PTS Update 41 - Feedback Thread for Combat & Classes

MashmalloMan

For those who do enjoy the class’s current flow, however, we’ve made sure to leave Blighted Blastbones as its original form – albeit slightly cheaper to cast – so you continue summoning skeletons hellbent on blowing your foes to the hereafter.

You did not achieve this stated goal. Stalking Blastbones has been deleted from the game and should have been combined into Blighted Blastbones to keep the original identity alive.

1. Add dynamic cost based on highest resource.
2. Add damage scaling from Stalking Blastbones, 10% up to 30% instead of 50% since it now always procs Diseased and Defile.

It still won't deal Flame Damage, but whatever.

Alaztor91

-No dynamic resource cost for Blighted Blastbones.
-No Stalking BB modifier added to it to compensate for being the inferior morph option.
-Grave Lord’s Sacrifice lower corpse generation not fixed.
-Grave Lord’s Sacrifice lack of ranged corpse generation not fixed.

You are basically removing the ability to use Siphons/Tethers(28m skills) from range if you slot Grave Lord’s Sacrifice.
You are basically removing the ability to activate the Corpse consume bonus from Boneyard and Life amid Death(28m skills) from range if you slot Grave Lord’s Sacrifice.
You can't sustain Blighted Blastbones on a Magicka build.

You said ''we’re also trying to ensure there’s a way to continue playing the way many Necromancers have become accustomed to'' but if I pick Blighted Blastbones I can't sustain the cost since I play a Magicka build and if I pick Grave Lord’s Sacrifice I'm forced into a melee build.

Why do you ignore all the feedback that could turn Grave Lord’s Sacrifice into a good skill? Why do you ignore all the feedback that could allow Blighted Blastbones to remain a valid alternative? Can we get some changes from a dev who actually plays the class?

Foxtrot39

Another patch note and another wave of frustrated templars + me screeching about consuming darkness and morph being outdated by an entire game vision

ilawana

I like the Sorcerer buffs for the most part, but it kind of seems like Sorcerer is becoming a bit of a patchwork. It almost seems like all of the classes are except for the Arcanist.

In most of the conversations I've had with people, the Arcanist is just a well-rounded, relatively balanced class that has great synergy between all of its skills. It has definite strengths and weaknesses. The class skills work nicely with other class skills. Everything feels very intentional and impactful. When it comes to the other classes though, I don't get the same feeling.

For example, the Sorcerer is getting a different version of the Arcanist's Runeward with the new heal. That is good I guess, but it doesn't feel like it necessarily fits with the rest of the toolkit. Additionally, in order to get the heal, you are unable to run other certain class skills. To me, it seems strange that a class skill prevents you from using other class skills. This isn't the case on the Arcanist. That being said, I see why it was done that way. If you could get the heal with pets, then Sorcerer could potentially have 4 class burst heals on one bar. Personally though, I don't think the right solution is "If you want the most out of this class skill, you can't run these class skills". What if the Twilight Matriarch became a heal over time like Necro's Life amid Death or Arcanist's Reconstructive Domain? What if Hardened Ward didn't have a burst heal, but rather restored health, magicka, or stamina based on which one was lower?

My point is, the Arcanist feels like a very intentionally put together class. The Arcanist was designed to have everything it needed in the class toolkit, and all of the class skills seem like they were designed to work in tandem with each other.
The other classes are beginning to feel like a bunch of patches thrown together with the label "It just works". Nightblade is full of random buffs and effects that don't necessarily synergize with each other, Warden has to run a specific weapon type to get use out of their passive, things like that. It would be cool if all of the classes got similar treatment to the Arcanist. Significant strengths and weaknesses, everything they need inside the class toolkit, and class skills that synergize well with other class skills.

ZhuJiuyin

It is obvious that the theme of U41 this time is Status Effect, but why do almost all classes have skills that "always cause" and "higher probability of causing" Status Effect, but Sorc does not?


DK: Venomous Claw (Enemies hit by the initial hit are afflicted with the Poisoned status effect.)
Arc: Psychic Lesion (Passive: increasing damage dealt by Status Effects by 15% and Status Effect Chance by 75%.)
Necro: Blighted Blastbones (morph)(v9.3.2: This morph now always applies the Diseased status effect on hit.)
NB: Debilitate(Each tick applies the Overcharged status effect,)
Templar: Backlash((v9.3.2: always applies the Sundered status effect )
Wardens: Cutting Dive, Impaling Shards, Arctic Wind( causing them to bleed & has a higher chance to apply the Chilled status effect.)

Sorc:nothing


Why doesn't Sorc have a skill alway cause Concussed、Overcharged？

IncultaWolf

ZhuJiuyin wrote: »

It is obvious that the theme of U41 this time is Status Effect, but why do almost all classes have skills that "always cause" and "higher probability of causing" Status Effect, but Sorc does not?


