bring back the old vampire ulti

I cooked that up all by myself. Pretty much just copied Skyrim and translated it to ESO.

All I want is for it to mot be a necessity for pvp. I have zero interest in being a vampire otherwise.

While I would love to see a full rework of the skill line into something far more synergistic with itself and more worthwhile to create your build around, I think the concepts (and assets) for a lot of these skills are sound enough that, with enough tweaks and adjustments, a full rework shouldn't be necessary. Besides, we're much more likely to get a few tweaks here and there than a full rework only... *checks date* - 4 years after? Has it already been this long?

I believe the intended rotation with Vampire skills is: toggle Frenzy -> use Mist Form for a Strike from the Shadows proc -> spam Eviscerate -> when health gets dangerously low, use Blood Drain to heal yourself back up -> use Mist Form for a StfS proc again -> repeat, transforming into Scion form when ready. While this might work on a target dummy that is not trying to kill you, it's just not a very worthwhile strategy when you can just use class/guild/weapon skills to do the same if not more damage (let's face it, probably more) without having to resort to suicidal tactics.

I have no issues with Eviscerate being a melee swipe, though I admit the visuals and sounds could use a lot more work, and the weird reverse scaling based on missing health is awkward to play around and is counter to what you'd imagine to be a typical vampire playstyle (draining health from enemies and trying to stay at as high health as possible). Blood for Blood costing Health helps with sustain, and conceptually vampires' self-healing capabilities should be able to offset this cost.

While Frenzy is a bit boring as a simple damage buff toggle, I think it has a place in the toolkit. I believe the way it's intended to be used is to bring you to low health to further buff your Eviscerate damage, but people just end up slotting it for the damage buff alone and healing through the cost, which is a completely natural thing to do as no one likes sitting at low health. The reason why I think the ability doesn't need a complete rework is because a vampire sacrificing part of their life force for more damage does make sense, but only when they can readily outheal the cost, using their excess self-heal as a resource, not to bring themselves to death's door.

Vampiric Drain is a skill that still needs a few buffs to become viable, but again, conceptuallly a ranged damage skill that heals you is basically the definition of vampire. Maybe the damage needs a buff, maybe it should become an execute, maybe the heal should scale off damage done or even off max health, but that's just a matter of tweaking the numbers.

Mesmerise is probably the skill that will need the most work for people to consider using. Because it does nothing except stun enemies it's not as appealing as other CC skills that also damage enemies or apply extra buffs or debuffs. The limitation that enemies have to be looking at you for the stun to work makes it a very inconsistent skill, as well. The only reason to put it on your bar is to interact with vendors when you're at Stage 4. I previously wrote a long post on the forums about why I think Stage 4 refusal of service should be scrapped entirely as a mechanic, but if we insist on keeping it then there needs to be more of an incentive to use this skill in combat to justify it taking up bar space. People often suggest removing the "facing your direction" limitation, which should make the skill more consistent, or perhaps it needs to apply extra effects (minor breach maybe?), or give it a "while slotted on either bar" effect so it has extra utility outside of making your life less inconvenient - maybe take a page from Restoring Aura's book to give you minor endurance/intellect while slotted (drop fortitude so the two skills don't compete as much and because Stage 4 has 0 health regen anyway).

Mist Form I'd say is in a pretty good spot as it is - one morph being more geared toward PvP and the other toward PvE, it's a nice mobility skill that occasionally lets you go places you're not exactly supposed to go. The fact that it procs Strike from the Shadows is a nice addition, as well.

Blood Scion's biggest problem is that there's no reason to go for Perfect Scion. Again, this has been discussed plenty of times on the forums, suggestions including lowering the cost, increasing duration, having a while-slotted effect, etc. I personally would also really like to see Blood Scion's visual design changed, because frankly it's still unpleasant to look at, and not in a good way. I don't even mind it being wingless anymore, but at least the colour scheme needs to change. The dirty pink skin, red cloth, and steel armour don't contrast well and the silhouette isn't very distinct, which isn't helped by the purple flames effect around your character that just blends the colours together and obscures the silhouette more; the scion's posture and gait are just the same as your character's, not particularly imposing (think back to the way Vampire Lords moved in Skyrim when they were on the ground with their claws out, hunched over and arms at the sides). Grey Host's own Bloodknights are what Blood Scion should have looked like - distinct, threatening, and dressed to impress. Unfortunately I think ZOS have a policy of not changing aesthetics of anything, because if you change the look of a thing people dislike, then people who liked the look of that thing will be upset, so we might be stuck with what we got for a while still.

Undeath seems to cause issues on the PvP side of things, so changing it to only affect damage taken from non-player sources or to only apply while not affected by Battle Spirit might be a good enough quick fix without having to find a solution that works for both PvP and PvE.

I'd also like to touch on the health regen. If ZOS want their vampires to regenerate slower the more powerful they become, that's fine. But -100% health regen at Stage 4 is a bit extreme. This has been suggested numerous times before, but changing it to -90% or even -95% would effectively serve the same purpose in combat while still allowing you to regenerate back to full HP during downtime. This way, if you take some chip damage from overland mobs, or if you jump off some small rocks or go down some stairs while riding from A to B (mounts and stairs don't mix and you know it) you aren't constantly forced to dismount to heal up.

