Hello there to all. I am writing this to try and give my 2 cents, if you will, on balancing Light/Heavy/Medium Armor. My hope is to perhaps create conversations and or ideas on how to move ESO into a direction that appeases both the developers and players of a more even playing experience and implement functional sustainable changes to the game. I am not trying to step on any toes or say this MUST be how it is done, and it is coming from my understanding of how the game is built to operate combined with the experience I have gained in playing over the past 2 years. (Yes, I have not been here since BETA). For background purposes, I have leveled multiple characters in all 3 roles (Tanking/DPS/Healing) as well created Magicka and Stamina focused toons, and lastly, I am pushing 1000 CP rank during the course of my time here in ESO. I am also both a PVE and PVP player spending nearly equal amounts of gameplay in both arenas. My hope is to not be taken so lightly as “nerf this/buff that”, or “I don’t like this” without an argument and reasoning behind why I think this or that should be done. As such, this will be a decently in-depth analysis with reasoning behind the changes I am suggesting. A class representative stated that there is a meeting in a few days, (Today is 9/18/18), so now is the time to get complaints, suggestions, or issues out on the table so they can be spoken about. This is my attempt to do just that.

So, if you are still with me through that introduction, lets get started, shall we?

Roles and Armor: Balancing Stamina, Magicka, and Health Focused Builds
To understand what roles exist and how the armor is designed for each weight and role I have constructed the following chart for an easy visual aid.

Note: Proc Attribute/Buff also includes De-Buffs and is meant to cover all non-specific attributes such as when sets grant Buffs (Major Expedition, Minor Savagery, etc.), De-Buffs (Minor Maim, Major Defile, etc.) or Specific Stat and Damage Procs (1000 Magicka Regen for 20 sec, Call a comet that does X amount of damage to target, etc.).

Character BUILDS have 12 pieces at play through the combination of armor, jewelry, weaponry to create one’s stats. Sets of an Armor type run in 5-piece combinations meaning that a BUILD can utilize 2 complete 5-piece sets if they so choose. However, physical armor is only 7 pieces of that 12-piece build meaning only 1 armor weight (Light, Medium, or Heavy) can be main-ed by a character since the set will take 5-pieces to complete.

As one can easily see from the chart Heavy Armors Primary Attributes are intended as complete opposites to their Medium and Light counterparts. Even more, Heavy has the added mitigation and resistance built in to their base numbers through being metal in material.

So how do we fix this and make Light, Medium, desired in their intended roles of play?

Well it’s complicated but I’m going to propose 3 main ideas to try and bring the different armor lines into a stronger alignment with their roles.

Point # 1: Set Creation and Revisiting Sets in Game
When designing new 5-piece sets, and when reevaluating currently in-game 5-piece sets, a series of questions should be entertained on if it is viable for the purposes of game balance.

Does this set have at least ONE Primary Attribute of the set’s weights (Light, Medium, Heavy) as part of its first 3 set bonuses? As in, does this set lend itself to bolster how the armor is intended to be used? If not, what is the purpose of adding the set to the game and how will it affect the balance of sets to armor? If an exception is designed then one must also be designed of alternate armor types to ensure armor balancing.

Why, I feel these questions should be asked, and the rule of ONE PRIMARY ATTRIBUTE from the chart above per armor weight be used in the first 3 set bonuses of a 5 p-piece set, is because many Heavy Armor sets are not designed in this fashion, while most Light and Medium sets do already follow this rule. This causes many Heavy Armor sets that seem guised as Damage Dealing in heavy plating instead of actual stats that bolster survivability and tanking.

All Weight sets as well as Craft-able sets do not need to follow the rules of Role and Armor type due to them being available in all.

Currently there are 3 Light Armor, 1 Medium Armor, and a whopping 10 Heavy Armor sets that do not meet this guideline.

For arguments sake lets take one of the new sets that will be added in Murkmire because it does NOT pass the series of questions I have proposed.

How does this set effect armor balance? How does it promote wearing Medium armor OVER Heavy? How does it bolster the role of Tanking and Survivability as Heavy Armor is intended?

This isn’t to say that a tank should be flapping in the wind only able to take damage and never able to deal it. However, as previously stated a Heavy Armor build can run a 5-Piece Heavy Build and then run either light or medium armor on their un-main-ed 5-piece (jewelry/weapon) set giving them stats and damage. Thus, where is the need to have a DPS only 5-piece Heavy armor set?

