Best setup out of these for Stamblade DPS?

TomStaf11 · June 2017

So I was using the following setup until today:
5 Pc Hunding's rage
3 Agility
1 Kra'gh
1 Velidreth
Random 2H / Bow until I get maelstrom. I was @ around 3300 weapon damage, 66% crit and 32k Stamina with buffs.

Dungeons felt difficult for some reason, as in things weren't dying quick enough compared to before.... so I thought I'd try this:

5 Pc Hunding's
5 Night Mother's Embrace (with 2H/Bow)
1 Velidreth

I know if I use daggers I can fit in the Kra'gh or a Molag Kena when I get it (accidentally deconned -.-) but I'm liking 2H at the moment because I feel tankier/die less.

What do you think? Got purple weapon damage and weapon damage glyphs on everything, good setup for PVE content? Don't really do trials yet because I'm only 210CP, so just doing delves, pledges, DD, overland stuff and the odd PVP.
Any suggestions/tips??
Thanks for reading

Bladerunner1 · June 2017

I'd say if you're enjoying 2h in PVE by all means go for it, as a nightblade you could use Power Extraction instead of Steel Tornado. Reverse Slice hits about as hard as Killers Blade these days, which is kind of lame from a NB perspective, but if you have a two hand slotted you may as well use Reverse Slice instead to demolish secondary targets more quickly.

Also I'm finding that the Kragh's one piece may offer more DPS if you haven't already got 18,200 physical penetration. I'm getting just slightly less single target DPS with my 2-h build than I could get with my dual wield build, but much more AOE DPS. Leave enemy health bars active so you can see which ones need to be hit with reverse slice, and you'll find yourself carrying dual wielders as trash mobs melt away so much more quickly.

*Edit*
For two hand use brawler, it's an AOE DOT and a big damage shield, it's the equivalent of deadly cloak. When surrounded by lots of adds, make sure to weave light or heavy attacks all the time with a 2-H weapon for loads of free AOE DPS with the forceful passive. I wrote down my build in the Combat section of the forums, Stamina Cleave Focus Build, Nightblade.

Asardes · June 2017

The good thing about Stamina NB is that you can slot 2H without actually using any of the skills:
- spammable: Surprise Attack
- executioner: Killer's Blade
- AoE: power extraction
- the only advantage of 2H is that you can use the heals from rally unless you have unlocked vigor.

But IMO 2W is still superior for a number of reasons:
- HA is quicker, so weaving that will make for a faster rotation if you weave that
- you can slot 2 x 5 piece sets on your front bar
- you have a powerful ST DoT you can put in your rotation: rending slashes
- you have a strong AoE damage mitigation and AoE DoT skill: deadly cloak
- you have an strong AoE ultimate that provides a strong heal: rend

As for gear any 5p DPS set + 3 Agility + 2p monster set is a basic, workable combo. However Night Mother's Embrace is more of a stealth set and for dungeons stealth is pretty useless since all mobs will aggro and attack everybody of one is aggroed by any member of the group. For dungeons where you can actually walk past mobs and skip them there are paths where you can do that without any specific gear and even without sneaking for the most part. So I would recommend dropping that.

You can either use Hunding's Rage or Night Mother's Gaze (also crafted) as your 5p set. There are a few other good DPS sets but most of them are in trials: Twice-Fanged Serpent (drops in Sanctum Ophidia) and Vicious Serpent (drops in all 3 Craglorn trials). However matching sharpened weapons and various divines armor pieces from 2 5p dropped sets can be tricky due to RNG. Going one dropped + one crafted (including weapons) is a way safer bet. For weapons there's also vDSA where you can get a 2H sword with bonus damage to cleave, and a Bow that buffs poison injection. A still better bow is found in vMA.

TomStaf11 · June 2017

Thanks guys

See, I thought NME instead of NMG because it has another 240 weapon damage and 120 Stam recovery, I've noticed in morrowind update how important stam recovery is so I'm sacrificing a bit of weapon damage on my jewellery for it.
Might try switching to dual wield for a bit and see how it compares. Definitely keeping Hunding's just trying to find a good set alongside. Thanks for the help:)

kylewwefan · June 2017

Look into spriggans. I've been late to adapt, but I find it's quite good.