Combat Update in U21 - A New Approach

Finedaible

_Ahala_ wrote: »

Arch Mage Shalidor is a Nord... LMAO, guess that noob didn’t know about racial passives and min maxing when he was in character creation... oh wait, he is one of the strongest mages in the lore... must be hacking

Though mostly an enchanter, you can add Ahzidal to the list of legendary Nord magic users, probably even more powerful than Shalidor accounting the knowledge he acquired from the Dwemer, Dragon Priests, and virtually all the magicka-oriented elven races.

Maryal

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

Maryal wrote: »

The importance of Wood Elf passives-

Wood elfs passives and don't need to be buffed or nerfed. Their racial passives are a great fit for playing a stamblade - one of the few race/class combos that allow people with certain visual disabilities a way to participate in the game in a meaningful way.
A small (but not insubstantial) portion of the population suffers from a type of visual disability caused by flashing/flickering lights (i.e., the visual effects of many skills/abilities) ... this type of exposure can trigger things like motion sickness, nausea, migraines, epilepsy, etc. Many gamers with this problem work around it by playing a stealthy/roguish character. In this game that typically means RP'ing as a stealthy thief and/or a stealthy hard-hitting assassin.

These folks have to be selective about the content they participate in and they don't want to be limited to vanilla pve content. Combining or layering the wood elf racial passives, NB passives, and medium armor passives has given a lot of these folks a way to create the type of build that works with their limitations ... allowing them to participate, in a meaningful way, (have fun, get immersed, RP, etc.) in a fair amount of the content (mostly pve).

I'm not saying that these passives should never be changed. All I am asking is for 'the powers that be' to consider what I've said when making their changes.

@Maryal how do you handle other player effects? It's Stamblade that gives you the more subtle visuals, not the wood elf passives.

About 1 1/2 years ago I helped someone who had a visual disability with a build ... one thing led to another and I ended up helping several players with this type of visual disability ... I helped them with their builds, with getting armor/weapons, and collaborating on ideas for rotations/gameplay. I am not an expert at the game, not by a longshot. I do, however, have quite a bit of knowledge/experience with the game, game mechanics, equipment, weapons, etc. The details of the builds, the reasoning and benefits behind the choices made would be quite lengthy ... too lengthy to go into here ... but I will say that wood elf racial passives are very important to making these builds/play-styles work for these folks. The people I know generally play solo, which is how they avoid other player effects (or they play with a trusted friend who avoids or minimizes using skills/abilities with visual effects).

Vapirko

Just gonna keep tossing this into threads concerning update 21 in case any ZOS employee is watching.

If you change things to the point of needing race change tokens please provide them, or the opportunity to re-roll each toon. I’m just hoping that the race changes are presented as racial morphs and will work with skill points. Making us spend $25 per toon would seem like insanity and surely not even ZOS would do that, but you never know.

OBud

Nerf dk wings plz and then i love u

TrinityBreaker

Nerf sorc buff (Stam)DK plez

Nolic1

After reading through all 13 pages and every post all I can say is good luck to the devs I hope you do right by these players and I will continue to play my gimped toons ether way.

Lord_Eomer

Hi @ZOS_RobGarrett ,

Can you please provide more updates as it has been around 20 days passed since this thread posted.

Suddwrath

Lord_Dexter wrote: »

Hi @ZOS_RobGarrett ,

Can you please provide more updates as it has been around 20 days passed since this thread posted.

I have been wondering this as well.

It seems that we receive several "We'll improve communication/updates" but then we're met with silence for extended periods of time.

My director had a similar conversation with me about "email etiquette". There were times she would ask me a question or send me a list of things to do, and (me being the person I am) would immediately start working on those things or at least begin devising a plan. However, I wasn't keeping her up to date with my progress. Then she had a conversation with me about how sometimes all she even wants is for me to say "Working on it!", "Will do!", "I'll have an answer to you by *this date*". Basically, she was saying that a little communication is better than no communication. Even if I did not have an immediate answer or if I was still working on the project.

