Something is seriously wrong with combat/performance this patch

React

Since U40 dropped, myself and various others whom I've spoken to are experiencing new forms of clunkyness/delay/bugs in PVP combat. While cyrodiil performance also seems to be inconsistent at best, these issues are observable in IC and duels - meaning they likely aren't being caused by cyrodiil related performance issues.

Skills are failing to activate from the queue. This is visible in CMX - the game is receiving commands for your abilities to fire during your rotation as it normally would, but then those abilities are just failing to activate from the queue. @SkaraMinoc has a thread on this issue, and I can confirm that myself and others are currently experiencing this.

Abilities are randomly stopping your momentum/movement. I am unsure if this is related to the failure to activate from queue issue, but this was actually a known bug several years ago with the skill "arctic wind" on warden, and it was patched by zenimax with it's own patch note. This issue seems to be happening on any skill now. I have personally experienced it with concealed weapon, healthy offering, soul tether, hardened ward, merciless resolve, etc.

Abilities are queuing, then firing 3-4 seconds later despite no server lag/delay. This is even observable in duels within houses. You'll press am ability, nothing will happen, your subsequent 1-3 ability presses will fail, then the original ability you pressed will fire.

I honestly have not felt combat this clunky since prior to the hardware replacement last year. It feels as if something was fundamentally changed with the combat system, or how the server receives your action commands. If this is a result of the recent "network maintenence" or other behind the scenes changes, I genuinely hope zenimax is aware of or at least willing to look into these things.

@ZOS_Kevin

CameraBeardThePirate

Chiming in that I've had the movement speed/hitch while casting issue as well. Most noticeable on Chakrams with Arcanist for me, although as stated it's been happening with many abilities

Four_Fingers

I am getting a pause mid swing on 2H heavy attacks almost like they added a delay to slow down HA.
Noticed after the update.

SeaGtGruff

Four_Fingers wrote: »

I am getting a pause mid swing on 2H heavy attacks almost like they added a delay to slow down HA.
Noticed after the update.

I don't think I've noticed that, but I'll definitely start watching for it since both of my mains use 2H heavy attacks.

Lags

ive just stopped taking notice of it at this point. Especially in cyrodil. I mean obviously i am well aware of when it happens but like, this games performance has just been so shamefully laughable over the years that it is what it is at this point. So normally im just like whatever and go do or play something else.

They have failed us with performance utterly. They have failed us with communication utterly. The fact that they declared victory with the hardware refresh thing was laughable considering the fact that, after a month or two, performance felt worse than ever again. And they have failed to comment on it or acknowledge it, afaik.

Performance improvement and better communication seem to both be the carrot on a stick to appease people every so often. But someone can only be wronged so many times before they stop caring. If things do change that would be great, but i wont hold my breath. Its been too many years, and at this point i just enjoy what i can until things get bad then hop off.

But my main reason to comment was to say, related or unrelated, last night in EA i experienced everything you're describing. For a long time, basically from arc 3 to 6, when i ended up calling it quits, performance was just utterly miserable. And of course ive experienced it in cyrodiil as well, and dont really do much more than EA and cyrodiil this update.

And on another note, i really wish they never messed around with the games combat. Combat is something many of us mainly play eso for. But the down side is that when performance is bad it feels clunky and terrible. And that coupled with the fact that they have made combat feel more clunky over the years messing around with animations, canceling, and cast times, it just feels worse and especially worse when performance is bad. Its like i have to play so much worse than i would years ago, because playing too fast these days feels like a detriment.

Wolfshade

Can confirm that for NA. It`s stuttering all the time while didnt noticed that on EU the whole day.

React

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Chiming in that I've had the movement speed/hitch while casting issue as well. Most noticeable on Chakrams with Arcanist for me, although as stated it's been happening with many abilities

https://streamable.com/weix0d

Here is a clip of it occurring with haunting curse. You'll see the moment I cast the curse my char locks into place and stops moving, and I can assure you I did not stop moving my stick.

