PTS Patch Notes v6.1.2

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2020

The Elder Scrolls Online v6.1.2 continues to add more bug fixes for the Stonethorn dungeons and new housing systems, in addition to some adjustments for item sets and Harrowstorms (the world events, not the DLC). We’ve activated the Imperial City Celebration event for testing this week, and copied all PC EU characters for this patch, which is approximately 118MB in size.

New Features / Updates / Big Changes
- Area of Effect Ability Testing in Cyrodiil
- Imperial City Celebration Event
Fixes & Improvements
- DLCs & Chapters
  - Greymoor
  - Morrowind
  - Stonethorn
- Combat & Gameplay
  - Combat & Abilities
  - Itemization & Item Sets
- Base Game
  - Art & Animation
  - Crown Store & Crown Crates
  - Events & Celebrations
  - Housing
  - Miscellaneous
  - Quests & Zones
  - UI

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2020

Area of Effect Ability Testing in Cyrodiil
As we discussed in this post, we will be running several short tests in Cyrodiil on July 28 in preparation for our full tests once Update 27 launches on PC. This is part of an effort to begin analyzing some theories we have involving the ongoing poor performance in Cyrodiil, focusing on Area of Effect (AOE) abilities. These tests will ultimately make it more difficult for AOE abilities to be the only abilities used, and we’ll be adjusting cooldown, cost and regen values of all AOEs (damage and healing).

Abilities which meet the following criteria have been flagged for being subject to this test:
- The ability’s initial cast requires a radius to function. This includes abilities like Breath of Life that require a radius check to fire its heal at the appropriate target.
- If an ability is a single target ability that has an area component and has no cast time.

Imperial City Celebration
Return to the Imperial City and seize the ruined capital from the forces of Molag Bal and the other alliances! Participate in testing the district daily quests to receive Event Tickets (3 per day) for this celebration. You can earn Legion Zero Strongboxes from participating in daily quests as well by slaying wandering monsters, opening chests, or defeating bosses. The first completed daily quest or Imperial City dungeon boss (White-Gold Tower, Imperial City Prison) you defeat each day guarantees a drop of a Glorious Legion Zero Strongbox instead, which is even more rewarding!

Legion Zero Strongboxes can contain style pages for the Dark Imperial armor style or the Molag Bal Daedric Weapon style. These pages are also available on the Impresario for 5 Event Tickets each.
You receive two Siegemaster's Coffers for each Imperial City district daily quest.
Tel-Var Stone drops from monster kills are doubled.
Bosses in White-Gold Tower and Imperial City Prison have a chance to drop extra loot.
Bosses in Imperial City and the Imperial City Sewers have a chance to drop extra loot.
All Key Fragment drops are doubled.
Molag Bal Collectibles have an extra chance to drop from their usual sources.
Treasure Scamps have a chance to drop extra loot.

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2020

General

The Greymoor Motif’s chapters and book now have a chance of appearing in Psijic Portals found in Western Skyrim.

General

The Giant’s Coast Wayshrine has no longer trapped an errant Elk wandering through the area. Be free!

Harrowstorms

Lost Souls which form as part of the Harrowstorm events will now spawn less frequently.
Harrowstorms in Western Skyrim and Blackreach: Greymoor Caverns will now form at a new location MUCH faster once defeated or resetting. You should have no trouble finding an available Harrowstorm to fight.

Quests

Fennorian now talks to you if you've completed the Bound in Blood and Unhallowed Grave quests, and are searching Kilkreath Temple for survivors with Lyris.

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2020

Halls of Fabrication

Pinnacle Factotum
- Unstable Energy no longer deals damage prematurely and will now wait for the projectile to impact the ground.
- The damage from Unstable Energy can now be dodged.

