PTS Patch Notes v4.0.2

Mr_Nobody

Templars finally getting buffed!

I heard we are the best healers in the game, wooraaaah!

Our 8k per skill aoe heals so good!

Our damage spells can hit orland and are all instant! woootaaaaa!

(someone go make a song...?)

#balance

lotusevora

TLDR;

Redesign new sets, forgot old sets
No wings
No wardens
No templars
No class balance
More Cash Shop

ZeniMax, can you Please stop with the cash grabbing and fix your game instead?

Instead of putting out work on balancing, more work was put into cash shop incentives. Laziness greedy or both?

SydneyGrey

glavius wrote: »

No they didn't. You forgot to allocate you cp

That doesn't make sense. Even if you start off a brand new mag character with zero CP, and get him to level 10 and get Maneuver, he'll still have just barely enough stamina to use the skill. That's how it's always been so long as I've been playing.
Right now on the PTS, my magicka Altmer nightblade does not have enough stamina to use Maneuver. At all.

I just checked on my live game. In my live game, my magicka-based Altmer has 9550 stamina. (And no, this toon doesn't have any Undaunted passives.) On the test server, my magicka-based Altmer has only 7958 stamina, just under what you need to use Charging Maneuver once, even though she has almost an identical build. I've never had a situation before where a character did not have enough stamina to be able to use Charging Maneuver. Never. Something is weird, here.

Kronuxx

mb10 wrote: »

Sandman929 wrote: »

I thought this was the balance week?

When have they actually stuck by what they say?

Exactly my thoughts.

Septimus_Magna

The Uninvited wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*]Mantle of Siroria: This Item Set has been redesigned.

• OLD:
  • 2: Spell Damage
  • 3: Spell Critical
  • 4: Max Magicka
  • 5: After dealing damage to an enemy with a single target ability, you create a ring of fire beneath your target. After 1 second, the ring ignites enemies within it, dealing 2408 Flame Damage every 1 second for 5 seconds. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.
• NEW:
  • 2: Spell Damage
  • 3: Minor Slayer
  • 4: Max Magicka
  • 5: Dealing direct damage with a single target ability creates a ring of fire beneath you for 10 seconds. Standing in the ring grants you a stack of Siroria’s Boon for 5 seconds. Each increases your Spell Damage by 30. 20 stacks max.

This set just became very interesting, 30 spell dmg x 20 stacks is a massive 600 spell dmg. The direct dmg can stack very quickly if you use Force Pulse because its 3+1 direct hits per weave, Jabs probably works even better.

Good work on the redesign of the trail sets, most look pretty interesting now!

I liked how it was better. Would give DK some range and procced Skoria.

The tooltip of the DoT is only 1.2k dps which is similar to a 2pc bonus of monster sets.
The new bonus gives 600 spell dmg to all your abilities and ultimate.

Skoria already procs on CD on mag DKs with a ton of DoTs so I dont know why this would be a benefit.

Maybe for PVP the old set would be more useful but other than that I think the new version is better in all aspects.

Vapirko

mr_wazzabi wrote: »

Vapirko wrote: »

Is the LA/HA change on top of what was changed last patch notes? Or are they starting over and blanket nerfing everyhitng? They are *** 2H users if it’s on top of what came before.

Looks like zos hates 2h

This is definitely a QQing noob nerf. 2H was not over performing despite popular opinion in PvP and it wasn’t even really viable in PvE, so this nerf points straight at all the magicka users who keep getting dizzying swing to DBoS and don’t know how to deal. I’m kinda triggered right now.

Latin

Reduction to damage of LA was over-done, but HA is kind of understandable given the development direction for them to be used primarily for resource return.

Vestment of Olorime duration could be adjusted; as it is, it is too strong with no caveat for balancing against existing options.

The Uninvited

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

The Uninvited wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*]Mantle of Siroria: This Item Set has been redesigned.

