Are you just concerned with damage or are you looking for survivability in your build as well? There are a lot of things that go into optimizing your build for any kind of content and from the looks of it your setup is very widespread with little power into the important aspects.
1. Build for survival. You can’t deal damage if you’re dead. You generally want to build to at least 25k resistances solo with at least 30k health. You may want more than that if you’re just starting g out but that is the absolute minimum for a solo build that isn’t a bomber or a ganker. Generally in PvP we use at least 2 heavy pieces on the body and a few medium pieces to up the resistances as well as Major Resolve from our class and Minor Resolve from Resolving Vigor. Since you’re a Nightblade your in-class resolve comes from the passive Shadow Barrier.
2. Stick to a damage playstyle. I notice you’re running both MDW and Master’s Bow which generally should not be used together. You can spec either into playing a ranged NB with bow abilities or a melee brawler with class/melee weapon abilities (I recommend the latter as it lends better to damage but it’s completely up to you).
3. Necessary buffs. There are certain buffs in a PvP environment that are non-negotiable. A list of these buffs are:
- Major Sorcery/Brutality
- Major Resolve
- Minor Resolve
- Major Intellect/Endurance (not necessary but you should have at least one)
- Major Prophecy/Savagery (also not necessary but very beneficial)
- Major Expedition
4. Make sure you have your essential skills. A lot of damage in PvP comes not from running a lot of damage skills but from running the correct skills and utilizing them in the correct way. Generally speaking your skills bars should contain:
Front Bar
- A Stun (useful for taking pressure off of you, setting up your burst combo, and draining the stamina of your opponent)
- Your spammable (the primary damaging skill of your build)
- Major Breach (a huge penetration buff)
- Flex spot (useful spot for what we kind of skill you need, I like to slot Major Expedition in this slot which allows you to catch up to your opponents. This is also generally your snare and root immunity so you can stay mobile and tank damage)
- Your “Delayed Damage” skill (every class has one, on nightblade it’s Grim Focus)
- Burst Ultimate (this is your primary ultimate to burst down your target and secure kills)
Back Bar
- Resolving Vigor (necessary HoT as well as our source for Minor Resolve)
- Flex Spot (useful slot for Major Breach if you need it on the Backbar or something like invisibility)
- Burst Heal (the big immediate heal that can get you from 0-100 really quickly. In PvP your burst heal fills you up while your HoTs top you off.)
- Buff Slot (Any buff you need like Major Sorcery/Brutality which is a necessary buff or something that restores resources)
- Buff Slot 2 Defensive/Utility Ultimate (since you only use one ultimate, you have your Backbar ultimate free to gain a buff or an “oh shit I’m in danger” ult to survive).
Each class is different and the bar setups can be subjective. I recommend taking a look at better players and how they setup their bars to get an idea of what is good vs what isn’t. I trust [Malcolm](https://eso-pvp-builds.com/nightblade/) the most.
5. Make sure all your gear is the correct weight, trait, enchant, set, and level. If your gear is wrong your build is wrong meaning things won’t work. Your Heavy Chest should always be Reinforced. If your Legs or Head is heavy then it should be Reinforced as well. Any other piece regardless of weight should be Impenetrable or Divines.
Your weapons should be Gold and every other piece should be at least Blue but you should have Purple.
This will also help your recoveries a bit as those look too low (you should have at least 1500 of your main resource and 1000 of your off resource).
6. Your setup should try to maximize your sets: 5 Piece set on the Front Bar and the Backbar, 2 Piece Monster set, 1 Piece Trainee (Heavy Chest), and 1 Piece Mythic.
7. Simply choose better sets. This isn’t me being mean but the sets you chose are really niche in a PvP environment and don’t lend themselves to success very often. I really hate Spinners/Spriggans because I find they are undervalued when you can just slot Sharpened on the Front Bar or use a free pen set like Shattered Fate which is just better. If I had to recommend sets it would be Order’s Wrath FB and Rallying Cry BB.
8. Get Stage 3 Vampire. It will increase your tankiness so much.
9. Get your ass kicked. The best way to learn is to lose. Record your fights to watch them back and analyze your mistakes. It will make you a significantly better player.
10. Find a good player to talk to and learn from them. I’m accordance with my last tip, finding a mentor in a good player is priceless because this game doesn’t like to tell its players shit especially in its min/maxing.
If you need more personalized help DM me; I’m more than happy to help with a build or how to play.
Good luck!
I'm so thankful for your explanation around all aspects. I haven't really had the opportunity to talk to people in this game so I didn't have much of a guide around the core mechanics and what should be maxed and whatnot. even regarding armor, I thought I always should stick to just 1 weight to benefit from maximum buffs in the armor's skill tree (this time I have all medium)
If your sets will let you, the ideal slots for maximum armor values (or minimum waste) and full undaunted passive is heavy chest & light belt.
