what are you wearing?

any builds in particular you're dying to?

how are you dying?

what is your attack rotation?

rally, stampede, spam surprise attack, spam executioner...if that don't work reset

if you're mostly in battlegrounds: rally, shadowy disguise, snipe, poison injection, spam snipe and work some light attacks in...

both dawnbreaker of smithing and toxic barrage are excellent for finishing folks off...

what potions are you using?

A good place to start would be to make sure you're using the superior morphs of your abilities. Shadow image is so miles better than dark shade for PvP. Same with echoing vigor, I have no idea why you would not want burst healing, especially on stamblade where healing is super bad to begin with. And I would not think it wise to switch your well fitted to all impen, that would be your answer as to why you cannot sustain rolling. Most people you run into are not running crit builds so all that extra impen might go to waste unless you're fighting another stamblade or an acuity build.

You should also always have major resolve up, because of the nightblade shadow barrier passive, it will proc on 3 almost essential abilities I would argue, which is cloak, shade, and surprise attack.

Um, learned from other posts I could use Unleashed Terror with Maelstrom 2H, that's additional 2k dps for bleeding and 40% more than what I do now, at the cost of 3k health, 4k armor 5k pen.

Is that why some people hate proc sets in PvP? But I'm out of ideas

Mariusghost84 wrote: »

You by any chance playing on PC eu? I could give you some specific pointers in-game and show you my take on nb, which i main in pvp.

Yep I always play on EU for the ping.

hey moo, yeah, heartland may not be ideal, but, I don't think the issue is your gear, food or potions...

it seems though like you may need to "sell out" more in your build choices towards building for burst and execution...

figure out how to stay alive while being a little squishy...basically you'll have to dodge roll around like a madman...reset with cloak (not as easy with a stamblade) if necessary...

other than that, you may just need to duel outside of pvp areas - or, when you are in battlegrounds, focus specifically on your rotations and fighting style (how you position yourself while fighting)...

if you just want a sexy kill to death ratio in battlegrounds - practice picking your fights better, and use ranged attacks...buff your bow...

honestly, probably the best place for just "practice" fighting is in cyrodiil, usually around the outposts...

sounds weird, but, try to slow your fights down...be as deliberate as possible...

if all that don't do it - there's always snipe spam

geonsocal wrote: »

sounds weird, but, try to slow your fights down...be as deliberate as possible...

Do you mean to stay clam like in PvE? I found that extremely difficult to manage but yeah that'd make a lot of sense as I can't keep any rotation in fight and my buffs only last 10s.

I got the proc sets after straight 20 dungeon runs and now trying a new build:

- unleashed terror, pariah, 5 med 2 heavy, maelstrom 2h mace sharpened, powered bow
- front bar for attack: silver shards and stampedes as spammable, relentless focus for crit dmg only, brawler for shield
- back bar for buffs: revolving vigor for burst heal, mirage and dark cloak for protection

No defense backbar, buffs look nice on paper but then I ran out of magicka... Without Gaze helm, vigor seems really weak in PvP. I'll experiment with brawler instead since as HP goes up the pariah resist also goes down.

Offense seems to have improved a lot. Despite the stats, DoT from unleashed terror and maelstrom seem to provide over 50% improvement. I guess it's because bleeding ignores resistance? had a few near death encounters today where enemies ended up dead first by themselves.

haven't picked ultimate since the stamblade character was created. Should I use kill or survival ultimate? The commonly used Incapacitating Strike doesn't look worthy losing my health regen kept by strategic reserve, especially now I can't wear Gaze...

moo_2021 wrote: »

Shadow image doesn't follow me if I keep moving. Is it for survival / teleport away?

I keep Echoing Vigor to heal group for PvE where healers are often fake and in need of healing themselves. All right it's really a bad choice...

---

Regarding combo attack, let's assume surprise attack wouldn't hit, are other other options? The problem remains that I have to spam gap closer in BG to have any chance of hitting...

Shadow Image won't follow you, but you wouldn't want it to because its a marker to teleport to when you're in a sticky situation and need to get out of there. You will soon realize through use that nightblade can getaway and survive certain encounters that other classes can't because of how good nightblade is at getting out of trouble.

