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- Build updated at 04 April 2025, for Fallen Banners / U45! -
Okay, so, just a quick note here, I admit I haven't brought this guy to any arenas before.
With that out of the way,
Welcome!
Welcome to @KaiRosenthal's RP/Solo Stamina Nightblade Build, fellow arts of the night enjoyers!
Okay, maybe not 100% mine coz I *ahem borrowed the gears from Alcast.
Anyways, without further ado, I present to you, my guide to my build!
Gears
Why 0/7/0 instead of 1/5/1 or 0/5/2?
Well, I was actually going to plan either, but my Undaunted on my Nightblade hasn't been maxed out yet, and the Dark Veil passive isn't actually needed as we're gonna spam Surprise Attack anyways.
Why Briarheart and Tzogvin's Warband?
I actually want to do Briarheart and Morkuldin but my researched trait on my main/crafter character isn't sufficient yet lol. Why Morkuldin, you ask? Because this is not only a solo build, but also an RP build where I want to make my Argonian have flying daggers! Regardless, I yoinked the gear from Alcast's guide on the same topic and here we are! So, thanks, Alcast! If you want to replace the gear sets with another, there are Order's Wrath from High Isle chapter because it gives high crit chance, Hunding's Rage for non-High Isle chapter owners, Aegis Caller if you have the Unhallowed Grave dungeon, or Night's Silence, also from base game, if you want to take the RP to the next level.
Why Bloodspawn?
More ult generation, plain and simple! But hey, if you want to change it to, like, idk, Stormfist, you are always free to do so! Otherwise, Selene is also a fun set, or Iceheart if you need more survivability (for whatever reason) and want to look… cool.
Skills
Alright, remember where I typed that this is an RP build? I want to make my Argonian this Shadowscale Assassin / Thief Nightblade (pretty basic, I know), hence the emphasis on dual daggers on front bar for melee combat and bow on back bar for buffs with complementary range shots for light and heavy attack needs.
As for my reasoning on ‘why pick these skills?’, here they are:
Front Bar:
- Lotus Fan: Teleport, AoE, and DoT. Can't be an Assassin if you can't blink to your target!
- Surprise Attack: Sundered debuff, simple as that. In case you don't know what that means, Sundered gives enemies Minor Breach, reducing their armor, and giving you 100 Weapon and Spell Damage, both for 4 seconds. This skill acts as our spam skill until the enemies have <50% HP.
- Whirling Blades: Execute skill to replace Surprise Attack. As an execute skill, you're not meant to use this until the enemy(-ies) are below 50% HP. Or you can use it as AoE attack. Or use it whenever actually, coz it looks cool lol.
- Relentless Focus: Big damage, big heal, big deal. We go with this morph because the other one is too magicka-hungry for us.
- Echoing Vigor: Our HoT (Heal over Time) that I think is enough to help us survive. You can always use Resolving Vigor instead.
- Thrive in Chaos: The only Ult you'll use. Big damage, big heal, big deal, supported by our monster set Bloodspawn, and the Back Bar's Ultimate's passive, explained below.
Back Bar:
- Endless Hail: For your AoE DoT needs.
- Dark Shade: Your killer shadow companion!
- Mirage: Mitigation skill!
- Piercing Mark: Our source of Major Breach, to complement the Minor Breach from Sundered above. Optimally, you'd want Razor Caltrops but let's be real, I ain't gonna grind PvP.
- Siphoning Attacks: Our resource sustain skill. Spam this when we are low on resources, but prioritize potions first.
- Soul Harvest: Slotted only for the ‘gain ult when u kill’ passive. You can activate it if you want, as it's always an option that also gives Major Defile, which reduces the enemies' Healing Received and Health Recovery by 16%.
Fashion
Ah, the most important part of the build itself.
Here are what I use on my Argonian for his fashion:
- Hide Helmet
- Hide Shoulders
- Chitinous Jack [Boss Butcher Brown / Thalmor Black / Coldharbour Ash Black]
- Pyandonean Gloves [Coldharbour Ash Black / Boss Butcher Brown]
- Crimson Oath Belt [Thalmor Black]
- Greymoor Guards [Rank 5 Material / Rank 5 Material / Coldharbour Ash Black]
- Dead Keeper Sabatons [Boss Butcher Brown / Coldharbour Ash Black / Thalmor Black]
- Crimson Oath Dagger x2 [Thalmor Black / Thalmor Black / Elemental White]
- Deadlands Gladiator Bow [Thalmor Black / Thalmor Black / Elemental White]
Rotation
Alright, before we wrap up, just to be sure, if you, fellow nightblade gamers, are curious on how this build's rotation works, it's pretty simple, actually. I will assume you always do light attack weaving (simply ‘weaving’ for short) for every skill usage, because it'll definitely help to ramp up your damage significantly.
- Start with your back bar: Piercing Mark or Razor Caltrops > Mirage > Dark Shade > Endless Hail
- Proceed to swap to front bar: Lotus Fan > Surprise Attack
At this point, if you light attack weave correctly, you should have 5 stacks for Relentless Focus already, so use it. - Start spamming Surprise Attack or Whirling Blades, depending on the enemies' HP.
- Use your Thrive in Chaos whenever it has become available!
- Don't forget to reapply your DoTs!
- Rinse and repeat!
Additional Information
Whoa, you read all of that? Here are some additional information that you may also want to consider reading:
- Remember! You can always activate Siphoning Attacks to restore your resources, since you'll heal with Echoing Vigor, Thrive in Chaos, and Relentless Focus anyways.
- The food I use is either the Longfin Pasty with Melon Sauce for when I need some health and stamina boost, or Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice if I only do easy overland content. If you have Bewitched Sugar Skulls already piling up in your inventory (for whatever reason), you can use that as well. Or just eat the good ol' Crown Fortifying Meal from those crates and/or daily logins.
- The potions that I have ready in my inventory is always the Crown Tri-Restoration Potion and any of the stamina potion variant (as in, the regular one, Alliance Battle Draught, Roguish Stealth Draught, or Roguish Escape Draught) to simply restore some stamina.
- The Thief mundus is used to boost our Critical Strike rating, a much more general use compared to the Lover for its Penetration (heh), where you do not need in (group) dungeons.
- I did not put the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood passives on because it'll make the table's length so long. Like my daggers.
- If you ask “Why no increase character speed out of combat?” on the green Champion Points, it's because when you increase your character's speed, the animation from the personality will play differently, dependent on your speed, which is why I'm avoiding any skills and buffs that gives increased movement speed, so I can look at my Assassin personality's walk (not the ‘RP walk’) animation all the time.
That's it! I think I've primed you enough with information, fellow dark arts enjoyers.
Thank you!
For reading and checking this build out. If you have any questions and/or suggestions, feel free to send me a message in game @KaiRosenthal! Again, this is my first build that is mostly for RP and I haven't tested this yet on any veteran solo and/or group content, but I'm pretty sure this can clear like 99% of overland content. Happy unaliving citizens of Tamriel!
