Update 25 Combat Adjustments

Stamblade

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

code65536 wrote: »

The last time there was a leak of patch notes, ZOS claimed that they were fake, yet they turned out to be accurate. So we are understandably skeptical of any claim that the latest leak is "fake", and the points brought up in this overview seems to suggest that ZOS may be lying yet again with these claims that they are "fake".

The patch notes haven't been sent to anyone to leak out. Anything you're seeing that discuss them are fake, because nobody except me has them currently.

I certainly hope so, because if the cloak fatigue is true I will find a new MMO and I'm quitting ESO and never looking back. Stealth is already weak in this game compared to others. too short, but I've made do so far...nerfing it even further makes it unplayable and you may as well just use a invis potion on a better class - which is all of them.

ebix_

is this update the one we have to download the game again ?

brandonv516

Stamblade wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

code65536 wrote: »

The last time there was a leak of patch notes, ZOS claimed that they were fake, yet they turned out to be accurate. So we are understandably skeptical of any claim that the latest leak is "fake", and the points brought up in this overview seems to suggest that ZOS may be lying yet again with these claims that they are "fake".

The patch notes haven't been sent to anyone to leak out. Anything you're seeing that discuss them are fake, because nobody except me has them currently.

I certainly hope so, because if the cloak fatigue is true I will find a new MMO and I'm quitting ESO and never looking back. Stealth is already weak in this game compared to others. too short, but I've made do so far...nerfing it even further makes it unplayable and you may as well just use a invis potion on a better class - which is all of them.

Fatigue would be fine if...

-The duration was increased
-There werent so many simple counters
-There werent so many bugs that pull you out
-They lower the base cost first
-Sustain is dramatically improved (the class already requires the highest amount of recovery)

ThePhantomThorn

Please get rid of ult cast times.
And Templar
Lol

Ramber

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Block is an ability that everyone can use at any time, which means it can create a lot of traffic for the server to handle. In our continued efforts to improve performance, we are adjusting how the ability works under the hood.

Could you please elaborate on the reason this adjustment is necessary? Are people using it so often and what are the symptoms on the server that players are encountering?

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Block is an ability that everyone can use at any time, which means it can create a lot of traffic for the server to handle. In our continued efforts to improve performance, we are adjusting how the ability works under the hood.

Could you please elaborate on the reason this adjustment is necessary? Are people using it so often and what are the symptoms on the server that players are encountering?

They are saying its written so poorly that when people block its causing lag so they are going to change or patch the conditions in which it exists.

EL3ZD33

My main is trash and has been for years.
Suboptimal pick a standard sedan in a supercar race.
Orc passives don’t even work in bgs for this ENTIRE patch.
It’s amazing anyone actually plays this game.
It’s actually frustrating and not even fun.
Bad performance. Bad balancing. Pathetic improvement.

Oh and my post will be removed for being non constructive criticism even though anything that gets constructed is definitely worthy of any and all criticism it receives.

Generic I think I’m actually done post.

If the door didn’t break on the way out because it was constructed badly enough to be criticised I’d close it behind me.

EL3ZD33

I suggest no one gets their hopes up really and truely because for 4-5 years it has been the same. What a terribly unfaithful and dishonest relationship I have had with this game.

Joy_Division

susmitds wrote: »

What about the NB class identity update?

They have one: the class that gets the most nerfs.

Inklings

ebix_ wrote: »

is this update the one we have to download the game again ?

Yes it is.

Starlock

Casterial wrote: »

From PVE point, removing block cancelling will be a disaster. All PVE tanks naturally block cancel all day long. Imagine that you need to wait for full heroic slash animation or chain animation... tanks will be killed while waiting for animation to end and since majority of damage in latest veteran content one shots if not blocked, no amount of healing can help with that.

Oh, I'm aware - I mostly tank myself. It's why I mentioned in the original comment that I don't expect this change to happen and it would likely be better suited for an ESO2. There would need to be a lot of rebalancing and retooling of game content to adjust for the shift.

