Expert Summoner (sorc passive)

OBJnoob · June 2023

So. I just recently dusted off old sorc to play again and I noticed something weird. I'm not sure if it's a bug or if I'm just not understanding. So I thought I'd ask you fine ladies and gents.

Small amount of context... It's a bowsorc, stacking max HP to try and use hardened ward. I'm using Gaze of Sithis because it's an easy way to get max HP and because blocking doesn't work when you're under a shield anyway.

So the expert summoner passive is important to my build. I really need that 8% HP.

The problem is Hardened Ward itself isn't a super good way to get it, in my opinion, because the HP is added only after casting and therefore isn't calculated into the shields actual strength.

So I decided to use Bound Armaments. I think the skill is pretty terrible honestly but you do what you gotta do. It has a long duration so it's easy to have the 8% HP at all times.

But then I noticed... If I cast Bound Armaments (thereby having it "active on myself,") I get the Expert Summoner passive active even if I change bars. Which is expected. And good.

But then I noticed... If I'm on the bar with Bound Armaments slotted I don't actually have to activate it to get the bonus. Which feels like a bug to me, because this is unfortunately not how Hardened Ward works.

Now honestly in this exact selfish moment I wish Hardened Ward activated the passive just from being slotted. But what feels more correct is that Bound Armaments should not.

Anybody know what's up with that?

Braffin · June 2023

OBJnoob wrote: »

So I decided to use Bound Armaments. I think the skill is pretty terrible honestly but you do what you gotta do. It has a long duration so it's easy to have the 8% HP at all times.

And now on topic: The only reason I can think of would be you're recieving the HP bonus by the 8% max Stam bonus while on your bar with BA because the skill is "passively active" (sry, no better wording) then.

Edit: As I think of it: In ancient times BA and it's morphs were a skill you could toggle on/off. So maybe it's indeed an oversight happened during the rework of the skill.

YandereGirlfriend · June 2023

The way that it used to work was that the summoned Daggers actually counted as pets and would activate the passive.

i11ionward · June 2023

But I think Expert Summoner has annoying mechanics and should work the same way as Daedric Protection

i11ionward · June 2023

OBJnoob wrote: »

So I decided to use Bound Armaments. I think the skill is pretty terrible honestly but you do what you gotta do. It has a long duration so it's easy to have the 8% HP at all times.

I know what you mean... I use this skill more as a passive, I would like the developers to rework the skill in the part that deals damage

katorga · June 2023

AH, but does the rebate passive return resources when a dagger hits the target?

It is considered a pet after all.

OBJnoob · June 2023

Okay thank you all for your help.

Now that I understand why it works that way I guess it kinda makes sense. But since we all seem to agree that Bound Armaments kinda sucks... I'm curious... Has anyone else found a better way to keep the passive active?

Turtle_Bot · June 2023

It's been explained, so I won't repeat, but yes, the passive component of increasing max mag/stam of bound aegis/armaments respectively is what keeps that +8% health passive active all the time on that bar.

The issue with bound armaments is that right now, its strictly a worse spec bow. It used to have a niche where it buffed LA/HA damage by a unique 10% (worked on overload too iirc), but since it lost that and got nothing in return, spec bow is just objectively better in every way (higher damage, better passives, increases raw damage which is better than max stats).

How to fix it, I'm not sure of the specifics, but it needs a complete rework imo to not just be a spec bow clone but worse.

Not really a better way to keep the passive active at all times unfortunately, armaments sucks, aegis is even worse (unless you're specifically a tank) and no other ability is active all the time.

Really wish sorcs passives would get a complete overhaul like NB/DK got to make them better fit the class, not only thematically but mechanically and functionally as well. I'd go over them all here, but that would completely go off track and is already covered in other threads.

OBJnoob · June 2023

Yeah I remember when it buffed light attacks. I don't mind that it's a worse spec bow I mean that's a pretty tough standard, but it could use a little oomph since it really is pretty bad.

You could take the 8% stamina away and replace it with like 400 critical, stacking up to 4 times of course. Something sorc needs, though it wouldn't really help my current build. I'm sure the PvE crowd would like it.

The only thing I can say about the passives in general is that they're a little all over the place. And the way they interact with some of the abilities is weird.

I'm having fun ignoring crit on my bowsorc right now, running in the no-cp campaign stacking max HP. Fun fact: ballista ulti + bound armaments is actually a good counter to corrosive DKs. So. There. I said something nice about bound armaments.

i11ionward · June 2023

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

The issue with bound armaments is that right now, its strictly a worse spec bow. .

I don't know why, but when doing a fully charged HA, you immediately get 2 stacks of Grim Focus instead of 1. Why is that? The description of the skill does not mention such a feature of HA. This makes Bound Armaments even more lame than Grim Focus.