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2020

Dungeons

Castle Thorn
- General
  - Gwendis and Talfyg are no longer stuck in a perpetual loop should you return to the entrance of the Dungeon.
  - Vaduroth's Sickles leading to the Sanctuary of Lament no longer grip your character that have been gripped within the last 30 seconds, and the radius of influence has been decreased.
- Blood Twilight
  - Blood Twilight will no longer be briefly visible while casting Shadow Strike.
  - Reanimated Vampires will now wait a moment before engaging players to ensure their bodies work correctly.
  - Dark Barrage will no longer fire projectiles earlier than intended.
- Vaduroth
  - Vaduroth is now correctly classified as a “Daedra” thus ensuring the Banish the Wicked Fighter’s Guild passive will work correctly.
- Lady Thorn
  - Fixed various visual effects related to player abilities and Lady Thorn while flying.
  - Blood Guardians will no longer attempt to cast their Pummel ability should your character be out of range when initially cast.
  - Blood Crawlers no longer leave a consumable corpse.
  - Reduced Lady Thorn’s health in Hard Mode.
  - Scatter will now take slightly longer to begin damaging enemies once cast.
  - Blood Scavengers will now spawn much quicker during Batswarm.
  - Lady Thorn no longer has the ability to yeet out of the room.
  - You can no longer leave through the door when Lady Thorn is in combat.
  - Lady Thorn will no longer get stuck flying in the air after the encounter resets.
  - If your character dies and is resurrected during Batswarm, you will now have the correct visual effects applied upon resurrection.
Stone Garden
- General
  - The Fighter’s Guild passive ability Banish the Wicked now works against all werewolves in Stone Garden.
  - Updated sound effects for various bosses within the Dungeon.
  - Monsters can now pursue targets through the lockpick doors leading to the Vitalizer Flow Controls.
  - Fixed an issue where monsters were unable to chase after players near the second Vitalizer Flow Control area.
  - You can no longer target Werewolves on ledges which have not yet entered the fight.
  - Lowered the damage requirement for the Big Bad Wolf achievement from 350,000,000 to 100,000,000.
  - Increased the bonus to Ultimate generation provided by Alchemized Super Vigor.
- Werewolf Behemoth (Bestial Transformation) Form
  - Decreased the general movement speed.
  - Updated the abilities to be faster and more responsive.
  - Adjusted the damage from abilities and Ultimate gains.
  - The Ultimate ability Lead the Pack now resurrects fallen behemoth allies when inside the radius of impact.
  - Adjusted the camera shake and vibration on several of the Werewolf Behemoth abilities.
  - Dodging no longer causes your character to slide backwards.
- Exarch Kraglen
  - Gwendis will no longer forget who she is and shout normal Bosmer lines during the encounter.
- Stone Behemoth
  - Elemental Smash will no longer remove the player cast Wall of Elements.
- Arkasis the Mad Alchemist
  - Adjusted the visual effects on players when transitioning out of the Werewolf Behemoth transformation.
  - Shock Emitters now explode if they don't reach their intended target, instead of just disappearing.
  - The Active Combat Tip for destroying the Shock Emitters now displays sooner.
  - Inflammable Concoction area effects that are close to Bestial Transformation synergies are now removed.
  - Erupting Phials are now triggered to explode early when Arkasis enters his central chamber.
  - Scalding Solution now deals half damage on the first tick; the remaining ticks deal full damage and remain unchanged.
  - Energized Field no longer stacks a shield effect on Arkasis whenever casting a shock-based ability.
  - After Gwendis sabotages Arkasis's equipment, Shocking Sublimation now provides a healing effect to Arkasis.
  - Adjusted when Arkasis's experiments join the battle and when Arkasis escapes to the safety of his central chamber.
  - The Stone Husk's Volatile Gloomspore now deals more damage in Veteran mode.
  - Lowered the maximum health of Arkasis in Normal and Veteran modes.
  - Made the following changes after raising the Challenge Banner (Hard Mode):
    - Decreased the maximum health increase provided to Arkasis, and to the Stone Husks.
    - Increased the maximum health increases provided to the Chaurus, Durzogs and Bristlebacks.
    - Bottled Lightning now casts more frequently.
    - Discharge now deals less damage on impact.
    - Unbridled Storm damage now ramps less quickly and the Bottled Lightning area effect moves slightly slower.
    - The Stone Husk's Volatile Gloomspore now deals more damage.

