What am I doing wrong with my Stamblade?

HalvarIronfist

(Note: This is my first PVP Character)
I find that in Cyrodiil PVP, I'm ungodly useless. It's like my attacks bounce off of everything, or do so little damage that I pretty much have to run alongside a zerg for hope of a kill.
I am currently CP 276. CP allocations will be posted below.

Currently running: 5 pieces of Spriggans, 5 pieces of Unfathomable Darkness, 2 Agility pieces. (All Purple)
Race: Redguard
Attributes: 0 M, 0 H, 64 S


My First bar is Dual Wield
1. Ambush
2. Killer's Blade
3. Blood Craze
4. Shadowy Disguise
5. Mass Hysteria
6. ULT - Incap Strike

My Second Bar is Bow:

1. Endless Hail (To be replaced when I get Vigor)
2. Lethal Arrow
3. Grim Focus
4. Poison Injection
5. Shadowy Disguise
6. Ult- Flawless Dawnbreaker (DMG buff)

Passives:

All bow, Dual Wield, Assassination, Shadow, Medium Armor, and Redguard Racials. 1/2 of SIphoning,


Armor Details: All glyphed with Stamina. In the process of Transmuting things
Jewelry: 1 piece to complete Spriggans, 2 Agility. (Neck and Ring.)

2 pieces divines, (Atm, looking to go for 4, and then 3 Inpens.)

Weapon Details: Spriggans bow: Weapon dmg enchant, infused. (May want to change to nirnhoned when transmuting allows.)

Dual Wielding: Sword of Unfathomable Darkness, with a Poison Enchant, Sharpened.
Spriggan's Axe, Weapon Dmg enchant, Training. (To be transmuted, when I have the pieces to do so.)

Stats: (All Unbuffed)
1. 1.6k Stam Recovery
2. 30.7k Stam
3. 18k Health
4. 10.5k Magicka

Resistances: 11k Spell, 13.3k Phys, 1.2k Crit. (To be buffed by more inpen armor later)

DMG: (Unbuffed) Weapon Dmg: 2010, 49.1% crit (Bow bar)
(Unbuffed) Weapon Dmg: 2241 48.1% Crit (Dual Wield Bar)

CP Allocations:

The Lover: 92 Mooncalf

The Ritual: 41 Precise Strikes, 51 Mighty

The Steed: 20 Medium Armor Focus, 26 Resistant

The Lady: 24 Hardy, 23 Elemental Defender

Even trying to gank with this build, I end up getting slaughtered easily by Stamplars, Stam DK's, Any Decent Sorc, and Go Fairly against other Stamblades.

My Rotation is as follows: Grim Focus, Shadowy Disguise, Lethal Arrow, Poison injection, ambush, incap, killers blade.

(If that doesn't work , I use Mass Hysteria and Disguise, trying to escape)

And About 90% of the time, It's not working, as I stated it seems that my dmg is almost non-existent and that anyone trying to 1v1 me will just end up slaughtering me in seconds.

Maryal

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eWV6L-AbBBI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xTsFLKZlsco


You didn't say whether or not your jewelry had weapon damage enchants ... if they don't, you should enchant them.

Make sure your weapons are gold (big damage boost for gold weapons).

You didn't say what your mundus stone was.

You didn't say what food buff you are using.

You didn't say what potions you are using.

Agility jewelry - you have 2 pieces, but you need 3 for the weapon damage.

You didn't say if you have any monster sets. Helms and shoulders can be purchased from the pvp golden vendor in Cyrodiil (golden vendor is there on the week-ends). Suggestion - buy helms at the Golden Vendor and do undaunted daily dungeons to earn undaunted keys ... then use your keys to get the shoulder pieces. Or, get the shoulder pieces from the Golden vendor as well as the helm ... the down side in acquiring both pieces from the golden vendor is that it takes longer to get a set this way. Why? The vendor sells either helms or shoulders on a given weekend .. and which monster piece is sold is based on RNG.

You aren't using surprise attack --- why?

If your only source of penetration is Spriggins and Unfathomable Darkness, and only one of your dual wield weapons is sharpened, you may not have enough pen, especially when on your bow bar. People underestimate the difference sufficient penetration makes in pvp. Let's assume you melee gank ... you should use surprise attack in your burst-combo for the additional penetration.

