Replies: 10

Invellous’s Magicka Nightblade Tank Guide

Thieve’s Guild Ready!

Warm sands friends! Welcome to my magicka nightblade guide! When Zenimax Online Studios first announced that there would be a class system in the game they quickly reassured the community that the Elder Scrolls Online would stay true to The Elder Scrolls and allow players to play how they wanted regardless of the class they chose. The guide aims to prove to you that a magicka nightblade can in fact tank and it will teach you how I myself do so with great success!

Before we jump I am aware that those familiar with the Tamriel Foundry may notice similarities between this guide and user Mrowmrif2’s Magicka Nightblade Tank Guide. That is because there is and a lot of credit goes to him for teaching me a lot about tanking as a nightblade. If it works, do not fix it, yes? That said there are some differences naturally, and I feel that through our discussions and my own theory-crafting I have helped influence the overall concept to become what it is today. Let us jump right into it!

~Overview~

The nightblade like all classes brings with them a set of pros and cons to the tanking role; such as superb resource sustainability, the ability to boost their resistances without using the Armor Master set which frees up five armor slots, and off-healing through a number of skills. These benefits set them apart from other classes, however, they lack reliable and accessible crowd-control, absorb spells and other active mitigation, and strong direct healing skills, all of which are brought to the table by other classes.

The gear choices while having some options all aim to help the class retain its well-known resource sustainability to better allow them to maintain buffs and continuously offer off-healing and damage without having to defer to Armor Master. Instead they use Mirage and activate the passive Shadow Barrier via a Shadow skill to not only gain a dodge bonus but to gain a bonus of 6,270 to both spell and physical resistances. The proposed sets and pros of the class with clever Champion Point investments allow them either favor a more offensive minded set that aims for 30,000 resistances in favor of more damage and resources, or a more defensive set which trades damage, magicka and recovery for capped resistances and a minor health bonus. Both sets can be used to tackle all forms of content; normal and veteran dungeons, trials, and even solo Craglorn content!

~Attributes~

How you will distribute your attributes can and will be affected by your character’s race and your Champion Point total. I personally play a khajiit and at the time of this guide’s initial writing I possess 321 Champion Points. The below allocation allows me to reach the ideal Health threshold with both v.15 blue Magicka and Health food and v.15 purple tri-stat food.

Magicka: 32(+/-) – Once your Health buffed is 30,000+ put all remaining points into Magicka.

Health: 32(+/-) – Enough so that you have 30,000+ Health with all of your gear on and food buffs.

Stamina: 0 – You will generate enough via Siphoning Attacks that you will not need to invest a single point into Stamina to maintain a healthy level through both single target and AoE fights.

~Champion Points~

The Warrior: Priority one is acquiring the 75 point passive Shield Expert in The Steed. If you are opting to reach the resistance cap(33,000+) then you will need to invest 27 points into Spell Shield then put the rest into Block Expertise until you unlock Shield Expert. Then put 27 into Heavy Armor Focus found in The Lord tree. The rest of your points should then be split between Hardy and Elemental Defender. If you are opting for the 30,000 route than simply invest all 75 points into Block Expertise and distribute the rest evenly amongst Hardy and Elemental Defender.

The Thief: Priority one here is investing 100 points into Magician which will net you a 16% bonus to cost reduction for your magicka spells, which when combined with the Seducer’s five-piece bonus equals 24%, nearly cutting the cost of your spells by one-fourth! Once you have done so you can invest the rest into Arcanist. Before we move on I do want to mention that it is completely acceptable to instead invest only 62 points into Magician to reach a combined cost reduction of 20% which is still an impressive reduction to cost; one-fifth, and instead invest more into Arcanist. I have done the latter and have found that sustainability is no more difficult than the former.

The Mage: Start off with 27-30 points in Elfborn then keep putting points into Elemental Defender until it is maxed then put more points into Elfborn. If you have played a magicka DPS before and followed guides than you should know how to invest your points here.

~Mundus Stone~

Your mundus stone selection is entirely a matter of preference as it plays a very little part in this build. I would personally suggest the Thief as it compliments a DPS offset well, however, the Atronach’s bonus to recovery is a fine choice as well.

~Gear~

When it comes to gear you have several choices you can make; offensive set or defensive set, 7x Heavy or 5x Heavy – 1x Medium – 1x Light(1H/1M/1L). Currently I use a 7 Heavy offensive set, all purple and the pieces required for the defensive set, except those elusive Trinimac pieces.

The offensive set is 5x Seducer, 4x Magnu’s Gift, 3x Willpower. This set gives more spell damage, magicka and magicka recovery but at the cost of lower resistances; roughly 29,801. If you temper your Seducer pieces you will hit over 30,000. Despite the lower resistances you will still be just as survivable if you have at least a 5% bonus in both Hardy and Elemental Defender with a greater value increasing your overall durability.

The defensive set is 5x Seducer, 4x Song of Lamae, and 3x Trinimac(ideally). This set will allow you to reach the resistance cap(33,000+) if you have 27 points into both Spell Shield and Heavy Armor Focus without having to upgrade your gear to gold – legendary quality, however, your spell damage, maximum magicka, and magicka recovery will be lower. If you are new to tanking this is perhaps the best set to go with. Also, if you do not have the Trinimac jewelry you can use Willpower.

