Torchbearer "three times"... "each sweep" ?

Morgaledh · October 9

So, I can't seem to find any discussion on A. how this really works, or B. if it isn't working as intended. Torchbearer says:

1. "Conjure an imbued torch and sweep the area in front of you three times with its power." So, three sweeps. Ok.

2. The animation bears this out - yes, you sweep three times with your torch. Now, I'm using the Savagery and Prophecy Affix for this example, but I've tested it with others and the same thing happens (or doesn't). That Affix says:

3. Grants you Major Savagery and Major Prophecy for 10 seconds with each sweep, increasing Weapon and Spell Critical rating by 2629."

All that sounds very straightforward, and a pretty decent skill. Reading the actual wording of the skill, what one would expect is simply to "sweep the area in front of you three times" and then gain Crit "for 10 seconds with each sweep" or 30 seconds. Three sweeps, 10 seconds per sweep, 30 seconds.

But that isn't what happens when I use the skill and check my character sheet. What I see is a 10 second countdown for Major Savagery and Major Prophecy, and a boost to my crit which falls off at 10 seconds. If this is only 10 seconds, what's all the "10 seconds with each sweep" business? Either the skill description is wrong, or the crit IS being granted to me but somehow only the first 10 seconds is showing up on my character (can this even happen?)

What confuses the matter more is that if the Signature Script is damage (say, Bleed Damage), that does register three times with the three sweeps! So the sweeps are working for some parts, but not others?

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno Is this a known issue I've somehow overlooked (possible, as always)? Is this something that hopefully will be fixed? Sorry to ping a dev with this but my search magic has failed me, and this really cripples the skill.

SolarRune · October 9

I always took it as 10s from the last sweep. For me if this is a skill you cast on others it allows you to get different people with each swep (although given recent discoveries around healing I no longer sure this is correct)

Benzux · October 9

Each sweep gives you the Major Savagery and Prophecy buffs for 10 seconds, refreshing on subsequent sweeps. I haven't used Torchbearer, but if you have buff timers on, you should be able to watch the 10s timer for the buff tick down to 9 before it gets refreshed by a sweep (if the cast time allows for that, again, I haven't used the skill so I don't know).

Named buffs never stack on top of each other, either in potency or duration, and are simply always replaced by the new application of the buff. If you were to cast this skill, and then gain a different (and possibly longer duration) Major Savagery buff from another source, like a weapon crit potion, it would replace the buff gained from Torchbearer. Though, I do believe the game prioritizes longer-duration buffs, so if you were to have a DK in the party giving you a minute-long Major Sorcery buff, and then you cast a skill that gave you 20s of Major Sorcery, it wouldn't get overridden as long as there's still more than 20s of the buff left (correct me if I am wrong on this, but I'm fairly sure that's how it works).

TLDR; Named Buffs don't stack, each sweep grants you the buff for 10s, or refreshes it if you already have it. Torchbearer is working as intended.

YandereGirlfriend · October 9

You hit on the larger point that mundane "Major" buffs like Savagery/Prophecy and Brutality/Sorcerery need to have longer buff durations from Scribing because they are not treated as rare/powerful buffs in the rest of the game. They should be 20 seconds at a minimum.

Necrotech_Master · October 9

"each sweep" applies the buff, but it doesnt extend existing buffs, it overwrites them

not really any different than recasting any other buff skill, which is why this skill never really made a ton of sense to me because applying a dot, debuff, or buff on each sweep is just going to overwrite the previous instance

the direct burst dmg or heals are alright, or the ulti-gen one are pretty good though

Morgaledh · October 10

Benzux wrote: »

Named buffs never stack on top of each other, either in potency or duration, and are simply always replaced by the new application of the buff.

Ah-ha, you know, I knew this once, and completely overlooked it for this skill...

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

this skill never really made a ton of sense to me because applying a dot, debuff, or buff on each sweep is just going to overwrite the previous instance

... and this is why I overlooked it. I never even considered that these would overwrite each other, because it just seems so pointless. I thought maybe something had changed.

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

mundane "Major" buffs like Savagery/Prophecy and Brutality/Sorcerery need to have longer buff durations from Scribing because they are not treated as rare/powerful buffs in the rest of the game. They should be 20 seconds at a minimum.

This is the solution. Not even asking for scribing to be OP, just maybe on-par with other uses of the same buffs etc.

Thanks folks.

silky_soft · October 15

2H skill Carve extends the duration with each hit. This should do the same.