Orchidator Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 This harnessed darkness skill (from the darkness tree) is suppose to give me an "uninterruptible and immune to pushback" force lightning cast. ] After a week using it, i have to say that ive been pushbacked many times and interrupted as well when this was activated... Do some other people noticed that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tXHereticXt Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 No, I asked this same thing a month or so ago and it's down to incorrect interpretation of it's description. It refers to channel skills where taking a hit will disrupt your channel time and set it back (like Crushing Darkness) or speed them up (like Force Lightning). You can still be knocked back or stunned that will interrupt the skills completely which HD doesn't prevent. It just means it makes channeling itself consistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orchidator Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 oh ok thanks! So to summarize, completely useless skill... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tXHereticXt Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 oh ok thanks! So to summarize, completely useless skill... Absolutely not. You just need to make sure you trigger Force Lightning at the right moment to get more bang for it's buck. Ever since the update to Wither, better to have and not need it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bovinity Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 So to summarize, completely useless skill... Yes, completely useless. Definately not a core ability of the Darkness spec. You should skip it and put points elsewhere for sure. 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadpwfox Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Yes, completely useless. Definately not a core ability of the Darkness spec. You should skip it and put points elsewhere for sure. 100%. Don't troll here..it's not funny and you're not good at it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghuldan Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Pro-tip: Most bosses or mobs have some form of knockback, true, but they have CD's with them just like we do. So the best time to use it is after a knockback because you'll easily finish the cast. It's basically our primary tanking move I'd say because if you actually break it down it's about 9% of our healthbar every 10-15 seconds. Makes a huge difference on healers, trust me. In PVP it's not nearly as practical as they see it and will interrupt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sephyx Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 sigh, this thread again. Pushback means an increased casting time due to damaging abilities. Uninterruptable means it ignores abilities that interrupt and not other incapacitating effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 It seems like most people's definition of 'uninterruptible' means either 'can cast while moving' or 'continues casting while stunned'. While that's not an unreasonable interpretation, how many abilities with a casting time do you know of that does that? The answer is 0, so why should Harnessed Darkness be any different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exulion Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I actually asked the same question. It is not useless at all, but that part of the description makes it seem better. But anything that heals you while you tank is. <3 Like people above said you just have to try and time it properly with the abilities that the mob you are fighting have.... or sit there yelling at your screen every time it gets interrupted, your choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 A side note, pretty much every KB not from a boss is shorter than FL's max range (10m). Something like Gharj's toss will hit even a ranged class at max distance so nobody's avoiding that anyway. So you should be able to cast FL outside of any normal KBs. And if something stunned you, stun stops all form of DPS already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saberolson Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I use it in PVP all the time, most people are not as good at recognizing abilities as people seem to think they are in this game. They see a cast bar and EVERYONEs first move is to interupt, which doesnt work. That eats up 1 GCD, and and you get get another second ate up by people having to recognize the ability, so thats 2.5 secs of a 3 sec cast. By that point its over, you just nail them for 3k+ damage. And with the change to wither, I can get 3 stacks back in 3 gcds, so im not so shy with using it. Sure I get knocked back while casting from time to time, but its usually by someone im not even targetting. This isn't the arena for the 1 trillionth time, its fast paced group combat, most of the time, im killing people in the middle of a group and they may not even realize im attacking them. Stop giving the avg player so much credit. harnessed darkness is an AMAZING ability, and with wither procing it now, its totally changed the game. I almost feel more like a battle mage than a tank now, and I find it much easier to finish people off in PVP with the change. Recklessness plus HD FL is an I WIN button. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upzie Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Have to say I was very sceptical about HD to start with, and darkness in general, but atm its just <3 - Getting 15xx - 2.2xx ticks depending on the target, doing 80k+ healing in warzones etc. Not same kind of burst as deception, but you can put a good dent in ppl with it, and very solid vs healers with a Energize procc and wither along reck as followups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sephyx Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I use it in PVP all the time, most people are not as good at recognizing abilities as people seem to think they are in this game. They see a cast bar and EVERYONEs first move is to interupt, which doesnt work. That eats up 1 GCD, and and you get get another second ate up by people having to recognize the ability, so thats 2.5 secs of a 3 sec cast. By that point its over, you just nail them for 3k+ damage. And with the change to wither, I can get 3 stacks back in 3 gcds, so im not so shy with using it. Sure I get knocked back while casting from time to time, but its usually by someone im not even targetting. This isn't the arena for the 1 trillionth time, its fast paced group