Grim Focus changes

kalunte

i assume nightblades are the guinea pig of ESO combat team but i really need some enlightment on this skill.

are stacks supposed to last in pve after firing or not. as for pvp well, it could work great and as intended if it does not, still the buff should last at least 1 or 2 second after firing in pvp so that the spectral bow can also benefit of the 10% crit bonus.
if it was to be the same for pve and pvp i'd rather have it last 2 or 3sec after the use of spectral bow and be refreshed at each new stack so that you can keep a good uptime in pve while not having this 100% uptime in pvp. it will just need a clever coding so that each new stacks maintain the buff at 5/5 but does not give 5/5 stacks instantly, this would be dumb.

i definatly need more insight on this or this will just turn the skill into a longer Race Against Time (10% crit for 60s instead of 12) which is definatly powerfull (not talking about the healing output i dont understand nor want at all..) but if the stacks are to be lost in pve after firing the bow, well, numbers may say that we should proc it only at second 59 of the buff before refreshing it..

it's good to have grim focus and morphs grant some damage buff instead of defense, but not at the cost of the spectral bow

JinMori

you will still fire the bow, but now it's actually worth keeping up the buff burning execute.

sproattt

It would work exactly the way the mitigation % worked prior to the change. You have the full buff when the bow is rdy to proc. You fire the bow. You get the DMG bonus on the bow hit ( I assume, as when ) You lose the buff.

Race against time is a flat 10% with Minor Force and would stack with the 2% crit DMG ticks on the NB passives.

Rianai

sproattt wrote: »

You get the DMG bonus on the bow hit ( I assume, as when )

You don't. It is a nb skill after all. No synergy within the kit allowed.

sproattt

Has anyone tested it on PTS?

Rianai

Yes i did.

sproattt

Hmmm, we'll see what happens. If they address it good, if they don't it just means you'll Incap at full proc.

Finedaible

I would hope the buff to critical damage and healing would at least last until the projectile from Grim Focus lands on the target successfully, but I can't test it. Ideally the buff and the stacks would be consumed only on a successful hit since building up those stacks is cumbersome af for it to be negated by a simple dodge. A small window afterwards would help though.

React

I can confirm that the bow does NOT benefit from the crit damage bonus when fired.

I think this is a pretty large oversight in the design, and ZOS should revisit the ability to make a small adjustment. Previously when the bow granted mitigation, it made sense for the bonus to drop upon firing - you were sacrificing passive mitigation for a short window to use your strongest burst ability. Personally I think crit damage is a MUCH more suitable passive for the stacks, and is a great change - however the bonus should be granted for a few seconds upon firing the bow to ensure that the burst ability benefits from the damage passive.

Firing the bow should grant the max crit modifier given by the stacks for 2-3 seconds (10%) as it's own unique buff. This synergizes well with the damage modifier given by incap/soul harvest, and allows for the burst ability to benefit from the damage passive. This would be totally appropriate from a pvp perspective, as the ult has a cast time and the bow has a minimum travel time resulting in plenty of available counterplay against the combo.

I really hope they make the right choice with this change. It's great to see the "assassin/burst" class get it's mitigation traded for much more suitable crit damage, now allow the burst ability to benefit from that as well.

kalunte

well, we'll still have to build up our stacks to be able to burst a single target at a choosen time unlike some classes i know that just blow their aoe burst over and over without any dedicated preparation but it's will definatly be a step forward

kalunte

as for the bow itself benefiting from the crit bonus.. well, they'll probably reduce the proc raw dmg if they do so.. well, if i was given the choice i would reduce de proc's base dmg by aprox 3% and make the bonus to last for 3sec after using the proc rather than boosting the proc or having it to stay as it is now.

Finedaible

Assassin's Will projectile not benefiting from the critical damage stacks is a big oversight imo and I hope they fix that because I really like this new design for Grim Focus. The whole point of the skill is building up to that burst after all.

@Liam12548 I assume you reported this finding through the PTS? I'd do it myself but my pc has issues and i can't download the pts.