nightblade

PvE DPS GUIDE

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Nightblade excels at burst damage and rewards you for staying on the offensive with automatic healing, resources and damage mitigation. Despite this self-sufficiency, Nightblade can also be challenging because of its dependence on player execution. But this is also what makes it so satisfying to play. Throw in one of the most powerful execute abilities in the game and you’ve got a uniquely dynamic and engaging class that rewards players who take the time to master it.

KEY PASSIVES

Penetration is something you either need desperately or not at all. An extra 2974 penetration can sometimes be very useful, freeing us up to invest more into other damage stats.

An extra 2% Critical Chance per Assassination ability slotted is significant, especially since we will always have Grim Focus and Impale/Killer’s Blade on our front bar, granting a 4% increase.

With Critical Damage capped at 125% this is not equally valuable everywhere, but it’s also the source of Minor Savagery, our unique group buff, and is easier to keep up than other class equivalents.

Transfer is already equivalent to other ultigen passives, but this effectively doubles it, letting us keep up even without a Siphoning ability. For a class which relies so much on its ultimate, this is huge.

Recent Changes

    • Grim Focus and its morphs changed to be always active - no precast necessary. Cost increased.

    • Relentless Focus stacking bonus increased from 60 to 80 Weapon & Spell Damage.

    • Buffs from Shadow Cloak and its morphs made permanent when slotted on either bar.

    • Major Savagery & Prophecy added to base morph and Shadowy Disguise.

    • Weapon passives changed to shrink the gap between different weapon types.

    • Long Shots renamed Vinedusk Training, changed to a universal damage bonus.

    • Bonuses from Twin Blade & Blunt and Heavy Weapons reduced slightly.

    • Ancient Knowledge changed to boost damage types based on type of staff equipped.

    • Tri Focus restricted to the final tick of fully charged Lightning Heavy Attacks, rather than any tick.

    • Merciless Charge changed to increase all direct damage for 18s after casting Critical Charge.

    • 0.5s cooldown and 30% ramping damage per target added to Azureblight, base damage reduced.

    • Warchief, Battlereeve and General monster sets added to Cyrodiil.

    • Sourcing of Craglorn trial sets adjusted to fix curation.

    • Improved death notifications added to PvP areas.

    • Hundreds of bug fixes for quests, sets, items, companions etc.

    • Arcanist class added.

    • Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet set added.

    • Default melee attack range increased from 5 to 7 meters.

    • Spectral Cloak changed to activate only when in combat.

    • Plaguebreak changed to apply only to enemy players.

    • Empower bonus reduced to 70% from 80%.

    • Major Berserk added to Wrecking Blow.

    • Jewelry damage glyphs hybridised. Stamina/Magicka Recovery added.

    • Runecarver’s Blaze and Ozezan the Inferno sets added.

    • Light Attack scaling increased, but base damage capped at 3,850 for melee, 3,465 for ranged.

    • Taunt added to single target pull abilities and procs when target is not already taunted.

    • Taunt immunity changed to activate only after 5 taunts from 2 players.

    • Pearls of Ehlnofey ultimate gain reduced from 5 to 3. Resource threshold raised from 30% to 50%.

    • Elemental Susceptibility fixed so Major Breach no longer overrides the ability.

    • Harmony trait changed to restore resources rather than boost synergies.

    • Syrabane’s Ward and Back-Alley Gourmand sets added.

    • Target marker system added.

    • Elemental Drain duration increased from 23 to 60 seconds.

    • Elemental Susceptibility changed to apply Burning, Chilled and Concussed every 6s. Duration reduced to 30s.

    • Volley fixed to scale dynamically and not solely with Weapon Critical.

    • Healing from Vigor reduced by 10%.

    • Occult Overload damage reduced by 60%, now applies a random status effect.

Magicka

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

Single Target

Relequen + Aegis + Zaan + Maelstrom 2H

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Zaan's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Zaan's Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Relequen's Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Relequen's Belt Divines Magicka
Legs Relequen's Guards Divines Magicka
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Aegis Caller Necklace Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 2 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • Aegis can be swapped for sets like Nirn, Yokeda or Whorl. Zaan can be swapped for Kjalnar or Selene.

