Hello! Would YOU like to see these normal vampire NPC skills as a part of the vampire player rework?

Vevvev · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

6.0.2. Patch notes had only this line in the Art part.

"Figure
Adjusted the facial features of the Vampire Ultimate Transformation."

Still no changes to the vampire abilities or passives.

Noxavian · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

Vevvev wrote: »

6.0.2. Patch notes had only this line in the Art part.

"Figure
Adjusted the facial features of the Vampire Ultimate Transformation."

Still no changes to the vampire abilities or passives.

Ah yes, because the face is what people had issue with. Where are our wings???

XomRhoK · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

Vevvev wrote: »

6.0.2. Patch notes had only this line in the Art part.

"Figure
Adjusted the facial features of the Vampire Ultimate Transformation."

Still no changes to the vampire abilities or passives.

I just checked PTS, seems they changed mouth of the Blood Scion, now it looks similar to Vampire Lord's one with visible teeths, good change, but definitely not what I was hoping for

And while i compared mouths of Blood Scion and Vampire Lord i noticed that Vampire Lord have smaller horns. Seems like a plan for another PTS week

After this, 2nd week, when ZOS usually start to make balance fixes, i almost lost hope for any good changes for vampires. Now i hope that they will adjust visuals of Vampiric Drain and Blood Mist, but anyway damage of this skills are gutted now... And gameplay with pure vampire skills feels boring for me now, almost pure Eviscerate spam.

Vevvev · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

Interesting.... they still need wings though. I know I said long ago that the Blood Scion should look different but I didn't mean from them to be wingless. And Eviscerate spam is basically what vampire is now on the PTS, and I do agree they need to change the visual of the vampire drain. It is so weird for it to be so bright and be green or yellow after getting morphed.

XomRhoK · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

I just thought, that ZOS could use all that cool skill animations of vampire NPCs in item sets, BUT!!! at vampire centric chapter there is not a single vampire themed item set... For example, they can create item set which replaced dodge roll with bat swarm dash, in addition to avoiding damage it will damage all enemies at the path.

Noxavian · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

XomRhoK wrote: »

I just thought, that ZOS could use all that cool skill animations of vampire NPCs in item sets, BUT!!! at vampire centric chapter there is not a single vampire themed item set... For example, they can create item set which replaced dodge roll with bat swarm dash, in addition to avoiding damage it will damage all enemies at the path.

Imagine having a vampire themed chapter with 0 vampire rewards or item sets. Love it.

Spectral_Force · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

I just had another interesting idea, though this might not align with ZOS's vision for skills and how skills currently operate in general - turn morphs into sidegrades of the base ability, rather than upgrades. This would allow ZOS to cram more abilities into a single 5+1 skill line, as long as the sidegrade morphs still make sense mechanically and thematically.
For example, here are some of the skill line changes I've come up with, along with justifications from both mechanical and thematic standpoints:

Arterial Burst, morphing into Feral Slash (stamina morph) or Exhilarating Drain.
Thematic justification: this ability is how vampires dispatch their enemies, either by clawing them physically (Feral Slash), draining them magically (Exhilarating Drain), or a mixture of both (Arterial Burst).
Mechanical justification: this ability is your main spammable. If you keep the base morph, you will have a melee Magicka spammable that can be woven with light attacks and other abilities. The Stamina morph will give Stampires a spammable (it's here mostly because it's been widely requested by players). The Drain morph will sacrifice some of the damage potential of the base skill (still needs a substantial damage buff though) as well as the ability to weave in exchange for longer range, self-heal and the added utility of generating ultimate.
Elusive Mist, morphing into Blood Mist or a Gap Closer (see my previous post for ideas).
Thematic justification: you become incorporeal for some time, then rematerialize (possibly somewhere else).
Mechanical justification: this is your "oh crap" ability. Elusive mist is "oh crap, I need to get out". Blood Mist is "oh crap, I'm low". The gap closer is "oh crap, I'm out of range". Note that all of them will proc Strike from the Shadows, since they are all in the same morph family. All three will also remove snares and roots. I reckon Elusive Mist will be most intriguing for Healers, Blood Mist - for Tanks and solo builds, and the gap closer will be most taken by DD, especially those who use one of the melee spammables.
Ultimate - Devouring Swarm (Live server ultimate), morphing into Bat Scion or Perfect Scion.
Thematic justifcation: this is the culmination of your vampiric abilities. Unmorphed, you cannot turn into a Scion yet; you instead summon a cloud of ravenous bats. Bat Scion will preserve the bats (though with diminished effectiveness). Perfect Scion will allow you to fully focus on your Scion form, ditching the bats entirely in exchange for longer transformation duration (I've outlined my ideas for both Scion morphs in my previous post).
Mechanical justification: Devouring Swarm, as it currently functions on Live, is a solid AoE damage burst that also gives you massive heals for the entire duration; it's great for farming trash mobs and, since you can still generate ultimate while the bats are active, you can use it very often with the right build (especially when farming zombies/daedra thanks to Banish the Wicked). Swarm will also be the ultimate of choice for people who don't like the look of Scion. Perfect Scion loses the AoE component of bats in exchange for making you more powerful in every way for a relatively long time (you get increased resource pools, resulting in higher damage, plus you heal for a portion of damage you do). Bat Scion is a mixture of both, having a shorter duration than Perfect Scion, but still retaining the bat AoE (though with diminished strength).

