The Nightblade Thread

[irons]

Do you guys think that we'll be able to gain MP while under Cloak if we're using Siphoning Strikes? (Obviously not "regenerate" it passively, but "restore" it through weapon hits??) I mean, if the St is still being restored, it makes sense that MP would still get restored. Right? :S

I think so and I guess that potions will also work.

[Musclemagic]

I think so and I guess that potions will also work.

 

Great point, I reckon it will as well.

[Guest sekio321]

Argonian NB, 

DW-axes/fire enchant or life steal

resto staff

5heavy 2light

 

DW

twin slashes 

haste

cripple

siphoning strike

strife

 

 

ult-soul shred

 

Rstaff

regeneration

force siphon

entropy

agony

cripple

 

Im going for self sustain heals/debuff

Any ideas or comments? Im not looking to be super powerful, this just looks like a fun build to me.

[Areodon]

Guys i have question about this build - what do u think and how i can improve it. 

 

Race: Dunmer ( or Redguard ) 

Class: Nightblade

Armor: 1 Light , 5 Medium, 1 heavy

Attribute distribution: H 9 – M 25 – S 15

Pots ( magic coz ill need it and NB has good passive for it)

Enchants - magic and health reg + Damage power

Mundus stone Magic regen or max magic 

 

Dual Wielding loadout (daggers)                       

Assasins blade  ( Teleport strike )

Haste

Death Stroke (UL)

Siphoning Strikes

Shadow Cloak

Veiled Strike

Two-handed loadout (probably sword or mace )   

Mark Target

Charge

Death stroke UL ( coz of morph i have every 7 kills one shot with DS ) or Soul shred to get+8% magic ( specially if i can have passive combat frenzy all the time in the PVP )

Aspect of Terror

Momentum

Immovable

 

How / Why:

Resources will be saved for main priorities ( Haste , Momentum ( will be activated 5-6 sec before fight ) , Shadow cloak or Aspect of terror ).

If still resources doesnt work then i will swap some magica based spells for some weapon subs,

Damage will be produced with white hits after haste and momentum . 

Escape i have with shadow cloak and aspect of terror. 

CC Veiled strike and Aspect of terror.

Immovable if i am paced out. 

[Thal]

Anyone know if the HOT from the Blood Craze morph option on Twin Slashes stacks? Or if for that matter any HOT from abilities stack rather than just having their timer reset. That HOT could be quite useful in PvP if you could stack it since Twin Slashes hardly costs much stamina at all.

[Musclemagic]

Thal:

Based on how much much greater the damage/healing per resource point is on over-time spells, I'm going to just go ahead and say that they don't stack. I could be wrong though, it's just a guess. If I am wrong I'd instantly change my character plans to a NB in Light w/ Resto+Destro.

 

Sekio: 

I like the idea behind this build. I'd try to balance stam/magicka  bit more by taking Immovable probably on even both of your bars. You're also very mixed right now between weapon power + spell power, which isn't a good idea. I'd recommend going SP.

 

It's too early to say whether a build like this will really be effective or not, it depends on too many things, but this is something similar to what I initially wanted to play as so I like what you're going for.

 

Areodon: 

On your first bar: 100% magicka in medium armor = bad news bears. First, you won't have enough magic penetration for those spells to be effective. With just 1 piece of light (that you don't even use the active for, and it doesn't benefit your white hits or anything, I'd just pass on this 1 piece).

 

It... idk, your build is confusing. You're obviously going for something very unique and I just don't see it working out.

Mark Target most likely (IMO) will not affect any of the other spells on your bar, so that would be a waste.

 

You're going for white-damage, yet your spell-power being low means your 1st bar's worthless besides Haste/Teleport Strike because the damage abilities will be really low, not worth casting imo. You don't have a way to keep guys on you, like a snare. I see that you have Siphoning Strikes + Haste which will be good for your Magicka, but firstly you'll have too much Stamina, and secondly- if you are actually relying on white damage then this is the opposite of what you want to do in this case. I'd highly suggest swapping out those spell-power based abilities for something that isn't based on the SP.

[Areodon]

Like u said I will base my damage on white hits so i need medium armor and use crit passives. First load out doesn't need to be backed up with significant spell power because all spells are utilities. 

