The Fog of ZOS (analogous to "the fog of war")

Shadowshire

Quote from PC/Mac Patch Notes v 3.0.5 (Morrowind) post #12 subtopic Sorcerer:

• Daedric Summoning
  • Summon Twilight Matriarch (Summon Winged Twilight morph): Fixed an issue where this morph’s heal ability could heal through walls.
  • Summon Volatile Familiar (Summon Unstable Familiar morph): Reduced the damage done by this morphs’ special ability by 20%.

Developer Comments:

The amount of area of effect damage Sorcerers currently put out is too high, so reducing the effectiveness of this ability will bring them more in-line with other classes.

If the amount of area of effect damage that Sorcerers currently produce is "too high" (in what contexts?), why not just reduce the amount of damage that the respective AoE abilities do? Of course, reducing it would make defeating some dungeon bosses impossible when a Sorcerer is in the DPS role -- unless, perhaps, other classes have commensurate increases in DPS, which would make having two of them in a party preferable and a Sorcerer the second-best choice.

I don't know about you, but on my Sorcerers, the first bar has a mix of abilities. The second bar has one DOT ability, two AoE abilities, one damage shield, and either (a) a critical strike or spell damage buff, or (b) a self-healing ability, usually Dark Exchange. In some contexts, I've slotted the Volatile Familiar Unstable Clannfear in the fifth slot. However, the creature is readily killed by one attack by a 4-player dungeon boss. So I must manage the familiar, usually by attacking an Add so that the familiar is engaged, and doesn't attack the boss when I do. But it seems that ZOS has decided to eliminate that strategy, so probably neither the Twilight Tormentor nor the Clannfear will be on that bar unless my character is exploring a delve.

Which is to humbly opine that "balance" issues are almost always(emphasis added - edit) PvP issues, not for PvE. Some day someone on a development team will wake up to the realization that PvP cannot be "balanced" when a character has the same gear and abilities that the character uses in PvE without PvE combat becoming "unbalanced". The respective combat situations are entirely different contexts and have different goals, so they also have different issues.

The ZOS development team evidently caters to the PvP players. However, it appears to me that those who engage only in PvE far outnumber those who engage only in PvP or in both. Just send your character to Cyrodill sometime. At any given time, there are maybe two or three PvP fights taking place here and there, else the vast zone is ordinarily empty of players compared to the PvE zones. In all of my experience, there are players who prefer to engage in PvP, and plenty of others who find it offensive and prefer PvE instead. Only a small percentage of players spend an equal amount of time in both activities.

Beardimus

Whilst there is a PvP / PvE balance argument in some cases - let's say Proc sets which need removing from PvP totally - the scamp change is not one of them.

Few players run the scamp in PvP. Those that do its more for the stun than the damage. Pets have a use in PvP but the scamp damge is not a major point.

Scamp has majorly boosted DPS scores on target dummies, and in PvE primarily. Prior to U13 if you brought a Scamp to a Trial you would be booted, now in principle they are king as the pure DPS is mega (i say in principle as pets have other problems)

It's not just about Trials (i personally hate them) but the biggest gain from the scamp currently is in PvE / DPS scores.

So honestly, not a valid blame game to put a Nerf on PvP players, if anything its the PvE crowd lording up huge DPS figures (which mean little in PvP) that have led to the Nerf.

Either way you gunna get Sorc hate in general.

Turelus

FFS can we stop this "PvY was nerfed because of PvZ" already?

Morgul667

Turelus wrote: »

FFS can we stop this "PvY was nerfed because of PvZ" already?

Yeah fully agree, that'd be nice for a change :-)

FloppyTouch

Turelus wrote: »

FFS can we stop this "PvY was nerfed because of PvZ" already?

Ty for saying this

Shadowshire

Beardimus wrote: »

Whilst there is a PvP / PvE balance argument in some cases - let's say Proc sets which need removing from PvP totally - the scamp change is not one of them.

Few players run the scamp in PvP. Those that do its more for the stun than the damage. Pets have a use in PvP but the scamp damage is not a major point.

Scamp has majorly boosted DPS scores on target dummies, and in PvE primarily. ....

It's not just about Trials (i personally hate them) but the biggest gain from the scamp currently is in PvE / DPS scores.

So honestly, not a valid blame game to put a Nerf on PvP players, if anything its the PvE crowd lording up huge DPS figures (which mean little in PvP) that have led to the Nerf.
....

Thank-you for your reply. First, I do not prefer or seek PvP, and automatically decline all offers to duel. Not that I have any particular prejudice against PvP. Some of my best friends in MMORPGs have been dedicated to PvP, and I've played on "world PvP" Realms (servers) in The World of Warcraft. To the extent that I have any, my quarrels are with TESO developers.

Frankly, I have never morphed Unstable Familiar to the Scamp, only to the Clannfear (primarily for healing, but also for tanking). Unfortunately, in my OP, I mistakenly believed that the Volatile Familiar is the Clannfear, and I did not recognize it as the name of the morph to Scamp.

Recently I've been deploying the Winged Twilight morphed to Twilight Tormentor, and trying to learn how she works for DPS. When the "special ability" was introduced for the respective familiars, the Twilight Matriarch's healing ability was seriously nerfed, so, unless that has changed since, I would not use that morph. Whether she can be as effective as the Volatile Familiar (Scamp), I don't know.

It is true that I tend to regard "balance" primarily as an issue for PvP -- for which we all (?) at least claim to want a "fair fight". Albeit, the "balance" issue in PvE tends to refer to which character classes and/or which builds for them are preferred respectively for tanking, for DPS, or for healing, in a group. In PvE I suppose that the ideal is for all DPS builds to be able to produce about the same amount of DPS. There is so much variety in abilities and their respective passives, though, that I doubt an ideal PvE "balance" is a feasible goal.

Regardless, it still doesn't make any sense to me that a developer would comment that Sorcerers do too much DPS with their AoE abilities as a justification for reducing the DPS of the Volatile Familiar in PvE.

Please realize that I have not "blamed" PvP for the nerf, although PvP balance seemed, at the time I wrote the OP, to be the only rationale for nerfing the Volatile Familiar (Scamp). Should I suppose that the Unstable Clannfear is expected to be chosen for PvP (if at all) instead of the Volatile Familiar morph of Unstable Familiar?

Maybe we all need to sleep longer and more soundly every night.