Dark Flare IV - Templar Suggestion

huskandhunger · October 2023

Hi ZOS: @ZOS_Kevin @Gilliamtherogue Please pass this idea along. Maybe the templar could have the initial damage hit from this ability on the target be an AOE in a 8m radius to match its defile radius ^_^

Reverb · October 2023

Not bad. I also want it to have a chance to instant-cast proc like sorc frags.

Tyrant_Tim · October 2023

+1, although, I would be happy with any rework to the skill, as it stands, Dark Flare sees minimal usage.

phaneub17_ESO · October 2023

Sorcerer's Crystal Blast basically.

Billium813 · October 2023

IMO, the current design of Dark Flare is very disjointed.

Defile debuffs are really only relevant in PvP, but Empower is now a PvE only buff. Players that want Empower/Sunsphere can source it way better from Solar Barrage, which works better for PvE anyway. Splitting the power budget for this morph between PvE and PvP is just making it terrible for both.

What is the intended play pattern the devs expect from Dark Flare?

Baconlad · October 2023

Take away the defile and empower. Add a 25% chance on cast that it deals say 25% more damage. Or make it buff the next light attack by significant amount. Than place the Sunburst buff to any dawns wrath skill....or leave it as is but buff the templar skill damage buff to 15%.

KlauthWarthog · October 2023

Replacing Empower with Minor Force or Minor Berserk would go a long way into making this skill less of a joke.

Billium813 · October 2023

Dawn's Wrath
- Solar Flare:
  - Dark Flare:
    
    Conjure a ball of corrupted solar energy to heave at an enemy, dealing 1742 Disease Damage, and dealing an additional 1635 Disease Damage over 8 seconds.
    
    Afflicts the target and enemies within 8 meters with Major Defile, reducing their healing received and Health Recovery by 16% for 8 seconds, and Weaken, reducing the damage of their Light and Heavy Attacks by 50% for 8 seconds.
    
    Developer Note
    I removed the Empower and Sunsphere buffs in favor of a more debuff heavy design to contrast the more DPS focused Solar Barrage morph. Created a new named debuff similar to Empower, but reducing LA/HA damage instead. Reducing the damage of LA/HA would be applicable to both Tank and Support roles in PvE, while still being moderately useful in PvP
    
    Changed the damage type to Disease to give a chance of procing Minor Defile as a status effect as well. This choice may not seem very Templar, but I thought it was an interesting one-off change that could fit this "dark" morph. Alternatives would be just keeping Magic Damage and adding Minor Defile as a 2nd debuff, or increasing Major Defile to 24% over 16%. Weaken could also be changed to Minor Cowardice instead, similar to Corrupting Pollen, but I wanted the reduction to be much more pronounced since it's going to be limited to LA/HA only.

Baconlad · October 2023

....NM I'm staying out of this one. Leave flare alone...please just pretend magplar don't exist. Last time you "buffed" us you took away total dark and nerfed dark flare by 55% and I'm still salty about it.

huskandhunger · October 2023

Baconlad wrote: »

Take away the defile and empower. Add a 25% chance on cast that it deals say 25% more damage. Or make it buff the next light attack by significant amount. Than place the Sunburst buff to any dawns wrath skill....or leave it as is but buff the templar skill damage buff to 15%.

Just a number change? Wouldn't you like Dark Flare to have neat theme or Templar possibility?

bar_boss_A · November 2023

major defile on a spammable on itself is a design flaw. Should be minor at most. The missing power could easiliy put into damage

Baconlad · November 2023

You could remove the defile completely and most people wouldn't notice it.

@huskandhunger it already has a neat theme. It's got an awesome looking animation.

I don't know the only thing I can imagine that would make it a totally different skill compared to crystal frags and snipe while also keeping the templar channeled theme would be to make it a channel, casting a flare every couple of milliseconds. Of course each flare would have to be lower in damage. Make it 1 second and three flares, with a random one of those three hitting harder than the other two. Or something. It needs something special the other two cast times don't have.

Snipe and crystal frag are both miles better. Frags hits harder inherently due to sorc passives, than you get a free proc for it with no cast time? Crazy. Snipe is better cause bow passives are gravy. It also procs weapon enchants which flare can't do....

Tbh I would rather zeni just leave it alone...it's pretty decent as it is and I wouldn't want them to change it and actually nerf it. Like they did with living dark. Total dark was such a better skill...I miss total dark, and we got living dark cause they thought they were doin us a favor. But in all my testing it's dramatically weaker than vigor...even though it should be better.