Soulcleaver Set Discussion (Endless Archive Nightblade Set)

merpins

merpins

7/10, Good, possible great depending on your build.

My Opinion: I was around when the Swallow Soul Magblade was actually powerful. This was pre Marrowind, before 2017. It got nerfed around there, and hasn't been good since. This set, for me, is a kind of return to norm. I think I'll be able to make a great build with this set, and feel like I'm playing Nightblade as it used to be. Will it be BiS? I doubt it. But it'll be the BiS option for a build that uses Swallow Soul as its spammable, no doubt.

Revised:

merpins wrote: »

A quote from a later thread of mine:

merpins wrote: »

After some testing, it's not worth slotting. I don't think it's the fault of the set though, I think it's a fault of the skills in the skill line it's buffing. Swallow Soul for example feels okay to use, but its damage still doesn't really compare with other spammable options. The healing is okay, but the damage isn't really there. Then all other skills in that line don't really do enough to slot, even with these buffs. All in all, I think the skill line itself probably needs some re-evaluation, and a good number of buffs, otherwise it will continue to be something people don't use.

This stands even more now that Zos clarified that the set, intentionally, does not boost your ultimate's healing or damage.

What does this skill line give you?
Soul Shred = A DPS skill with a self heal and a synergy that heals or a self heal with a bit of utility, but does not benefit from this set.
Strife = A DPS skill with a self heal like Templar's mag jabs or bloodthirst, Or a healer skill with some damage utility. But has the lowest damage tooltip in the game for a dps spammable.
Malevolent Offering = a healing skill.
Cripple = A DPS skill, but with not enough damage to justify slotting it.
Siphoning Strikes = a sustain skill.
Drain Power = An AOE DPS skill with a self heal + some self buffs, but not really worth using over other options.

Even if you could keep up your ultimate number high enough to get the full benefit all the time, you'd lose out on damage because you're not able to use your ultimate, and the ultimate that should benefit from the set, doesn't.



If the set was just a flat "Increase the damage and healing of Siphoning abilities by 30%, and decrease their cost by 15%," it still probably wouldn't be worth slotting. It might see some niche use if it had that, but it wouldn't be good just due to how weak that skill line is. I'm revising my original vote from a 7/10 to a 4/10. If they remove the conditions from the set, it becomes a 6/10, and if they buff the damage skills of the skill line by ~10-20% as well as remove the conditions from the set, it becomes an 8/10.

emilyhyoyeon

Since my main PVP character is a swallow soul nightblade I'm interested in it but I'm not sure how the spending ult thing is going to work out for it. Like I don't see being able to generate enough ult to ever actually cast an ult between having to regularly cast swallow soul, siphoning strikes, power extraction, offering.

And I don't know if losing out on an ult is worth it, especially because I can't see balorgh as anything but completely off the table with this set.

merpins

7/10, Good, possible great depending on your build.

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

Since my main PVP character is a swallow soul nightblade I'm interested in it but I'm not sure how the spending ult thing is going to work out for it. Like I don't see being able to generate enough ult to ever actually cast an ult between having to regularly cast swallow soul, siphoning strikes, power extraction, offering.

And I don't know if losing out on an ult is worth it, especially because I can't see balorgh as anything but completely off the table with this set.

True. If you're a PVE dps it doesn't matter too much, since we're using ults to get sustain anyway and not actually casting them most of the time. But for PVP it might be detrimental.

katanagirl1

Why Magicka only in the second bonus? Why does ZOS always give Magicka builds the preference? Some of us like stamina builds.

Flaaklypa

5/10, Okay at best.

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Why Magicka only in the second bonus? Why does ZOS always give Magicka builds the preference? Some of us like stamina builds.

you are a little late to the party my friend. Stam was the hands down strongest spec in the game from 2017-2020 in Both PvE and PvP.

AlterBlika

7/10, Good, possible great depending on your build.

Depends on your build I think. I'm not going to use it, expected much more from a class set

kynesgrove

7/10, Good, possible great depending on your build.

I'm looking forward to these sets.

They might not be the best, which is more than understandable for base game content which I'm guessing will be easier than an Normal Arena mostly.
(some people are expecting BiS DLC Vet Trial tier gear from this... base game free upgrade.)

I appreciate the soul and intention of these sets.