Also, to be clear I'm not talking about removing block canceling but making it so abilities do not fire when block canceling. Basically, if your try your heroic slash and then block cancel, your attack doesn't actually connect, do damage, or have any of its effects. Your block otherwise goes off as normal. What this would mean for gameplay is more strategic timing of blocking, because if you activate an ability and then cancel it with a block, that ability doesn't fire. Different abilities might have different standards for whether or not they would be interrupted by blocking. Some abilities I could see being allowed to be cast while blocking, while others would cancel their effects if interrupted by a block.

To put a D&D nerd perspective on it - if an ability only requires vocal components (e.g., vigor), it can be block-casted and block canceling doesn't stop it from firing. If an ability requires somatic components (e.g., heroic slash) it can't be block casted, and block canceling will stop it from firing. It just makes way more sense to me than the super weird, unintuitive system we have now. That block canceled abilities can still connect is easily the most bizarre thing about the ESO combat system to me.

Ryskim

The Necromancer NEEDS a permanent tanking pet ASAP in the same fashion as the Unstable Clannfear.

If there is one class in this game that should have more permanent pets than any other class that's the Necromancer.

Not the Warden
Not the Sorcerer

The Necromancer. Because the very essence of a necromancer is the summoning of the dead. Stop inventing things nobody wants and fix this necromancer properly.

And I don't want to hear about "too many pet classes". Nobody complained with the Warden and the Sorcerer having several permanent pets so don't complain now.

ZOS_Volpe

Greetings

We've removed some comments as they were off topic and spread misinformation.

Please keep the conversation constructive and relevant to the topic. You may find our Community Rules here.

Thank you for your understanding.

KappaKid83

nafensoriel wrote: »

KappaKid83 wrote: »

Trying to fix server performance by "fixing" how skills work seems great and all but it doesn't really address the core issue, the SERVER. There has to be a point where someone in charge says "Ya know what, lets improve these servers" instead of these constant band aid fixes to skills and passives and sets etc.

Except its already been said many times the servers are not the issue the software running on them is.
Hardware upgrades don't do what you think they do. Adding more VMs doesn't increase performance past a certain point.

They are fixing the problem. The problem is their software. They could run ESO on tranquility3(the most powerful gaming server on the planet) and still have exactly the same problems they are having because it has nothing whatsoever to do with the hardware.

So far all their code refactors that have been released have been night and day improvements to the game as a whole. I expect this will again be a night and day improvement.

@nafensoriel Just wanted to tag you so you'd see this. I don't expressly remember reading where they said it was not a server issue and was 100% a software issue(see EU Server). Now I do fully agree that their code is most likely causing a lot of the errors but not all of them so an infrastructure bolster surely wouldn't hurt?

nafensoriel

KappaKid83 wrote: »

nafensoriel wrote: »

KappaKid83 wrote: »

Trying to fix server performance by "fixing" how skills work seems great and all but it doesn't really address the core issue, the SERVER. There has to be a point where someone in charge says "Ya know what, lets improve these servers" instead of these constant band aid fixes to skills and passives and sets etc.

Except its already been said many times the servers are not the issue the software running on them is.
Hardware upgrades don't do what you think they do. Adding more VMs doesn't increase performance past a certain point.

They are fixing the problem. The problem is their software. They could run ESO on tranquility3(the most powerful gaming server on the planet) and still have exactly the same problems they are having because it has nothing whatsoever to do with the hardware.

So far all their code refactors that have been released have been night and day improvements to the game as a whole. I expect this will again be a night and day improvement.

@nafensoriel Just wanted to tag you so you'd see this. I don't expressly remember reading where they said it was not a server issue and was 100% a software issue(see EU Server). Now I do fully agree that their code is most likely causing a lot of the errors but not all of them so an infrastructure bolster surely wouldn't hurt?

As it isn't Netflix or something requiring explicit hardware to handle their specific load it's unlikely. I'm not in the room. I can't say for 100% certain. I can say from knowing game servers that hardware is probably not their issue directly. They may need to upgrade elements of it later but you can't even start that analysis until you've solved the bottlenecks your software is causing. Hell for all we know 90% of their server sits there with a thumb up its arse while one CPU crunches heal ticks and that is the reason for all their woes. Before you say that's crazy talk... it's not. That kind of crap happens way more than you think and because players will ALWAYS FIND A WAY to break your code its generally the most likely outcome.

