Magicka Nightblade - Hints, Tips, and Tricks for the Solo Player

IVoo

Hello, all. I just recently got into the game after three or four year hiatus. I started playing during beta, and the Nightblade class has always been my favorite. Even the single player Elder Scrolls games, I just love the concept of a hybrid sneaky mage that deals damage in different ways - with a few tricks up their sleeve.

I don't know what it is with the current state of the Nightblade, but I find it...underwhelming. I'm most definitely not looking to be upper echelon, have an exact rotation down to a science, or being a raid slave to cookie cutter design.

My Nightblade (an old one) on the PS4 is around CP 220 right now. I went from CP 40 to CP 240 mostly doing undaunted dungeons, delves, quests, exploration, and helping with world bosses when I could. I queue as a healer, with a backbar resto staff, and it's been fine.

My ultimate problem right now, is when soloing through harder overland content and thick packs of mobs (say public dungeons or world bosses). And not just that, but feeling demoralized and despondent at times, since I feel that I'm still trying to find an identity for my Nightblade. Like I said, not a set rotation or anything like that - but synergy of skills together that would make life easier when soloing.

I'm Breton, so sustain is no issue. I think that a Dark Elf would make more sense, though. I'd running double fire destro staves would make for a better time, or at least output some more damage up front.

So, say that I race change to a Dark Elf. How should I attack say vMA as a Magicka Nightblade? What passive skills do you consider most important to go along with your active skills? This applies to both vMA and general harder overland content, what are some skills not mentioned much by others that you have found to be an effective tool or life saver when things go upside down?

I'm just looking for some tips, wisdom, or tricks that other experienced Nightblades could offer. I guess that it should be said, but I'm speaking strictly from the PvE side of the coin and someone (me, in this case) that is solo 85% of the time. Now, I'm sure that will change as do more and more dungeons going forward, but I really enjoy just exploring, trying public dungeons and world bosses, and pushing forward as a Nightblade.

Even just some basic advice would be most welcome, or tossing out some combination of skills that would make life easier. Nothing about raids, rotations, or top notch DPS - all that stuff is out there. I'm looking more for survivability, endurance, and perseverance with tough content when you're playing as a lone wolf. Despite being really down in the dumps lately with my Nightblade, it's still my favorite class in the game.

My PSN ID is: Vaporware, if you'd rather just message me on the PS4 or shoot me some advice about it in-game.

Thanks in advance. Cheers!

zvavi

Swallow soul as spammable. Ez vMA clear. Dont forget to eat food

fred4

If you're having issues with overland and public dungeons, that's very basic content. You shouldn't have any trouble by just spamming Sap Essence and the occasional Swallow Soul. So this would be my first tip: Slot both of those skills. Swallow Soul is the better and cheaper skill for single target. However, when dealing with groups of mobs, make sure to still use it every 10 seconds for the HOT (heal-over-time) it gives, then spam Sap Essence. You will stack both sources of healing.

It's possible my perspective is skewed, because I'm CP810, but public dungeons should be p,ss easy. World bosses run the gamut from being quite easy to not really soloable. The ones in the base game should be easy, except every area has one boss out of 6 that is harder. vMA is IMO best tackled only from CP400 onwards.

In terms of gear, I'd use Julianos and any of the following: Mother's Sorrow, Bright Throat's, Shacklebreaker. The latter will give you a little bit of stamina sustain, which can be useful in vMA and some boss fights, let's say the Hunter Camp in the Rift, where you get CCd a lot. Monster helms: Use 2x resistance pieces, e.g. disparate pieces from the following sets: Pirate Skeleton, Mighty Chudan, Lord Warden.

Magicka recovery: Play around with enchants until you find the balance that suits you. Probably use the Atronach mundus and Witchmother's Potent Brew and split your enchants between Spell damage and Magicka Recovery enchants as necessary. Breton is fine, by the way. Gear enchants: Go for Prismatic Defense enchants on the big pieces for the additional health and stamina, magicka enchants on the small pieces. All attribute points into magicka.

