Shadow Knight Build - PvP / PvE Advice - NightBlade

Vaerth

Here is the build I have been considering, and so far I think it would be good for PvP and helpful for PvE. What do you guys think?

Armor: 5 Heavy / 2 Light

Head: Light - Infused
Belt: Light - Divines
Shoulder: Heavy - Nirnhoned
Chest: Heavy - Infused
Legs: Heavy - Infused
Hands: Heavy - Reinforced
Boots: Heavy - Divines

Mundus: Lord or Mage


Both bars 2H Sword - Trait = Weapon Speed to build ultimate faster. Enchanted with Unresistable Damage


All Attribute point in Magicka


Jewlery = Max magicka and enchanted with increase spell damage


Crafted Sets = focus on Spell Damage (undecided as of now)


Race: Dunmer (Vampire)


Bar1: Teleport Strike / Mass Hysteria / Swallow Soul / Impale / Concealed Weapon - Ultimate = Soul Harvet

Bar2: Crippling Grasp / Refreshing Path / Sap Essence / Invigorating Drain / Mirage - Ultimate - Soul Tether

Shunravi

It would be fun to see this one in action. It looks ok, but I hope others chime in with their concerns and comments.

Shunravi

Vampire has risky potential.

Vaerth

Shunravi wrote: »

Vampire has risky potential.

Indeed it does, but, with Concealed weapon and dark stalker I move at sprint speed while in stealth

Also, the spell resistant heavy + light on top of my Dunmer fire resist helps that a little as well

Vaerth

Shunravi wrote: »

It would be fun to see this one in action. It looks ok, but I hope others chime in with their concerns and comments.

I feel like it may do a little less DPS than other build, but in the end if you are dead, then you have 0 DPS lol. This might keep me alive longer in PvP and the Sap heals would only help my team out in PvP.

Vaerth

Anyone running a build like this?

Vaerth

Slow day, lol

Kartalin

I had been using a little bit similar build. I used 4 Storm Knight, 4 Martial Knowledge, 2 Torug's Pact, and 2 Wrath of the Imperium rings ( for lack of a better option). 5 light and 2 heavy with 2 of the Storm Knight pieces being necklace and shield. Not terrible, but definitely could be better. For weapons I used 1H&S and Resto staff. You aren't using any 2H abilities so it's not like you're tied to using it specifically.

Vaerth

milthalas wrote: »

I had been using a little bit similar build. I used 4 Storm Knight, 4 Martial Knowledge, 2 Torug's Pact, and 2 Wrath of the Imperium rings ( for lack of a better option). 5 light and 2 heavy with 2 of the Storm Knight pieces being necklace and shield. Not terrible, but definitely could be better. For weapons I used 1H&S and Resto staff. You aren't using any 2H abilities so it's not like you're tied to using it specifically.

Yes, no weapon skills are used in the build at all.

Suru

Nothing about this is great, except from an RP standpoint.

milthalas wrote: »

I had been using a little bit similar build. I used 4 Storm Knight, 4 Martial Knowledge, 2 Torug's Pact, and 2 Wrath of the Imperium rings ( for lack of a better option). 5 light and 2 heavy with 2 of the Storm Knight pieces being necklace and shield. Not terrible, but definitely could be better. For weapons I used 1H&S and Resto staff. You aren't using any 2H abilities so it's not like you're tied to using it specifically.

This however is a build, more synergy and it works better as a hybrid.

Kartalin

As far as skills though, if you're going to be in PVP and especially as a vampire, you're going to need some kind of skill that's going to clear DoTs, like if you get hit by a fire ballista/treb, meatbag, etc. This comes down to Dark Cloak or Efficient Purge (from Alliance War Support skill line). Dark Cloak is preferable I think since it removes you from combat and allows you to drink a potion before jumping back into the fray. Also as a shadow ability it procs shadow barrier which gives you a nice short-term armor buff.

As for Mirage, the armor buff it gives is okay but not really necessary for your build. I think you might find the other morph of Blur, Double Take, more useful since it gives you a 4 second increased speed buff rather than the armor. This is great for moving in for the kill or escaping quickly (especially with dark stalker and concealed weapon). At the same time, though, Crippling Grasp gives you the same movement speed buff, so the question is whether they are redundant. So leaving Crippling Grasp on your bar, you could consider swapping out Mirage/Double Take for another utiliity spell like Mark Target (one of its morphs) which decimates your target's armor & spell resist. It's good to have at least one assassination ability on each bar for your passives to proc off of, so you may be inclined to not change either skill. Grim Focus (Relentless Focus morph) is another possibility if only for the damage boost and stam regen boost. Still need stam regen even as a magicka build.

