You'll get a kick out of this! My saga of L2P (long overdue, I know).

Violynne · March 2017

Two days ago, I accepted my first duel. I was on Khenarthi's Roost, new character, wearing nothing but a medium armor belt. No skills. 8 points into Stamina. I was a killer! Of Alit and Thunderbugs, anyway.

The purpose of the character was to sit down and figure out how the game mechanics work. As I cleared out an Alit, a duel request came in. I accepted and was ready to fight!

I lost. Big time.

The locals picked up my butt and enshrined it with a plaque reading "Fastest Handing of a Posterior in Khenarthi's Roost's History". Looks rather good.

After the duel, a teenage girl enters local area chat and says to me, "You're no better than a practice dummy. You should work on that." I laughed heartily, before replying, "That's what I'm doing now. This was simply part of my learning. Good fight!" She chuckled, before wishing me luck on my journey, then ran off to find a better opponent.

She wasn't wrong, that's for sure. I do need to L2P, but I'm struggling.

All the information I try to learn from seems to focus on the "end game", not starters. I'm not new the game, but I most certainly am when it comes to properly building a character the way I want to. You'd be amazed how difficult some of these "easy" questions are to find answers to. Questions such as:

If I eat food to increase stamina, does this extra get added to weapon dmg output or is it scaled only against attributes?

Does a magicka weapon (Assassin's Blade) dmg scale from magicka, which for a NB would typically be 0? (this may explain why several skills allow conversion to stamina?)

Is a magicka weapon considered a spell? If so, is spell penetration/spell critical something to invest in?

How does one "break free"? (pressing LT+RT seems to do nothing, despite what the tooltip states, even though I know some soft entrapments can't be broken from)

Playing a sorc, it was a no brainer. Everything magicka. I'm sure "tanks" feel the same way with stamina. But NBs... almost seem like they need to be hybrids, but I've been told and read hybrids don't fair well in the long term. I concur with this, as my other "new" character was specifically designed to test out this hybrid idea and her stamina attacks suffer for it. Fun character to play, but it's clear to me I'm relying on sorc rather than both.

My very first character was a DW NB and by the time I finished Cadwell's Gold, I hated the character so much, I deleted it. It wasn't because the class was bad. I was. Without basic knowledge of how the game works, my "build" suffered for it. Ugh, did it ever suffer. May she rest in peace. Razum-Dar gave a fantastic eulogy.

I don't want to make the same mistake again. I want to know what the difference between Precise is compared to Sharpened. I want to know how armor traits can help me so I can wear what's best for my play style.

Tonight, I'm going back to Khenarthi's Roost for another attempt at "learning". I'm not using any skills at the moment, strictly using heavy attacks while I "play with the numbers" my CP points allow me to. Then I'll scrap it and start anew.

Any particular thing(s) I should pay attention to in order to understand?

Alits don't seem to tell me, "Good hit. You negated my armor rating with that 7000+ buff you got from spending CP" and I see no improvement from the buff (still took 5 hits to take it down).

A fishy stick to all brave enough to get this far, and braver to help this poor soul. Perhaps other new players can learn from it, too!

Thanks for reading!

Magdalina · March 2017

Violynne wrote: »

If I eat food to increase stamina, does this extra get added to weapon dmg output or is it scaled only against attributes?

Does a magicka weapon (Assassin's Blade) dmg scale from magicka, which for a NB would typically be 0? (this may explain why several skills allow conversion to stamina?)

Is a magicka weapon considered a spell? If so, is spell penetration/spell critical something to invest in?

How does one "break free"? (pressing LT+RT seems to do nothing, despite what the tooltip states, even though I know some soft entrapments can't be broken from)

Playing a sorc, it was a no brainer. Everything magicka. I'm sure "tanks" feel the same way with stamina. But NBs... almost seem like they need to be hybrids, but I've been told and read hybrids don't fair well in the long term. I concur with this, as my other "new" character was specifically designed to test out this hybrid idea and her stamina attacks suffer for it. Fun character to play, but it's clear to me I'm relying on sorc rather than both.

