Hi ZoS! I know you folks work hard on balance changes, I know you have good intentions, and I know we as a player base have been wrong on so many things in the past. All true, however Eclipse needs some reform. I doubt any player on NA PC has used this ability more than I have. Easily over 10,000 casts. I know what made it interesting, useful, and what made it frustrating. Templars who care about efficiency or effectiveness will not use the version on the PTS.

Eclipse on the next patch on my Templar here:



Let’s look at the two morphs:
Total Dark is the reflect morph. If the target uses a projectile ability, the target takes the damage and the Templar is healed for a flat amount. The effect can be cleansed, purged, and broken by CC break, upon which the target is afforded CC immunity. If the spell ends or is CC broke, there is an AOE explosion for a flat amount. If cast on any CC immune target (including elite NPCs), the reflect portion is suppressed, although the explosion debuff is still active.



This spell has the highest cost in the game. Its primary function always can be defeated by anyone via CC break and does not impede most of the attacks a Templar will face. It’s only virtue is the damage, AoE and undodgeable, which is OK, the modest amount over nearly 7 seconds for such a high magicka cost is unacceptably bad. This spell is only useful is against non-elite NPC casters, which are pathetic opponents.

Unstable Core is the explosion morph. It offers nothing in the way of defense. Potentially interesting, as the target has no way of knowing this. It thus focuses on the most reliable feature of the spell, damage. As it is AOE and undodgeable, there is a potential value for it – although it can be cleansed and purged away. Offering no defense, its damage must be good enough to be worthwhile. It’s not.



The closest comparable is the Haunting Curse Spell, the new ability that many Sorcerer players have indicated a strong dislike for. If sorcerers compared it to Unstable Core, they would be ecstatic. Here is my sorcerer with virtually identical stats and the same gear as my Templar:



Here is Haunting Curse. And again Unstable Core for comparison.




Nor is that all. Aside from being over 1,000 magicka cheaper and doing more damage in a shorter time, the Curse has a free echo effect exploding again. And the Curse is unblockable. And the Curse cannot give the opponent free CC immunity. And look at this: the Templar has the only passive in the game that makes an ability worse!



So, Curse:

• Can’t be blocked.
• Can’t be used for CC immunity.
• Costs 2000 magicka
• With just one action
• To do 23,300 direct damage to the target and more than 10,000 AoE damage in 12 seconds

Meanwhile Unstable Core

• Can be blocked
• Can grant CC immunity without being CCed
• Will cost 6,300 magicka
• With two actions
• To do 18,600 AoE damage over the span of 14 seconds

That’s unequivocally terrible. Mind you, this is the better morph of Eclipse!. Unstable Core's one advantage is that it can be cast multiple times, but if i wanted a ranged AoE spammable, why wouldn't I use the new Elemental Ring, which: costs 1000 less, cannot be purged, has an extra 10% spell penetration, returns magicka on a kill, and does damage immediately as opposed to waiting 7 seconds? Total Dark is very inefficent.

OK, but what about the reflect morph, isn’t that useful?

In short: It used to be situational useful because it once reflected “any-single target spell.” It is not now.

It loses to this ability:


Opponents cannot defeat it. Opponents are actually CC’d by it. Opponents have a hard time seeing this. It has good blocking passives that are always active.

In long:
Why did I use it over 10,000 times if it wasn’t very good?

In short: To be different

In long:
What do I suggest?

I know ZoS tries and tests this stuff out and, sorry to say this ESO Community, their track record of balancing is better than ours. It is. Tanking has not disappeared. Templar “houses” were indeed mighty. Oh, yeah, they should not have listened to us with the destroy ultimate. But I am right here. Eclipse is a terribly inefficient DPS wise and its defensive morph is too situational and too easily defeated by opponents. In my opinion the spell should be completely overhauled to just offer the Templar some unique defensive and, ehem, CC component. Hell, I would just as soon remove it and bring back Blinding Flashes.

But that’s for the future. For Patch 13, take it from someone who has used this ability over 10,000 times: return the original functionality of the spell, which was already underwhelming, and then augment it. So:

• Both morphs now reflects “all spells.” All of them. Just like it did before. Including ultimates. Don’t tell me this is overpowered. Templars know their own spells better than you. Most of them ignored this for good reason. You can always CC break it without any special gear or abilities and you get CC immunity for doing so.
• The Total Dark morph would work the same way it does now, it heals the Templar for a flat amount upon reflection and explodes for a moderate amont of damage when expiring or CC broke.
• The Unstable Core morph would work as it did before, it reflects, but does not heal the Templar. Instead its explosion is for higher damage

So, how to augment it? I would suggest going one, and only one, of these routes.

• Cheaper cost: It’s way too expensive as is
• Increase the damage: It does too little for the cost as is.
• Better defensive benefits: either reflect every attack in the game (excluding bosses), a lingering debuff on opponent or buff on Templar, some sort of associated Heal over Time/Damage over time depending on the morph, etc.
• Make it a “smart” debuff. What I mean is that currently on the PTS, if this is cast on an opponent with CC immunity or who is blocking, the reflect is suppressed for the entirety of the spell. This really hurts the spell’s viability. However, if this suppression was removed when an opponent lost CC immunity, this makes for very interesting counter-play. An opponent under this spell would have to be cognizant of when the immunity was lost and thus be able to break it again. This would go some ways to mitigating the most frustrating aspect of the spell for a Templar, the free CC immunity granted to an opponent. The CC is still free, but now at least the opponent must pay attention.
• Have it bypass block and make CC breaking it increase the damage. This increases the opportunity cost of the easiest counter.

There is one thing you absolutely should not do that is what some Templars may suggest: mess around with the CC mechanic. I will say right now, if opponents are not allowed to CC break this spell, it would be stupid OP. Similarly, if CC immunity was not granted for the action of a CC break – something very expensive, in particular to magicka based opponents that are most effected by Eclipse – it would also be too OP.

I’m sure other Templars will give redesign suggestions (and for good reason, this spell has been terrible since the IC patch and templars hate it), that’s fine, knock yourself out ZoS and give us something interesting in the future. But please, while you are mulling that over, also revert Eclipse so it is not a waste for Update 13. You don’t have to redesign it or test it since it was in the game for over a year!