I have been reading up on the various weapon skills and class abilities. And noticed that I could effectively use a two handed sword or axe as a stealth opener with a huge damage bonus. Then switch to dual daggers to lay in with critical strikes to finish the fight.

Or am I reading this wrong and that once in combat you can not switch weapons ?

I know in DAoC a shadowblade (which is the nightblade type class.) could open up with a two handed axe and then switch to daggers in combat even see one one shot kill a warrior from the other realms until they nerfed it. Just wondering if they are going to make the same mistakes.

Sword and board with a nightblade looks interesting as well.

Yes, you can switch weapons in combat. Takes a couple of seconds though.

So i could open up with a two handed sword that stuns the enemy, switch to daggers while they are stunned and finish them off?

I can see this changing to be honest it would make the nightblade unstoppable in 1v1 pvp.

I'd say its instant. Most likely.

Assumption being that sneak attacks are that op in the first place, and they won't just turn around and smash you into the sand somehow?

We have no idea about how much damage we can deal.

Zenimax have already said they won't be letting people get one-shot.

And MMO's are always being balanced. If something turns out to be overpowered, it gets nerfed.

Yes you can switch between weapon sets in combat very quickly, Nick Konkle does it in the Quakecon footage

I am wondering if a magic using nightblade will be viable. Mainly specced into siphoning. Sort of a dark caster.

I'd say yeah. But what the hell do I know nobody ever listens to me.

Why are people assuming that only Nightblades will be able to successfully use stealth attacks in this game?

It's your avatar bro! People don't appreciate self-deprecation and think you are some nasty creature that lives under bridges..

OT: Yea I think it is possible, but who knows what bonusses to dmg we will get when using a 2H weapon or if there will be any penalties when using it in a sneak attack. Also, like others said, being stunned does not mean you cannot break from it and return the favor.

I just like the crown. I don't think of myself as one of those types anymore.

...anymore? hrmm

I had a complicated gaming life as a young man. I'm grown now, family man and what not. No time for trollin'.

I'd say try it. Thats the nice thing about this class system and the way it is set up. You can try everything and mix different skill trees. The only thing that is unique are your 3 class skill trees, which should form the basis on which you can expand. Just be aware that all classes can use sneak/magic/all weapons.

Well, by all accounts I've seen, Nightblades ARE the only class that will have stealth capabilities ~in~ combat in some fashion. Everyone can sneak, and sneak-attack, but it's possible the Nightblade could have passive skill line bonuses that augment sneak attack damage or in some way make it easier to make sneak attacks... and if they can RE-stealth in combat, that might allow an additional "sneak attack" that a Templar, for example, would not be able to make.

That said, my Templar WILL be making sneak attacks whenever I can --- why wouldn't you get the advantage? --- but once the fight is engaged, there's no way to re-stealth and do it again (as far as I know).

I'm half tempted to make ALL my characters Nightblades, I love stealth so much. The class-specific skills for Dragon Knight, Sorcerer and Templar just aren't as appealing as the potential in the Nightblade's repertoire. That said, I probably WILL make a more classic mage/summoner which would necessitate the Sorcerer class in order to get the pets and greater number of magic attacks. But even there, I'll sneak as much as I can (not sure if the pets would give away my presence or not)....

Well 1st, yes you can use a 2H weapons with sneak attacks and switch for dual wield right after that. It would be very strong VS light/medium armor target, but don't forget that everyone with half a brain that will lose half his health (or more) in one hit will remove that stun and counter attack fast/run away, your big weakness is that you can't do [censored] against ranged players right after that if they survive your one shot kill combo. Also Nick Konkle said in an interview that he one shoted some1 with a bow sneak attack, dunno if it was a player or NPC.

2nd A nightblade siphoning caster will be very viable and strong, but not in damage, most of skill effects are CCs, and heal yourself, but you could combine with a destruction staff and it would be very strong in damage and CC.

3rd, the main reason why the most of stealth caracters will be nightblade is because they have a passive that give you a 10% bonus damage while stealth or invisible and stun your ennemies for longer and also it's the only class which has a skill that required you to be stealth for using it ;

Veiled strike ; require being stealth, deals magic damage, set enemy off balance and stun them for 4 seconds (even more with the passive)

All the class skills are magicka-based, so if you talk class skills, you will be casting stuff

Doesn't a two hander limit your succes in striking from stealth, as in less bonus or none at all?

There will surely be different multipliers, its Elder Scrolls game, tho we dont have any official info apart from a note that bow used to have OP multiplier in one of early beta versions.

This was the case in Skyrim in that your sneak attack bonus was cut down when using a two handed weapon or one handed weapon. If you used daggers you got a huge multiplier.

Maybe its because the Nightblade has the only skill tree with passive stealth options.

I know all the other classes can stealth but none of them are stealth focused like the nightblade.

That still doesn't mean that ONLY Nightblades are effective at stealth.

However, thieves guild and dark brotherhood, once available in game, will most likely give nice stealthing skills, which everyone can use.

None of us know how long they will be out of the game. It maybe a few months or a year for all we know. So until they are put into the live game the Nightblade will be the only skill set that can have a huge damage bonus from stealth.

Like others have said, I would expect it to be near instantaneous, but something I would add is there's probably going to be a downside to switching, either in the form of a cooldown, or a heavy resource toll. I would think either of those would be fine for a burst attack like the one you're thinking of, but if there's a way to escape from that burst attack midway through after switching your weapon, you might the one be in danger.

To be fair..bioware said that too with TOR..then on launch day smugglers quickly found it wasn't true..then shadows..then sentinels..then guardians patch after patch