U51 PTS Start Date Update

ZOS_Kevin · July 21

Hi Everyone. We have an update for the start date of U51 PTS. Week one of PTS will now start on August 3, 2026. As we've been working on our adjusted roadmap, we made the determination that the start date needed to shift one more week. We understand the additional delay is frustrating, and appreciate your patience as we continue to work on our updated roadmap.

Erickson9610 · July 21

Thank you for the communication!

Kickimanjaro · July 21

Understand the need for the delay, thank you for the update

CalamityCat · July 21

Thanks for the update. It's totally understandable that you need a bit more time in the circumstances, I was expecting it a worse delay after all the disruption. Definitely not something I blame any of the ESO team for.

The last thing I'd want is a rushed update, especially if there's a Warden rework in there for my main. She bearly noticed the delay anyway (sorry!)

coop500 · July 21

Thanks Kevin, I actually suspected this might happen.

Things are certainly not okay for ZOS, and I hope people remain supportive, but also realistic about what's going on. The PR stunt from Xbox/Microsoft was nothing more than just that as they gut the team and our game.

propertyOfUndefined · July 21

This is what I've been waiting for. Thank you!

DoofusMax · July 21

@ZOS_Kevin: Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Does delayed start also mean shortened cycle?

Tatanko · July 21

Does this mean the date for live launch will be a week later as well? (was Sept. 21, would now be Sept. 28)

noblecron · July 21

Will we be getting a stream of what to expect in update 51? Will we still get warden refresh?

tomofhyrule · July 21

Thanks for the information.

I would still really like to get information on what’s in it (i.e. Warden). Can the Combat Team give us anything to hold us over?
(e.g. concept art, gifs, skill descriptions)

ESO_Nightingale · July 21

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi Everyone. We have an update for the start date of U51 PTS. Week one of PTS will now start on August 3, 2026. As we've been working on our adjusted roadmap, we made the determination that the start date needed to shift one more week. We understand the additional delay is frustrating, and appreciate your patience as we continue to work on our updated roadmap.

Given whats happened. I didnt expect the additional delay to be 1 week.

As other people have asked, i'd really like to know if warden is still planned for the update?

Its completely understandable if it isnt, but we'd just like to know.

LunaFlora · July 21

Thank you for the update Kevin.

And like others ask, is Warden in update 51?
it is understandable if it moved to update 52, but we have not received any info about it other than that it is being worked on.

Seraphayel · July 21

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi Everyone. We have an update for the start date of U51 PTS. Week one of PTS will now start on August 3, 2026. As we've been working on our adjusted roadmap, we made the determination that the start date needed to shift one more week. We understand the additional delay is frustrating, and appreciate your patience as we continue to work on our updated roadmap.

Given whats happened. I didnt expect the additional delay to be more than 1 week.

As other people have asked, i'd really like to know if warden is still planned for the update?

Its completely understandable if it isnt, but we'd just like to know.

Warden refresh not being part of U51 is not really understandable in my opinion.

They should have had the PTS update ready before the layoffs. Sure, it was delayed for a bit, but by that time basically most of it should’ve been finalized already.

Also in regards to ZOS and they really need to understand this:

Class updates are the most important thing for ESO‘s future. You cannot do one single class and then ignore all the others. If they need to shuffle anything around, it should be by no means class reworks.

As for the one week delay, that’s totally understandable and not of huge concern. That it takes three weeks or more to give us an updated roadmap, that is of concern.

Firstmep · July 21

Perfectly fine, thanks for letting us know.

CatalinaWineMixer2 · July 21

When can we see the PTS moved from strictly PC? Its not fair to Consoles and Cross Platform is coming. When is the rest of the Realm going to have a say in what's going on with the game?

ESO_Nightingale · July 21

Seraphayel wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi Everyone. We have an update for the start date of U51 PTS. Week one of PTS will now start on August 3, 2026. As we've been working on our adjusted roadmap, we made the determination that the start date needed to shift one more week. We understand the additional delay is frustrating, and appreciate your patience as we continue to work on our updated roadmap.

