So I have been soldiering along attempting to tow the line of my stamina DW/Bow-based NB play style, and I admit I did find some enjoyment sneaking up and ganking things with Surprise Attack, but the sad reality is that even this is Magicka-based damage and while it CAN be done, it is really not a very optimal way to play.

(For solo play ANYTHING works if you have a brain, and I REALLY like the faster-paced, more engaging combat of the melee dual-weid setup. It just bothers the heck out of me that it performs so badly in higher end group content.)

I crafted myself two new sets of gear today when I hit Veteran 8, a Medium Armor set (Hunding's x5 and Night Mother x4) and Light Armor (a combination of two 3-piece bonuses and one 2-piece bonus that give a lot of Spell Damage and Spell Crit, along with some Magicka.) Same with weapons, one set of DW daggers and Bow, the other Resto/Destro staff.

The overall play style of the magic set is much more efficient, and things die much more quickly. I have the extra bonus of having heals available. But the main thing, the real difference between these setups, is what I feel is something of a betrayal of the melee archetype by ZOS, who still refuse to admit the problem and just make class skills scale off your most beneficial stats already!

The reason my abilities hit so much harder as a magic user is because I am free to allocate stat points to completely cap Magicka. As a Stamina user, I need to split resources between Magicka and Stamina to scale my ability damage. It really is as simple as that.

The recent change to ultimates was like a slap in the face. Don't get me wrong ZOS, I love you guys and I love the game. Still, I am left wondering what the hell you could possibly have been thinking here? Instead of doing what you should and fixing this by making all class skills scale off whichever is higher of Weapon/Spell damage AND Magicka/Stamina, you ignored the problem completely, and introduced a fix that only makes things worse for everyone!

For any who don't know, they made it so that if your Spell Damage was higher than Weapon Damage, your ultimates would scale off Spell Damage and Magicka. Period. If you have more Spell Damage and hardly any Magicka, TOO BAD. It still scales off Spell Damage and Magicka. Same if your Weapon Damage is higher. It scales off Stamina. period.

The problems with this are two-fold:

• It is basically impossible for magic users to stack enough Spell Damage for it to be higher than Weapon Damage, especially when you take into account group buffs like Molten Weapons (+10 WEAPON damage). Therefor this "fix" is a terrible nerf to magic users as their ultimates will now be scaling off Weapon Damage and their non-existent Stamina pool.
• Stamina users still prioritize Magicka first (usually with spell power jewelry) since most of their skills are CLASS skills and ZOS REFUSES to make them scale off your stronger stat regardless of how you want to build your character. Therefor instead of scaling off Spell Power and Magicka like before, they now scale off Weapon Damage and STAMINA, which is actually LOWER damage for most stamina users out there!

So their "quick fix" is actually a nerf to ALL classes and still leaves stamina users at the short end of the balance stick. The absence of an equivalent of Equilibrium for stamina is just another minor nitpick next to this glaring imbalance they seem unable to accept.

If this "fix" to ultimates made them scale off whichever was stronger of Weapon/Spell Power AND Magicka/Stamina, so you could have them scale for example off Weapon Damage and Magicka, or Spell Power and Stamina, THAT would have been a reasonable solution.

What they did feels like a 5 year old trying to mash a square peg through a round hole before tottering off to mealtime for an ice cream treat.

Seriously, what the hell guys?