Should Nightblades be played as Magicka ?

vpy

I am a newcomer currently leveling my nightblade(lvl 20).

He was stam earlier and the leveling process was ....let us say..not smooth.

I respecced to him Magicka..my goodness...amazing.

Apart from boss fights most of the quest/encounters in ESO are of this set up

a) Go to a Cave/dungeon/instance and in the end do something (could be kill or loot or activate or talk to npc)

=> I just stealth all the way to the end. Earlier as Stam I could not perma stealth but with Magicka getting near perma stealth is very easy

b) In regular quest grinds there will be 1/2/3 mobs will be in clusters.

=> Many (if not most of) of my Magicka/destro staff spells are AOE as such mobs just melt away and with OS as Resto staff it is very very easy to survive

In my early experience in WoW (years ago) there was this class called "Mage" and it had multiple trees for leveling (Fire, Frost and Arcane).

Fire has the oomph but it is very painful for leveling/questing but "Frost" has a slightly less damage but it is amazing for leveling.

TLDR : Should Nightblades be always played as Magicka (or am I a non-lvl-capped-scrub and should focus on max level and then can comment) ?

SnubbS

Didn't read the post—but ZoS doesn't think Nightblades should be played at all so...

Gilvoth

nightblade class is really easily killed and simply does not do awesome damage like the other classes can.
there are people who seem to do ALOT of damage and survive Very well with nightblades both stamina and magicka based but ...
theres some speculation as to why they can do it.
this is a very touchy subject for many of us here on the forums and alot of people have different ideas.
hard subject to discuss.

KochDerDamonen

All four classes can perform DD as magicka or stamina spec, heal, and tank even. The level of content you're aiming for will put a bit of a squeeze on what is going to be accepted though. In Overworld(leveling) and Normal difficulty dungeons, anything will fly. In veteran dungeons, a non-templar healer or a non-dragonknight tank might get you some funny looks/comments/the boot(if your group is full of knobs). In Normal trials most things still fly, roughly around acceptance for veteran dungeons. Once you get to veteran trials, you're going to find it hard to group as a stamina DD of any class and nigh impossible as a non-DK tank or non-Temp healer.


This is all subject to change. Zenimax's intent is to have all classes capable of fulfilling all roles competently with their own flare, currently magicka DD (especially sorcerer) are clearly matching or outdoing other specs in terms of singletarget dps, while also having huge AoE damage and can do it all from range with defensive spells at the ready.

My recommendation, do not worry about end-game until you get there. It can take like 2-5 hours to grind a new character if you really, really, really want something particular.

itehache

I main a stamina nb. They have many weaknesses and I am having trouble to see their good points now, to be honest.
However, to me it's still the most fun class to play, so I will stick with that.

I perform better at PVP than at PVE (and I mostly play PVE). However, I can do all veteran content and I have been able to solo normal dungeons so I guess we're not thaaat bad

In the end, what really matters is that you're having fun, and it sounds you prefer a magicka NB than a stamina one by what you are saying in your post.

SydneyGrey

I played a stamina nightblade, and stopped playing her after a while because she was so terrible at face-to-face boss fights. I do recommend going magicka with NBs.

KochDerDamonen wrote: »

My recommendation, do not worry about end-game until you get there. It can take like 2-5 hours to grind a new character if you really, really, really want something particular.

But many, many more hours to do all the questlines that give you great skills, like the Shadow Rider passive in the Dark Brotherhood questline, that reduces aggro 50% while you're mounted. I think you have to be level 7 in DB before you can get that skill. And many, many more hours to gather all the skyshards you'll need for the new character. Plus the months of horse training.
As they say, levelling a new character to 50 is fast and easy. It's getting all the OTHER benefits that takes much, much longer.
I recommend worrying about end-game just a little before you get there, otherwise you might spend an entire month on a character that won't work for you later.
(*Said with every respect to the person I quoted up above. I don't agree with him, but I still respect him.*)

Fingolfinn01

just play to hve fun your way what ever it may be. And if ya lucky your idea of fun may end up being an op class. If not don't sweat, it may end up being op one day.

vyndral13preub18_ESO

For open world pve stam or magika are fine.

