Ezareth - Rise of the Perma-Dodger 1.6 Stamblade 1vX PvP

Ezareth · August 2015

Just put together my first 1vX Nightblade video to highlight my (soon to be obsolete) playstyle. I'm not a big fan of stealth or attacking from stealth. Perhaps I would have more success with this playstyle as a DK but I doubt it. I'm really going to miss the fluid combat I enjoy with this char, I think I've enjoyed it more than my Sorc so far.

I tried to keep the clips short and relevant and the action fast paced for enjoyment purposes.

I'm using Skirmisher, Shadow Walker Jewelry and Night Silence Weapons/Shield/Chest/Shoulders.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GIj07V20EM

Yakidafi · August 2015

Nice one, actually watched until the end of it(usually stop watching after 1min tops

). Just the intro deserved an awesome ^^

Poxheart · August 2015

Very entertaining. Too bad the build will be obsolete this week.

Bezilar · August 2015

great vid, very aggressive for a nb 1vX. Your toon also looks like Bob Marley

https://youtu.be/L3HQMbQAWRc

Cinnamon_Spider · August 2015

Good video! Needs more Templar.

It looks like you don't even need a healbot

Master_Kas · August 2015

Very nice! Been waiting for you to release a nb vid.

I just have to say it , you should really have had cloak atleast on your second bar. Even if you did very well without it.
Not for ganking but invisible mobility and/or when you need to heal up or regain stam.

Ezareth · August 2015

Yakidafi wrote: »

Nice one, actually watched until the end of it(usually stop watching after 1min tops ). Just the intro deserved an awesome ^^

Thanks, those intros take more time than the rest of the video combined! And PvPing while waiting for them to render is not something I'd advise ) :

c.gregoryb14_ESO wrote: »

great vid, very aggressive for a nb 1vX. Your toon also looks like Bob Marley

I'm like an angrier Bob Marley.... Who took to using bath salts and PCP instead of weed ( ;

Cinnamon_Spider wrote: »

Good video! Needs more Templar.

It looks like you don't even need a healbot

Don't worry our video will have plenty of your Jabs and Jesus Beam...errr heals soon enough!

Master_Kas wrote: »

Very nice! Been waiting for you to release a nb vid.

I just have to say it , you should really have had cloak atleast on your second bar. Even if you did very well without it.
Not for ganking but invisible mobility and/or when you need to heal up or regain stam.

I never really need a moment to regain stam unless my drink runs out like in the video. I'd love to have cloak just to remove beams but both my bars really have no room for it. The only time I run it is to replace relentless focus and I find the extra damage and stamina regen to be more useful. Then there is the cost. If you notice I use my fear and double-take religiously and usually run out of magicka before anything else. It sounds stupid but its really hard for me to justify slotting it.

In 2.1 I'll probably use shade to replace both deep slash for my maim and remove Absorb magick for a bow ability. With blocking rendered effectively useless I think bow and ranged attacks will become far more powerful, especially since no one will be dodging/blocking them.

FluffiestOne · August 2015

Funniest video NA. kodi getting 1vX'd earned you the awesome.

Axyredo · August 2015

lol

Ezareth · August 2015

FluffiestOne wrote: »

Funniest video NA. kodi getting 1vX'd earned you the awesome.

Well in Kodi and Axy's defense their gear was pretty trashed, but I don't know either player other than I've seen Kodi running in one EP zergball or another( don't even know the EP guildnames)

I was grinding in the cave, logged out for lunch, log back in into the middle of them grinding right on top of me. The Jesus Beam and StamDk made quick work of me. Come right back ( keep in mind this was on a fully EP Chillrend so it took awhile to get there and kill them both. They came back after I was grinding a bit and killed me again at which point I said screw that run and went to Azuras to PvP.

I almost got killed by a vet 6 NB in CWC the other night while in broken gear. It happens, that's the price you pay for grinding there. Most of my most enjoyable small group fights take place there and it beats the zerg.

