Divnyi's useless skills buff list

divnyi

People often talk about nerfing things they hate, but more rarely about buffing things that totally completely underperform.

I decided to give it a try and ended up with insane list of skills.
Devs might have a better stats on whether those skills are used by players or not. My assumption: not a lot.

There would be no nerfs in this post. All abilities are pretty raw, exact numbers should be playtested on each ability, but I tried my best to give the accurate values.

@ZOS_GinaBruno pass this read to devs please. I do not expect implementing it all (or anything), but there might be some ideas for inspiration. In case you worry about copyright, it is Public Domain.

So, lets roll.

Guard:

Create a lifebond between you and an allied player. While bonded and within 15m of this ally, 30% of the damage they take is instead redistributed to you. The bond will remain until you recast the spell or one of you die.

-- the main problem of ability is that it limits your movement very harshly. 15m is very easy to break even by a regular run. In case it would not break, but will just stop working at 15m+, but re-activating again after, this skill will see much more use.


Cleanse (Purge morph):

Cleanse yourself and your group, removing 3 negative effects from yourself and 1 negative effect from each member of your group immediately. For every negative effect removed, the target is healed for 5% of their Maximum Health.
Cost: 4000 magicka

-- selfish cleanse instead of overly high-cost one that nobody use.


Propelling Shield (Siege Shield morph):
Rename: Mirror Shield

Create a protective sphere over your location that reduces damage from siege weapons by 50%. Grant minor evasion for all allies inside the shield range.

-- when was the last time anyone used Propelling? Does it even work? Anyway, this is Support line, alternative defensive options (protect people vs protect sieges) here look more logical.


Anti-Cavalry Caltrops (Caltrops morph):
Radius: 9 meters
Hurl a ball of caltrops that scatter over the target area, dealing 316 Physical Damage every 1 second to enemies inside, and reducing their Movement Speed by 60%. The caltrops rapidly drain the Mount Stamina of any enemy in the area.

-- just increased timing won't cut when we compare very situational anti-horse tool (does it even work, like ever?) to AoE Major Breach. We need choices between stronger entanglement effect and more damage.


Retreating Maneuver (Rapid Maneuver morph):
Cost: 4000 Stamina
Mobilize your forces, granting Major Expedition to you and Minor Expedition to your group, increasing Movement Speed by 30% and 15% respectively for 8 seconds.

-- whatever you put in this morph for the same cost as Charging Maneuver, it won't compete with giving flat out more speed. Selfish cheaper morph will do better.


Sturdy Horn (War Horn morph):

Sound a war horn to rally your forces, increasing you and your group's Maximum Magicka and Maximum Stamina by 10%, gain 2640 Critical Resistance (reducing incoming critical damage by 30%) for 30 seconds.

-- unlike for agressive version of the horn, you don't control when you will be attacked. Give resistance bonus for the full duration.


Precognition (Undo morph):

Step backwards in time, resetting your Health, Magicka, Stamina, and position to what they were 6 seconds ago. You can cast this ability while you are crowd controlled and it automatically grants you crowd control immunity.

-- x1.5 the duration to compete with passive on Temporal Guard


Introspection (Meditate morph):

Focus your body and mind into a meditative state, healing for 1800 Health and restoring 1500 Magicka and Stamina every 1 second. Maintaining the channel increases the Health restored by 30% every tick, up to a maximum of 180%. You will remain in a meditative state until you toggle this ability off or are interrupted.

-- let this ability be fun, healing with the speed of Resolving Vigor at full ticks. Interrupts exist anyway.


Bone Surge (Undaunted morph):

Surround yourself with a whirlwind of bones, gaining a damage shield that absorbs up to 5121 damage 6 seconds. This ability scales off your Maximum Health. Allies in 15m radius gain Major Vitality for 6s, increasing their healing received by 16%. An ally near you can activate the Bone Wall synergy, granting the ally and up to 5 other allies a damage shield equal to 30% of their Maximum Health 6 seconds.

-- buff allies on cast, because this bonus on synergy is very unreliable. Might end up in tank/healer bars.


Trapping Webs:

-- Delete this and give us something useful instead.


Balance (Equilibrium morph):

Nerf warden and necromancer.

Barter with Oblivion to trade vitality for power, sacrificing your Health in exchange for 3000 Magicka. After the exchange is complete, you gain Minor Heroism, granting you 1 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds for 18 seconds. The exchange reduces your Healing Done and damage shield strength by 50% for 4 seconds.

-- because we all know that Major Resolve here doesn't make sense. You are supposed to gain power in exchange for life. Ultimate is power.


Fire Rune:

Inscribe a rune of cosmic fire on the earth, which takes 2 seconds to arm and lasts for 30 seconds. When triggered, the rune blasts all enemies in the target area for 2323 Flame Damage. You can have any number of Fire Runes at the same time. Fire Rune costs 1000 more magicka for each fire rune installed.

-- won't do a thing to PvE, but will create new "miner-style" gameplay in PvP. Watch your step.


Shooting Star (Meteor morph):
Radius: 7 meters

-- Other morph do more damage, give this one wider range.


Ring of Preservation (Circle of Protection morph):

Brand the earth at your location with a rune of protection for 20 seconds.