It's getting a little old with the "We're going to improve communication/updates/progress" only to be met with silence without any small updates along the way.

A little communication is better than none.

Feric51

SaltySudd wrote: »

Lord_Dexter wrote: »

Hi @ZOS_RobGarrett ,

Can you please provide more updates as it has been around 20 days passed since this thread posted.

I have been wondering this as well.

It seems that we receive several "We'll improve communication/updates" but then we're met with silence for extended periods of time.

My director had a similar conversation with me about "email etiquette". There were times she would ask me a question or send me a list of things to do, and (me being the person I am) would immediately start working on those things or at least begin devising a plan. However, I wasn't keeping her up to date with my progress. Then she had a conversation with me about how sometimes all she even wants is for me to say "Working on it!", "Will do!", "I'll have an answer to you by *this date*". Basically, she was saying that a little communication is better than no communication. Even if I did not have an immediate answer or if I was still working on the project.

It's getting a little old with the "We're going to improve communication/updates/progress" only to be met with silence without any small updates along the way.

A little communication is better than none.

That's boss speak for, "I want to take you to my massive bed and roll around in the throw pillows and you can let yourself out in the morning but HR will have a conniption if I'm caught with an employee under my watch..."

Elsonso

.

Lord_Dexter wrote: »

Hi @ZOS_RobGarrett ,

Can you please provide more updates as it has been around 20 days passed since this thread posted.

I am not expecting anything more on this until they are almost ready to load it up on PTS for Update 21 after the first of the year.

(Edit: No matter how much they want to share, my guess is that everything they want to say has to be run up the management chain, where it is edited at each level and passed up until it gets to Firor, who edits it again, then passes it back down. By the time it finally arrives back at Garrett's desk, which could takes weeks or months, all that will be left is "I just wanted to give you a heads up about Update 21 combat changes. Please see the PTS patch notes that were published last week.")

Suddwrath

Feric51 wrote: »

That's boss speak for, "I want to take you to my massive bed and roll around in the throw pillows and you can let yourself out in the morning but HR will have a conniption if I'm caught with an employee under my watch..."

Oh my

Thraben

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

Hi all,

I wanted to take moment to share some info about how we’re approaching Combat updates in U21.

As you all know, ESO is a massive game with a lot of moving parts. For years the team has been aggressively adding and tweaking various components of combat in an effort to create a great experience for players of all varieties. Every game update includes a series of balance changes, and we regularly introduce new features such as the Skills Advisor and Warden class. A tremendous amount of effort goes into delivering these updates and, while we do sometimes stumble along the way, we’re pretty proud of what the team has accomplished.

In recent months, however, we’ve recognized that we’ve been so focused on “the next update” that we haven’t had much time to consider and flesh out what the next year+ of combat updates should look like. We often see posts on the forums requesting further context on balance changes, and asking how they fit into a larger plan and vision for combat. While we do have a backlog of improvements identified for the game, it’s clear we could do a better job of answering those kinds of inquiries, both for the player community and ourselves.

To that effect, the team is currently investing a portion of its time into codifying our vision and long-term strategy for combat. This is not a trivial task because, as mentioned before, the game is huge and there’s a lot to cover with combat. As such, we’re pulling back on the volume of combat balance changes being introduced in U21 compared to previous updates. Currently our planned changes for the update include:

• New item sets for our Q1 2019 DLC
• Redesigns for several PvP item sets that are currently rarely used
• A balance pass on racial passive abilities
• A small number of other balance changes, many of which are wrapping up efforts the team took on in U20
• An assortment of bug fixes

We’re currently in the process of sharing the details of these changes with the Class Reps to get feedback ahead of PTS, which won’t start until the new year. However, we wanted to give you a heads up now so the smaller list of changes doesn’t come as a surprise when the PTS1 patch notes drop. In time we’ll also want to share more about the vision and strategy that will drive future combat updates. To be clear, this is simply a momentary deceleration of changes while we evaluate the state of combat and determine how to proceed. We are nowhere near done updating and improving the game.