I don't know how far you've gotten in your Mages Guild skill line, but for single target stuff I think Structured Entropy (morph of Entropy) would be better than Sap Essence. Sap is excellent for groups and it's your only AoE, so I don't know that you need to switch. But you might use one or the other depending on what you're facing. Structured Entropy gives you a minor HoT, a health boost, and the same Major Sorcery buff that Sap has.

I think you've made excellent choices for your ultimates. As for jewelry enchants, most people go with reduce magicka cost enchants over spell damage due to the huge disparity between the two. Spell damage and magicka regen enchants are really pretty insignificant, which is disappointing, but for dps the meta right now is to reduce costs up front rather than focusing on regen. This means you maximize your burst damage at the cost of your staying power in a fight. You can use regen enhancing drinks to make up for that neglect if you like, they're actually a lot better than they were pre-1.6.

Maybe something like this:

Bar1: Teleport Strike / Mass Hysteria / Dark Cloak / Impale / Concealed Weapon - Ultimate = Soul Harvest

Bar2: Crippling Grasp / Swallow Soul / (Sap Essence or Structured Entropy) / Invigorating Drain / (Double Take, Relentless Focus, or Piercing Mark) - Ultimate - Soul Tether

Single target I would go with Structured Entropy and Piercing Mark, but if you have multiple targets then Sap Essence and Double Take might be the way to go. Or even Mirage is fine since you'd still have the speed buff from using Crippling Grasp.

Hope you find this a little helpful.

Vaerth

Suru wrote: »

Nothing about this is great, except from an RP standpoint.

milthalas wrote: »

I had been using a little bit similar build. I used 4 Storm Knight, 4 Martial Knowledge, 2 Torug's Pact, and 2 Wrath of the Imperium rings ( for lack of a better option). 5 light and 2 heavy with 2 of the Storm Knight pieces being necklace and shield. Not terrible, but definitely could be better. For weapons I used 1H&S and Resto staff. You aren't using any 2H abilities so it's not like you're tied to using it specifically.

This however is a build, more synergy and it works better as a hybrid.

It was great in PvP last night

Vaerth

milthalas wrote: »

As far as skills though, if you're going to be in PVP and especially as a vampire, you're going to need some kind of skill that's going to clear DoTs, like if you get hit by a fire ballista/treb, meatbag, etc. This comes down to Dark Cloak or Efficient Purge (from Alliance War Support skill line). Dark Cloak is preferable I think since it removes you from combat and allows you to drink a potion before jumping back into the fray. Also as a shadow ability it procs shadow barrier which gives you a nice short-term armor buff.

As for Mirage, the armor buff it gives is okay but not really necessary for your build. I think you might find the other morph of Blur, Double Take, more useful since it gives you a 4 second increased speed buff rather than the armor. This is great for moving in for the kill or escaping quickly (especially with dark stalker and concealed weapon). At the same time, though, Crippling Grasp gives you the same movement speed buff, so the question is whether they are redundant. So leaving Crippling Grasp on your bar, you could consider swapping out Mirage/Double Take for another utiliity spell like Mark Target (one of its morphs) which decimates your target's armor & spell resist. It's good to have at least one assassination ability on each bar for your passives to proc off of, so you may be inclined to not change either skill. Grim Focus (Relentless Focus morph) is another possibility if only for the damage boost and stam regen boost. Still need stam regen even as a magicka build.

I don't know how far you've gotten in your Mages Guild skill line, but for single target stuff I think Structured Entropy (morph of Entropy) would be better than Sap Essence. Sap is excellent for groups and it's your only AoE, so I don't know that you need to switch. But you might use one or the other depending on what you're facing. Structured Entropy gives you a minor HoT, a health boost, and the same Major Sorcery buff that Sap has.

I think you've made excellent choices for your ultimates. As for jewelry enchants, most people go with reduce magicka cost enchants over spell damage due to the huge disparity between the two. Spell damage and magicka regen enchants are really pretty insignificant, which is disappointing, but for dps the meta right now is to reduce costs up front rather than focusing on regen. This means you maximize your burst damage at the cost of your staying power in a fight. You can use regen enhancing drinks to make up for that neglect if you like, they're actually a lot better than they were pre-1.6.

Maybe something like this:

Bar1: Teleport Strike / Mass Hysteria / Dark Cloak / Impale / Concealed Weapon - Ultimate = Soul Harvest

Bar2: Crippling Grasp / Swallow Soul / (Sap Essence or Structured Entropy) / Invigorating Drain / (Double Take, Relentless Focus, or Piercing Mark) - Ultimate - Soul Tether

Single target I would go with Structured Entropy and Piercing Mark, but if you have multiple targets then Sap Essence and Double Take might be the way to go. Or even Mirage is fine since you'd still have the speed buff from using Crippling Grasp.

