Help from Devs if possible or vets at the game.

n80fty

I'm looking at building a strong character that will do good DPS as well as self preservation. I'm only going for pve at the moment but I'm interested in PvP as I get to champion side of the game. I like using a sword and shield. Bow and a staff. But I'm finding it difficult to find a build that suits me. Mostly as a lot of places recommend duel weilding but I die too quick with a nightblade. I usually go high elf sorcerer due to attack and healing. But it's all I play as it's probably for noobs like me. LOL. Any real help would be appreciated. I'm also on Xbox who will be looking to joining a guild who are not too hardcore but do play both PVE and PvP.

FrancisCrawford

My stamina nightblade got a lot better at surviving when I went to PvP and unlocked Vigor. Also, Caltrops is a major damage skill for stamina characters.

This was particularly true for me because I insist on having a thief build for him, so I have neither Surprise Attack nor the self-healing morph of Cloak.

Reaper's Mark also helps a lot with self-healing in certain fights.

Bloodthirst has long been my main melee attack in tough fights. That has some self-healing. For tough fights, he also wears Briarheart, for a bit more healing.

FrancisCrawford

And to be clear -- PvE and PvP builds are totally different. The biggest reason is that ground-based DoTs (damage-over-time) attacks are central to PvE builds but much less effective in PvP.

n80fty

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

And to be clear -- PvE and PvP builds are totally different. The biggest reason is that ground-based DoTs (damage-over-time) attacks are central to PvE builds but much less effective in PvP.

Maybe I'm not giving my nightblade a chance then. He's only at lvl 15. Maybe a bow until I get ranked up more and duel wield once I unlock the healing abilities. Or would duel wield be better for both skill trees

MartiniDaniels

1. Check that you have food active, even simple health food will give you more durability and a good food is huge boost to your character power and survivability. You may buy it in guild traders - it's not that expensive. For stamblade best food is dubious camorane - it costs 100 gold for one meal which is 2 hours long. Basically you food need to be always active.
2. Unlock siphoning strikes (4th ability in siphoning line) - it provides a lot of vampiric healing for any NB. For burst healing don't hesitate to use potions.. in this game using potions on regular basis is good habit for future efficiency.
3. About vigor - well, you may try to run random BGs and this skill will unlock after ~ 10 victories, but without pvp build and knowledge you will be just beaten there.. still your team will carry with 50% success rate, also you'll get cool stuff and ton of experience if your team is at least 2nd.

Datthaw

Don't even try to pvp at this point, the pvp side of this game is in a HORRIBLE state. Constant lag will leave you frustrated along with the plethora of balance and bug problems.

Stick to pve if you're new because zos doesn't care about pvp and it's going down the shitter

FlyingSwan

I've run a NB main since release and I found him incredibly squishy at first, but this was my L2P issue.

Make sure you have 18k health buffed with food, you can reduce this when you get more comfortable with the char, if you are dual wield then you can use the Blade Cloak skill to mitigate some AoE damage. But as another poster says, main survival skill is Vigor which you have to get from doing a small amount of PvP. You can also slot the Cloak skill, as one morph does some self-healing which is useful in a pinch.

FrancisCrawford

n80fty wrote: »

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

And to be clear -- PvE and PvP builds are totally different. The biggest reason is that ground-based DoTs (damage-over-time) attacks are central to PvE builds but much less effective in PvP.

Maybe I'm not giving my nightblade a chance then. He's only at lvl 15. Maybe a bow until I get ranked up more and duel wield once I unlock the healing abilities. Or would duel wield be better for both skill trees

Once you're Level 15, use two different weapons. And when you can -- for example at quest turn-in or right before a dolmen finishes -- flip to your "back" bar (the one you use less) so that the skills and weapon there can gain experience too.

If you want great self-healing even at low levels, there's nothing better than a magicka templar. Magicka sorcerer is also great once the Twilight Matriarch unlocks. Magicka templar is a great starter spec anyway, because the first skill in each of the three skill lines is great, as is the second skill in the destruction staff line. Safest race choices for a magicka templar are Altmer and Breton. Argonian (especially for healing) and Dunmer (especially for damage) are also looking pretty good right now, but racial passive skills are going to be changed in the near future, so who knows where they'll stand then? (The main part of this that other posters might disagree with is my love for the templar skill Reflective Light. But while mine is a minority opinion, that minority is a fairly large one.)

n80fty

Thanks for your help everyone it's appreciated