Nightblade class should come with warning

whiteshadow711jppreub18_ESO · May 2017

if you are a Stamblade (stamina Nightblade), use dual Wield and get Flurry and Morph it to Boodthirst and then get Twin Slashes and morph it to Blood Craze. Using these two abilities will dramatically extend your life in PvE if you are dying to mobs/add's.

If you are using two handed, get Cleave and Morph it to Brawler, the more add's/mobs you hit the bigger the shield and it puts a bleed on the enemies as well, and when you get to a higher level in Two Handed get Momentum and morph it to Rally for a good heal over time.

These weapon abilities with Assassin's Blade Morphed to Killers Blade and using Marked Target (and it's Morph's) will help you stay alive easily..

if you want to get Vigor (the Holy Grail heal of Stamina) then do it the easy way if you hate PvP, save up alot of money, yeah, your a Nightblade go steal it

and then buy wall repair kits and find keep walls to fix in your spare time (you can have a Home and Guest PvP server), after you use up the kits you will have generated AP (alliance Points) and you can use those to buy more repair kits or go steal more money and buy more. after sometime you will get to Alliance and Support skill line to rank 5 and you can then get Vigor and then level it up like any other skill.

Note- I used this way to get my Critty Kat (Khajiit Nightblade PvE Crit' build) up to Alliance and Support skill line 5 to get Vigor, so it can be done, it's Boring, but.... it can be done, I know I did it.

If you like PvP you can join a group and PvP and get your Alliance and Support skill line up to 5 and get Vigor that way..

ADarklore · May 2017

Seems to me OP is complaining mostly about not having CLASS Stamina skills, instead of accepting that as a Stamblade, they will have to depend a lot more on weapon skills than class skills. Although that is pretty much a DUH thing for any Stamina build in ESO... Stamina is all about weapons, not so much Class skills.

Tigeracer · May 2017

I started playing during the beta and then pre release of ESO. I still play that same character today.

If you didn't have the chance to play back then, let me tell you, it was a lot less forgiving than it is now, especially once you started to experience the veteran levels.

Playing as a nightblade could be very difficult sometimes, most notably against Doshia (fighters guild quest), who killed me probably 30 or more times and then again against Molag bal, who slaughtered me just as many times. They were both easy compared to what veteran would throw at me. Standard mobs were wrecking me if there were three or more.

Eventually I was able to get a handle on the class and became one of the first (that I know of) sap tanks and tanked AA hard mode and HRC hard mode. This was all before the magicka and stamina split was made (no stamina class skills at all).

Fast forward to now and my stamina NB is doing pretty well for himself, given a lengthy 1 year break from the game. I have also levelled up a stamina DK!

Levelling up the DK has been a walk in the park, compared to my nightblade, but that could just be the fact that the game is so much easier now.

My point in all of this is that no matter how hard you are finding it, you'll get to a point where you start to understand how to make it work and become a better player for it.

You can always pm me if you want some advice too.

DocFrost72 · May 2017

SydneyGrey wrote: »

Daemons_Bane wrote: »

I beat that Sermonizer so bad that his ancestors got sore.. Stamblade works just fine No gold upgrades, no BiS nonsense.. It's quite doable

Congrats. My point remains that stamina NBs are still weak in face-to-face PvE fights compared with other classes, and need a better heal ability.

DocFrost72 wrote: »

My level 7 nightblade solos worldbosses. It's starter kit is second only to magicka templars. This entirely a player issue, and that is not a dig.

Well, fights are scaled to your level, so .....

The fact that you think that scaling is the problem with soloing a world boss tells me all I need to know about your opinion on Nightblades

Edit: Seems unfair not to say this, so I suppose I'll try to help. World bosses and group dungems are designed around the idea of having a team. At level seven, you might have the first few passives in one or two trees, and maybe a full 5 skills with maybe 1 or two morphed, and unless you're some kinda sadist that loves peeing away gold, you're in training gear at best. You're not running rings and necklace, and in a lot of cases you don't even have access to a decent heal.

With that said, I am soloing world bosses at 7. The class has excellent starter kits. A damaging move that heals you is very powerful, and if you keep that going with cloak (unlocked before you hit level six), you really can make distance and keep yourself topped off.

If you meant stamina, slot bloodthirsty (the very first skill in the dw line), and time your dodge rolls.

This is entirely a "l2p" issue, and truthfully, nightblades are not a dead class. They are bottom of the barrel (for a few reasons) but by no means unplayable. Please, do not spread misinformation.

