@juan0316 It depends on which specific aspect of PvP you're thinking of. Most PvP stuff is down to @ZOS_BrianWheeler (Imperial City, Keeps, Sieging, Cyrodiil towns and delves), but @Wrobel handles the PvP abilities (Assault and Support) and all other combat-related stuff (including AoE caps and that sort of thing).Hi Erick,
Are you in charge of pvp updates/content? The pvp community has voiced their concerns over some of the issues that are hindering enjoyment of pvp. I'm sure you can find these in forum posts over the past few weeks so I am not going to reiterate them here but it would be great if you or whoever is in charge considers those topics
My name is Eric Wrobel and I’ve had the pleasure of working at ZeniMax Online Studios for over five years now.
I’m a long time reader, first time poster.
Joy_Division wrote: »Greetings, everyone, and welcome to another Road Ahead update! This month I’ll talk about our plans with Elder Scrolls Online. I know our Imperial City release had not addressed many of the issues and problems you folks who PvP every night are experiencing, so we have recently decided that we can no longer neglect this vital part of the game. We believe that no other MMO game has anywhere close to the dynamic and exciting PvP gameplay that our game could have and thousands of fans who are just waiting - begging - that we do something to entice them to come back and have fulfilling and fun PvP experiences. This does not mean we are not hard at work at the PvE end of things - we know we need a new trial and other end-game content - it just means we will not simply sit back and hope Cyrodiil's problems will go away own their own."Zerging"Back during our "Guild Summit" last year, we admitted that we "recognized the current meta of stacking in AoE and distributing damage throughout your group. This isn’t the gameplay we wants, we want large groups of abilities to be vulnerable to AoE and afraid of AoE." We (now) understand that out efforts, which have included such measures as raising siege damage, adjusting AoE caps to hit more targets (albeit with falloff damage) and incentivizing other means of AP gains such as the 20% delve bonus have not had their desired effect. I want to make it crystal clear we want to do away with this meta because it is not very interesting, does not make players feel very heroic, and most of all it damages the integrity of our servers.
To that end we will be implementing a series of changes that will implemented periodically. The first of which will be:Complete removal of damage AoE Caps
We are going to file this under the good intentions gone bad file. We know 87% of you did not want AoE caps and feared what they might lead to. However, at the time they were implemented, we had serious balance issues that demanded we do something. We had hoped a new meta would evolve without AoEs being so dominant yet at the same time deterring "ball groups". We now see this was a mistake. We understand this now means AoEs are going to be potentially strong and groups will have to fear them, but, that's kind of the whole point as we noted in the guild summit. We believe there is a "learn-to-play" (L2P) element here in that if you spread out from your Alliance comrades, you will dramatically lessen the chance that you will be targeted or hit by an AoE spamming player. In short, this will take some adjustment, but we are confident you folks are smart and skilled enough such that removing AoE caps will have a positive impact on your gameplay and our server performance.Increase in siege damage
Brian Wheeler already indicated on the forums that this is something we are working on right now. Also, we understand that ice catapults (plain ineffectiveness), oil catapults (snare easily removed), stone catapults (lol), and lightning ballista (fire is just better) are not being used as much as we'd like and we look into way to make these more appealing options."Ground Oils" and Magicka detonation
We got rid of "ground oils" hoping that the Magicka Detonation skill would be able to replicate the useful but immersion breaking function of players pouring burning oil at their feet. This was another mistake on our part as the magicka detonation skill, despite our best efforts, has strengthened the very zergs it was intended to combat. Instead of just reintroducing "ground oils" (which Joy would love...sigh), what we are going to do is mechanically change the magicka detonation skill so its effect is similar, i.e., cast time and high AoE DoT. In such a way we can get back the useful function that "ground oils" had in the game for zerg busting while not having the unrealistic aesthetic that came with it.Dynamic Ultimate Generation
This will be a step that comes after the AoE removal, probably about a month. We want to be careful how these two interact with each other because there is a potential for abuse. Plus, we are still experimenting on ways to generate that ultimate (we do not want the overly simplistic critical hit model). We originally believed capping ultimate gain would be desirable because many players expressed the opinion these powerful abilities seemed too commonplace. While that opinion is valid, too many other problems have arisen. We cut off potential interesting and diverse builds. We have damaged the ability of the "tanky" classes to hold their ground against ball-groups and compel them to spread out in the first place (ironic as we intended to help tanks). Most of all, we undermined the potential for you players to be "heroic" against formidable odds. Under the old system, outnumbered groups and players would generate more ultimate and thus give them a fighting chance at uncoordinated masses of enemies. We thought by limiting ultimates they wouldn't seem so common, so boring. But what we got are encounters that are so common and so boring because the larger group simply has too many advantages. We want you to be heroic and you need dynamic ultimate to do that in Cyrodiil.
