Update 22 Combat Direction

ZOS_BrianWheeler

Hey gang!

With Update 22 coming to the PTS in just a few weeks, we want to give you all an update on how we’re approaching combat adjustments this patch. We know there’s a lot of information out there already since the embargo lift and it’s great to see everyone excited about Elsweyr and the Necromancer! However, be aware unless it’s stated from us or included in official patch notes, it’s all subject to change until it’s on the PTS and Live.

With that being said, let’s dive into how we are approaching the Elsweyr update. First off, we are getting the Necromancer ready for prime time! This class was created with three major tenants of play:

• Create a class that feels entirely unique and different than any other class in ESO
• Create a class that embodies Necromancy in Elder Scrolls lore/canon
• Add new gameplay elements via corpses, temporary pets and emphasize positional gameplay

The Necromancer is the first class to have multiple passes by our own players prior to it launching with the Class Reps and members of the community that recently visited the studio. Their feedback has greatly helped our development process, and we believe the Necromancer is setup nicely to fill both Magicka or Stamina roles for healing, tanking or DPS. Thanks again to the fine folks that visited us, and we’re looking forward to everyone trying out the Necromancer on the PTS! .

Over the years of development, there have been numerous changes to class abilities both in function and under the hood with code. These changes have shaped the face of combat in ESO over time, but as the game has evolved with each passing year, we have accrued many changes that have fallen out of vogue. With this update, we are making several adjustments to bring abilities back in line with the current state of the game and create a solid foundation of standards for the future.

In Update 22 we have done a pass on every Class ability looking for errant or missing data. We also made sure abilities follow a coherent pattern of Rank progression that is easy to identify. For example, if an ability morph does damage, the rank progression adds more damage. If an ability morph does healing, the rank progression does more healing.

Ability coefficients and costs have also been audited to ensure that healing or damage within the type of ability (such as a DD, DoT, HoT, Direct Heal) are more consistent. The duration of abilities and sub-effects have been normalized so they adhere to patterns that fall in line with the play-style of ESO, making their use in rotations easier to handle. For example:

• Single Target DoTs have been a long standing group of abilities that were not consistent in their application of damage. Looking at these types of abilities’ duration, tick frequencies, and delays, a consistent pattern of application was missing from ability to ability. Some of these abilities have even be used as "spammable" abilities (Searing Strike), despite that being against their design. In this pass, we've restructured them to follow a standard behavior:
  • If there is an initial hit upon casting one of these abilities, there will always be a delay between the initial hit and the first tick
  • If there no initial hit, there will be no delay
  • Delays (i.e. an ability that doesn’t hit immediately) will always be the same duration as the DoT's frequency in which it ticks.

Next were abilities that were considered out of standards based on the audit pass noted above. Some abilities contained a LOT of functionality (Incapacitating Strike), and others not as much (Teleport Strike) when looking at abilities across the board. Moving forward, abilities within the same “Category” should have a base level of performance but also have something that makes it unique. In doing this pass, we found abilities that had components which were above or below base functionality and made adjustments to bring them in line. In some cases, base damage/healing has been increased make up for the removal of additional functions. In other cases, base damage/healing has been reduced to make up for adding in additional functions.

We also took a high level pass at Class abilities, specifically looking for similar/redundant functions within each class's entire tool kit (like Mark Target granting Fracture and Surprise Attack granting Fracture). While we want there to be different abilities that operate similarly in functionality between your class, weapon, guild, and other skill lines, we want to avoid abilities within the same class to provide multiple sources of the same effect(s). This is an on-going effort for future skill lines, and we are not opposed to revisiting the structure of abilities that have already received this audit. Also note these passes were done in conjunction with the changes noted above regarding coefficient/cost/Rank progression, etc.

In terms of quality of life changes, we’ve heard your feedback about cast times being difficult to incorporate into fluid combat/rotation, and have made adjustments to many abilities with cast times to make them easier to weave and be more reliable. In most of these cases, we have adjusted the damage as well in coordination with cast time adjustments to retain the DPS you’re used to in U21.