So the vigor morph is for PvE, much more clear to me. I would advise keeping your toons dedicated to one area of play and not mixing them, it gets tedious having to change the cp and morphs of abilities because they differ from PvE to PvP.

Regarding your trouble landing hits, don't fret, it is a common frustration and you will struggle to hit people all the time no matter your experience level. But you can learn how to hit more often, its all player reaction. Nightblade burst is super predictable and easy to dodge but at the same time hurts a lot, so people instinctively roll a lot against nightblades so its normal that you're not hitting a lot of your attacks. If you're lining up a burst, which effectively should be incap into relentless into execute, most everyone will instinctively dodge after an incap so wait til the end of their roll to hit them with your relentless proc and you will have a much higher success rate at actually hitting them.

Didn't really like Sithis when I tried it. The set made me realise how much I actually block even on a 2h/bow nb. Using Death Dealers ring feels better for me tbh.

First things first: Use the right morphs. You're using the wrong morph of Vigor and Shadow Image, use Shuffle instead of Mirage and drop Volley (people will just run out of it). Go for more sustain than 2k especially if you are new to the class, it makes the game much easier. You can reduce your recovery later on when you improve (wouldn't drop below unbuffed 2k on Nb tho).

Spamming your gapcloser is indeed bad, it even makes you vulnerable because you can't block while using a gapcloser. I already have so much mobility with med armor and a bow backbar that I don't need a gapcloser so I use something else there. Your burst combo is Relentless into Incap into execute but the combo is easily avoidable so it won't hit most of the time (against good players). So keep your defensives and buffs up, use Surprise Attack and either try to get his hp low enough so that a single Incap into execute or Relentless into execute is enough to kill him or abuse mistakes from your opponent like start bursting when he goes too aggressive and his buffs run out.

Build wise I'd either play a tanky build or a glass cannon. If you already have Pariah you could go for 1 body piece (chest piece) Pariah, bow and 2h Pariah and 2 jewelry Pariah, 5x Titanborn and either a mythic with 1 monster set (like death dealers ring for example) or Balorgh. Would go 5 med, 1 light, 1 heavy because of the passive. Also go vamp stage 3 for that broken mitigation passive.

The other version revolves around stacking dmg and avoid getting hit which results in much more burst but it's also weaker in duels and more vulnerable to counters. For example use one set only on frontbar like New Moon, one set only on backbar like Clever Alchemist, one mythic item and a 2p set like Balorgh. Or use one set double bar, one set frontbar, one mythic + 1p monster or 2p monster set, master bow back bar.

Cp wise I'd go with direct dmg, single target dmg, crit dmg and crit dmg from flanking because Nb is a burst class which has really weak pressure so you kinda rely on reaching certain burst tresholds in order to kill people.

Skill wise your bars should look like: Execute, Relentless, Surprise Attack, Siphoning Strikes or Camo Hunter (depends on which potions you use, with crit pots you go siphonings otherwise Camo Hunter), Rally, Incap.
On backbar: Mark Target or Poison Injection (Would only go PI if you really want to use a master bow because the skill on it's own isn't that great), Shadow Image, Shuffle, Cloak, Vigor and a defensive ult like temporal guard or barrier, ww ult, soul siphon if you don't have the psijic skill line.

Dodging comes with a lot of practise and you also need to know the skills of your opponents. For example when you fight a sorc and see a frag proc you should pay attention and try to dodge a frag. When the sorc has a frag proc up and curse is about to run out you can also preemptively dodge. After getting stunned (especially from Nbs) it's usually also a good idea to instantly dodge after breaking free.
Regarding CC there isn't much of a counter other than breaking free tbh. Use a keybind for break free (you can use mouse wheel for that if you're really tryhard ).

Tbh, just fix your build issues, use proper skills and practise and learn what the skills of other classes can do. Stamnb is overall a difficult class compared to other classes (overall ESO isn't that difficult, it's a mmo after all tbh) because Surprise Attack has a poor range, you don't have a class snare, lots of counters and weak match ups (like dk or necro), you are squishy and therefore won't get away with doing many mistakes like a tanky class and you don't have a counter to dodgeroll, healing and blocking which makes it harder to kill experienced players. However you can escape from almost everything (also zergs) and pick up the fights which you want to take. So don't get discouraged by that.

yep, best way to improve your stamblade is to play a stam warden or stam necro

moo_2021 wrote: »

regarding vampire, wouldn't it increase problem with sustain? is there any method to cancel that effect? as a stamina class it looks like I can't benefit from most of the active abilities.

