PTS Patch Notes v4.0.2

Agalloch

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.

Blizzard make REAL Expansions with full of features, zones, raids and so on.

ZOS make tiny zones sold separately.

Bodycounter

Sabbathius wrote: »

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?

I have played World of Warcraft for years. The only thing they got from their test cycles and the way they used the official forum was a cancerous and childish community. The balance is far from good in this game and there's always at least one class, that is completely broken. And that is a game, where you have basically zero options of diversity. Everyone plays his class about the same.

CrazyWolf712

You guys seriously don’t know how Werewolf works. Extremely disappointed is an understatement.

TheValar85

Nice is there any feedback about the Emperor armor issues as well? including every kind of armor wich hase a hipp parth? becasue tehy want to fall off again.

Heavy atack is stucking, while we are not using it. also light atacks offten do teh same it truns to become heavy atacks whiel clearly we are not holding long enough the button to become heavy atack it needs to be fixed too.

Performance issues still needs to be fixed, including server and client side. The lags, the frame drops making the game realy unplayable.

MinuitPro

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

General

• Fixed an issue where you would be dismounted when weapon swapping, or casting Rapid Maneuvers or its morphs.

This is still a problem. Weapon swap will dismount randomly. Do you require a video?

Stibbons

No class balance changes. Magic templar have nice summerset because the nerfs. Well nothing new there in years

Aeowhyn

ZOS, I deeply reviewed all the upcomming sets and set changes and I´d like to raise one question.

Is it intended that nearly all the armor sets and spell-, buff- and game-mechanics force the players to stack and stand close to the mob while fighting a boss mob (in most of the boss fight cases)?

Somehow I would love to see some armor sets and spells that allow the player to play as a real range DD. You should be rewarded to keep the maximum distance between you and the boss mob (or in PVP .. keep max distance to your pvp enemy)

Maybe you could add some kind of light armor that has a five piece bonus like "you gain 700 spelldamage when you hit your enemy from 25m or greater distance .. getting closer to the enemy reduces that gain continously down to 300 spelldamage (at 0m distance to the enemy)"

Septimus_Magna

Stibbons wrote: »

No class balance changes. Magic templar have nice summerset because the nerfs. Well nothing new there in years

Jabs is fixed so it can be canceled by blocking, its something..

casparian

Aeowhyn wrote: »

ZOS, I deeply reviewed all the upcomming sets and set changes and I´d like to raise one question.

Is it intended that nearly all the armor sets and spell-, buff- and game-mechanics force the players to stack and stand close to the mob while fighting a boss mob (in most of the boss fight cases)?

Somehow I would love to see some armor sets and spells that allow the player to play as a real range DD. You should be rewarded to keep the maximum distance between you and the boss mob (or in PVP .. keep max distance to your pvp enemy)

Maybe you could add some kind of light armor that has a five piece bonus like "you gain 700 spelldamage when you hit your enemy from 25m or greater distance .. getting closer to the enemy reduces that gain continously down to 300 spelldamage (at 0m distance to the enemy)"

Why should you be rewarded for taking the least risky path? Particularly in PVP?

victoriana-blue

Aeowhyn wrote: »

Somehow I would love to see some armor sets and spells that allow the player to play as a real range DD. You should be rewarded to keep the maximum distance between you and the boss mob (or in PVP .. keep max distance to your pvp enemy)

Maybe you could add some kind of light armor that has a five piece bonus like "you gain 700 spelldamage when you hit your enemy from 25m or greater distance .. getting closer to the enemy reduces that gain continously down to 300 spelldamage (at 0m distance to the enemy)"

It makes the healer's job difficult. Heals are directional & aimed and have a limited range, so the healer can't be very far from the the tank. Having to spin around every few seconds to buff or heal someone behind them costs time & resources the healer could be using on the whole group instead.

The bow line already has a passive that does more damage when the player is standing farther away from the target. It's not a good thing, and it leads to a lot of frustration when people try out group content: they have no idea they're supposed to stand in front of the healer, and they do a lot of snipe spamming because that's one of the few abilities that works at that range. It pisses of the experienced players who just wanted a fast run, and being yelled at for following the game's skill descriptions pisses of the new-to-group people.

(I was a super-ranged player when I started because that was how I played other TES games, but I was lucky enough to have groups that kindly explained the problem and let me choose between sniping & getting heals. I've been on both sides of the bow passive now.)

Destruent

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

Stibbons wrote: »

No class balance changes. Magic templar have nice summerset because the nerfs. Well nothing new there in years

Jabs is fixed so it can be canceled by blocking, its something..

But why would you even use it in the first place?

Bladerunner1

Aeowhyn wrote: »

ZOS, I deeply reviewed all the upcomming sets and set changes and I´d like to raise one question.

