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ESO Nightblade Leveling Build

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ESO Builds Leveling

ESO Nightblade Leveling Build

Build Written By: Dottz Gaming – PC NA

Role: Damage Dealer, Tank, and/or Healer

Patch: Update 39

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Setups
    1. Magicka DPS
    2. Stamina DPS
    3. Tank
    4. Healer
  3. Contact Info

Introduction

Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Nightblade Leveling Build for the Elder Scrolls Online! This build is intended to act as a framework for someone to follow while leveling a Nightblade, whether it be a magicka damage dealer, a stamina damage dealer, a tank or a healer.  This is not a traditional “leveling build”, but rather a framework that shows you some of the most commonly used setups for each role.  This enables you to pick and choose from a list and mix and match how you like, thus preventing you from feeling like you have a static leveling progression! You will be able to experiment with different abilities as you level up, and come end game, you’ll not only have a lot (if not all) of the most commonly used abilities leveled up and morphed, but you’ll know which of these you like the most and works best for you.

Nightblades are the masters of stealth and life-stealing magic, and boast high mobility and damage. Even though nightblades are primarily used as damage dealers, they can still fit into the tank and healer roles with their unique play style.  Nightblades can be a little difficult as a first character for newer players due to having a bit of a higher skill cap than some of the other classes, but when built correctly, easy and effective builds can be made which will make the leveling process much easier.

Once you are level 50, you become CP 10 and will be able to use the Champion Point system. For basics on the CP system, click here.

For the some extra explanation on the guide’s format, please check the above video.

Setup

Magicka DPS

RACE

  • High Elf
  • Breton
  • Dark Elf
  • Khajiit

GEAR

  • 5 light
  • 1 medium
  • 1 heavy
  • Destruction Staffs (Front/Back Bar) OR Destro/Resto (for PvP)
    • Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!

ATTRIBUTES

All in magicka

VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL

Mortal: Remain a mortal. Neither vampire nor werewolf will give you anything you need as you’re leveling.

MUNDUS

Thief

POTIONS AND FOOD

Potions: Magicka

Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, magicka, and/or magicka recovery.

ABILITIES

You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!

Abilities – PVE

  • Assassination -> Assassin’s Blade -> Impale
  • Assassination -> Grim Focus -> Merciless Resolve
  • Shadow -> Veiled Strike -> Concealed Weapon
  • Siphoning -> Strife -> Swallow Soul
  • Siphoning -> Cripple -> Crippling Grasp
  • Siphoning -> Siphoning Strikes -> Siphoning Attacks
  • Siphoning -> Drain Power -> Sap Essence
  • Light Armor -> Annulment -> Harness Magicka
  • Mage’s Guild -> Entropy -> Degeneration
  • Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
  • Destruction Staff -> Weakness to Elements -> Elemental Drain
  • Psijic Order -> Accelerate -> Channeled Acceleration
  • Fighter’s Guild -> Trap Beast -> Barbed Trap
  • Additional abilities for PVP Include:
    • Assassination -> Blur -> Phantasmal Escape
    • Assassination -> Mark Target -> Piercing Mark
    • Shadow -> Shadow Cloak -> Shadowy Disguise
    • Shadow -> Aspect of Terror -> Mass Hysteria
    • Shadow -> Summon Shade -> Shadow Image
    • Restoration Staff -> Regeneration -> Rapid Regeneration

Ultimates

  • Assassination -> Death Stroke -> Soul Harvest
  • Siphoning -> Soul Shred -> Soul Tether
  • Destruction Staff -> Elemental Storm -> Elemental Rage
  • Mage’s Guild -> Meteor -> Shooting Star
  • Restoration Staff -> Panacea -> Either Morph

PASSIVES

  • Assassination
  • Shadow
  • Siphoning
  • Racial
  • Light Armor
  • Destruction Staff
    • Optional: Restoration Staff passives for pvp
  • Alchemy – Medicinal Use
  • Mages Guild
  • Fighter’s Guild
  • Undaunted
  • Psijic Order
  • The other armor type passives

ROTATION

  1. Try to use any abilities that give you a buff first so they make any abilities you use afterwards stronger or help you stay alive longer.
  2. You optimally want to use any dots in your build first, so use each dot you have on your enemies weaving a light attack in between each of them
  3. You should have 1 spammable ability in your build to use when all your dots are up and you dont need to buff yourself. In this case, that would be Swallow Soul!
  4. Use any CC, shields and heals as needed. You want to optimally make sure you have a few of these at your disposal when making a build for general playing.

