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PTS Update 44 - Feedback Thread for Classes & Abilities

  • Frostmear
    Frostmear
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    ZOS_Kevin wrote: »
    This is the official feedback thread for current class balance and abilities. After you have a chance to try out different combat scenarios, let us know what you think of the current balance.

    The Two sets:
    Medium – Farstrider
    2 – Adds 1487 Armor
    3 – Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
    4 – Adds 657 Critical Chance
    5 – When you deal direct damage with a Blink, Charge, Leap, Teleport, or Pull ability, decrease the Critical Resistance of your enemy by 40% and increase your Critical Resistance by an equal amount for 10 seconds. This effect can occur once every 7 seconds.

    Heavy – Siegemaster’s Focus
    2 – Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
    3 – Adds 1296 Maximum Health
    4 – Adds 1487 Armor
    5 – While you are using a non-Ram Siege Weapon, you are immune to knockback and disabling effects, you reduce your damage taken by 33%, and you can see enemies through walls.

    Both of these sets are vastly over tuned. First the Farstrider, 40% crit resistance reduction is WAY too much, it also stacks on PTS. Not sure if this is a bug or not. But with how insane crit damage is right now, this set will just further make Cyrodiil an obnoxious gank fest.

    As for the siege set, seeing through walls is problematic from both a small scale, large scale, and essentially any perspective of PVP. Siege is already a bit overtuned as is and this set will just make cyrodiil filled with more siegebots.
  • Frostmear
    Frostmear
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    Cast_El wrote: »
    ioResult wrote: »
    Who asked for this toggle on & off change to Nightblade Cloak?

    ABSOLUTELY NOBODY

    Not one person who mains a Nightblade wants this change.

    If this change makes it live that’s my last ESO Plus or any other payment ever to you guys. My subscription gets shut off the day 44 drops with this change. I’m sure it will be the same for others.

    But yes, absolutely ZOS, do more to drive more players from the game by changing things no one wants instead of fixing the bugs that have been around for years.

    Look at the forum, everyone has been asking this for years.
    Yes. Everyone means like maybe 5 or 10 people in this case... I mean I do sit on this forums often & since a long time and you are right - for a long time a tiny group of same people wanted invisibility to be removed from the game.

    No, not a tiny group, everyone who isn't a nightblade wanted this ability toned down. This nerf was a long time coming and will be a good change.
  • Frostmear
    Frostmear
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    The cloak nerf is bad, and it is 100% a nerf because the cost is still high and now theres no mag recovery on a class and playstyle with basically zero recovery already. Detect pots are still bugged. Miats addon can still notify you of ranged damage from stealth in pvp and it can still give someone my general location, haunting curse can stick to anything even if you're not detected and people still use the red dot exploit and you want to neft stealth? I know many people in pvp want stealth gone so why not just make it official and eliminate it entirely. I need to move on from this game anyway. I've spent too much money playing this game to have an entire playstyle eliminated because someone wants it to be more "spooky" and pve friendly. You make wardens unkillable with high damage, you make magsorcs unkillable with extremely overtuned high damage unlimited shields unlimited healing, DK can be unkillable with 10k weapon damage, Arcanist is unkillable with infinite recovery, necro is still nerfed into the ground for no reason(poor necro mains truly sorry tbh). Ganker nb is literally the only thing standing against the tank meta yall created and now with the snap of a finger and one bad idea a whole playstyle is wiped from the game. I do not want to go light attack people to death or play bouncy-sorc and be carried by shields. Thanks but no thanks.

    "no mag recovery on a class and playstyle with basically zero recovery already."
    This is quite literally a skill issue, Nightblade has one of the better sustains in the game of all the classes via siphoning strikes, refreshing path, executioner passive, and refreshing shadows passive.

