A Ridiculously Long Feedback Post About the New Item Sets

Glory · August 2015

Well, @ZOS_JessicaFolsom made the mistake of asking us to provide item feedback regarding the new item sets found here. So, here is mine!

I wanted to do a quick summary of my general thoughts on the new sets, followed by my analysis of each individual set. I'd love to see others' thoughts on the topic, and would be happy to discuss my analysis or differing opinions. I did put considerable time into this so please understand that opinions may differ, and try to limit the straying from the topic. Please note that I've tried out these sets in both a controlled PvP environment (testing with other faction players) as well as uncontrolled PvP environments, but not PvE.

TL;DR

I wish there were more combinations of armor/jewelry/weapon sets coming. The only added jewelry/weapon sets are Endurance, Willpower, and Agility. I believe that being able to mix and match sets is one of the best things about ESO gearing, and was sad to see I can't have 5 piece sets like Footman, Healer, and Shadow Walker which have a multitude of piece options.
The values of the 5 piece bonuses seem underwhelming and low, especially in PvP. There are tons of amazing 5 piece bonuses that fall flat especially in PvP due to the Battle Spirit changes. Why run the Phoenix set with a 10 minute cooldown when it only heals for 2.5k? Sets like Sheer Venom tick for 250 damage in Cyrodiil. There are some awesome looking 5 piece bonuses that fall short (especially after the Cyrodiil debuff), yet I expect to see most players still running a mixture of 2,3,4 (eg. 2 Cyro light 4 Martial 2 undaunted etc.) bonuses instead because the 5 piece isn't influential enough.
Some of these sets are extremely limited in practicality. The best example of this is the Shock Master set. You have to do a light attack followed by a fully heavy attack to get a 10 second buff. I am not really a fan of the new light/heavy attack combo set influx.
Please note that this bullet is changing as are all comments about proccing on damage shields. It appears that the new sets are in fact working on damage shields!!! I'm still having trouble getting some of the old sets to proc on damage shields (Valkyn, Nerienth), so I would love some help on this if anyone is willing.
[A large portion of these sets fall victim to the “does not proc on damage shields” dilemma. This is not a nerf shields thread, but it is worth noting that sets that proc on damage given/received (Imperium, Leeching Plate, Tormentor, Sheer Venom, Shock Master, Toxic Defiance, Molag Kena to name the new sets affected) will not ever occur if the person that needs to be damage has a damage shield up.

With my general thoughts expressed, I wanted to give a brief opinion about each set as I had tried them. I also will link the new armor sets found here
Crafted

Armor Master: The 2/3/4 piece bonuses are okay at best. The 5 piece could potentially be nice with a significant amount of max health, but is not a game changer and requires you to have an armor skill on each bar for the benefit on both bars.
Noble's Conquest: Decent 2/3/4 bonuses. The 5 piece could be useful for a PvE tank (if they have room to use it). The heal is minor and insignificant in PvP.
Jack of Redistribution: Balanced 2, 3, 4 bonuses. Again, the 5 piece bonus sounds extremely good for someone who doesn't take damage, but then you see that it is an insignificant heal (1806 at legendary in PvE).

Jewelry/Weapons

I'm not going to individually talk about the Jewelry/Weapon sets, are they are pretty straightforward. Instead, I'd like to suggest that the armor sets also receive jewelry, but these 3 sets are stronger values. This way you can choose between matching armor and jewelry, or going for the Agility/Endurance Willpower for a bit more bang for the 2/3 piece. If not, I'm guessing many will stick to Shadow Walker/Healer/Footman etc.

Heavy

Black Rose: Balanced 2/3/4 bonuses. One of my favorite sets, Black Rose has potential to be a perma-blocker's dream, sacrificing other bonuses for a good chance to recover a fair amount of stamina. A greatly designed set.
Brands of Imperium: Decent 2/3/4 bonuses. Another one of my favorite sets. A 6% chance on damage to create a damage shield for nearby allies with a cooldown seems fair. It feels like a mix between a teamwide Malubeth and Whitestrakes.
Jolting Gauntlets: Mediocre 2/3/4 bonuses. This set is very interesting and seems like a niche PvP category set. It could bring back permablock bashers.
Leeching Plate: Bad 2/3/4 bonuses. The 5 piece seemed amazing, then I tested it and was disappointed. Maybe I was using it wrong, but the low proc chance alongside the very low DoT/HoT in PvP (a few hundred points) made me look elsewhere for a tanky setup. This set has potential to be amazing, but I walked away with a sour taste due to the reduced PvP damage.
Reactive Armor: Good 2/3/4 bonuses. This set could be insane in PvP due to the already low damage done as well as the plethora of CC's being constantly thrown at you. I don't see it having a use in PvE.
Tormentor: Bad 2/3/4 bonuses. I honestly don't know how people will make this set work. Maybe a 2H PvE kite build? Beats me.

