PTS Update 36 - Feedback Thread for Combat & Classes

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for any combat or class change. After you have a chance to try out different combat scenarios, let us know what you think of the current balance and changes.

ESO_Nightingale

i'm going to post my TL:DR from my big post about warden's changes. full link to post here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/617994/u36-warden-adjustments-and-discussion

Piercing Cold losing it's bonus to frost damage, to instead gain increased damage with an ice staff equipped goes against the "play how you want" mantra previously expressed as players will believe that they will need to run an ice staff just to get the most out of their passives. this problem is much worse when it turns out to actually be the case like it is now. 2% is insultingly bad for non frost staff users, and a 10% increase to all damage while using a frost staff is too strong of a difference. especially when taking pvp, brittle and the ancient knowledge block bonus into consideration.
It's important to note that the listed change also hurts pure frost builds as now better damage types (with better damaging status effects) will gain the same bonus that only frost damage skills gained before. it might lead to more dps for those builds, but at the cost of the entire reason to run a frost mage build in the first place, using frost damage skills with a frost staff. this is a significant problem with this new design as frost skills are generally weaker in damage and have a worse damaging status effect. turning the frost staff into a stat stick for all damage types and builds does not help, it just makes everyone use it, and it also makes people drop sources of frost damage that were slightly stronger than other options when they had the +10% frost damage increase. IF you want to help frost mage builds, there are 2 ways to make this playstyle better at the same time as increasing their damage. 1 is that mythic/monster set idea i've previously listed, and the other is to increase the amount of frost damage skills. magic damage animal companions skills are the prime candidates to swap damage types. i think you should change this bonus to +6% damage done and +6% frost damage done.

Winter's Revenge and Ice Staff DPS: It is worth mentioning that this is also a major problem with winter's revenge, that locks damage away from the skill, making it weak unless you specifically run a destruction staff. this is not the way to make the ice and destruction staves more popular. that issue has to be solved with the weapons themselves, and for the ice staff specifically, having something like a mythic or monster helmet that increases SPECIFICALLY chilled's direct damage is going to be what makes it viable for dpsing. this is because of the amount of chilled procs obtainable on frost damage dealer builds. We generate so many procs of chilled, but we have no way to meaningfully increase their damage to a point where it becomes more powerful to invest in using as much frost damage as possible rather than just stacking bleeds, fire and poison.

Advanced Species:
This passive change just reverses the issue, instead of light armor builds getting screwed over, it'll be medium armor builds because of the cap, we also already have a great passive that increases critical damage in the first place. we still have yet to receive any reasoning for why Advanced Species was changed in the first place. The only options for this passive that will work without hurting a specific build are: Weapon and Spell damage, Raw Damage(like it was) and Critical Chance, it should be changed BACK or to one of these other 2 options.

EDIT:
WEEK 3 CHANGES FEEDBACK
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/619148/warden-changes-v8-2-2

MashmalloMan

Warden Frost Staff changes are the wrong direction to take the class and game, you are making a huge mistake. Buff frost damage, yes, restrict an entire class to using 1 weapon, no.

Penetration was too punishing for Mag Warden, but Crit Damage isn't too punishing for Stam Warden? What? The cap is so low that you can only ever invest around 20% extra when you organize for a raid. Warden like NB/Templar has 10% crit damage built in, the remaining 10% they cover from Medium armor. That leaves no space for Advanced Species on Stam Warden, no space for CP nodes, no space for Shadow mundus, and no space for an entire race (Khajiit). Give Crit Chance, Weapon/Spell Damage or Damage done like it was before.

No Sorc changes. Enough said. I had sliver of hope that you would hybridize shields to break the Max Resource chains Mag Sorc has been shackled to for years because you addressed hybridization of Templar's Backlash. Looks like we have the last skill in the game based purely on 1 type of max resource, feels bad.. real bad.

Update 36 was the wrong time to "not make sweeping combat changes and focus on bugs". A large portion of your playerbase left during Update 35, this was your chance to bring those people back, including myself.

We now enter the longest wait period of your content stream with nothing notable to look forward to from your Zone DLC that has no arena content, for the 2nd year in a row.

acastanza_ESO

Why do you refuse to address the fact that magicka focused sorcerer is the worst class to play in PVP, with no access to good debuffs, no comparable in-class heal that isn't tied to an awful pet, crappy shields that lock you into mediocre mag mag builds when every other class gets to stack damage instead?
Why do you keep pigeonholing Sorcerer into Zookeeper builds that most of us hate?
Why, when you insist on pigeonholing Sorcerer into Zookeeper builds, do you not rework the pets so they can actually be viable in PVP instead of an outright hindrance?

PrinceShroob

Really cannot fathom how y’all continue to bungle Warden changes. This ship hit the ‘berg and you’re throwing all the portholes open.

