PTS Patch Notes v2.1

Elsonso

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• You will no longer regenerate stamina while blocking.
• Reduced the cost of class stamina abilities by 20% so they are equivalent to weapon abilities.
• The cost of each roll dodge will increase by 33% after your first roll dodge.

Nightblade

• Refreshing Shadows (passive): Adjusted this ability from 15/30% Stamina recovery to 7/15% Stamina, Health and Magicka recovery.

Weapon

• Dual Wield
  • Whirling Blades (Whirlwind morph): This ability now applies Major Endurance instead of giving Stamina. We also reduced the cost of this ability by approximately 15%.

As near as I can tell from comparing PTS to Live, these changes in a stamina Nightblade result in a significant reduction in the ability to move and fight during combat. There is an overall reduction in both Max Stamina and Stamina Regeneration. The reduction in the cost of abilities is not enough to offset the use of stamina during combat, the smaller stamina pool, the slower regeneration, and the dodge penalty. The limited mobility during combat eliminates any feeling of being nimble. (Edit: it is like he aged 30 years overnight)

Another thing to note is that the reduction in stamina and stamina regen makes sneaking consume stamina much faster on PTS than it does on Live. Sneaky Nightblades are noticeably less sneaky. (Actually, everyone is) While the PVP people might not like sneaky Nightblades, the PVE folk like me do.

ninjaguyman

Siphoning Strikes:
This ability is no longer a toggle.
Removed the Power and Spell Power debuff; your attacks now do full damage.
This ability no longer restores a percentage of your Magicka or Stamina. Instead, it restores a fixed amount per hit.
You will no longer build up extra visual effects on your weapon when this ability is cast multiple times.

Interesting, cant wait to see how this affects my nb tank build

Ipsius

lordrichter wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• You will no longer regenerate stamina while blocking.
• Reduced the cost of class stamina abilities by 20% so they are equivalent to weapon abilities.
• The cost of each roll dodge will increase by 33% after your first roll dodge.

Nightblade

• Refreshing Shadows (passive): Adjusted this ability from 15/30% Stamina recovery to 7/15% Stamina, Health and Magicka recovery.

Weapon

• Dual Wield
  • Whirling Blades (Whirlwind morph): This ability now applies Major Endurance instead of giving Stamina. We also reduced the cost of this ability by approximately 15%.

As near as I can tell from comparing PTS to Live, these changes in a stamina Nightblade result in a significant reduction in the ability to move and fight during combat. There is an overall reduction in both Max Stamina and Stamina Regeneration. The reduction in the cost of abilities is not enough to offset the use of stamina during combat, the smaller stamina pool, the slower regeneration, and the dodge penalty. The limited mobility during combat eliminates any feeling of being nimble. (Edit: it is like he aged 30 years overnight)

Another thing to note is that the reduction in stamina and stamina regen makes sneaking consume stamina much faster on PTS than it does on Live. Sneaky Nightblades are noticeably less sneaky. (Actually, everyone is) While the PVP people might not like sneaky Nightblades, the PVE folk like me do.

I think the changes you mentioned are largely due to stamina NB's overall versatility in pvp.

In the pvp world on live, NB's can spec everything into weapon damage and still have massive stamina regen, massive mobility, and low skill cost. They can hit like a truck, dodge roll off into the sunset like a ferrari, and disappear like... an... invisible... pinto?

With the new changes, it seems there will be a much greater tradeoff between focusing set bonuses/jewel enchants on damage, focusing on regen, focusing on reducing stamina costs, or trying to spread out your bonuses to average these things. I think that's a good thing. Certainly it's going to suck for anyone used to being good at everything in pvp, but I hope it will make pvp more lively and back-and-forth.

Ipsius

ninjaguyman wrote: »

Siphoning Strikes:
This ability is no longer a toggle.
Removed the Power and Spell Power debuff; your attacks now do full damage.
This ability no longer restores a percentage of your Magicka or Stamina. Instead, it restores a fixed amount per hit.
You will no longer build up extra visual effects on your weapon when this ability is cast multiple times.

Interesting, cant wait to see how this affects my nb tank build

You will likely not be pleased. There's a post about it here:

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/200972/siphoning-strikes#latest

I'd like to hear what you think!

Elsonso

Ipsius wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• You will no longer regenerate stamina while blocking.
• Reduced the cost of class stamina abilities by 20% so they are equivalent to weapon abilities.
• The cost of each roll dodge will increase by 33% after your first roll dodge.

Nightblade

• Refreshing Shadows (passive): Adjusted this ability from 15/30% Stamina recovery to 7/15% Stamina, Health and Magicka recovery.

