NB, the real truth pre and post patch

snowmanflvb14_ESO · May 2014

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

fiachsidhe wrote: »

Your problem is you took one aspect of the class and decided that it was the sole purpose. My single target DPS is great as an NB. Dual wield/flamestaff allows single target and AoE damage.

Nightblades can be assassins, or shadowcasters.

No, the NB, as of todays post, CANNOT be assassins. You missed the point of my post, or I didn't explain it enough, but NO, with the increase in mob health and damage, our assassin roles no longer work. DPS with a NB, as of today, is basically non-existent because we can no longer survive. In fact for the first hour of playing the new patch, I thought DW and the other NB skills had gotten a blanket damage nerf. But no, they increased all the mob health and damage.

Anyone who wants to argue, log into a vet area with your assassin type NB, and try to solo a pack of 3 regular mobs, then tell us what happens. Get off your Tank/Caster high horses and understand that a HUGE benefit to playing as a stealth cannon is no longer viable. Listen to the chat and forums and realize that just cause YOU play a tank, healer, or castor as a NB, that most players play it as an assassin. And even IF you want to throw the "be more creative in your build" defense out, know that if a basic build (in this case the only class suited to being a stealth assassin) isn't working, then something is wrong.

NB is a stealth class, it excels in it, or at least did. YOU don't use stealth, great for you. Those of us that play the class as a stealth cannon, you know, using its unique abilities to their potential, are the ones taking the hit.

I think many of us understood your OP and just disagree with your basic premise to start with. I would also point out that since the patch I have only notice an uptick in my ability to function both when acting as a stealth melee dpser and as a Range dpser with my bows. For one thing I can now more easily switch from bow to Dw/stealther during combat.

Evergreen · May 2014

ZeroTheCat wrote: »

I agree 100%. The Changes to NB in the latest patch are horrible and unjustified. I though the NB was getting fixed, not nerfed!?

Exactly, its just beyond rational comprehension how class balancing is turning out in this game with the weakest class getting the hardest nerfs. They need to open up the PTS server and forums to all subscribers. There has to be some awful feedback in the old beta community to the devs or something.

oziebanks_ESO · May 2014

Ok, I have edited my original post to exclude one thing. The siphon skill tree. It was never my intention to say that a NB CANNOT dps, its that we are being forced into the Siphon skill tree on solo play. Yes we can tank/heal/dps, but the only way we work is to rely on siphon, and to rely on it heavily. This is of course, post patch.

I would also like to say, that while I understand that the Dev's are probably very busy, I have spent much time on the forums looking at these NB issue topics, and aside from the occasional Dev saying "Please keep these comments civil blah blah blah", not one had really answered any questions.

If the Devs or SOMEONE would at least get on here and speak to us (and we know they look at these topics cause as soon as someone gets close to breaking a rule they post right up). Tell us SOMETHING besides the BS 1.2 patch fix. Tell us your looking to make small changes weekly. Tell us we will have to shut up and just wait for it. Tell us your understaffed. Tell us to shut up and roll another character. Tell us SOMETHING. I believe that a lot of the issues aren't just because of the state of the game, but that for a game with such a high dev cost, and that had so much anticipation, we feel like we aren't being listened to.

Not even a few minutes after patching we had a forum uproar about the NB, and yes the Templar issues. We had a forum post form the Devs within hours about the NB. I liked that, because it showed my that they cared and wanted to fix it. Or I was happy until I saw the 1.2 timeline. You CANNOT wait that long for patches on huge issues. We would rather have to spend 15 minutes patching our games every other day with constant fixes, then wait 2 months for a single patch that MIGHT work. We want to see the Devs coming into these forums more often and engaging the customers. Because that is what we are, CUSTOMERS. Engage us, give us those band-aids. Kiss our boo-boos and tell us it will be all better. Hell, yell at us and tell us to stfu for all I care. Just engage us.

twisted · May 2014

Rylana wrote: »

NinjaApacHe wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

I will save my rant about the non-working skills and passives for the end of this post, frankly we all know the issues with the NB skills.

The real issue that most people just don't talk about, is that NB is meant to be an assassin class. Save your "play the way you want" talk, we all know that the second the class system was implemented, the roles were cast.

