Tired of Nightblade

Yankee

Lanatireb17_ESO wrote: »

I now spent 15k gold for a respec of skillpoints and attributes. now. show me some USEFUL builds, people. And please, no THEORETICAL builds. i wanna see builds that are in use, and working.

I have posted "builds" in past games that worked for my play style only to have people pick it apart and want to argue. People will spend a lot of gold to respec at high level only to not like a specific build.

There will be FOTM builds between buff/nerf cycles always. But the best thing to do is try the different skills and find what you like.

At 49 I have several skills that are either slotted only when I run into a specific type of encounter, or not used because I did not like them. There are around 300 skillpoints available (so I heard) to VR10. Plenty to play around with.

IMO a "useful" build in this game is very subjective.

cleric670b14_ESO

"Play the way you want"

mblythe21b14_ESO

Galeon wrote: »

Just a quick question mblythe, what level are you?

I am in my late 30's now. I got on last night at 35 and logged just short of 39. There were some great areas at the start of The Rift where killing groups of 2s and 3s made it go quick.

I leveled early as a Siphon/Bow Nightblade raising the Siphoning line. Once you get path in the teens with WW you can aoe pretty easily and you can use either the Siphoning or Shadow Ult to level whichever line you need to level. Getting to 42 Siphon should be a priority so you bar should be something like...

WW | Path | Strife | Siphoning Strikes | Cripple | Soul Shred

Once you get Drain Power...

WW | Path | Drain Power | Strife | Siphoning Strikes | Veil of Blades

It works.... Maybe not as well as other classes, but its pretty non stop.

djosh79cub18_ESO

@Lanatireb17_ESO


Here is a build that works for both myself and my brother. Of course we tweak it based on the situation and you're going to need to try things out and tweak it for yourself. Do you need the heavy armor active for a fight? The light armor active? More self healing? More CC? If I lose an encounter I almost always change my approach and choose something different. At level 47, I have YET to find an encounter meant for solo play that I could not handle with more than 1-2 deaths (although this is rare). Mind you, I am also running a main healing build, and this build is for my questing and soloing.

When I am not healing, I run two destro staves, 5/2 Light/Heavy armor, and one AoE bar with one single target bar. There's plenty of self healing thrown in here as well. Two self heals on the AoE bar and two HoT self heals on the single target bar. You also have roots, snares, and stuns in this build. I can solo all the delves that I've run into (although there is usually people in those) and every quest so far. I am also not afraid to switch out to heals on my resto staff in the single target bar if I need magicka regen or a heal to get me over the top for an encounter.

There really is a lot of different ways to build and this build may not work for every single encounter you have. I rarely go two days with the exact same skills on my bars. You have to experiment and see what works, not only for particular encounter, but what works for you as well.

You wanted some suggestions......this isn't theory.....this is what I personally run along with another guy I play with and we both have huge success with this. In fact, when run into to delves or public dungeons, we usually pick up a couple of people happy to follow us around and benefit from the quickness and ease we burn through the content.

I also have another friend that runs a DW NB and has finished cold harbour content. At level 47, using a DW melee build. I don't know his build, but i have personally watched him kill packs of mobs and elites 3-4 levels higher than he is, consistently.

Maybe this won't work in veteran content.....maybe I won't be able to main heal with a NB in veteran ranks......but so far, I don't see how i could be having more fun and I'm very happy with my class choice.

Here's an example of how i usually approach a fight with 3-4 regular mobs that I have decided to AoE down:

Throw down Volcanic Rune for an Aoe knock up and stun, then use Refreshing patch for a 10 second dot and self heal, then use Sap Essence(which will also heal you per mob hit) to increase weapon power by 6% per mob hit(which also increases weapon ability damage), then throw down Elemental Blockade for the AoE damage and snare if using an Ice Staff, then Pulsar your heart out. Usually takes 1-2 pulsars to kill the entire pack. I will come out of this at 80-90% health and about 50% magicka.

Adjust strategy according to encounter.......also, you can weapon swap in combat to use more self healing on the single target bar, such as swallow soul and degeneration. CC is also very big in this game. Use it as much as you can.

