I've played a magicka NB from day 1 through AR50, and have always loved cloak. The reason it is so powerful is that PEOPLE DON'T BOTHER TO THINK ABOUT COUNTERING IT.
How many of you run Radiant Magelight on a bar while travelling between keeps? There are outfitter addons to swap bars with the touch of a button that make it easy.
How many of you drop a caltrops defensively when you stop moving and will stay in one place for a while?
How many of you see a NB cloak and hit bombard or steel tornado (or any other AoE) to bring them out?
Since I started playing my stam DK with bombard on one bar and caltrops on the other, very few NBs have escaped from me. If they're moving away from me, a bombard snares and reveals them. If they're doing the dodge in and out to keep 100% crit from disguise, a caltrops makes it impossible for them to succeed. If my group stops moving and stacks, unless we're stealthing, my caltrops is always centred on us or the primary ingress point to us for defensive purposes.
I dare say that people who complain about cloak simply don't bother to use or arrange for someone close to them (in group) to use one of the MANY counters to it.
I'm all for decreased magicka regen for the 3 seconds that I'm in cloak if magicka sorcs get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Hardened Ward, templars get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casing Breath of Life, and magicka DK gets decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Dragon's Bl....nevermind, sorry DKs. Cloak is an unreliable skill with abundant counters, yet it must mitigate as much damage for mageblades as Hardened Ward does for magicka sorcs, BoL for templars, etc etc.
You're talking about gimping mageblade's primary defensive mechanism.
If you're so frustrated with cloak that you believe these changes are warranted, then you're a bad player. Plain and simple.
Worry about problems that actually exist, like how much more damage stamina is doing compared to magicka.
...
So, a skill that acts like a magicka based dodge roll, that adds max health for being slotted, that procs major resist buffs on cast, that purges up to 4 dots, that clears tab targeting and can be combined with heals from other NB skills must be as powerful as breath of life or hardened ward?
For the nightblades who are still whining about cloak being "broken", it's not. Nightblade was the first class I played, starting in beta, and cloak had lots of issues back then, but it has been working as intended for a while. Most of the complaints come from people who don't understand what is supposed to break you out of cloak.
As far as it being too strong, I have no issue dealing with cloak when playing on a stam build, since caltrops and steel tornado have such a huge aoe to break it. Magicka aoes are so small that it's really hard to pull a NB out of cloak. Would like to see a detect pot buff or a buff to revealing flare so that it's actually worth slotting outside of one niche purpose.
And I'd rather they get rid of the stupid cost stacking, regen cancelling, but if they're going to keep those on streak, dodge and block, they should probably add something to cloak for balance too.
The only thing I will definitely say is broken regarding cloak, and a huge pain in the ass, is dark flare.
That isn't a ground targeted AoE, its much like meteor. You can cloak meteor, but if its dark flare you just eat the 8k+ damage.
It's funny to see all the typical nightblades who run one shot build defending their precious cloak. In the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that at least 70% of the player base run a nightblade nowadays and it says it all. That percentage probably goes up to 90% in sewers. Cloak should be an ultimate that works like Overload. Stealth should not be a thing unless you are close to objects. Put Mark Target in the Alliance War or Bow tree line.

I'm all for decreased magicka regen for the 3 seconds that I'm in cloak if magicka sorcs get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Hardened Ward, templars get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casing Breath of Life, and magicka DK gets decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Dragon's Bl....nevermind, sorry DKs. Cloak is an unreliable skill with abundant counters, yet it must mitigate as much damage for mageblades as Hardened Ward does for magicka sorcs, BoL for templars, etc etc.
You're talking about gimping mageblade's primary defensive mechanism.
If you're so frustrated with cloak that you believe these changes are warranted, then you're a bad player. Plain and simple.
Worry about problems that actually exist, like how much more damage stamina is doing compared to magicka.
...
So, a skill that acts like a magicka based dodge roll, that adds max health for being slotted, that procs major resist buffs on cast, that purges up to 4 dots, that clears tab targeting and can be combined with heals from other NB skills must be as powerful as breath of life or hardened ward?
You forgot the part where cloak doesn't move you ever and doesn't provide invisibility against good players.
..
I'm all for decreased magicka regen for the 3 seconds that I'm in cloak if magicka sorcs get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Hardened Ward, templars get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casing Breath of Life, and magicka DK gets decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Dragon's Bl....nevermind, sorry DKs. Cloak is an unreliable skill with abundant counters, yet it must mitigate as much damage for mageblades as Hardened Ward does for magicka sorcs, BoL for templars, etc etc.
You're talking about gimping mageblade's primary defensive mechanism.
