ESO Magicka Nightblade Build: Melee & Ranged DPS Setup for Solo & Trial (aka Magblade)

Become a channel member to access perks:
/ @nightharrow
This is a beginner to advanced build guide for a Magicka Nightblade (aka Magblade). You can find the info card for this build in the community tab and the TWTB discord linked below.
/ discord
0:00 Intro (Why play a Nightblade?)
2:46 Front Bar Skills
13:18 Front Bar Flex Skills (Ranged Setup/Trash)
15:28 Back Bar Skills
21:51 Back Bar Flex Spots (Ranged Setup/Trash)
29:18 Important Passives
36:35 Gear Setup
39:57 Race/Mundus/CP/Etc...
44:28 RotationAdvice & Parses
47:36 Outro

[@michaelhoffmann6]

Regarding the Shadow Barrier passive: When Concealed Weapon is used as a spammable, shouldn't that be enough to keep it up?

[@Nightharrow]

Yeah, that’s a great point. Especially for places like vSS portals or when doing really any solo content. I’ll make sure to include that in the next one. I think the issue I was thinking of is that when you want the resistances, you also probably want the healing of swallow soul. And in places like vCR portals when you are running orbs and don’t have anything to hit, you’ll need to use something else. But definitely some places where that could be very useful to keep in mind, so thanks for the comment. I’ll pin this comment so others can see it.

[@glenndhorallmyxlvntx9294]

Thanks for this… always have had NB in the background. Some people I have played with love it. I have always struggled with it. Primarily because I haven’t spent the time to listen to a video like this amongst others to actually understand some of the ins and outs of NB. Cheers Night thanks for a good video.

[@Nightharrow]

Haha yeah, Nightblades kind of feel like they are for people who like the rp and those to whom a 11 button rotation sounds like a good time. Lol

[@arokiingaming8847]

Great video played for a couple of years and just returned after a 12month break. Was a nice refresher and production value is 👌🏽

[@Nightharrow]

Thanks man, I appreciate it. Sounds like you already know, but a lot of work goes into trying to make these look good and it’s really nice to know it works/is appreciated.

[@Sinjhin]

Trying to get up into that range of damage. Love the polish, explanation, and format of this video.

[@Nightharrow]

Thanks John, I appreciate it!

[@Waylannder]

Awesome video! 👍👍

[@lucasschiel9518]

Hey rly nice video ;-) is there alot difference between 2h/dw and staff/ dw? Will u bring such a guide video for a zorc too? :)

[@Nightharrow]

Hey Lucas, thank you for watching! Glad you found it helpful! So staff back bar isn’t going to be a terrible Dps loss. I’ve been working on some other videos so I don’t recall off hand what the dps loss was. I want to say not more than 5k. Just to kind of explain the issue though… the thing with magblades right now is that concealed weapon hits pretty hard, so the longer our dots, the more spamable casts you can get in. So with carve doing good damage and lasting 32 seconds, it’s a bummer to give it up. Currently magic builds just don’t have anything comparable, so it results in a dps loss. With that said, unless you are doing hard modes and already parsing fairly high (80k+) I don’t think you are going to notice. Also, if I have time I’ll give it a try and let you know. And yes,the plan is to make one for all classes in time, but it will probably take me a few months as I’m also working on trash and beginner/solo builds (I’ve got one for NB and Brittleden ready for recording). So stick around, and I’ll do my best to hurry. :)

[@succubhiss]

Heyhey! Want to try the ranges set up you offer but have a question. Can I wear whorls on body as lights and pillar on jewellery and proc it on back bar or sounds bad?

[@Nightharrow]

You can totally do that. Right now medium armor offers a bit more damage, but not that big if a deal, and the Magicka recovery is probably worth it.