Is it intended that nearly all the armor sets and spell-, buff- and game-mechanics force the players to stack and stand close to the mob while fighting a boss mob (in most of the boss fight cases)?

Somehow I would love to see some armor sets and spells that allow the player to play as a real range DD. You should be rewarded to keep the maximum distance between you and the boss mob (or in PVP .. keep max distance to your pvp enemy)

Maybe you could add some kind of light armor that has a five piece bonus like "you gain 700 spelldamage when you hit your enemy from 25m or greater distance .. getting closer to the enemy reduces that gain continously down to 300 spelldamage (at 0m distance to the enemy)"

Seems like that was the intent of the shadow silk skill. They put a lot of DPS into a synergy that requires people to stand >18 meters away from the boss. It hardly gets used though because of the healer dilemma.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/394994/shadow-silk

_Ahala_

WTB rune prison for magden... also, lol... fissure was nerfed with the logic that high damage abilities shouldn’t stun while zos gives a 10k damage on target ranged hard cc to sorcs and leave howl, swing, incap, leap, and blast in their current state

These changes are leaving magden, the class without an execute or very many damaging abilities, an awkward 10k damage frost rune trap pull that doesn’t even force cc break and brings enemies into melee range... This pull does not synergize well with magden and essentially neuters the caster play style suggested by the secondary effect of cliff racer... what’s the goal here?

Please, just make the frozen escape morph of gate limited to one rune at a time which procs two non cancelling effects that damages and roots enemies in a target location and allow allies to port to you from that location... this would allow the ability to allow both caster and ally to truly escape, as is the ability’s purpose I believe, instead of pulling random enemies from your ally to you to the end of one of you getting zerged to death...

Then give us another cc...

virtus753

MinuitPro wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

General

• Fixed an issue where you would be dismounted when weapon swapping, or casting Rapid Maneuvers or its morphs.

This is still a problem. Weapon swap will dismount randomly. Do you require a video?

I'm finding the same right now. Rapids no longer dismounts, and swapping weapons no longer *always* dismounts. But swapping weapons will still do it randomly. It doesn't matter whether the mount is still or moving, whether Rapids is on or not. It does not always happen within a set period of time or a particular number of times switching weapons - it can be anywhere from the second or third time to the tenth time.

So far the most I can narrow it down is that it seems to happen for me only on switching from the back bar to the front. Switching to the front bar also frequently "hangs" (as if I never hit the button and must hit it again). This never seems to happen going from front to back.

Twohothardware

Buff Nord and other races like Khajiit, Imperial, and Breton who have fallen noticeably behind the Redguard and Argonian meta.

My suggestion for Nord is just simply give them an extra 4% Stamina while leaving the rest of the stats the same. The change would line up almost perfectly with where Orc is at while making Nord acceptable as a DPS race instead of tank only where Argonian has it won.

For comparison of what Orc vs Nord would look like with these changes:

Orc
6% health, 6% Stamina, 20% health recovery, 5% healing, 4% bonus damage, reduce sprint cost by 12% and increase speed by 10%

Nord
9% health, 10% stamina, 20% health recovery, 2079 Cold Resistance, 6% reduced damage

Does anyone see a problem with this change?

Maura_Neysa

Joy_Division wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Decreased the damage done by all Light Attacks by approximately 20%.
• Decreased the damage done by all Heavy Attacks by approximately 13%.

I'm confused. Decrease from what? The previous PTS, not Live, correct? What is their damage compared to Live?

Also - why exactly does 2H light attack damage get nerfed (when all other weapons were buffed) with the whole philosophy of "light attacks are meant for damage"? It's inconsistent and I think inconsistencies warrant an explanation.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Vestment of Olorime: This Item Set has been redesigned.

• OLD:
  • 2: Magicka Recovery
  • 3: Magicka Recovery
  • 4: Max Magicka
  • 5: Ground based effect abilities cast apply a healing circle which heals you and your allies standing in the circle for 1032 every 1 second for 5 seconds. This effect can occur every 5 seconds.
• NEW:
  • 2: Magicka Recovery
  • 3: Minor Aegis
  • 4: Magicka Recovery
  • 5: Ground based effect abilities cast apply a circle of might on the ground for 10 seconds. Standing inside the circle grants you and your allies Major Courage, which increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 258 for 30 seconds. 10 seconds cooldown.

I do applaud the effort into changing these unappealing sets and I generally finding the 5 piece bonuses looking interesting at first glance. But...

I don't like the minor trials buffs. I don't. Go ahead and throw rotten fruit at me, but I'm sorry, as a healer I do not have any need for 5% minor aegis (besides it's NOT 5%, it subject to diminishing returns) and would much rather have a traditional bonus. I also don't like these bonuses because they two minor aegis bonuses don't stack. Tanks, do you need or want that minor aegis bonus? I as hoping to use the DPS one in PVP but, nope, can't do that anymore.

