Not to be rude, but if you have to be level 20 to kill a level 15 main story boss you are most likely not using the game mechanics to their fullest. Your build should be fine.

Instead of asking "What am I missing?", ask "What am I not doing?"

Are you blocking, interrupting, and dodging? Are you using the potions, food, and glyphs that you find? Are you repairing your armor and keeping it as close to your level as you can? Are you using both your stamina and magicka pools?

These are just few things to try. For more check out the guide in my signature.

Also, if this doesn't help, please tell us as best you can what a typical death scenario is like for you. How you start battle, how you mitigate damage, what enemy moves are the most deadly for you, etc.

That's probably my biggest problem. I tend to face tank too much. I tried kiting on one boss today and did much better. It's tougher keeping ahead of their attacks, though, as they don't really need to target you. I appreciate the insight, all. I was thinking it was either the build or my play style - finding it was the latter helps.

I have to admit, I miss having a pet to tank for me. Other games where I've played an ranger have had one, and this is causing me to have to rethink how I play.

mlecho74 wrote: »

That's probably my biggest problem. I tend to face tank too much. I tried kiting on one boss today and did much better. It's tougher keeping ahead of their attacks, though, as they don't really need to target you. I appreciate the insight, all. I was thinking it was either the build or my play style - finding it was the latter helps.

I have to admit, I miss having a pet to tank for me. Other games where I've played an ranger have had one, and this is causing me to have to rethink how I play.

Takes a big man/woman to admit they're the ones in the wrong, not the build. I commend you on that. You could go with a sorc pet build, but knowing the fights or picking up on the mechanics is going to be key regardless. For instance, u do Faolchu in DaggerFall Cov. quests, he's a werewolf that's harmed by fire (you learn this thru the long quest chain you've done leading up to the boss fight) So when you fight him in the castle, at points fire will fall from the ceiling onto the floor, and you need to lure him into it. Now, if you don't do this, defeating him becomes nearly impossible (or just ridiculously long, meticulous kiting, etc.) so learning boss mechanics may be a problem too. Even with pets, if you dont understand the boss's mechanics, you're going to struggle regardless.

Not to be an elitist, but this is not a game where you can stand still and just bobble through a DPS rotation like in other MMO's. You're going to have to move around a bit. Go on youtube and look up the Molag Bal final boss fight if you don't believe me. So you need to adapt to movement or you're pretty much doomed from the start.

Razzak wrote: »

I am definitely not the most experienced in NB but it looks like you are heavily built around your stamina. Are you having problems using your NB skills with only 5 points in magicka?
I have a NB at lvl 16 and even though I use dual skills a lot, I often find out that my magicka pool is more important and started focusing more on that part.

Same here. I have a bow-only NB and although I am using bow abilities, they're mostly interrupts or openers, so I invested much more points in Magicka and I normally have plenty of stamina left to use while my Magicka pool recovers.
And as many here said before: move. With mostly medium armour, bosses don't need that many direct hits to get you down, so make sure they don't hit you at all. If you can, you could try investing a point or two in cripple from the siphoning skill line or path of darkness from the shadow line. They increase your movement speed wich is awesome for kiting.

Razzak wrote: »

I am definitely not the most experienced in NB but it looks like you are heavily built around your stamina. Are you having problems using your NB skills with only 5 points in magicka?
I have a NB at lvl 16 and even though I use dual skills a lot, I often find out that my magicka pool is more important and started focusing more on that part.

Not really. I tend to primarily use the weapons skills. I use the NB skills for surprise attacks (invisibility and teleport strike), and then for strife. So far, that's been fine.

As a stamina NB, Flying blade made everything easier.
As long as it can be snared, it can be kited, no matter how big and bad it looks.
If it cant be snared im in troubles lol...

I have 5 magicka and 17 stamina at level 23.

Unless I'm mis-interpreting this, does this mean you haven't ever invested attribute points into health at all? That might be an easy way to up your survivability some --- give you more time to use the magicka and stamina you have.

I learned the hard way to invest in health and get my magic/stamina regen/points from the gear (low level content)

I would recommend that you try to recommit your attribute points to more health (personally I would put all there, but I am by far an expert).

Also Siphon health morphed to Swallow Soul (unless you aim at being in group and support heal, then the funnel health better) is a real charmer.

If you are on EU server, feel free to add me to friends list, I am a bit behind you with my Templar, but always happy to team up.

However, all in all, I am no expert and tend to use all my gold to respect