Veil Of Blades / Bolstering Darkness need a rework !

Fhritz · March 2022

I mean, this ult cost A LOT and both the healing and the damage morph are underperforming in both PvP and PvE (either the zone is too small (5m only !) or the damage isn't that high compared to both meteor morph, an ult with the same cost, or the heal is meh at most compared to soul siphon, plus major protection isn't as strong as before)

This ult either need to have a larger radius with a HOT or DOT based on the morph or it should at least follow the user !

umagon · March 2022

People have been asking for the skill to be improved for at least four years now. I have personally brought it up in two different pts cycles. I have no idea why they don’t change it.

Necrotech_Master · March 2022

it used to be OK pre-major protection nerf and when the skill also gave the user an additional dmg mitigation on top of that

so before all the nerfs it used to be used OK as a tank due to getting 60% mitigation from standing in the area, but without that unique benefit it is completely outshined by most everything else

Mayrael · March 2022

Lol, seriously you think ZOS will buff NB? They hate this class. Just look at patch notes from last few years. DKs, templars, wardens, sorcs they all get new shiny toys while all NB gets are "fixes" and meaningless buffs like the one from this patch that they fixed the tooltip of teleport strike as it stated it was instant but it was not (we said it many times in the past) so now you can clearly see it has cast time. Thanks, but couldn't they just remove the cast time?

NBs are most neglected class in this game and I wouldn't count on any buffs or at least decent changes.

Finedaible · March 2022

Heck, a lot of class abilities (not just NBs) have needed compensation since the Major buff nerfs.

Reaper's Mark for example, its pitiful 5 seconds of Major Berserk after a kill was accounting for how powerful Berserk used to be before the nerfs (used to be 25% dmg done but is now 10%), and the duration was never increased to compensate. Meanwhile they've buffed sets and added new sets which can give you far greater durations of Major Berserk, most without the condition of a kill. Even for a free skill, Reaper's Mark has not aged well in the current state of the game where healing is a lot more accessible than it was before. A greater burst heal after a kill is useless in boss fights and if we're talking about PvP Piercing Mark is just a no-brainer. It's better to just use Elemental Drain or Elemental Susceptibility which are also free skills and have far more utility against bosses.

OWLTHEMAD · March 2022

At this point can we just go ahead and say nightblade (magblade especially) as a class just needs some love. Not even a dps increase really. The whole class just doesnt jive anymore.

Every class has multiple "killer abilities" that are either loads of fun to use, incredibly strong, or provide awesome and unique utility in a useable way. Except nightblade.

We have cloak, which admittedly is awesome, but we payed for it with a host of dead skills or otherwise useless or poorly designed skills?

Twisting path: major expedition removed from cripple so that we could move really fast for a few seconds before having to recast.

Refreshing: no more damage and we didnt even get a matching aoe radius to compensate

Swallow soul: still okay, but the heal is far less impactful then it once was

Funnel health: WHO USES THIS? Heal scales with damage done but does a pitiful amount of damage resulting in a pitiful heal.

Sap essence: too weak in both heal and damage. Terrible way to get major sorcery cant parse with it and very short range negates its viability in pvp.

Power extraction: minor cowardice is pretty niche to begin with on this weak hitting skill i cant see anyone making use of this ability in lieu of countless significantly better options.

Lotus fan/ambush: minor vulnerability is too weak and to prevalent to really consider this skill for that reason. Empower and the dot are both too weak on theyre own to justify this skill on a bar. If you just need a gap closer both will do that job. But both are weak enough that even mag builds would run two handers too have a better gap closer.

Crippling grasp: used to be a nightblade hallmark when it had expedition. Snare removal is too easily accessible, the imobilization too easily escaped and the dot too little damage for this skill to be justified over debilitate morph given its magicka cost. Useable but only just.

Dark cloak: pretty much only viable on pve tanks. Nuff said.

Just sad what theyve done to what once was an amazing class with tons of identity

Necrotech_Master · March 2022

sap essence i see being used by bombers, or a super lazy pve NB, so i dont think its completely useless, i do agree that this is a horrible attack to put the dmg buff on

lotus fan/ambush: the problem i have with this skill is that 0.4 sec cast time, which no other gap closer has

i actually like dark cloak, and i run it on my stamblade in pvp for extra heal and dmg mitigation (i have him more set up to be kind of a brawler, not an assassin lol)

OWLTHEMAD · March 2022

Huh, really? Ive tried using it on a more brawley styled magblade and was thoroughly unimpressed by it. Just didnt feel it had enough bang for the buck.

Necrotech_Master · March 2022

OWLTHEMAD wrote: »

Huh, really? Ive tried using it on a more brawley styled magblade and was thoroughly unimpressed by it. Just didnt feel it had enough bang for the buck.

the benefits i see from dark cloak:

12 sec of minor protection
major resolve (from NB passive, lasts about as long as the heal due to mostly using medium armor) (with this up i sit at roughly 21k resists, so the minor protection still helps a lot)
stacks good with resolving vigor (as they both do about the same strength healing)

being a stamblade, i never felt the invis cloak was useful, it was too easy to get pulled out of it, and being a stam build i cant spam that (max uses like 3x before i was out of mag) which is why i settled on dark cloak to get the buffs and extra heal

OWLTHEMAD · March 2022

I could see that. Since they nerfed it i dont even bother with minor protection. 5% on defense is almost laughable to me when you can get major protection just from slotting revealing flare.

