This build has shifted to dual wield because of the Clockwork City changes, though I still list the 2H build as a solo option. The AOE damage provided by the 2H forceful passive has been reduced, and might even be broken to uselessness when used with Relequen.
https://image.ibb.co/fg2Pco/2_H_Bow_AOE.png
The accumulated time spent fighting trash mobs in a dungeon can be pretty significant in a Vet DLC dungeon, but each of those fights are generally short, about 5-10 seconds when using this build. If the the front bar weapons are comprised of Mechanical Acuity or Ravager (retraited jewelry to infused)) or Briarheart, then the set will be a controllable and powerful proc for dealing with waves of adds. A Stamblade can wait for the right time to move into a wave of adds, then switch weapons to the front bar and gain a burst of strong damage.
12 seconds of combat time w/ Acuity:
Spriggan's, Kragh's +
Mechanical Acuity, 12 seconds of combat
I'd still recommend 2H for dungeon runs where extra survival is needed against a giant group of mobs, like when players have low CP or they're running without a tank or healer. The 2H build is still listed below the dual wield spec.
Here's a snapshot of the same 12 second time frame, using the same skills as shown above with a 2H Mechanical Acuity weapon:
Spriggan's, Kragh's +
2H Mechanical Acuity, 12 seconds of combat
Accounting for 18k penetration is important when selecting gear. Dont forget you can use lover mundus and piercing CP's. I suggest maces for Acuity and 2H builds, they're pretty good when dealing with AOE scenarios. So many penetration debuffs offered by a group are applied to one target at a time.
Dual Wield SetupItem Sets
Armor sets: Mechanical acuity, War Machine, Ravager, Twice Fang Serpent, Briarheart, Spriggan's, Vicious Ophedian - for good sustain
Head, Shoulder: 2x Veledrith or Kragh's
Weapon Bar 1: Mechanical Acuity Nirn Mace / Infused Mace (axe/sword if group is offering both minor fracture and Alkosh) or go with daggers when using any other set.
Weapon Bar 2: Sharpened Maelstrom Bow (Nirn for large groups using extra penetration debuffs)
Glyphs
Armor: Divines & Stamina Glyphs
Jewelry: Nirn & Weapon Damage Glyphs
Weapon Bar 1: Poison Glyph / Weapon Damage Glyph
Weapon Bar 2: Disease or crafted Poison
Skill Arrangement for using Dropped Green PotionsWeapon Bar 1Deadly Cloak - 5 meter radius DOT / 25% AOE damage reduction that lasts 15 seconds.
Power Extraction - 8 meter radius burst AOE damage that gives Nightblades Major Brutality. Major Brutality adds around 10% to overall damage and this skill can be substituted in place of crafted power potions.
[Alternate] Use Shrouded Daggers if preferred, it will provide Major Brutality and strike up to three targets if they are each standing within 5 meters of each other in a connect-the-dots style attack.
Surprise Attack - single target burst damage that debufs an enemy with major fracture for 20 seconds. It's a great spam skill for single target DPS.
Relentless Focus - for the minor berserk and endurance, It's a good skill to boost all types of DPS. It procs Scourge for free 3-times for -TONS- of DPS if you can weave light attacks quickly enough.
Killer's Blade - Powerful Execute. Very powerful if spammed while th3 proc sets are active.
Soul Harvest - This skill would typically be on the bar that yields the most kills if you want to spam loads of ultimates, like flawless dawnbreaker, on the back bar. There's more single target DPS to be had by slotting this on the back bar and moving flawless dawnbreaker to the front bar.
Weapon Bar 2
Endless hail - 10 seconds, 20 damage ticks to everything within a 5 meter radius, it adds up to a significant portion of the overall AOE DPS.
Razor Caltrops - 12 second DOT applied across an 8 meter radius.
Poison Injection - Strong DOT for single target situations.
[Alternate] Acid Spray - If you want more cleave, this now has big AOE damage from a combined direct 20m radius spray and an improved 6 second DOT.
Rearming trap - for the minor force buff and a good, cheap DOT.
Leeching Strikes - For the Stamina management. [Alternate] Mirage/Double Take for more survivability
Flawless Dawnbreaker - Strong AOE damage, passively buffs weapon damage, spam this any time you can to demolish trash mobs with ease. (Soul harvest could go here as an alternative for lining up the mechanical acuity proc in high single target damage)
Skill Arrangement When Using Crafted Power PotionsWeapon Bar 1Deadly Cloak - 5 meter radius DOT / 25% AOE damage reduction that lasts 15 seconds.
