Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

Shields also have a cast time too, among other big changes. This is a huge change for MagSorc in PvP.

dotme wrote: »

I've been playing ESO on console since day 1 - and when it comes to PvP, maybe I'm in the minority but for the past few months I felt they actually got the balance about right. No, I can't kill probably more than 70% of enemy players in a 1v1, but I'm old and I don't have counters to everything. I was cool with that. My build kills some players, and other group members had build that killed others, and overall I was okay with how the game was. Even the perma-block/tank-heal builds could be broken with a little perseverance.

I haven't read the patch notes - no idea yet if my own toons have been nerfed into the ground, but I think drastic changes are risky at this stage in the game's life cycle. You wreck people's most loved, first-character-build toons and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them leave the game. Unless you have a ton of fresh new gamers to replace them, you're cutting your population with drastic changes and the game won't ever fully recover.

Sometimes, minor incremental changes are much less of a shock to the game population than massive ones. Making serious changes to everyone's builds during the traditional Fall new game release season is risky, to put it mildly.

Nightblade

Assassination

Assassin’s Blade: Increased the cost of this ability and its morphs by approximately 30%.

Mark Target

Piercing Mark (morph): Decreased the duration of the detection effect to 5 seconds from 30 seconds. The duration of the Major Fracture and Breach effects remain unchanged.

Grim Focus:
Fully-Charged Heavy Attacks now grant 2 stacks towards the spectral bow proc for this ability and its morphs.
The spectral bow proc is no longer free, and costs half the amount of a regular Grim Focus.

Fixed an issue where you could generate stacks towards the spectral bow proc through unintended means.

Shadow

Consuming Darkness: Fixed an issue where this ability and the Bolstering Darkness morph did not improve as they ranked up. The duration now improves 0.5 seconds per rank.

Path of Darkness: This ability no longer deals damage. It now grants Major Expedition to you and your allies on the path, and for up to 2 seconds after leaving it.

Twisting Path (morph): This morph now adds damage. The damage value is the same as what is currently on Live.
Refreshing Path: This morph now adds healing. The healing value is equal to the damage value of Twisting Path.

Developer Comment:
This change to Path of Darkness is aimed at helping each class bring something to the party.

Siphoning

Drain Power

Power Extraction (morph): Increased the damage done by this morph by approximately 25%.

Siphoning Strikes: Fully charged Heavy Attacks now restore twice the amount of Health and resources for this ability and its morphs.

Strife: Reduced the damage done by this ability by half, but it now also heals for 50% of the damage done and can now target you or any ally. The total healing amount remains unchanged.

Swallow Soul (morph): This morph now doubles the damage, but decreases the heal to 35% of the damage done and can only target you. The passive Minor Vitality effect has been removed.

Funnel Health: This morph will now always heal you in addition to an ally.

Developer Comment:
For the Swallow Soul morph, we wanted to retain the current functionality of dealing high damage, while also providing healing utility to yourself. The amount of healing provided to the group with Strife was so high that there wasn’t enough tradeoff with the morph choice. Now you can still get that super powerful group utility as before, but now it comes at a cost of reduced damage. This is the Funnel Health morph.

dotme wrote: »

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

Which class do you primarily play dotme?

I'm solo a lot in Cyrodiil so my main is a wood elf bow-build stamblade. I do belong to a couple of guilds but one is mostly inactive, and another just took a very unexpected and unpleasant turn and now I have to worry about whether or not an enemy player might also be a guildmate. Needless to say that's not going to work for me in the long run. I can't be worried about nameplates when I'm facing down 30+ enemy players.

I also have a magblade bomber and a mag-sorc. I gave up on my sorc for PvP a long time ago - I just couldn't get a feel for it. But my magblade is an old character re-spec'd and I think he might be fun in group settings. All leveled up destro, proxy with gold VD gear.

At some point I'll read the patch notes with a box of tissues nearby to catch the tears... lol