Hi There GTC!  I was sitting at my desk today trying to do some tax returns and I said to myself . . "ya know what f*** this I'm gonna go do some research to see how NB my build matches up with the pros".  After a little searching around and talking to some of the guys who's opinions I respect I found this post which is extremely informative. As I could not do a better job in a million years of explaining this I did what any other self respecting GM would do and I ripped it for you guys.  Credit to the original poster here ~ Jekll's Orignal Post @ Tamriel Foundry

~ Tax

PS ~ My build was pretty damn close to this without the cheat sheet and I will not be modifying it on account of principal!

This is it – my take on Stamina Nightblades for endgame PvE. in this guide, I will stick to Dual Wield and Bow and I’m going to show you how to get competitive DPS with those weapons. The guide is mainly focused for group based endgame PvE. You can use “The Starter” gear Setup to level your Nightblade, but the skill sets I will present are not optimized for a fast leveling experience. This is just one way to achieve it and you have to see it as a general framework. What I’m going to show you does work for me, but you can always tweak stuff here and there to make it more comfortable for you. Also, I will go into detail quite a bit in this guide to make sure people that recently started can understand. So if you’re already a veteran player, you can skip those parts obviously.

As people started to give builds a name, I will go with “Ravaging Blade”. Keep in mind that the patch is still quite young so the build might change over time as I get more experienced.

ATTENTION: You have to click on the SPOILER buttons to get all the information. I had to put those in for reasons of clarity and comprehensibility.

Update Archive:

Tables of Content:

1. Build Overview
2. Race
3. Stats
4. Mundus Stone
5. Potions
6. Champion Points
7. Gear
   The Trials Master
   The Starter
8. Skills
   Single Target DPS
   AoE DPS
   Jack of all trades
9. General Tips
10. Screens
11. Theorycrafting

I. BUILD OVERVIEW

The Ravaging Blade is a melee Stamina based PvE build, specifically designed to be effective in Trials, Veteran Dungeons and Dragonstar Arena. You will use Dual Wield mainly while Bow is your option if you have to stay away from the target for some reasons.

ADVANTAGES

• Amazing single target and AoE DPS with good sustain
• Build in Spell Resistance/Armor Selfbuff as well as Armor Debuff
• Very good defence with high Spell Resistance and Armor
• Roguish playstyle
• Very flexible in terms of weapons and skills
• Easy access with cheap crafted gear, good DPS progression with better setup

DISADVANTAGES

• Harder to master than ranged builds
• Requires good movement and coordination
• Requires constant Potion usage for maximum single target efficiency
• Tricky sustain especially when you have to block/dodge a lot.

II. RACE

I think the strongest choice at the moment is Redguard and Imperial. Redguards a monsters when it comes to sustain the very Stamina expensive Rotation this build uses. But the more we can invest into Stamina Cost Reduction and Stamina Regeneration of the Champion System, the less you will have to rely on Redguard passives to sustain the Rotation. The 22% extra Stats you get as Imperial are really strong as well, especially when you have a solid amount of CP (more than 250). A solid Templar Healer to support you with Spear Shards and Repentance will help to prevent running out of Stamina no matter what race you choose. Don’t worry, this build will work with any race and any amount of CP.

III. STATS

I think you should not get lower than 18k HP as a DPS for DSA Veteran or Sanctum Ophidia. Get 20k for Hardmodes. I personally prefer 20k all the time, but as Imperial, those Stats are easier to obtain. 18k does work.

Always use blue VR10 buff food for HP and Stamina.

I like putting all my Attribute Points into Stamina and compensate with Gear Enchants to get the HP required but you can do as you like it. Please consider becoming a Werwolf. You gain 15% Stamina Regeneration in human form without any disadvantages. You only get additional Poison damage in Werwolf form – which I never use. Just be a Werwolf in human form all the time.

For DPS, I strongly suggest you take Weapon Damage as your primary stat, followed by Weapon Critical up tp 50%. After that, Stamina gets more important than additional Weapon Crit.

