Man, you think you got it bad. Try going from tanking 10 people without a problem, then jumping in on this patch and dieing to 3 people without any hope of anything different. Magicka DK in the current game is sooooooo ***.

trimhorn wrote: »

Thanks leepalmer.
Whatever was reset, I cannot kill even a level 2 anymore.
Why would ESO make a patch to make me weaker?
It appears I have my champion points but they no longer work.
What is the reasoning to reset all my points?
The game is no longer any fun.

trimhorn wrote: »

Hi Alucardo.
The LOL is that ESO support told me that would fix my problem.
That is why I am disappointed

My issue is that ESO would make an update which would cause the game to be impossible to continue.
I have been playing the game since first day release.
Some of us are not such high level gamers. I was doing ok to get to Veteran level 5 before this patch.
It usually took me at least two 10 hour days to get to another level. Champion points came faster.
Now I can get no further or finish any further quests.

Getting killed all the time is no fun.

One major problem with this game is that they keep changing skills to appease certain players. Sadly, people have told me that such chaos is the norm for MMOs. When ZOS decides to rebalance skills, it screws over players who just want to play and not scour patch notes or follow forum discussions. It can be very off-putting.

Last year, shortly after launch, they made shield bashing weaker. My tanky character relied on bashing a lot. I started dying immediately. I was probably around VR3 or 4. Frustrating. The only option is to start experimenting again with different skills. Unfortunately, that means committing skill points to skills you might end up abandoning.

I spent 2 hours doing that last night @DaveMoeDee lol and I know im going with 2H instead of duel wield tonight. Im lookin at 5k in gold again

I try and think of it as: this is how it was in the beginning, it was all a dream sequence. Lmao

But seriously, Im a big fan of my stam sorc tank now. Mimics my old build's strategy with more synergy.

Battle leveling is now also in Vet campaigns. Maybe changes weren't favoring you, instead of some others.

Well I've heard this complaint before. Somewhere someone suggested turning off battle leveling for your character. Its really hard for me to tell a difference as my new build is so different.

So because I know so little about NB i can suggest turning that off or just get to vet 14 before giving up.

Don't know if this was mentioned already but you do know that you no longer get Cyrodiil buffs outside of your campaign right?

First I feel obliged to say something I hate saying to anyone about a game they were once invested in, "Not all games are for everyone." This is a bitter pill and it sucks to say but if you are not having fun and you wanna quit no amount of forum post is going to change that until your feelings change.

With that out of the way, my gut tells me you want to like this game. Most people when they face something they don't like they immediately retreat without a word or second guess, but you decided to come here instead, hoping to find something that might return you to whatever you had before the patch. Well you are in luck.

First, it doesn't sounds like you had a great grasp of the game or its mechanics prior to the patch (console players were at a bit of a disadvantage here as they didn't have long to get a full grasp of the game and mechanics before this major update). So a little background on the basics. It sounds like you are a magic build (unknown class) looking to fill the role of DPS. Before we get into builds, gear and skills, lets talk a little about the game. Many players want progression, but progress in an MMO is often misleading. You could be moving through content but not understand how you got there or what it takes to continue going and it sounds like that is what's happening to you now. You've managed to get to VR5 but have not learnt what it takes to grow your character from there. So to remedy this lets look at where magic damage comes from.

DPS:
Your main components of damage is your resource pool, in this case magic, spell damage, and abilities . You obviously know that having lots of magic means more damage from skills but did you also know that spell damage is determined by the weapon in your hand. Many magic users look to the staff here and in the past have seen lots of damage proc's from the element associated with your staff. This however has been changed in the new patch and elemental proc's are less frequent (which is a considerable hit to DPS). So how do we make up this extra damage. The answer is we increase the base damage of abilities through spell damage. In the past players would look to bolster their magic reserve with the mage mundus stone and in effect they would get a bit of a damage increase as well. While the mage mundus is still a viable option for increasing ones reserve the better DPS option is the rebooted Apprentice stone, which now gives a boost to spell damage. If resource management is not an issue for you take off that mage mundus and go with apprentice, this is a automatic damage increase.

