ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build

This guide explains how to use the best Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) Stamina Nightblade PvE Build, skills, gear, champion points, and more!

ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build Specter

This build has been updated for the Update 41 patch of the Elder Scrolls Online.

Why Should You Play the ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build?

The ESO Stamina Nightblade PVE build is for players looking to complete group content, arenas, dungeons, and trials. This build has high burst damage and super high single-target damage paired with high mobility, making it the perfect killer assassin class.

ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build Playstyle

Use the following rotation as the starter point. After, apply your buffs and cast the DoT skills on cooldown for the best, highest DPS. In total, the Damage over Time skills (DoTs) do more damage than your main spammable. Thus, they need to be cast less often and are easier to maintain, for example, The Degeneration from Mages Guild or the Barb Trap from Fighters Guild. Maintain DoTs and use your spammable skill as filler until you need to reapply the DoTS.

At certain percentages, replace your spammable with your in-class or weapon execute if you have one in this build. Executes are the skills that deal more damage the lower the health of the opponent becomes. Ideally, these are meant to replace your main spammable skill at anywhere between 35% (Radiant Oppression) all the way to 20% (Mages’ Fury). At a high level, execute skills become so strong that the lower the enemy’s health, the fewer DoTs you maintain because it does so much damage.

Use the healing skill when your health drops below 50% or the shield skill when you anticipate damage. Also, always use the suggested food and potions as they significantly increase your damage, survivability, and resource sustain.

If you run out of resources, do a heavy attack and return to your rotation. Remember that a heavy attack on off-balance enemies will return double the resources. Additionally, if you are a beginner or struggle with sustain, you can flex in the Consuming Trap skill instead of a DoT skill. The Consuming Trap gives you a flood of both resources when a target dies.

ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build Features and Mechanics

Below are some of the features found using the ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build:

  • Class – Nightblade
  • Weapon One – Dual Wield
  • Weapon Two – Flame Staff
  • Armor Types: 6 Medium, 1 Light
  • Mythic: Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet
  • Race: Dark Elf
  • Attributes: 64 Stamina
  • Mundus Stone: Thief

Skills

Front Bar – Dual Wield

Front Bar Weapon choice options:

  1. Dual Wield
  2. Two-handed
  3. Bow

Whirling Blades (Morph of Whirlwind | Skill Line : Dual Wield) – AoE damage that acts as an execute, dealing more damage to enemies below 50% health. Could swap for Rapid Strikes for single target damage.

Killer’s Blade (Morph of Assassin’s Blade | Skill Line : Assassination) – Single target execute that hits very hard! Replace it with your main spammable around 25% of enemies’ health.

Merciless Resolve (Morph of Grim Focus | Skill Line : Assassination) – Maintain this buff at all costs as it increases your weapon damage for each stack. You can proc the shot burst damage, after the five light or heavy attacks, so remembers about light attack weaving. Skill heals if in melee range

Barbed Trap (Morph of Trap Beast | Skill Line : Fighters Guild) – a trap that immobilizes target, procs minor force buff and does good single target damage.

Deadly Cloak (Morph of Blade Cloak | Skill Line : Dual Wield) – Reduces damage from AoE and deals AoE in return.

Incapacitating Strike (Morph of Death Stroke | Skill Line : Assassination) – Low cost ultimate that gives us a small burst window and extra resource sustain for slotting. Switch to Rend from Dual wield for crazy survivability if you struggle.


Back Bar – Flame Staff

Back Bar Weapon choice options:

  1. Flame Staff
  2. Two Handed
  3. Bow

Blockade of Fire (Morph of Wall of Elements | Skill Line : Destruction Staff) – AoE deals magic damage plus additional effect depending on type of staff.

Twisting Path (Morph of Path of Darkness | Skill Line : Shadow) – Buffs you and allies with increased speed, and deals damage.

Debilitate (Morph of Cripple | Skill Line : Siphoning) – Deals DoT and decreases enemy movement speed.

Dark Shade (Morph of Summon Shade | Skill Line : Shadow) – Great hard hitting DoT skill. Replace with Leaching if you struggle with sustain.

