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Dear ZOS - your players are frustrated with 1.6, and here's why.

C0pp3rhead
C0pp3rhead
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tl;dr
- stat changes = nerf & incentive to grind CP.
- Other changes are too much at once and come without explanation.
- ZOS does not have the credibility with its customers to pull these stunts.
- Solution: hold off on rebalancing until Vet levels are compressed back to 50.

When we first heard about the huge changes that 1.6 had to offer, many players including myself were delighted that long standing complaints were finally being addressed. On top of that, ZOS planned to introduce Champion Points (CP), which would allow for more end-game progression, making us more powerful. When many of us saw the patch notes and logged on to the PTS, we found ourselves confused by big numbers. Players did not ask for many of the changes in 1.6, and we are wondering why they were implemented. Looking over many of the comments on the PTS forums, it seems that the biggest frustration stems from a lack of transparency on your part.

Before I get into the meat of my argument, I want to say that some changes were very successful. Among these are improvements to some class skills, espeically Templars and changes to trial scoring. @pppontus‌ started an excellent thread detailing many of these changes. This thread will not talk about specific class changes, as those can be found through the following links: What I do want to discuss is stat changes.
The explanation that ZOS gave us regarding the larger numbers was this: the larger numbers provided more granularity concerning the sometimes small increases gained through CP. In other words, you could actually see these small bonuses. If all stats increased by x10, there would be few complaints - mostly concerning aesthetics. Upon closer inspection, however, there is much more going on. @angelyn‌ has posted some great information on the comparison between live and 1.6 stats. Also, check out these photos from @Jennifur_Vultee‌. From these posts, we can see that magicka and stamina increased by x9, and health by x7. Set bonuses and enchants have increased seemingly arbitrarily. Most strikingly, the relative spell power and crit chance bonuses on set items have been halved.

Here, ZOS responds that we will be able to make up these losses through CP that provide attribute, regen, power, and crit bonuses. In the meantime, however, many of us will receive at most 70 CP when 1.6 goes live - far from enough to re-achieve stats that compare with 1.5.8. Moreover, many players will have to invest their early CP in constellations that provide damage mitigation and similar bonuses to help with mere survivability. Taking all this together, many players including myself feel that the number inflation serves to hide stat decreases relative to the live version. We see that the day 1.6 goes live, we will have to engage in a months-long and excruciating CP grind just to be able to complete content that we've already done 10's or 100's of times.

How many players are just now reaching the upper veteran levels and can finally engage in City of Ash helm runs? How many of them will get a helm with the Exploration trait and no shoulders? How many of them will be unable to complete CoA when 1.6 goes live? How many players have completed Sanctum Ophidiae (SO) a handful of times and have half complete sets of SO drops? How many will be unable to get past the Mantikora again for another month? How many will actually bother to complete the content when the set bonuses are paltry compared with crafted gear?
These are the questions that ZOS has not asked itself nor the community of gamers who have pledged themselves to making the most out of this game.

Most importantly, many dedicated testers are at a loss when investigating whether these stat adjustments have truly balanced the game in a productive way. Instead, they are busy trying to figure out where precisely they have lost power and where they have gained power. They're too busy figuring out how to compare their numbers to live instead of actually doing meaningful comparisons.

What we players want to know is: WHY?. We did not did not ask for this, and we are confused as to why ZOS feels these massive changes are necessary. Looking over the patch notes, we see no justification. The changes to ultimate generation, for example, happened for many reasons. Forcing players to light attack cuts down on block-casting while making us less able to spam our ultimate abilities. However, this is information that we had to infer, and comes from the community lodging their complaints on this forum and elsewhere. Changes to the buff system however, are puzzling. Why shouldn't Critical Surge stack with 2Handed Momentum? Why shouldn't the health regen from activating Radiant Aura stack with DK Green Dragon Blood? More importantly, If I am a Sorcerer running both Inner Light and Critical Surge (which many will do because they don't like pets), their 3-effect spell-power, spell-crit, and restore mana potions will only restore magicka, making them just above 25% more effective than what can be bought through the crown store. What bothers us players is not that the mechanics are different from 1.5.8. What bothers us is that we do not see why these changes were implemented, and ZOS has offered us no explanation.
With so many other changes coming our way, we are not only clueless, we are suspicious. I hate to break it to you, but ZOS does not have the credibility to pull this off. ZOS is not Blizzard, ZOS is not even Bethesda. Since the game's release, ZOS has failed to fix minor issues & bugs while going back on its word regarding B2P. Many in the gaming community do no see this company as reliable nor capable of managing ESO. The changes we see heading our way seem tailored to console players, and we suspect that many will quit a few weeks after realizing that they're not playing "Skyrim: Online" or a game even remotely similar to it.

