Hi ZOS,

I need your assistance to clarify whether your recent in-game text description changes for Mystic Orb AND Energy Orb are ‘typos’ or genuine skill changes. This goes beyond the 1 per cent text change.

For context, I posted to reddit on 13 November 2016 to try and get some community clarity on problems I was then having with Mystic Orb — morph for Necrotic Orb, Undaunted skill line. Please follow the link, if appropriate. The gist of the post was that the text description for Mystic Orb had changed significantly and I couldn’t find a patch note or announcement or forum post to explain it all… so I couldn’t tell if this was a designer typo or an actual in-game skill change (as testing this on console is tough). I also didn’t know if the issue was germane to XBOX1.

Further digging, since that post, has shown me that the text for Energy Orb (alternative morph) also changed significantly (on XBOX1, at least). As the online ESO resources for these skills give descriptions that are either outdated or incorrect, please see attached screen shots (taken on 15 November 2016) as hard evidence of the morph descriptions … on XBOX1.
For ease, here are the two different versions (old and new) of the first morph, Mystic Orb.

Original Mystic Orb text: Project a globe of annihilation that floats forward, dealing X Magic Damage to nearby enemies. An ally can activate the Magicka Combustion synergy, causing the orb to explode forX Magic Damage and restoring the ally for X Magicka instantly and X [flat number] more over 10 seconds, plus additional Magicka based on number of enemies hit.

New Mystic Orb text: Project a globe of annihilation that floats forward, dealing X Magic Damage to nearby enemies. An ally can activate the Magicka Combustion synergy, causing the orb to explode for X Magic Damage and restore X Magicka instantly and 1% Magicka over 10 seconds to nearby allies per enemy hit.

The significant changes as I then saw them were: 1.) magic recovery over time is now a percentage— for the synergiser — (NB: no longer a scaleable number), and 2.) that magic recovery over time now affects "nearby allies". I assume that 1.) was an intentional designer change (please confirm), but it’s 2.) that was an eye-opener, as “nearby allies” now also get the benefit from one person synergising the orb. I, of course, had lots of questions about how that would work, for example:

“As the wording of the new description is regrettable, can someone knowledgeable explain to me - without too much speculation, please - how this skill actually works in practice today (and the limitations)? Also ... A.) does "enemies hit" still mean enemies hit on the orb's trajectory to the synergiser, or on the combustion synergy? B.) What in geographical hell does "nearby allies" mean? C.) Can the per cent recovery stack (for each "nearby ally" hitting the synergy on multiple mystic orbs; and for different orb morphs)? And D.), given the swampy punctuation, do nearby allies get the per cent over time AND the "instant" magicka (on their ally's synergy)?”

People (mostly PC) offered some pleasant anecdotal responses to my overly long reddit post based on their own historical gameplay (not testing) and described how they used the ‘blue balls’ (mystic orb) and ‘white balls’ (energy orb) differently for bosses and mob pulls… based off the premise that Energy Orb magic regeneration worked differently and — they believed — scaled off the number of “allies healed”, not “enemies hit”.

But according to your ‘new’ in-game description of Energy Orb, they are using the white balls incorrectly. The text on the screenshot attached for Energy Orb (on the XBOX1) clearly says:
“An ally can also activate the Healing Combustion synergy, healing themselves for X and restoring 0 magicka instantly and 1 % magicka over 10 seconds to nearby allies per enemy [Sic.] hit.”
So, according to the in-game skill descriptions, both morphs now scale off the number of ‘enemies hit’ [neither scale off ‘allies healed’] . Both now give back a percentage of magic over time (not a flat amount). And both now also give that magic over time to nearby allies (within an undefined range), as well as to the synergiser. Mystic Orb, based on the grammar of your description, may also give nearby allies X magicka instantly, but that’s unclear.

If correct, this would dramatically change the way that people [who post on reddit and youtube, at least] use these skills … particularly in end-game content (and trials). I have genuinely tried to resolve this issue to the best of my abilities using resources and support both in and out of the game. I would greatly appreciate it if you could now have someone from your team weigh in and resolve this.

If the new descriptions are correct or incorrect, it would be great to also be provided with some clarity on how the skills actually work [including a.) the maximum distance for “nearby allies” to benefit from the synergy, b.) confirm that multiple procs stack (for morphs and across morphs) or otherwise and c.) confirm that ‘enemies hit’ means those hit on the balls trajectory to the synergiser (not those hit from the combustion explosion synergy)].

Cheers,
A