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Stamina Nightblade "Iron Cannon" PvP Build + 1vX/2vX Video - Max Possible Damage Build (Dragonhold)

susmitds
susmitds
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Hey there, some people have been asking me to update my Rollerblade and Brawlerblade builds for Scalebreaker and now, Dragonhold. While updating the old builds, I was testing their viability in the Scalebreaker DoT PvP meta and I realized that though both were viable with some changes, they were not exactly optimal as none of them had the required damage to deal with the general high tankiness everybody was stacking to survive DoTs. They were both balanced builds with decent sustain, mitigation and damage but still lacked in comparison in most respects to classes like magplar, stamplar or magDK and really struggled to threaten the tanky setups resulting in constant stalemates. So I decided to make a whole new 2H/Bow build with aspects of both my older builds with a totally new playstyle of ranged non-snipe stamina nightblade with massive damage stats.

Some people wanted gameplay for my builds for which I lacked the hardware on my laptop. This time however I was back home with my desktop in the time of making the build, so I added a 30 minute long gameplay montage with all PvP scenarios from CP IC, Cyrodiil open world solo duo outnumbered PvP to non-CP Battlegrounds. I suggest watching the video(at least parts of it) before reading the long write up, as it will help you understand how the build operates as it has a totally unique playstyle.
Gameplay

I know the video is long so here are some "chapters" to split the video.

Imperial Sewers DC Base Solo/Duo - 0:31
Cyrodiil Solo vs Pugs - 2:49
Battlegrounds Deathmatch - 7:11
Imperial Sewers Center Solo Zerg-hunting - 8:22
Cyrodiil Solo Zerg-hunting - 9:36
Imperial City 1vX - 12:15
Cyrodiil Gate 1vX - 18:39
Cyrodiil 1vX+2vX - 23:01
Cyrodiil Resource Solo vs Small Scale groups - 26:49

Note - If you are viewing on PC or TV screens, use the 4k quality option or at least 2k even on lower resolution displays if you have the bandwidth, as the videos were recorded in very high bitrate for max graphical fidelity and much of the details are lost due to youtube compression on 1080p or lesser resolutions with low bitrates. However youtube allows much higher bitrates on 4k playback hence much of the original quality is retained.

Includes gameplay from both Scalebreaker and Dragonhold, which does not matter as the build remains unchanged being a burst build apart from the fact that it is easier to survive open world now.
General Information

It is commonly believed in ESO PvP, that full damage builds are not viable especially in the tank meta, mainly because glass cannons end up taking more damage than they can deal. This is true for most setups, barring few exceptions. Over the years we have such builds become unviable like the melee bow stamblade, all divines max magicka shield stacking magsorc due to gradual streamlining of the game. However, the changes intentionally or unintentionally made certain things possible that could have never been done before. My goal here was to create a full damage build which dealt times more damage than it takes on average from any range and get out of any situation.

Iron Cannon is a yolo build that goes all out on damage investment, both for CP and non-CP, while also having high survivability. This approach to building usually has two problems, i.e. sustain issues and low defense. However, both of those issues have been solved resulting in a build that has highest damage of all builds in the game within the limits of viability, ridiculous escapability and mobility, ability to operate from any range from straight melee to max range while also retaining the rollerblade aspect of the OG nightblade assassin playstyle. Also this is not a gank build by any means as it does not need stealth to burst and has enough survivability to take a fair beating, but it can still gank better than most dedicated gank builds.

Single Target Melee Damage - SSS
Single Target Ranged Damage - SSS
AoE Damage - SSS
DoT Damage and Pressure - A+/S (depends on setup)
Mobility - S+
Mitigation - C
Magicka Sustain - SS
Stamina Sustain - B
Self Healing - SSS
Stats
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Buffs - All selfbuffs, set procs and Continious Attack. These stats are from choosing the first choices for the gear choices. Alternate gear choices mentioned can get over 9k weapon damage but at the cost of other stats. Also these are actual realistic max stats in battle without any external temporary buff like the various Cyrodiil bonuses, Ayleid well etc. I have provided build editors links later on in the comparison.

Stats without Continuous Attack:
Weapon Damage: 7808 Magicka Recovery: 964 Stamina Recovery: 2052
 
Gear
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Choices
I left some choices above to let you decide what suits you better. I personally went with the first choice shown for each decision as it was giving me the highest possible stat density while satisfying my personal minimum stat requirements of at least 24.3k HP(so that one Shadow skill equipped can put me at 25k), 15k Magicka, 2k stamina recovery, 900 magicka recovery buffed. Your personal mileage may vary so changing certain things will suit you better especially if you are trying the build on a different race than mine(I use Khajiit). Some basic explanations below.
For armor weight - 5M/1/1 is best for max damage and hence my choice. Stamina sustain is this build's Achilles' heel and as such 6M/1H or 7M is a good choice if you struggle with sustain and you will also get more Critical Hit Chance which will help in burst when Acuity is down.

For armor trait - As long as you have 5 impenetrable, you should have decent Critical Resistance. For the other two traits, Divine or Well-Fitted is great depending on what you currently prefer between 1% Critical Hit Damage or 5% cost reduction on dodge and sprint. You can take one of each as well like me. Getting more Impenetrable is also a great choice if you are struggling with survival.

Triune vs Infused Jewellery - Infused is an excellent trait as the 104 Weapon Damage from it is massive to our build as we have a massive weapon damage multiplier that can get as high x1.77. At the same time, Triune is already 50% more stat dense than any other trait in the game. Triune allows you to get to a decent Magicka pool while getting free Health with it without having to give up Stamina. I use one Triune to put my max magicka at 15.5k and go Infused for the rest. If you want to exchange damage for a higher Magicka pool, you can get more Triune and just remove some of the attribute points in Health and put them in Stamina.

Spriggan's Thorns vs New Moon Acolyte - Spriggan's Thorns and New Moon Acolyte both have more or less the same max damage i.e. when Acuity and Balorgh is up. One of NMA's set bonus is Critical Hit Chance which is wasted when Acuity procs, so inspite of having better 5-pc damage bonus, NMA is not ahead of Spriggan in max damage realistically. Main difference between them is that when other buffs are down, NMA has more damage but even when front-barred, the sustain is worse due to the cost increase as the fact that NMA has no resource bonus unlike Spriggan has two Stamina bonuses. Also, you will need to run three Triune to get to 30K Stamina. For these reasons, Spriggan is still a great choice which I used for this build when I created it last patch, even though NMA does give higher damage when Acuity is in cooldown. I usually finish my targets within the Acuity window so essentially they are the same damage to me. However, I used NMA a few times and find it a very interesting choice and probably better than Spriggan on pure sustain races. Even on mixed sustain races like Khajiit, Argonian, it is good and on Khajiit the extra Critical Hit Chance does help burst outside. Essentially go with whatever, you can sustain as NMA is just slightly higher damage with worse sustain than Spriggan's Thorns.

Nirnhoned vs Sharpened Maul - Sharpened is more damage than Nirnhoned by a small margin, especially on NMA which lacks the high penetration of Spriggan but lesser healing from Rally. You are fine with both.

Frontbar Enchant/Poison - Minor Brutality poison is the best choice imo if you can stay in close in and just stay in melee range long enough to proc it as Minor Brutality increases both damage and heals by boosting the already super high Weapon Damage. In fact, the increase in damage is more than every other choice, if Minor Brutality procs during the same window as Acuity. Otherwise, Absorb Stamina, Shock and Disease enchants are all great as they are a guaranteed proc and adds to your burst with additional effects. Double-DoT poison is the preferred choice, if you want higher pressure to go with your burst.

If you are still confused between choices, check "Comparison of Damage to Other Full Damage setups and Hypothetical Maximum Possible damage" part where I show some examples in the end and directly compare their damage/sustain etc.
Nature
Stage 4 Vampire - Dark Stalker helps conserve magicka by decreasing Cloak usage and allowing us to use other Magicka skills more often. It also helps to get into Sneak and exit combat easily when needed. Undeath gives the tankiness necessary to survive long enough to reset from tough situations and with the decrease of usage of DBoS by most people, it is much more viable surviving as a vampire.
Race

Khajiit - It is the number one race for this build by a big margin. Not only does it have the highest max damage, highest burst and highest self-healing with the Critical Hit Damage and Healing bonus, it also has highest combined sustain on all resources than all pure damage races with the tri-stat recovery, higher health and magicka combination than any race with the tri-stat resource bonus. In fact since this build uses Dark Stalker stealth to conserve magicka, the -3m stealth radius also helps(you can see this in action in the vid vs other stealthblades, where I walk over to find a hiding NB and break his stealth, while staying in stealth myself and the funny thing is many such NBs were bosmer who are supposed to be better at this). This build fits Khajiit like a glove. The tooltips and gear choices explained are all done from the perspective of a Khajiit.

