I request help in building Knight Blade [CLOSED]

asa67dragoneb17_ESO · June 2017

After long trying and looking. I got to a point, that I don`t like almost every class in this game. Exceptions are Sorc and NB, and since I play only Imperial, that limits me to stam builds. By trying both of them, NB got my eye a bit more. But it`s not that easy, as you can guess by threads name! Regular " rogue " type of gameplay in this MMO didn`t buy me. So thats leave`s me where? Right, all logic tells me, that this game isn`t for me, and I should move on. But srsly, who will " move on " after paying 80 euro!? Ha-ha.

So! I decided to play around a bit, and create mobile warrior class, using nightblade as base.

Armor
Heavy armor. 5 pieces.
Medium armor 2 pieces.
Set Perk isn`t decided, can`t choose what crafting set would be better suited.

Weapons
Main - 2h sword
MainX2 - Dual daggers ( I will swap 2h for them if battle suggests major ads, so as dps i would need more AOE )
Secondary - Not decided, but considering a bow.

Skills
This part has biggest problems, because 5 skills for a tab, limits me alot. So i have really big struggle, choosing " best " options. If speaking about skills that I 100% want in this build, thats " teleport to enemy " from nighblade class skills.( I love that skill, and combining charge from 2h, i get really jump potential ).
Also, I consider using " Surprise attack " as spammable, as it fix problem of lacking " Auto-attack" skill with 2h.

Mundos

Can`t decide between atronach, thief or something else.

Well, thats basically my last resort in enjoying this game. I tried every possible path, and they all didn`t worked out for me.
Soo, maybe somebody play`s similar thing, or see ideals, though how to make this work?

RavenSworn · June 2017

Hey there! Glad to see the Nightblade caught your eye. Let me be honest though, a nightblades fullest potential is by using medium armor. Let me see if this build I've thought up for you might work with your theme of a "mobile warrior".

5 piece Hundings Rage heavy armor (crafted set)
5 piece Toothrow set (wayrest dungeon medium armor set)
1 piece Kraghs monster set. (either the shoulders or head piece will do, you just need the one piece physical pennetration buff)

now why I chose Toothrow is that it gives the major savagery buff, at all times. This then negates the need for you to slot in an ability for the buff, which is evil hunter. Hundings rage is by far, the best crafted set for a stamina based build.

The weapon of choice would be 2hander and dual wield. You can always change dual wield with a bow if need be)

Skill slots are:

Rally (for the major brutality buff and spot heals)
Reverse Slice (the extra damage done starts at 50%, rather than the usual 25% executes. This also does splash damage which then ties in with the 2hander splash damage passive.)
Critical Rush (gap closer, automatic crits)
Lightweight beast trap (I find this more useful since you can 'throw' the trap, critical rush in.)
Killers blade (this is your execute, sustain, and passive buff all in one)

Double take (major evasion, expedition)
Deadly cloak (reduced aoe damage on you by 20%.)
Ambush (gap closer, empower buff)
Steel tornado (spammable aoe attack)
Reaper's mark (this seems abit weird but honestly, a debuff that deals fracture and breach, heals for more than 50% of your health when enemy dies and gives you major berserk.)

Onslaught (this can be put in combo with killer's blade, since the heal effect will still be available 3s after you apply it)
Soul tether (since your dw is an aoe machine, ambush + soul tether + Steel tornado spam is amazing)

Gameplay:

As you can see, theres a kind of unstoppable combo in terms of grinding / soloing. Rally - beast trap - critical strike - reverse slice - killer's blade - onslaught. Rinse and repeat. Fighting a boss? Double take - Deadly cloak - Rally - pots (yes use your pots, this adds to your ultimate generation from the siphoning passive) reaper's mark any adds - killer's blade marked target. Fighting a group? Mark the cloth target (or any other target you deemed easier to kill such as the archers) - double take - Deadly cloak - ambush - Steel tornado - rinse repeat or add soul tether when in trouble.