Here is the build.......hope you enjoy and it changes your experience. I will say though, you may want to take some time to practice and really get a feel for these skills if you decide to try this out. I've had 47 levels of planning this out from the start to tweak and play around.


http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#cckSeeIPSd8hM1c8hMtx8If0n8A4wg8IPwB8IPbk8IPQe8hMhR8A4rK8GFts8GHRk8L7JLkLu6cdoQr6MdoQC6MdoQF6MdoQJ6MdoQK8T7JLRMA6MrqAi6MrqAD8e7Craqk6Laqj6LaqS8v7HLanQ6ranS6LanU6LanW6LanX6Mhy3D6Mhx0n6Mhx0y6Mhx0l6Mhx0B8C7bLzqa6rzqu8D7GrzdM6rzdm6Lzds6MIsaM8F7JLzrJ6LzrO6Lbuy6Lbux6Lbut6MIPAh6MIPAT6MIPAv8O7ordeB6rdeD6MA3FN847pzxLCe6cxLDm6cxLDo6cxLDs

Cogo

Lanatireb17_ESO wrote: »

I now spent 15k gold for a respec of skillpoints and attributes. now. show me some USEFUL builds, people. And please, no THEORETICAL builds. i wanna see builds that are in use, and working.

Erhm, any reason why you can't try different builds yourself? You are the one who knows best what works for you. "Guides" in ESO wount show you "the best", only give you a guideline. Thats the core of ESO...YOU build your char with your playstyle.

Chelo

Im playing a 2h NB, for me killing 1 or 10 mobs at once its exactly the same, Im using full splash dmg and morph all the skills in my bar to aoe.

I use bow for single target dmg, mostly to kill bosses.

This isnt an original build, Force show this build during beta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNNHk-MaBYs

Im using different skills on my bars because I adapt this build to my own playstyle but its based on the same concept, just focus the bow bar to do the best single target dmg you can do and the 2h bar to do the highest aoe dmg...

I think this is one of the best overall build concepts for NB Dps right now...

Sleepwalker

Hi, it's me, your friendly neighborhood Nightblade healer (hereafter abbreviated as NB), and I've been drinking heavily already on this lovely Saturday afternoon.

I have to say after reading your post, like all others have eluded to but not said out right, you are not playing your class correctly at all. The NB is a class for the imaginative killer that knows exactly how to kill but tends to manipulate time and space to get it done in a multitude of ways for giggles. If at any point, your enemies are getting the best of you, it means that you blinked, zigged when you should have zagged, or just flat out fell asleep at the keyboard (happened to me once, and I somehow still spammed Funnel Health and lived...)

I morph everything for heals when possible and I carry a resto staff. I HoT myself on groups larger than three, and I DoT things until they die just because I like killing things slowly while I stare into their eyes and watch the hope slowly wither away. My normal day in combat means that groups of three will rethink their purposes in virtual life... the first enemy will die before any of them get close enough to see the color of my robes (Cripple, Funnel Health, Resto staff heavy attack, and possibly a Killer's blade if I truly feel like being a nightmare in someone's existence.) At that point, it's two to one, and even OJ Simpson knew how to handle that well... The rotation at this point couldn't matter in the least; they will both die horribly and pray to the NB Gods for a blissful slumber in the afterlife.

This has been a summary of my strategy just for laughs and food for thought. The rest of the NB community has already given you the tools for success with DW (I barely know djosh and Kyubi, but I think they are both brilliant NB's and capable of shifting death into works of art on a whim.) If you are still having troubles after these gems of information have been proffered, I would say that you are likely not a good candidate for the class that destroys life as easily as taking a stroll and stepping on a caterpillar by mistake. Try another build, or even another class... maybe those sunshine-loving Templars will have you... I hear they need more 'Puncturing Strikes' spammers.

Lanatireb17_ESO

Cogo wrote: »

Lanatireb17_ESO wrote: »

I now spent 15k gold for a respec of skillpoints and attributes. now. show me some USEFUL builds, people. And please, no THEORETICAL builds. i wanna see builds that are in use, and working.

Erhm, any reason why you can't try different builds yourself? You are the one who knows best what works for you. "Guides" in ESO wount show you "the best", only give you a guideline. Thats the core of ESO...YOU build your char with your playstyle.

Because im broke now and cant afford another respec in case my new build wont work.

Hadria

Lanatireb17_ESO wrote: »

i have medium armor maxed out with every perk. i still die all the time. this class is useless.

This is just an instance of user error.

Lanatireb17_ESO

See, my dear people, i DO realize that i played this class wrong to begin with. i only leveled one weapon skill, one class skill and one armor, i even dared to put plenty of points into crafting, i am no vampire, and im no theorycrafter.

