Drain Power morph for a Stamblade

Dracindo · June 2017

Too long, don't want to read? scroll down to the bold text.

I've been using this skill for a little while now, mainly for the Damage buff it gives me. It's really useful and I intend to keep it. However, if the fextra life wiki is still correct about this, than the morphs for this skill should be:

Power extraction: Converts to stamina ability, deals disease damage, and increases damage done.
Sap essence: Also heals you and your allies and also grants you Major Sorcery, increasing your Spell Damage.

The obvious morph for a DD stamblade would be Power extraction, but the heal from Sap essence would be beneficial for patching up the first wounds, and in case the group healer isn't effective enough, I could heal myself and allies a bit while I buff myself again at the same time. And it will still cost magicka, a resource I currently don't use, at all. So for me, this would practically be a free buff and heal. And by the time the buff expires (after 20 seconds) I'm back (or close enough) at full magicka anyway.

But maybe I'm underestimating the stamina morph. It's supposed to deal more damage, and for a stamina build, this damage would increase even further. When facing a large group of enemies, it could be possible that this extra damage could prove to be a good opening skill and be very good for my DPS. Not as good as a spammable ability (like steel tornado (DW skill), but still, great damage and buff.

In regards to weapon damage buffs, someone told me shrouded daggers (also a DW skill) is also good for buffing weapon damage. I looked into it and I'm not really impressed with it.
It gives me the same damage buff as Drain Power, deals x damage to an enemy, bounces up to 2 times to other nearby enemies, dealing y damage on the first bounce and z damage on the second. It should also reduce movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds, but I don't know if this counts for the target or also for the additional two targets. Either way, I already have Razor caltrops slotted which deals damage over time to more than just 3 targets, and the slow debuff is better.
So I'd only slot it for the buff, but the Drain Power and its morphs can offer more than just that.

So here's a summary:
If I want to buff myself, I can use

power extraction and deal good damage while I'm at it, or I can use
sap essence, which could give me and allies a little extra life support and costs magicka, a resource I don't use, so practically it's a zero-cost skill for me.
Or is Shrouded daggers better than it sounds? Caltrops do a better job at damage and debuff, so Shrouded daggers will only be good for the buff. Should I choose this over a Drain Power morph, and if yes, why?

Your opinions, please.

Resipsa131 · June 2017

If you are Stamina DPS (DW/Bow) the damage and heals from Sap Essence will so weak that you'll lose dps by using the ability rather than heavy attacking to regain resources.

The consensus is Steel Tornado is still better than power extraction and you should rock brutality pots. I use power extraction on my bow bar which frees up space on my DW bar.

You can use your spare magicka on Blur, Merciless resolve (the stamina morph), Agony (in vMA), and Cloak and Fear in PvP.

Gargath · June 2017

Imho Power Extraction is very powerful for stamblade, I use it too, and for selh healing and healing others the Vigor is much much better. I hate PvP but went there just to make enough points to unlock Vigor. Vigor is a must for stamblade.
Shrouded Daggers are also awesome as opening skill, with high crit and damage 3 hits from this can wipe usually spotted group of 3 mobs standing close. I love this ability, very powerful. And I'm not a fan of Steel Tornado.

Dracindo · June 2017

Went with power extraction. The damage from it is almost tripled in comparisson to sap essence, so it feels like I'm still using steel tornado, but also gives a buff, making steel tornado better. Groups of 5 or more mobs get wrecked in a few seconds!

The thing is @Resipsa131 I don't feel like spending gold or time gathering, to buy/craft potions to use on trashmobs in public dungeons or simple group dungeons. Cloak and fear, I'll find a spot for when going pvp, same for Blur. Thanks.

@Gargath when running dungeons or going PvP, I always face large groups, so I rather have skills that either deal massive damage to single targets or decent damage to large groups, not something in between, which I feel like shrouded daggers is.

Narvuntien · June 2017

Rally

Dracindo · June 2017

Narvuntien wrote: »

Rally

No two-handed weapons for this Saxhleel. Dual wield and Bow.

kylewwefan · June 2017

Sap Essence heals are super weak on StamBlade. It may work alright on some kind of hybrid though. There really is not much replacement for Vigor on StamBlade.

Power extraction hits harder on mobs than Nado while their above execute range. It has similar AOE radius to Steel Tornado and It's also a little bit cheaper.

Also, power extraction is class ability so can use without DW. You can put it on bow bar or S/B if you wish.

Dracindo · June 2017

kylewwefan wrote: »

Power extraction hits harder on mobs than Nado while their above execute range. It has similar AOE radius to Steel Tornado and It's also a little bit cheaper.

So you think I should use this ability when enemies are at high health, right? Spam PE first, and Nado when at low health?
Or did I get you wrong?

FlyLionel · June 2017

Do not use power extraction, it is a bad skill. If you can choose between tornado or power; use tornado. The only time power extraction becomes useful is when doing pledges generally.

Dracindo · June 2017

FlyLionel wrote: »

Do not use power extraction, it is a bad skill. If you can choose between tornado or power; use tornado. The only time power extraction becomes useful is when doing pledges generally.

Suggestion for weapon damage buff? And no potions, please.

