Update 51 PTS – Week 3 Summary

ZOS_JessicaFolsom · August 21

Hi everyone! Welcome to our Update 51 PTS weekly summary week 3. In this post, you will find a high-level summary of the Update 51 PTS – Week 3 top feedback points and issues. The purpose of these weekly PTS summaries is to give you visibility into the main pieces of feedback and most prominent bugs we are tracking. As a gentle reminder, these weekly summaries are not intended to be as comprehensive as our PTS incremental patch notes, and they will not include everything.

Please continue to share your thoughts with us about these summaries. We’ll evolve and optimize them over time with considerations given to team bandwidth, contents, and the right level of detail. Thanks!

Classes and Combat

Itemization – Death Dealer’s Fete [Bug]: We identified an issue where the bonus from this set was not being properly removed when stacks were lost. This is a PTS-only issue and will be fixed in PTS Week 4.
Nightblade – Strife [Feedback]: We are making some adjustments to the Nightblade’s Strife skill, based on PTS testing and feedback. These changes will be available for testing in PTS Week 4:
- Cost is now 2700 Health and Magicka, rather than 4050 Magicka on Strife and Funnel Health. Swallow Soul still is only 2700 Magicka.
  - Targeted at reducing the base Magicka drain, while keeping a higher "cost".
- Reduced base damage by ~33% on Strife and Funnel Health. Swallow Soul reduced by ~17%.
- All abilities now deal 1% more damage for every 2% Health you have (up to 50% Health at max). This replaces the original bonus that was mentioned in week 3.
Sorcerer [Feedback]: We are making some adjustments to the Sorcerer class skills, based on feedback from live and the U51 PTS. These changes will be available for testing in PTS Week 4:
- Blood Magic now heals for 3|6% of your Max Health, down from 5|10% when activated.
- Conservation of Energy now restores 1.5% of your Magicka and Stamina when it activates, down from 2%
- Crystal Weapon now has 3 charges, up from 2.
- Monolith of Storms is now considered a Sorcerer ability in regards to damage done
- Static Reverberation now triggers off Sorcerer ability damage, rather than any damage.
  - Increased base proc chance to 20%, up from 5%. Reduced cooldown to 100ms, down from 300ms.
Warden Class Refresh [Feedback]: This is a carry-over from previous U51 PTS weekly summaries. While not strictly related to this PTS, we see your questions and concerns related to the Warden class refresh, and the class refresh effort in general. We know everyone is disappointed by the delay and would like to know where we’re at with the Warden and general next steps. We are working on an additional written update for you and hope to share it in the coming weeks. In the meantime, thank you for your patience.

Nowhere Vault

Arcana Wing – Murky Grotto Room [Bug]: There is a bug that can occur when multiple players unlock the next area at the same time, resulting in Nowhere Keys being used but the portal will not open. This will be fixed in PTS Week 4.
Cursed Castle Wing – Curios Room [Feedback]: This is a carry-over from last week’s PTS Summary. We have seen your feedback regarding the lack of direction for completing the final goal in the Curios Room. We are making some improvements that will be available for testing in PTS Week 4.
Cursed Castle Wing – Sinking Courtyard Room [Bug]: This is a carry-over from last week’s PTS Summary. We identified an issue where relogging after completing the Sands room could disable the Secondary Goal. This will be fixed in PTS Week 4.
Cursed Castle Wing – Sinking Courtyard Room [Bug]: This is a carry-over from last week’s PTS Summary. The sinking debuff is being applied in certain areas of the Sinking Courtyard, even when a player character is not standing in quicksand. We are investigating this issue.
Lunar Path Wing [Feedback]: This is a carry-over from last week’s PTS Summary. We’ve heard the frustration around platform size, overshooting, checkpoints, and recovery. We’re looking at ways to reduce frustration without removing the platforming identity of the room.
Quest – Invitation to Treasures [Bug]: We identified an issue where it was possible to enter the various wings in the Vault before being on the proper quest step of "Invitation to Treasures" or having completed the quest. This resulted in getting out of sequence with the quest, not seeing Orrery Shards to collect, and having to repeat the rooms to earn the proper items. This will be fixed in PTS Week 4.
Resetting the Vault Instance [Feedback]: We have seen your feedback about wanting a quick way to reset the Vault instance after finishing all the wings. In PTS Week 4, we are adding a Reset Hourglass for players who want to quickly reset the Vault back into a fresh state.
Secondary Goal Rumors – General [Bug]: This is a carry-over from last week’s PTS Summary. Secondary Goal Rumors in the Nowhere Vault are unable to be completed if a character’s inventory is full. This will be fixed in PTS Week 4.
Secondary Goal Rumors – Gryphon Seal [Bug]: This is a carry-over from last week’s PTS Summary. We’re looking at several issues where the Gryphon Seal and related Secret/Rumor progression can be awarded incorrectly, out of sequence, or fail to update correctly. We are still investigating this issue.
Stage Exit Portals [Bug]: We have identified an issue where stage exit portals can get in a bad state and not allow players to exit a stage. We are investigating this issue.