Cons

There is this slight problem of getting a boss health down to 50%, which reduces your effectiveness using reverse slice. I recommend swapping it with surprise attack but honestly it doesn't feel... Too right for me. There is a slight delay after you press the button for surprise attack which in turn for me doesn't feel like a spam button.

Pros

Remember John wick? He doesn't kill all enemies at once if he is surrounded. He chose his targets, kill the easy ones and gain traction. As a Nightblade, you need to live on the edge and go for the throat.

I had a lot Of success with soul tether saving my ass. You can also swap it with soul harvest for constant, constant uptime of ultimate but it doesn't really do that much damage since it's now based on magic damage. (which means spreading your cp points) however, flawless dawn breaker is another awesome ultimate and it also deals extra damage on certain types of npc.

You can also have fun by swapping ambush with shadow image. The shade deals minor maim and also allows you to get to safety. Which then allows you to switch to a two hander and critical rush in

Hope this helps!

asa67dragoneb17_ESO · June 2017

RavenSworn wrote: »

Hey there! Glad to see the Nightblade caught your eye. Let me be honest though, a nightblades fullest potential is by using medium armor. Let me see if this build I've thought up for you might work with your theme of a "mobile warrior".

5 piece Hundings Rage heavy armor (crafted set)
5 piece Toothrow set (wayrest dungeon medium armor set)
1 piece Kraghs monster set. (either the shoulders or head piece will do, you just need the one piece physical pennetration buff)

now why I chose Toothrow is that it gives the major savagery buff, at all times. This then negates the need for you to slot in an ability for the buff, which is evil hunter. Hundings rage is by far, the best crafted set for a stamina based build.

The weapon of choice would be 2hander and dual wield. You can always change dual wield with a bow if need be)

Skill slots are:

Rally (for the major brutality buff and spot heals)
Reverse Slice (the extra damage done starts at 50%, rather than the usual 25% executes. This also does splash damage which then ties in with the 2hander splash damage passive.)
Critical Rush (gap closer, automatic crits)
Lightweight beast trap (I find this more useful since you can 'throw' the trap, critical rush in.)
Killers blade (this is your execute, sustain, and passive buff all in one)

Double take (major evasion, expedition)
Deadly cloak (reduced aoe damage on you by 20%.)
Ambush (gap closer, empower buff)
Steel tornado (spammable aoe attack)
Reaper's mark (this seems abit weird but honestly, a debuff that deals fracture and breach, heals for more than 50% of your health when enemy dies and gives you major berserk.)

Onslaught (this can be put in combo with killer's blade, since the heal effect will still be available 3s after you apply it)
Soul tether (since your dw is an aoe machine, ambush + soul tether + Steel tornado spam is amazing)

Gameplay:

As you can see, theres a kind of unstoppable combo in terms of grinding / soloing. Rally - beast trap - critical strike - reverse slice - killer's blade - onslaught. Rinse and repeat. Fighting a boss? Double take - Deadly cloak - Rally - pots (yes use your pots, this adds to your ultimate generation from the siphoning passive) reaper's mark any adds - killer's blade marked target. Fighting a group? Mark the cloth target (or any other target you deemed easier to kill such as the archers) - double take - Deadly cloak - ambush - Steel tornado - rinse repeat or add soul tether when in trouble.

Cons

There is this slight problem of getting a boss health down to 50%, which reduces your effectiveness using reverse slice. I recommend swapping it with surprise attack but honestly it doesn't feel... Too right for me. There is a slight delay after you press the button for surprise attack which in turn for me doesn't feel like a spam button.

Pros

Remember John wick? He doesn't kill all enemies at once if he is surrounded. He chose his targets, kill the easy ones and gain traction. As a Nightblade, you need to live on the edge and go for the throat.

I had a lot Of success with soul tether saving my ass. You can also swap it with soul harvest for constant, constant uptime of ultimate but it doesn't really do that much damage since it's now based on magic damage. (which means spreading your cp points) however, flawless dawn breaker is another awesome ultimate and it also deals extra damage on certain types of npc.

