Categories: Best ESO Builds, Best Nightblade Builds, Beginner Builds
This beginner 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 the game!
What you will learn in this beginner build guide:
- The best item sets to use with the Magicka Nightblade Beginner Build, and why they are important.
- How the skills work, synergies with the gear, 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.
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.
Magicka Nightblade Beginner Primary Sets
Our main 5 piece set on this build is War Maiden, one of the best sets in the game for Magicka Nightblade as it buffs the damage of nearly all of our abilities!
Mother’s Sorrow is another powerful set that is easy to obtain and synergizes well with the Nightblade’s inherent Critical Damage and Critical Chance bonuses.
For the final two pieces of gear on this build Armor Of The Trainee is recommended for the extra Health and Magicka.
War Maiden
LVL 50 – CP 160
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.
Mother’s Sorrow
LVL 50 – CP 160
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
Armor Of The Trainee
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 1454 Maximum Health
(2 items) Adds 1454 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1454 Maximum Stamina
Magicka Nightblade Beginner Alternative Sets
For alternative sets, Innate Axiom makes a nice Crafted replacement for War Maiden as most of our damaging skills are class-based. Another great option that is crafted will be Order’s Wrath – this is similar to Mother’s Sorrow but also provides bonus Critical Damage.
Innate Axiom
LVL 50 – CP 160
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.
Order’s Wrath
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(5 items) Adds 943 Critical Chance, Increases your Critical Damage and Critical Healing by 8%.
Magicka Nightblade Beginner Gear Loadout
| Weapon/Armor | Set | Trait | Weight | Glyph |
| Main Hand | Armor Of The Trainee Inferno Staff | Precise | NA | Absorb Magic |
| Backup | Armor Of The Trainee Inferno Staff | Infused | NA | Weapon/Spell Damage |
| Head | War Maiden | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Shoulder | War Maiden | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Chest | War Maiden | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Waist | War Maiden | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Gloves | War Maiden | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Legs | Mother’s Sorrow | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Feet | Mother’s Sorrow | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Necklace | Mother’s Sorrow | Arcane | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 1 | Mother’s Sorrow | Arcane | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Mother’s Sorrow | Arcane | NA | Magicka Recovery |
Magicka Nightblade Beginner Attributes
The best attribute for a Magicka Nightblade is Magicka because it increase the effectiveness of our spells. Additionally, increased magicka can increase the size of a shield and healing spells. It’s best to pick one attribute pool and “stack” for optimal damage and resource sustain. Therefore, I recommend 64 magicka, 0 health, and 0 stamina.
64 Magicka
0 Health
0 Stamina
Magicka Nightblade Beginner Race
The best overall race for a Magicka Nightblade beginner is the High Elf. This race gives a balance between resource sustain and damage. However, it’s not a commonly used race for end-game serious PvE DPS. If that’s your goal eventually, use the Dark Elf. If you struggle with resource sustain and want to spam cast spells, choose the Breton. And if you want something that looks different, take the Khajiit for burst damage, and Argonian for survivability.
For more details on all ESO Races and passive bonuses be sure to check out our Full ESO Race Guide.
Magicka Nightblade Beginner Mundus
The Thief is the best mundus stone for the Magicka Nightblade build because you cannot reach a “cap.” Critical damage (Shadow mundus) and offensive penetration (Lover) both can reach a hardcap where you see no benefit. Most Veteran enemies have 18,200 armor, thus Shadow becomes ineffective if using light armor. Meanwhile, the hardcap for critical damage is 125% which can be reached in trials with medium armor equipped. This is why the Thief is superior as an all around mundus stone, giving you the best benefit regardless of the content.
Increases the Critical Strike rating by 1333
With 7 Divines armor pieces
Increases the Critical Strike rating by 2167
The Lover
Increases Physical and Spell Penetration by 2744
With 7 Divines armor pieces
Increases Physical and Spell Penetration by 4489
Magicka Nightblade Beginner Food & Drink
Witchmother’s Potent Brew is the best beginner Magicka Nightblade food or drink because it increases your max magicka, health, and grants magicka recovery. As a new player, you desperately need resource sustain as well as damage, which is why this is selected. Later as you advance, other food is used like “bi-stat” which forgoes magicka recovery for higher max stats. But, this comes with a big downside and that is weak sustain and not recommended right away.