I’m guessing many of you will be interested to know more about the racial balance changes. While we aren’t ready to share specific details yet, here’s a peek at the goals driving the team’s effort:

• When selecting a race, players should have multiple effective options for any given gameplay role.
• The combat power provided by each race should be more equalized.
• Players should feel a stronger sense of power progression through racial passives as they level up.
• The unique feeling and flavor each race provides should be retained and enhanced where possible, and remain faithful to established lore.

That's all for now. Feedback, as always, is welcome.

Though I'm more the "stay with the established race archetypes" guy, I could accept a homogenization if you could bring back the old early beta race ultis as a simple skill:

Of course there are some skills with a higher power level than others (breton, orc, maybe Nord), but those are not substantially more powerful than, say, Elusive Mist (which is a simple skill and not an Ultimate), and all would add to diversity.

EpicRekkoning

shiningforce wrote: »

maciopa wrote: »

EpicRekkoning wrote: »

It would also make it feel more like the race is proficient with that weapon or armor skill type.

Bretons light armor
Orc heavy armor
Redguard/imperial sword and board
Argonian resto
Dunmer dual weild
Nord 2h
Altmer destro
Bosmer bow
Khajit medium armor

I do not know what I do wrong (or you do wrong) but I do not find those armour/weapon skill lines useful at all as all my lvl 50 chars got all their skill lines maxed before even hitting 50... Yeah - those could help a bit while leveling but honestly - I haven't noticed my my leveling up pace disturbed by different race to class combo - and I already have 16 slots filled with different combos (yes I am an altoholic).
So in short words - instead of having those (above mentioned skill lines) I would rather have something more useful (like haste, magicka or stamina bonuses).

Honestly i see both of your comments disheartening. Doing what either of you suggests just forces people to have to play certain races, yes forces (If you want to play magicka to the best of your ability you are forced to play High elf, dark elf and Breton) We dont need more of this we need less of this. I suggest going back to Elder scrolls origins where you pick a race and put in your OWN stats from the get go, what you choose later IN game affects your character. There are Khajit magic user npcs for example all over the place; yet, almost nobody uses them as playable characters because of how their racial passives are set up. Let people choose their races and set up their classes the way they see fit. If Racial passives stay they should be harmless passives like the argonian swim, or wood elf fall damage.

Sorry for the late reply, I'm not on here a ton. The comment to change the proficiency would actually increase the the use of different races in builds. If you think about the current state of things, Argonians are the master tank race and redguards the master stam race (for pve at least). Magicka races seem to be more balanced depending on the class you play.

Adding to proficiency could break the "master race" for each class. It would give additional options for builds and could even lead to unique build styles. Take tanks for example, now you could look at argonian, imperial, redguard, or orc. Each race would bring a unique style and set of skills. You may even be able to get a cool and unique khajiit, medium armor, tank build, with brass fortress. A bosmer bow, Nord 2 hander, light armor breton, or destro wielding Altmer all make sense when you think about the lore and race. How many Nord or bosmer stam dps builds do you see in pve content? Not many, but proficiency changes would give you viable end game builds with these races.

The Elder Scrolls have always been about character customization and I think this helps with it. I'm more of a theory crafter than min/max guy, although I do have a few min/max characters for trials, and I see changes like these giving us more play style options.

corvair62

EpicRekkoning wrote: »

How many Nord or bosmer stam dps builds do you see in pve content? Not many, but proficiency changes would give you viable end game builds with these races.

I know alot of people that play a bosmer stam blade. It is a good set up.

FrancisCrawford

A couple of observations:

Redguards should be stronger for tanking. In an MMO, one just assumes that a race of stolid melee warriors would make good tanks. What's more, they used to be. Indeed, when the game was young, I made a Redguard DK as my future tank. But in the interim, regeneration has been downgraded as a useful stat for tanks. Oops.