Other races are all viable but every one of them falls short on Khajiit in terms of overall combination of damage, stamina sustain and magicka sustain. Some notable alternatives are mentioned below.
Nord - Easily the race that comes second to Khajiit, with the ultimate regen which fills up Balorgh faster and resists. Basically you are exchanging some damage and sustain for better survivability. Use more triune for higher magicka sustain and remove all health attribute points to put into stamina.
Bosmer - The race that comes third closest to Khajiit with higher stamina sustain, falls short significantly signicantly in Health and Magicka resource and recoveries. The penetration gives decent damage increase but is still significantly lesser than Khajiit or Orc. The mobility is great for kiting and is the main reason to go to for Bosmer. Use NMA instead of Spriggan.
Imperial - Huge resources bonuses, nice tri-stat sustain proc. Use more triune for higher magicka sustain and remove all health attribute points to put into stamina, which will result in a massive stamina pool, which will both help in damage and sustain. Use NMA instead of Spriggan as the Imperial cost reduction passive counter-acts the NMA cost penalty.
Orc - Has 2.4% lesser max damage and 0.7% average damage than Khajiit as well as lesser sustain across the board. The mobility passive is nice though. Use more triune to make up for lesser magicka sustain.
Argonian - Nearly the same resources, sustain and self-healing power as a Khajiit. Damage is lesser significantly but the Potion passive will help in resetting battles for less experienced players.
Mundus Stone
The Shadow
Attribute Points
Put points in HP till you get to 24.3k HP without Shadow skill equipped so that one shadow skill makes it 25k HP.
Put the rest in stamina. On a Khajiit, this is 15 Health Points for one triune jewellry, 12 for two and 8 for three.
Potions and Food
Food - Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice
Potions - Tri-stat potion(main), Stamina Immovability potion, Stamina Invisibility/Rogue's Escape potion, Trash Stamina potion needed.
Champion Points
Blue Tree
The Ritual
Precise Strikes - 51
Piercing - 43
Mighty - 49
The Atronach
Physical Weapon Expert - 23
Shattering Blows - 16
Master-at-Arms - 81
The Apprentice
Blessed - 7

Red Tree
The Lord
Quick Recovery - 27
The Lady
Thick Skinned - 7
Hardy - 64
Elemental Defender - 49
The Steed
Medium Armor Focus - 10
Ironclad - 51
Spell Shield - 10
Resistant - 52

Green Tree
The Shadow
Shade - 18
Shadow Ward - 26
Tumbling - 53
The Lover
Mooncalf - 64
Arcanist - 56
The Tower
Sprinter - 23
Warlord - 30
Skills
2H Bar
  1. Utility Spot
    • Shadow Image - Debate-ably the strongest defensive and escape skill in the game. Minor Maim + Teleport through everything + as well as some chip damage. Best skill in the NB kit and a must have in any NB PvP build ever since the bug fix. Gives us 3% HP to put us at 25k health.
    • Turn Evil - AoE Fear + Minor Protection + 3% weapon damage. It is used as an offensive and defensive stun when we are not using any back bar CC. However, unlike the other CC options, it is melee only. If it is used, Shadow Image goes to back bar.
  2. Camouflaged Hunter - It basically sits in our bar and gives us Minor Berserk + Major Savagery + 3% weapon damage. It is unreliable to find a NB but can be used mid-fight against NB just before burst to deny them a reset via Cloak.
  3. Silver Shards - Our primary spammable with a hefty 18k tooltip at max on a Spriggan setup. While it has around 9% lesser damage than Surprise Attack, it has splash damage AoE and works from range. Deals 20% more damage to undead and gives us 3% weapon damage.
  4. Rally - Our source of Major Brutality and a burst heal.
  5. Flex Spot
    • Relentless Focus - It is our primary burst skill with a massive 36.7k max tooltip Bow proc. Also gives us 2% crit chance and builds upto 10% mitigation, which is pretty nice when we are setting up a burst.
    • Deep Thoughts - A great source of overall sustain that is occasional used in 1vX situations with spread out pugs, that are not tanky enough not to warrant using the Bow proc. Note that when it is used, the frontbar Ultimate is locked to Incapacitating Strike to give the Assassination passives.
  6. Ultimate
    • Dawnbreaker of Smiting - A great source of massive AoE burst+CC with a 31k max tooltip and a 30k tooltip AoE DoT over 5 secs. It is usually my preferred opener against multiple enemies but is unreliable mid-combo as it misses a lot since the cast time change. Also gives us 3% weapon damage.
    • Incapacitating Strike - Great option for cheap burst with a 31.5k max tooltip. Low cost and is almost always available. Gives us 20% vulnerability against the target for 5 secs(equivalent to around 21k penetration according to my tests) which can be used to deal some serious damage. Gives us Reave and 2% crit chance as well access to Assassination passives when Relentless Focus is dropped.
    • Onslaught - The strongest burst ultimate in the game with 34.5k max tooltip that also ignores resists on the initial hit as well for followup burst for the next 5 seconds. Has a decent AoE splash damage radius which is no where as big as DBoS but helps against stacked enemies. Due to the high cost for a primarily single-target ultimate in this build, it is competing with Ballista for usage, which is by far the stronger damage ultimate at least in this build, barring a few scenarios. However, it is occasional slotted to fight the strongest defensive setups, against which neither the other two melee ultimates nor Ballista can put a dent.
Bow
  1. Poison Injection - A decent DoT, with a 16k max tooltip on the DoT and 10k direct damage tooltip. It is mainly used to get the Master Bow buff.
  2. Shadowy Disguise - The most annoying skill in the game for enemies that gives invisibility, suppresses DoTs and can be used as an alternative dodge. Also gives us 3% HP, Major Ward, 10% weapon damage and guaranteed crit for the next direct damage skill.
  3. Utility
    • Manifestation of Terror - One of the CCs primarily used in the builds. It can be setup prior to burst as an off-GCD CC, also can be camped like mines for a off-GCD defensive CC. Best for fighting multiple melee builds at once and as well when we have hold a particular area like a resource flag.
    • Magnum Shot - The most reliable CC available that can also be used from range. Its knockback flight time allows us to make sure that our target eats our burst. Best option against mobile targets as well as ranged targets. Also has a surprising high max tooltip of 14.2k with 5x Hawk Eye, which makes it a very bursty combo enabler.
    • Concealed Weapon - It is also another alternative for CC, which is less reliable in a crunch but provides 25% speed boost in stealth, which is nice to have.
    • Shadow Image - Used here, when Turn Evil is as CC instead of the earlier three options.
  4. Resolving Vigor - Our primary HoT. You will want to keep this up as much as your sustain can allow.
  5. Race Against Time - Our source of snare removal and Minor Force. Also gives us access to Psijic passives as well as a way to get Major Expedition without breaking Cloak/stealth.
  6. Ultimate
  7. Ballista - A generally high pressure medium burst ultimate, which has been converted into a sheer maelstrom of destruction both in terms of burst and pressure, sitting at a max tooltip of 143k with 5x Hawk Eye, which is essentially nearly 30k damage per sec. Also it has no cast time and hence can be used defensively.
THE IRON CANNON

The Origin of Iron Cannon and its Difference to Glass Cannon
Iron Cannon is a term that originated in Runescape PvP. There your overall level rose from a weighted average of total experience across all your combat skill levels like Attack level, Defense level, Constitution level, Ranged level, Agility level, Magic level etc. Non-combat skills also increased character level but had much lesser weight-age than combat skills so didn't affect character levels that much. In Runescape PvP, you could only attack enemies near your own level or higher in most PvP areas, which meant you had to plan how you gained experience and carefully invest in skill levels for your character. PvPers generally wanted to limit their character levels to have a wider pool to people to attack and get their required combat skills as high as possible without getting their character level too high. Properly planned Lv70 pure builds could destroy Lv140 hybrid builds by having much higher level for the things they need and ignoring the rest.

For e.g., Warrior type builds leveled only Attack, Strength, Constitution and Defense while Rangers leveled Defense, Agility, Strength and Range. People who went Glass Cannon upgraded only Attack Level, which increased accuracy/hit-chances while also let them use the highest tier weapons and Strength which increased their damage and ignored everything else.

Several years after launch, a new build called Iron Cannon made by a well-known PvPer appeared in the scene that pretty much butchered higher level tanks, balanced builds and glass cannons of mage, ranged and melee types alike in certain conditions. It was very similar to glass cannons but at same time differed a lot in how it actually played out. It focused its skill levels into Strength even higher than glass cannons to squeeze out every last drop of burst damage, just enough Attack levels to wield high tier weaponry much lesser than glass cannons leaving them at much lesser accuracy/hit-chance compared to glass cannon. For the remaining skill levels, it just leveled Defense to Lv5, which took very little experience hence not adding even a single-level to Character level and put the rest they wanted in a non-combat skill Prayer, which being a non-combat skill didn't affect levels much. Prayer inspite of being a non-combat skill let you access to some temporary buffs called boons which affected combat that costed you prayer points. One particular boon would let you gain high accuracy while active but could be sustained for a short window as it drained prayer points very fast and another boon gave you a short burst of huge self healing. Defense Lv5 let this build use Iron Armor(hence the name), which was a big step up from going naked or using Bronze Armor like glass cannons. How this build operated was that in-combat even though it had bad accuracy and missed a lot, it had huge damage making it a major threat when it actually hit and had just enough defense to survive otherwise one-shots. It would suddenly activate boons and gain accuracy to burst down people with its insane damage and used healing boons to survive. People often made the mistake of not recognizing an iron cannon and thinking it was a bad foe due to the seeming low defense and accuracy and lowered their guards only to get deleted when they least expected.