VaranisArano

Ryskim wrote: »

The Necromancer NEEDS a permanent tanking pet ASAP in the same fashion as the Unstable Clannfear.

If there is one class in this game that should have more permanent pets than any other class that's the Necromancer.

Not the Warden
Not the Sorcerer

The Necromancer. Because the very essence of a necromancer is the summoning of the dead. Stop inventing things nobody wants and fix this necromancer properly.

And I don't want to hear about "too many pet classes". Nobody complained with the Warden and the Sorcerer having several permanent pets so don't complain now.

Eh, only kinda, based on previous TES games. Skyrim was the first to really allow player necromancers to actually reanimate the dead as a "pet" using their spells. Oblivion only allowed it using the Staff of Worms artifact.

Beyond that, player necromancers were limited to exactly the sort of temporary summons we see in ESO.

Joy_Division

Starlock wrote: »

Casterial wrote: »

From PVE point, removing block cancelling will be a disaster. All PVE tanks naturally block cancel all day long. Imagine that you need to wait for full heroic slash animation or chain animation... tanks will be killed while waiting for animation to end and since majority of damage in latest veteran content one shots if not blocked, no amount of healing can help with that.

Oh, I'm aware - I mostly tank myself. It's why I mentioned in the original comment that I don't expect this change to happen and it would likely be better suited for an ESO2. There would need to be a lot of rebalancing and retooling of game content to adjust for the shift.

Also, to be clear I'm not talking about removing block canceling but making it so abilities do not fire when block canceling. Basically, if your try your heroic slash and then block cancel, your attack doesn't actually connect, do damage, or have any of its effects. Your block otherwise goes off as normal. What this would mean for gameplay is more strategic timing of blocking, because if you activate an ability and then cancel it with a block, that ability doesn't fire. Different abilities might have different standards for whether or not they would be interrupted by blocking. Some abilities I could see being allowed to be cast while blocking, while others would cancel their effects if interrupted by a block.

To put a D&D nerd perspective on it - if an ability only requires vocal components (e.g., vigor), it can be block-casted and block canceling doesn't stop it from firing. If an ability requires somatic components (e.g., heroic slash) it can't be block casted, and block canceling will stop it from firing. It just makes way more sense to me than the super weird, unintuitive system we have now. That block canceled abilities can still connect is easily the most bizarre thing about the ESO combat system to me.

And your suggestion, which is please get rid of animation canceling with different wording, would be a frustrating disaster.

There are many many annoying things in ESO so it's hard to pin down which is the worst offender, but not having skills fire off is definitely near the top. And you want ZOS to incorporate that as a feature?!? Hard pass, no thanks, no way.

If skills don;t fire in a game filled with one-shot and insta-kill mechanics, you are screwed and then your group is screwed. Yeah, let's totally spend months trying to clear the Twins in MoL with people b******* that their skills aren't firing. It sounds exactly how I want to spend my sunday night. ESO is very unforgiving in this respect. You can talk about strategic timing of blocking until the cows come home, but that's is not possible because of the game's overall performance, something's ZOS's own emphasis here is unequivocally acknowledging.

And how exactly do you plan on differentiating what skills have just a "vocal" requirement? Vigor? LOL, look up what the word means in the dictionary and begin to try and tell me how a skill with that name that drains your stamina does not have a somantic component.

People who think animation-cancelling and block canceling or weapon swap canceling are bizarre and unintuitive should probably find another game to play that does not have these features rather than trying to fundamentally change the game we fell in love with 6 years ago (and that's besides the disastrous effect on combat). Why is this so hard? I find it bizarre and counter-intuitive that people would insist on playing a game with basic mechanics they do not like all the while trying to convince the developers to completely change it to something they do.

KappaKid83

nafensoriel wrote: »

KappaKid83 wrote: »

nafensoriel wrote: »

KappaKid83 wrote: »

Trying to fix server performance by "fixing" how skills work seems great and all but it doesn't really address the core issue, the SERVER. There has to be a point where someone in charge says "Ya know what, lets improve these servers" instead of these constant band aid fixes to skills and passives and sets etc.

