PTS Update 41 - Feedback Thread for Combat & Classes

Jusey1 · January 30

Would you kindly not ruin Necromancer and please undo the blastbones change? Getting sick and tired of the fun stuff being removed entirely from the game. I remember ending up curing my vampires because the rework to vampirism just made it suck and I don't even use my werewolf form anymore on my main toon...

Twohothardware · January 30

Here are test results for Arcanist on PTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTM9j1-8PKw

Twohothardware · January 30

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

Additional: with the changes to Status Effects it is LONG PAST time that Elemental Susceptibility gets a Cost assigned and a Duration reduction. The skill is extremely overpowered.

Yeah I don't understand either how Elemental Susceptibility has zero cost when it applies Major Breach and all of these status effects and deals a lot of damage when combined with Vateshran's staff. There are skills that do less and cost over 4K magicka to cast.

OtarTheMad · January 30

VinnyGambini wrote: »

Guys, important question. Has anyone tried elemental susceptibility? Since chilled dmg is doubled, and concusion dmg is basically tripled, from my calculations you should be dealing very nice dps by just spamming LA->Elemental susceptibility. Add relequen, and you basically can reach 5k dps in PvP scenarios, WITHOUT ANY COST. Did anyone tested this?

I think a lot of testing is going to be going on. I am looking at sets like Serpent’s Disdain, Heartlands Conqueror, Torugs. Also like you said Elemental maybe with Vateshran… lean into status effects.

BetweenMidgets · January 30

With the status effect changes, Elemental Susceptibility REALLY needs to have some kind of cost associated with it.

In my opinion, it should have had some sort of associated magicka cost before, but even more so now, as it seems as though it can double dip.

Keen · January 30

Re: Tormentor change

This change is enough to make myself and my husband, 8-year players, quit.

Comment from him:
Tormentor as it is enables a unique and exciting experience. If you want to change something, give it more penalties rather than removing it. You already have to have incredible resource management when everything in the room is attacking you.

Comment from me:
I am Autistic and disabled and LOVE my tank. He uses tormentor to make it easier for me to actually be able to play. If you want to make it less likely for people to abuse it, make the AoE taunt its only effect. I would still use it, as it's the only way I can play.

I am too upset to articulate better than this. Please reconsider taking away the only thing that makes tanking possible for me.

Also, re: flown under the radar: that is not true. In February, 2020, they "fixed" Tormentor to properly pull in an AoE. It was also visited in May 2020.

RaptorRodeoGod · January 30

Keen wrote: »

Re: Tormentor change

This change is enough to make myself and my husband, 8-year players, quit.

Comment from him:
Tormentor as it is enables a unique and exciting experience. If you want to change something, give it more penalties rather than removing it. You already have to have incredible resource management when everything in the room is attacking you.

Comment from me:
I am Autistic and disabled and LOVE my tank. He uses tormentor to make it easier for me to actually be able to play. If you want to make it less likely for people to abuse it, make the AoE taunt its only effect. I would still use it, as it's the only way I can play.

I am too upset to articulate better than this. Please reconsider taking away the only thing that makes tanking possible for me.

Also, re: flown under the radar: that is not true. In February, 2020, they "fixed" Tormentor to properly pull in an AoE. It was also visited in May 2020.

Tormentor isn't even meta either, it feels like the devs are listening to the top 1% of players on this change 👎

Brewssie · January 30

RaptorRodeoGod wrote: »

Tormentor isn't even meta either, it feels like the devs are listening to the top 1% of players on this change 👎

Trust me no one at the top 1% cares about people using tormentor. It's just a dumb change all around.

Alaztor91 · January 30

The new version of Blastbones(and Stalking BB) that you want to introduce has problems with Corpse generation.

Current Live version of BB and its morphs allow you to generate a Corpse every 3s that lasts for 6s on the ground, the proposed Grave Lord’s Sacrifice morph only allows you to generate a Corpse (treats the player as one) every 20s unless you waste GCDs overcasting it.