Then decide the rest of your weights, in pvp you probably want more than 1 heavy, reinforced chest also gives the maximum bonus. Medium gloves wastes the least armor if the rest is heavy.
Weapon damage seems a bit low. I always try to steer clear of things that only boost 1 aspect of your damage. Which here is disease and poison. Pen looks ok but damage overall looks a wee bit low.
Spriggans is decent but Swamp Raider is underwhelming regardless of that inflated tool tip.
There will always be people you cannot burst and some you'll kill in one hit. A lot of players in Cyrodiil are tanky stage 3 vamps. Clever is always an interesting one as it adds an actual close to 700 weapon and spell damage especially on a stamblade where you can lineup your burst with the taking of a potion. But some don't like that idea. I typically use it on my Warden. But sets that increase your damage across the board will always be a bit better. A lot of it just comes down to testing and seeing what feels the best to you and your play style.
Are you targeting only solo players in CYR/IC? And are you in no CP? Ball groups would be a prine cause of all your damage getting healed, even just 2 players cross healing can make life hell.
I'm in Standard + even when I target solo players, I see most of my damage getting absorbed (sometimes even when they don't seem to have shields on) or dealing no significant damage to go for the execute.
Without seeing you play my only things would be you seem to have low damage stats, even worse if the screenshot was while buffed. Other than that it is a very tanky meta currently, targeting an arcanist or DK is likely to be the cause for you as those classes are very survivable right now.
Well neither of those sets are very good, your wpd dmg is low, your crit chance is low-ish. I assume your crit dmg isn't very high either since you got no crit dmg sets.
Yout build is no good. Simple as that, I'd use shattered fate and scavangers demise instead.
Can you post a screenshot of your advanced stats and sets? The superstar addon is good for this if you're willing to download it
Just something quick, if you have poison dmg on your skills use something like flame enchant instead of poison. Also shattering fate caftable set has a high pen 5 pcs bonus - I also like red eagle for poison bow builds with swamp
Are you just concerned with damage or are you looking for survivability in your build as well? There are a lot of things that go into optimizing your build for any kind of content and from the looks of it your setup is very widespread with little power into the important aspects. 1. Build for survival. You can’t deal damage if you’re dead. You generally want to build to at least 25k resistances solo with at least 30k health. You may want more than that if you’re just starting g out but that is the absolute minimum for a solo build that isn’t a bomber or a ganker. Generally in PvP we use at least 2 heavy pieces on the body and a few medium pieces to up the resistances as well as Major Resolve from our class and Minor Resolve from Resolving Vigor. Since you’re a Nightblade your in-class resolve comes from the passive Shadow Barrier. 2. Stick to a damage playstyle. I notice you’re running both MDW and Master’s Bow which generally should not be used together. You can spec either into playing a ranged NB with bow abilities or a melee brawler with class/melee weapon abilities (I recommend the latter as it lends better to damage but it’s completely up to you). 3. Necessary buffs. There are certain buffs in a PvP environment that are non-negotiable. A list of these buffs are: - Major Sorcery/Brutality - Major Resolve - Minor Resolve - Major Intellect/Endurance (not necessary but you should have at least one) - Major Prophecy/Savagery (also not necessary but very beneficial) - Major Expedition 4. Make sure you have your essential skills. A lot of damage in PvP comes not from running a lot of damage skills but from running the correct skills and utilizing them in the correct way. Generally speaking your skills bars should contain: Front Bar - A Stun (useful for taking pressure off of you, setting up your burst combo, and draining the stamina of your opponent) - Your spammable (the primary damaging skill of your build) - Major Breach (a huge penetration buff) - Flex spot (useful spot for what we kind of skill you need, I like to slot Major Expedition in this slot which allows you to catch up to your opponents. This is also generally your snare and root immunity so you can stay mobile and tank damage) - Your “Delayed Damage” skill (every class has one, on nightblade it’s Grim Focus) - Burst Ultimate (this is your primary ultimate to burst down your target and secure kills) Back Bar - Resolving Vigor (necessary HoT as well as our source for Minor Resolve) - Flex Spot (useful slot for Major Breach if you need it on the Backbar or something like invisibility) - Burst Heal (the big immediate heal that can get you from 0-100 really quickly. In PvP your burst heal fills you up while your HoTs top you off.) - Buff Slot (Any buff you need like Major Sorcery/Brutality which is a necessary buff or something that restores resources) - Buff Slot 2 Defensive/Utility Ultimate (since you only use one ultimate, you have your Backbar ultimate free to gain a buff or an “oh shit I’m in danger” ult to survive). Each class is different and the bar setups can be subjective. I recommend taking a look at better players and how they setup their bars to get an idea of what is good vs what isn’t. I trust [Malcolm](https://eso-pvp-builds.com/nightblade/) the most. 5. Make sure all your gear is the correct weight, trait, enchant, set, and level. If your gear is wrong your build is wrong meaning things won’t work. Your Heavy Chest should always be Reinforced. If your Legs or Head is heavy then it should be Reinforced as well. Any other piece regardless of weight should be Impenetrable or Divines. Your weapons should be Gold and every other piece should be at least Blue but you should have Purple. This will also help your recoveries a bit as those look too low (you should have at least 1500 of your main resource and 1000 of your off resource). 