Full Bow/Siphoning, no problems

I am veteran rank 8, almost 9 Nightblade. It's doable, but there are many broken skills and passives. I can't recall seeing anything about fixing them either..however, vr10 Nightblade dual wield dps is actually pretty good if you are skilled right from my understanding.

I know how it feels lol, even in PvP we rarely have an advantage with all the broken passives and abilities. PvE is extremely annoying when fighting bosses and having all this *** bug out. Rapid strikes is a terrible excuse of a DPS to top it off and constantly messes up my ability bar, and when mark target, or dark cloak + surprise attack won't work you're ***.

I feel like NB was just some class they made up to test and then sold it to the players as a finished product.

For a class that falls into the dps category our dps output is really a joke.

Nightblade needs to be fixed as well. Big time. It is good for dps yes but it should be even better given it's rogue-like class. You don't have all the heals (besides some siphon) nor tanking abilities as the others do.. not to mention some of the passives not working is frustrating to see they are nerfing vamps beyond belief yet not fixing Nightblade passives, vamp passives, and several quests.

As I said elsewhere on these forums, I like ZOS. I think ESO is a great game... don't ruin it because of whiney people.. Fix it, balancing is fine but werewolves should absolutely be powerful when in form, vamps should absolutely be fast and powerful, humans don't have such afflictions nor negative drawbacks so they have that to use against them. Who has the upper hand? There is no telling, but as of now it certainly won't be anyone who is a vamp/ww/nightblade until they fix them. I do quite well with my Nightblade, but almost all that I encounter do not. I play quite uniquely, but the majority of people are already realizing those things should be a priority and instead things are going in reverse.

I think Nightblade is a great class, however dual wield works good as well. That doesn't negate the fact that they need to correct the passives so that they work as per definition.

Here's a list of "some" of the bugs that plague NB.
I grabbed this info from another thread and tested all of these, they are indeed broken.

Assassination:

• Death Stroke <Incapacitating Strike> and <Soul Harvest> On occasion the animation will happen however the ability is not actually triggered.
  
• Assassin’s Blade <Killer’s Blade> and <Impale> – On occasion the animation will happen however the ability is not actually triggered. These abilities are also bugged in that they cannot crit. This may be fixed in 1.1
  
• Haste <Focused Attacks> and <Incapacitate> – The attack speed increase of 30% doesn’t affect bow weapons.
  
• Mark Target <Reaper’s Mark> – The gain damage bonus effect does not appear to work.
  
• Mark Target <Piercing Mark> – Allows you to see and attack targets who are sneaking however not targets that are invisible currently.
  
• Teleport Strike <Ambush> – On occasion the animation will happen however the ability is not actually triggered.

Shadow:

• Shadow Cloak <Shadowy Disguise> – Approximately 25% of the time this ability does not trigger any of its effects.
  
• Shadow Cloak <Shadowy Disguise> and <Dark Cloak> – On occasion you wont visually be invisible but you are to the mobs.
  
• Shadow Cloak <Shadowy Disguise> and <Dark Cloak> – Your character becomes invisible however enemy players can see particle effects and thus be able to locate your player.
  
• Veiled Strike <Concealed Weapon> – The 22% movement speed in stealth while slotted effect appears to suffer the dreaded “Once you’ve died you need to re-log or zone to rectify the issue”. Workaround: If you re-log or change zones it will force the passive effect to work again.
  
• Veiled Strike <Surprise Attack> and <Concealed Weapon> – Often the animation and stun effect will occur but no damage is done to the enemy.
  
• Path of Darkness <Twisting Path> and <Refreshing Path> – This ability appears to be affected by terrain, the magicka cost is spent however the ability does not trigger.
  
• Aspect of Terror <Mass Hysteria> and <Manifestation of Terror> – The base fear effect of 2 nearby enemies doesn’t appear to last the suggested 4 seconds all the time. It is often between 1.5 – 4 seconds.