Unfadingsilence · May 2017

vpy wrote: »

Its pathetic trying to complete quests (especially the Harborage nonsensical quests) as Nightblade whereas it is effing easy in my Sorc.

For crying out loud, ZOS should have the decency to inform beginners that they should avoid this crap class and instead try leveling a sorc or templar.

30 hours of time is wasted in this garbage.

Not sure whether I should be sad for leveling this class or should be happy that I have not invested a whole lot more in this cesspit of a class

My main class I play in PVE is a magic NB and pvp a stamp NB it seems like you might need to L2P I have done all content in the game with both Stam and magic NB so not really sure where all the hate is coming from

Florial · May 2017

Haven't read through the entire thread but OP, have to agree with you. My stamina NB, although I can solo much of the content, is the hardest of all my characters to play. I'm converting one of my NB characters over to magicka to just experience another aspect of play. But I agree with ya, the stamina NB is one of the harder classes to master. I feel your pain.

KingYogi415 · May 2017

Ive beat the whole main story on my first stamblade without vigor or 2 hander heal.

Playing smart with bloodthirst and blood craze works.

You need decent geat. Your 10 levels under non set crap wont do.

ParaNostram · May 2017

. . . This thread . . . hurt my soul . . . Like, my magblade is my top DPS character.

Yo_Donno · May 2017

Overland content is really easy. Simple fix for people QQing about leveling nightblades-

Make Sap Essence the first or second skill in the tree.

Smmokkee · May 2017

ParaNostram wrote: »

. . . This thread . . . hurt my soul . . . Like, my magblade is my top DPS character.

We get it no amount of nerfs will ever hurt your God tier ability.

ParaNostram · May 2017

Smmokkee wrote: »

ParaNostram wrote: »

. . . This thread . . . hurt my soul . . . Like, my magblade is my top DPS character.

We get it no amount of nerfs will ever hurt your God tier ability.

It's called, for lack of a better way to put it, playing to a classes strengths and mastering the class. If you believe you can't do it before you even try then you've already set yourself up for failure as well. You get out of it what you put into it.

Do yourselves a favor, tell the Meta to go [long censored pause] and never call it again! Create your own builds that suit your playstyle first and foremost THEN fine tune it for performance. It will go a long way to improving your performance on three fronts. One - you'll learn how your class works. Two - you'll have your build tailored to you which means Three - you'll feel better and play better.

/endrant

xb1LL_mr_sir_LL · May 2017

NBs are the best class to quest on because of cloak.

Smmokkee · May 2017

ParaNostram wrote: »

Smmokkee wrote: »

ParaNostram wrote: »

. . . This thread . . . hurt my soul . . . Like, my magblade is my top DPS character.

We get it no amount of nerfs will ever hurt your God tier ability.

It's called, for lack of a better way to put it, playing to a classes strengths and mastering the class. If you believe you can't do it before you even try then you've already set yourself up for failure as well. You get out of it what you put into it.

Do yourselves a favor, tell the Meta to go [long censored pause] and never call it again! Create your own builds that suit your playstyle first and foremost THEN fine tune it for performance. It will go a long way to improving your performance on three fronts. One - you'll learn how your class works. Two - you'll have your build tailored to you which means Three - you'll feel better and play better.

/endrant

This guy is a riot.

I name you nobleblade.

DocFrost72 · May 2017

Smmokkee wrote: »

ParaNostram wrote: »

Smmokkee wrote: »

ParaNostram wrote: »

. . . This thread . . . hurt my soul . . . Like, my magblade is my top DPS character.

We get it no amount of nerfs will ever hurt your God tier ability.

It's called, for lack of a better way to put it, playing to a classes strengths and mastering the class. If you believe you can't do it before you even try then you've already set yourself up for failure as well. You get out of it what you put into it.

Do yourselves a favor, tell the Meta to go [long censored pause] and never call it again! Create your own builds that suit your playstyle first and foremost THEN fine tune it for performance. It will go a long way to improving your performance on three fronts. One - you'll learn how your class works. Two - you'll have your build tailored to you which means Three - you'll feel better and play better.

/endrant

This guy is a riot.

I name you nobleblade.

They're right though, that's the awesome part. The difference between your performance on a build you like and one you hate can be as large as BiS gear and green world drops sometimes.

Galwylin · May 2017

No ***, Sherlock. Of course its a learn to play issue. That's what we're talking about. The nightblade is the hardest of the classes to learn to play. Should it come with that info upfront? And why is it the hardest. There's nothing about sneak that matters any more now. You are the only class in the game that doesn't have any class skill that gives a good burst of healing. The sorcerer has their deals. The templars their radiant light. Even dragonknight can shield to increase their incoming heal. The nightblade gets to depend on their damage for a small hot if they aren't magicka and just sucking it out of them. But stamina has to look to Alliance or weapon abilities for a decent heal. Why is that? What is it about the stamina class that demands it do nothing as well as the others? It may be a learn to play issue but it takes a lot more learning that any of the other classes.

