Volatile Familiar's Pulse damage was nerfed by 20% with Morrowind Early Access

Transairion · May 2017

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/345258/pc-mac-patch-notes-v3-0-5-morrowind-update-14#latest

Summon Volatile Familiar (Summon Unstable Familiar morph): Reduced the damage done by this morphs’ special ability by 20%.
Developer Comments:
The amount of area of effect damage Sorcerers currently put out is too high, so reducing the effectiveness of this ability will bring them more in-line with other classes.

Could any kind soul theorycraft using previous data whether or not this keeps Familiar's DPS higher than pre-bugfix? At a glance it would be higher than before still (since it wasn't a 50% nerf or anything) but if anyone can theorycraft (until servers are Live again, that is) in the meantime and put my mind at ease I'd be most grateful.

For clarity, this was the bugfix that made Volatile Familiar the meta:

Summon Volatile Familiar (Summon Unstable Familiar morph):
Increased the duration of this pet’s special ability to 8 seconds from 4 seconds, causing it to pulse for two extra ticks of damage.
Fixed an issue where the damage from this morph’s special ability was not being increased by Daedric Prey.

Before this Familiar Pulses didn't benefit from Prey's +55% boost and Familiar along with the rest of the pets were still considered gimmick skills hardly anyone used. After the fix stacking max magicka, crit, and using Prey empowered Familiar Pulses to extremely high levels of output, creating the "Pet Sorc Meta". This 20% nerf is a direct answer to overperformance lately.

I'd also like to take the opportunity, as a Combat Pet lover to thank ZOS for only nerfing Familiar Pulse (the only thing actually at fault) and not trying to nerf other things... like Prey, or Necropotence which would've also nerfed underperforming OTHER combat pets (Twilight/Antronach come to mind). You've kept my respect for not going nuts with it.

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I'm hopeful this 20% nerf on Pulse damage is enough to pull Volatile Familiar from meta status while leaving it accepted as viable.

ADarklore · May 2017

They won't (at least not right now) nerf Necropotence because it will probably be one of the most popular sets for Magicka Wardens. I was also glad to see Familiar only got nerfed 20%... which is significant but not build-breaking.

Aedaryl · May 2017

There is good and bad things for pet sorc this patch :

Nerfs :

- Pets receive 50% less healing in PvP
- The new cps mechanics make pet shield less powerfull in PvP

For the Scamp, I think the nerf is just perfect, the scamp is now balanced, and should deal a bit less damage than liquid lightning.

Buff :

- We can control pets with heavy attacks

This include storm atonach, which attaked the nearest ennemi without control to make him change target. This is a very good fix for PvP : You can use atronach and make him good, because he will not swich target all the time, you can now focus one ennemy with it (very important when you use deadric prey).

Erasure · May 2017

I think it'll accomplish the aim of depopularizing the skill from must-have to can-have. It would reduce the total DPS of a devoted Necropotence build by 3% or so in single-target, reducing Pulse's contribution to be similar to or lightly lower than Liquid Lightning. I'd say that's fair, considering it has advantages such as tracking assigned targets or stunning things AoE. I'm glad they didn't reduce the AoE radius.

Homestead Ilamb/Necro/Moondancer/vMA parse for reference:

Chilly-McFreeze · May 2017

I think it would have been better to adjust the extra dmg of scamp's pulse with daedric prey. Just like they handle it with the atro ulti. Not only because that is the root of the issue it also wouldn't have concerned people who use that pet without prey.

Aedaryl · May 2017

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

I think it would have been better to adjust the extra dmg of scamp's pulse with daedric prey. Just like they handle it with the atro ulti. Not only because that is the root of the issue it also wouldn't have concerned people who use that pet without prey.

There is no reason to play the pet without pray, also, nerfing prey would nerf all pets.

leepalmer95 · May 2017

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

I think it would have been better to adjust the extra dmg of scamp's pulse with daedric prey. Just like they handle it with the atro ulti. Not only because that is the root of the issue it also wouldn't have concerned people who use that pet without prey.

Aedaryl wrote: »

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

I think it would have been better to adjust the extra dmg of scamp's pulse with daedric prey. Just like they handle it with the atro ulti. Not only because that is the root of the issue it also wouldn't have concerned people who use that pet without prey.

There is no reason to play the pet without pray, also, nerfing prey would nerf all pets.

Exactly the scamp special attack was the main problem with pet sorc's dps being so high.

It's a fair change they won't break pet sorc's

Chilly-McFreeze · May 2017

The pulse per se is not the problem. It only becomes an issue when you combine it with the +55% of daedric prey. Before the bug fix, in times when prey didn't affect the pulse, familiars weren't out of line.

Also I didn't say "nerf prey". I suggested to tweak the prey/ pulse combo after the model prey interacts with the atronach ultimate. That means that the +55% on both twilights and clannfear remains the same, also the +40% to atronachs would remain. Only the %-bonus damage to pulse needs a tweak.

There would be no collateral damage. Twilights, Clannfear, Atronach and familiars basic attack would've remained the same. Also familiars puls without prey wouldn't take a hit. It would only affect the problematic pulse + prey combo.

STEVIL · May 2017

I agree. The problem hit with prey. Prey was single target dam boost for scamp. They need the overall AOE with this change, not just the single target.

Wrong chug but hey.. Still ok.

OutLaw_Nynx · May 2017

So nothing really changed?

SirDopey · May 2017

Erasure wrote: »

I think it'll accomplish the aim of depopularizing the skill from must-have to can-have. It would reduce the total DPS of a devoted Necropotence build by 3% or so in single-target, reducing Pulse's contribution to be similar to or lightly lower than Liquid Lightning. I'd say that's fair, considering it has advantages such as tracking assigned targets or stunning things AoE. I'm glad they didn't reduce the AoE radius.

Homestead Ilamb/Necro/Moondancer/vMA parse for reference:

Personally I think this shows that the pulse damage from the scamp was under performing and needed buffing. Considering it requires 2 skill slots to use it's DPS output should be equal to the combined dps of blockade and crushing shock

Transairion · May 2017

Also I didn't say "nerf prey". I suggested to tweak the prey/ pulse combo after the model prey interacts with the atronach ultimate. That means that the +55% on both twilights and clannfear remains the same, also the +40% to atronachs would remain. Only the %-bonus damage to pulse needs a tweak.

I think the only problem with this is a coding issue: Prey affects every morph possible.

While Antronach has a lower benefit, both morphs and the base skill are all affected. Volatile Familiar is a single morph and the only problematic case. I've never heard of an interaction where only a morph is buffed/affected before, rather than entire skills. Nerfing Familiar Pulse directly, which they did do seems a lot easier if not the only way they actually can do it.

Erasure · May 2017

SirDopey wrote: »

Erasure wrote: »

I think it'll accomplish the aim of depopularizing the skill from must-have to can-have. It would reduce the total DPS of a devoted Necropotence build by 3% or so in single-target, reducing Pulse's contribution to be similar to or lightly lower than Liquid Lightning. I'd say that's fair, considering it has advantages such as tracking assigned targets or stunning things AoE. I'm glad they didn't reduce the AoE radius.

Homestead Ilamb/Necro/Moondancer/vMA parse for reference:

Personally I think this shows that the pulse damage from the scamp was under performing and needed buffing. Considering it requires 2 skill slots to use it's DPS output should be equal to the combined dps of blockade and crushing shock

Maybe if the stat system worked differently. As it stands, there's no way to decouple a very strong Scamp from very strong class and staff skills. Light and Heavy attacks are poorly boosted by Magicka stacked builds, but little else acts that way.