The Bard Archer: AoE - Nightblade Build PvE - ESO

A straightforward, high-damage archer build in two variants: single-target and AoE

By Mennybrand   •  Updated 2 weeks ago

Feast of Shadows PvE Stamina Damage Dealer Nightblade Has Subclassing Setups

Introduction

A straightforward, high-damage archer build in two variants: single-target and AoE

Setups

Different variations of this build

Armor Sets

All equipped armor sets
Equipped active Skills
The following skill lines from other classes are used : Warden -> Animal Companions , Necromancer -> Grave Lord
Learn more about subclassing here

Champion Points

All active and passive stars

Character

All about character setup

Attributes

  • Icon icon
    Magicka
    0
  • Icon icon
    Health
    0
  • Icon icon
    Stamina
    64

Mundus stone, Curse

Food, Drinks & Potions
Icon icon Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice
Flour (1)
Potato (1)
Saltrice (1)
Scrib Jelly (1)
Icon icon
Crown Tri-Restoration Potion

Passives

All passive Skills

Buffs & Debuffs

Buffs granted from skills, items & potions
Empower icon
Empower
Increases the damage of your Heavy Attacks by 70%.
Major Brutality icon
Major Brutality
Increases Weapon Damage by 20%
Major Defile icon
Major Defile
Reduces Healing Received and Health Recovery by 16%
Major Expedition icon
Major Expedition
Increases Movement Speed by 30%
Major Prophecy icon
Major Prophecy
Increases Spell Critical chance by 12%
Major Resolve icon
Major Resolve
Increases Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948
Major Savagery icon
Major Savagery
Increases Weapon Critical by 12%
Major Sorcery icon
Major Sorcery
Increases Spell Damage by 20%
Minor Aegis icon
Minor Aegis
Decreases Damage Taken in Dungeons & Trials by 5%
Minor Berserk icon
Minor Berserk
Increases all damage done by 5%
Minor Breach icon
Minor Breach
Reduces Physical and Spell Resistance by 2974
Minor Courage icon
Minor Courage
Increases Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 215
Minor Endurance icon
Minor Endurance
Increases your Stamina Recovery by 15%
Minor Force icon
Minor Force
Increases Critical Damage by 10%
Minor Fortitude icon
Minor Fortitude
Increases Health Recovery by 15%
Minor Heroism icon
Minor Heroism
Grants 1 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds
Minor Intellect icon
Minor Intellect
Increases your Magicka Recovery by 15%
Minor Mending icon
Minor Mending
Increases Healing Done by 8%
Minor Protection icon
Minor Protection
Reduces damage taken by 5%
Minor Savagery icon
Minor Savagery
Increases Weapon Critical by 6%
Minor Slayer icon
Minor Slayer
Increases damage dealt in Dungeons and Trials by 5%

Guide

Build Explaination

Single-Target Combat

Time to fight—without getting your shiny new armor dirty. Ranged combat is our bread and butter.

1. Summon Skeletal Archer for backup.  
2. Cast Deep Fissure.  
3. Apply Growing Swarm to your target.  
4. Piss off your Wild Guardian.  
5. Spam Lethal Arrow until Relentless Focus is charged, your Ultimate is ready, or you need to refresh one of your buffs/debuffs (don’t forget weaving, of course!).  
6. Unleash Relentless Focus.

In short: Use all abilities on cooldown—when your swarm, beetles, or skeleton expire, recast them; when your Ultimate is ready, use it; when Relentless Focus charges, fire it off. In between, alternate Lethal Arrow with light attacks.

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AoE (Crowd) Combat

They don’t fight fair? Overwhelm you with numbers? Time to show them who’s boss.

1. Summon your beetles with Deep Fissure.  
2. Throw your first Blighted Blastbones skeleton into the crowd.  
3. Fire Silver Shards.  
4. Throw a second Blighted Blastbones skeleton.  
5. Once a corpse appears (which won’t take long), drain its essence with Detonating Siphon—position yourself to hit as many enemies as possible.  
6. If you need extra single-target damage (e.g., against a boss or a particularly nasty mob), unleash Relentless Focus on cooldown.  
7. Send your bear after them with Wild Guardian.

In short: Your primary AoE damage comes from beetles, skeletons, and sucking out a corpse—keep these abilities active at all times. Fill downtime by shooting your crossbow. If you need focused burst on a priority target, slot in Relentless Focus and your Ultimate as needed.

P.S. I’m still learning English, and while I know the basics, it’s not quite enough yet to write something like this on my own—so I used a translator for help. Sorry if anything sounds a bit off, and thank you for your attention!

Mennybrand

Mennybrand

Updated 2 weeks ago