It still does Finisher damage and scales off the Melee Combo Counter , so it ' s still one of the better ults in direct damage terms outside of 4 xCP squads where Finisher isn ' t really needed . I wouldn ' t really say it needs skill per se , it ' s just restricted with LoS and a delay in exchange for more flexible energy economy and by the looks of it less or no dependence on Range . Make no mistake though , it is definitely a nerf . The changes to Smoke Screen and bit of synergy new Blade Storm has with invisibility really promotes the use of invis as Ash ' s primary defense . This also maintains the alreadyprevalent Arcane Trickery synergy he has . So that ' s nice . Rebecca dodges the question of why would you even use this , but I can still see some situations where it would be in the vicinity of optimal Augmented ShieldsArmor Sorties Finisher Damage ignores Shields Armor . ElementalPhysical Resistance Sorties Finisher Damage ignores resistances . Grineer Eximus Stronghold Again , ignore Armor , ignore the arctic globes and walls of fire . WeaponRestriction Sorties With Rising Storm to help , new Blade Storm should still be a superior killing tool when otherwise restricted to say Snipers , or Bows , or Pistols only . Probably even Shotguns . Probably can ' t beat MirageSimulor or MirageTonkor at Rifle Only . Definitely can ' t beat Maiming Strike Telos Boltace spammers in Melee Only . More fun than those ? matter of opinion . Below Sortie level there ' s not a big point to using it since it ' s not a lazy killall button and the need to bypass Armor or even Shields is not really there , so a lot of other ' Frames which still have lazier but weaker killbuttons will be more optimal . However , people will not hate Ash as much , hopefully , and instead rage at Mirage or Ember players for not having a concept of fun or whatever .