Critical Damage for Advanced Species is insulting. You’ve trapped one capped stat for another. You never even said why the hell you changed it in the first place.

Piercing Cold is not a carrot, it’s all stick. That’s just a huge damage nerf on top of the damage nerfs from last patch.

It’s obvious you have no idea what you’re doing and you’re stubbornly resolved to do everything but listen to your players who play the damn class.

You made Vvardenfell and battlegrounds free and mangled Warden. Give me my money back.

acastanza_ESO

I think this is the appropriate thread for this? The Emperor buff. This change is completely backwards from what it needs to be. You do NOT need to make the faction that is completely dominating the map the strongest when it is completley dominant. This buff needs to scale inversely with the amount of territory controlled. When you're getting double-teamed on your last emp keep is when you need the Emp buff THE MOST, but with this change it is when you get the least benefit from it. What the heck? Either don't introduce this change or flip it to make it a meaningful buff when the script is flipped and you're being overrun to a deemp like it should be.

TheTuSiK

Not much to say about Necro, Nightblade or Sorc - no changes, no feedback.
DK is a bug fix.
Templar is the missing hybridization part.
Warden... well, it's the worst class when it comes to endgame PvE Damage Dealer. The only use would be support (brittle). And that's U35 I'm talking about. U36 looks even worse. It doesn't seem that META will change for PvE so Dual Wield + Two Handed is most likely gonna be the best DPS option. Those changes you presented force Warden to play Ice Staff for maximum damage boost. That way playing meta (dw+2h) lowers your damage boost and playing 2x ice staff lowers your crit chance and forbids you from using meta weapon skills (Deadly Cloak, Carve, Stampede).
Suggestions:
-Animal Companions (Advanced Spieces): make it Critical Chance per skill slotted or (kinda like necro) make it passive execute boost. But to not just copy necro's crit chance per skill below 25% health, make it a damage boost. "Each Animal Companion Ability slotted increases your damage done to enemies below 25% by 2/4%". It would synergize nicely with bear ultimates. It's not perfect but still better than overpenetrating with the U35 penetration bonus or overcriting in U36. Other people who have some experience playing Warden might get better suggestions but they'll probably all agree that both versions (U35 and U36) are bad.
-Piercieng Cold: I'd say just leave it as it is. Necromnacer has 10% boost to DoT and for a very long time that class was played with just dots. Warden skills (magicka morphs) are either ice damage or magicka damage abilities so a boost to that kind of damage seems fair. It's a bit unfair to Stamina Warden but despite that both magicka and stamina based wardens seemed balanced, had similar dps potential. The new version forces players to use Ice Staff which is not cool and against "play as you want". Same goes for Winter's Revenge and it doing 30% more damage with Ice Staff. If you really want Warden to be ice-themed class just change Animal Companion morphs from magicka damage to ice damage (Dive, Scorch, Swarm and Feral Guardian) and there you go. Wardens already use Winter's Revenge and since U35 Arctic Blast is a decent option too. Northern Frost ultimate also got a nice buff and it's not as good as Destro ulti for AoE (but name a better AoE ulti for burst damage) and not as good as bear but it deals nice damage, increases Weapon and Spell damage and gives Major Protection. And it's ice damage. Frost Staff doesn't change much - in most cases it will only change wall of elements from fire to ice, the rest of the skills won't change. Is it worth to force Warden to play ice staff just to see a difference in light attacks and one skill? People already play double ice staff if their role is to apply minor brittle. And what difference is between "Brittleden" and "Magden"? - ice light attacks, frost reach as a spammable and unstable wall of frost. You can make Warden an ice-themed class without forcing players to play with ice staff.

flizomica

I really don't think U36 was the time to hold back on significant balance changes. Reading the patch notes, it was very painful to realize that the current combat balance is what we will have for the next 6 months, given the cadence of the update cycle. Please consider revisiting these pain points in the future:

1. Please fix some of the very negative consequences of the U35 changes, such as more complicated rotations due to very mismatched DoT/buff/debuff timers. I also really think we need to see significant efforts to buff the skill floor in ESO - in a perfect world, I think that should have been a consequence of U35 given the stated goals of the patch.
2. Please finish the hybridization begun in previous patches - it's in such a weird half-finished state right now. Jewelry weapon and spell damage glyphs should be hybridized, as should potion buffs. Unique class passives (e.g. minor brutality) also need a look at. For instance, there's no reason to run anything other than weapon damage glyphs on any DK build due to the class passive. I think that ends up causing build crafting to be very unintuitive, especially for new players. I also think doing away with weapon/spell damage as separate stats should be considered - make one stat called "ability damage" or some such. As it stands, there's no gameplay difference between stacking weapon or spell damage (unlike max stats, which do influence the skills you choose and core combat mechanics), so it doesn't make sense to hold onto that to me.
3. Can we please get some class and spec (mag/stam) identity? Personally, I really dislike the current DPS meta, where mag and stam as separate specs hardly exist, and everyone is running the same gear and very similar skills across different classes. It fully pushes me away from wanting to keep more than one character up to date on an optimal DPS spec, as I don't see the point in optimizing multiple characters when they all feel the same to play. It basically feels like I have to choose between having extremely same-y DPS characters or doing significantly less damage on an off-meta spec. I'd really like for now off-meta specs (e.g. dedicated fire mage DK, frost Warden, lightning Sorc) to become stronger relative to hybrid specs that get to pick the strongest of all skills and gear available to them.

