New to the game and looking for a bow/dual wield combo for PvE!

iskreenlooker

I just picked up the base game without the DLC and was wondering if there is a build for stamina bow/dual wield nightblade for PvE? Which skills should I invest and which attributes should I focus on thanks for the help!

shadowofnarsil

Welcome - There are many, many discussions about this, as the DW/Bow combo is essentially the bread and butter build for stamblade, in addition to 2H/Bow. There are multiple builds on the web in this area as well, Gilliam's is quite good, and can be found here. As mentioned, there are others, such as Alcast's, and I am not as a familiar with them (FYI, my sole character is a DW/bow stamblade).

GrumpyDuckling

iskreenlooker wrote: »

I just picked up the base game without the DLC and was wondering if there is a build for stamina bow/dual wield nightblade for PvE? Which skills should I invest and which attributes should I focus on thanks for the help!

What kind of PVE do you like doing? If you're going for stealthy/thief/assassin gameplay in PVE then the following sets are fun to combine and easy to acquire:

5 pieces of Night Mother's Embrace
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Night+Mother's+Embrace+Set

3 pieces of Night Terror
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Night+Terror+Set

4 pieces of Unfathomable Darkness
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Unfathomable+Darkness+Set

You become this ultra sneaky, stealthy, hard-hitting assassin/thief (especially if you also play as a Wood Elf or Khajiit because they're even better at sneaking due to having passives that further reduce your sneak radius).

Eventually, if you acquire monster sets or VMA and/or Master weapons, you can replace the 4 pieces of Unfathomable Darkness. I suggest Unfathomable Darkness for starters because it is easy to acquire and has a 4 piece bonus that pairs well with Night Mother's Embrace and Night Terror. It's not as easy to get penetration stats for a stamina build, but Unfathomable Darkness has a penetration bonus. Between that, Sharpened weapons, and some champion points into penetration, you should be able to use the Warrior mundus stone for more weapon damage.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Edit: Since you don't have DLC you can buy Unfathomable Darkness pieces from guild traders for pretty cheap.

FrancisCrawford

iskreenlooker wrote: »

I just picked up the base game without the DLC and was wondering if there is a build for stamina bow/dual wield nightblade for PvE? Which skills should I invest and which attributes should I focus on thanks for the help!

1. The standard for attribute points is to put everything in stamina and, from Level 10 onward, always use blue health/magicka food, which is cheap and easy to get. If you use some other kind of food instead, you may want to put a couple of attribute points into health.

2. Every dual wield skill is good. When leveling I suggest for the first two skills you choose the morph with the health return. For the third skill chose the Steel Tornado morph.

3. The most important bow skills are Endless Hail and Poison Injection (those are the preferred morphs).

4. Unfortunately, the best class for leveling stamina builds is the least powerful in PvE once you're leveled -- Warden. But if you're not looking to be an elite endgame damage dealer, that need not bother you. Warden has stamina-based heals and a spammable ranged skill and a stamina-based AoE attack and a lot of utility. Other classes have a few skills each that are useful for stamina builds.

In general, Warden is a more forgiving class than some others when you're learning the game.

6. It can be a lot of fun to play a thief. If you want to do that, then you want to be a Nightblade, preferably a Wood Elf or Khajiit. (That's for the stealthy racial passive. Which of the two races pick can be based on looks/RP/whatever.)

GreenhaloX

For PvE, you don't really need to go all out with the fancy stuff like trial gears, Masters or Maelstrom. Nice to have, but don't need to enjoy the game. Besides, at lower levels, you wouldn't be able to acquire those. Ha ha. Or even when you're at the levels able to access those contents, please, by all means, go ahead, try it and experience those contents, but still not a must to have. That goes same for PvP. Those fancier weapons will make you a bit more formidable, but you will still die all the same as much as anyone else.

Ok, for you, PvE-wise and being fairly new, you can always check out those how-to and what l need to do clips from the many ESO gurus making those helpful videos via youtube. Just a brief here, as there are already lots of nb discussions/threads on the Combat & Char Mechanic forum section as as well as the PvP and Players helping Players.

My suggestions are:

1. If you haven't, join a guild. Most are fairly good and there are always enthused guild members readily to help and guide along new players and members. There are surely plenty of nb experts in the guilds.

2. If you are able, have someone craft you a craftable DLC set as either Shacklebreaker, Mechanical Acuity or Innate Axiom. To me, these are some of the better 5-piece sets; particularly for a stam toon or stamblade. You can still wear it and don't need the DLCs, given it's crafted for you, and those can be crafted for any level.

