Soul Assault

heavier

Incrementally increasing ignore % of targets spell resistance each tick up to 48% at 6 seconds (I'm going to recommend to SA tick 12 times so it would ignore 4% more spell resistance for each tick)
Proc minor defile on target and caster after 2 seconds of channel
Proc major defile, minor vulnerability and minor sorcery on caster after 4 seconds of channel
Given DPS got nerfed and the cost of the Ult increased so that it no longer is viable I recommend these changes to make it viable again.

The idea behind these suggestions is to create a greater risk for staying in the channel for its full duration, while simultaneously ramping up its damage potential on targets who have a lot of spell resistance. Given that the only defensive resource for the caster during the channel is heal over time and the tendency for sufficient heal over time to allow targets to simply shrug off Soul Assault like it is nothing, minor defile goes on both the caster and target after 2 seconds.
After 4 seconds (8 ticks), an aggregated 18% of the target's resistance has been ignored, and the opportunity to strike down the caster so they must abort the channel increases greatly. Now they have greatly reduced heal over time, and a flat damage taken debuff. Minor sorcery is attached for the final burst resulting in a potential total of 3% of damage increase only possible if the channel is held for its full duration and if the caster didn't already have minor sorcery.
The aggregated amount of resistance ignored on the target can be as high as 26%.

The beauty of soul assault is knowing when you can cast it where you will be uninterrupted.

heavier

I also would consider a 500 ms to 1 second delay on any dodge after cancelling Soul Assault, making it harder to avoid an attack that would likely be a mortal blow and increasing the amount of commitment needed to risk dealing maximum damage.

MartiniDaniels

Proc minor sorcery - this will never happen, such buffs are unique to class and poisons. Also all this debuffs on caster are not an issue when SA is cast from the zerg, and it was mostly dangerous when cast from the zerg.
I agree though that SA may need some cautious, small and well-thought buff, because now ballista has same cost but is more powerful.

CynicK

I use it, the damage is the biggest of the single target i have access to besides overload but it gives me a quantity of damage for a quantity of ultimate and overload seems to eat all the ultimate.
The only big problem is it takes 6 seconds of eternal channeling and the damage is not as good as toxic barrage and does not have a secondary utility like it, and some people that know block it but i am mild satisfied with it it is not the ray of death i hoped for but leaves people very very touched.
It could use some improvement.

heavier

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

Proc minor sorcery - this will never happen, such buffs are unique to class and poisons. Also all this debuffs on caster are not an issue when SA is cast from the zerg, and it was mostly dangerous when cast from the zerg.

Mostly unbased disagreement for the sake of having an opinion. Maybe you notice SA more in zergs because it's a bright blue long line while most of the other Ults are fairly discrete. Big fights bring smarter fighters, almost contrary zergling meme.

I agree though that SA may need some cautious, small and well-thought buff, because now ballista has same cost but is more powerful.

x should be more powerful because y is better and x should be just as good as y is babby's first balance logic.
It results in everything being equal and flat feeling combat. Ballista is the reciprocal single target DoT of SA in that the caster is completely free to tank, kite, dodge, DPS, heal or what have you. Turning SA into Ballista doesn't help anyone.

CynicK wrote: »

I use it, the damage is the biggest of the single target i have access to besides overload but it gives me a quantity of damage for a quantity of ultimate and overload seems to eat all the ultimate.
The only big problem is it takes 6 seconds of eternal channeling and the damage is not as good as toxic barrage and does not have a secondary utility like it, and some people that know block it but i am mild satisfied with it it is not the ray of death i hoped for but leaves people very very touched.
It could use some improvement.

I just switched to Berserker Strike. The DPS of SA is just too low. Now it's better to be able to hit hard instantly and execute + Berserker buffs your resistances.

heavier

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

cautious, small and well-thought buff

you came to the right thread

small

no, lol

Berserker Rage

• Completely ignores the targets resistance
• Casts in .4 seconds
• Grants you resistances equal to the amount ignored
• Grants CC immunity

I just put on lvl 1 Berserker Strike in Cyro and already it's 1000x better.

MartiniDaniels

heavier wrote: »

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

cautious, small and well-thought buff

you came to the right thread

small

no, lol

Berserker Rage

• Completely ignores the targets resistance
• Casts in .4 seconds
• Grants you resistances equal to the amount ignored
• Grants CC immunity

I just put on lvl 1 Berserker Strike in Cyro and already it's 1000x better.

All morphs of berserker strike are dodgeable, and ability itself while delivers quite a punch, still requires proper combo execution and skill. Launching undodgeable spammable ~100k tooltip after curse/mage wrath does not required any skill before nerf. Now I didn't remember any successful use of SA against me after nerf... so I think it should be buffed. But 100% not in terms of damage. Maybe make it work like zaan, i.e. very high damage at last ticks but very low damage at first ticks. Maybe add non-channeling, ballista-like morph. Maybe give caster some extra protection/healing while channeling. But not plain buff to damage.

Sergykid

it was decently used before, now it's non-existent. I even had to change my playstyle from single target ranged to aoe melee, because i had no option as magicka for a single target range.