Iron_Warrior

I've talked about this a lot in other threads, but want to give it another shot here.

Empowering grasp needs something. You've turned this skill from a great group utility ability to absolute trash in a single patch. If you are hell bent on giving a empower tool to heavy attack necro players then fine, keep it as it is but at least change the other morph so it would again become usefull for organized groups. My suggestion? Add minor heroism to the other morph so you can provide this buff to your group, fits the necro class too, because the class is good for generating ultimate. Might be op might be weak, not sure, haven't thought about it much but as i said this skill needs something.

Now let's talk about races. For a long time i've thought race balance is out of your sight but looks like it has changed. You've buffed khajiit which is one of better races, but didn't touch the races that actually need help like redguard or bosmer. How could you go through these races and think "yeah they are fine, let's buff khajiit!". I know khajiits are one of the most popular races but come on, i expect more from game devs...

stevenyaub16_ESO

To fit the descriptor I'd rather see Piercing Cold to do +x% critical chance vs chilled targets AND +10% damage when wielding a frost staff (for those brittledens).

But as it these changes stands now wardens are still left in the dirt when it comes to trials. It's probably too much to ask but the dive morphs need another pass. The stamina version for example with the final change from U35 penalises the skill when teh target is off-balance (applies no bleed), and the magicka version requires even more micromanagement to optimise.

Melzo

Changed two passive abilities. Why just create an official theme if you haven't changed anything for the other 5 classes? -_-.

Change Necromancer Abilities:
Empowering Grasp Gives too little damage to pets and Empower does not work in pvp and in pve this passive is useless for those who use the classic viv. And those who play through heavy attacks use their buff and they simply do not need a necromancer. Useless in both pvp and pve.

Agony Totem is a very weak ability. Has a delay. Abilities with a delay should be stronger than normal ones, but at the same time, the totem loses to a rune from the Fighters Guild. Add area damage or healing, or let the necromancer activate the synergy himself after 2 seconds.

Flame Skull is the worst spam ability in the game. The first two hits just don't do anything. And the advantage is only 3 hits. But even 3 hits fall short of the bonuses from other abilities. Venom Skull This skill is similar in mechanics to spamming the sorcerer's abilities, but in terms of damage it is clearly weaker. Bind this ability to pets. After dealing damage, increases your pet's damage against the target by 1000 for 2 seconds, similar to Empowering Grasp. and for Empowering Grasp, increase the damage by 30 percent to get the combo: Skeletal Mage Flame Skull blastbones Empowering Grasp. This will allow you to receive adequate ranged damage.

Avid Boneyard Useless damage over time. Needed only for synergy. Reduce damage and add slow or armor reduction.

Skeletal Mage I understand that you equated this skill with periodic damage. DK has a similar ability, but you did not change anything with him.

Death bell. Changed to a stable damage bonus. Why this passive is only needed against bosses. Useless in pvp and against a large number of enemies.

Deaden Pain Increases life decree and makes this skill active rather than refreshable. Corpses are not infinite. And when you consume 5 corpses you get 10 seconds of healing, you press again to absorb one and you get all 2 seconds and lose the old 10.

Death Gleaning is a very situational passive. Add any other buff. It may not be strong, but it's a fun buff. Five dead players is 1000 mana and 1000 stamina. For example, when you consume a body, you restore 300 stamina and mana. So that when you absorb a large number of bodies / souls, you recover quickly, and when you have a small amount, slowly.

Reanimate. Change the ultimate so that one morph resurrects and the other creates blastbones. And lower the points cost for the second morph. Too expensive skill.

Expunge. Nobody needs a skill. Give a shield when consumed or increase HP regeneration by 30-40 percent for 3-4 seconds. At least add something, otherwise the skill is not viable.

shocking siphon. PvE ability. Remove the skill damage bonus and give it to the necromancer's general passive abilities.

Sorry for mistakes. I am writing through google translator)))Until I learned the language.

Gendizer

Zos, please leave Wardens alone. You're taking steps towards hybridization, but trying to tie the passive to the specific kind of staff, which kills flexibility of this class.

