The Old Patch Notes Vs. the New Patch Notes

YandereGirlfriend · August 1

Pelanora wrote: »

We don't like meta whiplash....... but I think we also don't like wondering WHAT actually everyone in zos is DOING?? Because everything seems to have reduced to a trickle.

Yeah, I do sort of wonder what their Combat Balance team (single dev?) does in the space between patches. Because the flow of updates doesn't really scan with the output of even like one dedicated employee who is tasked with that as their 9-to-5.

TBH, I would love to see very small, responsive changes introduced every 2 weeks or so (for simple things, like basic number-go-up buffs or number-go-down nerfs; not like entire ability re-works or larger combat changes) similar to how many other online games function. The yawning time chasms between patches are what create the impression of the stale meta (however, that is still, as others have said, much more preferable than the entirely-new-game-every-patch balancing from several years ago).

I would also like to see quicker calls on experimental changes as either being a yay or a nay. Too often things go live with the dev comment of "we'll be closely monitoring..." and then it will still take another 9 months for them to react to input/data from that experimental change. Often these sorts of things are very quick reveals that you really do not need 9 months of data to make a determination on.

Arizona_Steve · August 1

There's been talk of a new MMO that a lot of the team has been moved to. I feel like ESO is being run by a skeleton crew now.

Rohamad_Ali · August 1

There's a job posting for a new lead combat manager at Zenimax. Maybe they need that position filled really bad.

YandereGirlfriend · August 2

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

There's a job posting for a new lead combat manager at Zenimax. Maybe they need that position filled really bad.

There are unironically a handful of names on this forum whom I think would do an excellent job at that.

alpha_synuclein · August 2

One of the most important reason that was causing change fatigue was complete lack of consideration for players feedback.

Time after time changes that were almost unanimously rated as bad in week one of PTS remained unadressed and went live without significant adjustments.
This haven't changed at all...

Players are not opposed to changes for a principle. They just don't like to deal with changes made to "fix" issues that only exist in ZOS spredsheets. While the things that are actually important for players gets ignored for years...

We got less frequent and less numerous changes, but the quality of changes we get is still more than questionable and addressing any feedback takes forever. If ever happens...

Pelanora · August 2

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

There's a job posting for a new lead combat manager at Zenimax. Maybe they need that position filled really bad.

There are unironically a handful of names on this forum whom I think would do an excellent job at that.

@Turtle_Bot! @React!

Ha.

colossalvoids · August 2

Didn't saw much from you lately so welcome back I guess!

That's kinda encapsulated why ESO became one of my favourite games and got me 13k plus hours but recent four or so years it got like what, 1k hours at max counting patch downloads and idling (basically just dungeon/raid nights)? They're becoming bigger and having tons more resources, but the game didn't meaningfully changed since which was a basic thing previously, game was progressing really fast and had a direction.

Galeriano2 · August 2

It's always extremes with ZoS. They were always bad at doing things in reasonable manner.

Iuppiterr · August 5

Why does basicly every class set gets some tweaks and Templar set just gets released bad?

Necrotech_Master · August 6

Iuppiterr wrote: »

Why does basicly every class set gets some tweaks and Templar set just gets released bad?

the sorc class sets say otherwise lol

both sorc class sets are just not good for the playstyles they are trying to promote lol

Solariken · August 7

Very insightful OP, as always. As others have said, I think they are running a skeleton crew over at ZOS and sadly beginning to sunset ESO.

It's really unfortunate; I don't think ZOS appreciates what a goldmine they could have had with the PvP in this game if they had only invested in it. There's still not much competition for this type of combat on the current market.

The homogenous spreadsheet balancing approach and hybridization were huge mistakes, but could have been worth it if they had reworked the class system to be more open and retrofitted the scribing system into the class system. But alas.

Anyway, yeah RIP that old beautiful jabs animation and the old Wrecking Blow ragdoll knock-back.

Theist_VII · August 7

Solariken wrote: »

…Anyway, yeah RIP that old beautiful jabs animation and the old Wrecking Blow ragdoll knock-back.

Nothing would beat when your Uppercut sent people into the air and you smacked them back down with Executioner. The two animations flowed so perfectly that you could tell an artist was really passionate about their work. They went the extra mile to make sure the abilities all flowed together in the skill line.

Then you look at Jabs and compare the spear to every other one, and it’s so clear to see that the passion which was so core to the development of our game is gone and it’s sad to think we might never see that from ESO again.

Turtle_Bot · August 7

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Iuppiterr wrote: »

Why does basicly every class set gets some tweaks and Templar set just gets released bad?

the sorc class sets say otherwise lol

both sorc class sets are just not good for the playstyles they are trying to promote lol

Couldn't agree more.

The sorc sets feel like the gear equivalent of the necro class:
Left to rot with unplayable, clunky and non-synergistic designs and no mention from ZOS that they are even aware of how bad the sets/class are.

YandereGirlfriend · August 7

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Iuppiterr wrote: »

Why does basicly every class set gets some tweaks and Templar set just gets released bad?

the sorc class sets say otherwise lol

both sorc class sets are just not good for the playstyles they are trying to promote lol

Couldn't agree more.

The sorc sets feel like the gear equivalent of the necro class:
Left to rot with unplayable, clunky and non-synergistic designs and no mention from ZOS that they are even aware of how bad the sets/class are.

Which is insane because they should have all of the metrics for set usage and such. And seeing something like, "Ah, currently 0.000001% of Sorcerers use Monolith of Storms" should be like setting off red alert sirens and prompting a full redesign of the set.

Marto · August 7

The game is better balanced now than it's ever been. That's why patch notes are so short.

Of course it's not perfect. And of course there's areas you can criticize and give feedback on.

But when was the last time you saw a Sorc with 200k health? Remember when Nightblades used to deal 20-50% more DPS in all situations? What about when StaminaDK did not exist? Remember the 5 years where Jabs was the weakest skill in the entire game? Or the 2 years where it was the strongest?

Of course if you look at the top 100 trial parses they all look similar. That has always been the case, and likely always will. But expand that to the top 1,000, top 10,000, top 100,000 and you'll see that the variety of viable builds has never been higher.

Pelanora · August 7

Wot