Given whats happened. I didnt expect the additional delay to be more than 1 week.

As other people have asked, i'd really like to know if warden is still planned for the update?

Its completely understandable if it isnt, but we'd just like to know.

Warden refresh not being part of U51 is not really understandable in my opinion.

They should have had the PTS update ready before the layoffs. Sure, it was delayed for a bit, but by that time basically most of it should’ve been finalized already.

Also in regards to ZOS and they really need to understand this:

Class updates are the most important thing for ESO‘s future. You cannot do one single class and then ignore all the others. If they need to shuffle anything around, it should be by no means class reworks.

As for the one week delay, that’s totally understandable and not of huge concern. That it takes three weeks or more to give us an updated roadmap, that is of concern.

I missworded what i said about not expecting it to be more than 1 week. I expected it to be longer.

Radiate77 · July 21

Need more time for the seasonal content?
Take all the time you need.

That said, I would be okay with anything BUT the reworks being pushed back.

We might be playing on the same servers, but it feels like we’re playing a completely different game compared to 2.0 Dragonknight and Werewolf.

tomofhyrule · July 21

Seraphayel wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi Everyone. We have an update for the start date of U51 PTS. Week one of PTS will now start on August 3, 2026. As we've been working on our adjusted roadmap, we made the determination that the start date needed to shift one more week. We understand the additional delay is frustrating, and appreciate your patience as we continue to work on our updated roadmap.

Given whats happened. I didnt expect the additional delay to be more than 1 week.

As other people have asked, i'd really like to know if warden is still planned for the update?

Its completely understandable if it isnt, but we'd just like to know.

Warden refresh not being part of U51 is not really understandable in my opinion.

They should have had the PTS update ready before the layoffs. Sure, it was delayed for a bit, but by that time basically most of it should’ve been finalized already.

This is true. Had the PTS come on time originally, that would have been on the 6th of July, so the patch would have needed to be finished the Friday before (technically the Thursday before since that Friday was a US holiday). U51 should have been done and dusted before the layoffs hit.

Any delay “due to the layoffs” is not directly due to the layoffs. It may have been a delay in the first place that was exacerbated by the layoffs, but that begs the question of why the delay in the first place happened.

…and with how awkwardly the team was doing gymnastics to avoid even saying the word “Warden,” it’s hard not to extrapolate from there. Sure would be nice to have gotten some reassurances before people start to draw conclusions themselves and spread rumors…

Seraphayel wrote: »

Also in regards to ZOS and they really need to understand this:

Class updates are the most important thing for ESO‘s future. You cannot do one single class and then ignore all the others. If they need to shuffle anything around, it should be by no means class reworks.

As for the one week delay, that’s totally understandable and not of huge concern. That it takes three weeks or more to give us an updated roadmap, that is of concern.

I will agree with this as well.

We know that the morale of the devs is in the gutter. But so is the morale of the players. And no amount of “we still intend to do X” is going to hold us for long.

The players were also devastated to hear the news since a lot of us had really come around to thinking that ESO was on an upswing since the reshuffle last year. And most of us point to one thing that made us feel better about the game: the increased communication. Nick even said that the intent was that we, as players, would be included in the process by being able to offer feedback, and we did see some of that in the last two PTS cycles that really made people feel great about the game.

I do fear, however, that the Combat Team is falling back into the old way of “we’re not going to tell anyone anything, and no feedback will be accepted.” And for something like the Class Refreshes (which are unquestionably the most important thing for the game to focus on since it affects every single player), that mentality is very disappointing. So many of us were in love with the awesome DK rework and can’t wait to see our own Class get that love, and now it almost feels like every other Class is an afterthought.