Weapon

• Dual Wield
  • Whirling Blades (Whirlwind morph): This ability now applies Major Endurance instead of giving Stamina. We also reduced the cost of this ability by approximately 15%.

As near as I can tell from comparing PTS to Live, these changes in a stamina Nightblade result in a significant reduction in the ability to move and fight during combat. There is an overall reduction in both Max Stamina and Stamina Regeneration. The reduction in the cost of abilities is not enough to offset the use of stamina during combat, the smaller stamina pool, the slower regeneration, and the dodge penalty. The limited mobility during combat eliminates any feeling of being nimble. (Edit: it is like he aged 30 years overnight)

Another thing to note is that the reduction in stamina and stamina regen makes sneaking consume stamina much faster on PTS than it does on Live. Sneaky Nightblades are noticeably less sneaky. (Actually, everyone is) While the PVP people might not like sneaky Nightblades, the PVE folk like me do.

I think the changes you mentioned are largely due to stamina NB's overall versatility in pvp.

In the pvp world on live, NB's can spec everything into weapon damage and still have massive stamina regen, massive mobility, and low skill cost. They can hit like a truck, dodge roll off into the sunset like a ferrari, and disappear like... an... invisible... pinto?

With the new changes, it seems there will be a much greater tradeoff between focusing set bonuses/jewel enchants on damage, focusing on regen, focusing on reducing stamina costs, or trying to spread out your bonuses to average these things. I think that's a good thing. Certainly it's going to suck for anyone used to being good at everything in pvp, but I hope it will make pvp more lively and back-and-forth.

Well, it makes PVE a lot less lively, but it is a lot more back and forth. Usually from the nearest wayshrine.

oneshot_onekill

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

oneshot_onekill wrote: »

What does pts mean?

"Public Test Server" .

thank you

Sleeps-In-Trees

That daedric prey buff doe.

Zsymon

Sleeps-In-Trees wrote: »

That daedric prey buff doe.

It is not a real buff, the 25% bonus damage to pet attacks is simply moved from Empowered Ward to Daedric Prey.

I don't get the change to Empowered Ward.. Minor Mending makes Empowered Ward incredibly inferior on every level to Igneous Shield.

Empowered Ward:
- medium shield only on caster, not on allies.
- minor mending (8%).

Igneous Shield:
- medium shield on caster and on all allies.
- major mending (30%).

I don't see any reason why Empowered Ward should not get MAJOR mending, it would still be worse than Igneous Shield for healers.

Zsymon

Also I wonder how Sorcerers are meant to last more than a few seconds now in PvP.. with their shields being 65% weaker, having no self heals and 100% of their mobility taken away.

Glantir

Zsymon wrote: »

Sleeps-In-Trees wrote: »

That daedric prey buff doe.

It is not a real buff, the 25% bonus damage to pet attacks is simply moved from Empowered Ward to Daedric Prey.

before
Empowered Ward 25% more Pet dmg
Daedric Pure 20%
2 skills = 45% dmg

after
Daedric Pure 55% dmg
1 skill = 55% dmg
it is a buff

But it would be great if there change some toggle skills, the amount of toggle skills is to damn high!

QuadroTony

@ZOS_GinaBruno

hi i have one question and i cannot found info in the topic

if i deliver a crafting writ today, but after this i will keep the reward box closed until patch, i will get glass armor style pieces from this boxes i keep? or they will drop only from new reward boxes

Naphariel

QuadroTony wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno

hi i have one question and i cannot found info in the topic

if i deliver a crafting writ today, but after this i will keep the reward box closed until patch, i will get glass armor style pieces from this boxes i keep? or they will drop only from new reward boxes

That was my first thought too. Already started saving up all my boxes just in case.
Though chances are, now that you've told them, they'll make it so it only drops from the new ones

Daevyn

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

ShadowHvo wrote: »

• Vampire
o Supernatural Recovery (passive): This passive now only works while any Vampire ability is slotted in your ability bar.


Why... Why nerf Vampirism again..?

The difference between a vampire and a werewolf is that the vampire is PERMANTELY! in their monster form, they carry both weaknesses and strengths at the same time! Give us back our Supernatural Recovery passive, without the need to slot an ability! Its -core- to the vampire experience in ESO, do not take it away please =/

This makes no sense, both in terms of game mechanics AND lore. Even your own lore-writers state that vampires of noxiphilic sanguivoria gain increased health regeneration, yet in the actual game its an outright decrease.

Please, make vampires into a more true elder scrolls experience.. instead of this stuff where you're watering it down to nothing but another skill-line. As a vampire-lorewhore, this is outright depressing to see.

