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ESO is celebrating its 10th year Anniversary... Let's celebrate by killing off the Nightblade!
MacCait
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I've not long returned to the game after a long hiatus. PC player but play ESO on console, and have PTS on gaming PC. The recent changes to Archive brought me back (another topic). But in terms of the Nightblade, since launch it's always been my favourite class, so much so that I have 5 Nightblades in different races, and play them for different purposes. Whether in PvE or PvP, I love the sneaky dark brotherhood assassin class. It has always felt unique and fun to play, and Cloak is it's key skill.
Shadow Cloak has worked fine since release. For ten years, through minor changes, it has worked fine. There has never been a need to drastically change it. If the skill was so overpowered and unbalanced, there have been 10 years to change it. If the original designers of the game created this skill and it has worked that way for 10 years, why drastically change it now?
There have always been players that complain about annoying Nightblades in PvP. This is not a new thing to complain about. But like every thread ever made on the subject, you'll see 10 years worth of comments talking about how easy it is to counter the Nightblade in PvP. All experienced PvP'ers know how to do this.
Even for Nightblades that like to play the Assassin and gank an unsuspecting enemy with a high burst sneak attack from the shadows, we know we can only pick off weaker players. With the developers favouring the tanky high health Meta and ball groups in PvP, there are fewer chances for the Nightblade to play this way anymore. So why kill the skill now after 10 years?
Adding this toggle is an awful idea. It doesn't feel good. It feels clunky and a toggle is hard to keep track of in play. Honestly this feels like making a change for the sake of change rather than trying to create any type of balance. This type of change effectively kills off the unique ability of the class, and in a year where we are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the game. It doesn't feel great as a Nightblade player. I have to seriously wonder why stick around in ESO with these types of changes occurring, like the over-nerf to Azureblight too. With Azureblight, it has already undergone changes and previous nerfs, but I can understand if the devs feel it still needs a balance. But changing one of the original classes unique skill after 10 years feels very odd and effectively would just make certain players like myself leave the Nightblade behind.
3 seconds of Cloak at the press of the button is 3 seconds less than a shield, it has to be used more frequently and costs to do so. Mostly, the only players using it in PvP are squishy Assassins, and there are easy ways to counter against them. The more tanky players use the other morph. So this really does feel like a change for the sake of making a change rather than a needed change for balance purposes, which already occurred with this skill years ago.
Maybe new players in PvP find it annoying if they are playing other classes, but Nightblade is the only Assassin class, and even in PvE, you'll have Nightblades going invisible and then jumping out at you. It's part of the lore of the game. New players get taught by more experienced players, becoming more experienced themselves and soon learning how to counter the Nightblade.
I really don't see why this change is being made or suggested. It doesn't benefit any player playing Nightblade. It's not about balance, and just alienates all players playing this original 10-year-old class. It certainly doesn't feel great to make such a drastic unneeded change in a time of the 10th year anniversary, where many of us look back at all the fun times we've had for the last decade with our favourite class. The class was super fun to play in PvE, especially through Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild skill lines. Yes, the class can still use cloak as a toggle, but it feels clunky.
It would be good if the developers just scrapped this idea and left the skill alone as it is. It has already gone through previous balance changes over the years. Just leave the skill alone now.
In a time with so many players leaving ESO, and feeling a void in the community and population (especially on console), this should be a time to attract more players, not alienate players with this type of unneeded change. testing this on PTS, I really hope this does not go live.
Edited by MacCait on 11 October 2024 12:47 Shadow Cloak has worked fine since release. For ten years, through minor changes, it has worked fine. There has never been a need to drastically change it. If the skill was so overpowered and unbalanced, there have been 10 years to change it. If the original designers of the game created this skill and it has worked that way for 10 years, why drastically change it now?
There have always been players that complain about annoying Nightblades in PvP. This is not a new thing to complain about. But like every thread ever made on the subject, you'll see 10 years worth of comments talking about how easy it is to counter the Nightblade in PvP. All experienced PvP'ers know how to do this.
