NB build for AoE grinding?

DirtySerf · April 2014

Was wondering if anyone has had success with a NB AoE grinding build for power leveling?

First off aoe mob grinding is still a valid tactic to power level to 50 correct?

Haven't seen much written for this class on the subject but Ive grown tired of questing and want to give it a shot.

Right now Im leaning towards switching to dual wield and spamming whirling blades with Power Extraction, Siphoning Attacks, and Refreshing Path. I figure the biggest part of an AoE grinding build is sustainability so you are moving from pack to pack with zero down time. Whirling blades helps with this as its your main AoE and also restores more stamina when hitting more targets. If you really are low on stam then pop on siphoning for a bit. The idea is to kill a pack fast enough before it can do a lot of damage to you with the max weapon damage bonus from Power Extraction but I would use Refreshing path to add some healing as well as more Aoe (and of course have Strife on a bar somewhere just in case things get really bad.

I was hoping this would work well enough to clear packs of mobs at a fast pace as it would require the least amount of change from my current questing build. Im wondering if anyone has had luck AoE grinding with a similar setup. Most of the AoE builds Ive seen from other classes utilize Destro staff so I would also be open to suggestions for doing that as a night blade if it is in fact that much better.

DGVish · April 2014

I find the Destro staff works better for AoE grinding due to the fact it's ranged and you're not getting wailed on. I would also suggest Twisting Path not Refreshing. I found the heal to be negligible and should you use it for the movement speed and AoE damage. Power Extraction+Elemental Blockade= great AoE damage. I can pull multiple packs use that setup, weapon swap and heal, and finish them off with Twisting Path+Impale.

zamiel · April 2014

I personally like Refreshing path. It keeps you up if you pop Unstoppable just fine.
For ultimate AoE carnage drop whatever Path you prefer, Elemental blockade, pop a Power Exteraction and go to town with Elemental Ring.

DirtySerf · April 2014

I always figured the biggest disadvantage NB's have with destro staff for grinding is the lack of AoE CC so to group all the different mobs up you would be close to melee range anyway. Though its probable that just that extra few seconds of space would be enough time anyway.

How do you cope with sustaining the Destro staff with no downtime? I guess Siphoning Attacks is more then enough to keep mana in line + light armor passives.

The biggest issue I have is by the time I skill up Destro line and Siphoning to get to Power Extraction I might be close to cap anyway lol. I might try AoEing earlier but it seems Power Extraction is almost required to be truly effective.

I had tried putting every siphoning skill I had on my weapon swap bar (including ultimate) for turning in quests or whenever I could while receiving experience but its not skilling up as fast as I hoped.

Thanks for the replies!

azinod · April 2014

Is Power Extraction working correctly? It doesn't seem to be giving me any damage buffs...

My personal build for Dual Wield PvE with Nightblade is this:
http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#ccRzttIqaf8GHRB8Iryv8IPUv8GFx48GDWv8GBLK8IPnS8GHst8IPUv8w2CC8IrvR807068t7rNsg18C7Jzzqu6bzqa6Izqq6bzqI6bzqG8D7bIzdm6bzdM6IzdR8F7JNbut6qbux8zzx3TH706

First bar is focused for One on One combat. Second bar is for AoE. Basically:

Obs 1: At times, you will want to cast Piercing Mark on the second mob that you are going to kill before you jump to fight. This will ensure you keep your HP bar up in the end of the fight.
Obs 2: Focused attacks is very interesting to quickly restore your resources or finish a low HP mob. It also provides great Stamina regen while active;
Obs 3: Keep siphoning strikes ALWAYS TOGGLED ON to ensure you have enough resources to keep jumping to the next group of mobs;

Skill rotation:
1. Use Ambush to jump to the group. This will render your first target nearly death already;
2. Use Power Extraction to get more damage (not working well for me, looks bugged);
3. Spam Steel Tornado;

Obs 4: If you start losing health, make sure to focus on the mob with Piercing Mark cast on. You can also switch to the 1v1 bar and finish mobs using Killer's Blade to recover 15% of your HP. Both will help you with survivabilty;
Obs 5: If you get into serious trouble, like less than 30% or out of resources, cast Veil of Blades ultimate. This is a life-saver for hard situations, but I will rarely need it. Most of the times my ultimate bar is full because the build does all the work perfectly;

