I only use it when I’m bored and want to handicap myself even more by wasting a slot on that terrible ability.

If you’re ganking like 99% of magblades then I guess you can slot it if you want to, just incase your procs don’t kill them.

1vx: No, don’t use it it’s terrible. Execute at 25% hp as a projectile means it is easily dodged since when you get someone that low odds are they start rolling and healing to get out of execute range.

Bgs: Still bad. It can be ok for stealing the odd kill here or there, but again people will be rolling and healing at that hp% so it will rarely land. If you really want an execute use ele ring. It’s aoe, brp destro is strong, and the execute works decently well.

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

I found the timing for Impale too slow to hold it until I see the enemy is low on health, and the fact that it's a dodgeable projectile made it unreliable as part of a burst combo for me. Using it requires predicting when your opponent will pop under 25% health, since it doesn't scale gradually with their low health like Executioner does, which I think starts out-damaging a spammable at 30-something percent health.

So this means you have rely on actually landing an ult or Assassin's Will, which I find makes it not worth the skill slot. Using Swallow Soul or Concealed Blade wound up hitting more killing blows for me than Impale, but I run War Maiden's + New Moon Acolyte + Wild Hunt (no invis), so I don't need to depend on the bonus execute damage like a tankier nightblade would. On my bar, I currently use Ele Drain where Impale would be.

I think it's interesting that some builds find it helpful or even necessary, while others can't seem to find any use for it.

War maiden + new moon and not using shadowy disguise. What kind of potatoes are you fighting and where can I find them.

I mean even stamblade use executioner that's jus how bad killer blade is.

As à magblade....
I rerolled stam blade, and I'm not using impale.
Hope it helps ^^

One thing I want to stress though is there has historically been this misconception that impale has a trajectory duration that results in it being reactable mid flight.

This is actually not true. Most of the time, it being dodged is due to the target roll dodging as an immediate response to a burst combo or gank attempt, naturally. Impale is an instant cast ability that resolves instantly if the criteria is met for its use (target is in range, targetable, and user has the resource to afford the cast). The client side animation of the ability is not indicative of how the server treats the skill In terms of recipients on the recieving end. This is why many think that if you "block cancel" it, the damage is dealt quicker because the combat text appears sooner on your screen, than if you let the ability animate, for which the combat text will appear slightly later when the impale would connect to the target naturally. Again this is only a client side illusion and has no bearing on the recipient's end.

The moment impale is casted on a target, the server handles the rest, ie is target in range, was a crit rolled, mitigation calculation, were they in a block state or dodge state etc etc.

That last one, dodge, is the main culprit here is far more problematic than most realize. Heres why..

The issue with NB is that, as most people know, most of their kill potential is telegraphed and lined up. The reason other classes work so much better is that they have mechanisms to help them deliver damage within less GCDs via delayed damage delivery or channel and cast times that conclude at the start of the next GCD for which an isntant cast ability is thrown out, allowing damage from separate skills to "meet in the middle" so to speak.

NBs dont exactly have this luxury inherent to their kit. So when they attempt to line up their damage, the only thing they have is a stun and 1 gcd per damage source (his is why magblade is so desperately reliant on proc sets to even work as a damage dealer in pvp). As most who pvp already know, there are extremely few situations in this game where you actively decide to "take the stun" and chose not to break free. One such situation is that you were stunned collaterally and not in any immediate focused threat and dont want to waste the stamina, or you just blew a strong defensive ult and know that you can take the hit and need the stamina for something more worthwhile in the following moments. But most of the time, if you dont break free you are dead. And if you let a nb get their entire combo on you in a stun, you are especially dead. Point being is that 99.9 percent of the time when you get feared or stunned by a nb, you are breaking free and rolling or blocking.

If we look at magblade, the spec that would likely use impale if any one. After a stun, you need 3 GCDs to get bow proc ult and impale out. The reason this sucks so much is that as mentioned above about dodging, the state of dodge covers a single GCD in duration. So nb stuns, break free ensues and the follow up is dodged, and likely by that point, impale will be ineffective due to the 25 percent threshold being missed.

Impale simply has no place on a class that otherwise really only has, at best, 2 GCDs AFTER a stun to get any meaningful damage out, between an already telegraphed ult and the telegraphed 5 attack requirement on assassins will that shouts "get ready, my damage is coming soon!" But otherwise offers additional utility at the very least, there is zero room for a 25 percent execute.

With ALL that being said, I want to suggest some thought on the skill for a moment and where it actually does fit in assuming a particular design choice for the class were to return.

Assuming for a moment, that a ranged siphoning focused magblade would once again function. I'm talking about the attrition style of slow burn while healing through damage and kiting, fully engaging in the siphoning passives and not playing a stealth based gank or high burst damage build. This form of magblade was once upon a time an actual thing and it was not a snowflake approach to playing magblade "off meta" it was very much design, inherently built to fufill this playstyle as much to its identity as a stealth based gank build is. In that situation, impale does serve the purpose of affording them the pressure to seal the seal on a kill, not so much as an execute per say, but as a "if the magblade successfully, wears the target down from range via cripple, swallow soul and will procs, at 25 percent their spammable changes to impale to keep the target from recovering with ease. It's for this reason, the ability is at 25 percent, its a home stretch type of ability. You dont want it at 50 percent, because you are still going to need to sustain from swallow soul to fill that GCD space. Getting the target to 25 percent might force them on their heel and you are alleviated while still being able to play from range.

Of course this archetype no longer works in any way shape or form in ESO as it exists today. And thus impale is absolutely worthless.

It’s absolutely viable.
Will you have to work harder to achieve the same results as other classes? Yes.
Does it need buffs? Yes.

Just don’t use impale. It’s trash

2nd best kill stealer in BG next to Sorcerer Mages' Wrath skill.

Stay safe and enjoy the journey 😊

PS. ZOS stop the micromanagement of the green tree 🥺

Nope, if I can get my target to 25% then I don't need execute to finish him, if I can't, then Impale is useless, waste of a slot.