PTS Feedback - Combat has become uninteresting and far less enjoyable

Ezareth

Let me start by saying I've played both as a Vet15 Bosmer Nightblade wearing 7/7 Medium Armor, triple Stamina cost reduction enchants, and 90 out of 100 Champion points into Stamina regen, (10 into Warlord) with full Vet14 Legendary gear with 2 Stamina regen bonuses and Vet10 Blue Stam/Magicka drink as well as the Vet 16 Bosmer NB Template with 7/7 Medium Armor, Purple Drink, triple Stamina regen enchants, 100 out of 100 into stamina regen and a V16 maximum stamina legendary set of gear.

As far as Stamina resource generation goes you're not really going to find a player with a setup any more stamina efficient than mine, I'm easily in the top 1% as far as that goes. I have just over 2400 Stamina regeneration without a major(Tripot)/minor endurance(Relentless Focus) or Battle Rush buffs active and just over 20,000 stamina( a loss of 600 with the same setup on live). With the V16 Template I have 30,00 stamina and 2300 stamina regen.

So after many sessions of testing and tweaking on the PTS I'm finding that amazingly it is extremely difficult for me not to run out of stamina in any skillful sort of extended combat with a build that is focused on *not* running out of stamina and it's pretty dissapointing. I'm not really dying...but I'm finding myself unable to continue engaging in combat while I'm waiting for resources to regen which just isn't fun.

This isn't because I'm spamming dodge roll. It isn't because I'm holding block, it *is* because I'm using all of my abilities, including dodge roll, Bash, Block (reactively only) and weapon abilities. I can kill 1 person easily using my entire stamina bar, but the moment I try to fight two players or fight another player after killing the first I'm virtually out of stamina. I've tried weaving in heavy attacks to help supplement my stamina but that has limited effectiveness since the return is so low. Bashing and Blocking are now prohibitively expensive with the loss of stamina regen. If someone goes to wrecking blow me, it is cheaper for me to let them hit me and break free, than it is for me to block it since I'm then given CC immunity. This isn't behavior that should be rewarded!

The only way I've found to have the stamina to ensure I have the stamina to continue fighting is to just spam my damage abilities over and over and nothing else. Not only is this actually effective in 2.1....is pretty darn *boring*. And that is what combat has become to me in the 6 or 7 hours I've spent wandering around IC. Boring and uninteresting. The things that made combat to me interesting (even on my Sorc); Bashing and blocking have an unacceptable cost attached to them which makes no sense

I don't want this to become all doom and gloom. I've waited for IC for so long and had such high hopes for it but I find myself looking forward to patch day with trepidation, not excitement. Something needs to be done here to not penalize skillful play, while restricting the abuse of permadodging/permablocking. If this goes live as it is, I can't see myself lasting very long as the combat was the only thing other than my friends that keep my playing this game.

Taleof2Cities

+1 Insightful

Ezareth wrote: »

Something needs to be done here to not penalize skillful play, while restricting the abuse of permadodging/permablocking.

ThatNeonZebraAgain

This has been my experience as well with a stamina build. I like the longer TTK, which can encourage more strategy but also end in stalemates after 5+ minutes of fighting. But you're right, it is often better to let people hit you rather than try to block in many instances, especially if you using damage shields and wearing Reactive Armor set.

Stikato

As (just about) always, in agreement with Ezareth. In no way can I explain it as well as he can. I will just offer an anecdote.

When the main servers went down today, I logged on for some PTS fighting. I can't even put my finger on it, but it just feels different. And it's just not as engaging or compelling. It's just a boring DPS race. Because trying to use defensive counters is cost prohibitive.

I couldn't wait for Live servers to come up so I could get out of there. And this is the long awaited miracle IC patch. And it's just so meh. Especially considering it will be open-access, if I didn't have left over crowns, I wouldn't even buy it. As it is now, I will just be "buying" it to harvest v15 water from the starting areas.

