Siphoning Strikes and its morph is a slap to Sorc buff requests

StaticWave

Sorc mains have been asking for a more reliable Dark Deal and Crit Surge for months, if not years, yet the changes are a slap to our efforts. Instead of making Crit Surge heal more reliable, you have made Siphoning Strike what we asked of Crit Surge. Instead of making Dark Deal more reliable, you have also made that change on Siphoning Strike.

I honestly don't understand the reasoning, especially when we have complained about how tanky NB is on the live server. Don't get me wrong, I like the Sorc changes even though it's mostly for magsorc and stamsorc still gets nothing, but these NB changes are absurd.

Turtle_Bot

StaticWave wrote: »

Sorc mains have been asking for a more reliable Dark Deal and Crit Surge for months, if not years, yet the changes are a slap to our efforts. Instead of making Crit Surge heal more reliable, you have made Siphoning Strike what we asked of Crit Surge. Instead of making Dark Deal more reliable, you have also made that change on Siphoning Strike.

I honestly don't understand the reasoning, especially when we have complained about how tanky NB is on the live server. Don't get me wrong, I like the Sorc changes even though it's mostly for magsorc and stamsorc still gets nothing, but these NB changes are absurd.

Another case of "sorc has this cool toy, we must give it to NB too, but better"...

Gotta love the NB bias by ZOS. They don't even try to hide it anymore...

monkidb16_ESO

NB gets nerfed.
Sorc mains: "I wish that were me"

Let's take a look at both versions over 20 seconds:

Old costs:

• 1 GCD
• 1080 Mag

Old gains:

• Heals 1452 * 20
• Restores 106 * 20 + 4270

So 1 GCD for 29040 and 5310 main resource

New costs:

• 2 GCD

New gains:

• Heals 1800 * 20
• Restores 4000 (dual)

So 2 GCD for 36000 health and 4000 resources

Difference:
Lose 1 GCD and 1310 main resource every 20 seconds for 7000 health and 4000 off resources.
And thats not even accounting for losing reave (another 2000 all resources)

Just saying: "Be careful what you wish for"

StaticWave

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

NB gets nerfed.
Sorc mains: "I wish that were me"

Let's take a look at both versions over 20 seconds:

Old costs:

• 1 GCD
• 1080 Mag

Old gains:

• Heals 1452 * 20
• Restores 106 * 20 + 4270

So 1 GCD for 29040 and 5310 main resource

New costs:

• 2 GCD

New gains:

• Heals 1800 * 20
• Restores 4000 (dual)

So 2 GCD for 36000 health and 4000 resources

Difference:
Lose 1 GCD and 1310 main resource every 20 seconds for 7000 health and 4000 off resources.
And thats not even accounting for losing reave (another 2000 all resources)

Just saying: "Be careful what you wish for"

I disagree and I will prove you why:

Old Siphoning Attacks:



Costs 1 GCD. Each light attack restores 106 mag, and 4270 if it lasts full duration, and heals for 1452. Heavy attacks restore twice the value. The 4270 mag is not affected

New Siphoning Attacks:




When you slot the ability on either bar, you will heal for 1250 off ANY damage, not just light attack. Furthermore, every time the heal procs, you restore 200 stam AND mag. That's a free 400 stam and mag recovery just for slotting it and doing damage which you always do. No need to cast the actual ability.

When you cast the ability, it will restore 2600 stam AND mag for the cost of 4k HP. Cast it twice, and it will provide 5.2k stam AND mag in 2 seconds, more than what old Siphoning Strikes gives in 20 seconds. You don't even need to cast the ability back to back. You just need to cast it twice within 20 seconds and it would have provided more value than old Siphoning Attacks. If your healing is decent, then you can cast it more than twice and get even more sustain.

This is not also counting the fact that this ability restores STAM AND MAG. You only got either mag or stam depending on which morph you choose.

So no, NB got a fat sustain buff, and I entirely disagree with your analysis

Trejgon

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

New costs:

• 2 GCD

Not sure where you got that one from, Patch notes clearly state that siphoning are being changed to always provide the heal bonus when slotted, and can be activated to do the sustain thing.

That being said while I agree that new siphoning strikes are superior critical surge (needs only slotting, and any damage once per second will proc the heal off, vs needs to be manually activated and then only proc on critical hits, which requires alot of investment into proccing reliably) But I would argue that they are not superior dark deal in same package.