Stopped reading there. Just because you can't think beyond the class name doesn't mean that Nightblades are exclusively a stealth-melee-DPS class. Nightblades make fantastic tanks and healers. And casters. And pretty much whatever you want.

When you finally stop thinking that classes in this game are the same as classes in other MMOs, you'll probably be happier.

Stopped reading you after i saw your quote. I really hate fanboys. Our class should be a major sinlge target burst class, not a healing or tanking class. Period. They *** up completely.

To be fair, we do have lines/builds that can do exactly that, we just arent railroaded into it. I have four or five different combos i put on my bars.

My usual PvE setup is...

Bar 1 DW - Sap Essence, Steel Tornado, Refreshing Path, Swallow Soul, Leeching Strikes w/ Devouring Swarm Ultimate
Bar 2 Bow - Bombard, Silver Shards, Impale, Swallow Soul, Focused Attacks w/Bolstering Darkness Ultimate

For PvP I tend to run a pretty cookie cutter Bow Snipe DW Assasination/Shadow line build for ganking, and a bar full of Assault/Support abilities for large group.

What it really boils down to is that with enough skill point farming you can put together a toon that can fill like 3-4 different distinct roles AND excel at them,

I can tank bosses, heal my team, do amazing AOE DPS, and kill a player in 3 seconds before they even realize what was hitting them

Each one is a different set of skills but all contained in the nightblade lines.

how xactly u can tank bosses on vr content ,every step i made says the target is too powerfull for dat effect, u tellin bs my friend , neither if u try and attack 3 mobs at ant dungeon with ur aoe blah blah blah blades ull hit floor faster then ull finish ur fisrt turn darling , so plz do us a fave

Erock25 · May 2014

Comaetilico wrote: »

nb caster dps... is actualy on par with sorc caster dps (sorc only get the advantage in AoE survival... but as far as dps goes they'r on the same level...)

NB melee dps... is on par with other classes melee dps... that is far below caster dps...

it is an hard fact... class skill deal more single target damage than any weapon skill... class skill are all magika based... light armor reduce magika cost while increasing spell crit... and you can get even more spell crit from inner light...

NB melee class skill (as well as templar melee class skill) goes on magika BUT weapon crit... like all other melee abilities... that is where all fall... if you go for light armor you loose your crit... if you go medium armor you lose the cost reduction and consequent sustained dps...
.

The splitting of melee and spell crit is a huge game breaking issue to me and I'm not even a NB. Crit should be crit, no reason to split it into two categories. Armor type is tied to crit type and resource focus and since stamina skills are just bad in comparison ... everyone needs to be light armor focused.

oziebanks_ESO · May 2014

As of this post, the Devs have apparently admitted that the VR content was not intended to be boosted in difficulty like it has been.

That being said, the patch is supposed to be out in like 24 hours, so not sure when that will be. Either way, all the rage I had before is now gone. I, the OP, will be the first to say Thank You ZOS once this is fixed. Not just for NB, but for everyone.

While we can agree that the NB class still need MAJOR changes, we will be able to at least PLAY again soon.

nerevarine1138 · May 2014

NinjaApacHe wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

I will save my rant about the non-working skills and passives for the end of this post, frankly we all know the issues with the NB skills.

The real issue that most people just don't talk about, is that NB is meant to be an assassin class. Save your "play the way you want" talk, we all know that the second the class system was implemented, the roles were cast.

Stopped reading there. Just because you can't think beyond the class name doesn't mean that Nightblades are exclusively a stealth-melee-DPS class. Nightblades make fantastic tanks and healers. And casters. And pretty much whatever you want.

When you finally stop thinking that classes in this game are the same as classes in other MMOs, you'll probably be happier.

Stopped reading you after i saw your quote. I really hate fanboys. Our class should be a major sinlge target burst class, not a healing or tanking class. Period. They *** up completely.

Your inability to understand a flexible class system is not a design flaw.

oziebanks_ESO · May 2014

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

NinjaApacHe wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

I will save my rant about the non-working skills and passives for the end of this post, frankly we all know the issues with the NB skills.

The real issue that most people just don't talk about, is that NB is meant to be an assassin class. Save your "play the way you want" talk, we all know that the second the class system was implemented, the roles were cast.

Stopped reading there. Just because you can't think beyond the class name doesn't mean that Nightblades are exclusively a stealth-melee-DPS class. Nightblades make fantastic tanks and healers. And casters. And pretty much whatever you want.

