How viable is this kind of character set up?

mistformsquirrel · April 2014

Hi everyone! I was wondering if I could get a little advice on an alt I'm planning, as I'd rather not get to relatively high levels and then realize that I struggle at every little thing when I could have just asked and found out ahead of time.

I should note: I'm not much interested in Veteran levels or grouping - this is purely for solo questing 1-50.

Anyway, I'm trying to make a Master Swordswoman type character - someone fast on their feet and incredibly dangerous with their weapon, but not running around in big clunky armor.

In practice this amounts to a Wood Elf Nightblade in Medium Armor with a Two Handed Weapon and very little use of stealth.

I'm planning on my primary bar being:

Cleave, Reverse Slash, Critical Charge or Momentum (not sure which yet), Blur and Haste - Ultimate remains undecided.*

Secondary bar will likely be similar, except with Bow skills, to give me an option to keep my distance should the situation require.

I'm planning to pump Stamina and Health primarily.

Basically here's the trouble I'm running in to:

1) My other character has a self heal and heavy armor, being a Templar - how do I survive without that durability? I'm sure it's possible, I'm just not totally certain how.

2) Is that set of abilities going to work in practice? Or am I overlooking something significant?

3) On average, should I be keeping my Health and Stamina roughly even? Or should I emphasize one over the other?

Appreciate any help, thank you!

*I'm trying to avoid overt magic where I can. This game does not make that easy though; so for an ultimate I'm kind of at a loss.

Lazarus_Long · April 2014

You'll have a hard time at certain points if you don't use magicka at all, especially for self heals. My Dual-Wield NB swordmaster has one set of skills for magicka and another for stamina. When I deplete one I switch to the other while it regens.

Sorpaijen_ESO · April 2014

Some of the magicka burning skills LOOK like regular physical skills. The Assassination ultimate, I think it was, also looks relatively normal.

As for survivability, if you're not going to use the siphoning line, you might have to rely on more subtle means like smaller heal-over-time or shielding. I think there's a shield in a morph of Cleave, for example. Dual Wield has Blood Craze that heals over time, if you were to use that, e.g.

I was under the impression that even LIGHT armor could hit the soft armor cap in the high levels, so I would think Medium armor would suffice; you don't get the health regen benefits of Heavy armor, but there are stamina-boosting trade-offs. Medium armor really shines with stealth but if you're not going to use stealth much that can save you a few passive skill points, I suppose.

Food and potions are the only other things I can think to help mitigate/survive without drawing on magicka. Of course, one of the best ways to survive is to kill everything else FAST.

Tannakaobi · April 2014

For this type of build I would suggest you put all points into health and then get stamina and magic from the armor. This will give you a solid foundation for survivability. You can then tweak the rest to suit the play. Stamina regen is probably the priority, but may change as you play around. It would be worth looking at the guild/world skills.

Ultimate should be death stroke to be in line with your goals of sword play. 1-50 should be fine. May be worth having siphoning strikes - Leeching strikes to gain mana/stamina/health and make use of the catalyst passive.

Edit: With medium armor 5 light 2. Also why a Bosmer? I would have thought Nord for two handed or Kajiit for crit.

Lazarus_Long · April 2014

Sorpaijen_ESO wrote: »

...I would think Medium armor would suffice...Medium armor really shines with stealth...

Some of the medium armor passives add to your crit, stamina regen, and attack speed too.

nerevarine1138 · April 2014

Just to add on to what others have mentioned, you really need to figure out which magicka-using abilities don't look too magicky for you, because you'll seriously gimp your character without that. The game's combat system is balanced around you managing magicka and stamina in balance. And while it's possible to have only magicka-using abilities on your hotbar, it's much more difficult to have only stamina-using abilities, due to the need for blocking/dodging/interrupting in any given fight.

Thunder · April 2014

I'm not sure what the question is. It sounds like you think this idea sounds really fun, so go for it!

This is exactly what ESO is all about, coming up with an idea that sound fun and then just running with it.

FrauPerchta · April 2014

Go for it, you can always respec later. If you find you need a little more Magicka without putting points into then buy some Magicka glyphs at the Enchanter and enhance your armor. Is what I am doing with a new character of mine and it's working out good.

mistformsquirrel · April 2014

@Thunder - Well pretty much I'm worried about dying constantly. I don't mind being weaker than a top-of-the-line min-maxed character; but I don't want to struggle to a great degree with ordinary quests either. (That said you are right, that is pretty much why I'm playing this game hehe; few games give me this level of freedom.)

@Everyone else - Yeah, that's what I'm kind of afraid of. I do actually have two magicka using abilities on the bar (Haste and Blur); but I don't know that that balances things out since those are mostly just things you hit at the start of the fight and then go from there.

I wonder if just taking up alchemy and provisioning for this character could be enough though.

PBpsy · April 2014

My suggestion is to look at magicka close until it doesn't read magicka anymore but something like blue power stamina fluid. From what I remember from some lore books NightBlades do some completely different mumbo jumbo than the magic done by the Mages anyway.
Siphoning Attacks/Leaching Strikes may help you a lot and it shouldn't be disturbing since it is a toggle. Veild Strike/Surprise Attack is a just very cool sword slash and IMO the best attack a NB has at his disposition. Assassin's blade/Killers Blade is also a cool slash stab animation, probably the best finisher in the game and it heals you also.

Medium armor is great . I use the Active Skill/Elude in my main tab at VR4 and love it.