Why no changes to Silver Shards in Update 22?
MercerFrey
Soul Shriven
I'm not sure if this is right section to post this, if it's in the wrong place mods please move it.
After reviewing the PTS patch notes, I noticed that despite Update 22 being billed as a class re-balance, several non-class skills were adjusted as well. One skill line that was changed was Fighters Guild, and the changes weren't anything too terrible in my opinion: bugfixes and a re-balance to Dawnbreaker. I noticed however, there were no balance changes for Silver Shards. That baffles me, because the only usage for the Silver Shards I've heard of these days is slotting for the damage bonus, which is a shame for an ability as cool-looking as this one. Silver Leash, by comparison, is in a very good spot right now and is good at what it does.
To me, Silver Shards appears intended as a stamina version of Force Pulse, as both of them have:
On paper, Silver Shards feels like it's about where it should be for a ranged stamina single-target spammable, even without all the passives from Force Pulse. The problem is, Force Pulse isn't what this ability is competing against: Snipe, while it has a cast time, has far more damage for a moderately higher cost and has the Bow line's passives working to make it do more damage overall. In the Psijic Order skill line, Crushing Weapon offers comparable damage for a lower cost, on par with melee spammables, and self-heal to boot.
My question then, is really two different ones:
After reviewing the PTS patch notes, I noticed that despite Update 22 being billed as a class re-balance, several non-class skills were adjusted as well. One skill line that was changed was Fighters Guild, and the changes weren't anything too terrible in my opinion: bugfixes and a re-balance to Dawnbreaker. I noticed however, there were no balance changes for Silver Shards. That baffles me, because the only usage for the Silver Shards I've heard of these days is slotting for the damage bonus, which is a shame for an ability as cool-looking as this one. Silver Leash, by comparison, is in a very good spot right now and is good at what it does.
To me, Silver Shards appears intended as a stamina version of Force Pulse, as both of them have:
- Comparable damage (at least on the skill tooltip; Shards may have less in practice because of destruction staff passives)
- Single-target
- 28 meter range
- Almost the same cost (Shards actually costs slightly less with Intimidating Presence)
- An auxiliary effect that affects multiple targets near the initial one (Shards actually does more damage to more targets, but does not apply status effects)
- Less damage than a "melee" (5 meter range) spammable
- Higher cost than a "melee" (5 meter range) spammable
On paper, Silver Shards feels like it's about where it should be for a ranged stamina single-target spammable, even without all the passives from Force Pulse. The problem is, Force Pulse isn't what this ability is competing against: Snipe, while it has a cast time, has far more damage for a moderately higher cost and has the Bow line's passives working to make it do more damage overall. In the Psijic Order skill line, Crushing Weapon offers comparable damage for a lower cost, on par with melee spammables, and self-heal to boot.
My question then, is really two different ones:
- Does this actually seem balanced? I don't claim to be an expert on game balance and number crunching, so I'm genuinely curious what other people think of it.
- If it is balanced, what reason is there to slot this ability? What usages, however niche, does it have?
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Best Answer
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Ladislao✭✭✭✭✭MercerFrey wrote: »My question then, is really two different ones:- Does this actually seem balanced? I don't claim to be an expert on game balance and number crunching, so I'm genuinely curious what other people think of it.
- If it is balanced, what reason is there to slot this ability? What usages, however niche, does it have?
I will not evaluate the balance. But actually Silver Shards have a solid use as AoE spammable in bow/bow builds and instant range spammable for vma scorepushing.
In the first case the only alternative is Arrow Spray. Although at maximum Hawk Eye stacks it does more damage than Silver Shards, it has a very inconvenient AoE shape and higher cost, so it can only be used at a distance from the enemy, which is not always possible. Plus Silver Shards gives you 3% weapon damage and deals even more damage to undead, daedra and werewolves. You need to try it once to evaluate it.
In the second case there is no alternative: Crushing Weapon has a delay and Poison Arrow needs full stacks of Hawk Eye to deal commensurate damage - all this is inconvenient in the arena, where every second counts. Plus FG passives I mentioned above. So Silver Shards is good in this niche even w/o alternatives.
In general, I do not speak specifically about the balance of ability, but only answer the question about its use.Everything is viable5
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Toc de Malsvi✭✭✭✭✭
✭I think ZOS gave up on Silver Shards a long time ago.Legendary Archer of ValenwoodBosmer Dragon Knight Archer. XBox One. (Flawless Conqueror Bow/Bow)Bosmer Nightblade Archer. Xbox One. (Flawless Conqueror Bow/Bow)Bosmer Sorcerer Archer. Xbox One. (Flawless Conqueror Bow/Bow)Bosmer Warden Archer. Xbox One. (Flawless Conqueror Bow/Bow)Templar's are evil..1 -
Ysbriel✭✭✭✭✭I didn’t know silver shards was a spammable, i use silver leash and the animation has that spin at the end and at least it pulls the enemies. 22m range instead0 -
AcadianPaladin✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭I would like to use Silver Shards as a bow/bow spammable but find that cost/damage comparisions lose to snipe, psijic, NB spammable or warden spammable. A slight damage boost and/or cost decrease could make Shards viable for me.Edited by AcadianPaladin on April 23, 2019 11:11AMPC NA(no Steam), PvE, mostly solo1 -
MercerFreySoul ShrivenA small correction to my initial post: my calculation for the cost of Silver Shards incorrect, as it factored in CP stamina cost reduction. The base cost is actually 2983 with intimidating presence factored in, which actually makes it worse than Snipe.0