Bretons could also stand to be a little stronger at magicka DPS. It's OK that there are classes for which elves are better. But Bretons are BiS for nothing -- not even healing, due to the strength of Argonians. Alternatively, their pathetically weak spell resistance passive could be buffed to something significant, even if it will never approach the 50% magicka damage reduction of the old Morrowind, and we could make build trade-offs from there. ... Well, actually, having spell resistance without accompanying physical resistance is a little hard to work with, given the way other things in this game go; they almost always are matched together, except in racial passives, a light armor passive, and champion points.

Ragnarock41

@ZOS_RobGarrett , about the rarely used PvP sets, Would be glad to see some imperial city sets revamped too.

Especially the black rose, which used to be the backbone of heavy armor stam Dks, but was double nerfed because of indirect morrowind nerfs to constution passive.

Would be nice to have it at least viable once more. And there are many other IC sets that just aren't worth using anymore.

Cinbri

Ragnarock41 wrote: »

@ZOS_RobGarrett , about the rarely used PvP sets, Would be glad to see some imperial city sets revamped too.

Especially the black rose, which used to be the backbone of heavy armor stam Dks, but was double nerfed because of indirect morrowind nerfs to constution passive.

Would be nice to have it at least viable once more. And there are many other IC sets that just aren't worth using anymore.

It was nerfed directly in 2.7.5:
This item set now increases the Magicka or Stamina restored by the Constitution passive by 35%, down from 40%.
Developer Comments: Black Rose was too powerful with how much more resources it gave to the Constitution passive. Reducing this bonus slightly keeps the set viable, and balances it better against other Heavy Armor options.
So, first set bonus was nerfed and then armor bonus that was buffed by set - Constitution, was nerfed. Those 5% hurts. If Constitution was nerfed why not give back 5% to keep it on pre-constitution nerf level.

Ragnarock41

Cinbri wrote: »

Ragnarock41 wrote: »

@ZOS_RobGarrett , about the rarely used PvP sets, Would be glad to see some imperial city sets revamped too.

Especially the black rose, which used to be the backbone of heavy armor stam Dks, but was double nerfed because of indirect morrowind nerfs to constution passive.

Would be nice to have it at least viable once more. And there are many other IC sets that just aren't worth using anymore.

It was nerfed directly in 2.7.5:
This item set now increases the Magicka or Stamina restored by the Constitution passive by 35%, down from 40%.
Developer Comments: Black Rose was too powerful with how much more resources it gave to the Constitution passive. Reducing this bonus slightly keeps the set viable, and balances it better against other Heavy Armor options.
So, first set bonus was nerfed and then armor bonus that was buffed by set - Constitution, was nerfed. Those 5% hurts. If Constitution was nerfed why not give back 5% to keep it on pre-constitution nerf level.

I think the set should just be reworked to be a stamina version of bloodthorn set, which has a 5th piece that is superior to blackrose by the way. They could even make it medium armor, I would be fine with it. I need a set that gives me both mag and stam regen, and shacklebreaker isn't really cutting it. MagDks do have the option of bloodthorn, however stam is stuck with the blackrose, which is , as you said, double nerfed.

tactx

If this nerfs sustain anymore then Stamsorc will effectively be crippled and forced to reroll to nightblade and switch all the gear over. To those of you that say well Stamsorc sucks anyway, well they already nerfed Magsorc. So stop screwing with Sorc both directly and indirectly. What will then happen is more people will choose Nightblade, then the bottom 90% of ignorant players again will whine there are too many nightblades which will result in more perpetual nerfing.

Being mindful of the repercussions of yet another update, and hopefully avoid sweeping nerfs yet again would certainly be quite novel.

IronWooshu

What I envision the future for passives is that perhaps each class can morph passives to play a role however in keeping races somewhat diversified

Ex for a Redguard and High Elf

With the Redguard I should have options in the first slot where I can choose between 10% max stamina or 4% max magicka or 8% max Health while the High Elf can choose between 12% max magicka or 4% max stamina or 4% health depending on the role they want to play. This still makes High Elf then goto option for a magicka character but allows for people to play other roles. They won't be the best in those other roles but you allow for build options.

