Lets Talk about Strife

NyassaV

Strife, a meh to slightly garbage skill and everyone can agree. Gives decent healing and maybe decent healing to you're group, if you pick that morph. But it's damage is a bit lack luster. So this ability costs kinda a lot for the damage it does but meh, I can get over this. What i cannot get over is something that bugs me from a lore perspective and a game play perspective. This abilty can be reflected. What the hell?! I'm sucking some life out of you, it's not like I sent a ball of fire which you can use magic to throw back at me! This is not a projectile at all so why can this ability be reflected? On top of that magicka nightblade in PvP ((Not Melee night mage)) as a caster set up is very very lack luster, with merciless resolve taking 5 light attacks to proc! Frags has a 35% chance of procing with any abilty. 35% is not even close to 5 light attacks, that said I'd like merciless to be brought down to 4 attacks.

Give strife a small damage boost or cost reduction OR make it not reflect-able

anathosdm

The damage is nice for a low cost spammable which also heals you....

Br1ckst0n

I'd rework the swallow soul morph.

Turelus

The only thing I don't like about it is how clunky it is to weave with. Otherwise It's a nice skill that does good things for the costs.

RoyJade

Technically, you launch a projectile of alteration magic to the enemy, who take his essence and return it to you. It's a projectile.

The damage is good comparing to the cost, it give mabglade the possibility to spend everything on damage. On a naked char, strife does 0,39 damage per magicka spend, against 0,27 damage per magicka for force pulse. Strife tooltip is even stronger than force pulse.
There are some downsides still : force pulse get 10% spell pen, can apply burning, chilled and concussed, benefit from altmer/dunmer passives, from a DK's engulfing flame, have triple chance to proc nerieneth/scathing and can't be reflected. But I prefer strife, having a nearly flawless magicka sustain in a pure damage build is worth it, along with 2 ultimates per 4 second and 8% more magicka without needing an another siphon spell.

If you want a boost, I see two : funnel heal should give more heals (even at the cost of some damage) and smallow soul can get the damage boost.

Code2501

My main concern with this skill is its propensity to glitch with light attack weaves with the current lagfest. Given the class has several skills triggered on light attacks its far too difficult to reliably weave light attacks between spam spells.

Code2501

RoyJade wrote: »

Technically, you launch a projectile of alteration magic to the enemy, who take his essence and return it to you. It's a projectile..

By that logic it should counter itself (damage and then return life essence) or return health to the enemy. Not damage you and nothing else.

NyassaV

RoyJade wrote: »

Technically, you launch a projectile of alteration magic to the enemy, who take his essence and return it to you. It's a projectile.

The damage is good comparing to the cost, it give mabglade the possibility to spend everything on damage. On a naked char, strife does 0,39 damage per magicka spend, against 0,27 damage per magicka for force pulse. Strife tooltip is even stronger than force pulse.
There are some downsides still : force pulse get 10% spell pen, can apply burning, chilled and concussed, benefit from altmer/dunmer passives, from a DK's engulfing flame, have triple chance to proc nerieneth/scathing and can't be reflected. But I prefer strife, having a nearly flawless magicka sustain in a pure damage build is worth it, along with 2 ultimates per 4 second and 8% more magicka without needing an another siphon spell.

If you want a boost, I see two : funnel heal should give more heals (even at the cost of some damage) and smallow soul can get the damage boost.

Buuuuutttt... It's not a projectile... Do you see a ball of energy anywhere?

RoyJade

Hollery wrote: »

Buuuuutttt... It's not a projectile... Do you see a ball of energy anywhere?

Not really a ball, but something definitively is pulled from your hand to the enemy, then return to you in a different form. Unlike entropy where the attack start directly on the enemy and launch projectiles at you, you definitively trow something on the enemy then it return with your enemy's life force.

Code2501 wrote: »

By that logic it should counter itself (damage and then return life essence) or return health to the enemy. Not damage you and nothing else.

Right. I suppose it's not the case either because the heal is a second mechanism who just use the primary damage, and not the effect of the damage itself. Or they may explain that by a "the projectile is infused with the user's essence, and only him can use the lifeform he stole in order to heal himself or his allies". Perhaps.