~My Current Set~

Head: Heavy – Song of Lamae / Magnus’s Gift – Reinforced – Health Enchant
Shoulders: Heavy – Song of Lamae / Magnus’s Gift – Reinforced – Health Enchant
Chest: Heavy – Seducer- Reinforced – Health Enchant
Gloves: Heavy – Seducer- Reinforced – Health Enchant
Belts: Heavy – Seducer- Reinforced – Health Enchant
Legs: Heavy – Seducer- Reinforced – Health Enchant
Boots: Heavy – Seducer- Reinforced – Health Enchant
Neck: Willpower/Trinimac – Healthy – Spell Damage
Ring 01: Willpower/Trinimac – Healthy – Spell Damage
Ring 02: Willpower/Trinimac – Healthy – Spell Damage
Mainhand 01: Sword – Song of Lamae / Magnus’s Gif t- Defending – Hardening Enchant
Offhand 01: Shield – Song of Lamae / Magnus’s Gift – Reinforced – Health Enchant
Mainhand 02: Sword – Song of Lamae / Magnus’s Gift – Defending – Hardening
Offhand 02: Shield – Song of Lamae / Magnus’s Gift – Reinforced – Health Enchant

~Skills~ 

Bar One: Main Bar

Puncture
Siphoning Attacks
Refreshing / Twisting Path
Swallow Soul / Funnel Health
Inner Light / Defensive Stance
Ultimate: Veil of Blades / Aggressive Horn / Shooting Star / Soul Tether

Bar Two: Buff / AoE Bar

Mirage
Heroic Slash / Shadow Image
Structured Entropy / Crippling Grasp / Proximity Detonation / Inner Fire / Lotus Fan
Sap Essence
Inner Light / Defensive Stance
Ultimate: Soul Harvest

~Rotation~

Single Target: As a tank your job is establish threat on the boss and keep your buffs and debuffs going at all times while light attacking weaving each skill and casting Swallow Soul/ Funnel Health as many times in between bar swaps as possible without letting a buff or debuff fade. I feel it is important which order you use your skills as it that order will either increase or decrease the difficulty. I personally use the following rotation.

Warhorn / Shooting Star* > Puncture > Siphoning Attacks > Refreshing Path > Bar Swap > Mirage** > Heroic Slash / Shadow Image** > Flex Skill*** > Bar Swap > Repeat.

* Warhorn or Shooting Star should be used at the start of the fight if you opted to take one of them over Veil of Blades otherwise save Veil of Blades until needed, ideally when there is a particular nasty mechanic coming up or when things get hairy.

** When using Mirage and Shadow Image over Heroic Slash it is important to remember both last longer than 20 seconds meaning you will only need to refresh them every other bar swap.

*** The Flex Skill typically does not fit into the rotation unless it is either Structured Entropy or Crippling Grasp. Inner Fire and Lotus Fan should be used as needed.

AoE: In AoE encounters it is important to prioritize melee targets over range as they typically deal more damage and can interrupt your healer. In dungeons such as veteran White-Gold Tower and Imperial City Prison I focus on the larger xivkyn and atronachs and let the party AoE down the weaker enemies. The following rotation should allow you to handle most situations easily.

Pre-cast Mirage and Siphoning Attacks > Shooting Star / Soul Tether* > Refreshing Path > Puncture all melee or dangerous targets > Bar swap > Sap Essence > Reapply buffs if needed.

* If you decided to take Shooting Star or Soul Tether over Veil of Blades or Aggressive Warhorn then it is perfectly acceptable to use Shooting Star or Soul Tether on AoE fights. Soul Tether can be especially useful due to the stun that will keep enemies in place long enough for you to establish threat on desired targets.

~Offset~

Magicka nightblade tanks can easily swap their tank gear out for a DPS set and tackle solo content and better contribute to the group effort on boss fights where a tank is not needed as a damage dealer, albeit with a lower damage output. It is quite rewarding when you find that your veteran White-Gold Tower group from the Dungeon Finder are both shocked and grateful that you brought a DPS set with you and can help one-shot the portals on the Planar Inhibitor fight!

Even as a khajiit with half of his attributes in Health I can pull over 10,000 DPS which is not fantastic by any means but not bad considering that a good chunk of my off-set is v.14 save for my staff, my Healthy Willpower jewley, and Kena helm and shoulders. Also that I do not have a Maelstrom Destruction staff! So even poorly optimized I still do enough damage to make a difference in those instances and solo old and new PvE content.

Tamriel Foundry’s Mashinate has been showing magicka nightblades how to bring the pain for a while now and their guide has a large following! If you need to know what gear to bring and what skills to use then the their guide is the one and only one you should be following!

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/pve-magicka-dps-by-iwm/

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Feel free to leave comments and questions below! Also you can add me in-game if you ever need a tank! @Invellous.

• This topic was modified 17 hours, 20 minutes ago by  Invellous.