You need a Corpse every 10s for Boneyard's bonus and another one every 20s for Siphon, and even if you use Grave Lord’s Sacrifice and Skeletal Archer/Arcanist to grant you 2 Corpses every 20s it is not enough (again, unless you waste GCDs overcasting). You also run into the issue that you are basically forced into melee range to use your two 28 meters Corpse consuming skills since Grave Lord’s Sacrifice treats you as the Corpse and Skeletal Archer/Arcanist is always near the player. The new morph also basically removes any chance of using Detonating Siphon as a semi-spammable.

If you still insist on introducing the new version, I suggest replacing Blighted Blastbones(the inferior morph) with the new morph, add the Major Defile bonus to Stalking Blastbones and make its cost based on highest max resource (giving it the Blighted BB visuals if cast with Stamina would be a nice touch too). You still would need to address the issue with Grave Lord’s Sacrifice reduced rate of Corpse generation, since wasting a GCD to overcast it goes against the point of the BB change in the first place, and that still leaves us with the issue of being basically forced into melee range to use two 28 meters skills.

I would also suggest making Blastbones and all its variants a non-targetable summon so it doesn't gets stunned/pushed/knocked down/etc since that basically screws your entire 'BB-Skill-Skill-BB'' rotation.

Dreadwar · January 30

Necro Feedback:

Please re-arrange Ghostly Embrace effects. It should stun in the first circle, immobilize in the second and snare in the third. The entire skill needs to have the speed at which this skill fires increased. These changes would actually make this skill worthwhile.

Ruinous Scythe: Well now that Hemorrhaging status effect is nerfed. This morph needs to be re-adjusted. Converts to stamina, becomes single target (read: damage buff), disease damage, inflicts major breach.

Spirit Mender: At minimum increase the duration to 20 seconds for it and both morphs.

Tethers: They are a little better to play with once you have the Nobility in Death 5pc going.

Nobility in Death Class Armor: Can we get Death's Favor portion to start working at 5% damage reduction @ 100% health and scale up to 15% max when character health gets to 25% or lower?

Aldoss · January 30

Araneae6537 wrote: »

I hardly think it would be right to nerf both flail AND fatecarver, certainly not both at once!

Lol certainly not without precedent. They nerfed harmony AND grave robber in the same patch.

Cries in necro

Soundinfinite · January 30

I must admit I was honestly excited and surprised when the opening of the patch notes said Sorcs were going to be a focus and one of the pain points was to establish non-pet sorcs as a viable option. I have been with ESO since 2016 and watching a friend level a Sorc was what got me to join ESO. However, what they were leveling at the time was not PETS. The Sorc was my first character in the game, but once I understood I had to use pets in order to get damage out of the class, I started to create other classes, I do not like pets. Though my sorc is my main, because they have everything unlocked as it was my first go in this game, I have spent most of my time trying to come up with non-pet builds for the last 8 years...and am NEVER rewarded with a true end-game capable build.

So I was in this to win this....with this announcement.

BUT, after about a good 6 or so hours of testing, alas, we are still in the same boat, a pet must be summoned.

Now building a sorc with 1 pet is completely viable as long as it is the Tormentor. Dropping scamp is completely feasible, however the Tormentor out-damages any and all DOTS you can replace it with, and it does it with no cost, and without taking the 1sec GCD of activating a skill, meaning an extra spam attack per rotation. You just have to deal with less bar space as it takes double slotting.

On live, a 2 pet build runs 1-2k more damage than a 1 pet build. This is a completely swollow-able loss unless you are playing the highest Dummy parse game to show to your friends and forums. In real combat it becomes negligible. However dropping to a no pet build from a 1 pet Tormentor build is a loss of 5-6k and a total net loss of close to 8k or MORE from running a 2 pet build. And that my friends, is NOT swollow-able. It will put you bottom rung in your trial groups if you are even able to hit their group requirements to begin with. Also, since the Tormentor is "free" always on damage, always on the boss, dropping it in live and not just on the Dummy, does make significant loss in actual combat scenarios. Thus, here we are still tied to an ugly imposing giant flapping bird that passively makes a huge amount of your damage output while annoying you and everyone around them.