Ahzek

#stamsorcmasterrace

With my V16 stam sorc template i managed to reach 3.2k stam regen with a fairly decent damage output (though reliant on proccs). However i feel like the stam regen while blocking thing actually does the opposite of what it felt like it was intended to do. Instead of preventig permablocking/ blockcasting it punishes those that tend to use block as a reactive defensive tool when facing heavy burst damage =/

hrothbern

Start de penalty of no Stamina Recovery AFTER 2 seconds Blocking

That should give enough leeway for interactive combat blocks and bashes

:-)

Ezareth

Ahzek wrote: »

#stamsorcmasterrace

With my V16 stam sorc template i managed to reach 3.2k stam regen with a fairly decent damage output (though reliant on proccs). However i feel like the stam regen while blocking thing actually does the opposite of what it felt like it was intended to do. Instead of preventig permablocking/ blockcasting it punishes those that tend to use block as a reactive defensive tool when facing heavy burst damage =/

Yeah and what is even worse to me is the fact if I see a player casting a Crystal frag at me, it costs me about as much stamina to bash them as it does for them to break free of the bash! Yes I can bind my bash to be its own key and avoid taking the "Block Penalty" but that is something that shouldn't be require when the default UI is set up to have your use both mouse buttons to both bash and break free!

I feel as like everyone is being virtually brought to the same level. Yeah there are some areas where skill comes into play, especially when utilizing LoS tactics and such but most of the combat just comes down to outDPSing your opponent while out healing their damage. Just keep rally and vigor active while mashing your wrecking blow key requires zero reaction times or awareness. Sure you can throw a dodge rollin there every once in awhile but damage is so low relative to live why bother losing the downtime to your DPS by dodging?

This isn't something that I've tried for 30 minutes and said I hate it. I've logged onto the PTS and played in IC a good dozen times, tried many variations of gears and enchants and abilities. This is why I've waited so long to make this post, I wanted to give it enough time to be sure. I'm not even trying to min/max to be the most effective, I'm trying to find a build that works that is *Fun*.

This is extremely dissapointing....

MaxwellC

How about the longer you hold block the less stamina you regenerate.
Example: Holding shield for 5 seconds consistently would give you 0 regeneration.

For dodging depending how many dodges done within combat should increase the amount and I get 0 stamina regen.
Example: If I'm fighting someone and dodging back to back to back (3 times in a row) should 1.5% if not 3x the cost of a normal dodge while after dodging twice in a row gives you 0 stamina regen.

Darlgon

Ezareth wrote: »

wordz

Eloquent and clear statement of the feelings of many PTS players. Thanks for the insightful writeup.

SirAndy

Back to everyone wearing a nice dress and waving a stick. The few weeks of viable stamina builds were fun but we all knew it wouldn't last.

Anyone here still remember when people were asking for a separate resource pool for blocking, dodge etc. to put stamina on par with magicka?

Lucky28

I agree 100%.

I've said it before. Playing my Magicka Sorc on PTS is boring and dull. I'm not using Streak as a Damage ability nor am i using it to put distance between the opponent and myself (not running away but positioning myself more strategically as a ranged character) i'm basically just standing there spamming the same three abilities over and over. it's really..... not fun.

ColtPython

I tried a similar experiment the other day with heavy stamina regeneration, high health, and high stamina. I was going for more tankiness with the high health and wearing 2 heavy pieces on my chest and legs. I also use brawler for in between surprise attacks for a damage shield. When out numbered I would use fear and brawler with some success. And by "success" I mean i didn't die right away or run our t of stamina extremely fast.

One situation in particular continued to occur until I quit the PTS (mad as hell) and went back to the live server. I would run into a Templar (this is not a dig on Templars but just painting the picture) who would begin jabbing. After the changes to block regeneration, I certainly cannot block this without putting a sure end to my stamina pool and then the next jabs will kill me. So I roll. Rolling of course activates a timer that will cause the next roll to be more expensive and so on. What does the Templar do? Well the attack is not affected by the same mechanics as rolling so they turn and jab again. I roll at a higher cost and put my self in a situation where the next roll is going to start really costing me. At this point my options are limited to fear or cloak and hide if I can. They just break fear and begin jabbing. Basically like the OP says "spam my damage abilities over and over and nothing else."

