Sun Shield rework… when?

Tyrant_Tim

Billium813 wrote: »

I thought we were just talking about Sun Shield and it's morphs. There are plenty of other areas that Templar can be improved on for group synergy that Sun Shield doesn't have to be it. It seems like suggestions are just trying to cram group synergies into Sun Shield for the sake of Templar. Believe me, I get it, but don't forget that there are plenty of "support" skills that should be improved first. Unstable Core, Dark Flare & the Defile debuff in general, Restoring Aura, and Spear Shards over Orbs, just to name a few starting places. Not every skill needs to immediately give the group resources or shields or heals just because the CLASS is in a bad place.

I mentioned it earlier… your supports are defined by how well they support, and when you have an ability like Radiant Ward, that is not reliant on for your success as a Templar tank clearing content, it’s time for that ability to receive a buff. If having a ward is something you like, there are classes like Sorcerer and Arcanist that create much bigger health-based wards. While also having skills that grant group synergy in the form of unique penetration, and damage mitigation through skills.

Sun Shield is weak, it needs to be more selfish if that’s the role ZOS insists on for the ability, or it needs to provide group utility, as suggested, at this point in the game, it would be best to just remake the entire skill, as Arcanist hijacked Blazing Shield.

There are better versions of it; for other classes and the role that it’s intended, without excessive conditions like multiple nearby enemies.

James-Wayne

The fact that Templar has so many useless class skills compared to other classes tells me these class specific sets in Qtr4 must be making these useless skills awesome again.... right.... right???

Billium813

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Billium813 wrote: »

I thought we were just talking about Sun Shield and it's morphs. There are plenty of other areas that Templar can be improved on for group synergy that Sun Shield doesn't have to be it. It seems like suggestions are just trying to cram group synergies into Sun Shield for the sake of Templar. Believe me, I get it, but don't forget that there are plenty of "support" skills that should be improved first. Unstable Core, Dark Flare & the Defile debuff in general, Restoring Aura, and Spear Shards over Orbs, just to name a few starting places. Not every skill needs to immediately give the group resources or shields or heals just because the CLASS is in a bad place.

I mentioned it earlier… your supports are defined by how well they support, and when you have an ability like Radiant Ward, that is not reliant on for your success as a Templar tank clearing content, it’s time for that ability to receive a buff. If having a ward is something you like, there are classes like Sorcerer and Arcanist that create much bigger health-based wards. While also having skills that grant group synergy in the form of unique penetration, and damage mitigation through skills.

Sun Shield is weak, it needs to be more selfish if that’s the role ZOS insists on for the ability, or it needs to provide group utility, as suggested, at this point in the game, it would be best to just remake the entire skill, as Arcanist hijacked Blazing Shield.

The best "Support" a Tank can impart on the group is staying alive. Stapling Radiant Aura to Sun Shield (ala. Sorcs Regenerative Ward) isn't gonna magically make Templar Tank BiS, and it certainly isn't that necessary. The group synergy issues with Templar Tank are systemic at this point and Sun Shield isn't gonna be the one to save it. As you said

If having a ward is something you like, there are classes like Sorcerer and Arcanist that create much bigger health-based wards. While also having skills that grant group synergy in the form of unique penetration, and damage mitigation through skills.

other classes have more group synergy with OTHER SKILLS. Templar Tank doesn't need that on Sun Shield, it just needs to be a good shield and Radiant Ward is a good shield for its situation: with many enemies near-by. Blazing Shield is hot garbage and totally neglected.

Tyrant_Tim

James-Wayne wrote: »

The fact that Templar has so many useless class skills compared to other classes tells me these class specific sets in Qtr4 must be making these useless skills awesome again.... right.... right???

Balancing abilities around sets is a slippery slope, and I truly hope that the reason we haven’t gotten a Sun Shield buff has nothing to do with Update 40.

Tyrant_Tim

Haven’t seen you chime in yet, @Cloudrest. As someone invested in the class, what is your opinion of the state of this ability, and if you could change it in any way, what would you do?

Cloudrest

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Haven’t seen you chime in yet, @Cloudrest. As someone invested in the class, what is your opinion of the state of this ability, and if you could change it in any way, what would you do?

