Nightblade - Does it need a rework/update?

ADarklore

No, the class and its abilities are fine as they are.

Reading through the forums... it's clear that a majority of comments are from PVP players, not PVE! Also, if you looked at Deltia's "Best Stamina (or Magicka) Class 2022" you'll see that NB is TOP for both Stamina AND Magicka! So perhaps it comes down to skill versus build?!?

Also, people talking about adding a cooldown on stealth... excuse me... but I use this in PVE because I want to avoid fighting mobs and is pretty much one of the only reasons I even started using NB. It gives me the option of fighting when I want, or avoiding fights altogether if I just want to finish a quest and not spent unnecessary time fighting. This is one of the main differences between NB and all the other classes... the option to fight or not for PVE questers. Take that away by adding a cooldown, and it destroys the class for us!! They already took invisibility away from one of the morphs, that was enough of the attack on invisibility!! And no, I don't want to be forced to use invisibility potions with long cooldowns!!

dotme

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

NBs used to be single-target stealth assassins. I don't think those days will ever return - It's all about proc sets and AOEs these days - heck, most AOEs hit harder than NB single-target skills.

Mayrael

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

NB needs a little work here and there but not too much. I would certainly not like a situation where NB would become OP, the past has shown that this would very quickly lead to overnerf.

I don't know much about NB in PvE in roles like healer or tank, but I know a bit about PvP of this class. There are a few things that hurt.

1. Lack of delayed burst.
2. Magblade finisher is useless in PvP. 90% of the time it is roll dodged, 9% of the time the target heals over 25% and then this skill is useless.
3. Too much cast time in NB skills. Two ultimates are with cast time, third is useless. Teleport Strike also has cast time - yes, the only gapcloser in the game with cast time.

maxjapank

Mayrael wrote: »

1. Lack of delayed burst.

Teleport Strike also has cast time - yes, the only gapcloser in the game with cast time.

I honestly have no idea why the Devs gave some classes gap closers and some not. Some classes have pretty powerful delayed burst for minimal effort and some don’t. Perhaps I’m completely wrong, but I’ve been using the set Rush of Agony, the one that pulls enemies after using a gap closer and does an aoe dmg soon after. I wanted to pair this with delayed burst, into ultimate, into whirling blades. Thing is , dual wield doesn’t have a good gap closer. So again , I’m probably wrong, but I noticed something…

Templars have a gap closer, but no aoe delayed burst. They do have backlash, but it’s single target and requires effort.
Sorcs have a gap closer, but no aoe delayed burst. They do have 1-2 skills sorta single target. Minimal effort.
Nightblades have a gap closer, but no aoe delayed burst.
DKs have a gap closer (chains), but no aoe delayed burst.
Wardens don’t have a gap closer, but have powerful aoe delayed burst.
Necros don’t have a gap closer, but have powerful aoe delayed burst.

The original classes all have some form of gap closing. The newer ones don’t, but powerful aoe delayed burst.

It was sorta hard to find something to pair Rush of Agony with dual wield.

Anyways, back to teleport strike and having a cast time. The only reason I would think it has a cast time is because you can’t really see it coming. There is no travel time, so no time to react. It just puts you instantly next to the opponent.

Finedaible

No, the class and its abilities are fine as they are.

I do think Teleport Strike should be instant cast since this is probably what causes it to constantly fail during prime time PvP. For years the tooltip has stated the ability was instant, but instead of fixing it to be like other gap closers they just rewrote the tooltip and called it a day.

MudcrabAttack

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

I have been a nightblade main for several years in PVE, a stamblade a vast majority of the time through all of the high and low points. Gotta admit stamblade has been pretty nice lately. Penetration is plentiful, resources are plentiful, The ability to store weapon damage with grim focus is nice

Twisting path and dark shade have already been some of the hardest hitting hybrid skills, so when the announcement over hybridization came out my excitement fell flat pretty fast because none of the other magic options really stand out.

