After reading a bunch of negative messages about it, I thought I would chime in on why I like this combat art, especially since it was revised. First off, it's a wonderful way to dispatch that annoying mod that decides to jump you as you're tooling around somewhere. It's very satisfying to rapidly dispatch that Dervin Thug that always seems to attack as I go thru the tunnels. Second thing, it's a good way to finish off a ^^^ that you're fighting. If the mob's health is red, Devestation Fist will take it out. It's also good for dealing with an unexpected add, especially one that's regular strength or weaker. You can rapidly reduce the mob count by one. What about the stifle? You use your mitigation boost and ride it out. Unless you're badly outmatched, you should be fine. If you are, well, that's what Feign Death is for. No, it's not for taking on Epics. But it's good for a lot of other situations. You just have to fit it into your tactics to take advantage of it. I just enjoy the heck out of watching ACT parse out a 4500+ hit.
Cukia@Butcherblock wrote: I'm guessing by your DF numbers you aren't high enough to understand the nerf. Imagen going 160,000 damage to only going 4,500? I'm one who doesn't really care too much about the numbers but I'll admin having a 10,000DPS parse by myself was pretty fun.
Junaru wrote: Well, I'm a 55 Monk. Not the top of the heap, but not in the bottom either. Heck, I had DoF for almost a year before I started questing in Sinking Sands and still havent done any KoS quests. With 8 (soon to be 9) alts, leveling up any one of them isn't really a priority. Concerning the "nerf"... Before the nerf, DF could only be used on normal or weaker targets. A single ^ was enough to produce "Target too strong" even if it conned grey. Never could quite figure that out. And yes, I did try it myself. DF was useless against a grey ^. Never got the nerve to try it on a red vvv. Something about not wanting to die if it didn't work, I recall. After the nerf, and I'm doing this from memory, so forgive me if I'm off a little bit, DF causes 100% damage on standard or weaker, 25% on non-epic stronger than normal, and a somewhat paltry (IMO) 1500-2500 on an epic. The key being that DF is now usable on any target, not just normal or lower. I fail to see that as a nerf. Then again, maybe it's just that I don't routinely tangle with Epics that I don't appreciate the difference. I solo more than I group. Post-nerf DF can (and has) saved my hide more than once. The tradeoff between the stifle and having an extra mob beating on me is worth it. My least favorite thing is seeing "Miss" pop up when I hit the button. Haven't seen a Parry or Riposte from it yet. I'll keep an eye on it as I contine to level up - slowly but surely.
you're a little confused. A few months ago DF was altered so that we could use it on heroic mobs. This was a good thing. The nerf was 2 weeks ago. They changed it so that you could no longer do 25% dmg on named encounters. Now we can only do 4k dmg max. The same as on epic encounters. They also removed the ability to do critical hits with DF. So while the ability is far more useful now than it was in the past, it has been nerfed a few times in the process as well. Just to illustrate the nerf, what seems like a big hit at 55 isn't going to stay as big as you level up. 4k at lvl 55 is good, 4k at lvl 80 ain't so hot.
x0rtrunks wrote: Thanks for clearing that up. I'll have to review the update notes or was it a stealth nerf? Edited to add I checked the update notes, and the last listed note was for Game Updeate 38 back in September. It says the damage varies by level of opponent. SOE's spell listing for DF is a mismash. It has the GU38 3 minute recast time, but still says it can't be used on Heroic or Epic targets. End of edit Never having tried to use DF on a named, I wouldn't have noticed that. You' You're quite right. 4K @ 55 = pretty good 4K @ 80 = pretty lame And pardon me for seeming like a total noob, but what's the problem with not doing a critical hit with a combat art that was designed to do 100% damage (and kill the target) to begin with? I mean dead is dead, unless your looking to hit the mob so hard eir grandkids will feel it.
Cukia@Butcherblock wrote: Because getting a critical hit on a spell that does 25% damage on a heroic mob = 40-50% instead. ... Not to mention it was really awesome to just see the achievement of reaching 6 digit hits.
Soe and the nerf bat ... either an ability is overpowered or useless. For me dev fist should be a 100% chance to kill a non heroic mob (with 100% hit chance .. i miss 50% of the time ... it's pretty anonying and you cant count on it) on heroic 25% hp seems fine for me (if you can hit ...) on epic i would give it another effect if they dont want us to use it or remove the stun part of it.
