NIGHTBLADE BUILDS??

GIZMO8908

What is the best way to build my (solo) Wood Elf Dark Blade?? I'm usuing bows as primary, was gona use dual daggers as secondary. I've used all siphoning and bow skills so far. . . . . . I'm on PS4 if it makes a difference.

Ixtyr

Black Panther mount was a limited-time offer in the store. It may or may not return at some point (probably will, but no ETA).

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Not sure why the store is down, hope it comes up soon.

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Bosmer Stamina Nightblades are one of the better combinations in the game for that kind of build. Only one that's really "better" is Imperial, but it's not that big of a deal at end-game unless you're pushing for server-best times as a DPS in Sanctum Ophidia or something (PvE Trials).

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Here's a breakdown of a build I've run with good success as a Bosmer Stamina Nightblade, it's fairly affordable to get if you can find a crafter who can make you some stuff.

Gear:
5-piece Hundings Rage, all Medium Armor.
3-4-piece Ashen Grip, all Medium Armor & Weapons (Dual Wield & Bow).
3-piece Shadow Walker Jewelry (if you can't get this right away, don't worry while you level)

Note: I prefer dual Maces for the armor penetration bonus. You could run dual Swords for the increased Weapon Damage, or go with one of each. Daggers aren't worth it unless you're significantly below 50% Weapon Critical Rating, and Axes are fantastic for bleeds and AoE damage, but not so much for boss fights since many bosses are immune to bleeds. Also, while I personally prefer the look of Medium Armor on all 7 gear pieces, swapping your two Ashen pieces out for Heavy & Light armor can be beneficial if you're looking for more survivability, or if you have unlocked the passives under the Undaunted skill tree that boosts your stats based on how many different types of armor you're wearing.

All of the above gear can be crafted by a player, except for the jewelry, which is a drop from PvP.

Use Poison Enchants & Armor Penetration enchants on Weapons, and Reduce Stamina Cost of Abilities enchants on jewelry. Armor enchants are just enough Health to make yourself survivable (18k or so, with food buff, at VR14), and everything else go with Stamina enchants.

Attributes:
This depends on your particular character and what you're comfortable with. Ideally, you'll run 0 Magicka, 0 Health, and 62 Stamina (at VR14). If you need extra health, then pull points out of Stamina, but as a rule of thumb, never go more than 33% into Health. A good ratio for leveling is One Point in Health per every Two Points in Stamina, which would work out to roughly 0 Magicka, 20 Health, 42 Stamina.

Abilities:

Note: You can and should swap abilities in and out depending on circumstances. If you're doing all AoE damage, or just PvPing, or only fighting a boss and need the maximum single-target DPS, these bars will change a bit. What I'm listing here is a good setup for soloing through Questing and running in smaller-group PvP - you have enough control, AoE, single target, and utility to survive and kill things, but perhaps not the best damage.

Main Ability Bar (Bow):
Poison Injection
Dark Cloak (PvP) or Barrage (PvE)
Reaper's Mark
Focused Aim
Evil Hunter
Ult: Meteor OR Soul Tether

Secondary Ability Bar (Dual Wield):
Surprise Attack
Killer's Blade
Ambush (PvP or some Solo) or Rending Slashes (DoT for PvE)
Rapid Strikes OR Swallow Soul OR Steel Tornado (if not used in Slot 5)
Steel Tornado OR Evil Hunter
Ult: Flawless Dawnbreaker (for extra Weapon Damage) or Veil of Blades (PvE, some PvP situations) or Soul Harvest (PvP)

Fighting Style:

This is largely up to you, there's enough here to offer you multiple ways to engage into a fight. For Bow, be in stealth, then pop Evil Hunter and Reaper's Mark, Snipe to open up, pop a Poison Injection to get the DoT up, and then just Snipe and use Light/Heavy Attacks where needed. For Dual Wield, from stealth, either pop Evil Hunter and sneak up behind target and open with Surprise Attack, then Rending Slashes, then Swallow Soul for both DoTs, and then spam Surprise Attack until the dude dies. You can also choose to engage with Ambush and then spam Surprise Attack. For AoE pulls, I like to root enemies with Barrage, and then use Steel Tornado for maximum damage. Entirely up to you, though.

