PTS Update 43 - Feedback Thread for Classes & Abilities

Morvan

Although nerfing the Undeath passive from Vampires was something needed to diminish the mitigation on PvP, removing the stage 3 requirement not only made it the only stage without unique passive buffs, it also made even easier for people to turn into vampires solely for it's mitigation passive alone, since they have access to it at stage 1 and the drawbacks for being a vampire there are barely noticeable.

I feel like they could pretty much remove how Undeath works entirely, to avoid people turning vampires for the sole reason of getting tankier, make it something that works more around vampire's own skills, people who turn into vampires should need to use it's skills to make it worth it, not like some sort of free passive buffs.

Undeath could pretty much work like "Strike from the Shadows" does, having a requirement to work instead of being always active, and maybe getting tied to one of the vampire skills to proc.

One way or another, stage 3 should still get a little buff for no longer having Undeath, or Undeath should be changed to something else and tied to stage 3 again.

Firstmep

My thoughts so far:

Arcanist: Honestly good change, especially.for pvp. Finally arcanist will have to spend Crux on the offensive instead of just spamming shields ad nauseum.

Nb: i like them moving skills in the proper skill lines, but in was hoping it would be accompanied by some healthy downward adjustments to their burst dmg. No class wearing 3 proc sets should be hitting 12-15knburst with their skills on top.

Sorc: Hardened ward is the most complained about skill atm and instead of addressing it they gave sorcs max range shalks.

Templar: the one change to dark flare isnt going to make the skill usable. Lose the empower from this morph for a better buff or debuff. No heavy attack builds will use a cast time spammable when the other morph is a 22 sec duration aoe that deals passive damage.

Warden: Soft caps? Also, tanky 45k hp wardens sure needed the extra block mitigation.

Necro: you have given in class access to major buffs, but this only brings necro to where bad classes were like 5 years ago. We have arcanist, dk, nightblades and sorcs getting every buff under the sun just for slotting already powerful skill on any bar, and instead of doing that for necro you put their major buffs on offensive abilities. Ask templars how many of them use sun fire for the major prophecy.

Scribing: people asked for longer duration on major buffs, instead you nerf them all down to 10 sec.
Did you guys ever use trample before? Do you seriously expect me to use a 1.5 second cast time skill that randomly fires off down yonder unless I precisely aim to gain major savagery for 10 whole seconds?
Btw Elemental explosion doesn't have prophecy and savagery...

Decimus

Not a big fan of the Warden changes... basically if you want to play the "ice mage" archetype with frost staff for damage, warden is the sole option for that.

Except it isn't in the next patch - not with the special incentive to run frost staff on the "ice class" of this MMO basically removed & the class turned into yet another DW front bar setup in PvP.


Furthermore, by having the damage bonuses only active below 30k health and block mitigation active above 30k health, you're running into a situation where people slot more health on back bar (i.e. SnB with health glyph or 4p health bonus on back bar) to be tanky on their defensive bar and then drop below the crucial 30k threshold while on their front bar, gaining 8% more damage from the passive instead.

This is problematic for multiple reasons, not just because it greatly limits build diversity, but also because it forces you to have multiple different setups between CP/noCP/emp buffs/no emp buffs etc etc.

Tedious and unnecessary - not a huge fan of the direction this passive has taken.


Apart from that, the changes to Arctic Blast are also completely unnecessary - there is nothing wrong with the skill right now on Live and if you're looking for something that's overperforming in PvP, I'd take a look at the other morph (Polar Wind) that happens to be the strongest burst heal in the game that quite uniquely affects two targets for the full value of the heal without any pre-conditions, while also providing a potent heal over time.

Polar Wind is the source of most of the Warden complaints in this game, as it enables absurd cross-healing to happen, especially when you have multiple 50k health wardens spamming it on each other.


Just a few thoughts.

RaptorRodeoGod

Cast time scribed skills have a doo-doo time keeping up 10s duration buffs. A solution is needed, especially for Sorcery/Brutality/Prophecy/Savagery. At bare minimum, these 4 should have a longer duration since they're so necessary for any damage setup

Pevey

PrinceShroob wrote: »

I'll wait and see with regard to Warden changes but tying Piercing Cold to health value is not a good idea. That low value of 30k means you could lose a damage passive in Infinite Archive with health bonuses and Maturation, and it'll functionally be unavailable in PvP where one's health is generally higher.

