Is Bow really not viable for StamNB?

Coldcell

By all means I cannot be classified as "skilled." I probably chose the wrong class since the general consensus is NB requires higher skill cap. I do agree since I find myself very squishy with little access to heals/wards. Anyway browsing through several builds, I came across Alcast's Bow build.

Now from what I read, and hear from guildmates, Bow is generally considered a secondary weapon. One that you use to aoe/poison and then switch out. But his build uses Bow mainly with 2H for Rally. Link to the build: http://alcasthq.com/eso-stamina-nightblade-bow-build-pvp/

Since my experience in PvP has been limited thus far, I'm wondering if this build is viable. Looking at the skills, it feels the idea is to use Bow to do the primary damage, and all other skills are just escape/defensive skills. I'm not sure if this kind of build has enough burst to take someone down. I've used Bow in the past and just spamming Barrage & Poison Injection, but I hardly get kills unless the person I'm shooting at got swamped by my allies. Would experienced players in pvp please advice on this build?

Thanks!

SodanTok

See, there is your main problem. Instead of using the heavy hitting burst attack (snipe) you just root them and apply low damage dot.

But yeah to answer your question, you can play stamNB with bow pretty effectively in large scales battles. The less people you have on your side, the more you get focused, the more you die. If you gank and notkill somebody, you die. Scratch that, if you meet enemy and enemy sees you and attacks you - you die.
For the damage part, bursting somebody down is pretty easy if they dont have shield or 30k hp.

Reefo

https://youtu.be/IKGzv89B7wk
Bow is viable

geonsocal

howdy @Coldcell ...focused aim/lethal arrow and poison arrow are two very effective abilities...

marry them up in your rotation with ambush and incapacitating strike and you should be able to put a hurt on folks - someone got me last night with just those exact moves

Coldcell wrote: »

I find myself very squishy with little access to heals/wards.

my main is a NB, tough character to learn to pvp on...i spent more time hiding in the bushes than anything else when i first started pvping...what are you using to shield and heal?

Minalan

Bow is a little harder now with Miat's add-on telling everyone exactly when to dodge your projectiles.

Katahdin

Reefo wrote: »

https://youtu.be/IKGzv89B7wk
Bow is viable

I'd love to know more about this build.
What sets are being used?

Strider_Roshin

Minalan wrote: »

Bow is a little harder now with Miat's add-on telling everyone exactly when to dodge your projectiles.

Man I'm glad I play on console

Reefo

Katahdin wrote: »

Reefo wrote: »

https://youtu.be/IKGzv89B7wk
Bow is viable

I'd love to know more about this build.
What sets are being used?

5 spriggan 5 archers mind 1 kena
All divines shadow mundus
Health and Stam food
All Stam and weapon damage enchants
Disease damage enchant on sharpened spriggan bow.

This is the important part: 100 into mighty and 100 into precise strikes.

Onslaught gank works if you have a great sword of master or maelstrom, that's why spriggan is weapon, archers mind always active. Option of melee or bow gank but I don't like the melee.

EDIT: points are into magicka recovery and cost reduction, also reduce sneaking, im not a vampire but it's good to be

Coldcell

Reefo wrote: »

https://youtu.be/IKGzv89B7wk
Bow is viable

Woa! Awesome shots right there. If I'm seeing it right, you do Snipe (from Sneak) then followed by Snipe -> Disguise? Do the 2nd Snipe gets crit because you Disguise before the arrow hits, or are you just using Disguise to not be seen?

geonsocal wrote: »

howdy @Coldcell ...focused aim/lethal arrow and poison arrow are two very effective abilities...

marry them up in your rotation with ambush and incapacitating strike and you should be able to put a hurt on folks - someone got me last night with just those exact moves

Coldcell wrote: »

I find myself very squishy with little access to heals/wards.

my main is a NB, tough character to learn to pvp on...i spent more time hiding in the bushes than anything else when i first started pvping...what are you using to shield and heal?

Hey geonsocal! My usual rotation would be to Ambush -> Hysteria -> Incap -> Execute. Usually people are dead. The problem is me surviving =\. I only have Rally and Vigor.. is there any other option for StamNB? I'm using health & stamina food, but I haven't been using immovable potions, so that part can help me.

Could it be just part of the game where if someone decides go tank you, there's really nothing you can do since you die before you can react? Many times I was ganked and died in 2-3s before I can get out of CC and do defensive skills. My health hovers at 18k with food.

Reefo

Coldcell wrote: »

Reefo wrote: »

https://youtu.be/IKGzv89B7wk
Bow is viable

Woa! Awesome shots right there. If I'm seeing it right, you do Snipe (from Sneak) then followed by Snipe -> Disguise? Do the 2nd Snipe gets crit because you Disguise before the arrow hits, or are you just using Disguise to not be seen

Yup. It's buff with rally, merciless resolve, empower with magelight.

Then u have to identify the target low level or cp and less than 23k health u can 1 shot, light armor less than 22k health u can 1shot.

30k health targets in full health and in full impen need 2 snipes and both that and the enchant need to crit for them to drop,

So then it's 2x snipe - shadowy disguise(when the first arrow hits it will crit and pull u out of cloak) then u shadowy disguise again (the 2nd arrow will also crit) then u have to cloak again to get out there.

