[
@ZOS_RichLambert ,
@ZOS_BrianWheeler ]
Hi guys, before I go on to all the changes from the patch notes I would just like to mention that I've been playing ESO
since 1.6 era (give or take 2 years) in PVP or in PVE at the highest level. Besides that, I have 6 max level characters and thus all
my judgement will be as non-biased as possible towards each class whether in PVP or PVE.
Reminder:
This thread will get updates until the official release of MorrowindFULL REVIEW VIDEO v3.0.0:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jge4FMpIORov3.0.1&2 + Item Sets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBrm7kp3pU
Timeline of video:
PVP Battleground - 1:20
Problem with Crafted Sets - 5:09
Cyrodiil Rewards - 8:40
Combat & Gameplay changes - 12:24
Dragon Knight - 21:10
Nightblade - 28:30
Templar - 31:20
Weapon, armor & alliance skills - 37:28
Races - 41:35
CP changes - 43:18
The Tower CP tree (MAJOR FLAW) - 48:53
Item Sets - 52:44
Outro - 57:14
As I mention in the video there are quite a few changes I agree upon & some game breaking changes that I am totally against of. I will only be mentioning the changes that are detrimental to the state of the game.
Remember that this post is not a rant post but a constructive post with facts & reasoning given. On top of that I will be giving the best solutions to all the problems to backup all my argument.
***VERY VERY IMPORTANT***Major Issues:I. The Tower CP tree
A total review to this CP tree is required! This is the most detrimental change to the game
The Tower
Magician:
Renamed this passive to Siphoner.
This passive ability now reduces the enemy’s Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery for 3 seconds when you damage them with a Light or Heavy Attack, instead of reducing the cost of your Magicka abilities.
Note: This is now the antithesis of Healthy, Arcanist, and Mooncalf.
Warlord: This passive ability now reduces the cost of Break Free, instead of reducing the cost of your Stamina abilities.
I believe giving resource sustain a nerf is necessity but with the
a. Reduction of effectiveness on all resource CP tree (15%: Mooncalf, Arcanist)
b. Nerf of resource sustain on ALL types of armor
c. Overall cost increase of ALL stamina skills (vigor by 30% as well)
d. Removal of Mag & stam reduction (Magician & Warlord)
e. Introduction of Siphoner which reduces enemy's recovery (Built in Poison that reduce ALL 3 form recovery for 3 SEC?! please think about it, that is 1 CP tree to counter 3 CP tree!!)
it will be an overkill to resource management. This will make sustaining in PVE & PVP will be extremely hard especially at the highest level.
For PVE: in vet maelstrom arena non top-tier players will suffer tremendously and in vmol or in the latest trial even the best guild will be getting a big big hit in terms of sustain
For PVP: It will be almost impossible to go up against outnumbered opponent because players can now use poison (30% cost increase) & siphoner CP tree (15% recovery reduction) against a solo or small scale group. Bear in mind break free & roll dodge is in different CP tree now so sustaining stamina will be even harder than ever. End of the day small scale/solo PVP will be dead in cyrodiil, zerg vs zerg will be the only option and cyrodiil performance will go downhill like usual.
MY SOLUTION:
Either 1)Keep the 15% reduction of Mooncalf & Arcanist, keep Magician & Warlord CP tree but nerf the % of cost reduction for both of them & remove 5% cost increase for stamina abilities
[This will be the best option for both PVE and PVP]
OR 2)Keep the 15% reduction of Mooncalf & Arcanist, remove the nerf of all armor cost reduction (constitution could use a small small nerf), remove Siphoner cp tree and replace it with something else [Siphoner CP tree has NO PLACE in the current state of PVP!!!] & remove 5% cost increase for stamina abilities
**Both of my solution will make sustain significantly harder since there are nerfs to all 4 mag&stam sustain CP tree. Addition to that by taking away other unnecessary cost reduction nerfs and the broken siphoner CP tree, sustain will be challenging but not to an extreme level.