  • To add a Mythic such as Coil to this setup, use 1 x Slimecraw and one of your primary sets on the head/shoulder.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Thaumaturge to boost your DOTs instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Ghastly Eye Bowl

Increase Max Magicka by 4936 and Magicka Recovery by 493 for 2 hours.

"Eyeballs" and live worms in a chilled banana and fleshfly broth. Squirms inside all the way down!

Drink > Delicacies
Worms, Fleshfly Larva, Bananas, Rose

Essence of Spell Power

Grants Major Sorcery which increases your Spell Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Prophecy which gives you 2629 Spell Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Magicka immediately.
Grants you Major Intellect which increases your Magicka Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Corn Flower
Lady's Smock
Namira's Rot / Water Hyacinth

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Fruit recipes for maximum Magicka
Crunchy Spider Skewer for Magicka + Stamina Recovery

Max-level Savoury recipes for Health + Magicka
Witchmother’s Potent Brew for Health + Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Clockwork Citrus Filet for Health + Health Recovery + Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Essence of Weapon Power for Major Brutality + Savagery + Endurance
Tri Restoration Potion for Major Fortitude + Intellect + Endurance

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Debilitate, Impale, Concealed Weapon, Deadly Cloak / Inner Light, Merciless Resolve, Incapacitating Strike

Back Bar: Stampede, Twisting Path, Barbed Trap, Dark Shade, Carve, Shooting Star*

*Slot Star if you have enough ultimate to use it in your opening burst. If not, just slot Incapacitating Strike on both bars.

SEMI-STATIC ROTATION
118k DPS

Nightblade still lags behind for damage in PvE. It has decent burst and can just about keep up in single target fights if played well, but it has very little built-in cleave damage, which can be a big disadvantage against some trial bosses. The revamp of Dark Shade adds about 2.5k free cleave, which is something, but that also means it is no longer buffed by Deadly Aim and our single target damage drops slightly.

Concealed Weapon remains slightly stronger than ranged alternatives, but you can still use Swallow Soul where self-heals are more important than damage. Crushing Shock with an Asylum Lightning Staff also works reasonably well. However, Daggers on the front bar are always preferable unless you absolutely cannot stay in range, and Nirnhoned/Charged seem to work equally well on the main hand (it all depends how good your status effect uptimes are).

The 15s rotation has not changed. Trap, Cloak and Debilitate are all 20s and can be grouped up to make the rotation a bit simpler. Try to recast everything on cooldown, and fire Resolve every 5s by Light Attacking ‘into’ the bow proc, letting the 5th stack to register before firing it. If your are struggling to do this consistently, just fire it every 6s or when ready.

Open with Cloak, Shade, Shooting Star, Trap and a bow proc if it’s available.

Try to avoid casting more than 2 DOTs in the 8s after an Incapacitating Strike. If several DOTs are about to expire, just hold the ult and come back to it. From 25% switch your spammable to Impale and don’t fire Resolve any more. At this point you can switch to a more dynamic 18s rotation, prioritising the Merciless Charge buff rather than Stampede itself. Ideally line up your primary DOTs so they run until the end of the fight, but in the last 5-10s try to just spam Impale until the target is dead. Enjoy!

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Prior Thierric's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Prior Thierric's Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Hands Burning Spellweave Gloves Divines Magicka
Waist Burning Spellweave Sash Divines Magicka
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Feet Burning Spellweave Shoes Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Inferno Staff of Sul-Xan’s Torment Nirn/Precise Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. And if trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs will provide a higher proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge may be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Camouflaged Hunter, Inner Light, Flame Pulsar, Siphoning Attacks, Merciless Resolve, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Twisting Path, Proximity Detonation, Reaper’s Mark, Fiery Rage

CAVEATS

Reaper’s Mark can be precast on weak targets for Major Berserk when they die, but this is not a priority.

You can slot Whirling Blades as a secondary spammable if you want an execute or to ease Magicka sustain.

Stamina

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

Single Target

Relequen/Riptide + Aegis + Zaan + Maelstrom 2H

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Zaan’s Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Zaan's Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Relequen's Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Relequen's Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Relequen’s Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Aegis Caller Necklace Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 2 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • Aegis can be swapped for sets like Nirn, Yokeda or Whorl. Zaan can be swapped for Kjalnar or Selene.

