61 NB PvE DPS Guide

[Gery]

Overview
Nightblade plays like a hybrid melee/ranged soul. Its strengths are high initial and 1 minute burst, ability to keep dealing respectable dps during melee disconnects and good dps during the last 30% of target's health. Its main weakness is somewhat poor ability to switch targets. NB is also not viable dps unless you can hit your target with Living Flame, this happens if your target has a big hitbox and its center is located in a place where you can't go.

NB dps graph is like a wave, you have high burst and then low dps between them. Sometimes this is to your advantage and other times it is a disadvantage. NB can also stealth but for PvE DPS this is only used for the initial opening and not used at all after that unlike assassin. NB also has some AoE but it's not a real AoE build and should not be used for any sustained AoE fights with lots of targets. It does however work well for two target dps if they are close together.

Specs

This is the best overall spec for PvE.: http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree/p...4/!agxg/t|X_P0

Selfbuffs: Ebon Blades, Smoldering Blades

If you don't have shadeborn soul then you can use this:
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#w...l4/z8E/tf|X_P0
Since this spec doesn't have any of the shadeborn abilities you can just ignore whatever the guide says about using them.

Gear
Get your CP to softcap first. Once you have max or close to max CP then stack AP. If you are tier 3 geared then crit is also good. Use Slayer's synergy crystal.

Main abilities and mechanics
Heat Retention
Every time you use a combo point builder ability you will gain a stack of Heat Retention. Each stack increases your damage by 3% and once you reach 5 stacks your next finisher will do 30% more damage.
If you hit multiple targets with Fiery Chains you will gain a stack for each target and you also get one stack of HR per target that Living Flame hits. Hitting multiple targets with Weapon Flare does not give you multiple stacks of HR.

Primal Strike and Twilight Force
Primal Strike is your main melee combo point builder ability and Twilight Force is your ranged combo point builder. Their damage is about the same but Twilight Force has a much higher energy cost so it should not be used in melee range.

Dusk Strike
Dusk Strike is your high damage combo point buider ability. Each time you use it you will also get 1 stack of Emptiness debuff which increases the damage and energy cost of Dusk Strike. This mechanic is your way to transform energy into more dps.

Fiery Spike
Fiery Spike is an absolutely mandatory dot to have ticking on your target, not only does it do a lot of damage when it reaches 5 stacks but it also gets recast after Blazing Strike or Flame Thrust if it is on the target. This recast also gives you a combo points. Flame Blitz also recasts Fiery Spike but does not give a combo point. Unless you need to switch targets there should never be a need to use Fiery Spike manually.

Dusk to Dawn
Dusk to Dawn does a lot of damage, awards 2 combo points and buffs your damage with Blazing Strike and Flame Thrust by 20%.

Death from the Shadows
DftS does a lot of damage, awards 2 combo points and casts a Fiery Spike on your target.

Scourge of Darkness
SoD is an extremely high damage ability and should be used as often as possible, even small delays will cause a big drop in dps. When you use SoD you will get 25 charges which are then consumed as additional damage whenever you use other damaging abilities. Note that SoD does not refresh Fiery Spike on your target.

Living Flame
Living Flame is an AoE ability but it is also very good for single target since every tick of it casts a Fiery Spike on all the targets it hits. This is also very important ability in your opening rotation since it's your fastest way to build up Fiery Spike stacks. If the fight has target switches then it's best to save Living Flame for those instead of using it in normal rotation.

Living Flame only damages targets if it can reach the center of the target's hitbox and its radius is 10 meters. This is important to know on fights where the target has a large hitbox and you can be in melee range but still quite far from the center. On fights where you can't use Living Flame it's best not to use NB at all, NB without Living Flame is bad dps.

Dark Descent
When you use Dark Descent your next 3 finishers will not use combo points.

Ebon Fury
Ebon Fury is a 1 minute cooldown ability which removes the energy cost from Twilight Force and Dusk Strike and therefore allows you to regenerate to full energy and transform that excess energy into more dps through the use of more Dusk Strikes. Try to build up 4 or 5 Emptiness stacks before using Ebon Fury and optimally time it so that the SoD+3*Blazing block of your rotation does not fall inside it to get the most out of this cooldown.

