Help me pick a second class

Lynx7386 · April 2016

My main is a stamina nightblade. I've dabbled with other classes at lower levels but never really stuck with one past V1. I'm wanting something of a polar opposite to my nightblade character, something that feels different.

The nightblade uses 2h and bow with medium armor, so none of those apply. The new character should ideally be magicka based, though I'm torn between using a the staff lines or trying dual wield/1h+shield as the weapon options. Apparently dual wield gives a great deal more spell damage for magicka characters, and with champion points the shield line can be very tanky even in light armor (or so I'm told).

The problem is, I cant decide whether I want to go with a dragonknight or a templar. There are abilities from both classes that I love, and abilities from both that I hate. I'm not fond of the flappy wings you get with several dragonknight abilities, though I love things like the earth shield and flame whip. For the templar, I've never really liked the look of the aedric spear skills (reminds me too much of hard-light lanterns in DCUO, just corny looking), but I love the dawn's wrath / sun-magic abilities.

The dragonknight seems to have gotten some boosts towards healing potential, but would need a staff to heal, while I'm told the templar can potentially heal normal content without a resto staff via class heals.

The dragonknight is more survivable/tougher to kill, from my experience playing one in the past (though that dk used heavy armor and a shield). Reflective scales, despite the animation, definitely trumped several of the bosses I had to fight at lower levels that would've been difficult without it. I hear now, though, that eclipse and its morphs for the templar can reflect arrows and non spell projectiles as well, which means it should be mostly equivalent (though single target instead of reflecting everything). DK also has more control with talons and petrify, which the templar has no equivalents for.

So give me some opinions and experience to go on here, which would be the better fit?

Mojmir · April 2016

DK magicka was my first character and it went through alot of changes since beta. it has tankyness and good crowd control,as well as really good DPS.

spartan002 · April 2016

My main is a Templar healer, but I like my v6 magics dk more to play with. I guess that's just preference.

I want to build a NB, can you recommend me a stamina one? Or should I go for magica?

Mojmir · April 2016

Both are viable, I started off with stamina and found it squishy but very effective for solo play.I recently moved that character over to magicka and found it more rounded and survivable.I'd stick with the dk for now if I we're you,they really improved this patch with a healing buff. My typical set up is 5 julianos,3 willpower jewels,skoria set(or torugs if you dont have) and dual destro staves (torug)
Single bar is destr reach,lash,entropy,burning embers, magelight.
Aoe bar is eruption,fire ring,volatile armor,draw essence, magelight
Meteor is ultimate for both bars for now til I level magma up

Lynx7386 · April 2016

spartan002 wrote: »

My main is a Templar healer, but I like my v6 magics dk more to play with. I guess that's just preference.

I want to build a NB, can you recommend me a stamina one? Or should I go for magica?

Personally I never really liked the magicka nightblade setup, Stamina just feels like it fits the character better. I run two handed + bow with hunding's rage (5 pc) / night mother's embrace (3 pc). Everything focused on weapon damage and crit. 2h bar is wrecking blow, ambush, executioner, rally, shadowy disguise, and flawless dawnbreaker. Bow bar is lethal arrow, magnum shot, venom arrow, reaper's mark, grim focus, and flawless dawnbreaker or soul assault.

Obviously I change skills around here and there for different thinks. Bombard/volley for aoe on the bow bar when needed, or power extraction/brawler for the 2h bar if I want to use that for aoe. I also swap shadowy disguise for immovable in pvp.

I'm sure with recent changes (i've been gone 8 months), magicka is probably a better choice, but I like the burst and warrior-style feel of 2h/stamina for nightblade.

imapogostick · April 2016

I enjoy my dk tank a lot, that would be a total opposite of stealth nb. get on them front lines and hold em. I enjoyed my magic dk but stamina is the way to go for tank so I switched over to a stamina tank. I'm argonian s+b with 2h backup.
The abilities for tanking with dk are magic and can work well with pairing up with the class weapons.and burning embers is a beast of a skill that's super super cheap and stamina.I run all my buffs on magic hardened armor, igneous shield, coag blood,
This let's me use magic wisely and not on things like talons to cc. I can use invasion.

Samphaa · April 2016

My main is a high elf sorc, played him flat out for 3-4 months until he had everything I could get for him. I started a magicka nightblade after that and my sorc hardly gets touched anymore, magicka nightblade is awesome fun in pve, even vet maelstrom is.....not enjoyable, but not as boring as sorc. I will try out stam dk next, maelstrom dagger/axe +4/5 dots will be insane deeps.

Stannum · April 2016

IMHO templar is more interesting class, it can easily switch to close combat DPS, ranged DPS, healer and support, tank. DK has somewhat less variants, close combat DPS, tank. You can also heal but will not have as much support abilities as templar has. So if you like to experiment a lot - choose templar, if you like classical builds - DK.

Strider_Roshin · April 2016

Go magicka templar. They have the best healing, the best defense, and possibly the best damage in the game.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · April 2016

For PvP, I like my magic templar better. They are pretty powerful at the moment, but things always get changed. For PvE, my magic DK has alwasy been my favorite to DPS with. They also arguably make the best tanks, but I really dont tank. Templars are doing a lot of damage right now, and they certainly make the best healers.

