Nightblade - How to fight large groups of enemies?

Gromrosch · April 2014

I'm level 37 now and getting more and more frustrated with my choice of class. Groups of 3 or more enemies tend to rip me appart no matter what I try. The complete lack of any AOE skill seems to make quite some of the content unplayable for me (several of the 30+ solo dungoens feature large enemy groups....).

I played arround with different skill lines and armor types, having most success on a sword & board tank/dd hybrid. Still completely unplayable against more then 2 enemies (depending on the enmies, sometimes 3 are ok, but mostly not). I tried dual wield damage specs but the single target damage is so low that I can't burst out enemies fast enough, also getting ganked to death. Someone suggested to try destrucion staffs, yeah that doesn't work at all. The wall of elements AOE is just completely useless, it does absolutely no damage. Tried using a bow, yeah that's not working either when you don't have 500m of open field.

It simply seems the single target damage abilities of the NB are just too weak to compensate for not having any AOE abilities.

Is there any Nightblade build that allows me to actually play the games content or do I have to spend another 100+ hours rerolling to a viable class? It somehow really cuts into my fun seeing that any other of the classes charges past me wiping groups in seconds without taking as much as a dent in their lifebar (that's not random ranting...that's what happens all the time....while other Nightblades get their asses kicked same as me....).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have no problem completely changing my skillpoint or whatever to just be able to play the game. Thanks.

rager82b14_ESO · April 2014

I'm a magic base build. I pretty much do things like this.

See three mobs. Sneak up one conceal strike kill it. Go invis. Conceal strike stun 2 hand slash kill it. Go invis same. If things get toooo bad. I switch to healing staff regen up. Get mana back, and do it again. Pretty simple.

My bar looks like this.

Killers blade for the plus magic and finish them off low life.
Concealed weapon LOVE It. One shots things in stealth if not killers blade finishes it off.

Prolong suffering. This is a CC skill that can get one out of the fight. It also buffs my magic making other skills hit harder. (with passives.)

swallow soul. A ok nuke that gives you life regen. Plus ups your magic. Win/win.

Shadow Disguise bread and butter of your defense. Kill use it. Kill another use it. Stun kill.

Soul Tether for that AOE stun. Makes for a nice..man I'm lazy just die button.

seano509b14a_ESO · April 2014

I know what you are talking about and thats why I chose this build for me when I am wearing Heavy Armor with Dual Wield weapons.

Ambush III (Assassination Ability)
Swallow Soul III (Siphoning Ability) Great self heal
Rapid Strikes III (Dual Wield)
Blood Craze III (Dual Wield) Great self heal
*Whirlwind III (Dual Wield) only when fighting more than 1 mob if it is needed*
**Throw in some regular mouse attacks to not drain mana and stam pools**

I am pretty much my self owned tank with very good dps and can easily take 3 or 4 mobs and I am at level 36 atm.

Syntse · April 2014

My char in beta was NB DW and noticed the same that it was pretty bad against group of enemies. I would assume different kinds of stun/knockback/snare skills would really come into play to handle groups with NB DW.

Tiyamel · April 2014

I'm NB, i use invis a lot and a bow skill that does a knockback + stun effect, it is possible to control groups of mobs, not easy i admit but possible, sneak in go full mental on 1st mob while popping my bow move (Scattershot, until i get to morph it to Magnum shot) on other mobs to push back and hold them in place while dpsing the 1st 1 down, then invis and round 2 starts, keep a couple of potions handy, i like the challenge to be honest

Zerl · April 2014

I'm not even level 30 yet, so I can't really comment on the solo dungeons there.

Sure the NB has little in the way of AOEs (if you want them, then you're going to have to seek a weapon that has decent AOE), it really is more focused on single target DPS.

The way I see it, is that you have to concentrate on a target until it is dead. Just slashing hopelessly in a group of mobs is going to send you to the nearest wayshrine.

