Blood Knight-PVE Nightblade Tank (pre IC)

jebuspowers

Yeah, I'm not 100% on the stam block thing. I'll have to see. But tbh it is annoying when people do that.

Blackjak-33

I'm definitely not happy with them basically nerfing siphoning strikes, there's no reason to it's the NB's only survival tool. It's going to be a pain to recast that while also managing everything else.

jebuspowers

For real. It's not as if it makes the NB OP or anything. All it will do is make it harder to be good at being Nightblade, unnecessarily harder. I think SA is fine the way it is and changing it will probably require another update to fix a skill everyone used to like but then hate. SA is a Nightblade staple and it works just fine as it is.

Blackjak-33

I agree. SA already has the damage reduction while toggled which forces you to cast sap essence or entropy (for my magicka based attacks anyway) just to put my damage back at even. I don't have a pure class heal or good class shield as a NB tank, leave my resource skill alone!

jebuspowers

They have already had to roll back some of the changes coming with the dlc patch. Kind of hoping they leave SA alone.

Blackjak-33

FYI, after morphing the summon shades into the Dark Shades morph, which summons two shades, it seems a little more productive.

lolzbuckets

What @jebuspowers said. Gotta keep in mind that the PTS is a test server. You can't assume every change will make it to the official servers. And you've got to hope that the bad changes don't. xD

jebuspowers

Ive been reluctant to run with shades. If I leveled it I was considering the single shade morph since he won't have to chase trash

shugg

Running the 2 shades is awesome, the debuff helps and the shadow proc is nice, however ever i have heard there attacks also proc leaching but im on ps4 so carnt test

jebuspowers

That would be interesting to know if the shades do proc leeching strikes. Since they only do light attacks then it would, but is not you doing it. Anyone have any info on this?

jebuspowers

I just wanted to point something put especially if you're running a similar build to what I have. I don't block much so I am not a fan of hist bark. I went whitestrakes instead. The damage shield it gives,plus the damage shields I have on my weapon attack nicely with champion points. As does bone shield. You can also use annulment for those boss fights you know will be heavily magicka based damage. Be sure to level up light armor to 22 (I think it's 22) for that skill.

wafcatb14_ESO

I`m running a simlar build on my Dark elf Night blade, trying to set him up as an old school EQ Shadowknight.

I went atm S+B and 2H

S+B bar, puncture, sap essence, refreshing path, bone shield, swallow soul veil of blades or soul tether .

2H lotus fan for the aoe snare, concealed, dark cloak, mass hysteria, Impale, Death stroke .

but stuff changes depending what you are doing , can swap in double take, switch ultia, add inner fire etc .

using 4 heavy, 3 light atm since haven`t unlocked undaunted . stat increase yet.

jebuspowers

You want to make sure you are wearing at least 5 heavy so you get the heavy armor passives.

For your 2 hander bar you should consider brawler for the damage shield. Honestly, I hate using mas hysteria in any situation except Dragon star. You should also consider Dark Shade-->Summon shade (the ranged version of the morph) for a similar SK build, plus you will get the shadow barrier passive and damage reduction from the shade. 2 in 1 tanky nom noms in one skill.

wafcatb14_ESO

Yup what I posted is mostly what I run in cryodill, and grinding if tanking don't really need impale, mass hysteria can swapnin double take and summon shades for reduced damge and shadow barrier and yup 5 heavy for tanking but just grinding mobs cryodill questing general pvp 4 does ok

jebuspowers

I haven't bothered with cyrodil much. I should, but meh.

CH77

Hey Jebuspowers

How are you finding this build since the new update?
Have you had to make any changes?

jebuspowers

I only play on console so I haven't had the chance to try out this build with the update. Based on what I have been reading, the change in siphoning attacks is minimal. I honestly don't know why they are changing it anyway. I know I won't like having to turn it back on every 15 seconds. Aside from that, I haven't had to deviate from this build at all. If I do, is only to level up other skills for alternate roles for the future. I did try a stamina dps, but I didn't like it too much. I think at some point I'll go magicka dps as a flex, but honestly I like being a tank.

jebuspowers

Also, at some point I'll figure out a good build to tank in pvp. The problem with pvp is your build doesn't matter all that much when you take into consideration the odds of you fighting just 1 player at a time that will stay there and fight you, and champion points can make a serious difference.

CH77

Ah didn't realise you were on console.
Look forward to hearing how you find the update

Blackjak-33

In another half vet level I'm going to be trying 5 pieces of Twilight's Embrace and 4 pieces of Armor of the Seducer to stack with my magicka NB tank. I'm hoping the Twilight's bonus of 10% additional healing received stacks nicely with the swallow soul passive of 8% additional healing received for really good sustain. With the max magicka regen and max overall magicka bonuses from Seducer, along with regen food, I don't think I'll ever run out of magicka as long as siphoning attacks stays viable. Who needs to hold block anymore if i can constantly sustain with self heals and damage while dps burns down enemies lol.

jebuspowers

I thought about that too. But the set bonus on Whitestrakes can and will save your life sometimes. Of you are a little more self sufficient oriented you might consider soul Siphon, the alternate to soul tether. You winter do damage with it, but you will heal a lot and gain major vitality. On the other hand, you lose your best AoE pull.

