Finally know what I want to do, just not sure which class to do it with. help?

JMadFour
JMadFour
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So I’ve been playing since Console Launch, making and remaking characters trying out different things. I’ve determined that there are two things that I like to do ingame more than others:


1. Sneak, Sneak Attacks, and Legerdemain

2. Healing(not necessarily Main Healing or whatever, but PVP heals and off-heals in PVE, I DID end up as the main healer the first time I did a dungeon though, and I enjoyed it)

I've determined that I DO NOT like 2Handers or Bows. I DO like Dual Wield, Destruction Staff, and Resto Staff.

So I want to make some sort of “Stealth Mage” if such a thing is possible. a Melee-range spellcaster/healer with good ability to sneak/pickpocket/sneak attack. support functions (like damage shields and such) would be fine too.

I would play with a Magicka Focus. I’d like to Dual Wield, as it fits the image I have for my character, but I can’t honestly say that I am married to it. Debating between DW and Destruction Staff, for my First weapon. My 2nd weapon is going to be a Restoration Staff, and that’s not debatable.

the other major debate I am having with myself about this Stealth Mage type character is what mixture of armor to go with, Medium/Light, or Light/Medium.

Several Specific Questions about making this kind of character:

1)If I DW, I’d likely only be using Light/Heavy Attacks(specifically Heavy Attacks from Stealth which are awesome). How much LESS damage will I be doing with those, since I am not Stamina focused?

2)How significant is the Improved Sneak bonus from Medium Armor in both PVE and in Cyrodiil(but mostly Cyrodiil)? Could I feasibly get by with only 2 pieces of Medium, the rest Light, and still maintain a decent amount of stealthiness? or vice-versa for magicka regen?

3)How much will having or not having enough Medium Armor pieces affect my ability to pickpocket and things like that?

4)Are there any magicka Class Abilities that benefit from the Sneak damage bonus/crit? or do only Stamina attacks do that? If so, I may further consider replacing DW with a Staff, and just using the Class ability instead)

5)Does “Weapon Power”(from the Medium Armor passive Agility) include Staves, or just Stamina weapons?

I am sure more questions will pop up, but thanks in advance for helping a noob!

Edited by JMadFour on June 30, 2015 8:28PM
  • Lynx7386
    Lynx7386
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    Sounds like nightblade would work well for you. A lot of nightblade spells can be used well with a magicka build and stealth, and they can be good healers too. You can even use a staff while doing those sneak attacks.
    PS4 / NA
    M'asad - Khajiit Nightblade - Healer
    Pakhet - Khajiit Dragonknight - Tank
    Raksha - Khajiit Sorcerer - Stamina DPS
    Bastet - Khajiit Templar - Healer
    Leonin - Khajiit Warden - Tank
  • RavenSworn
    RavenSworn
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    JMadFour wrote: »
    So I’ve been playing since Console Launch, making and remaking characters trying out different things. I’ve determined that there are two things that I like to do ingame more than others:


    1. Sneak, Sneak Attacks, and Legerdemain

    2. Healing(not necessarily Main Healing or whatever, but PVP heals and off-heals in PVE, I DID end up as the main healer the first time I did a dungeon though, and I enjoyed it)

    I've determined that I DO NOT like 2Handers or Bows. I DO like Dual Wield, Destruction Staff, and Resto Staff.

    So I want to make some sort of “Stealth Mage” if such a thing is possible. a Melee-range spellcaster/healer with good ability to sneak/pickpocket/sneak attack. support functions (like damage shields and such) would be fine too.

    I would play with a Magicka Focus. I’d like to Dual Wield, as it fits the image I have for my character, but I can’t honestly say that I am married to it. Debating between DW and Destruction Staff, for my First weapon. My 2nd weapon is going to be a Restoration Staff, and that’s not debatable.

    the other major debate I am having with myself about this Stealth Mage type character is what mixture of armor to go with, Medium/Light, or Light/Medium.

    Several Specific Questions about making this kind of character:

    1)If I DW, I’d likely only be using Light/Heavy Attacks(specifically Heavy Attacks from Stealth which are awesome). How much LESS damage will I be doing with those, since I am not Stamina focused?

    2)How significant is the Improved Sneak bonus from Medium Armor in both PVE and in Cyrodiil(but mostly Cyrodiil)? Could I feasibly get by with only 2 pieces of Medium, the rest Light, and still maintain a decent amount of stealthiness? or vice-versa for magicka regen?

    3)How much will having or not having enough Medium Armor pieces affect my ability to pickpocket and things like that?

    4)Are there any magicka Class Abilities that benefit from the Sneak damage bonus/crit? or do only Stamina attacks do that? If so, I may further consider replacing DW with a Staff, and just using the Class ability instead)

    5)Does “Weapon Power”(from the Medium Armor passive Agility) include Staves, or just Stamina weapons?