People using this build type started killing people three times their level. Lv50 Iron Cannons had enough damage to slaughter Lv150 balanced builds. It became considered so overpowered that the devs, who generally did not make change widespread combat, made Prayer a combat skill, increased required Defense level to use Iron Armor and the Attack level required to use high tier weaponry significantly. Funny thing is that even though the nerfs targeted against this particular build ended up affecting other builds even more, still leaving it comparatively overpowered.

How Iron Cannon works in ESO PvP
This stamblade build was heavily inspired by the original Iron Cannon build concept. In this case, Spriggan/New Moon Acolyte, Balorgh, Master's Bow+Berserker enchant buff, triple Weapon Damage jewelry combined with ridiculously high Weapon Damage multiplier and Minor Berserk gives us huge damage potential. We have a seriously high Critical Hit Damage modifier at more than 2.12 or more thanks to Khajiit and Shadow to push burst at max when the big tooltips starts critting. Much like the OG Iron Cannon's prayer boons, Acuity, by giving 100% crit rate, provides a window where we can go full Beast Mode on enemies with every critical hit multiplying our already crazy damage.

As for survivability, with huge Weapon Damage and Critical Healing Modifier, comes crazy self-healing power. That when combined with the high magicka sustain of this build, just enough health and natural evasiveness, mobility of stamina nightblades results in great survivability as long as you know how to properly use the NB evasion toolkit to full extent.

I will explain both the offense and defense aspects of the build in more details later on.

Comparison of Damage to Other Full Damage setups and Hypothetical Maximum Possible damage

Effective Weapon/Spell Power is a very good measure of raw damage of a build. It takes into your combat damage stats like Weapon Damage, Stamina, Penetration, Critical Hit Chance and Damage Modifier as well as CP and other damage bonuses like buffs such as Minor Berserks and debuffs on enemies. The opponent's target resists and critical resists can also affect Effective Weapon Power. It does not take set damage procs like Velidreth or enchants/poisons like Disease enchants or Double-DoT poisons into account but takes damage/debuff procs, enchants and poisons into account. With Effective Weapon Power(referred to as EWP hence onwards), you can compare the damage between the damage of builds ignoring the damage of proc. However, this excludes proc set builds from the comparison. To give you a reference to compare a build's damage to, the average PvP build has between 8000 - 12000 EWP self-buffed, with the mean being at 10000 EWP for the default enemy resists stats in UESP build editor. The average stamina NB build has around 12000 EWP at the higher range of PvP builds and 20% higher than the average PvP build of all classes.

Below we are providing the EWP of various popular sets combinations at default UESP settings. You can click on the build to open a UESP build editor page to see the EWP of the build, its stats, active buffs and other details. Further details in the spoilers.
We are using the default enemy resists stats in UESP build editor and same buffs across all builds (i.e. all buffs available solo in this build like Minor Berserk, Major Brutality, etc as well as Continuous Attack and class passives like Minor Savagery, etc) to standardize the comparison. To make the comparison fair one-to-one, I will establish the minimum requirements for the non-damage stats like health, magicka and stamina recovery so they remain constant while the damage stats change as well making sure the build is actually viable at least theoritically and not just a tooltip build.

After that, I will pick the setup that has the highest EWP while maintaining high uptimes for max proc of its set combinations(i.e. not something that you can't realistically keep up like Fury+Ravager, especially on a build with low mitigation). Then I will remove the mininum non-damage stats requirement for that build and focus every last thing into damage for that build to get the maximum possible damage for the strongest glass cannon setup.

Mininum Stat Requirements - 24.3k HP, 15K Magicka, 2k Stamina Recovery, 900 Magicka Recovery buffed but without Continuous Attack (2.25k Stamina Recovery, 1040 Magicka Reovery buffed with Continuous Attack)

All setups have all weapon damage jewelry enchants, weapon damage enchants on maul, etc as these by default have far better raw damage stats than any alternatives. All builds are using Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice food to reach the minimum stamina recovery and all Prismatic enchants on armor. The remaining magicka and health for the minimum is gained by either using Triune instead of Infused or by using attribute points, depending on which way is giving the higher EWP for that particular build. The things being changed are the two 5-piece sets, for which we try combinations of the best damage sets in the game. Also keep in mind the 2,3,4-piece set bonuses can affect EWP so certain sets with very similar 5-piece bonuses can end uo with fairly different EWP.

EWP of Permanent Stat Increasing Viable Setups
Spriggan's Thorns + Hunding's Rage + Balorgh + Master's Bow 22442
Spriggan's Thorns + New Moon Acolyte + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23284
Temporary Stat Increasing Viable Setups
Spriggan's Thorns + Armor of Truth + Balorgh + Master's Bow 22710
Spriggan's Thorns + Night Mother's Gaze + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23179
Clever Alchemist + Warrior's Fury + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23299
Clever Alchemist + Armor of Truth + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23462
Armor of Truth + New Moon Acolyte + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23593
Twice Fanged Snake + Night Mother's Gaze + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23799
Ravager + Night Mother's Gaze + Balorgh + Master's Bow 23959

All of these builds have ridiculously high damage at nearly twice that of the average stamina nightblade setup. The average EWP is 23303 and the highest build is barely below 24k. Some of them are very unrealistic like the Fury build. Some of them have very long cooldowns like Clever Alchemist setups, resulting situations you may need to wait pretty long for that sweet burst. Some of them is very wonky to pull off in combat like the Ravager+NMG combination, which will take a minimum of 5 seconds to fully proc if you get a critical hit every second and since one of the sets will need to front-barred meaning you will need to be on front bar exclusively to gain Ravager stacks.

The build is highest EWP of these setups as well as realistically high uptimes is Armor of Truth + New Moon Acolyte(+Balorgh+Master's Bow which was constant) at 23593. So I am going removing the Mininum Stat Requirements and convert it to a fully glass cannon build with zero sustain, zero mitigation by using all Infused jewelry, all attribute points in Stamina, Stamina enchants, pure Stamina food instead of Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice to get the ultimate damage stats. This adds further 360 Weapon Damage, 4k stamina to the build after buffs at the cost of 3k Magicka, 4k Health and 1k Stamina Recovery. So let's look the new EWP.

EWP of Unviable Highest Damage Pure Glass Cannon Setup
Armor of Truth + New Moon Acolyte + Balorgh + Master's Bow(Full Glass Cannon) 24952

The build gets 1359 more EWP, which is a pretty bad deal for the loss of 3k Magicka, 4k Health and 1k Stamina Recovery essentially killing the viability of the build.

So the Unviable Highest Damage Pure Glass Cannon Setup still has lesser than 25k EWP. Take a wild guess of the EWP of the Iron Cannon build in these exact same settings and conditions. 25k? 26k? 27k?

EWP of Iron Cannon build
Iron Cannon is over 30K EWP while maintaining Mininum Stat Requirements for all variants. Three variants are shown.
Mechanical Acuity + Spriggan's Thorns(2xInfused+1xTriune+Nirnhoned Maul) + Balorgh + Master's Bow 30039
Mechanical Acuity + New Moon Acolyte(3xTriune+Sharpened Maul) + Balorgh + Master's Bow 30444
Mechanical Acuity + New Moon Acolyte(2xInfused+1xTriune+Sharpened Maul) + Balorgh + Master's Bow 30908

The first variant is more stamina sustain oriented, the most balanced variant and the one I used for the video. The second one has higher magicka sustain, slightly higher damage on paper but worse stamina sustain, lesser healing power across both bars. The third one has the highest damage on paper and the setup I am currently using, but stamina sustain is significantly lower with cost increase on front bar and a much smaller stamina pool. Essentially there is not really much feel-able difference in actual play in damage between the builds as all of them have over thrice the damage of the average PvP builds and this being a fairly unforgiving build, added stamina strain or lesser healing power is not really a good thing if you are not used to the build's playstyle so I would suggest using the first variant(all the first gear choices).

