PC Blackwater Blade. SO much Magicka NB

kadar

Has anyone noticed an almost comical increase in the number of Magicka NBs running around? And is this solely BWB or is this all campaigns?

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I've been PVPing almost exclusively in BWB on my lowbie Sorc lately. I run around solo, I play in pug groups, I try to mix it up. But one thing never fails. Here is a situation that is happening SO often, I practically have it memorized by heart:

I inevitably die, and have to run back to wherever the fight is, whether it is at a keep or outpost or whatever. There is no less than a metric butt ton (slight exaggeration) of Magicka NBs camping my path back to the fight. NB waits in stealth to attack the lone horse rider---->Concealed weap ----> Spam Swallow Soul (seriously like 9 times, I counted) ----> "OH NO, he didn't immediately die!" ----> CloakCloakCloakOMGCloak!
OR something to that effect.

Now I happen to run Radiant Magelight at all times, and as you can tell by the preferred attack combo, I often come out on top. I simply wonder... has anyone else noticed a CRAZY increase in the number of Magicka NBs? And is this really simply because they are (sort of) getting buffed with the release of IC?

Could anyone shed some light for me on this? Am I crazy, is this solely a BWB thing, or is this everywhere including PTS?

Master_Fluff

I see all classes, both magicka, stamina and hybrids in Blackwater. Perhaps it's different beween the EU ( where I play) and NA servers.

JamilaRaj

I would say NBs generally dominate, it does not matter whether they are magicka or stamina, because the former cloak, the latter make fine troll dodgers.
As I wrote elsewhere, it is akin to typical troll sorc who cherry picks fights he can win and bolts away from fights he might lose, but unlike a sorc that would have to unlock at least one, preferably two top tier skills, a nightblade has cloak available right from the start, hence relatively low sorc population compared to that of NBs. Troll dodging/speed builds apparently do not rely on top tier skills either.
Simply put, the current meta (fueled by near-infinite resources) is something of a combat denial when players aim for ability to force draw if things go bad. Which makes PvP annoying; when two players enter combat, at the end there should be at least one corpse, otherwise it is thoroughly stupid and pointless.

PS: the campaign is barely playable without detection potions.

Rylana

OP welcome to flavor of the month ESO gameplay, brought to you by the streamers and youtubers that decide the build outcomes of testing.

All of those little nightblades will be delicious AP farms once they hit vet and think they are the new alpha

CP5

On the NA server I haven't been on a lot but recently in my time back I have seen a very large number of NB's (when they aren't cloak spamming). Some nights i'll just grab my own nb, wait in the shadows and use piercing mark, plenty of targets who don't know what to do when they can't run. And I have also noticed that at a range all they'll do is spam swallow soul (even some that are apparently skilled players). Fun times for all I guess...

JamilaRaj

Rylana wrote: »

All of those little nightblades will be delicious AP farms once they hit vet and think they are the new alpha

Except they will roll a new NB and stay in the noob campaign.

kadar

Rylana wrote: »

OP welcome to flavor of the month ESO gameplay, brought to you by the streamers and youtubers that decide the build outcomes of testing.

All of those little nightblades will be delicious AP farms once they hit vet and think they are the new alpha

@Rylana

They are typically AP farms even before they hit vet...VERY small number of exceptions.

JamilaRaj wrote: »

Rylana wrote: »

All of those little nightblades will be delicious AP farms once they hit vet and think they are the new alpha

Except they will roll a new NB and stay in the noob campaign.

LOL^ It's funny cause its true.

Glad to hear it's not just my imagination. For every bad Magicka NB I see I want to stay Stam that much more...

Asmael

This is something I checked before the BwB campaign ended yesterday...

I checked the top 20 of each faction.

AD was mostly NB with a fair amount of templars.
DC was mostly NB.
EP was mostly NB but is still more mixed than the others.

Sorcs and DK are, overall, nearly absent from the top 20. Of course one might say that's "it's not representative" since it's only the top 20, but it tends to be just like what I usually see everyday.

If you think there are a lot of magicka NB right now, just wait till Imperial City happens, with all the buffs they're getting, it will be a great time to bring the big guns to put them down.

- Carmilla Sanguinare, EP DK

CP5

Asmael wrote: »

This is something I checked before the BwB campaign ended yesterday...

I checked the top 20 of each faction.

AD was mostly NB with a fair amount of templars.
DC was mostly NB.
EP was mostly NB but is still more mixed than the others.

Sorcs and DK are, overall, nearly absent from the top 20. Of course one might say that's "it's not representative" since it's only the top 20, but it tends to be just like what I usually see everyday.

If you think there are a lot of magicka NB right now, just wait till Imperial City happens, with all the buffs they're getting, it will be a great time to bring the big guns to put them down.

- Carmilla Sanguinare, EP DK

I would believe those numbers to show more than just the top tier.

JamilaRaj

Asmael wrote: »

Sorcs and DK are, overall, nearly absent from the top 20. Of course one might say that's "it's not representative" since it's only the top 20, but it tends to be just like what I usually see everyday.

