Necro - I was wrong about Ghostly Embrace

Aldoss

This is a post to call myself from the past out. I was very vocal about the change to Ghostly Embrace with U44 during the PTS. The skill is awful in a dueling setting for sure and that makes things really tough to test.

I was disappointed with the removal of the CC, especially with the dev callout to Burning Talons, which is, by all accounts, a "better" skill (e.g. doesn't need to be aimed, fires instantly, does aoe direct dmg, does dot dmg, immobilizes, creates a synergy).

However, Ghostly Embrace has found a place on my bar and I'm actually loving it.

It's tough at first to really tell because the damage of the skill is broken apart into 5 damage sources, making each one show up as only a couple percentage points. However, when you add up all the damage, the skill is easily accounting for 15-20% of all damage, which is actually insane when you consider that Blastbones is always 23-27%. At least in a BG setting, where I spend 99% of my play time, the third patch is actually fairly easy to land and the extra corpse being generated is a really great perk, especially for my build.

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_BrianWheeler I was wrong on this. Good call with this change. I'm digging it!

tsaescishoeshiner

I see it being used by strong premades in BGs pretty often, and I can't quite tell why. I'm curious, what makes it so good for group BGs?

Aldoss

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

I see it being used by strong premades in BGs pretty often, and I can't quite tell why. I'm curious, what makes it so good for group BGs?

Each patch deals direct damage and has a unique effect. It's pretty common for someone to get hit by the first and second patch together, so that's the same damage as using a spammable, except the spammable is aoe and has a dot component. Then it has a smaller chance to hit and drop a corpse. So it's a skill that hits the same or sometimes more than a spammable, applies minor main via chill, applies a decent dmg dot, and can drop a corpse.

The most fun is using it on someone who is running from you because the patch delay means they'll get hit with each patch.

It helps your sustain because it will likely be on your front bar and the only other skill anyone would have on their front bar is scythe, which is used mostly for the heal or the offbalance, not the damage. If your build doesn't have a spot for scythe, then you miss out on Death Gleaning on your FB.

I'm very satisfied with this skill.

EDIT - Found a good example in the cmx from tonight. This player got hit from all 3 patches:


That's 3,977dmg from the patches (+chill) followed up with 2,067dmg from the dot from one button press, and when there's a group, it has the potential to do that in an aoe.

EDIT 2 - Here's a cmx from what I would consider the worst environment for this skill because it was one heal plar with 3 sorcs in a 4v4. This is 9min of combat (there's a few ball of lightnings in this log that messed with the averages... no one got hit for a 15k BB sadly):


Doesn't look like much, but when I add it up, it did 16.1% of all my dmg, for a total of 121,795 dmg. That's against 75% of targets that are streaking around like crazy.

tsaescishoeshiner

Aldoss wrote: »

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

I see it being used by strong premades in BGs pretty often, and I can't quite tell why. I'm curious, what makes it so good for group BGs?

Each patch deals direct damage and has a unique effect. It's pretty common for someone to get hit by the first and second patch together, so that's the same damage as using a spammable, except the spammable is aoe and has a dot component. Then it has a smaller chance to hit and drop a corpse. So it's a skill that hits the same or sometimes more than a spammable, applies minor main via chill, applies a decent dmg dot, and can drop a corpse.

The most fun is using it on someone who is running from you because the patch delay means they'll get hit with each patch.

It helps your sustain because it will likely be on your front bar and the only other skill anyone would have on their front bar is scythe, which is used mostly for the heal or the offbalance, not the damage. If your build doesn't have a spot for scythe, then you miss out on Death Gleaning on your FB.

I'm very satisfied with this skill.

EDIT - Found a good example in the cmx from tonight. This player got hit from all 3 patches:


That's 3,977dmg from the patches (+chill) followed up with 2,067dmg from the dot from one button press, and when there's a group, it has the potential to do that in an aoe.

EDIT 2 - Here's a cmx from what I would consider the worst environment for this skill because it was one heal plar with 3 sorcs in a 4v4. This is 9min of combat (there's a few ball of lightnings in this log that messed with the averages... no one got hit for a 15k BB sadly):


Doesn't look like much, but when I add it up, it did 16.1% of all my dmg, for a total of 121,795 dmg. That's against 75% of targets that are streaking around like crazy.

Ty--great write-up and makes a lot of sense!