• OLD:
  • 2: Spell Damage
  • 3: Spell Critical
  • 4: Max Magicka
  • 5: After dealing damage to an enemy with a single target ability, you create a ring of fire beneath your target. After 1 second, the ring ignites enemies within it, dealing 2408 Flame Damage every 1 second for 5 seconds. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.
• NEW:
  • 2: Spell Damage
  • 3: Minor Slayer
  • 4: Max Magicka
  • 5: Dealing direct damage with a single target ability creates a ring of fire beneath you for 10 seconds. Standing in the ring grants you a stack of Siroria’s Boon for 5 seconds. Each increases your Spell Damage by 30. 20 stacks max.

This set just became very interesting, 30 spell dmg x 20 stacks is a massive 600 spell dmg. The direct dmg can stack very quickly if you use Force Pulse because its 3+1 direct hits per weave, Jabs probably works even better.

Good work on the redesign of the trail sets, most look pretty interesting now!

I liked how it was better. Would give DK some range and procced Skoria.

The tooltip of the DoT is only 1.2k dps which is similar to a 2pc bonus of monster sets.
The new bonus gives 600 spell dmg to all your abilities and ultimate.

Skoria already procs on CD on mag DKs with a ton of DoTs so I dont know why this would be a benefit.

Maybe for PVP the old set would be more useful but other than that I think the new version is better in all aspects.

True. And indeed I was talking about PVP.

jbjondeaueb17_ESO

Malamar1229 wrote: »

Do.you lose major courage if you step outside the air ring?

No, you keep it for 30s and it's refreshed whenever you enter a circle, and you can proc a new circle every 10s.

Zippy81

Right, so heavy attacks get dmg reduced, however, what's the point of having sets and abilities to increase the heavy attacking damage when you're supposed to use heavy attacks for sustain mostly? It doesn't make sense. A fully charged heavy attack can be bashed/blocked, takes time and is already way less effective than light attack weaving.

Steenn

It's a shame that Stamina gets nerfed so hard.
They said that this patch is about to balance magicka to stamina. They did in some way, because Psjiic Order Imbue Weapon works great, and it's loved to see that magicka's can now run 2 sets + monster set. However, Stamina's got nerfed really.
Psjiic Order now gives Magicka above all these things also Minor Force on ranged, 'Channel Acceleration'. This makes Magicka's great, but no buffs for Stamina so far.

To be honest, Psjiic Order Abilities adds nothing to stamina chars in Trial setup.
The only great abilty in trial setup is going to be Crushing Weapon, however, it's not useable by most classes.
Stam-classes who heavy attack often (Sorc!!, Templar, DK, -idk about Warden-) can't use Crushing Weapon because it only gives extra damage to the next LIGHT Attack. DK has to many DoTs to keep up, so on their bar there really isn't space for a spammable. Templars will stay with their jabs, because the class passives of aedric spear provides more (crit) damage while slotted, and when you use a aedric spear ability, your Burning Light passive has a chance to proc. This all is worth more than Crushing Weapon. Sorc simpely has a to big sustain issue we're you can't afford a spammable like Crushing Weapon in your rotation. Warden also heavy attacks to sustain everything, making it not worth to slot a spammable on your bar that you can't even use most of the time.

With the balance changes to Light/ Heavy attacks, so that Light attacks are more focused on damage and Heavy attacks more focused on sustain, it makes stamina DPS even more worse, especially the ones who heavy attack a lot (Sorc!!!).
Summerset almost forces every class to light attack instead of heavy attack, however with some classes you just can't do that really. With all these points, I want to discuss stamsorc really quick. Bound Armaments now increases your LIGHT attack damage by 11%, not HEAVY attack damage anymore. If you are playing with a viable trial-setup build, then you notice that you only LIGHT attack on your backbar (bowbar). On your frontbar, you will weave Heavy Attacks to sustain everything, making the new changes to Bound Armaments very bad (and almost useless)...

