Ninja Blade - Golden Dragonfly buff

[TC]

Quite simply, the attack has a reduced chance to crit out of hide (significantly). The only other attack with this debuff is Headsplitter from Broad Sword. This is a HUGE disadvantage to the set; I just hopped on the test server and tried some other primaries. Every other Stalker primary has their extreme damage attack get 100% crit chance from hide; it is the absolute best ability to use after placate. Is there a reason for this blatant power constraint on Ninja Blade? I don't see any reason for there to be, it's already a lethal damage set that is confined to single target attacks. Yes, it's a cone, but it's a tiny cone. It feels bad when abilities like Greater Fire Sword, a fire damage attack, don't have the restriction.

[Vanden]

It's a cone attack, and AoE attacks typically have lower chance to crit from Hidden.

[TC]

It's a cone attack, and AoE attacks typically have lower chance to crit from Hidden.

 

The cone is extremely small and Lightning Rod, the giant PBAoE from Electric Melee with superior damage, doesn't have this debuff. Seems super unbalanced to me.

[Vanden]

It's a cone attack, and AoE attacks typically have lower chance to crit from Hidden.

 

The cone is extremely small and Lightning Rod, the giant PBAoE from Electric Melee with superior damage, doesn't have this debuff. Seems super unbalanced to me.

 

Are you sure? The info I see for that power says it can't crit from Hidden at all.

[TC]

It's a cone attack, and AoE attacks typically have lower chance to crit from Hidden.

 

The cone is extremely small and Lightning Rod, the giant PBAoE from Electric Melee with superior damage, doesn't have this debuff. Seems super unbalanced to me.

 

Are you sure? The info I see for that power says it can't crit from Hidden at all.

 

Ah you're right, my mistake, I'm using the PINES descriptions and it seems to be missing. Sorry about that. But either way, for abilities like Eviscerate from Claws or Greater Fire Sword from Fiery Melee to have it, it still feels really bad. And the cone is genuinely tiny, no one ever bothers lining it up.

[Vanden]

It's a cone attack, and AoE attacks typically have lower chance to crit from Hidden.

 

The cone is extremely small and Lightning Rod, the giant PBAoE from Electric Melee with superior damage, doesn't have this debuff. Seems super unbalanced to me.

 

Are you sure? The info I see for that power says it can't crit from Hidden at all.

 

Ah you're right, my mistake, I'm using the PINES descriptions and it seems to be missing. Sorry about that. But either way, for abilities like Eviscerate from Claws or Greater Fire Sword from Fiery Melee to have it, it still feels really bad. And the cone is genuinely tiny, no one ever bothers lining it up.

 

Those are both single-target attacks (when used by Stalkers, in the case of Eviscerate).

 

I could see them making an exception to the rule in this case; the cone is tiny and the end cost of the power is clearly balanced as if it were a single-target attack. But as it is now, Golden Dragonfly and Headsplitter are behaving exactly according to routine.

[TC]

It's a cone attack, and AoE attacks typically have lower chance to crit from Hidden.

 

The cone is extremely small and Lightning Rod, the giant PBAoE from Electric Melee with superior damage, doesn't have this debuff. Seems super unbalanced to me.

Are you sure? The info I see for that power says it can't crit from Hidden at all.

 

Ah you're right, my mistake, I'm using the PINES descriptions and it seems to be missing. Sorry about that. But either way, for abilities like Eviscerate from Claws or Greater Fire Sword from Fiery Melee to have it, it still feels really bad. And the cone is genuinely tiny, no one ever bothers lining it up.

 

Those are both single-target attacks (when used by Stalkers, in the case of Eviscerate).

 

I could see them making an exception to the rule in this case; the cone is tiny and the end cost of the power is clearly balanced as if it were a single-target attack. But as it is now, Golden Dragonfly and Headsplitter are behaving exactly according to routine.

 

Of course, but that's the suggestion I'm making. It's genuinely a huge debuff to the already underpowered set to not get auto-crits out of hide from the quintessential power from the set when most others do.