II. Imbalance of Magicka VS Stamina Build
Magicka will definitely outperform Stamina builds in many many different aspects(in PVP and PVE). Reasons are stated below
a) Resource management & sustain
Stamina abilities are now universally 15% cheaper than their Magicka counterparts, originally being 20% cheaper. This includes class abilities that morph into Stamina abilities, in addition to the Weapon Skill Line passive abilities which reduce the cost of abilities in that Skill Line (Balanced Blade, Controlled Fury, etc.)
PVP: 5% increase for all stamina ability with the current nerf to all cost reduction(armor & CP) will make stamina build to run out stamina extremely fast. Do remember that stamina builds has less option towards reduction and recovery after the nerf to bone pirate. Magicka builds on the other hand has many good sets such as lich, amberplasm & the access to minor magicka steal which provide 600 magicka recovery.
PVE: This will further open up the gap between magicka and Stamina end game DPS. Magicka is already 90% preferred over stamina and with the current changes it will defo be 100%. With a heartbeat end game PVE guilds will only pick Magicka DDs anyday over Stamina DDs.
b) Shields will outperform ALL forms of healing
Reasoning due to
1) nerf to access to major mending classes
2) Increase of 30% cost of vigor
3) Bastion remains at 25% in CP tree while Quick Recovery, Blessed & EVEN HEALTH?! receives a nerf down to 15%
4) Shields are still affected by Major&Minor Protection (especially from pirate skeleton). 30% from major protect and shields are still non-critable as well!!
SOLUTION:Either 1) Reduce bastion to 15%, remove cost increase of vigor & remove major and minor protection to all forms of shield
OR 2) Keep bastion at 25%, increase Quick Recovery & Blessed to 25% and remove major and minor protection to all forms of shield
No matter what major & minor protection should never be able to apply to shields (many players already agree to this and many forum posts has been written as well)
III. Class BalancingDragon Knight
Earthen Heart
Battle Roar: This passive ability now restores an equal amount of Health, Magicka, and Stamina when you use an Ultimate ability, and the amounts are now based on your character level instead of your Max Resource(s).
Helping Hands: This passive ability now restores Stamina based on your character level instead of your Max Stamina.
Igneous Shield (Obsidian Shield morph): The Major Mending buff granted by this morph is now tied to your own damage shield. If the damage shield is removed, the Major Mending bonus will also be removed.
All the passive nerfs from dragon knight is uncalled for. Both magicka and stamina dragon will be the worst class compare to other classes if the current changes are made. (I've played this class as my true main so I am pretty confident to mention this)
Overkill Nerfs affecting DK:
a) BIG BIG resource issue
The bread and butter of sustaining on a DK is via battle roar, helping hands & ignoues shield. When ALL of them are nerfed DK are left with nothing for sustain
comparing to other classes:
- Mag Templar has minor magicka steal + rune focus + Restoring Spirit Passive(Reduces Magicka, Stamina and Ultimate ability costs by 4%)
- Stam Templar has repentence passive&active + Restoring Spirit Passive(Reduces Magicka, Stamina and Ultimate ability costs by 4%)
- Mag Sorcerer has Unholy Knowledge passive(5%mag and stamina reduction) + Capacitor passive (10% Mag recovery) + Dark Exchange (OP resource skill for morrowind) - CRAZY SUSTAIN
- Stam Sorcerer has Unholy Knowledge passive(5%mag and stamina reduction) + Dark Exchange (OP resource skill for morrowind)
- Mag Nightblade has Siphoning Strikes (even if it is nerfed) + Refreshing shadow passive(Increases Stamina, Health and Magicka Regeneration by 15%)
- Stam Nightblade has Siphoning Strikes (even if it is nerfed) + Refreshing shadow passive(Increases Stamina, Health and Magicka Regeneration by 15%) + relentless focus (8% stam regen)
If you check all the skills and passives of DK... the only thing left for any form of resource sustain is green dragon blood and that skill itself is a joke since the buff is available from potions...
b) Healing & surviving issue
- Igneous shield has to be up to obtain major mending. This change is one of the worst because the shield provided by igneous is around 2k to 3k in cyrodiil
which means 1 light attack or any DOT damage or any ground AOE damage could easily remove major mending from DK INSTANTLY. Bare in mind the only reason why any dragon knight would run igneous shield is to obtain major mending and passive from helping hands. With that being totally nerf down to the ground is like playing a stamina sorcerer without dark exchange.
