Best Class Ultimate for PVE

UrQuan

I was just wondering which ultimate people think is the best overall for each class for PVE, and why.

I started thinking about this due to the changes to the Sorcerer Overload ultimate, as I was thinking it might be a good idea to start using that over the Storm Atronach that my Sorcerers usually use (I don't usually use Negate Magic as I don't usually do content with my Sorcerers where it's really that useful, although I could see why it would be awesome in some vet dungeons and trials).

For Templars I like Nova best - specifically the Solar Disturbance morph of it for the better synergy damage. My healer Templar usually has little problem keeping groups at high health without wasting an ultimate on it (although when I have played around with it, I've noticed it's very nearly a temporary invincibility for everyone in the radius), so I don't tend to go for Rite of Passage, and although the ultimate cost is low, the effect of Radial Sweep always seems to leave me feeling underwhelmed.

For Dragonknights, I basically always go with Dragonknight Standard, specifically the Standard of Might morph (being able to pick up and move the standard is a novel idea, but I usually have little trouble rooting or otherwise enticing enemies to stay within the radius of the standard anyway). I used to use Dragon Leap a lot, because it's fun, but the fact that there's a minimum range to use it at has eliminated it from my arsenal, as it basically means you're only guaranteed to be able to use it at the start of a fight (and with the Battle Roar passive I prefer to use ultimates part way through a fight, when the very fact that I'm using one means that I get resources restored). Magma Armour always seems like it should be a great ultimate for tanking, yet somehow my DK tank always seems to survive longer and better when I use Dragonknight Standard instead.

For Nightblades in theory I like the Soul Tether morph of Soul Shred a lot, but somehow I always seem to accidentally end up with the high DOT on a lowly mob instead of the boss I want to put it on. I think my favorite is the Soul Harvest morph of Death Stroke, largely because of the additional ultimate generation it gives you and the low ultimate cost, so you can use it a lot. Consuming Darkness and its morphs are nice for when you're in trouble and need to regroup, but ideally I like to use ultimates to avoid getting into the situations where I feel like I need to do that, rather than use them to get out of those situations.

So what do you guys think? For each class that you play, which ultimate is your favorite and why?

Valymer

As far as raiding, with Templars I don't see much that beats the damage mitigation benefit of Nova right now. Nightblades would be Veil of Blades

Sorc best is Atronach because the synergy adds huge dps.

No idea about DK but I'm guessing Standard

AssaultLemming

Overload is fantastic, huge damage and third spell bar.

AngryNord

Nova

Valymer

AssaultLemming wrote: »

Overload is fantastic, huge damage and third spell bar.

I'm not sure that it's more dps than Atronach on most bosses. But the third ability bar and ability to do damage without spending magicka are nice.

AssaultLemming

It's more damage because of how much ultimate you can store before you activate it. An overload light attack is more dps than mages wrath in execute phase. I find storm atro weak in comparison.

Valymer

AssaultLemming wrote: »

It's more damage because of how much ultimate you can store before you activate it. An overload light attack is more dps than mages wrath in execute phase. I find storm atro weak in comparison.

Maybe but if melee dps activate the Atronach synergy I think that + the damage you can do with a normal rotation outshines it. Although I've never figured out how to weave Overload light attacks with anything else, so maybe I am missing something.

Septimus_Magna

Valymer wrote: »

AssaultLemming wrote: »

Overload is fantastic, huge damage and third spell bar.

I'm not sure that it's more dps than Atronach on most bosses. But the third ability bar and ability to do damage without spending magicka are nice.

On (somewhat) stationary bosses the Atronach increases dps more because you can continue your dps rotation, I would advise the Greater Storm Atronach morph.

Overload is great in pvp because the burst damage is very high, Atronach damage is more gradually but better for pve imo. The Atronach also restores a lot of magicka if the target is debuffed with Elemental Drain.

Valymer

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

Valymer wrote: »

AssaultLemming wrote: »

Overload is fantastic, huge damage and third spell bar.

I'm not sure that it's more dps than Atronach on most bosses. But the third ability bar and ability to do damage without spending magicka are nice.

On (somewhat) stationary bosses the Atronach increases dps more because you can continue your dps rotation, I would advise the Greater Storm Atronach morph.

Overload is great in pvp because the burst damage is very high, Atronach damage is more gradually but better for pve imo. The Atronach also restores a lot of magicka if the target is debuffed with Elemental Drain.

Yeah, pretty much my feelings on the issue. Overload can be great in PvP for sure, but this thread was about PvE so I went with Atronach.

On some fights where the boss often runs out of range of Atronach (boss of CoH comes to mind) I usually just use Shooting Star. Or Aggressive Horn maybe on a raid

Dekkameron

Veil of blades!

RoyJade

You have to consider separately offensive ultimate and group-helper ultimate, I think.

For the DK : magma armour is good with the high-shield morph sometimes, but most of the time standard is far better in all situation.

Templar : as some of you said, nova is the best in most situation. Rite of passage can also be good for a tough phase for a healer.

NB : veil of blade for the damage and the good mitigation, soul shred in solo or for some pack, soul harvest for boss when veil's mitigation is not useful.

Sorc : the astronash is the best in almost every situation. Good damage, you can continue the rotation, the other dps can active the synergy for the great dps boost, and the astro can take aggro sometime (very useful against the red dwemer in the arena, for example). Overload is good for recover your resources without loosing your dps, but when you finally reach the point you don't have any resources problems the astronash become better.
Negate is useless. I tried it against some ground-flame effect on some boss, and I can only negate the Nightflame's flames… three second before he re-use them.

Other : war horn is very good for a group, barrier help a lot some healer, and the mighty shooting star is just awesome against pack mobs (one star against each pack most of the time, what else ?).

SHADOW2KK

Standard of Might for DK

Veil or Soul Tether for NB.

Not tried or interested in Sorc/Templar however.

UrQuan

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

Valymer wrote: »

AssaultLemming wrote: »

Overload is fantastic, huge damage and third spell bar.

I'm not sure that it's more dps than Atronach on most bosses. But the third ability bar and ability to do damage without spending magicka are nice.

On (somewhat) stationary bosses the Atronach increases dps more because you can continue your dps rotation, I would advise the Greater Storm Atronach morph.

Overload is great in pvp because the burst damage is very high, Atronach damage is more gradually but better for pve imo. The Atronach also restores a lot of magicka if the target is debuffed with Elemental Drain.

Interesting. This (and other comments in this thread) is exactly the kind of analysis I'm interested in. So it seems I'll probably stick with the Storm Atronach for my sorcerers, but if I go PVPing, I might switch to Overload.