Attributes and Armor traits/enchantments/combinations help.

Nihili

Since I got this game I've been running:

• 49 health, 0 magicka, 0 stamina,
• and then enchanted all my gear with Magicka (to make up for speccing just in health)
• and crafted them with an infused trait. (MOAR magicka)

I'm VR4 and this leaves me (if I remember correctly) with about 2370 Health and 1970 Magicka (I can't remember if this includes foods or not).
I'm a magicka NB build (with two or three stamina skills mixed in) and this has worked okay-ish for me with a couple of exceptions...

These being that I'm lacking the magicka to sustain my magicka skills, and because of the age-old problem with stamina skills (where if you use a stam skill you are pretty much giving up the chance to block/roll, or possibly sprint or stealth etc. and vice versa) I find myself low on stamina too.
This, I imagine is probably because I specced in nothing but health. Further because I'm rolling with just infused traits on my armor I'm particularly squishy to crits. I'm looking for some advice on how I might improve what I've got while minimizing my opportunity cost. This is what I've come up with, hopefully you guys can advise me on whether it's a good idea or not:

• 34 health, 15 magicka, 0 stamina
• 3 armor pieces enchanted with magicka, 4 pieces enchanted with stamina.
• The magicka pieces have infused trait, the stamina pieces have impenetrable.

The idea of the newer spec is that I've shifted Health attributes to magicka, and so circumvented the need for magicka enchanted armor pieces, but I still kept a couple of magicka enchanted armor pieces in anyways so I can make sure I have an abundance of magicka. Then I added stamina enchanted armor pieces (for my stamina skills) with an impenetrable trait against those crit builds.

I have yet to try any of this out, but I am interested in knowing whether you guys think my current move to improve my build is the right one.

Nestor

I split my skill bars on my NB to use Stamina skills then use Magic Skills. Or use the skills until I have a min of stamina to roll dodge or break away then use Magic. Quite frankly, I don't worry so much about roll dodge with my NB, I get the initial burst damage from stealth, then clean up after that. Usually don't take enough damage to worry about dodging, and I tend to get more loot from finesse if I take some damage.

For Crits, you need Impenetrable, I don't know how many pieces you need, but 4 seem to be the right number. You might need more pieces.

I would still stay at 49 in health, then use different sets of armor to gain Stamina or Mana with Glyphs. There is an addon that lets you switch out gear quickly.

Also, look at crafted sets to leverage the abilities of the NB in Medium Armor to have Critical Strike. Crits are not so important in PvP, but in PvE they are invaluable.

Buff up what you need with Rings and Necklaces. The one that reduce the cost of spells really help, perhaps the ones that reduce Stamina costs can help you too. I tend to ignore Stamina myself with regards to buffing it, just use it until my magic is regened.

Nihili

Thanks a lot for getting back to me

I'll take what you say into account, I figured that perhaps downplaying my health attributes in favor of magicka was the way to go, but I hadn't considered circumventing that whole process by just changing around my jewelry. Do you think the rings that reduce skill costs better for my purposes than the rings that add to my max magicka/stamina?

Nestor

Jewelry does both. They usually have a M/H/S boost by them selves, then the Enchantment. You can't add a Glyph to a ring that adds Stamina, but you can add one that reduces Stamina Costs or increases Stamina Regen. So, the ring has to have built in the MHS boost that you want.

Some Rings have no base buff to MHS so ignore those. You can change the Enchantment on most rings (even some set pieces). Say if you want Stamina Boost and Spell Cost reduction, then take any jewelery that have a base Stamina Boost and either add the glyph that reduces Spell Cost or replace the one that is there.

If your having trouble finding the rings you want, check the Guild Stores, most of them sell for about 100 each in gold if they are not part of a dropped set. I just put a bunch of VR leveled jewelry that adds Stamina in the Guild Stores (one has a Kiosk in Daggerfall, one in Riften)

*I am not sure tactically which is better, more Regen or Reduced Cost of skills. It seems that most of the time, reducing the cost works out better for battles. Although on my DK, I can run Sea of Flames almost forever with enough Regen jewelery.

theyancey

I run 80% H with 10% in M & S. Varies a bit depending on which alt I play.

Nestor

Oh, my NB is currently at 67% Critical Strike and 180 or so base weapon damage with a Hundings Rage/Night Mothers Gaze/Precise Dagger set up. He has 52% with the Staff.

Needs 6 Traits to craft this. If you don't have 6 Traits yet, then let me know and we can work something out where I make it for you. (it will cost you less if you give me the mats and trait gems)

Nihili

Thanks a lot for all the awesome replies @Nestor! That's a pretty crazy crit rating though, I think I've only gotten mine up to 40%, but that's while running other sets (Willow's path/Twilight's Embrace).

I'll definitely take a look at Hundings Rage, and Night Mothers Gaze is something I've wanted to craft for a while now but still need to research the traits (currently around 4 or 5 traits on most of my pieces). I appreciate the offer to craft it for me, but I have some guildies who could probably craft it out for me once I beg them with various favors.

As for jewelry, I might consider the Warlocks rings/focus - if I can get my hands on them without having to give up a golden duck. I'm a vamp so I'll probably have to enchant the focus with fire resist, but the other two I can enchant with Magicka and Stamina enchants.

AlnilamE

Ooohhh, I'm going to look into that set combo. I'm using Night Mother's with Nightshade for a DPS set and it's working out pretty well.

clayandaudrey_ESO

I use Hunding's Rage and Ashen Grip sets and my crit is at 70.3% with weapon dmg at 223. Ashen grip 4 piece gives a boost to health(138) 4% crit and 17 to weapon damage. Add another 8% from pvp buffs moves me to 78.3 and then a pot pushes it even higher. I use 4 impenetrable 2 infused and a divines. attributes are 14 / 15 / 20. I may not have as much health but I seem to rarely run out of resources. I use 3 class and 2 dual wield skills on my bar. I seem to hold my own in both pvp/pve with this setup. Oh and my secondary(bow) crit is at 63.3%.

Aeratus

Use different sets for PVE and PVP. In PVP, impen is valuable, whereas in PVE, infused and divines is valuable.

I play magicka NB (resto staff and shield), and I have 29 points in health and 20 points in magicka. All my enchants are magicka (including the one on the shield). I use 5x Magnus and 3x Torug pact, all pieces being impen (including shield). The Magnus and Torug sets also gives you more magicka and health.

I don't bother with crit at all for my pvp build. Crit is good for killing "noobs" and PVEers who get bored and wander into PVP, but is not reliable against any decent targets.

I also use purple food to increase the stats. This is important for me, because without purple food, my Stamina is not high enough.

As NB, you should have no problems with magicka sustain, because you have siphoning attacks, as well as the resto staff heavy attack which restores magicka (and is unreflectable by DKs).

Regarding stamina, don't sprint on the battlefield when there are any enemies in sight. The increase in speed is pretty minor, whereas draining your stamina means you can't use CC-break or roll dodge. Also, don't overuse roll dodge unless you really need to get out of an area. Also, on a magicka build, it is probably not a good idea to use any stamina skills for damage.

AlexDougherty

Set+Bonus+Crafting+Locations
The above link is a list of all crafted set bonuses and where you can find them, should help you find a set bonus you can use.