Ice Staves - Beating a dead horse

Maura_Neysa · February 2018

LordSemaj wrote: »

Um, I was promised a frozen horse? This topic disappoints.

33252846-horse-a-sculpture-from-ice-on-the-frozen-lake-baikal.jpg

Merlin13KAGL · February 2018

Let's see...considering this is the third thread in like two days?

Yeah, if the horse isn't dead, it's definitely getting sore.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/search?Search=

Maura_Neysa · February 2018

josiahva wrote: »

KanedaSyndrome wrote: »

I'm all for an update to the schizophrenic ice staff, just don't remove its damage potential as I'm having great fun with my ice warden, well knowing that he will never be relevant in any endgame content.

I support ice staves having a focus area of control as which is its current role, but to make it relevant in PvE, we need to change the way that content is dealt with in ESO towards a need for actually using crowd control in dungeons etc. Right now damage is king, and everything is being burned through, boss mechanics are ignored, trash mobs are ignored/nuked to oblivion without them ever posing a risk to the group if they're not dealt with correctly.

How this should be changed to allow for CC in PvE? We have to move towards what we had in World of Warcraft dungeons, (as an example) where if you didn't employ CC to great effect on trash mobs and boss fights you'd most likely wipe as every enemy was a threat on scale of an ESO boss (trash mobs would 1-3 shot a healer np).

Funny thing? ESO was intended to work that way, it was designed that way from the beginning, but then along came a bug known as animation cancelling. ZOS tried to fix this, as it allowed players to output about 1000% more damage than the game was designed for, but ZOS couldn't fix it, they gave up and decided to deem animation cancelling (weaving) an intended "feature". Thus breaking the tradional dungeon methodology that would have seen CC as an important factor in PvE.

A few years later, power creep (champion points / new op gear sets) have taken care of the rest, nothing outside trials/PvP probably pose a threat to even the squishiest healer/DPS.

That said, I love my "ice mage" and hope that if they do update the ice staff that it will be in a direction of damage orientation and not more tanking.

Animation cancelling is good for 100% boost to DPS? That has to be one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever heard...its been proved to be good for about 2000 DPS...so if that's a 100% improvement for you...well, I just don't know what to say.

Back on topic though, a lot of people who don't like the heavy attack taunt are using it wrong. Its a free ranged taunt that restores resources. It works just fine for most ranged mobs that need taunting...you simply charge it as you are running toward a mob, targeting ranged mobs, followed immediately by caltrops or other AoE to aggro the rest of the mob, while in the middle of the fight, after you taunt(or immobilize) the melee mobs you should again be charging a heavy to grab aggro of stray ranged mobs(or using chains to pull them in, which one you choose depending on how your magicka pool looks at that instant). There are only a few situations where its just not fast enough and you need to use inner fire instead. An excellent example is in Direfrost Keep in that hall with the 3 trolls so far apart. I will pierce armor the first one, swap bars to ice staff, light attack to aggro #2, followed by an immediate charge and release to taunt #3, quickly stacking all three for the DPS to burn down. The heavy attack taunt skill is no more difficult to work around than the Warden's delayed-DPS abilities.

No, no they are not using it wrong. We just are not talking about simple things like Defrost keep. When you can use the Frost HA taunt, even once after the start of a vDSA fight, then you can say people are using it wrong. And before you lose it, know I have run a Frost Staff on my Warden tank since Morrowinds release including vet trials, so I do have a good idea just how exactly to use it.

Now if you have no interest in that level of content, then yeah go far it. It does taunt effectively when you have the time and no worries about some one shoot to you or the friendly being attacked

LordSemaj · February 2018

I feel like more people will use ice staff after this patch nerfs block.

Maura_Neysa · February 2018

LordSemaj wrote: »

I feel like more people will use ice staff after this patch nerfs block.

How in the world do you come to that conclusion?

code65536 · February 2018

Maura_Neysa wrote: »

LordSemaj wrote: »

I feel like more people will use ice staff after this patch nerfs block.

How in the world do you come to that conclusion?

If you take the tri-focus passive, it'll let you block with a different resource pool. When stamina runs out, switch to staff, block with magicka until stamina regens, switch, etc.

Or, if you want to be extra cheesy, just stay on staff bar and keep casting Balance. As long as you're standing in Healing Springs, you'll be permablocking.

ANGEL_BtVS · February 2018

Maura_Neysa wrote: »

LordSemaj wrote: »

I feel like more people will use ice staff after this patch nerfs block.

How in the world do you come to that conclusion?

Changes to off balance and blocking will likely mean less people using lightning staff on back bar for tanks and more using ice staff. Still... I want an ice DD... Actually, I want both....