Need help with Nightblade PVE identity
eso_lytw8
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<<<this is a PVE perspective only>>>
A little background...I play all classes stam and mag. I relate mostly to medium armor classes with a duel wield style regardless of game, like rangers and rogues. When I create a charactrer I try to give it a unique identity. I want the build to be competitive in end game PVE, but not necessarily best in class. The identity is important to me, hence the roleplaying aspect. For example my stamsorc runs NGM+TFS+Veli. He is a redguard samurai names Ronin who uses power of the winds to create havoc doing tons of aoe damage. Prefight he buffs gaining major brutality and expedition, etc. My stamdk uses fire and poison, he is a master of damage over time. He fractures his opponents with poison aoe breath and buffs not only his weapons, but the weapons of his entire team. My warden is my ranger using bows and animals while my stamplar a paladin using the powers of holy light.
But my main has always been my nightblade. Until now he has been modeled after the rogue assassin. He is where I've spent most of my gaming days. He did not have a skill to prefight buff with major brutality, but still enjoyed minor brutality along with minor endurance. He felt like an assassin preparing for a fight. He went into the fight with surprise attack fracturing their armor then apply rending slash. He didn't have the strongest defense but that was not his forte it was offense. If he survived long enough against the dungeon foe he could start stabbing with his killers blade to execute. I really enjoyed his identity. I also played healer NB and tank NB, but over time nerfs to them had me loose identity and because of this I no longer enjoy playing them and they sit on the shelf in the load screen. I hope to not have this happen to my main.
I'm not after highest possible DPS. I am after competitive dps with a character identity. I am trying to put a new identity to my nightblade, but it I'm having trouble. I see now when I buff up literally nothing changes...no brutality, no crit, no endurance, nothing. I mean absolutely nothing changes when I go to the character screen. This is not how I see a fantasy assassin. Now when I charge into the fight there is no fracturing my opponent, again a loss of feeling. No biggie if the tank has it, but I always enjoyed the feeling of helping my team with adds by fracturing.
I am really looking at front bar skills recreate the duel wield rogue feel that remains competitive with other builds using regular pots. Is there any build options to recreate my assassin rogue? Do I drop merciless for marked target. Maybe replace SA with shrouded daggers at least I would gain a buff. And daggers far exceeds SA against more than one target. I'd prefer to leave my backbar skills as they are EH, caltrops, PI, siphoning, and vigor. So for front bar do I go with mark target, shrouded daggers, killers blade, rending slash, and dark shade? This might bring back my identity, but fear the dps loss will be huge.
Or has anyone found a new identity that works. What exactly does the nightblade fit now that he appears to be without any offense buffs but gains defense and regen through light attacks?
Lytw8
A little background...I play all classes stam and mag. I relate mostly to medium armor classes with a duel wield style regardless of game, like rangers and rogues. When I create a charactrer I try to give it a unique identity. I want the build to be competitive in end game PVE, but not necessarily best in class. The identity is important to me, hence the roleplaying aspect. For example my stamsorc runs NGM+TFS+Veli. He is a redguard samurai names Ronin who uses power of the winds to create havoc doing tons of aoe damage. Prefight he buffs gaining major brutality and expedition, etc. My stamdk uses fire and poison, he is a master of damage over time. He fractures his opponents with poison aoe breath and buffs not only his weapons, but the weapons of his entire team. My warden is my ranger using bows and animals while my stamplar a paladin using the powers of holy light.
But my main has always been my nightblade. Until now he has been modeled after the rogue assassin. He is where I've spent most of my gaming days. He did not have a skill to prefight buff with major brutality, but still enjoyed minor brutality along with minor endurance. He felt like an assassin preparing for a fight. He went into the fight with surprise attack fracturing their armor then apply rending slash. He didn't have the strongest defense but that was not his forte it was offense. If he survived long enough against the dungeon foe he could start stabbing with his killers blade to execute. I really enjoyed his identity. I also played healer NB and tank NB, but over time nerfs to them had me loose identity and because of this I no longer enjoy playing them and they sit on the shelf in the load screen. I hope to not have this happen to my main.
I'm not after highest possible DPS. I am after competitive dps with a character identity. I am trying to put a new identity to my nightblade, but it I'm having trouble. I see now when I buff up literally nothing changes...no brutality, no crit, no endurance, nothing. I mean absolutely nothing changes when I go to the character screen. This is not how I see a fantasy assassin. Now when I charge into the fight there is no fracturing my opponent, again a loss of feeling. No biggie if the tank has it, but I always enjoyed the feeling of helping my team with adds by fracturing.
I am really looking at front bar skills recreate the duel wield rogue feel that remains competitive with other builds using regular pots. Is there any build options to recreate my assassin rogue? Do I drop merciless for marked target. Maybe replace SA with shrouded daggers at least I would gain a buff. And daggers far exceeds SA against more than one target. I'd prefer to leave my backbar skills as they are EH, caltrops, PI, siphoning, and vigor. So for front bar do I go with mark target, shrouded daggers, killers blade, rending slash, and dark shade? This might bring back my identity, but fear the dps loss will be huge.
Or has anyone found a new identity that works. What exactly does the nightblade fit now that he appears to be without any offense buffs but gains defense and regen through light attacks?
Lytw8
< Xbox NA PVE >
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russelmmendoza✭✭✭✭✭
✭Your skills looks great for a nb.
