The encounter power Path of the Blade is a low level ability now, and during the first 30 levels of this character it's been my least used. Relatively. Smoke Bomb and Bait and Switch I haven't used at all, so I suppose PotB is better than either of those... but it's not what it was.
It used be a fire-and-forget damage aura that I'd activate at the start of an instance and leave running. It didn't do a lot of damage but it was free damage, and seeing as this isn't City of Heroes it didn't wipe out my endurance. I did drop it eventually, when I realised that it was drawing a lot of aggro, but it was a fun ability for casual runs.
The new PotB only runs for about 12 seconds. That it needs to be recast isn't really the issue I'm having with it – it's that when casting it I'm striking a pose with arms outstretched like I'm on stage and while I'm doing this I'm not moving.
Standing still is not something I want to be doing in Neverwinter. There's a lot of damage incoming and a lot of it can be dodged if I'm watching for the red zones that appear a second or two before an attack hits. This is the game that made me love dodge mechanics... and I can't dodge if I'm rooted in a power animation.
I had this same problem with Duellist's Flurry last time. A 1 second animation time might not seem like a lot, but I feel like I've been taking a lot of damage during those single seconds of not moving, and the damage that Path of the Blade is dealing is not making up for that.
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