Steel Tornado- 9 meter radius burst AOE damage with an execute component.
Surprise Attack - single target burst damage that debufs an enemy with major fracture for 20 seconds. It's a great spam skill for single target DPS.
Relentless Focus - for the minor berserk and endurance, It's a good skill to boost all types of DPS. It procs Scourge for free 2-times for -TONS- of DPS if you can weave light attacks quickly enough.
Killer's Blade - Powerful Execute. Very powerful if spammed while proc sets are active.
Soul Harvest - This skill would typically be on the bar that yields the most kills if you want to spam loads of ultimates, like flawless dawnbreaker, on the back bar. There's more single target DPS to be had by slotting this on the back bar and moving flawless dawnbreaker to the front bar.
Weapon Bar 2Endless hail - 10 seconds, 20 damage ticks to everything within a 5 meter radius, it adds up to a significant portion of the overall AOE DPS.
Razor Caltrops - 12 second DOT applied across an 8 meter radius.
Poison Injection - Strong DOT for single target situations.
[Alternate] Acid Spray - If you want more cleave, this now has big AOE damage from a combined direct 20m radius spray and an improved 6 second DOT.
Rearming trap - for the minor force buff and a good, cheap DOT.
Leeching Strikes - For the Stamina management. [Alternate] Mirage/Double Take for more survivability
Flawless Dawnbreaker - Strong AOE damage, passively buffs weapon damage, spam this any time you can to demolish trash mobs with ease. (Soul harvest could go here as an alternative for lining up high single target damage)
Two hand
Item Sets
Armor sets: Mechanical acuity, War Machine, Ravager, Twice Fang Serpent, Briarheart, Spriggan's, Vicious Ophedian - for good sustain
Head, Shoulder: 2x Veledrith or Kragh's
Weapon Bar 1: Sharpened Maul (sword or axe if Alkosh and minor fracture are supplied)
Weapon Bar 2: Sharpened Maelstrom Bow (Nirn for large groups using extra penetration debuffs)
Glyphs
Armor: Stamina
Jewelry: Weapon Damage
Weapon Bar 1: Weapon Damage Buff
Weapon Bar 2: Disease or Poison Damage
Food
Dubious Camoran
If you choose to wear Ravager: make sure to retrait jewelry to infused or use Lava Foot Soup and Saltrice, +4575 Stamina, +457 Stamina regen.
Stats
All points in stamina, perhaps OCD non-Imperials would add 2 points into health to see 17k health on their bow bar.
Potions
Cheap, green Stamina Regen Potions. Major Brutality and Major Savagery are covered by skills.
Skill Arrangement for More AOE DPS
Weapon Bar 1Brawler - 7 meter cone damage / DOT / damage shield. It offers a similar function to Rending Slashes and Deadly Cloak, only now it's a massive cone damage and shield buff. People are always saying Nightblades are squishy, but the big shield from this skill makes it easier to survive through little mistakes like standing in the red. It procs the Ravager and Acuity set very often.
Power Extraction - 8 meter radius burst AOE damage that gives Nightblades Major Brutality. It procs the Ravager and Acuity set very often.
Surprise Attack - single target burst damage that debufs an enemy with major fracture for 20 seconds. It's a great spam skill for single target DPS. Procs Ravager & Acuity sets.
Relentless Focus - for the minor berserk and endurance, It's a good skill to boost all types of DPS.
Reverse Slice - The biggest AOE DPS finishing move in the game, it provides up to 300% extra damage to enemies below 50% health, based on missing health, while splash damaging all who stand within a 5 meter radius of the target with 65% of the damage. So use this on low health targets, enemies standing around you with full health will be cut in half by this skill. It functions like killers blade and procs the Ravager set very often.
Soul Harvest - This skill would typically be on the bar that yields the most kills if you want to spam loads of ultimates, like flawless dawnbreaker, on the back bar. There's more single target DPS to be had by slotting this on the back bar and moving flawless dawnbreaker to the front bar.
Weapon Bar 2Endless hail - 10 seconds, 20 damage ticks to everything within a 5 meter radius, it adds up to a significant portion of the overall AOE DPS. It procs Briarheart more than anything else.
Razor Caltrops - 12 second DOT applied across an 8 meter radius. This also procs Briarheart.
Poison Injection - Strong DOT for single target situations.