Blackjak-33

Yes I was planning on trying Twilight's before I try Whitestrake. I usually use Tether and Bolstering as my two ultimates in PVE. I substitute Soul Assault as an ultimate in PVP.

jebuspowers

You should give Veil of Blades a shot. You get less protection, but it hurts like no one's business. It makes holding a lot of adds easier like in vet dark shade. When you fight Grobull and he spawns a bunch of help just drop a Veil and they should hate you a lot.

jebuspowers

I realize that when I say they will hate you that the game actually does not have a threat table. But I'm pretty sure enemies have target priority lists. If you were to think of them as "if/then" statements:

If target x has 5 pieces of medium armor, then attack target x.
If target is healing, then attack target x.
If target casts crowd control abilities, then attack target x.
If target x is within 10 meters, then attack target x.


Then the taunt debuff should trump that stuff. I feel like that is how it works because for anyone who has tanked, especially in veteran Wayrest, stuff will run right past you and attack your party. So use as many abilities that do multiple things for maximum "aggro".That's why I dig soul tether because it does a lot all at once. If you can figure out how to fulfill the enemies' attack priority requirements then you should not need to taunt absolutely everything.

Blackjak-33

I started out using Veil and have it maxed. I use Tether for trash aggro management and Bolstering only as emergency, and maybe a resource regen after the console dlc.

13igTyme

jebuspowers wrote: »

Also, at some point I'll figure out a good build to tank in pvp. The problem with pvp is your build doesn't matter all that much when you take into consideration the odds of you fighting just 1 player at a time that will stay there and fight you, and champion points can make a serious difference.

There's no point in tanking in pvp. You wont kill anyone, wont heal anyone, and a group of people will will likely kill you anyway with enough time.

jebuspowers

Yeah, it's hard to kill anyone in pvp unless it's in 2-3 hits.I'm sure there is an effective way to tank it though. I mean tank it as in have very high survivability but still able to do enough damage to kill someone. If you do too much damage too fast they will probably run if they survive. Too little and you won't kill them. Like I said it doesn't really matter because one on one is rare and all you can do against a group is run.

13igTyme

jebuspowers wrote: »

Yeah, it's hard to kill anyone in pvp unless it's in 2-3 hits.I'm sure there is an effective way to tank it though. I mean tank it as in have very high survivability but still able to do enough damage to kill someone. If you do too much damage too fast they will probably run if they survive. Too little and you won't kill them. Like I said it doesn't really matter because one on one is rare and all you can do against a group is run.

If 1v1 is rare and they are always in a group then why don't you be in a group. 2 people doing as much damage as they can and single targeting a person will kill said person.

And if you do too much damage, kill them. There is no point in saying, "I'm doing too much damage" That will never happen in a video game, unless the objective is to huge people and hand out flowers.

jebuspowers

I said too much and if they survive. And too much damage does occasionally happen in a video game. That's when a dps is doing enough damage to pull threat off of the tank. Maybe that dps is op for the instance they are in or the tank is not good enough. Either way it does happen.

Yes, obviously being in a group is a good idea. But this is not a how to tank in pvp thread, nor is it a how to solo in pvp thread. In fact, I stated early on that this was a pve build for a Nightblade tank. If you would like to offer sound advice on how to play pvp then go for it, but this isn't really the discussion to do it in.

If you want, we can hug it out and give each other flowers though.

jebuspowers

Unfortunately I have been having issues with my isp and have not been able to download the new patch (imperial city). With siphoning attacks no longer on toggle that opens up a slot and I am a little on the fence in which skill I want there, but I think I'm going to roll with cripple. The reasons are:

A. I get a speed buff which is useful for getting around during a fight. As long as cripple is on then I move 40% faster for 8 seconds.
B. Cripple is a very powerful dot and I would like another dot besides path and entropy. From what I have seen, cripple is possibly one of the strongest dots in the game that's not an ultimate and one of the morphs increases damage.
C. This will allow soul siphoner passive to still be up when using either bar and I will gain ultimate with either bar.

I will have to see how much I like it, though I am also considering Grim Focus because

A. The 8% berserk apples to all attacks including siphon which is in keeping with the Blood Knight theme.
B. The spectral bow hits really freaking hard. Like real hard. This makes it useful for pretty much all situations, pvp and pve (solo or grouped).
C. Grim focus has a morph that regenerates stamina, and in places like DSA more regen is better.
D. The patch dropped the required 7 light attacks down to 4 in order to use the bow attack. This is really helpful while solo because solo tanks don't die, but the fights are loooooong. With grim on, just weave in 4 attacks, use ambush and then the spectral bow for big damage (for a tank anyway).