Gameplay Updates and Q&A with Eric Wrobel

wayfarerx

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Breath of Life: We understand that many of you are frustrated with this change, but we found the ability was a little too powerful as a single ability (both as a single target and AoE healing ability). We’ve been watching a lot of livestreams, and Templars appear to still be very useful using this ability in conjunction with others. This includes using Focused Healing which now grants you the Major Mending buff, or Healing Ritual which has a decreased cast time. We don’t currently have any plans to change Breath of Life beyond what’s already been done.

This was a poorly thought out and hamfisted nerf that is NOT going to change anything except put pressure on Templars' already difficult resource management. People will still use it through walls, people will still stack healers for immortality in Cyrodiil. All this is going to do is make it more difficult and less fun for PUGs to do things like vet dungeons.

Since you have no plans to change Breath of Life beyond what's already been done, my suggestion would be to go ahead and make plans to do so because what has been done so far is pretty sad.

AOECAPS

So Wrobel will actually be working? That seems to good to be true. How about instead of joining you guys for the podcast that he factually fixes issues with classes.toppling charge still isn't fixed.lmao 2years if I had to fix something for my job and it took me over 2 years to fix it I'd be fired. Well can't wait for the podcast I'll make sure I'm spamming the chat with fixing radiant ward, toppling charge and every other bootsie Templar ability.

Peel_Ya_Cap_517

"Meteor: This was the only Ultimate that you were previously able to reflect, so this change was simply bringing it in line with all other Ultimates. We also plan on making a slight reduction to the snare on the Ice Comet morph."

Ummmm... Overload?? Have you guys even tried this ultimate in PvP? lol

driosketch

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*] Meteor: This was the only Ultimate that you were previously able to reflect, so this change was simply bringing it in line with all other Ultimates.

This doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about the sorc ult Overload to dispute it.

Dream96

Any future changes for Bound Armor that is still a toggle?

Jhunn

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Breath of Life: We understand that many of you are frustrated with this change, but we found the ability was a little too powerful as a single ability (both as a single target and AoE healing ability). We’ve been watching a lot of livestreams, and Templars appear to still be very useful using this ability in conjunction with others. This includes using Focused Healing which now grants you the Major Mending buff, or Healing Ritual which has a decreased cast time. We don’t currently have any plans to change Breath of Life beyond what’s already been done.

At least they admit they don't play their own game. Oh well.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Meteor: This was the only Ultimate that you were previously able to reflect, so this change was simply bringing it in line with all other Ultimates. We also plan on making a slight reduction to the snare on the Ice Comet morph.

Overload is reflectable. Just ... FYI ... It is also, with overload, the only ultimate that's a projectile. Why shouldn't it be reflectable? The ultimate is already so strong and now when it's not reflected OR dodgeable it will become FOTM ultimate for every build. It's a ridiculous change gameplay-wise, not to mention the way meteor affects perfomance. Now it will be an even laggier meteor rain.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Siphoning Attacks: We plan on increasing the resources provided by this ability in the next incremental patch.

Old toggle back .... pretty please?

zyk

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*] Magelight: We plan on making a few changes to this ability based on some feedback we’ve seen including reducing the radius of the reveal, and increasing the cost of the ability. Ultimately, we want it to be a little more difficult to find stealthed enemies unless you specifically use the Radiant Magelight morph, and want it to be more expensive to get the Major Empower buff from toggling Magelight.

This isn't good enough. Magelight will still be so attractive, most Magicka builds will slot it. Those players will all have a 5 second cloak disable. The passives combined with the disable are the problem.

There should not be a 5 second disable for a core class function. This is akin to disabling damage shields or reflective scale. Magicka NBs rely on a cloak as our active defense. It is our roll dodge. We do not have a reliable class heal or class damage shield. Solo and in small groups, we are extremely squishy without cloak. If the Magelight disable goes live, we need defensive buffs to compensate.

There are other cloak counters in the game. It's obvious ZOS considered complaints about cloak and asked itself, "why do they not use the existing counters?" It seems you found players are unwilling to invest in counters and decided to make a cloak counter with passives that are too good to ignore. Furthermore, this counter is trivial to execute. This is a flawed approach in a game of counters.