Except its already been said many times the servers are not the issue the software running on them is.
Hardware upgrades don't do what you think they do. Adding more VMs doesn't increase performance past a certain point.

They are fixing the problem. The problem is their software. They could run ESO on tranquility3(the most powerful gaming server on the planet) and still have exactly the same problems they are having because it has nothing whatsoever to do with the hardware.

So far all their code refactors that have been released have been night and day improvements to the game as a whole. I expect this will again be a night and day improvement.

@nafensoriel Just wanted to tag you so you'd see this. I don't expressly remember reading where they said it was not a server issue and was 100% a software issue(see EU Server). Now I do fully agree that their code is most likely causing a lot of the errors but not all of them so an infrastructure bolster surely wouldn't hurt?

As it isn't Netflix or something requiring explicit hardware to handle their specific load it's unlikely. I'm not in the room. I can't say for 100% certain. I can say from knowing game servers that hardware is probably not their issue directly. They may need to upgrade elements of it later but you can't even start that analysis until you've solved the bottlenecks your software is causing. Hell for all we know 90% of their server sits there with a thumb up its arse while one CPU crunches heal ticks and that is the reason for all their woes. Before you say that's crazy talk... it's not. That kind of crap happens way more than you think and because players will ALWAYS FIND A WAY to break your code its generally the most likely outcome.

Makes sense, thanks for the clarification!

RebornV3x

hopefully sorc will get some sustain and hopefully they will buff sustain to just under pre morrowind levels at this point and maybe ill come back tho this game.

FrancisCrawford

I'm with you on most of the substance, but not so much on the semantics. To me, refactoring is an important aspect of optimization.

nafensoriel wrote: »

RMerlin wrote: »

nafensoriel wrote: »

Except its already been said many times the servers are not the issue the software running on them is.

Sorry, but I don't buy it. They've been optimizing the code for four years now, and performance is still a train wreck in PvP. I still think that part of the problem is tied to the hardware and the network infrastructure.

Optimizing is not refactoring.
Optimizing is tweaking what exist.
Refactoring is ripping out that part and entirely remaking it. Internally refactored code doesn't have to remotely resemble what it was before it only has to maintain links and output as expected by other areas of the program.

You can optimize a segment of code over a weekend. You may get some improvement(probably not) but you aren't going to solve world peace doing it. If you are refactoring 10-year-old spaghetti you WILL get a performance advantage by using newer tricks and methods or exploiting advancements in technology that didn't exist when the original code was finalized.

Honestly, the obsession with server upgrades is extremely out of date. It was true in the late 90s. It isn't true now. With VM and containerized development speed between servers and speed between storage is far more important than the raw CPU speed. CPU speeds, in general, are not advancing all that quickly. A 6700k from 2015 is barely 15% slower single-core wise to a brand new state of the art ryzen. No one in software brute forces tasks anymore. We found out there are serious hard stops in doing that.

Seriously take 5 minutes and look at IBMs page on containerization.
https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/containerization
It isn't for sure this is what ZOS is doing but it will highlight some of the actual problems with servers and how we are getting around those problems today. We for darn sure aren't just chasing gigahertz anymore(and we never really did).

JumpmanLane

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Hello all!

We’d like to take some time to go over our goals for the next Update coming to ESO, and some of the more noteworthy changes you’ll see.

For Update 25, the Combat Team’s primary focus has been on performance improvements, particularly related to Block and item set proc conditions. While making these adjustments, we are also bringing any item sets affected into combat standards. As a reminder, the term “standards” means we are simply using consistent formulas that determine how much an ability should cost and how effective it should be based on various factors such as being an Area Effect, having an Over-Time effect, complexity of execution, etc. This process will continue in future updates for item sets.

Block is an ability that everyone can use at any time, which means it can create a lot of traffic for the server to handle. In our continued efforts to improve performance, we are adjusting how the ability works under the hood. You will still be able to do everything you used to with Block. What you’ll notice is animations will blend a bit differently out of a “block cancel”, but the effectiveness of an ability will remain and function the same; the ability will still fire when “block cancelled” but you won’t have any “dead time” before the global combat cooldown ends. This should also get rid of a few health desync issues when getting killing blows with abilities that have been triggered after a block cancel. By refactoring Block much the same way we did with Sprint in the previous Update, we expect the usage of that ability to be more performant.