As a Tank, I'd happily take Minor Aegis, at least if it ever shows up on a set that tanks actually run. For example, if Roar of Alkosh 3 piece was Minor Aegis instead of Minor Slayer. Without any testing, on paper at least, Aegis of Galenwe seems like it has a good chance at becoming a solid End Game level set, even if it does't replace Ebon or AIkosh.

FrancisCrawford

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.

Careful. The way you worded that, you were giving an argument that scissors-paper-rock (excuse me: clippers-parchment-soulgem0 is imbalanced.

FrancisCrawford

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.

I have had such situations.

Lucky28

@ZOS_Wrobel really hope you rethink the changes to strife. i am really not looking forward to running Crushing shock on my magblade and playing it like it was a sorcerer. please keep class identity in mind.

BrokenGameMechanics

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

General

• Decreased the damage done by all Light Attacks by approximately 20%.
• Decreased the damage done by all Heavy Attacks by approximately 13%.

That was the only and was questionable at best, supposed compensation for making the DW line irrelevant. In other words, now that every thing counts as 2 weapons, entire builds which were not getting 5-5-2 bonuses are now getting an extra 400 weapon damage or several K of resources. So even if things weren't perfectly balance between a DW vs XY in PVP, if it was sorta kind of close, it's way off now.

Basically the tradeoff was a weaker skill line in DW to gain the extra 5-5-2 Set bones to balance it out. Now everyone can run a 5-5-2. DW got nerfs, no buffs, are still required to farm 2 desired weapons, which is huge effort, for nothing, as your stuck with a weak kill line (for PVP) and have lost what was once the tradeoff to balance it out.

Folks were saying that well the big buff in LA/HA compensated for this because "LA/HA are just so much easier with DW vs ..., DW benefited from LA weaving etc, but that was the compensation to keep things balance." Never believed it, but that was the explanation. With the backing out the LA/HA buffs while still keeping the huge gain from the extra 5th Set bonus and while adjusting the DW line down ... (sigh).

ak_pvp

@ZOS_Wrobel Power lash is was too easily avoidable now. First by immunities/range so the cc won't get you, and then by the 3 gcds it takes to hit, you can avoid the setup lash AND the actual one, so 3 easy ways to avoid. Then compare to POTL, where the setups can be dodged, but not the main burst, or frags and merciless, where it can't be stopped from proccing before, but the actual ability can be dodged. The ability also has a cooldown, so it can't be made up for as easily.

Since you won't make it undodgable again, why not make it proc of CC straight away, rather than hitting a set up lash first. That way it can still be evaded before by not being CC'd, and dodged, but will actually hit on a hard CC (Which is less than every 7s, similar to POTLs length)

This can be done by making it so DK CCs automatically apply offbalance, possibly by way of a passive, maybe elder dragon, giving DKs more group support by giving adds the extra 10% exploiter, and making PvE use of lash stay the same. Or it can be changed so lash procs instantly on immobilized enemies. [Alternatively you could keep lash on offbalance, and add lash on CC, again keeping PvE the same during offbalance phases]

Both cases, lash itself wouldn't set offbalance, but would work much more reliably whilst maintaining counters and acting as the defacto finisher of the class.

Qbiken

ak_pvp wrote: »

@ZOS_Wrobel Power lash is was too easily avoidable now. First by immunities/range so the cc won't get you, and then by the 3 gcds it takes to hit, you can avoid the setup lash AND the actual one, so 3 easy ways to avoid. Then compare to POTL, where the setups can be dodged, but not the main burst, or frags and merciless, where it can't be stopped from proccing before, but the actual ability can be dodged. The ability also has a cooldown, so it can't be made up for as easily.

Since you won't make it undodgable again, why not make it proc of CC straight away, rather than hitting a set up lash first. That way it can still be evaded before by not being CC'd, and dodged, but will actually hit on a hard CC (Which is less than every 7s, similar to POTLs length)

This can be done by making it so DK CCs automatically apply offbalance, possibly by way of a passive, maybe elder dragon, giving DKs more group support by giving adds the extra 10% exploiter, and making PvE use of lash stay the same. Or it can be changed so lash procs instantly on immobilized enemies. [Alternatively you could keep lash on offbalance, and add lash on CC, again keeping PvE the same during offbalance phases]

Both cases, lash itself wouldn't set offbalance, but would work much more reliably whilst maintaining counters and acting as the defacto finisher of the class.

While I see the problem, I don´t want ZOS to mess with off-balance and stuns anymore. Dragonbone patch caused to much chaos tbh.....

Mystrius_Archaion

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

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.

Careful. The way you worded that, you were giving an argument that scissors-paper-rock (excuse me: clippers-parchment-soulgem0 is imbalanced.

It actually is imbalanced, especially for a video game. There is no skill involved. It's just a hard counter luck based system if you chose the one class that can beat others.

