Ice Storm (Celtic Dual 18 style)

[EZ_Valarauco]

Anyone know the duration of the stun on Ice Storm? How's the damage bonus compared to, say, Garrote?

[EZ_Jammermon]

Whissper's (CD Spec Assassin) Ice storm seems to last about 4 seconds...

Jammer's (Pierce/Envenom Spec Assassin) Diamondback after evade (triples) lasts 7+ seconds.

Jammer (hot)
Whissper (parked)

[EZ_Valarauco]

I'd recommend against triple-diamondbacking. Diamondback lasts about 3-4 seconds, I'll use 4 for an example for ease of illustration:

Diminishing Returns (DR) halves the duration of many effects, including stun, each time it is used on a particular target in a short period.

Diamondback #1: 4 seconds
Diamondback #2: 2 seconds
Diamondback #3: 1 second
Diamondback #4: (at this point you probably get a "This effect cannot be used on this target any more" message, though I'm not positive if that's stun4 or stun5)

Because DB#2 is being executed before DB#1's stun is over, you're overwriting the original stun with a diminished duration stun, effectively gaining no stun time. The total time stunned works out to about 4-5 seconds out of a possible 7. The problem is exacerbated if you landed CD at the beginning of the fight.

When I evade, I hit Diamondback>Hamstring>Diamondback>Hamstring>Leaper. 6ish seconds of stunnage, four (of my) rounds of them not being able to attack me (I am usually attacked before the Leaper lands). Adding another Diamondback>Hamstring to the beginning of that is possible if you're using fast weapons and didn't CD at the beginning. In addition, Hamstring and Leaper do an awesome amount of damage for relatively low fatigue cost, and each of those styles has a defensive bonus: you're likely to keep on evading.

Thanks much for the answer on Ice Storm. I was wondering if that would be a useful opening style for targets I'm Enervating instead of Perforating. I think the answer is definitely yes.

edit: begone, smileys Edited by: Valarauco at: 3/20/02 4:10:45 pm

[EZ_Caith Caidh]

<sighs> Diamondback is another of the reasons I regret having gone blade spec... On the other hand, I tend to forget about that whenever I fight another assassin.

[EZ_Valarauco]

*sigh* Delve info on Ice Storm doesn't list a stun. Just damage, to_hit, and no defense penalty. A great deal of the "spoiler sites" (daoc.catacombs.com for example) list incorrect information on styles and style chains. Edited by: Valarauco at: 3/21/02 5:07:40 am