Welcome to the The ULTIMATE ESO Nightblade Class Guide! This guide will explain what makes the Nightblade unique, the skills and passives along with recommended builds.
Table of Contents
- Class Overview
- Ranking
- Assassination Skill Line
- Shadow Skill Line
- Siphoning Skill Line
- Recommend Gear and Builds
Video Guide
Coming soon
Nightblade Class Overview
What do you need to know about the Nightblade Class in ESO? Think of the Nightblade as your typical rogue, stealth, assassin character from any other RPG. Your one of the hardest hitting on the battlefield, have a unique stealth mechanic and excel at all things damage. This class is perfect for people that love high damage loadouts, glass cannons and want to excel at end game PvE or PvP.
The Nightblade class passives give it unique advantages over other classes. Resource sustain, critical damage, ultimate generation, even big time burst! The downside to the Nightblade is it lacks outside of the damage role. Your tanking and healing skills are limited within your class kit and you’ll need to look outside skill lines to excel at these roles. Sure the Nightblade can tank/heal but in comparison to a Dragonknight tank or a Warden healer, they will be lacking at end game. You’ll want to play Nightblade if you like the Rogue or Assassin classes from other RPGS and MMOs.
TIPS TO STARTING NEW CHARACTER!
- Armor: make sure to equip at least 3 armor from the starting vendors in your main city (white quality). This will unlock the skill line and you can select passives. After you unlock all of these, I’d recommend running 5 of your primary armor (tanks heavy, stam medium, mag light) then 1 and 1 of the other. That way you’ll reach end game with armor skills leveled.
- Skills: similar to armor, make sure you slot one ability from each class skill line on your bar the entire leveling process. You can only slot so many abilities but you can unlock 100 or more passives which make you stronger.
Ranking
PvP Stam = A Tier
- Stamblade remains the best overall 1vX class. It has high burst, great resource sustain and escapability. However, it can be a struggle without a lot of practice and skill at the game. The reason it’s not S Tier is the higher and more competitive group fights, the less Nightblade becomes impactful. Moreover, it currently lacks the insane burst healing the Templar and the Dragonknight contain. But if you like playing solo, this in the Magicka Sorc are the best.
PvP Mag = B Tier
- Magblade in PvP is pigeon holed into two specific playstyles, massive big AoE bomber or single target killer. The AoE bomber, meaning kill tons of people requires an enormous amount of skill, timing and sometimes luck. Plus the Magcrow can do this better in my opinion and does not require stealth. The single target killer roles is okay but isn’t nearly as good as Stamblade. It’s a very niche playstyle and currently is my absolutely least favorite to play in the entirely of ESO.
PvE DPS Stam = A Tier
- Stamblade in PvE remains my favorite stamina based damage dealer. It’s not to complicated, fun to play, very survivable and high damage. It doesn’t parse or perform as high as other magicka builds due to the nature of the game, but it’s just so fun! You can play the class with bow, two handed and or dual wield and be effective at all. If you like variety in your damage loadout, stamblade is a great choice.
PvE DPS Mag = S Tier
- Unlike Magblade in PvP, in the PvE context it remains my absolute favorite for top end DPS and content. Does it parse the highest in the game? No idea. BUT you’ll have unmatched resource sustain, ultimate generation and damage both AoE and single target. You have great utility, range, mobility and it’s not overly complex for the average player. My favorite DPS character when I’m doing the latest and greatest hardmodes.
Healer = C Tier
- Nightblades remain one of the worst healers in the game in my opinion. They offer nearly nothing unique or relevant to the group or raid and sure they can do great pure healing, but end game PvE or PvP is much more about buffs than heals per second. You’re almost entirely reliant on outside skill lines, ultimates and so on to do decent as a healer. This class healing wise lacks that “oh I got to use that skill.”
Tank = C Tier
- While Nightblade tanking is fun, it does not shine at end game PvE or PvP in its current form. Why? Similar to the healer, it doesn’t bring much to the table outside of heals per second. No in case ultimate that makes you go great. No unique ultra important buff. No crazy powerful CC or passive. Sure, you can sit there, similar to a templar and heal away but tanking like healing is all about adding value to your team not just pure survival and this is where the Nightblade falls flate.
Assassination Skill Line
Overview: consider this your damage skill line and one of the strongest in the game with active and passives that wow in DPS arena.
| Name | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ultimate Skills | |
Death Stroke |
Ravage an enemy with a swift strike, dealing 3716 Magic Damage and causing them to take 20% more damage from your attacks for 6 seconds.
