Build advice needed

IsharaMeradin · October 2018

I have a Nord Nightblade that I want to use with sword and shield. But while I started off without any deaths on nMA I got stopped on the final round of the ice level. Not enough DPS to kill off the boss before the last platform was destroyed.

I'm looking for some suggestions on how I can hybridize this character so that I can clear nMA (at the very least). I'm open to using a different weapon on one of the bars, tho it most likely would need to be leveled. Two handed might already be at 50. I recall having played around with 2h on one bar before. I'm also not opposed to sacrificing my current crafting points so that I can have points in all the skills necessary so that I can swap weapons & skills between stages of nMA as needed. CP suggestions would be helpful too.

Current gear:
4 piece Clever Alchemist (head / shoulders + weapons on both bars)
5 piece Willows Path (all other armor pieces)
3 piece Warrior Poet (jewelry)
All armor is heavy (light & medium were already at 50 saw no point in using them any longer).
Swords are Sharpened with Oblivion damage.

Stats: all points in Stamina

Food: Bergama Warning Fire

Current skills:
Bar 1
Absorb Magic, Mirage, Leeching Strikes, Refreshing Path, Shielded Assault, Incapacitating Strike (Ult)
Bar 2
Funnel Health, Reverberating Bash, Ransack, Heroic Slash, Shadow Image, Soul Siphon (Ult)

FYI - I do not do PVP so those skills are out. I do not have Summerset so those skills are out as well. And I'd prefer to not grind for gear if I can help it (an overland set would be an acceptable grind).

Turelus · October 2018

I think the main issue is that your characters build is very tank/hybrid based which isn't giving you strong damage numbers.

Generally to get better damage by stacking one resource (Stamina or Magicka) and using skills tied to that. This is because the maxium attribute values increase the damage of skills of that type, as well as it being easier to stack one type of damage out of spell or weapon damage.

Heavy armour is normally used for tanking in group content, this is why it's mostly focused on defence. If you want to deal more damage with physical attacks you should consider switching to medium, or light for magic attacks.
If you want to have the look of heavy armour but increase your damage you can cheat and use medium armour, but use the costume system to apply heavy armour looks over the top.

Generally the best option for stamina/physical damage is 5x medium, 1x heavy (chest), 1x light (belt/hands/shoulders) however this is on the expectation you have the Undaunted Guild passive skill which gives better recovery and max attributes from wearing multiple armour types. If you don't have that passive use all medium.

Some better sets which might help your damage are as follows.
https://eso-sets.com/set/hundings-rage (stamina/damage - crafted)
https://eso-sets.com/set/knight-errants-mail (stamina/one handed - dungeons)

Skills wise you're better focusing on ones which use stamina/physical damage to synergy with your physical based weapons. The Nightblade has Surprise Attack in the a https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Veiled_Strike which is a good stamina spamming skill.

The downside of stamina/physical damage type builds is that they have very limited access to strong healing, with the best one (Vigor) coming through the PvP Alliance War line only. It's not too hard to earn, you can just join some battlegrounds for a couple of evenings or go to Cyrodiil and join a PUG for some AP gains.