Shadow Silk?

LiquidPony

So as of today's patch (and I believe it's been this way on PTS), Trapping Webs morphs no longer require the target to be snared for the damage to occur:

*The prompt will now be available against all enemies within the webs, even if they cannot be snared.
*This means that the prompt will be available against boss or flying enemies.

On my stamsorc on PTS, here's the Shadow Silk tooltip:

Hurl webs to ensnare your foes, reducing the movement speed of enemies in the area by 50%. After 5 seconds the webs explode, dealing 10,476 Poison Damage to enemies within.

A ranged ally targeting an enemy in the webs can activate the Black Widows synergy, dealing 12,475 Poison Damage to them and summoning two spiders to attack for 15 seconds. The spiders bite enemies for 2,654 Physical Damage and can poison them for 28,494 Poison Damage over 10 seconds.

So my quick read of the damage from this ability would be:

10,476 Poison Damage (direct)
10 x 2,654 Physical Damage (direct; the spiders attack every 1.5 seconds)
28,494 Poison Damage (DoT)

So from the tooltip, that's 65,510 damage done over 15 seconds (~4400 DPS) assuming only one synergy can be active and doing damage at a given time.

I haven't been able to test this skill with a ranged DPS with me to use the synergy.

Long question short: any chance Shadow Silk is a viable skill in Dragon Bones?

Harrdarrzarr

The damage done by the synergie-spiders is added to the dps from the person that activated the synergie. Those that threw the spiders at the enemie only get the explosion proc. And the synergie can only be used by someone further than 18m away. Even ranged dd'ers are within 18 meters from the boss because of the range of elemental blockade. So while the damage has good potential I think, it will be annoying to activate

LiquidPony

Harrdarrzarr wrote: »

The damage done by the synergie-spiders is added to the dps from the person that activated the synergie. Those that threw the spiders at the enemie only get the explosion proc. And the synergie can only be used by someone further than 18m away. Even ranged dd'ers are within 18 meters from the boss because of the range of elemental blockade. So while the damage has good potential I think, it will be annoying to activate

My thought was that healers would be able to activate the synergy, but I'm unsure if the damage done by the synergy is calculated using the stats of the caster or of the person who used the synergy.

The 18m thing is a bit silly, if the synergy was usable at 15m it would be much more sensible.

Liofa

It is a good skill indeed . It is AOE and gets buffed by Morag Tong as well . Pretty sure it will be decent but the synergy is still not usable , not even for ranged players . Elemental Blockade has a range of 18 meters and no one will be running backwards to activate the synergy for whatever reason . ZOS most likely didn't think of this ^^ Even ranged players do not go further than 18 meters so don't bother about the synergy but it is a good AOE skill . Well not the best in terms of radius (4 meters) . Pretty sure Shrouded Daggers will be preferred unless ZOS removed the 18 meters nonsense . Then it would be useful for whole group due to providing a synergy for tanks to activate Alkosh .

LiquidPony

Liofa wrote: »

It is a good skill indeed . It is AOE and gets buffed by Morag Tong as well . Pretty sure it will be decent but the synergy is still not usable , not even for ranged players . Elemental Blockade has a range of 18 meters and no one will be running backwards to activate the synergy for whatever reason . ZOS most likely didn't think of this ^^ Even ranged players do not go further than 18 meters so don't bother about the synergy but it is a good AOE skill . Well not the best in terms of radius (4 meters) . Pretty sure Shrouded Daggers will be preferred unless ZOS removed the 18 meters nonsense . Then it would be useful for whole group due to providing a synergy for tanks to activate Alkosh .

Yeah ... I was testing it on my No-Bow Double-DW Stamsorc build (lol); the direct damage component (no synergy) actually isn't that bad, although from an efficiency perspective it's not great as it's about the same stamina cost as Razor Caltrops and has to be cast twice as often.

exiars10

Poor man's Razor Caltrops for players who don't want to bother with PvP.
Another meme ability for meme builds.
I don't have anything against meme/un-meta builds. Actually, I really like them as I play them but this ability is just...

Seriously? 18 m ?

Either lower synergy activation radius or increase 4 meters ability radius to something useful. At least 6 m (half of Caltrops).

This meme ability is "useful" when you farm Alik'r Desert/Auridon/Bangkorai dolmens as there are always too many players spread all over to activate it.

Good "possible" usage is in public dungeons if you have friend and one is melee and another one is ranged and you farm bosses but those bosses can be bursted quickly any way so why bother?

The best possible usage is for the zone bosses. One is tanking and another is ranged stamina DD. My guild has from time to time zone bosses farming tours and I know one guild mate uses this. It hits like a truck when activated especially if you have Morag Tong set. This also applies to group delves' bosses (Craglorn).

Group dungeons? Yea, sure if you have bow/bow player like me who can activate it . But it's mostly waste of the slot.

TL; DR
Use as meme at dolmen farming.
Absolutely best usage is for farming zone/group delves' bosses with friend/group - one is tank and another is stamina ranged DD.

So, after all, it's not a meme ability - it's a niche one .

