Yeah, as another player with 3-4k hours on NB, I do not understand this buff.
Surprise attack is one of, if not the best spammables in the game. It was fine with just the guaranteed sundered proc - arguably, the stun shouldn't have even been present on it. Allowing it to perma crit from the flank is just a mistake. This should be rolled back.
On the other hand, concealed weapon DID need a buff to be brought up to par with surprise attack (the version of surprise on live, that is). I like the changes to concealed weapon, however I'd like to see the 300 WD be tied to casting the ability rather than leaving stealth. Tying it to stealth is just silly.
Yeah, as another player with 3-4k hours on NB, I do not understand this buff.
Surprise attack is one of, if not the best spammables in the game. It was fine with just the guaranteed sundered proc - arguably, the stun shouldn't have even been present on it. Allowing it to perma crit from the flank is just a mistake. This should be rolled back.
On the other hand, concealed weapon DID need a buff to be brought up to par with surprise attack (the version of surprise on live, that is). I like the changes to concealed weapon, however I'd like to see the 300 WD be tied to casting the ability rather than leaving stealth. Tying it to stealth is just silly.
SA is not the best spammable in the game. Whip and jabs are better, both actively and passively. Look at all you get from both morphs of jabs.
As pointed out above, this SA change is better for PvE. It's nice for pvp but really isn't that big of a deal. The fights where I need more damage are not usually fought from flank do to the player being better at maneuvering and defending.
As for your complaint of concealed, this will give it a chance to meet SA for damage output. If you required it to be cast to get the buff it would be significantly less useful because you would be forced to lead with CW rather than soul harvest or a heavy attack. You would be doing a lot less damage.
As of now, it basically gets you around the most negative issue with running a mag melee gank. You can't stack frenzied momentum with mag skills. This gives you the ability to have the weapon/spell damage only Stam has access to.
kypranb14_ESO wrote: »It only has the guaranteed critical hit if it stuns. The patch notes are misleading.
It's not as big a deal as you're making it out to be, OP.
SA already crits whether from front or back fairly often. It auto crits if you lead from cloak anyway. All this does is punish you for not defending. ALWAYS ROLL THROUGH THE ATTACKER, NOT AWAY.
Another thing you're missing is that melee NB will still be using Caluurions, which means leading when an LA or HA. That means we're losing a lot of damage. My guess is these changes are to help overcome that will skill damage.
I'm more interested in the concealed weapon change as a way to finally meet Stam damage with a mag based melee build.
Yeah, as another player with 3-4k hours on NB, I do not understand this buff.
Surprise attack is one of, if not the best spammables in the game. It was fine with just the guaranteed sundered proc - arguably, the stun shouldn't have even been present on it. Allowing it to perma crit from the flank is just a mistake. This should be rolled back.
On the other hand, concealed weapon DID need a buff to be brought up to par with surprise attack (the version of surprise on live, that is). I like the changes to concealed weapon, however I'd like to see the 300 WD be tied to casting the ability rather than leaving stealth. Tying it to stealth is just silly.
SA is not the best spammable in the game. Whip and jabs are better, both actively and passively. Look at all you get from both morphs of jabs.
As pointed out above, this SA change is better for PvE. It's nice for pvp but really isn't that big of a deal. The fights where I need more damage are not usually fought from flank do to the player being better at maneuvering and defending.
As for your complaint of concealed, this will give it a chance to meet SA for damage output. If you required it to be cast to get the buff it would be significantly less useful because you would be forced to lead with CW rather than soul harvest or a heavy attack. You would be doing a lot less damage.
As of now, it basically gets you around the most negative issue with running a mag melee gank. You can't stack frenzied momentum with mag skills. This gives you the ability to have the weapon/spell damage only Stam has access to.
Yeah, as another player with 3-4k hours on NB, I do not understand this buff.
Surprise attack is one of, if not the best spammables in the game. It was fine with just the guaranteed sundered proc - arguably, the stun shouldn't have even been present on it. Allowing it to perma crit from the flank is just a mistake. This should be rolled back.
On the other hand, concealed weapon DID need a buff to be brought up to par with surprise attack (the version of surprise on live, that is). I like the changes to concealed weapon, however I'd like to see the 300 WD be tied to casting the ability rather than leaving stealth. Tying it to stealth is just silly.
SA is not the best spammable in the game. Whip and jabs are better, both actively and passively. Look at all you get from both morphs of jabs.
