opposed to Nerfing every class into the ground.
ESO is suffering an epidemic of nerfs when the nerfs for any class are no longer appropriate. I am proposing solutions to the current state of play for the entire game. With that said, my changes are a change slight or major to the current mechanics of the game and will allow more flexibility in builds and require more attention from players individual and group.
I do not feel the issue is class balance, rather how the mechanics in ESO work, particularly Cyrodiil side.
I support all players in their endeavors to not have their class ripped to pieces, so lets begin.
1) Hard CC and it's alternative. I would like to propose that we consider diminishing returns on hard CC. Every skill that is a hard CC if spammed too rapidly grants immunity to CC too player(s) but not immunity to the damage of that skill. My reasoning for hard CC DR is because it avoids the cost of points in the Champion tree.
But we must undo the current system of granted immunity of certain abilities and immunity upon CC break. For every "negative" change I also include a "positive" change.
I would like for the PvP Community and ESO Dev team to please consider your thoughts on undoing the following nerfs because we can put points into Champ tree to reduce the time of Immobilize and Snares (soft CC):
Dragon Knights:
Chains, this is a fundamental component of running a meatgrind set up which is an integral part of most games with PVP. Consider turning chains back into an immobilize.
Sorcerer:
Bolt Escape, yes, make Bolt Escape an immobilize and not a stun again. (see below for additional changes)
Templar:
Puncturing Strikes, this one is tricky because it is spammable but most Templars need their pokey pokey. Considering making this skill an immobilize that then becomes a snare, a stagger effect in ESO is way to dangerous to allow without some sort of CC immunity and this skill is way to precious to do that to.
Night Blade:
Pre-emptive do not nerf FEAR and leave it as is with my DR suggestion as stated above. It should still break through block, but it should not be an infinite solution to screwing over the tank; it should provide a window of opportunity as any hard CC does.
Again, I would like emphasize that I only would put a DR on CC if a player was hit with hard CC too many times however, soft CC would still be able to used constantly because of Champion points and the ability to get rid of it via dodge roll, immunity pots, and purge/purify.
2) Adding a debuff component to snares, I have proposed the change on another thread, but I will post again. I propose that snares work as defile does to healing, but snares act in such a way that any gap closer or openers distance measure also becomes reduced with exception to Chains and Dragon Leap, should not be effected by this debuff, Templars use your purify and Nightblades use your cloak.
For every "negative" change I also include a "positive" change.
Affected abilities would be
Weapons:
Crit Charge
Shield Charge
Templar:
Toppling Charge
Night Blade:
Teleport Strike
Sorcerer:
Bolt Escape
Templar: Add a 3 second blind effect to Toppling Charge.
Sorcerer: Undo the changes to Bolt Escape *but*, just make it a more expensive than it was previous (but dont go overboard).
Change Ball of Lightning to a stamina based morph that allows a Knock Back on contact, so it's a cluster buster with some hang time, (but you still have to aim your opponents and is subject to DR as proposed above.) With a 2 second snare duration instead of immobilize as the magicka version originally had.
3) Hard CC, Immobilize and Snare abilities that are currently unused and/or deserve some love from a mechanical prospective.
Dragon Knight:
Stone Fist: This thing is still unused, perhaps change from a KD to a Knock Forward. Instead of getting punched in the junk let the fist come up and punch the opponent in the rear and make them knocked forward toward the DK. Give it a healthy range but with some deadspace like Snipe.
Talons: Increase an extra meter or two.
Templar:
Templars are currently borked in the CC department and I have never been hit by Javelin and not enough Templars run shards.
With that said, these two probably need polishing. Change to a snare or immobilize to Shards and some more damage to Javelin perhaps?
Sorcerers:
Encase: Reduce the cost, increase the damage on Shattering Prison.
Rune Prison: Consider reducing the cast time if not making it instant cast.
Night Blades:
Disclaimer:As far as I'm concerned, Nightblades should be Kings of CC and should have the biggest arsenal (with respect to intelligent and clever decision making). With that said, the class has a very nice skill set already with the exception of one skill.
Agony:
Change to a snare and add Major Mangle, reduce cast cost but do not make it instant.
5) Allow Major Mangle to reduce all pools, not just health. (make sure its purgeable/purifiable)
6) Allow Defile to reduce healing and all resource regeneration. (make sure its purgeable/purifiable)
7) Line of Sight: Ensure that when Line of Sight is broken, Projectiles and Gap Closers cancel.
With that said, here is a proposed mechanical tweak to Night Blades Cloak:
While allowing Detect Pots to reveal cloaked Night Blades, when cast, cloak should act as if it broke line of sight from single target abilities so it can be used as a defensive measure.
To compensate, increase Detection by 5 meters and by 5 seconds.
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I want to stop nerfing... Nerfing just encourages a ridiculous flavor of the month rotation. ESO was build on the premise of "play the way you want to play", but we all understand some classes were built to do niche things a bit better than others. Dragon Knights have more tools to take a beating, Templars to heal, Sorcerers to nuke, and Night Blades to control.
**edited in: Looking for constructive feedback, your own thoughts and suggestions without unnecessary calls for nerfs, I am looking for more mechanical changes but without severely crippling or over loading any class in the manner of mechanics first and foremost.
Cheers.
Edited by TheBonesXXX on 5 January 2016 21:54