Usage: this ability acts like your low cost bursting ultimate for both PvE and PvP. You’ll get passives for slotting and a massive jump in DPS for a short time. |
Incapacitating Strike  |
Ravage an enemy with a swift strike, dealing 3718 Disease Damage and causing them to take 20% more damage from your attacks for 6 seconds. If cast with 120 or more Ultimate, the enemy is stunned for 3 seconds. While slotted you gain Reave, which restores 100 Magicka and Stamina when you deal damage with a Light or Heavy Attack on an enemy with a negative effect active on them.
Usage: this morph is the stam morph that gives you some resource sustain for slotting while doing light/heavy weaving. You’ll also get a stun at 120 ultimate or more. This is the common PvP gank ability by holding down a fully charged heavy attack from stun and BANG incap. |
Soul Harvest |
Ravage an enemy with a spinning attack, dealing 3718 Magic Damage and increasing your damage against them by 20% for 6 seconds. Also afflicts the enemy with Major Defile, reducing their healing received and Health Recovery by 16%. While slotted, any time you kill an enemy you gain 10 Ultimate.
Usage: this morph is utterly insane because of the ultimate generation making magblade PvE DPS top tier. 10 ultimate gained upon kills stacks with Fighter’s Guild passive banish the wicked. Meaning, you’ll be able to roll back to back 200+ ultimates in AoE trash fights. INSANE! |
| Active Skills | |
Assassin’s Blade |
Thrust a magic blade with lethal precision to stab an enemy, dealing 1161 Magic Damage. Deals 300% more damage to enemies below 25% Health.
Usage: this ability acts as an execute. Thus, you’ll want to start using this as your main spammable at or around 25% health throughout on boss fights. |
Killer’s Blade |
Thrust a caustic blade with lethal precision to stab an enemy, dealing 1161 Disease Damage. Deals 300% more damage to enemies below 25% Health. Heals you for 3305 if the enemy dies within 2 seconds of being struck. This portion of the ability scales off your Maximum Health.
Usage: this morph is the melee focused stamina morph that does good healing. Problem is, two-handed executioner skill is so much more powerful because it scales up to 400% at 50% health or lower! Thus, outside of leveling, most players prefer that or dual wield skill for execute. |
Impale |
Throw a magic blade with lethal precision to strike an enemy, dealing 1161 Magic Damage. Deals 300% more damage to enemies below 25% Health.
Usage: however, the magicka morph is great because there’s no magicka weapon skill line execute making impale a great choice due to its range. |
Teleport Strike |
Flash through the shadows and ambush an enemy, dealing 1392 Magic Damage and afflicting them with Minor Vulnerability for 10 seconds, increasing their damage taken by 5%.
Usage: this ability acts as a gap closer and giving you a damage boost as you jump in. I typically shy away from this ability as Nightblade doesn’t do so well in the open jumping into fights. |
Lotus Fan |
Flash through the shadows and ambush an enemy, dealing 1393 Magic Damage. After teleporting you unleash a fan of knives, dealing an additional 2155 Magic Damage over 10 seconds to the target and nearby enemies. All enemies hit are afflicted with Minor Vulnerability for 10 seconds, increasing their damage taken by 5%.
Usage: this ability is great AoE dps for magicka user with a hard hitting dot and debuff, but again outside of niche pvp builds, not much use in my opinion. |
Ambush |
Flash through the shadows and ambush an enemy, dealing 1438 Physical Damage and afflicting them with Minor Vulnerability for 10 seconds, increasing their damage taken by 5%. Also grants you Empower for 3 seconds, increasing the damage of your Light and Heavy Attacks by 40%.
Usage: this morph is the stamina based morph and can be used for ganking in PvP with very little use in PvE outside some mobility which the nightblade has in spades. |
Blur |
Surround yourself in a phantasmic aura to gain Major Evasion, decreasing damage from area attacks by 20% for 26 seconds.
Usage: this ability acts as a damage reduction tool, and one of the only sources of major evasion and you don’t even need to wear 5x medium armor to get it unlike Shuffle from Medium armor skill line. |
Mirage |
Surround yourself in a phantasmic aura to gain Major Evasion and Minor Resolve, reducing damage from area attacks by 20% and increasing your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 2974 for 26 seconds.
