Maintenance for the week of October 12:
• PC/Mac: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – October 12, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) – 8:00AM EDT (12:00 UTC)
• Xbox One: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – October 14, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) – 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®4: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – October 14, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) – 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC)
• PC/Mac: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – October 12, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) – 8:00AM EDT (12:00 UTC)
• Xbox One: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – October 14, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) – 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®4: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – October 14, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) – 9:00AM EDT (13:00 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/
On the Issue of Current Changes to Combat
Other than this one, I've only made one other stand alone post. That one being housing related and like so many of my comments on this forum, it's of a tongue and cheek nature. As is often the necessity with ESO when aiming to stay with them, I do my best to take things with a grain of salt. To keep perspective that this is as many often remind; an MMO. And that the nature of MMOs is this daunting and at times, begrudging gauntlet of change and adjustment. I like many others have had my seasons of frustration, taking a break here and there. It was in fact fairly recently a few months back that I decided to take yet another break after some of the skill cost increases and other changes that effectively removed some of my steady and standard skills from my rotation. It was a good break and I returned taking a deep breath, rolling up my proverbial sleeves, and digging back in to adjust from that previous update. Right away as expected I could feel the cost increases and I did (and still do) miss the stun I once enjoyed so much on my Master Lightning staff via Clench. That isn't to argue over meta or if it was ideal or most efficient to use in PvP specifically. But it was an enjoyable play style. And that brings me to the heart of this post; combat. Combat and the flow, logic, and enjoyment of it in ESO, particularly in competitive scenarios be they hard mode trials or PvP. My stance will admittedly be leaning more into PvP but both I believe have equal bearing in relation to this change.
Prior to this recent update and the changes to block, I could adequately maintain decent animation canceling and thus use various needed defensive and healing buffs in fast succession and carry over via barswap to attack. It was never completely smooth nor the best in terms of "fast game play" when I compare it to other forms of pvp in other games. But, again, as often has been stated, it's an MMO and should be looked at through such a lens. And so in spite of the "clunky" need to manhandle my controller to pull off animation canceling, it was doable and made ESO stand out among other MMO's which many others have said as well. I've never been the biggest fan of the technique and have felt at times it had alot to be desired. That being said I did feel confident in spite of the power creep, the ball groups, and zergs, that I usually could hold my own to some reasonable degree in PvP, be it CP or no CP. Likewise, I felt ever confident to tackle most any vet dungeon or difficult trial with animation canceling. Ironically at times the fun for me lay in being able to pull a degrading situation with teammates falling left and right to a boss together because I was able to quickly manage my buffs and the situation via animation canceling. In short, in any and every difficult and demanding scenario in ESO I felt I had some semblance of control over the situation and my character because I could rely on an "overall skill", animation canceling, that allowed me close to the reaction time and input I place on my controller. In my mind it's one thing to die or fail to a mechanic, or to an enemy because I was ignorant of my characters abilities or how a boss fight worked. Even typical lag that we all face while frustrating is expected to some degree in online gaming. But it is an altogether different beast when our reaction time and input are delayed by design.
After reviewing so many posts about PC's experience post patch I was nervous. A few fellow console players sent out requests asking how everyone's experience was going post update. Those seemed scattered in response and difficult to equate. I decided to hold out until I had a chance myself to logon and see. And see I did. Now, I've been in ESO since 2015 and weathered all the various updates and changes over the years. I'm by no means a leader board braggart or an instantly recognizable nemesis. I wasn't around since Beta and i'm not pulling massive numbers on a test dummy. All that being said, I have always been steady and capable to clear most any content and hold my own in PvP. Regarding the update yesterday evening, a fellow guildy was quick to point out how typical it was to have such lag and delay after any substantial patch and I agreed. But this felt...different. Never mind the slow lag until all stood still at a keep and my eventual DC to the Xbox menu on 4 occasions. Never mind even the typical lag and delay in skills we've all come to know and love. Both which I and countless others have adjusted to previously before this update. What stood out now was combat. Things I never lost even a fraction of my health to before were bringing me to the brink of death. Situations I once easily could buff through and DPS down with relative ease were now taxing and slow. The input to skills felt consistent in that it insisted I complete a skill (animation and all) before registering my next skill. Moreover if I tried to violate this it would negate my input fully and I would have to try that next skill all over again. So in situations where I once would block cancel a buff to a heal in 2 seconds now took 3 seconds or even 4. If I pressed the skills too quickly in succession it would cause a "negate" to my activation and thus cause me to have to redo the skill again. Though the time frame seems minuscule, in combat it has meant the difference between executing an enemy at low health, or watching helplessly as said enemy bursts back to full while I feverishly tap at buttons that wont respond and at times punish me for being too quick. Example: I was playing in a small group with two other guildies who noticed the exact same consistent issues. Enemies we once burned through with little thought, became drawn out long battles that we (and could tell by our enemy) were left wondering what the heck was going on. We could see the stutter of the enemy as they tried buffs that didn't quite fire or the struggle to line up combos in succession.
