Dark Harvester – Magicka Nightblade build for IC PVE/PVP group and solo play in 1.7 / 2.1

Truewavesound

Dark Harvester – Magicka Nightblade build for IC PVE/PVP group and solo play in 1.7 / 2.1

“Stamina Nightblades? You think the darkness is your ally, but you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but blinding! The shadows betray you, because they belong to me.”

This build is excellent at:
- Roaming IC or Cyrodil solo, picking off solo players or groups by dividing and conquering.
- Being a very useful group member, offering support, cc (two hard CC, one root/snare), reconnaissance, a decent amount of healing over time as well as damage.
- Trophy/tel var farming, even solo.
- Imperial City questing

In 2.1 with the TTK increased substantially, sustainability is king and this build is created with that in mind. The idea is to play the ninja, swooping in and out of combat at will, mostly using ranged attack to pick off your foes one by one, healing your allies with HOTs (hots are awesome in this patch) and zooming around the battlefield. IT is a lot of fun to play.


Gear
Gear for this build can be somewhat flexible, although there are some items that are most effective/useful. V15 is fine if that is all you can afford, although V16 will of course be better stat wise, plus be you will be able to enchant with better enchants. I would recommend making your weapons V16 as your first V16 “investment”, even if the rest is V15, as the extra spell power and improved enchant is excellent.

I currently use:

Willpower jewellery (neck and two rings) for the awesome set bonuses. The neck was received as a quest reward from an IC dungeon quest (saves me a couple of hundred grans). For the rings, a little tip: buy the stamina trait ones as they are 1/10th of the price and the extra stamina is very useful for this build/pvp generally. These items are random drops from trophy vault drops (Shards/Ether trophies) and are BoE so can be found for sale on guild stores.

5 body pieces: I currently use the Phoenix 5 piece set for awesome extra survivability. This set has saved me thousands of tel var stones that would have been lost and has great 2-4 pieces bonuses as well. Random traits are available from Tel Var lockboxes so try and find these in Infused and/or Divines, although I might consider Impenetrable as well. Another one to be bought on guild stores.

2 body pieces and Resto staff, Lightning staff: 3 Torug’s Pact crafted items to give the 3 piece bonus. Gives Spell Damage and a Health bonus, which is always useful. The two body pieces I have in Heavy and on a “Large” piece such as chest, head or legs (for maximum armour). The extra survivability from 2 heavy pieces is useful as the rest of the armour is light.


Enchants
I use Magicka for armour enchants, although I am considering mixing in a few tri stat enchants as the stat budget is better.

Jewellery enchants I use currently are 3 magicka regen for extra sustain.

Weapon enchants: Disease on Lightning staff (for healing debuff) and Absorb Magicka on the Resto staff (for extra regen when needed).

Truewavesound

Attributes
I generally sink all of these into magicka, especially if I use a few tri-stat enchants. Basically, set all your gear, skill points etc up then balance your attributes last. I like to have 22k+ HP (up to 25, maybe 26k) then stack magicka after.


Food/drink
I use tri-stat REGENERATION drinks at V15, really adding to the huge sustainability of this build.


Race
My character is an Imperial, as the stat budget for Imperial really can’t be beaten. The extra HP means I can sink all my points into Magicka, plus the extra stamina is always useful for break free, roll dodge etc. Other recommended races are Altmer and Breton (Magicka max And magicka sustain bonuses)


Vampire/Werewolf/Mortal
I used to run Vampire for this build but now I prefer to remain “mortal”, as the health regen stat is useful for this build (more so in this patch). Additionally, there are a lot of NPCs causing fire damage in this patch so avoiding the vulnerability is great. Vamp stealth speed doesn’t apply to Cloak so that’s not useful.

There are still benefits to Vamp (added regen, extra mitigation at low health) so I would say this is personal preference. Werewolf I don’t really consider for this build as it holds no real synergy/benefits.

Truewavesound

Skill Bars

BAR ONE – Lightning staff

Structured Entropy: A small dot and hot, but more importantly, your major sorcery buff, increasing your Spell Damage stat by 20% for 20 seconds. Make sur you cast this at least every 20 seconds.