Despite Warden's generally poor performance in PvE I did like that it had a unique setup, using a frost staff and using Frost Reach as a spammable. Now with the changes to Piercing Cold, it seems Warden will become another Rapid Strikes user. I guess that might help the class' damage, but right now damage is irrelevant when everything is overshadowed by Arcanists' cleave, so it's sad to see a unique build disappear.

These are pretty much my thoughts, as well. Ironically, I was probably one of the very last holdouts of ppl not wanting to use an ice staff for damage. I finally converted my wardens and was just starting to embrace their new identity... talk about whiplash.

Skjaldbjorn

Decimus wrote: »

Not a big fan of the Warden changes... basically if you want to play the "ice mage" archetype with frost staff for damage, warden is the sole option for that.

Except it isn't in the next patch - not with the special incentive to run frost staff on the "ice class" of this MMO basically removed & the class turned into yet another DW front bar setup in PvP.


Furthermore, by having the damage bonuses only active below 30k health and block mitigation active above 30k health, you're running into a situation where people slot more health on back bar (i.e. SnB with health glyph or 4p health bonus on back bar) to be tanky on their defensive bar and then drop below the crucial 30k threshold while on their front bar, gaining 8% more damage from the passive instead.

This is problematic for multiple reasons, not just because it greatly limits build diversity, but also because it forces you to have multiple different setups between CP/noCP/emp buffs/no emp buffs etc etc.

Tedious and unnecessary - not a huge fan of the direction this passive has taken.


Apart from that, the changes to Arctic Blast are also completely unnecessary - there is nothing wrong with the skill right now on Live and if you're looking for something that's overperforming in PvP, I'd take a look at the other morph (Polar Wind) that happens to be the strongest burst heal in the game that quite uniquely affects two targets for the full value of the heal without any pre-conditions, while also providing a potent heal over time.

Polar Wind is the source of most of the Warden complaints in this game, as it enables absurd cross-healing to happen, especially when you have multiple 50k health wardens spamming it on each other.


Just a few thoughts.

Honestly, as many times as Warden has been nerfed into the ground due to PVP, it's about time PVP Wardens finally take a shot for us PVE Wardens. The number of times Warden's PVE viability has been sent to the basement due to issues with the class in PVP is utterly absurd. It's not like they took away the ability to run a frost staff - you just lost ~4% damage. That's a hell of a lot less than non-frost staff PVE Wardens lost when they changed the AC passive in favor of the previous one.

Pevey

They could just make it 12% if holding an ice staff, and 8% if not. If they keep the health split, the damage numbers don't apply to pvp anyway, unless it is a rare glass cannon build, not the build they are trying to nerf.

Kensei_ESO

Undeath change is a swing and a miss.

I suggest to keep the stage 3 requirement and give Major Protection while under 50% health.

Pevey

I just really don't want to go back to boring rapid strikes and it's horrible new animation. Maybe if they made cliff racer a pure spammable again, I would feel better about this change.

Morvan

Pevey wrote: »

These are pretty much my thoughts, as well. Ironically, I was probably one of the very last holdouts of ppl not wanting to use an ice staff for damage. I finally converted my wardens and was just starting to embrace their new identity... talk about whiplash.

At first I also didn't like the ice staff requirement, because in my view it would hurt variety and make every single warden just run them for extra damage, until I realized if it wasn't for that they'd just be running the same weapons as every other class, which is quite the opposite of variety.

So although I still not enjoy the idea of a passive being locked behind a type of weapon, I did wish they could keep ice staves as the best option for magdens, and maybe give the same treatment to bows for stamdens? But, alas, I guess we can't have everything.

Skjaldbjorn

Morvan wrote: »

At first I also didn't like the ice staff requirement, because in my view it would hurt variety and make every single warden just run them for extra damage, until I realized if it wasn't for that they'd just be running the same weapons as every other class, which is quite the opposite of variety.

So although I still not enjoy the idea of a passive being locked behind a type of weapon, I did wish they could keep ice staves as the best option for magdens, and maybe give the same treatment to bows for stamdens? But, alas, I guess we can't have everything.

The problem with both frost staff and bow is viability. If you want to compete in PVE, subpar front bar weapons isn't the solution. Bow/bow is only good on some fights. It lags vastly behind DW in most encounters. As long as DW daggers gives all that crit, that will never change. Crit is a premium stat. Bow is...fine, but it's far from great, and chaining Warden to yet another weapon is an awful idea.