Hope you find this a little helpful.

Very helpful, this build worked well in PvP. The damage is only SLIGHTLY lower than my Stamina build was so I think it worked great.

Spangla

There is no heal....

EQBallzz

As a vampire wouldn't you want to enchant one of your jewelry slots with FR? I don't play my vamp much these days so maybe it's changed but I recall fire dmg hurting quite a bit without my FR necklace.

*edit*
Also, why do you have four different enchants? Doesn't it make more sense to pick one or at most two for maximum effect instead of 4 with minimal effect? If you need armor go all reinforced. If you want to buff your mundus effect go all divines..etc..I can't imagine that one reinforced enchant would have have more than a negligible effect.

Vaerth

Spangla wrote: »

There is no heal....

I am a NightBlade, so no, there is not...We have some HoT and that is it.

Vaerth

EQBallzz wrote: »

As a vampire wouldn't you want to enchant one of your jewelry slots with FR? I don't play my vamp much these days so maybe it's changed but I recall fire dmg hurting quite a bit without my FR necklace.

*edit*
Also, why do you have four different enchants? Doesn't it make more sense to pick one or at most two for maximum effect instead of 4 with minimal effect? If you need armor go all reinforced. If you want to buff your mundus effect go all divines..etc..I can't imagine that one reinforced enchant would have have more than a negligible effect.

What? All 7 enchants are magicka...

EQBallzz

Vaerth wrote: »

EQBallzz wrote: »

As a vampire wouldn't you want to enchant one of your jewelry slots with FR? I don't play my vamp much these days so maybe it's changed but I recall fire dmg hurting quite a bit without my FR necklace.

*edit*
Also, why do you have four different enchants? Doesn't it make more sense to pick one or at most two for maximum effect instead of 4 with minimal effect? If you need armor go all reinforced. If you want to buff your mundus effect go all divines..etc..I can't imagine that one reinforced enchant would have have more than a negligible effect.

What? All 7 enchants are magicka...

Sorry I meant traits not enchants. I must be still asleep.

Vaerth

EQBallzz wrote: »

As a vampire wouldn't you want to enchant one of your jewelry slots with FR? I don't play my vamp much these days so maybe it's changed but I recall fire dmg hurting quite a bit without my FR necklace.

*edit*
Also, why do you have four different enchants? Doesn't it make more sense to pick one or at most two for maximum effect instead of 4 with minimal effect? If you need armor go all reinforced. If you want to buff your mundus effect go all divines..etc..I can't imagine that one reinforced enchant would have have more than a negligible effect.

Dunmer Racial + Spell Resist of heavy _ Light + Champion System Spell Resist helps negate the fire issue.

Vaerth

EQBallzz wrote: »

Vaerth wrote: »

EQBallzz wrote: »

As a vampire wouldn't you want to enchant one of your jewelry slots with FR? I don't play my vamp much these days so maybe it's changed but I recall fire dmg hurting quite a bit without my FR necklace.

*edit*
Also, why do you have four different enchants? Doesn't it make more sense to pick one or at most two for maximum effect instead of 4 with minimal effect? If you need armor go all reinforced. If you want to buff your mundus effect go all divines..etc..I can't imagine that one reinforced enchant would have have more than a negligible effect.

What? All 7 enchants are magicka...

Sorry I meant traits not enchants. I must be still asleep.

OHHH lol, well I use the Mages Mundus stone so divines and infused both apply to magicka. I put on Nirnhoned and Reinforced to help keep up survival.

Dead DPS = 0 DPS

I use light attacks to generate ultimate, and I can spam Swallow Soul like it is no ones business, low cost, fair damage, ranged....Nice...

Vaerth

This build has been effective, and shows others in ESO that you do not have to follow any cookie cutter builds to be effective PvP or PvE.

Kronosphere

1st off I think its really good your trying stuff out for yourself based on what you like, good on you!

few things id like to point out for you. the trait on your weapons, the speed one, does not increase how much ult u will gain. u dont get ult per hit. when you hit, u get 8 seconds of the ult buff, which awards you 3 ult per second. hitting again resets this timer, and it doesnt stack. without passives regardless of how often you hit your still only getting 3 ult per second. so if thats the only reason u used speed trait id suggest maybe armor pen or crit or something else.


other thing is, since you are magicka based, any particular reason you picked 2Her as opposed to a staff, which would scale its basic attack from your spell damage, which u are trying to get alot of? or even sword and shield for the defensive side to it?

other than that. cool=)

timborggrenlarsenb16_ESO

Can't be done, the lifedrain skills are way to weak in this game, and the summoned pet are a joke.