On second load out if mark target will just open space for spell damage then yes i can change it for something better and that will be something like drain power, cripple or agony. 

Both bars do have damage enhancers ( haste and momentum )for white hits and can work in combination. 

I agree with fact that i would need to look for perhaps more balance with flurry or some stamina based hit on first bar. 

But i have one thing which could improve balance as such - every second fight i will use deathstroke which will boost my damage for free in terms of magic and stamina.  

I don't see what's so unique and specific if u decided to make run and gun build based on stealth/invisibility ,stuns and lots of burst damage. If we say that assassin chars in general will not work then i understand your arguments. In my opinion this build will work well if u back it up with tank and/or pick your own fights. 

If u think this will not work why u plan to use in your builds magelight ?

[Musclemagic]

So, you are going for an assassin's build? That makes a lot more sense now. I was confused because it looked like you were trying to be spell-based with Siphoning Strikes and direct damage.

 

Yeah mate, if you use a few stamina based abilities on bar#1 and not use the light armor it would definitely be better. I also think you should lose Siphoning Strikes if you're going to rely on white attacks for damage. Especially since you're mostly looking to use boosters rather than something you would want to use over and over or anything, you don't the resources as badly. Saying that most of your spells on bar#1 are for utility, when 2/5 (or 3/6) of your spells on bar#1 are direct damage, is silly..your bar#1 will need to change at least a little bit.

 

I also think you're much better off either taking a 1H&S or a Bow as one of your bars. DW + 2H is redundant even if you're going for different things, they're not different enough to overcome most of the situations where one would fail at.

[Areodon]

Perhaps something like this ? 

 

My Build

Race: Breton

Class: Nightblade

Armor: 1 Light , 5 Medium, 1 Heavy

Attribute distribution: H 9 – M 25 – S 15

Pots ( magic coz ill need it and NB has good passive for it)

Enchants - magic and health reg + Damage power

Mundus stone Magic regen or max magic 

 

Dual Wielding loadout (daggers)( finishing , casters )

Teleport Strike

Haste

Death Stroke (UL)

Siphoning Strikes/ Flurry

Shadow Cloak

Veiled Strike

Bow loadout ( Start, against melee)

Assassins blade

Cripple/Strife/Agony

Death stroke

Mark target/Immovable

Poison arrow

Scatter shot 

[sekio321]

Sekio: 

I like the idea behind this build. I'd try to balance stam/magicka  bit more by taking Immovable probably on even both of your bars. You're also very mixed right now between weapon power + spell power, which isn't a good idea. I'd recommend going SP.

 

It's too early to say whether a build like this will really be effective or not, it depends on too many things, but this is something similar to what I initially wanted to play as so I like what you're going for. -Musclemagic

 

 

 

Correct my goal is for most of my damage to come from SP. But as you can see everything I have on here is to help me with a sustainable DOT spec mainly SP with a dash of WP for the bleed and fire enchant, my goal is not to focus on the actual weapon damage  but the effects of the weapon, I do need one good active defense skill but immovable doesn't seem to be all that great with this set up got plus its not a skill i would see my self using. Any suggestions? 

 

Darn I just saw a flaw, my skills are all ranged based (good for initiation) but my weapon damage is melee (bleed and fire enchant), I can see situations where this will cause issuesmaybe if I used a destruction staff it would work out better, allowing me to have slows from frost staff or dot from fire staff.  

 

But once the server starts up again 

i will be  able to test out, and not just have theory.  Would love to see how magicka stam and health affect damage output.

 

Argonian NB, 

destro staff

resto staff

2heavy 5light

 

destro staff-fire

destructive toucj

haste

cripple

siphoning strike

strife

 

 

ult-soul shred

 

Rstaff

regeneration

force siphon

entropy

agony

cripple

 

If I use this I will mainly be using SP for all skills thats ok though since they are completely different uses one for damage and one for cc/healing this would be pure ranged save it be my ult which is 6m.

