PVE Build - Nightblade Tank (Heavy armor, 1h/shield)

Xithian

I have experienced those things on the NA server as well, but nothing indicates to me that it is a Nightblade-specific problem. It just seems like lag wreaking havoc on the whole "action rpg mmo" thing. Much like the guild bank being a complete hunk of junk, I'm hoping they iron out the communication problems in the future.

RatsnevE

Xithian wrote: »

I used Soul Trap for a while as well. It wasn't a bad filler skill, especially with the morph to give back resources on kills. It wasn't until I got addicted to stealth attacks that I started keeping Concealed Weapon on my bar 24/7. Now I use it instinctively to start every fight. The long stun keeps your target out of the fight for a while, and I can often follow up with the ultimate for an AoE stun. Those two things do wonders to give you time to take down a group of mobs before they gang up on you.

But once you have Concealed Weapon or whatever in that 5th slot how do you fill soul gems? Or do you just find to create your enchantments instead?

I'm at a level transition point above 10 with weapons, armor, repair kits (or paying the fishmonger to repair stuff). It's hilarious that one can make their weapons and gear from scratch but there is no repair skill and even funnier that a fishmonger can fix everything up instantly. The fishmonger should say something like 'Thank you for your gold in advance. I'll take all this stuff to the various vendors who will make it all look like new. Please return here in 24 hours. Oh rats, then Zenimax will have to fix their in-game clock wouldn't they? Oh well!

Xithian

Well, honestly I don't die much. My soul gems are used primarily to recharge my weapon. I get enough from mobs that I don't have to worry about it. I do have the passive from the soul tree to have weapon attacks have a 5% chance to fill a gem.

And yes, I saw you on the repair cost thread. I actually messaged you right before you posted here.

RatsnevE

I need to add briefly here that I've successfully finished off all the dungeon quests I was stuck in solo. The Queen is now further north as she should be and not stuck down in a dungeon waiting for my aid.

I have also noticed a couple times when my PC seemed to have lost control of attacks and nothing seemed to be working. Seems to work okay after the resurrection.

To get into a stealth way or in prep for a sneak attack are they both invoked by 'Ctrl' and your position cursor changing to <hidden>? If that is correct then it often is very difficult pulling off the sneak attack because invariably just before the attack the cursor widens slightly but doesn't say <detected>... If it doesn't actually say <detected> but just widens slightly does that mean you are still in stealth but may be about to lose it?

Thanks.

Xithian

When you first hit CTRL the stealth indicator appears, with the eye wide open. You are not considered stealthed until it closes to a solid line.

When you get close enough to a mob that they might detect you the eye changes to half open. At this point you want to stay behind the mob. If the mob turns around and faces you, you're going to be within aggro range. You can get in sneak attacks from the side, as the "back half" of the mob is actually more like the "back 2/3rds". So you can still sneak up on those mobs with their backs to a wall.

As I mentioned before, I have the Khajiit racial passive which lowers the radius I can be detected at. If you are not a Khajiit or wood elf then your mileage may vary.

There is the possibility of using 5 heavy armor and 2 medium to get some stealth bonus, but you lose out on defense and you have to spend more points on passives. You can use low armor slots like gloves and not lose much defense directly, but you would also lose some of the bonus defense from the heavy armor passives.

RatsnevE

I am your Khajiit modeled after your active and passive skills as I advance with 7 heavy armor pieces. Just wanted to clarify things since hitting Ctrl doesn't say you are in stealth or sneaking. It says you are <hidden>. I wonder if Zenimax is expanding on/improving the in-game Help? What about being 'invisible'? Is that the same as <hidden> or much different?

Feimerdre

This is again game mechanics. Every career can "hide". Thisis not for NB only. As NB you will get a massive damage bonus with your attacks if you successfully approach a mob hidden. This bonus moves up as you level along. Right now I can sometimes successfully oneshot a mob with Surprise Attack. Becoming completely invis is only possible with skills like Shadow Cloak. You will not be "hidden" then as you do not get the damage bonus then. Instead Shadow Cloak will give you a 100% crit chance on your next attack, so you should be playing around a bit to find out which attack will take most profit from a crit for you.

RatsnevE

Xithian wrote: »

Play style:
Lately I've been making heavy use of Veiled Strike. I will take down the first mob in a group in three hits in most cases. Veiled Strike (from stealth), heavy attack, Killer's Blade. This uses zero stamina, and your Executioner passive from the Assassin line means that you will start rapidly regaining magicka when the first mob goes down.

How can one use Veiled Strike if you have morphed it into Concealed Weapon?

Xithian

You can't. Either I didn't have it morphed yet when I posted that or I assumed you wouldn't have the morphed version.

RatsnevE

1.) What to do about armor and weapon leveling? At level 12 now I'm picking up white stuff of a much higher armor or damage and level that has no enchantment to it that seems counter to enchantments on green and blue stuff. In fact some of the white armor offers better armor rating as light or medium then my heavy armor!

2.) Should I go for higher armor rating even if I drop down from heavy to light or medium or should I stick with heavy armor and wait for heavy drops? That is what I will do until I hear otherwise from comments here with explanations of course. Thanks.

