LiquidPony wrote: »AverageJo3Gam3r wrote: »John_Falstaff wrote: »@AverageJo3Gam3r , the emphasis on word "were". In retrospective, everything feels so easy it's hard to believe how one was struggling back then. Games of human mind. Also, I'd have troubles believing you didn't use wings and/or corrosive on stamDK during your first clears.
I also used vigor, hardened armor, defensive and healing sigils. What point are you making? That I used the defensive tools available to my class?
Sorcs can do that too. Sorcs have: two different pets that can provide on-demand heals; a skill that provides major resistances, major speed, and passive AoE damage; one of the best HoTs in the game in surge; the best repositioning tool in the game that also stuns or absorbs projectiles; a channeled heal+resource restore; and a (now channeled) damage shield.
And that's all just within their class, not including armor sets like Iceheart that can increase survival or resto staff skills.
My point is this: sorcs have plenty of survival options for vMA outside of shields. It's an individual player's choice whether to take advantage of them or not. Claims that sorcs are significantly harder for a rookie to clear vMA with a channeled shield is grandstanding.
I'm sorry, but this is utter nonsense.
I don't even really play a magsorc. I've run Maelstrom on a magsorc maybe 4 or 5 times, just to get the achievements. My magsorc is alternately a PvE healer and BG build. I learned vMA on a stamblade years ago and the vast majority of my clears are on that build, although lately I've taken to farming it on a stamsorc.
But everything you've said here directly contradicts your conclusion. You're saying, in short, "sorcs should just slot a resto and/or switch to a defensive monster set and/or change their builds in some other way to make up for the cast time on shields," but all of those things are significant DPS losses. And in vMA (and really all PvE content), when you lose DPS, the content gets much harder very quickly. The first lesson I learned in vMA, learning it on a stamblade, is this: the best defense is to nuke everything ASAP. Archer giving you trouble? Don't run away or dodge his arrows, kill him as soon as he spawns. Crematorial Guards getting you down? Stand where they spawn and burn them down before they even begin attacking.
So now, not only have we gimped the primary magicka defense mechanism, the side-effect of that is that to make up for that change, we have to run less-optimal builds, thus lowering our damage, thus making it harder to get those first vMA clears in more than one way.
I'm primarily a stamina DPS PvE player, and I think this change sucks.
I expect that the class reps meeting today is going to be a bit awkward, because the vast majority of traffic on the forums and Reddit and many Discords I'm in has been nothing but the community taking a giant steaming dump on the developers and the class reps for the past several days.
John_Falstaff wrote: »I do not understand your complaint?
You went through vMA with a Sorc on PTS with the current changes, and were successful.
He's a relatively experienced player, and he demonstrated that he was struggling compared to usual runs. New players will struggle too in comparison to what they're usually going through. I thought the point of OP was very simple.
LiquidPony wrote: »AverageJo3Gam3r wrote: »John_Falstaff wrote: »@AverageJo3Gam3r , the emphasis on word "were". In retrospective, everything feels so easy it's hard to believe how one was struggling back then. Games of human mind. Also, I'd have troubles believing you didn't use wings and/or corrosive on stamDK during your first clears.
I also used vigor, hardened armor, defensive and healing sigils. What point are you making? That I used the defensive tools available to my class?
Sorcs can do that too. Sorcs have: two different pets that can provide on-demand heals; a skill that provides major resistances, major speed, and passive AoE damage; one of the best HoTs in the game in surge; the best repositioning tool in the game that also stuns or absorbs projectiles; a channeled heal+resource restore; and a (now channeled) damage shield.
And that's all just within their class, not including armor sets like Iceheart that can increase survival or resto staff skills.
My point is this: sorcs have plenty of survival options for vMA outside of shields. It's an individual player's choice whether to take advantage of them or not. Claims that sorcs are significantly harder for a rookie to clear vMA with a channeled shield is grandstanding.
I'm sorry, but this is utter nonsense.
I don't even really play a magsorc. I've run Maelstrom on a magsorc maybe 4 or 5 times, just to get the achievements. My magsorc is alternately a PvE healer and BG build. I learned vMA on a stamblade years ago and the vast majority of my clears are on that build, although lately I've taken to farming it on a stamsorc.
