Warding Soul is unusable

fred4 · June 11

Warding Soul, a morph of Wield Soul, looks extremely promising as a PvP skill on paper. I would argue that (magicka-costing) shields are currently overnerfed, except for sorc's (Hardened) Ward. The Dampen Magic tooltip on my ancient mag-stacking warden, for example, barely reaches 10K in PvP with 55K magicka. In the (distant) past I was able to push close to 14K.

This is why I got excited when I saw Warding Soul has almost the same shield size as Dampen, offers the rare Major Vitality buff on top (+12% shielding / healing), plus the option to restore 1K stamina and magicka. The latter looked OP. Warden doesn't have the mobility of sorc. Light armor shielding warden is an expensive playstyle for that reason. You can get forced into blocking and shield spam at times. The stamina return looked possibly OP.

Alas, nothing could be further from the truth. When you choose the shielding option of Wield Soul, the target selection turns to "Area". Not self-shield. Not a targeted shield where you are facing. If that was the case, you could turn, such as facing a wall to apply the skill to yourself. However not a smart shield either. No. The game engine just randomly picks a person. They need not be in your group. They could be behind you. Not to the side, but completely outside your field of view. You can spam the shield. It may shield you or it may go straight to the already-shielded person behind you every time, even when they also have more health than you do in the first place. I don't see how a completely uncontrollable single-target skill is useful. Not in PvP. Not in PvE either.

I tested in my base in IC, where there were other players standing around. In case you have tried this in actual combat and it performs differently there, let me know. It may obviously work if you are completely solo, but that is never a given.

EDIT #1: I tried the same test with Healing Ward and have to note that it behaves the same way. This used to be a popular skill. It always had the same issue, I just don't remember it being this extreme. It hasn't really failed me in vSS as a tomb healer.

EDIT #2: Maybe the reason Healing Ward never felt that bad is that there is some smart targeting, based on missing health. Is there? The problem, then, is that such an approach does not work for pure shields, because shields are preventative in nature. Healing Ward was never that. It is used reactively. That's possibly why it feels OK to use, whereas Warding Soul does not.

CameraBeardThePirate · June 11

Warding Soul actually isn't even a conal in front of you - it's a 360° 28m radius AoE, which is even more annoying, as you can't just turn away from group mates to shield yourself like you can with other burst heals.

Soarora · June 11

Healing ward does have smart targetting based on missing health. I like it just the way it is, it works well as an emergency single target heal on a healer when you can’t combat prayer in time because the person isn’t in front of you. To me, its not really a preventative shield, it’s a heal that protects you while you’re being healed. The other morph that shields you AND an ally should perhaps be targettable though as it does not heal.

tsaescishoeshiner · June 11

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Warding Soul actually isn't even a conal in front of you - it's a 360° 28m radius AoE, which is even more annoying, as you can't just turn away from group mates to shield yourself like you can with other burst heals.

That does sound inconvenient, and I wonder if it's intentional. On the other hand, it also sounds helpful for dungeon healing people behind you, like with Twilight Matriarch.

The Major Vitality on this skill is very attractive to me, but it definitely sounds like it would be more for smaller group settings. Even if it had conal targeting, you never know who it might land on in Cyrodiil.

Sidenote, I'm curious what the visual for the damage shield looks like if anyone has a screenshot. Was thinking of running it on an Arcanist healer for the damage shield overload. : p

CameraBeardThePirate · June 11

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Warding Soul actually isn't even a conal in front of you - it's a 360° 28m radius AoE, which is even more annoying, as you can't just turn away from group mates to shield yourself like you can with other burst heals.

That does sound inconvenient, and I wonder if it's intentional. On the other hand, it also sounds helpful for dungeon healing people behind you, like with Twilight Matriarch.

The Major Vitality on this skill is very attractive to me, but it definitely sounds like it would be more for smaller group settings. Even if it had conal targeting, you never know who it might land on in Cyrodiil.

Sidenote, I'm curious what the visual for the damage shield looks like if anyone has a screenshot. Was thinking of running it on an Arcanist healer for the damage shield overload. : p

It's like a blue wispy cylinder around your character.