The point is (and I have been crying like a baby about this for some time), the stamina dps build has little to no defense now in PVE and PVP. There have been many threads about the block cost changes and the effect on tanking. However, I do think this is going to be a much bigger issuer for stamina DPS defense. Trending heavily back to the days when no one wanted to have a stamina build on their team because there was too much strain on the stamina pool.

If nothing changes, then I will likely be building my stamina dps to be a glass cannon again that can only complete content with a great tank and a great healer. In pvp I will be going full snipe gank mode then back into the shadows. Perhaps with my woodelf nightblade wife next to me. "3... 2... 1.. Snipe!"

xylena

i feel ya, my beloved stam DK is best off simply spamming wrecking blow 90% of the time

at least magicka builds have been really fun so far, enjoying magicka dk and magicka nb the most

TBois

Ezareth wrote: »

show previous quotes

Ahzek wrote: »

#stamsorcmasterrace

With my V16 stam sorc template i managed to reach 3.2k stam regen with a fairly decent damage output (though reliant on proccs). However i feel like the stam regen while blocking thing actually does the opposite of what it felt like it was intended to do. Instead of preventig permablocking/ blockcasting it punishes those that tend to use block as a reactive defensive tool when facing heavy burst damage =/

...
I feel as like everyone is being virtually brought to the same level. Yeah there are some areas where skill comes into play, especially when utilizing LoS tactics and such but most of the combat just comes down to outDPSing your opponent while out healing their damage. Just keep rally and vigor active while mashing your wrecking blow key requires zero reaction times or awareness. Sure you can throw a dodge rollin there every once in awhile but damage is so low relative to live why bother losing the downtime to your DPS by dodging?
...


This is extremely dissapointing....

Every patch ZOS makes it more difficult for skilled players to take on multiple opponents, whether it be 1vX or 12v24. It's like they are taking this RvRvR concept and trying to turn it into a skill-less arena game. Next patch they should get rid of cyrodiil and put in an arena with 1v1s only. Like this is what they seem to want, taking into account the direction the patches have gone.

Edit: they also tend to make large gameplay changes instead of tweaking numbers, which causes it's own problems.

ColtPython

SirAndy wrote: »

Back to everyone wearing a nice dress and waving a stick. The few weeks of viable stamina builds were fun but we all knew it wouldn't last.

Anyone here still remember when people were asking for a separate resource pool for blocking, dodge etc. to put stamina on par with magicka?

Here we go again... back to the days of ESO = Equip Staff Only

This time I have a full stable of magic and stamina builds. So hopefully I'll be able to play the reindeer games.

nimander99

Why not just limit the number of dodge rolls a player can do every few seconds instead of a blanked stam block dodge nerf?

Manoekin

I enjoy it more than live. Killing people in 2-3 hits is not fun nor skillful.

pmn100b16_ESO

And the sad thing about the whole stamina regen when blocking 'fix' is that there's still permablockers

I find myself instinctively blocking certain things, like a charge attack for example, thinking, good job, blocked that, only to realise I've just gimped myself doing it.

Maulkin

I don't want to say I told you so, but I told you so.

Attacks cost nothing, defence has huge costs. It's a lopsided approach that always favours the highest numbers and makes it impossible to fight and survive versus bigger numbers.

And remember this isn't a moba where each team has exactly the same number 4/5 players. Almost every fight is skewed population wise and it has to be possible to for you to fight and kill higher number of opponents if you are skilled and organised enough.

Lucky28

nimander99 wrote: »

Why not just limit the number of dodge rolls a player can do every few seconds instead of a blanked stam block dodge nerf?

I like the way it is in current live. People complain non-stop about how there is no skill in ESO. but catching a sorc who is trying to escape or shutting down a dodge roller is in itself skill. nerfing both of these abilities is lack of it.

Maulkin

Lucky28 wrote: »

show previous quotes

nimander99 wrote: »

Why not just limit the number of dodge rolls a player can do every few seconds instead of a blanked stam block dodge nerf?