    " Ganker nb is literally the only thing standing against the tank meta yall created and now with the snap of a finger and one bad idea a whole playstyle is wiped from the game"
    No, Ganker NB is literally the main thing that continues to cause this tank meta, when a large portion of Cyrodiil is gankblades with over tuned damage and can have the best form of mitigation & defense known as cloak, everyone builds tanky to avoid being 1 shot by the absurd amount of gankblades. The less gankers in Cyrodiil the healthier the PVP will be overall. Not saying NB needs to be gutted, but this class is far overtuned and this cloak nerf was a long time coming. This change should go through but we know it won't since the game has a massive NB population who somehow think the class is in a bad spot and will cry anytime ZOS throws a justified nerf hammer at it.
    I fully expect this cloak nerf to be changed multiple times in this PTS cycle to appeal to the Crying NB's who are incapable of adapting and not spamming cloak 24/7.
  • Tcholl
    Tcholl
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    I see many NBs complaining and saying the change to cloak is due to other classes mains whining about it. This is very ironic, since about 2 years ago ppl were complaing about Dks and how they were OP. This behaviour brought a series of nerfs to the class and now DK is very boring to play. NBs are on top of mind for nerfs now and their mains says everyone whines about. Very rich. No one can be OP, except one class. hehe



    PC NA - Greyhost
  • MashmalloMan
    MashmalloMan
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    To all the Nightblade mains..

    The balancing idea continuously proposed, yet shot down for adding an increased cost per cast like Streak and Roll Dodge ("Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more Magicka") is looking pretty good right about now huh? :D
    PC Beta - 2200+ CP

    Stam Sorc Khajiit PvE/PVP Main || Stam Sorc Dark Elf PvP ||
    Stam Templar Dark Elf || Stam Warden Wood Elf || Stam DK Nord || Stam Necro Orc || Stam Blade Khajiit


    Mag Sorc High Elf || Mag Templar High Elf || Mag Warden Breton || Mag Necro Khajiit || Mag Blade Khajiit
  • System_Data
    System_Data
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    To all the Nightblade mains..

    The balancing idea continuously proposed, yet shot down for adding an increased cost per cast like Streak and Roll Dodge ("Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more Magicka") is looking pretty good right about now huh? :D

    Ramping costs on cloak won't fix NBs good damage, burst heal and sustain. Nice try. Brawlerblades and rangeblades will keep playing as usual. Gankers and casuals will feel the effects and if you hit the casual players, well good luck getting more people into PVP in an already dying PVP environment lol.

    People want NB nerfs and so do i. I just don't ask for bad nerfs that won't contribute much. NBs can do an obscene amount of damage, well, let's not nerf that but cloak instead. Oh, their heals and sustain are so good, better nerf cloak instead.

    Yikes. It's like having the blind lead the blind. Almost reminds me of reddit.
  • grzes848909
    grzes848909
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    To all the Nightblade mains..

    The balancing idea continuously proposed, yet shot down for adding an increased cost per cast like Streak and Roll Dodge ("Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more Magicka") is looking pretty good right about now huh? :D

    I often said that this mechanic should be implemented to a lot of abilities and it would fix majority of balancing in this game. roll dodge spam? Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more, spamming streak/mist form/vault ? cost increase within 4s, nightblade spamming cloak? Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more , a DK spamming coagulating blood, sorc spamming hardened ward or templar spamming honor of the dead or any class spamming any instant hp/shield ability? cost increase within 4s.

    Throw additional diminishing HoT stacking so subsequent HoTs heal for less and less the more of them you have on you so spamming Radiating Regeneration and Echoing Vigor is no longer so powerful that any group not abusing this spam in groupplay puts any such groups at huge disadvantage.
    Boom, solved majority of pvp problems in eso for you.
    Edited by grzes848909 on 17 September 2024 20:16
  • Jaimeh
    Jaimeh
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    People want NB nerfs and so do i. I just don't ask for bad nerfs that won't contribute much. NBs can do an obscene amount of damage, well, let's not nerf that but cloak instead. Oh, their heals and sustain are so good, better nerf cloak instead.

    That's not the case in PvE though. If you check ESO logs with the high score pushing groups they are mostly relegated to support. There are not many DDs left in the endgame (evem in casual PUGs) and those that are left are people who've played them for years and can be decent, and their groups don't mind the lack of utility. So if you nerf them for PvP you will run them to the ground in PvE.
    Edited by Jaimeh on 17 September 2024 20:05
  • Tommy_The_Gun
    Tommy_The_Gun
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    Tcholl wrote: »
    I see many NBs complaining and saying the change to cloak is due to other classes mains whining about it. This is very ironic, since about 2 years ago ppl were complaing about Dks and how they were OP. This behaviour brought a series of nerfs to the class and now DK is very boring to play. NBs are on top of mind for nerfs now and their mains says everyone whines about. Very rich. No one can be OP, except one class. hehe
    Fell free to look for it, but you will never find my old comments on this, as.... surprise - I did not complained about it, despite dying to it. Why ? Cuz I know what it means to get nerfed and I don't want people playing this game to not to have fun. Games should be fun ;)