I'm probably not the best person to ask about Sun Shield. Frankly, I forgot that it exists. It doesn't have a place within Templar's kit in my opinion, and I've never once bothered using it or even thought about using it. Shields don't mesh well with the in-your-face drain-tank brawler playstyle that I've always enjoyed on Templar; staying alive through the raw amount of incoming healing from both the offensive and defensive tools that it has rather than innate tankiness (Like on DK) or shields (Sorc/Arcanist).

If it were me, I'd completely rework the ability from being a shield into an active ability akin to Siphoning Strikes on Nightblade or Recuperative Treatise on Arcanist; a skill that provides sustain and healing based on damage done to enemies. Templar needs something like that right now, imho.

Tyrant_Tim

Cloudrest wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Haven’t seen you chime in yet, @Cloudrest. As someone invested in the class, what is your opinion of the state of this ability, and if you could change it in any way, what would you do?

I'm probably not the best person to ask about Sun Shield. Frankly, I forgot that it exists. It doesn't have a place within Templar's kit in my opinion…

No surprise you’ve forgotten it exists, because you can probably count on one hand the amount of players you’ve ran into using the skill.

Having over 200 days on my Templar alone, (full 24 hour days) I have ran this ability successfully on maybe two builds ever. One such build before Battle Spirit halved wards, and the other build was for a PvE tank.

Never in my entire time playing since Battle Spirit, have I been able to make a build that could run Blazing Shield and maintain any level of effectiveness… and I’ve tried.

Be it high health and medium spell damage, or high spell damage and medium health, or extremely high health… no combination works.

There is no possible way to balance your stats to make Sun Shield into an effective skill in PvP.

Cloudrest wrote: »

If it were me, I'd completely rework the ability from being a shield into an active ability akin to Siphoning Strikes on Nightblade or Recuperative Treatise on Arcanist; a skill that provides sustain and healing based on damage done to enemies. Templar needs something like that right now, imho.

This idea could work, at the very least altering Blazing Shield. Radiant Ward has some niche use, but as @Billium813 showed earlier in the thread, Blazing Shield does less damage than Radiant.

What purpose does a damage morph have… doing less damage than the tank one?

danno8

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

@Necrotech_Master, if you had to completely rework Sun Shield and its morphs, and envision them around their ability names, what would you consider for them?…

• Sun Shield
• Radiant Ward
• Blazing Shield

That’s an open invite to anyone reading this, let’s get creative here. I want to hear opinions on this.

Sun Sheild: I would make the base skill essentially the same as Annulment LA skill.

Radiant Ward: skill now grants minor evasion and affects all nearby enemies with minor maim.

Blazing Shield: skill now affects all nearby enemies with burning on cast. When shield expires it explodes for x damage (scaling with higher of sp/wp dmg). Similar explosion amount as Deep Breath.

ArctosCethlenn

What about making Blazing shield stun nearby enemies on cast? That would at least make the morphs a choice between better damage or better control.

Tyrant_Tim

ArctosCethlenn wrote: »

What about making Blazing shield stun nearby enemies on cast? That would at least make the morphs a choice between better damage or better control.

My only problem with that idea, is that the class already has two stuns, one in the form of Toppling Charge, and the other in the form of Javelin.

If Templar got another CC, I would rather Spear Shards get an AoE root, over applying another class stun through Sun Shield.

ArctosCethlenn

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

My only problem with that idea, is that the class already has two stuns, one in the form of Toppling Charge, and the other in the form of Javelin.

If Templar got another CC, I would rather Spear Shards get an AoE root, over applying another class stun through Sun Shield.

Eh, I don't really see an issue with having an aoe and a ST stun in your kit, they mostly serve different purposes; it's not that different from sorc/warden/nb having both aoe stuns and single target stuns available.

But if it's really a problem, I'd lean towards blazing shield as the supporty morph rather than both trying to be damage skills which also shield you. Maybe keep it as-is, but it also applies minor protection, minor vitality, or another one of the less-common buffs to your group on cast?

Tyrant_Tim

Gonna bring this back up because it’s yet another patch week that none of these incredible ideas have been implemented.