Next, we’ve been focusing on bug fixes and conditional logic (item set and ability procs). Many abilities and item sets have to step through several requirements to fire their effect beyond their standard line of sight, cost, range, etc. From these changes, the conditions for procs will now work more reliably with their stated requirements. For example, Scathing Mage will no longer erroneously trigger from the first tick of any Damage over Time, and Reflective Scales will no longer work versus channeled effects such as Radiant Destruction. While making these fixes, many of the item sets affected have also been updated to fall in line with our item set or ability standards to ensure their overall power remains closer to their intended design.

Finally, we are addressing Magicka/Stamina sustain, especially in encounters where longer fights or prolonged damage in specific areas are required. With that in mind, we are reducing the cost of Area of Effect Damage over Time (AE DoT) abilities to reduce the pressure on your Magicka/Stamina while utilizing a rotation involving an AE DoT. This does result in a revised standard between Single Target DoTs and AE DoTs which we will be evaluating with the live game and on the PTS.

Again, our focus for U25 is primarily on performance updates and bug fixing which you’ll see in more detail when we publish the patch notes. We encourage everyone to hop on the PTS when we publish U25 to run through the adjustments and give us feedback!

What does no dead time after a skill is cancelled with block mean? Say I block cancel the animation on a whip. Does that mean the next whip will be faster minus the dead time.

Usually the animation for a whip looks like a flame shooting straight down a sword or staff. Sometimes it can seem just to be a little puff.

Block casting whips to make them faster now is pointless because of GCD. Would your tweak make them actually faster?

Shantu

Joy_Division wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Casterial wrote: »

From PVE point, removing block cancelling will be a disaster. All PVE tanks naturally block cancel all day long. Imagine that you need to wait for full heroic slash animation or chain animation... tanks will be killed while waiting for animation to end and since majority of damage in latest veteran content one shots if not blocked, no amount of healing can help with that.

Oh, I'm aware - I mostly tank myself. It's why I mentioned in the original comment that I don't expect this change to happen and it would likely be better suited for an ESO2. There would need to be a lot of rebalancing and retooling of game content to adjust for the shift.

Also, to be clear I'm not talking about removing block canceling but making it so abilities do not fire when block canceling. Basically, if your try your heroic slash and then block cancel, your attack doesn't actually connect, do damage, or have any of its effects. Your block otherwise goes off as normal. What this would mean for gameplay is more strategic timing of blocking, because if you activate an ability and then cancel it with a block, that ability doesn't fire. Different abilities might have different standards for whether or not they would be interrupted by blocking. Some abilities I could see being allowed to be cast while blocking, while others would cancel their effects if interrupted by a block.

To put a D&D nerd perspective on it - if an ability only requires vocal components (e.g., vigor), it can be block-casted and block canceling doesn't stop it from firing. If an ability requires somatic components (e.g., heroic slash) it can't be block casted, and block canceling will stop it from firing. It just makes way more sense to me than the super weird, unintuitive system we have now. That block canceled abilities can still connect is easily the most bizarre thing about the ESO combat system to me.

And your suggestion, which is please get rid of animation canceling with different wording, would be a frustrating disaster.

There are many many annoying things in ESO so it's hard to pin down which is the worst offender, but not having skills fire off is definitely near the top. And you want ZOS to incorporate that as a feature?!? Hard pass, no thanks, no way.

If skills don;t fire in a game filled with one-shot and insta-kill mechanics, you are screwed and then your group is screwed. Yeah, let's totally spend months trying to clear the Twins in MoL with people b******* that their skills aren't firing. It sounds exactly how I want to spend my sunday night. ESO is very unforgiving in this respect. You can talk about strategic timing of blocking until the cows come home, but that's is not possible because of the game's overall performance, something's ZOS's own emphasis here is unequivocally acknowledging.