On PTS the 10% more resources does give your build effectively 200-250 damage boost or close to running a Nirnhoned weapon of extra damage if using META set builds and not specifically building for Max Mag. So it isn't nothing. However it is ABSOLUTELY not enough to bridge the gap mentioned above. Comparatively, on PTS running a NON-pet sorc does now have higher DPS than on live...but it is only marginally better and still not close to its PET counterpart.

I know lose only 3-5k DPS instead of 5-6k DPS (depending on build) from dropping my Tormentor 1 pet. And lose about 6-8k from my 2 pet. Thus the results are clearly better, but are still bottom rung and leaves the sorc in PVE at least still tied to their Pets. It will still be a considerable loss in real combat scenarios if you opt for this route.

On top, the way the new passive is designed is penalizing for a non-pet build. That is, you out-put less overall damage while also giving up survivability. So running a pet gets all the perks of the class, with optimum damage and survivability. This is even more significant in PVP scenarios, where NON-PET sorcs currently ARE viable. I do PVP with my sorc, even with people talking about how trash they are now with the extensive nerfs of their toolkits. It is true, they are massively weaker than in the past, BUT I am so dedicated to not having a pet sorc experience, that PVP is the only way I can play with this set-up and not be a loss for my team. But now this build will get a nerf with its loss of health in the PVP arena. And health is like gold to PVP builds.

Even more, Max stat building for damage is sub-optimal from the start. With the revamp of CP and loss of its 20% bump to all max stats, all max-stat sets and builds took a large power loss. While more stats were given to the base character to try and compensate, the fact that sets themselves remained unchanged as they lost the 20% bump the CP system gave them made their power effectively 20% nerfed. Even more, the set that provides the largest doses of a max stat Necropotence, IRONICALLY only gives you that stat when....(I giggle, say it with me)....running a PET. So even the resources to build optimally for max stat are counterintuitive to the passive. And Necroptoence itself has taken I believe thrice rounds of nerfs, I remember twice clearly and am almost positive it has actually had 3 since being a META set not to mention the CP nerf on-top.

Since critical chance is the strongest stat, followed by spell and weapon damage, then critical damage done, then penetration, Max stat brings up the rear for DPS focused builds. Trial DPS sets show this with their builds as all of them focus clearly on the first 3 traits of DPS. EVEN PERFECTED SIRORIA THIS PATCH SWITCHED MAX MAG FOR WEAPON AND SPELL DAMAGE AS ITS LAST TRAIT SO IT WOULD BETTER PERFORM AGAINST OTHER TRIAL GEAR and be more optimal. Thus, trying to use this stat to compensate running a PET on the sorcerer is simply not going to cut-the-cake. You will always be at a loss. Running top tier trial gear will always be required for 1 5-piece set of your build, and the best do not have max stats. Meaning you will be left with Crafty Alfiq as your BEST off-set to maximize this passive....and we all know...EVERYONE UNDER THE SUN knows....Crafty Alfiq is a dead set and not worth your time.

PVP it is also the same. While max stat building is stronger here, it is not strong enough to pass up survivability sets, raw damage sets, critical chance and damage sets or sets that are better balanced with max stats and REGIN. (SHACKLE/Bright-Throats/Parasite/AMBER PLASIM etc.) Versus just building the max stat itself. Thus if you try to maximize this passive you will again be at a loss versus better builds again while also taking a MAX HEALTH nerf to your build, which currently (on live) doesn't happen. Or you can still just use a pet, which is where we have always been.