If nothing else, we would love to hear from the Combat Team and see what Warden has in store, even if we have to wait a bit to actively play with it ourselves. Especially now that the first thing we got from the Combat Team since the last patch cycle was a surprise Vengeance test that was received… controversially, to say the least. I totally understand why so many players have lost patience with the Combat Team, and they do need to try to build that trust back up. And keeping secrets is not going to help.

tsaescishoeshiner · July 21

I don't think they would delay a class refresh for no reason. I'd like Warden improvements, but the class has been doing great lately and can perform all 3 roles and in PvP.

If the refresh isn't ready, it isn't ready. I'd expect the layoffs to certainly impact that, especially when they may want to release other U51 content and not make everything wait on the class refresh.

ZOS_Kevin · July 21

DoofusMax wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin: Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Does delayed start also mean shortened cycle?

Sorry for the delay here. Had to track down some folks to confirm. U51 PTS will still be 5 weeks. If this changes, we will update, but currently, everything should be the same.

AdonisJorge · July 21

Thanks, i hope the best for everyone.

But about the class refreshes, do Warden will be on u51 PTS? I think that is what most players want, their classes refreshed and on par with DK and WW, it will help a lot the balancing issues and even the PVP.

ItsNotLiving · July 24

So why are we getting no info on the warden refresh. Just be honest with us a little transparency would go a long way.

tomofhyrule · July 24

ItsNotLiving wrote: »

So why are we getting no info on the warden refresh. Just be honest with us a little transparency would go a long way.

DK's direction was mentioned in an official article a month before it went on PTS, and then we got a full article which was almost the patch notes the week before it dropped.

Werewolf's new model was shown off on a DevChat stream a month before it went on PTS. It didn't get a full article with almost the entire patch notes like DK, but we did get a large forum thread with most of the updates posted the week before PTS.

With Warden, we got... everyone very awkwardly trying not even to say the word "Warden."

Had we kept the original timeline for PTS, we really should have seen at least a preview of Warden and its new direction around the beginning of June. Even with the delayed PTS, that little teaser should have come out a week or two ago. That's why people are getting antsy - we should have heard something by now. I guess we're still on track to get a large post/article next week just before PTS, but people are already questioning the timelines.

With the idea of the reworks being to allow all lines to have skills and passives for all roles, we know that Warden should get more damaging things in Winter's and Plants, and more support stuff in Animals. Warden does have unique animations for all of their skills so I don't think they need new animation per se, but they will need to do full changes to some skills to make them work for their new role, which would be a lot more work. Considering also that DK and Werewolf did get a channelled attack, I'd also expect one morph of one skill to be a Fatecarver alternative.
At minimum, we should already have heard a dev statement along those lines. And we haven't yet.

DoofusMax · July 24

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

DoofusMax wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin: Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Does delayed start also mean shortened cycle?

Sorry for the delay here. Had to track down some folks to confirm. U51 PTS will still be 5 weeks. If this changes, we will update, but currently, everything should be the same.

Awesomeness, both for the update and your taking the time to go track down the answer. Thank you for that and I'm already making plans for the 3rd.

Red99 · July 24

@ZOS_Kevin can you let us know if warden refresh will be in the pts?

Remathilis · July 25

I suspect that the class refreshes are going to be a little less thorough going forward. More akin to major patching than total rework.

Seraphayel · July 25

We‘re approaching Schroedinger‘s Warden Refresh at this point.

Elvenheart · July 25

Seraphayel wrote: »

We‘re approaching Schroedinger‘s Warden Refresh at this point.

Is the Warden in the box alive or dead? I guess that depends on if the box has air holes.

Major_Soulless · July 25

A week in the circumstances is pretty reasonable.

Thanks for letting people know

Radiate77 · July 25

Are we not getting another stream going over changes in advance leading into U51 PTS?

Firstmep · July 27

Radiate77 wrote: »

Are we not getting another stream going over changes in advance leading into U51 PTS?

This concerns me too somewhat, especially in regards to the Warden rework.