State of the Game
Infrapuna
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Firstly, I shall state I am purely a PvP player. I have long since retired from HC PvE and I am not commenting from that perspective.
As probably for most of you, the current pandemic has driven me to look for something to do with my extra free time and I have once again returned to play one of my favourite games of all time, ESO. I played ESO very actively from 2015-2018, most of 2019 I did not play ESO.
For the last 5 years, I have been playing ESO, the quality of PvP has gone down with every single patch that has been introduced, short of introduction of the Imperial City DLC in patch 1.7. This has deeply saddened me. ESO has the best PvP system in any game I have ever played. It strives to allow freedom of massive build diversity with no gear restrictions on classes. In reality, build diversity has not existed for the last few years.
I consider build diversity to consist of 2 factors: 1) Gear; armour, weapons & jewellery 2) Slotted skills
Let's first look at the gear aspect of build diversity. By quick count, there are over 400 different gear sets in ESO. Sounds like a lot to choose from. In reality, though, only a small portion of these are viable for use. Due to consecutive rise of set power levels with every new expansion, there is a massive amount of sets that simply can never get used. I estimate that about 20-30 (or 5 - 7.5 %) different sets are being widely used in PvP content.
I do understand that from a business point of view, it makes a lot of sense introducing better and more powerful sets with new expansions as that drives sales on both crowns and ESO+ subscriptions. That is completely understandable and I too think that there should be a reason for you to want and get the new expansions and support the game.
With Zenimax' efforts to control the PvP meta and make tankier builds less viable with changes made to skills, classes, races and the battleborn passive to allow for better gameplay for all, they have created a meta that only supports glass cannon builds. Combine this with the creeping increase in new set power levels especially since the more powerful sets seem to always increase spell and weapon damage. Even more so than ever with the coming nerfs to tankier sets and healing in Cyrodiil getting introduced with the Greymoor chapter.
If we move into look at skill aspect of build diversity, it also seems, that with stacking nerfs and cost increases on class skills as well as 'simplifying' skills (removing lesser, secondary effects from most skills) it matters less each and each expansion which class you play. It stands to reason that guiding players towards universal skill lines serves to better the experience of the game for newer players making class choice less impactful.
For example, for sustain reasons, most magicka users are forced to run Elemental drain as well as get their major sorcery buff from Degeneration. To deal enough damage magicka users are also forced to run destruction staff to access the way too powerful light attacks. For main damage spammable most magicka classes are forced to run either Crushing shock or Infused weapon. To remove snares most are also forced into using Race against time. And to continue with lack of good class ultimate most players also need to run either Meteor or Temporal Guard.
Stamina users are forced to use Turn evil for CC, Dawnbreaker for more weapon damage, Forward momentum to remove snares and Vigor to heal. Lack of proper stamina spammables also forces stamina users to use Dizzying Swing for their main damage dealer. Need for skills from the two-handed skill line also forces stamina users to always use a two-handed weapon.
So not only are most players magicka or stamina forced to run certain skills, they are forced to run a certain morph of the same skills on every single build. This results in classes combating each other not with active but passive skills. This is simply not healthy for the game.
There is a need for big reform to restore ESO PvP to its former glory and return build diversity where ESO's uniqueness come from. Even though I love the game and have sunk thousands and thousands of hours into it, I simply don't see myself coming back to the game after the situation in the world normalizes.
Edited by Infrapuna on May 13, 2020 6:30PM As probably for most of you, the current pandemic has driven me to look for something to do with my extra free time and I have once again returned to play one of my favourite games of all time, ESO. I played ESO very actively from 2015-2018, most of 2019 I did not play ESO.
For the last 5 years, I have been playing ESO, the quality of PvP has gone down with every single patch that has been introduced, short of introduction of the Imperial City DLC in patch 1.7. This has deeply saddened me. ESO has the best PvP system in any game I have ever played. It strives to allow freedom of massive build diversity with no gear restrictions on classes. In reality, build diversity has not existed for the last few years.
I consider build diversity to consist of 2 factors: 1) Gear; armour, weapons & jewellery 2) Slotted skills
Let's first look at the gear aspect of build diversity. By quick count, there are over 400 different gear sets in ESO. Sounds like a lot to choose from. In reality, though, only a small portion of these are viable for use. Due to consecutive rise of set power levels with every new expansion, there is a massive amount of sets that simply can never get used. I estimate that about 20-30 (or 5 - 7.5 %) different sets are being widely used in PvP content.
I do understand that from a business point of view, it makes a lot of sense introducing better and more powerful sets with new expansions as that drives sales on both crowns and ESO+ subscriptions. That is completely understandable and I too think that there should be a reason for you to want and get the new expansions and support the game.
With Zenimax' efforts to control the PvP meta and make tankier builds less viable with changes made to skills, classes, races and the battleborn passive to allow for better gameplay for all, they have created a meta that only supports glass cannon builds. Combine this with the creeping increase in new set power levels especially since the more powerful sets seem to always increase spell and weapon damage. Even more so than ever with the coming nerfs to tankier sets and healing in Cyrodiil getting introduced with the Greymoor chapter.
If we move into look at skill aspect of build diversity, it also seems, that with stacking nerfs and cost increases on class skills as well as 'simplifying' skills (removing lesser, secondary effects from most skills) it matters less each and each expansion which class you play. It stands to reason that guiding players towards universal skill lines serves to better the experience of the game for newer players making class choice less impactful.
For example, for sustain reasons, most magicka users are forced to run Elemental drain as well as get their major sorcery buff from Degeneration. To deal enough damage magicka users are also forced to run destruction staff to access the way too powerful light attacks. For main damage spammable most magicka classes are forced to run either Crushing shock or Infused weapon. To remove snares most are also forced into using Race against time. And to continue with lack of good class ultimate most players also need to run either Meteor or Temporal Guard.
Stamina users are forced to use Turn evil for CC, Dawnbreaker for more weapon damage, Forward momentum to remove snares and Vigor to heal. Lack of proper stamina spammables also forces stamina users to use Dizzying Swing for their main damage dealer. Need for skills from the two-handed skill line also forces stamina users to always use a two-handed weapon.
So not only are most players magicka or stamina forced to run certain skills, they are forced to run a certain morph of the same skills on every single build. This results in classes combating each other not with active but passive skills. This is simply not healthy for the game.
There is a need for big reform to restore ESO PvP to its former glory and return build diversity where ESO's uniqueness come from. Even though I love the game and have sunk thousands and thousands of hours into it, I simply don't see myself coming back to the game after the situation in the world normalizes.
"Sometimes I wish I was a goat" - @PureEnvelope35
Master Troll and 24 man solo zerg, as claimed by DC zone chat.
(Retired) Tryhard Small Scaler
160 Magicka Sorcerrer Infrapuna EP
160 Stamina Dragonknight The Very Great Infra DC
160 Magicka Necromancer Infrapuna the Second DC
160 Stamina Dragonknight The Very Great Infra DC
160 Magicka Necromancer Infrapuna the Second DC
Proper pleb.
Infrapuna
4
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Bashev✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭And still there are way more builds that are useful in PvP compared to PvE.Because I can!0 -
PureEnvelope35✭✭✭✭And let's not even get started on the current state of the servers, specifically PC EU and from what I've heard Consoles and even PC NA are all having similar lag to the standard issues from EU...
Not sure why they keep playing ping pong with class balance, specifically between Elsweyr I, Scalebreaker and Elsweyr II, swinging the phallic hammer of nerfs between buffing the hell out of DoTs and nerfing them just a few months later, it's quite the confusing method they use...Fashion is the true endgame.PC EU1