Invulnerability during skill use?

[TheSpookyAce]

Do you guys think this is a good combat design choice? If you build your character in a way that you can constantly spam skills, you are basically invincible while facetanking the entire enemy horde or the toughest dragon on Nightmare(lol whirlwind skill go brr}. Oh there is a big attack incoming? Why dodge while you can use a skill and attack through it and take no damage. I don't remember many other games using this kind of mechanic.

[Sentient_Toaster]

There are a few skills you can take which reward you for not spamming abilities, like various rogue skills that offer bonuses based on your current momentum. But yeah, if you've got plenty of momentum generation you might as well go aggressive with ability use.

As for other games granting you invulnerability when using abilities, the modern DX:HR/DX:MD games come to mind because time essentially freezes for everybody but Adam Jensen and his victims whenever he does a takedown. You can cloak, walk up to a guard, choke him out while in what should be full view of other guards, and re-cloak without them being able to react.

[phadin]

Given you can potentially be killed in just a couple of hits, and the ability animations are particularly long at times, I think it's kinda necessary in this game. I've been playign a mage, and it's very easy to start casting a spell and then have an enemy hit you that wasn't even attacking before you started. The fact that you're immune while casting is the only reason I wouldn't be dead.

[鹏]

Agree with #2, you know the importance of casting unbeatable effects when playing Nightmare difficulty with a mage

[Mewsha]

If you play on Nightmare difficulty they are a valuable tool because enemies are extremely aggressive, and since it's not a party-based system, mage and a ranged rogue would be almost impossible to play without it.

[Maichrasar]

I think it's intentional and really pops out in Nightmare mode. Speaking only from a rogue's perspective, though, rogue is fast and dodgy, but the combat can sometimes become overheated, causing everything to derail more easily. You can be as dodgy as you like, it keeps you alive, but it also fasten the pace more and more, till you can't control it and get hit. And in Nightmare mode, a couple hits and you down. Using the skill wheel to pause time doesn't help, as you'll return to the same pace once you're out of the screen. So having i-frames from some skills is good for letting the heat cool off a bit in the middle of the fight.

[Ceredh]

Necessary in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ on-speed combat system, at least for mages. Even on Normal some tougher enemies are constantly on your toes and attacking and can twoshot you, so you can at most get off one or two light attacks before you have to dodge. Using skills would be impossible without invulnerability.

[Toad]

I would support removing the I-frames if they made it so your companions were targetable by the enemy and not having the enemy just attack you and ignore your companions.

[Chekita]

It takes time to be able to spam abilities in the game and considering almost any elite/boss moves almost kills you on Nightmare I don't think it makes much sense to change the way the game is, unless, as someone else mentioned here, there was actually a way to have tanks in the game actually tanking and the Warden skill for warrior to be able to block unblockable wasn't terrible and limited to warden or warrior. It's pretty much impossible to stay in the action to any amount of time in certain circumstances IF you can't have I-frames.
Example: Champion Darkspawn from the Warden map, he teleports every 3s and explodes every 3s, you cant stay close or far or engage without using skills. Either that or you keep auto attacking for 10h from far away IF MAGE, if not, you will use either Ranged with Rogue or Shield with warrior, which btw are almost equally terrible against an enemy that keeps jumping on you and exploding.

[Maichrasar]

Originally posted by Toad:

I would support removing the I-frames if they made it so your companions were targetable by the enemy and not having the enemy just attack you and ignore your companions.

Agreed! Enemy really aggressive towards us. Taunt really isn't that helping at drawing attention, and it's just for a short time. Most of the time I can manage the fight well enough, but that last Ghilan'nain fight when she trap our companion and we have to help them alone while she and her darkspawns all focus on us got me killed almost a dozen times. I died like 4 times the entire game before that, and none after that. It really is a hell to went through.

[Toad]

Originally posted by Maichrasar:

Originally posted by Toad:

I would support removing the I-frames if they made it so your companions were targetable by the enemy and not having the enemy just attack you and ignore your companions.

Agreed! Enemy really aggressive towards us. Taunt really isn't that helping at drawing attention, and it's just for a short time. Most of the time I can manage the fight well enough, but that last Ghilan'nain fight when she trap our companion and we have to help them alone while she and her darkspawns all focus on us got me killed almost a dozen times. I died like 4 times the entire game before that, and none after that. It really is a hell to went through.