If you count everything in, then you'll notice that Magicka classes wil get buffed big time because of the Psjiic Order skill line, and also because of the changes related in these patch notes. Stamina's will get nerfed mainly compared to Magicka, becasue almost all of them can't use Psjiic Order Skills, and on top of that, the unique bonus from NMG and Sunderflame has been removed, making is instantly not trial ready anymore.

ZoS please, to balance Stamina up compared to Magicka in trial environment, you have got to bring back NMG and Sunderflame to increase Stamina damage in trials so they can compete with Magicka DD's. Not only that, but also please check out the BiS rotation for each class. Make a choose on stamsorc for example, (1) Increase their sustain so they will be able to LIGHT attack on their frontbar and so they can use Crushing Weapon to increase DPS, or (2) change Bound Armaments back to the Heavy Attack bonusses, instead of Light Attack bonusses. And then also give Heavy Attacks more damage instead of nerfing the damage into a sustain tool.

I hope I didn't wrote this for nothing, and that you will take a look at Stamina classes to balance them fairly to Magicka classes, also because they always stand on melee range and therefore they take more risc to die then Magicka DD's.
I hope to keep on using NMG and Sunderflame instead of deconstruct it when Summerset launches.

Kind Regards,

Stan.

ccfeeling

Daedric Trickery can proc major courge or not?

JasonSilverSpring

SydneyGrey wrote: »

glavius wrote: »

No they didn't. You forgot to allocate you cp

That doesn't make sense. Even if you start off a brand new mag character with zero CP, and get him to level 10 and get Maneuver, he'll still have just barely enough stamina to use the skill. That's how it's always been so long as I've been playing.
Right now on the PTS, my magicka Altmer nightblade does not have enough stamina to use Maneuver. At all.

I just checked on my live game. In my live game, my magicka-based Altmer has 9550 stamina. (And no, this toon doesn't have any Undaunted passives.) On the test server, my magicka-based Altmer has only 7958 stamina, just under what you need to use Charging Maneuver once, even though she has almost an identical build. I've never had a situation before where a character did not have enough stamina to be able to use Charging Maneuver. Never. Something is weird, here.

On live without CP bonuses my sorcerer does not have enough stamina to cast maneuvers. If I go into a non-CP PVP campaign I cannot cast it unless I use a food buff to increase stamina. Nothing has changed. Maneuvers has always required a lot of stamina.

Joy_Division

SydneyGrey wrote: »

Whoah ... why is Charging Maneuver now costing 8100 stamina?!?! It wasn't that high before, was it?

I just made a max-level Altmer magicka NB and she only has 7958 stamina total, so she can't even use Charging Maneuver at all now. I've never had that happen before. I should be able to put all her points into magicka and still be able to use Charging Maneuver. I really hope this was just an oversight.

Did Maneuver get more costly, or did the starting stamina on Altmers get nerfed? Because this sucks A LOT.

@SydneyGrey It costs that much on Live!

swirve

Rygonix wrote: »

Kanar wrote: »

ATomiX96 wrote: »

bye bye spc was nice knowing you

What else grants Major Courage? All I see is one other set that has it as a ground based buff.

It doesn't require the targets be overhealed to receive the buff, so if you just pop Illustrious Healing wherever anyone is they are guaranteed to receive the buff.

With a 10 second cooldown...

CrazYDunm3r

ZOS, you did fail a little when you said you wanted to increase 2H LA etc, don't really know what the end goal is, but make up your mind please and listen to the feedback. As multiple people stated, things in PvP like the new wings for DK or the mag warden all need some love for example and there is much more. Don't expect to be good in fixing combat when you bring out everything on the last weeks and then try to avoid comments because it will be live the next day.

highnds

LOL to those that want changes based off of dummy parses, SMDH. Y'all making this game a lot less fun.

Might as well nerf the game title to be Elder Scrolls Online: Dummy Parses. That should make y'all happy.

ganj1234

agreeeeeeeeeeeed

TheYKcid wrote: »

Very disappointed that arena weapons (Master, Maelstrom, etc) still have not received a 1pc stat bonus to compensate for the fact that ALL two handed weapons now give 2 bonuses.