When 1.6 goes live, players will log in to find that they are significantly less powerful, that their builds and gear are worthless, and their most-used abilities are foreign to them. More importantly, they will not understand why. Many players who participate in end-game content are already frustrated and bored, having stowed away complete sets of high-end gear in their banks. All the Former Emperors running around Cyrodiil are tired of farming AP just to remain on the leaderboards and get rewards they already have. They will not see a level playing field or a challenging end-game. They will see a grind for CP. Many will quit. There is no enjoyment in grinding along in the hopes that new content will become available in June.

Plain and simple, this update is too much at once. I think many players could handle a x10 stat inflation were it not for the rebalanced stats. Conversely, they might enjoy the rebalancing if not for the inflated numbers. However, we see you increasing the difficulty of dungeons while decreasing our power relative to our current 1.5.8 stats. The 70 CP will not be enough to cover our losses. What I suggest is save most of the rebalancing for later, when you get rid of veteran levels. By then we players will have accrued enough CP that the stat rebalancing will not hurt as much - after all, there will have to be big changes when I revert from V14 to 50. We will be expecting changes then, and we will be in a place to look forward to them.
"Things which are alike in nature grow to look alike, and the speaking stones have lain a long time lookin' at the sun. Some believe they descend with the lightning, but I believe they are on the ground and are projected downward by the bolt."

Fear my moustache powers.

Tastes-New-Blood - V14 Argonian Templar
Giblets N Bits - V2 Imperial Nightblade
Skruyue N'Alyutu - V1 Altmer Sorcerer
Jolbie Firecrotch - L31 Nord Dragonknight

Vehemence - - Valhalla's Guard
  • trimsic_ESO
    trimsic_ESO
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    I'm pleased with the 1.6 changes, although some fine tuning has to be done to balance some skills and improve the meta game.

    When I returned back to the live server, I did not have the same fun I had on the PTS. There the combat animations were much more reactive, the skills were more pleasant to use and looked more balanced, and the build diversity was just not a concept. The Champion System brings more depth to the game too.
    Millenium - Daggerfall Covenant Europe - FR
    VR14 R31 Stamina DK - melee DPS / support
    Guild Leader Millenium TESO
  • Ace_SiN
    Ace_SiN
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    olsborg wrote: »
    Mainly my biggest issue with 1.6 is the removal of softcaps together with the reduction in hp, making the time to kill(ttk) ridiculous. People dont react in pvp anymore, theres no time.

    Well I agree with this way more than the OP. I actually like 1.6 overall. My biggest issue is how low the TTK is. I go into PvP now and get wrecked in mere seconds.. Admittedly it's a bit of a l2p issue, since I just haven't adapted to the change yet. However, I've PvPed enough to know that TTK this low is never going to be "fun" for long and it only serves to lower the skill ceiling. It doesn't take much skill to kill someone before they can react. Imagine chess where the first one to move wins..

    Skillful counterplay > 1 shot kills
    King of Beasts

  • TheBucket
    TheBucket
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    I like 1.6
    William Reignes
    Magic Nightblade - Rogue Bomber
    Creator of Thirsty Thief Build (Retired 1.5)
  • Charadras
    Charadras
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    I think that all here must understand that we play a beta until 1.6. We have to forgot all the playstyle and restart out brain and start to think "1.6" to appreciate the game now. If we can't do this the only thing to do is say goodbye ESO and find another game to play. Always IMO

    War Inc - EU
    Gilda Italiana PVP
    Apply su www.warinccommunity.com/forum
    Charadras DK vr 14 - Ebonheart Pact
  • Kragorn
    Kragorn
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    Muizer wrote: »
    Don't get me wrong, there are legit doubts about 1.6 concerning the new class and skill balance, but people really need to let go of measuring everything against 1.5.
    Totally agree, far too much focus and complaining about stat nerfs and too little analysis of the effect the changes have had on characters' ability to progress through content in 1.6 in comparison to the ability to progress in 1.5

    There appear to be serious problems being caused by the changes (for example the thread posted by a guild here about their initial foray into SO) but that is being drowned out by endless bickering about stat values in isolation of actual game-play.

    Edited by Kragorn on February 6, 2015 10:05AM
  • Derra
    Derra
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    I like 1.6
    I can also understand why people have problems with it *shrug*
    <Noricum>
    I live. I die. I live again.

    Derra - DC - Sorc - AvA 50
    Derrah - EP - Sorc - AvA 50

  • Fatalyis
    Fatalyis
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    I like 1.6 for the most part....it just feels better....but I definitely agree that there is a LOT of work in store before this thing can go live. I'm okay with that...
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