Did ZOS manage to kill (or really hurt) end game PvE?

Czekoludek

One of the thing I enjoyed the most during each PTS cycle is amount of new parsing videos on which we can see end game players comparing gear, classes and rotations and giving overall look on how different classes perform. Normally it isn't hard to find parse for your class but during Markarth pts there is almost none content like that for end game pve players. Most Markarth videos are about housing or easy pve builds for mid-game/beginner players and preview of new arena (thanks for that one). Is this because ZOS managed to draw away ppl from end game or is there another reason why this pts cycle is different then usual?

UntilValhalla13

They're probably just waiting to see what else gets drastically changed yet again. Last update, a lot of them waited until it went live before bothering with parses. The ones that are still playing anyways... It's getting to be an endgame ghost town on PS4, it feels like.

nsmurfer

They didn't kill it just now. They have been slowly killing it over the years. The thousand of nerfs, the vet arena weapons debacle, necro domination etc along with the ever decreasing performance killed tons of endgame PvE guilds.

Moloch1514

Game Director told us the Devs are killing it a year or so ago. Since changes made to Combat Team, they are certainly killing something 🤪

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

SidraWillowsky

I've been doing a lot of parsing.

If you have a source of Minor Brittle, things are about the same. If you don't, your DPS is going to drop. I am fine on my magwarden when I use a frost staff on my back bar, and my self-buffed parse numbers are about the same.There's a drop if I don't, but it's not a massive drop. Still not a lot of fun that they killed the buffs that my class relies on for DPS.

The trial dummy is a mess right now- they added major vulnerability but it's unclear whether it applies 100% of the time. I assume that it does because my DPS shot through the roof this week and it averages out to be about 10% higher. The thing is that it's extremely unrealistic to have that uptime, especially if you're not stacking necros in your group. If I take 90% of my parse number as the "true" number (especially since the groups I run in don't typically have necros), then things look similar to the self-buffed parse: as long as minor brittle is applied, my DPS is the same. I know that the dummy this week was updated to automatically have brittle, but my ice staff parses before that were averaging out to be the same as now.

To the tanks vehemently defending the frost staff as a tanking weapon, get ready to be expected to be using one come U28 unless one of the DPS wants to make the sacrifice to use it.

karekiz

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

To the tanks vehemently defending the frost staff as a tanking weapon, get ready to be expected to be using one come U28 unless one of the DPS wants to make the sacrifice to use it.

Icy Off Tanky

As for raid dummy its always been off slightly. It grants 100% uptime on Major Force which isn't exact either.

Kurat

They didn't kill endgame but maybe hurt a little. All trials favor mag builds but mag got nerfed. Stam can parse 10-15k more. Maybe it will change the trial meta some now, time will tell.

Stratti

karekiz wrote: »

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

To the tanks vehemently defending the frost staff as a tanking weapon, get ready to be expected to be using one come U28 unless one of the DPS wants to make the sacrifice to use it.

Icy Off Tanky

As for raid dummy its always been off slightly. It grants 100% uptime on Major Force which isn't exact either.

Why is the ICE staff needed. It has never been that good for tanking, the cast time makes it pointless in tanking difficult content. What is happening that makes it necessary?

UntilValhalla13

Stratti wrote: »

karekiz wrote: »

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

To the tanks vehemently defending the frost staff as a tanking weapon, get ready to be expected to be using one come U28 unless one of the DPS wants to make the sacrifice to use it.

Icy Off Tanky

As for raid dummy its always been off slightly. It grants 100% uptime on Major Force which isn't exact either.

Why is the ICE staff needed. It has never been that good for tanking, the cast time makes it pointless in tanking difficult content. What is happening that makes it necessary?

No one ever really used it to taunt anything. Now, it will apply brittle, via the blockade.

colossalvoids

Most probably can't be bothered by now. They do talk about it in various discords but not as much as any previous patch it seems. Stuff like brittle application is bugged rn on pts which lead into believing that tank or heal would easily apply it so it was just testers time spent on nothing, pretty sure there are other issues, time spent on new ring toy with vamp cheesing etc.

Can say for myself as kinda-endgame player that I don't even want to log in on pts for some patches already and see nothing worth testing or be excited about. Classes are untouched almost, cp is still here and basically the same.
New patch, couple of changes to adjust and optimise but nothing really interesting.

richo262

I think you'll find a normal DLC grade update doesn't have major changes to frost staves, doesn't have an arena (only MMire so far), doesn't have a collections system. So of all the things to showcase, and believe it or not, people actually do test, parsing, while still on the list of things to test, is now not at the top of everyones list.

Also many don't rush to parse in the first and second week of PTS because the hours upon hours of work required to parse on every class and build could be entirely wasted if the PTS was to change significantly. We're in the third week now, heading to the fourth, now is the time when people will probably take the combat changes as more solid.