DK: Venomous Claw (Enemies hit by the initial hit are afflicted with the Poisoned status effect.)
Arc: Psychic Lesion (Passive: increasing damage dealt by Status Effects by 15% and Status Effect Chance by 75%.)
Necro: Blighted Blastbones (morph)(v9.3.2: This morph now always applies the Diseased status effect on hit.)
NB: Debilitate(Each tick applies the Overcharged status effect,)
Templar: Backlash((v9.3.2: always applies the Sundered status effect )
Wardens: Cutting Dive, Impaling Shards, Arctic Wind( causing them to bleed & has a higher chance to apply the Chilled status effect.)

Sorc:nothing


Why doesn't Sorc have a skill alway cause Concussed、Overcharged？

Sorc DOES have one actually, a morph of the storm atronach always applies concussed

ZhuJiuyin

IncultaWolf wrote: »

Sorc DOES have one actually, a morph of the storm atronach always applies concussed

I don't think using an ultimate skill can compare to active skills. After all, the frequency of use is different, and sorc often needs to cooperate with the team to cast the ultimate skill at a specific time, so this is a skill subject to many restrictions. It is completely inadequate to compare with the active skills of other classes.

Tyrant_Tim

After the change lowering the damage of Power of the Light’s impact, is it even recognized by your team as our burst skill on Templar, if not, what is?

Is it Eclipse or Blazing Shield? 😂

Why do we have so many skills all competing with each other over the same identity, all within the same class?

We have 3(three) burst skills within our kit, Backlash, Eclipse, and Blazing Shield, and none of them are good, it is honestly even a stretch to consider Blazing Shield that; given it does absolutely nothing.

We have 3(three) spammables in-class to choose, Puncturing Strikes, Solar Flare, and Blazing Spear, and none of them are competitive.

There are only 12 skills that we can fit on our bars, and we would need to run all three of our burst skills simultaneously to almost equal 66% of Merciless Resolve, and two of our spammables to equal a fully charged Molten Whip.

How is this okay? Would it really be that difficult to change some of these options entirely while funneling some more power into the ones leftover?

Billium813

Looking at 9.3.2

• Hemorrhaging:
  • Adjusted this status effect's damage to be less penalizing while not at full stacks. This will result in a ~89% increase in damage at one stack, 20% more damage at two stacks, and the same damage at three stacks. Overall this means this status effect will now be 25% weaker than Burning at base, the same at two stacks, and 25% stronger while at three stacks, resulting in a status effect that should be far less weak with low investment.
  • Increased the sources of this status effect for non-Warden builds to obtain the effect. Let there be blood, bloodletters.

I'm happy ZOS is adding more Bleed sources (Executioner - 2H, Lacerate - DW, Pounce - WW, Eviscerate - Vamp), but I still think it would be better if LA w/ Daggers, Swords, Greatswords, and Bows dealt Bleed Damage (10% base chance for Hemorrhaging for Single-target direct attack), and LA w/ Axes, Maces, Battle Axes, Mauls dealt Physical Damage (10% base chance for Sundered for Single-target direct attack)... but I digress.

The bigger question I have is: is it just me, or does this all feel backwards from how ZOS usually makes changes??

USUALLY, in the past, ZOS would be trying to "clean up" their design and many of these changes seem like they are complicating the system in a way that is the opposite of how they usually act. Take Minor Breach for example. Now, ZOS is removing Minor Breach from Skills and instead hiding the debuff inside the Sundered Status Effects?! That's like, THE OPPOSITE, to how ZOS usually makes changes. I'm not necessarily opposed to how they are handling this, but IMO there is a bigger issue with complicating combat more, in a way that the devs USUALLY are trying to remove, and a combat UI that doesn't explain all this stuff to players.

@ZOS_Kevin

Are there any plans to update tooltips and ingame combat UI to inform the players which effects proc what debuffs? And what the percentages are? Status Effects are pretty complicated AND information on them are almost entirely hidden from players. I mean, "Chance to apply Status Effect" is entirely hidden in the game, right?

How would a player know that Sundered applies Minor Breach and adds 100 WD/SD for 4 seconds? Or that Diseased deals additional damage in a 6 meter radius around the target and applies Minor Defile? Or that a Weapon enchant has a base of 20% chance, but each tick of Carve has a Base chance of 3% chance of procing Hemorrhaging (Single Target Damage over Time)?

Some places in the game explain it, like the Affliction set

This is from current PTS v9.3.2...

but other places don't

This is from current PTS v9.3.2

It just feels like the game UI needs to be updated to explain things to players without having to go to https://eso-hub.com to find the information. This is where players start feeling like changes are "incomplete".

UNSeki

Billium813 wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin

Are there any plans to update tooltips and ingame combat UI to inform the players which effects proc what debuffs? And what the percentages are? Status Effects are pretty complicated AND information on them are almost entirely hidden from players. I mean, "Chance to apply Status Effect" is entirely hidden in the game, right?

[...]

Agreed.