Dark deal provides a chunky heal, big primary resource sustain in burst and over-time value, but also minor berserk/force. New Siphoning strikes cost hp to cast, and provide no named buff, over time resource sustain is delegated to one specific morph.

In the end, siphoning strike was always ability I as a sorc main was always envious of NBs having, and it is getting only better, and don't let the fact that I disagree with it being superior version of 2(!) of sorc skills take away from the fact that in the end it is vastly superior version of critical surge.

Just as Grim focus is functionally superior version of bound armaments, tho I guess at least in that case sorcs get superior visual indication of skill being ready to fire, instead of fashion-defining permanent weapon glow for having thing slotted....

StaticWave

StaticWave wrote: »

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

NB gets nerfed.
Sorc mains: "I wish that were me"

Let's take a look at both versions over 20 seconds:

Old costs:

• 1 GCD
• 1080 Mag

Old gains:

• Heals 1452 * 20
• Restores 106 * 20 + 4270

So 1 GCD for 29040 and 5310 main resource

New costs:

• 2 GCD

New gains:

• Heals 1800 * 20
• Restores 4000 (dual)

So 2 GCD for 36000 health and 4000 resources

Difference:
Lose 1 GCD and 1310 main resource every 20 seconds for 7000 health and 4000 off resources.
And thats not even accounting for losing reave (another 2000 all resources)

Just saying: "Be careful what you wish for"

I disagree and I will prove you why:

Old Siphoning Attacks:



Costs 1 GCD. Each light attack restores 106 mag, and 4270 if it lasts full duration, and heals for 1452. Heavy attacks restore twice the value. The 4270 mag is not affected

New Siphoning Attacks:




When you slot the ability on either bar, you will heal for 1250 off ANY damage, not just light attack. Furthermore, every time the heal procs, you restore 200 stam AND mag. That's a free 400 stam and mag recovery just for slotting it and doing damage which you always do. No need to cast the actual ability.

When you cast the ability, it will restore 2600 stam AND mag for the cost of 4k HP. Cast it twice, and it will provide 5.2k stam AND mag in 2 seconds, more than what old Siphoning Strikes gives in 20 seconds. You don't even need to cast the ability back to back. You just need to cast it twice within 20 seconds and it would have provided more value than old Siphoning Attacks. If your healing is decent, then you can cast it more than twice and get even more sustain.

This is not also counting the fact that this ability restores STAM AND MAG. You only got either mag or stam depending on which morph you choose.

So no, NB got a fat sustain buff, and I entirely disagree with your analysis

And to go off this point. Sorc mains have SPECIFICALLY asked for Crit Surge to be reworked so that it would heal off ANY damage instead of just crit damage. They gave that to Siphoning Attacks. We also asked for Dark Deal to be an instant cast ability so that our sustain can be more reliable. They gave that to Siphoning Attacks. It's a slap in our face to throw our sorc suggestions on NB and give nothing back.

In fact, you could change the name Siphoning Attacks to Dark Deal and it would perfectly fit the skill's function. You're losing HP to get stam and mag back, hence "Dark Dealing" because you're "bargaining with darkness" as the descriptions of Dark Deal says.

monkidb16_ESO

Trejgon wrote: »

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

New costs:

• 2 GCD

Not sure where you got that one from, Patch notes clearly state that siphoning are being changed to always provide the heal bonus when slotted, and can be activated to do the sustain thing.

Because you can get 1 stack of cost reduction per second up to 10 stacks, to use those stacks you have to actually cast the ability. So before you cast it once every 20 secs now once every 10. Unless you want to go full passive at which point you get no resources back at all.

StaticWave wrote: »

When you slot the ability on either bar, you will heal for 1250 off ANY damage, not just light attack. Furthermore, every time the heal procs, you restore 200 stam AND mag. That's a free 400 stam and mag recovery just for slotting it and doing damage which you always do. No need to cast the actual ability.

Oh, you're talking about the other morph as full passive... ok lets do the math here again:

Old costs:

• 1 GCD
• 1080 Mag

Old gains:

• Heals 1452 * 20
• Restores 106 * 20 + 4270

So 1 GCD for 29040 and 5310 main resource


New costs (fully passive):

• -

New gains:

• Heals 1250 * 20
• Restores 200 * 20

So free 25000 and 4000 resource

Difference:

Gain 1 GCD and 4000 off resource, but lose 4000 healing and 1310 main resource.