If you're so frustrated with cloak that you believe these changes are warranted, then you're a bad player. Plain and simple.
Worry about problems that actually exist, like how much more damage stamina is doing compared to magicka.
...
So, a skill that acts like a magicka based dodge roll, that adds max health for being slotted, that procs major resist buffs on cast, that purges up to 4 dots, that clears tab targeting and can be combined with heals from other NB skills must be as powerful as breath of life or hardened ward?
You forgot the part where cloak doesn't move you ever and doesn't provide invisibility against good players.
..
I kind of find it interesting, that despite all the things cloak does, even when the invisibility fails, that the response is "it doesn't move you and good players always have radiant/detect pots/caltrops/excess resources for aoes, ready." Not a "the other classes don't have nearly as many defining skills that make playing the class unique and interesting without having some sort of restraint" or any acknowledgment that nightblades have more skills than cloak.
Want mobility? NB's have 3 ways to get major move speed and have the longest range teleport in game, and while invisible you aren't rooted, use wasd to move at 100% speed, 125% with concealed weapon (5% slower than sprint speed). Sorry, but as long as nightblades are stuck in the mindset that "everyone else just has to l2p" and not address the fact that they are in the best position as a class in the game in regards to both skills and passives than I don't think any productive conversation can come from it.
I'm all for decreased magicka regen for the 3 seconds that I'm in cloak if magicka sorcs get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Hardened Ward, templars get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casing Breath of Life, and magicka DK gets decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Dragon's Bl....nevermind, sorry DKs. Cloak is an unreliable skill with abundant counters, yet it must mitigate as much damage for mageblades as Hardened Ward does for magicka sorcs, BoL for templars, etc etc.
You're talking about gimping mageblade's primary defensive mechanism.
If you're so frustrated with cloak that you believe these changes are warranted, then you're a bad player. Plain and simple.
Worry about problems that actually exist, like how much more damage stamina is doing compared to magicka.
...
So, a skill that acts like a magicka based dodge roll, that adds max health for being slotted, that procs major resist buffs on cast, that purges up to 4 dots, that clears tab targeting and can be combined with heals from other NB skills must be as powerful as breath of life or hardened ward?
You forgot the part where cloak doesn't move you ever and doesn't provide invisibility against good players.
..
I kind of find it interesting, that despite all the things cloak does, even when the invisibility fails, that the response is "it doesn't move you and good players always have radiant/detect pots/caltrops/excess resources for aoes, ready." Not a "the other classes don't have nearly as many defining skills that make playing the class unique and interesting without having some sort of restraint" or any acknowledgment that nightblades have more skills than cloak.
Want mobility? NB's have 3 ways to get major move speed and have the longest range teleport in game, and while invisible you aren't rooted, use wasd to move at 100% speed, 125% with concealed weapon (5% slower than sprint speed). Sorry, but as long as nightblades are stuck in the mindset that "everyone else just has to l2p" and not address the fact that they are in the best position as a class in the game in regards to both skills and passives than I don't think any productive conversation can come from it.
These things all sound good on paper, but don't work so well in application. @KenaPKK is one of the best magicka NB in this game for NA, he isn't some idiot preaching L2P for no reason.
If I'm in a 2vx or a small group, magicka NB are often our priority targets simply for being so easy to kill. Right behind or in front of Templars. I challenge anyone to prove me otherwise with a magicka NB.
I've played a magicka NB from day 1 through AR50, and have always loved cloak. The reason it is so powerful is that PEOPLE DON'T BOTHER TO THINK ABOUT COUNTERING IT.
How many of you run Radiant Magelight on a bar while travelling between keeps? There are outfitter addons to swap bars with the touch of a button that make it easy.
How many of you drop a caltrops defensively when you stop moving and will stay in one place for a while?
How many of you see a NB cloak and hit bombard or steel tornado (or any other AoE) to bring them out?
Since I started playing my stam DK with bombard on one bar and caltrops on the other, very few NBs have escaped from me. If they're moving away from me, a bombard snares and reveals them. If they're doing the dodge in and out to keep 100% crit from disguise, a caltrops makes it impossible for them to succeed. If my group stops moving and stacks, unless we're stealthing, my caltrops is always centred on us or the primary ingress point to us for defensive purposes.
I dare say that people who complain about cloak simply don't bother to use or arrange for someone close to them (in group) to use one of the MANY counters to it.
I pretty much do all of these things and cloak is still a joke.