-- ah cmon, the heal on this one is really weak in comparison to everything. No need to cut the duration too.


Evil Hunter (Expert Hunter morph):

Invoke your expertise in anatomy and enemy behavior to detect stealthed and invisible enemies around you for 5 seconds. Exposed enemies cannot return to stealth or invisibility for 3 seconds. You also deal an additional 15% damage to Undead, Daedra and Werewolves (except boss-type enemies) for 20 seconds. While slotted you gain Major Savagery, increasing your Weapon Critical rating by 2629.

-- Make them regret for turning to evil. This effect fits thematically, and since it requires costly prebuffing, won't be that broken.


Mesmerize:

Subdue enemies in front of you with your baleful gaze, stunning them for 5 seconds if they are facing your direction. This stun cannot be blocked. When the stun ends, they take 2160 Magic Damage.

-- since "facing your direction" means "looking exactly at you, with 90 degree cone", make it risk-reward skill. Risk is wasting mana and time doing nothing. Reward is stun + single target spammable damage.


Vampiric Drain:

-- Delete this and give us something useful instead.


Perfect Scion (Blood Scion morph):

Transform into a monstrous creature of the night, instantly healing to full Health. While transformed, your Maximum Health, Magicka, and Stamina are increased by 10000, you heal for 50% of all damage you deal, and you can see enemies through walls. You also ascend to Vampire Stage 5, which grants all the benefits of Vampire Stage 4 with none of the drawbacks.

-- ramp up the lifesteal bonus to the roof. Nobody needed that extra bits of sustain on ultimate ability.


Soul Strike:

Burn an enemy from the inside with soulfire, draining his resources by 50% and dealing 50% HP oblivion damage over 5 seconds. While channeling this ability, you gain immunity to all disabling effects. Enemies affected by this ability are revealed for 3 seconds and may not enter stealth or invisibility.

-- do too much damage, and it will be BiS. Do too little - and it will be useless. Let us attack sustain with this ultimate, and it will have a niche use.

Soul Assault (Soul Strike morph):

Burn an enemy from the inside with soulfire, draining resources by 70% and dealing 70% HP oblivion damage over 7 seconds. While channeling this ability, you gain immunity to all disabling effects. Enemies affected by this ability are revealed for 3 seconds and may not enter stealth or invisibility, and their movement speed reduced by 30%.

-- longer singe-target version. 30% slow to make it harder to just walk away.

Shatter Soul (Soul Strike morph):

Burn an enemy from the inside with soulfire, draining his health and resources by 50% over 5 seconds, and enemies within 6 meter radius by 25% over 5 seconds. While channeling this ability, you gain immunity to all disabling effects. Enemies affected by this ability are revealed for 3 seconds and may not enter stealth or invisibility.

-- Multi-target morph, that deals biggest effect to single enemy. 4 players casting this on ball group will drain them dry if not interrupted by LoS.


Unstoppable Brute (Unstoppable morph):

Intensify your physical presence to gain Major Resolve, increasing your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948 for 20 seconds. If you will be stunned within next 10s, reduce your Movement Speed by 65% for 4 seconds instead, and receive immunity to knockback and disabling effects for 6 seconds.

-- Unstoppable, as in slows down on stun instead of being stunned, instead of being slow upfront for no good reason.


Shuffle (Evasion morph):

Shroud yourself in mist to gain Major Evasion, decreasing damage from area attacks by 20% for 20 seconds. Also grans Minor Expedition increasing Movement Speed by 15% for 10 seconds. Each piece of Medium Armor worn removes and grants immunity to snares and immobilizations for 1 second.

-- I consider this morph to be less useful compared to Elude. While immunity to snares is strong effect, it requires some movement speed to feel it. Small boost to movement speed will do just right.


Healing Ward, Rapid Regeneration:

Targetable, like Breath of Life.


Force Siphon:

Focus your staff's power to apply Major Lifesteal to an enemy for 24 seconds, healing you and your allies for 1000 Health every 1 second when damaging them.

-- Look on this skill, and then on Blood Altar. On this skill, and then on Blood Altar. Lets introduce this new effect, and put it on single-target skill that does nothing except this effect.

Siphon Spirit (Force Siphon morph):

Focus your staff's power to apply Major Lifesteal to an enemy for 30 seconds, healing you and your allies for 1000 Health every 1 second when damaging them. Also applies Minor Magickasteal and Minor Staminasteal to the enemy for 30 seconds, causing you and your allies to restore 168 Magicka and Stamina every 1 second when damaging them. Increases cost of target's magicka and stamina abilities by 10% for 10 seconds.

-- Why only Magickasteal? This is support line, not destro staff line. Increasing enemy ability costs so it actually feels like "siphon".

Quick Siphon (Force Siphon morph):

Focus your staff's power to apply Major Lifesteal to an enemy for 30 seconds, healing you and your allies for 1000 Health every 1 second when damaging them. When you or an ally hits the target, they gain Minor Expedition, which increases their Movement Speed by 15% for 4 seconds, and target gets their movement speed reduced by 15% for 4 seconds, stacking 3 times.

-- Not only buff, but also debuff.