Usage: this morph is going to give you some extra resistances which can be very handy playing a tanky nightblade both in pve or pvp. |
Phantasmal Escape |
Surround yourself in a phantasmic aura to gain Major Evasion, reducing damage from area attacks by 20% for 26 seconds. Activating this ability removes all snares and immobilizations from you and grants immunity to them for 4 seconds.
Usage: this is my favorite morph because of the removal of snares and immobilizations which is very rare to get and most players go with race against time for psijic order or shuffle which locks you into 5 or more medium. Great ability! |
Mark Target |
Expose an enemy’s weaknesses to afflict them with Major Breach, reducing their Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948 for 20 seconds. When a marked enemy dies, you heal for 6611. This portion of the ability scales off your Maximum Health. You can only have one Mark Target active at a time.
Usage: this ability acts your assassination type skill. Mark a target, nuke them, get a ton of heal. Very niche pvp skill but can be great leveling when struggling with survival. |
Piercing Mark |
Expose an enemy’s weaknesses to afflict them with Major Breach, reducing their Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948 for 30 seconds. You can detect marked enemies even if they use stealth or invisibility for 3 seconds. When a marked enemy dies, you heal for 4958. This portion of the ability scales off your Maximum Health. You can only have one Piercing Mark active at a time.
Usage: this morph has a unique effect that targets cannot stealth or go invisible, thus great for a counter gank but not necessary at all. |
Reaper’s Mark |
Expose an enemy’s weaknesses to afflict them with Major Breach, reducing their Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948 for 20 seconds. When a marked enemy dies, you heal for 10243, and you gain Major Berserk, increasing your damage done by 10% for 5 seconds. This portion of the ability scales off your Maximum Health. You can only have one Reaper’s Mark active at a time.
Usage: this morph gives major berserk giving you massive damage for a short duration but not a morph or skill I use at all. |
Grim Focus |
Focus your senses for 40 seconds, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 60 with every Light or Heavy Attack, up to 5 times. While active, hitting an enemy with 5 Light or Heavy Attacks converts this ability into Assassin’s Will, allowing you to fire a spectral arrow for half cost to deal 4182 Magic Damage, and healing for 33% of the damage dealt if you are within melee range.
Usage: this ability is one of the strongest damage abilities in the game stacking both weapon and spell damage as you light attack. At 5, you can get a hard hitting proc ability that heals you or keep it and maintain high weapon and spell damage. This is one of the reasons nightblade is so strong comparison to other classes, huge single target nuke that gives a ton of extra w/s damage. |
Relentless Focus |
Focus your senses for 1 minute, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 60 with every Light or Heavy Attack, up to 5 times. While active, hitting an enemy with 5 Light or Heavy Attacks converts this ability into Assassin’s Scourge, allowing you to fire a spectral arrow for half cost that deals 4321 Disease Damage, and heals for 33% of the damage dealt if you are within melee range.
Usage: this morph is the stamina based morph and last longer thus making it much easier to maintain. |
Merciless Resolve |
Focus your senses for 40 seconds, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 60 with every Light or Heavy Attack, up to 5 times. While active, hitting an enemy with 5 Light or Heavy Attacks converts this ability into Assassin’s Will, allowing you to fire a spectral arrow for half cost that deals 4752 Magic Damage, and heals for 50% of the damage dealt if you are within melee range.
Usage: this morph deals more damage and heals for more but hard to actually get the healing when playing at max range magblade pve dps. |
| Passive Skills | |
Master Assassin |
Increases your Physical and Spell Penetration against enemies you are flanking by 2974. Increases the duration of the stun from Sneak by 100%.
Note: this is one of the coolest passives in the game rewarding you to play the stealthy rogue attacking from the flank allowing you to hit much harder. This works in PvE/PvP you name it, get to the side and is unique to nightblade. |
Executioner |
When an enemy dies within 2 seconds of being damaged by you, you restore 1000 Magicka and Stamina. |
Pressure Points |
Increases your Weapon Critical and Spell Critical ratings by 438 for each Assassination ability slotted. Current bonus: 0. |
Hemorrhage |
Increases your Critical Damage by 10%. Dealing Critical Damage grants you and your group Minor Savagery, increasing your Weapon Critical rating by 1314 for 20 seconds.
Note: this is the minor buff that is unique to your class and what nightblade brings to the table. |
Shadow Skill Line
Overview: consider this your utility skill line with a your main spammable attack and your unique class ability on demand stealth. Everyone’s favorite or least favorite about nightblades!
| Name | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ultimate Skills | |
Consuming Darkness |
Conjure a ring of shadow, reducing the Movement Speed of enemies by 70% and granting you and your allies Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 10%. Allies in the area can activate the Hidden Refresh synergy, granting them invisibility, increasing their Movement Speed by 70%, and healing them for 9110 Health over 4 seconds.
