PTS Patch Notes v1.4.0

Rylana

xsorusb14_ESO wrote: »

Someone made a very good point on the reddit, Reason they're probably upgrading the level to VR14 is you're going to get Champion levels based on how much xp you've gotten. If you're VR12 and they didn't increase the level cap, and you went out and did upper Craglorn, you're basically wasting XP. Now you're getting VR14 doing it, and when champion levels come out, You'll have more Champion Points.

They also flat out said the vet system was going away, so those of us at level cap took that as a sign that the level cap was NOT increasing again.

Im pissed. All those crafting mats based on BS.

CaptainSilverbrow

Adonikam wrote: »

Please remove VR14. My RL friend and good PVP buddy cancelled his subscription a few minutes ago. I'm seriously thinking about it myself.

Yeah, best to do it now before you lose track of it and it bills you for a new cycle.

rekina

Jesus *** christ, DO NOT INCREASE VET RANKS! Who is throwing this stupid idea? Seriously, who is it? Why are you still hiring him?

CaptainSilverbrow

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

Hey guys, I have no idea what endgame means, and I seem to have forgotten that all new gear, raids, dungeons, and content hereafter will scale with the level increase, possibly well beyond what was observed for endgame VR12 content. It totally eludes me that wholly new gear will be availed to us, with new effects, set bonuses, and such, and I am here to inform you that it is all meaningless because I have no idea. Apparently, I believe that stats are all there is to gear, never mind the incessant balancing act carried out on a weekly basis that has this game shakier than a volcanic island in the Pacific.

The entirety of your multi-post defense platform summarized. Telling people not to worry about leveling and min-maxing for endgame content in MMOs has ever been foolish counsel. This game may not have much by way of "endgame" content, but anyone deciding to beget and #yolo out on level grinding from the get-go will miss out on more than a paltry 3% performance increase.

killswitch508ub17_ESO

I honestly can say Im becoming really agitated with the game. Ok so this time we might have FPS leaks fixed... Still no mention of guild bank stacking bug.

I like the bow fixes, now that we have been waiting since pre release for this to be fixed.

2 more ranks... Im not even remotely happy about more grinding on both my vet rank toons. Considering dropping my sub for this and going back to my previous MMO. Just stop. No more grinding....

Id like to actually enjoy end game.

rekina

killswitch508ub17_ESO wrote: »

Considering dropping my sub for this... Id like to actually enjoy end game.

Couldn't agree more. Vet 14 is just a deal breaker for me. I'm going to leave this game with all my friends when this is being applied on the live server.

Lethal_Instinct

As annoying as it may be for more vet ranks to be thrown in every couple of months, I can see the benefits of it.

While a vet rank 12 character may have invested a lot of time and or gold crafting legendary gear, a couple of vet ranks is not that big of a difference.

Rather than feeling the need to make your entire armor set legendary at once, work on it one at a time. Keep your vet 12 legendary gear through 13 and 14 as it is probably better than epic gear at the higher vet levels anyways and then slowly progress your way through upgrading each piece of gear. That'll give you something to work for!

Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic...

Mendoze

I know this will sounds hostile, but honestly these must be the worst patch notes I've ever seen. Just proves how far from reality those designers really are, or everything is revolving only around PVE.

First of all, are you guys on high or something when you buff bow attacks more? Those already hit for 1.6k+ crits... so seriously? Nothing else gets even close to those numbers. For God's sake, open alliance forum and see those NB videos yourselves, if you don't believe. Those ganked poor players don't even stand a chance if NB starts the fight, so surely that must happen faster and cost less stamina? This is just idiotic.

And why on earth did you decided to nerf spell penetration? Everybody and their mother are running with at least soft capped spell resists, so this is a 14% DPS decrease for all mana users unless I'm totally wrong. Dual wield NBs are already capable to dish almost 3k burst DPS in PVP, kill people in 1 second, and your solution is to nerf magic damage? Seriously, what is wrong with you? Do you even play this game?