You can also have fun by swapping ambush with shadow image. The shade deals minor maim and also allows you to get to safety. Which then allows you to switch to a two hander and critical rush in

Hope this helps!

Thanks for reply. I got nice ideas from it. And finely know what crafting bonus to get

But since I waited replies in this thread, I played myself, and used a bit close skill set. Let my try to tell what and explain why I choose it. Would be nice to see your thoughts from experienced nightblade like you

1Bar 2h - Ambush, Surprise attack, Dizzying Swing. Executioner, Rally
Tried to use critical rush, but honestly it doesn`t work in close combat, or when I get " rooted". Ambush gives 20% damage boost, and can be used from CC, so I got myself on using it alot more then rush.
Surprise attack isn`t that fast, I agree. But it gives Major Fracture, and benifits from Shadow Barrior passive( And since im in 5 heavy, that passive is actually working ).
I took dizzying Swing because it offers somekind of CC, while other version same bonus as ambush, since I already used ambush, and I wanted atleast one CC skill.
Executioner, not sure why I took it, but I guess bigger bonus was beter XD ( They both work from 50% )
Rally, well rally is always good

2b- weapon undecided - Swallow Soul, Refreshing Path, Leeching Strikes
I didn`t figure out what to use on this one, so I just put skills that were usefull for me. didn`t think of using DW on second bar like you suggested..but that sounds fun. Guess I will follow that advice!
So, now why I choose this skills.
Swallow Soul honestly it`s just a dot, that gives me little hp back, but gives Minor Vitality when slotted. ( Not that usefull i guess)
Refreshing Path, AOE that heals me and allies and better of all, gives me Major Expedition, so I could " super sonic " around battle.
Leeching Strikes, a 20s buff that gives me health and stamina steal, from each attack. Since this build is in heavy my stamina consumption is high, this thing helped me to stay in battle longer. Even survive long enough to kill/ run away. A nice skill.

As for ults, I used Veil of Blades and leveling Fighters guild for Dawnbreaker. But I will try ones you suggested too

P.S. Still didnt choose what mundus to use. Thief, Serpent, Warrior.

RavenSworn · June 2017

Swallow soul, refreshing path to me are tank abilities. Having that vitality buff won't do much for you since you aren't magicka based. I totally forgot about leeching strikes and yes, it is a good tool for resource management. You can always swap it with Deadly cloak since it will work when you swap weapons.

Executioner deals extra damage but again, it's on one target and it's not as good an execute as killer's blade. Which is why it's a good spammable, even on groups.

Honestly, refreshing path heals aren't much to talk about.

I'd say choose shadow mundus stone for the extra crit damage. You already have crit from Toothrow, weapon damage from Hundings.

That fracture buff can be achieved with Reaper's Mark but again, it's all up to your choice. Have fun with nightblades!

eso_nya · June 2017

If u dont plan to become leaderboards next topmonkey, imperial doesnt lock u on stamina specs. For normal gaming, the racial passives doesnt matter at all.

A very nice combination for you could be:

Jewels and 2 armor parts of 7th legion (drops in bangkorai) combined with 3 armorparts and weapons of nightmothers gaze + 2 monster (e.g. kragh, veli or bloodspawn)

Mainbar S&B, offbar dw axes.
Mainbar w/ ransack, heroic slash, defensive stance, refreshing path and vigor, s&b ulti
Offbar w/ ambush, bloodcraze, killers blade/power extraction, relentless focus, leechin strikes, dw ulti

In that setup u can solo worldbosses, normal dungeons, some vet dungeons and tank normal trials.

If u wanna go more into dd-direction u can adapt the sets and drop 7th legion for vicious ophidian w/ dw+bow. 2H/bow will be far easier to play if u dont have vigor. (in that case, go to cyrodiil, buy a fireballista and shoot ppl in the face until u get it xD)

If u dont have access to vicious ophidian, next best would be briarheart (wrothgar), else combine spriggans (bangkorai) and hundings. (make sure your weaps always come from a crafted set and in sharpened trait. sharp weapon w/o setbonus is always better, than bis-set weapon in not-sharpened)

Dmg rotation would be somewhere around beast trap -> caltrops -> hail -> poison arrow -> bloodcraze (carve w/ 2h) -> bladecloak -> clip two heavy attacks w/ surpriseattack -> repeat until execute. u shouldnt run that loadout out of fighting the target dummy or with a premade (including healers and tanks who u trust) tho.