Hope that gives you an idea to work off of.

FrostGolem

1st bar for me
shadowy disguise
killers blade
suprise attack
blood craze
ambush
veil of blades
(this is dual wield)

2nd bar
funnel health
arrow sprray
scattershot
poison injection
mark target
veil of blades
(this is bow)
This works well for me but feel free to do your own thing this has so much variety just try what suites you and have fun with what you choose

Grimnaur

If you don't mind hearing the word nugget a lot, deltias gaming has some decent builds you can try.

http://deltiasgaming.com/2015/03/12/the-specter-eso-nightblade-build/

dwtdwtdwt

Deciding a build really depends on personal playstyle, what element of the game you mostly play (whether it be pvp, pve dungeons, questing, ect.), and how effective you want your character to be. Oftentimes in ESO you may have to sacrifice playstyle for effectiveness, just to be able to compete and perform how you want.

If you plan on playing a solo Bosmer NB, I would suggest keeping the bow as a primary option. Wood Elves excel in stamina and stamina recovery, so using a weapon and skills that run off your stamina pool would be the best option, since your damage output with a bow is partially based off how much stamina you have.

Keep in mind that if you decide to go with stamina as your primary resource, your magicka spells will be less effective. This would include a lot of the siphoning spells. Also, as a stam NB, your healing will not be substantial during combat. if healing while in combat is important to you, you may want to examine other weapon skills that can heal, or check out the Alliance War skill line for other healing options.

Ultimately, play the way that is most fun for you. If you find yourself not having fun or unable to do the things you are expected to do, then try something else. Remember that you are a nightblade with stealthy abilities. Use that to your advantage. If you continue to play with a bow, stacking weapon damage and weapon crit is never a bad idea.

nikolaj.lemcheb16_ESO

I would suggest you go 2h instead of dual wield on your off bar, because it provides you with all the things you will lack as a stamina nb.

It has self heal, give you defense through damage shields, stuns and overall much better dps.

Dual wield only have one good skill, steel tornado (which is incredible good) but it is much more effective on a class that have better access to surviveability.

GIZMO8908

I'm new to the online thing I've played oblivion and skyrim but it was jus me. so with end game pvp all the stuff eso has to offer a archer wood elf isn't the best way to go?? I love my archer woodelf but if I can't do anything but play storyline and struggle through it will the game even be fun??

Superschwizer

Youtube:
Sypher stamina nightblade build
Its actually a pvp build, but this works equal in pve

PBpsy

GIZMO8908 wrote: »

I'm new to the online thing I've played oblivion and skyrim but it was jus me. so with end game pvp all the stuff eso has to offer a archer wood elf isn't the best way to go?? I love my archer woodelf but if I can't do anything but play storyline and struggle through it will the game even be fun??

Nonsense. Your Bosmer NB will be a decent stam NB if you play it well. Yes some other races will be better but in reality just slightly. If your fun is determined by being the absolute best you can probably reroll.

F7sus4

The build-archetypes are already established in meta-game. Go on and pick one - Magicka or Stamina.

GIZMO8908

Bows while in sneak used to get a bonus damage did they remove that for eso??

PBpsy

GIZMO8908 wrote: »

Bows while in sneak used to get a bonus damage did they remove that for eso??

No they didn't. In fact Bosmer have a small advantage in that regard.

GIZMO8908

I haven't seen a thieves guild or assassians guild yet is there one and where do I go

The_Saint

GIZMO8908 wrote: »

I haven't seen a thieves guild or assassians guild yet is there one and where do I go

no thieve or assasians guild atm ingame

GIZMO8908

Is there a black leopard mount??

