Curse

icantthinkofonerightnow · Jul 28, 2006, 08:35 PM // 20:35

Maybe they will be lazy and nerf it to an elite (similar to IW and Hundred Blades).

GodHead · Jul 28, 2006, 08:39 PM // 20:39

That wouldn't fix anything. You could still spam the double attacks like mad, they'd just cost energy, meaning you'd need to do something to get your energy back, and for both the Dervish and Assassin, that is very easy.

Urban_Nomad · Jul 28, 2006, 08:40 PM // 20:40

It's just something they overlooked people....

Some of the people here are acting like Anet did this for the sole purpose of annoying them. Give them time to sort it out, this is a Beta! Beta's are FAR from perfect. Anet did not make this skill to personally attack you or anyone else, nor did they do it to upset any kind of balance. It's just a mistake, something that was overlooked. You may think it was something obvious that they should have caught, but that's really not the way it works. Nobody found out how to exploit this until halfway through the first day. Developers aren't going to have thousands of people actively searching for ways to use skill combos, after all.

maraxusofk · Jul 28, 2006, 08:41 PM // 20:41

wait how does this build exactly work? wut skilsl are used? i know u use dual atks to miss to deal dmg wit sand shards, but i keep hearing about how they pump aoe dmg rapidly in huge amoiunts. dont the misses take the same amount of time as a hit? i see way of empty palm used to keep the dual atks from costing energy, but how bout the speed spam?

bunnys are ebil · Jul 28, 2006, 08:47 PM // 20:47

exhausting assualt=1/2 sec activation time you hit insanely fast with it

Karmaniac · Jul 28, 2006, 08:49 PM // 20:49

For some reason I see another assassin nerf looming in the horizon. Grats to people for making assassin viable in pvp even if for a short while.

Two April Mornings · Jul 28, 2006, 08:54 PM // 20:54

my best bet against it is diversion and shatter enchant, but by the time i cast that, chances are im down, even as fast cast mesmser

Aejorii · Jul 28, 2006, 09:17 PM // 21:17

I was just playing this in RA, and yes it's a nasty character. But counters against them are deadly aswell. Shatter enchant will deny all damage from them and empathy/spiteful will wreck them. This is a pvp BETA weekend, it's your (involuntary) job as part of the mass to test things, and push skills to it's full potential before the game comes out - hopefully so that the skill WILL be balance when Nightfall comes out.

Felbryn · Jul 28, 2006, 09:38 PM // 21:38

If something seems overpowered in a beta, you carefully look for some way to counter it...it might be overpowered, but then again it might not, if you're not careful in considering it.

However, I think this one fits firmly in the realm of "exploitable bug," not "balance issue." If they were using Signet of Midnight to blind themselves so they'd miss, that would be a different issue, but off-hand and dual attacks that don't have proper prerequisites are almost certainly supposed to be considered skill failures, as if you got interrupted or something, not considered as swinging and missing.

Which is kind of inconvenient, in that as a bug I scruple to use it, rather than feeling free to copy the build until Anet rebalances things.

I just played in RA using the second Paragon template, had two Dervishes on my team which were not using this exploit, and we got a 4-win streak before we ran into someone who was, so RA is not entirely saturated with this exploit.

The amusing thing is that the person we ran into using this exploit wasn't even good at it. We had one of his allies dead and the next one half-dead (without any of my party dropping below half health) before I noticed there was an assassin standing next to me not attacking me I was getting rapidly hit by Sand Shards.

My suggestion for a not-that-good-but-highly-amusing counter: take off your torso armor (so you start taking around 70 damage per hit from Sand Shards, rather than 23ish) and use Spirit Bond (Monk protection prayer) to auto-heal yourself for 80 health every time you get hit for more than 60 from a single attack.

I was just testing out a Dervish build using 12 Mysticism + Pious Renewal to have enough energy to fuel Vital Blessing + Protective Spirit + Spirit Bond while wearing no armor except shoes (for a rune and +1 energy pip). Any hits that would normally strike for 20+ damage now get bumped up over 60, then capped to 60.5 by Protective Spirit, thereby setting of Spirit Bond to heal you for 70-80, and you actually have enough energy to keep them all up (and lose little energy even if they're stripped). I solo'ed (group size = 1) the Zaishen Obsidian Spike group without trouble.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a few too many sources of low-damage hits in real PvP to make it effective (someone torched me with one of the Conjure Element enchants as soon as I tried it in RA--you take around triple damage from anything that normally hits for under 20). It ought to survive this Sand Shards exploit build, though, which I find highly amusing.

TRUEgamer · Jul 28, 2006, 09:44 PM // 21:44

Nerfed with new build

Kruzing Low · Jul 28, 2006, 09:48 PM // 21:48

the old crip shot ranger still seems to work against them
i mean remember, theyre still a melee class

Evilsod · Jul 28, 2006, 09:49 PM // 21:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by MalVeauX

Playing in RA and TA is pretty much useless right now I find.

I went through 20+ games and not a single one didn't have either a dual-steal toucher and/or a shard exploiter. It makes the game very annoying to play as balance and skill is thrown all out the window. Point and click gentlemen. That's what these kinds of obvious oversights degenerate this game into. Best defense: just run and run and run.

To top it off, these two arenas are notorious for having people who (a) can't seem to follow called targets, (b) don't run from the exploit/retarded characters and (c) say "stfu" when someone points out something in the hopes of helping the team to pull a victory, and not a poor defeat where everyone drops in seconds and it looks pathetic.

Bleh.

Fix this bull-excrement A.net. Get off your fat paid asses.

Tbh i couldn't agree more... (hell i'm even playing the toucher purely because it requires ALOT less effect than the Cripshotter i've been playing all morning). It seems they've nerfed it though now to be Scythes only... probably due to all this whining, even though i've only actually seen 2 SS abusers so far.

The truth itself · Jul 28, 2006, 09:53 PM // 21:53

There is a new build right now, they probaly fixed it.

Former Ruling · Jul 28, 2006, 10:17 PM // 22:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by The truth itself

There is a new build right now, they probaly fixed it.

Already posted by TRUEGamer, It was Nerfed.

Sand Shards only works on Scythe Missed Hits.