The way i build my character absolutely didnt work for me. I never did enough damage, i never was able to outheal the damage i recieved, and after level 30 i wasnt able to kill one boss without 5 to up to 47 deaths(and no, im not kidding, i died to Mannimarco 47 times and was still not able to get him to even 50% of his hp)

Now i am sitting here with level 50 in one armor, level 50 in one weapon set, level 50 in one class skill, and i did learn that the combination i leveled there is a big fail. I got no levels whatsoever in any other class skill, weapon or armor. I am now level 44. That means there isnt much content left for me to level the other skills but grinding, and im not sure i want to do that.

So the reason why i am asking (and also recieving, thank you) advice on how to build my char is a) that i dont seem to understand the class im playing and b) i am reluctant to recreate a character i played to level 44.

This is also why i am pretty emotional (as you can tell from some of my postings) about the class. I have been playing mmo's since the days of ultima online, and this is the very first time i am not able to play a class properly, and that eats at me.

Nugeneration

There is plenty of content to do in this game still for you. You actually play through all storylines on one character for all three factions. You won't have to worry about "grinding skills" at 50.

Tamanous

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO wrote: »

funny I killed manimarco at minimal level by spamming funnel health and devouring swarm without even bothering to interrupt him the poor sod cried

PS: I fought him with a restoration staff (laugh)

Resto staff is nothing to laugh about. It is ranged which allows you to stay out of the majority of damage. I use resto/resto as my second bar is support. I am a ranged caster for damage. With dots and magicka attacks soft capped it puts out serious damage. I have zero problems leveling and completing even some of the most challenging encounters. This is because the self heals are enough when fighting at range when kiting is allowed.

I use recount to figure out my best rotations and have found that the resto staff heavy attack damage is quite significant too. It is a worthy filler when needed. I use silver shards for my stamina dps to offset magicka use. Only melee I use is death stroke (when soloing as it can be use often) and assassins blade (morphed to Impale).

The main issue for NB having problems killing some tough encounters is that they are specialized for melee putting them in the middle of the damage. The ONLY time I have ever used dodge to get out of damage was when I accidently double tapped (at the right time lol). I simply walk out of damage as a ranged caster because I have enhanced speed through Cripple or Path of Darkness if on bar.

I can see why the OP has issues. I couldn't even imagine playing in all Medium armor and melee. That is pretty much suicide.

Nugeneration

Btw level heavy armor a bit to access indomitable.

With medium armor you can still use that ability. It does wonders when playing a melee NB for soloing vs strong mobs.

Tuchaka

Probably should warn about spoilers if your gonna mention fighting bad guys that are part of the main story.

Nugeneration

Unstoppable* from heavy armor skill line. Sorry auto correct failed and I can't edit the post now to avoid confusion.

Anoteros

Lately i'm just fed up with how busted the NB feels that I think a DK or Templar would be better. At least they seem to work.
I love the stealthy side of NB and the one shotting but there's just too much broken to keep me hooked.
I'd also love an explanation on how the stealth passives (both from Khajit and medium armour) help. I see no difference when approaching mobs or when walking past them. The eye icon still slightly opens...Please if the passives only affect PVP then please label the bloody passive relevantly.

Anoteros

cleric670b14_ESO wrote: »

"Play the way you want"

Where if you realise you've gimped yourself by spending points in the wrong place you're ultimately screwed until you can scrounge up 15k again?
I think not.

rager82b14_ESO

Hm? I focus heavy on spell damage, and magic. My Night Blade is a beast. I one shot things from stealth. Spam invis and stuns. Nice nuke and life stealing. I feel really really strong. I'm not even scared of group of 5s. I just kill stuff so fast, they don't know wtf to do.

Killers Blade
Concealed weapon
Leeching strikes (even though they appear to be bugged)
Swallow soul
shadow disguise
Ultimate Soul Tether
Medium armor for the faster attack speed.

Let me explain why I use them.

Swallow and leeching is more defense when I need it. Also having them both buffs my magic making my concealed weapon hit harder. Concealed weapon one shots almost every thing for me. Killer blade for the extra magic back and life.
Shadow disguise used mixed with concealed can also be my defense.

On mobs that cant be stunned. I deal as much damage as I can. Switch to leeching try to keep life up. If that fails. I roll back invis, switch to resto staff regen up and start again. However, my damage output is so high and I have so much mana that I simple destory things before I get a chance to use my second weapon.

I went concealed weapon because using shadow disguise makes me run faster with it. So I can get to where I need fast as i can.

