Stealth and Night Blades

Honfold

There have been plenty of posts about the Dragon knight, Sorcerer and Vampire class combinations recently. Only seldom in various posts do I see comments or complaints about the condition of Night Blades. I do not want to compare the viability of Night Blades with Dragon Knights because that has saturated the forums, for good cause, and I am sure most people reading this will know what I mean.

My main frustration with the Night Blade class is the stealth mechanics in Cyrodiil. In its current state I do not know why anyone would put points into improved stealth. Here are the reasons I believe that:

> Hostile Guards can detect you nearly 100 yards away.
This is Extremely frustrating. This allows all the players in the area to know exactly where you are. Making the problem even worse, the guards will chase you for a very long time. Of course this makes you look like a fool running around a hill side for all the world to see.

>Players that you have killed not Re-spawning.
Now I am not 100% on this one. However this is what I have heard and experienced. Whenever I kill someone if they do not re-spawn I will remain detected.

>Unresponsive mechanics.
Occasionally I will use dark cloak however after a full second or two I am charged at and immobilized. Another issue that I experience regularly in both PvE and PvP is a significant delay in various combat move use from stealth or cloak.

I have made this thread in order to create a discussion of the Night Blade's viability in PvP. These are extremely frustrating experiences especially considering Night Blades have many skills specifically for stealth, assassination, or scouting roles in PvP that just do not work in Cyrodiil. I do hope that this type of discussion becomes more frequent and noticed by Zenimax.

moXrox

360° Blocking in ESO destroys any backstabber using the 2.5 sec stealth.

Blocking is a design failure currently and needs a rework. Not only backstabber are influenced by it, in general 360° block and the option to block and use spells in the same time is questionable.

Gilvoth

Honfold wrote: »

There have been plenty of posts about the Dragon knight, Sorcerer and Vampire class combinations recently. Only seldom in various posts do I see comments or complaints about the condition of Night Blades. I do not want to compare the viability of Night Blades with Dragon Knights because that has saturated the forums, for good cause, and I am sure most people reading this will know what I mean.

My main frustration with the Night Blade class is the stealth mechanics in Cyrodiil. In its current state I do not know why anyone would put points into improved stealth. Here are the reasons I believe that:

> Hostile Guards can detect you nearly 100 yards away.
This is Extremely frustrating. This allows all the players in the area to know exactly where you are. Making the problem even worse, the guards will chase you for a very long time. Of course this makes you look like a fool running around a hill side for all the world to see.

>Players that you have killed not Re-spawning.
Now I am not 100% on this one. However this is what I have heard and experienced. Whenever I kill someone if they do not re-spawn I will remain detected.

>Unresponsive mechanics.
Occasionally I will use dark cloak however after a full second or two I am charged at and immobilized. Another issue that I experience regularly in both PvE and PvP is a significant delay in various combat move use from stealth or cloak.

I have made this thread in order to create a discussion of the Night Blade's viability in PvP. These are extremely frustrating experiences especially considering Night Blades have many skills specifically for stealth, assassination, or scouting roles in PvP that just do not work in Cyrodiil. I do hope that this type of discussion becomes more frequent and noticed by Zenimax.

i agree 100% about all you said in this topic.
yes zenimax please give us nightblades a fix we really need.

Honfold

moXrox wrote: »

360° Blocking in ESO destroys any backstabber using the 2.5 sec stealth.

Blocking is a design failure currently and needs a rework. Not only backstabber are influenced by it, in general 360° block and the option to block and use spells in the same time is questionable.

I do agree. Fixing the blocking mechanics would be a much needed improvement and possibly add to the experience of shield users by enhancing tactical/immersion game play.

ChampionSheWolf

Considering stealth is the tool of everyone in this game and nightblade can be any role, I am often fascinated by posts that often make nightblades out to be the rogue only class, when that is hardly the case. So why should nightblades be the only ones that have these special considerations over any other class? After all there are things that buff stealth and sneak attacks not solely related to just nightblades.

Zubba

cbrown15_ESO wrote: »

Considering stealth is the tool of everyone in this game and nightblade can be any role, I am often fascinated by posts that often make nightblades out to be the rogue only class, when that is hardly the case. So why should nightblades be the only ones that have these special considerations over any other class? After all there are things that buff stealth and sneak attacks not solely related to just nightblades.

NightBlade class skills will pretty much only do damge from stealth/invisible rear attacks.