Medium

Essence Thief: Good 2/3/4 bonuses. This set is very cool when it procs and encourages active movement (you actually have to go grab the essence the enemy drops).
Powerful Assault: Good 2/3/4 bonuses. I'm not crazy about the 5 piece only having 123 weapon/spell damage increase, but it's a cool teamwork set that could have wonderfully disastrous results for enemies.
Sheer Venom: Very good 2/3/4 bonuses. The five piece is good, the damage is disappointing in PvP.
Shield Breaker: Very good 2/3/4 bonuses. The 5 piece is obviously good against shield users (something unusual). Still, it only procs on light/heavy attacks, only does 1118 damage per hit, and can easily be outhealed by healing ward/rapid regen etc.
Shock Master: Mediocre 2/3/4 bonuses. Using a light attack and a heavy attack immediately after to get something similar to the undaunted sets seems lackluster.
Toxic Defiance: Good 2/3/4 bonuses. I really wanted this set to work on my stamina builds. Still, it goes very well with bow builds, and my stamina sorcerer (lol) had a ball streaking through people and spamming poison damage with a bow on enemies.

Light

Combat Physician: Mediocre 2/3/4 bonuses. I'm not entirely sure how the cooldown works for this set (is it a CD for it to proc on one ally or all allies?), but this set seems pretty strong for healers. A decent amount of critical and using HoTs like rapid regen or purifying ritual would pretty much ensure this team-based set is always on cooldown.
Meritorious Service: Good 2/3/4 bonuses. I'm personally not that excited to see a situational boost to resistances on a set to merit using meritorious service, but it's another team set. Maybe if everyone runs one of these team sets large groups will be insanely powerful – we shall see.
Overwhelming Surge: Worth noting that the 2/3/4 will likely become the new Martial Knowledge. The 5 piece is neat, but the set should really affect all enemies in my opinion with such a low proc chance (it affect ONE enemy with the damage, pretty disappointing).
Phoenix: Very good 2/3/4 bonuses. Probably the most unique set added. It could be good for large groups, but the heal is absolutely tiny in PvP (2.5k is literally 2 light attacks by someone while you are a sitting duck). It seems like a worse Yokeda set with a shorter cooldown.
Scathing Mage: Mediocre 2/3/4 bonuses. I expect this to be one of the go-to magicka armor for 2.1, especially if damage shields can be critted. It gives insane spell damage and procs a decent amount.
Spell Power Cure: Very good 2/3/4 bonuses. I can see large groups running the 5 piece bonus, as it's not hard to heal an ally at 100% with all the barrier and mass heals we currently see. Smaller groups obviously won't benefit from this as much.

Undaunted 2 Pieces

Molag Kena: Great 1 bonus. The 2 piece is extremely unique and will surely find a place in PvP builds.
Lord Warden: Mediocre 1 bonus. Maybe the 2 piece will be nice for trials or large groups? It's just tough to justify using a valuable head/shoulder combo on an armor piece that gives a small radius of spell resistance.

There it is. My thoughts on the new sets. I'd love to hear from others about what they think if anyone even made it through my post. If you're still reading, thanks for checking out my feedback!

ScruffyWhiskers · August 2015

Excellent write up.

I too do not understand the reasoning behind so many abilities/bonus effects not proc'ing off of shields. I wonder if it is some type of coding problem? It makes no sense that you can go defensive i.e. cast a shield and thus negate/deny the special abilities of your opponent. Abilities which are often an offensive counter or set up for an offensive counter.

Teiji · August 2015

5/5 Spell Power Cure + 5/5 Healer. Heals so easy and so strong you can watch TWD with TESO as your background app.

Leeching Plate is terrible, Black Rose is already trumped hard by Hist Bark. Reactive Armor is completely tragic.

The Jewellery sets are there to try and make players forget you can have two 5/5 sets at the same time, mainly through; Healer, Warlock and Ravager

Jewellery sets may be good if they are easily attainable, unlike Ravager for example, which isn't that easy for new players and so on to get.

Suntzu1414 · August 2015

tried today:

Combat Physician: very infrequently proc'ed.
Cann't figure what is critical heals...I thought...heals that crit (right)??

