Monthly Combat Update – November

eso_lags

@ZOS_GinaBruno this is good.. heavy attacks almost never land. these changes look good. its nice to see a post like this.

anything about the lag/crashing coming up ?

Idinuse

@ZOS_GinaBruno

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Goal: Improve Synergies

• Ensure that when players are prompted to use a synergy, they can always use it
• Players should always know where a synergy is; working to improve visual effects to support this
• Group mates shouldn’t have to fight each other to use a synergy
• When players use a synergy, it should fire immediately with no delay
• Synergies are the way to help groups be stronger than solo players, damage and resource sustain should always be better while in a group
• Review and standardize balance for synergy abilities; Ultimate synergies should be stronger than regular abilities

*snip
You may notice we haven’t listed any class balance changes in this list. This doesn’t mean there won’t be any adjustments; we’re just still looking at what needs to be tweaked.

Brilliant initiative!

Is the combat team aware how hard, not to say impossible at times, it is for Templars to use synergies due to constantly being locked up in either channeled (i.e. Biting Jabs, Puncturing Sweeps, Radiant Destruction/Oppression) or cast time skills (i.e. Dark Flare) and others? (Even the animation of Breath of Life can at times be too long to pick up a synergy).

Templars hand out synergies like candy, yet is the class that has the most trouble using other players' synergies.

Is the combat team planning on addressing this?

Dubhliam

Synergies

HECK YES!
This must be the best news I have heard in a long time.

First of all: make them a priority, similar to bash/dodge roll/weapon swap. This will make synergies more attractive to DDs in a trial setup since they will be effective in animation cancelling hopefully making Moondancer and Alkosh 5th bonus more popular as DD sets (which they were made for).

Second, make the "picking" of synergies more controllable. For example, while standing in two active synergy ranges, a player should be able to easily pick the Synergy he wants simply by making a step left or right (A and D keys).
Also note that if a boss knocks you back, you currently lose the Synergy activation button even if you are still inside that synergy range.
Overall, the reliability of casting synergies needs to be improved.

Permablocking

It's a no-brainer.
Battle Spirit.

PvE tanks have already been nerfed many times over the past months. We have lost Bracing, given Wrath in return, only to have it completely taken away. Block cost was doubled by making it consume stamina every 0,25 sec instead of every 0,5.
This was actually a change in the right direction, but I don't think PvE tanks can handle any more nerfs since they are already forced to have 3 Shieldplay enchants, all traits Sturdy and Shadow Ward maxed.

Also, please note that mDKs in PvP are pigeongholed into the tanking spec since they lack strength in other aspects. When adding these necessary blocking changes, don't forget to add a little flavor to mDK in PvP so they can finally move on from the bulky tank gameplay.
Some suggestions.

Off Balance

Once again, very happy to hear that heavy attacks are being looked into.
Morrowind finally made some sets that were obsolete very popular and viable (Sunderflame is the perfect example) but at the same time, heavy attacks still make quite a fuss in a raid environment.

They should definitely knock down (hard CC) off balance enemies, but bosses are immune to CC so heavy attacks should not proc on bosses. Thus not consuming Off balance and making the boss immune.

These changes will (again) have to come with mDK in mind, or the mDK sustain without Flame Lash, to be more specific.
If Flame Lash will make the boss in a trial immune to Off Balance for a few seconds, then mDKs will be even more undesireable in trials than they already are, making Molten Whip the obvious choice for PvE, but opening the mDK sustain issues wide open for discussion.
I am only guessing that Flame Lash would consume the Off Balance debuff. I mean, it would be stupid OP otherwise.

Great thread, love the open dialogue, keep up the good work!

Dubhliam

Just a tip how to improve Synergies:


Make every new Synergy pop on the screen as an icon, bot not replace the current one that is ready to be activated.
Then, the player can swipe left and right between active synergies with A and D (keyboard) before activating the right one.

Solariken

Dubhliam wrote: »

Just a tip how to improve Synergies:


Make every new Synergy pop on the screen as an icon, bot not replace the current one that is ready to be activated.
Then, the player can swipe left and right between active synergies with A and D (keyboard) before activating the right one.

Even better, they could use a quick wheel similar to consumables.

So for example,

PC users press and hold "X" (default hotkey) to quickly see a circular arrangement of available synergies and can throw their cursor over the synergy icon they want and when they release the X key the synergy activates.