And how exactly do you plan on differentiating what skills have just a "vocal" requirement? Vigor? LOL, look up what the word means in the dictionary and begin to try and tell me how a skill with that name that drains your stamina does not have a somantic component.

People who think animation-cancelling and block canceling or weapon swap canceling are bizarre and unintuitive should probably find another game to play that does not have these features rather than trying to fundamentally change the game we fell in love with 6 years ago (and that's besides the disastrous effect on combat). Why is this so hard? I find it bizarre and counter-intuitive that people would insist on playing a game with basic mechanics they do not like all the while trying to convince the developers to completely change it to something they do.

Yeah, I could go either way on the issue. On the one hand, why design animation into a game that can be cancelled? On the other, with a little practice it's not that hard to learn. At any rate, you're probably right; it's a little late in the game to start changing things now.

ZarkingFrued

In the meantime you cannot kill anyone in PVP because everyone is a heal tank. Also blues on PS4 NA have found a way to make entire groups un-targetable while standing there doing absolutely nothing. Not even blocking. This game is getting very bad. Damage needs upscaled, and there is no reason to make every single set and skill in the game do the exact same thing. You guys are running this game into the ground and have been for two years.

valeriiya

Until the performance issues are fixed it's pointless to get mad about skills that only work half the time and the set of bugs, glitches and lag is still OP

FrancisCrawford

Joy_Division wrote: »

susmitds wrote: »

What about the NB class identity update?

They have one: the class that gets the most nerfs.

Well, nightblades ARE supposed to sacrifice their own health.

FrancisCrawford

Starlock wrote: »

To put a D&D nerd perspective on it - if an ability only requires vocal components (e.g., vigor), it can be block-casted and block canceling doesn't stop it from firing. If an ability requires somatic components (e.g., heroic slash) it can't be block casted, and block canceling will stop it from firing. It just makes way more sense to me than the super weird, unintuitive system we have now. That block canceled abilities can still connect is easily the most bizarre thing about the ESO combat system to me.

D&D was improved by becoming more like MMOs, not the other way around. E.g., I'd hate to have it be the case that skills could each only be used once per day ...

nafensoriel

Shantu wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Casterial wrote: »

From PVE point, removing block cancelling will be a disaster. All PVE tanks naturally block cancel all day long. Imagine that you need to wait for full heroic slash animation or chain animation... tanks will be killed while waiting for animation to end and since majority of damage in latest veteran content one shots if not blocked, no amount of healing can help with that.

Oh, I'm aware - I mostly tank myself. It's why I mentioned in the original comment that I don't expect this change to happen and it would likely be better suited for an ESO2. There would need to be a lot of rebalancing and retooling of game content to adjust for the shift.

Also, to be clear I'm not talking about removing block canceling but making it so abilities do not fire when block canceling. Basically, if your try your heroic slash and then block cancel, your attack doesn't actually connect, do damage, or have any of its effects. Your block otherwise goes off as normal. What this would mean for gameplay is more strategic timing of blocking, because if you activate an ability and then cancel it with a block, that ability doesn't fire. Different abilities might have different standards for whether or not they would be interrupted by blocking. Some abilities I could see being allowed to be cast while blocking, while others would cancel their effects if interrupted by a block.

To put a D&D nerd perspective on it - if an ability only requires vocal components (e.g., vigor), it can be block-casted and block canceling doesn't stop it from firing. If an ability requires somatic components (e.g., heroic slash) it can't be block casted, and block canceling will stop it from firing. It just makes way more sense to me than the super weird, unintuitive system we have now. That block canceled abilities can still connect is easily the most bizarre thing about the ESO combat system to me.

And your suggestion, which is please get rid of animation canceling with different wording, would be a frustrating disaster.

There are many many annoying things in ESO so it's hard to pin down which is the worst offender, but not having skills fire off is definitely near the top. And you want ZOS to incorporate that as a feature?!? Hard pass, no thanks, no way.