As you can see, we've used two ability slots and the Ultimate slot to introduce what is essentially nine different abilities that are all useful in different situations and for different builds. Most notably, we utilised the base morph slot, which is usually wasted in the grand scheme of things because it's a direct downgrade to at least one of its morphs. And we still have three ability slots to go, meaning we can theoretically introduce nine more abilities. Obviously, the difficulty with this approach is that we can't just cram, say, a spammable AoE, a single-target DoT and a group heal all into the same morph family - the link between the base ability and its morphs must make sense mechanically and thematically. But with some creativity this approach is more than possible. Hell, it doesn't even need to make sense - Restoring Aura to Repentance morph is a thing.
Unfortunately, this approach will be difficult to use if we were to try to use, recycle and repurpose existing vampire resources - apart from what I've already mentioned, we have a toggleable damage buff and a cone/circular stun that allows social interaction (for players) and a combat feed, a blood gargoyle, a blood spit and a bat AoE (for NPCs), and they don't mesh together very well. But compromises can be made, and I'd be happy with an inconsistent approach if it meant that we got more ability options.

Cameron991 · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

2Weenies wrote: »

I'm definitely loving the bat teleport gap closer. If I were to do the Vamp active skill line (thematically, I couldn't possibly do the numbers to make them balanced), I'd go...
Spammable damage skill. Perhaps combine Eviscerate with a quick blood magic projectile, so you can either cast from afar for poking, or deal more damage in melee range due to both the swipe and projectile connecting. Can be morphed to deal a bleeding DoT with a HoT (stamina) or casts a slower moving blood ball for more damage and cleave.

The bat teleport gap closer. No stun, has a certain range limit and cast time, but can be ground targeted to either escape, sweep past opponents for tricky plays, or chasing. Can be morphed to become mist form, get rid of the cast time and gain a heal, or have an extended range and deal more damage (stamina).

The blood siphon with CC. Perhaps instead of just looking like you're gnawing at thin air or slurping noodles without using your hands, you use telekinesis or some blood magic to drag the enemy to you, then chomp on their neck for a second or two to regain some health. Either can become a stronger CC (stamina) or a stronger burst heal morph.

Mesmerize. I actually really love the ability thematically, but perhaps instead of a stun, it makes trash mobs "pacified" (yellow) for a short duration. I also like the idea of using it in order to interact with NPCs who're too scared of you because you're a vampiric beast. You can also morph it into either a longer duration, to quickly skip trash fights, or to the stun, if you're more combat oriented.

BATS. They need more love. The ground targeted AoE could work, and deals DoT. Can either morph to add a heal to both the caster and any ally in the circle (stamina), or a morph that casts it surrounding you like the old bat ult and increase all recoveries for the duration.

Reworked Blood Scion Ult. Hear me out, now: instead of becoming a big ol' beastie like a Werewolf or a Necromancer, why not make it a temporary buff like Blood Frenzy, but without the health drain risk? Your vampire does a ghastly roar and becomes empowered with blood magic, complete with fancy visual effects. All basic attacks you make can heal you a bit. One morph focuses more on blood magic, making your character spattered with gore and making a small AoE centered around them that drains even more health from enemies to you, and another morph focuses on your brutality, increasing the damage you deal and reducing the damage you take. Either way, you're gonna slurp out all the blood.