Burrick

Cmon guys it's not that bad surely?

Stealth heavy shot, poison arrow, siphon and silver bolts and a lot of enemies are dead or close to death, been having a blast on my bow NB lately.

Regards

Orcness Neverclean

NakedSnake

cbrown15_ESO wrote: »

Considering stealth is the tool of everyone in this game and nightblade can be any role, I am often fascinated by posts that often make nightblades out to be the rogue only class, when that is hardly the case. So why should nightblades be the only ones that have these special considerations over any other class? After all there are things that buff stealth and sneak attacks not solely related to just nightblades.

Why? for the same reason Templars are the only dedicated healers in this game.

Chirru

cbrown15_ESO wrote: »

Considering stealth is the tool of everyone in this game and nightblade can be any role, I am often fascinated by posts that often make nightblades out to be the rogue only class, when that is hardly the case. So why should nightblades be the only ones that have these special considerations over any other class? After all there are things that buff stealth and sneak attacks not solely related to just nightblades.

Well, first of all it is supposed THE rogue class.

If every class can be a rogue and sneak and stealth equally...why having class distinctions at all. I mean...why does the NB not have Dragon skills and why does the NB not have Sorcerer skills?

No..., NB's should not have special considerations above any other class... NB just should have equal considerations to any other class...and at the time this is not so.

So yes, NB ought to have sneak skills above the average available to every class. A 2.5 second invisibility cloak certainly is not sufficient. NB's should not need invisibility at all. Their Sneak skills should be sufficient so as to avoid (top level) 99% detection and that even with hostile town guards and Mage light.

A NB standing still in the shadows ought not to be detected at all unless they start moving, because two NPC's detecting a NB have a fair chance to kill The rogue. Now, that would be a valid rogue class.

As it is, right now the NB, as a class is redundant. They do nothing really well; are lucky to get a hit in PvP and quite simply s.... in dungeons. Boss fights are actually suicide attempts by the NB.

If I want to use Staffs I can just as well roll a Sorc and if I want to use heavy armor and 2h or Shields I roll a DK or T. They all do much, much better than the NB.

So whats the point? Why have NB's at all if they are not better in at at least one area than another class? In this case NB can just as well be taken out of the game altogether.

NakedSnake

Yes
Everyone can be a healer but Templars are a dedicated healer
Everyone can be a spell caster but Sorcerers are dedicated spell caster's
Everyone can be a tank but Dragon knights are dedicated tanks
Everyone can... stealth? but Nightblades are dedicated...wait what?

Nijjion

@Nakedsnake Everyone can stealth with a potion that's kinda big deal in a way to use/waste. Would say nightblades are dedicated melee damage if you're calling sorcs dedicated spell casters.

---

I would give up 360* blocking for 100% block from front and decrease the stamina used for blocking as well...even if spec'd / itemized for stamina decrease I still seem to run out of stam in 3-4 hits.

Zubba

Burrick wrote: »

Cmon guys it's not that bad surely?

Stealth heavy shot, poison arrow, siphon and silver bolts and a lot of enemies are dead or close to death, been having a blast on my bow NB lately.

Regards

Orcness Neverclean

But what about rouge assasin type of nightblade. To me using a bow feels very dull.

Gilvoth

i use duel wield "Daggers" not the bow, not the things your suggesting.
i dont want your suggestions on a build. i want the "nightblade" key word "blade" as in blades" daggers" skill line fixed.
duel wield - knightblade-

lao

Nijjion wrote: »

I would give up 360* blocking for 100% block from front and decrease the stamina used for blocking as well...even if spec'd / itemized for stamina decrease I still seem to run out of stam in 3-4 hits.

no worries it will get better once ur past level 15

lao

Honfold wrote: »

There have been plenty of posts about the Dragon knight, Sorcerer and Vampire class combinations recently. Only seldom in various posts do I see comments or complaints about the condition of Night Blades. I do not want to compare the viability of Night Blades with Dragon Knights because that has saturated the forums, for good cause, and I am sure most people reading this will know what I mean.

My main frustration with the Night Blade class is the stealth mechanics in Cyrodiil. In its current state I do not know why anyone would put points into improved stealth. Here are the reasons I believe that:

> Hostile Guards can detect you nearly 100 yards away.
This is Extremely frustrating. This allows all the players in the area to know exactly where you are. Making the problem even worse, the guards will chase you for a very long time. Of course this makes you look like a fool running around a hill side for all the world to see.