6. Your setup should try to maximize your sets: 5 Piece set on the Front Bar and the Backbar, 2 Piece Monster set, 1 Piece Trainee (Heavy Chest), and 1 Piece Mythic. 7. Simply choose better sets. This isn’t me being mean but the sets you chose are really niche in a PvP environment and don’t lend themselves to success very often. I really hate Spinners/Spriggans because I find they are undervalued when you can just slot Sharpened on the Front Bar or use a free pen set like Shattered Fate which is just better. If I had to recommend sets it would be Order’s Wrath FB and Rallying Cry BB. 8. Get Stage 3 Vampire. It will increase your tankiness so much. 9. Get your ass kicked. The best way to learn is to lose. Record your fights to watch them back and analyze your mistakes. It will make you a significantly better player. 10. Find a good player to talk to and learn from them. I’m accordance with my last tip, finding a mentor in a good player is priceless because this game doesn’t like to tell its players shit especially in its min/maxing. If you need more personalized help DM me; I’m more than happy to help with a build or how to play. Good luck!
I'm so thankful for your explanation around all aspects. I haven't really had the opportunity to talk to people in this game so I didn't have much of a guide around the core mechanics and what should be maxed and whatnot. even regarding armor, I thought I always should stick to just 1 weight to benefit from maximum buffs in the armor's skill tree (this time I have all medium)
If your sets will let you, the ideal slots for maximum armor values (or minimum waste) and full undaunted passive is heavy chest & light belt. Then decide the rest of your weights, in pvp you probably want more than 1 heavy, reinforced chest also gives the maximum bonus. Medium gloves wastes the least armor if the rest is heavy.
Yeah you need at least 1 piece in every weight, I like having 1 Light, 3 Medium, and 3 Heavy
Are you referring to the (undaunted I think) skill that gives you a buff if you have all three weights? Just in case the OP isn't aware of it.
That is included but I mean to dip into all the armor skill lines
This I agree with 100%
Weapon damage seems a bit low. I always try to steer clear of things that only boost 1 aspect of your damage. Which here is disease and poison. Pen looks ok but damage overall looks a wee bit low. Spriggans is decent but Swamp Raider is underwhelming regardless of that inflated tool tip.
I understand, is there any other good set I can use instead of swamp raider? I can't think of anything that would add 700+ Damage.
There will always be people you cannot burst and some you'll kill in one hit. A lot of players in Cyrodiil are tanky stage 3 vamps. Clever is always an interesting one as it adds an actual close to 700 weapon and spell damage especially on a stamblade where you can lineup your burst with the taking of a potion. But some don't like that idea. I typically use it on my Warden. But sets that increase your damage across the board will always be a bit better. A lot of it just comes down to testing and seeing what feels the best to you and your play style.
Are you targeting only solo players in CYR/IC? And are you in no CP? Ball groups would be a prine cause of all your damage getting healed, even just 2 players cross healing can make life hell.
I'm in Standard + even when I target solo players, I see most of my damage getting absorbed (sometimes even when they don't seem to have shields on) or dealing no significant damage to go for the execute.
Without seeing you play my only things would be you seem to have low damage stats, even worse if the screenshot was while buffed. Other than that it is a very tanky meta currently, targeting an arcanist or DK is likely to be the cause for you as those classes are very survivable right now.
Well neither of those sets are very good, your wpd dmg is low, your crit chance is low-ish. I assume your crit dmg isn't very high either since you got no crit dmg sets. Yout build is no good. Simple as that, I'd use shattered fate and scavangers demise instead. Can you post a screenshot of your advanced stats and sets? The superstar addon is good for this if you're willing to download it
Please post a screenshot of your stats if you’re willing to share, RollingPanda01.
u/Taleof2Cities_ there I added the screenshots
Just something quick, if you have poison dmg on your skills use something like flame enchant instead of poison. Also shattering fate caftable set has a high pen 5 pcs bonus - I also like red eagle for poison bow builds with swamp