I've always wondered if they couldn't add a second, smaller hover menu to the side of the skill/item etc. with some basic glossary.

Similar to what was done in The Elder Scrolls: Legends when you hover your mouse over a card to read its description and get extra tabs to the side with recurrent base effects like Summon, Breakthrough, Slay etc. I'm sure there's also some extra button press or menu space that could be used for consoles for the same goal.

Example:

1: A screenshot of the game board with an Argonian card played on my side.



2: The card description + extra glossary to the side shown when I hover over the card.


3: Another example with multiple effects (not a match, Collection menu).

universal_wrath

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

After the change lowering the damage of Power of the Light’s impact, is it even recognized by your team as our burst skill on Templar, if not, what is?

Is it Eclipse or Blazing Shield? 😂

Why do we have so many skills all competing with each other over the same identity, all within the same class?

We have 3(three) burst skills within our kit, Backlash, Eclipse, and Blazing Shield, and none of them are good, it is honestly even a stretch to consider Blazing Shield that; given it does absolutely nothing.

We have 3(three) spammables in-class to choose, Puncturing Strikes, Solar Flare, and Blazing Spear, and none of them are competitive.

There are only 12 skills that we can fit on our bars, and we would need to run all three of our burst skills simultaneously to almost equal 66% of Merciless Resolve, and two of our spammables to equal a fully charged Molten Whip.

How is this okay? Would it really be that difficult to change some of these options entirely while funneling some more power into the ones leftover?

First is power of light while it is a burst skill, it is a delayed skill like sorcerer hunting curse or or warden scorch. Eclipse is a tank skill and only work if you have a high HP and you are being 1vX beause the shield powr increase in size the more enemies around you. Unstable core is a hard CC and living dark is healing morph. Different functionality and purposes, I astonished you are thinking that they all burst skills.

Second, punchring strikes and dark flares are the only spam skills and strikes is melee and flare is range, each skill support a different playstyle though I hardly ever see people use dark flare because solar barrage is better. Blazing spear is an AoE dot and I don't think it was intended to be used as spammable. maybe you are hoping for it to be treated the same as DK eruption where uts initial burst damage had a cooldown of 10 secs so it does not get spammed? I think blazing spear is in good position as dot and add clear skill.

I think templar is in a bad condition now bit i do not believe it us related to the skills you mentioned. Templar lack of buffs and skills that hold value like expposive charge morph, sun fire skill, purifying light morph, radiant aura morph, remmembrance ultimate morph and solar disturbance ultimate morph are all lacking and holding templar back. All of these skills need overhual like sorcerer class and templar need a way to have passive/active buffs not tide to skills that lock the class in specific playstyle.

If you need major sorcery, you have to use stamina jab aka be stamina melee player even if you wanted to play range. On the other hand using rune focus skill will never lock you in playing healer, tank, DD, melee..etc. Rune focus is a must have skill on all builds because it give defense buff and resources, temolar need another focus rune like skill for sorcery/brutality and/or savergy/prophecy buffs.

Jsmalls

For Sorcerers using your ultimate to summon the Storm Atronach should not change states for the 10% magicka/stamina versus 10% health.

It's becomes a drop to potential damage and there shouldn't be a "punishment" for using an ultimate.

This has been brought up before but really should be corrected prior to going live.

And I don't think this is even a controversial issue.

You're either running no pets so have your health at a level that's comfortable but like the Storm Atronach due to its AoE damage combined with the new damage for concussion.

Or you're running with pets and summoning it has no effect on you.

Thanks for considering.

Twohothardware

Warden's Dive and Necro's Skulls need to be overhauled. They're way too clunky to weave, too easy to dodge in PvP with their longer travel time, and are just overall lacking damage. Look at the DPS parses and the PvP build videos for Warden and Necro on Youtube and you'll see that almost noone is slotting these two Classes main spammable skill. Instead they have to rely on Weapon skills like Dizzying Swing and Flurry.

Billium813

I'm sorry, but the more I dig into Status Effects, the more I feel like the changes in v9.3 are being mishandled/are incomplete

Take Hemorrhaging for example (non-Warden)

v9.3.0

• Hemorrhaging:
  • This effect now stacks up to 3 times, increasing its damage by 100% per stack. This will result in a ~25% damage increase when at maximum stacks when compared to before, while dealing less damage if you cannot consistently keep the stacks active. As such, the damage now updates dynamically per tick.

With this design, more stacks = more damage; fair. Status Effects rely on RNG, BUT players can influence that RNG through builds and good gameplay (maintaining DoTs, applying Skills ontime). You want higher chance of getting Hemorrhaging stacks? You have two options: More bleed sources or increase chance to apply the sources you have (Charged trait, CP passives, content buffs like those in Infinite Archive)

On the face, I like the direction they are moving here. Reward players that can get high chance through build, or source lots of Bleed and maintain those sources through player skill. It's a good intention IMO with only a couple issues:
1) There aren't enough Bleed sources on Skills,
2) There's no Bleed enchantment,
3) Sell me on why I should put Charged on my 2H.