  • To add a Mythic such as Coil to this setup, use 1 x Slimecraw and one of your primary sets on the head/shoulder.

  • Riptide is a bit stronger than Relequen, especially against multiple targets. But Stamina sustain can get very tight if you use bi-stat food, especially in execute. Make absolutely sure you can get away with it.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance uptimes are not perfect, drop Exploiter and slot Thaumaturge to boost your DOTs instead..

FOOD & POTIONS

Bravil's Best Beet Risotto
or
Hearty Garlic Corn Chowder
or
Tenmar Millet-Carrot Couscous

Increase Max Stamina by 6048 for 35 minutes.

Food > Vegetable
Beets, Saltrice
Corn, Garlic
Carrots, Millet

Essence of Weapon Power

Grants Major Brutality which increases your Weapon Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Savagery which gives you 2629 Weapon Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Stamina immediately.
Grants you Major Endurance which increases your Stamina Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Blessed Thistle
Dragonthorn
Water Hyacinth / Wormwood

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice for Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Candied Jester’s Coins for Stamina + Magicka Recovery

Max-level Ragout recipes for Health + Stamina
Dubious Camoran Throne for Health + Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Artaeum Takeaway Broth for Health + Health Recovery + Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Essence of Spell Power for Major Sorcery + Prophecy + Intellect
Tri Restoration Potion for Major Intellect + Endurance + Fortitude

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Barbed Trap, Killer’s Blade, Rapid Strikes, Deadly Cloak, Merciless Resolve, Incapacitating Strike

Back Bar: Stampede, Twisting Path, Dark Shade, Debilitate, Carve, Shooting Star*

*Slot this if you have enough ultimate to use it in your opening burst. If not, just slot Incapacitating Strike on both bars.

EASY ROTATION
123k DPS

Nightblade still lags behind for damage in PvE. It has decent burst and can just about keep up in single target fights if played well, but it has very little built-in cleave damage, which can be a big disadvantage against some trial bosses. The revamp of Dark Shade adds about 2.5k free cleave, which is something, but that also means it is no longer buffed by Deadly Aim and our single target damage drops slightly.

Rapid Strikes is stronger and easier to sustain than the alternatives, and helps keep Sundered uptimes nice and high. Use Nirnhoned on the main hand for slightly more cleave, and Charged for single target pressure (the difference is very small). If you’re skipping synergies for Riptide, an Absorb Magicka glyph can make Magicka sustain a lot easier with only a slight DPS loss.

You can push past 125k by also tracking Off-Balance and optimising every single cast, but it’s extra work for very little gain. However static or dynamic you choose to play it, try to fire your bow proc every 5s by Light Attacking ‘into’ the 5th stack, then firing it as soon as it registers. Alternatively, to keep Stamina down or just to make things easier, you can also do 2 bow procs per rotation if you prefer.

Open with Cloak, Shade, Shooting Star, Trap and a bow proc if it’s available.

Try to cast Incapacitating Strike as soon as its ready, and if you can manage your DOTs so they’re all rolling and you can spend the next 8s spamming direct damage attacks, that’s perfect. But don’t panic if things don’t quite line up and you need to recast a DOT or two during the ult phase. Just try to avoid this once execute starts.

From 33% replace Strikes with Killer’s Blade. You can keep up everything else until about 10%, but try to ensure at least that your priority DOTs are rolling until the end. Then spam Blade until the target is dead.

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw’s Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Burning Spellweave Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Hands Bracers of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Waist Belt of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Feet Boots of of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand The Master’s Greatsword Nirnhoned Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 1-2 x Light is recommended. You can equip more Medium/Light pieces depending on your sustain and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Slimecraw for a Stormfist, Kra’gh or Skoria 1-piece, depending on what you need.

  • Hitting the penetration cap of 18,200 in trash pulls is important. Using a Sharpened Master’s Maul on the front bar, upgrading to the Perfected version and wearing more Light pieces are some of the things you can do to get there.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. And if trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs will provide a higher proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge may be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Camouflaged Hunter, Reverse Slice, Carve, Stampede, Merciless Resolve, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Unstable Wall of Fire, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Twisting Path, Proximity Detonation, Reaper’s Mark, Fiery Rage

CAVEATS

Reaper’s Mark can be precast on weak targets that die quickly, granting you Major Berserk for 10s. If this not feasible, slot Dark Shade instead.

