Grim focus changes: buff or nerf for PvP magblade?

Neloth · May 2017

Okey, guys, let's discuss recent grim focus changes?

For those who missed them

Grim Focus:
You can now fire multiple Assassin’s Will or Assassin’s Scourge bow procs from a single cast of this ability and its morphs.
Increased the amount of Light or Heavy Attacks needed to obtain an Assassin’s Will or Assassin’s Scourge bow proc to 5 attacks from 4.

magictucktuck · May 2017

nerf

we just had this...

Neloth · May 2017

nerf

magictucktuck wrote: »

we just had this...

sad, looks like I missed it.

magictucktuck · May 2017

nerf

to be fair i don't think there was a poll just a long discussion

Neloth · May 2017

nerf

But still, I think one more thread will never hurt if it helps ZoS to change it before it's going live.

magictucktuck · May 2017

nerf

Yeah i think they should have gone the route of if you cast the bow its refreshes duration. but still this is better than nothing if they brought it back down to 4 light attacks. or made it last 30 seconds

Neloth · May 2017

nerf

magictucktuck wrote: »

Yeah i think they should have gone the route of if you cast the bow its refreshes duration. but still this is better than nothing if they brought it back down to 4 light attacks. or made it last 30 seconds

And none of those will overbuff magblade PvE DPS, which is also very important.

Izaki · May 2017

magictucktuck wrote: »

Yeah i think they should have gone the route of if you cast the bow its refreshes duration. but still this is better than nothing if they brought it back down to 4 light attacks. or made it last 30 seconds

Nah cause that would mean a perma Minor Berserk. That's too much. I agree with increasing the Duration to 22 or 24 seconds though. The most important part of it is for them to make the 5th light attack register faster, because right now, it often bugs out and you just refresh the buff.

casparian · May 2017

Sort of both. It makes it harder to set up burst (nerf), but less of a hassle to keep up Grim Focus (buff). We can adapt to this change, but I definitely wouldn't call it an unequivocal buff.

The real problem with nightblades in pvp is that they robbed us of our dual-resource sustain (i.e., we can't trade our primary resource for our secondary resource anymore, despite the fact that every other class's dual-resource sustain abilities were left intact). This won't be as big a deal for stamblades, who can get magicka back through other means, especially in CP-enabled PVP. But it's a huge nerf to magblades, and the Grim Focus changes are mixed enough that they don't make up for it. I'm still shocked at how ignorant Wrobel's comments about this were on ESO Live.

deepseamk20b14_ESO · May 2017

buff

Depends. If you are weaving staff attacks it's way easier to do so than melee in PvP. I think mageblade ranged will be fine. Melee mageblade (or stam blade for that matter) will suffer.

Xvorg · May 2017

buff

looking at the brighter side, minor berserk doesn't go away after you fire the proc, which is good.

The extra weave could feel like a nerf, but I'm considering using good old torug's with oblivion wpn enchant

Rianai · May 2017

nerf

Minor berserk doesn't go away on live, so that's nothing new.

davey1107 · May 2017

buff

The only way to answer this for sure would be to see ZOS's data. I'm sure hard numbers reveal which direction this takes us.

The buff/nerf issue also depends on how the other update 14 changes affect us (both stam and magblades). Under the current system, resources are unlimited. So I don't mind the recast cost...it doesn't affect me at all. BUT...with the new changes it might hurt to have to recast just to get another bow.

Overall, for my play style I'm considering this a buff on all my blades. Having it stay the full duration, including the help from the new buff tracker, and being able to fire bows without losing my buffs will increase my personal performance.

Also...honestly...there are bigger issues. My spectral bow damage stinks in pvp. Sure it's free, but given the complexity lining up the attack I'm better off just using heavy attacks.

TheBonesXXX · May 2017

Buff to me. 5 weaves > cloak > lotusfan + conceal + assassins wil + soul harvest with weaves in between means it'll be up almost indefinitely for another huge part of the rotation if pulled off correctly.

now if only they didn't hard counter cloak so hard it wouldn't be an issue.

Derra · May 2017

nerf

TheBonesXXX wrote: »

Buff to me. 5 weaves > cloak > lotusfan + conceal + assassins wil + soul harvest with weaves in between means it'll be up almost indefinitely for another huge part of the rotation if pulled off correctly.

now if only they didn't hard counter cloak so hard it wouldn't be an issue.

1 shuffle evade on light attack
1 dodgeroll (2 la misses forced)

completely destroys the possibility to make use of it reliably. it´ll be way harder to time burst imo - if you use it only as a regular dps ability it´s an improvement though.

Sunburnt_Penguin · May 2017

nerf

I really can't figure out how people think this will be a buff. Are you all weaving with a Resto?

leepalmer95 · May 2017

nerf

Clearly a nerf.

Boost in dps which is great for pve.
Nerf in burst which is bad for pvp.

thankyourat · May 2017

nerf

Derra wrote: »

TheBonesXXX wrote: »

Buff to me. 5 weaves > cloak > lotusfan + conceal + assassins wil + soul harvest with weaves in between means it'll be up almost indefinitely for another huge part of the rotation if pulled off correctly.

now if only they didn't hard counter cloak so hard it wouldn't be an issue.

1 shuffle evade on light attack
1 dodgeroll (2 la misses forced)

completely destroys the possibility to make use of it reliably. it´ll be way harder to time burst imo - if you use it only as a regular dps ability it´s an improvement though.

Even if your light attacks are dodged the bow will still proc because you don't actually need light attacks to land to get the proc.

HEBREWHAMMERRR · May 2017

nerf

thankyourat wrote: »

Derra wrote: »

TheBonesXXX wrote: »

Buff to me. 5 weaves > cloak > lotusfan + conceal + assassins wil + soul harvest with weaves in between means it'll be up almost indefinitely for another huge part of the rotation if pulled off correctly.

now if only they didn't hard counter cloak so hard it wouldn't be an issue.

1 shuffle evade on light attack
1 dodgeroll (2 la misses forced)

completely destroys the possibility to make use of it reliably. it´ll be way harder to time burst imo - if you use it only as a regular dps ability it´s an improvement though.

Even if your light attacks are dodged the bow will still proc because you don't actually need light attacks to land to get the proc.

This.

That being said, they need to add about 4 more seconds to duration of the ability to make it somewhat more reliable in pvp since they added an additional LA to proc. Essentially all they did is nerf our snare of this ability, I don't see many situations where we are going to get 2 bows off in pvp (not that the snare was that beneficial)

Edit : word

The Elder Scrolls Online

Grim focus changes: buff or nerf for PvP magblade?

Grim focus changes: buff or nerf for PvP magblade? 37 votes