Ultimate soul tether for that extra aoe power and yum. With leeching strikes able to build it up fast.


All and all my build rocks, and since I picked a magic focus race. It just makes it all that much sweeter.

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

Light armor with a bar of healing spell I just run into group of 5 and laugh at them while I drain them dry out of their health... Siphoning and vampirism synergise so well.

Sleepwalker

Tamanous wrote: »

Resto staff is nothing to laugh about. It is ranged which allows you to stay out of the majority of damage. I use resto/resto as my second bar is support. I am a ranged caster for damage. With dots and magicka attacks soft capped it puts out serious damage.

Hi5! Easy mode, right!

Anoteros wrote: »

Lately i'm just fed up with how busted the NB feels that I think a DK or Templar would be better. At least they seem to work.
I love the stealthy side of NB and the one shotting but there's just too much broken to keep me hooked...

I'm curious as to what you mean by "busted". I currently have a blood-thirsty NB nonchalantly steam-rolling all solo content that would beg to differ. The class is most certainly not broken in the slightest. Perhaps it's just not for you.

Yankee

Tamanous wrote: »

I can see why the OP has issues. I couldn't even imagine playing in all Medium armor and melee. That is pretty much suicide.

Respectfully I must disagree. I am only VR1 now, but leveled the whole way using dual wield melee and all medium armor. If I do things right, I finish off the normal 3 mob pack at full health in a very short span of time.

It might not work in later VR levels, but up to now I have had no issues surviving. I one shot Mannimarco and Molag, and even harvestors which I hated on my S/B Templar and DK are easy, because my single target NB can burst them down.

At VR levels, I think the NB cannot compete with other classes (as far as efficiency) in AoE grinding. But a NB can be quite survivable IMO.

Edit: I actually did melee Mannimarco down, but did not try that with Molag. Just used a bow and siphon on him.

Ravinsild

Yankee wrote: »

Lanatireb17_ESO wrote: »

I now spent 15k gold for a respec of skillpoints and attributes. now. show me some USEFUL builds, people. And please, no THEORETICAL builds. i wanna see builds that are in use, and working.

I have posted "builds" in past games that worked for my play style only to have people pick it apart and want to argue. People will spend a lot of gold to respec at high level only to not like a specific build.

There will be FOTM builds between buff/nerf cycles always. But the best thing to do is try the different skills and find what you like.

At 49 I have several skills that are either slotted only when I run into a specific type of encounter, or not used because I did not like them. There are around 300 skillpoints available (so I heard) to VR10. Plenty to play around with.

IMO a "useful" build in this game is very subjective.

I have 148 skill points at Veteran Rank 2 and not enough things to spend them on yet. They're on save until I get my crafting up a bit more (level 38 Blacksmithing and Clothing) so yeah...there's a ton of skill points out there. Not to mention I've been quite lazy with my Cyrodiil skyshard hunting.

Ravinsild

Tamanous wrote: »

I can see why the OP has issues. I couldn't even imagine playing in all Medium armor and melee. That is pretty much suicide.

I'm just going to drop this here. Gear is 5 Medium/2 Light split (Head and belt in case you were curious which slots)

http://tinyurl.com/Abadirr

I replicated my character exactly. Veteran Rank 2 in Deshaan currently.

mblythe21b14_ESO

Galeon wrote: »

Just a quick question mblythe, what level are you?

Here I am leveling from like 41 to 44... just like 20 minutes of it, but it was pretty much nonstop except for selling.

You dont really need Power Drain. It helps, but it's not really needed.

http://www.twitch.tv/mikebee21/c/4066055

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

Ive never actualy been interested into trying medium so far because it neither increase armor or elemental resistance. Medium is the glass cannon set and its various passive ability reflect that reality. If I ever run a melee fighter ill likely go heavy armor... otherwise im considering medium as a viable choice for an archery character maybe if using the nightblade mark and other assassination skills to cap the damage spikes

seventh_pawnb16_ESO

Wanted to throw in my own two cents into this because I am deleting my NB as a complete rage quit on that class. During the beta stuff, I provided feedback on numerous occasions on how the class is not performing very well under certain conditions. Nothing was done about it, because it is still performing in much the same way. I would take the NB, run around and do up to a point as a test. Then do exactly the same content as a..., well anything. Again and again and again, the NB under performed compared to pretty much everything else.

