Nightblade Damage Dealer: Heavy Attack

One bar, one Lightning Staff, all from range. Heavy Attacks do most of the work, so it's the easiest Nightblade to play well and still sits at about 126k.

Update 51PvE · Damage DealerPure classBeginnerRangedMagickaHeavy AttackLast reviewed 2026-10-29

Overview

Buffs and debuffs you bring on bosses

You get

Major BrutalityMajor SavageryMinor ForceMinor BerserkEmpowerAn Eye for ExploitationAbove and Beyond

Enemies get

Off Balance

Your group gets

Minor Savagery

Class Mastery

Pure-class characters with all three class lines at rank 50 can slot two Class Mastery passives (added in Update 50).

• An Eye for Exploitation

  Up to 2000 Weapon and Spell Damage as your target loses Health, and up to 20% less damage taken from low attackers. It works on Heavy Attacks.

• Above and Beyond

  25% more Critical Damage, and a higher Critical Damage cap so it isn't wasted.

Skill Setups

Every damage dealer build has a Boss setup for single targets and a Trash setup that swaps a slot or two for packs. The gear stays the same for both.

BossTrash

Single target: every slot either hits the boss harder or buffs you. Keep your damage over time effects and buffs up, then spam your spammable in between.

What this setup brings

You get

Major BrutalityMajor SavageryMinor ForceMinor BerserkEmpowerAn Eye for ExploitationAbove and Beyond

Enemies get

Off Balance

Your group gets

Minor Savagery

Only bar (Oakensoul Ring)

Lightning staff · Sergeant's Mail

1

2

3

4

5

R

Slot	Skill	Why it's slotted
Bar 1	Unstable Wall of Elements Destruction Staff Cast time: Instant·Duration: 10 seconds·Cost: 2,970 Magicka Area damage that explodes when it ends, and Off Balance on Concussed enemies inside it, so your Heavy Attacks hit them 70% harder.	Area damage that explodes when it ends, and Off Balance on Concussed enemies inside it, so your Heavy Attacks hit them 70% harder.
Bar 2	Dark Shade Shadow Cast time: Instant·Duration: 20 seconds·Cost: 2,970 Magicka A shade that hits everything around it for 20 seconds. A lot of damage per cast; pre-cast it before the pull.	A shade that hits everything around it for 20 seconds. A lot of damage per cast; pre-cast it before the pull.
Bar 3	Merciless Resolve Assassination Cast time: Instant·Range: 28 metres·Cost: 1,890 Magicka Major Savagery while slotted. Light and Heavy Attacks build stacks; at five, cast it for a big hit.	Major Savagery while slotted. Light and Heavy Attacks build stacks; at five, cast it for a big hit.
Bar 4	Healthy Offering Siphoning Cast time: Instant·Cost: 3,510 Magicka Your heal. Any Siphoning skill here turns on Magicka Flood, and this one keeps you alive.	Your heal. Any Siphoning skill here turns on Magicka Flood, and this one keeps you alive.
Bar 5	Shadowy Disguise Shadow Cast time: Instant·Cost: 2,700 Magicka / 1s 15% more damage for 15 seconds after you cast it.	15% more damage for 15 seconds after you cast it.
Bar R	Soul Harvest Assassination Cast time: 0.4 seconds·Range: 7 metres·Cost: 70 Ultimate Cheap: the boss takes 20% more damage from you. Slotted, kills also give you Ultimate. It reaches only 7 metres, so step in to cast it.	Cheap: the boss takes 20% more damage from you. Slotted, kills also give you Ultimate. It reaches only 7 metres, so step in to cast it.

Open the Boss setup in the Build Editor to change skills, gear and stats.

Simulate it on the Trial dummy to see its DPS, where the damage comes from and what each buff is worth.

The same bar. Unstable Wall of Elements is already an area spammable, Dark Shade hits everything near it, and Lightning Staff Heavy Attacks hit enemies around the target. Recast the wall early to set off its explosion on a pack that's about to die.

