Double NB/ Play styles for NB

Chelister · August 2015

Hey everyone

So I am planning to start a new character and I was thinking of making a NB

Can someone, who played the class and knows how it works give me some advices

I know there are a lot of different types of play styles such as:
choosing Dunmer NB for a vampire
going with a dest staff

Can you please list some of such play styles and highlight the stronger and the weaker sides of each one, including what races to take, preferably

My friend is also going to start a NB, so if you could also give any suggestions to whether what combo would the best (we are going to mainly PVP)

What we are looking for is to max out single target damage, so we can take out an enemy instantly, but I would like to know as much as possible

Thank you

Emo_Kills_Best · August 2015

I play a Bosmer NB that's all about single target damage. I use medium armor and a bow, along with a mix of abilities. Any info I give you, you can take and use as you please but I'm sure someone will correct a few things I have to say - however, the build I use does tend to work quite well. I'm also on Xbox One so some of my things might be slightly different, I'm not sure if there's any actual differences between the platforms.

So first, go sky shard hunting. It helps a lot because there's so many passives you'll need.

My ability bar is:
Camouflaged Hunter, Shadowy Disguise, Killers Blade, Poison Injection, Acid Spray and my Ult is Soul Tether. I also put all of my attribute points into Stamina. I'm also a vampire and have that maxed out so I have the stealth passive, along with the magicka and stamina recovery passive as well. I heard Werewolf is a better choice but I just stayed with vampire for the stealth. With this build you enter Stealth very fast at night, and reasonably fast during the day and with Shadow Disguise you can enter stealth at any time to either sneak past people or get away, it also gives you next attack an instant crit so if you use an ability while in it, you'll do extra damage with it.

The simplest way to put it for this build is to hide, power up a heavy attack and hit an enemy while in stealth but immediately use Poison Injection right after. I believe the game has a slight lag to it when you shoot your first heavy attack arrow so you have an extra chance of getting a crit with Poison Injection. Camo Hunter gives you a higher crit just by having it slotted, plus if you activate it you have a chance of doing extra damage to targets (higher chance to undead and daedra). So in a typical combat situation this is what I do.

Stealth, activate Camo Hunter, Heavy Attack followed by an immediate Poison Injection. That usually one hits some higher enemies, especially if Camo Hunter's ability gets activated. If it doesn't, just keep shooting arrows quickly from your bow while constantly pressing the Poison Injection button and you'll get a pretty good One-Two combo going. If direct/critical damage doesn't kill your enemy, the poison will definitely give you some help. For groups of mobs/players I use Soul Tether to Stun and get some health while spamming Acid Spray for damage and to poison the targets.

Plus with all these passives on you'll move so fast in stealth it's sickening - especially if you happen to use Concealed Strike (morph of Veiled Strike) because just having that slotted increases your stealth movement speed as well.

A lot of people use Snipe because of it's higher damage output, but I don't tend to use it because of the usage time. Yes, it's a great opener, especially if you're hidden, but then I don't tend to use it after the first shot, so it's kind of a waste of space for me.

Chelister · August 2015

Emo_Kills_Best wrote: »

I play a Bosmer NB that's all about single target damage. I use medium armor and a bow, along with a mix of abilities. Any info I give you, you can take and use as you please but I'm sure someone will correct a few things I have to say - however, the build I use does tend to work quite well. I'm also on Xbox One so some of my things might be slightly different, I'm not sure if there's any actual differences between the platforms.

So first, go sky shard hunting. It helps a lot because there's so many passives you'll need.

My ability bar is:
Camouflaged Hunter, Shadowy Disguise, Killers Blade, Poison Injection, Acid Spray and my Ult is Soul Tether. I also put all of my attribute points into Stamina. I'm also a vampire and have that maxed out so I have the stealth passive, along with the magicka and stamina recovery passive as well. I heard Werewolf is a better choice but I just stayed with vampire for the stealth. With this build you enter Stealth very fast at night, and reasonably fast during the day and with Shadow Disguise you can enter stealth at any time to either sneak past people or get away, it also gives you next attack an instant crit so if you use an ability while in it, you'll do extra damage with it.

The simplest way to put it for this build is to hide, power up a heavy attack and hit an enemy while in stealth but immediately use Poison Injection right after. I believe the game has a slight lag to it when you shoot your first heavy attack arrow so you have an extra chance of getting a crit with Poison Injection. Camo Hunter gives you a higher crit just by having it slotted, plus if you activate it you have a chance of doing extra damage to targets (higher chance to undead and daedra). So in a typical combat situation this is what I do.