When you finally stop thinking that classes in this game are the same as classes in other MMOs, you'll probably be happier.

Stopped reading you after i saw your quote. I really hate fanboys. Our class should be a major sinlge target burst class, not a healing or tanking class. Period. They *** up completely.

Your inability to understand a flexible class system is not a design flaw.

Your inability to understand or admit that two out of three of the NB skill trees are underpowered, broken, or completely useless is what I don't understand.

nerevarine1138 · May 2014

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

NinjaApacHe wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

I will save my rant about the non-working skills and passives for the end of this post, frankly we all know the issues with the NB skills.

The real issue that most people just don't talk about, is that NB is meant to be an assassin class. Save your "play the way you want" talk, we all know that the second the class system was implemented, the roles were cast.

Stopped reading there. Just because you can't think beyond the class name doesn't mean that Nightblades are exclusively a stealth-melee-DPS class. Nightblades make fantastic tanks and healers. And casters. And pretty much whatever you want.

When you finally stop thinking that classes in this game are the same as classes in other MMOs, you'll probably be happier.

Stopped reading you after i saw your quote. I really hate fanboys. Our class should be a major sinlge target burst class, not a healing or tanking class. Period. They *** up completely.

Your inability to understand a flexible class system is not a design flaw.

Your inability to understand or admit that two out of three of the NB skill trees are underpowered, broken, or completely useless is what I don't understand.

I use all three trees across two different weapon types, and I have literally no idea what you're talking about. There are definitely some skills that need minor tweaking, but nothing that's so useless that I consider the class broken. I'm exclusively a melee DPS Nightblade, and I must be the best player ever to be breezing through VR content like this.

oziebanks_ESO · May 2014

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

NinjaApacHe wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

I will save my rant about the non-working skills and passives for the end of this post, frankly we all know the issues with the NB skills.

The real issue that most people just don't talk about, is that NB is meant to be an assassin class. Save your "play the way you want" talk, we all know that the second the class system was implemented, the roles were cast.

Stopped reading there. Just because you can't think beyond the class name doesn't mean that Nightblades are exclusively a stealth-melee-DPS class. Nightblades make fantastic tanks and healers. And casters. And pretty much whatever you want.

When you finally stop thinking that classes in this game are the same as classes in other MMOs, you'll probably be happier.

Stopped reading you after i saw your quote. I really hate fanboys. Our class should be a major sinlge target burst class, not a healing or tanking class. Period. They *** up completely.

Your inability to understand a flexible class system is not a design flaw.

Your inability to understand or admit that two out of three of the NB skill trees are underpowered, broken, or completely useless is what I don't understand.

I use all three trees across two different weapon types, and I have literally no idea what you're talking about. There are definitely some skills that need minor tweaking, but nothing that's so useless that I consider the class broken. I'm exclusively a melee DPS Nightblade, and I must be the best player ever to be breezing through VR content like this.

Does not matter now. This entire thread was about two of our skill trees being useless with the difficulty cap being unintentionally increased. Those of us that play assassin type NB never had a problem up until then (I say most but I should say those that know how to play the class type).

Now that we are getting a patch to fix this, there is no longer 75% of the issues listed to worry about. I will start another thread about the NB in-general, but if we get this fix then we should be fine.

OkieDokie · May 2014

Rylana wrote: »

Hi there.

My main (Kailiana) is a dual wield vampire siphon/aoe spammer with ~50 percent crit chance and can do over 2000 DPS/800HPS vs 8-10 VR11 mobs while healing anyone near me for quite a large amount. (still over 500/200 vs single target, but thats not what the build is for)

The fix to sap essence literally turned my toon into a killing machine (crit heals are absolutely epic).

not sure what your problem is, OP

Could you record a quick mob fight for us please? I really want to see it (I'm not doubting you, I got really nice results with sap essence too, but I think it could work even better with dual wield).

Cheers o/

TheAmu · May 2014

I could rant about my NB woes but that won't get me anywhere. It's certainly not going to help anyone or add to the discussion.

So I'd like to ask those of you kicking ass as a NB for some help.

Is there any hope for a NB DW, wearing MA. And I'm not looking for theories. I'm asking for proven methods. I'm not interested in other armor or weapons. I will happily invest points in skills from Guilds like FG and MG. I actually built this character on the expectation I could use ravage health potions. That was disappointing.

