Best Of
Re: Hybridization
Definitely disagree. I very much like the flexibility that both features provide. 
Multiclassing was the biggest oof. (edited rant)
This game objectively sucks right now. I'm sure people will wanna chime in and white knight it, but numbers don't lie. Every major hub is a deadzone no matter when you log in, and at a cursory glance, steam logins haven't been this low since like 2017. I took 6 months off cause I got sick and tired of arcanist everything, and then you go and make literally everyone able to beam.
I'm not gonna blame the raid leads for wanting the best available option, I blame you, ZOS for making there be no other option. "Please have a beam build" is literally everywhere.
Beam sucks. Arcanist sucks. Subclassing sucks. You've made wildly overpowered kits available with no tuning on the other side, or at least, insufficient tuning. Who the hell wants to meta hump the same 8 DDs, pushing the same incredibly powerful, free shield beam that loops with a healing AOE flail? like...what the ***? its so, so boring. There aren't even enough people left to mount a non-beam raid. and before someone chimes in with 'play how you want' it's not just how I want, it's the literal hundreds of thousands of players who have given up on this formerly amazing game entirely.
Now the lore of a class is dead as well. Forget stam/mag hybridization, this is total hybridization. Why even have classes? why have stats? why have gear? If we're all gonna wear the same stat, the same 4 sets, the same spells from the same 3 different lines...like what is going on? did you intend 8 arc trials?
This game had the most flavor, the most cool, accessable gear systems, tons of variety, I felt like I could play it in so many different ways. Endgame was hard, and you earned it. PVP made some kind of sense, and was full of ***. now it makes no sense, and is full of ***. Yes I suck at pvp, and yes I (used to) love doing it.
I guess I'll do some writs or something. Maybe the jokes on us and Housing IS the real endgame.
But I'm not gonna wear a f@#%&ing safe space nuclear deathray beam like a b*$#% and then flail when I feel sick. God.
F#$%.
I'm not gonna blame the raid leads for wanting the best available option, I blame you, ZOS for making there be no other option. "Please have a beam build" is literally everywhere.
Beam sucks. Arcanist sucks. Subclassing sucks. You've made wildly overpowered kits available with no tuning on the other side, or at least, insufficient tuning. Who the hell wants to meta hump the same 8 DDs, pushing the same incredibly powerful, free shield beam that loops with a healing AOE flail? like...what the ***? its so, so boring. There aren't even enough people left to mount a non-beam raid. and before someone chimes in with 'play how you want' it's not just how I want, it's the literal hundreds of thousands of players who have given up on this formerly amazing game entirely.
Now the lore of a class is dead as well. Forget stam/mag hybridization, this is total hybridization. Why even have classes? why have stats? why have gear? If we're all gonna wear the same stat, the same 4 sets, the same spells from the same 3 different lines...like what is going on? did you intend 8 arc trials?
This game had the most flavor, the most cool, accessable gear systems, tons of variety, I felt like I could play it in so many different ways. Endgame was hard, and you earned it. PVP made some kind of sense, and was full of ***. now it makes no sense, and is full of ***. Yes I suck at pvp, and yes I (used to) love doing it.
I guess I'll do some writs or something. Maybe the jokes on us and Housing IS the real endgame.
But I'm not gonna wear a f@#%&ing safe space nuclear deathray beam like a b*$#% and then flail when I feel sick. God.
F#$%.
Re: Vengeance Server
No one plays it!
How did you not learn your lesson the first time the server was up?
How is this a good business decision?
To further compound the annoyance, you disable all other cyrodiil instances!!!
Who is making decisions down there?!
who is empowering the person who makes decisions down there?! (who hired the decision maker)
greyhost, you have a server that consistently nears the population limit during regular service hours. then, you implement the vengeance campaign and the servers go empty. the population went from NEAR FULL TO NEAR EMPTY. WHY DID YOU BRING THAT DEAD THING BACK TO LIFE?
Im beyond amazed. not just that you made the vengeance campaign, but that you didn't learn your lesson the first time.
the fact no one plays it defeats the fundamental reason you made it. you cant test performance limits on an empty server no one plays!!!!!
I have no idea what server you are on (or the regular day-to-day PvP routines of said server), but any objective person who is on PC/NA who isn;t a dyed in the wool Vengeance hater would be able to asnwer all of your questions.