Crippling Grasp: An excellent damage over time DOT but also speeds your movement by 40%, roots your opponent for a second or so plus then snares him/her by 40%. Keep this up on your main target to so you can whizz around the area. Also useful for keeping pesky melee players away from you using the root. Use this often.

Funnel Health: Your main “spammable” damage ability, which also puts heal over time on you and nearby allies. Remember – HOTs are king!

Destructive Reach (Shock Reach): Our first hard CC, usable at a good range as well as adding a damage over time effect to the opponent.

Impale: Our excellent ranged execute. More useful now TTK is higher, as opponents spend more time sub-25%.

Ice Comet - Good up front damage along with a floor based aoe DOT and snare. Great in enclosed spaces and vs zergs and can be cast from range. Beware of DK wings!!


BAR TWO – Restoration staff

Piercing Mark: Mark your target to reduce their spell resist and ensure they remain visible even if they stealth or cloak – a no brainer in pvp. Make sure to get it up on your opponent as soon as you spot them. Also gives a nice heal when you kill them. (I will sometimes swap this out for Sap Essence, for some AOE and AOE heals when fighting groups of mobs)

Dark Cloak: Use this instead of stealth (unless stationery and away from mobs) as it has a much lower spot distance from both players and mobs. With the right amount of magicka sustain, you should be able to keep this up constantly when needed. Useful for travelling around IC as well as escaping or resetting combat. Also removes DOTs. ESSENTIAL.

Concealed Weapon: Having this on your bar increases your speed when invisible so with Dark Cloak up (as well as Retreating Manoeuvre when appropriate) you will travel very fast, completely unseen. Also useful as our second hard CC – use from cloak to stun the enemy for 5 seconds. Great as DPS against reflecting DKs, as it is melee and can’t be reflected.

Retreating Manoeuvre: Use when travelling on horse OR in cloak for a long (30 second?) 40% speed buff. Also great for escaping and anticipating roots and snares, as they can be dangerous to this build.

Rapid Regeneration: A strong heal over time, keep up in combat where possible and use to heal allies or randoms. Great for Alliance Point generation.

Dawnbreaker of Smiting: Great instant DPS, along with a DOT, as well as a knockdown and extra damage for those pesky daedra (and player undead). Animation cancel with block to speed the effect.

Truewavesound

Champion Points
I will leave this as generalities, as a lot of this is personal preference.

Essentials:
Magician – Reduced magicka cost
Arcanist – Magicka Recovery
Tumbling – Reduce cost of break free and roll dodge

At least 30 points in the Apprentice for the 12% spell crit passive (all except elemental are useful)
Thaumaturge – Increased Magic Damage (almost all of our damage is Magic damage)

Quick Recovery – Increased Healing received.
Elemental Defender and Hardy – Flat reduced damage is better than most of the other options in the red trees (and the DOT reduction is not as useful as we drop dots with cloak)



Play style

Zoom around IC or Cyrodil completely invisibly using Retreating Manoeuvre and Dark Cloak Cloak. It takes practice but you can keep this up indefinitely if you time your button presses right. This combo alongside the speed bonus of concealed weapon means you will move very fast.

Try and have Rapid regen up before you start any fight and keep it up throughout.

In fights you will ALWAYS have Crippling up too, so make the most of this speed buff and your ranged attacks by keeping mobile, always be moving. Use Crippling again for a short root to get away from a melee opponent.

Attacking a mounted foe: Open with instant dps of Funnel Health, as you might dismount them for the long dismount stun, which can be followed up with another stun to stun lock.

Opening: Get Mark up first so they can’t stealth or cloak, then get your dots up (Entropy, Crippling, Shock Reach, weaving light staff attacks in between), then spam your main dps, Funnel (with a weave) until they are at 50-25%. I then use Shock Reach again for the stun, then burst down with Funnel/Impale after 25%. Your hots will be healing you all through this.

With two or more foes, I will use cloak intermittently during the fight to avoid damage, stun your off targets using Concealed Weapon and generally confuse. Make sure you refresh your DOTs and HOTs regularly.