[In simple words, NB has cloak and shadow image, sorc has streak and dark deal, templar and dk has major mending. If u take any of these away you disrupt the balance]
- BTW, vigor cost 30% more & ALL stamina abilities cost 5% more which hung stamina DK totally out to dry.
- Block cost is increase by 100% from 0.5secs to 0.25secs made life for magicka & stamina DK from bad to worst as well because DKs rely the most on blocking to reduce damage taken due to class passive.
SOLUTIONS:
Must DOs
-
Remove 3 of the nerfs from stamina DK and just reverted them to their original form or nerf all sustain passive passive and skills from other classes [I don't see the point of nerfing only 1 class but letting others have the same sustain skills and passives]
- Remove vigor 30%cost increase (reasons are mentioned in The Tower CP tree content as well)
Optional but recommanded
- Remove 5% cost increase for all stamina abilities
- Increase stamina block cost charged from 0.25 secs to 0.4 secs (still a nerf to blocking but reasonable)
Templar
Restoring Light
Mending: This passive ability now increases the healing done by Restoring Light abilities by 6/12% based on the target’s missing health, up from 5/10%.
Repentance (Restoring Aura morph): This morph now restores Health and Stamina based on your character level instead of your Max Resource. It also only restores Stamina to the casting Templar, but continues to restore Health to the casting Templar and his allies.
Rushed Ceremony: This ability and its morphs now heal friendly targets in a 180 degree cone in front of you, instead of all targets in a radius around you.
Sacred Ground: This passive ability now grants Minor Mending instead of Major Mending when you are standing in your Cleansing Ritual, Rune Focus, or Rite of Passage areas of effect.
Big blow on healing capabilities too much restriction and reduced effectiveness. Reliable CC for magicka templar is still not available.
a) Major Mending
I truly believe major mending is a MUST HAVE for templars especially stamina templar since templar has a FULL skill tree line focusing on healing. Another very strong argument to that point is to compare warden to templar.
Warden has such easy access to major mending yet templar has to put down a SMALL AOE ground buff (channel focus) to get only 4 secs of major mending when u leave it. The balance of it is simply not there.
In both PVP & PVE (vet trials) major mending is ESSENTIAL for any sort of serious healing! templar would lose too much of healing capability especially after the BIG nerf to both Quick Recovery & Blessed CP tree. To prevent a detrimental chain reaction it is a must have.
stamplar forum post:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/335916/side-effect-of-templars-nerf-good-bye-pvp-stamplars
[In simple words, NB has cloak and shadow image, sorc has streak and dark deal, templar and dk has major mending. If u take any of these away you disrupt the balance]
b) CONE + 180° aoe healing from Rushed Ceremony
This is going to be a big nerf in PVP and PVE
PVE forum post:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/335930/the-jokes-on-you-not-the-templar-healers-lol
basically healers in
PVE (End game vet trials) has so much to do (buffing, keeping everyone healthy, avoid red and 1 shot etc etc) to be effective in healing. So, when the restriction to quickly heal a teammate is limit only to 180° + CONE front facing is applied, healing a 12 men group in trials just got 10 times harder since positioning to avoid certain mechanics is already troublesome enough.
PVP on the other hand force templars to stay behind every party members to be able to heal effectively... It just forced templar to play the role as a healer in a group which is such a shame for everyone that wants to play a mix role templar(healing+doing damage). Playing templar as a killer while supporting teammate is practically impossible because puncturing jabs is totally out of the window since it is a melee skill.