Also, increase the radius for activating most synergies please!

paallterrain148

I like the idea of adding a reduced effectiveness or increased cost the longer you block, more hits or damage received. That adds a interesting element for sure. Without effecting pve perhaps tie it in to critical hits or a part of battle spirit? Shattering blows is also a good idea because that star isn't great by itself, but I like the idea of a in game mechanic effecting permablock builds more then CP.

For synergies, they do need help. I'm assuming every party member dropping a synergy shouldn't have to recast away from the last boss on COH2 so the person being channeled can activate the resist necrosis synergy. Seems most of the time other synergies you can't activate while being channeled cover up the resist necrosis synergy and you die. I often find myself slamming through 3-4 synergies to get to what I want as a tank. when someone may of needed a purge, and I just ate it going for shards.

Anyway this post is awesome. Good work.

Xsorus

This sounds like dragon knights are about to eat another nerf via blocking

Zyjin

First of all this is a HUGE potential step in the right direction, so thank you very much to ZoS for your attempts to provide this transparency, I hope that this will lead to good discussion and lead to the betterment of this game that we all at our core want to be better!

As for my thoughts, I was just thinking the other day that synergies feel really unresponsive and awkward, half the time I'm sitting around trying to use them and end up slowing myself down or losing DPS, and it just feels really odd. Definitely happy to see changes to that.

Interrupt stuff could be interesting, just have to be careful especially due to the general consensus that a lot of channeled skills are a bit weak. I do think this could lead to some interesting combat strategy and implications, so I'm interested to see where this goes perhaps. Might require buffs to a few channeled abilities to make the tradeoffs more worth.

Regarding blocking, i'm not a huge tank player, so I don't know specifics, but definitely want to be careful about this for PvE side of things, so tanks don't end up unable to block at all due to the costs being too massive.

Changes to off balance actually sound really interesting. The only thing I would caution to be careful with is to not make heavy attacks too powerful an option, so that light attacks become even weaker than they currently tend to be. But definitely some good steps in the right direction.

Overall a lot of really good sounding ideas, I would definitely take into consideration some of the critiques of my fellow players, especially those more knowledgeable than I, but regardless I am super happy to see a thread like this around, a great step and hopefully one that leads to positive changes to the game!

Anhedonie

I don't know why you want to improve visuals of synergies. Their problem is mechanics, not visuals. Mystic orb's synergy is hard to use because radius is small, not because people can't see giant glowing blue orb.

Heavy attacks are still boring, no matter how you adjust them. Sorry.

I will be waiting for balance changes to see if they can break my post-Morrowind blues.

pteam

Also please make finding dead teammates to revive much easier. They should have a larger notification over their head. It’s much too hard to find dead teammates to revive.

Also an enemy should not be immune after an off balance ends, that defeats the bonus of achieving off balance in the first place.

Xsorus

Here’s an idea, how about insteading of nerfing Perma block builds which aren’t a threat you actually for once nerf zerg balls without coddling them anymore?

I mean it’s been 3 years now? You still let that terrible gameplay persist of stacking to avoid damage while adding stupid mobile pbae to the game

SirCritical

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Goal: Investigating Perma-blocking

• Adjust the block calculations so that cost reduction happens first (might have to reduce the block cost slightly as a result)
• Investigate adding something to Champion passives, or an item set to increase the block cost

PvP-only please, for the sake of any gods!
Don't punish casual PvE further!!!

usmcjdking

@ZOS_GinaBruno

Can WW get some much needed love? It is fairly weak in PVE because you have to feed IN COMBAT where there might not be an opportunity to feed.

I had a showerthought that might work to help good ol' PVE WW. Have the WW cost remain the same, but tie it's timer to ultimate generation. Have it drain 3 ultimate per second (base WW transformation time raised to 100 seconds), rework Call of the Pack to provide 10% stamina regeneration and 5% weapon damage PER werewolf to your entire party (hello group synergy) and perhaps have Devour restore a much larger amount of resources as well as apply Major Berserk for 10 seconds.

Tasear

synergy fixes yeah!

On that note aren't blood root synergies real easier to used compared to rest?

Maybe look at storm annotoch and make it work like other ulimates synergies and have effect people in nearby area.

Just a bit comestic but would like see better animations for fire and frost. It's boring to look at compared to lighting.

Ragnarock41

SirCritical wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Goal: Investigating Perma-blocking

• Adjust the block calculations so that cost reduction happens first (might have to reduce the block cost slightly as a result)
• Investigate adding something to Champion passives, or an item set to increase the block cost

PvP-only please, for the sake of any gods!
Don't punish casual PvE further!!!

