1. yes, but your dmg is also based on your wpn dmg
2. yes, now it's based on magicka and spell dmg
3. Magicka until it is morphed into killer's blade
4. yes
5. killer's blade is a skill which escale off stam, but do magic dmg
6. with 2 swords your spell dmg increases, so it is good idea for some builds to go with 2 swords instead a satff. The drawback is that your basic attacks cannot be done from distance. Same happens with S/B and mitigation
7. one of the 2 weapons does less dmg. That passive incresses the damage of the off hand blade/mace/axe/dagger. It adds wpn dmg to the total too, so it affects everything that escales off wpn dmg
8. the tooltip says "while using dual wield attacks". No NB attack is affected fir that passive
9. Yup, you can use assa blade with an axe or a hammer (or in the case of mag builds, impale with a staff)
10. Stealth mode depends on stamina. Invisibility as a skill for NBs depends on magicka. The other way to get invis is through potions-. So, a stamblade can pretty much use both (beung invis a utility). Magicka NB can cloak all the day if he wants, but he can be detected anyway, so it is not a great idea too.
11. All stamina based skills, such as killer's blade, surprise attack, weapons (except for staves) armor skills (except for light armor), fighter's guild, some undaunted skills and assaul skills (except for magi deto). Appart frrom that, you need stam for blocking.
12. Magicka NB dedicated to healing is IMHO the second best healer in the game. The como "refreshing path" + "healing springs" is one of thhe best HoT in dungeons. But you MUST be a magicka based NB
13. You mean debuffs? There are a lot. You can have debuffs to spell res, armor, healing received, dmg done, etc etc. The fextra life wiki has all the info you need, though it is not updated with the TG patch
14. No. If you go destro staff, you cannot use other weapon's skills, so, you cannot use healing spring and wall of elements at the same time without changing bars. This is because there are 4 types of staves: Flame, Frost, Shock and Healing

1. yes
2. magic and spell crit
3. crits off spell crit
4. physical crit
5. assassins blade deals magic damage no matter what morph
6. pretty much the same, but using dual wield swords increases your spell damage
7. not sure
8. not sure
9. not sure
10. no, will tell you decent build for stamina nightblade below
11. yes, since you seem like you want to be a stamina based nightblade you want to put all your attribute points into stamina
12. not really, don't try it
13. no clue
14. dual wield and bow is more for experienced players, bow and 2h or dual wield and 2h is the better choice. Do not use 1h and shield unless you are tanking or dueling in pvp. ok so for example say you are using a dual wield skill on your bar, you can only use it if you have dual wield weps equipped.

If you want some good Stamina Nightblade Builds and Magicka Nightblade Builds
check out Deltia's Gaming on youtube
he also has many vids for beginner players

Zyrenia wrote: »

Hi i pretty recently started playing ESO and been trying all classes up till about lvl 10 to try the basic skills. The one that caught my attention the most was Nightblade so i'm gonna make one and see what it can do. But after surfing the web and the forums i am confused. People say diffrent things regarding what bases on physica and magical dmg and crit. As well as other things. And i dont really know how to best formulate these questions but i'll try to be as short and pointy as i can. (im aiming to do both pve and pvp and not to be the best, but atleast to make it work as avrage or above)

Please correct me if im wrong.

1. If i use Daggers, 2 Handed, or 1H + Shield in my hands. My regular white hits is based on max Stamina, and the critical is weapon crit?

2. If i now equip a staff. Is my regular white hits based on max magica and spell crit or still stam and phys crit?

3. Lets say i use Assassins blade (not morphed) since its magica based i know the dmg scales of max magica, but is the crit mag or phys?, or does it depends on what weapon i use ?

4. By morphing Assasins blade into Killers blade it now scales its dmg on Stamina. Asuming the default version use spell crit since its magica based. does it now use phys crit or is it still based on weapons ?

5. Assasins blade uses magica as recource and the tooltip says its magical dmg, i read somewhere that it deals physical dmg. what is correct ?

6. Jumping over to the Siphon tree. I cast Strife wich to me looks like a magical spell. and it uses magica, scales of it and so on. Do i get a benefit for wearing a staff (magical dmg?) or is it the same as if i had a sword, asuming the dmg on the items are the same? (no passives taken into account)

7. For dual wielding i see 3 passives that caught my attention. First up is "Dual Wield Expert". "Increases Weapon Damage by 3% of off-hand weapon's Damage." Does this dmg bonus only work on white hits, the dual wield skills, or any attacks made while having 2 weapons equipped? and does Weapond amg even help on skills like Assasins blade among others?

8. Next is Ruffian, Increases my dmg against CC'd enemies. Dows it apply to the dual wield skills, or any skill used while 2 weapons is equipped ?

9. Then there is "Twin Blade and Blunt" No matter what i equip it says weapon attacks. Does that helps on Assasins blade for instance, or only the dual wield attacks. or is there any other rules ? (all attacks under x meters range or others ?

10. My initial thought was to make a Stealth based assassin, sort of rogue like. Focusing on stamina since its needed for hiding and dodging. But seeing as most (if not all) skills on the class trees are magica based im thinking magica based might be better suited for those trees?

11. I dont imagine beeing able to hide and sneak from one side of the world to the other. But will i have heavy stamina issues if i dont put points into stamina since it only seems to be needed for sprinting, rolls and hiding ?, or do more things need stamina ?

12. If i equip a resto staff in offhand, will i be able to heal in dungeons or is a templar needed for that ? and do i even need a resto rod at all? (other then for getting xp on it ?)

13. Was ment to have this question higher up, but forgot about it till now. What skills (and morphs?) get redused by spell resistance and armor ? is there a general rule here ?