I played a sword and board Champion tank that was able to block everything in that fight. I am convinced that class is easy/cheat mode. I took almost no damage. Currently am doing a dualist Rogue... I am not looking forward to that fight.

[TheSpookyAce]

Originally posted by Toad:

I would support removing the I-frames if they made it so your companions were targetable by the enemy and not having the enemy just attack you and ignore your companions.

I actually have seen instances of enemies attacking my teammates without taunting them(not attack my target taunt either), but yeah that's not very common at all and only after teammates engaged them first. The battlefield can be extremely chaotic and crowded I can see squishy characters need this to survive. It just looks so funny using long animation skills like whirlwind which lasts several seconds completely immune while enemies are pounding you nonstop.

[Maichrasar]

Originally posted by Toad:

Originally posted by Maichrasar:

Agreed! Enemy really aggressive towards us. Taunt really isn't that helping at drawing attention, and it's just for a short time. Most of the time I can manage the fight well enough, but that last Ghilan'nain fight when she trap our companion and we have to help them alone while she and her darkspawns all focus on us got me killed almost a dozen times. I died like 4 times the entire game before that, and none after that. It really is a hell to went through.

I played a sword and board Champion tank that was able to block everything in that fight. I am convinced that class is easy/cheat mode. I took almost no damage. Currently am doing a dualist Rogue... I am not looking forward to that fight.

Even though I went with Veil Ranger specialization, I span out to skill for the other two too. So a mix of range and melee for me. If you get to that point and feels too tired to fight, what I did was ignore everything, not a single hit or kill to darkspawn, dodge Ghilan'nain's attacks and go straight to every red things. Pops out invulnerability (fortify rune) if I have to stand still to shot the ones above our head. Hope you enjoy being rogue!

[TheSpookyAce]

Originally posted by Maichrasar:

Originally posted by Toad:

I played a sword and board Champion tank that was able to block everything in that fight. I am convinced that class is easy/cheat mode. I took almost no damage. Currently am doing a dualist Rogue... I am not looking forward to that fight.

Even though I went with Veil Ranger specialization, I span out to skill for the other two too. So a mix of range and melee for me. If you get to that point and feels too tired to fight, what I did was ignore everything, not a single hit or kill to darkspawn, dodge Ghilan'nain's attacks and go straight to every red things. Pops out invulnerability (fortify rune) if I have to stand still to shot the ones above our head. Hope you enjoy being rogue!

I actually think veil ranger is one of the strongest specialization in the game because the damage potential is just insane. The only thing holding it back is the mandatory damage cap put into the game(9999) so I can't one shot enemies on Nightmare. I tried using daggers and immediately lost all my health in the middle of my attacking. But yeah one of the few instances my archer was struggling was the fight you are talking about since I can't put my high damage to use and with very little support my defense sucks.

[Maichrasar]

Originally posted by TheSpookyAce:

Originally posted by Maichrasar:

Even though I went with Veil Ranger specialization, I span out to skill for the other two too. So a mix of range and melee for me. If you get to that point and feels too tired to fight, what I did was ignore everything, not a single hit or kill to darkspawn, dodge Ghilan'nain's attacks and go straight to every red things. Pops out invulnerability (fortify rune) if I have to stand still to shot the ones above our head. Hope you enjoy being rogue!

I actually think veil ranger is one of the strongest specialization in the game because the damage potential is just insane. The only thing holding it back is the mandatory damage cap put into the game(9999) so I can't one shot enemies on Nightmare. I tried using daggers and immediately lost all my health in the middle of my attacking. But yeah one of the few instances my archer was struggling was the fight you are talking about since I can't put my high damage to use and with very little support my defense sucks.

I think so too. I feel like a beast when going against dragons or big slow enemies. It's just that I'm bad at aiming with controller, so I can't took advantage of the weakpoint mechanic to the fullest, only some perfect moment I can pull it off. So I have to span out a bit to have more survivability. Fighting in tight spaces or too many enemies rushing to me is my death sentence. But I think if we got a passive skill or something to unlock the cap, Veil Ranger gonna go wild.

That said, I use Explosive Daggers for damage, and armor-barrier breaker, Storm's Path for pushing enemies back or off the cliff, and Rain of Decay for stunt lock small enemies or even some bosses. So yeah, two out of three skills for exploit i-frame. Really can't live if they don't make invulnerability during skill a thing here lol