Now I have seen Gilliam's video. I have heard the extensive explanations and reasoning on how animation canceling hasn't changed. I've seen PC players who said it was inconsequential and a simply adjustment in ones timing. Bearing these things in mind I tried to experiment with my timing. All I could gather in my results was that if one waited a half a second after casting a skill, to then activate a block cancel, then it did indeed animation cancel the skill...somewhat. To me it seemed however to negate the purpose of original animation canceling in the first place. One caveat to this is bar swap. If I were to cast a single skill on one bar and bar swap it did feel exactly like the old way of canceling. Quick, swift and responsive allowing me to jump to another skill quickly. However only being able to cancel a single skill via bar swap meant I lost my "buff bar" in which I could maintain multiple skills quickly before switching. I don't claim mastery over animation canceling as a whole. I also will readily admit i'm sure there are avenues of canceling I don't "get" which other forum goers have posted in frustration to the anti-animation cancel community who decry it.
So what i'm sharing is my understanding and experience prior to this update and now post update in both a PvP and PvE setting. And while i've been able to weather the changes via Murkmire and other huge sweeping updates, this one does feel uniquely heavy and impactful to combat. Impactful in such a way that in my observation it looks as if it will further reinforce the ball groups and heavy meta as players try to mitigate lesser performance by absorbing into a group and spamming executes and light attacks. No doubt people will do this regardless. No doubt these game play styles existed before and will persist. But what is troubling is the perceived bottleneck ZOS seems to be pressing us into by taking away our control over our classes and play style. Like the weathering of a rock, they have slowly taken our sustain, skills we enjoyed (frags stun, dizzy stun as examples) and now possibly our very control over reaction time and skill input.
If i'm overstating these things I welcome the rebuttal. If i'm sorely mistaken on multiple accounts, and combat hasn't changed and it's a temporary anomaly or easily adjusted then I also (happily) welcome the response to those and how it's adjusted to. All the Sheldons and Dwight Shrutes of ESO can descend down on me in cold hard analytical angst and snark and insult me into soil of Tamriel and I will happily take the nerd tea bagging if im wrong. And sincerely hope I am wrong. Because in spite of all the issues, I, like so many others, have persisted in loving ESO for so many of its redeeming qualities.
Prior to this recent update and the changes to block, I could adequately maintain decent animation canceling and thus use various needed defensive and healing buffs in fast succession and carry over via barswap to attack. It was never completely smooth nor the best in terms of "fast game play" when I compare it to other forms of pvp in other games. But, again, as often has been stated, it's an MMO and should be looked at through such a lens. And so in spite of the "clunky" need to manhandle my controller to pull off animation canceling, it was doable and made ESO stand out among other MMO's which many others have said as well. I've never been the biggest fan of the technique and have felt at times it had alot to be desired. That being said I did feel confident in spite of the power creep, the ball groups, and zergs, that I usually could hold my own to some reasonable degree in PvP, be it CP or no CP. Likewise, I felt ever confident to tackle most any vet dungeon or difficult trial with animation canceling. Ironically at times the fun for me lay in being able to pull a degrading situation with teammates falling left and right to a boss together because I was able to quickly manage my buffs and the situation via animation canceling. In short, in any and every difficult and demanding scenario in ESO I felt I had some semblance of control over the situation and my character because I could rely on an "overall skill", animation canceling, that allowed me close to the reaction time and input I place on my controller. In my mind it's one thing to die or fail to a mechanic, or to an enemy because I was ignorant of my characters abilities or how a boss fight worked. Even typical lag that we all face while frustrating is expected to some degree in online gaming. But it is an altogether different beast when our reaction time and input are delayed by design.
