Hey guys,
I'm calling for help and would like to use the joint brainpower of the community to reassamble a magblade pvp build which was formerly referred to as Saptanking. It has been my favourite playstlye for 3 years but has received many direct and indirect nerfes over the time, which makes it incredibly hard to assemble a properly working build nowadays. I have since then probably tried out any promising setup without achieving statisfying results. I'd like to start off with the objective of the build and the playstlye I am looking for to achieve:
OBJECTIVE:
As I'm I solo or small group player (usually under 5 people), I don't want to rely on the interaction with other teammembers. This means the build has to provide enough defensive mechanics to outlast a small group of enemies (for now lets say 5). Additionally, tanking is fun and such, but as long as you can't manage to kill anyone there's no point in playing that style in my opinion. That means, I'm not trying to achieve high bomb-blade like damage, just enough to apply decent pressure to kill players, maybe with potential burst windows.
Secondly, it is important to assess what means a nightblade brings to the table that can benefit this playstlye.
NOTEWORTHY AND DISCUSSABLE NIGHTBLADE MECHANICS:
Assassination Tree:
Soul Harvest - I love this skill for the ultimate regen it provides - as long as you kill stuff. Always try to put this one on my front bar/ execute bar.
Mirage - very nice buff for small resistanced and dodge chance. Sadly most of the time I can't work this skill in due to lack of slots.
Reapers mark - a VERY underestimated defensive skill in my opinion. It has a huge heal and damage potential IF you manage to actually bring down your focused target. I tried to build around that skill for quite a while, since its the only class native burst heal, but haven't manage to proc it reliably.
Merciless - THE go to burst damage for nightblade. Sadly quite hard to proc for a saptank, but ranged weapons open up this opportunity. Minor beserk also helps alot with damage, also for proc sets! (also tried to build proc-based saptanks in combination with major beserk from reapers mark)
Hemorrhage - worth mentioning, since its crit bonus also applies to crit heals. This is why I usually try to build my magblade around crit.
Shadow Tree:
Veil of Blades - Cool skill which provides decent damage and mitigation for an extended time. However stationairy, which renders it to be difficult to use in PvP
Cloak - probably the strongest defensive skill for nightblade, everyone knows it. However, I dont like it because its rather unreliable and does not compliment the pursued playstyle. Note: The crit morph allows your HoTs to always crit which is super strong
refreshing path - provides strong healing over time (higher than mutagen), procs our shadow barrier and also provides decent damage and major expedition. Really like that skill and include it in almost any of my builds
Fear - Both morphs are good, and they also fit into the playstyle. Getting jumped and beeing surrounded by enemies, this skill comes in handy to create opportunities to heal, as well as to go aggressive and apply pressure. Probably one if not the strongest CC in the game. I havent played too much with the trap morph yet, though it definatly looks interesting agains more enemies.
Shadow Image - a GREAT skill for sticky situations that needs some preparation, but once you get used to it it really provides extremely strong disengage potential - imo FAR higher than cloak
Refreshing shadows - I don't see that much attention to this passive, however it is extremely strong. Im also trying to build around regeneration, especially some stamina.
Shadow barrier - opens up skill slots because we dont have to get the major defensive buffs actively - amazing. Noteworthy that the uptime is higher in heavy armor!
Dark Vigor - NBs are the only class that gets passive max HP increase as far as im concerned. Really helps assambling a saptank.
Siphoning Tree:
Soul Tether - probably THE go to skill to provide burst opportunities for magblades, also provides decent healing. Havent used this in a while, but its surely powerful and fits the desired playstyle.
Swallow Soul - my go to spammable, due to minor vitality and rage. Always prefer that over conceiled weapons.
Healthy offering - now this skill is very discussable. it CAN provide a super high HoT + minor mending, however I couldn't make productive use of it because the upfront cost every 8 seconds just puts you in a bad place over all. I tested several builds, also with high HP, to make this skill work, without getting satisfying results - SADLY!
Leeching strikes - used to be so amazing. it is still decent, especially if you consider the stamina return for blocking. however I always found better skills that outmatch it for my desired playstyle
Sap essence - the bread and butter for saptanks, at least in the past. Sadly the heal it provides is fairly litte, the AoE damage is decent but not great, and its cost is fairly high. While I always tried to build around it as for the style of a "sap"tank, maybe I'll actually drop it in the future --> room for discussion!
Soul Catalyst and Transfer: Both provide ulti regen, which puts the class at overall high ult regen. good both defensively and offensively.
soul siphoner - great added healing power, which renders me to focus my builds around healing rather than shielding.