If you think the NB response to this change has been negative now, wait until it goes live. I know the negative feedback will eventually result in action, but how long will that take? Based on ZOS history, I expect it will take 3-6 months for you to properly balance/reverse this change. I am dreading this period.

tinythinker

Hello, any one or two of these questions will do:

- Any further changes planned for Eclipse/Total Dark? Any chance of a penalty for players breaking free from it since they get CC immunity and we can't recast right away? Maybe a burst of significant damage, a stun, or something else to make it risky to pop the bubble? Would also add some challenge to the NPCs who use the ability.

- Any further changes planned for Healing Ritual to make it stand out and to balance the self-snare during the cast? The size of the heal is supposed to be the payoff but many players find it impractical in situations where being able to run/dodge at any given second is a must. Maybe adding something like an Evasion Buff for two seconds and/or gaining Expedition after? Perhaps changing the way it heals or even having it buff the group somehow?

- Any chance to add a stun, disorient, knockdown, or something along those lines to the Sunshield explosion?

- Any chance to adding "enemies whose melee attacks are blocked receive Minor Maim" to the Spear Wall passive? This would help with Templars fighting inside their Rune circle. (And speaking of that Rune circle, could standing in it add a second or two to CC immunity?)

Thank you very much for your time.

NoS_smoke

Please make physical/poison ultimates for stamina. Please. It makes sense, it's really hard to be so invested in this game for cp and my ultimates, along with 4 of my stamina moves all use magicka cps....killer blade, power extraction, and the one where I pull A BOW out and shoot it. Magic dmg?!?

Neoauspex

Dear Mr. Wrobel: would the devs please consider replacing one of the seldom used morphs in the Templar skill tree, such as Radiant Aura, with a skill that, upon activation, allows the Templar to permanently switch to one of the other classes?

beerninja

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We’ve been watching a lot of livestreams

Is this a joke? People on livestream do not PvE. Nobody in PvP cares about a BoL target nerf.

technohic

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*] Templars:increasing the duration of the damage reduction from Empowering Sweep, increasing the bonus to the initial hit from Crescent Sweep, and adjusting the buffs from Rune Focus to stay on you for 8 seconds after leaving the rune.
[/list]

Those are decent, but we need a bigger radius on Empowering and Crescent sweep. Could we get 9 meters?

Strider_Roshin

Since Relentless Focus is the morph of Grim Focus that is chosen by stamina users, can we make it so the spectral bow causes disease or poison damage when Grim is morphed into Relentless?

david.haypreub18_ESO

Heavy Armor and Templars still screwed? Guess I'll wait another year before coming back...

ClockworkArc

I just want to say that I am generally quite happy with the PTS Patch Notes but won't be playing the PTS. I don't actually have any feedback to give at this point because I haven't been testing the builds and don't have a max level character, but I do have some questions:

1) I am under the impression that Heavy Armor was up for review as the feedback I see from players and pvp guides that Heavy Armor doesn't perform on par with other armor types in PVP situations. I've only really seen it recommended for players using a Health Regen Build as the mitigation (I'm told) doesn't quite hold up to penetration in PVP. Are there currently plans to incentivise the use of Heavy Armor in PVP or is Heavy Armor considered balanced?

2) As a relatively new player, I find it frustrating that the effectiveness of percent health abilities are significantly reduced in PVP. I understand why this was initially done in conjunction with the CP system, since its possible on certain builds for Dragon Blood and Unstable Clannfear to heal almost your entire health bar with one cast and Ferocious Leap and Magma Shell would be far too powerful as they currently exist. Are there any plans to re-balance these abilities so they can regain some effectiveness under Battle Spirit/in PVP?

3) Not really a question, but Unstable Clannfear should be a stamina morph. :P.

code65536

beerninja wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We’ve been watching a lot of livestreams

Is this a joke? People on livestream do not PvE. Nobody in PvP cares about a BoL target nerf.

They're probably watching a lot of the Maw of Lorkhaj livestreams. Most of the PvE content being livestreamed is MoL.

I've been in a number of MoL runs on the PTS, both nonvet and vet, and I haven't noticed problems in the healing department. But this is a terrible benchmark because (1) the groups running MoL are almost all well-organized and experienced guilds and are by no means representative of the mainstream bulk of ESO players and (2) BoL has never been that important in trials healing because of the number of people involved--Healing Springs has always dominated trials healing.

phillyboy7897

Thank you for reversing the change to rune that is a big deal. Great to see feedback bring listened to!