Crippling grasp feels as bland as degeneration,

Ambush/Lotus fan is weird and not very strong - people are already teleporting around with stampede

Sap essence is an obvious pick, I was running power extraction when I didn’t want to burn up crafted potions, now it’s time for some big heals at the same time

incapacitating strike - nice resource return but I haven’t been using it since I use so many magic skills that I never run out of resources, so I go with soul harvest

Leeching strikes- nope, don’t need it

On the PTS my stamblade DPS is about the same, however I dusted off the old necromancer, slapped on boneyard and stalking blastbones, and started demolishing the trial atronach like never before. On a class I haven’t played in years I managed to beat the stamblade DPS by 10%. Oh well, it’s back to that again I guess, where I dust off each alt just to see how much more dps I could be getting, then play my stamblade anyway.

MindOfTheSwarm

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

ADarklore wrote: »

Reading through the forums... it's clear that a majority of comments are from PVP players, not PVE! Also, if you looked at Deltia's "Best Stamina (or Magicka) Class 2022" you'll see that NB is TOP for both Stamina AND Magicka! So perhaps it comes down to skill versus build?!?

Also, people talking about adding a cooldown on stealth... excuse me... but I use this in PVE because I want to avoid fighting mobs and is pretty much one of the only reasons I even started using NB. It gives me the option of fighting when I want, or avoiding fights altogether if I just want to finish a quest and not spent unnecessary time fighting. This is one of the main differences between NB and all the other classes... the option to fight or not for PVE questers. Take that away by adding a cooldown, and it destroys the class for us!! They already took invisibility away from one of the morphs, that was enough of the attack on invisibility!! And no, I don't want to be forced to use invisibility potions with long cooldowns!!

You didn’t notice that the cooldown suggestion also added that once active it would last forever? Unless you deal or take damage of course.

katanagirl1

ADarklore wrote: »

Reading through the forums... it's clear that a majority of comments are from PVP players, not PVE! Also, if you looked at Deltia's "Best Stamina (or Magicka) Class 2022" you'll see that NB is TOP for both Stamina AND Magicka! So perhaps it comes down to skill versus build?!?

Also, people talking about adding a cooldown on stealth... excuse me... but I use this in PVE because I want to avoid fighting mobs and is pretty much one of the only reasons I even started using NB. It gives me the option of fighting when I want, or avoiding fights altogether if I just want to finish a quest and not spent unnecessary time fighting. This is one of the main differences between NB and all the other classes... the option to fight or not for PVE questers. Take that away by adding a cooldown, and it destroys the class for us!! They already took invisibility away from one of the morphs, that was enough of the attack on invisibility!! And no, I don't want to be forced to use invisibility potions with long cooldowns!!

My main is PvE. No comments from PvE players because everyone I ever knew who played NB in PVE left years ago because stamblade is PvE and it got seriously nerfed and it is not viable in end game trials anymore.

EDIT: overly aggressive autocorrect

hlwitchkingub17_ESO

No, the class and its abilities are fine as they are.

Fake Nightblade identity: assassin
True Nightblade identity: vampire!
I always wanted to turn my character into a vampire, then I look at my nightblade skills and is like nah, I'm good.

MindOfTheSwarm

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

hlwitchkingub17_ESO wrote: »

Fake Nightblade identity: assassin
True Nightblade identity: vampire!
I always wanted to turn my character into a vampire, then I look at my nightblade skills and is like nah, I'm good.

Lol. Indeed.

AuraoftheAzureSea

Oh man! I quit a few years ago because I had just about had it with nightblades, and I'm the sort of person who likes to specialize/master a class. I went from loving it, to trying out other classes and realizing how much more difficult they really were than pretty much every other DPS option at the time. DPS just became frustrating knowing I could switch to an alt and have an easier time, healer became my favorite because I was really quite good at it and surprised my guild with some really fun saves in 4-man dungeons and vDSA, and tanking was very meh, it's a shame I didn't start playing a few years earlier when I heard this was pretty OP.

It felt like I started the game, just began mastering things, and then every single *** patch was a nerf of some kind. Super infuriating! And I happen to be someone who really loves trying out quirky, niche builds. I'm also someone who likes to completely difficult content. That type of combination just does not work in an MMO where competitive endgame builds all run the same gear and rotations.

On my own in a single player game, sure, I can have a blast beating games on the hardest mode with bizarre builds. In MMOs, all I'm doing is handicapping my team because they know and I know that we could do better if I didn't. Just knowing that ultimately ended up killing my interest in DPSing, and I eventually just left the game (for a variety of reasons). Not the nail in the coffin but with everything else, it was enough.