Touch of Darkness
For the next 6 seconds weapon ability attacks deal additional death damage and drains the target's energy/power/mana. Most noteworthy thing here is to know what counts as an attack. SoD charges, autoattacks, trinket/weapon procs do not count. Each ability such as Primal Strike or Dusk Strike counts as one attack. First tick of Fiery Spike also counts as an attack, so finishers are actually two attacks each since they also cast a Fiery Spike through Lingering Flame mechanic. Each tick of Living Flame counts as an attack, and because Living Flame casts a Fiery Spike on each tick that means Living Flame does 2 attacks per second to all targets for 6 seconds. For this reason Touch of Darkness is always best used with Living Flame.

Consuming Depths
You get procs that make Consuming Depths instant when you use finishers. Use them without clipping them. The proc has a 5 second internal cooldown which means that if you get a proc, then use Consuming Depths, DtfS and Dusk to Dawn then only 4 seconds pass between finishers and you miss out on a chance to proc. Therefore it's best to use DtfS and Dusk to Dawn in different buildups.

Strangulate and Mirrored Strike
Strangulate gives you Blackout stacks (not the same Blackout that increases SoD stacks). Each stack refunds a combo point when you use a Mirrored Strike. Track these stacks and use Mirrored Strike to get from 1 combo point to 5 and use a Blazing Strike. It's best to do this after your previous Blazing Strike fails to proc Consuming Depths. Recast Strangulate whenever it drops, don't clip it.


Rotations
Single Target Rotation
Build up to 5 combo points and then use a finisher. Every 30 seconds use Dark Descent+SoD+3*Blazing Strike. Use Consuming Depths procs when you get them. Always keep SoD and Dark Descent synced,the benefit there is that you never drop to 0 combo points this way and the followup Blazing Strikes will refresh Fiery Spike automatically without having to worry about it. Use the Strangulate/Mirrored Strike mechanic to time your 30 second cooldown blocks so they don't get delayed and fall out of sync with raid cooldowns.

Due to how Boundless Energy mastery works you can't really plan an rotation based on how much energy you will have since there is a random element to it. Best way to handle energy management is to make sure you never reach max energy other than during Ebon Fury. Keep using Dusk Strike as your builder as long as you can without bottoming out so much that you lose time from your rotation and then ideally let all the emptiness stacks fall. However it is more important to spend all the surplus energy you have than to let all the stacks fall.

Use Living Flame together with Touch of Darkness when they are available right after Dark Descent+Sod. This allows Touch of Darkness to get extra hits from the Fiery Spikes cast by the finishers through Lingering Flame. Ideally you should also sync Death from the Shadows to be used here since it will provide an extra hit of ToD but if it doesn't sync then it's not a huge loss, it's more important to use DftS as often as possible.

You will often find yourself in a situation where you have 5 combo points but SoD is still 1 second away from being available. I find that it's better for sustained dps to use an extra combo point builder rather than use Blazing Strike and end up delaying SoD by 3 seconds past the 30 second cooldown. However this is for sustained average dps only and which one is actually better depends on what part of your rotation the fight will end.

You can also use Fiery Chains in single target rotation for the 50% chance to gain a combo point and this can allow you to reach 5 combo points with a better timing for when Dark Descent and SoD come off cooldown.

Your ideal fight ends right after your SoD stacks have been consumed, if you happen to delay SoD 3 times in such a fight you will end up completely missing out on one burst. On the flipside your absolute worst fight duration is when the fight ends right before your big burst, in such a fight delaying SoD would not have changed the amount of SoDs you had time to do and therefore if you used those extra combo point builders you ended up losing some dps.

AoE Rotation
Build up to 5 combo points with Fiery Chains and Weapon Flare, then use Flame Blitz. Try to use Fiery Chains when you are at low combo points, otherwise you will end up wasting the extra combo points. Macroing Fiery Chains and Weapon Flare is not very optimal because you then lose the ability to time Fiery Chains. Every 30 seconds build up to 5 combo points and use Dark Descent+SoD+3*Flame Blitz.

Use Living Flame+Touch of Darkness on cooldown, it's by far your highest dps aoe attack. Your AoE dps has a huge ramp up time unless you manage to start it with Living Flame. In fact unless you have Living Flame available it's generally best not to aoe at all.

Cleaving Rotation for single target dps increase
This is all about Fiery Chains. Use Fiery Chains right after finisher so you have more time to react to the extra combo points which come with a delay. Fiery Chains allows you to build combo points quicker and that means more finishers and therefore more dps.
You also need to know that any aoe abilities you use will also spend your SoD charges on the adds instead of main target. Since you only want to improve your single target dps with the adds you should wait 10 seconds or so after SoD before using Fiery Chains.
Also in these situations Living Flame right after SoD is a bad idea since it will cause your SoD charges to be wasted on adds. Instead use it when you don't have SoD charges.
If you know you will be AoEing then you should also change your level 65 mastery to Planar Variation. It's a very strong aoe dps channel.