The problem here is that relying on RNG is not building stacks. With what we have at this point on Skills, the player is lucky to get 1 Hemorrhaging stack. Getting a 2nd Hemorrhaging stack in the next 4 seconds is unlikely, even with 2 Bleed Skills ticking.

At this point, the only path to full Hemorrhaging stacks is: being Warden (who are still struggling), or running a 5 piece set (Unleashed Terror). Even Charged on 2H isn't getting there, not to mention there is not a good reason the player would want to run Charged in the first place on a melee weapon...

v9.3.1

• Trap Beast
  • Barbed Trap: This morph now increases the damage done of the initial hit by 20% and the initial hit now always applies the Hemorrhaging status effect, rather than increasing the chances of applying the effect by 10 times.

Ok... so now Barbed Trap circumvents the RNG by just applying a guaranteed Hemorrhaging stack.

Not a fan of this change. On the face it seems good and I understand how players see this as a win. However, this doesn't really fix the issue with Hemorrhaging, and Status Effect in general, design though. It just doubles down on players having less build choices by making Barbed Trap MORE necessary to run (which it already is for many builds). It also essentially reduces the Hemorrhaging max stacks from 3 -> 2 since players HAVE to run this Skill.

Nothing has been gained here and certainly gameplay hasn't been improved for players. If anything, the original design of Hemorrhaging stacks is diluted a bit.

v9.3.2

• Hemorrhaging:
  • Adjusted this status effect's damage to be less penalizing while not at full stacks. This will result in a ~89% increase in damage at one stack, 20% more damage at two stacks, and the same damage at three stacks. Overall this means this status effect will now be 25% weaker than Burning at base, the same at two stacks, and 25% stronger while at three stacks, resulting in a status effect that should be far less weak with low investment.
  • Increased the sources of this status effect for non-Warden builds to obtain the effect. Let there be blood, bloodletters.

Ok, so being at 1-2 stacks is less penalizing to not punish players for not investing in Bleed.

Hmm. This is even worse. Now, the original design of building Hemorrhaging stacks is diluted more? What's even the point anymore of having Hemorrhaging stacks if you are going to make the difference between the stacks less important and not penalize players for not getting to 3 stacks? At this point, why not just remove the stacking design concept, make it a single damage tick similar to Burning, and give it Minor Maim or some other debuff (this is partially a joke since I don't think named buffs on Status Effects is a good idea as I explain later)?

So, now players are almost always starting at 1 stack (Barbed Trap), and sometimes getting to 2 stacks. Non-Wardens are not getting to 3 stacks without heavy investment (Charged trait, 5 piece Unleashed Terror). So... the overall effect is that Hemorrhaging is, on average, worse then Burning. ok... why does melee have to work harder for less?

I'm glad they added some more Bleed sources. That is important, to resolve the issue #1 raised in v9.3.0. However, it isn't enough to support the original design created in v9.3.0 either. Adding Bleed to one 2H execute morph doesn't really help. Adding guaranteed Hemorrhaging stacks to DW Ult doesn't really help maintain stacks over a long period. It's better, but why pick these Weapon Skills? You could argue any 2H or DW Weapon Skill could be changed to Bleed. Why these choices?

---

Where do we go from here?

1. We need a Bleed Enchantment. Change Taderi from Physical Harm -> Bleed ("Deals X Bleed Damage"). Change Makderi from Magical Harm -> Harm ("Adds X Weapon and Spell Damage") (this needs to be done for hybridization anyway). Giving players an Enchantment (which has a base of 20% and is way higher then other base chances) would help at least give players another avenue to getting Hemorrhaging stacks. There's still competition from other enchantments... but it's a start.
2. Give melee a Status Effect apply buff. Destruction Staff gets Elemental Force passive to automatically double chance to proc effects. Melee weapons and Class Skills instead are picking and choosing specific Skills and giving those specific Skills guaranteed procs. This feels like it's circumventing the whole design of RNG Status Effect procs and undermining the whole system
3. Remove Debuffs from Status Effects. This works with #2. It seems bizarre to have Skills guarantee Status Effects just to make sure the Debuff is applied, but the durations are mismatched between Status Effect vs Skill and information is hidden from players. It's a messy implementation and works against the RNG nature. Plus, it creates an inconsistent gameplay for players since Status Effect debuffs can't proc proc sets. It's a weird nuance that only serves to confuse players and obfuscate gameplay
4. Clean up the in game UI. Give players more information on Chance to Apply Status Effects and update Skill descriptions to give players information. While you're at it, explain Direct Damage and DoT better. Clean up your Skill layout to be more uniform and concise.

Twohothardware

I'd like to see Cutting Dive completely replaced with a close range morph. When you're playing Stamina Warden a lot of your other skills are all melee range so having a long range Stamina morph as your main spammable is why it feels so clunky to use.

