Maintenance for the week of October 5:
• [COMPLETE] ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – October 8, 8:00AM EDT (12:00 UTC) – 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
• [COMPLETE] ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – October 8, 8:00AM EDT (12:00 UTC) – 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
The Markarth DLC and Update 28 base game patch are now available to test on the PTS! Read the full patch notes here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/pts/
Can we talk about this for a second?
Skjaldbjorn
✭✭✭✭
So, let me just start by saying I love ESO. When I beta tested this game, played for 45 minutes, uninstalled and called it terrible, I never thought i'd come back at Morrowind and play fervently for years. This is, by far, my favorite MMO I have ever played. The community is (mostly) awesome, the trials are solid (vAS can die in a fire), i've enjoyed the end-game and had the chance to work toward some pretty fun achievements with people I genuinely enjoyed burning my time with.
However, the recent PTS patch notes...well, we all know, right? But I want to touch on one issue in particular. There's two catalyst problems in this patch (to me), one is heavily addressed, the other seems to be somewhat ignored. Let me preface by saying more often than not, I see the logic behind the changes. Even if it's not immediate as to how it impacts the game, often the changes are at least okay, if not good.
In fact, for this proposed patch, I 100% agree with like 80% of it! The power creep has gotten insane. It needed to stop. Damage nerfs feel bad, but are a decent solution to an ongoing problem with ludicrous power creep. Let's look at the two main issues I see.
1. ORBS (this has been done to death)
We all know by now. Sustain is already kinda ass. This change needs to be looked at and revised. (2-3 orb cap makes way more sense). As I said, this has already been done to death, so let's move on.
2. Dev Meta Enforcement
And here's where the devs are driving me (and I assume many other players) away. Let me take you back to Summerset, when the heavy attack and light attack changes came through. Some folks missed a really key element to those changes - Nightblades were the only class feasibly capable of sustaining a light attack rotation. So essentially, not necessarily intentionally, the devs buffed the hell out of Nightblades. We endured a what...fourteen month Nightblade meta? Most people were sick and tired of it, and the last few patches really hit the "reset" button and improved things DRAMATICALLY. As a Warden main, the change to our damage passive seemed small, but actually brought us in line, and the game felt fantastic.
Now, I understood the why. I got the ultimate goal. There was a clear direction and purpose to the changes, with future changes reflecting that, and it all made sense. Should it have all been done at once? Absolutely. Did it ruin the game? Not really. The end result was an improved game with more classes being relevant and viable in a vacuum.
HOWEVER, the changes to DPS this patch are rough, particularly because they impact one class significantly less than any other - Necros. I've never been one to whine about a "pay wall". I've spent hundreds upon hundreds of dollars on this game. I love ESO. I don't mind paying for it. I've bought more crowns than I am at all comfortable admitting, and I didn't trade gold for them. I supported the developers directly. Let's take a look at some key changes and how they impact everyone;
- Damage Nerfs to Endless Hail and Caltrops
I kind of saw this coming a while ago. I called the Caltrops nerf at least six months ago. It never made sense why a PVP skill was integral to PVE DPS. This change is not only reasonable, I think it's good for the long-term health of the game. But we have to look at this from a broader perspective. This hits all Stamina DPS, sure, but it hits one a little less, and that is....shock and awe, Necromancer. Why? Their passive, which offers a flat 10% damage buff to over-time effects, which Caltrops and Hail both are. Necros are indirectly impacted 10% less, meaning they are natively 10% stronger than everyone else by default.
- Synergy/Sustain Nerfs
This nerf hits everyone, but one place it really hurts is for our brand new Lokkestiiz set. We all spent weeks farming daggers and jewels, getting ourselves prepped, and suddenly, Lokke is getting hit. That sucks. Know who it sucks a lot less for? Necros. Who are the ONLY CLASS IN THE GAME that can create, activate and control their own synergy in-house. That means a good Necro can feasibly sustain 75% up-time on Lokke by themselves, with no outside assistance. Start noticing the problem here?
- Class Damage Nerfs
There were a lot of these, many of them revisions to previous class buffs to help bring them in line. Reverting those to address creep makes sense. I don't take issue with that in and of itself. The problem is, Necros are already significantly higher than anyone else in the current landscape. So while each class is seeing a return to previous lower performance levels, Necro is...more or less untouched, honestly. A small nerf to archer and siphon, a very small nerf to atro, but outside of that, QoL changes to things like Siphon and Blastbones will likely INCREASE their DPS. Even in its current overtooled state, Necro tops meters consistently despite Blastbones randomly locking you out of casting it, or Siphon not even hitting quite a few bosses in any capacity.
- Power Creep
One of the reasons the power creep became so grossly unbearable was...the addition of Major Vuln through Necro. This is the critical source of the issue, yet it was hardly addressed at all, and instead of simply dumpstering the idea and starting over (or putting a 30-60 second CD on bosses being affected by Major Vuln), the solution was to dumpster literally every other DPS class? How does that make any logical sense?
I guess what i'm saying is, as someone WHO OWNS ELSWEYR, this just feels like a "Buy our DLC" push. This is ramping Necro miles ahead of everyone for no valid reason. It makes every other class significantly less wanted in trial groups. The already common heavy Stamcro raids are just going to get worse. This change benefits literally no one, from a player perspective. If you love Necro, great! They were already the top DPS and had people feverish to get them in runs. That's where they should be if Zos wants to sell Elsweyr. I take no issue with that. Other classes were still competitive. That's a fairly even, reasonable landscape.