There will be a bunch of patch notes coming for PTS soon, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading gang, and if you’ve gotten this far, here’s a little sneak peek:

• Cleave: (Reworked this ability and its morphs) Damage increased by 50%, but removed the bleed from this base ability completely.
  • Carve: Retains the bleed; bleed damage increased by 25%. No longer grants Minor Heroism.
  • Brawler: Removed the bleed from this ability. Increased the Shield granted from this morph by 100% at base, but reduced the bonus scaling per target hit from 100% to 50%. This means at base this ability will be 100% stronger than before, and will be ~14% stronger than previously if you get the maximum bonus.

Turelus

Thanks for the insight Brian, excited to see what the balance pass brings.

Seems you have a solid idea of what gameplay you want to have in the game now and where you want to go with it.

I don't suppose there has been any looking into alternative methods of weaving or making non-weaving a litter better for people? It's become a big barrier of entry into higher tier content for those with disabilities or getting slow in their old age.

Lord_Eomer

Is this thread that @ZOS_GinaBruno was talking in ESO live? or will we have combat changes another thread before PTS?

Liko

Sounds promising. I look forward to testing some of this on the PTS!

MissBizz

Can confirm they have done things to make some abilities feel better and time better in rotations. Excited!

Suddwrath

Thanks for the update @ZOS_BrianWheeler!

I'm excited to hear about skills with cast times being looked at. I especially appreciate this part:

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

With this update, we are making several adjustments to bring abilities back in line with the current state of the game and create a solid foundation of standards for the future.

Tommy_The_Gun

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Next were abilities that were considered out of standards based on the audit pass noted above. Some abilities contained a LOT of functionality (Incapacitating Strike), and others not as much (Teleport Strike) when looking at abilities across the board.

I don't get it.
Incapacitating Strike is an ultimate, it cost ultimate points.
Teleport Strike is a skill, it cost magicka or stamina, dependent on the morph, but it is a skill.

Maybe that is just me but those definitely don't go into the same category...

forumsmurf

Why can't skills be dynamically balanced like Negate Magic? Negate Magic stuns ads but only silences players. It has a form of dual functionality depending on who it hits. Why can't other skills have this dual functionality? Instead of blanket nerfing DK wings because of pvp, why can't make it so wings can only reflect ad projectiles? There's more stuff that should seriously be balanced this way but obviously this comes to mind because it's an upcoming change.

Also can there be QoL changes to how certain non-resource dependent healing sources scale with your highest source of crit, rather than just defaulting to spell crit? An example would be Animal Companions' Bond With Nature that specifically scales with spell crit even though it's a class passive that should scale similarly to that of an ulti (highest source of crit), and Repentance that has no cost, but also defaults to scaling with spell crit.

Some things to me just don't make sense either, why does Critical Surge cost magicka rather than stamina when it gives Major Brutality? Why does Green Lotus cost magicka rather than stamina when it gives Major Savagery? Can these be changed so the healing from these skils actually scale with weapon crit, instead of the measley 10-20% spell crit that most Stamsorcs/Stamdens have?

Cinbri

@ZOS_BrianWheeler does passive abilities were audited too?

Tommy_The_Gun

forumsmurf wrote: »

Why can't skills be dynamically balanced like Negate Magic? Negate Magic stuns ads but only silences players.

Teleport Strike has this too:
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Teleport+Strike
"If the target is a player, they are briefly snared instead of stunned."

So it is definitely possible to make all skills work different vs players & different vs mobs.

Universe

Thanks for the news

Hopefully, the initial values of the class abilities will be changed(if needed) during the PTS cycle if important feedback from multiple players who tested the new and changed abilities will justify it.
Just like PTS's Conjured Ward 1 second cast time change was reverted when many players expressed their concern regarding it's usability.
So in the end the delay of Conjured Ward never went live.

Same should be for possible OP item sets and weapon abilities.
For example, many players have expressed their concern regarding some item sets which are OP, like Zaan and Shield Breaker, but the sets were never adjusted.
A simple 2 seconds cooldown for the oblivion damage of shield breaker could have brought this set inline with other sets.

