AlnilamE wrote: »

I think at some point it will be "fully charged" and that's it.

This. And it will fire automatically at this point.

Gothlander wrote: »

So, it hits for the same amount if I hold it for one second or three seconds?

I have done heavy attacks with my destruction staff that are weaker then the fully charged heavy attack, so I think that the longer you hold the button the more damage it will do.

Marcosyn11 wrote: »

Gothlander wrote: »

So, it hits for the same amount if I hold it for one second or three seconds?

I have done heavy attacks with my destruction staff that are weaker then the fully charged heavy attack, so I think that the longer you hold the button the more damage it will do.

Would be nice if we had training dummies to test this.

Releasing your heavy attack before it has been fully charged (at which point it releases automatically) will do reduced damage compared to holding it down until it releases automatically. This is called a medium attack. It is commonly used in some dps rotations in place of a light attack weave because it can increase DPS and some find it easier to use.

The exception to this is the bow, which will never automatically release, allowing you to hold the charge on your heavy attack indefinitely. This will not continue to increase damage if you hold it past the fully charged point.

You just guesstimate it and pray. This is part of the reason that bow doesn't really have competitive end game dps. The heavy attack doesn't auto release, so you can't easily weave it with snipe without your timing being all over the map. You can clip heavy attacks with DW and Flurry or with 2H and wrecking bow, but not snipe.

BomblePants wrote: »

Divinius wrote: »

Two VR16 characters, and I've never used a bow for more than a few minutes... So forgive the dumb question:

Since the bow doesn't auto-release when fully-charged, is there any other indication (visual or otherwise) of the bow being fully-charged? Or do you just need to guesstimate it?

When bow is fully charged it glows and makes a noise.... if you don't hear the noise you will def see the glow

Really? Huh. I never noticed that. I haven't used a bow really since my sorc went magicka...over a year ago lol

Well it kinda depends if you use it in a skill rotation, but if you only do a heavy attack then it's easy.

The longer you hold the mousebutton down, the more damage it will do and finelly it will fire it off automatically. Different staves work differently though.

These two staves have no charge time, they hit instantly and you can see how long the full attack is by paying attention to when the animation for the attack ends. The damage here works in ticks, so the longer you hold the button down, the more ticks untill the time runs out and the heavy attack is over.

Restoration staff hits instantly, and you can see the beam untill it cuts off.
Lightningstaff hits instantly, and you can see the lightning connecting yourself with the target, while it does its thing, much like a restoration staff.

The damage of these two staves will be summed up by the time you have hold your button down. The damage will be based on how long you have held your button down, and will hit in one strike.
Frost staff waits and fires off a huge snowball at the enemy once it's fully loaded.
Fire staff waits and fires off what looks like 2 fireballs at the enemy once it's fully loaded. If you have fire glyph on your weapon and it procs - it will look as if it fires off 4 fireballs.

Most players who weave with a flame staff only cast medium attacks ...basically attacks that are longer than a light attack but yet not fully loaded heavy attacks. It's easy because they weave it with crushing shock/ force pulse, so they press the button for the skill down and immedietly hold their mousebutton to charge an attack, when the animation for the crushing shock/ force pulse ends they let go of the mousebutton to release the medium attack, and then press a new crushing shock/ force pulse .... and repeat.

hold down your mouse button, damage will increase until the heavy attack is fully charged