But, my crit heals, provided Very infrequent shield proc (7:100).
If this is set is responding correctly. Worthless...

Thank you for the above write up
ST

GreenSoup2HoT · August 2015

ebethke_ESO wrote: »

Well, @ZOS_JessicaFolsom made the mistake of asking us to provide item feedback regarding the new item sets found here. So, here is mine!

[*]Molag Kena: Great 2 bonus. The three piece is extremely unique and will surely find a place in PvP builds, although it does not proc on damage shields.

Moloag Kena is a two piece. Overall, i agree with everything you have said. Good post

Glory · August 2015

Teiji wrote: »

5/5 Spell Power Cure + 5/5 Healer. Heals so easy and so strong you can watch TWD with TESO as your background app.

Leeching Plate is terrible, Black Rose is already trumped hard by Hist Bark. Reactive Armor is completely tragic.

The Jewellery sets are there to try and make players forget you can have two 5/5 sets at the same time, mainly through; Healer, Warlock and Ravager

Jewellery sets may be good if they are easily attainable, unlike Ravager for example, which isn't that easy for new players and so on to get.

I'm pretty much in agreeance with this.

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

ebethke_ESO wrote: »

Well, @ZOS_JessicaFolsom made the mistake of asking us to provide item feedback regarding the new item sets found here. So, here is mine!

[*]Molag Kena: Great 2 bonus. The three piece is extremely unique and will surely find a place in PvP builds, although it does not proc on damage shields.

Moloag Kena is a two piece. Overall, i agree with everything you have said. Good post

Thank you, fixed!

Emma_Overload · August 2015

A couple things I wish I knew about the Spell Power Cure set:

1) Does it proc on yourself?

2) Does it proc off of Surge heals?

If the answer to both questions is Yes, this could be a really great set for Sorcerers.

Glory · August 2015

Emma_Eunjung wrote: »

A couple things I wish I knew about the Spell Power Cure set:

1) Does it proc on yourself?

2) Does it proc off of Surge heals?

If the answer to both questions is Yes, this could be a really great set for Sorcerers.

It's pretty late where I am, but I will try to test this for you!

SeptimusDova · August 2015

No Armor to protect Khajiits Whiskers from Fire ?

TheBull · August 2015

In short, nothing really works in Cyrodiil. Play how you like I guess...

Alcast · August 2015

Why do most sets NOT proc on damage shields, I dont get it rly, please could you explain why?

@ZOS_BrianWheeler

DatPoogie · August 2015

Alcast, I think most sets don't proc on damage shields as you can already stack several damage shields so if taking damage caused a 5 item bonus to stack as well it might be considered OP.

I like the sound of Brands of Imperium for a tank, it seems like it would provide a damage shield in that moment when you haven't got enough resources to put your shields up (or block!) but still have a decent amount of health, possibly trumping the sets which do a similar thing when you fall below a certain % of health

ThatNeonZebraAgain · August 2015

Pretty disappointed in the lack of viable offensive heavy armor sets for PvP. But given how many things involve poison damage, I am very tempted to try out the poison damage stacking build I've been toying with (somehow utilizing Morag Tong+Sheer Venom/Toxic Defiance). Do you know if the DoT from Sheer Venom stacks on itself (eg each time you hit someone with an execute it creates a new DoT)?

Are you sure the buff from Armor Master doesn't stay on you after you switch bars? I was running this the other day and thought it did. Using Armor Master though, I was able to make a ridiculously strong Magicka NB tank with 5 Light armor and 2 Heavy armor that had over 2k spell power and maxed physical and spell resist with all buffs up (Immovable, Armor Master buff, and Shadow Barrier Buff got it close to cap, then the Blood Spawn buff put it over by several thousand).

I was really excited for Leaching Plate, and think it would excel for AoE grinding/tanking (if only it could be made to stack with other sets that buffed poison damage, but alas). I would probably prefer the customizability of Whitestrike over Imperium, and while Black Rose seems useful, I very much dislike what it stands for.

It would be really cool to combine 2 of these new sets, but unfortunately the lack of jewelry and weapons makes that impossible for the most part. It seems strange they didn't introduce any jewelry with them when other powerful sets already have them (eg Warlock, Healer, Footman, Ravager, Shadow Walker, etc). It seems the new go-to strategy will be combining as many useful 2/3/4 set bonuses as you can since so many of the 5pc bonuses don't work against damage shields, are too situtional, or underpowered.