So. Anyone got some ideas?

Drasn · May 2014

TheAmu wrote: »

I actually built this character on the expectation I could use ravage health potions.

Only 1 question? Did you actually drink the potion?

TheAmu · May 2014

thomas.k.grayb14_ESO wrote: »

Only 1 question? Did you actually drink the potion?

Yes. I did. Hilarious.

nerevarine1138 · May 2014

TheAmu wrote: »

I could rant about my NB woes but that won't get me anywhere. It's certainly not going to help anyone or add to the discussion.

So I'd like to ask those of you kicking ass as a NB for some help.

Is there any hope for a NB DW, wearing MA. And I'm not looking for theories. I'm asking for proven methods. I'm not interested in other armor or weapons. I will happily invest points in skills from Guilds like FG and MG. I actually built this character on the expectation I could use ravage health potions. That was disappointing.

So. Anyone got some ideas?

Ok, here's the build I use. Primary weapon slot is for Dual Wield:

Single-Target DPS

AoE DPS

The only adjustment that I'll make to this is for boss fights with no adds: I replace Invigorating Drain with Twin Slashes (or in some cases Siphoning Strikes). I currently have 54% crit when dual wielding, 51% with my bow. During single-target fights, I will open with Surprise Attack, and spam Flurry until I'm low on Stamina, then hit Haste, spam light attacks and Flurry. I try to keep Haste permanently up from that point on, and I'll use Surprise Attack to keep the armor debuff on the mob.

TheAmu · May 2014

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

being helpful

Thanks for offering your build but I'm not a vampire.
Some of those skills look useful though and I'm trying to level up those skill trees to get them. I shouldn't have started so late and that's my fault.

But I'd like to see a build which only relies on NB DW MA with either some FG or MG.

Cybrdroyd · May 2014

My thoughts on Play your way. I play a Nightblade. I want him to be a NB. I don't want him to be a tank, and I don't want him to be a sorcerer or a healer. I want to duel wield daggers and quickswap to a bow. Thats what I want to do. If NB is not THE BEST at those things, then to me, that ruins it for me.

Sure, its all fine and dandy to play any class any way you want, I get that, and have no problem with it. Just make my NB the best at duel wielding dagger, a bow, sneak and backstab, all that good stuff as well. And I want to wear medium armor. I don't want to have to go heavy, although its fine if we have that option, but make NB best at medium armor.

I don't really care if you think I am narrow minded or I should explore multi roles. This is the character I want to play, and that's that. I don't even care if I'm not the best at everything, just make me a NB.

Decimus_Rex · May 2014

Comaetilico wrote: »

nb caster dps... is actualy on par with sorc caster dps (sorc only get the advantage in AoE survival... but as far as dps goes they'r on the same level...)

NB melee dps... is on par with other classes melee dps... that is far below caster dps...

it is an hard fact... class skill deal more single target damage than any weapon skill... class skill are all magika based... light armor reduce magika cost while increasing spell crit... and you can get even more spell crit from inner light...

NB melee class skill (as well as templar melee class skill) goes on magika BUT weapon crit... like all other melee abilities... that is where all fall... if you go for light armor you loose your crit... if you go medium armor you lose the cost reduction and consequent sustained dps...

the problem is not the NB (I admit that NB have several bugged passives... but it's not that the reason for the problems in the nb dps at all... as I said if you go the caster way you will have little to non problem as a DPS...) it is the melee component of the play style you've chosen...

what makes lots of NB call for their class being UP is the fact that most of those that see NB think about the melee styled assassin... and that is where they fall in the melee problem...

Wow another generic sorc build

Any class with dest/rest can be great thats really well known

The point of the op is that this archeytype is not functioning in its intended capacity

It has a long list of broken abilities not passives,

You like the homogenized every class is a wnner build thats ok but some of us want the class to perform as intended

Selodaoc · May 2014

Cybrdroyd wrote: »

My thoughts on Play your way. I play a Nightblade. I want him to be a NB. I don't want him to be a tank, and I don't want him to be a sorcerer or a healer. I want to duel wield daggers and quickswap to a bow. Thats what I want to do. If NB is not THE BEST at those things, then to me, that ruins it for me.