Blood craze does an initial amount of damage, plus bleed-over-time damage. While the bleed ignores armor, the problem is that it's a 9 second DOT, you have no CPs into Thaumaturge, so your victim can easily heal through the bleed (another reason to go with surprise attack)

You have 41 CP points into precise strikes. Critical damage won't work against damage shields ... you can only damage them by the amount of your un-crit damage.

There's a lot I could say, but I'd be guessing. While you did give a lot of info, it really wasn't enough. LOL!

Ragnaroek93

First mistake: You should use both stamina heals, Rally (from 2h) and Vigor from Alliance War skill line, both are not replaceable on stam nb in my opinion. As gear I would go Bow + 2h and use something like Shackle + Bonepirate + 1 undaunted piece (effective build which is very easy to get), aim for around 2.5-3k stamreg and use tripots. Standard skill setup would be: Gapcloser, Surprise Attack, Fear, Rally, Execute, Incap on 2h and Poison Injection, Shade, Vigor, Shuffle and Cloak on backbar. Stack a lot crit dmg (you need peak burst and you only get that from doing your damage combo and hope for it to crit, stamblade doesn't have pressure so burst is the most important thing, key is to get a high tooltip on skills and high crit dmg) and kite a lot with Shadow Image teleport, speed buff from dodgeroll on bow bar, Shuffle for snare removal and Cloak to disengage/recover.

HalvarIronfist

You didn't say whether or not your jewelry had weapon damage enchants ... if they don't, you should enchant them.

I did not enchant them because of the 2 pieces of Agility. It was my mistake to not mention this, but I had planned to incorperate gear changes to this build that I'll mention below

Make sure your weapons are gold (big damage boost for gold weapons).

I'll hop on my crafter and get that done.

"You didn't say what your mundus stone was."

Warrior for extra Weapon DMG

You didn't say what food buff you are using.
I'm not currently using a food buff, as I'm still sorting through options
You didn't say what potions you are using.
I was using excess crown pots I had. Right now I'm finishing a warrior elixir, 20% Weapon DMG buff

Agility jewelry - you have 2 pieces, but you need 3 for the weapon damage.
Agility is placeholders for the moment.

You didn't say if you have any monster sets

I'm optimally bringing Validreth and Maybe Kragh's for extra DMG and Penetration.

I'd have to get two pieces of Unfathomable Darkness Jewelry to swap for Agility.


Not using Surprise Attack, because this is my first NB, and I didn't know about it until just now.

So Optimally, I'll be removing Blood Craze for Surprise Attack, Changing my gear around, Enchanting the Jewelry to Weap DMG, get some proper food and pots. Oh, and also getting Vigor for that heal.

The bigger question is CP, for the future then.

You have 41 CP points into precise strikes. Critical damage won't work against damage shields ... you can only damage them by the amount of your un-crit damage.


Is it worth continuing with Precise, or investing into another ability, or should I leave that as is, and revisit it after I likely grind for CP?

GeorgeBlack

Hahaha....
"Rally is irreplaceble"

Then it needs to go to Fighters Guild skills.

LittlePinkDot

For pvp you need 2H for rally. Its either got to be DW/2H or 2H/Bow. The Heal +major brutality from rally is just too good, and NB too squishy.

Gilvoth

it is just going to take time friend, right now i would suggest just go ahead and run with the crowd and learn what its about, every once in a while go ahead and test out 1 enemy and even though you will probably not win atleast it will be some experience that helps you on that next fight, and the next one.

eventually you will be solo and it will happen, your very first WIN!
but for right now just allow your self to become aware of what it is like with the support and help of the alliance you are with.
nothing wrong with that at all, it is just taking small steps for now untill you reach bigger steps.
just takes time, and experience.

HalvarIronfist

it is just going to take time friend, right now i would suggest just go ahead and run with the crowd and learn what its about, every once in a while go ahead and test out 1 enemy and even though you will probably not win atleast it will be some experience that helps you on that next fight, and the next one.

eventually you will be solo and it will happen, your very first WIN!
but for right now just allow your self to become aware of what it is like with the support and help of the alliance you are with.
nothing wrong with that at all, it is just taking small steps for now untill you reach bigger steps.
just takes time, and experience.