Siphoning:

• Strife <Funnel Health> – On occasion it doesn’t apply to anyone.
  
• Strife <Funnel Health> – Doesn’t appear to be healing allies for the actual amount it should be, inconsistent heal effects.
  
• Cripple <Debilitate> and <Crippling Grasp> – The dot effect of this ability does not work on mobs that are immune to snare effects.
  
• Siphoning Strikes <Leeching Strike> – Only gives an extra 2.4% health instead of the expected 4%. This I've confirmed myself.
  
• Drain Power <Sap Essence> – Is unable to perform a critical strike for both the damage and healing component of this ability.
  
• Drain Power <Sap Essence> – Will not cast the heal effect unless the enemy is being damaged.
  
• Drain Power <Sap Essence> – Heals only for the base amount, and the +20% heal per target hit is never applied.

Meanwhile, the cost of abilities compared to the damage is unbalanced.

Im not sure if they are balancing this around stam/weapon abilities for when Haste and Mark Target work, but they don't work, so people can't even test correctly how good NB damage is.

• Max stam doesn't increase your damage with weapon abilities.

If you compare the NB to the DK, who appears to have had it's hand held with development.
You can see that the NB is incredibly superior to the DK if they were both a wet noodle class.

Apparently in patch 1.2, NB is getting fixed, or so the secret people tell me, but they also say that is 3months away.. so maybe re-rolling a DK in that time NB people can play the game and find it fun.

Yep.
Apparently they will be doing 1 big class balance patch, so it's not a NB specific patch.

awkwarrd wrote: »

ipkonfigcub18_ESO wrote: »

You mean the 'other' class balance. NB? Never Bothered.

Hard to kill stuff when our defense is yuk and our DPS is beyond yuk. I feel like a target dumby to mobs

NB, nightblade.

I mean it's just going to be one of those "every class balance patches".
So Nightblade will be a wet noodle until all class's get fixed, where only those siphon builds will be viable past vr2.

The patch i suspect will have updates to tooltips and those patch notes where they use words like "significant", instead of an actual value to show you what they actually did so people can test and report feedback and bugs properly.

ipkonfigcub18_ESO wrote: »

Thank you, awkwarrd, for that post by the way.

Your very welcome.

This is just info that was leaked to me, and you can see for yourself with patch notes, that not everything makes it in, so Nightblade might not even make it into the 1.2 patch, maybe not even into the 1.1 that's in the next week.

Sounds good to me as long as the bugged abilities are eventually fixed. I'm enjoying the game and Nightblade immensely but I'm hoping we get our bugged skills worked on soon.

I don't really feel like the other classes need to be nerfed other than Dark Talons it would be nice to have a skill like immovable counter it. I was disappointed as a vampire just getting nerfed and cured myself today since its no longer worth it to me but I definitely understand why it needed to be nerfed. Zenimax did an awesome job making it so you can no longer use the ability Bolt Escape while carrying an Elder Scroll. This wasn't a nerf but more like preventing an exploit. Well done Zenimax and I look forward to Nightblade skills being fixed hopefully soon.

I dont understand the majority of complaints, but for what it's worth, here's a spec that I can solo every 1dot I've ever seen, and multiple world bosses in VR5+.

Great thing about this spec is it requires nothing special like WW or Vamp. It's a DPS spec first, CC/Kite spec 2nd. 1st set is for dealing great damage with 2 separate resource executes and you can keep any 1dot CC'd indefinitely without swapping at all with just Veiled (to open), Ambush, Incapacitating Strike, Uppercut,
etc.

