The Official "Get rid Nightblade Cast-times" Thread

Moose_Scout

Hi fellow Cyrodill warriors,

Any long-time PVPer knows this is true: Nightblades are in a rough place.

If you want to read, go ahead. If you want to skip the reading, here is the main proposal: Get RID of ultimate cast times on NBs. Give Nightblades an identity→ Nightblades should be the... combo class!

Nightblades are no longer the damage class (everything else) or the escape class (I mean, even a sorc is better at surviving with dash and shields), please let nightblades be the incredibly-hard-to-play-but-possible COMBO class!!

I have been a nightblade main since 2015 and have kept silent through the nerf and buff cycles. However, recently the class has become useless to the point of insanity.

Last week, I switched to a stamina-necro and have killed more people spamming dizzying swing on purple gear than I have completely utilizing a perfected stamblade which took a long time to farm good gear (full yellow: master's bow, spriggan's jewelry etc.).

However, I am not here to try and nerf other classes--that is exactly what happened to nightblades--I am just here to ask for one simple fix: take away cast times on ultimates.

Anyone who plays has seen the nightblade slowly erode. In case you haven’t been paying attention, here are some of the main changes:

We had some damage nerfs (which were probably justified, no tank should be able to be completely ganked) but then many class abilities became nerfed as well: relentless focus lost a damage buff and is now a defensive skill (this change really sucks now that light attacks won't be utilized as much in pvp, i.e. no spectral bow), surprise attack lost its fracture (but sub-assault gets fracture and blastbones gets defile, huh?).

Meanwhile, weapon/armor skills that helped nightblades get nerfed too: Rally no longer heals over time (other classes have this in their tool-kits, nightblades don’t unless they get rid of cloak), poison arrow’s damage is cut in half, shuffle isn’t worth running.

Now, I am pretty sure a good nightblade player could look at these and figure out a way around them:
Instead of running a damage and a utility set, we have to go full damage.
Instead of putting some points into health, it all has to go into stamina/magica
Instead of eating survival food, we can get magica regen to try and cloak more.

However, there are two things that we cannot overcome:
AOEs and other things breaking cloak
Ultimate cast times

1) Cloak is pretty broken. I mean, even a spear from a templar takes you out of cloak (A spear does AOE damage? How does that make sense?) Since nightblades have had to go full squish just to try and hurt a few select opponents (we avoid all necros, wardens, templars), we have to cloak more than ever. Unfortunately, cloak is really unreliable right now. I can’t come up with an explanation other than it just isn’t working.

2) Since fixing cloak might be a struggle, I am not going to put many eggs in that basket. Here is the instant fix for the class: Simply remove cast times for ultimates.

Incap/Soul Harvest: I mean….come on. Get rid of the cast time. Just why? The damage is not that great. It is dodgeable. People know it’s coming. The cast time makes this completely useless. In that half-second pause, people are dodging, necros and templars have already regained 5k health, blastbones has hit, sub-assault has launched while we are just standing there…

Nightblades are not tanky enough to just stand there and wait. We NEED to be kiting, rolling, light-attacking, re-applying poison inject. We are the Combo-class, not the hard-hitting-tank class. The devs must not play nightblade because a ½ second is all it takes for us to die. ½ second is also all it should take for us to apply some serious pressure.

Playing nightblade is a heart-pounding experience, it sounds like a thousand-typewriters in my office when I am on my nightblade. The cast time goes against this play-style. We are not looking for a “win” button, just something to combo with. I mean, even the slow-moving DK doesn’t have a cast-time on leap. ‘CMON! Nerf the damage if you must. Get rid of the cast time.

Soul-shred: This should be a classic “oh-crap I am about to die" skill. Right now it is a "I might get hit in the future so I will cast this now(?) skill." That makes no sense; get rid of the cast-time. I mean, does Bone-Goliath have a cast time? No. Does Undo have a cast time? No. SO... what role does this skill play? None? Cool, get rid of the cast time.

Bigger picture than just nightblade:

I am in my thirties and have a good job so I can afford buying a DLC and the necromancer, but this recent pay-to-win scheme makes me sad and makes me finally want to speak-up for some balance.

In PVP, you have two choices: Stamcro or Stamden. After that, Templar and some sorc/dk builds will work but not be as strong. It just sends a strange message that the two DLC classes are so much easier to play and be proficient at.

Fixing Nightblades now would be a symbolic gesture that ZOS is taking a strong skill-to-win, play-how-you-want stand, over the bane-of-mmo, pay-to-win philosophy.
Save ESO. Save the Nightblade: Get rid of Ultimate Cast times!

Taleof2Cities

Though I agree with you, @Moose_Scout, PTS isn’t the venue for this topic.

Head over to Combat & Character Mechanics forums. There’s a thread there already (updated today).

PTS is for players to evaluate actual changes proposed by ZOS in the upcoming patch ... not player ideas that may or may not make a future patch.

Moose_Scout

I disagree. The recent changes to light and heavy attacks are another nerf to nightblades. The recent Vamp changes are a nerf to nightblades... so, yes this is the right spot.

For instance, there is no pvp incentive to light attack weave any more. Therefore there will be no spectral bow build up. That means that another nightblade skill, relentless focus, is completely useless.