Usage: this skill use to be insanely good but really lacks in its current form because major protection is so easy to obtain. You can just slot flare and get it, thus kinda weak defensive ultimate and damage. |
Bolstering Darkness |
Conjure a ring of shadow, reducing the Movement Speed of enemies by 70% and granting you and your allies Major Protection while inside the ring and even after leaving it, reducing your damage taken by 10%. Allies in the area can activate the Hidden Refresh synergy, granting them invisibility, increasing their Movement Speed by 70%, and healing them for 9110 Health over 4 seconds.
Usage: meh, this morph gives major protection outside the area. |
Veil of Blades |
Conjure a ring of shadow, reducing the Movement Speed of enemies by 70%, dealing 1079 Magic Damage to them every 1 second, and granting you and your allies Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 10%. Allies in the area can activate the Hidden Refresh synergy, granting them invisibility, increasing their Movement Speed by 70%, and healing them for 9110 Health over 4 seconds.
Usage: decent damage over time, back in 2015 DSA this was god tier, sadly now it’s lack luster. |
| Active Skills | |
Veiled Strike |
Slash an enemy, dealing 2323 Magic Damage. Attacking with Veiled Strike from the flank stuns the enemy for 3 seconds and sets them Off Balance.
Usage: what’s not lack luster is our main spammable! One of the most fun skills in all of ESO because it really fits the rogue classes from DND. You’ll hit from flank and stun, set off balance and if we remember our early passive do more damage! Thus, going in stealth, fully charging a heavy and landing this at the same time remains one of the most fun things to do pve or pvp. This is what makes NB sooooo fun to play. |
Surprise Attack |
Slash an enemy, dealing 2323 Physical Damage and applying the Sundered status effect. Attacking with Surprise Attack from the flank stuns the enemy for 3 seconds and sets them Off Balance.
Usage: this is the stamina morph and adds the sunder status effect thus lowering armor. This frees up some gear options like stuhns and ravager for offensive damage. The key here is the stun but also off balance. Off balance will appear a circle above their head and you’ll be able to consume it within a short window for double resource sustain. Thus, this acts a sustain tool as well. |
Concealed Weapon |
Slash an enemy, dealing 2323 Magic Damage. Attacking with Concealed Weapon from the flank stuns the enemy for 3 seconds and sets them Off Balance. While slotted, your Movement Speed while Sneaking or invisible is increased by 25%.
Usage: this is the magic based morph and increase movement speed while stealth. Basically it’s a very niche but also very fun ability to slot for speed especially if you’re playing a vampire super fast in stealth. |
Shadow Cloak |
Cloak yourself in shadow to become invisible for 3 seconds.
Usage: Now everyone’s favorite or least favorite ability and that’s cloak! This works by giving you a short period of invisibility but opponents can knock you out with some abilities and effects. It’s your get away tool, and it’s one the best but takes some practice in pvp to make the most out of it. |
Shadowy Disguise |
Cloak yourself in shadow to become invisible for 3 seconds. Your next direct damage attack used within 3 seconds will always be a Critical Strike.
Usage: this morph provides a guaranteed direct damage crit. Thus, most nightblades in pvp use this before a heavy/incap combo and stack massive critical damage because you’re guaranteed to land a crit. You won’t be using this in end game pve but insane for pvp. |
Dark Cloak |
Shroud yourself in protective shadow to heal for 1472 every 1 second, over 3 seconds. This portion of the ability scales off your Maximum Health. You gain Minor Protection for 10 seconds, reducing your damage taken by 5%.
Usage: speaking of insane, don’t sleep on the no cloak brawler blade playstyle due to this ability. While it scales off max health, meaning it’s primarily aimed at tanks to use it, you can use it in pvp for a massive heal alongside another heal over time. Plus in PvE tanking you’ll be very sturdy with minor protection and you can slot flare for major protection stacking both damage reduction buffs! |
Path of Darkness |
Create a corridor of shadows, granting you and allies in area Major Expedition, increasing movement speed by 30%. Effect persists for 4 seconds after leaving the path.
Usage: this ability acts as a massive wide carpet that either damages or heals. It increase you and allies movement speed and I love using it in trials and dungeons on my magblade. |
Twisting Path |
Create a corridor of shadows, granting you and allies in area Major Expedition, increasing movement speed by 30%. Effect persists for 4 seconds after leaving the path. Deals 612 Magic Damage to enemies in the target area every 1 second. This part of the ability scales with your highest offensive stats.