Even against a big group, you can pick off players’ on the outskirts at little risk, as your escape combos are so good. When outnumbered/overwhelmed, escape with Retreating Manoeuvres and Cloak.


Imperial City

In IC, us the buildings/doorways/corners, combined with your speed, to your advantage. Draw your opponents away from their allies.

When soloing, add more NPC members to your group by pulling mobs into enemy players/players into enemy mobs then shadow cloaking, then re-attacking, then…etc

Be aware of your surroundings and what quest hubs, entrances etc are near.


Well I think that’s it. I hope this is of interest to some of you. It’s always a work in progress. Let me know what you think.

Truewavesound

RESERVED

Reeko

Not bad. Not really my kinda playstyle but i can see it working for others.

Lava_Croft

Dark Stalker works fine in combination with Dark Cloak.
A Magicka Nightblade casting Retreating Maneuver is a Magicka Nightblade that's nearly out of Stamina.
Ice Comet is garbage and you really want the heal debuff from Soul Harvest (Death Stroke).
Swallow Soul has a 8% buff to Healing Received, Funnel Health does not.
Sap Essence trumps Entropy, especially in the Imperial City where fights involving multiple targets are the norm.
Purge is a thing to keep in mind, since it will remove Mark Target.

Truewavesound

Lava_Croft wrote: »

Dark Stalker works fine in combination with Dark Cloak.
A Magicka Nightblade casting Retreating Maneuver is a Magicka Nightblade that's nearly out of Stamina.
Ice Comet is garbage and you really want the heal debuff from Soul Harvest (Death Stroke).
Swallow Soul has a 8% buff to Healing Received, Funnel Health does not.
Sap Essence trumps Entropy, especially in the Imperial City where fights involving multiple targets are the norm.
Purge is a thing to keep in mind, since it will remove Mark Target.

Thanks for your input. I'll respond per line:

Vamp passive does NOT speed up Cloak, as cloak speed is not reduced anyway. There is no synergy there, although there are other benefits to Vamp as discussed

Retreating Manoeuvre is great for the reasons stated above (OOC travel, in-combat escapes etc) and with 10k+ stamina and no real other use for stam I ALWAYS have enough stam for it when needed. (If you're having to block or roll dodge a lot, you'r playing this build wrong)

Ice comet is NOT garbage, especially at the moment with being unable to roll dodge out of it. It's great in fact right now, but isn't just a brainless "hit button as soon as Ult is full" like some people use ultimates for. Use it in the right situations (as mentioned above)

Swallow Soul was chosen for healing others around you (for AP gain and just to help). When there are ANY other players around you, it is a better option.

I mentioned swapping in Sap Essence when fighting groups of mobs. If not planning to AOE mobs, there is no point in this as the range, HP boost and dot/hot of entropy trump it.

Purge is not a bad option but TBH I have better uses for the skill slot. As a melee MNB i would recommend it but with this build, we can escape just fine without it, especially in IC districts.

Cheers

Lava_Croft

About Dark Stalker: I've been a Vampire for so long that I now start to doubt myself.
Stamina management is tricky since the update, I'd save it for breaking free from CC.
Ice Comet is very, very easy to counter and the only reason to use it now is because snares are bugged and people love exploiting bugs.
Swallow Soul is a lot nicer now due to the nerf to healing.
Entropy has an animation that will reveal your approximate position. Sap Essence is an AoE skill and therefore will pull enemies out of Cloak.
Purge the ultimate skill to show other Nightblades that you are more awesome. Mark me? I Purge it and Mark you!

Truewavesound

Lava_Croft wrote: »

About Dark Stalker: I've been a Vampire for so long that I now start to doubt myself.
Stamina management is tricky since the update, I'd save it for breaking free from CC.
Ice Comet is very, very easy to counter and the only reason to use it now is because snares are bugged and people love exploiting bugs.
Swallow Soul is a lot nicer now due to the nerf to healing.
Entropy has an animation that will reveal your approximate position. Sap Essence is an AoE skill and therefore will pull enemies out of Cloak.
Purge the ultimate skill to show other Nightblades that you are more awesome. Mark me? I Purge it and Mark you!

