ZOS_GinaBruno: "We’d like to provide some clarity on why we made some of the changes we did, specifically to the Templar. Reading about some of these changes can be a bit jarring at first, and we highly suggest you to log onto the PTS to give it a try first-hand; this may help you see how everything works together and in context.

First, we want to reiterate why we’re making these global changes to abilities and resource management (and most of this will sound very familiar if you read the PTS patch notes). Our combat system features fast-paced action where resource management plays a large part in performing effectively. Player abilities in ESO specifically do not have cooldowns for this very reason - resource management is a core pillar of the system. Due to the number of balance changes we’ve made over time, this core pillar of resource management has become trivialized in that it’s become easier than ever to have nearly infinite sustainability while still being fully maximized for damage. The overall goal here is to have a combat system that reinforces decision making and resource management."

You're correct that you as developers, have allowed the game to stray from this core pillar of the combat system.

People have repeatedly told you over and over again that the champion point system is the cause. FENGRUSH is not someone I always agree with, but he explained it quite well in his Morrowind Patch Notes video. The champion point system is the cause because of not only the higher values, but because they're high values combined with flat values. The result was powercreep, and the trivialized resource management system.

The champion point system would be fine if the values were incredibly small values, even if they're flat values. The other problem is that the champion points did not share the same points. Magician and Arcanist were Green Points. Meanwhile, things like Elfborn and Elemental Expert were blue points. Simply because these pooled points did not share the same colored archetype, it made the choice between damage and sustain non-existent. You could pump your damage up ALL THE WAY >>>AND<<< your sustain ALL THE WAY without having to make meaningful consequential decisions. A lot of these bad changes in the patch could have been avoided by making it so Magicka related Sustain Nodes shared the same pool of points as the Magicka related Damage Nodes. The same regarding Stamina, and their damage/sustain nodes. Then players would have to make much more difficult and consequential decisions choosing between their sustain and damage. You would still be able to boost your damage by investing all your points into damage related CP nodes (at the cost of sustain). You could also go the opposite way, and have incredible sustain while sacrificing your damage. You could also balance it out between the two, depending on what you're seeking. The customization factor would have still been there if you would have went this route. Along with much smaller values of the CP nodes themselves. This entire catastrophe could have been avoided. But because you didn't go this route, over-time you adjusted skill costs, and all the NPC's armor/hp/damage values according to a flawed implementation of the CP system i noted above.

That is what this patch should have accomplished and should have been directed at. Not more heavy-handed nerfs to defining class abilities and mechanics. The classes were never the core issue.

If it were up to me, I would completely scrap the proposed Morrowind Patch Notes. I would shift the nodes of the CP tree's around as I described above. I would also reduce the values of the CP nodes themselves in order to "lower the ceiling." This is much easier than eliminating the CP system, and redesigning all world content to accommodate the heavy handed nerfs you're provided in this patch. But I have absolutely 0 faith in you as developers to properly diagnose the cause, and I have even less faith in you to dedicate the time and resources to these changes. Why? The proc set nerf made it quite clear that you, as developers, prefer to choose the easy "blanket nerf" approach rather than sitting down and putting the necessary work into the blatant flaws. Still to this day, that proc set nerf ruined so many armor sets which were already performing poorly. Now you expect us to go back to your original resource management pillar design, without considering all the other bad changes you've made in the past. We're going back to Year 1 sustain levels with content designed around the sustain levels which exist today on the live servers. Along with very limited gear diversity due to incorrect approach regarding the proc sets in the past patch.

On top of all the changes to sustain, you guys decided to nerf armor? Yet again, you fail to understand that the values provided from armor were not even the issue. Unnecessary overkill, on top of the CP changes you listed in the current patch.

Your proposed changes do make the game more challenging, but for the wrong reasons.