I liked it the way it is in current live. People complain non-stop about how there is no skill in ESO. but catching a sorc who is trying to escape or shutting down a dodge roller is in itself skill. nerfing both of these abilities is lack of it.

Nerfing the defensive abilities only is just plain stupid.

People tell me "You could only bolt 6-7 times in 1.5, now you bolt 15 times that's stupid". Yes it is stupid, but in 1.5 if you charged after me 6-7 you would also be out of stamina at the end, so at least we'd have a fair fight then.

Now gap closing costs nothing, while dodging-blocking-bolting costs buckets. It only favours the side with more numbers in combat.

Teargrants

Agreed, not to mention, the tab target changes make focusing someone becomes impossible the second a mob/player gets anywhere close to them in your visual field. From the way it plays, it wasn't just the target lock visual that was changed - the 'soft lock' was made 'fuzzier' and less forgiving as far as targeting goes.

In addition, as a sorc I am pigeonholed into one build (light armor destro/resto) more than ever:

- Medium armor magicka sorc (my most unique build, correct me if I'm wrong) is pointless now. There is no longer any benefit from the reduced dodge roll cost, as the 33% increase is calculated based on BASE skill cost BEFORE taking any cost reduction into account (no surprise here, it's the same as bolt escape). This means that the second dodge roll is already more than twice as expensive as the first, and by the third I'm OOS (since I'm running 10k stam). In other words, this build is dead.

- Heavy armor magicka sorc is less practical for a number or reasons. 1) I am forced to slot resto on my off bar for Rapid Regen, whereas on live I use sword/shield off bar w/ Energy Orb for my heal. Energy Orb is no longer a viable heal because for it to work, you have to stand around the orbs and hold block while they heal you - which brings me to my next point. 2) No stam regen while blocking makes heavy armor sword/shield much less appealing for the magicka regen/spell dmg/reduced magicka costs I loose compared to light armor.

Instead the new playstyle is, put all shields & rapid regen on and mindlessly spam crushing shock. Never block. Never dodge. Never bash. Never CC break. This way you save your stamina for the few times you absolutely have to CC break to reapply shields.

Lucky28

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

show previous quotes

Lucky28 wrote: »

nimander99 wrote: »

Why not just limit the number of dodge rolls a player can do every few seconds instead of a blanked stam block dodge nerf?

I liked it the way it is in current live. People complain non-stop about how there is no skill in ESO. but catching a sorc who is trying to escape or shutting down a dodge roller is in itself skill. nerfing both of these abilities is lack of it.

Nerfing the defensive abilities only is just plain stupid.

People tell me "You could only bolt 6-7 times in 1.5, now you bolt 15 times that's stupid". Yes it is stupid, but in 1.5 if you charged after me 6-7 you would also be out of stamina at the end, so at least we'd have a fair fight then.

Now gap closing costs nothing, while dodging-blocking-bolting costs buckets. It only favours the side with more numbers in combat.

I think that allowing players the ability to overcome certain weaknesses that is placed on their abilities by putting in effort and building their characters is extremely important. i've put in the effort to be able to use streak effectively i should be able to use it making it impossible to overcome a weakness is foolish.

ColtPython

Teargrants wrote: »

Instead the new playstyle is, put all shields & rapid regen on and mindlessly spam crushing shock. Never block. Never dodge. Never bash. Never CC break. This way you save your stamina for the few times you absolutely have to CC break to reapply shields.

This is a bit short sighted... you can cloak too ...all the way home!

Ezareth

ColtPython wrote: »

One situation in particular continued to occur until I quit the PTS (mad as hell) and went back to the live server. I would run into a Templar (this is not a dig on Templars but just painting the picture) who would begin jabbing. After the changes to block regeneration, I certainly cannot block this without putting a sure end to my stamina pool and then the next jabs will kill me. So I roll. Rolling of course activates a timer that will cause the next roll to be more expensive and so on. What does the Templar do? Well the attack is not affected by the same mechanics as rolling so they turn and jab again. I roll at a higher cost and put my self in a situation where the next roll is going to start really costing me. At this point my options are limited to fear or cloak and hide if I can. They just break fear and begin jabbing. Basically like the OP says "spam my damage abilities over and over and nothing else."

