Silver Shards - Too Strong?

kaizen914

So I've been experimenting with 2h stamcro builds.

The bar setup is pretty typical:

Spammable - execute - carve - s trap - siphon
PI - archer - barbed trap - hail - siphon

Colossus on both bars for ease of use. DB is probably best front bar but I'm lazy.

Anyway...Silver Shards has been coming out ahead reliably as a spammable. Ahead of skull and Wrecking blow.

This is on single target, so I have to ask if this is intended. Do people think this is ok?

I like the idea of having more cleave but it seems so unbalanced that it will just get nerfed into the ground in a later patch.

Iskiab

So that isn’t even with evil hunter? I wonder why it’s stronger, better fighter’s guild passives?

kaizen914

No evil Hunter...I don't believe it's worth the gcdbut haven't tested

Wuuffyy

Finally a proper spammable for stamdk stamsorc and stamblade. Thank you ZOS. Ignore the hate. The playerbase will love it. Nerf the fear a bit tho.

SodanTok

It was standardized to be on par with other spammables. Nothing will get nerfed to the ground. It deals around same damage as necro skull or crushing weapon and less than Cutting dive for example and I doubt it outperforms WB.

Only reason this skill might be best (non VMA DW) spammable of next patch is the passive weapon damage it gives to all the skills you will be using instead of spammables because there is no time for spammable

Wuuffyy

SodanTok wrote: »

It was standardized to be on par with other spammables. Nothing will get nerfed to the ground. It deals around same damage as necro skull or crushing weapon and less than Cutting dive for example and I doubt it outperforms WB.

Only reason this skill might be best (non VMA DW) spammable of next patch is the passive weapon damage it gives to all the skills you will be using instead of spammables because there is no time for spammable

Haha lol.

jcm2606

Do not touch this until stamDK and stamsorc have an actually good spammable.

Baphomet

When you can get a tooltip of 10k+ and it does 8k AoE damage on top of the initial hit, it is way, way, way too strong.

Anyone defending this should stay far away from balance discussions.

Unless it’s @ZoS and they realize their massive screw up.

Prutton

It is not overpowered. A bit overtuned in the AoE, but not overpowered at all. Most spammables add some effect on top of dealing damage. The ones without an added effect have superior damage. The added effect of Silver Shards is the AoE damage in a very short range.

kaizen914

Baphomet wrote: »

When you can get a tooltip of 10k+ and it does 8k AoE damage on top of the initial hit, it is way, way, way too strong.

Anyone defending this should stay far away from balance discussions.

Unless it’s @ZoS and they realize their massive screw up.

This right here - everyone saying it's balance for a spammable - YOU ARE RIGHT. It's balanced for a single target spammable.

The AoE portion is really whats getting me. Why is it doing so much aoe damage when other skills it is balanced to be equal to are not?

olsborg

It deals 20% more dmg to vamps and ww right? yikes, pvp

Iskiab

olsborg wrote: »

It deals 20% more dmg to vamps and ww right? yikes, pvp

Plus for just slotting evil hunter it gets boosted 25% along with a crit buff.

SodanTok

Iskiab wrote: »

olsborg wrote: »

It deals 20% more dmg to vamps and ww right? yikes, pvp

Plus for just slotting evil hunter it gets boosted 25% along with a crit buff.

You mean slotting and activating

Iskiab

SodanTok wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

olsborg wrote: »

It deals 20% more dmg to vamps and ww right? yikes, pvp

Plus for just slotting evil hunter it gets boosted 25% along with a crit buff.

You mean slotting and activating

Is it? The change on PTS is from 25% reduced costs of fighter’s guild abilities to 25% increased damage. I assumed it’s a passive and not just from activating the ability.

SodanTok

Iskiab wrote: »

SodanTok wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

olsborg wrote: »

It deals 20% more dmg to vamps and ww right? yikes, pvp

Plus for just slotting evil hunter it gets boosted 25% along with a crit buff.

You mean slotting and activating

Is it? The change on PTS is from 25% reduced costs of fighter’s guild abilities to 25% increased damage. I assumed it’s a passive and not just from activating the ability.