Some of the ideas we are bouncing around:
- Replacement of the undesirable "charged" and "sturdy" traits for one that increases ultimate gain. We feel this will make for more diverse builds as players could give up very good "divine" and "precise" traits that everyone uses for a different approach to combat effectiveness.
- Single target DoT skills. We know DoTs are woefully underperforming and would like to incentivize these and make them more beneficial to their users. Note: this will not include AoE dots (although these also need help). We (now) know Wall of Elements does not "melt" enemies.
- At its core, this mechanic will have to involve the number of opponents that are hit, or alternatively, the number of opponents who hit a particular player (this would help solve the original problem of tanks not generating enough ultimate). We are currently testing various ideas.
Additional Alliance War objectives in Cyrodiil
We feel this is the most important and needed change. We can introduce all the mechanics in the world, but when it comes down to it, there is no Alliance War related reason to ever go to 95% of the map - which is a shame because we feel the artists and other folks who created that map did a superb job. We (now) realize that no matter how much we ask, how much your guilds ask, how much influential solo players ask, when the DC faction controls much of the map and takes Chalman Keep, the EP held scroll at Arrius is just going to act like a magnet that draws every Daggerfall player to it. That's just the way it is. We need to stop pretending like talking nicely or trying to shame other players into moving away from exciting and important battles to instead PvDoor backwaters like Castle Brindle is an acceptable solution. It's not. We need to provide important objectives on the map to spread folks out, get them working together, and, importantly, give small groups tangible ways to affect the AvAvA scoreboard.
I am reminded of my time playing the first FPS games like Duke, Quake, and Doom that the various weapons, health packs, and buffs lying all around compelled us to spread out even on the smallest maps and naturally made for many small-scale engagements that were a part of a larger 8V8 "capture the flag" game. We want to simulate that sort of gameplay. We need to supply dumps, Alliance HQs, ancient ruins providing mysterious power, transport hubs, prestigious landmarks, crucial natural/arcane resources, and other stuff to not only give you folks actual reasons to spread out, but also add a bit more strategy. It's a way of adding "Battleground" type features into the AvAvA format and have them complement each other (as opposed to competing against each other).
We recognize these places need to do more than just generate numbers on a scoreboard; they need to provide players with tangible power (for them and Alliance war buffs), like those weapons and powerpacks did in those old FPS games, so that players will want to go out of their way to get them. Our Alyeid wells sort of do this, but their bonus is too small and too transient. We will add these as they become available and monitor how you folks adjust your PvP routines and will be prepared to adjust accordingly. Our ultimate goal here is to provide enough incentive to get you off the beaten path, away from the 5% of Cyrodiil you folks are always fighting over, and provide numerous places that attract smaller groups of players to fight overImproving Communication
After our Guild Summit, I wrote " As I’ve said many times before, games like ESO rely on a community of players to be successful. Having a regular dialogue with community leaders is a great way for us to stay in touch with real player issues and keep everyone in the community informed about what we’re working on" in a past Road Ahead article. We now understand we have gotten too far away from that. We do value your opinions and assessments and we are going to do a better job at this. I can see now how trying to fix, test, reform, balance everything internally is counterproductive.