For those who dont want to read through all my thoughts and know nightblades already, here's
A QUICK SUMMARY of what I think are the stronges mechanics I should build around to get the most out of the class:
- strong ulti generation
- reset potential with reapers and soul harvest
- high recovery (magicka, stamina and health)
- high health and magicka stat pools
- great healing power
- disengage potential with cloak/ shadow
- high crit damage and healing
As race I favor and run Argonian, which is in my opinion by far the best race for saptanking. I'm up for discussion but am pretty convinced about the choice.
ARMOR DISCUSSION:
Theres definatly room to discuss the usage of heavy (HA) and light armor (LA). LA provides good magicka sustain, crit which compliments nightblade very well, and penetration which helps with the offense. Heavy armor provides far higher resistances and healing. It outmatches sustain of LA since it provides both magicka and stamina (equal to ~270 regen of both) and also increases resource regain from heavy attacks (quite nice for a resto setup!). I have played many builds in both armor types and go back and forth between them. To cut it short, light armor really provides stronger offensive damage while heavy armor provides more defenses - what a surprise.
WEAPON DISCUSSION:
Ill try to keep this short and pregnant.
DW: nice added damage, but no tankability. Could work for a more damaged oriented saptank for resets, but doesnt provide much else.
2h: also nice added damage and access to forward momentum. Gained popularity among magblades, but for a different, more bursty playstyle.
Resto: great resource sustain and access to burst heals/ mechanics. My go to so far for all builds. I also like combat prayer to buff stats and open up the slots of merciless and mirage. Note: blocking restores magicka, which can be a nice source of resource sustain!
destro: I have done more damage oriented builds with resto + s/b, using EoS to proc reapers mark. Also grants access to elemental drain for more sustain, which makes reapers mark less valuable though. Frost staff tanking could also be a thing, but since it doesnt provide two 5 piece boni I havent identified a working build so far. The main problem lies in nightblade not having enough defensive mechanics so I feel forced to run resto. Can fit the playstyle though and I see much potential in using it!
s/b: the defensive go-to for blocking and two 5 piece boni. Usually ran this in combination with resto. S/B ult + resto also grants a nice synergy for resource sustain. Absorb magic can also provde a nice burst heal if built around max health, though it burns your stamina quite fast
Noteworthy skills from other trees that I want to refer to:
- Cleanse for burst heal when built around HP. Saldy very expensive so usually not sustainable
- Detonation for burst opportunities. Since Im targeting to face a group of players, this skill might work well.
- Mist form for mobility and stamina regen while in it. Quite nice, though I usually prefer Shadow or other mechanics
- Invigorating drain for insane ulti regen and actually a pretty nice heal when built around HP. Is counterplayable though.
- Harness Magicka can make up for a burst heal by giving you room to breath and your hots to fill up the HP. Used this in destro + s/b setups
- structured entropy increases your HP by alot. Haven't played with this a lot but I might switch sap for it so max health scaling heals work better (reapers/ cleanse)
Now a few
BUILD EXAMPLES I tried over the last year:
- Ult generation with Tavas + other sets of choice: Didn't provide enough offensive pressure since Tavas by itself doesnt add anything, and you need to build around sustain on top of that.
- Maxstat build with Domi, Shackle and Trainee: AMAZING stats, however didn't provide enough mechanics to favor the playstyle - which isn't sustainable by just stacking stats. I though the high health could open up the usage for healthy offering, but in the long run it didnt work.
- Balanced setup with Groth + Shackle + War maiden on s/b: I ran this build for the longest time, quite succesfully. resto provided enough added healing to sustain, but the damage was quite lackluster and you usually cant bring down targets just by spamming swallow to death.
- Proc build: Using groth + overwhelming/thunderbug, I tried to push procdamage to compliment the nightblade damage (which usually by itself is too low for pressure). Worked fine, but resource sustain and healing power were too low.
I tried many more builds, but these were the most effective ones.
Ideas/ Setups I think could work:
I just acquired mechanical acuity and think this set can open the oppotuinity to provide burst in heavy armor to bring down players/ groups. Haven't identified a matching setup yet, but am working on it.
No other ideas so far.
I would really appreciate some input, I know there are tons of nightblades that miss this playstlye but gave up on it in favor of resto/destro. I think the described mechanics offer enough opportunities to assamble something decently working and am glad to hear your thoughts. Note that I didn't cover nearly all the thoughts I put into theorycrafting in this post, but I think it provides a decent overview of how this idea can be translated into a build. I don't concider myself the most experienced nightblade and theorycrafter, so I'd like to integrate your feedback and thoughts so we can jointly come up with build ideas to try.
Cheers!