You can also look at top 100 NBs and say whoever has that or higher score than the last NB (at the moment 8173) can be considered an active player. Then compare with other classes:
- templar with score of 7899 is 73rd
- DK with score of 8010 is 63rd
- sorc with score of 8082 is 54th

So, by thtat measure we have 290 active players, 34% are nightblades, 25% are templars, 21% are DKs and 18% are sorcs (missing 2% go for rounding).

mcurley

As a magicka NB in BwB, with just a little bit of experience/practice, you can successfully gank any solo wanderer... especially if you get the jump on them while they are on horseback.

These guys jumping you are either still learning the class or are just very bad at PvP.

CP5

mcurley wrote: »

As a magicka NB in BwB, with just a little bit of experience/practice, you can successfully gank any solo wanderer... especially if you get the jump on them while they are on horseback.

These guys jumping you are either still learning the class or are just very bad at PvP.

I left a keep alone once, and had 7 people jump me. All I had to do was walk slowly back to the keep blocking and using an occasional heal. They may be bad/still learning, but they can sometimes be everywhere.

mcurley

CP5 wrote: »

mcurley wrote: »

As a magicka NB in BwB, with just a little bit of experience/practice, you can successfully gank any solo wanderer... especially if you get the jump on them while they are on horseback.

These guys jumping you are either still learning the class or are just very bad at PvP.

I left a keep alone once, and had 7 people jump me. All I had to do was walk slowly back to the keep blocking and using an occasional heal. They may be bad/still learning, but they can sometimes be everywhere.

haha nice. Unless you were Emperor there is no excuse for that.

CP5

mcurley wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

mcurley wrote: »

As a magicka NB in BwB, with just a little bit of experience/practice, you can successfully gank any solo wanderer... especially if you get the jump on them while they are on horseback.

These guys jumping you are either still learning the class or are just very bad at PvP.

I left a keep alone once, and had 7 people jump me. All I had to do was walk slowly back to the keep blocking and using an occasional heal. They may be bad/still learning, but they can sometimes be everywhere.

haha nice. Unless you were Emperor there is no excuse for that.

iirc I was on my healer.

JamilaRaj

I too was once ambushed by a group of commies. So a pressed the bolt, then again, again, again and again, then boundless storm, run for a while, then bolt, bolt, bolt, bolt, potion, bolt, bolt...and so I survived.

Isbilen

Be prepared, a few weeks after 2.1, this will be every campaign. This is what happens when the best are buffed and the worst are nerfed.

Mauz

Simply try one. You are competetive already with 10 and with 15 latest you have all skills unlocked you need. Your stealth mobilty is insane from beginning your escape ability is insane from beginning you can tank anything from beginning. Collecting shards is super fast and easy from beginning your dps is decent from beginning.

It's the easiest way to have fun in bwb pvp right now.

TequilaFire

I just rolled a new EP NB on PS4 BWB. lmao
Gotta be ready to fight fire with fire!

Actually my DK Vet 14 was getting boring.

Paradox

Magicka NBs are very good in Blackwater and will only get miles better in vet and nonvet because Zenimax is making stupid decisions and nerfing everything but then.

MLRPZ

I rolled a Magika NB way before PTS pop out, i just see new that i have made a good choice (little choices left anyway, apart from stam sorc and stam dk).
anyway she is V1 by now, so you will see my little stamplar on the lowbie campaign from now

JamilaRaj

So, detection potions have been nerfed, one has like 4 seconds to kill a pesky NB before he disappears for good. I, for one, welcome our new invisible overlords!

kadar

mcurley wrote: »

As a magicka NB in BwB, with just a little bit of experience/practice, you can successfully gank any solo wanderer... especially if you get the jump on them while they are on horseback.

These guys jumping you are either still learning the class or are just very bad at PvP.

@mcurley

I think you may be right. When that many people switch to a new build or playstyle it makes sense that there's a learning curve. Also, my build/playstyle happens to counter the stealth+Magicka damage playstyle very well. I've found that Annulment (or morph thereof) + Healing ward almost negates their damage completely leaving me free to counter attack.

I DID happen to run across a very strong Magicka NB (although I can't remember his/her name). We ended up fighting uninterrupted for 2-3 minutes and he eventually killed me. It was a GREAT fight. And fun. So I know that the playstyle is indeed very strong right now.

I probably will eventually switch my StamBlade to Magicka just to try it out. I guess I just get annoyed by all the people switching just because its the mathematically stronger build type based on the buffes/nerfs that just got released.

MrGrimey

And soon it will be stamina DK tanks

Paradox

MrGrimey wrote: »

And soon it will be stamina DK tanks

No, DKs are dead. We tried, but ZoS nerfed them into the ground. Nightblades will win the ganking game.

Alucardo

My first BWB character ever was a Magicka NB. Though I'm thinking of bringing my Templar in because there's enough NBs in Cyrodiil at the moment..