Stamina Nightblade PvE in PTS v3.0.1
What's the point of this post?
I hope that by walking through the unique talents that Stamina Nightblades bring to the table, and then demonstrating the strengths/weaknesses of this spec via parses, I can demonstrate that there really is a problem with the design of this class and how that pertains to PvE content. And, hopefully again, that can help us figure out what kind of tweaks might help make Stamina Nightblades viable in end-game group PvE again. The scope of this post is purely end-game PvE, focusing on Trials and (to a lesser extent) Maelstrom Arena. I love my Stamina Nightblade. It's my original XB1 toon, my Master Crafter, my achievement hunter, my Flawless Conqueror. I don't want to be forced onto a different character in order to not hold back my raid team.
What do Stamina Nightblades do well?
1.
Critical Strikes
*
Pressure Points (passive) increases crit chance by 438 (~2%) per Assassination ability slotted.
*
Hemorrhage (passive) increases crit damage modifier by 10% and grants Minor Savagery when dealing critical damage, which increases weapon critical by 657 (~3%).
2.
Sustain
*
Relentless Focus (active) grants Minor Endurance, which increases stamina recovery by 10%.
*
Leeching Strikes (active) on PTS, returns 396 stamina for each light or heavy attack.
*
Refreshing Shadows (passive) increases stamina recovery by 15%.
3.
Ultimate Uptime
*
Soul Harvest (ulti) or
Incapacitating Strike (ulti) are extremely inexpensive ultimates, and Soul Harvest massively boosts ultimate generation.
*
Catalyst (passive) grants 20 ultimate after drinking a potion.
*
Transfer (passive) grants 2 ultimate when casting a Siphoning ability (4 second cooldown).
4.
Burst & Execute
*
Surprise Attack (active) which gives 100% operational uptime of Major Fracture, grants Shadow Ward, and is an excellent damage ability in and of itself (although it is inferior to Rapid Strikes for pure DPS in a group environment where a tank provides Major Fracture, especially in loadouts that include Maelstrom DW weapons).
*
Killer's Blade (active) is one of the best executes in the game.
*
Soul Harvest (ulti) and
Incapacitating Strike (ulti) are also great burst skills.
In a group PvE environment (specifically in raids),
the only active abilities of interest in the Stamina Nightblade's toolkit are: Relentless Focus, Leeching Strikes, and Killer's Blade. That's it. Three abilities. Sometimes Veil of Blades is used for mitigation. Most Stamina Nightblades won't run Incap/Soul Harvest in group PvE as Rend, Flawless Dawnbreaker, and even Ballista have more DPS potential.
In Maelstrom Arena, Stamina Nightblades have very high scoring potential. It may not be the easiest build to take into the arena, but given the strengths listed above (burst, sustain, execute, ultimate uptime), it's obvious that this build will excel there. Ironically, the change to Siphoning Attacks and its morphs actually does exactly the opposite of what the developers intended. A minor HoT is useless and counter to the Stamina Nightblade way: we kill stuff quickly and *avoid damage*. Death comes when we run out of stamina. Exchanging a solid stamina return for a small HoT is counter to the design of the class and IMO feels like a reactionary change that was only made to somewhat offset the increased cost of Vigor. It is, perhaps, also useful for newer players as it can be tough to stay alive on a low-level Stamina Nightblade ... but I'd prefer an active heal with a stamina morph in the class skill tree like Funnel Health/Swallow Soul. A 1k health return from Leeching Strikes isn't going to save me when I'm in the *** and low on resources and what I really need is to dodge, Vigor, and dodge some more.
There are many other useful skills in the Nightblade skill lines, but they are not relevant to end-game PvE.
What do Stamina Nightblades not do well?
1.
DoTs. There are no stamina morph DoT abilities in any of the Nightblade skill lines.
2.
AoE. Power Extraction has less DPS potential than Steel Tornado, and the buff is unnecessary in content where we run pots off cooldown. That is the only stam AoE skill Nightblades have.
3.
Healing. There are no stamina-based healing skills in the toolkit. Vigor is 100% necessary.
4.
Mitigation & Survivability. There are no shields. In Maelstrom, we can keep good uptime on
Shadow Barrier via Surprise Attack, but in group PvE there are no useful stamina Shadow skills to keep those defensive buffs up.
