Funnel health vs Swallow Soul

aeneas_21b14_ESO

Is Funnel Health really so much better than Swallow Soul? I've been following the Restro-DPS builds here and on Tamriel Foundry and 100% of them seem to use Funnel Health. Well back when I was probably level 10 I picked the other morph: Swallow Soul. Now I'm at the point where it costs over 20k for me to respec and I can't bring myself to pay the cost just to change out a morph.

I was wondering what makes it so much better, or if it even is. Any recommendations/information are appreciated!

Tenofas

Guess it depends a lot on what kind of NB you play.
If you do mainly group content (PvE or PvP) I would go with Funnel Health.
On the other hand, if you play mainly solo it would better to choose Swallow Soul.
But, since this is a MMORPG, and you are supposed to play in group...

Thejollygreenone

The reason funnel health is considered better end-game is because it does slightly more damage (funnel health scales in damage based on rank while swallow soul does not) and that it generates more ultimate if you're in a group since you'll be healing your groupmates.

However the poster above me has the right general idea, if you're more into group content then funnel health will probably be better for you. If you're soloing more you can choose what you want. I'm a generally solo player (at least in pvp) but I still use funnel health.

Hope this helps!

Gisgo

Swallow soul is for selfish... i mean soloers like me.

smercgames_ESO

I have never noticed the difference with the 10% healing in Swallow Soul but I have noticed the difference in ult gains and helping out others with Funnel Health. At the end of the day it's personal preference on how you play but the differences are pretty clear so just figure out what you think will benefit your playstyle more.

Also keep in mind, I'm pretty sure multiple Funnel Health/Swallow soul hots do not stack so if you group with multiple nightblades you won't even need it if you are using it for the hot since their Funnel Health will be hitting you. I take mine off when I'm ganking with my nightblade buddy since he uses Funnel.

aeneas_21b14_ESO

Thank you for the replies. This helped me make a decision!

Tenofas

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

The reason funnel health is considered better end-game is because it does slightly more damage (funnel health scales in damage based on rank while swallow soul does not)

I did not know this.
Where did you find this info? They should deal the same ammount of damage according to the description... is that some sort of bug?

Thejollygreenone

Tenofas wrote: »

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

The reason funnel health is considered better end-game is because it does slightly more damage (funnel health scales in damage based on rank while swallow soul does not)

I did not know this.
Where did you find this info? They should deal the same ammount of damage according to the description... is that some sort of bug?

It's no bug, just the way the abilities work. Swallow soul has something alternative to scale up with its rank (the % healing increase) while funnel health does not. Generally abilities and their morphs that don't have a secondary function will scale in their damage done instead. Funnel health is one of those abilities. (On a side note, there's one ability, Poison Injection, that doesn't appear to scale any functions from rank 1-4 which may or may not be simply an oversight, regardless my point is not all abilities function in the way I just described)

I found out when playing around in a skill calculator to formulate some builds. Test it if you'd like, but I have confidence that the tooltip on the skill calc I use is correct on this matter.

Aoifesan

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

Tenofas wrote: »

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

The reason funnel health is considered better end-game is because it does slightly more damage (funnel health scales in damage based on rank while swallow soul does not)

I did not know this.
Where did you find this info? They should deal the same ammount of damage according to the description... is that some sort of bug?

It's no bug, just the way the abilities work. Swallow soul has something alternative to scale up with its rank (the % healing increase) while funnel health does not. Generally abilities and their morphs that don't have a secondary function will scale in their damage done instead. Funnel health is one of those abilities. (On a side note, there's one ability, Poison Injection, that doesn't appear to scale any functions from rank 1-4 which may or may not be simply an oversight, regardless my point is not all abilities function in the way I just described)

I found out when playing around in a skill calculator to formulate some builds. Test it if you'd like, but I have confidence that the tooltip on the skill calc I use is correct on this matter.

Argh. More repec costs. *Sigh*

Tenofas

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

I found out when playing around in a skill calculator to formulate some builds. Test it if you'd like, but I have confidence that the tooltip on the skill calc I use is correct on this matter.

Thanks, great explanation.
Would you be so kind to link the calc you use? The one I use does not give me any value and the tooltips are really a mess.
Thanks in advance.

smercgames_ESO

Tenofas wrote: »

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

I found out when playing around in a skill calculator to formulate some builds. Test it if you'd like, but I have confidence that the tooltip on the skill calc I use is correct on this matter.

Thanks, great explanation.
Would you be so kind to link the calc you use? The one I use does not give me any value and the tooltips are really a mess.
Thanks in advance.

You mean "The game I play does not give me the correct values and the tooltips are really a mess"?

Thejollygreenone

Tenofas wrote: »

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

I found out when playing around in a skill calculator to formulate some builds. Test it if you'd like, but I have confidence that the tooltip on the skill calc I use is correct on this matter.

Thanks, great explanation.
Would you be so kind to link the calc you use? The one I use does not give me any value and the tooltips are really a mess.
Thanks in advance.

I use the calculator on ESOhead. The values of all the abilities are scaled to a level one character, unfortunately.

However by equipping an ability to one of the given actionbar slots in the calculator, and then clicking on the newly placed ability it will bring up a window that allows you to scale up your max resource pool and weapon/spell damage (depending on the ability) to actual values to preview damage at higher levels.

I'm not sure how accurate the scaling is, though. I use it more just to see exactly what combo of stamina/magicka and weapon/spell power any given ability takes to calculate damage.

Here's the link: http://esohead.com/calculator/skills

Samadhi

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

...
I found out when playing around in a skill calculator to formulate some builds. Test it if you'd like, but I have confidence that the tooltip on the skill calc I use is correct on this matter.

I respec'd and tested this last night.
The damage does scale up per level; for me it scales up by 3 per level giving it slightly higher base damage than Swallow Soul.

I think the faster Ultimate gains are the core reason for using this skill though; the difference in Ultimate generation is substantial with this swap.

Tenofas

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

However by equipping an ability to one of the given actionbar slots in the calculator, and then clicking on the newly placed ability it will bring up a window that allows you to scale up your max resource pool and weapon/spell damage (depending on the ability) to actual values to preview damage at higher levels.

Oh, I did not know this! Thanks for the hint!

Thejollygreenone

Tenofas wrote: »

Thejollygreenone wrote: »

However by equipping an ability to one of the given actionbar slots in the calculator, and then clicking on the newly placed ability it will bring up a window that allows you to scale up your max resource pool and weapon/spell damage (depending on the ability) to actual values to preview damage at higher levels.

Oh, I did not know this! Thanks for the hint!

Heh, happy to help. I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon that function, myself.