Stam or magicka for night blade ?

Jdevil_1018

Since PVP is laggy and just not fun to play right night. I made my first nightblade. Not to sure how to play them or how I want to play with him. I'm a woodelf. So I'm good with bows , which use Stam. But the abilities are pretty cool but all are magicka based. Any high level and experience nightblades that could chime in on this? Should I go with light or med armor? Etc..... I wanna do high dps.

starkerealm

For a wood elf, I'm inclined to say Stamina.

Right now the PvP meta is pushing hard for magicka, but... honestly? Go with what interests you.

Also, with NBs there are a couple, non-scaling, magicka abilities that will work fine in a Stamina build. Cloak and Mark Target are the big ones here, but there are a few others. So you can still have some magicka focused options.

If you find yourself having a hard time with survivability, consider using 2h as your melee bar. Rally can make life a lot easier.

Also, Teleport Strike and Killer's Blade are bread and butter skills.

Concealed Weapon (the magicka morph of Veiled Strike) can be more useful than the stamina morph, conditionally, because it increases your movement in stealth by 25% (though you pay for it by passing up a very powerful, from stealth, attack). When combined with a set like Night's Silence this mobility can be huge.

Lylith

if you're running stam, try 5 pcs medium armor, 1 light, and 1 heavy.

good advice above.

Jdevil_1018

Thats what I originally what I thought when I made him stealthy wold elf that can do range DPS. Get in and get out. But the patch is focused heavy on magicka. So I feel if I stay with Stam and move into PVP I'm not gonna get what I want.

starkerealm

Lylith wrote: »

if you're running stam, try 5 pcs medium armor, 1 light, and 1 heavy.

good advice above.

Yeah, especially since Wood Elves get a native stealth bonus anyway. You actually suffer less for an M5/1/1 armor loadout then you would with another race.

starkerealm

Jdevil_1018 wrote: »

Thats what I originally what I thought when I made him stealthy wold elf that can do range DPS. Get in and get out. But the patch is focused heavy on magicka. So I feel if I stay with Stam and move into PVP I'm not gonna get what I want.

Piercing Mark + Lethal Arrow is still viable. It's not going to deliver the same kind of OMGWTFBBQ numbers you'd get from Vicious Death, but it does still work.

Jdevil_1018

I see a lot of these Burst nightblades that teleport into a group of ppl and then in seconds everyone is dead. Is that something I could still do with a wood elf?

starkerealm

Jdevil_1018 wrote: »

I see a lot of these Burst nightblades that teleport into a group of ppl and then in seconds everyone is dead. Is that something I could still do with a wood elf?

You should be able to. You're specifically seeing someone use Lotus Fan (with it's AoE effect) instead of Ambush, to CC everyone, then use Drain Essence to boost their spell and weapon damage, spam Impulse (for Magicka) or Steel Tornado for Stamina. With enough damage that should be the tipping point. Though, you'd probably want to verify that rotation with someone who actually runs DW on a regular basis.

EDIT: I should add, on a stamina build, you can Ambush in and fire off soul shred, then follow up with the stamina morph of Drain Essence (Drain Power, IIRC), and then spam one of the Steel Tornado morphs.

KingDuncanVII

@Jdevil_1018

I use a Stam NB ATM and it's going pretty well. I play, both, PvE and PvP and my build seems to do me justice.

I utilize a high crit (75% Weapon Crit unbuffed), moderate DPS (2600~), moderate regen build (1500~).

- 5pc Hunding's Rage, 4pc Night Mother's Gaze
- Shadow Mundus Stone (Critical Strike Rate increase)
- 3 Health Enchants on Head, Chest, Legs
- 4 Stamina Enchants on Shoulders, Arms, Belt, Feet
- Precise Trait on your Daggers and Bow
- Craft Potions that gives Weapon Critical boost (Crit crosses into the 80s)
- Food that boosts Max Health and Max Stamina (I go with Tri-food that adds Stam recovery as well)
- Also, note that adding 30 CP into "The Ritual" skill tree give you a 12% Weapon Critical boost
- Add a good amount of CP into Mighty and Precise Strikes so that your Crits will hit really hard. Also, points in Piercing does wonders as well.

Front Bar (DW Daggers for Crit Bonus): Ambush, Steel Tornado (DW Ability), Mass Hysteria, Surprise Attack, Camo Hunter [Crit Bonus]
Front Bar Ult: Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar (Bow): Poison Injection, Resolving Vigor, Piercing Mark, Focused Aim, Shadowy Disguise
Back Bar Ult: Berserker Werewolf

Obviously, you don't need to copy this, but if you are looking for a similar build, you could play around with this. I hope this helps a little.

