Soul Assault Works Again

THEDKEXPERIENCE

After messing with my build I noticed that the Soul Assault ultimate all of a sudden had a tool tip value of 96k for me. Figuring what the heck, I gave it a try.

Please note that while it is still very possible to survive one roughly 90% of the players I hit with it either died to it or were left in execution range.

In the previous meta the ability appeared all but dead as people just shrugged it off, but no longer. If you’re looking for something to act as a deterrent to people who like to gap close you, it’s worth a second look.

Anyron

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Waffennacht

Imo u pair it with unblockable CCs and abilities.

I.e. warden goes artic shalk assault. That way artic can stun during assault and shalk goes off during too

Sorcerer can curse wrath assault for uber deadly.

But assault by itself usually just gets blocked

THEDKEXPERIENCE

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is, compared to bow ulti. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.

Generally in Cyrodiil I’m healing people so I tend to be at range in normal circumstances. I’ve found it most effective in 2 situations. Range with no line of site barriers and when someone closes a gap.

When it was in the 50 or 60k range most players would simply eat it. Now that I’ve bumped it near 100k some of the tankiest players I know of had to reverse course and retreat.

It’s definitely a situational ultimate but it’s cheap and for Magplars lack burst DPS when an opponent isn’t in execution range it’s quite useful again. Especially when followed up with a radiant like the olden days.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

Waffennacht wrote: »

Imo u pair it with unblockable CCs and abilities.

I.e. warden goes artic shalk assault. That way artic can stun during assault and shalk goes off during too

Sorcerer can curse wrath assault for uber deadly.

But assault by itself usually just gets blocked

Yeah, it was 100% getting blocked the last few years. I was surprised how much it currently eats away at blocking opponents. 96k is 16k per second. I’ll assume they mitigate half with armor and another half with block so it’s probably hitting the tankiest people for 4k a second. If that’s the case - ESO math is not my strong point - then they should be eating 24k damage over that period.

And that’s when radiant oppression comes out.

I probably got to fire off 3 dozen of them this weekend. Only one was just straight up eaten and most people just became blue dust. Worth a look.

jaws343

THEDKEXPERIENCE wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Imo u pair it with unblockable CCs and abilities.

I.e. warden goes artic shalk assault. That way artic can stun during assault and shalk goes off during too

Sorcerer can curse wrath assault for uber deadly.

But assault by itself usually just gets blocked

Yeah, it was 100% getting blocked the last few years. I was surprised how much it currently eats away at blocking opponents. 96k is 16k per second. I’ll assume they mitigate half with armor and another half with block so it’s probably hitting the tankiest people for 4k a second. If that’s the case - ESO math is not my strong point - then they should be eating 24k damage over that period.

And that’s when radiant oppression comes out.

I probably got to fire off 3 dozen of them this weekend. Only one was just straight up eaten and most people just became blue dust. Worth a look.

It could also be that the light armored opponents can no longer block as long as they could before because they run out of stamina quicker while blocking.

catnamedwill

It is not exactly cheap though. It has the same cost at Ballista. And Ballista can reach 140k+ tooltip on pure crit builds with ***-tons of penetration to boot.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

jaws343 wrote: »

THEDKEXPERIENCE wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

Imo u pair it with unblockable CCs and abilities.

I.e. warden goes artic shalk assault. That way artic can stun during assault and shalk goes off during too

Sorcerer can curse wrath assault for uber deadly.

But assault by itself usually just gets blocked

Yeah, it was 100% getting blocked the last few years. I was surprised how much it currently eats away at blocking opponents. 96k is 16k per second. I’ll assume they mitigate half with armor and another half with block so it’s probably hitting the tankiest people for 4k a second. If that’s the case - ESO math is not my strong point - then they should be eating 24k damage over that period.

And that’s when radiant oppression comes out.

I probably got to fire off 3 dozen of them this weekend. Only one was just straight up eaten and most people just became blue dust. Worth a look.

It could also be that the light armored opponents can no longer block as long as they could before because they run out of stamina quicker while blocking.

By the way people seemed to react to it it appeared that for the first 3-4 seconds they would block and in the last 2-3 seconds they went into “oh crap” mode. There are a lot of dragon knights especially who got beamed in the face and appeared to not have a backup plan.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

catnamedwill wrote: »

It is not exactly cheap though. It has the same cost at Ballista. And Ballista can reach 140k+ tooltip on pure crit builds with ***-tons of penetration to boot.

Which skill line is that under?

catnamedwill

THEDKEXPERIENCE wrote: »

catnamedwill wrote: »

It is not exactly cheap though. It has the same cost at Ballista. And Ballista can reach 140k+ tooltip on pure crit builds with ***-tons of penetration to boot.

