An exploration into ZOS's Combat Updates Since 2016. Part II: Continuous Defensive Buffs

Joy_Division · December 4

This post is the second part meant to highlight two consistent themes in ZOS’s combat changes since 2016 that have been detrimental to PvP: a continuous nerf in the damage our abilities and a notable buff in AoE healing which this post will explore.

ZOS’s recent Livestream of its new Battlegrounds typified everything that I believe has sucked much of the fun out of what once was the most enjoyable PvP combat on the market. The Livestream showcased a low damage tank/healer, a build that did neither well, that was meant “just to annoy people in PVP.” ESO’s PvP has degraded to such a low, what was showcased to potential customers was the point of view of a build relegated to just trolling other players.

I do believe ZOS is genuinely trying to do what they think is best for Elder Scrolls Online. I’ve met them. They are real people who do care.

Since ZOS seems to be open to critiques /feedback after the recent Battlegrounds steam, I am going to offer that feedback. As I was genuinely curious as to what happened to PvP, I have looked at ZOS’s old patch notes and developer comments. Years of updates show a wide chasm has developed between offense/damage and defense/healing due to a change in ZOS’s combat direction in 2016. This most significant find here was a 2019 buff to AoE healing in the game, which gave groups much higher survivability than they had before. As solo/ungrouped players typically don’t use AoE healing, this change primarily benefited organized groups.

To give a quick tl;dr of ZOS’s history of nerfing damage, here are two examples:

Classic Searing Strike: Cost <400. Damage: let’s say 1000 per tick for simplicity’s sake
New Searing Stike: Cost 2970 [!] Damage: 501 per tick

Classic Dark Flare: 1.1 second cast time, bonus in weapon and spell power to next attack, 1000 damage.
New Dark Flare: 0.8 second cast time, removed all PvP functionality for bonus damage on next attack, 548 damage.

See updates [5.0.5] (May 2019), [5.1.5] (August 2019), [5.2.5] (October 2019), [6.3.5] (March 2021), [8.1.5] (August 2022).

Yeah, that’s a lot. Here is a post the explores this in more depth.

Why This Matters (specifically for PvP)

I know technically our damage is higher in 2024 than in 2015 because we are running around with 5000+ spell damage and wear proc sets like Runecarver and Azureblight. PvE bosses are frozen in time, possessing the same stats, so anything in old PvE content just melts.

But in PvP, we are facing dynamic opponents who are not frozen in time and thus also have 5000 spell damage (in addition to new tools such as burst heals, infinite sustain, 40K health, easily accessible major vitality, powerful defensive proc sets, etc., etc., etc.) fueling their heals, shields, and defenses. The balance is broken because unlike damage, AoE heals have been buffed – significantly – from the beginning of the game.

This is a heal organized PvP groups love: Radiating Regeneration.

[5.1.5] (August 2019): Increased the healing per tick by 98% [!], reduced duration to 10 seconds, heals 3 targets [!].
Developer Comment: “This change was done to better help healers grant high mobility targets healing with the skill, and to tone down the incredibly powerful ability to come back from the brink of death passively.”
This statement is misleading, as it insinuates an “incredibly powerful ability” was taken away from the skill (used to be called Mutagen) to justify its massive buff. What Mutagen used to do was consume the heal over time for an immediate boost about 5000ish health. That’s before Battlespirit. So, 2,500 health, which is peanuts when your overall health pool is about 30,000. You’d get the same effect from just two seconds of Vigor. It was not a powerful feature. Its removal did not warrant such a huge buff in healing and an additional target. Not to mention high mobility targets didn’t need a boost in healing because their high mobility was already a very effective defense.
[8.1.5] (August 2022): Reduced the healing per tick by 40%.

3 years. Too little, too late. Still stronger than it was. Still stacks on itself.

The favorite heal of organized groups: Blessing of Restoration. This is the AoE heal every organized group spams when attacked

[1.6.5] (March 2015):. Now gives Minor Resolve and Minor Ward buffs. Increased the healing by 21%
[5.1.5] (August 2019): Reduced cost to 3510. Increased the healing done by 13%
[7.3.5] (March 2022): Increased cost to 4860. Increased the healing done by approximately 48% [!]

