Anyone having lots of fun with their Argonian Nightblade build?

tinythinker · October 2014

Right now, at level 9 for my Nightblade, I am noticing the severe lack of CC options.

I've got a VR14 Dragonknight, a VR12 Templar, and have also recently started a Sorc. All Argonian. But at low levels at least, I am having issues with world bosses for lack of effective self-healing (Swallow Soul at this level is "meh" and Killer's Blade only helps on quick kills).

My Sorc, with a resto staff and a Clanfear, along with Crystal Fragments and Endless Fury, easily wiped out Strife Swarm Hive, with a little help from Overload. My Nightblade died a lot trying to solo it.

A lot.

I can see the potential for a resto staff/sword and board setup for an Argonian DK with heavy emphasis on some key class abilities, especially from Siphoning, but I am open to all links or descriptions of what works/worked for you while leveling as a(n Argonian) Nightblade.

guybrushtb16_ESO · October 2014

One word: Veilofblades.

Seriously though, for anything pve, veil of blades is your answer. It's your single best skill in both solo and group pve, because it's both awesome dps and incredible defense. It's easy to overlook at first, because the base skill is just some rather weak utility move, but the morph completely changes things.

For even more fun, add soul harvest on your primary bar to get even more ult, and switch to your secondary only to cast veil. I found that with regeneration and funnel health ticking, I could practically always just pull literally everything in range everytime veil was up.

Nihili · October 2014

tinythinker wrote: »

Right now, at level 9 for my Nightblade, I am noticing the severe lack of CC options.

Right here I was like: "No surely not... this guy reached level 9 and started tuning it?"
But then luckily!

tinythinker wrote: »

I've got a VR14 Dragonknight, a VR12 Templar, and have also recently started a Sorc.

Phew! This guy probably knows what he's talking about

tinythinker · October 2014

Nihili wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

Right now, at level 9 for my Nightblade, I am noticing the severe lack of CC options.

Right here I was like: "No surely not... this guy reached level 9 and started tuning it?"
But then luckily!

tinythinker wrote: »

I've got a VR14 Dragonknight, a VR12 Templar, and have also recently started a Sorc.

Phew! This guy probably knows what he's talking about

No, I'm not tuning yet.

I am looking ahead to where I might want to go. And the other classes are much better at CC even early in the game, which does make approaching world bosses with adds or just crowds of basic mobs trickier when you lack comparable options.

Xsorus · October 2014

i love mine

someuser · October 2014

well, I play an Imperial NB and I found that a combo of sword and board with restro staff to be fairly fun.

I'm sure there are way better builds but I have my primary sword & board:
1)Ransack 2)Ambush 3)Unstoppable 4)power bash (not morphed) 5)deep slash

Restro Staff
1)Concealed Weapon 2)Volcanic Rune 3)Shadowy Disguise 4)Soul Swallow 5)Healing Ward (or sometimes Rapid Regeneration)

I use Soul Tether for both ultimates. I also wear 4 pieces of medium armor and either 3 heavy or 3 light depending. I love the fact I can spam Shadowy Disguise and basically skip anything I want focusing on bosses instead of trash. I may not have the DPS of my sorc, but since I don't have to even fight trash mobs I can clear things faster.

Cody · October 2014

try a bow. go all medium, get a lot of reduction for stamina skills, and you can use scatter shot ALOT of times if you manage your stamina right. combine that with strife, venom arrow, and impale, you can do pretty well. Iv soloed a lot of World bosses that way.

it DID work well in PvP for me, but lately....... meh. but in PvE it should be fine.

all the NBs ultimates seem to be good, though if you want to pull a lot of enemies; veil of blades is the way to go.

Sord · October 2014

I have been working on a Argonian NB. Got him to lvl 20 (seems like 1-15 are the hardest) and currently focusing on S/B and Resto Staff but soon I plan to increase play around with 2Handed weapon line. Wearing HA atm with one piece of MA and one piece of LA just to keep them leveling.

For low levels just keep your block up and use your class spells to deal damage, use that ultimate (soul tether) as much as possible and keep strife healing you and make sure you use those potions. If you haven't done the math on argonian NB and potions look at it, it's pretty sick especially with the right enchants.

My attack sequence is usually teleport strike from sneak, strife, pierce armor (s/b with the -40% to armor and spell resist), suprise attack (-40% to armor, yes the 2 -40% to armor stack) and impale for whenever they get below 25% health and get some magicka back from the passive plus potions. I can use all these with block up from any weapon. Rarely do I have any problems taking down mobs or world bosses, yes you will die occasionally, it happens but just make sure you got your shards and try again. With the resto staff I swap out a heal for the pierce armor and then get magica back from the Heavy Attack.

PS NB seem to lack good CC till later, I have a kahjit V2 NB as well.

tinythinker · October 2014

Interesting, @someuser‌, I've been trying to decide between Ambush and Lotus Fan, with the latter offering some utility for CC. How do you handle bosses that have adds right next to them and aggro as soon as you are no longer stealthed?

