2H dps is viable or?

Vimora

Can someone please point me to an updated 2h nightblade guide or type some info here? I never played 2h and I'd like to learn from the pr0z. PvP or PvE, doesn't matter, but I plan to use this in PvE mostly. Thanks!

paulsimonps

I haven't seen one specifically for Nightblades but you could combine some builds it is still viable to play with 2hander. Try doing this, I will link 2 of alcasts stamina builds, stam sorc 2hander build and a Nightblade dualwield build. Simply change the abilities a bit to fit the 2 hander set up and run the armor and weapon of the 2 hander gear. 2 Hander is really fun to use, and viable.

https://alcasthq.com/eso-stamina-sorcerer-2h-build-pve/
https://alcasthq.com/eso-stamina-nightblade-build-for-pve/

Bladerunner1

Stamblade + 2H weapon = massive AOE DPS

The key is you don't really want to use heavy attacks with a 2H weapon to regain stamina. Max DPS comes from pure light attack weaving, and a Stamblade can do it with leeching strikes and a drink.

It's not popular in vet trials raids, so you won't see any guides made by animation cancelling pro-player types. Regardless here's a build I put together because I love stomping dungeon mobs into dust:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/347682/stamina-cleave-focus-dps-build-nightblade

My non-animation cancelling Bosmer gets around 35 k self buffed single target dps with that build, which is good enough for vet trials. It would be a lot higher if a Redguard or Khajiit pro tried it out.

Fun fact: stamblades with 2H weapons are able to proc war machine every 12 seconds. Just swap brawler with Carve to be used once per rotation, equip a decisive 2hander and/or bow and use one Siphoning ability, which would be either power extraction or leeching strikes, every 4 seconds. This gives them monster AOE DPS and around 35k single target dps.

Integral1900

Yes

Stamina DK with one beefy buff from two handed and another to heavy attacks, Nightblade just stacks damage, crit and penetration all the way to the moon, so yea, you better believe it, no idea about a stamina sorcerer as the whole idea of a strength Mage sounds daft to me but hey ***

Ihatenightblades

Dont do the stam night blade 2h. If you are gonna go 2H i know a great build that does 49k heavy attacks and it has a nice rotation for single target weaving full heavy attacks.

2h can only be really viable if your talking end game content if you use stam dk.

5 hundings rage 5 sunder flame 1 slimecraw

You get 40% damage boost to heavy attacks with molten armaments plus you can throw cp into direct damage attacks and add another 15 percent.

Basicly what you do for trash mobs is pop molten armaments buff if you want with pots i dont use pots on trash mobs but then you endless hail - caltrops - drop a rearming trap - bar swap - noxious breathe - brawler - spam heavys - reapeat until execute range then spam reverse slice.

in trials my heavy attack has crit for 49k and it does splash damage which makes you the highest aoe player in group most likely. Reverse slice splash damage also crits for about 35k maybe even more.

As far as single target dps you want to be pretty disciplined. Making sure to heavy attack in between every ability .

Buff up - Heavy attack bow - poison injection - endless hail - caltrops - rearming trap - barswap - light attack venomous claw - heavy attack brawler - heavy attack wrecking blow - heavy attack noxious breath - bar swap and repeat .

You can do solo parse with this exact set up and get 30k dps which is 100% viable in trials its just 30k doesnt always get accepted by every guild some like to go in with only 35k+ dps self buffed

Im actually very satisfied with where 2h is now i made a thread not to long ago talking about how 2h sucked in pve. Its not so bad now.

AS LONG as the 2h user isnt SPAMMING WRECKING BLOW.

I can respect a guy having a full rotation and using wrecking blow in his roto but spamming it thats a no no. Dk got way too many tools to be spamming one ability.

Anyway if you like 2h a lot you should check that build out plus it gives 3540 physical penetration for your group with basicly a 100% uptime since you are a heavy attack build and sunder procs off heavy

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

Two Hander Builds ARE Garbage !

