PvE:

Killers blade (execute)
Relentless Focus (8% extra damage, 10% Stam Regen, and adds Assassination passives)
Surprise Attack (should never use rapid strikes over this, unless maelstrom weapons become in vogue again. Amazing ability, and your main spammable)
Deadly Cloak/Steel Tornado (cloak for heavier AoE content, Tornado very useful in VMA, dungeons)
Ult: Soul Harvest (cheap, strong ult that pairs especially well with the War Machine set) / Flawless Dawnbreaker

Bow (backbar)
-poison inject (ranged execute, and strong DOT. Keep up on enemies/bosses)
-Rearming Trap (good DOT, gives you minor force (10% extra critical damage, which stacks with your Assassination passive).
-Arrow Hail (one of your absolutely most devastating attacks. Maelstrom bow makes this incredibly strong)
-Caltrops (Great AoE DOT, stacks with others using caltrops, and can proc your monster helm)
-Flex spot (depends on content. Vigor/leeching strikes/)
Ult - Ballista / Soul Tether

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

PvE:

Killers blade (execute)
Relentless Focus (8% extra damage, 10% Stam Regen, and adds Assassination passives)
Surprise Attack (should never use rapid strikes over this, unless maelstrom weapons become in vogue again. Amazing ability, and your main spammable)
Deadly Cloak/Steel Tornado (cloak for heavier AoE content, Tornado very useful in VMA, dungeons)
Ult: Soul Harvest (cheap, strong ult that pairs especially well with the War Machine set) / Flawless Dawnbreaker

Bow (backbar)
-poison inject (ranged execute, and strong DOT. Keep up on enemies/bosses)
-Rearming Trap (good DOT, gives you minor force (10% extra critical damage, which stacks with your Assassination passive).
-Arrow Hail (one of your absolutely most devastating attacks. Maelstrom bow makes this incredibly strong)
-Caltrops (Great AoE DOT, stacks with others using caltrops, and can proc your monster helm)
-Flex spot (depends on content. Vigor/leeching strikes/)
Ult - Ballista / Soul Tether

Nice..yeah thats better than mine

As a experienced bow/bow user, having done 40k+ DPS in grp situations, Tho as a stamsorc and not a NB. But that does not matter as I was jealous of NBs when it came too their ability too bow/bow.

You gear is nice, aim for 5/5 pen set and 5/5 dmg set as you are, tho I would suggest trying to get a vMA bow and a Master Bow too reach highest possible numbers. I was using 5/5 Twice-Fang 5/5 Automaton with Master Bow front bar and vMA bow backbar. But if you dont have this yet dont worry, use a normal bow and add a monster set part like 1 part kragh for some extra pen.

And without making this too long; as any DPS build in this game, doing alot of damage over time while doing a spamable is the key too higher dps. So get Hail of Arrows and Caltrops.

On a Dungeon Boss: Keep Hail, Caltrops and Posion Injecton up on the boss at all times, do Heavy Attack / Take Aim rotations
while keeping your buffs up.
On Dungeon Trash: Keep Hail and Caltrops up, and use spray (I prefere the posion morph as it adds an extra dot)

Hope this helps you anything

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Princess_Ciri wrote: »

sampol212 wrote: »

I just... love playing bow. Maybe because I'm girl:)

:thinking: :thinking :thinking:

Yeah I think there's alot of us girls that play this game. My favourite character is also my Nightblade wood elf, but I dont like bow that much so Im cuurently going dual weild/ 2Handed. So much more satisfying to get into the enemies face and beat 'em down.

Bow is the way to go ... never give your enemy a chance to defend themself.

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

xiZeroPointix wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

xiZeroPointix wrote: »

WatchYourSixx wrote: »

xiZeroPointix wrote: »

Pve you want:

Dual wield front bar:
1) rapid strikes
2) whirlwind..morphed to steel tornado
3) shrouded daggers
4) nightblade offensive ability
5) camo hunter for the crit
Ultimate: dawnbreaker of smiting

Bow bar:
1) light weight trap ( you can cast at a distance for extra crit damage...very important to boost dps)
2) endless hail
3) Poison injection
4) caltrops..or flex spot
5) vigor...or flex spot
Ultimate: ballista..big single target damage..bosses

Rotation for trash
La...endless hail..la...trap..la..caltrops...la...poison injection...bar swap..heavy attack...steel tornado..La..steel tornado..repeat

Boss or single target with high health:
La..endless..la...trap..la...caltrops...la..poison injection...la...ballista...bar swap..heavy attack...rapid strikes..heavy attack shrouded dagger..heavy attack..ability..bar swap..repeat

Gear:
Hundings is good 5 body..use it with 3pcs agility jewls (all weapon damage enchants) or spriggans 3 jewelry 2 daggers. Monster helm preferably valkyn skoria...since we use many dots and aoe abilities..especially rapid strikes which is gonna be your main spammable...its gonna proc alot. Grothdarr until you get skoria.

Cp: tharmaturge for the aoe and dots...mighty for the physical damage...precise strikes for the extra crit damage very important for burst damage. Little master at arms but not really important with your current cp.

Dubious camoran throne for the stam/stam recovery and max health

Mundus i run the shadow for the crit damage but. Lover gives penetration or warrior for the extra wepon damage ur choice.

Best of luck

cant tell if troll.. or serious...

This is almost excatly what i run on my stam sorc. Only with crit surge and hurricane. I have done flawless vma..vdsa..and all vet dlc dungoen content..its solid

@xiZeroPointix
The word you are looking for is Stale, not Solid. I am sure you can run just about any content you want with this, but its basically a poor version of the meta build from like a year ago. You would get absolutely smoked by a well played surprise attack build, running a current rotation.

-You also have 2 spam skills on your main bar, non of which are the best spam skill you have access to, AKA surprise attack. Rapid strike builds died with morrowind.
-Steel Tornado should almost certainly be a flex spot shared with rending slashes depending on what you are fighting.
-Evil hunter is a useless skill, weapon pots are cheap. How about your class execute that is insanely powerful?
-You are also missing deadly cloak, which means you will struggle hard in some of the newer trials to stay alive.
-Your gear choice of monster sets is also really bad. Pick a set that does damage based your stamina pool, not your magic pool.
-You are missing siphoning attacks which is one of a NBs absolutely best skills. You could ditch the dubious throne for more health and damage.
-Lightweight trap is not a great back bar skill. The duration is too short. There are some builds (stam sorc) that will use it on the front bar, but it gets cast twice per rotation. Rearming trap is better on a NB.

I dont run a nb. I run a stam sorc. Skoria does excellent damage for me..velidreth is strong but it misses alot. From a pve stand point i like the ability to cast trap at a distance and get the ground reticle so i can place on multiple enemies...on a stam sorc i like having rapid strikes and shrouded daggers hits for 11k single target and its aoe. Blade cloak is good but i dont run it when i can use hurricane. I like the extra crit from hunter. I will continue to use dubious for a little bit more sustain. I dont use pots crit surge is better. I run my mag sorc in trials. Steel tornado does more damage based off missing health and is good for bosses that spawn adds. Rending does some bleed but..i dont swap skills in between trash and boss fights...i might use it on a dummy parse

@xiZeroPointix
Then it must do more for you than for anyone else. Veli, Stormfist, or Kraghs should all beat Skoria on a stam sorc. I would love to see a dummy parse with the setup you are talking about. The problem with rapid strikes is not the damage, its the sustain. Rapid strikes rotations dont work on 6-10 minute fights. You will have to make too many sacrifices to sustain. Deadly Cloak is a must in actual content. Run VMOL or VHOF HM without deadly cloak and get back to me. Dubious is a DPS loss over max Health+stamina food, and if you got away from Rapid Strikes, you could probably also get away from Dubious. The crit from evil hunter can be obtained by weapon power pots. Sure you can run EH, but potions are better. Unless you double bar EH, you will lose your crit buff on your back bar. You dont have that problem with potions. I do like lightweight trap on a sorc, but it should be a front bar skill cast twice per rotation. Also, how do you make room for bound armaments with all that? A sorcs greatest asset is their max stats. You should play to it.


Like I said, I am sure this works for you in a lot of content. My first flawless on a stam sorc was done with a Rapid Strikes build. It just is not going to beat a current build, in fact, it will get destroyed by one. It is wildly outdated. It is also pretty clear that you took an outdated sorc build and tried to plug it into a NB build for purposes of this thread. Stamina is pretty similar for most builds, but NB is probably the biggest outlier in terms of how they play. Stam Sorc, DK, and Templar are all pretty similar. Stamblade is its own animal altogether.

Play any way you want, and I am glad it works for you, but expect to be met with pushback when you suggest outdated builds as though they are meta on the forums.

Edit: not that everyone needs to run the meta, but for what its worth, meta stamblade bars look like this:

DW: Surprise Attack, Killers Blade, Relentless Focus, Deadly Cloak, Flex (Rending Slashes/Steel Tornado), Sould harvest if running War Machine, Flawless Dawnbreaker if not.
Bow: Poison Injection, Endless Hail, Caltrops, Rearming Trap, Leeching Strikes, Ultimate depends on content and gear.

I have done veli and its strong for pvp. Pve not so great as it can only hit 3 targets with the exception of vma (very strong there). Stormfist is too slow it needs a little help and kraghs is good single target. In pve i focus on aoe damage and skoria is strong for me in that aspect. Stam sorc meta in general is stale for that matter and yes nb is the meta at the atm. Rapis strikes is good for excecute damage and it really what i use it for...well that along with 5 ticks for healing when crit surge is up. Bound arnaments has a lot going for it but needs some love 2 bar slots for 1 k resist and 1.5k max stam isnt worth it for me. The heavy attack damage is good but with the new off balance changes..well we will see. The problem with meta builds is the fact that the whole group has to be meta to work. Blade cloak is good and does alot for one slot skill..i definetely swap it from time to time. The meta is good for a fully optimized group. For 80 percent of the content is just not neccessary and alot of utility is given up for pure builds. I really appreciate your insight and suggestions and yes it was a mistake to offer advice for a nb..guess i should pay attention a little better. I will note your suggestions for the nb build as i have yet to make one. For pure single target your suggestion for sorc is spot on and i fully agree for max dps. I am not sure of a parse for my current set up because i would never use it for a parse for that matter. As far completing content and pugging around well works just fine no need to min max.

Note: never said it was meta..just a general suggestion of skills to try.

xiZeroPointix wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

xiZeroPointix wrote: »

WatchYourSixx wrote: »

xiZeroPointix wrote: »

Pve you want:

Dual wield front bar:
1) rapid strikes
2) whirlwind..morphed to steel tornado
3) shrouded daggers
4) nightblade offensive ability
5) camo hunter for the crit
Ultimate: dawnbreaker of smiting

Bow bar:
1) light weight trap ( you can cast at a distance for extra crit damage...very important to boost dps)
2) endless hail
3) Poison injection
4) caltrops..or flex spot
5) vigor...or flex spot
Ultimate: ballista..big single target damage..bosses

Rotation for trash
La...endless hail..la...trap..la..caltrops...la...poison injection...bar swap..heavy attack...steel tornado..La..steel tornado..repeat

Boss or single target with high health:
La..endless..la...trap..la...caltrops...la..poison injection...la...ballista...bar swap..heavy attack...rapid strikes..heavy attack shrouded dagger..heavy attack..ability..bar swap..repeat

Gear:
Hundings is good 5 body..use it with 3pcs agility jewls (all weapon damage enchants) or spriggans 3 jewelry 2 daggers. Monster helm preferably valkyn skoria...since we use many dots and aoe abilities..especially rapid strikes which is gonna be your main spammable...its gonna proc alot. Grothdarr until you get skoria.

Cp: tharmaturge for the aoe and dots...mighty for the physical damage...precise strikes for the extra crit damage very important for burst damage. Little master at arms but not really important with your current cp.

Dubious camoran throne for the stam/stam recovery and max health

Mundus i run the shadow for the crit damage but. Lover gives penetration or warrior for the extra wepon damage ur choice.

Best of luck

cant tell if troll.. or serious...

This is almost excatly what i run on my stam sorc. Only with crit surge and hurricane. I have done flawless vma..vdsa..and all vet dlc dungoen content..its solid

@xiZeroPointix
The word you are looking for is Stale, not Solid. I am sure you can run just about any content you want with this, but its basically a poor version of the meta build from like a year ago. You would get absolutely smoked by a well played surprise attack build, running a current rotation.

-You also have 2 spam skills on your main bar, non of which are the best spam skill you have access to, AKA surprise attack. Rapid strike builds died with morrowind.
-Steel Tornado should almost certainly be a flex spot shared with rending slashes depending on what you are fighting.
-Evil hunter is a useless skill, weapon pots are cheap. How about your class execute that is insanely powerful?
-You are also missing deadly cloak, which means you will struggle hard in some of the newer trials to stay alive.
-Your gear choice of monster sets is also really bad. Pick a set that does damage based your stamina pool, not your magic pool.
-You are missing siphoning attacks which is one of a NBs absolutely best skills. You could ditch the dubious throne for more health and damage.
-Lightweight trap is not a great back bar skill. The duration is too short. There are some builds (stam sorc) that will use it on the front bar, but it gets cast twice per rotation. Rearming trap is better on a NB.

I dont run a nb. I run a stam sorc. Skoria does excellent damage for me..velidreth is strong but it misses alot. From a pve stand point i like the ability to cast trap at a distance and get the ground reticle so i can place on multiple enemies...on a stam sorc i like having rapid strikes and shrouded daggers hits for 11k single target and its aoe. Blade cloak is good but i dont run it when i can use hurricane. I like the extra crit from hunter. I will continue to use dubious for a little bit more sustain. I dont use pots crit surge is better. I run my mag sorc in trials. Steel tornado does more damage based off missing health and is good for bosses that spawn adds. Rending does some bleed but..i dont swap skills in between trash and boss fights...i might use it on a dummy parse

Never, EVER, a reason to use Valkyn Skoria on a stam build (stam Sorc, stam DK, stam NB - none should use it). Stormfist is such amazing melee dps set perfectly suited for stam sorc’s specifically.

Velidreth only misses if you stay incredibly far from the enemies. Since no enemy your fighting should be outside your Hurricane, it should hit SIGNIFICANTLY more than it misses.

Focus on AoE damage? The only AoE skills you need are Hurricane/tornado/Caltrops (solo content obviously). Make no mistake, except for a few ability differences, your skill bars will look remarkably similar no matter what brand of Stam Melee you are. You have zero tooltip strengths for Valkyn Skoria. You have a ton for Stormfist, and any other Helm that deals physical damage (buffed by Mighty). You really hard up for AoE? Then at least go Mephala’s; stronger on a DK obviously, but still better than Valkyn. And it’s damage I see buffed by your stamina/weapon damage/cp.

Executes - Rapid Strikes is not execute damage. Out of all your abilities, only poison injection/steel tornado, and your Implosion passive are executes (I.e. those skills that do much higher damage the lower the enemies life). Yes, Dual wield passives give you a bonus to damage below 25% with dual wield abilities, but Steel tornado ALSO gives an additional 300% damage when they reach that threshold as well. Rapid strikes only benefit is that it can be a somewhat strong spamable if you need healing (Bloodthirst morph). Otherwise, shrouded daggers easier to weave, gives major brut, affects multiple targets, and you don’t have to wait the full channeling time to take advantage of rapid strikes bonus.

An lastly, no, meta builds success isn’t conditioned on OTHER people running meta builds. Test your dps/rotation on a practice dummy. For sure, it doesn’t mimic a combat environment, but it’s not supposed to. It’s to test your skills with sets, honing your technique and finding those sets that you achieve the highest output for your input. Nobody wants to get nothing for something.

I’m all for innovative and new builds, but there has to be a logical nexus tying it together. If not, and it’s more or less torn from whole cloth, I would feel very conflicted about recommending a build like that to anyone.

Sad nobody even tried mentioning this
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/381498/everything-needed-to-know-about-bow-bow-in-pve/p1

Like others have said if you are hitting 35k with your current build then you are waaaaay ahead of the curve for new players.

But this quote makes me wonder if you are still confusing DPS (damage per second) with damage per strike (of an ability).

sampol212 wrote: »

There is mistake - Im nightblade Wood Elf - all stamina guys:)

I apply all the buff and then use my skills. Poison with arrow and interrupt, main dmg are precise strikes (around 32-35k with crits), spray on groups, rearming trap etc. I use light attack in between to proc my bow and for leeching strikes.

especially the bolded part...

edit: In fact I am not even sure what you mean by "Precise Strikes" since that is a Champion Point star. Do you mean Veiled Strike? Or Incapacitating Strike?

edit 2: also are you using single target dummies for you DPS or are you talking about trash groups of enemies in overland content?

danno8 wrote: »

Like others have said if you are hitting 35k with your current build then you are waaaaay ahead of the curve for new players.

But this quote makes me wonder if you are still confusing DPS (damage per second) with damage per strike (of an ability).

sampol212 wrote: »

There is mistake - Im nightblade Wood Elf - all stamina guys:)

I apply all the buff and then use my skills. Poison with arrow and interrupt, main dmg are precise strikes (around 32-35k with crits), spray on groups, rearming trap etc. I use light attack in between to proc my bow and for leeching strikes.

especially the bolded part...

edit: In fact I am not even sure what you mean by "Precise Strikes" since that is a Champion Point star. Do you mean Veiled Strike? Or Incapacitating Strike?

edit 2: also are you using single target dummies for you DPS or are you talking about trash groups of enemies in overland content?

I believe she means critical strikes. And actually, the way it's worded, I think that's likely just the value she gets when she DOES critically strike. I don't believe a dummy parse would lead to anywhere near those kinds of numbers (especially without a maelstrom bow if she's running bow/bow)

@sampol212

The only way you're going to get an accurate measure of your true damage (or at least a good approximation of) is to find a practice dummy (if you're in a guild, someone will have one for sure) and then do damage to it until it dies. Your damage numbers will be measured against how long it took, so damage over a certain amount of time.

Things that can affect most your DPS:
-Builds (DW/Bow will always net you higher dps values than Bow/Bow)
-Gear (Balancing between penetration, damage, and critical strike chance)
-Ability to sustain that damage over the length of the fight.

*FYI critical strikes are 'damage + 1/2' of your normal hits. (this can increase with Shadow Mundus, Assassination passives, some gear options)

Sustain is VITALLY IMPORTANT. As a Wood Elf you already will have very good Stamina regen, but it can still deplete relatively quickly if you're spamming abilities to make the best time possible. So making sure Leeching strikes is up, Relentless focus (adds 10% stam regen), and if you really need to, throw in a heavy attack or two. NB's typically don't need to heavy attack to regain resources, because leeching applies the same bonus to light attacks (and since relentless will be up at the same time, more light attacks will proc the special bow ability on your focus).

So really, based on what you said, we don't have much indication whether you're doing good damage or not. It may be great, but it also might be terrible and it's making groups operate much less efficiently (or solo where it just makes content considerably harder).

TL DR: Do a test on a 3mil life practice dummy. Kill it dead in as fast as you can. That number you get afterward is your total DPS parse over time, and a good measure of how your build/gear/abilities are performing.

*If you're below 20k - would definitely look to gear changes/mundus/or rearranging cp.
*25-30k - Solid. Based on your cp, probably more difficult to do at the moment. Bow/Bow will be difficult to reach these numbers also.
*36k+ - You're ready for the highest level content in the game. Advanced veteran rank trials.

I suspect, based on your cp, build, ability morphs, probably be around 15k dps.

danno8 wrote: »

Like others have said if you are hitting 35k with your current build then you are waaaaay ahead of the curve for new players.

But this quote makes me wonder if you are still confusing DPS (damage per second) with damage per strike (of an ability).

sampol212 wrote: »

There is mistake - Im nightblade Wood Elf - all stamina guys:)

I apply all the buff and then use my skills. Poison with arrow and interrupt, main dmg are precise strikes (around 32-35k with crits), spray on groups, rearming trap etc. I use light attack in between to proc my bow and for leeching strikes.

especially the bolded part...

edit: In fact I am not even sure what you mean by "Precise Strikes" since that is a Champion Point star. Do you mean Veiled Strike? Or Incapacitating Strike?

edit 2: also are you using single target dummies for you DPS or are you talking about trash groups of enemies in overland content?

Sorry I often miss names of the abilities:) I mean the highest dmg I get on single target with crits and buffs is 35k with snipe ability (that one with crossbow icon and slow animation:)

I also think about switching Hundings to NMG, but not sure if its worth the deal.

ZOS_Holden wrote: »

Hi,

Just wanted to pop in and let you all know how much we appreciate your willingness to help one another. It's so nice to see the community come together to discuss different build options and just generally help each other out. You guys are awesome!

Every time I see @ZOS_Holden 's name I think of .....