Vampire Drain Essence really needs help...

Wavek
Wavek
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Drain + Morphs have always had some limitations that made it not really viable, but the recent patch seems to have made it worse. It is really not worth keeping on the hotbar the way it currently works.

1) It is not usable at all on group boss(2-bracket or more) enemies.
2) It is not usable at on a significant number of single bracket (solo-boss) enemies.
3) It is, as of update 6, not usable if the enemy has recently been stunned, knocked down etc.

This ability needs to be split into stages much like other similar abilities.

For example Crystal Shards from Dark Magic does the same 3 things Drain does but is always usable.
Crystal Shards:
Damage will always apply, even if the enemy is immune to the CC (knock down) component.
The Heal component you can get by spending skill points also will always work, its not a once per enemy thing.
The Knockdown can be blocked by CC immunity without blocking the whole ability.

I propose the Drain skill be setup the same way.

The Damage should always work regardless of enemy type, CC resist, heal component timer etc.
The Heal component should either always work, or work based on a per enemy timer (i.e. once every 10 seconds on a particular enemy). Other players using the skill should not block eachother from also using it.
The Stun should work on non-immune enemies but that immunity should not prevent the damage or heal from working.

This would make Drain a viable skill to have on the bar even during group encounters.
Edited by Wavek on March 17, 2015 8:09PM
  • eventide03b14a_ESO
    eventide03b14a_ESO
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    I never use it because of the limitations. I might however use it in it's current form if it reduced the vampire stages.
    :trollin:
  • Wavek
    Wavek
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    I never use it because of the limitations. I might however use it in it's current form if it reduced the vampire stages.

    I think that should, at the very least, be optional. They DO need to make feeding to reduce stages easier (and doable with a larger variety of enemies).

    I was in stage 4 all day yesterday because I was in Rivenspire where there are almost no enemies that can be fed upon. (not counting innocent citizens)
  • serenity_painted
    serenity_painted
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    I agree, the way it is now it's not worth using. Maby in PvP but even there i wouldn't slot it. The stun limitation just makes it weak as hell, if they removed that it would be fine and also make a vampire abit more fun.
  • bloodenragedb14_ESO
    bloodenragedb14_ESO
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    What it needs is to be usable on all enemies, even if the stun doesnt.

    Edit: realized you already said it, but what the hell, ill leave this to illustrate my frustration with how drain currently works
    Edited by bloodenragedb14_ESO on March 17, 2015 8:26PM
  • phreatophile
    phreatophile
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    Dain is only useful to level the skill line to the point where you get swarm ult. We get some good passives and a nice Ult. The (only) 2 actives are crap.

    There ought to be a charm spell for feeding in town and some actual advantage to darkness. According to the lore ESO's silly vampire strain isn't weakened by daylight like many other bloodlines, but they are stronger at night, even if that is not actually true.

    Drain ought to do the damage and the heal with no stun on stun immune targets rather than making one skill of 5 unusable and it ought to be usable as often as we feel like, it is a breakable cc after all.

    Mist form ought to have it's speed restored

    Devouring Swarm is about right, it's been nerfed hard but not enough to make it useless like the others.
  • eventide03b14a_ESO
    eventide03b14a_ESO
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    Dain is only useful to level the skill line to the point where you get swarm ult. We get some good passives and a nice Ult. The (only) 2 actives are crap.

    There ought to be a charm spell for feeding in town and some actual advantage to darkness. According to the lore ESO's silly vampire strain isn't weakened by daylight like many other bloodlines, but they are stronger at night, even if that is not actually true.

    Drain ought to do the damage and the heal with no stun on stun immune targets rather than making one skill of 5 unusable and it ought to be usable as often as we feel like, it is a breakable cc after all.

    Mist form ought to have it's speed restored

    Devouring Swarm is about right, it's been nerfed hard but not enough to make it useless like the others.
    We should be able to feed without automatically becoming KOS.
    :trollin:
  • phreatophile
    phreatophile
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    We should be able to feed without automatically becoming KOS.

    No argument here. It used to be called Vampiric Seduction in the single player games and gave something like a minute where an NPC couldn't agro on you. It could do more than that in certain circumstances. Looking at you Dexion Evicus.

