Allround Nightblade?

ScytheNL

Hi guys,

I'm just sort of starting of here, decided to make a Redguard Nightblade. I've been looking around on these forums and I have to say, it's a bit intimidating... So many terms and abbreviations being thrown around, I'm kind of lost.

Can someone point me in the direction of an allround Nighblade build that uses Stamina over Magicka? At the moment I'm still doing the main quests, building up the character but it seems like it's so easy to mess it up since there are SOOOOO many variables...

My playstyle is stealth, hit-and-run, guerilla tactics. Isolate a target if I can, kite the bigger ones around if possible (That's how I killed Gar Xuu Gar with sh*t gear when I was lvl 11 )

AKSb16_ESO2

Go magicka and you are able to do world bosses on your own. Even most of group dungeons for 4 people can be done solo because of the big amount of self healing you have then.

RavenSworn

Hi there!

Honestly, stamina Nightblade is one of the harder classes to learn. It's not about having enough heals but rather prioritising your Kills. Encounter a group? Healer dies first then the rest. It's different from other classes where you can just run in, press a few buttons together and voila! Group done.

Siphoning strikes + steel tornado + double take
Reaper's mark + shadowy disguise + ambush + killer's blade

Just some combo that can be done.

ScytheNL

Thanks guys

I don't really want to go the Magicka way because it somehow isn't fitting for a 'rogue' type in my mind.

Thanks for the combo's, I'm still unlocking stuff but at the moment I'm using (I think):
- Assassin's Blade morphed into Killer's Blade (Stamina)
- Teleport Strike morphed into Ambush (Stamina)
- Consuming Darkness morphed into Veil of Blades (Ultimate)
- Strife (Magicka)
- Twin Slashes (possibly morphed into Blood Craze, could be I'm only planning that yet) (Stamina)
- One more Magicka skill that I can't remember now -

What I usually do is use the Teleport strike from stealth, which dazes the target, then I use Twin slashes and Killer's Blade which is usually enough for the common rabble walking around caves and such.

If I am spotted or if there are more enemies, I backtrack firing Strife to get the health bars lower before I jump in with Teleport strike. I also do this if the health gets low for a quick heal.

RavenSworn

ScytheNL wrote: »

Thanks guys

I don't really want to go the Magicka way because it somehow isn't fitting for a 'rogue' type in my mind.

Thanks for the combo's, I'm still unlocking stuff but at the moment I'm using (I think):
- Assassin's Blade morphed into Killer's Blade (Stamina)
- Teleport Strike morphed into Ambush (Stamina)
- Consuming Darkness morphed into Veil of Blades (Ultimate)
- Strife (Magicka)
- Twin Slashes (possibly morphed into Blood Craze, could be I'm only planning that yet) (Stamina)
- One more Magicka skill that I can't remember now -

What I usually do is use the Teleport strike from stealth, which dazes the target, then I use Twin slashes and Killer's Blade which is usually enough for the common rabble walking around caves and such.

If I am spotted or if there are more enemies, I backtrack firing Strife to get the health bars lower before I jump in with Teleport strike. I also do this if the health gets low for a quick heal.

Morphing strife to siphon soul is a prudent move as well since it adds the amount heals you get out of killer's blade. Personally for mitigation I like Mirage + refreshing path. You change up path with surprise attacks and use double take instead of Mirage. The dodge, speed boost couple with fracture and also resistance boosts via shadow passives will be more than enough to take on groups of mobs. One of the reasons though for path is that the constant heals, albeit small, does add up with siphon soul in your bar.

I've had good dps from a simple rotation: Reaper's mark - double take - shadowy disguise - Ambush - Rearming Trap - swap weapons - rapid strike / surprise attack / steel tornado - killer's blade with evil hunter, siphon soul and soul harvest ultimate for that constant uptick of ultimate.

nodulo

Also do yourself a favor and start leveling up your bow skill line as a stamina based character.
Endless hail and poison injection will be invaluable contributors to your overall damage once you get the hang of a dual wield/bow rotation.

ScytheNL

Thanks everyone

I actually just hit 15 yesterday so I added the bow as a backup, though it's only at lvl 6 yet I believe... And most of that from books

I'm going to look into the combo's and skills you guys mentioned here

malicia

@ScytheNL

My personal suggestion would be to do your own thing until you hit CP 160, and only then start looking at other people's builds. Look at the advice on the forums, but create your own build and enjoy tinkering with it.

Based on your playstyle, my only advice would be to look at the Night's Silence set. It makes stealth playing a lot of fun. However, you won't find many builds suggesting it, as it is really not aimed at maximizing your DPS output.

On what server are you playing? PC or console?

