Grants Ultimate

CrushDepth · December 13

Howdy,
I have seen several Abilities that have a blurb that often includes the statement along the lines of ". . . grants them Ultimate." Can anyone explain what that means exactly?
Thank you for your help.

Ella_Mental · December 13

Ultimate is (usually) your "Heavy Power" skill or sometimes a great Support skill, which is default located to the right of your main action bar. Almost every skill line on your character has at the very top the Ultimate ability.

The term itself refers both to the skill you choose for your character as well as the "resource" required in order to cast said ability. EX: The sorcerer Ultimate ability "Greater Storm Atronach" takes "X" amount of Ultimate to cast.

El_Borracho · December 13

In order to "build ultimate" you normally light or heavy attack then the ultimate "builds" for a certain amount of time by inflicting damage on the target. It can also build by taking damage. Abilities, and some armor sets, and Heroism potions can also build ultimate.

Like @Insanyti said, each ultimate skill requires a certain amount of ultimate in order to cast. The higher the ultimate needed usually translates to a more effective skill. Some ultimates will get more powerful if you wait to cast them at a higher ultimate number, for example Nightblade's Incap

barney2525 · December 13

usually the statement will include a specific number - ie. grants 2 ultimate. For example, if it said ' every time a Dawn's Wrath skill is used, gain 2 ultimate ' - this would be in addition to any ultimate normally generated from an action while using any skill from that Templar Skill set.

CrushDepth · December 14

Thank you all for your replies. I was not all that clear in my question; I did know what an Ultimate is, but unfortunately forget to use the durn thing 99% of the time.

So for further clarification, a light and heavy attack is NOT USING one of the skills on the bar but is a click or click hold kinda thing? Which also appear to help rebuild the health bar? AND then using one of the skills that grants ultimate then adds on as barney2525 explains.

I believe that I have it now. I just have to remember to use the Ultimate more and perhaps die less.

Again, much appreciated all!!

Taril · December 14

CrushDepth wrote: »

So for further clarification, a light and heavy attack is NOT USING one of the skills on the bar but is a click or click hold kinda thing?

Yes, the regular attacks you make with your weapon by clicking and holding are light and heavy.

A simple click is a light attack.

A hold is heavy.

Holding until the attack fires off is considered a "Fully charged heavy attack".

Sometimes there is reference to a "Medium" attack which is a hold but you let go before that "Fully charged" attack.

Using one of these attacks (Or healing another player, or dodging/blocking an attack) will provide you with a hidden buff that causes you to generate 3 ultimate per second for 9 seconds (So as long as you do ONE of these things every 9 seconds, you will keep this ultimate generation up while in combat)

CrushDepth wrote: »

Which also appear to help rebuild the health bar?

Health bar? No. Fully charged heavy attacks will restore resources - Stamina or Magicka. Based on the type of weapon you have equipped.

Staves (Inferno, Ice, Lighting and Restoration) will provide Magicka.

Other weapons (One Handed, Two Handed, Bow, Werewolf claws) will provide Stamina.

CrushDepth wrote: »

AND then using one of the skills that grants ultimate then adds on as barney2525 explains.

Aye, some specific skills can provide some ultimate to either yourself or another player.

This is directly added to the pool of ultimate that is available (Up to a maximum of 500 ultimate which has little use for actually using skills but there are some effects like the Champion Point ability Strategic Reserve that gives you Health Recovery based on the amount of ultimate you have, enabling you to benefit from up to 1500 health recovery if you don't use your ultimate ability and just sit at 500 ultimate)

El_Borracho · December 16

If you are a DD, your ultimate can be a major source of your DPS and should be used frequently. Same holds true for tanks and healers if they are using Warhorn as an ultimate to buff group damage.

Just to clarify one thing, the light/heavy attack does not build ultimate itself, it the damage you do with skills after the light/heavy attack at @Taril said. So even if you are running an Arcanist or a build using the Velothi Amulet, which reduces your light/heavy attack damage, you still need to light/heavy attack regularly to continue building ultimate

kringled_1 · December 16

El_Borracho wrote: »

If you are a DD, your ultimate can be a major source of your DPS and should be used frequently. Same holds true for tanks and healers if they are using Warhorn as an ultimate to buff group damage.

Just to clarify one thing, the light/heavy attack does not build ultimate itself, it the damage you do with skills after the light/heavy attack at @Taril said. So even if you are running an Arcanist or a build using the Velothi Amulet, which reduces your light/heavy attack damage, you still need to light/heavy attack regularly to continue building ultimate

This is not correct. Light and heavy attacks basically give you a buff where you gain 3 ultimate a second for 8-9 seconds (numbers approximate). That's all, you can hit something with a single light and watch the ultimate field. Class/skill/set features may in some cases add additional ultimate but that's the core mechanism

Erickson9610 · December 16

kringled_1 wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

If you are a DD, your ultimate can be a major source of your DPS and should be used frequently. Same holds true for tanks and healers if they are using Warhorn as an ultimate to buff group damage.