I am fairly certain it happens with any ability in the game now.

(This is PC NA, I just play on controller - however nearly all my friends whom are also experiencing this are M&K players)

IZZEFlameLash

This has been around for a while. It was just not as noticeable for those under 100ms ping until now. But this iteration is kind of the worst its been. You see your skill bar grey out because something is clearly happening according to the game client but in actuality, nothing has happened. All the while, you get locked out of the skill for 3 seconds or so in case of ults. I've been dealing with this for a while. Thought it was me pressing too fast despite my higher ping. Probably still true to a certain extent but I get locked out too frequently now. This can happen in PvE as well. If you use channel/cast time abilities, it happens far often.

RoseTheSnowElf

React wrote: »

Abilities are randomly stopping your momentum/movement. I am unsure if this is related to the failure to activate from queue issue, but this was actually a known bug several years ago with the skill "arctic wind" on warden, and it was patched by zenimax with it's own patch note. This issue seems to be happening on any skill now. I have personally experienced it with concealed weapon, healthy offering, soul tether, hardened ward, merciless resolve, etc.

When you say this, do you mean using your own attack ability your toon seems to get snared in place to the ground, and you have to roll dodge to break it?

Because I've been experiencing that A LOT. My NB spamable is Surprise Attack, and I swear I've been getting snared in place when I use it. I first started noticing it in Cyro, but since there is so much CCing going on I ignored it. Started paying more attention when I was flipping rss solo. It happened then, too. Told myself maybe the guards have mechanics I never noticed or never worked til now.


I tested it in PvE land, and it happens there, too. A LOT. With adds that have never snared me before. And shouldn't be snaring me when I attack with my own abilities before they even aggro.

React

RoseTheSnowElf wrote: »

React wrote: »

Abilities are randomly stopping your momentum/movement. I am unsure if this is related to the failure to activate from queue issue, but this was actually a known bug several years ago with the skill "arctic wind" on warden, and it was patched by zenimax with it's own patch note. This issue seems to be happening on any skill now. I have personally experienced it with concealed weapon, healthy offering, soul tether, hardened ward, merciless resolve, etc.

When you say this, do you mean using your own attack ability your toon seems to get snared in place to the ground, and you have to roll dodge to break it?

Because I've been experiencing that A LOT. My NB spamable is Surprise Attack, and I swear I've been getting snared in place when I use it. I first started noticing it in Cyro, but since there is so much CCing going on I ignored it. Started paying more attention when I was flipping rss solo. It happened then, too. Told myself maybe the guards have mechanics I never noticed or never worked til now.


I tested it in PvE land, and it happens there, too. A LOT. With adds that have never snared me before. And shouldn't be snaring me when I attack with my own abilities before they even aggro.

Basically. If you look at my comment above, there is a link to a clip of it happening to me today. You'll go to cast an ability, and your character will just lock in place as if you got rooted.

As I mentioned, there was a bug very similar to this with polar/arctic wind years ago, which they fixed. Assuming this isn't some new server lag of some sort, it seems like it could be the exact same issue.

Galeriano

Yes everything mentioned happens to me. Abilities not firing, firing with a delay, massive desyncs between ability animation, sound and actuall effect, character moving wierd while performing rotations, character pausing movement to cast ability, not being able to sprint on demand or to cast abilities instantly after stopping sprinting and many more.

It's the end of 2023, another year that was supposed to be a year of performance improvements. ZoS didn't release dungeon pack and small zone DLC in the second half of the year because they were supposed to focus more on improving performance yet things are just getting worse. The only piece of content they released in second part of the year had and still have many bugs which makes it feel unfinished. Lately even patches cannot be finished on time and continuosly there are some issues that make them few hours longer. Devs are either completly quiet or very vague when communicationg anything regarding issues that people are reporting. It really doesn't look good and promising.

Galeriano

Wolfshade wrote: »

Can confirm that for NA. It`s stuttering all the time while didnt noticed that on EU the whole day.