Player Experience Improvements

Ebonheart Transmute Station (Cyrodiil) [Bug]: The Ebonheart Transmutation in Cyrodiil currently does not have an interact prompt. We are working on a fix for this issue.
Hybridization – Essence of Power Potion Icon [Feedback]: This is a carry-over from previous U51 PTS weekly summaries. We have seen some feedback about the Essence of Power potion icons, noting that it is difficult to tell the Stamina and Magicka versions apart from each other when both are slotted into the quickslot wheel. We are exploring options to make these a little easier to tell apart, at a glance. (Related post.)
VFX Intensity [Feeback]: This is a carry-over from previous U51 PTS weekly summaries. We have seen your feedback regarding adding the option to reduce VFX to 0% via the VFX Intensity settings. We are currently exploring options – please note that any solution will not be available during the U51 PTS cycle. (Related post.)

High Seas of Tamriel Event (This event will return in PTS Week 4.)

Antiquities – Cursed Ship’s Bell [Bug]: The Antiquity component for the Cursed Ship’s Bell, part of the High Seas of Tamriel event, displays as purple in the UI but the furnishing item itself is green quality. This will be fixed in PTS Week 4.
Companions Losing Air Bubbles [Bug]: This is a carry-over from previous U51 PTS weekly summaries. We have identified an issue that is causing Companions to prematurely lose their air bubbles while underwater, and die. We are investigating this and would appreciate any additional details if you see this as you play. (Related post.)
Dwemer Dive Bell Quest Marker [Feedback]: This is a carry-over from previous U51 PTS weekly summaries. We are looking into the quest marker pointing you in a confusing direction while on the Dwemer Dive Bell step of the High Seas quest. We are investigating the issue.
Getting Stuck Beneath the Abecean Sea [Bug]: We identified a spot where it was possible for characters to become stuck beneath the Abecean Sea, while doing underwater content. We’ve made some changes that hopefully address this – they will be available in PTS Week 4. If a similar situation arises, we’d appreciate a post with as many details as you can provide about your experience.
Low-Air Visual Effects [Feedback]: This is a carry-over from previous U51 PTS weekly summaries. We have seen feedback that the visual effect when your character is low on air is too intense and makes it harder to find air replenishment spots. We’ve made several changes that should improve this experience and would appreciate any additional feedback on these updates.
Visuals for Fishing-up Rewards [Feedback]: This is a carry-over from previous U51 PTS weekly summaries. We have seen feedback that the visuals for the fishing up treasure mechanic could be a little clearer. We are investigating the issue.

Solo Dungeons

March of Sacrifices [Bug]: Dagrund the Bulky's conversation is currently not appearing at the beginning of the dungeon. This will be fixed in PTS Week 4.
March of Sacrifices & Moonhunter Keep [Bug]: We have identified an issue for both solo dungeons where the Reset Hourglass can become non-interactable after progressing through the dungeon. This will be fixed in PTS Week 4.

Miscellaneous

Art – Animations & Menu UI [Bug]: This is a carry-over from previous U51 PTS weekly summaries. We have identified an issue where entering a menu that sheathes weapons while also having an active Personality and weapons drawn can cause visual issues after weapon swapping. This will be fixed in PTS Week 4.
Art – Ability Animations [Bug]: This is a carry-over from last week’s PTS Summary. We have identified an issue with some ability animations not being properly versioned on the PTS and resulting in unusual behavior. These fixes will be in for PTS Week 4.

acanca · August 21

Really good changes overall. Thank you guys for the hard work.

