Nightblade in dungeon boss advice please...

LotusBladedancer

I am levelling a DW/2 Handed Stamina NB focusing on stealth and surprise attacks - At level 20 and so far working great apart from group dungeons...

I just am not sure what to do against group bosses? I have been stealthing/invisibility - surprise attack - wrecking blow (repeat) - maybe some veil of blades to add some extra damage but I do not seem to be as affective as other classes :-(

My friends DK can burn them and hit them for amazing direct and dot damage, and same for my other friend who plays a Sorcerer.. yet seems I am stuck with direct damage - unless I force myself to take a bow ( which is not how I want my character to develop).

So how do you Nightblades handle dungeon bosses without having to resort to using a bow?

Leandor

Use the weapon abilities more. Try to build a rotation with rapid strikes, light attacks and keep the bleed dot from twin slashes up (also, morph to rending slashes, the heal on the other morph is largely useless). you can include surprise strike into this rotation.

As soon as you enter execute range (around 25% boss health remaining), switch to 2h and use executioner with partially charged heavy attacks.

In general, 2H is supposed to have a better single target damage than DW. In my opinion, this is strongly dependent on the individual player's style. Try things, like making DW your AoE-setup with Whirldwind and Drain Power, Veil of Blades and possibly Path of Darkness. Have Surprise attack, wrecking blow, executioner, momentum on the 2H-bar and use that for single target like boss fights.

Veil of blades is the best ultimate a nighblade has from a group utility point of view (due to damage reduction and the healing synergy), but not necessarily from a single target damage output point of view. Using Death Stroke / Soul Harvest may give you a significant boost in DPS. If any, put veil as a AoE utility, but have the second bar with death stroke for your single target.

Make sure your weapons are always on level. The damage increase from having proper level weapons, improved to blue or possibly even purple, will be significant.

This game is a lot about attack timing (the oft cited "animation cancelling"). If you activate the abilities with good timing, you can dish out two attacks almost simultaneously. That alone will help your DPS significantly. As a starter on this path, try holding down left mouse button (or standard weapon attack, if you are on console) and instead of releasing it to initiate the attack, activate an ability (like surprise attack) while still holding it down. The charged weapon attack will be initiated and it's animation will be clipped in favor of the abilities animation. Both will land on the target almost simultaneously.

Train these, and your DPS will rise significantly.

Lastly, at character level 20 the differences between classes/builds can be quite large. The more you approach max level, the more the potential DPS equalizes. Hang in there.

LotusBladedancer

Thanks for the advice, I also need Shadow cloak - for the popping in and out of invisibility to proc the surprise attack fracture..

Leandor

Tbh, there are better ways of providing fracture. The tank does that automatically with the taunt. Aside from the 100% crit, you do not gain anything and you lose one damaging attack in the process. Especially with dual wield and nightblade, you can reach stupidly high crit chance anyways, so I see the shadowy disguise mechanic more as a crowd control (stealth stuns) than a damage mechanic.

I would not use shadowy disguise on a boss rotation.

Jeckll

LotusBladedancer wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, I also need Shadow cloak - for the popping in and out of invisibility to proc the surprise attack fracture..

You dont need to cloak to get Major Fracture from Surprise Attack. Tooltip is wrong, it applies Major Fracture all the time.

You can check my Dual Wield Stamina Guide in my Signature for all information you need regarding endgame PvE with Nightblades.

Wrecking Blow is really bad in PvE compared to Surprise Attack, which is the best Stamina based attack a Nightblade has. Awesome offense and defense as well.

I could write you a ton here, but it's all in my guide really. You could use a 2h instead of bow for offhand, especially while leveling, but it's up to you. Main DPS Weapon Set is always DW in PvE.

LotusBladedancer

Jeckll wrote: »

LotusBladedancer wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, I also need Shadow cloak - for the popping in and out of invisibility to proc the surprise attack fracture..

You dont need to cloak to get Major Fracture from Surprise Attack. Tooltip is wrong, it applies Major Fracture all the time.

You can check my Dual Wield Stamina Guide in my Signature for all information you need regarding endgame PvE with Nightblades.

Wrecking Blow is really bad in PvE compared to Surprise Attack, which is the best Stamina based attack a Nightblade has. Awesome offense and defense as well.

I could write you a ton here, but it's all in my guide really. You could use a 2h instead of bow for offhand, especially while leveling, but it's up to you. Main DPS Weapon Set is always DW in PvE.

I have looked at your build and while it seems to have great numbers it looks way, way too complicated, switching out both bars for single or multiple...

And why no stealth/invisible attack? I thought it was double damage if attack out of stealth? The whole premise of a stealthy assassin :-)

Your build also uses a bow which I dislike to use (personal preference)

I think, as I am only level 20, it will be easier to reroll a magica DPS Templar and just spam the super beam :-)

Thanks for advice anyway :-)