Healing Springs (Grand Healing morph):

Summon restoring spirits with your staff, healing you and your allies in the target area for 386 Health and an additional 386 Health every 1 second for 8 seconds. Allies restore 50 Magicka and Stamina every time they are healed (this effect does not stack).

-- Much lower power, but restores resources for your allies.


Life Giver (Panacea morph):

Release the rejuvenating energies of your staff to swirl around you, healing you or an ally for 2999 Health every 1 second for 5 seconds. Restore 20% of stamina and magicka for the allies within 15m when cast.

-- Damage morph vs Resources morph.


Elemental Ring (Impulse morph):

Remove the casting delay. Make the impact as instant as possible.

-- Stat-wise, skill is fine. But in reality there is an issue with hitting any targets due to the delay.


Elemental Susceptibility (Weakness to Elements morph):

Send the elements to sap an enemy's defenses and afflict them with Major Breach for 20 seconds, reducing their Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948. Increase the Flame, Frost and Shock damage by 5% for the duration.

-- Elemental. Susceptibility.


Arrow Barrage (Volley morph):
Rename: Guided Volley

Launch a multitude of arrows into the sky to rain down locked on a target enemy, dealing 478 Physical Damage to enemies in the target area every 1 second for 8 seconds, after a 2 second delay.

(create 2sec delayed AoE on the ground where opponent is currently each second)

-- Since everyone in PvE use Endless Hail anyway, won't do any harm to do PvP mode of this ability that is locked down on single enemy, but does not guarantee the hit.


Flying Blade (Hidden Blade morph):
Name: Teleporter Blade

Fire a secret dagger from your sleeve at an enemy, dealing 1799 Physical Damage. Each second hit teleports you behind the opponent. If the enemy hit is casting an ability they are interrupted, set Off Balance, and stunned for 3 seconds. You also gain Major Brutality, increasing your Weapon Damage by 20% for 20 seconds.

-- PvP-oriented thingy. Jump around the target like a ninja. Doesn't teleport if the attack does not connect. Does always teleport you through all the walls and heights, no matter where you are. Each second hit to make it less annoying to play against.


Blood Craze (Twin Slashes morph):

-- Make it stack for different targets.


Flurry:

Flood an enemy with steel, battering them with five consecutive attacks that each deal 332 Physical Damage. The final hit deals 300% more damage. Removes and grants immunity to snares and immobilizations during the channeling.

-- Will not make you immune since it's only 0.6s once 1s, but will make it much more mobile than 2h spammable.

Bloodthirst (Flurry morph):

Transform to magicka ability.

-- Lets see the magicka maelstrom DW builds.


Lacerate:

Slash enemies in front of you by 1319 Bleed Damage each second for 8 seconds. Grants you immunity to knockback and disabling effects for the duration.

-- It's not shoot-and-forget, but continiously damaging enemies infront of you instead. Buffing up the damage to have the same DPS as Dawnbreaker of Smiting (that costs less and available to everyone, no matter the weapon type). Remove the healing part to allow for higher damage numbers.

-- Funnily enough, morph bonuses are completely fair and don't require any changes.


Reverberating Bash (Power Bash morph):

Strike an enemy full-force with your shield, dealing 1161 Physical Damage and stunning them for 3 seconds. Enemy hit cannot be healed by allies for 3 seconds.

Alternative: Strike an enemy full-force with your shield, dealing 1161 Physical Damage and stunning them for 3 seconds. Enemy hit cannot use block for 3 seconds.

-- Support skill for support skill line.


Invasion (Shield Charge morph):

Rush an enemy and ram them, dealing 1393 Physical Damage and stunning them for 4 seconds. If the distance to the target is bigger than 15m, enemy that is hit gain 3000 Heal Absorption for 3 seconds, negating the next 3000 points of Healing Done.

-- Disrupts healing, thus dealing indirect damage, but the requirement ensures this cannot be spammed. Total damage is approx x1.6 of the spammable.


Low Slash:

Surprise an enemy with a deep lunge, dealing 1392 Physical Damage and afflicting them with Minor Maim, reducing their damage done by 5% for 12 seconds. Increases cost of target's magicka and stamina abilities by 10% for 10 seconds.

-- Now attacks sustain too.


Wrecking Blow

Slam an enemy with an upward swing, dealing 2760 Physical Damage. Each use of Wrecking Blow increases the damage of Wrecking Blow by 15% for 3 seconds, stacking up to 2 times.

-- Morph without stun, but with increasing damage on each hit. Offer damage instead of Dizzy utility.


Berserker Rage (Berserker Strike morph):

Strike at an enemy with a vicious blow, dealing 3600 Physical Damage to them and all nearby enemies. This attack ignores the target's Resistance and grants you Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance equal to the amount ignored from the initial target for 8 seconds. You heal for 50% of the damage done with this attack each second for 8 seconds. You are immune to all disabling, snare, and immobilization effects for the duration.

-- Since everyone run damage version, this one needs to be buffed. Add HoTs with the power of your initial hit on top, so you can yolo on many opponents and soak their damage for at least the ulti duration.


Bitter Harvest:

Sap the lingering life from fresh corpses, granting you 2 Ultimate and healing 660 Health every 1 second for 5 seconds per corpse consumed, up to 30s max. This ability scales off your Maximum Health. While slotted, your damage taken is reduced by 3%.