SETS

While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):

Stamina DPS

RACE

  • Redguard
  • Khajiit
  • Wood Elf
  • Orc
  • Dark Elf

GEAR

  • 1 light
  • 5 medium
  • 1 heavy
  • Dual Wield / Bow
    • If your main focus is to PvP eventually, use a 2h instead of dual wielding.
    • Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!

ATTRIBUTES

All in stamina

VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL

  • Werewolf: Worth choosing if you’re going to be making a PvP focused werewolf build, or if your PvP build only needs 1 ultimate (you can then backbar the ult for the extra stamina recovery).
  • Vampirism: Doesnt give that much benefit for stamina DPS outside of niche situations.
  • Mortal: Choose this if you don’t want to be a werewolf.

MUNDUS

Thief

POTIONS AND FOOD

Potions: Stamina

Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, stamina, and/or stamina recovery.

ABILITIES

You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!

Abilities

  • Assassination -> Assassin’s Blade -> Killer’s Blade
  • Assassination -> Grim Focus -> Relentless Focus
  • Assassination -> Mark Target -> Either Morph
  • Shadow -> Veiled Strike  -> Surprise Attack
  • Siphoning -> Strife -> Dont Morph
  • Siphoning -> Siphoning Strikes -> Leeching Strikes
  • Siphoning -> Drain Power -> Power Extraction
  • Fighter’s Guild -> Trap Beast -> Barbed Trap
  • Medium Armor -> Evasion -> Either Morph
  • Bow -> Poison Arrow -> Poison Injection
  • Bow -> Volley -> Endless Hail
  • Dual Wield -> Twin Slashes -> Either Morph
  • Dual Wield -> Whirlwind -> Either Morph
  • Dual Wield -> Blade Cloak -> Either Morph
  • Assault -> Vigor -> Resolving Vigor
  • Additional abilities for PVP include:
    • Assassination -> Teleport Strike -> Ambush
    • Shadow -> Summon Shade -> Shadow Image
    • Shadow -> Shadow Cloak -> Shadowy Disguise
    • Shadow -> Aspect of Terror -> Mass Hysteria
    • Two Handed -> Momentum -> Either Morph

Ultimates

  • Fighter’s Guild -> Dawnbreaker -> Either Morph
  • Assassination -> Death Stroke -> Incapacitating Strike
  • Siphoning -> Soul Shred -> Soul Tether
  • Bow -> Rapid Fire -> Ballista

PASSIVES

  • Assassination
  • Shadow
  • Siphoning
  • Racial
  • Medium Armor
  • Dual Wield
    • Or 2h if you plan on going the pvp route
  • Bow
  • Alchemy – Medicinal Use
  • Fighters Guild
  • Undaunted
  • Psijic Order
  • The other armor type passives

ROTATION

  1. Try to use any abilities that give you a buff first so they make any abilities you use afterwards stronger or help you stay alive longer.
  2. You optimally want to use any dots or aoe in your build first, so use each dot you have on your enemies weaving a light attack in between each of them
  3. You should have 1 spammable ability in your build to use when all your dots are up and you dont need to buff yourself, which will be surprise attack.
  4. Use any CC, shields and heals as needed. You want to optimally make sure you have a few of these at your disposal when making a build for general playing.

While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):

Tank

RACE

  • Argonian
  • Imperial
  • Nord

GEAR

  • 1 light
  • 1 medium
  • 5 heavy
  • 1h/shield (both bars) OR 1h shield/Destruction Staff (lightning/ice)
    • Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!

ATTRIBUTES

Magicka: 15
Health: 28
Stamina: 21

VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL

Mortal: Vampire/Werewolf dont give us a whole lot of benefits for this role, so we just remain mortal.

MUNDUS

Lord or Atronach

POTIONS AND FOOD

Potions: Health, Magicka, or Stamina

Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your attributes or give you recovery

ABILITIES

You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!

