Ravenous Gaze; utterly useless?

Is this skill completely useless, like the rest of the blood line or does it have some sort of hidden and overlooked merit? The mandragors in Nightfall paired with Shelboh seem to execute this skill very well and it can be devastating being hit with multiple Ravenous Gazes. (At blood magic 16, this skill will steal 120 health in one go if the caster is beneath 50% health. If you get hit by more than 3-5 of these it's good bye.)

So far to me it seems this skill only truly shines when you're below 50% health.
The question is; how do you remain perpetually beneath 50% health, not die, and utilize this as anything more than purely defensive?

Yes. It's useless. You can't achieve the condition reliably because someone is likely gonna heal you before you can cast.

It seems to work great on PvE monsters because...they don't have a healer. Also because in HM they have level 20 Blood Magic.

It should probably be changed to trigger if the target is below 80%.

It's a bad skill, the condition is terrible.

Indeed. In every play testing scenario I've tried, this skill CANNOT be utilized efficiently by a human player. Hurray Blood magic! The one trick pony. I was just hoping there was SOMETHING I'd over looked =\

For an elite version of Vampiric Gaze, it's not very elite at all.

Word of Healing; utterly useless?

Is this skill completely useless, like the rest of the healing line or does it have some sort of hidden and overlooked merit? The Shadow Monks in FoW paired with the Priest of Menzies seem to execute this skill very well and it can be devastating being healed with multiple Word of Healings. (At healing prayers 16, this skill will heal 138 health in one go if the target is below 50% health. If you get healed by more than 3-5 of these you will live.)

So far to me it seems this skill only truly shines when you're below 50% health.
The question is; how do you remain perpetually beneath 50% health, not die, and utilize this as anything more than purely defensive?

^wtf?

The condition is very effective on a healing spell, yes... because it makes sense. Having this condition on an offensive spell such as this does not make sense. It implies that you're using your elite for a weak self-heal. Bad, bad, bad...

Quote: Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood Yes. It's useless. You can't achieve the condition reliably because someone is likely gonna heal you before you can cast.

It seems to work great on PvE monsters because...they don't have a healer. Also because in HM they have level 20 Blood Magic.

It should probably be changed to trigger if the target is below 80%. I think it'd be a much better skill if it triggered while the target was above 50.
Then, when said target was at 50% health or less, the life stealing drops dramatically, because if vampire lore tells us anything, people run out of blood to drink, the skill sort of lives up to it's name.

As it stands now, it's just another horribly bad blood magic elite.
I hear there's a lot of them.

the skill needs a 1/4 cast time whenever below 50% health is a requirement. 1 second cast time just doesn't cut it. it also needs a functionality change so that the conditional life stealing occurs reguardless of whether or not you are still below 50% health after the initial life steal. in its current form, the skill might as well say 'when you are below @45% health'.

with these changes, the skill would be approaching 'boarderline overpowered' because right now as it stands, the skill can kill with ease and can also save you when monk heals are hard to find.



Jayce Of Underworld

Utterly useless for two reasons:

1) The skill sucks unless the condition is met.
2) The condition won't be met if you have a competent monk in your party.

But anyway, let me spell this out for you kurzick and jonnie:
He's comparing it to WoH: They both heal for x amount, + x amount if the condition (below 50% hp) is met.

Where they differ, is that, besides the recharge and energy cost difference, Ravenous Gaze cannot target allies while WoH can.

But, Ravenous gaze has a upside compared to WoH: That health that you're gaining is being taken from the target, AKA: you're healing yourself and doing damage at the same time.

So its up to you to decide: Do you want to be able to do damage at 10en 8r, or be able to target an ally at 5en 3r?

Now, it seems like a decent tradeoff, no? The problem (and why ravenous is so useless) is that healing yourself and doing dmg too meet such a randomly timed condition, doesnt in any way fit into a coordinated team (GvG, TA, HA). However, I do see a very possibly-potent HB or PvE build focusing on pressure using this skill, assuming hero's can use it properly.

I do think it deserves a buff to 5en (possibly 5r), and more life stealing.

EDIT: Ravenous also steals/heals for less than WoH.

Guys think about it this way. If you remove the 50%, then you'll be doing 120 dmg per 5 seconds. That's a lot since you're also using other skills as well.

Well it's needed to get the Skill Hunter title....

Quote: Originally Posted by Abedeus Maybe because WoH heals for more under 50%, and RG steals more under 50%? By making that comparison, you're pretty much staying a Bike and a Car are the same because they get you form point A to point B and they both have wheels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moloch Vein Justice, you managed to get confused about the spell's effect. If that's how the spell worked it'd be pretty great. If that's how it worked it'd be worth calling an elite. Though people would then complain blood magic became 'too powerful.'

i don't know why you guys posted all this trash, but don't do it again.

The question is : why would you bring ravenous gaze? There are much better necro elites to bring even if they're from the blood line. Soul leech, well of power, spoil victor, or reaper's mark.

It's a bad skill.
Unless they rework it entirely, though, it needs to stay a bad skill because Bloodspike is ghey.
Kinda like a lot of the rest of Blood Magic, really - if life-steals and Blood DDs actually start doing decent damage, Bloodspike can rear its ugly head and haunt PvP once again.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jam Jar

Quote: Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex

Quote: Originally Posted by Gift3d Word of Healing; utterly useless?

Is this skill completely useless, like the rest of the healing line or does it have some sort of hidden and overlooked merit? The Shadow Monks in FoW paired with the Priest of Menzies seem to execute this skill very well and it can be devastating being healed with multiple Word of Healings. (At healing prayers 16, this skill will heal 138 health in one go if the target is below 50% health. If you get healed by more than 3-5 of these you will live.)

So far to me it seems this skill only truly shines when you're below 50% health.
The question is; how do you remain perpetually beneath 50% health, not die, and utilize this as anything more than purely defensive? Ok, so, I get back to this thread finding half of it deleted.

I guess this means I'll show you exactly, in no uncertain terms, why the above attempt at sarcasm is so silly.

At 12 Healing Prayers:

Word of Healing heals 105hp if you're ^50% health. An additional 83hp if you're v50% health.

At 12 Blood Magic:

Ravenous Gaze heals 27hp if you're ^50% health. An additional 75hp if you're v50% health (WHEN YOU HAVE STOLEN THE FIRST 27 HP).

This does not count Divine Favor. It only shows the difference when brought on a necromancer.

Ravenous Gaze HP gain per E:

^50%: 2.7hp
v50%: 10.2hp

Word Of Healing HP gain per E:

^50%: 21hp
v50%: 37.6hp

Ravenous Gaze HP gain per second (1c 5r):

^50%: 4.5hp/second (yes, this is worse than Life Siphon)
v50%: 17hp/second

Word Of Healing HP gain per second (3/4c 3r):

^50%: 28hp/second
v50%: 50.1hp/second

To this we add:

WoH can direct the HP flow to any ally. RG can only heal the caster.

In no case we study is the HP gain from Ravenous Gaze even close to HALF of WoH. This means that even if we count in the differential HP between you and the enemy team WoH is still better.

I think I can safely rest my case... as if it was ever needed.

that is a well though out argument for caseless case,