Is Nightblade the hardest in PvP?

mikejezz

Hey guys, I have played ESO since release, but now that my Nightblade is 23 I am really feeling burned. I always play rogue-ish classes, but many are saying to me that this is the most hard and dying class in the game.

You NEED to attack from stealth to be viable, otherwise you will be squished. Problem is, most of the time there are many people fighting each other so if I play melee and not ranged I will probably get destroyed. Also, It seems like Dragon Knights and templars are doing better than us overall, since they dont need to do stealth, and just charge and bash?

MasterLanz

Depends on how you've built your nightblade. If you're all assassination and shadow and your skill bar is made up of stuff designed to utilize stealth, then yes, you'll need to use stealth to get the most out of your powers. That's how it's designed.

A stealth assassin nightblade can drop a character in PVP crazy-fast. Ambush from the back > Veiled Strike > Shadow Cloak > Veiled Strike > Death Stroke = dead player unless they're stacking some really impressive spell resist. You can pepper other attacks in between while the target is stunned if you still need more damage than that.

Outside of an assassination nightblade, I do fine at ranged combat with a bow + siphoning magic. Plenty of staying power and disruption tricks, and good damage output.

Also, I play a nightblade tank who can absolutely just charge and bash, and pop funnel health all over the place to stay alive, with Siphoning Strikes for tons of magicka and stamina upkeep.

stylernaku

I'm sorry but i'm still having a real hard time taking this seriously.

Anyone in PvP more than five minutes will surely notice other Nightblade and how they are playing. The PvE up to 23 must also have given the player an idea of how combat would work that it wouldn't be playing like a tank....

mikejezz

stylernaku wrote: »

I'm sorry but i'm still having a real hard time taking this seriously.

Anyone in PvP more than five minutes will surely notice other Nightblade and how they are playing. The PvE up to 23 must also have given the player an idea of how combat would work that it wouldn't be playing like a tank....

Hello Stylernaku, I think you misunderstood my post.

What I am saying is, I am level 23 at the moment, and I ask other people that are high level nightblades how it is to play. And the majority gives me the answer I am typing in the OP.

As I said in my OP:

"but many are saying to me that this is the most hard and dying class in the game."

DGVish

I would say Nightblades aren't as easy to pick up as Templars, DKs, and Sorcerers. You have to have a specific build in mind before you make one, and you have you to stick to that build for a while to be good at it. The other classes seem to have an easier time being half assed at a variety of things. While Nightblades have to stick to one thing because they already have a lot in their toolkit and spreading skill points around lowers the effectiveness of the build.

I chose to make my NB a healer/aoe dps and I can honestly say there aren't too many better level 24 NB healers than me right now haha. I have a lot of fun with it in PvE and PvP.

I would say most people die being a Nightblade because they are new players and that was the first one they liked so they rolled one. If you're dieing a lot you probably need to just stack health. I was a new player and figured it out pretty quickly that Health is by far your best attribute to increase at level up. Both Magika and Stamina are easy to softcap with gear even at lower levels.

Evergreen

mikejezz wrote: »

Hey guys, I have played ESO since release, but now that my Nightblade is 23 I am really feeling burned. I always play rogue-ish classes, but many are saying to me that this is the most hard and dying class in the game.

You NEED to attack from stealth to be viable, otherwise you will be squished. Problem is, most of the time there are many people fighting each other so if I play melee and not ranged I will probably get destroyed. Also, It seems like Dragon Knights and templars are doing better than us overall, since they dont need to do stealth, and just charge and bash?

You can't compare a NightBlade to a DragonKnight in terms of tanking ability. Keep in mind that DragonKnights have the best low cost self heal in the game with their morphed skill GreenDragonBlood. As I'm sure you are aware nightblades have self healing capabilities and even a whole skill selection dedicated to it with the siphoning skill line (of which leaching strikes is bugged only 2% health return not 4% along with a 22% reduction in damage as a drawback) but no self healing from this even comes close to the DragonKnights low cost no drawback self heal with buff.

