The Nightblade Thread

[CanisPanther]

This is my Nightblade build meant for ranged damage before sneaking in for the finish. I know the Altmer have really nice spell passives, but Khajit's Eye of Fear and melee crit damage gives the build a little more synergy for it's hybrid nature.6/6 Light ArmorDestruction Staff- FrostThis is how we stay competent within the group and contribute at a safe distance. We choose Frost just incase we become a target and need to keep our target off of us by slowing them down. Plus it combos with Soul Strike.1. Magelight (Crit)2.a Weakness to Elements (This is really just to ramp up the damage of our basic and standard attacks as it'll be the only skill from the Destruction tree.)2.b Mark Target (Standard pen v.s. damage.)3. Strife w/Swallow Soul (HoT/DoT)4. Summon Shade (Added damage)5. Shadow Cloak w/Dark Cloak (Disengage and remove debuff.)Ultimate: Soul Strike (Bonuse damage to chilled targets.)Or Eye of TerrorPretty basic: 2 buffs, 2 damage abilities, and one escape that double as a way to get into melee with a big hit. Might even take out Shade so I can have Mark Target and Weakness to Elements.DW Axes (For bleed effect.)1. Mark Target (Boost our melee since we're in cloth.)2. Teleport Strike w/Lotus Fan (Gap Close. Snare and DoT, unless the Morph doesn't apply to the target, then we'd go for the other Morph.)3.a Fury w/Rapid Strikes (More speed, more bleed.)3.b Veiled Strike w/Concealed Weapon (Stealth speed for escape or stalking. Maybe save all ST for CC Break, Dodge Roll, etc.)4. Assasin's Blade w/Killer's Blade (Heal on kill.)5. Shadow Cloak w/Dark Cloak (Disengage and remove debuff.)Ultimate: Death Stroke w/Incapacitating Strike (Double sided knife: if we're doing good, we should have tons of Ultimate for a max damage hit, if we're losing, a little stun might be what we need to turn the tide or make an escape.)The second bar is more to go in and assist our bruisers with securing kills before returning to range.

[Musclemagic]

Areodon, I hear there are 50 shades of grey.

[CanisPanther]

Areodon, I hear there are 50 shades of grey.

Still reeling over the fact Emma Watson didn't take that role.

I'm power leveling my post numbers apparently.

[m3x1c4n7]

1st post on this site, pretty happy to have an outlet for my post beta, pre game release obsessing...

 

Here's the build I've been thinking about lately, I primarily plan to PVP:

 

orc, all heavy armor.

 

bar 1, Dual Daggers:

 

1. Teleport Strike, Ambush Morph

2. Flurry, Rapid Strikes Morph

3. Assasin's Blade, Impact Morph

4. Haste

5. Siphoning Strikes

 

Ult. Berserker Rage

 

Bar 2. Resto Staff

 

1. Strife, Funnel Health Morph

2. Entropy

3. Cripple

4. Force Siphon

5. Immovable

 

Ult. Soul Shred

 

Obviously I'm going for a more tanky, toe to toe style NB build.

 

Bar 1 is offensive, hopefully sustainable burst damage. Tele Strike and Assassin's Blade with increased range allow me to stay on the target with the 1.5 sec. stun allowing for effective Flurries and basic attacks. Flurries haste buff along with Haste and Siphoning Strikes should provide the resources to sustain offence.

 

Bar 2 is obviously a a kiting, dot/hot survival bar.

 

Gear will stack health regen primarily then magicka regen and crit.

 

This is my preliminary idea for my character. I am very appreciative of criticism keeping in mind that my build theme is heavy armor/tank/survival NB.

[Rally]

Making a statement with no evidence as to why, doesn't hold any credibility. Why don't you explain why shadow cloak is bad. Ill explain why it is insanely good

 

1. It's a drop target and escape. If you are being focus fired by 2, 3, or even 10+ people you can simply vanish and force them to aquire another target. You can repeatedly recast it if you have enough mana and use it as an escape tool. 