Second set is purely for movement kiting but requires twitch gameplay because at times you will be moving FAST. I use it to kite world bosses who are immune to snares, because you can still leech their speed and gain the speed bonus from Path.You can swap Scatter for anything you feel like, another DoT for DPS would be good.


http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#mcRXxg0VM0W0miu8GFlT8IryJ8GFtc8wABe8wACj8GHRk8injt8IPbk8IPQe8innv8If0n8DohZ8p7JMdBvT6MdBvj6MdBEI6MdBEp6cdBET8T7JMrqAi6MrqAD6MrqAZ6crqLw8x7HLsfw6Lsfi6MwGN16MwGAR6MwGAs6MwGAa6MwGAb8g7HrsXy6LsXx6MipLW6MipL46MippV6Mippo6Mippq8C7Drzqa6Lzqq6rzqu6MGFWc6MGFWi6MGFWA6MGFWn8D7DrzdM6Lzds6MIsaM6MIrv36MIrEf6MIrEh8F7DLzrJ6Lbuy6MIPNU6MIPAh6MIPAT6MIPAv857azx3TH6cx3TJ6cx3TO6cx3T38zf7ozNbo6rNbk6MDVRE6MDVRH8zu7zzHfYE6zHfZd8zG7zzHQ3F8zI7zzJIoX6zJIkL8zN7zzJZcY8zA7zzKpUN8zL7zzK4EX

I have very little problem soloing most content outside of incredibly stacked world bosses and VR Anchors. Obviously, gear totally for Magicka as this build as you'll be dumping every last attribute point into health.

Works for me, anyway.

Vodkaphile wrote: »

I dont understand the majority of complaints, but for what it's worth, here's a spec that I can solo every 1dot I've ever seen, and multiple world bosses in VR5+.

Great thing about this spec is it requires nothing special like WW or Vamp. It's a DPS spec first, CC/Kite spec 2nd. 1st set is for dealing great damage with 2 separate resource executes and you can keep any 1dot CC'd indefinitely without swapping at all with just Veiled (to open), Ambush, Incapacitating Strike, Uppercut,
etc.

Second set is purely for movement kiting but requires twitch gameplay because at times you will be moving FAST. I use it to kite world bosses who are immune to snares, because you can still leech their speed and gain the speed bonus from Path.You can swap Scatter for anything you feel like, another DoT for DPS would be good.


http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#mcRXxg0VM0W0miu8GFlT8IryJ8GFtc8wABe8wACj8GHRk8injt8IPbk8IPQe8innv8If0n8DohZ8p7JMdBvT6MdBvj6MdBEI6MdBEp6cdBET8T7JMrqAi6MrqAD6MrqAZ6crqLw8x7HLsfw6Lsfi6MwGN16MwGAR6MwGAs6MwGAa6MwGAb8g7HrsXy6LsXx6MipLW6MipL46MippV6Mippo6Mippq8C7Drzqa6Lzqq6rzqu6MGFWc6MGFWi6MGFWA6MGFWn8D7DrzdM6Lzds6MIsaM6MIrv36MIrEf6MIrEh8F7DLzrJ6Lbuy6MIPNU6MIPAh6MIPAT6MIPAv857azx3TH6cx3TJ6cx3TO6cx3T38zf7ozNbo6rNbk6MDVRE6MDVRH8zu7zzHfYE6zHfZd8zG7zzHQ3F8zI7zzJIoX6zJIkL8zN7zzJZcY8zA7zzKpUN8zL7zzK4EX

I have very little problem soloing most content outside of incredibly stacked world bosses and VR Anchors. Obviously, gear totally for Magicka as this build as you'll be dumping every last attribute point into health.

Works for me, anyway.

Can we see your build soloing VR5+ bosses on Youtube?

Om... Soooo, maybe with 1.2 and its 3 months from now!!!

I dont think ill have enough patience nor the spirit to reroll a different class, plus having to pay 45€ In the meantime to play a buggy sub class doesnt look very promising.

Ill try reach VR10 then quit till gets fixed/balanced.

Pretty much.

Don't expect any NB fixes anytime soon.
You may get a tooltip fix here and there, but that will be it, for months..

