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TRs Vengeance's Pursuit - a plea to make this power viable (again)
crystal892f
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 385 Arc User
Dear devs (and everybody else reading this),
the Whisperknife (WK) paragon path isn't used by the majority of the TRs (especially the PvP ones). Main reason for this is the loss of Impossible to Catch (ITC). Talking to other WKs, their main reason(s) to still take this paragon path is the at-will Disheartening Strike and maybe the class feature Dagger Threat. The WKs exclusive encounter Vengeance's Pursuit (VP) is not a reason to take this paragon path. Not anymore.
The unreasonably (long) cooldown (16 seconds base cooldown), which was introduced a few patches ago, was what really set the nail for this power. Even before the cooldown, there were issues with VP (coming up). So please, make this encounter viable (again).
Here my suggestions to do so (listed by importance):
(1) Remove or shorten the cooldown!
VP is a two part encounter (dagger throw and teleport) and their animations altogether take some time already ("clunky"). You can say they are a "cooldown in itself".
VPs damage isn't great (lower than at-wills, even), so the reason you took this power was: utility. It supported an interesting playstyle of teleporting "in and out" - where VP was the "preparing power", not the damaging one.
So I don't see a reason for a cooldown at all. But if you insist on one, it should be shortened drastically. I'd say 4 seconds (like Wicked Reminder, for example, which is a similar power: not damaging, but has utility (reducing mitigation)). That's right. Not longer. There is no reason to.
(2) Bug: Teleport part not breaking CC (consistently)
Reported multiple times already (example).
(3) Bug: Cooldown not displayed correctly
I had it multiple times already, that as duration a "1" was displayed on my encounter symbol - the whole ~16 seconds of the actual cooldown.
(4) Bug: "x is not a valid target"
For some reason when a teammate is in sight in front of an enemy, you can't throw the dagger, because the teammate is identified as target (I guess because a similar logic like Deft Strikes is used, where Deft Strike can teleport to teammates) and not the actual enemy, but VP can't teleport to teammates, so said error message is displayed. Please disable VPs "feature" to target teammates.
(5) Wish: Lengthen the stun from stealth activation
I can't exactly tell how long the stun from the teleport part from stealth is, but especially in PvP this stun is too short; this feature is not useful enough to end stealth for it. Additional 0.5 - 1 second (has to be tested) would help immensely.
Fellow players: If I've missed a bug, or you have another balanced suggestion, please post it and I add it to this initial post.
the Whisperknife (WK) paragon path isn't used by the majority of the TRs (especially the PvP ones). Main reason for this is the loss of Impossible to Catch (ITC). Talking to other WKs, their main reason(s) to still take this paragon path is the at-will Disheartening Strike and maybe the class feature Dagger Threat. The WKs exclusive encounter Vengeance's Pursuit (VP) is not a reason to take this paragon path. Not anymore.
The unreasonably (long) cooldown (16 seconds base cooldown), which was introduced a few patches ago, was what really set the nail for this power. Even before the cooldown, there were issues with VP (coming up). So please, make this encounter viable (again).
Here my suggestions to do so (listed by importance):
(1) Remove or shorten the cooldown!
VP is a two part encounter (dagger throw and teleport) and their animations altogether take some time already ("clunky"). You can say they are a "cooldown in itself".
VPs damage isn't great (lower than at-wills, even), so the reason you took this power was: utility. It supported an interesting playstyle of teleporting "in and out" - where VP was the "preparing power", not the damaging one.
So I don't see a reason for a cooldown at all. But if you insist on one, it should be shortened drastically. I'd say 4 seconds (like Wicked Reminder, for example, which is a similar power: not damaging, but has utility (reducing mitigation)). That's right. Not longer. There is no reason to.
(2) Bug: Teleport part not breaking CC (consistently)
Reported multiple times already (example).
(3) Bug: Cooldown not displayed correctly
I had it multiple times already, that as duration a "1" was displayed on my encounter symbol - the whole ~16 seconds of the actual cooldown.
(4) Bug: "x is not a valid target"
For some reason when a teammate is in sight in front of an enemy, you can't throw the dagger, because the teammate is identified as target (I guess because a similar logic like Deft Strikes is used, where Deft Strike can teleport to teammates) and not the actual enemy, but VP can't teleport to teammates, so said error message is displayed. Please disable VPs "feature" to target teammates.
(5) Wish: Lengthen the stun from stealth activation
I can't exactly tell how long the stun from the teleport part from stealth is, but especially in PvP this stun is too short; this feature is not useful enough to end stealth for it. Additional 0.5 - 1 second (has to be tested) would help immensely.
Fellow players: If I've missed a bug, or you have another balanced suggestion, please post it and I add it to this initial post.
Post edited by crystal892f on
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Comments
They aren't. I'm sure about 3, because it happened most of the times during my usage. Regarding 2: I think it happened some times during my PvP matches, but yeah, some more testing is never a bad thing. Should be easy now with an open PvP area and a CW friend.
Very.
I couldn't. Even with all the bugs fixed, this power would be no comparison to ITC. Even removing / shortening the cooldown wouldn't make VP a contender for ITC, because ITC is simply one of the best powers in the game. But it would make VP way more viable (again).
BTW: I'm quite disappointed about the lacking responses or even reader numbers. This thread was on page 2 already, and will, in time, fade away to the depths of the forum - like many other threads regarding VPs issues. *sigh*
I agree that VP needs something...whisperknife needs something altogether. A little more survivability, due to lack of ITC would be nice.
I don't want it getting too good though, then everyone will roll one and i won't be one of the few PvPing with one :P I don't do high end PvP but i doubt there are many, if any, WNs in the crowd.
To bring it into context:
- Dazing Strike, which hits much harder than VP and has a longer stun, has a cooldown of 10 seconds.
- Wicked Reminder, which has comparable damage to VP and has the utility of reducing mitigation, has a cooldown of 4 seconds (and even 3 charges, btw).
- VP with much less damage than Dazing Strike and a shorter stun and the utility of teleporting to a target, has a cooldown of 16 seconds. Logic, anyone?
Thanks for the suggestion, but I already linked the thread in the TR forum.
So sad.