My first toon was a stamblade. I made the DK second and the templar third. I might lean towards a templar, because well, everybody needs a templar. You already have a good damage class. I think a templar is a better support toon at the moment.

namelessperson · April 2016

Since you are going for a magicka-based, polar opposite kind of character, here's what I think. Since nightblades' abilities by nature have a red/black, shadowy look, templar would be the best choice as far as polar opposites go, for obvious aesthetic reasons. Think of it like some sort of paladin/holy battle mage! You already used 2h on your nightblade, so this time around I'd suggest you use 1h/shield on one bar and a staff of your choice on the other. I haven't played as a templar since before the most recent patch, so I'm not up to date on what the abilities currently do, but since templars already have class skills capable of healing, and if you want to be able to do more DPS while still healing, it might be in your interest to use a destruction staff. You could even use a flame staff to seem more in-character and say it's holy fire or something, idk. Ultimately up to you though; restoration staff would of course add additional heals to your assortment. As far as armor, since you used medium before, if you want to look/be more tanky and heroic, and decide to use 1h/shield, maybe use heavy armor (but you'd have to compensate somehow to boost your magicka and magicka regen and other magicka-based stats). However, there are the obvious magicka-using benefits of light armor's passives. Again, it boils down to what you truly envision.

kojou · April 2016

I was also a long time Nightblade fan with both Magicka and Stamina (and still am), so I kinda know where you are coming from.

I like Templar better than DK, but that is more for aesthetic reasons. DK's are better for tanking and DPS, but Templars can do good DPS, heal, and are pretty good tanks, so I would look at the Templar as the more well rounded class of the 2.

For my Templar I amd currently running 4 Pieces of Overwelming Surge (Spell Damage, Magicka, Spell Damage), 3 pieces of Willpower, and 5 pieces of Julianos. With 2 pieces of Julianos being dual wield/Sword and Shield. She is mostly stabbing with puncturing sweeps, but I have also been known to lob Dark Flares at things.

If you want to do a weaving build then you can switch to Destro and use vampires bane for a DoT while you light/heavy attack weave with force pulse. I typically see that build going with 5 Pieces of Julianos, 1 Molag Kena, 3 Willpower, and 2 Torugs Pact.

With either build you will be throwing in Structured Entropy and Purifying light into the rotation.

Lynx7386 · April 2016

I'm thinking I may like the dragon knight better, both for abilities and aesthetics (minus the goofy dragon wings on my cat). Seems like a dual wield light armor build would be fun with the Molten whip, I really love how that skill looks. I can also morph Molten weapons to give both weapon and spell damage, which seems really effective for that playstyle.

I put in a ticket to try and get my old v1 templar restored, so if that happens I can try both.

mr_wazzabi · April 2016

Lynx7386 wrote: »

spartan002 wrote: »

My main is a Templar healer, but I like my v6 magics dk more to play with. I guess that's just preference.

I want to build a NB, can you recommend me a stamina one? Or should I go for magica?

Personally I never really liked the magicka nightblade setup, Stamina just feels like it fits the character better. I run two handed + bow with hunding's rage (5 pc) / night mother's embrace (3 pc). Everything focused on weapon damage and crit. 2h bar is wrecking blow, ambush, executioner, rally, shadowy disguise, and flawless dawnbreaker. Bow bar is lethal arrow, magnum shot, venom arrow, reaper's mark, grim focus, and flawless dawnbreaker or soul assault.

Obviously I change skills around here and there for different thinks. Bombard/volley for aoe on the bow bar when needed, or power extraction/brawler for the 2h bar if I want to use that for aoe. I also swap shadowy disguise for immovable in pvp.

I'm sure with recent changes (i've been gone 8 months), magicka is probably a better choice, but I like the burst and warrior-style feel of 2h/stamina for nightblade.

Brawler and power extraction suck. Go with bombard for aoe. Power extraction does magic damage for a stamina class, which gets no benefit from the physical damage cp. Brawler's burst damage is extremely weak, with a useless bleed dot that keeps refreshing when you try to mow down mobs in aoe fights. The only good thing is the shield, but it's only strong when you hit 4+ mobs with it. It's weak otherwise.

Swap dawnbreaker for soul harvest on your 2h bar in pvp. 20% damage buff on the guy you cast it on, plus more ultimate gain when you kill him.

Also, use mass hysteria. It's the nb's best weapon in pvp. Aoe unblockable cc.

Lynx7386 · April 2016

I don't pvp much, tbh.

mr_wazzabi · April 2016

Lynx7386 wrote: »

I don't pvp much, tbh.

If you don't pvp much, drop magnum shot. It's absolutely useless in pve. Replace it with arrow volley for a fire and forget aoe dot to increase your dps.

Put soul harvest on your bow bar so when you mow down 10 mobs with bombard and volley, your ultimate fills up.

Xvorg · April 2016

If you're stamblade, try magicka blade.

It is worth the attempt

Lynx7386 · April 2016

I've tried it, didn't enjoy it nearly as much, I just love my 2h too much.

I keep going back and forth between templar and dragon knight, I just can't settle on one or the other

mr_wazzabi · April 2016

Xvorg wrote: »

If you're stamblade, try magicka blade.

It is worth the attempt

My magicka nightblade instantly became my favourite and ended becoming my most powerful character at vr16.

Good self healing, great dps, better sneaking in pvp due to having enough magicka to stay in cloak while you're travelling and stalking enemies makes this choice a no brainer.

I would actually consider a magicka nightblade another class altogether. Try it out. It's the most fun I've had since starting the game.

Toast_STS · April 2016

Orc anything is fun.

Lynx7386 · April 2016

tony.augeb14_ESO wrote: »

Orc anything is fun.

Always play khajiit

Lynx7386 · April 2016

I really am starting to wonder how effective a "hybrid" dragon knight might be in that setup.

Using dual wield you have the highest base spell power and weapon damage.
Using igneous weapons you get +20% damage to both weapons and spells.
Slotting flames of oblivion increases both spell crit and weapon crit.

It seems like there's a good synergy here for a dragonknight to focus mostly (or entirely) on magicka while using melee weapons and still getting a fair bit of use out of light/heavy attacks.

Does anyone think this is viable? At the very least for soloing and occasional pvp?