Need some Flat Damage sets

MindOfTheSwarm · December 2023

Just looking at the advanced stats and realized that outside of Draugrkin, there are almost no sets that apply flat damage to skills.

I know this would be risky with Magic Damage due to Arcanist laser, but I think it would be fine for other damage types as they generally tick once per second at most.

Eg

5 Piece Bonus

Your Frost damage over time effects and Chilled status deal an additional 500 damage, but your health recovery is decreased by 200.

Your Flame damage effects deal an additional 400 damage to Burning targets, but you direct damage abilities deal 12% less damage.

Your Concussed status effect deals an additional 1000 Shock Damage and sends out a bolt of lightning to a nearby enemy that deals 1000 Shock Damage.

That Shock one seems a bit op I know. But it was more to illustrate the idea and point that Flat damage is kind of a dead stat currently.

Another option is to add additional CP slottable stars that have the same effect.

Vaqual · December 2023

Overall I like those types of interactions. NB could use one for overcharged with all the magic damage sources. If it proves to be an issue, Fatecarver could be discriminated in other ways, by excluding channels, having icd, specifying aoe/st or direct/dot damage.

The trigger condition isn't the best in group play but there is:
https://eso-sets.com/set/systres-scowl

Of course flat damage can be quite strong on builds that forgo all offensive investments for extra defense, while being useless on specialized DDs. Balancing would need look at potential sources, tick rates vs icd, set icd or target icd and other proc specifics (crittable yes/no, extra tick or additive damage). In the end they would need to find a niche between draugrkin as the "universalist" and more typical burst/dot proc sets. If the proc condition is too trivial, flat damage is likely OP (see masters DW).

At the end of the day damage is just damage, so balancing something like this certainly isn't impossible. On the other side, all these sets could also be formulated with some form of reasonable scaling (e.g., non-linear or capped like maelstrom 2h).

Skullstachio · December 2023

Two sets that were missed in the OP prior to typing this:

Dragon's Appetite(craftable in western skyrim) which increases your flat damage done to bleeding targets by 225 (not counting it's additional effects.)
Merciless charge (2-H maelstrom arena weapon set) which increases the flat damage of your direct damage attacks by up to 560, scaling off the higher of your weapon/spell damage.

And while I do agree something could be done to introduce more sets that affect different aspects of flat damage, some of the old sets in the base game should be reworked to help with it.

tsaescishoeshiner · December 2023

Fatecarver only hits every .3 seconds, like templar jabs, so it would benefit from flat damage about the same. Although it has a larger range and doesn't count as direct damage.

MindOfTheSwarm · December 2023

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Fatecarver only hits every .3 seconds, like templar jabs, so it would benefit from flat damage about the same. Although it has a larger range and doesn't count as direct damage.

True but I used it as an example of the danger of using Magic Flat Damage. Flame, Frost and Shock don’t have that risk currently.

OBJnoob · December 2023

I find the few current examples of flat damage in game to be highly problematic and overperforming.

While adding a lot more would level the playing field and create balance in a way... It would be balance in the worst way, where everyone can forego character sheet damage, build tanky, and rely on non-scaling procs for offense.

The reverse solution-- removing what sources of flat damage there currently are-- would probably be preferable. Because we can get back to having to build for damage... Which not only creates a similar level of balance but diversity as well.