Everyone that dies in a PvP video does so for reasons.

Cinnamon_Spider · August 2015

Ezareth wrote: »

Cinnamon_Spider wrote: »

Good video! Needs more Templar.

It looks like you don't even need a healbot

Don't worry our video will have plenty of your Jabs and Jesus Beam...errr heals soon enough!

It looks like you don't need heals anyway. Breath of Life has been removed from my bar and I'm working on my stam build now with @Suru 's help.

People in the video are throwing a fit on your youtube comments? Seriously? Welcome to PvP where eventually everyone dies to something. When I think back to the number of times you killed me...
I haven't played my EP much in a long while, but you're still my number 1 killer and I know I was very close to being 1vX'd in your first sorc vid.

DisgracefulMind · August 2015

Nice video, Ez. I was waiting for you to release one of your NB. Was interested to see how your setup works and how much the bashes are doing, as I've seen you tank for days haha.

Great work though, the fight with all the sorcerer pets was insane lol xD

Suru · August 2015

Cinnamon_Spider wrote: »

Ezareth wrote: »

Cinnamon_Spider wrote: »

Good video! Needs more Templar.

It looks like you don't even need a healbot

Don't worry our video will have plenty of your Jabs and Jesus Beam...errr heals soon enough!

It looks like you don't need heals anyway. Breath of Life has been removed from my bar and I'm working on my stam build now with @Suru 's help.

People in the video are throwing a fit on your youtube comments? Seriously? Welcome to PvP where eventually everyone dies to something. When I think back to the number of times you killed me...
I haven't played my EP much in a long while, but you're still my number 1 killer and I know I was very close to being 1vX'd in your first sorc vid.

All the people will die when you go stam Cin

Ezareth · August 2015

Cinnamon_Spider wrote: »

Ezareth wrote: »

Cinnamon_Spider wrote: »

Good video! Needs more Templar.

It looks like you don't even need a healbot

Don't worry our video will have plenty of your Jabs and Jesus Beam...errr heals soon enough!

It looks like you don't need heals anyway. Breath of Life has been removed from my bar and I'm working on my stam build now with @Suru 's help.

People in the video are throwing a fit on your youtube comments? Seriously? Welcome to PvP where eventually everyone dies to something. When I think back to the number of times you killed me...
I haven't played my EP much in a long while, but you're still my number 1 killer and I know I was very close to being 1vX'd in your first sorc vid.

Stamplar is OP in IC. Don't worry we can vigor spam together as we 1-button mash our way to victory!

Looks like they removed they deleted the comments now.

DisgracefulMind wrote: »

Nice video, Ez. I was waiting for you to release one of your NB. Was interested to see how your setup works and how much the bashes are doing, as I've seen you tank for days haha.

Great work though, the fight with all the sorcerer pets was insane lol xD

Yeah there was actually 3 Sorcs with the full menagerie of pets and a few others with them before that but Cinn's computer decided to crap out on her after we killed one sorc and a couple others. Trying to target people with those stupid clannfear on me was insane. For a minute there I almost forgot I was PVPing, it felt like I was doing a Dolmen!

Yeah Bash is central to my build, I've had some 5K Bash crits after an interrupt and considering you can bash twice a second it is not bad DPS at all. The main reason I've taken to bashing so much is because weapon swap is so unreliable. Most people don't realize this but Bash and Dodge roll will both occur even in high periods of latency, they will *always* work. Also bashing with a Shield has a much larger bash radius than any other weapon. Also your bashes with weapons will not proc "Invigorating Bash" which for me is a 1K + heal on each proc. Couple with rally, Critical Leech and Absorb magic it provides a good chunk of my healing when I'm solo.

