Light or Medium Armour for Nightblade?

Elyna · August 2014

As the title says. What would I benefit more from? Currently I am using only magic damage in my skill bar. I know Light lets you use more spells, but does the armour have any real effect on my spell damage output?

OrangeTheCat · August 2014

I use 3 pieces of light on my NB; the rest is medium. There is no right answer. Do what makes sense to you.

Shunravi · August 2014

Yes, light can effect your spell damage, as it boosts both pen and crit. Being able to cast more also helps your effectiveness especially in longer fights.

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO · August 2014

I wanted a monk, but the closest I can get is the "psi-blade" animation from the Nightblade's melee skills. My primary bar is built around Impale, Dark Cloak, Ambush, Surprise Attack, and Swallow Soul.

I initially ran with full Light armor for the magicka boost, and that was wrong. Turns out, the Nightblade's melee attacks scale from WEAPON damage and ARMOR penetration (not magic damage and Spell Pen).

I started equipping full Medium armor, and my performance immediately improved. Not to mention my stamina regen for CC breaking and roll dodging, as well as the massive improvements to stealth and run speed.

Now, if you're going with a ranged Nightblade built around class abilities, Light armor will serve you best.

That's my experience, anecdotal though it is. If anyone has numbers to either support or debunk this, I would appreciate it.

Kewljag_66_ESO · August 2014

Elyna wrote: »

As the title says. What would I benefit more from? Currently I am using only magic damage in my skill bar. I know Light lets you use more spells, but does the armour have any real effect on my spell damage output?

It depends on what class skills you use. If you use melee class skills like teleport strike, vielled strike, impale and such they are actually based off of weapon crit and you would benefit more from medium armor. If you are more of a siphon spec with the ranged spells you would benefit more from light armor

Light armor will let you use magika abilities more often but medium armor will let you sneak better and put out more damage with weapon abilities AND class melee abilities.

Personally if you are going siphon mage i would go light armor. if youa re going assassin play i would go Medium armor. if you go bow i would go medium armor.

PharmaChief · August 2014

When i started the game i wanted to turn my nightblade into a tank so i went for heavy armor. I can see now that was wrong as i exclusively leveled heavy. It seems now to much work to change...Anyway most people will say light is the best especially if you play pvp. For pve almost everything works

Shunravi · August 2014

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO wrote: »

I wanted a monk, but the closest I can get is the "psi-blade" animation from the Nightblade's melee skills. My primary bar is built around Impale, Dark Cloak, Ambush, Surprise Attack, and Swallow Soul.

I initially ran with full Light armor for the magicka boost, and that was wrong. Turns out, the Nightblade's melee attacks scale from WEAPON damage and ARMOR penetration (not magic damage and Spell Pen).

I started equipping full Medium armor, and my performance immediately improved. Not to mention my stamina regen for CC breaking and roll dodging, as well as the massive improvements to stealth and run speed.

Now, if you're going with a ranged Nightblade built around class abilities, Light armor will serve you best.

That's my experience, anecdotal though it is. If anyone has numbers to either support or debunk this, I would appreciate it.

Ah, yes, I was assuming more ranged skills and a staff. It really does depend on which skills you are using. Anything that looks like you draw a shadow blade (ambush, supprise attack etc) will use physical crit stats. I tended to hybrid my build (2l, 5m avg.) as I could draw benifit from both. It really does depend on what you are using

Aeratus · August 2014

For PVE, light armor + staves builds are superior for dps and I think most if not substantially all players at the endgame would agree. If you search any of the threads around here, this is a reoccurring theme discussed ad naseum. Not everyone wants to play as light armor + staves, but since you've said that you like magic, you should give it a try.

For PVP, it's more debatable. Personally, I think light armor + resto staff is still superior for PVP, and this is the build that I use (my swap weapon is shield).

The comment above that NB class melee skills scale off of weapon damage is correct. These skills are veiled strike, teleport strike, and assassin's blade. On the other hand, ranged class skills (other than impale) scales with magic damage.

smeeprocketnub19_ESO · August 2014

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO wrote: »

I wanted a monk, but the closest I can get is the "psi-blade" animation from the Nightblade's melee skills. My primary bar is built around Impale, Dark Cloak, Ambush, Surprise Attack, and Swallow Soul.