Siphoning Attacks (Morph of Siphoning Strikes | Skill Line : Siphoning) – Convert health into stamina. Additionally, while slotted all damage you deal heals you and restores some stamina.

Incapacitating Strike (Morph of Death Stroke | Skill Line : Assassination) – Double barring Incapacitating Strike will provide higher damage, but you can swap to Shooting Star for trash mob pulls or Soul Tether for survivability.

Rotation and Parse

Using Weapon Power Potions to source major damage and crit buffs.

Stamina Nightblade, while stronger than the Magicka Nightblade, is still in a rough spot this patch. While you can hit high numbers on the target dummy with one, they still lack in aoe encounters, and there are many better trial options. Still, in dungeons or just for fun, Stamina Nightblades are a very engaging class that is challenging to play. Depending on the fight, you’ll want to use either a single target or a spammable. You could also use Surprise Attack instead of Rapid Strikes, but it’s slightly lower dps.

One of the challenges with Nightblades is you also don’t have a great way to source your major weapon damage and crit buffs, while dealing high damage. Because of this, you’ll want to use Weapon Power Potions, which are cheap and will greatly boost your overall dps. For a slightly simpler setup, you could source those buffs by dropping Siphoning Attacks and Barbed Trap, replacing those skills with Camouflaged Hunter, and then dropping Deadly Cloak for Power Extraction. That setup is lower dps, but is easier to sustain Major Brutality and Savagery, which might help your overall dps.

Start by pre-buffing Dark Shade and Deadly Cloak, then engaging with Barbed Trap>Bar Swap>Blockade>Debilitate>Twisting Path> Bar Swap>Rapid Strikes>Merciless Resolve>Incapacitating Strike>and Rapid Strikes until you need to start reapplying DoTs. The key to hitting high numbers is to make sure you’re casting your Merciless Resolve proc every five light attacks. This can be challenging, but counting in your head to five can help you start to get the rhythm down.

Passives Skills

Below are passive skill lines that add power without requiring a skill slot while playing the ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build. Consider taking all the skill passives in the skill tree listed below:

  • Siphoning (class skill line)
  • Shadow (class skill line)
  • Assassination (class skill line)
  • Dual Wield (weapon skill line)
  • Destruction Staff (weapon skill line)
  • Light Armor
  • Medium Armor
  • Undaunted
  • Fighters Guild
  • Mages Guild
  • Racial
  • Alliance War Support
  • Alliance War Assault
  • Crafting, Alchemy Medicinal Use

Gear – Best in Slot

The gear chart below represents the best gear for ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build:

SlotTypeSetTraitGlyph
HeadMediumAegis CallerDivinesStamina
ShouldersLightSlimecrawDivinesStamina
ChestMediumPerfected Coral RiptideDivinesStamina
LegsMediumPerfected Coral RiptideDivinesStamina
GlovesMediumPerfected Coral RiptideDivinesStamina
BootsMediumPerfected Coral RiptideDivinesStamina
BeltMediumPerfected Coral RiptideDivinesStamina
Weapon OneDaggerAegis CallerChargedFire
SecondaryDaggerAegis CallerChargedPoison
Weapon TwoFlame StaffPerfected Crushing WallInfusedWeapon Damage
NecklaceMythicVelothi Ur-Mage’s AmuletBloodthirstyWeapon Damage
Ring 1Aegis CallerBloodthirstyWeapon Damage
Ring 2Aegis CallerBloodthirstyWeapon Damage
ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build
Monster Helms and Mythic

Veloth Ur-Mages Amulet: Mythic item requiring the Antiquies system and Necrom Chapter. Requires five leads; find them here. Incredibly strong passive damage in the current meta.

Slimecraw: Obtained in Wayrest Sewers I Veteran dungeon and Maj Undaunted Vendor. Gives us the highest critical chance for a one-piece item.

FLEX OPTIONS

  1. Harpooner’s Wading Kilt Set = Great mythic if avoiding damage and can keep the stacks up.
  2. Mora’s Whisper = This provides up to 10% critical chance but requires collections of Mages Guild Books on your specific character.
  3. Death Dealer’s Fete = Is a great option because it boosts max stats with zero downsides.
Gear Sets

Aegis Caller: Dungeon set that drops in Unhallowed Grave, Harrowstorm DLC. Passive Bleed damage and good bonuses for martial melee build.