I am aware that I still need to learn PVP, amongst all things. But It's not so much that I've never had success with what I have, it's moreso that I want to increase the chances of success.

Secondly, I question this.

Is 2H really better for a stamblade than DW? That'd require more build changes I don't think I'd like to try at the very moment. Even as it is, playing the 7 day, I still don't see absurd amounts of stamblades using 2H, and during my time in ESO, never have.

Thunderknuckles

HalvarIronfist wrote: »

...Is 2H really better for a stamblade than DW? That'd require more build changes I don't think I'd like to try at the very moment. Even as it is, playing the 7 day, I still don't see absurd amounts of stamblades using 2H, and during my time in ESO, never have.

The primary reason, maybe the only reason, NB's use the 2 Hander is for Rally. It's a very good HoT and damage boost. Btw, what CP are you now? Edited to say that I went back up and read that you were at 276 when you posted this. Believe me, man, CP makes a huge difference (unless you're on the current easy moder class of Warden. I say that in love. =D ). The higher you go in CP the more you'll see yourself succeeding in 1v1's against other players.

HalvarIronfist

I haven't CP grinded in a while because I've been leveling new toons instead.

I'm currently at 277, but probably will grind later.

Most_Awesome

With only 277CP you will get rekt no matter what you do, so I suggest if you go pvp go to the non cp campaign

NB you can either go

DW & 2H
DW & Bow
DW & S&B
2h & Bow

Surprise attack is a must, and so is major brutality, so you either need rally/forward momentum or flying dagger for that buff

You also need vigor for heals and food buff there are quite a few options though but you want to be aiming at 20k HP and 25k stam minimum in no cp

Also you dont need cloak on both bars, I used to when I first started but its a complete waste of a slot

a quick set up would be

2h/DW: Ambush, surprise attack, (execute), fear, rally, Incap (execute can be killers blade or 2h one either morphs)
Bow: Poison Inj, Piercing Mark, Shuffle, Vigor, cloak, (Dawn breaker/Bow ult)

XoxHANNIBALxoX

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned it but I'd recommend vampire for the sneak passives.

kadar

Is 2H really better for a stamblade than DW? That'd require more build changes I don't think I'd like to try at the very moment. Even as it is, playing the 7 day, I still don't see absurd amounts of stamblades using 2H, and during my time in ESO, never have.

Rally is very strong on a Stamblade. We don't heal quite as much as other classes. You can use DW if 1) You find another reliable source of Major Brutality and 2) find a way to suppliment your healing. Vigor alone will not cut it. I/we can suggest options if that sounds like something you'd like to try.

Oh and to reiterate: Food and weapon damage enchants. Vital.

Skander

Not enough incaps

HalvarIronfist

I've upgraded all my weapons to gold, besides my bow (Grabbing a few skyshards to finish off Resin Expertise, Cause I'm a cheapskate) along with getting new jewelry for my sets and applying weapon DMG to those, I have a head-piece of kraghs, and I'm thinking to finish that off with velidreth for the extra DMG.

My melee weapon dmg, unbuffed is now sitting 2922 Unbuffed DMG with a 42.1% Crit

Bow is at 2444 with a 43.1% Crit

What is the recommended food/drink, and potion for a stamblade?

I hear Dubious a lot, and then on top of that, a weapon power Pot.

Second question, how can I tell (As a PS4 player) How much penetration I have? If it's not sufficient, where would I go to see what I have compared to what I need?

Tried skill-spamming on a Precursor one of my guildmates had to see the difference.

Last time I tried that, I had somewhere near 4k DPS. I now have 10k DPS.

kadar

What is the recommended food/drink, and potion for a stamblade?

Yep Dubious Camoran Throne is really good-- it will give you a lot of recovery but leave your health quite low. Bitstat food (Health + Max Stamina) is also really good and your health pool will be much safer. You'll have to get stam recovery from some other source in this case.

For potions, there plenty you could use. I usually have a source of Maj. Brutality built in, so I often use Health, Stamina, Weapon crit potions. If you don't have Brutality in your kit, one possible way to get it is with a Brutality, Stamina, Savagry (crit) potion.

