Learning to play the nightblade (Vid)

Abram · November 2015

Astien has been giving me some tips on playing my alt, here's some vids of the fun we've been having.

BigTone · November 2015

Cool stuff man. I've played a sorc and only a sorc since forever but just started using my NB. Quick question: Why do you use crit rush, executioner, and wrecking blow instead of ambush, killer's blade, and surprise attack?

Loved the clip of the guy trying to gank during the 3v3 and the few times you did try zerg bombing remember that in 1.5 they would have been wiped

Kutsuu · November 2015

I'd use Ambush over crit rush pretty much every time. More damage, empower, can be used while immobilized, and gets sneak attack bonus if used from side/behind while in stealth. That could change with Maelstrom 2her, which could be what he's using. Executioner is a great execute, most prefer it over killer's blade since it does physical instead of magic damage (CP mighty, etc). WB has a few disadvantages vs surprise attack. It doesn't proc armor debuff, doesn't proc shadow barrier, and has a cast time which skilled players will punish you for. It won't do more DPS than a light attack weaved SA. I imagine he's using it for the CC, and chance to chain CC with it. It also has a longer range than normal melee attacks. It's also a nasty stealth attack opener if given the opportunity.

Tankqull · November 2015

BigTone wrote: »

Cool stuff man. I've played a sorc and only a sorc since forever but just started using my NB. Quick question: Why do you use crit rush, executioner, and wrecking blow instead of ambush, killer's blade, and surprise attack?

Loved the clip of the guy trying to gank during the 3v3 and the few times you did try zerg bombing remember that in 1.5 they would have been wiped

well im not him but a few things why i´d use them:
killer blade < executioner as it is a magical attack thus you have to push thaumaturge to increase its dmg with the caped CP points acheavable currently executioner is significantly stronger.

with the current lag you are facing WB is alot more reliable than SA thx to its increased range, in a laggy situation im facing 3-4x more often the target not in range massage with SA than with WB

crit rush does more dmg allows to wave a heavy or in some cases even a WB into its animation directly followed by an ecxecutioner - ambush now has a slight ability lock out after arriving your target denying such -- evem though i prefer ambush over CR

Astien · November 2015

Kutsuu wrote: »

I'd use Ambush over crit rush pretty much every time. More damage, empower, can be used while immobilized, and gets sneak attack bonus if used from side/behind while in stealth. That could change with Maelstrom 2her, which could be what he's using. Executioner is a great execute, most prefer it over killer's blade since it does physical instead of magicka damage. WB has a few disadvantages vs surprise attack. It doesn't proc armor debuff, doesn't proc shadow barrier, and has a cast time which skilled players will punish you for. It won't do more DPS than a light attack weaved SA. I imagine he's using it for the CC, and chance to chain CC with it. It also has a longer range than normal melee attacks. It's also a nasty stealth attack opener if given the opportunity.

Crit rush definitely does more damage depending on distance. also, we don't really worry about sneak attack bonus because we have that covered with bow heavy attack.

Abram · November 2015

BigTone wrote: »

Cool stuff man. I've played a sorc and only a sorc since forever but just started using my NB. Quick question: Why do you use crit rush, executioner, and wrecking blow instead of ambush, killer's blade, and surprise attack?

Loved the clip of the guy trying to gank during the 3v3 and the few times you did try zerg bombing remember that in 1.5 they would have been wiped

It just feels like smoother gameplay for me as well. The main reason for me however is that I can seem to manage my stam a lot better with the two hander skills, maybe when Im a little more practiced Ill switch over to a surprise attack set up, but for now im really liking the wb/heavy attack weave.

I will say that stam nbs using ambush/surprise attack are able to put a lot of constant pressure out vs timed bursts and I find myself struggling when I fight them more than any other class/build atm.

Kutsuu · November 2015

That's true, stamina drains MUCH faster using a light>SA weave vs a medium>WB weave.

Lately I've been using DW for front bar with 2h back bar so I can keep vigor on the front bar and rally on the back. Uptime on vigor is so much shorter, my gameplay is just smoother when I don't have to swap to use it. Of course it is possible to go 2h/2h for the same benefits while having access to crit rush/WB so I will give that a shot sometime.