Sure, its all fine and dandy to play any class any way you want, I get that, and have no problem with it. Just make my NB the best at duel wielding dagger, a bow, sneak and backstab, all that good stuff as well. And I want to wear medium armor. I don't want to have to go heavy, although its fine if we have that option, but make NB best at medium armor.

I don't really care if you think I am narrow minded or I should explore multi roles. This is the character I want to play, and that's that. I don't even care if I'm not the best at everything, just make me a NB.

Oh, you want to play a rogue type of class, the class that NB is presented as and almost all class skills are based on.
Yea..forget that and put on light armor and a staff instead.

nerevarine1138 · May 2014

TheAmu wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

being helpful

Thanks for offering your build but I'm not a vampire.
Some of those skills look useful though and I'm trying to level up those skill trees to get them. I shouldn't have started so late and that's my fault.

But I'd like to see a build which only relies on NB DW MA with either some FG or MG.

The vampire skills are not central to that build. You can easily modify it to use the Shadow ultimate and replace Invigorating Drain with an ability of your choice.

bg22 · May 2014

Cybrdroyd wrote: »

My thoughts on Play your way. I play a Nightblade. I want him to be a NB. I don't want him to be a tank, and I don't want him to be a sorcerer or a healer. I want to duel wield daggers and quickswap to a bow. Thats what I want to do. If NB is not THE BEST at those things, then to me, that ruins it for me.

Sure, its all fine and dandy to play any class any way you want, I get that, and have no problem with it. Just make my NB the best at duel wielding dagger, a bow, sneak and backstab, all that good stuff as well. And I want to wear medium armor. I don't want to have to go heavy, although its fine if we have that option, but make NB best at medium armor.

I don't really care if you think I am narrow minded or I should explore multi roles. This is the character I want to play, and that's that. I don't even care if I'm not the best at everything, just make me a NB.

I play a dual wield, medium armor NB and I dominate 1v1 pvp. But I will say that some of our abilities are completely broken. Such as Ambush, if the target is on a hillside above me, the animation occurs but my character stays in place and deals no damage.

Reykice · May 2014

NB`s are a glass cannon. You have both the glass and the cannon. Siphoning strikes = 10% less damage but unlimited resources....(22% less spell damage/weapon power is about 10% less damage)

It excels at single target damage.

What it doesn`t do well is take hits... but that goes for any class out there. You have invisibility so you have more than the rest. There is a video of a guy soloing a Veteran Dungeon by cleverly using invisibility.

So if you can`t do it, its you, not the class. The class has some bugs and even so its top dps...

If you expected to just go in and tank everything while killing them... well that`s not a glass cannon. That`s a tanky dps style.

Use stealth to get the initial hit, use invisibility, the avoidance skills... there are many tools to use... but no most just use 5 dps abilities and complain they can`t take many hits...

A sorcerer dies even faster, the difference is that most sorcerers use their class tools to cc or distract the NPC`s... DK`s can AOE or tank them and the same with Templars(well, after they fix biting jabs)

Every class has the tools to do well but some would rather say "i don`t like to use that" then come here to complain.... what the hell people?

Reykice · May 2014

Zxaxz wrote: »

If you can't solo 3-4 mobs as a Single target DW NB, frankly you're doing it wrong.

http://www.twitch.tv/iamepitaph/b/531230213 (Made 1 hour after 1.1.2 patch)

GreasedLizard wrote: »

Zxaxz wrote: »

I can solo it all...Your NB must be broken, ask for a refund.

http://www.twitch.tv/iamepitaph/b/531230213 (Made 1 hour after 1.1.2 patch)

1 bar - 5 skills, 1 Ult.

What's the name of your buff bars add-on ?

S'rendarr - Aura and buff tracker (Sorry name wrong add-on before) very good customization, but you can Not move the top enemies bar as of yet.

Axewaffle wrote: »
Ive spent 180k on respecs trying to refine my dps, the highest single target I've managed to achieve is 720dps...

I can pull as shown in the video above, depending on the fight, mobs from 853500 DPS, lol level 50 Cyr 1 shot - But really - 500-1000 DPS depending on the lenght of the fight of course. So if you spent 180K to theory craft and could not get that at least, damn, sorry man. You can see my dps in the video above.....V7 DW NB

So there you go, he posted a video that was made when the NPC`s the unintentional buff that made them have 50% more hp/damage... now its even easier.