Classes should not be fundamentally designed as "This is the archer class". That's just poor, especially with ESO's mantra of "play how you want".

Wardens were stuck running two arena weapons because it was the only way to really make them viable. Changing it to include bows would just alter which arena weapons you're running. It doesn't solve the underlying issue.

Decimus

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Decimus wrote: »

Not a big fan of the Warden changes... basically if you want to play the "ice mage" archetype with frost staff for damage, warden is the sole option for that.

Except it isn't in the next patch - not with the special incentive to run frost staff on the "ice class" of this MMO basically removed & the class turned into yet another DW front bar setup in PvP.


Furthermore, by having the damage bonuses only active below 30k health and block mitigation active above 30k health, you're running into a situation where people slot more health on back bar (i.e. SnB with health glyph or 4p health bonus on back bar) to be tanky on their defensive bar and then drop below the crucial 30k threshold while on their front bar, gaining 8% more damage from the passive instead.

This is problematic for multiple reasons, not just because it greatly limits build diversity, but also because it forces you to have multiple different setups between CP/noCP/emp buffs/no emp buffs etc etc.

Tedious and unnecessary - not a huge fan of the direction this passive has taken.


Apart from that, the changes to Arctic Blast are also completely unnecessary - there is nothing wrong with the skill right now on Live and if you're looking for something that's overperforming in PvP, I'd take a look at the other morph (Polar Wind) that happens to be the strongest burst heal in the game that quite uniquely affects two targets for the full value of the heal without any pre-conditions, while also providing a potent heal over time.

Polar Wind is the source of most of the Warden complaints in this game, as it enables absurd cross-healing to happen, especially when you have multiple 50k health wardens spamming it on each other.


Just a few thoughts.

Honestly, as many times as Warden has been nerfed into the ground due to PVP, it's about time PVP Wardens finally take a shot for us PVE Wardens. The number of times Warden's PVE viability has been sent to the basement due to issues with the class in PVP is utterly absurd. It's not like they took away the ability to run a frost staff - you just lost ~4% damage. That's a hell of a lot less than non-frost staff PVE Wardens lost when they changed the AC passive in favor of the previous one.

Except you don't lose 4% damage, you lose 10% (Major Berserk equivalent) when every other weapon type gains significantly more from the passive (2%->8%).

From a min-maxing point of view in PvP, this makes you a <not forum friendly term> if you use Ice Staff on the front bar over something like DW *or even SnB* that'd provide a lot more damage. The reason Ice Staff right now can be used as a front bar, damage dealing weapon is the passive that makes it close to equal dmg to DW (miniscule amount less still, but the difference is not *that* huge and is off-set by defensive benefits).


I'm sure there are better ways to balance things than gutting one of the rare non DW/Ice playstyles in PvP to... improve stamden PvE damage?


Either way, you cannot have a passive in the game that allows friendly players to literally grief you by running sets like Ebon Armor, a passive that requires you to change gear if someone happens to get Emperor in your faction... or if you decide to play noCP instead of CP (or vice versa) - a passive that further boosts the tankiness of 50k health Polar Wind spamming wardens in PvP on top of all that at the cost of a whopping 2% of their damage.

Pevey

Making the bonus 8% generally, but 12% for ice staves, would just make ice staves viable still. Daggers would still pull ahead. But it would keep ice stave build damage where it currently is for magdens. And of the 3 staves, it would push magdens toward ice. I think this would be great for class identity. Wardens would be the only class who could really make use of ice staves for damage, but they would not be locked into that.

TimeDazzler

Warden Feedback:

Screaming cliff racer (magicka morph), should deal frost damage, I also think the magicka morph of shalks should deal frost damage. Update the animations and visuals to match.

Skjaldbjorn

Pevey wrote: »

Making the bonus 8% generally, but 12% for ice staves, would just make ice staves viable still. Daggers would still pull ahead. But it would keep ice stave build damage where it currently is for magdens. And of the 3 staves, it would push magdens toward ice. I think this would be great for class identity. Wardens would be the only class who could really make use of ice staves for damage, but they would not be locked into that.

As long as the HP limitation is still there, I would be fine with that. The issue people seem to be really struggling to understand is that flat % damage gains without stipulations cause massive problems in PVE. It's why the AC passive has seen like four or five iterations, because you could build tanky as hell but have ramped damage.

Zos is right here. Flat % damage gains are not good for PVP, unless they come with glass cannon-y builds.