Buff, Buff, Buff, Buff. Said no damage skill in the game.

Here’s Vigor. Groups like this even more because it does not require using a Restoration Staff and it hits 6 targets instead of 3.

This wasn’t even in the game at launch. When it was introduced, you had to be Alliance rank twenty-something to even get it (back when AP gain was much slower). And only stamina players could use it effectively.

[5.1.5] (August 2019): Decreased the cost to 2984 from 3511. Resolving morph: Increased healing per tick by 43% [!] (note: that’s in addition to the base 33% increase).
[8.1.5] (August 2022): Reduced healing per tick by 17%. Resolving morph grants minor resolve. Echoing morph lasts up to 6 extra seconds.
[8.2.5] (November 2022): Reduced healing of Resolve morph by 10% (Echoing remained unchanged).

In total:
Classic Resolving Vigor: Only Stamina players could use effectively. 5 1300 healing ticks over 5 seconds on user. Put smaller HoT on allies within 10 meters
New Resolving Vigor: Everyone can use. Grants minor resolve. 5 1701 healing ticks over 5 seconds. Only heals the user.

What happens when damage over time is nerfed while healing over time is buffed?

“Alcast” 2016 Venomous Claw: 898 stamina. 4825 poison damage. 15,384 poison damage over 10.5 seconds (1,465 damage every second)
“Alcast” 2016 Resolving Vigor: 2253 stamina. Heals 14,484 over 5 seconds (2,896 healing every second)
My New Burning Embers: 2732 magicka. 4155 flame damage. 18,132 flame damage over 24 seconds. (755 damage every second).
My New Resolving Vigor: 2924 stamina. Provides 4-8% damage mitigation. Heals for 16,140 over 5 seconds. (3,228 healing per second).

It is insane how much weaker damage over time has become in relation to healing over time. From a resource expenditure standpoint it’s worse.

For every 1 stamina expended, “Alcast’s” DoT component was doing 1.63 damage per second.
For every 1 stamina expended, “Alcast’s” Vigor was healing for 1.29 health second.
In 2024, for every 1 resource expended, my DoT component is doing 0.28 damage per second. Gross.
In 2024, for every 1 resource expended, my Vigor is healing for 1.10 health per second.

RIP DoTs.

Has all healing been buffed?

No. Only AoE healing has been buffed. ZOS’s updates for single target heals are a very different story. Here is the history of the classic Templar heal, Rushed Ceremony.

[2.3.5] (March 2016): Breath of Life: This morph now only fires one additional secondary heal, previously two heals
[3.0.5] (May 2017): This ability and its morphs now heal friendly targets in a 180 degree cone in front of you, instead of all targets in a radius around you
[4.0.5] (May 2018): Breath of Life: Reduced the healing done from this morph's secondary heal by approximately 33%.

That’s it. ZOS has never touched the single target capability of the most iconic burst heal in the game.

ZOS actually nerfed some single target heals. Healing Ward, for example, received a heavy handed nerf in [4.2.5] (October 2018) when it removed the initial heal.

Burst oriented single target heals have not been buffed like their AoE counterparts. The only real exception here is Polar Wind, which unlike Breath of Life, has somehow had its secondary heal buffed through the roof such that it is better categorized as an AoE heal.

Was there any reason for this change?

I could not find any developer source, though I stopped watching ESO Live by then and it’s possible the reasoning was stated and I just don’t know.
But I think I have a good hypothesis

When we look at ESO history of healing updates, we can pin the problem to a specific update and a specific type of healing that is the source of the poor balance: the August 2019 [5.1.5] update which ZOS standardized AoE healing to be far more potent than it was before. That was the point of no return for ESO PvP.

I’d bet real money ZOS did this because they didn’t like that Healing Springs was, to use their words “a hybrid spammable hybrid HoT.” Instead, they changed it “into a true AoE HoT.” In short, since Healing Springs didn’t fit into a neat box, it was done away with.