A new 7-8m Stamina morph of Cutting Dive that deals more damage would be SOOOO much better.

JerBearESO

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

I am shocked that you're going through with deleting the most used skill in Necro's kit.

Blastbones really needs that Stalking modifier in PvP. You're effectively killing the class off without it.

Just quoting to add on: it also needs the flame damage instead of disease for pvp to account for all the vampires. It's actually losing that damage modifier as well....

Twohothardware

JerBearESO wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

I am shocked that you're going through with deleting the most used skill in Necro's kit.

Blastbones really needs that Stalking modifier in PvP. You're effectively killing the class off without it.

Just quoting to add on: it also needs the flame damage instead of disease for pvp to account for all the vampires. It's actually losing that damage modifier as well....

The Undeath passive on Vampire just needs to be changed to provide only damage reduction against Monsters or something and then every player in PvP won't be running Vampire just for that one passive.

Tyrant_Tim

Twohothardware wrote: »

JerBearESO wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

I am shocked that you're going through with deleting the most used skill in Necro's kit.

Blastbones really needs that Stalking modifier in PvP. You're effectively killing the class off without it.

Just quoting to add on: it also needs the flame damage instead of disease for pvp to account for all the vampires. It's actually losing that damage modifier as well....

The Undeath passive on Vampire just needs to be changed to provide only damage reduction against Monsters or something and then every player in PvP won't be running Vampire just for that one passive.

Or, have the passive only active on bars that hold. Vampire skills. The only great one is a backbar option so you would be able to catch people on their front bars with that change.

If they wanted to be aggressive with it, Undeath could scale with however many Vampire abilities you have slotted, equalling 30% at all 6.

Vorkk8383

Do you guys hate Nec DPS? Nec tanks are OK. We (DPS) are only wanted as support (EC-CRO). If the class is too hard for you guys to figure out (not trying to be rude- I'm basing myself on the lack of changes and then a change that makes things even worse), give us all a class change token and kill the class.

I would have said goodbye to it long ago if I didn't have most motifs/blueprints/praxis on my necro. I can tell you that nobody who mains a necro feels like you will ever fix it. You can't even acknowledge that we're not in a good spot. Everything is so fine that we will nerf the necro's best ability!

Devs, If you stated that you're aware that necro DPS is not doing well, we would at least feel like we could expect some fixes/changes, which will come as trial and error, I'm sure...but we're OK with that, so long as things change. Sadly, you've been given many suggestions but chose to ignore them and make Blastbones worse. This leaves us with more questions than anything else. Do you think we're doing well other than Blastbones being OP? No communication leaves us confused and frustrated. None of this is said to attack devs or to hurt anyone's feelings. I'm begging for all nec DPS: ''Please tell us if we can ever expect any help or if we should continue to start playing one of our alts more seriously (or change our necro DPS as a nec Tank for those who can tank). I am asking respectfully to try to plan my future in this game. Thank you!

hypnoticbeast

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

JerBearESO wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

I am shocked that you're going through with deleting the most used skill in Necro's kit.

Blastbones really needs that Stalking modifier in PvP. You're effectively killing the class off without it.

Just quoting to add on: it also needs the flame damage instead of disease for pvp to account for all the vampires. It's actually losing that damage modifier as well....

The Undeath passive on Vampire just needs to be changed to provide only damage reduction against Monsters or something and then every player in PvP won't be running Vampire just for that one passive.

Or, have the passive only active on bars that hold. Vampire skills. The only great one is a backbar option so you would be able to catch people on their front bars with that change.

If they wanted to be aggressive with it, Undeath could scale with however many Vampire abilities you have slotted, equalling 30% at all 6.

Not too sure about that. It would kill all hope of tanking with a vamp at all with all 6 skills. And bar placement would cause way too much "BAR SWAPING CHEATER" to be tossed around. So a monsters only move would be best. Now with that being said. The best defense is a good offence. All VAMP skills should do a 15% increase to all PLAYERS in Cyrodill. (yes this will make NB's easer to kill) And Undeath will keep the Deadra and other things there from killing you to fast. Win win.

Grandsheba

I commend the swift adoption of the proposed changes to Blighted Blastbones, but it's crucial to extend these adjustments to the broader Necromancer toolkit. While we appreciate the effort, the removal of Stalking Blastbones restricts players to one type of burst damage at the cost of versatility and standardized class morphs introduced since launch. This departure from the class's identity fails to offer a real solution to the Necromancer's performance. The detailed suggestions outlined here present the necessary changes and their justifications.

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Necrotic Potency

Target: Area
Duration: 6 seconds
Cost: 1 corpse

Skill description
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Embrace the power of collected souls to bolster your dark arts. For each soul absorbed, increase your Weapon and Spell Damage by 50. Sapping the lingering life from fresh corpses, grants you 6 Ultimate while healing 682 Health every 1 second for 6 seconds per additional corpse.


