Nightblade Strife in 1.4.3

Samadhi · September 2014

So I was reading on Reddit some of the information from the ESO Livestream yesterday.

I came across a portion about Nightblades that read:

Strife: Always heal based on initial damage caused

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/2g8dto/some_news_from_the_live_stream_so_far/

Could someone who listened to the stream, or perhaps @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ or @ZOS_GinaBruno please clarify this change?

Presently, Strife will cause Heal Over Time ticks based off of the damage it deals; if the skill is recast before the previous HoT finishes ticking, it will restart the previous HoT's effect even if the new damage is different from the initial damage.
This is what the skill presently does.
This is also what the mentioned "change" is supposed to be doing.

There is also a bug with Strife where it will erroneously calculate the healing effect based on previous hits; if I proc a Weapon Enchantment right before using Strife, it will sometimes take the Enchantment damage as my healing base instead of the actual Strife damage.

Does anyone out there know if there is something "new" being planned for this skill or it was simply a lack of clarity in referring to the bug fix?

phreatophile · September 2014

This is a terrible change. It was nice starting a fight with 1850HP of Damage from Ambush, 500 from Strife, and a HOT that ticked for 458HP every 2 seconds. All before the enemy could even react.

Phinix1 · September 2014

I too would like clarification on this.

If you Strife from stealth or after an ability that modifies damage, will the HoT continue to roll that higher value even if you instantly refresh by casting Strife or its morphs again?

Strife is the main damage ability of all magicka-based Nighblades. It gets refreshed constantly.

phreatophile · September 2014

AlienDiplomat wrote: »

I too would like clarification on this.
(snip)
Strife is the main damage ability of all magicka-based Nighblades. It gets refreshed constantly.

I tended to apply it after Ambush then use Blood Craze until the HOT from Strife ran out.

This change will help the light attack/spell weavers a lot since it won't calculate the HOT from a light weapon attack it will calculate from it's own damage as it's supposed to.

Not sure what the max damage from Strife is, but our max HOT will be 25% of that. 100HP-200HP for most players. Now that it's going away, it doesn't matter; you could self heal with ticks in the thousands by using Strife right after certain Seige attacks.

Aeratus · September 2014

Strife was bugged in that the damage used to calculate the heal over time amount is overridden by the damage of the attack immediately following strife.

So this change simply fixes the bug.

Samadhi · September 2014

Aeratus wrote: »

Strife was bugged in that the damage used to calculate the heal over time amount is overridden by the damage of the attack immediately following before strife.

So this change simply fixes the bug.

Fixed that for what happens to me.

Currently I go Ambush-->Strife, and Strife takes its healing calculation from Ambush, regardless of what attack I use following Strife.

PBpsy · September 2014

I am very happy with the fix. Having the HOT be reliable is much better than the occasional beneficial exploit.

phreatophile · September 2014

Aeratus wrote: »

Strife was bugged in that the damage used to calculate the heal over time amount is overridden by the damage of the attack immediately following strife.

So this change simply fixes the bug.

Odd, I did not find this to be the case. I would hit strife in the air, as it were, during the looonnnnggg animation for Ambush and the HOT would apply based off of the 1500-1850 sneak attack damage. It would only deviate from the 400ish HOT tick if I screwed up and reused Strife before all ticks happened. It really gets useless if used after a blocked light attack.

phreatophile · September 2014

PBpsy wrote: »

I am very happy with the fix. Having the HOT be reliable is much better than the occasional beneficial exploit.

I didn't find it to be occasional at all, It was reliable as sunrise.
Sneak attack to open the festivities , get the HOT started, get the DOT started, light attack, re-apply HOT/DOT as necessary, Impale, next contestant.

Varicite · September 2014

AlienDiplomat wrote: »

I too would like clarification on this.

If you Strife from stealth or after an ability that modifies damage, will the HoT continue to roll that higher value even if you instantly refresh by casting Strife or its morphs again?

Strife is the main damage ability of all magicka-based Nighblades. It gets refreshed constantly.

As long as you do not let the original HoT expire, the higher value will be refreshed each time you use Strife. I've tested this in-game.

If you have a lower-value Strife HoT ticking and then crit your next Strife, the higher HoT value will overwrite the lower one, and then this will be refreshed when you cast Strife again.

At least, this is currently how it works.

Nysticc · September 2014

phreatophile wrote: »

This is a terrible change. It was nice starting a fight with 1500HP of Damage from Ambush, 500 from Strife, and a HOT that ticked for 458HP every 2 seconds. All before the enemy could even react.

I disagree, I have had times where I was getting 2k ticks from it and couldn't be killed

phreatophile wrote: »

AlienDiplomat wrote: »

I too would like clarification on this.
(snip)
Strife is the main damage ability of all magicka-based Nighblades. It gets refreshed constantly.

I tended to apply it after Ambush then use Blood Craze until the HOT from Strife ran out.

This change will help the light attack/spell weavers a lot since it won't calculate the HOT from a light weapon attack it will calculate from it's own damage as it's supposed to.

Not sure what the max damage from Strife is, but our max HOT will be 25% of that. 100HP-200HP for most players. Now that it's going away, it doesn't matter; you could self heal with ticks in the thousands by using Strife right after certain Seige attacks.

I usually get 1.1k from funnel health when i use it after ambush, I should gt some good heals from this

PBpsy · September 2014

phreatophile wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

I am very happy with the fix. Having the HOT be reliable is much better than the occasional beneficial exploit.

I didn't find it to be occasional at all, It was reliable as sunrise.
Sneak attack to open the festivities , get the HOT started, get the DOT started, light attack, re-apply HOT/DOT as necessary, Impale, next contestant.

It was not at all reliable for people that use it as their main attack and built for its maximum efficiency. I can make it crit for anything between 750 and 900 depending on what buffs and effects I have at the moment. I want it to heal for that damage not anything else. What you were doing was exploiting a bug. It will still be very effective after ambush if you are actually built for strife use.