PTS Patch Notes v5.3.2

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The Elder Scrolls Online v5.3.2 introduces the Jester’s Festival for testing, which adds a new pet to collect! We’ve also made a number of fixes for the Harrowstorm dungeons, and applied fixes or adjustments for several item sets. Additionally, we’ve implemented one fix for Block and are still investigating additional situations where you may appear to be blocking, but are not gaining the damage mitigation.

This week, we’ve copied over all PC EU characters, and still have two templates available for you to utilize. Please note that next week will be the final PTS patch for this update since we need additional time to prep the final build with the full re-download, so make sure to get all your remaining feedback sent over! The size of this patch is approximately 288MB.

• New Features / Updates / Big Changes
• Fixes & Improvements
  • DLCs & Chapters
    • Clockwork City
    • Dragonbones
    • Elsweyr
    • Harrowstorm
    • Morrowind
    • Orsinium
  • Combat & Gameplay
    • Combat & Abilities
    • Itemization & Item Sets
  • Base Game
    • Alliance War & PvP
    • Combat & Gameplay
    • Crafting & Economy
    • Exploration & Itemization
    • Miscellaneous
    • Quests & Zones
    • UI

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Jester’s Festival
Jester’s Festival returns to Tamriel for testing this week! If you have not participated in the Jester’s Festival before, you can visit the Quest Starters section of the Crown Store to grab your free bestowal note, or visit the festival tents in Ebonheart, Daggerfall, or Vulkhel Guard.

• Completing your first daily quest each day per account gives you a Stupendous Jester’s Festival Box, which drops a fragment for a new pet, the Sovereign Sow!
• Subsequent quests you complete award a standard Jester’s Festival Box, which can reward festival toys, furnishings, or valuable items for sale.

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Monster Abilities

• Shade Sentinel
  • Fixed an issue where Shadow Slice did not behave correctly when blocked.

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Dungeons

• Fang Lair
  • Orryn the Black and Thurvokun
    • Yisareh will now turn to face the Animus Crystals when using her beam.
    • Orryn will now turn to face the Animus Crystals when activating them.
    • The nameplate above Thurvokun is now easier to see.

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Sunspire Trial

• The following abilities will now play the correct impact sound effects:
  • Alkosh’s Will’s Furious Sweeps
  • Fury of Alkosh’s Furious Swipe
  • Fiery Rage

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Dungeons

• Icereach
  • General
    • Fixed several instances of text and VO mismatches throughout the dungeon.
    • Removed the fake Augur of the Obscure the witches had displayed.
    • The door just before Bani's Laboratory door is now open by default and no longer requires an interaction to open.
  • Kjarg the Tuskscraper
    • Dying to Arctic Annihilation will no longer cause the visual effects for your resurrection to appear differently.
    • Kjarg the Tuskscraper now deals more damage with his melee strikes while Glacial Rage is active.
    • Kjarg the Tuskscraper now smashes a partially formed Frost Atronach when he rises up and breaks out of his chains.
    • Improved the visuals on Kjarg the Tuskscraper's Glacial Enrage so it's easier to tell at a glance when the ability is active.
  • Sister Skelga
    • The Elf Bane armor set no longer causes Fiery Radiation to stop dealing damage.
  • Vearogh The Shambler
    • Vearogh's initial visual effects will no longer replay once you leave and re-enter the area.
• Unhallowed Grave
  • General
    • Fixed several instances of text and VO mismatches throughout the dungeon.
    • Relocated a grappling post in the Accursed Canyon.
  • Keeper of the Kiln
    • The Fiery Vent ability will now correctly end when the Keeper of the Kiln is defeated.
    • Fennorian will no longer hang out in The Kiln longing for the return of his new player friends.
    • Player characters that perish in the upper grapple point areas will now have their corpse teleported to the lower section.
  • Ondagore the Mad
    • Malediction no longer disables the grappling posts on the central island.
    • Spirit Lance is no longer cast in between Soul Shatter.
    • Soul Shatter now more accurately targets player characters.
    • Falling into the chasm around Ondagore the Mad will now reliably kill and teleport your character to the central island.
  • Kjalnar Tombskald
    • Blocked access to locations that could be used to exploit the boss.
    • Imbued Skeletons will no longer have a chance to persist when the encounter resets.
    • Extra ritual circles present as part of Hard Mode will no longer persist when the encounter resets.
    • Adjusted the timing on Freezing Breath and Blistering Brimstone abilities used by Tzirzhalir.
    • Increased the damage of Freezing Breath on Hard Mode.