I ALSO HATE BEING A VAMPIRE. LISTEN. I never go vampire even in friggin' Skyrim. I don't care about the buffs. THEY ARE SO UGLY. I DON'T WANT A SYNERGY FORCED ON ME. Okay, and now I'm ranting about an update I never even played because I already quit, it's time for me to stop typing.

azjuwelz

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

My main has always been my stamblade and I’ve completed a ton of content with her both in pve and pvp. I was playing when they practically decimated the class a few years back, stripping things like Minor Berserk and adding cast times left and right.

When I started doing vet trials, I was also told to use the magblade over stam. Now I’ve grown to love my magblade particularly in trials and dungeons, and I do use a lot of class skills on her, so I’d hate that to be messed up. (Dk rework and poop throwing comes to mind).

I do agree that a few buffs and skills changes are needed—definitely the shadow ulti, and Reaper’s Mark, and agree on making Teleport strike instant. Crazy that it’s not. I want small improvements so they don’t immediately decimate us again.

It’s sad when my very first parse on my magsorc that I recently completed was better than my best magblade parse that I’d been parsing for months. Also sad that I see no viable way to use my magblade in pvp other than the hated DC.

xDeusEJRx

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

I think some abilities on NB class kit needs some looking at
1. Concealed weapon, why does this only apply an added effect to the stealth playstyle when there's a dark cloak morph for the class? Imagine if surprise attack morph only applied the minor breach when you leave stealth. Should rework the buff or at least make it effect non-stealth play
2. Grim focus, the projectile nature of the bow makes it really clunky, maybe reduce the travel time slightly(zos if ur reading this I said slightly), there's so many instances where you fire off the bow right on top of the target and it doesn't connect or takes forever to land
3. Cast time ultimates, why? Just why, there's been so many times my animation for my ultimate gets cancelled out due to a CC because I haven't fully "casted" an ultimate, if there absolutely has to be cast times maybe at least rework the animation. Also why does soul harvest have an added animation at 120 ultimate, when it doesn't actually do anything different like the incap morph does

FlopsyPrince

My pet sorc main is far easier to play than my nightblade, mostly because of the lack of a good self-heal.

I can heal my pet sorc quite easily while the nightblade has to be close enough to make damage to get healed. At least that is what I have found. I primarily focus on PvE. Someone may know of a better self-heal, especially while leveling, but that is a major trouble point.

katanagirl1

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

My pet sorc main is far easier to play than my nightblade, mostly because of the lack of a good self-heal.

I can heal my pet sorc quite easily while the nightblade has to be close enough to make damage to get healed. At least that is what I have found. I primarily focus on PvE. Someone may know of a better self-heal, especially while leveling, but that is a major trouble point.

The advice was always go to Cyrodiil and get Vigor for solo builds.

Sun7dance

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

You just have to be Templar!
You get Major Savagery on a skill, then ZOS realizes that there are now two sources and so the strongest spam attack in the whole game gets with Major Brutality one of the strongest buffs.
So Stamplars no longer need to play Two-hander in PvP and save a skill slot!

Please don't forget all the buffs from last year, especially the massive Backlash buff!

And of course that wasn't all:

Piercing Javelin: This ability and its morphs now bypass block to live up to their name.
Radiant Ward (morph): Increased the shield scaling per enemy hit to 20% at rank 4, up from 9%.

It's so obvious that ZOS just loves Templars!

LesserCircle

Yes, but just a few skills need updating.

I'm a new player and my main character is a nightblade, after trying templar or sorcerer I realized how much easier and effective it is to do good damage with them compared to my nightblade.

Vulkunne

No, the class and its abilities are fine as they are.

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

For a long time many players have felt that over the years Nightblade has slowly lost its identity. Others would disagree and say the class is fine. I want to know the communities thoughts on this and so I have started a poll to address this issue. If anyone has specific points, please comment below.

No and I sincerely wish you guys would stop opening threads like this.

The NB we have at least works after MANY MANY nerfs. If ZOS does anything with the NB again it will probably be to take more because they haven't given us anything back, like never.

Just leave the NB alone please.