[Leogunner]

It's a cone attack, and AoE attacks typically have lower chance to crit from Hidden.

 

The cone is extremely small and Lightning Rod, the giant PBAoE from Electric Melee with superior damage, doesn't have this debuff. Seems super unbalanced to me.

 

Are you sure? The info I see for that power says it can't crit from Hidden at all.

 

Ah you're right, my mistake, I'm using the PINES descriptions and it seems to be missing. Sorry about that. But either way, for abilities like Eviscerate from Claws or Greater Fire Sword from Fiery Melee to have it, it still feels really bad. And the cone is genuinely tiny, no one ever bothers lining it up.

 

You might be thinking of Thunderstrike which is both a single target and AoE around that target and can 100% crit that target but the AoE will get the AoE reduced chance. To explain it more, it is a 2-in1 attack: an energy /smashing damage to a target and an energy AoE. Each part has its respective category crit rage out of hide.

[TC]

It's a cone attack, and AoE attacks typically have lower chance to crit from Hidden.

 

The cone is extremely small and Lightning Rod, the giant PBAoE from Electric Melee with superior damage, doesn't have this debuff. Seems super unbalanced to me.

 

Are you sure? The info I see for that power says it can't crit from Hidden at all.

 

Ah you're right, my mistake, I'm using the PINES descriptions and it seems to be missing. Sorry about that. But either way, for abilities like Eviscerate from Claws or Greater Fire Sword from Fiery Melee to have it, it still feels really bad. And the cone is genuinely tiny, no one ever bothers lining it up.

 

You might be thinking of Thunderstrike which is both a single target and AoE around that target and can 100% crit that target but the AoE will get the AoE reduced chance. To explain it more, it is a 2-in1 attack: an energy /smashing damage to a target and an energy AoE. Each part has its respective category crit rage out of hide.

 

This isn't what I was thinking of, I was simply mistaken, but this is a great point none-the-less. I didn't know this, thanks for bringing it up. Perhaps something like this could be applied to Golden Dragonfly?

[Jaguaratron]

Your point is a good one now its backed up with a similar function, that being GD (cone) doesnt always crit from hidden but Thunderstrike (targetted pbaoe) does on primary target. The only thing I can think of that could be different is that TS comes with a dedicated "primary target" whereas GD may not and everyone in the cone is a "primary target" so to speak so there may be some technical issues as those caught in TS aoe who are not the primary are not autocrit.

 

[Leogunner]

Your point is a good one now its backed up with a similar function, that being GD (cone) doesnt always crit from hidden but Thunderstrike (targetted pbaoe) does on primary target. The only thing I can think of that could be different is that TS comes with a dedicated "primary target" whereas GD may not and everyone in the cone is a "primary target" so to speak so there may be some technical issues as those caught in TS aoe who are not the primary are not autocrit.

 

Probably not.  You'd start getting into cottage-rule territory.

 

The target of Thunderstrike is being hit with an attack that deals a lot more damage than the AoE (also, there's a chance both attacks will crit the target for even more pain) whereas with Golden Dragonfly, all targets are being struck with the same high-powered attack.  Making it a hybrid single-target/AoE would also introduce the prospect of double crits.

 

Sidenote: If you haven't made an Electric Melee stalker, I can't recommend it enough.  If you want to play Electric Melee, it's just so much more potent on a Stalker.

[Vanden]

My reading of Thunder Strike's info doesn't exactly match what's being said here; according to the info, it does X Smashing damage to just the target, and Y energy damage to the target and nearby enemies. From hidden, the smashing damage to the target is guaranteed to crit, while the energy damage in the AoE is 50% chance to crit. In other words, the target is not guaranteed to take the full crit damage. This is actually a little weaker than the scrapper's version, which I do have experience with: like the Stalker version, it's X smashing to the target and Y energy in an AoE. However, every affected enemy, target and nearby, when crit, takes energy damage equal to the X smashing + Y energy the primary target takes. In other words, when you crit Scrapper Thunder Strike on a non-primary target, they're actually taking around triple the damage, not double.