Yea, I'm finding it more frustrating than anything else atm. I've been /playdead for the last hour, after I spent 15k to respect everything again... and I have no idea what to train now lol

Well i could give you my build, running vet content with near eyes closed, but that wont be much fun i guess heh.
To be fair, its my second NB, learned from first how not to do it.

I am at the same level as you and can't say I have the same problem as you are experiencing. I am specialized using bow and on second bar dual wield.
The only problem I'm experiencing is when fighting off 3-4 mob packs where 2 of them are ranged casters, I'm not able to kite them then.

Maybe you could link us your build that you are using and we can take it further from there?
http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#z9Mz9s8

I don't think NB was meant to fight 3-4 packs, maybe 2-3 but not 4 to more. Also you need a good combination of skills and potions if you want to survive that amount of mobs. I'm not saying that it is not possible, but it's not easy either.

NB doesn't have any kind of strong Aoe damage, so they rely on self healing and skills. They have to kill mobs 1 by 1 so it's a challenge, but it's possible.

When a melee NB tries to solo groups of 3-4 in he should use his ability to kill the caster/healer in before the fight even starts. Having Shadowy disguise +surprise attack on at least one bar works nicely. I really do not get why anyone would pick the class unless they want to use stealth at least in some situation . Siphoning attacks is also great for keeping you alive a bit longer. If you use mainly class skills you have unused stamina so you can get some more survivability skills. Armor skills like Evasion and Immovable are great to give you an edge in 3-4 fights ,I like to use Ring of preservation since it caps my health regen and is great in groups.

One more thing, groups of +4 are very rare outside of public group dungeons and you should probably try to group there anyway. You can also stealth away trough parts of them but you wont get everything solo.

I'll share one tactic that works well for me for packs of mobs (3-4) for melee Nightblade (I'm primary melee, secondary bow), I use Dual Wield Sword (MH) and Dagger (OH) and full medium armor (currently VR3).

Point 1: Stealth is a must , if you try to face tank a group of more than 2 mobs you're going to get annihilated more often than not.
Point 2: Pick your kill order before going in, I always select casters first and then look for melee carrying two handers
Point 3: Target the LAST mob you're going to kill and cast shade at it
Point 4: Immediately move the opposite way from your shade cast , in other words if you cast shade from the right side, move left so you when the mobs engage the shade you'll have an easier time circling behind them *note, mobs will keep attacking the shade until you hit them so make sure of your target before pulling the trigger on attacks else you'll break your shade CC.
Point 5: stealth up behind your first kill target (don't need to use shadowy disguise if you've got the medium armor passive for stealth detection radius reduction)
Point 6: Surprise Attack (should take your target down to < 10% health if it doesn't one shot it) + Power Attack (knock down) + Killer Blade (finisher) on your first kill target
Point 7: Shadowy Disguise, move behind 2nd target , Surprise Attack + Power Attack (knock down) Use Killer Blade as a finisher
Point 8: Rinse, Wash repeat Point 7 on remaining mob(s)

Sometimes I'll modify this a bit and put a reapers mark on the 2nd target (for a faster kill on it) be careful though because mark not only increases the damage you do to the target it'll increase the damage you take from the target.

Hopefully this will helps, it works great for me since more often than not I'll walk away without ever getting hit when engaging 3 mob packs (4 mob packs you're going to take some damage).

Just keep in mind that if you are going to play a stealthy Nightblade you have to take your time and utilize stealth to pick your fights and organize a plan of attack before engaging. Personally I think it's a blast to play this way (stealthy assassin style) but it's NOT a style for those that are in a hurry and/or like to charge in and just face tank everything.

Buck wrote: »

I was completely untrained again by the time I posted my second comment and just out of frustration I went back to heavy armor... hunted the mats down crafted them and improved it all (lol) and at the same I know I should be in medium armor for the crits but like I said Idk what to do anymore.

I do play as a stealthy char, picked my targets and use shade, shadowy disguise, power attack, and surprise attack and it's been great fun. It's just when facing 3-4+ mobs I get destroyed no matter how I enter the fight (that's why I went back to heavy armor to last a little longer - but clearly without the high crits the fight will last longer anyway ... /doh)

I was so excited to finally fight the giants when I got to Eastmarsh but the first quest there they just destroyed me and that's where I have been the last week, re training/re specing trying different skill combo's and attributes but I'm going broke lol and just getting more frustrated because of it all.

Anyway thank you all for offering suggestions I will give them a try and hope something works out.

I haven fought any giants in VR since I am EP but VR 4-5 Trolls can be stun locked the entire fight with shadowy disguise+ surprise attack +simple attacks with siphoning attacks on . Otherwise Bow + magnum shot + whatever DPS for hours.

The only viable build for Vet areas are the Siphon builds, coz those skills work.. kinda..

The rest of the NB abilities don't do what you think they do, or what the tooltip says.

Bhakura wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

I haven fought any giants in VR since I am EP but VR 4-5 Trolls can be stun locked the entire fight with shadowy disguise+ surprise attack +simple attacks with siphoning attacks on . Otherwise Bow + magnum shot + whatever DPS for hours.

then you will have same problem as the OP, giants are immune to CC, your surprise attack, magnum shot isnt gonna do a single thing.
Its fights like these that tell you how well you are prepared for the real end game stuff.
Cant pass it? Keep on training and figuring it out because if you dont, only thing you will accomplish is making your team wipe.
Harsch, yes, should it be toned down? No, this way you learn to play, killing a giant or two solo tells you how well you play the character you build and how good you build it. People need to stop looking at what has been said that you can be anything, you can be, but you need to adapt to make it work, just trowing all your skills blindly at it isnt gonna work in certain circumstances. It works for games like wow, combat system here is a bit more challenging then that.
You have to use every single thing you have and use em correct, making a mistake in vet leaves you with a choice, nearest wayshrine or use a soulgem.
i get that option alot, but only once on same type of adversaries.

I agree everything you said and I am actually a player that changes a lot of skills for different situation and loves the challenge . Now where the hell I can fight some VR giants as a EP player. The toughest things I encountered are VR5 Gargoyles followed by VR5 Harvesters. Harvesters I got them figured out very well. Gargoyles are certainly a pain but I did manage to get a few.

PBpsy wrote: »

I agree everything you said and I am actually a player that changes a lot of skills for different situation and loves the challenge . Now where the hell I can fight some VR giants as a EP player. The toughest things I encountered are VR5 Gargoyles followed by VR5 Harvesters. Harvesters I got them figured out very well. Gargoyles are certainly a pain but I did manage to get a few.

AD has quest that involves fighting a giant, in reapers march i believe or was it greenshade, though dont know if quests are exactly the same.

I leveled up to VR10 with a full stamina, dual wield, medium armor NB (tldr an assassin).

What you need is:
- sparks (ember explosion)
- flying blade (to kite bosses)
- blood craze/strife
- circle of protection (mainly for dolmens/undeads)
- expert hunter (mainly for dolmens/undeads)
- very high magicka regen to use shadow cloak as often as you can (to keep the armor boost and the stamina regen up)
- a lot of patience
- a lot of soul gems

With this build you can beat anything, but its not always easy, sometime its painfull in fact.