This ability scales off your Max Health. While slotted, your damage taken is reduced by 3%.

Change Notes:
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Embrace the power of collected souls to bolster your dark arts. For each soul absorbed, increase your Weapon and Spell Damage by 50. The duration of this buff stacks dynamically with each additional soul collected, extending its remaining time to empower your necromantic abilities.

The revamped Necrotic Potency skill introduces a dynamic and engaging mechanic that aligns with the thematic essence of the Necromancer class. By harnessing the power of collected souls, the Necromancer gains a tangible boost to their damage potential, promoting strategic and immersive gameplay.

This change addresses the need for the Necromancer class to have a damage-buffing skill, bringing it up to par with other classes in the game. The dynamic stacking of the buff's duration encourages players to actively collect souls, fostering a sense of mastery and rewarding skilled play. Additionally, the increase in Weapon and Spell Damage per collected soul provides a meaningful and impactful boost to the Necromancer's abilities, enhancing their role in combat scenarios.

Overall, the revised Necrotic Potency skill not only enriches the gameplay experience for Necromancer players but also contributes to a more balanced and engaging class dynamic within the game.

Blastbones

Target: Enemy/Area
Range: 28m
Cost: 2700

Skill description
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After 2.5 seconds, summon a flaming skeleton from the ground. The skeleton pursues the target and explodes upon reaching them, dealing 3486 Flame Damage to nearby enemies. Using the reticle while summoning allows you to direct the blastbones towards a specific target. Otherwise, they will autonomously follow the Necromancer and engage the nearest target within a 10m radius. Recast to have any time

Change Notes:>

This modification to the Blastbones ability introduces heightened flexibility and control for Necromancer players. By eliminating the requirement for a predefined target during summoning, it enables a more adaptable and strategic utilization of the skill. The additional feature allowing players to direct Blastbones to prioritize a target as needed grants enhanced control over the skeleton's actions, ultimately elevating the overall gameplay experience for Necromancers.

Stalking legion (Stalking Blastbones)

Target: Enemy/Area
Range: 28m
Limit: 3
Cost: 2700

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Skill description: Summon a flaming skeleton from the ground. After 2.5 seconds, the skeleton runs after the target and explodes when it gets close to them, dealing 1600 Flame Damage to all enemies nearby. Every second the skeleton spends chasing its target increases the damage of the explosion by 10%, up to a maximum of 50% more damage. Up to 3 corpses can be active at a time with only 1.5 seconds cooldown between each skeleton summoning. Creates a corpse on death.

Change Notes:
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The reworked skill "Stalking Legion" has undergone significant changes that impact its functionality and potential in combat. Here's a brief explanation of why this change is beneficial and needed:

Improved balance: The reduction in the initial damage dealt by the exploding skeleton from 3600 to 1600 Flame Damage, coupled with the cap on the maximum damage increase, helps to balance the skill's potential burst damage.

Enhanced versatility: Allowing up to three corpses to be active at a time and reducing the cooldown between skeleton summonings to 1.5 seconds significantly enhances the skill's versatility, enabling more strategic and frequent deployment in combat situations.

Strategic depth: With the ability to have multiple explosive skeletons active and in play, players can now employ more strategic and tactical approaches to engagements, adding depth to the skill's gameplay mechanics.

Overall, these changes to "Stalking Legion" aim to promote a more balanced and versatile use of the skill while adding a layer of strategic depth to the Necromancer's toolkit thematically.

Blighted Blastbones [already adapted]

Target: Enemy/area
Range: 28m
Radius: 6m
Duration: 4 second
Cost: 2295

Skill description
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Summon a decaying skeleton from the ground after 2.5 seconds. The skeleton runs after the target and explodes when it gets close to them, dealing 3600 Disease Damage to all enemies nearby and applying Major Defile to them for 4 seconds, reducing their healing received and Health Recovery by 16%.

Creates a corpse on death, causing a putrid area of decay in a 6-meter radius. Enemies within the area suffer from a potent Disease affliction, taking 1500 Disease damage over 4 seconds. Only 2 blighted corpes may persist at at time.

Change Notes:
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This reworked ability offers the Necromancer a strategic and thematic AoE damage option, leveraging the theme of decay and disease that is central to the class. By incorporating damage over time effects, the skill aligns with the Necromancer's identity and provides a valuable addition to their arsenal. The rework also addresses the need for more diverse damage over time abilities within the Necromancer's skill set, enhancing gameplay options and synergies for players who prefer this playstyle.

This reworked Blighted Blastbones skill not only adds thematic depth to the Necromancer class but also introduces a valuable AoE damage-over-time option, aligning with the class's identity and providing players with a more diverse and strategic skill set.

Thank you

IncultaWolf

Vorkk8383 wrote: »

Do you guys hate Nec DPS? Nec tanks are OK. We (DPS) are only wanted as support (EC-CRO). If the class is too hard for you guys to figure out (not trying to be rude- I'm basing myself on the lack of changes and then a change that makes things even worse), give us all a class change token and kill the class.