3. If you can't yet get your hands on those DLC ones l just mentioned above, you can still do fine with any of the sets dropped in normal PvE land. Just ensure the sets offer increase stam, weapon damage and/crit. Some will offer all 3 as the Red Mountain set in Stonefalls (plus, the proc/perks is a lava splash chance every few seconds that damage from 8-11k), or the Spriggins set in Bangkorai that gives stam, stam and weapon dam, plus the 5-piece perk gives bout 3k more in penetration, which is not bad at all; used to be 5k prior, before the nerf. Just couple examples, here. Whatever armor you throw on, whether it be a complete 5-piece or not, make sure it's increase stam and weapon dam based. You'll figure it out along the way and the more you play.

4. For a nb, or stamblade, Cloak and it's morph of Shadowry Figure, you don't really need for PvE; especially, since we are slot-limited. Same for Ambush. Must haves of both for PvP, but you'll be better off without those in PvE. Instead, focus on Leeching Strikes for healing with each strikes, Relentless Focus with the 8% increase dam and Piercing Mark because it breaks down the target's spell and phys resistances. I also slot Mirage for the dodge chance and extra resolve.

5. DW and bow skills to have: For DW, Rapid Strikes and Shrouded Dagger are Must-haves. If you're having trouble maintaining heath-wise, you can use the other morph on latter of Rapid Strikes; Bloodthirst, l believe. It's the morph that gives health with the strikes versus the extra damages with Rapid. Deadly Cloak is another good to have. Steel Tornadoes are good, but you can do without; especially, being slot-limited. What you eventually will want are Resolving Vigor (best stam heal in the game) and Razor Caltrops (probably or likely the best supplemental damages for stam toons; you get both DoTs and direct damage.) However, you have to acquire these two by PvP in Cyrodiil; Vigor unlocks at level 5 and Caltrops at level 6. Until then, you can fair with Leeching for healing needs and Endless Hail from the bow skill line and Deadly Cloak for good DoTs and AoE damages.

I also have a 2h (greatsword) and bow stamblade. The Brawler of the 2h skill line is so nice and one of the must haves for 2h builds; good extra bleeding DoTs and AoE with a bit of damage shield. For me, l enjoy the Dizzying Swing of the 2h over the Rapid Strikes of DW, but to each their own. That Dizz Swing or Wrecking Blow is one brutal ass smackaroo!

Ok, can't really turn this into a novel. Hope this tidbits help you, but, scroll check out the many other threads on stamblade builds, or those many youtube clips. Have fun with your stamblade. We don't need any more gankers, however! Ha ha

Banana

Another guru alcasthq.com

iskreenlooker

GrumpyDuckling wrote: »

iskreenlooker wrote: »

I just picked up the base game without the DLC and was wondering if there is a build for stamina bow/dual wield nightblade for PvE? Which skills should I invest and which attributes should I focus on thanks for the help!

What kind of PVE do you like doing? If you're going for stealthy/thief/assassin gameplay in PVE then the following sets are fun to combine and easy to acquire:

5 pieces of Night Mother's Embrace
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Night+Mother's+Embrace+Set

3 pieces of Night Terror
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Night+Terror+Set

4 pieces of Unfathomable Darkness
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Unfathomable+Darkness+Set

You become this ultra sneaky, stealthy, hard-hitting assassin/thief (especially if you also play as a Wood Elf or Khajiit because they're even better at sneaking due to having passives that further reduce your sneak radius).

Eventually, if you acquire monster sets or VMA and/or Master weapons, you can replace the 4 pieces of Unfathomable Darkness. I suggest Unfathomable Darkness for starters because it is easy to acquire and has a 4 piece bonus that pairs well with Night Mother's Embrace and Night Terror. It's not as easy to get penetration stats for a stamina build, but Unfathomable Darkness has a penetration bonus. Between that, Sharpened weapons, and some champion points into penetration, you should be able to use the Warrior mundus stone for more weapon damage.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Edit: Since you don't have DLC you can buy Unfathomable Darkness pieces from guild traders for pretty cheap.

I will look into this, thank you!

iskreenlooker

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

iskreenlooker wrote: »

I just picked up the base game without the DLC and was wondering if there is a build for stamina bow/dual wield nightblade for PvE? Which skills should I invest and which attributes should I focus on thanks for the help!

1. The standard for attribute points is to put everything in stamina and, from Level 10 onward, always use blue health/magicka food, which is cheap and easy to get. If you use some other kind of food instead, you may want to put a couple of attribute points into health.