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2020

Nightblade

Assassination
- Executioner:
  - This passive now triggers whenever an enemies dies within 2 seconds of being damage by you, rather than requiring the damage to be an Assassination ability.
  - Removed the hidden 1ms cooldown.
  - Fixed an issue where this passive could fail to work with multiple Nightblades.
  - Fixed an issue where this passive was causing unnecessary message spam and ability applications to enemies.

Weapon

Bow
- Rapid Fire:
  - Toxic Barrage (morph):
    - Fixed an issue where the Damage over Time from this attack would apply to the target, even if they dodged all instances of damage.
    - The poison will now apply on each tick, but with a delay of 1 second to ensure it does not deal damage until they have stopped taking damage from the ability.
    - Fixed an issue where this portion of the ability could not stack from multiple players.

General

Fixed numerous issues with item sets that required fully-charged Heavy Attacks in order to proc. Tooltips now better clarify if you must complete a Heavy Attack in order to gain the bonus, or if damage must actually be done. This will also fix issues where some sets were applying their effects to targets that had dodged the Heavy Attack.
- Note: Infallible Mage is still currently applying to enemies who dodge the attack, and will be fixed in a future PTS patch.

Overland

Dead-Water’s Guile:
- Fixed an issue where this set could fail to work with multiple wearers of the same set in some cases.
- Removed a hidden 1ms cooldown.
Shadow of the Red Mountain:
- Increased the damage this set deals to 12840, up from 5918.
- Increased the cooldown to 8 seconds, up from 2.
- This set no longer procs on weapon passives as they are considered procs.

Dungeon & Arena

Caluurion’s Legacy:
- This set once again requires a Critical Strike in order to trigger.
- This set no longer excludes non Magicka oriented attacks to proc its condition.
- Increased the damage done to 14200, up from 13290.
Elemental Succession:
- Reduced the Spell Damage granted per element to 492, down from 550.
- Fixed an issue where there was a time window between the stated cooldown and duration where the bonuses could fail to refresh.
  - Please note these changes were included in the first PTS patch, but the patch notes were unintentionally missed.
Storm Master: Fixed an issue where this set wasn’t properly activating off Critical Strikes.

PvP

Blessing of Potentates: Reduced the damage reduction of this set to 3%, down from 5%.
- Please note this change was included in the first PTS patch, but the patch notes were unintentionally missed.

Trial

Arms of Relequen (and Perfected):
- Reduced the maximum stack count of this set to 10, down from 15, to better mirror the changes to Siroria.
- Reduced the cooldown of generating stacks to 500ms, down from 1 second.
- Increased the damage per tick to 300 per stack, up from 200 per stack, to ensure the DPS remains the same. Overall this will make the set take less time to ramp up and be more viable outside of single target encounters.
Vestments of Olorime: Fixed an issue where this set was granting Major Courage to allies closest to the epicenter of the ring, rather than who has the shortest duration of the buff.
- Please note this change was included in last week’s PTS patch, but the patch notes were unintentionally missed.

Mythic Items

Thrassian Stranglers:
- Reduced the Weapon and Spell Damage per stack to 17, down from 40.
- This set no longer causes you to take 1% more damage per stack, or decreases your healing taken by 1% per stack.
- This set now causes you to lose 120 Maximum Health for every stack you have. The maximum stack count stays at 50, resulting in the final stats to be 850 Weapon and Spell Damage, -6000 Health, and -50% shield efficacy.
- Increased the duration of the stacks to 1 hour, up from 10 minutes, to better cement the quasi-permanent permanency.
Developer Comment:
Based on much of the feedback we saw from the Developer Comment in last week’s PTS patch, we decided to spend more time looking at the curse aspect of gameplay this set involved, as well as its maximum power threshold it added. By more aggressively reigning in the ceiling this set provides, we can more safely allow the set to exist in content, even when smart players find clever ways to bypass the curse involved.