But everything you've said here directly contradicts your conclusion. You're saying, in short, "sorcs should just slot a resto and/or switch to a defensive monster set and/or change their builds in some other way to make up for the cast time on shields," but all of those things are significant DPS losses. And in vMA (and really all PvE content), when you lose DPS, the content gets much harder very quickly. The first lesson I learned in vMA, learning it on a stamblade, is this: the best defense is to nuke everything ASAP. Archer giving you trouble? Don't run away or dodge his arrows, kill him as soon as he spawns. Crematorial Guards getting you down? Stand where they spawn and burn them down before they even begin attacking.
So now, not only have we gimped the primary magicka defense mechanism, the side-effect of that is that to make up for that change, we have to run less-optimal builds, thus lowering our damage, thus making it harder to get those first vMA clears in more than one way.
I'm primarily a stamina DPS PvE player, and I think this change sucks.
I expect that the class reps meeting today is going to be a bit awkward, because the vast majority of traffic on the forums and Reddit and many Discords I'm in has been nothing but the community taking a giant steaming dump on the developers and the class reps for the past several days.
Joy_Division wrote: »I did too. Just use healing ward instead and it's fine. Because that ability works like a shield should.
I do not understand your complaint?
You went through vMA with a Sorc on PTS with the current changes, and were successful.
John_Falstaff wrote: »
John_Falstaff wrote: »
John_Falstaff wrote: »
So what I hear you saying, is that it is not as easy as it was before, and not as easy as it should be.
We have removed some non-constructive comments from this thread. Please keep the discussion on topic and free of insults. Thank you.
John_Falstaff wrote: »
John_Falstaff wrote: »I do not understand your complaint?
You went through vMA with a Sorc on PTS with the current changes, and were successful.
He's a relatively experienced player, and he demonstrated that he was struggling compared to usual runs. New players will struggle too in comparison to what they're usually going through. I thought the point of OP was very simple.
ExcaliburESO wrote: »WuffyCerulei wrote: »ExcaliburESO wrote: »Finnaly u will feel like stamina dk doing that arena.. welcome to the club
This is about magicka people. Stam have their own damage mitigation (blade cloak).
then do it on magicka dk without hardened ward i did i know how fun it is
Bfish22090 wrote: »Joy_Division wrote: »I can imagine how painful this must have been.
May I ask what kind of scores you are used to getting on live? This might be relevant for sake of comparison, otherwise people might say that 464k is a decent score and therefore sorc will be fine...
My score on PTS was about 20K lower than I'd get on Live.
The content can get done, it's not really the point. It's that the skills impede rather than assist doing so.
Ok but you are a good player.the casuals that ZOS caters there content towards need shields to survive
Judas Helviaryn wrote: »Don't incorporate bugs into your builds, and you won't have [an] issue.
Actually the more I think about the change, the more it makes sense.
Most skills have between 8-12s duration: Curse is 12s, Elemental Blockade and Liquid Lightning are 10s , Scamp pulse is 8s (if you use the pet). The shield will be 9s, which means it lines up pretty well with those skills, especially considering another 1s cast time. Not only does it last 9s, but also it's also bigger in practice, since resistances now also affect the shield. Considering Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned, Hardy, Ironclad CP already affect it, and you can stack pretty high resistance (ex. 15K physical and 19.5K spell with 5L/1M/1H and 30 CP in Spell Shield and Boundless Storm up which amount to 23% and 30% mitigation respectively). So your shields will be 18-25% bigger than now, depending on your CP and they type of incoming damage. That means, you can just pre-buff by casting shield, otherwise do your normal rotation, and still achieve >90% of your DPS by being completely protected since now the shield is less likely to be downed, unless you literally eat damage on purpose. For example a 17.8K hardened ward (20 CP in Bastion, 42K magicka pool) will be roughly equivalent to about 22-22.5K post patch due to the added resistance. Any player who takes that much damage within 10s should seriously reconsider his play style.
This is another case of lowering the floor. Go watch videos of people clearing vMA on Live. The competitive players getting 590K or higher rarely use their shield. I know some competitive vMA players who don't even slot a shield on some rounds and use that skill slot for something else. It costs resources and eats up a GCD. Keep in mind that the competitive players have all the spawns memorized and will kill things before they become a threat. For players like that, the shield nerf is largely inconsequential.
But then you go watch an average player do vMA. These are the people who get around 500K score--good, competent clears, but taking about twice as long as competitive players, and if you ever catch one of those people on video, you'll see that they rely on the shield much more frequently.
And then you watch people who get first clears or are otherwise struggling through vMA. And they will spam that shield as they get in trouble and try to cling onto life.
It's funny how @ZOS_RichLambert made narrowing the floor-ceiling gap the centerpiece of their balance changes over the past year and a half, and yet here we are with a nerf that, as far as endgame PvE is concerned, penalizes the floor disproportionately more than the ceiling.