[@melly_on_the_moon]

FYI: magickasteal, minor vulnerability, and minor maim all come from status effects (overcharged, concussed, and chilled, respectively) so they arent too hard to get. many of ur NB skills (as well as sorc and templar skills from your teammates) are magic damage so youre likely to have overcharged up often, whereas tanks and healers are quite likely to proc chilled through ice staves, if not guaranteed via skills like ele susceptibility or frost clench. lightning damage is a bit harder, though lots of tanks use a shock enchant for that reason. note that status effects are most likely to proc from single and direct damage rather than aoe and dot

[@Nightharrow]

Hey Emily! I’m not entirely sure what this is in relation to, but I agree. The issue is that even things with the highest chance to proc only have a 20% chance, so even with things you might assume should be an issue, you actually end up with down time. And then if you throw in a portal mechanic you might have none. So being able to provide your own magic steal for example in a portal can be a big help. To yourself if no one else. Similarly minor vuln, especially in an aoe, going to be pretty hard to get that. For chilled I really like to run a brittleden. Only exceptional tank & healer combos are going to get you anywhere close to good brittle/chilled up times and even then, that’s only when the dps are not trying to end it all. I personally like to have one healer run a light night staff now. I actually did a video on frost reach not to long ago.

[@Nightharrow]

Fun fact, the various basic damage enchants also have secondary effect. Like drain stamina applying minor breach. Won’t be an issue in groups next patch but for solo you can bring minor breach with it. Seems like you might already know this, but for those that don’t. :)

[@shadowphage1992]

Hi, nice build, but can this be used as a hybrid with say 2h front bar, destro staff back bar to get both volatile wall and stampede or would that just be wishful thinking on my part?

[@Nightharrow]

You could, but would likely need to make some significant changes to your bar and likely what food you are using to make sure sustain is fine. But i say go for it. You’ll just need to play around with it a bit, but that’s half the fun.

[@nihilon_travels295]

hey, nice video! unfortunatly i dont have acces to the Depths set.... what Group-DPS Addon is that in your Video?

[@Nightharrow]

That is Hodor Reflexes. You have to turn it on I believe.

[@Will-ul7rg]

Great great video! Appreciate this a lot! I just wish staffs were more viable 😢

[@LukeJQ]

Excellent comprehensive guide ! I’m just starting out in trials so I don’t have the whorl set yet, what would you say is a good set to use until I get it ?

[@Nightharrow]

Thanks for checking it out! I would use Orders Wrath, which is a crafted set from high isle. It works really well and is easy to get as a crafted set. I would also recommend just getting whorl from the normal trial. Hopefully I said this in the video, but you really don’t need perfected, the dps gain is minimal. Best part about perfected gear is you can recraft the jewelry in gold quality without using any platings. Save you millions of gold in the long run, and I would just use purple non perfected jewelry until then.

[@LukeJQ]

Brilliant !! Thank you for the advice 🍻

[@xXOni_KenshinXx]

Hey would you say Magblade or Stamblade is better in general for Pve because I was thinking to go with Stamblade Dw and Bow or Bow Bow or with Magblade Dw and Bow but don’t know what general would be better

[@Nightharrow]

Being able to use swallow soul as your spamable (mag skill) can be really useful in content and helps a lot with survivability. So I would probably say mag, but only go with that if you truly don’t have a preference. Otherwise go with what you want. Also, I don’t have a stam build, so maybe go with mag so you can use my build? Jk of course. Lol

[@adolfocanul1]

Would shrewd offering be better then dark cloak? Especially for portals?

[@Nightharrow]

I think so, but it is debatable.

[@kyreallean]

Is there a reason not to use bloody mara as a food over witch-mother’s? The numbers are better and if you aren’t a vampire there is no effect. Just curious why I never see it recommended.

[@Nightharrow]

It just doesn’t have the magical recovery, which you probably want. If you don’t need it I also think you can find slightly better bi-stat food. But it’s not bad if you don’t need the recovery. Not sure about the cost on it. Had to look it up… solitude Salmon-millet is slightly better bi-stat I believe. Clockwork citrus fillet is the best max mag/health w/mag recovery but the difference is small and the cost is large. Hope that helps!

[@AssaultModeMeli]

For ranged.. im assuming double inferno is still best or lightning due to the recent passive changes. Also idk if this is a bug but apparently the concealed proc is a little more tedious to get the effect? Ty Nightharrow ill appreciate your response!

[@Nightharrow]

Hey Mxxdzy! So concealed weapon is changing or just changed so you have to use it I believe. I’m just on the way home from GenCon and my brain isn’t working right now. Lol. So you are correct, that’s not a bug, just a recent change. The staff changes have been wild, and all over the place, but most likely, even in an extreme case, nightblades will still be double inferno. Even if they let something questionable like NB lightning staffs be meta, it shouldn’t last long. (It doesn’t agree with their balance philosophy). Anyways, hope somewhere in that rambling response i answered your questions. If not, hit me back up and I’ll get back with you once I’ve slept for a week. Lol.