I started with a bow and keep one on my character at all times, @Cody‌, so that is definitely an option if my experimentation fails.

Thanks @Sord‌, I did some intuitive math and an examination of the possibles synergies concerning Argonian passive compatibilities with the skills lines of the four classes months ago, I just hadn't gotten around to trying out Nightblade. It's a bigger leap from DK/Templar to NB than it is to Sorc, but there seems to be a lot of potential ready to explore. I figured several people had already seen the same potential, glad to know it is working out for you.

dodgehopper_ESO · October 2014

I love my Nightblade Argonian. He's still only Veteran 2 but so far it works great. Right now he's a Dual Wield / Bow user, but eventually I really want to also build up One hand and shield as well as Restoration staff, where I think he might actually perform more impressively.

Sord · October 2014

@tinythinker‌ keep us posted how you like your Argonian NB I am curious about what people think as well and what builds they are making with Argonian NB too. NB are defiantly a little more challenging but feel they will shine as strongly here soon. Just gotta get a few tweeks fixed.

I did some more exploring about the 2 handed weapon use and respec'ed last night and soon will have uppercut which I want for when I sneak up on someone and can get 30-60% damage bonus while sneaking so that can lead to some big damage plus the 70% crit chance while invis will hopefully actually lead to one shot kills if not I can follow up with crit charge, I know pvp will be different but till then I think this will be fun

mousekime111rwb17_ESO · October 2014

you don't need cc - play the game as though everything was 'too powerful for that effect' and see where it gets you. Mark target is your friend where there are many mobs, in single target only non group fights you want a resto hotswap, rapid regen, swallow soul, degeneration and quick siphon before swapping back to your dps bar.

Varicite · October 2014

I love my Argonian NB. She's quite the little powerhouse, though I will admit that the early levels were definitely a bit rough w/ the lack of AoE options.

That all changed pretty much when I got Sap Essence. Between that and the insane ultimate generation from it that fuels Soul Tether / Veil of Blades, AoE is generally not an issue.

I played her mostly as a caster (dual resto staff dps / heals) but changed her to S&S / Resto, and she's incredibly sturdy now.

Bar 1: Dark Cloak, Siphoning Strikes, Sap Essence, Shielded Assault, Surprise Attack, (U) Soul Tether

Bar 2: Healing Ward, Siphoning Strikes, Rapid Regeneration, Crippling Grasp, Funnel Health, (U) Veil of Blades

I switch out things for shades, immovable, and aspect of fear as needed.

Jewelry is all potion speed enchants for 45% stronger potions (argonian NB alchemist) w/ a 15 sec cd.

6 Light, 1 Heavy (I like the look of heavy armor), 5pc Whitestrake's, 3pc Torug's pact atm, working on making that 5pc Whitestrake's / 5pc Warlock, 2pc Torug's Pact.

Works well so far. : )

tinythinker · October 2014

@Sord‌, I heard someone theorycrafting a Nightblade with Two-handed back in March, would share the link if I could recall where. Sounds interesting.

@mousekime111rwb17_ESO‌, I've only just unlocked weapon swap and haven't gotten to Marked Target, but good things to look forward to. I have been kind of doing something like what you describe by sneaking, using Veiled Strike, and applying Swallow Soul.

@Varicite‌, that sounds very cool. Would love to hear how it turns out.

And for the curious who may be starting a similar character and is reading through, survivability and fighting groups got a lot better around level 12-14. And Veil of Blades does help.

Tamanous · October 2014

My NB is Argonian. Leveling is the same with any race. Mine is a shadow mage design with full light armor and resto atm (later will also pick up 1h+shield but pointless now and I need the skill points elsewhere).

Only issue with them is the lack of aoe early on. You simply have to get used to single target combat until later. Good thing is that packs of 3-5 mobs are easy anyway. First out of stealth attack basically one shots 1 enemy, cloak and take out second and repeat. Always identify healers and high dps minions to take out first. Tanks leave until last or first if you aren't worried about magicka because they require extra usage of shadow cloak to enhance your damage.

Build for dps. Tons of options on how fast you want to kill something. You just have to manage your magicka if stuck in longer fights or pop a potion with is entirely the point of an Argonian Nightblade.

I always open from crouch +cloak. I never use cloak for actual stealth. A caster build allows the use of cloak many times in a row without worry of much magicka use. I enjoy the several opening options available and the ability to increase dps greatly by using cloak more often for +70% crit and even Ambush +30% damage bonus from morphs. Soul harvest or Killer's Blade (at low health) with both these bonuses is HILARIOUS damage!

Later I am hoping magicka management becomes good enough to go 5 light and 2 medium.

Kerioko · October 2014

VR14 Argonian NB here....

For AOE CC....get volcanic rune and learn to love it, this with veil of blades and sap essence will handle any AOE fight

Another great thing about Argonian NB's is the wickedness you can get out of a potion build...run 3 potion speed glyphs and you get almost 100% upkeep on potions at 140% normal output(tailor them to your need).