In pvp the heal felt entirely to small to make a difference im im assuming because of battle spirit, and i use either shade or cloak frequently in fights and so keep near 100% uptime on passive.

Using it the way you do, i almost always choose refreshing path instead of dark cloak.

The heal makes it far more valuable imo.

NBs are always a battle for bar slots and both revealing flare and refreshing path serve the function of dark cloak better imo. Just depends on if youd prefer more mitigation or more healing.

On a stamblade, are you not using the spammable stam spammable from shadow skill line? Youd already be proccing the passive.

Sparxlost · March 2022

Bolstering darkness is perfect in my opinion because in pvp you can throw it on a gate entrance before everyone goes through and they have damage reduction for the duration which makes my job as a healer less stressful when everyone just scatters and there are few at inner gate or on flags.. (wouldnt mind if they buffed the damage reduction a little bit but it is still useful i guess.....)

Veil of blades would be better if they made it stuck to your character and MAYBE adjusted the damage (or up the amount of damage reduction you get while the ability is active)

Sparxlost · March 2022

or if it were a unique 10% percent buff to resistance which could stack with major protection idc

OWLTHEMAD · March 2022

Honestly i think veil of blades could be just passable if they just increased the aoe.

But bolstering has a low uptime, and high cost on a buff that can literally be slotted.

The whole skill definitely needs love and i really think the veil morph needs to be changed to double down as offensive tool while the bolstering morph just needs a great big massive buff.

Theyre the lowest value ultis in the game.

Necrotech_Master · March 2022

OWLTHEMAD wrote: »

I could see that. Since they nerfed it i dont even bother with minor protection. 5% on defense is almost laughable to me when you can get major protection just from slotting revealing flare.

In pvp the heal felt entirely to small to make a difference im im assuming because of battle spirit, and i use either shade or cloak frequently in fights and so keep near 100% uptime on passive.

Using it the way you do, i almost always choose refreshing path instead of dark cloak.

The heal makes it far more valuable imo.

NBs are always a battle for bar slots and both revealing flare and refreshing path serve the function of dark cloak better imo. Just depends on if youd prefer more mitigation or more healing.

On a stamblade, are you not using the spammable stam spammable from shadow skill line? Youd already be proccing the passive.

i do use surprise attack when im in melee, but im not always in melee (especially when lag starts to get bad in grayhost, as soon as the lag starts to hit playing in melee range is virtually impossible, skills dont fire due to lag (it will usually lag and tell me target is out of range when the attack tries to actually fire)

Iron_Blurr · May 2022

Dk gets magma.. 97% damage mitigation for 200 ulti cost.

Necro gets ghost spirit guardian. 10% unique damage mitigation on a regular skill not even an ultimate.

Meanwhile Nb gets bolstering.. 10% damage mitigation for 200 ulti cost.
Major protection is a 10% damage mitigation buff that ANYONE has access to by just slotting flare on their bar. How is bolstering darkness even an ultimate ability?

How is this fair?

Foxtrot39 · May 2022

Well things are easy to see

Consuming darkness : just remove major protection and give it a huge unique damage mitigation instead, allow self synergy and remove the useless invisibility of it

Veil of blade is an offensive morph : if it sticked to your character like destro staff ult morph the snare would be immidiatly receiving a huge buff in utility as you can't just do a single roll dodge to negate it completley anymore

A significant damage increase would make it a viable melee AOE ult

Optionaly make it give a major debuff on top to any enemies inside

Bolestering darkness need to actually bolster something (preferably defence for tanks as it used to be) : Increase damage mitigation even more and change the synergy to also give back mag/stam alongside health

Optionaly grant all the major regen buffs for mag/stam/health for its duration

Sparxlost · May 2022

20% unique resistance buff??? maybe reduce time by like 5 seconds as an additional 20% is insane for some friendlies with a lot of resistance already....

Fhritz · May 2022

Foxtrot39 wrote: »

Well things are easy to see

Consuming darkness : just remove major protection and give it a huge unique damage mitigation instead, allow self synergy and remove the useless invisibility of it

Veil of blade is an offensive morph : if it sticked to your character like destro staff ult morph the snare would be immidiatly receiving a huge buff in utility as you can't just do a single roll dodge to negate it completley anymore

A significant damage increase would make it a viable melee AOE ult

Optionaly make it give a major debuff on top to any enemies inside

Bolestering darkness need to actually bolster something (preferably defence for tanks as it used to be) : Increase damage mitigation even more and change the synergy to also give back mag/stam alongside health

Optionaly grant all the major regen buffs for mag/stam/health for its duration

At least a self synergy would be already a great buff. And i think if the AoE was way bigger it would be okay (like 12m). I agree with the "following aoe" idea too, might be really strong but destro ult already have something like this so I don't think it's too op.