>Players that you have killed not Re-spawning.
Now I am not 100% on this one. However this is what I have heard and experienced. Whenever I kill someone if they do not re-spawn I will remain detected.

>Unresponsive mechanics.
Occasionally I will use dark cloak however after a full second or two I am charged at and immobilized. Another issue that I experience regularly in both PvE and PvP is a significant delay in various combat move use from stealth or cloak.

I have made this thread in order to create a discussion of the Night Blade's viability in PvP. These are extremely frustrating experiences especially considering Night Blades have many skills specifically for stealth, assassination, or scouting roles in PvP that just do not work in Cyrodiil. I do hope that this type of discussion becomes more frequent and noticed by Zenimax.

valid points. i dont think the respawn-thing is true tho. ive stealthed right after killing some1 before and they didnt insta respawn. i think its just another broken mechanic with an RNG value that decides when u can restealth again. pretty much like most of our skills randomly work or not work (hi2u shadowy disguise)

Sykotik_ESO

Yeah it seems the sneaking re-entry after killing someone is entirely RNG, which definitely should be once that person is dead or has fled a certain distance from.you you can sneak again.

Our in combat stealth though is just so messed up at the moment, along with many other skills of course.

I love the class and can still kill effectively with it, just can't wait for it to be fixed haha...maybe they broke it to make us NBs work harder to learn the class then fix it and make us gods:P

Starshadw

I have to agree, that the Nightblade needs some love. Given everyone can crouch-stealth (and that's not a bad thing), that means that the NB's stealth needs to be vastly superior to the other classes - via active skills in the Shadow line, and via passives. Right now, both the actives and passives for stealthing feel a little lackluster. Giving them all a boost would likely alleviate this.

Frankly, the 2.5 second invisibility is just plain silly. You can't sprint with it (at least, every time I've hit it and then sprinted, the invisibility has dropped immediately), and you certainly can't get far enough away in 2.5 seconds to make it a viable skill in PvP. Hitting it and crouch-stealthing isn't an option, either, in many cases - players looking for you will know to look nearby, and if they have a magelight, you're screwed six ways from Sunday.

LadyChaos

I think if you start with directional block and can put passives into increasing it's radius would be fine IMO.

As full light armor, I would get rocked even more if I could only block frontal... but if with time and passives I could increase it.. I can see that being trade worthy.

The not being able to stealth/mount while people don't resurrect... it is top on my list of things that make me crazy in Cyr atm... even as a non-NB player. Not to mention healing someone who walks off and dies, or kills someone who doesn't resurrect will keep you permanently unable to stealth... well not permanent but it feels that way lol.

lao

Starshadw wrote: »

I have to agree, that the Nightblade needs some love. Given everyone can crouch-stealth (and that's not a bad thing), that means that the NB's stealth needs to be vastly superior to the other classes - via active skills in the Shadow line, and via passives. Right now, both the actives and passives for stealthing feel a little lackluster. Giving them all a boost would likely alleviate this.

Frankly, the 2.5 second invisibility is just plain silly. You can't sprint with it (at least, every time I've hit it and then sprinted, the invisibility has dropped immediately), and you certainly can't get far enough away in 2.5 seconds to make it a viable skill in PvP. Hitting it and crouch-stealthing isn't an option, either, in many cases - players looking for you will know to look nearby, and if they have a magelight, you're screwed six ways from Sunday.

you can chain cast it like 5-6 times without using a pot effectively giving you 14-17 secs of complete invisibility. thats with a full mana bar ofc but even after a fight u can use it like 2-3 times (more if u use a pot) giving you enough time to get away.

what bothers me is all the bugs with it making you randomly reappear for no reason. also why the *** does magelight work vs it. thats absolutely braindead design. magelight should only reveal sneaking ppl but should have ZERO chance of revealing a cloaked guy. infact NOTHING should reveal a cloaked guy. absoilutely nothing. the skill costs a ton of mana as it is and half the time it doesnt even work when it clearly should.