It does increase the cost of your normal abilities by a hefty amount, I mean 8% is nothing to scoff at in my opinion. However if you are experienced with sustain and have a high regen amount you will be just fine. The undeath passive and strike from the shadows really helps. However I should note that undeath only really helps if you have a high health pool as its effectiveness scales directly off your max health. If you have 20k health, the effects of the passive are going to be hardly noticeable, by the time you reach the highest mitigation that the passive offers, you're going to die to an execute regardless.

nightblades aren't that easy to play...my stamblade is a vamp, you have to pvp at stage 3...strike from the shadow combined with rally, cloak then either surprise attack or lethal arrow can really put pressure on folks...

stam warden is the easiest strong build to play, stamina necromancer is even stronger, but has a lot more going on with it's build and rotations...

dunmer or nord isn't too bad for a necro...khajit or redguard should make for an okay stam warden...

as a suggestion - it's really hard to put together a build and rotation while you're pvping, things are just happening really quickly...maybe try to focus on public dungeons or even soloing dolmens to practice on your build and settle on a comfortable rotation for yourself...

go hang out in bangkorai when they reach level 50 (not sure if you've already reached cp 160), spriggans and 7th legion are both okay stam warden sets...you'll need some skyshards/skill points anyways, bangkorai will be a good zone to clear when you hit level 50...

oh yeah, the bear is mostly not a pvp thing...I use it for doing dailies and dungeons...like many others, I've tried to make it work in pvp - damn thing just has a mind of it's own too much for that environment...and, ultimates are too important to waste in pvp...

moo_2021 wrote: »

geonsocal wrote: »

yep, best way to improve your stamblade is to play a stam warden or stam necro

Okay realized I suck because I'm far from being good enough to play the stealth or dodging type. Better to start a new character that's easier to manage, while reusing all my current sets:

- Warden has active major resolve, bear, shimmering shield and stamina regen, auto effect removal, delayed attack for burst

Ditch the bear. It's worthless.

In PVP with Stamden I recommend Dawnbreaker of Smiting on offensive bar as it you AOE CC + direct damage + DoT. I run Spell Wall on backbar for defense and running away under heavy fire.

moo_2021 wrote: »

I just leveled warden to 50 with tons of xp scrolls.

From the first fight:

on the offensive side, main spammable is weaker, but sub assault does more damage and seems unavoidable when I charge at the same time, plus the dive for ranged and two bleeding procs provide continuous pressure during gaps. I saw enemies ran out of resource healing and started running in circle to no avail.

If you leveled too fast, you won't learn the rotations.

I recommend leveling with BGs, it will give you time to practice, especially with movement and aiming.

For Stamden 2H is recommended, and you use Dizzying Swing as your spammable, not the Warden ranged attacks. DS hits much harder and sets you up to Execute / Reverse Slice with Subterranean Assault.

taugrim wrote: »

Ditch the bear. It's worthless.

In PVP with Stamden I recommend Dawnbreaker of Smiting on offensive bar as it you AOE CC + direct damage + DoT. I run Spell Wall on backbar for defense and running away under heavy fire.

If you leveled too fast, you won't learn the rotations.

I recommend leveling with BGs, it will give you time to practice, especially with movement and aiming.

For Stamden 2H is recommended, and you use Dizzying Swing as your spammable, not the Warden ranged attacks. DS hits much harder and sets you up to Execute / Reverse Slice with Subterranean Assault.

I know it hits much harder but is there a range? How do I time the 0.8 delay?

The main reason I resort to charge in PvP especially BG is because I can hardly hit fast moving targets, and charge has very high chance despite of my poor aiming and range. Together with sub-assault I could easily do a 3k+6k combo on those with proper heavy armor even in times of chaos.

Annnnnnnd the bear is not only useless it blocked my line of sight today and prevented my charge several times, probably because it's too big and my character is very short

Don't have Dawnbreaker on the new warden, but thanks for the idea! I suppose other ultimate from warden lines are not useful in PvP?