Rend(lacerate) needs a buff

relentless_turnip

I have been trying to use this skill over dawn breaker. I really like it, but it is pretty far from the other options available in terms of damage and use IMO.
Utility wise it is pretty great! One morph offers you 50% back in health and the other 6% more damage per enemy hit.

2 issues I see with this ultimate.

Firstly the cast time: I don't understand why it needs one, let alone a 0.5 second cast time. It doesn't do any upfront burst as other ultimates. Not that I agree with that change anyway, but could understand with zos's logic it doesn't apply here IMO.

Secondly the damage: it seems high on paper, but when you consider it is spread over 8/16 secs the ticks aren't much and it can be purged. If we compare it to ballista for instance which can be cast from 25 meters away, but does 62% more damage over 4 secs. I appreciate the damage can be Los'd and has to be channeled(on one morph), but that alone doesn't explain the discrepancy.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?
Perhaps I'm missing something in terms of why it is balanced the way it is...

baselesschart

I don't think many if not any of the ultimates in the game need cast times, it really diminishes the offensive ability of the ultimate by giving it a cast time, its just more time for your opponent to react because you can't weave an ult into another burst ability anymore.

As DW is not burst oriented and mainly focused on laying down dots on your opponents I can see why the damage on rend is lackluster against opponents versus something like dawnbreaker. I do agree though, I would like to see some retuning to the whole DW skill line to make it a much more viable option in PvP. On the flip side, kudos for using something that isn't dawnbreaker on a stamina toon. The game needs to add more identity for stamina that isn't exclusively dizzying and dawnbreaker into executioner.

relentless_turnip

baselesschart wrote: »

I don't think many if not any of the ultimates in the game need cast times, it really diminishes the offensive ability of the ultimate by giving it a cast time, its just more time for your opponent to react because you can't weave an ult into another burst ability anymore.

As DW is not burst oriented and mainly focused on laying down dots on your opponents I can see why the damage on rend is lackluster against opponents versus something like dawnbreaker. I do agree though, I would like to see some retuning to the whole DW skill line to make it a much more viable option in PvP. On the flip side, kudos for using something that isn't dawnbreaker on a stamina toon. The game needs to add more identity for stamina that isn't exclusively dizzying and dawnbreaker into executioner.

I'm running briar, clever and master dw with paler order. My aim was to further buff the outgoing attrition based damage and emphasise the healing I get from damage. In the next patch this could further be improved by reaving blows in the new cp tree. Tbh it does work really well, but rend is definitely lacking.

I also think cast times on ultimates is b/s. Especially with no up front burst.

Waffennacht

I tried using it once; when my opponent casually side stepped it i dropped it.

Could definitely use some love

relentless_turnip

Waffennacht wrote: »

I tried using it once; when my opponent casually side stepped it i dropped it.

Could definitely use some love

Rend casts an aoe around you which is the thumb free version. Thrive in chaos casts in a cone and it has such a poor animation you will be left unsure whether you've done anything at all 😂 it fires an "X" like an overzealous pirate...

Kory

Tried using both morphs in both pvp and pve and I honestly can't tell how effective it is compared to Dawnbreaker. Becasue dawnbreaker is obviously effective.

finehair

It doesn't feel like you've cast a skill or not. Dawnbreaker has some impact on the skill. You know you hit your target or missed it.
This, not so much

relentless_turnip

finehair wrote: »

It doesn't feel like you've cast a skill or not. Dawnbreaker has some impact on the skill. You know you hit your target or missed it.
This, not so much

Totally agree, I have given up on lacerate. Dawn breaker is so much better.

Luckylancer

Can be purged, higher cost, no burst, no passive bonus. It is a downgraded dawnbreaker. It is useless in PvP and PvE. Rend definitely needs a buff.

Dr_Ganknstein

I've only been using it in pve, so far it's trash in pvp. In pve it can be fun against huge groups of mobs.

relentless_turnip

Dr_Ganknstein wrote: »

I've only been using it in pve, so far it's trash in pvp.

Yeah man I gave up on it completely. If you want an ulti like rend with exception of being effective use dawn breaker 🤭👍

Dr_Ganknstein

relentless_turnip wrote: »

Dr_Ganknstein wrote: »

I've only been using it in pve, so far it's trash in pvp.

Yeah man I gave up on it completely. If you want an ulti like rend with exception of being effective use dawn breaker 🤭👍

Yeah, it just has a cool name like the Thrive in Chaos morph lol.

umagon

The skill is getting some improvements next patch. Thrive in chaos’ aoe hit box will be corrected so it will be the full 10m and the cone arc angle is rather large it looks to be about 120-140 degrees. Also being a bleed, it will have chance to apply hemorrhaging on the targets which applies minor mangle. The rate of application is increased by the new champion point battle mastery. The skill tents be bit more about utility and debuffs over large number of targets and not burst damage like dawn breaker in the 6.3 patch.