Anyway, I'm not at all surprised that @swaggasm can get 601K because I know that people pushing past 600K are rarely using their shield anyway. But in a game where the floor and ceiling has gotten only wider in recent patches, this is yet another change that will force that gap even wider.
No offence to anyone who is still struggling, but this content was designed around 300CP and the classic gear sets.
With the extra 500CP (nearly +200%, also frontloaded), new MS, Gear sets and whatever else, you could change shields to be 3s cast time and new players would still be at a significant advantage compared to players at the arenas inception.
If you went to a new game, you'd learn how to play it in it's current state - You wouldn't be dwelling on the past and whilst I don't agree with the change to shields, new players will learn the arena, as they always have - With or without the change..
Side note: If they removed the cast time, wouldn't that make the arena even easier for sorcs who rely on shields; with the increased uptime etc?
No offence to anyone who is still struggling, but this content was designed around 300CP and the classic gear sets.
With the extra 500CP (nearly +200%, also frontloaded), new MS, Gear sets and whatever else, you could change shields to be 3s cast time and new players would still be at a significant advantage compared to players at the arenas inception.
If you went to a new game, you'd learn how to play it in it's current state - You wouldn't be dwelling on the past and whilst I don't agree with the change to shields, new players will learn the arena, as they always have - With or without the change..
Side note: If they removed the cast time, wouldn't that make the arena even easier for sorcs who rely on shields; with the increased uptime etc?
When I first beat vMA during the Orsinium patch all those years ago, Annulment only blocked spell damage, so I didn't even use it--I used Healing Ward.
But why does that matter? We've already established that seasoned vMA players are not going to be hurt by this shield change in vMA, and anyone who cleared vMA back during that original Orsinium patch will fall into that category. "Yay, look at me, I've run that place hundreds of times, including back when it was super hard. I don't care about your plebian concerns."
This is a bad change overall. And for vMA specifically, it will make things harder for the proverbial floor while not really affecting the ceiling. And in a game where the floor and ceiling grow farther apart each patch, how on earth does anyone justify that such a change would be good for "balance"?
No offence to anyone who is still struggling, but this content was designed around 300CP and the classic gear sets.
With the extra 500CP (nearly +200%, also frontloaded), new MS, Gear sets and whatever else, you could change shields to be 3s cast time and new players would still be at a significant advantage compared to players at the arenas inception.
If you went to a new game, you'd learn how to play it in it's current state - You wouldn't be dwelling on the past and whilst I don't agree with the change to shields, new players will learn the arena, as they always have - With or without the change..
Side note: If they removed the cast time, wouldn't that make the arena even easier for sorcs who rely on shields; with the increased uptime etc?
When I first beat vMA during the Orsinium patch all those years ago, Annulment only blocked spell damage, so I didn't even use it--I used Healing Ward.
But why does that matter? We've already established that seasoned vMA players are not going to be hurt by this shield change in vMA, and anyone who cleared vMA back during that original Orsinium patch will fall into that category. "Yay, look at me, I've run that place hundreds of times, including back when it was super hard. I don't care about your plebian concerns."
This is a bad change overall. And for vMA specifically, it will make things harder for the proverbial floor while not really affecting the ceiling. And in a game where the floor and ceiling grow farther apart each patch, how on earth does anyone justify that such a change would be good for "balance"?
I never said it was good for balance. But are you suggesting removing the 1s cast time, whilst retaining the prior mitigation and longer uptime is balanced? Because that is a massive buff that literally isn't needed in this watered down content.
Like I said before; New players will learn it as it is, not as it was, the same way we all did at launch and the same way new players have since - This doesn't effect the floor much at all, only the guys in between that have been so reliant upon and familiar with the instant cast.
The same way players who are completing the arena today aren't complaining about recovery changes they didn't know about, the 'floor' and new players from here on out won't be complaining about shields.
Toc de Malsvi wrote: »The argument that new players will find it harder to play I simply cannot agree with. Sure new players will struggle with VMA, that is going to happen regardless of what class/resource they are on. New players have the advantage though that they are not set in their minds trying to use a cast time skill as and instant last second prayer for surviving.
codestripper wrote: »I'd also like to point out that the sustain buff to pet sorcs makes 0 sense. I can literally parse a 25million dummy on live at 43k dps with full sustain at the end of the parse.
Joy_Division wrote: »I did too. Just use healing ward instead and it's fine. Because that ability works like a shield should.