It's so fun

heartland zoo build



or pure sorc



or asylum staff



it's so awesome having a mythic that enables the use of sets like threads of war or heartland conqueror as a viable single target dps setup.
this isn't a bland "more damage" mythic like velothi or the kilt. it enables a different build entirely.
I love it and really hope it doesn't get nerfed.

Overall I like the DK changes for pure DPS, with one glaring error in my mind.

I mostly just do trials these days, and refuse to play beam Arc because it is too slow and boring for me (and I am almost 70 years old). I am tired of (many) raid groups wanting beam builds. I like some decent APM for doing DPS, and I think using a higher APM class build should do more damage than a low APM build, especially if the low APM has a secondary benefit like AOE. On the PTS a content creator shows his builds with the beam version of DK doing 157k. and the whip/spam version 143k (he says he may get it to 150 when some animation / other quirks get fixed so let's call it 147k. This 10k difference for me is 20k backwards. I currently play DK sometimes but will likely not play the class if it stays this way - it just feels wrong.

You might also make whip an AOE to claw back some of the advantage of Engulfing Dragonfire.

The Avalanche buff is going to drop off in so many places (trials, including bosses) that it really needs to be changed. Simply buffing the damage would be too strong in many cases - I think the best thing to do is make it a static buff of some kind, could be penetration or crit done buff. Maybe better is flat 3% damage done per DK skill line. I cannot see how you could ever balance a stacking mechanic with such a long buildup, given the diversity of down times in content.

Alright, here are some test videos since some of yall think I'm "spreadsheet warriors".

1st clip, I won the duel:
2nd clip, I lagged out and lost:
3rd clip, I won the duel. Inhale even bugged out at one point (did not cast despite having enough mag):
My stats:
These players are all veterans in the game. These duels don't look lopsided because you are looking at the top 1-5% fights. If I were to fight an average player, there is NO CHANCE they are going to compete at all. Did you see me have any sustain issues against a Kjalnar/Merciless/Fissure build used by a competent player? No. in fact, I did not heavy attack a single time in those 3 duels. If I were using my pure Sorc build with Dark Deal, I would have been heavy attacking much more often.

Dropped Dark Deal for Inhale. Did not use tri pots, recovery food, or recovery CP. Swapping to double armor potions allowed me to run Infused staff back bar front bar, 3x Infused jewelries, and STILL end up with 34k max resistances when Bloodspawn procced. You can NEVER pull this off with Dark Deal or any sustain skill currently on live. Soul of Flame is straight up carrying sustain in a max resource build.



Soul of Flame critted for 6.7k with full pen. This is an AoE delayed burst ability with respectable damage. In fact, I will leave these tooltips here for you to see:




Soul of Flame has almost as much damage as Fissure's initial tick, while also giving a massive amount of sustain.

If you don't think this is imbalanced, then it's either a legitimate skill issue, or you have some hidden agenda. Inhale needs to be adjusted, badly.

ZhuJiuyin wrote: »

katorga wrote: »

I actually like leaning into an element for each class.

But I think in trying to undo all the balance damage they did with subclassing.....every class refresh will get:

• A functional equal to fatecarver, beam with cleave and classified as direct damage
• A skill hits as hard as merciless (the lucky classes like DK will get it as a spammable with cleave, not a delayed single target skill
• A set of passives that amp up power based on using base class skills
• A monster self heal
• A damage shield roughly the size of Hardened Ward

then queue wailing and gnashing of teeth when it all gets neutered when they force vengeance mode on PVP.

Each class has its own strengths vs. homogenization.
The former highlights a class's unique characteristics, while the latter simply turns a class into a different colored beam.

There's so many cool ways they can go about distinguishing class strengths AND weaknesses. Compare 2 classes like Sorc and NB with similar archetypes and class fantasies. How can you distinguish them from one another? They can both share the crit fantasy, but accomplish it in different ways.

Nightblade is an assassin, they wait for the perfect moment to surprise their enemy and strike, they want as much damage in that moment as possible to kill them and get out, they have ways to guarantee critical strikes, so they prefer critical damage over chance.

Sorcerer is a spell weaver, they cast multiple spells consistently to deal as much direct, timed damage as possible, they rely on crit chance to get better healting through Critical Surge and heals like it that don't scale based offensive stats, but can still critically heal. They prefer multiple damage instances, death by a thousand cuts, rather than 1 shot burst damage which is why they weave multiple spells to land at the same time.

Assuming Nightblade kept the current passives, below are examples of how the Expert Mage Sorcerer passive could be reworked:

• +3.5% crit chance, but -2% critical damage/healing per Sorcerer skill slotted
• +1% critical chance and +2% max stam and magicka per Sorcerer skill slotted
• +1% critical chance and -1% ability cost reduction per Sorcerer skill slotted
• +4.4% critical chance while looking directly at your target
• +6.6% critical chance for 7s after applying Concussed or Sundered
• +6.6% critical chance for 4s after dealing direct damage
• +5% critical chance while a shield or pet is active and for 10s after they expire

And this is just critical chance, you could give negatives in other forms like + pen, but -armor. There is nothing wrong with giving a minor penalty to a class because there are so many ways to overcome it with sets, abilities, food, mundus. The only thing it does is highlight what a class is good or bad at, gives it opportunities to excel in areas otherwise not possible due to passive or skill budgets.

Btw the whole 6.6% thing seems strong, but it's based on ZOS's class passive standardization where if it has a proc conidtion, they multiply a 2-4 piece set bonus by 2.2x. Eg. Arcanist's Aegis of the Unseen, Harnessed Quintessence, and Fated Fortune. It's on every class right now in some shape or form.

In case it wasn't obvious, every bonus or proc conidtion is based on how I think they'll setup Sorc's identity in the future. These are the concepts I believe will stick around.

• Max Resource stacking for stronger shields, sustain, but also light damage dealing
• Crit Chance stacking for non scaling heal effeciency like Surge, Dark Deal, and Blood Magic, but also damage dealing
• Mobility/positioning instead of standing your ground
• Delayed/direct damage instead of consistent/damage over time
• "Spell weaver" playstyle, aka Crystal Frags, Crystal Weapon, Haunting Curse, Encase, Mages Fury, Bound Armaments, and Overload
• Shock/Phys (Storm), no Magic damage anymore, possibly removing Phys too. I predict the Energized and Amplitude passives will move to Sunder/Concuss bonuses, more niche, more unique
• Pets, love or hate them, hopefully they make the playstyle more interesting, powerful, with less restrictive passives

And these are the ones I believe will leave:

• Reverse Execute via Tormentor and Amplitude, goes against Sorc's original identity from Implosion and Mage's Fury, not niche or fun to build around. Counter intutive.
• W/S Damage, matches nothing in the class. Shields and flat heals don't scale from this.
• Block bonuses like Persistence and Bound Aegis don't fit. Sorc avoids damage with mobility and positioning, shields don't mitigate extra damage with blocking.
• Some of the sustain passives or morph effects like Rebate, Persistence, Endless Fury, Energy Overload, etc. Just too many wasted effects, not fun to build around, doesn't promote any sort of class fantasy.