Gilvoth

yes friend, Dubious is what i use and recommend for food.
it is Great for us stamina based damage class.

Koensol

For a medium armor stamblade I would actually recommend jewels of misrule food. It gives you the necesary magicka regen for lots of cloaks and fears, which you will need. With dubious you will lack magicka regen which is vital for medium stamblades.

Also I really wouldn't use unfathomable darkness. It's quite lackluster if you ask me. Much better to run something like shackle. That will give you a decent pool of max stam and magicka, while providing damage and regen as well. Solid choice all around. It goes well together with spriggans. And wearing this set, you might even drop jewels of misrule for the dubious drink. And for the love of god, use use surprise attack in stead of double barring cloak. Its a waste to double bar it.

Sky_WK

Most_Awesome wrote: »

With only 277CP you will get rekt no matter what you do, so I suggest if you go pvp go to the non cp campaign

Have to disagree here, 277 is fine, of course you won't have the damage and mitigation of higher CP but you can definitely make it work. Do however agree with spending some time in Non CP. Also if no one's said it yet. Gold nirnhoned weapons are a huge part of damage and 2h is plenty viable as a main weapon I'm, especially with the asylum 2hs which are easy to get. DW is better for group play.

HalvarIronfist

Koensol wrote: »

And for the love of god, use use surprise attack in stead of double barring cloak. Its a waste to double bar it.

I stated above that things will be changing with the skills, gear, and so-forth. Double-Cloak was simply a placeholder


Also I really wouldn't use unfathomable darkness.

I checked the two sets against each other
Unfathomable Darkness
(2 items) Adds 833 Weapon Critical
(3 items) Adds 1487 Physical Penetration
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon Damage
(5 items) When you deal damage, you have a 10% chance to call a murder of crows around you for 12 seconds. Every 3 seconds a crow will be sent to peck the closest enemy within 12 meters of you, dealing 4000 Physical Damage. This effect can occur once every 15 seconds.

Shackle:
2 items) Adds 129 Weapon Damage

(3 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage

(4 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery and Stamina Recovery

(5 items) Adds 2000 Max Magicka and Max Stamina.

The Crit, DMG, and Penetration were nice in the Unfathomable set, and I've ruled that I could always buff Stamina with food, along with my health.

While the Regen is nice, I could Also Just Re-enchant A piece or two of my gear to offset it, as it wouldn't heavily damage my Stamina pool.

As for potions, I suppose I'll test and see what works best

Koensol

HalvarIronfist wrote: »

Koensol wrote: »

And for the love of god, use use surprise attack in stead of double barring cloak. Its a waste to double bar it.

I stated above that things will be changing with the skills, gear, and so-forth. Double-Cloak was simply a placeholder


Also I really wouldn't use unfathomable darkness.

I checked the two sets against each other
Unfathomable Darkness
(2 items) Adds 833 Weapon Critical
(3 items) Adds 1487 Physical Penetration
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon Damage
(5 items) When you deal damage, you have a 10% chance to call a murder of crows around you for 12 seconds. Every 3 seconds a crow will be sent to peck the closest enemy within 12 meters of you, dealing 4000 Physical Damage. This effect can occur once every 15 seconds.

Shackle:
2 items) Adds 129 Weapon Damage

(3 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage

(4 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery and Stamina Recovery

(5 items) Adds 2000 Max Magicka and Max Stamina.

The Crit, DMG, and Penetration were nice in the Unfathomable set, and I've ruled that I could always buff Stamina with food, along with my health.

While the Regen is nice, I could Also Just Re-enchant A piece or two of my gear to offset it, as it wouldn't heavily damage my Stamina pool.

As for potions, I suppose I'll test and see what works best

Well, they are completely different sets. The reason for running shackle, is that combined with prismatic enchants, you get a very decent magicka pool for using nb utility, while still getting max stam and some weapon dmg. And on a stamblade, max magicka or magicka regen helps your stamina sustain, because you can use cloak to reset the dodgeroll cost increase cd timer.

But looking at unfathomable, there are just so many better sets than that for damage.