With the sustain from Conservation of Energy getting toned down, please consider adjusting the cost changes for WW to be less punishing as this is basically a double nerf to sustain for WW.

The problematic part for werewolf sustain was conservation of energy in the first place and thats getting adjusted.

RedMamba · August 21

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom still no changes to shields and the feedback about group sizes are actually 4-6 players not 12 and the should be more severe earlier on.

acanca · August 21

Especially a big fan of the potential buff to SS. I'm a big fan of the archetype and a subclassed build with soulcleaver should be borderline viable now with the 10% damage bonus to strife and the up to 24% buff to SS.

Honestly, i am thrilled for the SS rework and all the buffs NB is recieving. Thank you

Wuuffyy · August 21

Welp, there goes werewolf. I tried, I guess.

Edit: the ‘sustained damage’ playstyle without any sustain who are forced to have NO MORE than a 25k stam pool to heal themselves properly AND sustain within PvP. Truly a meme as many stated they wanted. VERY impressive it was done in a single patch this time (mark my words though, our bite healing is next).

madmufffin · August 21

I digress. I can't read.

SonOfAsura · August 21

All abilities now deal 1% more damage for every 2% Health you have (up to 50% Health at max). This replaces the original bonus that was mentioned in week 3.

All abilities mean all skill or just its morph and base skill?
@ZOS_Kevin

madmufffin · August 21

Sorc still not having a good class spammable makes the reverb changes really meh though

SonOfAsura · August 21

Blood magic changes not looks good. you are literally nerfing for pvp but u also nerfing sorcerer pve tank for no reason.
Why don’t you add a Battle Spirit condition to skills? Onslaught has one, for example. If you’re nerfing something for PvP, add a Battle Spirit condition instead! We’re tired of you nerfing PvE elements while trying to balance PvP!

React · August 21

Nightblade changes look good! Looking forward to testing these.

madmufffin · August 21

If that's 25% buff to ALL abilities and not just NB/Siphoning, that's a pretty ludicrous amount of power spike on a class that was already dominant in PVE

Major_Mangle · August 21

SonOfAsura wrote: »

Blood magic changes not looks good. you are literally nerfing for pvp but u also nerfing sorcerer pve tank for no reason.
Why don’t you add a Battle Spirit condition to skills? Onslaught has one, for example. If you’re nerfing something for PvP, add a Battle Spirit condition instead! We’re tired of you nerfing PvE elements while trying to balance PvP!

Because they´re overtuned for PvE as well, simple as that. Stop expecting PvE to be some exception for balance adjustments.

ApoAlaia · August 21

Wuuffyy wrote: »

Welp, there goes werewolf. I tried, I guess.

We've been through this before post-Greymoor. It was good for like 3 months, then it was death by a thousand cuts until it was a meme.

At least when they are done with it this time it will be a better looking meme.

Panderbander · August 21

ApoAlaia wrote: »

Wuuffyy wrote: »

Welp, there goes werewolf. I tried, I guess.

We've been through this before post-Greymoor. It was good for like 3 months, then it was death by a thousand cuts until it was a meme.

At least when they are done with it this time it will be a better looking meme.

You sure about that? They took away custom recall animations already, soon they'll starting picking away all the visual stuff, too.

HalensShade · August 21

I love how they snuck that crystal weapon buff in there.

SonOfAsura · August 21

Major_Mangle wrote: »

SonOfAsura wrote: »

Blood magic changes not looks good. you are literally nerfing for pvp but u also nerfing sorcerer pve tank for no reason.
Why don’t you add a Battle Spirit condition to skills? Onslaught has one, for example. If you’re nerfing something for PvP, add a Battle Spirit condition instead! We’re tired of you nerfing PvE elements while trying to balance PvP!

Because they´re overtuned for PvE as well, simple as that. Stop expecting PvE to be some exception for balance adjustments.

Blood magic had been there for centuries ?

albertberku · August 21

👍 👏

I swear U51 will be the best PvP balance pass in the history of ESO. Just amazing.

I am going to just add a comment about Static Reverbation. I dont know if i am missing anything but 100ms interval looks like unnecessary overhead, at least in PvP. Because the shortest interval you can get is Bound Armaments with 300ms. You could maybe just time it with single Curse hit and get an extra Static Reverbation hit. But the overhead 100ms brings to the calculations will be mostly unnecessary. So i dont quite understand the point of 100ms. And do you really want to introduce another 100ms cooldown calculation, where the amount of calculations are already proven to be problematic. Is this change aimed for PvE?

