Need Help with my Stamina Nightblade Build

Uriel_Nocturne

So, I've had a Nightblade since the game launched on Xbox One. Put it down because I couldn't seem to get a grasp on how to make him survive through most fights. I've been using a MagTemplar and Mag Sorc since then for most of the time in game. Since then, he's just been sitting idle as extra bank space/crafting mule.

I hated that he has been sitting there, so I decided to do a re-fit on the entire character concept, and respec'd him as a Stamina Nightblade.

For gear; I've got him in 5x Hunding's and 4x Night Mother's (all Medium Armor). He dual wields on his Main bar, and has a Bow on his second bar.

But I'm having trouble with Skills. I want him to be a DPS character, but I notice that my Health drops dramatically, so survivability is an issue for me. I freely admit my ignorance with building a suitable Nightblade, and even less about Stamina abilities for him. I also have not used a Bow much at all in the game, so help with a good Skill set-up would be appreciated there as well.

Does a Stamina Nightblade have much in the way of Self-healing like/similar to Templars? If not, what are the best Skills to put on both bars to max out the DPS potential for a this character?

I should also add that I don't PvP (nothing against it, just my personal preference), so this character will be mostly used for Questing/Delves/Dungeons/World Bosses.

Any help from those who run Nightblades would be awesome. Thank you for your time.

imnotanother

I run a Stamblade. DW and Bow.

DW I use steel tornado, killers blade, rendering slashes, Fury, and Vigor with Dawnbreaker slotted.

Bow bar: siphoning attacks, endless hail, poison injection, rearming trap, caltrops. With veil of
Blades slotted.

Vigor for heals. Maybe slot
Dark cloak to mitigate DoT damage.

RavenSworn

The problem with night blades is that you don't have an 'active' heal much like the Templar or DK. Since you don't PvP (much like me) three skills that to me works well with each other: killer's blade, reaper's mark and swallow soul. Night blades require you to 'kill' before you get the heal. You can always use 2 hander rally, dual wield dot heal, or bow heals but it just doesn't cut it for nb imo.

I also don't go balls deep straight on with a night blade. I focus my targets, usually bringing down the mages/healers first before the armored tanks. The buffs you receive from reaper's mark helps tremendously with dps; add evil hunter and trap beast and you can have a powerful stamina based night blade.

I also like merciless resolve and SAP essence but honestly, a marked target while steel tornado or venom spray will do a far better job on aoe than SAP ever will be. Even if you do change it to the stamina counterpart, it just doesn't heal you as well as a marked target.

Hope this helps.

Uriel_Nocturne

I see.

Do all of those have Stamina Morphs on the Dual Wield bar? I have Steel Tornado, but since I don't have any of the Undaunted/PvP skill trees unlocked at all, I've been "making-do" with Mark Target and the Assassination gap-closer. I've got the Siphoning Skill that draws strength/ something-or-other from the enemies, but I don't have the Morph for it yet (hoping there's a Stamina Morph as my Magicka pool is pretty shallow...)

I'm so new at Nightblades that I can't even remember all of the Skill names... lol

Thank you for your help though, it is very much appreciated.

Uriel_Nocturne

uniq_faznrb18_ESO wrote: »

The problem with night blades is that you don't have an 'active' heal much like the Templar or DK. Since you don't PvP (much like me) three skills that to me works well with each other: killer's blade, reaper's mark and swallow soul. Night blades require you to 'kill' before you get the heal. You can always use 2 hander rally, dual wield dot heal, or bow heals but it just doesn't cut it for nb imo.

I also don't go balls deep straight on with a night blade. I focus my targets, usually bringing down the mages/healers first before the armored tanks. The buffs you receive from reaper's mark helps tremendously with dps; add evil hunter and trap beast and you can have a powerful stamina based night blade.

I also like merciless resolve and SAP essence but honestly, a marked target while steel tornado or venom spray will do a far better job on aoe than SAP ever will be. Even if you do change it to the stamina counterpart, it just doesn't heal you as well as a marked target.

Hope this helps.

Thank you very much for your input.

I'm sure once I get home to my character and can look at the Skills alongside this, I can make it "click" in my head. lol

disintegr8

@imnotanother - can you advise if your skill slots are for all PVP/PVE, solo and/or dungeons?