Use it to learn... and stop asking for buffs... you really don`t want the nerfs that will come after that when they realize you tricked them and are actually a lot better than you claim.

subecsanur · May 2014

I agree with OP, ditto. No ability to survive and beyond our initial hit, we are done. CC abilities also a joke.

gladen5rwb17_ESO · May 2014

I play a Sorcerer. I want every class to get their fair share of fixes and balance. It is because one class has issues that the finger gets pointed at another. Complaints are made demanding nerfs against them instead of posts such as this that point out the issue of their class and demand fixes.

I want game balance, not nerf after nerf.

subecsanur · May 2014

the.dzeneralb16_ESO wrote: »

Just did both PVP and a ton of craglorn as DW NB stealth class.

One word of advice: Fire rune (morphed into volcanic rune) = easy mode

Yeah, I know this works, but ...... to use a Mages Guild spell that again uses Magicka to survive doesn't seem to make sense.

nerevarine1138 · May 2014

subecsanur wrote: »

the.dzeneralb16_ESO wrote: »

Just did both PVP and a ton of craglorn as DW NB stealth class.

One word of advice: Fire rune (morphed into volcanic rune) = easy mode

Yeah, I know this works, but ...... to use a Mages Guild spell that again uses Magicka to survive doesn't seem to make sense.

*Ahem*

From the Oblivion description of the Nightblade class (fairly certain this was in Morrowind too): Nightblades are effective assassins and enforcers. Their speed and skills allow them to easily reach places most others could not. Nightblades dispose of opponents with a quick blade and Destruction magic. They are also skilled in Alteration magic, and are proficient in healing themselves.

Valerien · May 2014

Fully agree with the OP.

The Nightblade fails woefully at what they are meant to be achieving. Likewise as stated they have a hell of a time working out if they are meant to stack stamina or magic to achieve the roll of high burst dps.

The biggest issue and one that needs to be fixed ASAP (i.e. not 4 to 6 weeks) is outside of a stealth back stab attack the Nightblades DPS is horrible. And lets face it stealh back stabbing is open to nearly any medium armour build. This high damage is a result of the game mechanics and slight bonus from passive skills not because the Nightblade actually has a back stab attack.

There are though lots of fights that its just not possible to use stealth and backstab. The mobs are just positioned so they are watching each other or the way it spawns it can't be done. Now using shadow disguise may offer some option but it lasts less than 3 seconds that is often not long enough to get into position.

The assassination line needs to offer more options for a toe to toe combat when its not possible or simply not desirable to use stealth. Trying to explain to a mage about the need for me to sneak into position before he kills everything was difficult. And as he pointed out much quicker if he just killed everything from range while his pets tanked and healed. A nightblade going assassination should have the largest single target melee damage of any class and not have to rely on them either being almost dead or getting a critical hit off from stealth. Rename it if you must to duelist or something to show that it is about single target damage.

If you are only going to offer people 5 active abilities slots (+1 ultimate) the dps line should not include a minor increase to dodge, a debuff self debuff (we are ready low on health who needs an option to allow them to bypass our armour at the cost of our magic and ability slot) and a speed increase that as much as I want to like just doesn't offer the burst damage the Nightblade needs.

Stealth is great but in a multiplayer situation where other people may not find watching you sneak sneak sneak attack and do less damage than they could have without the hassle of being detected and getting off a very low damage attack. Stealth has to be an option not the only option available to the Nightblade to provide burst damage.

nerevarine1138 · May 2014

Valerien wrote: »

Stealth is great but in a multiplayer situation where other people may not find watching you sneak sneak sneak attack and do less damage than they could have without the hassle of being detected and getting off a very low damage attack. Stealth has to be an option not the only option available to the Nightblade to provide burst damage.

Stealth isn't the only option for a melee-based Nightblade, any more than it is the only option for other melee-based builds. I provide plenty of burst damage when I come out of stealth. If I didn't, I wouldn't be cutting through 3-mob groups of enemies without any trouble.

bg22 · May 2014

I'd make a video for the forums of me ROFLstomping players 1v1 w/o using stealth... But I don't wanna be the new mold.

Although, I'll eventually put it on YouTube because awesome.

But yea... It can be done.