Usage: this morph is the massive aoe damage morph you’ll want in pve dps. Combine this with something like unstable wall and you’ll melt with huge aoe damage over times. |
Refreshing Path |
Create a corridor of shadows, granting you and allies in area Major Expedition, increasing movement speed by 30%. Effect persists for 4 seconds after leaving the path. Heals 612 Health to you and allies in area every 1 second.
Usage: this is your heal morph, mainly used in niche pve healing or pvp builds and not that useful in it’s current state. |
Aspect of Terror |
Summon a dark spirit to terrify up to 3 enemies, causing them to cower in fear for 2 seconds.
Usage: this is your aoe massie stun. It’s unique and worth explaining as it acts as a fear. That means, if someone is blocking or dodging, it doesn’t prevent the stun. Making it one of the best PvP stuns in the game. |
Mass Hysteria |
Summon a dark spirit to terrify up to 6 enemies, causing them to cower in fear for 3 seconds.
Usage: this increases the amount of stuns and a great thing to equip if you are having trouble escaping fights in pvp. |
Manifestation of Terror |
Conceal two sinister traps, one at the targeted location and another next to you, which take 2 seconds to arm and last for 1 minute. When each trap is triggered, a dark spirit is summoned to terrify up to 6 enemies, causing them to cower in fear for 4 seconds.
Usage: an odd morph that allows you to place trap. I’ve got to be honest, never used it in pve or pvp and find it odd and weak. |
Summon Shade |
Summon a shade version of yourself to attack an enemy and fight at your side for 15 seconds. The shade slashes at an enemy, dealing 400 Magic Damage once every 2 seconds. The shade’s attacks inflict Minor Maim, reducing the enemy’s damage done by 5% for 4 seconds. This ability scales with your highest offensive stats.
Usage: this skill is one of the most unique and interesting in the game. The base morph just summons a battle buddy but it’s about to get much more interesting. |
Dark Shade |
Summon a shade version of yourself to attack an enemy and fight at your side for 18 seconds. The shade slashes at an enemy, dealing 830 Magic Damage and occasionally whirlwinds all enemies around it, dealing 830 Magic Damage once every 2 seconds. The shade’s attacks inflict Minor Maim, reducing the enemy’s damage done by 5% for 4 seconds. This ability scales with your highest offensive stats.
Usage: this morph makes your shade buddy do damage, and I mean a lot more damage. It’s so strong I use it on my stamina build and it’s very good in solo arenas because it doesn’t require a target to cast. Thus you can pre-cast this and charge into a fight for massive damage. |
Shadow Image |
Summon a shade version of yourself to stay in place and attack an enemy from range for 18 seconds. The shade shoots at an enemy, dealing 414 Magic Damage every 2 seconds. The shade’s attacks inflict Minor Maim, reducing the enemy’s damage done by 5% for 4 seconds. While the shade is summoned, you can activate this ability again to teleport to the shade’s location. This ability scales with your highest offensive stats.
Usage: this skill could have it’s own 30 minute video but it allows you to travel back to it. It’s one of the hardest skills to master in ESO but if you work on it, you’ll be the most annoying pvp nightblade on earth. Using verticality to escape, jumping off ledges and porting back, the ability has no limits in it’s effectiveness and its god tier. |
| Passive Skills | |
Refreshing Shadows |
Increases your Health, Stamina, and Magicka Recovery by 15%.
Note: insane resource sustain here! |
Shadow Barrier |
Casting a Shadow ability grants you Major Resolve for 6 seconds, increasing your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948. This duration is increased by 25% for each piece of Heavy Armor equipped. Current Bonus: 0%. Current Duration: 6 seconds
Note: this passive is one reason you use cloak on pvp nightblade. |
Dark Vigor |
Increases your Maximum Health by 3% for each Shadow ability slotted. Current bonus: 0%. |
Dark Veil |
Increases the duration of your non-invisibility based Shadow abilities by 2 seconds. |
Siphoning Skill Line
Overview
| Name | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ultimate Skills | |
Soul Shred |
Ravage nearby enemies’ souls with a night rune, dealing 3486 Magic Damage and stunning them for 4 seconds. An ally can target a ravaged enemy and activate the Soul Leech synergy, dealing 3122 Magic Damage to them and healing for the damage caused.
