Night Blade Vampire Build Advice Please!- VERY old, no answers required.

Heindrich

I am a lv32 newly infected Night Blade vampire. My character concept is a close combat dps with a strong magic theme, as opposed to brute strength and sheer power. I don't need/expect to be tanky, but I would like to be reasonably resilient because I believe dps is not about pure damage output, but also how long you can hang around in a fight.

Although I am a Night Blade, the "stealthy-rogue-assassin" theme is not my focus, though some burst damage potential would be nice for bosses and PvP.

Any and all advice/suggestions on how to achieve this theme with a medium armour dual-wielding NB vampire would be greatly appreciated!

My Original Post

So far I've not worried too much about min/max'ing, but my build does feel rather inefficient compared to some of my friends, most notably a Sorcerer tank who seems almost invulnerable.

Anyway my current build is:

Attributes: 15/6/8

My actually stats tends to end up similar and balanced cos I gear for Stamina and Health, and I usually eat health/stamina food all the time I'm questing.

Gear

Pretty much always medium armour in all slots. Dual-wield 1 handed weapons, preference for swords and daggers. I don't know if weapon type actually affects anything.

Skills

Blood Craze (Dual-Wield Skill)

Killer's Blade (Assassination)

Lotus Fan (Assassination)

Swallow Soul (Siphoning)

Double Take (Shadow)

Ultimate: Soul Tether (Siphoning)

The concept was close combat dps with a heavy magic theme... and I kinda achieved it. My typical approach is to pop Double Take before every battle, then open with Swallow Soul, and then either jump in or wait for enemy to come to me. Then I hit them with Blood Craze until they are nearly dead, and then finish off with Killer's Blade.

Soul Tether is basically the panic button/I win button.

The problem with my build is that I lack any non-ultimate AoE and proper cc. I am thus horribly vulnerable to multiple ranged attackers. I don't know if anything can be done about that. I also find that my Magicka is slightly wasted as I only use class skills at the beginning and end of a battle.

Situation Now:

I have recently been infected with Vampirism, and I intend to have some fun with it for a while at least.

I would REALLY appreciate some build advice on how to tweak my existing build to better utilise my magicka and improve build synergy and effectiveness.

Fire vulnerable, plus the fact that I am already weak vs ranged, means I probably won't try PvP until I cure myself. So my focus for now is PvE.

Updated Build

Attributes
I will continue to focus on Magicka in levelling, and gear and use provision/potions for Health and Stamina.

Gearing
I will continue to dual-wielding swords and daggers, and mostly stick with medium armour. I have started to level with bow, but that's another discussion. I would like to focus on my "main build" for now.

Skills

Ultimate: Devouring Swarm (Vampire)

This seems like a no-brainer. Simply an awesome ability, and visually nice too. I will switch out Soul Tether as soon as I can.

Actives:
1) Blood Craze (Dual Wield)

I still love this ability. Deals good damage and the healing effect can keep me in the fight. I find it is a good use Stamina in a fight.

2) Mist Form (Vampire)

This replaces Lotus Fan for me. Although I loved teleport-striking to pick off healers and archers, it often got me into trouble if I didn't spot more enemies, and the lack of an escape skill was dangerous. Mist Form can be used both offensively and defensively, and thus seems a more sensible replacement.

3) Invigorating Drain (Vampire)

This looks like another no-brainer for a vamp. It replaces Swallow Soul for me. The reduced range is a shame, but the stun + hp/stamina regen makes this very useful indeed. I haven't tried it enough, but it seems I can only drain one target at a time?

4) Focused Attacks (Assassination)

I haven't reached the level to try this yet, but it looks amazing, and should work beautifully in tandem with Blood Craze. I expect to replace Double Take with this. A more offensive active buff, but I hope I will be alright survivability-wise thanks to Mist Form and superior vampire regen skills I didn't have before.

5) Undecided.

I am finding the 5th spot very hard to choose... Again the main weakness is lack of AoE damage and stuns... although Devouring Swarm should regen reasonably fast compared to Tether Soul, (thanks to Invigorating Drain and Vampire Passives), and I've survived so far without good AoE actives, so it's not essential.

I could keep Double Take for the improved staying power in combat... but would I really want 2 active buffs on my bar? Would I have enough time to pop them before every battle?

Right now my main damage output in melee is going to be Blood Craze, which costs Stamina, so it would be good to have another Magicka melee attack to use when Stamina is low...

I could keep Killer's Blade, but it's not really efficient except as a finishing move.