(So as a Redguard this would allow me to play as a magicka warden while utilizing my passives but not making me more powerful than a true magicka user). Yukendens are known for magicka summoning bound swords so magicka is in their blood as alot of them were mystics as well as Swordsmen.

My dream is to be able to switch between magicka, stam and health builds on the same character because really all I want to do is collect everything and complete everything on my Redguard Warden but I also want to be more than just DPS in trials.

I hope you do keep to lore.
Remember Redguards can use magicka

IronWooshu

IronWooshu wrote: »

What I envision the future for passives is that perhaps each class can morph passives to play a role however in keeping races somewhat diversified

Ex for a Redguard and High Elf

With the Redguard I should have options in the first slot where I can choose between 10% max stamina or 4% max magicka or 8% max Health while the High Elf can choose between 12% max magicka or 4% max stamina or 4% health depending on the role they want to play. This still makes High Elf then goto option for a magicka character but allows for people to play other roles. They won't be the best in those other roles but you allow for build options.

(So as a Redguard this would allow me to play as a magicka warden while utilizing my passives but not making me more powerful than a true magicka user). Yukendens are known for magicka summoning bound swords so magicka is in their blood as alot of them were mystics as well as Swordsmen.

My dream is to be able to switch between magicka, stam and health builds on the same character because really all I want to do is collect everything and complete everything on my Redguard Warden but I also want to be more than just DPS in trials.

I hope you do keep to lore.
Remember Redguards can use magicka

Piggybacking off my original post, I decided to share some ideas for what I think good class balancing would be

Redguard
10% Stamina, 4% Magicka, 8% Health (with 3 points)

Wood Elf
12% Stamina, 6% Magicka, 4% Health (with 3 points)

High Elf
12% Magicka, 6% Stamina, 4% Health (with 3 points)

Imperial
8% Magicka, 8% Stamina, 8% Health (with 3 points)

Orc
8% Stamina, 6% Magicka, 10% Health (with 3 points)

Dark Elf
10% Stamina, 10% Magicka, 4% Health (with 3 points)

Khajiit
12% Stamina, 4% Magicka, 6% Health (with 3 points)

Argonian
8% Magicka, 6% Stamina, 10% Health (with 3 points)

Breton
12% Magicka, 10% Stamina, 2% Health (with 3 points)

Nord
10% Stamina, 4% Health, 6% Magicka (with 3 points)

Kitty_Quietly

IronWooshu wrote: »

IronWooshu wrote: »

What I envision the future for passives is that perhaps each class can morph passives to play a role however in keeping races somewhat diversified

Ex for a Redguard and High Elf

With the Redguard I should have options in the first slot where I can choose between 10% max stamina or 4% max magicka or 8% max Health while the High Elf can choose between 12% max magicka or 4% max stamina or 4% health depending on the role they want to play. This still makes High Elf then goto option for a magicka character but allows for people to play other roles. They won't be the best in those other roles but you allow for build options.

(So as a Redguard this would allow me to play as a magicka warden while utilizing my passives but not making me more powerful than a true magicka user). Yukendens are known for magicka summoning bound swords so magicka is in their blood as alot of them were mystics as well as Swordsmen.

My dream is to be able to switch between magicka, stam and health builds on the same character because really all I want to do is collect everything and complete everything on my Redguard Warden but I also want to be more than just DPS in trials.

I hope you do keep to lore.
Remember Redguards can use magicka

Piggybacking off my original post, I decided to share some ideas for what I think good class balancing would be

Redguard
10% Stamina, 4% Magicka, 8% Health (with 3 points)

Wood Elf
12% Stamina, 6% Magicka, 4% Health (with 3 points)

High Elf
12% Magicka, 6% Stamina, 4% Health (with 3 points)

Imperial
8% Magicka, 8% Stamina, 8% Health (with 3 points)

Orc
8% Stamina, 6% Magicka, 10% Health (with 3 points)

Dark Elf
10% Stamina, 10% Magicka, 4% Health (with 3 points)

Khajiit
12% Stamina, 4% Magicka, 6% Health (with 3 points)

Argonian
8% Magicka, 6% Stamina, 10% Health (with 3 points)

Breton
12% Magicka, 10% Stamina, 2% Health (with 3 points)

Nord
10% Stamina, 4% Health, 6% Magicka (with 3 points)

Interesting. Does this mean we would give up the other stat bonuses though? I mean dark elf is cool because you get stam and magic. Plus you get stam and health on Imperial. If we only get one, that would be kind of a understandable, but still disappointing.

