Whats best for a gank build?

OWLTHEMAD

Going to build a ganker settup on my magnb. Just looking for tips and advice. Gonna use calurion to start with but would like to see other options.

So couple questions

Jewelry trait:blood thirsty or infused?

Best armor pairings?

Best monster sets?

Best mythic items?

Best arena weapons?

Any uncommon things that youve found good that might not be mainstream?

OWLTHEMAD

Also whats the best weapon trait i could run?

Finedaible

I'd be surprised if anyone knows (or would want to share) at this point because it is such a niche playstyle which both ZoS and non-Nightblade mains seem intent on nerfing despite there being more counters to stealth and the ganker role as a whole than literally anything else in PvP.

Also feels like every time I get the inclination to make a gank build, Nightblade only gets nerfed further so I haven't bothered to grind gear that will soon be useless.

fred4

My own build is rounded, Zoal, Caluurion, Wild Hunt, 1x Trainee, 3x Willpower both bars. Simple and consistent. All Swift jewelry. Speed and Zoal allows you to survive. I have an alternate setup with Caluurion front bar, Juggernaut back bar, e.g. even more defensive. Not high power setups, but I love my builds. Allows you to risk your Tel Var and still mostly bring them home.

Another rounded, but more meta option is to use Caluurion on a stamblade. Caluurion front bar, Clever Alch back bar, Markyn, Balorgh, 1x Trainee is a setup I've heard more than one person using, but not exactly a revelation.

My question is, do you want to purely gank people or are you happy to keep fighting in a duel or AvA? In the latter case, the above gear selections may suit.

I've never played a pure ganker, but let's make some educated guesses:

OWLTHEMAD wrote: »

Going to build a ganker settup on my magnb. Just looking for tips and advice. Gonna use calurion to start with but would like to see other options.

So couple questions

Jewelry trait:blood thirsty or infused?

IMO Bloodthirsty is for PvE. Infused to maximise the Caluurion proc and your damage. You need to get people into execute range in the first place. Varying amounts of Swift and/or Wild Hunt, if you want to survive.

Best armor pairings?

With Caluurion? Simmering Frenzy has been nerfed, but arguably Titanborn and lowering your own health before the gank should still work. I've also been hit with Doylemish, although that was just one guy and didn't proc for as much as Caluurion. You might try one of the revised heavy attack sets, e.g. Sergeant's Mail. A heavy attack from out of combat, from crouch, from behind, stuns and does a ton of extra damage, even without any set buffs. Dual-wield may be your best bet as a pure ganker and buffs Caluurion the most (1x Nirn, 1x Sharpened Maces). On the other hand you could investigate an inferno staff heavy attack from range with a combination of the aforementioned heavy attack sets and building for very high crit damage. In that case: no Caluurion. You want to gank with Caluurion, you got to be close. I've come across Caluurion builds that used Flame Clench in the past, but not sure those were gankers exactly.

Best monster sets?

Balorgh. Selene. Zoal for more of an all round playstyle.

Best mythic items?

Markyn. Wild Hunt.

Best arena weapons?

I can't think of any. Back barring a Vateshran 2H is an option, if you're not a pure ganker and prepared for a longer fight. A heavy attack on your front bar will proc the explosion, once it's built up. Kind of similar and stackable with Assassin's Will. Vateshran DW on the front bar makes for an interesting playstyle, but I don't think it's particularly good. Master's destro suffers from nerfs to Flame Clench, e.g. the skill does so little damage these days. I guess you could combine that with heavy attacks, Meteor or Assassin's Will. Is that viable? Not sure. Is it good for ganking? I don't really think so. Does it work well with Caluurion? No. Knocking the target back adds a travel time to Caluurion and tends to put it out of range of Incap / Soul Harvest. Better to stun with Incap or Concealed Weapon / Surprise Attack. You want the stun to coincide with Caluurion exactly. Blackrose resto or Maelstrom resto are irrelevant these days. IMO Healthy / Shrewd Offering and a 1H+S back bar / ultimate is way better, at least when you play a cloak / ganking / burst-based playstyle.

Any uncommon things that youve found good that might not be mainstream?

Yeah, my stamsorc PvE tank .

OWLTHEMAD wrote: »

Also whats the best weapon trait i could run?

Sharpened. Nirn / Sharpened when dual-wielding.

OWLTHEMAD

Going for more of a pure gank. I have a fairly standard settup ive run since elseweyr for lack of gear that is crafty and bright throat. Very middle of the road but does its job.

Im trying for a proper glass cannon build for ganky fun in cyrodil and ic. I like the mischeif of it. Stopped playing it after countless duels with my freind that turned him into the best, and saltiest nightblade hunter in the game lol.

Pick people off a zergs flank and getting the whole damn zerg stopping to look for me for 30 minutes has been some of the most fun ive had in this game. The cat and mouse antics are great.

