Shade Storm - Splatter advantage worth it?

spookyspectre

I love the idea of Shade Storm flinging bad guys into the air but is a 2 point knock up advantage worth losing rank 3 damage?

deadman20

Utility vs. Damage.

Might be useful to knock things every once in a while to prevent them from attacking. Knock Ups are a decent defensive/interrupting maneuver if you can reliably do them when they need to be done. Most bosses are immune to this effect and the bonus damage against knock immune targets doesn't apply here, but you shouldn't be using an AoE against a boss alone in most cases.

I usually find the additional damage more worthwhile. Knock Up advantages like that will stack the resistance and work against the people that use more reliable knocking tools. Besides, the sooner the mobs are dead the sooner you can move to the next group.​​

theravenforce

I didn't think so, especially when there are other darkness abilities which could provide that utility for less potentially.

spinnytop

Between the self heal and the knock up, Shade Storm can be a really strong "Don't die" button. Disabling enemies while healing yourself is pretty OP. I would take both and leave the damage at Rank 1, since those two other options really extend the amount of time you have to defeat your opponents. Plus think how embarrassed they'll be as they're bouncing around and healing you with how scared they are.

spinnytop

gradii said:

So Sentinel mastery should be nerfed to the ground according to you, got it.​​

You didn't already know that?

aesica

If anything, I'd say it's the other way around--other masteries need to be brought up to sentinel mastery's level. Several of them are utterly atrocious in comparison--endurance mastery and guardian mastery immediately come to mind.​​

legendarylycan

capstone specs need to be worth taking...right now, most of them are useless or barely at the level of decent, like the strength, ego, dexterity and intelligence masteries; they're just barely decent because they give straight-up stat boosts, but they're too damn tiny to make any noticeable difference, and that's ALL they do - no unique function other than that​​

spinnytop

It's not like not taking one is a better option than taking one. They don't need to be anything other than equal.

bluhman

Shade Storm's big draw for me is that it's a reasonably big AoE that does really good damage, especially compared to Shadow Embrace. So as much as it pains me to miss out on an advantage that can potentially make you near invulnerable, I'd have to say to leave the knocking to Shadow Embrace rather than Shade Storm.

Doubly so considering that it's a sphere and I've had some experiences where enemies knocked-up with one of those on them can cause the center of the sphere to move way out from the rest of the enemies - meaning one enemy might get knocked up in the middle, but it could cause it to miss everyone around them.

aesica

gradii wrote: »

Endurance mastery is -eh- ok if you want to stay at max energy a lot, which you probably do when using END primary. Guardian mastery, arbiter mastery, and brawler mastery are terrible though.

Yeah, it's more like vindicator mastery--it could certainly be better than it is, but it at least has something of a use with the right stats.

spinnytop wrote: »

It's not like not taking one is a better option than taking one. They don't need to be anything other than equal.

What's the point in having build customization options if they aren't going to be meaningful, especially when presented as a final/ultimate choice? Some of them are so bad, the difference between taking one and not taking one isn't even noticeable.​​

blockwave

Brawler mastery is terrible ? Oh my god, you guys are really spreading misinformation

spinnytop

aesica said:

What's the point in having build customization options if they aren't going to be meaningful, especially when presented as a final/ultimate choice? Some of them are so bad, the difference between taking one and not taking one isn't even noticeable.​​

The point of having them is that it allows you to customize your build.

aesica

spinnytop wrote: »

The point of having them is that it allows you to customize your build.

Unfortunately, you didn't answer my question at all.​​

spinnytop

I guess I would ask you where I ever said they shouldn't be meaningful, and point out that to be meaningful they have to be equal. Don't ask people to defend positions they never held and you won't get smartass responses to pointless questions. Neat gif, here's another one.

pwestolemyname

spinnytop said:

I guess I would ask you where I ever said they shouldn't be meaningful, and point out that to be meaningful they have to be equal. Don't ask people to defend positions they never held and you won't get smartass responses to pointless questions. Neat gif, here's another one.

Dammit, now I want a hot dog!