MashmalloMan

Gendizer wrote: »

Zos, please leave Wardens alone. You're taking steps towards hybridization, but trying to tie the passive to the specific kind of staff, which kills flexibility of this class.

Thats the funniest and scariest part.. I think they're afraid they lost diversity in morph choices, so now they're going to start attaching weapon bonuses in the kit.

Inb4 Templar gets more damage using Dual Wield and DK gets more damage using 2H.

No thanks. Hybridization was suppose to open up build diversity and now we seem to be going in the opposite direction, back to how it was.

VictorDragonslayer

1) Puncturing Strikes wasn't changed. I can't understand why you turned the best class spammable into a poorly animated skill with only one useful (as far as melee aoe encounters go) morph and continue to think that the skill is all right. No, it is not. Pre-U35 Puncturing Strikes was borderline OP skill, its power restricted only by melee range, but templar was the best class for new players because of that spammable. Now its morphs are "I want to heal off stacked enemies, but less than before" and "LMAO, find yourself a real spammable". Yes, now templars can spam other skills, but this variety comes at the cost of mediocre class spammable, which is a weird way of promoting build diversity.
2) Ritual of Retribution wasn't changed, though you got mathematical explanation why U35 changes are good only on target dummy. This explanation was posted in the early days of U35 PTS. You either ignored it or decided that if spreadsheet numbers went up, then skill went up. Well, good luck landing its last ticks in mobile fights.
3) Burning Light is overnerfed. 500ms CD means that you can proc it in 2 seconds, but in the actual game you do damage as LA + several ms of delay + skill + 800ms GCD. If the skill is instant, you'll get 1 stack in 1 second, with channeled skills it may be 3 stacks in 2 seconds. It's too hard to line up dots so their damage would proc every 500ms, so realistic procs will happen every 3 seconds. A passive which was procced every 1 second by Puncturing Strikes now can be procced every 3 seconds for 33% less damage. Was this passive good? Sure. Is this passive weak now? In PvE - yes. I understand your desire to decrease the load, but what's the reason behind nerfing the damage? If you got jabbed to death in PvP - git gud or start balancing PvE and PvP separately.
4) I'm not a warden player, but still can't grasp the thought process behind changing Advanced Species. Its bonus spd/wpd were good for both magicka and stamina, PvE and PvP. If you think that magden was underperforming, why touch the only thing that was working equally in all possible scenarios and then touch it again, only to tip the scales into the other direction? If you want to balance warden, your changes should be elsewhere, don't change the only thing that was balanced. You have an army of warden mains, there is a chance that they understand the class better than you, so please, listen to them.

acastanza_ESO

Why was there no nerf to the Templar beam? It is insanely strong, way stronger than any other execute. Straight up melting people from 50% health. Completely not okay.

warich

Warden is gonna need a lot more love this patch than what's been listed in the patch notes. The class as a PvE dps was gutted so much it doesn't even come close to the other classes.

Advanced Species passive-
Why was this one changed from providing damage? I get taking away the percentage increase, but turning it into one capped stat and another (across U35 and U36) makes no sense, and considering warden already has a crit damage passive to chilled enemies this definitely won't help considering that there is a cap on the amount of crit damage you can deal to enemies.

Piercing Cold passive-
There are so many things wrong with the presented changes. First off, play how you want went down the drain the moment a specific weapon type was linked to a class ability, and the passive change only exacerbates that by making a warden use the worst dps option (the frost skills actively cost more and deal significantly less damage than their inferno and lightning counterparts) of the destro staff line to get even a shred of what they once had.

I get the want to make ice mages more viable, but these U36 changes make that viability a necessity to even begin to pursue more difficult content.

I'm getting really tired of feeling genuinely saddened after trials about my own performance. I'm a mid-tier PvEer and running content (whether it's trials, dungeons, arenas, or questing) is my passion. Warden used to feel so good to play, the rotation with shalks and using your animal skills felt smooth and gave the class identity. It was the best!! I would look forward to antagonizing my tanks with the bear cc, now the most I can look forward to is to just barely holding up to my part of the required damage to complete content. It's a sad shell of what it used to be, good for nothing but being in a support role.

There's a lot needed to fix what was broken, and the current changes only hollow out that shell even more.

Please consider the words used in past updates and notes: play how you want. This isn't it.