You can get around a further 2k more EWP by dropping things like Prismatic enchants, Health Attribute points for max damage alternatives but you will give up so much Health, Magicka and Stamina Recovery that it will kill the viability of the build
Edited by susmitds on November 12, 2019 5:48PM
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    IRON(Defense Explanation and Guide)

    This build has some ridiculous self-healing due to the high Weapon Damage and Critical Healing Modifier with Vigor and Rally that can both go over 25k tooltip as your Weapon Damage rises and critical heals are huge, which we can guarantee for a short period with Acuity. The high magicka sustain of this build gives a lot of freedom to fully use the evasion combo of Shadowy Disguise+Shadow Image+Race over Time combined with dodge. Having the choice of fighting at range can help minimize risk. Having two different sources of Major Expedition results in very high uptime of buffs as we use bow dodge defensively and RAT usually offensively(for the Minor Force when we are not snared), resulting in consistently high mobility. There is just enough mitigation in the builds via resists, crit resists, Undeath, Relentless Focus, etc to survive a burst and slip away when in execute range. These things combined gives the build huge battle resetting power to survive as long as you keep an eye on resources. Below are some ways to effectively survive in combat.
    Evasion of Damage - This is the primary way to survive. With proper usage of Cloak(i.e. Shadowy Disguise) and dodge roll, single-target abilities will be a non-issue. Use the Shadow Image teleport constantly to misdirect the enemy and make it harder to aim AoEs, especially conal cones on you as well as pull you out of AoE spammables or ultis like Permafrost.

    Mitigation - So even if we have perfect evasion skills, we will still take damage all the time, which we need to limit. As long we keep Major Ward up with Shadow Abilities(which should not be an issue as we use Cloak/Shade a lot) and Minor Maim from Shadow Image, we have enough health and mitigation to survive long enough to break out of enemies' combos.

    Breaking Out of An Enemy Combo - Once a NB gets caught in someone's offensive combo, often the results are that they get burst down fast or they get locked in a healing, cloaking spiral, while their resources get burnt and they die a slow death. Only way to survive is to break out of the offensive combo. If the enemy is using purely single-target abilities and has no Cloak counter, we can easily break out with Cloak and dodge. However in many engagements, you will get CCed, hit with heavy burst, get multiple debuffs and DoTs on you and get AoE spammed to death. In fact, this is how most templars, wardens, necros and DKs operate. The way to survive is to drop a Shadow Image just when you expect the combo to come, dodge away from it. When the actual combo hits you, break free, use Rally or Vigor and block cast Teleport to Shade. This will pull you out of trouble majority of the times. Even if you fail to get the Shadow Image down before the CC hits you, you can break free and try to do it right. (Some examples in the video, here, here, here)

    Self-Healing - Keeping up Vigor like a shield of sorts gives you a pretty good effective defense thanks to the build's high weapon damage. Rally, even when "charged" for a few seconds has enough healing capabilities to sufficiently burst heal you out of execute ranges, especially when it crits. The self-healing of this build is ridiculously high.

    Kiting/Maneuvering with Shadow Image - Shadow Image opens up worlds of possibilities as far as kiting is concerned and to be honest, it will require its own guide to showcase what Shadow Image can pull off like the previous Shading out of enemy combos application. Some possible applications are pre-placing for planned escape(here),circular kiting/outranging to force a reset(here), outmaneuvering to escape(here,here), vertical LoSing(here,here) or even taking a delayed burst like Meteor in a safe place to waste enemy ulti(here). There are many more applications and I have shown some others in the gameplay, but to be fair it is such a great skill that it requires its own video to show what it can do.

    Movement and Jumping - Constant movement and jumping makes you very hard to target and hit without even dodging due to mobility as well as the engine's limitations. One particular movement that is very effective in melee range fights especially for this build(and other builds as well), is constantly tap forward and backward keys in a motion while you move in to attack in such a way that you move in to hit your light attack on 2H bar at it's maximum distance, move back around 1-2 meters while casting your spammable or whatever and move in again for the next light attack+spammable hit. You may need to adjust to enemies' movements and elevations and repeat this every 1sec cycle. This will make it harder for enemies to hit you with melee skills, cast timed ultimates without CCs and also certain skills like Frags will straight up disappear at times. I constantly do this so much that it is second nature to me, which you can see if you closely in the gameplay. Jumping makes it harder to target you with ranged abilities and can help your skills targeting in certain situations. Between the in-out movement while melee-range attacking and jumping while retreating, you can avoid a significant amount damage especially when fighting inexperienced enemies.

    Block-casting and Dodge-cancelling - When you are trying to burst down an enemy or are trying to finish off a vulnerable target, but are yourself at the risk of getting caught in a counter-attack, a safe option is to dodge-cancel your combo and get outside immediate melee range and blockcast your skills from range(every offensive skill in this build is ranged). We have so much damage that our spammable hits above 10k regularly and light attacks are a rather small part of our damage. So by skipping LAs out for block, we get enough mitigation to buy us time to finish off the target.

    The Uno Reverse Card - When getting totally overwhelmed by burst, our biggest ace is believe-it-or-not Ballista. Not only does it have a huge tooltip in this build, meaning the huge surge of incoming damage will force the attacker to back off or die(even without Hawk Eye and max Balorgh, it is well over 100k), it will immediately give you at least 1300 weapon damage by proccing Infused Berserker+Balorgh which immediately give a massive boost self-heals. Additionally the dodge bolts of Ballista are direct damage that hits four times per second and hence will proc Acuity, making your heals crit, giving you ridiculous healing power. Now you can easily use this chance to turn the fight in your favor and go full out in offense while block-casting. Or you can use this window to get away or relocate to a more advantageous spot.

    Defend with Offense - Sometimes the only way to survive is to kill the target before they kill you. Fortunately we pack so much damage, we are well equipped to do just that. In a head-on smash, if both our target and we go all out on each other, as long we have a bow proc and Ballista available, almost always we will end up as the one standing. More details on this later on.

    Defending with CC - With Manifestation of Terror, you can put traps of the ground pre-emptively if you are being chased. Almost always, one of the two traps will CC the chaser. You can also use to hold your ground and camp the traps. You can put traps on the Shadow Image to secure your teleport exit. You can also use Magnum Shot defensively by spamming it on whoever is trying to open on you and break off their combo. Turn Evil is a bit trickier to use on mobile enemies but when used defensively in melee range, it is hard to avoid.

    Escape Combat - If nothing goes right for you, you can always use Shade and Cloak to escape and slip back into stealth fast with Dark Stalker passive. Usually this will also drop you out of combat, letting you change skills to get the perfect setup for that counter.
    CANNON(Offense Guide)

    This build's primary strength is the crazy amount of damage, it can push. Unlike a gank setup, which packs every bit of damage into the opening shot, this build maintains its burst over 5 seconds, can push damage for around 10 seconds and you can get that back in another 10 secs. This means, unlike gank builds, that is a goner if their initial burst fails, you can go on and on with your burst. But the method of burst in this build involves multiple set procs, buffs, enchants, poisons, Bow proc and ultimate, which means it requires precisely lining up everything up for that one perfect window where you use the perfect combo for that situation to utterly destroy your target. Below I describe the combos used by this build and offensive setup in detail.
    Mechanical Acuity - This is the set that is the primary enabler of this build. It is easily the strongest damage set in the game to choose as the second damage set, as crit works multiplicatively, meaning the higher your damage outside Acuity, the more will it be amplified by Acuity. EWP of this build is around 22k without Acuity proc, which is in itself a very respectable EWP for a build. That means Mechanical Acuity is providing over 8k EWP for its 5 sec window for this build, which is a lot higher than any set in the game(For comparison, Balorgh at 500 ultimate gives only 3.3k EWP and that's the second highest damage stat proc in the game after Acuity). This means, if you can't properly line a damage combo in the Acuity window, you won't be able to make any real use of this build. It is very easy to control the proccing of Acuity and once you get a hang of it, you should be able to almost proc it at will. Many times though, you will have scenarios where the Acuity will accidentally proc before the Ultimate recharges or before you can build up the Bow proc. In these situations, it is better to wait off till the next proc. Also the Acuity proc time is part of its cooldown, so for the next proc, you will need to wait just 13 seconds after your last proc, not the entire 18 seconds. You can track it with the Acuity addon in PC.

    Understanding the offense of the build - We have a high number of every damage stat in the game, be it Penetration, Weapon Damage or Crit Damage. As such, we such we are well equiped to counter all kinds of defense. That means, apart from pure troll tanks, we should be able to kill everybody with some combo or the other. If someone countering one of our combos, they should be vulnerable to some other combo. The range is a substantial advantage of this build. That means, we don't need to wait to gap close before bursting a target and we can move in while bursting, making it possible to work with smaller burst windows if necessary. Also the ranged nature means that target will have a hard time escaping with sheer mobility and we don't have to deal with attacks whiffing if target keeps moving out of range mid-combo and our attacks will go straight homing towards them.

    Damage Combos

    All these combos assume that you have a bow proc ready at least by the time it is used and the required ultimate available.