How did you not learn your lesson the first time the server was up?
The first time Vengeance was up PC/NA had ques of consistently over 200 people during primetime through the entire test (with a much higher pop cap). I know this because ESO constantly crashes on my machine, boots my out of Cyrodill, and forces me to log back in. It was faction dependent, with DC having a smaller que of around 40-50ish. Anyone with any business acumen would have concluded that further development was worth trying.
(I will say the second test after the first few days did not have these high ques, with DC often at 3 bars. But you asked about the first campaign and I would attribute the drop to Vengeance II not being as enjoyable because of the questionable mechanics that were introduced: ZoS so does love prioritizes healing/defense over damage))
How is this a good business decision?
Because the current Live PvP is the definition of a sunken cost. Given the results from Vengeance I and that established Vengeance would not require constant balance (which would get in the way of PvE) and would potentially attract a larger audience, it was an obvious direction to go in with the few resources that ZOS allots to combat/PvP development.
To further compound the annoyance, you disable all other cyrodiil instances!!!
I would agree that is a legit complaint. Though, ZOS's reasoning isn't far fetched. The whole point is to test how many calculations Vengeance could handle. I don't agree with the decision, but it is something I can understand. I also think it was dumb to schedule the test that required a high population with an event. So with this question, I do agree with you.
Who is making decisions down there?!
Well, you have a company that had basically given up on PvP in around 2015 or so when it concluded its original vision for PvP was unobtainable because of performance and it wasn't worth investing in solutions to make a high population Cyrodiil functionable. This was a decision made by the first leadership team under Sage and continued by the second leadership team under Lambert and given what I read on the Reddit AuA will be the same for the next leadership team. You have one person incharge of teams for both combat (currently in a poor state) and PvP (ditto), which proves just how low of a priority PvP (and combat balance in general) is for ESO, and has been going almost on a decade now.
who is empowering the person who makes decisions down there?! (who hired the decision maker)
The same for every AAA coperate gaming studio. Suits who have business degrees from a university whose only credentials are taking classes rather than actually building a successful business.
greyhost, you have a server that consistently nears the population limit during regular service hours. then, you implement the vengeance campaign and the servers go empty. the population went from NEAR FULL TO NEAR EMPTY. WHY DID YOU BRING THAT DEAD THING BACK TO LIFE?
GH has a tiny population cap, so saying it (only) nears it during a few hours a day is an indictment of Live PvP and why Vengeance was thought of and developed in the first place. You are also making a false comparison with the tiny caps of GH with the much larger caps of Vengeance. My machine kicked me out of ESO last night again, but for the short time I was on PC/NA, there were absolutely more people on Vengeance than any given night on Live. And this was with an event and with much of the regular PvP players not participating. To insinuate that GH is somehow alive and not a "dead thing" is to ignore the mass exodus of players who have long since quit ESO. If GH was as vibrant and popular as you are insinuating, then Vengeance wouldn't exist.
***
It's really not hard to understand why ZOS has went through with Vengeance.
Now, what I will say is that I do not think they have gone in the right direction with Vengeance. For me, the first Vengeance campaign was by far the best. ZOSs problem has always been its balance and combat philosophy: they do not understand high level gameplay and for over a decade they have pandered to defense/healing over offense. So when they introduced more skills (i.e., more defense and healing) for Vengeance II, doing so actually made the gameplay worse. Compounding this was the critique from Vengeance I that everyone agreed with (even supporters), wins and losses came down to a numbers game. That wasn't addressed in Vengeance II, still isn't addressed in Vengeance III, and nothing is being done in Vengeance IV. By ignoring the crucial defect, ZOS has basically lost whatever chance veteran PvPers would ever have in even giving Vengeance a try. It also has tested the patience of potential supporters such as myself who are interested in PvP with big battles, no broken builds, and sans OP ball groups, but have no patience with returning to the same tank/defense/healing oriented gameplay that was responsible for the mass exodus of PvPers from ESO in the first place. I also highly dislike the whole numbers game aspect, and ZOS's failure to even address that concern in these tests is off-putting to say the least.
Re: Poll: Do you prefer the old or new templar spear model
The older one, although simplistic, used a unique model, the new one just reutilizes the Nighthollow Staff.
