I appreciate the development notes as well as several of the changes this patch but there are still some issues I have with it as well.

The Strife nerf was highly unnecessary. I don't even mean just from a DPS standpoint but from a tank and healer standpoint as well. NB tanks and healer already play 2nd fiddle to DK tanks and Templar healers and this nerf doesn't help that at all. From a DPS standpoint, the skill was just barely worth using in comparison to Force Pulse because it was cheap enough to justify using but now the difference between the 2 is hardly enough to justify its use at all. Even with the changes to Path, Impale and Destruction staves that can potentially help out Magblade, possibly the only area a Magblade will excel at is self sustain, which is nice but impractical in endgame content not called vMA. DK and Templar all have great utility and Sorc damage is at an all time high but Magblades really bring nothing to the table. They have offheals and Veil but considering the pitiful radius of Veil, you're better off bringing another Templar for Nova and offheals than a Magblade. Tanks already have Maim running with Heroic Slash so Shades are a weak DoT skill with no practical use and after the changes to them, their PvP utility has taken a heavy hit because they pull you from stealth now.

Stamina got hit hard across the board. Sure, Stamplars got a new toy or 2 to mess around with but considering the nerf to Trap as well as Major and Minor force changes, Stamina just cannot compete with Magic DPS at endgame at all anymore. Magic DPS have everything under the sun (Survivability, AoE damage, good ranged damage) while stamina just gets weaker. PvP is different ofc but considering that PvP has devolved into "whom ever procs 1st win" it's not possible to get an effective gauge of Stamina's performance there either. I'm just not happy about it.

I just want a couple of changes to help NB and Stamina out overall.

I know ZOS said they were working on Grim Focus so I won't bring it up but as for the rest of NBs tools

1) Concealed Weapon - Have this increase crit rating/damage for slotting it. The improved movement speed, while nice isn't enough of an improvement over the base skill and is completely overshadowed by Surprise Attack in every way.

2) Shades - Remove the 30% penalty to the dual shade morph, they're weak enough as is without that penalty further limiting their use. Up the overall damage by 10%, minimum.

3) Debilitate - Give it to Stamblades. Serious, they are lacking a good DoT and with the nerf to Trap, they are in desperate need of it.

4) Power Extraction - Make it an AoE DoT, let it give empower, have it do SOMETHING to help Stamblade in PvE for the love of god. Hell, expand the range a little so that people at least look at this skill for use in an AoE situation.

5) Strife - Up the healing component from 25% to 30%. The cost increase needs some form of compensation and while I'm not against a damage increase, I'll settle on a heal increase.

6) Consuming Darkness Up the radius, drastically. Compare Standard, Nova and Negate in size and it really becomes apparent that Consuming needs some love. The fact that it's a PBAoE also doesn't help the small radius it has as you have to practically need to stand on top of mobs to effectively use it.

Now on to Stamina.
1) Circle of Protection - Give it a HoT or a DoT. The skill has potential as a support skill but it needs that little extra push to make it actually useful enough to be worth slotting. Making it either a HoT or DoT would really help out as it becomes a great support ability for stamina players while also boosting their overall survivability and/or damage output in AoE situations.

2) Bone Shield - Let it scale off Stamina. This was the 1 change I was really looking forward to when they 1st announced they would. Sadly, ZOS decided against it but I'm still going to advocate they rethink that decision and make it scale off stamina. It would help survivability in trials for Stamina builds so they aren't a complete liability. And before anyone says it would make them too powerful in PvP, that's a load of rubbish and here's why. You would need to invest pretty much 100 points into Bastion to even make Bone Shield worth it in PvP which means you lose out on the Unchained passive from the Lady Constellation, which is HUGE. It essentially becomes a choice between sustain and survivability and I know that I would be hard pressed to let Unchained go for 1 shield, especially since it would mean lowering my CP in other important resistances as well.

3) Trapping Web - This entire skill needs to be reworked. A 5 second delay for a cheap payoff that is likely to miss due to the enemy moving out of its poor radius is just awful. It's called Trapping Webs but any moron can get out of it with a simple side step because it's outright pitiful. Either make it a ranged AoE immobilize with a half decent radius or make it so that I throw the web on a target which deals a Poison DoT with a bigger burst tick at the end of its duration.

Those are just some thoughts. I realize that this is a little late in the PTS but I figured I'd add my 2 cents in.