    I often said that this mechanic should be implemented to a lot of abilities and it would fix majority of balancing in this game. roll dodge spam? Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more, spamming streak/mist form/vault ? cost increase within 4s, nightblade spamming cloak? Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more , a DK spamming coagulating blood, sorc spamming hardened ward or templar spamming honor of the dead or any class spamming any instant hp/shield ability? cost increase within 4s.

    Throw additional diminishing HoT stacking so subsequent HoTs heal for less and less the more you have on them on you so spamming Radiating Regeneration and Echoing Vigor is no longer so powerful that not abusing this spam in group play puts at huge disadvantage.
    Boom, solved majority of pvp problems in eso for you.
    I do believe that if the problem occurs only in PvP and only with specific builds - then nerf should for the most part only affect the builds & content that is considered over-performing.

    If some high mag recovery PVP NB builds were a problem as those could stay in cloak pretty much permanently, then better solution would be to simply add a condition to battle spirit that would reduce your magicka recovery by 70 - 80% while under the effect of invisibility.

    Problem solved. PvE is not affected and non-over-performing NB PvP builds are only minimally affected.

    Instead of simple solution to a problem, ZOS changes the core class skill that operated in a similar way for 10 years. So what changed all of the sudden ? And why toggle ? They are just over-engineering the solution. Keep it simple stupid. If it is simple, then it won't break other things.
    Edited by Tommy_The_Gun on 17 September 2024 20:19
  • BasP
    BasP
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    Regarding Ghostly Embrace, I definitely like the direction this skill is going. It's nice to see that another DOT will be added to the Necromancer's kit. I did a run through vet Vateshran Hollows with it as a semi-spammable on a Magcro build and the skill did between 5.7% and 10% of my DPS in some of the boss fights I checked afterwards, which is pretty okay I suppose. Most of that was direct damage, however, as I was often too close to enemies to hit them with the second patch that applied the DOT (which in hindsight might just be a skill issue).

    Hence, I'd personally prefer it if the first area applied the DOT instead of Chilled, as that would make the best secondary effect of Ghostly Embrace easier to land. I also think that, as @YandereGirlfriend said, it would be better if the bonuses were additive. Hitting a target with the third area is pretty lackluster at the moment.

    To summarize, though my suggestion might make Ghostly Embrace too powerful(?), I'd love to see the secondary effects turned into this:

    Area 1: DOT
    Area 2: DOT + Chilled
    Area 3: DOT + Chilled + Corpse
  • notyuu
    notyuu
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    Slap a cost discount on Templar sunshield and morphs that scales based on number of enemies hit on cast and you'll see it go from literally zero use to at least some use.

    While you're there see about buffing jabs slightly so you can actually do damage with it in PvP (or tweak burning light cd and proc setup so 1 cast of jabs procs it)

    And fix PoTL doing <5k damage on average in PvP, a six second, constant work burst should do more than gnats fart damage.
  • IncultaWolf
    IncultaWolf
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    BasP wrote: »
    Regarding Ghostly Embrace, I definitely like the direction this skill is going. It's nice to see that another DOT will be added to the Necromancer's kit. I did a run through vet Vateshran Hollows with it as a semi-spammable on a Magcro build and the skill did between 5.7% and 10% of my DPS in some of the boss fights I checked afterwards, which is pretty okay I suppose. Most of that was direct damage, however, as I was often too close to enemies to hit them with the second patch that applied the DOT (which in hindsight might just be a skill issue).

    Hence, I'd personally prefer it if the first area applied the DOT instead of Chilled, as that would make the best secondary effect of Ghostly Embrace easier to land. I also think that, as @YandereGirlfriend said, it would be better if the bonuses were additive. Hitting a target with the third area is pretty lackluster at the moment.