HalvarIronfist

Sorry for such a long gap in between responses, I've been ungodly busy and haven't played much until now.

Here's an update on my NB

5 Pieces Unfathomable. (1 Sword (Gold, Poison enchant, Sharpened) 2 pieces of divines armor with stam enchants, and 2 robust pieces of Jewelry. (Neck and ring)

5 pieces spriggans. (Gold Axe, Weap DMG Enchant. needs to be transmuted.. Sharpened or Nirn?) (Purple Bow, needs transmute to nirn) 1 ring and 2 gear pieces

Medium Kragh's,(Infused)

Light Velidreth (Transmute)

Running Dubious (When I craft more.)

Unbuffed stats:

9.9k Magicka

11.1k HP

30k stam

837 Stam Recov, 355 health recov, 591 mag recov.

2H Weap DMG: 3044 (40.6% Crit)

Bow DMG: 2527 (51.6% crit)

Resistances: 10.2k spell, 12.1k phys, 1452 crit




CP 306,

Piercing 52

Mighty 50

Medium Armor Focus 20

Resistant 35

Hardy 24

Elemental Defender 23

Mooncalf 100

Shade 2


Bow bar Setup

1. Evasion
2. Expert Hunter
3. Grim Focus
4. Lethal Arrow
5. Poison Injection
6. ULT- Rapid fire

Dual Wield Bar Setup:
1. Hidden Blade
2. Killers Blade
3. Surprise Attack
4. Ambush
5. Shadowy Disguise
6. Incap Strike


One thing I've considered is switching out the unfathomable gear. Though what would give a better damage rating than the crit, penetration, and weapon dmg it adds?

_Salty_

You can never go wrong with hundings as a set till you get the hang of NB.

Vapirko

Hold up on builds until after summerset, unless you can do so without wasting lots of money.

Thogard

Have you tried playing a real class?

Koensol

@HalvarIronfist Mate, I am going to be honest here. That build will get you killed 100% in any 1v1 with a decent player (unless you aim to be a zergsniper ofc). You will be out of stamina after 3 dodge rolls with that regen. Also magicka regen is way too low for a medium armor nb build. You can cloak 3 times maybe and you are done. You put 100 points into mooncalf, which is a waste on a build with such low recovery. Take serpent mundus stone and use jewels of misrule food. Trust me you will see your survivability drastically increase from that. Medium armor nb survive by not getting hit, so regen is key on both resource pools. You should aim to get at least 1.8k stamina regen, and at least 800 magicka regen when buffed with food and relentless. If you can't get to that amount of regen, check all your passives and maybe use a jewelry enchant with stamina regen.

Problem number 2: you have 0 heals. You will be free AP like this. Slot vigor on bow bar and put cloak on bow bar as well. This way you can use vigor into a dodgeroll and then go into cloak to let the heals safely tick away while moving with 30% speed from the dodgeroll bow passive, then use a bow heavy attack from cloak to regain stam. Same thing you can do with shuffle (evasion morph) to remove snares. Keep that on bow bar. Also put bloodcraze back on your dw bar. The bleed is very strong as it goes through all resistances and provides a nice HoT.

Problem number 3: no reliable cc. Put fear on your dw bar so you can use it to reliably hit incap on your target and drain their stamina.

Problem number 4: CP distribution. As far as defensive CP goes, ironclad is the most important as it reduces damage of direct burst damage on you. Take your points from medium armor focus and put them into ironclad. Try to get at least 30 in there for now. As for offensive CP. Your build already has good penetration from sharpened weapon, spriggan and unfathomable. So I wouldn't put so many points into piercing. Put a LOT more into Master at Arms though. That is the most important cp star for damage on a nb. Most of your damage is direct burst hits, and this will increase its damage.

So overall I would go for a bar setup like this:

Bow bar:
1. Poison injection
2. Relentless focus / Leeching strikes
3. Vigor
4. Cloak
5. Shuffle
Ult: Dawnbreaker of smiting / Soul tether. (I would use one of these over the bow ult, because it gives you some AoE burst potential. Soul tether heals you as well and hit 360 degrees including other cloaked nbs.)