Again both not accounted for losing reave (2000 both resources)

StaticWave wrote: »

When you cast the ability, it will restore 2600 stam AND mag for the cost of 4k HP. Cast it twice, and it will provide 5.2k stam AND mag in 2 seconds

I hope I dont have to explain why droping 2 GCDs and 8k health is a terrible idea in PvP, even just a single GCD and 4k health can be devastating.

acastanza_ESO

It's pretty insulting. At this point I think the only way for Sorcerer to be treated fairly is for the creative director to tell the combat team they're working on Nightblade retooling, then to just take what they've done and do it to Sorcerer instead.

MashmalloMan

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

NB gets nerfed.
Sorc mains: "I wish that were me"

Let's take a look at both versions over 20 seconds:

Old costs:

• 1 GCD
• 1080 Mag

Old gains:

• Heals 1452 * 20
• Restores 106 * 20 + 4270

So 1 GCD for 29040 and 5310 main resource

New costs:

• 2 GCD

New gains:

• Heals 1800 * 20
• Restores 4000 (dual)

So 2 GCD for 36000 health and 4000 resources

Difference:
Lose 1 GCD and 1310 main resource every 20 seconds for 7000 health and 4000 off resources.
And thats not even accounting for losing reave (another 2000 all resources)

Just saying: "Be careful what you wish for"

Did you miss the part where it's not a 20s duration skill anymore? It's passive. You could literally never press it and get the sustain/healing. Yeah it doesn't give 3.6k stam or 4.5k mag like Dark Deal/Conversion, but it does give 2k stam/mag at the same time. The only thing it doesn't do is burst heal.

Idk, definitely kind of jelly you have 1 skill do what 2 of ours does, but to be fair, a lesser degree. I mean it is 1 skill after all..

monkidb16_ESO

MashmalloMan wrote: »

Did you miss the part where it's not a 20s duration skill anymore? It's passive. You could literally never press it and get the sustain/healing.

No, but you seemed to have missed me adressing that.

MashmalloMan

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

MashmalloMan wrote: »

Did you miss the part where it's not a 20s duration skill anymore? It's passive. You could literally never press it and get the sustain/healing.

No, but you seemed to have missed me adressing that.

I did

StaticWave

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

Trejgon wrote: »

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

New costs:

• 2 GCD

Not sure where you got that one from, Patch notes clearly state that siphoning are being changed to always provide the heal bonus when slotted, and can be activated to do the sustain thing.

Because you can get 1 stack of cost reduction per second up to 10 stacks, to use those stacks you have to actually cast the ability. So before you cast it once every 20 secs now once every 10. Unless you want to go full passive at which point you get no resources back at all.

StaticWave wrote: »

When you slot the ability on either bar, you will heal for 1250 off ANY damage, not just light attack. Furthermore, every time the heal procs, you restore 200 stam AND mag. That's a free 400 stam and mag recovery just for slotting it and doing damage which you always do. No need to cast the actual ability.

Oh, you're talking about the other morph as full passive... ok lets do the math here again:

Old costs:

• 1 GCD
• 1080 Mag

Old gains:

• Heals 1452 * 20
• Restores 106 * 20 + 4270

So 1 GCD for 29040 and 5310 main resource


New costs (fully passive):

• -

New gains:

• Heals 1250 * 20
• Restores 200 * 20

So free 25000 and 4000 resource

Difference:

Gain 1 GCD and 4000 off resource, but lose 4000 healing and 1310 main resource.

Again both not accounted for losing reave (2000 both resources)

StaticWave wrote: »

When you cast the ability, it will restore 2600 stam AND mag for the cost of 4k HP. Cast it twice, and it will provide 5.2k stam AND mag in 2 seconds

I hope I dont have to explain why droping 2 GCDs and 8k health is a terrible idea in PvP, even just a single GCD and 4k health can be devastating.