One of the most popular youtube videos being thrown out on the forums right now of evidence for a nerf is a guy showing the GreenDragonBlood skill in action (heals 33% of health missing, health regen by 40% and stam regen by 20% for 20 secs at only 60 magic cost with NO drawbacks while the skill is in effect). The guy in the video describes the skill as "stupidly OP" as he spams the skill from 15% health to 70% health instantly. Most Overpowered DragonKnight

Templars are pretty fairly balanced in my opinion and probably on par with a good Nightblade tank. Just don't expect to ever be on par tankwise with the self heal/buff GreenDragonBlood which is why you see DragonKnights able to walk into almost any situation.

Smayes97_ESO

I'm playing bow/2h NB atm and it feels pretty strong. Being a vamp might also be why because of the massive self heals but after playing all the classes in the betas i can safely say i enjoy my vamp NB FAR more than any others. Being able to nearly 1 shot someone in PvP or survive in a large battle with drain essence gives us alot of flexibility if you have a good build. I would suggest giving vamp a shot. seems like it would fix most of the concerns that you have with NB.

Severan

NB is the hardest solo class and a few skills either don't work properly or have wrong skill descriptions. If I had known how weak NB was going to be I would have rolled a different class tbh, but at VR5 I feel it's not worth it now.

Hilgara

I played a duel wield NB till 50 then rolled a sorc. I am doing the same content about 4 or 5 levels earlier as the sorc without problems. I still love the play style of the NB but I'll let Zenimax patch it, which they surely will pretty soon. I think the NB will be on a par with the sorc if all the abilities do what they are supposed to do but right now so many of them are bugged.

Doowie

What is the typical build for an assassination specced Nightblade? Tempted to reroll a few stats and put them in Assassination to change up my gameplay from time to time when I'm at the moment pew ranged with my Bow a few points in Shadow.

KingShocker

Severan wrote: »

NB is the hardest solo class and a few skills either don't work properly or have wrong skill descriptions. If I had known how weak NB was going to be I would have rolled a different class tbh, but at VR5 I feel it's not worth it now.

Dude I feel you. That is the exact shape i'm in with my VR3 NB, right now i'm going on faith that ZOS has intentions of fixing and re-balancing us in the (hopefully) near future.

KingShocker

stylernaku wrote: »

I'm sorry but i'm still having a real hard time taking this seriously.

Anyone in PvP more than five minutes will surely notice other Nightblade and how they are playing. The PvE up to 23 must also have given the player an idea of how combat would work that it wouldn't be playing like a tank....

I NB tank all the time in Vet dungeons and PVP. I think you missed the point where the dev's made all classes able to do all roles. Granted other classes may be better at certain roles than others, ie DK's with green dragons blood as someone else posted. But there is certainly Shadow Warlords (NB tanks) and Blood mages (NB healers) out there.

Zerl

I'm a VR1 NB with a DW/DW setup, and I've been doing "OK" in general.

I don't have much in the way of AOE, but I can dispatch single targets (incl. elites and other players) very quickly.

I have it setup, with my initiation, burst and debuffs on the 1st line, and my general dps and finisher on the 2nd.

I'm still tinkering with the loadout, but I'm confident I'll have it perfect for my playstyle soon.

lao

mikejezz wrote: »

Hey guys, I have played ESO since release, but now that my Nightblade is 23 I am really feeling burned. I always play rogue-ish classes, but many are saying to me that this is the most hard and dying class in the game.

You NEED to attack from stealth to be viable, otherwise you will be squished. Problem is, most of the time there are many people fighting each other so if I play melee and not ranged I will probably get destroyed. Also, It seems like Dragon Knights and templars are doing better than us overall, since they dont need to do stealth, and just charge and bash?

its certainly the hardest class to play. however this doesnt mean its actually hard. nothing in this game is really hard to play. its just the only class that cant just bash their forehead on the keyboard to hit as many aoes at once as possible. ur positoning matters alot as u always wanna jump ppl in the back from stealth. also melee is obviously harder than spamming aoes as u need to stay close to ur target.

