Nightblades: Ambush

Nihili

What do you guys think about the ambush stamina change? I play a magicka Nightblade and am frankly a little upset, though I can see the use of it for the majority of nigthblades (assuming the majority of night blades are stamina based). I'm just upset because the alternative (Lotus Fan) is NOT the high single target DPS skill that I know and love in Ambush -- and with ambush being stamina based I assume it'll scale off max stamina now, making it useless for my magicka build. Or, well, maybe useless is a little harsh. But I just don't think it's going to be useful for me now.

Nestor

I use Ambush for the Stun and the increased value of the next attack (like dropping Veil of Blades just after for instance) not for the damage on the initial hit.

Sacadon

As a magicka NB, I selfishly want ambush back. The spell power boost of the next attack and stun were an effective part of my setup. Now we get the intentionally underused morph. I do plan to give it another look to see how I can incorporate it.

deepseamk20b14_ESO

Have you played 1.6 yet? I made a stamina build and a magicka build. Both pretty much equal in terms of power. Ambush net me 1630 damage on my stamina build while lotus fan net me 1250 + a DoT that was over 3000. The tick takes place over 8 seconds. Not sure if this was a glitch on the tool tip but it nets a lot more damage. Plus it's good for the snare in PvP if you're take on multiple players. I'm actually pretty happy about it. I really like the empower buff you get from ambush, especially for those nice ganks and doing soul harvest right after but I will stick with Lotus Fan for now unless I figure out my tool tip was feeding me bogus information.

Nestor

Also, they removed the minimum distance for Ambush, so I can use it while in the face of an Mob. Nice when I need to settle the mob down for a nice finisher combo.

ScruffyWhiskers

I hope you are right about Lotus Fan. I switched to it these last few days on Thornblade on LIve to level it up in prep for 1.6 and was severlry gimped as I have posted in other places. Yes, the snare was nice but my damage went way down and worse still the burst just wasn't there.

Are you saying that the damage is a lot better on 1.6 than on live? I'd love to believe that was true. I use stygian so I need a magicka stealth opener and gap closer. I am not getting rid of my stygian. It's too handy weaving in between Shadowy Disguise and Concealed Weapon.

deepseamk20b14_ESO

Yeah I'm pretty sure Lotus Fan had better damage in 1.6. I tried to verify last night but characters templates are back to being "brand new characters", so I couldn't look back on my VR14 NB. All I remember is the feeling of being excited to see Lotus Fan wasn't pure crap anymore and the damage it said on the tool tip.

Kypho

Nihili wrote: »

What do you guys think about the ambush stamina change? I play a magicka Nightblade and am frankly a little upset, though I can see the use of it for the majority of nigthblades (assuming the majority of night blades are stamina based). I'm just upset because the alternative (Lotus Fan) is NOT the high single target DPS skill that I know and love in Ambush -- and with ambush being stamina based I assume it'll scale off max stamina now, making it useless for my magicka build. Or, well, maybe useless is a little harsh. But I just don't think it's going to be useful for me now.

I would be upset, when a caster class need a closerange magical attack with blade what cost magicka...... WTH.... Ambush should be stamina. Not even know why lotus cost magicka.

I could cry about why cloak doesnt need stamina, because it makes me upset, that my stamina NB does need magicka to cast cloak..... LoL

Kypho

Sacadon wrote: »

As a magicka NB, I selfishly want ambush back. The spell power boost of the next attack and stun were an effective part of my setup. Now we get the intentionally underused morph. I do plan to give it another look to see how I can incorporate it.

You know you can make boost spell power easily without ambush right?

deepseamk20b14_ESO

Kypho wrote: »

Sacadon wrote: »

As a magicka NB, I selfishly want ambush back. The spell power boost of the next attack and stun were an effective part of my setup. Now we get the intentionally underused morph. I do plan to give it another look to see how I can incorporate it.

You know you can make boost spell power easily without ambush right?

Sap essence....Degeneration....potions......A couple of others too. The Empower from ambush is nice but isn't game breaking if lotus fan doesnt have it. Like I said, lotus fan still does much more damage in the long run and considering player HP in 1.6 and potion cool downs I believe DoT's will have a better home in 1.6 than in 1.5 and prior.

ScruffyWhiskers

I'm a magicka melee NB and I think think the build at least deserves a decent magicka gap closer/opener that won't start a decent burst off with a whimper. I use my stamina for dodge, block, rapid manuevers and generally avoiding angry mobs.

I'll be giving Lotus Fan another try once 1.6 actually comes out but on live it is a wet noodle. Like I said the snare is fine. They should just get rid of the AoE and bump up the initial damage a bit. I'd love to see the usage stats that they have for Lotus Fan if any. I'm betting it's almost as well used as Agony.

Zershar_Vemod

Magicka NB here, loathe the change to stamina; along with Killer's Blade...

Sacadon

Kypho wrote: »

Sacadon wrote: »

As a magicka NB, I selfishly want ambush back. The spell power boost of the next attack and stun were an effective part of my setup. Now we get the intentionally underused morph. I do plan to give it another look to see how I can incorporate it.

You know you can make boost spell power easily without ambush right?

Yes, I do know, but feel free to share in case you've something we don't know about.

Aeeeek

As a STAMINA NB, BEFORE this update my primary PvE bar was usually
(M) Prolonged Suffering = lock down (M) Swallow Soul (M) Killer's Blade (M) Ambush
(S) Blinding Flurry (U) Soul Harvest
I had plenty of Magika as I used those 4 skills sparingly.

NOW I don't have enough stamina to spam Blinding Flurry and the base skill has been nerfed 8%
not helped by Killer's Blade and Ambush changing to (S)
so I am using Blood Craze instead of Blinding Flurry


Ambush is for movement as much as anything. Lotus Fan doesn't work as the dot breaks Prolonged Suffering.