Even for Nightblades that like to play the Assassin and gank an unsuspecting enemy with a high burst sneak attack from the shadows, we know we can only pick off weaker players. With the developers favouring the tanky high health Meta and ball groups in PvP, there are fewer chances for the Nightblade to play this way anymore. So why kill the skill now after 10 years?
Adding this toggle is an awful idea. It doesn't feel good. It feels clunky and a toggle is hard to keep track of in play. Honestly this feels like making a change for the sake of change rather than trying to create any type of balance. This type of change effectively kills off the unique ability of the class, and in a year where we are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the game. It doesn't feel great as a Nightblade player. I have to seriously wonder why stick around in ESO with these types of changes occurring, like the over-nerf to Azureblight too. With Azureblight, it has already undergone changes and previous nerfs, but I can understand if the devs feel it still needs a balance. But changing one of the original classes unique skill after 10 years feels very odd and effectively would just make certain players like myself leave the Nightblade behind.
3 seconds of Cloak at the press of the button is 3 seconds less than a shield, it has to be used more frequently and costs to do so. Mostly, the only players using it in PvP are squishy Assassins, and there are easy ways to counter against them. The more tanky players use the other morph. So this really does feel like a change for the sake of making a change rather than a needed change for balance purposes, which already occurred with this skill years ago.
Maybe new players in PvP find it annoying if they are playing other classes, but Nightblade is the only Assassin class, and even in PvE, you'll have Nightblades going invisible and then jumping out at you. It's part of the lore of the game. New players get taught by more experienced players, becoming more experienced themselves and soon learning how to counter the Nightblade.
I really don't see why this change is being made or suggested. It doesn't benefit any player playing Nightblade. It's not about balance, and just alienates all players playing this original 10-year-old class. It certainly doesn't feel great to make such a drastic unneeded change in a time of the 10th year anniversary, where many of us look back at all the fun times we've had for the last decade with our favourite class. The class was super fun to play in PvE, especially through Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild skill lines. Yes, the class can still use cloak as a toggle, but it feels clunky.
It would be good if the developers just scrapped this idea and left the skill alone as it is. It has already gone through previous balance changes over the years. Just leave the skill alone now.
In a time with so many players leaving ESO, and feeling a void in the community and population (especially on console), this should be a time to attract more players, not alienate players with this type of unneeded change. testing this on PTS, I really hope this does not go live.
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Jaimeh✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭NBs have been 'meh' in PvE for so long, and what ZOS came up with to help was giving cloak a monster buff flavour that's activated via a toggle... so we can have yet another clanky skill on our bars to deal with, on top of dealing with one of the clankiest rotations out there... Honestly, there are no words. Why did cloak need a rework from a PvE perspective? Why didn't they rework, say, veil--a skill that hasn't been used since 2017, or give group utility to one of the skills that we already use on a DPS rotation, so that DDs are more useful to bring in organized groups (and so that when you see a NB in an ESO log, it's not only on a healer role). They could have just nerfed the cost to cloak, or they could have had the cost ramping up if it was cast within X seconds (like streak), or they could have given a cooldown to the crit hit, to appease the PvP concerns, and call it a day. Who will enjoy using a toggle in their PvE rotation, not to mention an unsustainable toggle, and who will enjoy not having reliable control over their best defensive skill in PvP.... I'm with you OP that the way they changed this skill is completely unwelcome, not to mention that is their answer (talking from a PvE perspective) to help a class that went from being tailor-made for dps to only welcome in groups as support.1 -
gariondavey✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭necros and templars: first time?PC NA @gariondavey, BG, IC & Cyrodiil Focused Since October 2017 Stamplar (main), Magplar, Magsorc, Stamsorc, StamDK, MagDK, Stamblade, Magblade, Magden, Stamden2