Nightblade Dungeon and Boss Build Analyzed

Eam · May 2014

In the current state this game is i find it myself extremely difficult to play and due decent damage on bosses with a melee class.
At the moment i even regret my decision not to tank for once in an MMO and play a Dps class cause in every Elder Scrolls game i have and i ever will play an Argonian with Dual wield and a Bow.

So by all the love i bear for the Elder Scrolls series i will write a PvE Build down for you i use myself and help you to understand a bit how the weak Nightblade work.

If you expect to do more DPs then a Sorcerer then you may turn around and leave, at the state this game is at this moment most damage is dealt by staff and only staff.
No Sword, No Dual Wield or Whatever Sorcerer and destruction Staff out damages every other class and in my opinion every Melee needs a hard buff.

(*) <- indicates which skill i use
Skill<- indicates which skill i wont use and is garbage for PvE

Also you need to understand something that is quite different with Melees in this game and is hard for newcomers to understand.

Spell Crit chance and Weapon Crit chance.

Spell Crit chance counts for = Every ranged Magicka attacks in your Class Skill lines.
Weapon Crit chance counts for = Every Melee based attack in your Class Skill and Weapon Skill lines.

Example:

Mage Guild skill "Mage Light" will not rise the critical chances of Skills such as "deathstroke", "Teleportstrike" or "Veiled Strike" but counts for Skills such as "Strife or "Soul Shred".

Another thing you will notice is that Nightblade lives and uses more Passiv Abilities other then Skills so prepare yourself for a lot of Skyshards hunting cause you never have enough Skill-points till Veteran Level 7 or something.

I try to explain as best as i can.

Assassination:
Death Stroke
Dawnbraker is your ultimate.
(*) Assassin's Blade < Killer's Blade
Execute for below 25%, superb to rush down. The ranged morph makes no sense.
Teleport Strike
Only use i saw were the Daedra twin sisters from jump from A to B, no use atm.
Blur
PvP?
(*) Mark Target < Piercing Mark
Best skill for Bow to max your Dps and the reduce of your Armor won't hurt.
Morphed to Piercing Mark to reduce Magicka costs, snare is more for PvP.
(*) Haste < Focused Attacks
Bugs on Bow atm sadly, very good when you ran out of Stamina and/or Magicka.
Makes you hit faster with normal attacks and replenish your Stamina
Master Assassin
useless for bosses and group dungeons.
(*) Executioner
Explains itself.
(*) Pressure Points
Explains itself.
(*) Hemorrhage
Explains itself.

Shadow
Consuming Darkness
Others seem so much better also no space for it.
Shadow Cloak
Space waste, Time waste, Dps waste, waste, waste.
(*) Veiled Strike < Surprise Attack
Tons of Damage and -40% Armor
Summon Shade
Makes no damage, Tank skill?
Path of Darkness
PvP
Aspect of Terror
Remember fear in wow? don't use it!
Refreshing Shadow
no Shadow Cloak
Shadow Barrier
no Shadow Cloak
(*) Fortitude
More Health is always good.
Dark Veil
no Shadow Cloak

Siphoning
(*) Soul Shred < Soul Siphon
Ultimate for trash in narrow areas, stuns, nuke and heal, handy.
(*) Strife < Swallow Soul
Distance Bow skill to use up some magicka, also get more healed!
Agony
CC lasts to less and in the current content useless.
(*) Cripple < Grippling Grasp
I threw snipe out for this skill, bow skill, distance and more dps.
Siphoning Strikes
Space waste and also you got haste for that.
(*) Drain Power < Sap Essence
Your Nuke Skill for the trash.
(*) Catalyst
More potion effectiveness works also on Crit potions and other useful potions
(*) Magicka Flood
Explains itself.
(*) Soul Siphoner
Explains itself.
(*) Transfer
Explains itself.

