Stam Sorc and Crystal Weapon use (pve)

Joxer61

Just like the title says....crystal weapon use. Who amongst you use this and is so how so? i was never a fan of the ele weapon and this feels very much like it. But...how does one use it? Is it..apply skill, LA, apply again or does it it last for a set amount of time, like 5 secs? SO you would cast crystal weap then LA for like 5 secs or til it ran it out?
In other words is it a once per hit skill or does it stay for a bit? See my confusion?
So yea, anyone that uses or has used this skill if you can shed some light it would be most appreciated. Cheers

Joxer61

ouch...from the overwhelming number of replies it appears that either StamSorc is dead in the water...or no one uses that skill.
Interesting....

Lord-Otto

General consensus seems to be that it isn't very good. It gets consumed with a light attack, just like Ele Weapon. I'm not an expert on that skill, but I assume you have to use it first and then LA, as there is no travel time to charge the attack while it's traveling.

Joxer61

Lord-Otto wrote: »

General consensus seems to be that it isn't very good. It gets consumed with a light attack, just like Ele Weapon. I'm not an expert on that skill, but I assume you have to use it first and then LA, as there is no travel time to charge the attack while it's traveling.

yea...its weird to use to say the least. hit it, then LA, then I guess hit it again but your brain thinks it should still be on..i dunno. When it does "hit" it seems to be pretty strong so maybe its just a getting used to it sort of thing...we shall see....

SillyPlay

Runs out when you light like else. So light skill light skill etc like a regular spammable

Joxer61

SillyPlay wrote: »

Runs out when you light like else. So light skill light skill etc like a regular spammable

hmmm....why didnt they just make it an attack of its own...not a buff? SIlly Zos...

Lord-Otto

Joxer61 wrote: »

SillyPlay wrote: »

Runs out when you light like else. So light skill light skill etc like a regular spammable

hmmm....why didnt they just make it an attack of its own...not a buff? SIlly Zos...

Pretty sure that's a design choice. Sorcs were designed to not have a spammable, and they still don't this way. They have a magicka cast time attack and a stamina LA buff attack, but not downright a standard instant spammable, to honor the original design.
Btw, you can stack Crystal Weapons with Crushing Weapons, could be interesting for PvP. >;3

troomar

PvE wise:
It's a good skill. It has a unique debuff and it helps with sustain.

You won't get much more information since stamina compositions have been rare for the last few updates, so there is basically nothing from end game community. It's a single target skill, so it's usage apart from trials is kinda limited. For dungeons you're better with brawler / spin2win.

PvP wise:
I've seen some builds around it mainly for the burst potential, but I don't have personal experience with it.


Anyway, it's as you said ... it's re-skinned ele weapon skill.

MincVinyl

Crystal is good for pvp yeah, but still id be hard pressed to say it is a replacement for dizzy swing. Essentially if you want to run crystal you are likely to be running a build with no cc at all. Which 90% of players will never do. To get cc with crystal weapon you will end up running less efficient bar layouts that what you could get with say the usual dizzy build. ~PvP stamsorc since around the IC days.

As for pve I imagine the unique debuff is worth a hefty amount, but tbh ive only done trials when guildies need fill-ins that can do decent dps pve-wise and listen.

redspecter23

Tried it, didn't like it for the same reason I was never a fan of the psijic skill.

If your weave is spot on, you'll do ok. If you aren't nearly perfect with your weave, you might as well not even bother with it as a spammable. So basically it's a beginner player trap.

I see it having some decent burst potential in pvp perhaps, but in pve, I'll take a pass. In theory, it might work well, but if I'm weaving uppercut or flurry and miss a light attack, I still get the damage from the skill. If I'm weaving Crystal Weapon and miss a light attack, say goodbye to the whole thing.

It seems like the sort of ability that looks great on paper, but outside of the top tier players, who is this for?

MincVinyl

redspecter23 wrote: »

Tried it, didn't like it for the same reason I was never a fan of the psijic skill.

If your weave is spot on, you'll do ok. If you aren't nearly perfect with your weave, you might as well not even bother with it as a spammable. So basically it's a beginner player trap.

