Balance is a lie. Here’s how to survive in ESO

Barto92

Every patch in ESO brings the same story: your top-tier build gets nuked, your setups become useless and your dummy parse drops by 50k. Suddenly, you’re not getting trial spots anymore, getting kicked from random normal dungeon groups, your PvP burst hits like a wet noodle, and you're back in spreadsheets or copying ESOLogs trying to salvage something viable.

This cycle repeats every few months. While many homies ragequit or swap their mains entirely, the players who consistently stay relevant don’t panic - they plan for it. Is it annoying? Obviously. Then how to deal with this so a new update won't frustrate you?

The first rule of staying competitive in ESO is this: don’t invest in a single class or build like it’s set in stone. The devs don’t balance like that. What’s top meta today can be dead next patch... and it often is. Instead, keep multiple builds viable across your characters, level all skilltrees and characters, collect all skyshards and Mage’s Guild books, farm your stickerbook and stockpile good item sets even if they’re not currently meta. When the meta shifts, you won’t be stuck.

Stay on top of the PTS cycle. Don’t wait for live patch day to realize your setup is dead. Competitive players treat the PTS like early access to the next season’s meta. Do dummy parses, test new build variations, and watch what the top players are cooking weeks before everything goes live. That way you’re not reacting - you’re prepared.

And yes, chasing DPS matters. DPS is king. Parsing 180k on the dummy matters. But people often forget that sticking with solid general builds (like Ansuul for example) works better than hopping on every specialized meta build. If you’re jumping from one top setup to another every patch, you’re always behind and lack a backup. Learn to make small adjustments to your build, check your CMX (Combat Metrics) addon, analyse logs and fine-tune your rotation and gear. Adaptation is key.

Join a community that’s performance-focused - a high-end PvE or PvP guild, a theorycraft Discord, anywhere people talk numbers, test rotations, and share results. Going solo slows you down. One good conversation can save you hours of testing or weeks of grinding the wrong gear. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Most importantly, understand that balance in ESO isn’t about fairness, it’s about builds and good uptime. The devs will rotate what’s strong. If something performs too well for too long, it gets nerfed. Not because it’s broken, but because ZOS wants change. The best players don’t fight it. They predict, adapt, and ride the next wave.

Want to survive update to update without burning out? Build flexibility, stay ahead of the meta, and treat every nerf as an opportunity.

Stay safe!

Treeshka

They called me madman when i told them i have all skill lines levelled up across all my seven characters. Including Werewolf and Vampire.

colossalvoids

Barto92 wrote: »

Join a community that’s performance-focused - a high-end PvE or PvP guild, a theorycraft Discord, anywhere people talk numbers, test rotations, and share results. Going solo slows you down. One good conversation can save you hours of testing or weeks of grinding the wrong gear. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

That's probably most valuable one, spending my time in TRE back in the day was a pretty huge influence for the growth and inspiration to continue.

Would chime in also about circumventing the first part of the post as an issue - pugs and groups that would kick you. Get to know more people of different skill levels the closer to yours and higher the better, ones to play with the others to chat and gain insight, maybe even joining some training runs with better teams to see how things are getting done. You'd eventually find some folks that won't ever think about kicking anyone based on a recent patch change you didn't adapted to the first day of live and would be generally on the same level as you are progressing along, making you a team instead of a being a tryhard merc trying to fit and stress out about being relevant.

moderatelyfatman

@Barto92
Your advice is solid but in many ways it reminds of the advice you'd give to someone trying to start a faulty car that requires ten different adujustments to the startup process that should only require a key turn.
The bottom line is that players should not have to do these things to stay relevant.

Most MMOs will not touch a class or do very minimal changes once that class is in a good place. The buff and nerf cycle occurs primarily with new classes in the first few months of release and becomes rare afterwards.
If a class/build combo is a little on the strong side, the response by most devs is to focus on the weaker builds and try to bring them up to parity and not to drag down the strongest. Good devs focus on 'metas' and not a single meta. ZOS could have done this before subclassing by trying to make a meta dps build for each class but that is too late now.

The PTS is a joke. There is no response from the devs whenever the players respone en masse. There has never been any proposed change that has been withdrawn after a strong backlash from the PTS, only a mild adjustment at most. Most MMOs do not have a PTS and yet they are able to release far better balanced classes, sets and general content than ESO.

Barto92

Your comparison @moderatelyfatman to starting a faulty car is actually spot on and I completely agree. ESO is that kind of car. It’s not a typical MMO in terms of quality and combat balance but personally that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the game and doing all kinds of content with my long-time gaming friends. I also agree that players shouldn’t have to do all these things but if there’s something you can do to avoid frustration with every patch, then that’s the solution. And yes, I play other MMOs too, so I know exactly what you mean.
It is what it is.