When 1.6 came out, I wrote up a critique about the relative imbalance between destruction staves here While I feel some of the issues have been addressed, there still exists some bugs and general gameplay concepts that Zenimax ought to address.

Wall of Elements. This skill is still bad. It is still burdened by the three main problems it had from 1.6: very low damage, can only have one wall down at a time, overlaps and does not function if any other wall from another player exists. I know they increased the base duration by 2 seconds. But truth be told, even if this skill lasted an hour, I still would not use it because the damage per tick is uncompetitive and comparable skills such as Eruption / Liquid Lightning are more user friendly and perform additional functions. In PvP, my health regeneration is higher than the damage this skill would cause. The one redeeming function the skill has is a potential immobilizer (the one excellent change for frost staffs on the 2.1 PTS).

What to do:

• The main problem with this skill is low damage. I can only place one wall down which severely limits the number of targets I can effect. The damage per second is non competitive. Why use this skill where I can only place down a single low-damage wall (that targets will move out of) instead of Impulse that can be spammed, spammed, spammed? With so few skills that we can place on our bars, impulse is *always* going to be slotted over wall.
• Allow multiple walls (but still keep the 1.5 overlap mechanic so players couldn't stack them Vs. a single target)
• It's a DoT. These need to be higher DPS than standard skills (especially since targets can move out of the wall!). Raise damage.

Destructive Touch. This is a mixed bag. I do not like the ZoS philosophy of presenting us nerfs that were not asked for (or were not needed), so while the issue of inferno version being too strong relative to the others is "solved," the final product is less than desirable. The inferno staff now causes a knockback, a very weak CC, arguably an undesirable one from the perspective of the staff user, as it affords the opponent a very powerful state of CC immunity for little inconvenience. I did not read a single post on the forums complaining the stun was too strong. I used an inferno staff and didn't use this skill as it was (mostly because of the damage shield issue: see below) and I certainly won't be using it in 2.1. Nobody likes nerfs. This was a mistake. The shock stun was needed, the removal of the token AOE component was not.

There are still problems

• In 1.6, anyone with a damage shield was afforded CC immunity against this skill and did not suffer the DoT effect (as if they weren't strong enough as it is). I have not tested this specifically for the PTS, but as I read nothing that indicates this has changed, I will assume it is still the case.
• The short range morphs of this skill still are still relatively weak.
• Even with a master's weapon that increased the damage with this spell and reduced its cost, I had difficulty justifying slotting this skill.
• The inferno projectile's animation change looks too much like a light attack. The art and animation is one of this game's strengths and this change is dubious not only in that it makes it too difficult to differentiate between a skill and basic attack, but also as the old inferno Destructive Touch animation was aesthetically very well done.

Note:

This is a light attack


This is the Destructive Reach attack.

Without looking at the caster, it would be too difficult to know this was not a light attack. In a PvP environment, I feel it is especially important to be able to quickly differentiate and identify what skill are being directed at us, especially in light of the new IC release with its frenetic pace and 100% loss of Tel Var stones! Please revert this change and bring back the old excellent animation.

Heavy attacks I wish these were a viable part of the game, but with the current limitless resources (at least for offensive use), there is little reason to ever use them except in a corner-case scenario. Nerfing the inferno and fire versions, even with the trivial amount that was done for 2.1, was unnecessary. Besides the problem was not that these weapons were doing too much damage, it was the lightning staff doing too little. And this problem still exists in 2.1.

• The lightning channeled heavy attack still cannot critical hit. Until this inconsistency is removed from the game, lightning staff users will be plagued by a significant DPS loss in addition to not getting any beneficial procs that accompany critical hits.
• The are other issues. There is definitely some missing coding when it comes to channeled staff heavy attacks. Not only are they incapable of a critical hit, they sometimes do not proc stuff like the beneficial effect from the siphon spirit spell. Also the Dragonknight's Molten Armaments spell has zero effect on these channels.

