Nightlblade - Fav Skills?

AngryWolf · June 2014

Just wondering what other fellow Nightblades see as their favorite skills? I went through a big changes in my character. From a Two Hand & Dual Wield to what I feel more comfortable with, Dual Wield and Bow.

I primarily go with DW and tend to go for ambush then unleash with rapid strikes unless there are 3 or more, then go with Whirling Blades.

What sort of general attack strategies are the rest of you using?

Aeradon · June 2014

Swallow Soul, Siphoning Attacks and Leeching Strikes. They're the best.

I started out with DW/Bow with the following set ups.

DW AOE
Swallow Soul
Steel Tornado
Refreshing Path / Sap Essence
Lotus Fan
Leeching Strikes

DW Single Target
Swallow Soul
Blood Craze
Rapid Strikes / Leeching Strikes
Shadow Disguise
Surprise Attack

Bow Single Target
Swallow Soul
Impale / Venom Arrow
Magnum Shot
Leeching Strikes
Cripple

Bow AOE
Volcanic Runes
Bombard
Arrow Barrage
Refreshing Path
Swallow Soul

Then I reset for Magicka heavy builds to train up other weapons.

Destro Staff Single Target
Swallow Soul
Impale
Siphoning Attacks
Destructive Clench (Fire)
Cripple

Destro Staff AOE
Refreshing Path
Swallow Soul / Sap Essence
Elemental Blockade (Any)
Siphoning Attacks
Shadow Cloak / Siphoning Attacks
Soul Tether (this is the only AOE stun NB has)

There's more builds that I've used to level my other weapons. But there's always the siphons and invisibility on the bar. It helps a lot.

Ser Lobo · June 2014

For my archer, it's almost the whole siphon line. Cripple, Strife, Agony.

For my barbarian, it's Assassins' Blade and Teleport Strike, as well as the cheap as dirt ultimate Death Stroke.

Can't say I care for the shadow line at all. Never even touched Blur or Transfer. Mark Target and Siphoning Strikes are both huge penalties on my solo build.

Falmer · June 2014

Duel wielding 2 daggers. I always open combat with a heavy attack from stealth. Follow that with a Blood Craze and Strife, finally another heavy attack. Will kill off that target before they even get over the stun from the stealth attack.

Against groups I use Cloak generously as it gives you four seconds of invisibility while your life-draining attacks are working and enough time to wind up a heavy attack that crits 100% of the time. Cloak also gives you like 2000 armor and spell resist for the additional 4 seconds after cloak making you nearly invincible with all the life draining going on.

I keep leeching strikes on almost all the time as well, so I never run out of magicka or stamina. Also working on shades as the 5th. though, I think I can put those on the off-bar since they last awhile anyway.

AngryWolf · June 2014

Wow...some good info! Thanks all, will give some of that a try!

Spiritreaver_ESO · June 2014

My three fav skills:

Veil of Blades: One of my favorite ultimates in the game. Its a just awesome all around. Dmg reduction, DoT on AoE, and good duration. Again, all around good.

Lotus Fan: Great way to quickly make a ranged fight into a melee one. Good initial hit and DoT. Is AoE.

Shadowy Disguise: Good for controlling the flow of fights. I foresee its gonna be a key skill in many player's load-outs soon.

shad0w18 · June 2014

For PvP:
Shadowy Disguise (Will swap over to Cloak when bugs are fixed)
Concealed Weapon (Mobility is god in PvP)
Ambush (Gap closer and damage booster to next ability)
Flying Dagger (The only ability worth using in DW compared to BC or Flurry)
Camouflaged Hunter/Piercing Mark/Radiant Magelight (Last slot is interchangeable due to area/situation)
Ultimate: Incapacitating Strike (They need to add the crit back into this. Might take Flawless Dawnbreaker when I unlock it)

For PvE (Solo quest play):
Shadowy Disguised
Concealed Weapon
Piercing Mark/Camouflaged Hunter (Mark for initial burst and heal and Hunter is for vs undead)
Flying Dagger (Stamina dump. Sometimes I like using Blinding Flurry)
Ambush (Sometime I drop this for Camo Hunter/Piercing Mark. I use it like a bash but with a benefit to follow up attack.)
Ultimate: Incapacitating Strike (Needed for groups of mobs. Open with wombo combo stealthed CW and drop this on another guy. Lower damage taken as long the stun persists)

Offset is Bow but I only use it in PvP vs Seiged Keeps. Standard Heavy Attack + Poison Arrows

jelliedsoup · June 2014

Ambush, Concealed Weapon, Dark Cloak (if it works), Impale. Sorry not original.

Piercing Target in PvP over 2 people fights is great. Siphoning line is crap for me, using bow the Swallow Soul is ok.

cigarsmoker · June 2014

Single skill for Nightblade?
Drain Essence
or Silver Leash
Considering the number of undead and daedra.
Though Drain Essence doesn't work on anything large, like all the other nightblade skills (don't get me started), I think it does the best on helping keep the Stamina up for Silver Leash or any of the weapon skills.

JonzzLonewolf · June 2014

Favourite Nightblade skill?
Veil. Of. Blades. Nuff' said.

GeeYouWhy · June 2014

My favorite NB skills are that ones that constantly fail to fire when I press my skill buttons, oh wait ... that's all of them.