The reduced cost was also active not passive. And so is this.

SodanTok

kaizen914 wrote: »

Baphomet wrote: »

When you can get a tooltip of 10k+ and it does 8k AoE damage on top of the initial hit, it is way, way, way too strong.

Anyone defending this should stay far away from balance discussions.

Unless it’s @ZoS and they realize their massive screw up.

This right here - everyone saying it's balance for a spammable - YOU ARE RIGHT. It's balanced for a single target spammable.

The AoE portion is really whats getting me. Why is it doing so much aoe damage when other skills it is balanced to be equal to are not?

Ever checked other AoE spammable and semi spammable skills?



It does more damage to one target than AoE skill and less in AoE than AoE skills. True, its ranged. But also carve has the whole DoT on it to all targets shtick.

kaizen914

SodanTok wrote: »

kaizen914 wrote: »

Baphomet wrote: »

When you can get a tooltip of 10k+ and it does 8k AoE damage on top of the initial hit, it is way, way, way too strong.

Anyone defending this should stay far away from balance discussions.

Unless it’s @ZoS and they realize their massive screw up.

This right here - everyone saying it's balance for a spammable - YOU ARE RIGHT. It's balanced for a single target spammable.

The AoE portion is really whats getting me. Why is it doing so much aoe damage when other skills it is balanced to be equal to are not?

Ever checked other AoE spammable and semi spammable skills?



It does more damage to one target than AoE skill and less in AoE than AoE skills. True, its ranged. But also carve has the whole DoT on it to all targets shtick.

I'm not following your reasoning. What are other AoE spammable skills? I can think of force pulse which has a cleave effect, but that is significantly less than 80% of the main target damage. Reverse Slice is another that has significant splash damage, but that's an execute and doesn't really have any competition.

Carve definitely does less damage than a spammable on pts when you don't factor in the bleed.

katorga

Yeah, I'll have a bar filled with non-class skills, but why does ZOS persist in creating class passives tied to having class skills slotted?

Question, since shards is aoe, does evasion cut the damage 25%?

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

kaizen914 wrote: »

SodanTok wrote: »

kaizen914 wrote: »

Baphomet wrote: »

When you can get a tooltip of 10k+ and it does 8k AoE damage on top of the initial hit, it is way, way, way too strong.

Anyone defending this should stay far away from balance discussions.

Unless it’s @ZoS and they realize their massive screw up.

This right here - everyone saying it's balance for a spammable - YOU ARE RIGHT. It's balanced for a single target spammable.

The AoE portion is really whats getting me. Why is it doing so much aoe damage when other skills it is balanced to be equal to are not?

Ever checked other AoE spammable and semi spammable skills?



It does more damage to one target than AoE skill and less in AoE than AoE skills. True, its ranged. But also carve has the whole DoT on it to all targets shtick.

I'm not following your reasoning. What are other AoE spammable skills? I can think of force pulse which has a cleave effect, but that is significantly less than 80% of the main target damage. Reverse Slice is another that has significant splash damage, but that's an execute and doesn't really have any competition.

Carve definitely does less damage than a spammable on pts when you don't factor in the bleed.

for the record, here are the aoe spammable skills that all have the same base damage now-

DK
1. Fiery Breath and morphs
2. Dark Talons and morphs
3. Eruptions first hit

necro
1. Death Scythe and morphs

NB

1. Drain Power and morphs

Sorc

1.Shattering Prison

templar

1. Spear Shards and morphs
2. Sun Shield and Radiant Ward
3. Explosive Charge

DW

1. Whirlwind and its morphs

Bow

1. Arrow Spray and its morphs

destro

1. Impulse and its morphs


2h-

1. Cleave and morphs


all these are spammable and do about the same damage. (+/- 2%)

kaizen914

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

kaizen914 wrote: »

SodanTok wrote: »

kaizen914 wrote: »

Baphomet wrote: »

When you can get a tooltip of 10k+ and it does 8k AoE damage on top of the initial hit, it is way, way, way too strong.

