Werewolf doesn't affect you until you actually activate the ultimate. You can omit it from your bars, or you can slot it passively for +15% stam regen without drawbacks, other than using up an ulti slot. The latter means it's always a plus to be werewolf, e.g. because it gives you that option, not that you would likely use that on a magblade.

Vampire, on the other hand, can be a mistake, because it permanently debuffs you (and changes your appearance). Many people think it's mandatory in PvP and, especially on nightblade, being a stage 3 vamp not only makes you tankier at low health, it gives you a stealth-related damage buff. However, this comes at the cost of more expensive non-vamp skills. If you want to lean on cloak, e.g. you want to use Shadowy Disguise all the time / by default while moving around, the increased cost is a notable drawback.

typically vamp is for magic based toons, and WW is for stam based toons, but that doesn't mean you can't mix it up. Just depends on what you're trying to do.

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

My PvP magblade is a werewolf. It's not min-maxed, and I need to work on the build, but it's fun.

You get +30% Max Stamina while transformed. So for a damage boost, put your points all into Max Stamina and not Magicka. Even if most of your skills are magicka-based, increasing your Max Magicka doesn't increase your recovery (except for using synergies that restore resources). So you can add a recovery glyph and wear Light Armor and should be able to sustain just as well. My magblade doesn't have sustain issues soloing world bosses and IC bosses this way.

Yeah, I actually do this on one of my magblades, because she's a woodelf and I only play magblade. If you want to min-max, NB passives don't favor this approach, because you get +8% magicka from slotting Siphoning skills. This nullifies any advantage a stamina race, building into stamina, could theoretically have. It also feels a bit weird to play, though a big stamina pool does have advantages in PvP. The food is Candied Jester Coins. I'm not a believer in high health on my nightblades .

I guess the naturally high mag sustain would give your WW good healing sustain and heavy attacks aren't bad to do damage and sustain stamina as a WW. Not that WW is said to be competitive these days. I have a lifelong WW sorc friend who has given up on WW for the time being, but that all depends on whether you care about being competitive.

If you intend to build for and play in Werewolf form, then some Classes are better than others — sometimes unintuitively.

For instance, if you wanted to maximize DPS in a PvE scenario, one of the worst choices is the nature-themed Warden, due to so many of their passives requiring Class abilities, which Werewolf cannot use. However, because of their passives, one of the best choices is the Templar — characters of which, according to the lorebook The Four Abominations, are expected to exterminate werewolves, among other evils. It's odd that one of the most thematically appropriate choices for a Werewolf is a bad pick functionally, but the worst pick thematically for a Werewolf happens to be one of the best functionally.


But if you just intend to mainly play your Class and only transform occasionally, then — as others have said — there is no mistake to having Werewolf on a character. You can simply unslot the transformation ultimate to effectively play as if you didn't have a curse.

The Nightblade playstyle is fun, and it's usually a nerf to transform into a Werewolf because of how well-rounded the Nightblade kit is in comparison to the Werewolf kit. However, if you are building for Nightblade combat, I'd pick Vampire over Werewolf, due to their stealth passives; otherwise, if you're building for Werewolf combat, Nightblade is an okay choice.

Nope. Everything is hybrid now.