Bow
(*) Poison Arrow < Venom Arrow
Most Bosses are immune to poison but the Silence and Interrupt is sometimes very very handy.
Volley
You got Soul Siphoner for that.
(*) Scatter Shot < Magnum Shot
Damage Buff, Jump back and avoid getting hit by red areas and more.
Arrow Spray
You got Soul Siphoner for that.
Snipe
Threw it out, Takes to long, space waste, Focused Aim buff lasts to less.
(*) Accuracy

(*) Ranger
Explains itself.
(*) Long Shots
Explains itself.
(*) Hawk Eye
Explains itself.
For Trash and Boss Adds.
Hasty Retreat

Dual Wield
Twin Slashes
Would be such a great skill but every %"§" Boss is immune to bleeding Effects wich means its totally useless.
(*) Flurry < Rapid Strikes
The only Stamina skill for your Dual Wield that does something, another "haste" buff, and Damage is nice.
Whirlwind
You got Soul Siphoner for that.
Sparks
PvP
Hidden Blade
Ranged attack? nah.
(*) Slaughter
Explains itself.
(*) Dual Wield Expert
Explains itself.
(*) Controlled Fury
Explains itself.
(*) Ruffian
Explains itself.
(*) Twin Blade and Blunt
I recommend highly a Sword Mainhand and a Dagger Offhand to get the best effectiveness out of this Passive.

Fighters Guild
(*) Dawnbreaker < Flawless Dawnbreaker
Your Ultimate in Bow and Dual Wield, you need the 10% Passive you get from the Morph. great Damage on Undead, Daedra, Werewolfs etc.
Silver Bolts
no need.
Circle of Protection
no need.
Expert Hunter
no need.
Trap Beast
useless?
Intimidating Presence
pve questing only
(*) Slayer
90% of all Bosses and Trash are Undead or Daedra!
(*) Banish the Wicked
90% of all Bosses and Trash are Undead or Daedra!
(*) Skilled Tracker
90% of all Bosses and Trash are Undead or Daedra!
Bounty Hunter
PvP, useless.

Light armor (2 Parts)
Annulment
I dont like all the Armor skills.
(*) Evocation
Explains itself.
(*) Recovery
Explains itself.
(*) Spell Warding
Explains itself.
Prodigy
no set of 5.
(*) Concentration
Explains itself.

Medium Armor (5 parts)
Evasion
I dont like all the Armor skills.
Improved Sneak
Sneaking in dungeons with your group is useless.
(*) Windwalker
I dont like all the Armor skills.
(*) Athletics
I dont like all the Armor skills.
(*) Dexterity
I dont like all the Armor skills.
(*) Agility
I skilled this just to be sure not to get hit by certain attacks.

You notice that the only Ultimate i use is the Dawnbreaker from the Fighters Guild?
It buffs you for 10% just for having it equipped and it deals tons of damage for low Ultimate points and even more on Undead and Daedra, its the best Ultimate for Melees in the game, hands down.

Skills and how i use them.

This Build is not a press from 1 to 6 build you need to know what to do when and change something out for trash and for bosses depending on what boss your fighting.

For example in the Dungeon banished cells. You are fighting against the Giant Daedroth forgot the name, sorry.

I go Bow first, cast Piercing Mark, Shoot him with Venom arrow, Crippling grasp, change then to Dual Wield, reduce even more Armor with Surprise attack and attack multiple time with Rapid strikes and Suprise attack till i ran low on mana. Go then back to the Bow and so on.

For trash i usually Swap The ultimate for the Siphon ultimate.
The rest is simple, swap something out you think best for the Sap essence skill before Bosses to Nuke with your Group.

I hope that helps some of you out there who were like me, confused and buffled about the Nighblade.

If there are any questions let me know. Just don't quote or the posts will be GIGANTIC

Not everyone will agree with this build but with all the knowledge of MMo's i have and information i gathered i put this together. WITH LOVE for you!

Again hoped i could help some fellow Nightbladers.
and btw i wrote this twice, hit strg + r instead of strg + z when i was done the first time.

Eam Samaraka~

oldkye · May 2014

Eam wrote: »

Just don't quote or the posts will be GIGANTIC

Nice guide ^.^ it did bring up one question for me is the spell crit for ranged class skills and physical crit for melee class skills the same for all classes?

Like do Sorc's need physical crit for close range class spells? if so that's very interesting.

Zalathorm · May 2014

Wow...
I stopped reading when I saw shadowcloak was "useless"

Then I kept reading to see what other bad advice evident.
Other "useless" skills you outlined: hidden/flying blade, whirlwind, consuming darkness, shadowcloak, siphoning stirkes, silver bolts, and expert hunter. You have literally called some of the best skills we can possibly use, useless. They're not on my bar every time, but if you think those skills are bad, you're not using them correctly.

After reading those, I wish I had stopped reading at shadowcloak.

Keiffo · May 2014

Shadow Cloak is the most useful skill I have as a NB. Nothing can replace it, it's absolutely amazing. Essential.

Just...

How can somebody be a NB and call this ability useless is beyond me.