Use thief Mundus.
If u gear for dmg, the stats u r looking for r penetration, critical rating and critical dmg.
Thief gives u 11% to 17% critical rating (depending on how much devines u r using). Next best for crit rating is magelight/evil hunter which grant u 10%. there is no cp-star u can drop points into, the best u can get from a 5 pc set is 7% (mothers sorrow/leviathan)
Critical dmg: there is a cp star for it, u can get up to 25% from it. than there is the shadow mundus (12-18%), warhorn (15%), beasttrap (10%)
For penetration (u need 9-10k), a sharp weapon gives u 5k, same from a cp-star or from a 5 pc set (twice fanged snake). Most efficient is a sharp weapon with a crusher glyph (1,6k), plus nmg (2,5k; cause is crafted and easy to get).

davey1107 · June 2017

My main is a stamblade...I pve and pvp extensively with it. It's the most fun class to me.

A master player's stam NB user guide that I refer to occasionally:

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/stamina-nightblade-pve-dps-for-morrowind/

Gear

Hundings Rage is a great performer, and because it's crafted it gives flexibility. Years in my stamblade, he carries every piece of Hundings in gold. This way, whatever secondary set I want to use I can mix and match.

Secondary sets just depend. I like briarheart...it performs well for me. Automaton is good...really any solid dps set would be good for you.

I like wearing a monster helm. Velidreth puts put a TON of damage, and woildmbe good for your tanky build.

Armor weight

Play with this a little. As an imperial you're a bit tanky. You might get more from a 5 medium / 2 heavy setup.

Skills

I like keeping dw on the front bar. It puts out more damage. There are a lot of ways you can go...one of the reasons stamblade is fun for me is that you can mix it up. But a solid bar that works for me:

Front (dw)

Ambush
Surprise attack (the speed at which this does spam damage...wow)
Killers bade
Blood craze (dw, the heal plus massive DOT makes this a great skill)

5th open...lots of flexibility here

Shrouded daggers is utterly underrated to me. It offers major brutality (allowing you to ditch rally), but oh man the damage when there are 3+ enemies. My stamblade is hitting for 17k, 19k and 21k each proc.

Mirage when you need some sustain.

Mark target for some heal and Debuffs

Camo hunter - there are times when the 10% increased crit chance formslotting this outweights giving up a slot.

Rend/flawless dawnbreak/incapacitating strike (mix it up, they all have their uses)

Back (2h)

I'm not married to a specific setup, so let's just talk. It's useful skills

Vigor - NBs be needing heals, lol
Caltrops - some great AOE damage now. This would be fantastic on your tankier melee build...toss in and fight in the circle.
Leeching strikes - sustain is harder now and this helps.
Merciless resolve - some front bar this, and you can. The 8% dps buff is huge. I back bar it because I use it w leeching to restore amd pull the spectral bow at the same time.
Trap beast: this is a bit clunky to use, but the reason it's used by expert players is that it offers minor force, increasing your crit damage by 12%. Stamblades are crit builds, and depending on your modifier this can be a huuuuuuge boost to dps.
Rally: it is the simplest way to get major brutality, and the heal is nice.
Execute: I like the morph that does splash damage. I only slot this in trash play. When it's time to get serious, killer blade is the execute of choice.

Note that there are a lot of non-weapon skills on my back bar list. On a stamblade, I carry a bow to bring in if I need it. There are situations where it's going to perform better.

Mundus

The math is complicated, but there's diminishing returns w crit chance. Once you have about 60% crit chance, you want crit damage instead of more chance when you have a choice. If you're crit chance is over 60, go with the shadow over the thief.