 

Argonian NB, 

DW-axes/fire enchant or life steal

resto staff

5heavy 2light

 

DW

twin slashes 

haste

cripple

siphoning strike

strife

 

 

ult-soul shred

 

Rstaff

regeneration

force siphon

entropy

agony

cripple

 

not sure which one to use they both look fun

[Musclemagic]

@ Areodon & Sekio:

 

Those builds are much much better.

 

Areodon:

I'd take Flurry over SIphoning, for sure. Teleport Strike with +next attack damage, into a Flurry, synergizes so well with the +incapacitated damage on DW.

 

I'd also take Evasion instead of veiled strike. It's too offensive right now. This would mean that you don't necessarily need Cloak though; its primary use is to get Veiled Strike off. So, in addition to this change I'd take Siphoning Strikes again instead of Shadow Cloak.

The synergy between DW+Haste with Siphoning Strikes is amazing, and I don't think should be passed up, it just didn't work with your build before.

 

I've said this before, but I think this is the best NB bar possible right now:

 

DW-

Tele. Strike

Flurry

Haste

Siph. Strikes (or Blur//Evasion)

Either Blur or Evasion - depending on whether you have an St or MP abundance. It's more likely that you'll have St, so Evasion is probably better... But, Blur is much better because it's Miss instead of Dodge. When a target misses they are off-balance and can be knocked down with a heavy attack, when you dodge this doesn't happen.

Ult- D. Stroke (Soul Harvest Morph is awesome, but Incapacitating might prove to be better in PVP where you're getting killing blows less often.)

 

+Attack speed morph on Flurry, +30% Dmg on Tele Strike.. Those synergies are TGM.

 

If you find that your white damage is lowered more than worth the resources with Siph. Strikes, then I'd take both Blur and Evasion. As a medium armor wearer you will want to at least have some defense.

 

Good job on the bow bar too. I'd probably take Cripple out of those 3 options on there. Just one thing I'd change for sure is instead of Assn's Blade I'd take Summon Shade. Shade's awesome for a bow build. Perhaps instead of Mark/Immovable, neither of which I personally feel are needed with a bow, I'd take Volley. A ranged AOE is too big of a deal to pass up.

 

I'd still get rid of that piece of light armor, but it's not a big deal, haha!

 

Sekio:

You're right, it's much better to have a ranged weapon rather than forcing yourself to be close when you don't necessarily need to be.

 

That Destro+Resto is pretty close to my final build thoughts on an argonian drain NB, 5 light 2 heavy is good choice IMO as well.

 

You'll definitely want Immovable with that build though. I think you're underestimating it. As a drain build you'll want defensives, so it's really strong in PVE and PVP, but the really good part about immovable is the immunity to disabling effects for PVP.

 

You're going to want something to use up your stamina anyway, Immovable's kind of your best choice even if you don't necessarily like it.. Your only other options are things from the Fighter's Guild or from the Assault tree in PVP skills, but those can only be used in open Cyrodiil.

 

Just for comparison's sake, this is the drain build I made a while back:

 

Arg NB, 5 L 2 H, Rs&Ds, 16HP/32MP/0St, HP Pot.

Resto- Bubble Ench

Mark Target

Entropy

Strife

Blur

Immovable

Fire Destro- Frost Ench

Mark Target

Haste

Cripple

Destructive Touch

Immovable

Ult- Hitskin

 

Bar#1:

Mark Target -> Entropy -> Strife is going to be really good healing. The passive healing from the staff hits along with the bubble enchant will be a nice addition, of course, but not worth putting Haste on this bar. Blur/Immovable hopefully give enough defense to make your healing overcome the damage you're taking.

Bar#2:

When you need to get damage out faster, or you need to be able to kill a melee-ranged tank who you are having a stalemate with on bar#1, you can easily kite a melee target through Touch's KB + Cripple's Snare+Boost, while relying on weapon hits from Mark+Haste.

 

Ult- I chose to go with a high MP build, so having high flat HP regen boost on hand is going to be really nice along with HP Pots.

 

 

The problem I have with this build is that there's not much room for an AOE on here. You could put one on, but it changes so much that the build doesn't come together very well afterwards. If you're okay with that, then gg.

[Areodon]

@Musclemagic

 

On basis of your suggestions i came up with this build.