Jdevil_1018

KingDuncanVII wrote: »

@Jdevil_1018

I use a Stam NB ATM and it's going pretty well. I play, both, PvE and PvP and my build seems to do me justice.

I utilize a high crit (75% Weapon Crit unbuffed), moderate DPS (2600~), moderate regen build (1500~).

- 5pc Hunding's Rage, 4pc Night Mother's Gaze
- Shadow Mundus Stone (Critical Strike Rate increase)
- 3 Health Enchants on Head, Chest, Legs
- 4 Stamina Enchants on Shoulders, Arms, Belt, Feet
- Precise Trait on your Daggers and Bow
- Craft Potions that gives Weapon Critical boost (Crit crosses into the 80s)
- Food that boosts Max Health and Max Stamina (I go with Tri-food that adds Stam recovery as well)
- Also, note that adding 30 CP into "The Ritual" skill tree give you a 12% Weapon Critical boost
- Add a good amount of CP into Mighty and Precise Strikes so that your Crits will hit really hard. Also, points in Piercing does wonders as well.

Front Bar (DW Daggers for Crit Bonus): Ambush, Steel Tornado (DW Ability), Mass Hysteria, Surprise Attack, Camo Hunter [Crit Bonus]
Front Bar Ult: Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar (Bow): Poison Injection, Resolving Vigor, Piercing Mark, Focused Aim, Shadowy Disguise
Back Bar Ult: Berserker Werewolf

Obviously, you don't need to copy this, but if you are looking for a similar build, you could play around with this. I hope this helps a little.

Yeah I really like that set up, in PVP is pretty good on those 1v1 situations? And is it able to stand up in when it's 1 v X able to take one person out at a time and survive.

starkerealm

Personally I prefer lethal arrow to focused aim, simply for the defile effect, which can really mess with semi-coordinated players, who are on the ball enough to heal each other. But, Focused Aim does stack with Piercing Mark (as I recall), and it is a really good tool to soften players up.

Also, I find Draining Shot really useful as it's something a lot of players seem to have a hard time dealing with.

Mass Hysteria is another really good option to use, on a stamina build to crowd control for your personal murder party.

starkerealm

Jdevil_1018 wrote: »

Yeah I really like that set up, in PVP is pretty good on those 1v1 situations? And is it able to stand up in when it's 1 v X able to take one person out at a time and survive.

Personal bias, for 1v1 I really prefer 2h, and not just for wrecking blow. That said, Ambush will lock an enemy in place, so you can use that as a lead in to mess with them. Also? Yeah, Duncan's bow lineup will wreck a lone opponent. There's wiggle room to tweak it to taste, but it's really solid.

KingDuncanVII

Jdevil_1018 wrote: »

Yeah I really like that set up, in PVP is pretty good on those 1v1 situations? And is it able to stand up in when it's 1 v X able to take one person out at a time and survive.

Fantastic on 1v1 and can do up to 1v3 or 4 comfortably as well as long as you keep your Mass Hysteria up, use your Cloak to keep your targets guessing, and ALWAYS have your Resolving Vigor flowing. Also, add points in the Blessings CP passive to give yourself some bigger heals with Vigor. And I like popping Vigor every 6 seconds or so, even if I'm not low on Health. It's a HoT so it's important to not wait until you're in a "holy crap" moment.

Crit Potions is key for pushing you into the 80%+ Weapon Crit range so you can kill fast. I always have these up and they last longer than the cooldown of the potion which means I can always have my Crit in the 80s if I keep drinking my potions.

Junkogen

Go with what interests you. They constantly nerf and buff. If you always want to be overpowered, roll an Altmer magicka sorcerer. Otherwise, you just have to pick something and deal with the ebb and flow of buffing and nerfing. This patch it could be magicka, next one stamina. It's always changing. Same with classes.

The one constant in this game is that Argonians have the worst racial passives. That ZOS will never change.

Savage_Audacity

Jdevil_1018 wrote: »

Since PVP is laggy and just not fun to play right night. I made my first nightblade. Not to sure how to play them or how I want to play with him. I'm a woodelf. So I'm good with bows , which use Stam. But the abilities are pretty cool but all are magicka based. Any high level and experience nightblades that could chime in on this? Should I go with light or med armor? Etc..... I wanna do high dps.

Stamina nightblades have higher dps (assuming you arent dead) whereas magicka nightblades have higher survivability and are easier to play.

khele23eb17_ESO

Savage_Audacity wrote: »

Jdevil_1018 wrote: »

Since PVP is laggy and just not fun to play right night. I made my first nightblade. Not to sure how to play them or how I want to play with him. I'm a woodelf. So I'm good with bows , which use Stam. But the abilities are pretty cool but all are magicka based. Any high level and experience nightblades that could chime in on this? Should I go with light or med armor? Etc..... I wanna do high dps.