[@AssaultModeMeli]

@@Nightharrow Thx man, ig we'll have to wait till it all comes out which for PC it's not that far away.

[@shadedtree-]

Can i use a bow on the back bar? Not trying to min max. Just wondering if it would be bad

[@Nightharrow]

You could do that no problem. Hail of arrows and poison arrow are probably your two go to abilities for that bar.

[@shadedtree-]

@@Nightharrow Thanks. Just started playing and there is alot to it.

[@DownloadEvony]

whats the dps on a swallow sould ranged setup? is that getting in the 100k even with the change to concealed?

[@Nightharrow]

You know, that’s a great question. As it stands I generally just try to cast it once every ten seconds to keep up the buff now. But certainly there might be situations where you can’t. 7 classes x 3 roles x all the content in the game means I haven’t tried it in a lot or even most situations but I’m generally finding it to be okay in content. But still a great question. Either way though, you are looking at over 100k max theoretical. And tbh, it might mean you slit teleport strike instead of one of the non class skills to help you get in range to proc it. Tldr I think it just made a very difficult class to parse on, even more difficult. But I don’t think it changes the actual max Dps.

[@Nightharrow]

I guess at worst it moved the 125k ish max to 112k ish. But also you have to consider that a ranged dot there will do something, so maybe a 115k ish theoretical max now. Also worth noting that most/almost all max theoretical dmg is based on melee parses. So don’t compare a ranged nb to a melee something else. Great question man.

[@DownloadEvony]

@@Nightharrow thanks for the detailed answers. The concealed change is easy to work around for stamblade, and the dps is still 128k+ only the swallow soul setup has a massive nerf if you are playing pure ranged, I just want to use swallow for the heal in content though tbh since I 3 dps for a lot of trifectas and for solo set farming. Thanks again.

[@joelopez6685]

Why wouldn’t you want to keep sap essence on to use every 30 seconds for the weapon and spell damage increase for both aoe or single target?

[@Nightharrow]

You can, but typically in harder content you will use spell power potions and they give the same buff. So you just don’t need it and it’s more Dps to have another skill on the bar. But if you are using trash potions, go for it.

[@joelopez6685]

Gotcha, thank you. I’m just now getting back into the game after yearssss so I know nothing

[@faulkal1812]

Do you think carve will still be used with the next patch and nerf

[@Nightharrow]

That’s a great question, I haven’t been keeping up tbh. Will check it out.

[@kbelovieira]

what is the addon of your action bar countdown?

[@Nightharrow]

Action Duration Reminder but there is an in game feature now as well.

[@ashtoneaves9516]

Are you actually able to use the sword backbar with daggers front in content, the only reason I haven’t went for parses like this is because I don’t see people using this in content and I can’t see how I’d use it in contact exspecualy dongions

[@Nightharrow]

Oh yeah, totally. I could see a lot of people preferring range though so can kite overland or wanting to have more range in a dungeon. It potentially be safer. Generally you won’t see people using optimized builds like this anywhere. It’s only a small part of the community that does. But you will also do way more Dps than them. Im unsure why you feel it might not work, but I can assure you it does big you have a specific question or issue where it doesn’t work amazing im happy to give you advice around that. Just send me another message or you are welcome to come by the discord. The only think I would say is consider something like whirling Blades for trash in dungeons. It’s just a great aoe option or you could take a look at my trash build for nbs.

[@ashtoneaves9516]

@@Nightharrow ok I think I’ll try it what would you change around if you where running 4 man content with 3 dps 1 tank a lot, like trifectas and stuff like that in dongeons

[@Nightharrow]

It’s designed for max damage, so in theory it’s good. Might consider going ranged and/or adding in some self heals like I mention with swallow soul and add in syphoning strikes for sustain.

[@ashtoneaves9516]

@@Nightharrow ok I’ll try it out and see how it goes

[@Nightharrow]

If you want more specific feedback, even for specific trifectas or dungeons, come by the discord. We have a lot of folks who run them and I bet they could give great specific advice.

[@Nano._]

Minor Vulnerability can be applied by Necro Colossus aswell.