Spectral_Force wrote: »

Vampiric Drain is a skill that still needs a few buffs to become viable, but again, conceptuallly a ranged damage skill that heals you is basically the definition of vampire. Maybe the damage needs a buff, maybe it should become an execute, maybe the heal should scale off damage done or even off max health, but that's just a matter of tweaking the numbers.

I have no idea why they nerfed it from 33% to 25%.
Also no idea why they decided to nerf it to where it gets reduced by battle spirit.
Used to be 33%, ignoring battle spirit.
Now it's 25%, 12.5% under battle spirit.
Missing Health.
If it were 12.5% of Max health, might be... ok... but Off missing health? They turned it into trash. Used to be my best heal. Now its useless.

Spectral_Force wrote: »

Mesmerise is probably the skill that will need the most work for people to consider using. Because it does nothing except stun enemies it's not as appealing as other CC skills that also damage enemies or apply extra buffs or debuffs. The limitation that enemies have to be looking at you for the stun to work makes it a very inconsistent skill, as well. The only reason to put it on your bar is to interact with vendors when you're at Stage 4. I previously wrote a long post on the forums about why I think Stage 4 refusal of service should be scrapped entirely as a mechanic, but if we insist on keeping it then there needs to be more of an incentive to use this skill in combat to justify it taking up bar space. People often suggest removing the "facing your direction" limitation, which should make the skill more consistent, or perhaps it needs to apply extra effects (minor breach maybe?), or give it a "while slotted on either bar" effect so it has extra utility outside of making your life less inconvenient - maybe take a page from Restoring Aura's book to give you minor endurance/intellect while slotted (drop fortitude so the two skills don't compete as much and because Stage 4 has 0 health regen anyway).

Mesmerize is the most OP stun in game. Most only do 3. This does 5 and CANNOT BE BLOCKED.
Most useful in dungeons, when your team leaves you behind to fend off the swarm of ads by yourself while they run to the boss. You get to stun them every 8-10 seconds, keeping yourself from being utterly overwhelmed. (5 stun, 3-5 CCI)

Then you can morph it into either full AoE, or into Stupefy, which snares them when the stun ends, and I think has a longer cone.
It also allows you to mesmerize most merchants so you can talk to them as stage 4 instead of being thrown away.
Doesn't really work on Pack Merchants or basic civilians though.
Works VERY consistently for me.
When it's not working, it's because someone else taunted or something.
As long as you are in their front 180 degrees and have them in the cone, it will stun them.
If you are always in the back 180 degrees, you'd better be a nightblade or using flanking sets. That's the only reason it wouldn't work, is if you are flanking, therefore if it's not working, use flanking sets to get maximum effectiveness out of your position.

KaironBlackbard wrote: »

Mesmerize is the most OP stun in game

it's non-functional in PvP due to the RP facing restriction

I absolutely love vampire skill line simply for the Vampire/Bloody aspect of it. I think they need to work morphs so that they are separated into a categoric manner that's interesting and fun. For example:

Swarming Scion is perfect for close range and tank builds- just needs a lower cost to be more effective against meta dps builds and maybe change its basic attacks to always eviscerate so they dont look silly with weapons.

Perfect scion- No one really uses, maybe shift for a Flying scion with slight levitation and range basics similar to overlord (just an example)

Eviscerate- I think does its job for sassin builds

Blood frenzy- I know a few damage heavy sins use this very well. but both morphs do the same thing practically, maybe shift sated fury for a for a defensive skill that absorbs blood when you are hit and cost magicka per sec instead?

Vampiric drain- i think the animation needs to be shift from your hand to your mouth as a vampire would normally feed.
Drain vigor to a one hit sap that hits for its per second output/input. would make more sense for close combat players.
Exhilarating Drain, should probably have a 3 sec stun for the duration like feeding does in the over world. That both

Mesmerize- not sure how it could be any better? accept maybe hypnosis making your enemy attack their team for 5 secs? would be unique

Mist form- Elusive mist i think its perfect and does its job. Blood mist though- maybe change to just a buff instead of a port that provides major protection/Evasion and blood mist aura <- i would love that since i play vampire tank/healer current mist forms are more disruptive to tanking and healing because of the animation.

What do you guys think??

8: Bud, I'm doing only 300 damage per tick with Thews of the Harbinger on my block tank, who has 48k health and normally deals over 2.2k in PvE with it.
Battle spirit knocks it to roughly 1.1k, then 50% from max armor would knock it to 550, add 15% from Protections (turning 50 to 65%) and it converts 550 to about 400.
They are max health.
AND, they are cutting through my 32k armor as if I have none.
I have 16k penetration.
They have over 49k armor AND over 33k penetration.
Dual Wield.
I cannot fathom how they've done it.
These guys aren't even vampires.
Neither is my block tank.
Every bit of damage done to them, instantly healed as if I Harbinger never touched them.
In most cases, 1v1, ends up being a standoff because neither of us can kill the other.
Unless they are an Arcanist with the Unblinking Eye that chases me around the map. I hate that thing. Too OP.
It cannot be blocked. Renders me dead swiftly.
Oh, I'm also using Lingering Flare slotted for Major Protection.