Best Of
Re: U50 Feedback Thread for Class Mastery
I've been testing the Class Mastery passives for Sorcerer and here's the results I'm seeing:
Did Class Mastery help in providing a meaningful boost to power for playing as a solo class? No, not really, at least not for Sorc.
Do you feel this system helps in allowing for more player agency in a post subclassing play environment? No, at least not for Sorcerer.
What are the things you like about Class Mastery? There is a real potential for Class Mastery to elevate classes by confining the benefits to base-class builds only, however, being that these are passive benefits the values are seemingly too minor to offset the opportunity cost that Subclassing provides.
What places do you think could use improvement with Class Mastery? The overall values. The passives themselves appear to be well written and class centric, they just fail to deliver enough benefit in the face of subclassing.
Any other general thoughts around Class Mastery? Please see below:
So I tested a base class Sorcerer and applied the different Class Mastery passives and ultimately found that the two best for my Magicka based, damage dealing, Sorcerer were: "Font of Power" and "Calculated Defense"
The reason for those choices were that they represented the strongest enhancement to damage output. "Font of Power" was proc'd (mostly) by Shattering Spines and "Calculated Defense" was proc'd by Crystal Fragments.
For my test I measured results in TTD (time to defeat). Rather than base parse numbers I wanted to focus on time because at the end of the day, in the real world, there is a time factor to combat (whether we're talking about PvE or PvP). My testing was done on the standard target dummy with a value of 3M health.
Taking the same base build, keeping all of the same armor, traits, food, and equipment I made the following subclassing selections: Replaced Dark Magic with Aedric Spear & replaced Daedric Summoning with Herald of the Tome.
Aedric Spear was slotted solely for the Burning Light & Balance Warrior Passives. The Burling Light (mathematically) yields a more consistent value of passive damage than Sorcerer's Static Reverberation with it's low percent chance to proc and lower base output.
Herald of the Tome was slotted as all 4 passives synergize well with Mag Sorc playstyle, assuming at least one skill is slotted. In this example I slotted 2 Herald of the Tome skills: Tentacular Dred & Inspired Scholarship .. To be clear I did NOT slot any morph of Fatecarver as it's already well known to be one of the highest DPS performing skill in current gameplay.
With Tentacular Dred, I was able to access a crowd control mechanic, deal significant damage (for a cc skill), as well as expose the target to 5% increased damage. Inspired Scholarship enhances any Class abilities (Sorcerer or not), this not only enhanced the damage of Tentacular Dred but every other skill as well.
Between the increase in Weapon / Spell damage provided by Balance Warrior and the increased 5% damage exposure Tentacular Dread I was able to deal more damage to the target in less time.
By combining subclassed slotted skills and passive skills I was able to achieve higher results than what I was able to with the base-Sorcerer's Class Mastery passives.
Base Sorcerer (Non Subclassed) with Font of Power & Calculated Defense active. Time to Defeat: 111.65 seconds
Subclassed Sorcerer (Aedric Spear & Herald of the Tome). Time to Defeat: 104.75 seconds.
Subclassing the build resulted in a 6% reduction in time to defeat, with all other things being equal.
There are multiple different ways to build and use the Class Mastery passives, however, from what I'm seeing even with early testing, the Class Mastery passives aren't delivering enough values to make them MORE worthwhile than subclassing.
With subclassing I have access to more flexibility and mechanical variety, whereas, by staying with a base class I'm confined to only those skills which, in the case of Sorcerer, are overly lacking.
I think if you're going to offer Class Mastery Passives the Devs need to look at the areas where each class is weakest and seek to enhance those aspects. Sorcs have access to solid damage mitigation with shields and healing and have too many redundant crowd control skills. What Sorcs don't have is raw, burst, power output so at least some of the passives should seek to increase that area of Sorcs more than they do.
Conservation of Energy: A sustain passive that isn't bad. The sustain numbers on this passive scale pretty well. This one might be the most directly beneficial, however, that's really only if a Sorc is struggling with sustain and doesn't have a solid solution for their sustain. This passive scales well beyond what Wretched will give so the return values themselves are solid. Whether or not that is enough to really convince someone to go pure-Sorc versus the (total) potential of Subclassing is questionable. Storm Calling is probably the number one skill line Sorcs keep when choosing to Subclass and Energy Overload will return more Mag (per cast) than what Conservation will provide per cast. So if a Sorc is leaning on E.O. for the combination of damage + sustain then the prospect of giving up a Subclassed skill line for this passive might not look all that good. Again, that's not to say that this is bad, however, if the passive provided a scaling restoration to your primary pool (either Mag or Stam, not both) and then also provided Minor Evasion, then it might be more attractive.