I have a stamblade, a magblade and a stamsorc, but the stamblade is the hardest of the three to sustain. I find if I set him up for dungeons (more damage), I rely too much on the healer for health - but as I use PUGs, that is not always advisable

If I set him up for solo, meaning less damage and more self sustain, I end up feeling woefully inadequate as far as damage goes, especially in vet dungeons.

Katahdin

The only real self heal you can get as DW is vigor. The blue morph of Flurry (bloodthirst?) Also gives a bit of heal

Put health runes on your armor until you get health up to @ 13-15 K unbuffed. Use blue health+stam food to get it to 18-22K.

In CP tree put 20-25 points each in physical and spell resist to get around 11-12K

If PvPing, use impen on armor and play smart. You aren't a tank. PvE use divines and stI'll play smart cause you're still not a tank. Keep moving, don't stand still, stay out of the red.

Bow: depends on situation but I always run grim focus for extra damage. Lethal arrow and poison injection.

Depending on what I'm doing, I'll put spray arrow (poison morph) for PvE or evil hunter on the bar. I usually put rapids back there if in open maps or Cyrodil and switch it out for something else if running IC or a dungeon. What I put depends on the situation.

*edit* just saw you don't do pvp so disregard those points

WhoThenNow7

I absolutely love my stamblade.. but it's build specifically for PvP. I'm running a build that everyone would hate me for. 2 veli 5 viper 5 night mother's gaze.. so fun especially getting in battles with other nightblades. But yeah vigor was essential for me.

Fishoscandi

You should check out @Gilliamtherogue and his stamina nightblade. He has really good info about a stamblade on his post in Player Guides.

RavenSworn

Reaper's mark is magicka based but don't let it fool you. 60% of max health heal on kill is a no brainer for sustain.

That siphoning skill that drains strength... That has a stamina morph, power extraction. But like I said, it just doesn't quite cut it. It also doesn't heal like it's magicka counterpart so it's effectively useless even on a stamina build. I have my bars setup like this:

Spam (surprise attack)
Gap closer (ambush)
Finisher (killer's blade)
Buff (trap beast)
Buff (evil hunter)

With a back bar of:
Buff (relentless focus / merciless resolve) depends on how you want your character.
Buff (swallow soul)
Utility (rally / flying blade / Draining shot)
Buff (reaper's mark)
Aoe spam (venom spray / steel tornado / carve)

I usually leave the ultimate to your own decision since its how you play your character. Werewolves for Stam recovery and better mobility and damage, soul tether for sustain, soul harvest for constant harassment and dps, flawless Dawn breaker for passive weapon buff and aoe damage. Veil of blades is good, but it's more a tanking utility than dps. Meteor is another good ultimate.

I sometimes swap swallow soul for Mirage or double take but it really depends on your game play. I use swallow soul because the passive works well with soul tether, rally, reaper's mark.. That will help with your health without sacrificing much dps.

RavenSworn

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

So, I've had a Nightblade since the game launched on Xbox One. Put it down because I couldn't seem to get a grasp on how to make him survive through most fights. I've been using a MagTemplar and Mag Sorc since then for most of the time in game. Since then, he's just been sitting idle as extra bank space/crafting mule.

I hated that he has been sitting there, so I decided to do a re-fit on the entire character concept, and respec'd him as a Stamina Nightblade.

For gear; I've got him in 5x Hunding's and 4x Night Mother's (all Medium Armor). He dual wields on his Main bar, and has a Bow on his second bar.

But I'm having trouble with Skills. I want him to be a DPS character, but I notice that my Health drops dramatically, so survivability is an issue for me. I freely admit my ignorance with building a suitable Nightblade, and even less about Stamina abilities for him. I also have not used a Bow much at all in the game, so help with a good Skill set-up would be appreciated there as well.

Does a Stamina Nightblade have much in the way of Self-healing like/similar to Templars? If not, what are the best Skills to put on both bars to max out the DPS potential for a this character?

I should also add that I don't PvP (nothing against it, just my personal preference), so this character will be mostly used for Questing/Delves/Dungeons/World Bosses.

Any help from those who run Nightblades would be awesome. Thank you for your time.

Come on guys he already said he doesn't PvP on this character lol. Vigor won't help him. At the very least give him alternatives.

imnotanother

disintegr8 wrote: »

@imnotanother - can you advise if your skill slots are for all PVP/PVE, solo and/or dungeons?