You replace the 1v1 bar for a Healing bar by just replacing two skills:
http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#ccRzvthesS8GHRB8heaq8IPUv8GFx48GDWv8GBLK8IPnS8GHst8IPUv8w2CC8IrvR807068t7rNsg18v7mbanW6banU8C7Jzzqu6bzqa6Izqq6bzqI6bzqG8D7bIzdm6bzdM6IzdR8F7JNbut6qbux8O7m68zzx3TH706

You can then cast Rapid Regeneration on yourself before you engage the group, and if things go wrong you can switch from AoE bar to Healing bar and ensure you will get out alive by healing yourself and quickly finishing enemies with Killer's Blade.

Murderwalk · April 2014

I have been using Griffith's 1-50 build and it's working great for me so far.

http://youtu.be/as62Ygf7y1o

DGVish · April 2014

Using Dark Cloak to gain distance from enemies is what I do when I'm in a tough spot and just heal up.

DirtySerf · April 2014

Just to clarify I'm looking for insight specific to AoE mob grinding for leveling, that video is meant for questing, though generally it might be a good build-- but Im fine with my current one for that purpose.

@azinod thanks for the comment! I noticed you included both single target and AoE but I was wondering if you have tried the AoE side specifically for mob grinding.

Piercing Mark is a very interesting idea for the big heal which I could definitely see being useful for sustaining HP as long as I time it right as to not take too much damage from the debuff.

I remember looking at Focused Attacks a while back as a good possible sustain method but had forgotten thanks for this suggestion as well!

As for the Whirlwind Morphs, I had been assuming the stam regen of Whirling Blades would be hard to pass up, but the radius of Steel Tornado is a pretty significant increase so its definitely something Ill think about (thankfully I haven't morphed the skill yet) I guess it would come down to how much regen Whirling Blades can handle on its own (or with Focused Attacks as well) when hitting large packs of mobs (the intent for AoE farming) So that I would not have to have siphoning attacks toggled so much; decreasing damage output and and using more stamina for additional attacks.

Also how often do some mobs in a pack remain out of range of Whirlwind with the 5 meter radius vs Steel Tornado's 11m? I would be fighting on top of the ranged mobs while also AoEing the melee around them but it may be required to go for the extra radius to be more effective.

As for Power Extraction I haven't been able to test it myself yet but if it is indeed bugged then Id say this is all dead in the water anyway.

kgrizzle · April 2014

I haven't played since beta but I really don't like questing in this game too much. I will also be going NB. Have you found anything that works DirtySerf? I was going to try using Destruction staff from the get go. I assume I'd put all attribute pts into Majicka, I just don't want to screw up my character.

What did you end up doing?

Drathmar · April 2014

azinod wrote: »

Is Power Extraction working correctly? It doesn't seem to be giving me any damage buffs...

Looking at your build it doesnt look like you have any skills it would even buff. It only buffs weapon damage which in turn only buffs weapon skills/stamina using skills, only thing it would buff on your bars would be steel tornado. Others have reported it working correctly though.

DirtySerf · April 2014

kgrizzle wrote: »

I haven't played since beta but I really don't like questing in this game too much. I will also be going NB. Have you found anything that works DirtySerf? I was going to try using Destruction staff from the get go. I assume I'd put all attribute pts into Majicka, I just don't want to screw up my character.

What did you end up doing?

Ive been busy so I literally just got done with my first attempt, I was surprised how effective it was even though Im still getting the kinks ironed out. Right now Im going the dual wield whirling blades route, using Mark target on the second mob to keep HP up then ambushing in and starting aoe. As far as stamina recovery is concerned whirling blades does pretty well along with medium armor passives and my red guard racials. Basically just spam away with whirling blades I don't bother with Path at all, toggling Syphon strikes when Im really low. Both the shadow and siphoning ultimates seem amazing for this, prob the only advantage NBs get in the AoE game.

@kgrizzle Even though it looks like Ill eventually get where I want to going the melee route, I do think that destruction staff is the way to go. Especially if your starting out fresh with it. You'll want to grab the light armor passives for magika and Wall of Elements will be your big 'spam' AoE at first but I recommend slotting as many destruction skills as you can to level up the weapon skill fast to get Impulse->pulsar. Path might work better for you as well as you will be putting a lot into magika damage. Another skill i was theorizing was Malefic Wreath (Agony morph) which does AoE when the stun ends, basically you would open with this skill then immediately ambush the same target to cause the aoe, again didn't do enough damage for me but I'm built for stamina.