My very first character was a DW NB and by the time I finished Cadwell's Gold, I hated the character so much, I deleted it. It wasn't because the class was bad. I was. Without basic knowledge of how the game works, my "build" suffered for it. Ugh, did it ever suffer. May she rest in peace. Razum-Dar gave a fantastic eulogy.

I don't want to make the same mistake again. I want to know what the difference between Precise is compared to Sharpened. I want to know how armor traits can help me so I can wear what's best for my play style.

Tonight, I'm going back to Khenarthi's Roost for another attempt at "learning". I'm not using any skills at the moment, strictly using heavy attacks while I "play with the numbers" my CP points allow me to. Then I'll scrap it and start anew.

Any particular thing(s) I should pay attention to in order to understand?

Alits don't seem to tell me, "Good hit. You negated my armor rating with that 7000+ buff you got from spending CP" and I see no improvement from the buff (still took 5 hits to take it down).

A fishy stick to all brave enough to get this far, and braver to help this poor soul. Perhaps other new players can learn from it, too!

Thanks for reading!

It's nice to see someone genuinely wanting to learn:)

1) If you eat a food that increases stamina, it will only increase your stamina(possibly by a value bigger than the tooltip because a multitude of % buffs will kick in, along with battle leveling if present), not the weapon damage stat; but the actual damage of stamina-costing skills and stamina weapons'(sword, bow, greatsword etc) basic attacks will increase because they scale off stamina pool along with weapon damage.

2)If a skill costs magicka, it will scale off max magicka, spell damage and spellcrit. If a skill costs stamina, it will scale with max stamina, wep damage and wep crit. If the skill is an ultimate it should scale with the higher of the two. A lot of magicka skills have morphs that offer 1 magicka and 1 stamina version. Magblades are far from an unviable thing by the way

3)A magicka weapon as in a staff? A staff's damage/healing(both of its base attacks and the skills from its skilltree) will scale with max magicka, spell damage and spellcrit just like most any other skill costing magicka.Their damage will also be affected by the spell resistance of your enemy/your spell penetration yes.

4)Uhhh on pc it's rmb+lmb(which I reassigned to ctrl because eff that). On consoles I can't really help with that, would it be possible for you to reassign it to a key of your choice?

5)Only role that can get away with being a hybrid currently is a tank since their role isn't maximizing the damage/healing but simply surviving. I mean you could play a hybrid in open world as a damage dealer and it could work because open world is so easy right now but it would be heaps less effective than a pure stamina/magicka.

6)Sharp>>>precise

Well if you wanna do damage at least. Powered works on resto staves and Defending is great for tanks.

You didn't mention what level you are - you mentioned cp so you must be beyond level 50 at least?

I don't actually know much about NBs unfortunately but I can help with basic mechanics understanding at least I think ^^

Violynne · March 2017

Magdalina wrote: »

It's nice to see someone genuinely wanting to learn:)

Thanks. I'd like to eventually get "guud" enough to play dungeons with other people. Right now, I feel like I'd hinder them, not help them. I don't want to be "that guy".

1) If you eat a food that increases stamina...

Thank you for this! It's been bugging me I didn't even know this.

2)If a skill costs...
3)A magicka weapon as in a staff?....

Assassin's Blade is a skill of the NB, and it's a "magic blade". It's not an actual weapon, like a dagger or staff. Here's the text:
"Thrust a magic blade with lethal precision to stab an enemy, dealing [944 / 954 / 963 / 973] Magic Damage. Deals 300% more damage to targets at or below 25% Health."

As you can see, it doesn't give me any other details to learn from. UESP uses a level 50 CP160 as a baseline, but this doesn't tell me if those numbers will be lower for me (<level 10) or if they can be affected by magicka attribute points.

I don't know if this skill is considered a spell, though I would think so given it's magicka based.