Of course not a word about unbreakable stuns, which are probably the most annoying feature in PVP at the moment. This was not big enough deal for you obviously, and bow buff was more important to push through?

Nothing for sorcerers to offset the situation, where we are the only class that can't heal ourselves in PVP? After spell penetration nerf, when we can't even DPS anymore, I find it really hard to figure out what are we supposed to do in PVP. If you really want us to unsub or reroll, why don't you just say so? We can all have fun one-shotting each other with bows.

And last but not least, whose brilliant idea was it to increase level cap again? I bet 90+% of the community does not want another level cap increase so soon after last one. What happened to those champion points?

Of course no matter what people say, you don't listen. Like have never before. You'll push these to live, and then spend next month fixing the mess you made, and lose subscriptions in the process.....like every time before. Oh well, this is your game.

Erock25

I think it is ridiculous to add 2 more vet levels. What are they thinking? Really glad I just fully upgraded all my v12 gear. I know MMOs always are introducing more and better gear but going from v12 to v14 is so minor that it is a waste.

rekina

Mendoze wrote: »

And last but not least, whose brilliant idea was it to increase level cap again?

No kidding. I have no idea how this person is still working for the company. Do they specifically hire stupids? Maybe I can apply ZoS for a job.

Ghenra

¿VR14? ¿No nerf to Magicka builds? ¿No nerf to Bat Swarm? ¿No boost for Heavy armor and Stamina builds?

GG. Another stupid megapatch.

Kewljag_66_ESO

Adonikam wrote: »

ZOS is destroying their player base left and right. They have terrible balance in the game between magicka users and stamina users so they redo all the gear. This made players craft entirely new sets of gear. Now they're going to screw you again and raise the level cap so all the gear you crafted and upgraded will be old and out of date way too fast.

What about unbreakable CC? Did I miss the patch notes where they're going to fix unbreakable CC? This has been going on for a long time now and they're not addressing it.

Again, you're buffing bows and reducing time and stamina to cast Snipe? The ability that is hitting people for 1700 damage? You're going to buff it?

I agree about the CC problem.... But your complaining about bow?? really in a spell damage dominated magika world you are complaing about the one viable counter to light armor?

If you don't want to be hit for a 1700 sneak attack snipe take off your dress and put on some actual armor. if your soft cap your armor that shot will do about 900 - 1000 damage.

I would also like to point out that is 1 time sneak attack shot that also require positioning, follow up shot will do half that damage.

Kewljag_66_ESO

Pixysticks wrote: »

Adonikam wrote: »

ZOS is destroying their player base left and right. They have terrible balance in the game between magicka users and stamina users so they redo all the gear. This made players craft entirely new sets of gear. Now they're going to screw you again and raise the level cap so all the gear you crafted and upgraded will be old and out of date way too fast.

What about unbreakable CC? Did I miss the patch notes where they're going to fix unbreakable CC? This has been going on for a long time now and they're not addressing it.

Again, you're buffing bows and reducing time and stamina to cast Snipe? The ability that is hitting people for 1700 damage? You're going to buff it?

^

Again.... this is one of the very few viable counters to light armor. Dont expect to wear a dress and have great offensive abilities and also have great protection. put on heavy armor and that attack will do about 50% less damage to you. I just find it funny that in a game ruled by spell power and light armor people complain the moment they get a taste of counter damage back at them

driosketch

Rylana wrote: »

xsorusb14_ESO wrote: »

Someone made a very good point on the reddit, Reason they're probably upgrading the level to VR14 is you're going to get Champion levels based on how much xp you've gotten. If you're VR12 and they didn't increase the level cap, and you went out and did upper Craglorn, you're basically wasting XP. Now you're getting VR14 doing it, and when champion levels come out, You'll have more Champion Points.

They also flat out said the vet system was going away, so those of us at level cap took that as a sign that the level cap was NOT increasing again.