ACamaroGuy

flizomica wrote: »

I really don't think U36 was the time to hold back on significant balance changes. Reading the patch notes, it was very painful to realize that the current combat balance is what we will have for the next 6 months, given the cadence of the update cycle. Please consider revisiting these pain points in the future:

1. Can we please get some class and spec (mag/stam) identity? Personally, I really dislike the current DPS meta, where mag and stam as separate specs hardly exist, and everyone is running the same gear and very similar skills across different classes. It fully pushes me away from wanting to keep more than one character up to date on an optimal DPS spec, as I don't see the point in optimizing multiple characters when they all feel the same to play. It basically feels like I have to choose between having extremely same-y DPS characters or doing significantly less damage on an off-meta spec. I'd really like for now off-meta specs (e.g. dedicated fire mage DK, frost Warden, lightning Sorc) to become stronger relative to hybrid specs that get to pick the strongest of all skills and gear available to them.

Class identity... Every class should have a magicka and stamina form of it's class abilities to use as a spammable. Every class ability skill line should have a spammable block, damage and heal. The Templar is a perfect example of this. NO generic skill line ability should outperform your class ability skill lines. The generic skill lines should ONLY buff and compliment your class ability skill lines. This is what will separate one class from another and give each class its own identity. The META should be different in some ways for each class because each class will have its own unique skill line.

Ankael07

Magicka Necro's damage needs an overhaul for PVP. We're too forced to use harmony bomb builds to be effective.

Flaming Skull is clunky to weave, too slow projectile and gets bugged often

Skeletal Mage's damage isnt good enough for PVP,you can only have it on 1 enemy and you cant even direct the pet to attack your preferred target

Shocking Siphon has same low DOT as Skeletal Mage but stationary

Bone Armor; One morph pulls enemies but you cant control the pulling so you end up giving free CC immunity to people or worse pull those who youre trying to escape from. Another morph has a measly 15% cost reduction on 3 summons which arent even spammables

Blastbones is extremely clunky and buggy. More often than not it jumps but doesnt deal any damage, cannot see cloaked NBs even when you use detection and doesnt count as player sourced damage so it doesnt proc a lot of sets or CP like Occult Overload. Magicka morph doesnt provide any meaningful advantage over stamina morph or even unmorphed version. 10% damage every second of being alive doesnt mean anything when it jumps to it's death before it can buff up.

Also whats up with Necro's being unable to control any of their pets? Blastbone's target goes invisible and we cant redirect to anyone else. Same with Skeletal Mage, Spirit Mender or Reanimate Blastbones ulti. Why cant we control them like Sorcerers can with a keybind or heavy attack?