-- This ability hits for 2-4s always in PvP. Cmon.


Ghostly Embrase (Grave Grasp):

Summon three patches of skeletal claws from the ground in front of you. Enemies in the first area are snared by 30% for 5 seconds, immobilized in the second area for 4 seconds, and stunned in the final area for 3 seconds. Each patch applies Minor Maim and 3000 Heal Absorption to enemies hit for 5 seconds, reducing their damage done by 5% and negating the next 3000 points of Healing Done.

-- Debuff and disrupt healing, to make it worthwhile in a group play.


Detonating Siphon (Shoking Siphon morph):
Rename: Corpse Explosion

Causes the corpse to explode, dealing 900 Disease Damage to all enemies around the corpse. Creates the poisonous cloud around the corpse, dealing 4366 Disease Damage over 12 seconds to all enemies within the cloud. You can create any number of poisonous clouds, but the damage per second does not stack in case they overlap. This ability scales off your highest offensive stats. While slotted, your damage done is increased by 3%.

-- You do know that those siphon lines look stupid? Lets explode the corpses instead, creating clouds of miasma.

Mystic Siphon (Shoking Siphon morph):
Rename: Fiery Explosion

Causes the corpse to explode, dealing 1799 Flame Damage to all enemies around the corpse. Deals 100% more damage to enemies below 25% health. This ability scales off your highest offensive stats. While slotted, your damage done is increased by 3%.

-- Explosion with execute.


Skeletal Mage:

Unearth a skeletal mage from the dirt to fight by your side for 16 seconds. The mage attacks the closest enemy every 2 seconds, dealing 796 Shock Damage. Creates a corpse on death. You can use this skill multiple times, but cost is increased by 1000 for each cast.

-- Many skeletons. Much necromancy. Wow.


Death Scythe:

Slice into your enemy's life force, dealing 1742 Magic Damage, up to 100% more damage for the enemies under 50% HP. You heal for 2400 Health for the first enemy hit, and an additional 800 for each additional enemy hit, up to five times. The healing of this ability scales off your Maximum Health.

-- Scythe and not execute == flavour wasted.

Ruinous Scythe (Death Scythe morph):

Slice into your enemy's life force, dealing 1799 Physical Damage, up to 100% more damage for the enemies under 50% HP. Every third cast of this ability will apply Enervation to each enemy hit, reducing critical damage by 12%. You heal for 2400 Health for the first enemy hit, and an additional 800 for each additional enemy, up to five times. The healing of this ability scales off your Maximum Health.

-- Lets do something worthwhile on each third.


Healing Ritual:
Cost: 3510 Magicka

-- Why it have to cost 1500 above Blessing Of Restoration, neutral ability?


Sun Fire:

Blast an enemy with a charge of radiant heat, dealing 1161 Flame Damage, and an additional 2310 Flame Damage over 10 seconds. While slotted you gain Major Prophecy, increasing your Spell Critical rating by 2629.

-- While slotted. It's everywhere like this, I don't understand why it must be different here.

Vampire's Bane (Sun Fire morph):

Blast an enemy with a charge of radiant heat, dealing 1161 Flame Damage, and an additional 3346 Flame Damage over 14 seconds. Upon activation you gain Major Prophecy, increasing your Spell Critical rating by 2629. Deals additional 20% damage to to Undead, Daedra and Werewolves, and fears them for 3 seconds.

-- Now this is Vampire's Bane.


Radiant Ward (Sun Shield morph):

Surround yourself with solar rays, granting a damage shield that absorbs up to 2399 damage for 6 seconds. Nearby enemies take 1742 Magic Damage when the shield is activated, and each enemy hit increases the shield's strength by 50%, up to 300%.

-- Scale the shield with magicka + spell damage, Brawler-like scaling on number of enemies hit.


Impale (Assassin's Blade morph):

Throw a magic blade with lethal precision to strike an enemy, dealing 1161 Magic Damage. Deals 300% more damage to enemies below 25% Health. This attack cannot be dodged.

-- This is risk-reward skill. Given how fast enemies can heal, it is a miracle if you hit in <25% HP. Don't ruin this miracle with dodges. Compare to Radiant Destruction - it is only fair outcome.

Killer's Blade (Assassin's Blade morph):

Thrust a caustic blade with lethal precision to stab an enemy, dealing 1161 Disease Damage. Deals 300% more damage to enemies below 25% Health. Heals you for 3305 if the enemy dies within 2 seconds of being struck. This portion of the ability scales off your Maximum Health. This attack cannot be dodged or blocked.

-- Same as above, but you are now in melee range. This will also be one of the skills that is capable on hurting permablocks.


Phantasmal Escape (Blur morph):

Surround yourself in a phantasmic aura to gain Major Evasion, reducing damage from area attacks by 20% for 26 seconds. Activating this ability removes all snares and immobilizations from you and grants immunity to them for 4 seconds. Also grands Major Expedition for 6 seconds.

-- this is basically Elude on steroids. Never used, because you don't want to waste mana on things that aren't cloak or shade if you need to escape. With speed boost might see some play.


Mark Target:

Expose an enemy's weaknesses to afflict them with Major Breach, reducing their Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948 for 20 seconds. When a marked enemy dies, gain damage shield for 10000 health for 6 seconds. You can only have one Mark Target active at a time.