    Primary Ranged/Melee Damage Combo - LA+Poison Injection->LA+Ballista->LA+Magnum Shot->Bow Proc->Silver Shard spam.
    You will want to get as many bow LAs as possible upto 5 to gain Hawk Eye stacks before bar-swapping to 2H bar, when performing this combo, which will max out the Ballista damage. The LAs will also help gain Relentless Focus stacks and proc Acuity before the combo. Also, keep note that Ballista is direct damage and hits four times per seconds, so if the LAs does not proc Acuity, unless you are very unlucky that time, Ballista will proc Acuity. This is our general combo, when we need someone dead asap and it is the hardest hitting of all combos. When used ranged, only thing you miss is the 2H LA during Silver Shard spam, which means you won't get to proc poisons/enchants but even then, the damage is very high. A good way to use it is to start it when in range and move in for the kill during the Silver Shard spam phase. If you have Manifestation of Terror as your CC, then time your Ballista just before the enemy is about to enter or start Ballista and pull them in the trap. The bow proc is not needed against any build that is not very tanky.
    Pros: Hits super hard if you can use the Magnum Shot knockback to force the enemy to eat the burst from Ballista and bow proc. Continues high burst for 5 secs.
    Cons: Costly for a single-target combo.
    Good against: Everything except Stamden, Wings using MagDK and Magden. Almost always a guaranteed kill against even the best MagSorcs and Magblades.
    Bad against: Wings and other anti-ranged setups. You can still use it against such builds, if you time it at the tail end of anti-ranged skills.

    Incapacitating Strike Kill Combo - Heavy Attack+Poison Injection->LA+Magnum Shot/Turn Evil->LA+Incap Strike->LA+Bow Proc->LA+Silver Shard spam(used if you don't want the Silence or if you need the knockback to guarantee the hit). Or Heavy Attack+Poison Injection->Medium Attack+Incap Strike->LA+Bow Proc->LA+Silver Shard spam(Medium Attack hides part of the spinning animation of Incap Strike). Or Heavy Attack+Poison Injection->Shadowy Disguise->Incap Strike->LA+Bow Proc->LA+Silver Shard spam(Better with the 120 ultimate version when you want to use the element of surprise to two shot the enemy and probably the best combo against other stamblades).
    This is the standard NB combo, which now needs you to use either a knockback or Cloak or medium weave to land Incap Strike. The 70 ulti version is great for cheap burst. 120 ulti Silence is good in certain scenarios but you avoid it by using another CC before using Incap. The bow proc is not needed against squishies.
    Pros: A fast, cheap and effective combo that is recharged almost after every kill, making it great for solo 1vX.
    Cons: A long bloated animation and cast time, making it unreliable against experienced players.
    Good against: Anything not very tanky.
    Bad against: Very tanky targets.

    AoE Combo - Shadowy Disguise->Dawnbreaker of Smiting->LA+Silver Shard spam. Or LA+Poison Injection->Dawnbreaker of Smiting->LA+Silver Shard spam. Great against groups, where you can jump in, drop the combo, kill a few people and walk away. If you hit multiple people, DBoS also procs Acuity itself most of the time. Can be used in single-target as well, if you mix in a bow proc.
    Pros: Can kill multiple people at once in a single swipe.
    Cons: The cast time is so bad that the skill misses a lot against moving targets and often straight up dissappears. Only around 75% of the time, does it hit.
    Good against: Cluster of two-five targets. Vampires+Werewolves.
    Bad against: Single tanky target.

    Onslaught Damage Combo - Heavy Attack+Poison Injection->LA+Magnum Shot/Turn Evil->LA+Onslaught->LA+Bow Proc->LA+Silver Shard spam. Or Heavy Attack+Poison Injection->Shadowy Disguise->Onslaught->LA+Bow Proc->LA+Silver Shard spam. Or Stealth->Onslaught->Silver Shard spam(against ultra-closely packed zergs).
    This is the combo that we use when everything else fails. The problem solver combo. We have 100% crit, 100% penetration, 8k+ weapon damage to deal the biggest burst and try to finish the fight.
    Pros: Great against anything Ballista or DBoS can't solve. Has higher burst than the Incap combo. Can stun out of stealth(not invisibility)
    Cons: Vast majority of the time, Ballista is better for the cost.
    Good against: MagDKs, Stamden, Stamcro, Magden. Stacked zergs of five+ targets in a small spot.
    Bad against: Mobile targets.

    Basic Combo without Ultimate - Heavy Attack+Poison Injection->LA+Magnum Shot->LA+Silver Shard spam->Bow proc when available. I am surprised at the number of people that die to this.

    Creating a Offense Window - No matter how hard you hit, it is useless if you can't make it hit. There are various ways to open an offensive window. In my opinion, easiest is to kite and finish them with a hard hitting combo while they are closing on you. Against someone that dodges, cloaks or turtles up a lot, best option is to not attack at all apart from LAs to build up the bow proc and wait till they start their offense combo. As soon as they start attacking you, bait out their ultimate and immediately counter-attack with the biggest combo you have while block-casting if necessary. They are less likely to go defensive and will probably attempt to finish you before they die, which is a fatal mistake against this build.
    Miscellaneous

    Potion Usage - Use tri-pots for general potion usage in combat. Use immovable pots before doing something risky or if you need to assure your offense combo is not interrupted. Spam trash stamina pots outside combat to keep building ultimate. Use invisibility during escape in bad situations where you need to conserve magicka to spam RAT.

    Stamina Sustaining - This is this build's one primary pita. Many successful open world rollerblades have at least 2500 Stamina Recovery unbuffed and buffs takes to 3k+, which lets them use dodge without worrying about running about. I consider 2500 Stamina Recovery buffed or stamina proc sets like Shadow Walker or Trapping Invigoration for lesser Stamina Recovery standard practice for my rollerblade builds. This build is also a rollerblade but has around 2050 Stamina Recovery only self-buffed without Continuous Attack, which means you will need to be more careful with your dodges. You will find yourself fighting with low stamina bars a lot and will need to conserve stamina by picking out perfect attack windows than constantly attacking. However, this build has great magicka sustain which covers up a lot of stamina issues. When you really need stamina, use Shadowy Disguise and heavy attack to regain a chunk of stamina.

    How do I deal with X class?
    Magsorc - Play around LOS and burst them with Ballista combo.
    Stamsorc - Setup from range and burst them with Ballista combo or Onslaught. Shade away when they closein.
    MagDK - Play at range as much you can and burst them from range with Ballista combo if they don't use Wings or use Onslaught combo and back off after the ultimate and blockcast the rest from range.
    StamDK - Bait out the leap and burst them with Ballista combo.
    Magplar - Get away from Jabs with Shade and burst them with Ballista combo.
    Stamplar - Get away from Jabs with Shade and burst them with Ballista combo.
    Magblade - Play around LOS and burst them with Ballista combo.
    Stamblade - Get them to waste their resources, then burst them with Ballista combo. If that fails, Incap Silence them from Cloak to disable their Cloak and finish them with the Bow Proc.
    Magden - Not really a threat if you don't get caught in Deep Fissure+Vamp Drain+Meteor/Northern Storm combo. Burst them with Ballista combo or Onslaught.
    Stamden - Not much of a threat if you don't get caught in their Shalks+Ult+execute combo. Burst them with Onslaught combo. Or finish them when they are going on the offense with Ballista combo. Worst case scenario, you can't kill them but they can't kill you.
    Magcro - Manifestation of Terror will make sure their burst never reaches you. Burst them at your leisure.
    Stamcro - Manifestation of Terror will make sure their burst never reaches you. They can be very tanky so try to bait them into attacking you before the Ballista combo.

    Changing Skills Fast in Combat according to the situation
    Use Cloak and Dark Stalker to get into stealth and you should leave combat fast enough to change skills. If you are on PC, you can use addons like Alpha Gear to queue skill changes even while in combat that will automatically change them the moment you leave combat even it is like for a few seconds, which happens a lot when you go in stealth.

    Alternate Gear Setup
    I occasionally use an alternate gear setup when I don't want to really to rely on ultimate use for Weapon Damage, like when I am tower farming. I change one piece of Balorgh for one piece of Kena and keep one extra set of Acuity with Stamina enchants instead of Prismatic and use maximum FG skills on front bar to make the damage loss mostly. This is purely for when I am farming pugs and I don't need crazy stats and I don't need to wait for ultimates for every kill. You can use the previous trick to swap gear fast in combat with Dressing Room/Alpha Gear if you want to go on a tower farm. The normal gear is just as good but this way my non-ultimate combo hits harder.

    How effective is this build against enemies with super high Critical Resistance?
    Even on a build with 5k crit resists, this build deals more damage than other builds featured in the comparison. Any balanced build with high Critical Resistance, will have lower resists instead and we have high penetration and Weapon Damage as well. Also, it will take 7400 Crit Resists to fully nullify the critical damage of this build, which can't reached in normal conditions if at all possible.