ZOS changed Healing Springs in the same [5.1.5] update so that it could not stack and that it would last much longer with a weaker effect (i.e., the same thing they did with DoTs). But as Healing Springs was the “meta” tool for both PvE and PvP for healing over time, this change would basically doom both PvE and PvP organized groups to horrible deaths against Trial bosses and large numbers of PvP players (derisively called “zergs”). To compensate, ZOS adjusted by buffing every other AoE heal in the game to make up the difference. They overcompensated. We’ve been living with the consequences of that decision ever since.

Enter AoE shield spamming

Healing is just one layer of survivability. Shielding is another layer, and a more useful one because it raises effective health. AoE shielding used to be difficult to source. Barrier – an expensive ultimate – was really the only reliable and strong source of it. Bone shields (requires position and synergy), Combat Physician (required RNG and cooldown), and DK’s Obsidian Shield (weak) all had questionable reliability, so organized groups used a strict Barrier rotation to stay alive. Then came the Arcanist in 2023 with an actual skill that spams good AoE shields while granting 10% less AoE damage. Yes please. And a cheaper version of Barrier to boot. Groups instantly had up to two Arcanists in groups as support specs spamming away AoE shields. Then came Scribing with two AoE shield abilities without any requirements other than a Gold Road purchase. You know that orange blur you always see covering organized groups? That’s AoE shielding, which will absorb all your damage before you even start touching their health bars.

And because ZOS has standardized everything, AoE shields have the same overtuned scaling as AoE healing.

Can ZOS nerf healing through Battlespirit?

Damage mitigation and AoE healing/shielding is the problem. Not single target heals. If ZOS just blanket nerfs all healing, solo players will *not* like the result.

Tell me if you think these are balanced:
Honor the Dead: 3947 magicka. Heals one target for 10381 health.
Blessing of Restoration: 4180 Magicka. Heals you and allies in large area for 9251 health. Also provides Minor Resolve.
For context, here is Breath of Life, the old AoE healing standard: 3947 magicka. Heals one target for 10381 health. Heals one additional target for 3573 health.

Or this:
Warding Soul: 3947 Magicka. Grants you or ally 8376 damage shield.
Warding Contingency: 2597 Magicka. Grants a 7010 damage shield to you and your allies
(These are raw values, without Bastion, which increases shield size)

I never liked standardization because 1) it leads to homogenization and 2) if one standardized value was out of out of balance, instead of one skill being a problem, every skill of the same type becomes busted. We see this today: 6 of the 7 class have basically the same PvE DPS rotation, every DoT in the game is too weak, and every AoE Heal (except ironically, Healing Springs) in the game is too strong. Classic case of good intentions, bad results.

If ZOS buffed AoE healing, did they buff AoE damage?

No. ZOS has consistently nerfed all types of ability related damage in the game. ZOS has also made it much easier to reduce AoE damage.

The most important change was the introduction of the Major & Minor Evasion buff, which together reduces AoE damage by 30% [!] Previously, Evasion gave players an increased change to dodge only single target attacks (AoEs cannot be dodged). AoE damage is far more dangerous to tightly packed groups. As someone who has run in organized groups, I can say that every single member of a group should always have both buffs up 100% of the time. All of them. All the time. Basically, this is 30% free AoE damage reduction. This defensive buff has no offensive counter.

ZOS has also nerfed some of our abilities.

Eye of the Storm: Damage decreased by 25%, Area of effect reduced from 10 meters to 8 meters
Most AoE damage over time ability have had their damage per tick reduced through the same ESO standardized formula as shown in Searing Strike. Some examples: Wall of Elements (reduced 52% from March 2016), Lightning Flood (reduced 52%), Volley (reduced 52%). We can see everything is standardized.
Dawnbreaker: ultimate cost increased to 125 from 100, now a cast time.
Some of the multi-functionality of our AoE skills has been removed, for example, Blazing Spear no long stuns, Path of Darkness no longer does damage, Daedric Minefield doesn’t even exist anymore, etc. It seems like ZOS does not like abilities that do things other than damage or healing. Boring.

Some abilities have had undergone major changes, such as Steel Tornado, which has saw a reduction in radius from 12.5 to 9 meters [2.3.5], had its base damage increased by 50%, but removed the execute bonus [5.0.5]. It is fair to characterize these multiple changes as a nerf judging from the developer comment that Steel Tornado was “overloaded.”

