Uuugh, this Dark Brotherhood stuff is so tedious and frustrating.

JJBoomer

this is why i've never done the TG or DB content. I don't find it fun, I find it nerve wracking. Not how i want to feel playing a game. I mean, I own the DLC's, and I've gone to their respective maps to do other stuff. But I'll probably never do the quests there.

Ash_In_My_Sujamma

Sacraments and heists for me are probably one of the most entertaining repeatable in the game. It is challenging at first but if you notice the patterns of the npcs you can easily navigate in the area. I even created a special build for my non nb characters wich maximizes movement speed, reduces invis radius and utilizes pots and pot cds. I got the dark sacrament memento but still visit those events. Way better than most repeatable quests in rescent dlcs.

Inarre

I feel you. After grinding tg I needed a break. Can't bring myself to do dB right now

Hymzir

There are plenty of old threads about these missions - the advice stays the same - be a nightblade or prepare equipment that let's you act like a nightblade. I.e get sneaking potions with speed and invisibility, get stealth detection reducing gear, level up passives that help you sneak and learn the maps before going for a perfect run.

Thieves are harder due to the timer starting right away - DB missions are lot easier, since you can waddle about, for as long as you want, learning the movement of your foes. The timer starts after your first kill - by then you should have a plan worked out on how to get to the second target, and how to get out of dodge before times up.

Note that this is only for getting perfect score - you can, if you want, just bulldoze your way through everything as if it was just another standard dungeon. Your reward will be significantly less for doing so, but you still get the credit for doing it.

Do note that these missions were designed for stealth play - if that is not your thing, then these missions wont be either.

Personally I do not like stealth all that much, but found these quests pretty entertaining all the same. Once I got my gear set up that is - I did them with a frigging magicka templar, way back when we didn't have all the groovy gizmos we have these days. All it took was a little bit of patience and planning, and adopting a different mentality towards them.

I've finished pretty much all DB content, except that one achievement about murdering all the targets - I gave up due to the aggravating RNG - I got 3 names left I think, and after 30 or so attempts at getting them, and only getting repeats of already murdered people, I decided my life is more valuable than grinding such nonsense.

And finally - you can totally reset a quest that is going southwards. You can bail out by abandoning the quest, then you need to log out, log in, go pick it the quest back from the quest giver. It will still be the same one, but it will reset to the starting state. So if you ef up, and you will, you can try again. It's a bit of a PITA, but it is less of a bother than waiting for the next day.

The key to getting perfect runs is, as always, experience and knowledge gained though repetition. At first I was happy to just finish them, then I wanted to finish them within time, and finally I started to play for getting flawless runs - no-one detecting you, kill all targets with blade of woe (or what ever else the missions states) and getting out before the timer runs out.

The only real gripe I have with them, is that you can only do one per day per character. And that there is a fairly small number of them. They provide an interesting change of pace from the normal "kill everything that moves" style of dungeon delving in this game, and I would've like to be able to do more than one per evening (without logging to a different character that is.)

Furthermore, I would've been quite happy, if they had added a couple of new location specific DB and Thieves guild missions with each chapter. Going to Summerset and assassinating some snooty elves would've been a blast.

Michaelkeir

Syy101 wrote: »

Nightblade makes all infiltrate quests easy mode.

And IMO DB quests are much easier than Thieves Guild Heists. In a heist there are lots of traps to expose you, a timer from the start and you cannot kill anyone or the timer will greatly decrease. In a DB quest you can safely murder anyone on the way except those with lanterns, and you only have a timer after you kill your target, so you can take however long to plan before that.

Like he said...Thieves Guild quest are WAY worse. DB timer doesn't start until after you kill your target. So you can take your time getting to the target. Just pick up the optional part of the quest first because trying to grab that after you assassinate your target will cause you to fail. Use those armor sets as mentioned. They help...a lot. Or create a magblade and spam cloak. Crazy effective especially if you have good magic regen. Perma cloak ftw.

zaria

Michaelkeir wrote: »

Syy101 wrote: »

Nightblade makes all infiltrate quests easy mode.

And IMO DB quests are much easier than Thieves Guild Heists. In a heist there are lots of traps to expose you, a timer from the start and you cannot kill anyone or the timer will greatly decrease. In a DB quest you can safely murder anyone on the way except those with lanterns, and you only have a timer after you kill your target, so you can take however long to plan before that.

Like he said...Thieves Guild quest are WAY worse. DB timer doesn't start until after you kill your target. So you can take your time getting to the target. Just pick up the optional part of the quest first because trying to grab that after you assassinate your target will cause you to fail. Use those armor sets as mentioned. They help...a lot. Or create a magblade and spam cloak. Crazy effective especially if you have good magic regen. Perma cloak ftw.

Night mother gaze with some +magic and it work well on stamblades to, want extra magic for cloak.
And done it on magic sorcerer to.

Robo_Hobo

It's easier than it sounds once you get used to it. It's especially easy if you're a nightblade.

You can also kill the guards that have the detection circles around them without any detection penalties if you sneak behind them, stun them with a physical attack (bow light attack or anything long-ranged) and then kill them while their stunned, while staying behind them.

If you don't kill them in that small time frame then they detect you, fight back and cast their wards though.

FierceSam

It's good - a bit different, but one you can really get into. Bit of a learning curve, but not like doing dungeons that are chock full of one-shot mechanics.

You want a really rubbish DLC quest? Try City Solicitor in Wrothgar, pure RNG with super low chance of success. And you have to get 15 of them AND pay for the privilege

And none of your fancy-schmancy gear is going to help you do that one.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO

idk wrote: »

It is a quest about tact and planning. Not brute force which may be what trips some up.

Also, iirc, the timer does not start until the first target is taken out, but it has been awhile since I have done them. Cleared out all the targets for the completion of the achievement long ago.

Not much tact or planning here to be honest. Now you were able to scout till you kill the first guy which is something I guess. But it would’ve been cool if you had to scout “stalk” your target in the over world to unlock the quest to kill them. If you find one clue detailing where their hideout is (no quest markers) you unlock the quest but you could get a quest where the targets are not there, but if you find all the clues (a nice 5-10 going up and down at random to avoid the I have 5 clues so clearly I know all I need to kill this guy) you get the real mission.
Something like crafting where one gold mat could get you a gold but it’s only a 12.5% the number of clues to which hideout they are at increases your chances of getting the right one.

It would be awesome if by starting the dead end quest you would “alert” the NPC that someone was targeting them by hitting their old hideouts and they would get more guards. The reward for this should be a bind 5 piece of a Gold Coast set in your choice of weight, weapon or jewelry.

This would be rewarding the clues change and you don’t know if you have them all or if their are more unless you find 10. Breaking into restricted areas for intelligence on a target without killing anyone so no one knows you were their.
Also getting two rewards for only killing your targets and now being detected would be a nice bonus or gold from a quest is really not much at higher levels.

Integral1900

Diffrent things for different folks. Some people love pvp, personally I would rather bang my head on a wall, I simply don’t get what they see in it. For me sacraments are like dismantling a clockwork puzzle. Once you know what goes where they turn into a cake walk. They just require patience, observation, and a little preparation in the form of those free stealth potions the game doles out so liberally, maybe bit of stealth gear. I’m patient by nature so it’s fine for me. If that sort of thing isn’t your bag then don’t worry about it, go play what you do like. I used to do vet hard mode trials, these days you couldn’t pay me to do them, it’s okay to enjoy different things 🙂

r3turn2s3nd3r

Sorry if it's been mentioned, couldn't read through all the replies, but FYI, you can also group with friends for both the sacraments and the heists and split the work, this kind of trivializes the timer.