Front and back are great for nb.
We as nb, didnt lose identity, just a lot dps.
Same skill, just not that great anymore.
The only skill added is mark target.
I can still do 30k dps, good enough for vet pledges and trials, I think?
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zvavi✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Dark assassin that sups essence from his enemies through cutting their flesh, while each cut has two unique energies that each gives you back stamina, a unique skill allows you to use a spectral bow to hit your enemies extra hard every 5th slash.
And killer's blade stayed the same
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MartiniDaniels✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Yeah, it's reality of new nightblade - outside of stack you are rather useless if you won't start adapting heavily to every encounter juggling your bar setups.0 -
MartiniDaniels✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Why useless? Because some other classes do more dps with notably less effort1 -
Black_ArrowSoul ShrivenAlways funny when someone comments about nb nerf. Actually nightblades have more sustain survivability and bit more dps since last patch. Hitting 80k at raid dummy is easier than ever with lokkestiiz.0
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Uryel✭✭✭✭✭
✭A lot of group utilitiy now
Yeah, most of which are not really usable for solo / duo content. The last patch screwed small group content (I mean it as "a group of up to 4 people, but can be less") for an ill-percieved notion that everyone focuses on trials. That's amazing, especially for bosmer nightblades who were gutted of their stealth in previous patch.
Shades ? Yeah, shades scale of your highest ressource pool, now. Still useless, though. Tested on the weakest dummy, the Precursor, the shade alone deals an average of 1500-2000 DPS over 14 seconds. Yep, 14. They are supposed to last 17 seconds (at least on my character, might depend on some passive), but even that they can't do right. Also, they use their AoE attack ONCE over their whole summon time. Only once. Using Mark Target incurs a much better DPS increase, and I'm not even factoring Major Berserk. And that's on the target with the weakest armor of all, the results for Mark Target would be better on a target with more armor, while the shade would only underperform even more in such situation.
The last skill of assassination line is now a defense buff. Because of course any assassin preparing to strike a mark will want to buff their defense. Makes complete sense. Or maybe not. This change alone explains why there is difficulty finding identity as an assasssin. The top assassination skill is a TANK skill.
The best damaging skill of a Nightblade was also able to apply an armor debuff, now it doesn't anymore. You need mark target for that. When you only have 5 slots on your skill bar, having 2 skills to do what one used to do is annoying. It doesn't matter in large group content, I suppose, chances are good that someone else will bring something else. But in small group or solo content, it's a pain in the bottom.
The last update mostly spreads all debuffs and practically removes most buffs from being usable in small group content. And I STILL see some "nerf nightblade" here and there...Edited by Uryel on June 6, 2019 9:45AM1 -
Uryel✭✭✭✭✭
✭Black_Arrow wrote: »Always funny when someone comments about nb nerf. Actually nightblades have more sustain survivability and bit more dps since last patch. Hitting 80k at raid dummy is easier than ever with lokkestiiz.
LOL. That set only has use for trials. What about everything else ? You know, the 99 other percents of the game ?1 -
ArchMikem✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Black_Arrow wrote: »Always funny when someone comments about nb nerf. Actually nightblades have more sustain survivability and bit more dps since last patch. Hitting 80k at raid dummy is easier than ever with lokkestiiz.
>Easier than ever
>Using a Trial SetCP2,000 Master Explorer - AvA One Star General - Console Peasant - The Clan
Quest Objective: OMG Go Talk To That Kitty!1 -
eso_lytw8✭✭✭Dark assassin that sups essence from his enemies through cutting their flesh, while each cut has two unique energies that each gives you back stamina, a unique skill allows you to use a spectral bow to hit your enemies extra hard every 5th slash.
And killer's blade stayed the same
Thanks this is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. I might need to experiment with sap essence again and see if it fills the void in buffs. Part of the feel of the class is how it buffs up and just struggling with the fact that I think the nightblade maybe the only class the has no pre-fight offensive buffs. Buffing up prior to a fight helps me create a feel. But your description is spot on, thanks.
< Xbox NA PVE >0 -
eso_lytw8✭✭✭Black_Arrow wrote: »Always funny when someone comments about nb nerf. Actually nightblades have more sustain survivability and bit more dps since last patch. Hitting 80k at raid dummy is easier than ever with lokkestiiz.
I fully understand that nightblades are performing well in trial setting. To a certain part of the gaming community I think that is all that is important to a class.
I'm asking an entirely different question...what is the character or identity of the class. What are we now? assassins, rangers, dark knights, what?
I find it funny that some people are only define success of a class based on a number you get by mindlessly mashing buttons on a target dummy that does not fight back.
< Xbox NA PVE >0 -
RavenSworn✭✭✭✭✭Actually your post hits spot on in terms of how to balance classes in general. The nightblade does seem to have 'lost' their identity, be it in pvp and especially in pve. Its already one thing that Stam dps needs to use the same weapon combinations (though bow/bow or bow/2H are making a great case now). It's another when there's hardly much difference between the classes in terms of game play.
I have to say that as of right now, most nb dps are Brawler / Rollerblade type of dps, given how certain racials were changed. The nb skill lines needs more direction imo, kinda like shadow = defensive, Assassination = offensive and siphoning = sustain. Build the class around these themes and you should be able to regain back some of the lost identity of the class.Ingame: RavenSworn, Pc / NA.
Of Wolf and Raven
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