    I am sure more questions will pop up, but thanks in advance for helping a noob!

    1) if you are not stamina focused, then using dual wield would just be a stat weapon, and not an active weapon. Dw increases spell power due to its use of two weapons (weird but there it is) you will be doing a whole lot less damage with light attacks, unless its to upkeep your ultimate generation.

    2) the sneak bonus improves dramatically if you have 5 medium as opposed to 2 but its really up to your playstyle.

    3) Personally I think that is a question of your ability to sneak, rather than gear but having enough pieces helps.

    4) concealed weapon from the shadow tree of nightblades will be affected by stealth. Shadowy Disguise, the cloak Morph, will also guarantees your next hit to be a crit. You can also use any weapon with class abilities but do take a look into the staff skill lines. Some may help you alot more than just class skills.

    5) weapon power affects melee weapons and bow, basically those weapons that deal physical damage. Spell power affects staves, both destro and restro. So the passive will not affect staves.
    Ingame: RavenSworn, Pc / NA.


    Of Wolf and Raven
    Solo / Casual guild for beginners and new players wanting to join the game. Pst me for invite!
  • AssaultLemming
    AssaultLemming
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    Unfortunately you have chosen two ideas which are not compatible with each other, sneaky characters ideally need to be stamina based, while healers need to be magicka based. Sneaky characters are best in medium armour, and healers in light armour. Different races are better for each of these roles also. The closest you could come would be a magicka nightblade using resto staff and light armour. These characters are great dungeon adventurers and solo characters, less desirable in PvP than a stamina nb though in my mind. You can certainly make a magicka nb with resto/destro, use one bar for heals and the other for dps.
    Edited by AssaultLemming on July 1, 2015 12:13AM
  • JMadFour
    JMadFour
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    Unfortunately you have chosen two ideas which are not compatible with each other, sneaky characters ideally need to be stamina based, while healers need to be magicka based. Sneaky characters are best in medium armour, and healers in light armour. Different races are better for each of these roles also. The closest you could come would be a magicka nightblade using resto staff and light armour. These characters are great dungeon adventurers and solo characters, less desirable in PvP than a stamina nb though in my mind. You can certainly make a magicka nb with resto/destro, use one bar for heals and the other for dps.

    Yeah I am noticing this, sadly.

    the more I play the more I am gravitating towards being a Pure Caster Templar, DPS/Heals, a mix of Melee range, and long range casting. Seems like an easier Hybrid to pull off, since it'll mostly be reliant on the same power source (Magicka).

    What I think I need to do is, in my mind, divorce Legerdemain activities from Combat activities. that said, if I use a combination of Light and Medium Armor, I can still get a stealth detection reduction, just not as much as a Pure Stealth type. so I should still be able to sneak at times when I want to. I just won't have that big out-of-stealth crit attacks. but that's ok I guess.
    Edited by JMadFour on July 1, 2015 1:05AM
  • Lynx7386
    Lynx7386
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    Here's what I would suggest:

    -Play either a khajiit or bosmer. Both of these have racial bonuses to stealth/sneaking ability. The bosmer also has extra stamina regen which can help you with the high stamina cost of sneaking around.

    -Gear in 7/7 light armor and for max magicka (and enough health to keep yourself alive). You're going to be using spellpower based abilities, so you want to maximize your magicka, magicka recovery, spell crit, and spell power.

    -You CAN use dual wield on your main weapon bar, but I would highly suggest using either a destruction or restoration staff instead. Your attacks will be more powerful, and you wont be working on something that uses the wrong resource. Going with destruction staff on one bar and restoration on the other is a good setup.

    -You'll want to work on the legedermain skill line, and put champion points towards reduced sneaking cost, stealth detection range, stealth damage, so on and so forth. You wont get these passives from your armor, so you need to get them wherever else you can.

    -Use 5 pieces of the night's silence set (only takes 2 traits to craft). The other slots are up to you on whichever set you want to use. The 5 piece night's silence bonus removes the speed penalty while sneaking, allowing you to move around much, much quicker while stealthed. This stacks with the 22% movement speed bonus while sneaking that concealed weapon gives you, allowing you to get around very quickly, thus reducing the stamina you spend while sneaking and increasing your ability to get in and attack before being noticed.