[@Nightharrow]

Hey Nana, That is actually major vulnerability. I believe the only necro source of minor cup is their totem but it requires a synergy being hit and has relatively low theoretical max uptime. So many buffs and debuffs it makes the head spin.

[@Nano._]

Yep you’re right my mistake 😂 Just started out a new character using this build, only power levelled it to 40 so far but is there a better setup for trash? I’m finding myself needing to run a destro staff and spamming unstable wall for any real aoe damage. Never really played much nightblade so not got the best knowledge with its skills.

[@Nightharrow]

ESO Nightblade Trash Build: Easy to Get, Non-Trial Set AOE Build for Stamina & Magicka Nightblades kzbin.info/www/bejne/qoXPdXlpgKmDl8k For overland you might just use sap essence, but this will give you the whole thing.

[@Nano._]

@@Nightharrow Amazing thank you

[@adolfocanul1]

Does shooting star do more damage then soul tether? I know destro alt hits harder then shooting star.

[@uFuqinwitme]

Meteor costs more ulti, but usually does more damage because of the ground aoe. Soul Tether is used mainly to make you immortal for a little while.

[@Nightharrow]

So, what uFuginwitme said, and… Soul Tether does a little bit more damage than a destro ult per ulti spent, and we are not using a destro staff with the primary setup for this build, so that is why I recommended it. Shooting star is definitely the way to go for max Dps, I just hate how hard it is to level up mages guild for most people, so I didn’t want to recommend that as the primary option But it is better in group content than soul tether. I know this isn’t super clear, but the answer is just that “it depends”. I would make sure you add in the synergies you are providing when taking total damage into account. Let me know if this isn’t clear or you have other questions.

[@adolfocanul1]

@@Nightharrow makes sense what you said. I do use soul tether. Was torn between tether & shooting star.

[@adolfocanul1]

@@Nightharrow have you tried yan+pill or yan+scaring ? Hit pretty hard. Sir+pill is my favorite but lil hard to manage. Usually I wear 4 light 3 med.zaan with kilt

[@Nightharrow]

Shooting star if you have it for sure. Tether for solo if you need the heal/stun.

[@wolfofodin1996]

How's this magicka when it's dual wield and greatsword

[@Nightharrow]

It’s been a minute, but it should be even better. Mixing and matching skills is almost always better.

[@just8atmaaneso217]

125k dps in the thumbnail 97k in parse?

[@Nightharrow]

That wasn’t my highest parse, I popped up my 110k and if you want to see basically the same build at close to 130k, you can find them pretty easy. This is a well established setup at this point. I just didn’t include all that because the video is already longer than I would like.

[@glenndhorallmyxlvntx9294]

Quite sure Daedric has shown this build with the big parse. As he usually does. Would need to check though

[@Nightharrow]

Yep, it’s here from week 5 pts U35. Not much if anything changed for nightblades from U36 but I don’t recall if anything changed from week 5 pts. Either way you can easily find multiple parses with this setup at almost 130k. I think he just saw the quick parse I did for b-roll and thought I was trying to pull a fast one. Understandable, but closer inspection would also have shown I was using weird CP for a survival build I’m working on, and probably some other weird stuff. Now if we could get more people demanding parses for heavy attack and “unkillable” builds.

[@glenndhorallmyxlvntx9294]

@@Nightharrow well I can show you my heavy attack magsorc parse. Very boring. Unstable heavies… unstable heavies… popped up to 75k once or twice but sits around 70k normally. Depends on how many Unstables I accidentally restart and do not let the explosion happen. I use Daedric Prey with it. Others in the guild use it as well. A real uses it with Bolt.. easy and fun but I think best on solo or with groups that you pug into.

[@glenndhorallmyxlvntx9294]

Oof I am in that vMoL… LOL

[@Nightharrow]

We’ve all been in “that” vMoL lol.