Here are my Stats with The Trials Master Gear and 187 CP. Passives: Spell Shield, Lycanthropy, Boon: The Warrior, Medicinal Use, Soul Siphoner, Emperorship Alliance Bonus, Offensive Scroll Bonus II, Defensive Scroll Bonus II:

IV. MUNDUS STONE

I use the Shadow right now, as it gives you the best results as soon as you hit around 50% Crit. Warrior is the better choice below ~ 45% crit, though as you get so vital Weapon Damage. Thx @Asherrion, @Fnoptik, @Alcast for helping me test this.

V. Potions

This setup uses Potions (Panacea of Weapon Power) to get the Major Brutality (20% Weapon Damage), Major Savagery (10% crit) and 20% Stamina Regeneration all the time without having to use Evil Hunter, Drain Life or Momentum. To get 100% Portion uptime, you have to skill the “Medicinal Use” passive in Alchemy and get 1 Jewellry Glyph with reduced Potion Cooldown. But be prepared – not everyone can afford to constantly use Potions.

There are good addons that allow you to keybind Potion Slots like Greymind’s Quickslot Bar or Advanced UI.

VI. CHAMPION POINTS

I think there is a ton to test left in this section but I feel very comfortable with my allocation. You can vary here, just make sure to get 30 points into the ritual for the extra Weapon Critical and most of your green points into the Warlord.

Template for 90 Champion Points:
Green – The Tower: 30 Warlord
Red – The Lady: 10 Hardy, 10 Elemental Defender, 10 Thick Skinned
Blue – The Ritual: 27 Mighty, 1 Precise Strikes, 1 Thaumaturge, 1 Piercing

Template for 225 Champion Points:
Green – The Tower: 45 Warlord // The Lover: 30 Mooncalf
Red – The Lady: 25 Hardy, 25 Elemental Defender, 25 Thick Skinned
Blue – The Ritual: 72 Mighty, 1 Precise Strikes, 1 Thaumaturge, 1 Piercing

Template for 315 Champion Points:
Green – The Tower: 75 Warlord // The Lover: 30 Mooncalf
Red – The Lady: 25 Hardy, 25 Elemental Defender, 25 Thick Skinned // The Steed: 13 Block Expertise, 10 Spell Shield, 7 Medium Armor Focus
Blue – The Ritual: 100 Mighty, 3 Precise Strikes, 1 Thaumaturge, 1 Piercing

VII. GEAR

I tried a ton of different stuff and there are other combinations and slight variations that result in kind of similar DPS. The following setups work best for me, but feel free to swap around stuff as you please. I use Alpha Tools to quickly swap Gear and Skills.

THE TRIALS MASTER

THE STARTER

VIII. SKILLS

I will give you some ideas for good skill combinations that I tested and found very effective. Keep in mind that I switch around skills quite a bit to adept to the encounter ahead. I use Alpha Tools to quickly swap Gear and Skills. I know many of you guys do not have access to Caltrops. I highly suggest making it a project to get it. It adds a lot to any Stamina based build. Until then, feel free to add some utility skill you might find useful to help the raid like Shades, Circle of Protection or something like that.

This build’s main spam ability is Surprise Attack. This ability might be the best Stamina based Skill in the game right now (go away, Wrecking Blow!) for the following reasons: It does more damage than Rapid Strikes while procing Shadow Barrier (5120 Spell Resistance and Armor for 6s) and Major Fracture (5120 Armor Reduction for 17.3s). Yes that’s right, it grants the Armor debuff even out of stealth. For the whole group! Granted most of the time, the tank has  Puncture up which doesnt stack but there are also times where the tank has to use Inner Beast or you’re fighting an add that is not debuffed by default.

SINGLE TARGET DPS

Rotation:
Relentless Focus, Camouflaged Hunter, Panacea of Weapon Power, Ice Comet, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Poison Injection – SWAP – Rending Slashes, Surprise Attack
Use Spectral Bow 1s before Relentless Focus runs out, keep Rending Slashes up, keep Caltrops up, Refresh Poison Injection whenever you swap for Ice Comet or Caltrops. From 50%-0%, keep Poison Injection up all the time. From 25%-0%, use Killer’s Blade without Light Attacks.

AOE DPS

TL;DR: Rotation:
Quick Cloak, Relentless Focus – SWAP -Mark weak target with Reaper’s Mark, Ice Comet, Caltrops, Arrow Barrage, Acid Spray – SWAP – Steel Tornado.