DW bar (I would use 2h, but it's your choice ofc)
1. Ambush
2. Bloodcraze
3. Mass hysteria
4. Surprise attack
5. Killer's blade
Ult: Incapacitating strike.

As you noticed, no snipe. And I will be honest with you here. If you want to improve as a player, drop snipe. It doesn't allow for fast paced and skilled play. If you want to break free from the zerg and survive solo, drop it. You are far better of with other skills. But if you are ok with zergsurfing and just happily killing people from safety, by all means slot it.

As far as sets go. You can keep this setup if you are okay with it. Even if they aren't optimal, they will provide more than enough damage. I wouldn't go split with your monster sets like that, though. Aim for a complete setup. If you want damage, take 2 selene (or 2 veli if you have it). If you want more survivability, take 2 troll king or 2 bloodspawn.

I hope my long post doesn't come off as harsh and unfriendly. I'm just trying to be honest here to help you

pzschrek

This is all good advice, but the best advice once you have incorporated all the tips is to try no cp. I didn't start having fun in cp cyro until I was over 400 cp.

HalvarIronfist

Thogard wrote: »

Have you tried playing a real class?

A nightblade is not my main, hence why I'm asking for help.

Koensol wrote: »

@HalvarIronfist Mate, I am going to be honest here. That build will get you killed 100% in any 1v1 with a decent player (unless you aim to be a zergsniper ofc). You will be out of stamina after 3 dodge rolls with that regen. Also magicka regen is way too low for a medium armor nb build. You can cloak 3 times maybe and you are done. You put 100 points into mooncalf, which is a waste on a build with such low recovery. Take serpent mundus stone and use jewels of misrule food. Trust me you will see your survivability drastically increase from that. Medium armor nb survive by not getting hit, so regen is key on both resource pools. You should aim to get at least 1.8k stamina regen, and at least 800 magicka regen when buffed with food and relentless. If you can't get to that amount of regen, check all your passives and maybe use a jewelry enchant with stamina regen.

Problem number 2: you have 0 heals. You will be free AP like this. Slot vigor on bow bar and put cloak on bow bar as well. This way you can use vigor into a dodgeroll and then go into cloak to let the heals safely tick away while moving with 30% speed from the dodgeroll bow passive, then use a bow heavy attack from cloak to regain stam. Same thing you can do with shuffle (evasion morph) to remove snares. Keep that on bow bar. Also put bloodcraze back on your dw bar. The bleed is very strong as it goes through all resistances and provides a nice HoT.

Problem number 3: no reliable cc. Put fear on your dw bar so you can use it to reliably hit incap on your target and drain their stamina.

Problem number 4: CP distribution. As far as defensive CP goes, ironclad is the most important as it reduces damage of direct burst damage on you. Take your points from medium armor focus and put them into ironclad. Try to get at least 30 in there for now. As for offensive CP. Your build already has good penetration from sharpened weapon, spriggan and unfathomable. So I wouldn't put so many points into piercing. Put a LOT more into Master at Arms though. That is the most important cp star for damage on a nb. Most of your damage is direct burst hits, and this will increase its damage.

So overall I would go for a bar setup like this:

Bow bar:
1. Poison injection
2. Relentless focus / Leeching strikes
3. Vigor
4. Cloak
5. Shuffle
Ult: Dawnbreaker of smiting / Soul tether. (I would use one of these over the bow ult, because it gives you some AoE burst potential. Soul tether heals you as well and hit 360 degrees including other cloaked nbs.)

DW bar (I would use 2h, but it's your choice ofc)
1. Ambush
2. Bloodcraze
3. Mass hysteria
4. Surprise attack
5. Killer's blade
Ult: Incapacitating strike.

As you noticed, no snipe. And I will be honest with you here. If you want to improve as a player, drop snipe. It doesn't allow for fast paced and skilled play. If you want to break free from the zerg and survive solo, drop it. You are far better of with other skills. But if you are ok with zergsurfing and just happily killing people from safety, by all means slot it.

As far as sets go. You can keep this setup if you are okay with it. Even if they aren't optimal, they will provide more than enough damage. I wouldn't go split with your monster sets like that, though. Aim for a complete setup. If you want damage, take 2 selene (or 2 veli if you have it). If you want more survivability, take 2 troll king or 2 bloodspawn.