1) You are missing the fact that old Siphoning Attacks requires you to deal light and heavy attack to proc the mag sustain and the heal. That's not going to happen if you're kiting. The new Siphoning Attacks will give you a heal and 200 stam + mag recovery off any damage. If you play CP PvP, you literally only need to slot Cutting Defense, which is basically Volatile Armor on a CP slottable, and you will proc this skill for free. You could also cast Elesus on someone and have the DoT proc it for you. Full benefit without needing to light attack, sounds like a win for me.

2) 8k HP is IF you cast it back to back. You cast it once, and it would restore 2.6k stam + mag for 4k hp, which is already covered by the HoT from the skill in 4 seconds. Cast it twice and it gives you 5.2k stam + mag. That extra 5.2k stam alone is enough reasoning to make this new change better than the old morph lol

MashmalloMan

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

Again both not accounted for losing reave (2000 both resources)

Reeve gave 100 mag and stam, but Siphoning only gave 106 mag OR stam, not both. You're also able to have Soul Harvest ult gen from either bar now, any miniscule mag/stam you lost is instantly regained by the fact that you can cast your ults with higher uptime or get some much needed ult flexibility if you were double slotting it.

Edit: I didn't even think about the fact that you can get this while block casting, so tank buff as well.

Both Reeve and Siphoning attacks were based on light attacks. We can't pretend that in any given combat scenario you always had 100% uptime on 1 light attack a second. Was there an enemy to light atack? What about a melee build, how often do you spend closing the distance or line of sighting? How about all the time you spend in stealth? For pve, what about boss mechanics and phases?

Even DPS Gods don't average 1 light attack a second, the general player will average around 0.85-0.9 on a target dummy and the thing doesn't even move so you can't begin to compare them 1:1 over 20s like that unless you're willing to concede how much easier it is to proc these effects with any damage source vs only auto attacks.

Anyway, this is all to say it's just odd that Sorc has been asking directly for changes like Siphoning Attacks to Crit Surge and Dark Deal, and they somehow ignored them and gave it to NB despite no one asking for this. There are other positives our 2 skills give that Siphoning doesn't have, but honestly I'd trade both of them for Siphoning Attacks in a heart beat. Saving that bar space and not being so reliant on Crit Chance RNG procs.. or spending 4 GCDs in a 30 second window on 2 abilities with mismatching timers vs Siphoning Attacks where you just cast the resource return when you need it, not just to keep up a buff.

Faulgor

Crit Surge has been nerfed so many times over the years, especially because crit chance has steadily been lowered, that when you also consider all the other ways and sets we have to heal or mitigate damage, it's just completely lackluster in the current iteration of the game.

What always bugged me about the skill is that it made no sense conceptually that your lightning would heal you, but I put that off because it was just a really good skill. Now its main use is for Major Sorcerery/Brutality, and that's just not enough imo.

Meanwhile we have Dark Exchange, which is supposed to be a resource skill/heal (with a cast time lol) that for some reason got an offensive buff element a couple of patches ago, which would be more fitting for something like Crit Surge.
Both skills seem to step on each others turf while neither is particularly good at what it does.

NB's new Siphoning skill on the other hand just focuses on resource restore and does that excellently. You don't even have to activate it! And no need to jump through Crit RNG hoops! And when you heal 10 times, you even get to use the Leeching Strikes morph for free to restore 2000 magicka and stamina! Instantly!

Now, I would say that we shouldn't just copy the NB skill for Sorcerers, although it's pretty clear that NBs took the whole concept from Sorcs to begin with ... but my line of thinking is, to disentangle Dark Exchange and Crit Surge, let them focus on resources or damage, and simply enhance already existing skills.

Because, guess what, Sorcerer already has a passive that heals us on dealing damage!


Surge
Grants Major Brutality and Sorcerery for 33 seconds.
(maybe) While active, dealing Critical Damage grants you Major Prophecy and Savagery for 10 seconds.

Critical Surge
new: While active, dealing Critical Damage grants you Minor Berserk and Minor Force for 3 seconds.

Power Surge
new: While active, activating a Critical Heal grants Minor Vitality to the target and Minor Mending to you for 6 seconds.


Dark Exchange
Instantly restore 8000 Health and 3600 of your highest resource, as well as 2400 of your highest resource over 20 seconds.
Always costs your lowest resource.

Dark Conversion
new: Increases the amount to 10000/4500/3000, and decrease restore time from 20 to 10 seconds.