What this setup brings

You get

Major BrutalityMajor SavageryMinor ForceMinor BerserkEmpowerAn Eye for ExploitationAbove and Beyond

Enemies get

Off Balance

Your group gets

Minor Savagery

Only bar (Oakensoul Ring)

Lightning staff · Sergeant's Mail

1

2

3

4

5

R

Slot	Skill	Why it's slotted
Bar 1	Unstable Wall of Elements Destruction Staff Cast time: Instant·Duration: 10 seconds·Cost: 2,970 Magicka Area damage that explodes when it ends, and Off Balance on Concussed enemies inside it, so your Heavy Attacks hit them 70% harder.	Area damage that explodes when it ends, and Off Balance on Concussed enemies inside it, so your Heavy Attacks hit them 70% harder.
Bar 2	Dark Shade Shadow Cast time: Instant·Duration: 20 seconds·Cost: 2,970 Magicka A shade that hits everything around it for 20 seconds. A lot of damage per cast; pre-cast it before the pull.	A shade that hits everything around it for 20 seconds. A lot of damage per cast; pre-cast it before the pull.
Bar 3	Merciless Resolve Assassination Cast time: Instant·Range: 28 metres·Cost: 1,890 Magicka Major Savagery while slotted. Light and Heavy Attacks build stacks; at five, cast it for a big hit.	Major Savagery while slotted. Light and Heavy Attacks build stacks; at five, cast it for a big hit.
Bar 4	Healthy Offering Siphoning Cast time: Instant·Cost: 3,510 Magicka Your heal. Any Siphoning skill here turns on Magicka Flood, and this one keeps you alive.	Your heal. Any Siphoning skill here turns on Magicka Flood, and this one keeps you alive.
Bar 5	Shadowy Disguise Shadow Cast time: Instant·Cost: 2,700 Magicka / 1s 15% more damage for 15 seconds after you cast it.	15% more damage for 15 seconds after you cast it.
Bar R	Soul Harvest Assassination Cast time: 0.4 seconds·Range: 7 metres·Cost: 70 Ultimate Cheap: the boss takes 20% more damage from you. Slotted, kills also give you Ultimate. It reaches only 7 metres, so step in to cast it.	Cheap: the boss takes 20% more damage from you. Slotted, kills also give you Ultimate. It reaches only 7 metres, so step in to cast it.

Open the Trash setup in the Build Editor to change skills, gear and stats.

Simulate it on the Trial dummy to see its DPS, where the damage comes from and what each buff is worth.

Flex skills

Swap these in when the fight or your group calls for it.

• Elemental Susceptibility

  Your own Major Breach, for mechanics that take you away from the group. Replace Dark Shade first.

• Resolving Vigor

  A short, strong heal over time for fights with big bursts of damage. Takes Healthy Offering's slot.

• Leeching Strikes

  Back-bar heal in the two-bar Rakkhat's Voidmantle version: slotted, your damage heals you.

Passives

The passives that shape this build. They come with the skill lines, so there's nothing to slot.

• Tri Focus

  Fully charged Lightning Staff Heavy Attacks hit enemies near your target too.

• Hemorrhage

  More Critical Damage with an Assassination skill slotted, and Minor Savagery for the group when you crit.

• Magicka Flood

  More Max Magicka and Stamina with Healthy Offering slotted.

• Dexterity

  12% more Critical Damage from 6 Medium pieces.

• Concentration

  Offensive Penetration from 1 Light piece.

• Undaunted Mettle

  Max Health, Magicka and Stamina, since your gear has all three armour weights.

Gear

Sergeant's Mail on the chest, two jewellery pieces and the staff stacks Heavy Attack damage, and Storm Master on five Medium pieces adds Light and Heavy Attack damage when a Heavy Attack crits. Slimecraw is a one-piece helm for Critical Chance and Minor Berserk, and Oakensoul Ring holds the build together. The Shock glyph Concusses the boss, which Unstable Wall of Elements turns into Off Balance; use Flame instead if your group already keeps Off Balance up.

Buffs and debuffs with this gear

Gold entries come from your gear; the rest come from your skills and passives.

You get

Major BrutalityMajor SavageryMinor ForceMinor BerserkEmpowerAn Eye for ExploitationAbove and Beyond

Enemies get

Off Balance

Your group gets

Minor Savagery

Slots

Slot	Set	Type	Trait	Enchant
Head	Slimecraw Medium (monster)	Medium (monster)	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Sergeant's Mail Heavy	Heavy	Divines	Magicka
Hands	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Waist	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Feet	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Neck	Sergeant's Mail Jewellery	Jewellery	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring 1	Sergeant's Mail Jewellery	Jewellery	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring 2	Oakensoul Ring Jewellery (mythic)	Jewellery (mythic)	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Front: main hand	Sergeant's Mail Lightning staff (two-handed)	Lightning staff (two-handed)	Precise	Shock

Sturdy and Divines are interchangeable on armour. Tri-Stat glyphs on jewellery are a fine swap if you need more resources.