As pointed out above, this SA change is better for PvE. It's nice for pvp but really isn't that big of a deal. The fights where I need more damage are not usually fought from flank do to the player being better at maneuvering and defending.
As for your complaint of concealed, this will give it a chance to meet SA for damage output. If you required it to be cast to get the buff it would be significantly less useful because you would be forced to lead with CW rather than soul harvest or a heavy attack. You would be doing a lot less damage.
As of now, it basically gets you around the most negative issue with running a mag melee gank. You can't stack frenzied momentum with mag skills. This gives you the ability to have the weapon/spell damage only Stam has access to.
You do realize that the class can do things other than gank, right?
Brawler stam/hybrid, or just standard melee magNB both exist. Neither can benefit from the concealed weapon change.
As far as PVP spammables go, surprise is undeniably top 3 with the two you just listed, and I wouldn't be quick to place any of them above on another as they all have strong, unique effects attached to them.kypranb14_ESO wrote: »It only has the guaranteed critical hit if it stuns. The patch notes are misleading.
It actually is a guaranteed crit only from the sides. It doesn't matter if it stuns or not - the guaranteed crit only happens on the flanks, which are apparently the 90* sections conal sections on either sides of your character. Does not include the rear.
This would be cool, if this game didnt have a huge issue with position desync.
I regularly get SA stunned while on my screen the night blade is still literally in front of me.
And I know most people face this issue.
Regardless as op stated, this skill didnt need another mechanic on top of what it already has.
It's already 1 button spammable and cc and many NBs dont even bother with an execute since it hits so hard anyway.
Yeah, as another player with 3-4k hours on NB, I do not understand this buff.
Surprise attack is one of, if not the best spammables in the game. It was fine with just the guaranteed sundered proc - arguably, the stun shouldn't have even been present on it. Allowing it to perma crit from the flank is just a mistake. This should be rolled back.
On the other hand, concealed weapon DID need a buff to be brought up to par with surprise attack (the version of surprise on live, that is). I like the changes to concealed weapon, however I'd like to see the 300 WD be tied to casting the ability rather than leaving stealth. Tying it to stealth is just silly.
SA is not the best spammable in the game. Whip and jabs are better, both actively and passively. Look at all you get from both morphs of jabs.
As pointed out above, this SA change is better for PvE. It's nice for pvp but really isn't that big of a deal. The fights where I need more damage are not usually fought from flank do to the player being better at maneuvering and defending.
As for your complaint of concealed, this will give it a chance to meet SA for damage output. If you required it to be cast to get the buff it would be significantly less useful because you would be forced to lead with CW rather than soul harvest or a heavy attack. You would be doing a lot less damage.
As of now, it basically gets you around the most negative issue with running a mag melee gank. You can't stack frenzied momentum with mag skills. This gives you the ability to have the weapon/spell damage only Stam has access to.
You do realize that the class can do things other than gank, right?
Brawler stam/hybrid, or just standard melee magNB both exist. Neither can benefit from the concealed weapon change.
As far as PVP spammables go, surprise is undeniably top 3 with the two you just listed, and I wouldn't be quick to place any of them above on another as they all have strong, unique effects attached to them.kypranb14_ESO wrote: »It only has the guaranteed critical hit if it stuns. The patch notes are misleading.
It actually is a guaranteed crit only from the sides. It doesn't matter if it stuns or not - the guaranteed crit only happens on the flanks, which are apparently the 90* sections conal sections on either sides of your character. Does not include the rear.
First, I listed two ahead of it, watch makes it #3. Sorc, warden and necro (especially the last two) are behind the times. But all three of those classes have significant other advantages. That's another thread though. 😬
Second, there's nothing stopping you from running a dark cloak blade. I see them every night. There's a whole dark cloak guild on XB. I'm not sure what this has to do with the discussion, unless of course you're making the argument ELIMINATE GANKING MAKE ALL NBS BRAWLERS, which is kinda tired at this point. We aren't going anywhere. We are playing the class as conceived from the start.
The game gives you the tools to play a brawler blade but make no mistake, the class identity is stealth and you can see that all over their own marketing materials.
For me, if I want to play a brawler I'll get on my DK or sorc.
Like it or not, we're only doing well because of two things. Oakensoul, which is getting nerfed (rightfully so) which will lead to our numbers dropping back down (as they should), and Caluurions, which is dodgeball/blockable, and we only run that because we have no other options. Every other set we've used in the past has been taken away from us.