Stamina nightblades have higher dps (assuming you arent dead) whereas magicka nightblades have higher survivability and are easier to play.

Do you mean higher burst? Cause Im not so sure about sustained DPS.

starkerealm

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

Savage_Audacity wrote: »

Jdevil_1018 wrote: »

Since PVP is laggy and just not fun to play right night. I made my first nightblade. Not to sure how to play them or how I want to play with him. I'm a woodelf. So I'm good with bows , which use Stam. But the abilities are pretty cool but all are magicka based. Any high level and experience nightblades that could chime in on this? Should I go with light or med armor? Etc..... I wanna do high dps.

Stamina nightblades have higher dps (assuming you arent dead) whereas magicka nightblades have higher survivability and are easier to play.

Do you mean higher burst? Cause Im not so sure about sustained DPS.

At the risk of putting words in @Savage_Audacity 's mouth, I suspect they're thinking of the magicka only utility abilities... which (usually) still work for Stamina NBs. Like Cloak, Hysteria, Mark, Blur, ect.

Sunburnt_Penguin

KingDuncanVII wrote: »

@Jdevil_1018

I use a Stam NB ATM and it's going pretty well. I play, both, PvE and PvP and my build seems to do me justice.

I utilize a high crit (75% Weapon Crit unbuffed), moderate DPS (2600~), moderate regen build (1500~).

- 5pc Hunding's Rage, 4pc Night Mother's Gaze
- Shadow Mundus Stone (Critical Strike Rate increase)
- 3 Health Enchants on Head, Chest, Legs
- 4 Stamina Enchants on Shoulders, Arms, Belt, Feet
- Precise Trait on your Daggers and Bow
- Craft Potions that gives Weapon Critical boost (Crit crosses into the 80s)
- Food that boosts Max Health and Max Stamina (I go with Tri-food that adds Stam recovery as well)
- Also, note that adding 30 CP into "The Ritual" skill tree give you a 12% Weapon Critical boost
- Add a good amount of CP into Mighty and Precise Strikes so that your Crits will hit really hard. Also, points in Piercing does wonders as well.

Front Bar (DW Daggers for Crit Bonus): Ambush, Steel Tornado (DW Ability), Mass Hysteria, Surprise Attack, Camo Hunter [Crit Bonus]
Front Bar Ult: Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar (Bow): Poison Injection, Resolving Vigor, Piercing Mark, Focused Aim, Shadowy Disguise
Back Bar Ult: Berserker Werewolf

Obviously, you don't need to copy this, but if you are looking for a similar build, you could play around with this. I hope this helps a little.

Just an FYI @KingDuncanVII

The same buffs from potions and abilities are not stackable so using Camo Hunter and potions which both grant Major Savagery is largely pointless - unless the potions are used for your back bar, that is. So you may want to consider using potions that use Major Berserker because the only 20% damage buff you get from this build is on the attack immediately following Ambush.

Also, if you can afford to remove one ability on your offbar you could add in Relentless Focus which grants Minor Berserker & Endurance for 20 seconds.

Finally, if you switch Shadowy Disguise with Mass Hysteria around on your bars, it may be easier to stealth and Ambush/Surprise Attack during a fight (on my MagNB I do this before every damaging ability). This will mean that Camo Hunter's damage from stealth with proc a lot more, you'll do more crit on your attacks and as Mass Hysteria can only be used every 6 seconds I find it better being on the offbar.

altemriel

KingDuncanVII wrote: »

@Jdevil_1018

I use a Stam NB ATM and it's going pretty well. I play, both, PvE and PvP and my build seems to do me justice.

I utilize a high crit (75% Weapon Crit unbuffed), moderate DPS (2600~), moderate regen build (1500~).

- 5pc Hunding's Rage, 4pc Night Mother's Gaze
- Shadow Mundus Stone (Critical Strike Rate increase)
- 3 Health Enchants on Head, Chest, Legs
- 4 Stamina Enchants on Shoulders, Arms, Belt, Feet
- Precise Trait on your Daggers and Bow
- Craft Potions that gives Weapon Critical boost (Crit crosses into the 80s)
- Food that boosts Max Health and Max Stamina (I go with Tri-food that adds Stam recovery as well)
- Also, note that adding 30 CP into "The Ritual" skill tree give you a 12% Weapon Critical boost
- Add a good amount of CP into Mighty and Precise Strikes so that your Crits will hit really hard. Also, points in Piercing does wonders as well.