    To summarize, though my suggestion might make Ghostly Embrace too powerful(?), I'd love to see the secondary effects turned into this:

    Area 1: DOT
    Area 2: DOT + Chilled
    Area 3: DOT + Chilled + Corpse

    I love this suggestion, I think every patch should get the DoT
  • System_Data
    System_Data
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    Jaimeh wrote: »
    People want NB nerfs and so do i. I just don't ask for bad nerfs that won't contribute much. NBs can do an obscene amount of damage, well, let's not nerf that but cloak instead. Oh, their heals and sustain are so good, better nerf cloak instead.

    That's not the case in PvE though. If you check ESO logs with the high score pushing groups they are mostly relegated to support. There are not many DDs left in the endgame (evem in casual PUGs) and those that are left are people who've played them for years and can be decent, and their groups don't mind the lack of utility. So if you nerf them for PvP you will run them to the ground in PvE.

    Yeah, unfortunately for the PvE side of things. For PvP, burst is usually what is important, they could have one of the Grim Focus morph have its damage separated, direct damage and dot, and have it be the PvE morph with the dot being strong. Maybe buff some of their dots like Dark Shade and Cripple. Would also be great if they can receive some unique utility DKs Engulfing Flames.
  • Cast_El
    Cast_El
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    Change to cloak is good ZOS 👍
  • Cominfordatoothbrush
    Benzux wrote: »
    snip

    two things to note:
    1. the minor vuln from lotus fan still lasts 10 seconds as it does on live. the dot itself is just shorter and much more powerful
    2. burning talons is extremely good, in terms of dps. easily your 2nd highest damage ability on dk after spammable. like it at least doubles the damage from your other dots
    Edited by Cominfordatoothbrush on 17 September 2024 23:03
  • chessalavakia_ESO
    chessalavakia_ESO
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    I'm having a fair bit of fun with Ghostly Embrace.

    Would it be possible performance wise to get the third area to generate the in combat flag before the coprse creation?

    Right now, if you use it as an opener and you hit the enemy with just the third area it produces a corpse that cannot be used because you didn't count as being in combat when you hit the enemy with it.

    It's not a huge deal as you'd likely want to be aiming to hit with both the 2nd and the 3rd area as an opener anyways and you get the combat flag from hitting with the 2nd area.

  • Artem_gig
    Artem_gig
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    I like the shadow cloak switching system. Although I agree about the time, it was too shortened.
  • thepandalore
    thepandalore
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    love having a native taunt for Tankplar and I can definitely see a good reason to remove the taunt from explosive charge. some extra debuffs, like the rare major Cowardice, could really go a long way for tankplar utility
    Edited by thepandalore on 18 September 2024 06:12
  • Aldoss
    Aldoss
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    The patch notes for sorc and permanent pet conditions is wrong.

    Ball of Lightning is still counting as a pet and removes the heal portion of hardened ward. Really frustrating for the PvP non-pet sorcs out there.

  • Gardarik
    Gardarik
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    Ghostly embrace change is weird. Why are you taking away it's CC component? Necros already lack any native CC in PvP aside from the totem that is so easy to avoid for a player. As of now on live version, Ghostly Embrace is still clunky but it does have its uses. On PTS without the CC component, however, there is simply no point using the ability in PvP. It is already expensive and with its slim chances of actually generating a corpse/dealing its full dmg potential and no CC, what's the point of using it? Even destructive clench on lightning staff deals more damage. Seems like the devs are still not over the "warrior class" meme where necro has to rely on skills from other trees, having its native skills nigh too useless.
  • Benzux
    Benzux
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    Benzux wrote: »
    snip

    two things to note:
    1. the minor vuln from lotus fan still lasts 10 seconds as it does on live. the dot itself is just shorter and much more powerful
    2. burning talons is extremely good, in terms of dps. easily your 2nd highest damage ability on dk after spammable. like it at least doubles the damage from your other dots

    Ok if the debuff still lasts for that long then at least it's still alright for tank/healer, but if it goes live like this I'll definitely be reconsidering it on my Magblade.