And the last point is of course the ULTIMATE. The strongest ultimate of the sorc toolkit is, of course, the ATRO. Now made even more important as it gives the group Major Beserk as a synergy. This alone has made the sorc desirable again for group dps in PVE and PVP (though more the former than the latter). Yet, using the ultimate instantly nerfs your no-pet sorc build and using any other ultimate at the sorcs disposal is a straight DPS loss, further distancing you from the optimal pet-sorc builds. While, I understand the Atro is technically a pet, it is not a pet in the sense that it stays with you and is always active, moves with you, or needs double barring. It is a one and done summon. Yet, follows all the other rules of double-barred, always active, with passive damage pets (such as the warden's bear ultimate). Which itself is a little strange. Yet, here it is just another factor as to why this answer for non-pet sorcs is simply a trailing echo from the abyss.

In short, hahahah right, short...oh I'm a jokester, this passive is both punishing and underwhelming to non-pet sorcs. It neither raises them to the bar of being viable in PVE or helps them (it actually hurts them) for PVP. It is something, like a scrap thrown our way or something to placate, that makes not running pets a total absolute loss. Yet, it is not remotely close to being a remedy or a viable solution to the issue.

CameraBeardThePirate · January 30

Aldoss wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

I hardly think it would be right to nerf both flail AND fatecarver, certainly not both at once!

Lol certainly not without precedent. They nerfed harmony AND grave robber in the same patch.

Cries in necro

That change (well, changes really) was nearly a 70% damage reduction.

You lost the 90% from harmony, and then had it further reduced by 40%. What a joke.

DrNukenstein · January 30

The change to leeching/siphoning strikes is both unhelpful to Nightblade and riling up the gamers that don't play it.

A much more helpful and less controversial change would be for it to give major sorcery/brutality so that the class can get that crucial buff outside of combat without running 2h or using alliance pots. The class doesn't more healing or "while slotted" effects, it needs more options for how it gets the most important buff in the game. A low damage AOE skill isn't really something you want to open with (PVP)

The concealed weapon change is good, but it should go further and revert the move speed to what it was before they overloaded the skill (that unique while sneaking/invisible move speed bonus) and/or chop off one of the 10% bonuses. It's a good point that sorcs are supposed to be the fast class, and this constant minor exp is stepping on their toes while making ranged blades too hard to pin down with existing stealth counters. Something gotta give, and it really should be that minor expedition.

For PvE, what ever boost you give to concealed weapon/grim focus/incap will be twice as potent in PVP. The class is designed around single target burst damage which is for killing players. Stop buffing those parts of the kit, and think about what can be done with the dots which are for killing bosses.

For example, what if crippling grasp/debilitate would proliferate to up to 4 (the maximum number of skill ranks) enemies when you kill an affected target?

What if twisting path had execute scaling?

What if dark shadow (almost never used instead of shadow image in PVP) had a re-activate effect that could let you do some nice damage off the GCD?

What if there was a compelling reason to use consuming darkness/veil of blades?

Those are all things that would boost NB in PvE without increasing it's very good player killing capacity.

DanteTheDeviant · January 30

Don't remove stalking blastbones morph passive, instead add it to blighted blastbones or buff blighted blastbones base damage.

Changes to hermorrhage render Ruinous Scythe morph useless in PvP. Compensate for this by adding minor mangle to Ruinous Scythe.

Give Skeletal Mage major brutality and sorcery.

Make Empowering Grasp always apply the buffs to your summons instead of only when they stand in the circles.

CameraBeardThePirate · January 30

DanteTheDeviant wrote: »

Please please please do not nerf my magicka necromancer blastbones build... Blastbones and reanimate blastbones are the only things necromancer has that I really enjoy using, they're why I love the necromancer above all other classes. If you are going to go through with this change, please combine the blastbones morphs into blighted blastbones instead of removing stalking blastbones damage buff.

Also, ruinous scythe morph is being made useless by the changes to the hemorrhage status effect! In PvP being able to reduce a tank's health by 10% made the skill worth using, but now the hemorrhage no longer applies minor mangle, this effect will be lost resulting in a major nerf to it's damage/utility. Please consider adding minor mangle to the spell as compensation for the changes.