Anyone defending this should stay far away from balance discussions.

Unless it’s @ZoS and they realize their massive screw up.

This right here - everyone saying it's balance for a spammable - YOU ARE RIGHT. It's balanced for a single target spammable.

The AoE portion is really whats getting me. Why is it doing so much aoe damage when other skills it is balanced to be equal to are not?

Ever checked other AoE spammable and semi spammable skills?



It does more damage to one target than AoE skill and less in AoE than AoE skills. True, its ranged. But also carve has the whole DoT on it to all targets shtick.

I'm not following your reasoning. What are other AoE spammable skills? I can think of force pulse which has a cleave effect, but that is significantly less than 80% of the main target damage. Reverse Slice is another that has significant splash damage, but that's an execute and doesn't really have any competition.

Carve definitely does less damage than a spammable on pts when you don't factor in the bleed.

for the record, here are the aoe spammable skills that all have the same base damage now-

DK
1. Fiery Breath and morphs
2. Dark Talons and morphs
3. Eruptions first hit

necro
1. Death Scythe and morphs

NB

1. Drain Power and morphs

Sorc

1.Shattering Prison

templar

1. Spear Shards and morphs
2. Sun Shield and Radiant Ward
3. Explosive Charge

DW

1. Whirlwind and its morphs

Bow

1. Arrow Spray and its morphs

destro

1. Impulse and its morphs


2h-

1. Cleave and morphs


all these are spammable and do about the same damage. (+/- 2%)

So I haven't tested all of the class skills, but currently on the pts, my silver shards are sitting at 8032 tooltip damage:

Carve: 6735
Acid Spray: 6735
Whirling blades: 6957

SodanTok

kaizen914 wrote: »

SodanTok wrote: »

kaizen914 wrote: »

Baphomet wrote: »

When you can get a tooltip of 10k+ and it does 8k AoE damage on top of the initial hit, it is way, way, way too strong.

Anyone defending this should stay far away from balance discussions.

Unless it’s @ZoS and they realize their massive screw up.

This right here - everyone saying it's balance for a spammable - YOU ARE RIGHT. It's balanced for a single target spammable.

The AoE portion is really whats getting me. Why is it doing so much aoe damage when other skills it is balanced to be equal to are not?

Ever checked other AoE spammable and semi spammable skills?



It does more damage to one target than AoE skill and less in AoE than AoE skills. True, its ranged. But also carve has the whole DoT on it to all targets shtick.

I'm not following your reasoning. What are other AoE spammable skills? I can think of force pulse which has a cleave effect, but that is significantly less than 80% of the main target damage. Reverse Slice is another that has significant splash damage, but that's an execute and doesn't really have any competition.

Carve definitely does less damage than a spammable on pts when you don't factor in the bleed.

Above this message you got the list from Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

Current version of silvershard is single target spammable with AoE component. As such its stronger on 1 target than AoE spammables, but weaker in AoE as I demonstrated. Already on 2 targets the damage +- equalizes (still not counting carve bleed at all mind you). Whetever that makes it better than any other single target spammable or not can be put to discussion, but calling it OP (not claiming you did, but its definitely going in that direction) is a joke.
Also every other single target spammable is stronger on 1 target. Maybe not enough to make them more interesting, but they are.

Also you should go check PTS. This is forum for PTS. Instead of spewing incorrect statements (tho that seems to be the trend around here when comparing e-peen tooltips).
Saying Force Pulse cleave significantly less than 80% when it is literally 20% stronger -_-

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

So I haven't tested all of the class skills, but currently on the pts, my silver shards are sitting at 8032 tooltip damage:

Carve: 6735
Acid Spray: 6735
Whirling blades: 6957

your higher tool tip with whirling blades is because of higher stats.


so let's take the 8023 and 75% of the is 6017.25. now shards will give you more damage when you are facing only 2 targets. any more than that, other aoe spammable will give you more damage.

