Which one is harder to hit? Stamblade or stamsorc?

Nyseto

I love damage mitigation as opposed to surviving after taking damage so I main a stamblade, loads of fun and annoying to play against in pvp. Is the stamsorc even more annoying and harder to hit given its mobility and streak? Or should I just stick with the stamblade.

ZOS_Icy

Greetings,

This thread has been moved to the Players Helping Players section, as it is better suited there.

Thank you for your understanding.

OBJnoob

Stick with nightblade I think. For one thing nightblades are just in a better spot than sorcerer's period at the moment and that goes beyond what you're asking but it still should be relevant that they have better healing and damage than sorc.

More to your point... Streak has an increasing cost penalty for casting back to back and cloak does not. Any ranged attacks or gap closers can still hit a streaking sorc (the defensive morph ball of lightning got nerfed to only absorb 1 projectile I believe.) It is better to not be seen than to be seen but 15m away.

Nightblades have a morph of the Mirage skill that gives them reduced cost to roll dodge. So... Wear medium well fitted, roll dodge a lot, go invisible, and use shadow image or whatever it's called for sneaky teleportation tactics... It's as good as it gets for avoiding damage I do believe.

fred4

OBJnoob wrote: »

Stick with nightblade I think.

I agree with this conclusion, because I think the classes are balanced as regards damage avoidance. It's not like one is better than the other. I play them both.

For one thing nightblades are just in a better spot than sorcerer's period at the moment and that goes beyond what you're asking but it still should be relevant that they have better healing and damage than sorc.

That's what many people say. I think it's debatable. Yes, sorc healing is problematic. You IMO have to go beyond Vigor, Crit Surge and Dark Deal for a comfortable / survivable build, e.g. you IMO have to use Rally, resto staff, Draining Shot, Mara's Balm or something else as well.

While traditional shield-stacking magsorc is dead, I think stamsorc / hybrid sorc is alive. Combine your spammable of choice with a selection of Curse, Mage's Wrath / Fury and Crystal Weapon for added burst. This is arguably an easier playstyle than making Assassin's Will / Scourge work. Stronger? Maybe not, but Curse is a bane to nightblades in particular.

More to your point... Streak has an increasing cost penalty for casting back to back and cloak does not.

That's IMO a red herring so long as you mix Streak with dodge rolls, Major Expedition and Dark Deal. In other words, use a bow back bar or main a bow. It goes exceedingly well with stamsorc. Dodge rolling and Streak both have increasing costs. Alternate between the two and the problem is solved.

Don't ask me what I think about the "cloak does not have increasing cost" argument. I've heard this so many times. In reality, if you want to do good damage on a nightblade, you can't sustain cloak. Cloak also does not create distance. For that you need Shadow Image or you need to build rather heavily into speed. If you do the latter - I do so on my magblade and I have infinite cloak sustain on that character as well - yes, you can compete with two Streaks in a row for ease of use and you get to cloak away, like OBNoob says. However you pay a hefty price to get the Cloak sustain and the speed (you need both) and you will wear squishy light armor, because of it. Oh, you can reclaim tankiness as well by combining Rallying Cry and Mara's Balm, which is one of my build options. You will not have damage, though (but you'll bring Tel Var home).

Obviouly you can draw the line somewhere else, giving up tankiness, speed, sustain, but I hope you get my point. 2x Streak in a row is extremely effective as a short term relief and requires zero foresight. You can blunder into any situation and reposition immediately. Cloak isn't like that. Combine Cloak with RAT and a lot of speed (Wild Hunt) and it's similarly carefree and effective, but that costs you more than a single skill slot.

Any ranged attacks or gap closers can still hit a streaking sorc (the defensive morph ball of lightning got nerfed to only absorb 1 projectile I believe.) It is better to not be seen than to be seen but 15m away.

How did you get to be 15m away, huh? Was it Shadow Image? I'll give you that, but that requires foresight. You have to like that playstyle. Streak is easier to use.

I agree that being attacked from range is a weakness of stamsorc. You tend to rely on dodge rolls and locating the attacker, so you either streak towards them and stun, or streak away. On a nightblade you may just cloak and you have a better burst heal.

Sorcs also like to complain about gap closers, but cloak has counters too. Acid Spray / Bombard spam, judicious use of detection skills and, worst of all, detection potions and the Sentry set. I'm not sure whether the latter is working or broken at the moment, but you do get mysteriously pursued on nightblades from time to time. A good nightblade hunter is a good nightblade hunter. Streak is one weapon of choice of those players incidentally.

If this sounds like successful nightblade hunting is an occasional thing, whereas sorcs constantly get gap closed and killed, this is not what I find in practice. In my experience tryhard players will pursue (solo) players of both of these classes, but the majority will leave them alone when they disengage. Technically a sorc is easier to pursue, but a sorc also has some tricks up it's sleeve that a nightblade does not, e.g. streaking onto inaccessible rocks or onto protected platforms in IC.

and use shadow image or whatever it's called for sneaky teleportation tactics... It's as good as it gets for avoiding damage I do believe.

So ... you actually play both classes?

fred4

Nyseto wrote: »

I love damage mitigation as opposed to surviving after taking damage so I main a stamblade, loads of fun and annoying to play against in pvp. Is the stamsorc even more annoying and harder to hit given its mobility and streak? Or should I just stick with the stamblade.

Stamsorc is very fun to play, but simply different to nightblade. I'd summarize these classes as follows:

• Stamsorc / hybrid sorc: Very fast, very fun, very carefree, very little foresight required, quite easy to play.
• Pure magsorc: Extinct.
• Cloaking / speed magblade: The closest thing to a stamsorc in terms of how carefree it is.
• Stamblade (using cloak): Tends to be more of a stalker that has a harder time positioning itself at will. Harder to play, due to juggling Grim Focus, Shadow Image, crouch and limited cloak sustain.

It's possible that I'm not giving stamblade enough credit. A woodelf with a bow can certainly be as fast as anything, but I think stamblade has to be more ready to fight or, at other times, lie in wait crouching. My cloaking magblade, on the other hand, is constantly on the move.