Crit Stamina Nightblade for PvE/Dungeons (Bosmer)

Armor Types

Gear and Item Set Info

Before I say anything else, I don't have any DLC so this will focus on things you can get in the base game.

Index

1. Race (Why Bosmer?)
2. Armor
3. Jewelry
4. Weapons
5. Mundus Stones
6. Skills
7. Rotation
8. Food and Potions
9. Passives

This build uses around 97 to 103 skill points.

1. Race: Why Bosmer?

Wood elves have innate Max Stamina and Stamina Recovery which make them great for an offensive stamina build. Plus I picked this race at the beginning without looking at the passives so I'm stuck with it and I would like to think I unwillingly know a thing or two about how stamina can be utilized.

2. Armor

Head & Shoulders: Kra'gh's or Velidreth (If you're lucky enough to get it from pledge coffers). Kra'gh's for solo play and Velidreth for group play.
Trait: 1 Reinforced (Head). 1 Divines (Shoulders).
Glyphs: 1 Max Health (Head). 1 Max Stamina (Shoulders).

• You can go full stamina, but I prefer to have at least 18k health and a little extra armor for PvE and Dungeons.

Chest, Hands, Legs, Feet, Waist: All Hunding's Rage
Trait: 1 Reinforced (Chest). 1 Divines (Hands, Legs, Feet, Waist).
Glyphs: 1 Max Health (Chest), 4 Max Stamina (Hands, Legs, Feet, Waist)

• For extra survivability, and because I don't usually run out of stamina with this build, I put the trait Reinforced on the Chest because it has the highest armor value. But again, you could go full stamina if you are in need of it.

Side note: If you REALLY want that extra bit of survivability, get the head & shoulders in heavy armor and get the Constitution and Juggernaut passives.

3. Jewelry

The Agility set for both rings and necklace.
Traits: Robust
Glyphs: Stamina Recovery

4. Weapons

Primary: Two Daggers of the Night Mother for that little extra bit of Weapon Critical.
Traits: Main Hand Sharpened. Off-Hand Precise.
Glyphs: Main Hand Poison. Off-Hand Oblivion.

Secondary: Bow of the Night Mother.
Traits: Charged.
Glyphs: Disease.

Poison: Damage Health Poison IX made with Fleshfly Larva, Nightshade, and Nirnroot. I can't tell you how to live your life, but I will mention it can get expensive because of the Nightshade, so I only use poison in Dungeons or on difficult bosses.

5. Mundus Stones

Warrior for damage. Thief for critical chance.
This one is a preference. I prefer Warrior for more consistent damage, but you can bump up your critical chance another 10-ish percent with the Thief and get up around 70% crit chance before potions.

General Info

6. Skills

I tried to place the skills in such a way that is easiest for me to reach when moving and needing to spam certain abilities. For example, your DPS on the last 25% of your enemies' health comes from Killer's Blade, which you spam quite a lot, so having it set on 1 in the skill bar is nice because it's not a skill you use for most of the fight and also don't need to move a whole lot so you don't need to press Shift or anything.

Primary Weapon (Up close and personal daggers)

• Killer's Blade is the Stamina morph and does +300% of your weapon damage on enemies with low health (25% or below) which is fantastic for finishing off bosses.
• Blood Craze does good damage and is better for solo play because of its survivability. If you have a dedicated healer or do more dungeons than open world play, go with Rending Slashes for the extra damage boost. 
• Surprise Attack reduces enemy physical resistance, and physical is 99% of the damage you do with this build.
• Steel Tornado for its awesome range though the other morph is fine too I guess. This is interchangable with Flurry and its morphs if you want more single target damage.
• Relentless Focus a stamina morph that reduces damage taken and can heal you if you're up close to the enemy? Sounds good to me!

Ultimate: Soul Harvest make an enemy take more damage for a short time and is cheap so you can use it often.

Secondary Weapon (Ranged AoE DoT)

• Soul Splitting Trap is a decent AoE DoT and is the only Magicka ability you'll use with this build so you can recast it on trash mobs without worry. They usually die before the effect ends anyway.
• Arrow Barrage AoE DoT that has a bigger range than the other morph. As long as the target stays within range, it will do more damage and you won't have to recast as often.
• Razor Caltrops AoE DoT that only reduces enemy physical resistance if they are on the ground. Floating for flying enemies like Lich or Harpy aren't effected. Great for everything else though.
• Acid Spray another AoE DoT for trash mobs. Can be changed out with Poison Arrow morphs if you want to interrupt something at a distance (Venom Arrow) or do more damage to a low health enemy (Poison Injection).
• Leeching Strikes is honestly only on this bar because it couldn't fit in the first bar. Light and Heavy Attacks restore Health and Stamina, awesome.

Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker because it increases weapon damage and the other morph doesn't. Also great for strong boss adds and absolutely destroying trash mobs.

7. Rotation

For groups of enemies:

• Use Relentless Focus, then Leeching Strikes to start.
• Use Arrow Barrage, then Razor Caltrops, Soul Splitting Trap, Acid Spray, then just spam Steel Tornado until your other ability durations end and you need to recast them.

Using Razor Caltrops first is probably the best idea since it lasts longer than Arrow Barrage, but in Dungeons I prefer the above method because by the time the arrows start raining, I'll have enough time before the enemies are alerted to cast the caltrops, meaning the arrows start falling right when the caltrops are cast.

For single target enemies:

• Make sure your butt is planted firmly behind the enemy at all times or the effect from Surprise Attack won't work.
• Use Relentless Focus, then Leeching Strikes to start.
  • If you're still approaching the boss (don't forget to dodge roll to get in close and get 6 seconds of extra physical and spell penetration because of your Bosmer passive) and haven't gotten into melee range, cast some of the DoT abilities for extra initial damage. 
• Use a Light Attack, Surprise Attack, Light Attack, Blood Craze, Light Attack, Surprise Attack, Heavy Attack, Relentless Focus, repeat. Recast Relentless Focus when necessary.
  • Refresh your Leeching Strikes at the end of every 2 or 3 rotations so you don't run low on Stamina.
  • Repeat until boss is below 25% health.
• When the boss is below 25% health, just spam Killer's Blade. No, seriously, just keep using it over and over. It does +300% damage and can be used quickly. Also maybe throw in Surprise Attack every now and then if the boss doesn't resist its effect.

Make sure to keep using Surprise Attack for that big juicy damage and weave in some Light and Heavy Attacks to regain Stamina and ultimate.

For those that switched out Steel Tornado or Acid Spray for Flurry or Poison Arrow morphs, just make sure to keep an eye out for low health enemies and which enemies are taking longer to kill so you can focus them down. Flurry can replace the second Surprise Attack in the single target rotation for some decent damage and Poison Arrow, like I mentioned before, can either interrupt an enemy or do more damage to low health enemies depending on the morph. Honestly I don't use Poison Arrow that much because anything that doesn't die from the AoE DoT abilities is usually a boss or mini-boss that can be focused down with the daggers, it's just nice to be able to interrupt an enemy or two that are far away and not among a group or do a good amount of DoT to one particular enemy.

As for ultimates, best to use them with potions, but especially on bosses or in sticky situations. Unfortunately I don't know the exact number of strikes and such it takes to build an ultimate, so it's your call to use them whenever you like. I tend to use Soul Harvest whenever it comes up when fighting a boss and I know I can wail on it without beind interrupted for a few seconds.

8. Food and Potions

Dubious Camoran Throne is your friend.
Essence of Weapon Power potion made with Blessed Thistle, Dragonthorn, Hyactinh/Wormwood for weapon power, weapon critical, and stamina recovery. Can get expensive so try to save for boss fights only. Best used with your ultimates for boosted damage.

9. Passives

Get ALL the passives for the following skill lines:

• Shadow, Siphoning, Dual Wield, Bow, Medium Armor, Undaunted, and Racial.

As for the rest:

• Assassin - Everything except Master Assassin since this build doesn't use stealth.
• Soul Magic - Soul Shatter is optional. Just nice to have in case you get to low health.
• Fighter's Guild - Everything except Bounty Hunter.
• Heavy Armor - Like I mentioned earlier, if you want a little more defense at the cost of some offense, get two heavy armor and grab the Constitution and Juggernaut passives.

Extra info?

I'm not the best when it comes to weaving, but I can get around 15k dps and up to 19k with potions with this build according to the add-ons I use. It's certainly not the best, but for base game and no DLC, it works well for me and whatever I'm doing at the time. I hope it works well for you too!

Champion Point Tips

Unfortunately I don't have more than 371 CP so if you're looking for 500+ CP endgame stuff then you're out of luck.

As it stands right now, these are my points. Just make sure to get that 120 into The Ritual for its 120 point unlock. You can remove some points from The Lover and put them into The Lady if you really want the 75 point unlock for a little extra health every now and then.

The Lover

• Tenacity - 42
• Mooncalf - 75
• Healthy - 3

The Mage

• Thaumaturge - 25
• Precise Strikes -38
• Piercing - 30
• Mighty - 27

The Steed

• Ironclad - 29
• Medium Armor Focus - 10

The Lady

• Thick Skinned - 23
• Hardy - 26
• Elemental Defender - 26

The Lord

• Quick Recovery - 10

Build Rating