Silver Shards-- good for anything

Saltypretzels · June 2016

I was excited by this skill revamp initially but after using it for a bit I gave up on it. Hitting six targets seemed awesome on paper but the hits hardly do a thing. I would prefer to use the bow's arrow spray which hits everyone and does more damage. I guess losing the knockdown on silver bolts/shards makes the skill not worth it anymore.

Anyone have a good use?

psychotic13 · June 2016

I don't think people use it as an AoE, a lot of builds weave it with light attacks cause the initial hit is stronger than poison injection, but you do lose the DoT then.

Nestor · June 2016

Back when I did use this skill, it was only against Daedra and Undead. I think it had a bonus against those types then, it may still now. Although, I have not spec'd a point into this skill in over a year and a half.

I also don't see many people using this anymore, so maybe I am not alone in this regard.

Rohamad_Ali · June 2016

It's fun for laughs if you see a heavy vampire population in PvP . Silver shards , bombard spam and listen to the wailing of the undead .

Silver_Strider · June 2016

Prior to DB, Silver Shards was great for the AoE knockdown effect against Undead/Daedra or those occassional Vampire Groups in PvP.

Post DB though, the skill is a shell of its former glory.
Caltrops is a better AoE snare than Silver Shards can ever hope to be and without the Knockdown component, Silver Shards is beyond pointless.
Silver Leash will forever be better.

Sworddewolves · June 2016

If you use the unmorphed version of silver shards, silver bolts, then you can infinitely keep your opponent from being able to use any skills. They will still be able to run away though. It's a bug that formed because it used to stun daedra but was changed to slow all targets. I think that they left the animation and the inability to use skills though. It also hasn't been mentioned in any patch notes that this is happening or that it is going to be fixed.

Jaiden · June 2016

Silver shards is actually a good ability. In my bow build of 5hunding 5 MM, kena shoulders, I use silver shards, poison injection, and acid spray as my damage dealers. I don't play it as an AoE first, I play it as a single target ability with AoE potential. True the AoE portion doesn't hit as hard but the main target willl crit for for 5-8k depending on if he's a vamp or not. Vamps still take 20% extra damage from it. The cost has been reduced so it is spammable. When I open up, i'll do a heavy + poison injection which most cases brings people down to 25%, then spam silver shard on em while the poison dot does its thing. Also you get 3% weapon damage for slotting it. If you run a bow build and have flawless up, you will get an extra 11% altogether. I don't run snipe just cuz the cast time and slow it places on you as you cast is annoying as hell. Lastly for melee builds, it's a good ranged ability to have because it's available to everyone.

Xvorg · June 2016

Silver shards is good in a ranged templar DW build with flying blade and javelin as the 3rd ranged skill.

It has its uses, basically the 3% wpn dmg increase, but the cost is quite high unless you slot evil hunter. Caltrops, bombard/acid spray and even shrouded daggers are better options

Toc de Malsvi · June 2016

Jaiden wrote: »

Silver shards is actually a good ability. In my bow build of 5hunding 5 MM, kena shoulders, I use silver shards, poison injection, and acid spray as my damage dealers. I don't play it as an AoE first, I play it as a single target ability with AoE potential. True the AoE portion doesn't hit as hard but the main target willl crit for for 5-8k depending on if he's a vamp or not. Vamps still take 20% extra damage from it. The cost has been reduced so it is spammable. When I open up, i'll do a heavy + poison injection which most cases brings people down to 25%, then spam silver shard on em while the poison dot does its thing. Also you get 3% weapon damage for slotting it. If you run a bow build and have flawless up, you will get an extra 11% altogether. I don't run snipe just cuz the cast time and slow it places on you as you cast is annoying as hell. Lastly for melee builds, it's a good ranged ability to have because it's available to everyone.

Basically what this guy^ said. It's a targetable full range AOE slow that does more upfront single target damage than any other ranged skill outside of Snipe. It gains 20% against Vampires and Werewolfs, and nets you another 3% passive weapon damage.

Comparing: ____ Bombard _vs_ SilverShards

Base cost: _____ 4050 _________ 3510___ This comes out to roughly the same after passives are applied.

Base dmg: _____ 557 __________ 658___ Bombard gets same dmg on all targets, SS gets 50% less on extra targets.

Range: _________ 20m _________ 28m___ 20m is listed as radius for Bombard but is same as effective range.

Target: _________ Area _________ Enemy___ Its easier to hit a targetable enemy from further away as well as close up with SS, but Bombard doesn't need a target and can be used to detect stealth or invisible enemies.

Radius: ________ 20m __________ 5m___ This is only important in noticing the changes between the two, Bombard is a cone so at 0-5m your effective radius is 1m or so and can miss easily, while SS is applied based on the target hit so it maintains 5m radius no matter where the target is, same in reverse at full range Bombard has huge radius advantage.

Additional effects:

Bombard: Roots targets, Slows targets.

SilverShards: Slows targets, adds 3% weapon dmg, does 20% more damage to werewolves and vampires.

Toc de Malsvi · June 2016

I kinda wish though that they had left it at 3 targets and just upped the damage on it or added some sort of bleed or piercing. Still useful though just very much less than it was before. 20% more damage against werewolfs and vampires is a direct huge buff compared to the previous base damage, however previously you could do almost 150% damage if you got the proc effect to go off. And it was knock down against the undead which made it that much more effective.