Pointy end towards the enemy!

Consider doing 2h/DW, that way you have a heal (rally). You can use flying blade for your ranged attack needs.

What do you mean with "feels like im doing something wrong"? What do you have trouble with?

Well, I just feel that I am doing something wrong that is holding my character back XD But dunno, I am still leveling. I just want to be prepared for when I hit veteran and so on..

But I´ll check your signature out and see if I like it :P

But is DW/Bow a good combo? I dont think 2h will really fit into what I am doing with my character :P But maybe that is just me.

I have both a stamina and magicka based NB. After getting into the VRs with both I can tell you I enjoy the magicka NB much more. Here's what I run currently:

Altmer NB running as DPS/Heals. Destro/Resto Staves.

Bar 1 (Destro Staff): Inner Light, Refreshing Path, Mirage, Sap Essence, Force Pulse OR Pulsar. Ult: Clouding Swarm
Bar 2 (Resto Staff): Inner Light, Healing Ward, Mass Hysteria, Funnel Health, Elusive Mist. Ult: Soul Siphon/Veil of Blades/Soul Harvest.

Of course, depending on exactly what I'm doing I switch my bars around A LOT. The fantastic thing about NB's are their utility and lovely ability to dig deep into their tool kits and deal with just about anything. I went with vampirism only for the Shadow Stalker ability in Cyrodiil but the other passives/abilities aren't too bad. Clouding Swarm works particularly well with NB's since they get bonus damage while invisible.

I've had zero survivability issues and clearing "public dungeons" solo is child's play. Now, before anyone says "well, yeah.. public dungeons are nothing dood", let me point out that some setups/builds are NOT that easy to run through them solo. With this one, I can waltz in and control exactly what happens. Even when overrun with rapidly respawning mobs (such as in Razak's Wheel).

I've played all the classes into VR and I will admit that a magicka NB has been the most enjoyable to play, hands down. It's pretty humorous using Mass Hysteria, then spam Funnel Health as mobs run away screaming (through a Refreshing Path)--and promptly drop dead. I giggle every time.

EDIT: Just re-read the OP's second post indicating they DIDN'T want to change their weapon loadout. At any rate, some food for thought if you ever go with a magicka NB

I've been playing DW/Bow NB since pre-launch. Even when that build wasn't viable for any end game content (still pretty weak in many cases).

If you want to do DW/Bow, put attributes in Stamina, enchant in stamina. Higher the stamina and weapon damage the more dps you will do.

My suggestion on skills are to focus on Arrow Spray (really good AOE). It's morph Acid Spray does tons of damage, but Bombard is great for rooting enemies and keeping them off you. If playing solo, I would take Bombard over Acid Spray.

Venom Arrow has an interrupt, great for stopping casters at range.

And Snipe is a great single target high damage attack.

Other bow abilitys feel weak to me.

For Dual Wield, pretty much everyone goes with Steel Tornado. High damage AOE. I like Rapid Strikes cause of its longer cast time it keeps from burning through your stamina. However in reality for high dps, concealed weapon (NB skill) is better than any of the DW for single target.

Other great NB abilities, Ambush for closing gaps, and Killers Blade (stamina morph) is a good finisher, Reapers Mark is a great heal from killing mobs, and Relentless Focus is good damage/regen boost + spectral bow for higher damage hit.

If you aren't at end game (Pre-V16) I suggest 5 Hundings Rage and rest Nights Silence for armor/weapons. Both crafted sets, make 5 pieces of medium, 1 heavy and 1 light (this will allow you to level heavy and light armor too for later). Hundings+Nights Silence give good damage , stamina, stam regen, and critical. Some prefer Night Mothers over Nights Silence. Wear Robust Jewelry with Stam Regen or Weapon Damage enchants. You can enchant over whatever is there. When you get to V14 the gear options change a lot. Lots of good info out there on those, so I'm not going to go into that.

I highly recommend while leveling to also max out 2H Sword for later. In fact, once you max out a weapon skill line, switch to something else and max them all out. This gives more leeway at end game to change your mind. I did that with a Sorc, and at V8 was 50 in every weapon, armor and class skill line.

From my experience, Stam NB solo PVE is one of the hardest setups to play. Magicka Sorc and Templar are the easiest I've played. Doesn't help that all the good stamina heals (Rally, Vigor) take a long time to unlock.

Swundead wrote: »

"From my experience, Stam NB solo PVE is one of the hardest setups to play. Magicka Sorc and Templar are the easiest I've played. Doesn't help that all the good stamina heals (Rally, Vigor) take a long time to unlock." I was afraid of that :l

I don´t go for the most OP class to play but I always preferred to play a solid class over one that is struggling. But I heard they are nerfing Templars bad?

But well well, I will continue doing what I am doing and see what that brings me, Nightblade imo is still a ton of fun!

I've always felt that you should play what you want and how you want it, even if it's not the "best" setup. As long as you have fun who cares.

Last night a few of us did the vet banished cells pledge. I tanked with my stamina nightblade (I switch between DPS and Tank with gear change) and we had 3 templars for dps/healing. It was the most fun I've had doing a pledge, and it went really smoothly.

When the game first launched, some of the solo content was really hard. Most of that has been nerfed or made easier. Only thing that might be tough to solo would be dolmens and world bosses (designed to be group content). That also depends on skill, build, if you have champion points, etc.

Since my templar is level 20s and my nightblade is v16, it's hard to compare difficulty between them. On the last PTS, using V16 templates, if I compared doing Maelstrom Arena (normal, not vet). Templar was the easiest for me, followed closely by sorc, and then stamina nighblade hardest, but quite a margin. Was doable with all, just difficulty was different.

In my previous post, I forgot to mention Power Extraction, if it hits enemies it boosts your damage by 20%. You can get that from one of the DW skills, or from Rally. The advantage to 2H Rally is you can cast it before combat, so your stealth attack gets a 20% boost.

Get Bitten by a Werewolf.

Turning into a Werewolf has saved my Bacon a 1000 times over playing as a solo StamBlade in PvE & PvP.

I use it in those hard to win situations in PvE or to surprice smal groups of 2 or 3 in PvP after soffening them up with my Bow.

Just keep it on one of your Bars