It's also happening on EU.

RoseTheSnowElf

I never experienced the bug with Warden Arctic/Polar Wind. This is completely new to me.

BahometZ

Agree with all of the above.
The hitching is very real, the clunkiness is real. And I too wish they would quit tinkering with fundamental combat skill mechanics, because it never improves the situation. Feel like I'm fighting the game half the time.

SkaraMinoc

The ability queue is 100% verified broken if you chain enough abilities together. I'm able to reproduce the bug with any combination of skills. The worst is when your heals don't go off even when your ping is perfect with no missed frames.

SkaraMinoc

Here's the bug report.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/647987/skill-queue-not-casting-abilities

ArchangelIsraphel

I'm having some of the same problems mentioned in this thread along with some entierly new ones.

I play Templar on PC/NA. I have decent ping, under 100ms. New rig purchased earlier this year-under normal circumstances I do not have any issues in Cyrodiil or IC at all.

In both, I am now doing what I can only describe as...sliding. Feels like directional keys are overcompensating and I'm going further than intended, like my character is walking on ice. I got thrown into the air by one of my own skills last night just doing a daily in IC. My gap closer is supposed to chuck me towards things....but not up into the sky box.

I'm not missing frames, yet skills are delayed, graying out, my character is pausing mid-combat for no reason- I'm getting snared or knocked down when nothing has been cast to snare me or knock me down.

I'm also experiencing the sprint/stop delay on skills firing. Bar swap delay, my bar swapping then swapping back even though I didn't hit the button, Shields not going up, buttons graying out...

RoseTheSnowElf

I've also noticed my toon randomly putting her weapons away in the middle of combat. I don't know when or how this gets triggered. I just notice it must have happened because of the slow unsheathing animation when casting an ability.

And this is in the middle of Cyro combat. I doubt I've accidentally held the directional button for bar swapping down too long to accidentally put her weapons away. Need my thumb back on the joy stick asap.

I do think I've noticed it repeatedly right after a dodge roll though.

USarmydrew09

In this patch, nothing. I've had issues with combat for the past 3 years. And every time I reach out for them to help fix it. They tell me nothing. They have never Is helped fixed an issue I have had in this game. And I have been playing it since day one. For a good example, my targeting system does not work properly if I log on to a target. And there's ads in the way it will not hit that target half the time. My abilities are double procking themselves even when I don't push the button but once. And before people says my internet I am running almost a gig speed. Some of my abilities like my ultimate when I place it down. It just disappears for no reason and doesn't give me back any ultimate number. The combat and performance has been c*** for many of years. But it's okay because as long as we're not getting double rewards. Then they fixed something right.

Brakkish

My character (don't even remember what toon I was on) fired off some random ability the other day that wasn't part of my build's skills.

When this happened, I was caught off guard and quickly dismissed it as: It didn't happen and I just thought I saw what really didn't happen; or it was a one in a million fluke, and reverted back to .. nah I imagined it.

But, after reading this thread... I'm thinking maybe "I did see a putty tat" after all.

SandandStars

ultimates are not firing in bgs, although the points are spent/depleted as if they were

continued lag n desync has cc’s going off meters behind the person casting

as noted by others skills simply dont fire periodically

also drank a potion in a clutch moment, heard the drinking sound, but it did not restore resources

this all follows the larger trend/pattern of the game, pvp in particular, getting more bugs and less stable with every new update

Ulfgarde

Gonna bump this and say this is 100% happening for me in duels/cyro. Some people seem to not have this issue, maybe it could in part be latency-based (playing with 120+ ping)? It is pretty much making the game unplayable. I'm surprised not many people have pointed this out...

Roztlin45

Same here, I have noticed it. Also I have seen 2 skills fire after being spammed with a noticeable delay. The big box is off as well.

Tenthirty2

I waited a bit before commenting bcuz I wanted to make sure it wasn't my PC, Net connection, etc.

