Blade Cloak? Nope.

Speely

So I feel like DW as a skill line is lacking in regard to its, um, skills. I use DW a lot, but it is for the passive damage increase for class skills, not the DW skills (other than Steel Tornado.) The weapon skills here should be more useful both because all skills should be viable to some builds, and because there are some builds (like Stamina Sorcs) who rely upon weapon skills a great deal more than others. My main point today? Directly below!

Blade Cloak should be replaced. Sparks was already nixed, so why not this skill that is infinitely-less-useful? Let's be honest with ourselves and admit that a new skill is needed in this juicy tier 4 slot. It feels and plays like a joke that devs came up with when stoned and then decided to troll us with (no offense to either our hard-working devs or stoners intended.) The AE damage reduction is a crapshoot I will not bother to address (edit: this is bulls***. The ae dmg reduction is actually nice. I was just drunk and surly.) One morph USED to be nice for some builds, but not anymore. I will offer a replacement suggestion, but feel free to offer your own as well. What is important is that we get this skill out of town.

Suggestion (dumb ideas inc):

Dual Assault
Cast Time: Instant
Target: Enemy
Range: 3.5 - 22 meters
Cost: X Stamina equivalent to other charges (perhaps Shield Charge, on the more expensive side of weapon charges.)
Effect: Rush enemy and deal X damage (equivalent to Focused Charge as dmg base but obv scaling off Stam and Weapon Crit.) If the enemy hit is casting, they are interrupted and stunned for 2 seconds.
Morph 1 - Opportunistic Assault: Also snares target for 5 seconds and grants you Major Expedition for the duration. (Stamina "Cripple" charge. Awesome.)
Morph 2 - Reckless Assault: All nearby enemies take damage as well (ala Explosive Charge... i.e within 5m)

This solves three things:

1) Stamina having no AE charge damage. AE charge is a good tank tool but only Magicka Temps/NBs have access to it (not complaining about this personally, since I main a Magicka Temp, but ya know...) There should be a Stamina option, and right now 2H is the go-to for a tank's trash bar. Brawler and Rally speak volumes, but an AE charge would definitely make DW a bit more attractive in that respect (and yes I know Steel Tornado is a good trash option, but it is literally the only realistic skill from DW to slot for so many builds.) DW is the perfect skill line for this since it opens AE charge dmg up to every class and replaces a crap skill.

2) Blade Cloak taking up a valuable place in DW's progression. The skill is not useful enough as-is, ESPECIALLY SINCE MAJOR EXPEDITION WAS NERFED. Quick Cloak was the go-to morph because it gave Stam builds without affordable access to Major Expedition an option, but now the buff's value is considerably diminished, and as such, this skill should be looked at accordingly. (I used this often on my Stam Temp... now I just sprint, because as an Orc it's far more useful to not take up a slot and instead just sprint real fast.) I cannot imagine EVER slotting Quick Cloak again after the nerf. Ever. Maybe if we had 8 slots per bar. Maybe.

3) Evens out the stamina weapon charges in regard to utility. Shield has a great stun and/or ok damage shield charge. 2H has a big damage and-or snare charge. DW should have a mobility charge and/or an AE damage charge. Make sense to me in a very elegant way.

Thoughts? I would like to hear about what you would like to see replace Blade Cloak. Also, if you actually like this skill as-is, please feel free to defend it. I may be way off-base.

zerosingularity

I disagree, it is a good skill as is. Blade Cloak gives a 20% AoE damage reduction. While not as powerful as what it replaced, it is arguably very powerful. It gives you the AoE mitigation of a tank, something squishy stamina DPS sorely need. The morphs could be buffed, but the base skill is a must have.

Speely

zerosingularity wrote: »

I disagree, it is a good skill as is. Blade Cloak gives a 20% AoE damage reduction. While not as powerful as what it replaced, it is arguably very powerful. It gives you the AoE mitigation of a tank, something squishy stamina DPS sorely need. The morphs could be buffed, but the base skill is a must have.

Fair enough. I guess given the current meta, it is some mitigation against AE spammers. It's not without worth.... I just feel that it could be better. Maybe combine the AE dmg reduction with more useful utility?