Jaggid

I am currently level 28 and I can't say a lot about PvP, other than my exp in PvP so far has been positive. I have run across a few solo fights and walked away from them alive.
As for PvE, I have almost no issues, unless I don't manage those 3 level 30 mobs appropriately.
I have stayed away from Shadow except for Shadow Cloak (Stealth/Invis seemed dum in this game).

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

First character built on the account to veteran

Nightblade build: Bloodmage healer
Time spent theoricrafting the build: about 3 hour
Numbers of update to the build: 3 at best the original build stayed much the same
Respect used: None
Strong point: One of the best solo build in the game as far as im concerned it both possess high self healing capacity AND damage wich no pure healer can normaly attain.

Second character currently 38

Nightblade build: Vampire Blademaster
Time spent theorycrafting: 2 hour
Number of update to the build: 5 choosing both weapon set was a headache along with a matching set of utility.
Respect used: 2 ive respeced this character twice due to the time it took to choose the second weapon set now the build use onehanded/shield and Two handed weaponry
Strong point: I want to instant kill someone or to deal massive aoe damage with a 2h sword while healing and drinking blood like a leech this build is what I use.

Both build are highly successful but I took a LONG time designing them on paper in the build editor before even using them in the first place. I was already creating my build one week before the game release with a beta editor. I realy don't think you can just hop and create a nightblade character without having a good idea of what you truly want. Not to mention to be a successful nigthblade you need to work in multiple skill tree at the same time rarely just one. Nightblade dps works better as a hybrid class then a full magicka or stamina user and nightblade healers needs to combine several effect not necesarely related to restoration staff to be realy successful (aka shadow tree and siphoning tree)

Reavan

I play with 2h and Bow in PVP and it works. VR2.

You will not dominate like the current magika stacking AoE builds do from DK sorc and destro staff.
You will never support or dish out such high damage out of stealth attacks as the templar.

However Night blade is still the best class to ambush some one with.
I two shot anyone below 50 with snipe.
I 3 shot them with my 2h approach however its quicker than sniping due to the charge up and travel time.
I Ambush stright into critical rush, Ambush hits them for 900 usually and rush will crit them 800.
Rush always crits so its nice to use ambush/rush ambush rush until they die.
Resource intensive and requires strange positioning and movement from a melee player but it works really fast.
I can kill VR players before they get up from the knock down from falling off their horse.

Vampire Is a great choice for me.
Use the invisibility and feed, feed is a stun that can NOT be broken out of.
Complete CC on the target.
I have killed a few of those evil AOE spamming VR10s who waltz into zergs and are hard to take down just by feeding them.
No more blocking and aoe spam for you sir DK.

Getting feed off in the middile of combat is sometimes tricky though.
In a group situation it means you will never die even if being foccused,
Just go from target to target healing up.
I have managed to escape from some situations that way but yes its alot harder than spamming bolt escape with the sorc.

Lots of our abilities are straight up bugged however.. remember that and when they are fixed NB will be pretty powerful.
Until then though in PVP its harder than other classes but not impossible and our single target alpha damage is the highest in the game.

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

Reaper Mark a player and sneak it... watch the squishies go down like if it was made of paper. Nightblade is the only one class in the darn game that can pull this kind of prank on you dear.

Reavan

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO wrote: »

Reaper Mark a player and sneak it... watch the squishies go down like if it was made of paper. Nightblade is the only one class in the darn game that can pull this kind of prank on you dear.

Reapers mark is bugged and does not offer the type of damage boost in the tooltip.
For example my snipe will hit any player for 950 damage on a sneak attack.
That goes to 1016 with the mark.
I use the mark on stealthers, it works brilliantly there.

Doowie

I'm loving my Nightblade atm. Still working on things, but even if I get pwned 1v1 it's normally against another Nightblade who gets the jump on me or a DK or Sorc with stupid good gear

malicel

If I am a Bow nightblade that uses siphoning should I put 40 points in stam, 10 in magicka and wear health gear? is this the way to go if bow is my primary weapon followed by DW?

