Salutations!
I come before you to bring up the discussion of basic combat options being revisited with the idea on the table of having Break Free cost magicka instead of stamina.
Aside from my dramatic point, I first wanted to convey I am coming from the perspective of a mainly a PVE Stamblade and do encourage those more experienced overall or having constructive criticism to please input as you wish. I have spent countless hours researching/testing mechanics to figure out how the game really works, & I aim to write this as objectively as possible, though my examples will mainly be with a nightblade. I keep in mind tanks aiming for nonstop break frees, magicka users having to focus on stam too.
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I have not played the game terribly long, but have lived the struggle of stamina management for prolonged fights. Typically 9 out of ten of my skills will be stamina, save maybe Blur or Invis. With decent stam regen and a magicka portion of my rotation accompanied with weaved heavy hits, you'd think that'd be enough. Problem is that's about the gist of what stamina builds can do & it does develop a deficit over time. On top of rotations, there are the combat abilities that All require stamina; Blocking, Bashing, Dodging, Sprinting, Sneaking & Break Free. Whatever role you play in a group, you can count on using these consistently amidst your rotation. If you're purely a magicka build, this is only an issue as you have to invest somewhere/somehow/somewhat into stamina or stam regen. However if you're purely a stamina build, you have the opposite problem (least for nightblades) where I am lacking an outlet to use/balance my magicka use & have my stam regen have more opportunity to tick; vesus relying primarily on heavy hits. The choices I see are:
---Shadow Cloak: Procs Shadow Barrier, can provide guaranteed crit on next direct hit or minor protection for 5 seconds after invis lifts. Also your damage done is increased while stealthed. Sounds good, but in a PvE environment, your stealth more than likely will lift instantly, giving no real uptime for increased damage, also any (aoe) damage taken that brings you out of invis is subject to not be mitigated by minor protection. A Catch 22 that can be seen both offensive & defensively efficient, but relative to a stamina build & rotation it doesn't seem to fit nicely, least to me. (Please share your thoughts)
---Drain Power: Possible group Heals that scale with AOE (with morph) & provide major brutality. Once again, if you're in a PvE environment, you're more than likely getting that buff from a potion. You could say that opens up variation in potion usage, however there is nothing you could replace brutality with to synergize with dps; save health regen for survivability. Overall, DP's an option that's combative function is better utilized in potions.
---Blur: 3 defensive buffs, long duration. This is definitely an option, but once again in a PVE environment, minus the dodge you're more than likely going to receive these mirror buffs from other party members & they do not stack.
What I'm looking for is a magicka ability that complements your weapon damage output or provides survivability that cannot be easily found elsewhere. So far everything seems meh...You can use any magicka based hots/dots like Swallow Soul, but the damage/return will not scale with the rest of your setup, providing sub par results. From a stam dps standpoint, that is the dilemma.
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Solution:
Break Free costs Magicka & the Armor Ults for Light & Heavy Swap. The while slotted break free bonus of Immovable Brute would stay for Heavy for all morphs. The 5 seconds of CC immunity would carry over.
Batman Logic: Combat abilities are physically enduring; dodge rolling, sprinting, it beats your body up. Break Free isn't a physical test, but a mental one. A mental test of Willpower. Willpower, the cornerstone of mages.
Tanks do not need the Heavy Ulti to maintain Major Ward/Resolve. Every class has an ability to trigger it along with a few other avenues. Tanks would no have an 'o crap' bubble; one morph that could cost magicka for a stronger bubble & a stam one that returns resources based on highest amount. Magicka builds who already have bubbles up the ying yang would now have better break free options that work with their main stat & further buffing of their resists. In terms of PVP, would you say this would motivate more glass cannon style players to switch to cloth? Would you say heavy armor in PVP (combined with rolling cc immunity) has been a persistent problem?
By having Break free use magicka, stam builds are now using less stamina & finding an optimal use for magicka. Magicka builds don't have to focus as much on stam anymore. Tanks still get a reduction for break free in the Tower CP tree, mages would get the skill slotted break free buff, but lose a bubble. PvE wise this seems doable, PVP wise this seem like mages would have more mobile freedom.
______________________________
All in all, I find it insensible that you have all combat mechanics take stamina, tailor mechanics to mainly suit a non hybrid setup in PvE & have no efficiently synergistic supporting magicka skills for stamina dps-ers to utilize. We all play as we choose to play, but my Batman logic is undeniable.
Please discuss. This is a rough draft idea & I'd love to see something more realistic fleshed out.
