Judging from post layoff vs. pre-layoff. It seem feedback is more welcome more then ever. The negative changes on PTS was rollback, something I have never seen before. In the past they either double down or just make slight tweaks without addressing the core issue.

My gut feeling is those folks that blocked good changes are now gone and therefore whoever is left is now free to make some much need changes for the better.

Your #4 point couldn't be more wrong to be honest. An overwhelming majority of balance changes done to the game throughout eso history has been done with PvE in mind. A certain part of the PvE community loves to jump the "blame PvP" bandwagon whenever something gets nerfed or adjusted, but in reality those changes have been done due to certain unintentionally or unwanted usage from PvE players (often score pushers or similar endgame groups). In few occasions sure, PvP can be blamed, but it's more of an exception than a reoccurring pattern. I personally have zero issues with ZOS not seperating PvP/PvE, and I absolutely despise the attitude that PvE should be some unchecked power creep paradise where balance should never be checked or adjusted. If anything PvE should be more frequently adjusted than PvP to avoid unnecessary powercreep that makes the game obsolete and unfun.

To adress your #4 point more, the ult changes was funny enough mainly to adress the insanely high ult regen in PvE where certain support builds would have ridiculously high uptime on certain defensive ultimates (like barrier). I've even read some threads on the forums and discord referring to a specific build even that these changes seem to adress specifically.

Because of subclassing and awful balancing from ZOS.
One of my problems with PvP was always how unbalanced were the fights between coordinated players and bunch of solo or duo players running in zerg.
Zergs always had only the power they build for. No stacking sets, heals, shields. Some ultimates dont work on players who arent on your group.
Coordinated players on the other hand... If the only benefit they had was communication, it would be already pretty big advantage.
But that's not all.
Each player brings up 2 sets or 3 if we count monster sets. So if you have a good group of 10 players who build for PvP... You have a group full of players with power of 20 - 30 sets.
On top of that they can stack heals, shields and coordinate ults.
How players who have the power of 2 - 3 sets fight aganist players with power of over 20? It was already bad enough but now we add subclassing so all those group players pick the best skill trees possible making the diffrence even bigger.

Why should i play when i feel like im only here so group of players have somebody to farm?
And im not only talking about ball groups. With the power creep even small coordinated groups have a big advantage over other players.
And not all players want to min max and play in groups. Some just want to jump in for an hour or two, siege some keeps and then go do something else.

The last time i was in Cyro i have seen 3 ball groups in a single keep. Why would i ever want to return to that? So yeah, im not touching PvP anymore.

I bet a Midyears Mayham Vengeance style would have been a much greater success. 😎

ImmortalCX wrote: »

Ai is going to fundamentally change the way MMOs and video games are developed as they can automate much of the content creation. AI generated voices are probably going to replace all the voice actors, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Good voice acting can lift a good gaming experience into something transcendental, just as bad voice acting can ruin a game. I don't know how any developer can think that voice acting can just be relegated to AI.

I find the idea of AI generated gaming content utterly, immeasurably depressing. I'm not spending time and money on mundane dreck.

Stamicka wrote: »

I'm curious to hear why so many players avoided this most recent Midyear Mayhem event. Each event the turnout gets lower, but this time it's shockingly low. The added campaigns were not needed at all. Personally speaking, I only played a little for the first 2 days and lost interest after that. I have a long list of reasons, but it would probably be useful for ZOS to see other perspectives.

Feel free to share your reasons.

Personally I will only come back for PvP when a new Vengeance campaign is on.

I do login for my tickets for 5 minutes for a scout and IC rescue mission. Haven’t been contested once so far.

This traditional event doing worse numbers than Vengeance is good for telemetry and increasing our chances to have an extra dedicated Vengeance playlist in the future

BretonMage wrote: »

The Undaunted dailies do not.

Daily Undaunted dungeon pledges don't but Bolgru's daily delve quests do.

Vengeance(test1) is everything PvP should be, in any game: Fair, equal, accessible, about player skill, and without immortal players roaming around. Basing PvP off of gear has been ESO's entire problem with all the available PvP modes.

ImmortalCX wrote: »

While it will be traumatic for many players, I think we should look forward to an elevated experience available in the near future.

Sounds like people should be looking forward to more slop than ever due to developers not understanding what's can be done with help of AI and what's should remain hand crafted in their pursuit of having to deal less with professionals and workers that value their craft in favour of playing way less for some Asian cheap labour. It's same difference as reading magazines and cheap novels that multiply every day rather than timeless classic and specific genre stuff written by a person with deep knowledge base