Tyrant_Tim

Tyrant_Tim

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

If you had to completely rework Sun Shield and its morphs, and envision them around their ability names, what would you consider for them?…

• Sun Shield
• Radiant Ward
• Blazing Shield

That’s an open invite to anyone reading this, let’s get creative here. I want to hear opinions on this.

Tyrant_Tim

Dekrypted wrote: »

It's like there's a personal vendetta against templar and necromancer. What did Templars do to deserve this?

Well, it doesn’t help that any time I bring up a Sun Shield rework, people are silent.

Either they have never used the shield and don’t understand how hopeless it is, they have given up the fight, or are happy with the state of Templar tanking.

I don’t know which is more offensive.

Tyrant_Tim

Dekrypted wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

If you had to completely rework Sun Shield and its morphs, and envision them around their ability names, what would you consider for them?…

• Sun Shield
• Radiant Ward
• Blazing Shield

That’s an open invite to anyone reading this, let’s get creative here. I want to hear opinions on this.

I'd love to see a 100% rework of blazing shield and for Radiant to remain the same, but have the scaling adjusted to match or fall just short of matching magsorcs scaling

The scaling on this ability matches Shields that aren't used in pvp and by that logic, 100% makes it not a viable option at all to be used in the space. If we're told to play how we want, we need the tools to do so.

At the very least, Blazing Shield…

I would love some sort of stacking mechanic for Templar, and Blazing Shield could fulfill that in some stacking DoT centered around you when you block damage, and at max stats your character or weapons glows white with heat.

Billium813

I'd really like to see them completely rework Blazing Shield. I don't hate Radiant Ward as is, but it could definitely be buffed a bit. Still, I think the answer is more in the Templar Passives then specific Skills

Some other Templar improvements I've been thinking about:

• Spear Wall

  Upon activating an Aedric Spear ability. You and allies within 5 meters gain Minor Protection for 6 seconds, reducing damage taken by 5%.

  Developer Note
  One pain point for Templar is that they don't provide enough utility in groups. It should be baked into the Templar class to protect allies near them. At the moment, non-Templars have access to Frost Impulse and Circle of Protection, Necros get Bone Totem, Wardens have Maturation. It seems safe to establish Minor Protection as a Templar group buff for nearby allies and allies should be rewarded for standing near their closest Templar ally with a wall of protecting spears!
• Sacred Ground

  While standing within your Restoring Light area effects, and for 2 seconds after leaving, reduce the cost of non-Ultimate Restoring Light abilities by 30%, gain Minor Mending, and increase the amount of damage you can block by 10%.

  Developer Note
  Templar's identity is "sacred ground". They hold the line, stand their ground, and build a house to live in! Unfortunately though, combat is OFTEN mobile. Well designed combat shifts around the area, enemies move and perform actions, and everything is really dynamic! That design though is really punishing for Templar that has to keep moving their "sacred ground" around and paying to setup again.
  Having to recast Cleansing Ritual because you JUST got a debuff, or because you need to shift the area slightly as the boss JUST moved, can be a big bother, as well as expensive! The payment Templar has to make is that they have to burn actions on setting that stuff up again and being strategic in their placement. Instead of just making all skills cheaper, give Templar a strategy for shifting around as combat moves without being prohibitively expensive on resources.
• Radiant Ward

  Surround yourself with solar rays, granting a damage shield that absorbs up to 4800 damage for 6 seconds. This portion of the ability scales off your Max Health.
  
  Nearby enemies take 1742 Magic Damage and are applied with Minor Mangle for 6 seconds when the shield is activated. Each enemy hit increases the shield's strength by 20%.

  Developer Note
  Radiant Ward is fine, but can be rather situational for players to use. It’s good as a shield when surrounded by several enemies, but is lacks when there aren’t enough nearby. That can be a fine tradeoff between morphs, but admittedly, the skill doesn’t really have anything else going for it otherwise!
  
  Adding Minor Mangle could help to give it a bit of utility for both small mob packs AND with tougher boss ads. If combined with the suggested change for Spear Wall above, it would give Templar a Frost Pulsar, which could help free some bar space on some builds and should be a balanced addition to Templar.

