Stamina PVP Nightblade - best gear right now?

Raudgrani

I'm running a (Nord) vampire stamblade as "main" now. All other aspects aside, I'm using Hulking Draugr and Bone Pirate (Bone Pirate Jewelry, so all gold Draugr), with Nirnhoned Asylum 2H sword and infused Master's Bow (weapon damage enchantment).
Obviously, I'm running two "sustain/resource" sets. I have a Max Stamina of like 43k, and my weapon damage fully buffed is 3900'ish on sword, and 4000'ish on bow when enchantment and caustic arrow procs. My stamina recovery in Cyrodiil is around 2500 when I got the "buff" from capturing keeps etc.

As for my playstyle: Either I go full close combat, and only have buffs, shade, fear etc. on backbar - or I go mainly "bow gank" with Lethal Arrow, Poison Injection and Radiant Magelight etc. I switch between these depending on the "tactical situation" and mood.

It's working pretty well, but I'm a "tweaker" by nature, and would like some kind of more bells'n whistles. I'm a fan of http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor, and have tried some several other builds out there - theoretically. But no matter what I try to use, all-in-all I really don't come close with any other sets. Crap like Eternal Hunt would be a huge deterioration to my build (why are people even using it? That "rune" is a bad joke?), and I have a problem to see that either Morag Tong or Vicecanon would make any big difference. I can see that Spriggan's, Two-Fanged and Automaton/Hunding wouldn't make it better. The one set that seems pretty close, is surprisingly enough Sheer Venom - that's the only one I actually think about trying.
I tried one piece Domihaus, and Bone Pirate 2H sword and Bow, but obviously I want to keep using my "special weapons" for a reason.

I understand a build editor like this one might be a bit difficult to read correctly, that it doesn't really reflect how it would work - I just see the numbers. So, anyone recognize this problem? Any really good suggestions for gear? And yes, I know a Nord isn't optimal for this, but as I'm running all Infused/Divines gear, the extra toughness is very welcome. My crit is quite low though, around 40% I think so maybe something giving me more crit, as I can't use Shadowy Disguise before every attack I do?

Also, would Prismatic Enchantment for the sword be a good idea? Seems like everyone is a vampire these days. I'm running Befouled right now, I think. I haven't thought too much of poison or enchantments for the sword.

flacidstone

If you’re looking to just try something different, consider dw/2h. Hundings or eternal with viper and masters daggers with double dot poisons. Great fun, huge damage.

Raudgrani

flacidstone wrote: »

If you’re looking to just try something different, consider dw/2h. Hundings or eternal with viper and masters daggers with double dot poisons. Great fun, huge damage.

Thanks for your input. I've been thinking of trying DW, but I sort of feel I'll stick to bow other than occasionally. Need to grind up more skillpoints too though hehe.... Have the whole skill line leveled, but no points to put into it. I grind my teeth that I rage-deconstructed the whole legendary Viper set I had (full armor, daggers and all - and I never bought the gold jewelry!), never thought I''d say that.
I got no master daggers, I traded the only one I ever had for a resto staff. But I might try to get people to join me for a few runs. People are generally very unwilling to go. It's like "next saturday, or the sunday after that, or around christmas, or midsummer...". ;-)

How would Automaton perform vs Hundings? I was never impressed by Hunding's, and got a couple of jewelry sets and some armor pieces of Automaton. On my stamsorc, Automaton feels way better than Hunding's, don't know if the differences between their damage types would have an impact.

jaws343

You should be able to push 50K stamina with that setup. As far as a double resource set build goes, those two together work well and with 2500 recovery you should be able to do just about anything you want in Cyrodil.

flacidstone

You’ll have bigger heals with hundings. If you’re going to stick with bow/2h I’ve had good luck with the masters bow asylum 2h eternal blood spawn and agility. I’ve also heard good things about shackle/bonepirate. Having low wd but Big max stat pools isn’t a bad thing by any means. Also eternal hunt is one of my favorite sets, the bonuses are nice and the rune is very useful and can be used to turn a fight quickly

Narvuntien

I run, Archer's mind and Strength of automation (SoA) for my bow gank build.