Answer goes to the 5th trait attribute of building Ultimate which can be useful for a PVE Tank for Warhorn, or PVP for generating a Tanks main damage dealing skill, their Ultimate. Yet, Heavy Armor already has the Akiviri Dragonguard set which does bolster survivability in its first 3 traits and reduces Ultimate by 15%. There is also already Shalk’s Exoskeleton which also grants Minor Heroism of 1 Ultimate every 1.5 sec while meeting the guidelines of a Primary Attribute in its first 3 set attributes with a dose of Max Health.

Yes, there are those 2 sets already, (You Argue) but besides the Ultimate benefits, and having Health Survivability as their focus in attributes, the other attributes are Magicka focused and not Stamina focused, while Champion of the Hist is Stamina focused.

Yes, but it is TOTALLY Stamina focused with NO focus on the main purpose of Heavy Armor and thus not equal to its Magicka focused counterpart sets. Even more, Stamina has a set in Hide of the Werewolf which IS Stamina focused and generates 5 ultimate every 5 sec when being attacked (more than Minor Heroism) and ironically focuses on survivability with its first attribute being Max Health. As a Heavy Armor user, meaning the focus of damage and tanking, Hide of the Werewolf (Medium)functions much better as a Tanking Heavy armor set than Champion of the Hist (Heavy).

Moreover, lets look at building a Damage Dealing build over survivability, with this new set, while keeping the 5-piece Heavy Armor Benefits.

Champion of the Hist + Hide of Werewolf + Bloodspawn (Monster Set)

Now we have a build that has:
3,288 Max Stamina
129 Stamina Regen
258 Weapon Damage
1,206 Max Health

And 3 Ultimate Bonuses of Minor Heroism, 5 Ultimate while taking damage every five seconds, and 6% chance of 14 Ultimate every 6 seconds. Meaning that every 6 seconds you can, in theory, generate 23 Ultimate outside of your normal Ultimate gain.

Also, an additional 6% chance of 6450 spell and physical resistance for 6 seconds when damaged.

All while wearing 5-pieces of Heavy Armor and not yet touching on the Heavy Armor Skill line passives. This grants Tank-Like Resistances while creating a strong and deadly Stamina Focused Damage Dealing build. It is further exacerbated and made even deadlier if the player is a Werewolf or a Dragonknight.

So why even bother with wearing the 5-pieces of Medium in your build? The sets themselves make it not needed, and puts Heavy in a winning state over its Medium and Light counterparts.

Point #2: Armor skill lines inability to counter the attributes given through sets

Currently the Passive Skills of all Armor Lines are as follows (Murkmire Proposed)

The proposed changes in Murkmire are HIGHLY WELCOMED to boost the effectiveness of Light and Medium Armor Passives. However, the new passives are not going to make the gap wide enough to get players to ditch their Heavy Armor Builds, and when compounded with additional proposed game changes (Evasion/Shields) it may push more players INTO Heavy Armor.

Might you ask why?

It falls again with the combination of 5-Piece sets mentioned in Point #1 combined with the passives available to Heavy Armor in its skill line.

Since so many Heavy Armor sets focus on Damage Dealing and Non-Health Survivable stats, you can build a strong Damage output build, as shown above, while taking the Heavy Armor Line Passives of Sustain and Health to bridge the gap of dropping your Medium and Light Armor passives. Lastly, Heavy Armor passives give builds exactly what Medium and Light Armors are starved for: defense mitigation, more health, max stat regeneration, and better self-healing.

This becomes of even more concern with the current proposed changes to Light Armor Shields and Medium Armor Evasion Mitigation. However, I will only bring this up for arguments sake, and have a separate post prepared for the Shield/Evasion concerns, as this is a product of trying to make Healers more important in PVE group content and not balancing Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor as noted by the Developers.

Let’s do a quick breakdown to see the why and how of what I am stating.

Light Armor:
If you place 1 sec cast time on Shields making them interruptible, bar freezing, and lag prone it will require Light Armor builds to more reliably rely on Armor Spell and Weapon Resistances as defense, and that is something Light Armor plainly doesn’t supply. As such, most people will now ACTIVELY be forced out of their Light Armor builds and into Heavy Armor ones.

