Blade Storm, I don't get it!!!

[tehforcebwithu]

This pertains to Combat, perhaps other specs somewhat.

 

Blade Storm seems to suck:

 

1) Blade storm appears to do significantly less damage than Slash and cost more.

2) I don't need the stun in PvE and it doesn't appear to work in PvP. (please let me know if you experience different, Ive only PvP'd a few times)

3) Also, its ranged, but I'm hardly ever in ranged combat. Guess that could be somewhat useful when leap is on cooldown, but still seems like a waste of force overall.

4) Doesn't benefit from Focused Slash

 

But....It seems to be an integral part of the Combat tree. I have Swift Blades which reduces its cost to 2 Focus and cool down (still less DPS/focus than Slash b y my estimate) and this is a preq for Saber Storm which increases BS's critical damage along with two other primary Combat abilities.

 

Story short: Skill tree seems to be telling me I should both use and invest in Blade Storm but it seems like a significant DPS loss, any explanation?

Edited December 19, 2011 by tehforcebwithu

[thepilk]

Blade Storm is still always one of your harder hitting specials, and one of your only ways to do solid damage when you cant get in range.

 

When you get the box that makes Blade Storm auto crit during combat trance it does heavy damage. Especially with the box that gives it 30% more crit damage. I generally 1-2 shot kill standard mobs with it from combat trance, and take nice bites out of players health.

 

Its useful for people that you are chaseing in pvp and Snipers behind leap-proof cover. The Combat Spec also makes it a strong tandem special with Crippling Throw. They both have a 10m range, and Combat adds an Immobilize to CT. This lets you pin, debuff and do heavy damage to a target who is out of melee range, but not far enough to leap on while you run them down with the 15% move boost from Ataru.

 

Combat is built to make Blade Storm a key part of its chain.

 

Blade Rush (replaces Slash for all purposes) guarentees an Ataru proc, thus guarenteeing

combat trance and opportune attack (the next focus spender will be 10% more damaging.)

 

Since the build already gives blade storm an auto crit and 30% crit damage, Blade Storm is a great spender to use there since its going to get 10% MORE damage. (and because its cost is down to 2) If you happen to have generated enough focus before hand you can even give a 100% armor strip to the target first. Auto Crit+ 30% Crit Damage+10% Damage +100% armor penetration is well worth 2 points of focus.

 

Either way, I guess Im taking the long way to say it does high damage, has good range, and the spec builds it to be one of its highest damage attacks when timed right.

[Sotocles]

Blade Storm is still always one of your harder hitting specials, and one of your only ways to do solid damage when you cant get in range.

 

When you get the box that makes Blade Storm auto crit during combat trance it does heavy damage. Especially with the box that gives it 30% more crit damage. I generally 1-2 shot kill standard mobs with it from combat trance, and take nice bites out of players health.

 

Its useful for people that you are chaseing in pvp and Snipers behind leap-proof cover. The Combat Spec also makes it a strong tandem special with Crippling Throw. They both have a 10m range, and Combat adds an Immobilize to CT. This lets you pin, debuff and do heavy damage to a target who is out of melee range, but not far enough to leap on while you run them down with the 15% move boost from Ataru.

 

Combat is built to make Blade Storm a key part of its chain.

 

Blade Rush (replaces Slash for all purposes) guarentees an Ataru proc, thus guarenteeing

combat trance and opportune attack (the next focus spender will be 10% more damaging.)

 

Since the build already gives blade storm an auto crit and 30% crit damage, Blade Storm is a great spender to use there since its going to get 10% MORE damage. (and because its cost is down to 2) If you happen to have generated enough focus before hand you can even give a 100% armor strip to the target first. Auto Crit+ 30% Crit Damage+10% Damage +100% armor penetration is well worth 2 points of focus.

 

Either way, I guess Im taking the long way to say it does high damage, has good range, and the spec builds it to be one of its highest damage attacks when timed right.

 

^ A player that knows stuff before posting

[FobManX]

Blade Storm is awesome as Combat and Focus.

 

It's worthless as Watchman.

[Derian]

LOL Blade Storm is the cream of the crop for Combat spec.

[Ghingis]

This pertains to Combat, perhaps other specs somewhat.

 

Blade Storm seems to suck:

 

1) Blade storm appears to do significantly less damage than Slash and cost more.

2) I don't need the stun in PvE and it doesn't appear to work in PvP. (please let me know if you experience different, Ive only PvP'd a few times)

3) Also, its ranged, but I'm hardly ever in ranged combat. Guess that could be somewhat useful when leap is on cooldown, but still seems like a waste of force overall.