3.) I'd rather pick up drops and quest rewards for both armor and weapons and skip all the crafting. Is that viable for the Solo S&B NB build to level 50?

4.) I've picked up a lot of potion drops too and haven't even been needing to use them in battles so far--now level 12. I'd rather skip crafting potions and enchantments too. Is that viable for the Solo S&B NB build to level 50?

5.) I'm thinking that all crafting, repairing, and grouping may only become essential after reaching Veteran status (above level 50) while continuing to explore the other two areas with the same PC? But what if I take a different approach for the Solo adventurer?

5. a.) Couldn't I successfully play out each of the three regions Solo with brand-new Nightblades? If not--why not? Bare in mind that I currently have no intention of participating in the final PvP only end-game battles in Cyrodiil (I think this is how it works?). And whichever of my 3 PCs I'm most successful and comfortable playing Solo with would be the one to take into new areas like Craglorn (assuming at this point that Solo is viable in Craglorn?).

I better get this posted--as usual it has grown to long. I will add numbers here to break up the items for easier commenting. Thanks again.

Xithian

1 and 2 go together. At low levels you can end up in that situation. Just remember that if you swap out too much of your heavy armor your heavy armor level will fall behind. It's perfectly fine to replace your armor with the best you have available. Some people would even recommend using 5 heavy, 1 light, and 1 medium just to skill up your other armor types. I can't see ever using light armor on this nightblade, so I am using 5 heavy and 2 medium at the moment, making up for lost time in my medium armor skill.

3.) Absolutely. I have spent a lot of time on blacksmithing, but have yet to actually make myself anything. When I got to veteran content I had a guildy make me a blue set of gear. All the way to 50 I used drops and quest rewards.

4.) You won't need potions for a while honestly. I still recommend learning alchemy and leveling it up at some point. The healing potions you can make are way better than what drops, and they will save your life at higher levels. The hardest part about leveling alchemy is the waters. You may notice water items you get from bags, or the little white swirls along rivers. They are tiered by level, and you need them to make potions. All of the herbs however, stay the same from level 1 all the way to the end of the game. Save the waters in your bank if you think you'll ever do alchemy.

5.) I never did any of the group dungeons while leveling. If you want to play solo, by all means play solo. The only things you should need help with are the anchor sites and world bosses, and normally people will just show up at random for those.

Crafting can be done either way, but bear in mind that if you wait until veteran levels to work on a craft you will probably have to go back to earlier zones to farm materials. This is why I mentioned saving water for alchemy.

5a.) You could have three characters, one of each faction. When you get to veteran levels however, you will still have to do the other factions' content to advance on all three separately. It is a quest progression and quests are individual to the character.

RatsnevE

Thanks for the info. So I'm picking up all the water I find and saving in the bank. I'm also picking up herbs but haven't done much crafting with them with this PC.

I will modify my armor approach to 5 heavy and 2 medium. Would you give up enchantments on a stronger white heavy or medium?

1.) I don't fully understand your explanation in 5 a.) above yet. Are you suggesting it would be easier to carry the same PC into each faction area rather then start a new PC and play out each faction area separately?

2.) If you use the same PC in a second faction are all the quests in that new area leveled up to the PC you are using?

3.) Do you automagically become Veteran when you exceed level 50 regardless of where you are in the realms? When in the realm of things does one likely turn Veteran 1? After completing one faction area or two or all three?

4.) It sounds like you are suggesting/saying that if I had any desires of entering Cyrodiil and the end-game I would have to run one (of my 3) PC through the other two faction areas before that one PC could accept PvP and enter Cyrodiil?

Thanks for all your continued help.

Xithian

You seem confused as to how Veteran ranks work. Explaining that would probably be easiest.

From level 1 through 49 you run around doing quests. Around level 45 you go to Coldharbour and although it is not really a "faction" area, you are still instanced with players of your own faction. You never really ding level 50. You go from 49 to Veteran Rank 1. To level up veteran ranks you must earn Veteran Points (VP). Veteran Points are awarded for killing veteran level mobs or for completing quests, world bosses, anchors, and dungeon bosses. You still earn Experience Points, but they only count towards leveling up skills.

After you finish the final main quest you are given a new quest to "see the world through the eyes of your enemies" or some-such. This will take you to the V1 zone. Every mob in the zone is level V1. The game becomes harder because mobs do a lot more damage. Each enemy faction zone is one veteran rank. To gain access to the V6 zone, you have to have completed all quests for the V1-V5 zones. That finishes up one faction. You then get a new quest to go to the V6 area, which is the 3rd faction's areas. Again, there is one zone per veteran rank, all the way up to Veteran Rank 10.

This is why I say that you'll end up doing all three factions' areas on one character. There is a chance that in the future they will add more ways to level up through the veteran ranks, but for now that's pretty much it.

RatsnevE

Oh thanks...geez, I think I'll wait until I get there--probably easier then.

Okay, here is something new...