To manage this, Craft-able sets like Seducers and Shacklebreaker will be used in Heavy weight and paired with non-5 -piece main-ed Litch, and the new Murkmire Magicka set Bright Throat’s Boast (again non-5-piece main-ed) and the like. Though none give strong damage stats, they all give sustain in large doses giving max stats and regeneration. This will overcome the lack of not having the 4% and 2% Light Armor passives of Magicka Regeneration and Reduction. They will then be able to take advantage of Heavy Armor’s Passives of regenerating 930 Magicka and Stamina every 8 seconds (an equivalent of 232 spell and stamina regeneration) as well as rotating in regular heavy attacks to take advantage of the 25% additional resource restore passive. By doing this, players will all but bridge the divide in sustain between Light and Heavy Armor while also getting an additional 10% of Max Health, 8% additional Healing Received, the mitigation of Heavy Armor with its bonus 1,810 spell and physical defense passive.

Though this will highly limit build variations, it will ensure, as a Magicka user, that you will have a chance at survival in various settings and especially PVP where Critical Strikes are not as useful due to Impenetrable Armor Trait and high Critical Resistance leaving the Spell Critical Light Armor Passive a moot point of contention.

Penetration is VERY useful in PVE where bosses are maxed at 18,200 resistance, but in PVP a Templar, Dragonknight, or Breton passively negates most of the added Penetration of the Light Armor Passive. A Breton Templar or Dragonknight Combo fully negates it and still has Spell Resistance to spare. Also, spell resistance is the easiest resistance in the game to build for, with many players reaching 50% mitigation without actually focusing for it making Penetration a stronger attribute in PVE than PVP. Though this Penetration is ALWAYS helpful, it does not make or break a set and can be overcome with Raw Power, Elemental Drain, The Lover Mundus Stone, and Sharpened Weapons, (Medium Armor Lives without out it just fine) thus negating the final Passive of Light Armor

Medium Armor:
I will not spend much time here as a 3% buff to Damage will not pull any Heavy Armor users back to Medium. The Sets available overcome the sustain gap with Heavy passives, Critical isn’t as important in Non-PVE settings, Sneak can be reduced with Legerdemain passive and eliminated with Vampire. Taking Evasion from medium will just further reinforce the defense of the Heavy Armor PVP Meta and the 3% is basically just a BUFF to PVE Stamina DPS which is already stronger than Magicka.

So then, what would lure players back to their rightful armor and out of Heavy. Well, if Point 1 is addressed, it’s a start. And now I propose this 2nd point.

These recommendations are based on keeping current Murkmire proposed changes but adding:

Both Magicka and Stamina Sustain Changes:
This change is made to help guarantee that sustain will be maximized while wearing appropriate armor weight. In the past, the Champion Point System allowed you to take an additional 16% off cost reduction. Which meant between Medium and Light armor passives and the Champion System you could have a whopping 26% reduction of Spell or Stamina Cost. By increasing the values from 2% to 3% it would give back a portion (5%) of that 16% lost, but only if in Light or Medium Armor, and would make a gap (no-matter what sets used) that couldn’t be closed between main-ing a 5-Piece Heavy Armor build. This would also help game wide sustain issues which are a current focus of the development team.

Other Light Armor Passive Adjustments:
Magic Damage was added to the last passive trait of Light Armor to give an incentive for builds to stay away from Heavy. As Dark Elves and High Elves boost Elemental damage, I didn’t want to compound their already strong racial passives, and since only Warden’s can boost their Magic Damage (An underperforming class) leaving all other classes unable to boost this stat, it felt like a good place to use it. This also makes Light Armor give a stat that does not have a 1-1 mitigation. As Spell Penetration is directly mitigated by Spell Resistance. Magic Damage, like Medium’s 15% Weapon Damage Boost, is not directly mitigated but instead depends on the skills and build in use for effectiveness.

Note: Magicka Nightblades run off Magic Damage and are already BIS in the game for Magicka DPS and thus a 5% nerf to all Magic Damage done by the class is in order. This way Nightblades will remain just as powerful as NOW, but ONLY when wearing a 5-piece Light Armor build, while all other classes will become a bit stronger helping to close the DPS gap between them.

The addition of Physical Resistance to the 3rd passive of Light Armor is to give a resistant incentive to stay in the lowest valued armor. Even with this added, Light Armor doesn’t meet Medium or come close to Heavy Armor in build mitigation. Also, there is 1, yes ONLY 1 Light Armor 5-Piece Set out of 80 that gives Physical Resistance and this stat is key in a PVP environment where Stamina DPS is KING.

