Proposed alternative to the Siphoning Attacks / Leeching Strikes changes, and why:

NightbladeMechanics

Don't keep the PTS changes exactly as they are. (May not necessarily support this proposal. Discuss other ideas!)

bubbygink wrote: »

arkansas_ESO wrote: »

Heavy's better than light next patch IMO since the lack of cost reduction CP means you won't be able to keep up shields (and no shields=dead.) I swapped out Siphoning for Degeneration in battlegrounds and didn't really notice a difference in magic sustain in five heavy, and Degneration heals for almost as much as Siphoning, but also gives Major Sorcery+Empower and has a chance to proc Valkyn.

Without a chance to get much testing in, I tend to agree. I may try to make the best of the new SA's heal and wear heavy and just stack healing and rely a lot less on casting expensive damage shields. Swallow soul is still a relatively cheap skill and can be combined with path + degeneration + SA to give some solid healing per second. I'm thinking of trying out 2 valkyn + 5 julianos + 5 lich with witchmothers. I really do want to try out the war maiden set but would probably have to go 5 light if I did so.

Heavy armor with hots is already better. Constraining sustain will only make that more the case because of the cost of shields. Either that or people will regress to ganking and bombing and not using sustain at all.

If damage levels fall enough as a result of people building more sustain, heal-tanky builds could become viable in light armor, like they were before the proc set buffs last year. That would be fun to go back to, but I worry that proc sets won't permit it.

I'll be adding mutagen and degeneration back onto my bars next patch so I have to spend less magicka on active defense, and choosing Transmutation over Lich personally.

bubbygink

Don't keep the PTS changes exactly as they are. (May not necessarily support this proposal. Discuss other ideas!)

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

Heavy armor with hots is already better. Constraining sustain will only make that more the case because of the cost of shields. Either that or people will regress to ganking and bombing and not using sustain at all.

Definitely agree here. I've tried out light armor extensively during the Homstead patch but have again returned to heavy as it is just too good. So guess I should have said I'll be "sticking with heavy."

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

If damage levels fall enough as a result of people building more sustain, heal-tanky builds could become viable in light armor, like they were before the proc set buffs last year. That would be fun to go back to, but I worry that proc sets won't permit it.

Don't think proc sets will permit it unfortunately, particularly in BGs. My experience in Azuras shows that they are very prevalent and I expect they will be in the no-CP BGs too for the same reasons. Health will be much lower in BGs because of the loss of the CP stat boosts so further lowering it by switching to light, mixed with the lower mitigation, will make us way too vulnerable to proc sets IMO. I think to go light in BGs you would have to find a way to really up your health with a mixture of using tri-stat glyphs (actually think I'll be using some of these regardless - they'll be usefull to get the extra health and stam I'll be missing), putting attribute points in to health, and/or getting health set bonuses., etc. I think ultimately it just won't be worth it.

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

I'll be adding mutagen and degeneration back onto my bars next patch so I have to spend less magicka on active defense, and choosing Transmutation over Lich personally.

When I run solo open world I think I'll prefer transmutation but for premade BGs I anticipate that my healer will already be running transmutation so in BGs I will go with lich for the added sustain. Running solo in open world Cyro I agree that trans is the better choice for the added tankiness and because we'll have CP that will ease our sustain issues making the lich proc less important.

I was also thinking that mutagen would be great to add back on the bar - its less than half the price of a shield and will fit the HoT build well. I typically prefer mutagen for the potential life saving heal and cleanse but rapid regen is great too - I may test out both. Actually I may prefer dropping healing ward for mutagen. Then simply using harness magicka as my only shield since it can be a bit more cost effective with its (albeit nerfed) resource return.