Still debating what I should replace my 5pc Shalidor's Curse set with on my NB tank once the update goes live, probably boring ol' Whitestrake

ZOS_JessicaFolsom · August 2015

Thank you, @ebethke_ESO. Sending this over to Eric and his team.

Darlgon · August 2015

Nice writeup.

Just one thing,. ZoS, didnt you SAY you fixed the lack of procs on damage shield issue like three patches ago? Is this the same thing or a different issue caused by the Cyrodiil IC debuff? (No answer required, just had to raise the question.)

Rinmaethodain · August 2015

Black rose set being "A greatly designed set."? LMAO

Black rose set is a greatly designed bandaid fix and an attempt to soap eyes of players to make them think that ZOS is giving something back to PVE tanks who were hit by unjustified, stupid nerf to stamina regen "0 stamina regen while blocking" that is being pushed into live game by ZOS without any logical explanation and justification, the ubernerf driven by some mysterious agenda.

Emma_Overload · August 2015

MaximusDargus wrote: »

Black rose set being "A greatly designed set."? LMAO

Black rose set is a greatly designed bandaid fix and an attempt to soap eyes of players to make them think that ZOS is giving something back to PVE tanks who were hit by unjustified, stupid nerf to stamina regen "0 stamina regen while blocking" that is being pushed into live game by ZOS without any logical explanation and justification, the ubernerf driven by some mysterious agenda.

Agreed. A 20% chance to recover 780 Stamina averages out to just 156 Stamina per block over time. That's barely the same benefit as wearing a single block cost reduction ring! The Black Rose set is just a placebo... it's not going to cure what's ailing tanks.

Teiji · August 2015

Emma_Eunjung wrote: »

MaximusDargus wrote: »

Black rose set being "A greatly designed set."? LMAO

Black rose set is a greatly designed bandaid fix and an attempt to soap eyes of players to make them think that ZOS is giving something back to PVE tanks who were hit by unjustified, stupid nerf to stamina regen "0 stamina regen while blocking" that is being pushed into live game by ZOS without any logical explanation and justification, the ubernerf driven by some mysterious agenda.

Agreed. A 20% chance to recover 780 Stamina averages out to just 156 Stamina per block over time. That's barely the same benefit as wearing a single block cost reduction ring! The Black Rose set is just a placebo... it's not going to cure what's ailing tanks.

Don't you think it's heartbreaking that myself, a fellow carebear as well as yourself and others are able to acknowledge this without the heaps and mountains of data that ZoS definitely has?

So, they know it's a placebo item set - I hope this is not something we should expect from item sets in future content as well!
But yes, they think we're not intelligent enough to know that this is a mathematically terrible set?
Maybe they want to punish us for not being the best community we could possibly be, by making two heavy armor sets so terrible?

The Cyrodiil heavy set?
Dominions%20Helm.png

Bastion of the heartland;

(2 items) Adds ?/? Max Health
(3 items) Adds 4% Healing Taken
(4 items) Reduce damage taken from players by 5%
(5 items) Reduce damage taken from siege weapons and player AoE spells by 20%

They're not incredible, but the four piece and five piece reduce the damage of Batswarm, Steel Tornado, Sap Essence and more!

Reactive armor only works when you're being beaten severely with no Stamina to break free, Black Rose only works when blocking, which is something which shouldn't be done too much in PvP.

This leads me to my next question;

Is PvE gear going to be PvP gated and PvP gear going to be PvE gated instead? Because Reactive Armor + Black Rose are terrible and make any hopes of playing a 7/7 heavy armor warrior [besides using 5/5 Ravager + 5/5 Dreugh King for about 2.9k idle wep damage 3.9k buffed].

Okay so let's pick apart Bastion of the Heartland for a short paragraph; because I love ESO, the developers too and want to politely make my post more constructive -

Make PvP sets, heavy ones especially should always reduce damage in small amounts but persistently? If you're against giving them +damage amps, this way we could use 5/5 Ravager + 5/5 heavy armor PvP set to fit into a durable warrior archetype.

Only reducing damage when CC'd is unremarkable though - why not simply just modify Bastion of the Heartland for IC; there are no siege weapons in IC right? Maybe reduce damage taken from players by 10% + aoe spells by 10% for the 5 piece? The four piece could simply by the 5% too.

Heavy armor in PvP plays around the Constitution passive heavily, which was changed to how it is now, but not before being nerfed heavily - instead of restoring stam + mag based on max health it is based on how many heavy armor pieces you're wearing, making all points into health builds even weaker. To this end, we need persistent damage reduction, like Bastion of the Heartland.