Frontbar arena weapons will be completely outclassed by regular set weapons if this change is not implemented.

This is not balanced. And the issue has been highlighted for over a month now, to no avail.

victoriana-blue

If that plan drop rate change is significant (so that it's possible to find purple zone plans once in ten hours instead of once in six months), that's going to be awesome.

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

FThisIWantALongerNam wrote: »

no unique minor buff like every other class, no reason to bring them to any group content over another class

Exactly as it should be and is intended.
The second ANY class is chosen "over another class" is the second that class chosen needs a nerf to bring it back to balanced.

Did nobody ever play on a teeter-totter as a kid or ever hear of the construction tool called "a level"? "Balance" is all about getting all involved sides equal and level, meaning no clear choice which one to go towards/change.

It's ridiculous anybody asking for "a reason to choose my class over another" when that would mean everybody else is out of luck.
You want "unbalanced" like that? Go play a single player game.

If you put ten pounds of oranges on one side and ten pounds of apples on the other side, that's a better kind of balance: the sides are equally effective as food-weights but you'd eat each kind of fruit differently, and you can choose which one you prefer.

(Unless you were being facetious, in which case carry on.)

MandaWa

First, Minor slayer didn't yet remplaced spell crit.

Secondly, the normal and perfect sets have the same stats. Then, the question is : will they increase perfect set stats or decrease normal set ones. In my opinion, a decrease of the normal set's stats one would be a mistake : it would made this set less interting thats some old ones. However, an inscrease of perfect set stats would create a real interest for this set, and then a bigger motivation to achieve the vet mode of this trial.

Sabbathius

Dear ZOS,

You have a serious, serious problem with how you do things. Your PTS cycles are far too short. If this is a "chapter" (in other words a paid expansion sold separately), then treat it as such. Why are we getting DLC-like PTS cycle for a Chapter, that costs considerably more, and thus should have significantly more to test?

Take a hint from other MMO developers. Use Blizzard as an example. They're already testing 6-8 months prior to release. Then, there's several months of beta. Months. Where players can really get in there and test things out. Not like this PTS, when half the stuff isn't in yet, or doesn't work properly yet. And during those months of testing, things get tweaked a little bit, but the game is already in such a state that huge, major changes aren't needed. By contrast, you guys didn't do much balance-wise the last 3 weeks of PTS, and now you're (hopefully!) going to dump some changes on us next Monday, literally 2 weeks from release? With this approach, can anyone be surprised at all the issues people are having?

You guys need to step it up with the quality and length of testing, or you need to slow down the cadence.

elven.were_wolf

How come monster trophy drop rates never get looked at?

exiars10

Sabbathius wrote: »

Dear ZOS,

You have a serious, serious problem with how you do things. Your PTS cycles are far too short. If this is a "chapter" (in other words a paid expansion sold separately), then treat it as such. Why are we getting DLC-like PTS cycle for a Chapter, that costs considerably more, and thus should have significantly more to test?

Take a hint from other MMO developers. Use Blizzard as an example. They're already testing 6-8 months prior to release. Then, there's several months of beta. Months. Where players can really get in there and test things out. Not like this PTS, when half the stuff isn't in yet, or doesn't work properly yet. And during those months of testing, things get tweaked a little bit, but the game is already in such a state that huge, major changes aren't needed. By contrast, you guys didn't do much balance-wise the last 3 weeks of PTS, and now you're (hopefully!) going to dump some changes on us next Monday, literally 2 weeks from release? With this approach, can anyone be surprised at all the issues people are having?

You guys need to step it up with the quality and length of testing, or you need to slow down the cadence.

Because ZOS seriously lacks manpower, that's why. I wonder why...
https://jobs.zenimax.com/locations/view/7

Hutch679

GeorgeBlack wrote: »

Brace for Mag Warden nerfs next week.