I have used SoA, Hundings rage as well

I switch between them depending on how likely ganking is.

The lack of sustain is pretty brutal though, I particularly feel it in battlegrounds, BGs is too fast paced to be just waiting around for people to run around the corner.

I just use disease enchant on my front bar, and weapon/spell damage on the bow (Its the second snipe that kills them).

I use Prismatic defense enchants on my large pieces to just push my health up a little bit more and its not like the magicka is wasted.

deepseamk20b14_ESO

If your current setup is working, no point in changing things to try and trying to do something meta. BUT I also change things up, generally out of boredom. I’d say try a dw/2h setup. I have one with asylum sword on the back bar and it transitions well from front bar to back bar for the execute and I also have my gap closer on the back bar. The only time it gets annoying is with REALLY bad lag. But everything is annoying when it starts to lag. Also, numbers aren’t everything. How sets work together with passives also make a big difference (and CP placement).

Raudgrani

@jaws343 I don't know how to get that much more stamina, other than if I switch to werewolf form and go werewolf. ;-) It's true that I have three prismatic glyphs on chest, legs and head. But I felt that I needed a little more Magicka for my dirtywork. So I could have had a little more alright.

@flacidstone Yeah, I know. My healing is pretty useless, and I'm dead now and then because I'm too "brave" (stupid) and whack away on persistent targets for a while too long. Often I survive because of pots ot someone healing me. I rely more on "getaway" than healing. I never tried Eternal Hunt, and I was never impressed by the damage stepping into those runes myself! LOL The rest of the bonus looks a lot like Marksman to me. Many or even most NB's seems to like Eternal Hunt. I might have to reconsider and try it...

@Narvuntien I ran Marksman and Archer's mind previously. Sure, the damage from crouch/sneak was perhaps better, but then I had to have three damage glyphs on the (golden) jewelry to reach that, so my recovery was really low. A slow moving glass cannon, kind of.
I tried to switch Archer's Mind or Marksman for Shadow Walker, and I liked that one at least for Imperial City. But there's no such rest for the wicked in open world Cyrodiil, it just doesn't work there for me.
Archer's Mind and Automaton sounds like an interesting combo I haven't tried though, perhaps if I go recovery on some jewelry. I'll look that up, thanks. Seems only a few use Archer's Mind, not realizing it's pretty great (especially for nightblades!). I got bow and swords and all kinds of junk.

EDIT: I checked the Automaton and Archer's mind setup out, I would lose like 10k stamina and about 800 recovery - but the damage would be a bit higher. I'm pretty used to play high damage/low sustain builds, so I could maybe pull it off. Worth considering. Maybe for using when I go more for bow usage.

flacidstone

@flacidstone Yeah, I know. My healing is pretty useless, and I'm dead now and then because I'm too "brave" (stupid) and whack away on persistent targets for a while too long. Often I survive because of pots ot someone healing me. I rely more on "getaway" than healing. I never tried Eternal Hunt, and I was never impressed by the damage stepping into those runes myself! LOL The rest of the bonus looks a lot like Marksman to me. Many or even most NB's seems to like Eternal Hunt. I might have to reconsider and try it

Give it a try. It assists in keeping a distance and getting cloaked up after you’ve used your burst. You can also use it offensively against melee types that persistently chase you. Roll and start to move as they gap close they hit rune for slight damage but they get snared, ambush back and land your incap.

olsborg

Who cares, lagg ruins all fun anyway

/endrant

Raudgrani

flacidstone wrote: »

@flacidstone Yeah, I know. My healing is pretty useless, and I'm dead now and then because I'm too "brave" (stupid) and whack away on persistent targets for a while too long. Often I survive because of pots ot someone healing me. I rely more on "getaway" than healing. I never tried Eternal Hunt, and I was never impressed by the damage stepping into those runes myself! LOL The rest of the bonus looks a lot like Marksman to me. Many or even most NB's seems to like Eternal Hunt. I might have to reconsider and try it

Give it a try. It assists in keeping a distance and getting cloaked up after you’ve used your burst. You can also use it offensively against melee types that persistently chase you. Roll and start to move as they gap close they hit rune for slight damage but they get snared, ambush back and land your incap.