MehrunesFlagon

Lord_Dexter wrote: »

NBrookus wrote: »

Fix the bugs, THEN change the combat once bugs are fixed? Sounds good.

Kanar wrote: »

Chufu wrote: »

ORCS ORCS ORCS ORCS ORCS!

The new master race for everything, okay? Tank, Heal, DD no problem.

Melee heals receive +4% healing.

Damn straight... about time my magDK orc became meta.

Well there are really not many bugs except lags and long loading screens.

in Combat bug not letting players mount will hopefully fix soon.

Just let people mount in combat and be done with it.

russelmmendoza

All I expect is nerf.

NERF SCROLLS ONLINE.

I really love this game but the way their nerfing us is so troublesome.

grizzly375

Any idea when we might get more ACTUAL information on the planned race changes?

GreatGildersleeve

grizzly375 wrote: »

Any idea when we might get more ACTUAL information on the planned race changes?

The day it hits PTS most likely.

Maura_Neysa

@grizzly375 @GreatGildersleeve The Class Rep Meeting Notes state after the new year, but before PTS. Those came out a couple days ago.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/449203/class-reps-update-meeting-notes-dec-7/p1

Minno

Kitty_Quietly wrote: »

IronWooshu wrote: »

IronWooshu wrote: »

What I envision the future for passives is that perhaps each class can morph passives to play a role however in keeping races somewhat diversified

Ex for a Redguard and High Elf

With the Redguard I should have options in the first slot where I can choose between 10% max stamina or 4% max magicka or 8% max Health while the High Elf can choose between 12% max magicka or 4% max stamina or 4% health depending on the role they want to play. This still makes High Elf then goto option for a magicka character but allows for people to play other roles. They won't be the best in those other roles but you allow for build options.

(So as a Redguard this would allow me to play as a magicka warden while utilizing my passives but not making me more powerful than a true magicka user). Yukendens are known for magicka summoning bound swords so magicka is in their blood as alot of them were mystics as well as Swordsmen.

My dream is to be able to switch between magicka, stam and health builds on the same character because really all I want to do is collect everything and complete everything on my Redguard Warden but I also want to be more than just DPS in trials.

I hope you do keep to lore.
Remember Redguards can use magicka

Piggybacking off my original post, I decided to share some ideas for what I think good class balancing would be

Redguard
10% Stamina, 4% Magicka, 8% Health (with 3 points)

Wood Elf
12% Stamina, 6% Magicka, 4% Health (with 3 points)

High Elf
12% Magicka, 6% Stamina, 4% Health (with 3 points)

Imperial
8% Magicka, 8% Stamina, 8% Health (with 3 points)

Orc
8% Stamina, 6% Magicka, 10% Health (with 3 points)

Dark Elf
10% Stamina, 10% Magicka, 4% Health (with 3 points)

Khajiit
12% Stamina, 4% Magicka, 6% Health (with 3 points)

Argonian
8% Magicka, 6% Stamina, 10% Health (with 3 points)

Breton
12% Magicka, 10% Stamina, 2% Health (with 3 points)

Nord
10% Stamina, 4% Health, 6% Magicka (with 3 points)

Interesting. Does this mean we would give up the other stat bonuses though? I mean dark elf is cool because you get stam and magic. Plus you get stam and health on Imperial. If we only get one, that would be kind of a understandable, but still disappointing.

I don't think this will happen. Doesn't match lore or match previous elder scroll games.