Font of Power: The values here are too low, IMO, to make this passive MORE appealing than Subclassing. This passive is going to average out around 20% scaling and is probably the most notable Class Mastery Passive Sorc received, however, in testing I was able to achieve more damage output by using Subclassed passives plus skills that dealt more damage and enhanced overall damage. This was due to me being able to get a persistent 6% increase to weapon & spell damage from Balanced Warrior plus the additional 5% damage buff from Tentacular Dread plus the Weapon & Spell increase from Harnessed Quintessence .. that's 11% (Balanced + Tentacular) + a base 284 which is numerically around 6% .. The Subclassed build delivered a 17% increase to weapon and spell damage which had a persistent uptime whereas Font of Power delivers 20% but only procs with Sorc skills so things like Heavy Attack or Crushing Shock (which are two common attacks used by Mag Sorc DPS) won't proc it. So in reality it ended up being more beneficial to run with the Subclassed option that's bringing only 3% less in damage buff but was available more consistently and offers access to more skill / mechanical variety.
Static Reverberation: Another low output. The low percent chance basically sees this being a poor mans execute supplement. IMO this is the 2nd best Class Passive Sorc has after Font of Power because it doesn't really provide a solid proc chance until the targets health is at or below 40% and can be skewed by the games target recognition. In PvE when the game recognizes an adjacent target which has more health this passive doesn't proc on the intended target and in PvP persistent critical burst healing paired with crit HoT makes this passive have an even shorter uptime. .. Static is further held back by the nature of Sorc skills. The passive is built to be able to apply at a max of 0.2s intervals, however, Sorcs don't have any skills that can apply damage at that rate. The proc condition for Static is "when you deal damage", so this passive is essentially paced at 1 per second, and that assuming the Sorc is running Storm or Splash as they're the only two Sorc skills that can keep even that pacing. Compared to numerous other choices for passive damage in the game, this one lags behind. Take DK's Fan The Flames passive, for example; that passive will buff the Burning status effect to scale damage higher than Static Reverberation but also with a much higher uptime than Static and therefore more overall damage than Static, and that's from a base DK passive. Even Templar's Burning Light passive blows this one out of the water in terms of overall passive damage output.
Calculated Defense: Although I (personally) think Static Reverberation is the #2 top passive for Sorc, in testing, Calculated Defense provided more benefit due to the weapon and spell damage buff. This passive can be proc'd by any Sorc ability, however, since Sorcs don't have a reliable spammable it makes proccing this passive a throw off of your rotation because the most commonly used Sorc skills don't synergize with this; often relying on Crystal Frags or Shattered Spines as the main proc. Further, the shield is a moot point. Providing mitigation for only 0.5 second while Crystal Frags takes 0.8 to cast means that the player isn't even getting a cast time's worth of protection. Given that Sorcs have one of the strongest shield skills in the game I feel this is really redundant save for the weapon & spell damage buff, but, given how it has to throw off rotation in order to get that 20 second buff it does knock this down a bit for me.
Sphere of Influence: This is also redundant. A sustain + shield passive. The recovery values are alright, but again, strong sustain options already exist in the game so in order to choose this Class passive it means that a player has to commit to Sorc skills and since these sustain amounts aren't high and above existing strategies that's a lot to ask for. A player would be better off to consider Conservation than Sphere. Further, the shield value is minimal. Sorcs, again, have one of the strongest shield skills in the game, we really don't need a passive that's buffing shields. Given that both the shield and recovery buffs last only for 4 seconds and the most common Sorc shield morph lasts for 6 it's hard to see how this passive isn't covered / eclipsed by Ward.
The combination of the lower values of the Sorc Class Mastery passives paired with the current (non-refreshed) state of base Sorc skills sees these passives falling short, IMO, of delivering enough benefit to outweigh the choice to subclass. If you want us to commit to the Sorc skill lines and the Sorc skills are (broadly) not competitive then the passives need to provide a bigger and better prospect than what we can get through Subclassing and from what I'm seeing they're not. In some cases they fall short of Subclassing and in other instances they're on par (numbers wise), which still sees Subclassing winning out on mechanical variety.
And mind you, I'm not testing with a meta for either PvP or PvE, which means subclassing potential is far higher than my testing scope so if I'm getting stronger results on subclassing with these examples that means slotting BIS skills such as Fatecarver or Flame Lash or Merciless, etc are only going to widen the gap that Class Mastery passives are working to try and reduce.
Did Class Mastery help in providing a meaningful boost to power for playing as a solo class? No, not really, at least not for Sorc.
Do you feel this system helps in allowing for more player agency in a post subclassing play environment? No, at least not for Sorcerer.
What are the things you like about Class Mastery? There is a real potential for Class Mastery to elevate classes by confining the benefits to base-class builds only, however, being that these are passive benefits the values are seemingly too minor to offset the opportunity cost that Subclassing provides.