Just get yourself a bow, a siphon build, a 1h/shield and just do what everyone else is doing for now, it's the only way a NB can kind of compete, but not really.

awkwarrd wrote: »

@Vodkaphile
The first set, a 2h set.

• You have 2 finishers on the bar?

I can't see how it works.

The second set, bow set.

• It's just the siphon build i mentioned above, not sure if you read what i said about how vr content basically forces the NB players into that role in one way or another.

The siphon build, is the only build a NB can run for a sustained fight, this is nothing new, you could say pigeon holed build.
Here is where i mentioned it:

awkwarrd wrote: »

So Nightblade will be a wet noodle until all class's get fixed, where only those siphon builds will be viable past vr2.

This spec cannot solo VR world boss's that are immune to snare.
It also cannot solo zone boss's that have adds or range damage.

This build would only work against those few zone boss's that anyone can solo, and the other class's would do it easier.

The weakness of NB in the end game content, compared to other class's along with the broken skills, and basically needing to have a bar filled with the siphoning skills in order to progress.
That and a leveling buddy, or always needing a group.

If you take into account the effort you put in, to make this build work, with the kiting/timing/finishers/dots/leaching/siphoning, while trying not to die.
And compare that to a missile spamming sorc, or a talons shield bash dk, who don't need to evade anything, and can go toe-to-toe with the enemy, then you see the difference.

I should grab my friends DK build for you to look at.


He can solo those group public dungeons, the one's marked as "quest hubs"
I sure as hell can't on a NB.

Yes, a 2h set. I dont pigeonhole myself into an inferior Dual Wield spec for a reason. In terms of DPS, Dual Wield is superior in a straight up tank and spank encounter (when you're NOT the one tanking) but other than that, the CC provided by Uppercut is too powerful and having two finisher means you can always execute with one of them. Also, Reverse Slash starts to hit quite hard much sooner than the execute phase, so it's not a pure finisher. It's worth more than any Dual Wield talent.

The Siphon build is for the speed increase from Cripple. This can be spammed, you will NEVER run out of magicka with even mediocre regen, it can have 100% uptime and is the entire reason you dont need to be able to snare an opponent to kill it. Also worth noting is the passive from the bow line to increase your speed after a roll.

Public dungeons? Use Volcanic Rune, Path of Darkness (Morphed to heal), Bombard, Soul Siphon, and Soul Tether as an ultimate.

Is it harder than some other classes? Yep. Impossible? No. And that's the point of my post. The OP states even 1Dots are near impossible or "two shot" him. This is absolutely not the case and I haven't had a single problem with any iteration of a 1Dot yet, especially since they're CCable. With that 2h spoec, which is nothing groundbreaking, I can 100-0 any 1 Dot in the game without it being able to move or cast a single ability. Try something different instead of the generic PvP Dual Wield gank spec.

Edit: And for what it's worth, I haven't seen anyone just walk up and solo a world boss the way we can with a bow speed spec. A sorcerer would get folded over in half a second against most of the world bosses I've solo'd, which include bosses like the DC area Veteran Giant, Titan, Gargoyle, etc.

Vodkaphile wrote: »

blah i run a siphon 2h build.

Meh, i get the point of your post, but you're not getting the point of others.

You keep repeating the same stuff.
Siphon build.. yes.. yes we know.. the only working skill tree that works.. right.. got it.. you use it.. yes.. understood.. i kite stuff.. great.. because i need to..
The 2h finisher, yeah it does extra damage depending on it's health,.
Not sure where D/W comes into it but ok.

Bows can be used by multiple people.
And those zone boss's my little brother has taken down with his DK with much ease.. without needing to kite or basically do anything with strategy.

For what it's worth:
I never said it was impossible, i said "skills are broken and other class's can do whatever NB's do and are better at it"

DK and Sorc with a bow.. can do things far more efficiently and easily than a NB, if you have not seen this, then go look some of this stuff up on youtube.
But i warn you.. you will not like what you see.