4) Doesn't benefit from Focused Slash

 

But....It seems to be an integral part of the Combat tree. I have Swift Blades which reduces its cost to 2 Focus and cool down (still less DPS/focus than Slash b y my estimate) and this is a preq for Saber Storm which increases BS's critical damage along with two other primary Combat abilities.

 

Story short: Skill tree seems to be telling me I should both use and invest in Blade Storm but it seems like a significant DPS loss, any explanation?

 

It is one of the hardest hitting abilities, aswell as combat buffing it to pretty much always have a 100% chance to crit. Ontop of this it gains bonus crit damage from talents, its ranged, only costs 2 focus with talents, and on a 9 second cooldown.

 

This ability is just straight out amazing.

[LagunaD]

Since the build already gives blade storm an auto crit and 30% crit damage, Blade Storm is a great spender to use there since its going to get 10% MORE damage. (and because its cost is down to 2) If you happen to have generated enough focus before hand you can even give a 100% armor strip to the target first. Auto Crit+ 30% Crit Damage+10% Damage +100% armor penetration is well worth 2 points of focus.

 

At Level 50, with semi-decent gear, it hits for over 3K routinely, more like 4K if you stack all the buffs and debuffs.

[Coramac]

^ A player that knows stuff before posting

 

Too bad he doesn't know movement speed buff for Ataru and Immobilize on Crippling Throw don't work.

 

The biggest problem with Blade Storm is that you have to go Combat. Sad, for the ability to be any good, you have to go into the fail tree.

[MBirkhofer]

Too bad he doesn't know movement speed buff for Ataru and Immobilize on Crippling Throw don't work.

 

The biggest problem with Blade Storm is that you have to go Combat. Sad, for the ability to be any good, you have to go into the fail tree.

 

Focus buffs blade storm alot too.

3 focus vs 2. 3s off cd in both. 7% crit chance(well both can get that, but its overkill with combats 100%. and bear in mind, gear crit doesnt go over 100%... so a focus crit% is 20-40% with gear.) 30% crit damage in both. 20% armor pen all the time vs 100% after pre strike.

[K_osss]

Too bad he doesn't know movement speed buff for Ataru and Immobilize on Crippling Throw don't work.

 

The biggest problem with Blade Storm is that you have to go Combat. Sad, for the ability to be any good, you have to go into the fail tree.

 

From my understanding the Crippling Throw immobilization works. It's Debilitation that is bugged.

[ChicoMonster]

Delete Edited December 20, 2011 by ChicoMonster

[ChicoMonster]

Blade Rush (replaces Slash for all purposes) guarentees an Ataru proc, thus guarenteeing

combat trance and opportune attack (the next focus spender will be 10% more damaging.)

 

I hate to go off topic here but I was wondering if Blade Rush has a cooldown. When you say it "replaces Slash for all purposes" do you mean that it makes Slash almost worthless or that I can literally take Slash off my bar?

[MBirkhofer]

literally take it off your bar.

Blade rush has no cd, and does(with ataru proc and crit damage figure in) a bit more damage.

Basically, once you have blade rush, only real use for slash would be zen+shii-cho.

Edited December 20, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[tehforcebwithu]

Thanks for the info. I was looking at a mistaken source that showed base Blade Rush damage to be a lot less than Slash, which I now know isn't that case. Makes more sense now!

 

^ A player that knows stuff before posting

Delete

 

Whats with attitude of some people on this thread? The tone of my post was clearly that I didn't understand and was asking for information, please grow up.

[MBirkhofer]

its base damage is, a tiny bit less then slash.

however, when you add in the ataru proc, it is more.

 

Also, blade rush takes advantage of the 30% crit damage buff in combat, meaning it will crit for more as well.

[thepilk]

Too bad he doesn't know movement speed buff for Ataru and Immobilize on Crippling Throw don't work.

 

The biggest problem with Blade Storm is that you have to go Combat. Sad, for the ability to be any good, you have to go into the fail tree.

 

Ataru move speed isnt broken, it works fine. It just doesnt stack with sprint when youre out of combat. But in combat I go faster than players who are moving standard speed.

[OldxLady]

Ataru move speed isnt broken, it works fine. It just doesnt stack with sprint when youre out of combat. But in combat I go faster than players who are moving standard speed.

 

This, did test cupple of hours ago... You feel a diference when not using sprint.

[RamzaBehoulve]

Ataru move speed isnt broken, it works fine. It just doesnt stack with sprint when youre out of combat. But in combat I go faster than players who are moving standard speed.

 

That is correct.