5)Only role that can get away with being a hybrid currently is a tank since their role isn't maximizing the damage/healing but simply surviving. I mean you could play a hybrid in open world as a damage dealer and it could work because open world is so easy right now but it would be heaps less effective than a pure stamina/magicka.

Most skills for the NB are pooled from magicka, with a few allowing to be converted to stamina (morphs). But the class itself states they rely on blades, which is makes no sense, since blades require stamina, not magicka, for dmg.

This is why I'm confused. Why build a class this way? It would make much more sense to pool skills from stamina, not magicka.

6)Sharp>>>precise Well if you wanna do damage at least. Powered works on resto staves and Defending is great for tanks.

My next step: learning about mitigation and how it affects dmg. Not ready for that one, I don't think. I don't quite get how a flat number translates to a %, especially since I have no clue what armor enemies have.

That's why I wanted to know if a skill is considered a spell, as the Assassin's Blade would benefit more from spell penetration, rather than physical. Ugh!

You didn't mention what level you are - you mentioned cp so you must be beyond level 50 at least?

The character I'm testing with is less than level 10. I play around trying to understand, wipe the character, and start a new one (saves gold this way rather than respec). I'd rather spend a week learning than trying with my other characters. Once I learn, then I can respec the stronger ones.

I don't actually know much about NBs unfortunately but I can help with basic mechanics understanding at least I think ^^

That's okay. Basic is what I need more than anything right now.

I greatly appreciate your help! You've given me some things to work on... right now, actually! Time to test!

Magdalina · March 2017

Assassin's Blade is a skill of the NB, and it's a "magic blade". It's not an actual weapon, like a dagger or staff. Here's the text:
"Thrust a magic blade with lethal precision to stab an enemy, dealing [944 / 954 / 963 / 973] Magic Damage. Deals 300% more damage to targets at or below 25% Health."

As you can see, it doesn't give me any other details to learn from. UESP uses a level 50 CP160 as a baseline, but this doesn't tell me if those numbers will be lower for me (<level 10) or if they can be affected by magicka attribute points.

I don't know if this skill is considered a spell, though I would think so given it's magicka based.

Oh that. Ignore their description. If it costs magicka, it's a spell. Think of it like a magic projection of a blade or something

And the numbers can vary vastly depending on your gear/attribute points(which most people just dump into whatever their main resource is, then use enchants and food for the rest)/cp etc. At <lvl 10 you actually could get pretty high numbers right now with the right sets because battle leveling tries to compensate lowbies for being lowbies by giving them moar stats. Because of battle leveling the numbers no longer directly depend on your level but they do depend on cp/passives/attributes/sets available to you etc.

This is why I'm confused. Why build a class this way? It would make much more sense to pool skills from stamina, not magicka.

When it launched the skills and what they scaled from was a total mess, now it's somewhat consistent at least. Any class can be magicka or stamina for the most part, there're stamina sorcerers just as well as magicka nightblades out there and a lot of people like it this way

You can absolutely make a fully stamina nightblade though with plentitude of skills to choose from(don't forget all the weapon skill lines), though I don't think it's currently in the top of the food chain. But meta changes so *shrug*

My next step: learning about mitigation and how it affects dmg. Not ready for that one, I don't think. I don't quite get how a flat number translates to a %, especially since I have no clue what armor enemies have.

Check this if you want actual formula

Very short version would be resistances cap at around 33k. That's armor/spellresist though, a multitude of other buffs count in another source(see cp or major/minor protection and the like). Other highlights of that op thread - base block absorbs 50% damage and magicka shields(one available to all classes is Annulment in light armor skill) cannot be crit(only matters for PvP) but don't take block nor your armor/spellresist into consideration.
I'm pretty sure I saw numbers of mobs' resistances somewhere, not sure where though, but if you want to measure them yourself, use 2h ulti - it gives you the resistances your victim has. So whatever resistance buff you get is whatever they had.