Now that we have you sporting some extra punch for your abilities, lets talk some more about the weapon you are holding. The Destro (or destruction) staff is the DPS weapon of choice in the old patch and is still a very good place to find damage but it is in how we use that damage that determines how you will turn out. One of the most overlooked factors of spell damage is Spell Penetration. How much your attack bypasses the natural amount of resistance your enemy has. In the past enemies had very low resistances and therefore it was easier to kill them. Now almost every enemy in the game is sporting a much thicker coat of resistance and the smart player needs to prioritize spell penetration to get past all that extra resistance. In the old patch the precise trait was coveted as it governed how often you might crit, I would argue that the better trait is now sharpened (nirnhoned if you got it, or you can get a guildie to make it) as this trait directly improves how much resistence you are bypassing to hit an enemies HP. Another good source for spell penetration is the Elfborn Champion point. This passive was bugged prior to this new patch and was not adding to spell penetration properly. Now this passive is fixed and while it may not show up on the character sheet, once you get the right amount of spell penetration, that skill that you thought did little damage will now be wrecking because its not getting blocked or reduced by the improved resistances. This issue then brings me to my next point......

Gear:
I've read that you were using heavy armor which I assume you were doing for the extra damage mitigation while playing solo. Heavy armor is perhaps not the best for a magic build and the "extra survivability" is at best questionable when you consider what your main resource is. Magic builds thrive in light armor, and one great thing about the new patch is light armor has gotten a bit of a boost with the update. Now light armor is half the damage reduction of heavy armor which is up from 25% before the patch. So you first order of business is get some light armor. Not only is light armor a decent source of protection now, it has built in SPELL PENETRATION. Wearing 5 pieces of light armor gives a pretty sizeable amount of spell penetration and when coupled with you greater spell damage and your now properly added spell penetration from CP you should return (if not be doing more damage) to your old destructive ways (see what I did there).

Second, Glyphs (the enchanments on your gear) have been reduced to accommodate the extra VR levels (boo!!!) but here is where you can pick up some extra resource, survivability, or damage. You want to overload on one though. If you need health pick health glyphs, if you need magic....well you get the picture. Try to stay consistent with you glyph choice at least until you reach high levels where you will start to balance out nicely as glyph strength returns.

I'm big on survivability so nothing I will ever advice a player will be glass cannon (although viable). With that stated we have to talk about traits on gear. REINFORCED followed somewhat loosely by IMPENETRABLE are the only ones I would focus on for now. These two are your life savers. Reinforced gives you more resistance, impenetrable reduces the amount of damage you take from enemy crits. Since you will be in light armor reinforced is needed where ever you can get it, but sprinkle in an impenetrable piece or two. You want high resistance to reduce how much damage you are taking.

My last, but most important advice for gear is sets. This one is crucial as the right set has to match how you imagine your character. I love crafted sets. These give you complete control over your character, while found gear is powerful and dungeon gear can prove invaluable in endgame, while leveling in VR you need crafted gear. If you have means, always choose a crafted set. I never pick up gear I intend to use while leveling (only exception is jewelry as there is no crafting for that....yet. There is little reason to use found gear while leveling because you can quickly outgrow it and in the process loose some valuable synergy. At least if you are crafting your gear you are in control of how you look, and how you fight.

Abilities:
I saved abilities for last because without knowing your class any advice I give would be near useless. But I will comment on what I do know. If you are magic user, using a staff, then there is almost a 100% certainty that you are using spells from a destro staff and above all other skills I want to draw attention to a little used mage favorite of mine, WEAKNESS TO ELEMENTS. This gem is a universal debuff and lowers your targets resistance to anything that the game considers a spell. It doesn't cost magic to use and does not have a timer, and for all intents and purposes, it is your new best friend. Cast this skill as often as you can, on pretty much anything that will do you harm. It works amazingly with the added damage, and spell penetration philosophy from earlier. Once morphed it has a small amount of magic return as well so its the ultimate win skill if you ask me.

