Vamp as PVE exclusively, still worth it?

Psychotius

I literally just became a vampire this weekend, with no intent of abusing PVP'ers (or even aware that there was a way to). I was mostly interested in having some fun abilities while hitting dungeons and boss fights. Luckily for me, I haven't even had a chance to sink more than one skill point into it. So, it's no sweat to cure and go on with my life.

However, I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are on maintaining and leveling it based off the fact that my only interest is PVE and also looking cooler with my dead skin? I haven't had a chance to try it out since the patch (yay work) so I'm wondering what other's experiences have been so far.

In short, would you still consider it a worthwhile endeavor? Especially considering the PVE play style that I enjoy.

Thanks for the input!

Ravinsild

Well, let's see.

Assuming your class doesn't have a stun, or you aren't rocking it on your active bar at the time you get a 3.25 second stun that you can follow up with a knockdown via heavy attack after feeding from stealth.

You get 10% increased Magicka and Stamina recovery.

Below 50% HP you get all damage against you mitigated by 50%...so you're at half health and an attack would hit you for 150 but instead only deals 75 damage to you.

You can stay at Stage 2, 3 or 4 with less harsh penalties to your HP regeneration.

You can go fast, like faster than your run speed, while stealthed.

You get a 3 second stun that also gives you life back and fills up your stamina bar and you can "tab" target it if you're in a pack of mobs for sustain when you need it.

If you can figure out a use for mist form in PvE more power to you...

And finally, you get bat swarm which is an AOE that can 1) give you invisibility for a few seconds in which mobs won't attack you (but sometimes they reset back to full HP :<) or 2) Gives you tons of healing.

What do you think? In my opinion, yes, it's very worth it and I stay at Stage 1 at all times for cosmetic reasons on my one char, and Stage 2 at all times again for cosmetic reasons (The reddest eyes in this stage, looks the coolest IMO for that particular character).

Anzaman

Ravinsild wrote: »

Below 50% HP you get all damage against you mitigated by 50%...so you're at half health and an attack would hit you for 150 but instead only deals 75 damage to you.

Increases damage mitigation when player is below 50% Health. Damage mitigation can increase up to 50%, as Health decreases.

I don't think that it grants you a 50% damage reduction at 50% health.

Psychotius

Thanks Ravinsild! Very comforting. It's hard to make heads or tails on what the repercussions are considering most experienced vamps think the world has ended.

Ravinsild

Psychotius wrote: »

Thanks Ravinsild! Very comforting. It's hard to make heads or tails on what the repercussions are considering most vampire PvP exploiters, and flavor of the month vampire users think the world has ended.

Fixed that for you.

Vampire is fine. It offers a LOT of powerful bonuses and tons of survivability in PvE especially, since no NPC will ever use Silver Bolts on you or anything of the sort.

aresdestructorub17_ESO1

Ravinsild wrote: »

Well, let's see.

Assuming your class doesn't have a stun, or you aren't rocking it on your active bar at the time you get a 3.25 second stun that you can follow up with a knockdown via heavy attack after feeding from stealth.

Yes, however you're channeling the entire time and feeding doesn't do damage. As NB, i'm better off just using surprise attack if I'm stealthed. Also, keep in mind that feeding lowers your stage so if you wanted to be in a higher stage you won't be using this. Other than NB i'm not sure. Even without surprise attack though using a charged attack is much better than feeding to start a fight. I guess the good part is you can stun humanoid bosses with it but unless you're a nightblade you won't be doing it in the middle of a fight and it's probably not intended and will be fixed eventually.

Ravinsild wrote: »

Below 50% HP you get all damage against you mitigated by 50%...so you're at half health and an attack would hit you for 150 but instead only deals 75 damage to you.

Someone else already corrected this but does anyone know if this passive is also broken on death?

Ravinsild wrote: »

You can stay at Stage 2, 3 or 4 with less harsh penalties to your HP regeneration.

you only get a penalty to hp regeneration for being in those higher stages and have to spend a skill point to reduce the penalty so I don't know why you listed this as a bonus.