Nerfed damage + Uninspiring Abilities + Buffed AoE healing = Boring PvP

If you want to know the reason why the better organized groups are basically invulnerable to everything except a better group, the biggest contributing factor is right there. AoE healing/shielding has been buffed and made much more accessible. ZOS has nerfed all of our damage, and given groups a free 30% AoE damage reduction.

With another unfortunate Cyrodiil change – the constant lowering of population caps – it basically requires the entire server of PuGs, random solos, and “casuals” using sheer numbers to defeat a good, organized group of twelve players. We see this every night and it has been happening for years.

Having run in organized groups since 2014, I can offer this perspective. In 2016, I played a sorcerer DPS and ran double swords front bar and Destro back bar. No restoration staff meant no regeneration spam. Magicka spec meant no vigor spam. My group received zero healing and nothing in terms of survivability from me the entire night. I used Eye of the Storm and actual abilities (such as Endless Fury and Pulsar).

Now, like every halfway decent PC/NA group, I am a Warden DPS and I run around with 30% AoE damage reduction, a dozen HoTs, basically permanent damage shields, and I have healers who now can spam juiced up Blessings of Restoration and Warding Contingencies rather than the stationary old Healing Springs. I contribute by giving my group minor toughness (more health), major resolve, and millions of Vigor heals. There is a zero percent chance that a Sorcerer using Eye of the Storm and Pulsar would ever get me to under 35K health. I am a Warden because they have the only AoE class skill in the game worth using: Deep Fissure. Since Deep Fissure is delayed, the 5 Wardens in a “ball group” can perfectly synch up their damage at a specific target and time this perfectly with proximity detonation.

You might be thinking the 5 Warden Shalks hitting the same target coupled with proximity detonations and Dawnbreakers/Northern Storms would be enough to basically destroy anything. Nope. That will destroy PuGs because they’re not running around with 30% damage reduction to AoEs and permanent damage shields. In order to get kills against another group, that truckload of PBAoE damage must come immediately after using the Rush of Agony set, which will yoink everyone into a predictable spot and allow them to be CC’d again by a Nightblade Fear (which is why basically every PC/NA raid lead is a NB). If they don’t die in under two seconds, they’re not dying. That’s basically the extent of organized group “tactics.” That’s all we ever do.

PuGs and uncoordinated randoms have zero chance to ever output enough synchronous AoE damage without overwhelming numbers.

All players have many additional layers of survivability

Healing is just one layer of survivability. Shielding is another. Damage resistance (whether the massive 30% from evasion, or the cumulative effects of minor protection + minor maim) is another. The ease of speed boosts (Swift Jewelry, Race Against Time) is another. Everyone running around with Major Vitality thanks to scribing is yet another. The CP system has an entire tree dedicated to survival. Food buffs (Bear Haunch), sustain buffs (Wretched vitality), Crit resistance buffs (Rallying Cry), defensive sets (good old Pariah’s), etc., all add up such that the cross healing is, to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite songs, just another brick in the wall (of player survivability).

The reality is all PvPers are too survivable. It’s not just groups. They are just the worst offenders. Everyone, solo, small-scalers, so called “glass cannon” gankers, everyone is too damn tanky because everyone’s layers of survivability - healing, sources of mitigation, health pools, speed, resource sustain, etc., - have increased and are more accessible. Burning Embers does 755 damage per second. Vigor heals for 3,300. This is worse than broken. It is incredibly boring. Broken can be fixed. Boring means uninstall the game. There are few things worse about playing an RPG fantasy game which is supposed to be all about getting more powerful and progression, when the gameplay tells you that you are hitting like a wet noodle because everything you throw at your opponent seems to have no effect.

It wasn’t always like this. Here are some examples of what “1vXers” were doing back tin the day:

“SypherPK” on a Magica Nightblade: 19221 health during February 2016
“Kodi” on a Magica Sorcerer: 20476 health during February 2017
“Kristofer” on a Stamina Templar: 21200 health during August 2018

Now players commonly run over 35K health (organized groups are often 45K health!).