ApoAlaia · August 21

Major_Mangle wrote: »

SonOfAsura wrote: »

Blood magic changes not looks good. you are literally nerfing for pvp but u also nerfing sorcerer pve tank for no reason.
Why don’t you add a Battle Spirit condition to skills? Onslaught has one, for example. If you’re nerfing something for PvP, add a Battle Spirit condition instead! We’re tired of you nerfing PvE elements while trying to balance PvP!

Because they´re overtuned for PvE as well, simple as that. Stop expecting PvE to be some exception for balance adjustments.

Not sure what game you have been playing but must be a different game to the one I have been playing.

Usually PvE gets the balance adjustments that pertain to PvE plus the ones that have to be had because of PvP.

They don't like the concept of 'double-dipping' until they do I guess.

Either way we had the longest run I can remember of not dreading patch notes, in fact for six months it was a case of looking forward to patch notes instead, at least for me.

Alas is back to normal now.

TheDefenestrator · August 21

I would like to pass some feedback about the poor quality of the writing in this preview. I was annoyed enough to feel the need to say something.

Nightblade – Strife [Feedback]: We are making some adjustments to the Nightblade’s Strife skill, based on PTS testing and feedback. These changes will be available for testing in PTS Week 4:
Cost is now 2700 Health and Magicka, rather than 4050 Magicka on Strife and Funnel Health. Swallow Soul still is only 2700 Magicka.
Targeted at reducing the base Magicka drain, while keeping a higher "cost".
Reduced base damage by ~33% on Strife and Funnel Health. Swallow Soul reduced by ~17%.
All abilities now deal 1% more damage for every 2% Health you have (up to 50% Health at max). This replaces the original bonus that was mentioned in week 3.

1. "This replaces the original bonus that was mentioned in week 3." The text of the original bonus is not provided. I get that this is not a formal patch note but you are assuming your reader is aware of all other posts/releases for the PTS. Bad assumption. In a formal communication, I as a customer should have to do as little work as possible to discern the meaning.
2. "All abilities now deal 1% more damage..." I am guessing this refers to damage done. There is not a single other tooltip in ESO with this wording. Needs to be consistent to avoid causing unnecessary confusion and making it harder to understand the game.
3. "for every 2% Health you have (up to 50% Health at max)..." This wording implies that there is a health given bonus. The beginning of the sentence establishes a damage done bonus, and halfway through breaks consistency and ends up making no sense. Of course, I am able to guess that this means that the bonus stops increasing at 50% health, but that information does not mean anything to me, and it would be much clearer to state the maximum value of the damage done buff that the first half of the sentence introduced.

The quality of the writing in official communications is something I consider part of the quality of the product. Anywhere quality starts to slip causes me to become concerned about the quality of the game at large.

Radiate77 · August 21

Assuming these Werewolf sustain changes made earlier this PTS are not walked back, the playstyle is effectively dead in PvP.

If the idea is to get people on Shapeshifter’s Chain, then the spec needs more damage to allow a shift like this to happen.

RedMamba · August 21

Radiate77 wrote: »

Assuming these Werewolf sustain changes made earlier this PTS are not walked back, the playstyle is effectively dead in PvP.

If the idea is to get people on Shapeshifter’s Chain, then the spec needs more damage to allow a shift like this to happen.

They are focused on actual classes not just a single WW skill line that's not impactful to the entire game like class buffs they are doing.

Radiate77 · August 21

RedMamba wrote: »

Radiate77 wrote: »

Assuming these Werewolf sustain changes made earlier this PTS are not walked back, the playstyle is effectively dead in PvP.

If the idea is to get people on Shapeshifter’s Chain, then the spec needs more damage to allow a shift like this to happen.

They are focused on actual classes not just a single WW skill line that's not impactful to the entire game like class buffs they are doing.

Werewolf functions as a Class in all shapes and forms. Honestly that comment is a little weird.

Are you saying that people who play Werewolf don’t deserve the same respect given to each and every Refresh?