General

• The Windhelm Scale Tunic pieces now use the appropriate icons per item.

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Halls of Fabrication Trial

• Refabrication Committee
  • Increased the minimum range at which the Reclaimer can summon Ruined Fabricants into the fight.
  Developer Comment:
  This should provide more time to kill the Ruined Fabricants before they reach the Reclaimer and become empowered.

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Quests

• The Ashes of Our Fathers: Fixed an issue where you could advance the quest prematurely during the flashback, blocking the remainder of the quest.

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General

• Fixed an issue where jumping or entering water while activating Block could cause your character to fail to gain the benefits of Block. 
  • Note: We are still investigating additional situations where you may appear to be blocking, but are not gaining the damage mitigation or other functions. 

Nightblade

• Shadow
  • Path of Darkness: Fixed an issue where the visual effects from this ability could persist longer than intended.    

Warden

• Green Balance
  • Fungal Growth: Fixed an issue where the visual effects for this ability could display at incorrect angles. As a result of this fix, however, it will no longer conform to terrain. 
    • Enchanted Growth (morph): Fixed an issue where the visual effects of this morph would not refresh if the ability was recast early. 

World

• Werewolf
  • Fixed an issue on the Werewolf introduction quest where your ability bars could be empty. 

Item Sets

• The following item sets will now more appropriately react to your block state to display their functions:
  • Duneripper’s Scales
  • Frozen Watcher
  • Grave Guardian
  • Hist Bark
• Aegis Caller:
  • Reduced the duration of this set to 11 seconds from 12 seconds. 
  • Increased the cooldown to 12 seconds from 10 seconds. 
  • Reduced the damage per tick to 3730 from 4880.
  Developer Comment:
  The original values in the first PTS patch were residual testing numbers; apologies for the confusion this caused! The new duration and cooldown should also fix some issues where the Aegis Caller could continue dealing damage as it was spinning down, and would deal “ghost” damage when it was spinning up as well since its cooldown was shorter than its duration.
• Duneripper’s Scales: Increased the amount of Armor this set grants to 5310, up from 4300. This change was missed when we originally implemented Grave Guardian.
• Elfbane: Fixed an issue where this set was not increasing the duration of Wall of Fire or its morphs. 
• Iceheart: 
  • Reduced the damage shield this set provides to 6050 from 8600. 
  • Reduced the damage per tick to 500 from 770. 
  • Increased the cooldown to 12 seconds from 6. 
  Developer Comment:
  Iceheart has long been a powerful defensive set that has become a staple for situations where you want to sacrifice damage for survivability, especially in instances such as Maelstrom Arena and no-death Trial runs. While we love the idea of this set helping in those contexts, the value of defensive and offensive potential this set provided was leagues beyond our standards when comparing it to other sets such as Brands of the Imperium or Phoenix. 
• Kjalnir’s Nightmare: Fixed an issue where the stun and damage from this set could be dodged in some instances. The counter play of this set is meant to be applying defensive bonuses or blocking the moment the fifth stack appears, and the delay telegraph warns you the attack is coming. 
• Mother Ciannait: 
  • Reduced the duration and cooldown of this item set to 6 seconds each, down from 10 seconds each. 
  • Increased the shield value to 5000 from 3000. 
  • This set now also restores 600 Magicka if the shield is broken.
  Developer Comment:
  This set’s initial design felt lackluster compared to some alternatives and didn’t feel like it brought anything special to the table in comparison. While we wanted a set that wouldn’t be too defensively enabling, we also wanted to make sure that builds utilizing cast times, such as Heavy Attacks or channels, had a slight buffer zone since they leave themselves vulnerable while they partake in these actions. We’ve opted to help this set stand out a bit more by rewarding offensive players who get full use out of the shield with a slight Magicka restore, as well as increasing the chance this could happen by reducing the overall cooldown. 
• Unchained Aggressor: 
  • Reduced the duration of this set’s bonus to 6 seconds from 9 seconds. 
  • Reduced the cooldown to 16 seconds from 21 seconds. 
  • Fixed an issue where the Major Berserk of this set was not affected by Jorvuld’s Guidance.
  Developer Comment:
  While we’re relatively happy with how this set rewards players for going on the offensive during a moment where you’d normally need to go on the defensive, we’ve heard loud and clear that this window was far too long for how it could occur, and felt too easy to reliably proc off cooldown. We’ve reduced the duration to still be long enough to allow you to spend at least a second or two healing yourself before going on the attack, but we’ve intentionally put the cooldown on an inefficient timer with the natural 7 second cadence of CC immunity; you’ll have to think more about when to CC break to proc it, rather than constantly getting its effect at the same time. 
• Vykosa: 
  • This set now reduces the target’s Weapon and Spell Damage by up to 20% for 5 seconds with a 15 second cooldown, rather than reducing it by up to 268 for 8 seconds with a 12 second cooldown. 
  • Fixed an issue where this set did not replace itself if another source was applied. It will now apply the most powerful version of the set to the target if two sources are applied at the same time.
  Developer Comment:
  Based on a lot of the feedback we’ve read, the original design of Vykosa being a powerful damage reduction source for a short window was generally a success. However, the set was far too enabling for the very select few groups who could fully utilize its power with its incredibly short duration, leading to huge power deltas in experiences with it. The swap to make it more passive with a lesser effect didn’t yield the results we had hoped for, so we’re putting it back into a category where it’s strong for a short period of time, but we’ve increased that duration a bit to help it be more usable in situations where you haven’t perfectly memorized the time frames for each attack. Additionally, we opted for a percentage reduction over a flat decrease to prevent situations where groups could stack this with other damage reduction sources, such as Mending or Weakening enchants, and significantly reduce the threat an enemy could pose. 