Everyone else is running around in proc sets but apparently NBs aren't allowed. I'd happily go back to wearing straight damage gear but our damage isn't high enough to compete.This would be cool, if this game didnt have a huge issue with position desync.
I regularly get SA stunned while on my screen the night blade is still literally in front of me.
And I know most people face this issue.
Regardless as op stated, this skill didnt need another mechanic on top of what it already has.
It's already 1 button spammable and cc and many NBs dont even bother with an execute since it hits so hard anyway.
I've explained this before.
Surprise Attack isn't desyncing you. The CC is. And if they're hitting you from stealth you're getting cc'd anyway, which gives you CC immunity. My point is desyncing happens because of CC's. I get desync'd by talons and dark convergence all the time. I'm all for fixing this issue but it's not NB specific.
It's not as big a deal as you're making it out to be, OP.
SA already crits whether from front or back fairly often. It auto crits if you lead from cloak anyway. All this does is punish you for not defending. ALWAYS ROLL THROUGH THE ATTACKER, NOT AWAY.
Another thing you're missing is that melee NB will still be using Caluurions, which means leading when an LA or HA. That means we're losing a lot of damage. My guess is these changes are to help overcome that will skill damage.
I'm more interested in the concealed weapon change as a way to finally meet Stam damage with a mag based melee build.
Yeah, as another player with 3-4k hours on NB, I do not understand this buff.
Surprise attack is one of, if not the best spammables in the game. It was fine with just the guaranteed sundered proc - arguably, the stun shouldn't have even been present on it. Allowing it to perma crit from the flank is just a mistake. This should be rolled back.
On the other hand, concealed weapon DID need a buff to be brought up to par with surprise attack (the version of surprise on live, that is). I like the changes to concealed weapon, however I'd like to see the 300 WD be tied to casting the ability rather than leaving stealth. Tying it to stealth is just silly.
SA is not the best spammable in the game. Whip and jabs are better, both actively and passively. Look at all you get from both morphs of jabs.
As pointed out above, this SA change is better for PvE. It's nice for pvp but really isn't that big of a deal. The fights where I need more damage are not usually fought from flank do to the player being better at maneuvering and defending.
As for your complaint of concealed, this will give it a chance to meet SA for damage output. If you required it to be cast to get the buff it would be significantly less useful because you would be forced to lead with CW rather than soul harvest or a heavy attack. You would be doing a lot less damage.
As of now, it basically gets you around the most negative issue with running a mag melee gank. You can't stack frenzied momentum with mag skills. This gives you the ability to have the weapon/spell damage only Stam has access to.
You do realize that the class can do things other than gank, right?
Brawler stam/hybrid, or just standard melee magNB both exist. Neither can benefit from the concealed weapon change.
As far as PVP spammables go, surprise is undeniably top 3 with the two you just listed, and I wouldn't be quick to place any of them above on another as they all have strong, unique effects attached to them.kypranb14_ESO wrote: »It only has the guaranteed critical hit if it stuns. The patch notes are misleading.
It actually is a guaranteed crit only from the sides. It doesn't matter if it stuns or not - the guaranteed crit only happens on the flanks, which are apparently the 90* sections conal sections on either sides of your character. Does not include the rear.
First, I listed two ahead of it, watch makes it #3. Sorc, warden and necro (especially the last two) are behind the times. But all three of those classes have significant other advantages. That's another thread though. 😬
Second, there's nothing stopping you from running a dark cloak blade. I see them every night. There's a whole dark cloak guild on XB. I'm not sure what this has to do with the discussion, unless of course you're making the argument ELIMINATE GANKING MAKE ALL NBS BRAWLERS, which is kinda tired at this point. We aren't going anywhere. We are playing the class as conceived from the start.
The game gives you the tools to play a brawler blade but make no mistake, the class identity is stealth and you can see that all over their own marketing materials.
For me, if I want to play a brawler I'll get on my DK or sorc.
Like it or not, we're only doing well because of two things. Oakensoul, which is getting nerfed (rightfully so) which will lead to our numbers dropping back down (as they should), and Caluurions, which is dodgeball/blockable, and we only run that because we have no other options. Every other set we've used in the past has been taken away from us.
Everyone else is running around in proc sets but apparently NBs aren't allowed. I'd happily go back to wearing straight damage gear but our damage isn't high enough to compete.This would be cool, if this game didnt have a huge issue with position desync.
