Obscure wrote: »

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.

While this is true Obscure, many of the abilities that make your Melee AoE build so good are DK skills. Not all of them of course (Whirling Blades and Ember Explosion FTW) but a good chunk.

Anyway, I've been toying with some ideas for a NB. I'm not a NB expert but I do understand the game overall fairly well.

Check out this build:

http://tinyurl.com/k9au98c

The Dual Wield bar is like an AoE bar. Its built similar to Obscure's, but NB instead of DK. Basically, you use Mirage to make yourself harder to hit and then Lotus Fan to close gaps on groups (can be out of stealth for extra damage.) Your next attack is Sap Essence, which deals damage to nearby enemies, increases your weapon power for each enemy hit, and heals nearby allies. Then you use Ember Explosion, which increases your mischance from Mirage from 15% to 55% and also deals damage. Enemies who miss you will have a chance to be set off balance, giving either you or your group mates the option to knock them down with a heavy attack. Then you use Whirling Blades, hopefully spam style. If there's lots of enemies, that means lots of spam (each hit restores stamina.) Reapply Ember Explosion as needed.

That's a crazy AoE nuke NB right there and with healers to keep him up he could be disgusting in both high end PvE and group PvP.

The second bar adds some much needed mobility, escape, self healing, and some single target.

Resto staff is the best choice simply for the damage it does (can be highest in game), the speed of the attack, and the self heal potential. Combat Prayer will be your main heal for yourself and allies, while also giving you Armor, Spell Resist, and more damage. Incapacitate makes your light attacks really fast (Resto is already the fastest in the game) and if stacked with Wieghted can be nasty. It also Immoblizes enemies every 10th hit (which you can do quickly.) Impale is an execute, because those are nasty in group play and boss fights, morphed for rage. Shadow Image will add to your DPS, debuff your enemies damage, and allow you to teleport around for escaping and switching tagets (way better than any sorc pets). Dark Cloak serves as an escape ability to remove negative effects and hide when you need to get away. If you're a Vamp, Elusive Mist might be even better as an escape skill.

This is probably how I will build my NB and I get the feeling it can be as viable as any class in PvP or PvE.

Well I wish I saw this thread before I rolled my NB tonight and played for the last 4 hours, lol. My intent was to go with Destruction Staff AoE grinding and then switch to Bow/2h or Bow/Sword+Shield after 50. I guess I'm in for a rude awakening with this plan? I even rolled Khajit which is definitely not the best choice for Destruction Staff.

Sounds like I should have just gone Sorcerer...meh.

Obscure wrote: »

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.

Don't be so narrow sighted...

AoE's effectiveness is only determined by how many mobs you are hitting with it, the less mobs, the less efficient it is. If you are fighting a Boss, you are going to be the liability if your entire loadout is structured around AoE. ST DPS is a good way to nuke bosses and VIP mobs (i.e. healers).

The key thing, is balance. You need a decent mix of AoE and ST DPS to make runs smoother. Having either too many ST or AOE is only going to make life difficult for the entire party and certain stages (whether it be fighting mobs or a boss).

A similar thought process also applies to PvP aswell...

However, you seem to be under the opinion that you are God's gift to TESO. So I'm pretty sure that whatever opinion is given to you that differs to your own, you are just going to discard it and declare it as stupid.

The class lacks any kind of quick/instant self-heal, which puts its survivalbility at a low rate.

It can be the hardest class to use; its certainly harder to use than perma block DK builds.

Guys, this thread was necro'd.

The posts are all from April and then jump to Decmber 12th.

NB definitely is no longer the hardest to play in PvP. It's probably the 2nd best PvP class now.