Update 26 Combat Preview

Kingslayer513

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

I really like the changes overall. Looking forward to theory crafting once pts drops and we can dig into the finer details!

However, I will echo the rest of the community in that all current arena weapons should be automatically upgraded to perfected versions. They were obtained in vet, and vet is where you get the perfected versions. Your single comment does a great disservice to otherwise good looking combat updates. I urge you to reconsider.

And if for some reason it is ABSOLUTELY impossible to upgrade current weapons due to logistics or something, I would urge you to at least give us a month of double maelstrom drops at the time of release. This would only be as a method of last resort.

codierussell

If they are making this change there should be some sort of key system like the undaunted chests. Nobody wants to run vma 10 times a week for the whole update to get a single inferno staff. I feel bad for the people that can't get on the weekly leaderboards, they are the ones that get hit the hardest with this. If you aren't putting up a 550k score it will probably be difficult to get on there. I also don't understand why the vma weapons needed to have a perfected set as they already are the best in the game.

On a side note I made a new magicka character during the event. Not only did I have to level it, grind mages guild and psjic order, I have to get a inferno vma staff for it. This week alone I have ran it 5 times which now was completely pointless. That is 10 weapons that are straight to the decon pile.

spacecitypurrp

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

I agree, I don't see the purpose of us having to regrind 4 year old content for weapons we already have, all current weapons should be upgraded or at least offer a way to upgrade them, first thing when dlc comes out is not thinking "let me regrind vma for a staff I already have" we want to get into the new trial not old content from 4 years ago, I hope you guys rethink this.

SpLaTTyDaDDy

Why not just make a Hard mode VMA? Its easy to Faceroll through that place as it is on vet for experienced players. That way the ones who want to reform perfected from HM VMA can and the others who dont want 2 can just keep what they got. U should just make a currency for anyone running normal. Seriously why even reward some of the best weps 2 something that can be completed at level 15? Lol catering to the casuals I guess.

OsManiaC

Where are the bosmer and nightblade nerfs?

jetplane_18

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

I don't get this. All the existing vma and vdsa weapons on live were earned in the veteran version. How is this change fair or reasonable?

strata2

Update 27 Combat Preview: All characters are deleted on all accounts so players can re-grind everything

SirLeeMinion

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

Well, that's great... just great. We love you, too.

P.S. Hey, I know, maybe you could sell upgrade tokens in the crown store.

Kalik_Gold

What is the difference between perfected and non-perfected. That is all I need to know if it’s worth it.

iALEXi

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Over the years, we’ve seen healing become quite volatile in PvP with the ability to negate a high amount of damage in just 1 ability cast for many players at once. This isn’t just 1 ability that causes this type of health bar swinging, so we are making adjustments to Battlespirit which now reduces healing taken by 60% instead of 50%.

This won't fix a lot....
The biggest problem is crosshealing, stacking radiating regens in groups and stuff like that. Running in a 3/4 man group (OR MORE) with all radiating regens up all the time is kinda the problem with healing RN. Basically not only radiating regen, it's just HoT stacking from everyone who can HoT stack on allies.....
The good vigour can't heal allies and the other morph is really bad for small groups. This makes it so that you only have your own HoTs and it makes such a big difference when you get no HoTs from allies constantly.
This will only make the difference between large groups and small groups/solo bigger, because the larger you get the more healing you stack. Will not have a big difference for zergs, but the ones that play smaller and take a lot more damage or actually take damage.

Destortion

we dont need perfected vma or dsa ty

BadShogun

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

If this is the case, you have lost a subscriber.

HH_Odin

@ZOS_BrianWheeler and ZoS team

I don't often voice my opinions on the forum here, and I have always given you guys the benefit of the doubt. That being said I truly think that the decision to, yet again, change the function and downgrade the items that have already been farmed for is overly punitive for the majority of your users.

A lot of the previous comments reference the fact that end game veterans will need to re-farm their gear, and that they are the ones truly being targeted by this change, but I feel like the people in the middle are the true, but silent, sufferers to this change.

There are a lot of players who are trying to get better at the game, maybe joined some communities, but overall do not communicate directly with you guys via forum posts. These people spend hours (and I mean hours) over the course of days just to complete vMA once (only to most likely not get their bow or staff). This isn't about cranking out vMA's over and over again to get the weapon, it's the people who know that they need these items to be competitive, so they fight through the instance just so they can get their hands on it. I've even from people who have rerolled characters just because that's the item they got from vMA.