Skjaldbjorn

Decimus wrote: »

I'm sure there are better ways to balance things than gutting one of the rare non DW/Ice playstyles in PvP to... improve stamden PvE damage?

You mean like when they gutted Warden PVE damage period for over a year to combat how broken they were in PVP?

Metafae

Joy_Division wrote: »

About Arcanist's Abyssal Impact morphs, the nerf was not necessary.

The problem here is these two morphs are not competing with each other. Tentacular Dread competes with Fatecarver.
Cephaliarch's Flail builds crux. Tentacular Dread consumes it. I don't use Cephaliarch's because it is always better. I use it because it does not consume Crux. If I am beaming, I will never use Tentacular Dread not matter how much the other morph is nerfed (because I will use the unspectacular Runeblades to build Crux).

If the reason is Arcanists are already broken for DPS, then say that in the actual explanation, rather than a Red Herrring about morph choices. And then resolve the actual issue: the combination of specific gear combination of Deadly and Velothi coupled with the centerpiece of class's damage: the Beam. After all, that is what is competing with the Tentacular Dread morph that nobody uses.

Arcanist already have zero delayed burst skills in their kit, thus making them proc Bots for PvP. Cephaliarch's nerf will just unnecessarily hurt Arcanists - who nobody fears offensively in PvP - who actually want to use that morph for PvP.

Not necessary and the wrong approach to making the other morph desirable.

Pretty much this.

It's the fact one generates and the other consumes.

Pevey

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Pevey wrote: »

Making the bonus 8% generally, but 12% for ice staves, would just make ice staves viable still. Daggers would still pull ahead. But it would keep ice stave build damage where it currently is for magdens. And of the 3 staves, it would push magdens toward ice. I think this would be great for class identity. Wardens would be the only class who could really make use of ice staves for damage, but they would not be locked into that.

As long as the HP limitation is still there, I would be fine with that. The issue people seem to be really struggling to understand is that flat % damage gains without stipulations cause massive problems in PVE. It's why the AC passive has seen like four or five iterations, because you could build tanky as hell but have ramped damage.

Zos is right here. Flat & damage gains are not good for PVP, unless they come with glass cannon-y builds.

The percent increases would not even need to be there if the base damage amounts on class skills were set correctly. I'm not sure why zos is so stingy with warden damage.

_Ahala_

While we are focusing on Arctic blast this patch, could we consider bringing the range up to 8m up from 5m? Current range, or lack there of, makes it rather difficult to use reliably compared to other melee skills. Making it stun faster would also be highly appreciated but I would understand if this is just not feasible.

Skjaldbjorn

Pevey wrote: »

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Pevey wrote: »

Making the bonus 8% generally, but 12% for ice staves, would just make ice staves viable still. Daggers would still pull ahead. But it would keep ice stave build damage where it currently is for magdens. And of the 3 staves, it would push magdens toward ice. I think this would be great for class identity. Wardens would be the only class who could really make use of ice staves for damage, but they would not be locked into that.

As long as the HP limitation is still there, I would be fine with that. The issue people seem to be really struggling to understand is that flat % damage gains without stipulations cause massive problems in PVE. It's why the AC passive has seen like four or five iterations, because you could build tanky as hell but have ramped damage.

Zos is right here. Flat & damage gains are not good for PVP, unless they come with glass cannon-y builds.

The percent increases would not even to be there if the base damage amounts on class skills were set correctly. I'm not sure why zos is so stingy with warden damage.

Because they were broken in PVP and people cried. This has literally been Warden's story since release. They have to find ways to buff Warden's damage that isn't flat % gains without criteria or without buffing base damage because that impacts tank builds in PVP.

Decimus

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Decimus wrote: »

I'm sure there are better ways to balance things than gutting one of the rare non DW/Ice playstyles in PvP to... improve stamden PvE damage?

You mean like when they gutted Warden PVE damage period for over a year to combat how broken they were in PVP?

Well here's the thing: Warden damage was never a problem in PvP either, apart from undodgeable birds & Shalks with a stun perhaps, back when the class was originally released - but neither of these had impact on PvE. The funniest thing is that the undodgeable birds & Shalks with a CC wouldn't even be that broken in today's meta.


It seems to be a common misconception ZOS has about the class that there's too much damage in PvP (or PvE)... the issue of Warden has always been Polar Wind and crossheals.

