this issue has existed for some time. in pvp to prevent ganks from opening with a bow proc (which, is totally valid. if i were ganking id build 5 light attacks on a random wolf and then gank a fool, too), it would clear stacks upon leaving combat.

the issue is, it will occasionally (or in the case of my NB, always) clear stacks even in combat while in pvp, be it actively in a 1v1 (ie, lining up my burst window, hit cloak, stacks clear, i recast merciless instead of shoot anything) or in a large scale battle (meta cheese dots ticking on me, 100% in combat... stacks clear upon reaching 5, recast the skill instead of shoot anything). Ive had this issue for a few updates now, even thought it was just the timer running out on the buff for a long time and got into the habit of recasting it much earlier than needed just to make sure id have time on it to line up my burst.

ive seen others with it too, but it isnt everyone and Ive seen no solutions for it. I was hoping this update to the skill would fix this issue, but I guess my NBs are staying fully retired.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@neverley In checking with the team, this skill did not change. Grim Focus has always worked this way. In PvP, once you leave combat, you lose the stacks. We made some changes to make this more apparent for gameplay, but the skill was not changed.

@ZOS_Kevin

Sorry to bother you. I also hope this doesn't read as hostile, I am begging you for help.

If changes are being made to Grim Focus, can we please have the perma-glow problem fixed? The topic has 44 tabs of complaints in the General Discussion topic. We just want the visual rolled back to how it was for the first 10+ years of the game, until it changed with a Necrom-era adjustment to the passive effect. I know a ZOS response on that topic said it was working as intended, but I think that the dev team is unaware of the scope of the problem.
1. When using Bound Weapons which are invisible when sheathed, there is still a red glow over empty space.
2. When looking at anything in collectibles, there is a red glow over my sheathed (invisible) bound dual weapons, *and* my sheathed (invisible) bow, and I have to remove the skill from my skill bar just to look at my collectibles.
3. When looking at anything with the outfit station, I have the same problem as with collectibles.
4. When previewing anything in the Crown Store, there is also a red glow in multiple spaces, just like with collectibles. Additionally, it overlays any previewed weapons, preventing clear viewing of any special effects on the crown store weapon set, like with the boss monster weapon sets.

I assume the crown store problem is literally making ZOS lose money because people see the ugly effects and decide not to buy things, if they do not know they can remove the skill first. It's a problem that affects ZOS, not just the player base... and we hate it, we have 44 tabs in general discussion of complaints. Please, please help us. We can see changes have been made to other skills that were given a passive effect after that mechanic was made popular with the Arcanist, yet Grim Focus was not helped or fixed. Additionally, the recent discussion of the Banner sound effect shows ZOS is open to changing skills when the community finds it unbearable... and that effect can already be mitigated by lowering Effects to 0 in the audio menu, while we have no fix for Grim Focus.

Please help us. This sucks. Seeing other skills being fixed just feels very, very unfair. We just want our core class skill restored to the way the visual used to work before the change in Necrom made it awful.

Thank you for reading.

For reference, here is the general discussion topic: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/641376/grim-focus-permaglow

I can provide screen shots of how Grim Focus interferes with all the previews if needed.