Glory · August 2015

DatPoogie wrote: »

Alcast, I think most sets don't proc on damage shields as you can already stack several damage shields so if taking damage caused a 5 item bonus to stack as well it might be considered OP.

I like the sound of Brands of Imperium for a tank, it seems like it would provide a damage shield in that moment when you haven't got enough resources to put your shields up (or block!) but still have a decent amount of health, possibly trumping the sets which do a similar thing when you fall below a certain % of health

Darlgon wrote: »

Nice writeup.

Just one thing,. ZoS, didnt you SAY you fixed the lack of procs on damage shield issue like three patches ago? Is this the same thing or a different issue caused by the Cyrodiil IC debuff? (No answer required, just had to raise the question.)

I will triple check to make sure my findings are correct, but I have still not been able to proc these sets on players with damage shields due to damage not being actually "caused" to the players' health using damage shields. If my findings are incorrect I will acknowledge my mistake but am pretty sure it is indeed still the case (as it is in 1.6).

MaximusDargus wrote: »

Black rose set being "A greatly designed set."? LMAO

Black rose set is a greatly designed bandaid fix and an attempt to soap eyes of players to make them think that ZOS is giving something back to PVE tanks who were hit by unjustified, stupid nerf to stamina regen "0 stamina regen while blocking" that is being pushed into live game by ZOS without any logical explanation and justification, the ubernerf driven by some mysterious agenda.

I expected you to bring your agenda to this post

1) The set is actually extremely interesting and very effective although not overpowered. People still aren't supposed to hold block. 2) I have watched your videos and noticed you don't even permablock so I don't understand your problem anyway. 3) I have yet to see a post from you indicating you have even tried 2.1. You seem to be focusing extremely hard on a change without even trying the content with the change. 4) Please keep your stamina regeneration posts in the 15 different stamina regeneration threads. Thank you.

Lesspa · August 2015

lol. stack wep dmg and regen will always be the best. screw these lame sets.

kaorunandrak · August 2015

Great write up placing some feed back of my own on your thread. Going to be testing some more set's today as well.
So far through testing I am underwhelmed with all the item sets. There are a lot that are cool in concept but in practice not so much.

The most egregious issue is the lack of jewelry/weapons for the dropped gear and telvar stone gear. This shows a complete lack of support for build diversity and item set diversity. You guys said you want to support hybrid builds in the future but are putting in changes that are forcing hybrid specs to compete with this patch. Can't do that fellas you need to support hybrids and build diversity now, make some jewelry for the new gear. Remember the rally cry of ESO PLAY HOW YOU WANT.

That said some direct function feed back on some of the set's I have tested thus far:

Essence thief- Set bonuses are great leading to the 5 piece however; while the 5 piece set bonus is great and the buff is good on paper the application of the buff, the rune, is problematic at best. First the rune appears to shoot out about 20 meters from the enemy in a random direction unless it gets stuck on some form of environmental obstacle. This hurts melee dps as they have to go chase down the rune, which is very small, and stops dps to locate and collect the buff. On the other hand it can be even more hurtful on a bow dps standing at full range from target because at 30 meters away for full damage they don't have the time or resources to chase it down if the rune fire's off an additional 20 meters behind the target. The other issue is that even if the rune goes right towards you, you can't collect it until it stops moving again taking you out of doing DPS. I can see the rune getting lost in aoe spam fest of trials very easily, cool design but functionality I don't think it will hit the mark. Can you imagine how upset people wearing this set would be when fighting the warrior, and the rune drops in front of the boss making it useless due to the risk of getting cleaved or any aoe type boss or mechanic for that matter?

Essence Thief fix- Change the health/stamina heal to apply over 2 seconds rather then burst, put it on a 10 second cool down and change the buff to apply directly to the wearer....Oh yeah and also ADD FRIKKEN JEWELRY TO THE SET!!

Shield Breaker- First off hands down probably one of the coolest looking medium set's in game, actually looks like I am wearing armor good job art department! Add this motif or start coming out with more transmogrify powers(like the convert to imperial) for all the armor styles including this one cause I never want to take this gear off simply cause of the look. That said set bonuses leading to 5 piece is nice outside of the stamina regen bonus, I don't see a use for it due to the block change but it wont make or break the set. I do feel the damage is nice but I think it could be buffed to help really apply pressure to mages abusing the damage shields. Don't really think this set needs a fix GJ. OH WAIT ADD JEWELRY!!!!