[Spirte]

Hyyy. I am 34 level and I agree that is hard with combat tree but until you get to end of three. Thing in my opinion it is best tree

o First of all it gives you grate burst damage combo: You start with Force Leap (+3 focus), then Precision Slash (-3 focus, + 100% armor penetration), then Zeal (+5 focus) then Blade Rush (-3 focus, triggers arturu strike and + 30% chances for artutu ) and blade storm (-2 focus, 100% critical changes). Here Your Zeal, Blade Rush and Blade Storm hit with full armor penetration. Zeal, Blade Rush and Precision Slash hits with both weapons (offhand weapon damage increase for 36% because Dual Wield Mastery). Critical strikes from has increased damage - +30% because of Saber Storm. Additionally you have arturu hit, + 1 focus from arturu and changes (50%) for next arturu strike. Finally you and your combo with Master Strike that gives you target immobilization for whole time charge (3s)!! and You have + 50% chances for arturu strike.

o Other nice thing is that you have additional target immobilization - 3s from upgraded crippling throw; and 3s from Master Strike that helps a lot when you focus with other team mates on same target – just great.

o You can easy escape from combat by using upgraded force camouflage that additional removes any moving problems.

o Arturu gives you also 15% move speed.

 

 

So, you can easy make huge damage burst and then easy control target (3 abilities with 3s immobilization with kick and upgrade range of pacify) until your could down ends. Also you can quite easy escape from combat using upgraded force camouflage.

 

In that way of playing, Sentinel is just grated when you fighting 1 on 1 or when focusing on same target with some team mate. It also grate to eliminate targets that has less than half health.

[MBirkhofer]

Hyyy. I am 34 level and I agree that is hard with combat tree but until you get to end of three. Thing in my opinion it is best tree

o First of all it gives you grate burst damage combo: You start with Force Leap (+3 focus), then Precision Slash (-3 focus, + 100% armor penetration), then Zeal (+5 focus) then Blade Rush (-3 focus, triggers arturu strike and + 30% chances for artutu ) and blade storm (-2 focus, 100% critical changes). Here Your Zeal, Blade Rush and Blade Storm hit with full armor penetration. Zeal, Blade Rush and Precision Slash hits with both weapons (offhand weapon damage increase for 36% because Dual Wield Mastery). Critical strikes from has increased damage - +30% because of Saber Storm. Additionally you have arturu hit, + 1 focus from arturu and changes (50%) for next arturu strike. Finally you and your combo with Master Strike that gives you target immobilization for whole time charge (3s)!! and You have + 50% chances for arturu strike.

o Other nice thing is that you have additional target immobilization - 3s from upgraded crippling throw; and 3s from Master Strike that helps a lot when you focus with other team mates on same target – just great.

o You can easy escape from combat by using upgraded force camouflage that additional removes any moving problems.

o Arturu gives you also 15% move speed.

 

 

So, you can easy make huge damage burst and then easy control target (3 abilities with 3s immobilization with kick and upgrade range of pacify) until your could down ends. Also you can quite easy escape from combat using upgraded force camouflage.

 

In that way of playing, Sentinel is just grated when you fighting 1 on 1 or when focusing on same target with some team mate. It also grate to eliminate targets that has less than half health.

 

See, you are just reading tooltips, and not doing the math. and did you look at other trees? It sounds good, until you really look at what the other trees have.

 

Like focus. Zealous leap. Now, you probably looked at it, and said, hey thats another gap closer. Which it is a bit. But did you also notice it does more damage then bladestorm? You need to chain like 5 moves to make your blade storm do as much as my zealous leap does all the time. And my blade storm is on the same CD, (except I got that cd at level 15, you got it at 26 or so.) I have 30-40% crit passively anyway. and 20% armor pen, all the time.

Oh, and both leaps give me 100% crit on force sweep. stasis and exhaust give me 100% damage on force sweep. A 100% damage/crit sweep is going to deal AOE about 50% more damage then your blade storm does. your 34, for I'll take a guess and say your blade storm crits for about 1200. Seriously, a crit/damage force sweep in focus at that level will be about 1700 then.

And look at the tooltips on prec strike, blade rush, then hover over merc strike, zealous leap, and force exhaustion. Merc strike does instantly MORE then master strike does over 3s. Force exhaustion does the same over its 5s. again, people see a slow, but over look that it hits like a truck as well.

Leap, exhaust, zstrike, zleap, sweep is GG. In the same time it took you to leap, prec, blade rush, blade storm. I as focus, snared my target, and hit them for 3-4x as much damage as you did.

 

Combat has the worst burst of all 3.

Ataru +15% move speed is the worst movement as well. I get +40% for 5s after a zleap. Which is a 15s cd, and a core damage move. Also get +10 centering after transcendence. Meaning, I can almost keep that up all the time too. so with focus, I'm seriously running around with +90% move speed like 70% of the time.

watchmans is also way better then combats.