Dark Deal
new: This skill now costs a filled Soul Gem to use. Enchants your weapon with a trapped Soul for 60 seconds, dealing another 50 (Dark) Magic damage when you deal damage.
While slotted, killing an enemy fills an empty Soul Gem and restores 1000 Health, Magicka and Stamina.


Blood Magic
When you deal damage with a Dark Magic ability, you heal for 1800 and restore 200 Magicka and Stamina, up to once every second.

Of course things could be tweaked here or there, especially the values which I just copypasted, but I think the concept makes sense. The Surges become really powerful offensive fire-and-forget buffs, and dynamic resource costs for skills allow us to consolidate both Dark Exchange morphs into one, freeing up one morph for a long-lasting buff that finally makes effective use of the Blood Magic passive.

monkidb16_ESO

StaticWave wrote: »

1) You are missing the fact that old Siphoning Attacks requires you to deal light and heavy attack to proc the mag sustain and the heal.

No, I'm just assuming that people are able to light attack weave, adding in a blue star just to proc is ridiculous. And yeah EleSus is totally busted for and should be nerfed.

StaticWave wrote: »

2) 8k HP is IF you cast it back to back. You cast it once, and it would restore 2.6k stam + mag for 4k hp, which is already covered by the HoT from the skill in 4 seconds.

Its actually 6-7 seconds because of Battle Spirit, and against any PvPer worth their salt you don't get 6 seconds, the moment you drop 4k youre gonna get bursted on.

StaticWave

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

StaticWave wrote: »

1) You are missing the fact that old Siphoning Attacks requires you to deal light and heavy attack to proc the mag sustain and the heal.

No, I'm just assuming that people are able to light attack weave, adding in a blue star just to proc is ridiculous. And yeah EleSus is totally busted for and should be nerfed.

StaticWave wrote: »

2) 8k HP is IF you cast it back to back. You cast it once, and it would restore 2.6k stam + mag for 4k hp, which is already covered by the HoT from the skill in 4 seconds.

Its actually 6-7 seconds because of Battle Spirit, and against any PvPer worth their salt you don't get 6 seconds, the moment you drop 4k youre gonna get bursted on.

Well of course but if in a PvP scenario you can't always light attack. When i fight outnumbered I spend more time kiting than actually light attacking. Having it heal off any damage is actually better for the class as it becomes a reliable HoT instead of a conditional HoT, not to mention the sustain that comes with it.

4k HP cost is not a lot if you consider the class's survivability. Because of the fact that it restores 2.6k stam and mag, I could just as easily gain all that HP back by block casting Healthy Offering and dumping my mag for stam, but with none of the draw back of Spell Symmetry.

I'm calling it right now. NB will become the easiest class to sustain on while having the highest burst in the game.

monkidb16_ESO

StaticWave wrote: »

4k HP cost is not a lot if you consider the class's survivability. Because of the fact that it restores 2.6k stam and mag, I could just as easily gain all that HP back by block casting Healthy Offering and dumping my mag for stam

So spend 2 GCDs to flip health and magicka back and forth just to gain 2600 stam? Why not just heavy attack at that point?
And good luck trying to block cast all of that when im Streaking through you

StaticWave wrote: »

I'm calling it right now. NB will become the easiest class to sustain on while having the highest burst in the game.

I don't know if you have realized it yet, but as things stand Sorcs will get 15k shield + 5k heal on Ward and a total of 50k barrier on minefield next patch (after Battle Spirit mind you), so just sit back and relaxt for those NB "buffs".

StaticWave

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

StaticWave wrote: »

4k HP cost is not a lot if you consider the class's survivability. Because of the fact that it restores 2.6k stam and mag, I could just as easily gain all that HP back by block casting Healthy Offering and dumping my mag for stam

So spend 2 GCDs to flip health and magicka back and forth just to gain 2600 stam? Why not just heavy attack at that point?
And good luck trying to block cast all of that when im Streaking through you

StaticWave wrote: »

I'm calling it right now. NB will become the easiest class to sustain on while having the highest burst in the game.

I don't know if you have realized it yet, but as things stand Sorcs will get 15k shield + 5k heal on Ward and a total of 50k barrier on minefield next patch (after Battle Spirit mind you), so just sit back and relaxt for those NB "buffs".

