Nightblade - Description and Skill Lines

Nightblade is the assassin class in Elder Scrolls Online. He uses the advantages of shadow and night to perform sudden attacks and deal a lot of damage from stealth. Hidden attacks are always unexpected and each attack from stealth deals extra damage and stuns the target. They are friends of the night and like to use magic to weaken their enemies.

Class Skills

As any other class in Elder Scrolls Online, Nightblade has three lines of class skills. With the Different skill lines achieving different goals. You can focus on one line to receive the maximum effect from a path, or, you can mix different abilities as you like. Thus you can make your own unique class according to your playing style. There are three skill lines that a Nightblade can master:

• Assassination - focused on dealing a lot of damage and killing low health targets. It is a line for aggressive fighters who prefer face to face combat.
• Shadow - consists of skills that allow you to use stealth and invisibility with maximum effect. It is a line for those who like to hide in the shadows and perform sudden attacks.
• Siphoning – allows the use of DoT skills and self healing. The general feature of this line is that it transfers the strength of your enemy to you. It makes you stronger while the enemy becomes weaker.

Assassination

	Spell
	Death Stroke
	Assassin's Blade
	Teleport Strike
	Blur
	Mark Target
	Haste
	Master Assassin
	Executioner
	Pressure Points
	Hemorrhage

Shadow

	Spell
	Consuming Darkness
	Shadow Cloak
	Veiled Strike
	Summon Shade
	Path of Darkness
	Aspect of Terror
	Refreshing Shadow
	Shadow Barrier
	Fortitude
	Dark Veil

Siphoning

	Spell
	Soul Shred
	Strife
	Agony
	Cripple
	Siphoning Strikes
	Drain Power
	Catalyst
	Magicka Flood
	Soul Siphoner
	Transfer

Mechanics

This class is one of the most popular. That’s because you can play in two dimensions simultaneously. You can attack your target as other classes do, and, you can benefit from using stealth and invisibility. Though all classes in the game can sneak, Nightblades are the only ones which have the ability to enter stealth in combat. They also have abilities that make stealth much more beneficial.

Weapon

Daggers and small swords are the favourite weapons of the class. Light weapons will be a very good choice. If you look closely at the Dual Wield skill line, you will notice that there are some sweet passives for any assassin. For example

• Twin Blade and Blunt [Passive] increases critical strike chance when you equip daggers, increases overall damage with swords, and axes have chance to apply bleeding DoT.
• Ruffian [Passive] increases damage against disabled targets. Thus a very good weapon choice will be Dual Wield daggers, swords or axes.

The great thing about Elder Scrolls Online is that you can equip any weapon you want. If you think that your playing style requires two-handed weapon, one handed and shield, bow or magical staff you are free to take it. It is completely up to you as the player, and your playing style.

Armour

The best armour set for Nightblade is Medium Armour. It gives enough freedom for quick movements and attacks. Medium Armour also makes your movements quiet which will aid a lot when in stealth. Do not forget that full Medium Armour gives several good passives that will help any assassin:

• Improved Sneak helps you to sneak better.
• Dexterity increases critical strike chance for every piece of Medium Armor equipped.
• Agility increases you attack speed if you wear full Medium set.

Heavy Armor is not the best choice for those who wish to play as sneaky characters, because it does not give bonuses to stealth movement and stamina. But, heavy set will increase your resistance to damage and your health. The art of being a Nightblade is not easy and you will have to choose your own gaming style. It is your choice how to play. This is the beauty of ESO as it gives you a lot of variants for each class.

Extra Information

One of the main resource pools for Nightblade is Stamina. This resource is necessary to maintain stealth mode so each assassin must have enough stamina. Do not forget that you will require it to interrupt enemies and perform special attacks, as well as for breaking out of stuns. So make sure your stamina pool is deep enough for sneaking and fighting. Medium Armour gives bonuses to stamina regeneration which is one more reason to wear it.