Please look at power budget on dark flare and Empowering sweep.

UnassumingNoob · September 2022

Hi,

Please reconsider the power budget on Empowering sweep and Dark flare. With the change too empower and no synergies between either of these skills with HA builds, please consider other options for these skills. They were rarely used before. Now they are dead skills in PVE.

Thankyou for the consideration.

Noob

the1andonlyskwex · September 2022

Dark Flare hasn't been good in a long time, and the u35 Empower changes made it significantly worse than it already was.

I love the idea of a ranged magplar build, but it's just not viable with Dark Flare the way it is.

Firstmep · September 2022

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Dark Flare hasn't been good in a long time, and the u35 Empower changes made it significantly worse than it already was.

I love the idea of a ranged magplar build, but it's just not viable with Dark Flare the way it is.

Most ranged magplars use force pulse or crushing weapon at the moment.
Both significantly better than df.
But honestly, you use so many class skills on that spec that it's okay actually.
Still, dark flare needs something better.

Billium813 · September 2022

You can read my feelings on Empower at the moment here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/615098/the-state-of-empower/

TLDR; it's so niche now that it might as well be a dead buff and the skills/sets that still have it suffer from devs THINKING these skills/sets have value because they have Empower.

Devs, Empower is dead for 95% of players and skills that grant it might as well NOT because 95% of players are getting NO value from receiving Empower

Dark Flare

Conjure a ball of solar energy to heave at an enemy, dealing 2483 Magic Damage. Afflicts the target and enemies within 8 meters with Major Defile, reducing their healing received and Health Recovery by 16% for 4 seconds. Also grants you Empower for 5 seconds, increasing the damage of your Heavy Attacks against monsters by 80%.

When I look at Dark Flare, I see lot's of potential. Specifically, because of the AOE Major Defile debuff. MANY people like to take issue with the vast amounts of healing in PvP at the moment. I have heard repeatedly that what ZOS needs to do is further decrease the amount of healing Battle Spirit allows. Alternatively, I think it would be a boon for players and PvP if ZOS looked at buffing more skills that provide Major/Minor Defile. This could be a much more subtle, nuanced "fix" compared to the SLEDGE HAMMER that would be adjusting Battle Spirit.

the1andonlyskwex · September 2022

Billium813 wrote: »

You can read my feelings on Empower at the moment here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/615098/the-state-of-empower/

TLDR; it's so niche now that it might as well be a dead buff and the skills/sets that still have it suffer from devs THINKING these skills/sets have value because they have Empower.

Devs, Empower is dead for 95% of players and skills that grant it might as well NOT because 95% of players are getting NO value from receiving Empower

Dark Flare
Conjure a ball of solar energy to heave at an enemy, dealing 2483 Magic Damage. Afflicts the target and enemies within 8 meters with Major Defile, reducing their healing received and Health Recovery by 16% for 4 seconds. Also grants you Empower for 5 seconds, increasing the damage of your Heavy Attacks against monsters by 80%.

When I look at Dark Flare, I see lot's of potential. Specifically, because of the AOE Major Defile debuff. MANY people like to take issue with the vast amounts of healing in PvP at the moment. I have heard repeatedly that what ZOS needs to do is further decrease the amount of healing Battle Spirit allows. Alternatively, I think it would be a boon for players and PvP if ZOS looked at buffing more skills that provide Major/Minor Defile. This could be a much more subtle, nuanced "fix" compared to the SLEDGE HAMMER that would be adjusting Battle Spirit.

Defile is really interesting because it's one of very few effects that's strong in PvP and almost useless in PvE, making it a useful tool for balancing abilities across game modes (because adding defile to an ability buffs it for PvP without significantly affecting it in PvE).

Relatedly, part of the reason that Dark Flare is currently so bad is the fact that it's balanced around having two non-damage effects even though only one is useful in any given game mode.

Billium813 · September 2022

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Defile is really interesting because it's one of very few effects that's strong in PvP and almost useless in PvE, making it a useful tool for balancing abilities across game modes (because adding defile to an ability buffs it for PvP without significantly affecting it in PvE).

Relatedly, part of the reason that Dark Flare is currently so bad is the fact that it's balanced around having two non-damage effects even though only one is useful in any given game mode.

I could not agree more!

Major/Minor Defile has next to no impact in PvE. I mean, mobs receiving healing is pretty rare and NEVER important, certainly NEVER worth running Defile! But do any mobs even have Health Recovery? Just like Expedition, when in combat, Defile is almost entirely a PvP oriented debuff.

Honestly, I think Defile should be buffed to reduce healing more. Currently, Major Defile reduces Healing Received and Health Recovery by 16%. I wonder if it could be buffed to 32% (up from 16%), increasing Minor Defile to 16% (up from 8%).
Consider someone using Resolving Vigor. Consider that each healing tick could be ~5000 health per tick. Do you think it's worth it to a player to prioritize Major Defile to reduce that by %16 (-800 health)? That's almost negligible with all the sources of healing a PvP player can be running and stacking at once! It's barely noticeable by a player since they are still getting the heals, albeit a tiny bit less.

I would be interested in someone with more PvP experience comparing the impact on a player receiving Major Vulnerability (Increases Damage Taken by 10%), Major Defile (Reduces Healing Received and Health Recovery by 16%), and Major Breach (Reduces Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948). How comparable can these be on, say, tackling a ball group? How debilitating are these individual debuffs on a player in PvP?