A Question For the Community

Joy_Division · June 2017

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

I've been thinking for a while, and I've been wondering something... Why does so much of the community beg and plead for Nightblade buffs, and claim how weak they are — when the vast majority of classes [many people] in PvP are Nightblades?

Your answer is right there.

DeadlyRecluse · June 2017

The majority of complaints about NB stem from 2 issues:
1. Lackluster performance in PvE during most patches.
2. The skill most people associate most with the class (cloak) rarely functions as intended. It's not as bad now as it has been, but there were times/patches when it was barely worth slotting (or was really only useful as a positioning skill before a fight).

DjMuscleboy02 · June 2017

Nightblades are no longer weak in PvE and they've been solid in PvP for a while, in fact they've been pretty op in PvE for a while.

In the past few months nightblades have been disregarded in trials because why would you bring a nightblade over a sorc when they provide literally nothing to the raid and have less damage? Just bring another sorc. However, with Morrowind we are seeing the return of stamina classes to competitive raiding as well as an increase in magblade damage. With magblades pulling numbers much closer now and with the return of stamina classes (allowing for an actual benefit to the nightblades weapon critical passive) nightblades are popping up in trials much more often. My group runs two nightblades currently, as we run stam classes and nightblades are perfect fits to run Master Architect, giving major slayer to several people.

BlackSparrow · June 2017

A question: Ch4mp, have you leveled a StamBlade? You're talking a lot about your MagBlades, and I'll admit that MagBlades have pretty good survivabilty (and being able to stealth for days is pretty sweet too.

)

Personally, when I talk about NBs being squishy and hard to learn, I'm talking about StamBlades.

I'm exclusively a PvE player, and StamBlade is extremely difficult in PvE. StamBlade excels at one thing, and that is single-target damage. Give me a single boss and my StamBlade can sneak attack and then tear through their HP before they get two attacks on her.

But pit her against more than one opponent, and it gets much harder. Your HP starts to drop down, fast, and you have to be both quick and smart with your Mark and Killer's Blade to make the most out of their healing effects. This takes practice to get down, and while you're learning it, you get rolled over and over again. It's only once you have some good gear and CP that you can start becoming an AoE master, because your HP won't be able to sustain that attack style until then.

Honestly, I love my StamBlade. She was my first character, and she's still so fun to play--and getting more fun with every CP I can give her, since she's not nearly as squishy as she used to be. I wouldn't want the class to be buffed, because, yeah, her DPS is just fine.

But for survivability? StamBlades are a nightmare, especially before you've learned the game's mechanics or have CP to help support their weaknesses. I should know: like I said, my StamBlade was my first character, and it was incredibly frustrating to be constantly rolled by standard PvE play and wonder what I was doing wrong, when so many other players insisted the game was easy. Only after I'd leveled a couple alts did I see that the problem was with the NB, not the game. And after learning how to play a StamBlade with no CP, every other character I've played since then has been an utter walk in the park.

Like I said, calling them weak isn't necessarily asking to be buffed. What NBs do, they do very well. It's the rest of their play experience that makes them tough to master.