Perfected Coral Riptide: Obtained in veteran Dreadsail Reef, a High Isle chapter dungeon. Boosts damage the lower your stamina drops.

Perfected Crushing Wall: From Veteran Maelstrom Arena in Orsinium. Increase your overall DPS due to the ability of the wall of elements and more damage.

FLEX OPTIONS

  1. Perfected Ansuul’s Torment: It is the best overall damage-dealing set that comes in medium armor.
  2. Pillar of Nirn: Obtained in Falkreath Hold dungeon, Horns of the Reach DLC.
  3. Perfect Whorl of the Depths: Trial set found in Dreadsail Reef, High Isle chapter.
  4. Kinra’s Wrath = Dungeon set that drops in Black Drake Villa, Flames of Ambition DLC.
  5. Perfected Arms of Relequen = the bust pure damage set in the game.
  6. Order’s Wrath = great craftable option though watch for too much critical damage (125% cap)
  7. Leviathan = easy base game dungeon set with high critical

Gear – Beginner

Starter setup for someone just starting ESO.

SlotTypeSetTraitGlyph
HeadmediumBriarheartDivinesStamina
ShouldersmediumBriarheartDivinesStamina
ChestmediumHunding’s RageDivinesStamina
LegsmediumHunding’s RageDivinesStamina
GlovesmediumHunding’s RageDivinesStamina
BootsmediumHunding’s RageDivinesStamina
BeltmediumHunding’s RageDivinesStamina
Weapon OneDaggerAgilityPrecise or SharpenedDamage Health Poison
SecondaryDaggerAgilityPrecise or SharpenedDamage Health Poison
Weapon Two2H SwordAgilityInfusedWeapon Damage
NecklaceBriarheartRobustStamina Recovery
Ring 1BriarheartRobustWeapon Damage
Ring 2BriarheartRobustWeapon Damage
Beginner Build for ESO Stamina Nightblade

FLEX OPTIONS FOR BEGINNERS

  • Briarheart: obtained in overland Wrothgar (Orsinium DLC) or from traders. WHY? great burst damage and nice healing and easy to obtain set.
  • Hunding’s Rage: craftable 6 traits, crafting stations found in Bangkorai, Reaper’s March, The Rift. WHY? Craftable set that has well-balanced stats.
  • Agility: found in Imperial City with keys or Dungeon Finder via random dungeons and or traders sell. WHY? easy to obtain with massive stats as a two-piece set.

Race

The best racial choice for the ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build is below:

  1. Dark Elf: Gain max magicka, stamina, and weapon and spell damage. The flame resistance is also helpful and considered the strongest overall PVE DPS race.
  2. Orc: Gain max stamina, health, and weapon and spell damage. Also reduces the cost of sprint and increases your movement speed.
  3. Khajiit: This race gets recovery, max stats, and critical damage and healing. Consider the Khajiit a great option if you aren’t over the critical cap of 125%.

Attributes

The best Attribute point choice for the ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build is 64 points into Stamina. This will increase your damage, healing and shields.

Mundus Stone

The Thief is the best Mundus Stone for PvE Builds because it gives Increases Weapon and Spell Critical Strike a chance.

Champion Points – ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build

Warfare Constellation Champion Points

ESO Warfare Champion Tree

Below is a step-by-step method for slotting your champion points in the Warfare tree (blue).  We have used the minimum possible to reach four slottable selections, all maxed out.  If you have more CP, consider taking more in the passives for optimal performance.

Below are recommended Warfare Champion Point selections for the ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build:

  1. Precision 10
  2. Wrathful Strikes (slottable) 50
  3. Fighting Finesse (slottable) 50
  4. Extended Might – sub constellation – piercing 10
  5. Deadly Aim (slottable) 50
  6. Master – at- Arms (slottable) 50

This would be the minimum setup, spending 220 CP (660 required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

  1. Precision 10
  2. Piercing 10
  3. Tireless discipline 20
  4. Eldritch insight 20
  5. Blessed 20
  6. Quick recovery 20
  7. Flawless ritual 40
  8. War mage 30
  9. Battle mastery 40
  10. Mighty 30
  11. Elemental aegis 20
  12. Hardy 20
  13. Preparation 20

This would max out the Warfare tree with all active and passive champion points at 520 spent 1,560 total spent.