I hope my long post doesn't come off as harsh and unfriendly. I'm just trying to be honest here to help you

No offense taken. As stated, this is my first NB and I really have zero idea what I'm doing, my original idea was to do extremely high burst damage and if that didn't make the kill itself, to have to finish it off with solid melee damage.

Now to take this part by part.

Regen, I can easily re-enchant gear. I don't see that being a huge issue, besides with food/drink buffs.

Heals. I had mentioned this before, I was going for vigor, but had not reached the level for it yet. -Almost there!-

cc: Will fix, am dumb.

CP: I'll look into re-distribution too. Would it also be a good idea to invest more into crit resistance, since I don't have a TON of inpen armor? (Need to farm transmutes.)

(Edit! I forgot this: I use DW because of set reasons, otherwise I have rarely seen many stamblades using it. Ps4 NA)

"As you noticed, no snipe. And I will be honest with you here. If you want to improve as a player, drop snipe. It doesn't allow for fast paced and skilled play. If you want to break free from the zerg and survive solo, drop it. You are far better of with other skills. But if you are ok with zergsurfing and just happily killing people from safety, by all means slot it."

I can try dropping it, but as for what I've seen, it hit nicely, even when solo. But, by all means I can give that a try.

Now.. The last thing to address. Blood Craze. Wouldn't that be a waste if I didn't have any point invested into Thaumaturge?

Meltn02

11k hp, wearing 6 medium 1 light, no heals and 800 Stam regen. Yea you are going to die instantly, even after you put on the correct food.

HalvarIronfist

Bump-

Joy_Division

This game does a terrible job with letting people know how not to get killed in PvP.

I main a templar. I can't say I know the intricacies of NBs, but I do know how to fight them and since you seem to be amenable to honesty: I'd beat your build probably every single time and it has nothing to do with your low CP. You need to heal (you're not playing with any) and you need regen to avoid getting hit (you don't have enough).

Stamblade is a hard class to play. It is VERY strong in the hands of an experienced player, but very easy to kill in the hands of someone who isn't. Since you say you don;t have Vigor, that tells me you haven't been PvPing very much and that the #1 reason why you're struggling.

In the meantime this is what I suggest:

• You need a heal. Ideally two. No if ands or buts. A NB with poor healing that's not great at ganking is going to get beat by an opponent who know what they are doing. Until you get Vigor, use a 2H Axe with Rally. Even after you get Vigor, I'd still say use 2H. Duel wield requires a lot of dodge rolling, a lot of anticipation, a lot of kiting. in short, a lot of experience.
• CP: spread them out. The more you invest in a single star, the less effective they become. Warlord, Shadow, Tumbling, Ironclad, and Thick-skinned are all very important defensive oriented CPs and you don;t have a single point in them. Master at Arms is a key offensive CP star.
• Unfathomable Darkness is a gimmick set. You need more regen. Shacklebreaker or Bone Pirate are good medium armor sets that give regen .
• Split focus: are you melee or are you ranged? If you say "both," that means you aren't strong at either.
• If you opt for a primary range build, unless you're *really* good, you're going to be in trouble if you don't have allies around and melee builds start attacking you. On a high populated server, range builds can be fun and are probably more useful contributors in large scale fights so that's fine if you want to go that route. If you want to be a more solo oriented player, I'd go for melee.
• If you are melee, back bar bow, put poison injection and the other 4 skills are buffs/defense like vigor, shuffle, cloak, Leeching Strikes, etc.. If you are ranged then 2H becomes your buff bar.
• Fear is one of the best skills in the game. Use it.
• A NB is easy to kill is a player does not actively defend (i.e dodge roll and kiting mostly). Cloak is really good but it's got to be used correctly. If you cloak Vs. a melee opponent, they're probably going to find you. Fear them first and then maybe dodge roll to create distance if necessary and then cloak. The skill takes practice. Your class does not have good defense, that's got to come from the player and that takes experience (which is why I think the #1 reason you're struggling is just haven't played enough). Do not give up because a NB that does actively defends themself is very hard to kill.
• No divines armor. Use Impen and well-fitted