Sheer Venom- Ok this is a super great concept, great 5 piece build up with a money shot of a 5 piece effect.....on paper. The effect is lackluster in pvp not even really applying pressure in fights, for pve it's a nice little boost but I don't see it replacing any of the current top tier pve DPS sets.

Sheer Venom fix- I would suggest adding a bit more damage to it and have it apply the poison over 2 seconds with a 6-8 second cool down, making it a bit more bursty to apply pressure in pvp and be competitive in PVE. ADD JEWELRY

Reactive Armor- set is pretty good, again due to stamina changes the regen seem pointless maybe a weapon damage for some heavy armor DPS love in pvp would be workable or just a max stamina increase. The 5 piece is nice but at the same time kind of pointless cause the 35% damage reduction isn't going to stop you from being killed and you have to be CCed to get it.

Reactive Armor fix- let the 5 piece extend a couple of seconds after cc ends or you break out and i think this will be a solid piece.

All of the new 3 piece gear- NOT WORTH THE TIME INVESTMENT TO GET. Sorry guys but for the amount of farming I have to do the 3 piece should be a lesser 5 peice bonus, a greater bonus boost then the other sets for the 2-3, or at the very least should grant bonuses for 1-2-3.

ADD JEWELRY TO ALL THE SETs PUT IN BY THE PATCH kthx bye!!

Zheg · August 2015

Feel free to pass along my feedback that the majority of existing armor sets in ESO are still utter garbage and no one uses them because of poor design. What's worse, many of these sets STILL haven't been cleaned up and have things like + wep dmg on light armor sets (noble duelist, elegance, prisoner's rags, undaunted unweaver, stygian, undaunted infiltrator, etc.) or are just completely useless like Ward of Cyrodiil (+mount speed and increased block mitigation on a medium set? really?) and curse-eater (who doesn't run purge and would rely on 20% reduced duration of negative effects instead?).

The majority of armor sets added in IC are nothing special and most will only experiment with a handful. The result is that we're just going to have even more sets in the game that no one uses and the already crowded inventory field will get that much more crowded.

Glory · August 2015

Alcast wrote: »

Why do most sets NOT proc on damage shields, I dont get it rly, please could you explain why?

@ZOS_BrianWheeler

Please note that I am finding that some sets are actually able to proc on damage shields. It's going to be a LONG process (again), but I am going to try to test each new set to see if they are all doing well against shields. I apologize for the misinformation, I have been having trouble proccing many of the sets on damage shields (low proc chances are a bother!). Also, note that I haven't been able to proc the old sets too.

I'm currently at work, but will try to test all of them tonight!

Glory · August 2015

UPDATE
After more testing, I have noticed that the new armor sets DO proc on damage shields (thank god!). I still am having trouble getting some of the old sets to proc on damage shields. Other's input would be great as I don't have access to a lot of sets.

ThatNeonZebraAgain · August 2015

ebethke_ESO wrote: »

UPDATE
After more testing, I have noticed that the new armor sets DO proc on damage shields (thank god!). I still am having trouble getting some of the old sets to proc on damage shields. Other's input would be great as I don't have access to a lot of sets.

Great! Which ones are proccing?

ThatNeonZebraAgain · August 2015

Also, it seems like Morag Tong set is still superior to Sheer Venom and Toxic Defiance as it does not rely on a proc and 15% flat increase to damage is much more than what the other 5pc bonuses offer. Such a shame that literally zero of the 5pc poison-related sets can stack due to gear slot overlaps, Morag Tong+Sheer Venom sets combined with Poison Injection ability would be insane, but alas.

WebBull · August 2015

Great thread. Thanks for the write ups. I really hope they improve the heavy sets.

Glory · August 2015

ThatNeonZebraAgain wrote: »

ebethke_ESO wrote: »

UPDATE
After more testing, I have noticed that the new armor sets DO proc on damage shields (thank god!). I still am having trouble getting some of the old sets to proc on damage shields. Other's input would be great as I don't have access to a lot of sets.

Great! Which ones are proccing?

The ones I have confirmed so far are Shock Master, Essence Thief, Sheer Venom. It looks like the design for the new ones takes damage shields into consideration

Still haven't gotten Nerienth/Valkyn/old sets to proc yet but that may just be my horrible luck...

trimsic_ESO · August 2015

I'm extremely disappointed with the new crafted sets; the old ones in the game are much better. No chance I ever craft these new ones.

And I'm a bit disappointed too with the looted sets. No new intermediate set will incite me to spend hours and hours farming them.

