Are Vampires Going to be Viable Again?

BucFanJKE

I was reading the patch notes and it seems like the changes being made to Vampires will make them more popular. Most notably not having to keep an ability slotted for the recovery anymore.

Vampire

Dark Stalker: This passive ability now only functions when you are in Vampire Stage 4. Fixed an issue where this passive’s Movement Speed bonus while in crouch was not applying reliably. Updated the tooltip of this passive to better describe its bonuses.

Drain Essence: This ability and its morphs now tick 3 times over their channel durations, down from 4, but their damage per tick has been increased and they now restore 20% of your missing health per tick to compensate.

Mist Form: This ability and its morphs now remove previously applied snares and immobilizations, in addition to making you immune to any new ones while active. Increased the cost of this ability and its morphs by approximately 5%. Updated the tooltip for this ability and its morphs to indicate it has always disabled your Magicka Recovery while active.

Poison Mist (Mist Form morph): Renamed this morph to Baleful Mist. In addition to the changes made to the base ability, this morph now ticks and deals damage every second instead of every 1.5 seconds, causing it to deal damage 1 additional time over its duration. This morph now deals Magic Damage instead of Poison Damage.

Supernatural Recovery: This passive ability no longer requires a Vampire ability to be slotted, and now only functions when you are in Vampire Stage 2 or higher.

Undeath: This passive ability now only functions when you are in Vampire Stage 3 or higher.

Vampirism:
Increased the timer to advance each Vampire Stage to 6 hours from 30 minutes, but casting any Vampire ability will advance this timer by 30 minutes. Feeding as a Vampire will continue to lower your Vampire Stage by 1.

Vampire Stage benefits and penalties are now as follows:
Stage 1: 0% Flame Damage taken, 0% Vampire Ability cost reduction, 0% Health Recovery reduction
Stage 2: 15% Flame Damage taken, 7% Vampire Ability cost reduction, 25% Health Recovery reduction
Stage 3: 20% Flame Damage taken, 14% Vampire Ability cost reduction, 50% Health Recovery reduction
Stage 4: 25% Flame Damage taken, 21% Vampire Ability cost reduction, 75% Health Recovery reduction

TX12001rwb17_ESO

I don't get the whole fire weakness going down as you feed, the only reason you have a weakness to fire is the same reason a zombie or skeleton or lich is weak to fire and that is because your a dead corpse, how does starving yourself of blood make you any deader?

KingYogi415

Vampires have always been viable. New players under 200CP have always struggled with health regen and fire damage.
Any decent pvper will have most of their characters vampires.
Now with stage control vampires will be more scrub friendly!

Cheers!

danno8

I like how it is now. You can essentially "turn off" vampirism for 6 hours to have no benefits or penalties.

And you can quickly get back to whatever stage you like just by using the abilities. They finally nailed the usability of the skill line.

Talyena

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

stevepdodson_ESO888

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

I don't get the whole fire weakness going down as you feed, the only reason you have a weakness to fire is the same reason a zombie or skeleton or lich is weak to fire and that is because your a dead corpse, how does starving yourself of blood make you any deader?

he has ceased to be, he is pining for the fjords

Tholian1

Talyena wrote: »

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

Wait, what?

The character will no longer stand up and "run" while moving in stealth?

egosumacunnus

Tholian1 wrote: »

Talyena wrote: »

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

Wait, what?

The character will no longer stand up and "run" while moving in stealth?

Sounds like it yes.

I like the change to the Drains, before they where no use to a Stamina build as they scaled of Magic now it is worth using. I don't have Vigor and it's a cool Vampire ability anyway.

Tholian1

egosumacunnus wrote: »

Tholian1 wrote: »

Talyena wrote: »

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

Wait, what?

The character will no longer stand up and "run" while moving in stealth?

Sounds like it yes.

I like the change to the Drains, before they where no use to a Stamina build as they scaled of Magic now it is worth using. I don't have Vigor and it's a cool Vampire ability anyway.