KochDerDamonen

SydneyGrey wrote: »

KochDerDamonen wrote: »

My recommendation, do not worry about end-game until you get there. It can take like 2-5 hours to grind a new character if you really, really, really want something particular.

But many, many more hours to do all the questlines that give you great skills, like the Shadow Rider passive in the Dark Brotherhood questline, that reduces aggro 50% while you're mounted. I think you have to be level 7 in DB before you can get that skill. And many, many more hours to gather all the skyshards you'll need for the new character. Plus the months of horse training.
As they say, levelling a new character to 50 is fast and easy. It's getting all the OTHER benefits that takes much, much longer.
I recommend worrying about end-game just a little before you get there, otherwise you might spend an entire month on a character that won't work for you later.
(*Said with every respect to the person I quoted up above. I don't agree with him, but I still respect him.*)

@SydneyGrey Advice given under the assumption that OP would reach 50/cp160 or so and touch a couple veteran dungeons and then decide to reroll or keep on with their first character. 'twould be a bit much to gather all that and then decide one does not like the character

SanSan

Really? because i played a magicka nB and it's so weak. I'm a bow stamnb right now and i kill everything with ease, even bosses.

Robo_Hobo

I started my nightblade as magicka, but wasn't enjoying it too much, but I did love cloak spamming past things. I eventually switched to stamina nightblade and enjoy the combat gameplay a lot more. I found that if I want to go theiving or just generally be sneaky in it, I can have an extra set of medium armor gear with all magicka enchants, and switch my food to witchmothers potent brew. With that I can still spam cloak endlessly, plus have more stamina for sneaking/using major expedition abilities to still go fast without using concealed blade. It's the best of both worlds for me.

SydneyGrey

SanSan wrote: »

Really? because i played a magicka nB and it's so weak. I'm a bow stamnb right now and i kill everything with ease, even bosses.

I need to know your secrets, because I sucked with a stamblade. My build obviously could have been better. For one thing, I never got "Vigor" from the Alliance War skill-set, so I didn't have a good heal spell. What sucks is the Morrowind patch is going to nerf Vigor, so it won't be so awesome anymore.
I never deleted my NB, so maybe I can fix her.

Nyladreas

Ah yeah the endless battle of stamina vs magicka...

If i may give you an advice, don't play stamina it's really weak.




Ehm... or is it?

SydneyGrey

DoShazarr wrote: »

I'm so jelly of your weapon critical. What I've learned today is I really need to work on my stamblade some more. LOL.

SanSan

SydneyGrey wrote: »

SanSan wrote: »

Really? because i played a magicka nB and it's so weak. I'm a bow stamnb right now and i kill everything with ease, even bosses.

I need to know your secrets, because I sucked with a stamblade. My build obviously could have been better. For one thing, I never got "Vigor" from the Alliance War skill-set, so I didn't have a good heal spell. What sucks is the Morrowind patch is going to nerf Vigor, so it won't be so awesome anymore.
I never deleted my NB, so maybe I can fix her.

I use draining arrow for my heal and swallow soul. I don't have Vigor unlocked yet. I use poisons, red mountain and Morkuldin Set. Draining Arrow can heal be fully if i'm at 50% health.
You just have to play it smart. Since you're a NB you can't rush in and spam skills. try to keep your distance and strike BIG.
I am using Bow primary but idk what you're using. If it's Dual wield i suggest morphing the 1st two skills to the heal ones. If it's 2h then use brawler for the shield.
I'm only level 24 at the moment. Once i get siphoning attacks. it'll be easier for me.

kadar

DoShazarr wrote: »

Ah yeah the endless battle of stamina vs magicka...

If i may give you an advice, don't play stamina it's really weak.




Ehm... or is it?

Too fixated on Weapon damage if you ask me. That stam pool needs some love.

kadar

@vpy , Nightblade (any class actually) can be played as Magicka or Stamina. You just use different skills and have a different play style depending on which way you go.