I regularly get SA stunned while on my screen the night blade is still literally in front of me.
And I know most people face this issue.
Regardless as op stated, this skill didnt need another mechanic on top of what it already has.
It's already 1 button spammable and cc and many NBs dont even bother with an execute since it hits so hard anyway.
I've explained this before.
Surprise Attack isn't desyncing you. The CC is. And if they're hitting you from stealth you're getting cc'd anyway, which gives you CC immunity. My point is desyncing happens because of CC's. I get desync'd by talons and dark convergence all the time. I'm all for fixing this issue but it's not NB specific.
It is a suprise attack issue, beacuse it's the thing that gets the flanking bonus when your opponent doesnt see you flanking. It's that simple.
And again, SA doesnt need any more mechanics crammed into it, its already one of the best spammable in the game.
Yes this, id rather see Merciless get a buff, the problem with it is its travel time, it gets dodged 50% of the time and the rest of the time its blocked, way too telegraphed skill and ppl know when its coming. Also the 300 wepdmg you get from the 5 proccs should stay for 1s after casting the bow so it at the very least also buffs itself.PvPBlade needed a Merciless Resolve buff not a Surprise attack buff.
Yeah, as another player with 3-4k hours on NB, I do not understand this buff.
Surprise attack is one of, if not the best spammables in the game. It was fine with just the guaranteed sundered proc - arguably, the stun shouldn't have even been present on it. Allowing it to perma crit from the flank is just a mistake. This should be rolled back.
On the other hand, concealed weapon DID need a buff to be brought up to par with surprise attack (the version of surprise on live, that is). I like the changes to concealed weapon, however I'd like to see the 300 WD be tied to casting the ability rather than leaving stealth. Tying it to stealth is just silly.
SA is not the best spammable in the game. Whip and jabs are better, both actively and passively. Look at all you get from both morphs of jabs.
As pointed out above, this SA change is better for PvE. It's nice for pvp but really isn't that big of a deal. The fights where I need more damage are not usually fought from flank do to the player being better at maneuvering and defending.
As for your complaint of concealed, this will give it a chance to meet SA for damage output. If you required it to be cast to get the buff it would be significantly less useful because you would be forced to lead with CW rather than soul harvest or a heavy attack. You would be doing a lot less damage.
As of now, it basically gets you around the most negative issue with running a mag melee gank. You can't stack frenzied momentum with mag skills. This gives you the ability to have the weapon/spell damage only Stam has access to.
You do realize that the class can do things other than gank, right?
Brawler stam/hybrid, or just standard melee magNB both exist. Neither can benefit from the concealed weapon change.
As far as PVP spammables go, surprise is undeniably top 3 with the two you just listed, and I wouldn't be quick to place any of them above on another as they all have strong, unique effects attached to them.kypranb14_ESO wrote: »It only has the guaranteed critical hit if it stuns. The patch notes are misleading.
It actually is a guaranteed crit only from the sides. It doesn't matter if it stuns or not - the guaranteed crit only happens on the flanks, which are apparently the 90* sections conal sections on either sides of your character. Does not include the rear.
First, I listed two ahead of it, watch makes it #3. Sorc, warden and necro (especially the last two) are behind the times. But all three of those classes have significant other advantages. That's another thread though. 😬
Second, there's nothing stopping you from running a dark cloak blade. I see them every night. There's a whole dark cloak guild on XB. I'm not sure what this has to do with the discussion, unless of course you're making the argument ELIMINATE GANKING MAKE ALL NBS BRAWLERS, which is kinda tired at this point. We aren't going anywhere. We are playing the class as conceived from the start.
The game gives you the tools to play a brawler blade but make no mistake, the class identity is stealth and you can see that all over their own marketing materials.
For me, if I want to play a brawler I'll get on my DK or sorc.
Like it or not, we're only doing well because of two things. Oakensoul, which is getting nerfed (rightfully so) which will lead to our numbers dropping back down (as they should), and Caluurions, which is dodgeball/blockable, and we only run that because we have no other options. Every other set we've used in the past has been taken away from us.
Everyone else is running around in proc sets but apparently NBs aren't allowed. I'd happily go back to wearing straight damage gear but our damage isn't high enough to compete.This would be cool, if this game didnt have a huge issue with position desync.
I regularly get SA stunned while on my screen the night blade is still literally in front of me.
And I know most people face this issue.
Regardless as op stated, this skill didnt need another mechanic on top of what it already has.