I come before you to bring up the discussion of basic combat options being revisited with the idea on the table of having Break Free cost magicka instead of stamina.
Aside from my dramatic point, I first wanted to convey I am coming from the perspective of a mainly a PVE Stamblade and do encourage those more experienced overall or having constructive criticism to please input as you wish. I have spent countless hours researching/testing mechanics to figure out how the game really works, & I aim to write this as objectively as possible, though my examples will mainly be with a nightblade. I keep in mind tanks aiming for nonstop break frees, magicka users having to focus on stam too.
__________________________________
I have not played the game terribly long, but have lived the struggle of stamina management for prolonged fights. Typically 9 out of ten of my skills will be stamina, save maybe Blur or Invis. With decent stam regen and a magicka portion of my rotation accompanied with weaved heavy hits, you'd think that'd be enough. Problem is that's about the gist of what stamina builds can do & it does develop a deficit over time. On top of rotations, there are the combat abilities that All require stamina; Blocking, Bashing, Dodging, Sprinting, Sneaking & Break Free. Whatever role you play in a group, you can count on using these consistently amidst your rotation. If you're purely a magicka build, this is only an issue as you have to invest somewhere/somehow/somewhat into stamina or stam regen. However if you're purely a stamina build, you have the opposite problem (least for nightblades) where I am lacking an outlet to use/balance my magicka use & have my stam regen have more opportunity to tick; vesus relying primarily on heavy hits. The choices I see are:
---Shadow Cloak: Procs Shadow Barrier, can provide guaranteed crit on next direct hit or minor protection for 5 seconds after invis lifts. Also your damage done is increased while stealthed. Sounds good, but in a PvE environment, your stealth more than likely will lift instantly, giving no real uptime for increased damage, also any (aoe) damage taken that brings you out of invis is subject to not be mitigated by minor protection. A Catch 22 that can be seen both offensive & defensively efficient, but relative to a stamina build & rotation it doesn't seem to fit nicely, least to me. (Please share your thoughts)
---Drain Power: Possible group Heals that scale with AOE (with morph) & provide major brutality. Once again, if you're in a PvE environment, you're more than likely getting that buff from a potion. You could say that opens up variation in potion usage, however there is nothing you could replace brutality with to synergize with dps; save health regen for survivability. Overall, DP's an option that's combative function is better utilized in potions.
---Blur: 3 defensive buffs, long duration. This is definitely an option, but once again in a PVE environment, minus the dodge you're more than likely going to receive these mirror buffs from other party members & they do not stack.
What I'm looking for is a magicka ability that complements your weapon damage output or provides survivability that cannot be easily found elsewhere. So far everything seems meh...You can use any magicka based hots/dots like Swallow Soul, but the damage/return will not scale with the rest of your setup, providing sub par results. From a stam dps standpoint, that is the dilemma.
_________________________________
Solution:
Break Free costs Magicka & the Armor Ults for Light & Heavy Swap. The while slotted break free bonus of Immovable Brute would stay for Heavy for all morphs. The 5 seconds of CC immunity would carry over.
Batman Logic: Combat abilities are physically enduring; dodge rolling, sprinting, it beats your body up. Break Free isn't a physical test, but a mental one. A mental test of Willpower. Willpower, the cornerstone of mages.
Tanks do not need the Heavy Ulti to maintain Major Ward/Resolve. Every class has an ability to trigger it along with a few other avenues. Tanks would no have an 'o crap' bubble; one morph that could cost magicka for a stronger bubble & a stam one that returns resources based on highest amount. Magicka builds who already have bubbles up the ying yang would now have better break free options that work with their main stat & further buffing of their resists. In terms of PVP, would you say this would motivate more glass cannon style players to switch to cloth? Would you say heavy armor in PVP (combined with rolling cc immunity) has been a persistent problem?
By having Break free use magicka, stam builds are now using less stamina & finding an optimal use for magicka. Magicka builds don't have to focus as much on stam anymore. Tanks still get a reduction for break free in the Tower CP tree, mages would get the skill slotted break free buff, but lose a bubble. PvE wise this seems doable, PVP wise this seem like mages would have more mobile freedom.
______________________________
All in all, I find it insensible that you have all combat mechanics take stamina, tailor mechanics to mainly suit a non hybrid setup in PvE & have no efficiently synergistic supporting magicka skills for stamina dps-ers to utilize. We all play as we choose to play, but my Batman logic is undeniable.
Please discuss. This is a rough draft idea & I'd love to see something more realistic fleshed out.
- it's related to the rain effect only.