Ravinsild wrote: »

You can go fast, like faster than your run speed, while stealthed.

It's faster than the non sprint run speed but not faster than sprint as far as i can tell. Just wanted to clarify.

Ravinsild wrote: »

You get a 3 second stun that also gives you life back and fills up your stamina bar and you can "tab" target it if you're in a pack of mobs for sustain when you need it.

This ability is good and is the only reason I'm not running to cure it right now. It does annoy me that sometimes it seems I can't cast it but maybe trying tab targetting would help. Also, should mention that it can only be used once per target (though someone said it might be usualy again after a minute and a half) and can't be used on anything that's immune to stun.

Ravinsild wrote: »

If you can figure out a use for mist form in PvE more power to you...

Agreed. Poison mist looked like it could be decent but it's not ticking every half second like it seemed to say and I've only recently realized it was probably a typo and it's supposed to tick every 1.2 seconds which is how it appears to be working.

Ravinsild wrote: »

And finally, you get bat swarm which is an AOE that can 1) give you invisibility for a few seconds in which mobs won't attack you (but sometimes they reset back to full HP :<) or 2) Gives you tons of healing.

I haven't tried devouring swarm but I'd like to know how you're getting clouding swarm to work. Whenever I use it things still attack me. Atm I'm really just using it for the damage buff I get for being invisible (10% weapon damage from NB passive) and because I think it looks cool. Veil of blades is significantly more useful for me and my party.
-EDIT- They don't attack unless you do. May have just been lag for me before.


Sorry for going over your post like that, just seemed like you were trying to make vamp sound more amazing than it is and didn't want someone to be disappointed when they found out the other side of it. The things I left out are just things I didn't have any more to say about.

OP, if you're worried about the cost reduction nerf, yea, it kind of sucks. However you probably won't be using mist form except for fun sometimes and most of us use bat swarm at the regular cost anyways (stupid bugs they won't fix). However if you were planning on staying in stage 1 the whole time like some do then that doesn't affect you.

The biggest thing you'll need to worry about is fire damage. You're really going to want fire resist runes if you don't already have them. I only have one and haven't upgraded it since I first got vamp (think I got it at 38 and it's only 450 resist. I'm 49 now) and the last fire mage I ran into could 2 shot me or get close at least. Think I ran into a scamp before I logged off too and it did a third of my health cause I wasn't paying attention and there were 3 >_>.

Ravinsild

I say "run speed" because to me there are 3 modes of locomotion: Stage 1 is walking, like literally NPC fast walking. Stage 2 is the default "running" and Stage 3 is Sprinting.

I meant to say you move faster in stealth with the perk than regular Stage 2 (running).

Even so, the damage mitigation if it's scaling from a certain percentage to capping is still worthwhile.

You can use Drain Essence on a mob more than once but it is something like a minute or a minute and a half wait between when you can do it. Forgot to mention it doesn't work one certain mobs like Frost Atronochs, or anything that would ordinarily be immune to a stun as you get a "This mob is too powerful for that effect" message.

Invisibility Swarm works for me, even if an enemy is charging a heavy attack it will pass right through me dealing no damage and not knocking me down. Then the monsters stand still and do nothing, or sometimes (irritatingly) will reset.

ChairGraveyard

Vampire for PvE is useless now.

The 1.0.7 nerf does not fix the bat swarm spam, but does make the other two actives entirely useless.

This is on top of the bugs, by the way, which include:

* Passives bugged - they do not work unless you log off/on constantly.
* Poison Mist damage doesn't work right.
* Mist Form in general has a bug that lets enemy players put CC on you, despite it giving you CC immunity (yes this is a thing - enemy tab targets you and CC works even though it shouldn't).
* Elusive Mist is now the same speed as other abilities that cost far less and give you better advantages.
* -75% health regen reduction
* 0% ability cost reduction (it doesn't work, remember?)
* +50% fire damage

Right now vampire is little more than a straight debuff with zero advantages to balance it, unless you're a Bat Swarm abuser.

As someone that plays PvE almost exclusively, and doesn't use Bat Swarm, this nerf essentially killed the already messed up skill line.

