4 New AVA Skills Coming in 1.6 Including a Possible Zerg Buster

LonePirate · October 2014

Today's ESO Live show featured a discussion with Joe Blackburn, a gameplay designer. He mentioned that 4 new AVA skills are coming in Update 1.6.

One of the new skills (possibly named Magicka Detonation) can be cast on an enemy player. After 4 seconds or so, that player will explode and enemy players near that player will take damage.

Joe discussed how this skill was created with the intention of busting up the clumps of players that the ZOS devs have seen inside keeps. Will this be an effective zerg buster? We will need to wait and see.

He also mentioned a morph for the new skill which would activate if someone applied a Purge to the player who was originally targeted with that skill.

You can watch the discussion of the new AVA skills which starts at 57:50 and runs for a few minutes.

http://www.twitch.tv/zenimaxonlinestudios/b/581386909

ETA some clarification and a link to the archived Twitch video.

david.haypreub18_ESO · October 2014

Interesting. I assume this skill will not have the normal AoE cap of 6? Because if the cap is still in place, the new skill won't do anything that an already existing skill can't do.

I sure hope they hold off on the Oil nerf until they are ready to introduce this new Zergbuster skill!

Huntler · October 2014

LonePirate wrote: »

He also mentioned a new skill similar to Purge that would also cause some explosion damage which could be cast on allies or on yourself.

They want to bust zergs, yet plan to implement a frag shields 2.0 .....

Either way glad they'll be implementing something for us PvPers.... after rank 10 its like... whats the point of AP?

Rooty · October 2014

Unlikely that it will be a zerg buster... a simple purge will go a long way to nullifying that.
Unless it's unpurgable. But that is also unlikely.

Agrippa_Invisus · October 2014

Huntler wrote: »

LonePirate wrote: »

He also mentioned a new skill similar to Purge that would also cause some explosion damage which could be cast on allies or on yourself.

They want to bust zergs, yet plan to implement a frag shields 2.0 .....

Either way glad they'll be implementing something for us PvPers.... after rank 10 its like... whats the point of AP?

Those 26 extra skill points!

The joy of an intense, bug free, balanced multi user AvAvA experience!

Huntler · October 2014

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

Huntler wrote: »

LonePirate wrote: »

He also mentioned a new skill similar to Purge that would also cause some explosion damage which could be cast on allies or on yourself.

They want to bust zergs, yet plan to implement a frag shields 2.0 .....

Either way glad they'll be implementing something for us PvPers.... after rank 10 its like... whats the point of AP?

The joy of an intense, bug free, balanced multi user AvAvA experience!

Too soon.....

Agrippa_Invisus · October 2014

Huntler wrote: »

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

Huntler wrote: »

LonePirate wrote: »

He also mentioned a new skill similar to Purge that would also cause some explosion damage which could be cast on allies or on yourself.

They want to bust zergs, yet plan to implement a frag shields 2.0 .....

Either way glad they'll be implementing something for us PvPers.... after rank 10 its like... whats the point of AP?

The joy of an intense, bug free, balanced multi user AvAvA experience!

Too soon.....

SOON.

timidobserver · October 2014

I can see where this could be devastating depending on the damage if a couple of people focused on putting this on every member of a zerg group.

I would also like to see a disease ability, like we see on the trolls after the Mantikora, where the disease is transferred to people in close proximity.

Teargrants · October 2014

Sounds just like my Curse, but with a longer timer. Funny, I don't recall ever busting zergs with Curse... When the devs play pvp, do you think they ever do smallmans or are they just part of the zerg?

Unless this skill does like 1k physical dmg, is unpurgeable and has no aoe cap, it wont be busting crap. But of course like every other statues/timer in the game I'm sure it will be purgeable and the zergs wont even notice it between their purge spam.

Samadhi · October 2014

LonePirate wrote: »

...
One of the new skills (possibly named Magicka Detonation) can be cast on an enemy player. After 4 seconds or so, that player will explode and all enemy players near that player will take damage.
...

Hope it really is all enemy players nearby.

LonePirate · October 2014

Samadhi wrote: »

LonePirate wrote: »

...
One of the new skills (possibly named Magicka Detonation) can be cast on an enemy player. After 4 seconds or so, that player will explode and all enemy players near that player will take damage.
...

Hope it really is all enemy players nearby.

I think the word "all" was just how I phrased it. I will update the first post after rewatching the relevant discussion in case I misinterpreted his description.

Kewljag_66_ESO · October 2014

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

Huntler wrote: »

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

Huntler wrote: »

LonePirate wrote: »

He also mentioned a new skill similar to Purge that would also cause some explosion damage which could be cast on allies or on yourself.

They want to bust zergs, yet plan to implement a frag shields 2.0 .....