What places do you think could use improvement with Class Mastery? The overall values. The passives themselves appear to be well written and class centric, they just fail to deliver enough benefit in the face of subclassing.
Any other general thoughts around Class Mastery? Please see below:
So I tested a base class Sorcerer and applied the different Class Mastery passives and ultimately found that the two best for my Magicka based, damage dealing, Sorcerer were: "Font of Power" and "Calculated Defense"
The reason for those choices were that they represented the strongest enhancement to damage output. "Font of Power" was proc'd (mostly) by Shattering Spines and "Calculated Defense" was proc'd by Crystal Fragments.
For my test I measured results in TTD (time to defeat). Rather than base parse numbers I wanted to focus on time because at the end of the day, in the real world, there is a time factor to combat (whether we're talking about PvE or PvP). My testing was done on the standard target dummy with a value of 3M health.
Taking the same base build, keeping all of the same armor, traits, food, and equipment I made the following subclassing selections: Replaced Dark Magic with Aedric Spear & replaced Daedric Summoning with Herald of the Tome.
Aedric Spear was slotted solely for the Burning Light & Balance Warrior Passives. The Burling Light (mathematically) yields a more consistent value of passive damage than Sorcerer's Static Reverberation with it's low percent chance to proc and lower base output.
Herald of the Tome was slotted as all 4 passives synergize well with Mag Sorc playstyle, assuming at least one skill is slotted. In this example I slotted 2 Herald of the Tome skills: Tentacular Dred & Inspired Scholarship .. To be clear I did NOT slot any morph of Fatecarver as it's already well known to be one of the highest DPS performing skill in current gameplay.
With Tentacular Dred, I was able to access a crowd control mechanic, deal significant damage (for a cc skill), as well as expose the target to 5% increased damage. Inspired Scholarship enhances any Class abilities (Sorcerer or not), this not only enhanced the damage of Tentacular Dred but every other skill as well.
Between the increase in Weapon / Spell damage provided by Balance Warrior and the increased 5% damage exposure Tentacular Dread I was able to deal more damage to the target in less time.
By combining subclassed slotted skills and passive skills I was able to achieve higher results than what I was able to with the base-Sorcerer's Class Mastery passives.
Base Sorcerer (Non Subclassed) with Font of Power & Calculated Defense active. Time to Defeat: 111.65 seconds
Subclassed Sorcerer (Aedric Spear & Herald of the Tome). Time to Defeat: 104.75 seconds.
Subclassing the build resulted in a 6% reduction in time to defeat, with all other things being equal.
There are multiple different ways to build and use the Class Mastery passives, however, from what I'm seeing even with early testing, the Class Mastery passives aren't delivering enough values to make them MORE worthwhile than subclassing.
With subclassing I have access to more flexibility and mechanical variety, whereas, by staying with a base class I'm confined to only those skills which, in the case of Sorcerer, are overly lacking.
I think if you're going to offer Class Mastery Passives the Devs need to look at the areas where each class is weakest and seek to enhance those aspects. Sorcs have access to solid damage mitigation with shields and healing and have too many redundant crowd control skills. What Sorcs don't have is raw, burst, power output so at least some of the passives should seek to increase that area of Sorcs more than they do.
Conservation of Energy: A sustain passive that isn't bad. The sustain numbers on this passive scale pretty well. This one might be the most directly beneficial, however, that's really only if a Sorc is struggling with sustain and doesn't have a solid solution for their sustain. This passive scales well beyond what Wretched will give so the return values themselves are solid. Whether or not that is enough to really convince someone to go pure-Sorc versus the (total) potential of Subclassing is questionable. Storm Calling is probably the number one skill line Sorcs keep when choosing to Subclass and Energy Overload will return more Mag (per cast) than what Conservation will provide per cast. So if a Sorc is leaning on E.O. for the combination of damage + sustain then the prospect of giving up a Subclassed skill line for this passive might not look all that good. Again, that's not to say that this is bad, however, if the passive provided a scaling restoration to your primary pool (either Mag or Stam, not both) and then also provided Minor Evasion, then it might be more attractive.
Font of Power: The values here are too low, IMO, to make this passive MORE appealing than Subclassing. This passive is going to average out around 20% scaling and is probably the most notable Class Mastery Passive Sorc received, however, in testing I was able to achieve more damage output by using Subclassed passives plus skills that dealt more damage and enhanced overall damage. This was due to me being able to get a persistent 6% increase to weapon & spell damage from Balanced Warrior plus the additional 5% damage buff from Tentacular Dread plus the Weapon & Spell increase from Harnessed Quintessence .. that's 11% (Balanced + Tentacular) + a base 284 which is numerically around 6% .. The Subclassed build delivered a 17% increase to weapon and spell damage which had a persistent uptime whereas Font of Power delivers 20% but only procs with Sorc skills so things like Heavy Attack or Crushing Shock (which are two common attacks used by Mag Sorc DPS) won't proc it. So in reality it ended up being more beneficial to run with the Subclassed option that's bringing only 3% less in damage buff but was available more consistently and offers access to more skill / mechanical variety.