    Would be great if it could be used to turn a foe into an ally for a few seconds.
  • Almornikb16_ESO
    Almornikb16_ESO
    Soul Shriven
    Pre 1.6 I used Invirogating drain a lot when leveling up my sorc from lvl15 to vet 14. Crystal Blast -> Mages fury -> Nomnom-Ray. That combo killed nearly all same level nps and left me with max mana and hp after each kill. Even when fighting 5 mobs the drain/wrath combo kept me topped all the time.
    It sucked (or not...) that I was not able to use one of my sparse active skills on my sorc cast bar against many enemies like bosses or already CC´d mobs. Waiting for that lifesaving healing because someone decided to knock the enemie down felt bad. Oh, my target lies defenseless on the floor! Looks like i cant exploit it now by sucking its blood. I am so fair to let him stand up! (And sometimes I died because my source of selfheal got disabled).

    But now its even WORSE!
    Crystal Frags into Drain? Nope! CC immune! Should I start the fight now with my "melee" healing skill as a Robe weaing caster? That doesnt make sense!
    Also: Yay! More toggle skills for sorcs for even less room for active skills!

    1.6 Nerfed this beloved skill from situational/cool to useless/dangerous.

    Please change it like said before to:
    Dmg component: Works allways
    Healing: Internal cooldown like 10 sec or so but should work on all targets
    CC: Just applies on cc´able targets
  • TSoul977
    TSoul977
    This needs to get bumped
    I originally thought it was just something wrong with the game or my character but i guess it's the skill
  • Willy8257
    Willy8257
    Drain essence should be like a more powerful version of the nightblade siphoning ability just with shorter range
  • grumlins
    grumlins
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    I've not been bitten yet but was seriously looking into this. It's sad that they would put a limitation on this ability like this. Really, they need to continue the bulk of their philosophy in the rest of the skills because we already have limitations on the number of skills we can have slotted there's no need to nerf anything.
  • Lylith
    Lylith
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    TSoul977 wrote: »
    This needs to get bumped
    I originally thought it was just something wrong with the game or my character but i guess it's the skill

    indeed.

    and it's still as glitchy and unpredictable as ever.

    maybe moreso.


  • cjthibs
    cjthibs
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    Dain is only useful to level the skill line to the point where you get swarm ult. We get some good passives and a nice Ult. The (only) 2 actives are crap.

    There ought to be a charm spell for feeding in town and some actual advantage to darkness. According to the lore ESO's silly vampire strain isn't weakened by daylight like many other bloodlines, but they are stronger at night, even if that is not actually true.

    Drain ought to do the damage and the heal with no stun on stun immune targets rather than making one skill of 5 unusable and it ought to be usable as often as we feel like, it is a breakable cc after all.

    Mist form ought to have it's speed restored

    Devouring Swarm is about right, it's been nerfed hard but not enough to make it useless like the others.
    We should be able to feed without automatically becoming KOS.

    Umm...why? Nobody is going to be cool with you draining their blood...
    You should be KOS just being Stage 3+
    Edited by cjthibs on July 13, 2015 10:38PM
  • kojou
    kojou
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    My Templar just acquired vampirism from a friend and I have the same thought. This skill useless.

    Maybe if they changed it into a single target fear skill that would allow you to feed with x on the "prey" without being in stealth?
    Playing since beta...
  • Talongar
    Talongar
    Ill make this short.... I agree lol hardcore vamp but it is needed
  • StrykerTheElite
    all they have to do is to take stun off of drain essence, and make cool down time to 45 secs and allow it remove stages

    The actual bite feed (should remove the immunities that blocks it, allow it heal about 50% right off the bat even if they brake it. IT should come with negative to npc or player who just got bit or buff to vamp who just feed. 20% less damage, or 20% buff damage or 10% less damage and 10% buff damage for 20 secs.
  • Talongar
    Talongar
    @StrykerTheElite I def have to agree with that second and first comment.. I believe it should com with some sort of neg. buff... I mean , your life essence was just drained... something should happen to you other than that.
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