THE JACK OF ALL TRADES

TL;DR: Rotation:
The rotation is straight forward really. Start a fight with Relentless Focus, Poison Injection, Caltrops. Then I use Surprise Attacks and Killer’s Blade for Single Target encounters and Arrow Barrage, Sap Essence into mass Steel Tornado for AoE. Not much to explain here. Dont be fooled. Even these simple rotations give me at the very good DPS.

IX. General Tips for the Ravanging Blade

• Get Caltrops. It’s important for any Stamina based build, especially for the Ravanger. Beware: The Skill is bugged ATM, meaning multiple persons cant use them on the same mob. So if you are in a raid against a single target, make sure to cummunicate who’s the one who uses Caltrops.
• Use your tools to survive. Deadly Cloak for AoE and Surprise Attack for Single Target does make you way stronger in terms of defence than Light Armor Users and some other Stamina users. You will survive longer while receiving damage and therfore deal more damage.
• Stamina management is hard, especially with lower Champion Points and without the Vicious Ophidian. Another way to get decent Stamina Recovery is using a piece of the Blood Spawn Set (Drops in Spindleclutch).
• Farm those Champion points until lvl 90. 12% crit is awesome.
• Use Shards, but also other Synergies. With the undaunted passive, you get resources back for every Synergy you use. Most of them are really strong now in 1.6.
• You cant get close to a boss? You have to play ranged? OOOOKAAAAY. Use Relentless Focus, Focused Aim, Poison Injection and Caltrops. If you dont have the Master’s Bow, start using Poison Injection at 50% boss HP. Swap Flawless Dawnbreaker to the bow bar for that. Best Armor Setup I know for Bow is 5 Hawk’s Eye, 5 Morag Tong and the Master’s bow with tons of points in Thaumaturge instead of Mighty.
• The Weapon Damage buff you get from the Master’s Bow also applies for your DW Bar after you swap.
• A Sharpened Mace gives you around 70% Armor Penentration instead of 17%. ZOS messed up the calculation on that big time. It’s also true that applying a Armor debuff like Puncture or Mark Target can reduce your damage. But that cant be helped, Mace+Sword is still the best.
• Use Flawless Dawnbreaker as Ultimate when fighting undead/deadra.
• Use Camouflaged Hunter: The skill is currently bugged and the additional duration you gain for killing undead/deadra is waaay to long. Like additional minutes instead of seconds. That way, you can farm some undeads before the raid and have the Camo Hunter buff up FOR THE WHOLE RAID TIME without having to reapply it.

X. Screens

Sanctum Ophidia – Manticora: 19,4k DPS

Spindleclutch – Blood Spawn: 25,6k

Elden Hollow – Bogdan: 25,2k

Aetherian Archive – Varlariel: 21,1k DPS

Aetherian Archive – Mage Hardmode: 21,5k DPS

Hel Ra – Warrior Hardmode: 31,8k DPS

Sanctum Ophidia – Stonebreaker: 31,2k DPS

Sanctum Ophidia – Serpent Hardmode: 16k DPS

Veteran Dragon Star Arena – Hiath the Battlemaster: 21,2k DPS

XI. Theorycrafting

“Precise Strikes” Passive from “The Ritual”

TL;DR: 1 point in Precise Strikes is the best in terms of return on invest ratio.

SHARPENED TESTING

TL;DR: Sharpened Mace does way to much Armor Penetration (>70% instead of 17%). Using a Major Fracture Debuff in a mob when you’ve put CPs into Piercing lowers your damage.

SHADOW vs WARRIOR Mundus

TL;DR: Shadow is better when your crit rating is ~50%.

DAGGER vs SWORD OFFHAND

TLDR: At 50% crit, dagger is SLIGHTLY ahead, the more crit you have, the better sword becomes.

Tax, have you made any changes or updated to this guide? Is it still dabomb.com??

I know it's not yours, but I wanted to know if it is still what you'd recommend. 

No this is very outdated..

if you want an easy and very effective build 3 piece agility 5 hundings 1 kena 3 nightmother there are alot of different variations that will work well also 5 briar 5 hundings kena bloodspawn is an option 5 nightmother 3 agility 1 kena 3 leki ... anything like that will work nicely

the roatiations shown here are good jump off point as well but i would defintely bring volley in to the rotation