Darkonflare15

Speely wrote: »

zerosingularity wrote: »

I disagree, it is a good skill as is. Blade Cloak gives a 20% AoE damage reduction. While not as powerful as what it replaced, it is arguably very powerful. It gives you the AoE mitigation of a tank, something squishy stamina DPS sorely need. The morphs could be buffed, but the base skill is a must have.

Fair enough. I guess given the current meta, it is some mitigation against AE spammers. It's not without worth.... I just feel that it could be better. Maybe combine the AE dmg reduction with more useful utility?

I have survive a lot of magicka detonations thanks to blade cloak in pvp and it has help me get out red circles thanks to actually surviving long enough to move out the circle without instantly dying. So it haves it uses. Wish the morphes was better though.

Lexxypwns

gtfo with this, blade cloak is one of the only "counters" to prox det magika builds in TG patch.

I think you either don't know how to play or you're trying to manipulate one of the best/only defenses against AoE abilities

Speely

Lexxypwns wrote: »

gtfo with this, blade cloak is one of the only "counters" to prox det magika builds in TG patch.

I think you either don't know how to play or you're trying to manipulate one of the best/only defenses against AoE abilities

Right. While I obviously don't know how to play, I am still willing to admit that the AE dmg reduction is very useful, even if it is vs a meta I don't care for (the prox det spam meta.) So assuming that said meta continues, we might need something like Blade Cloak to counter it. Given that, how could the morphs be better? The current morphs are crap.

glavius

Speed buff is nice. Also mitigates most ultimates because theyre aoe

Daveheart

It'd be nice if they buffed the timer on the speed and made the timer a 1 second DoT tick instead of 3 seconds. However, the base function of the skill is great.

dodgehopper_ESO

Blade Cloak is also my best skill to move faster as a Templar. Get rid of that and as a Templar we'll be forced to go slow. Rapid maneuvers and Mist form are garbage now, Maneuvers is good for most but absolutely terrible on a Templar. Flying dagger is also a very good skill, you just need to be careful to not get it reflected on you.

Autolycus

Lexxypwns wrote: »

gtfo with this, blade cloak is one of the only "counters" to prox det magika builds in TG patch.

I think you either don't know how to play or you're trying to manipulate one of the best/only defenses against AoE abilities

How exactly is this response supposed to get people to agree with you or respect your opinion? Nvm, I see now you were actually just trying to be a ***.

Even as little as you've said, you've clearly demonstrated that you are incapable of being open-minded or otherwise generally respectful to other players and their opinions. Also, if you think that Blade Cloak is your "only defense against proxy" then you could stand to learn a thing (or five) as well.

Speely

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

Blade Cloak is also my best skill to move faster as a Templar. Get rid of that and as a Templar we'll be forced to go slow. Rapid maneuvers and Mist form are garbage now, Maneuvers is good for most but absolutely terrible on a Templar. Flying dagger is also a very good skill, you just need to be careful to not get it reflected on you.

Oh don't get me wrong. I USE Quick Cloak for sure. Mobility is hard to come by outside of potions for a Temp (I main one.) My concerns only arise from the recent reduction to Major Expedition, and this makes me think that Blade Cloak should be revisited. Granted, my initial post was a bit ranty (mostly because I am leveling a build that uses this skill a LOT for mobility and I got salty... Also, full disclosure, I was v drunk :P) but really I think that the "secondary" effect from the preferred morph (QC) being reduced so much warrants some consideration in regard to viability. In fact, I think that the homogenization of buffs is a poor idea in general. QC could be a great burst speed skill while still making longer-duration speed skills less speedy, for example. But that dynamic is set in stone now, so...

Again, I use this skill for mobility as well. It's simply not as good for mobility as it once was. I felt it was well-balanced before due to its utility for dmg reduction and I could add a short ME buff to make up for my Temp's lack of mobility. Now it's noticeably not as useful for the secondary effect. My replacement skill ramblings were admittedly... well, silly, but I think that re-evaluating the morphs for this skill makes sense.

Also, I love Flying Blade It's nice to have a ranged snare as a melee Stam build, and it does some nice damage when combined with Camo Hunter for sure. Pretty great for a pre-Crit Rush sneak attack, and makes Jabs easier to land after. Love FB and always slot it on my Stam Temp.