And there's also the problem of how every other Aedric Spear skill utilizes the older model, by updating Jabs only they made it inconsistent with the rest of the skill line.
I'm all good for updating skill effects, but if you're not willing to put effort into creating a cool unique model, why even update it at all? If they wanted to rework Jabs and Aedric Spear in general they could update the effects to something close to the TES Legends version of Piercing Javelin, which actually looks unique and cool.
And there's also the problem of how every other Aedric Spear skill utilizes the older model, by updating Jabs only they made it inconsistent with the rest of the skill line.
I'm all good for updating skill effects, but if you're not willing to put effort into creating a cool unique model, why even update it at all? If they wanted to rework Jabs and Aedric Spear in general they could update the effects to something close to the TES Legends version of Piercing Javelin, which actually looks unique and cool.
Morvan
5
Re: Poll: Do you prefer the old or new templar spear model
I don't much like the new animation or the use of the nighthollow staff.
The old animation felt a lot more 'impactful'.
The new one is much too 'floaty' and makes it look like either through clumsiness or incompetence I can't connect the hits, I just shovel the air around the target(s).
The old animation felt a lot more 'impactful'.
The new one is much too 'floaty' and makes it look like either through clumsiness or incompetence I can't connect the hits, I just shovel the air around the target(s).
ApoAlaia
5
Re: Multiclassing was the biggest oof. (edited rant)
I was here before this was taken down
Re: I can't recall a single combat change that has made the game better! Please prove me wrong.
The sad thing is, I've never seen them admit they were wrong about a single thing related to combat or balance. Might be their biggest downfall, honestly.
This right here is the most important takeaway. Agree 100%
Onomog
7
Re: Poll: Should the 3 banners war in cyro end after the next chapter?
End the war in Cryodiil and start a new open PvP world in Oblivion!
Re: I can't recall a single combat change that has made the game better! Please prove me wrong.
The upgrade on melee ability range from 5M to 7M was a huge QOL improvement. I wonder who suggested that...
But yes, the vast majority of changes to the game mechanical and balance wise have been very bad. The block changes ruined animation cancelling, cast time ultimates are terrible, hybridization effectively halved the number of playable classes in the game and is still unfinished, scribing actually wasn't terrible but is also unfinished, subclassing is in an unacceptable state with zero follow up balancing.
The sad thing is, I've never seen them admit they were wrong about a single thing related to combat or balance. Might be their biggest downfall, honestly.
But yes, the vast majority of changes to the game mechanical and balance wise have been very bad. The block changes ruined animation cancelling, cast time ultimates are terrible, hybridization effectively halved the number of playable classes in the game and is still unfinished, scribing actually wasn't terrible but is also unfinished, subclassing is in an unacceptable state with zero follow up balancing.
The sad thing is, I've never seen them admit they were wrong about a single thing related to combat or balance. Might be their biggest downfall, honestly.
React
8
Re: Hybridization
Hybridization sucked, but I’ll take it one step further… I have never been a fan of the changing of half of our morphs to Stamina with a green reskin. Did it open up a ton of builds in theory? Sure. But so did Hybridization, and Subclassing.
More options, does not always equate to more diversity, and when Stamina morphs became a thing, Magicka builds became a lot more streamlined to make way.
Here’s the thing though, despite not liking the introduction of Stamina morphs, if ALL skills were competitive, every change they’ve made in the past decade would have paved the way to a better experience for everyone, but the balance team has just fallen flat every step of the way.
If we had a major balance patch at the same time Subclassing had dropped, I guarantee there wouldn’t even be a fraction of the people on this forum complaining, but instead they added a second Spec Bow in the holster to the most performative skill line in PvP, and kept Fatecarver exactly how it was.
More options, does not always equate to more diversity, and when Stamina morphs became a thing, Magicka builds became a lot more streamlined to make way.
Here’s the thing though, despite not liking the introduction of Stamina morphs, if ALL skills were competitive, every change they’ve made in the past decade would have paved the way to a better experience for everyone, but the balance team has just fallen flat every step of the way.
If we had a major balance patch at the same time Subclassing had dropped, I guarantee there wouldn’t even be a fraction of the people on this forum complaining, but instead they added a second Spec Bow in the holster to the most performative skill line in PvP, and kept Fatecarver exactly how it was.
