Xenon

sneak attacks damage coefficient seem to be different depending on what you use. sneak attack with a light or heavy attack using dual wield? ....not much damage at all. not even worth it. sneak attack using twin blades? ....most damaging effect i seen so far out of stealth (1-shot lv18 mobs at lv15 with it). sneak attack using uppercut and follow up with critical charge? ....really good damage (and fun), but still deal slightly less than a twin blades sneak attack sneak attack using heavy bow and follow up with poison arrow? ...really good damage and the heavy attack does not cost any resources (and easy to land since it is ranged)

I read it as OP played a lv 15 Templar in beta weekend but is not sure what class to play at release:

night blade get a small damage boost when attacking from stealth as well. but i am talking about sneak attacks. they always stun your opponent (longer duration for night blade passive, but they do stun for everyone else as well). and it deal quite a lot of extra damage (seem to be different depending on ability used). twin slash, for example, deal MASSIVE damage if you use it from behind... from stealth. a heavy dual wield attack from behind from stealth does not really deal that much damage at all. a heavy bow attack from behind from stealth deal really really good damage. (combined with a hit-scan attack such as poison arrow that will hit at the same time and you almost deal as much damage as a successful twin slash backstab). veiled strike also deal deal quite a lot of damage (but less than twin slashes - and cost more resources).

small tweak. dropping one of the CC skills from the Bow bar and replace it with Critical Surge. Instead of Critical Surge in 2H bar i use Critical Charge. 1. Venom Arrow 2. Bombard OR Magnum Shot 3. Critical Surge (or Reaper's Mark as Night Blade) 4. Endless Fury (or Impale as Night Blade) 5. Ball of Lightning (or Refreshing Path as Night Blade) U. Soul Assault (or Incapacitating Strike as Night Blade) 1. Brawler 2. Momentum 3. Reverse Slice OR Endless Fury (or Impale as Night Blade) 4. Critical Charge (or Teleport Strike as Night Blade) 5. Boundless Storm (or Shadow Disguise as Night Blade) U. Summon Charged Atronach (or Soul Tether as Night Blade) You sure? The eye just flash and then it say Hidden again. But since it deal PBAoE DoT damage you can't really use it in too close proximity of opponents anyway... As for the pro for sorcerer. I have refreshing path as night blade which I can use when travelling short distances. I also don't really seem to need stealth as a sorcerer (other than opening with the bow attack) ....i don't think you get any benefit from stealth when you use critical charge

also, to build your first 3-set items in you need 2 traits per item you want to include in the set. extra exploration experience and experience in my choice of weapon/armor line are both traits i will be looking for early...

No, because all your class active abilities use spell crit (and not [physical] crit that dw daggers passive give).

Just use heavy attacks with a resto staff....?

Teleport strike from stealth trigger sneak attack. Just sayin'....

Crits deal 50% more damage or so. The racial increase this by 15% (to 57.5% or whatever) This passive alone will never make or break your character.

So, now when we have a little more solid facts and we are approaching launch I think theorycrafting builds will be a little bit more worthwhile... So here goes! I want to build a leather wearing stamina based DPS class that utilize at least some stealth. I came to the conclusion that I want one bar for AoE and one bar for single or dual targets. After quite a lot of thinking I ended up with 7 leather, 2H for AoE and Bow for single targets. I can't really decide on class (looking at both night blade or sorcerer). (resource used in [ ]) Bow (1 or 2 targets and kiting bosses solo) Venom Arrow (Poison Arrow +Interrupt) Magnum shot (scatter shot +increase damage and knocks you back 6 meters) Bombard (Arrow Spray +root) [m] Endless Fury (Mage's Fury +magicka back on killing blow) [m] Ball of Lightning (Bolt Escape +absorb projectiles) Soul Assault (Soul Strike +longer duration) 2H (pve groups of 3+) Brawler (Cleave +damage shield) Momentum (remove 1 snare - or heal self after effect finish) Reverse Slice (Reverse Slash +20% splash to two enemies) [m] Critical Surge (Surge +crits heal 50% of damage done) [m] Boundless Storm (Lightning Form +24% movement speed) Summon Charged Atronach (Summon Storm Atronach +more aoe damage) For instances: I will probably use a fair amount of my stamina on bombard (primary reason is to keep the healer and cloth casters safe from thrash), venom arrow to interrupt casters and then start the endless fury spam as soon as targets start to get close to execute range. For 1 or 2 targets and kiting bosses solo: Second bar for Critical Surge + Momentum (they stack right?) Sneak and switch to first bar. Heavy bow attack from behind. Venom Arrow that hit at the same time as the heavy bow attack. If not elite or already dead, use Endless Fury to execute. If elite or world boss; continue to fire regular+heavy bow attacks, keep up venom arrow and use Bombard to root, Magnum Shot if they get too close, Bolt Escape to keep distance if immune to CC and/or getting low on Stamina and ultimate for a strong DoT and snare. Spam Endless Fury at execute range. For running between pulls, exploring (or generally sneaking around as long as there are no mobs within 7 meters): Second bar and use Boundless Storm for the extra movement speed. For pve groups of 3+: use second bar for Critical Surge + Momentum Boundless Storm to get faster speed, AoE damage and reach cap spell and armor resist. Sprint in and open up with Brawler for a Damage Shield. Drop Atronach Heavy swing on a caster Cleave to refresh damage shield Refresh Boundless Storm as needed Finish off low health targets with Reverse Slice Thoughts? a few questions: I don't like to simply run into combat with my 2H, I would like a stronger opener than that.... Do Critical Charge deal extra damage if you use it from stealth (like night blade teleport strike do)? Should i get rid of Momentum (and keep Surge) to get critical charge? (not getting momentum for my bow will suck....) For a stamina soft capped character; would I be better off using Mages' Fury as an execution move on my 2H bar? How would sorcerer Surge + Momentum stand compared to night blade Mark + Momentum damage wise? Feel like I have better synergy using the same bow and 2H skills on a night blade (teleport strike count as a sneak attack which is great on my 2H bar, longer stun on sneak attacks, stamina regen buff and huge crit buff when using invis, armor and resist buff when coming out of stealth or invis, great pbaoe stun ultimate for my 2h and great health debuff and stun ultimate for my bow. mark target for my bow since I don't plan on getting hit anyway...) Pros for using sorcerer over night blade would be faster movement with Boundless Storm (even in stealth - but this is mostly a quality of life out of combat feature), 28 meter range on execute (instead of 15 meter; morphed) and my 2H bar will benefit from both Critical surge and Momentum at the same time. Also cheaper stamina and magicka abilities. ...One big advantage of going Sorcerer is that most night blades will be going leather but only a handful of sorcerers will (i don't like playing the FoTM)