[Alternate] Acid Spray - If you want more cleave, this now has big AOE damage from a combined direct 20m radius spray and a new and improved 6 second DOT.
Rearming trap - for the minor force buff and a good, cheap DOT.
Leeching Strikes - After much testing, this skill seems to provide my Bosmer with just enough stamina to eliminate the need for heavy attacks to recharge. It offers good healing as well. 2- H kills boost Regen, and heavy attacks seem to be inefficient on a Stamblade when single target DPS is the goal.
Flawless Dawnbreaker - strong AOE damage, spam this any time you can to demolish trash mobs with ease.
Skill Arrangement for More Single Target DPS
Weapon Bar 1
Rearming Trap - For the minor force buff and a good, cheap DOT. Also lifts weapon damage on this weapon bar another 3%.
Relentless Focus - This will give you Hemorrhage on this bar since Soul harvest is moved to the other bar. It now procs Scourge for free 3-times for -TONS- of DPS if you can weave light attacks quickly enough.
Surprise Attack - Single target burst damage that debufs an enemy with major fracture for 20 seconds. It's a great spam skill for single target DPS. Procs Ravager set.
Expert Hunter - Major Savagery, that's pretty much the only reason to slot this here. 2-handed weapons need all the crit they can get.
Killer's Blade - It was nerfed somewhat with Morrowind, but still deals good damage.
Flawless Dawnbreaker - Buffs the 2-hand weapon bar Weapon damage another 8%.
Weapon Bar 2
Endless hail - 10 seconds, 20 damage ticks to everything within a 5 meter radius, it adds up to a significant portion of the overall AOE DPS.
Razor Caltrops - 12 second DOT applied across an 8 meter radius.
Power Extraction - 8 meter radius burst AOE damage that gives Nightblades Major Brutality. It's about 30% cheaper than steel tornado and does more damage initially, all great reasons to slot this skill.
Poison Injection - Strong DOT for single target situations.
Leeching Strikes - After much testing, this skill seems to provide my Bosmer with just enough stamina to eliminate the need for heavy attacks to recharge. 2- H heavy attacks are inefficient on a Stamblade when single target DPS is the goal.
Soul Harvest - 6 second buff that lifts all damage quite a bit.
Skill Rotation - AOE Setup
Flip on enemy health bars, it will show you who to hit with reverse slice. The rest of the time do what you would do with a dual wield setup. Continue to use caltrops and endless hail as always.
Use power extraction instead of steel tornado. Dawnbreaker will be ready at least once with every dungeon pull. Light attack weave on anything all the time for the 2-H forceful passive. Heavy attack with 2-H to regain stamina and slam everything around you with a massive forceful. Use reverse slice in place of killers blade, Brawler in place of Rending slashes. All three sets (Kragh's, Ravager and Briarheart) will proc continuously with no issues as you swap back and forth between weapon bars and hit a few mobs around you. It's easy to get 20k+ dps per secondary target around you if you hit low health enemies.
Skill Rotation - Arrangement for More Single Target DPS
Maybe I should rephrase that to "Cheap", high single target DPS.
After extensive testing, I found that Power/Crit pots don't really lift single target DPS for a Stamblade with a 2-hand weapon beyond just a few percent. There just aren't that many useful Stamina DOT skills to add to the bar in place of Expert Hunter and Power Extraction.
This single target setup would be optimized with 5xTFS/ War Machine Greatsword +4 other War Machine pieces / Maelstrom Bow / Veledrith. Or go in with high weapon damage sets like Automaton, Hundings or Ravager & Kragh's + any sharpened bow for lower 30's kDPS self-buffed. There's plenty of damage for any content, even with non-optimized gear and no power pots.
2H bar: Buff with Relentless focus, swap bars
Bow bar: LA+ Caltrops, LA + Endless hail, LA+ Power Extraction, LA+ Poison Injection, LA+Leeching Strikes (use once every two rotations)
2H bar: LA+Relentless Focus (Hit with free scourge), LA + Rearming trap, LA + Surprise attack, LA + Surprise Attack, LA + Surprise Attack, LA + Relentless Focus (Hit with free scourge buffed), LA + Relentless Focus (Reset), swap bars.
Replace surprise attack with Killers Blade when enemy health dips to 25%. Make sure to use Poison injection at least when the boss's health is 50%. Heavy attacks aren't needed for my Bosmer, though they might be needed for non-stamina regen races or low CP characters.