Kypho

you cloak, talon getting you out of cloak, you cloak, talon get you out, you cloak, talon get you out of cloak, you have no magicka, you roll, talon roots you, you roll, talon roots you again. no stamina. talon up and comes the bashspamming with 350+ per half sec(if u are lucky). LONG LIVE TESO!
And some other attacks does always gets you out of cloak. So its useless if you want to stun with veiled strike or morphs, wont work. You can only do roll spam, and then cloak, if you are lucky, you can do it, and go for an attack. if you have stamina left. or you get CC and cant break out lol TESO. Or better you escape, but what.... you arent made NB to be a runaway with cloak, but it is atm. Thats my opinion.

PS.: All love 1h+sh! Block and can bash like a god+ never get a stun, and mitigate lot damage. Block infinite!! Best antistun. And its eating stamina? LOL not at all. the cost is so low.... But its boring after a time

lao

Kypho wrote: »

you cloak, talon getting you out of cloak, you cloak, talon get you out, you cloak, talon get you out of cloak, you have no magicka, you roll, talon roots you, you roll, talon roots you again. no stamina. talon up and comes the bashspamming with 350+ per half sec(if u are lucky). LONG LIVE TESO!
And some other attacks does always gets you out of cloak. So its useless if you want to stun with veiled strike or morphs, wont work. You can only do roll spam, and then cloak, if you are lucky, you can do it, and go for an attack. if you have stamina left. or you get CC and cant break out lol TESO. Or better you escape, but what.... you arent made NB to be a runaway with cloak, but it is atm. Thats my opinion.

PS.: All love 1h+sh! Block and can bash like a god+ never get a stun, and mitigate lot damage. Block infinite!! Best antistun. And its eating stamina? LOL not at all. the cost is so low.... But its boring after a time

hey, dont derail this thread into a dk whine thread. theres plenty of those around and its common knowledge that the class is broken beyond belief. this thread is meant to whine on broken NB abilitys! XD

Honfold

lao wrote: »

Starshadw wrote: »

I have to agree, that the Nightblade needs some love. Given everyone can crouch-stealth (and that's not a bad thing), that means that the NB's stealth needs to be vastly superior to the other classes - via active skills in the Shadow line, and via passives. Right now, both the actives and passives for stealthing feel a little lackluster. Giving them all a boost would likely alleviate this.

Frankly, the 2.5 second invisibility is just plain silly. You can't sprint with it (at least, every time I've hit it and then sprinted, the invisibility has dropped immediately), and you certainly can't get far enough away in 2.5 seconds to make it a viable skill in PvP. Hitting it and crouch-stealthing isn't an option, either, in many cases - players looking for you will know to look nearby, and if they have a magelight, you're screwed six ways from Sunday.

you can chain cast it like 5-6 times without using a pot effectively giving you 14-17 secs of complete invisibility. thats with a full mana bar ofc but even after a fight u can use it like 2-3 times (more if u use a pot) giving you enough time to get away.

what bothers me is all the bugs with it making you randomly reappear for no reason. also why the *** does magelight work vs it. thats absolutely braindead design. magelight should only reveal sneaking ppl but should have ZERO chance of revealing a cloaked guy. infact NOTHING should reveal a cloaked guy. absoilutely nothing. the skill costs a ton of mana as it is and half the time it doesnt even work when it clearly should.

You can certainly chain it. However this seems to only be useful in PvE content, just to avoid groups of mobs, or before you have even been noticed in PvP. I say this because AOEs bring you out of it and most players will be staggering themselves spamming AOEs as they are determined to find you.

The random appearing thing would have been on my short list of gripes, however I am just unsure if I am being knocked out of stealth because of a DOT or something else legitimate. That being said, I have the morph on my cloak that should remove DOTs but maybe that is broken, I just do not know.

The scenario that @Kypho has detailed has been my experience during most encounters in PvP with DKs. Enough of that though I do not want this to become a hate thread.

Hopefully they do fix these broken skills I have been hearing about. I do not know them specifically, though things just do not feel right while playing NB.

joshisanonymous

moXrox wrote: »

360° Blocking in ESO destroys any backstabber using the 2.5 sec stealth.

Blocking is a design failure currently and needs a rework. Not only backstabber are influenced by it, in general 360° block and the option to block and use spells in the same time is questionable.

I was just thinking about this yesterday. If I'm up against a good player, how would I ever be able to use Stealthy Disguise to get a big hit in? They can block for way longer than I can stealth and, if I hit them, I'm bound to get set off balance.

However, perhaps there's a counter in stamina drain potions.

Kypho

Nooo. its not the fault of the DK. Its the fault that you dont get immunity. IMO you should be only snared at 2nd root. Maybe root is fine at it is. I dont know, since you can fight back, even block. But some aoe.... (not only standard...).