 

2. You can use it to supplement stealth attacks like veiled strike

 

3. You can use it to clear DOT's from you or delay a fight while your own DOT's tick

 

4. You activate powerful passive abilities like +15% stamina regen after stealth, and +armor and +spell resistance after stealth

 

5. You can dictate the pace and momentum of a fight with this ability

 Well AoE/PBAoE!!

 

U go invis and eat my Encase right into ur face,

Or u get insta revealed, coz i stand in my Inferno,and the list goes on....

[Hans]

I agree it is not that powerful.

Reasons:

 

1. There is no target dropping, as hard targeting is not necessary (although possible). You are still in the same place an get hit like before.

All you can do is "walk away" but you will eat those AoEs everybody will drop as soon as someone vanishes right before them.

 

2. that easily doubles your magicka cost for those skills. Maybe worth it, maybe worth more just to use said skills twice.

 

3. You clear one dot, have no idea which one, hav no real UI showing you which dots affect you and how much damage you take from them. Really many skills add at least a meager Dot.

 

4. +15% stamina regen is a joke (at least at lower levels, might change, might not...) 15% @lvl 10 was 1 stamina per scond while at hardcapped regen rate. While skills cost what...40? 50? stamina.

+armor and +spell ressi might be worth it but my biggest concern:

 

It is not about how good the cloak is in itself.

You have to compare it to every skill you did not take on your skillbar so you can have it OR you have to compare it to every other skill you could have cast with said magicka.

[Guest Guest]

I was thinking a LA/Dest staff combo could be viable.

 

It would give you Mark target+ weakness to elements+Haste.No/lo res with high attack rate.

 

The NB,Dest staff,and LA passives work well together.The LA passives keep costs low and regen high so you can keep this rotation up.

If this combo works play your NB like a FPS.

[Rally]

I was thinking a LA/Dest staff combo could be viable.

 

It would give you Mark target+ weakness to elements+Haste.No/lo res with high attack rate.

 

The NB,Dest staff,and LA passives work well together.The LA passives keep costs low and regen high so you can keep this rotation up.

If this combo works play your NB like a FPS.

 

And maybe u could use Force Shock to kite them a bit better and deal more dps

[Hans]

The LA passives keep costs low and regen high so you can keep this rotation up.

 

Sorry, but reducing spell cost by 7% and increasing a very meager magicka recovery by 14% will not let you keep up any rotation...

[Areodon]

Sorry, but reducing spell cost by 7% and increasing a very meager magicka recovery by 14% will not let you keep up any rotation...

 

If cost reduction and faster recovery is just part of resource scheme plan then it can take him right direction. Dont forget that weakness and haste are just enhancers of white hits. Obviously idea is to make high portion of damage with white hits. In that case white hits u may consider as rotation and in that perspective whole bild could be considered viable in regard to resources. All depends on what buttons he will press .-). 7 % cost reduction and 14 % of magica recovery is huge.  

[Hans]

7 % cost reduction and 14 % of magica recovery is huge.

It really is not. 7% cost reduction means you can cast 16 instead of 15 spells. 15% more recovery means what? @lvl 10 it was 1 magicka more per second. Thats one more spell per minute. Nope, not huge imo. Maybe at higher levels, we will see...

[CanisPanther]

It really is not. 7% cost reduction means you can cast 16 instead of 15 spells. 15% more recovery means what? @lvl 10 it was 1 magicka more per second. Thats one more spell per minute. Nope, not huge imo. Maybe at higher levels, we will see...

I've seen this argument a couple times in different threads about builds, but you're referencing a very low level. Nothing to do with endgame where enchants, gear bonus, mundus, food, potions, etc., where the bonuses actual could be phenomenal. Everyone knows percentages are better endgame, and flat numbers are terrific early game, not to say they can't be huge end game either. So although early game they might not be much, they'll still help.

[m3x1c4n7]

I was just wondering what peoples thoughts on Heavy armor Nightblades were... I posted a build i thought might be appropriate earlier.

 

I'd like to see what some other peoples build ideas are and their rationale for skill choices and/or play styles with this set up.

 

Is anyone else planning on playing this?

