I usually don't read such topics but, this one time, I did and read everything on it. Something I could easily perceive is ZOS doesn't want to divulge what's being worked on, “fearing” the possible bad repercussions if something happens that would prevent said features to be released. Why don't you publish such information under some disclaimer, then?

“We are currently working on this, this and that, and if everything goes as planned without the world being dominated by AIs, and human race ends up being whipped by iPods, players can have these features some time around month/year X”

There are people who just play the game. There are people who dive in theorycrafting and provide valuable feedback. There are even people who notice something and using their own expertise and provides feedback that's so convincing that, for those who only reads things, that's got to be REALLY what's happening — i.e. someone, years ago talking about what could be causing skills sticking debuffs for several days — most noticeable in Cyrodiil, but rarely happens on PvE too. And from what I can notice, you either don't listen or don't take into consideration, but as every company with a public figure, you use the same standard statements that often sound false — not accusing, it's just a general perception I have after years of Internet.

See... I'm an old player. If I recall correctly, started during the beta, used to participate in the forums before this ugly layout and even before the game even launched. Back then I used to see A LOT of interaction with the community, now I rarely see them posting. All staff interaction I see is very occasionally you, Kevin, posting something in very specific circumstances; or some cranky moderator locking, deleting and sometimes even punishing authors because they didn't understand what was written in a post or the intention the poster had when they write something.

Anyway, these are just my two cents. And I post them with all the good intention in the world. Really! Even though I'm risking repercussion for saying something that *might* be violating a rule of a subparagraph of a paragraph within a clause of a page of a revision of the astonishing long legal contract the “Code of Conduct” is.

I want to highlight the posts made by @Tannus15 and @MashmalloMan as they perfectly express my confusion/dissatisfaction with where ESO is right now and the information given to us about the game moving forward.

I too am scratching my head over the logic expressed about consumables. I get that being dogmatic and massively nerfing them to standards set by 2019 would upset the player base and continue the very annoying combat balance trend pointed out by SkinnyCheeks: power is taken away such that the best players in the world get to tackle new content it at a certain level of power, then the nerfs come so everyone else still struggling through it have to work even harder to accomplish it.

What I don't get is how does this not prompt any introspection in that whether or not those standards set so long ago, we're talking going on almost seven years now, might need reconsideration? So much has changed since then. I really don;t think ignoring the problem, leaving hybridization 85% incomplete, and just having players deal with the inconsistencies of different prophecy/savagery and sorcery/brutality buffs when they aren;t really different is a good idea. Does ZOS understand how confusing it is for players to deal with a system based on a rigid spreadsheet system when it is only 85% complete? I no longer regularly play so I don't keep track of every balance change every patch. But I have played since Launch and even I legit sometimes don't understand the these basic combat mechanics

I fount this answer from ZOS most unhelpful

ZOS wrote:

Regarding Balance in general...We definitely understand the frustration points on this and working on trying to mitigate that as much as possible. With ESO having both PVE and PVP in the same world, we've had to adjust abilities for both when outliers occur; builds show off higher DPS/Healing/Tanking that desired for the content/pvp, etc. This creates an ever changing, never fully equally balanced world out there, and this is something that we work with as best as we can. We do intend going forward to try and retain the power level as best as we can for players so the situations don't arise where people could finish content 1 update, but then not the next, however, this is looking mostly through the viewpoint of the majority of players out there, and not the top end.

No. I don't think ZOS understands at all the frustration points and they certainly aren't trying to mitigate anything because the same combat balance philosophy and pattern of updates have not changed in years. If there was understanding or an effort to mitigate our frustrations, then things would have changed. They haven't.

I'm also tired of hearing about having both PvE and PvP as an excuse for poor balance. TEN YEARS AGO, we begged - begged - ZOS to recognize it is trivially easy to avoid this conundrum because there are already existing mechanics in the game that do this: we're talking Battlespirit and the "against monsters" tag. It's so stupid. PvPers for years and years have had to deal with trash like Rush of Agony and PvEers have to see their builds get nerfed because of stupidity in Cyrodiil. It makes nobody happy.

There is nothing in this response that tells me how this new leadership is going to handle combat moving forward. Read it again. There is nothing there.

I also do not think ZOS's combat system is tailored in any way to the majority of players out there. It isn't. Not only is the system so unintuitive that a player such as myself might miss one update and have to ask my guildmates basic questions, but the updates we do get are almost always nerfs/adjustments to reign in high-end meta gameplay. For all the talk of "raising the floor" and "lowering the ceiling," the vast, vast majority of combat changes are aimed at the latter. This is exactly what SkinnyCheeks pointed out: the best players figure out the meta builds, use them to clear the new content. Next update these builds are nerfed, and everyone else now has to do that same content with weaker builds. This is ass backwards. Less experienced players should not have to work harder than the best players in the world to complete content.

I said this in 2019 and I'll say it again. It is a blunder to roll together the responsibility of Lead Combat & PvP Director in the office of one person. It is a gross underestimation of how important and how much responsibility is on combat in any fantasy game. The best way I have heard anyone encapsulate the importance of combat in an RPG/Fantasy/MMO game goes something like this: "At the end of the day, everything comes down to killing the BBEG [Big Bad Evil Guy/Gal]." Charismatic bards, nature loving druids, pacifist clerics, and trickster rogues must do something useful to contribute in combat or else there's going to be a total-party-kill and the adventure ends. No matter how interesting a world setting is, no matter how much thought has been put into aesthetics, no matter how cool some NPCs are, It is not fun to bang our heads against the wall, repeatedly dying to encounters or having them so mindlessly easy we ask ourselves what was the point in having all these magical powers or set out on that quest for the Sword of Awesomeness. Combat is essential for a game to be fun. This is especially true in ESO where we cannot roll a diplomacy check to "defeat" a boss. That's just combat. And now, ZOS is going to pretend that the same person in charge of this crucial aspect, which by the way still hasn't completed its hybridization goal for 2019, is also in charge of the mess that is Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds, and implementing Vengeance?

Even a tiny indie studio would not be so utterly unrealistic.