Xnemesis

cbrown15_ESO wrote: »

Considering stealth is the tool of everyone in this game and nightblade can be any role, I am often fascinated by posts that often make nightblades out to be the rogue only class, when that is hardly the case. So why should nightblades be the only ones that have these special considerations over any other class? After all there are things that buff stealth and sneak attacks not solely related to just nightblades.

Because name the one thing a NB does special or brings to a group that is unique?... don't worry ill wait

Kewljag_66_ESO

The Nightblade is ment to be the burst damage assassin, Which is my build. I think it is just right, I am currently level 48 and since level 40 any target under VR5 I can destroy if I open with sneak attack. The only people that get away sometimes are bolt escapers. Teleport strike, vielled strike, and a heavy attack to knock down is devastating to open with as a sneak attack chain. NOW if I don't open with a successful sneak attack..... yah life is difficult as a Nightblade but I can still win fights if I block and interrupt at the right times. personally I am happy with my solo Nightblade and if we get some luv I wont complain I will just destroy in 1v1 ambushes that much more. Personally I don't even use the 2.5 sec invisible ability as its magika cost would just be better used as another vielled strike imo. I am very happy with my medium armor sneaking ability and ability to not be seen. My only complain is sometimes having to wait 30 seconds to get into sneak again after killing an enemy player

For groups I agree the NB doesn't bring much, but then again you chose the nightblade class and its more ment as a solo / ambush style of play in my opinion.

Honfold

Kewljag_66_ESO wrote: »

The Nightblade is ment to be the burst damage assassin, Which is my build. I think it is just right, I am currently level 48 and since level 40 any target under VR5 I can destroy if I open with sneak attack. The only people that get away sometimes are bolt escapers. Teleport strike, vielled strike, and a heavy attack to knock down is devastating to open with as a sneak attack chain. NOW if I don't open with a successful sneak attack..... yah life is difficult as a Nightblade but I can still win fights if I block and interrupt at the right times. personally I am happy with my solo Nightblade and if we get some luv I wont complain I will just destroy in 1v1 ambushes that much more. Personally I don't even use the 2.5 sec invisible ability as its magika cost would just be better used as another vielled strike imo. I am very happy with my medium armor sneaking ability and ability to not be seen. My only complain is sometimes having to wait 30 seconds to get into sneak again after killing an enemy player

For groups I agree the NB doesn't bring much, but then again you chose the nightblade class and its more ment as a solo / ambush style of play in my opinion.

I have that play style as well and yes a successful sneak attack work just fine. However I have noticed that the people I am able to catch while crouched are just not paying any attention. Usually it takes quite a bit of stamina to reach a target and if they are paying attention they will break out of the "Surprise Attack" stun and either "Bolt Escape" or toggle "Immovable."

Without bashing other classes I would suggest that the Night Blades are just not as viable in PvP.

Kewljag_66_ESO

Honfold wrote: »

Kewljag_66_ESO wrote: »

The Nightblade is ment to be the burst damage assassin, Which is my build. I think it is just right, I am currently level 48 and since level 40 any target under VR5 I can destroy if I open with sneak attack. The only people that get away sometimes are bolt escapers. Teleport strike, vielled strike, and a heavy attack to knock down is devastating to open with as a sneak attack chain. NOW if I don't open with a successful sneak attack..... yah life is difficult as a Nightblade but I can still win fights if I block and interrupt at the right times. personally I am happy with my solo Nightblade and if we get some luv I wont complain I will just destroy in 1v1 ambushes that much more. Personally I don't even use the 2.5 sec invisible ability as its magika cost would just be better used as another vielled strike imo. I am very happy with my medium armor sneaking ability and ability to not be seen. My only complain is sometimes having to wait 30 seconds to get into sneak again after killing an enemy player

For groups I agree the NB doesn't bring much, but then again you chose the nightblade class and its more ment as a solo / ambush style of play in my opinion.

I have that play style as well and yes a successful sneak attack work just fine. However I have noticed that the people I am able to catch while crouched are just not paying any attention. Usually it takes quite a bit of stamina to reach a target and if they are paying attention they will break out of the "Surprise Attack" stun and either "Bolt Escape" or toggle "Immovable."

Without bashing other classes I would suggest that the Night Blades are just not as viable in PvP.