Parse comparison: live versus PTS
Race: KhajiitAttributes: 64 StaminaThe slight difference in gear (VO vs. War Machine) is due to the lack of VO or Alkosh on the PTS templates.Gear (live):
5 x Twice-Fanged Serpent, 3 x Roar of Alkosh, 2 x Kra'gh, Sharpened Maelstrom weapons (5/1/1, all Divines, all Weapon Damage and Max Stam enchants)
Gear (PTS):
5 x Twice-Fanged Serpent, 3 x War Machine, 2 x Kra'gh, Sharpened Maelstrom weapons (5/1/1, all Divines, all Weapon Damage and Max Stam enchants)
Ability Bars (live):
-
Dual-wield: Killer's Blade, Rending Slashes, Rearming Trap, Reaper's Mark, Rapid Strikes; Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker
-
Bow: Razor Caltrops, Endless Hail, Poison Injection, Siphoning Strikes, Relentless Focus; Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker
Ability Bars (PTS):
-
Dual-wield: Killer's Blade, Rending Slashes, Rearming Trap, Reaper's Mark, Rapid Strikes; Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker
-
Bow: Razor Caltrops, Endless Hail, Poison Injection, Leeching Strikes, Relentless Focus; Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker
Champion Points (live):
* Mighty: 100
* Thaumaturge: 57
* Precise Strikes: 43
* Warlord: 100
* Mooncalf: 97
* Tumbling: 13
Champion Points (PTS):
* Mighty: 77
* Thaumaturge: 55
* Precise Strikes: 55
* Master-at-Arms: 23
* Mooncalf: 100
* Tenacity: 100
* Tumbling: 10
Character Sheet Stats (live):
* Max Stamina: 33,247
* Weapon Damage: 2,862 (3,360)
* Weapon Critical: 74.2% (84.2%)
* Stamina Regen: 858
Character Sheet Stats (PTS) with Superstar sheet unbuffed and buffed:
* Max Stamina: 34,797
* Weapon Damage: 2,858 (3,356)
* Weapon Critical: 70.5% (80.5%)
* Stamina Regen: 822
Rotation (live):
1. Relentless Focus, Siphoning Strikes
2. Heavy Attack (bow), Razor Caltrops, LA/Endless Hail, LA/Poison Injection, swap
3. LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rearming Trap, LA/Rending Slashes, LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rapid Strikes, swap
4. LA/Endless Hail, LA/Poison Injection, swap
5. LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rearming Trap, LA/Rending Slashes, LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rapid Strikes, swap
6. LA/Endless Hail, LA/Poison Injection, LA/Relentless Focus, LA/Siphoning Strikes, swap
7. LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rearming Trap, LA/Rending Slashes, LA/Rapid Strikes, swap
8. LA/Endless Hail, LA/Poison Injection, LA/Razor Caltrops, swap
9. LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rearming Trap, LA/Rending Slashes, LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rapid Strikes, swap
10. Go to #4 until execute
11. In execute, keep all DoTs running and LA/Killer's Blade weave
Rotation (PTS):
1. Relentless Focus, Leeching Strikes
2. Heavy Attack (bow), Razor Caltrops, LA/Endless Hail, LA/Poison Injection, swap
3. LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rearming Trap, LA/Rending Slashes, Heavy Attack, Heavy Attack, LA/Rapid Strikes, swap
4. LA/Razor Caltrops, LA/Endless Hail, LA/Poison Injection, swap
5. LA/Rapid Strikes, LA/Rearming Trap, LA/Rending Slashes, Heavy Attack, Heavy Attack, LA/Rapid Strikes, swap
6. LA/Razor Caltrops, LA/Endless Hail, LA/Poison Injection, LA/Relentless Focus, LA/Leeching Strikes, swap
7. Heavy Attack, Rearming Trap, Heavy Attack, Rending Slashes, swap
8. Go to #4 until execute
9. In execute, keep all DoTs running and Heavy Attack/Killer's Blade weave
Keep in mind that for all listed rotations, the in-game version is probably a bit different. I put together the rotations in a spreadsheet to come up with something repeatable with limited overlap/downtime, but optimization wasn't my goal here. A big part of that is that I don't know anyone on PC who can stand there with a tank to give me Major Fracture on PTS, so I whipped up a Reaper's Mark (Piercing Mark on PTS) rotation so that I could get a semi-realistic parse. Throwing in that debuff complicates things, especially on live, since the duration doesn't sync up with everything else. Also, human error, and I'm just not that good. My old brain gets confused and my old fingers get tired. Nonetheless, these should be fairly representative parses for my play-style. The Live parse could probably get up around 40k with a tank throwing fracture, and in the 41-42k