Running duel resto, I can sustain 1000 dps, and still out put tons of heals as a siphon build. And with potion upkeep, I don't have to run spell symmetry!

tinythinker · October 2014

Kerioko wrote: »

VR14 Argonian NB here....

For AOE CC....get volcanic rune and learn to love it, this with veil of blades and sap essence will handle any AOE fight

Another great thing about Argonian NB's is the wickedness you can get out of a potion build...run 3 potion speed glyphs and you get almost 100% upkeep on potions at 140% normal output(tailor them to your need).

Running duel resto, I can sustain 1000 dps, and still out put tons of heals as a siphon build. And with potion upkeep, I don't have to run spell symmetry!

Sounds great. Do you use Soul Harvest on one bar to fuel Veil of Blades on the other?

ontheleftcoast · October 2014

Dual Wield Whirling Blade is my AoE for most combats. If I need to I haul out the Veil of Blades but that's usually only for bosses and the end of dolmen fights. Which are kind of boss like I guess. I actually never used it until I got into Cadwell's Silver and ran into a boss I couldn't handle. Seeker-of-Blood is a heavy stamina build. And with the reduction items on neck and both rings she can lay down a lot of AoE damage pretty quickly and still have enough stamina for blocks or to sprint if necessary.

tinythinker · November 2014

Hmm, well, I got the character up to VR1 and defeated Molag Bal to reclaim the character's soul and stop the Planemeld. But I haven't done much with my Nightblade.

I stopped spending attribute points shortly after posting here and have spent skill points very sparingly. I'm currently sitting on 32 attribute points and 59 skill points. I thought I would wait until I decided on certain things to use them in order to save the cost of respecs while leveling. Then it kind of became a challenge, with a chance to learn some of the fundamentals of the class a little better, and it reminded me of what the game felt like on my first playthrough from beta and early release.

This is what my Nightblade currently looks like.

I know they are releasing lots of stamina buffs tomorrow that I've tested a bit on the PTS, but I still haven't even worked out doing a siphoning build. I am currently looking at:

-Soul Siphon. Thought this might be helpful for group play, but it doesn't heal me and Veil of Blades seems more helpful for tight spots considering that Soul Siphon has reduced damage and no stun. I guess that's why it seems that more people go for Soul Tether.

Killer's Blade. I've been using this to help with the Nightblade's self-healing deficit. If I were to go for a morph of another skill that healed, perhaps say Leeching Strikes, I might be able to take advantage of the ranged morph of this ability, Impale.

Swallow Soul. Took this to help with the Nightblade's self-healing deficit and to synergize with the Argonian passive Quick to Mend (up to 6% extra healing received for QtM and another 10% for SS, which technically could also be boosted by some heavy armor with Rapid Mending). Like Killer's Blade, I would be more comfortable doing a respec if I could make up the difference somewhere else. The alternative, Funnel Health, would definitely help in group situations.

Siphoning Strikes. Currently unmorphed. Health return in addition to magicka and stamina for basic weapon attacks (Leeching Strikes) or magicka and stamina return for all attacks (Siphoning Attacks)? I can see a good argument for each option.

Drain Power. Really looking forward to adding this. I am leaning heavily toward Sap Essence for the morph, especially if "healing allies" includes caster (it does for some skills/skill lines and not others -- can't wait for them to create decent tooltips).

I am just really hesitant to spend any points until I figure out which way to go, as I don't have any money-making schemes in-game and making frequent changes with the respec shrines isn't an option.

Sord · November 2014

Managed to get mine to 43 at this point but have been respecing him to try out a lot of different builds, from weapons to attacks.

Finally started playing with Siphoning strikes and both morphs and found that I like them both but I am liking the siphoning attacks because as you posted with all the bonus to health especially with HA your swallow souls and pots tend to keep your health up and this way my heavy damaging attacks can give me stam and magic back. I tend to flip flop between magica attacks and stam attacks by the time one type is down on its resource the other is up and I am currently speced with health regen and HA. I also have jewelry that reduce stam cost so I can CC break (trying to get better at that).

I am about to switch to a complete destro and resto with LA just to see what I like best. I like resto staff but I want to see about getting the AOE warlock type build and see how that works.

Over all I really enjoyed the 2 handed build and the 1h/B. Haven't played them back to back but probably will at V1. Then at V5 I will focus on what I enjoyed best. I will keep my duel wielding on my Khajit NB though as it work well with crit and damage. Still not sure which armor type I like best.

PS as for money sell set items that you get in your guild store I sell a lot of stuff vs just junking it at a vendor and will get about 200-250 a piece. I have also sold mats that I am not using. Keep them cheap and they will sell and you will get 3-5x as much as the vendor. Yes I blew a lot of gold respec the 4x that I have but it has been great to see the different play styles and get a feel for weapons and abilities better.