2. Every dual wield skill is good. When leveling I suggest for the first two skills you choose the morph with the health return. For the third skill chose the Steel Tornado morph.

3. The most important bow skills are Endless Hail and Poison Injection (those are the preferred morphs).

4. Unfortunately, the best class for leveling stamina builds is the least powerful in PvE once you're leveled -- Warden. But if you're not looking to be an elite endgame damage dealer, that need not bother you. Warden has stamina-based heals and a spammable ranged skill and a stamina-based AoE attack and a lot of utility. Other classes have a few skills each that are useful for stamina builds.

In general, Warden is a more forgiving class than some others when you're learning the game.

6. It can be a lot of fun to play a thief. If you want to do that, then you want to be a Nightblade, preferably a Wood Elf or Khajiit. (That's for the stealthy racial passive. Which of the two races pick can be based on looks/RP/whatever.)

Thank you! This was the kind of reply I was looking for!

iskreenlooker

GreenhaloX wrote: »

For PvE, you don't really need to go all out with the fancy stuff like trial gears, Masters or Maelstrom. Nice to have, but don't need to enjoy the game. Besides, at lower levels, you wouldn't be able to acquire those. Ha ha. Or even when you're at the levels able to access those contents, please, by all means, go ahead, try it and experience those contents, but still not a must to have. That goes same for PvP. Those fancier weapons will make you a bit more formidable, but you will still die all the same as much as anyone else.

Ok, for you, PvE-wise and being fairly new, you can always check out those how-to and what l need to do clips from the many ESO gurus making those helpful videos via youtube. Just a brief here, as there are already lots of nb discussions/threads on the Combat & Char Mechanic forum section as as well as the PvP and Players helping Players.

My suggestions are:

1. If you haven't, join a guild. Most are fairly good and there are always enthused guild members readily to help and guide along new players and members. There are surely plenty of nb experts in the guilds.

2. If you are able, have someone craft you a craftable DLC set as either Shacklebreaker, Mechanical Acuity or Innate Axiom. To me, these are some of the better 5-piece sets; particularly for a stam toon or stamblade. You can still wear it and don't need the DLCs, given it's crafted for you, and those can be crafted for any level.

3. If you can't yet get your hands on those DLC ones l just mentioned above, you can still do fine with any of the sets dropped in normal PvE land. Just ensure the sets offer increase stam, weapon damage and/crit. Some will offer all 3 as the Red Mountain set in Stonefalls (plus, the proc/perks is a lava splash chance every few seconds that damage from 8-11k), or the Spriggins set in Bangkorai that gives stam, stam and weapon dam, plus the 5-piece perk gives bout 3k more in penetration, which is not bad at all; used to be 5k prior, before the nerf. Just couple examples, here. Whatever armor you throw on, whether it be a complete 5-piece or not, make sure it's increase stam and weapon dam based. You'll figure it out along the way and the more you play.

4. For a nb, or stamblade, Cloak and it's morph of Shadowry Figure, you don't really need for PvE; especially, since we are slot-limited. Same for Ambush. Must haves of both for PvP, but you'll be better off without those in PvE. Instead, focus on Leeching Strikes for healing with each strikes, Relentless Focus with the 8% increase dam and Piercing Mark because it breaks down the target's spell and phys resistances. I also slot Mirage for the dodge chance and extra resolve.

5. DW and bow skills to have: For DW, Rapid Strikes and Shrouded Dagger are Must-haves. If you're having trouble maintaining heath-wise, you can use the other morph on latter of Rapid Strikes; Bloodthirst, l believe. It's the morph that gives health with the strikes versus the extra damages with Rapid. Deadly Cloak is another good to have. Steel Tornadoes are good, but you can do without; especially, being slot-limited. What you eventually will want are Resolving Vigor (best stam heal in the game) and Razor Caltrops (probably or likely the best supplemental damages for stam toons; you get both DoTs and direct damage.) However, you have to acquire these two by PvP in Cyrodiil; Vigor unlocks at level 5 and Caltrops at level 6. Until then, you can fair with Leeching for healing needs and Endless Hail from the bow skill line and Deadly Cloak for good DoTs and AoE damages.

I also have a 2h (greatsword) and bow stamblade. The Brawler of the 2h skill line is so nice and one of the must haves for 2h builds; good extra bleeding DoTs and AoE with a bit of damage shield. For me, l enjoy the Dizzying Swing of the 2h over the Rapid Strikes of DW, but to each their own. That Dizz Swing or Wrecking Blow is one brutal ass smackaroo!