CavalryPK

My main problem with this skill is that sometime it bugs out and i cannot properly weave with light attacks

Xvorg

It's a great skill, but:

1- It's buggy as hell
2- The animation is too slow (similar to entropy, but that's a DoT)

I wish one of the morphs, ideally Swallow Soul, was a 7 secs DoT, with an effect similar to blood craze (DW), while the other was a burst skill. That would open a window for dotblade builds.

actosh

They need to speed up the animation first.

josiahva

Not sure reflectability is a real issue...since only magicka DKs really use reflect a lot(they have a lot of other challenges in PvP). I guess wardens now have the reflect ability too, but I dont know how prevalent that is in PvP(or at least to me its never worth running unless 1v1), I have to see it on my death recap, very few people use defensive stance in PvP, so it being reflectable is a very small part of its problem...I would say getting it to proc at all is a much bigger issue.

QuebraRegra

Br1ckst0n wrote: »

I'd rework the swallow soul morph.

if we could get that re-work to include a bonus to GROUP heals we generate I'd be down.

blnchk

Agreed with what's been said already: The fact that light attacks register so badly in conjunction with this skill is needlessly inconvenient, especially since Grim Focus and its morphs rely on them. It's like a whole chain of tiring clunkiness, all in all.

Rohamad_Ali

Ever since they removed the crit heal from it years ago , it's been sub par and hardly anyone wastes time spamming it in PVP . The damage is not "great" for a spammable . Draining shot with a bow is a better spammable . It needs the crit heal returned .

Vercingetorix

Strife's damage is subpar with its cost since the (unrequested) nerf. Include the fact that it is clunky with medium weaving (which is also useless as it doesn't return any resources) and you have a useless skill...

Ashamray

Turelus wrote: »

The only thing I don't like about it is how clunky it is to weave with. Otherwise It's a nice skill that does good things for the costs.

Ah thank you. I almost decided that I'm hopeless nub who isn't able to LA weaving properly with Strife
Q_Q

bubbygink

Going to agree with what seems to be the general consensus here: I don't really have any problems with strife as a skill other than its clunkiness in weaving. On console in particular it can be clunky for even the most experienced Magblades. I actually think the Swallow Soul morph is pretty good, 8% healing received is no joke and synergizes very well with a Magblade HoT build. Nonetheless, I prefer the Funnel morph and think it is a very solid skill for small group, particularly BGs. Being able to get a HoT on myself and an ally passively is quite strong - and by "passively" I mean all I have to do is keep offensive and the HoTs keep going up. And while the damage isn't great, I think it is the cheapest spamable in the game which really helps with our sustain.

Toc de Malsvi

Lets dispel some obvious misrepresentations here.

Strife
1891.Magicka cost
740...Base damage
25% of damage is healed every 2 seconds for 10 seconds
28m range

Morph#1: Heals 1 ally as well as caster
Morph#2: Gain Minor Vitality while slotted.


Force Shock
2700.Magicka Cost
672...Base Damage(224*3)
28m range

Morph#1: Interrupts target if casting.
Morph#1: Increases Damage and adds small AOE effect.


Scatter Shot
2970.Stamina Cost
535...Base Damage
Knocks enemy back 6m and disorients them 5s.
10m range

Morph#1: Knocks cast back as well as enemy.
Morph#2: Heals caster 1034 when enemy breaks disorient.


The cost to damage ratio for each:

Strife: 2.55 mag/dmg

Force Shock: 4.02 mag/dmg

Scatter Shot: 5.55 stam/dmg

Toc de Malsvi

Strife compared to Scatter shot is laughable at best.

Strife compared to Force Shock is much more comparable. The trade off is significantly cheaper cost with additional healing, for slightly increased damage(only once destro passives are taken into account) or possible interrupt.

Expecting Strife to do more for NB's is ridiculous, it is a very functional skill, that offers a lot without needing to slot other skills in support.

Tyrobag

Strife is a great skill, but they do need to make it less clunky to weave. If they do that it would be every mag NB's bread and butter.. or bread anyway, maybe the dots are butter? Either way I'd use it. Now I want toast..

PS4_ZeColmeia

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Ever since they removed the crit heal from it years ago , it's been sub par and hardly anyone wastes time spamming it in PVP . The damage is not "great" for a spammable . Draining shot with a bow is a better spammable . It needs the crit heal returned .

I forgot about that. This ^^^

Toc de Malsvi

PS4_ZeColmeia wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Ever since they removed the crit heal from it years ago , it's been sub par and hardly anyone wastes time spamming it in PVP . The damage is not "great" for a spammable . Draining shot with a bow is a better spammable . It needs the crit heal returned .

I forgot about that. This ^^^

As I pointed out this is simply not true. You gain significantly less damage for significantly greater cost and drastically reduced range to gain a better heal(provided you actually get the heal).

They are not comparable and to think they are is to be ignorant of bows and bow damage.