The biggest problem for me with the skill is not the huge benefits youre getting when you successfully cloak - its how easy theyve allowed players to use it. It acts as a disjoint/immunity when activated, which is the biggest/main problem I have with this skill. You can throw caltrops on top of a NB, be standing next to him with lightning armor which will/should reveal him while a meteor is sailing down. And then they press cloak at the right time - despite standing in everything that breaks cloak, they will disjoint this, or a WB - despite using the exact things that should counter this.
If you use cloak inside caltrops, you should never go invis, you should never gain a moment to disjoint attacks. The real problem is ZOS doesnt even know how to program this logic properly to make this skill work this way. Its functioned so poorly in the past that they just give you this window when you pop it to make it actually work.
If you can successfully evade your enemy, you should be able to hide. Getting 'dodged' messages when youre hitting people that just went into cloak is absolutely stupid.
For the nightblades who are still whining about cloak being "broken", it's not. Nightblade was the first class I played, starting in beta, and cloak had lots of issues back then, but it has been working as intended for a while. Most of the complaints come from people who don't understand what is supposed to break you out of cloak.
As far as it being too strong, I have no issue dealing with cloak when playing on a stam build, since caltrops and steel tornado have such a huge aoe to break it. Magicka aoes are so small that it's really hard to pull a NB out of cloak. Would like to see a detect pot buff or a buff to revealing flare so that it's actually worth slotting outside of one niche purpose.
And I'd rather they get rid of the stupid cost stacking, regen cancelling, but if they're going to keep those on streak, dodge and block, they should probably add something to cloak for balance too.
The only thing I will definitely say is broken regarding cloak, and a huge pain in the ass, is dark flare.
That isn't a ground targeted AoE, its much like meteor. You can cloak meteor, but if its dark flare you just eat the 8k+ damage.
A meh gad, so annoying!In the grand scheme of things, though, this is the least of our worries.
It's funny to see all the typical nightblades who run one shot build defending their precious cloak. In the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that at least 70% of the player base run a nightblade nowadays and it says it all. That percentage probably goes up to 90% in sewers. Cloak should be an ultimate that works like Overload. Stealth should not be a thing unless you are close to objects. Put Mark Target in the Alliance War or Bow tree line.
Frozn, I'm the main person defending cloak in this thread, and I run a 3k unbuffed regen, 3400 buffed weapon damage build on a stamblade Breton. I itemize for sustain and mobility -- I seldom one shot anyone. No good nightblade runs a one shot cheese build bro, and only a player who drops his guard will ever die to a one shot cheese build.
Your suggestions show how emotionally jaded and out of touch you are with this game.
For the nightblades who are still whining about cloak being "broken", it's not. Nightblade was the first class I played, starting in beta, and cloak had lots of issues back then, but it has been working as intended for a while. Most of the complaints come from people who don't understand what is supposed to break you out of cloak.
As far as it being too strong, I have no issue dealing with cloak when playing on a stam build, since caltrops and steel tornado have such a huge aoe to break it. Magicka aoes are so small that it's really hard to pull a NB out of cloak. Would like to see a detect pot buff or a buff to revealing flare so that it's actually worth slotting outside of one niche purpose.
And I'd rather they get rid of the stupid cost stacking, regen cancelling, but if they're going to keep those on streak, dodge and block, they should probably add something to cloak for balance too.
The only thing I will definitely say is broken regarding cloak, and a huge pain in the ass, is dark flare.
That isn't a ground targeted AoE, its much like meteor. You can cloak meteor, but if its dark flare you just eat the 8k+ damage.
A meh gad, so annoying!In the grand scheme of things, though, this is the least of our worries.
It's funny to see all the typical nightblades who run one shot build defending their precious cloak. In the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that at least 70% of the player base run a nightblade nowadays and it says it all. That percentage probably goes up to 90% in sewers. Cloak should be an ultimate that works like Overload. Stealth should not be a thing unless you are close to objects. Put Mark Target in the Alliance War or Bow tree line.
Frozn, I'm the main person defending cloak in this thread, and I run a 3k unbuffed regen, 3400 buffed weapon damage build on a stamblade Breton. I itemize for sustain and mobility -- I seldom one shot anyone. No good nightblade runs a one shot cheese build bro, and only a player who drops his guard will ever die to a one shot cheese build.
Your suggestions show how emotionally jaded and out of touch you are with this game.
First of, I've never said that you one shot people. If the hat doesn't suit you, don't wear it.
Second, a solo Nightblade doesn't as much sustain as a Dragonknight and Templar do because during the cloak duration, they are regenerating while a DK and a Templar are constantly either blocking or dodge rolling. If you are running 3k unbuffed regen, you have way too much. A stamblade should run max 2.5k stam regen, ideally 2k. In group play, it should be 2k max. Unless you are there to spam maneuvers, caltrops and vigor only.
