Guidance on Primal Skills

Yadra - Archosaur
Yadra - Archosaur Posts: 51 Arc User
edited November 2014 in Seeker
So now that the new primal skills have been out for a while I wanted to get everyone's opinions on them. Thus far I have gotten Sacrificial Slash and Quid Pro Quo but have been unsure about the other non passive skills.

Is the loss of mass marking not really that big of a deal and is not having to be in a stance working out better?

Is the loss of the higher damage from Soul Shatter worth being able to spam it more frequently with Chaos Blade?
Currently 104/103/102
Post edited by Yadra - Archosaur on

Comments

  • thelobo
    thelobo Posts: 11 Arc User
    edited September 2014
    So now that the new primal skills have been out for a while I wanted to get everyone's opinions on them. Thus far I have gotten Sacrificial Slash and Quid Pro Quo but have been unsure about the other non passive skills.

    Is the loss of mass marking not really that big of a deal and is not having to be in a stance working out better?

    Is the loss of the higher damage from Soul Shatter worth being able to spam it more frequently with Chaos Blade?

    I got most of them, and I can say that:


    Quid Pro Duo: becomes more suitable for pvp with that extra second of

    silcence and the faster chaneling+cast(it gets reduced by half)




    Sacrifical slash: get a reducction in chaneling+cast (also by half) which

    gives an advantage since you are able to debuff faster and gain more time to DD when using

    QpD+SS combo




    Wind Blade, Gravel Blade,

    Glowing Blade give a great avantage when debuffing, since you can

    get simultanious chances to stun/lower attk&deff/disarm the enemy without switching from

    Soulserver Minuet to Parchedblade Dance etc...(which is great in 1vs1 PvP) however in mass pvp/pve you lost the chance to

    do this in a major scale. Also Glowing blade, in my opinion, limits the disarm status.




    *For PvE Chaos Blade seems to be kind of a downgrade if you

    look at the damage reduction, however it balances out by being able to spam it more frecuently and faster (since

    you are able to use all 3 debuffs at once) let's you gain more time to DD speacially when it's

    nessesary that you use sage/demon spark, you get more dmg out of sparking since you take 1

    sec to debuff the boss insted of 3, which helps you gain two more seconds of Blade Affinity to

    spam 2 attack skills




    In summary i beleive the new skills from primal will help to improve pvp/pve when playing solo at

    the cost of giving up some support when playing in a party (AOE debuffing+AMP)
  • belnor
    belnor Posts: 105 Arc User
    edited September 2014
    Thanks for your reply. I'm honestly still not sure if Wind Blade, Gravel Blade, and Glowing Blade are going to be right for me. I think I would miss being able to mark multiple targets.

    I'm very tempted with Chaos Blade as the length of time it takes to cast all three is just painful. So I think I'll pick it up.
  • bobboberts
    bobboberts Posts: 10 Arc User
    edited September 2014
    belnor wrote: »
    Thanks for your reply. I'm honestly still not sure if Wind Blade, Gravel Blade, and Glowing Blade are going to be right for me. I think I would miss being able to mark multiple targets.

    I'm very tempted with Chaos Blade as the length of time it takes to cast all three is just painful. So I think I'll pick it up.

    I wouldn't recommend that, while yes, the soul shatter buff lasts longer, it's significantly nerfed. If you use blade affinity to send out the shatters, they go by quickly and aren't an issue. I personally will not get any of the primal merges because it does not boost the percentage to get each stance applied, instead it lowers it by placing it on only one skill.
  • _BIackRose_ - Raging Tide
    _BIackRose_ - Raging Tide Posts: 91 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    bobboberts wrote: »
    I wouldn't recommend that, while yes, the soul shatter buff lasts longer, it's significantly nerfed. If you use blade affinity to send out the shatters, they go by quickly and aren't an issue. I personally will not get any of the primal merges because it does not boost the percentage to get each stance applied, instead it lowers it by placing it on only one skill.

    you know i've been thinking about this for a while actually. i only have QpQ upgraded atm, but i was thinking of learning glow and windblade despite being limited to one skill to proc them (rather spamy skills anyway xD] that way i would be able to use all my debuffs fairly effectively. i'm normally in parched blade anyway for stuns in pvp, and a few rare times i'll use gemini to proc the def/atk lvl debuff.

