Aren't patches supposed to fix things tho?

So, in theory, the latest patch should be preferable.....in theory

fix things after new content

I miss softcaps, but I can't even remember when they were removed. It was such a long time ago...

Magus wrote: »

Softcaps kept cheesey builds to a minimum. Without CP, you couldn't be max damage and max sustain, so resource management was a thing in fights. Less cheese DPS proc sets. Skill mattered more, not who had the cheesier gear.

They also made racial passives not so important. People could pick any race and, with the right setup, reach the softcaps.
It was great, and lore-friendly too if you consider "the right setup" to be how the game play reflects "time and dedication" in-character.

Gonna be honest.

Patch 1.5 I absolutely loved and in my opinion Update six screwed everything due to the removal of Soft Caps. Many people don't know how much of an impact it had on the game and how much it thinned out Build Variety in PvP causing 80% of players to use the same build for their class as it was most effective.

It screwed Build Diversity so much and I'm still annoyed about it tbh.

Patch 1.5 and prior had limits on player power. Min-maxing was minimized and players could slap any combination of abilities, weapons and armor they liked together and still be relatively competitive. Cap removal, over-tuning and the favoritism towards min-maxing has destroyed combat balance and diversity. Hinted at in past updates, all but confirmed in update 12: their direction of "balancing" is towards making optimizing easier.

Min-maxing is what theorycrafters do. Finding that little bit of extra power is what makes them giddy -- 40% soft caps at what are now low numbers made finding that bit of extra power difficult, but not impossible. Min-maxing creates the optimal build(s) for a game, and players gravitate towards what is optimal - especially in a competitive environment - and so the developers have to balance around the optimal builds. The result is what were optimal builds become viable, and what were viable builds become trash.

But min-maxing isn't the only issue with our combat-centric game's combat system. Update 6 reinvented the wheel ...except it reinvented half of it. The foundation has been partially replaced, and the rest is repurposed towards a design it was never intended for: one without limits.

Add to that the Devs reluctance to incorporate skill checks into the game (Molag Bal nerf, Doshia nerf, Vet zones nerf, etc.) and we have a dull, repetitive and thought-numbing combat experience in a game half about combat.


Extra watching about min-maxing:

It doesn't matter because i will take a long break when bf1 and skyrim special edition drop, maybe a 2 month break.
I will also take a longer break when red dead 3 gets released.