Because it was a bad CC very few people made use of and because ZOS have decided that the soul magic tree is more of the healing tree for NB.

That's pretty much it.

There are times when you look at your own writing and think to yourself 'Self, you really should have waited until the morning to edit that'. :P This doesn't change my overall opinion though. I appreciate that they are trying to create parity in balance, but I sense that they are breaking down the CC system. I just find it disappointing that a fun CC was replaced yet again, this time in the Nightblade siphoning tree. The Templars have gone through this in terms of the removal of Blinding Flashes, and the removal of the cc from Shards. Nightblade cc also took a hit because the Fear now strikes only two players not 3, whereas the trap hits 6.

I find that CC is often the realm of Tank (PVP) characters as well and find it striking that both Heavy Armor and CC were nerfed to their core. I'm very glad that I was already playing more of a DPS style of late. I believe it very sad that Tanking is losing every small joy. If the game continues to go on its current trajectory I just can't see playing a Tank any more, which is a very strange thing coming from a guy who played every Tank combination on City of Heroes, and regularly ran with the Tanker Tuesdays. I don't want to relegate my characters to Trials-only. Who would? I would like to pose this question: Does ZoS want Tanks to be fun?

I realize that CC is very useful for PvP players of all stripes. Agony wasn't the best CC in the world but its replacement is a self-murdering heal. The fear has lost yet another target. This feels like Blinding Flashes and Blazing Spear all over again to me.

i healed vhrc with it last night, its very manageable, its about a 6k dmg to caster and ticks for 2.5k base and 4.5k crit. i found it difficult to cast on the tank while stacked, but for fights that the boss is faced away it was incredibly easy to use and did a really good job keeping topped off, i see it being pretty awesome for heavier hitting mechanics once people get used to using it. it does not come close to killing the caster in a raid as long as your aware of what is going on.

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

The point I am making is that it is a fundamental change of the skill.

I get your point , but ZOS apparently decided to rework all disorient skills from the game with this patch: rune prison, petrify, scatter shot, agony all got changed(idk if there is still another skill in the game with disorient). Maybe they didn't want to just copy rune prison and make it a ranged unblockable/undodgeable stun and that's why we got this since nbs already have a unblockable/undodgeable cc with fear.

Anyways if the whole 1 heal, 1 dps 1 tank skill line for classes ends up being true I expect more unique skills being reworked or having some of their effects standarized across classes.

I personally found Agony to be very similar to Cripple. With Cripple been the better skill IMHO.

I'm not sure how useful the new skill will be, but I sure there will be some who might make it work. I'm definitely going to slot it and give it a try.

Alaztor91 wrote: »

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

The point I am making is that it is a fundamental change of the skill.

I get your point , but ZOS apparently decided to rework all disorient skills from the game with this patch: rune prison, petrify, scatter shot, agony all got changed(idk if there is still another skill in the game with disorient). Maybe they didn't want to just copy rune prison and make it a ranged unblockable/undodgeable stun and that's why we got this since nbs already have a unblockable/undodgeable cc with fear.

Anyways if the whole 1 heal, 1 dps 1 tank skill line for classes ends up being true I expect more unique skills being reworked or having some of their effects standarized across classes.

I've stated for a very long time that it was clear to me the development staff viewed each class line as Tank, DPS, and Healer. In fact I've stated this since the first weeks of the game because it is I believe apparent in the way the lines were written and intended. Each class had obvious leanings in one direction or another but for instance I played a Light armor Sorcerer Tank in the beginning of the game and I had absolutely no difficulty doing my job.

I realize that they wished to rework disorient skills - it was apparent actually in the changes they made to DK and Sorcerer. It was not apparent to me why they got rid of yet another cc proper to a class. At this point in time Nightblades have two cc's essentially: Sneak attacks & Fear. This still doesn't put them on a parity with the kinds of crowd control capabilities that a Dragon Knight has or even a Sorcerer.

I've always felt they should try to offer in the globally accessed skill lines abilities that fill in these roles for classes specialized one way or another. They could be designed where the Specialist class will still always be the best at a given specialty but not have the monopoly. A prime example of this viewpoint of mine is that they should have given Thieves Guild an active Cloak skill. Nightblades still have better passives for cloaking and could in fact have a better duration. Likewise, I've always felt that Silver Leash should essentially be Chain Pull. Nightblade Blur is essentially the Medium Armor Evasion. At this point Nightblades have a significant advantage in this regard because they do not need to use 5x Medium to get Evasion (I wonder if I should have kept silent on this fact).

Rather than destroying skills they should simply consider their global ramifications. I've always been a proponent of making Shield Magnitude based on Health. The reason I have recommended this is that basing Shield Magnitude on Magic or Stamina affords Magic or Stamina too much power. It means the 64x Magic character can get a stronger shield, stronger magic attack, and can attack or shield more often. It would have created a push and pull effect offering choice between survivability or damage output. As we have seen with Blazing Shield however they have undermined this skill. There were a lot of ways they could have resolved the problems of 80,000 HP Blazing Tanks (a very niche build) vs. normal tanks that are actually useful outside of bubbling. The alternate point of view is that they could introduce more attributes (like previous TES games) or they could have simply made Shields a static amount.

I grow frustrated with MMO's that continually rewrite the rules of a game. I'm not talking about tweaking but I am talking about a fundamental rewrite. I'm hopeful they will eventually gel on a set of rules for the game because it gets to be frustrating when a character concept or build does not remotely resemble what it use to be. I've told the story of friends who quit the game over the Khajiit-magician before. It is an understandable frustration when rules have been so upended that a unique build that worked has become utterly worthless. It is true they could have simply made their Khajiit into a stamina build, but the truth of the matter was at the time that really wasn't viable for a year or more. Will those players ever come back? Maybe. I'd personally rather see them refine skills that rewrite them, or to see them add more skills to the toolkit in the coming days. I miss Blinding Flashes. I miss Agony. Yes, Blinding Flashes was a disorient, but perhaps they could simply make it a 'stun' if that fits the kinds of balance they want the game to have.