Vilestride · November 2015

Bats and steel tornado just too stong

. Nice man. The sewers wipes were some of the best

mchermie · November 2015

Giahh wrote: »

The sewers wipes were some of the best

Yea, that was really cool to watch

KenaPKK · November 2015

I cracked up at ~7min when you used bats and people just started flying from WB. Bahahaha

Chunky told me about that gank "3v3" last night on TS. So glad you rekt them. Shame!

olsborg · November 2015

You know you can combo bow heavy atk and ambush and get sneak atk bonus on both?

Cinnamon_Spider · November 2015

I ran into the two of you tonight at BRK when all three factions were fighting over the last emp keep. Lag made the fight difficult, but you two are very strong together and it would have been even without the lag.

Good video and good music and you got my favorite AD rage teller.

Also, i think crit rush + WB is just more fun than ambush, etc.

Abram · November 2015

Cinnamon_Spider wrote: »

I ran into the two of you tonight at BRK when all three factions were fighting over the last emp keep. Lag made the fight difficult, but you two are very strong together and it would have been even without the lag.

Good video and good music and you got my favorite AD rage teller.

Also, i think crit rush + WB is just more fun than ambush, etc.

Thanks! That lag is killer, keeps me from really even being able to play prime time. Maybe we set up a 2 v 2? Hit me up in game!

DisgracefulMind · November 2015

Nice video. Loved seeing some small scale (:

tonemd · November 2015

Tankqull wrote: »

BigTone wrote: »

Cool stuff man. I've played a sorc and only a sorc since forever but just started using my NB. Quick question: Why do you use crit rush, executioner, and wrecking blow instead of ambush, killer's blade, and surprise attack?

Loved the clip of the guy trying to gank during the 3v3 and the few times you did try zerg bombing remember that in 1.5 they would have been wiped

well im not him but a few things why i´d use them:
killer blade < executioner as it is a magical attack thus you have to push thaumaturge to increase its dmg with the caped CP points acheavable currently executioner is significantly stronger.

with the current lag you are facing WB is alot more reliable than SA thx to its increased range, in a laggy situation im facing 3-4x more often the target not in range massage with SA than with WB

crit rush does more dmg allows to wave a heavy or in some cases even a WB into its animation directly followed by an ecxecutioner - ambush now has a slight ability lock out after arriving your target denying such -- evem though i prefer ambush over CR

Correct me if I'm wrong but even though Killer's blade does magic damage it scales off of stamina and weapon damage. Having said that, Executioner's execute starts at %50 vs Killer's Blade which I believe is at %30 so yeah I guess it's better. Also, it is a magic attack, where people have spec'd heavy into magic mitigation so you would need more points into Spell Erosion.

But don't you miss out on the critical passives by going with the weapon skills instead of the assassin skills?

Also, with Ambush supposedly you can weave in a light attack and a surprise attack and still get the stealth bonus. Not sure about that ability lockout.

Astien · November 2015

tonemd wrote: »

Tankqull wrote: »

BigTone wrote: »

Cool stuff man. I've played a sorc and only a sorc since forever but just started using my NB. Quick question: Why do you use crit rush, executioner, and wrecking blow instead of ambush, killer's blade, and surprise attack?

Loved the clip of the guy trying to gank during the 3v3 and the few times you did try zerg bombing remember that in 1.5 they would have been wiped

well im not him but a few things why i´d use them:
killer blade < executioner as it is a magical attack thus you have to push thaumaturge to increase its dmg with the caped CP points acheavable currently executioner is significantly stronger.

with the current lag you are facing WB is alot more reliable than SA thx to its increased range, in a laggy situation im facing 3-4x more often the target not in range massage with SA than with WB

crit rush does more dmg allows to wave a heavy or in some cases even a WB into its animation directly followed by an ecxecutioner - ambush now has a slight ability lock out after arriving your target denying such -- evem though i prefer ambush over CR

Correct me if I'm wrong but even though Killer's blade does magic damage it scales off of stamina and weapon damage. Having said that, Executioner's execute starts at %50 vs Killer's Blade which I believe is at %30 so yeah I guess it's better. Also, it is a magic attack, where people have spec'd heavy into magic mitigation so you would need more points into Spell Erosion.

But don't you miss out on the critical passives by going with the weapon skills instead of the assassin skills?

Also, with Ambush supposedly you can weave in a light attack and a surprise attack and still get the stealth bonus. Not sure about that ability lockout.

Just to add to killers blade, if you've got 100 CP in physical damage. Executioner does way more damage tooltip wise.