I could slot relentless focus, but that's only 8% damage done. Most of my damage consists of weapon damage, so Major Brutality is better for my DPS than Minor Berserk. I can sustain my Stamina quite well, so the Minor Endurance buff is welcome, but I can live without. And since I want buffs on my back bar and usually fight groups, I fear the free single target hit will hardly be used.

kylewwefan · June 2017

Dracindo wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

Power extraction hits harder on mobs than Nado while their above execute range. It has similar AOE radius to Steel Tornado and It's also a little bit cheaper.

So you think I should use this ability when enemies are at high health, right? Spam PE first, and Nado when at low health?
Or did I get you wrong?

I use power extraction. For the buff and AOE. I'd go with one or the other though, not enough room on the bar for both.

Since you seem to be thinking a little outside the box....for heals you can try swallow soul. It gives you minor vitality just for slotting, is magic and has some heal over time. It's weak on Stam toons, but 8% extra self healing could help a little.

DocFrost72 · June 2017

If you like a heal, try weaving light attacks while you have leeching strikes up. It gives a decent chunk of stam back and a half as effective surge heal that doesn't require you crit.

Resipsa131 · June 2017

Dracindo wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

Power extraction hits harder on mobs than Nado while their above execute range. It has similar AOE radius to Steel Tornado and It's also a little bit cheaper.

So you think I should use this ability when enemies are at high health, right? Spam PE first, and Nado when at low health?
Or did I get you wrong?

Pick one or the other, if you're going to run trash pots use power extraction. Its not as good DPSwise as steel tornado but it costs less, gives major brutality and you can slot it on your bow bar giving you the flexibility to run more other abilities on your DW bar. In my case I run quick cloak instead of steel tornado.

DDuke · June 2017

Power Extraction is absolute garbage.

If you want to get Major Brutality without pots, use Shrouded Daggers (more DPS 99% of time, sidenote: also awesome in 1vX PvP).

If your group has high DPS, you can even run without any AoE spammable & count on Endless Hail/Caltrops cleaving mobs down.

waitwhat · June 2017

People recommend steel tornado because of the greater range and the execute-esque aspect.

As a stamblade, I only use Power Extraction when I'm not DW or 2H, and I'm not using Essence of Weapon Power.

If you're DW and don't want to use pots, then use Shrouded Daggers.
If you're 2h and don't want to use pots, Rally, Rally, Rally.

The skill needs a buff to make it more unique. Since Sap Essence provides Major Brutality as well (in addition to Major Sorcery wtf), but without the heal, Power Extraction is like a more boring, less useful, slightly-more-damage version of Sap Essence.

waitwhat · June 2017

Vis-a-vis shrouded daggers specifically, there will be times where the three targets of Shrouded Daggers just isn't enough, and you really need the omni-directional spam of Power Extraction. In that case, you would only use Power Extraction if you aren't going to pop Weapon Power pots, otherwise Steel Tornado is the better option, even if it looks silly as you do it.

GreenSoup2HoT · June 2017

For pvp power extraction is completely underwhelming and terrible in comparison to sap essence.

Stannum · June 2017

If you re DW/bow DPS
PE has only 2 points to use it
1. Weapon dmg buff: if you do not use pots and do not want to use slot on main DW bar (if you want - use shrouded dagger to get the buff)
2. Ulti gain with siphoning passive

Nevertheless PE can be usefull in PvP or stam tanking builds especially with frost staff.

Izaki · June 2017

20% weapon damage is no where near as powerful as 8% damage done...

BohnT · June 2017

The skill needs a buff if you enter the skill in a calculator with the same max stam / mag (40k) and 3k wpn / spelldmg the tooltip of PE is only 2 dmg greater than sap essence I think it was 5433 PE and 5431 SE that is completely useless why would you say a skill does more dmg when it's only like .5% more no one uses such useless skills
@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_BrianWheeler @Wrobel

Xvorg · June 2017

BohnT wrote: »

The skill needs a buff if you enter the skill in a calculator with the same max stam / mag (40k) and 3k wpn / spelldmg the tooltip of PE is only 2 dmg greater than sap essence I think it was 5433 PE and 5431 SE that is completely useless why would you say a skill does more dmg when it's only like .5% more no one uses such useless skills
@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_BrianWheeler @Wrobel

I think it has to do with the type of dmg. Disease is a good one that applies a minor buff (minor defile). Problem is that, with that in mind, the skill is not better than steelnado with 2 disease dmg glyphs. Yes, steelnado is moar expesive but it has increased radius, has 2 passive executes at he same time (natural one DW passive slaughter), and an extra dmg on statuses (ruffian)

It should have at least something else to be an option for stamblades. Reduce blocking cost it's something that comes to my mind now, considering it can be a good skill for S/b stamblades/tankblades

Bladerunner1 · June 2017

If you're dual wielding and want to continuously proc something that requires direct melee damage, like Selene or Ravager, and you want to multiply the chances of proccing the set by the number of enemies hit PE is the way to go. Steelnado won't proc it.

QuebraRegra · June 2017

fells like most of the stam skill morphs for NBs are pretty trash when compared with their MAG versions.

there are literally no stam versions of cloak (call it camouflage, or something), or strife, two of the primary NB class powers