Again, when you need the stam while line of sighting, this ability comes in clutch. It's why Dark Deal is one of the best sustain abilities to use while line of sighting because you don't need to heavy attack anyone and can still get 3.6k stam.

New Siphoning Attacks is exactly like that because when you're line of sighting you are already away from enemy players. Having it give you 2.6k stam and mag is a huge deal. The cost is negligible because your HoTs will take care of that.

What makes Siphoning Attacks better than Dark Deal is the fact that not only does it restore both stam and mag, meaning you can run super low regen on NB now and pump everything into damage, but slotting it also gives a HoT that's better than Crit Surge and also gives passive sustain.

StaticWave

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

I don't know if you have realized it yet, but as things stand Sorcs will get 15k shield + 5k heal on Ward and a total of 50k barrier on minefield next patch (after Battle Spirit mind you), so just sit back and relaxt for those NB "buffs".

I am fully aware of that, and i'm already making a build for that. But make no mistake, this only barely puts magsorc on par with NB. Stamsorc will have to go max mag if it wants to benefit from the shield, especially after they changed Expert Summoner to only give 10% HP when you have an active pet. So in short, stamsorc got nerfed and magsorc got buffed.

Also, let's not forget Incap gets 10% more dmg and lasts 12s now, meaning you can actually build for an ult regen build and capitalize on the fact that it gives an unnamed 20% vulnerability, which is stackable with other Vulnerability sources. Not only that, but Concealed Weapon gets a 10% dmg buff, and NB can easily get back Major Berserk by slotting SSC and running 2x Swift with Major + Minor Expedition and sprint. Who needs 19k bow procs when your Concealed Weapon hits for 10k each? lol

monkidb16_ESO

StaticWave wrote: »

it also gives a HoT that's better than Crit Surge

StaticWave wrote: »

[50k barrier on minefield]


this only barely puts magsorc on par with NB.

ok, lol

Turtle_Bot

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

StaticWave wrote: »

4k HP cost is not a lot if you consider the class's survivability. Because of the fact that it restores 2.6k stam and mag, I could just as easily gain all that HP back by block casting Healthy Offering and dumping my mag for stam

So spend 2 GCDs to flip health and magicka back and forth just to gain 2600 stam? Why not just heavy attack at that point?
And good luck trying to block cast all of that when im Streaking through you

StaticWave wrote: »

I'm calling it right now. NB will become the easiest class to sustain on while having the highest burst in the game.

I don't know if you have realized it yet, but as things stand Sorcs will get 15k shield + 5k heal on Ward and a total of 50k barrier on minefield next patch (after Battle Spirit mind you), so just sit back and relaxt for those NB "buffs".

I just tested this on PTS, the wards from mines don't stack, they replace the previous ward if it is still active, so no, sorcs will not be getting a "50k barrier on minefield next patch", even before battle spirit. At best sorc is getting an approx 7k shield (post battle spirit) that can be refreshed to last 15 seconds (assuming the sorc remains in the minefield and no-one else takes any of the runes and the wards last the 2 seconds cooldown before another rune can be proc'd on the same person). The duration of the mines (15s) means that you have to deliberately be walking over the runes on cooldown to get the most out of them and even then, you'll often only proc 4/5 runes most of the time due to lag/delay.

Mines is a group buffing skill, it will buff 5 members of the group with typically a 5-7k shield depending on how invested the sorcerer is into . Expect to see it used in organized groups to add another shield on top of arcanist shields + barrier, or small scales to give the group a shield or by tanky solos running around tight LoS (towers/rocks). Definitely useful, but 100% not as busted as a 50K barrier as claimed.

MashmalloMan

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

monkidb16_ESO wrote: »

StaticWave wrote: »

4k HP cost is not a lot if you consider the class's survivability. Because of the fact that it restores 2.6k stam and mag, I could just as easily gain all that HP back by block casting Healthy Offering and dumping my mag for stam

So spend 2 GCDs to flip health and magicka back and forth just to gain 2600 stam? Why not just heavy attack at that point?
And good luck trying to block cast all of that when im Streaking through you

StaticWave wrote: »

I'm calling it right now. NB will become the easiest class to sustain on while having the highest burst in the game.

I don't know if you have realized it yet, but as things stand Sorcs will get 15k shield + 5k heal on Ward and a total of 50k barrier on minefield next patch (after Battle Spirit mind you), so just sit back and relaxt for those NB "buffs".