This brings up another good point - why on earth does the Sacrifice buff only buff Grave Lord abilities and not all Necro abilities? The only thing that isn't buffed is Scythe, as Goliath's AoE damage gets buffed since it's a DoT. Why leave out Scythe at all? It's not like Scythe deals too much damage.

silentxthreat · January 30

Nightblades will be even more over powered in pvp while still not doing enough damage in pve. Imo we need to stop buffing nb burst around incap and merc and instead buff their overall damage while tuning back their burst damage.

I do like the direction the game is going with less buff management on some classes like nightblade but this should be worked into all classes. it really isnt fun spending 20 sec buffing to do damage for 10 sec. I think the major/minor buff system needs a rework or maybe at least the base things like weapon damage and crit chance or resolve being base line that way we keep more class identity instead of all running the same base game skills?

silentxthreat · January 30

Twohothardware wrote: »

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

Additional: with the changes to Status Effects it is LONG PAST time that Elemental Susceptibility gets a Cost assigned and a Duration reduction. The skill is extremely overpowered.

Yeah I don't understand either how Elemental Susceptibility has zero cost when it applies Major Breach and all of these status effects and deals a lot of damage when combined with Vateshran's staff. There are skills that do less and cost over 4K magicka to cast.

it would be better to just nerf vate staff along with mdw. this would hopefully destroy the proc meta

MashmalloMan · January 30

Sorc Changes, Overall Opinion:

The Sorc changes are a good step in the right direction, you made excellent new skill morphs that directly help Sorc Healer and Sorc Damage Dealers in pvp without pets. I applaud you for what was done and I can't wait to see what people do with them. Excellent changes across the board.

Non Pet Sorc:

Your goal was to make non pet sorc more viable, you certainly did that for some aspects of PVP by allowing them a heal bonus on Hardened Ward and replacement burst heal for Matriarch via Encase. Very good. However, you didn't tackle 2 main issues:

Bar Space. Sorc has a very hard time slotting our damage tool kit while also getting mandatory buffs/debuffs like Major Breach and Major Savagery/Prophecy. Most non pet Sorc damage skills provide nothing additional, please address this.
PVE DPS. 10% stam/Mag will can not replace the power that 2 pets, Storm Atro provide, and Daedric Prey's 45% pet damage done provide. Non pet Sorc skills need improvements, not just a flat % stat bonus.

The new 10% mag/stam passive for not having a pet is decent, it's very flexible for pve/pvp, but it deactivates any time we bar swap while using our best ultimate, Storm Atro. Not only do you lose 10% mag/stam while your ult is out, but that ult doesnt' get +45% damage done from Daedric Prey. This makes it next to impossible for no pet Sorc to compete with 2 pet Sorc because there is no replacement for these skills.

Here's some simple adjustments that would help:

Haunting Curse - Add major breach to cursed enemies. (Fixes bar space issues for no pet sorc)
Daedric Prey - Reduce pet damage to 20% instead of 45%. Add empower for curse duration. (Heavy attack pet sorc friendly)
Bound Armaments - Remove 8% stam, add Major Savagery/Prophecy and 1.5% crit chance per dagger. Dynamic cost based on highest max resource. (Hybrid no pet sorc friendly, helpes with bar space)
Critical Surge - Tick frequency and Crit Chance has gone down. Health has gone up. Yet this skill remains the same after 5+ years, adjust to keep up with todays context of the game.
Lightning Splash - Currently the worst AOE dots in the game, can not replace pets. Add +6% shock damage taken to targets hit or increased Concussed status effect chance.
Mages Fury - Currently the worst executes in the game, can not replace pets. Perhaps make 1 morph traditional with no delayed proc that scales in % damage from 50% health and bump the damage up of the original morph with the execute % changed from 20% to 25%. Prime candidate for dynamic cost scaling.

