Is a Nightblade Bow/Siphoning Build Feasible Long Term?

ClockworkSoul451

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I first picked up ESO on PS4 a little less than a year ago to supplement my Destiny habit after I exhausted House of Wolves Content. My playing of ESO dropped off the cliff ilast September with the release of TTK (at that point i was level 16). I'm starting to get back into the game again, but after watching several Twitch streamers and perusing the forums I haven't found many references to a solid Nightblade Bow build.

Right now I'm primarily focused on the Siphoning and Bow skill trees, with a touch of Shadow skills thrown in for good measure. I've started working on Two-Handed for access to Momentum for healing purposes. Am I barking up the wrong tree here for long-term viability? It seems like most builds focus on Duel Wield and Assassination skills.

In the Elder Scrolls universe I have always loved playing the stealthy archer; it fits my meticulous approach to traditional Bethesda games. I know this is different as an MMORPG, but I'd still love to keep to the bones of my play style if possible.

Any advice, direction to guides, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

ClockworkSoul451

dwtdwtdwt

Siphon skills such as strife and cripple are great for a bow user... early on. But in the long run, no. Use them to level the skills while you're still lower level; you may want to use them later on and it is a pain to level skills when you're at endgame. Plus, the synergy with the weapons is great for a range class and with managing resources at low levels. But if you are dead set on a being a stealthy bow user, there aren't many good options in the siphon skill tree.

This is why it is not good to continue with that at higher levels:

For one, your max damage is based on your highest resource, whether it be stamina or magicka. The higher the resource, the more damage output. Currently, a bow causes physical weapon damage that scales off stamina. In order to do the most damage with a bow, you would want to increase your stamina as much as you can. On the flipside, your siphon abilities (most scale off your magicka pool) are less powerful due to a low magicka pool and spell damage, ultimately lowering your overall damage.

Also, at higher levels, a nightblade who uses a bow wants to save what little magicka he or she has for cloaking, fear, and the occasional piercing mark or relentless focus. I hope this answers some questions.

ClockworkSoul451

I appreciate the input, a lot!

Ilsabet

I'm not a min-maxer, an expert, or an endgame player, but I did set out with the exact same plan you have - a nightblade archer using siphoning for survivability.

What I discovered is that you'll want to make use of skills from all three class branches, so try to level them all up and unlock the skills that seem most useful (and eventually all of them just so you have them available). Test things out and see what works best for you. I tend to use stamina skills for damage and heals and magicka skills for utility and buffs.

Bow/2h is a pretty popular setup (and it's what I use), so you won't go too far wrong with that combo.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO

Poison Injection (Poison Arrow), Mirage (Blur), Dark Cloak (Shadow Cloak), Crippling Grips (Cripple) and Lethal Arrow (Snipe).

You open with two Lethal Arrows this adds big burst and a healing debuff. Then you let out a Poison Injection and Cripple now Poison Injection's DoT ticks harder when the target is below 50% with Crippling Grips you gain a long term speed buff while debugging the target's speed the weak DoT from Cripple is is an added bonus you are using for the speed buff / debuff combo. Lastly Dark Cloak as you will not be healing on this bar adds both Shadow Barrier (5120 resistance buff for 4 seconds +1 second per piece of heavy armor) but the Cloak itself adds a 5 second buff that lets you take 8% less damage great for defense.

Now heavy attacks and Lethal Arrow will be your main damage dealers with Poison Injection helping big time once they drop under 50%. Beside to have Rally (Momentum) and Vigor on your off bar. Happy Hunting.

ClockworkSoul451

Thanks again for the robust responses! I have been trying to make sure that I include skills from all three trees to diversify what I have available to me and I really like the strategy that Kendeklking threw out there.