Cyclone: Low damage. No combo with other skills. Push enemies around always annoys party. -EDIT: Good skill for leeching builds. Thx to @Atalvyr-
Coup of Grace: The duration of the animation is longer than two basic attacks. Therefore, two basic attacks do more damage than this ability.
Sword and shield:
Shield rush: 5 meters is very little.
Bow:
Penetrating shot: The idea is good but in practice it is not worth spending points on this skill. I would improve it by making it your next three shots instead of one shot.
Ice Gauntlet:
Ice shower: I would only add damage when the enemy goes through the rain. -EDIT: Nice discussion here-
Great axe - Whirlwind: Totally useless for me in solo PVE. Why? A mob sneezes on you and knocks you out of either the first or second spin, but never mind you can get a passive to make you spin 7 times…useless without grit or the mob being CC’d.
Sword and Shield: Shield Rush… agree on the distance… it super short compared with other dashes. Useless? Not at all… I constantly use it to get aggro back if it happens that I lose it as a tank. Especially when the boss turns around and is about to run away.
The only redeeming quality to Cyclone is that you can make it leeching. An AOE that heals for 30% of damage dealt is nothing to scoff at. It is still mostly useful in PVP scrums though, as the push+slow is unnecessary for PVE.
Penetrating shot can be deadly if you set it up right, but it is basically only useful for solo PVE. You can aggro a whole train of mobs and then murder them with Penetrating Shot + Poison Shot + Rain of Arrows. If you draw that much aggro in a dungeon, you are dead. In PVP, you might have a chance to use it, but only in big fights where you can fire into a massed group of enemies.
Im a bow and rapier user so I wont be talking about what I havent tried myself.
Splinter shot seems extremely useless, considering that penetrating shot does 150% weapon damage. Splinter deals 50% per arrow, but hitting all three is nearly impossible and the middle arrow doesnt even fly in the same trajectory as the initial arrow. Ive spent 30 mins practicing the skill on wolves, rabbits and other stuff that wasnt moving and occasionally it felt like the split arrows were even travelling upwards a bit right after splitting, soaring slightly above my target.
Penetrating arrow on the other hand does dmg similar to a heavy attack while having a much shorter animation, so I have to diasgree with op on this. It also staggers enemies, enabling you to open with a heavy attack, penetrating and then an easier to hit follow up.
For the rapier’s parry I am a bit on the flipside. I feel like the animation needs work (aligning it with the active window), since it seems that sometimes it should trigger on a hit, but doesnt and you just stand there with your rapier out for a second. The stun is rather short, but nice for a weapon as quick as the rapier and I can understand the 20 sec cd, but I dont find the skill particularly useful in most scenarios. I guess to parry a boss attack if you dont want to use evade or your dodge move, but I dont think I’ve ever needed that. In pvp I can see more use for it, but you will rarely be in a 1v1 (unless dueling or catching a straggler) and I am not entirely sure how it affects attacks with grit.
Ice shower and useless? Made my day it’s the best skill in PvP, who gets caught by it is dead… simple as that. It’s all about synergies between skills, passives and basic attacks in this game and not about the skills itself like in other mmorpgs.
You have to learn a lot more about the game… maybe after maxing your weapons you’ll know
It’s your own fault if you just “place” it instead of “time” it… just like musket traps.
There is a reason why this games combat is called "skillbased"
It’s unrightfully called skillbased though because most of the time (like 75% of combat) you’re just hitting LMB/RMB for Light and Heavy attacks which results in spamming them.
It’s possible. But I’ve never seen someone use that ability. And I’ve been to a lot of wars and in solo pvp. I have also tried it and have not taken any advantage of it. Musket traps are useful because they ensure a headshot and are difficult to see. But the ice shower doesn’t convince me.
I can change my mind. For example, Atalvyr has made me change my mind about Cyclonne.
It shoots 5, so 250% and hitting the perfect shot is just a matter of practice. Guaranteed easy hits on dungeon bosses, very hard to hit for pvp. Your practice level will determine where you draw the of when to use it. I use it for most of my pve and for spamming the group in wars in pvp. I’d say it’s overall the most powerful bow ability by a large margin. You’ll need waaay more than 30 minutes to master it. Way more.
If you really want to guarantee it vs a very carefull opponent, you have to time it vs an offensive ability/hit of your opponent. There is no animation canceling so once they start their attack, they are commited to it. If a great axe user start its swing, you can place the shower under its feet and he won’t be able to avoid it (you may take a hit, but that’s a trade the ice gauntlet wins because he can full combo into his opponent afterwards).
If you don’t want to take that risk, shower is still great as a zone denial ability. During 7 seconds, your melee opponent can no longer get to you, because you can walk through the shower and he can’t. Just dance around it.
And finally, shower can’t be curved with the mouse, making a circle around yourself. Very hard to avoid and to get to you for opponents.
PS: All an all, an amazing ability, especially for 1v1 and small scale pvp.it is useless vs other ranged users and probably not that great in wars (still good as a defensiv)
Ok, but what do you win using ice shower in that moment? In my opinion, is better use in that moment a damage ability.
Even if you spend all your ability points to increase the slow effect to 3 second instead 1. In that seconds, with your enemy slowed, you only have time to do 1 attack. So, is better using that damage ability directly than use Ice shower and hit with the damage ability.
I hope you understand me, english is not my mother tongue.
Oh i guess you never looked at the ice gauntled passives, they stack like crazy on “ice” effects. Hitting an ice shower will get you:
+enemy can’t dodge and is slowed by 50% (which mean your next attack is guaranteed if you aim right)
+10% rend (reduced defense of your opponent)
+20% crit
+35% damage (ultimate chill)
+heavy attacks root the opponent again, so you can chain it a few times
It’s incredibly strong and getting an ice shower is often a death sentence for your opponent. There are also a few other buffs you get with that ability, but those are the most important ones.
PS: i understood you just fine, english isn’t my mother tongue either
Javelin. Javelin does the same thing sweep does, except is has no possibility to hit multiple targets, and by extension cannot regenerate stamina nor crowd control (operative word being crowd), and cannot benefit from Aggressive Maneuvers in the same way Sweep can. It also has a longer telegraph and being a projectile, is much easier to dodge.
Rapier:
Flourish and Finish. It relies upon you also taking Tondo, making this ability unique in that it takes up two ability slots if you want to run it. In addition to that, it deals the same amount of damage as if you just let the bleeds naturally run it’s course giving you no extra damage for it’s use UNLESS you also give up the elite perk and take the final point. Making this the most expensive ability in the game, forcing you to not only take two abilities, but also pidgeonholes you into that elite skill.
And after all that investment, you gain more dps just from taking Evade so you can reset your basic attack chains without the delay.
Bow:
Evade shot. Sounds good on it’s face, but in it’s current iteration because it stuns you for near a full second after you use it, you opponent is right on top of you again even if you land the shot because you’ve applied a self stun and negated any advantage you just gained.
You still dont see the synergies. It’s a root+slow+debuff and denies blocking and sprinting… and because of the debuff every single heavy attack freezes him for 1 sec so he cant even move anymore until hes dead (especially because of the block denial). You a pretty much done 100% of the time if you get caught in it.
It’s basicly the “tank-killer” skill