BasP · June 11

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Sidenote, I'm curious what the visual for the damage shield looks like if anyone has a screenshot. Was thinking of running it on an Arcanist healer for the damage shield overload. : p

This is what it looks like:

Edit: So yeah, a blue wispy cylinder sounds about right

fred4 · June 11

Soarora wrote: »

Healing ward does have smart targetting based on missing health. I like it just the way it is, it works well as an emergency single target heal on a healer when you can’t combat prayer in time because the person isn’t in front of you. To me, its not really a preventative shield, it’s a heal that protects you while you’re being healed. The other morph that shields you AND an ally should perhaps be targettable though as it does not heal.

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Warding Soul actually isn't even a conal in front of you - it's a 360° 28m radius AoE, which is even more annoying, as you can't just turn away from group mates to shield yourself like you can with other burst heals.

That does sound inconvenient, and I wonder if it's intentional. On the other hand, it also sounds helpful for dungeon healing people behind you, like with Twilight Matriarch.

The Major Vitality on this skill is very attractive to me, but it definitely sounds like it would be more for smaller group settings. Even if it had conal targeting, you never know who it might land on in Cyrodiil.

Sidenote, I'm curious what the visual for the damage shield looks like if anyone has a screenshot. Was thinking of running it on an Arcanist healer for the damage shield overload. : p

I basically agree with the two of you that Healing Ward is fine. The other morph incidentally, Ward Ally, shields both you (guaranteed) and an ally. That at least gives you some control over what it does, not that I believe Ward Ally is popular.

The problem with Warding Soul is that it's neither a heal, nor is it multi-target. If your health is the lowest around, you want a heal. You don't really want a shield, or at least that wouldn't be the first choice. Shields are generally used prophylactically instead, e.g. when you are at full health. This is the reason why, in my view, inheriting the targeting mechanic from Healing Ward is not suitable for Warding Soul. Warding Soul needs to be targetable, or self only, otherwise it's not useful.

Hasenpfote · June 11

I use it on my tank, but not for myself. I have my own shields, but i can shield a grp member, if he is busy avoiding damage.

For me i prefer to have a 28m radiant shield. Since this shield is skaling with your own HP and is capped at the targets HP of 55%, you can buy time for the healer to react.

DrNukenstein · June 18

Very potent, very enabling, can give a nice shield, resources and a buff of choice. WHY DOES IT CAST ON ANY ONE BUT MYSELF?????????

SandandStars · June 18

it’s a monkey’s paw

classic

Cronopoly · June 20

Whoah I almost used Ink on this.... Dodged a bullet there. \o/

ESO_Nightingale · June 29

That's really bad and should be changed

MidniteOwl1913 · June 29

Ulfrids Consistency also offers a damage shield and it will target the caster.

I have noticed that many of the skills have odd corner effects that make them less useful than they first appeared.

I'm not sure how many I will actually use waiting on more ink to start trying them

MidniteOwl1913 · June 29

BTW I've found this tool *very* useful

https://eso-hub.com/en/scribing-simulator?combination=215731,20,32,48,3

For instance I wanted some skill with interrupt using this I was able to see that for a Magika user Soul Burst was the only option very quickly.

MEBengalsFan2001 · June 29

The torch with 30% damage reduction script and how it operates like the old jabs makes it interesting to use. I have that setup with a heal and debuff. My favorite scribing skill is trample. IMO it has the best debuff available. Worst part is the casting time. I wish it was .8 seconds vs 2 seconds.

Joy_Division · June 29

fred4 wrote: »

EDIT #2: Maybe the reason Healing Ward never felt that bad is that there is some smart targeting, based on missing health. Is there? The problem, then, is that such an approach does not work for pure shields, because shields are preventative in nature. Healing Ward was never that. It is used reactively. That's possibly why it feels OK to use, whereas Warding Soul does not.

There you go for Healing Ward. Apparently, the game does not go through the same mechanics for this (or any other?) shielding spell.