range with optimization. There's Trap overlap because I was trying to build a rotation that would be exactly the same every time for testing (and I think I missed a Poison Injection as well). The videos/logs of the parses tell a more accurate tale than the textual descriptions, obviously. The PTS rotation I could see getting up to 35k or so with a tank and with optimization, but it's less viable in real PvE content because I'm scraping the bottom of my stamina pool constantly.Also, if I try to run the rotation from Live on PTS, I can get the 3mil skeleton to 50-60% before my stam pool is drained.Target Skeleton (3 mil) ParsesLive: 38.2k DPS with videoPTS: 31.5k DPS with Combat MetricsI'll try to get a video of the PTS parse. Was having some trouble with tearing/choppiness.Analysis
Clearly we've taken a serious DPS hit. It's no surprise that Nightblades can't run a Heavy Attack focused rotation as effectively as DKs (with the huge Heavy Attack buff from Molten Armaments) or Sorcerers (with the smaller Heavy Attack buff from Bound Armaments). It seems that Templars have better sustain now, and better group utility, along with a cheap ultimate and fast ultimate generation. So, why bring a Stamina Nightblade to a raid? We have one of the lowest, if not the lowest, single-target DPS potential. No unique AoE. No unique DoTs. Limited group utility in Minor Savagery and Veil of Blades.
So why do Stamina Nightblades suck?It's the content, dummy. Many of the skills and strengths of the Nightblade class just don't have any benefit in the PvE content ZOS has designed. We can't go stealth or invisible in a boss fight. We can't stun bosses. We can't CC bosses. Burst is mostly useless, except in Maelstrom, as you can't burst down a boss with 50 mil health.
It's the class, dummy. The majority of Nightblade skills do not have stamina morphs (Strife, Agony, Cripple, Path of Darkness, and Summon Shades and all of their morphs are Magicka abilities that do magic damage). Minor Savagery is useless in group PvE right now because no one runs stamina characters, but it might be a little more useful next patch if we see more balanced groups. Shadow Barrier is a really great buff to mitigation but since there are very few Nightblade class skills that are useful for Stamina Nightblades in end-game PvE, we can't proc it.
How to fix it
I'm no Nightblade superstar like
@Jeckll or
@Gilliamtherogue. I don't have expertise in every stamina class in a top raid group like
@Asmael. Nonetheless, I've got a lot of experience running a Stamina Nightblade in Trials and in Maelstrom. What I'd like to do is focus on tweaks that would help Stamina Nightblades in PvE without (hopefully) breaking PvP, with an eye towards aligning the changes with the theme of the class.
Some of these ideas are stolen or modified from suggestions I've heard/read from
@Jeckll and
@Gilliamtherogue. I'm a thief, sorry not sorry. That's why I play a Nightblade!
I am particularly drawn to the idea of buffing execute damage. I think this has the potential to really up the utility of both Stamblades and Magblades in group PvE without messing too much with any other content. I also think that there needs to be a way for Stamina Nightblades to use Shadow abilities in a PvE rotation to keep Shadow Barrier up. The (IMO) poorly conceived Leeching Strikes change doesn't help in that regard. We need increased mitigation to compete with Magicka DPS who can stand 50 feet away behind their invincibility shields waving their fairy wands.
1.
Assassin's Blade (and both Killer's Blade and Impale morphs): Grants additional bonus damage when *standing behind an enemy*.
* Why? Fits the class theme perfectly, and shouldn't have a significant impact in PvP because if you're getting hit from behind with a Killer's Blade in PvP at less than 25% health, you're likely dead regardless. It also makes positioning more important in Trials fights, which requires good strategy and tactics rather than just balls-to-the-wall DPS rotations. Finally, it doesn't significantly boost Maelstrom scores because the execute phase is pretty short on all Maelstrom bosses and getting behind an enemy is more difficult without a tank.
2.
Alternatively, modify the Master Assassin passive such that the bonus Weapon/Spell Damage is granted when standing behind an enemy.
* Why? Same as above.