"With that being said, one of the main concerns we want to address is the worry that we’re nerfing Templars in order to make the Warden a stronger healing class, particularly by nerfing Major Mending and giving it to Wardens. We’ve made it so all classes have to meet conditional requirements to gain Major Mending. DK’s need to have their damage shields up, Wardens have to heal low health targets, and Resto Staff users have to complete a fully charged heavy attack. It’s also worth noting that we’re planning on adjusting the Warden passive, Accelerated Growth, because it’s currently too easy to keep it active for long periods of time."

I'm no stranger to voicing by disapproval of the Templar changes. But, I felt this statement needed to be singled out and dismantled directly. First, let's start with the fact that the Warden and the Templar are the only 2 classes in the game to have a direct class specific Healing line. If one class has access to it, so should the other. Having class specific healing lines means that these classes should excel at that role. This is your own fault for making classes with class specific healing lines. Templars and Wardens miss out on lots of potential goodies that are DPS, Crowd Control, Support, or Tanking related for having these skill lines. As such, these 2 classes should have access to the appropriate toolset necessary to fulfill that role.

You claim that all classes have to meet conditional requirements in order to gain major mending. Then you list the DK and Warden. I have 0 issues with the DK having Major Mending. I have 0 issues with the Warden having Major Mending. I believe it's implemented fairly well on both classes. I believe on wardens it synergizes with the nature of their heals well. I believe on DK's it's a great boon to their tankiness and survivability while still being implemented in a way so a DK Healer can exist and benefit from Igneous shield/Major Mending. Purely from a healing role, the warden looks to be a well designed class. As for Templar, I agree with you that 100% uptime is not an example of balance and I agree with that goal. But here's the problem... Your goal was to eliminate 100% up-time. Not eliminate the buff entirely from our toolset. What you did in your statement is say that we all need to meet conditional requirements for our class, to gain this skill. The DK and the Warden have to meet the conditional requirements, and that's fine (even though the Igneous shield changes are unnecessary). You basically told the Templars to go f*** themselves and grab a Restoration Staff as part of their conditional requirements. You told a class that already sacrifices potential in other area's by having a healing line, that they don't deserve the buff and they can use the inefficient Resto Heavy attack as their "conditional requirement." Meanwhile, the DK, who doesn't even possess such healing capabilities gets an instant shield which grants the buff. Then the warden gets it for free, without even having to cast an additional skill. Templars at least had to cast Extended Ritual to get the buff, prior to throwing out heals. Now warden's get the buff free of magicka cost? They get it just from healing passively?

You may not have intended to take from one class and give it to another. But, in reality, that is exactly what happened. Not only did you do that, but you gave the warden a better method of acquiring the buff. No, taking it away from the Warden will not suffice. It never should have been removed from templars to begin with. Finding a more balanced application of it was fine. But removing it entirely? That contradicts your statement of a >>CLASS<< meeting conditional requirements. Templars now have to equip certain >>WEAPONS<< to meet those requirements. Wardens? They aren't required to do so.

Please go do some tests with Resto Heavy Attack, and followup with a Heal. It's a very aggravating method of gaining Major Mending.

Don't even get me started on how badly this indirectly nerfs Stamina Templars, Templar Tanks, and Hybrid Templars.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. In the past, the reason you didn't give Templars access to Major Sorcery is because we had Major Mending. So, where's my Major Sorcery? Tic toc.




"If you’re worried that there’s no reason to play a Templar over a Warden, or any other class, keep in mind that Templars have a stronger single target burst heal that’s easier to aim (Rushed Ceremony), they have a faster healing spammable ability with Healing Ritual, and their Ultimate heal hits targets in a 28m radius instead of 8 meters. In addition, have also have a free heal with Repentance, can cleanse allies with the Cleansing Ritual synergy and can remove 5 effects from themselves. Rushed Ceremony is also still the strongest heal in ESO, so Templars still have a lot going for them."

