My Nightblade build - how can I improve?

Cepeza · June 2014

I would like to know your opinion about my nightblade build. Here it is.

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

I am pretty happy with it in PVE. Surprise Attack crits 100% for 1500 from Shadowy Disguise on next mob after a mob was killed wearing Reaper's Mark. Self-heal numbers are very good as long as I can do dps. I've got one gear set bonus with healing when an ulti is used (3 pieces) and one with receive % health when health drops below something. 3 vr3 mobs at once is tough, but manageable. Weapon swap does here the magic for me.

For PvP it's not bad too, but I do pretty much depend on weapon swap here. As you might know weapon swap in PvP is a touchy subject. I doubt there will be an improvement regarding that any time soon. Therefore I would like to rethink my build. I gank most of the time in a small group or just by myself. Sometimes I am lucky enough to find a pocket healer.

Any suggestions for improvement are appreciated.

[EDIT] Forgot the passives on weapon and class skills.

PBpsy · June 2014

Was haste and morphs fixed so it works on bows?

the.dzeneralb16_ESO · June 2014

PBpsy wrote: »

Was haste and morphs fixed so it works on bows?

I don't think it was (correct me if I'm wrong someone)

But build looks fine, I'm not a fan of bloodcraze though. I'd swap that out for something like flying blade

Phantax · June 2014

Cepeza wrote: »

I would like to know your opinion about my nightblade build.

Any suggestions for improvement are appreciated.

Sure... firstly you log out, go to character creation, choose Sorcerer and voila ! !

EDIT - Seriously though, does it matter? Find a build you are comfortable with, one that you find enjoyable. That's the best build you will ever have !
- I'd rather run a group of good players who are comfortable playing their build/character than a group of players who constantly make mistakes because they can't get along with the "best" build !

Esha76 · June 2014

That's not a bad build, rather good actually, I see the combinations you have set up there.

Forgive me if you already know this, but keep in mind this game is designed without the intention of the player creating one all-mighty build to carry them from level 1 to VR-Whatever. I don't know which zone/content you are currently working on, but I have changed up my base build regularly over the zones. Right now my NB is VR9 in her final zone of the game before Craglorn, and currently I am using 4 or 5 abilities I never had points in during 1 - 50. All that being said, I am no expert. In the upper VR zones I do all I can to avoid packs of 3 NPCs. Sometimes they are controlled rather well and I get past them with ease, other times it's a nightmare. Good thing sneaky medium armor wood elf is sneaky.

So once again, I apologize if you're already operating by changing things up. I think one of the greatest things about this game is the variety of abilities open to the player. Having changed up my NB's base builds over the leveling has kept her more interesting than classes I have played in other games. I even have points in other weapons I rarely use (such as inferno staff and 2 handed), as in some specific situations they have made a difference.

I expect it will get even better as they work on the classes and things become more balanced.

Svann · June 2014

I use soul tether for my ultimate. Good for trios and good for names.

Cepeza · June 2014

Thanks to all for constructive replies!

@PBpsy
Haste is not fixed for bow ...yet. I saw a note in some PTS patch notes the're on it. I stick it to the bow bar, because it stays active once triggered, so weapon swap is cool with that.

@Phantax‌
I've got a sorc destro/resto staff build as primary alt. Leveling up as quick as possible, in case ZOS is forced by forums qq to nerf it finaly.

@adamrussel52_ESO
I tried Soul Tether ulti on dual weild bar instead of Soul Harvest experiencing big overall dps penalty. I'm more happy with Soul Harvest being charged after 3 seconds than any additional healing. With item set bonus "heal on ulti use" I've pretty good heal peaks activating it every time its charged and thats quite often.

@Esha76
While I advanced in zones I changed my build 3 or 4 time, too. including the uber expensive skill reset. : \ I am aware of that I will need to change it again once I can not procede any further. Surprisingly current build works for 15 levels now. I'm dwelling at VR3 zone atm. 3 mobs at once are well manageable, when I am prepared and start the fight. When I just run into them by occasion unprepared, I am ***. I am also aware of the exponential mob hp and dps increase to be quite annoying starting from vr6 or so. My main concern is still that the build I posted is completely build around weapon swap. Weapon swap in pvp is kinda useless due to lag. Maybe it will be more fun using it in pvp when they migrate eu server to eu finally. However, I would appreciate any suggestion on how to avoid weapon swap, but still be good with stealth, dps and selfheal.

Mablung · June 2014

To seriously answer the question in your thread topic, simply reroll to sorc. VR8 NB here, had no trouble with the game, leveling etc, until patch 1.1.2. Now, cannot complete mosts quests without dying so much that it makes playing unenjoyable.