Im pissed. All those crafting mats based on BS.

What was talked about was VR going away, but that the new system would introduce an ever progressive gear system. You weren't done with V12 gear either way.

Sacadon

ZOS,

It may be that the wording, structure and approach of the release notes are unnecessarily adding confusion and frustration. So just some suggestions that may help combined with subtle comments/concerns about the focus for this release…

Overview Section - I would be surprised if the majority of your customers (testers) see a new region of Craglorn as the number one priority, but it is getting some hardcore airtime in these patch notes. In contrast, the gameplay related additions and fixes are listed last. So maybe something as simple as being more deliberate in stating the focus for a release by reducing the salesy speak, and stating which changes are specifically made in the spirit of that focus may help. If the focus of the release was in fact Craglorn and group PvE, then I think you’re retention issues are accelerating for PvP-focused customers.

Random Bugs vs. Core Issues - Many don’t understand that in software development, sometimes it makes sense to address lower priority bugs when you’ve got the hood open per’se on a section of code or a set of bug fixes were already queued up for release. Although too much change in general can cause a domino effect like we saw with update 3. Regardless, there may be a way to summarize those non-priority bug fixes that took mostly QA cycles. Otherwise, we may think that ZOS is spending time on petty issues.

Grouping of Priority Fixes - It looks like some of the changes under “Art & Animation”, such as the FX changes appear to be focused on addressing combat clarity and performance especially during large combat situations. If those changes are truly in the spirit of improving combat performance, feedback, lag etc… for PvP and PvE, then I think that most of us would be pleased to know that. However, if those changes are akin to the interior lighting changes introduced in update 2, which I feel comfortable saying that a minority wanted vs. majority (we did ask for more control over things like fog and FOV), or a new clicky sound when we zoom in/out on our map… then it seems as though ZOS is NOT focused on big issues.

Context for Balancing (Snipe) – Why list the change all on its own without some context on the why? If it’s baby-step 1 of future many to fix something, then please add that context or if you think it alone was underpowered, say that. I know that with balancing-related changes, it is a no-win situation with us. So just asking for a bit more information.

Most of the other sections are ok and work fine, after all these are just release notes. Again, I think a little bit goes a long way here and it’s about the difference between the priority and focus of the release... Basically less sales, what is the focus of the release and more context on the changes and additions.

Overall, I believe communication and feedback between customer and ZOS continues to improve.

Thanks!

BTW, please please please please conduct a structured survey. Just reuse the template from beta and tweak it a bit. Heck just let us put something like the following in forced rank order: more/new group PvE content, more/new solo PvE content, Fix existing PvE, Fix existing PvP, Skill Balancing, Responsiveness etc...

Attorneyatlawl

Obscure wrote: »

WebBull wrote: »

The End of Campaign Leaderboard rewards now contain items if you are in the top 10% or higher for your Alliance.

The top 2% of the Leaderboard for each alliance will receive a gold set item and an ability-altering weapon.
The top 3% - 10% of the Leaderboard for each alliance will receive a purple set item.


Without clarification it sounds like there is no difference in rewards based on the length of the campaigns. Won't this force everyone to play the shorter campaigns? Please clarify.

yah know...this is why we can't have nice things...

AP grinders shall flock to 5 day special events in droves for a shot at gear drops...

...god***it ZOS...

Or if you think about it, ZOS probably just made a simple design that scales the number of rewards based on campaign length. Probably.

Attorneyatlawl

SirJesto wrote: »

Arabth wrote: »

yea but adding 2 lvl first is not removing the veteran lvls

That's because they aren't removing Veteran ranks.

Misinformation likes to roam free and wide, here as I think we have seen today in this thread. You are right by all current info.

---

Another point I'd like to bring up in addition to what @xsorusb14_ESO‌ did is that they may be trying to drain excess upgrade materials from certain glitches towards launch, still, from the economy too .