[@jordangreen7198]

Man bro I just started playing and I'm having a super hard time deciding of what to play between magblade and magcrow, I did a mag sorc and it was so boring. Everyone has very diff oppionons on the magblade saying thier godmode or trash same as necro

[@Nightharrow]

Let me see if I can help then. So if you see “Godmode” on any KZbinrs post that isn’t a joke, I would run the other way. Even if the builds good (more likely it isn’t) they are giving you spin to promote their video. Every class in the game is remarkably well balanced and can complete everything in the game. Having said that, they are not all created equal. So nightblades have the most complicated rotation in the game, and are the hardest to parse high on imo. They have some fun benefits like always having major expedition via their path, plenty of self healing with swallow soul & bow procs without having to change anything else, and have a few fun features like teleport strike and their shade for pvp or just messing around. The cons are the complicated rotation, less aoe than some other classes, and I think that’s about it. I’m sure I’m forgetting some stuff though. Necros on the other hand have really good aoe damage which can be helpful in quite a few places, easier rotation than a nightblade but still not on the east side (nightblade is hardest, sorc easiest), less direct damage which feels worse than a nightblade for most solo content (having to wait for your dots to tick down can be boring), and you can easily run a buff set for Elemental catalyst which any optimized group will want. Cons are they have like 3-4 different heals you might want to use depending on the situation which is kind of weird, Blastbones can be a pain to weave, melee focused because of Blastbones, and you have to learn corpse managed some. So which is better? I love my nb because of stealth, thieves guild skill line, I just find them fun to play, but they are hard to get good on. For cros, it can be helpful to learn your rotation and then use it on the warden because it has a similar feel. They do good damage and everyone wants an ec cro in group. Six one way, half a dozen the other. I would play the one you find most fun. I’ve got a cro video as well if you found this one helpful, maybe that would give you enough info to make the call yourself. Let me know if it doesn’t, would be good feedback. Thanks for dropping by man, and gl.

[@jordangreen7198]

@Nightharrow Gaming wow never have I met a yt give such a insane Explanation that was awesome thank you. I've played for a week haven't gotten past level 20 bc sorc was my first and mostly every build was spamming the ice crystal which is boring and then I made a magplar which again its just so repetitive and boring(maybe bc im a low level and haven't gotten high enought) but when it comes to hard skill rotations I'm a sweaty min max try hard learning a rotation doesn't scare me I've played plenty of very hard diablo 3 builds that are tricky that doesn't bother me. I have read any build can solo just about evryrhing you can solo which mainly I am a solo player but what I look for is a minimum top 5 build bc I don't want the worst build and struggle and wasted my time building it and alot of ytbers have insane differences some say necro is the worst or the best same as necro and its hard to figure out who to belive. I just want to play a build that has self sustain Heals aoe single damage doesn't have to be perfect bc eventually i will be a pretty good player, but some of the builds are just mind numbing, but I also see the mag sorc is just so good even thought it's boring. Idk I'm just having a very difficult time deciding which class to pick lol I'm a perfectionists

[@jordangreen7198]

And also I'm mag only I don't like stam at all lol so I look for only mag classes

[@jordangreen7198]

And one thing that kind of pushed me off the necro is alot of people said ypu max your damage but have resource problems and then I'f you fix that problem you severely hurt your damage

[@jordangreen7198]

@Nightharrow Gaming im going to try a necro and see which one is more fun I guess but mag necro can solo anything I need it to correct ? That's all I really want

[@prismatic162]

Whats a solo set up?

[@Nightharrow]

It’s just meant for single player type things such as arenas or running around along overland.

[@prismatic162]

@@Nightharrow yea

[@piccard455]

The game favors dragonknights, so over powered. Good to see this build

[@RurouniKenshinShinta]

Why dont people go into details on the CP when making a guide it's absolutely ludicrious that players can make a guide and just assume everyone knows where to allocate points, its a guide afterall.

[@Nightharrow]

Hey Rurouni, I think we often times are trying to make as condensed of a video as we can, and that’s why. But I’m happy to help with what I can if you have questions. For what it’s worth, on my list of things to do is a cp guide video, so keep an eye out over the next few weeks.

[@RurouniKenshinShinta]

@@Nightharrow Sorry was frustrated with the guides I googled, had gone through about 5 of them and nobody showed the prerequisites to the addon's and it was really frustrating trying to guess. I still think though that if someone is going to invest time in a guide, that is probably going to be seeked out by noobs more than any other type of player, that CP points being invested should be previewed at least, not necessarily showing someone putting points but at least preview each page so people can see where the points are going. Especially when we consider how the devs love to reset CP often. I'm not new but it's been ages since I touched this game, CP map looks completely different from what I remember so its mega, both, tuidious and confusing. Anyways thanks for the reply, I figured it out after hours of searching.

[@Waylannder]

Awesome video! 👍👍

[@Nightharrow]

Thank you!