Which skill line is that under?

Bow. It is the Bow pet ultimate.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

catnamedwill wrote: »

THEDKEXPERIENCE wrote: »

catnamedwill wrote: »

It is not exactly cheap though. It has the same cost at Ballista. And Ballista can reach 140k+ tooltip on pure crit builds with ***-tons of penetration to boot.

Which skill line is that under?

Bow. It is the Bow pet ultimate.

Don’t run bows on my magplar.

waterfairy

I could see this being good in bg if you proc zaan, stun/trap them then hit this before they close the gap..all before their 2 handed weapon smashes your face in

THEDKEXPERIENCE

Vigarr wrote: »

I could see this being good in bg if you proc zaan, stun/trap them then hit this before they close the gap..all before their 2 handed weapon smashes your face in

That window of time before the 2 handed weapon hits you in the face is the exact reason for running this! Haha

It’s like a magic fire hose.

waterfairy

THEDKEXPERIENCE wrote: »

Vigarr wrote: »

I could see this being good in bg if you proc zaan, stun/trap them then hit this before they close the gap..all before their 2 handed weapon smashes your face in

That window of time before the 2 handed weapon hits you in the face is the exact reason for running this! Haha

It’s like a magic fire hose.

ha I'm borrowing magic fire hose

tsaescishoeshiner

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

The bow ult can be roll dodged. Soul Assault might be undertuned, but its niche is catching rollie pollies. I found it best on Necromancer so far for the 14% DoT damage buff and the crit passive that makes you crit more against low health targets. I was hoping it would waste stamina as people try to block it, but it seems not to be the case.

goldenarcher1

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Soul assault effective against cloaking nightblades,bow ulti toxic barrage can be reflected,especially in the current pvp meta.

As for Stamina > Magicka,well just lol.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

Yes, your only choices are block or line of sight. LOS is actually your best choice. SA into Radiant Oppression is completely, 100% unable to be dodged out of or avoided in any way aside from LOS.

Waffennacht

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Soul assault effective against cloaking nightblades,bow ulti toxic barrage can be reflected,especially in the current pvp meta.

As for Stamina > Magicka,well just lol.

Its horrible against cloaking NBs. They auto pwn it after 2 sec

Faded

Waffennacht wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Soul assault effective against cloaking nightblades,bow ulti toxic barrage can be reflected,especially in the current pvp meta.

As for Stamina > Magicka,well just lol.

Its horrible against cloaking NBs. They auto pwn it after 2 sec

shhhh

goldenarcher1

Waffennacht wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Soul assault effective against cloaking nightblades,bow ulti toxic barrage can be reflected,especially in the current pvp meta.

As for Stamina > Magicka,well just lol.

Its horrible against cloaking NBs. They auto pwn it after 2 sec

Should have specified effective against proper squishy nightblades,not heavy armour fake ones.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

In zone chat last night someone called me out with “who is soul assaulting tanks at sej? It was awesome!”

I can’t lie, it made me feel good about this post.

GoodFella146

I'll have to try it again. It used to be a lot better before the changes.

catnamedwill

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Soul assault effective against cloaking nightblades,bow ulti toxic barrage can be reflected,especially in the current pvp meta.

As for Stamina > Magicka,well just lol.

Its horrible against cloaking NBs. They auto pwn it after 2 sec

Should have specified effective against proper squishy nightblades,not heavy armour fake ones.

Bro, if you can't survive two secs of a DoT ultimate, your build needs updating. Hell, just drop Ballista on the Soul Assaulter, and watch them panic and dodge wasting their ultimate.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

catnamedwill wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Soul assault effective against cloaking nightblades,bow ulti toxic barrage can be reflected,especially in the current pvp meta.

As for Stamina > Magicka,well just lol.

Its horrible against cloaking NBs. They auto pwn it after 2 sec

Should have specified effective against proper squishy nightblades,not heavy armour fake ones.

Bro, if you can't survive two secs of a DoT ultimate, your build needs updating. Hell, just drop Ballista on the Soul Assaulter, and watch them panic and dodge wasting their ultimate.

As someone who has had to deal with that exact situation, the soul assault will win. People who can pump out that level of damage with their bow ultimate will be blue dust before they even know what’s happening.

Only people these days who can eat one and survive without blocking the whole way through are mega tanks. But please. Try to use a bow ultimate against a soul assault without taking the time to block it.

catnamedwill

THEDKEXPERIENCE wrote: »

catnamedwill wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Soul assault effective against cloaking nightblades,bow ulti toxic barrage can be reflected,especially in the current pvp meta.