Weapons should be golded out, all other gear can stay purple, jewelry can stay blue. Primary weapon: Flame or Lightning staff. For solo play I recommend an Infused staff with a Restore Health enchant (deals magic damage, restores health). Secondary weapon: Resto staff, also Infused, with a so-called Berserker enchant, e.g. one that raises Weapon / Spell damage.

Magicka nightblade traditionally has a healing while attacking playstyle going for it. The strength of that was gradually nerfed, however Swallow Soul and Sap Essence still enable that playstyle and it's the best for soloing. Siphoning Attacks is the next skill you need. This will be on the resto bar and also give you the +8% magicka buff by slotting a Siphoning skill on that bar. As long as you stay on attack you will have the following heals going for you:

Swallow Soul HOT
Sap Essence heal (primarily against groups)
Siphoning Attacks heal
Infused Restore Health enchant

In addition I would slot the longer lasting Radiating Regeneration skill from the resto staff, so that's another heal-over-time I stack on top. Because I'm a PvPer, I also have Healing Ward on my bar, but only for emergencies. The other heals are proactive. Healing Ward is reactive for [snip] moments.

Light Attack weaving is important for nightblades. Inbetween every skill, click the mouse to fire a light attack. It's needed for the enchants, for Siphoning Attacks, and for proccing Merciless Resolve, if you're using that. Another thing to be conscious of is that Shadow skills give you resistances for a short while, so you should keep some of those in your rotation.

I'm a PvPer and solo player. The kind of build I run, taking all of the above into consideration is something liks:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=211394

Playstyle: Keep your 3 buffs up: Siphoning Attacks, Radiating Regeneration, Race Against Time (optional), then Light Attack and Shades on the boss for spell damage enchant and boss damage reduction. Swap to destro bar and set down Twisting Path, then Swallow Soul and Sap Essence, as needed. Once you go into execute phase, be sure to keep up Swallow Soul occasionally between Impale for the ongoing heal.

[Edit for minor profanity]

fred4

P.S.: There was a big furore about Iceheart being nerfed next patch. It would appear to be the go to monster set for solo players and, in the final analysis, should still be viable next patch.

I also keep forgetting about the Dark Cloak heal, because I have it morphed to Shadowy Disguise for PvP. One good thing about Shadowy Disguise: You can use it in vMA and any other place that has "Taking Aim" archers. Cloaking once will make them lose aim, so you don't have to run up to them and bash them or kill them right away. Cloak twice or three times, however, and the fight will reset.

In some cases it can be useful to slot Crushing Shock for the ranged interrupt. I was duoing normal Frostvault with a friend recently and that turned out very useful in the first boss fight.

IVoo

Hey, thanks fred! That's exactly what I'm talking about. Appreciate the advice and reply.

It's not that I'm really struggling with overland content, but have just been feeling mostly overwhelmed with bigger packs (like groups of 5). When I wrote this post, I had just got out of the public dungeon Old Orsinium in Wrothgar (clearing it solo). There's three bosses at the bottom, all together.

I simply could not overcome them after numerous attempts, no matter what combination of methods that I tried - mostly kiting, dps weaving, and trying to heal through the avalanche of damage. Janavynn, Millengor, and Wuhkusto were the names I believe, and all three of them are clumped together in the same room. So in that kind of example, or even just regular groups of 5+ mobs together, should I be incorporating more stealthy skills like lotus fan, shadowy disguise, and others? How do you approach those scenarios to start off, and to maintain control throughout?

Yes, I run in mostly Julianos, Mother's Sorrow, and Bright Throat right now. My plan ahead is Twice-Born Star 5 piece, the two vMA Inferno staves, and then the rest with spell crit or penetration set. Like I said, this coming from a purely PvE and lone wolf perspective. I know that PvP is a different animal entirely, and right now I'm just trying to grind through the CP levels, clear zones, skyshards, and all that good stuff. It's a lot to get through.