If skills don;t fire in a game filled with one-shot and insta-kill mechanics, you are screwed and then your group is screwed. Yeah, let's totally spend months trying to clear the Twins in MoL with people b******* that their skills aren't firing. It sounds exactly how I want to spend my sunday night. ESO is very unforgiving in this respect. You can talk about strategic timing of blocking until the cows come home, but that's is not possible because of the game's overall performance, something's ZOS's own emphasis here is unequivocally acknowledging.

And how exactly do you plan on differentiating what skills have just a "vocal" requirement? Vigor? LOL, look up what the word means in the dictionary and begin to try and tell me how a skill with that name that drains your stamina does not have a somantic component.

People who think animation-cancelling and block canceling or weapon swap canceling are bizarre and unintuitive should probably find another game to play that does not have these features rather than trying to fundamentally change the game we fell in love with 6 years ago (and that's besides the disastrous effect on combat). Why is this so hard? I find it bizarre and counter-intuitive that people would insist on playing a game with basic mechanics they do not like all the while trying to convince the developers to completely change it to something they do.

Yeah, I could go either way on the issue. On the one hand, why design animation into a game that can be cancelled? On the other, with a little practice it's not that hard to learn. At any rate, you're probably right; it's a little late in the game to start changing things now.

Animation canceling exists because the design ethos of ESO was originally "active combat" where at any time you could stop what you are doing and dodge or block an attack. This inadvertently allowed animation canceling which was later adopted as a feature.

Gnortranermara

nafensoriel wrote: »

This inadvertently allowed animation canceling which was later adopted as a feature.

That was one of the worst mistakes in ESO combat dev history. They should've removed swap-cancelling (queue the swap to happen after the skill finishes) and made all block-cancelled and roll-cancelled effects gain a 50% miss chance (or damage reduction) so it wouldn't be a desirable thing to use for DPS purposes (but still worked to save you in a pinch and maybe do damage if it hits).

Ragnarock41

SidewalkChalk5 wrote: »

nafensoriel wrote: »

This inadvertently allowed animation canceling which was later adopted as a feature.

That was one of the worst mistakes in ESO combat dev history. They should've removed swap-cancelling (queue the swap to happen after the skill finishes) and made all block-cancelled and roll-cancelled effects gain a 50% miss chance (or damage reduction) so it wouldn't be a desirable thing to use for DPS purposes (but still worked to save you in a pinch and maybe do damage if it hits).

What exactly are you smoking good sir?

Gnortranermara

Ragnarock41 wrote: »

What exactly are you smoking good sir?

https://eso-skillbook.com/skill/green-lotus

ThePainGuy

Thanks for the update @ZOS_BrianWheeler.

Performance: Hopefully we have some drastic improvements in performance for PVE and PVP in 2020. Quite frankly, nothing else in game matters if the performance is subpar over the course of the year. I know there is a plan outlined by you guys over Q1 and Q2 2020 and we patiently await the results of these efforts.

Champion Points: Murkmire (Q4 2018) was the last time champion points were increased. So for over a year PVE and PVP has remained at same power level. Hopefully we as a community can get a glimpse into your plans to improve end game progression.

Abilities and Passives: There was a massive overhaul to active abilities over the course of 2019 (cast time on certain ultimate abilities still a hot topic). Per Zos: passives were supposed to be addressed in the future. Is there still a plan to look at passives for classes, weapon skill lines, guilds (mages/fighters), armor lines (improved sneak passive for medium armor needs to be combat useful etc...), Vampire and Werewolf passives. In addition will ZOS do another pass over racial passives after a year of review of racial passive changes from wrathstone Q1 2019?

Classes: Warden and Necromancer have new format of DPS, healing, tanking category of skill lines. Both these classes also have a great mix of magicka and stamina morphs within these classes. Is this approach going to be applied to the original four classes of ESO? (Stam sorcs still have very little utilization from their class. Bounds armaments a good step in right direction, hopefully we can get more in the future)

Sorry for the long list of inquiries here. I think it would be cool if the community is given a vision of the long term goals in how the combat team plans to address combat balance over the year 2020. (ie Q1 classes reformatting/balance, Q2 Champion points or end game progression overhaul, Q3 Combat/Racial Passives adjustments, Q4 item set rebalancing/standardization -- perfected master and perfected maelstrom weapons, etc...)