DC Universe Online actually uses that system in combat but uses it the only way it could ever work. Every player has access to block and interrupts and block breakers in their main combat abilities. You can't move while blocking so people don't stay in block and they wouldn't want to. Interrupts get you staggered if your opponent blocks them but you can block break them which block breakers are interruptable.
The only place DCUO fails in combat is those same abilities are given to the very weakest enemies, just like the minions here with heavy attacks and stuns and silences. It's not fun to have difficulty "mowing down the weeds" type of enemies.

Whole classes are never a hard counter to other classes and should never be so.

Mystrius_Archaion

victoriana-blue wrote: »

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.)

It was all about weight as far as teeter-totters and scales go. It's the only way you could compare apples to oranges.
Although as far as game design is concerned, everything really is almost universally just a recolor of everything else. They have different numbers and secondary effects but that is all illusion as well as the visual.
Homogenization is inevitable and necessary for balance and should not be feared as it would mean we could choose classes based on cosmetics rather than liking the look of Templar skills but needing to play a Sorcerer for better damage or a Nightblade for cloak.

You know why "rock/paper/scissors" works? It works because everybody has the ability to throw out all 3. Everybody has the same tools so nobody is overpowered or underpowered.
People always try to say "the game needs to be more like rock/paper/scissors" in every game with a certain class being hard counter to another class while being hard countered by a third class, but they don't seem to notice that the rock/paper/scissors can be present in the player themselves and in all classes so that player skill takes over, or luck.

Obsidian3

Jewelry Crafting
Increased the chance to find precious metal Seams in the world.

Furnishings
Updated the furnishing plan drop chances within Vvardenfell, Clockwork City, and Summerset. When you loot a furnishing plan in these areas, you are now much more likely to see furnishing plans directly associated with that area.


THANK YOU!!

SirTraski

kojou wrote: »

I wonder if SPC is now obsolete...

No, it is not. Olorime gives a static buff on the ground, similar fashion than Siroria. It's good on stationary fights like most Craglorn trials, but where mobility is present - SPC is still "BiS" for healers.

Kolzki

SirTraski wrote: »

kojou wrote: »

I wonder if SPC is now obsolete...

No, it is not. Olorime gives a static buff on the ground, similar fashion than Siroria. It's good on stationary fights like most Craglorn trials, but where mobility is present - SPC is still "BiS" for healers.

Pretty sure that you keep the buff for 30 seconds after leaving the olorime ring.

SirTraski

Kolzki wrote: »

SirTraski wrote: »

kojou wrote: »

I wonder if SPC is now obsolete...

No, it is not. Olorime gives a static buff on the ground, similar fashion than Siroria. It's good on stationary fights like most Craglorn trials, but where mobility is present - SPC is still "BiS" for healers.

Pretty sure that you keep the buff for 30 seconds after leaving the olorime ring.

Well, you were right that it does stay on you after you leave the ring. But still, SPC pretty much has 100% uptime if you have HoTs running on your group. Personally, I still consider SPC to be a more well-rounded set for healer.

Minor Aegis is a bit meh, because it's has those diminishing returns when taking damage midigation from your armor and CP into count. Also it's a rather selfish buff. Plus, double mag recovery is a bit wasted since healers don't really suffer from resource sustain anyways. SPC gives max magicka and double spell damage, which does more to keeping your group alive.

Nicko_Lps

A message to all stamina dps that are whining like babies.


I have to play stamina dps and stamina dk since 2016 and i consider myself a not good player.

YET

I pulled 44.5k dps solo buffed stamDK on a 6m dummy after 5 tries today on PTS with 280ms ping excluding lagspikes while my first DK try was 40k without having wep dmg enchants on jewelry. Buff stamina?

I managed to pull 44.8k dps on a magDK after 2 days trying sets gears rotations.

On magblade ive pulled 46+k after 2 days working on it and i cant play it on that high ping.Im loosing it.

On magwarden ive pulled 44k after 20 min working on it

On a nonpet magsorc that i main(live) ive pulled 40k


Stamina is less effort,more gains.(excluding stamblades)


You cry about magica dpsers being buffed,stamina being nerfed because of the pen sets nerf but YOU DID NOT SEE OR USE Arms of Relequen.



ZoS gave stamina dps a set that dps on its own while you dps,thats why they took away the pen sets. Try it and stop whining.

On the other hand,if you feel that you must be overpowered just because you are melee and you are in "danger or your life" go play CoD,MMO's are not for you.

roksolana_sowa

Problem with stamina is couse sustain. For expl u cant sustain stamplar good enough to use all buffs from LA etc what will come next patch same to stamwarden.
I really enjoyed that synergy that we have now with sets for stamina dds. In group content its really great thing special if u playing in core raids (it make ure feel a part of group) and I waited that they will do something like this with magika but no, lets go easier way...