The Best Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build For ESO

Categories: Best ESO Builds, Best Nightblade Builds, Leveling Builds

This leveling build for the Magicka Nightblade class in The Elder Scrolls Online uses nothing but easy to obtain Overland sets and is extremely powerful! Great damage, self-healing and survival all in one package makes this one of the easiest Nightblade builds in ESO to level up FAST!

What you will learn in this Leveling Build guide:

• The best item sets to use while leveling a Magicka Nightblade Build in ESO, and why they are important.
• How the skills work, important passives, and your rotation.
• The best consumables, race, and mundus, and most importantly, why you should select them.

This guide has been updated for The Elder Scrolls Online Update 50.

Table Of Contents

1. Nightblade Class Overview
2. Best Leveling Sets
3. Alternate Leveling Sets
4. Gear Setup
5. Attributes
6. Race
7. Mundus Stone
8. Food/Drink Buff
9. Potions
10. Recommended Skills
11. Skills Explanation
12. Rotation
13. Important Passives
14. More Nightblade Builds For ESO

Nightblade Class Overview

The Nightblade Class is an extremely powerful way to play in The Elder Scrolls Online. Nightblades have many powerful abilities located in their dedicated Class Skill lines for DPS, for Healing, and for Tanking. Nightblades are a great choice for dealing damage, mobility and healing, and are very fun for both PVE and PVP content in ESO. For a more detailed guide be sure to review our ESO Nightblade Class Guide.

Best Magicka Nightblade Leveling Sets

Our main 5 piece set on this build is Mother’s Sorrow, a powerful set that is easy to obtain and synergizes well with the Nightblade’s inherent Critical Damage and Critical Chance bonuses.

Our next set, Spinner’s Garments is a great set for increasing the Magicka Nightblade’s overall damage thanks to increased Offensive Penetration.

For the final two pieces of gear on this build Armor Of The Trainee is recommended for the extra Health and Magicka.

Mother’s Sorrow

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LVL 50 – CP 160

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SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(5 items) Adds 1528 Critical Chance

Spinner’s Garments

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LVL 50 – CP 160

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SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Adds 3460 Offensive Penetration

Armor Of The Trainee

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LVL 50 – CP 160

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SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 1454 Maximum Health
(2 items) Adds 1454 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1454 Maximum Stamina

Alternate Magicka Nightblade Leveling Sets

For alternative sets, Innate Axiom makes a nice Crafted replacement for anything on the Nightblade class. War Maiden can be a highly damaging set that synergizes well with the Magicka Nightblade’s magic damage skills.

Innate Axiom

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LVL 50 – CP 160

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SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka, Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
(4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(5 items) Adds 400 Weapon and Spell Damage to your Class abilities.

War Maiden

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LVL 50 – CP 160

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SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Adds 600 Weapon and Spell Damage to your Magic Damage abilities.

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Gear Setup

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Attributes

Most of our skills cost Magicka to cast, so putting all of your Attribute Points into the Magicka stat makes the most sense.

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Race

Khajiit is one of my favorite options for any Nightblade build as its racial passives synergize well with Nightblade’s critical focus passives. For more details on all ESO Races and passive bonuses be sure to check out our Full ESO Race Guide.

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Mundus Stone

The best Mundus Stone for leveling in the Elder Scrolls Online is the Lover Mundus because this increases your Offensive Penetration, allowing all of your skills to do more damage. Offensive Penetration can usually only be obtained through Light Armor Passives and rarely on gear sets, so boosting this stat early through your Mundus Stone will make the biggest impact, helping you kill enemies faster and thus level up faster! Review our complete Mundus Stone guide for more information.

The Lover

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Increases Physical and Spell Penetration by 2744

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With 7 Divines armor pieces
Increases Physical and Spell Penetration by 4489

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Food/Drink Buff

Witchmother’s Potent Brew is the best food or drink buff available when leveling up a Magicka build in ESO because it provides Maximum Magicka which boosts your Damage, Magicka Recovery which helps you sustain your skills and Maximum Health which improves your survivability. This drink scales with your level and can be crafted or purchased from Guild Traders.

Witchmother’s potent brew

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Increase Max Magicka by 2856, Max Health by 3094, and Magicka Recovery by 315 for 2 hours.

These effects are scaled based on your level.

Ingredients: Nightshade, Bervez Juice, Rice, Small Game

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Potions

Basic Magicka Potions are fine for leveling up as a Magicka build in ESO. Keep these on hand to restore your Magicka and increase your Magicka recovery when running low on resources.

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Basic Magicka Potions

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Recommended Skills

Main Weapon: INFERNO STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more

1. Impale
2. Sap Essence
3. Inner Light
4. Swallow Soul
5. Merciless Resolve
6. ULT: Soul Harvest

Backup Weapon: INFERNO STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more

1. Twisting Path
2. Elemental Blockade
3. Elemental Drain
4. Siphoning Attacks
5. Debilitate
6. ULT: Soul Tether

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Skills Explanation

Main Weapon: INFERNO STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more

1. Impale: single target execute ability which increases in damage the lower health your target is.
2. Sap Essence: AOE damage skill that also heals you back, increasing for the number of enemies hit. This skill also grants the important Major Brutality and Major Sorcery buffs which increases your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20 percent!
3. Inner Light: passively increases your Max Magicka and provides bonus Critical Chance via the Major Prophecy and Major Savagery buffs.
4. Swallow Soul: great single target DPS skill that also provides a 10 second heal over time for you.
5. Merciless Resolve: Big Burst damage skill that also heals you back. Requires you to gain stacks from light attacking or heavy attacking.
6. ULT: Soul Harvest: powerful single target ultimate ability which deals damage, increases your damage vs. that target and also generates ultimate when you kill an enemy.

Backup Weapon: INFERNO STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more

1. Twisting Path: AOE DOT that is ground based, dealing damage to all enemies in front of you and increasing your group’s movement speed. This skill also procs your Shadow skill line passives, including granting you the Major Resolve buff for increased armor.
2. Elemental Blockade: basic AOE damage skill from the Destruction Staff skill line which can also proc your backup weapon enchantment.
3. Elemental Drain: use this skill to reduce enemy armor via the Major Breach debuff, plus it also helps you generate Magicka more quickly.
4. Siphoning Attacks: the ultimate sustain skill, costing Health and giving back Magicka and Stamina.
5. Debilitate: single target damage over time skill.
6. ULT: Soul Tether: useful defensive ultimate which stuns surrounding enemies, dealing damage and providing a heal over time effect.

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Rotation

Buffs: Maintain Merciless Resolve buff at all times.

Damage: Start on the backbar by casting Twisting Path, Elemental Blockade, Elemental Drain, Siphoning Attacks, Debilitate, then Bar Swap.

Cast Merciless Resolve Bow, Swallow Soul as needed. Use Sap Essence on crowds and Impale on low health enemies to execute.

Tips: Remember to Light Attack in between each skill. This will add stacks to your Merciless Resolve which can then be cast for BIG damage and healing.

Magicka Nightblade Leveling Build Important Passives

1. Refreshing Shadows
2. Shadow Barrier
3. Executioner
4. Hemorrhage
5. Pressure Points
6. Catalyst
7. Evocation
8. Prodigy
9. Concentration
10. Ancient Knowledge

How To Create Powerful ESO Builds

Crafting the Perfect Build for you in The Elder Scrolls Online can be frustrating. Which skills are best for each class? What about passives? The best race? The best armor type and weapons? The best trait and glyphs? There are literally THOUSANDS of different options!

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More Nightblade Builds For ESO

Want more Nightblade Builds? Check out our dedicated Nightblade Builds overview page for even more great options!