I can't believe that I'd be the only one that struggled with that Janavynn, Millengor, and Wuhkusto encounter. The three of them together, combined, were hitting me like a sledgehammer going through papier-mâché, lol.

Appreciate all the advice.

IVoo

Forgot to mention, mostly been playing around with Mass Hysteria, Dark Shade, and Crippling Grasp as utility skills. Dislike Crippling Grasp, and Dark Shade seems kind of meh.

I really like Mass Hysteria.

fred4

IVoo wrote: »

I can't believe that I'd be the only one that struggled with that Janavynn, Millengor, and Wuhkusto encounter. The three of them together, combined, were hitting me like a sledgehammer going through papier-mâché, lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLDJodD5ph0

IVoo

When they go into the character sheet, it says CP 690 though. I wish it was that easy for me, but I'm 400+ CP points away from that mark.

fred4

IVoo wrote: »

When they go into the character sheet, it says CP 690 though. I wish it was that easy for me, but I'm 400+ CP points away from that mark.

It IS that easy for you. I have 690 CP on the NA server, where that video was taken, but I only allocated 210 CP, which I showed you at the end of the video.

It's just l2p. Forget Mass Hysteria. It's a PvP skill. Not much use in PvE other than for fun. Sap Essence heals you. The more targets you hit, the more you heal. Really all I'm doing that's of consequence is spamming that skill with light attacks inbetween. Make no mistake, you have to spam Sap Essence in this scenario and stay on attack, otherwise you die.

You're far, far away from being able to do vMA right now, but if you're ever going to complete that, you must go for a similar type of attacking playstyle, otherwise you will be overwhelmed by successive waves of enemies that you're not killing fast enough.

fred4

I guess maybe this is a bit of a letdown? It would have been more interesting had you to use Mass Hysteria, Cloak and all sorts of clever ways to trick those NPCs? Unfortunately that's not what this game is. Many situations are just a DPS race.

IVoo

fred4 wrote: »

I guess maybe this is a bit of a letdown? It would have been more interesting had you to use Mass Hysteria, Cloak and all sorts of clever ways to trick those NPCs? Unfortunately that's not what this game is. Many situations are just a DPS race.

I agree about the DPS race. I understand about your critcism, but I also don't have gold weapons. Makes quite a bit of difference, doesn't it?

I know that I could probably beat the fight, but considering my gear and CP level - it's difficult. I'd love to emulate the way in which you smoked the three of them effortlessly, but some of that is doing a better rotation on my part and you having better gear on your part. Like I said, I'm working my way toward getting to that level.

IVoo

Just looked again and loaded up my character, I'm actually using Withered Hand. That was the best Inferno Staff that I had found. So, I'm using Withered Hand (weapons and jewelry) and Julianos. Besides the rotation and skills, I really need to get some better weapons.

IVoo

fred4 wrote: »

Make no mistake, you have to spam Sap Essence in this scenario and stay on attack, otherwise you die.

Ok, this one has been my biggest problem that I've identified looking back on it. I haven't been using it nearly enough, and not at spammable level inbetween my light attacks.

Thank for all your help and advice.

IVoo

Just a quick update:

Fred,

I changed around my skills on the controller, and used mostly sap essence, swallow soul, radiating regeneration (when I quick bar-swapped), siphoning attacks, and then I used soul tether as the ultimate (just to make it 9% healing incoming with the passive for having 3 slotted on the bar). That's probably overkill with soul tether, and I will switch back to the destro ultimate, but it was more of just playing it safe and getting used to it.

Night and day difference. I just wanted to thank you again my friend, because it completely changed the way I play and helped immensely. I even cleared out Old Orsinium by myself and got the Old Orsinium Conqueror achievement. It felt very satisfying, and now I better understand the nuts and bolts to keep the engine humming.

Kudos! 👍

Banana

You need to visit the guru
https://alcasthq.com/eso-solo-magicka-nightblade-build-pve/