Nyladreas

SydneyGrey wrote: »

DoShazarr wrote: »

I'm so jelly of your weapon critical. What I've learned today is I really need to work on my stamblade some more. LOL.

@SydneyGrey If i may...

Never let others tell you what you should or shouldnt do and if you have the patience and the nerve capacity to do so, make and research your own builds.

Never let anyone tell you a class is bad. Nightblades are just hard to figure out and master and imo are the most fun and most versatile of all.

The crit can go even higher. It's a matter of balancing direct damage vs crit though.

Edit: The reason why everyone says stamina is so bad is because everyone's looking for a cookie cutter build or just follows streamers and general ideas.

That's not the way ESO was built for.

SydneyGrey

SanSan wrote: »

You just have to play it smart. Since you're a NB you can't rush in and spam skills. try to keep your distance and strike BIG.
I am using Bow primary but idk what you're using. If it's Dual wield i suggest morphing the 1st two skills to the heal ones. If it's 2h then use brawler for the shield.

Dual wield as my main weapons, with a bow as backup, so I have both of them leveled.
Thanks for the advice. I don't think I was using Draining Arrow or Swallow Soul. I'll have to load up my NB and look at what I have for her, but I don't remember giving her those two skills. Maybe I'll start playing her again and make her suck less. Luckily I've been continuing to feed her horse every day.

Nyladreas

The_Outsider wrote: »

DoShazarr wrote: »

Ah yeah the endless battle of stamina vs magicka...

If i may give you an advice, don't play stamina it's really weak.




Ehm... or is it?

Too fixated on Weapon damage if you ask me. That stam pool needs some love.

At that point stamina doesn't really do as much as you would think, a lot of people say that with absolutely no hard data and pool + sustain is never a problem for a nightblade if that's your concern 25k is actually enough.

Trust in me

SydneyGrey

DoShazarr wrote: »

Never let others tell you what you should or shouldnt do and if you have the patience and the nerve capacity to do so, make and research your own builds.

I was researching my own builds, that was my problem. LOL! I'm not saying I want to copy someone else completely, but there's nothing wrong with taking advice from people. I'm way too stubborn and independent to ever want to copy someone else's build entirely. I always want to customize my builds my own way.

Nyladreas

SydneyGrey wrote: »

DoShazarr wrote: »

Never let others tell you what you should or shouldnt do and if you have the patience and the nerve capacity to do so, make and research your own builds.

I was researching my own builds, that was my problem. LOL! I'm not saying I want to copy someone else completely, but there's nothing wrong with taking advice from people. I'm way too stubborn and independent to ever want to copy someone else's build entirely. I always want to customize my builds my own way.

Oh that's always okay, get an advice, get the idea, see what each thing does, just don't copy others entirely

It's always good to learn through someone else, just never good to copy them

It's the same as art or music. You want to learn but you want to have your own style.

alephthiago

Nightblades are very confusing and i dont hold my breath waiting for zos to fix it.

scorpiodog

vpy wrote: »

I am a newcomer currently leveling my nightblade(lvl 20).

He was stam earlier and the leveling process was ....let us say..not smooth.

I respecced to him Magicka..my goodness...amazing.

Apart from boss fights most of the quest/encounters in ESO are of this set up

a) Go to a Cave/dungeon/instance and in the end do something (could be kill or loot or activate or talk to npc)

=> I just stealth all the way to the end. Earlier as Stam I could not perma stealth but with Magicka getting near perma stealth is very easy

b) In regular quest grinds there will be 1/2/3 mobs will be in clusters.

=> Many (if not most of) of my Magicka/destro staff spells are AOE as such mobs just melt away and with OS as Resto staff it is very very easy to survive

In my early experience in WoW (years ago) there was this class called "Mage" and it had multiple trees for leveling (Fire, Frost and Arcane).

Fire has the oomph but it is very painful for leveling/questing but "Frost" has a slightly less damage but it is amazing for leveling.

TLDR : Should Nightblades be always played as Magicka (or am I a non-lvl-capped-scrub and should focus on max level and then can comment) ?