Recent Changes

Update 44

  • Banner Bearer Grimoire introduced.

  • Azureblight Reaper set reworked. Base damage reduced, scaling damage per target massively increased.

  • Critical strike chance removed from Pyrebrand set. Damage adjusted.

  • Golden Pursuits and 2-sided Battlegrounds introduced.

  • Imperial City Keys and Vaults system replaced with Imperial Fragments and merchants.

Nightblade

  • 5s DOT added to Lotus Fan.

  • Shadowy Disguise changed to a toggle and a 10% damage buff against monsters.

Update 43

  • Spattering Disjunction, Pyrebrand, Corpseburster, Umbral Edge, Beacon of Oblivion, Aetheric Lance & Aerie’s Cry sets added.

  • Curation added to dungeon-specific Undaunted Monster set shoulder coffers.

  • Undeath passive damage reduction lowered to 15% from 30%.

  • New arenas, bosses, Verses and Visions added to Infinite Archive.

  • Various Scribing tooltips tweaked, Affix Script compatibility increased.

  • Home Tours introduced.

Nightblade

  • Blur and Veiled Strike positions switched.

  • Shadow Barrier passive duration increased.

Gold Road (Update 42)

  • Scribing and Skill Styling systems introduced

  • Lucent Echoes and Highland Sentinel sets added.

  • Gradual Ravage Health potions fixed to not trigger item sets.

  • Various damage reduction effects fixed to be multiplicative rather than additive.

  • Mages Guild passive Everlasting Magic duration increased changed from 20% to 2s.

  • Delay added to Rush of Agony proc, range increased from 10m to 12m.

  • Various Werewolf abilities tweaked to increase its general effectives in PvE.

Nightblade

  • Single target attack removed from Dark Shade, so it constantly uses its AOE attack.

Scions of Ithelia (Update 41)

  • Status Effects system overhauled, bringing them closer together in power.

    • Burning damage reduced by 6%.

    • Chilled damage increased by 106%.

    • Concussed damage increased by 106%, plus 15% extra to recently Concussed enemies.

    • Diseased damage increased by 88%, AOE damage added.

    • Hemorrhaging damage reduced by 20%, stacking added, Mangle removed.

    • Overcharged damage increased by 106%, Magicka restore added.

    • Poisoned damage reduced by 30%, duration reduced, ramping execute added.

    • Sundered damage increased by 106%, bonus Weapon & Spell Damage added.

  • Charged trait reduced from 365% to 235% increased status effect chance.

  • Barbed Trap changed to apply Hemorrhaging only on the initial hit.

  • Guaranteed Sundered status effect added to Snipe.

  • Guaranteed Hemorrhaging status effect added to every tick of Lacerate.

  • Executioner changed from Physical to Bleed Damage.

  • Runecarver’s Blaze fixed to apply Burning more often; a significant damage increase.

  • Mantle of Siroria perfected bonus changed from Max Magicka to Weapon & Spell Damage.

  • Vitality and Defile changed to affect damage shield strength as well as healing.

  • Inner Rage cost reduced by 40%, damage reduced by 10%, multi-synergy added.

  • Inner Beast damage increased by 80%, Minor Vulnerability & Minor Maim added.

  • Torc of the Last Ayleid King Mythic introduced.

  • Rewards system updated for XP, gold and Undaunted Keys

  • Buff/debuff tray updated to track taunt stacks.

  • Unified repair kits and stackable siege weaponry introduced

  • Role Play and Story playstyle options added to the Group Finder.

Nightblade

  • Damage and duration of the enhanced Incapacitating Strike increased. Reave passive removed.

  • Bar swap persistence added to Soul Harvest passive bonus.

  • Major Berserk removed from Concealed Weapon, replaced with 10% damage boost to this ability.

  • Guaranteed Overcharged removed from Debilitate, changed to 15% increased chance.

  • Siphoning Strikes changed to a permanent, bar swap persistent effect.

    • Activation of this ability changed to drain Health in exchange for Magicka and Stamina.

    • Greater healing and stacking cost reduction added to Leeching Strikes.

    • Greater resource return (both passive and active) added to Siphoning Attacks.