-- no scaling, gives shield so it would make sense if you did the flawless gank. Reaper's Mark gives twice the shield amount.


Strife:

To stack from different targets.


Consuming Darkness:
Radius: 12 meters

Conjure a ring of shadow, reducing the Movement Speed of enemies by 70% for 10 seconds. Allies in the area become invisible for 10 seconds upon skill cast and each 5 seconds.

-- Major Protection does nothing now. Hidden Refresh is the worst synergy ever, as it only showing up if you are below certain amount of HP. Drop it all for reliable big AoE source of invisibility.

Bolstering Darkness (Consuming Darkness morph):

Conjure a ring of shadow, reducing the Movement Speed of enemies by 70% for 10 seconds. Allies in the area become invisible, gain Major Berserk and Major Protection and Major Expedition for 10 seconds upon skill cast and each 5 seconds, increasing your damage done by 10% and reducing damage taken by 10%, increasing Movement Speed by 30%.

-- It does no damage, it does no healing. What it does is 20s of Major buffs and invisibility for cheerful slaughter.

Veil of Blades (Consuming Darkness morph):

Conjure a ring of shadow, reducing the Movement Speed of enemies by 70% for 10 seconds, dealing 1038 Magic Damage to them every 1 second. Allies in the area become invisible for 10 seconds upon skill cast and each 5 seconds.

-- Morph with damage over time.


Daedric Prey:

Curse an enemy with a destructive rune, dealing 2904 Magic Damage to the target and 1335 Magic Damage to all other nearby enemies after 6 seconds. While the curse is active, your pets deal an additional 100% damage to the target. You can have only one Daedric Prey active at a time.

-- It needs something big to be better than double explosion. Pets = investment. Let it pay off.
-- Make it work with set-summoned pets too


Summon Twilight Tormentor:

Call on Azura to send a twilight tormentor to fight at your side. The twilight tormentor's zaps deal 718 Shock Damage and its kicks deal 718 Shock Damage. Once summoned, you can activate the twilight tormentor's special ability for 2970 Magicka, causing it to deal 100% more damage for 15 seconds. The twilight tormentor remains until killed or unsummoned.

-- Removed the parts about moon phases to receive bonus damage. 100% more damage = 718 damage each 2 sec = what nercomancer does with their pets. And necro skeletons isn't even that good.


Liquid Lightning:

Create a nexus of storm energy at the target enemy, dealing 347 Shock Damage to enemies in the area every 1 second for 14 seconds. An ally standing within the nexus can activate the Conduit synergy, dealing 2249 Shock Damage to enemies.

-- Let this skill follow the enemy to be useful in PvP. Damage is lower on this one, so it is fair.


Encase:

Call forth Daedric shards from the earth to immobilize enemies in front of you for 4 seconds. All enemies in the area take 1199 Magic Damage. If no enemies are immobilized, you restore 2000 Magicka.

-- guarantee the damage, even if below average AoE damage. Return magicka if nobody was rooted, but less.

Shattering Prison (Encase morph):

Call forth Daedric shards from the earth to immobilize enemies in front of you for 4 seconds. All enemies in the area take 1199 Magic Damage and are afflicted with Major Breach, reducing their Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948 for 20 seconds. If no enemies are immobilized, you restore 2000 Magicka.

-- AoE breach + immobilize + bit of damage, all the goodstuff.

Restraining Prison (Encase morph):

Call forth Daedric shards from the earth to immobilize enemies in front of you for 4 seconds. All enemies in the area take 1199 Magic Damage. Immobilizing an enemy grants you Major Vitality, increasing your healing received by 16% for 5 seconds plus 3 extra second per enemy, up to a maximum of 20 seconds. If no enemies are immobilized, you restore 2000 Magicka.

-- Increase the duration of Major Vitality, because it is not as useful as devs think.


Rune Cage:

Imprison enemy in a constricting sphere of dark magic, after a short duration they are stunned for 3 seconds. Deals 2160 Magic Damage when the stun ends. This stun cannot be blocked. If the enemy wasn't stunned, they take 1199 Magic Damage.

-- Guarantees some damage on cast. Gurantees full spammable damage on stun hit, doesn't matter if it ends earlier


Power Surge:

Invoke Meridia's name to gain Major Brutality and Major Sorcery, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20% for 33 seconds. While active, increases Critical Healing by 20%.

-- old version gave the healing the petty amount of healing that was totally irrelevant. Lets give it something fun and crit-based.


Empowering Chains:
Cost: 3213 Stamina

-- same skill in stamina will feel good.


Inhale, Stonefist:

-- Delete this and give us something useful instead.
-- something something make it best defensive class again.
-- something something sustain.


Ash Cloud:
Radius: 7 meters

-- I can even agree with a cost, but not with radius. It is tiny compared to Grand Healing.


Igneous Shield (Obsidian Shield morph):

Call the earth to your defense, granting a damage shield for nearby allies that absorbs 1365 damage. Your own damage shield absorbs 30% max HP damage. This portion of the ability scales off your Maximum Health. You also gain Major Mending, increasing your Healing Done by 16% for 2.5 seconds.