I agree with you there compared to other classes. Except if you only want the assassin / ambush play style, then I think NBs excel at that better than the other classes. But yes overall they are subpar at all other roles.

I just wanted you to know that I am very successful at my build playstyle

awkwarrd

Honfold wrote: »

> Hostile Guards can detect you nearly 100 yards away.

>Players that you have killed not Re-spawning.

>Unresponsive mechanics.

The stealth mechanic is pretty lame, the 1 class that can utilize it to a higher potential and they can't majority of the time.

The guards are dumb, they just don't recognize stealthed players as stealth and just attack and reveal anything.

Stuck in combat and Detected after a kill, just because the enemy corpse did not respawn.
If you are a stealthed NB, go and walk over an enemies dead body, the eye actually opens up to detect you.. like a dead body is still able to see you.
Seriously dumb.

moXrox wrote: »

360° Blocking in ESO destroys any backstabber using the 2.5 sec stealth.

Blocking is a design failure currently and needs a rework. Not only backstabber are influenced by it, in general 360° block and the option to block and use spells in the same time is questionable.

I don't agree that the blocking mechanic is broken.
It would be nice if ZOS made block, actually block from the front only, but with the way things are breaking and being abused and nerfed to hell, i don't think ZOS has enough time to do this.

The NB should have attacks that are "un-block-able" from stealth.
That would fix alot of problems.
Although the class is broken still, with skills just not doing what they're supposed to and mechanics removing builds altogether like a stealth assassin dodge build, dodge doesn't work, and you get stuck in combat and revealed.

Kypho

Kewljag_66_ESO wrote: »

The Nightblade is ment to be the burst damage assassin, Which is my build. I think it is just right, I am currently level 48 and since level 40 any target under VR5 I can destroy if I open with sneak attack. The only people that get away sometimes are bolt escapers. Teleport strike, vielled strike, and a heavy attack to knock down is devastating to open with as a sneak attack chain. NOW if I don't open with a successful sneak attack..... yah life is difficult as a Nightblade but I can still win fights if I block and interrupt at the right times. personally I am happy with my solo Nightblade and if we get some luv I wont complain I will just destroy in 1v1 ambushes that much more. Personally I don't even use the 2.5 sec invisible ability as its magika cost would just be better used as another vielled strike imo. I am very happy with my medium armor sneaking ability and ability to not be seen. My only complain is sometimes having to wait 30 seconds to get into sneak again after killing an enemy player

For groups I agree the NB doesn't bring much, but then again you chose the nightblade class and its more ment as a solo / ambush style of play in my opinion.

against tanks 1h+sh blockmaniacs, or in zerg vs zerg, its hit n run, if playd well. Shame i can do it just a pair times

Kypho

awkwarrd wrote: »

Honfold wrote: »

> Hostile Guards can detect you nearly 100 yards away.

>Players that you have killed not Re-spawning.

>Unresponsive mechanics.

The stealth mechanic is pretty lame, the 1 class that can utilize it to a higher potential and they can't majority of the time.

The guards are dumb, they just don't recognize stealthed players as stealth and just attack and reveal anything.

Stuck in combat and Detected after a kill, just because the enemy corpse did not respawn.
If you are a stealthed NB, go and walk over an enemies dead body, the eye actually opens up to detect you.. like a dead body is still able to see you.
Seriously dumb.

moXrox wrote: »

360° Blocking in ESO destroys any backstabber using the 2.5 sec stealth.

Blocking is a design failure currently and needs a rework. Not only backstabber are influenced by it, in general 360° block and the option to block and use spells in the same time is questionable.

I don't agree that the blocking mechanic is broken.
It would be nice if ZOS made block, actually block from the front only, but with the way things are breaking and being abused and nerfed to hell, i don't think ZOS has enough time to do this.

The NB should have attacks that are "un-block-able" from stealth.
That would fix alot of problems.
Although the class is broken still, with skills just not doing what they're supposed to and mechanics removing builds altogether like a stealth assassin dodge build, dodge doesn't work, and you get stuck in combat and revealed.

Unblockable hits would be overpowered imo. But just block should remove stamina regen, maybe a little drain with shields, since shield holding needs stamina, or your arms getting very tired and you cant hold it up. but maybe that would be just too realistic. Holding anything up what has moderate weight, tires your arms. and heavy armor only is would be a pain to wear. but maybe this is offtopic too ...