Regular Lightning attacks Vs. a mammoth


Molten Armaments Lightning attack Vs. a low health mammoth

Damage is identical (though the "shock pulse" does get properly modified)

It's the same for a restoration heavy attack:


Regular Restoration attack


Molten Armaments Restoration attack.

• The Tri Focus passive with heavy lightning attacks is not functioning
• In 1.6, a heavy lighting attack hit two nearby enemies with a "shock" bonus damage of 20% of the original attack. This token bonus worked correctly.
• According to the patch notes, "The Lightning Staff bonus attack now hits up to 6 targets instead of 2 targets." According to the tooltip in the game "Fully charged heavy shock attacks damage nearby enemies for 100% of the damage done." This is not happening:

• What does happen is the final "pulse attack" deals damage to nearby enemies (as it should according to the PTS patch notes), but often times it will hit for trivial damage (in the above screen shot case, 3 out of 4 pulse bonus attacks hit for 13 damage).
• The way I read the intent, each tick of a fully charged heavy attack should hit nearby enemies for 50%/100% (depending on the Tri-focus rank) of the damage done and then the shock pulse should also hit these targets for 50%/100% (depending on the Tri-focus rank). The first is not happening. At all. No damage. The second sometimes has trivial damage.

The poor restoration staff: Lacking any ability to critically hit, lacking a "pulse" damage at the end of a completed attack, and having an insignificant heavy attack passives (an imperceptible heal, minor resource return in a game where heavy attack resource return is generally not needed), the restoration staff is a burden to use, even for a dedicated healer. Healers begrudgingly equip this solely to access its skills and lament they cannot wield their dual swords. In just some quick DPS checks, my inferno staff heavy attacks were roughly 75% higher than my lightning heavy attacks, which in turn were roughly 50% higher than the restoration heavy attack.

What to do?

• In my 1.6 thread, I suggested making lighting heavy attacks act as a conduit and damage any nearby target. While I do not know if that thread was any inspiration, I am glad to see in the patch notes an attempt at this mechanic. But it needs to be properly coded and actually do the damage (the full as indicated by the tooltip - the 20% is far too marginal) and the next to nothing 13 damage bug from the shock pulse also needs to be fixed. Even with this mechanic, lighting staff users are at a significant single target DPS loss and I suspect spamming impulse (not limited to 6 targets) is still going to be what we all do in DSA, trials, and what not. But in that rare instance where I do find myself heavy attacking, I at least would be glad to have a lightning staff. My suggestion is not to limit this to 6 targets, rather follow the regular rules for AOE caps (like impulse). Then again, I think AoE caps need to disappear (at least in Cyrodiil).
• The old aesthetically pleasing and easy to distinguish Inferno Destructive Reach spell should be reverted back into the game.
• Channels need to critically hit
• Damage shields should not block Destructive Reach CC effects or its DoT.
• The stun from Inferno Destructive Reach was not broken or imbalanced and should not be nerfed.
• The stun for the Shock Destructive Reach was an excellent change. Keep the conduit damage to keep shock's AoE theme consistent and bring in line with Inferno version.
• I'd like to see a snare associated with the Frost Version as stun > immobilize
• I like the addition of a damage shield for frost staff users as this staff is more about defense / CC. I'm not sure it was clear that this only applies to fully charged heavy attacks. Which in my opinion, lessens its desirability as unfortunately in the current state of the game there isn't much reason to use a fully charged heavy attack.
• Revert Wall of Elements back to its useful and reasonably balanced 1.5 standing: multiple walls and competitive damage. The purge bug was the problem, not the skill.
• I do like the addition of the Wall procs Vs. Burning and Chilled targets. I find the chilled proc potentially useful. The problem with burning is base damage is too low; 20% of relatively nothing is nothing. The patch notes indicate no additional status effect for Concussed targets (which, IIRC correctly, were already set "off balance.") Suggestion: add additional proc effect for Concussed targets: They act as a conduit and shock nearby enemies.
• Restoration staff attack and passives and need revision.

That's it for now!