Assassin's Poison in epics

[brzytki]

Here is something you definitely wouldn't believe in if i hadn't back it up with a screenie.

So, you remember those almost-useless-above-lvl-10 assassin's poisons but let me quote after wiki:

Active Benefit: Choose one of 3 kinds of poison, Assassin's Focus: Soulshatter (1d3 Wisdom damage, 6 seconds of -4 Will saves and -10 Spell Resistance), Assassin's Focus: Icechill (1d3 Dexterity damage, 6 seconds of 50% slowed attacks), Assassin's Focus: Thoughtburn (1d3 Intelligence damage, 6 seconds of no spellcasting). For 60 sec, your sneak attacks will have a 33% chance of applying that poison. If the target fails a DC 19 Fortitude save, the effect triggers on it. In addition, you have +2 to hit with sneak attacks and +20 to confirm critical hits.

What makes it almost useless is bolded. Now have a look at my screenshot.



Epic content, giant (they have nice fort saves), CR 38
And i swear it didn't proc one time only, it was there for almost the whole time. What happened? Have devs boosted it recently or is it some kind of a bug?

[cardmj1]

[kamimitsu]

This warrants further investigation!

Not by me mind you... I'll just wait for MrCow. I'm sure he already knows exactly how/why this works and if it can be used to your advantage.

[LookingForABentoBox]

Fights on epic last longer than fights on non epic, so he probably rolled a 1

[Crazyfruit]

So, you remember those almost-useless-above-lvl-10 assassin's poisons

They're only useless on the ddo forums

Ingame, they're a lil bit helpful. My assassins used up all of theirs all the time in epics... mainly for the to hit bonus when I'm not in a mass hold or firewall zzzzquest. But yeah, the monster spretty much have to roll a 1-5 or so for the extra stuff to work.

[Hokonoso]

dc probably scales with rogue level or something as a dc 35 fort save flesh to stone fails over 50% of the time on sobrien it seems so a 19 fort will fail 95% of the time meaning if it goes on a 5, the dc is much higher than it says.

[NaturalHazard]

off topic but i remember when I first went into epic i tried out a pick that on top of the other stuff it had on it also had para, and it procced quite a bit, for some reason. And everyone was asking me is that some kinda new greater para weapon you using there? Stuff where rolling ones quite a bit, but if you think of it thats a 5% chance of happening and we use vorps a fair bit (not in epic obviously) and thats only a 5% chance of vorpaling something. So I guess its not so bad to use something that even if it works on them it only works on a roll of one, thats if you use it not at the cost of losing something else. I didnt have much better to use in my offhand at the time, good thing for me is the bursts and maiming I had on the pick worked on the stuff we where fighting, and sometimes I icy/shocking would para the stuff to help with the CC even if it was for a short time.

[Draccus]

Assassins have poison?

[fuzzy1guy]

Monsters roll 1's too.

Sometimes quite often.

[Calebro]

Assassins have poison?

Yeap.
Vodka rocks, double, splash tonic, two limes.

[.Revenga.]

5% chance mob rolls a 1
33% chance the poison applies on the attack
--> 1.66% chance it gets poisoned with each sneak attack

not much, but it will certainly happen.

[brzytki]

They're only useless on the ddo forums

Ingame, they're a lil bit helpful. My assassins used up all of theirs all the time in epics... mainly for the to hit bonus when I'm not in a mass hold or firewall zzzzquest. But yeah, the monster spretty much have to roll a 1-5 or so for the extra stuff to work.

That's why i wrote "almost useless", to-hit bonus is nice but i meant the effect that can proc.

And i know mobs roll 1's too but as i said earlier:

And i swear it didn't proc one time only, it was there for almost the whole time.

so either there was sth wrong or the giant had really bad luck and rolled 1 at least once per let's say ~10 sec with a proc rate of 1,66%.

[ghettoGenius]

Ive cried about these poisons long ago and nothing was done. There wasnt even much interest from the community back then, they just accepted it and said "but hey look, you get assassinate and auto vorpal at 12/18". Perhaps its time to cry again? I wouldnt be surprised if they made the poisons scalable with lvl, but this should be easily revealed by mousing over the poison in your hotbar.

Also, while we are here b!tching, those durations are so paltry its embarrassing. An applied poison should last at least 60 seconds (or maybe 20 seconds per assassin tier) and the ability damage should scale at least a little bit (1d3 per tier perhaps). It's probably too much to ask for an increase in the DC, even tho fort 19 is probably the lowest static DC based enhancement any class gets in the game - with no way to increase (even monks get a chance to boost wis/cha for their curses).

Edit: Hell I would even be open to an enhancement line that boosts poison effectiveness, even tho I know most of us would have trouble squeezing that in.

[Hokonoso]

i dont even use em, what do i care if the guy im SA'ing is casting on the tank/healer? they can die for all i care

i do have it on my hotbar tho cause it is useful for some cases...