Skjaldbjorn

Decimus wrote: »

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Decimus wrote: »

I'm sure there are better ways to balance things than gutting one of the rare non DW/Ice playstyles in PvP to... improve stamden PvE damage?

You mean like when they gutted Warden PVE damage period for over a year to combat how broken they were in PVP?

Well here's the thing: Warden damage was never a problem in PvP either, apart from undodgeable birds & Shalks with a stun perhaps, back when the class was originally released - but neither of these had impact on PvE. The funniest thing is that the undodgeable birds & Shalks with a CC wouldn't even be that broken in today's meta.


It seems to be a common misconception ZOS has about the class that there's too much damage in PvP (or PvE)... the issue of Warden has always been Polar Wind and crossheals.

People have, for ages iirc, hated Shalks for the burst timings. Obviously I know good PVPers who laugh at the idea, but a LOT of bad PVPers cry at having to pay attention to the burst timings of Shalks.

Pevey

Decimus wrote: »

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Decimus wrote: »

I'm sure there are better ways to balance things than gutting one of the rare non DW/Ice playstyles in PvP to... improve stamden PvE damage?

You mean like when they gutted Warden PVE damage period for over a year to combat how broken they were in PVP?

Well here's the thing: Warden damage was never a problem in PvP either, apart from undodgeable birds & Shalks with a stun perhaps, back when the class was originally released - but neither of these had impact on PvE. The funniest thing is that the undodgeable birds & Shalks with a CC wouldn't even be that broken in today's meta.


It seems to be a common misconception ZOS has about the class that there's too much damage in PvP (or PvE)... the issue of Warden has always been Polar Wind and crossheals.

100% agree. I can't see how warden damage on class skill could possibly be a problem compared to other classes.

Skjaldbjorn

Decimus wrote: »

It seems to be a common misconception ZOS has about the class that there's too much damage in PvP (or PvE)... the issue of Warden has always been Polar Wind and crossheals.

Based on Zos' own words when they overhauled the AC passive, then gave us the first Piercing Cold iteration (6%), to then give us the 2/12 Frost staff version to now, they've said repeatedly flat % damage gains are bad because they heavily encourage the tank meta in PVP. Logically, there's truth to that. Why gear for damage when your passive is stronger than x classes' relevant damage passives?

Pevey

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Decimus wrote: »

It seems to be a common misconception ZOS has about the class that there's too much damage in PvP (or PvE)... the issue of Warden has always been Polar Wind and crossheals.

Based on Zos' own words when they overhauled the AC passive, then gave us the first Piercing Cold iteration (6%), to then give us the 2/12 Frost staff version to now, they've said repeatedly flat % damage gains are bad because they heavily encourage the tank meta in PVP. Logically, there's truth to that. Why gear for damage when your passive is stronger than x classes' relevant damage passives?

This doesn't make sense to me. The flat dmg percent increase is needed to bring warden damage up to other classes at the higher end. But the nature of percent increases mean that they do little for you at the lower end. If you are not building for damage, the percent increase just makes you do less damage than a tanky build of another class. The difference is that warden can build very tanky without wearing "tank sets." But that was unique several years ago, not so much today. Other classes have seen their tank toolkit improved quite a bit. The biggest issue is probably polar winds. That is the one that still sets wardens apart in PVP. And yet it was not touched here.

EDIT: Unless maybe you mean that ZOS took some damage out of the skills and then added them back as these percentage modifiers, specifically because of the percentage scaling mentioned above? That's kind of the opposite of what you were saying, but it would make sense. It was a while ago, so easy to misremember.

Decimus

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Decimus wrote: »

It seems to be a common misconception ZOS has about the class that there's too much damage in PvP (or PvE)... the issue of Warden has always been Polar Wind and crossheals.

Based on Zos' own words when they overhauled the AC passive, then gave us the first Piercing Cold iteration (6%), to then give us the 2/12 Frost staff version to now, they've said repeatedly flat % damage gains are bad because they heavily encourage the tank meta in PVP. Logically, there's truth to that. Why gear for damage when your passive is stronger than x classes' relevant damage passives?

What encourages the tank meta isn't having a % modifier passive, it's having absurdly strong heals that scale off of defensive stats (max health). This is why the newest addition to the game, arcanist, is also extremely tanky (widely considered tankier than warden... although with less crossheals since Runeward only applies on yourself).

As to why gear for damage... let's put it this way: if your damage is low to begin with you're not really buffing it too much with multiplicative bonuses.