I prefer my DW for fighting (although I need to level my bow a little more), and I tend to position myself for a good ambush that leaves target #1 pretty much dead and with 1-2 light attacks they are down (when fighting mobs around my level).

for target 2 I use shadowy disguise and then surprise attack and then they are usually low on health (or a few light attacks away). Get them to 25% health and finish them with killer's blade for a little health boost. Repeat for Target #3.

As I use heated blades, I tend to use that on the melee whilst I push to nuke the clothies as fast as possible.

The above has worked out for me thus far.

rager82b14_ESO · April 2014

Hm, so far I have felt no need to go tanky myself. With invis stuns and good use of skills. I find it pretty easy to kill things super fast. My caster friend rerolled a NB because of how fast I kill stuff.

I wish you good luck!

RastSekyd · April 2014

I go with Drain Power, Mass Hysteria(one of Aspect of Terror's morphs), Shadowy Disguise, Veiled Strike and Siphoning Strikes(with the +health morph).

I generally run in and Drain Power for the damage boost, then disguise and Veiled Strike one, followed by Mass Hysteria. Because of Veiled Strike's stun, my target can't flee and I get a few seconds to kill him while the others are afraid. Siphoning Strikes restores my life/magicka/stamina, so by the time the enemies are done fleeing I'm ready to invis/veiled strike again. I also restore my ult on hit thanks to the Siphon tree's Transfer passive, which works with Siphoning Strike. I tend to spam my ult a lot because of that.

I'm actually very squishy though - Using Siphon/Shadow skills, I have to rely on stealth and CC with burst damage and DoTs to take out groups. This feels right at home though, and exactly what I'd expect from those trees.

Jeddahwe · April 2014

Hope this helps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNNHk-MaBYs

rager82b14_ESO · April 2014

Ya i love how squishy I am. Killing a group is very exciting and sneaking around some things makes me hold my breath. I love this class. Glad I went heavy magic focus.

Phranq · April 2014

I think the best way to defeat large groups of enemies is to bring friends... this is a multiplayer game... lol

rager82b14_ESO · April 2014

Phranq wrote: »

I think the best way to defeat large groups of enemies is to bring friends... this is a multiplayer game... lol

Hm? It is? Other people are there for me to make a profit off of. Thats all I need them for.

Gromrosch · April 2014

Thanks for the many inputs so far. I will try out the things mentioned, some sound very interesting.

rager82b14_ESO · April 2014

Let us know how it goes!

jesterstear · April 2014

I might be jumping in a bit early, being only level 16, but my hybrid healer/tank Templar (sword and board, skill tree) also struggles against 3.

I can block and interrupt, but I can't stop all three of them doing what they are going to do and avoid getting flanked and heal myself and use pots to recover mana. A single enemy doesn't touch me but as you add enemies the damage goes up exponentially because they chain special attacks on you - one knocks you down/stuns/roots you, which enables another to use his and so on.

My dps is low, melee and single target. I've only got my sword and board skills and they use stamina faster than they bring an opponent down, bursting isn't an option I need to save my stamina for blocking over what is going to be a long fight.

I can win against 3, if it's 3 melee mobs with no casters or archers i'll school them, but it's risky. It is generally better to sneak past or get some backup. Even when I win, the potions I use to get through such a fight will cost more than the loot I get, and the 10% of the time that such a fight kills you puts you even more in the red.

Cloakofwinter · April 2014

I think the intention, while not stated explicitly, was to have fewer solo players in this game. I have a templar bow/healing spec that has been pretty easy to solo up to level 10, but I imagine many characters are easy up to level 10. My NB is pretty standard - assassin/DW and has not had a problem with early content, but that's only because taking out a single mob was really easy because of all the single-target damage. I fought off a group of four the other day, but it was close. Potions were used to keep me alive. But I feel like the NB was intended to be a damage dealer IF there are other people in the group to occupy the mobs while they are being decimated by the single-target NB running around.