Weaving for Assassin's Will, Cloak, and Agony

TheBonesXXX · March 2015

@ZOS_GinaBruno

Currently set up with a full magicka destro/resto nightblade; I have built this build in a Warlock/Shademage style just for proc of Grim Focus, Assassin's Will. The three skills to minimally complete this set up are Grim Focus, Swallow Soul, and Light staff attack. Grim > Light > SS > Light >>>>>> Assassin's Will (sharing the weave for testing purposes)

I just wanted to say that Assassin's Will only does a slight bit more damage than Swallow Soul. No, I am not in optimal gear nor am I looking at numbers, I am just looking at the mechanics of the damage dump so far.

To boost this, I even use Degeneration (Entropy) to proc Major Sorc and the mage guild abilities, even with it buffed, it's lackluster (imo)

For the lack of damage Assassin's Will does, it could be improved by simply lowering the proc so it sees some use only other than boss fights, its can be really good if you just lowered the requirement to use it, 8 light attacks in between a weave is way to high for a damage dump that really is a skill that should be used in between weaves. Other skills in other classes have an easier proc rate and do significantly more damage with better utility, just lowering the requirements would easily make Assassin's Will on par with other abilities as a go-to damage dump in between weaves as far as mechanics go.

When I am going for a dot + dump magicka set up, Assassin's Will just is not cutting the cake in its current state, all that is needed it seems is to lower the requirement to make it more weave-able.

I also have a few comments and questions about two other skills

Cloak, while I am not 100% certain how the mechanics work, it seems to me that invisibility equates to stealth; I would say it shouldn't and that nothing should see invisibility.

Also, is it intended that pots can detect someone using cloak? Invisibility and Stealth to me are different and this is the way the nightblade re-position themselves, we do not have the luxury of spamming a button to escape nor does the class itself have a means to take a massive beating without speccing into it. Why does a detection pot detect me in cloak? And why am I getting hit by light attacks to be tracked? Seems redundant to me.

and Agony

I know what it does, but.. whats its purpose? I don't bother with it, a breakable CC with a dot doesn't even feel like it should be a skill. When and how to use this thing and whats the benefit of it?

P.S.:

I am not crunching numbers, I offered my weave up so other players in better gear can test this; I will continue to test mechanics and improvement my character sheet but that Assassin's Will just needs more up-time.

Thanks

Celless · March 2015

Assassin's Will seems like it favors stamina PvE DPS, but it's still kinda unsexy.

I think there are a few things that Assassin's Will could benefit from to make it more attractive. Maybe one or more of the following (in a non-contradictory manner), I dunno:

1) Changing the trigger conditions to 'any damaging ability' instead of only light / heavy attacks
2) Using Assassin's Will refreshes the duration of Grim Focus
3) Lowering the number of light and heavy attacks needed to trigger Assassin's Will
4) Having Assassin's Will proc automatically when performing the required light / heavy attacks
5) Increasing the duration of Grim Focus by 5 seconds or so
6) Causing Assassin's Will to always critical
7) Trigger audio for "requiescat in pace," while gently caressing your foe's cheek with a feather
8) Perhaps make it purely a buff skill - through in the critical damage buff in it

I tend to notice it becoming available during AoE mob pulls and execute phases. Though during execute phase, stamina executes will do more damage than Assassin's Will at that point.

crashen17b14_ESO · March 2015

With regards to Agony, I love it. Situationally. Solo-pve, it is amazeballs. It lasts long enough for me to kill another enemy or two in the usual 3 person group in vet content, and paired with the vampire's essence drain, it can make it so most enemies can't even touch me. BUT. And it's a big but, I can not lie. It is absolutely useless in group content or against bosses or anything immune to CC, just like essence drain, just like a lot of would-be-useful skills. When soloing, I generally agony one enemy, then strife/cripple the others and essence drain the first to reach me, killing them and keeping me unconcerned with my health while the other hits me. Then do the same to him. Then break agony with cripple and strife and drain them too. Works like a charm, agony can do decent damage with the morph. The cast time also feels ok when weaving it into a spell combo.

But outside of that very specific situation, it's worthless. Essence drain is worthless. The entire concept of soft CC with secondary effects is worthless. But it would be so easy to fix. Just make the dot on Agony, the damage/heal on essence drain and any other secondary effects to CC's apply, even if the enemy is immune to the CC. It works with cripple. Even if the enemy can't be snared or immobilized, they still get the dot. Make that apply to all such abilities, maybe even with a direct damage boost, to CC-immune targets and it'd be perfect.

Example: Agony stuns the enemy for 12 seconds and deals 1,000 damage over 8 seconds when it ends, or deals 500 damage up front, and deals 1,000 damage over 8 seconds to enemies immune to crowd control.

Something like that. Something appropriate to the cast time and mana cost of the spell. Make it do as much damage (total) as crystal blast or something. Just make it not terrible.