• Having traitline specific sets for specific classes: Class Identity expanding to Traitline Identity.
• Opening up more interesting (not optimal!) playstyles.
• Or making existing playstyles less of a snooze-fest, much like what Pearls of Elhnofey did for some players who like Healing as well as a challenge.

I'm getting very tired and bored of each class playing the same, and having more options and styles per class is a massive win in my opinion.

I for one embrace SS no-ult NB.
It'll be a different build, and it'll stand out that one of my NBs can finally feel different from the other NB, even if "worse".

FayJolyn

7/10, Good, possible great depending on your build.

I think it looks interesting. from the sounds of it, it sounds pretty balanced already. Decent enough I'm curious to find out which sets will pair well with it. It feels like it's trying to balance being a both a support and a damage set which is an interesting combination. I usually play magblade so I will definitely pick this one up to play around with.

7 out of 10 is a nice spot to be I think. and it seems most people agree.

emilyhyoyeon

merpins wrote: »

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

Since my main PVP character is a swallow soul nightblade I'm interested in it but I'm not sure how the spending ult thing is going to work out for it. Like I don't see being able to generate enough ult to ever actually cast an ult between having to regularly cast swallow soul, siphoning strikes, power extraction, offering.

And I don't know if losing out on an ult is worth it, especially because I can't see balorgh as anything but completely off the table with this set.

True. If you're a PVE dps it doesn't matter too much, since we're using ults to get sustain anyway and not actually casting them most of the time. But for PVP it might be detrimental.

I'm afraid the only way to viably keep using Balorgh and also use this set will be bomb builds. Free 34% damage buff to the soul tether hit from Soulcleaver + 500 ult Balorgh proc after slowly generating ult from safety.

Lozeenge

6/10, Good.

one way to get swallow soul back up to speed, i guess. i'm not sure it'll be worth replacing any of the BiS 5-piece sets in PvE.

if the ultimate drain isn't that impactful and lets you cast buffed soul tethers it would easily be a 8 or 9/10 in PvP environments. bombblade is already going crazy as it is right now.

katanagirl1

Flaaklypa wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Why Magicka only in the second bonus? Why does ZOS always give Magicka builds the preference? Some of us like stamina builds.

you are a little late to the party my friend. Stam was the hands down strongest spec in the game from 2017-2020 in Both PvE and PvP.

No I’m not. I remember when stamblade was top dps, it’s been gutted ever since. Hence my question.

merpins

7/10, Good, possible great depending on your build.

A quote from a later thread of mine:

merpins wrote: »

After some testing, it's not worth slotting. I don't think it's the fault of the set though, I think it's a fault of the skills in the skill line it's buffing. Swallow Soul for example feels okay to use, but its damage still doesn't really compare with other spammable options. The healing is okay, but the damage isn't really there. Then all other skills in that line don't really do enough to slot, even with these buffs. All in all, I think the skill line itself probably needs some re-evaluation, and a good number of buffs, otherwise it will continue to be something people don't use.

This stands even more now that Zos clarified that the set, intentionally, does not boost your ultimate's healing or damage.

What does this skill line give you?
Soul Shred = A DPS skill with a self heal and a synergy that heals or a self heal with a bit of utility, but does not benefit from this set.
Strife = A DPS skill with a self heal like Templar's mag jabs or bloodthirst, Or a healer skill with some damage utility. But has the lowest damage tooltip in the game for a dps spammable.
Malevolent Offering = a healing skill.
Cripple = A DPS skill, but with not enough damage to justify slotting it.
Siphoning Strikes = a sustain skill.
Drain Power = An AOE DPS skill with a self heal + some self buffs, but not really worth using over other options.

Even if you could keep up your ultimate number high enough to get the full benefit all the time, you'd lose out on damage because you're not able to use your ultimate, and the ultimate that should benefit from the set, doesn't.



If the set was just a flat "Increase the damage and healing of Siphoning abilities by 30%, and decrease their cost by 15%," it still probably wouldn't be worth slotting. It might see some niche use if it had that, but it wouldn't be good just due to how weak that skill line is. I'm revising my original vote from a 7/10 to a 4/10. If they remove the conditions from the set, it becomes a 6/10, and if they buff the damage skills of the skill line by ~10-20% as well as remove the conditions from the set, it becomes an 8/10.