MurkyWetWolf198

Hello Gina and other ZOS representatives.
I am a console player who has been doing all content in the game since 2016 (when the Morrowind Expansion dropped). I've done all of the overland questing, I've logged hundreds of hours in Random Dungeons, Cyrodiil and Battlegrounds, and I'm proud to say I've earned veteran clears in almost every trial. I even play the Card Game consistently and really love it's theme of competitive deck-building. I quite enjoy the game you've made over these past 8 or so years.
Overall, I'm quite happy with the changes implemented so far, but I do have some critiques, so I'll quickly list a few things I think could use a little work in update 36.
1. The changes to Warden's Piercing Cold passive are a good idea. Giving Frost Mages some support is quite welcome, and I love Ice themed builds. However, I think the exact numbers could use some fine tuning. Based on my own and others theorizing, try the following: Make the base damage increase (currently 1%/2%) into a 3%/6% as it levels. Then, make that bonus increase to 12% (rather than 10%) with an Ice Staff equipped. This will allow all Wardens to experience a minor buff (which would help bring them up to par with other classes) while still giving Frost Wardens some unique love. Hopefully, this will attract new and old players back to all types of Wardens, where they can then discover the joy of the Frost Mage subset themselves.
2. Bow as a back-up bar feels pretty nice this patch. The increased duration of Endless Hail and Poison Injection really make it comfortable to use. However, it still falls behind in damage at high-levels of play when compared to Staff and Two-Handed backbar options. I think the best way to get bow to a power-level that would make it competitive with other options is to extend the duration of the Hawk Eye passive to 15 seconds (similar to the Seething Fury buff associated with DK's Molten Whip), up from 5 seconds. This would allow for the buff to remain active while players used abilities on their front bar, which will boost the power of popular Bow Damage over Time skills such as Endless Hail and Poison Injection while on the front bar. Furthermore, increasing the timer of Hawk Eye will align it with your previous goals; First, Bows will become more powerful, incentivizing more players to use them and increasing the diversity within the game (more people playing the way they want). Second, the longer timer will align with the timer with other 15 second Damage over Time skills (such as the previously mentioned Endless Hail) which will ease the rotation for newer players trying out Bow on backbar for the first time and align it with other class and Weapon Damage over Time skills
3. Nightblade is awesome to play this patch, especially with a Magicka based set-up. I love the unique synergy of Twisting Path and Concealed Weapon, it really helps the class identity. However, there are a few a few kinks that I feel should be worked out, specifically within the Shadow skill line.
First, there is a slight hiccup with the Twisting Path and Concealed Weapon synergy. I often find that I need to adjust my position by varying amounts to remain within the Area of Effect of Path that gives Major Expedition. This feels a bit clunky, and it could be fixed with a small adjustment to the Area of Effect. This could include just shifting the Area of Effect back a little bit relative to the caster, or lengthening it to slightly cover behind the caster. Overall, it's not a huge issue, but it is a bit irksome.
Second, the Shadow skill line a couple of popular Damage over Time skills for Nightblades such as Twisting Path and Dark Shade. These skills naturally follow the timer adjustments of Update 35, and thus have durations of 10 seconds and 20 seconds respectively. However, these timers are altered by the passive Dark Veil, which adds 2 seconds to each timer. This throws off their relationship to other Damage over Time skills, as they now last 12 seconds and 22 seconds respectively. This goes against the objective of your previous changes, as it complicates the timers of Damage over Time skills, which in turn makes rotations harder for more casual players to learn. So, here's what I offer as a solution; because the end goal of the changes are to streamline the timers of Damage over Time skills, the end goal of any hypothetical solution should create a timer of 15 seconds for Twisting Path and 20 seconds for Dark Shade. I argue Twisting should be 15 seconds because it will then align with the timers for other popular backbar skills such as Stampede, Endless Hail, and Elemental Blockade. I argue Dark Shade should be 20 Seconds to align with the timers of other Damage over Time skills such as Debilitate, Blade Cloak and Poison Injection. The two ways of doing that are to make the base durations of Twisting Path and Dark Shade 13 seconds and 18 seconds respectively, which will then become 15 seconds and 20 seconds respectively after adding the extra duration from Dark Veil. Alternatively, you could have the base durations of the skills start at 15 seconds and 20 seconds, and then rework the function of the Dark Veil passive. Perhaps let Dark Veil increase the range of Shadow abilities rather than duration. Either way, I would like to see the Shadow Damage over Time skills on Nightblades be streamlined a little more, in accordance with the changes of Update 35.
4. My favorite weapons to use are Dual Wield and Staves. I have always loved these options, and they feel great to use on front bar this patch. However, those weapon types are performing a bit sub-par when equipped on my backbar. This is because whereas both Two Handed backbars and Bow backbars have access to 2 powerful dots (Stampede and Carve, Endless Hail and Poison Injection), Staves and Dual Wield only have one competitive Damage over Time skill (Unstable Wall/Elemental Blockade, Blade Cloak). Each weapon skill has a second Damage over Time skill (Destructive Reach, Rending Slashes), but these are underpowered compared to their Two Handed and Bow counterparts. The reason for this is fairly simple; both Poison Injection and Carve scale dynamically with the stats of the bar the caster is currently on, whereas Destructive Reach and Rending slashes only factor in backbar stats. This leaves them significantly weaker, especially considering Poison Injection is an Execute and Carve is a very unique skill. Thus, in order to make Staff and Dual Wield backbars feel like they have as many options as their Two Handed and Bow Counterparts, I would like to see two things: Give a slight increase to the damage of both Rending Slashes and Destructive Reach, and let them scale dynamically with the stats of the bar currently being used. This should make both skills viable, and help our Staff and Dual Wield backbar users feel more supported.
5. Finally, there's the hybridization. I really enjoy all of the interesting options that the Set and Skill hybridization offers, and I do think it was a good change. However, in Update 32 and Update 33, we were promised that buffs like Major Sorcery and Major Brutality, Buffs like Major Prophecy and Major Savagery, and their minor counterparts would be merged into singular buffs. Furthermore, we were promised that the potion system and possible enchants were going to be hybridized as well. Now, personally, I don' t mind either way regarding if these buffs and items are merged or not, but I would like some follow-up communication. Are these changes still planned? Are they down the pipeline in Update 37 or even perhaps Update 38? Have they been scrapped after the controversy regarding the controversy surrounding these past few Updates? Some clarification regarding the intended direction the game's systems will be taken in would be much appreciated.

Alright. I think that's all of the changes I personally am looking for in Update 36 as of right now. If any other players wish to discuss these changes with me, I'll respond somewhat, though no guarantees. I'm looking forward to see what else is tweaked for the better in Update 36.
-Murky

Razorback174

Making a CLASS passive only work with a specific weapon type fundamentally goes against the "play how you want" mantra that's been used to sell this game.

I'd hoped Update 36 would have fixed many of the issues 35 left in its wake. But here we are, further off the road and the future of ESO is looking more bleak every step of the way.

jcaceresw

Can you please stop punishing PVE people like me with the new Occult Overload nerf just to justify some balance for PVP? Leave the damage as before but with the new effects.

