Nightblade. What have i been missing?

like1tiger · November 2014

Hi all
I have been playing a NB Khajiit since head start. I got her to VR12 but found it underwhelming like a lot of people.
I have recently started playing her again after levelling a Sorc to vr14.
I'm pretty keen to find a better way of playing my NB as she is my main crafter and also has done most delves ect in the game.
I always wanted to play her as a Whirling death delivering machine but found when ever I'm out numbered I seem to die and a lot. I have played with Duel Weld (Daggers)and Bow for her whole existence and in Medium armour
.
I sneak and fire with bow from behind then I use Cloak and surprise attack, then heavy attack with bow and rinse and repeat. this is great for delve bosses if they are alone but going through Cadwells Gold has been slow and painful and I sneak most places instead of fighting.
For mobs more then one I try to use duels daggers and steel tornado but I run out of stamina and magic and then die haha
I have night mother set all in medium (vr12) and willows path.

I see a lot of people go down the staff route with destroy or restro.
I have been watching build on you tube and in forums
I have never really enjoyed playing with a staff as that's what my sorc is for.

Do I really have to resort to using light armour and wielding a staff to get to the sort of destruction levels my Sorc can.
I find questing and such I can kill mobs that have more then 2. I always have to kite run and snipe of the mobs unlike my Sorc who runs in and burns everything..
Last night doing my survey report I got continually beaten up by spawning wasps they are only vr13 and I thought I really need to L2P this character a lot better so I thought I would ask around and see what people think and how they play there NB.

Thanks in advance

Sharee · November 2014

When i was playing solo in craglorn with my NB i did it in heavy armor, sword and shield. I relied on siphoning attacks, sap essence, and veil of blades, while blocking. I could solo delves(including the bosses), anomalies, etc. Interestingly enough, the more 'trash' mobs i had around me the easier the fight was, due to gaining lots of HP and ultimate from spamming sap essence.

So you do not have to go stick&dress. However going in in medium armor/DW spec is not recommended. (if it is only the wasps you need to kill then just switching to 1h/shield keeping medium armor should be good enough, if you use the abilities above)

Stannum · November 2014

NB DW\bow med armor build is good enought. I don't understend what difficulties you may have.
Here's several varints of builds that I used to do PvE content.

bow bar (for DPS on bosses (and also can be used to wipe common 3mobs clusters))
venom arrow - swallow soul - impale - magnum shot - cripling grasp (or agony for 3 mob clusters)
Main dps is lights attack with venom arrow weave, swallow soul dps if you need to keep some stamina, magnum shot to keep out of bosses/mobs, cripling grasp or agony for DoT and speed buff\CC, impale for finishing.

dw standart PvE bar (for standart 3-mob clusters and weak bosses)
flying balde (or flurry morphs)- smth - impale-surprised attack-dark cloack
.
1. surprised attack from stealth - flying blade- imaple (first kill),2 dark cloak -surprise attack - flying blade (2-3times)- impale, repeat from 2
fifth skill is optional in that build that can be smth you want to level, or reapers mark to heal, or unstoppable, or smthing like fighters guild hunter for daedric\undead locs.

dw AoE PvE bar (for large (5+) standart mobs clusters: public and groupe dungeons, craglorn)
steel tornado - ambush - ??? - volcanic rune - power extraction
volcanic rune to the middle of cluster - ambush to the middle of cluster - power extraction while mobs are in the air then steel tornado spam until all are down.
fifth skill is also optional, it can be siphonong attack (not to think of resourse management), or focused attacks (for stamina regen buff), or unstoppable, or hunter (for undead\daedric locs).

tino.antoninieb17_ESO · November 2014

Sharee wrote: »

When i was playing solo in craglorn with my NB i did it in heavy armor, sword and shield. I relied on siphoning attacks, sap essence, and veil of blades, while blocking. I could solo delves(including the bosses), anomalies, etc. Interestingly enough, the more 'trash' mobs i had around me the easier the fight was, due to gaining lots of HP and ultimate from spamming sap essence.

So you do not have to go stick&dress. However going in in medium armor/DW spec is not recommended. (if it is only the wasps you need to kill then just switching to 1h/shield keeping medium armor should be good enough, if you use the abilities above)

When u say that dw medium stamina nb is not recomended - what exactely you mean by that ? I dont think you have much expirience in playing it since u have to listen recomendations. Tell me what exactely is wrong with nb played that way ?
To cut long story short i play redguard stamina nb since begining and now my build is in dps output 5-10% behind magic builds ( u can do trials , hel ra - all bossee 1k + and for some goes up to 1,5 k ). Regarding pvp think that difference is even smaller. If u would like to know about resources i dont have any , any problem at all.

Sharee · November 2014

tino.antoninieb17_ESO wrote: »

Sharee wrote: »

When i was playing solo in craglorn with my NB i did it in heavy armor, sword and shield. I relied on siphoning attacks, sap essence, and veil of blades, while blocking. I could solo delves(including the bosses), anomalies, etc. Interestingly enough, the more 'trash' mobs i had around me the easier the fight was, due to gaining lots of HP and ultimate from spamming sap essence.

So you do not have to go stick&dress. However going in in medium armor/DW spec is not recommended. (if it is only the wasps you need to kill then just switching to 1h/shield keeping medium armor should be good enough, if you use the abilities above)

When u say that dw medium stamina nb is not recomended - what exactely you mean by that ? I dont think you have much expirience in playing it since u have to listen recomendations. Tell me what exactely is wrong with nb played that way ?

From my experience, that build is more suited to quickly bursting the enemies down, and craglorn mobs have too many hitpoints for that. You need to be able to take the damage, and outlast them.

But if you are able to solo craglorn delves as a dw medium stamina nb then by all means post how you do it.

like1tiger · November 2014

Thanks for the reply's guys
Really appreciate it
I will try out the skills. I guess its hard to get up close and personal with mobs as a NB.
Has anyone had a lot of success with the magic light armor path or anyone played both ways. I'm really interested in ppls views on this and its cheaper then respecing haha its 10k to respect

J'skaar Habasi · November 2014

I've experienced the issues you're having, I'm not going to claim that I've solved them completely, but life became much easier when I focused on increasing spell damage, weapon damage, weapon crit and increased my max stamina at the expense of magicka.
Using medium armor and different armor sets worked for the most part for weapon damage/crit. For me, it's the jewelry that is the most important. I found a jewelry set I like and overlaid the enchantment with spell damage glyphs.
For Cadwell's Gold mobs, I'm primarily using crippling grasp,flying blades, flurry or sap essence and steel tornado along with funnel health and ring of preservation.
The problem is that, like Sharee mentioned above, this is a quick burst down setup. I haven't yet figured out how to outlast Craglorn enemies without using a Resto Staff.