    Personally I've never found the extremely short DoTs (Acid Spray and Burning Talons) to be fun to use, at least in PvE. I've tried using the former on my StamDK but you need to refresh it so often that it just feels really awkward to use, especially since it's backbarred on a Bow so you need to barswap in the middle of a rotation during your "spammable phase" while the other DoTs are still ticking for at least another 10 seconds.
    BenzuxGamer - Xbox One since day 1 - CP 1800+
    Guildmaster of the Sacrificial Warriors, one of the oldest and most member-orientated Guilds on the Xbox One EU Megaserver
    "Casual" player from Finland who enjoys questing and dumb builds even after well over 1000 CP levels and 4000+ hours. A fan of Argonians, Goats and Elk. Also a massive Otaku (MAL Profile).
    "Following the meta makes you a sheep. That's why I'm a goat: I go in the opposite direction and make use of the things the sheep cannot." - Me, 2019
    Characters:
    Ben-Zu - Argonian MagDK DPS - EP (Main)
    Benzuth Telvanni - Dunmer MagSorc DPS - EP
    Haknir Head-Crusher - Nord DK Tank/Stam DPS - EP
    Delves-Deepest-Depths - Argonian StamBlade DPS - EP
    Raises-The-Dead - Argonian Mag Necromancer DPS/Healer - EP (Previously a Sorc healer, RIP)
    Bthuzdir Ynzavretz - Dwemer StamSorc DPS - AD (Dunmer in-game)
    Fafnir the Dragon - Nord Stam DK DPS - EP
    Bloodmage Thalnos - Breton MagBlade DPS - DC
    Finnis Wolfheart - Bosmer Stam Warden DPS - EP
    Gwyneth - Nord Warden Tank - EP
    Kud-Wazei Xeroicas - Argonian Mag Templar DPS/Tank - EP
    Barkskin Ben-Zhu - Argonian Warden Healer - EP (Alternate version of main)
    Xal-Vakka Xeroicas - Argonian DK Healer - EP
    Jaree-Shei the Wamasu - Argonian Sorcerer Tank - EP
    Gwennen Ereloth - Snow Elf Mag Warden DPS - EP (Dunmer in-game)
    Friedrich der Grosse - Imperial Nightblade Tank - EP
    Warfarin - Altmer Nightblade Healer - EP
    Lavinia Telvanni - Dunmer Arcanist MagDPS - EP
    Studies-Dark-Secrets - Argonian Arcanist StamDPS - EP
  • Thal
    Thal
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    It's really nice to see that some of the Templar defensive/tanking skills are being reworked. Appreciate greatly it being top of mind on this patch, as it's been quite some time.

    My only commentary is that there is one truly obvious skill that is still just sitting there, both due to the cost being absurd for the return and the complete lack of identity/group utility - Nova and its morphs.

    I'd love to see something unique to Templar added to Nova... maybe some form of heroism for the group as an idea, perhaps a reasonable shield that refreshes every 2 seconds and has a secondary effect if the shield holds, or ideally something entirely unique eg "enemies standing in Nova have armor reduced to zero and take 10% additional damage for 10 seconds when the synergy is activated," literally anything other than its current form. Something that when you're putting together a group composition, you could at least linger and consider using a Templar because of Nova (like Atro ulti on Sorc).

    We have a running joke when we cast ultimates where we'll say "My Nova" (like calling out a Warhorn), because no one actually ever uses this skill.
  • boi_anachronism_
    boi_anachronism_
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    Im gonna go ahead and address the two classes ive played the most here, plar and blade:

    I rarely pvp but its worth mentioning that i was a blade main in pve for years. Key word being was.

    I think a lot of people supported something like a ramping cost to cloak. Cloak needed to be adjusted a bit for balance. I really dont believe it can reasonably be denied. That said: The toggle- as many pointed out is just going to be completely ineffective. You will get maybe 10 seconds at which point you have zero resources. So you basically pray that you can get enough distance because if you cant you lose cloak and your dead. Thats a big if. You get hit by a slow skill before you cloak then your just dead. Sorc can come in with streak and just nuke you. The class is already bottom tier for 12-man. Now it will be in a weak state for both pve and pvp. There are just wildly stronger options in every playstyle which is deeply unfortunate.

    As for templar its still well behind classes that have gotten the buff on either bar treatment for class skills. The choice to turn BOTH morphs of their gap closer into a taunt means that it is unusable for any playstyle except tanks which is a real shame. The shield changes really do not create any meaningful difference on top of it being obscenely expensive. I would run a scribed skill before using its class shield 100% of the time. The sustain on the class is absolutely garbage to begin with in pve. If i want any kind of comfortable sustain im running a true hybrid and by that i mean my magplar has a full bar worth of stam skills. Most classes run a few stam skills but not a full bars worth. That is not good. To run full mag you must give up atleast one slot for something like rune focus. Something which other classes simply do not have to do.