I would have said goodbye to it long ago if I didn't have most motifs/blueprints/praxis on my necro. I can tell you that nobody who mains a necro feels like you will ever fix it. You can't even acknowledge that we're not in a good spot. Everything is so fine that we will nerf the necro's best ability!

Devs, If you stated that you're aware that necro DPS is not doing well, we would at least feel like we could expect some fixes/changes, which will come as trial and error, I'm sure...but we're OK with that, so long as things change. Sadly, you've been given many suggestions but chose to ignore them and make Blastbones worse. This leaves us with more questions than anything else. Do you think we're doing well other than Blastbones being OP? No communication leaves us confused and frustrated. None of this is said to attack devs or to hurt anyone's feelings. I'm begging for all nec DPS: ''Please tell us if we can ever expect any help or if we should continue to start playing one of our alts more seriously (or change our necro DPS as a nec Tank for those who can tank). I am asking respectfully to try to plan my future in this game. Thank you!

This is my issue as well, necromancer is my main character who is also a master crafter, has all scrying/guild/psijic skill lines unlocked, hundreds of motifs and blueprints, tons of overland skyshard and questing progress, so I can't really just "start over" when that character has invested hundreds of hours in content. All us necro mains can really do is submit feedback and complain on the forums and hope the class gets fixed eventually. It just sucks when the feedback is ignored and there's no communication whether they even acknowledge the pain points of the class, or even plan to fix it. Destroying a morph of blastbones was not the answer, you could have done so many other things, like turn blastbones into a strong DoT that lasts for 10 seconds, so it would be easier for pve rotations, and still viable for pvp.

ZhuJiuyin

What Nec encounters now is actually what Sorc encountered in the class sets patch.
What a perfect communication skill, right? As long as there is no communication, there is no dispute.
History is always surprisingly similar.

I really hope Nec gets compensated in this patch, or gets his blastbones back. And hope Sorc's Shattering Spines can also listen to feedback in this patch and provide more useful damage buffs.
After all, Sorc and Nec are the focus of this update according to Developer Comment, shouldn't they listen more to player feedback?

necro_the_crafter

BB change is boring. Its uninspired. Its downright bad from any perspective.

Its a dead cast. This 20%dot/skilltree damage bonus effect belongs into passives category of a skilline.

While i understand reasoning behind this change, I can tell dor sure that devs dind't think about this change twice, its feels like it was thrown on a patchnote last second before implementation basicly.

How else you can explain such a lack of any foresight. Magika skill that forces class in melee only mode.

I didnt really have to think too hard about much better change, that acomplishes same goal.

Lets move the effect into passives like this:
Rapid rot -> Destruction and decay: increase your dot damage by 10% and grave lord skills damage by 10%. If you inflict diseased status effect on enemy double the dot damage bonus for 10s, is you inflict burning status effect on enemy double skills damage bonus for 10s.Boom, same staff.

Now lets fix blastbones micromanagment:
Blightd bones -> Summon Bone Flayers: stomp the gound dealixng X AoE physical damage, unearthing three skeletons for 20s to attack targeted enemy. Skeletons attacks deal X disease damage applying stack of Contamination with each hit.
Contamination - apllies major defile, deals X desease dot damage every second for 2 seconds, up to 9 stacks, stacks in damage.

Since we have a long time summon in above skill, lest also change bone archer/arcanist -
Archer - channel mini poison bow ulti on seletected target for 8 secs.
Arcanist - channel mini lightning destro ulti at selected area for 8 secs.
Dies if interrupted.

And to top things off rework empowering grasp from wired 3 circles to a single larger circle with a player character at its center, add buff to you and up to 11 allies with major brutality/sorcery. adjust pet buff numbers for new skeletons and leave aoe slow and maim on it.

sigh....

or at least make the blighted bones cost scale dynamically with higher stat, and make it deal 25% against deseased enemys to make up for loss in bb 50% distance modifier...

necro_the_crafter

Also dindnt see anyone mention it, but imagine new players try to figure out why theirs grave doesnt do increased damage.
Now every time you cast boneyard you have to consider yours own positioning because -->

Unnerving Boneyard

Desecrate the ground at the target location, dealing 3190 Frost damage over 10 seconds and applying Major Breach to enemies whithin, reducing their Spell and Physical Resistance by 5948.

Consumes a corpse on cast to deal 30% more damage. <-- doesnt says that corpse should be in the area

An ally standing in the graveyard can activate the Grave Robber synergy, dealing 3375 Frost Damage to enemies in the area and healing for the damage done.

Reduces the resistances of enemies in the area via Major Breach.

