I would say StamBlade. They have great DPS.

UntilValhalla13 wrote: »

Stamblade has a bit less busy rotation than magblade and hits ridiculously hard. I'd recommend maybe Kvatch Gladiator or something else, as opposed to Night Mother's Gaze, since NMG basically does what surprise attack (a stamblade's main attack) does. If you don't have vigor yet, you're probably stuck with something like funnel health as a heal.

Gonna have to politely disagree. Kvatch Gladiator is trash, especially compared to Hundlings and NMG, especially when your execute skills push out way more damage than a heavy attack plus the Kvatch bonus when the target is under 25%.

I would head to Bangkorai and farm Spriggans, pair it with Hundlings and destroy all. That is pretty much the best stamblade combo before you get into dungeon/trials gear. Or, if you have access to Wrothgar, farm Briarheart. The third option that isn't run much anymore is Morag Tong and go a little heavier on the poison skills and glyphs. Or pony up some gold at a guild trader and buy them. All three can pair nicely with Hundlings.

I'm currently running a dark elf stamblade that started as a magblade. Both put out tons of DPS, even though the dark elf is not the "meta" stam race (I'm on PS4, don't have the racial changes yet). The difference is the magblade has a much more complex (dynamic) rotation and has great sustain. Stamblade is easier to play, has a static rotation, but lower sustain. You can boost the sustain with food like Dubious Camoran Throne, weapon glyphs, the Vicious Ophidian set, or a monster set like Stormfist.

EDIT: Forgot one thing. You should not worry about farming end-game or hard to obtain gear until you get to CP 160, i.e. trials/dungeon/monster gear. Everything prior to that is worthless once you hit CP 160.

Magicka is easier to level because it has better self-healing.

That said, as much fun as it is to play a stamblade thief, the healing morph of Cloak could help. And if you enjoy PvP, unlocking Vigor is a BIG help for stamblades. (So is Caltrops, but that's just for damage.)

Outside of that, don't forget food. Always use food. It's easy to get. If nothing else, it's so cheap and easy to make it's the one thing you can ask strangers for without embarrassment. I'll be glad to give you some if you're on PC/NA.

ghastley wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

<snip> Or, if you have access to Wrothgar, farm Briarheart. <snip>

My experience is that the jewelry just won't drop, because you need it. This option is only going to work if you have Summerset, and can craft the Jewelry (as part of the Hunding's, not the Briarheart). The pre-Summerset convention is to get dropped jewelry from Dolmens, and Briarheart doesn't come that way; you need to get it from chests, quests etc. The rings and necks can be bought from Guild Traders, but they know how hard they are to get, and price accordingly.

Its hard to get, you are correct, as there are not dolmens. Its all RNG and chests. Best bet is to run those daily quests and get either blue or purple jewelry. So you'd have the expense of improving it. You can buy the jewelry, but it is also expensive. But its a really, really good non-trials gear set for stamina builds. The balancing act is how much more can you squeeze out of it than from the Hundling's/Spriggans combo to make it worthwhile.

If the OP wants to run some dungeons, then I would say ignore Briarheart and go farm Leviathan. Not a hard dungeon, and a great stamina set. Its comparable to Briarheart in terms of the damage you can dish.

But again, all of this should be after the OP hits CP 160. No point until then