Quadruple Slash Combo

I find that both the combo damage, as well as the animation associated with this combo is either broken or just wrong. Animation doesn't really seem to do anything, however my biggest gripe is with the damage associated.

Skills required, Slash and Double Slash
Slash is a single swing for a good chunk of damage
Double Slash are two individual swings for a moderate amount of damage.
Last night I checked and if both my slash and double slash all hit at max damage I would do 94 Damage.

Quad Slash 4 individual swings that do moderate damage.
If all 4 of my swings hit at max damage at current abilities level it would do 100 damage.

So lets look at that, right off the bat you are talking about just 6 points of damage in best case scenario circumstances. You also have to take into consideration that it is 4 swings instead of 3, miss 1 and your max damage falls to 75, miss 2 and you can do more max damage with a single Slash than the combo.

IMO combos should be big incentives, instead of going with a quadslash approach maybe go with a GIANT Slash, were it is 1 single slash for mass damage. But if we have to stick with quadslash maybe up minimum damage of each slash, along with increasing the to hit chance on them.


Just some ideas on that =)

 

I asked this question before in a dev hangout, and @Chris answered it.
Depending on the mob you face, the 4 hits from Quad stike might do less total damage than thrust or double strike, because each individual hit is for smaller amount and depending on the resistance and absorbtion of what they are hitting, the 4 strikes may not have enough damage left over after deductions to compete with a single big hit.

This is part of the tactical aspect of the combat system, knowing when a quad strike is more damage versus when thrust or double strike is better damage. In theory, you should see a quad strike against a weak caster in the back outshine single and double, but thrust and double strike to the face would better against a warrior type and bosses than a quad strike.

 

But in reality, is the chance at 6.4% additional damage in a situation such as the one you describe, really worth it? Considering the issues I see with the combo, I just don't think it is worth it at least not right now. Even if we were to argue that we are doing all that damage in 1 GCD as opposed to spread out in two GCD with the two other abilities, the flip side of this argument is that you can "catch up" by stacking those instead of combining them.

 

First off let me state, that I don't bother with combo's, they slow down my xp per hour by waiting to make them, so I don't use any of them.

Secondly, you took measurements against 1 mob type, so 6.4% is set and nothing will change it, if you try your measurements against more types of mobs of different levels, you will see bigger and smaller differences.
I was only trying to point you in the direction of what to look for to find a situation where quad strike was clearly better.

Also don't worry about stacked versus unstacked, it'll be the same relationship with bigger crits and less focus when stacking, so it just clouds the issue further.

 

I was basing the 6.4% out of raw damage in looking at the tooltip. I am not home right now so I can't look at the exact numbers but here is roughly what I remember.

9-25 x 4 for Quad slash max damage 100
?-46 Slash
?-24 x2 for Double slash max damage 48
48+46=94
100-94 / 94 = .0638 or 6.4%
Above numbers are based off of 72 Slash and 70 Double Slash.
So my 6.4% is based of best case scenario for all attacks were you hit for max damage.

 

note that the combo takes less focus than using the 2 skills seperate.

 

I'd agree that quad slash is not worth fiddling with overall; it might squeeze out a little more damage in some situations or less in others I guess, but overall not worth the effort relative to potential gain in my judgement. Also as you pointed out the animation doesn't work right, so no fancy effect motivation even just now . Basically I'm just agreeing with Rofo here though I think.

 

The calculation might be more favorable for a player with a higher crit chance.

 

But you're also penalized by playing with the harder random deck and you have to take the time to create the combo in the first place.

Combos should provide quantifiable benefit and I do not believe they currently do.

The game right now rewards people with a traditional WOW hotbar and a rotation you can macro after all the insistences that we would avoid precisely that.

 

i dont think that is the case, im rewarded for my random deck build. i put combo-able skills next to each other, if they are both up i press both buttons same time and boom.
but yes some skills can use balancing still, i think a higher crit% would be nice on quad strike, stuff like that.

 

Only if the combo skills are better.

 

I'm not that deep into combat here yet. But in other games more hits usually mean more chances to crit. Maybe this combo is more fitting into a crit build than into a direct damage build?

 

It's very hard to beat the speed and short recovery time of thrust. Crits quite nicely. Multi hits scale better off +dmg buffs, talents and procs. So likely it's better against cloth and with high supporting talents/synergy

 

tbh i never use quad slash, unless im fighting something really weak and just RAWR!

 

Hi there,
I may add that we also should consider combat flow. Numbers have been discussed here but not in regard to the combat flow. Depending on how you build ur deck, to activate Quad Slash you have to wait for thrust and 2-slash to be up to combine them. So far, in all combat tests I made, in an overall combat, no matter what the opponent is, thrust and 2-slash were always better than quad slash. About the focus cost, Quad slash is also more expensive : 20 focus whereas thrust and 2-slash cost respectively 5 and 10 focus (total focus needed : 15). Last point : being able to use quad slash means you learnt 2-slash : you then have thrust at level 40. Thurst damage output outstand basic quad slash damage most of the damage, because of mobs resistance.