Shadows of Mordor Question: The Drain Ability

[happyninja42]

Ok so, I don't really get the practicality of this power. I mean, so far all it does it replenish my wraith arrow stuff. Which I find to be somewhat redundant since arrows are pretty common all over the place. The only way I can see it being useful is to replenish the power that you use to do the other stuff with wraith power? Like teleporting to a target with the arrow thing, and I guess maybe some other powers I'll get later? *shrugs*

It just seems sort of useless. I mean, it doesn't hurt the enemy at all, and if you are in the middle of a pitched fight with 40+ Uruk, you don't have time to do a Drain ability without one of them whacking you on the head. Maybe that will change with Combat Drain, but I still don't see the point, as I've yet to see a power I can use mid-fight with the Wraith that takes energy, and isn't simply built off my combo multiplier.

I guess maybe it's useful if you're doing hit and runs? Leap in, kill a handful of Uruk in a big cluster, then warp out? *shrugs* Problem I find is having enough time to even do this without the gang beating on you.

I find it way easier to just combo slaughter them all, or come in stealthy and cut them down one by one.


So..yeah, Drain power, I don't get it.

Anyone mind giving me some practical uses for this thing?

Thanks

Edit:

Oh, and just in case this is relevant, I haven't unlocked Brand yet. I'm working on Tier 3 powers, and I think I'm just 1 story mission away from Brand. Trying to accomplish this, but running into some tough resistance. Not sure if later powers might change the game with Drain, but so far, it seems pretty unnecessary.

 

[Elfgore]

Yeah, brand does change everything. Drain becomes a dual-ability... ability. You not only get arrows, you get an orc to fight by your side as well when you use it. Combat brand becomes a lifesaver later on in the game. You also get the shadow mount and shadow kill ability, both of which are very useful and consume arrows. Without shadow mount, mounting Graugs(the massive trolls) is a real pain in the ass.

 

[ATXYankee02]

A lot of the abilities seem to only work well when you have other augments unlocked. Combat drain + head popper (can't think of the skill name) causing the Uruk's to recoil in terror is a decent CC, and it becomes super effective when your chain requirement is dropped from 8 to 5 and you have the ability to double special.

 

[Gdek]

Also there are some runes that heal you quite a bit when using drain. Combine that with the head popping skill and you've got a pretty potent weapon, killing one orc, getting some health back, causing a few to flee for instant throwing dagger kills, while also refilling your bow to pick off the tougher targets in a fight.

 

[happyninja42]

So it's mostly useful in conjunction with the right runes to help sustain you in combat, and for crowd control? K, that I can work with I guess. Just need to purchase some of those 1st and 2nd tier abilities that I didn't bother with, the messy ones. xD

I think I can buy the head explode power now actually, just never bothered with it because I didn't like having the enemies run away xD I like having them in stabbing range.

 

[Gdek]

So it's mostly useful in conjunction with the right runes to help sustain you in combat, and for crowd control? K, that I can work with I guess. Just need to purchase some of those 1st and 2nd tier abilities that I didn't bother with, the messy ones. xD

I think I can buy the head explode power now actually, just never bothered with it because I didn't like having the enemies run away xD I like having them in stabbing range.

Haha, unfortunately stabbing range works both ways. The throwing dagger skill that allows for instant kills on fleeing targets makes it pretty fun. Especially when you kill a captain and half the orcs run, I just start spamming daggers and watch them all fall.

 

[Barbas]

Well, if I'm only fighting a small group of orcs (say five or less) or a captain and a small group, it can help take distracting orcs out of the fight, if temporarily. I like to wrath-stun them and do the follow-up flurry of attacks, building up enough for an execution - the F key kind, not the Shift+LMB ground execution, since the latter often means getting hit in the back. When I've whittled the numbers down enough that the danger of being interrupted is sufficiently lessened, I hold E to drain one or two when I get the chance; it keeps them stunned and immobilized temporarily and gets me more focus that I can use if I want to mix up the fight with ranged attacks or slow time.

I'm still very early in the game with only the first row of Ranger and Wraith abilities unlocked, so the Drain is really more of a stepping stone to more powerful abilities at the moment, but I like to bring it into the fight to see the orcs start panicking and shivering from the wraith's influence.

Spoiler

[HEADING=2]"Gimme yer mind, arse-piece!"[/HEADING]​