Now, you may be wondering, "2Weenies, what in Azura's ample bosom is all this? A lot of things heal yourself."

Well, yeah.

I'm a bloody vampire draining the life out of you, of course your blood should heal me. Plus, if they're to keep that -100% health recovery debuff for stage 4 vampirism, you should actually have ways of regaining your HP outside of the lukewarm pee stream that is the current Vampiric Drain or by utilizing non-vamp abilities. Playing a whole arse vampire skill line should be a dance of stealing health and dealing damage, not draining your own HP to do more damage.

I know the whole idea is supposed to be "high risk, high reward," but it certainly doesn't feel or look that way currently. Just give us the fancy, badass animations and blood magic, no more of this Vampire Lord wannabe nonsense. If I wanted to be a Vampire Lord, I'd just play Skyrim.

I honestly agree with everything you said on those abilities however I actually still want the blood scion ultimate look at least. I’m a sucker for the big beastly vampire look I love it! So I would like all of the stuff you said but keep the vampire scion look😂

WraithShadow13 · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

To be honest, I was really looking forward to the reVamp but once we saw what it was on PTS, i completely lost interest in the whole thing... Minus new feeding animations. i like that THAT'S more like the blade of woe.

Personally, the whole scion form was like a cheap knock off from the Vampire lord (queue member-berries). yeah, it would look cool to fight one but it's not the same great design of the VL and it's ridiculously oversized. Not to mention, i lose out on my Batswarm ultimate, since the transformation is a deal-breaker for me. I like the Bloodmist morph but all the other abilities just seemed to be bland and could have easily been nightblade abilities. Personally, i would love to see more abilities that involve the bats, feeding as an attack/heal, or just powers that seem more lore-friendly. That Bat lunge the NPCs have would be great. There are just a lot of ways this revamp could have felt more vampiric or lore related but as it stands, and likely will hit live, it's just a huge disappointment for me. More so, if we're just getting this and not a new class like the last two years.

Noxavian · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

WraithShadow13 wrote: »

To be honest, I was really looking forward to the reVamp but once we saw what it was on PTS, i completely lost interest in the whole thing... Minus new feeding animations. i like that THAT'S more like the blade of woe.

Personally, the whole scion form was like a cheap knock off from the Vampire lord (queue member-berries). yeah, it would look cool to fight one but it's not the same great design of the VL and it's ridiculously oversized. Not to mention, i lose out on my Batswarm ultimate, since the transformation is a deal-breaker for me. I like the Bloodmist morph but all the other abilities just seemed to be bland and could have easily been nightblade abilities. Personally, i would love to see more abilities that involve the bats, feeding as an attack/heal, or just powers that seem more lore-friendly. That Bat lunge the NPCs have would be great. There are just a lot of ways this revamp could have felt more vampiric or lore related but as it stands, and likely will hit live, it's just a huge disappointment for me. More so, if we're just getting this and not a new class like the last two years.

Exactly! I can agree with this a lot.

Cerbolt · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

I've wanted to make a full vampire build since I started playing this game and to have what could have been flaunted in my face by npcs is just painful

Cameron991 · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

As every day passes more and more people are asking for them to look at adding some more abilities like the bat gap closer and more, hopefully zos listens to this bc literally all I see on the forums is how we want to feel like vampires no berserkers and I couldn’t agree more with that. Make us feel like vampires!

Saelent · May 2020

Yes! The abilities shown should be mixed in somehow/replace what we presently have.

Cameron991 wrote: »

As every day passes more and more people are asking for them to look at adding some more abilities like the bat gap closer and more, hopefully zos listens to this bc literally all I see on the forums is how we want to feel like vampires no berserkers and I couldn’t agree more with that. Make us feel like vampires!

I’d love the other skills added, if a vampire is going to be designed to play almost like a class (with more vampire skills than other skills) then the skill line should reflect that.

I’m starting to think that blood frenzy is going to be good for bankers but also anyone with a burst skill. Blast bones with blood frenzy active will be moaned about and lets not even mention the perfectly working crystal frags...