Witchmother’s potent brew
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 Beginner Potions
The best magicka potions for the Magicka Nightblade are the base potions that give you magicka recovery. The recover, with medicine use passive from alchemy, can run 47.5 seconds. With potion cooldown only last 45 seconds, you can maintain 100% up time on an additional 20% recovery. As you advance, tri-potions (all three stats), spell power potions (buffs and recovery), or even heroism potions (ultimate generation buff) can be used. However, consider using these right now depending on your level and don’t be shy about drinking them.
Basic Magicka Potions
Beginner Magicka Nightblade Skill Loadout
Main Weapon: INFERNO STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
Backup Weapon: INFERNO STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
Beginner Magicka Nightblade Skill Explanation
Front Bar Explanation
- Impale: ranged execute you should use at 25% health or lower in replacement for Concealed Weapon as it will hit harder.
- Dark Cloak or Dampen Magic: use Dark Cloak for a heal and Dampen Magic for a shield as protection skill.
- Inner Light: This is passively slotted to increase max magicka and provide the critical buff.
- Concealed Weapon: main spammable attack that is magicka which grants minor expedition while slotted making you faster.
- Merciless Resolve: you gain stacks boosting your weapon and spell damage for light and heavy attacks and after 5 stacks you can see icon changed and fire off free damage attack.
- ULT: Soul Harvest: low cost burst ultimate that passively boost ultimate generation while slotted.
Back Bar Explanation
- Twisting Path: high damage over time DOT that increases movement speed and triggers Shadow passives.
- Elemental Blockade: used as strong AOE damage over time that triggers status effects
- Degeneration: ranged damage over time that also triggers major sorcery buff.
- Siphoning Attacks: this is a resource sustain buff that also heals when doing light or heavy attacks.
- Debilitate: ranged DOT that slows targets and triggers overcharged status effect.
- ULT: Elemental Rage: large radius burst ultimate that can be used at range though not mobile.
Magicka Nightblade Beginner Rotation
Damage: Start on the backbar by casting Twisting Path, Elemental Blockade, Degeneration, Siphoning Attacks, Debilitate, then Bar Swap.
Cast Merciless Resolve Bow, Concealed Weapon x5, Merciless Resolve Bow, then Bar Swap back.
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. Use Dampen Magic or Dark Cloak as needed for survival. At 25% switch Concealed Weapon to Impale.
Magicka Nightblade Beginne Important Passives
- Refreshing Shadows
- Shadow Barrier
- Executioner
- Hemorrhage
- Pressure Points
- Catalyst
- Evocation
- Prodigy
- Concentration
- Ancient Knowledge
Magicka Nightblade Class Mastery
Players that reach level 50 in ESO while also fully reaching Rank 50 for their class skill lines and not subclassing can use 2 Class Mastery passives to improve their build. For the Nightblade Class, I recommend Above and Beyond which increases your Critical Damage and Critical Healing potential along with An Eye for Exploitation which increases your Weapon and Spell Damage and reduces Damage Taken based on your target’s missing Health.
Above and Beyond
An assassin is only as good as their reputation.
Effect
Increases your Critical Damage and Healing by 25%. This effect is reduced to 5% against targets with Battle Spirit.
Increases your maximum Critical Damage and Healing by 30%.
An Eye For Exploitation
Every strike, every stab, is a step towards execution.
Effect
Increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by up to 2000, based on your target’s missing Health. Reduces your damage taken by up to 20%, based on your attacker’s missing Health.
Both effects are halved against targets with Battle Spirit.
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!
This is why we created the ESO Zero To Hero Build Academy – A Simple, yet Powerful build system that teaches the fundamentals of ESO Theorycrafting, step-by-step.
Build your character exactly how YOU want by following this simple process from start to finish and FINALLY start enjoying ESO the way you want to play it!
Our Guides are designed with New and Intermediate players in mind! Stop wasting hours searching the internet for the best ESO build information – get what you need NOW to succeed!
More Nightblade Builds For ESO
Want more Nightblade Builds? Check out our dedicated Nightblade Builds overview page for even more great options!