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

Well see about that when they fix all those bugs. If im godlike with a bugged build wait when it is actualy fixed into having all its skill work!

Thechemicals

Nightblades are great gankers but not great at large scale invasions.

Obscure

There's a severe problem with people building Nightblade's: the single target obsession. Stahp it! You are building poorly! Not only can a spell damage spell crit Sorc out damage EVERYTHING in your class lines with just Crystal Shard and Mages Fury, but you're also not viable in group PvP. To top it off no one is going to so much as sniff in your direction for VR Dungeon parties, and good luck with Craiglorn for 12 man raiding when that hits in an upcoming update. You're a party liability that a Dragonknight will out DPS, out Tank, and out self-sustain making the Healer's job much easier.

Build for multi target already! Single target is cute for jumping bad players in AvA, and that's about it. I do plenty of single target ganking myself, but you know what? My entire melee bar is AoE, ultimate included. You solo gank bad players? Cute. I solo resource camps, get with the program.

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

Devouring swarm, carve, have fun

Obscure

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO wrote: »

Devouring swarm, carve, have fun

QFT
+1
Thumps Up
#FTW

IceDread

I'm lvl ~35 NB. I've been perfectly find with the NB untill I saw other classes like the dk. They can run into a group of 6 mobs and win and they have at the same time good single player dps. That made me upset because I feel I do not want to take on more than 3 opponents and while my single target dps is good if prepared with sneaking etc, without the preperation done and time for it, the single target dps also looked to be worse than other classes.

Am I missing something here or is the class simply a little bit gimped in pve compared to the other close combat classes?

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

You likely missing something but to be honest maybe what you lacking is a decent aoe ability.

R0M2K

50 NB here, agree the class needs serious tweaking.

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

Maining NB since day one I never looked back. Maybe a few skill could be stronguer but so far I did the whole game as a nightblade and didn't had that much trouble. NB synergise so well with weapon or sustain based build its a shame not to use it for all such builds.

Drachenfier

Evergreen wrote: »

mikejezz wrote: »

Hey guys, I have played ESO since release, but now that my Nightblade is 23 I am really feeling burned. I always play rogue-ish classes, but many are saying to me that this is the most hard and dying class in the game.

You NEED to attack from stealth to be viable, otherwise you will be squished. Problem is, most of the time there are many people fighting each other so if I play melee and not ranged I will probably get destroyed. Also, It seems like Dragon Knights and templars are doing better than us overall, since they dont need to do stealth, and just charge and bash?

You can't compare a NightBlade to a DragonKnight in terms of tanking ability. Keep in mind that DragonKnights have the best low cost self heal in the game with their morphed skill GreenDragonBlood. As I'm sure you are aware nightblades have self healing capabilities and even a whole skill selection dedicated to it with the siphoning skill line (of which leaching strikes is bugged only 2% health return not 4% along with a 22% reduction in damage as a drawback) but no self healing from this even comes close to the DragonKnights low cost no drawback self heal with buff.

One of the most popular youtube videos being thrown out on the forums right now of evidence for a nerf is a guy showing the GreenDragonBlood skill in action (heals 33% of health missing, health regen by 40% and stam regen by 20% for 20 secs at only 60 magic cost with NO drawbacks while the skill is in effect). The guy in the video describes the skill as "stupidly OP" as he spams the skill from 15% health to 70% health instantly. Most Overpowered DragonKnight

Templars are pretty fairly balanced in my opinion and probably on par with a good Nightblade tank. Just don't expect to ever be on par tankwise with the self heal/buff GreenDragonBlood which is why you see DragonKnights able to walk into almost any situation.

I must be doing something wrong, Green Dragon Blood sucks up a huge chunk of my magicka pool at level 36. I can't look at the cost right now as I'm not at home, but it sure seems like its more than 60 magicka. I know Searing Strike is 105 magicka and i can spam that all day long.