What will happen is each race will get roles selected for their dominant identity and then given the alternative stat that best matches their racial lore. For example, Breton could get some max health and a buff to their max mag so their aren't useless for stam toons if you stat swap around while being more potent for DD roles/healers.

Then they could add racial ultimates to offer side roles without harming balance. Like bretons could get a shield+dmg increase buff which could help a tank get extra mitigation outside of raw stats or a healer to protect themselves while adding to DPS or a DD looking to be both defensive/offensive.

That would be my guess based on one specific example. Lots of play with that than generic stats.

Kitty_Quietly

Minno wrote: »

I don't think this will happen. Doesn't match lore or match previous elder scroll games.

What will happen is each race will get roles selected for their dominant identity and then given the alternative stat that best matches their racial lore. For example, Breton could get some max health and a buff to their max mag so their aren't useless for stam toons if you stat swap around while being more potent for DD roles/healers.

Then they could add racial ultimates to offer side roles without harming balance. Like bretons could get a shield+dmg increase buff which could help a tank get extra mitigation outside of raw stats or a healer to protect themselves while adding to DPS or a DD looking to be both defensive/offensive.

That would be my guess based on one specific example. Lots of play with that than generic stats.

Yeah, I kind of figured something like that. Anything is possable and in the end it will just be fun. I would play the game even if the traits seemed off or weird, because I doubt I would notice too much anyway. I ain’t that great of player to pay much attention.

Anyway, I was just responding to the changes proposed by IronWooshu. Was just fun speculation. We can all guess stuff.

I have a feeling the real changes will be good. I am optimistic. It will be something to look forward to in the new year.

Lab3360

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

Hi all,

I wanted to take moment to share some info about how we’re approaching Combat updates in U21.

As you all know, ESO is a massive game with a lot of moving parts. For years the team has been aggressively adding and tweaking various components of combat in an effort to create a great experience for players of all varieties. Every game update includes a series of balance changes, and we regularly introduce new features such as the Skills Advisor and Warden class. A tremendous amount of effort goes into delivering these updates and, while we do sometimes stumble along the way, we’re pretty proud of what the team has accomplished.

In recent months, however, we’ve recognized that we’ve been so focused on “the next update” that we haven’t had much time to consider and flesh out what the next year+ of combat updates should look like. We often see posts on the forums requesting further context on balance changes, and asking how they fit into a larger plan and vision for combat. While we do have a backlog of improvements identified for the game, it’s clear we could do a better job of answering those kinds of inquiries, both for the player community and ourselves.

To that effect, the team is currently investing a portion of its time into codifying our vision and long-term strategy for combat. This is not a trivial task because, as mentioned before, the game is huge and there’s a lot to cover with combat. As such, we’re pulling back on the volume of combat balance changes being introduced in U21 compared to previous updates. Currently our planned changes for the update include:

• New item sets for our Q1 2019 DLC
• Redesigns for several PvP item sets that are currently rarely used
• A balance pass on racial passive abilities
• A small number of other balance changes, many of which are wrapping up efforts the team took on in U20
• An assortment of bug fixes

We’re currently in the process of sharing the details of these changes with the Class Reps to get feedback ahead of PTS, which won’t start until the new year. However, we wanted to give you a heads up now so the smaller list of changes doesn’t come as a surprise when the PTS1 patch notes drop. In time we’ll also want to share more about the vision and strategy that will drive future combat updates. To be clear, this is simply a momentary deceleration of changes while we evaluate the state of combat and determine how to proceed. We are nowhere near done updating and improving the game.

I’m guessing many of you will be interested to know more about the racial balance changes. While we aren’t ready to share specific details yet, here’s a peek at the goals driving the team’s effort:

• When selecting a race, players should have multiple effective options for any given gameplay role.
• The combat power provided by each race should be more equalized.
• Players should feel a stronger sense of power progression through racial passives as they level up.
• The unique feeling and flavor each race provides should be retained and enhanced where possible, and remain faithful to established lore.

That's all for now. Feedback, as always, is welcome.

In other words, Global Nerf.
Tell me Im Wrong.