I laughed a little. Yes, Templars do have the strongest burst healing in the game. GOOD. Why fix something that isn't broken? As for Healing Ritual, it's quite clear that you don't play healers. HEALING RITUAL WILL NEVER BE A VIABLE HEAL. Due to the fast pace nature of the game you like to keep throwing in our face. This heal will never compete with the Resto Staff and its' Healing Springs. Of all the abilities in the game, it's one deserving of being completely removed and replaced with something UNIQUE and Supportive to our team. Perhaps deleting this trash skill and replacing it with something fresh that also grants us Major Mending would be a viable solution (lightbulb)? Don't tell me you can't do this, because you didn't have a problem deleting Blinding Flashes.

Also, the reason that people don't really need to play a Templar anymore has less to do with their heals and more to do with the nerfs to Repentance and Shards. Now that Undaunted Orbs are basically Shards, and Repentance is useless. Why should I play a Templar? The defining class mechanics which made the Templar so good are now accessible to everyone. Including to the classes that don't lose any potential by having a dedicated healing line.

"Lastly, we know there’s some apprehension that we’re balancing PvE and PvP gameplay simultaneously without separating the two. We are 100% committed to supporting a single unified game where mechanics and abilities work consistently, with the goal being for players to learn how play efficiently and be able to transfer those skills to other environments. This is one of the reasons we added CC immunities to monsters; when ESO originally launched, you could knock the same mudcrab down over and over. The balance changes we made in this update are aimed at making gameplay more interesting in all areas of the game."

I have no problem with this statement.
"Again, we encourage everyone to hop on the PTS and give these changes a try in both PvE and PvP scenarios rather than just reading about the changes. Once you’ve had a chance to try everything out, we’d love to hear your feedback about what you played."

I've lost the incentive to do such a thing. Everybody knows that any changes you propose in the PTS have a 90%+ chance of remaining. At the most, small tweaks are made.

Your company needs to rethink how you implement patches, giving the players more time to test these things, so that bad changes can be reversed or avoided.

Moving on... I'd like to share a post from Ron_Burgundy_79 whom has articulated a good list as a starting point of problems for Templars.

1. Templars have the worst passives of all the classes. You could argue DK is worse now to the massive battle roar and helping hands nerf. Templars best passive was major mending. Prior to major mending being implemented, Templars had a straight 30% bonus to healing in our passives. Templars also had a passive a long time ago that restored a certain percentage of max magicka every time we used a skill. All of these passives have now been nerfed/removed.
2. Templars are forced to slot multiple skills to gain what other classes already have as passives (repentance gives 10% boost to recovery).
3. Templars have an entire skill line dedicated to healing/support that has been gutted by the current patch notes.
4. Templars don't have a reliable cc. Blinding flashes was removed. Blazing spear doesn't stun anymore. Luminous shards is a disorient which is terrible for a class relying on dots to buff (entropy/reflective light)
5. Templars don't have access to major sorcery or major brutality through class skills or passives.
6. Templars best defensive skill, extended ritual, recieved a huge cost increase when purifying ritual was changed to ritual of retribution. Extended ritual was then given purifying's removal if 5 negative effects after Templars flooded the forums with rage.
7. Templar ultimates are terrible. Rememberance is ok in PvP, nova has it's uses in PVE, and crescent sweep is alright for stamplars. The problem with all of these ultis is that they are second rate ultis compared to those that other classes/skill lines have.
8. Our dps spammable, puncturing sweeps, used to provide a significant hot. That hot has been nerfed multiple times (can't double crit + affected by battle spirit) and is now being hit again with nerf to major mending.
9. Healing ritual is terrible. No one uses it. It's designed to be our AOE heal but the cast time makes it horrible.
10. Dark flare is our hardest hitting ability. It has a cast time and a ridiculous travel time. It's early dodgeable and interruptible. It's suicide to use against anyone that know what he or she is doing.
11. Solar barrage might be the most worthless skill in the game. Hell, most people don't even know what it is.
12. Radiant destruction has been nerfed multiple times making radiant glory absolutely useless.
13. Our class shield scales off of max health. It's worthless to anyone other than a full max health build.
14. Toppling charge has been broken for years. It rarely works, it's dodgeable, and at least 25% of the time the casting templar becomes stuck in the animation.