These kind of multiplicative bonuses exist for other classes as well, and some have more of them than Warden - and/or more impactful ones.

ToRelax

Decimus wrote: »

This is problematic for multiple reasons, not just because it greatly limits build diversity, but also because it forces you to have multiple different setups between [...] emp buffs/no emp buffs

This is a very good point.

Morvan

Skjaldbjorn wrote: »

Classes should not be fundamentally designed as "This is the archer class". That's just poor, especially with ESO's mantra of "play how you want". .

I strongly agree with you, which is why I still don't like the idea of class passives being locked behind specific weapons, but I still wish they could find a solution to bring more weapon variety to the meta, I want my ice mage to deal as much damage with an ice staff as it would with dual wield.

IncultaWolf

Decimus wrote: »

Not a big fan of the Warden changes... basically if you want to play the "ice mage" archetype with frost staff for damage, warden is the sole option for that.

Except it isn't in the next patch - not with the special incentive to run frost staff on the "ice class" of this MMO basically removed & the class turned into yet another DW front bar setup in PvP.


Furthermore, by having the damage bonuses only active below 30k health and block mitigation active above 30k health, you're running into a situation where people slot more health on back bar (i.e. SnB with health glyph or 4p health bonus on back bar) to be tanky on their defensive bar and then drop below the crucial 30k threshold while on their front bar, gaining 8% more damage from the passive instead.

This is problematic for multiple reasons, not just because it greatly limits build diversity, but also because it forces you to have multiple different setups between CP/noCP/emp buffs/no emp buffs etc etc.

Tedious and unnecessary - not a huge fan of the direction this passive has taken.


Apart from that, the changes to Arctic Blast are also completely unnecessary - there is nothing wrong with the skill right now on Live and if you're looking for something that's overperforming in PvP, I'd take a look at the other morph (Polar Wind) that happens to be the strongest burst heal in the game that quite uniquely affects two targets for the full value of the heal without any pre-conditions, while also providing a potent heal over time.

Polar Wind is the source of most of the Warden complaints in this game, as it enables absurd cross-healing to happen, especially when you have multiple 50k health wardens spamming it on each other.


Just a few thoughts.

Well said Decimus! ^^^

Lags

Well heres my feedback. Warden changes look t e r r i b l e. Just awful. I thought you guys wanted frost warden to be a thing? I swear i read that back when you changed that passive like a year ago. So apparantly, not anymore in pvp. And the arctic blast change is just pointless, although ill have to try it to be sure but it looks pointless. So now to have a reliable heal you have to run polar and to run polar you need a good amount of health, not sub 30k. This combined with the vamp changes is just silly. It just seems like no one from zos ever goes into cyrodiil, and thats not a jab its just how it seems to me.

And the vamp changes also look bad. On one hand, i love the idea of actually being able to kill players in a reasonable time who sit on 10% health and heal and block and do nothing. But on the other hand, you need to nerf damage a bit. Nightblades for example are unreal right now. Of course, it seems like that feedback will always fall on deaf ears, but thats how it is.

Cyrodiil is a cluster of way too many nightblade gankers and sorcs that hit like trucks. And not just gankers, any nightblade with tarnished on. Or some other sets. The class hits too hard. Damage is too high. And the fact that you didnt nerf tarnished nightmare is crazy. But its not the only problem. Many of us have said for a long time vamp needs to be nerfed, but at the same time damage should be toned down slightly.

Im telling you right now, ganking is going to be out of control this patch. Let me pose a question to you guys at zenimax. I normally run 35k-40k health in pvp. 99% of the time when i get ganked i live on around 5-10% health. With a very fast reaction time i am able to counter the gank and kill the ganker 99% of the time. From 40k health to 3- 5k in literally 1 second or less. How is that going to work now with the extra 20% damage reduction being gone? Does it not seem likely that it will be almost impossible to counter a ganker now? It just seems like you guys make skill matter less and less every update. On a well built pvp build you should always be able to have the small window to counter a ganker if you're fast enough, but i dont see how that can remain the case with such a massive loss of mitigation with no damage reduction or nerfs.

The necro changes look great. Basically exactly what i have been begging for, for the last few years. I wish you had put brutality on a useful skill though. Maybe something like the mender, but overall its very good, finally. Reading those changes almost tricked me into thinking this would be a good patch for pvp til i saw the warden changes, vamp changes, and lack of damage changes.