combat, most of the time, im killing people in the middle of a group and they may not even realize im attacking them. Stop giving the avg player so much credit. harnessed darkness is an AMAZING ability, and with wither procing it now, its totally changed the game. I almost feel more like a battle mage than a tank now, and I find it much easier to finish people off in PVP with the change. Recklessness plus HD FL is an I WIN button. I don't think I could summarize my thoughts on it better than that. Even if you have really good reaction time, if you used an interrupt first, I'm still getting 2 ticks on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 An Assassin can pretty much beat any melee at 10m with just FL + Shock if the enemy never closes to 4m, so if they didn't interrupt it by melee, you can just trade hits knowing you won't lose that trade no matter what since other melee's 10m DPS ability is nonexistent. Even in some worst case scenario like you cast FL for 2 ticks, they leap toward you and stun you so you only get two ticks, the other guy is still down a gap closer and he took 2 tick of damage versus none for you (any damage he did while you're stunned is irrelevent because he could've used the leap all along no matter what you did). It's still a pretty decent way to open a fight and that guy being down a gap closer could come back to haunt him later too. FL is a great way when you see a lone melee and you're not sure if it's a trap (other guys hiding nearby in stealth). If you zap him with FL and he stood there, there's obviously someone else waiting there and just keep on shooting lightning until he decide to move up. If the other guy charged up, then even if there's a trap it'd at least a few seconds for that guy to arrive since stealthed characters are slower than visible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloomfate Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 (edited) I use it in PVP all the time, most people are not as good at recognizing abilities as people seem to think they are in this game. They see a cast bar and EVERYONEs first move is to interupt, which doesnt work. That eats up 1 GCD, and and you get get another second ate up by people having to recognize the ability Interrupt is not on GCD and trying to do it does not either. The point stands however that it makes one lose some time over it, just not as much as a GCD (although for some people realizing why it doesn't work may take as much time or more...). Edited February 23, 2012 by Bloomfate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sephyx Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Interrupt is not on GCD and trying to do it does not either. The point stands however that it makes one lose some time over it, just not as much as a GCD (although for some people realizing why it doesn't work may take as much time or more...). People won't necessarily spam their CC abilities either though, especially if you're burning a longer CD stun. Interrupts may not lie on a GCD but there's definitely the reaction time we're talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siraakin Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I still think that the description should either be changed or make Force Lightning with Harnessed Darkness actually immune to Pushback. ie. Any skill that "pushes you back" and interrupts the casting of Force Lightning. I understand if you get stunned, of course it would be interrupted, but when I get pushed back by something similar to Overload, Force Lightning gets interrupted. I didn't really see any consensus about this above since the subject kind of drifted to something else. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I still think that the description should either be changed or make Force Lightning with Harnessed Darkness actually immune to Pushback. ie. Any skill that "pushes you back" and interrupts the casting of Force Lightning. I understand if you get stunned, of course it would be interrupted, but when I get pushed back by something similar to Overload, Force Lightning gets interrupted. I didn't really see any consensus about this above since the subject kind of drifted to something else. Thoughts? Problem is then this really becomes 'can cast while moving' which has seriously ramifications in a game where melees are already pretty weak against kiters. Now you got a ranged snare that can be cast while moving even. It is quite possible you can simply cast this and walk backwards against a melee and they'll not be able to catch up to you and that'd be really overpowered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmnqwk Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 One thing you have to understand is force lightning ticks FOUR times, not three. Therefore it's 12% healing and not 9% (easy mistake because it's a 3 second spell). Tanking multiple enemies will cause you to lose 2 ticks often, meaning 6% healing loss so not taking this talent is a large healing loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 One thing you have to understand is force lightning ticks FOUR times, not three. Therefore it's 12% healing and not 9% (easy mistake because it's a 3 second spell). Tanking multiple enemies will cause you to lose 2 ticks often, meaning 6% healing loss so not taking this talent is a large healing loss. FL can't heal you without HD so you'll never get any pushback so the number of enemies doesn't affect you directly. While it's true the more enemies around the more likely you'll get hit by some kind of KB, that's hardly a problem specific to FL since KB usually stops melee DPS too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tXHereticXt Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Honestly, if you're going Darkness you should have it. You're limiting your mitigation if you skip it. Sure you could anticipate Overcharge's recharge and use health stims but with the fix to Wither - it's incredibly easy to stack and accumulate health. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technohic Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I was fighting some droids once in PvE, 1 at a time, and I noticed I was getting interrupted 2 ticks in. thought maybe it was the droid, but then electrocuted one right before hitting FL and it still did it. Not sure why cause the droid was still stunned and I didn't see any DoTs or anything like that. Now that might be a bug but it was just in that one dungeon that I noticed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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