Ranged Rotation
Ranged rotation is very simple. It's exactly like melee rotation but you just don't worry about Dusk Strike or Living Flame since you are out of range to use them and you can't use Mirrored Strike for combo points. Your ranged dps is roughly 80% of your dps in melee range which makes this an excellent spec for fights with disconnects.
Even though you have 1 or 2 blinks in your spec you should not use them as gap closers to get to melee. The gcd you use for the blink loses you a full second of dps and to accumulate similar loss in dps by being at range but within 20 meters takes 7 seconds. You can always run back into melee from there in less time than that so never use the blinks as gap closers when you are within 20 meters of the target. If you are further away then they are good. Shadow Shift also does not break stealth so it's useful for getting closer at the pull before using Dark Malady.
Shadeborn subsoul gives you Sudden Appearance which is a charge, that one can be used to get back into melee.

Under 30% target health rotation
Exactly the same as normal rotation. Twilight Force gets a big dps boost but its high energy cost causes it to not really improve your dps if used instead of Primal Strike as the main builder. Try to save at least one Ebon Fury for this phase of the fight.

Target Switching
The main weakness of NB is its target switching ability. You need to build up Fiery Spike stacks and stacks of Ebon Blades on your target.
If you need to switch then you would be best off doing it with Death from the Shadows or starting with a Living Flame burst, this saves you from using manual Fiery Spikes.
If neither is available then you need to do Fiery Spike manually. Do not spam 5 stacks of Fiery Spike on the target, it's not worth it. Going beyond 3 manual stacks is a waste and if it's a short switch then just use it once and let finishers build it up further than that.
If it's a switch that includes a switch back to the previous target then keep the old target as your focus and manually refresh Fiery Spike on that target after using a finisher on the temporary target.

Opening Rotation
There's a few options for opening rotation here, which is better depends on circumstances. For raiding I recommend C.

Option A (starting from 0 combo points)
Dark Malady, Living Flame+ToD, Dusk to Dawn, Death from the Shadows, Dark Descent+Sod+3*Blazing Strike

Option B (starting from 0 combo points)
Dark Malady, Fiery Spike, Dusk to Dawn, Blazing Strike, 2*Dusk Strike, Death from the Shadows, Dark Descent+SoD, Living Flame+ToD, 3*Blazing Strike

Option C (starting with 2+ combo points)
Dark Malady, Fiery Spike, Blazing Strike, Dusk to Dawn, Death from the Shadows, Dark Descent+SoD, Living Flame+ToD, 3*Blazing Strike

Option A is maximum burst from standstill but the downside is that raid debuffs and cooldowns are not all up at that points but the burst happens inside your Dark Malady buff. Option B delays the burst enough that raid dps cooldowns such as Orchestra of the Planes/Wild Growth/Flaring Power should be up by then but can't fit the burst inside Dark Malady. Option C is a combination version of them which you can use if you have existing combo points or have time to generate them with for example a sab or phys spec.


Macros
NB can macro quite a few abilities together to save some buttons. These are the macros that I use. It would be possible to put Blazing Strike and Flame Thrust to the SoD macro but it is a bit dangerous since many times you will hit 5 combo points at the exact moment or a fraction of a second before SoD comes out of cooldown and in those cases you can not be certain what your macro decides to do so I do not recommend doing that.

Builder macro

#show primal strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast primal strike
cast twilight force
cast @self energy manipulation

Dusk Strike macro

#show dusk strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast dusk strike
cast @self energy manipulation

Finisher macro

#show blazing strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast blazing strike
cast flame thrust
cast @self energy manipulation

SoD macro

#show scourge of darkness
suppressmacrofailures
cast dark descent
cast scourge of darkness

Manual Fiery Spike refresh macro

#show fiery spike
suppressmacrofailure
cast [shift] @focus fiery spike
cast fiery spike

ToD+Living Flame macro

#show touch of darkness
suppressmacrofailures
cast touch of darkness
cast living flame

KaruulAlert Set
These are the alerts I use for NB, use them if like, do your own or track stuff some other way. What ever works for you.

KA::AlZT7eNrNWF1vq0YQ/Svc9zbdD9hdxBNfK7W6aavE7VMktDHrmNoGC3Cu3Pb+984CjrGDHZN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[Fudily]

I wouldn't have expected 10% AP & Weapon Damage to be > 1.25% Damage & 10% non-physical damage. But I've never actually bothered to parse it.