Static Reverberation: Another low output. The low percent chance basically sees this being a poor mans execute supplement. IMO this is the 2nd best Class Passive Sorc has after Font of Power because it doesn't really provide a solid proc chance until the targets health is at or below 40% and can be skewed by the games target recognition. In PvE when the game recognizes an adjacent target which has more health this passive doesn't proc on the intended target and in PvP persistent critical burst healing paired with crit HoT makes this passive have an even shorter uptime. .. Static is further held back by the nature of Sorc skills. The passive is built to be able to apply at a max of 0.2s intervals, however, Sorcs don't have any skills that can apply damage at that rate. The proc condition for Static is "when you deal damage", so this passive is essentially paced at 1 per second, and that assuming the Sorc is running Storm or Splash as they're the only two Sorc skills that can keep even that pacing. Compared to numerous other choices for passive damage in the game, this one lags behind. Take DK's Fan The Flames passive, for example; that passive will buff the Burning status effect to scale damage higher than Static Reverberation but also with a much higher uptime than Static and therefore more overall damage than Static, and that's from a base DK passive. Even Templar's Burning Light passive blows this one out of the water in terms of overall passive damage output.
Calculated Defense: Although I (personally) think Static Reverberation is the #2 top passive for Sorc, in testing, Calculated Defense provided more benefit due to the weapon and spell damage buff. This passive can be proc'd by any Sorc ability, however, since Sorcs don't have a reliable spammable it makes proccing this passive a throw off of your rotation because the most commonly used Sorc skills don't synergize with this; often relying on Crystal Frags or Shattered Spines as the main proc. Further, the shield is a moot point. Providing mitigation for only 0.5 second while Crystal Frags takes 0.8 to cast means that the player isn't even getting a cast time's worth of protection. Given that Sorcs have one of the strongest shield skills in the game I feel this is really redundant save for the weapon & spell damage buff, but, given how it has to throw off rotation in order to get that 20 second buff it does knock this down a bit for me.
Sphere of Influence: This is also redundant. A sustain + shield passive. The recovery values are alright, but again, strong sustain options already exist in the game so in order to choose this Class passive it means that a player has to commit to Sorc skills and since these sustain amounts aren't high and above existing strategies that's a lot to ask for. A player would be better off to consider Conservation than Sphere. Further, the shield value is minimal. Sorcs, again, have one of the strongest shield skills in the game, we really don't need a passive that's buffing shields. Given that both the shield and recovery buffs last only for 4 seconds and the most common Sorc shield morph lasts for 6 it's hard to see how this passive isn't covered / eclipsed by Ward.
The combination of the lower values of the Sorc Class Mastery passives paired with the current (non-refreshed) state of base Sorc skills sees these passives falling short, IMO, of delivering enough benefit to outweigh the choice to subclass. If you want us to commit to the Sorc skill lines and the Sorc skills are (broadly) not competitive then the passives need to provide a bigger and better prospect than what we can get through Subclassing and from what I'm seeing they're not. In some cases they fall short of Subclassing and in other instances they're on par (numbers wise), which still sees Subclassing winning out on mechanical variety.
And mind you, I'm not testing with a meta for either PvP or PvE, which means subclassing potential is far higher than my testing scope so if I'm getting stronger results on subclassing with these examples that means slotting BIS skills such as Fatecarver or Flame Lash or Merciless, etc are only going to widen the gap that Class Mastery passives are working to try and reduce.
NxJoeyD
3
Re: Three-Sided Deathmatch
4v4v4 Domination is confirmed for this week, it will replace all queuing for 8v8 matches:
Re: Vampire Rework?
This is what I would do for a Vampire rework on the same tier as what they did for Werewolves
Eviscerate - Deal XXXX damage, inflicts Hemorrhage, every time you use Eviscerate you gain a stack of Vampiric Fury, after 3 casts you can Vampiric Might which will deal XXXX damage and knockback the target 3 meters.
Morph 1- Now casting at range teleports you to the enemy.
Morph 2 - Now Costs Health, increases the damage dealt by 5%
Mist Form - Transform into Mist for 3 seconds, while in mist your movement speed is increased to max, while slotted gain minor exedition increasing movement speed by 15%
Morph 1 - You now become invisible for 3 seconds after you cast.
