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Stamina Nightblade Solo Build - ESO Guide

Solo Two Bar Stamina Pure Class Nightblade
Up to date for: Update 50 - 11th June 2026
Last changed: Update 50 - 11th June 2026

Pure Class Stamina Nightblade (StamBlade) Solo Build for ESO Update 50. The build gets great mitigation from , especially in execute, and good sustain from . gives it insane Ultimate generation, while gives it a fast execute.

This setup soloed Veteran Hard Mode The Cauldron and Veteran Frostvault. It parses 73.0k in the Instanced setup.

Works for all kinds of solo content - overland at any Challenge Difficulty up to Vestige, World Bosses, Maelstrom Arena, Vateshran Hollows, early arcs in Infinite Archive, and Veteran Dungeon soloing.

Want to play Nightblade with Magicka instead? Check out the Magicka Nightblade Solo Build.

Simulated Parse Tables

I built a simulator that takes the Instanced setup from the guide and plays it through the listed rotation. It uses the listed gear, skills, Champion Points, race, food, potions, target armor and target health. It tracks skill casts, light attacks, DoT ticks, cooldowns, execute scaling, crits and status effect rolls. It assumes 100% of light attacks hit and a 0.005 second weave average.

Most comparison tables use deterministic rolls on a 15 million HP target unless the row says 6m, random, or real CMX. There is no 15 million Target Dummy in ESO. I use that health value because the 6 million dummy dies too fast, so random crits, status effects and execute timing can move the DPS by a lot.

For comparison tables I keep the setup identical and change one thing at a time. That makes the tables better for comparing options than random dummy parses, where one run can get better crits, different status effects or a better execute window.

Run Simulated DPS Notes
15m deterministic sim
72.6k DPS
Used for most comparison tables
6m deterministic sim
71.7k DPS
Same setup on real dummy health
Real 6m CMX parse
73.0k DPS
Recorded in game
100 random 6m sims
Lowest 70.0k DPS
Highest 76.3k DPS
This is why random parses are unreliable when crits and status effects roll differently
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Class Mastery

Class Masteries are a new U50 system where each class picks 2 of 5 passive bonuses (Class Mastery Points, not Skill Points). Activating subclassing disables Class Mastery, so it's a tradeoff between keeping your native skill lines or subclassing.

Not worth it

Nightblade Class Mastery

Nocturnal Inspiration

The Night Mistress rewards those who strike without reservation.

Upgrades rank 2 of to have a chance to generate 2 Ultimate. This effect can occur once every 0.3 seconds and the chance is equal to your Weapon Critical chance.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Nightblade Class Mastery

Cutthroat's Focus

This duel will be their last. For you, it's just another dance.

Activating a Nightblade ability while bracing causes you to dodge attacks for 0.3 seconds.

Whenever you dodge an attack, your attacker's psyche suffers, increasing their damage taken by 5% for 5 seconds, increasing to 20 seconds against monsters.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Nightblade Class Mastery

Share the Spoils

Secrets and coin are tools as sharp as the daggers you wield.

Upgrades rank 2 of to grant group members 250 Magicka and Stamina, 2 Ultimate, and doubles the Ultimate you gain when it activates.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Skill Setups