Dagger deal the same damage per hit as all other 1 h weapons. They also have the same attack speed. You get crit, not attack speed, from a passive on daggers and bleed on axe.Also, if you open from stealth your nb sneak attack will stun them for quite some time (even with a bow opening).

Teleportstrike from stealth from behind from more than 12 meters. Shrug

you are thinking too much about how tanking is in that other mmo... unlike a lot of other mmos the thrash in eso will not stick on the tank. unlike a lot of other mmos the tank does not generate more aoe threat than other roles. unlike a lot of other mmos the tank does not have any aoe taunts. the tank should probably focus on turning elites and bosses away from the others so they telegraph only on the tank. I think it will be down right unwise for the tank to drag elites and bosses around just to run after and cc thrash. ....As thrash will most likely stick to the aoe dps and the healer anyway - not the tank. i think it will be more important for the aoe dps character to have aoe cc. a lot more so than for the boss tank. some people might have an easier time grasping this concept when they start thinking of the aoe dps character as the "offtank".

I don't think we will see a single tank tanking everything (thrash, casters, elites and the boss) all at once. in eso tanks dont generate more threat than other classes (in fact they generate less threat than other classes since they will prioritize survivability over dps). there is only one taunt in the game (and it is open to any classes as long as you wield a sword n board). and the taunt is a single target ability. In eso all classes can handle a few thrash mobs on their own, the tank does not have to tank it all. in eso almost all healing is aoe or hot, it would even be counter productive if only one target take 100% of all damage... better to spread the damage around and heal everything at once. I think a very common four man team would look similar to this: one tank focused on survivability and single target CC + debuffing hard hitting elites and bosses (debuffing, blocking, interrupting, CC'ing, building threat, keep away from the rest of the party, taunting. heavy armor, sword n board - any class can do it tbh). - dks have access to a bit more mitigation spells, but other classes get other utility in form of life leach, shields etc that in the end also count as extra effective health. they also get access to other utility spells that can be used to for example survive or avoid a boss telegraph. one single target assassin/nuker specialist which main job is to deal with spread out enemy healers and after that enemy dps casters (cast a long duration cc on one healer, nuke and interrupt another healer, switch to a enemy dps caster all across the room and kill it too - dps night blades or dps sorcs come to mind) one melee aoe dps warrior which main job is to deal with multiple weaker melee thrash mobs (mix of medium and heavy armor - using physical weapon skills, armor skills and area oriented class skills to deal area of effect damage bring area of effect crowd control to the table - dps dks or dps templars come to mind) one healer which will keep everyone up (light armor to get more resistance from enemy caster spells which hopefully is the only thing he will be hit by, mostly slotting long range restoration staff abilities - any class can do it tbh). - templars healers just get an alternative way of healing as they can wield a dps weapon while they use short range pbaoe heals from their class line instead... templar healers probably need to mix in some heavy armor or a shield as their relatively short range pbaoe healing style mean they likely will take some cleave damage.

is it confirmed that you keep the buff (and dots still deal damage) when you switch to a bar that does not have the spell on the bar?