Yup. These are the guys who will take my entire stamina bar to kill. There are some damage abilities you almost *have* to block or dodge roll and jabs is one of them. Now, by doing the correct counter to these abilities you end up hurting yourself more than the person who was countered! It is counterintuitive and pretty infuriating. Everyone just starts spamming their damage abilities over and over and the variation and excitement in combat is removed.

pmn100b16_ESO wrote: »

And the sad thing about the whole stamina regen when blocking 'fix' is that there's still permablockers

I find myself instinctively blocking certain things, like a charge attack for example, thinking, good job, blocked that, only to realise I've just gimped myself doing it.

Exactly how I feel too.

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

show previous quotes

Lucky28 wrote: »

nimander99 wrote: »

Why not just limit the number of dodge rolls a player can do every few seconds instead of a blanked stam block dodge nerf?

I liked it the way it is in current live. People complain non-stop about how there is no skill in ESO. but catching a sorc who is trying to escape or shutting down a dodge roller is in itself skill. nerfing both of these abilities is lack of it.

Nerfing the defensive abilities only is just plain stupid.

People tell me "You could only bolt 6-7 times in 1.5, now you bolt 15 times that's stupid". Yes it is stupid, but in 1.5 if you charged after me 6-7 you would also be out of stamina at the end, so at least we'd have a fair fight then.

Now gap closing costs nothing, while dodging-blocking-bolting costs buckets. It only favours the side with more numbers in combat.

The dodge roll penalty needs a shorter cooldown.

The Stamina regen penalty needs a second or two before it activates.

This would allow other players the ability to guarantee hits on other players while still allowing room for skillful (and enjoyable) play.

pmn100b16_ESO

Ezareth wrote: »

show previous quotes

ColtPython wrote: »

One situation in particular continued to occur until I quit the PTS (mad as hell) and went back to the live server. I would run into a Templar (this is not a dig on Templars but just painting the picture) who would begin jabbing. After the changes to block regeneration, I certainly cannot block this without putting a sure end to my stamina pool and then the next jabs will kill me. So I roll. Rolling of course activates a timer that will cause the next roll to be more expensive and so on. What does the Templar do? Well the attack is not affected by the same mechanics as rolling so they turn and jab again. I roll at a higher cost and put my self in a situation where the next roll is going to start really costing me. At this point my options are limited to fear or cloak and hide if I can. They just break fear and begin jabbing. Basically like the OP says "spam my damage abilities over and over and nothing else."

Yup. These are the guys who will take my entire stamina bar to kill. There are some damage abilities you almost *have* to block or dodge roll and jabs is one of them. Now, by doing the correct counter to these abilities you end up hurting yourself more than the person who was countered! It is counterintuitive and pretty infuriating. Everyone just starts spamming their damage abilities over and over and the variation and excitement in combat is removed.

show previous quotes

pmn100b16_ESO wrote: »

And the sad thing about the whole stamina regen when blocking 'fix' is that there's still permablockers

I find myself instinctively blocking certain things, like a charge attack for example, thinking, good job, blocked that, only to realise I've just gimped myself doing it.

Exactly how I feel too.

show previous quotes

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Lucky28 wrote: »

nimander99 wrote: »

Why not just limit the number of dodge rolls a player can do every few seconds instead of a blanked stam block dodge nerf?

I liked it the way it is in current live. People complain non-stop about how there is no skill in ESO. but catching a sorc who is trying to escape or shutting down a dodge roller is in itself skill. nerfing both of these abilities is lack of it.

Nerfing the defensive abilities only is just plain stupid.

People tell me "You could only bolt 6-7 times in 1.5, now you bolt 15 times that's stupid". Yes it is stupid, but in 1.5 if you charged after me 6-7 you would also be out of stamina at the end, so at least we'd have a fair fight then.

Now gap closing costs nothing, while dodging-blocking-bolting costs buckets. It only favours the side with more numbers in combat.

The dodge roll penalty needs a shorter cooldown.

The Stamina regen penalty needs a second or two before it activates.