I currently use this as a guide for my Stamblade. The author went to great lengths to include advice for while you're leveling, as well as for someone who's finished leveling, but is still low CP. However, the guide is aimed at DPS builds, rather than people who like a rogue-like playstyle.

To be hones, I also started off with a rogue-like playstyle, but eventually found myself switching to a more arrogant "here I am and I am going to kill you in your face" (right before I die ) kind of playstyle. Stealth tactics work great for solo, but less well in grouped content or end-game content.

shack80

StamBlade is all about AoE damage and activity. Coz you have no shield you need to be moving, blocking and dodge rolling when needed. For sure you can play it anyway you wan't but if you wan't to solo world bosses and dungeon you need to play it the proper way. Forget fancy sneaking and magica based skills, they are basically for pvp. If you want to pve soloing you need these:

vigor, surprise attack or rapid strikes, steel tornado or killers blade, rearming trap, poison injection, arrow barrage or endless hail, caltrops, blood graze, siphoning attacks (basically only magica skill you need) and relentless focus.

@malicia linked a really good guide which is one you should follow, but like said you can try to play any style you wan't but things will definetly get hard trying only the sneaky sneaky way.

ScytheNL

malicia wrote: »

@ScytheNL

My personal suggestion would be to do your own thing until you hit CP 160, and only then start looking at other people's builds. Look at the advice on the forums, but create your own build and enjoy tinkering with it.

Based on your playstyle, my only advice would be to look at the Night's Silence set. It makes stealth playing a lot of fun. However, you won't find many builds suggesting it, as it is really not aimed at maximizing your DPS output.

On what server are you playing? PC or console?

I currently use this as a guide for my Stamblade. The author went to great lengths to include advice for while you're leveling, as well as for someone who's finished leveling, but is still low CP. However, the guide is aimed at DPS builds, rather than people who like a rogue-like playstyle.

To be hones, I also started off with a rogue-like playstyle, but eventually found myself switching to a more arrogant "here I am and I am going to kill you in your face" (right before I die ) kind of playstyle. Stealth tactics work great for solo, but less well in grouped content or end-game content.

I'm on the Xbox One

Thanks for the link!

ScytheNL

shack80 wrote: »

StamBlade is all about AoE damage and activity. Coz you have no shield you need to be moving, blocking and dodge rolling when needed. For sure you can play it anyway you wan't but if you wan't to solo world bosses and dungeon you need to play it the proper way. Forget fancy sneaking and magica based skills, they are basically for pvp. If you want to pve soloing you need these:

vigor, surprise attack or rapid strikes, steel tornado or killers blade, rearming trap, poison injection, arrow barrage or endless hail, caltrops, blood graze, siphoning attacks (basically only magica skill you need) and relentless focus.

@malicia linked a really good guide which is one you should follow, but like said you can try to play any style you wan't but things will definetly get hard trying only the sneaky sneaky way.

Noted I will bechecking out that link later. I'm not averse to upfront killing, doing the stealth thing partly because it keeps me alive at this point in the game where I'm still pretty weak.

Violynne

ScytheNL wrote: »

I actually just hit 15 yesterday so I added the bow as a backup, though it's only at lvl 6 yet I believe... And most of that from books

Some tips to level up your skills quickly:
First, if you haven't done so: do the Jester's Festival ASAP! This gives you a memento for 2 hours of 100% exp gain and it's reusable.

Second, now that you've unlocked swapping, place UNIQUE SKILLS in each bar. Do not repeat a skill unless you want it leveled quickly.
Before you turn in a quest, make sure you have the bar equipped you want the exp to go to and the Pie of Misuse is active. I swap every other quest. This comes in handy to get those early skills to level IV/morph quickly.

malicia

To introduce you to bar swapping, since you already have a bow on the back bar:

Put your first bow skill (Snipe) in your back bar. Also put Volley (second bow skill) on your back bar. Sneak to a melee target, but not too close.

From stealth, use Snipe on the target. Immediately afterward start a heavy attack (bow). Immediately once your heavy attack is done (it should land almost at the same time as your Snipe), put a Volley on the ground just before yourself (include yourself in the lower part of the circle). Immediately after clicking the button to place the volley, click the bar switch button. You don't have to wait for the volley animation to finish.

Wait for the dying target to come towards you. Finish him off.

The Snipe and your HA (heavy attack) should land almost together, and can do significant damage. Volley will do damage over time (DoT) which is really important in ESO. By the time the target reaches you he should have lost a significant portion of your health. If there are multiple targets, I normally choose a ranged one for my Snipe and HA, and then I make sure to include the ranged targets in the furthest part of my Volley circle. I then run to the circle to engage in order to make sure that all the enemies are still in the circle (and thus taking damage). So the idea here is that you choose the battleground (your Volley circle), you make sure that everyone in that circle takes damage the whole time, and you hurt them before the battle starts.

