Having only one of these doesn't make a fight difficult, just annoying or tedious. It is really a combination of these factors.

I say mechanics. Having to learn what and when to do something during a fight. Damage and hp padding is nothing but a false level of difficulty. I hate that the trend is so common in gaming these days. I prefer my fights to be like puzzles. Once you figure that out the next challenge is in coordinating everyone so it can be completed (Which is a far greater challenge).

I think my guild's name says it all lol but there's also those bosses that have healers and/or heal themselves. The former is harder though in my opinion.

DairyIsle wrote: »

I would love to see future enemies get more complex, and hopefully they'll revisit some older enemies and tough them up too. Lots of new bosses are getting more and more interesting with great new mechanics every time they introduce them, but I'll like to see this treatment in some of the basic enemies we come across. The best enemy one can find in the over world is the Minotaurs of Gold Coast. They have a good amount of health, they have amazing visual effects and more importantly they have various special attacks they can utilize against you. I love these guys, my only complaint is that enemies especially in minotaurs, the spell casting takes way to long! Fighting in an Elder Scrolls game should feel real time, and currently it feels like the player is given way to big of a window to block, dodge, and bash enemies when they're charging an attack.

I would love to see Zenimax add some of this in their new content.

Jep
More kinds of mechanics for the bigger monsters and bosses.
More time needed to find out how that monster ticks, to be able to survive and win the battle.
(More like the NPC fights in Dark Souls).

Enemies having high damage and mechanics. Enemies can overwhelm you, and they need health for the mechanics and damage to ever matter (resistance can serve the same role as health), but it comes down to punishing. You need to be punished for mistakes, and brushes with death are just such a way to punish. This does make a game more favorable to evasion, whether that is the design intent or not, so it is difficult to create a punishing experience for face tanks.

I think damage shields serve well in this regard for ESO; in Dark Souls blocking often negates physical damage, and in Hyper Light Drifter projectiles can be deflected with timed slashes. But in no action game is just passively taking a hit supposed to be rewarded. Damage shields negate incoming damage but require an action from the player. Self healing is another avenue, one which is currently favored in the game's design and balance.

Recent content has been punishing, but older and especially solo content is not. This is due to the power creep introduced from soft cap removal in conjunction to the Champion System in Update 6. Optimal builds are leagues ahead of average builds and fathoms ahead of poor builds. We can make ESO punishing for optimal builds, but that just turns optimal builds into viable ones and viable builds into trash. While I think ESO is lacking in difficulty, it is lacking further in player power checks.

I promised myself to stick to ESO, through thick and thin, but each month I find less and less reason to stay. Hope keeps me looking to the horizon but every glance at the present is telling me to leave. I'll keep deluding myself for now. I don't want these two years to be a wash.