Let's do some comparisons with the sets I use on the live server.

Hunding's rage - 5/5
2: 688 weapon critical
3: 967 stamina
4: 688 weapon critical
5: 299 weapon damage (VR 14)

Shadow Walker - 4/5
2: 120 weapon damage (VR 14 - blue)
3: 900 stamina (VR 14 - blue)
4: 120 stamina regen (VR 14 - blue)
5: +2000 health and stamina per second while stealth and not moving

Ashen grip - 3/5
2: 1064 health
3: 129 weapon damage
4: 688 weapon critical
5: 10% chance to breath fire for x flame damage on melee hits; only once every 4 seconds.

I might change my 3/5 Ashen grip set for a 4/5 shield breaker set, and my 4/5 shadow walker set for a 3/3 Endurance set
Shield breaker
2: 967 stamina
3: 129 stamina regen
4: 129 weapon damage
5: 1118 damage with light and heavy attacks on

Endurance
2: 1064 health
3: 129 stamina regen

The difference will then be:
- +129 regen
- -129 weapon damage

So basically less weapon damage for a better stamina regen, which looks good. But this highly depends on how hard it is to get that new stuff of course.

Now let's have a look at the differences between a VR 14 gold stuff and a VR 16 one:
- health: 1039 -> 1064 = 2.4% increase
- stamina: 945 -> 967 = 2.3% increase
- weapon critical: 672 -> 688 = 2.4% increase
- weapon damage: 126 -> 129 = 2.4% increase
- stamina regen: -> 126 -> 129 = 2.4% increase

Conclusion
This analysis of medium armor sets for a DPS melee character leads to the following conclusions:

1) Trading my VR 14 stuff for a VR 16 stuff will grant me a 2.4% increase on the set bonuses - I spent a lot of time and effort on getting my VR 14 gold stuff, and the small 2.4% increase for a VR 16 stuff is extremely disappointing

2) The new sets clearly do not have enough incentives to make me want spend more time in the game farming the new stuff.

I'm not sure the combat team is heading to the right direction. If you want people to come back in this game, or if you want people to stay in this game, you'd better add new stuff that is really worth the time we invest playing your game.

evedgebah · August 2015

Here's my review of the new sets.

At V16, Gold Dropped (Crafted is slightly higher) items provide:
+129 Power/Recovery, +967 Magicka/Stamina, 1064 Health, 3.14% Crit

Tooltip Damage = (10.46 × Power + Magicka or Stamina) × Skill_Coefficient

This means that +power (Weapon/Spell Damage) wins, per item slot, over ability. (1349.34 vs 967). Critical has too many factors to consider for this thread, but 3.14% generally adds ×1.0157 damage per attack/overall dps.

Light
Combat Physician: Magicka, Crit ×2, Crit Heals grant 8195 Shields (6 second cooldown)
- Per person? Testing needed. Might be amazing, might be terrible.

Meritorious Service: Health, Magicka, Power, Support Grants 3010 PR/SR for 15 seconds.
- Purge spammers rejoice? Does look sweet.

Overwhelming Surge: Magicka, Power ×2, 8% for 903/sec for 6 seconds.
- Marital Knoweldge replacement, but with power nerfing across the board, I prefer a different setup now to raw +power builds. Proc does about 700 sustained DPS with 1-second skill spamming on mammoths in Cyrodiil. Single target only though.

Phoenix: Magicka, Recovery, Power, Yokedan with 5327 heal/damage when resurrects.
- Awful damage and heal. Cooldown needs to be much shorter, or damage/heal much higher. (I vote second).

Scathing Mage: Magicka, Crit ×2, 10%/Crit +516 Power for 6 seconds
- My favorite set of the new patch for magicka. Fun, flavorful, works best when you build to it instead of getting a hodgepodge of sets for their 2-3 piece bonuses. Something I want to work towards getting.

Spell Power Cure: Magicka ×2, Power, +258 Spell Damage when healed at 100%
- Interesting for large groups with heal spamming. 258 power is nice in theory, but in practice, even with a 12-man group with 8 DPS, that's only +3200 DPS on average, TOTAL; thus, likely not worth it, needs higher spell power boon.

Medium
Essence Thief: Stamina ×2, Power, 10% for Stamina recovery and +10% DPS per 10 seconds.
- VERY interesting. Fun set, might actually be worth using. I have not tested this enough to say if the benefit is worth chasing the essences.