    Overall my assessment is nighblades are severely gimped in not one but both playstyles now and templar has just had its choices for dps skills limited even further without doing anything that might attract tanks to use the class. This is why so many people just said leave the class alone because we may not get something positive but atleast we wouldnt get anything negative.

    We need to go back to the drawing board on some of this. They are either ineffective or overly nerfed. Im just really disappointed.

    Edited by boi_anachronism_ on 18 September 2024 17:53
  • boi_anachronism_
    boi_anachronism_
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    Metafae wrote: »
    Arcanist Shield changes are interesting.

    I don't hate the change, but I would request changing the 1-second front loaded shield to about 1.5 seconds to accommodate those of us who play with high latency.

    It just seems unrealistic to time the shield effectively when your ping is 220+.

    The new mythic about blocking damage with precision timing is completely ignored by me for this same reason. Let's not be making a trend to precision timing of skills, please no.

    Totally agree. Especially with how bad performance has been on the servers recently its just not a great idea.
  • propertyOfUndefined
    propertyOfUndefined
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    General Issues w/ Necromancer in its Current PTS State

    Every class in ESO seems to have a distinct identity. When you think of Sorcerers, for instance, mobility immediately comes to mind. They're like lightning—here one moment, gone the next—zooming across the battlefield. Dragonknights (DKs), on the other hand, evoke wars of attrition. They take a hit to give a hit and will likely be the last ones standing.

    Nightblades are the stealthy assassins of the game, boasting the highest burst potential, like ninjas lurking in the shadows. Nuff said. Templars? They’re the textbook paladins—masters of healing, purging, and even executing enemies when the time is right. Wardens excel at wearing opponents down with an array of debuffs, snares, roots, and stuns, fitting perfectly into the "controller" archetype.

    Arcanists are all about big AoE damage. Their beam-focused playstyle seems to have been designed with the popular one-bar heavy attack builds for solo players in mind. ZOS clearly crafted this class from an identity that developed organically within the game. To me, they’re easily the best out-of-the-box class for solo play. In addition to their impressive damage, Arcanists are likely the toughest class to kill, even surpassing DKs, thanks to their abundance of buffs and shields.

    And then there’s the Necromancer.

    Necromancers have corpses. But the corpses feel like they add nothing special to gameplay, often coming across as unnecessary complexity for the sake of complexity.

    At one point, Necromancers boasted the best damage-oriented ult in the game, and they excelled at generating ult quickly. However, after nerfs to major vulnerability, they lost their edge, and nothing was introduced to fill that gap. In PvP, the "Harmony" synergy at least gave them a niche playstyle as bombers with self-activated synergies, but even that was taken away. Now, we’re left with a class that feels like it lacks a true identity. Their defining mechanic—corpses—is poorly implemented and extremely unrewarding.

    When new features are introduced, like class mastery scripts, and the perk they offer is an extra corpse, I usually just roll my eyes. For a class like Arcanist, an extra Crux would be amazing. For a Necromancer, an extra corpse probably amounts to a couple more HoT ticks. Maybe useful for a tank or healer, but there's no real payoff for damage dealers.

    I implore the developers to settle on a clear vision for the Necromancer's identity. Please devise ways to make corpses truly valuable regardless of what role a player chooses to fulfill—similar to how Crux benefits Arcanists. And finally, please ensure that Necromancers are competitive in both PvE and PvP, because let's face it, nobody is hitting other players with that siphon for more than a second or 2.
    Edited by propertyOfUndefined on 18 September 2024 20:05
  • thepandalore
    thepandalore
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    Having a taunt in the tankplar's kit feels so nice, and the non-tank use cases for Explosive charge should be enough to remove taunt from that morph, if AOE taunt truly is a non-starter these days.

    The use of a skill that widens the gap between tank and group, drawing formidable enemies into a kill zone as DPS follow the charge, is a stacking efficiency tactic that shouldn't be overlooked. It's a playstyle unique to the old Tormentor Tankplar that better facilitates stack and burn than any other tanking class I've played, and I'm pretty excited to be able to use it again.

