It breaks when damage is dealt. It is the most useless skill I have ever seen. Its own DoT prevents it from being reapplied. That said, because of how broken it is now I haven't even put it on my bar in PTS, so maybe there is hope and someone will weigh in?

Unfortunately, even on PTS I still couldn't get myself to spend a skill point in this.

I think a change that would make this skill useful would be if the ability did more damage if the effect is broken. If it is broken out of immediately, then the dot hits for it's max damage. The longer the root lasts, the less damage done.
Also... instant cast. Why is such a comparable skill to fossilize such a long cast? The cast time is actually in my opinion what makes this skill the most useless.

I'd like to see CC skills in this game get reworked into something like the de-taunts from Warhammer Online that healers had access to. You use the skill on a single target at a time, it reduces the damage that targets deals to you by 50%, but the effect is removed if you damage them in any way. It was actually rather clever in that it functioned similar to CC, but wasn't as frustrating for the receiving player and offered healers the ability to negate an incoming source of damage while not being so inherently tanky. Or help in 1vX or other 3v5 etc lopsided fights to help even the odds (but obviously requiring coordination to not attack that target or use AOE)

omfgitsbatman wrote: »

I think a change that would make this skill useful would be if the ability did more damage if the effect is broken. If it is broken out of immediately, then the dot hits for it's max damage. The longer the root lasts, the less damage done.
Also... instant cast. Why is such a comparable skill to fossilize such a long cast? The cast time is actually in my opinion what makes this skill the most useless.

It's instant on the pts.

No go full points into bastion, use harness magicka and healingward.

With no regen/cost penalty (like block and dodgeroll) shieldspamming is by far the most effective active migation/defense in Imperial city pts.

Keep shielding! Elder Shields Online is back .

Edit: As for CC, use fear, agony is a lost cause

wow, idk what to say in PVP I have been using it and its well... working really good.

hard to explain, there is a certain way you need to use it.

>.< I tested in duels + open world fights and I have won ALOT of fights with it, but I wouldnt have a problem with another buff

but overall its really good with certain builds and I love it for my magicka melee NB, honestly only thing I hope they can add to it is
1. Make the dot work even if your enemy has CC immunity, atm it wont work if it doesnt stun.
2. OR increase the overall damage of agony and allow it to only work when it stuns.

(obviously if you have dots on your enemy it will negate agony from doing anything, but basically how I have been using it as a trick skill, most enemies will start to realize that they shouldnt CC break it, because it breaks on hit but since I have stun high burst + close range crit damage with my magicka attacks ALLOWING yourself open is suicide, sooo they are forced too CC break a stun that in reality feels really dumb to CC break, but if they do not I have enough burst to kill them and once it reachs this point, its basically a long range stamina waster for your enemy + damage over time)

thats the best way I could describe its use.

Araxleon wrote: »

(obviously if you have dots on your enemy it will negate agony from doing anything, but basically how I have been using it as a trick skill, most enemies will start to realize that they shouldnt CC break it, because it breaks on hit but since I have stun high burst + close range crit damage with my magicka attacks ALLOWING yourself open is suicide, sooo they are forced too CC break a stun that in reality feels really dumb to CC break, but if they do not I have enough burst to kill them and once it reachs this point, its basically a long range stamina waster for your enemy + damage over time)

So maybe useful for dueling? But wouldn't fear do the same thing with the bonus of the snare and the minor maim?

And in any open world pvp fracas, most players (99% I would bet) are going to just instinctively cc break and damn the consequences....the psychology being that not having control over your actions is a big negative on the battle field. I know that when I get rune prisoned or whatever it is, I just break it (if I can) and then cloak and put some distance from threats until my stam is back in fighting shape.

In order for Agony to be interesting or useful it has to put a tougher choice on the player who is in agony. Or maybe it's just intended for PvE and that's all there is to it?

Edit too, to or two? Never sure lol

ScruffyWhiskers wrote: »

I don't know about the break cc and not have enough stamina left for a second cc when the timer expires. I find that most players have no problem breaking multiple cc in a row. The fresh meat straight out of the siege school might have trouble but in my experience not many others. Sorcs especially know not to block with shields up. I can break cc every interval as long as I keep my dodge roll nstincts under control What it needs is a stam regen debuff. No that would be interesting. In fact I wonder why we haven't seen magicka or stam regen debuffs? Or is there one that I am missing? I only play nb so my oppo research/intel is often spotty.

Sometimes they are able to CC break the second agony but most my targets cant because they HAVE to block or my damage hurts them too much. In between my vanishes and Swallow soul heals and shield spell reflect I can survive long enough against the shield sorc spec that i can land a 3rd or even 4th agony on them and try to burst them down while they are asleep each time. I will admit there are insanely strong sorcs but when i meet one of those they usually BE away and leave the fight after they realize i actually attack their stamina

asteldian wrote: »

Skills like Agony are a hold over from older games that actually required cc. Modern MMOs like to keep putting these skills in but have forgotten that their games are aoe spamfests nowadays so these skills don't really fit in.

That is largely why I started this thread. It seems that agony is used so little that it is a waste of one of the five siphoning skill options (though I think the other four skills are all very good - definitely my favourite class skill line).

I wonder if it might be replaced with something entirely different. To throw out an entirely random idea, it could be interesting to have a skill where one morph reduces heals from siphoning skills and increases damage while the other increases heals from siphoning skills while decreasing damage.

I'll still take Mass Hysteria over it and I'm not even in melee at all times.

I wish they'd just drop the notion of this skill and just give us a beast of a DoT in one of the morphs. No slow, no immobilize, no speed boost, no damage debuff, no mana return, none of any of the other auxiliary effects our other damage over time skills give. Just a pure unadulterated high sustained damage ~12-15s DoT like every MMO has.

Make it an AOE root like Encase and Talons, Instant cast and then it will be more useful. I use it pretty much only to troll permarollers but now that they are essentially gone, this skill goes back to not even being unlocked.