Just couple explanations :

1) Teleport strike is on side of bow because general idea of attack is this - mark ( wait 5 secs if possible),poison arrow, teleport , power attack, scatter shot ( disoriented target for 5 sec) , swap to DW, haste, flurry, power, power - he should die and i go shadows. 

2) Shadow cloak is still there to get in crouch and stun them from crouch so i can do haste, siphoning.

 

Race: Breton

Class: Nightblade

Armor:  5 Medium, i will see rest 

Attribute distribution: H 5 – M 22 – S 22

Pots ( probably magic coz ill need it and NB has good passive for it)

Enchants ( enchanter )  - magic and health reg + Damage power

Mundus stone :will see

 

Dual Wielding loadout (daggers)( finishing , casters )

Assassin's blade/Hidden blade

Haste

Death Stroke (UL)

Siphoning Strikes

Shadow Cloak

Flurry

Bow loadout ( Start, against melee)

Teleport Strike

Summon shade

Soul shred

Mark target  ( if lowering res and armor ) if not then Volley

Poison arrow

Scatter shot 

[Musclemagic]

Bow does more damage when far away, and people can instantly get out of incapacitates so I wouldn't count on being able to get distance from scatter shot again after getting in close with Tele.

 

And then you'll want the ability to chase when you have DW out so I'd really really suggest swapping Tele to DW bar somehow.

 

I see where you're coming from but I don't think it's going to work out. You can try it... but I think you're trying to be too quirky, haha! I love it, but it's really weird!! XD

[Areodon]

How do u get out of "disoriented". Do u use stamina like if u were stunned ? 

[Musclemagic]

I think it's the same for all "incapacitates": Stunned/Immobilized/Disoriented/Silenced

 

This doesn't include snares, blinds, fears, etc.

 

It's worthwhile to note that this is what Immovable (from heavy armor) will/won't work with as well (add knockbacks though.)

 

So, it's kind of interesting to think that Snare/KB is probably the best way to kite people, KB being the lesser due to Immovable. This is interesting because the "chase" class snares are a much higher % snare than the kite classes... so without something like "Bolt Escape" or a dispel..which may not even work on a physical snare, or one like Ash Field at all. This means you'll need to use snares AND knockbacks together to kite someone, and if they're using Immovable then you're simply unable to kite them if they are using a snare of their own and you don't have Bolt Escape, Aspect of Terror, Shadow Cloak, or speed enhancers like Cripple/Path of Darkness/Rapid Maneuver(but not good for kiting, just running).

 

Obviously NB with a bow will be very difficult for melee to catch, as well as very good at chasing down casters with their DW bar. This makes them the best 1v1 class by a landslide. It's just a shame they're not very good in group pvp.I guess Volley and Agony are good for groups, as well as a Tele Strike(Fan)/Drain Power/Whirlwind build for bursts of AOE damage.

 

I'm so torn right now on what to be, it's not even funny.

 

edit: I wonder about stonefist/crystal shard type things with knockdowns. If knockdowns are really good then Dagger/Shield build might be amazing (fast heavy attack and lots of blocking)..

[Areodon]

Huh.It means that real value of immovable we can know only when we know cost of getting out of stun by simply using stamina. 

U gave  interesting insight in kiting. If my opponent is blinded does it mean that i am stealthed ( he can't see me ) ? I suppose that he can't break out of it except dispelling it. If answers are yes yes then i suppose sparks will be extremely important.

Thanks man. 

[Musclemagic]

Huh.It means that real value of immovable we can know only when we know cost of getting out of stun by simply using stamina. 

U gave  interesting insight in kiting. If my opponent is blinded does it mean that i am stealthed ( he can't see me ) ? I suppose that he can't break out of it except dispelling it. If answers are yes yes then i suppose sparks will be extremely important.

Thanks man. 

 

Sort of.. Immovable's really good defensive stats on top of the anti- KB/incapacitate. But you're right, we don't know how much it'll cost to get out of an incapacitate normally, but I have a feeling it will be pretty hefty! I think it's more for those 4+ second abilities, it shouldn't be worth it on things like Shield Charge or Tele Strike for 1.5-2 seconds or so. That would be silly if they make it that cheap.