If it seems at times I'm Bashing more than necessary it is usually because my weapon swap or other abilities started acting up(or like in the video I'm fighting a templar at low health where you pretty much have to bash spam until you're out of execute range or get 1-shotted.. Likewise I'll often animation cancel abilities with dodge roll when trying to get something like Rally to work when I have a ton of people on me. Sometimes I'm just dodge rolling because I can't get the ability I want to fire.

Aenlir · August 2015

Nice vid! RIP permadodge :'(

Soulac · August 2015

craigvigneaultub17_ESO wrote: »

Nice vid! RIP permadodge :'(

Welcome perm cloak!

Alucardo · August 2015

You make playing this game look really easy

Ezareth · August 2015

craigvigneaultub17_ESO wrote: »

Nice vid! RIP permadodge :'(

Well a lot of dodging can still happen, I'll just have to time it better. It's the nerf to blocking/bash/break free that screws me the most.

Soulac wrote: »

craigvigneaultub17_ESO wrote: »

Nice vid! RIP permadodge :'(

Welcome perm cloak!

Piercing Mark my favorite ability.

Alucardo wrote: »

You make playing this game look really easy

Thanks!

It's all just muscle memory. Play anything long enough and you react without thought.

I tried playing my sorc a bit the other night and it wasn't pretty or easy to switch between playstyles for me.

Lord_Hev · September 2015

I like how you literally never use dark cloak or stealth, and get right in your enemies faces. Next time I hear "NBs need to stealth and insta-gib people as that is how this class is supposed to be played", I'll direct them to this vid, lol.

Very impressive stuff.

Master_Kas · September 2015

Lord_Hev wrote: »

I like how you literally never use dark cloak or stealth, and get right in your enemies faces. Next time I hear "NBs need to stealth and insta-gib people as that is how this class is supposed to be played", I'll direct them to this vid, lol.

Very impressive stuff.

Yeah because he can dodgeroll like crazy. GL doing this in the new patch without running out of stamina

(I mean rolling alot to avoid damage, not playing without cloak)

Ezareth · September 2015

Lord_Hev wrote: »

I like how you literally never use dark cloak or stealth, and get right in your enemies faces. Next time I hear "NBs need to stealth and insta-gib people as that is how this class is supposed to be played", I'll direct them to this vid, lol.
Very impressive stuff.

@Lord_Hev

Thanks! I know my build has some weaknesses(to me) but it is all something I put together from testing and learning about every weapon ability and applying it to a style of combat that I enjoy. The only time I'll stealth is when I'm trying to assess the enemy or even the odds in a castle defense etc.

After trying to cloak through level 40 or so I realized that the whole stealth playstyle just wasnt for me. The more I used cloak the more I realized it was a crutch. I had a lot of top notch gank NBs giving me advice like always run inner light on both bars and then follow this combination of moves to instagib people and it just never had an appeal to me as I remember fighting those builds on my sorc. So I set about trying to create a build that could counter gankers (almost all of my gear enchants are *health* not stam) and I have a ton of CPs put into reducing crit damage to the point I don't think I was in insta-gib range for anyone doing a stealth gank setup.

I realized by the time I was in the lower vet levels that Bosmer was a waste for my playstyle and that I'd probably be more successful as a Redguard NB. I also wonder how well this build would have done for a DK but I don't think there is anything in the DK arsenal that could replace Piercing Mark, Double-Take and Mass Hysteria which are all force multipliers for me (But man Leap + Battle roar would be nice!)

Master_Kas wrote: »

Lord_Hev wrote: »

I like how you literally never use dark cloak or stealth, and get right in your enemies faces. Next time I hear "NBs need to stealth and insta-gib people as that is how this class is supposed to be played", I'll direct them to this vid, lol.

Very impressive stuff.

