Please, help me fine tune my Nightblade as a classical assassin archetype

Tenofas · June 2014

Some other video I found, that my help me (and anyone else) on building a DW/Bow Nightblade:

Griffith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as62Ygf7y1o (1-50 Levelling)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5p1DsAW4Ro (VR Solo Build)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2FpxVt7yuI (Solo/Small Group PvP)

JIN IR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ1enPNYB44 (PvP build - Predator)

Misha Petrov

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8krLrYX2ugo (PvP DW/Bow)

Tenofas · June 2014

A few more ideas about "how to build a DW/Bow Nightblade".

In both bars, you will need at least 1 skill to get the passive abilities for each branch:
-Assassination: increased damage while invisible and longer stuns from stealth; increased crit rating; increased crit damage.
-Shadow: increased stamina recover if shadow ability is activated; increased armor and spell resistance coming out of stealth; increased max health; increased duration of shadow abilities.
-Siphoning: increased max magika; increase healing from siphoning abilities; increased ultimate recharge damageing with siphoning ability.

This means that in your bars you should have at least one skill from each Class abilities.

In your DW bar you would usually have 2 from shadow (Dark Cloak + Concealed Weapon) and 1 from assassination (Killer's blade or Ambush). This leave your DW bar with two slots for DW abilities. And your Ultimate?
This is a problem. If you go with the best ultimate (Veil of Blades) you would not have the siphoning passive bonuses. You should then sacrifice the siphoning bonus, or use just one DW slot and replace the second with a siphoning ability (such as Funnel Health). But this way you would be too much focused on magika.
I guess it's better to keep two DW skills on bar, and forget about the siphoning passives. At least for the DW bar.

On the Bow bar, if you do not slot Shatter Soul as ultimate, it should not be a huge problem as you would easy have at least one skill from each of the three class branches. Funnel healt from siphoning, Piercing mark from assassination and Veil of blades from shadow. But if you want to slot Shatter Soul, probably it's better to slot Dark Cloak (that has good defensive effects).

Something like this: http://tinyurl.com/on3cex6
(Links to build on esohead.com)

Tannakaobi · June 2014

Rapid Strikes is the biggest waste of time in the game, two heavy attacks does more damage and is quicker.

smercgames_ESO · June 2014

I've found that you really only need 1 DW ability on your bar atleast in PvP. Flying blade is the one I use. Blood Craze is a possibility but then you have no CC.

My main PvP setup is Dark Cloak - Funnel Health - Flying Blade - Aspect of Terror (I leave it unmorphed for some reason) - Ambush - Death Stroke

Death Stroke gets changed up with Veil of Blades when I feel like it.

Funnel Health can easily be changed up with Concealed Weapon but I like the HoT and range it gives me. It could also be swapped with Killer's Blade which I also do sometimes.

Aspect of Terror gives me the CC we lack. I know concealed weapon can stun if we use Dark Cloak but thats double the magicka and less reliable. Plus people don't recognize fear as easily as a stun and they can simply block your Concealed Weapon where as Terror they don't see coming. I feel like this can also be swapped with Spark if you were ok with just the melee blind over fear but that leaves you very vulnerable to magic.

The only other DW skill that I consider throwing on is Blood Craze for the HoT and DoT but DoTs don't play well with Burst.

Vuron · June 2014

Here's an old build that I used to level from 1-VR10. It is a DW build, but doesn't use a bow. It is magicka based, though.

It needs modified due to some of the changes, nerfs, and buffs, but I do still use this build when I'm just running around by myself.

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/dw-assassin-nb-it-does-exist/

If you want to try it, I would change out the Night Mother set for 5 piece magnus by making 2 Magnus daggers. You could still have a 3 piece warlock and 3 piece willow's to go along with it. Also, the ult no longer gets the stealth bonus, so you would need to ignore that section.

yelloweyedemon · June 2014

If you keep the same 5 skills and don't swap depending on the situation, you are doing it wrong. /thread

Sharee · June 2014

7/7 medium, DW daggers. Redguard.

1, Concealed weapon
2, Dark cloak
3, Piercing mark
4, Impale
5, Ambush

I've been using a lot of setups (i love unlocking new skills and experimenting with them) but the above is the setup i am returning to again and again as it is the one i had the most success with.

