Head over to the Tamriel Foundry forums and get in on some of the good NB build discussions. All of your questions are answered in the Class discussion and NB Theorycrafting sections.

Veil of Blades.

For dungeons and ranged DPS this is what I would do

Switch your Medium armor out for all light. For Single Target get a Resto staff for your weapon and make sure to take the passive that gives 10% bonus to damage. Your main attack will be Funnel Health (strife Morph) you want to weave that with light attacks. Keep Inner Light (mage light morph) on all the time. When the target gets to 25% health use Impale (Assassin's Blade morph) until dead. If you are in a group you can use Spell Symmetry (Equilibrium morph) to regain Magicka otherwise keep Siphoning Attacks (Siphoning Strikes morph) on at all times to regain Magicka.

So your single target Resto bar will be Funnel Health, X, Impale, Siphoning Strikes/Spell Symmetry, Inner Light and for Ultimate Veil of Blades is good but Soul Assault (Soul Strike Morph) will do more damage single target.

X is your choice of either Cripple for a DOT or any assassination skill for increased crit with the Pressure Points passive.


For AE use Destro Staff. Start with Power extraction (drain power morph) does damage builds ultimate and buffs your weapon damage, Elemental Ring (Impulse Morph) until dead, drop veil of blades ultimate as often as possible. Same as above with the regen and Inner light.

So your AE bar will be Power Extraction, Elemental Ring, Impale, Siphoning Strikes/Spell Symmetry, Inner Light with Veil of Blades ultimate.

*Impale for executes on leftover guys and also adds crit

Alrighty guys, thanks for all the feedback. Some good tips here.

Vuron wrote: »

Alphashado wrote: »

Alrighty guys, thanks for all the feedback. Some good tips here.

@kitsinni gave you the default build for trials and VR dungeons. To answer your other question, Funnel Health is what will generate most of your ultimate. The Funnel morph will heal 2 other players and the heals each have a chance to crit which will generate ultimate pretty fast.

Very cool, thank you.

Thanks for the NB AoE tips in this thread

Aeratus wrote: »

kitsinni wrote: »

For AE use Destro Staff. Start with Power extraction (drain power morph) does damage builds ultimate and buffs your weapon damage, Elemental Ring (Impulse Morph) until dead, drop veil of blades ultimate as often as possible. Same as above with the regen and Inner light.

So your AE bar will be Power Extraction, Elemental Ring, Impale, Siphoning Strikes/Spell Symmetry, Inner Light with Veil of Blades ultimate.

*Impale for executes on leftover guys and also adds crit

Don't forget the expert hunter skill on the Fighters Guild line if you're fighting daedra. This skill adds a lot of damage to your attacks, especially in AOE impulse situations. The fast attack rate of impulse (compared to whirling blades, for example), combined with light armor bonuses, makes expert hunter shine. With power extraction + inner light + veil of blades + expert hunter, you can get AOE dps bursts of over 4.5k or even over 5k.

Yeah in a heavy deadra encounter that would make sense to switch for Impale.

I guess what I still find a little confusing is that Power Extraction enhances weapon damage. (8% each target dmaged up to 9 targets for a possible weapon damage buff of 72%). But there is no mention of synergizing it with actual weapon damage. All of the AoEs mentioned do magic damage. Even Whirlwhind (duel wield aoe) does "physical damage". So am I missing something here? Do magical AoE's like Impulse and Veil of Blades somehow gain the damage modifier from Power Extraction even though it says weapon damage? Or does the bonus only apply to single target light and heavy weapon attacks?

Awdwyn wrote: »

Yup. Weapon skills gain bonus from weapon damage. Odd as it seems with impulse because it's a magic attack, it's a destro weapon skill.

So you are saying that any weapon ability gains the Power Extraction modifier regardless of what type of damage it does?

Alphashado wrote: »

I guess what I still find a little confusing is that Power Extraction enhances weapon damage. (8% each target dmaged up to 9 targets for a possible weapon damage buff of 72%). But there is no mention of synergizing it with actual weapon damage. All of the AoEs mentioned do magic damage. Even Whirlwhind (duel wield aoe) does "physical damage". So am I missing something here? Do magical AoE's like Impulse and Veil of Blades somehow gain the damage modifier from Power Extraction even though it says weapon damage? Or does the bonus only apply to single target light and heavy weapon attacks?

All staff skills use weapon damage (but spell crit). So power extract increases damage of impulse and also increases resto staff heals.

To summarize,

Weapon damage, weapon crit - whirlwind

Weapon damage, spell crit - impulse

Spell damage, spell crit - veil of blades

Spell damage, weapon crit - impale

for single target combat..... funnel health is a must have. I use deathstroke for my ultimate. knocks down enemies and stuns them for a good bit, allowing you to whale on them without resistance. but idk about AOE. for AOE veil of blades would be advised, but I don't use AOEs so idk about that

pinstripesc wrote: »

Is there any benefit to using Funnel Health over Swallow Soul when you're solo?

No. If you run solo the majority of the time, then go with Swallow Soul.

Funnel Health is good if you run in a group as it heals others and builds your ultimate faster.

Shunravi wrote: »

Alphashado wrote: »

Aeratus wrote: »

First of all, what weapon are you using. That is probably the most important part.

But for all weapons, the core mechanic in single target dps is to animation-cancel the light attack into a skill (i.e., weaving). For NBs, the cancel attack is generally strife (funnel health).

Also, "stamina" weapon and "massive AOE dps" don't belong in the same sentence. Use veil of blades and power extraction for AOE dps.

I intend to use as little stamina as possible. As for weapons, right now I am using a 2H because I was told that the cleave morph is a good way to build Ultimate. But I am totaly open to anything.

Not sure how animation canceling works. I've heard about it but never tried it.

Ok, I'm a Nightblade who solo'd pre nerf vet almost exclusively with a 2hander. Just so you know my credentials

Carve + power extract builds ult very quickly. It's comparable to a sorc with their ult cost reduction, etc. The ult you are going to want to use is veil of blades, as it is an excellent aoe dot. It also boosts the defence of any ally standing in it. With a slow to boot. Path of darkness is a decent aoe, and would be ok on your aoe bar. It also gives you great kiting ability, so there's that. The combo of veil and path makes up for any stamina you might burn for damage instead of defence. It essentially makes up for one of the bigger weaknesses of melee builds; survivability. (Damage notwithstanding)

Swallow soul is a pretty good ability to spam for single target. It has the added bonus of being your heal as well as make all other heals more effective. Crippling grasp applies a decent dot, with a good bit of upfront damage. It also speeds you up regardless of enemy immunity. And impale is a great finisher. It has respectable range, and can also be spammed. I use supprise attack and ambush on my single target bar, but if you are ranged, they are non factors.

Also siphoning attacks are great for spamming abilities like impulse (or any others, just an example) and power extract will keep your dps respectable.

Pretty much how I played. Althought later on I expreimented mass hysteria for crowd control

At VR12, Power Extraction Spam and Soul Tether Ult lets me take out any size pack. I have take out has many as 7 at a time.

More mobs you have the better Pwr Extract works up to 9.

Sustained single target, this should put you near the max dps an NB can produce

Resto staff
1. Health Funnel -The healing produces more ult, I believe, groups. If you're solo, then use Swallow soul
2. Crippling Grasp
3. Spell Symmetry
4. Impale
5. Inner Light

Spell power potions, Thief stone, jewelry that boots spell damage, gear that increases spell crit and healing on you, since you will be using Spell Symmetry. This is a group set up, btw. Don't use Spell Symm solo! lol