Svann · June 2014

Cepeza wrote: »

@adamrussel52_ESO
I tried Soul Tether ulti on dual weild bar instead of Soul Harvest experiencing big overall dps penalty. I'm more happy with Soul Harvest being charged after 3 seconds than any additional healing. With item set bonus "heal on ulti use" I've pretty good heal peaks activating it every time its charged and thats quite often.

.

Its actually the 4.5 second stun that I like best about it.

Cepeza · June 2014

@adamrussell52_ESO‌ Good point. Can this stun be broken by a stunned player in PvP?

D2player87 · June 2014

Hey man. Nice build. And not a restore/destro like
Mine either. If you dont mind sharing how do you deal with 3 group mobs. And i notice you have heavy armor passives there. How does those help with survivability.

Cepeza · June 2014

D2player87 wrote: »

Hey man. Nice build. And not a restore/destro like
Mine either. If you dont mind sharing how do you deal with 3 group mobs. And i notice you have heavy armor passives there. How does those help with survivability.

Usually 3 mobs at once works as follows.

Focused Attacks first. Reaper's Mark on healer, or non-heavy-armor-mob. Always start with that kind of mob first. Then crouch, then Lethal Arrow, immediately Lethal Arrow again on that mob. Then Shadowy Disguise, heavy attack, and finish with Poison Injection, and immediately Shadowy Disguise again while moving to mobs. That should take out the mob and give you a good + for weapon and spell DPS. Then while still in Shadowy Disguise switch weapons, then Surprise Attack, Blood Craze, Swallow Soul or Killers Blade. Depends if you can finish the second mob with your DPS. By then Soul Harvest should be ready to go for the second time already. For survivability block, switch weapons, do Shadowy Disguise and switch back to melee repeating the rotation. For the last mob and inbetween you can use Leeching Strikes. In case you pull more mobs inbetween, fire Veil of Blades before you use Soul Harvest for the first time.

This pretty much depends on weapon swap mechanics. Doesn't work too well in mass PvP, but great for PvE soloing or single gank in PvP. The heavy armor perk is just to push the health numbers little more due to passives. Same for light, but magicawise. I wear 5 med, 1 light, 1 heavy as usual.

Hilgara · June 2014

I never reapers mark the first mob I hit because if it goes down in one or two hits the heal from RM is wasted. Put it on the second of the 3 mobs because theres more chance you will have taken a hit by then and the heal wont be wasted.
I have also levelled Equilibrium to allow to generate ultimate at will for tough groups. I have found the cloak to be the best damage mitigation in the game. You cant really block a heavy attack once the animation has begun but if you cloak the attack is cancelled. Odd but true. I run with lots of magicka to allow me to just recloak and open over and over. Usually I just don't get hit because all attacks are cancelled with the cloak. Just remember not to use any dots coz it will uncloak you

frwinters_ESO · June 2014

I would switch leeching strikes with siphoning strikes. Regen on all attacks for just magica and stamina is worth it.

Focused attacks for bows will not work at the moment. I say replace that again with siphoning strikes.

Veil of Blades for a bow spec...eh. If your high enough level go for Soul Strike for a long range ultimate and move Veil of blades to your first bar. There are not many ranged ultimates for a nightblade unfortunatly, so if you go into PvP and dont have soul strike go for warhorn.

Cepeza · June 2014

Hilgara wrote: »

I never reapers mark the first mob I hit because if it goes down in one or two hits the heal from RM is wasted. Put it on the second of the 3 mobs because theres more chance you will have taken a hit by then and the heal wont be wasted.
I have also levelled Equilibrium to allow to generate ultimate at will for tough groups. I have found the cloak to be the best damage mitigation in the game. You cant really block a heavy attack once the animation has begun but if you cloak the attack is cancelled. Odd but true. I run with lots of magicka to allow me to just recloak and open over and over. Usually I just don't get hit because all attacks are cancelled with the cloak. Just remember not to use any dots coz it will uncloak you

This is very insightful. Thank you!

The cloak block is the most powerfull thing in this game. I got magica maxed out, too.

Recently I all by myself found dots being responsible for uncloaking. So I guess it's about time to give up on dots finaly... and respec again. $:\$ Since weapon swap in a fight just takes those precious second you can use to max dps and cloak on and on, is just not woth the button jockey thing. Thanks again for the good advice!

frwinters_ESO wrote: »

I would switch leeching strikes with siphoning strikes. Regen on all attacks for just magica and stamina is worth it.

Focused attacks for bows will not work at the moment. I say replace that again with siphoning strikes.