-- 30% is the baseline of good shield. Use this baseline.

Fragmented Shield (Obsidian Shield morph):

Call the earth to your defense, creating a damage shield for you and nearby allies that absorbs 1365 damage. This portion of the ability scales off your Maximum Health. You also gain Major Mending, increasing your Healing Done by 16% for 10 seconds.

-- 10s of Major Mending because this skill doesn't do anything except that. Shields are tiny. Give DK healers some love.


Protective Scale:

Flex your scales, reducing your damage taken from projectiles by 60% for 6 seconds.

-- 20% less damage. As of now, this loses competition to Crystallized Shield by a whole lot.


Choking Talons (Dark Talons morph):

Call forth talons from the ground, dealing 1742 Flame Damage to enemies near you and immobilizing them for 4 seconds. Enemies hit are afflicted with Major Maim, reducing their damage done by 10% for 10 seconds. An ally near the talons can activate the Ignite synergy, dealing 2812 Flame Damage to all enemies held within them.

-- Minor Maim vs double the damage in 4 seconds? It doesn't cut. Needs something MAJOR to offset the lose of damage.

BohnT2

I agree that most of those Skills need some help but your proposals go way way way too far.

Healing Absorption is a mechanic that should have never made it into the game, ever and it should never return to a regular ability.

Making impale and Killer's Blade undodgeable/ unblockable is begging for people to zerg you down with those skills, yes they are less reliable than executioner but this is not a solution.

Also you're asking for way too many defensive buffs, zerg buffs and overall unhealthy things for the game with no intention of strengthening proper gameplay philosophies for classes.

caserdar

who?

jimijac0me

Asked

Arkew

where is mending wound from psijic skill line XD

VaranisArano

So, I haven't made it through the whole list, mostly because I got stuck on the PVP section of the list.

Guard - does anyone else remember when Guard had a brief heyday in CP Battlegrounds as paired healer/tanks made themselves practically unkillable?

Cleanse - I use this morph. In my PVP raid. So, uh, yeah, sure...buff a skill that's really only used by ball groups! What could go wrong?!

Propelling Shield - uh, again, let's give Minor Evasion to the PVP raids stacking on the front door. It's not like PUGs don't already complain that ball groups can stand in oodles of hot oil and never seem to take damage because of stacked HOTs.

I'm not really interested in tearing through the whole list because I think the idea of buffing underused skills has potential.

However, it's worth considering that some of these skills are kept in the state they are because they can become unbalanced if buffed (Guard), or because they are primarily used by organized groups who really don't need the buff (Cleanse), or because they would exacerbate current concerns about groups (proposed Mirror Shield.)

divnyi

VaranisArano wrote: »

Guard - does anyone else remember when Guard had a brief heyday in CP Battlegrounds as paired healer/tanks made themselves practically unkillable?

So, the intended use of a skill?
I mean, I don't change what the skill do. It is merely quality-of-life fix.

VaranisArano wrote: »

Cleanse - I use this morph. In my PVP raid. So, uh, yeah, sure...buff a skill that's really only used by ball groups! What could go wrong?!

Ball groups would always use version that cleanses 3 debuffs from a group, not a version that cleanses 1 debuff from a group and 3 from yourself.

VaranisArano wrote: »

Propelling Shield - uh, again, let's give Minor Evasion to the PVP raids stacking on the front door. It's not like PUGs don't already complain that ball groups can stand in oodles of hot oil and never seem to take damage because of stacked HOTs.

I guess you are right here tho.
If low damage to players from sieges is the issue, propelling shield can buff damage to players from sieges in the area by, say, 25%.

divnyi

Arkew wrote: »

where is mending wound from psijic skill line XD

I actually believe that it is doing alright. I have used in on multiple characters before.

Only issue I have with this skill is that heavy attack heal is useless. On paper, it can restore mana, but practically it restores only if you actually healed, heal ticks from this channel is like 1 per sec, and healing amount is very low. Like, if your ally is below 100%, you don't want to restore you damn mana, you want to actually heal him.

So if anything needs to be changed, it's either do more healing on heavy, or restore mana on channel even without healing, or make channel AoE heal, idk.

divnyi

BohnT2 wrote: »

Making impale and Killer's Blade undodgeable/ unblockable is begging for people to zerg you down with those skills, yes they are less reliable than executioner but this is not a solution.

But it basically does half spammable damage. Block is halving damage. Well ok, you can do CPs and use shield to buff it to.. maybe like 50%*(100%-34%) = 33%, but that's like +50% damage difference and shouldn't matter that much. Unless, ofc, you are full permablock with Immovable. Then it would hurt.

Undodgeable abilities are already in the game, it is not the worst one.

BohnT2

divnyi wrote: »

BohnT2 wrote: »

Making impale and Killer's Blade undodgeable/ unblockable is begging for people to zerg you down with those skills, yes they are less reliable than executioner but this is not a solution.

But it basically does half spammable damage. Block is halving damage. Well ok, you can do CPs and use shield to buff it to.. maybe like 50%*(100%-34%) = 33%, but that's like +50% damage difference and shouldn't matter that much. Unless, ofc, you are full permablock with Immovable. Then it would hurt.

Undodgeable abilities are already in the game, it is not the worst one.