    Is this build effective in BGs?
    Yes, but depends on the exact composition of your teammates and opponents. If the opponents get spread up or are not countering stealth, it is a full buffet. But if they are countering stealth and stick together, you will need to have tanky teammates for bodyshield and distraction. It is generally a good idea to start BGs with 500 ultimate and DBoS and drop it first time the other two teams clash, getting multiple kills early. Later change to Incap, if enemies spread up. Otherwise stick to DBoS. This build can do tons of damage and a lot of ranged kill-stealing provided your teammates keep attention off you.
    Edited by susmitds on November 12, 2019 5:50PM
  • Unfadingsilence
    Unfadingsilence
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    Beautiful gank blade
  • nsmurfer
    nsmurfer
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    I have an intense hatred for any build that uses balista
  • Eldartar
    Eldartar
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    Awesome build and the effort put into it, kudos man.
  • Mariusghost84
    Mariusghost84
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    Dude, that is just AMAZING. Thank you so much for taking time to write all of this down and make a video! Cant wait to try this out. Huge props man.
  • susmitds
    susmitds
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    @Unfadingsilence Thanks a lot, man. Watching your snipe vids was what made me think about making a strong ranged build in an alternative way.
  • susmitds
    susmitds
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    @Eldartar @Mariusghost84 Thanks guys. Actually the intent of the build was to challenge the claim by many NB mains that stamblade was weak and irrelevant, which I disagreed with being a NB main myself. Issue with NB is that Cloak makes the initial learning curve very easy. But the learning curve beyond Cloak usage is steeper than any other class, due to the fact that Shade play and proper use of Bow proc requires patience and intuition. This makes mastering the class much harder and majority stamblades remain mediocre and never learn to use the full extent of the NB toolkit. Which is why I made a detailed guide to help others understand the NB toolkit better and how to approach the various classes in PvP.
  • Kalik_Gold
    Kalik_Gold
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    Thanks for the post. Looks impressive.
    Main: (PvP & PvE)
    Ras Kalik a Redguard Templar, the Vestige

    PvP:
    Aurik Siet'ka a Redguard Necromancer
    Cacique the Sage of Ius a Redguard Warden
    Jux Blackheart a Redguard Nightblade
    Goliath of Hammerfell a Redguard Dragonknight
    Kaotik Von Dae'mon a Redguard* Sorcerer

    PvP: (Specialty)
    Tyrus Septim an Imperial Lycan Sorcerer
    Tsar af-Bomba a Redguard Vampiric Nightblade
    Movárth Piquine a Nord Vampiric Necromancer
    Uri Ice-Heart the Twin a Nord Vampiric Warden

    PvE:
    Cinan Tharn an Imperial Dragonknight
    Bates Vesuius of Dawnstar an Imperial Dragonknight
    Herzog Zwei the Genesis an Akavari* Templar
    Tav'i at-Shinji a Redguard** Warden
    Lucky Hunch the Gambler - a Redguard Nightblade

    Leveling...
    Zenovia at-Tura a Redguard** Sorcerer
    Yesi af-Kalik a Redguard Templar
    Voa a Priest of Sep a Redguard* Necromancer
    ======
    Passives of another race used. (RP)
    *Breton
    **Imperial




    __________________________Backstories:_________________________

    Ras Kalik the Vestige, a renown Redguard warrior; He has been blessed to save Tamriel from Molag Bal’s destructive Planemeld while reuniting the Five Companions. His further accomplishments after defeating Molag Bal, has been to stop the destruction of Morrowind, the Clockwork City, return order to the isle of Summerset and create a new king in Wrothgar and a queen in Elsywer. These events have made him a living legend and continue to lead him into new adventures throughout Tamriel, as well as into the hearts of many ladies including the Elf Queen, Aryenn. Over many years of adventurous travels, Ras Kalik had become a loner, until he re-visited his homeland of Alik'r.

    Alik'r and it's cities were overrun by the undead Ra-Netu and therefore he made an allegiance with Alik'r's own Ash'abah tribe. These Ash'abah with his help, cleansed the city of Sentinel in Alik'r desert and it's surrounding areas of the undead brought to life by the Withered Hand. After rescuing Sentinel from the undead zombies, King Fahara’jad’s personal bodyguard the Goliath of Hammerfell, who was given this name by Imperials in the region; was asked to assist the tribe after learning of the defeat of the Withered Hand to the Ash'abah. Kalik promised Goliath he would task him with fighting living enemies on the battlefield if he so desired. Goliath being a Yokudan warrior wields a massive sword in respect to the Ansei, a gift given by the Imperial, Cinan Tharn. Not many soldiers are able to wield double two handed weapons, but Goliath loves to get up and personal in a fight, so he also carries a giant maul, both weapons laced with magical flames.

    Jux Blackheart is a master thief that masquerades as a Bard at the Sisters of the Sands inn, with his younger sidekick Lucky Hunch for pilfering and gambling during this time. Jux was known to infiltrate any towns bank vault he came across and even delved into Ayelid ruins without detection. Kalik can vividly recall the night he met the famed thief. Jux found himself rummaging thru a slightly inebriated Kalik’s pocket for too long, on a full-mooned night and because of his greed and the glimmer of his golden armor in the moonlight. He lost his left pinky fingertip as a lesson! But in return, he gained a new friend, as it was his first time since a child being caught red-handed...

    Upon arrival back in the Alik'r after many moons of adventuring, Ras Kalik ventures to Bergama. Visiting The Winking Jackal, he runs into Jux Blackheart, who introduces him to the coin game Crowns vs Forebearers (Heads vs Tails) and Golden Dwemer (RBG).... Jux constantly takes gold from the unfortunate thru theft or gambling, his biggest gambling victim is actually his partner in crime known as Lucky Hunch the Gambler. Lucky doesn't mind losing any gold coins to Jux... as Jux saved him from Altmer slavers in Summerset, by stealing a key and sending him on a boat to the mainland years prior. Lucky spent years in slavery with Khajiits in Summerset and picked up the art of subterfuge, using illusion magic disguises and stealing there.

    Kaotik Von’Daemon an outcast, and a half-caste between a Breton mother and a Redguard father. Kaotik become a pariah due to his conjuration of Daedra pets. He was taught healing magic during his childhood years by his Breton mother. His father due to Redguard customs exiled him from the desert, sending him by wagon caravan to be a soldier in the war in Cyrodiil. He happened to meet Kalik while traveling from Alik'r, during this long caravan ride the caravan he was in was ambushed in Bangkorai by a group of bandits. Kalik by chance was also traveling thru this area on his Auridon Warhorse (which was bestowed to him by his friend, Darien Gautier). During this ambush, Kalik was able to rescue five hostages from the bandits. Kaotik was the first rescued, and Ras Kalik also recruited him to be in the Ash'abah tribe. These core Ash'abah tribesmen may never be seen together in travel as they partake in their own adventures but they always know what each other is doing; as they frequent a hideout in northern Bankorai. Their hideout an old Orc castle ruin, is kept watch by Nuzhimeh and she passes messages written between them, and frequently they also enjoy her company and her bed.

    The other men rescued were a Dunmer banker, an Imperial mercenary and two other soldiers, an Imperial and a Breton Knight, stating proudly he was an Akavir descendent. One of the Imperials, Cinan, claimed to be related to Abnur Tharn the Battlemage of the Imperial Elder Council (One of Ras Kalik's mentors in the Five Companions). Cinan Tharn was really Abnur's drunkard treasure hunting illegitimate son. He was caught smuggling artifacts out of the Ayleid ruins in Cyrodiil and the elder of the two Imperials was Tyrus Septim a retired Imperial navy battle-mage (now a Lycan mercenary living in the city of Rimmen) and guard to the Tharn family. As much as Abnur Tharn hated his half-sister Euraxia, he dislikes his bas†ard son Cinan more. Tyrus now a ruffian and privateer had been paid by Abnur Tharn to watch over Cinan as much as possible. Cinan Tharn a drunkard, loves to drink at least a quarter barrel of Nord mead before he raids various delves and dungeons for relics to sell on the black market. Cinan also plans to one day, run an illegal gambling ring... which he thinks will net him more gold for his wares.

    The Dunmer captive shackled to the Imperials looked familiar to Kalik from his time in Morrowind.... and he recognized him as Tythis Andromo a House Telvanni slave-owner and banker from Vvardenfell. During a rough interrogation to Tythis, Ras Kalik learnt why the bandits accosted him. The racist Dunmer was providing slaves as soldiers for the Three Banner War. The bandits were trying to negotiate a lucrative ransom for Andromo and the Imperials.... Kalik did not need any of this gold and he could never set Tythis free as he did with the two Imperial soldiers. His past involvement with slavery and war crimes, made Kalik's blood boil. He chose not to execute Tythis, as he figured the worse punishment for this former rich and opulent slave owner, is to now be an imprisoned servant for Ras Kalik and the tribe.

    Herzog Zwei the Genesis a reknown Imperial/Akavirri battle-mage. His roots going back to Akavir through his mother’s bloodline. (His mother is descended from the Akaviri, through Versidue-Shae, and his Imperial father met her in Hakoshae, while traveling) Herzog earned the nickname "the Genesis" from his father as a child, as he was his mother's first born child, and last, as she tragically died in child-birth.