As for Stamina > Magicka,well just lol.

Its horrible against cloaking NBs. They auto pwn it after 2 sec

Should have specified effective against proper squishy nightblades,not heavy armour fake ones.

Bro, if you can't survive two secs of a DoT ultimate, your build needs updating. Hell, just drop Ballista on the Soul Assaulter, and watch them panic and dodge wasting their ultimate.

As someone who has had to deal with that exact situation, the soul assault will win. People who can pump out that level of damage with their bow ultimate will be blue dust before they even know what’s happening.

Only people these days who can eat one and survive without blocking the whole way through are mega tanks. But please. Try to use a bow ultimate against a soul assault without taking the time to block it.

You realize that you can block, dodge, use all other abilities while using while you use Ballista, because it is a pet that does the channel? A NB will just Ballista, blockcast a bow proc and cloak.

Also it is very possible to get Ballista of that high tooltip without even investing much weapon damage.
Here is a 1vX build videos of one of the best NBs from PC na. He has a 143k Ballista on a crit-brawler build, which has a lot of defense as well. Watch 2:50 to the end, to see how ridiculous Ballista can get.
https://youtu.be/TaEEqVO5Wqo

The video is an year old and won't work in no proc Cyrodiil, but the build can still in proc enabled zones like IC . Though the player here @susmitds is taking a break from ESO, he confirmed in discord that he will back to update the build once proc restrictions are removed.

SeaGtGruff

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place.

You can still move around while using it. I've been using it as my Ulti on my petsorc main for years, even though it hadn't been as effective as I'd hoped. I frequently use it on a dungeon boss or resource flag guard and then move sideways or backwards while continuing to blast away. Since it wasn't doing as much damage as I'd hoped, my main reason to keep using it was to give myself a short breather to let my stamina or magicka replenish.

daemondamian

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place.

You can still move around while using it. I've been using it as my Ulti on my petsorc main for years, even though it hadn't been as effective as I'd hoped. I frequently use it on a dungeon boss or resource flag guard and then move sideways or backwards while continuing to blast away. Since it wasn't doing as much damage as I'd hoped, my main reason to keep using it was to give myself a short breather to let my stamina or magicka replenish.

I find it useful on my petsorc too for the dps check in Vateshran Hollows because ads can get in the way of the shade making other abilities or attacks difficult to target but not soul assault if you use it before the ads get in the way.

nesakinter

THEDKEXPERIENCE wrote: »

catnamedwill wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Anyron wrote: »

You know, using it you place yourself in dangerous position. Unable to do anything than just standing on one place. Most players can even kill under 5 seconds.

I always found it funny how weak that ulti is. compare it to bow ulti. Its so much stronger. Bow ultimate deals more damage and you can move/dodge/block.
But thats what i call balance. Stamina > magicka

Soul assault effective against cloaking nightblades,bow ulti toxic barrage can be reflected,especially in the current pvp meta.

As for Stamina > Magicka,well just lol.

Its horrible against cloaking NBs. They auto pwn it after 2 sec

Should have specified effective against proper squishy nightblades,not heavy armour fake ones.

Bro, if you can't survive two secs of a DoT ultimate, your build needs updating. Hell, just drop Ballista on the Soul Assaulter, and watch them panic and dodge wasting their ultimate.

As someone who has had to deal with that exact situation, the soul assault will win. People who can pump out that level of damage with their bow ultimate will be blue dust before they even know what’s happening.

Only people these days who can eat one and survive without blocking the whole way through are mega tanks. But please. Try to use a bow ultimate against a soul assault without taking the time to block it.

Then your opponent had a bad build. It is not hyperbole, you can check the tooltips in UESP build editor to see Bow Ulti scales higher compared to Soul Assault. Also stamina builds have much higher weapon damage to boost the tooltip scaling higher. Also, it only matters against the Toxic Barrage morph which is functionally identical to Soul Assault apart from being dodge able. However the Ballista morph has a slightly longer duration and is a pet so the user is free is to block your Soul Assault, where as you will take the full damage of Ballista, which will kill even tanks if not blocked or dodged to its sheer tooltip pressure.

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo

Soul assault was nerfed in it's length in time, making it kind of useless in most builds.
Still ok on a semi-ganking magblade build.
Still ok if you have 2 friends that hold the person down while you pour magicka out of of the palm of your hand
But as you channel you aren't hitting your spam-able, hotting yourself or dotting the player.

But yes, it's a channeled so you can't do anything asides strafe left-right and forward.

And for PvE it is a big DPS loss, do not use it. Favor metor, destro or your class ults.
Why is it a DPS loss, you ask? For the same reasons as above mentionned in PvP.