Also please leave our weakness alone, there is no need to decrease it further =/

• WW now also only gains it's recovery bonus while having the WW ultimate on its bar.
• Nerf? You now only take 25% bonus damage from fire as opposed to 40% (was 50%). If only the class I played got such "nerfs."
• If you are going to cite Lore, be sure to mention what happened when your Vampire in Oblivion took a walk on a nice sunny day. *Poof*.

WW still has zero penalty when not transformed. Vampires still take 25% extra fire damage.

Yeah but there is no gain while not transformed either. Vampires still get both Mgk and Stm regen. Yeah you are always in your vamp form, but your ability to heal, that crazy strong ult AoE (with lifesteal), and 4 levels of vampirism to find your niche. As it is, if you have WW as an ult, you get 1 shot in PvP before you're done transforming. Poison Arrow/Acid Spray = Gone. You build fire damage on a sword, you still have (x) fire damage from enchantment. You enchant a bow with poison damage you get (x) and (y) poison damage as it is built right into the bow skill line.

So, for the short duration of our transformation, we get 1 shot, 2 shot at best. So no use to use WW ult. Rather use a different ult, but then you gain absolutely nothing from WW at all. No use to ever be one. That is the point everyone is making. Vamp without a passive because you don't want a CC Lifesteal ability on your bar? Still get the regens. You're about to see a huge decrease in WW's and a huge upsurge of Vamps.

QuadroTony

@ZOS_GinaBruno

another question if you dont mind
is the chance of getting glass armor pieces connected with level of the writ's reward?

Leandor

xaraan wrote: »

Magicka Detonation: This ability now adds bonus damage for the amount of targets hit by it with 5% per target, up to a maximum of 25%.

Leave it to ZoS to hear feedback on something and screw up the implementation. Maxing this ability out (along with other changes) makes it just as bad. If it's for anti-zerging, it should have no max or an extremely high max. With that change, it still gives zergs the advantage against a smaller force (even more so with insta-cast).

I have to agree on that. In order to make it useless for zergs, reduce initial damage by 50% and make the damage increase starting at 6 targets (100% increase at 6 targets - bringing it back to the initial damage it has as of now on live) with 5% increase ad ultimo. It is an Alliance War ability, these do not have number-of-target restrictions.

Darlgon

@ZoS_GinaBruno

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Exploration & Itemization
[*] The Nirnhoned trait now increases Spell Resistance on the piece of armor it’s attached to, rather than increasing your total Spell Resistance.[/list]

Wait, I dont get it. If I have Nirnhoned on my head and chest, someone can get spell penetration on my knee with their magic Poison Arrow? Sorry, my targeting of spells in this game is not that accurate. From what @ZoS_EricWrobel said, two pieces would max out the amount of spell resistance avail from Nirnhoned, ....I thought..

Enodoc

Darlgon wrote: »

@ZoS_GinaBruno

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Exploration & Itemization
[*] The Nirnhoned trait now increases Spell Resistance on the piece of armor it’s attached to, rather than increasing your total Spell Resistance.[/list]

Wait, I dont et it. If I have Nirnhoned on my head and chest, someone can get spell penetration on my knee their magic Poison Arrow? Sorry, my targeting of spells in this game is not that accurate. From what @ZoS_EricWrobel said, two pieces would max out the amount of spell resistance avail from Nirnhoned, ....I thought..

I've probably got this wrong, but from what I understand, if one gear piece was Nirnhoned, the Spell Resistance boost would bug out and apply to your character's total spell resistance (say, 12,000 -> 12,300 for a 2.5% boost), rather than the spell resistance of the specific item it was applied to (say, 2,000 -> 2,050 for a 2.5% boost, taking total from 12,000 -> 12,050). The item itself doesn't matter, as Spell Resistance itself is not location-specific.

Darlgon

Ipsius wrote: »

Werewolves are already very good, and are viable in pvp with organization ("packs"). They can't make werewolf powerful to the point that people use it in competitive trials, or it would be the trials meta and everyone would be "required" to be a werewolf to compete. Werewolves in pvp, on the other hand, have lots of skills that synergize with other werewolves (extra damage on feared targets, increased werewolf duration, self heals, etc). If you're going to try the lone-wolf thing, werewolf is always going to be a little underwhelming. A coordinated pack would be terrifying.

You make funny. I spend 20-30 hours a week in Cyrodiil, AM a werewolf and NEVER see anyone transform, much less packs. I have never even seen the proported Werewolf Pack from AD transform.

Mettaricana

i agree with the vampire tweaks as well as the sorcerer stamina tweaks now if only they could add a toggle off the mages light ball completely

Enodoc

Mettaricana wrote: »

i agree with the vampire tweaks as well as the sorcerer stamina tweaks now if only they could add a toggle off the mages light ball completely

Isn't that in the settings already?

