Stamina Nightblade PvP Build
Stamina Nightblade PvP builds are a beloved plague. Capable of completely eliminating an enemy in the blink of an eye in melee combat or from range, they have access to great mobility tools and resource management on top of insane burst damage output that leaves enemies helpless.
Gear Sets
Swamp Raider: For this build, Swamp Raider will buff all of our main damaging abilities by a ton. In particular, Incapacitating Strike deals Disease damage and Toxic Barrage deals Poison damage, both of which are buffed by Swamp Raider massively. You can get this set from Shadowfen.
Heartland Conqueror: A versatile set that can be customised based on what weapon traits you pick, doubling their effect. On this build, we use Sharpened on both bars for massive penetration, but you can change this to give you more resistances or healing power on the back bar if you wish. This set is craftable.
Markyn Ring of Majesty: This mythic item is also incredibly versatile, giving us a very nice boost to both our damage output and resistances. You will be able to get this in the Deadlands.
Velidreth: We only use one piece here for the extra weapon damage, and any one-piece set that will add damage will do. This one in particular can be obtained from Cradle of Shadows.
Skills
Surprise Attack: This is your primary melee spammable. It applies Sundered, sets the target off balance if flanked, and is a guaranteed crit every 3 seconds. This doesn't get buffed by Swamp Raider, but is so strong in its own right that it is still the best spammable to use.
Rally: A burst heal when needed and your source of Major Brutality. If you wish, you can switch this to Forward Momentum for more mobility, but you will lose the heal.
Resolving Vigor: A strong heal over a short duration that also applies Minor Resolve, helping you to stay alive longer. This is essential for pretty much any stamina PvP character.
Killer's Blade: A brutal execute that is buffed by Swamp Raider. Start using this when the target is around the 30%-40% health range.
Relentless Focus: When this skill is ready, fire it for an insane burst of damage against your target. Usually Grim Focus is used, but due to Swamp Raider this actually does more damage.
Incapacitating Strike: Buffed by Swamp Raider, Incap is capable of all but deleting a player with a single press of a button, and gives you a dramatic damage boost for a duration after use.
Lethal Arrow: A great ranged spammable that combos perfectly into Poison Injection while weaving. Use this to keep up the pressure, or strike unawares from the shadows. This is buffed by Swamp Raider.
Poison Injection: This works as a ranged execute and a powerful damage over time effect, and combos very well from Lethal Arrow. This is buffed by Swamp Raider.
Shadow Image: Use this to create a copy of yourself and reactivate it to teleport back, allowing you to plan out an attack to quickly assassinate an enemy before using this to escape.
Piercing Mark: This is your source of Major Breach, allowing you to inflict even greater damage against your opponent with ease. We use this morph to ensure that other Nightblades can be countered.
Shadowy Disguise: The Nightblade's main survivability tool, and the only one they will ever need - be careful, people tend to run potions to reveal invisible enemies, so make sure you use Shadow Image for a contingency plan.
Toxic Barrage: With the Swamp Raider set, Toxic Barrage turns into an absolute joke that is capable of demolishing an opponent with very little chance of recovery.
Champion Points
Master at Arms: Direct damage is one of the most common types in PvP, and is often where the ability to burst down your opponents lies, making this a valuable buff.
Deadly Aim: Working perfectly with Master at Arms to boost our primary damage types, Deadly Aim will allow your single target abilities to deal even more damage.
Ironclad: Since direct damage is so common, it is important to also defend against it. That is where Ironclad comes in, boosting your mitigation against this damage type.
Resilience: No matter what the meta is running, critical damage will always be a big part of what many players build around in PvP. It is important to defend against that, and Resilience will help you there in combination with Impenetrable armour pieces.
Boundless Vitality: Every bit of health makes a difference, especially in some of the tougher content that The Elder Scrolls Online has to offer. This will help you bump yours up a little more, increasing your survivability.
Slippery: In PvP, pinning your opponent down with CC before you burst them down is important. This will prevent that from happening to you so easily, making it an important addition.
Rejuvenation: Recoveries are important for every role. For healers, it is essential for keeping your group alive, for tanks, it is the source of most of your buffs and debuffs, for DPS, you can't deal damage with no fuel, and in PvP, no resources means death.
Celerity: Extra movement speed is an amazing boost in all content. In PvE, it helps massively with avoiding nasty mechanics, and in PvP, it allows you to run circles around your opponents.
Mundus Stone
The best Mundus Stone to use on this build is the Lover for significantly better Penetration. The Lover gives the best overall boost to damage output on average against players, especially since players in PvP tend to run a lot of resistance. However, if you need more recovery, consider the Serpent instead.
Food Buff
The Artaeum Takeaway Broth offers an excellent combination of Max Health, Max Stamina, Health Recovery and Stamina Recovery, making it perfect for Stamina-oriented PvP characters. However, if you can't keep up with its hefty cost, you can go with the Dubious Camoran Throne for similar stats, but no Health Recovery.
Race
My preferred race to run on this build is a Dark Elf (Dunmer) for their superior overall damage. However, if you wish, you can switch to a Wood Elf for higher overall sustain, Nord for more damage resistance, or Orc for balanced stats, higher damage and speed.
Potion
PvP builds generally work best when running Immovability potions, which grants a lengthy immunity to snares, immobilizations and stuns. It's good to carry some potions to reveal invisibility as well to counter Nightblades.
Mortality
Stamina Nightblades have no need of Vampirism. They already have access to excellent mobility and survivability tools, and if a Nightblade gets pinned down, the extra survivability from the Undeath passive isn't going to help them enough to get out of it.
Notes
Notes go here