Keep in mind I don't have actual experience with Destruction Staff but this does seem to be the best route. Im debating still making the switch to it if melee doesn't give me the experience / time numbers I'm looking for. I read somewhere that you should be averaging 1 level per 30 min or 1 level per 20 min if you find someone else to do it with. Look up guides for AoE grinding to get a better idea of how to do it.

kgrizzle · April 2014

Awesome, thank you for the response. My biggest concern was whether or not I'd be able to switch out of Destruction path after getting to 50 or so. I wanted to be Bow/2h or Bow/"x" and be more of an archer assassins type build for PvP and VR levels. Would I have issues switching over after spending so much time grinding with Destruction Staff?

I don't want to be sub-par in everything else just because I solely used Destruction Staff all the way to 50...

Also, the guides I've found have been vague as far as gear goes while leveling. Am I supposed to be using the gear that the mobs drop? Craft some? Since they avoid quests entirely I was unsure as to how they even effectively grind mobs in sub-par gear?

I haven't been able to figure out how they are so effective. I guess I'll find out soon enough...

Edit - I'm also Khajit because I planned to eventually go more bow/melee type build. So Destruction Staff is automatically a bit worse since I'm Khajit, heh

DirtySerf · April 2014

Im switching to aoe farming after questing till 24, so I have all the skills I need for the build that I think I'm going to stick with once I hit max lvl. That being said I don't think it is that hard to skill up other areas even after you max out, flexibility seems to be the calling card for zenimax in terms of how the game plays out.

As for gear, I can already say that the gear you gather off mobs is equal if not much better then the gear you get from quest rewards. So that shouldn't be a problem at all. Gear and gold drops off mobs seems to be pretty generous.

Also the passives you get from light armor and class seem to be the most necessary for Destro staff so race shouldn't really be an issue, especially just for grinding.

GreasedLizard · April 2014

I have found Volcanic Rune to be an indispensable addition to AoE farming / dungeon trash (Mage Guild)

Silver Shards can be very good depending on your opponent.

Otherwise properly leverage Ambush for the dmg buff to Whirling and PE does OK dmg but more for buffing Whirl even more.

DirtySerf · April 2014

I thought I had scoured all potential skills but i missed Volcanic Rune, good suggestion @GreasedLizard‌ Ill look into it. I am a little weary it will come up against the same issues I had with other magika based skills that I mentioned earlier where they just don't do enough damage with my stam build to warrant the use of resources. Also the smaller radius is a concern as well, Im looking into bringing my magika total up a little higher though.

Currently Im running at what seems to be the bare minimum for my magika pool, I have just enough currently to put up mark target then ambush for each pack, which is all I should need. Also usually after 2 light attacks ill regen enough to use a Shadowy Disguise to stop the mobs in their tracks and line up a Whirling crit.

I seem to be on track for melee AoE, though currently its not the amount faster Im aiming for it is definitely faster then questing and a lot of fun too. My times should improve as I still have a few passives I need to pick up and some morphs and can't wait to unlock Power Extraction though Siphoning seems to be skilling up slow

The big morph I'm excited to try is Mark Target -> Reapers Mark. It increases the heal, which is already huge, and also gives a big bump of Power for 30 seconds! So at the rate I already go from group to group it should be up almost constantly.

GreasedLizard · April 2014

Curious how Wep Power and Wep Damage work together. Damage should be near hard-capped with PE on large packs. So it may be one of the few bits of scaling left.

I will take Reaper too (just only recently bought mark). Mark uses a disgusting amount of Magicka though, one reason you are so starved.

Even rolling 5pc Light (which I don;t think my end build will be, due to almost all my big moves being Phys Crit), my regen is not all that great. ST regen is sick with refreshing Shadows though.

Sounds like your build will lean towards buff mgmt via MP and msotly ST for DPS

GreasedLizard · April 2014

Volcanic Rune is great for comedy relief too ! It's fairly deep into Mage Guild though, took me 3ish maps of 100% lore book completion to nail that lv