Torchbearer is Exceptionally Bad

Trinotops · June 12

I didn't even think about this ability during the PTS but now that I've tried it out on Live, I realized that this ability has some really weird and bad design choices.

Unlike the other melee-range channels, Flurry and Jabs, it lowers your movement speed while channeling making it harder to hit targets moving away from you. No idea why this is the case when this is something usually reserved for ranged channels/cast times.
Unlike Jabs which does damage in a semicircle, it does damage in a cone, making it considerably harder to hit targets while moving. Maybe if it had a 10 meter range like DK's breath it wouldn't be as bad.
Its damage simply isn't good enough to warrant having a 2 second channel. It does less DPS than Jabs and on top of that, it makes you miss out on a light attack weave.
It just feel incredibly rigid to use. Sitting in a 2 second channel with your movement speed reduced and desperately trying to keep your target inside of the attack's tiny cone just doesn't feel good.

Hasenpfote · June 12

This skill is only usefull as healer, for this it heals huge amount for a low cost. And repeats every 0.66 seconds.

AlterBlika · June 12

I only scribed this skill for on-demand 30% dmg reduction which seemed nice to me. Damage wise it's worse than aoe spammables, plus disables weaving, but it also offers some utility and can be cancelled at the start of the first swing.

silky_soft · June 12

Yea it's bad to hit like the 2H skill smash, that is also a cone, and significantly more expensive then other skills in that line.

Since all the ranged skills are 28m and get that absolutely free extra range from battlespirit. Torch should be a 12m sweep and smash should be a 12m box.

tsaescishoeshiner · June 12

Really good point about the movement speed reduction.

This and Smash should also be a semi-circle, or a MUCH wider cone in order to be useful.

As far as damage values, Torchbearer and Ele Explosion both deal 2x the damage of a single-target spammable in exchange for having a 2-second cast time. This doesn't make the damage high enough because you lose out on a light attack, mobility, and block-casting for casting them, in addition to the chance of getting interrupted.

Also, Does torchbearer deal damage instantly, or only after like .66 seconds? Dealing damage instantly would definitely help.

DrNukenstein · June 14

I think everyone would have preferred to have the fighters guild skill be a customizable self cast buff instead of the very useless thing it ended up being.

xylena_lazarow · June 14

Some dev comments on the design of Torchbearer and Smash would be interesting. Torchbearer seems nice as an alternative to heavy attack PvE builds for low APM players, but why does it slow you down?

Smash makes no sense at all though, it's like a worse version of Cleave, the 2h line didn't need yet another cast time skill, the middling damage in no way justifies a cast time, and nobody likes cast times on melee skills anyway. Torchbearer could use a buff, but Smash needs a total rework.

ESO_Nightingale · June 15

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Really good point about the movement speed reduction.

This and Smash should also be a semi-circle, or a MUCH wider cone in order to be useful.

As far as damage values, Torchbearer and Ele Explosion both deal 2x the damage of a single-target spammable in exchange for having a 2-second cast time. This doesn't make the damage high enough because you lose out on a light attack, mobility, and block-casting for casting them, in addition to the chance of getting interrupted.

Also, Does torchbearer deal damage instantly, or only after like .66 seconds? Dealing damage instantly would definitely help.

Elemental explosion should have like 25k tooltips

yadibroz · June 15

Can't make all skills good I guess