[ClikC]

Is anyone else planning on playing this?

I'll be damn well playing a sneaky dual wield heavy armoured nightblade assassin while leveling. Its how I play skyrim. I'm hoping with the game developers aiming to make this game playable the way people want to play it, that min-max/ cookie cutter builds will not leave individual/ unique builds completely unviable. I can except maybe not making top progression without compromising how I want to play, but creating an atmosphere where not playing a cookie cutter build will see you frowned apon or even kicked out of a group in say a dungeon environment would not be fitting with an Elder Scrolls game.Hopefully it will work something like this. Sure as a nightblade I can wear medium armour and my DPS will be the highest, but I'm squishy. With heavy armour I can get more uptime on mobs/ bosses. Or with light armour I can regen quicker for burst damage or heal myself.I think zenimax will be working hard to make many builds viable. And with the unique attribute points, wearing medium armour means you can attain more stam, but you have to invest heavily in health. With heavy armour you get more health, leaving greater investment in magika/ stamina more viable.Also with the crafting system, I hope that will also lower the gap, heavy armour with lots of stamina/ +damage trails worked into crafted armour sets of any type.I loved playing a DK on wow, my favorite build I ever had was Dual Wield Unholy (the greif I got for that build was unreal). The blizzard nerfed it and made it completely unviable. I'd play DW frost whenever I could, but frequently I'd have to swap my play style for raid progression. That was really the stepping stone for me quitting WOW over a year ago.Done want to break NDA but I did try out DW heavy armour on the NB on the recent beta. I was incredible limited on play time, only getting 6 hours in on the one day I could play. I felt playable, I didn't encounter any brickwalls, but I think I was in the wrong skill line. I'd have liked more time to craft some decent 1H weapons, and try out the other skill line.

[Theoryexpert]

Min Maxing has always made the best builds, in every RPG there is. This game will be no different. The only thing that might change are the mechanics of how to min max. A wide variety of builds will be playable, but only a few handful will be top tier.

[Areodon]

Min Maxing has always made the best builds, in every RPG there is. This game will be no different. The only thing that might change are the mechanics of how to min max. A wide variety of builds will be playable, but only a few handful will be top tier.

I second this

[CanisPanther]

Min Maxing has always made the best builds, in every RPG there is. This game will be no different. The only thing that might change are the mechanics of how to min max. A wide variety of builds will be playable, but only a few handful will be top tier.

And we will be the exception to rule. Just when you think you've got it figured out, going to hit you with the new cool.

[Hans]

I think you need to ask: Where does my damage come from? Where do i get my defense from? Where can I get my ressources?

 

If your Defense is passive via heavy armor you can spend your stamina on DW attacks, if you use 1H&Shield you might get away with light armor and dps via class skills, if you dodge a lot, maybe medium armor is best for you and you fuel everything with stamina except a few class buffs.

 

Min Maxing is allways going to give you the "max" therefore the name

The question is: How much can you gimp yourself? 

This one Weekend we are not talking about, I was blasting through while a guildy could not finish some questlines with stronger "bosses" by himself.

So a certain amount of "maxing" seems to be needed.

And skill. Skill is good in this game, and I love that.

[Eol]

In PvP its not as easy to min/max because a lot depends on what your enemy does, especially in a game with only 6-12 quickslots where your choice of what to slot defines your character. For example, min/max that Dunmer fire dps to the Nth degree, but don't be surprised when players from other realms start stacking fire resist. Not even to mention skills that, when used properly, can counter other skills very well.

 

I agree that certain builds will be 'perceived' to be best, but to the extent that a lot of people start using that build, it will encourage enemies to select skills and equip gear to counter that build. That's the danger of Flavor of the Month builds. On the other hand, if you can find an effective build that not many people copy, and you can run with a group that maximizes the synergies between characters, well now you have a hands-down winner. Just don't let too many people know about it

[Musclemagic]

This isn't even something worth discussing. Min/maxing is the only reasonable way to find the strongest builds... What else are you going to do? Guess and check every build without even trying to min/max first?