Kartalin

I have a sorc friend who swears using dual wield gives him a higher spell damage than using a staff, never tried it myself.

As far as traits go, I'm actually okay with OP's choices. My only comment is that the divines trait is multiplicative from what I've seen, and that you get severely diminished returns beyond the first one.

Kronosphere

true. infact some 2h passives may even synergize. im just curious as to why HE specifically picked 2h i guess. be it x passive, or just for looks, or what. personally i find the speed one a bit useless in pvp its not thaaaat often u are spamming only light attacks and whatnot

Vaerth

Kronosphere wrote: »

1st off I think its really good your trying stuff out for yourself based on what you like, good on you!

few things id like to point out for you. the trait on your weapons, the speed one, does not increase how much ult u will gain. u dont get ult per hit. when you hit, u get 8 seconds of the ult buff, which awards you 3 ult per second. hitting again resets this timer, and it doesnt stack. without passives regardless of how often you hit your still only getting 3 ult per second. so if thats the only reason u used speed trait id suggest maybe armor pen or crit or something else.


other thing is, since you are magicka based, any particular reason you picked 2Her as opposed to a staff, which would scale its basic attack from your spell damage, which u are trying to get alot of? or even sword and shield for the defensive side to it?

other than that. cool=)

I despise Staff weapons, and get Spell Damage from the 2H. I do thank you for your insight though, I went with weapon/spell penetration over weapon speed

Kronosphere

Vaerth wrote: »

Kronosphere wrote: »

1st off I think its really good your trying stuff out for yourself based on what you like, good on you!

few things id like to point out for you. the trait on your weapons, the speed one, does not increase how much ult u will gain. u dont get ult per hit. when you hit, u get 8 seconds of the ult buff, which awards you 3 ult per second. hitting again resets this timer, and it doesnt stack. without passives regardless of how often you hit your still only getting 3 ult per second. so if thats the only reason u used speed trait id suggest maybe armor pen or crit or something else.


other thing is, since you are magicka based, any particular reason you picked 2Her as opposed to a staff, which would scale its basic attack from your spell damage, which u are trying to get alot of? or even sword and shield for the defensive side to it?

other than that. cool=)

I despise Staff weapons, and get Spell Damage from the 2H. I do thank you for your insight though, I went with weapon/spell penetration over weapon speed

your welcome=) ahh yes wasnt sure if it increased it or not, makes sense then! yeah and 2h looks way cooler especially with heavy haha

the passive "follow up" also might be handy. 10% extra damage on next attack after a heavy attack

Vaerth

timborggrenlarsenb16_ESO wrote: »

Can't be done, the lifedrain skills are way to weak in this game, and the summoned pet are a joke.

What?

1.) No summoned pets in this build...

2.) Sap Essence has been great, not sure what skills you reference?

Not sure if you think this is a Sorcerer build???

Perhaps go try the build yourself in PvP, it works great for me.

Vaerth

Kronosphere wrote: »

true. infact some 2h passives may even synergize. im just curious as to why HE specifically picked 2h i guess. be it x passive, or just for looks, or what. personally i find the speed one a bit useless in pvp its not thaaaat often u are spamming only light attacks and whatnot

I use 2H for higher spell power (like Dual wield gets) and because it makes the Shadow Knight a Shadow Knight

I really really dislike staff weapons...

Vaerth

Kronosphere wrote: »

Vaerth wrote: »

Kronosphere wrote: »

1st off I think its really good your trying stuff out for yourself based on what you like, good on you!

few things id like to point out for you. the trait on your weapons, the speed one, does not increase how much ult u will gain. u dont get ult per hit. when you hit, u get 8 seconds of the ult buff, which awards you 3 ult per second. hitting again resets this timer, and it doesnt stack. without passives regardless of how often you hit your still only getting 3 ult per second. so if thats the only reason u used speed trait id suggest maybe armor pen or crit or something else.


other thing is, since you are magicka based, any particular reason you picked 2Her as opposed to a staff, which would scale its basic attack from your spell damage, which u are trying to get alot of? or even sword and shield for the defensive side to it?

other than that. cool=)

I despise Staff weapons, and get Spell Damage from the 2H. I do thank you for your insight though, I went with weapon/spell penetration over weapon speed

your welcome=) ahh yes wasnt sure if it increased it or not, makes sense then! yeah and 2h looks way cooler especially with heavy haha

the passive "follow up" also might be handy. 10% extra damage on next attack after a heavy attack

Yup it does work great with Sap Essence or Swallow Soul! The build requires Synergy and comboing the right skills in the right order to get highest damage and heals. Works real well.

Kronosphere

cool. personal preference would be other other on the leech ability just for that 8% extra heals. does that buff potion heals by 8% as well? does anyone know?>