SOLUTION:
Picture for explaination:

Either 1) Remove CONE and 180° nerf
OR 2) Remove CONE nerf and keep 180° nerf
Implementing both is too big of a nerf to that skill.
c) Reliable CC from Luminous Shards needed
Magicka templars have no reliable hard CC (Stun).
Changing the disorient from Luminous Shards to stun solves this issue easily
Read my full post on this issue before the nerf from last patch:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/311783/please-do-not-remove-the-stun-from-blazing-spear-skill-pvp-pve-point-of-viewd) Highly recommended changes
I. Return repentance to its original form.
No questions needed because it is one of the unique and effective skill for group play sustain for templar(FOR PVP & PVE!).
II.
Aedric Spear
Spear Shards: The synergy from this ability and its morphs now restore Stamina or Magicka, whichever percentage is lower. The amount restored is now based on your character level instead of your Max Resource. The synergy also has a shared cooldown with the Necrotic Orb synergy.
Luminous Shards (Spear Shards morph): This morph now causes the synergy to also restore an equal amount of Magicka or Stamina to the casting Templar, with a 20-second cooldown.
What is the point of having 2 skills that do the same thing?
Players want to choose which resource they need to restore by pressing certain synergy not by percentageNecrotic Orb =/= Spear shards, Orbs for magicka, shards for stamina, simple as that. Do not change something that is not broken!
Nightblade
Siphoning
Leeching Strikes (Siphoning Strikes morph): This morph now converts the ability into a Stamina ability and causes your Light and Heavy Attacks to restore Stamina based on your character level.
Siphoning Attacks (Siphoning Strikes morph): This morph now causes your Light and Heavy Attacks to also restore Magicka based on your character level.
Siphoning Strikes:
This ability now causes your Light and Heavy Attacks to restore Health instead of Magicka or Stamina.
Increased the duration of this ability and its morphs to 20 seconds from 15 seconds.
The changes for siphoning strikes is a hard nerf for magicka NB sustain on stamina department since many NBs prefer to go max magicka build to compensate the rigid rotation of merciless combo.
SOLUTION:
light and heavy attacks should restore mag & stam like intended before the patch.
Optional improvement for NightBlade:
Increase the duration of Grim Focus to 25 secs to provide NBs a longer burst opportunity or reduce the light & heavy attack counter to 3 to apply Assassin’s Will.
Sorcerer
Just a small tweak needed.
- Remove Major & Minor Protection buffs to be applied to shields (Read The Tower CP tree issue)
- Bastion CP tree should be lowered to 15% since it is an extremely strong CP tree for shield stacking class. This go hand in hand with the nerfs to Quick Recovery, Blessed & Health CP tree (Read The Tower CP tree issue too!)
- Lastly, FIX STREAK BUG!
That's all for me for now. It took me 5 hours to write this post & record this review video. Let everyone know what do u free about the v3.0.0 patch notes. If u disagree on what I mention lemme know as well I would gladly hear u out! Thanks for reading folks

ADDITION:
**Alcast**
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKUBXt4DIOQ
A really solid analysis from
@Alcast
only a very few things like pirate skeleton, troll king, Siphoner (RIDICULOUS CP TREE) & Bastion (STILL AT 25%?!!!!!!) were not mention. But all in all a very good straight to the point video! Highly recommended!!
**Gill on resource management(must watch!)**
**TL;DR version**
YT channel(Guides/Builds/gameplay)~ Crescent Jayren Gaming ~Glorious EP
Jayren - V16 MagBlade AR30
Crescent J'renz - V16 StamBlade AR46
Crescent Lucrecia - V16 MagSorc AR32
Courageous DC
Crescent Sephiroth - V16 StamDK AR50
Crescent Singu-rarity - V16 MagTemplar AR33
Relentless AD
Crescent the Tiny - V16 StamSorc AR10
Crescent-The-Huge-One - V16 MagWarden AR18