    On your main ability bar, you're going to want to focus on a few key abilities:
    1. Veiled Strike (morphed into Conceiled weapon). This is your primary attack. It's close range, it does heavy damage from stealth as well as when out of stealth, it's based on magicka, and it increases your stealth movement speed.
    2. Strife (morph of your choosing). Strife will deal significant damage to a target as a magicka built character, and it heals you based on the damage dealt. You can alternate between veiled strike and strife to keep the healing effect on you when fighting tougher opponents.
    3. Cripple (morph of your choosing). This will slow down your target and speed you up, which can help in kiting tougher opponents that you cant fight toe to toe. It also does hefty damage over time, and should be kept on your enemy at all times to raise your overall damage output.
    4. Drain Power (morphed into Sap Essence). This will deal pretty good AoE damage around you. It also heals you and any allies based on the number of enemies it hits. On top of that, it also increases your spell power by 20% if it hits at least one target. Use this early in a fight and your other abilities will be dealing out significantly more damage.
    5. Assassin's Blade (morphed into Impale). This is your finisher. It's based on magicka/spellpower, it does extreme damage to low health targets, and it's got up to an 18 meter range so you can use it even if you arent close to the enemy you're trying to put down.

    Beyond those, ability choices are up to you. Those 5 will allow you to burn down just about anything quickly as a magicka-built nightblade, however. Obviously you want to fill out all 3 class trees, and pick up as many passives to boost your damage and stealth as possible.
    PS4 / NA
    M'asad - Khajiit Nightblade - Healer
    Pakhet - Khajiit Dragonknight - Tank
    Raksha - Khajiit Sorcerer - Stamina DPS
    Bastet - Khajiit Templar - Healer
    Leonin - Khajiit Warden - Tank
  • Dudis
    Dudis
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    Melee magicka nightblades are very viable. Going that route also gives you the option for strong heals and ranged magic attacks.

    Example of a endgame PvP build. (5-7 light and 0-2 heavy armor). Any magicka based race will work well but I personally recommend breton or imperial

    BAR1 Dual wield:
    Use teleport strike and concealed weapon in melee, spam cloak a lot (it costs basically nothing to use) to reposition and use the concealed weapon synergy and fear for CC.
    Spawn a ghost before you jump in and activate it again to reposition after a kill or to escape a bad situation.

    BAR2 Resto staff:
    Funnel health is your main ranged nuke and also gives nice sustain from the healing. Also it costs basically nothing to cast.
    Crippling grasp for some nice CC and a movement speed buff as well as good damage.
    Purge to remove marks and other nasty debuffs
    Healing ward - it's just a great healing spell.

    5th slot is kind of optional. I'd probably go piecing mark for extra damage and hard counter to stealth or the light armor ability harness magicka for survivability and sustain.


    This is just an example, experiment and find what you like yourself, it's after all the beauty of this games spec system ;)


    Excuse any spelling errors or autocorrects, I'm typing this on a phone :p
    Edited by Dudis on July 1, 2015 1:44PM
  • BurtFreeman
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    awesome role play you are going to do.

    i see yourself like a dark night blade necromancer.
    if you match what i mean, you are going to make a original character in eso.

    first cut: weapons: resto and fire destro, becouse is the staff that make the mage :) (pretty silly but almost true)

    second cut: playing as Stealth Mage you may want to wear 5 light (you really need, if you see you like a mage) + 2 medium (with 2 pieces you may still enjoy the passives)

    from the nb class you have almost anything you need to play a very nice build. from the class skill you can also summon, is not a like to be a necromancer puppeter, but is something.

    i keep in contact to see what are you going to do, i am interested in it.
    Edited by BurtFreeman on July 1, 2015 1:55PM
  • JMadFour
    JMadFour
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    Thanks for the responses guys. But a funny thing happened here.



    Everyone said Nightblade, and it makes perfect sense for the criteria I put forth. However, I've been trying a Nightblade, and I just can't get into the class as a whole. Like I said, I like Stealth, but somehow the NB class just doesn't resonate with me. I don't know exactly what it is about it, maybe it is the auesthetics of the skill animations and stuff.



    meanwhile, I'm just chugging along with my Templar, almost level 20 now playing Pure Caster style and really enjoying the mixture of ranged spell damage and healing. it seems like I've found what I was meant to do in this game, I suppose. the only question left is do I abandon stealth alltogether for a more Frontline-ish WarPriest(with 2 Heavy Armors instead of 2 Medium) or not.
  • Dudis
    Dudis
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    Well, everyone can sneak in this game ;)

    Stay with your templar if that's what you enjoy!
    Use a bit of everything while leveling up though to make sure you have all the options available at max level (meaning use at least one of every armor type until they are 50, use different weapons, level all class skills etc).
    The more you do that while leveling, the less you have to go out and grind new abilities up when you want to try another build.

    I really like my templar, it has been my main char since the start. I'm trying many different specs on her but usually end up going back to the "warpriest" style 2 heavy 5 light, 1h/shield + destro or resto staff
  • JMadFour
    JMadFour
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    OK, so I just got off work.

    gonna go to sleep, and when I wake up, I'm devoting the rest of my day to my Nightblade.

    Siphoning Attacks will restore Magicka for me, even if I am using a Stamina Weapon? also, how large is the radius for Refreshing Path?
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