Oki, I'll try a purple set for starters. There must be some reason so many seems to use it. :-)

Raudgrani

deepseamk20b14_ESO wrote: »

If your current setup is working, no point in changing things to try and trying to do something meta. BUT I also change things up, generally out of boredom. I’d say try a dw/2h setup. I have one with asylum sword on the back bar and it transitions well from front bar to back bar for the execute and I also have my gap closer on the back bar. The only time it gets annoying is with REALLY bad lag. But everything is annoying when it starts to lag. Also, numbers aren’t everything. How sets work together with passives also make a big difference (and CP placement).

Yes that's exactly it. As I mentioned, I'm a "tweaker". Always been. I like testing things out, to improve them further - and often end up ruining things, but I won't deconstruct these sets of course.
For dualwield, do you actually use any dw skills? If you got them Master's 1H weapons maybe, otherwise just for the passives?

flacidstone

If you’re gonna use dw without masters I’d slot quick cloak if anything

llElLoboll

The strongest all around build I've played 2h/bow in the last year would be senche, sheer venom, 1 kena, and master bow. 4600wd without continuous, 2800 stam recov, 1100 mag recov unbuffed, and four dots for continuous pressure. From a 1vx point of view I haven't really found anything that really beats it.

Raudgrani

llElLoboll wrote: »

The strongest all around build I've played 2h/bow in the last year would be senche, sheer venom, 1 kena, and master bow. 4600wd without continuous, 2800 stam recov, 1100 mag recov unbuffed, and four dots for continuous pressure. From a 1vx point of view I haven't really found anything that really beats it.

Sounds nice. About how much penetration do you have? I had my stamsorc ww reach like 6050 weapon damage fully buffed, with weapon enchantment, 2pc Molag Kena, Hircine's rage and all, but it doesn't really hit that much harder than my other characters with like 4k dmg. I lack the penetration, I might put some more points into Piercing (got 63 now), switch to 1 piece Kra'gh/Kena and what not. I have one Sharpened/Nirnhoned swords on my DW bar that's used for werewolf, but I still feel it's a bit to small. On another build,. switching to The Lover mundus was better than The Warrior.

llElLoboll

Honestly I don't run any points into penetration so I get the penetration from surprise attack but that is all. After putting points into thaumaturge, mighty, precise strikes, and master at arms I don't have any left over for penetration. I'm also a vamp for the increased stealth movement speed and recov.

Raudgrani

llElLoboll wrote: »

Honestly I don't run any points into penetration so I get the penetration from surprise attack but that is all. After putting points into thaumaturge, mighty, precise strikes, and master at arms I don't have any left over for penetration. I'm also a vamp for the increased stealth movement speed and recov.

Good point there, I'm probably overpenetrating once I get the Surprise Attack in. But then again it's not always there's a possibility to do so, and for a NB I think I'm running about whacking away a little more than is usual. And yes, vampire feels pretty much mandatory to me for a serious NB build, unless you want to run some armor for sneak speed and lose damage and all.

lazerlaz

Past year and a half I've been running

5 sheer
3 agility
2 Skoria
Nirn masters bow
All dps on bowbar.
7medium 7wellfitted
2h powered sword on back bar (buffs only)
Argonian.

Love it, people hate it and I love sharing it lol. Most people don't understand the build and fail trying to use it.
IMHO it's the best. Awesome burst, extremely fast, fantastic resources, unreal getaway.

The play style you get out of that setup is next to none but thats just me. There is a lot more detail that goes into the success of this build however I'll leave it at this.

But if you like yours, which it seems to do, just stick with it.