I thought Soul Trap I was working fine. Just a while ago I discovered I could morph it into Soul Splitting Trap I guess it had leveled to IV? Anyway I morphed it to SST I to get two souls and I have two empty Petty Soul Gems... But so far I've been unable to catch get the empty gems to fill.

What in the world am I doing wrong now? Thanks.

Xithian

Is the mob dying while the skill is still going? Is the mob the right level for the gem? I can't remember what level the different gems are, but it's possible you're fighting things that are past the level for that gem now.

RatsnevE

Xithian wrote: »

Is the mob dying while the skill is still going? Is the mob the right level for the gem? I can't remember what level the different gems are, but it's possible you're fighting things that are past the level for that gem now.

Must be past the level for the Petty Gems. Too bad there doesn't seem to be any indication I've figured out as to what the antagonist's level is. Surely something has flashed or opened up on the screen that would tell me?

Feimerdre

If you hover over your soulgems in inventory a popup will tell you what level souls it can hold. Afaik they go ok for around 10 levels (1-9, 10-19, aso).

Xithian

The NPCs level does show... I wanna say around the same area as the name/health bar when you have them targetted. I have a mod installed that moves all of that, so hard to remember.

RatsnevE

I've been using 3 add-ons: ZrMiniMap which seems to working great and imo you really need a mini map of some sort; Greymind Quick Slot Bar which would be very useful if I would remember to use it during battles when it seems like nothing is working because I'm out of magicka, stamina, and things are looking red--the PC is about to die; and Foundry Tactical Combat (FTC). I've turned FTC off for the moment to see if hovering over an NPC will indicate its level. It's quite likely that FTC moves this info somewhere else that I'm not aware of. It seems a confusing add-on unless you are into its bells and whistles but my game is still quite simplistic.

Xithian

FTC shows levels in the same spot it shows the mob's health bar. It shows up after the name in ()s.

Mudcrab (12)

RatsnevE

Wow! And I don't mean World of Warcraft... Had a great day...reached level 15. I've got all my actives/morphs. Almost finishing up Auridon. Other adventurers during many quests today were very helpful and I did my best to help them too. This PC is no longer dying 'often' which now elevates ESO to around a 9 just like GW2--what did you expect if you're now having fun! And I even figured out where FTC shows the NPC health bar. I relocated it a little distance below my PCs bars. Thanks. Let's hope the fun last a long time.

Feimerdre

Great we could be of any help and you have not given up the first place.

RatsnevE

Almost had a repeat of earlier NPC's I couldn't at the time kill with 'Sorondil' who turned himself into a tough werewolf for trying on a helm that didn't belong to him--but try #4 got him.

Level 16 reached and I've finished questing and puzzling and fighting in Auridon it looks like...but for one question on this subject.

Achievements say I have completed 46 out of 46 quests for Auridon yet I've picked up what look like two more quests. There was also another quest still open after reaching 46 out of 46 called 'Find the First Keeper | Banishing the Banished' to be accomplished inside the only private group dungeon so far on the north end of the island. I abandoned it since there are way way too many NPCs to battle inside it Solo.

I just realized that maybe I need to work on 'invisibility' potions, etc. and I could then run past NPCs unseen?

So, are there extra quests in areas that you can choose to ignore so long as you have the 46 out of 46 for Auridon or are all these quests just starting in Auridon but moving to new areas? Will some quests starting in Grahtwood (for instance) finish back in Auridon?

Thanks.

Xithian

Banishing the Banished is a group dungeon. You wont be completing that solo anytime soon

ArgonianAssassin

Good build, I'm glad it works, but this isn't the assassin dual wield stabby stabby type I signed up to be.

Xithian

It's exactly what I signed up to be. I used to play the tank role when duoing with friends in Everquest, back in the days when bandaging was the fastest way for a rogue to get HP back. I also played combat rogue in WoW for a couple years.

You complain enough in relevant threads. Don't do it in the thread for an informative guide.

RatsnevE

Trolls--I die for them!

Taking a look at my Character stats I discovered my armor colored orange followed by a '667' figure and a clue that it was too high...but I don't understand what to do to decrease it so it can continue to grow?

What can you tell me about getting into the Bone Orchard? You can enter it up to a closed door. I did a little Google and it looks like there is a quest giver somewhere. I saw a couple PCs enter so maybe this is a dungeon quest requiring at least two to a group before you can enter?

Xithian

Your armor will be overcharged sometimes while leveling with heavy armor. Since you don't really use any armor buffs it doesn't affect you a whole lot. If you want you can swap out a couple pieces for medium just to skill it up.

Dunno about Aldmeri quests.

RatsnevE

How many are playing this build and liking it? I am...

I've been using at least one medium armor piece and sometimes two.

My hitting (killing) power seems weak compared to watching others take on Trolls and the like cutting them down quickly while if I go up solo against a Troll it so far doesn't come close.

Xithian

Trolls are a pain in the rear. The key is fire damage. DKs and Templars have fire damage skills, and Sorcs have easy access to fire damage as well.

Just try and keep a weapon with fire damage for the enchant. It will help with trolls, trust me.