As I said your proposals are extreme Zerg buffs that would completely ruin the game, it's impossible to keep block up 100% of the time for 99% of the builds out there and getting hit by killer's blade/impale while having less than 25% hp will result in you dying.

divnyi

BohnT2 wrote: »

getting hit by killer's blade/impale while having less than 25% hp will result in you dying.

As it should be.

BohnT2

divnyi wrote: »

BohnT2 wrote: »

getting hit by killer's blade/impale while having less than 25% hp will result in you dying.

As it should be.

And you are asking for any existing counterplay to be removed, this is a death sentence for any balance.

YandereGirlfriend

VaranisArano wrote: »

So, I haven't made it through the whole list, mostly because I got stuck on the PVP section of the list.

Guard - does anyone else remember when Guard had a brief heyday in CP Battlegrounds as paired healer/tanks made themselves practically unkillable?

Cleanse - I use this morph. In my PVP raid. So, uh, yeah, sure...buff a skill that's really only used by ball groups! What could go wrong?!

Propelling Shield - uh, again, let's give Minor Evasion to the PVP raids stacking on the front door. It's not like PUGs don't already complain that ball groups can stand in oodles of hot oil and never seem to take damage because of stacked HOTs.

I'm not really interested in tearing through the whole list because I think the idea of buffing underused skills has potential.

However, it's worth considering that some of these skills are kept in the state they are because they can become unbalanced if buffed (Guard), or because they are primarily used by organized groups who really don't need the buff (Cleanse), or because they would exacerbate current concerns about groups (proposed Mirror Shield.)

Guard was only overpowered because it applied player mitigation twice in the damage calculation (e.g. once for the target and another time for the player doing the guarding).

Now the skill is just a sad afterthought, only used in like the Hard Modes for the Stonethorn dungeons. That's way too niche to justify keeping those morphs so weak.

My take is that the named buffs need to be re-evaluated because Minor Vitality is quite weak after the Great Buff Nerf Wave of 2020 and then Minor Force is both inexplicable as well as completely useless for the secondary morph.

I think that Minor Evasion could make for an excellent replacement for the Minor Vitality morph and then that Minor Slayer would be an interesting replacement for Minor Force that would potentially enable some more varied damage builds in PvE.

With some better buffs on offer the amount of damage that is redirected could be slightly reduced, perhaps to 20-25%.

Greasytengu

Ring of Preservation needs to be ground castable instead of just plopping it at your feet. Either that or have the effect linger on players passing through much like Healing Thicket does.

Its a useful skill for getting your group through breaches, but setting it up requires you to go into the hot zone where all the horrible AOEs are. Given its cost, and terrible range, I doubt being able to set it up easier would propel the skill to overpowered levels.

Vevvev

Going backwards in time for 6 seconds on an ultimate that lets you use it while CC'd[snip]?!?!?!? Some of these suggestions are indeed way over the opt, and the suggestions like with Mesmerize are probably impossible due to the back end code with how they're supposed to work ((Mesmerize works on merchants for instance and the damage would probably flag it as assault)). Some of them definitely need buffing but you didn't think about some of the PvP and PvE applications here.

[edited for rude/insulting comment]

moo_2021

divnyi wrote: »

BohnT2 wrote: »

getting hit by killer's blade/impale while having less than 25% hp will result in you dying.

As it should be.

Is it meant to favor your build?

Killer's blade maybe, Impale no since it's ranged.

25% is already very dangerous and most of my kills were opportunistic stampede jumps on those guys who were probably busy switching to back bar and healing.

With high crit damage on NB and guaranteed cric, stampede seems to be doing the same job already without execution requirement. I don't know why nobody else uses it.

Thraben

divnyi wrote: »

Cleanse (Purge morph):

Cleanse yourself and your group, removing 3 negative effects from yourself and 1 negative effect from each member of your group immediately. For every negative effect removed, the target is healed for 5% of their Maximum Health.
Cost: 4000 magicka

-- selfish cleanse instead of overly high-cost one that nobody use.


Retreating Maneuver (Rapid Maneuver morph):
Cost: 4000 Stamina
Mobilize your forces, granting Major Expedition to you and Minor Expedition to your group, increasing Movement Speed by 30% and 15% respectively for 8 seconds.

-- whatever you put in this morph for the same cost as Charging Maneuver, it won't compete with giving flat out more speed. Selfish cheaper morph will do better.



Bone Surge (Undaunted morph):

Surround yourself with a whirlwind of bones, gaining a damage shield that absorbs up to 5121 damage 6 seconds. This ability scales off your Maximum Health. Allies in 15m radius gain Major Vitality for 6s, increasing their healing received by 16%. An ally near you can activate the Bone Wall synergy, granting the ally and up to 5 other allies a damage shield equal to 30% of their Maximum Health 6 seconds.

-- buff allies on cast, because this bonus on synergy is very unreliable. Might end up in tank/healer bars.


Balance (Equilibrium morph):

Barter with Oblivion to trade vitality for power, sacrificing your Health in exchange for 3000 Magicka. After the exchange is complete, you gain Minor Heroism, granting you 1 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds for 18 seconds. The exchange reduces your Healing Done and damage shield strength by 50% for 4 seconds.