Backlash gets hit twice by battle spirit. 1st time dmg stored has to hit through battle spirit meaning 50% less is stored. 2nd time the damage done by backlash is reduced by battle spirit.

With the change listed on the PTS it will become completely useless in Cyrodiil unless it stops getting double hit by battle spirit. The reason is the 66% of damage stored reduction is compounding on top of player mitigation and battle spirit.

If a player has 30% mitigation (this is below average) compounding on top of battle spirit reducing incoming damage and only 22% is stored by backlash that means every point of raw damage I put out:
1x.5x.3x.22 = .033 damage stored by backlash
Furthemore it is indeed hit by battle spirit again when backlash hits cutting that damage in half
.033x.5= .0165

In PvP every 10,000 raw damage I am putting out is making backlash hit for 165. This is horrendous. No one will use it.

Wondering if there are any plans to address this, as Templars suffer already from a lack of dps options it would be a shame for us to lose yet another.

Daveheart

beerninja wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We’ve been watching a lot of livestreams

Is this a joke? People on livestream do not PvE. Nobody in PvP cares about a BoL target nerf.

You happen to be wrong on both accounts.

CP5

phillyboy7897 wrote: »

Thank you for reversing the change to runs that is a big deal. Backlash gets hit twice by battle spirit. 1st time dmg stored has to hit through battle spirit meaning 50% less is stored. 2nd time the damage done by backlash is reduced by battle spirit.

With the change listed on the PTS it will become completely useless in Cyrodiil unless it stops getting double hit by battle spirit. The reason is the 66% of damage stored reduction is compounding on top of player mitigation and battle spirit.

If a player has 30% mitigation (this is below average) compounding on top of battle spirit reducing incoming damage and only 22% is stored by backlash that means every point of raw damage I put out:
1x.5x.3x.22 = .033 damage stored by backlash
Furthemore it is indeed hit by battle spirit again when backlash hits cutting that damage in half
.033x.5= .0165

In PvP every 10,000 raw damage I am putting out is making backlash hit for 165. This is horrendous. No one will use it.

Wondering if there are any plans to address this, as Templars suffer already from a lack of dps options it would be a shame for us to lose yet another.

I remember using the old backlash that could be burst from group damage. Killed the emperor several times in one night with the descent burst it gave way back when. Undervalued but powerful, now it's meh.

Still thinking of specific questions to put here as most everything I can currently think of has been said. Templars need attention, stam sorcs need to be acknowledged, heavy armor makes you dead weight. Sure more will come up, but going from past ESO Live's with wrobel in them, i'm not sure how much i'll enjoy this.

Zyle

Itemization: When/Are we getting updated PvP vendor bags?

bikerangelo

• Breath of Life: We understand that many of you are frustrated with this change, but we found the ability was a little too powerful as a single ability (both as a single target and AoE healing ability). We’ve been watching a lot of livestreams, and Templars appear to still be very useful using this ability in conjunction with others. This includes using Focused Healing which now grants you the Major Mending buff, or Healing Ritual which has a decreased cast time. We don’t currently have any plans to change Breath of Life beyond what’s already been done.
  

Well as long as we're still useful, that's all that matters I guess.

BullNetch

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hello everyone!

On this Friday’s ESO Live Twitch show, we’ll be joined by Lead Combat Designer Eric Wrobel to discuss some of the ability and balance changes going into the Thieves Guild base game patch. This will include what’s been done so far, some upcoming changes we plan to make, and answering some of your questions live. First, we’d like to address a few popular topics we’ve seen over the past week from the PTS forums:

• Breath of Life: We understand that many of you are frustrated with this change, but we found the ability was a little too powerful as a single ability (both as a single target and AoE healing ability). We’ve been watching a lot of livestreams, and Templars appear to still be very useful using this ability in conjunction with others. This includes using Focused Healing which now grants you the Major Mending buff, or Healing Ritual which has a decreased cast time. We don’t currently have any plans to change Breath of Life beyond what’s already been done.
• Magelight: We plan on making a few changes to this ability based on some feedback we’ve seen including reducing the radius of the reveal, and increasing the cost of the ability. Ultimately, we want it to be a little more difficult to find stealthed enemies unless you specifically use the Radiant Magelight morph, and want it to be more expensive to get the Major Empower buff from toggling Magelight.
• Meteor: This was the only Ultimate that you were previously able to reflect, so this change was simply bringing it in line with all other Ultimates. We also plan on making a slight reduction to the snare on the Ice Comet morph.
• Siphoning Attacks: We plan on increasing the resources provided by this ability in the next incremental patch.
• Leeching Strikes: Also in the next incremental patch, we plan on increasing the amount of health restored from this ability, based on your feedback.
• Alliance War Skill Line: Rich Lambert posted a very detailed response in this thread that we encourage you to check out, but in short, we based our changes on what we found to be the average amount of AP gained based on our data. That said, what’s currently on the PTS is lower than intended, and will be fixed in the next incremental patch.
• Templars: We’ve been reading your feedback across the forums. We understand your frustration, and do appreciate you taking the time to let us know about your pain points. We have some additional changes going in for you in the next patch including increasing the duration of the damage reduction from Empowering Sweep, increasing the bonus to the initial hit from Crescent Sweep, and adjusting the buffs from Rune Focus to stay on you for 8 seconds after leaving the rune.

With all that said, please post any combat or itemization-related questions for Eric in this thread, and we’ll do our best to answer as many as we can on Friday’s show. Remember to check today’s PTS patch notes first as we included a few fixes in this most recent update.

Thanks, everyone, and we look forward to talking with you later this week!

stop balancing BoL around PVP.

Healing ritual would be good in WoW, not ESO. It's like over 90% of all skills in this game have no cast time.

I only used healing ritual when I started playing. I haven't used this heal in ages.

Healing ritual is literally poopy.

Are you interested in making the game fun to play for the 99% of people who play or the 1% that stream and those who don't play ESO as much as they watch others play?

I want to play ESO and have fun, not watch a livestreamer destroy Templars with a nerfed BoL.

It's like wanting people to stop playing and start watching people play the game.


I get it, youtube/twitch nightblade gankers and montage videos help market the game and will help sell copies. But this comes at the detriment of losing people who play for fun.

caeliusstarbreaker

Seriously? "The only ultimate you were able to reflect? Overload ring a bell?. You can dodgeroll leaps and soul harvests... Get out of standards, novas, veils and negates... Let's not go into the uselessness of radial sweep. Why on earth did meteor get this bizarre sweeping change?

Millerman34n

Dragons blood buff and I will be happy with the game! And STAM region while blocking plz!

david.haypreub18_ESO

So, Templars are ok because we saw some guy livestreaming and when he hit BoL, it still actually healed someone a bit?

That's our standard for Templars now?

How about someone on the development team actually plays a Templar solo in PvP, then listens to all the feedback from the community, then fixes the obvious bugs that have crippled the class for close to two years (Toppling Charge, I am looking in your direction), and THEN gets back to us?

Soris

Do you have any plans allowing stamina recovery while blocking?

Toc de Malsvi

Molten Weapons' morphs need some love, currently there really is no good reason for a stamina user to slot what would seem the stamina morph(igneous weapons) over other options for the same buff. Dragon Knight execute is still missing and Inferno morphs do not synergize well with really anything.

Erock25

No mention of stam sorc at all in Gina's post?

Are there any plans to address the stamina sorc? There is tons of feedback in the sorc feedback thread. If you aren't going to do anything else can you please explicitly state that you envision sorc to be magicka focused only?

Strider_Roshin

caeliusstarbreaker wrote: »

Seriously? "The only ultimate you were able to reflect? Overload ring a bell?. You can dodgeroll leaps and soul harvests... Get out of standards, novas, veils and negates... Let's not go into the uselessness of radial sweep. Why on earth did meteor get this bizarre sweeping change?

This right here.

Leon119

@ZOS_GinaBruno
Not specifically a combat or gameplay question but i would like to ask, just how you did on your post here, if you would be able to post the reasoning the devs have behind each skill and class change that happens.
I do realise that this can be a major hustle because of the size of the patch notes ww usually have but i believe it would increase the playerbase's clarity quite a bit and make us understand your thought process as well which will lead to better feedback and an overall improvement to the game.

Id rather not mention any other games but nonetheless on League of Legends with over 120 characters to choose to play as every single balance change has a paragraph explaining the change and the thought process behind it taking into account profesionals and casuals alike