Yeah because he can dodgeroll like crazy. GL doing this in the new patch without running out of stamina (I mean rolling alot to avoid damage, not playing without cloak)

If there is one thing playing a nightblade has taught me is an appreciation for nightblades who played Stamina prior to 1.6 and all of the NBs after 1.6 who never gained access to vigor like myself. Honestly outside of the stealth/gank playstyle without having access to a reliable heal stamina builds just have many intrinsic flaws. I've patched most of the holes with permadodging and running absorb magick with sword and board + Bash but when you constantly live under the threat of getting instagibbed by a soul assault or Jesus Beam the moment you drop below 50% health it is hard to be successful against a group of people.

Also don't forget in my video I'm often dodge rolling when trying to weapon swap(most of the footage outside of CWC is in Azuras where you're lucky if 50% of your swaps work the first time) or proccing my skirmisher set, I'd say 50-60% of my dodges were completely unnecessary. I'd often use them almost as I use Bolt escape on my sorc as a positioning tool that would allow me to line up a Crit-Rush-executioner combo.

I can still double-dodge roll on my NB in 2.1 and I've had some success so far in fighting in outnumbered scenarios.

Master_Kas · September 2015

@Ezareth good for you that you do well without cloak. For me with all the stam nerfs (regen, roll cost, block penalty) it's just not possible to sustain without using cloak or mist to reset the roll timer .
Replied mostly because of what he wrote. I think you know why that doesn't really apply anymore in this new patch.

With 2.6k regen on live/1.7 I could roll 8 times before OOS. This was out of combat, with no attacking / blocking / cc breaking. (Bosmer, blue regen drinks, stam regen Mundus)

Just faced a small group of 2 temps, 1 dk. With all the talons+ cinderstorm snaring me on top of knockdowns and also trying to roll, sometimes swapping to offense I was OOS pretty quick. I would've died there if it wasn't for teleport shade in a corner > cloak away,

Thing is he said nbs don't need cloak to survive. It might be true for 1.6 but for this new patch , stamina sustain sucks and you'll need cloak and/or teleport shade. Dodgerolling wont keep you safe unless fighting 1v1. Which rarley happens in cyrodiil outside duels.

Maybe I was to used to not worrying about stam in 1.6, but this isn't the case anymore.

Sorry if I write a bit confusing atm. My Brain is tired -.-

Lord_Hev · September 2015

I was talking more about his actual playstyle out of stealth, vs using cloak as a defensive maneuver.(while fighting in the open instead of insta-gibbing people) Plenty of NBs out there that only use cloak as a defensive maneuver. While holding their ground and not hiding.

Just a bias of mine. I'm sure all the insta-gibbers have fun doing what they do. But I know I get frustrated when I get killed in such a cowardly way. Only other thing that compares to that is having a zerg chase you to death out-of-the-way, instead of just ignoring one player and heading to heir initial objective.

Ezareth · September 2015

Master_Kas wrote: »

@Ezareth good for you that you do well without cloak. For me with all the stam nerfs (regen, roll cost, block penalty) it's just not possible to sustain without using cloak or mist to reset the roll timer .
Replied mostly because of what he wrote. I think you know why that doesn't really apply anymore in this new patch.

With 2.6k regen on live/1.7 I could roll 8 times before OOS. This was out of combat, with no attacking / blocking / cc breaking. (Bosmer, blue regen drinks, stam regen Mundus)

Just faced a small group of 2 temps, 1 dk. With all the talons+ cinderstorm snaring me on top of knockdowns and also trying to roll, sometimes swapping to offense I was OOS pretty quick. I would've died there if it wasn't for teleport shade in a corner > cloak away,

Thing is he said nbs don't need cloak to survive. It might be true for 1.6 but for this new patch , stamina sustain sucks and you'll need cloak and/or teleport shade. Dodgerolling wont keep you safe unless fighting 1v1. Which rarley happens in cyrodiil outside duels.

Maybe I was to used to not worrying about stam in 1.6, but this isn't the case anymore.

Sorry if I write a bit confusing atm. My Brain is tired -.-

@Master_Kas Some drama for a couple of the clips I included in the vid angered some people apparently and has made me a bit defensive.