This would allow other players the ability to guarantee hits on other players while still allowing room for skillful (and enjoyable) play.

Trouble with this is permablockers, which ZOS wants an end to, will just press and release the rmb every second to avoid the penalty. The simplest solution, which they seem to want to avoid at all costs for some reason, is the blanking out of skills with rmb pushed down, same way they do as you hold the sprint key down. There's all sorts of arguments why block casting is desirable or even necessary, but I'd prefer the end to block casting over this current stamina regen fix that has resulted in penalising intelligent defensive play.

ColtPython

While we're at it angry mob style (or crying babies), can I just add that the sparkly neon green animation doesn't really go with the rest of the furniture.
Its cute... I guess... if you're 5 and you like light up sneakers. I guess the neon sneakers are in fashion with the young adults on the basket ball court as well. But, they don't work so much on an assassin night blade moving through shadows striking with a dark red magic blade from stealth.... imho...

Ishammael

I actually sat down to write this exact thread, with basically the same list of complaints. I was going to title it "1vX is dead."

The changes to 1.7 are so bad. Not individually, but as a group.

Ezareth

pmn100b16_ESO wrote: »

show previous quotes

Ezareth wrote: »

ColtPython wrote: »

One situation in particular continued to occur until I quit the PTS (mad as hell) and went back to the live server. I would run into a Templar (this is not a dig on Templars but just painting the picture) who would begin jabbing. After the changes to block regeneration, I certainly cannot block this without putting a sure end to my stamina pool and then the next jabs will kill me. So I roll. Rolling of course activates a timer that will cause the next roll to be more expensive and so on. What does the Templar do? Well the attack is not affected by the same mechanics as rolling so they turn and jab again. I roll at a higher cost and put my self in a situation where the next roll is going to start really costing me. At this point my options are limited to fear or cloak and hide if I can. They just break fear and begin jabbing. Basically like the OP says "spam my damage abilities over and over and nothing else."

Yup. These are the guys who will take my entire stamina bar to kill. There are some damage abilities you almost *have* to block or dodge roll and jabs is one of them. Now, by doing the correct counter to these abilities you end up hurting yourself more than the person who was countered! It is counterintuitive and pretty infuriating. Everyone just starts spamming their damage abilities over and over and the variation and excitement in combat is removed.

pmn100b16_ESO wrote: »

And the sad thing about the whole stamina regen when blocking 'fix' is that there's still permablockers

I find myself instinctively blocking certain things, like a charge attack for example, thinking, good job, blocked that, only to realise I've just gimped myself doing it.

Exactly how I feel too.

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Lucky28 wrote: »

nimander99 wrote: »

Why not just limit the number of dodge rolls a player can do every few seconds instead of a blanked stam block dodge nerf?

I liked it the way it is in current live. People complain non-stop about how there is no skill in ESO. but catching a sorc who is trying to escape or shutting down a dodge roller is in itself skill. nerfing both of these abilities is lack of it.

Nerfing the defensive abilities only is just plain stupid.

People tell me "You could only bolt 6-7 times in 1.5, now you bolt 15 times that's stupid". Yes it is stupid, but in 1.5 if you charged after me 6-7 you would also be out of stamina at the end, so at least we'd have a fair fight then.

Now gap closing costs nothing, while dodging-blocking-bolting costs buckets. It only favours the side with more numbers in combat.

The dodge roll penalty needs a shorter cooldown.

The Stamina regen penalty needs a second or two before it activates.

This would allow other players the ability to guarantee hits on other players while still allowing room for skillful (and enjoyable) play.

Trouble with this is permablockers, which ZOS wants an end to, will just press and release the rmb every second to avoid the penalty. The simplest solution, which they seem to want to avoid at all costs for some reason, is the blanking out of skills with rmb pushed down, same way they do as you hold the sprint key down. There's all sorts of arguments why block casting is desirable or even necessary, but I'd prefer the end to block casting over this current stamina regen fix that has resulted in penalising intelligent defensive play.