I do believe that creating Non-Perf and Perf versions is generally speaking a good choice, to give those beginners something to shoot for without making them go through the insane grind. But to those people who put every ounce of effort into their clears, and then taking that away... That's pretty twisted.

Thanks for your time,
-Odin

Lisutaris

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

regime211

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Greetings Gang!

We’d like to take a moment to share a preview of combat updates coming with Update 26 (Greymoor). The full list of changes will be revealed with the patch notes next week, but for now we’d like to provide some insight on our goals. This update is primarily focused on reinforcing itemization standards, improving quality of life for werewolves, and a few adjustments regarding PvP balance. As many of you are already aware, the team recently experimented with some significant changes to Light and Heavy Attacks. We’d like to again thank everyone who participated in the off-cycle PTS test of those changes, and remind you all that those changes will not be included with Update 26. Today, we’ll be focusing on the other changes that will be appearing next week on the PTS for Update 26.

U26 not only has Vampire updates, but Werewolf updates as well! We want to keep the “in your face” action of the Werewolf and also want to add rotation options when you’ve transformed into this ferocious form. For example, Pounce now has a follow up attack afterwards that also has an execute scaled on Bleed. We’re also making adjustments to allow buffing and debuffing to give a sense of being a pack leader. Sustain for werewolves is also something we noted needs an adjustment, so Hircine’s Bounty now has some added functionality if you’re already at full health and don’t need the heal from the ability. We believe these changes will keep the Werewolf playstyle competitive and entertaining for all players!

About a year ago, we started our standardization pass and we’re finishing that off in U26 with Monster Masks/Shoulders. Remember standards aren’t written in stone, but we now have equal measures of power and performance from these 2 piece sets; some are having their 1 piece adjusted to better suit the function of the set. Valkyn Skoria, for example, now gives Spell Penetration rather than Max Health as this is a damage-based set.

Other sets are receiving functionality adjustments (damage values, trigger conditions, cooldowns, etc.) to follow their intended functionality based on their sourcing. A good example of this is Tremorscale: enemies hit by the damaging effect of this ability are no longer snared, but instead have their Physical Resistance reduced. To help with performance, some sets are having their “chance to proc” removed and instead now have a cooldown. Again, we’ll look at Tremorscale as an example: we are removing the proc chance from this set and increasing the cooldown damage. Note that because the cooldown is increasing, the damage is also increasing.

Continuing on itemization, we are also introducing Perfected Veteran Maelstrom and Perfected Dragonstar Arena weapons. This has been a long standing request by the players, and it finally brings these two arenas up to par with others that add Perfected versions. These are earned by completing Veteran mode in each of those arenas and will have additional bonuses much like other Perfected sets. Completing Maelstrom or Dragonstar Arena will now grant Blue versions of the non-perfected weapons from these arenas. In this pass, we are making a few adjustments to ALL Arena weapons to meet standards. One example of this is the BRP weapon set Spectral Cloak: this item set now increases your damage done and reduces your damage taken whenever you deal damage with Blade Cloak, rather than granting Major Protection for 3 seconds after casting. This fits the concept of Blade cloak as it deals with damage as well as protection.

Lastly, in this update we are making some small adjustments to Critical Resistance and Healing affecting PvP specifically. Over the years, we’ve seen healing become quite volatile in PvP with the ability to negate a high amount of damage in just 1 ability cast for many players at once. This isn’t just 1 ability that causes this type of health bar swinging, so we are making adjustments to Battlespirit which now reduces healing taken by 60% instead of 50%.

Gearing up for PvP isn’t a simple task because of the need for Critical Resistance. The other issue regarding itemization in PvP is that it’s very limiting due to the need for building Critical Resistance. This means other popular traits and builds aren’t as viable in PvP unless you’re a glass cannon or top-end player. To bring more viable stat and set combinations into PvP play, we are now granting a baseline Critical Resistance. In conjunction with that change, we are making several adjustments to item sets which grant Critical Resistance. We also are making changes to the Impenetrable trait by reducing the value.

