Ways to gear a bowblade and stam recovery?

Nacario · January 2022

As a rookie player wanting to slowly buy/craft gear for bowblade (w 2h), what 2 x 5 set pieces do you recommend? Ideally something also is a bit durable (though the alliance heal skill is plentyful). Currently running swamp raider and new moon acolyte, and my main aim is pvp cyro/bg.

I also find it hard to keep my stam up after short fights with an enemy, what stam recovery should i am at, currently i got 800. What ways r most efficient to get that up, was looking at mondus stone but then ill lose like 4300 pen from the lover.

Any set tips or insight is greatly appreciated

divnyi · January 2022

Backbar darloc brae.

rbfrgsp · January 2022

You've plenty of options for PvP sustain.
Spriggans increases your stam pool.
Run siphoning strikes.
Slippery CP star.
Well fitted on small armour pieces.
Ditch NMA, it's 5% cost increase is hard to justify in open world PvP.
Balorgh is still your go to monster set for burst damage.

OBJnoob · January 2022

Your sustain is really really low. I’d say most people want it around 1800. The exact number varies from person to person and character to character but, especially if you’re new, you want AT LEAST double what you currently have. Easiest way to alter this is with mundus or jewelry enchants. Or food/drink of course.

You’re wearing two BIG damage 5 piece sets of armor so I don’t think you’ll be in jeopardy of losing your killing power.

divnyi · January 2022

rbfrgsp wrote: »

Balorgh is still your go to monster set for burst damage.

Not for bowblade, no. No ult with immediate damage like incap/tether at range.
Molag Kena is better.

rbfrgsp · January 2022

divnyi wrote: »

rbfrgsp wrote: »

Balorgh is still your go to monster set for burst damage.

Not for bowblade, no. No ult with immediate damage like incap/tether at range.
Molag Kena is better.

The cost increase of molag kena was something I was deliberately avoiding as OP struggles with sustain. So, without that as an option, Balorgh still works nicely with your ballista morph assuming the bowblade takes the bow ulti.

As OP is also going 2H, he may well run Incap for the passives and temporary damage buff so Balorgh is optimal there for the low ulti cost of Incap giving more Balorgh uptime.

Just my thoughts. But if I was struggling for sustain, my first two steps would be to ditch kena and new moon and go from there.

OBJnoob · January 2022

I agree that Kena and new moon are hurting OPs sustain but think once he gets his stam recovery to 1600 or 2000 he might be able to go back to one but perhaps not both.

Kinda disagree with the concept that balorghs with a cheap ulti has a “higher uptime.” Not that it doesn’t have a higher uptime… but it has a super low value. I think it’s better to combine with a very expensive ulti. Or just wait longer.

EmperorIl · January 2022

Nacario wrote: »

As a rookie player wanting to slowly buy/craft gear for bowblade (w 2h), what 2 x 5 set pieces do you recommend? Ideally something also is a bit durable (though the alliance heal skill is plentyful). Currently running swamp raider and new moon acolyte, and my main aim is pvp cyro/bg.

I also find it hard to keep my stam up after short fights with an enemy, what stam recovery should i am at, currently i got 800. What ways r most efficient to get that up, was looking at mondus stone but then ill lose like 4300 pen from the lover.

Any set tips or insight is greatly appreciated

What style of play are you trying to do? Imo NMA is a gank set because you are already setting yourself back on sustain with extra cost. If you are trying to be a bow ganker you shouldn't be worried about sustain. Just know in this meta bow ganking can be really tough, because so many people are running tanky builds right now. Probably why you're running out of stam. If you're more of a skrimisher you def need some sustain, 800 is not going to cut it.

EmperorIl · January 2022

divnyi wrote: »

Backbar darloc brae.

My go-to set for any stealth-based NB build.

malistorr · January 2022

Please let us know if you're talking no-CP Cyrodiil or CP. That makes a BIG difference in what gear most people would recommend you as you can't use about 70% of gear in no-CP and you don't have any sustain buffs from CP either. So sustain is more of an issue in no-CP.

I agree with the commenter(s) above that says sustain isn't really used for a ganker build, and also that ganking is difficult right now as many people have 50ish% damage mitigation.

So my suggestion is to decide what you want to be/do. Do you want a pure ganker? If so you build for really 100% damage with as much pen and max stamina and/or weapon damage as possible. You'll be a glass cannon as you won't even be adding speed. If you don't kill the target quickly you're dead 99% of the time.

Almost everyone is not going for that these days. Many of the best players are going for at least 1 defensive set and 1,500+ sustain of their primary resource because you need sustain for running and for any long fights or even attacking keeps/resources. And they're looking for ways to have quick burst like Balorgh as previously mentioned.

I can't imagine playing a ganker at least in no-CP at the moment because you'll mostly be away from the action and not involved. If just about any decent player sees you, you're probably dead within a few seconds. If your gank doesn't work you are a sitting duck in a lot of cases or you have to build for speed and some sustain to cloak/hide/run away. Doing so will remove resources from the potential power of your gank making it even weaker. It's why NB gankers went from plentiful to almost extinct (at least in no-CP now) over the past year or 2. Maybe they're more popular/common in CP but I don't play that.

