How to Improve Elemental-based damage builds
Vylaera
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Elemental damage could use a big improvement by making some very minor adjustments to 3 sets, changing the secondary proc effects of Wall of Elements, and balancing the Ancient Knowledge Destruction Staff passive.
To start in order of introductory sentence, the first change that I would make would be to change the 3pc and 5pc bonuses of Silks of the Sun, Netch's Touch, and Ysgramor's Birthright.
I would standardize all the bonuses of these sets into
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Increases your [X] damage by 10%
Where X is Flame for Silks, Shock for Netch, and Frost for Ysgramor.
Without ability restrictions, procs and light/heavy attacks would benefit from the flat increase to the damage type overall. A percent modifier also buffs light and Heavy Attacks as they do not scale with weapon and spell damage anymore (U35, this should be reversed and is a bad move).
The next change I would make is to Wall of Elements, the ground AOE in the Destruction Staff Skill line. The Fire version of this ability vastly outperforms the Shock and Frost versions. This is due primarily to how the Fire version has an innate damage bonus, and also deals additional damage to Burning enemies. I would carry these conditions over to the Shock and Frost versions of this ability so that fire is not the clear winner. The Shock version should deal additional damage to Concussed enemies and the Frost version should deal additional damage to Chilled enemies.
Furthermore, the final change I would make to rebalance elemental damage is to change the Ancient Knowledge Destruction Staff passive. I would change the passive bonus granted to not give damage bonuses to Single Target to fire, AOE to shock, and nothing for frost. I would make this passive buff the corresponding Elemental Damage type of the staff itself.
On Live, the passive reads:
"Equipping an Inferno Staff increases your damage done with single target abilities by 10%. Equipping a Lightning Staff increases your damage done with area of effect abilities by 10%. Equipping an Ice Staff reduces the cost of blocking by 36% and increases the amount of damage you block by 20%."
I would change this to:
"Equipping an Inferno Staff increases your damage done with Flame Damage by 10%. Equipping a Lightning Staff increases your damage done with Shock Damage by 10%. Equipping an Ice Staff increases your damage done with Frost Damage by 10%."
I would move the tanking bonus previously granted to the Tri-Focus passive so that the bonus tanks previously gained still exists, but so that it doesn't completely overshadow the damage potential of an Ice Staff.
This would make the BiS option Inferno for DKs, BiS Lightning for Sorcs, and BiS Ice for Wardens, Rather than Sorcs and Wardens still being required to use Inferno in spite of the clear design philosophy of those classes to use their specialized element.
I believe these changes would not only make each element a viable option for damage dealing, but also reinvigorate class identity for DKs, Sorcs, and Wardens. These are the types of positive changes I would like to see in major updates, not unnecessary nerfs to everyone's damage across the board, making it much harder for players to do content they could have done before, and putting content they couldn't do before totally out of reach.
Edited by Vylaera on July 29, 2022 5:06PM To start in order of introductory sentence, the first change that I would make would be to change the 3pc and 5pc bonuses of Silks of the Sun, Netch's Touch, and Ysgramor's Birthright.
I would standardize all the bonuses of these sets into
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Increases your [X] damage by 10%
Where X is Flame for Silks, Shock for Netch, and Frost for Ysgramor.
Without ability restrictions, procs and light/heavy attacks would benefit from the flat increase to the damage type overall. A percent modifier also buffs light and Heavy Attacks as they do not scale with weapon and spell damage anymore (U35, this should be reversed and is a bad move).
The next change I would make is to Wall of Elements, the ground AOE in the Destruction Staff Skill line. The Fire version of this ability vastly outperforms the Shock and Frost versions. This is due primarily to how the Fire version has an innate damage bonus, and also deals additional damage to Burning enemies. I would carry these conditions over to the Shock and Frost versions of this ability so that fire is not the clear winner. The Shock version should deal additional damage to Concussed enemies and the Frost version should deal additional damage to Chilled enemies.
Furthermore, the final change I would make to rebalance elemental damage is to change the Ancient Knowledge Destruction Staff passive. I would change the passive bonus granted to not give damage bonuses to Single Target to fire, AOE to shock, and nothing for frost. I would make this passive buff the corresponding Elemental Damage type of the staff itself.
On Live, the passive reads:
"Equipping an Inferno Staff increases your damage done with single target abilities by 10%. Equipping a Lightning Staff increases your damage done with area of effect abilities by 10%. Equipping an Ice Staff reduces the cost of blocking by 36% and increases the amount of damage you block by 20%."
I would change this to:
"Equipping an Inferno Staff increases your damage done with Flame Damage by 10%. Equipping a Lightning Staff increases your damage done with Shock Damage by 10%. Equipping an Ice Staff increases your damage done with Frost Damage by 10%."
I would move the tanking bonus previously granted to the Tri-Focus passive so that the bonus tanks previously gained still exists, but so that it doesn't completely overshadow the damage potential of an Ice Staff.
This would make the BiS option Inferno for DKs, BiS Lightning for Sorcs, and BiS Ice for Wardens, Rather than Sorcs and Wardens still being required to use Inferno in spite of the clear design philosophy of those classes to use their specialized element.
I believe these changes would not only make each element a viable option for damage dealing, but also reinvigorate class identity for DKs, Sorcs, and Wardens. These are the types of positive changes I would like to see in major updates, not unnecessary nerfs to everyone's damage across the board, making it much harder for players to do content they could have done before, and putting content they couldn't do before totally out of reach.
Vy • lae • ra | Fan of all things Vampiric | PC NA | Accurate World Map artist | Immaculate Reshade author
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kypranb14_ESO✭✭✭✭✭Looks like a nerf Magblade thread to me. Taking away that 10% single target damage from flame staff would be a serious blow to ranged Magblades, who are already one of the worst PVP specs in the game.0 -
Vylaera✭✭✭✭✭
✭kypranb14_ESO wrote: »Looks like a nerf Magblade thread to me. Taking away that 10% single target damage from flame staff would be a serious blow to ranged Magblades, who are already one of the worst PVP specs in the game.
Looks more like a magblades shouldn't have to use elemental staves to do good damage and shows an underlying bad design philosophy that should be addressed in tandem thread to me.Vy • lae • ra | Fan of all things Vampiric | PC NA | Accurate World Map artist | Immaculate Reshade author1 -
Ratzkifal✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭kypranb14_ESO wrote: »Looks like a nerf Magblade thread to me. Taking away that 10% single target damage from flame staff would be a serious blow to ranged Magblades, who are already one of the worst PVP specs in the game.
Looks more like a magblades shouldn't have to use elemental staves to do good damage and shows an underlying bad design philosophy that should be addressed in tandem thread to me.
Was about to say something along those lines as well. But the point made is still valid and you should probably address it because obviously these changes are going to hit some classes harder than others.
Also don't forget War Maiden is a set that functions the same as Ysgramor and the likes but has a higher value on account of there not being a magic damage source of light attack damage (aside from Restoration staves which don't really count). Same with Swamp Raider. Automaton, despite also buffing bleed, works like Sun, Netch and Ysgramor because all the martial weapons deal physical damage.
The whole issue is very complex.This Bosmer was tortured to death. There is nothing left to be done.0