Magica Nightblade is definitely easier. But I still enjoy playing a stamia NB

scorpiodog

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

nightblade class is really easily killed and simply does not do awesome damage like the other classes can.
there are people who seem to do ALOT of damage and survive Very well with nightblades both stamina and magicka based but ...
theres some speculation as to why they can do it.
this is a very touchy subject for many of us here on the forums and alot of people have different ideas.
hard subject to discuss.

I'm by no means a super player - but with my stamina build I just think of it like a pyramid: Stamina is the base of a good build - crit makes it decent and then you just keep stacking weapon damage on top until you are at 4-5k weapon damage. The tactics with this are "hit and run" so if you don't kill what you hit within 3-5 seconds you better have a way to escape.

I don't see this as any more or less "honorable" than the magica build that hit me from behind with 30k soul strike today.

raglau

For nearly all content it does not matter. I have a Stamina Nightblade and he can perform enough DPS, and survive well enough, to perform in all content, except vet trials, where I cannot pull the figures with him to be competetive against my mag sorcerer in the same slot. But in terms of all overland, vet dungeon and normal trial content, my stamina DPS nightblade is easily good enough to complete that content with no issues.

This Stam Nightblade can then switch skills and gear, and reliably sap tank (mainly Magicka) all content except vet DLC dungeons and vet trials. He can tank all normal trials in this form. In this way, my Stamina Nightblade is my most useful character, he is a jack of all trades but master of none. My Mag sorcerer will deal more DPS more easily, my DK Tank can tank all vet trials and vet DLC without any risk of letting the team down.

A few points to bear in mind are that I've been playing since beta, so I know the content inside out and don't make many mistakes (but of course I do make them sometimes!) in terms of one-shot mechanics, I am level capped at CP600 and have nearly every skill point in the game, so can access any skill I want for any situation. I have every monster set in nearly every trait, so can gear him in many different ways to accomodate different scenarios, although in practice I use two core loadouts.

You're not in this position so don't have those luxuries, yet. But IMO, the Nightblade is easily the most fun class to play, so I'd advise you to keep at it, and skill him how you see fit because both STA and MAG are viable for 95% of all content and most certainly are so for levelling. I levelled as a pure STA Nightblade, for example. I only investigated some MAG once I got to CP160 and wanted to do some tanking.

Let us know how you get on.

TheShadowScout

I found that magica nightblades are way easier to play then stamina nightblades. Way, way easier. More survivable, and barely need any skill in PvE, just AoE mob groups or lifedrain solo enemies indefinitely.

Stamina nightblades are viable as well, but take most skill of any combinations to handle, due to nothing to offsed their squishiness... At least that was my impression playing both.

Shardaxx

I've played a stamblade since launch and easily completed all the solo quests, world bosses (until they changed them for groups) and dungeons. You have to make up for the lack of defenses by killing stuff quickly, which works fine until you arrive in pvp. When some tanks take 10 people whaling on them for 5 mins to take them down, nobody is going to gank them, so forget it.

Shardan4968

I play both stamina and magicka nightblade and I wouldn't survive long without Funnel Health morph, because it is my main healing spell. So magicka is very important for this class in my opinion.

FlyLionel

DoShazarr wrote: »

Ah yeah the endless battle of stamina vs magicka...

If i may give you an advice, don't play stamina it's really weak.




Ehm... or is it?

Next time try and show your scroll bonuses and your setup(clever alchemist with drinks?), generally everything. Also pvp;;stam=pve; magicka, difference is there isn't a huge trade off in pvp with variations how like pve is....That's like me going into a trial on a stamina NB buffed with warhorn and all the other class buffs through passives and screen shotting my stats saying "Hey, stam in pve is great! Look at my stats!" ..Nope

@DoShazarr

Morbash

I find the magicka nightblade playstyle more fun overall, especially in pve. However, I perform better on my stamina nightblade in pvp. Magicka nb is more survivable than stam while leveling, especially if you don't have access to vigor yet and don't plan on pvping. There are remedies to this if you really want to play stamina nb. For example, you could wear a 5 piece set of Vampire's Kiss. It's a highly overlooked set for leveling imo, especially for classes who don't have early access to a strong heal.

Hope this helps.