A recent example of this defense-centric balancing pattern

It bothered me to see in this latest patch for ZOS to suddenly heed recent PvP complaints about the Azureblight set that stemmed mostly from players who run in organized groups. Why do they get this special consideration? There has been a much longer history by many more players about the oppressive strength of organized groups, specifically because of their survivability. For years and years. The Azureblight set, if coordinated with other players & if used skillfully, was the only offensive option that could consistently disrupt these organized groups. Rather than making the obvious counter to Azureblight – spread out occasionally – group players complained. And although the feedback defending the Azureblight set was in the majority, ZOS caved to the complaints. ZOS went through a lot of trouble to make adjustments to keep its PvE niche (high damage to stacked targets), but totally removed its PvP functionality without even bothering to see if these adjustments would have prevented the potential abuse in Battlegrounds.

As has been documented by ZOS’s own updates, this has been the pattern for almost a decade. Anything offensively threatening to players has been nerfed or outright removed while layers of survivability have been either remained, added, or buffed. Catering to the complaints of PvPers is no different than overindulgent parents who spoil their children and never teach them accountability.

This is a big reason why I dislike ZOS’s longstanding pattern of nerfing our damage and then introducing a set that is supposed to make up the difference. What if I don’t have the set? What are we supposed to do when ZOS nerfs the crap out of the very counters they put in the game or suddenly disables it in PvP?

In 2016 we had multiple pop locked servers for Cyrodiil with much higher population caps. Now on PC/NA, we struggle to have one! My DC que for Saturday night prime time was 2. 2! Those people stuck around in 2016 despite the awful lag because at its core, Cyrodiil’s PvP combat was fun. Now they’re gone. Gone because they are thinking the same thing I do when I log into Cyrodiil just to mess around by myself. What in the Oblivion is my Templar supposed to do against these groups when they are rampaging on the third floor of Arrius? Back in February 2019, ZOS admitted Templars were struggling [see 4.3.5], just like they admitted June 2023 [see 9.0.5]. Now, I can taunt them. Really? That’s all I’m getting after years of waiting for a decent update? It’s painful to see a PvP that was fun to play forget what made it so charming. Here we are, in this supposedly epic power fantasy with a questline that had us literally defeat a Daedric Prince. Yet we are so powerless, impotent, and pathetic.

Conclusion

First the obvious. Stop nerfing our damage. Stop buffing AoE healing/shielding.

Did you know that after 2015:
of the 11 Templar offensive abilities: 9 nerfs, 1 neutral, 1 buff
of the 8 Templar defensive abilities: 1 nerf, 7 buffs
That’s just not fun. It just isn’t possible to have a dynamic game with a variety of effective offensive builds when combat updates have so heavily favored the defensive.

Yes I can count. Eclipse use to be both an offensive and defensive skill

Second the not so obvious. I think ZOS ought to seriously reconsider their commitment to standardization. Aside from my distaste that it has homogenized our classes and has resulted in repetitive, cookie-cutter gameplay, the origin point of the imbalance between offensive and defense stems from the 2019 decision to standardize everything in the game. The nerfs to the skills Searing Strike and Dark Flare happened only after 2019 and were driven by the desire for standardization. The buffs to AoE heals occurred only when ZOS went to standardization.

What I would suggest ZOS should do

I have ideas and I have been thinking about how to make PvP more inviting to average players and Cyrodiil more fun. However, these changes are so deeply rooted in ESO’s combat, I am seeing that things are not so easy as buff damage + nerf healing (although that needs to happen). I will put some suggestions later this week after thinking about it some more. Three things I’m 1000% convinced need to happen

We have 8 years of combat updates that are heavily biased in favor of the defensive. We have a Cyrodiil map in bad need of reform. We have obvious teething problems with the new Battleground system. It is simply unrealistic to expect the same person who is lead PvP dev and lead combat dev to possibly come up with timely solutions to those very different problems.
ZOS must raise Cyrodiil’s population caps so average players have something to do other than get farmed on the 3rd floor of tri-keeps.
While the same HoT stacking needs to end, if ZOS is serious about silencing complaints about invincible “ball groups,” they to take a long look into Evasion, AoE shielding, and mobility.