It's already 1 button spammable and cc and many NBs dont even bother with an execute since it hits so hard anyway.
I've explained this before.
Surprise Attack isn't desyncing you. The CC is. And if they're hitting you from stealth you're getting cc'd anyway, which gives you CC immunity. My point is desyncing happens because of CC's. I get desync'd by talons and dark convergence all the time. I'm all for fixing this issue but it's not NB specific.
It is a suprise attack issue, beacuse it's the thing that gets the flanking bonus when your opponent doesnt see you flanking. It's that simple.
And again, SA doesnt need any more mechanics crammed into it, its already one of the best spammable in the game.
Desyncing is a CC issue. Latching it onto your disdained for surprise attack isn't a fair criticism.
"Flanking bonus when your opponent doesn't see you flanking" is the whole point of flanking. If you knew someone was flanking you with a big warning sign, you'd turn around.
By the way, as I first mentioned, roll dodge through the NB, not away, and you will take away the advantage.
People always say stuff like "it's already one of the best." There can only be one and it isn't SA. It's firmly #3. And if you're complaining that a spammable has too many advantages, I expect to see a Puncturing Strikes complaint thread soon.
I'll break this down again. Our class is built for burst damage and yet our toolkit is quite behind other classes in damage output. This is because we were balanced around a dozen proc sets that USED to work on NB. Most of them have been altered to no longer work on NB.
Maybe they're making this changes to see where our damage goes, and if it looks right they'll take a look at Caluurions. But no, some players would rather NB get shelved all together because we interrupt duals or burn your lancer.
There are players who just want to stand on one spot and spam a single attack over and over without fearing getting flanked. They will continue to be disappointment or learn how to defend. The amount of people I know who run flare for the protection but won't keep it under their feet while on a meat bag is hilarious.
CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »
CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »
CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »
Every other option pales in comparison. Flame and mad tinkerer both miss more often than hit because of the way they work. They don't heat seek the target. Scavenging demise only procs off crit poison damage and takes 2 seconds to show up.
You can't cut our main damage set's tooltip I in half and not buff our damage elsewhere.
CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »
Shadow of the red mountain is basically soft Caluurion (~1k difference with 2 sec shorter cooldown). Way of fire also have a great dps (4k/2 sec), but is more aimed for pressure rather than gank
MetallicMonk wrote: »NB hits hard enough without caluurions or other procs, especially if you build into crit damage. Seems like a lot of uinformed people who specifically only gank lmao.
NB spammable was already literally one of the hardest hitting if not the hardest hitting in the game if you had a good build, absurd change from a PvP perspective.
CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »
Shadow of the red mountain is basically soft Caluurion (~1k difference with 2 sec shorter cooldown). Way of fire also have a great dps (4k/2 sec), but is more aimed for pressure rather than gank
Red mountain is a big giant red flare coming out of a volcano with a big travel time. The only proc set with a worse chance to hit is coldharbour's favorite.MetallicMonk wrote: »NB hits hard enough without caluurions or other procs, especially if you build into crit damage. Seems like a lot of uinformed people who specifically only gank lmao.
NB spammable was already literally one of the hardest hitting if not the hardest hitting in the game if you had a good build, absurd change from a PvP perspective.
It's not the hardest hitting as is. Can we really still using "one of the best of" when there are only 6 classes? Being in the 66th percentile isn't the same as being number one. It's #3 behind Puncturing and whip on live.
When the meta is high healing, high mitigation classes, which won't change, then the high burst, low survivability class needs to have the damage to compete. Just blowing up your crit damage with a set like wrath with a damage set like stygian isn't, in the current live game, enough output to attack a magDK or templar of equal skill level UNLESS you're running oakensoul.
People have been screaming about Caluurions forever. Now they're nerfing it so we gotta complain about SA getting a flank crit when it already crits more often than not anyway and you can just counter it by moving correctly.
CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »
Every other option pales in comparison. Flame and mad tinkerer both miss more often than hit because of the way they work. They don't heat seek the target. Scavenging demise only procs off crit poison damage and takes 2 seconds to show up.
You can't cut our main damage set's tooltip I in half and not buff our damage elsewhere.