Stealth, activate Camo Hunter, Heavy Attack followed by an immediate Poison Injection. That usually one hits some higher enemies, especially if Camo Hunter's ability gets activated. If it doesn't, just keep shooting arrows quickly from your bow while constantly pressing the Poison Injection button and you'll get a pretty good One-Two combo going. If direct/critical damage doesn't kill your enemy, the poison will definitely give you some help. For groups of mobs/players I use Soul Tether to Stun and get some health while spamming Acid Spray for damage and to poison the targets.

Plus with all these passives on you'll move so fast in stealth it's sickening - especially if you happen to use Concealed Strike (morph of Veiled Strike) because just having that slotted increases your stealth movement speed as well.

A lot of people use Snipe because of it's higher damage output, but I don't tend to use it because of the usage time. Yes, it's a great opener, especially if you're hidden, but then I don't tend to use it after the first shot, so it's kind of a waste of space for me.

Thank you for response

This is certainly useful for me as I am totally new to NBs, so thank you

I quit like your play style and built, especially the opening with the camouflaged hunter skill

You said you are running as a vampire, but playing bosmer, so how do u get on with surviving?
I mean vampires have a fire vulnerability at 40 or 50 %, don't really remember it
Did u intentionally choose bosmer for NB and didn't choose dunmer, knowing that they have fire resistance, or u didn't know whether u gonna become a vampire or not?

Emo_Kills_Best · August 2015

Honestly, I just picked Bosmer because I knew they were good with a bow. I didn't think about how I wanted to play or if I was going to become a vampire (i didnt even know they were in the game to be honest). One of the perks of being a bosmer though is you get 15% extra EXP for bows, plus when you max it out you get a bonus to stamina regen and stealth. After you get Veteran Rank you can use champion points to reduce the overall fire damage you take, so that's one way of doing that - plus you can always wear equipment that reduces fire damage. For the first few levels of vampire I would recommend feeding all the time so you stay at level 1 vampirism, the health regen kind of kicks your butt for awhile until you get the perk that reduces the penalty, but like I said, being a vampire is optional. But how do I survive? Easy. I take the enemy out first before they can hit me with any fire attacks

Chelister · August 2015

Emo_Kills_Best wrote: »

Honestly, I just picked Bosmer because I knew they were good with a bow. I didn't think about how I wanted to play or if I was going to become a vampire (i didnt even know they were in the game to be honest). One of the perks of being a bosmer though is you get 15% extra EXP for bows, plus when you max it out you get a bonus to stamina regen and stealth. After you get Veteran Rank you can use champion points to reduce the overall fire damage you take, so that's one way of doing that - plus you can always wear equipment that reduces fire damage. For the first few levels of vampire I would recommend feeding all the time so you stay at level 1 vampirism, the health regen kind of kicks your butt for awhile until you get the perk that reduces the penalty, but like I said, being a vampire is optional. But how do I survive? Easy. I take the enemy out first before they can hit me with any fire attacks

haha, thats a good tactics to survive )

I see, so basically it's difficult being a vampire at the initial lvls, but then as u max out your skill tree u get the penalties reduced, while cp and enchantments help u to reduce the fire vulnerability

You mentioned that feeding is essential to stay at lvl 1 vampirism, what did u mean? Does it mean that if u don't feed it might drop the skill like or just not be able to progress?

Skiserony · August 2015

I play my NB as a tank for PvE and a stamina dps (kind of hybrid) for PvP, which with just switching gear setup is perfectly compatible with each other. And really fun.

I also play mainly for PvP with my NB which can do great burst damage, and him being a tank is just so effective and will be even better with next patch.

There are always more effective combos:
- Mag dps for PvP and same for PvE (with some other gear) or tank for PvE (higher health pool then but that's pretty useful in PvP also).
- Stam dps for PvP and PvE (or tank)
- Hybrid build for PvP and tank for PvE (which should be kind of hybrid too)
- Mag dps for PvP and healer for PvE, ...

Just try to find a combo that synergizes pretty good in PvE and PvP and I think it's pretty clear how to, there are multiple choices so just choose whatever you would prefer to play

Just know, especially for a NB, the same gear for both PvE and PvP will not be effective for one of both, you'll have to make different gear setups but no necessarily needed to change attribute points, skil points or champion points for that.

Have fun, it's a helluva fun class to play with.