Well that would make yet another thing I liked being taken away, which seems to be almost everything. I miss the game I bought at console launch.

egosumacunnus

I see what you mean but i don't, that release felt like PC players had spent the last year play testing the game for the consoles to get a finished product which is pretty much what we did.

Run stealthing always seemed a bit odd though, although a Vampire being able to do it not so much.

Games like this will always change in ways we don't like for *** or for unexplained reasons (Practice dummy springs to mind). Got to find something new to like.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Do ZOS realize that if your an NB dark stalker is kind of useless as you can run while using cloak, which is far more effective?

mistermacintosh

I would like a teleport ability like bloodfiends have, or something better since vampires are supposed to be more evolved than the 'fiends.

I'm glad they're still improving Vampire and WW, though. Down the road some quest lines for them would be nice (like the guilds).

olsborg

20% dmg increase vs silver shards and dawnbreaker is ouch.

GreenSoup2HoT

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

Do ZOS realize that if your an NB dark stalker is kind of useless as you can run while using cloak, which is far more effective?

Not everyone play's a magicka nightblade okay.

egosumacunnus wrote: »

Tholian1 wrote: »

Talyena wrote: »

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

Wait, what?


The character will no longer stand up and "run" while moving in stealth?

Sounds like it yes.

I like the change to the Drains, before they where no use to a Stamina build as they scaled of Magic now it is worth using. I don't have Vigor and it's a cool Vampire ability anyway.

Is Drain now an ability that scale's off whatever is higher? So stamina could use the ability?

TX12001rwb17_ESO

olsborg wrote: »

20% dmg increase vs silver shards and dawnbreaker is ouch.

You do realize that yestaday it was 60% right? vampires now take 40% less damage from them.

egosumacunnus

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

egosumacunnus wrote: »

Tholian1 wrote: »

Talyena wrote: »

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

Wait, what?


The character will no longer stand up and "run" while moving in stealth?

Sounds like it yes.

I like the change to the Drains, before they where no use to a Stamina build as they scaled of Magic now it is worth using. I don't have Vigor and it's a cool Vampire ability anyway.

Is Drain now an ability that scale's off whatever is higher? So stamina could use the ability?

The Drain scales off missing health, and it returns 20% of the missing amount per tick.

Baconlad

vamp was pretty important for just about anyone who knows anything in TG...and in DB it's become that much more important. only thing that sucked before was health recovery builds weere not possible. now they ARE!!! vamp has been and is awesome

egosumacunnus

Mist form looks like it will make you impossible to catch if you spare the slot for it. Wish i could get in and test it.

Lexxypwns

The only time Vamp wasn't viable was during the 1.6 bugged Dawnbreaker era. Otherwise vamp has been viable, even during the rampant camo hunter days you got more benefit than weakness from vamp.

Edit: that being said, being allowed to control you vamp stages is great and means you don't have to get cured for malestrom. The buffs to mist form make it almost mandatory for magika based pvp builds, especially with the changes to fighters guild skills

MornaBaine

The only thing I really hate about the changes is losing my fast sneak in all but Stage 4. That was a TERRIBLE call ZOS!

STEVIL

IMO the return of at least meaningful heal to the drain is fine. much needed and it will add vamp abilities back to my bar.

The addition of an actual use for mist form is good too with its mini-purge.

All in all, i might well be slotting THREE vamp abilities on one char for the first time outside of training the skills up.

Phinix1

MornaBaine wrote: »

The only thing I really hate about the changes is losing my fast sneak in all but Stage 4. That was a TERRIBLE call ZOS!

Agreed. And if they nerfed the reduction to only 50% of sneak that was bad as well. Should be at least the same as the set bonus that does it.

Also, I think the stage control mechanic of using vampire skills to increase stage is terrible. I thought we were going to get something cool like a self bloodletting ability. Instead we get 10 uses of any vamp ability before we go from stage 1 to stage 6 and all the fire damage again?

I guess just don't plan on using any vampire abilities in vet dungeons/trials.