Class Identity

The new status effects bring a lot of great things to the table, but Sorc is in this weird middle ground. In patch 8.1.5, you converted all DK Magic damage sources to Flame damage. This helped the classes identity and build choices immensely. Sorc needs this treatment to have better synergy with the new status effects and sets like Storm Cursed Revenge which ask the user to stack as much Shock damage sources as possible. Magic damage has no identity for Sorc and feels out of place.

Convert all "Shard/Crystal" damage sources to Physical damage instead of Magic damage. (Crystal Frag, Shattering Prison, Rune Cage).
Convert all "Purple" damage sources to Shock damage instead of Magic damage. (Curse, Daedric Tomb, Suppression Field).
Add a small, but unique passive for Sundered/Concussed to Energized. Examples:
- + x% Sundered/Concussed status effect chance.
- + x% Crit Chance for 2 seconds when applying Sundered/Concussed.
- + x% Movement speed for 2 seconds when applying Sundered/Concussed.

subarctic · January 30

Please don’t nerf fatecarver. It’s nice to have a class not dependent on LA. I’ve also spent time and gold on building my arcanist around the fatecarver, using the Skinny Cheeks build, so all this will be a waste of time if you now nerf it. Just change the animation of fatecarver, make it less flashy and less splashy, so that it doesn’t look like a skill made for Xbox One.

CameraBeardThePirate · January 30

subarctic wrote: »

Please don’t nerf fatecarver. It’s nice to have a class not dependent on LA. I’ve also spent time and gold on building my arcanist around the fatecarver, using the Skinny Cheeks build, so all this will be a waste of time if you now nerf it. Just change the animation of fatecarver, make it less flashy and less splashy, so that it doesn’t look like a skill made for Xbox One.

A 7% nerf will be hardly noticeable. In fact, the nerf will be offset by the fact that status effects will be doing more damage. The shield "nerf" is just a bug fix, as all other shields in the game are capped at a % of your health.

Cominfordatoothbrush · January 30

I'm begging you to reverse the change to concealed weapon, or at the very least find another way to give NB its 10% damage back for PVE. Preferably as a unique buff again as major berserk is very easy

Perhaps you could take away twisting path's damage and give it a buff like "grants you +12-15% damage (to make up for path no longer dealing damage) to MONSTERS for x seconds while in the area." Or just keep the damage and make it 10% consistent with the live concealed buff we had. Monsters specifically so PVPers don't have to deal with it. Maybe not path specifically but you get the idea.

silentxthreat · January 30

@ZOS_GinaBruno

I believe the direction in status effects is going to make some classes more viable again. Mag sorc is the worse performer atm since pets need to take up 2 slots on each bar. I would like to see this changed like other classes.

The heal on ward will help them a lot but I think the shield lasting as little time as it does gives very little room to cast other skills while being trained.

The other thing I would like to see changed on sorc is to bring back stun on frag. Needing to use streak for cc which is supposed to be a defense skill to kite with a ramping cost puts sorcs really far behind other classes. Granted streak stunning everything in its path is strong but the class fantasy would feel better if they would keep their distance instead with frags stunning

last change I would like to see is shields on sorcs getting bigger with spell damage and not just max pool. This would open up a lot of unique builds instead of always looking at new sets with envy knowing we cant use them.

Last bit of feedback is to read the state of night-blades in pvp. There is really good advice on how to make them better in pve without making them the only viable class in pvp. I personally would like swallow soul to be a good spamable for damage but even with the new night-blade set it feels lack luster

Thanks for reading

Jman100582 · January 30

Plar feedback:

Where are our buffs? Nobody and I mean NOBODY wants to spend another 6 months being delegated to either a beambot or a healer

silentxthreat · January 30

I forgot to mention the changes to night blades as far as their own version of dark deal when sorcs have been begging for the cast time of dark deal to be removed for years felt really bad. It was hard to log on yesterday when I read that but these are early ptr notes and i hope more changes will be made

Scyware · January 30

Tormentor. One of the most fun playstyles in the game is AOE tanking. I've used it many, many times for casual content. It's by far the easiest form of tanking there is, and is enjoyed by newbies and veteran tanks alike.