GIZMO8908

And why is the crown store down and when will it be back up

Stranglehands

The thing that's starting to bother me about nightblade is i've been playing a magicka-heavy "witch" build with a destruction staff but been steadily replacing all my destro staff with nightblade abilities (flame touch -> strife/cripple, wall of flame -> path of darkness, etc.) until the only thing i've still got on my bar is weakness to elements and force shock if fighting mages. is a destruction staff wasted on a nightblade?

Tonnopesce

Stranglehands wrote: »

The thing that's starting to bother me about nightblade is i've been playing a magicka-heavy "witch" build with a destruction staff but been steadily replacing all my destro staff with nightblade abilities (flame touch -> strife/cripple, wall of flame -> path of darkness, etc.) until the only thing i've still got on my bar is weakness to elements and force shock if fighting mages. is a destruction staff wasted on a nightblade?

If you go heavy armor evry magika based weapon is a waste of space, you can try a magika tank ( it was awesome a while ago) just perma block with s&b and use sap essence and siphoning attacs as your primary skills.

As a magika nightblade miself i suggest you to use a resto staff since the class is missing shields and self healings ( Not HOT)

Tonnopesce

PBpsy wrote: »

GIZMO8908 wrote: »

Bows while in sneak used to get a bonus damage did they remove that for eso??

No they didn't. In fact Bosmer have a small advantage in that regard.

Best choice for a sneaky sniper is still a bosmer- templar ( more damage from sneak ) i get 20+ k damage in stealth on the opening attak

Stranglehands

Sorry, by "magicka-heavy" I just meant using lots of magicka, I'm in 7 pieces of light armor. My other weapon is a restoration staff and I'm mainly specced out as a healer

Tre_775

Ixtyr wrote: »

Gear:
5-piece Hundings Rage, all Medium Armor.
3-4-piece Ashen Grip, all Medium Armor & Weapons (Dual Wield & Bow).
3-piece Shadow Walker Jewelry (if you can't get this right away, don't worry while you level)

Hunding's Rage is a great NB set, but the 6 trait research requirement to craft each piece might make it difficult to obtain for a player leveling a first character, if they're not in a guild with a good crafter, until later into the game. Night's Silence is an excellent set that will suit lower level players fine and it only requires 2 traits researched per piece.

Night's Silence
(2 items) Adds Max Stamina
(3 items) Adds Stamina Recovery
(4 items) Adds 4% Weapon Critical
(5 items) Night's Silence: Ignore movement speed penalty while sneaking

Ixtyr wrote: »

Attributes:
This depends on your particular character and what you're comfortable with. Ideally, you'll run 0 Magicka, 0 Health, and 62 Stamina (at VR14). If you need extra health, then pull points out of Stamina, but as a rule of thumb, never go more than 33% into Health. A good ratio for leveling is One Point in Health per every Two Points in Stamina, which would work out to roughly 0 Magicka, 20 Health, 42 Stamina.

A 3:1 (75%/25%) Stamina to Health ratio is fine for leveling, provided one uses roll dodge, block and interrupt as needed. Enemies dying faster means less damage taken. KB and RM also provide good self heals.

lathbury

If you want to do a magika nb best gear setup would be something like 4 martial knowledge 2 skoria 2 cyros light 2 adroitness and a master staff. if you dont have the satff or skoria pieces swap for torugs pact and enchant weapon with poison or disease.

Bar 1 would have innerlight, merciless resolve, funnel health, crippling grasp, impale and soul harvest
bar 2 innerlight, summon shades ,twisting path, sap essence and pretty much any other ability and ulti ice comet

Azalin76

I have a bosmer nb and can kill any normal mob in 2 hits with my 2h build and never run out of stamina.

GreySix

My main is a Khajiit NB with dual daggers, and he easily holds his own in mob and boss fights.