Straight to the point. The only items that provide lightning RR to Nightblade are: Soulare’s Helm, Gravetouch shield, and Mageslayer set. Mageslayer blocks an amulet slot, so no lightning Shadow Strike, ABB, or whatever, which kinda-sorta defeats the whole purpouse. Ironicaly, the other two items convert FROM lightning. Okay?! Besides, just thinking of lightning NB with a shield makes my skin crawl.
Sooo… why not just move that lightning RR from the helm and shield to some other item(s)?
Perfect candidate would be Spark of Ultos. Doesn’t have AS/CS, so can’t be “abused” that much, can it? The others are Ugdenbog Stormstrife and Stormrend.
Notice how all three items have Stun Jacks support on them. Apparently, SJ need that more than Nightblade. That being said, I’m not against those SJ mods by any means. Well, not all of them, anyway. Stormstrife’s mod was just added with 1.1.9.2 I believe, so it could be replaced with Veil of Shadow mod rather painlessly. Or just add it to Spark of Ultos or Stormrend, or maybe some lightning medal perhaps.
Not disagreeing with you on Lightning Nightblade needing help (and would gladly welcome it) but I do think one or two items with RR procs/skills that Lightning Nightblade could feasibly fit in and use should be included here e.g. Mythical Empyrion’s Mercy.
While you’re not wrong, obviously, please note that I put emphasis on “to Nightblade”. I.e you can equip Black Matriarch ring and say that Nightblade has physical RR now - which is also true, but this item providing phys RR proc doesn’t particularly make it supporting physical Nightblade, quite the opposite actually, with it providing points to Nidalla’s Hidden Hand.
Fire Nightblade though, is a completely different story. With proper items (that don’t conflict with anything and provide skill points towards NB) you can achieve 57 (!!!) fire RR. Don’t get me wrong, that’s totally dope, but seeing how lightning NB gets… THAT treatment, I can’t help but wonder - why? Not only those mods are redundant/useless, but they’re straight up harmful if one is trying to make lightning NB work.
None of it’s abilities deal Fire damage either yet there are multiple Epic or Legendary sets, items and skill modifiers that support Fire Nightblade.
It’s because it creates synergies between Nightblade and other masteries that are primarily Lightning like Shaman and Demolitionist, and while you could just go for Cold or Bleeding on Trickster or go for Fire or Chaos on Saboteur, having another option in Lightning adds a little more variety.
What @Evil_Baka said, more build variety is hardly a bad thing There has been some love given to fire sabo in past patches in terms of giving it gear (which is great). Why not the same for lightning nightblade combos?
Lightning Nightblade definitely needs help. Stats looks good on paper but it definitely doesn’t work properly. I’m not really how Lightning SS performs but pure melee version is still pretty mediocre. I mean I made a DW Lightning Sorc that has more damage and better defense than Lightning Trickster have.
There has been some love given to fire sabo in past patches in terms of giving it gear (which is great). Why not the same for lightning nightblade combos?