Yeah, I’m a bit nostalgic at times. I thought it would fit OP’s “3)” nicely, since it’s a weapon attack thing. Do damage to things thing. Would you like a generic “incision” skill doing just pierce and bleeding? 16 point sink, PB as bread, incision as butter?
The charge seemed more fun to me, having a lvl30-35 relic giving me a chance to take up the skill is not my idea of reliable. It’s like building around Ferrus Gnosi. You may never get it to drop.
Agree with this. I don’t think anyone would like to see GD become SC2’s micromanagement hell with a ton of Pneuma-like skills that have more frequent upkeeps. :eek:
No idea, I also didn’t know that 100% of people would have to hate it for it to not be a good idea 
I am expressing my opinion here, if it were to get implemented, I would definitely not pick that skill.
What I do know is that there are several mods which lengthen the durations and none to shorten them
I mean hell, you could say the same thing about pneumatic burst. It fits in the same category as a short cooldown, short duration buff. Clearly, it cannot decide what it wants to be either.
I was saying the same thing about PB, here (in the post you replied to) and in other threads
It’s redeeming quality is that it at least lasts 10 or so seconds, not 2 like the one you proposed. The one thing that might be a reason to keep it as it is, is the healing it does. By making it passive, it would become constant and therefore lowered (the healing runs out / heals you fully before the buffs run out).
I prefer a higher heal burst over a constant low one.
The proposed skill does not have anything like that, so there is no reason for it to not be a passive or LMB.
Lets just make everything passive and be done with it, k? That sounds like a good proposition.
We are getting off topic, but i thought Arcanist was going to be a pure mage class too. Now a pure mage class in my book does all types of damage: fire, cold, arcane, etc. Thats why i made the above comment. I haven’t seen any arcanist drops in Act 1 so i didn’t know it was going to be aether centered only. If it is, it won’t be the class i expected it was gonna be.
I agree with all points. I have been particularly critical of the DB proc and really like the idea of changing it to a passive.
Great to know we are being heard. 
Since the DW skills require fast attacks to proc more often how about the new skill is a passive ability (since nightblade already has a lot of on use skills) that every so often adds an additional basic attack in between your auto attacks, so you have an increased chance for the other DW skills to proc, kinda like the old dw passive but im thinking its more frequent and on an icd so you can use it intelligently rather than it being random. Dunno what the cd could be, maybe 5 seconds? 10 seconds? dunno im not a developer
If it were up to me, PB wouldn’t have to be refreshed every 15 seconds or whatever. Activating it would only give you the heal. That’s essentially how it works right now, except the annoying part that is refreshing the buff all the god damn time. Hoping someone will take the time making a mod to sort it out.
Obviously, I didn’t quite fancy the short buffs in TL2 either. Refreshing buffs all the time is not what I’d call fun. I’d rather have them being a weaker, passive, buff. For an active skill to be considered fun in my eyes, it really has to do more than refresh a buff that you want/need activated all the time.
Actually a good proposition is to not have skills that last x seconds and have a cooldown of almost the same length. Which is what we are talking about here.
Those skills are for all intents and purposes passives that need to be refreshed, which is annoying.
There is nothing wrong with active skills, buffs that last 20+ seconds and have 40+ second cooldowns, and yes, there is also nothing wrong with passives.
What is wrong is skills that require constant reactivation but otherwise work like passives.
If it could be separated into a passive and an active part with CD like that (without turning it into two skills…) that would be my preferred choice as well.
With the NB being a mostly active attack and defense based class, PB was suppose to be used when you see a tougher enemy or group ahead. You prepare for a second and jump in.
TL2 was often an armor/resist-check and there was a limit to what control one had over what happened. To keep the game challenging, buffs were included in the check balancing. Skill was something you tried to add to the mix.
The less control one has, the more permanent buffs you need.
I think the NB needs to cut down the normal enemies faster and smaller groups. That would lead to greater control, leading to temporary effects being a tactical decision. A skill or the mastery could provide that permanent learned attack expertise. Thus, it would be a permanent buff but only enough to support tactical gameplay skill.
Of course, some an additional active attack or defensive skill of lesser effect could also be used instead.
I completely agree. It would be like constant/passive auras having to be refreshed all the time, which is basicly what PB is. However, I think the reason they made it an active skill is simply the healing, which is great. There should be an easy way to change things around a bit in order to make PB constant though. Worst case scenario, forgoing the healing :(.
Regarding the OP, I think that the best ideas so far are more psn/cold synergies.
I think this might be past the “don’t go too crazy” part, as it may require new animation, but I thought of a skill “simular” to the old Poison Nova from D2.
Now hear me out. An activated skill that expands in a ring or cloud of poison or frostburn damage that freezes, slows or poisons the enemies it comes in contact with. Could even be phantasmal blades imbued with cold or blades coated in poison.
Which element it should be, what effect it should have, the cooldown, the damage and radius is all debatable. However, I think it would fit quite well. It would be an AoE spell, it would either slow or poison the enemies, giving you a sort of crowd control or easier way to kill mobs with single attacks, and it would work great with something like Merciless Repertoire or any other buffs like it.
^So a casting skill that is AoE and has CC?
Sounds like Blade Trap and Blade Swarm with the latter being removed due to too many caster skills.
I’m hoping for an active skill where the NightBLADE actually gains another blade/melee oriented attack. Otherwise you are stuck with the DW tree and only have Shadow Strike as your other option.
Nothing I stated was anything even remotely like a passive.
I mean, lets make blood of dreeg a passive right? Constantly having to activate it, like omg so tedious. It’s not like it even does anything besides health regen, so just make it permanent right!
Or blast shield, I mean really, why not? Why do we even have to reactivate it anyway?
Lets take all the skill out of games that require skill, thats a great idea. I love it.
You might have a point. I see the simularities with Blade Trap, if Blade Trap was changed to an AoE spell, but not at all with Swarm though. This should however be far more effective. Working with synergies and dealing affects. It’s mores for the affects. It should pass through the enemies and not bind them or deal too much damage, which would allow it too feel fast and not slow your momentum. This should be something you cast while engaging in combat, not fleeing from it. That’s how I would play it anyway.
If we are talking about a purely melee attack, it should be AoE right? I love me some WW, but I guess that skill should be left alone. Maybe Shadowstriking several targets, lowering the damage? Kinda hard come up with something that is not too crazy, original and differ from say the soldier skills.
I already stated my idea on a single target melee attack which deals AoE damage as well. Damage would probably be less on the AoE attack and there would most likely be a short cooldown as well.
Yes, just re-read it. Might combine the two. A single target hit that deals damage outward from that target, that then could work the way I proposed lol.
Anyway, some good input so far, can’t wait to see the changes they make!
Thanks for the ideas everyone, it helped me find what I think is the right direction for the new skill, given that it couldn’t require any special programming.
Here are the names and descriptions of the new skills, which will appear in B17:
Lethal Gambit
A risky technique favored by the nightblade master Amarasta. Lethal Gambit has the potential to inflict devastating harm when carried off perfectly, but with the risk that it may falter, causing only minor injury.
Amarasta’s Blade Burst
Mastery of the Lethal Gambit technique enhances it with a burst of dozens of deadly phantasmal blades which spread out from the point of attack to damage all adjacent foes.
The initial skill causes cold, %current life, stun and chance of +%pierce, while the modifier inflicts pierce, bleed and %wpn dmg.
That sounds interesting - I’m looking forward to trying it out in B17!
cold damage
% of enemie’s current life
stun
chance of +%pierce
pierce damage
bleed damage
% weapon damage
is this correct? sorry that I had to break it down, im a little slow