Hybrid stamina/magicka Nightblade?

KingArturia · July 2018

Hey, I want to build a Hybrid Nightblade, one of the weapon sets I want to use is Sword and shield, other one I'm undecided on.

I enjoy both PvP and PvE but I'm not really wanting to be a tank too much, I just enjoy the style, if that makes sense.

((( I know it may not be the most efficient / best build as goin one or the either, but I still want to do it )))

Just hit 160 CP.

I'd appreciate any help I could get building it, such as Any idea what set I should go for / best skill combinations, where to place my CP at, etc?

I should say I'm still a returning player, haven't played too much since 2015, so I'd like all the help I could get!

Thanks.

Spartabunny08 · July 2018

I too have an unorthodox build for my NB. I really like to get away in PvP so I built him to take a lot of damage. I use fortified brass, night mothers embrace and bloodspawn monster set. 5 medium 2 light. When I hit my cloak I hit resistance cap. In PvP he has a 90+% chance of getting away. Mage light, detect pots, mark... He can take multiple ultimates pop his soul siphon big heal and gone. Love this build. The build here does rely heavily on champion points. I put a lot into buffing his physical resistance of medium armor. Of course in PvP you're going to need critical resistance around 3000 to take a few hits and live. You may want 2 heavy instead of the light for health and resistance until you get more CP. The light is very useful for reduced magicka cost of cloak and some magicka regen. Honestly I had a very rough time adapting to the Nightblade. I'm typically a tank or healer so I'm not great at making a damage dealer and also using it. I know how to make them do stupid damage but I can't live long enough to do that damage. So I leave that role to the ones who can do it well. My nightblade in PvE setup like this is unstoppable. PvP he has outperformed every expectation I've ever had. He still sits around 2700 weapon damage unbuffed but when a hybrid build is made your resources generally suffer a bit. Like my Stam and magick are around 20000 each. Same for health, in PvP you get like 5000 more so that helps. But with all my reductions and magick regen. I get around 8 to 10 cloaks, I can sneak at ridiculous speed and sneaking on this build is damn near free. Also a vampire is a must for sneaking with crazy speed. I'm a khajit on my NB and thoroughly enjoy it. Welcome back and hope you enjoy your build.

witchdoctor · July 2018

Sword and shield in PVE, if not tanking, is a huge loss of DPS.

If you are bent on doing it, do not use Puncture as it is a taunt.

Narvuntien · July 2018

If you are just doing dungeons you can be a higher dps tank without too much of an issue. Just don't get one shot and taunt and hold the boss.

Nb tanks have the option of being a sap/self healing tank that actually using skills and light attacks not perminately blocking, there are very few places in the game you have to perminately block (but as long as any exist people will keep building that way).

As for pvp i use quite a lot of magicka for my stamblade so i use tristat food and tristat enchantments on my large pieces. But i am otherwise stamina.

There are some hybrid werewolve builds but werewolves are getting overhauled next patch and it probably wont work anymore.

Nestor · July 2018

NBs you can sort of run as a hybrid. They a few skills that can be used as support or crowd control that are not totally dependent on Scaling Attribute. However your damage is going suffer in some cases.

I do miss my Pre 1.6 Hybrid NB. I also miss my DD SB DK. Good or bad, we had a lot different of different ways to play in the early days.

KingArturia · July 2018

I appreciate the replies but none really answer what I need to know.

Can someone help me figure out what set combinations would be best to use together for PvP, and for PvE?

Narvuntien · July 2018

In PVE if you are hybrid you are a tank because you'll suck if you are trying to do damage. Good nightblades, i.e not me, can do over 50K DPS as hybrid you'll do 25K.. enough to complete most content but half your potential.

In PVP for nightblades at least its stamscaling damage with magicka utility. Since nightblades don't have enough CC to be a good PVP tank. Or... Magicka with a 2h Sword for stamina utility.