[Gunzip]

Excellent guide, thanks.

[hejtmane]

So should you only be using Dusk to Dawn during Ebon Furry cycles ?

That was not the case in the past but I been a way for a while so I am still catching up on all the changes

[Believeinsteve]

Awesome I was just looking for a guide for my rogue on NB a couple days ago.

[Gery]

So should you only be using Dusk to Dawn during Ebon Furry cycles ?

That was not the case in the past but I been a way for a while so I am still catching up on all the changes

No, you use Dusk to Dawn every 30 seconds, only the placement in the rotation is important. If you use it right after the Dark Descent+SoD+3*Blazing Strike rotation block then Dusk to Dawn will not cause an additional finisher to be used with less than 5 stacks of HR. Ideally you would always use it at 3 combo points as it is also a high damage ability and therefore it's good to have as many HR stacks already on when you cast it.

[m1nus]

How much more deeps compared to the 44/32 version?

[Gery]

How much more deeps compared to the 44/32 version?

The raw dps is very similar to NB/Sin. The differences are elsewhere such as not being so energy starved, not being able to do lethal poison, having higher and quicker bursts, gaining more bonus damage on <30% health targets and no positional requirement.

61 NB and NB/Sin are quite similar but still different in many ways and you should optimally be carrying both.

[Kthxbye]

Great guide! Thanks for all your hard work putting it together... Now to get another rogue to put up lethal poison so i can use it.

[spowers454]

Great guide! Thanks for all your hard work putting it together... Now to get another rogue to put up lethal poison so i can use it.

I have the same problem. 61 NB is just more fun to play atm than other melee builds and all the rogues want to do this so I norm just run the hybrid.

[Gunzip]

I am in love with my new 61 Nightblade specc for pve, I even use it in warfronts as one of my glass canon builds, it rapes. Although I do way more damage and killing blows with 40/36 Marksman.

[Ironic]

Great guide, as always. Really like the min/max aspect and the attention to details that you put in them.

[Kiika]

Can this guide get anymore vague?? I'm assuming this is only for rogues who are familiar with the class?? You list an opening rotation but what is the actual rotation?? You list 5 macros but give no explanation on what order to use them in or in what situations. Can you elaborate on the actual rotation a bit more

[BoomBoom]

Rotations
Single Target Rotation
Base rotation is quite simple. Just build up to 5 combo points and then use a finisher. Every 30 seconds use Dark Descent+SoD+3*Blazing Strike. Always keep SoD and Dark Descent synced,the benefit there is that you never drop to 0 combo points ths way and the followup Blazing Strikes will refresh Fiery Spike automatically without having to worry about it.

The energy cost of Dusk Strike increases faster than its damage which means that the optimal way to use Dusk Strike is to maximize the amount of times you use it. If you have Living Energy that means 4 Dusk Strikes, then waiting for Emptiness to drop and then using another 4 and so on. During Verse of Joy you can stack Emptiness higher. If you don't have Living Energy you can only sustain 2 stacks.

Use Living Flame when it's available right before Dark Descent+Sod. This allows for its ticks to build up HR stacks and you get the third Blazing Strike with full HR stacks this way. Use Dusk to Dawn in the combo point buildup right after the Sod+3*Blazing finisher burst. This allows you to use it without dropping a finisher from full HR stacks to 4.

You will often find yourself in a situation where you have 5 combo points and 5 stacks of HR but SoD is still 1 second away from being available. I find that it's better for sustained dps to use an extra combo point builder rather than use Blazing Strike and end up delaying SoD by 3 seconds past the 30 second cooldown. However this is for sustained average dps only and which one is actually better depends on what part of your rotation the fight will end.
Your ideal fight ends right after your SoD stacks have been consumed, if you happen to delay SoD 3 times in such a fight you will end up completely missing out on one burst. On the flipside your absolute worst fight duration is when the fight ends right before your big burst, in such a fight delaying SoD would not have changed the amount of SoDs you had time to do and therefore if you used those extra combo point builders you ended up losing some dps.

AoE Rotation
Just alternate Fiery Chains/Weapon Flare and Flame Blitz, this can even be macroed. Every 30 seconds build up to 5 combo points and use Dark Descent+SoD+3*Flame Blitz.
If you are in a fight where you need to constantly aoe 2 targets you will be better off using NB/Sin or Tact/MM. AoEing does not keep Ebon Blades on your targets reliably so your single target dps suffers more from this kind of rotation than NB/Sin.

