I don’t get how Nightblade can use that skill. I has cooldown. It has huge energy cost (41 at lvl10, 65 at lvl 16). It is only somewhat useful for cold based builds. It requires a lot of skill points investment. I’d rather use Troll’s Rage for 8 energy cost or Shard of Beronath and it will give me as much damage at 7 stacks and I can spend skill points on other useful skills. Even not skill (default attack) is better because you can allocate those skill poinst for other skills.
As a right-click damage dealing skill I’d rather use Shadow Strike.
I’m always confused about it. Using as a default attack doesnt seem to be much chop, and its soo costly to use - and using normal weapon attack then right click for AMarasta for its CD doesnt really do much…
For now, as you say, i’ll spend points in other stuff,
I’ll occasionally use ABB for leveling for the first 6 levels or so, as it clears mobs really quickly early on, but then I’ll respect as soon as I can spend those points elsewhere. So, I’d never actually use it regularly / in a proper build.
I wanted to ask pretty much exactly this question. Its area is too small at min point investment for use as a devotion proc, even with marginal (or even full!) point investment its damage is merely/barely passable, and even Lethal Assault (the proc buff) doesn’t really do enough to justify putting even a single point in blade burst.
I’m just stuck wondering… what is this skill meant to be for?
ABB is a circumstantial useful skill not because of its damage, but due to Lethal Assault and its inherent CC. It is useful for poison Witch Hunters, for example, as it gives flat acid damage, a massive boost to OA and +%poison that applies to all attacks.
The idea is extremely simple: lethal assault will last 3 seconds, during which you will cycle 7 different DoTs in 3 seconds and put around 120k DoTs. This burst DoT shotgun, in conjunction with falcon scoop and 26/12 + 20/12 in SS line at 2 s cooldown will create dps comparable to a full gear Blademaster.
The build I am explaining does not exist on this forum because I never took the time to write a guide. Is is, however, the most powerful and balanced poison build you can construct (200k+ dots, 0 deaths, overcapped resistances, 20% physical resistance, all content clear) because it allows you to destroy all enemies without taking the risk of stacking DoTs through WPS (like most WH will wrongly try to do).
Watch this video to see how ABB can be used with 14/12 Lethal Assault to create burst DoTs (i.e. 150k+ dps):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zNo8l8zLxE
@OP:
Personally I just ABB on builds which don’t have an auto attack and can’t proc devotion on left click. It’s also nice for debuffing mobs since you have 100% weapon damage at 6/16 and affect mobs in a radius, so Mark of Dreeg would work on all of them.
Aether/fire spellbreaker: aetherfire
Vitality/chaos witch-hunter: twin fangs
Acid/poison witch-hunter: the thing with 6 spikes