Like i said, retreating is only used ooc or as an escape, in which case i will only need 1 more cc break and I can afford both retreating and a cc break easily with stamina pool.

Ice Comet is easy to counter if used brainlessly yes. I feel i'm repeating myself but please read what is said about it in the OP...

Reasons for Entropy, Funnel and lack of Purge still stand, as explained clearly. You're trying to apply your cookie cutter, magicka melee nb build assumptions to this build and that's not what it is.

I'm a little bored of repeating myself so i'll probably leave it at that.

Lava_Croft

My build, unknown to you, is cookie cutter.

Good luck with your setup that is totally not cookie cutter.

mcurley

I think you might find switching to a flame/ice staff to be even more fun. I mention this mostly because you can charge up your heavy attacks while cloaked and release them with a *strife morph* for some nice burst. Follow this immediately with another cloak and your hide-and-seek game becomes all the more frustrating to fight against.

If you don't like the Destructive Reach alternatives of fire/ice you can swap in Mass Hysteria as a replacement CC. You have to be closer but I've found it to work wonders, especially against more than one enemy.

Truewavesound

mcurley wrote: »

I think you might find switching to a flame/ice staff to be even more fun. I mention this mostly because you can charge up your heavy attacks while cloaked and release them with a *strife morph* for some nice burst. Follow this immediately with another cloak and your hide-and-seek game becomes all the more frustrating to fight against.

If you don't like the Destructive Reach alternatives of fire/ice you can swap in Mass Hysteria as a replacement CC. You have to be closer but I've found it to work wonders, especially against more than one enemy.

Thanks for commenting. It's a good swap in/out to be considered by a lot of people, I would agree.

Personally, I REALLY like being able to kill 100% from ranged/the ranged CC which is why i chose the Lightning staff (only one that actually stuns now). You could very slightly change the playstyle, swooping in cloaked at speed (crippling buff), fear, then finish them off. A bonus of that would also be a longer cc.

SneaK

Cool build. I think an ability to play with that I believe is going to be overlooked in the IC, Refreshing Path. Should be nasty in a small group setting in IC. Along with Razor Caltrops and if you have a DK, talons. =lots of death.

mcurley

Truewavesound wrote: »

mcurley wrote: »

I think you might find switching to a flame/ice staff to be even more fun. I mention this mostly because you can charge up your heavy attacks while cloaked and release them with a *strife morph* for some nice burst. Follow this immediately with another cloak and your hide-and-seek game becomes all the more frustrating to fight against.

If you don't like the Destructive Reach alternatives of fire/ice you can swap in Mass Hysteria as a replacement CC. You have to be closer but I've found it to work wonders, especially against more than one enemy.

Thanks for commenting. It's a good swap in/out to be considered by a lot of people, I would agree.

Personally, I REALLY like being able to kill 100% from ranged/the ranged CC which is why i chose the Lightning staff (only one that actually stuns now). You could very slightly change the playstyle, swooping in cloaked at speed (crippling buff), fear, then finish them off. A bonus of that would also be a longer cc.

Agreed. I play hide-and-seek with my inferno staff and it's a lot of fun. Another reason I like this alternative is to avoid relying on DoT skills for damage since they can be easily removed by a good percentage of players in Cyrodiil. I'll give the lightning staff a try though, seems like a safer way to play (at full range I mean).

Truewavesound

mcurley wrote: »

Truewavesound wrote: »

mcurley wrote: »

I think you might find switching to a flame/ice staff to be even more fun. I mention this mostly because you can charge up your heavy attacks while cloaked and release them with a *strife morph* for some nice burst. Follow this immediately with another cloak and your hide-and-seek game becomes all the more frustrating to fight against.

If you don't like the Destructive Reach alternatives of fire/ice you can swap in Mass Hysteria as a replacement CC. You have to be closer but I've found it to work wonders, especially against more than one enemy.

Thanks for commenting. It's a good swap in/out to be considered by a lot of people, I would agree.