Morph 2 - Instead, you transform into a swarm of Bats and appear at the targeted destination absorbing health from all enemies in the targeted location, casting again will teleport you back to your original location.
Vampiric Drain - Siphon Vitality from enemies over 4.5 seconds dealing XXXX damage every 0.3 seconds and restoring 5% of your total health with every tick.
Morph 1 - You also restore 2 Ultimate for each tick
Morph 2 - You also absorb 5% of your total Stamina with every tick
Mesmerize - Charm an enemy causing them to follow you for 8 seconds (players 3 seconds) when enemies are below 33% health you can activate a synergy to feed on the enemy healing to full-health, threshold for players is 10%
Morph 1 - When you feed from the synergy you also restore all magicka and stamina
Morph 2 - After activating the synergy, you leave a Blood Coagulant from your enemy's corpse that will fight for you for 15 seconds.
Vampiric Sight - Gain Stealth Detection for 3 seconds and reveal targets through walls, while slotted you gain Major Savagery and Major Prophecy.
Morph 1 - Cast again at an enemy you can see will blink you behind them stunning them and dealing XXXX damage.
Morph 2 - Attacking an enemy who is in stealth increases your damage against them by 15%
Blood Scion - Transform into a Blood Scion, gaining 5,000 Health, Magicka and Stamina and you restore 15% of all damage you deal as health, when you kill an enemy with a Vampiric ability reset Blood Scion duration.
Morph 1 - Bat's surround you and shred nearby enemies dealing XXXX damage and applying Major Breach.
Morph 2 - While transformed you ascend to Vampire Stage 5 which has all the benefits of Stage 4 and none of the weaknesses, in regular form when you have 500 Ultimate you ascend to Stage 5
Blood Scion Ultimate - For each 100 ultimate you have when in Blood Scion form you cast "Enraged" starting at 6 seconds, and increasing in duration by 2 seconds for every 100 ultimate spent, Vampiric abilities cost nothing to cast, you deal 20% more damage and take 20% less damage, you also increase in size rendering you immune to stagger and knockback effects (basically the ability Blood Knights do where they grow giant)
Stage Passive 1 - Unchanged
Stage Passive 2 - Undeath, reduce incoming damage by up to 10% based on remaining health
Stage Passive 3 - Blood Frenzy, every 2 seconds you are in combat gain a stack of Blood Frenzy increasing weapon and spell power by 30 up to a maximum of 10 stacks.
Stage Passive 4 - Supernatural Reflexes, you gain major expedition at all times, casting Eviscerate will make you invisible for 1 second.
Stage 1 - Weakness to Fire 3%, Gain 200 Health Recovery and 75 magicka and stamina recovery
Stage 2 - Weakness to Fire 7%, Gain 400 Health Recovery and 150 magicka and Stamina Recovery
Stage 3 Weakness to Fire 11%, Gain 600 Health Recovery and 225 magicka and Stamina Recovery
Stage 4 Weakness to Fire 15%, Gain 800 Health Recovery and 300 magicka amd stamina Recovery
Eviscerate - Deal XXXX damage, inflicts Hemorrhage, every time you use Eviscerate you gain a stack of Vampiric Fury, after 3 casts you can Vampiric Might which will deal XXXX damage and knockback the target 3 meters.
Morph 1- Now casting at range teleports you to the enemy.
Morph 2 - Now Costs Health, increases the damage dealt by 5%
Mist Form - Transform into Mist for 3 seconds, while in mist your movement speed is increased to max, while slotted gain minor exedition increasing movement speed by 15%
Morph 1 - You now become invisible for 3 seconds after you cast.
Morph 2 - Instead, you transform into a swarm of Bats and appear at the targeted destination absorbing health from all enemies in the targeted location, casting again will teleport you back to your original location.
Vampiric Drain - Siphon Vitality from enemies over 4.5 seconds dealing XXXX damage every 0.3 seconds and restoring 5% of your total health with every tick.
Morph 1 - You also restore 2 Ultimate for each tick
Morph 2 - You also absorb 5% of your total Stamina with every tick
Mesmerize - Charm an enemy causing them to follow you for 8 seconds (players 3 seconds) when enemies are below 33% health you can activate a synergy to feed on the enemy healing to full-health, threshold for players is 10%
Morph 1 - When you feed from the synergy you also restore all magicka and stamina
Morph 2 - After activating the synergy, you leave a Blood Coagulant from your enemy's corpse that will fight for you for 15 seconds.
Vampiric Sight - Gain Stealth Detection for 3 seconds and reveal targets through walls, while slotted you gain Major Savagery and Major Prophecy.
Morph 1 - Cast again at an enemy you can see will blink you behind them stunning them and dealing XXXX damage.