Furthermore, it is possible to stack the destruction staff ultimate Eye of the Storm and this makes ball groups in Cyrodiil OP.
A restriction of max 2X Eye of the Storm in an area may solve this issue.

Koolio

Please keep in mind the functionality of these abilities on different platforms.

No matter what you do to things like Lotus Fan it still doesn’t work right on console. It’s slow 1 sec animation then travel time. With pathing this almost NEVER works right.

I would hate to see changes to abilities for a “buff” when the move barely works

Nifty2g

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

If there is an initial hit upon casting one of these abilities, there will always be a delay between the initial hit and the first tick

Can we make this apply to trial boss abilities too @ZOS_BrianWheeler or at least moving forward

Myux

wtb blur/mirage/double take overhaul pm me with offers. snare removal functionality so that magblade can do literally anything without crutching on shadow image preferred

Minno

Very promising. I am hoping this will be the racial changes version of skills/classes. Finally bringing them in line with the modern identity of the game.

@ZOS_BrianWheeler you tease

templesus

Sounds like a solid direction and I am very excited to test it on PTS. Keep up the good work!

Ajax_22

Looks like the combat team finally has a vision, and direction they want to take things. Even if some of us won't like particular changes it is much better then what we've had previously. Looking forward to what you're going to bring us Wheeler. The next update will at least be interesting, if nothing else.

ZOS_GinaBruno

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Next were abilities that were considered out of standards based on the audit pass noted above. Some abilities contained a LOT of functionality (Incapacitating Strike), and others not as much (Teleport Strike) when looking at abilities across the board.

I don't get it.
Incapacitating Strike is an ultimate, it cost ultimate points.
Teleport Strike is a skill, it cost magicka or stamina, dependent on the morph, but it is a skill.

Maybe that is just me but those definitely don't go into the same category...

They're not in the same category - these were two separate examples

VelociousLegend

Looking forward to seeing full combat patch notes for PTS!

ZOS_BrianWheeler

Passives will be addressed in a future update. We wanted to hit the Actives this patch and are looking at applying these standards/audit to more Actives in the future. It's a lot to go through but we'll get there

forumsmurf

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Next were abilities that were considered out of standards based on the audit pass noted above. Some abilities contained a LOT of functionality (Incapacitating Strike), and others not as much (Teleport Strike) when looking at abilities across the board.

I don't get it.
Incapacitating Strike is an ultimate, it cost ultimate points.
Teleport Strike is a skill, it cost magicka or stamina, dependent on the morph, but it is a skill.

Maybe that is just me but those definitely don't go into the same category...

They're not in the same category - these were two separate examples

On a serious note I do hope you consider the prospect of skill-by-skill dynamic rebalancing (refer to my comment above maybe) to address both pve and pvp aspects wherever it's possible given technical limitations.

Minno

Cinbri wrote: »

@ZOS_BrianWheeler does passive abilities were audited too?

I want to know this as well!

Minno

templesus wrote: »

Sounds like a solid direction and I am very excited to test it on PTS. Keep up the good work!

#AgeOfWheeler

Aliyavana

I hope stam sorcs will get a better class identity. I hope that class passives for us is addressed next time

WillhelmBlack

Best Post 2019.

Glory

I love seeing improvements/balancing to the existing game state.

Neoauspex

@ZOS_BrianWheeler will this pass on active skills affect lag/performance?

olsborg

Carve: Retains the bleed; bleed damage increased by 25%. No longer grants Minor Heroism.

No more bleeds pls....pls..

chris211

@ZOS_BrianWheeler can we expect some tlc for templar?

Dottzgaming

Thanks for the update Brian! Cant wait to see all the changes coming to existing class actives in the next update and then the eventual passives pass-over. The combat team has done great work so far in 2019 and im excited to see it continue

John_Falstaff

> Some of these abilities have even be used as "spammable" abilities (Searing Strike), despite that being against their design.

Hm-m. Sounds like we can say good bye to sDK's cheap spammable. Another indirect nerf.