James-Wayne

As a Templar tank I would love a class skill with either CC or some kind of pull mechanic.

Tyrant_Tim

It’s only week one, here’s to hoping Templar gets a stacking mechanic like every other base game class, and hopefully it’s Blazing Shield.

Jaraal

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Dekrypted wrote: »

It's like there's a personal vendetta against templar and necromancer. What did Templars do to deserve this?

Well, it doesn’t help that any time I bring up a Sun Shield rework, people are silent.

Either they have never used the shield and don’t understand how hopeless it is, they have given up the fight, or are happy with the state of Templar tanking.

I don’t know which is more offensive.

Personally I love Blazing Shield, and I run a one off build with it that synergizes nicely. And no, I'm not interested in being the guy that gets the attention of the nerf hammer wielders who browse the forums looking stuff that 'works too well.'

But... I think the solution that would at least partly address the concerns of the majority of Templars would be to stop the double dipping Battle Spirit handicap that applies to both the shield strength and the damage returned. And this applies to Spiked Bone Shield and other thorn type sets and skills as well. Either halve the shield or halve the damage.... but not both. Same thing with shields/healing or healing/damage combos.

Tyrant_Tim

Jaraal wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Dekrypted wrote: »

It's like there's a personal vendetta against templar and necromancer. What did Templars do to deserve this?

Well, it doesn’t help that any time I bring up a Sun Shield rework, people are silent.

Either they have never used the shield and don’t understand how hopeless it is, they have given up the fight, or are happy with the state of Templar tanking.

I don’t know which is more offensive.

Personally I love Blazing Shield, and I run a one off build with it that synergizes nicely. And no, I'm not interested in being the guy that gets the attention of the nerf hammer wielders who browse the forums looking stuff that 'works too well.'

But... I think the solution that would at least partly address the concerns of the majority of Templars would be to stop the double dipping Battle Spirit handicap that applies to both the shield strength and the damage returned. And this applies to Spiked Bone Shield and other thorn type sets and skills as well. Either halve the shield or halve the damage.... but not both. Same thing with shields/healing or healing/damage combos.

Are you aware that the other morph does more damage? @Billium813 can explain it better, they recorded gameplay of it as an example. Maybe they can post it again.

Could you also link a gameplay video of the build? Because I can’t envision any build focused around Blazing Shield finding the slightest bit of success.

Jaraal

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Dekrypted wrote: »

It's like there's a personal vendetta against templar and necromancer. What did Templars do to deserve this?

Well, it doesn’t help that any time I bring up a Sun Shield rework, people are silent.

Either they have never used the shield and don’t understand how hopeless it is, they have given up the fight, or are happy with the state of Templar tanking.

I don’t know which is more offensive.

Personally I love Blazing Shield, and I run a one off build with it that synergizes nicely. And no, I'm not interested in being the guy that gets the attention of the nerf hammer wielders who browse the forums looking stuff that 'works too well.'

But... I think the solution that would at least partly address the concerns of the majority of Templars would be to stop the double dipping Battle Spirit handicap that applies to both the shield strength and the damage returned. And this applies to Spiked Bone Shield and other thorn type sets and skills as well. Either halve the shield or halve the damage.... but not both. Same thing with shields/healing or healing/damage combos.

Are you aware that the other morph does more damage? @Billium813 can explain it better, they recorded gameplay of it as an example. Maybe they can post it again.

Could you also link a gameplay video of the build? Because I can’t envision any build focused around Blazing Shield finding the slightest bit of success.

What's the point? You clearly have an agenda here, and anything I post would be spun in the most negative way possible.

Sort of like is happening with the Grim Focus Permaglow discussion.

Tyrant_Tim

Jaraal wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Dekrypted wrote: »

It's like there's a personal vendetta against templar and necromancer. What did Templars do to deserve this?

Well, it doesn’t help that any time I bring up a Sun Shield rework, people are silent.

Either they have never used the shield and don’t understand how hopeless it is, they have given up the fight, or are happy with the state of Templar tanking.

I don’t know which is more offensive.

Personally I love Blazing Shield, and I run a one off build with it that synergizes nicely. And no, I'm not interested in being the guy that gets the attention of the nerf hammer wielders who browse the forums looking stuff that 'works too well.'

