Replies: 17

This build is a work in progress and I will be adding additional screenshots and videos as I get them ready.

Gankblade is a bit of a misnomer and originates from my 1h/shield + 2h bursty builds back in the day – it’s named this way for nostalgic reasons. It’s more of a skirmisher build that doesn’t focus solely on very short ganks (like a clever alchemist build does) and can hold its own out of stealth if you use your light attacks and potions to sustain.

GOALS

• Medium armor DW/2h build with enough health to avoid getting 1-rounded by proc setups and enough burst healing to recover.
• Consistent high damage to keep enemies on the defensive and kill them before the fight drags out and adds show up.
• Not relying on cheesy 1-shot mechanics or RNG procs, just b/c I like fighting people not just instantly killing them.
• Still usable for PVE without being *too* bad, because I don’t have the cash to drop on multiple setups.

RACE

1. Redguard - Simply great for sustain and max stamina. This is my personal top choice.
2. Imperial - Always a good choice for this type of build because of the huge amount of max stats. You’ll have ~3k more health than other races and red diamond can add up over the course of a fight.
3. Wood Elf – Stealthy passive is always welcome, and disease/poison resists are nice against procs and nightblades/DKs. More stamina regen, but this build doesn’t take much advantage of that. This is a somewhat distant 3rd place for me.

GEAR

5(m)/1/1 to maximize stam and health pools. Get your 1x light from a monster set piece. Alternately, 6m 1h is totally viable.

5x Spriggan’s Thorns

1x Sharpened Dagger (or sword, your choice really, I’m stuck with a mace b/c that’s what dropped so far), Belt, Boots, Legs, Gloves – all Impen. This set provides the biggest openers on all armor types vs Draugr Hulk or Hunding’s rage (because you haven’t fractured them yet on the opener), but Draugr Hulk will pull ahead on shields and light armor. Spriggan offers a great 4-set bonus for pvp and will do the most DPS against anyone with 18k or higher armor, which is 80% of what you’ll run into in Cyrodiil.

Spriggan Alternates:

• Draugr Hulk - This set will give you the most raw damage alongside trainee, and can result in nearly 50k stamina which synergizes very well with Redguard. I haven’t attained this full set yet, but once I do I’ll be swapping it out with Spriggan’s using Alphagear when needed for optimal kills against annoying light armor magicka builds.
• Hunding’s Rage – This is a perfectly fine backup set if you haven’t farmed up the Spriggan and Draugr Hulk yet.
• Bone Pirate’s Tatters – Amazing sustain set, but you’ll lose the max stamina from food so the damage will be considerably lower.

5x Armor of the Trainee

3 Jewelery Robust (all weapon damage enchants), 1 Gallant Chain of the Trainee (Heavy Reinforced), 1 Seyne’s Bootknife of the Trainee or Jakarn’s Machete of the Trainee (both sharpened 1hers), 1 General Vette’s Greatsword of the Trainee. Yes I do realize you give up 1 Impen for Reinforced in order to use this set, but the Reinforced heavy chest at least gives some nice armor. The Trainee set is extremely strong in raw stat points (~11k combined!!!) and in situations where you need to add health to your build through stat points or Healthy jewelery, such as PVP and vMA, this set comes out close to even on damage with other high-damage sets while giving great stat pools. The stamina and health synergize very well with Redguard and Imperial passives, and the extra magicka is valuable for PVP.

1x Kra’gh

Amazing 1-piece set bonus, almost as much as a sharpened weapon. This build with Spriggan set can penetrate about 18k armor.

1x Kena or Velidreth

Again, more damage from a 1-set bonus.

Alternate monster set: 2x Velidreth

– Very strong proc, will almost certainly outperform the 1x Kra’gh 1x Kena setup. I don’t have the set yet and want to avoid procs… but I’ll end up using it.

SKILLS

DW (front) bar

This is the bar that we do most of our fighting on while out of stealth.

• Surprise Attack – Simply can’t be beat for spammable DPS with fracture and shadow barrier. Also gives more health.
• Resolving Vigor - I like to keep this on the front bar so I can keep it up pre-emptively when I feel enemy burst is coming. If you’re braver than me, swap cloak here and put Vigor on the 2h bar.
• Ambush - Empower, gap closer, extra health, simple choice.
• Mass Hysteria – Maim and Fear, plus procs shadow barrier and gives more health. Again simple choice.
• Relentless Focus – I use this ability for finishing burst against tanky opponents when combined with Empower or Incapacitating Strike. You *must* religiously weave your light attacks to take full effect of this ability. I have crit players for 18k with this ability in PVP with optimal circumstances! I feel this ability is necessary when we aren’t running procs to depend on for burst.
• Incapacitating Strike – Very cheap, big burst, heal reduction. There is simply no other choice.

2H (stealth) bar

With this build we’ve focused on maximizing DPS on the front DW bar, and the back bar will suffer a loss of the 2nd 5-piece. Due to this, the 2h is relegated to being a defensive buff stick only. I run a Defending Trainee 2her on this bar to keep the 5-set bonus. Stay on this bar while traveling, while in stealth, or when you need to flee a battle – it has almost everything you need to survive aside from Vigor which could be swapped if desired. I regularly swap out some of these abilities for – Piercing Mark, Rearming Trap, Razor Caltrops – as needed.

• Shadowy Disguise - I mostly use cloak for escaping or juking people in Xv1 situations.
• Radiant Magelight - Reduce stealth attacks while on travel bar, hunt and reveal other stealthers, proc Might of the Guild for opener burst! Wonderful ability.
• Siphoning Attacks – This build has next to zero natural magicka and stamina regen – weaving light attacks with Siphon is essential to sustain
• Double Take or Shuffle - Dodge chance makes us more tanky and can really save your butt when it avoids ultimates and the like. I prefer Double Take because of the speed boost that costs Magicka and having an Assassination ability on this bar. It’s also great for getting around fast while stealthed/invis
• Rally – Burst heals are IMO absolutely required with the kind of burst people are pulling off with procs. Even with bad weapon damage on the back bar (no 5piece hunding) the burst heal still crits for 8-10k. This also allows us to use different potions than the brutality/weapon crit potion.
• Meteor, Soul Tether or Dawnbreaker – AOE ultimate for outnumbered situations. I usually slot Soul Tether.

Food/Mundus/Potions/CHampion Points/etc

There are some decisions I’ll leave to you. I tend to run Stam/Health food and Warrior mundus in PVP. There are lots of viable potions – Immovable, tri-stat, mending, etc. I carry a handful of each and use them as needed.
I am also a Vampire because I love dark stalker, but I would like to see the results of going Werewolf and using WW ultimate on back bar – could be fun.

Bursting down opponents

My general strategy in a fight against TANKY opponents is to avoid damage while working away their stamina and getting Merciless Resolve proc’d before laying down the burst. This typically means I will attack and immediately fear, weaving all abilities with light attacks, and fearing them every time their immunity wears off. Use of block and dodge is important to avoid CCs and your opponent’s burst damage. Once I’ve proc’d Merciless Resolve, I will light attack + fear > light attack + Ambush > Incap strike > light attack + merciless resolve. This will take down pretty much any opponent under 35k hp, heavy armor or not.
For light armor and medium armor opponents, a simple ambush into incap into light>surprise attack can melt 20k hp. It helps to have them CC’d, but many players don’t react in time, especially if you block cancel your incap. Remember if contending with Sorc shields, try to always fear them near the expiration of their shields so they take real damage during your CC.

• This topic was modified 15 hours, 33 minutes ago by  Kutsuu.