I'd also very much like to point out that yeah, like everyone else I made shiny new sets for v1.3... personally I can handily afford to make shiny new sets legendary for v1.4 too. If you can't, then farm some... that's what I did, instead of complaining here that they're "forcing me to make new gear", so I could have the incredibly game-changing 5 weapon damage upgrade when the new version hits (heh). If I didn't want to farm the extra bit, I'd just do purple which is readily available and do without until later. In a good MMO not everyone has the best armor inside of a day from an update hitting live .

tengri wrote: »

I'm a little disappointed... no, scratch that... I'm very disappointed that there wont be any adjustments to the overcrowding of Cyrodill campaigns.
Waiting in queue for hours(!) during prime-time is just unacceptable.

Yes, before there were too many campaigns... but now there are not enough; at least one more 30day is needed badly.

The longest queue I've had on Chillrend was about 5 minutes at primetime EST on Saturday, with all 3 factions locked.

Attorneyatlawl

eventide03b14a_ESO wrote: »

It's not a bad start, but what if you didn't make the item? As it is now there is no way to improve an item bound to someone else.

Why should you be able to reap the rewards of being a crafter if you aren't one? I like @Wykkyd's suggestion and the thought put into it, but I don't agree even that what he lays out for upgrading VR on items really makes sense for the game's economy. I would love to see the ability to change the skin (style) of the items though as he proposed though, as it's not that different from a dye in terms of being aesthetic only.

Shagreth

There's still an issue with Stamina Builds when it comes to PvE, they are simply subpar compared to magicka ones, I'm afraid these changes won't cut it. Also, pretty depressing to see an NPC werewolf buff instead of one for player characters. Are you you guys messing with us?

Maverick827

The problem is most people would rather quit than "just farm some more" legendary materials so soon after having to do it in 1.2 when VR12 came out and in 1.3 when they updated the sets.

This is not a good thing.

Attorneyatlawl

xbalint.vargaxprb19_ESO wrote: »

any idea, are v14 items going to use the monumental glyphs? (so same as v10-12)
if yes, this would mean that itemswise you get stronger in wpn dmg and armor-same as 10-12 jump

Yes, on PTS they show as 10-14 glyphs... at least my currently in-stock ones won't become a tier below again like they did with 1.2 (I had about 20x orange legendary glyphs for VR10 to sell that magically went to VR7-9 instead of 10-12 .

(Hardly ever mentioned by anyone on the forums, though, it seems even though those could no longer even be used with current gear and got downgraded from their former rank. Lost enough cash at that time for a full set of legendary in terms of the profit margin I would have normally made back then... oh well. 5 weapon damage and it's a riot in this thread though despite your gear remaining identical to what it was).

Attorneyatlawl

Maverick827 wrote: »

The problem is most people would rather quit than "just farm some more" legendary materials so soon after having to do it in 1.2 when VR12 came out and in 1.3 when they updated the sets.

This is not a good thing.

You didn't "have to" in the first place. It's a *GOOD* thing to have goals in an MMO if you want the best. It's actually a bad thing that in this game people expect to have the best gear and upgrades available minute one any time anything better becomes available, no matter how slight an upgrade it is. The money needed for buying purple quality is obtainable in literally a few hours' worth of quick farming for a full set's worth of gear and is 99% of the effectiveness of the legendary/orange quality level.

(And people wondered why in the thread about raid difficulty I was skeptical of the concept of the general playerbase being happy with having to spend weeks or months progressing... when some were arguing there that it would be good to return to the older style of MMO progression where it took hours to clear a raid instead of minutes, and you went through a progression of multiple raids (which I would love, but I know from responses like yours that isn't a popular opinion). That's the point I was making there @madangrypally , even though I agree with you on an overall basis.).

Nachtrabe

xsorusb14_ESO wrote: »

Someone made a very good point on the reddit, Reason they're probably upgrading the level to VR14 is you're going to get Champion levels based on how much xp you've gotten. If you're VR12 and they didn't increase the level cap, and you went out and did upper Craglorn, you're basically wasting XP. Now you're getting VR14 doing it, and when champion levels come out, You'll have more Champion Points.