Trust me, casual part of PvE can't get any easier.
Only real issue might be tanking in a trial.
Which can be solved easily by making these changes via battle spirit.

Edit: One thing that scares me is that the possibility of zos screwing up blocking for non tanks.
Like imagine as a medium armor DW guy you tried to block a mob that was gonna uppercut you, and you also blocked 5 other light attacks from nearby mobs in that split second and as a result you lost shittons of stamina.
That would very well be the case.

Quantum_V

Dragath wrote: »

be ready to buff mDKs when you change the block calculations.

^^^^ this.

Nighn_9

Thanks for the update @ZOS_GinaBruno !

Hopefully forums will be nice so we can keep these updates

Jeremiah87

So happy to see this. This is a great way to improve communication with the community. Love it!

SirCritical

Rickter wrote: »

I think i speak for the entire enthusiastic pvp community when i say: thank you zos from the bottom of our hearts

I like you guys, really. I like your enthusiasm in fighting other real players, not just AI bots, with pre-programmed actions. Really. I like when you have 5-10 fun fight per evening, your desire to rule over another person, your duels are interesting to see from outside also.

BUT!

I hate when the changes (nerfs) by ZOS, made because of your enjoyed activity (PvP), makes our bossfights a nightmare.

Rickter

SirCritical wrote: »

Rickter wrote: »

I think i speak for the entire enthusiastic pvp community when i say: thank you zos from the bottom of our hearts

I like you guys, really. I like your enthusiasm in fighting other real players, not just AI bots, with pre-programmed actions. Really. I like when you have 5-10 fun fight per evening, your desire to rule over another person, your duels are interesting to see from outside also.

BUT!

I hate when the changes (nerfs) by ZOS, made because of your enjoyed activity (PvP), makes our bossfights a nightmare.

Out of all the thank yous on the last 5 pages, you singled mine out? Im damn flattered!!

In any case, when you do tire of AI bots, and trust me you will, then i pray you provide me with the opportunity of leading you into glorious battle, in the name of the High King, and bring peace to the land. I will teach you everything i know and mold you like clay into steel. You will be the tip of the spear, stand at my side as the bulwark against the terror, and know no fear.

jrgray93

Great to see this post. Glad to see this communication and even some really solid community suggestions on that list. We appreciate it.

Oakmontowls_ESO

I still think a blanket nerf on cp added to battle spirit would help tremendously. This would allow cp to still help but not quite to the same extent that it does now. You could reduce all cp bonuses by a factor of 10 to greatly reduce the effect of both offensive and defensive points. Obviously the stars that only effect pvp mechanics would need to be adjusted but this would both reduce the power of one shot builds while also making the unkillable tanks less tanky. And most importantly it does this without effecting balance in pve.

GrigorijMalahevich

@Masel92 I see a smile on your face

OutLaw_Nynx

Hecker777 wrote: »

Just wanna highlight one thing, PLEASE EVERYONE no matter what they post keep it constructive and Q.Q in discord or TS if you must. This is a step forward for ZOS, we want this to keep happening

for real.

BFT88

This is amazing and exactly what most of us have been looking for. Keep up the great work Gina!

Avran_Sylt

Synergies:

Single Target Synergies:
Perhaps having UI icons similar to that of the Alliance War faction indicators above affected targets? (each synergy having their own unique one, and an icon that indicates multiple synergies (Or just a generic Icon))

AoE Synergies:
Perhaps have this as another selectable AoE Color? then have synergy areas highlighted in said color?

For conditional synergies, perhaps dull the color or icon/area if the condition isn't met?

In terms of selection, creating a radial menu is something that I'm in full support of. quick use selects the top-most synergy, holding opens the radial menu.

Tormy

Mag dk gonna be hurting more with block cost reductions . It does need to be adjusted but mag dks are going to need some kind of love

brtomkin

Block cost must be addressed by CP. It won't affect PVE and it will force allow all players to decide for themselves how much of a problem "perma-blocking" opponents are. I envision a CP bonus that would increase the cost to block my attacks by X%.

Morgul667

Interesting stuff

Thanks

strebor2095

I would love to see an increase in "specific" resistances - make shock / flame / poison resistant jewelry stronger (or make it stronger with JewelcrAfting update? I.e., max quality jewelry can grant 66% reduction of that damage type.