    As honestly delightful as the taunt on charge is, the advantages of the charge do not compensate for the lack of additional effects with taunt; when other taunting skills like destructive clench and inner beast apply some duration of Major Maim or Minor Maim and Minor Vulnerability, respectively, the better choice is clearly for either of the other two skills that facilitate more group damage. To be a meaningful third option taunt, Toppling Charge should apply some group buff or comparable enemy debuff as well taunt. We use charge taunt to aggro the more significant threats on the way to a killzone position before finally chaining in smaller ones with silver leash; this is opposite the DK's stand-and-chain taunt for minor adds after slogging in with puncture, inner beast, or frost clench.

    If the incredibly boring sentiment that a charge should not taunt somehow prevails, Aurora Javelin is a fantastic candidate for PVE Taunt. Having spoken with other tankplar fans about the concept, there's some agreement that Battle Spirit differentiation is underutilized and could easily allow Aurora Javelin to maintain its PVP-oriented knockback functionality while providing taunt and debuffs comparable to its sword & board, destro staff, and undaunted tree alternatives against non-player enemies. For example, the knockback would function while battle spirit is active, and the taunt & debuff effects would function while battle spirit is inactive.

    Radiant Ward is quite nice.


    To echo some thoughts about an ability untouched by this update, I'd like to point out some facts about Nova and some things that could be done to help.

    The Nova ult and its morphs are in desparate need of renewal. Nova costs 238 ult and applies Major Maim for 10 seconds. The same debuff can be applied for the same amount of time with an Ice Staff's taunt for a grand total of ~5k magicka. Similar AOE debuff ults, namely Colossus and Standard, provide their debuffs for 170% - 200% of Nova's duration, at 17s and +20s respectively, while costing the same amount of ult or up to 26.5% less. Nova would benefit from a significant increase to the duration, more impactful debuffs, and potentially a reduction in cost.

    Here are some examples, in badly-imitated perchnerts format:
    • Nova New Cost 214 Ultimate
      Call down a fragment of Magnus, dealing 1191 Magic Damage every 1 second for 10 seconds to enemies in the area, pulling enemies within 12 meters to the fragment and applying Hindrance for 6 seconds. Enemies within 12 meters are afflicted with Major Maim and Minor Brittle for 20 seconds, reducing their Damage Done by 10% and increasing Critical Damage taken by 10%. An ally near the fragment can activate the Supernova synergy, causing a 12 meter fiery explosion that deals 2207 Fire Damage to all enemies in the area and afflicting them with the Burning condition for 20 seconds.
      Comments:
      Nova would have a gravitational effect on enemies in an area, while damage is brought to par with other damaging ults. Extends the duration of Major Maim to 20 seconds and adds Minor Brittle for the same duration, the latter of which is comparable to other skills with a simple magicka cost. Also hinders enemies for a short time. The Supernova synergy would with slightly less damage, but applies burning to all enemies in the area.
    • Solar Prison New Cost 214 Ultimate
      Call down a fragment of Magnus, dealing 991 Magic Damage every 1 second for 10 seconds to enemies in the area, pulling enemies within 12 meters to the fragment, stunned for 4 seconds, and Hindered for 10 seconds. Enemies within 12 meters are afflicted with Major Maim for 20 seconds and Minor Brittle for 20 seconds, reducing their damage done by 10% and increasing Critical Damage taken by 10%. An ally near the fragment can activate the Gravity Crush synergy, locking all enemies to the ground and afflicting them with Major Brittle for 9 seconds.
      Comments:
      Solar Prison increases the gravitational effects on enemies while slightly decreasing the amount of damage done. Enemies are stunned, hindered, debuffed, and a synergy applies an effect to all enemies like the one available in Maelstrom and Bedlam Veil. Adds Major Brittle for a short duration on synergy.
    • Solar Disturbance New Cost 188 Ultimate
      Summon an unstable fragment of Magnus, dealing 1531 Magic Damage every 1 second for 10 seconds to enemies in the area, pulling enemies within 12 meters to the fragment, applying Hindrance for 6 seconds. An ally near the fragment can activate the Supernova synergy, causing a 16 meter explosion that deals 2807 Magic Damage to all enemies in the area and afflicts them with the Burning and Sundered conditions.
      Comments:
      Reduces cost, increases damage, increase the size and damage of the final explosion, applies both burning and sundered to all enemies affected by synergy.
    Edited by thepandalore on 18 September 2024 20:21
  • ioResult
    ioResult
    ✭✭✭
    Frostmear wrote: »
    I fully expect this cloak nerf to be changed multiple times in this PTS cycle to appeal to the Crying NB's who are incapable of adapting and not spamming cloak 24/7.