Was quite good at it once upon a time but no longer have much of the gear. Used to run callurion and warmaiden but just seeing my other options because that was well before greymoore and ive only returned in the last 2 or 3 months.

OWLTHEMAD

I dont mind dieing on this build.

fred4

Well, I'm really not versed in pure ganking. Looks like you're coming from a high magicka shielding build. That will pose some practical problems / changes. In order to get Caluurion damage up, you need to build for weapon or spell damage. You will end up with low magicka and damage shields, or at least Harness / Dampen, will no longer be viable. Like I said, 1H+S is a good back bar alternative. Think of it as playing like a magplar, e.g. you block heal with Shrewd Offering. This is, in fact, strong. On the other hand, you're not moving if you do that. If your objective is to disappear via Shadow Image, this may not be awfully relevant. If your objective is to disappear via speed alone, like me, block-healing with the enhanced mitigation from 1H+S is really nice for cases where you just can't get away.

Another practical problem, if you were using Degeneration before, will be where to get the Major Sorcery before the gank. You have two options now, potions and Rally. A Vateshran 2H back bar is not so far fetched, but I have to say that my magblade feels tankier than my stamblade these days. Shrewd Offering is a guaranteed spammable burst heal, whereas Rally can't be spammed and behaves in weird and inconsistent ways.

In order to get the most damage, you may want an aggressive mundus, rather than sustain, e.g. Apprentice or the penetration mundus, whichever that one is. You'll also want a race with weapon / spell damage (again, for Caluurion) and you'll probably want vamp for the out of stealth damage passive. One thing to consider is building for magicka regen, but with a large stamina pool instead of magicka, since damage now simply scales with your highest stats. The larger stamina pool would permit more dodge rolling, even if you don't have any stamina sustain. When you think about it, you could use Candied Jester Coins, giving you magicka recovery and stamina. I wonder whether a 15K magicka pool and high magicka recovery will be viable. That might just solve the problem of the lack of dodge rolling on magblade without sacrificing damage. You could also choose to build into weapon damage instead of spell damage. Not sure what that would do. It only makes a difference to jewelry enchants, mundus stones and the kind of potions you would use, as far as I can see.

Thecompton73

Balorgh is by far the best monster set for ganking. The penetration it gives with a full charge makes it fairly easy to negate 25-26K worth of resistances. And of course the 500 SD/WD for 10 seconds is helpful too.
If you've never done the Stamblade thing you might find it better for ganks actually. You could still use Caluurion with a DW or 2H heavy attack out of cloak for the guaranteed crit+stun+proc, clip that with surprise attack, then add in your ult and the execute if they're not done yet. Finishes most people before they can react.
I also love using Swampraiders and the Toxic Barrage bow ulti. Really fun to start something with an aggressive player and then run a bit like you're scared so they go full offense only to turn around and burn them with it before they know what's happening.

DrSlaughtr

Bloody > infused for a gank.

The piddly extra damage you get from infused damage glyph will not make you one shot them. You'd either do it or not.

That first attack though will drop into execute which is when bloody begins to out pace infused.

It's gospel for killing harder to kill builds, especially ones that will start trying to out heal your damage.

OWLTHEMAD

Btw @fred4 while i am using a high mag settup, i dont use it for the sheilds. Cloak is better than a shield imho and thus i dont run them. My opinion on sheilds is that your just delaying the inevitable. I use it to balance damage with sustain using a simple combo of degeneration (the morph that heals i forget which it is) maybe destructive reach, when i can slot it, then immediately go into lotus fan, fear, bowproc and follow through with swallow soul.

Its a slippery pressure build that is almost universally useful but not particularly spectacular. I can win just about any fight one on one (and can even get some 1vx action) with it. But its not as satisfying as the high burst settups of yore.

Hence the thread.

However yall have given me quite alot of input to look at and mess around with so i think im going to be having quite a bit of fun soon.

Hescrow

For base content if no DLC you can pair following sets:

Selene + Hrotgar + Shadow of the Red Mountain

otherwise

Selene + Curse of Doylemish + Rush of Agony

gariondavey

Hescrow wrote: »

For base content if no DLC you can pair following sets:

Selene + Hrotgar + Shadow of the Red Mountain

otherwise

Selene + Curse of Doylemish + Rush of Agony

Doylemish is no longer a gank set.

Narvuntien

I use Clever Alchemist, Viper, Balrogs, and Masters Bow. You open with Poison injection then swap into melee.

Thecompton73

Narvuntien wrote: »

I use Clever Alchemist, Viper, Balrogs, and Masters Bow. You open with Poison injection then swap into melee.

Plaguebreak > Viper because 258WD is much better on a class with a skill that guarantees a crit strike on the next attack than an extra 5% crit chance. The slightly less damage per tick gets made up for by the fact you can sometimes tag a low health target in the middle of a big group for an explosion that wipes them all.