Yeah and if you reach V14 and you have to wait for the champion system... you dont waste exp? Same situation on higher rank.

Maverick827

The issue isn't necessarily how long it will take to replace gear, but that it is difficult enough to do so that, given the pace at which Zenimax is increasing the level cap, by the time we do there will be no time left to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Second to that is replacing the gear is done with a tedious materials grind. At least in other MMOs, when a new tier of content invalidates your current gear, you replace it by doing fun and challenging group content.

If Zenimax comes out and says "okay, this will be the last level cap increase for six months, all of our updates will be horizontal from now until then," people might still be upset, but at least they would have hope.

Vylaer

Thanks for telling us you are getting rid of Veteran Ranks and then decide to raise the cap right after most of use spend all our legendary materials. You guys are world class....

Attorneyatlawl

Maverick827 wrote: »

The issue isn't necessarily how long it will take to replace gear, but that it is difficult enough to do so that, given the pace at which Zenimax is increasing the level cap, by the time we do there will be no time left to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Second to that is replacing the gear is done with a tedious materials grind. At least in other MMOs, when a new tier of content invalidates your current gear, you replace it by doing fun and challenging group content.

If Zenimax comes out and says "okay, this will be the last level cap increase for six months, all of our updates will be horizontal from now until then," people might still be upset, but at least they would have hope.

It isn't really very difficult to do at all, at least to purple. I can literally go grind a group public dungeon aoe'ing and make enough money to cover a full suit of purple-quality upgrades within a couple of hours. I'm glad they're keeping the good stuff to the trials and pvp rewards for that instead of making a "tedious materials grind" like you describe. They are indeed adding "fun and challenging group content" in this patch... the dragonstar arena and a new trial are both in the notes, to obtain the better equipment.

I can't say I agree that 5 weapon damage and 1% stat increase "invalidates your current gear" though.

deathmasterl_ESO

Vylaer wrote: »

Thanks for telling us you are getting rid of Veteran Ranks and then decide to raise the cap right after most of use spend all our legendary materials. You guys are world class....

Lol, they never said they were getting rid of Veteran Ranks, they said they were getting rid of Veteran Points which you use to level up your VR and changing it to normal XP.

The other thing they said is that every time you lvl up a Veteran Rank you will then get points for the Champion System coming in a future patch.


I would say to ZOS though that they really should release an official statement that better explains their goal and what they're planning with the changes to everything, because people are getting very and greatly angry and confused with the upcoming changes.

Varicite

Vylaer wrote: »

Thanks for telling us you are getting rid of Veteran Ranks and then decide to raise the cap right after most of use spend all our legendary materials. You guys are world class....

They never said anything about getting rid of Veteran Ranks.

They said Veteran Points were going away w/ phase 2 of their plan to roll out the Champion System.

I understand how people keep getting this confused, as they both sound similar and the majority of the info we have about the new system was buried 40 minutes into an almost 2 hour long Quakecon video.

Cogo

Outstanding patch!

With all the new stuffs coming after this. I didn't think the game could get better!

Regarding heavy and medium armor. Have you looked at the passives lately?

To you guys who plays on PTS server. PLEASE test these things! :-)
Seriously. We need players on the PTS server to actually TEST things....not just play for an hour and look at skills or something.

I would say to ZOS though that they really should release an official statement that better explains their goal and what they're planning with the changes to everything, because people are getting very and greatly angry and confused with the upcoming changes.

They have.

http://dulfy.net/2014/07/18/eso-quakecon-the-future-of-eso-panel-notes/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYbl5B8R9-E

Attorneyatlawl

@Cogo, will be doing so again, did a ton on 1.3 testing and will be running serpent trial + dragon arena with a great group for 1.4 . Definitely a true message... we need more people to test instead of wait for it to hit live then raise their issues...