Also why slap self corpse effect, when its already in the game provided by the class set? why not put kjalnar fist into necro kit? caluurions projectile on necros kit? nerianeth crystal? every necro themed proc?

universal_wrath

necro_the_crafter wrote: »

Also dindnt see anyone mention it, but imagine new players try to figure out why theirs grave doesnt do increased damage.
Now every time you cast boneyard you have to consider yours own positioning because -->

Unnerving Boneyard

Desecrate the ground at the target location, dealing 3190 Frost damage over 10 seconds and applying Major Breach to enemies whithin, reducing their Spell and Physical Resistance by 5948.

Consumes a corpse on cast to deal 30% more damage. <-- doesnt says that corpse should be in the area

An ally standing in the graveyard can activate the Grave Robber synergy, dealing 3375 Frost Damage to enemies in the area and healing for the damage done.

Reduces the resistances of enemies in the area via Major Breach.

Also why slap self corpse effect, when its already in the game provided by the class set? why not put kjalnar fist into necro kit? caluurions projectile on necros kit? nerianeth crystal? every necro themed proc?

Nerianeth and Caluurion is what I use on necr with catalyst to use all of elements. I like the theme, though it feels weak. There is something lack about Necro but I don't quit know what it is.

Vorkk8383

Right now, I feel like it's one of two things for the necro DPS: a) The devs do not see any problems (when all of us do), or b) they know there are problems, but the class is so broken that they can't fix it or don't want to try.

Sadly, the BB thing makes me think they don't see the problems.

If any of your guildies ask you as a main necro DPS if it's a fun class/good to play, I know that most of you will say: Be a tank or choose something else for DPS. I rarely ever see any lower necro's being levelled as DPS. They are going to be tanks, or they are going to class change after I tell them how much the class sucks and talk about our bugs that aren't getting fixed.

If this doesn't help devs understand that the problem isn't a few of us being whiny and wanting to be so OP that we wreck everything (we'd be an arcanist if we wished to do that), I don't know what will!

brandsnipe

Vorkk8383 wrote: »

Right now, I feel like it's one of two things for the necro DPS: a) The devs do not see any problems (when all of us do), or b) they know there are problems, but the class is so broken that they can't fix it or don't want to try.

Sadly, the BB thing makes me think they don't see the problems.

If any of your guildies ask you as a main necro DPS if it's a fun class/good to play, I know that most of you will say: Be a tank or choose something else for DPS. I rarely ever see any lower necro's being levelled as DPS. They are going to be tanks, or they are going to class change after I tell them how much the class sucks and talk about our bugs that aren't getting fixed.

If this doesn't help devs understand that the problem isn't a few of us being whiny and wanting to be so OP that we wreck everything (we'd be an arcanist if we wished to do that), I don't know what will!

To me they are forcing the class into a playstyle that is not meant to be played in. What skills in the necros toolkit is supported by rapid rot and gravelord's sacrifice? Its best case scenario as a damage dealer in PvE is support DPS lmao. And with scribing, other classes will run EC more efficiently. Yiu have the corpse mechsnic thst in no way ties into a DoT playstyle... siphone? Boneyard? Those skills are a joke, you get more from elemental wall and destro reach. you cannot make this up.

TDVM

Necromancer needs serious improvement, I don't understand why ZOS turn a blind eye to him, where is the class Major Brutality and Major Sorcery? ALL classes have these buffs., and it would be nice if the necromancer had something that could be at or above the level of Major Brutality and Major Sorcery, but no! This is at least what a necromancer requires, the game has not only Quests and PvE, but also PvP!

PrinceShroob

I'm excited to test the changes to Blastbones once they hit live, but I am a bit concerned. Since there's been a lot of complaints about getting rid of Stalking Blastbones, specifically, I'm not sure why y'all're doubling down on changing that morph rather than changing Blighted Blastbones. Is it because of problems with Stalking Blastbones' bonus damage working unintuitively? Given the outcry about changing it, I don't think people care much if it only works in niche situations.

I've been thinking that a good change to make to Blastbones would be to allow the player to cast it again to explode the current Blastbones where it is and summon a new one. One major issue with Blastbones is that the Blastbones is AI-controlled and can lose its target, and it can't be recast again until the 7-second duration is up. This change would mean that after 2.5 seconds (the time period after which the Blastbones normally leaps at its target), recasting the skill detonates the existing Blastbones where it is and summons a new Blastbones, which similarly pursues its target and explodes and again can be detonated after 2.5 seconds.

The intention is to allow you to explode your current Blastbones if it gets lost without having to wait the entire 7 seconds for it to despawn, and to streamline rotations by not requiring that the Blastbones reach its target before using the skill again.

The Blastbones would still have a delay before it can be detonated, since otherwise it'd be an extremely strong AoE spammable.

Maybe Stalking Blastbones could be reworked to deal 10% more damage (if I recall correctly, the extra damage based on how long the Blastbones takes to reach its target does not work unless the target LOS the Blastbones; otherwise, the Blastbones leaps to its target, which does not count as "chasing its target" and means the skill only deals the minimum 10% extra damage) and explode the current Blastbones when recast, and Blighted Blastbones could be changed to Sacrificial Bones?