silver shards=SS

other aoe spammables= AOESP


1 target
SS-8032
AOESP-6735

2 targets-
SS- 6017.25+8023=14040.25
AOESP- 6735*2= 13470

3 targets-
SS- 6017.25*2+8023 =20057.5
AOESP- 6735*3 = 20205

4 targets-
SS- 6017.25*3+8023 = 26074.75
AOESP- 6735*4 = 26940

5 targets-
SS- 6017.25*4+8023 = 32092
AOESP- 6735*5 = 33675

6 targets-
SS- 6017.25*5+8023 =38109.25
AOESP- 6735*6 = 40410


in my opinion, this is balanced. not even taking into consideration the secondary effect of each, size, damage modifiers, etc etc.


also, the cleave damage on force pulse, here is the tooltip on my magsorc on the pts-




2900*3= 8700, the cleave damage is 9886. so that is 12% stronger, with a huge condition, that the target is burning, concussed or chilled.

kaizen914

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

So I haven't tested all of the class skills, but currently on the pts, my silver shards are sitting at 8032 tooltip damage:

Carve: 6735
Acid Spray: 6735
Whirling blades: 6957

your higher tool tip with whirling blades is because of higher stats.


so let's take the 8023 and 75% of the is 6017.25. now shards will give you more damage when you are facing only 2 targets. any more than that, other aoe spammable will give you more damage.

silver shards=SS

other aoe spammables= AOESP


1 target
SS-8032
AOESP-6735

2 targets-
SS- 6017.25+8023=14040.25
AOESP- 6735*2= 13470

3 targets-
SS- 6017.25*2+8023 =20057.5
AOESP- 6735*3 = 20205

4 targets-
SS- 6017.25*3+8023 = 26074.75
AOESP- 6735*4 = 26940

5 targets-
SS- 6017.25*4+8023 = 32092
AOESP- 6735*5 = 33675

6 targets-
SS- 6017.25*5+8023 =38109.25
AOESP- 6735*6 = 40410


in my opinion, this is balanced. not even taking into consideration the secondary effect of each, size, damage modifiers, etc etc.


also, the cleave damage on force pulse, here is the tooltip on my magsorc on the pts-




2900*3= 8700, the cleave damage is 9886. so that is 12% stronger, with a huge condition, that the target is burning, concussed or chilled.

The issue isn't the damage of the AoE, it's that it's tacked on to a single target spammable, meaning you get very high, completely incidental AoE damage without losing out on single target dps.

I'm interested in the AoE damage vs other single target spammables.

Currently this is a two in one skill - it is competitive or possibly even the strongest single target spammable outside of flurry while being very competitive for AoE dps as you show in your math above.

This, combined with the fighters guild passives make it a no brainier for many builds.

LiquidPony

kaizen914 wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

So I haven't tested all of the class skills, but currently on the pts, my silver shards are sitting at 8032 tooltip damage:

Carve: 6735
Acid Spray: 6735
Whirling blades: 6957

your higher tool tip with whirling blades is because of higher stats.


so let's take the 8023 and 75% of the is 6017.25. now shards will give you more damage when you are facing only 2 targets. any more than that, other aoe spammable will give you more damage.

silver shards=SS

other aoe spammables= AOESP


1 target
SS-8032
AOESP-6735

2 targets-
SS- 6017.25+8023=14040.25
AOESP- 6735*2= 13470

3 targets-
SS- 6017.25*2+8023 =20057.5
AOESP- 6735*3 = 20205

4 targets-
SS- 6017.25*3+8023 = 26074.75
AOESP- 6735*4 = 26940

5 targets-
SS- 6017.25*4+8023 = 32092
AOESP- 6735*5 = 33675

6 targets-
SS- 6017.25*5+8023 =38109.25
AOESP- 6735*6 = 40410


in my opinion, this is balanced. not even taking into consideration the secondary effect of each, size, damage modifiers, etc etc.


also, the cleave damage on force pulse, here is the tooltip on my magsorc on the pts-




2900*3= 8700, the cleave damage is 9886. so that is 12% stronger, with a huge condition, that the target is burning, concussed or chilled.

The issue isn't the damage of the AoE, it's that it's tacked on to a single target spammable, meaning you get very high, completely incidental AoE damage without losing out on single target dps.

