For anyone who has experimented, how do you feel about the flying blade buff in pts? Personally, while I like ZOS's intentions, I'm just not sure how great it will be. As it stands, I still feel the "obvious" choice for those looking to receive a major brutality buff from a weapon skill is to still take rally because of it's heal. If this was just simply an overall buff to the dual wield class then I would agree the purpose was served. However, considering this buff seems to be a direct response to rally, I do not believe it satisfies that need. With that being the case, I suggest replacing flying blade with a self-buff altogether.

The skill

Fatal Fury
Your hatred for your enemies grants you major brutality, increasing your weapon damage by 20%.(Twenty-one(21) seconds at rank I. Increasing to rank IV would raise the duration to 33 seconds. Cost x amount of stamina.)

Morphs

Eviscerate or Bloody Rampage
Your hatred for you enemies grants you major brutality, increasing your weapon damage by 20%. While active, increase bonus critical strike damage by 7%(10% at rank IV)

Vengeance
Your hatred for you enemies grants you major brutality, increasing your weapon damage by 20%.While active, increase magicka recovery by 8(10 maybe?)%( reduced stamina cost at rank IV)

Explaining the morphs

So first, the names, as they are clearly he most important part of the abilities . They are not set in stone obviously, but with words like rend, tornado, and deadly popping up, I figured this skill would be the ultimate reflection of the ferocity and violence that seems to a common them among the names. Oddly enough, imo, hidden blade strays the most from the theme. Eviscerate/Rampage is supposed express the desire to absolute decimate the opponent. Just ruthless aggression(possible name?) without regard for oneself or others. In Vengeance's case, I decided that word was a good way to convey the sense of a cold and calculated defeat of the opponent. Since magicka recovery usage is tied to ideas of intellect in this game, I figured a name that showed thought was involved was appropriate.

As for what the skills provide aside from the main buff, Eviscerate was designed to be a straight up opposite to rally. Where rally gives you more survivability, eviscerate gives you more potential damage. I was also toying around with ideas of adding a healing debuff to the user in exchange for more bonus damage or converting the damage to a passive crit chance boost while ability is slotted(with dual wield equipped). With Vengeance, magicka builds who would like to dual wield were the primary targets, but magicka recovery also helps out stam builds so it's a win for everybody. Hybrid users probably benefiting the most.

Afterthought

Overall these are just ideas to be tweaked, completely changed, or disregarded(hopefully after some discussion) in hopes to bring major brutality to the dw in a way that users will enjoy. My biggest concern is for people who truly like flying blade as an ability. They are the ones I'd like to hear from the most as it effects them the most. Would you mind this replacement? Do you have alternative ways to get the brutality buff out of combat without removing flying blade? Those are just a few questions targeted at that specific group of people. For everyone else, how do you feel about the above mentioned skill and more important what do you suggest in order to make something like this make it to the live server. Truthfully, the only thing I'm adamant about is it being a self-targeted buff that can be utilized out of combat. Collecting my thoughts at the end here, I also realize this could replace deadly cloak while keeping hidden blade the way it is on live.

Hopefully @ZOS_RichLambert and Eric Wrobel see this.

Thank you for taking the time to read .