Sneak Attack Damage nerfed on PTS today

Samadhi

"ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

...
Combat & Gameplay
General

• Reduced the amount of bonus damage provided by stealthed attacks against other player characters.
  • Note that stealthed attacks are still always critical strikes that stun your target.
  ...

Nightblade nerfed again.

Radiant Magelight is bugged, so the skill that is supposed to protect people from Sneak Attack damage is not getting fixed; instead ZOS is gimping Sneak Attack damage on the whole.

It has been nice fellow Nightblades, but it looks like it is time for me to finally reroll.

Going Sorcerer. See you all in Cyrodiil again in a week or two.

Nox_Aeterna

You mean to say people will have to stop almost instant killing each other using stealth :P?

Lord_Draevan

Did that 3000-damage-in-one-hit bow sneak attack ever get changed, or is that still a thing? Cause if it wasn't changed I can understand this nerf. One hit kill is kinda ridiculous.

Lorkhan

Nox_Aeterna wrote: »

You mean to say people will have to stop almost instant killing each other using stealth :P?

look, a dk

Nox_Aeterna

Lorkhan wrote: »

Nox_Aeterna wrote: »

You mean to say people will have to stop almost instant killing each other using stealth :P?

look, a dk

Nope , my main since the start has always been a templar , but good try lols.

Honfold

Nox_Aeterna wrote: »

You mean to say people will have to stop almost instant killing each other using stealth :P?

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

Did that 3000-damage-in-one-hit bow sneak attack ever get changed, or is that still a thing? Cause if it wasn't changed I can understand this nerf. One hit kill is kinda ridiculous.

If the OP is correct then I hope, but do not expect, ZOS to change block casting or nerf shield stacking.

Skwor

Long overdo, no one needs one shot instakills

Samadhi

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

Did that 3000-damage-in-one-hit bow sneak attack ever get changed, or is that still a thing? Cause if it wasn't changed I can understand this nerf. One hit kill is kinda ridiculous.

The PTS patch prior to this one reduced Snipe's damage, as well as changing the animation so that the timing on the previous combo could no longer be executed.

More relevantly, there is no mention of fixing Radiant Magelight's bug. Radiant Magelight is supposed to be a toggle effect that reduces the damage of all Sneak Attacks by over 50%.

As such, the skill that players could already be using as a counter to protect themselves from being killed quickly by Sneak Attacks still does not function correctly. Meanwhile, all Sneak Attack damage is getting nerfed rather than fix the skill bug.

Apparently, sweeping changes are more appealing changes to make than fixing bugs that impact strategic character builds and gameplay.

Sypher

Because every Nightblade and Only Nightblades rely on sneak attacks to be effective in battle.

phreatophile

This is truly a momentous occasion.

Finally, a common sense PVP balance fix that is only for PVP.

Seriously.
Reduced by how much? And does it actually matter? Does anyone actually get critical hits anymore? I thought a few pieces of impenetrable gear negated crits.

Sharee

phreatophile wrote: »

Does anyone actually get critical hits anymore? I thought a few pieces of impenetrable gear negated crits.

Impenetrable reduces chance of regular crits, but the special cases where a crit is guaranteed are extempt from that(like critical rush from the 2h line, or a sneak attack).

DDuke

If they removed the sneak attack damage entirely, we'll be playing sorcs with Crystal Shards ("Snipe") & Crushing Shock ("Venom Arrow"), except they use the green resource instead. Oh, except we won't be able to heal or damage shield (effectively)...

Good thing I didn't resub to this mess yet. /rant

MrGhosty

Speaking as a NB, I would gladly trade some of my attack prowess (that's usually hit and miss anyway) for a more robust self heal or the ability to stand and fight more than is possible now.

I can see how NBs were intended to strike from shadow deal a burst of damage and then bugger off again, but what happens more often than not is we just get pinned in place, our stam gets drained, and we die. I think playing cautiously and attacking from a superior position should be rewarded, but insta killing anyone isn't fun in the long term.

That all said, I think there are more prevalent issues that aren't being addressed with a greater potential to harm gameplay. Lag freezing you in place due to impulse/bat swarm spam effectively is an instant kill so if NBs are having their one specialty modified it would be nice if they gave other issues a once over as well.

BRogueNZ

Good.

Lord_Draevan

DDuke wrote: »

Good thing I didn't resub to this mess yet. /rant

I'm pretty sure if you can post on the forums, you're subbed. I was unsubbed until last week and was unable to post/comment, I was told "Permission denied".