I'm interested in the AoE damage vs other single target spammables.

Currently this is a two in one skill - it is competitive or possibly even the strongest single target spammable outside of flurry while being very competitive for AoE dps as you show in your math above.

This, combined with the fighters guild passives make it a no brainier for many builds.

Possibly even the strongest single target spammable?

On a stamsorc on PTS, here are the crit values I get from various attacks:

Rapid Strikes: 17685
Crushing Weapon: 15369
Silver Shards: 14881
Wrecking Blow: 21243
Shrouded Daggers: 12810
Carve: 11799

Really doesn't seem that out of whack to me.

Each of those options has pros and cons ...

Rapid Strikes is just a straight spammable.

Crushing Weapon has additional damage via Spell Orb and a heal for 25% of its damage and grants a damage shield for slotting.

Silver Shards has splash damage and grants +3% weapon damage for slotting.

Wrecking Blow is by far the strongest spammable, and it grants Empower, but it has a cast time.

Shrouded Daggers hits 3 targets, can be used as an interrupt, and can grant Major Brutality.

Carve is the weakest option, but it also has a significant bleed and can be massively buffed for AoE using the Master 2H.

Also worth noting that the weapon abilities can proc enchants and poisons whereas Crushing Weapon and Silver Shards cannot.

I would say that the best comparison for Silver Shards is actually Acid Spray.

On a slightly different setup with a bunch of target skeletons, I see Acid Spray critting against *all targets* (8 of them) for 11441 with a 4s DoT attached versus Silver Shards critting for 13090 on the primary target and 10212 on the additional targets.

kaizen914

LiquidPony wrote: »

kaizen914 wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

So I haven't tested all of the class skills, but currently on the pts, my silver shards are sitting at 8032 tooltip damage:

Carve: 6735
Acid Spray: 6735
Whirling blades: 6957

your higher tool tip with whirling blades is because of higher stats.


so let's take the 8023 and 75% of the is 6017.25. now shards will give you more damage when you are facing only 2 targets. any more than that, other aoe spammable will give you more damage.

silver shards=SS

other aoe spammables= AOESP


1 target
SS-8032
AOESP-6735

2 targets-
SS- 6017.25+8023=14040.25
AOESP- 6735*2= 13470

3 targets-
SS- 6017.25*2+8023 =20057.5
AOESP- 6735*3 = 20205

4 targets-
SS- 6017.25*3+8023 = 26074.75
AOESP- 6735*4 = 26940

5 targets-
SS- 6017.25*4+8023 = 32092
AOESP- 6735*5 = 33675

6 targets-
SS- 6017.25*5+8023 =38109.25
AOESP- 6735*6 = 40410


in my opinion, this is balanced. not even taking into consideration the secondary effect of each, size, damage modifiers, etc etc.


also, the cleave damage on force pulse, here is the tooltip on my magsorc on the pts-




2900*3= 8700, the cleave damage is 9886. so that is 12% stronger, with a huge condition, that the target is burning, concussed or chilled.

The issue isn't the damage of the AoE, it's that it's tacked on to a single target spammable, meaning you get very high, completely incidental AoE damage without losing out on single target dps.

I'm interested in the AoE damage vs other single target spammables.

Currently this is a two in one skill - it is competitive or possibly even the strongest single target spammable outside of flurry while being very competitive for AoE dps as you show in your math above.

This, combined with the fighters guild passives make it a no brainier for many builds.

Possibly even the strongest single target spammable?

On a stamsorc on PTS, here are the crit values I get from various attacks:

Rapid Strikes: 17685
Crushing Weapon: 15369
Silver Shards: 14881
Wrecking Blow: 21243
Shrouded Daggers: 12810
Carve: 11799

Really doesn't seem that out of whack to me.

Each of those options has pros and cons ...

Rapid Strikes is just a straight spammable.

Crushing Weapon has additional damage via Spell Orb and a heal for 25% of its damage and grants a damage shield for slotting.

Silver Shards has splash damage and grants +3% weapon damage for slotting.

