Curse

Racthoh · Jul 04, 2008, 09:55 PM // 21:55

This is a skill that I'm sure everyone has looked at and never done so again. Everyone sees "-10 energy regeneration for 10 seconds" then immediately stops caring. However if you really consider every factor of the paragon and compare it to the other energy management options available you will find the skill is actually a lot better than the description would leave you to believe.

The first thing to consider is the paragon profession. Most notable quotes describing the paragon as a profession with a broken primary, or infinite energy. Leadership provides an absurd amount of energy; just look at the most powerful build available to the paragon. The "Imbagon" fuels a bar full of energy skills on its 2 pips of regeneration and a single 8 adrenaline skill ("Save Yourselves!"). Through Focused Anger and a single adrenaline shout Leadership returns more than enough energy to power the rest of the bar. Consider the following skills:

Aggressive Refrain
"The Power Is Yours!"
"For Great Justice!"
"Save Yourselves!"

Spear Mastery: 14
Motivation: 10
Leadership: 10

Party Size: 8

Aggressive Refrain with a spear gives an attack rate of 1.13 seconds meaning in about 5 seconds under "For Great Justice!" you can fire off a "Save Yourselves!" for 5 energy. Converted that works out to 1 energy a second, or 3 pips. This, along with the paragon's natural regeneration, evens out half of the energy loss from "The Power Is Yours!" for its 10 second duration. After another 10 seconds "For Great Justice!", with the natural paragon regeneration, will break even with the -10 from "The Power Is Yours!". But you must also consider the cost of the two shouts which is another 15 energy. However this cost is reduced by "The Power Is Yours!" affecting the user as well in addition to Leadership. Thus the additional 15 energy becomes 3; 11 gained from "The Power Is Yours!" and 1 from "For Great Justice!".

Then if you hit everyone in the party that 3 becomes 39; the other 7 party members each getting 6 energy = 42 -3 = 39.

One must also consider what the paragon is. The spear provides the damage of a warrior, thus we can assume that you should take advantage of this and play like a warrior. Consider the PvP warrior and the PvE warrior; what do their bars look like? More importantly what do their bars compose of that consumes energy?

Frenzy, Conjure X, Bull's Strike, Sprint/Enraging Charge, Crushing Blow, Shock, Distracting Strike, "For Great Justice!", "You Move Like A Dwarf!", etc...

Just a small list of what I can think of off the top of my head. Starting at the first item on that list; Frenzy. Sprint/Enraging Charge can also be tied in with Frenzy since they are used partly for canceling. Frenzy is used because it makes things die, it makes them die 50% faster. You use warriors because you want things to die it's that simple. In that same regard what do paragons have? Aggressive Refrain. For a one time cost of 25 energy you get that IAS so long as you can make a chant/shout end. Now the cancel stance is no longer needed as well when you also consider that a paragon does not need a movement boost when attacking with a ranged weapon.

When looking at the rest of those skills there is something in common; utility. Warriors provide a lot of offensive utility with interrupts and KDs. Paragons do the same, damage with utility. Anthem of Weariness, Ballad of Restoration, Mending Refrain, Defensive Anthem, etc. The one difference between the two professions comes back to that primary attribute, leadership. 5 energy chants and shouts are free at 10 Leadership+.

Take it another step, adrenaline, something else common with the two professions. This means even if a paragon is sitting on 0 energy after using "The Power Is Yours!" it can still do its job. Adrenaline attack skills, adrenaline chants and shouts which as we know GIVE energy. Simply put the huge drawback of "The Power Is Yours!" is completely avoidable. What else is there? Weapon swaps for more energy, refrains as mentioned with Aggressive Refrain. Through adrenaline, chants, shouts, and refrains it is entirely possible to perform your job without energy.

Some people consider Blood Is Power to be the best form of energy management there is. Well it's take a look at its numbers for starters.

A +6 Blood Is Power gives 20 energy, enchanting mod pushes it to 24. This comes at a cost of 33% health to the user and 1 energy (this can pretty much be ignored). This sacrifice in health will probably require the healers of the group about 5 energy with a Gift of Health or Word of Healing to return the Blood Is Power user to a safe level. So we're looking at about 19 energy gained with a single use.

As always there are factors to consider. Firstly Blood Is Power is a blood magic skill. The blood magic line is very weak outside of a few skills like Order of Pain and Dark Fury. Although these two skills are very good there is just one problem; they make physicals stronger. Why would a physical heavy party need the energy support of Blood Is Power? It would make more sense in those instances to use Blood Ritual for the few casters present in those groups.

The health sacrifice comes into play as well. 33% is a lot and if the user is dying, AKA when the healers may need the energy, Blood Is Power is risky to use. There are ways around this such as a lower max health or simply sitting way back out of the fight but in range to cast the enchantment on those healers. A lower max health attracts the AI making you the focus of their attack, creating a scenario where health sacrifice is suicide. The other option, sitting out of range, is a waste of a party slot. Party wide spells + Blood Is Power for the backline does not make for a useful slot. This is also why I won't mention 16 blood magic with Awaken The Blood to reach +7 regeneration from Blood Is Power. The 50% sacrifice means you have to stay out of enemy range or you will die. That and +6 hits the 10 pip regeneration cap on top of every casters natural 4 pips.