Morph 2 - Attacking an enemy who is in stealth increases your damage against them by 15%
Blood Scion - Transform into a Blood Scion, gaining 5,000 Health, Magicka and Stamina and you restore 15% of all damage you deal as health, when you kill an enemy with a Vampiric ability reset Blood Scion duration.
Morph 1 - Bat's surround you and shred nearby enemies dealing XXXX damage and applying Major Breach.
Morph 2 - While transformed you ascend to Vampire Stage 5 which has all the benefits of Stage 4 and none of the weaknesses, in regular form when you have 500 Ultimate you ascend to Stage 5
Blood Scion Ultimate - For each 100 ultimate you have when in Blood Scion form you cast "Enraged" starting at 6 seconds, and increasing in duration by 2 seconds for every 100 ultimate spent, Vampiric abilities cost nothing to cast, you deal 20% more damage and take 20% less damage, you also increase in size rendering you immune to stagger and knockback effects (basically the ability Blood Knights do where they grow giant)
Stage Passive 1 - Unchanged
Stage Passive 2 - Undeath, reduce incoming damage by up to 10% based on remaining health
Stage Passive 3 - Blood Frenzy, every 2 seconds you are in combat gain a stack of Blood Frenzy increasing weapon and spell power by 30 up to a maximum of 10 stacks.
Stage Passive 4 - Supernatural Reflexes, you gain major expedition at all times, casting Eviscerate will make you invisible for 1 second.
Stage 1 - Weakness to Fire 3%, Gain 200 Health Recovery and 75 magicka and stamina recovery
Stage 2 - Weakness to Fire 7%, Gain 400 Health Recovery and 150 magicka and Stamina Recovery
Stage 3 Weakness to Fire 11%, Gain 600 Health Recovery and 225 magicka and Stamina Recovery
Stage 4 Weakness to Fire 15%, Gain 800 Health Recovery and 300 magicka amd stamina Recovery
Re: Challenge System is Impacting Standard Game Play
Many players came to ESO for the MMO aspect. I know a lot don't, but others do.
Many players, me included, have given feedback to Zos in the past suggesting to "push a little more" the grouping aspect to players.
I'm happy they listened. The reason we asked for this is that the game "felt dead" - it was NOT dead, as some proclaimed, but it felt dead. Seemed like everyone was closed in their house crafting furnishing or whatever XD
Today the game, the world, feels more alive, and thanks to challenges you meet people more often.
I appreciate what Zos did.
I understand some players may be on the "introvert" side and enjoy more a solo experience, like an offline RPG, but others like me could feel pretty lonely wandering the huge wasteland Nirn was before this change.
Now, I'm not saying your issues are not valid points. Just giving a reason WHY Zos did this - it was requested by many of us.
EDIT: I'm not even saying anyone is wrong or arguing. Just that there is another side of the coin where people actually want these changes.
Many players, me included, have given feedback to Zos in the past suggesting to "push a little more" the grouping aspect to players.
I'm happy they listened. The reason we asked for this is that the game "felt dead" - it was NOT dead, as some proclaimed, but it felt dead. Seemed like everyone was closed in their house crafting furnishing or whatever XD
Today the game, the world, feels more alive, and thanks to challenges you meet people more often.
I appreciate what Zos did.
I understand some players may be on the "introvert" side and enjoy more a solo experience, like an offline RPG, but others like me could feel pretty lonely wandering the huge wasteland Nirn was before this change.
Now, I'm not saying your issues are not valid points. Just giving a reason WHY Zos did this - it was requested by many of us.
EDIT: I'm not even saying anyone is wrong or arguing. Just that there is another side of the coin where people actually want these changes.
Vampire Rework?
Will there be as deep a Vampire Rework as the one done for the werewolf in a future patch?
My concern is imbalance and immersion. Werewolves not enjoy a lower damage vulnerability to poison while Vampires at stage four are still at full vulnerability comparatively.
I'd like to request that we receive the option of changing form to a half normal half Stage 5 vampire state when at Stage 4 vampirism when we have toggled on the Blood Frenzy since Werewolves now enjoy the ability to be in werewolf form outside of combat for free and I'd like to request that Blood Frenzy when cast outside of combat change our form for free outside of combat including in town without it being a crime to look that way.
Can we rework the skill morph for blood mist so that we stay still when blood mist is cast because it's difficult to float forward and turn around turning a fight when that particular morph is simply used to drain life from enemies around the vampire.
Can the morph for eviscerate have two attacks like the actual blood fiend mobs in the game?
Mesmerize seems to be a waste because it takes up a slot where an attack skill might otherwise go so I'd like to ask that we get one more attack skill for Vampires that does damage maybe a bite or a charge that is really really fast emphasizing a vampires speed.