Wrecking Blow is by far the strongest spammable, and it grants Empower, but it has a cast time.

Shrouded Daggers hits 3 targets, can be used as an interrupt, and can grant Major Brutality.

Carve is the weakest option, but it also has a significant bleed and can be massively buffed for AoE using the Master 2H.

Also worth noting that the weapon abilities can proc enchants and poisons whereas Crushing Weapon and Silver Shards cannot.

I would say that the best comparison for Silver Shards is actually Acid Spray.

On a slightly different setup with a bunch of target skeletons, I see Acid Spray critting against *all targets* (8 of them) for 11441 with a 4s DoT attached versus Silver Shards critting for 13090 on the primary target and 10212 on the additional targets.

Speaking entirely from a pve trials point of view:

So carve is definitely intended to serve more as a DoT going forward. It is slotted and used once per rotation to apply that.

Shrouded daggers seems more like a utility skill.

Crushing weapon seems like it could use a look...dont think it's especially popular. Maybe for very heal intensive fights?

So this leaves WB and SS...

1. Can you use WB with the same frequency as other spammables? I have not been able to even though the cast time is nerfed. Maybe it's latency, but I get one less WB use than SS use per DoT refresh cycle. It also lacks the passives that SS provides. This matters for 2h more because 2h passives are weaker than DW and it relies on execute more anyway.

2. What situations do you not need the splash damage more than the WB damage?

vCR HM and vSS HMs both heavily reward AoE damage

vMoL you have adds as well but then you also get the daedric damage bonus.

vHoF HM is maybe the least AoE intensive?

Anyway I appreciate you providing some numbers to back this up.

liningtonsweldingb16_ESO

20% bonus dmg to werewolves and vamps on top of the already great damage... poor poor werewolves

Kolzki

Having tested it at the weekend I can add snipe to the list of skills that are way stronger than silver shards in a rotation.

It might be useful if you know that you’ll be hitting undead/Daedra, particularly in trash.

liningtonsweldingb16_ESO

Silvershards in pvp at least will be extreme good

kaizen914

Kolzki wrote: »

Having tested it at the weekend I can add snipe to the list of skills that are way stronger than silver shards in a rotation.

It might be useful if you know that you’ll be hitting undead/Daedra, particularly in trash.

I've been testing on iron atro target dummy, which I believe is not daedra.

LiquidPony

kaizen914 wrote: »

LiquidPony wrote: »

kaizen914 wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

So I haven't tested all of the class skills, but currently on the pts, my silver shards are sitting at 8032 tooltip damage:

Carve: 6735
Acid Spray: 6735
Whirling blades: 6957

your higher tool tip with whirling blades is because of higher stats.


so let's take the 8023 and 75% of the is 6017.25. now shards will give you more damage when you are facing only 2 targets. any more than that, other aoe spammable will give you more damage.

silver shards=SS

other aoe spammables= AOESP


1 target
SS-8032
AOESP-6735

2 targets-
SS- 6017.25+8023=14040.25
AOESP- 6735*2= 13470

3 targets-
SS- 6017.25*2+8023 =20057.5
AOESP- 6735*3 = 20205

4 targets-
SS- 6017.25*3+8023 = 26074.75
AOESP- 6735*4 = 26940

5 targets-
SS- 6017.25*4+8023 = 32092
AOESP- 6735*5 = 33675

6 targets-
SS- 6017.25*5+8023 =38109.25
AOESP- 6735*6 = 40410


in my opinion, this is balanced. not even taking into consideration the secondary effect of each, size, damage modifiers, etc etc.


also, the cleave damage on force pulse, here is the tooltip on my magsorc on the pts-




2900*3= 8700, the cleave damage is 9886. so that is 12% stronger, with a huge condition, that the target is burning, concussed or chilled.

The issue isn't the damage of the AoE, it's that it's tacked on to a single target spammable, meaning you get very high, completely incidental AoE damage without losing out on single target dps.

I'm interested in the AoE damage vs other single target spammables.

