Abyssal Impact cast time

LioraValkyrie

ZOS, I have an honest request for the sake of all pve players who will attempt to master the Arcanist in the coming patch... please, please remove the 0.3 second cast time on Abyssal Impact and its morphs. That 0.3 seconds doesn't benefit anyone. It just makes the skill feel sluggish and fudges bar swaps with the slightest fluctuation in ping. The more I play Arcanist, the more I just think 'yuck' every time I go to cast this skill.

I would replace it with Runeblades, which feel very smooth indeed, but unfortunately they are vastly undertuned in comparison and your choice to grant Abyssal Impact a 5% damage buff makes it essential for Arcanist in pve. You have oddly given Arcanist 2 class spammables, and we have to use at least one because of crux, but you've made the good one feel like sludge (deliberately, maybe, because of the tentacle vibe) and the bad one... wait, why is there a bad one?

Cast times should only be used for meaningful channels, such as the Arcanist book and the Templar beam. Cast times under 1 second are just meaningless jank in my humble opinion. When you play the game yourselves, ask if a given cast time is necessary for the skill to feel fun and on point. And if it's not absolutely necessary, just get rid of it and make it instant cast.

That's all.

Malkosha

You make a good point. Having a cast time of .03 seems to be something a computer drew up because the math worked out that way. I hardly notice it however so maybe I'm not quite as sensitive to the time difference or it shows up in combo with another ability I'm not using. I might see a problem if you cast it after using an ability with a cast time, which might make your rotation a little janky feeling but I use it as an opener and Crux builder and haven't had any issues. Either way, .03 seconds seems a little weird. Just make it instant and be done with it since .03 is as close to instant without actually being instant.

monkiie

I agree, the cast time on tentacle feels very janky, especially in pvp. Cast times on abilities such as this one, soul tether, dawnbreaker, teleport strike, and others should be removed.

Marto

Cast times makes abilities look and feel better to use. It makes them more impactful, and allows them to have proper, well made animations.

Hitting someone before my character even starts to move is not good gameplay. Being hit before the enemy even starts to move is not good gameplay.

High quality animations and accurate combat feedback pretty much cannot exist with instant cast times.

ADarklore

Marto wrote: »

Cast times makes abilities look and feel better to use. It makes them more impactful, and allows them to have proper, well made animations.

Hitting someone before my character even starts to move is not good gameplay. Being hit before the enemy even starts to move is not good gameplay.

High quality animations and accurate combat feedback pretty much cannot exist with instant cast times.

Exactly. Just ask Templars about the animation that was changed when they reduced Jabs damage and cast time.

Tessitura

It's a really high performing spell. The cast time should stay and and they shouldn't let the stam morph build crux, it should spend crux. It's already damn near front loaded with execute scaling, healing, and adding 5% extra damage on top of crux generating. Its kind of ridiculous as is. I think you can learn to live with 0.3 sec cast time giving what you get in return.

BasP

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Tessitura wrote: »

It's a really high performing spell. The cast time should stay and and they shouldn't let the stam morph build crux, it should spend crux. It's already damn near front loaded with execute scaling, healing, and adding 5% extra damage on top of crux generating. Its kind of ridiculous as is. I think you can learn to live with 0.3 sec cast time giving what you get in return.

If Cephaliarch's Flail was turned into a crux spender it would just be an inferior alternative to the Tentacular Dread morph though, the way I see it. The heal from CF would be fairly useless considering you wouldn't cast the skill often and the same goes for the execute scaling. Tentacular Dread on the other hand increases your damage by another 6% and the skill itself also deals more damage than the stam morph (unless the enemy is pretty low on health of course).

Being able to use Flail as a spammable instead of Runeblades on the other hand is nice (and I don't mind the cast time myself).

EramTheLiar

There are actually three class spammables, if you count the first skill in the tank line. It's not a good spammable in group play because of the taunt, but despite its decreased damage it's a good spammable and crux builder for solo because of the heal and magicksteal (and if you're solo you're essentially taunting everything anyway). Also if you're a magicka build you don't need to spam from your stamina pool to get the heal.

Tessitura

BasP wrote: »

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Tessitura wrote: »

It's a really high performing spell. The cast time should stay and and they shouldn't let the stam morph build crux, it should spend crux. It's already damn near front loaded with execute scaling, healing, and adding 5% extra damage on top of crux generating. Its kind of ridiculous as is. I think you can learn to live with 0.3 sec cast time giving what you get in return.

If Cephaliarch's Flail was turned into a crux spender it would just be an inferior alternative to the Tentacular Dread morph though, the way I see it. The heal from CF would be fairly useless considering you wouldn't cast the skill often and the same goes for the execute scaling. Tentacular Dread on the other hand increases your damage by another 6% and the skill itself also deals more damage than the stam morph (unless the enemy is pretty low on health of course).

Being able to use Flail as a spammable instead of Runeblades on the other hand is nice (and I don't mind the cast time myself).

Nah, I dont agree, it still does more damage as a execute then the other morph. If you made it a spender you would just adjust the numbers to fit the ramp up. I don't think they need a spammable that executes, adds damage, heals, and generates crux on top of ccing people. It's way too front loaded for a spammable. They either need to strip some of it's effects or make it a spender for all those effects.

WrathOfInnos

I don't understand the point of these tiny cast times. They don't slow down the spam at all. The only effect I can see is locking you out of potions, synergies and bar swap for 0.3s. Seems like unnecessary clunkiness.

It's like Incap, Crescent Sweep or Dawnbreaker, but more frequent and without the power of an ultimate.

Is it interruptible in PvP? That seems like a very small bash window, and the skill is not really powerful enough to require counterplay.

colossalvoids

Agree, cast times should have little to no place in eso's combat, things like incap and others that were changed not so long ago also should made less of an annoying clunkiness again. Not talking about actual fleshed out cast time skills that are fine tuned for this, just this exact mess.

ADarklore

EramTheLiar wrote: »

There are actually three class spammables, if you count the first skill in the tank line. It's not a good spammable in group play because of the taunt, but despite its decreased damage it's a good spammable and crux builder for solo because of the heal and magicksteal (and if you're solo you're essentially taunting everything anyway). Also if you're a magicka build you don't need to spam from your stamina pool to get the heal.

That's not true if you're playing with a companion. There is a reason I give all my Companions a taunt skill, to keep enemies off of me.

xylena_lazarow

It's the same pain on NB and Dawnbreaker, it's not a window for counterplay, it's just artificial lag.

tsaescishoeshiner

I don't mind these short cast times if they make the skills look better, feel better, and hit harder sometimes. But I wonder if they should be un-interruptible. Getting interrupted on a 0.3 sec cast time isn't a skill or reactive thing, just bad luck.