NB race for solo play and thieving

Rinira · April 2018

So given my long absence from the game I did settle on returning to being a NB. I was curious how much the race really mattered for them and if any really helped if you wanted to go with the dark brotherhood/thieves path in the game. I mostly play solo as my husband is wrapped up in other mmos. Normally I have an argonian or dunmer as the races I usually play(I just like the ascetics..).

Also any advice or suggestions for builds would be great as well. Sorry if these seem to be noob questions I haven't played in a few years.

Violynne · April 2018

If you don't care about max DPS, any race is fine as a NB and won't hinder you in DB or TG.

For NBs playing in TG, I recommend Night's Silence, where 5 pieces worn negates your sneak cost (which is really helpful for some of the dailies and quests).

If you want a little more oomph to your damage, you'll want to research Divines, then locate the Warrior mundus stone, adding a little more damage to your attacks. Helpful, but not required (you won't do much killing in the TG quests, given it's more about stealth).

Any armor with more stamina is a good thing, but if you're struggling with staying alive, focus on buffing health. For PvE, you don't have to hit like a truck to survive.

NBs have been given a long overdue bucket of love and they're actually so much fun to play now. I'm one and am also a Master Thief.

I can't help you with DB. I tried the quest on another character, and I can't stand the expectation of having to kill just any innocent NPCs to rank up in the DB. Seems completely against what the DB is about.

Oh, and one more thing: Jewelry - try to work for a matching set of 3 (1 neck, 2 rings) for the stamina buffs and regen.

Hope this helps.

Rinira · April 2018

Yeah I had herd the NB got a bit of love from the last time I played. At one point I remember coming back to my poor NB tank who couldn't do almost anything by himself (granted not geared the best but it was a wip)

I had heard the khajiit was better for the thieving stuff? Not sure how much it really matters in the end. I know any class can do those things but I remember my NB having a far easier time with it due to class skills.

Not really too worried about min maxing as I doubt i'll be in any hard core group to where that would really matter.

Though mention that is how the DB ranks up it does seem odd. I'd expect having to go out and kill targets but innocents? =/

Violynne · April 2018

Rinira wrote: »

I had heard the khajiit was better for the thieving stuff? Not sure how much it really matters in the end. I know any class can do those things but I remember my NB having a far easier time with it due to class skills.

Khajiit do get a buff in sneak skills, but ultimately, you'll want some of the passives in TG and Legerdemain.

Lockpicking is a must. Bring tons of lockpicks with you, as each one is lost but to snap a lock with a click of a button makes thieving worth it. I get 30k/day easy just by forcing locks.

Sneaking passive is really good as well, which reduces the notice radius. You can practically stand in the middle of a crowd and steal (okay, not quite that awesome, but close enough).

Finally, pickpocketing. Easiest free money in the game. So many targets just walking about, and guards have some great loot!

Fencing passives will eventually give you 10% more value for your goods, which stack up quickly for those blue items.

With all these passives, I can't stop stealing.

Though mention that is how the DB ranks up it does seem odd. I'd expect having to go out and kill targets but innocents? =/

Yeah, innocents. To rank up some skills, you have to use the Blade of Woe, which grants points to the ranking.

When you hit Anvil, you'll notice the bodies lying about the second you step off the dock.

Rinira · April 2018

Haven't made it that far. I left some time before DB was released and a little after thieves.. so all of this stuff is new to me. Good to know that over all minus some min maxing the race doesn't matter too much.. was in debate of going back to my arrgonian NB but then they are better off being a mage blade right?

davey1107 · April 2018

Alcasthq.com keeps PvP and PvE builds on all classes. Worth a review, his notes are pretty good.

Any stamina class works well as a stamblade...Khajiit, redguard and wood elf performs well. Khajiit get a 5% boost to pickpocketing...not a huge deal, honestly.

Altmer and Bretons make good magblades, but your argonian would do well too....it’s soul swallow heals would be massive. Dunmer would make a decent magblade too.