I see it having some decent burst potential in pvp perhaps, but in pve, I'll take a pass. In theory, it might work well, but if I'm weaving uppercut or flurry and miss a light attack, I still get the damage from the skill. If I'm weaving Crystal Weapon and miss a light attack, say goodbye to the whole thing.

It seems like the sort of ability that looks great on paper, but outside of the top tier players, who is this for?

Pretty much how to describe it. I use it in pvp, but at the same time I have also played stamsorc for 5 years solely in pvp mostly running uppercut builds even back before it was a long cast with second aim and cone checks.

Joxer61

redspecter23 wrote: »

Tried it, didn't like it for the same reason I was never a fan of the psijic skill.

If your weave is spot on, you'll do ok. If you aren't nearly perfect with your weave, you might as well not even bother with it as a spammable. So basically it's a beginner player trap.

I see it having some decent burst potential in pvp perhaps, but in pve, I'll take a pass. In theory, it might work well, but if I'm weaving uppercut or flurry and miss a light attack, I still get the damage from the skill. If I'm weaving Crystal Weapon and miss a light attack, say goodbye to the whole thing.

It seems like the sort of ability that looks great on paper, but outside of the top tier players, who is this for?

I was the same with "poop fist" on my StamDK, clunky as hell but now that I have gotten a rhythm with it it actually hits damn hard So maybe the same can be said this.....down to practice?

universal_wrath

Joxer61 wrote: »

Just like the title says....crystal weapon use. Who amongst you use this and is so how so? i was never a fan of the ele weapon and this feels very much like it. But...how does one use it? Is it..apply skill, LA, apply again or does it it last for a set amount of time, like 5 secs? SO you would cast crystal weap then LA for like 5 secs or til it ran it out?
In other words is it a once per hit skill or does it stay for a bit? See my confusion?
So yea, anyone that uses or has used this skill if you can shed some light it would be most appreciated. Cheers

It applies a buff to LA, so you should use it and then LA. It lasts for 4 secs, and seems many people are unaware of the, but crystal weapon also Buff HA. I'm guessing zos increase the buf time to make for the fact it affect HA too unlike crushing weapon which only affect LA. As some may already mentuoned this, you can combine Crystal weapon with crushing. In both PvP and PvE, you are better off using other spammable skills because lije flurry and dizzy. Crushing weapon is only affect by I think 2 or 3 passives from the aorcerer skill line whule other spammables get 100% worth of their passives and thus provide offer all damage and sometimes sustain.

I tried to use a "gank" build using crystal weapon in PvP, it didn't work. It would like cryatal weapon+snipe+LA+ cruahing qeapon. Time consuming and usless if someone knows it is coming. I bring 25k HP player down to 2-3k but I never manage to kill them. If you want to use crystal weapon in PvP, you should know that a lot of LAs do not reach in melee weapons due to LA reach, letancy and lag. You would be wasting time and resources to hit someone with it. In PvE, much like crushing weapons, it causes your charcter to stuter and make like 180° turns when it fires cauaing the skill to feel clunky. That skill works great if you use bow and deals good damage too, but why would you use it when you have snipe which deals about 25-30% more damage than crushing weapon, plus its weapons passives.

All in all, crushing weapons is good, but not that 'must use' good. In melee for both PvE and PvP, you are better using flurry and wrecking/dizzy. In range, you are better off using snipe or even fighter guild crossbow for more AOE and deadra/undead damage. For me peesonaly, I'm working to implemnt HA build in PvP using crystal weapon and that will be last straw. If it does work then great, if not, then it will be just another crushing weapon skill

universal_wrath

Joxer61 wrote: »

redspecter23 wrote: »

Tried it, didn't like it for the same reason I was never a fan of the psijic skill.

If your weave is spot on, you'll do ok. If you aren't nearly perfect with your weave, you might as well not even bother with it as a spammable. So basically it's a beginner player trap.

I see it having some decent burst potential in pvp perhaps, but in pve, I'll take a pass. In theory, it might work well, but if I'm weaving uppercut or flurry and miss a light attack, I still get the damage from the skill. If I'm weaving Crystal Weapon and miss a light attack, say goodbye to the whole thing.

It seems like the sort of ability that looks great on paper, but outside of the top tier players, who is this for?