For PVP the Shacklebreaker set is really good gives lots of magicka and stamina. You then want to pair it with a stamina or magicka set of your choice depending if you stam with mag ultilty or mag with stam ultility. There is a specific hybrid set Perinals that converts your Weapon damage in to Spell damage and Vice Versa.. but I have only ever seen it used on werewolves, and the spell damage scaling heal they have is going to be removed next patch.

You will need to use the Lover Mundus stone.

For PVE the Nightblade Sap take uses Bahara's curse and Bloodthorn/Livewire/Nocturnals Favor (It can be hard to find Bahara's curse in heavy). You are a tank so you have to try to hold the boss and control the trash a little but you have a bunch of sets that heal you when you get hit or hit so you only have to block the CC and otherwise you want to be using funnel health. There are some monster helm options, Lord warden gives you some toughness you otherwise lack and Scouge the harvester is another self heal. Quite good in dungeons and you basically do a lot of self healing.

Katahdin · July 2018

For regular questing and zones, you can run a hybrid build, probably even for most of the normal number 1 dungeons if you can get a group to not kick you.

For any kind of vet content, and harder normal dungeons, you will probably be kicked faster than you can load in.

Sorry I cant help you with build combos, I dont run a hybrid. Hybrids generally dont have the DPS for end game/difficult content because DPS is dependant upon max stats (ie max stam and max magicka) so going half stam, half magicka will reduce your DPS significantly. The only builds that I am aware of that split stam and magicka are DK tank builds because of the DK skills not having stam morphs for a few important skills. Not sure about Warden tanks but they may split too.

I agree with WitchDoctor, Sword and shield will be a huge DPS Loss because they are a tank set up.
I you dont want to tank, then dont use those.

Mr_Wolfe · July 2018

The sets you want to look at are Shacklebreaker, Mechanical Acuity, and Sload's Semblance. They're crafted hybrid sets that will boost your damage and resources with both physical and magic-based skills. You won't be as powerful as a non-hybrid build, but if you're determined to run hybrid this is the way to do it.

> Shacklebreaker is the best in terms of raw stats, giving you ~900 more max mag/stam and an extra mag/stam recovery bonus over the other two sets.

> Acuity sacrifices a bit of your max stats & sustain in exchange for a proc that makes ALL your attacks crit for 5 seconds. This can be NASTY on a build with lots of burst damage. (Like Nightblades.) The proc only triggers off of direct damage, but if you go for the typical nightblade dps approach of applying a bunch of DoTs and then weaving LA+Surprise Attack you should have pretty good uptime on this.

> Sload's loses the same amount of max stats & sustain vs Shacklebreaker, but instead of crit it gets an oblivion DoT proc that currently has all the PvP-ers screaming. Will probably be nerfed in the near future, but right now it's basically BiS for all PvP builds and not shabby in PvE. Keep in mind that oblivion damage bypasses both shields and resistances, which can help if your damage isn't so great and you don't have full penetration on the target already.

For a monster set, I'd recommend either a 2pc Molag Kena or 1pc Kena & 1pc Domihaus.

Molag Kena increases your weapon and spell damage, and gives an even bigger boost to your weapon and spell damage for 6 sec when you land two light attacks in a row. Only downside is it also increases the cost of all your abilities by 20% for the same duration. It's totally worth it if you can handle the increased ability cost.

The Domihaus 1pc gives you +1096 Max Stam & Magicka, so wearing 1 Kena and 1 Domi will give a bump to both your spell/weapon damage and max resources. It's a solid choice but 2pc Kena is probably better if you can sustain it.

For weapons, you could go with a lightning staff. It'd give you range, some nice DoTs, and the ability to proc concussion and off balance a bunch.

csparks1 · July 2018

Kristoff on YouTube has a lot of Hybrids builds, he loves them and he seems to make them work - he always shows clips of that build playing in Cyro - check out his page, I always do just to see what he has cooked up next!

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