* Why not? Likely has a larger impact on PvP than the proposed change to Killer's Blade.
3.
Alternatively, modify the Master Assassin passive such that bonus Weapon/Spell damage is granted on all execute abilities during execute (but perhaps the bonus should be reduced).
* Why? Isn't this right up a Nightblade's alley? It would buff Killer's Blade, Steel Tornado, and Poison Injection. Buffing Steel Tornado would be a nice little boost to AoE DPS.
* Why not? PvP, I'm sure.
4.
Alternatively, modify the Master Assassin passive such that *while doing execute damage*, the entire group's execute damage is buffed.
* Why? Same as all of the above suggestions.
* Why not? Might be hard to tune appropriately even with a very small buff.
5.
Siphoning Attacks: Change Leeching Strikes so that it costs Magicka to cast. The return on investment for this skill is very low on PTS.
* Why? The version on PTS has really poor utility. We get 6-8k stamina returned over 20 seconds for a cost of 3k, meaning we gain 3-4k stamina over 20 seconds assuming a near-perfect weave. It's right on the verge of being useless.
* Why not? No idea, but it's been a while since I've seen anything done to this game that was positive for PvE Nightblades, so maybe ZOS really does hate us?
6.
Grim Focus: Tweak the Spectral Bow proc, either:
* Allow the bow to be procced multiple times per cast, or
* Reapply the buffs when the bow is procced
* Why? This has been discussed *ad nauseam*. It's a clunky skill and many people just ignore the proc altogether in PvE.
* Why not? I'm sure someone will tell me that changing Grim Focus will just totally ruin everything that's good and unique about Nightblades.
7.
Replace Shadow Image and/or Refreshing Path with a stamina morph that does disease damage rather than magic damage.
* Why? Adds stamina DoTs (and an AoE DoT in the case of Path) to the repertoire
and gives us Shadow abilities we can actually use in our rotations to keep Shadow Barrier up.
* Why not? IMO, additional DoTs and AoEs don't really feel like Stamina Nightblade abilities.
The general theme here is that, IMO, any buffs to Nightblade DPS should happen within the narrow scope of what sets Nightblades apart from other classes, such as critical strikes and execute damage. Additionally, of the 3 Nightblade skills that Stamina Nightblades actually use in end-game group PvE, 1 is clunky and in dire need of a usability tweak (Grim Focus) and the other was nerfed into the ground this patch (Siphoning Strikes).An aside
I think
War Machine could be a really great set on a Stamina Nightblade
if Incapacitating Strike had the same Ultimate generation utility of Soul Harvest. As-is, it seems that raid groups will be better off using Magicka Nightblades with
Master Architect or Stamina Templars with War Machine. Both have better group utility, AoE, and survivability. And I think that if a Nightblade is required to have a set from the new Trial in order to be end-game viable, well, then the classes are not balanced.
Closing thoughts on Stamina Nightblades
My PTS testing so far leads me to see Stamina Nightblades as a poor man's Stamina Sorcerer (which is the same complaint Magicka Nightblades have had for quite some time now). The new Leeching Strikes is like a crappy Crit Surge and none of the unique Nightblade attacks are useful for Stamina Nightblades in group PvE except for the execute. IMO, the
raison d'être for Stamina Nightblades is high single-target damage and really effective executes, so I'd like to see some
minor tweaks/buffs that push up our single-target DPS and execute efficacy. We have the worst AoE and DoT DPS in the game, so shouldn't we be the best at single target? The trick is doing it in such a way that doesn't adversely affect PvP. Finally, given the expectation that Trials content will take a bit longer now that DPS is reduced due to the across-the-board sustain changes, it would be really useful to have execute specialists in-group to help burn through those Enrage mechanics.
Closing thoughts on the PTS changes
Meh. Not sure what else to say. Just ... meh. Seems like what ZOS did here was "lower the ceiling" by a significant amount. If they "raised the floor," I'm seeing in my testing that it wasn't by very much. All they've done is make us swap out some spammables for Heavy Attacks and move CP around. I just don't see the point. We've brought the casual player closer to the top-end player (maybe), but primarily just by making the top-end player worse. The Heavy Attack mechanic is easy but it's boring and feels clunky. I don't like it, but I don't hate it either.
Thanks for reading! I would really appreciate feedback from the few remaining Stamina Nightblade players in the raid community.