Usage: this morph is a useful aoe damage, stun and healing ability especially while leveling. I’d highly recommend |
Soul Siphon |
Sanctify your soul and the souls of nearby allies with a night rune, healing for 3600 Health and an additional 9384 Health over 4 seconds. You and your allies will also receive Major Vitality, increasing your healing received by 16% for 4 seconds. An ally can target a nearby enemy and activate the Soul Leech synergy, dealing 3122 Magic Damage to them and healing for the damage caused.
Usage: this is a pve healer morph that heals allies and acts a low cost oh crap heal procing major vitality which is useful. I consider restoration ultimate life giver better especially because of the mobility, but worth experimenting with. |
Soul Tether |
Ravage nearby enemies’ souls with a night rune, dealing 3600 Magic Damage, healing for half the damage, and stunning them for 4 seconds. Ravaged enemies are tethered to you for 8 seconds, and while they remain within 10 meters, you siphon 627 Health from them every second. An ally can target a ravaged enemy and activate the Soul Tether synergy, dealing 3122 Magic Damage to them and healing for the damage caused.
Usage: this is your oh crap pvp back bar defensive ultimate that does tons of damage and good healing. You can also use this in pve when playing solo if struggling with survival. |
| Active Skills | |
Strife |
Steal an enemy’s life force, dealing 1452 Magic Damage and healing you or a nearby ally for 50% of the damage inflicted every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.
Usage: this ability acts as your main single target spammable and is one of the strongest in the game period. It does great damage, heals you based off the damage done over time. Making you SO survivable. Even run this on stamina builds early on if you are constantly dying. |
Funnel Health |
Steal an enemy’s life force, dealing 1498 Magic Damage and healing you or 2 other nearby allies for 50% of the damage inflicted every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.
Usage: this skill acts as the group utility morph but sacrifices damage. Not usually what I run but an option for utility. |
Swallow Soul |
Steal an enemy’s life force, dealing 2160 Magic Damage and healing you for 35% of the damage inflicted every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.
Usage: this is one of the staples in pve dps and there are other options, but this one keeps you alive through nearly anything. Hitting very hard, great range, procs passives, heals over time, there’s not much else to say about it this other than it rocks. |
Malevolent Offering |
Pour out your lifesblood and channel the arcane, healing yourself or an ally in front of you for 3486 Health, while draining 1080 Health from yourself over 3 seconds.
Usage: an oddish ability that drains you of heal but also healing you or an ally. |
Healthy Offering |
Pour out your lifesblood and channel the arcane, healing yourself or an ally in front of you for 3600 Health, while draining 1080 Health from yourself over 3 seconds. After casting, gain Minor Mending for 8 seconds, increasing your Healing Done by 8%.
Usage: this morph acts as a burst heal also providing minor mending. It’s odd because it drains heal after but can really pop you up on mag or stam builds in pve or pvp. |
Shrewd Offering |
Pour out your lifesblood and channel the arcane, healing yourself or an ally in front of you for 3485 Health, while draining 810 Health from yourself over 2 seconds.
Usage: a cheaper ability but not worth taking in my opinion. |
Cripple |
Sap an enemy’s agility and wrack them with pain, dealing 3480 Magic Damage over 10 seconds and reducing their movement speed by 30% for 4 seconds.
Usage: this acts as your base damage over time ability that also snares slowing targets. It’s single target but great to combine with swallow soul early on for great damage. |
Debilitate |
Sap an enemy’s agility and wrack them with pain, dealing 3594 Magic Damage over 10 seconds and reducing their movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds. Each tick applies the Overcharged status effect, inflicting Minor Magickasteal for 4 seconds, causing you and your allies to restore 168 Magicka every 1 second when damaging the target.
Usage: this morph applies magicka steal which is a useful sustain status effect starting out the game. However, in pve later on, most folks will be running certain buffs and debuffs that gives this anyway thus not useful outside solo or early on. |
Crippling Grasp |
Sap an enemy’s agility and wrack them with pain, dealing 1199 Magic Damage and an additional 2900 Magic Damage over 10 seconds, immobilizing them for 2 seconds, and reducing their movement speed by 30% for 4 seconds.
Usage: this provides an immobilization which is great for controlling one target. However, this won’t work on bosses and some players will have immunity to this so not much benefit in it’s current form. |
Siphoning Strikes |
Imbue your weapons with soul-stealing power, causing your Light and Heavy Attacks to heal you for 1440 Health for 20 seconds. Fully-charged Heavy Attacks restore twice the value.