Siluen

Perhaps a trivial thing, but: can we please allow stacking of items in the guildbank? >_<

MLRPZ

8 Crashes in a row on PTS... i think i just have to go back to live server...
i'm on mac if that might help...

MikeSkyrim333

Greatargonianelder wrote: »

I hope we get a veterinarian sever because a level 10 is now level 50. So what there saying is that you don't have to play the game because when you go to pts your a veterinarian so. All the people that worked to get to veterinarian good job but we don't care lets make your hard work for nothing.

What I don't get is we can't play on severs 1-49 but they can play on the veteran server. Know with the new update make a new charter get him or her to level 10 then join the vet sever and your a level 50.

A lot of my friends 346 of them do not like this update all we wont is to have vet servers. What we don't want is level 10 become level 50 when there going on the servers 1-14v severs. I know your trying to help low levels but making them level 50 that has mad a lot of people made.

We need veterinarian servers for khajiit and argonian

Joy_Division

ItsMeToo wrote: »

Darkonflare15 wrote: »

So Bosmer gets a boost for more stamina added with their stamina regen. Now this is race better with stamina and regen.
Altmer gets even more magic regen.
Khajiit get 2% more crit chance and a 10% increase to stamina regen. A much welcome change.
Orcs get 4% more melee damage. Nice little bonus since they already have good max health and max stamina.

and Nords get a health increase from 3% to 10% the bonus is nice but they could done better.


Argonians a 2% increase to a passive that only works when using a potion that has cool down between the range 30 sec and 45 secs depending on jewelry. So no new stat buff. No new stat increase. No increase in health like Nords or stamina increase like Bosmer. That is it. It is confirmed ZOS hates Argonians but for some reason loves Bosmer.

And Dark Elfs get nothing.

Now, who do you thing they hate more?

Dude played an OP race for a year and a half and complains when not getting buffed. Typical.

Anath_Q

So, tier 15 enchantments and alchemy are completely locked behind the DLC?

We'll either have to PvP to the potency runes/water, or wait for these mats to show on the kiosks?

If so, rank 15 enchants and potions are about to get a lot more expensive. At least the new provisioning recipes are going to be available outside of the DLC.

It's one thing to lock a cosmetic style behind a PvP update, but to lock the entirety of end-game alchemy and enchanting behind the same wall is just asking for a lot of rage from PvE'rs.

Rydik

All new V16 things like sets, craft mats, enchants etc currently in Imperial City, so I must buy DLC to be competitive v16, nice.

Ayantir

Or you can just use trade houses.

Swernik

Please give orc same racial change about robus as khajiit. Orc is still a bit underdog now. With some stamina regeneration would be fair. High elf buff is insane and unfair.

Tobias808

So.....Whats the op nb build now? Lol

Vashna

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We'll work on getting everyone's gameplay questions as soon as possible, but in the meantime...

Nifty2g wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno Can you please confirm if trials and vdsa have been scaled to vr16, you mention dungeons but not trials?

ps. nice arrow to knee reference

No, only dungeons have been scaled up to VR16 at this time.

I'm assuming Zenimax's reason for not scaling this content is to push the player base toward Imperial City (i.e. garner more DLC purchases, etc.). However, increasing the non-trial dungeons is a bit inconsistent.

Regardless of the reasons, and some of the player base's obvious displeasure with seeing the PvE content fall behind for the next 3-6 months, there may be some unintended consequences to Zenimax's decision:

Currently, the weekly trial prizes (the gold item received in the mail on Sunday at 8pm Eastern) scales to the player's level. If the trials (particularly vDSA) remain at v14, then there are only 2 possibilities:

1. V16 players will receive V16 prizes from weekly trials.
2. V16 players will receive V14 prizes from weekly trials.

Neither of the above scenarios is worthwhile. If players can only obtain v14 gear, then there's absolutely no reason to run weekly trials beyond 8/31/2015. There will be superior gear in Imperial City, which relegates weekly trials to bragging rights only. Few if any care about a temporary board score over the permanent leaderboards.

On the other hand, offering v16 gear sounds great until you realize it would be the only channel to obtain such rewards (as running it normally caps out at v14). This would cause a serious gap in available options between the elite few who make it on the leaderboard and the rest of the community. I'm not complaining on behalf of the majority, because I do make it onto the leaderboard, but my first thought here is this....

If I want a particular master weapon or two in v16 quality, then I pretty much get 1 chance per month based on an RNG-based mail prize. Considering I have horrible luck with weekly rewards (my last 4 VDSA prizes were Master Lightning Staff, while I'm a Stam DK)... It may be 2-3 years before I get a v16 master weapon with the trait I'm after. (By then we'll probably be at v20.)

If the arena was scaled, then players can just run the trial at their convenience (100 times if necessary) until they obtain the items they seek.