    so combining the single strike stances i think may be effective for pk since i wouldn't have to switch stances to NSW (-20 def lvls) or glee (disarm), and i get a 4 second stun with my parched (demon ftw xD) or the debuffs from gemini (-12def/atk lvls) that would work with my AOE's for groups of enemies.

    another really important fact to take into account!!! no one has really touched on this yet:

    when you upgrade the primal skills the debuff triggers STACK on eachother. as you know we have skills heart seeker that stuns 100% with sage/demon but stances like soulsever overwrite the trigger so it causes it to miss. when you upgrade the skills they no longer would and would allow debuffs to stack with those triggers. gravel blade for instance could trigger bloodlet and spiritbour in the same attack and skills like heart seeker wouldn't be nerfed on the percentage. if that makes sense xD
  • belnor
    belnor Posts: 105 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Getting the Sacrificial Slash update is also very worthwhile.

    I know for me I'm just hesitating with picking up these other skills for fear of loosing too much pve/mass pvp ability. Though more and more in NW it seems like I end up in a lot of one on one or situations where I wouldn't be able to really take advantage of mass target marking.

    I appreciate thelobo's thoughts on these skills. Are there any other seekers out there with these that could offer an unbiased appraisal of these?
  • Medaka - Morai
    Medaka - Morai Posts: 196 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Is the loss of mass marking not really that big of a deal and is not having to be in a stance working out better?

    Is the loss of the higher damage from Soul Shatter worth being able to spam it more frequently with Chaos Blade?

    I've still got the same opinion about these as I had when they first came out, and I didn't personally get any of the mergers and most likely won't ever get them (if I ever end up playing again, that is). It really depends on your own preferences here but no one should tell you whether to get them or not.
    As for the stance merger skills.... Trade the ability to mark with more skills / normal attack / aoe mark (/ bit more control in northern sky's case) for not needing to swap stances, being able to use stance effects while keeping 100% rate on heartseeker and ion spike. This is preference based, in fact Chaos blade is aswell. Maybe your choice will be easier if you know what the exact trade is here.


    Those are the trades you'd be making.

    Gravel blade isn't a bad trade off if you don't mind losing aoe marking given that it combines two statuses into one low-cooldown attack, thus making it easier for you to apply more debuffs in any situations when you're focusing on one target. It also means your enemy will have less time to react to the incoming debuffs rather than if they saw you charge at them with that attention-grabbing glow on your sword that pretty much shouts what's going to get applied to them. It means you won't have to switch stances (which also pretty much shouts what you're about to do), and that Ion spike and Heartseeker will have their 100% chance work properly. However if you make use of aoe marking at all this will be a loss to you for sure. While keeping the stances as they are means keeping a few annoyances aswell, you aren't completely blocking off your ability to aoe mark (which you'd do the moment you learned it).

    Wind blade has its own pros and cons, though also preference based. Combining NSW with the attack that triggered it makes it a lot quicker to apply the status than if you were to focus on switching the stance and whatnot, and so it also doesn't nerf other effect-applying skills. However one downside is that you lose the mark on your target. How is it a downside? Control. If you apply the mark to your target but want him frozen at a certain moment that gives you a lot more control over what you're trying to do than if you were to hope for the skill to work at the given time.

    Glow blade has more cons than pros, given that it already has a low chance to work and having it stuck to only one skill makes this chance even lower.

    As for Chaos Blade, I can provide a quick summary for a sage seeker:
    If you're sage, the heart shatter applied by chaos blade is the exact same.
    The mind shatter applied by chaos blade is better due to the fact that it gives 50% damage increase on wood/water skills instead of the increase of base crit.
    Finally the soul shatter applied is preference based seeing as you give up the 150% damage and the crit over 20 seconds, for 50% damage the whole time.

    (I'd have to dig through my other posts for a demon summary)

    As for time it takes to apply, I'd say that it's not big enough difference so that it would affect overall damage. There's always blade affinity, which makes it quick enough for a seeker that's already gotten used to it. Not to mention you won't always be wasting time applying all 3 debuffs, depending on your squad setup.