But... I think the solution that would at least partly address the concerns of the majority of Templars would be to stop the double dipping Battle Spirit handicap that applies to both the shield strength and the damage returned. And this applies to Spiked Bone Shield and other thorn type sets and skills as well. Either halve the shield or halve the damage.... but not both. Same thing with shields/healing or healing/damage combos.

Are you aware that the other morph does more damage? @Billium813 can explain it better, they recorded gameplay of it as an example. Maybe they can post it again.

Could you also link a gameplay video of the build? Because I can’t envision any build focused around Blazing Shield finding the slightest bit of success.

What's the point?

What’s the problem? If you’ve got a build that excels using the ability, it shouldn’t be difficult throwing it up for everyone to see it.

Jaraal wrote: »

You clearly have an agenda here, and anything I post would be spun in the most negative way possible.

How is it an agenda, when it’s common knowledge to anyone who plays the class that the skill is mediocre? If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t take months in Cyrodiil to come across a player using it, and it would be possible to find a Templar tank on any leaderboard for any trial.

If anything, jumping into a thread that universally acknowledges that Blazing Shield has a problem, just to say you love the defunct skill, is more indicative of an agenda.

It’s also unfair to assume I’m going to rip apart your build when you’ve got no reference of me doing that to anyone else, if anything I would congratulate you for finding the one build in all of ESO that uses it.

Jaraal wrote: »

Sort of like is happening with the Grim Focus Permaglow discussion.

And about the Grim Focus Permaglow? It doesn’t bother me if it stays or goes, which is why I haven’t commented on that thread, and why I won’t, personally I don’t want the game turning into a glow-show because that’s usually indicative of a game on it’s last stretch, but it’s not something that impacts gameplay, so it’s not a concern of mine.

Jaraal

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

What’s the problem? If you’ve got a build that excels using the ability, it shouldn’t be difficult throwing it up for everyone to see it.

You probably missed the part where I said I'm not here to feed the nerf machine. I spend a lot of time trying different things and finding combos that have unexpected results. Theorycrafting is one of my favorite things to do. But I digress, please don't let me keep you from trying to get a 'universally problematic' skill buffed. It may work to my advantage.

Tyrant_Tim

Jaraal wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

What’s the problem? If you’ve got a build that excels using the ability, it shouldn’t be difficult throwing it up for everyone to see it.

You probably missed the part where I said I'm not here to feed the nerf machine. I spend a lot of time trying different things and finding combos that have unexpected results. Theorycrafting is one of my favorite things to do. But I digress, please don't let me keep you from trying to get a 'universally problematic' skill buffed. It may work to my advantage.

If it’s not universal, why are there no leaderboard Templar tanks, and where are all the Templars in PvP running Blazing Shield?

But by all means, enjoy your super top secret OP Blazing Shield build while the rest of the population avoids the ability like the plague, or are like me, finding myself doing mental gymnastics to get optimal usage for it. Because building into max health doesn’t make it shine, and the ability scales with health.

Mr_Jord_Joe

Even other options are more viable than the Templar shield itself...




Perhaps converting part of the damage done to the shield into healing would also be interesting, the point is that the templar's shield is the poorest of all, especially in pvp, pve is only a little useful in fights with several mobs, but completely passable...

Billium813

Jaraal wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Dekrypted wrote: »

It's like there's a personal vendetta against templar and necromancer. What did Templars do to deserve this?

Well, it doesn’t help that any time I bring up a Sun Shield rework, people are silent.

Either they have never used the shield and don’t understand how hopeless it is, they have given up the fight, or are happy with the state of Templar tanking.

I don’t know which is more offensive.

Personally I love Blazing Shield, and I run a one off build with it that synergizes nicely. And no, I'm not interested in being the guy that gets the attention of the nerf hammer wielders who browse the forums looking stuff that 'works too well.'

But... I think the solution that would at least partly address the concerns of the majority of Templars would be to stop the double dipping Battle Spirit handicap that applies to both the shield strength and the damage returned. And this applies to Spiked Bone Shield and other thorn type sets and skills as well. Either halve the shield or halve the damage.... but not both. Same thing with shields/healing or healing/damage combos.