Either way glad they'll be implementing something for us PvPers.... after rank 10 its like... whats the point of AP?

The joy of an intense, bug free, balanced multi user AvAvA experience!

Too soon.....

SOON.

Yup, I am pretty much just waiting for Camelot Unchained now. I would like to play ESO until then but i wont log back in until Block casting is gone and Forwards camps are removed or fixed with very limited recall area

Evergnar · October 2014

Rooty wrote: »

Unlikely that it will be a zerg buster... a simple purge will go a long way to nullifying that.
Unless it's unpurgable. But that is also unlikely.

Actually from what I understood a purge will cause the player to explode instantly. Get ready for suicide bombers.

Manoekin · October 2014

Sounds ***. I like the idea of a casted aoe bomb replacing ground oil.

Lava_Croft · October 2014

Evergnar wrote: »

Rooty wrote: »

Unlikely that it will be a zerg buster... a simple purge will go a long way to nullifying that.
Unless it's unpurgable. But that is also unlikely.

Actually from what I understood a purge will cause the player to explode instantly. Get ready for suicide bombers.

From what I gathered, one of the morphs will transfer the explosion to the guy casting a purge.

Sleep · October 2014

What about Sorcerer's Curse?

pmn100b16_ESO · October 2014

And I bet DKs can reflect it!

david.haypreub18_ESO · October 2014

pmn100b16_ESO wrote: »

And I bet DKs can reflect it!

LOL. I really wouldn't put it past ZOS to do that!

Chufu · October 2014

The interesting question is: Can this ability be cast on an ally too? You can then choose a bomber of your allys and send them into the enemy-zergs! Just an idea

Btw I painted this today, the new skill magicka-detonation: Feel free to smile a little about it

LonePirate · October 2014

You can watch the discussion of the new AVA skills which starts at 57:50 and runs for a few minutes.

http://www.twitch.tv/zenimaxonlinestudios/b/581386909

Lava_Croft · October 2014

Chufu wrote: »

The interesting question is: Can this ability be cast on an ally too? You can then choose a bomber of your allys and send them into the enemy-zergs!

This was specifically mentioned as one of the (possible) morphs. Wether it means casting it on yourself or an ally is unclear to me.

Yusuf · October 2014

Rooty wrote: »

Unlikely that it will be a zerg buster... a simple purge will go a long way to nullifying that.
Unless it's unpurgable. But that is also unlikely.

There's a morph that, if it gets purged it explodes xD

SoulScream · October 2014

Really weird idea, maybe it will be okay. Seems to bizarre!

Tripwyr · October 2014

When they discussed this skill at the summit, they suggested it would have a greatly increased AoE cap similar to oil. Some suggested numbers were 24 or unlimited.

Asgari · October 2014

If it can be purged like Velicious Curse can be then it will only make it worse for everyone because the time for it to explode will be cut in half and then can be reapplied again.

However, many organized groups have purges going off so often i dont see this working on them.

Talcyndl · October 2014

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

SOON.

I don't think you can use "soon" for a game that's still in pre-Alpha and doesn't even have a hinted-at release year. It could easily be 2016 before CU is even close to release.

Muizer · October 2014

Why not just remove the incentive for clumping together in the first place. I don't like the approach of trying to fix problems with new skills dedicated to counter them. As ZoS themselves admit (later in the broadcast) the variety of skills is a big contributor to balance issues. If you admit that to yourself, then you must accept that throwing new abilities into the mix is really not the way to achieve balance.

Sleep · October 2014

In my opinion the biggest problem about zerg trains is the lag they are causing. If they're causing lag they can still be defeated by enough organized people. If they're causing lag, nothing can be done. I've seen that a lot. Removing AoE cap shall be good though it's not the biggest problem. For skills, I would like to see some NPC skills available for players.

FluffiestOne · October 2014

Let me get this straight, to fix the zergballs they will add an ability that has no aoe cap? But... the aoe cap gives the zergballs power. LOGIC FAIL.

Yolokin_Swagonborn · October 2014

One of the new skills (possibly named Magicka Detonation) can be cast on an enemy player. After 4 seconds or so, that player will explode and enemy players near that player will take damage.

Oh so just like the AoE morph of sorc curse (that no one uses) and the unstable core morph of templar eclipse (that some people use).

How bout you just make those existing abilities actually have some punch to them. Abilities with secondary AoE explosions are very weak currently (in PvP). How bout you buff existing class skills instead of creating new ones that do the same thing?

Agrippa_Invisus · October 2014

Talcyndl wrote: »

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

SOON.

I don't think you can use "soon" for a game that's still in pre-Alpha and doesn't even have a hinted-at release year. It could easily be 2016 before CU is even close to release.

To think, it's already less buggy than ESO.

(j/k)