Asardes

NB can practically use just class skills (killer blade, surprise attack, power extraction) front bar and still do decent damage. But without 2W rending your ST damage will suffer. Also deadly cloak has very good mitigation so you really want that.

thamightyboro

Integral1900 wrote: »

Yes

Stamina DK with one beefy buff from two handed and another to heavy attacks, Nightblade just stacks damage, crit and penetration all the way to the moon, so yea, you better believe it, no idea about a stamina sorcerer as the whole idea of a strength Mage sounds daft to me but hey ***

Totally viable quasi execute with implosion 5%phys boost, crit surge, hurricane, few other bits and pieces that make its class passives synergise nicely with 2h.

Im busy testing 2h out with a warden only 40 so a long way to go before can get a true guage of it, its presently behind where others are though at that same level but not by much. Not much in a wardens passives helps 2h unfortunately.

Koensol

Yea 2h can definately be viable. I play a 2h stamblade in pve and it is so much more fun and less tedious as a dw setup. Gear I currently use is 5 Hundings rage + 5 Spriggan + 1 pc monster set (flexible). The 1 piece I want to be switching out for master/maelstrom weapons when I get the ones I need. I will switch setup once I get trials gear. War machine looks very interesting.

Skill bar 1: Brawler, relentless focus, power extraction, surprise attack, reverse slice/killer's blade. Ult: Incapacitating strike.
Skill bar 2: Poison injection, leeching strikes, rearming trap, caltrops, endless hail. Ult: Dawnbreaker of smiting. Flawless db might be better for sustained, but I play pvp too and this gives some nice extra burst and control on mobs.

With this setup you can do perfectly viable dps. And the nice thing is you don't nded wrapon power pots. Just use power extraction once every 20 seconds. Single target will be a bit lower than dw, although in AoE you will vastly outperform dw. Trap+caltrops+endless hail+brawler and then light attack+power extraction/reverse slice spam is massive AoE.

Capriano

Ihatenightblades wrote: »

AS LONG as the 2h user isnt SPAMMING WRECKING BLOW.

Ha-ha! This is me on my Stam DK. But I only solo PvE and I enjoy it.

Vimora

I'm really glad I made this thread, cuz tons of good advice. Thanks, all!

I'll be making my 2h build next week based on this info, when I grow tired of the Thieves' Guild.

Asardes

I tried to run Maelstrom arena with 2W on my Stamina Nightblade and it was pretty hard. I really missed having the burst heal from rally. I adopted 2H for my Stamina DK and it works fine. My 3rd clear took about 1.5h, about the same they took on my sorcerer when I started out, but improving. Stamina DK has no execute and no form of self heal besides vigor and rally, compared to stamina NB which has both killer's blade and leeching strikes besides those. So stamina NB is really the class who needs 2H the least, having all those class skills in its arsenal.

Masel

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO wrote: »

Two Hander Builds ARE Garbage !

Then you clearly haven't seen them in trials. The dps is great, and I wouldn't call 43k single target on warrior, 42k single target on rakkhat and ~50k on varlariel Garbage.

Any class can do great damage with a 2h, whoever tells you otherwise is an idiot.

Masel

To the OP, I have a 2h build that I started to use on my stamblade and stamplar in trials lately:

2 Velidreth/Stormfist/Mephala

5 NMG/War Machine/Automaton/Sunderflame/5 Vicious Ophidian

(The 5-piece really depends on the group)

3 Agility

Infused/Nirn Master Greatsword

(This will give you 240 Weapon damage and buff your endless hail)

Infused Maelstrom Bow

This is capable of hitting 50k on single target on some trials bosses (ra kotu/varlariel) and does enough damage for all content.

I also flawlessed vMA on my stamina Warden and Stamblade with this build, with 5 Vicious Ophidian as the 5-piece.

The AoE from a 2h gets really out of hands, especially on a stamplar.