Want to tank DPS output? Here's a way less dramatic solution

msalvia

Of course, I doubt I'm smarter than the ZoS team, and they almost definitely though of (and rejected) this, but couldn't we achieve the goal of fighting power creep in a less dramatic way? Instead of the 9+ changes to lower dps #s (see my other post), which has brought out the Chicken Little in many of us, why not just nerf crit damage? In my experience, it's only the top-tier players who really know how to use crit to its max potential, and those are exactly the players who are driving the perception of power creep--find me a 70k+ dps who isn't juicing the crit system. What if, for instance, crit only did 25% extra damage? or if there was some kind of cap on crit chance? Or cut out ways to juice overall crit damage? That would seem to target the actual group of overperformers without making pugs even more intolerable than they already are.

If the goal is to cut power creep, what this patch does is punishes low-tier and mid-tier players (most of whom already struggle in vet stuff) while causing top-tier players to make a few changes and more-or-less keep their numbers the same. Point being, as-it, this patch is gonna make some players incapable of completing stuff they currently can. They already "got gud" enough to clear this stuff, and believe it or not, this a game, not work. It's not gonna stop elite players from completing stuff with--but it sure is gonna inflate the number of carries they can sell!

Spartabunny08

Cut or stop power creep, they stopped CP before Elsweyr and after Elsweyr DPS went up to 90K. Proves right there it is not just CP. This train is off the rails no one knows where it's going... Lol

akray21

They are trying to balance dps around the top 1%. I only pull ~38k dps and whenever I run vet pug dungeons I'm always doing more dps than my mate, and it's typically barely enough dps to beat the harder 4 man content. If dps is really taking a big hit this patch it's going to get ugly for more casual players.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

This is what is so confusing. On the one hand ZOS is sending the signal that they want to nerf our damage, the assumption being that they are trying to stop or mitigate power creep. Admittedly, damage is pretty freaking high at the moment.

On the other hand, they just introduced Lokkeztiiz and major vulnerability along with the biggest stack and burn trial they have ever released. On day one of the patch notes, it was clear as day that the new set on a stamcro was going to be meta, and seeing 8 Stamcros in VSS is quickly becoming the norm, because frankly, why would you bring anything else.

The later changes make me struggle to buy for one second that ZOS cares in the slightest about power creep.

Also, power creep is inevitable in an MMO and as long as it’s not rampant, it’s actually desirable to some degree. People want their characters to continue to feel more powerful. It allows content to become more accessible over time, but still have release difficulty that merits a progression. It allows the devs to continue to release new gear without constantly hitting things with a nerf hammer.

As usual, the issue is that it seems like nobody is driving the damn boat here. They are making life more difficult because it seems the marketing team is behind making the new class and sets OP, but we also have a combat team trying to nerf everything in site for “balance”.