Veil of Blades for a bow spec...eh. If your high enough level go for Soul Strike for a long range ultimate and move Veil of blades to your first bar. There are not many ranged ultimates for a nightblade unfortunatly, so if you go into PvP and dont have soul strike go for warhorn.

I guess it's time to do some math to compare leeching to siphoning and compare this to game dps numbers afterwards.

I knew Focused Atacks does not work with bow. It got in bow weapon swap just for a place holder, as it stays on after swap to melee bar. As far as I know ZOS wants to adress this in 1.2.x omething. Veil of Blades is a placeholder, too.

You are right about not much choise for ranged ulti playing a NB. Since a respec seems to be inevitable to me anyway, I might go for Soul Tether for 2nd Ulti this time. Dunno yet. Shooting Star in mage gulds tree looks pretty intrigueing, too.

phtony06b14_ESO · June 2014

I think the reason you like it better for pve is b/c you've chosen the pve morphs.

Concealed Weapon > Surprise Attack in pvp (in my opinion) b/c of the stealth speed passive. I also like it for pve b/c you can move into position without having to consume cloak twice. Soloing it doesn't matter, either is fine.

Killer's Blade is debatable vs. Impact in pvp obviously b/c of the range that Impact gives you. Lot of movement in pvp.

Leeching Strikes - needs to be on both bars to be effective otherwise too much is wasted in reapplying taking into consideration that you've wasted time swapping bars to begin with (speaking of pvp).

Incapacitating Strike > Soul Harvest in pvp. That stun can be life saving.

Dark Cloak > Shadowy Disguise in pvp b/c of the dot removal allowing you to purely escape into the wild blue yonder.

Venom Arrow > Poison Injection in pvp b/c of the cast interrupts.

Piercing Mark is debatable as being better than Reaper's Mark in pvp due to not allowing ppl to stealth away & recover.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong with the build (especially for pve); it just isn't optimized for pvp.

Incidentally I would move Shadowy Disguise to the same bar as Surprise Attack b/c the combo is money if you have to spam it. (Swallow Soul moved to bow bar).

Just my thoughts after a quick read.

Edited for grammar.

frwinters_ESO · June 2014

Cepeza wrote: »

Hilgara wrote: »

I never reapers mark the first mob I hit because if it goes down in one or two hits the heal from RM is wasted. Put it on the second of the 3 mobs because theres more chance you will have taken a hit by then and the heal wont be wasted.
I have also levelled Equilibrium to allow to generate ultimate at will for tough groups. I have found the cloak to be the best damage mitigation in the game. You cant really block a heavy attack once the animation has begun but if you cloak the attack is cancelled. Odd but true. I run with lots of magicka to allow me to just recloak and open over and over. Usually I just don't get hit because all attacks are cancelled with the cloak. Just remember not to use any dots coz it will uncloak you

This is very insightful. Thank you!

The cloak block is the most powerfull thing in this game. I got magica maxed out, too. Recently I all by myself found dots being responsible for uncloaking. So I guess it's about time to give up on dots finaly... and respec again. $:\$ Since weapon swap in a fight just takes those precious second you can use to max dps and cloak on and on, is just not woth the button jockey thing. Thanks again for the good advice!

frwinters_ESO wrote: »

I would switch leeching strikes with siphoning strikes. Regen on all attacks for just magica and stamina is worth it.

Focused attacks for bows will not work at the moment. I say replace that again with siphoning strikes.

Veil of Blades for a bow spec...eh. If your high enough level go for Soul Strike for a long range ultimate and move Veil of blades to your first bar. There are not many ranged ultimates for a nightblade unfortunatly, so if you go into PvP and dont have soul strike go for warhorn.

I guess it's time to do some math to compare leeching to siphoning and compare this to game dps numbers afterwards.

I knew Focused Atacks does not work with bow. It got in bow weapon swap just for a place holder, as it stays on after swap to melee bar. As far as I know ZOS wants to adress this in 1.2.x omething. Veil of Blades is a placeholder, too.

You are right about not much choise for ranged ulti playing a NB. Since a respec seems to be inevitable to me anyway, I might go for Soul Tether for 2nd Ulti this time. Dunno yet. Shooting Star in mage gulds tree looks pretty intrigueing, too.

I would wait until next week because they are saying the next content patch should fix haste with bows the the leeching/siphoning strikes abilities will be tweaked.

RatsnevE · June 2014

n/t

Lyall84 · June 2014

Cepeza wrote: »

@adamrussell52_ESO‌ Good point. Can this stun be broken by a stunned player in PvP?

Yes

RatsnevE · June 2014

n/t