Firstmep · August 21

With many of these changes across 4 pts iterations now, overall damage in pvp is going to go down, so I think this may be a good time to take a look at max hp and hp based effects, specifically for pvp.
Even some of the less than specs like necro and templar have pretty crazy hp based healing.
I appreciate both blood magic and heart of flame healing being reduced but the issue of max hp stacking is a fairly universal problem.
Not too long ago the healing of polar wind was reduced beacuse it was deemed too strong, but now we have effects that put that into shame.

A cap for maximum hp with battlespirit active would be a good place to start, and then we could go from there. It doesn't all have to happen right away, we could cap max hp at 35k with transformation ultimates as an exception, and see where that takes us.

ArctosCethlenn · August 21

madmufffin wrote: »

If that's 25% buff to ALL abilities and not just NB/Siphoning, that's a pretty ludicrous amount of power spike on a class that was already dominant in PVE

I've gotta assume they didn't just throw a 25% damage buff to merciless resolve and incap, its probably just strife and morphs.

RedMamba · August 21

ArctosCethlenn wrote: »

madmufffin wrote: »

If that's 25% buff to ALL abilities and not just NB/Siphoning, that's a pretty ludicrous amount of power spike on a class that was already dominant in PVE

I've gotta assume they didn't just throw a 25% damage buff to merciless resolve and incap, its probably just strife and morphs.

25% plus another 15% from soul cleaver set should make it a viable spammable.

madmufffin · August 21

ArctosCethlenn wrote: »

madmufffin wrote: »

If that's 25% buff to ALL abilities and not just NB/Siphoning, that's a pretty ludicrous amount of power spike on a class that was already dominant in PVE

I've gotta assume they didn't just throw a 25% damage buff to merciless resolve and incap, its probably just strife and morphs.

If that's the case, they could not have worded it any worse or made a bigger walk back than what they had in the last patch

Firstmep · August 21

madmufffin wrote: »

ArctosCethlenn wrote: »

madmufffin wrote: »

If that's 25% buff to ALL abilities and not just NB/Siphoning, that's a pretty ludicrous amount of power spike on a class that was already dominant in PVE

I've gotta assume they didn't just throw a 25% damage buff to merciless resolve and incap, its probably just strife and morphs.

If that's the case, they could not have worded it any worse or made a bigger walk back than what they had in the last patch

Well it's nested under strife so I think they presume people get it just from the formatting of the paragraph.

RedMamba · August 21

React wrote: »

Nightblade changes look good! Looking forward to testing these.

Does that mean 25% from the change and then another 15% with soulcleaver set to strife?

madmufffin · August 21

Firstmep wrote: »

madmufffin wrote: »

ArctosCethlenn wrote: »

madmufffin wrote: »

If that's 25% buff to ALL abilities and not just NB/Siphoning, that's a pretty ludicrous amount of power spike on a class that was already dominant in PVE

I've gotta assume they didn't just throw a 25% damage buff to merciless resolve and incap, its probably just strife and morphs.

If that's the case, they could not have worded it any worse or made a bigger walk back than what they had in the last patch

Well it's nested under strife so I think they presume people get it just from the formatting of the paragraph.

I mean the original buff was under strife. Presumably if that was the intention, they'd just say "all morphs" instead of "all abilities".

Wuuffyy · August 21

Firstmep wrote: »

With many of these changes across 4 pts iterations now, overall damage in pvp is going to go down, so I think this may be a good time to take a look at max hp and hp based effects, specifically for pvp.
Even some of the less than specs like necro and templar have pretty crazy hp based healing.
I appreciate both blood magic and heart of flame healing being reduced but the issue of max hp stacking is a fairly universal problem.
Not too long ago the healing of polar wind was reduced beacuse it was deemed too strong, but now we have effects that put that into shame.

A cap for maximum hp with battlespirit active would be a good place to start, and then we could go from there. It doesn't all have to happen right away, we could cap max hp at 35k with transformation ultimates as an exception, and see where that takes us.

So let me get this straight, you’re coming after the only thing left on werewolf? That’s your ‘priority’. Also, how is core of flame nerfed when it’s still supplying nearly 3,000 main resource instantly with another 6k over 4 seconds with just 23k primary attributes missing?

Radiate77 · August 21

So when that damage buff inevitably gets a Monsters Only tag after a patch of people complaining about Spec Bow hitting 25% harder, I can’t wait to eat that random ~17% nerf to one of the worst spammables in the game.