Brainstorming Ideas for Nightblade Pureclassing

Avran_Sylt · September 14

Some ideas to tie the various skill lines of Nightblade together:

Cornerstone ability: Mark Target - Nightblade abilities in other skill-lines used against targets under the effect of Mark Target may be augmented.

Shadow - Shadow Cloak - Born From Shadow: Increases your damage done to Monsters by 10%, increased to 20% for instant attacks against Marked enemies. Attacking a Marked enemy from the Flank will refresh the duration. (snipe is fine, not sure what to call abilities that only do non-orange damage).
Shadow - Summon Shade - The Shade prioritizes Marked enemies, and applies Minor Brittle to them for 5s. (Solo Debuff access)

Siphoning - Strife - Increases the damage of this ability by 30% against Marked targets instead of healing you. (Never played Magblade, so not sure if this is too OP?)
Siphoning - Cripple - Immobilizes Marked targets. (PvP utility)

Renato90085 · September 14

nb doesn't have enough skill slot and magic for useless skills.
i more want look teleport Strike have a pve buff,delete cast time and work like dk talons(not need aim) the blur change one morph work like sorc lighting form and rework the shadow ult..they each can change nb weakest aoe power
Mark Target for me look more like a group buff skill,like a skill ver mk or dks stone giant

Avran_Sylt · September 14

Renato90085 wrote: »

nb doesn't have enough skill slot and magic for useless skills.

So how do you make them not useless?

How do you turn "useless skills" into amplifiers for the rest of the kit?

Avran_Sylt · September 14

Let's see.

Mark Target's Major Breach is useful solo, but not when grouped with a Tank.

As a Tank skill it only being applied to a single target at a time is cumbersome and pointless, even with the morph that increases the duration to 60s.

The Heal is useful solo, not useful in a group. It conflicts a bit with Killers blade and feels disjointed with this siphoning skill-line.

The morph that grants Major Berserk on kill is hardly useful for trash clear, useless against single-entity boss encounters, and likely still less damage overall to the boss than replacing it with a decent DoT.

Piercing Mark isn't useful in PvE as few enemies actual enter cloak, and those that do have no telegraph/are inconsequential.

Adding any kind of damage amplification to it itself may present powercreep concerns with subclassing given the popularity of the Assassination skill-line for Crit.

The ability itself in PvP gives a clear indicator to targets, and deals no damage itself, so not too useful for ganking, but this may be a potential lever to reign in certain skills (such as Surprise attack) via the use of cleanses and barspace occupation.

Avran_Sylt · September 14

So...

Why don't we remove the heal from Mark, and instead add it as a conditional to Assassin's Blade. Free up some effects so it's not too overloaded.

Move the heal on Killer's blade to the base of Assassin's blade to pair well with the Executioner Passive, and amp it for Killer's blade, creating more of a dependence on Assassination skills to gain health sustain over other executes.

Assassin's Blade
- Heals you for 2399 if the enemy dies within 2 seconds of being struck.
Killers Blade
- instead Heals you to full if the enemy that died withing 2 seconds of being struck was Marked.

Mark Target (Base)
- No longer has Heal to full.

Move the reveal of Piercing to base to allow PvP flexibility, and to allow a Tank oriented morph to be created.

Mark Target (Base)
- You can detect Marked enemies for 3s even if they use stealth of invisibility.

So now there's room to try and place a more tank oriented morph, but I'm not sure how to make i

Goading Mark
- Heavy Attacks Taunt the Target, and refresh the duration.

Not better than Pierce for tanking, nor should it without use of other NB skills. (Path of Darkness could be a good platform).

And to look at the "DPS" morph, reapers mark:

The Major Berserk damage increase isn't more than Major Breach, but using a GCD to reapply breach (Since Mark is single-target) will eat up 10% of your GCD window during the 10s of Major Berserk. Very clunky. I would add an automatic shift of the Mark to the nearest enemy for chaining Marks.

Reaper's Mark
- Reapplies to the nearest enemy when your Mark dies.

So, all in all:

Assassin's Blade:
- Gains "Heals you for 2399 if the enemy dies within 2 seconds of being struck."
Impale:
- Gains "Heals you for 2399 if the enemy dies within 2 seconds of being struck."
Killer's Blade:
- Retains "Heals you for 2399 if the enemy dies within 2 seconds of being struck."
- Gains "Instead Heals you to full if your Mark dies within 2 seconds of being struck."

Mark Target:
- Loses "When a Marked enemy dies, you heal to full health"
- Gains "You can detect Marked enemies even if they use stealth or invisibility for 3s"

Piercing Mark -> Goading Mark:
- Loses "When a Marked enemy dies, you heal to full health"
- Loses "Duration increased to 60s"
- Gains "Heavy Attacks taunt the Target for 15s and reapplies the ability"

Reaper's Mark:
- Loses "When a Marked enemy dies, you heal to full health"
- Gains "Reapplies to the nearest enemy when your Mark dies".