Anyron

Damage is fine
Cast time is fine
Duration is fine
You are stuck in animation, so unlike ballista (bow ult) you have to suffer through enemy counterburst - its fine
It breaks when los is lost. - Its fine

What isnt fine is it grants "detection" on attacked target, but only for fragmen of its whole duration. Why its only 3 seconds when longer duration of Soul Assault is channeled for 6 seconds?

Every NB can just ignore your ulti - when you are completely vulnerable to counterattack- after 3 seconds of duration

THIS made that skill useless. It was used to kill ever-rolling-stone speedblades

Xvorg

Old SA was amazing. It had a lower dmg but went through block.

Now it is really useless

heavier

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

heavier wrote: »

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

cautious, small and well-thought buff

you came to the right thread

small

no, lol

Berserker Rage

• Completely ignores the targets resistance
• Casts in .4 seconds
• Grants you resistances equal to the amount ignored
• Grants CC immunity

I just put on lvl 1 Berserker Strike in Cyro and already it's 1000x better.

All morphs of berserker strike are dodgeable, and ability itself while delivers quite a punch, still requires proper combo execution and skill. Launching undodgeable spammable ~100k tooltip after curse/mage wrath does not required any skill before nerf. Now I didn't remember any successful use of SA against me after nerf... so I think it should be buffed. But 100% not in terms of damage. Maybe make it work like zaan, i.e. very high damage at last ticks but very low damage at first ticks. Maybe add non-channeling, ballista-like morph. Maybe give caster some extra protection/healing while channeling. But not plain buff to damage.

We're more or less on the same page and you see what ought to be done, it's just that my posts brilliantly address every concern you raise and that seems to be something you've turned a blind eye to.

Sergykid wrote: »

it was decently used before, now it's non-existent. I even had to change my playstyle from single target ranged to aoe melee, because i had no option as magicka for a single target range.

Yea, I guess it's a blessing in disguise in that it evicted me from my previous playstyle and now I get to try new thing.

Anyron wrote: »

Damage is fine
Cast time is fine
Duration is fine
You are stuck in animation, so unlike ballista (bow ult) you have to suffer through enemy counterburst - its fine
It breaks when los is lost. - Its fine

What isnt fine is it grants "detection" on attacked target, but only for fragmen of its whole duration. Why its only 3 seconds when longer duration of Soul Assault is channeled for 6 seconds?

Every NB can just ignore your ulti - when you are completely vulnerable to counterattack- after 3 seconds of duration

THIS made that skill useless. It was used to kill ever-rolling-stone speedblades

I found that in the previous meta 3 seconds of not being able to cloak was fine if you timed things right. maybe it could have been 4 and things would have been better. I rolled penetration though and cloaky types generally have decent resistances combined with low HP, so it might have worked out better for me because penetration works well against low HP ppl.

Xvorg wrote: »

Old SA was amazing. It had a lower dmg but went through block.

Now it is really useless

I think blocking is a valid counter considering there isn't any other.

brandonv516

Anyron wrote: »

Damage is fine
Cast time is fine
Duration is fine
You are stuck in animation, so unlike ballista (bow ult) you have to suffer through enemy counterburst - its fine
It breaks when los is lost. - Its fine

What isnt fine is it grants "detection" on attacked target, but only for fragmen of its whole duration. Why its only 3 seconds when longer duration of Soul Assault is channeled for 6 seconds?

Every NB can just ignore your ulti - when you are completely vulnerable to counterattack- after 3 seconds of duration

THIS made that skill useless. It was used to kill ever-rolling-stone speedblades

Biased is biased. "Is fine" though.

Anyron

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

heavier wrote: »

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

cautious, small and well-thought buff

you came to the right thread

small

no, lol

Berserker Rage

• Completely ignores the targets resistance
• Casts in .4 seconds
• Grants you resistances equal to the amount ignored
• Grants CC immunity

I just put on lvl 1 Berserker Strike in Cyro and already it's 1000x better.

All morphs of berserker strike are dodgeable, and ability itself while delivers quite a punch, still requires proper combo execution and skill. Launching undodgeable spammable ~100k tooltip after curse/mage wrath does not required any skill before nerf. Now I didn't remember any successful use of SA against me after nerf... so I think it should be buffed. But 100% not in terms of damage. Maybe make it work like zaan, i.e. very high damage at last ticks but very low damage at first ticks. Maybe add non-channeling, ballista-like morph. Maybe give caster some extra protection/healing while channeling. But not plain buff to damage.

Isnt Soul Assault dodgeable, just as zaan?
To be clear - you can roll it through whole duration of Soul Assault without taking any damage, or you can use that chanelling player is stuck in animation and use your own ulti to scare him and let him cancel it.

Xvorg

Xvorg wrote: »

Old SA was amazing. It had a lower dmg but went through block.

Now it is really useless

I think blocking is a valid counter considering there isn't any other.[/quote]

well, at that time was interruptable and since the dmg was lower you just had to open de gap.

The problem was the snare it had