Surprise Attack VS Rapid Strikes in Nightblade

RammsteinRko · May 2020

Hello everyone!

I have been testing my main attack nightblade "Surprise Attack" and "Rapid Strikes" and have seen similar damage.
Maybe "Rapid Strikes" does more damage because it usually has more critics but that "Surprise Attack" reduces the defense also makes it interesting.

I wanted to know what your opinion is, and which one you like best.

A greeting.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO · May 2020

It depends based on what your build is if you’re DoT heavy the burst from SA is great if you’re burst heavy adding a dot/channel is best.

MudcrabAttack · May 2020

There was a time surprise attack felt pretty balanced with rapid strikes in pve. Now it seems like rapid strikes was buffed a bit and it adds gobs more DPS through additional axe bleeds alone.

Suppose surprise attack might have a place if you're the only stamblade in a twelve player team and want to add the tiny extra penetration on bosses to try to make up for the fact you brought your Stamblade to a raid.

nsmurfer · May 2020

People still use Stamblades in PvE?

ccfeeling · May 2020

Nerf stamNB until no one use

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO · May 2020

Oh snap I was speaking from a PvP point of view I have little knowledge of PvE dps

oXI_Viper_IXo · May 2020

Surprise Attack is better for PvP because of the stun/off balance from sneak/stealth.

MusCanus · May 2020

oXI_Viper_IXo wrote: »

Surprise Attack is was better for PvP because of the stun/off balance from sneak/stealth.

With HA into SA from cloak changes it'll become even shittier. Just another nerf to NBs, nothing to see here, move on.

oXI_Viper_IXo · May 2020

MusCanus wrote: »

oXI_Viper_IXo wrote: »

Surprise Attack is was better for PvP because of the stun/off balance from sneak/stealth.

With HA into SA from cloak changes it'll become even shittier. Just another nerf to NBs, nothing to see here, move on.

SA is still better for PvP. The high-mobility nature of most opponents means you're not going to land the full channel of Rapid Strikes often since it doesn't snare like jabs.

MusCanus · May 2020

"The high-mobility nature of most opponents" also means you're not going to land SA a lot of the times either, cause it's the only spammable in the game with a 5 m range. Every other spammable is at least 7 m.

oXI_Viper_IXo · May 2020

MusCanus wrote: »

"The high-mobility nature of most opponents" also means you're not going to land SA a lot of the times either, cause it's the only spammable in the game with a 5 m range. Every other spammable is at least 7 m.

I still find it more reliable than RS and the stun is very useful in PvP. 2H > DW also.

MusCanus · May 2020

oXI_Viper_IXo wrote: »

MusCanus wrote: »

"The high-mobility nature of most opponents" also means you're not going to land SA a lot of the times either, cause it's the only spammable in the game with a 5 m range. Every other spammable is at least 7 m.

I still find it more reliable than RS and the stun is very useful in PvP. 2H > DW also.

Dizzy > both

oXI_Viper_IXo · May 2020

MusCanus wrote: »

oXI_Viper_IXo wrote: »

MusCanus wrote: »

"The high-mobility nature of most opponents" also means you're not going to land SA a lot of the times either, cause it's the only spammable in the game with a 5 m range. Every other spammable is at least 7 m.

I still find it more reliable than RS and the stun is very useful in PvP. 2H > DW also.

Dizzy > both

Yes

OG_Kaveman · May 2020

MudcrabAttack wrote: »

There was a time surprise attack felt pretty balanced with rapid strikes in pve. Now it seems like rapid strikes was buffed a bit and it adds gobs more DPS through additional axe bleeds alone.

Suppose surprise attack might have a place if you're the only stamblade in a twelve player team and want to add the tiny extra penetration on bosses to try to make up for the fact you brought your Stamblade to a raid.

surprise attack procs the ax bleed as well, unless you are saying because flurry hits 5 times vs the one hit that SA does, it procs the ax bleed more, then you might be right.

Kolzki · May 2020

OG_Kaveman wrote: »

MudcrabAttack wrote: »

There was a time surprise attack felt pretty balanced with rapid strikes in pve. Now it seems like rapid strikes was buffed a bit and it adds gobs more DPS through additional axe bleeds alone.

Suppose surprise attack might have a place if you're the only stamblade in a twelve player team and want to add the tiny extra penetration on bosses to try to make up for the fact you brought your Stamblade to a raid.

surprise attack procs the ax bleed as well, unless you are saying because flurry hits 5 times vs the one hit that SA does, it procs the ax bleed more, then you might be right.

Exactly that. Rapid strikes hits harder and has 5 chances to proc things like bleeds and monster sets.

RammsteinRko · May 2020

I think that both have very good attacks, each one has their strengths and disadvantages.

In my opinion I would say that for PVE 'RS' is better and for PVP 'SA'

Deathlord92 · May 2020

I may try rapid strikes I have actually been thinking about it for a while I love trying new things this is from a pvp perspective. I keep hope nb has been in a terrible spot for a while it’s a very popular class and there’s lots of threads explaining nb problems and what can be done so zos has lots of good ideas to work with. 🙂

Ragnaroek93 · May 2020

It's sad to even consider a weapon spammable over a class spammable...

Chilly-McFreeze · May 2020

Ragnaroek93 wrote: »

It's sad to even consider a weapon spammable over a class spammable...

If the devs deliberately make weapon skills worse than class skills it would put classes without a full kit in a hard place. Class skills should be viable alternatives as spams, burst skills, etc. but they shouldn't be superior. But they shouldn't be inferior either.

Strider__Roshin · May 2020

Ragnaroek93 wrote: »

It's sad to even consider a weapon spammable over a class spammable...

Honestly the only reason I can see using SA is for the shadow barrier proc.