I know there's plenty that I've missed, but that's the best I can do while at work. Feel free to dissect these points.

Since the launch of ESO the Templar has gradually evolved beyond its intended design as a class. The Templar, according to ZOS, is intended to be at its strongest when inside their "House." What ZOS is referring to is the nature of Templar gameplay, and how they place ground and duration based buffs/heals to support themselves and their allies. It's also referring to the nature of their offensive and defensive capabilities. When inside their "house" the templar is suppose to be bolstered in all aspects. Their healing, their defense, and even their offense. They're also intended to provide support for their allies in the form of restoring resources. The recent nerfs homogenized the Spear Shards ability, by granting all classes access to this unique Templar design concept via the changes to Undaunted Orbs. Albeit, Spear Shards is still slightly better. But this does not discredit the fact that the independent and unique design behind Templars is no longer independent or unique. The changes to Repentance also further validate what I am saying here. As Repentance no longer replenishes Stamina to allies, but instead, only to the Templar itself. These 2 changes alone were monumental, as the support engraved into the Templar design has taken a fatal blow. Consider these facts as we delve further into this analysis, and you begin to realize the compounding issues that Templar's face in the past, present, and future.

Most people immediately look at skills such as Rune Focus and Cleansing Ritual, in order to see how this relates to the intended "house" design ZOS has chosen for the templar. Cleansing Ritual, is/was one of the Templar's strongest support/defensive skills. The loss of Major Mending for Templar's in the Morrowind patch notes is a greatly detrimental but huge example of the gradual transition away from their core design. As time persists, the skills and abilities which make that core design focus possible are losing their effectiveness offensively and defensively. Some of the changes were small, and some were beyond excessive. This specific skill still has its strengths, such as the cleanse and the synergy provided via the morphs. However, we cannot look at one skill in their arsenal as being evidence of the "house" design as being a success.

We must consider how Templars can combine skills in order to determine their potency and effectiveness in relation to the "house" design. If the "house" is going to work, then the skills across all 3 skill lines need to reinforce this design concept in order for it to be truly effective. Currently the skill lines do not achieve this design concept, and it IS on record that ZOS built the templar to fulfill this design concept. Intention and execution are two fundamentally different things.

Templars - Intentional Lack of Mobility by Design

The philosophical approach behind it is that the Templar is suppose to essentially create their own relatively small battle arena to bolster themselves, their allies, and even punish their enemies. As such, the templar requires potent healing, defensive, offensive, and supportive capabilities in order to offset the lack of mobility/escape mechanisms. They need to utilize the strengths of their house, and stay inside of it. The templar's allies in gameplay should also be highly incentivized to enter the Templar's house to bolster themselves as well. Enemies should also be highly discouraged to enter the Templar's House, and enemies of the templar should also have an incentive to kick the Templar out of their house to reduce his effectiveness. Most of the skills of the Templar, among all 3 skill lines, do not reinforce such gameplay. Allies have little incentive to be close to the Templar, and enemies truly do not fear going near them (at least in PVP). In PVE, NPC's should be at a greater disadvantage for being in the Templar's "house.'

Here are some other points of consideration:
-Templars have the weakest passives in the game. Often requiring to slot specific skills to makeup the difference that other classes gain passively.
-Templars ultimates do not reinforce such gameplay, and they're also subpar compared to numerous other classes ultimates (and even world skill lines ultimates)
-Templars have 2 offensively based skill lines, and 1 healing/support line. There does exist some defensive abilities, but they're incredibly few. This is a fundamental issue which helps prevent the Templar from being able to excel at at their intended design concept.