What is the incentive to keep playing when your playstyle gets removed entirely?

Heromofo

Ilumia wrote: »

I still wish pvp and pve balancing would be seperated, because I do see the need to rework in pvp sometimes, but not in the same way in pve.
I stopped renewing my builds, and almost stopped playing because the work on a build was wrecked regularly, and keeping up took too much time instead of enjoying playing with the builds.

Yep no game ever gets to play the pvp/pve can balance together card and call it a win. PVE and PVP always have to be balanced separately as one change to one can massively effect another especially when one side might need a nerf and the other side could use a buff. It's two separate games working side by side normally one leeches the other and makes a mess of things.

wolfie1.0.

This is why you never put all of your resources behind OP builds. You put them in the slightly op builds. Those are less likely to get nerfed. Or if you so go for the op build you go in with an alternative plan to back it up for when the nerfs come in. For come they will.

peacenote

I realize that this may not be what you're looking for, but the answer to your question imo is... are your friends still here?

I know for me, I would move on to new single player games frequently but what makes mmos different is that your friends are here, and the model of an mmo IS to shake up the meta, regularly, to give you a reason to keep playing, re-grinding content, and trying other things (classes, play styles, etc.).

There is a tough line the devs have to walk to keep things fresh while not frustrating players so much that they leave. I'm not sure ZOS has been on the right side of that line, lately, but to be fair I don't think it is easy.

But if this were a single player game, if combat/playstyle/etc was significantly changed to no longer be the game I enjoyed... I would move on to the next thing. So to me the incentive is friends / the community.

If that's not an incentive for you, then it is much simpler... is there anything else in the game you enjoy doing? If not... there isn't one.

ProudMary

peacenote wrote: »

I realize that this may not be what you're looking for, but the answer to your question imo is... are your friends still here?

I know for me, I would move on to new single player games frequently but what makes mmos different is that your friends are here, and the model of an mmo IS to shake up the meta, regularly, to give you a reason to keep playing, re-grinding content, and trying other things (classes, play styles, etc.).

There is a tough line the devs have to walk to keep things fresh while not frustrating players so much that they leave. I'm not sure ZOS has been on the right side of that line, lately, but to be fair I don't think it is easy.

But if this were a single player game, if combat/playstyle/etc was significantly changed to no longer be the game I enjoyed... I would move on to the next thing. So to me the incentive is friends / the community.

If that's not an incentive for you, then it is much simpler... is there anything else in the game you enjoy doing? If not... there isn't one.

80% of my friends list HAVE left the game.

rpa

I tend to play one game at time. If it is not fun any more, I myself go and do something else, no problem. I do take long breaks from games and have left a bunch behind and never returned. I'm myself still having fun even with my terrible connection but when the fun gets nerfed it is time to move on.

f047ys3v3n

Not going to be crying for the loss of the very, very, very long overtuned necro synergy bombers.

I feel a bit for the PvE necro DPS not for this patch but just for it's current state. Of course, if your not playing a one bar HA empowered build right now you have missed the memo. Just hoping they don't nerf all sorcs out of existence because of their .... less than a good idea changes to empower, oaken ring, and the fact they never thought much about anything they wrote after "fully charged heavy attack" on a set because they used that as a code for throw away trash drop for something like 8 years.

My necro healer is working fine BTW. Great heals class. Necro tanks seem to be doing OK as well. In both cases having that pocket 3man insta-rez is one heck of a get out of wipe free card.

merpins

kargen27 wrote: »

merpins wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

merpins wrote: »

Happened to my NB in 2016. Happened to my Sorc in 2018. Happened to my Sorc again in U34, and then my longest running main since the game came out, my main since 2014, my Templar, in U35.

Worst part. Templar won't be fixed. Even if they buff the class or give it some other kit with skill utility changes, the likelihood of ZoS reverting Jabs to its old animation is close to non-existent. They can nerf a class into obscurity, make sets that were good bad, they can make a playstyle not good for a while, and it will eventually bounce back. Always does. But changing the animation on a skill can make or break a class. And unfortunately, the new Jabs animation is bad and won't ever not be bad.

The animation is an improvement. It better fits the timing of the skill and is easier to see when stacked in a group. Sure it looked awkward for a bit but after killing a few world bosses you get used to it and hardly notice it at all. Templars could use a bit of help but a change in animation isn't that help.

The animation is not an improvement. I'm a professional animator, and can tell you that it ignores the principles of animation. It looks awkward because it's not animated correctly, and you can get used to bad animation, but that doesn't change the fact that it is bad animation. The original animation was done well, too, so it's just a terrible change.

Yes, the timing of the skill, as in its cast time in ESO terms, is fine. Its timing in animation terms is terrible. They could fix the animation with, LITERALLY, less than 2 hours of work by a single animator on staff. It's not a difficult fix, I could fix it in 30 minutes if I was given the tools and the files used by ZoS for animation in ESO. The issue lies with timing, and if it was timed properly, it would actually look fine. I don't like that they reuse that vampire spear motif, but if the animation was good, I'd be able to overlook it. But the animation isn't good.

The new animation is much easier to see when stacked as a group. That alone makes it superior to the old animation. The old animation wouldn't fit the change to the skill firing so if timing is your issue the old animation would be much much worse.

I understand that the old animation wouldn't fit with the .8 second cast time that the new version of the skill has. It also makes sense from a design perspective that it stands out in PVP, since it's now easier to see. But if they did what I suggested, which is less than 2 hours of work with a single animator on staff to just fix the animation timing--- that is, giving it slow-ins and slow outs, exaggerating some poses more, making the arcs a bit more distinct, giving better secondary action to the body, etc. --- Then the skill would look and feel just as good as the OG skill. Again. With less than 2 hours of work by one dude on staff. And doing so wouldn't change how visible the skill is in groups. All it would do is fix what shouldn't have been a problem in the first place. That's why this is so frustrating.

Lixiviant

Well, with all the changes ZOS has introduced, I found that I let my ESO Plus lapse 3 months ago (First time since this game started) as I just didn't want to buy another character slot and start all over again. I can see where some tweaks might be in order for a couple of race/classes, but not over and over again. From my daily log-ons I'm now down to once a week just to keep me in good standing with my guilds. Problem is, I really enjoy(ed) this game