And finally I'd like to ask for the restoration of the hiding shadow cloak for vampires that we had previously, that was solely usable at night. It was awesome to be wrapped in shadows while crouching and it really gave a unique immersive sense to the vampire status. If you want you can make it not work for PVP that's perfectly fine just as long as it's restored for PVE please!
My concern is imbalance and immersion. Werewolves not enjoy a lower damage vulnerability to poison while Vampires at stage four are still at full vulnerability comparatively.
I'd like to request that we receive the option of changing form to a half normal half Stage 5 vampire state when at Stage 4 vampirism when we have toggled on the Blood Frenzy since Werewolves now enjoy the ability to be in werewolf form outside of combat for free and I'd like to request that Blood Frenzy when cast outside of combat change our form for free outside of combat including in town without it being a crime to look that way.
Can we rework the skill morph for blood mist so that we stay still when blood mist is cast because it's difficult to float forward and turn around turning a fight when that particular morph is simply used to drain life from enemies around the vampire.
Can the morph for eviscerate have two attacks like the actual blood fiend mobs in the game?
Mesmerize seems to be a waste because it takes up a slot where an attack skill might otherwise go so I'd like to ask that we get one more attack skill for Vampires that does damage maybe a bite or a charge that is really really fast emphasizing a vampires speed.
And finally I'd like to ask for the restoration of the hiding shadow cloak for vampires that we had previously, that was solely usable at night. It was awesome to be wrapped in shadows while crouching and it really gave a unique immersive sense to the vampire status. If you want you can make it not work for PVP that's perfectly fine just as long as it's restored for PVE please!
grumlins
8
Re: Companion's helmets
I think the argument was that they were identifiable characters, not unique in the sense that there's only one of them. Quoting Kevin's post (edit: sorry, this was Zone Lead Tom Murphy's answer) (late-edit to include full answer):
"One of the early design considerations with companions was the balance between "identity" and "customization" for each companion. We wanted to give players as much freedom to customize their traveling companion, while at the same time keeping the identity of the companion the same. We ended up with "no hats" on companions because it hit that sweet spot - where players can make them look any way they wish, but the character and identity of the companion doesn't change because you always see their face." (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7937639/#Comment_7937639)
I enjoy seeing other players' Bastians (or Azandars or Zeriths), but I wouldn't object to them wearing helmets either.
"One of the early design considerations with companions was the balance between "identity" and "customization" for each companion. We wanted to give players as much freedom to customize their traveling companion, while at the same time keeping the identity of the companion the same. We ended up with "no hats" on companions because it hit that sweet spot - where players can make them look any way they wish, but the character and identity of the companion doesn't change because you always see their face." (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7937639/#Comment_7937639)
I enjoy seeing other players' Bastians (or Azandars or Zeriths), but I wouldn't object to them wearing helmets either.
Re: The Game Design of BG's is Embarrassing
Item 2 - Entering the Map by falling off a Platform
- Is your team behind in a deathmatch? Well get ****ed, now you all have to be CC'd for 1.5 seconds when re-entering the fight because, after respawning, you have to enter the map by falling off a platform. And while falling, the enemies can hit you with abilities, but you can't do anything about it.
Genuinely embarrassing game design.
Quick pro tip, if you let go of your movement keys until you hit the ground, you won't do the little somersault when hitting the ground and you get to start casting immediately.
I do agree with everything you said though. Spawn should teleport you to the ground level rather than having to jump down, and the timer for getting forced out of spawn needs to be like 15 seconds max, and ideally done in waves so that anyone in spawn is ported down at the same time (to avoid a trickle effect).
Re: Companion's helmets
Hoping that they eventually reconsider this decision. The excuse that ZOS used of them being ''unique characters'' or whatever doesn't really work in a multiplayer game where you can see multiple other players with the same Companion with the exact same face, basically a clone.
Allowing Companions to show equipped Helmet Style or Hats would be way less immersion breaking and would end up making them far more ''unique'' than what they currently are.
Allowing Companions to show equipped Helmet Style or Hats would be way less immersion breaking and would end up making them far more ''unique'' than what they currently are.
Re: U50 Feedback Thread for Combat Refresh: Werewolf
ACTUAL WEREWOLF FEEDBACK
A few more things:
1) Werewolves are still unable to pass the Tarcyr fight in March of Sacrifices. That fight has crouching/sneaking as a requirement. Since Werewolves can't sneak, they will never be able to pass the hunt phases in there without doing the secret areas. I assume this means they will also be unable to pass the Lord Hollowjack fight during Witches' Fest as it also requires characters to actively Crouch.
I did try to use the Prowl mechanic during the Tarcyr fight, but it doesn't do a thing. It is specifically looking for characters to be hidden, which means that werewolves are completely unable to pass that mechanic.
