xencthlu wrote: »

Gee, I subclassed to the shadow line to get major proph/sav on a character. I... Guess I'll drop it now?

MashmalloMan wrote: »

Prionyx wrote: »

Why would armaments be similar to merciless if there is already curse/prey in that skill line, which always provided more DPS for sorcs in pve before multiclassing compared to merciless for NBs and other morph(haunting curse) being undeniably better in pvp since it's a delayed burst while merciless isn't

Have you played with suclassing yet? Why are you acting like it doesn't exist and we're 6 months in the past. All skill lines are available to everyone and no class can strictly rely on what it can or can't do in its original class vaccum. Skils could be compared before, but now more than ever they need to be competitive 1:1 or you will just ignore the inferior opton all together.

It's funny you mentioned Daedric Prey and Daedric Summoning pve dps because a 2 pet Sorc can get more DPS substituing Dark Magic for Assassination, using Killer's Blade instead of Daedric Prey or Mages Fury, Surprise Attack instead of Frags, and Mercilous Resolve instead of Bound Armaments. Despite this, I mentioned buffing pve NB dps with the ultimate goal of nerfing its pvp burst , so I'm not sure why you made the comparison at all?

For Haunting Curse in pvp, it was a strong delayed burst skill, but it can be purged with Betty or Ritual, very popular skills available to everyone now. With the combination of Curse being unreliable, Bound Armaments being too weak, Ward no longer being a 1 stop shop after the double nerfs (triple with U47), dead pet skills, and inconsequential passives, no one is picking up this skill line outside of Sorc purists desperately trying to make it work despite better options being available.

I would put the ratio of people using Assassination over Daedric Summoning at 30:1 in pvp right now, in pve, 100:1. In 30+ vet trial pugs I've done, I've seen maybe 4-6 pets, but almost everyone is using Assassinatiton for passives or damage skills in conjunction with Fatecarver or otherwise.

All of this brings me to the conclusion you either refuse to subclass out of NB or you haven't played U46 very much in the competitive scene as your comments read as if they're from 2 updates ago. This is coming from someone who mains Sorc and has put Assassination on pretty much every build I have from 13 alt characters, to endgame pve, solo pve, and BG's pvp.

Prionyx wrote: »

What's your point? You're saying you want to buff merciless in pve and nerf in pvp but suggest changes that would make it worse in pve and better in pvp

MashmalloMan wrote: »

I disagree, the problem isn't the stacks being doubled, that actually feels quite nice as a quality of life feature, and it's fun to use in all content now, deciding when to use both shots or not, to me, it's the burst damage.

I feel like I explained my idea pretty well in my opening statement above, stacks aren't the problem, nor is pve NB dps, it's pvp burst. They already solved the issue of people slotting and forgetting Relentless Focus for w/s damage in pve, so my issue isn't there. The active portion of the ability still needs to be worth using in pve like it is now.

In pve, total dps is all that matters, how you get there generally does not, so burst isn't entirely necessary. In pvp, burst damage is obscenely high and is much more effective for securing kills vs dots. This is no longer only NB's tool with subclassing, we can't crutch on "they have no delayed burst" or "they have no defense" or "it's just 1 shot, block/dodge it, then punish them."

My solution was keep the total dps the same by converting some of the upfront damage into a 4s dot. At full health the total dps is the same, but at low health, NB's would get some execute scaling on the dot portion (not the burst), allowing a buff in pve, while a rebalance for pvp that stops players from getting 1 shotted as often and gives a small window to retaliate/react since some power is shifted to a dot.