Asmael

It's actually a very good ability - or at least it would be an amazing one, if not for the range restriction. 18m is indeed too much, and after testing it in vMoL and having very few people report getting the synergy prompt, I decided to give it a shot in vAS. An interesting note is that you can fit 2 Shadow Silk per rotation.

For short: the added initial hit added to the damage from other players make it a very potent ability, much better than an extra DoT. Sadly, it only has realistic competitive use in vAS, as other trials will put ranged DDs too far from your target to be of any use.

Definitely, the range restriction should be reduced, since even ranged DDs do not currently benefit outside of very specific scenarios (same for the Inner Fire synergy).

The tooltip can be pretty crazy (see spoiler below), but remember that the synergy still depends on the person activating the synergy, which in most cases is going to be magicka DDs.

TL;DR: Use it for vAS as it clearly outperforms basic DoTs, too restrictive in other scenarios.

LiquidPony

Asmael wrote: »

It's actually a very good ability - or at least it would be an amazing one, if not for the range restriction. 18m is indeed too much, and after testing it in vMoL and having very few people report getting the synergy prompt, I decided to give it a shot in vAS. An interesting note is that you can fit 2 Shadow Silk per rotation.

For short: the added initial hit added to the damage from other players make it a very potent ability, much better than an extra DoT. Sadly, it only has realistic competitive use in vAS, as other trials will put ranged DDs too far from your target to be of any use.

Definitely, the range restriction should be reduced, since even ranged DDs do not currently benefit outside of very specific scenarios (same for the Inner Fire synergy).

The tooltip can be pretty crazy (see spoiler below), but remember that the synergy still depends on the person activating the synergy, which in most cases is going to be magicka DDs.

TL;DR: Use it for vAS as it clearly outperforms basic DoTs, too restrictive in other scenarios.

@Asmael

Thanks for the reply. Funny you should mention it because my group starts vAS+2 progression this week and we had some folks go out and level/morph Shadow Silk thinking it would be strong for this Trial.

What kind of character(s) are you using Shadow Silk on in your group?

Asmael

LiquidPony wrote: »

Asmael wrote: »

It's actually a very good ability - or at least it would be an amazing one, if not for the range restriction. 18m is indeed too much, and after testing it in vMoL and having very few people report getting the synergy prompt, I decided to give it a shot in vAS. An interesting note is that you can fit 2 Shadow Silk per rotation.

For short: the added initial hit added to the damage from other players make it a very potent ability, much better than an extra DoT. Sadly, it only has realistic competitive use in vAS, as other trials will put ranged DDs too far from your target to be of any use.

Definitely, the range restriction should be reduced, since even ranged DDs do not currently benefit outside of very specific scenarios (same for the Inner Fire synergy).

The tooltip can be pretty crazy (see spoiler below), but remember that the synergy still depends on the person activating the synergy, which in most cases is going to be magicka DDs.

TL;DR: Use it for vAS as it clearly outperforms basic DoTs, too restrictive in other scenarios.

@Asmael

Thanks for the reply. Funny you should mention it because my group starts vAS+2 progression this week and we had some folks go out and level/morph Shadow Silk thinking it would be strong for this Trial.

What kind of character(s) are you using Shadow Silk on in your group?

Considering finding people who play stamina in vAS is hard, that I only run a single char (stam DK) and that very few have it morphed or are aware of it - only me and another stamina DK to my knowledge.

Note: I'm a filthy PuG and don't run with a single group anymore. To this day at least - but SCIENCE! never stops!

exiars10

I started to use Shadow Silk in overland content. If only radius was at least 6 m...

LiquidPony

Asmael wrote: »

LiquidPony wrote: »

Asmael wrote: »

It's actually a very good ability - or at least it would be an amazing one, if not for the range restriction. 18m is indeed too much, and after testing it in vMoL and having very few people report getting the synergy prompt, I decided to give it a shot in vAS. An interesting note is that you can fit 2 Shadow Silk per rotation.

For short: the added initial hit added to the damage from other players make it a very potent ability, much better than an extra DoT. Sadly, it only has realistic competitive use in vAS, as other trials will put ranged DDs too far from your target to be of any use.

Definitely, the range restriction should be reduced, since even ranged DDs do not currently benefit outside of very specific scenarios (same for the Inner Fire synergy).

The tooltip can be pretty crazy (see spoiler below), but remember that the synergy still depends on the person activating the synergy, which in most cases is going to be magicka DDs.

TL;DR: Use it for vAS as it clearly outperforms basic DoTs, too restrictive in other scenarios.

@Asmael

Thanks for the reply. Funny you should mention it because my group starts vAS+2 progression this week and we had some folks go out and level/morph Shadow Silk thinking it would be strong for this Trial.

What kind of character(s) are you using Shadow Silk on in your group?

Considering finding people who play stamina in vAS is hard, that I only run a single char (stam DK) and that very few have it morphed or are aware of it - only me and another stamina DK to my knowledge.

Note: I'm a filthy PuG and don't run with a single group anymore. To this day at least - but SCIENCE! never stops!

Ah OK thanks. I was wondering if it would be viable for a tank to run it.

Finedaible

"We want to make synergies easier to use."

Toast_STS

Whenever I use shadowsilk I just turn into a goblin. How do you get it to do damage?