Totally agree that Thorns effects are being unfairly punished by Battle Spirit; I'm totally over it at this point when Battle Spirit double dips. I like Thorn effects too, I love the concept of punishing players for hitting hard with little self protection. But there are too many bad interactions and I'm tired of ZOS just not doing anything about it.

Personally, I have yet to find a single build where Blazing Shield is better then Radiant Ward. I get that Blazing Shield is a more fun concept, but I find that it always costs more, has a smaller shield, and does less damage... in all situations. I can't find any reason to run Blazing Shield, in PvP, PvE, BG, duels, Trials, Tank, DPS, low health, high SD/WD, whatever.

Both morphs scale the shield size off Max Health so, at base, both shields are exactly the same size. Both morphs also increase the shield size based on enemies nearby, Radiant Ward by +20% and Blazing Shield by +4%. So, Radiant Ward will ALWAYS have a larger shield. That is just a fact.

The only difference between both morphs is that Radiant Ward does Magic damage on activation, and Blazing Shield does 30% of the shield size AFTER its been beaten down. I have yet to find a combination that makes Blazing Shield deal more damage then Radiant Ward. Radiant Ward shield scales 5x faster then Blazing Shield, so 30% really isn't enough to surpass.

Of course, you can use whatever Skill you want! But I legitimately think that there is no reason to run a Skill that is, on every single metric, just worse then the alternative. There is no debate to be had on why one Skill/Morph should be used over another. You're handicapping yourself, which is fine, but not a good reason to leave things as they are. They need to completely rework Blazing Shield, but they will probably just slap "Gain 240 Magicka per enemy hit" and call it a day.

Tyrant_Tim

Billium813 wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Dekrypted wrote: »

It's like there's a personal vendetta against templar and necromancer. What did Templars do to deserve this?

Well, it doesn’t help that any time I bring up a Sun Shield rework, people are silent.

Either they have never used the shield and don’t understand how hopeless it is, they have given up the fight, or are happy with the state of Templar tanking.

I don’t know which is more offensive.

Personally I love Blazing Shield, and I run a one off build with it that synergizes nicely. And no, I'm not interested in being the guy that gets the attention of the nerf hammer wielders who browse the forums looking stuff that 'works too well.'

But... I think the solution that would at least partly address the concerns of the majority of Templars would be to stop the double dipping Battle Spirit handicap that applies to both the shield strength and the damage returned. And this applies to Spiked Bone Shield and other thorn type sets and skills as well. Either halve the shield or halve the damage.... but not both. Same thing with shields/healing or healing/damage combos.

Personally, I have yet to find a single build where Blazing Shield is better than Radiant Ward. I get that Blazing Shield is a more fun concept, but I find that it always costs more, has a smaller shield, and does less damage... in all situations. I can't find any reason to run Blazing Shield, in PvP, PvE, BG, duels, Trials, Tank, DPS, low health, high SD/WD, whatever.

Can confirm, as I’ve tested all scenarios aswell, there is not one situation in which this morph is comparative, is there any way you could have the combat designer look over some of the recent threads we’ve put together going over the pain points of Blazing Shield and other Templar support issues and consider a rework, @ZOS_Kevin?

As someone who has always aspired to main a Templar tank, it has never been a competitive choice and I would like to see that changed.

chessalavakia_ESO

Templar is not my main area (I've got one but, I hate how flashy it is so I don't use it much) so sorry in advance if I get something wrong.

My impression is that Blazing Shield at one point was in fact used by players.

It had it's damage nerfed from 53% down to 42% in Update 3.0.5

It then later had it's damage nerfed down from 42% to 30% in Update 4.2.5

Blazing Shield hasn't had it's damage % changed since Update 4.2.5

However, it's competition the Spiked Bone Shield had it's damage increased in 5.1.5 from 33% to 60%.

Spiked Bone Shield had it's damage increased again later to bring it up to 100%.

I would suggest the problem with Blazing Shield for people that look at the stats is that the damage multiplier is too low for the game's current balance regarding shields.