As for 204 Health when Hit every 8 seconds, this is based off of the 186 Magicka and Stamina Heavy armor gives but reversed and the 10% extra of all Health stats added to get the 204 number. While this, out of all the changes, is the one I’m most shaky about, and probably least likely to get implemented-if any of these ideas are, it is directly to, again, give hope-of-survivability to a paper armor class, especially if the 1 second cast time to shields makes it to LIVE. This gives a tiny bit of health when attacked, but every bit helps.

Other Medium Armor Passive Adjustments:
The 4% Reduction to Break Free becomes a KEY, if not THE KEY, in moving Heavy Armor users back to the Medium Armor fold. As the Reduction to sneak was a throw-away, managed by many other means in game from sets to other skill lines, ONLY medium armor will give you this unique and VERY IMPORTANT sustain improvement. It becomes even more important with the proposed change that is about to come in the final point of this write up. The 4% Roll dodge Reduction and 8% Break Free Reduction will be the passives that make players say “I’m staying Medium.”

Weapon Critical has been raised to meet its Magicka counterpart. Though a 7-piece build is nerfed, (Down from 2,296 Critical) a 5-piece build is buffed, (Up from 1,640 Critical) allowing Medium armor to take advantage of the intended 5-1-1 build ratio without a loss of Critical Power…yes, I see you Kahjits, and yes congratulations!

Finally, the rearrangement of how you earn medium armor passives is to move it in line with how you level all other Armor Passive skills. Just as Light and Heavy are designed, the first 3 passives are available for all to use with the last 2, and argumentatively strongest, passives reserved for the 5-piece requirement. Also, it better aligns cost reduction while leveling a character, as the first 3 traits improve sustainability while the last 2 improve power.

Point #3: Starving for Stamina, the ESO game punisher! (The Longest Shot of a Change)

Okay all, so it has taken a lot to get here, and hopefully some of you, fingers crossed at least 1 Class rep, has made it here with me. But we are finally at the end…and well, it’s a “BIGin” of a last point.

Stamina is the key in ESO. When I started, 2 years ago, Stamina builds already dominated PVP but Magicka dominated PVE. However, during my time, this has changed, as now Stamina rules the roost in BOTH PVE and PVP. Stamina DPS outperforms Magicka on all builds, and the only reason in PVE to carry Magicka DPS is because of the ranged requirement of certain boss’s mechanics. And even then, it is preferred to have 1 specific Magicka DPS class, the Nightblade due to it being able to come closest at replicated the DPS numbers of a Stamina player. I understand it took Stamina players a long road to get where they are today, and that in the beginning Magicka dominated everything. However, in a fantasy game, it does seem a bit disheartening that a player with a dagger can overcome those that wield the elements, (A sword wielding Sorcerer is stronger than a stave wielding Sorcerer, come on it’s a Sorc, the use of magic is literally in its definition see Oxford Dictionary), but it is how it is.

In PVE, this comes down to Class and Skill Balancing, and that is something I don’t want to get into here, as it layers on top of the foundations we are covering in balancing basic armor vs role performance.

But in PVP, there are distinct base game mechanics that limit the strength of Magicka characters, and that is what I want to address here as we come to the end of balancing Stamina, Magicka, and Health with their Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor counterparts.

ESO has a unique game mechanic in that Running costs resources. This affects all builds in their mobility. But even more so, Stamina is the resource behind interrupting, bashing, breaking-free, roll-dodging, and sneaking on-top of running. This means this resource is imperative to a build no matter if its Tanking, Damage Dealing, or Healing and thus all Armor Weight Builds are starved of this resource. This is one, if not THE reason stamina has become the dominant build in all gameplay, because it gives you the largest amount of the most useful resource and even more, becomes the ipso facto winning force in PVP.

Cloaking is limited to a specific class leaving the above moves available for all to use.

6 of the 9 Defensive Moves of Light Armor Require Stamina
8-9 Defensive Moves of Medium Armor Require Stamina (9 if your Stun is Stamina Based)
7-9 Defensive Moves of Heavy Armor Require Stamina (8 if your Stun or Healing is Stamina based, 9 if both are Stamina Based)

With this Stamina focused design, and the need for all Armor Weights and Roles to use Stamina, Shouldn’t BASE GAME STAMINA MECHANICS work differently than Skill and Abilities. Roll-Dodging, Blocking, Running, etc are basic non-slot-able moves given to all characters regardless of level, main stat, or armor worn and thus should also affect each Build type Equally.