Mine btw is now magicka. There's no use trying to keep on with stamina when it keeps getting slapped away from the table every single time. Its not only the hardest to level but the most hated apparently. Any plans they have to improve it have mysteriously never arrive. Just one nerf after the other. It was just time to give up. They've made that clear.

Elvenpath · May 2017

Interesting l2p topic since i'm playing nightblade.

Shadow_Viper_vX · May 2017

It's Fine, Learn to Play

Adapt and Overcome

Stop Crying

Code2501 · May 2017

In my experience the much stated "Sorc are just EZmode" is fairly accurate. For general content I kill stuff quicker with my lvl 23 sorc than my 400cp NB.
NB play involves at least 3 gcd's for a basic overland mob but sorc is often only 2. Their execute is just so much smoother in play and hits like a truck with minimal effort. And dont get me started with half price insta frags.

That said you should be able to solo any normal content with nb skills alone. You just have to be more active with dodge/block/cloak/kite/hot, etc. And yes it will take more effort than being a sorc and walking around saying 'pew pew' and watching stuff just fall over.

It wasn't allways like this. I remember in year 1 NB would hit just as hard as a sorc. But 're-ballancing' has left them behind in terms of the actual ease of play. Just look at merciless. I remember when that first appeared in patch notes thinking 'why? why make such an over engineered mechanic'

AoDD33pfri3d · May 2017

Depends on build my goblin bane weapon gives me a shield my other weapon that I crafted and made a glyph for regenerating stam and I use a skill where I heal off of it. I also use vigor to heal as a back up. Set I run is viper and still trying to get blood spawn 2 piece set. I have no problems with the class.

Huyen · May 2017

Smmokkee wrote: »

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Smmokkee wrote: »

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Mashille wrote: »

Not to be rude but I feel people like you are the reason that Overland content got nerfed into Oblivion.

While it's true for Dungeons ets that Sorcs are stronger than Nightblades in this case it's a L2P issue as I'm pretty sure all content is beatable with just Light Attacks.

While I am spoiled by my cp and I don't know if this is still true even for those without. I do know if more NBs would look at their skills and see which heal and when, they would have a much easier time of it.

Yes it is easier with a sorc. But it can be pretty dang easy with nb as well. The fight just takes a little more planning.

What skills are we talking about?

Some of them some are magika based some stam. So you have to use the ones that work for you.

Killer' Blade morph of assassins blade. Heals 17% of max life if target dies within 2 seconds of being hit by it. Which is easy since it is an execute.

Marked target. And it's morphs heal. 40% of max health if the target dies while marked. One morph heals for 57% of max health.

These are the ones I used mostly for stam. These alone kept me near full health if you used them and kept them on the mobs as they die. Add in some of the healing from the weapons skills and you are golden. If you have Vigor from the pvp tree these are mostly over kill.

Some magika ones I enjoy.

Strife and its morphs give you a dot heal as a percent of damage done. Great for a nice little bump.

Refreshing path the morph of path of darkness give a solid dot heal as long as you are standing in it. Strife and refreshing path were usually enough to keep me alive in most situations.

And my favore Sap Essence the morph of drain power. This thing is a beast in group fights. the more mobs, the more healing for you and your group.

Those are the ones I used on my characters. No obviously some planning is needed. More with stam since its healing is single target. You have to kill the marked target and it is best to do it with killers blade. This alone can keep you at full health.

Magical is more of an aoe game. Start with strife, refreshing path. If you have the destructions staff ground aoe flop it down too. Then go to town on sap. Done and done.

Hopefully it helps some.

Those heals aren't viable heals for a stamblade to rely on.

The biggest issue for stamblades (like me) is that Vigor is a skill locked behind pvp. But then again, if I read the OP, its really a l2p issue here. I've been playing a Nightblade since Beta, and have enough hours in it, to say that I dont like the other classes as much as my Nightblade.

