I tried to play Nightblade in PVP......

s3dulo · August 24

And it's a joke.

It's so far behind in PVP. People are asking for Sorc and DK nerfs because classes like Nightblade are lagging so far behind. A 50% nerf to whip isn't going to do anything to help Nightblade not feel like doing PVP on hardmode.

The single biggest issue causing a massive gap between Sorc/DK and the other classes is sustain. Not having to invest anything in sustain and being able to invest everything into just offense and defense is the single largest advantage that DK and Sorc have over every other class. Nothing in the Nightblade's mastery passives make up for that gap. It's all just too little.

I can't speak for the other classes because I haven't played them in a while but I made a concerted effort to play Nightblade and every DK encounter is a lesson in futility unless it's against a very mediocre player. I feel like you all went extremely conservative with Nightblade class masteries and it shows. Please give it something more for U51. I think I've encountered 2 or 3 pure NBs in the past several months while playing DK and it was sad. These were clearly good players who just had no shot to win 1v1 because DK is such a carry. It's more or less a dead as a pure class in PVP at this point unless you're a glutton for punishment

I'm not asking to put Nightblade on god mode but it needs more than what it has.

acanca · 12:18AM

The buff to SS is for sure a step in the right direction, i am critting for around 35k with SS and thats pretty comparable to a lot of hard hitting skills. Though, i dont really see a world where this makes pureclass nb viable, it should be pretty ok on the old streak version.

Though ill be honest unless the 35k SS' translate to 7-8k hits in pvp there is pretty low chance it becomes actually viable, i gave the build a go on live before the pts and it was as you said an excercise in frustration for the most part.

That being said, comparing dk to nb currently is probably a little silly since imo DK currently is basically bugged due to Core of Flame. We should compare dk to other classes once dk cant permanently block with 0 effort. Which, DK will still be able to do pretty easily this patch unless Core of Flame gets further toned down but yeah. We'll see next next patch.

rlindsey912nub18_ESO · 1:36AM

I agree it’s a meme at this point and still no meaningful buffs

evLRise · 4:29PM

I tried EVERYTHING on NB.
Dots, soulcleaver, no soulcleaver, incap, bow, ranged, wretched, no wretched, big sustain, 0 sustain full damage.

Even tried some super niche setups where i tried to min max what makes NB unique as hard as possible - basically guaranteed crits and trying to get 1 huge hit for swallow soul and BRP bow for really big heals and DoTs ( riposte CP, incap debuff, warrior's opportunity script, full crit damage etc. ). Not only it was excruciatingly difficult to play correctly, even more than a standard NB setup, but even when i play perfectly there's little reason for my DK / WW / Sorc opponent to not permablock, as they have the sustain for it, and my contingency cloak riposte window hits a brick wall and does 0 damage with BRP bow or swallow soul heals.

The numbers on NB are plain garbage. And its my best class by a huge huge margin. I can't even do incap baits - if you press the ult and quickly block, you will cancel it, but the sound will play out and your opponent will hear it and instinctively dodge. I used to do this a lot and hold a heavy attack into incap when the dodge is over. Nowadays I literally can't afford to not be defensive for 1 GCD. And even when it works, even after 3 dodges and 1 break free, my DK and sorc opponents are back to full stamina immediately anyway, so I can't even take advantage of the stamina pressure.

Meanwhile i have 90% duel winrate on DK even tho it's the first time i play this class in 5 years - didn't even know how to PvP last time I tried it.

Luneca · 5:09PM

Every class that isn't DK/WW/Sorc on live feels like hardmode because those three things can push you into a box where you run out of stam or mag while they don't. It's really that simple.

It doesn't help that on the other classes (NB, Arc, Templar, Necro, and even Warden) managing buffs is extremely expensive and PvP can be summarized to literally being about how many buffs you can keep up while shooting damage out, sustaining, and keeping your HP up.

And that's a problem because on some calsses they can keep buffs up far easier than others and have skills littered with them. And these same classes have better sustain than the rest. Then they got damage buffs on top of that.

And the 5 classes listed above also may not have easy access to certain buffs as well, compounding the issue even harder.

It's a patch where 5 of the classes in the game cannot realistically compete without sweating more than any other patch in the past, and some people seriously try to argue this patch isn't the worst if not one of the worst in the game's history.

I'm still using NB, but it sucks beyond the i-frame on cloak and being able to force miss damage + counter (which will soon be less impactful after PTS changes). If not for that NB has no purpose.

It has little defensive options besides "roll", and the buffs on the class drop off too often in actual combat.

I also play an NB in 2x Light Armor sets, which means I better be on my "A" game. But even then NB damage seems inferior to anything sorc/DK/WW is putting out on live.

Not that it's a bad thing, but the skills in the class aren't very good even in the assination line, and I am not joking when I say I am using dizzy swing over surprise attack and just feel like an inferior stam sorc.

Good thing scribed skills are so pathetic they aren't worth slotting too for the most part, completely closing options that could be there for whatever reason the dev team decided to make these skills lackluster and not worth slotting beyind certain variants.

Abstraqt · 7:44PM

Honestly night blade at the moment is so rough to play, especially if you attempt to play ranged. Skills like summon shade and cripple are so underwhelming now compared to how stacked full of buffs other similar abilities are.

There have been so many changes to skills such as cloak and agony but no updates to many of others which has left night blade feeling outdated and outmatched by other classes.

The attention funnel health/swallow soul has gotten this patch SHOULD have been a really positive thing for nightblades, but unfortunately it's been so messy. I feel like a simple damage buff would have been welcomed, then perhaps Zos could have spent more time looking at improving the rest of the class too. Instead we have had weeks of the PTS, with 3 different updates to the skill, each getting more and more complicated, to the point now where people are debating what the update actually means/if it's a buff or not.

The main abilities which really need looking at are:

Cripple
Mark target
Summon shade
Cripple
Malevolent offering
Swallow soul

(This is very much from a pvp point of view)

Bushido2513 · 7:55PM

I've run into some night blades that do pretty good in pvp but it's hard to say if that are just targeting weak players or are just really good at nb.

Overall I haven't seen anywhere near the nb numbers I used to which goes to suggest that something isn't as good as it used to be.