14. At first i was thinking of going dual wield as main equipment set, and bow on secondary for when i need to stay back. But now im leaning towards destro skills as ranged dps. are they any good at all, and do i need a rod to cast them or can i have lets say, a Shield for def on. while using 3 destro skills and 2 resto skills on the bar ?

Im sure i have many more questions and i'll probably update this one or make one more topic later, but these are the questions i can think of right now.

Any help, feedback, constructive critics and no os it appriciated.

Best regards.

1. Correct, all 2h, 1h, and bow weapons use Stamina and Weapon Damage as their scaling stats for both Light+Heavy attacks, as well as abilities from these skill lines. They all also use Weapon Critical, and Physical Penetration.

2. All staves are based off of max Magicka and Spell damage, and use Spell Critical. Keep in mind that the "weapon damage" listed on a weapon's tooltip grants both Spell and Weapon damage. This is unique to weapons only.

3+4. The ability will scale off max Magicka and Spell damage, and use Spell Critical again, as well as Spell Penetration. This will only change if you change the morph to Killer's Blade, which will change it to scale with max Stamina, Weapon Damage, Weapon Critical, and Physical Penetration. HOWEVER, it will use the Elfborn instead of Precise Strikes passive in the Champion point tree to gain Critical Hit damage.

5. Assassin's blade and its morphs deal MAGIC damage exclusively, even the stamina morph.

6. Strife only scales as a "caster" spec would, max Magicka+Spell Damage+Spell Crit+Spell Penetration. Changing weapons will not change the scaling mechanisms, but swapping from a weapon with a higher or lower base tooltip will change the damage it deals. Let's say I equip a staff that has a weapon damage tooltip of 1335 and then I put on a two handed that has a weapon damage of 1571. Since weapon's tooltips give both Weapon AND Spell damage, the two handed would have Strife dealing more damage, with no passives being accounted for.

7. Dual Wield Expert applies a 6% bonus (rank II) to your offhand's weapon damage tooltip, meaning it gives a bonus 6% Spell damage granted from that weapon specifically. This applies to all attacks that scale with stamina or caster based perimeters.

8. Ruffian only applies to Dual Wield specific attacks, including Light+Heavy attacks, and all weapon abilities from the Dual Wield skill line.

9. Twin Blade and Blunt changes based on the weapons you use. It applies to ALL abilities that scale with the specific stat. Daggers = 5% weapon crit @ rank II per, and will apply to all abilities that scale with it, meaning class and weapon skills.
Maces = 10% Armor REDUCTION @ rank II per, will apply to any attack that uses Physical Penetration scaling.
Swords= 2.5% flat damage gain @ rank II per, will apply to ANY OFFENSIVE SKILL in game, regardless of how it scales. This is a flat gain, which is why many caster builds run dual wield swords.
Axes= 8% chance to deal X bleed damage @ rank II per, will only proc off of non Damage over Time melee hits (7 meter and under range check). This can proc off of Class and Weapon skills, such as Surprise Attack from the Nightblade.

10. Nightblade currently has the most stamina based morphs in game, while first glance at base morphs they seem to be exclusively caster based, many skills can be changed to fit a stamina playstyle. Keep in mind that just because a skill scales with max Magicka doesn't mean stamina based play styles cannot benefit from it (Grim Focus is a prime example).

11. This is a pretty open ended question. You would need specific examples in order to answer that, but sneaking without sneak cost reduction from passives such as Medium Armor and Legerdemain will leave you running out of stamina if you sneak for prolonged periods of time. You cannot regenerate stamina while MOVING in stealth, but if you stop your regen will reactivate until you move.

12. While Templars are undoubtedly the most efficient and effective healers, they are by no means required to clear any content in game. Templars offer a massive amount of utility that will definitely make runs of specific content faster or easier, but almost any class can spec for heals and be able to manage alright in the majority of content. Keep in mind that if you take a stamina based approach with building your character, that you will be unable to use a Resto staff effectively, as it scales with caster based stats.

13. Sadly there is no real specific rule, thanks to a lot of archaic scaling mechanisms. When ESO released scaling of abilities did not follow a set guide line or rule book, and while many skills have been changed to make more sense, some still suffer from strange issues of improper scaling. The majority of skills that cost stamina use Armor Penetration, and the majority of skills that cost magicka use Spell Penetration. That is the best I can give you, but even some abilities break these rules.

14. You cannot mix-match weapon based skills on the same bar, if that is what you are asking. Once you reach level 15 you can have one bar with say, Sword and Board with those skills, and then an offbar with a Resto staff with those skills. None of your class skills will require specific weapons, but may scale better with different types. If you're looking for ranged DPS it sounds like you want a caster play style with class skills from the Nightblade such as Strife and its morphs, as well as things like Grim Focus and Cripple. Using a Destro staff will unlock powerful synergistic abilities like Wall of Elements and such.
You can also take a stamina based range route, but you would be locked to exclusively using the Bow skill line, as Nightblade (and most classes for that matter) completely lack any stamina based ranged class skills.


I hope this helps you get a more well rounded idea of how ESO works. This game is incredibly in depth that most people overlook. I wish the game did a better job describing this stuff so new players like yourself could have all the information at your finger tips, but sadly that is not the case. If you have more questions feel free to PM me on the forums, I check it every other day or so.

@Zyrenia There is a lot of good information in this thread. Not sure if it was mentioned or not, but if you go with Dual Wield, and your going to actually hit things with the weapons and not just have them to scale magic damage, then make sure the enchantments you put on each weapon is different. So, a Frost and Fire Enchantment for instance. Otherwise, only one enchant will fire, the one on your main hand.

You summed it up better than I could of.