Yes solo play in 2.1 just got much more difficult but you can still escape through various means without resorting to cloak. I just fear, Deep slash and double-take away while utilizing LoS which works great in 2.1.

That said there is a huge difference in surviving groups of people attacking you and killing them all. It is extremely difficult to burst down players now with even rudimentary skills when they have others with them and "reset" the fight or continue on to killing the next player. 2 v 1s are still manageable but I think 3 v 1s against anyone decent are going to be pretty hard to pull off without some big mistakes on their part.

Lord_Hev wrote: »

I was talking more about his actual playstyle out of stealth, vs using cloak as a defensive maneuver.(while fighting in the open instead of insta-gibbing people) Plenty of NBs out there that only use cloak as a defensive maneuver. While holding their ground and not hiding.

Just a bias of mine. I'm sure all the insta-gibbers have fun doing what they do. But I know I get frustrated when I get killed in such a cowardly way. Only other thing that compares to that is having a zerg chase you to death out-of-the-way, instead of just ignoring one player and heading to heir initial objective.

Yeah killing stealth gankers has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I never understood the enjoyment people got out a playstyle that when successful gives your opponents zero chance to fight back. Agree that the best NBs are the ones who have no problem fighting and use cloak reactively and defensively. Guys like Aenlir and Dark Energy come to mind.

And yeah the Zergs on Azura will chase you for days. The last night before patch I had 20 AD Trashcans chase me for a good 60 seconds....what is the point or enjoyment in that? Yeah I killed quite a few of them whenever they'd stray from crown and I can understand getting even but 20 people? When I see 5 or 6 people chasing someone I resist the urge to just pile on....they're as good as dead and if not they deserve to win....there has to be better things to do.

AlexTheLion · September 2015

@Ezareth just hit vr14 on my dk and have been planning on making a sword and shield nb. From your testing would an imperial or redguard be better than having the stamina regen from a wood elf for that play style?

Azrael01 · September 2015

Great video!

Ezareth · September 2015

AlexTheLion wrote: »

@Ezareth just hit vr14 on my dk and have been planning on making a sword and shield nb. From your testing would an imperial or redguard be better than having the stamina regen from a wood elf for that play style?

@AlexTheLion

Personally for the playstyle I demonstrated and the one I'm still using today I think Redguard would be the superior choice.

Imperial is pretty nice but the bonus health is not as useful since nothing you'll be using scales off of health, only weapon damage and stamina.

Stacking Stamina does very well in Imperial City and the Redguard Stamina return proc coupled with the bonus Stamina Regen gives quite a bit more stamina and will scale better with your stats as you get more champion points than the regen.

The only downside is that Redguard would not be as useful for a Magicka Nightblade as Bosmer, but I don't believe Bosmer is the best choice for Magicka Nightblades reguardless.

AlexTheLion · September 2015

@Ezareth thanks for the info. I'm gonna begin leveling him today so I can have him ready for the IC release on console.

Poxheart · September 2015

Bumping this to ask a question: have you replaced skirmisher with powerful assault? If so, how's it working out?

Ezareth · September 2015

Poxheart wrote: »

Bumping this to ask a question: have you replaced skirmisher with powerful assault? If so, how's it working out?

@Poxheart

Yes I replaced my beloved skirmisher set with Powerful Assault and I love it so far. The primary gains have really been replacing the Well-fitted trait with Impenetrable and infused, as I love the skirmisher 5 pc bonus. Still in group play nothing compares to Powerful Assault for a stamina character. In solo play I'd probably say either Shield Breaker or Willow's Path is the way to go.

Poxheart · September 2015

Willow's Path is an under rated set. It used to be outstanding in non-Vet, but I don't know what it's like now because I haven't stepped foot in non-Vet since the patch.

I'm going to see if I can come up with a Powerful Assault based build for my DK. I figure agility jewelry & crafted weapons.