SO... apologise for the rant and thanks VERY much if you read it all!

Please to critique my build and offer suggestions on the 5th Active ability. Is there anything obvious that I've missed? A Magicka version of Blood Craze, Flurry or Whirlwind?

Thanks in advance!

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

First get rid of Soul Tether for devouring swarm and thus for 2 reason.

1. Hits like a truck deals insane aoe dps and has 5 second of nearly endless self healing to full health.
2. Stage four this spell has at worse 80 in ultimate cost at best 40! This largely outdo what Soul Tether do... by the time you charge tether you could've used swarm twice.

You need to understand that at stage four (if working) all your vampire spells are basically nearly free casting including the ultimate itself.

Second replace one of those assassination ability with your vampire drain... while it doesn't look like it this move will likely heal you up to close to 100% and resplenish your full stamina bar once per target and once traited up it even build ultimate wich gets you even closer to devouring swarm.

Beeftips

Let me toss my 2cents. I'm primary built as a bow PvP/Duel blades PvP.
My bow bar for PVP/PVE (I rarely change my skills when PVEing)
1. Poison arrow-Poison injection (bow)
2. Strife - Swallow Soul (Siphoning)
3. Scatter Shot- Draining Shot (bow)
4. Mark Target - Reaper's Mark (Assassination)
5. Snipe - Focused Aim (Bow)

Ultimate for bow - Meteor- Shooting Star (Mages Guild)

Duel wield (Daggers)
2. Hidden Blade -Flying Blade (Duel Wield)
3. Veiled Strike - Concealed Weapon (Shadow)
4. Shadow Cloak - Shadowy Disguise (Shadow) or Teleport Strike - Ambush (assassination)
5. Assassin's blade - Impale (Assassination)
6. Drain Essence - Invigorating Drain (Vampire)

Ultimate for melee - Devouring Swarm (Vampire)


The vampire passive to increase sneak speed + the sneak bonus from Veiled Strike = you almost sprint while sneaking, you walk faster in sneak then non-sprinting out of sneak.

Passives
I have all the assassination passives.(Assassination)
All but hasty retreat in bow. (Bow, derp)
Catalyst and Soul siphoner. (Siphoning)
Twin blade/blunt, ruffian, controlled fury, and slaughter. (Duel Wield)
All medium armor passives. (Medium Armor)
Slayer and Skilled tracker. (Warriors Guild)
All the vampire passives except Savage Feeding. (Vampire)
Reach. (Alliance war assault)
Medicinal use (Alchemy)

TL;DR
I like ranged combat but can be equally as effective in close. (assuming mana and stamina hold up)

Jaxom

Beeftips wrote: »

Let me toss my 2cents. I'm primary built as a bow PvP/Duel blades PvP.
My bow bar for PVP/PVE (I rarely change my skills when PVEing)
1. Poison arrow-Poison injection (bow)
2. Strife - Swallow Soul (Siphoning)
3. Scatter Shot- Draining Shot (bow)
4. Mark Target - Reaper's Mark (Assassination)
5. Snipe - Focused Aim (Bow)

Ultimate for bow - Meteor- Shooting Star (Mages Guild)

Duel wield (Daggers)
2. Hidden Blade -Flying Blade (Duel Wield)
3. Veiled Strike - Concealed Weapon (Shadow)
4. Shadow Cloak - Shadowy Disguise (Shadow) or Teleport Strike - Ambush (assassination)
5. Assassin's blade - Impale (Assassination)
6. Drain Essence - Invigorating Drain (Vampire)

Ultimate for melee - Devouring Swarm (Vampire)


The vampire passive to increase sneak speed + the sneak bonus from Veiled Strike = you almost sprint while sneaking, you walk faster in sneak then non-sprinting out of sneak.

Passives
I have all the assassination passives.(Assassination)
All but hasty retreat in bow. (Bow, derp)
Catalyst and Soul siphoner. (Siphoning)
Twin blade/blunt, ruffian, controlled fury, and slaughter. (Duel Wield)
All medium armor passives. (Medium Armor)
Slayer and Skilled tracker. (Warriors Guild)
All the vampire passives except Savage Feeding. (Vampire)
Reach. (Alliance war assault)
Medicinal use (Alchemy)

TL;DR
I like ranged combat but can be equally as effective in close. (assuming mana and stamina hold up)

Why would you do all but hasty retreat? I'm finding Hasty Retreat plus Mist Form morphed to Elusive Mist to be an amazing combination. You can double tap dodge and hit mist form for up to 80% speed increase.