What we've been presented is in unbalanced, poorly thought out clown fiesta with little to no direction or critical thinking. If this is the culmination of all the work you've done in the community to hear us and see things from our perspective, I give up. I'll just go back to GW2 or something. I refuse to play a game where devs forcefully restrict the meta to sell copies. That ain't my deal.
I love ESO. I really, really do. But this *** has to stop.
However, the recent PTS patch notes...well, we all know, right? But I want to touch on one issue in particular. There's two catalyst problems in this patch (to me), one is heavily addressed, the other seems to be somewhat ignored. Let me preface by saying more often than not, I see the logic behind the changes. Even if it's not immediate as to how it impacts the game, often the changes are at least okay, if not good.
In fact, for this proposed patch, I 100% agree with like 80% of it! The power creep has gotten insane. It needed to stop. Damage nerfs feel bad, but are a decent solution to an ongoing problem with ludicrous power creep. Let's look at the two main issues I see.
1. ORBS (this has been done to death)
We all know by now. Sustain is already kinda ass. This change needs to be looked at and revised. (2-3 orb cap makes way more sense). As I said, this has already been done to death, so let's move on.
2. Dev Meta Enforcement
And here's where the devs are driving me (and I assume many other players) away. Let me take you back to Summerset, when the heavy attack and light attack changes came through. Some folks missed a really key element to those changes - Nightblades were the only class feasibly capable of sustaining a light attack rotation. So essentially, not necessarily intentionally, the devs buffed the hell out of Nightblades. We endured a what...fourteen month Nightblade meta? Most people were sick and tired of it, and the last few patches really hit the "reset" button and improved things DRAMATICALLY. As a Warden main, the change to our damage passive seemed small, but actually brought us in line, and the game felt fantastic.
Now, I understood the why. I got the ultimate goal. There was a clear direction and purpose to the changes, with future changes reflecting that, and it all made sense. Should it have all been done at once? Absolutely. Did it ruin the game? Not really. The end result was an improved game with more classes being relevant and viable in a vacuum.
HOWEVER, the changes to DPS this patch are rough, particularly because they impact one class significantly less than any other - Necros. I've never been one to whine about a "pay wall". I've spent hundreds upon hundreds of dollars on this game. I love ESO. I don't mind paying for it. I've bought more crowns than I am at all comfortable admitting, and I didn't trade gold for them. I supported the developers directly. Let's take a look at some key changes and how they impact everyone;
- Damage Nerfs to Endless Hail and Caltrops
I kind of saw this coming a while ago. I called the Caltrops nerf at least six months ago. It never made sense why a PVP skill was integral to PVE DPS. This change is not only reasonable, I think it's good for the long-term health of the game. But we have to look at this from a broader perspective. This hits all Stamina DPS, sure, but it hits one a little less, and that is....shock and awe, Necromancer. Why? Their passive, which offers a flat 10% damage buff to over-time effects, which Caltrops and Hail both are. Necros are indirectly impacted 10% less, meaning they are natively 10% stronger than everyone else by default.
- Synergy/Sustain Nerfs
This nerf hits everyone, but one place it really hurts is for our brand new Lokkestiiz set. We all spent weeks farming daggers and jewels, getting ourselves prepped, and suddenly, Lokke is getting hit. That sucks. Know who it sucks a lot less for? Necros. Who are the ONLY CLASS IN THE GAME that can create, activate and control their own synergy in-house. That means a good Necro can feasibly sustain 75% up-time on Lokke by themselves, with no outside assistance. Start noticing the problem here?
- Class Damage Nerfs
There were a lot of these, many of them revisions to previous class buffs to help bring them in line. Reverting those to address creep makes sense. I don't take issue with that in and of itself. The problem is, Necros are already significantly higher than anyone else in the current landscape. So while each class is seeing a return to previous lower performance levels, Necro is...more or less untouched, honestly. A small nerf to archer and siphon, a very small nerf to atro, but outside of that, QoL changes to things like Siphon and Blastbones will likely INCREASE their DPS. Even in its current overtooled state, Necro tops meters consistently despite Blastbones randomly locking you out of casting it, or Siphon not even hitting quite a few bosses in any capacity.
- Power Creep
One of the reasons the power creep became so grossly unbearable was...the addition of Major Vuln through Necro. This is the critical source of the issue, yet it was hardly addressed at all, and instead of simply dumpstering the idea and starting over (or putting a 30-60 second CD on bosses being affected by Major Vuln), the solution was to dumpster literally every other DPS class? How does that make any logical sense?
I guess what i'm saying is, as someone WHO OWNS ELSWEYR, this just feels like a "Buy our DLC" push. This is ramping Necro miles ahead of everyone for no valid reason. It makes every other class significantly less wanted in trial groups. The already common heavy Stamcro raids are just going to get worse. This change benefits literally no one, from a player perspective. If you love Necro, great! They were already the top DPS and had people feverish to get them in runs. That's where they should be if Zos wants to sell Elsweyr. I take no issue with that. Other classes were still competitive. That's a fairly even, reasonable landscape.
What we've been presented is in unbalanced, poorly thought out clown fiesta with little to no direction or critical thinking. If this is the culmination of all the work you've done in the community to hear us and see things from our perspective, I give up. I'll just go back to GW2 or something. I refuse to play a game where devs forcefully restrict the meta to sell copies. That ain't my deal.
I love ESO. I really, really do. But this *** has to stop.