learning curve! I think reading up on the basics will really help you figure things out. Once you have that down then start looking at builds. Good luck and god speed.

dreamfarer

The other reason to go for a Stamina based Nightblade is something that's not shown as part of any tool tip -> attacks from Hide do (extremely) enhanced critical damage but only with Stamina based melee attacks.

For a Magicka Based melee attack such as Veiled Strike you'll see a hit from Hide for a bit over +50% above the regular damage Veiled Strike would do. If you take the Stamina based morph of Veiled Strike - Surprise Attack - and attack from stealth though, you'll see it do a bit over 300% of the regular damage that Surprise Attack would do.

The difference between the two is the difference between a mob that's scuffed and ready to fight after you spent time creeping up on them and a mob that's 1 light attack away from death after you spent time creeping up on them. Basically a whole different play style.

Note: This is from Hide only. Invisibility, like from Dark Cloak does not provide the 300% damage boost. You just get a regular +50% hit from invisibility.

Note 2: This bonus isn't limited to Veiled Strike, heavy and light attacks gain the same benefit, they just have to melee and not consume Magicka to work.

TLDR; if you want to Ninja around and assassinate people, you have to build for Stamina.

seniden_ESO

ForfiniteStories wrote: »

Alright, judging from what little I've seen of the linked video

Maybe try watching it before complaining that it doesn't help.

You obviously have no idea what morphs you have access to or how these abilities function, so don't spit in the face of those who try to help you because you don't like the format in which it was done.

Not impressive.

kylerjalen

I'll throw in my two cents.
I had a problem that was unique in and of itself but somewhat related to yours. I posted a couple of days ago about having difficulties with my build and the problem was simple, I tried to create a hybrid build that was half magicka and half stamina. Long story short, I decided to go the stamina route with magicka as backup. The thing is, you're right that there are some number of stamina NB abilities that are lacking. But that is what I love about this game because you can draw on other skill lines to cover the shortcomings. If you try and use pure stamina NB abilities and nothing more, you'll run out of health quick. If you try and use pure magicka NB abilities and nothing more, you'll get melted. The key here is synergism. Figure out what works best with what to maximize your damage and survivability. You have so many skills, buffs, CP, passives, potions, etc to draw from that yeah it can be mind boggling at first but in order to play this game effectively, you have to figure this out. There really is no shortcut to the learning curve here. I've been playing for about a year and I'm still learning.
I can't tell you the amount of times I had to respec attributes and skills in order to get a build I'm happy with but thats what it takes.

As an example, when I first started playing as a NB, my rotation consisted of Teleport Strike + Dark Cloak + Surprise Attack + spamspamspam Killers Blade. I had no knowledge of what benefits the CP did for me or potions to use or what not. Hell, I couldn't even remember what Mundus stone I had picked.

Now? I absolutely love my Reaping Mark + Ambush + Merciless Resolve + weaving light attacks + Rapid Strikes + Killers Blade for the finish (often times I don't even get to KB). I can literally fight off a mob of six or more one by one without any AoE and survive all because of how I set up my alt. Of course thats with Divines enchanted armor that makes use of the Warrior stone as well as twin daggers with the Sharpened trait and enchanted with Crushing and Drain Health. The point is it takes lots and lots and lots of thought to put everything together.

Take all of the abilities and passives and CP and enchantments, etc individually and they really are not anything special.
Put together the right combination of all of that and you will not have a problem.

heystreethawk

Ambush, Power Extraction, Veiled Strike, Killer's Blade. Four of the six nightblade damage skills have stamina morphs.

The only attacks that don't have stam options, off the top of my head, are the two siphoning projectiles: Strife and Cripple. If you're concerned enough with lore 'n' immersion that wearing light armor bothers you out of role-playing principle, I'm not sure you have a case that the blood magic spells deserve a stamina morph. You have access to everything else.