DDuke

Sharee wrote: »

phreatophile wrote: »

Does anyone actually get critical hits anymore? I thought a few pieces of impenetrable gear negated crits.

Impenetrable reduces chance of regular crits, but the special cases where a crit is guaranteed are extempt from that(like critical rush from the 2h line, or a sneak attack).

Nope... those special occasions give you 100% crit. Impenetrable 7/7 reduces it by 70%, leaving you with +30% crit for that attack. Which means that the crit isn't quaranteed, unless you have 70% crit chance.

Also things like damage shield prevent crits from happening altogether (Critical Rush, Sneak attacks & Shadowy Disguise included).

Satiar

As a Stamina NB not based around stealth openers, I am happy to say this changes nothing. I suppose I will be killing all your rerolls in a weak or two

DDuke

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

DDuke wrote: »

Good thing I didn't resub to this mess yet. /rant

I'm pretty sure if you can post on the forums, you're subbed. I was unsubbed until last week and was unable to post/comment, I was told "Permission denied".

Nah, I haven't been subscribed for almost two weeks now. Beats me

Lord_Draevan

DDuke wrote: »

Nah, I haven't been subscribed for almost two weeks now. Beats me

You probably have game-time remaining. I bought the recurring one-month last week, waited for game time to be added, then cancelled my sub. (I only want to play until November when Dragon Age 3 comes out and hate ZOS doesn't have non-recurring one-month subs)

Sharee

DDuke wrote: »

Sharee wrote: »

phreatophile wrote: »

Does anyone actually get critical hits anymore? I thought a few pieces of impenetrable gear negated crits.

Impenetrable reduces chance of regular crits, but the special cases where a crit is guaranteed are extempt from that(like critical rush from the 2h line, or a sneak attack).

Nope... those special occasions give you 100% crit. Impenetrable 7/7 reduces it by 70%, leaving you with +30% crit for that attack. Which means that the crit isn't quaranteed, unless you have 70% crit chance..

You are confusing a guaranteed crit with an ability that adds 100% critical chance.

Using shadowy disguise boosts you crit chance by 100%, but that 100% are then reduced by enemy impenetrable. But a sneak attack always crits regardless of impenetrable.

Palidon

Well this is the last and final straw for me. I am sick and tired of ZOS nerf-ing the Nightblade Class. Enough is enough. If they want to Nerf something Nerf the DK in PvP. They have finally lost my subscription as I join countless others who are completely fed up with this game. Its time to move on to something else.

Cody

you could do what I do when my sneak attacks don't work...... get out a huge two handed weapon and start killing players that assume me to be defenseless simply cause I use a bow:)

Samadhi

Sypherpkub17_ESO wrote: »

Because every Nightblade and Only Nightblades rely on sneak attacks to be effective in battle.

No, but Nightblade is the only Class that has Class skills and passives specifically built to be used in Sneak Attacks. No Nightblade is required to use all their Class features available to them, but this was a feature among those.

This change does indeed also impact as all other players that simply used Sneak Attacks on a regular build for strategic advantage.

Fully recognize both these factors, but this does hit Nightblade disproportionately due to aspects of Class design.

Really though, am just disheartened to find out that this nerf is being implemented instead of fixing the bug with Radiant Magelight.
Feels as though the /bug reports that have been sent in about the issue since Beta have amounted to naught.
The actual strategic counter to Sneak Attack burst still maintains issues, and Sneak Attacks on the whole are nerfed instead.

Palidon

phreatophile wrote: »

This is truly a momentous occasion.

Finally, a common sense PVP balance fix that is only for PVP.

Seriously.
Reduced by how much? And does it actually matter? Does anyone actually get critical hits anymore? I thought a few pieces of impenetrable gear negated crits.

If they want to fix a balance then nerf the DK advantage in PvP not the Nightblades. Give me a break.

Huntler

Wondering how many people will actually put up instead of claiming they are going to unsub.... I've seen people saying that for months and yet they still play. No one has even checked how much of a tweak it is let alone realized that sneak damage with the scaling of weapon damage going up was starting to get out of hand where you could global cooldown people.


But sure, the sky is falling. chill out people its not even in game yet *eyeroll*

DDuke

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

DDuke wrote: »

Nah, I haven't been subscribed for almost two weeks now. Beats me

You probably have game-time remaining. I bought the recurring one-month last week, waited for game time to be added, then cancelled my sub. (I only want to play until November when Dragon Age 3 comes out and hate ZOS doesn't have non-recurring one-month subs)

http://imgur.com/6qXJvua

Sharee wrote: »

DDuke wrote: »

Sharee wrote: »

phreatophile wrote: »

Does anyone actually get critical hits anymore? I thought a few pieces of impenetrable gear negated crits.