Magicka cost reduction is very much needed cos of this rotation and not using alchemist allows u to have magicka pots or other escape pots to use after to get out.

Crit is 56% so even if u don't cloak for 1 hit it crits more often than not especially with expert hunter slotted, have to be a woodelf or khajit, the highest I saw was an arrow for +25k and enchant 3.7k on 1 guy.

On the other bar if u want to go full gank, onslaught will be a good melee skill but do not use spriggan 5 piece it is useless(4 is fine)

Curtdogg47

The bow is deadly. But close up fights are not to your advantage as a bow build. its not a play style for everyone. And requires a tremendous amount of patience, to wait for the right time to attack. And you have to be willing to accept that you are going to die. If you snipe a guy his group his going to hunt you down relentlessly. They will kill you and T-bag the *** out of you!
But it's a lot fun to play a bow build.

Alcast has great build and I use his as a reference guide.

Narvuntien

I am running 5 Clever alchemist, 5 Strenght of the automation. And either Veldreth or Kraghs shoulder.

In an attempt to run both long range snipe and Close range Onslaught Stam-gank-blade

Strider_Roshin

Stamblades make good bow gankers, but if you want to fight out in the open I'd recommend stamDK. With that said, the Warden will most likely be superior to both of them next update.

t3hdubzy

I personally go stealth and start with heavy attack fully buffed, and the hit poison injection without releasing. It fires both heavy attack and loison injection at the same time. For squishies i spam light attack to finish off. This works well picking off people on top of keep walls.

Other times lethal arrow spam works especially at a good distance. If they are horseback you can often land 2 or 3 before they realize what happened and are reviewing it in their death. Feel free to trash talk them when they psn you for spamming one attack only. I like to send pictures of a heavy sack personally.


For bigger engagement, going bow only i like to weave a lot of light attacks for constant dps pressure and execute with spectral bow or whatever its called.


Highly recommend the double dot poison as well for great burst and sustained dps for tankier players.


Minor defile with lethal arrow works great for healers.

Chair

Stamblade works really well with bow extremely well the roll speed and 2H is too good not to use on stmablade DW stamblade is slow and crap.

Bow works best as a off bar for shuffle vigour cloak Poision injection etc etc its basically your utility bar.

psychotic13

Reefo wrote: »

https://youtu.be/IKGzv89B7wk
Bow is viable

I like to think bow is viable as I'm in the middle of making a build, but empowered snipe spam from stealth doesn't make it good bro

Reefo

psychotic13 wrote: »

Reefo wrote: »

https://youtu.be/IKGzv89B7wk
Bow is viable

I like to think bow is viable as I'm in the middle of making a build, but empowered snipe spam from stealth doesn't make it good bro

You right it doesn't make it good.. makes it great! LOL jk, I won't lie getting off those one shots feel amazing and never gets old or fails to make me laugh

Laggus

Curtdogg47 wrote: »

The bow is deadly. But close up fights are not to your advantage as a bow build. its not a play style for everyone. And requires a tremendous amount of patience, to wait for the right time to attack. And you have to be willing to accept that you are going to die. If you snipe a guy his group his going to hunt you down relentlessly. They will kill you and T-bag the *** out of you!
But it's a lot fun to play a bow build.

Alcast has great build and I use his as a reference guide.

Couldn't agree with you more. Once you get over the fact you will die often bows are a lot of fun. They can keep their heavy armour and wards, they'll need them.

Coldcell

Strider_Roshin wrote: »

Stamblades make good bow gankers, but if you want to fight out in the open I'd recommend stamDK. With that said, the Warden will most likely be superior to both of them next update.

Yea I'm beginning to think I may have picked the wrong class. Going solo hunting for ganks isn't my preferred playstyle. I haven't done it much.

Isn't Warden more of a group support role? Something like off-tank & off-heals? I think it'll have great survivability, but not sure if they can have the proper burst or sustain damage to kill people. Of course we don't know much about the class yet since the little we did know has been drastically changed (according to an interview) for launch.

geonsocal

Coldcell wrote: »

Hey geonsocal! My usual rotation would be to Ambush -> Hysteria -> Incap -> Execute. Usually people are dead. The problem is me surviving =\. I only have Rally and Vigor.. is there any other option for StamNB? I'm using health & stamina food, but I haven't been using immovable potions, so that part can help me.

Could it be just part of the game where if someone decides go gank you, there's really nothing you can do since you die before you can react? Many times I was ganked and died in 2-3s before I can get out of CC and do defensive skills. My health hovers at 18k with food.

hey @coldcell hope your friday is going well...being meaning to follow up on this...

something that may help with your survivability is the usage of blur (both my stamblade and magblade use mirage), and drain power (sap essence is an absolute life saver, plus it buff's your weapon damage)...if you have enough stamina - you could also try out medium armor's: evasion or heavy armors immovable...

one nice ranged health steal ability for a nightblade using a bow is strife and its morphs...

you don't just have to be a "burst" ganker to play a nightblade...you can do a lot of damage with your bow in zerg v zerg situations...buff your bow with grim focus, shadowy disguise or if possible sap essence/power extraction...stand towards the back of the group, pick out some low health targets and let them arrows fly...

you may also want to consider adding health enchants to you head, chest and leg pieces...

have fun