After reviewing so many posts about PC's experience post patch I was nervous. A few fellow console players sent out requests asking how everyone's experience was going post update. Those seemed scattered in response and difficult to equate. I decided to hold out until I had a chance myself to logon and see. And see I did. Now, I've been in ESO since 2015 and weathered all the various updates and changes over the years. I'm by no means a leader board braggart or an instantly recognizable nemesis. I wasn't around since Beta and i'm not pulling massive numbers on a test dummy. All that being said, I have always been steady and capable to clear most any content and hold my own in PvP. Regarding the update yesterday evening, a fellow guildy was quick to point out how typical it was to have such lag and delay after any substantial patch and I agreed. But this felt...different. Never mind the slow lag until all stood still at a keep and my eventual DC to the Xbox menu on 4 occasions. Never mind even the typical lag and delay in skills we've all come to know and love. Both which I and countless others have adjusted to previously before this update. What stood out now was combat. Things I never lost even a fraction of my health to before were bringing me to the brink of death. Situations I once easily could buff through and DPS down with relative ease were now taxing and slow. The input to skills felt consistent in that it insisted I complete a skill (animation and all) before registering my next skill. Moreover if I tried to violate this it would negate my input fully and I would have to try that next skill all over again. So in situations where I once would block cancel a buff to a heal in 2 seconds now took 3 seconds or even 4. If I pressed the skills too quickly in succession it would cause a "negate" to my activation and thus cause me to have to redo the skill again. Though the time frame seems minuscule, in combat it has meant the difference between executing an enemy at low health, or watching helplessly as said enemy bursts back to full while I feverishly tap at buttons that wont respond and at times punish me for being too quick. Example: I was playing in a small group with two other guildies who noticed the exact same consistent issues. Enemies we once burned through with little thought, became drawn out long battles that we (and could tell by our enemy) were left wondering what the heck was going on. We could see the stutter of the enemy as they tried buffs that didn't quite fire or the struggle to line up combos in succession.
Now I have seen Gilliam's video. I have heard the extensive explanations and reasoning on how animation canceling hasn't changed. I've seen PC players who said it was inconsequential and a simply adjustment in ones timing. Bearing these things in mind I tried to experiment with my timing. All I could gather in my results was that if one waited a half a second after casting a skill, to then activate a block cancel, then it did indeed animation cancel the skill...somewhat. To me it seemed however to negate the purpose of original animation canceling in the first place. One caveat to this is bar swap. If I were to cast a single skill on one bar and bar swap it did feel exactly like the old way of canceling. Quick, swift and responsive allowing me to jump to another skill quickly. However only being able to cancel a single skill via bar swap meant I lost my "buff bar" in which I could maintain multiple skills quickly before switching. I don't claim mastery over animation canceling as a whole. I also will readily admit i'm sure there are avenues of canceling I don't "get" which other forum goers have posted in frustration to the anti-animation cancel community who decry it.
So what i'm sharing is my understanding and experience prior to this update and now post update in both a PvP and PvE setting. And while i've been able to weather the changes via Murkmire and other huge sweeping updates, this one does feel uniquely heavy and impactful to combat. Impactful in such a way that in my observation it looks as if it will further reinforce the ball groups and heavy meta as players try to mitigate lesser performance by absorbing into a group and spamming executes and light attacks. No doubt people will do this regardless. No doubt these game play styles existed before and will persist. But what is troubling is the perceived bottleneck ZOS seems to be pressing us into by taking away our control over our classes and play style. Like the weathering of a rock, they have slowly taken our sustain, skills we enjoyed (frags stun, dizzy stun as examples) and now possibly our very control over reaction time and skill input.
If i'm overstating these things I welcome the rebuttal. If i'm sorely mistaken on multiple accounts, and combat hasn't changed and it's a temporary anomaly or easily adjusted then I also (happily) welcome the response to those and how it's adjusted to. All the Sheldons and Dwight Shrutes of ESO can descend down on me in cold hard analytical angst and snark and insult me into soil of Tamriel and I will happily take the nerd tea bagging if im wrong. And sincerely hope I am wrong. Because in spite of all the issues, I, like so many others, have persisted in loving ESO for so many of its redeeming qualities.