We hope these updates enhance your day to day adventures in ESO, and we’ll see you in Tamriel! We look forward to your feedback regarding the changes above, as well as item sets and your general playtesting experience when Update 26 hits PTS next week!

So if you're making adjustments to impenetrable trait, what about the champion point system " The Steed" resistant? Will that be receiving an update? And if so why not just update the whole champion point system at this point? Or you know give us MORE of our hard earned champion points.

MopeyHat

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

Please reconsider...

tmbrinks

Amazing... Wheeler was able to post that nugget that they won't update literally right away... now that there's backlash, he vanishes. Not a good look, not a good look at all.

regime211

NirnStorm wrote: »

This is absolutely amazing to hear, looking forward to see the patch notes!

Impen has been way overused in PvP for the longest time, it will be super interesting to mess around with different traits.

As for the perfected maelstrom/master weapons, will the ones we currently have turn into perfected versions (as they were obtained in veteran difficulty)?

Probably not

roflcopter

After my flawless run, i vowed never to run VMA ever again. I have obtained at least 3x - 4x of each item during the process.

May as well pop out level 360 CP gear. Make everyone re-farm all of their sets. Nothing is more satisfying than winning the game for the 500th time.

karekiz

The Good, The Bad, The confusing:

Good:
1. Its nice to standardize arena drops. I basically do VMA right after I ding an alt to 50 <Free undaunted etc>, so it isn't like I am one of the "can't do it on vet people". I think granting the weapons on normal is fine as every other piece of content works like that.

2. Item set revamps. Sound awesome! Tremor scale with a Resist debuff? Monster set alksoh basically? Sounds great! Removing % chance on items is definitely a way to go. Would love to play with some sets if they worked better on alts.

3. WW changes sound good. One of the issues <For me> is it felt like it became an automated class, and allowing players to create rotations similar to class rotations is a good thing. Good WW players should smack down bad ones, not basically be the same.

4. Changing heals in PvP only. Holy hell do I see nerfing abilities using PvP standards rather than wildly swinging ability cost and numbers? Seems good. Trust us. Players won't instantly become confused. The impen change is interesting, but have no comment as I PvE.

Bad:
Why not allows players to get perfected versions? Honestly, just bite the bullet on 5+ year old content.

If a character has the VMA acheivement, grant them a token <Similar to event> to buy a 1 perfected weapon of their choice per char with VMA clear.

I know that will reduce grind, but seriously, reward players that went through the clear before the change. That would make everyone happy, and players would still keep trying to get their VMA clear before the change for the 100% of the correct weapon type. Any clear a week after release would not reward a token.

Confusing:
We need perfected system for older trials too. VO with perfected etc. War machine with perfected. That would be a REALLY needed touch to bring in the old gearing system into today standards.

Because right now, they don't meet *your* standardization, and we all know you can't have that.

ShizaZepelli

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

why not? Destiny do this when they change gear like this. Much people spend much time taking the wepaons.

olsborg

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

so we are making adjustments to Battlespirit which now reduces healing taken by 60% instead of 50%.

Please MR @ZOS_BrianWheeler this is a blanket nerf to everyone when there's really only specific classes and builds that have too strong healing, templar, warden and necromancer. Please dont nerf stamblades healing anymore because its already extremely weak.

Darktrox

What's the point on gearing up if we'll have game-breaking changes every patch instead of fixing performance stuff? I know that could be different teams working, but man, I'd rather receive a reward for being a long standing player that just getting punished giving the same types of weapon I WORKED really hard to get to players that could run the arena in normal mode now. I know you guys will consider this, if you can read this thread.

siddique

You know what would've been better? Add perfected weapons for doing vma in hardmode. Like it is in every other trial. Like you claim to "standardize" things.

This is just lazy attitude.

Edit: and hypocritical.

soph88ie

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Your current VMA and DSA Weapons will not be automatically upgraded to Perfected versions.

This is really not smart

You said in that same post you are updating other sets...so why can't arena weapons also just be updated. With the current system you are only able to obtain them on vet..I fail to see how just updating everyone's current arena weapons would not be possible.

You already have a large portion of your player base that's fed up with performance issues since the "performance" patch. This is a great way to push even more people to quit your game.

Zekka

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Valkyn Skoria, for example, now gives Spell Penetration rather than Max Health as this is a damage-based set.