The root on crippling is nice, I'll give you that. MS one is bugged, and even if it wasn't, using MS in pvp.. ugh.

Force camo. yeah. very nice. That I will give you.

Edited December 21, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[Ghingis]

See, you are just reading tooltips, and not doing the math. and did you look at other trees? It sounds good, until you really look at what the other trees have.

 

Like focus. Zealous leap. Now, you probably looked at it, and said, hey thats another gap closer. Which it is a bit. But did you also notice it does more damage then bladestorm? You need to chain like 5 moves to make your blade storm do as much as my zealous leap does all the time. And my blade storm is on the same CD, (except I got that cd at level 15, you got it at 26 or so.) I have 30-40% crit passively anyway. and 20% armor pen, all the time.

Oh, and both leaps give me 100% crit on force sweep. stasis and exhaust give me 100% damage on force sweep. A 100% damage/crit sweep is going to deal AOE about 50% more damage then your blade storm does. your 34, for I'll take a guess and say your blade storm crits for about 1200. Seriously, a crit/damage force sweep in focus at that level will be about 1700 then.

And look at the tooltips on prec strike, blade rush, then hover over merc strike, zealous leap, and force exhaustion. Merc strike does instantly MORE then master strike does over 3s. Force exhaustion does the same over its 5s. again, people see a slow, but over look that it hits like a truck as well.

Leap, exhaust, zstrike, zleap, sweep is GG. In the same time it took you to leap, prec, blade rush, blade storm. I as focus, snared my target, and hit them for 3-4x as much damage as you did.

 

Combat has the worst burst of all 3.

Ataru +15% move speed is the worst movement as well. I get +40% for 5s after a zleap. Which is a 15s cd, and a core damage move. Also get +10 centering after transcendence. Meaning, I can almost keep that up all the time too. so with focus, I'm seriously running around with +90% move speed like 70% of the time.

watchmans is also way better then combats.

The root on crippling is nice, I'll give you that. MS one is bugged, and even if it wasn't, using MS in pvp.. ugh.

Force camo. yeah. very nice. That I will give you.

 

Combat has the worst burst of all 3?

 

Precision Slash.

 

Just destroyed your entire wall of text with that.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Ghingis

[Spirte]

With 100% armor penetration Combat is good and damage is high, maybe not as in Whachman but still good.

 

Now - Whachmen costs more focus and I can`t see how You can make that combo starting from 0 focus??? (combo in Combar costs You only 8 focus, and when I end it I have still 1-3 (from arturu strike) focus for next hits)

 

Also, it takes longer to perform that combo, because most of that skills have burning effects for 6s, so target lives longer to hit You.

[MBirkhofer]

Combat has the worst burst of all 3?

 

Precision Slash.

 

Just destroyed your entire wall of text with that.

 

Precision hits for like a third of the damage of any of those moves listed. Less then slash.

It then gives 100% pen for 6s on a 15s cd.

 

Focus gets 20% pen all the time on all moves.

 

How much armor do you think targets have? light is like 10-20%, med is like 20%, heavy is like 30-40%.

Reduce merc slash, exhaust, sweep or leap by 30% and its STILL more damage.

 

Watchman's damage is mostly internal.

[Ghingis]

Precision hits for like a third of the damage of any of those moves listed. Less then slash.

It then gives 100% pen for 6s on a 15s cd.

 

Focus gets 20% pen all the time on all moves.

 

How much armor do you think targets have? light is like 10-20%, med is like 20%, heavy is like 30-40%.

Reduce merc slash, exhaust, sweep or leap by 30% and its STILL more damage.

 

Watchman's damage is mostly internal.

 

Precision Slash + Master Strike, the best burst you can possibly get as a Sentinel.

That is just ONE ability from the Combat tree.

 

And the burst you are talking about takes a long time to set up, and has long CD's aswell compared to Precision Slash burst. Its not nearly as reliable as Combats burst.

[MBirkhofer]

Precision Slash + Master Strike, the best burst you can possibly get as a Sentinel.

That is just ONE ability from the Combat tree.

 

And the burst you are talking about takes a long time to set up, and has long CD's aswell compared to Precision Slash burst. Its not nearly as reliable as Combats burst.

 

that is not even close. Merc slash does more damage instantly then master strike does over 3 s. merc slash+overload saber would deal at least 2 times as much.

Force exhaust does more damage over 5s. But is instant, so you can be doing other things as well.

prec+ms would take 4.5s. I could force exhaust, force leap, force sweep. and in 4.5s do literately 3 times as much damage as you did with prec+ms.