Now before I go, lets talk briefly about elemental effects. I said earlier that the proc's are less frequent and that is not entirely true. The proc rate has been normalized (which is developer for saying that it will proc regularly within the percentage for abilities). This is a nerf in some instances and a buff in others, what abilities you use will determine which is which for you. As such I look sparingly at elemental damages as the added damage is not always there. Some folks have doubled down on elemental hoping to inflict maximum damage on those proc's but others like myself see that elemental damage/dots are something to accept when you get them but not something to build around (even for the DK, which was at one time a fire god). Now if you must rely on elemental damage look for abilities with high upfront damage, this way if you do get a dot, you can capitalize on both the upfront damage and the dot. This means that lot of those great AoE abilities with low damage and great dots may not be as viable as they once were. Secondary functions will play a big part in what skills make the cut for you, but just to give you an example, I've gone from 5 dots on my DK magic build down to 1.

Closing:
I'm sorry that you feel the game has changed so drastically for you, and judging by the amount of people who share this sentiment who are perhaps not as well versed in this games mechanics, I hope you all can find something from this that has given you a bit of a rough outline to build from. Remember, It has taken the better part of three months to build your character to where it was, rebuilding will not take as long, but it will not be solved in one day either. If you need help try to post specific questions, I mean extremely specific questions. Due to the complex nature of this game and the ever changing landscape it is hard to throw general advice out there without something to back it up and more importantly something to answer directly. With that in mind I apologize if this is a long post, but I read through all the comments and I couldn't help but want to provide as much info as I could to help you get to where you want to go. If you have any specific questions about anything, or need something explained further please ask. And lastly go easy on the forum vets and the L2P response....we see a lot of QQ post about nerfs and imbalance this or broken that and often the answer is that a player needed help understanding a mechanic but didn't properly verbalize that. I wish you the best.

Reeko wrote: »

Don't know if this was mentioned already but you do know that you no longer get Cyrodiil buffs outside of your campaign right?

I did not know this.. thanks for the info I will test it out

Waffennacht wrote: »

Excellent point, something we all forgot about. Sorry about the battle leveling. I swore I read there was a way...

No need to apologise, to be fair I thought I would have the choice too when I first checked.

Either way I think that I will just play PvP on my already levelled char and then quest my other one to VR16 before taking it back into Cyro.

I sincerely thank all of the help the gamers in this forum have put forward.
You are all very kind.
Have fun with the game.
I am out of here
ESO = xxxxxxx

^

I couldnt delete my answer so had to replace it with something.

Thanks Hardcore gmr for the detailed post. May not have helped op, but others appreciate it.

I have a lot of changes to make, from how badly I got my tail beaten down this morning

tactica wrote: »

@hardcore_gmr

Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to post. I agree with what you posted. Too bad it was of no value to the OP, but your words are on par with public service announcement. I think many could benefit from the succinct high level guidance approach... and even maybe a few other pointers mentioned her - such as the bit about Cyrondil bonus' not applying any longer, may not have a mundus applied any longer and the alike. I get the feeling, just in area chat last night - that a lot of folks had no idea what to expect.

I also feel for the OP. When the developer makes a change as sweeping as this which causes the player base to drastically overhaul their characters and lose vested time or feels they have to 'go back to the drawing board' because they can no longer hold their own, that's a shame. I think this fella had a bit of an axe to grind, and was looking for an out... but, it doesn't mean his point didn't have merit. I also don't think he was alone.

I'm glad you took the time to post and it's too bad your words were not front paged... its worthy. I think you were spot on. He got to VR5 in one mode / playstyle - and post update / that casual mode / playstyle no longer was going to cut it. They changed things so much, that he couldn't contend.

That testimony does make you wonder - did the pre-IC approach appeal to more gamers / consumers or does the post IC patch appeal to more consumers as a result? If this OP could no longer hold his own as they 'tightened' up the game quite a bit, and we are talking PvE here... is that a good thing? One wonders if they over adjusted. Should VR5 casuals be able to enjoy themselves and still handle VR2s with a 'whatever' kind of build in pve? Its a design choice really. Rhetorical question. If they could before, what's the cost of saying "you can't now." If folks like him feel like they got busted back too much, and they lose business... how much are they gaining as a result of the change implimented? I don't know. I think it's an interesting question though.