I haven't put any emotions in my statement. I think you are saying that to provoque like most people usually do in these forums and failed drastically.
For the nightblades who are still whining about cloak being "broken", it's not. Nightblade was the first class I played, starting in beta, and cloak had lots of issues back then, but it has been working as intended for a while. Most of the complaints come from people who don't understand what is supposed to break you out of cloak.
As far as it being too strong, I have no issue dealing with cloak when playing on a stam build, since caltrops and steel tornado have such a huge aoe to break it. Magicka aoes are so small that it's really hard to pull a NB out of cloak. Would like to see a detect pot buff or a buff to revealing flare so that it's actually worth slotting outside of one niche purpose.
And I'd rather they get rid of the stupid cost stacking, regen cancelling, but if they're going to keep those on streak, dodge and block, they should probably add something to cloak for balance too.
The only thing I will definitely say is broken regarding cloak, and a huge pain in the ass, is dark flare.
That isn't a ground targeted AoE, its much like meteor. You can cloak meteor, but if its dark flare you just eat the 8k+ damage.
A meh gad, so annoying!In the grand scheme of things, though, this is the least of our worries.
It's funny to see all the typical nightblades who run one shot build defending their precious cloak. In the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that at least 70% of the player base run a nightblade nowadays and it says it all. That percentage probably goes up to 90% in sewers. Cloak should be an ultimate that works like Overload. Stealth should not be a thing unless you are close to objects. Put Mark Target in the Alliance War or Bow tree line.
Frozn, I'm the main person defending cloak in this thread, and I run a 3k unbuffed regen, 3400 buffed weapon damage build on a stamblade Breton. I itemize for sustain and mobility -- I seldom one shot anyone. No good nightblade runs a one shot cheese build bro, and only a player who drops his guard will ever die to a one shot cheese build.
Your suggestions show how emotionally jaded and out of touch you are with this game.
First of, I've never said that you one shot people. If the hat doesn't suit you, don't wear it.
Second, a solo Nightblade doesn't as much sustain as a Dragonknight and Templar do because during the cloak duration, they are regenerating while a DK and a Templar are constantly either blocking or dodge rolling. If you are running 3k unbuffed regen, you have way too much. A stamblade should run max 2.5k stam regen, ideally 2k. In group play, it should be 2k max. Unless you are there to spam maneuvers, caltrops and vigor only.
I haven't put any emotions in my statement. I think you are saying that to provoque like most people usually do in these forums and failed drastically.

I'm all for decreased magicka regen for the 3 seconds that I'm in cloak if magicka sorcs get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Hardened Ward, templars get decreased regen for 3 seconds after casing Breath of Life, and magicka DK gets decreased regen for 3 seconds after casting Dragon's Bl....nevermind, sorry DKs. Cloak is an unreliable skill with abundant counters, yet it must mitigate as much damage for mageblades as Hardened Ward does for magicka sorcs, BoL for templars, etc etc.
You're talking about gimping mageblade's primary defensive mechanism.
If you're so frustrated with cloak that you believe these changes are warranted, then you're a bad player. Plain and simple.
Worry about problems that actually exist, like how much more damage stamina is doing compared to magicka.
...
So, a skill that acts like a magicka based dodge roll, that adds max health for being slotted, that procs major resist buffs on cast, that purges up to 4 dots, that clears tab targeting and can be combined with heals from other NB skills must be as powerful as breath of life or hardened ward?
You forgot the part where cloak doesn't move you ever and doesn't provide invisibility against good players.
..
I kind of find it interesting, that despite all the things cloak does, even when the invisibility fails, that the response is "it doesn't move you and good players always have radiant/detect pots/caltrops/excess resources for aoes, ready." Not a "the other classes don't have nearly as many defining skills that make playing the class unique and interesting without having some sort of restraint" or any acknowledgment that nightblades have more skills than cloak.
Want mobility? NB's have 3 ways to get major move speed and have the longest range teleport in game, and while invisible you aren't rooted, use wasd to move at 100% speed, 125% with concealed weapon (5% slower than sprint speed). Sorry, but as long as nightblades are stuck in the mindset that "everyone else just has to l2p" and not address the fact that they are in the best position as a class in the game in regards to both skills and passives than I don't think any productive conversation can come from it.
We are not oblivious. We just want other classes buffed instead of repeated nerfs to anything that's working well. Instead of playing the victim and demanding equalizing nerfs for anything that annoys or inconveniences you, instead call for buffs to other classes or skill lines.