VictorDragonslayer

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

Why was there no nerf to the Templar beam? It is insanely strong, way stronger than any other execute. Straight up melting people from 50% health. Completely not okay.

I guess the reason is the same why other templar skills weren't buffed - ZOS are okay with that. I don't know how having only one viable (OP, to be fair) skill can be counted as a success, but here we are. Looks like Jabs + Burning Light were very opressive in PvP, so now you have a very balanced and fun to play against ranged execute. I can't imagine what level of mind gymnastics was used to balance templar for PvE and PvP.

Ratzkifal

• My Templar's jabs is still not back to how it was before update 35.
• DKs still have a weird split cost spammable that is neither unique nor fun to use because it has the drawbacks of both without the advantages of either.
• Wardens were happier with a bonus to damage done rather than crit damage or pen.

As long as these issues aren't addressed Update 36 is already a failure in my book.

MurkyWetWolf198

One more note for my fellow players.
Look I get the frustration. I've worked my ass off for sets and rotations every patch, just to be invalidated 3 months later. I've suffered through the PvP weekends with performance functioning worse than the Queen of England's heart. The game has it's problems, and we've seen the results after Update 35. But I ask you all to not antagonize the developers. I understand the desire to, I really do, but it isn't gonna help. If you, like me, want this game to be good and fun to play, you all cannot keep fighting the developers. If you stop and think, they are actually listening to us. At least somewhat. We complained about constant sweeping changes, and they come out with a very small patch. We told them about the issues with long-duration AoE dots, and they readjusted the timers. We told them Sorc was too OP last patch and Blade could use some love, and they nerfed Sorcs and buffed Blades. Did they screw-up in how they did it? Yes. Obviously. Did they have their own goals that they put ahead of our complaints? Absolutely. That's the reason LAs and DoTs were nerfed in the first place. Are they ignoring some core issues regarding functionality and game performance? Of course.
But they aren't some evil force. They're a corporation with their own priorities, a group of human beings doing their jobs just like us. And if we want them to do their jobs properly, we have to give them proper feedback. We can't just slander them and complain, we have to reason with them and respect that they have their own goals to. Mind you, that doesn't mean we roll over and accept bad changes. It means we fight against the changes in an honorable way, not resorting to cries of emotion and the classic blame game.
Tl:dr; It's ok to be frustrated, the devs have their faults. But if you want it to be better, than slander and toxicity isn't the way.
For more on that note, look up Arttea's recent Video regarding why people left in Update 35. Turns out, while many people left in frustration with the changes, even more left because players kept being toxic in their responses to the patch.
-Murky

Dagoth_Rac

Please help bring the Mages Guild passives in line with new DoT timers.

Might of the Guild gives Empower for 10 seconds. But the only Mages Guild skills that make sense in a rotation have DoTs that last like 24 to 30 seconds. Which means you have to overcast them and waste GCDs to keep up Empower if on a class without good access to Empower.

Not all of us want to be forced into one-bar Oakensoul builds for Empower. A lot of people enjoy having two bars and lots of skills and other aspects of a "meta" rotation, but replacing light attack weaved spammables with heavy attacks. I don't want to just hold down the left mouse button. But I also don't want to button mash nonstop. I want some button mashing but heavy attacks as a sort of lull in the action.

This would be greatly aided by extending the duration of Might of the Guild's Empower buff to match length of Degeneration and Scalding Rune.

I am looking at this from a MagSorc perspective, but I feel like it probably affects other classes and builds in different ways. The more generic request might be to make it easier to keep up Empower in PvE without being forced into Oakensoul.

Thank you.

Klingenlied

Only commenting on Warden.

First, Piercing Cold. First DPS tests kinda confirm that Frost Staff is now a strong - not overperforming - alternative to Inferno staff. That is good!

However, old setups (DW / 2H) still perform better - but those are nerfed. Warden is on the bottom end in PvE dps - and not just by a tiny margin. There needs be more then a 2% boost to all damage dealt if you remove 10% magic and 10% frost damage - sources all Warden builds used since like forever.

So the basic Idea - up Frost Staff by 8% to make it viable - it is working out! To the nay-sayers: parse it out or check out people's parses.

The overall change though: lackluster, a nerf - that is wrong on all ends - you can absolutely not nerf Warden any further!
So tweak those numbers please. Base damage needs to be way above a 2% increase! With a full 12% to all damage & 20% with frost staff equipped, we - mathematically - would not yet parse as well as sorcs! Not saying parsing is everything and we should go for such high numbers - but I just wanted to make it clear how incredibly far off Wardens are in the DPS department.

Now for Advanced Species. You got the community suggestions and you got it right once. 2% damage per skill. Fine. Crit rate. Fine. Weapon and Spell damage if ye don't want to go for percentages? Fine. Just steer away from stats that easily cap out now.