I just tested this on PTS, the wards from mines don't stack, they replace the previous ward if it is still active, so no, sorcs will not be getting a "50k barrier on minefield next patch", even before battle spirit. At best sorc is getting an approx 7k shield (post battle spirit) that can be refreshed to last 15 seconds (assuming the sorc remains in the minefield and no-one else takes any of the runes and the wards last the 2 seconds cooldown before another rune can be proc'd on the same person). The duration of the mines (15s) means that you have to deliberately be walking over the runes on cooldown to get the most out of them and even then, you'll often only proc 4/5 runes most of the time due to lag/delay.

Mines is a group buffing skill, it will buff 5 members of the group with typically a 5-7k shield depending on how invested the sorcerer is into . Expect to see it used in organized groups to add another shield on top of arcanist shields + barrier, or small scales to give the group a shield or by tanky solos running around tight LoS (towers/rocks). Definitely useful, but 100% not as busted as a 50K barrier as claimed.

He said total. I think he meant over the course of 1 cast, the 5 shields = 50k.

Which. I mean it's good, but it's never gonna be 50k every cast good. I wouldn't expect a Sorc to stand in the same place for 10-15s walking over each shield to get the most bang for their buck. Being mobile is the name of the game.

Turtle_Bot

I mean, that's still not a 50k shield though, at best its a potentially refreshable 7k shield assuming the sorcerer constantly runs back and forth across the same area 5 times within 15 seconds.

Like I said, it is definitely a usable skill, but its best use case will be for organized group play as an additional health buffer for turn and burn or as a tank running around a tower/rocks and Hardened Ward is already significantly better for the second case being almost 25% cheaper to cast and providing a heal on top of the bigger shield to bring you out of execute range.

olsborg

The passive healing just for slotting it is a welcome change imo, BUT the resource given instantly for each active cast at the mere cost of 4k hp is way,way too strong and should get looked at.

Vaqual

There is a huge discrepancy between melee weapons and ranged weapons for leeching/siphoning strikes regarding the realistic value you could get from the skill. If you don't play something with high mobility or the enemy is very elusive, ranged weapons have a significant advantage. I am glad they are trying to close this gap a bit. Let's see in what form this goes live, but so far this is my favourite change.

Tommy_The_Gun

Ekhem... does anyone remembers how Siphoning Strikes used to work in the past ? I mean like looong time ago ? The OG skill was a "toggle". It did not costed anything, but it was basically like "stance change" or mode button. You gained a benefit & a penalty when it was "on" or something like that. That was kind in line with class theme & would be definitely better if they reworked it back into a toggle. If players have issue with rotation then having to recast it kinda does not help.

StaticWave

And I forgot to mention the biggest slap in the face: Siphoning Strikes is INSTANT CAST.

Seriously, while a NB on PTS can hold block and cast Siphoning Strikes for those juicy 2.6k stam and mag without being interrupted and taking less damage from block mitigation, a Sorc has to find line of sight to prevent getting interrupted, or risk being interrupted and getting stun locked due to how buggy it is. A Sorc also can't block cast it either, so no block mitigation.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Weren't you the same person who made a huge fuss out of the Vampire having a teleport skill because "Sorcerer's already had one and now your making the same issue with Nightblades.

Perhaps try a class other then Sorcerer, they are probably the most generic and least fun class to play anyway.

IncultaWolf

I think you just need to swap your main to nightblade already, sorcerer is old news

Aldoss

I think the fact that they made these two skills, which were once completely distinct and unique to each other, but now made one of the skills quite literally the same (but way better) is suspect as to what the devs are doing when they propose these changes.

Classes are supposed to be distinct from each other.

It's plainly obvious that siphoning now does exactly what dark deal does, but better, and the icing on the cake is that they gave it to NBs which are already the most overperforming class in the pvp game right now.

Another great example that shows how out of touch this combat team is. A full combat team refresh was warranted after U35, but now it's just getting laughable. This is supposed to be ESO's big victory lap having made it 10 years...

These patch notes are sad.

SandandStars

I wish the combat dev team would be much more transparent and share their experience playing pvp.

It really seems like they don’t play pvp much, and that 1 developer who loves playing nightblade is the default decision maker based on the rest of the team’s lack of interest.