1, Because stealth speed. Combined with Dark stalker from the vamp line, you move 25% faster when crouched than when walking.
2, Signature move. Allows for a stun when followed by 1. Also allows you to feed on mobs mid-combat if you are a vamp (this basically heals you to full)
3, Spot an enemy in PvP for a split second? Use truesight potion, then put this on them. You now have a full minute where they cannot hide from you(most of the time, at least).
4, Execute, with some range. Must have.
5, Not important in PvE (get close on foot and open with conc. weapon does better damage) but it is a gap closer so invaluable in pvp.

I am not using any abilities from DW, but still have DW passives maxed out (they affect light/heavy attacks)

Tenofas · June 2014

Thanks all for the good flow of ideas and hints.

smercgames_ESO · June 2014

yelloweyedemon wrote: »

If you keep the same 5 skills and don't swap depending on the situation, you are doing it wrong. /thread

Obviously no build is set in stone. That's why we all give ideas and you mix and match as you see fit but good job on being helpful.

Tenofas · June 2014

smercgames_ESO wrote: »

yelloweyedemon wrote: »

If you keep the same 5 skills and don't swap depending on the situation, you are doing it wrong. /thread

Obviously no build is set in stone. That's why we all give ideas and you mix and match as you see fit but good job on being helpful.

Absolutely right.
The build I am posting in my links is just a starting one, a standard from which, depending on situations, you can change skills: for aoe damage, for group utilities, for pvp in large groups, etc. etc.

Tenofas · June 2014

So, patch 1.2.3 is being applied right now in EU... let's see, these should be the changes that will affect us:

Combat & Gameplay

General

-Bow heavy attacks will no longer result in zombified monsters.
-Attack speed now correctly affects all weapons and weapon types.

Nightblade

-Assassination
Assassin’s Blade: This ability’s visual effects are now easier to see.
Incapacitate (Haste morph): This ability now increases heavy attack damage.
Master Assassin: This passive ability now increases spell power in addition to weapon power. Its stun duration increase has also been added to the tooltip.
Reaper’s Mark (Mark Target morph): This ability’s weapon and spell damage buff no longer stacks with itself – the duration of the damage buff will now just refresh upon each kill.

-Shadow
Path of Darkness: This ability can now be seen by all other player characters. Also fixed an issue where it was ticking more times than intended on a target.
Refreshing Path: This ability will now heal your allies, and the healing done has been slightly increased.
Refreshing Shadows: This passive ability is now always active, and no longer requires you to use another ability.
Shadow Cloak: This ability can now be cast when you have less than 35% of your magicka. Additionally, using this ability while a monster is taunted will now cause it to attack a different target.

-Siphoning
Leeching Strikes (Siphoning Strikes morph): The tooltip for this ability now shows the correct percentage of health recovery.
Magicka Flood: This ability now correctly increases your maximum magicka.
Siphoning Strikes: This ability now restores slightly less resources, and will no longer desync your resource bars upon use.
Soul Siphon (Soul Shred morph): Edited the tooltip for this ability so it’s more consistent with all other tooltips, and fixed an issue so the upgrade tooltip now states that it does less damage than the base ability.
Strife: Fixed an issue where the red glow from this ability would last longer than intended.

Weapons

-Bow
Focused Aim (Snipe morph): This ability’s tooltip now lists the duration of the effect.
Hawk Eye: Poison Arrow damage-over-time ticks now benefit from this passive ability.
Long Shots: This passive ability’s bonus is now applied to enemies greater than 40 meters away.
Magnum Shot (Scatter Shot morph): This ability’s animation no longer breaks if used while silenced or bracing.
Poison Arrow: Increased the damage-over-time for this ability by 50%.
Snipe: Reduced the cast time for this ability from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. We also reduced the range for this ability from 40 meters to 35 meters, and reduced the minimum range from 20 meters to 10 meters.

-Dual Wield
Hitting an off-balance enemy with a dual wield heavy attack now provides a damage bonus on both swings.
Dual wield heavy attacks versus off-balance enemies now knock the targets down at the correct time.
Flurry: This ability now properly animates even if the first tick is dodged.
Flurry: Increased the damage executed by the last hit by 10%.
Twin Blade and Blunt: This passive ability now scales based on weapon damage instead of spell damage.
Whirlwind: This ability no longer increases the damage of weapon enchantments.

Armor

-Medium Armor
Evasion: This ability’s triggered opacity effect will no longer prematurely disappear after killing an enemy.
Wind Walker 1: Adjusted this ability so it now reduces the cost of stamina abilities by 1% per piece of medium armor equipped, and 2% at rank 2.

Overall it seems like a good patch...