Now don't get me wrong. The one mob slaughter is hilarious. The damage is great with the class, and I can take down lots of content with fun and excitement. But then I run into boss fights and I want to kick a puppy I get so angry. I am tired of how you need a specific build to get the class to function great in all of the content. There is no way I should be able to use anything else under the sun and not have to worry about a boss that I outlevel, and then jump on NB and either kill it with a sliver of life left, or get completely destroyed unless I use a very specific set of skills and/or build. The class is broken and needed a severe tweeking during beta. Now it's just laughable that they hadn't done anything about it. The way combat works with the game though, the class is not cutting it. Just my two cents and I hope that someone in charge wakes the hell up. With the crazy quest bugs that should have been fixed, and a class I want to play that can't be played realistically outside of only one particular build, why am I even going to bother paying money after the 30 days is play time is up?

Drathmar

I know there at least 4 builds in this thread that are working for people... I finally found a build that works that isn't one of them either.

mblythe21b14_ESO

seventh_pawnb16_ESO wrote: »

Wanted to throw in my own two cents into this because I am deleting my NB as a complete rage quit on that class. During the beta stuff, I provided feedback on numerous occasions on how the class is not performing very well under certain conditions. Nothing was done about it, because it is still performing in much the same way. I would take the NB, run around and do up to a point as a test. Then do exactly the same content as a..., well anything. Again and again and again, the NB under performed compared to pretty much everything else.

Now don't get me wrong. The one mob slaughter is hilarious. The damage is great with the class, and I can take down lots of content with fun and excitement. But then I run into boss fights and I want to kick a puppy I get so angry. I am tired of how you need a specific build to get the class to function great in all of the content. There is no way I should be able to use anything else under the sun and not have to worry about a boss that I outlevel, and then jump on NB and either kill it with a sliver of life left, or get completely destroyed unless I use a very specific set of skills and/or build. The class is broken and needed a severe tweeking during beta. Now it's just laughable that they hadn't done anything about it. The way combat works with the game though, the class is not cutting it. Just my two cents and I hope that someone in charge wakes the hell up. With the crazy quest bugs that should have been fixed, and a class I want to play that can't be played realistically outside of only one particular build, why am I even going to bother paying money after the 30 days is play time is up?

Hold on a second... One build?

I will give you that we have one of the best PVE abilities in the game called Siphoning Strikes. It makes us able to mow through mobs and kite endlessly. We can do it single target or in groups of mobs. Sure you dont get it until your 20's, but until that time the game isnt hard anyways. I think at that time there are like 2 at a time.

You can put it on your bar in any build you can think of and you will pull nonstop.

Reroll a NB? That makes no sense.

fieldmarshall3neb18_ESO

I play NB aswell. But a Bow/Shadow build, and it can pretty much stunlock everything as long as i have mana for Shadow Cloak (to keep them "stunned") and stamina for Bombard to keep enemies rooted.

Single Target?
Attack -> Poison Arrow -> Attack -> Shadow Cloak, repeat.
(Arrow Spray Bombard if you run out of mana but have stamina, to keep enemies rooted at range, specially bosses that may take longer to kill than you have mana to keep Cloak up)

AoE?
Volley -> Shadow Cloak -> Arrow Spray (repeat Shadow Cloak and Arrow Spray until stanima/mana is gone. Do double Arrow Spray's after each Shadow Cloak instead if you dont have alot of mana)

I dunno, maybe its op or something but i rarely die to anything and can solo bosses with it. Im quite happy with my build.
Only problem is downtime, specially when aoe'ing. It usually drains all my mana and stamina.


Here are the skills i have on my bar =]
My ultimate is Death Stroke - Soul Harvest (to have atleast 1 Assassin skill on my bar to level it)
I also keep Strife (unmorphed) on my bar, just because it levels my Siphoning.
Poison Arrow - Poison Injection, so i have something to spam in my single target rotation.
Shadow Cloak - Shadowy Disguise bumps my crit chance to 100%+. I find it useful for everything i do.
Volley - Arrow Barrage. I like the added radius of Arrow Barrage, but i suppose Scorched Earth would be just as good, if not beter at aoe.
Arrow Spray - Bombard. This is really useful for rooting everything. I guess Acid Spray is good if you want more damage in aoe at the expense of being able to kite bosses.

Lanatireb17_ESO

Ok, thank you all for the guides and ideas. i think i will go all stamina with a build consisting of bow/assassinate and 2H/shadow/assassinate, both with a hint of syphoning to keep myself healed. the Bow/Assassinate build allowed me to down Molag Bal on level 50 in my first (!!!) attempt. I think im getting there