And during these times they would be vulnerable. I know if I'm wrecking blow spamming a DK and he release for a split second he goes flying. In a 1 v 1 reactively blocking should a viable alternative for *everyone*. When you're getting pummeled by 4 people, blocking shouldn't be something you can use to almost completely negate damage done to you. Make it so you have to release for a second before getting your stamina back or something...or holding block for 2 out of any 3 seconds gives you 0 regen or something.

If I see someone lining up a wrecking blow at me, blocking it shouldn't cost me more stamina than it cost them to wrecking blow me, especially since I still took *some* damage!

WolffenBloodseeker

pmn100b16_ESO wrote: »

show previous quotes

Ezareth wrote: »

ColtPython wrote: »

One situation in particular continued to occur until I quit the PTS (mad as hell) and went back to the live server. I would run into a Templar (this is not a dig on Templars but just painting the picture) who would begin jabbing. After the changes to block regeneration, I certainly cannot block this without putting a sure end to my stamina pool and then the next jabs will kill me. So I roll. Rolling of course activates a timer that will cause the next roll to be more expensive and so on. What does the Templar do? Well the attack is not affected by the same mechanics as rolling so they turn and jab again. I roll at a higher cost and put my self in a situation where the next roll is going to start really costing me. At this point my options are limited to fear or cloak and hide if I can. They just break fear and begin jabbing. Basically like the OP says "spam my damage abilities over and over and nothing else."

Yup. These are the guys who will take my entire stamina bar to kill. There are some damage abilities you almost *have* to block or dodge roll and jabs is one of them. Now, by doing the correct counter to these abilities you end up hurting yourself more than the person who was countered! It is counterintuitive and pretty infuriating. Everyone just starts spamming their damage abilities over and over and the variation and excitement in combat is removed.

pmn100b16_ESO wrote: »

And the sad thing about the whole stamina regen when blocking 'fix' is that there's still permablockers

I find myself instinctively blocking certain things, like a charge attack for example, thinking, good job, blocked that, only to realise I've just gimped myself doing it.

Exactly how I feel too.

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Lucky28 wrote: »

nimander99 wrote: »

Why not just limit the number of dodge rolls a player can do every few seconds instead of a blanked stam block dodge nerf?

I liked it the way it is in current live. People complain non-stop about how there is no skill in ESO. but catching a sorc who is trying to escape or shutting down a dodge roller is in itself skill. nerfing both of these abilities is lack of it.

Nerfing the defensive abilities only is just plain stupid.

People tell me "You could only bolt 6-7 times in 1.5, now you bolt 15 times that's stupid". Yes it is stupid, but in 1.5 if you charged after me 6-7 you would also be out of stamina at the end, so at least we'd have a fair fight then.

Now gap closing costs nothing, while dodging-blocking-bolting costs buckets. It only favours the side with more numbers in combat.

The dodge roll penalty needs a shorter cooldown.

The Stamina regen penalty needs a second or two before it activates.

This would allow other players the ability to guarantee hits on other players while still allowing room for skillful (and enjoyable) play.

Trouble with this is permablockers, which ZOS wants an end to, will just press and release the rmb every second to avoid the penalty. The simplest solution, which they seem to want to avoid at all costs for some reason, is the blanking out of skills with rmb pushed down, same way they do as you hold the sprint key down. There's all sorts of arguments why block casting is desirable or even necessary, but I'd prefer the end to block casting over this current stamina regen fix that has resulted in penalising intelligent defensive play.

Soo much this, i can't undestand why ZOS simple don't blank out the skills while we are holding block (with or without a shield) this would FIX once and for all the permablockers, i'm a templar tank (and i don't keep block up all the times, only when needed for hard hits and reactive blocking) and this zero-stamina regen while blocking is making my stamina dry much faster than on live, to the point i strugle with stamina everytime i enter a fight (even more in PVP compared to live), i don't know if it's this or if they changed something with stamina regen too (because i also have the impression my stamina regen much slower than my magicka in PTS even testing with the same regen on both)

yodased

From my measly 5hrs in pts i can say that min maxers are taking a hit in the patch. It seems that they are pushing folks to hybridize their builds and not stack resource or regen or damage.

Did you try a hybrid at all?