From the stated philosophy of "enabled behavior that goes against one of our core philosophies for tanking", I find this completely unacceptable in a game where the motto was (and still is: ie, heavy attack builds) PLAY HOW YOU WANT.

Please do not remove the MOST FUN tanking playstyle for casual content there is, instead, I ask for this playstyle to be embraced, as it is a good starting point for new tanks.

There is nothing like charging into a room head-first and being able to control an entire room with one button.

Please... I beg you... For once in the few times the forums actually were listened to... embrace AOE taunting, do not remove this playstyle.

-A tank main since 2017 that is scared their favorite playstyle is about to be removed

[Snip]

[Edited for inappropriate content]

tsaescishoeshiner · January 30

I appreciate the new Sorc healer options! However, I found Daedric Refuge difficult to land on OTHER players. On myself, it would be okay in fights that are semi-mobile, but not too mobile that you can't return to where you placed the runes.

But there's no way of knowing whether other players will actually walk over the very small area each mine takes. Even if you're tightly stacked on a trial boss, the AoEs will be off to the side.

One solution would be to make it so that the runes explode after 6 (or however many) seconds to provide a damage shield to anyone in an X-meter radius, instead of needing them to step on the runes or expire with no effect. Then it's like a delayed damage shield.

Another solution would be to make it throw a few runes with MUCH larger activation fields (like 4 meters) in a cone or path in front of you, where each activation triggers a shield for everyone in a 5-6 meter radius.

acastanza_ESO · January 30

I think anyone who has paid even the smallest bit of attention to the state of PVE in the game can agree that Arcanist needed a nerf. That said, it's single target DPS was basically fine, it is the insane cleave damage that is where the class is overpowered. This change, while fine, doesn't address this at all. What the class needs is for secondary targets to take decreasing amounts of damage from the beam, reigning in its cleave without impacting its single-target.

I55UE5 · January 30

Sorcerer Conjured Ward change from a no-pet Stamina Sorcerer perspective:

Yes, I have Crit Surge active as an Orc.. so staying on target keeps me alive.. but when I can't do that I am forced to run around spamming Dark Conversion. I shouldn't need to explain why doing that feels terrible.

My proposition is a simple one.

The new Conjured Ward heal is a great addition.. but due to the 15/10% max health heal.. it is still better to rely on Dark Conversion, as the heal is larger.

Ember's Companion skill for Conjured Ward is a Heal Over Time. YOU GOT THIS RIGHT!

Please make the new Conjured Ward heal a HoT, to match what you did with the companion skill line.

Sorcerer currently has no access to HoT in class skills. This skill would be exactly what I’m looking for. Popping ward for the HoT and then spamming Dark Conversion when under serious pressure. Dark Conversion alone is so insufficient compared to other classes self healing. The option to make the heal a HoT for just the Regenerative Ward morph also makes perfect sense.

Estin · January 30

The new change to blastbones pretty much kills the class, and the original playstyle received an unwarranted nerf since blighted is nowhere near as strong as stalking.

If you want to improve the feel for blastbones so it's more accessible, blighted can be changed to work like sub assault where it does 2 explosions over 6 seconds and create 2 corpses on death at the cost of having do less damage than stalking. This could be improved further by allowing blighted to be recast early instead of waiting for it to explode like with stalking.

The original buff idea looks good, though moving it to Skeletal Mage/Archer feels like it would serve the class more, and blastbones can be nerfed so it does not receive too big of a buff from it when activated. Skeletal Mage/Arcanist can either have the current buff, or be directed more towards the healing side of the class. Skeletal archer can have a similar buff but have a smaller direct damage bonus. This would still allow for the new skull spammable playstyle, but overall give the class a much needed buff.

If you're really intent on keeping this idea for blast bones only, please, at the very least, replace blighted with this change, or give blighted all the same bonuses stalking had. Please do not kill the class just to make it simpler.