Fixed that for you lol. Mag wardens overperforming *rolls eyes* lololol

ADarklore

vMaick wrote: »

Still no class rebalancing... Still underwhelming warden and after two weeks still bad stamina dps compared to magicka.

You should know by now ZOS' M.O. They add class nerfs at the start of the PTS, then usually wait until a week before Live, throw in the 'balancing' which then ends up the final release build. ZOS doesn't actually care what PLAYERS think or want, they only care what THEY want for THEIR game.

zParallaxz

ADarklore wrote: »

vMaick wrote: »

Still no class rebalancing... Still underwhelming warden and after two weeks still bad stamina dps compared to magicka.

You should know by now ZOS' M.O. They add class nerfs at the start of the PTS, then usually wait until a week before Live, throw in the 'balancing' which then ends up the final release build. ZOS doesn't actually care what PLAYERS think or want, they only care what THEY want for THEIR game.

U right lol

Finedaible

Sleep724 wrote: »

Wait, wouldn't the new buff actually be a nerf because it can't be stacked anymore?

Indeed. This is standard way of introducing nerfs around here.

MandaWa

Vestment of Olorime set.

How to say that... As it is, it's totally useless.

The zone size is really ridiculous. It is proc when you cast "ground ability". Then...
- Ritual, Healing spring, Channeled focus, made the "circle of might" in the middle of these ground abilities.
The probleme is : the range of this might circle is exactly the same than the Channeled focus. Healing spring is curently used to cover DDs and tank(s). The might of circle proc zone is then perfectly.... under the boss.
- Liminous shard : The "circle of might" proc on the shard. Nice for tanks, but not sure they need Major courage. (Ok for mele DDs, exept if the cd is current, cauz circle on tank...)
- The Blockade of storm : circle proc at the end of the area. Yeah, yeah, under the boss (or the tank).
- The Combat Prayer : hum... doesn't create circle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If it was, I gess circle would proc as the blockade...

Well

- The range is REALLY too small to be intersting to remplace a SPC, covering all the group. Notably on bosses you can't pack all you DDS, but you can align them.
- The idea of standing in the circle is good, but with a range equal to the Healing spring or a Combat Prayer, you would keep the "Major courage" duration after leave the aoe, but increase the cd or remove the buff duration and keep the cd.
- In closing, in addition of all of these points, how, as DD, can I stand in a invisible aoe ?

The range of the circle :

Vapirko

Zippy81 wrote: »

Right, so heavy attacks get dmg reduced, however, what's the point of having sets and abilities to increase the heavy attacking damage when you're supposed to use heavy attacks for sustain mostly? It doesn't make sense. A fully charged heavy attack can be bashed/blocked, takes time and is already way less effective than light attack weaving.

You can't bash a heavy attack. You can block both LA and HA. It would make tactical sense to be able to interrupt heavy attacks if they both returned resources and did lots of damage. Or maybe you would still get the resource return if interrupted but no damage? I think it used to be that HAs could be interrupted.

Benemime

no changes to Crystal Blast yet?

The animation of crystal blast takes so long (the devs should use this skill on dungeons, open world etc, to see that it takes so long to cast a single crystal blast during the fight), and you can't cast light attacks between each consecutively casting, because it interrupts the next cast of crystal blast or the LA doesn't hit.

Consecutevely casting crystal blast feels like it takes less time than casting the first shot of crystal blast. But since the first cast of crystal blast takes so long, you will be losing a lot of time casting, than failing to land the crystal blast because the mob is already dead, than you start casting on another mob that has left like half of his hp already and he dies again before you finished casting, so, crystal blast is a struggle at the moment. Especially after the buff to light attacks: crystal blast will be even less appealing since casting force pulse + light attack + crystal frags does more dps.

So, my 2 cents is: Decrease the casting time by 0.5s, fix the animation because somehow the casting is clunky and takes more than 1s. Don't make it a proc ability, otherwise we will have to slot force pulse on every.single.build out there, and I want some diversity, force pulse shouldn't be a must for every sorc build (ok, there's heavy attack builds as well, and that's it)