    Herzog was seeking to purchase an artifact from Cinan Tharn, before their capture and was meeting Tyrus while in Rimmen, who introduced him to Cinan. This artifact being the Ayelid artifact; the sword Sinweaver. After their rescue and the exchange of gold to Cinan for the sword he decided to slip away before Ras Kalik could question who he was, and why the Akavir descendant really wanted that sword. Herzog was headed to Nagastani — An Ayleid ruin in eastern Cyrodiil. He had read in scrolls that the Sword would give him magical powers to meet his mothers spirit, if he performed an Ayleid ritual at an old shrine hidden there. Equipped with the artifact sword, he was off to start his own adventure but Ras Kalik, did indeed notice the sword however and instead sent a letter to Jux Blackheart (whom also was interested in Ayleid treasures), to attempt to find Herzog and acquire the sword. (*Azani Blackheart in Elder Scroll's Oblivion is Jux's descendant some 747 years later)

    And so the Redguard, Imperial and Akaviri men parted ways ... While Ras Kalik went off to Elsweyr to encounter the latest threat to Tamriel, with Abnur Tharn and Sai Sahan - - DRAGONS!! Little did Ras Kalik know a few people were awaiting him in Senchal besides Sai. A necromancer survived his attack on the Withered Hand, while in Alik'r. The necromancer known as Auriek Siet'ka is also following him to the land of the Khajiits and Cacique the Sage of Ius a Shaman mystic who has become attuned spiritually with Tu'whacca (a Redguard God) and Ius (the Animal God), after being burned severely by the escaped dragons in Elsywer, is awaiting his arrival also. Aurik is a soldier of the Daggerfall Covenant that was introduced to necromancy while in the military, even though this magicka art is not spoken of openly by most of the Military leaders. He came to Alik'r and worked with the Withered Hand before Ras Kalik intervened on their plans. After the defeat of the Withered Hand, he aligned with the Worm Cult, and is constantly adapting and perfecting his necromantic arts.

    After his journey to Rimmen, Kalik heads south to Senchal, in the southern regions of Elyswer. This new adventure will also put him on a path to meet a strange Redguard man. The stranger which was infected with an untreated Peyrite disease and also was the exiled from the Order of the New Moon cult, due to his sickness. He originally joined the cult to worship Laatvulon, the green dragon, mistakenly thinking it was the Daedric prince Peyrite. This confused and suffering cultist is known as Tsar al-Bomba and he is on a path to spread the disease. He was originally infected in Orccrest while recruiting members there. Can Ras Kalik and the shaman Cacique cure this poor soul, only time will tell. Little does Tsar al-Bomba know, that his infection is tied to Vampirism, and eventually the desire for blood will take over his mind. Senchal also offers Kalik his latest love interest... Aeliah. Whom he fondly led thru battles with the Dragonguard.

    After the trek thru the heat, tropical and desert climate of Northern and Southern Elyswer, Ras Kalik heads north to the cold mountain range of Skyrim. His companion friend Lyris beckons for him with a letter sent by crow...

    Movárth Piquine - a former vampire hunter (now infected), within the Fighter's Guild (and a secretive necromancer) was in Skyrim working with the Morthaal Guard. On a patrol mission he was caught in Frewien's ice curse outside of Morthaal with the frozen undead. Movárth's vampiric infection kept him from becoming an undead minion to the curse. He was able to use necromantic ice-magic to encase himself safely until he was freed with Freiwen, when the Vestige Ras Kalik broke the curse.

    Uri Ice-Heart - brother of Urfon Ice-Heart. The twin sons of Atli and Oljourn Ice-Heart. The Ice-Heart family are originally from Markarth but now reside on the Jerall Mountain range near Cyrodiil, with their younger sister Araki. The twins had joined the Winterborn Reachmen while living in Markarth. Urfon pushed west to Orsinium with the Winterborn Clan, leaving his family behind. Uri stayed behind with his parents and sister to live in the family cabin for safety, avoiding the Vampire plague infiltrating the Reach. After news reaches him and he hears of Urfon's death... Uri leaves and heads home and is seeking vengeance. Meanwhile, his sister has also moved on to Windhelm to join the Fighter's guild. He will visit his sister, once before going to seek vengeance and she will craft him armor mixed with ice, called Stalhrim armor. Uri fearing death, after his brother's passing, falls victim to the convincing talk of Movárth at a Nordic tavern, and will also becomes a vampire.

    {time moves forward through the hour-glass}
    PS5/NA - Ras Kalik a Redguard Templar - Daggerfall Covenant • 1550+ Champion

  • nesakinter
    nesakinter
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    I generally dislike stamblades who play from range but I will admit, your build is something totally unique here and very interesting. I have done my share of 1vxing and small scale but I have never seen something like this on a stamblade. This is very innovative theory-crafting. Even though I hate ballista users in general, the way you use it is genius. Huge respect, dude. This kind of playstyle with 350+ constant ping is ridiculous.
    Hope this shuts up the bad nbs that say nb is bad in PvP.
  • Davadin
    Davadin
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    Amazing!

    Quick question: can Balorgh proc buff ultimate DoT?

    I'm just thinking as a stamDK.... Shifting Standard for 30-sec, if Balorg proc anytime during this period, i'll get crazy DoT that I can just pile on even more damage...

    back on topic, i may need to look at Silver Shards again...
    August Palatine Davadin Bloodstrake - Nord Dragon Knight - PC NA - Gray Host
    Greymoor 6.0.7 PvP : Medium 2H/SnB The Destroyer
    Dragonhold 5.2.11 PvE : Medium DW/2H The Blood Furnace
    March 2021 (too lazy to add CP) PvP: Medium DW/Bow The Stabber
  • susmitds
    susmitds
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    Davadin wrote: »
    Amazing!

    Quick question: can Balorgh proc buff ultimate DoT?

    I'm just thinking as a stamDK.... Shifting Standard for 30-sec, if Balorg proc anytime during this period, i'll get crazy DoT that I can just pile on even more damage...

    back on topic, i may need to look at Silver Shards again...

    Yes, Balorgh buffs the entire ultimate. But in general, going all out on damage and ignoring mitigation as a build principle can only be applied to stamblades and maybe to a lesser extent stamsorc. StamDK lacks the mobility and evasion to survive in such a build.

    Silver Shards is actually around 10% weaker than most melee spammables and Stone Giant as well. Reason I am using it is because of it's weapon damage buff and ranged AoE nature. You generally need higher weapon damage/stamina to get a big tooltip with Silver Shards than you would need for say Surprise Attack or Stone Giant. If you want to use a ranged spammable on a DK, stick to Stone Giant, it has the same damage as melee spammable, inspite of its range.
  • Tommy_The_Gun
    Tommy_The_Gun
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    I am actually genuine worried that some one might see this build and think that NB is OP or something and use this build as an "ammo" for a nerf NB agenda campaign. Call me paranoid, but I am simply sick of nerfs at this point... :disappointed:
  • Davadin
    Davadin
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    susmitds wrote: »
    Davadin wrote: »
    Amazing!

    Quick question: can Balorgh proc buff ultimate DoT?

    I'm just thinking as a stamDK.... Shifting Standard for 30-sec, if Balorg proc anytime during this period, i'll get crazy DoT that I can just pile on even more damage...

    back on topic, i may need to look at Silver Shards again...

    Yes, Balorgh buffs the entire ultimate. But in general, going all out on damage and ignoring mitigation as a build principle can only be applied to stamblades and maybe to a lesser extent stamsorc. StamDK lacks the mobility and evasion to survive in such a build.

    Silver Shards is actually around 10% weaker than most melee spammables and Stone Giant as well. Reason I am using it is because of it's weapon damage buff and ranged AoE nature. You generally need higher weapon damage/stamina to get a big tooltip with Silver Shards than you would need for say Surprise Attack or Stone Giant. If you want to use a ranged spammable on a DK, stick to Stone Giant, it has the same damage as melee spammable, inspite of its range.

    good tip.

    thing is, DK's attrition's been shot last couple patches, so alot of us are experimenting with high damage to mimic some burst DPS output. we may not be dishing out pain at the same level, but we probably can withstand a few more hits to get out of hairy situation.

    personally, being a Nord, going 7-medium, 3x infused wd jewelry hasn't really hurt me a lot more than going 6-heavy with a shield.

    i might copy your CP setup at least, but I know i don't have Balorgh, so I'm still sticking to Bloodspawn to regen ulti.

    Still good read tho. great work!
    August Palatine Davadin Bloodstrake - Nord Dragon Knight - PC NA - Gray Host
    Greymoor 6.0.7 PvP : Medium 2H/SnB The Destroyer
    Dragonhold 5.2.11 PvE : Medium DW/2H The Blood Furnace
    March 2021 (too lazy to add CP) PvP: Medium DW/Bow The Stabber
  • khajiitNPC
    khajiitNPC
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    Yeah New Moon Acolyte seems to work great with just about anything — especially sets that give you penetration. (Spinners, Flame Blossom). Great goto set. Krahgs.