Ok, can't really turn this into a novel. Hope this tidbits help you, but, scroll check out the many other threads on stamblade builds, or those many youtube clips. Have fun with your stamblade. We don't need any more gankers, however! Ha ha

Thank you for the long reply, I really appreciate it!

iskreenlooker

Banana wrote: »

Another guru alcasthq.com

Awesome, thank you!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

All high end PVE DPS builds are going to be DW/Bow, so you are in luck.

All classes are going to use the following skills with very few exceptions: Endless Hail, Caltrops, Poison Injection, Rearming Trap, Rending Slashes, Deadly Cloak, and vigor (if you need a heal).

Stamina plays much more consistently from class to class than magic, because so many of the skills are in common.

First thing to do is pick a race. This is easy, because Redguard is the clear winner. Khajiit and Imperial fight it out for second, but there is a pretty big gap here. The sustain from redguard is too hard to pass up.

Second you need to pick a class. Each is going to bring their own flavor to the build.

Nightblade: argubaly the best for pure single target damage, but the most complicated roation. sNB rotation is the most unique of the bunch because of the skill relentless focus. It hits super hard, but its difficult to manage. They also have a stamina based execute and spammable (only class with both), and a good utility skill in leeching strikes to help with resources. If your goal is to push stamina single target DPS to the max, and dont mind the hardest stamina rotation in the game, look no further. The learning curve is quite steep.

Dragonknight: They essentially bring 4 useful skills to the table that are relevant. Venemous claw is perhaps the best single target stamina DOT in the game. Noxious breath gives a useful debuff when solo (major fracture) but one you will always have in a good group from the tank. Its an AOE DOT as well, of medium potency. Flames of Oblivion is actually a magic skill, but it scales off your highest resource so a stamina player can use it. It is also effectively a single target DOT. They also have molten armaments and the various morphs, can be useful for some passives and the weapon damage boost if you you dont want to run potions. DKs are pretty close behind NB for pure single target, but their rotation is night and day easier. A stam DK is perhaps the easiest stamina rotation in the game, and I believe in 2nd place for raw ST damage. There is no easier way in the game currently to break 40k Single target on dummy than stam DK.

Sorc (my personal favorite): For raw damage, they bring 2 useful things to the table. Hurricane, which is an amazing AOE DOT, and Bound Araments, which gives sorcs the best raw stats (highest stamina pool) in the game. They also have crit surge, which is a very usful damage buff and self heal. It makes VMA a breeze. Finally, they have Dark Deal and morphs which is a great utility tool for resource management. Probably not something you run in an organized group, but the utility is really nice. IMO sorcs have the best stamina AOE damage, and are the best class to test the waters, as the self heals are really nice. Certainly the easiest stamina VMA clear by a pretty big margin. You will win a lot of DPS wars in trash pulls, but you wont beat a stam NB or stam DK single target (next patch you just might). Stam sorcs arguably benefit the most from the LA/HA changes coming next patch because they have the highest stamina pool.

Templar: They bring a skill called Power of the Light to the table. This is a very effective group debuff, as it gives minor fracture and minor breach. This makes having at least one stamplar in group highly useful to a raid group. Repentance is nice for the sustain as well, but doesnt do much for you single target. They also have a stamina based spammable in Jabs. They also have access to some utility skills like a purge. Not really relevant to PVE DPS, but it makes them very strong in duels.

Warden: Warden is often considered bottom of the barrel. They have a stamina burst skill with Subterranean Assault, a good resource management skill in the bull nethch, a ranged spammable (not super useful for PVE damage), and a decent single target stam ultimate in the bear. I really think they are in last place for damage. They have a lot of utility and great burst, so they are super strong in PVP, but there rotation just doesnt seem to quite stack up to the rest for PVE damage.

For Gear:

Pick a damage set (hundings/ War Machine/ Vicious Ophidian) and pick a penetration set (NM, TFS, Spriggans) and pair them together with a monster set (Veledrith, selene, Krags,). Gear is the easy part. For NB in particular, you are going to need to focus on your rotation, A LOT.

TLDR:

NB - Best ST, by far the hardest to play
DK - Best ST damage to effort ratio by far. Rotation is very straight forward
Sorc - Best AOE damage, best stamina pool, best survival, especially when solo
Templar - Arguably the best for group utility, but you really only need one per raid. Has some good utility as well
Warden - Bottom of the barrel for pure PVE damage, but an impressive toolkit of major/minor buffs for a utility role or PVP.

Edit: You realize that after you typed up a 2 page rant, that I missed the word nightblade in your original post, so you can probably stop reading after that paragraph. Haha.