The Knight of Ni build focuses on debuffing enemies and tanking as the main tank in all core PvE content. It features a good amount of unique status effects, damage options and tankiness. The build is Max health and armor focused to support skill effects like healing and shields. It provides major resistance debuffing on the Tremorscale and [Crimson Oaths Rive] sets
Plays like a juggernaut when you can apply all the sustain effects and shields together. Shreds any armor defenses your enemy has and whittles their health down with a variety of debuffs and damage over time that punish those who attack you making them second guess their decision just before their health withers to nothing. The Knights of Ni are a formidable foe. Nobody has ever come across them and lived to tell the tale!
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Gear:
You can easily swap out the mythic for any other to suit your own needs or not use one at all. Just make sure to consider sustain and passive effects with any of your choices.
If you don’t want/need to use the pull effect, Rush of Agony could be swapped to Leeching Plate for more healing and some more poison damage or another set you prefer it is purely an ease of use choice for dungeon tanking.
Skills:
Backbar Ultimate: You could also swap out the Soul Tether ultimate from the Nightblade’s Siphoning line with Standard of Might from Dragonknight’s Ardent Flame line or another you need for the content you are running.
Shield Throw: The script is made up of Multitarget + Knight’s Valor + Cowardice. This does a good chunk of damage and bashes multiple (3) enemies taking advantage of the one hand and shield bash passive, champion point nodes, and activating [Bloodlords Embrace] . Since you have a bash here, you can slot a set that procs off bash instead of Rush of Agony if you prefer or change the Knight’s Valor to another one that meets your needs. Completely up to you and your playstyle. Just remember to adjust your skillpoint, champion point, and gear set allocations accordingly.
Ulfsilds Contingency: The [Ulfsilds Contingency] script is a mages guild scribed skill made up of Immobilize + Lingering Torment + Brutality. This is a good area of effect stun that applies a DoT. If you are lacking in something (missing a boon you love) feel free to experiment with changing out Brutality. A good option would be Breach for an AoE debuff instead of just the single target Pierce Armor for instance.
Deaden Pain: I prefer the tankier feel of Deaden Pain for its strong heal and 10% damage reduction, but if you have an ultimate you want to use more often you can swap this to Necrotic Potency for more ultimate generation to augment the Nightblade’s Catalyst and Transfer passives.
Spiked Bone Shield: This would be your main flex spot. Spiked Bone Shield is a nice thorns style damage return that scales off max health. It also provides a group shield synergy, but if you find better utility or use in another skill, feel free to slot it here as it would not break the build. This would be where I would slot my emergency heal, if I felt I needed one.
Beckoning Armor: The Beckoning Armor skill is slotted for uptime on the Necromancer passive Disdain Harm which stacks with the other DoT reduction through champion point node selection. It requires a Bone Tyrant skill to be active. It also gives a ton of resistance for use with Tremorscale. The pull/taunt is just a passive nicety I don’t really count on.
Ruinous Scythe: The Ruinous Scythe skill gives a heal, applies a bleed damage over time, and heals for more for each enemy hit. You can use the other morph Hungry Scythe if you want a lower cost or if you want a bigger heal ability and don’t want to rely on the bleed damage and hemorrhaging effect. The choice is yours.
Other Notes:
Resistances: Resistances will be well over cap which would normally be wasted due to the resistance cap. That being said, the Tremorscale debuff continues to benefit from this resistance (credit: Xynode).
Sustain: Lots of sustain here through the Nightblade’s Siphoning Attacks health, magicka, and stamina on hit, the Necromancer’s Death Gleaning stamina and magicka on enemy death, and Dragonknight’s Combustion magicka and stamina on burning or poison application. If you are waiting till you are too low on magicka/stamina to use a skill to heavy attack or use siphoning attacks, you are behind the curve. Even in those instances you can use siphoning attacks skill to return some resources or a defensive skill and then throw in a heavy attack to be back in action. Even better if you heavy attack weave into another siphoning attacks. Don’t rely on emergency measures like that and just throw in a heavy attack from time to time and never run out. If you hate heavy attacking, you /could/ throw on a regeneration set instead of Rush of Agony or Leeching Plate but that seems like a large investment for all the buffs to heavy attacking already present through heavy armor.
Pull Ability: Unrelenting Grip from Dragonknight’s Ardent Flame skill line gives a nice undodgeable pull that returns the cost if not successful. It also gives a speed boost for mobility through its gift of Major Expedition. It also is the main trigger for Rush of Agony and why we have that set’s fifth piece bonus only on the back bar (where we have our pull slotted). You may need to swap out this pull for an Inner Fire morph in the Undaunted skill line or a Wield Soul scribed skill for some fights. It will still proc off any pull ability, but be wary of your pull target’s immunities without the magicka refund from Unrelenting Grip and magicka return from Combustion that this pull gives if you do swap it out.
Mundus Stone: Use whatever you need most for sustain of resources or to supplement your swap out choices. This particular choice doesn’t make or break the build if all the other pieces are in place. Play with it and use whatever you need you find best.
Thanks and Credit:
This build was made from a desire to use my Nightblade main character with the ’Almost Immortal Warrior‘ Build by Xynode. There are many similarities in core build and reasoning between his build and mine, and the core focus remains, but I heavily adapted it to incorporate Nightblade skills for my main and take advantage of the features Nightblade provides. Make sure to check out Xynode’s most recently updated video (with which I am not affiliated in any way) for a more detailed explanation of the ideology behind the build and get a broader understanding of the mechanics that make it great at what it does.