And interestingly, unlike all the other "from behind" skills that add damage, United Blow does full 2x damage with a bow, whereas backstab/critical attack only add 1 to ranged damage instead of 2.
A couple things.
Backstabs are passive.
Unified blow still requires the expenditure of a signature spell that you have to have memorized. If you are a celestial caster, expending a spell for the same damage and a worse carrier that has to hit isn't a good trade off.
Unified Blow loses its body carrier with ranged weapons. This is a big deal, and makes it significantly worse when using it with ranged weapons (Although still not bad).
Backstabs are passive. Backattacks are sort of passive (you activate, then they run for 10 minutes.)
To be clear, it wouldn't be the same damage. It'd also be adding the ranged weapon damage, since unified blow is additive with weapon damage (unlike combined strike, where it replaces). And before the body clarification, it was also converting spell damage to body damage which had value in many cases.
I do appreciate the removal of body with ranged, but I'm not clear how big of a deal it is. I suspect by the time I using a spell of any significance, the 'doubling' quickly takes you over/through most armor values.
I think you are forgetting its not 5x damage per spell level, but 10x, and its adding to weapon damage.
Personally, I'm furious about this stealth-change. I've been playtesting Celestial Archery Adept builds that build toward United Blow for the entire playtest period, since my character doesn't have enough build to actually obtain UB. Now I feel like I have no reason to work toward it, and no more time to playtest something else.
UB just seems really stacked against Celestial, and I find that to be a huge bummer. It should feel very attractive to every Adept regardless of school. It's a capstone.
Personally, I'm furious about this stealth-change. I've been playtesting Celestial Archery Adept builds that build toward United Blow for the entire playtest period, since my character doesn't have enough build to actually obtain UB. Now I feel like I have no reason to work toward it, and no more time to playtest something else.