Usage: this ability acts as a healing tool and later a resource sustaining tool. This along with nightblade passives is the reason you have the best resource sustain in the game. Also don’t sleep on constant heals. No imagine this healing light attacking and swallow soul at the same time! It’s massive heals per second. |
Leeching Strikes |
Imbue your weapons with soul-stealing power, causing your Light and Heavy Attacks to heal you for 1452 Health and restore 106 Stamina for 20 seconds. Fully-charged Heavy Attacks restore twice the value. You restore up to 4270 additional Stamina when the effect ends, based on the length of time Leeching Strikes was active.
Usage: this converts to a stamina based ability and your resource sustain tool for stamblades in pve or pvp. |
Siphoning Attacks |
Imbue your weapons with soul-stealing power, causing your Light and Heavy Attacks to heal you for 1452 Health and restore 106 Magicka for 20 seconds. Fully-charged Heavy Attacks restore twice the value. You restore up to 4270 additional Magicka when the effect ends, based on the length of time Siphoning Attacks was active.
Usage: this converts to a magicka based ability and your resource sustain tool for magblade in pve or pvp. |
Drain Power |
Siphon the vigor from your enemies’ blood, dealing 1742 Magic Damage to all nearby enemies. If an enemy is hit, you gain Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20% for 20 seconds.
Usage: this is your aoe damage ability that cost magicka and provides your weapon/spell damage buff. Most players get their buffs via potions or another skill but not a bad skill to use because it’s massive aoe damage regardless of your weapon choice. Thus sword and shield, resto staff you name it. |
Power Extraction |
Siphon the vigor from your enemies’ blood, dealing 1742 Disease Damage to all nearby enemies. If an enemy is hit, you apply Minor Cowardice to them for 10 seconds, reducing their Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 215 and you gain Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20% for 20 seconds.
Usage: this is the stamina based morph but I rarely at all use it because there’s so much better AoE main spammables that can be access with stamina based weapons. |
Sap Essence |
Siphon the vigor from your enemies’ blood, dealing 1742 Magic Damage to all nearby enemies and healing you and your allies for 599 plus 20% more for each enemy hit. If an enemy is hit, you gain Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20% for 20 seconds.
Usage: this on the other hand is amazing for magblade especially during aoe trash pulls, pvp bombs, you name it. Not to mention it heals you and allies for a lot of heal! Now pair this, siphoning attacks, and sap essence and you are so incredibly strong. |
| Passive Skills | |
Catalyst |
After drinking a potion you gain 20 Ultimate. |
Magicka Flood |
Increases your Maximum Magicka by 8% while a Siphoning ability is slotted.
Note: this is why it’s important to slot one siphoning ability on both bars to maintain high max magicka. |
Soul Siphoner |
Increases your Healing Done by 3% for each Siphoning ability slotted. Current bonus: 0%. |
Transfer |
Casting a Siphoning ability while in combat generates 2 Ultimate. This effect can occur once every 4 seconds.
Note: this is another reason to use swallow soul as a main spammable and combination with potions. |
Recommend Gear and Builds
Magicka PvE DPS Build & Recommended Gear Sets
5pc Primary Offensives (slotted on body)
- Withered Hand = beginner overland gear set for sustain
- Mother’s Sorrow = overland easy access DPS
- Julianos = beginner craftable set
- Overwhelming Surge = dungeon & great sustain and damage set in melee
- Perfected False Gods = trials god tier resources sustain
- Perfect Mantle of Siroria = stationary fights
- Perfected Bahsei’s Mania = considered best in slot mag DPS gear
5pc Secondary Offensives (slotted on jewelry & weapons)
- War Maiden = beginner overland set (non-elemental users)
- New Moon Acolyte = craftable option
- Burning Spell Weave = dungeon option for elemental users (DK)
- Medusa = easy dungeon set
- Deadly Strike = channeled and DoT users like DK & Templar
- Scathing Mage = spell damage dungeon set
- Kinras’s Wrath = considered best in slot front bar mag DPS gear
Monster Helm
- Nerien’eth = beginner damage monster helm that can be used on any class
- Grothdarr = good AoE damage if in melee
- Maw of the Infernal = great for magsorc Pet Builds