React · December 4

Amazing follow up to the first post. I hope that someone on the team takes the time to read and respond to these.

Turtle_Bot · December 5

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_Kevin I know this thread is also linked in the other (which I have also tagged you both in), but both of these threads have such a huge amount of insightful information as to the state of PvP and combat in general. Hopefully you guys and the team can read through these threads thoroughly and the team can provide some developer responses to the points/issues raised in these 2 threads.

Stamicka · December 5

I wrote about how awful the change to healing springs was on another thread, but I think it’s relevant here too:

Stamicka wrote: »

Honestly, when it comes to ESO, the game has regressed so much that people are coming up with solutions to new problems that ZOS created out of nothing. I think it's often most useful to ask "why wasn't this a big problem in ESO's early days?" Healing was in a decent spot in both PvE and PvP without any needed adjustments to battle spirit in ESO's first 3 years or so.

One of the biggest things that threw things out of balance was the change to Healing Springs. Healing Springs used to be a weaker heal, but you were able to cast it multiple times in the same area. This was important, because in PvE where it's often ok for players to be relatively close to each other, getting a good amount of heals per second was still possible. In PvP however, the situation is a bit different. When getting decent healing depends on standing in a ground based healing AOE, then there is now a trade off between getting healed or moving. Also, in PvP if everyone is stacked in a ground based AOE, they are more susceptible to being bombed or hit by VD. One of the worst things about the current state of cross healing is that it's done via skills that auto target and stick to a player while they are moving. What is now Radiating Regeneration used to be a different skill called Mutagen that was a weaker heal over time that got consumed and would purify you if your health was low. The only way to get a sticky auto targeting HoT before the changes to healing springs and mutagen was vigor. In some ways, stacking resolving vigor was a bit of a problem back then, but a lot of the ball groups then ran mag builds, so vigor wasn't used by a majority of the members in the group.

Long story short, I think we need to go back to a point where most healing over time from others is AOE and ground based because of the tradeoff that I mentioned. This would make ball groups vulnerable while moving because they would have way less healing. They would also be able to be bombed when they have to stack in a ground based heal. To take it a step further, I don't think that sticky HoTs that auto target should be a thing. I think that ZOS could learn a lot from the rarely used Psijic skill called Mend Wounds or the Warden skill, Nature's Grasp. You should actually have to put your reticle on your ally to throw them a sticky heal over time. This would probably improve server performance too. As it stands though, the fact that sticky HoTs auto target is super low skill and doesn't really have counterplay or trade offs .

Healing springs really was the key to keeping healing balanced in both PvP and PVE without needing to make extreme changes to battle spirit. When they changed healing springs they overbuffed other skills and as you pointed out, it threw balance way out of wack. If we get old healing springs back we could tone down blessing of restoration.

OtarTheMad · December 5

Another great one!

alpha_synuclein · December 6

And instead of reverting those trends we got hybridization, adding sustain as the cherry on the top...
It's difficult to be optimistic.

ercknn · December 6

I read both posts and really hope the devs at ZOS read it too.
There have been so many posts about the state of PvP combat lately, and there are obviously players that have a deep passion for the PvP aspect of this game.

I really hope ZOS makes changes to PvP combat. I know it takes the Devs awhile to make big changes but with Battle Spirit a couple quick fixes can be made to AoE healing and increasing DoT skills.

Finedaible · December 6

Joy_Division wrote: »

[...]

This is a big reason why I dislike ZOS’s longstanding pattern of nerfing our damage and then introducing a set that is supposed to make up the difference. What if I don’t have the set? What are we supposed to do when ZOS nerfs the crap out of the very counters they put in the game or suddenly disables it in PvP?

[...]

This is one of my largest peeves about the balance design philosophy these last several years. Take something away from players to introduce something new, simultaneously resetting the hamster wheel of power progression while creating new problems and less practical solutions for the player.