Base Setup

A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Surprise AttackMorph of Veiled Strike Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency
Slot 2: Killer's BladeMorph of Assassin's Blade Slot 2: Dark ShadeMorph of Summon Shade
Slot 3: Merciless ResolveMorph of Grim Focus Slot 3: Elemental SusceptibilityMorph of Weakness to Elements
Slot 4: Power ExtractionMorph of Drain Power Slot 4: Elemental BlockadeMorph of Wall of Elements
Slot 5: Shadowy DisguiseMorph of Shadow Cloak Slot 5: Siphoning AttacksMorph of Siphoning Strikes
Ultimate: Soul HarvestMorph of Death Stroke Ultimate: Shooting StarMorph of Meteor
  • - a very strong spammable which applies the status effect and is guaranteed to be a Critical Strike, up to once every 3 seconds
  • - an execute you should switch to when your enemy is below 28% Max Health
  • - an ability that grants you and and causes your Light Attacks to generate stacks. You can spend 5 stacks to fire a powerful arrow that also heals you if you're in Melee range. Stop using the active ability once your enemy is below 25% Max Health
  • - grants , and . It also applies to enemies hit, reducing their Weapon and Spell Damage by 215
  • - an ability that will increase your damage by 15% for 10 seconds after being cast. It also grants , reducing your damage taken by 5%. It will also grant you thanks to the passive. When timed correctly, you can use this ability to dodge heavy attacks
  • - a cheap ultimate that increases target's damage taken from you by 20%. This is the ultimate you should use in Single Target fights. Having it slotted will also cause you to regain 10 Ultimate whenever you deal a final blow against an enemy
  • (Shock Damage, Lingering Torment, Resolve) - deals damage in an AoE, applies a 22 second DoT and grants . It is delayed until the next ability with a cost.
  • - an ability that deals constant AoE damage and applies , reducing enemies' damage done by 5%
  • - an extremely strong ability that does a multitude of things. It's completely free to cast so it'll help you sustain. It applies , which reduces enemies' armor by 5948 which is a massive damage increase. It also applies , and status effects at the beginning and then every 7.5 seconds. All of these Status Effects deal decent damage, but Concussed will also apply for 4 seconds, increasing enemies' damage taken by 5%. Chilled will also apply for 4 seconds, reducing enemies' damage done by 5% and it will also apply for 4 seconds if you were on your Ice Staff bar while the Chilled effect procced. Minor Brittle increases Critical Damage taken by 10%. If you're using Ice Staff, the Chilled proc will also synergise with our
  • - this ability will constantly apply your enchantment. If it's the Ice version, it will also constantly apply to enemies who are , and they'll be Chilled thanks to
  • - this ability will passively heal you and improve your sustain. It can also be used to trade Health for a burst of Stamina and Magicka
  • - a 185 Ultimate cost AoE that leaves a ground DoT and grants you Ultimate for each enemy hit with the initial blast. Use it in AoE fights or when you start fights with high amount of Ultimate stored up

and are the first skills that have to go when you need to slot something situational, unless the situational skill specifically says that it's replacing something else

  • - a spammable which heals you for 33% of the damage it does. Use it instead of in more difficult fights
  • - use it for more difficult fights where the pressure is constant. It can also be used as your main source of healing before you obtain the Mythic or in fights with invulnerability phases where you can't heal with
  • - a chain ability that you can slot in trash packs to stack enemies and get through them faster
  • - a source of AoE Major Breach which can be used instead of in AoE fights
  • (Shock Damage, Gladiator's Tenacity, Resolve) - a different script combination which trades the DoT from Lingering Torment for the mitigation from Gladiator's Tenacity. Use it in fights where you need more damage mitigation.
  • - slot it for more difficult fights where you need more damage mitigation. It's a skill that passively grants , reducing your damage taken by 10%.
  • - snare removal which will be crucial for some fights
  • - an ultimate that breaks you out of some otherwise unavoidable stuns, you'll need it to get around some mechanics which are otherwise impossible or very difficult to solo, like for example Inferno's Hold in Zaan the Scalecaller fight
Rotation Simulated Parse Damage Change
Priority List
72.6k DPS
Baseline
Static Rotation
70.6k DPS
-2.8%

Priority List

This is just a list of priorities. Simply recast abilities when they run out and follow this list of priorities when there are multiple things to refresh

  • 1. as opener if you're starting the fight with a lot of Ultimate stored up
  • 2.
  • 3.
  • 4.
  • 5.
  • 6.
  • 7.
  • 8.
  • 9.
  • 10. If enemy is below 28% HP, use
  • 11.

Pre-buff

These abilities can be pre-cast before entering combat

Final Setups

A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying the situational skills to the base setup

A setup which trades damage for more survivability. Use it against harder boss fights or if you simply want a tankier build and don't mind fights taking longer

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Surprise AttackMorph of Veiled Strike Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency
Slot 2: Revealing Flare Slot 2: Dark ShadeMorph of Summon Shade
Slot 3: Merciless ResolveMorph of Grim Focus Slot 3: Elemental SusceptibilityMorph of Weakness to Elements
Slot 4: Power ExtractionMorph of Drain Power Slot 4: Elemental BlockadeMorph of Wall of Elements
Slot 5: Shadowy DisguiseMorph of Shadow Cloak Slot 5: Siphoning AttacksMorph of Siphoning Strikes
Ultimate: Soul HarvestMorph of Death Stroke Ultimate: Shooting StarMorph of Meteor

What Changes

Changes compared to the Base Setup

Skill Setup Comparison

Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
Regular
72.6k DPS
Baseline
Tanky
65.8k DPS
-9.3%

Passives

The only passive you specifically have to skip is

Some trees are only needed when using situational skills, for example Psijic Order provides nothing without

Class

Weapon

Armor

Guild

Alliance War

Racial

Craft

Class - Assassination

Master Assassin - High Priority

Executioner - High Priority

Pressure Points - High Priority

Hemorrhage - High Priority

Gear

Overland is your starting point and works for most situations. Crafted / Starter is a beginner version using only craftable sets. Instanced is a swap for Arenas and Dungeons where enemies have higher armor.

Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons

Gear Slot Set Weight/Type Trait Enchantment
HeadHead Medium
ShouldersShoulders Medium
ChestChest Medium
HandsHands Medium
BeltBelt Light
LegsLegs Medium
FeetBoots Medium
NeckNecklace Jewelry
RingRing Jewelry
RingRing Jewelry
MainhandFrontbar Main Hand Dagger
OffhandFrontbar Off Hand Dagger
MainhandBackbar Main Hand Ice Staff
Look here You dont need the Trial gear. is only about a 0.5% damage loss against Overland enemies compared to .
Body
Tide-Born Wildstalker - Crafted

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - Crafted
Weapons and Jewelry
Whorl of the Depths - Trial Set (Dreadsail Reef)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - Trial Set (Lucent Citadel)
  2. - Dungeon Set (Unhallowed Grave)
  3. - Crafted
Monster Helm
Slimecraw - Monster Set (Wayrest Sewers I)

Alternative (same bonus)

  1. - Direfrost Keep
  2. - Scalecaller Peak
  3. - Moongrave Fane
  4. - Stone Garden
  5. - Bedlam Veil
  6. - Night Market

Use the Penetration Calculator to fine-tune your penetration for different content. Overland enemies have 9,100 armor while Instanced enemies (Arenas and Dungeons) have 18,200.

Gear Set Comparisons

Damage comparison for the set options.

All of these use 6 Medium / 1 Light and .

Weapons + Jewelry

Compares + X weapons and jewelry set.

Source
Set Source Simulated Parse Damage Change
Trial - Sanity's Edge
Interrupt 75.5k DPS
No Interrupt 69.5k DPS
+4.0% -4.3%
Trial - Rockgrove
Soul 73.3k DPS
No Soul 64.7k DPS
+1.0% -10.9%
Trial - Lucent Citadel
72.6k DPS
+0.0%
Trial - Dreadsail Reef
72.6k DPS
Baseline
Crafted
69.5k DPS
-4.3%
Dungeon - Unhallowed Grave
69.2k DPS
-4.7%
Crafted
3 Stacks 66.1k DPS
0 Stacks 64.7k DPS
-9.0% -10.9%
Crafted
65.8k DPS
-9.4%
Dungeon - Falkreath Hold
65.0k DPS
-10.5%
Overland - Wrothgar
64.7k DPS
-10.9%
Overland - Deshaan
64.7k DPS
-10.9%
Crafted
64.4k DPS
-11.3%
Overland - Blackwood
64.4k DPS
-11.3%
Crafted
64.4k DPS
-11.3%
PvP - Cyrodiil
63.9k DPS
-12.0%

Front Bar Weapons

Daggers are the default weapon.

Front Bar Weapon Simulated Parse Damage Change
Dual Wield Daggers
72.6k DPS
Baseline
Lightning Staff
71.5k DPS
-1.4%
Bow
70.5k DPS
-2.8%
Greatsword
69.5k DPS
-4.2%
Inferno Staff
69.2k DPS
-4.7%
Ice Staff
66.7k DPS
-8.1%
Sword and Shield
66.4k DPS
-8.5%
Restoration Staff
64.7k DPS
-10.9%

Only the front bar weapon changes. Daggers use and . Every one-weapon option uses a weapon and keeps the same backbar Ice Staff. Sword and Shield uses a sword plus a shield.

Situational Swaps

Alternative setups for different goals and content types

  • Use in fights where you can interrupt something at least once every 30 seconds.
  • Use in fights where you can kill an add every 30 seconds.

Additional Tips

  • You can change some (or all) of the enchants to ones for extremely hard hitting bosses
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Champion Points

WarfareWarfare
6% Direct Damage
Because more than 60% of your damage is Direct
6% Single Target Damage
Because more than 60% of your damage is Single Target
8% Critical Damage and Healing
Next strongest CP damage-wise
205 Weapon and Spell Damage
Next strongest CP damage-wise
More Mitigation
Replace + with 2 mitigation CPs: , , , or (depending on the type of damage the Boss deals to you)
More Healing
is a decent Champion Point if you need more HPS
FitnessFitness
1400 Max Health
Survivability
1731 Armor
Survivability
90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery
Sustain
10% Movement Speed
Movement
Block Mitigation
Use in fights where you block a lot and don't have to move much
Sustain in fights with lots of adds
Use and/or if you need more sustain in fights with lots of adds
Constant Debuffs
Use in fights where you have a constant debuff applied to you
CraftCraft
20% Movement Speed out of combat
Extremely useful utility
Quality of Life
Green Champion Points don't affect Combat, choose whatever Quality of Life you prefer

Race

Nord is the default race for this setup.

