A different game with every patch. Think about what you're doing ZOS!

fboostb16_ESO

Hi ZOS,

The game is very confused and doesn't know where it's going. One patch the gameplay is AOE based the next patch DOT based and after that who knows. Players are turning away from ESO over the confusion. Even when people like to play games, but they also like to know what game they're playing.
Changes are implemented based on criteria we don't really understand. The gameplay seemed ok, at least on the PVE side for me. These changes affect the play style and turn it on itself and they seem very random. I'd like to see some plan that focusses on what the gameplay should be in the future and to follow that up with a strategy. Is the gameplay AOE based, DOT based or direct damage based? Please pick one and stick with it or at least prioritise one. If you want to bring up all damage types to be equal thats fine, but the constant rotation in focus is not. Your process right now of getting wherever you want the gameplay to go is more broken than the gameplay itself ever was at any point, in my opinion.
At the moment there isn't even enough time to really get to know the new gameplay and find out about balanced and unbalanced parts, or let alone give feedback. With every patch everyone has to adjust to playing a totally different game and I don't like it.

Darkenarlol

the crown store is the consistant safe haven in

Elder screw-your-build-every-update Online isn't it?

MirkoZ

100% agree...

Ambrokid

ChunkyCat

I have just enough time to get used to the way it was changed previously, then it changes again.

That’s kind of annoying >,>

Dottzgaming

This could not be any more true. honestly, if this keeps happening, they will continue to drive more and more players away from their game.

If you look at Elsweyr, Scalebreaker, and Dragonhold, it looks like 3 totally different games with 3 totally different intended playstyles combat wise.

They need to just pick a direction and run with it, because this constant ping ponging of intended design philosophy is exhausting and burning their player base out.

jaws343

I think people have been missing the point of the last few updates. They have been trying to bring specific types of damage in line with the same types of damage. They have been doing this so that it is easier to balance DOTs, or AOEs as a whole, rather than having to apply a 10% nerf here and a 60% nerf there to the same type of damage. To expect that type of balancing to not cause wild swings of the meta for a handful of patches is naive. Once they finish their skills audit, it would seem that we would see less wild swings and more steadied adjustments. But we just have to be patient. And it isn't like this should be coming as a surprise either, they explicitly mentioned that they were going to take a handful of patches to readjust skills and gear sets across the board.

juhislihis19

DOTs are too strong? Tone them down a bit, start with a mild 10% decrease.

Onslaught too strong? Reduce it just a few seconds.

PVP filled with a certain class after the patch? Find the reason, a passive or CP broken? Fix it. Other classes nerfed too much ? Bring them in line.

A skill hits too much damage? Again, tone it a bit but don't change secondary effects, especially if the skill is already well used and liked.

This is how many players would like to handle things, step by step. But instead of buffing classes lagging behind, ZOS will nerf heavily the #1 class and repeat.

Sick and tired of skills and classes getting totally nerfed/buffed/nerfed/tweaked/buffed back and forth when I'm at a point when I don't know what's going on.

jcm2606

jaws343 wrote: »

I think people have been missing the point of the last few updates. They have been trying to bring specific types of damage in line with the same types of damage. They have been doing this so that it is easier to balance DOTs, or AOEs as a whole, rather than having to apply a 10% nerf here and a 60% nerf there to the same type of damage. To expect that type of balancing to not cause wild swings of the meta for a handful of patches is naive. Once they finish their skills audit, it would seem that we would see less wild swings and more steadied adjustments. But we just have to be patient. And it isn't like this should be coming as a surprise either, they explicitly mentioned that they were going to take a handful of patches to readjust skills and gear sets across the board.

That doesn't change the fact that they've still be yoyoing the entire time, though.

I mean, you look at a skill like Caltrops, which had its damage increased during Elsweyr to adhere to the AoE DoT standard, then had it damage cut by a full 60% in Scalebreaker, as they decided it was actually a utility skill instead of an AoE DoT, seemingly on the spot.

Or Fiery Breath, to which they increased the damage during Elsweyr by 200% to bring it in like with the PBAoE standard, then reduced the damage by 15% and increased the cost by 108, even though it was adhering to the PBAoE standard, as they made sure of that the previous patch.

