We'll depends. Do you want to be OP in pvp? Go two handed and use wrecking blow. Do you want to grind mobs? go steel tornado with dual wield.

I prefer 2h. Magnum shot + critical rush is an extremely powerful comho.

@Nestor Thanks! Really informative reply. One more question. Should i use surprise attack as a spam attack skill or wrecking blow? Does the damage of WB outweights the 30% stamina regen from the shadow passive?

Both?

Earelith wrote: »

@Nestor Thanks! Really informative reply. One more question. Should i use surprise attack as a spam attack skill or wrecking blow? Does the damage of WB outweights the 30% stamina regen from the shadow passive?

Wrecking Blow has a charge up, so it's not what I call a Spam Attack. But, it is extremely effective at getting mob knocked back so you can use other skills, even another WB.

I use Critical Rush, Wrecking Blow, Reverse Slash, and either Reverse Slash again or WB then RS again. If anything, I spam Reverse Slash.

And, don't over look the Utility Skills of a NB. Reapers Mark is something you should use in just about any fight as an Opener. It is also cool as it does not aggro the mob, neat. Plus it gives you a nice heal. So, even with multiple mobs, put it on one of them until they are dead then put it on another one if you can before you kill them. However Shades, Twisting Path, and Fear are all great skills to add into your rotation for the right situations.

Earelith wrote: »

I am planning leveling a nightblade full stamina and medium armor...i want to use a bow for single target damage and "hit and run" style for solo difficult mobs/boss. But on the other weapon slot still cannot decide what to focus on while leveling..2H have more survivability through brawler and rally but DW is more fancy and goes better in my eyes for a "scout", "assassin" style of player.

What do you think? Also what are the absolute best skills you wouldnt miss while leveling?

Either DW or 2h work just fine. Just keep in mind you want a gap closer. So if you decide to go DW you will rely on Ambush (Teleport morph) to close distance. However I recommend 2h for leveling simply because you get Rally (morph of Momentum) which gives you a heal over time and weapon damage buff. Also you can move about quicker with Charge than Ambush as there is a slight delay with Ambush.

As far as leveling goes bow is kind of crappy and weak compared to melee unless you are opening from sneak. Outside of that for fast grinding 2h with Charge>Med/Execute weave will kill any non boss mob. As long as you have stam regen going you can keep zipping around cluster to cluster killing.

Dual Wield is good, particularly Steel Tornado and Flying Blade, however it takes forever to get to Flying Blade unless you are a Dunmer and leveling with the "Training" trait on both your weapons. Even then you won't get Flying Blade for 20+ levels.

Once you learn combat mechanics and weave all your attacks effortlessly 2h becomes the winner by a huge margin. You get access to Executioner fairly early and you can weave that into Light/Medium attacks and basically 2 shot (Charge + Exe weave) your target.

Bow is fine and dandy as is DW, but for speed and efficiency, 2h is where it's at. If I were you, I would focus on leveling up all your nightblade skills and their respected lines (ass/shad/siph) and 1 weapon skill. That said, I would have 1 skill from each line (ass/shad/siph) on my bar at all times and 2-3 from the weapon line. Remember your ult can make up as one of the 3.

As far as skills go, level them all. The only ones you will keep as constant (if you go 2h) are Charge, Executioner, and Rally (when you get it). Before that you can go Brawler if you like for AoE. I want to reiterate, this is for efficiency. Changing to DW in the VR (vet) levels is quite fine as you can keep 2h in your offbar and DW as main and use your 2h bar for buffs. Like Rally, Evil Hunter, Relentless Focus, Percing Mark etc.

Just remember, as a melee you want a gap closer. As a range you want something to keep distance (magnum), however any hard CC automatically makes your target immune for the next several seconds. The other thing to keep in mind is you will want to buff your damage or survivability. You will like use Double Take (blur morph) for speed / dodge, Rally for Weapon Damage and it's Heal, Grim Focus and whichever morph for extra damage and Evil Hunter for it's extra damage and stamina return. Piercing Mark is another obvious choice for extra damage against your target. So right there you have 5 skills out of a possible 12 and these are just buffs/utility.

As I tell everyone, you can make the most terrible choices and be the worst player possible and still coast through the storymode. It's really easy and hardly a benchmark for skill or builds. Just use it for leveling and progressing.

Earelith wrote: »

@Xael Thanks for the tips I am a bit sceptical for execution skills (killer's blade/Executioner) cause from my experience, if a mob goes down to 25%, you don't really need an increased damage skill to finish it off..in a boss fight, it may be awesome, but on regular mobs.. not to mention that most of the times, the hit you do might get the mob from 30%+ to 10%, so again, the execute skill is mostly overkill.

I will use 2H after reading all your replies. I want the bow only for the opportunity to solo some difficult mobs - outside boss by "hit and run" style..

The execute is not overkill. Yes, it is quite amazing for boss kills, however the Execute from 2h also buffs all your 2h abilities by 18% at rank 4. This also works with Rally (at least last I checked).

I am not certain you understand what weaving is. With execute, you can weave an attack that one shots your target once it is below 40%. As soon as I begin charging my swing it's insta dead with the weave. Without the Execute ability this would not be possible. Also I can't tell you how useful this is in PvP where a split second matters.

While bow is fun and nice, you can only magnum shot something once every 3-5 seconds (can't remember how long the immunity lasts). That said, it's going to close distance on you unless you are using a slow at all times. If that is the case, this is going to take a while and one screw up is going to likely wreck things for you.

If you understand blocking and dodge rolling, a boss and it's melee attacks are not that difficult to out-maneuver. In fact with your dodge buff from double take, you will actually kill these "difficult" bosses faster with dual wield or 2h by just blocking and dodge rolling the necessary attacks. If you already have someone tanking the boss, I suppose you can use Poison Injection and light/medium weaves, though you will do more damage by far with uppercut spams or other melee weaves. Play as you like, though there is a distinct difference between preference and optimum.

Again though, I say have all 3 maxed out by the time you are in your veteran levels for a better toolset to work with.