One final thing to consider when comparing the two is the manner in which the energy is delivered. Blood Is Power delivers a large amount of energy over 10(12) seconds to a single user whereas "The Power Is Yours!" spreads a small amount over the entire party. Casting to the point where not a single point of energy from Blood Is Power is wasted would indicate that a fight has already been in progress for some time. Assuming that most parties can assure victory after killing a few foes from each mob, how much of that energy contributes to reaching that point of an assured victory? I think it's safe to say very little to none. The same can be said for "The Power Is Yours!" in these scenarios. In those situations where everything goes according to plan both skills will go unused.

So let us assume the possibility of a mob gone wrong, we've all been there, it happens. Health and energy dropping slowly, nothing really dying, we know how it is. The Blood Is Power guy is going to be more of a liability than a boon at this point. The health sacrifice will push the 60 AL necromancer too close to death to risk it without an immediately heal and probably a Protective Spirit. We're looking at 15 energy just to get that 24 from Blood Is Power. A net gain of 9 energy; enough for a single 5 energy heal/prot. And since Blood Is Power delivers that energy over a 12 second period you don't get the energy to use that one heal/prot until 10 of those seconds have passed. I won't even discuss enchantment removal's impact on the energy gain either, commonly found in just about every endgame area.

"The Power Is Yours!" in comparison will give a two monk backline 12 energy the instant that button is pressed, when it is needed. Shout counters barely exist in endgame areas, or any area for that matter since they were not introduced until Nightfall.

What can we conclude about "The Power Is Yours" then? Well elite energy management does exist in builds today, be it Mind Blast, Offering of Spirit, or what have you. It is most certainly a playable skill when you look at the paragon as a whole and how the skills in conjunction with leadership can play around its cost, rather than focusing on the -10 pips. Could it use a buff? Compared to what already exists, theory crafting how each skill can be put to used, the manner of their returns, and if they fall under a decent attribute line I would say the skill is acceptable as is.

Magikarp · Jul 04, 2008, 10:06 PM // 22:06

its an okay skill if your team is no good at managing its own energy.. i guess i've always liked it for that... but otherwise.. an over-the-top way of reinforcing bad playstyles imo.

zelgadissan · Jul 04, 2008, 11:30 PM // 23:30

If there was a skill I never thought a book would be written on, this is certainly one of them

That said, you've inspired me to at least go try it out for more than two seconds. I'm personally addicted to [Blood Ritual] myself so I'll dump my Livia for Morgahn and see what happens. (BTW have you checked hero AI on this?) My paragon doesn't have it yet so I can't test myself.

And to answer your last question (could it use a buff?) - I do think it could use a slight buff on the amount of energy. I don't particularly care about lowering the degen - even -6 will probably empty out the energy - but I do wish it was a bigger hit for what he's giving up.

Very well done sir.

[Morkai] · Jul 05, 2008, 12:29 AM // 00:29

Y,know it's funny, i saw this thread and thought "If Racthoh is the author, it may be worth reading" then remembered you were away.

(I've been ninja-'ing the SMS forums <_>)

Anyways, seems alright to me, but then again could it be replaced by something a bit better, I know it's being offered as an alternative to the same old builds, but i dunno.

I think that individual e-management and synergy on EACH players/heros bar would be better.

However i haven't tried it so i don't know.

Lishy · Jul 05, 2008, 01:54 AM // 01:54

Echo + The Power is yours! = uber energy restoration for the party. Ether Signet can also help if you want to quickly cast another skill in case of emergency.

zelgadissan · Jul 05, 2008, 02:01 AM // 02:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kain Fz

Echo + The Power is yours! = uber energy restoration for the party. Ether Signet can also help if you want to quickly cast another skill in case of emergency.

I assume you mean [Arcane Mimicry] + hero with [Echo] + [The Power Is Yours!]?

GourangaPizza · Jul 06, 2008, 02:50 PM // 14:50

I think he meant you(the paragon) cast mimcry on a hero with Echo and use "The Power Is Yours" and its echoed copy twice for 16 energy to whole party.
But I think this is going to be very hard to pull off since -10 energy degeneration makes your bar go from full to zero in seconds.

We all know the ones who is going to benefit from this shout greatly are definitely not the frontliners (warriors has their adrenaline, dervish with their mysticism, assassins with their constant criticals).

Conclusion, Aria of Zeal beats this elite badly.

bhavv · Jul 10, 2008, 04:44 AM // 04:44

Use signet of recall with the power is yours.

But I think either incoming or SoR are still far better elites for PVE.

I want to roll a PVE paragon, but I have already given up on my other PVE alts that I dont think I would get anywhere on one.