Magicka Nightblade PvP Build ESO – Umbra

Build Written By: Dottz Gaming – PC NA

Role: Damage Dealer

Patch: Waking Flame

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Setup
   1. Gear
   2. Attributes
   3. Skills
   4. Vampire vs. Mortal
   5. Champion Points
   6. Other Important Info (Food, Mundus, Race, Potions, Passives)
3. Tips & Misc
4. Contact Info
5. Update Log

Introduction

Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Magicka Nightblade DPS PvP Build, Umbra, for the Elder Scrolls Online! This build is intended for PvP of all kinds: battlegrounds, Cyrodiil and Imperial City. This build can be played in both CP and no-CP pvp without any changes to the build!

It has been awhile since I have played my magicka nightblade as a melee character, but I decided to bring it back with the Waking Flame patch! With the changes we have seen over time in ESO in 2021, high damage squishier builds have become an extremely effective playstyle due to how high damage numbers can reach. This build focuses on bobbing in and out of combat, striking from the shadows with extremely potent critical hit damage and eliminating opponents before they even have a chance to respond. We stack a ton of percent damage modifiers for both our regular damage and critical hit, combine that with 100% critical chance and 20k+ penetration, and these things combined just give us absurdly high damage. The build is squishy though of course to reach such high damage numbers, so you need to engage intelligently and use your mobility for survival.

Keep in mind that PvP builds are very personal. This is what worked for ME. If you don’t like something about it, change it to fit your playstyle.

Setup

Gear

Gear Explanation

• Slimecraw: This monster set adds a nice amount of additional damage to the build by giving us permanent uptime on minor berserk, increasing our damage by 5%!
• Mechanical Acuity: Critical damage in PvP has become extremely strong, making this set very desirable for a build like this. We have 100% critical chance coming out of stealth from Shadowy Disguise, and then this gives us another 5 seconds of 100% critical chance, allowing all of our crit hit damage modifiers to kick in.
• Spinner’s Garments: Since we are a squishy build and not built to brawl, we need to be able to take down our opponents as fast as possible. Spinner’s gives us a ton of penetration, which allows our damage to hit even the tankiest of targets extremely hard.
• Precise Regeneration: We do not need to double bar spinner’s, which gives us a free 2 piece set on our back bar. I decided to go with the Maelstrom Restoration staff here for some extra sustain!

Attributes

All points into Magicka.

Skills

Main Bar – Destruction Staff: Concealed Weapon, Crippling Grasp, Merciless Resolve, Shadowy Disguise, Inner Light, Soul Harvest

Back Bar – Restoration Staff: Reaper’s Mark, Siphoning Attacks, Rapid Regeneration, Shadow Image, Channeled Acceleration, Light’s Champion

Vampire vs. Mortal

For this build I recommend playing a vampire. Vampire gives us the ability to get more weapon/spell damage coming out of stealth, increased tankiness as well as increased stealth movement speed. We easily offset a lot of vampire’s drawbacks with our racial choice, making this a very nice addition to the build’s power! You’ll be in vampire stage 3 for this build.

Champion Points

The list below showcases the order in which champion points should be acquired, the number of points you need to place into that perk and whether or not it needs to be slotted in the CP bar. The Warfare CP perks increase your damage and mitigation and are the most important, the Fitness tree has some miscellaneous sustain and defensive perks and the Craft tree has crafting and non-combat bonuses. The Craft CP points are entirely customizable to however you want, or you can follow the list below.

CHAMPION POINT SETUP
WARFARE (BLUE)

• Eldritch Insight – 20
• Piercing – 20
• Deadly Aim – 50 (Slotted)
• Master-at-Arms – 50 (Slotted)
• Precision – 20
• Backstabber – 50 (Slotted)
• Fighting Finesse – 50 (Slotted)
• Quick Recovery – 20
• Elemental Aegis – 20
• Hardy – 20
• Blessed – 20
• Tireless Discipline – 20
• Flawless Ritual – 40
• War Mage – 30
• Preparation – 20

FITNESS (RED)

• Boundless Vitality – 50 (Slotted)
• Rejuvenation – 50 (Slotted)
• Tumbling – 30
• Mystic Tenacity – 10
• Relentlessness- 50 (Slotted)
• Hero’s Vigor – 20
• Defiance – 20
• Juggernaut – 50 (Slotted)
• Hasty – 16
• Sprinter – 20
• Tireless Guardian – 20
• Fortification – 30
• Nimble Protector – 6
• Savage Defense – 30
• Piercing Gaze – 30
• Bashing Brutality – 20

CRAFT (GREEN)

• Steed’s Blessing – 50 (Slotted)
• Breakfall – 50
• Wanderer – 15
• Steadfast Enchantment – 50
• Rationer – 30 (Slotted)
• Liquid Efficiency – 75 (Slotted)
• Treasure Hunter – 50 (Slotted)
• Fortune’s Favor – 50
• Gilded Fingers – 50
• Soul Reservoir – 33

Other Important Info

Buff Food

Witchmother’s Potent Brew or Clockwork Citrus Filet: Maximum Health, Magicka and Magicka Recovery

Mundus

Shadow – Increased Critical Damage

Race

Breton – Definitely my favorite race for this build. Vampire characters come with a pretty heft cost increase to your non-vampire abilities, and being a Breton greatly helps mitigate that cost increase via its 7% cost reduction and 130 magicka recovery. Besides the great regen Breton offers, we also get a big boost to our magicka and a ton of extra resistances. If you want to just go for pure damage, you can also play as a Khajiit, Dark Elf or High Elf.

Potions/Poisons

Spell Power Potions (Spell Crit, Spell Damage, Magicka Restoration)
Cornflower, Ladys Smock, Water Hyacinth

Passives

Class (all), Light Armor (all), Heavy Armor (all), Medium Armor (all), Restoration (all), Dual Wield (Dual Wield Expert, Ruffian and Twin Blade and Blunt), Undaunted (all), Racial (all), Mage’s Guild (all), Vampire (all except Unnatural Movement), Psijic Order (Clairvoyance, Concentrated Barrier, and Deliberation), Alchemy (Medicinal Use), Assault (all), Support (all except the first)

Tips & Misc.

• Maintaining Merciless Resolve, Reaper’s Mark, Channeled Acceleration, Shadow Image and Siphoning Attacks is important for the builds offensive and defensive capabilities, as well as sustain!
• The goal of the build is to come out of stealth and hit your opponent hard. With all of your buffs/debuffs applied, come out of Shadowy Disguise on your opponent’s flank with Concealed Weapon, and use Light Attack -> Concealed Weapon to start chunking down your opponent. Use Soul Harvest and Assassin’s Will when they both come up as well.
• Use Crippling Grasp primarily as a way to catch up to opponent’s trying to escape. You dont want to open with this since the initial hit from the ability will proc your Mechanical Acuity too early.
• You are very squishy in this build – use your mobility tools, Shadowy Disguise and Shadow Image, to escape your opponents and heal back up with Rapid Regeneration. Use Light’s Champion in situations where you need big emergency healing.

Contact

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

Update Log

8/14/2019 – Build created.
10/21/2019 – Grothdarr changes to Balorgh, Cost Reduction enchant changed to Spell Damage
10/25/2019 – Build overhauled after initial testing in dragonhold
2/24/2020 – No changes for Harrowstorm
8/26/2021 – build brought out of archives and fully overhauled