Front Bar (DW Daggers for Crit Bonus): Ambush, Steel Tornado (DW Ability), Mass Hysteria, Surprise Attack, Camo Hunter [Crit Bonus]
Front Bar Ult: Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar (Bow): Poison Injection, Resolving Vigor, Piercing Mark, Focused Aim, Shadowy Disguise
Back Bar Ult: Berserker Werewolf

Obviously, you don't need to copy this, but if you are looking for a similar build, you could play around with this. I hope this helps a little.

I use this kind of set "5pc Hunding's Rage, 4pc Night Mother's Gaze" on my stam DK and I am really satisfied with it !

Reevster

KingDuncanVII wrote: »

@Jdevil_1018

I use a Stam NB ATM and it's going pretty well. I play, both, PvE and PvP and my build seems to do me justice.

I utilize a high crit (75% Weapon Crit unbuffed), moderate DPS (2600~), moderate regen build (1500~).

- 5pc Hunding's Rage, 4pc Night Mother's Gaze
- Shadow Mundus Stone (Critical Strike Rate increase)
- 3 Health Enchants on Head, Chest, Legs
- 4 Stamina Enchants on Shoulders, Arms, Belt, Feet
- Precise Trait on your Daggers and Bow
- Craft Potions that gives Weapon Critical boost (Crit crosses into the 80s)
- Food that boosts Max Health and Max Stamina (I go with Tri-food that adds Stam recovery as well)
- Also, note that adding 30 CP into "The Ritual" skill tree give you a 12% Weapon Critical boost
- Add a good amount of CP into Mighty and Precise Strikes so that your Crits will hit really hard. Also, points in Piercing does wonders as well.

Front Bar (DW Daggers for Crit Bonus): Ambush, Steel Tornado (DW Ability), Mass Hysteria, Surprise Attack, Camo Hunter [Crit Bonus]
Front Bar Ult: Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar (Bow): Poison Injection, Resolving Vigor, Piercing Mark, Focused Aim, Shadowy Disguise
Back Bar Ult: Berserker Werewolf

Obviously, you don't need to copy this, but if you are looking for a similar build, you could play around with this. I hope this helps a little.

I thought having a high crit rating is useless in PvP since most run high crit resistance?

Glamdring

Yeah, i would go for warrior or serpent mundus stone instead , dependant on your armor set and focus on high base damage instead. and get impen trait on your pvp gear.

Glamdring

I would say though that the above crit build would work good both in pve and pvp. For a great build you need 2 different armor and weapon sets.

KingDuncanVII

Sunburnt_Penguin wrote: »

The same buffs from potions and abilities are not stackable so using Camo Hunter and potions which both grant Major Savagery is largely pointless - unless the potions are used for your back bar, that is. So you may want to consider using potions that use Major Berserker because the only 20% damage buff you get from this build is on the attack immediately following Ambush.

I use potions that Restore Stamina, Increase Stamina Recovery, and Boost Weapon Damage by 20%. I used to use Crit potions and I thought they were working. Guess not, lol.

I've also leveling a Stam Khajiit NB so this build should definitely get anyone in the 80%+ Weapon Crit range.

Sunburnt_Penguin wrote: »

Also, if you can afford to remove one ability on your offbar you could add in Relentless Focus which grants Minor Berserker & Endurance for 20 seconds.

I actually had my build a little different than what I initially posted. On my Front Bar I have Relentless focus instead of Mass Hysteria (moved this ability to my Back Bar). This way, by have two Assassination abilities on my bar, I get a bigger Critical Strike Rate boost.

So my Front Bar would be: Ambush, Steel Tornado, Relentless Focus, Surprise Attack, Camo Hunter
Therefore, my Back Bar looks like: Poison Injection, Resolving Vigor, Mass Hysteria, Focused Aim, Shadowy Disguise

Sunburnt_Penguin wrote: »

Finally, if you switch Shadowy Disguise with Mass Hysteria around on your bars, it may be easier to stealth and Ambush/Surprise Attack during a fight (on my MagNB I do this before every damaging ability). This will mean that Camo Hunter's damage from stealth with proc a lot more, you'll do more crit on your attacks and as Mass Hysteria can only be used every 6 seconds I find it better being on the offbar.

I am able to switch fluidly between my two bars and utilize the Cloak whenever I need to without any trouble. Some people have issues with this and therefore, need to make that change, but I don't. Also, Shadowy Disguise is great on my Bow bar because that bar doesn't have as high of a Crit rate. It comes down to preference, really.

KingDuncanVII

However, I am thinking of swapping Relentless Focus for my Piercing Mark.

starkerealm

Reevster wrote: »

I thought having a high crit rating is useless in PvP since most run high crit resistance?

IIRC (and keep in mind, I actually don't run a crit build in Cyrodiil), you'll still crit, it just won't be on 80% of your strikes.