Currently this is a two in one skill - it is competitive or possibly even the strongest single target spammable outside of flurry while being very competitive for AoE dps as you show in your math above.

This, combined with the fighters guild passives make it a no brainier for many builds.

Possibly even the strongest single target spammable?

On a stamsorc on PTS, here are the crit values I get from various attacks:

Rapid Strikes: 17685
Crushing Weapon: 15369
Silver Shards: 14881
Wrecking Blow: 21243
Shrouded Daggers: 12810
Carve: 11799

Really doesn't seem that out of whack to me.

Each of those options has pros and cons ...

Rapid Strikes is just a straight spammable.

Crushing Weapon has additional damage via Spell Orb and a heal for 25% of its damage and grants a damage shield for slotting.

Silver Shards has splash damage and grants +3% weapon damage for slotting.

Wrecking Blow is by far the strongest spammable, and it grants Empower, but it has a cast time.

Shrouded Daggers hits 3 targets, can be used as an interrupt, and can grant Major Brutality.

Carve is the weakest option, but it also has a significant bleed and can be massively buffed for AoE using the Master 2H.

Also worth noting that the weapon abilities can proc enchants and poisons whereas Crushing Weapon and Silver Shards cannot.

I would say that the best comparison for Silver Shards is actually Acid Spray.

On a slightly different setup with a bunch of target skeletons, I see Acid Spray critting against *all targets* (8 of them) for 11441 with a 4s DoT attached versus Silver Shards critting for 13090 on the primary target and 10212 on the additional targets.

Speaking entirely from a pve trials point of view:

So carve is definitely intended to serve more as a DoT going forward. It is slotted and used once per rotation to apply that.

Shrouded daggers seems more like a utility skill.

Crushing weapon seems like it could use a look...dont think it's especially popular. Maybe for very heal intensive fights?

So this leaves WB and SS...

1. Can you use WB with the same frequency as other spammables? I have not been able to even though the cast time is nerfed. Maybe it's latency, but I get one less WB use than SS use per DoT refresh cycle. It also lacks the passives that SS provides. This matters for 2h more because 2h passives are weaker than DW and it relies on execute more anyway.

2. What situations do you not need the splash damage more than the WB damage?

vCR HM and vSS HMs both heavily reward AoE damage

vMoL you have adds as well but then you also get the daedric damage bonus.

vHoF HM is maybe the least AoE intensive?

Anyway I appreciate you providing some numbers to back this up.

Carve/Brawler is used as both a DoT and a spammable for cleave-intensive fights, particularly when used with a Master 2H. Lots of people run this setup in vSS, for trash, for Lokke, and for Nahvii. It's a great setup for trash in any Trial, as it will hit *much* harder than Silver Shards when buffed up with Titanic Cleave.

See for instance the setup here used in Hodor's God Slayer run: https://www.esologs.com/reports/KRjNA3Qnk2dyPt7W#fight=last&type=summary&source=9

I honestly can't see any circumstance where I'd want to use Silver Shards as a spammable in PvE. Maybe I'm wrong. On a stamnecro DW setup I don't even see where you'd have space to run it. I guess you could replace Venom Skull but in most fights you barely use Venom Skull at all because you've got other DoTs to keep up and deep in execute it's Whirling Blades spam FTW. And taking Venom Skull off the bar for Silver Shards is a big loss in crit chance in execute. And given the current state of PTS, no stam build has time to spam Silver Shards when they already don't even have time to buff all of their ST DoTs with Cruel Flurry.

I suppose for really cleave intensive fights like Lokke or Nahvii, Silver Shards could be an option if you want to go DW rather than 2H or Bow/Bow. But that's fine. It doesn't seem OP and it's nice to have options. Personally I'll stick with 2H for those fights because beyond Carve/Brawler, I've got splash damage and Reverse Slice and OP sustain.

kaizen914

Good points.

I might use SS just so I can run a monster set and have slightly higher boss damage (at the expense of the very strong carves that Master's gets).

Sustain seems much better this patch, but you're right it is a little harder to sustain with SS. Can still get through a 21m dummy but with WB my resource basically doesn't drop.