MetallicMonk wrote: »CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »
Shadow of the red mountain is basically soft Caluurion (~1k difference with 2 sec shorter cooldown). Way of fire also have a great dps (4k/2 sec), but is more aimed for pressure rather than gank
Red mountain is a big giant red flare coming out of a volcano with a big travel time. The only proc set with a worse chance to hit is coldharbour's favorite.MetallicMonk wrote: »NB hits hard enough without caluurions or other procs, especially if you build into crit damage. Seems like a lot of uinformed people who specifically only gank lmao.
NB spammable was already literally one of the hardest hitting if not the hardest hitting in the game if you had a good build, absurd change from a PvP perspective.
It's not the hardest hitting as is. Can we really still using "one of the best of" when there are only 6 classes? Being in the 66th percentile isn't the same as being number one. It's #3 behind Puncturing and whip on live.
When the meta is high healing, high mitigation classes, which won't change, then the high burst, low survivability class needs to have the damage to compete. Just blowing up your crit damage with a set like wrath with a damage set like stygian isn't, in the current live game, enough output to attack a magDK or templar of equal skill level UNLESS you're running oakensoul.
People have been screaming about Caluurions forever. Now they're nerfing it so we gotta complain about SA getting a flank crit when it already crits more often than not anyway and you can just counter it by moving correctly.
Seems like you didn't even read what I wrote, caluurions wasn't the only way nb had damage, surprise attack hits as hard as some classes burst abilities and it's their spammable. Do you really think because they nerfed a set that wasn't even needed to begin with on nb to do damage, that they needed an ability that did not need a buff to be brought up even more? That's just disingenuous.
It stuns, has an incredibly high tooltip, sunders, sets off balance, and now will crit constantly. Not to mention the fact eso just can not read positional requirements well at all, the server and positional desync does not allow it, it's why you get stunned by surprise attack whether it's behind you or not and it's why this will now crit randomly whether they're flanking or not.
MetallicMonk wrote: »CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »
Shadow of the red mountain is basically soft Caluurion (~1k difference with 2 sec shorter cooldown). Way of fire also have a great dps (4k/2 sec), but is more aimed for pressure rather than gank
Red mountain is a big giant red flare coming out of a volcano with a big travel time. The only proc set with a worse chance to hit is coldharbour's favorite.MetallicMonk wrote: »NB hits hard enough without caluurions or other procs, especially if you build into crit damage. Seems like a lot of uinformed people who specifically only gank lmao.
NB spammable was already literally one of the hardest hitting if not the hardest hitting in the game if you had a good build, absurd change from a PvP perspective.
It's not the hardest hitting as is. Can we really still using "one of the best of" when there are only 6 classes? Being in the 66th percentile isn't the same as being number one. It's #3 behind Puncturing and whip on live.
When the meta is high healing, high mitigation classes, which won't change, then the high burst, low survivability class needs to have the damage to compete. Just blowing up your crit damage with a set like wrath with a damage set like stygian isn't, in the current live game, enough output to attack a magDK or templar of equal skill level UNLESS you're running oakensoul.
People have been screaming about Caluurions forever. Now they're nerfing it so we gotta complain about SA getting a flank crit when it already crits more often than not anyway and you can just counter it by moving correctly.
Seems like you didn't even read what I wrote, caluurions wasn't the only way nb had damage, surprise attack hits as hard as some classes burst abilities and it's their spammable. Do you really think because they nerfed a set that wasn't even needed to begin with on nb to do damage, that they needed an ability that did not need a buff to be brought up even more? That's just disingenuous.
It stuns, has an incredibly high tooltip, sunders, sets off balance, and now will crit constantly. Not to mention the fact eso just can not read positional requirements well at all, the server and positional desync does not allow it, it's why you get stunned by surprise attack whether it's behind you or not and it's why this will now crit randomly whether they're flanking or not.
One, you're already stunning from stealth. Most NB CC's are from stealth, not the cc attached to SA or Incap. If you're hit from a cloaked NB, that's the CC that hits you. The SA and incap CC's are useful when chasing people down out of cloak.
Two, its damage is less than whip and jabs.
Three, it will not crit constantly. It will only crit from flank. So if your NB leads with a heavy attack, you'll get the one SA crit from flank but most people will still go incap/soul after the heavy because it's a lot more damage. So now you have 1.5 seconds after the heavy to move to counter flank.
If you lead with SA rather than a heavy, you're going to crit anyway.
I'd understand this reaction if they were putting a 10% crit DAMAGE buff to the skill. All this is going doing is give you a little better consistency on your damage. People acting like they brought back Mechanical.
Everything else you said is a.server side issue that can happen with any CC in the game.