New ingredients are cool and all... but why would anyone ever use poisons? They're useless.

evLRise · August 15

Playing around with some poisons and... as interesting as the new ingredients are, poisons are insanely unusable in pretty much every type of content. Over the years status effects were buffed beyond reason to the point where I don't see any point to EVER using a poison, really.

I mean, check this out. Minor force for 0.5s. How exactly do I ever benefit from this? I can't even use the same GCD for a skill if I proc it with a weapon skill. Hope that one of my DoTs crits in those 0.5s and it deals 1100 instead of 1000 damage?

A standard glyph scenario on a PvP Nightblade for example is shock for 5% damage ( Minor Vulnerability ) and Absorb Stamina for sundered proc ( 100 WD + 3000 armor debuff from minor breach ). And with a DW setup and 1 charged trait it has a rather decent uptime, really. And its also rather easy to react, as enchants don't rely on a 20% proc chance.

If i were to make a poison for armor reduction and vulnerability on the other hand...

Yea, well... Umm... 25% uptime IF my poison procs on cooldown? soo... realistically that's maybe 10-15% uptime with... 40% of the armor reduction value that I would get from minor breach? And just spell armor, not overall? And no 100 weapon / spell damage from sunder? And no upfront damage from a shock glyphs and absorb stamina glyph? It's kinda crazy that I would have to wear a whole 5-piece set to increase my poison duration by 4s to get to the same uptime as I'd have with glyphs and STILL worse effects.

Another example:

Here I'm getting a slightly better Major defile with maybe 10% actual uptime in combat and ~5% uptime on minor vulnerability.

What's up with these awful uptimes?

It's kinda sad that an entire game mechanic is completely ignored ( with the sole exception of escapist poisons in ballgroups maybe ) due to how awful and unrewarding it is.

HazelnutSquash · August 21

Yeah, you're right. Only playing devil's advocate, I'd say that:

One might opt for just 1 effect, cause it keeps the duration longer.
The Assassin's Guile set adds 4s to poisons, which may turn near zero durations into something marginally useful, though I doubt it's worth spending a 5-piece on.
Everything has a niche use in Infinite Archive, if you get the right visions, e.g. the poison buff visions.
I once tried the Moon Hunter set on a Flurry build when that skill was more viable than it is now. Flurry helps ramp up the proc chance. Stacking very high weapon damage over, say, pen was interesting for the amount this also buffs your heals. It's a really niche set, though. I wouldn't wear it nowadays.

Luneca · August 21

Everything has a use even if it isn't apparent. Also, what's added now can become much more powerful down the line. That's exactly why the game has so much powercreep right now.

And for Assassin Guile set, that set could use a 5 pc bonus with something considering how conditional it is. But hey, it's ZOS...they will probably buff it one day.

James-Wayne · August 21

Like most systems in ESO they were introduced in one year and never ever expanded upon or fixed in future years due to always having something new out. They probably also can't remove the system so it's just left to collect dust.

Firstmep · August 21

Hard aggree. My main issue with poisons is the reduced duration per effect added. Potions don't get the same penalty, so why do poisons.
In general poisons duration should be way higher or they should be a guaranteed proc, and the duration penalty removed with multiple effects.