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ESO Build: The Knight-Blade

Tags: #Dragonborn1721  #Nightblade  #ESO Build  #Couldn'tFindRealTags 
  • September 2, 2017

    Ah, so this is an ESO Build designed to go with the Workshop Commenting Event, more specifically, the final week of the Event where I'm running a different mini 'Flash Event' each day with a different challenge and content type. This weekend (the 2nd and 3rd of September) is based around creating Level 5 Character Builds for various games, I decided to go with ESO as my first build because I'm genuinely just in the mood for ESO and I've been meaning to try a build with the game for ages. 

    This is not a 'complete' build by any stretch of the imagination, it is not even what I'd really call a build for the game. Instead, it's more of a build concept that I'll be moving along to 'true build' status eventually (probably actually within a few days.)

    The Character

    Race: Dunmer (doesn't really matter)

    Class: Nightblade

    Attributes: 4 Magicka, 2 Health 

    Note - You may want to invest more into Health or possibly a point into Stamina depending on the way you play this character. I mostly relied on the Siphoning skills rather than the others but you may want to tweak it enough to need a bit more Stamina or Health.

    Level - 1-5

    Skill Lines: The Strifeblade is a character that is entirely based on the premise of staying alive for as long as possible. It combines the draining abilities of the Siphoning skill line, Heavy Armour's almost ridiculous level of protection, general health regeneration and can be paired with either One-Hand and Shield or Dual-Wielding depending on whether you want to focus on defense or health absorption. Smithing and Alchemy will both be taken up later to give the character some item-based support and the Fighter's Guild skill-line will be included for some ranged and more interesting magical/melee support. The last three skills can't really be used in the first 5 levels without heavily diluting the character, and forcing you to make a lot of tough decisions over your skill choice.

    Abilities: Strife ---> Swallow Soul, Agony, Resolve, Puncture ---> 

    Backstory and Roleplay: Personally, I don't get a lot of Roleplaying material from ESO, it's just not the sort of game where I create a complex character that needs things like reasons for doing things, a backstory, roleplaying elements or really anything but the combat. There just isn't enough in the game for me to do that would balance out Roleplaying and Rewards. For me the draw of getting EXP and money is more important than having reasons for doing things, and there are very few quests where I feel like I might be doing something evil or 'wrong'. That might change with the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild DLC, but I wouldn't do them so I guess you could call the Knightblade 'Neutral Good/Lawful Neutral' if you had to label her morality.

    It just wasn't a concern for me and there's nothing I can write that would feel natural. I didn't Roleplay this character, because it really didn't do anything other than save Bleakrock Isle (that has changed since level 5, but not massively). 

    Combat:

    So arguably there really isn't anything during the early game that should be much of an issue to this character. It probably won't do that well in Duels or PvP in general (later on) but in PvE combat, the only way you can really die is either a one shot kill or lag. The main benefit with this character was the ability to just take a single enemy out of just about any fight by using Agony, which holds them in place for 30 seconds. And at first I thought this would be one of those cheap gimmicks that turns out to suck, but the trick is that the enemy trapped by the ability just can't move, they can't attack (even if they're an Archer or Mage) and they can't defend themselves from your first attack. It does break after you use any aggressive attack against them, but the idea is simply to keep them out of the way and fight whoever is actually bothering you. Against a single enemy, it is still effective for giving you a bit of room to heal but really should just be focused on that two (or more) vs. one scenario that you find yourself in. Strife morphed into Swallow Soul is a surprisingly useful, if not somewhat broken skill that forms the real base of this character. This skills is going to be doing around 1500 (on average) damage to a single enemy and then funneling back 25% of that (375 roughly) every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. In other words, it's going to heal you 1875 health each time you use it, well plus the small boost from Swallow Soul (8% bonus to health restored). It's a simple, effective and powerful ranged attack that really just lets this character stay at 50% or more Health for most of the game.

    In terms of actual, normal combat, this character is quite simple. I focused really heavily on just avoiding attacks as often as I could, usually by blocking and then attacking quickly with Puncture, which reduces the physical resistance of the enemy and with Ransack even increases your own Physical Resistance. It's just a quick solid move that makes taking down enemies slightly less tedious. Nothing about this character's gameplay is intricate or complicated but it is just level 5, so there's only so much you can do. 

    Closing Notes:

    I'm going to slowly develop this character over the course of the day, starting with at least figuring out a Backstory and maybe some Roleplaying...I don't know, I find it hard to Roleplay in ESO but I'll see. Anyway, it's a very basic character but it's not even long enough to complete all of Bleakrock Isle (I was Level 5 shortly after Skyshroud Barrow) but it is enough to start developing the Combat and it is rather enjoyable. I am planning on expanding this build afterwards, at the moment I've playe through to Level 14 and I'm a decent chunk of the way through Stonefalls and I'm planning on updating at 15, 25, 35 and 50 if I manage to hit all those landmarks. Each section will be a little different but still mainly just focus on Combat.

  • Member
    September 2, 2017
    On the roleplay issue, ESO can be quite nuanced. Hard to explain but in contrast to Skyrim there is a greater degree of the illusion of choice as the dialogue is more robust. For instance, early on in Stonefalls you are presented with a choice as to what to do with a ghost army. Control it or let the spirits pass on. It doesn't alter the game significantly, but what these options do is allow you to get into character in a different way. Visual emotes or activities like fishing or cooking can help the character feel unique, too. In the same way we can limit skills taken in any TES game, I sometimes don't spend points and keep things tight and narrow. Anyway, I'm off on one so will shut up. Nice to see an ESO build!
  • September 3, 2017

    There definitely is some decent stuff there, later on, I just did the quest for Bala and I remembered that they occasionally (very) have a pretty interesting quest that does something somewhat different that doesn't have anything to do with the game later on. Actually, now that I think about it, I prefer a lot of the random quests rather than the big ones. I'm keeping this build focused only on Smithing (no other crafting, provisioning or anything, though I am going to buy some Runes to enchant my gear, but I won't make any of it) but ah... Can't think of anything else, actually, I might skip over Smithing too if I can find decent gear.

    But yeah, I think there'll be more RP in the later edits, just impossible to get much for the first 5 levels when you don't get to start until Level 3 (well...maybe there's something Coldharbour-y but I skipped it so :P)