@ZOS_GinaBruno Dragon's Blood is keeping the ability to crit heal from the earlier PTS patch notes, right?

Fatalyis wrote: »

mr_wazzabi wrote: »

No comments on reason for strife nerf? Just cancel the nerf already! Nb tanks and dw dps need the low cost

Sorcs complain about Haunting Curse.....ZoS listens

DKs complain about Coagulating Blood....ZoS listens

NBs complain about Strife....*crickets*

No one complains about Templar Blazing Spear Stun.... ZoS changes!

Been stated before and I'll say it again: please reconsider stamina PvE DPS nerfs. Next patch is the meteor that will wipe out all the stamina dinosaurs in trials

Alliance War:
Updated the prices on the War Enchanter's offerings to make them less enticing as a way to convert Alliance Points into gold.

But wasn't this a good thing? Having the conversion more enticing means more players will perhaps want to go out to Cyrodiil to get Alliance Points. In turning providing more PvP opportunities.

Annalyse wrote: »

Really, if you are going to add the non-set crafting stations to the crown store then you should make them available for direct purchase via gold in the game also. It's going to take so long just to get simple things like that already for people without multiple master crafters.

The stations are tradable, meaning you can buy them with gold from guild traders.

trbrelinskib14_ESO wrote: »

Nice patch notes. I like the dev comments.

After reading through the comments...

Wow, just wow on the kneejerk reactions people are having to the changes... Oh no, stamina is DEAD!!!! AHHHH, my life is ruined.. really?

It's interesting that people are complaining the devs are doing kneejerk reactions for balance, when they themselves are doing the same thing. See how it plays out in reality and then make a comment. Might want to take a step back and breath a bit...

As far as people not playing certain kinds of characters...because now it's perceived those types are useless... I'll still play whatever I want to play. I don't crunch numbers or min/max stuff. I just mess with things and see what the results are. I'm a solo player and my stamina characters work just fine in PVE... I prefer the stamina kind of play style...I really don't like how the staves work in the game...never have. Would really like to actually use a staff in melee combat... you know a monk kind of character... Would love a unarmed combat skill line and a spear/staff skill line... but I digress...

Anyway, who cares if I don't have the perfect combo of skills on my bar. It works for me and that's all that matters. I'm not copying someone's build to min/max crap. I play my characters my way... I don't run around copying "the best build"... so what if my characters might be 5%, 10%, 20%, etc. less effective than the theoretical limit. If it works in play that's good enough for me. And if some groups wouldn't want me to play with them... so be it. I have no desire to hang around munchkin players anyway.

I really don't think the devs are as stupid as some people seem to think they are. They made the changes based on the stats they see in the background. So try it out and see how it works. And if it really is that bad, then post a bug or suggestion on the forums with actual data and screenshots or a video so it doesn't just sound like you are complaining because your favorite build isn't the best and someone else's build now is equal to yours. They just might listen a bit more if it doesn't just sound like an emotional rant.

Stamina is useless for endgame content. That's where the complaints come from.

You could literally run around naked punching things and still complete most casual content. That's not a good measure of balance.

trbrelinskib14_ESO wrote: »

Nice patch notes. I like the dev comments.

After reading through the comments...

Wow, just wow on the kneejerk reactions people are having to the changes... Oh no, stamina is DEAD!!!! AHHHH, my life is ruined.. really?

It's interesting that people are complaining the devs are doing kneejerk reactions for balance, when they themselves are doing the same thing. See how it plays out in reality and then make a comment. Might want to take a step back and breath a bit...

As far as people not playing certain kinds of characters...because now it's perceived those types are useless... I'll still play whatever I want to play. I don't crunch numbers or min/max stuff. I just mess with things and see what the results are. I'm a solo player and my stamina characters work just fine in PVE... I prefer the stamina kind of play style...I really don't like how the staves work in the game...never have. Would really like to actually use a staff in melee combat... you know a monk kind of character... Would love a unarmed combat skill line and a spear/staff skill line... but I digress...

Anyway, who cares if I don't have the perfect combo of skills on my bar. It works for me and that's all that matters. I'm not copying someone's build to min/max crap. I play my characters my way... I don't run around copying "the best build"... so what if my characters might be 5%, 10%, 20%, etc. less effective than the theoretical limit. If it works in play that's good enough for me. And if some groups wouldn't want me to play with them... so be it. I have no desire to hang around munchkin players anyway.