Bloodgharm · August 2015

I have run two very different variations of the nb and while I strictly stick to pve, many of the same skills and concepts are used.

I started off as a dw/bow stamina nb. This build focuses solely on burst dps. You can nuke down pretty much anything at range with your bow, then ambush in and use your dw/assassin skills to finish off everyone else up close. Cons to this build is that it's very squishy unless you get a damage shield and/or self heal.

The other route is a magicka caster nb; wielding staffs and light armor. Your survivability is going to be much better with this build at the expense of burst dps. Yet this build works great in a group as you'll be dealing damage and also healing you and your teammates with your siphoning skills.

If you have any questions on which skills to choose, let me know.

Xvorg · August 2015

I'm trying a Hit and Run Stam Dunmer NB, DW/Bow. At the moment is lvl 36 but it looks pretty well for the future

Bow:

Venom Arrow
nothing yet (vigor or Camo hunter)
Ambush
Surpise attack (surprise!! you're dead)
Magnum shot

U: Incapacitating strike (planning to change it to Flawless Dawnbreaker)

Charge a full heavy attack and a VA imediately after -> Ambush ->SA -> Magnum -> Heavy attack/VA

DW

Silver shards
nothing yet (vigor or camo hunter)
Ambush
Steel tornado
Mass Hysteria

U: Incapacitating strike (planning to change it for shooting star in the future)

Silver shard at an enemy (group) -> ambush -> steel tornado (twice) -> mass hysteria (to make them run) -> Silver shards for those who survived.

For set, I already have a combo with Hunding's and Ashen's grip. At VR5 I'll try to get Dreugh Kingslayer (already have it) + Hunding's + Eagle Eye (bow + 2 rings) + 2 Tong's knifes

The idea is to be able to deal individuals and groups.

Reeko · August 2015

For the NB, atleast in the beginning, you are going to want to grab the first two abilitys in the Assassin and Shadow trees, and the first one in Siphoning. Choose any Ultimate you want. Then once you figure out if you wanna go stamina or magicka you can start morphing the abilitys to suit your playstyle. Here are some links to guides i have used to help me out:

Stamina NB:http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/nb-dual-wieldbow-pve-dps-build-1-6-6/

Magicka NB:http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/1-6-pve-correct-magicka-nightblade-dps-amstelx/

Also maybe download this app on your phone to help you plan ahead with your skill points: ESO Skills

Emo_Kills_Best · August 2015

Chelister wrote: »

Emo_Kills_Best wrote: »

Honestly, I just picked Bosmer because I knew they were good with a bow. I didn't think about how I wanted to play or if I was going to become a vampire (i didnt even know they were in the game to be honest). One of the perks of being a bosmer though is you get 15% extra EXP for bows, plus when you max it out you get a bonus to stamina regen and stealth. After you get Veteran Rank you can use champion points to reduce the overall fire damage you take, so that's one way of doing that - plus you can always wear equipment that reduces fire damage. For the first few levels of vampire I would recommend feeding all the time so you stay at level 1 vampirism, the health regen kind of kicks your butt for awhile until you get the perk that reduces the penalty, but like I said, being a vampire is optional. But how do I survive? Easy. I take the enemy out first before they can hit me with any fire attacks

haha, thats a good tactics to survive )

I see, so basically it's difficult being a vampire at the initial lvls, but then as u max out your skill tree u get the penalties reduced, while cp and enchantments help u to reduce the fire vulnerability

You mentioned that feeding is essential to stay at lvl 1 vampirism, what did u mean? Does it mean that if u don't feed it might drop the skill like or just not be able to progress?

It's not necessary to feed, and you don't lose anything, however when you advance in stages of vampirism, you get a reduced cost in vampire abilities, but your health regenerates a lot slower (75% slower at level 4 vampirism). I suggested to feed a lot to keep yourself around level 1 or 2 in order to avoid a health regen penalty until you are able to purchase the passive that reduces the penalty itself. Like I said, it's optional and you don't gain or lose anything skill wise.

EDIT: Another thing you could do is pick the mundus stone that's right for you. In the beginning I picked The Tower for the stamina boost. It helped out a lot while I was grinding levels, but once I got to a higher level I started using The Shadow for the critical damage boost. Another good thing to pump skill points into is the Fighters Guild passives. Seeing as how most of the grind areas are some sort of undead creatures, with the Fighters Guild skill line, you can get some pretty helpful passives. There's ones that give you extra Ultimate just by killing undead, and I believe there's one that allows you to do extra damage as well. Really helps with the grinding.