With that said, you would likely not want to jump it all the way up to 100% like Spiked Bone Shield did. Due to the ability's AOE nature, you can actually get numbers that match or exceed Spiked Bone Shield already in some situations.

Additionally, one of the notes on UESP about Blazing Shield appears to potentially be inaccurate as the ability will deal damage when you activate it again while it is already active.

Billium813

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

It had it's damage nerfed from 53% down to 42% in Update 3.0.5

It then later had it's damage nerfed down from 42% to 30% in Update 4.2.5

Blazing Shield hasn't had it's damage % changed since Update 4.2.5

Just to add some quotes for Developer comments of the time

PTS Patch Notes v2.1.2

Combat & Gameplay
General

• Several abilities which have damage, damage shield, or healing components that scale off each other will no longer be hit multiple times by Battle Spirit’s reductions. This includes the following abilities:
  • Templar: Puncturing Sweep, Blazing Shield, Radiant Glory
• Fixed an issue where Battle Spirit was applying additively rather than multiplicatively to several abilities, including:
  • Sun Shield and its morphs

* I included this cause I thought it was interesting that ZOS at one time acknowledged Battle Spirit double dipping and worked to eliminate it.

PC/Mac Patch Notes v3.0.5 (Morrowind)

Templar

• Aedric Spear
  • Blazing Shield (Sun Shield morph): Reduced the amount of damage done by this morph to 33/36/39/42% of the damage absorbed by the shield, down from 50/51/52/53%.
    Developer Comments:
    Blazing Shield builds have proven to be extremely effective due to being able to stack Health to improve both their survivability and damage done. We’ve reduced the effectiveness of this ability so that there is more of an opportunity cost to having so much Health.

* This was a PvP-centric nerf. Blazing Shield builds were overperforming, but technically, it wasn't really Blazing Shield's fault! All shields were an issue in PvP since they didn't inherit armor resistances! But, since Blazing Shield was a Thorn shield, it was decent and the nail that sticks out gets hammered.

PC/Mac Patch Notes v4.2.5 (Murkmire)

Templar

• Aedric Spear
  • Blazing Shield: Reduced the amount of damage that this ability deals from a maximum of 42% of the shield size to 30%.
    Developer Comment:
    Since shields now scale with your Armor, we wanted to ensure this ability wasn't doing too much for its cost and effectiveness. The shield should now absorb more damage, but its total damage dealt has slightly decreased to compensate.

* So finally in Murkmire, Shields globally are changed so that they inherit the resistances of the players armor! Now Shield builds shouldn't be soo bad in PvP, right? Except, ZOS is still REALLY scared, so they throw a totally arbitrary nerf again at Blazing Shield for no actual reason. Ooph.

PC/Mac Patch Notes v5.0.5 (Elsweyr)

Templar

• Aedric Spear
  • Sun Shield:
    • Increased the initial hit damage of this ability and the Radiant Ward morph by 150% to put it on par with our PBAoE standards. Blazing Shield's damage remains untouched since it is already above that standard, since it has an additional requirement in order to gain the damage.
      • Radiant Ward (morph): This ability no longer gains additional cost reduction as it ranks up. Instead, the bonus shield size for enemies hit goes up to 9% per enemy hit at Rank IV.

* So now we see Radiant Ward getting a boost to it's damage! But Blazing Shield doesn't get a boost? Because it "has an additional requirement in order to gain the damage"? Was the math too hard, so they didn't want to risk giving it a damage buff? Who knows what kind of damage it could end up doing! *spoiler* it does the same damage as Radiant Ward now...


PC/Mac Patch Notes v8.0.5 - High Isle

Templar

• Aedric Spear
  • Sun Shield
    • Blazing Shield (morph):
      Increased the radius of this morph to 8 meters, up from 6, to better match its visual effects.
      Fixed an issue where the damage could fail to activate in many cases.

* Blazing Shield is a PvP-centric skill; no two ways around it really. The extra radius is appreciated since it can be hard to catch players with the scaling of only +4%, but a far cry from what it needs. And they didn't even make the change for playability reasons...

Basically, old Blazing Shield PvP builds were so bad that ZOS nerfed the skill into Oblivion just to make sure it won't happen again and they've never looked back.