 

The fact that some builds can be stronger than others means that it's also a fact that there will be one build that is the strongest against the most amount of common situations. Our goal should be to find the builds that fit this bill the best, which will obviously vary based on what your personal goals are as well. (If you like soloing more than groups, you'd most likely have a much different build.)

 

 

We can argue that D3/POE/D2/any other game where you only have a smaller selection of skills...it actually ends up with a much bigger difference between the individuals, like Eol said, but it also makes it more apparent when a build is stronger than another--which then quickly turns into the FOTM and is then either patched or copied to the point where the new FOTM is the anti-FOTM.

 

As Eol also said, just pray that people don't start to copy you! A way to minimize this would be to min/max a healer or a tank where most people will want to be more of a DPS variant.

[Areodon]

During my last 3 years of wow i had 5 or 6 major overhauls ( from frost to unholy and back several times ) and really a lot of patches, releases, boost , nerfs , tweaks. I was always very, very high on DPS global ladders. Build is nice but top guild, dedication, open mind and practice is winning the game. Point is : my friends they can copy as much as they like but if u can work for win 15 hours a day they don't stand a chance. Skill eventually prevails. By the way TESO is whole different ballgame than wow and from my standpoint TESO combat mechanics is more intensive and simply ...better.  

[m3x1c4n7]

One of the differentiating factors about this game is that the class/skill system offers significant customization and I think there are more viable options, pvp wise, than people seem to be discussing. I can absolutely see, in pve, there being some very specific builds to max dps, but there is more play style/skill involved in pvp that allows increased flexibility in build choices.

 

That said, I thoroughly believe in min/maxing whatever you decide to play. It's absolutely important to have a synergistic and well thought out build. I just think it too early to put limits on what's viable for each class.

[Xenon]

 

7% cost reduction means you can cast 16 instead of 15 spells.15% more recovery means what...

 

You can take almost all passive skills more than once.

 

7% cost reduction times 3 = 21% cost reduction

14% recovery times 2 = 28 % recovery

 

Also, at level 1 a spell might cost say... 25% of your max magicka.

At max level the same spell will cost about 15% of your max magicka (due to scaling alone).

If you place attribute points in magicka the relative cost will be even lower (as your pool increase).

...and then you stack the two passives on top of that.

[irons]

A passive which grants you a 10% boni at rank 1 doesn't allways give you a 20% boni at rank 2.Sometimes you end up with 15% instead of 20%.

[Theoryexpert]

There is no doubt that nightblade is going to be one of the strongest single target damage classes in the game. It will probably have the advantage in a 1 on 1 battle against most if not all other classes. It will also be very useful in group fights as an assassin. The nightblade is the only class to bring a -75% healing debuff and mark target. This makes nightblades the "main assist" in pvp. Nightblades are also the most difficult class to kill in pvp due to shadow cloak, their evasive fighting style and consuming darkness. This will be the most frustrating class to fight against, hands down, due to all the sneaky tricks up their sleave. Considering the best roles of a nightblade in pvp, I think the following build will be hands down one of the best in the game.

 

PVP Assassin Nightblade

 

6 light 1 medium

Breton

30 magicka

17 stamina

2 health

 

You can also do a variant of this build with more stamina and less magicka using more or all medium armor and using a race like khajit, or bosmer if you want to maximize your stealth to ensure you always get the opener. I personally prefer the light armor variant because it allows more uses of shadow cloak but the medium armor variant is better for players who actually want to sneak around and maximize their white attack dps. 

 

7 medium

khajit

17 magicka

30 stamina

2 health

 

Bar 1 (Primary combat bar) Dual Wield or 2 Hand

 

Cripple

Sparks or Momentum orAssassins Blade or Reverse Slash

Teleport Strike or Critical Charge

Free Choice: Purge/Rapid Maneuver/Strife

Evasion

Death Strike

 

Bar 2 (Opening bar, buffs/debuffs, and ranged options) Resto Staff or Bow

 

Mark Target

Shadow Cloak

Blur

Haste

Veiled Strike

Ultimate

 

 

I truly believe this will be the strongest pvp assassin nightblade build in the game.