Powerful Assault: Health, Stamina, Power, +123 Power to allies when casting assault skill.
- Realistically, you're only casting Caltrops, Prox Det, or Vigor. Working one of those into your rotation to keep this buff up is not worth the cost for a stamina user. IF this were magicka/light, I would run it to keep proxy det every 8 seconds or so. On a stam user, you're using it too infrequently to be worth it compared to other sets.

Sheer Venom: Stamina, Power ×2, Execute: +586 Poison DOT. This is amazing in my opinion. Run this with Morag Tong for extra benefit. Best new Stamina set, hands down.

Shield Breaker: Stamina, Recovery, Power, Light/Heavy attacks deal +1173 vs shields.
- Theory is nice, but when I can spam skills for at least triple that (including light/heavy damage), and shields don't take any mitigation anyway, it's just not worth it. This needs to MELT shields, it just doesn't now.

Shock Master: Crit ×2, Power, Light>Heavy>+1173 on light attacks for 10 seconds. The time to use this is just not worth it. Even for Wrecking Blow builds (which don't use light attacks anyway). Needs higher bonus, or different proc method.

Toxic Defiance: Crit, Power, Stamina, Magicka damage increases subsequent poison damage by 430.
- Gives a reason to use a class skill between bow skills I suppose. Not worth it due to the low damage that magicka skill would do. Doesn't make up for the DPS loss. Higher damage or let this proc on any class skill usage.

Heavy
Black Rose: Health, Stam ×2, Average of +163.4 Stamina/block (20% for 817)
- With massive cost reduction on blocking, this would let one perma-block. Not sure if loss of other set bonuses is worth it though.

Brands of Imperium: Health ×2, +4% Healing, 6% for 12040 shield to self/allies on hit (1/15 seconds).
- Mathematically, should trigger once per 15 seconds or so. Shield tanking might be viable with this.

Jolting Gauntlets: Health, SR ×2, 10%/Bash for next to deal 6095 shock and grant 6450 SR for 6 seconds.
- Interesting. I'd like to see a Bash-centered build around this. Likely not viable unfortunately.

Leeching Plate: Health, +4% Healing ×2, 8% chance to deal 1128 AOE damage/sec for 5.5 sec and heal for dealt.
- Interesting for PVE AOE tanking, worthless in PVP due to healing nerf, nearly worthless outside.

Reactive Armor: Stam Recovery, Stamina, Health, 35% DR when CCed.
- Nice for PVP tanking, useless in PVE (unless you find a way to stay CCed all the time?)
-
Tormentor: Health, +4% Healing ×2, Charges taunt (and some PR/SR).
- Huh? How is this worth using at all? I have no idea.

Molag Kena: +129 Weapon Damage, 3 light attacks grants 50% cost and damage for 10 seconds- 2-piece bonus is way too time-consuming to be worth using. 3 light attacks without a skill in between is simply too long for this to be effective in nearly any situation. The temporary bonus does not last long enough to balance out the DPS loss. I can only see this being used by PVP snipers/gankers in keep sieges to get one-shot kills. Would be much better with proc chance on light attacks (10% per maybe?)

Lord Warden: 1935 SR, More SR on activation
- Spell resistance is too situational. Any tank worth their salt is already nearly maxed, slot is best used for another benefit. Only for ridiculously high SR/SPen fights.

Jewelry: +Attribute, +Power or Health + Stam Recovery
- All of these are decent 3-piece sets, useful solely for that. Would not use if there are other options with 5-piece sets).

Crafted
Armor Master Health, Physical/Spell Resistance, +5332 P/SR with armor ability usage.
- Not sure what to think, my initial testing showed it worked as intended, but I missed other set bonuses. Don't think it's worth it right now. Basically, a tanking set without enough oomph.

Redistribution Health, Stamina, Magicka, Healing splash-over.
- Heal is not good enough to consider this as being viable.

Noble's Conquest Health, Stamina, 4% Healing, Bashing: +5% Damage & Heal
- DPS-Tank build is only place I see this working.

Emma_Overload · August 2015

evedgebah wrote: »

Reactive Armor: Stam Recovery, Stamina, Health, 35% DR when CCed.
- Nice for PVP tanking, useless in PVE (unless you find a way to stay CCed all the time?)

Not so fast! There a several dungeon bosses that stun you with a long, unbreakable CC and damage you while you are stunned. This frequently leads to player death, as I described in this thread about a boss in Vaults of Madness: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/166158/vaults-of-madness-boss-2-bugged-or-working-as-intended

Reactive Armor would have been a big help in this case.