I just wanted to thank Decimus, and others, for stepping up and giving a good overview of the problems with Nightblade, cloak and it's lack of power currently.

I've played almost exclusively pure Nightblade since before the introduction of horrible subclassing and I can tell you that pure Nightblades is woefully underpowered. The class as a whole has been irrelevant in pve and pvp for a while now. Few Nightblades, let alone gankers are choosing Nightblade and/or cloak. I understand that for more detailed changes we will have to wait for the Nightblade class refresh. But in the meantime I think it's important to state the facts.

I can definitely see how the devs would be concerned that cloak being available on every class would inspire a gankfest. That hasn't happened because cloak is not the problem. Sorcerers are the all time strongest gankers. Currently, the majority of the strongest gank builds, i.e. subclassing, ignore Nightblade and cloak altogether: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J84kNEKhmnM.

Yet Nightblade has already received multiple nerfs due to subclassing. Including the nerf to cloak and the loss of weapon and spell damage on merciless. Assassination is good but Shadow and Siphoning are two of the most underperforming skill lines in the game. Even class sets like Soulcleaver aren't strong enough in their current form.

Nightblade is currently class the only class that is punished for being that class, i.e. the reduction and then negation of recovery while in cloak and other nerfs. Again, cloak is not the problem and the changes need to be rescinded. Currently I can't cloak through a delve to get a skyshard. That's how bad cloak is. As Decimus has stated there are so many counters and things that pull you out of cloak.

Also, Nightblades has suffered from the critical damage cap and in introduction of the Rallying Cry set. As I have stated in another post:

"Rallying Cry is a by design a support set, that has been, and is being abused, largely for solo or small scale use in pvp.

I can't think of another set that has proc conditions like Rallying Cry. In theory Rallying Cry is a great design. In application is not, as it allows one or a few players to get all the benefits of a set that was designed for many more people. If you are benefiting from this set alone you are getting the equivalent of around 12.5 impen pieces of armor, yes almost double what anyone can wear on their body, not including the 300 weapon and spell damage, i.e. the equivalent of a 5 piece bonus such as Hunding Rage, Law of Julianos or Ancient Dragonguard, that you get in addition to that. That's just broken.

Furthermore, this set is bug exploitive. In my testing there is around a 50/50 chance or less that someone else will receive any benefits from this set. Meaning that the majority of the time the person wearing this set will be the only one receiving all of the benefits. This set can also be gamed to receive it's overpowered benefits which other sets largely cannot."

For these class masteries I also stated in another post that 5 is too limiting:

"For example, the Sorcerer's Conservation of Energy only provides self recovery and the Nightblade's Share the Spoils only does others. These are just too restrictive because they are trying to do too much. If I'm a Sorcerer and I want group recovery I have no choices. If I'm a Nightblade and I want self recovery I have no choices.

Also, some of the support choices need to be reconsidered as they have redundant buffs or insubstantial support choices. For example, Dragonknight's Lead From the Front includes Major Protection as a buff. This is now an easily accessible group buff as it's on Hearth and Home and should already be present. It would be nice to get a group buff that is not in the kit."

And:

"Nightblade:

Above and Beyond:

This line needs to include a size amount of ignoring enemies critical resistance. As any crit increase will be countered by impen and overpowered Rallying Cry (please see my forum post)."

Nightblade is a beloved and legitimate playstyle in the Elder Scrolls Online. Nightblade underperforming makes the game less rich and worse on a whole. I hope that the devs can find ways to give Nightblade appropriate power and class identity in both pve and pvp, which it currently is sadly lacking and has been for some time.

One more thing. Nightblade is just not about crit. It's about stealth, speed, etc. What we've seen from classing and the game as a whole are situations that are hard counters to Nightblade. For example speed is an essential part of any glass cannon Nightblade playstyle. With the introduction of subclassing we saw meta build gravitating to overpowered skill lines such as Animal Companions and Storm Calling. Wings allows for 6 seconds of Major Expedition, the longest in the game, which is broken. Hurricane allows for Minor Expedition. So now many builds will be as fast as or faster than Nightblades. Again, there are multiple ways in which Nighblade has lost power in is underperforming. Imagine being a Dragonknight and everything is immune to and reflects flame damage back at you. That might be a small window on what it's like to play pure class nightblade right now.

FYI-Cloak is not the problem. In fact it is Streak that is the problem and what the devs should have been worries about. I'm a pro chainer, due to being a veteran tank in pve, in this game. And due to this ganker's use of Streak, they are able to outrange me so I am often not able to even gap close to them: https://medal.tv/games/eso/clips/my7VHFC0VykxEKNFE?invite=cr-MSw2ZkQsMTk2ODAyMjE2&v=300. If you need more proof I have dozens of examples. And keep in mind that this is a ganker with very little into recovery. Streak and other such overpowered skills in overpowered skill lines are the problem and are currently being abused.

Thank you for your consideration.