- Ilambris = great for ranged sorcs
- Iceheart = great survivability monster
- Kjalnar’s Nightmare = BiS single target but ONLY 1 person can use in group
Mythic
- Death Dealer’s Fete = great if you have tons of healing and Kilt is not an option
- Harpooner’s Kilt = BiS PvE DPS if not taking damage
- Pale Order = solo play survivability
- Markyn Ring of Majesty = simple set and forget 200 spell damage and 2,000 armor
Arena Weapons
- Willpower = beginner 2pc item set for max stats
- Trainee = beginner 2pc item set for max stats
- Perfected Crushing Wall = great back bar weapon
Stamina NB PvE DPS & Recommended Gear Sets
- Hundings rage = good craftable
- Briarheart = good beginner 5pc
- Agility = beginner 2pc weapons
- Deadly Strikes = easy DPS for jabs
- Vicious Serpent = great solo sustain set
- Perfected Maelstrom 2H/Bow = good back bar weapons
- Pale Order = god tier solo survivability
- Stormfist = great dps monster
- Engine Guardian = sustain help
- Scourge Harvest = healing
- Kjalnar’s Nightmare = great single target damage
- Selene = hard hitting proc set
- Relequen = bis single target 5pc
- Vicious Serpent = resource sustain
- Sul Xan = perfect for dungeons and arenas damage set
- Leviathan = good dungeon set for high crit chance
- Tzogvin’s Warband = great damage and easier procs
- Kinra’s Wrath = great overall damage if you are good with light attack weaves
- Beserking Warrior = insane damage in trials if you can light attack weave
- Pillars of Nirn = great dungeon proc set without light attack weaving
- Briarheart = great overland set for the front bar
- New Moon = great craftable set for the front bar
Magicka Nightblade PvP Build & Recommended Gear Sets
- Engine Guardian = sustain
- Malabeth = healing
- Balorgh = burst
- Zoal = counter gank
- Magma Incarnate = great all around and group support
- Perfect Vestment of Olorime
- Clever Alchemist = crazy burst damage
- Kynmarcher’s Cruelty = massive AoE debuff good solo or group
- War Madien = great spell damage if using front bar
- New Moon = great spell damage on front bar
- Scathing Mage = good spell damage set that will help with your damage and healing
- Ironblood = great for duels
- Daedric Trickery = great all-around defensive
- Pariah = good for armor keep on body all times
- Buffer of Swift = awesome damage reduction
- Grace of Gloom = insane survivability if you have high health
Stamina Nightblade PvP Build & Recommended Gear Sets
- Engine Guardian = sustain
- Malabeth = healing
- Balorgh = burst
- Zoal = counter gank
- Magma Incarnate = great all around and group support
- Wretched Vitality = insane sustain
- Powerful Assault = group utility and damage
- Clever Alchemist = crazy burst damage
- Plaguebreak = AoE DoT damage
- Unleashed Terror = gap closer damage
- New Moon = good damage craftable set
- Kynmarcher’s Cruelty = massive AoE debuff good solo or group
- Markyn Ring of Majesty = best overall mythic
- Torc = resource sustain
- Wild Hunt = speed
Nightblade Tank Build & Recommended Gear Sets
- Sentinel of Rkugamz: obtained in Veteran Dungeon Darkshade Caverns I, and Undaunted vendor Maj for shoulder.
- Powerful Assault: found in Imperial City sewers vendor and sold on the traders.
- Torug’s Pact to take advantage of Crusher enchant
- Perfected Puncturing Remedy: Veteran Dragonstar Arena in Craglorn though can do normal and get lesser version.
- Encratis’s Behemoth (helm found in Black Drake Villa): flame attacks proc increased fire damage and decrease flame for entire team
- Engine Guardian for selfish sustain, Bloodspawn for more ultimate or Sentinel for group sustain.
- Perfected Claw of Yolnahkriin: obtained in Veteran Sunspire or normal for lesser version.
Nightblade Healer Build & Recommended Gear Sets
- Spalder of Ruin = insane 2pc mythic for damage added
- Symphony of Blades = good resource sustain
- Spell Power Cure = major courage easy to obtain and mobile
- Perfected Stone-Talker’s Oath = god tier group resource sustain
- Perfected Grand Rejuvenation = god tier group resource sustain
- Sentinel of Rkugamz = beginner sustain 2pc monster
- Magma Incarnate = best in slot dungeon monster
- Earthgore = super burst heal
- Vestment of Olorime = longer duration major courage though lacks mobility
- Jorvuld’s Guidance = paired Roaring Opportunist in trials
- Roaring Opportunist = used to provide major slayer
- Way of Martial Knowledge = damage added when sustain is high
- Master Architect = great back dungeon set
Thanks for reading!