Gilvoth · June 2014

i love my shade. hes awesome. i used to use the 2 shades but i respeced and now is just the one and man i am so glad i did. he makes it fun to play.

badmojo · June 2014

I use 2 sets of daggers.

Basically I use the shadowy disguise to get in the middle of the group and then throw out some Steel Tornado while jumping around avoiding their attacks. When I focus on one enemy I use a lot of Rapid Strikes until I start getting low on stamina and switch to Rending Slashes since I can pretty much do that ability forever. If it starts to hit the fan and I run low on stamina or health I switch to a more defensive role and avoid combat while throwing out some Funnel Health.

For an ultimate I use Soul Tether which seems to work great for stunning just about every enemy. Tho it has gotten a bit more hit and miss with one of the last patches.

Another great ability I've started to use is the fighters guild ability Evil Hunter. It has a chance to add stamina, but what I like most is the 'killing an enemy adds 15seconds to duration' part, I put it on my second bar and only have to cast it for the first group, after that it just keeps stacking up time. My second bar also has Impale and Flying Blade, for those times when melee just isn't an option.

SienneYviete · June 2014

Why do alot of NB's miss possibly the best NB skill in the game sap essence?

Knootewoot · June 2014

I use for PvP and PvE almost the same

1st setup:

dual wield

Skills:
rapid strikes (the one with stun chance)
concealed weapon
blood craze
teleport strike
shadow disguise
ULTIMATE: death stroke

2nd setup

Bow

Skills:

poison arrow
mass hysteria (it fun using leeroy jenkins mode and run into a group of enemy players and spam it until you die. Can be used to disorient a group who stay close together aka blob o' death)
Swallow soul (in PvP sometimes alliance assault with the group speed)
Mark Target (using it with bow because i use it long range. i switch to dual wield when i am in range)
Shadow
ULTIMATE: death stroke, but now i try level up the world ultimate sould something.

Sometimes i also use 1handed shield but not as much anymore.

ferzalrwb17_ESO · June 2014

Eldhaaril wrote: »

Why do alot of NB's miss possibly the best NB skill in the game sap essence?

Because it's a useless solo morph? I find it particularly underwhelming. The weapon damage increase is excellent for some AoE play and it's good for grouping but it's very situational.

That's why it's hard to pick a "best" skill because most are situational. The most universal would be a cloak morph I should think.

SienneYviete · June 2014

ferzalrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Eldhaaril wrote: »

Why do alot of NB's miss possibly the best NB skill in the game sap essence?

Because it's a useless solo morph? I find it particularly underwhelming. The weapon damage increase is excellent for some AoE play and it's good for grouping but it's very situational.

That's why it's hard to pick a "best" skill because most are situational. The most universal would be a cloak morph I should think.

For bosses I would say yes but when most vet content and pvp is focused on multiple mobs and players this skill is hands down one of the best a NB has.

Mablung · June 2014

For me its as follows:

Bar 1

Ambush - usually my opener
Surprise Attack - great with Shadowy Disguise; Concealed Weapon is just as good if you morphed into that.
Impale - Just started using this in place of Flurry
Hidden Blade - Great for those kiting moments and adds some ranged attack ability
Shadowy Disguies - Had been using Swallow Soul but at the higher Vet ranks it is worthless imo. (Have also used Reapers Mark-great health return if you can insta kill first mob, muscle down second and gain health from mark to deal with third)
Ultimate - Soul Harvest

Bar 2

Poison Injection - spammable if using Siphoning Attacks
Magnum Shot - no explanation needed
Acid Spray - Kiting is a must with the bow and this helps that endeavor
Reapers Mark - Experimental usage with this abilitiy atm. Could use Swallow Soul here or any other skill.
Cripple - Another ability that helps with kiting primarily
Ultimate - Clouding Swarm (vamp ulti)

I use Dual Swords and currently at VR9 have Maxed weapon Dmg of 182(+1) and 40% weapon critical. All 3 primary stats are maxed and exceed soft caps with food buff. I wear 6 med armor pieces and 1 light armor. Various runes and jewelry I can list if anyone really wants to know.

Edit: Race is Imperial

ferzalrwb17_ESO · June 2014

Eldhaaril wrote: »

ferzalrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Eldhaaril wrote: »

Why do alot of NB's miss possibly the best NB skill in the game sap essence?

Because it's a useless solo morph? I find it particularly underwhelming. The weapon damage increase is excellent for some AoE play and it's good for grouping but it's very situational.

That's why it's hard to pick a "best" skill because most are situational. The most universal would be a cloak morph I should think.

For bosses I would say yes but when most vet content and pvp is focused on multiple mobs and players this skill is hands down one of the best a NB has.

I rarely slot it as I get enough weapon damage bonus out of dawnbreaker and the aoe damage it does for my build is pathetic. Most pve groups are 3-4 and my NB can reduce that by one before the others react so I'm usually facing 2. It's a wasted slot for me. Group dungeons and Vet dungeons I tend to slot it but that's a small part of my ESO experience. Situational. Perhaps if I was more magicka focused I'd slot it but I simply refuse to wear the skirt and sticks. I get by.

Likewise the NB's best friend against the undead/daedra in camohunter (tho a FG skill) is situational.

I can easily see how some builds would never slot it. It's hard to imagine a NB not finding a spot on one bar for a cloak though (even if the armour bonus is almost pointless in VR zones). It's hard to pick best but you can look for universal.