What the sets do

SlimecrawMonster

1 piece · Wayrest Sewers I (veteran) + Undaunted chest

Only 1 of 2 pieces, so the top bonus is off.

• (1 item)Adds 657 Critical Chance.
• (2 items)Adds 113 Critical Chance.
• (2 items)Gain Minor Berserk at all times, increasing your damage done by 5%.

Storm MasterDungeon

5 pieces · Tempest Island

• (2 items)Adds 657 Critical Chance.
• (3 items)Adds 657 Critical Chance.
• (4 items)Adds 129 Weapon Damage and Spell Damage.
• (5 items)When you deal Critical Damage with a fully-charged Heavy Attack, your Light and Heavy Attacks deal an additional 1542 damage to monsters for 8 seconds. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.

Sergeant's MailDungeon

5 front / 3 back · Wayrest Sewers

Full bonus on the front bar only.

• (2 items)Adds 1206 Maximum Health.
• (3 items)Adds 129 Health Recovery.
• (4 items)Adds 129 Weapon Damage and Spell Damage.
• (5 items)When you deal damage with a Heavy Attack, you gain a stack of Sergeant's Focus for 5 seconds, increasing the damage of your Heavy Attacks by 645 per stack. This effect can occur once every second and stacks up to 4 times.

Oakensoul RingMythic

1 piece · Antiquities

• (1 item)While equipped, you are unable to swap between your Primary and Backup Weapon Sets and gain Minor Berserk, Minor Courage, Major Brutality, Major Savagery, Minor Force, Minor Protection, Major Resolve, Minor Mending, Minor Fortitude, Minor Intellect, Minor Endurance, Minor Heroism, Minor Slayer, Minor Aegis, and Empower.

Alternative sets

• Noble Duelist's Silks

  About 2% more damage than Storm Master, in Light, but only for attacks in melee range. Take it if you'll stand next to the boss anyway.

• Rakkhat's Voidmantle

  The full damage version: Heavy Attacks hit 50% harder. It replaces Oakensoul, so you run two bars and bring your own buffs; about 10% more damage.

• Anthelmir's Construct

  Heavy Attack monster set, in place of Slimecraw when you drop Oakensoul.

• Highland Sentinel

  Crafted fallback for either body set: Critical Chance, more while you stand still.

• Order's Wrath

  Crafted fallback for Sergeant's Mail. An all-crafted build does about 20% less damage.

Champion Points

Slottable stars only. Spend passive points in each tree along the path to these stars.

Good swaps

• Reaving Blows

  Your damage heals you, if you need more healing.

• Biting Aura

  More area damage, in place of Deadly Aim on trash.

Race

• High Elf

  Max Magicka and Weapon and Spell Damage, and less damage taken while you channel.

• also goodDark Elf

  Max Magicka and Stamina and Flame damage. Strong on every build.

• 4-playerKhajiit

  Critical Damage and Healing. Better in dungeons, where you rarely hit the Critical Damage cap.

Mundus

• The Thief

  More Critical Chance. Divines on the armour makes it bigger.

• PenetrationThe Lover

  Penetration, if your group doesn't bring Crusher, Alkosh or Tremorscale.

Attributes

Food

• Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

  Max Health and Max Magicka. Enough Health to live, and Magicka for damage.

• full damageTomato Garlic Chutney

  Max Magicka only, for under 1% more damage when you can do without the Health.

Potions

• Armor potion

  Oakensoul Ring already gives Major Brutality and Major Savagery, so drink Major Resolve and Health instead.

• stunsImmovability potion

  Immune to stuns and knockbacks, so nothing interrupts your channel.

Gameplay

1. 1Pre-cast Dark Shade and Shadowy Disguise before the pull.
2. 2Fully charge a Heavy Attack, then cast one skill, then the next Heavy Attack. Only cast what's running out, most important first: Shadowy Disguise, Soul Harvest when it's ready, Unstable Wall of Elements, Merciless Resolve at five stacks, Dark Shade.
3. 3Don't cut a Heavy Attack short. Sergeant's Mail and the Tri Focus cleave both want the full channel.
4. 4Stand anywhere in range. If you take Noble Duelist's Silks instead of Storm Master, stand next to the boss.

FAQ