    The SnipeBlade "gankers" that you are crying about (and hate whisper to) will be unaffected by this change. They are still going to be able to Snipe you from long range and get away as they do today, just much more easily. With this change they only have to toggle Cloak on once and run away, not spam it every 3 seconds while you're all running around trying to pull them out of stealth. The inexperienced Nightblades will all gravitate to the SnipeBlade now. No need to master Cloak resource management and control your adrenaline so as to not spam it too frequently.

    This change also has zero affect on the Nightblades running the Rallying Cry EZ Mode TankBlade build that you hate because they never die to you (a build which we call the 'CrutchBlade' build). They now have to press the skill twice instead of just once to proc everything they get from coming out of Stealth. No big deal.

    But the PVP Nightblades that like to fight and use cloak as a tool during a fight are the ones affected by this change. You will no longer see them in BGs or in Cyrodiil, especially PVP Magblades.

    What are they going to do as a result of this change?

    THEY ARE GOING TO CHANGE THEIR BUILD TO BE A SNIPEBLADE OR A CRUTCHBLADE

    You already hate both of these NB PVP playstyles and your vociferous agreement with this unnecessary change will do nothing but encourage more not less Nightblades to play these two playstyles.

    So enjoy getting range Sniped more often by larger & larger groups of new SnipeBlades and having more Crutchblades chasing you as you polish the grout running in circles in a tower. That's the only inevitable result of this change to make Cloak a toggled ability that doesn't allow Mag regen while on.
    But yeah ZOS...Cloak is the problem.
    --
    sudo rm -rf /
    don't try this at ~
  • TDVM
    TDVM
    ✭✭✭✭
    Make the necromancer's skills useful and update the effects of the skills. Here's an example: as long as coffins exist, they create skeletons every 2 seconds.
    Here's an example from the infinite archive where why there is a skillet and the necromancer class doesn't!
    npxsee93611g.gif
    Necromancer should be able to summon an army of corpses, what he has now on Renewing Animation is just a 99.9% unused ult. necromancer assumes that he can resurrect a few corpses and make an army of corpses at least for a while, for example 1:30 - 2 minutes, not 2 pets that are funny to look at. @ZOS_Kevin
  • MincMincMinc
    MincMincMinc
    ✭✭✭
    Too bad Nightblades are complaining about every aspect of the cloak change. When the recovery cut is leaps and bounds the worst aspect. Having a cut means your sustain is going to become random. Say if you have 2k recovery, under normal combat gcd weaving your cloak may cost you the flat activation cost.... or randomly depending on when the tick lands may cost you an additional 2k.

    If zos plans on changing the tickrate of recovery much like they did with the sprint cost ticks, this may be far less of a problem. (This would also help sustain desync issues that most people dont notice)
    Regardless I would rather see no cut at all and an adjusted skill cost scheme. If players can still get their recovery, this means they may CHOOSE to build into countering the reoccurring/ramping cost. If someone wants to drop two damage sets to perma stealth, who cares? Much to the same degree as, if someone wants to slot only speed and sprinting sets just to run around, who cares?

    Player CHOICE is one of the most important aspects of why building was so praised in ESO, why not allow it to continue?
  • Theist_VII
    Theist_VII
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    While I agree that having an in-class taunt is a great thing, @thepandalore, the change to Sun Shield is not…
    …quite nice.

    You can currently make a better damage prevention skill that provides an AoE application of MAJOR Maim through Scribing.

    x9edwed51duh.jpeg
    That being said, if you want a ward, you can make any of these other options that not only protect yourself, but your whole group, while receiving a better benefit…

    nq5ud508hfc7.jpeg
    tfug1ja496pv.jpeg
    4d7lz5532vbd.jpeg
    Edited by Theist_VII on 18 September 2024 23:26
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