Linaleah · May 2017

when I first started playing. i thought I just sucked at this game that much. it was discouraging and frustrating. I actualy quit the game over the fact that I just couldn't progress properly. I came back after game went b2p, it was still rough. eventually one tamriel was released and I tried, genuinely tried playing other classes. it turns out? that no i don't suck as much as i thought. nightblades are just that much harder to level than just about every other class. oh, once I got my stamblade to 50, built up some cp, crafted her semi decent gear (nowhere near best in slot but decent at least), she has become much easier to play. but.. I STILL have FAR easier time doing just about anything solo on my sorc and my templar and my DK than I do on my stamblade. even though they are not 50, they gear is a mishmash of whatever dropped for me via questing/delves. to clarify. my under 50 still missing skillpoints wearing crappy gear alts? are easier to play though the very same overland content, than my lvl 50 nighblade with her purple gear and golden weapons and full on crafted set bonuses with agility jewelry.

maybe its l2p issue. but having compared all 4 classes at this point? stamblades ARE in fact that much harder and more frustrating to solo on that anyone else. hell even build guides state as much. so some of you need to get off your *** elitist horses and make up your damn minds on whether you think stamblades are overnerfed, or juuuuust fine, people just need to l2p.

Kiwi · May 2017

i don tthink theyre a hard class to play, just not as easy as some others

WildWilbur · May 2017

My first char and main until now is my NB. As a Stamblade I played him through the old vet levels solo. THAT was a experience i really like the OP to learn and post about...

Miss the old days though... :'(

CaptainBeerDude · May 2017

I vaguely remember that NB's used to be the big dogs in PvP. Go invisible or stealth. Hit someone unaware with a whole bunch of ani cancelled attacks and then t-bag the corpse.
So they probably got nerfed into Oblivion because that is hard to defend against. But ppl will always try to get the most powerful option for themselves, so then it moved onto shield stacking sorcs.
And before the NB meta, I thought the pinnacle was the immortal DK. Things will change over time, so just chill.

Sakiri · May 2017

Princess_Ciri wrote: »

Oh come on. If my noob self could kill Molag Bal easily on my hybrid Nightblade there's no reason anyone else shouldn't be able to do it.

Sure, Nightblades aren't competing with the other classes at end game DPS but that is no excuse for struggling in overland stuff! A shield and spamming swallow soul should be enough, surely?

Honestly I think they nerfed the snot out of the Molag Bal fight at some point.

I remember it being harder than that on my stamDK, stamSorc and magplar back when VR was still a thing, a few months after release.

I was expecting something other than "stand in his face spamming Surprise Attack like a moron".

jefferyjju · May 2017

Hey I don't know how to make a Stam NB or delve into all of the numbers that you all seem to have done but I've only played ESO as a NB I've finished the main story gone into Dungeons without healers and I done all of it just fine I don't have issues staying alive because every add I kill fully restores my health and same thing goes for regular quest I take out the adds quick and then fight the bosses with full health and i don't have a set rotation that I use or anything. i rarely even carry potions Idk if NB are weak because I've never felt weak my daggers have poison that's about it. But yeah I never felt weak.

RavenSworn · May 2017

I think a lot of the problem comes when you try to play the nightblade, especially stamblade just like you play a sorcerer or stamplar. the playstyle is just different. you don't use a surgical knife to hammer a nail do ya? and too many times I see players try that with other classes and then complain they don't have the tools given. the weapon skill lines, guild skill lines are what you need to complement your build.

hell, I had so much trouble with my Templar because I tried to play him like how I played my nightblade. it just doesn't work that way.

Sakiri wrote: »

Stamblade, and I'm squishy as hell.

I have more than three on me, I'm dead, and some quest bosses I had to crutch on my WW form to kill. Delve bosses too.

This is all under 160 CP mind you.

I feel you should relook at your build and see how you can change it to fit a group setting, because I think I thrive if the group is more than 3 with my nightblade. a cloak - ambush - killer's blade on a marked enemy kills them in 2 secs. a rally - critical charge with a marked target will hit for a lot more. surprise attack hits like a truck and gives you major resistance and also increases your max health while slotted. suddenly finding your self in heaps of trouble? Soul tether. Best leech ability imo.

he'll I can even use sword and shield, ambush, deep slash, pop absorb magic, refreshing path and I can tank ten mofo without losing a beat. try this combo too, trap beast then soul tether.

Sakiri · May 2017

I have no interest in 2h, but thanks.

Meld777 · May 2017

Especially in Morrowind there should be a warning that Nightblade is a RP/social class. If you are an interesting person and able to make friends in game, you will be able to convince others to carry you through content. If you prefer to do the carrying and convince people through DPS, roll a Sorc.

Kodrac · May 2017

These forums are full of fail. Did you ever think you're not supposed to copy/paste your magsorc build on a stamblade? They're totally different playstyles. One requires laying don't ground dots, the other requires direct attacks.