Personally, I REALLY like being able to kill 100% from ranged/the ranged CC which is why i chose the Lightning staff (only one that actually stuns now). You could very slightly change the playstyle, swooping in cloaked at speed (crippling buff), fear, then finish them off. A bonus of that would also be a longer cc.

Agreed. I play hide-and-seek with my inferno staff and it's a lot of fun. Another reason I like this alternative is to avoid relying on DoT skills for damage since they can be easily removed by a good percentage of players in Cyrodiil. I'll give the lightning staff a try though, seems like a safer way to play (at full range I mean).

Well the dots are just a bonus. The reason we use the DOT skills is for their utility: the Spell Damage buff, the Speed/root/snare buff/debuffs and the stun. The DOTs are incidental but help to apply pressure (helpful with longer ttk now)

The real damage is caused by your instant abilities.

Francescolg

I'd add Crushing Shock, as it counters some channelled and most casted skills (magicka templar).
For the staff, take lightning staff because it's not reflectable and good vs. perma-blockers, builds that are very popular atm (1h/shield, etc.). Correct me, if I'm wrong!

The biggest problem will be skilled sorc's, who use only instants, imo, for a ranged magica nightblade build :-(

Truewavesound

Crushing shock is not necessary and not worth the space on the bar. Hard casting against this build is pointless, with Cloak, 2 CCs, and various other things you can do. Plus Funnel/Swallow does more damage and heals, as a main source of dps.

Yeah, like i said, Lightning staff is good, and the channel is excellent against reflecting dks and blockers.

Vs sorcerers requires a certain playstyle, using elements of the advice I gave above. They are a challenge to all, and no more so for this build. Remember, this isn't a face-tank build. Played right, you will rarely get hit at all in 1v1 situations.

Francescolg

But you need some kind of interrupt or anti-heal (debuff) mechanic, or any nuub templar will heal up easily, if cc alone isn't enough, as many ppl stack up HoTs or use pots. Disease dmg on weapon ain't enough anti-heal. Best is to apply 2 heal debuff (disease+?) Just my opinion

Dancheek

I like entropy over sap essence also... the extra health and might of the guild proc is amazing and people seem to overlook it... entropy > cloak concealed for extra damage his like a truck

if anything I have entropy on one bar and sap essence on the other for the siphoning passive requirement

Cool build, not sure if it's my style but kudos to you for trying new stuff out

Truewavesound

Francescolg wrote: »

But you need some kind of interrupt or anti-heal (debuff) mechanic, or any nuub templar will heal up easily, if cc alone isn't enough, as many ppl stack up HoTs or use pots. Disease dmg on weapon ain't enough anti-heal. Best is to apply 2 heal debuff (disease+?) Just my opinion

Interrupt not needed/useful for reasons already stated above. The only hard cast or channel you should encounter in this build at range is templar radiant (only dangerous at execute range, which you are very unlikely to be in anyway, anyone using from 100% is a free kill tbh) or maybe Soul Assault, which i rarely see and can be dropped by cloak.

I've never had a problem getting most people down without the 30% debuff (with only the 10%) but if you were finding you were struggling, i guess you would have to slot Soul Harvest and adjust the playstyle slightly to include a close-up closer. It's something to consider. The ultimates for this build aren't set in stone.

Francescolg

You need sth. against a templar spamming immovable, puryfying ritual and breath of life. CC won't help against them and even if CC applies successfully, it's a very small time window (you got no wrecking blow or the like as magicka nb), until the templar starts again cleansing and healing up to 100%

Truewavesound

A templar is not going to be "spamming" both high stam cost Immovable as well as magicka heals. Addiotnally, he is likely to cleanse any debuff anyway so it is of limited value. Like i said, I don't have a problem with Templars at ALL with this build played right, but if you do, change the build and playstyle, do what you like.

Don't want to keep repeating myself so will leave it at that. Have fun!

Soris

These build is absurdly powerful atm, idk what to say else.

Francescolg

Truewavesound wrote: »

A templar is not going to be "spamming" both high stam cost Immovable as well as magicka heals. Addiotnally, he is likely to cleanse any debuff anyway so it is of limited value. Like i said, I don't have a problem with Templars at ALL with this build played right, but if you do, change the build and playstyle, do what you like.

