Everything Wrong with Update 13

Glarin · January 2017

Everyone was excited to see the amazing patch notes that would help balance the game. We prayed for a nerf to proc sets such as Viper, Malubeth, Velidreth, and Tremorscale. We hoped for changes that would nerf stam nightblades harder than magicka dks. We expected dks to be brought back into the balance. Instead everything magicka got a nerf and stam still reigns supreme.

Let me first address proc sets. Making them non-critable does not solve the problem in PvP. Crit is almost nonexistent in Cyrodiil. This change completely dumpsters on PvE players and doesn't even fix the actual problem. The problem lies with the individual sets. They need to be looked at independently and fixed accordingly.

My Suggestions:

Viper: Change the damage from this set into a DoT. It removes the burst that allows gankers to drop people instantly with "free damage" while at the same time giving them the same damage just not all at once.
Malubeth: The heal from this set needs to be reduced. Too many people rely on it to save their arse in PvP.
Velidreth: I believe this set does not need a nerf but there does need to be some kind of global cooldown if you are wearing multiple proc sets.
Tremorscale: The snare and proc chance for this set is too damn high. It should be a 10% or 15% proc chance like most sets. Snares on the other hand, should not exceed 30% for any skill. they need to be Major and Minor debuffs.

These are changes that have been suggested for months now.

Next, let me address the "balance" that has been introduced. Again, this patch nerfs magicka builds and does not even touch stamina builds. This patch brought some unnecessary changes as well as some needed nerfs to skills like Hurricane and Elemental Storm.

Coagulating Blood: I have no words. How are you going to give a class a magicka based heal that is based off of how much magicka you're missing. That makes no sense! Please for the love of Mara turn Dragon's Blood into a heal over time or give a flat value like breath of life. Something that will make it more reliable. This change actually does not fix the fact that this is a pretty terrible heal in PvP.
Haunting Curse: Why? WHY? WHY DID YOU TOUCH THIS!!!!! It was not OP, no one was complaining about it, it is not a problem. Honestly, if I could stack curses in between the 1st and 2nd explosion then fine I don't care but the fact I have to wait 12 seconds to reapply a curse is ridiculous! Please revert!
Incapacitating Strike: This skill is the epitome of what is wrong with stamina nightblades yet this skill was untouched my the nerf hammer. Why? The ultimate costs 50 points and does a massive amount of damage on top of all that in is a guaranteed stun. You either need to revert it back to a tactical stun or increase the ulti cost. This ability is just to OP to continue.
Heavy Armor: Not much to say here other than it out performs light and medium in PvP in every way. You're able to do decent damage, stay alive, and sustain while wearing heavy armor. There is absolutely no risk/reward mechanic here. It needs to be changed.

I really hope ZoS listens to the community on this. These changes can not go live. If they do, ZoS can expect a significant drop in player base and subscribers.

tl;dr: ZoS made changes that didn't need to be changed, I offered my suggestions.