Melee
Crescent Cleave:For the go-to attack, you can do much worse than a cleave. I like it.
Harm Touch:Good damage, but as I've leveled it has been less and less helpful in dire situations. So just like EQ!
I expect it to be our focus for talents (... just like EQ!), so any suggestion I make will be quite obvious (reduce cooldown to 3 minutes, give it a life leech, more damage, etc.), because to do otherwise might make it too powerful early on.
Gasping Frenzy:It took me a bit, but I finally found that it does indeed give mana leech. The only problem is that it seems to be 1 ? so .3% of my damage on normal difficulty? Combine that with each hit doing less than a normal cleave and the ability loses its luster fast.
Still, with even a small amount of mana leech gear this isn't a problem, so my only concern is with the base damage being lower than the cleave, and with the cooldown that doesn't follow the pattern of 3 that most other sk abilities have. Reduce it to 18 seconds and I would be a lot happier with it.
Death Strike:Hard hitting and has a boost to life leech, I love it. Even the cooldown seems spot on at 12 seconds.
Slam:I love the stun, and the cooldown seems just long enough to mean I can't cakewalk with casters, even with fear, but short enough that I don't get overly antsy in the pantsy.
I will say that it took me far too long to see how much damage slam deals when you have a proper shield equipped. For most of my leveling, I tried a 2-hander, but that just doesn't work for your game. A sword/board not only gives you more item attributes to equip, but with slam, you actually deal better damage as sword/board.
Magic
In general the cast times seem too long for a hybrid by about .5 seconds. As a hybrid, I feel that 2 seconds is the cutoff point; over 2 seconds, and I probably won't use it. As a quick aside, does spell haste affect the tool tip? I tried gearing for it to test (went to 12% w/shimmering orb and magefists); unfortunately I not see a noticeable difference, and the tool tip didn?t change. I am left to think that it isn't working.
Life Tap:Okay cast time and the heal is decent (~20% at 50+). Since it is our only spell for active healing, I do wish the cooldown was shorter, say 24 - 30 seconds.
Fear:Great spell with a good cast time, and it has seen very active usage, especially against healers. The mana cost is about a full bubble, which isn't so horrible considering the 45 sec cooldown, but I wouldn't be displeased to see this reduced to ~36 seconds.
Dooming Darkness:I tried to like this spell, but I just can't. Cast time needs to be brought down to at least 2 seconds to see any use, and if the snare actually works, I'm not seeing it. Easier to just root runners with fear than to bother with this dot.
Heat Blood:Decent dot and okay cast time, but the fact that it has a cooldown is confusing. The dot doesn't do enough damage to warrant it, and it has no other effect. If it had any sort of debuff, or buff for myself such as the ranger's snare, then sure, but even with that 25 seconds seems excessive. But for right now, I use it when I think about it only because the cast time doesn't make me feel like I am wasting the effort.
Siphon Strength:I love the strength buff, but the debuff ... well, I don't notice a difference. The major problem is the cast time; at 2.5 it really doesn't get used outside of rebuffing myself. It really should have a cast time of 1.5.
Shadow Vortex:As Siphon Strength, except it has the good cast time of 1.5. I am still doubtful it helps, but I do cast it for the AC debuff, especially against champions.
Resting Buffs
Summon Dead & Strengthen Dead:Love the pet and the buff/heal. As long as I don't get too many mobs up, he tends to stay alive fairly well. I actually feel like I am benefiting from scouring the markets for +conj gear.
I do wish the pet had skills as the EQ version did: slam and kick at pet L7, double attack at pet L16, dual wield fists at pet L29, lifetap at pet L33. I would also love to see the little fella lob some fireballs, say at pet L41 (when the necro pets got either backstab or flying kick).
Vampiric Embrace:Love it; it is such a simple and effective buff.
Resist Cold:... Well, at least it will be helpful vs. vox. As a suggestion, I would rename this to Banshee Aura, and add a damage shield component.
Suggestions
Our damage seems good for a hybrid tank, but I do have my concerns over the lack of any activated defensive skills. Far too often I am finding myself without a tool to save my ass except by feign death and fear; life tap is starting to not help much when the mobs are hitting me for 100?s with physical, and even less with spells (zek help me if it is a fireball). I would really like to see harm shield (short duration invulnerability) or diamond skin (rune) put into the game.