Uses for Pounce?

[Maladjusted]

<DIV> <DIV>Hello folks,</DIV> <DIV>not quite an assassin yet, but very soon, so posting here.</DIV> <DIV>I just got Pounce.</DIV> <DIV>Ok, so it's a stealth attack that hits up to 5 enemies.  Cool!  Tried it on some grey cons.  Hmmm ok, trivial damage.</DIV> <DIV>Does anybody use this?  Does it have a purpose in our lives?</DIV> <DIV>I can't see why I'd use it solo, as an opener it is far inferior to my backstab.</DIV> <DIV>Can't imagine I'd use it in a group, I'd break mezz or draw agro.</DIV> <DIV>In fact in any circumstance where I can achieve stealth, I can't imagine where I would use this, over one of my other stealth attacks.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I hope I'm missing something, as it was a very disappointing level 19 ability.</DIV></DIV>

[ChaosDivine]

<DIV>When I first recived pounce I tried to use it alot, Never seen much damage come from it so I've stopped useing it, besides with so many other options of attack Pounce seems a waste of time in combat</DIV>

[Salat]

<DIV>I don't use ponce that much.  Occsionally, if in a group and tank pulls a group of mobs that I know will take awhile to kill, I will use it before someone uses mezz.  Just because I know, at somepoint in the fight I will be waiting for some of my stealth attacks to recharge to use.  But its fairly, as far as I can tell, pretty much useless otherwise. IMHO.</DIV>

[syniste]

Agreed. I have used it on occasion when there was no chanter present. Figure, if you can hit 5 mobs for about 50 damage each, plus whatever poison procs, it's not all that bad. Just a small AoE.The next AoE we get is much better (level 28 I believe). Cloaked Barb? Or something like that. Anyhow, I just happened to have the Adept I upgrade on me, and it does about 2x the damage, and has a DoT effect that tics away 40 or so health per tic per mob. I went back to commonlands to finish off my orc mastery, and could run into a group of 4 grays, use this ability, and not even be able to kill them all before the DoT did. Plus, it's on a different timer than Pounce. So, to answer the question, no, I never really found a good use for pounce. But, hang in there because the AoE gets better =b

[Dormam]

<DIV>The level 28 AoE is much better like you said.  However, I for one have used pounce before and have liked it.  Its not my prefered attack by any means, but dont worry about getting aggro from using it..you wont.  Its good for about 30-50+ points of damage to 5 mobs, so it does somewhere between 200 to 250+ damage..not a bad attack just spread out.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Best use for it is if you are in a group with both wizards and beserkers who have a bunch of AoEs its great to use.  Entire groups of mobs get taken down quickly.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>They will break mez so if you have a mezzer in the group, just take it off the task bar.</DIV>

[Dhar]

I've been using it near the start of battles to DoT all the mobs with poison. Its not a high damage special at all.

[revk]

AdeptIII pounce can do approx. 100 damage per mob. Yeah, it's nothing to sneeze at.Plus the spinnning jump gives you style points A++

[walkerwi]

<DIV>Yeh I also think that the pounce animation looks pretty **mods 4 teh win!!1!** good, is the lvl28 AOE the same animation?</DIV>

[AstralDrea]

<DIV>I use pounce on all groups with 3+ mobs. It doesnt do 100+ for me yet, but 50-60 at level 20, and i have adept I. </DIV>

[khalysta]

<DIV>The real ae attack is hidden assault which you get at 27.  You do it once from stealth and then it goes off a ffew seconds later again.  Each hit is kinda small overall but when you look at the total damage done both pounce and HA are actually powerful attacks.  Mage ae's are also small damage per tick but when you think of it on 4-6 mobs it all adds up to some powerful dps.  You can easily do 2-300 damage with these attacks if not more which is on par with shadowblade or ebonblade except the damage is just more spread out.</DIV>

[Sil]

I'm still looking forward to my upgrade at level 28, but I for one love pounce.In any team that has a wiz/warlock or two against group monsters having our extra AoE just brings them down that much faster. Also, Pounce does some massive damage given the spread. Not only do you do about 50ish damage per mob from pounce alone, with poison and blade flurry going about half of the mobs will also proc a poison/swipe for even more damage. Obviously not a skill to be used in every situation, but it's really nice. I love watching the block of damage messages pop into my chat box when pounce goes off ; D

[Nagora]

<DIV>Pounce is not that great, but if you really use it on 5 mobs, the damage overall adds up to be about the same as a Shadowblade.  If you're fighting only 2-3, then it's more questionable.  In the right situation it is useful, although not the best skill we ever get.  </DIV>

[Inomi]

<DIV>When the main tank in my group pulls white / yellow mobs I tend to open up with pounce. With poison procs and blade flurry this can actualy get the mobs down to yellow status before the tank gets to them. Once doen I shrouded strike then shadow blade. I find poison blade to be to low in dealing damage at the moment. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I cant seem to find a upgrade to Hunt or Poison blade. </DIV>

[Jvaloth]

Adept 1 Pounce is nice. I use it whenever fighting multiple enemies.You will also find that your AE's dont hit mobs that a person in your group has mez'd. They avoid them and only do dmg to active enemies. I've tested this with my level 26 Barbarian Zerker and my 26 DE Assassin. AE away! (Just dont do it in Crypt of Betrayal or Edgewater drains where you'll agro 20 mobs that happen to be wandering around your feet while you are fighint!)

[Inomi]

<DIV>I dont think it attack different groups. Same with AOE spells once you are locked into a encounter the only way another group of creatures will attack is if your in agro range. Other than that AOE spells do not seem to effect this like it did in old EQ. </DIV>

[repysch]

I love pounce and use it all the time when grouped with my druid and sk friends. You get some poisons going, pounce 50-70+ on a mob and with 5 mobs, bingo, a nice possible 350+dmg with little power used and a decent recharge time. Not the best, but like most AEs it's not the amount of dmg done to each mob but a total damage compared to power used...

[Nikenin]

<DIV>I hadn't really found a use for pounce until last night when I was trying to finish the Zombie Mastery quest.  While I was in the Graveyard I could take out whole groups of Zombies with one pounce.  I got my 3 non drop quest items in no time and was on my way.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Belgarog</DIV> <DIV>23rd Lvl Ratonga Assassin</DIV> <DIV>Antonia Bayle</DIV>

[Soulfla]

<DIV>I use it more now at level 30 then I ever have, with a bezerker in your group whose AoE can do upwards of 200+ you rarely will ever gain aggro from it, and it can be used in unison with Hidden Strike, which actually has a nice DoT effect, when you have a wizard and bezerker in your group you will kill groups of mobs really fast <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Make sure you use hidden strike when its just the mob you are attacking though as it is True AoE and not just Encounter AoE</DIV>