I don't want to grind out several hundred set pieces and have to carry them all with me just in case I need one to counter a specific situation in PvP... Only for one or more of the most useful sets to get completely changed or rendered useless down the line. This is not fun or user-friendly, it is very "player-hostile" as someone might put it. Counters should exist within player SKILLS (i.e. abilities available to them). As it stands now, you fight a very steep uphill battle if you don't carry specific sets in PvP and that's just not fair to anyone who doesn't treat ESO as a second full-time job.

Finedaible · December 6

That is, assuming you can even change gear since you often end up stuck in combat...

MincMincMinc · December 6

For OP's tooltips, are those tooltips or outgoing damage? I just point it out that pen is so easily accessible now adays. This would affect your results proving that offense has been nerfed and defense has been buffed.

I would also not agree with the recap points, or well I think there are better design oriented decisions to make.

Touching on Defense, zos has enabled players who want passive forms of defense to be competitive. Just look at the livestream. Brian was literally on an afk tank build......... because it is simply possible to do that now.
Cyrodil cant get pop caps raised until MANY fundamental game/combat changes happen to reduce performance issues. I covered alot of this in my cyro refresh thread
I fully agree that hot/buff/proc stacking MUST be prevented. See below for healing fixes

My suggestions to add for the healing and latent tankiness issue

First off you must bring tension back to the stat system of the game. Tension has been completely lost to the point where you dont question taking one stat over the other. At no point would you take max stam/mag instead of wd/sd or pen. In many builds you simply stack pen until the average players resist value for a given patch. Players have too much sustain == makes max stats FAR less valuable as battery/capacity reserves. Players have too much health == simply because they nolonger need max stam/mag With stat inflation, Max stats are becoming worth less and less for damage. One line of WD provides 50% more outgoing damage and pen provides 80% more outgoing damage compared to one line of max stam.
In terms of heals, the easiest way to bring back tension would be to flip the scaling such that one line of max stat provides 50% more healing than one line of wd. (zos previously in an interview decided against this because they didnt want to cause an abrupt change in the game for players LOL)

Ball group discussion is a whole other rant. Stacking buffs/heals/procs. Abusing poorly designed movement system, 1vX tools, etc.

Arcanasx · December 7

The current state of BGs also highlights this gap between damage and healing that has taken place over time, and I'm hoping they've been paying attention to this and that they start making adjustments accordingly.

gariondavey · December 8

Well written. Wish zos would listen to detailed feedback that you and others such as react give.

dark_hunterxmg · December 8

ESO is basically Halo except shields may never go down.

Pelanora · December 9

Given the depth of history in these issues, I see no chance of change without regime change. It's pretty hard for leadership to about face on a policy, especially one so deep in years of decisions like you've described, for standardized skills or preferring defensive play over offensive.

At least in governments we can get that kind of change in direction lol...

What was it about the gameplay in 2015 that made them start, in 2016, a whole new direction?

Jabbs_Giggity · December 9

This post, and the previous, is fire! Absolutely spot on. However, as unfortunate as it is, I don't think the state of PVP is going to change for the better at this point.

At this point, an entire overhaul to the combat system would need to be done to correct these issues. I don't see this happening for two reasons:
1. Battlegrounds is clearly the new PVP focus. A PVP concept that doesn't even allow us to us the CP system that we all grinded for end game progression.
2. I cannot remember when/where, but it was definitely on the forums; at some point PVE'ers complained about not being able to complete end game trials because they would wipe to game mechanics. I believe this also further stemmed the "survivability" and healing buffs.

**Side note - I believe the DoTs were homogenized because it simply just made rotations easier for PVE'ers.

I miss old Cyrodiil days...I miss class Identity...I miss being able to pack up multiple players and feel like my efforts were worth a dang.
Now you simply just cannot go into Cyrodiil, or Battlegrounds for that matter, Solo because all you're facing is "comped" groups - whether it be 12 man groups, or competitive 4 man groups.

Aside from 12 man Ball Groups, I am noticing a huge trend of groups of 4 Wardens all with 45K health and push with Storm and Charm you into Rage quitting. Usually, there will be a sorc nearby that's sole purpose is just to either drop Negate, or simply wait for you to CC their group so they can streak through your whole group to allow 'their' group to recover.