Utility of raking talons in WB

[Hakker]

Hello,

I understand that Raking Talon is useful in scenarios, but what about in ORVR? If you are in a warband and each tank uses their Challenge (which is far better), Raking Talon doesn't seem to add much value. It doesn't provide additional damage reduction beyond what Challenge offers. So, what is the point of the tactic in ORVR? Maybe I'm missing something.

Thank you.

[Sever1n]

Maybe youre rigth. It provided me ton of prot score in city's, but blobs there usually nonstop holding in 1 position trying to overcome each other with pressure. In sc usualy same story. Still theres gaps in challenges, and they can be broken if you boxing with dps pretty fast. With talon you can constantly sit on face of WB leader decreasing all pressure from all around him by 20%, or you can use it to def heal from some st dps grps if your chalenge in cd. RVR is pretty chaotic, sometimes u can utilise talons sometimes no, especially when u tied to some jumping yolo cat diving backlines. But theres really nothing to use in 3rd stance then, blurring doesnt scale, dazzling situative and heals usualy try to avoid blob and stay afar, so talons good option to stick them every time your in 3rd into face of some dps.

[BluIzLucky]

Didn't it use to stack? 0.8x0.7=0.56 so diminished but still 14%

[nocturnalguest]

It used to stack, definitely
Cant be sure atm as MIA, but need proofs it doesn't stack anymore for such discussion

[Hakker]

I do not see many buff/debuff ability who stack in this game. I am almost certain they do not stack together.

[BluIzLucky]

I do not see many buff/debuff ability who stack in this game. I am almost certain they do not stack together.

Well, there's been plenty of exceptions to the usual stacking rules.
And the damage reduction stacking is the main reason to take Raking Talon to answer your question in OP, as most serious warbands will have Challenge/Bellow rotations for 100% uptime and RT helps shutting down blobs.

Last I tested it couple years back it stacked and haven't seen any patch notes saying otherwise.
It's easy to test, so doesn't have to be a mystery.

[PROsiak]

Just did the test on arena. It doesn't stack. Seems like there is little to zero reason to bring SM to the warband right now? I think the strongest receiver of the WW buff was always AM, after healers rework patch EoV is dead so that's out of the equation as well.

Edit. Okay false info, need to retest it, so don;t take my words for granted as for now .

[BluIzLucky]

Just did the test on arena. It doesn't stack. Seems like there is little to zero reason to bring SM to the warband right now? I think the strongest receiver of the WW buff was always AM, after healers rework patch EoV is dead so that's out of the equation as well.

Edit. Okay false info, need to retest it, so don;t take my words for granted as for now .

Yeah, testing in arena is a bit dodgy at best of times.

Here's how to test:
1 x SM (with RT and Menance)
1 x other order tank

1. Go PvE, SM pull any mob and build aggro.
2. Other tank Challenges mob, SM takes a 70% hit.
3. SM uses RT/DT, SM should now take a 56% hit.
4. Repeat with combinations of M3 Bellow + Challenge + RT, all 3 should give a 28% hit.

[PROsiak]

I did the test in an enviroment like that:
1 SM
1 Mara

1. Mara keeps auto attacking pve mob.
2. SM cast challenge on mara
3. SM applies talons on mara.

Result : Mara's autoattacks kept hitting with 0.7 damage multiplicator. So no stacking for these two. I could later check how it behaves with Bellow in a setup u just described.

Edit. Also confirmed on a two tanks setup. Mob which was hitting for 76, with challenge applied by the other tank dealt 53 damage, and the damage didn't go any lower with talons applied.

[BluIzLucky]

Well, that certainly looks like a free pass for all SM to go full glass cannon 2H dps, finally lore respected... lol