SM Best Xform?

[Fingers-DN]

Some people say Viola some say Frigida what do other SM's think?

[imTingTing-DN]

SM needs both Attack and Cast speed If you can't afford Viola/Modor or you are too lazy to consistently change between them then Frigida will be good enough

[GarbageSM-DN]

On 16/05/2019 at 10:02 AM, Germ-DN said:

SM needs both Attack and Cast speed If you can't afford Viola/Modor or you are too lazy to consistently change between them then Frigida will be good enough

So pretty much any kind works

[SevenLions-KT]

I actually was going to make a post asking about something related to this. There's different need between PvE and PvP though. With PvE you're casting a lot more vs PvP where things like buff stripping and kb and soul are 0s casts and more animation dependent. 

First, Modor: NOPE. -- Don't let AT's/Gunners tell you how great it is. For SMs, it's most definitely useless in PvE, and barely worth anything in PvP, unless you think you can kill someone off 24s cd Soul tether and Erosion.

I think 35% cast vs 23% atk/17% cast is more interesting since they've seemingly removed the old cast speed 50% cap. Here's where I was going to post on the subject: 0s cast vs. instant cast. I'm not sure if it's just in my head but I notice having higher cast speed makes 0s cast skills faster, which makes little sense but still. (I'd like someone else to verify/confirm this.)

I think I'd go with Viola for PvE for sure, and it's a toss between Frigida and Viola for PvP, depending on your latency, reaction time, and skill combination and whether the situation calls for more 0s skills (soul, implo, ero, earth) or cast time skills (nightmare/fear, silence, pain/cyclone). Also on your daevaenion skills unlocked ofc, like Frigida for spamming inescapable choke -- which is the last one I just cannot seem to get 

[Malachyte-KT]

On 5/24/2019 at 2:25 PM, SevenLions-KT said:

I actually was going to make a post asking about something related to this. There's different need between PvE and PvP though. With PvE you're casting a lot more vs PvP where things like buff stripping and kb and soul are 0s casts and more animation dependent. 

First, Modor: NOPE. -- Don't let AT's/Gunners tell you how great it is. For SMs, it's most definitely useless in PvE, and barely worth anything in PvP, unless you think you can kill someone off 24s cd Soul tether and Erosion.

I think 35% cast vs 23% atk/17% cast is more interesting since they've seemingly removed the old cast speed 50% cap. Here's where I was going to post on the subject: 0s cast vs. instant cast. I'm not sure if it's just in my head but I notice having higher cast speed makes 0s cast skills faster, which makes little sense but still. (I'd like someone else to verify/confirm this.)

I think I'd go with Viola for PvE for sure, and it's a toss between Frigida and Viola for PvP, depending on your latency, reaction time, and skill combination and whether the situation calls for more 0s skills (soul, implo, ero, earth) or cast time skills (nightmare/fear, silence, pain/cyclone). Also on your daevaenion skills unlocked ofc, like Frigida for spamming inescapable choke -- which is the last one I just cannot seem to get 

Some 0s casts are wonky it seems when it comes to executing the skill faster where instant casts def benefit more from Atk speed xform. I've tried using Atk speed only vs cast speed only xforms on training dummies and found that some 0s cast skills tend to do the faster cast/animation sometimes on either and not consistently (Soul Tether/Monkey Darts is an example of this) but some skills like Inescapable Choke/Erosion/Chain of Earth seem to always benefit from ATK speed xform. It may even have more to do with using 0s casts while moving vs staying still for 0s cast skills. It's def best to have both because after a cast time skill like Soul Rend, you def benefit from ATK speed animation to move on to the next skill or run around.  Kaisinel xform for sure would be the most ideal for now until the new ultimate xforms in 7.2 and even then it is def viable.

Also, pure CC skills that fully disable the player controls like sleep and fear are NOT affected by cast speed reduction buffs (and I want to say they don't get affected by cast speed increase debuffs either but can't remember atm) but the instant cast versions def benefit from the faster ATK speed animation.  Normal FEAR/Ginseng will always take 2s to cast and Nightmare Shriek line will always be 1.5s unless you use the Nightmare Lament Daevian skill which turns it into 0.5s casts. Silence on the other hand is def cast speed reduction affected.

For me personally, I think faster cast speed of Viola/Bolvig (if you need for cap run speed too) is more viable in PVP if only because outside of Inescapable Choke spam which was nerfed to 4s cool down, the other 0s casts can also be done on the move and do relatively lower damage where as if you're debuffing, nuking, dotting them (Sandstorm,IP, and Cyclones)  they all require cast times which are no different than self-imposed roots to sit still and cast, so the faster the casts the faster you can get back to moving around to possibly avoid taking unnecessary damage.

My latency is 12-16ms btw.  I play on 200Mbs upload and download fiber connection from Dallas, TX (NCSoft servers are like 3hrs away in Austin, TX) if you want to know this info for testing.

 

 

[Neleth-KT]

7 hours ago, Malachyte-KT said:

Some 0s casts are wonky it seems when it comes to executing the skill faster where instant casts def benefit more from Atk speed xform. I've tried using Atk speed only vs cast speed only xforms on training dummies and found that some 0s cast skills tend to do the faster cast/animation sometimes on either and not consistently (Soul Tether/Monkey Darts is an example of this) but some skills like Inescapable Choke/Erosion/Chain of Earth seem to always benefit from ATK speed xform. It may even have more to do with using 0s casts while moving vs staying still for 0s cast skills. It's def best to have both because after a cast time skill like Soul Rend, you def benefit from ATK speed animation to move on to the next skill or run around.  Kaisinel xform for sure would be the most ideal for now until the new ultimate xforms in 7.2 and even then it is def viable.

Also, pure CC skills that fully disable the player controls like sleep and fear are NOT affected by cast speed reduction buffs (and I want to say they don't get affected by cast speed increase debuffs either but can't remember atm) but the instant cast versions def benefit from the faster ATK speed animation.  Normal FEAR/Ginseng will always take 2s to cast and Nightmare Shriek line will always be 1.5s unless you use the Nightmare Lament Daevian skill which turns it into 0.5s casts. Silence on the other hand is def cast speed reduction affected.

For me personally, I think faster cast speed of Viola/Bolvig (if you need for cap run speed too) is more viable in PVP if only because outside of Inescapable Choke spam which was nerfed to 4s cool down, the other 0s casts can also be done on the move and do relatively lower damage where as if you're debuffing, nuking, dotting them (Sandstorm,IP, and Cyclones)  they all require cast times which are no different than self-imposed roots to sit still and cast, so the faster the casts the faster you can get back to moving around to possibly avoid taking unnecessary damage.

My latency is 12-16ms btw.  I play on 200Mbs upload and download fiber connection from Dallas, TX (NCSoft servers are like 3hrs away in Austin, TX) if you want to know this info for testing.

 

 

Interesting o_o

Does it mean some 0 cast skills are affected by cast speed ? Is it a case of ranger too ?