Both are great for thieves guild and dark brotherhood. I loved those zones on all my nightblades. I used to run the dailies in both as warm up...do a kill quest and thieves guild repeatable, then a dark brotherhood daily, then the thieves guild daily. (Re: kill quests - who said they were innocents? It’s an RPG. My nightblade joined the dark brotherhood as a vendetta against a slaver ring that kidnaps Khajiit kids and kills them for their furs for pervert rich people. He won’t react until everyone who ever touched that organization is dead. It turns out a lot of people and one guar have, and so a lot of people - and one guar - are dead.)

You sound like you’ll be questing and doing lighter PvE. So some tips for that sort of play:

- any nightblade should level their legerdemain to 16 and spend skill points for the 40% sneak stam cost reduction. The fastest way to do this is to spend one point in the passive that lets you fence more. Then Once a day empty your inventory and go to the ships in daggerfall. There are virtually no npcs...steal everything. Don’t forget below deck! Fence it all, and in 8-10 trips you’ll be leveled. (Higher leger also increases the quality of all stolen items, so the investment pays off on thief characters)

- concealed weapon increases your speed. When thieving I slot cloak, retreating maneuvers and concealed weapon on my back bar so I can be speedy and stealthy. Even though concealed weapon is a magic skill, I’ll sometimes take that morph on a stamblade for a while so that I get the speed.

- as others have said, on stam characters night silence eliminates sneak speed reduction. I carry a set with my stamblades for casual questing and stealing. There’s a magic version of this set called shadow dancer, but magblades can cast cloak so many times it’s not usually necessary. I usually just walk and cloak with them. And of course either type of blade can get free sneak speed from being a vampire.

- on a thieving character I like to use dw and bow. So I use shrouded daggers on my attack bar for the major brutality. I also really like this skill and get a ton of dps out of it.

- a potion I always carry is blessed thistle, blue enteloma amd namiras rot, invisibility and speed. Fully buffed and points spent in the correct alchemy passive and you get 16 seconds of invisible and 45 seconds of speed. A magblade doesn’t really need this, but stamblades can use it to supplement their magic reserves.

Those tips are kinda random, lol, but I tried to focus on stuff you won’t find in every nightblade thread. Have fun!

Rinira · April 2018

It is very helpful information even if random tips. I never got too far into potions so least I have some goals in mind now. I'm still pretty low level so I may try magic and stam builds throughout before really deciding where I want to focus things later in the game. I always use to play a tank NB so this is all new to me.

exiars10 · April 2018

Bosmer or Khajit.

Both are only thief races plus stamina. Choose what you prefer (furs or cute Bosmer girls

).

Race helps a lot as you don't have to have special gear for thieving. I did everything without proper gear and still do, just have leveled:
Stealthy (Bosmer or Khajit)
Improved Sneak (at Medium Armor 32)
Improved Hiding (at Legerdemain 16)

Slot Concealed Weapon morph from Shadow skill line, and you are good to go. I did and do everything in full DD (bow/bow) combat gear.

Anotherone773 · April 2018

I use a bosmer bowblade exactly for this. The sneak passive is really helpful as well as stamina recovery. I dont even need sneak reduction passives from the other lines. He can steal pretty much anything without getting caught. He can kill pretty much anyone without getting caught and he can do all overland but world bosses fairly easily. I also use him as my primary gather.

I use pos inj, snipe, draining shot, caltrops, endless hail on my front bar. Back bar is utility with vigor, rapid manuever, shadow cloak( i can get a couple uses out of this even being stamblade) and a couple of other things i cant remember right now.

Groups of mobs(such as public dungeons), i just toss caltrops, hail, and draining shot everything back across the AOEs. They die and keep my HP up. Bosses caltrops endless hail injection snipe snipe usually does it. Or i just lead with toxic barrage. Single target normal snipe, inj, LA. Or i just snipe from sneak and do 35-40k on ST normal mobs lol.

He runs Medium hundings and red mountain i think with velidreth shoulders and agility jewels. Might swap to a more thieving oriented/speed set. I dont know, i kind of like how fast he kills everything.

I do wish they had of changed dark cloak to a stam base cloak instead of turning it into a heal. It would of offered more diversity making it a heal is stupid and just makes more same/same.