WW v's Vamp, post IC.

Swindy · September 2015

I'm WW but only became so late, so haven't even morphed any skill lines.
I think I got there at VR10-12, & I'm VR15 now.
I used him to take out dolmen bosses etc, but eventually, & VERY sadly, gave up my DW due to a lack of heals (stamblade Imp) & begrudgingly took on 2H just to get brawler & most importantly rally.
I'm Pve solo so don't have vigor, caltrops, AP points to spend, group drop gear, etc...so I'm also stuck in VR14 self crafted gear, mostly purple, one gold, gold 2H.
I'm out of mats for gold so cannot craft any more gold armour nor above blue for my now purple bow.

So without my stamina regen passive (Grrr Zos) from my hairy alter-ego, he's all but useless to me now, since Veil or Dawnbreaker plus Rally plus Brawler negates the only uses I had for him. (WB doesn't get a run on my bar, siphoning strikes & increased dodge % staying up are too important now post IC.)

This is my question...is he now useless in my setup?...& if so, what advantages may I gain from changing to Vamp?...if any.
I've looked at the skill trees but only fully morphed players can really give me the whole picture.

Also, if I ever wished to return to WW, do I return with current skill degrees, or from base mut again?

Yes it'll be a slow grind to build the skill trees, but since they're (presumably) skills one can use without having to "morph" into hairy legs, I'd figure they're faster than the WW tree to increase.

MrGrimey · September 2015

Vampires shouldn't have been restricted like WWs since they are always vulnerable to flame, fighters guild and low health regen, I feel that was enough of a trade off for the +10% regen

And yes, you keep your skills leveled if you ever return to ww

Morozov · September 2015

As a "former" vamp (due to IC changes) I cannot recommend the skill line anymore...UNLESS, you specifically use one of the two abilities which it would seem all vamps typically use. So, since 1.7 you must slot a vamp ability to receive the passive bonuses which was what many vamps got the most utility out of (Not trying to undermine the damage reduction from elusive mist or the AOEheal/damage from swarm). An easy way to do that would be to use devouring swarm on one bar for the ulti and elusive mist on the other or some combination of the two. I personally did not find the alternate morphs of the two abilities worthwhile, you may find otherwise depending on your playstyle. With 1.7 coming out, many players in PVP (which is where i spend most of my time) went stam based so quite a few started running evil hunter on their bars if they were not already. So as a vamp, to me it was like getting a double nerf.

MrTarkanian48 · September 2015

WW seems worthless now in my opinion. Most people were running it for the free stam regen, but now since you have to slot the ultimate it is not worth it. If you decide to cure yourself of WW, respec and clear your skillpoints first, otherwise they will be locked into the werewolf tree.

Vampire is a trade-off. IMO the greatest skill is Dark Stalker (Increased sneak speed). If that is something that seems important to you it is worth a shot. I would not do it for the extra regen alone even though it is nice.

Vamp takes a little less fire damage now which is a plus. But fire still hurts so you will need to put champion points in elemental defender and/or put fire resist on a jewelry piece. The jewelry piece could alternatively be used for regen of your main stat, and since the regen jewelry got a buff it could equate to almost the 10% you get from Vamp. All in all I think regen would be close to a wash either way.

In IC all the mobs are Daedra, so you can pretty much count on alot of enemy players running around with Expert Hunter (and morphs) and/or Dawnbreaker (and Morphs). All these abilities will do added damage to you as a Vamp, so it is something worth considering.

You will need to dedicate a slot on each bar for a vamp ability for the regen bonus. Most use Bat Swarm Ultimate and Elusive Mist. Bat Swarm is a pretty strong ultimate for all players. Elusive Mist is ok, but more suited for Magicka users. It has a 4K plus magicka cost, so it is not very practical for a stam player with a small magicka pool.

Also the low health regen kind of sucks too.

Ultimately I got rid of Vamp on my Stam NB. It just did not seem worth it. I am building a Magicka based character atm and keep going back and forth on whether to go vamp. I think it favors Magicka based players, but still has alot of drawbacks.

It really comes down to how bad you want the sneak speed in my opinion. If you seem to be ok without it, then id recommend staying non vamp

leepalmer95 · September 2015

You only need to slot a vamp ability to get the stam/mag regen you still make full use out of dark stalker/ unatural resist etc...
and the 25% fire dmg is so easy to bypass now with passives/cps.

Kobaal · September 2015

I cured my Vampirism, whent back, then cured myself again. It's just not worth it anymore. Here is why.

- I started getting insta killed by certain folks that know how to use stealth heavy attacks with double and triple camo hunter procs.

- Dawnbreaker hits super hard

The 10% magicka regen and stealth speed just wasnt worth it. Now when I get dawnbreakerd i just laugh.

Swindy · September 2015

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

WW seems worthless now in my opinion. Most people were running it for the free stam regen, but now since you have to slot the ultimate it is not worth it.

Thanks guys.

10% WW stamina regen if it's on the bar...I'm trialing that with the bar switch for a useful Ult lol.
In IC, it's proving an issue, if I'm honest.
It's IC (and now Craglorn solo again after 1.7 has ruined it for me lol) I'm having the most trouble, especially as I'm a solo Pve guy.
Post 1.7 I have very low stamina & health regen, my stamina-cost reduction enchants all took a bath, and a lousy magicka pool, so it doesn't seem the Vamp passives will aid me.
I'd figured a magicka NB Vamp had advantages, or as a pure sorc...but not so much as my little, diehard, perhaps ignorantly so, stamblade.

Chrlynsch · September 2015

Kobaal wrote: »

I cured my Vampirism, whent back, then cured myself again. It's just not worth it anymore. Here is why.

- I started getting insta killed by certain folks that know how to use stealth heavy attacks with double and triple camo hunter procs.

- Dawnbreaker hits super hard

The 10% magicka regen and stealth speed just wasnt worth it. Now when I get dawnbreakerd i just laugh.

Animation cancelled dawnbreaker damage was a exploit and so was the camo proc issue.

leepalmer95 · September 2015

Vamps is very good this patch, with the reduction to regen with 10% extra is great.

Bat swarm and morphs is so good. Aoe that moves and heals is very good, the fact i can attack while it's on is probably the best part of it. As a dk popping bat swarm for me means : All my resources regen, i don't need to both on healing and i can focus on dmg as well as get the boosted dps off the bat swarm.

Dark stalker is also great for IC, most of the time you need to sneak in IC to get past groups of mobs, enemy players, roaming bosses etc... the added speed just makes life easier.

Unatural resistance is better in this patch a lot, simply because it harder to kill people anyway the added dmg reduction makes it so you have more time to react and heal yourself.

The only downside to a vamp is:

Fire dmg (very easily mitiagted)
9% more dmg from fighter guild passive (annoying but not game breaking)
Dawnbreaker (sure it could do a lot of dmg to vamps last patch, but with 50% dmg reduction it doesn't do enough to be worry worthy, on my character atleast)

So the only downside is dawnbreaker and even thats not game changing.

Alucardo · September 2015

I like to try and limit my weaknesses as much as possible, so will never go Vampire. I do have a Wereworld Nightblade, and I'll probably keep him that way. I really enjoy busting out in beast mode and watching people scatter. Unfortunately they only become really useful once you fully unlock everything, so you can set up those sick fear -> howl of agony combos that just completely obliterate your opponent.
Team Jacob 4 lyfe.