With the loss of Max Health, rather than increase of damage taken, we can make the curse feel more visceral as it's something you can see rather than feel after it's too late to react. Additionally, the reduction in Max Health better balances this set with damage shields, as many of these abilities are capped to your Max Health; by lowering your Max Health, their size is also lowered. We're still keeping the penalty to shield strength though, as there are plenty of other methods you can try to use to help alleviate the penalty, which we like, but don't want you to be able to completely ignore it. Finally, the hour longer duration helps better make this set feel permanent, without all the issues that can happen with permanent stacking effects.

With all of these adjustments, we're hoping to see a much better balance between the DPS gaps we saw expand in Greymoor, as well as a more visceral curse that inhibits your ability to freely manipulate this powerful set.

Monster Masks

Earthgore: Fixed an issue where this ability could proc on non-grouped targets, despite being unable to heal them. The tooltip is now also more clear on who it can affect.

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2020

Figure

Improved the visuals for the Legion Zero Vigiles Armor waist and chest pieces.

Multi-Rider Mount

Fixed an issue that was causing the passenger of a Multi-Rider Mount to have their camera stutter.
Fixed some animation issues when mounting and dismounting a Multi-Rider Mount as a passenger.
Fixed an issue where the passenger of a Multi-Rider Mount would not be properly dismounted when opening the Crown Store.
Passengers of Multi-Rider Mounts will now be dismounted if they are no longer grouped with the driver of the mount.

Lost Treasures of Skyrim

Fixed the Help entry to properly reference Greymoor events.
Updated the weekly quest for Kyne’s Aegis to award two coffers instead of one during the event.

Furnishings

Fixed an issue with the Praxis for "Solitude Sconce, Candle Embellished" was calling for Mundane Rune twice in the crafting UI.
Updated the name for the “Winter Cardinal Painting, In Progress” furnishing to prevent it from being cut off in the name of the furnishing plan, but for real this time.
Removed flickering textures from the back side of the “Solitude Door, Arched Wooden” furnishing.
Improved the accuracy of the collision for the “Dwarven Chandelier, Polished Braced” furnishing.
Added backfaces to a number of the Solitude structural furnishings, so they no longer appear hollow when viewed from behind or below.

Homes

Sealed a small gap partway up one of the cliffs in Potentate’s Retreat, where you could get stuck inside a mountain.
Sealed a gap in the collision of one of the ceilings in the Hall of the Lunar Champion.
Corrected a number of visual and collision issues with structures and rocks used in Stillwaters Retreat.
Sealed a small gap beneath the front door of the Antiquarian’s Alpine Gallery.
Removed an errant candle flame from the Antiquarian’s Alpine Gallery.

Character Pathing

Fixed an issue when placing multiple nodes in a row would not update the name of the nodes being placed.
Slightly reduced the graphical fidelity of the path node to improve performance, and made a number of subtle performance improvements for pathing.
Reduced the maximum number of nodes per path to 30, from 50. This may change further as we continue to evaluate performance and make performance improvements.
Fixed an issue that prevented the node number from reliably appearing in node nameplates.
Added a representative image to the Help menu entry for Character Pathing.
Fixed an issue where multiple pathing characters in the same location could interfere with each other’s paths.
Undoing the removal of the starting node in a path now correctly sets that node back to being the starting node.
Decorators can now successfully edit paths created by other players.
Exiting the Path Settings menu in Gamepad Mode no longer has a chance to lock the left and right directions on the left joystick.

General

Fixed an issue with unnecessary loading screens showing up while moving across some areas. This was particularly prevalent in Craglorn.
Fixed an issue where you couldn't log back in after disconnecting during loading screens.

Stadia

Optimized the time it takes to resume your gameplay.
Fixed an issue where you could be kicked to the login screen and unable to log in after joining a group.

Main Quest

Queen’s Decree: You will now be able to read the List of Sequestered Guests even if another party member has already done so.

General

Updated missing or inaccurate art for some announcement windows.