Septimus_Magna

egosumacunnus wrote: »

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

egosumacunnus wrote: »

Tholian1 wrote: »

Talyena wrote: »

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

Wait, what?


The character will no longer stand up and "run" while moving in stealth?

Sounds like it yes.

I like the change to the Drains, before they where no use to a Stamina build as they scaled of Magic now it is worth using. I don't have Vigor and it's a cool Vampire ability anyway.

Is Drain now an ability that scale's off whatever is higher? So stamina could use the ability?

The Drain scales off missing health, and it returns 20% of the missing amount per tick.

The drain is about the unblockable stun, not about the dmg it deals

Teridaxus

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

olsborg wrote: »

20% dmg increase vs silver shards and dawnbreaker is ouch.

You do realize that yestaday it was 60% right? vampires now take 40% less damage from them.

Well since dawmbreaker is stronger overall except against undead, more people will slot it, pvp included.

TieFighter

KingYogi415 wrote: »

Vampires have always been viable. New players under 200CP have always struggled with health regen and fire damage.
Any decent pvper will have most of their characters vampires.
Now with stage control vampires will be more scrub friendly!

Cheers!

i couldnt put it more direct- vampires are more user friendly. vampire was already viable, you just had to exercise some skill and know-how which was awesome.

karldavy149b16_ESO

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

I don't get the whole fire weakness going down as you feed, the only reason you have a weakness to fire is the same reason a zombie or skeleton or lich is weak to fire and that is because your a dead corpse, how does starving yourself of blood make you any deader?

from what i gather its because vampires are typically stronger after they feed think wraith in sg atlantis

egosumacunnus

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

egosumacunnus wrote: »

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

egosumacunnus wrote: »

Tholian1 wrote: »

Talyena wrote: »

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

Wait, what?


The character will no longer stand up and "run" while moving in stealth?

Sounds like it yes.

I like the change to the Drains, before they where no use to a Stamina build as they scaled of Magic now it is worth using. I don't have Vigor and it's a cool Vampire ability anyway.

Is Drain now an ability that scale's off whatever is higher? So stamina could use the ability?

The Drain scales off missing health, and it returns 20% of the missing amount per tick.

The drain is about the unblockable stun, not about the dmg it deals

He was asking what the heal scales off of.

temjiu

I personally was never a fan of either Vamp or WW being full skill lines. the better they got, the more they became the defacto "BiS' for everyone, and I'm not a fan of requiring players to have character defining changes just to be on par. I would have preferred them to be nothing more then cosmetic changes plus perhaps a few minor stat boosts, and some minor weaknesses to compensate.

However, since they are in game, the best thing to do is to balance them so that they aren't seen as "necessary" by any means, but a simply character RP or customization choice. Hope this doesn't push it over into that necessary category.

Malmai

This game was best game ever till ZOS decided to just scramble eggs with it now its just horse pie...

Septimus_Magna

egosumacunnus wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

egosumacunnus wrote: »

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

egosumacunnus wrote: »

Tholian1 wrote: »

Talyena wrote: »

Dark Stalker now only reduces the speed reduction of stealth by 50%. It's faster than regular stealth, but not fast enough to make you stand up instead of crouching.

Wait, what?


The character will no longer stand up and "run" while moving in stealth?

Sounds like it yes.

I like the change to the Drains, before they where no use to a Stamina build as they scaled of Magic now it is worth using. I don't have Vigor and it's a cool Vampire ability anyway.

Is Drain now an ability that scale's off whatever is higher? So stamina could use the ability?

The Drain scales off missing health, and it returns 20% of the missing amount per tick.

The drain is about the unblockable stun, not about the dmg it deals

He was asking what the heal scales off of.

If you want healing as stam build its better to use the healing morph of Flurry (dw), draining shot (bow), rally (2h) or absorb magic (s&b).

Healing based on missing health is usually very underwhelming.

Lava_Croft

KingYogi415 wrote: »

Any decent pvper will have most of their characters vampires.

Joke?