You are going to see our faces and our voices more often in podcasts, streams, and periodic meetings with PvP ambassadors who will serve as intermediaries so that we can communicate to you our vision and you can communicate to us your desires and concerns. There will no longer be an anonymous and mysterious "combat team." To that extent, we would like if the PvP community can select some ambassadors from various play-style preference (solo, organized guild raids, smaller scale groups, folks who try to organize "Pugs," etc.) so we can get the ball rolling. For this to work, we need to be willing to actually listen to and consider the experiences we do not see when testing internally and the ambassadors need to be able to filter out frustrations and emotionally charged disappointment so that they are providing constructive feedback of what is good and what needs improvement.
Let's make it so the Elder Scrolls Online fulfills its potential of being the best PvP MMO out there!
********
If it were only so...
My wishlist in terms of skills:
1. Remove the snares and ministuns from gapclosers.
2. Fix the cc-immunity on wrecking blow.
3. Nerf Steel Tornado.
4. Fix the invisible Meteor.
5. Nerf Camouflaged Hunter/Stealth bonus damage.
Thanks for posting and good luck.
11/9/2015
What's it been now, 12 or so nerfs from PvP complaints for the DK class? For awhile there the class was receiving 1-2 nerfs per patch update seems like.
Folks claiming there isn't anything wrong with the class are most likely not running VMSA, or any other content considered to be endgame. I wouldn't think they would be PVP'ing either. Can't speak to much on that one as I don't prefer PvP really...
The class suvrvivability was designed around ultimate generation. The burst dps was designed around ultimate generation. All of that is gone thanks to the many nerfs. The class has been thoroughly gutted imo. The Hybrid DK used to be a monster on the battlefield. Combine that with Vampire Skill Line and dynamic ultimate and it was grievously overpowered compared to where the other classes were in their development cycle. However we've seen numerous moves to boost the surviveability of the other three classes along with increasing burst damage across the board. The DK still receives nerfs. Still...
So while ZOS has broken the meta of the PvP juggernaught vampiric emperor one man army ( I prefer to call it the Vlad the Impaler build and it's variants) - the degree of these nerfs and the continuation of them have inexplicably gutted the class.
While I didn't agree with every suggestion offered, I believe @Joy_Division summed things up nicely when combined with @Jules PvP interpretations and observations. @Joy_Division stated:Fiery Grip. Original intent: pulls enemies to you. Undermined by: change in elevation restrictions has made skill unreliable to use, other gap closers are objectively superior. Solution: Give DKs a choice of DPS gap-closer that follows the basics mechanics of other gap-closers or tank "pull" option.
Spoiler:
Inferno. Original intent: AoE DoT for opponents next to DKs. Sacrifice magicka sustain for higher DPS or resource return. Undermined by: redundancy with mage light, removal of AoE DoT. Solution: revert back AoE component, revert back to old animation to make art consistent with function (also the new animation is uninspiring), and revert to original intent of a choice between higher DPS (without redundancy) or higher sustain.
Spoiler:
Dragon Blood: Original intent: burst heal plus additional benefits not available elsewhere. Undermined by: Designed to scale of our highest attribute instead of magicka/spellpower, now that attribute is much lower and magicka/spellpower is much higher. Additional benefits now redundant with potions. Solution: complicated because ZoS has failed to make health a desirable attribute.