 

About Blind, it gives a chance for the opponent to miss. Missing is like dodging, except the opponent gets set off-balance when they miss.

 

Blur, for example, gives opponents a 15% chance to miss. Evasion gives you a 15% chance to dodge. It's almost the same but much better because of the off-balance.

 

So, Sparks (single target) and Blinding Light/Ash Cloud (PBAOE) are pretty dang good.

[Guest zargash]

Hey everyone,

 

Long time min max pvper here.  Just started to mull on some of the builds I've seen posted and been swishing some of the skills through my head the last day or so.  I think I've  come up with something I'd find both fun and optimized within pvp (or in theory lol).

 

Race: Orc

Class: Nightblade

Armor:  6 Heavy Armor for maximum protection

Attribute distribution: H 10 – M 17– S 22

Pots NOt sure dont know enough about.

Enchants ( enchanter )  -Again need more info...

Mundus stone : blah blah again more info.

 

Bow

 

Haste

Poisen Arrow

Cripple/Volley/Mark Target (but I'm doing mostly physical damage so it doesn't seem to help me, but maybe for a team setup)

Strife

Scattershot

Passive: Bow retreat

 

2-hander

 

Teleport Strike Morph Lotus Fan

Uppercut

Heavy Armor

Shadow Cloak Morph Either one.

Cleave Morph Brawler

 

Ulti-Beserker Rage since I see it giving even more burst damage when I need it and some extra protection or Consuming Darkness in groups, although I may want this primarily if I find it to be usefull, but 200 ulti points may take a while to get up.

 

The way I invision combat is I start out in bow, able to put out high speed damage/kite/heal via strife, haste, cripple, and poisen arrow to null casters.  I even see usages of scatter shot as a interrupt/cc to combine with the multipe abilities within both loadouts.  I like stamina/magic mix since I can switch between stun/cc of either type via teleport strike/poisen arrow/uppercut/scatter shot and both recharge separetly on the own bars so i see that as a maximization nitch.  If I just use magic, magic charges on its own bar, but magic/stamina split charge seperately and will bring up cc's/interrupts faster since I use a mix of them.

 

I see this loadout being able to take advantage of my opponent via long range or short, and utilizing against them what they are worst at.  In close quarters I can easily throw out a 2-5 sec stun lock into massive damage.  I also have 2 AOE skills that I can add into the mix if the opportunity opens itself.

 

If shit hits the fan, I can speed out of there via bow retreat/sprint/cripple or just disappear via Shadow Cloak+bow retreat.

 

I can get into some of the interesting combos of the class if you want, but a nice little one is just teleport strike/upper cut knocking them back (although if upper cut roots me on cast I probably wont use it, and may go with dual weapons and use spark/aoe ability), followed by switch to bow to scatter them away and then kite if I'm at a melee disadvantage, or stay on them with teleport.

 

Another cool ability is to teleport strike in, knock them back scatter shot into YOUR front line and shadow cloak away, which is just gonna be trololol.

[thedeadcat]

Is there any way of turning the nightblade into a kind of melee healer like the bear shamin from AOC or Nature from DCUO.

I like healing and I like melee unfortunately the two do not always mix well.

[Guest Zargash]

You could kinda take the skill Strife morphed for aoe effect.  Twin blade via dual wield for self healing, and Resto staff with a few healing skills, and it would be similiar it seems.

[Theoryexpert]

I want to discuss shadow cloak, and why I think it is the single most powerful ability in the game in PVP for survival. I have a lot of very high level experience in MMO PVP, and one thing I've learned is that invisibility mechanics are almost always overpowered. Think of it this way, no amount of armor, health, or mitigation aside from near invulnerability will save you when a group focus fires you down, but invisibility makes everyone drop target and do something else until the invis wears off. Absolutely nothing compares to invisibility mechanics for survival.

 

The nightblade is ofcourse counter-balanced by bringing very poor group utility in large scale battles besides just focus firing a single target. Therefore the nightblade is the least valuable class in large scale pvp. but also the hardest to kill. This means the nightblade is best doing "spec ops" type missions in smaller groups from solo to four or five people. A large zerg would probably be best served having very few nightblades (but at least a few) in the group.