I was the same with "poop fist" on my StamDK, clunky as hell but now that I have gotten a rhythm with it it actually hits damn hard So maybe the same can be said this.....down to practice?

maybe yes, or maybe you are just trying to convince yourself ithat it is good, because it is the long waited stamdk spammable. Either way, if it works for you then that what matters, I know that I don't bother much and just not interested in the game anymore to make crystal weapon or stone fist works. If they don't work from the begining like crystal fragment spammable, then they are no good for me.

Thoragaal

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Joxer61 wrote: »

SillyPlay wrote: »

Runs out when you light like else. So light skill light skill etc like a regular spammable

hmmm....why didnt they just make it an attack of its own...not a buff? SIlly Zos...

Pretty sure that's a design choice. Sorcs were designed to not have a spammable, and they still don't this way. They have a magicka cast time attack and a stamina LA buff attack, but not downright a standard instant spammable, to honor the original design.
Btw, you can stack Crystal Weapons with Crushing Weapons, could be interesting for PvP. >;3

Without making a specific build for it, I've one shotted the giants in The Rift (120k hp) using Crystal + Crushing weapon with only some buffs applied beforehand.

Alidel

I main a bowsorc, leveled crystal to the max and tried it out in number of different situations. As people pointed out already - yes, it is as clunky as psijic spammable, but also gives far less damage then snipe. Was fun to try something different but I doubt anyone will choose it over weapon spammable, since wb gives empower and nice damage, and flurry procs monster sets nicely (and also giving more damage then crystal).

Lord-Otto

Thoragaal wrote: »

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Joxer61 wrote: »

SillyPlay wrote: »

Runs out when you light like else. So light skill light skill etc like a regular spammable

hmmm....why didnt they just make it an attack of its own...not a buff? SIlly Zos...

Pretty sure that's a design choice. Sorcs were designed to not have a spammable, and they still don't this way. They have a magicka cast time attack and a stamina LA buff attack, but not downright a standard instant spammable, to honor the original design.
Btw, you can stack Crystal Weapons with Crushing Weapons, could be interesting for PvP. >;3

Without making a specific build for it, I've one shotted the giants in The Rift (120k hp) using Crystal + Crushing weapon with only some buffs applied beforehand.

You killed those peaceful giants? Monster!
(T_T)

out51d3r

I suspect this mechanic is basically a way to introduce weaving to noobs(ie raise the skill floor without lowering the ceiling).

It is unintuitive(for most people) that they should be cancelling a light attack before every ability. It is quite intuitive that you should be casting Crystal Weapon then light attacking. Mechanically and mathematically, it's basically the same thing as weaving. It's way less hidden to the average player than animation cancelling though.

I feel like abilities like this are actually a pretty smart approach from ZOS, and we'll probably see more of them as time goes on. They currently feel a bit clunky(though this could just be a muscle memory thing), but that can be fixed.

hakan

next patch this plus ele weapon plus vashteran 2h proc with bow? maybe would work on nbs too with cloak critting.

EramTheLiar

I use it and I like it, but it does take getting used to.

The "it feels weird" part is mostly due to the fact that if you do a light attack and the crystal weapon spell too close together, all you get is the crystal charge, and damage-wise you get nothing. Skills and spells take precedence over light attacks (at least that's how it looks like) and it appears that if the game detects a light attack and crystal weapon firing at effectively "the same time" it favors the spell, giving you a recharging motion and a big fat nothing in the damage department.

This isn't an issue for me most of the time, but when things get really heated I tend to lose my sense of timing and while I don't quite revert to a button-mashing fool I get really close. Trying to get back into the weaving rhythm once I've lost it is a royal pain, too. So what I've had to do is to double or triple-click my light attack before firing off crystal weapon. That usually ensures a light attack gets through before the crystal weapon charge goes off.

I like it -- but I also like the original psijic version, too. It's an interesting mechanic, and Crystal Weapon lets you consistently apply the heal from the Blood Magic passive, and of course there's the debuff.

Draevik

In my testing it is fairly hard to weave especially if you have to move at the same time. I can easily weave other abilities, but this one and CW seem to have bizarre inconsistent delays. They just need to change and speed up the animation. It would be much more appealing to everyone.