Abilities

  • Assassination -> Assassin’s Blade -> Killer’s Blade
  • Assassination -> Blur -> Mirage
  • Shadow -> Veiled Strike  -> Surprise Attack
  • Shadow -> Shadow Cloak -> Dark Claok
  • Shadow -> Path of Darkness  -> Refreshing Path
  • Siphoning -> Strife -> Swallow Soul
  • Siphoning -> Siphoning Strikes -> Leeching Strikes
  • Siphoning -> Drain Power -> Sap Essence
  • 1h/Shield -> Puncture -> Pierce Armor
  • 1h/Shield -> Low Slash -> Heroic Slash
  • 1h/Shield -> Defensive Posture -> Absorb Magic
  • 1h/Shield -> Shield Charge -> Shielded Assault
  • Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
  • Undaunted -> Inner Fire -> Inner Rage
  • Undaunted -> Bone Shield -> Bone Surge
  • Undaunted -> Blood Altar -> Overflowing Altar
  • Assault -> Vigor -> Resolving Vigor
  • Support -> Purge -> Efficient Purge
  • Psijic Order -> Meditate -> Deep Thoughts
  • Fighter’s Guild -> Silver Bolts -> Silver Leash

Ultimates

  • 1h/Shield -> Shield Wall -> Shield Discipline
  • Assassination -> Death Stroke -> Soul Harvest
  • Assault -> War Horn -> Aggressive Horn
  • Shadow -> Consuming Darkness -> Bolstering Darkness

PASSIVES

  • Assassination
  • Shadow
  • Siphoning
  • Racial
  • Heavy Armor
  • 1h/Shield
    • Optional: Destruction Staff
  • Alchemy – Medicinal Use
  • Fighter’s Guild
  • Undaunted
  • The other armor type passives

ROTATION

Tanks dont have set rotations like DPS, use things in your kit as you need them.

SETS

While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):

Healer

RACE

  • Breton
  • Argonian
  • Khajiit

GEAR

  • 5 light
  • 1 medium
  • 1 heavy
  • Destruction Staff (Shock) and Restoration Staff
    • Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!

ATTRIBUTES

All in magicka

VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL

Mortal: Vampire/Werewolf dont give us a whole lot of benefits for this role, so we just remain mortal.

MUNDUS

Atronach

POTIONS AND FOOD

Potions: Magicka

Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, magicka, and/or magicka recovery.

ABILITIES

You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!

Abilities

  • Assassination -> Assassin’s Blade -> Impale
  • Shadow -> Veiled Strike  -> Dont Morph
    • If you want to morph it use concealed weapon
  • Shadow -> Path of Darkness -> Refreshing Path
  • Siphoning -> Strife -> Funnel Health
  • Siphoning -> Siphoning Strikes -> Siphoning Strikes
  • Siphoning -> Drain Power -> Sap Essence
  • Mages Guild -> Magelight -> Inner Light
  • Destruction Staff -> Force Shock -> Crushing  Shock
  • Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
  • Destruction Staff-> Weakness to Elements -> Elemental Drain
  • Restoration Staff -> Grand Healing -> Healing Springs
  • Restoration Staff -> Regeneration -> Radiating Regeneration
  • Restoration Staff -> Blessing of Protection -> Combat Prayer
  • Restoration Staff -> Steadfast Ward -> Healing Ward
  • Light Armor -> Annulment -> Harness Magicka
  • Undaunted -> Necrotic Orb -> Energy Orb
  • Undaunted -> Blood Altar -> Overflowing Altar

Ultimates

  • Assault -> War Horn -> Aggressive Warhorn
  • Restoration Staff -> Panacea -> Light’s Champion
  • Siphoning -> Soul Shred -> Soul Siphon
  • Shadow -> Consuming Darkness -> Veil of Blades

PASSIVES

  • Assassination
  • Shadow
  • Siphoning
  • Racial
  • Light Armor
  • Destruction Staff
  • Restoration Staff
  • Alchemy – Medicinal Use
  • Mages Guild
  • Fighter’s Guild
  • Undaunted
  • The other armor type passives

ROTATION

Healers dont have set rotations like DPS, use things in your kit as you need them.

SETS

While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):

Contact

If you have any questions about the build, join our discord server and ask @Dottz about the build!

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