Spoiler:
Molten Armaments - Original intent: group buff that increased damage. Gave DKs option for moderate increase in sustain DPS or short burst based on critical hit. Undermined by: tying the increased damage mechanic to a fully charged heavy attacks, which are a DPS loss. Classic case of one step forward, two steps backward. Solution: Revert back to original intent on offering DKs a choice, either a short burst or an execute of sorts:
Spoiler:
Reflective Scales. Original intent: protect the DK from ranged attacks. Function as the DK's ranged attack. Undermined by: Introduction of new ranged skills that bypass it (Jesus Beam, Inevitable Detonation), experienced players who have learned to defeat them (NBs no longer spam snipe. Now they ambush + fear + incapacitating strike + executioner). This skill is also pointless against stealth attacks. Solution: Remove the 4 projectile limit as this nerf is no longer needed.
Spoiler:
DK Standard. Original intent: Provide a battleground where the immobile DK could stand her ground against overwhelming odds. Undermined by: Elimination of dynamic ultimate gain, introduction of a dubious mechanic that made it very difficult to activate its synergy, increased cost, opponents who know enough to walk out of them. Solution: Give the DKs options to increase their ultimate gain, revert cost back to 200 (still very expensive), give priority to shackle synergy.
Spoiler:
Inhale - Original intent: give DKs a means of surviving when surrounded by multiple enemies. Undermined by: nerf to 3 target limit. Solution: make it comparable to its closest counterpart, the Nightblade skill Sap Essence.
Spoiler:
Stonefist - Original intent: ranged CC. Undermined by: There have always been better skills. Solution: Acknowledge that fossilize serves the same purpose and does so more effectively Vs. dodging and blocking opponents. Roll the minor effects the original stonefist had (damage, cool animation) into fossilize. Redesign stonefist.
Spoiler:
Ash Cloud - Original indent - Provide an area of protection for the immobile DK to fight in. Undermined by: Dubious decision to removal the 30% miss chance and turn the skill into a ranged DoT. Solution: Was nothing wrong with original skill that did both a DoT and provided a miss chance. Revert.
Spoiler:
Obsidian Shield - Original intent: Provide a DK with a damage shield plus some beneficial effect. Undermined by: Nerf to health and current Battle Spirit Buff that has undercut the protection the shield is supposed to offer. Fragmented morph nerfed to Oblivion. Solution: ZoS needs to figure out what to do with damage shields, buff health, make the other morph appealing so the ability is actually know by its proper name instead of "Igneous Shield".
Spoiler:
Battle Roar (passive) - Original intent: Serve as the DK's method of sustain. Undermined by: elimination of dynamic ultimate, nerf to ultimate gain in general, other classes have percentage scaling passives that perform much better without softcaps. Solution: Provide means in the game for higher ultimate regeneration (preferred), increase the resources returned by the passive (lazy).
Spoiler:
Iron Skin (passive) - Original intent: Serve as the DK's method of defense, she could block better than other classes. Undermined by: change is game mechanics that make blocking costs prohibitive for any character that is not a specialist. Solution: Complicated because ZoS is wedded to a blocking mechanic that punishes people who do not perma-block.
Spoiler:
Kindling (passive) - Original intent: Make DKs better at fire damage. Undermined by: (Unnnecessary) nerfs to the destruction staff, (unnecessary) nerfs to burning procs. Solution: Fix destruction staffs, revert burning procs.
Spoiler:
The DK does well in group content with outside healing present against PVE mobs that don't purge it's dots (primary source of damage).
Thats. it.
UltimaJoe777 wrote: »My wishlist in terms of skills:
1. Remove the snares and ministuns from gapclosers.
2. Fix the cc-immunity on wrecking blow.
3. Nerf Steel Tornado.
4. Fix the invisible Meteor.
5. Nerf Camouflaged Hunter/Stealth bonus damage.
Thanks for posting and good luck.
I find Shooting Star is the only one invisible. I believe you are referring to that morph? Indeed though it would be nice if it were visible lol
imasnowchainub17_ESO wrote: »
3. Replace either the templar charge or spear sweep ultimate with that Vosh Rahk teleport into the sky and then slam down attack that the NPCs in Wrothgar have. It could work either as an ultimate along the lines of DK's dragon leap or a teleporting charge attack like NB's teleport strike... but cooler.