That's why I wanted to know if a skill is considered a spell, as the Assassin's Blade would benefit more from spell penetration, rather than physical. Ugh!

It costs magicka=it's a spell=it profits from spell pen. Well it most certainly should at the very least unless they broke it, can never be sure with ZOS

The character I'm testing with is less than level 10. I play around trying to understand, wipe the character, and start a new one (saves gold this way rather than respec). I'd rather spend a week learning than trying with my other characters. Once I learn, then I can respec the stronger ones.

Aw. It's nice to see someone try to figure things out rather than headkeyboard into a dungeon then complain about stupid op mechanics when people refuse to carry them XD
(That said ESO dungeons are really easy for the most part, it's mostly an issue of learning and how some people absolutely refuse to adapt their preferred playstyle to what can be vital in group environment)

RavenSworn · March 2017

Heya op! The beauty of eso is that all classes can do all roles and also be superb in either magicka or stamina based builds. It's a bit confusing at the start, especially for a Nightblade since a lot of new players come in and assume that you can use magicka while wielding daggers or giving yourself an option to heal with restoration staff while using stamina based abilities.

The awesomeness of Nightblade is that you can be a sort of hybrid and be successful at it, albeit via tanking. It's much easier now with frost staff changes that allow one to be part tank (though I still think there needs to be more improvements in this area) using magicka.

It's nice that you give yourself a feel for the class before you actually continue on with the class. However, I do feel that 10levels doesn't really give a lot of info in terms of what you can do with the class. You've still yet to unlock weapon swapping, having higher ranks in mages, fighters and undaunted skill lines and even the soul magic line.

In any case, I will shamelessly promote my guild, as it's the main focus of the guild to help out new players / returning players or beginners to the game. Do give us a try and see if it's right up your alley! Pm me ingame for invite or join us in discord!

https://discord.gg/mqFF2eF

Violynne · March 2017

RavenSworn wrote: »

It's nice that you give yourself a feel for the class before you actually continue on with the class. However, I do feel that 10levels doesn't really give a lot of info in terms of what you can do with the class. You've still yet to unlock weapon swapping, having higher ranks in mages, fighters and undaunted skill lines and even the soul magic line.

I go to UESP.net to read up on the different skills of NB and use the info to try to understand the mechanics. I do agree being a low level character isn't going to unlock anything, but without the basics in understanding, unlocking any skill would be pointless to me at the moment.

NB only has 5 skills which allow conversion to stamina, which negates the remaining 10 *if* I intend to use them as damage providers. I currently have a character splitting magicka/stamina 50/50, but it's damage output might as well be dirt throwing. I manage about 1800 on staff and 1400 on DW.

Technically, the character is only level 53. I haven't even found enough skyshards to unlock other skills. Ironically, a couple of friends and I headed to Craglorn to take on one of the trials, and it was then and there I realized just how bad I am at the game. We all got beat, but the other two were refining their builds. Me? I seemed to do nothing but spend soul gems.

Tonight, I'm going to start another character and focus on pure magicka for the NB, rather than stamina. I'll ditch the blades and pick up another staff. Then compare notes.

My other character is a pure mage, but I stopped playing her because... Fallout 4 came out.

Once I L2P, I'll refocus on her (since many of her attributes were reset/changed when ZoS dropped VR).

In any case, I will shamelessly promote my guild, as it's the main focus of the guild to help out new players / returning players or beginners to the game. Do give us a try and see if it's right up your alley! Pm me ingame for invite or join us in discord!

Thanks for the invite, but I'm on XB1. Definitely appreciate the help from you and Magdalina. After last's night's "testing", things are finally starting to make sense on a more mechanical level.

Tonight, I start practicing using the dodge roll. 4 characters, and I never bothered using it.

I also have to break the habit of using the heavy attack. This one's going to be hard. I've been doing it since I started the game. I even aligned my Elite controller to shorten the trigger distance so it takes less squeeze to pull off the heavy.

Again, thank you both for helping!