For a werewolf dungeon, the fact that werewolves can't do it seems like a massive oversight.
I honestly don't understand the resistance to werewolves being able to sneak in some way. Again, in two specific PvE encounters, werewolves are completely disallowed from entering - and the fact that these are a werewolf-themed dungeon and a halloween-themed boss fight just feels completely wrong.
At minimum, these two fights need to have a condition that werewolves are immune to the mechanic. That seems like a weird solution, but the correct answer would be to let them sneak. If the issue is that sneaking werewolves would make a problem for PvP, then have Prowl be a PvP-only feature and allow [CTRL] to do a sneak mode in PvE (even if no crouch animation is added).
That would also help the fact that Slaughter is not easy to trigger, as by the time you get close enough to an NPC to get the synergy, they usually can notice there's a giant wolf beast right behind them.
2) Werewolf Berserker is very hard to sustain as a lone wolf. On Live, the Blood Rage passive is the major source of sustain for the werewolf timer.
On PTS, that passive makes it easier to get to Rampage
The problem is that you need to be in werewolf form long enough to get to Rampage in order to use it. It's pretty tough to get up there fast enough without specifically building for ult gen. On Live, I can easily stay in werewolf form with no problem, even against bosses without a lot of adds. But on PTS, if there aren't a lot of adds around, I may be able to get to Rampage once, and that's only if I hard focus on timers instead of just... having fun?
It would really help if Blood Rage would revert back to a form of the Live passive like "When you deal damage, you gain X ultimate. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds" to help sustain the wolf form.
Honestly, the cost to remain in werewolf form (100 per 10 seconds) does feel a bit high in the first place, especially with how hard it is to sustain in the absence of corpses. Maybe a cost of 70 or even 50 per 10 secs would be better. I might also suggest making the cost less chunky, and spread it to a lower cost over a shorter duration - there are cases where a player might have 184 ult and cast it, which then kicks them right back out of werewolf form with barely anything to show for it.
A few more things:
1) Werewolves are still unable to pass the Tarcyr fight in March of Sacrifices. That fight has crouching/sneaking as a requirement. Since Werewolves can't sneak, they will never be able to pass the hunt phases in there without doing the secret areas. I assume this means they will also be unable to pass the Lord Hollowjack fight during Witches' Fest as it also requires characters to actively Crouch.
I did try to use the Prowl mechanic during the Tarcyr fight, but it doesn't do a thing. It is specifically looking for characters to be hidden, which means that werewolves are completely unable to pass that mechanic.
For a werewolf dungeon, the fact that werewolves can't do it seems like a massive oversight.
I honestly don't understand the resistance to werewolves being able to sneak in some way. Again, in two specific PvE encounters, werewolves are completely disallowed from entering - and the fact that these are a werewolf-themed dungeon and a halloween-themed boss fight just feels completely wrong.
At minimum, these two fights need to have a condition that werewolves are immune to the mechanic. That seems like a weird solution, but the correct answer would be to let them sneak. If the issue is that sneaking werewolves would make a problem for PvP, then have Prowl be a PvP-only feature and allow [CTRL] to do a sneak mode in PvE (even if no crouch animation is added).
That would also help the fact that Slaughter is not easy to trigger, as by the time you get close enough to an NPC to get the synergy, they usually can notice there's a giant wolf beast right behind them.
2) Werewolf Berserker is very hard to sustain as a lone wolf. On Live, the Blood Rage passive is the major source of sustain for the werewolf timer.
On PTS, that passive makes it easier to get to Rampage
The problem is that you need to be in werewolf form long enough to get to Rampage in order to use it. It's pretty tough to get up there fast enough without specifically building for ult gen. On Live, I can easily stay in werewolf form with no problem, even against bosses without a lot of adds. But on PTS, if there aren't a lot of adds around, I may be able to get to Rampage once, and that's only if I hard focus on timers instead of just... having fun?
It would really help if Blood Rage would revert back to a form of the Live passive like "When you deal damage, you gain X ultimate. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds" to help sustain the wolf form.
Honestly, the cost to remain in werewolf form (100 per 10 seconds) does feel a bit high in the first place, especially with how hard it is to sustain in the absence of corpses. Maybe a cost of 70 or even 50 per 10 secs would be better. I might also suggest making the cost less chunky, and spread it to a lower cost over a shorter duration - there are cases where a player might have 184 ult and cast it, which then kicks them right back out of werewolf form with barely anything to show for it.
tomofhyrule
11
Re: April 20th Vengeance Only..
I never PvP'd much before I took a break and tried venegance last night, it reminds me of FF14 pvp, which I hated because there wasn't build variety. To me one of the most fun parts of ESO is the build crafting, I don't like that this game mode will take most of that away.