-- because we all know that Major Resolve here doesn't make sense. You are supposed to gain power in exchange for life. Ultimate is power.


Shooting Star (Meteor morph):
Radius: 7 meters

-- Other morph do more damage, give this one wider range.


Elemental Ring (Impulse morph):

Remove the casting delay. Make the impact as instant as possible.

-- Stat-wise, skill is fine. But in reality there is an issue with hitting any targets due to the delay.

All these skills are being used and abused quite a lot by PvP groups. The only thing that I personally don't use is Retreating manovre, because the skill does not work as well as it should. Buffing Balance - a skill that is used by 2/3 of all ballgroup players , and by almost no solo player in PvP- in order to enable even more ulti dumps is ... not balanced.

Iriidius

divnyi wrote: »

BohnT2 wrote: »

getting hit by killer's blade/impale while having less than 25% hp will result in you dying.

As it should be.

Unavoidable Attacks shouldnt exist. If you use your defenses against an attack, it shouldnt kill you. Block and Dodge Roll are already feel useless this patch, I still get killed very fast when using them. Whirling blades and other AOEs already ignore dodge roll and somehow block and dodge roll often fail to register.

divnyi

moo_2021 wrote: »

divnyi wrote: »

BohnT2 wrote: »

getting hit by killer's blade/impale while having less than 25% hp will result in you dying.

As it should be.

Killer's blade maybe, Impale no since it's ranged.

Thus I mentioned that Impale is undodgeable, not unblockable. It will make it at par with magplar jesus beam (with beam still doing more in one cast).

moo_2021 wrote: »

25% is already very dangerous and most of my kills were opportunistic stampede jumps on those guys who were probably busy switching to back bar and healing.

With high crit damage on NB and guaranteed cric, stampede seems to be doing the same job already without execution requirement. I don't know why nobody else uses it.

Because what is 25% is a subject to enemy build. 25% of 20k nightblade and 25% of 35k heavy armored lvl3 vamp bruiser is very different 25%. Execute vs low-HP chars is not even needed.

Stampede maybe can compete with spammable, but not with executes that do double spammable damage and can also crit on top.

Iriidius wrote: »

divnyi wrote: »

BohnT2 wrote: »

getting hit by killer's blade/impale while having less than 25% hp will result in you dying.

As it should be.

Unavoidable Attacks shouldnt exist. If you use your defenses against an attack, it shouldnt kill you.

You probably never tried to stack full sturdy or full well-fitted on golden gear. You would know that resource use is very minimal if you do that.

Besides, healing up above 25% is active defense against this attack. If you manage to do this, damage is half the spammable damage.

Block and Dodge Roll are already feel useless this patch, I still get killed very fast when using them.

and somehow block and dodge roll often fail to register.

Lag issue. Has nothing to do with game balance.

[Edit to remove bait]

divnyi

Thraben wrote: »

divnyi wrote: »

Cleanse (Purge morph):

Cleanse yourself and your group, removing 3 negative effects from yourself and 1 negative effect from each member of your group immediately. For every negative effect removed, the target is healed for 5% of their Maximum Health.
Cost: 4000 magicka

-- selfish cleanse instead of overly high-cost one that nobody use.


Retreating Maneuver (Rapid Maneuver morph):
Cost: 4000 Stamina
Mobilize your forces, granting Major Expedition to you and Minor Expedition to your group, increasing Movement Speed by 30% and 15% respectively for 8 seconds.

-- whatever you put in this morph for the same cost as Charging Maneuver, it won't compete with giving flat out more speed. Selfish cheaper morph will do better.



Bone Surge (Undaunted morph):

Surround yourself with a whirlwind of bones, gaining a damage shield that absorbs up to 5121 damage 6 seconds. This ability scales off your Maximum Health. Allies in 15m radius gain Major Vitality for 6s, increasing their healing received by 16%. An ally near you can activate the Bone Wall synergy, granting the ally and up to 5 other allies a damage shield equal to 30% of their Maximum Health 6 seconds.

-- buff allies on cast, because this bonus on synergy is very unreliable. Might end up in tank/healer bars.


Balance (Equilibrium morph):

Barter with Oblivion to trade vitality for power, sacrificing your Health in exchange for 3000 Magicka. After the exchange is complete, you gain Minor Heroism, granting you 1 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds for 18 seconds. The exchange reduces your Healing Done and damage shield strength by 50% for 4 seconds.

-- because we all know that Major Resolve here doesn't make sense. You are supposed to gain power in exchange for life. Ultimate is power.


Shooting Star (Meteor morph):
Radius: 7 meters

-- Other morph do more damage, give this one wider range.


Elemental Ring (Impulse morph):

Remove the casting delay. Make the impact as instant as possible.

-- Stat-wise, skill is fine. But in reality there is an issue with hitting any targets due to the delay.

All these skills are being used and abused quite a lot by PvP groups. The only thing that I personally don't use is Retreating manovre, because the skill does not work as well as it should. Buffing Balance - a skill that is used by 2/3 of all ballgroup players , and by almost no solo player in PvP- in order to enable even more ulti dumps is ... not balanced.

Top 2 skills are previously ballgroup-only tools that I made cheaper and with weaker effects, to be used by non-ball players in smallgroup PvP.