So I laud you for your ideas and trying this out in the PTS - that what it's for! But please, finally, listen to the community and help out Wardens. Adjusting those numbers would go a long way. Readjusting them, when you worked out more finer details, maybe improved on the birds for example. But keep Wardens viable. Don't kill them off for even longer. 3 Months hurts enough. Don't make half a year or even longer out of it.

ESO_Nightingale

Klingenlied wrote: »

Only commenting on Warden.

First, Piercing Cold. First DPS tests kinda confirm that Frost Staff is now a strong - not overperforming - alternative to Inferno staff. That is good!

However, old setups (DW / 2H) still perform better - but those are nerfed. Warden is on the bottom end in PvE dps - and not just by a tiny margin. There needs be more then a 2% boost to all damage dealt if you remove 10% magic and 10% frost damage - sources all Warden builds used since like forever.

So the basic Idea - up Frost Staff by 8% to make it viable - it is working out! To the nay-sayers: parse it out or check out people's parses.

The overall change though: lackluster, a nerf - that is wrong on all ends - you can absolutely not nerf Warden any further!
So tweak those numbers please. Base damage needs to be way above a 2% increase! With a full 12% to all damage & 20% with frost staff equipped, we - mathematically - would not yet parse as well as sorcs! Not saying parsing is everything and we should go for such high numbers - but I just wanted to make it clear how incredibly far off Wardens are in the DPS department.

Now for Advanced Species. You got the community suggestions and you got it right once. 2% damage per skill. Fine. Crit rate. Fine. Weapon and Spell damage if ye don't want to go for percentages? Fine. Just steer away from stats that easily cap out now.

So I laud you for your ideas and trying this out in the PTS - that what it's for! But please, finally, listen to the community and help out Wardens. Adjusting those numbers would go a long way. Readjusting them, when you worked out more finer details, maybe improved on the birds for example. But keep Wardens viable. Don't kill them off for even longer. 3 Months hurts enough. Don't make half a year or even longer out of it.

unfortunately, due to the availiability of the ancient knowledge passive, and minor brittle from the frost staff, it's going to mean that a buff like this would just make it best in slot because it offers so much as well as easily obtainable competitive damage. i feel like there's really little reason to use other weapons. so while on the dummy it may seem like it's fair, it just doesn't account for brittle or the block bonuses. this is going to be insane in pvp. given the blocking bonuses, i think the way in which the frost staff should achieve competitive damage, should be through chilled application as that has to be built for through the use of frost damage sources, and stuff like charged. a change like this makes the frost staff an easy slap-on, rather than a concious build choice.

FrancisCrawford

I don't hate the idea of a "while wielding a frost staff" bonus for Wardens. So if it is a lot more efficient from a back-end processing standpoint than other alternatives, roll with it. Just change some overall numbers please to make the changes a non-nerf for any warden and more of a buff for ice mages.

As for the move from +damage to +penetration to +crit damage -- those complaints are quite correct, and not just in elite trial groups. Ice mages already have +20% to crit damage. So even in casual scenarios where the cap isn't reached, yet more crit damage could offer diminishing returns. Just changing from crit damage to crit chance would:

• Alleviate this problem.
• Be a slight buff.
• Presumably be easy for you to implement.

That said: Ice staff is apparently a support-only weapon for anybody not a warden. So if it's a good DPS weapon for wardens, there will be a temptation to nerf DPS + support wardens accordingly. Please don't fall into that trap.

Suna_Ye_Sunnabe

Ratzkifal wrote: »

• My Templar's jabs is still not back to how it was before update 35.
• DKs still have a weird split cost spammable that is neither unique nor fun to use because it has the drawbacks of both without the advantages of either.
• Wardens were happier with a bonus to damage done rather than crit damage or pen.

As long as these issues aren't addressed Update 36 is already a failure in my book.

My exact thoughts.

maxjapank

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

Why was there no nerf to the Templar beam? It is insanely strong, way stronger than any other execute. Straight up melting people from 50% health. Completely not okay.

Nah. When do you remember dying to or worrying about beam before U35? You didn’t.. It needed a buff. And as an execute it should get kills. It’s still a channel. And it can be interrupted.

BalticBlues

ZOS_Gilliam wrote: »

Backlash’s final damage now takes more overall damage to reach,
to make the payout less reliably reached in PvP scenarios.
These abilities are now once again limited to having one active at a time.

Why oh way do you GIMP HEALERS and especially Templars with each patch?
U36 KILLS BACKLASH in PVE as a useful skill for HEALERS.

Are MagTemplars now following the MagSorcs? Once great, now niche?
I am fed up and tired of all the Magicka Templar nerfs - patch by patch.
As I am fed up and tired of being forced to play Stamina in PvP - this is just boring...