It's the same thing here. During Elsweyr, they increased the damage of Twin Slashes by 15% to bring it in line with the single-target DoT standard. During Scalebreaker, they further increased the damage by 37% to make up for the loss of damage due to bleeds being reworked (the base damage must have inherently been lower to account for the full pen of bleeds). And now, with Dragonhold, it was slashed by 63%.

If they had a clear goal in mind, why buff it two patches in a row, then immediately gut it so harshly? They didn't plan for these DoT nerfs. These DoT nerfs are a knee jerk reaction to Entropy and Soul Trap overperforming, causing the dominance of DoT playstyles we've seen during Scalebreaker.

Except, as per usual, ZoS doesn't look at what they did to cause the problem (over-buff Entropy & Soul Trap), they look at the mechanic the problem involves, and decided to gut the mechanic to solve the problem.

This patch wasn't even part of the audit, the audit on some of these skills was done way back during Elsweyr, so the audit isn't the reason for these changes. These changes are the result of a knee jerk reaction to Entropy and Soul Trap overperforming, and nothing more.

TheGreatBlackBear

Dottzgaming wrote: »

This could not be any more true. honestly, if this keeps happening, they will continue to drive more and more players away from their game.

If you look at Elsweyr, Scalebreaker, and Dragonhold, it looks like 3 totally different games with 3 totally different intended playstyles combat wise.

They need to just pick a direction and run with it, because this constant ping ponging of intended design philosophy is exhausting and burning their player base out.

@Dottzgaming Honestly I blame you. The devs saw your stamdk pvp videos and how OP they were and decided that enough was enough. So everything got gutted.

XIIICaesar

TheGreatBlackBear wrote: »

Dottzgaming wrote: »

This could not be any more true. honestly, if this keeps happening, they will continue to drive more and more players away from their game.

If you look at Elsweyr, Scalebreaker, and Dragonhold, it looks like 3 totally different games with 3 totally different intended playstyles combat wise.

They need to just pick a direction and run with it, because this constant ping ponging of intended design philosophy is exhausting and burning their player base out.

@Dottzgaming Honestly I blame you. The devs saw your stamdk pvp videos and how OP they were and decided that enough was enough. So everything got gutted.

One play style of one class didn't cause them to nerf all those sets, all those class abilities, & buff all those other abilities. Not to mention making a lot of abilities get so many changes they're not even the same ability anymore.

jcm2606

TheGreatBlackBear wrote: »

Dottzgaming wrote: »

This could not be any more true. honestly, if this keeps happening, they will continue to drive more and more players away from their game.

If you look at Elsweyr, Scalebreaker, and Dragonhold, it looks like 3 totally different games with 3 totally different intended playstyles combat wise.

They need to just pick a direction and run with it, because this constant ping ponging of intended design philosophy is exhausting and burning their player base out.

@Dottzgaming Honestly I blame you. The devs saw your stamdk pvp videos and how OP they were and decided that enough was enough. So everything got gutted.

I feel like maybe you dropped your /s? Maybe?

Rehdaun

Combat development...

Azyle1

This thread has truth to it no matter which side of the argument you are on.

Every patch seems to make players have to relearn the game.

DonRavello

I already cancelled my subscription when Scalebreaker broke the game. Now I will most likely also stop playing ... it doesn't make any sense.

I am not a quick learner when it comes to rotations and I don't want to start the same exercise every patch again ... countless hours on stupid dummies to get to an acceptable DPS again (not even good, just acceptable).

bstevenguyb14_ESO

Time to clean house zos. That means firing everyone on your current "balance" team. Im done spending any money or time on your game until you stabalize.

Major_Lag

bstevenguyb14_ESO wrote: »

That means firing everyone on your current "balance" team.

I hope that you mean "firing" as in, setting them all on fire? Because that would be the correct response to the current situation.

EtTuBrutus

Ambrokid wrote: »

master_vanargand

ZOS decides everything with dice.

1: all nerf
2: more nerf
3: many nerf
4: enjoy nerf
5: smile nerf
6: buff a little

Dice roll...1...fumble! All nerf now.