dungeon:aegis caller(highest dps but only good in parse)/ pillars of nirn(easy use)/jerensi(solo/dungoen)
crafted:order's wrath/Claw of the Forest Wraith/tide-born
map:gourmands(solo/dungeon)

Thanks guys. I think I'll look at that C. So 'Null Arca/Ansuul' are better?

Petoften wrote: »

What about trial sets you can buy at night market?

terrible,not worth using in any situation

Petoften wrote: »

Thanks guys. I think I'll look at that C. So 'Null Arca/Ansuul' are better?

You always want to be running 1 set that has Minor Slayer because that buff is stronger than any other non-full set bonus in the game. It's 5% more damage done while the next best, which is crit chance, is only around 2-2,5%. Because of that Ansuul and Null Arca are just statistically better than Order. In the case of Ansuul it makes Order completely obsolete. Both are simple buff sets that are always active and are used in the same way. Ansuul is just better. So using that instead of Order is a no-brainer. And if you can get your hands on the perfected version of Ansuul then the gap will increase even more.

Although, if you want to do overland stuff then Slayer is useless since it only works in trials, dungeons, and arenas. For overland I'd say Ansuul and Order are about the same.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Because of the next patch, I'd like to throw Gourmand into the ring. It really helps getting to 155% Crit Damage. Combined with the high regular Crit Chance of Nightblade this is an ~10% increase to damage.
Also Tzogvin's Warband is a good non trial set that helps Nightblade in particular, because they tend to have a pretty full ability bar and having minor force from a set is really helping by being able to drop Trap.

Although, with all the changes next patch and considering the crazy rotations I have seen on PTS parse videos, I might be completely off. 😅

Both those sets aren't good, unfortunately.

Grisly Gourmet is not only too unpredictable to be viable but Major Force is always provided by your supports. It's such a powerful buff that you'll always have it from your supports with at least halfway decent uptimes in any group content. Additinally, next patch wardens will have a class passive that applies Major Brittle for even more crit damage. And if that's still not enough you can just play Khajiit. If you're primarily a solo player, however, then it's still not worth using since the damage you gain from occasional Major Force is way less than the permanent damage you can get from Order's Wrath or Tide Born (yes, I did say it was getting nerfed but even nerfed it's still better than Gourmet).

Tzogvin is OK at best and complete garbage at worst. Many boss fights have immunity phases where you'll drop its stacks. You'll also drop stacks if you need to res people or if you need to do specific mechanics that don't involve doing damage. It's OK for stationary fights where you just sit and parse, but why wouldn't you just use Aegis Caller at that point? And saving bar space from Trap isn't as much of a benefit as you might think. Pure Nightblade doesn't have enough super meta skills to fill all 10 of its slots. So besides Surprise Attack, Killer's Blade, the bow proc, and Stampede as your baseline skills you'll also need to figure out 6 powerful DOTs to use. And Trap just so happens to be a really powerful DOT, so why would you chose not to use it? For AOE fights you can use contingency instead. It's a bit weaker but still, it's a very good DOT that's worth running for AOE scenarios, especially with how big it's AOE is and the fact that you can prebuff it.

Oh I thought he meant Grisly Gourmet. My mistake.

Yeah, Back Alley Gourmand is decent when playing solo but it's not that great for group content for pretty much the same reason Gourmet isn't. It's easy enough to get to the crit damage cap and there are more efficient ways to do so than sacrificing a 5 piece set just for that.

Order + Gourmand is a pretty killer combo for blitzing through the overland mobs when questing though.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

@C_Inside Did you even read the OP?

Petoften wrote: »

For a pre-trial DPS set, it seems it's almost a fixed answer, people say get tide-born and order's wrath. I have tide-born and wanted to see if there are other suggestions for a second set.

Obviously the Trial sets are bis. Null Arcs, Ansuul and the like. But how does OP get there? That's the question.

C_Inside wrote: »

There's a reason why Tide Born + Order's Wrath are the default answer. They are just the best overall setup you can get relative to how easy they are to get. Besides those the only non trial set that you could consider is Aegis Caller. Every other good, non-trial, 5 piece set is either weaker than Aegis, is super situational (think Arkasis or Azureblight), is a class set but not for nightblade, or is a support DD set.

On a side note, with Tide Born getting nerfed next patch I'd actually consider going Aegis + Order and then replacing Order with Null Arca/Ansuul once you farm the pieces you need.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Because of the next patch, I'd like to throw Gourmand into the ring. It really helps getting to 155% Crit Damage. Combined with the high regular Crit Chance of Nightblade this is an ~10% increase to damage.
Also Tzogvin's Warband is a good non trial set that helps Nightblade in particular, because they tend to have a pretty full ability bar and having minor force from a set is really helping by being able to drop Trap.

Although, with all the changes next patch and considering the crazy rotations I have seen on PTS parse videos, I might be completely off. 😅

I'd probably recommend Mora Scribe's Thesis over Gourmand, if in PvE:


Ah I see it's about pre-trial.

El_Borracho wrote: »

... Not hard to build, not easy to lose in boss fights, but not as guaranteed as Ansuuls. Basic difference would be Ansuul's is better for a very mobile boss while Null Arca is better for a stationary boss, but again, the difference is minimal...

This isn't really true. Both sets are equally consistent, at least in fights with one or very few enemies. You don't need to go out of your way or do anything specific to proc Null Arca. If you build correctly you'll easily have enough crit chance and DOTs to build Null Arca stacks very close to its cooldown and to also not lose them. Particularly on Nightblade as they have the most crit chance out of all the classes.

Null Arca is also perfectly fine for mobile fights. Once the set "locks onto" an enemy it is guaranteed to hit them unless they dodge roll or move behind cover. Enemies in PvE are too stupid to do either so it's a guaranteed hit no matter how mobile they are.

The actual reason why you'd pick one over the other is depending if it's a single target or AOE fight. Null Arca is king for single target fights but it starts falling off the more enemies there are. For AOE fights you definitely want Ansuul instead.

Petoften wrote: »

FWIW, I should probably overhaul my skills also. I actually don't use nightblade skills, just dual wield.

While I'm doing pre-trial, a bit of info on trial sets doesn't hurt to keep in mind.

I've found this post very helpful:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8243867/#Comment_8243867

In addition to the trial tier list the links below of "Which sets to farm and for what" are helpfully listed by activity type.To that list, you can also add:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/675850/what-armor-sets-to-craft-for-what-purpose

(That includes the links from the first post as well). As a fellow NB player who has been equally struggling to decide what to wear, good luck!