Don't change sets people have no issues with for the sake of changing them, the health bonus is actually very useful for reaching the amount of hp damage dealers feel comfortable with. Or at very least give it something more useful than penetration, magicka/spell power/spell crit , literally anything else as magicka damage dealers have no problem reaching the pen cap.

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

One example of this is the BRP weapon set Spectral Cloak: this item set now increases your damage done and reduces your damage taken whenever you deal damage with Blade Cloak, rather than granting Major Protection for 3 seconds after casting. This fits the concept of Blade cloak as it deals with damage as well as protection.

Good riddance.

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Lastly, in this update we are making some small adjustments to Critical Resistance and Healing affecting PvP specifically. Over the years, we’ve seen healing become quite volatile in PvP with the ability to negate a high amount of damage in just 1 ability cast for many players at once. This isn’t just 1 ability that causes this type of health bar swinging, so we are making adjustments to Battlespirit which now reduces healing taken by 60% instead of 50%.

Healing done to others is what should be targeted imo, removing Resolving Vigor's AoE healing part was a step in the good direction.

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Gearing up for PvP isn’t a simple task because of the need for Critical Resistance. The other issue regarding itemization in PvP is that it’s very limiting due to the need for building Critical Resistance. This means other popular traits and builds aren’t as viable in PvP unless you’re a glass cannon or top-end player. To bring more viable stat and set combinations into PvP play, we are now granting a baseline Critical Resistance. In conjunction with that change, we are making several adjustments to item sets which grant Critical Resistance. We also are making changes to the Impenetrable trait by reducing the value.

Could be good, it's true that impen is the best trait for PvP in 90% of the cases.

MellowMagic

I dont think I have ever been more mad about an update ever. Nerfs? Combat reworks? Passive changes? I can put up with all of that no problem. This however is just ridiculous. I cant call ZOS lazy cause its "bashing" but that's what it feels like to me. How much effort would it take to upgrade all current weapons and also introduce the non-prefected ones? Wouldnt that effort be worth it so you're entire playerbase doesnt get pissed off? If they want us to play old content how about updating the old arena sets to actual usefulness and maybe add a minor slayer bonus on them? It's a great idea adding non-prefected items for players unable to do these arenas on veteran but to punish the players that have already done it is a major mistake. You can make a new character, craft level 4 training gear and clear Nma in 20 minutes the effort I've put in for my collection of vma weapons and the amount of transmutation Crystal's I've used transmuting them is not going down the drain. This is unacceptable.

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo

I feel you guys, it makes one believe they are having a chuckle at our expense.

I also think my forum post concerning our current 'feeling towards the game' has even more importance now.

Instead of bringing out new content with new unique weapon sets we are re scrubbing the old content so that new players go through that phase, but what you will notice is that here most of us are veteran players, yes those who bought the game from the get-go and financed with a first purchase and then onto a monthly basis when the ESO+ system came into play.

In the words of Jacques Chirac (RIP) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp69ttBSY1Q

@ZOS_BrianWheeler

Claethun

I don’t get the decision here. Having perfected and non perfected is in line with trials and makes sense but not upgrading weapons which have already been farmed on vet, doesn’t make any sense.
A few weeks ago you were considering adding heavy attack builds to accommodate players who couldn’t achieve results with light attack builds, in other words, a step to make the game more inclusive. But now with this update, you’re not giving a nod to the players who have spent countless hours farming vMA, in other words, you’re excluding them from the benefits of an update they didn’t choose and couldn’t have known was coming.

There is no logical rationale behind shitting on players who have taken the time to get this gear.

proteinexe

IMO, I'm not a PvE'er **BUT** I like the PvP changes, just be careful ZoS not to allow certain classes now to stack the BRP DW changes with their in-class major protection.

**FOR PVE WEAPONS** a friend suggested a token system. Give everyone 3 or 4 tokens to upgrade their current maelstrom/masters weapons to perfected so that those that don't wish to farm again, can upgrade. BUT, not upgrading all weapons means that those that want to play multiple classes with the specific weapons may have to venture back into X Arena. Similar to class changes where you gave us tokens for that. Just a suggestion.

Anyways, I love how everyone immidiatly goes for the throat again after a change. You don't even know how they've changed the weapons yet and you're already [snip] on them.

I think ZoS did good from a PvP perspective looking forward to the changes.

[Edited for profanity]