When your Volley runs out, quickly switch back to the bow bar, launch another volley, and switch back to melee.

Violynne

shack80 wrote: »

...but like said you can try to play any style you wan't but things will definetly get hard trying only the sneaky sneaky way.

I'll personally vouch for this. My very first character was a NB and I hated the character so much, I deleted it after I got done with Caldwell's gold. I struggled with beating even strong bosses, like Watchers and Harvesters. World bosses? LOL. Not without help.

Knowing now what I do, I should have never deleted the character. A simple respec and a little training on the skills would have been all it took to take "omg, I hate this character" to "Come on, junior. Show me what you got."

*le sigh*

But yes, going stamina NB has one advantage: master this, and you pretty much master the game.

nodulo

At level 15, some of this information is light years beyond what you need to be thinking about.

I mean, my rotation is:
Grim focus>Rearming trap>Poison injection>endless hail>bar swap>surprise attack>rending slashes>surprise attack spam until bow bar dots wear off>bar swap>reapeat until killers blade spam.
Mixing ultimates and light/medium attack weaves.
This does nothing for you at the moment.

For now just make sure you level your nightblade skill lines (all 3), fighters guild skill line and DW and bow skillines. The passives are extremely important eventually as well as the slotable skills themselves.
.
*And for good effort, level all weights of armor up, there are bonuses down the road for 2/3 types of armor equiped if you do grouped dungeon content to unlock these passives.

But most important, good luck and have fun!

ScytheNL

malicia wrote: »

To introduce you to bar swapping, since you already have a bow on the back bar:

Put your first bow skill (Snipe) in your back bar. Also put Volley (second bow skill) on your back bar. Sneak to a melee target, but not too close.

From stealth, use Snipe on the target. Immediately afterward start a heavy attack (bow). Immediately once your heavy attack is done (it should land almost at the same time as your Snipe), put a Volley on the ground just before yourself (include yourself in the lower part of the circle). Immediately after clicking the button to place the volley, click the bar switch button. You don't have to wait for the volley animation to finish.

Wait for the dying target to come towards you. Finish him off.

The Snipe and your HA (heavy attack) should land almost together, and can do significant damage. Volley will do damage over time (DoT) which is really important in ESO. By the time the target reaches you he should have lost a significant portion of your health. If there are multiple targets, I normally choose a ranged one for my Snipe and HA, and then I make sure to include the ranged targets in the furthest part of my Volley circle. I then run to the circle to engage in order to make sure that all the enemies are still in the circle (and thus taking damage). So the idea here is that you choose the battleground (your Volley circle), you make sure that everyone in that circle takes damage the whole time, and you hurt them before the battle starts.

When your Volley runs out, quickly switch back to the bow bar, launch another volley, and switch back to melee.

Sounds good! I'll try this when I get home!

ScytheNL

nodulo wrote: »

At level 15, some of this information is light years beyond what you need to be thinking about.

I mean, my rotation is:
Grim focus>Rearming trap>Poison injection>endless hail>bar swap>surprise attack>rending slashes>surprise attack spam until bow bar dots wear off>bar swap>reapeat until killers blade spam.
Mixing ultimates and light/medium attack weaves.
This does nothing for you at the moment.

For now just make sure you level your nightblade skill lines (all 3), fighters guild skill line and DW and bow skillines. The passives are extremely important eventually as well as the slotable skills themselves.
.
*And for good effort, level all weights of armor up, there are bonuses down the road for 2/3 types of armor equiped if you do grouped dungeon content to unlock these passives.

But most important, good luck and have fun!

Thanks! I know I might be waaaaay underleveled right now but I wanted to be sure I didn't 'miss' leveling up something that I was going to really need later on...

ScytheNL

Violynne wrote: »

ScytheNL wrote: »

I actually just hit 15 yesterday so I added the bow as a backup, though it's only at lvl 6 yet I believe... And most of that from books

Some tips to level up your skills quickly:
First, if you haven't done so: do the Jester's Festival ASAP! This gives you a memento for 2 hours of 100% exp gain and it's reusable.

Second, now that you've unlocked swapping, place UNIQUE SKILLS in each bar. Do not repeat a skill unless you want it leveled quickly.
Before you turn in a quest, make sure you have the bar equipped you want the exp to go to and the Pie of Misuse is active. I swap every other quest. This comes in handy to get those early skills to level IV/morph quickly.

I will Google Jester's Festival as soon a s I leave here, thanks