 

But back to shadow cloak. I think playing a PVP nightblade without this ability is extremely foolish. It is easily the best PVP ability in the entire arsenal of the nightblade, because it allows you to control the momentum and pace of a fight. On top of this, the passives allowing for stamina regen, and increased armor after coming out of invisibility seal the deal and make shadow cloak a must have ability on any nightblade PVP bar. 

[Theoryexpert]

After quite a bit of theorycrafting, trying to come up with the best possible class/spec for small scale pvp that plays in a way I find fun, I came to a conclusion. Realizing that I like high DPS, high risk, high reward, in your face characters that are fun to play I narrowed myself down to Dragon Knight and Nightblade. I don't really like stealthing around like a nightblade, but at the same time I don't like being dependant on a healer and not having any "outs" of a fight like the Dragon Knight. Dragon Knight is a really cool class, and is incredibly powerful but I decided that its more oriented towards a group PVP bruiser playstyle and is going to be most effective with a healer. Templar is another class that is more group oriented due to their support nature and strong ability to heal. The sorcerror and the nightblade are the two solo powerhouses in this game due to their abilities to dictate the pace of a fight, and also their ability to escape if need be. For now I am leaning towards Nightblade. 

 

I have come up with a build which I consider to be a solo powerhouse. The intent of this build is to excel primarily at 1on1 combat but also be a force in other small scale engagements. This class does not rely on a healer to any extent and its best pairing would be with another highly independant damage dealer like a sorcerror.

 

25 Magicka

0 Health

25 Stamina

 

Bar 1: Bow

This is actually not my primary bar, it is my opening bar. I open combat with the bow and frontload all of my magicka as quickly as possible. My goal here is to dictate the pace of the fight by immediately putting the enemy on the defensive with this frontloaded attack from massive range (all abilities at 28 meters). This is a bombardment of cripples, drains, and DOT's.

 

Mark Target or Strife

Cripple

Entropy

Poison Arrow

Shadow Cloak

Consuming Darkness

 

Bar 2: Dual Wield Swords

Once I have frontloaded all of my magical drains, debuffs, and dots from my bow, I will consume a magicka potion and switch to my primary bar. The magicka potion should give me enough magicka to be able to activate haste and teleport strike, and then I can unload with flurry. Stamina is not something you want to fully deplete though, because you need it for reactive defenses.

 

Haste

Teleport Strike

Flurry 

Twin Blade or Siphoning Strikes

Shadow Cloak or Evasion

Death Strike

 

I would likely end the fight here, however if the opponent proves especially resillient, and Im using the siphoning strikes variant, I will switch on siphoning strikes and attempt to recover stam/mana with my incredibly fast attack speed from haste. Once I have recovered enough I can switch back to bar 1 and play an attrition game until I can activate consuming shadows at which point I would be invisible while my drains and DOT's continued to tick.

 

This is the strongest 1on1 build I have come up with so far. The only flaws I really see is that I am opening with entropy and strife at range, but its likely that I will not have taken any damage at this point and so my self healing is basically going to waste. This is why I would consider replacing these skills with something like Mark Target although its not clear what mark target actually does. The dual wield bar looks really solid, I think haste will be necessary for flurry to be viable in pvp, otherwise it will just keep getting interrupted or avoided. Spiked armor may make flurry a death sentence, if which thats the cast I might replace flurry with something else. One issue is that there is no snare on the dual wield bar unless I take the twin strikes morph, or the teleport strike morph. Overall, I really like this build and may do some more refinement. Thoughts?

 

Edit: updated build further in thread

[irons]

Mark Target is extremly strong in PvP it reduces the Armor and SpellRes of your enemy and you by 75% which means even a DK will have low armor. This in combination with the really strong crits in this game makes the NB to a real threat.However there are counters to it for example could people start to stack Crit Res and use defensive abilities like Dmg Shields and Evasion.@ Theory pls try to avoid double posts.

[Guest Hans]

I think the "Mark Target" description is out of date.

It does reduce your targets resist but it also makes yourself vulnerable.

So its more a PvE dps thing I guess...

[Rally]

Play ranged and in a group. mark target best spell!