Fitness Constellation Champion Points

ESO Fitness Champion Tree

Below are recommended Fitness Champion Point selections for the ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build:

  1. Fortified (slottable) 50
  2. Boundless vitality (slottable) 50
  3. Rejuvenation (slottable) 50
  4. Sprinter 10
  5. Winder chaser – sub con – hasty 8
  6. Hero’s Vigor 10
  7. Bloody Renewal (slottable) 50

This would be the minimum setup, spending 228 CP (684 total required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance. 

  1. Hero’s Vigor 10
  2. Tumbling 30
  3. Sprinter 10
  4. Defiance 20
  5. Hasty 8
  6. Tireless guardian 20
  7. Fortification 30
  8. Nimble 6
  9. Mystic tenacity 50
  10. Tempered soul 50
  11. Piercing gaze 30
  12. Savage defense  30
  13. Bashing brutality 20

This would max out the fitness tree with all active, passive champion points at 542 cp spent and 1,626 total spent.

Craft Constellation Champion Points

ESO Craft Champion Tree

Below are recommended Craft Champion Point selections for the ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build:

  1. Steed’s blessing (slottable) – 50
  2. Breakfall 10 
  3. Wanderer 15
  4. Steadfast 10
  5. Treasure hunter 50 (slottable)
  6. Master gatherer 15
  7. Gifted rider (slottable) 100
  8. Rationer 10
  9. Liquid Effiency (slottable) 75

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 370CP (1110 total required). The next step is to max out passives, that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

  1. Steadfast enchantment 40cp
  2. Breakfall 40 cp
  3. Wanderer 60
  4. Fortunes favor 10
  5. Rationer 10
  6. Friends in low places 25
  7. Out of sight 30
  8. Fleet of Phantom 40
  9. Soul’s Reservoir 33
  10. Gilded fingers 50
  11. Fortunes favor 40
  12. Inspiration boost 45
  13. Infamous 30

This would max out the crafting tree with all active passive champion points at 823 cp spent 2,469 total spent.

Consumables

Food

Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice

SUSTAIN but NO HEALTH: Increase Max Stamina by 4575 and Stamina Recovery by 457 for 2 hours. (effects are scaled based on your level)

Artaeum Takeaway Broth

OVERALL: Increase Max Health by 3326 and Health Recovery by 406 and Max Stamina by 3080 and Stamina Recovery by 338 for 2 hours. (effects are scaled based on your level)

Dubious Camoran Throne

CHEAP: Increase Stamina Recovery by 319 and Max Stamina and Max Health by 3192 for 2 hours. (effects are scaled based on your level)

Potions

Essence of Weapon Power

BEST DAMAGE: Grants major brutality with increases weapon damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds. Grants major savagery which grants you 2191 weapon critical rating for 47.6 seconds. Restore 7582 stamina immediately. Grants you major endurance which increases your stamina recovery by 20% for 47.6. Potions have a 45-second cooldown. IMPORTANT: make sure you have three points into medicinal use passive in alchemy crafting. (INGREDIENTS: Blessed Thistle, Dragonthorn and Wormwood)

Build Summary – ESO Stamina Nightblade PvE Build

Class: Nightblade

Race: Dark Elf

Attributes: 64 Stamina

Mundus Stone: Thief

Weapon One: Dual Wield

Weapon Two: Flame Staff

Armor Set 1: Aegis Caller

Armor Set 2: Perfected Coral Riptide

Monster Helm: Slimecraw

Mythic: Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet

Armor Weight: 6 Medium, 1 Light

Skill Bar 1

  • Whirling Blades
  • Killer’s Blade
  • Merciless Resolve
  • Barbed Trap
  • Deadly Cloak
  • Incapacitating Strike (Ultimate)

Skill Bar 2

  • Elemental Blockade
  • Twisting Path
  • Debilitate
  • Dark Shade
  • Siphoning Attacks
  • incapacitating Strike (Ultimate)

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