Impenetrable reduces chance of regular crits, but the special cases where a crit is guaranteed are extempt from that(like critical rush from the 2h line, or a sneak attack).

Nope... those special occasions give you 100% crit. Impenetrable 7/7 reduces it by 70%, leaving you with +30% crit for that attack. Which means that the crit isn't quaranteed, unless you have 70% crit chance..

You are confusing a guaranteed crit with an ability that adds 100% critical chance.

Using shadowy disguise boosts you crit chance by 100%, but that 100% are then reduced by enemy impenetrable. But a sneak attack always crits regardless of impenetrable.

Nope... I tested it with sneak attack as well a month ago. Unless they fixed it (which I seriously doubt), it's still broken for people below 70% crit.

Ifthir_ESO

@ZOS_JoBurba‌

Is this really the best choice for a game that is bleeding players?

Instead of nerfing Full Plate wearing guys with 8 foot greatswords who hide as well as my NB, you nerf NB bonus damage, which is something literally 0 players were really complaining about?

If you want the last few of us still playing, to go play your competitors, please just say so.

This is damn near the final straw.

The class is [snip] broke and rather than fix all the damned bugs you nerf something no players were complaining about, at a time you refuse to even fix *** half the damned playerbase is complaining about.

Get your priorities straight for the love of god.

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Cursing & Profanity]

Erock25

MrGhosty wrote: »

Speaking as a NB, I would gladly trade some of my attack prowess (that's usually hit and miss anyway) for a more robust self heal or the ability to stand and fight more than is possible now.

I suggest you search youtube for 'ESO NB PVP' and put the filter to the last month. There are many videos of NB standing and fighting for an extreme amount of time.

Samadhi

Cody wrote: »

you could do what I do when my sneak attacks don't work...... get out a huge two handed weapon and start killing players that assume me to be defenseless simply cause I use a bow:)

Generally prefer to play my Nightblade as an Ambush-Mage. Siphoning build after an Ambush opener has been pretty fun, but this encourages me to find some motivation and try another Class for something different, since my Nightblade already has all Class, Armour, and Weapon lines leveled to 50.

Planning on just rolling up a Sorcerer instead. Do not think my playing will be any better on a Sorcerer, but going for a full Mage build makes more sense.

Had weighed the two classes out during Beta, and ultimately decided on Nightblade, primarily since Sorcerer has no Class skills that can be used as Sneak Attacks on a Magicka build at all.
Thinking Sorcerer will still be plenty of fun though. My Mage characters in Skyrim specialized in Lightning, so Overload ultimate will give me an opportunity to relive that, even if much of my time is spent faceplanting at first.

Sharee

DDuke wrote: »

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

DDuke wrote: »

Nah, I haven't been subscribed for almost two weeks now. Beats me

You probably have game-time remaining. I bought the recurring one-month last week, waited for game time to be added, then cancelled my sub. (I only want to play until November when Dragon Age 3 comes out and hate ZOS doesn't have non-recurring one-month subs)

http://imgur.com/6qXJvua

Sharee wrote: »

DDuke wrote: »

Sharee wrote: »

phreatophile wrote: »

Does anyone actually get critical hits anymore? I thought a few pieces of impenetrable gear negated crits.

Impenetrable reduces chance of regular crits, but the special cases where a crit is guaranteed are extempt from that(like critical rush from the 2h line, or a sneak attack).

Nope... those special occasions give you 100% crit. Impenetrable 7/7 reduces it by 70%, leaving you with +30% crit for that attack. Which means that the crit isn't quaranteed, unless you have 70% crit chance..

You are confusing a guaranteed crit with an ability that adds 100% critical chance.

Using shadowy disguise boosts you crit chance by 100%, but that 100% are then reduced by enemy impenetrable. But a sneak attack always crits regardless of impenetrable.

Nope... I tested it with sneak attack as well a month ago. Unless they fixed it (which I seriously doubt), it's still broken for people below 70% crit.

I'm not going to argue with you back and forth. Needless to say, my character with 80% crit reduction from impenetrable gets crit by stealth attacks all the time.

Ifthir_ESO

Sharee wrote: »

I'm not going to argue with you back and forth. Needless to say, my character with 80% crit reduction from impenetrable gets crit by stealth attacks all the time.

Stealth attacks always crit, if I am not mistaken.

everything else compares crit chance vs your impen