I have a stamblade, a magblade and a stamsorc, but the stamblade is the hardest of the three to sustain. I find if I set him up for dungeons (more damage), I rely too much on the healer for health - but as I use PUGs, that is not always advisable

If I set him up for solo, meaning less damage and more self sustain, I end up feeling woefully inadequate as far as damage goes, especially in vet dungeons.

I mostly solo play PVE content but do PUGs too.
Gear wise I am wearing 5x twice born star, 5x Viper, 1 kena and 1 blood spawn. My bow is a maelstrom so I lose the 5th bonus for Viper then.

After eating food, my health is 21k and stam is little over 38k.

I rely a lot on siphoning attacks to keep my stamina pool up and I drink essence of weapon power potions like an addict.

imnotanother

uniq_faznrb18_ESO wrote: »

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

So, I've had a Nightblade since the game launched on Xbox One. Put it down because I couldn't seem to get a grasp on how to make him survive through most fights. I've been using a MagTemplar and Mag Sorc since then for most of the time in game. Since then, he's just been sitting idle as extra bank space/crafting mule.

I hated that he has been sitting there, so I decided to do a re-fit on the entire character concept, and respec'd him as a Stamina Nightblade.

For gear; I've got him in 5x Hunding's and 4x Night Mother's (all Medium Armor). He dual wields on his Main bar, and has a Bow on his second bar.

But I'm having trouble with Skills. I want him to be a DPS character, but I notice that my Health drops dramatically, so survivability is an issue for me. I freely admit my ignorance with building a suitable Nightblade, and even less about Stamina abilities for him. I also have not used a Bow much at all in the game, so help with a good Skill set-up would be appreciated there as well.

Does a Stamina Nightblade have much in the way of Self-healing like/similar to Templars? If not, what are the best Skills to put on both bars to max out the DPS potential for a this character?

I should also add that I don't PvP (nothing against it, just my personal preference), so this character will be mostly used for Questing/Delves/Dungeons/World Bosses.

Any help from those who run Nightblades would be awesome. Thank you for your time.

Come on guys he already said he doesn't PvP on this character lol. Vigor won't help him. At the very least give him alternatives.

Vigor is a must for a stam night blade. It is the best heal, hands down.

Should only take a few hours in Cyrodiil to earn. Not bad considering the original grind at launch, which took lots and lots of AP earning to unlock.

RavenSworn

imnotanother wrote: »

uniq_faznrb18_ESO wrote: »

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

So, I've had a Nightblade since the game launched on Xbox One. Put it down because I couldn't seem to get a grasp on how to make him survive through most fights. I've been using a MagTemplar and Mag Sorc since then for most of the time in game. Since then, he's just been sitting idle as extra bank space/crafting mule.

I hated that he has been sitting there, so I decided to do a re-fit on the entire character concept, and respec'd him as a Stamina Nightblade.

For gear; I've got him in 5x Hunding's and 4x Night Mother's (all Medium Armor). He dual wields on his Main bar, and has a Bow on his second bar.

But I'm having trouble with Skills. I want him to be a DPS character, but I notice that my Health drops dramatically, so survivability is an issue for me. I freely admit my ignorance with building a suitable Nightblade, and even less about Stamina abilities for him. I also have not used a Bow much at all in the game, so help with a good Skill set-up would be appreciated there as well.

Does a Stamina Nightblade have much in the way of Self-healing like/similar to Templars? If not, what are the best Skills to put on both bars to max out the DPS potential for a this character?

I should also add that I don't PvP (nothing against it, just my personal preference), so this character will be mostly used for Questing/Delves/Dungeons/World Bosses.

Any help from those who run Nightblades would be awesome. Thank you for your time.

Come on guys he already said he doesn't PvP on this character lol. Vigor won't help him. At the very least give him alternatives.

Vigor is a must for a stam night blade. It is the best heal, hands down.

I'm not saying that it's not. It is. But telling someone go fish if he doesn't even like it is kinda.. Defeating the purpose. Vigor is a really good heal, but with a night blade having major berserk after a heal is kinda to me.. Much better in slot. But to each his own.

To op, it's up to you, options above were all given in good nature. Mark will not help much if the bosses don't call on adds that you can kill fast. But for an ability that a) debuffs the target b) heals for 60% on kill c) gains a damage buff after kill... *shrug*

Uriel_Nocturne

Thank you all for your help.

It will take a bit to digest all of this and find combos that work for me, but this has all been very helpful. I look forward to more comments and insight, but you've all given me some great tips to start with.