Psychotius

Thanks everyone, it's good to see some actual constructive responses. I just got home, so I guess I'll fire it up and see what I think. It might be a benefit for me that I have used the vamp skill line so little that I won't notice what was previously there.

Keep the info coming though, I imagine more info will also help other's make informed decisions before they spend time waiting for fiend spawns or spend gold to buy a bite.

aresdestructorub17_ESO1

Ravinsild wrote: »

Invisibility Swarm works for me, even if an enemy is charging a heavy attack it will pass right through me dealing no damage and not knocking me down. Then the monsters stand still and do nothing, or sometimes (irritatingly) will reset.

I decided to go test some more and you're right, it is working at least most of the time. I only tested it a couple times before just accepting it wasn't fully working when I first got it. When I tested it then, even if I just stood there they'd still attack me, that didn't happen this time, hopefully it was just lag before. They do still attack if I'm actually fighting but I'm pretty sure that's just because you come out of stealth for a moment even though it doesn't show that. Kind of annoying but at least they don't usually use charge attacks then. Not sure if it's supposed to be this way but it's ok to me.

Smayes97_ESO

In VR content its almost a must have. Every mob just does massive amounts of damage so being able just to "tab target" life drain will save your MANY times. if you are worried about the increased fire damage taken just get a few 1040 fire resist enchants from an enchanter and mages aren't any worse than a normal mob.

It is pretty hard to think of a downside to being a vamp. its really easy to stack fire resist enchants and you are fine. It's hard to imagine VR content without my vamp abilities. worth it imo.

Noth

Smayes97_ESO wrote: »

In VR content its almost a must have. Every mob just does massive amounts of damage so being able just to "tab target" life drain will save your MANY times. if you are worried about the increased fire damage taken just get a few 1040 fire resist enchants from an enchanter and mages aren't any worse than a normal mob.

It is pretty hard to think of a downside to being a vamp. its really easy to stack fire resist enchants and you are fine. It's hard to imagine VR content without my vamp abilities. worth it imo.

This is very true. in VR ranks being a vampire makes combat so much easier simply because of the drain. It heals extremely well, stuns and does good damage and the vampire cost reductions it's cheaper than most skills that only do two of those things.

Psychotius

Noth wrote: »

Smayes97_ESO wrote: »

In VR content its almost a must have. Every mob just does massive amounts of damage so being able just to "tab target" life drain will save your MANY times. if you are worried about the increased fire damage taken just get a few 1040 fire resist enchants from an enchanter and mages aren't any worse than a normal mob.

It is pretty hard to think of a downside to being a vamp. its really easy to stack fire resist enchants and you are fine. It's hard to imagine VR content without my vamp abilities. worth it imo.

This is very true. in VR ranks being a vampire makes combat so much easier simply because of the drain. It heals extremely well, stuns and does good damage and the vampire cost reductions it's cheaper than most skills that only do two of those things.

Very insightful, thanks! I'm really glad I asked, I was beginning to fret that I had wasted time on getting Vampirism. Considering that the passives are set to be fixed with 1.1, I'd say Vampirism is still golden from what I have seen so far. Still an item of opinion and preference, but for me it is shaping up to be a very enjoyable aspect to the game.

Cheers everyone!

Ravinsild

Smayes97_ESO wrote: »

In VR content its almost a must have. Every mob just does massive amounts of damage so being able just to "tab target" life drain will save your MANY times. if you are worried about the increased fire damage taken just get a few 1040 fire resist enchants from an enchanter and mages aren't any worse than a normal mob.

It is pretty hard to think of a downside to being a vamp. its really easy to stack fire resist enchants and you are fine. It's hard to imagine VR content without my vamp abilities. worth it imo.

I agree 100%. Curing myself of vampirism on my V4 Templar and picking up Werewolf made solo pve content go from manageable to impossible straight up. I just gave up on the character out of frustration and rerolled.

ChairGraveyard

Oh yeah, for the record of this thread, Elusive Mist is now broken and gives 0% speed increase.

So both morphs of Mist Form are 100% broken.