I'd drop Snipe (it's too situational for me), move Impale to your bow line (since it's ranged now) and add Mist to your melee build out.

My input at least.

Heindrich

Update:

Thanks to all the advice and suggestions thus far. Taking some of that onboard, I have come up with a new build outlined in the edited OP.

Further input would be much appreciated!

Malvokian

Here's my bar, lvl 44 Nightblade Vampire.

1- Impale (Assassin's Blade)
2- Concealed Weapon (Veiled Strike)
3- Dark Shades (Summon Shade)
4- Midnight Drain (Drain Essence)
5- Shadowy Disguise (Shadow Cloak)
U- Devouring Swarm (Bat Swarm)

Thinking of going back to Soul Harvest (Death Stroke) for ultimate but Devouring Swarm is such a good ultimate when the crap hits the fan.

As for weapons, I don't use any stamina related abilities so it doesn't really matter. I chose sword and board. I can get two set enchantments on them and the armor bonus for the shield is nice.

In PvP I swap out Dark Shades and replace it with Lotus Fan (Teleport Strike).

Beeftips

Jaxom wrote: »

Why would you do all but hasty retreat? I'm finding Hasty Retreat plus Mist Form morphed to Elusive Mist to be an amazing combination. You can double tap dodge and hit mist form for up to 80% speed increase.

I'd drop Snipe (it's too situational for me), move Impale to your bow line (since it's ranged now) and add Mist to your melee build out.

My input at least.

Well, to be honest, I pick my battles and don't roll with the zerg. Also, I use shadowy disguise after I kill someone to instantly (most of the time) go back in stealth. As stated before, my stealth speed is almost as fast as my sprint with my medium armor bonus'. Plus mist form takes a skill slot I'm not willing to give up.

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

made that out for fun its creepy

http://esobuild.com/?MwbgTOEHTAjFMBGIDGAzAXAdigDjAAwECcUYAhkQKZ7BEYAsU5uBwjzuKGYUsAbP0RgM8NNwCsUNGlikZJSABNYDCTmASqxXA0RQCMCSiLqgAA==

The joke is it deals wonderfull damage while also proccing dumb amount of healing self resilience and even got a stamina dump

rdowdy95

I am using beeftips build above. I use the Vampire kiss set and it is awesome. What would I need to put my attribute points in? Divide them or put everything in one. Would like to at least have 20k in health for Cyrodill and IC. Beeftips? Are your u there? I would really like some advice on it. I use bow and dw when closing in. I am VR2 also champion point allocation would help as well.

lolo_01b16_ESO

You do realize that this build is nearly 2 years old? There have been a lot of changes since then, so this build will not work as good as it did in the past. Currently you should either focus on magicka or stamina. Hybrid builds that use both ressouces equally will be much weaker in most cases.

Heindrich

OMG impressive necromancy @rdowdy95 ! That's OP stuff!

I had totally forgotten I ever made this thread... LOL Well that's perfect proof of when I used to be a super-casual roleplayer who chose skills and gear based on how they looked and felt rather than how they function mechanically. I'll use this thread as evidence whenever anyone accuses me of elitism again. If this scrub that wrote this thread can grow and improve, anyone can!

I am genuinely laughing at myself! Look at that build... I'm lv32, but still only using one bar! Haha!

Islyn

Heindrich wrote: »

OMG impressive necromancy @rdowdy95 ! That's OP stuff!

I had totally forgotten I ever made this thread... LOL Well that's perfect proof of when I used to be a super-casual roleplayer who chose skills and gear based on how they looked and felt rather than how they function mechanically. I'll use this thread as evidence whenever anyone accuses me of elitism again. If this scrub that wrote this thread can grow and improve, anyone can!

I am genuinely laughing at myself! Look at that build... I'm lv32, but still only using one bar! Haha!

lol I was just thinking: Necroposty Lvl: 9000 xD

The OP was like what, 1-2 weeks into launch? xD

rdowdy95

Well I don't know man. I am currently a VR2 and I have used this build as hybrid. Since I posted I subbed for that soul siphon stuff I put that Elusive mist just to avoid getting ganked, but my health attribute is 20 and my stamina is 30 currently mostly play pve but do group in imperial city quite a bit. I subbed that hidden blade for a move called ambush to close the gap. So yeah I have no points in now and going stamina night blade.

I do have a question for you. Say I don't use any dual wield abilities at all. Could I use the passive called a slaughter and just use light and heavy dual wield attacks to get the 10 percent damage to guys under quarter of their health?

Also thanks for replying.