    I’ve tried a lot of different combinations, Essence Thief, Clever Alchemist (more for brawling and with the new potions for resistances works great, tho regen is a little meh), even unfathomable darkness works pretty well. Especially on Khajiit.
    Edited by khajiitNPC on November 11, 2019 11:00PM
  • EtTuBrutus
    EtTuBrutus
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    Looked like a ton of kills cheesing ballista
  • Unfadingsilence
    Unfadingsilence
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    susmitds wrote: »
    @Unfadingsilence Thanks a lot, man. Watching your snipe vids was what made me think about making a strong ranged build in an alternative way.

    I appreciate that and hope to see more work from you in the future as well
  • Mayrael
    Mayrael
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    Awesome build, everything in it, is mentioned to work together! Brilliant and very unique setup. I like it's very flexible to.

    On a side not:
    Ballista is really overturned. ZOS nerfed Soul Assault because it delivered to much damage, yet Ballista with same cost deals similar damage, doesn't have channel which allows you to attack or dodge at the same time and pulls out of cloak with each hit meaning it has even better utility than soul assault so the only real way to defend against it is LoS.
    Say no to Toxic Casuals!
    I am doing my best, but I am not a native speaker, sorry.


    "Difficulty scaling is desperately needed. 9 years. 6 paid expansions. 24 DLCs. 40 game changing updates including A Realm Reborn-tier overhaul of the game including a permanent CP160 gear cap and ridiculous power creep thereafter. I'm sick and tired of hearing about Cadwell Silver&Gold as a "you think you do but you don't"-tier deflection to any criticism regarding the lack of overland difficulty in the game." - @AlexanderDeLarge
  • nsmurfer
    nsmurfer
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    I am actually genuine worried that some one might see this build and think that NB is OP or something and use this build as an "ammo" for a nerf NB agenda campaign. Call me paranoid, but I am simply sick of nerfs at this point... :disappointed:

    That is exactly what's going to happen. He claims stamblades are in a great position while 99% stamblades are no threat. The class got nerfed to be a shadow of its older self and can't fight back against magplars or any of the other stamina classes. Sure, one or two guys with cheesy toxic builds might be able to dominate but that does not to give them any right to speak about the vast majority of the people using normal builds there were good before nerfs.

    Some people just do not understand the difference between good builds and downright cheesy toxic builds. They call themselves 1vXers and believe killing bad players makes them good. The style of play he shows only works against noobs and any decent opponent will counter any form of escape a NB has.
  • nesakinter
    nesakinter
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    nsmurfer wrote: »
    I am actually genuine worried that some one might see this build and think that NB is OP or something and use this build as an "ammo" for a nerf NB agenda campaign. Call me paranoid, but I am simply sick of nerfs at this point... :disappointed:

    That is exactly what's going to happen. He claims stamblades are in a great position while 99% stamblades are no threat. The class got nerfed to be a shadow of its older self and can't fight back against magplars or any of the other stamina classes. Sure, one or two guys with cheesy toxic builds might be able to dominate but that does not to give them any right to speak about the vast majority of the people using normal builds there were good before nerfs.

    Some people just do not understand the difference between good builds and downright cheesy toxic builds. They call themselves 1vXers and believe killing bad players makes them good. The style of play he shows only works against noobs and any decent opponent will counter any form of escape a NB has.

    I don't understand some people like to bash others who are trying to share something good. Maybe the reason your stamblade is weak is because you don't adapt and are using an old build that you probably copied from someone else without even bothering to understand how it works.

    Toxic cheesy build? Dude, this is clean as it gets with zero damage procs and pure stat based damage in a short window that takes skill to use. Anything unique is probably toxic to you.

    If you believe that an NB can only beat noobs, then you should check the video before commenting. There were some great PvPers who are themselves 1vXers get killed. @Dottzgaming Emasculate ,Rage ,Dark Shady, Chapopk, Synozeer, Chief engineer are some I could recognize. Probably missed several others I couldn't recognize as he uses Character name instead of username.

    And if you really think an NB can't escape from decent opponents, I suggest you read his post about Shadow Image where he goes in detail about it. In the gameplay, there was several parts where he jumped in the middle of a zerg to kill a few players and teleported away. In fact, the good amount of the video was him attacking organized groups, getting a few kills and getting away only to come back after he regains ulti. In the upper IC section, there was a part where he attacked Pelican's group head on, consisting of Pelican, lyser, Jordaen, markel, Thogai ( @Thogard ?) and possibly some others. though he could not commit long enough to kill, he escaped easily even though he did not have a Shade before attacking. They are easily some of the best PvPers in the game, so don't come with the BS that NBs cant escape from decent players.
  • Dr_Ganknstein
    Dr_Ganknstein
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    Too many words. This a good build?
  • Mayrael
    Mayrael
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    Icky wrote: »
    Too many words. This a good build?

    Yes, it's very good build, one of the best I have seen but it requires some skill to use.
    Say no to Toxic Casuals!
    I am doing my best, but I am not a native speaker, sorry.


    "Difficulty scaling is desperately needed. 9 years. 6 paid expansions. 24 DLCs. 40 game changing updates including A Realm Reborn-tier overhaul of the game including a permanent CP160 gear cap and ridiculous power creep thereafter. I'm sick and tired of hearing about Cadwell Silver&Gold as a "you think you do but you don't"-tier deflection to any criticism regarding the lack of overland difficulty in the game." - @AlexanderDeLarge
  • evoniee
    evoniee
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    feelsweirdman soul strike / bow ult barely work in pc eu
  • susmitds
    susmitds
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    @Icky Check the gameplay for a few minute, if you want an idea. But I will let you know that it can be a bit tricky to use this build due to its unorthodox nature.
  • susmitds
    susmitds
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    @evoniee On general builds, Ballista does not work well in PC NA either outside killing new players. However due to the high damage stats of this build, I get around twice the tooltip of Ballista at 140k+ compared to a normal build's 70k and it crits the entire way through, essentially dealing ridiculous burst and pressuring the enemy at the same time.
    While yes, it is easy to avoid, you can still force an enemy to eat 15-20k crit damage with the knockback fly time of Magnum shot and realistically will be followed up immediately by Bow proc which will finish them off. Even if they survive, they will be so low in HP that, your Silver Shards, Poison Injection tick or the rest of Ballista bolts should kill them. In my opinion, the primary trick is use Ballista right when the enemy has just started attacking you and used their ultimate. Very few people break off their offense to go turtle mode.
    Edited by susmitds on November 12, 2019 5:45PM
  • Dr_Ganknstein
    Dr_Ganknstein
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    But will it work with like 10fps? Just wondering because that's about the average fps we get on console in pvp areas with 5+ people in the same area.
  • nsmurfer
    nsmurfer
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    @nesakinter The reason this is a toxic build in my books is that it is no different from the one-hit kill builds which has no counter. I checked the video all right, majority of the people had no way to counter his attacks, even when he fought without stealth. How is that not toxic? Some of them died before they could reach them, how is that fair?

    While I am not against low TTK, this is way over the top and his gameplay straight out games like Dishonored or FPS games. This type of gameplay do not belong in MMORPGs and removes the strategy aspect of the genre. This style of play is what caused so many nerfs to NBs.
  • Mariusghost84
    Mariusghost84
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    nsmurfer wrote: »
    @nesakinter The reason this is a toxic build in my books is that it is no different from the one-hit kill builds which has no counter. I checked the video all right, majority of the people had no way to counter his attacks, even when he fought without stealth. How is that not toxic? Some of them died before they could reach them, how is that fair?

    While I am not against low TTK, this is way over the top and his gameplay straight out games like Dishonored or FPS games. This type of gameplay do not belong in MMORPGs and removes the strategy aspect of the genre. This style of play is what caused so many nerfs to NBs.

    Amazing. Can you please link us a NB build that you approve of? XD
  • MartiniDaniels
    MartiniDaniels
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    Great info and build!
    I am thinking if this can work for no-CP DK with Senche+MA+Shadow mundus. Combined crit damage will be pretty good and fossilize guarantees that target will have troubles mitigating it.
    Edited by MartiniDaniels on November 12, 2019 7:37PM
  • Naftal
    Naftal
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    Why doesn't the max possible damage build have the maximum possible damage?
  • nesakinter
    nesakinter
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    nsmurfer wrote: »
    @nesakinter The reason this is a toxic build in my books is that it is no different from the one-hit kill builds which has no counter. I checked the video all right, majority of the people had no way to counter his attacks, even when he fought without stealth. How is that not toxic? Some of them died before they could reach them, how is that fair?

    While I am not against low TTK, this is way over the top and his gameplay straight out games like Dishonored or FPS games. This type of gameplay do not belong in MMORPGs and removes the strategy aspect of the genre. This style of play is what caused so many nerfs to NBs.

    You must be new to ESO. So many damage builds have been lost to the point only the builds that are viable, at least in 1vX and high level PvP are tanky builds. There was a time when damage was the primary focus of most builds.

    Builds like this are fresh air in the tank meta and I am happy to see them make a comeback.
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