Segway - BNG i.e. Destiny, (different game) was notorious for busting player progress with every update. They would give and then they would take away. Eventually made me quit. I just couldn't take the constant set backs at every update. The loss of immersion and loss of progress was terribly real in that game. Painfully so. I fully appreciate the OP's sentiment, from a different perspective... but I digress. I'm quite enjoy ESO.

L2P is never a good answer. It doesn't help anyone, and it isn't enough when you feel you've worked hard for immersion, are feeling betrayed by something you've spent money and time on, and what you have known has changed. For investment into a character, into a hobby, into a fiction, only to see a relative particular 'power level' drastically shifted or feel like the rug was pulled out from under you, is akin to betrayal... so, I get it. We all only have so much time to invest in our hobby and game. Some folks can only invest in a single character... and when something so sweeping happens, you feel like you just can't do it again, its already taken you too much to get where you were. Maybe that is of consequence to the business model that ZoS is creating, and maybe that is a necessary evil and casualty of war. If you gain more than you lose, well, I get that too. It's business.

In this fella's case, I feel like there was a lot of opportunity for adjustment. It's a shame he didn't have more of an open mind and willingness to learn. It seemed like there was a fair amount of optimization, and tuning that he could have leveraged which would have improved his situation. Shame to see a player go, however, all games are not meant for all players.

Wonder what ZoS thoughts are, and how close they are watching the numbers.... something tells me we won't find out. Interesting nonetheless.

Thought provoking post OP and great response Hardcore_gmr.

Cheers,

Thanks so much tactica...I just didn't want anyone else to feel like there wasn't help out there. It sucks to lose players from a game because he could have been a guild mate, maybe we could have teamed up in a dungeon and to me that is the great power of games like this. I hope ZoS does learn something from these sweeping updates though, they can be daunting to see patch notes that are 7 or 8 pages long as a new player, or as a casual player. I think I recall them saying somewhere that this would be the last time they would be completely overhauling the game and that they would be opting for more gradual changes. In the case of OP it is too little too late.... but for others who find this post I hope you all know that helps is out there and that it gets better with time. I remember when the game went from 1.5 to 1.6 when they removed the caps on everything. Lots of players were at a loss to figure stuff out, but there were players out there posting builds and sharing info and the new Meta formed with 1.6. Now with 1.7 we are all trying something new. ..and the exciting thing is now we can all be apart of how the game turns out from here.

Swindy wrote: »

tactica wrote: »

@hardcore_gmr

Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to post. I agree with what you posted. Too bad it was of no value to the OP, but your words are on par with public service announcement. I think many could benefit from the succinct high level guidance approach... and even maybe a few other pointers mentioned her - such as the bit about Cyrondil bonus' not applying any longer, may not have a mundus applied any longer and the alike. I get the feeling, just in area chat last night - that a lot of folks had no idea what to expect.

I also feel for the OP. When the developer makes a change as sweeping as this which causes the player base to drastically overhaul their characters and lose vested time or feels they have to 'go back to the drawing board' because they can no longer hold their own, that's a shame. I think this fella had a bit of an axe to grind, and was looking for an out... but, it doesn't mean his point didn't have merit. I also don't think he was alone.

I'm glad you took the time to post and it's too bad your words were not front paged... its worthy. I think you were spot on. He got to VR5 in one mode / playstyle - and post update / that casual mode / playstyle no longer was going to cut it. They changed things so much, that he couldn't contend.

That testimony does make you wonder - did the pre-IC approach appeal to more gamers / consumers or does the post IC patch appeal to more consumers as a result? If this OP could no longer hold his own as they 'tightened' up the game quite a bit, and we are talking PvE here... is that a good thing? One wonders if they over adjusted. Should VR5 casuals be able to enjoy themselves and still handle VR2s with a 'whatever' kind of build in pve? Its a design choice really. Rhetorical question. If they could before, what's the cost of saying "you can't now." If folks like him feel like they got busted back too much, and they lose business... how much are they gaining as a result of the change implimented? I don't know. I think it's an interesting question though.

Segway - BNG i.e. Destiny, (different game) was notorious for busting player progress with every update. They would give and then they would take away. Eventually made me quit. I just couldn't take the constant set backs at every update. The loss of immersion and loss of progress was terribly real in that game. Painfully so. I fully appreciate the OP's sentiment, from a different perspective... but I digress. I'm quite enjoy ESO.

L2P is never a good answer. It doesn't help anyone, and it isn't enough when you feel you've worked hard for immersion, are feeling betrayed by something you've spent money and time on, and what you have known has changed. For investment into a character, into a hobby, into a fiction, only to see a relative particular 'power level' drastically shifted or feel like the rug was pulled out from under you, is akin to betrayal... so, I get it. We all only have so much time to invest in our hobby and game. Some folks can only invest in a single character... and when something so sweeping happens, you feel like you just can't do it again, its already taken you too much to get where you were. Maybe that is of consequence to the business model that ZoS is creating, and maybe that is a necessary evil and casualty of war. If you gain more than you lose, well, I get that too. It's business.

In this fella's case, I feel like there was a lot of opportunity for adjustment. It's a shame he didn't have more of an open mind and willingness to learn. It seemed like there was a fair amount of optimization, and tuning that he could have leveraged which would have improved his situation. Shame to see a player go, however, all games are not meant for all players.

Wonder what ZoS thoughts are, and how close they are watching the numbers.... something tells me we won't find out. Interesting nonetheless.

Thought provoking post OP and great response Hardcore_gmr.

Cheers,

That ^^ is very well written.
As was @hardcore_gmr post.

As a hardcore Pve solo gamer, of some 3 decades now, the Pvp views of the update don't interest me in the slightest.
My little stamblade will get ganked regardless as people, within their gaming rights of course, chase AP.
That's my cross to bear buying an MMO.

However, as I posted elsewhere at length, in the last two "updates" to ESO, IC being the second (I've owned since pre-release Mac but hated the UI during the 4 day pre access so sat on my membership waiting for XBox & returned to Skyrim & Oblivion), Zos has nerfed my character against ALL trash & bosses (solo remember) and has never offered up a self heal in DW, all in the name (supposedly) of equality in the Pvp world.
The fact that MY personal gaming experience has become cut severely as I now can not combat bosses I could a few weeks ago,
& my self crafted VR14 gear cannot be replaced without what looks so far like hundreds of hours of farming in IC, and that's if I can stay alive there solo,
& my VR14 gear is now far less useful than it was,
& my stamina regen (the only saving grace for my glass cannon) has been nerfed, particuarly with my WW regen removed (after they stated it would be removed UNLESS you kept the WW Ult on your bar)...
You're starting to see how the hardcore but solo Pve gamer has had his experience, and his ESO future, severely knee capped partially because some Pvp moaners complained a lot that NB were too OP, & partially because instead of building new higher endgame content, Zos took the soft option of reducing everyone's abilities, & buffing the bad dudes.

I've already skilled up several times to go from heavy s&b, to medium DW, to medium 2H (a Vigor or Rally in DW would've been nice Zos), and now with no stamina regen, & all lower stamina useage enchants etc, I'm incapable of dodge rolling to stay alive, & being instructed to either "go magicka build" or "group up to get AP & group drops & gear" or "use bow at range to regen stamina (great plan if I had stamina to get back to range from NB close quarters melee lol)".

I'm not here to whine, I love the entire Elder Scrolls journey, but gee Zos, there are/were others on your servers than just the Pvp zerg's...

For a high level player like yourself @ Swindy I would recommend to remember the importance of utility. In 1.6 everyone was a DPS, seriously people were giving up utility skills left and right chasing that next power creep. With no caps in place to stop players from dumping points and resources into doing more and more damage so they can kill stuff faster, we've forgotten what it was like to reach overcharge and to start balancing your character out with UTILITY. Utility is becoming a lost art as we glass cannon our way to mediocre, purely because now instead of having the tools to sustain ourselves in a fight we are trying to go against the grain and hold true to a TTK (time to kill) that the game will just not allow. I've found that in embracing the utility of certain skills its possible to get high amounts of damage and sustainability by utilizing the full capacity of both resource pools. In 1.6 we forgot about that, someone said that hybrids didn't exist or that they were less effective and we all went with it. In part it was true, 1.6 was a TTK race of who could kill who faster, but with tougher enemies and longer fights throughout there's little value in that minor extra bit of damage that I good CC or a strong defensive skill won't overcome. The point of this latest patch was to force a balance among players, and in their own heavy handed way ZoS is giving players every reason to try something new, to try something that is not about killing stuff faster, but killing them better, more efficiently. Leaning too heavily on one resource will get you killed just as much as you are likely to kill your enemy, but when you start to hedge your skills and leverage the second resource pool you can start to grow your character in some new and exciting ways. Its just as suggestion but if max damage is leaving you wanting, why not try to do something new.

Swindy wrote: »

hardcore_gmr wrote: »

Swindy wrote: »

tactica wrote: »

@hardcore_gmr

Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to post. I agree with what you posted. Too bad it was of no value to the OP, but your words are on par with public service announcement. I think many could benefit from the succinct high level guidance approach... and even maybe a few other pointers mentioned her - such as the bit about Cyrondil bonus' not applying any longer, may not have a mundus applied any longer and the alike. I get the feeling, just in area chat last night - that a lot of folks had no idea what to expect.

I also feel for the OP. When the developer makes a change as sweeping as this which causes the player base to drastically overhaul their characters and lose vested time or feels they have to 'go back to the drawing board' because they can no longer hold their own, that's a shame. I think this fella had a bit of an axe to grind, and was looking for an out... but, it doesn't mean his point didn't have merit. I also don't think he was alone.

I'm glad you took the time to post and it's too bad your words were not front paged... its worthy. I think you were spot on. He got to VR5 in one mode / playstyle - and post update / that casual mode / playstyle no longer was going to cut it. They changed things so much, that he couldn't contend.

That testimony does make you wonder - did the pre-IC approach appeal to more gamers / consumers or does the post IC patch appeal to more consumers as a result? If this OP could no longer hold his own as they 'tightened' up the game quite a bit, and we are talking PvE here... is that a good thing? One wonders if they over adjusted. Should VR5 casuals be able to enjoy themselves and still handle VR2s with a 'whatever' kind of build in pve? Its a design choice really. Rhetorical question. If they could before, what's the cost of saying "you can't now." If folks like him feel like they got busted back too much, and they lose business... how much are they gaining as a result of the change implimented? I don't know. I think it's an interesting question though.

Segway - BNG i.e. Destiny, (different game) was notorious for busting player progress with every update. They would give and then they would take away. Eventually made me quit. I just couldn't take the constant set backs at every update. The loss of immersion and loss of progress was terribly real in that game. Painfully so. I fully appreciate the OP's sentiment, from a different perspective... but I digress. I'm quite enjoy ESO.

L2P is never a good answer. It doesn't help anyone, and it isn't enough when you feel you've worked hard for immersion, are feeling betrayed by something you've spent money and time on, and what you have known has changed. For investment into a character, into a hobby, into a fiction, only to see a relative particular 'power level' drastically shifted or feel like the rug was pulled out from under you, is akin to betrayal... so, I get it. We all only have so much time to invest in our hobby and game. Some folks can only invest in a single character... and when something so sweeping happens, you feel like you just can't do it again, its already taken you too much to get where you were. Maybe that is of consequence to the business model that ZoS is creating, and maybe that is a necessary evil and casualty of war. If you gain more than you lose, well, I get that too. It's business.

In this fella's case, I feel like there was a lot of opportunity for adjustment. It's a shame he didn't have more of an open mind and willingness to learn. It seemed like there was a fair amount of optimization, and tuning that he could have leveraged which would have improved his situation. Shame to see a player go, however, all games are not meant for all players.

Wonder what ZoS thoughts are, and how close they are watching the numbers.... something tells me we won't find out. Interesting nonetheless.

Thought provoking post OP and great response Hardcore_gmr.

Cheers,

That ^^ is very well written.
As was @hardcore_gmr post.

As a hardcore Pve solo gamer, of some 3 decades now, the Pvp views of the update don't interest me in the slightest.
My little stamblade will get ganked regardless as people, within their gaming rights of course, chase AP.
That's my cross to bear buying an MMO.

However, as I posted elsewhere at length, in the last two "updates" to ESO, IC being the second (I've owned since pre-release Mac but hated the UI during the 4 day pre access so sat on my membership waiting for XBox & returned to Skyrim & Oblivion), Zos has nerfed my character against ALL trash & bosses (solo remember) and has never offered up a self heal in DW, all in the name (supposedly) of equality in the Pvp world.
The fact that MY personal gaming experience has become cut severely as I now can not combat bosses I could a few weeks ago,
& my self crafted VR14 gear cannot be replaced without what looks so far like hundreds of hours of farming in IC, and that's if I can stay alive there solo,
& my VR14 gear is now far less useful than it was,
& my stamina regen (the only saving grace for my glass cannon) has been nerfed, particuarly with my WW regen removed (after they stated it would be removed UNLESS you kept the WW Ult on your bar)...
You're starting to see how the hardcore but solo Pve gamer has had his experience, and his ESO future, severely knee capped partially because some Pvp moaners complained a lot that NB were too OP, & partially because instead of building new higher endgame content, Zos took the soft option of reducing everyone's abilities, & buffing the bad dudes.

I've already skilled up several times to go from heavy s&b, to medium DW, to medium 2H (a Vigor or Rally in DW would've been nice Zos), and now with no stamina regen, & all lower stamina useage enchants etc, I'm incapable of dodge rolling to stay alive, & being instructed to either "go magicka build" or "group up to get AP & group drops & gear" or "use bow at range to regen stamina (great plan if I had stamina to get back to range from NB close quarters melee lol)".

I'm not here to whine, I love the entire Elder Scrolls journey, but gee Zos, there are/were others on your servers than just the Pvp zerg's...

For a high level player like yourself @ Swindy I would recommend to remember the importance of utility. In 1.6 everyone was a DPS, seriously people were giving up utility skills left and right chasing that next power creep. With no caps in place to stop players from dumping points and resources into doing more and more damage so they can kill stuff faster, we've forgotten what it was like to reach overcharge and to start balancing your character out with UTILITY. Utility is becoming a lost art as we glass cannon our way to mediocre, purely because now instead of having the tools to sustain ourselves in a fight we are trying to go against the grain and hold true to a TTK (time to kill) that the game will just not allow. I've found that in embracing the utility of certain skills its possible to get high amounts of damage and sustainability by utilizing the full capacity of both resource pools. In 1.6 we forgot about that, someone said that hybrids didn't exist or that they were less effective and we all went with it. In part it was true, 1.6 was a TTK race of who could kill who faster, but with tougher enemies and longer fights throughout there's little value in that minor extra bit of damage that I good CC or a strong defensive skill won't overcome. The point of this latest patch was to force a balance among players, and in their own heavy handed way ZoS is giving players every reason to try something new, to try something that is not about killing stuff faster, but killing them better, more efficiently. Leaning too heavily on one resource will get you killed just as much as you are likely to kill your enemy, but when you start to hedge your skills and leverage the second resource pool you can start to grow your character in some new and exciting ways. Its just as suggestion but if max damage is leaving you wanting, why not try to do something new.

Oh I absolutely agree mate.
I very much enjoy learning new technique & adapting, as is evidenced by all the trees I've had to max so far.

My dispute/or gripe I guess, is in taking their approach, Zos has taken a large piece of my desired/required play style (ie blocking & bashing & dodge rolling) & said "No you don't son", whilst not giving me the quid quo pro of a balance like a self heal for example.
All this whilst increasing the difficulty to harm, & one shot ability of, my opposition (Pve of course).

If I learn magic, which I really don't want to do (assassins slit throats, they don't hurl fireballs from 28 metres...as a rule), & the AP-group skill-gaining/drop-gathering system, I will have been forced to "fit in" with what now appears to be the Zos model of hundreds of spell casters throwing spells uselessly at each other in zergs in Pvp...& it's just not me.

I bought ESO & built my NB to play a stealthy-stabby-stabby assassin solo (hence his name Assassin Loner lol) with a view towards Dark Brotherhood/Thieves Guild/end game Pve content.
It's in all their information since Skyrim that ESO would entertain Pve as well as Pvp, and these two factions at some point.

Anyways, I'm being repetative, & I accept the MMO business plan for wealth creation at Zos, but, it's not what was offered, promised, & signed up for.
IMO.

Cheers.

I totally agree with you though, and I'm not suggesting giving up the blade, my stam DK (my favorite toon) would never play right in a world of spell casters. But playing magic DK for a while did teach me something about my Stam Dk and that was that I was relying too heavily on the blade. I want to play up close and personal and in PVE I wanna be in the heart of battle. And playing magic for awhile taught me that there are a lot of buffs and heals and all manners of utility that Rally, immovable, and now vigor just couldn't provide. I'm using my magic pool (as well as some other stuff) to give me the resources I was wasting in 1.6 trying to keep up with players wrecking face with high TTK. I don't feel my stamina has been nerfed anymore, I feel like i'm sort of a hybrid of magic and high damage stamina (balanced through CP). I've got spell cost down and a small amount of regen going and I feel invincible in PVE. I roll solo as well (for the most part) and even hold my own in the sewers against two or three man squads. I'm not wrecking face like I was but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it looks brighter than it was before because now I never run out of stamina unless I'm caught in the typical mega zerg and at that point I chalk it up to players feeling comfortable while in large groups. I know eventually some of those guys will break from the group, or sometimes I can get back up from a passing zerg train myself. PVP was never my strong suit, although I have gotten better at it. I brought this game for love of Skyrim and the single player experience and in PVE, i'm master of all that face me. this is in large part to adopting what in 1.6 people said would gimp my damage. I run for all intents a hybrid build. I am 10 magic 10 health and the rest in stamina with a different balance of gear then in 1.6. I stopped trying to pile on weapon damage and started leaning on health and magic. now I have stonger shields, and more utility spells to cover up where the glass cannon spec was weak. It is a far cry from the max stamina build I was running back in 1.6 but it gets the job done more often than not.

@TE
Forget most of the blabla, you've been reading

The problem is that the game dev's keep "downgrading" your "overall" char stats (very complicated to explain, lets keep it simple). They did this after the introduction of CP / 1.6 and they keep doing it, as their "mighty balancing tool". This was also done in PvP and I bet a Borgata Babe, that ZOS will be doing it every now and then!

The main problem is, that such "nurfs" (downgrading) are aimed at the top players, so they can raise their incentive to get new items, while such "balancing" hurts everyone else, especially casual gamers and not-so-well equipped players.
If you don't like that, I'd advise you to change the game, as it is common ZOS patch policy :-(

Example1: While introducing the CP system they (SLIGHLTLY lol^^) nurfed absorb shield, and at the same time the introduced a CP-skill to buff absorb shield, which would take you some months to farm (...) to get back to your old value

Example2: With the patch 1.6 they nurfed the coefficient for HP-stats, so that if you skill one point in HP in your character window, it'd give you only 1.2 instead of 1.5 coefficient = 30% HP nurf!!

Example 3: In 1.6 they changed the armor value for light armor to the negative (20-30% more inc damage for light armor wearers, this was changed again in 1.7)

Example 4: Just for PvP: They downgraded overall dmg, heal and absorb shields in PvP by 50% instead of ~15%, so that all dmg skill do only 50% of their "real" damage. At the same time, they introduced new imba/op-gear which raises your weapon/spell damage to never-seen-before levels

Example 5: In 1.7 they significantly nurfed weapon- and spell-damage on gear/sets but at the same time they introduced new gear..

I, personally, lost trust in the game developers because of this "practices". I don't know where I am at with'em and they change so much "basics" (HP values, absorb shields, etc etc), that people keep getting confused
and patch notes have to be studied, like you'D study for a law-exam.

The difficulty of mobs in the VR-zones has been
changed TOO often. In this patch, it feels like "harder" for me, especially pve-dungeons/pledges. For me, this is a fault!
THIS is not the way to build up trust and to keep people interested the game, exept the hardcore-farmers but not every customer is member of a raid-guild and not every ESO customer needs new gear every 1-3 months!
So, if PvE mobs seem much stronger, it is just the game developer who "tweaked sth".

This "whole thing" will be decisive for ESO's future, as atm they do more like WoW/FF XIV/etc. to make ESO a hardcore PvE game. While daily pledges and the like, were much easier before the last patch. Me is really disappointed about what they did!