I really don't think the devs are as stupid as some people seem to think they are. They made the changes based on the stats they see in the background. So try it out and see how it works. And if it really is that bad, then post a bug or suggestion on the forums with actual data and screenshots or a video so it doesn't just sound like you are complaining because your favorite build isn't the best and someone else's build now is equal to yours. They just might listen a bit more if it doesn't just sound like an emotional rant.

Who cares about how you play? The complaints are directed towards end game content where there is a significant (and proven) difference in performance between magicka and stamina.

Nobody is talking about solo PvE casual gameplay, everything works there anyway.

Mayrael wrote: »

Awesome changes Strife - its more of a fix than nerf, this skill is spamable, barely visible, gives HOT, and it hits stronger than force shock so... Yes magblades are underperforming a bit but making one skill op is not the way to change it. Its a good and fair change.

No, force pulse hits harder than Strife. most magblades use force pulse over strife for most content (with the exception of VMA and PvP) the cost increase is bad in general.

itscompton wrote: »

CyrusArya wrote: »

CaptainVenom wrote: »

Well the skill is a spectral dagger, not a javelin, you know...

Fine. Thats how you impale someone from a distance. With a table tennis paddle.

That looks like a lot less than 28m, and a channel time to boot.

What in the actual, that video holy.........

Shadzilla wrote: »

Still no stamina love for pve??? @ZOS_GinaBruno You guys should make another icon on leaderboards right beside class that indicates Mag or Stam. Then take a look and give your head a shake when u see 90-95% Mag toons on the leaderboards.

Wierd, I have a feeling like we would play two different games... Most people of my vet trial raid groups are melee or bow users with about 3-4 magicka users. And it's always the same no matter which raid/guild/group I join. So people complaining about stamina efficiency should stop spread lies.

As far as I remember after DB update stamina characters were considered stronger and they were being taken to vet trial groups more willingly. Please, enlighten me then what has changed since DB that made stamina users weaker than magicka ones? After DB people were complaining about imbalance between magicka and stamina (that magicka is weaker). That's why we were hoping for some balance changes. And as we expected magicka users finally got some love and it was obvious that such love will be given at the expense of stamina. It just had to happen. With previous updates stamina users got many buffs and people were happy they got something. And now, when there are some tweaks to magicka, stamina users claim that they are totally ruined/useless... I'm curious then, if stamina is so bad right now why the dps requirements for many end game guilds are always higher by about 5k for stamina than for magicka?

My point is why people always need to complain about something? I think that ZOS will never ever satisfy players in a way that both magicka and stamina users will say that they are both good.

Tyrion87 wrote: »

Shadzilla wrote: »

Still no stamina love for pve??? @ZOS_GinaBruno You guys should make another icon on leaderboards right beside class that indicates Mag or Stam. Then take a look and give your head a shake when u see 90-95% Mag toons on the leaderboards.

Wierd, I have a feeling like we would play two different games... Most people of my vet trial raid groups are melee or bow users with about 3-4 magicka users. And it's always the same no matter which raid/guild/group I join. So people complaining about stamina efficiency should stop spread lies.

As far as I remember after DB update stamina characters were considered stronger and they were being taken to vet trial groups more willingly. Please, enlighten me then what has changed since DB that made stamina users weaker than magicka ones? After DB people were complaining about imbalance between magicka and stamina (that magicka is weaker). That's why we were hoping for some balance changes. And as we expected magicka users finally got some love and it was obvious that such love will be given at the expense of stamina. It just had to happen. With previous updates stamina users got many buffs and people were happy they got something. And now, when there are some tweaks to magicka, stamina users claim that they are totally ruined/useless... I'm curious then, if stamina is so bad right now why the dps requirements for many end game guilds are always higher by about 5k for stamina than for magicka?

My point is why people always need to complain about something? I think that ZOS will never ever satisfy players in a way that both magicka and stamina users will say that they are both good.

First: Look @ leaderboard ask the guilds how many stam setups they run, than think again.

Stam can clear the content, but underperform in competetiv play. Of course pug groups Run stam and there are many (new) players Who like the play as stam. But if you want to run the content in a competetiv environment you need magika and thats it. Magika give have shield and aoe without loosing st dps.

Syiccal wrote: »

no love for stamplar sustain..really!!

Your kidding right? Stamplars just got the biggest buff of their lifetime. Jabs spammable (reduced cost equals less stamina drain) , jabs cant be dodged, super fast javelin. Do you think before you speak?