I initially ran with full Light armor for the magicka boost, and that was wrong. Turns out, the Nightblade's melee attacks scale from WEAPON damage and ARMOR penetration (not magic damage and Spell Pen).

I started equipping full Medium armor, and my performance immediately improved. Not to mention my stamina regen for CC breaking and roll dodging, as well as the massive improvements to stealth and run speed.

Now, if you're going with a ranged Nightblade built around class abilities, Light armor will serve you best.

That's my experience, anecdotal though it is. If anyone has numbers to either support or debunk this, I would appreciate it.

I thought the melee abilities scaled with weapon crit but spell power.

Kartalin · August 2014

I think it depends on your play style and what your build works best with. I play what is essentially an assassin build. I wear full medium, but because Concealed Weapon is a spell it depends on your spell damage. So with the use of armor sets (5 Lamae & 4 Torug's pact) and jewelry, I was able to soft cap my spell damage. And with the NB passives and medium passives I still have good weapon damage and crit.

Elyna · August 2014

Kewljag_66_ESO wrote: »

Elyna wrote: »

As the title says. What would I benefit more from? Currently I am using only magic damage in my skill bar. I know Light lets you use more spells, but does the armour have any real effect on my spell damage output?

It depends on what class skills you use. If you use melee class skills like teleport strike, vielled strike, impale and such they are actually based off of weapon crit and you would benefit more from medium armor. If you are more of a siphon spec with the ranged spells you would benefit more from light armor

Light armor will let you use magika abilities more often but medium armor will let you sneak better and put out more damage with weapon abilities AND class melee abilities.

Personally if you are going siphon mage i would go light armor. if youa re going assassin play i would go Medium armor. if you go bow i would go medium armor.

What about Siphon and Bow use?

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO · August 2014

smeeprocketnub19_ESO wrote: »

I thought the melee abilities scaled with weapon crit but spell power.

Ah, okay. Crit could explain why my attacks seemed to be hitting harder when I equipped medium armor.

So - for the PvP melee Nightblade - would adding a Spell Damage enchant or two really net you a decent damage output, or do you get enough raw damage from stacking Magicka?

Thanks for the info!

Nestor · August 2014

Kewljag_66_ESO wrote: »

but medium armor will let you sneak better and put out more damage with weapon abilities AND class melee abilities.

It is amazing how close you can get to an enemy with full MA and the Passives for Sneak. Plus the Stamina Regen is nice on a full set of MA. Couple that with some of the bonuses from crafted sets with Movement, you can Sneak faster than a Sprinting Horse.

That being said, the more you run your NB like a Sorcerer, the better off you will be. I have also found out that if your not Dual Wielding on a NB, the game will beat you up. I tried a 1H/S and Bow NB, and it pretty much sucked. Now I am changing out his entire approach to the game at level 49. I am building up the Staff, and then I will build up the Dual Wield. I would even delete this character if he was not my HA crafter and had a bunch of research done. Yes, I started my NB with HA, that was a big mistake.

It basically boils down to Staff/DW for a NB. The armor choice comes down to using the Staff or using the DW. If your inventory space can manage it, get one of the Add Ons that let you change out your armor quickly an run both LA and MA depending on what your tactics are going to be for that fight.

ThisOnePosts · August 2014

OrangeTheCat wrote: »

I use 3 pieces of light on my NB; the rest is medium. There is no right answer. Do what makes sense to you.

This. I have 1 in all medium, the other in mixed (light/heavy). It depends how much of which passives you'd like.

UrQuan · August 2014

Nestor wrote: »

I have also found out that if your not Dual Wielding on a NB, the game will beat you up. I tried a 1H/S and Bow NB, and it pretty much sucked.

I've got a level 21 sword & board / bow NB as well as a level 22 dual wield / bow NB, both of which use mostly medium armour. I'd agree that the dual wield / bow build is far more effective than the sword & board / bow build.