As for NB abilities, cloak does not give us immunity from snares and roots. You'll rarely use cloak and get the "best case" use out of it, being 2.9 seconds of invisibility with no lingering ccs. When you do, the enemy messed up. Nightblades are squishy and immobile (with the exception of shade, which I'll address) by design. You have to stop being so scared of them. Jump on their face and lock them down. A nightblade will panic when you get in his face, then scurry to create distance. I promise.
As for shade being the longest range teleport, yes this is true, and it's one of my favorite abilities in the game. However, it requires lots of setup and a little carelessness on your opponent's part to pull off as an escape since you have to move away from the shade and then only get one poof. This skill is only really useful when you're attempting to 1vX a group of people around structure or rock terrain. Streak is much stronger as an escape overall.
TLDR: [snip] Call for buffs to other stuff instead of nerfs to a class that, as you described, is unique and interesting and exciting and working well.
[Edited to remove inappropriate content]
mag NBs are fine, the problem is stamblades cloak too much in between their 6k/shot spambush SA faceroll
https://youtu.be/vTq8TpoJEDU?t=26s stealthyevil wrote: »with just vague outlines. Now, that disguise isn't allowed in Cyrodil for obvious reasons, what if Dark Cloak were tweaked to be displayed similar to that.
I like the idea of the visual change. I messed around with that disguise for a while and aside from the bug particles I could be near invisible just standing in the open in some places, while in others (namely lit areas) you could easily spot the outline. This reminds me of other games where invisibility only renders the user transparent and has reduced effectiveness while moving. That kind of gameplay requires more skill form the user use but also gives meaningful counterplay (something this game doesn't really have much of). Think that's the best suggestion i've seen yet.
Just remove the dark cloak insta purge and boom fixed now we can counter with dots i mean if you want that purge so much use the purge from the alliance war tree.
They can still hit OP and perma cloak so they will be happy and its just to bad if whoever they are fighting isnt smart enough to dot them.
Good nightblades will make this work and the bad ones will re roll magika sorcs.
It's funny to see all the typical nightblades who run one shot build defending their precious cloak. In the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that at least 70% of the player base run a nightblade nowadays and it says it all. That percentage probably goes up to 90% in sewers. Cloak should be an ultimate that works like Overload. Stealth should not be a thing unless you are close to objects. Put Mark Target in the Alliance War or Bow tree line.
Just remove the dark cloak insta purge and boom fixed now we can counter with dots i mean if you want that purge so much use the purge from the alliance war tree.
They can still hit OP and perma cloak so they will be happy and its just to bad if whoever they are fighting isnt smart enough to dot them.
Good nightblades will make this work and the bad ones will re roll magika sorcs.
To counter the main defense of NBs just use:
- a cheap potion
- any AoE
- mark target
- entropy
- burning embers
- random cloak break cause why not
On top of that you want all dots to break it, making it completely useless as stamina nightblade.
Unlike other classes a nightblades main defense got a ton of counters, making them visible for all enemies.
Now let's look at BoL, Block, Dodge, Shields.
They all got counters, but they don't make them useless.
Cloak right now is strong in case it works, but there is no real alternative to use.
Just imagine Shield breaker removing your shields completely instead of bypassing it by a little.
Welcome to a nightblade fight.
Just remove the dark cloak insta purge and boom fixed now we can counter with dots i mean if you want that purge so much use the purge from the alliance war tree.
They can still hit OP and perma cloak so they will be happy and its just to bad if whoever they are fighting isnt smart enough to dot them.
Good nightblades will make this work and the bad ones will re roll magika sorcs.
To counter the main defense of NBs just use:
- a cheap potion
- any AoE
- mark target
- entropy
- burning embers
- random cloak break cause why not
On top of that you want all dots to break it, making it completely useless as stamina nightblade.
Unlike other classes a nightblades main defense got a ton of counters, making them visible for all enemies.
Now let's look at BoL, Block, Dodge, Shields.
They all got counters, but they don't make them useless.
Cloak right now is strong in case it works, but there is no real alternative to use.
Just imagine Shield breaker removing your shields completely instead of bypassing it by a little.
Welcome to a nightblade fight.
avid_mdb16_ESO wrote: »Here is how to balance it:
Remove the night blades from cloak at any ability they cast while cloaked.
No stamina and magica regeneration during cloak time.
If above fixes are implemented then the cloak will be used as intended:
1. During the fights it will be used to cleanse and apply surprise attack combos or crit attack combos. The resource penalty will not be noticeable if the attacker gets out of stealth as soon as possible.
3. The escape - you have to plan it properly and use cloak wisely or you will run out of resources very quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnTDSlRWzPQ