I think almost all reasons have been mentioned basically...

- Lack of tanky builds in no-CP because sustain sucks, means NBs flourish against the squishies
- NB burst hurts a lot more in no-CP and is harder to recover from
- Buff to Grim Focus so it don't lose its stacks means more likely to land burst (Incap->Bow) combo now
- Cloak, Shade working better than before, more reliable
- Unlike block/shields/streak... cloak is not CP dependent to be efficient.
- A lot of undodgeable skills have been fixed/changed which made life easier for stamblades.

Basically, NB mostly took buffs and fixes this patch while everyone else took direct or indirect nerfs and on top of that the No-CP environment suits them better.

I might be stating the obvious here, but I think last patch was more balanced. Both MagDKs and MagWardens who used to predate on stamblades in particular and magblades (mostly DKs) have been largely neutered. And the no-CP environment makes these builds sitting ducks. Unable to sustain while tanking, unable to be highly mobile and bursty like stambuilds or mag Sorc/NB. Caught in no-man's land. Currently NBs fear no one, so their numbers grow.

Although I do prefer these no-CP BGs to the last patch when stacking unkillable tanks was the meta. Jesus Christ thank god that's over.

Minalan wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

NBs aren;t going to want to hear this, but they are easily the class that best deals with the no CP.

So ZoS massively nerfs every class such that their power is reliant on a bunch of generic % bonuses and DLC accessible gear. Then ZoS implements a format that keeps the nerfs, takes away the % bonuses, and you need regeneration more than those DLC sets.

Yeah, give me the class that has an escape mechanism independent of power scaling (cloak, teleport), the best innate resource management, and a burst not dependent on gear sets

This. Pretty much. Everyone else stopped playing when they took away CP BG’s. I haven’t queued up since the DB patch landed.

I qued up for a few. But mostly stayed away after getting hit by multiple incaps and being the only magplar.

I believe I have said this in a thread before but stamblades are actually the best stam spec out of all. Not even stamwarden can compete against it.

Stamwarden can be very good yes. But it is a lot harder to make all your bursts hit timed than on a stamblade and mind you, surprise attack can hit as hard as subterranean assault and it is not even delayed burst. And it offers the same debuff. Stamblades also do not have to rely on dizzying swing. Got the best source of CCs out of all stam specs. I also do think mNBs are probably the best magicka spec. Sure snares and roots but all magicka specs suffer from them and mNB and sorcs are best equipped to get out of snare zone better without relying on the vampirism.

Nightblades are the least adversely affected by low amount of CP because their toolkit is already as strong as other class's toolkit with higher CP. Readily accessible major defile and minor defile from disease based damage skills with cloak to reset the fight (not spammed but really smart use of it). Stamblade toolkit is so strong especially if it is not a light attack bowtard build.

You might think stamwarden is tearing everyone a new hole but stamblade of equal skill will turn you into a shredded swiss cheese way before stam warden can tear you a new one. No wonder it is favored by people in the no-CP environment where you always will be the attacker and make your opponents waste resources on heals while you apply resource poisons on them with proc sets as well. Only true predator of any nightblade would be another nightblade atm. Unless... you like hanging in there while being choked on by ccs like talons and etc. So yes... I agree with all the reasons why they are popular especially with their what few predators that were left gone now.

I hate CP'S but in this case there's no CP argument to have, NB's are just really effing strong this patch. Even the mighty mag DK can't lock them down.

Maulkin wrote: »

Minno wrote: »

I qued up for a few. But mostly stayed away after getting hit by multiple incaps and being the only magplar.

Yeah, don't do that to yourself. The Templar house Wrobel was speaking of has a leaky roof and it's raining Incaps in the BGs this patch. Switch to either stamina burst or mag NB/Sorc if you want to be successful.

Better go stamwarden (not with zaan) or magnb with Zaan, it will get everything done

thankyourat wrote: »

I find it funny that a lot of the ESO community think stamina nightblade is a little OP when in reality the Magicka variant is the one that's top tier. Especially 1v1 really only mag dk and wardens are better. Stamblade is really a middle of the pack class like mag sorc. Both get so much hate on the forums for no real reason.