Ways to get sustain:
1. Serpent Mundus (or mag equiv.) and even divines armor traits (ganker wouldn't do)
2. Artaeum Takeaway Broth food (very expensive) or other stam recovery food or drink
3. Jewelry enchant combined possibly with infused trait - or even cost reduction enchant instead of stam recovery (again ganker probably wouldn't use this, would use weapon damage (with infused) or something like bloodthirsty instead)
4. Gear with recovery buffs (Takes away from possible gank strength)
5. CP probably has some recovery-related options but I play no-CP

divnyi · January 2022

Ppl who tell that sustain doesn't matter for bow build don't really understand how bowblade operate.

Key disadvantage of being bowblade over melee gankblade is inability to push for the burst numbers melee build is capable of - heavy attack incap with caluurions + whirl is tonns higher than whatever bow can do.

Key advantage of being bowblade is that you aren't exposed in melee range. With proper positioning and lots of movement speed (Ring of the Wind Hunt, steed mundus) you can do lots of attempts without getting catched. I'd say at least 20:1 ratio. Way more if you'r gud.

And to do this many attempts, you need sustain. Otherwise you can't keep up with "many" part. And not just stamregen sustain, you don't regen stam when you crouch, and you can't permacloak in stamblade. So if you don't go for darloc brae, meditate is a MUST. And that seriously limits your movement capabilities. Darloc also provides insane magica capacity, to the point where you can permacloak and set up fear traps to further bolster escape capabilities. Darloc is BiS.

Now then, about Molag Kena. It is the set that is very EZ to trigger - you do it with 2h from backbar, LAs don't need to hit anything. Provides insane damage bonus with just those 2 pieces. 8% more cost yes, along with 5% from vamp. But if you use Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice you just need to pop a pot and stand in a place for 4-6 sec and you'll have full bar back.

I don't mention offensive frontbar set because it's more or less irrelevant. Your main WD boost lies in vamp passive, kena, jewels, stamina pools, and if you really need, simmering frenzy gives another ~1.5k WD. Probably percentage boost sets would work best, and that would be pen sets. Titanborn if you simmering a lot. I use vicious death because I don't really care.

Nacario · January 2022

Thank you so much for all valuable insight!

My style is probl leaning more towards gank, and i accept that it will have its toll on sustain. So far ive mainly done BGs n found myself quite effective in taking out "busy targets" fast, even unsuspecting ones, my only real enemy is those who dodge roll cuz they c dmg inc. Other than that im able to (re)position myself out of harms way with shadow stealth and stealth from v4 sprint. Tips for cc openers as lethal dont stun?

While stamina sustain is a nightmare (also havent lvled up alchemy), meditate sure helps alot while i LoS, but not for too long as i dont want my mates to fight alone.

I guess i can swap out the new moon acolyte with stygian? They seem similiar, and ill lose that 5% ability cost. Maybe ill use some more stam regen food, use incap for reave 100 stam auto, n perhaps get stam regen on some jewelry and swap out posion ench on wep with the stam regen one?
Was hoping not to swap out my mondus stone as it gives hefty pen, but mayb i have to to reach close to 2k stam regen.

My gear is all divines cuz i use it for pve too (yes im a filthy casual..). Atm got 260cp.

Ive yet to get wild hunt and havent looked into any 2p head+shoulder setup, nor do i have the vate 2h (can i solo this content?). I also see caluurion being popular but will take a while till i can do the vet dung for this gold gear.

EmperorIl · January 2022

divnyi wrote: »

Ppl who tell that sustain doesn't matter for bow build don't really understand how bowblade operate.

And you obviously either did not read or you misunderstand those posts, we were talking bow GANK builds, not bow builds in general. Now if your definition of ganking differs we can discuss that, but there is no way you could have read my post and come to the conclusion I do not understand bowblade lol. My rank 41 NB has always been a bowblade, nothing else, I also have a rank 20ish brawler NB. I know the difference.

My definition of ganking is being able to get a quick kill and escape, setting up for another, 99% of the time solo and likely in enemy backlines.. You maximize offensive power, glass cannon all the way. Most gankers use two offensive sets. I see a skirmisher as someone who is going to attack, re-position, attack, re-position constantly. This is what you are describing. Skirmisher is similar to a brawler but with a bow and relying on cloak, and def requires sustain (mag and stam which is why DB is so good). This does not mean a skirmisher cannot gank, youll just end up failing more often but youll escape just without a kill if the target was tankier than expected.

divnyi · January 2022

EmperorIl wrote: »

This is what you are describing. Skirmisher is similar to a brawler but with a bow and relying on cloak

Brawler archetype is having tonns of toughness and just some damage to be able to do kills. This is very far from that. Having sustain set doesn't mean you are tough, and doesn't mean you are not doing ganks. It is still assassin archetype for all what matters.

You can roll 2 offensive sets and can even be effective with that, but I'd say it is fringe difference. You don't even have guaranteed combos in bow. Bow doesn't stun. Bow relies on enemy not reacting on second snipe in snipe-snipe+shards gank combo. Betting it all on single attempt is just not wise.