/mindblown

Zerl · May 2014

I'm sorry, but your build is in no way "perfection", and your loadout isn't really efficient:

* You've wasted a slot on doubling cripple (you can simply change loadout when you intend to use it).
* Shadow Cloak is not trash (on the contrary, it's pretty mandatory), as it benefits from master assassin (+10% on hit). It's also a great skill for damage mitigation as it can sometimes cancel an attack(s) against you.
* Haste only generates stamina, considering your build appears to be primarily magicka-based, it seems odd that you have chosen this over siphoning strikes (as with decent management of this skill you will never run out of either resource pool yet still maintain decent damage).
* Flurry is "OK", but in terms of an efficient stamina dump you'll want a skill like hidden blade (I prefer blood craze, but then that's personal preference).
* Now I'm not 100% sure on this, but passive bonuses are applicable even if a skill is not in the loadout that you are using at the time. On that basis, there is no need to duplicate flawless dawnbreaker.

Sorry to critique your guide, but it is really misleading as by the looks of it you are overlooking some fundamentals on how to maximise DPS from a NB.

PBpsy · May 2014

"(*) Assassin's Blade < Killer's Blade
Execute for below 25%, superb to rush down. The ranged morph makes no sense."
Ranged Finisher makes no sense?. Getting away from bosses that can one shot you at any time and doing massive damage makes no sense? LOL

''Shadow Cloak.
Space waste, Time waste, Dps waste, waste, waste.''

Ranged interrupt, life saver ,can be morphed to do instant crit with an ultimate. Yep useless.

Eam · May 2014

i just don't see anything good in going invisible at dungeons, sure you get to Crit afterwards and you could stun with Surprise attack but thats about it, you don't spam the invisibility at the bosses and waste your mana in such a huge amount for one Crit. Its not Efficient.

And you need to have two flawless dawnbreaker, but only on bosses.

and again this guide is for bosses and trashes in Veteran dungeons only.

Danarchist · May 2014

No offense friend but this guide is really bad. Calling silver bolts useless is like saying airplanes are inefficient use of travel time, walk instead! Half the crap you fight in this game is either daedra or undead, including pvp as it is chock full of vamps now.
I am not going to go into detail on where your wrong here, but this is the most detailed complaining thread I have seen anyone write, you must be upset about something.

Zalathorm · May 2014

Eam wrote: »

i just don't see anything good in going invisible at dungeons, sure you get to Crit afterwards and you could stun with Surprise attack but thats about it, you don't spam the invisibility at the bosses and waste your mana in such a huge amount for one Crit. Its not Efficient.

And you need to have two flawless dawnbreaker, but only on bosses.

and again this guide is for bosses and trashes in Veteran dungeons only.

I'm not trying to ridicule or be mean here, but really man, you need to get some more experience and redo this guide at a later date.

You want to talk efficiency, here you go:
You need one spammable mana dump = Veiled Strike
You need one spammable stamina dump = Flying Blade / Silver bolts / Whirlwind
Then you have 3 more slots:
Take shadow cloak for defensive maneuvers.
Take Siphoning Attack to get back your resources (after burning through them as fast as possible)
Take Killers Blade to execute and for some health sustain

A fight looks like this. Light attack - cancel with Veiled Strike - cancel with bash. Keep doing this until your mana is under 10%. Then, do the same with stamina. LIght attack - cancel with Flying Blade - cancel with bash. You then activate siphoning strikes and build your resources back up(assuming you didn't want to have it up all the time, which is a fine strategy). I often leave enough stamina for a dodge or block, and enough mana for a shadow cloak. That is just my single target melee bar. I redo the bar for trash or for aoe fights.

Uses of shadow cloak - there are many that may be used in any dungeon.
1. You have mob aggro from AOE - AOE's have a max target of 6, so the tank doesn't always have all aggro. Often in dungeons, you need to drop aggro from multiple sources, or from ranged mobs. Shadowcloak does this.
2. You need the armor and spell resist to survive an AOE - example, Vet Spindleclutch on the gargoyle. You stay in and DPS during his aoe. When he starts to stomp, you shadow cloak, and then use veiled strike synergy, to drastically increase your damage mitigation
3. You need to avoid a charged power attack. Some mobs have aggro wipe. Some just turn and are powering up to hit you. Using shadow cloak stops their power attack, keeps you in melee range, and allows you to reopen with veiled strike for synergy.
4. You are out of stamina, and cannot dodge an attack. Shadowcloak to survive.

My best advice is to go to Tamriel Foundry, and read some of the guides there.