As for no cp I will agree stamblades are stronger but I still don't have any problems fighting them there either. I think nightblade in general is just popular. not because it's good but because stamblade in particular is just easy to pick up and play. Against experienced opponents though it wouldn't be a class i would want to use.

It has the best class passives in the game.

But it’s true advantage is in combat discretion. First strike, especially in a laggy environment, and the ability to disengage and reset,
is EXTREMELY advantageous.

detect hidden pots only work for 15s and have 30s cooldown. If the detect hidden pots were working for the whole duration,
it'd be ok. But they don't work for the whole duration. And it doesn't take a great stamblade to just rolldodge and heal for 15s while they're visible.

Maulkin wrote: »

BohnT wrote: »

Maulkin wrote: »

Minno wrote: »

I qued up for a few. But mostly stayed away after getting hit by multiple incaps and being the only magplar.

Yeah, don't do that to yourself. The Templar house Wrobel was speaking of has a leaky roof and it's raining Incaps in the BGs this patch. Switch to either stamina burst or mag NB/Sorc if you want to be successful.

Better go stamwarden or magnb with Zaan, it will get everything done

It's the meta, for sure.

stam warden with zaan is most certainly not the meta.

I can't think of a worse class to run Zaan with.

NB are the most OP class in pvp with the ability to 2-3 shot most casual pvp players.

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

NBs aren;t going to want to hear this, but they are easily the class that best deals with the no CP.

So ZoS massively nerfs every class such that their power is reliant on a bunch of generic % bonuses and DLC accessible gear. Then ZoS implements a format that keeps the nerfs, takes away the % bonuses, and you need regeneration more than those DLC sets.

Yeah, give me the class that has an escape mechanism independent of power scaling (cloak, teleport), the best innate resource management, and a burst not dependent on gear sets

This. Pretty much. Everyone else stopped playing when they took away CP BG’s. I haven’t queued up since the DB patch landed.

Here's what bothers the @#$& outta me, practically only @Joy_Division voiced their opinion about BGs staying CP. There was a bunch of people making posts saying they wanted no CP, so ZoS made it no CP

NOW the CP crowd comes outta the wood works! Where were they during the plethora of no CP threads??

No CP is still better because despite imbalances the fights are more fast paced which makes game modes like chaosball, dom, and CTR have a more playable pace.

There was class imbalance before and now it’s just shifted a different way.

This.

The CP-BG change should have never happened in the first place if ZoS listened to the community. There were numerous threads against the change and they Marengo it anyways and lost a large chunk of a niche population.

I preached and still stand by non-CP BGs being the most competitive platform offered. I haven’t had a full chance to dive in only a handful of games since patch (been a blast! Missed it so much) but I have noticed an influx of nightblades. I think I the reasoning has already been stated, stealth ability is extremely good in these settings. Esacaping a death in a TDM, being able to stealth grab a relic, being able to stealth past and back cap a dom flag, on top of having an opener from stealth for a leg up in a 1v1 scenario. That being said, I don’t necesarrily know a way to counter this shift in meta as it’s a nightblades crutch ability and what makes it most unique, otherwise we become no different than a mag sorc or *insert stam class*.

Loving my magblade at the moment though, always have through highs and lows, probably just the break I took that makes playing the class so refreshing.

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Cinbri wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

mursie wrote: »

@Lexxypwns said it best. The natural predator to a nightblade is another nightblade. piercing mark is devastating imho.

I love that moment when the NB starts to panic because he’s lacking adequate defense besides cloak, its palpable.

There’s nothing I enjoy more than seeing a bunch of stamblades in a BG, that’s when it’s time to do work

Nothing is better than soul assaulting stamblades and read all their ragewhispers of what they think about you.

