malistorr wrote: »

Trying to land 5 light melee attacks is basically impossible in this game in PVP. Either the other player is too quick and you're lucky to land 2, or you're dead because the magplar will jab you to death within a few seconds. That is the reality of this game in no CP/proc. And yes I have a stamblade brawler with 32k health and BIS golded out gear with mostly nirnhoned traits and also using gaze of sithis. I'm about as tanky as a nightblade could possibly be without running a set like Pariah and gimping the nightblade's already low offensive potential even more. I'm also vamp level 3 and still die very quickly. Resists are not even 20k. Grim focus and it's morphs are basically a useless skill because of the near impossible requirement to even trigger it. Ask the enemy to stand still for about 5-seconds and maybe it will be useful, but in real life playing not at all. You also have to be within melee range to fire the spectral bow which means you're a sitting duck to jabs and 20 other abilities that will kill you faster than anything the nightblade can dish out. I don't care if it's mag or stamblade, the class sucks. If you are one of the handful of players that can be successful with it, congratulations. Your playing skill overcomes what is horrible class balance in PVP.

Hmm. I play in CP. I agree that Grim Focus useability sucks and Caluurion makes things easier outside of Ravenwatch. That said, good nightblades make Grim Focus work. I am using it nowadays and practicing getting better with it. In general I either burst people down far enough from stealth that I can stay on the attack (I don't have the power of a pure ganker in my builds) or, if not, I am always ready to disengage and regroup almost inmediately. Assassin's Will / Scourge eventually becomes ready. Never on the first pass, obviously. The key for me, as a squishy player, is to only stay on the attack when I have the upper hand from my initial attack. It is a mental adjustment coming from another class. I also think you either have to make the most of Shadow Image or you have to invest heavily into speed. You can drive a (single) templar nuts with Shadow Image alone, though, even in an open field. Not that you will kill him by playing chicken, but you shouldn't die. You never want to spend time directly in the line of fire of Jabs. Dodge rolling and speed helps a lot there. You don't get to mitigate the AOE damage that way, but you should always dance around other players to get better positioning on them, e.g. to get behind them.

I have not played brawlerblades. I've always gone for squishy, but high speed and high sustain cloaking nightblades. I do play in melee range a lot, though, even on my magblade. I wonder if the tanky approach is your issue. I know such builds exist, but how good are they? If you've ever duelled, no one builds tanky there. It's about pressure windows, who's got ultimate, who can put the other player on the defensive so much that the target can't attack you. This is also the modus operandi of good stamblades in open world. As a magblade I tend to detect them, before they do me, but as a light armor player I am the squishiest of the squishy. A stamblade typically has more damage and they are a bit tankier in medium and they know it. The good ones, even though damaged, go all in on counterattack, because they know they have a good chance of winning that way. This is the only way that I know how to play nightblade. Highly invested into damage and very aggressively. Personally I am actually much more balanced than that sounds, but my balance means totally squishy, just highly mobile and with high sustain. You can't have everything. Defense has to come from movement and damage avoidance. TBH, this being CP, I do wear Zoal. Excellent on nightblade. Plus having a 1H+S back bar and Shrewd Offering works wonders (now available to stamblade, this being the hybrid patch). I am a strong believer in 1H+S over being tanky. I extensively tried Gaze of Sithis - more in PvE than PvP - but when the going gets tough I instinctively block. Gaze of Sithis isn't all that.