Don't want to keep repeating myself so will leave it at that. Have fun!

I, also don't want to keep repeating myself :-) but your build still has no anti-heal mechanic at ALL, which makes it vulnerable to sustainable (healer) builds, with lots of self-healing (not just templars).

A dedicated healer (which many templars play) IS going to spam Breath of Life.. Immovable is arguable, but cleanse/puryfying ritual + heal-spamming is one way Templars use to defend (with anything in between, as block/dodge/etc./defensive CC).

And you will meet groups with healers and backup-healers, so the templar will try to heal himself and get help. If you can not kill the Templar in your first attack or in the tiny "windows of opportunity", when he breaks free, he'll keep cleansing + healing himself (trying to cc you/etc). While with heal debuffs, their healing gets cut by 30-50%, so that all that "small heals" & breath of life, won't help him and you will not just rely on your burst damage.

- your Dots (Entropy+Crippling) are cleansed/purged away with ease, as is Piercing Mark (that is 3 spells, and as good as any "better" pvp group, has one char using purge/cleanse/puryfying ritual
- the only real "burst" I see in your build relies on your ultimates, or when hitting from stealth
- on the first bar is Ice Comet, nice ulti but easily counterable. Nothing to discuss on that
- Dawnbreaker of Smiting is faster, not bad, but only if you combine it with a gap closer, which is how most of the people use Dawnbreaker, imo

I think your build is pretty much a standard-magicka nightblade, without any anti-heal mechanics, so any skilled healer will outheal you.

Truewavesound

Let alone the fact that his post is riddled with contradictions. falsehoods and nonsense statements (vulnerable to a healer, anyone?) and seems to be obsessed with bursting a Templar healer down, it is clear that our friend here A: Doesn't understood what this build is for and how to use it, and B: Either does not read my posts properly or does not understand enough English to comprehend the simple sentences from my posts.

My mama always told me not to argue with idiots on the internets....so a well deserved ignore list spot

I hope this build has been of use to some of you who are interested in something different. Those coming here expecting just a magicka version of the stam melee nightblade should probably check out somebody else's post - the basics of Deltia or Sypher's Magicka melee NB builds are good places to start.

Speaking of which. I am testing a slightly different stam NB build at the moment and having a lot of fun/sucess. May post soon with some gameplay.

Cheers
True

bsmorrowb14_ESO

I'm enjoying this build so far. I too prefer ranged dps and this is doing a pretty good job at it so far. Which mundus do you prefer?

Forestd16b14_ESO

Do we really need any more OP NB builds? Besides every knows the ultimate build is just spamming wrecking blow.

Lava_Croft

Forestd16b14_ESO wrote: »

Do we really need any more OP NB builds? Besides every knows the ultimate build is just spamming wrecking blow.

This build is far from OP and unlike what the OP wants you to believe, is fairly standard since 1.6.

Reeko

I tried out your build, but with an Inferno staff. It was fun, i especially liked the idea of useing rapid manuever with concealed and cloak on the resto bar. However i HAVE to have cloak on my dps bar so i moved that, added mass hysteria, took concealed off for Mirage, and went for purge over mark target. Cloak replaced destructive clench/reach. Also i tried using Impale but found Mercilous Resolve to be more fun! Get spectral bow to proc, hit em with entropy then cloak and let er rip! Lol

bsmorrowb14_ESO

Reeko wrote: »

I tried out your build, but with an Inferno staff. It was fun, i especially liked the idea of useing rapid manuever with concealed and cloak on the resto bar. However i HAVE to have cloak on my dps bar so i moved that, added mass hysteria, took concealed off for Mirage, and went for purge over mark target. Cloak replaced destructive clench/reach. Also i tried using Impale but found Mercilous Resolve to be more fun! Get spectral bow to proc, hit em with entropy then cloak and let er rip! Lol

Yep, I think i'd run Inferno staff as well. Especially as me being dunmer, but... as luck would have it I actually ended up with a willpower staff of lightning. So, waiting on that Inferno willpower staff to drop for me ;-) I too have to keep cloak on my dps bar.