Hard agree, something is SERIOUSLY wrong since the most recent server maintenance cycle.

I don't play regularly in Cyro, so these observations are all PVE-related content. Dragons fights, delves, solo in dungeons, heck even overland trash mobs. This holds true in different zones

The combat feels quite awful for most of the same reasons I see everyone else in this thread mention.
I am noticing these things on PC-NA and am in the US, east coast.
Best way I can describe it is it feels like I'm playing on PC-EU when the lag is heavy.

Desyncs are frequent, skills often either play the audio effect but don't fire, or simply just do not fire, have to tap the key multiple times or do another actions to "break" the freeze like move, LA, bar swap and then the ability will fire.

Combat rotations feel sluggish. I'm no pro, but I've a fairly good rotaion speed\timing and I've had to slow down often, otherwise skills simply don't fire.

@ZOS_Kevin are there any other thread\issues open or is the team aware or investigating anything?
As noticeable as it is I can't believe the front page isn't filled with threads like this.

If there are logs, etc I can provide or any troubleshooting I can do I'm happy to help, really would like to see things go back to the way they felt before last week's 11/28 maintenance. Whatever was done during that downtime has badly impacted client<>server communication

KlauthWarthog

I have been missing a lot of light attack weaves on my stam sorc on the last couple days. Something feels very off with the timings.

Mansquito

I don't know if it's related, but it seems pretty close. I've had an issue where upwards of half.of my skill cast attempts in combat, whether in PvE or PvP, don't go off. Sometimes you see the skill highlighted and then nothing happens, other times the skill doesn't even highlight. It even impacts LA weaving.

It's *just* about playable if you're in low end PvE or surfing a zerg/carried by a group in PvP. In any higher skilled demand setting, such as against good players in PvP or tougher PvE content, it's almost impossible.

The difference with me is I've had it since U39 (Think that was in July?).

I've continued to play because I'm an addict but it's far from the enjoyable combat experience it should be/used to be.

Animar111

Invisible enemy you can’t attack but do damage sound lags and sound drops while using skills.
Ever since Necrom dropped nothing but poor gameplay experience no wonder a lot of players are switching to other games.

TwiceBornStar

The only thing I've noticed happening to me quite frequently, is when you hit things with consecutive light-attacks, the numbers/sound effects don't seem to connect to the actual hit. Or the animation doesn't. Another thing that seems to happen a lot is that I need to press 'Q' at least four times before my potion actually activates.

Also, also..

Panomania

I can verify it happens a lot on arcanist, not as much on other classes (but still there). Before U40 I'd never noticed it, but I am normally 30 to 50 ms and a pretty high frame rate. Happens on a variety of skills for arcanist, but also very noticeable for me on templar beam.

Kitziboo

I have an Xbox series X and I’ve been having problems too for a while. It started on NA but has spread to EU. It is most noticeable when using a destro staff, my characters get into position as though executing a heavy attack but there is no animation/damage from the staff. Other skills can fail to occur or are delayed and my once powerful Arcanists are stumbling about looking unprofessional and dying as they can’t get them to work quickly enough. This is particularly evident in PVP and dungeons. I’m not a skilled player, but I’ve just joined my first guild and it’s a bit embarrassing to be dying so much 😿

I’ve also experienced the screen freezing and suddenly restarting with players in different places and elastic banding back to an earlier spot when running/riding.

Anifaas

My main, a necro, seems to have an insecure blasbones. Since last patch, it sometimes becomes bashful and refuses to leave my side. Sometimes he doesn't even appear at all. Maybe he's just going through a shy phase. I dunno.

My heavy-attacks sometimes don't fire as well. While this has been a problem in the past, it happens with greater frequency since the most recent patch.

Yesterday while in the endless archive fighting Baron Zaudrus my abilities weren't firing at all. When I glanced down at my ability bar I noticed everything was greyed-out. That was a new experience for me as I'm used to my abilities just working in other games. There's always something new and fresh in ESO, sometimes its content!