NB Stamina DPS

Asherrion

So, recently I have been playing my nightblade as a Stamina DPS. I'm just wondering what the NB community thinks on using Suprise Attacks from Shadow over Rapid Strikes from the Duel Wield Tree. on most parses I am noticing higher DPS gains from Suprise Attacks weaving with Light Attacks. however a lot of people are saying Rapid with Light Weave is higher DPS. I personally haven't been able to get Rapid to be stronger than Suprise Attacks but I am wondering what your experiences are.

Another question is regarding Rending Slashes. Is it even worth the action to use this ability? I have a feeling that since it doesn't proc ravager on the bleed it will not be used.

for your information: I use 5 Ravager, 4 Morag Tong, 3 Ashen Grip currently, looking to make the change to Vicious Ophidian from Ashen grip once I have the set.

kylerjalen

I used Rending Slashes to level up but once I opened up more dual wield skills I dropped it. Many of the enemies you will encounter (especially endgame) won't be affected by the bleed effect. At least thats my opinion. That and the fact that I would rather kill quickly than DOT an enemy.
I personally use both Surprise Attack along with Rapid Strikes back to back because I like seeing the health bar drop quickly

Smaxx

IMO it heavily depends on your group (if you have one). If there's some other character (usually the tank) debuffing armor on your targets, then I'd go with Rapid Strikes. If there's noone debuffing enemies, use Surprise Attack instead, since it has the built-in armor debuff, that will help you a lot (especially solo).

Also for PvP I prefer Surprise Attack since it's far easier to stayin range for a moment than sticking to an enemy for the whole animation time.

Resipsa131

Why not keep both on the bar? Surprise attack from stealth, rapid strikes, killers blade is really hard hitting.

Asherrion

I just hate the animation for Rapid, Suprise attack is a much quicker animation than rapid so you can get more LA weaves in. Thus far I have just been going to Rapid with mediums weaved for stam regen when I get to around 20% stam. Suprise Attack/LA seems to be a higher DPS output. However guildies have been saying that they experience higher DPS output than with Suprise Attacks. thus far I haven't been able to replicate that result.

Note: This is strictly from a trials standpoint. PvP I have my set-up and it works quite well.

Smaxx

Resipsa131 wrote: »

Why not keep both on the bar? Surprise attack from stealth, rapid strikes, killers blade is really hard hitting.

Maximum number of abilities on the quick bar.

Resipsa131

For those that use surprise attack over rapid, I'm assuming you use it outside stealth so you get the damage and rebuff but not the stun

Cody

rending slashes is only good for the snare. even then, if its a snare you want, you have hidden blade, a ranged snare, and potential class abilities.

drop it once you hit endgame and/or PvP

Asherrion

Resipsa131 wrote: »

For those that use surprise attack over rapid, I'm assuming you use it outside stealth so you get the damage and rebuff but not the stun

Yes, Been playing a lot more with this lately and finding Light weaving with Suprise Attacks to be superior DPS by about 2k or more.

Elijah_Crow

I've completely removed rapid strikes in favor of surprise attack. I find the DPS to be on par and and the debuts and buffs to armor make it superior. It's also more versatile as I can use with duel wield or two hand, etc.

Asherrion

Elijah_Crow wrote: »

I've completely removed rapid strikes in favor of surprise attack. I find the DPS to be on par and and the debuts and buffs to armor make it superior. It's also more versatile as I can use with duel wield or two hand, etc.

More and more this is seeming to be the case... I am really looking forward to throwing more points into my champ tree's as I get them (only ~97 right now).

However I have since gone back on my original dislike of Rending Slashes. It has about the same animation time as Suprise Attack and does almost 3k more damage based on tooltip alone. the one thing I forgot to take into account with Rending was that I wasn't waiting for the entire dot duration to be over before comparing DPS.. I just saw the DPS drop (as it's not instant damage) and sleepy me went "lol bad skill, noob trap".

My big problem is stam management currently.. I keep rapid on the bar simply for stam regeneration (weaving with mediums is a stam positive skill). I got 13k on Serpent the other day, I really feel like my build is finally coming together now, it's just really hard to manage and I just need practice.