Stamblade tears are like Fergie mixed with Jesus. I killed a particularly annoying(and terrible) stamblade today with 2h light attacks on my mageblade, I got a 6 minute long voice message from him via Xbox... I’m gonna set it to music and have it played at my funeral

Well i can understand it when people who get free kills with not many risks attached to it get mad when they lose fights

Maulkin wrote: »

ak_pvp wrote: »

Stamblade>stamden with zaan. Fear+incap makes a few zaan hit guaranteed with the extra 20% damage and defile on incap.

You guys are drawing this out too much. The original post said:

BohnT wrote: »

Better go stamwarden or magnb with Zaan, it will get everything done

Stamwarden
or
Magblade with Zaan

Never mentioned Stamwarden with Zaan. I only agreed that this was indeed the current BG meta, then next thing I know I'm being pulled on it by @Thogard that StamDen is not good with Zaan.

I can't explain it much more than this

ah i misinterpreted your sentence structure.

If stamden is the meta, i'd think i'd see more of them.

TBH i don't understand why it isn't the meta. It's super OP against pretty much every class except stamblade.

Oh wait, i know why not everyone plays stamden. It's because everyone in PvP is a stamblade and therefore the one class that is strong against stamden

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

NBs aren;t going to want to hear this, but they are easily the class that best deals with the no CP.

So ZoS massively nerfs every class such that their power is reliant on a bunch of generic % bonuses and DLC accessible gear. Then ZoS implements a format that keeps the nerfs, takes away the % bonuses, and you need regeneration more than those DLC sets.

Yeah, give me the class that has an escape mechanism independent of power scaling (cloak, teleport), the best innate resource management, and a burst not dependent on gear sets

This. Pretty much. Everyone else stopped playing when they took away CP BG’s. I haven’t queued up since the DB patch landed.

Here's what bothers the @#$& outta me, practically only @Joy_Division voiced their opinion about BGs staying CP. There was a bunch of people making posts saying they wanted no CP, so ZoS made it no CP

NOW the CP crowd comes outta the wood works! Where were they during the plethora of no CP threads??

No CP is still better because despite imbalances the fights are more fast paced which makes game modes like chaosball, dom, and CTR have a more playable pace.

There was class imbalance before and now it’s just shifted a different way.

I agree on this, no-cp is a lot better and healthier, ZOS should balance the game based on no-cp then balance CP seperately, which imo the only way to reach perfect PvP balance in this game.

And I honestly don't buy the ''nbs are only strong in no-cp'' crap. They are a very dominant dueling class now, and duels aren't set for no-cp obviously.

Ragnarock41 wrote: »

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

NBs aren;t going to want to hear this, but they are easily the class that best deals with the no CP.

So ZoS massively nerfs every class such that their power is reliant on a bunch of generic % bonuses and DLC accessible gear. Then ZoS implements a format that keeps the nerfs, takes away the % bonuses, and you need regeneration more than those DLC sets.

Yeah, give me the class that has an escape mechanism independent of power scaling (cloak, teleport), the best innate resource management, and a burst not dependent on gear sets

This. Pretty much. Everyone else stopped playing when they took away CP BG’s. I haven’t queued up since the DB patch landed.

Here's what bothers the @#$& outta me, practically only @Joy_Division voiced their opinion about BGs staying CP. There was a bunch of people making posts saying they wanted no CP, so ZoS made it no CP

NOW the CP crowd comes outta the wood works! Where were they during the plethora of no CP threads??

No CP is still better because despite imbalances the fights are more fast paced which makes game modes like chaosball, dom, and CTR have a more playable pace.

There was class imbalance before and now it’s just shifted a different way.

I agree on this, no-cp is a lot better and healthier, ZOS should balance the game based on no-cp then balance CP seperately, which imo the only way to reach perfect PvP balance in this game.

And I honestly don't buy the ''nbs are only strong in no-cp'' crap. They are a very dominant dueling class now, and duels aren't set for no-cp obviously.

Balancing around non-cp would kill PvE and PvP.
Non cp only works as a magnifier for imbalances like cost poisons, class Balance or procs, balance them and things are fine.

But this highly depends on which side of the game you are, cp or non cp