Nord
Nord
Why pick this
The tankiest race. Nord is also what I use for soloing Veteran Hard Mode DLC Dungeons. provides around 5-7% damage mitigation, depending on your current armor.
Rugged 2600 armor
Stalwart 1500 Max Stamina, 0.5 Ultimate per second
Resist Frost 1000 Max Health, 4620 Frost Resistance
Race Simulated Parse Damage Change
Khajiit
75.5k DPS
+4.1%
Dark Elf
74.4k DPS
+2.5%
Orc
74.0k DPS
+2.0%
Wood Elf
73.7k DPS
+1.5%
High Elf
73.7k DPS
+1.5%
Redguard
72.6k DPS
+0.0%
Imperial
72.6k DPS
+0.0%
Nord
72.6k DPS
Baseline
Argonian
72.2k DPS
-0.5%
Breton
71.5k DPS
-1.4%

Mundus

The Thief
Overland
5.53% Critical Chance (9.04% with 7 Divines)
When to use
Use for the Overland setup. It increases your Critical Chance
The Lover
Instanced
2744 Penetration (4489 with 7 Divines)
When to use
Use in all Instanced content. Provides penetration to compensate for the higher armor of Instanced enemies.
The Lady
Difficult Content
2744 Armor (4489 with 7 Divines)
When to use
Consider switching for extremely difficult dungeons. It increases your Armor

Attributes

For most content you should put all 64 points into Stamina. For difficult content you should devote as many attribute points as necessary to Health - for some content you'll be able to get away with 32 Health 32 Stamina, for the extremely difficult stuff you'll need 64 Health.

Health
0
Stamina
64
Magicka
0
All points into Stamina. Use it for most content
Health
32
Stamina
32
Magicka
0
Split evenly between Health and Stamina. Use this whenever you start to struggle
Health
64
Stamina
0
Magicka
0
All points into Health. Use this for very difficult fights
Attributes Simulated Parse Damage Change
64 Stamina
72.6k DPS
Baseline
32 Health / 32 Stamina
70.2k DPS
-3.3%
64 Health
68.3k DPS
-6.0%

As you can see, the damage loss from changing attributes is minimal, but you gain up to 7808 Health, so change attributes whenever you struggle with some harder enemy.

Food

Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch food - ESO
Default
Max Health Stamina Recovery Magicka Recovery
The default option. Our don't restore resources, so the food has to cover Stamina and Magicka Recovery.
Braised Rabbit with Spring Vegetables food - ESO
Full Damage
Max Health Max Stamina
Full damage option. Trades the recoveries for Max Stamina and more Max Health, but you'll need or potions in order to sustain.
Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
+
72.6k DPS
Baseline
+
75.2k DPS
+3.5%
+
75.5k DPS
+4.1%

Potions

Armor Potion
Default
Restore Health +5280 Armor

The default option. It gives you the armor while your food covers sustain.

Tri-Stat Potion
Full Damage
Restore Health Restore Stamina Restore Magicka

Full damage option. The sustain from it lets you switch from to for more damage.

Heroism Potion
Full Damage
Minor Heroism Restore Stamina Restore Magicka

Same idea as , but straight up better because it adds Minor Heroism on top. More damage, just much more expensive to craft.

Parses

All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy

Instanced Setup
73,022 DPS
Instanced Setup
73,022DPS
6mil Skeleton Dummy
Patch
Update 50 PTS
Armor
6 Medium / 1 Light
Gear Setup
Instanced
Skill Setup
Base
Potion
Food
Mundus
Race
Nord
CMX Parse
Stamina Nightblade Solo CMX Parse - Instanced Setup - ESO
CMX Setup
Stamina Nightblade Solo CMX Setup - Instanced Setup - ESO

Gameplay

The Cauldron
Dungeon
Frostvault
Dungeon
The Cauldron
Dungeon Veteran Hard Mode
Frostvault
Dungeon Veteran

FAQ

Khajiit is the best damage race. Nord is the best survivability race.

Yes. StamBlade has enough mitigation and sustain to handle hard solo content, mostly from and . also gives it insane Ultimate generation, and gives it a fast execute. This setup soloed Veteran Hard Mode The Cauldron and Veteran Frostvault.

Yes, you can replace the Dual Wield Daggers with other weapons. Replacing the backbar weapon is a lot more troublesome, because is an extremely powerful skill for solo.

Yes, you can use this build at any Challenge Difficulty, including Vestige. Mobs hit a lot harder and you do less damage on the higher tiers, so fights take longer, but the build itself doesn't change.

No, you don't need a different setup. Use the base skills and the Instanced gear setup from this guide for both Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows.



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