Just to clarify one thing, the light/heavy attack does not build ultimate itself, it the damage you do with skills after the light/heavy attack at @Taril said. So even if you are running an Arcanist or a build using the Velothi Amulet, which reduces your light/heavy attack damage, you still need to light/heavy attack regularly to continue building ultimate

This is not correct. Light and heavy attacks basically give you a buff where you gain 3 ultimate a second for 8-9 seconds (numbers approximate). That's all, you can hit something with a single light and watch the ultimate field. Class/skill/set features may in some cases add additional ultimate but that's the core mechanism

A brief tangent: Companions use this same system. If you build a Companion to have extremely short cooldowns, they'll never have a chance to light attack, and they'll never generate the Ultimate they need to cast their only Ultimate ability. This is one reason why you'd want to put the Parallel skill on your Companion if they don't have time to light attack, because the damage they do from their regular abilities does not give them any Ultimate.

Likewise, your Companion blocking an attack grants them Ultimate, as you would be granted Ultimate for blocking an attack. Companions only block attacks when the enemy they are fighting is charging up a channeled or heavy attack, so that's a less reliable source of Ultimate for your Companions.

tinythinker · December 17

Taril wrote: »

Using one of these attacks (Or healing another player, or dodging/blocking an attack) will provide you with a hidden buff that causes you to generate 3 ultimate per second for 9 seconds (So as long as you do ONE of these things every 9 seconds, you will keep this ultimate generation up while in combat)

Just wanted to quote this little section for emphasis on this as it's sometimes forgotten or missed.

El_Borracho · December 17

kringled_1 wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

If you are a DD, your ultimate can be a major source of your DPS and should be used frequently. Same holds true for tanks and healers if they are using Warhorn as an ultimate to buff group damage.

Just to clarify one thing, the light/heavy attack does not build ultimate itself, it the damage you do with skills after the light/heavy attack at @Taril said. So even if you are running an Arcanist or a build using the Velothi Amulet, which reduces your light/heavy attack damage, you still need to light/heavy attack regularly to continue building ultimate

This is not correct. Light and heavy attacks basically give you a buff where you gain 3 ultimate a second for 8-9 seconds (numbers approximate). That's all, you can hit something with a single light and watch the ultimate field. Class/skill/set features may in some cases add additional ultimate but that's the core mechanism

I think we just said the same thing, but thank you. I suppose someone could light attack from here to eternity instead of LA weaving, even with a mythic that reduces your LA damage to 1% and still build ultimate. Thank you for pointing that out. I can't believe I overlooked that strategy.

Or you could hit a target with a light attack, then build ultimate while inflicting damage with a skills rotation, then keep doing that, refreshing the buff so you can have a 100% uptime, until the target is dead. Your call. Play your way, right?

kringled_1 · December 17

El_Borracho wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

If you are a DD, your ultimate can be a major source of your DPS and should be used frequently. Same holds true for tanks and healers if they are using Warhorn as an ultimate to buff group damage.

Just to clarify one thing, the light/heavy attack does not build ultimate itself, it the damage you do with skills after the light/heavy attack at @Taril said. So even if you are running an Arcanist or a build using the Velothi Amulet, which reduces your light/heavy attack damage, you still need to light/heavy attack regularly to continue building ultimate

This is not correct. Light and heavy attacks basically give you a buff where you gain 3 ultimate a second for 8-9 seconds (numbers approximate). That's all, you can hit something with a single light and watch the ultimate field. Class/skill/set features may in some cases add additional ultimate but that's the core mechanism

I think we just said the same thing, but thank you. I suppose someone could light attack from here to eternity instead of LA weaving, even with a mythic that reduces your LA damage to 1% and still build ultimate. Thank you for pointing that out. I can't believe I overlooked that strategy.

Or you could hit a target with a light attack, then build ultimate while inflicting damage with a skills rotation, then keep doing that, refreshing the buff so you can have a 100% uptime, until the target is dead. Your call. Play your way, right?

Hitting something with a light attack and watching ultimate was what I suggested as an experiment to understand how ultimate is built, not as an actual play style. Please read for context.

This is the part of your comment I was specifically addressing:

El_Borracho wrote: »

the light/heavy attack does not build ultimate itself, it the damage you do with skills after the light/heavy attack at @Taril said.

Damage from abilities after you have hit with a light attack don't change your ultimate gain at all, unless you have something in play like the warden Savage companion passive (generate ultimate after hitting with an animal companions ability).

4-5 tests, hitting a dummy for 20s with ultimate starting at 0. This is on a DK but it shouldnt really matter.

Test 1: 1 light attack, then nothing.

27 ultimate. (some additional damage happened due to whorl of the depths)

Test 1a: 1 light attack, then nothing, no procs.

27 ultimate, no damage after the light attack.

Test 2: 1 light attack, then force pulse spam with no light attacks after the first.

27 ultimate

Test 3: Force pulse spam with weaving.

was at 60 something ultimate at the end of the 20s, ultimate built until I ended up at 87.

Test 4: force pulse only, no light attacks.

0 ultimate.

Only test 3 in this is meant to even get close to actual usage.
I didnt reset the dummy, so I didnt keep track of damage done by each of these. This is purely to understand the ultimate generation.

CrushDepth · December 19

Wow! What a very interesting conversation, and so polite also. I am a nearly 80 year old submarine vet and truly appreciate that.