Cleaving Rotation for single target dps increase
This is all about Fiery Chains. Use Fiery Chains right after finisher so you have more time to react to the extra combo points which come with a delay. Fiery Chains allows you to build combo points quicker and that means more finishers and therefore more dps.
You also need to know that any aoe abilities you use will also spend your SoD charges on the adds instead of main target. Since you only want to improve your single target dps with the adds you should wait 10 seconds or so after SoD before using Fiery Chains.
Also in these situations Living Flame right before SoD is a bad idea since it will cause your SoD charges to be wasted on adds. Instead use it when you don't have SoD charges.

Ranged Rotation
Ranged rotation is very simple. It's exactly like melee rotation but you just don't worry about Dusk Strike or Living Flame since you are out of range to use them. Your ranged dps is roughly 85% of your dps in melee range which makes this an excellent spec for fights with disconnects.
Even though you have 1 or 2 blinks in your spec you should not use them as gap closers to get to melee. The gcd you use for the blink loses you a full second of dps and to accumulate similar loss in dps by being at range but within 20 meters takes 7 seconds. You can always run back into melee from there in less time than that so never use the blinks as gap closers when you are within 20 meters of the target. If you are further away then they are good. Shadow Shift also does not break stealth so it's useful for getting closer at the pull before using Dark Malady.

Under 30% target health rotation
Exactly the same as normal rotation. Twilight Force gets a big dps boost but its high energy cost causes it to not really improve your dps if used instead of Primal Strike as the main builder. Try to save at least one Ebon Fury for this phase of the fight.

Target Switching
The main weakness of NB is its terrible target switching ability. You need to build up Fiery Spike stacks and you also lose plenty of damage until rng gives you stacks of Ebon Blades on your target.
If you need to switch then save Living Flame for them, it quickly builds up Fiery Spike stacks and therefore you don't lose much dps.
If Living Flame is not available then you need to do Fiery Spike manually. Do not spam 5 stacks of Fiery Spike on the target, it's not worth it. Going beyond 3 manual stacks is a waste and if it's a short switch then just use it once and let finishers build it up further than that.
If it's a switch that includes a switch back to the previous target then keep the old target as your focus and manually refresh Fiery Spike on that target after using a finisher on the temporary target.

Opening Rotation
There's two options for opening rotation here, which is better depends on circumstances.

Option A (starting from 0 combo points)
Dark Malady, Living Flame, Dusk to Dawn, Dusk Strike, Dark Descent+Sod+3*Blazing Strike

Option B (starting from 0 combo points)
Dark Malady, Living Flame, Dusk to Dawn, Dusk Strike, Blazing Strike, 4*Dusk Strike, Dark Descent+Sod+3*Blazing Strike

Option B delays the burst enough that raid dps cooldowns such as Orchestra of the Planes/Wild Growth/Flaring Power should be up by then. You can also build up combo points before the fight with for example a sab spec. It's best to use these combo points for SoD 25-50 seconds before the pull and then go with opening rotation B. You will use almost all of the SoD charges in the first 5 seconds for a good extra burst and then immediately use a new SoD after that.


Macros
NB can macro quite a few abilities together to save some buttons. These are the macros that I use. It would be possible to put Blazing Strike and Flame Thrust to the SoD macro but it is a bit dangerous since many times you will hit 5 combo points at the exact moment or a fraction of a second before SoD comes out of cooldown and in those cases you can not be certain what your macro decides to do so I do not recommend doing that.
Do not macro Dusk Strike or Dusk to Dawn, use them manually. In addition to these you also need Living Flame, Ebon Fury and Fiery Chains in their own buttons.

#show primal strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast primal strike
cast twilight force

#show blazing strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast blazing strike
cast flame thrust

#show scourge of darkness
suppressmacrofailures
cast dark descent
cast scourge of darkness

#show fiery spike
suppressmacrofailure
cast [shift] @focus fiery spike
cast fiery spike

#show flame blitz
suppressmacrofailures
cast flame blitz
cast [shift] fiery chains
cast weapon flare

Can this guide get anymore vague?? I'm assuming this is only for rogues who are familiar with the class?? You list an opening rotation but what is the actual rotation?? You list 5 macros but give no explanation on what order to use them in or in what situations. Can you elaborate on the actual rotation a bit more

There you go. The order to use the macro(s), should be pretty self explanatory, if you read & understand the rotations section.

[Zazen]

Regarding blinks, I sometimes use Shadow Shift from stealth to put me right on the mobs backside and within melee range.