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General

• Practice Siege Repair Kits are now bind on pickup.
• Skirmisher Guards at Castle Brindle are no longer in locations where they cannot be hit.

Battlegrounds

• Fixed some areas in Eld Angavar where your character could access locations they shouldn’t be able to.

Monster Abilities

• Defender
  • Power Bash now properly prevents the player blocking during its stagger effect.
• NPC Nightblade
  • The Damage over Time from Soul Tether now ends when the caster dies.

General

• Fixed an issue where the incorrect Crafting Writ quests were being granted.

General

• Adjusted the Replica Jubilee Cake 2020 Furnishing to always be available for purchase from the Impresario during the 2020 Anniversary Jubilee event.

General

• Fixed a few issues that were leading to game crashes.

Activity Finder

• Groups can now be modified while in a Ready Check, but doing so will remove you from the Ready Check.
• Fixed an issue where you could be temporarily blocked from leaving an Activity Finder queue.

Greymoor Prologue Quest

• Fixed a number of worldbuilding issues including floating cabinets, misaligned doors, and missing fixtures associated with this quest.
• Using the quest medallion now displays the proper animation and correct prop.
• You may now return to Blackreach after completing the final quest.
• Fixed an issue where you could retake the prologue quests even after completing them.

General

• Adjusted where the Greymoor Prologue quest is located in the Achievement panel.
• Icons for the Windhelm Scale Tunic, Windhelm Scale Shoulder, and Windhelm Scale Belt now display correctly.
• Fixed an issue that caused a number of items with "U22" in the name to appear in the guild store name search.

Gamepad Mode

• Fixed an issue where the "Furnishing Limit Type" label would not appear correctly on tooltips shown in the Crown Store when inside a house.
• Fixed an issue where the Crown Store would always open to the ESO Plus tab if you navigated to it from the Announcements screen.