While Medium Armor should have the Advantage of more speed (the faster you run the shorter time you have to do it and thus the less Stamina is consumed), roll-dodging, breaking free etc as a benefit to its build by design. This Benefit should not come at the cost of PUNISHING Non-Stamina and Non-Medium Armor builds. This is what has happened in game play, with so much mitigation attached to role-dodging, PVE and PVP becoming snare/stun fests requiring the constant use of break-free, Battlegrounds requiring Bashing as a design to keep enemies from taking relics and chaos balls, interrupting attacks to mitigate damage, on and on it goes to the point that unless you are built with large pools of stamina you are quickly run-down, depleted, turned into a sitting duck, and killed.

For example, at current design and cost, Roll-Dodge has a base cost of 4040 Stamina per use.
Let’s Theorize how much different builds can use this ability in PVE and PVP based on this cost.

This shows that Stamina can do 6x the amount compared to its Magicka Counterpart and gives this bonus no matter what armor you are wearing, as Heavy Armor with large Stamina pools loses little compared to a Medium Armor with large Stamina pools. One use of the skill will swallow nearly 40% of the Stamina pool on a Magicka Light Armor build when you still have other movements that need this same Stamina pool. As such, Stamina builds don’t just have an advantage, they play in a completely different league to their counterparts.

Due to this inherent imbalance to Base Game mechanics, I offer the following change: (DEEP BREATH, you can already hear the snickering.)

Stamina based game mechanic movements should become a REVISED Base + % of Stamina Pool cost equation instead of the set costs currently used. This will differentiate these mechanics from Stamina Class and Skill Line abilities and bring all Armor and Stat builds to a BALANCED gameplay footing.

These values were based on a 40,000 Max Stamina build, and using the current base cost of mechanic movement. This was done to guarantee NO CHANGE in current PVE Stamina play to alleviate any PVE vs PVP balance complaints. That is, for example, the current 4040 Stamina cost is for all intended purposes equal to the equation 2020+(5.05%)40,000=4040 since current non-ability Stamina costs are currently balanced for Stamina builds already.

If this system was implemented, Stamina builds would, AGAIN, see NO CHANGE in their current roles performance in both PVE and PVP save for the addition of my proposed Break Free Cost reduction from Point #2 of this write up when they use the Medium Armor Skill Passives. All movements and skills will effectively function as they currently do. HOWEVER, Light and Heavy armor builds would get a significant boost to their base game play mechanics finding their lower Stamina pools lasting longer when performing basic moves and having longevity in fights.

This is where the Medium Armor skill line will truly shine versus its counterpart’s skill passives.
As the current cost model dictates, the more stamina you have the more of these moves you can perform, making Heavy Armor Builds with large Stamina pools viable for Stamina DPS game play. With this new model, the only way for your physicality to out-perform a Heavy or Light build is to have the medium armor skill line passives which effectively reduce Roll-Dodge and Interrupt/Break-free by 20%-30% depending on the number of pieces you equip, as well as adding 15% increase to speed while also boosting your regeneration, lowering cost consumption, and finally giving large boosts to raw power and critical strikes.

As you can see the number of Roll-Dodges for Medium Stamina Armor did not change nor the % of the Cost to Stamina pool ratio of 8%. This, ONE MORE TIME, is to show that Current Stamina Characters will function as they always have.

HOWEVER, Light Armor Magicka users have now DOUBLED their number of Roll-Dodges and closed the gap between stamina to 3x more from 6x more. Also, the Large Stamina Pooled Heavy Armor has no to little change as well, but the Magicka Focused Heavy Armor also received a boost to their Stamina use like Light Armor Magicka, again closing the distance of Stamina focused builds comparatively to Magicka counterparts.

With this Design, it will keep Stamina users with the ADVANTAGE of their builds design, in speed, skills, and use of base mechanics, as well as keep them operating as normal. However, the PUNISHMENT for NOT being Stamina based has lessened considerably and allows for a more even playing field.

When you then throw on my Point #2 Proposals to the Medium Armor Line, further giving Stamina toons more reduction of base mechanics (Break-Free) while improving their skill reduction costs, and it makes the desire to be in Medium Armor much stronger over its Heavy Armor counterpart.

In closing, I know there was a lot here, and maybe you made it to the end just because you refused to give up once you got half-way through, and possibly you don’t agree with my 3 proposals, but as I said it’s my 2 cents on the subject, and these are changes I would like to see implemented and do feel it promotes a more balanced gameplay and strengthens the rewards of Role/Armor matching.
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